Ethan Ruth Harper Jack

In Case You Were Wondering, The Kids are Continuing to Grow Up

2010-11-19T10:57:00.000-08:00

Jack Jack is rarely called that these days. He's more of a Buster. He's a sweet boy and he just asked me, "Is far away I'm going to have my dentist appointment?" and today, when rubbing two hands together to spread the sanitizer after shopping: "I'm getting it in the between parts like Dr. Tani does." Mind you, his last doctor visit with Dr. Nagatani was over a year ago, and that is how he does it. On the way to the Clarks' the other night, while air drumming in the backseat, he asked, "Mama, what are bones made of?" His coloring is careful, and he frequently writes his name with the letters out of order, though when asked he will proudly exclaim, "J-A-C-K!" He draws irregular polygons with ink pens on scratch paper and after he's made a shape that surprises even himself, he announces decidedly what it is. If he's not the center of attention, like right now as I type these words, he throws an assertive fit and climbs in between me and the keyboard, clicking an ink pen annoyingly until you just can't ignore him anymore. He's very sure of himself and what is rightfully his, namely Mama's everything. He's inherited H's penchant for drama and waves of emotion that overcome rationality. But he's handsome, and he spontaneously declares, "I love you" as frequently as he derides whatever I've just asked of him. Even in a mad fit, a parent's sideways glance is enough to crack him up and break the tension. If there's a word to sum up his current phase, it's "disagreeable"-- there's definitely a little separation going on right now. I've started to resort to a lot of reverse psychology since, if I want him to do X, he will no doubt think Y is a better idea. Jack is telling me, "I is for ice cube and I is for idobe." He makes up a lot of words. 'Sorkin' is another one. He is weaseling his arm underneath mine right now and claiming that was his spot all along. See what I mean? Disagreeable. But last night, at 3:30 in the morning when E and I heard him cry out in his sleep, he came into our bed after his bad dream and wanted to "hold a ninny." His warm body felt so small. His hugs are still like his baby cuddles, on the collarbone just-so, so that your cheek can lean over on his ear and you feel like one being. Jack comes home from school wired from being so good and quiet all day. On those evenings, he spins around and talks too loudly, and rocks out to music, and runs through the house. There's nothing that beats his greeting when he sees I am there to take him home from school. His "Mama!", his run with outstretched arms, his reassured smile.

Harper is the kindergartener who cares. She cares, deeply, about her school work, her friends, her brother, learning piano, her outfits, her teachers... She's entered a mellower stage at the same time that Buster has begun to be more difficult, and we are thankful that the two haven't yet coordinated their tougher periods. She too-easily gives in to Jack when he's obstinate about something the rest of us can see is inconsequential or just-to-be-difficult. Most of the time, when he wants what she has, she gives in to appease his mood. All the while, she describes Jack as "a good boy, a perfect brother." Harper reads Discover Magazine and tells me that "Black holes spin and suck. There is one black hole that is bigger than Mars. Nothing is stronger than the suck of a black hole." She enjoys quiet nap skips, reading, dressing and redressing her Polly Pockets, or doing her Singapore math pages, which she tears through like she's being chased. She has her first admirer at school, Philip Papanikolas, who is quite handsome and poised like the Greek of his name. Apparently it was the day of the preschool Halloween play that Philip's adoration began-- she was striking in her bat costume. And she really beamed onstage. They wrote a book together, Sunny Days, about the unrequited nature of their affection. In the middle was a picture Philip drew, outlining what he hoped of Harper: where the boy's dialogue bubble read, "I love you," the girl's read, "I love you back." It ended with "they missed and missed and misssssssssed." Harper Darper does not know that her parents are lobbying for her education right now, in talks with teachers and principals and assistant superintendents, looking for short-term and long-term solutions. She does not know that she is the inspiration for a whole new thing-- a school for her and for kids kinda like her. Harper has mastered pumping herself on the swings in the last month or so, and she loves describing what her feet are reaching (Mama's head, the roofline) as she glides back and forth. Once, when I arrived to pick her up from school one afternoon, I found her swinging with Philip holding court beside her at the leg of the swingset. The teacher told me that earlier in the recess, she'd been teaching him the ballet positions and he had attempted each. She's a captivating and compelling girl, that Harper.

