Saturday Art Projects

A couple months ago Ronan and I started doing Saturday afternoon art projects for a little baby-free hang out time.  In recent weeks it has faltered but here are some of the projects we tried.

Make your own (off brand) shrinky dinks!  

Candle making

Mould candles and sand candles

Paper dragons

Ice globe

Flex tangles

Mosaic box

And a medal for dad

Ro started making scarves on a peg loom

One of his scarves

March-mid April 2016

This hoodie has ears too!

Maybe it's a vole suit!  

Photos from March are here
March was a busy month!  

Happenings
I got Tenure!
J&B visit
Basement got finished (and cubbies, and painting)
Screening of An Intimate Dance
C&A visit
Easter egg hunt
David turned 40
Playdates and birthdays
JP visited
Endless basement projects

Orion's 9th/10th month
crawling started and became expert
then cruising
then pulling to standing
then using stacked chairs as a walker
then using a real walker!
more active means a harder time falling asleep (must stand up!)

Exhausting, exhausted.  But it has many moments.

February (and Jan/Feb photos)

Here are pictures from January/Feburary! 

O is growing up so much mentally and physically.  At 9 months he's 30.5" and 22.2 lbs (99th and 87th %iles).  He imitates clapping, hands things to you, grabs on, holds blankets over his face to play peek-a-boo, makes smacking noises with his tongue, and is just generally adorable. He has three teeth, and LOVES food, especially any finger foods.  He eats almost anything at this age, from eggplant moussaka to chicken tikka masala.  He liked baked pears so much he dove down to lick his high chair tray afterwards.  He is trying really hard to crawl and I'll arbitrarily say that his first real crawling was this morning (March 8).

Ronan's writing and drawing have changed so much this year and his creativity shines through.  We continue to do art projects every Saturday but he spends almost every morning before we are awake at his newly expanded art table making stickers, yarn knots, or origami.

Ro loom knit scarves for himself and O

O with scarf in front of art table

Ronan's school does a lot of practice with phonetic "sound spelling."  This just came home with him yesterday, after their celebration of the 100th day in kindergarten.

100 dollars

100 lollipops

100 barbarians in my house!!

play soccer

Ro made this for us
because we love coffee!

Ro Quotes:
R: What does prim mean?
A: [defines, and enacts being prim]
D: Instead of acting more like this...
R: Hey, I thought dad was supposed to be the polite one!

R: Mom what does thankful mean?
A: [defines]
R: Oh, so I’m thankful that you set up a play date for me and Lyra 

A: What do you want to do?
R: I think I'll just be running on the treadmill.  [!!]
A: Actually the treadmill doesn't work. It broke earlier today.  
R: What could be wrong with it.?
A: It may be a problem with the belt.  Dads going to try opening it up to see if he can fix it though.
R: Oh I'd just hire someone to do that.  Treadmills are really complicated.

[discussing current presidential candidates]
R: If MLK were still alive I think he would make a good president
(later that evening): Maybe we should have a banana puff for president 

From Ro's teacher L:
We were having Morning Meeting and talking about our featured letters this week (K and L).  Ronan raised his hand.
L: Ronan, do you have a comment or question?
R: Well, yes, it's a question!
L: What is it?
R: Well, I was just wanting to ask . . . did you dye your hair mahogany?
L: I did not! Why do you ask?
R: It's just looking extra mahogany today!

January 2016: Orion's 7th month

Looking back on month 7 of Orion's life here is funny because that is the age Ronan was when we moved to Northampton and started this blog.  Just look at this post!  And it keeps going (for years) from there!  I was terrible at keeping a baby book for Ronan (it lasted a few pages max), but now I know Ro got his first tooth in month 6, his second in month 7, and that this is the age at which he started his classic Wallace and Grommit style "cheese" maneuver.  When I see Ro's 7 month old face I remember so vividly, and yet it all feels like a lifetime ago.  His lifetime, to be precise!

I couldn't resist putting together a few pictures from the same age.  Here are Ro and Orion at 6 months, and at the very bottom are shots in the very same chair (in the very same clothes) on the occasion of being 7 months.  Ronan's shot is in CA, just before we departed for this coast!

I can't resist a parallel to that old entry, and so here is a short letter to you, Orion (warning, sappy!)

Dear Orion,

In your seventh month of life you continue to show us who you are, and I am smitten.  It really does make up for the almost unbelievably frequent night wakings.  When you wake from a good nap, you are joyful, and the cooing and smiling is entertainment for me for a good while.  You flash wonderful grins at familiar people, and bashful ones at strangers (grin and duck!). You sway your head side to side like Stevie Wonder, then head butt me when I least expect it.

You got your first two (bottom) teeth this month over two or three particularly rough nights, and they are so sharp I get why it's hard.  You mastered rolling, and now dive forwards and lunge for things, especially iPhones.  You are not quite sure what they are good for, but clearly the grownups want them.  We started signing with you this month, and I get the sense that you recognize some spoken words.  I also started reading to you at bedtime, and Moo Baa LaLaLa (one of Ronan's early favorites) is a huge hit with you.  You laugh so hard at the animal sounds you spit your binkie out.  

