five pics of Beanie

From today. The place is a mess-- we had some painting done over the weekend to cover up woodwork that had lead in underlying paint layers. I've since come to the conclusion that de-leading certification is bunk, but I don't feel like posting about it now. We spent the weekend in Vermont, but it was sort of eh (cold, rainy, then sleeting/snowy on the way home; leaves mostly already off the trees). But at least we don't have to worry about any previously-flaking lead-positive paint, and that's something (and we'll go ahead with the certification for resale purposes).







Sam has been exceedingly obstreporous lately. It takes every ounce of patience and diplomacy either J or I have to deal with him sometimes, and then some. Four-and-a-half phase? Jealousy of the Bean coming out in unpredicted ways? Anyway... and then he will turn around and be so amazingly sweet and funny and charming, and somehow the reserves of patience are restored.

(Edited to add: In support of the jealousy idea, Sam said a couple of times today and yesterday that he likes it when Frida cries. Really? Why? I asked him, and he replied that he just likes it. I don't buy it for a second, though: when she starts to whimper in the car he sing-songs sweetly to her: "It's ok, baby, it's ok, Mommy's right there, and I'm right here, and we'll be home soon, it's ok". So... yeah. Jealous. And it's tough, because as she gets cuter, people coo over her more, and pay proportionally less attention to him-- and if they think to talk to him too, they mostly just ask his opinion about her and about being a big brother. And he just doesn't have the reserves of grace for that.)

yum

One nice thing about being on leave is that I've had the time (and general wherewithal) to cook more. Our veg. and meat farm shares have been inspiring, as have a couple of food blogs spun off of mom blogs that I follow. And it's gotten cooler, so roasting is appealing again. This past weekend (tonight included):

- corn, potato, red pepper and ham soup
(also made and froze kale and beef soup)

- roast pork (shoulder) glazed with this awesome yuzu & honey jelly that my mom gave us, with roasted brussels sprouts and baked sweet potatoes (it is pretty amazingly nice to hear one's four-year-old ask for "more brussels sprouts, please"-- and in fact, to like them oneself. I'd thought they were my last holdover of detested foods from my childhood, until I had some roasted while out to eat on Thursday evening, and was instantly converted)

- granola bars (with Sam)

- skillet roasted chicken on top of sliced bread, with roasted broccoli

And *all* the meat and veggies were from the shares.

I promise not to turn this into a food blog... but it's been fun. I really like that Sam knows where food comes from, both the growing and the preparation. We visited the farm where our meat comes from mid-summer, and sometimes talk about the various ingredients in our dinner and where they came from (Trader Joe's!) Sam also loves to help cook: shucking corn, peeling carrots, measuring oats and nuts and other granola ingredients. Tonight, unprompted, he asked who made the food. I asked him to guess, and he guessed, Daddy? (somewhat mystifyingly, given that J. had just gotten home and I'd been cooking for some time). When he learned that I'd made it, he thanked me (again, unprompted, though he'd heard both J. and me thank each other on multiple previous occasions I guess) and then asked J. to do the same. Heh.

monster bonanza continues

(Note the fist grip. Sam's teacher pointed out that he hasn't yet settled into a reliable grip. He is definitely right-handed, but holds the pen differently every time he grabs it. Something to work on in kindergarten...)

