I was in such a hurry to get the MV pics up, I forgot all about the notes I'd scribbled from the trip.
On our way to the Fair, Sam and J. had a lengthy conversation about how afterward we would go to the Unfair. Where, you know, all manner of sucky things would happen. e.g.: "They have all your favorite things to eat, and you can't have any of them." "There are a lot of great rides, but they're all broken." Sam loves absurdity.
One day, Sam was dawdling as usual over his socks. He doesn't like putting on socks, because they get stuck halfway and he gets frustrated. He asked for help. (J. gave him strategies but kept trying to get him to do it himself.) "You do it, Dad."
"You're going to need to learn to put on socks, Sam."
"Why?"
"You're going to have feet, hopefully, for the rest of your life. We can't put on your socks for you when you're a grownup."
"When I'm a grownup, I'm not going to wear socks. I'm going to live in the rainforest, remember? There's warm steamy air there, I won't need socks."
[Sam has for some time been saying that he will live in the rainforest and collect animals when he is a grownup.]
Sam one day at breakfast, a propos nothing: "What's a theory?"
When we're getting ready to go out, Frida has started bringing us our shoes. She's pretty good at bringing the appropriate shoes to each of us.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Thursday, September 2, 2010
MV, part 2
Thursday we did our favorite hike. There were a LOT of caterpillars (all over, including on the hike), and Sam pointed out Every Single One.
We hung out for a bit by the brook, with Bean asleep in the ergo.
Back at the house. When the sun hit the skylight just right, it made this lovely patch on the rug:
(See FB for pics of me reading w/Bean in the same spot.)
In the early evening we went to the beach for a bit. There was a breeze, but the sand was warm. J. went for a bike ride while I hung out with the kids, listening to the surf.
Cool sunset:
Sam grew these enormous feet:
Friday we spent much of the day at another beach, with a warm shallow lake on one side and the ocean on the other side of some sand dunes. Frida briefly modeled this ridiculously cute cover-up (it was *very* cheap on clearance online... which is good because she has worn it for about 20 minutes ever, and here is the evidence).
Then it was too cold, especially after she and I went in the lake for a bit, so she suited up and played in the sand while Sam played endlessly in the water.
We went to Menemsha for more scrumptious take-out seafood (eaten behind the store on lobster traps and crates), and then the sunset. It was crowded, but beautiful, and it was one of the things on the list of MV must-dos that we hadn't ever done. Check.
We got home late the next evening, after loading up the car and chatting with the nice retired kindergarten teacher who owns the house, browsing through a flea market, and going mini golfing.
It was a nice, relaxing week, and while we didn't get to spend as much time outdoors as we would have liked, we had fun. We saw (and waved out our car window at) the presidential motorcade twice, and were reminded of how nice it is to be able to go places spontaneously and more-or-less alone. Sheesh. Also, we're glad we aren't there *this* weekend.
And then September started with a bang. J's going on 6 different trips (some combined into two) this month; Bean just started daycare; I'm applying for jobs. Yeeeeehaw.
We hung out for a bit by the brook, with Bean asleep in the ergo.
Back at the house. When the sun hit the skylight just right, it made this lovely patch on the rug:
(See FB for pics of me reading w/Bean in the same spot.)
In the early evening we went to the beach for a bit. There was a breeze, but the sand was warm. J. went for a bike ride while I hung out with the kids, listening to the surf.
Cool sunset:
Sam grew these enormous feet:
Friday we spent much of the day at another beach, with a warm shallow lake on one side and the ocean on the other side of some sand dunes. Frida briefly modeled this ridiculously cute cover-up (it was *very* cheap on clearance online... which is good because she has worn it for about 20 minutes ever, and here is the evidence).
Then it was too cold, especially after she and I went in the lake for a bit, so she suited up and played in the sand while Sam played endlessly in the water.
We went to Menemsha for more scrumptious take-out seafood (eaten behind the store on lobster traps and crates), and then the sunset. It was crowded, but beautiful, and it was one of the things on the list of MV must-dos that we hadn't ever done. Check.