I'm gradually working on getting you to fall asleep with less and less intervention so you can hopefully fall back to sleep when you wake between feedings.  You're getting better at that, but you still want to nurse every 2h.  I'm glad to be able to do it, though.  And food!  My goodness.  The moment you are set in your high chair you start hooting.  We have to start feeding you IMMEDIATELY, or at least put a rice puff in your mouth or a spoon in your hand.  You eat enthusiastically (everything we've tried), but sometimes it comes up just like the milk does.

This age is rough on parents, and I'm doing my best to juggle work, life maintenance, parenting you, parenting Ronan, and occasionally sleeping.  While I can't say I'm doing any of it nearly as much as I feel like I need to, I am really enjoying being in these moments with you.  I know how brief and relatively simple they are compared to the (also wonderful and challenging) days to come, and I adore you.

Love,

Mom

------

I haven't gone through the pictures for the month, but another day!

November-December 2015

Whoa, all 4 faces in one photo!

So much more is happening than I have time to write about.  Here are a ton of pictures though (even more than usual):
Photos of November/December

Brief Happenings:
We enjoyed the end of a beautiful fall with great weather
Gandalf bonded with Orion
Ronan (and Papa) turned 6 and up
We had our first date night with 0 kids and 1 concert (Gillian Welch/Dave Rawlings)
I also advanced a year (and a decade)
We visited family at the lake house in VA for thanksgiving (and met new cousin C)
We visited family and friends in CA over Christmas/New Year
Ronan beat the pants off all of us at Asphalt 8, talked with helium, and started drawing octopi

Ronan!
Ronan has discovered humor, and is slowly amassing a collection of knock-knock jokes, puns, and an impressive array of homonyms (technically homophones).  One is expected to laugh at said jokes repeatedly, but he authentically cracks me up in other ways, including how he ceremoniously fluffs his pillow each night before bed (which, incidentally, he didn't appreciate me thinking was amusing).  

Ronan has become enthralled with watching his dad play Minecraft (and directing him), and he's crazy good at Asphalt 8, which he may have played rather a lot of on vacation.  We are definitely going to be navigating screen-time issues in the coming decade.  In the real world, Ronan has taken a liking to playing soccer in after-school, and is also (much to my delight) coming home singing all kinds of songs this year.  He has taught most of them to me, and we've sung quite a few as rounds now.  He recently enjoyed figuring out how to harmonize with me as we sing.  I think R is quite musical, and he's also surprisingly good at drumming.  One of these days I'll make a proper music post with some of the audio clips I've made (but there isn't an easy way to upload them here).

Orion!
Orion started sitting on his own (just before 6 months), he took his first cross-country flights and we all survived, and he finally figured out how to roll over (just before 7 months).  He is experimenting with sounds, especially dadadadadada (and once even mamamamama).  

I still haven't slept more than 2 hours straight in I don't know how long (and keep getting sick).  I'm pretty sure I still know my name and the capital of Surinam, but that's about it.  Parenting (and nursing) a hungry baby is exhausting.  Perhaps to make up for it, Orion is getting ever more delightful and fun to be around.  He is a loud baby!  Mostly happy, and sometimes shrieky.  We are just starting to use sign language for a few things again.

Orion has a special relationship with our cat Gandalf, who adopted him after he lost his best cat friend.  Gandalf will let Orion pull his tail and ears, smack him, and suck on him -- purring all the while.  We joke that Orion is going to first think the cat's name is "gentle". When O outgrew his bassinet we set up a mini-crib as a sidecar to our bed, and Gandalf is often to be found there (although less now that he has his own heated bed).  

Gandalf loves Orion (and everyone)

Tastes and feels good!

O and Gandalf!  (click to enlarge)

Here is a video compilation of Orion's first 6 months!  (My first ever attempt at video editing).  The password is the kids' last name.

Quotes:

R: Your sweater is so silky, mom.  I'm appreciating it with my hands.

Story: I don't have many quotes recorded this month, but Ronan is fond of telling the following story.  The grossest thing he knows about (that has actually happened) is this:  

Orion spits up a lot--although less so now--and at one point he spit up with his fist in his mouth.  His babysitter Amanda was holding him at the time, and before she could blink, Orion took his spit-uppy fist out of his mouth and put it straight into her mouth.  Gross!

Parent quotes:

D: I know what you meant to mean

A: Your attention span for otters is not as long as mine

[someone at NYE]: Humans are excellent sources of randomness.  You just have to process them correctly 

Family photo in our native state of confusion

And now we are six!

When I was One,

I had just begun.

When I was Two,

I was nearly new

When I was Three,

I was hardly Me

When I was Four,

I was not much more

When I was Five

I was just alive

But now I am Six, I'm as clever as clever

So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever
-A. A. Milne

Fall (October!) 2015

Our yard this Fall

Sooo many photos (Sept/Oct)

It was a gorgeous fall—the best since we've moved here.  October had beautiful leaves, a ridiculous share of 70 degree sunny days, and some nice crisp clear ones too.  It's hard to catch our breath with everything going on, but we managed to get out some.  We took a wagon ride, bowled for butternut squashes, made a batch of yummy applesauce, and topped off the month by launching produce at the FarmFest's veggie slingshot. 