Philly, and monsters

This past weekend Frida and I went to Philadelphia. The center where I did my (first) postdoc was having a 10-year anniversary celebration and reunion, with a lot of the former postdocs, grad students, and residents gathering with the current faculty etc. for a day of talks and panels, followed by specific lab reunion dinners. I was hesitant to take her on a plane this young, but realized Amtrak is only marginally slower (and MUCH more comfortable, and also doesn't require a Saturday night stay). So we left Thursday afternoon on the train. Frida slept most of the way there in the sling, while I napped, analyzed some data, and read; she was awake for the last hour and smiled at the nice lady sitting next to me, who coo'd at her. That evening, I had a lovely, long, chatty dinner with a friend whom I hadn't seen in years (which Frida, again, slept through). At this point I'm thinking travel with a young infant is SO much easier than travel with, say, a toddler... she is portable, mostly sleeps, and has neither a drive to locomote on her own nor the sudden, unpredictable need for a bathroom. That night F. was a bit fussy (though not loud) so I didn't get to sleep until 3:30, and consequently was a bit tired at the meeting the next day. Still, it was good to see people and hear about what they're working on, and I only had to duck out of talks a couple of times that morning when Frida woke up or wanted to nurse. I did miss most of the afternoon panels (including the one I was most interested in), but then went out for a very nice beer/snack/chat with three of the postdocs with whom I overlapped at the Center-- at our old favorite happy hour hangout. We then went to a fantastic restaurant for dinner with my former mentor and other out-of-town alums of her lab. A friend/fellow-former-postdoc was there with her partner, and they took turns holding F. all night, so that I could enjoy my dinner-- it was great! (and lovely to catch up with them, too). All day long, Frida got a lot of "what an easy baby" comments, as she alternated between napping, nursing, and gazing around at all the faces/lights/movement with calm interest. I should have known I was being jinxed...

...because that night all hell broke loose: something I ate apparently didn't agree with Frida, and she screamed on and off for most of the night. She didn't have a fever but was obviously very uncomfortable, and I paced and shushed and rocked her all night, with just a couple of one-ish hour intervals of sleep. I was worried about her, but also concerned about the people in the next room over (I'd requested an isolated room, but who knows? there was a stairwell on one side, at least). Finally called the ped. shortly after 8AM, and she asked if there was someone in town who could check F. out... and fortunately, my friend's partner is a pediatrician. So they came over, Beth did an exam-- during which Frida of course lay there kicking and smiling beatifically-- and pronounced her just fine. Frida did begin to scream while they were there, and due to the sudden transition between calm and pained screaming, Beth thought that it was likely due to GI cramps of some sort-- painful but not dangerous, provided the rest of her outlook didn't change. Beth and Lesley then took F. to the park nearby so I could collect myself and have a shower. Of course, F. slept for the entire hour at the park with them. I was too tired to imagine meeting the lab for dim sum, so we caught an earlier train (during which, thankfully, F. slept the whole time-- I'd had nightmare visions of her screaming for hours and clearing out the train car). Whew! I remember going to a meeting with J., an hour's drive from Philly when Sam was a couple of months old. Then, I could never have imagined doing that alone; now, one infant feels easy most of the time. But I was definitely sweating Friday night in the hotel...

Meanwhile, Sam's prolific painting and drawing continues. A gallery of recent monsters:


and a close-up of one. They all have traits, too (e.g. the one who eats all of the candy in the house while you're sleeping). I can't remember this one's, but I like it. Its name is Toovil. Does anyone recognize this from a book? I can't tell if he's making it up all on his own or if it's inspired by a book he read at school...

art

For most of his preschool year, Sam didn't seem to like to paint, or color, or do most any kind of art. Art was almost always one of the activity options, but Sam would choose to build or model or just about anything else. Other kids' cubbies would be stuffed with colorings and paintings and drawings, but Sam rarely had any in his when I picked him up-- and when I did my parent-help shifts, I could rarely convince him to do whatever art project was available. Then for some reason in late summer he started painting when it was an option. I didn't get to see most of these as he did them because they disappeared into his "portfolio"... which we then received at the end of the preschool year. Here's one of the paintings:



We put all our favorites on the wall:



When he started kindergarten, Sam started painting right away. Here's an oogabooga monster:


And a slug carrying grapes in the rain (black slug, purple grapes, purple rain):



We had markers and crayons here, but no Sam-friendly paint (well, we have some fingerpaints, but neither Sam nor I really like finger painting... the smell, the mess, the ooky hands). So the other night when J. was heading to an office supply store for a binder, I asked him to pick up a set of watercolors for a rainy day. Today was that rainy day. Sam painted 10 watercolors, and is still going now with the markers (only because I stopped putting pieces of paper in front of him)... I think he's drawn about 15 spiders to decorate with for halloween. Here are some highlights. I don't even need to tell you what most of these are, but the brown one is an owl, and the abstract one is people dancing at a party. (Note too the stripe of blue sky in almost every one.)











