C opening birthday presents (note his 5 shirt) 

pre-crawling baby 

pre-crawling baby 

flying the kite from Uncle Matt and Aunt Candace 

home again!

We just spent a week at Twin Trees and had an completely delightful time. Overall, the weather was great (and certainly an improvement over the heat wave back home), we got to be outside a good amount, the bugs were bearable, and we loved getting to hang out with our friends who met us up there. C spent two nights with Nana and Ye-ye at Racquette Lake. He apparently had a wonderful time but we missed him. (Though I did not miss checking on him every 4 minutes for an hour while he fell asleep each night, or waking him up at midnight to give him a last chance to use the bathroom.) A learned to crawl for real now, and she's still pretty pleased with herself every time she does it. (Given her past developmental milestone patterns, that'll probably last about two days, when she starts to get frustrated that she can't walk. Gee, she's never satisfied with where she's at now, and always wants to be another step ahead. That doesn't remind me of anyone else in the family, nosiree; where could she have gotten that from?) The very first day she became semi-mobile, she started trying to take away toys from our 19-month-old guest. Can't wait to see how that plays out with C over the next few months....

The only real damper on our vacation was the travel. A screamed for large chunks of the trip both coming and going, and our trip home today took 3 1/2 hours (twice as long as it should) due to make-the-baby-happy stops (and she still screamed for about 1/3 of the in-the-car time). C was tired and whiny after such a busy weekend too, and at one gas station both of them were screaming. While I tried to get the pump to accept Dan's credit card and Dan tried to get A out of the car, the woman at the pump across from me started laughing, "They're both screaming now! Ha ha ha!" Not quite knowing how to respond to such a bizarre comment about a truly not-funny situation, I ignored her. (An assault charge would not have helped improve our day.) Anyway, A seems truly incapable of sleeping in the car, which means that she and I will probably not be able to accompany Dan and C on two long-distance trips they have planned over the next 2 months. We're hoping she'll improve after she's one and we can turn her carseat around.

Pictures will follow when the camera-keeper is able.

The weather did not cooperate for C's birthday party, so we ditched our outside-group-game plans the morning of and came up with several carnival-type indoor games to do instead- throwing balls in a basket, driving remote-control bumpers cars over Xes on the floor, getting timed on the Sit-n-Spin, etc. This change, however, solidified Dan's insistence that we needed plenty of dollar-store-plastic-crap prizes for all the kids. (Another party activity was decorating t-shirts, which I had bought to limit the plastic-crap we were handing out. Just the day before, C attended his friends' pirate party and was handed a bag of what is best described as garbage as we left, and I really didn't want to contribute any more to our local landfill. But I was overruled.)

Luckily it stopped raining so we could do the t-shirts outside. We had the kids lay leaves, stickers, cardboard cutouts, etc. on their shirts and I used a spray-on dye over them, so when it dried and we took away the decorations they were left with the image in white. Then Dan supervised an egg-in-spoon relay race and we brought out dessert. (C wanted chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches. Could I go out and buy Chipwiches? Of course not! I spent forever making a double batch of enormous cookies from scratch and spreading ice cream onto them instead. They were excellent, I've been told- not that I could have any since A is still offended by dairy. And I'm not bitter or anything.) And then it was 3:00! Time to go home! We made it! And we're never having that many small children in our house again!

(Well, Ashley stayed until about 3:30. She wasn't actually invited; she's Megan's little sister. But she wouldn't leave. Dan said she could sleep under the pool table in the shed with the dog, and she was okay with that. But her mom ended up carrying her kicking and screaming to the car.)

A's been trying hard to crawl for the past couple weeks, but isn't quite there yet. She is able to sit up from a prone position now, though, and she likes to do that when she's supposed to be going to bed. So what used to be a 10-minute naptime routine has morphed into at least 25 minutes, and tonight nearly two hours. Given that she wakes up at least every hour in the night as it is, we're not too thrilled. She's been pretty cranky too, but doesn't seem to believe us when we tell her that getting more sleep would solve her problems.

Pictures are coming soon. Starting tomorrow, we will be spending a week at Twin Trees, so expect no updates until we return. (Should that be if we return?)

now THAT'S a pancake... (black raspberry flavor of course) 

C is thrilled to take nightly black raspberry walks lately. The railroad track-less trail provides plenty for all... 

Overheard at playgrounds over the past few weeks:

a six-year-old humming Black Sabbath's Iron Man over and over again (I thought he was pretty cool)

"You are picking up ants? You're such a freak!" (said by a parent, and NOT in an affectionate way)

"Don't go in the sandbox. You'll get dirty." (heard at least 6 times, even when the sandbox was dry)

"Rich hurt his toe getting out of the pool. He doesn't like little people. Little people don't make him happy in his heart." (from a 3-year-old girl)

"My mom says babies are too little to sit on the ground." (from a 4-year-old, whose mother had clearly been talking about my dirt-covered baby)

"The doctor says that I need to feed him at night 'til he's four months old, so we have another month before we can let him cry." (no, I'm no making this up)

"Finish up your juice so you can have your gummi worms!" (the "juice" was, incidentally, Capri Sun)

Hummers for the Earth

http://hummer.mightymiramichi.com/

C still continues to blow us away with his math skills (which luckily continue to develop despite our utter neglect). "If you have $10 and bunny crackers cost $3 a box, how many boxes can you buy?" After 15 seconds of thought and moving one hand as if he were stacking 3 blocks (I have no idea how his mind processes this), he came up with the right answer. (It's 3, Marley!)

