Hellions

Faced With the Horrible Prospect of Having to Take Leftover Ravioli to School

2009-05-20T12:20:00.002-05:00

"I'll just have peanut butter and jelly, because cheese is not allowed at school."

Gallery

2009-04-07T09:37:00.001-05:00

S: I'm going to make a new place to display all the artwork you guys are always making.
H: Are you going to buy another fridge?

HomeMade

2009-03-26T22:47:00.004-05:00

Doug made Griffin a beautiful wooden play stove for his birthday. I painted it. We're a good team!

Griffin and Cousin Lili are having a tea party, above.

Happy Birthday Griffin!

2009-03-21T20:34:00.004-05:00

Starter Quilt

2009-03-08T13:57:00.003-05:00

I can check off one of my winter goals: make a quilt. I finished this one yesterday. The pattern is Amy Karol's Basic Lap Quilt, from Bend the Rules Sewing, a perfect fit for Griffin's crib!

Best Buds

2009-03-08T13:51:00.002-05:00

Kaiva, Inga, and Karlina visited last weekend. What fun!

And Harrison's writing up a storm (this one's for you, Aunt Val)

Sentences You Never Thought You'd Have to Utter: Installment #1

2009-02-24T20:39:00.001-05:00

[during bath last night]

"Harrison! COME ON! You don't PEE on other people!"

Keeping Them Busy

2009-02-24T20:21:00.002-05:00

Ankylosaurus wreaks havoc on a platoon of army guys (these belonged to my dad):

"Turkey" (hahhhahhahahhahahhahah!):

Psychedelic fort/love den:

Action figure tea party:

Puppet Show

2009-02-03T20:49:00.003-05:00

This was the first of several puppet shows that have been put on since we got the big box of play scarves from Aunts Val and Tara. What fun!

Dichotomy

2009-01-13T20:36:00.002-05:00

This is sad:

D: I'm thinking about getting an electric caulking gun.

H: Why? Are there Bad Guys around here?

Oedipus

2009-01-08T21:42:00.001-05:00

Case study for Freud.

Harrison, at dinner: "I wish Daddy wasn't here so that I can be the Daddy."

Christmas Break Part 2

2009-01-08T21:02:00.010-05:00

I made Christmas Dinner this year, for the first time, and with much help from Val and Doug.

Best of Christmas Dinner:

Harrison and his beloved Aunties
Chatterbox.
The comfort and joy of using Gram's china.

Chocolate, almond, and pear tart from Martha. Yum.

[Here's the recipe. So easy and tasty!]

After-dinner drinks.

Dessert part 6,378.

Christmas Break Part I

2009-01-08T20:24:00.007-05:00

What a restful and relaxing holiday!

In summary:

We made a lot of cookies. I'm not kidding: black forest, gingerbread, peanut butter blossoms, wedding cakes, sugar cutouts, and lemon bars. Between us and all our company, we even managed to eat most of them.

Here are the boys, baking with Aunt Val and me on Christmas Eve morning.

Harrison and the Tongue of Concentration:

Griffin licks frosting beaters:
This was our first Christmas spent at home, and it was lovely. Aunts Val and Tara stayed with us and were there for the Christmas morning insanity.

Harrison has moved up to 100 piece puzzles and between Santa, his Aunts, and Grandparents added 4 new ones to his already impressive puzzle collection. It won't be long until he's memorized this bunch. It's rather frightening to watch him put his 48 piece puzzles together. He has several and can do them in under 10 minutes because he knows where every piece goes. These new ones should challenge him for a while.

Val and Tara completed our handknit stocking set this year with a red stocking with a big blue star. Completed two days before Christmas with handcramps and much Auntly love. Thank you guys! Here Griffin digs deep for stocking treasure:
More treasures from the Aunts: play silks galore!

Snuggles after Christmas breakfast: Grandma, Aunt Val, and Griff.

More to come....

Pre-Christmas Happenings

2008-12-16T20:29:00.001-05:00

Gratitude

2008-12-16T20:20:00.003-05:00

This is what we overheard Harrison saying at the table during the pre-dinner craziness tonight:

May we have grateful hearts for all we receive and be ever mindful of the needs of others.

We will try to guide our words, control our tempers, and speak the truth.

Bon appetit! You may eat!

I love Montessori.

Rochesterian

2008-12-16T14:14:00.001-05:00

Griffin became a true Rochesterian today---he shook hands with Danny Wegman.

Outtake

2008-12-15T22:03:00.003-05:00

My Thanksgiving List

2008-11-19T11:02:00.002-05:00

This year, I am most thankful for:

1. My mother, for watching my children every single day that I work. What an amazing and generous gift.
2. Memories of my grandmother, and for the opportunity to eulogize her, with my sister Val at my side.
3. The opportunity to observe the family of robins we had in our climbing rose this year--from egg to flight.
4. Maria Montessori and our Montessori school. I am inspired by Griffin and Harrison's teachers and classrooms every day.
5. Barack Obama, being able to take part in a historic election, and the American people for making the right choice.
6. Children's books which are not painful to read over and over and over again.
7. Letchworth camping with Harrison and Doug, snuggling them in the sleeping bags on a 30 degree night, and sharing hot cocoa with marshmallows in enamelware mugs.
8. The Twilight series and the guilty pleasure of being singularly absorbed into reading 2,000+ pages of such earnestly awful (yet titillating!) prose in a few short weeks.
9. New dahlia bulbs and blooms, which were spectacular this year.
10. Being able to go to the Rochester Public Market or Greece Farm Market every free Saturday, which is the bright side of being woken up at 6:30 AM by the hellions
11. Girl talk over the Thanksgiving Tasting supper at Hurd Orchards
12. Harrison's growing appreciation for The Beatles (even though I may go mad if I have to hear 'Revolution' on the ride to school again tomorrow)
13. Picking and eating so many sweet cherries that our bellies hurt and our fingers turned red.
14. Having a progressive/feminist husband who is a true co-parent and partner.
15. My new sewing machine and the fun (fantasy?) of planning winter projects
16. The best of this year's thrift store treasures: a cherry-red metal roller skate case repurposed to store train-set tracks; teacups for Val which match Gram's dessert plates; and vintage juice glasses perfect for small hands.
17. The few days when the kids and cats all sleep in and it's actually light out when I wake--like today!
18. Love, love, love, love. Crazy love.