We got home late the next evening, after loading up the car and chatting with the nice retired kindergarten teacher who owns the house, browsing through a flea market, and going mini golfing.
It was a nice, relaxing week, and while we didn't get to spend as much time outdoors as we would have liked, we had fun. We saw (and waved out our car window at) the presidential motorcade twice, and were reminded of how nice it is to be able to go places spontaneously and more-or-less alone. Sheesh. Also, we're glad we aren't there *this* weekend.
And then September started with a bang. J's going on 6 different trips (some combined into two) this month; Bean just started daycare; I'm applying for jobs. Yeeeeehaw.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
vacation!
With no work and no internet to distract us for a whole week, we took a lot of photos on Martha's Vineyard. Here are some highlights. No pics of adults, per blog tradition, though we may post a few somewhere else; email me if you want to see.
We got there on Saturday evening, and promptly went to our favorite outdoor-seating-only seafood place for fried clams and fried-fish sandwiches. Yum. This year's rental was much nicer and cleaner than the place we stayed the last couple of times we went, which proved especially nice given that we spent much of the next three days indoors due to rain. Sunday morning, though, we went out in drizzle to catch the last day of the Agricultural Fair. There were rides:
There was barbecue and watermelon and all manner of other fair food. Frida does surprisingly well biting off just the right size of bites with her 3.5 teeth:
There was a climbing tower:
Plus a sheep shearing demonstration, a horse-and-cart race, and numerous other fair-ish delights.
Later that week we bought the best granola ever:
And explored a nice little library with a great kids' section and a couple of bookstores to shore up our indoor-amusement options. Frida suddenly discovered the joys of being read to, especially lift-the-flap books, and brought us the same two over and over and over (in addition to, less frequently, non flappy books), lifting flaps so enthusiastically that some tape repairs were necessary by the time we got home. She also had a great time with the kitchen cabinet:
Pasta with pork, corn, tomatoes, and zucchini is YUMMY!
I love Sam's stripy pajamas. I love Sam in stripy pajamas:
On Wednesday it cleared up enough that we went to the Arboretum. Here's Frida in a onesie I applique'd (to cover up the "made in Hawaii" iron-on design that Grandma made when Sam was born! it felt weird to put it on Frida with that on it, so I used some leftovers from the oneside-decorating party we had for Aunt Sara and Uncle Dan before Ezra was born):
Frida fell asleep on J., who was feeling sleepy himself, so after walking around for a while they hung out in the gift shop while Sam and I ran around for a bit getting rid of some built-up cabin fever. He didn't want to be photographed standing still:
That afternoon the skies finally cleared! We went for our first family-of-four bike ride. Here's Frida in her ridiculously huge helmet (it fits her on the inside, though after about an hour it's clear she's tired of holding her head up):
She *loved* riding on the front of Daddy's bike in the WeeRide and squealed with joy on the downhills. And with her in front, and Sam on the trailer-bike in back, J. was slowed down enough that I could just about keep up.
That night we went to Family Disco Night at Flatbread Pizza/Nectar's Club.
Y-M-C-A!
[Second half of the week in a separate post.]
We got there on Saturday evening, and promptly went to our favorite outdoor-seating-only seafood place for fried clams and fried-fish sandwiches. Yum. This year's rental was much nicer and cleaner than the place we stayed the last couple of times we went, which proved especially nice given that we spent much of the next three days indoors due to rain. Sunday morning, though, we went out in drizzle to catch the last day of the Agricultural Fair. There were rides:
There was barbecue and watermelon and all manner of other fair food. Frida does surprisingly well biting off just the right size of bites with her 3.5 teeth:
There was a climbing tower:
Plus a sheep shearing demonstration, a horse-and-cart race, and numerous other fair-ish delights.