Reading, however, continues to completely baffle him. He knows all the sounds letters make, and can identify the letter that starts a given word, but then he has some kind of mental block that stops him from going further. He can't identify letter sounds at the end of a word, and only sometimes can he read rhyming words. (For example: "This word is Rat, R-A-T. What letter makes the rr sound? The A-T make the at sound. What word do you think M-A-T might be?" And he'll answer "milk.")

A remains unimpressed with solid foods. She completely rejects them from Sarah, but will eat some from Dan. Maybe we should just give her Cheerios.

random notes

Dan's installed the pool table in the shed, and the shed now has a decidedly 70's-den ambiance. (Which is exacerbated by the records he plays out there.) Paco is a big fan of the new digs- we were all in the yard yesterday and he barked outside the door until we opened it so he could lie on the rug instead of slummin' on the grass like we were.

C's most recent invention idea is something that automatically stirs food while it's being microwaved so it's evenly heated.

While Dan was buying stamps to send out C's birthday invitations, he ran into a classmate's mom, who was doing the same exact thing for her son. Her son and another classmate, whom we could tell from the very first day of preschool are going to be the prom king and queen in high school, are having a joint birthday party the day before C's. Their invitations included a photo of the two of them dressed as pirates and parchment torn to look like an old treasure map; they will be having a pirate-magician and, we assume, delectable pirate-themed food, treasure chest gift bags with real gold coins imprinted with each guest's name, and a real oceangoing sailboat imported to their yard for use as a playset. We printed out a "you're invited!" note on our computer for each guest (didn't even use card stock) and figured we'd come up with something fun to do a couple days in advance. Even as we sat around mocking Supermom after the kids went to bed that night ("sure, she's always nice in public, but that's because she locks her kids in their rooms when she gets home and drinks! Her kids are polite and well-behaved out of fear!"), we realized that we really were just jealous, and we blame our lame-ness on perpetual lack of sleep.

When C started eating solid foods, we carefully prepared single-ingredient organic fruits and vegetables, waiting five days before introducing a new one, and waiting several months before moving on to harder-to-digest grains. Perhaps when he was 8 months old, we might have given him some organic wheat-free Oatios. We started that route with A, and she's had no enthusiasm for banana, applesauce, or sweet potato. Today she was grabbing at stuff on the kitchen counter, including a few spilled Cheerios (the General Mills chemical-laden version of course- Oatios taste like crap; no way will we eat them). And instead of distracting her from the poison, I told Dan, "just let her have one." And she did.

Alas, the school won't give C free tuition, so I turned them down. I'm still keeping my eyes open for work- teaching is not really ideal, since it requires more energy than data analysis or research coordination or pretty much any of my other skills, but it seems to be the only field that hires anyone part-time for more than minimum wage! (Well, on the east coast anyway.)

We are sooo glad that the weather has finally improved; I couldn't take the oppressive heat any longer. If the rest of the summer is like this, I might feel better about living in the Northeast. We hear that the heat did kill off the blackflies in the Adirondacks, so maybe that will be the heat wave's silver lining.

We've been occasionally offering food to A for a few weeks now and she's been unimpressed, but today she took some sweet potato without spitting it out! I don't know if she decided she liked it or if she was too tired to reject it or if trying it over again just wore her down, but we'll give it another shot tomorrow and see if she's really ready for solid food. (She's getting so big!)

I told the school I'd only accept the job if they gave C free tuition, and they haven't gotten back to me yet. It sounded unlikely, but, you never know-

Well, I was offered the job, and now I just need to figure out whether or not I should take it- do I have the energy to deal with other peoples' kids and my own? Would I end up not making any money after paying for benefits, etc.? Do I really want to go back to having to be somewhere every single day? Hmmmm-

creepy cap and gown graduation photo 

C was the first child out of all 3 classes that "graduated" his pre-school last week to be called by name and come forward... Some of this had to do with the height order they chose for each class, and that his class went first. 

We got fewer bites at least- 

We spent Memorial Day weekend at Twin Trees in North River, fighting off blackflies and convincing the pipes not to leak. Since we were all sharing one unheated bedroom, we were lucky that C managed to sleep through most of A's cries both nights and only woke up to complain of being cold. (I got into bed with him to warm him up, which wasn’t so bad because I was cold, too. Dan and A got the electric blanket. I theorize that whatever evil force fields they emit are weak enough so they’re safe to use a few times a year.) Poor Dan was up much of both nights with A though, trying to let me get sleep, and since he didn’t want to wake anyone up in the main cabin either his choices were pretty limited. We did determine that dairy products definitely do make her sleep even worse, so I’m back to almonds and beans again.

Last week, I had an interview at Bethlehem Children’s School, a small private school a couple miles away, for a part-time middle school math and science teaching position. They asked me to come back to teach a class. They said not to worry about what the kids are working on; make it an enrichment activity.