(And kudos, as always, to Danika, for the inspiration to write this list. Thank you, dear friend!)

Angst

2008-11-19T09:05:00.002-05:00

H: Brenden doesn't care about me.
D: What?
H: Brenden. He doesn't care about me.
S: What do you mean? Why do you think that? He invited you to his birthday party, so I'm sure he likes you.
H: Because I told a joke to him today and he didn't laugh.
S&D [quietly snickering]: What was the joke?
H: Knock knock.
S&D: Who's there?
H: Chicken.
S&D: Chicken who?
H: Why did the chicken cross the road?
S&D: Why?
H: Because he wanted to get to the other side!!!
S&D: HAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!
S&D: Brenden didn't think that was funny?
H: No.

Science and Religion

2008-11-10T09:40:00.002-05:00

Scene: Dinnertime in an atheist household.
Griffin squishes mashed potatoes between fingers, then lifts hands together above head.

D: It looks like he's praying!
H (a few seconds later): What does 'pray' mean?
S (to Doug): All yours. You can take this one.
D: ....'Pray'....well...um...some people believe in a God, or multiple gods, and 'pray' is when someone asks for something that they wish... um...or....
H (only somewhat listening): Is it 'pray' like when T Rex 'preys' on other dinosaurs?

Yes We Did

2008-11-05T08:27:00.003-05:00

Taken this morning. A historic day.

Jump

2008-11-03T21:56:00.002-05:00

Vote Obama. Vote Hope.

2008-11-03T20:47:00.004-05:00

...for the sake of my family, especially my children, to whom this blog is dedicated.

There's nothing left to say.

Our New Cat

2008-11-03T20:42:00.005-05:00

Doug came across this Sunday afternoon:

A Happy Halloween!

2008-11-03T20:15:00.003-05:00

Digging into Harrison's lame-o pumpkin:

This year's collection, special ordered, "Make the first one happy and not too scary..." The second one is based on the face drawing that Harrison has been making all year. For the third one: "Make a scary one with lots of teeth!"

Hesitant mummy. Doug got a great mummy book out of the library in preparation for this costume, so I now know more about mummies than I ever thought I would.

I only caught one shot of them together, and this is it! Tex and the mummy:

The haul:

Oblogma

2008-10-27T19:21:00.003-05:00

I can't tear myself away from election coverage to blog anything of substance lately. Suffice it to say that I am obsessed and fearful. One week of this to go, and then (please, sweet lord baby Jesus, Allah, Gaia, whomever may be listening) Obama will win, we can all celebrate, and things can get back to normal around here.

In the meantime, guess what? Photos! At the pumpkin farm!

____________

You know how they say that in order not to overwhelm them, you should reduce young children's choices to two things tops? (For example: would you like the red cup or the blue cup?) Well, they're right, because, man, this is such a hard, painful decision every, single year.

We finally realized that he wasn't going to pick any of the pumpkins we suggested, so we tried covertly putting perfect pumpkins in his path and then "spotting" them. Didn't work. He had to find it on his own, and after looking over approximately 5,365 candidates, he wound up with the rinky-dinkiest pumpkin. But it was all his. And it was perfect.

Griffin was easy. He was more interested in loading up the wagon with rocks. Here he is with rock number 2:

Serious and Handsome

2008-10-19T20:24:00.003-05:00

The New Photo Face

2008-10-19T20:06:00.005-05:00

Camping:

In a tree:
In the car:

Weirdo.

So much better when unaware he's being photographed:

Shirt

2008-10-09T20:01:00.002-05:00

11 Things We Like Lately

2008-10-06T19:23:00.011-05:00

1. Buckets, 11 of them, arranged in order by size.
2. Sidewalk chalk.
3. Neighbors who leave hand-me-down presents of sandboxes, buckets and sand toys in our driveway.

4. Neighbors who grow extra tomatoes and shove the plants through our side of the fence, just for us.
5. Galas, Empires, and Arletts, and living 10 minutes from an orchard, with u-pick apples for 60 cents a pound.

6. The last of the evening sun.

7. Umbrella cranks.
8. Buzz Lightyear underwear.

9. Morning hikes in Letchworth on beds of fallen leaves.
10. Walking sticks left for the taking by previous hikers.

11. Cocoa, with marshmallows, drunk from enamelware mugs around the campfire.

[Update: I just saw that Soule Mama had a very similar, albeit much better posting this week: enjoy.]

Metro School

2008-09-23T12:00:00.003-05:00

On our minds lately has been the looming public vs private school dilemma for the kids.

A big ray of hope these last few weeks has been this proposal for The Metro School, by Dr. William Cala. His idea is inspirational...I hope it becomes a reality:

"The way we have populated our schools is appalling," says Cala "What we have is an economic apartheid. Urban schools do not look like the rest of society, and suburban schools don't either. Both groups of students need to be prepared to enter a global workforce that is multicultural."