Later that week we bought the best granola ever:
And explored a nice little library with a great kids' section and a couple of bookstores to shore up our indoor-amusement options. Frida suddenly discovered the joys of being read to, especially lift-the-flap books, and brought us the same two over and over and over (in addition to, less frequently, non flappy books), lifting flaps so enthusiastically that some tape repairs were necessary by the time we got home. She also had a great time with the kitchen cabinet:
Pasta with pork, corn, tomatoes, and zucchini is YUMMY!
I love Sam's stripy pajamas. I love Sam in stripy pajamas:
On Wednesday it cleared up enough that we went to the Arboretum. Here's Frida in a onesie I applique'd (to cover up the "made in Hawaii" iron-on design that Grandma made when Sam was born! it felt weird to put it on Frida with that on it, so I used some leftovers from the oneside-decorating party we had for Aunt Sara and Uncle Dan before Ezra was born):
Frida fell asleep on J., who was feeling sleepy himself, so after walking around for a while they hung out in the gift shop while Sam and I ran around for a bit getting rid of some built-up cabin fever. He didn't want to be photographed standing still:
That afternoon the skies finally cleared! We went for our first family-of-four bike ride. Here's Frida in her ridiculously huge helmet (it fits her on the inside, though after about an hour it's clear she's tired of holding her head up):
She *loved* riding on the front of Daddy's bike in the WeeRide and squealed with joy on the downhills. And with her in front, and Sam on the trailer-bike in back, J. was slowed down enough that I could just about keep up.
That night we went to Family Disco Night at Flatbread Pizza/Nectar's Club.
Y-M-C-A!
[Second half of the week in a separate post.]
coupla pics
A few pics, before the big vacation post(s; might have to be two, because there are a lot of nice pictures to share from MV):
Frida got a set of bongos from Omi and Opa for her birthday. They are a hit, no pun intended:
She also likes to sit on them:
(See her toy phone in the background-- on the far right of the top picture? that was one of her gifts from Grandma and Grandpa. She likes to put the wrist strap around her arm and walk around the house with it, often with a dishtowel or piece of laundry (or recently, my bathing suit bottoms, retrieved from the beach bag) draped artfully around her shoulders. For hours.)
Sam got a new soccer ball. Bean likes it.
She also likes to sit on it:
Frida got a set of bongos from Omi and Opa for her birthday. They are a hit, no pun intended:
She also likes to sit on them:
(See her toy phone in the background-- on the far right of the top picture? that was one of her gifts from Grandma and Grandpa. She likes to put the wrist strap around her arm and walk around the house with it, often with a dishtowel or piece of laundry (or recently, my bathing suit bottoms, retrieved from the beach bag) draped artfully around her shoulders. For hours.)
Sam got a new soccer ball. Bean likes it.
She also likes to sit on it:
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Frida is 1!
We had a nice weekend with lots of family in town: Grandma & Grandpa (who were already here celebrating cousin Ezra's birth-- he's gorgeous and healthy, and everyone is doing well), Omi & Opa, and Aunt Liz and her boyfriend Aaron. On Sunday we had a party with a few friends and neighbors, along with all the family. Frida was skeptical about cupcakes:
But she quickly got the idea:
[Edited to add: this cupcake recipe is divine. AND uses up one large, or two small, zucchini, for those of you with gardens or CSA shares.]
She got some lovely gifts-- thanks everyone, especially for the travel bed from Grandma and Grandpa, which will come in very handy next week on Martha's Vineyard. A few friends also made donations in her name-- thanks again!-- to the Central Asia Institute.
On Monday, Frida's actual birthday, we went to the beach with Omi and Opa. Frida loooooves the surf! Opa took her into very gentle lapping water, just getting her legs wet (it was cold!), and she was exhilarated, shrieking and jumping. When her lips were starting to get blueish, he lifted her onto the warm, drier sand to toddle for a bit, she made a beeline back for the water, over and over. She didn't even mind when she fell forward and got a face full. I didn't bring a camera, so have to wait for pics and/or video from Omi and Opa.