So this afternoon I go in, wait for the kids in the classroom, wait for the three people who want to observe me, and try to get started. The board is completely covered, and it has a big note on it that says "DO NOT ERASE." Now, I’m versatile, but I knew I’d be more effective if I could write on the board, so I asked if there was anything else I could use. An observer disappears and comes back to say, "Let’s move to my room instead." (I would have preferred doing without, but what could I say?) So we all file into the kindergarten room, where the kids are thrilled to have a big carpet to sit on instead of desks. I start the lesson (discussing animal population fluctuations) and we all go outside for a Project Wild game that went pretty well and got the point across. (One kid said, "This is the best game I’ve ever played," which was affirming but made me wonder if she got out much.)

When we go back in, half the kids need to go back to their own room to get their water bottles so we have a super-long transition; I write the data that we’re going to graph on the board and hand out graph paper while I wait. This was supposed to be a joint math/science lesson, and I planned to talk about the differences between dependent and independent variables and how independent variables go on the x-axis when you graph as the "math" portion. It turned out that this was decidedly not a good idea, because these kids had never drawn a line graph before or used the terms x and y axes. It took me a while to catch on to this, and it was pretty awkward. Meanwhile, one of the kids- the daughter of one of the administrators- is lying on the floor doing nothing. I ignore her. (I don’t even know the kid’s name, and was at a loss as to how to handle it.)

At any rate, I left thinking it was kind of a disaster. I mean, maybe they realized how awkward it is to work with a group of kids you don’t know who don’t even know what you’re doing there (the week before school’s out, no less); how difficult it is to know what level to aim a lesson at when you’re coming in from nowhere (and I must say that I had drawn a line graph by the end of sixth grade); or how ungraceful a class with so many transitions can become. But all three screw-ups? That takes a lot of overlooking.

But, they’ve e-mailed me asking me back yet again. They have evaded my question about salary/ benefits/ tuition remission for C thusfar, so I’m afraid that after going through all these interviews they’re going to offer me so little money that it won’t be worth it. (Honestly, I’d rather not work so many hours when A's still so little, but part-time jobs are so hard to come by around here that I feel like I need to consider it for our long-term future.) So we’ll see what happens NEXT week….

New haircut! 

in process- but you have to wait to see the result! 

Last week was a pretty sad week- our washing machine broke and left us with piles of unwashed diapers for five days, and our toilet overflowed, filled the bathroom with three inches of water, AND leaked into the basement (requiring every remaining towel in our house for clean-up, and of course we couldn’t launder them afterwards).

Since things pretty much sucked anyway, we decided to put together my parents’ hand-me-down office desk. It was fairly straightforward except when the baggie of hardware to go with it disappeared for twenty minutes or so until C innocently suggested, "Maybe it’s in the Lerkim," which is his Lorax-inspired hiding place behind the chair in our living room. Indeed, we found it there- apparently a Barbaloot had whisked it away when we weren’t looking.

This desk was large enough to replace three desks previously inhabiting the office, and they spent several days being shifted around the house. (For a while they blocked our downstairs hallway completely; for a while one prevented us from opening the hall closet; for a while one occupied our bed.) Also, the transfer of computers-and-supplies between desks has been fairly painful, and two large plastic tubs that we’d just purchased for storing recyclables have been usurped and are now holding piles o’ crap under the desk.

But now, all is good. The washing machine was fixed and while it still cost plenty of money, the repairman took pity on us and sold us a "service agreement" that covered the repair for about a quarter of what he could have charged us. The toilet disaster is cleaned up and may have provided C with a good visual lesson in what happens when you use too much toilet paper. (He also has been instructed on where the water turn-offs are.) The new desk is much prettier and more functional, and the old ones have all been relocated or sold at a convenient neighbors’ garage sale.

So now what are we in for?

bad parents

We’ve been bad parents this week. On Wednesday, Dan was the parent helper at preschool; we figured for snack we’d bring in cheese and crackers or something we had around the house. At 11 p.m. I remembered that it was supposed to be a pseudo-birthday celebration for C since he turns 5 over the summer- crackers weren’t going to cut it. So in the morning I dig out a three-year-old box of brownie mix and start mixing it together- when I realize we have no eggs. Hmm, what do eggs do in a recipe? Here, I’ll add some more oil- and a little water- and I’ll beat it up with some ground flaxseeds to hold it together. Just in case it doesn’t work, I’ll put some cookies in the oven- we had just enough frozen dough for 16 very small cookies. But it’ll work. No problem. I’ll toss some leftover Halloween M&Ms on top too, to make it look festive.
For future reference, flaxseeds do not replace eggs. C wanted to bring it along anyway, so he did. 5-year-olds aren’t too picky when it comes to chocolate, luckily, so they were only slightly phased by the lumps of greasy chocolate sludge they were served. (I’m glad we had the cookies too!)

Thursday was Show and Share Day. We never remember to bring anything in for it. This time I realized it while dropping C off, and the best I could come up with was- my library card. (Dan at least could have dug a photo out of his wallet.) So I gave it to him and told him to talk about how fun it is to pick out books. (We don’t want to think about what his teachers think of us by now.)