Eagle Eye

2008-09-23T08:30:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, as an afternoon diversion, I taught Harrison how to have a staring contest. I thought this would be a fun exercise because he is REALLY bad at making eye contact. So I explained it to him, and we played a few times, and he cracked up in hysterics, and of course lost every single round. Then he got a devilish look.

H: I know! Let's have a NON-staring contest.
S: How do you do that?
H: You don't look at each other.
S: Okay, but how will we know who wins?
H: Uh...

So we did.

And he lost.

Waning Days of Summer

2008-09-21T20:05:00.004-05:00

A good week. Shucking corn in the yard:

Discovery of Concord Grapes (Mama's favorite):
And what weekend would be complete without pantless recycling?
Goodbye, Summer! Happy Autumn!

Tutti Fruiti

2008-09-15T21:37:00.004-05:00

This has been the summer of fresh-picked fruit. We were out of town last weekend and didn't make it to the farm or the farmer's market, but the parents stopped by yesterday on their way home from the local orchard. Now we're faced with the fortunate "problem" of figuring out what to do with several pounds each of peaches and apples (mac, gala, 20 oz), and a quart apiece of plums and late-season red raspberries.

Harrison and I made this super easy raspberry and peach tart tonight. Tastes like summer!

Griffin's First Day of School Photo

2008-09-15T21:35:00.003-05:00

Unmentionables

2008-09-11T07:24:00.000-05:00

Scene: Target. Harrison walks by lingerie department and points at bras:

"Are those for boobs?"

Checkup

2008-09-08T08:58:00.002-05:00

On the drive to school this morning:

S: Grandma's going to pick you up today. Grandpa's got to go to Buffalo.
H: What's Grandpa doing in Buffalo?
S: He has to run some errands and take the car for repair.
H: What's "car repair"?
S: Repair means "fix." Actually, he just needs to get it checked out. Cars need checkups just like people.
H: But...cars don't have hearts!
S: True, but they have engines.
H: Well, that's silly.

First Day of School (the Griffin edition)

2008-09-08T08:52:00.003-05:00

Griffin had a great first day of school on Friday!

No crying, no fussing.

According to Ms. Goodwine's status report:

"Mood: Very happy!

Materials worked with: Explored just about everything today.

General: A great first day!"

He was even blasé when Grandma and Grandpa came to pick him up at noon.

I could not have asked for a better result (or less guilt). Phew!

What a trooper!

[will add a picture later]

First Day of School

2008-09-03T19:42:00.005-05:00

It's hard to believe that summer is over!

Harrison's first day back to school was today. I can't believe what a big boy he's become. Here he is in the outfit he picked and layed out the night before. Our Montessori school doesn't allow any distracting clothing, so anything with logos, characters, numbers, etc. is out. As it states in the parent handbook: "Simple clothing allows the natural beauty of the child to show through."

Looking at our handsome boy, so excited for his first day back, Doug and I couldn't agree more! (Here he is on the first day of school last year.)

(Griffin starts in the Montessori toddler community on Friday. I'm trying to work through the anxiety I'm feeling about that. He'll be fine....right?)

Cheerios

2008-08-26T08:55:00.000-05:00

The Cape

2008-08-14T08:07:00.003-05:00

It doesn't get any better....

Words Griffin Can Say*

2008-07-27T19:36:00.003-05:00

uh oh/ car/ truck/ stuck/ me/ mama/ dada/ flower/ bird/ grandma/ bee/ milk/ up/ help/ down/ spoon/ berry/ hi/ there/ woof/ meow/ kitty/ this/ that/ moon/ fan/ cheese/ melon/ more/ bye/ bus/ boohbah/ bread/ bubble/ lawnmower/ ball/ fork/ hot/ baby

*mostly intelligible

I love how this list reflects on his world and his understanding of it.

Bubbles

2008-07-23T20:53:00.002-05:00

Two days, two boys, two summer treats

2008-07-17T20:30:00.006-05:00

Backyard Boys

2008-07-10T20:48:00.003-05:00

Bullies

2008-07-10T08:13:00.003-05:00

Harrison had a run-in with some 6-year old bullies on the playground yesterday when he was with Grandma. He wanted to hang out and was following them around trying to engage them in play, and they started calling him "Poopyhead" "Toilethead" and "Diaperbaby."

[I had to suppress my smirk and laughter a bit when he was recounting these insults.]

He reported the verbal abuse to Grandma and she chastised the boys in her teacherly way, but I wonder if she should have let him fight his own battle on this one. What's the protocol here?

Poor Buddy. I want to squirrel him away and protect him from the nasty bits of the world, including mean 6-year olds.

Strawberry Fields Forever

2008-07-02T19:56:00.006-05:00

Between our wee family and my parents, we've all been strawberry picking at the field down the road from my parents' house 5 times. Five! Harrison's been on all of these excursions. For a 3 week picking season, I'd say that's pretty darn impressive!

Here's Griffin on our last run on Saturday, with three strawberries lined up to be eaten:

John, Paul, George, and Ringo

2008-07-02T19:31:00.004-05:00

The Fab Four are growing up! Here they are this evening, only 9 days old, running out of room, and almost ready to leave the nest:

They think the camera is their mama, here to feed them...
...and here are Mama and Papa with a grub and a worm, waiting for the photoshoot to end:

New babies!

2008-06-26T08:33:00.004-05:00

No, not for me--our robin chicks arrived on Monday! As far as I can tell, without being too invasive, all four eggs have hatched. We've been so lucky to have them here. The nest is below eye level off the back porch, so we can observe them fairly easily. When I peek through the foliage of the climbing rose where the nest is, I now see a wriggling mass of pink fuzzy bird flesh.

Yesterday Doug saw Mama Bird bring over a worm. This week, too, I saw Papa Bird tending to the nest for the first time, along with the Mama.

