Fast forward a few cool rainy weeks to this past Friday, which was in the high 80s suddenly. The pansies which have been gracing our back porch window boxes have thrived in all the cool rain; their days are numbered.
Between college kids leaving (and graduating!) and our other regular afterschool babysitter starting a new degree program which leaves her less flexible, we didn't have an afterschool babysitter for Sam on Friday. So I took him to run some errands, get frozen yogurt, and get his hair cut, finally; with it plastered to his face and neck he was well ready to part with the length. I couldn't really describe to the woman cutting it what I wanted, though, so he ended up with a mullet... which I trimmed up on the back porch once we picked up Frida and came home. And then trimmed just the wee bits of extra-long hair on the back of her head as well. Sam takes after Omi and me in having a LOT of hair-- this was after he'd already had a fair bit taken off at the barber shop:
Frida these days is chatty and funny and affectionate and opinionated. If she's awake when Sam comes into our bed in the mornings, or whenever she wakes up thereafter, she insists, "Vam! haut!" (Sam! hug!). She is very very particular about who does what, and insists on who does her carseat buckle (herself, the top clip, and usually "Vam", the bottom clip-- if he's there, that is). She wants to climb into the car and into her seat herself, and on the occasions when we're in too much of a hurry to permit this and she is plopped unceremoniously into her seat and buckled in, she yells for a bit and then grumbles for the entire ride across Cambridge (Hrumph. Meh. Wah, at regular intervals from the backseat, prompting Sam to request that the music be turned up). She wants to do everything herself except the things she's bored of doing herself, like putting food into her mouth. This, she requests of specific other people (me, Opa, Paula, Grandma-- not necessarily someone seated conveniently close to her, either). She has a particular cackle that she emits when she's being naughty, but she is also learning and repeating rules. For example, I had told her very firmly that she can't nurse if she's going to press her feet on my face, inside my shirt, or against my arm, so while nursing she will stop nursing for a moment at random intervals to intone, "Doot, dais, no. Doot, dirt, no. Doot, arm, no," waiting for confirmation from me before she smiles and returns to nursing. And though I'm never more than a step away from her on the sidewalk, she stops at the crossing, says "deet!" and reaches for a hand before stepping into the street. Progress!
And the new-haircut pic you've been waiting for, featuring a lego shark (Sam follows in his father's and uncle M's footsteps with the lego love. When he got a new lego set from Grandma and Grandpa recently, he looked at the picture on the box then immediately asked if he had to make what was in the picture or could use them to make other things).
J got back this afternoon from the last of his spring travels, hurrah! We leave in just over a week, for 12 days in Germany and Switzerland; J's giving a talk and we grabbed the chance to visit my cousins and aunt/uncle for the price of two tickets (Frida is lap-baby-able for just a bit longer, and light enough that that seemed feasible). Looking forward to meeting the 5 new cousins who've been born in the 7 years since I was there last.
And in the unlikely event that someone reading here doesn't know from FB or more direct channels, I got and accepted the job offer, so will have a full-time teaching position next year and likely the following; after that it's open again. I will have to convince them in those years that I am indispensable (-: And I'll have four months next summer free for research, science outreach, house stuff, and/or hanging with the kids-- combination of those things. Whee!