Farm Fest! 

Halloween was a hit this year, as Ronan finally enjoys approaching strangers'  houses and yelling trick-or-treat.  We've never gone trick-or-treating in the same neighborhood twice.  At age two, I hauled Ro around the nearby cohousing community on a wagon, at three we went in his buddy E's old neighborhood, at four we were in California, and at five we made the rounds in E's new neighborhood! 

The dread knight-king Nanor and his buddy Harry Potter
(Thanks to Jenny for the costume!)

Red lobster
(Thanks to Lolo for the costume)

The wee one in month 4:

Blue = baby sleep!

Orion is growing up, and growing.  That means not so much sleep at night for me (much less than the first time), but at least he's now got a regular bedtime.  Naps aren't regular yet, but when they are, I'll know, because we are sort of compulsive data collectors around here.  From graphs like this one I also learned that he sleeps a lot more when our sitter/nanny is with him (M-Th until early afternoon) than when I am!

This month Orion found his toes, followed shortly thereafter by the discovery that they could be stuffed in his mouth.  The guidelines on food and babies are changing, so he also sampled a few things actually intended for consumption.  He mostly decorated himself and surroundings, but managed to down a bit of avocado, banana, carrot soup, apple sauce, hummus, and whatever else was at hand. He seems to especially enjoy gnawing on dill pickle slices at restaurants.  He is intent on locking away dribbles in his chin folds, so we have to do extra tummy time just to keep him clean.

O has had a blocked tear duct in his right eye since birth, and frequent eye issues, so I am happy to say that it finally resolved this month.  Apparently it often does, but if it hasn't done so by 9 months it typically leads to surgery.

He is delightful when he has slept and eaten.  He reliably laughs when airplaned overhead, raspberried on the tummy, or gently squeezed around the ribs.  He is also a fan of weird noises.  He will engage in "conversation" of spitty bubbly sounds with you at some length.  He also grunts the moment he is left to his own devices, reminding me that the currency of infants (beyond food) is attention.  If the video below works, you can hear some of his noises.

The not so wee one:
Kindergarten continues to be an amazing growth period for Ro.  One day he told me that now that they had finished their studies of caterpillars, they were studying something even more important -- they were studying kindness.  There is an ugly pillar in the center of the classroom, and the teachers use it to one by one talk about the values that hold up the classroom community (first putting up traced hands from the kids with examples of one value, then another).  After a month of kindness came patience.*  The Dalai Lama (!) was slated to visit their school in October in part because of their unusual values curriculum.  His visit was canceled for health reasons, but they still held a special peace assembly (and Daniel Goleman visited instead).

*It's a little funny to see the lack of transfer from one context to another, though.  After telling me about patience he was supremely impatient, and he gave me a whole talk about kindness before being a dictator at dinner one night.  :)

I've heard that kindergarten is the year of the greatest transformation in kids in school, and I can see it.  I'm glad that he is also having a great time.  He is even lobbying to be allowed to do the extended day program after regular after-school.  From the parent-teacher conference today, it is clear that Ronan's teachers really know him: delightful, careful, articulate, thoughtful, a bit of a perfectionist, and also spacey!

Ro has been singing up a storm -- learning tons of new songs at school and sharing them at home. This makes me happy!  I so fondly remember singing in camp at his age and he is even learning a few of the same songs.  The others he teaches to me and then we get to try out harmonies and rounds. Apparently he got to define harmony for his class the other day, saying that it was when you sing a thing that is different from someone else, but that when sung together makes everything even more beautiful.  I couldn't agree more!

Ronan has also become a fiend for playing/watching Minecraft with his dad, he makes special laminated stickers for us and friends regularly, and he reads Bedtime Math (1 or 2) every night in the bathroom. In our house it should be Bathroom Math. 

General happenings:
We bought a new car!  It's the first brand new car we've ever bought.  I have feature shock (and Ronan is in heaven), but it also makes me feel a little old.  This is a replacement for our trusty Subaru (i.e the car that hauls stuff), but gone are the days when the most important feature was ability to sleep two in the car on road trips.  With 40 coming up, maybe we should have gotten a sports car :)  I'd take a new version of the old Honda Insight 2-seater in lime green.  David would choose a Tesla Model S, and Ronan would like the BMW i8.  Maybe I'd choose an i3.  Ronan has taught me a lot about cars (which I never thought about previously) but we all look forward to some day getting an electric one.  For now, our new Honda seems very fancy.

Farewell "Space Whale"

Hello "Jupiter"
Will the neighborhood kids love you as much?

Quotes:
R: Do you know the best kind of kindness?  The best kindness is the kind you show not just in your words, but also in your eyes, and in your voice, and in your whole body.

R [to teacher]: Did you know that I am actually descended from a king? 

[upon arriving home]
R: Mom, will you keep me company in the car?
A: Sure!  [Grabs Ro and hugs him]
R: Not that kind of company!