It took three days for Mama to lay all four eggs (two the first day, then one each for two more days), then 15 days for all four eggs to hatch. By 14 days old, they will apparently be ready to fly. Robin development is amazingly swift!

When she was brooding, Mama Bird took off whenever we were on the back porch, but now that she's got nestlings, she usually stays in the nest even when the [human] kids crash out the back door and tear out into the yard. Her maternal instinct to protect her babies is strong in the face of the hellions!

I will try and take some more pictures of our new additions when they get a little more vertical. In the meantime, flickr has some amazing shots of other people's chicks. Enjoy!

Weekend Photo Recap

2008-06-22T18:57:00.003-05:00

The perfect solstice weekend! 78 degrees, moderately humid, walking on the river, a beautiful evening wedding (thank you and congratulations again, K&J!), sleeping in Saturday, kids sleepover at grandma and grandpa's, strawberry picking/baking/jam making, 5 out of 6 meals eaten outdoors. Hooray for summer!

Our second clutch of robins, almost ready to hatch!

Mashing berries for jam requires The Tongue of Concentration.

Lunch at the kid's table.

My cheese puff.

Quotable

2008-06-18T08:18:00.002-05:00

Sorry for all the quotes lately, but the monkeys are just cracking me up these days, like during this morning's drive to Grandma's house, behind a big delivery truck:

H: "I want to get a BIG stick, and hit the back of that truck so the door opens and I can get what's inside!"

S: "Hmmm.....what do you think is inside?"

H: "CUSTARD!"

[Grandma had lately been indulging his love of homemade flan.]

Zagat Jr.

2008-06-13T08:29:00.001-05:00

H [pushing linguine around on plate]: "Well.... the truth is...I don't like the parsley."

The truth is??

Where do they pick these phrases up?

Top 5 Quotes to Remember from the Past Week

2008-06-09T11:37:00.007-05:00

1. "Mommy, I don't think I'm ready for onions yet." (H)
[You are so good about trying new things, Harrison. You've tried onions a few times now, this time a wee bit of minced sweet onion in some macaroni salad I had made. So sweet and honest in your reaction.]

2. "Mamamamamamamamamamamamamamamama!" (G)
[All the way from your room to the kitchen on Wednesday, when I got back from my trip to Minneapolis and Daddy told you "Mommy's home!"]

3. "Night night!" after each page in Good Night, Gorilla. And then at the end, "MORE!?" (G)
[Repeat x's infinity.]

4. "I did arts and crafts all by myself!" (H)
[Proud collage artist.]

5. "Tomorrow is the next day after today!" (H)
[Good job after months of asking "Is tomorrow today?" Time is so abstract. Tomorrow must seem like it will never get here, especially when it holds the promise of a trip to the zoo or a run through the sprinkler.]

8:45 Sunday: Still in Bed

2008-06-08T22:06:00.003-05:00

Random Exclamatory Phrase

2008-05-28T11:08:00.003-05:00

Harrison has been yelling this out randomly throughout the day for the last week or so:

"What!? A piece of pie? NO WAY!!!"

And he does it in this really weird voice.

Any ideas?
????

My Point of View

2008-05-14T20:33:00.002-05:00

This is my immediate point of view 3 or 4 times a day.

What this photo doesn't capture:

1. my heart swooning

2. sore, sometimes bitten nipples

3. murmured sighs of contentment and the sound of swallowing

4. milk dripping down the chin (or down my belly)

5. my hair being simultaneously stroked (sometimes pulled)

6. now-long legs kicking and flailing in the air; feet in my face, and on my chest

7. the softness of his gaze, through fluttering lids

8. did I already mention my swooning heart?

I love nursing.

Birthday Crafts

2008-05-14T19:04:00.006-05:00

It has been a busy couple of weeks, both at home and at work. One of the things I've been doing while not blogging is some crafting in preparation for Harrison's birthday party. As I previously mentioned, Amanda Soule's book The Creative Family has been a real

inspiration. The narrative portion is enjoyable to read and really puts the projects in context. The project descriptions themselves are very easy to follow and adaptable to design changes, even for novices like me.

First off, here's my take on her birthday crown. I slightly modified the provided template to make it higher in the front and also added a fabric cover for the elastic. I'm really happy with the way this turned out and Harrison loves it too. He wore it with pride all week. A very quick project--it took me about two hours to execute (with a sewing machine).

Next up was Amanda's bunting. I went a little crazy with the bunting-making, because it so damn cool and insanely easy. In total, I made 12 YARDS OF BUNTING! I'm already fantasizing about different color combinations of bunting for every occasion and season. I love this stuff.

Finally, on the morning of Harrison's party, my (much craftier) sister Val took the lead on executing a card stock and ribbon birthday banner I had designed in my head when nursing in bed at 5:30 in the morning. Nice job, Aunt Val! The tabs are moveable, so they can easily be stored and preserved for the next birthday, or the name simply switched out. Or we could switch the letters around into various weird anagrams.
We didn't get to enjoy the decorations too much during Harrison's party, because it was gorgeous out and we ended up being outside all day, but it has felt festive in the house all week.

Here's to new, homemade traditions. Hurrah!

Happy Birthday, Harrison!

2008-05-12T21:34:00.003-05:00

Backyard Saturday

2008-04-27T20:50:00.004-05:00

Super Harrison is melancholy despite his massive pinecone collection.

Nobody home. "Take a picture of my birdhouse, Mommy!"

Belting out "Bottomless Pit" by The Dead Milkmen. Griffin is not impressed.

85 degrees. Griffin's first run through the sprinkler.

Gardener.