Monday, C had no matching socks that fit him, due to our washing machine being out of commission. "How about you wear sandals today?" Luckily he was amenable, and the weather was borderline-acceptable for it.

Maple likes to help garden... 

View from 36" 

Looking up, looking down

4/26/05

Despite all the truth behind the popular conception that parenthood can leave you in a constant mental fog, only capable of functioning at the intellectual level of a head of baby bok choy (well perhaps less, when we sleep less than a cabbage gets to), there’s also nothing like parenthood to help you take notice of things.

Like how many seconds your infant can sit up by herself now, balanced on pudgy forearms like a potato- shaped motorcycle with missing wheels, before tottering over…Or how noisy the world is during the day when your baby is trying to nap (and how eerily quiet in the house at night, except for the dogs heavy sighs, as you pace back and forth, back and forth)…

I’m also still re-learning to see the world through C's 4.75 year-old eyes—view from 36 inches I’ve been calling it (though his eyes may be farther off the ground than that at this point). The hundreds of digital photos he’s taken since getting the camera the Christmas before last illustrate this well—dog butts; a dozen seemingly identical pictures looking straight across at the top of a block tower; automobiles looming large, shot while passing, as if with a fish eye lens; adults faces from underneath, peering down like parade puppets.

But it’s his fascination with money (and occasionally noticing a track) that has reminded me to look down, and look well. There are a surprising number of coins to be found when you’re that low to the ground, and more than a few bills as well. Although I usually notice other treasures. Today it's amongst the flotsam in the little strip of green space next to A's doctor’s office parking lot.

Even the trash has meaning of course, though. Take the styrofoam coffee cups and takeout plates and discarded car air fresheners, and the solar calculator I tried, just to be sure it didn’t work. These are signals from folks who didn’t take the time, or care enough to bring a travel mug for their cup of Jo, or to find a trash can. I’ve always struggled to understand just when it became OK to cast our garbage to the wind. Sure litter has been around since kids threw clay tablets with their old homework assignments into the pit by the road, but mass roadside litter-storms probably coincide with the period when automobiles started appearing everywhere like dandelions in the spring. I just can’t picture people throwing a pop can from a bicycle very often, or a crumpled piece of paper from a horse-drawn buggy—these modes of transport would put you too close to the offending object, and your guilt, for too long (and again when you passed by on the way home). And if you drove the only car in town, I’d think you’d want to show it off and honk and wave to everyone in passing—"ah-wooooo-ga!"—not be known as the fast and fearless littering roadster).

But when I’m done pondering this and look past the mound of cigarette butts, I see nature(remarkably) in our midst. It takes a moment to register, but those clumps of gray fuzz mean we’re standing below an owls dining room. Below—that means there’s something above—and only then do I look up and notice the great old (and half-dead) tree with no leaves to shade with yet this spring. A relic no-doubt overlooked by those that tidy up nature for us and make sure all those dead trees are removed post-haste (afterall, this thing could fall on your car, or several; though it will most likely come down in a storm, when no one’s likely to be parked at the far end of this big lot).

But I’m glad it’s been overlooked for now (they must not have been looking down closely enough to notice it); and I can picture the owl with a midnight snack, and almost hear it as clearly as the redwing blackbirds are calling right now—telling me it’s spring, and that at night there are also frogs to be heard in the marshy area back there. Maybe I’ll see if A's doctor has night time appointments…

-Dan

No teeth yet... 

A likes to say "ahhhhhh" 

C's preschool was on vacation last week, so we were thankful for the truly excellent weather that let us spend much of the week outside. One of his classmates invited us to a cookout on Wednesday, and we walked over to check it out. (We make a effort to attend all the parties/ gatherings that his friends invite us to because we theorize that spending more time with kids in different social situations will help him make friends.) The host family has four kids, and their yard included paved space for bikes/ scooters, an enormous trampoline, a fancy swingset, etc. Several of C's friends were there with their parents. We were there for an hour or two, and C spoke to probably two people (if you include the time he told Max to get off his bike because C wanted to ride it). But we realized that we weren't really the best models of social behavior, because neither Dan nor I could come up with anything to talk to the other parents about, either. Small talk is apparently not our thing, and I was truly at a loss. After a completely inane conversation with Bella's mom (How old is your son? He's going to be really running soon! You have your hands full, don't you?), I wondered what we were trying to do- we clearly are not able to connect with these folks at anything other than a superficial level, so why do I expect C to? I suppose that we want him to be better at it than we are....

We hosted our third annual clothing swap on Saturday! This time, since we had it later in the year and the weather cooperated, we were able to have everything outside, which was decidedly more pleasant than having dozens of people crammed into our house. There was a lower turnout than usual, possibly because everyone was enjoying the weather elsewhere, but we still had a good time and encouraged people to rid their closets of many many unused clothes. (And I grabbed a few torn or stained pieces to use as fabric for the quilt I'm going to make someday....)