Just a Moment Before Rushing Out to Storytime

2010-06-23T09:28:00.000-07:00

I came out of my bathroom dressed and ready to go, and I found the kids lying on the piano bench like this. I told them to hold that thought while I grabbed the camera, and then I snapped this.

Bird grew weary of my snapping off photos, and she sat up. Then Buster got the idea to tickle her toes.

Back and Forth

2010-06-18T14:59:00.000-07:00

I fired up the laptop beside the computer today during J's nap/H's quiet time. Bird wanted to check her email. She logged herself in, and wanted to write to me. As she worked on it, I wrote to her. Here's what it said:

I am writing you this message while you type on the laptop beside me. I think it's cute how you are working so hard to send me a nice message. I love how cute you are during your naptime/ quiet time. You are nice to stay quiet while Jackie sleeps. Do you enjoy having that quiet time during the afternoon? I think it is nice to be in the calm, quiet house every day at this time.

I had a great time with you and your friends this morning. Mama had a playdate with my buddies too because I like your friends' Mamas! Stephanie and Kathy are fun to talk with. What do you like about your friends? I enjoy sharing my thoughts with my friends and listening to what they are thinking as well.

Tonight is Shabbat Shalom. I always enjoy that time, too. I wonder what yummy thing Grandma is making for us. She is nice to make us good food every week, huh? We should remember to thank her tonight.

Hope you are having fun typing me a message. I had fun writing this message to you, sweetheart.
You are a wonderful girl and I am so lucky that I get to be your Mommy.
XO,
Mom

And here's what she wrote me:

hello mom i love you sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much love harper

Mid February through Today: A Mostly Photo Update

2010-06-11T15:24:00.001-07:00

Here are the kids a couple weeks ago, standing by their message for the AmGen riders: Ride Fast!

But thinking back to February when we last posted, it's clear we've had an eventful few months! This is my attempt to catch up a bit with a ton of photos, since that's probably the best way to document such a span of time... plus, these kids are easy on the eyes.

We had a fun trip to Ponderosa with the Ertls, Tootles, and Kroegers and enjoyed sledding, snowball tossing, fort-making, snowman constructing, snow tunnel-crawling, gorgeous scenery, and the warmth of the family all together.

We played outside in the nice spring weather.
Buster slept on Mama. He still gets a short walk/singing at nap time, which I relish (despite the ambiguous look on my face in this photo).
Buster also slept with Dada. He enjoys a good cuddle, that one.
Birdie had long hair.And we cut it into a nice bob for the warmer weather.

We knew we were moving soon, so we enjoyed the expanse of the back yard in our last couple of weeks there.
Jack perfected his "mean nose."
Birdie has really begun phasing out naps in earnest. She only naps 1-2 times/week these days. She usually spends the time reading or coloring quietly. Here's a nap time where Buster (foreground) ended up in bed with me and Bird read the entire duration. I love that puckered lip look she gets when focused sometimes.
We walked to "Shabbat Shalom" at Grandma's every Friday evening. Here are the kids in their hip sunglasses!
Bird had her second trip to the dentist and freaked out this time. Arrrgh.
We packed up for the move!

During the moving craziness, the Ertls, Aunt Erica, and Otis took the kids to the Fresno Zoo for a day. It was a great way to keep them happily occupied while E and I worked on bringing loads of our worldly possessions over to the new place. It's amazing how much more efficient it was to move without kids under foot!
During the moving madness, H and I took a night off to attend GW's production of Beauty and the Beast with our friends, Sydnie and Stephanie Tyler. Here are the girls at the tea party before the show, enjoying the attention from Belle.

After all of our things were under the new roof, E and I went back to the old place to clean up. This happened to fall on our 8th wedding anniversary. Here we are, pausing to document the occasion.

