Frida had said she wanted to be a gorilla, and I had a great idea for a costume, but we ran out of time in making it and fortunately she was totally happy to be a witch again.
Monday, October 31, 2011
halloween
Sam was fire (his idea). It doesn't show up well in the pictures, but inside some of those clusters of flames are little battery-powered flickering tea-lights.
Frida had said she wanted to be a gorilla, and I had a great idea for a costume, but we ran out of time in making it and fortunately she was totally happy to be a witch again.
Frida had said she wanted to be a gorilla, and I had a great idea for a costume, but we ran out of time in making it and fortunately she was totally happy to be a witch again.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
pics from MN, and making one's own destiny
... courtesy of Omi.
Enjoying ride-on toys in the yard shortly after we arrived:
Omi had acquired and set up kid furniture, toys, and other great stuff to make a very well-stocked playroom. The girls one morning, still in pajamas:
Emma was very happy when Omi made Japanese food:
One morning while Emma and her parents were shopping (for a stroller for Emma's soon-to-arrive baby brother), Omi, Opa, Sam, Frida, and I went to the beach by the lake near their house. It was too cold to swim, but there was a cool digger toy:
Girls wearing matching t-shirts from Omi:
___
Recent kid quotes:
Both kids have strong opinions about the music we put on in the car. It's usually some kid-friendly (if not specifically kid-centric) CD, but even so, there are songs that each kid requests to skip. Frida calls out, "I want bippet doodit!" (I want different music).
The other day she was drawing, and first drew an "ah-dader". After that was done, she announced that she was drawing a "tott-diwul". The latter took me a while-- any guesses?
And then apropos nothing the other evening, Sam mused, "I really need to figure out what I am and what I'm supposed to be like." (me: ???) "What my life is for. Like in the Billy Jonas song, Happy Accidents."
Me: "Do you think every person's life is for one thing?" Sam: "No, I think my life has a reason." Me: "What kind of reason?" Sam: "A reason to live. Like a special reason, it could be hidden anywhere. Like in a cave."
(We talked for a little bit about how a person's life can have many reasons, how each one of us can do many different important things, and how many of those are things we don't realize are important until after we have begun or even finished them. Sam also mentioned that he meant the part of the song in addition to who you're supposed to marry, because he already knew that part, but he refused to elaborate on that.)
Sam: "I feel like there's something going to happen to me that tells me what my life is for."
(More conversation in which I let him explore this idea while trying subtly to reassure him that most of us don't have some stroke-of-insight about our vocation/avocation.)
Sam: "Or maybe you make your own destiny."
Enjoying ride-on toys in the yard shortly after we arrived:
Omi had acquired and set up kid furniture, toys, and other great stuff to make a very well-stocked playroom. The girls one morning, still in pajamas:
Emma was very happy when Omi made Japanese food:
One morning while Emma and her parents were shopping (for a stroller for Emma's soon-to-arrive baby brother), Omi, Opa, Sam, Frida, and I went to the beach by the lake near their house. It was too cold to swim, but there was a cool digger toy:
Girls wearing matching t-shirts from Omi:
___
Recent kid quotes:
Both kids have strong opinions about the music we put on in the car. It's usually some kid-friendly (if not specifically kid-centric) CD, but even so, there are songs that each kid requests to skip. Frida calls out, "I want bippet doodit!" (I want different music).
The other day she was drawing, and first drew an "ah-dader". After that was done, she announced that she was drawing a "tott-diwul". The latter took me a while-- any guesses?
And then apropos nothing the other evening, Sam mused, "I really need to figure out what I am and what I'm supposed to be like." (me: ???) "What my life is for. Like in the Billy Jonas song, Happy Accidents."
Me: "Do you think every person's life is for one thing?" Sam: "No, I think my life has a reason." Me: "What kind of reason?" Sam: "A reason to live. Like a special reason, it could be hidden anywhere. Like in a cave."
(We talked for a little bit about how a person's life can have many reasons, how each one of us can do many different important things, and how many of those are things we don't realize are important until after we have begun or even finished them. Sam also mentioned that he meant the part of the song in addition to who you're supposed to marry, because he already knew that part, but he refused to elaborate on that.)
Sam: "I feel like there's something going to happen to me that tells me what my life is for."
(More conversation in which I let him explore this idea while trying subtly to reassure him that most of us don't have some stroke-of-insight about our vocation/avocation.)
Sam: "Or maybe you make your own destiny."
Sunday, October 16, 2011
pics from September + early October
Life is busy. The new job is great, but there's not a lot of time left, between an extra hour/day spent commuting and 4 classes to be prepped each week, and somehow the energy I used to spend blogging is taken up with things like prepping lecture and/or doing stuff w/the kids. This should improve in... another year or so, when I've prepped most of my classes at least once. It would help if Frida regularly fell asleep before 10, but that happens rarely these days. I'm not sure what will happen once she and Sam start sharing a room (in December); he is nearly always asleep by 9 these days, though at 2 he was a night owl as well.