Freezer Paper Stencils

2008-04-27T20:39:00.002-05:00

We tried out Amanda Soule's freezer paper stencils last weekend, to great success. Now that we know what we're doing, we'll stencil directly onto t-shirts or something next time.

There are so many great projects in her book-- we look forward to trying more!

Two Snippets

2008-04-21T09:04:00.002-05:00

[Doug gets home from work.]
D: Hi, buddy! I missed you. Give me a kiss.
H: Hi, daddy. I missed you too, but don't kiss me.

____________

S: Why don't you get on the potty, bud?
H: No.
S: Hey- what happened to my good listener?
H: He's dead. [laughs]
S: Oh no! He died?
H: [comes into the bathroom] Noooo! I was just tricking you, mommy!

Wheeeeee!

2008-04-15T19:33:00.004-05:00

From the season's first visit to our neighborhood playground:

Chop chop!

2008-04-15T19:24:00.004-05:00

We got this great knife at Wegman's a few months ago for about $3. It's plastic, serrated, and meant for chopping lettuce, but we use it for everything. It's great for young, spastic choppers like Harrison. Bonus: it's red!

Ulterior Motives?

2008-04-14T13:28:00.001-05:00

H: "Someday I will grow up and I can do whatever I want! I can reach the freezer!"

Brothers

2008-04-11T07:43:00.003-05:00

I have been staring at these pictures for 10 minutes, and I'm still baffled at the genetics.

He saw red

2008-04-07T08:26:00.003-05:00

Harrison's favorite color is red.

Weekdays, after Doug wakes Harrison up and he joins me in the bathroom so that we can brush our teeth together, he walks in and says,

"Good morning, Mommy! I'm wearing all red today, except my pants. I have two red shirts on [shows me t-shirt and sweatshirt], red socks, and red underwear!"

This is his uniform, and he wears it two or three times each week to school, as soon as it's clean....

...my funny bug.

Motoring

2008-04-05T20:22:00.000-05:00

When Kids and Cats Cohabitating is a Problem

2008-04-03T10:13:00.003-05:00

1. When you reach in to grab something out of your baby's mouth, pull it out, and recognize that it's a small chunk of cat shit;
2. When it gets really quiet in the dining room, so you peek in and see your baby finger painting with some cat puke on the floor; and finally,
3. When you find two mouse legs on the living room rug. And can't find the rest of the mouse.

Bunny Reading List

2008-03-25T12:08:00.005-05:00

We've been reading bunny books this week:

1. The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown (Got this at a library sale, a few years back, for 10 cents. Very, very sweet story and illustrations by Lilian Obligado. The Golden Book, Obligado edition we have seems to be out of print, which is a shame.)
2. Little Cottontail by Carl Memling (This is from Doug and Lori's collection of Golden Books, also illustrated by Lillian Obligado. Sadly, this one seems completely out of print. I read this when I was a kid too and it is lovely, especially for budding naturalists.)
3. Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown (Between these two and goodnight moon, this woman clearly loved bunnies--and who can blame her?)
4. Marshmallow by Clare Newberry (1943 Caldecott Honor book. I haven't read it, but Doug described it as "Good, but LOOONG."
5. Guess How Much I Love You? by Sam McBratney (Most of you already know this is a great book, but Doug has ruined it for me by calling the main character Brown Nut Hair instead of Nut Brown Hare. And now, I've ruined it for you!)

Happy Bunny Reading!

Twirpy Ramone

2008-03-24T19:21:00.003-05:00

And, yes, he has invented the art of solo moshing.

Dearheart

2008-03-24T18:58:00.003-05:00

I could eat him whole.

Easter Magic

2008-03-24T07:50:00.003-05:00

Even though the temperature still felt like early February, Sunday was a good day. It felt like Easter, and despite the cold, I know that spring will soon be springing: the lilacs are showing signs of budding, the sun has at last been shining, and we even finally took the Christmas bulbs off of the wreath which has been languishing on the floor of the back porch since the end of January!

I am ready to get outside, get the kids outside, put on my flip flops, and stick my hands in the dirt.

The morning started around 7:30 with an extremely abbreviated Sunday family snuggle in bed and then we were off to confirm that the Easter bunny had visited in the night. We'd left a carrot on the kitchen table which Harrison verified had been knawed down to a small stump, and then he struck out to find the baskets.

Griffin's was more or less in plain sight on one of the dining room chairs. He scored a couple of jelly beans, a new book, and a little white chocolate "rubber" duckie.

Harrison had some trouble finding his own basket. He searched high and low in our room, the kitchen, living room, Griffin's room, the dining room. Finally the basket was found in the bathtub (silly wabbit!). The haul: a new birdfeeder and birdseed, several garden seed packets, watercolors and brushes, jelly beans, malted eggs, and three molded chocolates (dinosaur, rabbit, and train).

For dinner, I set a pretty spring table with linens, flowers, Gram's china and glass pitcher with the painted bluebirds, and the Easter eggs which we colored on Saturday. Even though, with my parents, we were only six, I also put out some placecards which I had stamped with our respective initials the afternoon before. We always made placecards for holiday dinners at Gram's, so I'm starting this tradition for Harrison and Griffin. [I'll definitely be getting washable-ink stamp pads so that Harrison can better manage this task next time! Harrison was quite baffled by my use of initials, rather than full names, to signify place settings---"but these are not the letters in my name!!!"]

All in all, it was a lovely day! It's been a rough couple of weeks, but there's much comfort in tradition. I am so appreciative of my Gram's desire to make magic for us, so I hope we were successful in making this weekend a little bit magical for Harrison as well.