And here's the first home-cooked meal at the new house.This is a photo of Harper's room before we primed and painted. It photographs better than real life... it HAD to go. We are almost done with the painting treatment in this room, so look for "after shots" in the near future.

And here's Dad putting our bed together.
During this week, we had family visiting from Illinois. E's sister Danielle and our nephew Elijah were in town for some play time. The kids really liked each other and played super sweetly.
Elijah was an Uncle Ethan fan as well.

Check this handsome boy!And here's the Mother's Day spread that E cooked up. Festive, fun, and delicioso!

Bird continues to love her preschool. In fact, she's begun to get a little upset/anxious about transitioning to Kindergarten in a couple months, in part because she is so attached to her very loving teachers and the system at Montessori. Here she is showing off a "work" that she's mastered. We had a photo session of my mom's grandkids to get a "framer" for her gift. A handsome group of super sweet, smart, loving, talented, thoughtful, polite, wonderful kids!

And here's what was happening backstage. Jack was pretending to shoot water from a "hose" like a fireman.
The oxford twins were giving superior looks.
And Otis was charming the crowd.The kids have enjoyed painting at the outside artist table. In this photo, Bird and I were just pulling through a flu. She hadn't eaten in a long time and I'd used the possibility of painting as a motivation to get her to eat a few bites, thanks to Katie Tienken's good motherly advice. It totally worked!
I just love the bottom lip thing Buster does when he's focused.

Here's another irresistible Jack photo.
I had just finished reading about Piaget's developmental stages, where he described the "preoperational child" (my kids) and their inability to think of others/ tendency to be egocentric. Then I watched Jack get some Cheerios from the pantry, pull out two cups and distribute some Cheerios into each-- one for him, and one for Harper. Piaget has nothing on this kid!H got a bike with training wheels and they both got new helmets. Jack is more into the scooter than his trike, but the girl's bike skills are taking off!

Erica and Otis came over to enjoy Ethan's FoodieFights meal. Check this boy's sweet wisps and kissable lips!Partaking.

Here's a random moment in the grown ups' bathroom. Bird checking herself out, posing in a crown.
Buster wearing Daddy's hat and shoes, looking clownish.
Since the move, Sadie's been on a hunting tear. She's brought home about 10-12 birds and 1 mouse. For a while there, we had a cat door in our slider and we kept finding bird claws and feathers and whatever-those-white-beady-things-are in the same spot (the kids' bathroom floor). After the sixth one, we took the cat door out and still haven't found the right solution for Sadie. She wakes us several times a night either wanting in or wanting out. Ideas?
Here's Jack enjoying Ice Age at the Clarks' one night, working away at his chocolate-dipped frozen banana. Have I mentioned his eczema is waaaaaaaaaaaay better? We are overjoyed to see him outgrow that discomfort!
And here's E building our storage shed on a Saturday morning. It's helped us declutter the backyard a bit.
The kids have parked their tent behind a red bud tree. They call it "the library."
One day after eating, bird rolled up her mat and said it looked like a brain. Such a brain!

And we've set up the "home classroom."
The room will double as a sewing space, so you can see my sewing box on the shelves on the left here.Bird's been mad at mom lately, which I've realized is connected with heading to school and I believe is rooted in her anxiety about leaving her teachers and going somewhere new. Here's the note she wrote me hurriedly when she was throwing her fit and I was giving her some space/time to work it out. Usually, she emerges with an apology note, but this time she came out with an angry missive.

So I came up with this idea to work on her vocabulary for understanding and expressing her emotions. These jars are coming in handy, and I think they are helping her a lot. We first used them to write thank you notes for her two teachers. She wrote four sentences for each teacher. The first one said, "I feel helpful. I feel creative. I feel friendly at school. Thank you, Teacher Irene. Love, Harper." The second one said, "I feel thoughtful. I feel imaginative. I feel loving at school. Thank you, Teacher Mary. Love, Harper."