That night Grandma and Grandpa joined us for a dinner at which I made some of her favorite foods: fried chicken (yum!); corn on the cob (sliced off for her; her 3 teeth aren't *quite* up to the job); and green beans. Later that evening, Sam did the ice cream dance together with J., Opa, and Grandpa. It worked so well they got TWO pints!
Many many thanks to Opa for putting up our rain barrel, getting our grill functioning again, and installing a fabulous new faucet in our kitchen sink, so that we don't have to stoop forward quite so uncomfortably when doing dishes. Thanks also to Omi for dinner, and for lots of cleaning and organizing, including rearranging our porch so that it's a nice place to spend time. And thanks to both Grandma and Omi for lots of help with both Frida's party and her birthday dinner.
Sam tolerated being the non-center of attention quite well for a five-year-old; he got to play nerf baseball with Grandpa and Liz and Aaron, showed off his bike-riding skills, painted Frida a onesie, and ran around like a crazy boy at her party. It helped having so MANY people around; there was generally a lot of grandparental/auntie attention to go around. The main negative effect of his not-birthday-kid status, I think, was that we neglected entirely to feed him during the party and afterward, so that for at least 6 hours-- from 4-6 while everyone was noshing, and then afterward for a couple of hours when the family stuck around for gift opening, and then after that while we continued to nosh and tidy and other friends who'd gotten the time wrong stopped by-- he ate nothing more than a cupcake. And at 9:30, when we were belatedly putting him to bed, he asked, "But when are we going to have dinner?" And when we explained that we weren't having dinner because we'd been snacking so much, he said he hadn't eaten at all other than the cupcake, and then started sliding into a miserable fit in which he insisted that we ALL have dinner TOGETHER, something we'd COOKED, and sit down to eat it AT THE SAME TIME. And once he'd recovered (over tortellini, hastily defrosted and eaten all together; at 10PM some requests are worth giving in to), he somberly explained that nobody had remembered to feed him because nobody was really paying much attention to him, because it was Frida's party. Tough, tough life this boy has-- he got not one, but SEVERAL gifts from sensitive grandparents who didn't want him to feel left out. Anyway, he's none the worse for wear; probably better, in fact, for having adjusted to not having the family focus on him all the time.
Finally: yesterday I tried to take a proper birthday picture of Frida. I got some ok ones but nothing that feels like it will serve as her One Year Photo; maybe that will work better on Martha's Vineyard, with lots of time on our hands. The best so far:
[See the rain barrel hidden there behind the Rose of Sharon bush? aqua blue, taller than Frida? It collects rainwater from two downspouts, and will (when we set that part up) then drain, via a spigot we can open or shut, into two drip hoses, watering flower beds along the house, on one side, and around the Japanese maple, on the other. I hate the idea of watering the garden & lawn with drinking water; as a result, it gets pretty brown during dry weeks, especially in a summer like the one we're having this year. So this will help a little bit.]
PS: Tonight she climbed onto our couch. By herself. Well, she grabbed onto J's shorts to haul herself up, after swinging one foot up (the couch is at about armpit height for her). But she could just as easily have used the arm rest for that. We're doomed. A few weeks ago, I was predicting she'd be on top of the (upright) piano at 18 months. I'm revising that down to 16 months. Tops.
But she quickly got the idea:
[Edited to add: this cupcake recipe is divine. AND uses up one large, or two small, zucchini, for those of you with gardens or CSA shares.]
She got some lovely gifts-- thanks everyone, especially for the travel bed from Grandma and Grandpa, which will come in very handy next week on Martha's Vineyard. A few friends also made donations in her name-- thanks again!-- to the Central Asia Institute.
On Monday, Frida's actual birthday, we went to the beach with Omi and Opa. Frida loooooves the surf! Opa took her into very gentle lapping water, just getting her legs wet (it was cold!), and she was exhilarated, shrieking and jumping. When her lips were starting to get blueish, he lifted her onto the warm, drier sand to toddle for a bit, she made a beeline back for the water, over and over. She didn't even mind when she fell forward and got a face full. I didn't bring a camera, so have to wait for pics and/or video from Omi and Opa.