Mourning

2008-03-24T07:22:00.003-05:00

Harrison has had an interesting reaction to my Gram passing away. The day she died, I told him I was very sad, and he hugged me and said in my ear, "I'm sorry, Great Grandma died, Mommy" which was incredibly comforting and sweet.

He hasn't been upset about it--he only knew her from visits to the nursing home, where she'd been since he was born--but he's been empathetic, and it has definitely been on his mind, especially since the funeral. At various points he's said: "Maybe she will come back soon." and "When I was a little boy [one of his favorite ways to start a sentence], I died too, but I came back." [Maybe he's a reincarnated Hindu?}

Last night in his nightly rundown of what he planned to dream about, he told Doug, "I'm going to dream about Great Grandma dying."

I guess he's mourning in his own way...

Watching 'My Neighbor Totoro'

2008-03-17T19:09:00.003-05:00

Happy 1!

2008-03-17T19:07:00.003-05:00

Eulogy for Gram...

2008-03-17T08:54:00.001-05:00

...from Us.

"We want to talk a little about memory today. We want to talk about memory because, as most of you know, in the last few years of her life, our Grandmother lost much of her memory to Alzheimer's. Much of the time, she could not remember us, her beloved family and friends. On very bad days she could not remember even herself. It seems fitting, then, to honor her memory with remembrance and recollection.

You are a girl. There is the fresh sweet taste of still-warm milk on the farm; the family of skunks befriended one summer and visited every day in the fields; being scolded by your mother, our great grandma Gladys, for mussing the dress and Mary Janes you are forced to wear, even though you are a tomboy and invariably prefer trousers. The dresses never stop you from climbing every tree. You skin your knees. The patent leather shoes lie in a heap in the mud. You love your daddy, Freeman Ordway, and he adores you above all else.

There are near death experiences as a child, later retold with humorous sensationalism to wide-eyed grandchildren: a lightening strike on the house, with your hand just a few inches away from the post of a cast-iron bed, sheets scorched; an amusement park accident with a collapsed chair swing, returning the next day to find eyeglasses crunched next to a giant, steel support beam.

Later, as a teenager, you are carousing with Curly, with Vince, and your "gang" of friends, everyone smoking and drinking, all packed to overflowing in your cars and always going to country dances the next town or county over.

There is Curly, our grandpa, Clarence Richard Hooper, the love of your life. You go all over New York, Pennsylvania, and even Canada, to explore your love of music, especially organs and organ music. There are three children, first Douglas, then Donald, our father, and finally a girl—Martha. There are swimming trips and picnics. Silverware sewn to napkins with fine silver thread as an April Fool's prank. Piano lessons, Girl Scouts, county fairs, train exhibits, and home-sewn costumes. Vegetable gardens, perennials, annuals, iris beds, saplings, and raspberry canes. A pet bunny carried in your apron pocket. Beloved dogs Lady, Mugsy, Joey, Nicky, Mokey, Macduff, and Duffy. Cats too numerous to name. You are always scanning the skies—in the day for birds and at night for constellations, shooting stars, meteor showers, and eclipses. Your children grow. There are weddings and divorces. Grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Accounting class, pottery class, basket-weaving class. Lifetime subscriptions to Smithsonian, Nature, National Geographic, and Scientific American. Countless books and more books.

Later, when Curly retires, you come home every day at your lunch hour, from your job at the gas company, to make him lunch. This works out very well for Grandpa, since you are off from 12 to 1, Price is Right ends at noon, and Days of Our Lives starts at 1, so he has an hour free in his afternoon schedule. You have lunch together every single day. Many years later, after Curly's death, you play for me and my husband a record of organ music and recollect emotionally how this particular organist's hands remind you so much of Grandpa's when he played. It is the only time I have ever seen you cry, remembering your husband's hands and how they danced over the keys.

Then there are our own memories of you, like the flickering 5-4-3-2-1 countdown before an old black and white movie: the smell of fresh molasses cookies and the POP! of the cookie jar seal, or of fabric softener sheets, tucked into musty old volumes of Encyclopedia Brittanica.

There are old margarine containers, holding red coins from Michigan Kitty, orphaned boardgame pieces, or leftover cinnamon apples after Thanksgiving. There is a freezer full of pinkish applesauce in square Tupperware, TV dinners, orange push pops. Dead birds in plastic bags you rescued from the driveway or from the radiator grills of parked cars, and froze so you could examine them later.
There's the sweet treat of Lifesavers tucked neatly into the corner of the electric organ, a hideaway for mixed fruit, wintergreen, butterscotch. The measure of a perfect dollop of pear and fig filling in the center of a cookie. Angel food cake upside down, waiting to cool, ready to cover with sugared strawberries, handpicked raspberries, or to eat plain, with our fingers, swinging together on the back porch.

There is the taste of Dr. Pepper, which we bought with extra quarters you brought just for me, and sipped from fat glass bottles in the laundromat, waiting for the wash to dry, swinging my feet in the plastic chairs when my legs were too short for my feet to touch the ground.

There’s the smell of paper and ink, a dull brass key held tight in my hand, sweaty with responsibility as I move with purpose toward your Fillmore post office box, Number 51.

We traipse through Southern Tier cemeteries to find graves of long lost relations, Val and I gathering the discarded plastic flowers for our own morbid collection; we stand in the big farm kitchen, learning how to spoon flour into a measuring cup and scrape the excess with the flat back side of a knife. There are candy hunts on Easter morning with personalized riddles leading the way to each sugary treat. We are hunching over the dining room table over baking and science and sewing projects. We are reading Mary Jemison's autobiography together and then leaving flowers at her grave in Letchworth Park.