We've had H write daily journals on a variety of topics. But it seems she likes to write about her feelings since I made the sticks for her. This one shows her drawing of a bed (with a bedspread trimmed in lace with blue in the center and starbursts, and an orange plaid pillow). Below it, she wrote, "I feel generous and loved. At nighttime I feel imaginative."

And this one says, "This is a magic garden. These are magic daisies. Do you like daisies?"
Here's H writing a book report on a Nancy Drew book.

Jack Jack is getting more comfortable holding a pen and starting to draw/write. Here's a sample from one of the first days of our "school" (a week ago).
And here's an example that shows how his control is improving (from yesterday).
And these are just photos from last night. Jack peering through the blinds while eating one of Grandma's cookies...

and Bird reading her favorite book at Grandma's house: Amazing Animals, A-Z.

And Jack's in the throws of potty-training. He's making huge strides! Here he is in his Cookie Monster undies.

Good times!

We're a Busy, Happy Bunch

2010-02-15T12:12:00.001-08:00

So we haven't really updated since October... sorry about that. We plan to get back on the ball and keep up with documenting our lives a little better. It's just that we're busy. I know everyone says that, and everyone means it, too. But we really don't have a few spare minutes here and there these days. (Perfect example: as I compose this post, I'm also composing a midterm paper.) I picked up where I'd left off on my Master's degree last fall, and I'm planning to be finished at the end of summer session, sometime around August. I've also picked up more hours teaching, and I'm doing a lot of at-home projects developing curriculum for school, too. And since Mama's busier, that means Dada's busier. Ethan's been the amazing, awesome, supportive husband that all of you can probably guess he is-- he's doing more laundry and more kid-care when he's home and I have to work, alongwith all the cooking. He is, in short, a wonder-husband. And the kids are both doing well, too. They are growing up so quickly; there's so much I should write down. Hopefully, as I put this post together, I'll pen a few key memories and lock them in this cyber-secure notebook so they'll never disintegrate in time's cruel clutch. That was dramatic, eh?

Here are a few photos and explanation of what we've been up to, and what we look like lately. :)

Buster on a Walk While Bird is in Ballet
There's just something about that sly grin, the crossed legs, the Elmo socks, and the Top Siders...

Buster in His Car Seat
Rockin' the Girly Glasses and the Bill Cosby Sweater

Birdie Asleep in Car Seat
the lashes, the lips, the sweet, sweet girl that she is

Bird at her First Dental Appointment
Getting the Thumbs Up

Then there was cousin Elijah's and Aunt Danielle's visit. We really like "that guy." He's growing up quickly and we thoroughly enjoy when we get a chance to see his cuteness and kiss him in person. Hugs to the Illinois contingency!

Look at those eyes-- can you tell they're related?

Getting Tickled!
Eating an M...or a W, I suppose

Babes in a Bath

Jolly Swinger

Ethan began brewing beer at home, a fun, social, and delicious hobby!

I'm just guessing here, but I'd say this is kegging the beer, after the ferment-- siphoning it

off to condition for a week or so before it's ready to drink... am I right, hon?

Harper drew a penguin while she played outside when Daddy was brewing one afternoon.

a finished beer-- some of our favorite, Amarillo Ale

And somewhere around the first week of December, we went up into the mountains to Montecito Sequoia Lodge. We highly recommend it: a great place for a family and friends getaway. We had a great time with Katia, Ryan, Chloe, Niki, and Leila. It was also Harper and Jack's first snow experience, and the staff kept the kids busy with crafts when we were snowed in a few extra (unnerving) hours.

Craft Time

Walking the Trail with Katia

Harper and Mama sunning on a rock like lazy lizards

Look at that intense stare from over Daddy's shoulder!

Ryan and Chlo Chlo

Lil' Leila and Mama Niki

Snow Buddies

Jack only stayed out in the snow long enough to decide he didn't like it!

The Bird wanted a taste!