There's a bunch of August that I missed: Grandma and Grandpa's visits (for cousin Ezra's first birthday and for Frida's second); J's cousin Matt's visit; and then at the end of the month our (kids + me) trip to MN to see Omi and Opa and Uncle Markus, Aunt Rei, and Emma, who were visiting there for a few days. The meeting of the cousins was very sweet, but I got very little of it on camera. Pictures exist (I have prints but not digital copies) and I'll post some at some point.
For now, some pics with captions, instead of a real post:
Sam's first day of first grade, first trying to look cool and then having been told to just look normal:
He has homework now. Three days/week he has to do various things with spelling words, like write a sentence using one or two of them. The first week of homework (beginning of October), one of the words was *sat*. Here's the sentence Sam came up with:
(My fish sat down and wrote a constitution of their own.)
Sam and his friend Alex made cookies:
Daddy does goofy stuff w/F's hair when he gives her a bath:
We picked apples:
Frida eats apples kind of like her Opa, i.e., "core? what core?" (she doesn't eat the seeds, though)
On weekend mornings, Sam wakes up earlier and amuses himself watching cartoons or playing in his room, but at the first sign that Frida is awake he bounds in and invites her to do something with him, and 3 minutes later they will be snuggled on the couch watching PBS Kids, or else in his bed reading (just before this was taken, he was reading her the text, and asking her to find various animals in the pictures. It was amazingly cute):
Last weekend was very warm, and we joined friends at the beach on Sunday. Crane's Beach has a depression in the middle that forms a long, shallow pool at low tide. It was perfect for the kids (ages 14 months through 6.5 years) to splash in:
Sam discovered new vantages on the classic Mr Potato Head:
(upside down-- whole new expression. "Doesn't he look like he's about to slap you?" Sam asks.)
And today the kids and I met Uncle Dan, Aunt Sara, and cousin Ezra at the same pumpkin patch we went to the past two years. I love pics of kids with pumpkins...
There's a bunch of August that I missed: Grandma and Grandpa's visits (for cousin Ezra's first birthday and for Frida's second); J's cousin Matt's visit; and then at the end of the month our (kids + me) trip to MN to see Omi and Opa and Uncle Markus, Aunt Rei, and Emma, who were visiting there for a few days. The meeting of the cousins was very sweet, but I got very little of it on camera. Pictures exist (I have prints but not digital copies) and I'll post some at some point.
For now, some pics with captions, instead of a real post:
Sam's first day of first grade, first trying to look cool and then having been told to just look normal:
He has homework now. Three days/week he has to do various things with spelling words, like write a sentence using one or two of them. The first week of homework (beginning of October), one of the words was *sat*. Here's the sentence Sam came up with:
(My fish sat down and wrote a constitution of their own.)
Sam and his friend Alex made cookies:
Daddy does goofy stuff w/F's hair when he gives her a bath:
We picked apples:
Frida eats apples kind of like her Opa, i.e., "core? what core?" (she doesn't eat the seeds, though)
On weekend mornings, Sam wakes up earlier and amuses himself watching cartoons or playing in his room, but at the first sign that Frida is awake he bounds in and invites her to do something with him, and 3 minutes later they will be snuggled on the couch watching PBS Kids, or else in his bed reading (just before this was taken, he was reading her the text, and asking her to find various animals in the pictures. It was amazingly cute):
Last weekend was very warm, and we joined friends at the beach on Sunday. Crane's Beach has a depression in the middle that forms a long, shallow pool at low tide. It was perfect for the kids (ages 14 months through 6.5 years) to splash in:
Sam discovered new vantages on the classic Mr Potato Head:
(upside down-- whole new expression. "Doesn't he look like he's about to slap you?" Sam asks.)
And today the kids and I met Uncle Dan, Aunt Sara, and cousin Ezra at the same pumpkin patch we went to the past two years. I love pics of kids with pumpkins...
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Vineyard 2011 (part 2)
Some things we did on days when we had a camera with us:
Our favorite hike, now well-known by Sam but also enjoyed by Frida:
Another beach:
Inspired by this blog post, I made a rock rainbow:
In addition: Frida ran around naked as much as possible. We ate fried seafood as often as possible. Sam and J. and I watched Star Wars, the original (after which Sam had a hard time sleeping: he arrived at our bedside at around 4:30 or 5AM, saying seriously, "I know it's before I'm supposed to come in your room [we have a not-before-7AM-unless-it's-an-emergency-or-nightmare rule], but I realized I wasn't really getting very much sleep," whereupon he was invited in with us and slept soundly for another few hours). Sam and J. played Battleship (it was at the house we rented); Sam and I played Set (we brought it with us). Frida peed in the potty a few times and ran around naked a bunch more. We serendipitously bumped into a daycare classmate of Frida's, with his older sister (age 5) and grandmother; the grandmother had taken the kids to the Vineyard for the week, to be joined by their parents halfway through. So in addition to hanging out at the nature center where we'd run into them, we met up with all of them on Friday evening for dinner. The kids had a blast, enjoying the kid-company; it's really notable how peer interactions are differently satisfying than adult ones, even for Sam, who's until not so long ago been much more interested in conversations with adults than with peers. And now we're back, hunkered down with batteries and water bottles. The kids and I, weather and Logan's status etc. permitting, are heading to MN on Monday to meet up with my brother and his family at our parents' house. Fingers crossed we can get there!