There’s me, leaning on the doorframe of your bedroom downstairs, watching as you ready yourself for a grocery trip "downtown." First, Listerine, then a thorough brush through your long, grey locks, carefully separating it into an even part, then braided and pinned neatly to your head until the braids meet, then cross, in the middle, ends tucked in. All this held in place with the familiar spray of White Rain Extra Hold. A quick flash of a toothy smile into the mirror to double-check. A tug of the shirt to straighten it out, wisping away any stray animal hairs. Perfection.

I am eight, and it is summertime and we are with you during summer vacation, like every summer before. It’s humid and sticky out during the days, but at night the air is biting and cool. You set up lawn chairs in the back yard and tuck us in up to our chins while we watch for shooting stars. For each one we see, you ask us to say a wish out loud. I thank the stars for you. Before bed time, you bring us mason jars to collect lightening bugs, and we marvel at them glowing inside the jars and in suspension above the irises. Before we sleep, we open the lids and release them into the night air. We whisper, “Goodbye. And thank you.”

You are calling to the chickadees, listening to the quiet whirr of hummingbirds in flight. You reply to each piercing squawk of the nearby cardinal or jay. You laugh when I shave my fingernail into the batch of butter pickles we are making. This summer, there's a litter of bunnies borrowed from a farmer friend, on loan just for us.

Finally, here I am, tucked into bed in my own father's childhood room, the room where I was brought first as an infant, just back from the hospital. It's a few years later, I am bundled under high quilts with stories—House at Pooh Corner. Later again in the bed, as a teenager, exhausted from a night of late talking or rummy. Finally, in the end, as a woman, with my husband beside me. You kiss us both, tuck us in, like children, then go singing down the stairs and into the night.

Thank you, Gram. Thank you for your memory. "

"What books are they reading?"

2008-02-28T08:31:00.005-05:00

Thanks for asking, Terra. I'd meant to list them when I did my last post, but got lazy.

Here's the list, in top-down order of the stack.

1. Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems. [Terra, this is a must-read for Brooklynites, for sure. A great combo of B&W photography from your neighborhood and great cartoon illustrations. His Pigeon series is a favorite also.]
2. Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina [Classic. I loved this book as a kid, and Doug bought it for me for Christmas 2003 when I was pregnant with Harrison.]
3. Dinosaur Roar by P & H Stickland [One of many gifted from Aunt Lori. This was the book that kicked off the Dinosaur Craze of 2007. It's worn out and has been through numerous repairs.]
4. 12 Ways to Get to 11 by Eve Merriam [Harrison's favorite counting book has more challenging vocabulary and interesting illustrations than the run-of-the mill fare. Santa brought this Christmas 2006 and it's still a popular selection.]
5. Tumble Bumble by Felicia Bond (Another counting book. Very charming and fun to read in the morning in bed.]
6. Snowman Storybook by Raymond Briggs [A narrated and abridged version of the classic, textless version. He loves both, and so do we.]
7. Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel [If I had to recommend a single tome from this stack, this would be it. I had this read and later read it to myself endlessly as a kid, and it never loses its charm. Perfection!]

Happy Reading!

Camping Out in the Dining Room

2008-02-26T20:53:00.002-05:00

Young Frankenstein's Monster

2008-02-21T23:18:00.003-05:00

Projects

2008-02-21T22:59:00.003-05:00

Montessori sewing work:

Preparing for a collage:

Thank you, George Washington

2008-02-20T12:13:00.002-05:00

Just wrapped up a very nice four day weekend.

Long weekends with the kids always make me simultaneously miss them insanely when I get back to work and also grateful to be a working mother because seriously?---I would go insane.

I guess in the end, I'm insane either way.

We spent most of the weekend lazing about, but we did make two trips to Buffalo: Sunday en masse for Inga's Karlina's christening, and Monday night, just Doug and I, to see Super Furry Animals. The show kicked ass, and contrary to expectation, we were mostly able to understand Gruff Rhys through his awesome Welsh accent. Mostly. [We had feared he'd say something like, "Now everybody say, "Hey! Ho!" and the crowd would just stand there confused.]

Anyway, other than those two excursions, the only other things of note were some Harrison happenings. First, he informed us that he was naming one of his teddy bears Daryl. Uh. Okay, and hahahhahahahha! Second, he came out of Griffin's room with the thermometer in his mouth. Apparently, 3 year olds can't read the word "Rectal" which you've helpfully written in black permanent marker on the handle. Third, I convinced him to try a bite of creamed pea and tarragon soup that I made on Monday, which he did. After which he immediately, gagged, choked it back down, then proclaimed, "It's GOOD!"

Man, these are the things that keep me going through the work day.

Recipe

2008-02-15T08:19:00.003-05:00

1 game of Scrabble* +
1 bottle of New York Pinot Noir +
2 dishes of Bailey's Haagen-Dasz topped with crumbled Milano cookies +
2 sleeping boys
=
The perfect Valentine's Day evening

(*even though I lost at Scrabble. I argued that I should get style points for the word "egret," but Doug refused)

Photobooth Triptych

2008-02-12T20:27:00.000-05:00

Top 5 Things That Endear Griffin to Me This Week

2008-02-12T20:20:00.000-05:00

1. First steps!

2. That he says "Sssssss!" when he plays with Harrison's rubber snake.

3. That he talks back and yells "AAAAAAHHHHHH!" at any noisy appliances we take out (like the food processor or vacuum cleaner).

4. That he is reliably sleeping an 8 hour stretch most nights.

5. That he just cannot wait to nurse the second I get in the door from work, even if he just ate a whole banana and a cup of formula 15 minutes ago.

"Take My Picture!"