R and E, bundled up

Then there was Katie's visit, when we both sang in the GW 30th Anniversary, Blazer Choir Alumni Christmas Concert. We enjoyed singing in the large choir, visiting with the other alumni who came to the event, and having the opportunity to thank Jeff Seaward for his amazing talent as our teacher and the transformative experience he lent us as our choir director. On a lighter note, it was fun to see Hudson play with Harper and Jack-- he and the girl seemed to like each other a lot. It was tough to try to get a clear photo of the three of them as they wrestled around and hugged a lot... tough to make them sit still. While Katie and I tried, E snapped a few of us doting mothers.

This was the best one I got. Two cute dudes and a smiley girl.

We're still library regulars. One particularly rad library day was a few weeks ago, when Jack got the ultimate validation. He'd been carrying this hunk of wooden Swiss cheese around in his coat pocket and Miss Valerie read a story about mice. When she pulled out this finger puppet, Jack ran to the front to offer his cheese to feed the mouse. The whole library was amused.

You never know when you might need to feed a plush mouse!

The girl continues to be an astonishing reader.

She's finished entire series of books (Junie B. Jones? check! Magic Treehouse? check! Geronimo Stilton? check! A to Z Mysteries? check!) and now she's begun Encyclopedia Brown. It's tough to keep up with the girl's reading. She squeezes it in wherever she can (kind of like her mom and dad).

And then there was the holiday season, Hanukkah and Christmas. It was a fun year since both kids are truly "into it" and both believe in Santa. We painted our own menorahs, lit candles, played the dreidel game, wrote Santa a letter, had a fortuitous visit from Mr. Claus, and most importantly, enjoyed family time making lovely memories.

The kick off for the season was H's recital at the studio. For the first time, we saw her do a tap AND a ballet routine, and she was beaming brightly the entire time. As shy as she can sometimes be, it is clear she loves the spotlight. Forgive me for the quantity of photos here, but... she was really cute.

He sees you when you're sleepin'...

He knows when you're awake!

Jack watching Sister, Grandma admiring him

Ta da!
Quite an Entrance

Lots of Waving to Her Fans

Hammy Smile

Hugs and Flowers after the Show
A photo with Syd, her ballet and school buddy

Whatever the holiday, Harper gets into the spirit.
As soon as Hanukkah concluded, she made Jack a Christmas card.
It reads, "To Jack From Harper Marry Cristmas Jack
Harper loves Jack Super Boy Love Boy"

We celebrated Christmas Eve with Grammer and Grandpa.

Mr.

and Mrs. Claus

Grammer is a creative wrapper!

the Grammer

the Grandpa

Bird wrote the note for her and Jack-- reflective of their true wishes.
Clearly Jack's a fan of his Daddy!

the backside

Since we wrote this note only a couple days before Christmas, I took these photos and told Harper I'd email them to Santa. Apparently, he received them in time...

Santa took the opportunity to be a bit didactic in his congratulations.

We've yet to make good on Santa's promise...

Harper reading Santa's message to him Christmas morning

The good girl got her camera!
The boy got a bear bank!

Christmas night with the Spears
Jack tried Joe's boots on and gave everyone a few laughs.We heard the good news that night, in between Harper's photo session with her new camera,that Anya and Joe are expecting! Yay! A new buddy is on his/her way...

That night, Anya and Joe gave Jack his favorite book ever, DinoTrux. He's got it memorized and he love love loves it! Here he is in his coordinating PJ's.

en route to my side of the family celebration, reading her new book
and telling me which characters she is most like

On the 27th, we celebrated Christmas at Carie and David's new place. It's a gorgeous home full of gorgeous, wonderful people. Though they'd only lived there a week or two, it already felt very warm and comfortable. The kids didn't want to leave that night, so they stayed the night for an impromptu sleepover. The big cousins treat them like King and Queen of the house, so who would want to leave that, right?

Playing with Puppet in a Christmas Outfit

Jack with his Horse and Cow puppets-- two of his favorite things!
In fact, after he wakes up he always says he dreamt of "horses and cows and workers."

Stoked on his Tool Belt from Gran and Grandpa-- worker boy stuff!

Watching Otis open his gifts with Mama's help

Steve and I drew each other this year. It worked out nicely because we'd
both been wanting a new pair of Campers.