And on Monday the Roomba arrived! We charged it up, set it to go in the living room- and A burst into tears. A hates the Roomba with a passion. The rest of us, though, think it's pretty cool, though C is the only one who's been able to watch it in action for any period of time. Our house isn't very roomba-friendly- it has trouble climbing onto our very-thick area rug in the living room, and our radiators are at exactly the right height for it to get stuck under- but once we have a chance to play with it a little bit, I think it's going to work well. (It crawled under a table in C's room that hasn't been cleaned under in perhaps 2 years, so if nothing else it's removing major dust sources.)

I'll have C take a picture of it soon!

Cadao! 

Today sucked too, but the Roomba's supposed to be here Monday. (What does my excitement about that say about me?)

So it was shaping up to be a pretty good day today. A was happy and C went off to school. I found that the three sets of baby clothes I was selling on E-bay, which had each only been at 99 cents four hours before the auctions' closings, had ended up selling for a total of more than $30. (Apparently no one even bothers bidding until right before the end of the auction now.) A took a nap and in the first 20 minutes of her nap (after the first 20 minutes we have to go back to lie down with her or she won't stay asleep) I got the dishwasher filled and running, picked up the kitchen, and got dinner going in the crockpot. She got a good nap in and we walked over to preschool, where the kids were erupting their homemade volcanoes. Normally she starts screaming as soon as we walk in the door there, but she was cheerful and happy the whole time despite the roomful of kids and parents.

Then C had a playdate after school with Daphne, who lives within walking distance of our house so is a friendship we definitely want to cultivate. A's happy inside for about five minutes. Then the kids ride their bikes around for a while outside, and she's happy watching them do that for about 10 minutes. Then we go back inside and nothing will make her happy- in or out, up or down, wrapped up or loose. I put her in the sling and try to get her to sleep. (I haven't successfully gotten her to go to sleep in the sling for two weeks, but it's worth a try, right?) No go. I need to bring her home so at least Daphne's mom doesn't have to hear her shrieks anymore. I'm already frustrated and annoyed (and got no sleep last night, and probably should have eaten more lunch), and then C refuses to stay at Daphne's house if I'm leaving. "Daddy will come pick you up in 20 minutes." "No, I am going with you." So besides rejecting Daphne, leaving now includes getting on the bike helmet, reminding him 20 times to ride to the SIDE of the road, and taking the road the whole way instead of a backyard shortcut. A is screaming the entire time, and spits her preferred pacifier in the dirt, so I have to give her the one she doesn't like. She cries louder. We pass a mom and son walking by and she smiles in sympathy. A screams until I get home and hand her to Dan, and she immediately settles down.

So now I'm annoyed with both kids and it's still only 1:30. Luckily Dan took both of them off my hands so I can recover and convince myself to be a grown-up again. (Do I have to? Will he not notice if I just go to bed for the rest of the day? Will there be a time when taking my kid to see another kid is unlikely to end in disaster?)

We just ordered a Roomba! Our old vacuum broke, and we are convinced it is going to be better than the Jetsons' Rosie and keep our house very clean. We're soon going to have a crawling baby, so we don't want to have as much dog fur floating around. Now the fur adds to the ambiance and all, but it's kind of gross when it sticks to already-wet hands and the hands go back in the mouth. (Not that we ever saw that happen with C or anything, because when we had a working vacuum, we were Masters of Cleanliness.)

Hmm, what else? The leaf-sucker truck came today!

(Signing off now, before it's too late. This is part of my goal to update more often, instigated by our friend Dani pointing out to us that it takes less than five minutes to post SOMETHING.)

C's in the green coat (and the greenest kid in the bunch, I'm proud to say) 

first day of spring (note the bike waiting for it's turn again) 

Spring has Sprung

And yesterday it was at least 70 in the sun. So why is there snow in these pictures? Because I’m behind on things (as if this is news to anyone). The one taken out the window is from the first day of spring, and shows Sarah and Cadao putting together a cold frame that her parents gave us. It now helps keep lettuce seeds cozy at night. We also put together a bird feeder to celebrate the new spring—another christmas gift—and the songbirds are just now finding what the squirrels discovered 3 weeks ago, that there’s a new food supply… Our garden is at least finally started, though in addition to the lettuce, there is only spinach and some peas thus far.

We have managed to rake almost all the leaves left over from fall; another 2-3 hours and we should be done with that task! The leaves and a lot of wood and branches are by the side of the road, waiting for the "leaf sucker truck" (like something straight out of a Dr. Seuss book), and the yard waste truck, both a service of the town.

The second photo was from Cadao’s field trip about a month ago to 5 Rivers Environmental Ed. Center, a few miles away. They learned about maple sugaring, and it was actually Cadao’s idea to hug the tree (one of the answers for what we can do to help trees/make them feel good). I’m proud of him for suggesting it, and pleased that his classmates were willing accomplices. I wish that most of them would still have that sentiment for the natural world when they get older.
Well, it’s 10:30 and therefore way past our bedtime… Alyra is sure to wake any moment now for the next stretch.

-Dan

easter dinner 

laughing like a big person

Yes, our blog still sucks; what can I say. Unfortunately, this picture is what our family really looks like most of the time, so I need say no more about lack of updates.