That night Grandma and Grandpa joined us for a dinner at which I made some of her favorite foods: fried chicken (yum!); corn on the cob (sliced off for her; her 3 teeth aren't *quite* up to the job); and green beans. Later that evening, Sam did the ice cream dance together with J., Opa, and Grandpa. It worked so well they got TWO pints!
Many many thanks to Opa for putting up our rain barrel, getting our grill functioning again, and installing a fabulous new faucet in our kitchen sink, so that we don't have to stoop forward quite so uncomfortably when doing dishes. Thanks also to Omi for dinner, and for lots of cleaning and organizing, including rearranging our porch so that it's a nice place to spend time. And thanks to both Grandma and Omi for lots of help with both Frida's party and her birthday dinner.
Sam tolerated being the non-center of attention quite well for a five-year-old; he got to play nerf baseball with Grandpa and Liz and Aaron, showed off his bike-riding skills, painted Frida a onesie, and ran around like a crazy boy at her party. It helped having so MANY people around; there was generally a lot of grandparental/auntie attention to go around. The main negative effect of his not-birthday-kid status, I think, was that we neglected entirely to feed him during the party and afterward, so that for at least 6 hours-- from 4-6 while everyone was noshing, and then afterward for a couple of hours when the family stuck around for gift opening, and then after that while we continued to nosh and tidy and other friends who'd gotten the time wrong stopped by-- he ate nothing more than a cupcake. And at 9:30, when we were belatedly putting him to bed, he asked, "But when are we going to have dinner?" And when we explained that we weren't having dinner because we'd been snacking so much, he said he hadn't eaten at all other than the cupcake, and then started sliding into a miserable fit in which he insisted that we ALL have dinner TOGETHER, something we'd COOKED, and sit down to eat it AT THE SAME TIME. And once he'd recovered (over tortellini, hastily defrosted and eaten all together; at 10PM some requests are worth giving in to), he somberly explained that nobody had remembered to feed him because nobody was really paying much attention to him, because it was Frida's party. Tough, tough life this boy has-- he got not one, but SEVERAL gifts from sensitive grandparents who didn't want him to feel left out. Anyway, he's none the worse for wear; probably better, in fact, for having adjusted to not having the family focus on him all the time.
Finally: yesterday I tried to take a proper birthday picture of Frida. I got some ok ones but nothing that feels like it will serve as her One Year Photo; maybe that will work better on Martha's Vineyard, with lots of time on our hands. The best so far:
[See the rain barrel hidden there behind the Rose of Sharon bush? aqua blue, taller than Frida? It collects rainwater from two downspouts, and will (when we set that part up) then drain, via a spigot we can open or shut, into two drip hoses, watering flower beds along the house, on one side, and around the Japanese maple, on the other. I hate the idea of watering the garden & lawn with drinking water; as a result, it gets pretty brown during dry weeks, especially in a summer like the one we're having this year. So this will help a little bit.]
PS: Tonight she climbed onto our couch. By herself. Well, she grabbed onto J's shorts to haul herself up, after swinging one foot up (the couch is at about armpit height for her). But she could just as easily have used the arm rest for that. We're doomed. A few weeks ago, I was predicting she'd be on top of the (upright) piano at 18 months. I'm revising that down to 16 months. Tops.
Friday, July 30, 2010
men's bodies
I was just asking Sam when he thought his new baby cousin would be born (he's due tomorrow, so we're all eagerly waiting). He thought about it a bit, then said:
"For women I think having a baby is really hard, but for men, it's easy."
me: "Why do you think it's easy for men?"
Sam (again, after thinking for a bit): "Women's bodies have to do more than men's do. Men's bodies just have to do the sperm loving. That's all they have to do."
Ha. Not sure where he got that particular phrase, but he has a point. In fact, there's a bunch of evolutionary theory that's all related to this exact point, where mammals are concerned...