Jack fell deeper in love with his Uncle David after the quad ride.

The kids enjoyed feeding carrots to the horses

Just a cute sleeping boy sometime after the New Year

Right after the New Year, we hosted a beer tasting party at our place. Since E's gotten into homebrewing, it was a good chance to sample different varieties from all around the world with friends we enjoy. The trip to BevMo in Fresno was super fun. Ethan made tasting cards so we could take notes and remember favorites.

My favorite of the night was the one toward the left there-- Hop Trip from Deschutes Brewery.

the note cards

E's homemade pretzels and homemade mustard were a hit that night, too!

2010 has already been eventful! Here we are back at the library again...

Jack in the stacks

Harper in the stacks

Something about a boy in a ball cap...

Harper just looks like a teenager here, huh?

Somehow I feel like I caught a glimpse in this shot of my teen-Harper.

And then it was my 30th birthday! First we had thirty candles and cake at Katia's...

When you put it that way, thirty's kinda pretty...

and then we had a party at our place. Good friends, good food, good music, good drink (E specially brewed some more Amarillo Ale just for the night). I felt very lucky and loved.

The surprise of the night: E had asked attendees to bring CD's for me. It was such a wonderful and thoughtful gift! It's also made for some happy listening the past couple of weeks!

and then it was Grandma's birthday! Daddy has been working on perfecting his pizza-making skills and he put them to good use that evening.

down to a T

The kiddos are best buddies lately. They play together so nicely, mostly pretending crazy things Bird thinks up. But Buster jumps right in there and gets into it, taking the plot on twisty turns and adding his own agenda to the mix. Sometimes that's a source for conflict, but mostly, it works out.

Bird's been reading to Jack a lot more lately.

The best is when they read together first thing in the morning. Jack joins her in bed and they stay happy together (not waking Mom and Dad) reading and playing around until the grown ups emerge.

And the latest news is that we're moving in the end of March. We've had a good almost-three-years here! Jackie came home from the hospital to this house, Bird's had her 2nd, 3rd, and 4th birthdays here, started preschool here, and Jack's had his 1st and 2nd birthdays here, too. It was the first home we owned, and we've made lots of great memories at this place. The best part of all is that we get to rent it to good friends of ours. We know it's in good hands come April 1st!

Sadie Katz on the roof

The new place is nearby. We feel very blessed to be able to make this move right now, to get into a place we can stay in for the foreseeable future. The kids prom pictures will likely be taken there! Aside from the discomfort of the moving process, we are excited for the move.

And something tells me we'll have no shortage of happy times ahead.

Are you kidding me?

2009-12-04T21:22:00.001-08:00

I'm sorry, but that's ridic!

Also please note Jack giving his doll a ride on the rocking dog. This dad loves his kids!

October Highlights

2009-10-31T21:57:00.001-07:00

In spite of feverish snottiness, we headed north for a trip to the Monterey Aquarium, and we're super glad we did. Harper got to check out "The Secret Life of Seahorses" exhibit, which she adored, and Jack was excited to see the sharks.

It was also just nice to be at the beach together.

And then there was Halloween. Harper wanted to be a barn owl, and Jack chose to be a worker this year. I thought they looked extra cute and they both had a great night.

Slice of Life

2009-09-27T09:18:00.000-07:00

Pizza Night Rock Out

Kid Band

2009-09-21T12:06:00.000-07:00

A Poem by Harper

2009-09-17T21:02:00.000-07:00

I know we have been negligent in posting lately - we haven't even posted the kids birthdays - and this is already a month old, but it is still worth a read.

In Nature

Where trees grow

Is Mother Earth

So grass grows

Around the street bend

the grass will come

to Mother Earth

And then, all done!

Poem by Harper

August 26, 2009

Grandma's New Pool

2009-08-18T21:05:00.000-07:00

Harper and Jack would like to say: "Thank you Grandma for living down the street and building a beautiful swimming pool!"