C had been "off" for several weeks; acting depressed and whiny, falling asleep during the day, avoiding interaction with anyone at school, that sort of thing. This last week he's perked up, and we don't know if it's because he's no longer sick, because the weather has finally gotten nice, or because he just snapped out of it. We'd been seriously thinking about spending the month of August in Seattle to let Dan reconnect with his friends and coworkers and to allow all of us to escape the heat of the summer, but C's moodiness was making me think we should avoid major changes like that (especially right before starting kindergarten). Now we don't know again- so should we plan a big garden or not? Start looking at family-sized tents or not? Decisions decisions-

Another family of friends is moving away from the area, bringing the total groups-of-friends-we-really-got-close-to-who-have-moved-away to five now. Dan suggested that we consider moving to Ithaca, the destination of the family most recently abandoning us,before I reminded him that if we were going to move away from our home and my parents, we would definitely pick someplace with better weather than central New York. We're sticking with Delmar for now.

A is five months old tomorrow! She's been rolling over for about a month now, is "talking" a lot more, and is trying really hard to sit up. Today I had her strapped to me while C and I kicked a ball around the backyard and she found the game hilarious. C said, "She's laughing like a big person now!" She was truly giggling, instead of just the quick squeaky inhalation-laughs she'd been doing before.

C riding Tye 

Florida

We had a great trip to Florida, visiting a high school friend and her husband in Punta Gorda. Their 12-acre lot, which also houses two horses, six goats, three dogs, two cats, and assorted ducks, peacocks, rabbits, fish and reptiles, still shows some evidence of August’s hurricane damage but is in much better shape than some of their neighbors’- as we drove around, we saw many homes still roofed in blue tarps, piles of debris that used to be houses along the side of the road, and condemned buildings with names of delinquent insurance companies spray-painted on the sides.

Escaping the cold and snow was good for all of us. Alyra liked being outside without being bundled up in 10 layers, and was especially fond of watching the fish and peacocks. Cadao wore himself out so much that he sometimes fell asleep in the afternoon, even though it’s been almost 2 years since he stopped taking naps. Dan and I both appreciated being able to wear shorts and t-shirts, and since our excellent hosts cooked and cleaned and drove us around and entertained Cadao, we had a wonderful vacation.

It was interesting to see Cadao interacting with other adults without other kids around. It helped him push his own boundaries a little bit. When we went to the county fair, he said he wanted to go on the roller coaster; I think he thought we’d say no. But when Mala was popping him next to her in the car two minutes later, at which point he most likely would have changed his mind and hopped out if Dan or I were taking him on, he stuck it out. He also mustered the courage to ride her horse and tractor, despite obvious misgivings. Having new people around eased his usual shyness, so that when Mala’s parents and four of their friends came over, by the end of the evening he was comfortable enough to plop himself down on the couch amidst them to watch TV. (An Eric Clapton video. I asked him if he thought he’d be able to play the guitar that well someday. He said he already could, of course.)

Coming home was hard not only because our vacation was over, but because our plane into Albany had a problem with the landing gear. It ended up resolving itself before we landed, but we circled the airport for half an hour or so while we tried to take deep breaths and figure out how best to protect our kids in case of a landing problem. Then we finally gather our luggage and get home to find that our furnace has gone out and the inside temperature was 35. (I shudder to think what we would have come home to if we’d been away another night- not only burst water pipes, but potentially burst radiator pipes as well.) We sent Cadao to sleep at Nana’s and snuggled in bed with Alyra to keep from freezing while the house warmed up. (It took about 8 hours, which was actually better than I’d expected!) So we’re spending this weekend trying to get ourselves back into our regular routine-

going for the grin

Thursday February 10th

Well, we thought the sickness was over, but no- Cadao had a relapse on Monday and again missed school; I’ve been mobile but had no energy or appetite; and Alyra got it on Monday too- luckily, in her case, it only lasted 24-ish hours. Cadao complained of his stomach hurting again before bed tonight, and I’m really really hoping it’s just because he also has had no appetite and his stomach just feels weird because it’s been empty. Ugh!

Alyra’s been smiling more, and is most likely to if we sing, in tribute to Harry Belafonte, "Alyra, Alyra, Alyra, She take me money and run Venzuela." She also likes mourning dove calls and trumpet noises. We do not question her preferences and make fools of ourselves to see the grin.

Cadao is diligently making valentines and is looking forward to adding ribbon-bracelets to the hearts he’s already cut out and decorated. His friends may find his color choices unusual, but they may not notice. He made a, let us say, less-than-attractive-in-the-conventional-sense bracelet from a pipe cleaner and orange paper to decorate a birthday present for one classmate, and when Dan saw the kid the following week at preschool, he was told, "The bracelet doesn’t fit!" Dan let him know that it was ADJUSTABLE, while silently snickering, knowing that the bracelet not FITTING was the least of its problems-

Sarah rescues the blog!

Sunday February 5th

A few months ago, Dan said, "I’m going to start a blog!" I said, "Are you sure that’s a good idea? You’ll never update it after the first month, and then no one will check it anymore; how about sending mass e-mails instead?" He said, "I’ll keep it current! It’ll be fun!"