On Tuesday, Sam and Frida went to the beach with Stephanie and a couple of her friends. After they were back, tired out, happy, and not at all sunburned, I asked Sam what his favorite part had been. He liked kicking down all the sand castles they'd made (apparently they'd made a lot). He told me they kicked them down because kings are bad. Why, I asked. "Because they make bad rules." This is what happens when kids hang out with folks with anarchist tendencies. Hee hee. As long as it's kings they're talking about, and not our president, I'm not complaining.
"For women I think having a baby is really hard, but for men, it's easy."
me: "Why do you think it's easy for men?"
Sam (again, after thinking for a bit): "Women's bodies have to do more than men's do. Men's bodies just have to do the sperm loving. That's all they have to do."
Ha. Not sure where he got that particular phrase, but he has a point. In fact, there's a bunch of evolutionary theory that's all related to this exact point, where mammals are concerned...
On Tuesday, Sam and Frida went to the beach with Stephanie and a couple of her friends. After they were back, tired out, happy, and not at all sunburned, I asked Sam what his favorite part had been. He liked kicking down all the sand castles they'd made (apparently they'd made a lot). He told me they kicked them down because kings are bad. Why, I asked. "Because they make bad rules." This is what happens when kids hang out with folks with anarchist tendencies. Hee hee. As long as it's kings they're talking about, and not our president, I'm not complaining.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
summer
I had food poisoning on my birthday. But Sam and Stephanie decorated for me, including with our birthday ring on the table, and our banner:
(You can see that he's started chewing on his t-shirt again; there was a couple of weeks early in the last kindergarten year when he was doing this, along with several classmates, apparently, and recently it started again. Yuck. Like most such habits, though, I think it'll go away faster if we ignore it; certainly bugging him about it hasn't seemed to help.)
Last Saturday, with summer Farmer's Market/CSA bounty in its full glory, this was our dinner. 5 different vegetable combinations, dressed just with salt, pepper, olive oil, and vinegar (ok, and a couple had been sauteed in butter). With bread and cheese. SO YUMMY.
Frida is acting like a toddler these days. Today, she was delighted to discover that her soccer ball fits into the napkin&towel drawer in the kitchen. She is into systematic relocation of stuff, and has a longer attention span about it than she used to. All of the CDs she can reach go onto the floor (from the CD racks); all of the books on a shelf go onto the floor; all of the things on the living room floor over the baby gate:
And she initiates games. Where's Frida?
There she is!
(Note highchair tray with dinner remnants; she ate a surprising quantity of roast pork chop, along with some rice and peaches. She's been eating a lot more lately-- ever since a Fried Chicken Breakthrough on July 4th (girl LOVES fried chicken) and seems bigger in all dimensions.)
(You can see that he's started chewing on his t-shirt again; there was a couple of weeks early in the last kindergarten year when he was doing this, along with several classmates, apparently, and recently it started again. Yuck. Like most such habits, though, I think it'll go away faster if we ignore it; certainly bugging him about it hasn't seemed to help.)
Last Saturday, with summer Farmer's Market/CSA bounty in its full glory, this was our dinner. 5 different vegetable combinations, dressed just with salt, pepper, olive oil, and vinegar (ok, and a couple had been sauteed in butter). With bread and cheese. SO YUMMY.
Frida is acting like a toddler these days. Today, she was delighted to discover that her soccer ball fits into the napkin&towel drawer in the kitchen. She is into systematic relocation of stuff, and has a longer attention span about it than she used to. All of the CDs she can reach go onto the floor (from the CD racks); all of the books on a shelf go onto the floor; all of the things on the living room floor over the baby gate:
And she initiates games. Where's Frida?
There she is!
(Note highchair tray with dinner remnants; she ate a surprising quantity of roast pork chop, along with some rice and peaches. She's been eating a lot more lately-- ever since a Fried Chicken Breakthrough on July 4th (girl LOVES fried chicken) and seems bigger in all dimensions.)
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