2008-02-03T20:51:00.000-05:00

Cheese

2008-02-01T08:34:00.000-05:00

The moment I have dreaded ever since I first became pregnant with Harrison has arrived: the first birthday invitation to a party at Chuck E. Cheese. I have already told Doug in no uncertain terms that there is no amount of money, baked goods, chocolate, sexual favors, cocktails, or drugs to get me to step foot even on their parking lot, so if Doug wants him to go, it's all him.

[As a side note, my sister Valerie actually worked at Chuck E. Cheese when she was in high school, manning the prize counter. I'm guessing she's still living on the good karma she stocked up from that.]

[Sing Theme From 'Jaws' Here]

2008-01-30T08:30:00.000-05:00

Harrison's been obsessed with sharks lately.

It all started with a science book dedicated to sharks that we've been reading every night at bedtime for the past couple of weeks. We've learned a lot!

Harrison's favorite is the cookiecutter shark. If you read the wiki entry, you'll see that it gets its name from "its habit of removing small circular chunks of flesh" from other sea creatures. Harrison finds this gruesome fact fascinating.

(Me, I'm partial to the beauty-challenged goblin shark. )

Yesterday, Doug came home with a library haul of shark books and a National Geographic shark video, which we sat down to watch after bathtime. YIKES. The opening segment was about the myth that sharks are vicious predators of man and contained some scenes from Jaws (read: helpless swimmers being viciously attacked). The video dispelled the myth by showing, of course, that man was the predator, and sharks the victims (read: footage of sharks being harpooned and caught and clubbed on fishing vessels).

Needless to say, I want to swim in the lake this summer, so we told Harrison that the video was broken, popped in Charlotte's Web, and that was that.

Griffin Plays With Claude

2008-01-26T23:49:00.000-05:00

Lunch

2008-01-26T23:39:00.000-05:00

1. Peas

2. Wheat bread

3. Muenster

4. Clementine

YUM!

At Least He Tried to Clean It

2008-01-26T23:33:00.000-05:00

S: What happened to the shirt you were wearing this morning when you went to school?

H: Miss Legenhausen said I had to change it.

S: Did you get water on it?

H: Yes.

S: What happened?

H: I sneezed, and then I wiped my nose on my sleeve like this [demonstrates], then there were boogers on my sleeve, so I washed my shirt in the sink, and then my shirt was wet, so Miss Legenhausen said I had to change it.

S: Nice.

Shorn

2008-01-17T23:33:00.000-05:00

Sunday Morning

2008-01-17T23:31:00.000-05:00

Jump!

2008-01-17T23:30:00.001-05:00

Harrison's Favorite Songs

2008-01-17T22:52:00.000-05:00

Harrison's cultivating quite the ear for good adult music, with a little help from us. Here are some of his favorites songs and where to find them:

1. "Rocketship" & "Tacoland"/The Dead Milkmen/Bucky Fellini

2. "Hemisdalegate Like a Promethean Curse" & "Bunny Ain't No Kind of Rider"/Of Montreal/Hissing Fauna

3."Don't Call me Whitney, Bobby" & "Rough Gem"/Islands/Return to the Sea

4."Young Folks"/Peter Bjorn and John/Writer's Block

5. "Bad Weekend"/Art Brut/Bang Bang Rock and Roll

6. "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song"/The Flaming Lips/At War With the Mystics

7. "Ob-la-di Ob-la-da," 'Hello Goodbye," "She Loves You (Yeah Yeah Yeah)," "I Am the Walrus," & "Strawberry Fields"/The Beatles (duh)

Montessori Baby

2008-01-17T11:31:00.000-05:00

We've decided to apply for Griffin to attend the same Montessori school that Harrison attends. They have a Toddler Community that starts at 18 months, which, conveniently, is exactly how old Griffin will be in September.

We have an interview tomorrow and have been told to bring Griffin. We're not exactly sure why.

Doug has surmised that they may ask the following questions:

1. "As a baby, what are your biggest strengths?"
2." Weaknesses?"
3. "What is your system for keeping track of matters requiring your attention?"
4. "Please tell us about a situation in your past when you had a difference of opinion or working style with one of your classmates. How did you handle it?"
5. "Where do you see yourself in 5 minutes? Ten minutes?"

"Dada" and "kitty" are the only words he can say, so I'm not sure if this format is going to work for him.

And? And? We're going to make him wear a business suit! Or maybe an Eton suit with short pants!

Not Exactly Christmas Card Material

2008-01-13T20:54:00.000-05:00

This is what happened when Ashley and I attempted to get Emma and Harrison to hold their younger siblings in front of the tree for a nice holiday photo before Christmas.

Sweet Dreams

2008-01-07T13:28:00.000-05:00

Harrison asks the following questions every night after we tuck him in and while we are exiting his room:

1. When's morning?
and
2. What can I dream about tonight?

We have stock answers to the last one: Mommy, Daddy, trains, our kitties Boog and Claude, etc. etc.

Last night, I said, "You can dream about your family." To which he responded, "No, not that. I love candy. I'm going to dream about Pez!"

[This after Doug bought him a Santa Pez dispenser from a Xmas Clearance sale.]

This morning he confirmed that he had indeed dreamed about Pez. Must have been exciting.

Christmas 2007

2008-01-04T08:39:00.000-05:00

Just kidding! I haven't gotten a Christmas 2007 recap or photos organized yet. In the meantime, two images of slumbering children.

Harrison--crashed out in front of the boob tube.

Griffin- crashed out mid-dinner.

The Next Weird Al?

2007-12-19T10:27:00.000-05:00

Eeleeze Navi Don = Feliz Navidad
Suzie Snowflag = Suzie Snowflake

Ambivalent at the Tree Farm

2007-12-14T22:38:00.001-05:00