Well, that didn’t really work out as planned apparently, so I guess I need to jump in. C and I are getting over a nasty stomach virus, and we’re hoping the rest of the family doesn’t get it. He missed school Thursday but seemed all better Friday, and we had friends over for dinner. (We’ve been trying to get together with them for 2 months or so, but illnesses have caused multiple cancellations.) 20 minutes or so after they arrived, C puked on the dining room table where we were all enjoying our meal. They left quickly. We were sad. We were even sadder when I started getting sick at 3 a.m. I spent Saturday in bed while Dan took care of the kids (though C spent several hours in bed with me reading and playing I-spy and whining and falling asleep at 6:30). Thankfully, I’m more mobile today and C seems healthy, and we’re all looking forward to preschool tomorrow.

A weighed in at 10 pounds, 5 ounces at the doctor’s last week; she’s quite tall for her age (90th percentile) at a whopping 24 inches. I pulled out some clothes in the next size up for her today when I was going through boxes in search of sunhats for our end-of-the-month trip to Florida; now she’ll be better able to stretch her legs.

C has been remarkably nice to her in the past week: trying to entertain her and make her feel better, singing songs about how much we love her, bouncing her bouncy chair After he got sick we realized it was probably fever-induced and won’t last. He has been very into numbers lately and spent quite a while today telling me, "When I’m 8, A will be 4. When A is 8, I will be… 12. When A is 10, I will be… 14." He understands the concept of 48 being made up of four tens and eight ones. Knowing nothing about early childhood education, I’m not sure how to effectively teach him more about math, and my creativity has reached new lows in the past year. I do want to take advantage of his current interest and ability so I guess I’ll be looking up teacher resources at the library.

welcome A! 

A Maple Rain! 

cozy as a bedouin - she likes the sling sarah made... 

2 hours old 

Please join us in welcoming

A Maple Rain! (We pronounce her first name ah-LEER-ah)

She was born Friday, November 12, 2004 at 7:42 a.m.
as the first snow of the year fell outside the window.

She weighs 7 lbs 5 ounces and is about 20.5 inches long.

Now we need to try and adjust to having two children around, and remember how to take care of little babies again...

Halloween...

C thoroughly enjoyed Halloween, thanks in part to the fact that they hyped it up for about 3 weeks at preschool beforehand..

After debuting his flower costume at the Town's party the previous week (see 10/26 entry), his class had a parade and party at school. In addition to C's costume of course, one of the other most original costumes was a boy dressed as an "ice cream man", complete with foam core ice cream truck (had a window, rolled on wheels...). They paraded around the school building along with the three other classes several times, much to the delight of the throngs of parents, grandparents, etc. gathered to watch (i.e. videotape) the event, then brought the fans with them back to the classroom to break the ghost pinata the kids had made. They each had two whacks with a big, decorated stick when their name was drawn (or 8-10 whacks in rapped succession in a couple of cases--the teachers tried to intervene but then thought better of getting in the way of the a 4 year-0ld wielding a big, decorated stick). C was up to bat third, and several of the parents were surprised at the power one little flower could display with his hits. The big kid with the bad rep., Colton (see previous entries) was the one to knock down the pinata/break it open, but the teachers let the other kids pummel it on the ground so everyone had a turn before the loot was divided up (luckily nothing breakable/semi-healthy inside to damage like popcorn or pretzels; just lots of sugar...) C had a great time.

On Halloween afternoon we joined our neighbor friends Richard, Tammy, Tristan, and baby Rowan ("R2T2" we call them) at a friend’s party for a while, then went Trick-or-Treating. C loves Trick-or-Treating (what’s not to love about free candy!), and is more polite than most of his peers, saying "Happy Halloween, Trick or Treat… Thank you" at each house like I taught him. He filled his ghost bag on a stick with candy until it was too heavy to carry any more… When we got home and I was out walking Paco (and C and Sarah were eating dinner) some secret Halloween deliverer dropped off a bag for C with his name on it, a pink flower decoration (must have seen his costume), apple, homemade cookie, candy, sticker decorations on bag… Any information leading to the identification and thanking of this person will be much appreciated!

***

He said tonight (11/14) that he wants to be a rabbit next Halloween, so maybe the cute/innocent costumes aren’t gone forever yet for him!

flower child 

long time no blog

OK, so it's been three weeks since my last blog entry, sorry! I'm hoping to stay more current with either shorter entries (more photos and fewer words=good), or else combining sever goings-on into one entry (which is what I've done here).

Flower Child: Here's a photo of C's very cute Halloween costume. He debuted it at the Town's annual Halloween party (hay ride, lots of silly games; he had fun but would have been much more excited if his friend Shannon happened to be there; more on her later).

Regarding his costume, I think it's awesome that he was deciding between being a truck and a flower (field of flowers, actually), and chose the kindler/gentler costume without much coercion from me. It's wonderful that he's made it to age 4.25 with some of the innocence of childhood still intact. Most of his peers will probably be sporting Spiderman costumes or other things less sublime than pink flowers (his neighbor friend Oliver, also 4, is going as The Devil this year I hear; don't think C even knows who/what the devil is). We just hope at his pre-school party on Thursday that no one makes fun of his costume.