Our favorite hike, now well-known by Sam but also enjoyed by Frida:
Another beach:
Inspired by this blog post, I made a rock rainbow:
In addition: Frida ran around naked as much as possible. We ate fried seafood as often as possible. Sam and J. and I watched Star Wars, the original (after which Sam had a hard time sleeping: he arrived at our bedside at around 4:30 or 5AM, saying seriously, "I know it's before I'm supposed to come in your room [we have a not-before-7AM-unless-it's-an-emergency-or-nightmare rule], but I realized I wasn't really getting very much sleep," whereupon he was invited in with us and slept soundly for another few hours). Sam and J. played Battleship (it was at the house we rented); Sam and I played Set (we brought it with us). Frida peed in the potty a few times and ran around naked a bunch more. We serendipitously bumped into a daycare classmate of Frida's, with his older sister (age 5) and grandmother; the grandmother had taken the kids to the Vineyard for the week, to be joined by their parents halfway through. So in addition to hanging out at the nature center where we'd run into them, we met up with all of them on Friday evening for dinner. The kids had a blast, enjoying the kid-company; it's really notable how peer interactions are differently satisfying than adult ones, even for Sam, who's until not so long ago been much more interested in conversations with adults than with peers. And now we're back, hunkered down with batteries and water bottles. The kids and I, weather and Logan's status etc. permitting, are heading to MN on Monday to meet up with my brother and his family at our parents' house. Fingers crossed we can get there!
Vineyard 2011 (part 1)
We got back today from Martha's Vineyard! We had a lovely time, as always. More pics than words, now; I'm tired (we caught an early ferry, luckily switched from the one this evening we were supposed to be on; no bad weather here yet, just some rain, but it wouldn't have been a fun day worrying about it, and I'm not sure how long they kept ferries running in any case).
We arrived there on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday morning we went to the Agricultural Society Fair. Sam climbed the climbing tower again, this time with more success:
We also saw a dog show, a frog jumping contest, and a women's skillet throw. It was awesome. Also hot.
On Monday morning early, our friend A, whom J. lived with through grad school, came for the day (she lives in Toronto, but was on Cape Cod with her partner, and took an early ferry over and a late ferry back so we had the whole day together). We went out for brunch and then to the Arboretum. It's very hard to get a photo of Sam in which he doesn't look goofy (he is exactly like Calvin of Calvin & Hobbes).
But then, at the sculpture garden nearby in West Tisbury, J. caught this shot (both kids were sitting on a tree branch):
Frida is easier to photograph; she's not nearly so self-conscious yet (even with the mosquito bite which she'd scratched to scabbing, now healing on her cheek):
The sculpture garden/art museum folks had put together a great treasure hunt, with line drawings of a lot of their sculptures and a few fake-outs. Sam loved it, and got them all right, winning a bumper sticker and a lapel pin.
Then we drove to Aquinnah, checked out the view from up on the cliffs, and spent a couple of hours down at the beach:
More soon...
We arrived there on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday morning we went to the Agricultural Society Fair. Sam climbed the climbing tower again, this time with more success:
We also saw a dog show, a frog jumping contest, and a women's skillet throw. It was awesome. Also hot.
On Monday morning early, our friend A, whom J. lived with through grad school, came for the day (she lives in Toronto, but was on Cape Cod with her partner, and took an early ferry over and a late ferry back so we had the whole day together). We went out for brunch and then to the Arboretum. It's very hard to get a photo of Sam in which he doesn't look goofy (he is exactly like Calvin of Calvin & Hobbes).
But then, at the sculpture garden nearby in West Tisbury, J. caught this shot (both kids were sitting on a tree branch):
Frida is easier to photograph; she's not nearly so self-conscious yet (even with the mosquito bite which she'd scratched to scabbing, now healing on her cheek):
The sculpture garden/art museum folks had put together a great treasure hunt, with line drawings of a lot of their sculptures and a few fake-outs. Sam loved it, and got them all right, winning a bumper sticker and a lapel pin.
Then we drove to Aquinnah, checked out the view from up on the cliffs, and spent a couple of hours down at the beach:
More soon...
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