This was the first day the pool had water in it. There is still a bit of landscaping to go in, but since Harper was going to spend the night with Grandma anyway, we thought it would be a good idea for the whole family to head down the street and take the first dip.

We are definitely looking forward to the countless cool, refreshing swims to come!

Independence Day Medley

2009-07-05T17:32:00.000-07:00

Harper's First Dance Recital!

2009-06-14T09:31:00.001-07:00

The show was such fun! The big girl clearly enjoyed herself and was proud of her accomplishment. (Remember-- you can click on a photo to see it enlarged.)

The heel-clap-clap step is one of Harper's favorites. She can nail it!

"Singing in the Rain..."

"...what a glorious season, I'm happy again!"

I was glad to see that she's not doing everything lefty style this recital. At the Christmas show, she was doing all the steps opposite, but this go around she was starting to turn the right way, point with the right foot, etc.

I just love the contrast between the teachers' legs and the kids' in this photo.

Good buddies enjoying the stage, each other, the dance!

a 3 year old's arabesque... charming.

a particularly cool moment where Harper got into the lyrics and hammed it up a bit

another favorite step, the releve with the swirly hands above

the Finale... "there's NO business like SHOW business..."

the post-show pride

pretty pleased with herself

"Bigsie" the Ballerina and her happy Mama

the two rascally rabbits after the show

Birdie tolerating another photo with her buddy Sydnie, ever-ready to pose

Something about her expression here, the flowers, and the tutu makes me think of Degas.
No extended arms or lanky legs, but the post-show glow and
the tremendous beauty on this little dancer is definitely art.

When Aunt Carie asked her later if she "was the best one" (classic Carie), Harper said "yes, because I got two bouquets and everyone else got one!" She was very proud of herself, which is a big part of our goal with ballet. Overall-- so fun!

Grateful for Great Kids

2009-05-22T15:14:00.000-07:00

Harper and Jack are full of sweet goodness these days. I just wanted to take a moment to write some of their cuteness down before they are doing a completely different set of cute things, and the memories fade.

First, little Jack. He's gone through some major changes the last couple of months. I can't believe he's 20 months old-- getting closer and closer to being a 2 year old, which really marks the end of the baby stuff. He still has some baby ways about him, but since his 18 month birthday, he's gone through some big changes that make him seem older.

On a walk with Daddy and Uncle Steve. Some day he'll grow into those feet.

Thankfully, long and narrow as it is, his footsie still looks like a baby's.

First, he got his "big boy bed" and moved into Harper's room. It took a few weeks of pacing-while-singing him to sleep, setting him down carefully with white noise, and then further comfort and more singing until he was in deeper sleep before I could leave the room and have him stay there. Jack would often wake after only an hour in his bed, and he'd cry for me, which upset Harper. But just when we were becoming impatient with the adjustment, Jack turned a corner and began sleeping there without a gripe.

During those initial days in his new bed, Jack relied on "Tucker" more as a comfort. (For those who don't know, "Tucker" was Jack's pacifier. It came from "Sucker.") I didn't like this too much since eliminating Tucker was also on my list of things-to-work-on. One night, through the monitor, I could hear him comforting himself back to sleep several times by sucking away on Tucker and this bothered me. If I was planning to get Tucker out of the picture, I needed to be lessening his dependence, not creating an addict! I could also tell that while he slept/sucked, he wasn't sleeping as deeply and was waking more often. Tucker was keeping him from crying, but it was also keeping him from really sleeping well.

So, after about a week of the new bed (and Jack still not at all used to the idea of his own bed), I decided enough was enough. One thing I've learned as a parent, is that sometimes kids need slow and smooth transitions, but sometimes kids don't at all. It's often worth it to try the cold turkey route first and see how that goes, then gauge from the reaction if this transition needs different ease or not. This was one of the times, I'm happy to report, when the cold turkey went just fine. When Jack looked for his Tucker (usually at nap or bedtime, sleepy times), I decided I'd see how it went to say Tucker was "all done" (the same phrase we used to talk about Jack's last nursing and to tell him 'no' gently the first few days after weaning). To my complete surprise, Jack didn't bat an eye. If he found Tuckers lying around in their old familiar places, he'd hand them to me and tell me Tucker was all done! He never looked back, never even asked for one after that. I was relieved that this transition was so easy for him!