Pre-school Update: So I've been the "parent helper" twice in the last couple of weeks (getting our responsibility to do this every 5 weeks fulfilled for a while). Great to be there to see what goes on. Much to our relief there are a couple of boys who are much more of a handful than he is, so his occasional passive aggressive behaviors, etc. aren't considered too bad. He was actually pretty good about letting me be there and still doing his own things most of the time; he didn't even stop me from playing with other children! (a new thing for him to be sure). Now as long as he can be near Shannon he seems very happy. She's a girl whom he's developed a severe crush on as far as we can tell; and one guess as to how this happened is that they both like to take their time with eating snack, and were the last two to finish in the first days of school this year. She seems friendly and reasonably nicely to him so far, but doesn't return his very strong feelings; he obsesses over her and wants to be her shadow. Once Sarah and Shelley peeked in on him through the two-way mirror, only to find him staring off into space, lost and direction-less until Shannon came back from the bathroom with a group of other students. After greeting her he seemed to be OK with going back to his puzzle, confident and secure in the knowledge that she was in the room. We think its great that he has found someone he likes a lot at school, and is actually psyched to go each day so he can get to see her, (he wants to see her outside of school too, but so far we've only set up a play date once; don't want to completely scare her or her parents away from him...), but we want him to branch out and have more than one friend, and obsess less. We've successfully encouraged him to at least think about one or two other kids off and on in a friendly way.

The snacks are still usually bad (sugary and/or artificial). We didn't use to consider pretzels the healthiest snack in the world, but at this point, they are about the best we can hope for. Even the Goldfish crackers are sometimes the new multi-colored ones. Here's an excerpt from the label: "...Blue 2, Red 40, Spices, Red 3…” (*fphwwww!* glad it has those “spices” in there…)
Last week someone actually brought a fudge brownie bite thing baked inside an ice cream cone with ice cream toppings—I kid you not. And it wasn’t even their kid’s birthday, which is supposed to be the exception to the “healthy” rule. We’ve made blueberry muffins sweetened with fruit juice, and soft pretzels so far. At least the pretzels were a hit with some of the kids, including (luckily), Shannon. She ate two.

Baby update: We still anxiously await the arrival of baby Maple (her middle name; first name yet to be determined). Sarah looks about as pregnant as one can get.

Time for bed,
-Dan

Apples and orange balloon animals

We've been enjoying traditional Fall activities the last few days. On Thursday I took the morning off to accompany C's pre-school class to the local Pick Your Own apple farm--Indian Ladders--also complete with petting zoo animals and other amenities. About half the parents went along, so it was a good chance to interact with the other parents and get to see his classmates too (well, you know C, so a chance to say "hi" while being pulled far, far away from others anway...). When we first got there and were waiting for the rest of the minivans to arrive (there are probably two or three other households out of the couple hundred that have regular cars like us), a couple of the kids were playing a very tame game of chase/tag (or "grab" in C's case)--though I'm very pleased he was partaking. I started running around with them in the field by the orchard and got several kids really running for 1 or 2 minutes. It was gleeful until his teacher put the k-bosh on the game (very important instructions for apple picking of course). Since his class doesn't get outside much at all and never gets to run, it was fun to be subvert the plan very briefly and let them be kids.

C and I had our own 1/2 bushel to pick of Empire Apples; a lot of the kids helped pick the communal bag full (they're going to make apple sauce next week). He enjoyed picking them with me, especially getting boosted up for the higher ones. Our next D.A. and his children, his son is in C's class, were picking nearby so we got to chat a little in between his cell phone calls. Then we saw the animals and fed them (the kids really enjoyed the turkeys best of all--quite vocal group), and after getting the goat-lick wiped off lots of little hands we had their daily snack. Deluxe that day: crackers, pretzels and "cider donuts"--an Indian Ladders Farm tradition I understand, and cider to drink (also red fruit punch stuff I managed to keep away from C).

Then today we got to walk to a "Fall Harvest Festival" at our local Four Corners business district. There was all the traditional fall activities like a hay ride, pumpkin decorating and balloon animals (well some of them were orange). He liked these things, and while we couldn't convince him to get his face painted yet (never have been able to), he did go in the "action bounce" inflated bounce area and stayed in the whole 2 minutes or whatever. He stayed right by the net windows watching us, but we were proud of him for braving the bounce experience this time.

There were also $1 pizza slices and free cookies--our personal favorite, and other fun activities. Later we went home for a while so Sarah could rest and we could eat some more lunch, then C and I walked to Town Hall for a Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace sponsored event on the peak oil issue and renewable energy alternatives. He helped me set up chairs beforehand, and then he got to talk to Sunny the alternative energy robot! (I'm too tired to explain right now...)

We stayed for the first 40 min. of the (quite boring for him) slideshow. He took lots of upclose photos of the chocolate bars they had there for some reason, and other photos throughout the day. I'll post a couple soon.

On the walk home I asked him what the most fun thing was today and he said the rides on the chair dolleys while we were setting them up, but he also admitted that the reason was because that was the most recent fun thing; I know he enjoyed several of the more typical activities for children earlier in the day.

Enjoy the seasonal activites,
-Dan