I don't know if it's because his fine motor control finally got good enough that he's not frustrated by his efforts, or because we went so wild over the portfolio full of recent paintings, but it's like a painting bonanza around here (he did mention today that he likes to make me happy by painting, so we had to have a whole carefully-casual conversation about how I hope he paints because he wants to, not because it makes me happy, though if it makes him happy to paint then that makes me happy too; he said it makes him happy AND it makes me happy).

He's also declared that in addition to being a paleontologist, he will be an artist when he grows up. He can paint the bones that he digs up, he says with the "I've got it!" tone we hear a lot around here these days.

Also: first group piano lesson yesterday. Teaching 4 4-year-olds to play piano is a bit like herding cats, but he had fun and I think it will be a nice non-stressful way to get an introduction to making music. And: he's actually liking swimming classes this fall, as opposed to protesting about them and then just sort of going through them. Which is good, because swimming is the only non-negotiable lesson, at least until he can keep his head above water on his own for a minute or so (safety issue; soccer, gymnastics, piano, whatever-- it's all negotiable and dependent on his interest and motivation, just not swimming).

Nothing about the Bean this post; she's getting more sociable and filling out, and the swing we bought through Craig's List is a lifesaver... she will happily nap in it for hours at a time, which allows me to, you know, do a few dishes even if J. isn't home, and also to paint with Sam.

Happy New Year to those who are celebrating (and atoning).

chins and sibling love

She's got chins!



The sibling love, it continues...

Five weeks, or the first real two-kid post

Well... it's been 5 weeks of parenting two, and we're settling in-- and celebrating by inaugurating a new blog. I can't even keep up with one (Sam's old blog), so there was no chance of keeping up with two, so instead of adding Frida to Sam's, I figured we'd document them both here. (Frida's initial blog was really just to add her name info to the birth announcement email we sent, so I won't be updating that any more.)

First order of business: Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who helped us get through the first crazy month: to our parents for bringing/cooking/buying us food, doing our dishes, landscaping our garden, holding Frida, taking Sam to the aquarium and the Science Museum and minigolfing (twice!) and reading him books and giving him gifts and making him feel loved; to our siblings for staying with Sam while we were at the hospital welcoming Frida into the outside world, for playing with Sam and doing our dishes and bringing us food, for bringing and sending lovely newborn girl clothes and soothing Frida so I could nap; to our friends in town for watching Sam and playing with him, for cooking us food, for assorted lovely gifts and flowers and toys; to our more distant friends and family for gifts and phone calls and good wishes. We are so grateful to you all! (And also: it's so kind of all of you to remember Sam-- we lost count of the "big brother gifts" he got, and I can't imagine he felt under-gifted at all.)

Second order of business: Some pictures! I'll update with text some time... no promises, given that I can make big plans and not be able to even make a dent in my list because F. won't let me put her down without screeching (errands that can be run on foot are the only way to deal with this); other times she sleeps and sleeps, but I'm so tired from being up with her that I can't function enough to be any kind of productive. But we have photos, so here are some highlights...


FridaBean asleep in my lap, end of August (so about 2 weeks old). She is happy on a lap, on a chest, in the sling, in the ergo... basically anywhere in contact with a human.



Sam made a neato design around the Bean (early September).



Sam was pretty wiped out after his second full day of kindergarten (especially since we then hung out at the newly redesigned and amazingly cool Cambridge Common park, with Uncle Markus, for a couple of hours, then had barbecue-- Uncle M. requested it because he can't get good BBQ in Tokyo-- all together with Uncle Dan and Aunt Sara).




Sam loves to hold Frida, and she finds him totally fascinating.



First (real) bath, earlier this week at one month old:



Apple picking yesterday (us and the entire rest of New England, from what we could tell):







Sam dancing around with his harmonica. Frida was transfixed.