You were a good buddy, Tucker. Bye, bye.

Jack's talking has gotten more elaborate and fun these days. He's a very lovey boy, but also a very funny boy who likes to entertain and perform. He loves to sing, knows a million songs (including ABC's, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Twinkle, Itsy Bitsy, I'm a Little Teapot, Muffin Man, Wheels on the Bus, Pop Goes the Weasel, Old Mac Donald-- which he initially pronounced as "O Donga" and now calls "O McDonga", Bingo, Freight Train, etc., etc....) He definitely has a greater attention span for singing songs than he does for reading whole books. I've found that he gets distracted by his sister when we try to read together as a little group, but the best way to get him engaged is to explicitly address him and ask for his interaction. "Where's that piggy? Can you find the piggy?" "Is that tiger thirsty or hungry?" -- that kind of thing. I also point out what the text is referring to so that he knows where to look in the illustration to understand what I'm saying. For example, if the text talks about the berries they are eating, I'm pointing to the berries on their plates. Often I track the words I'm reading since I think that was a part of Harper's quick grasp of reading and I think it's valuable to make those connections early. His best attention to books happens, though, when Harper's at school and it's just the two of us. Poor second child doesn't get the chance to focus the same way! When we two are alone reading with no other distraction around us, Jack listens intently and brings me book after book.

That said, his favorite books tend to be lift the flap type, Mr. Brown Can Moo, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (probably because of the accompanying cookie), and Here Comes Peter Cottontail (because we sing it). Although he sometimes abandons my lap to get another book while we're half way through, I continue reading aloud and I've been surprised the next time we read the same book to hear him anticipate the next pages. Apparently, he doesn't even have to see the page or appear tuned in to be taking it in. This kid has particularly good hearing, and is possibly an auditory learner/favors that modality. In the same vein, he reports when planes are flying overhead, when he hears a "worker!" down the street, and "ambulance siren", a dog barking next door, a dove calling.... and often from inside a closed house! He is very aware of what he's hearing, very interested in following sound. I've been saying that I think Jack may be a musician and that's not to exclude Harper in any way-- we'll certainly be offering them the same opportunities, but it seems like Jack may have a special ear.

In the busy environment that is our home most hours, Jack is very musical and jovial. He taps, claps, makes bird calls (his favorite is the dove call, but others include the pigeon, peacock, chicken, crow), and constantly requests songs. He dances along, requests specific songs, sings with a silly low voice and a O shaped mouth for a laugh, and leans his head to one side to show he's putting on an act. Jack also likes to substitute silly or random words into songs as his funny joke. "Twinkle, twinkle, little circle. How I wonder what you triangle..." One day, Grandma asked Jack what he'd like to eat when they were outside at lunchtime. He replied, "Dirt." and laughed, she laughed, and he then knew that that was a funny thing to say. Since then, "dirt" has become his comedy evergreen, and he often puts that into songs. "O McDonga had a farm, E I E I O, and on that farm he had some DIRT!" ha, ha, ha...! His 20-month-old-jokes are pretty funny!

If he hasn't coerced you into taking him to the park to the "wings" (that's Jack for swings), J also loves to play with his dump truck, holding the sides and rolling it all around the house. He also loves Daddy's "scootadoo" and his truck, and points out the "cycles" when motorcyles pass by. I seriously think that the fact that his Dad owns a truck and a scooter gives Jack two more, meaningful reasons to love Ethan. He's also obsessed with workers, and today at lunch he said to me, "I a worker!" He's overly friendly to any man who is dressed for a blue collar occupation, who might fit the bill of a "worker". Daddy calls him a little commie.

Jack Jack likes to cook in his kitchen and pretend to make hot things that require a mit or a towel to touch. He blows on his food and tells you it's "too hot-- cool off!" He loves to get into character by wearing an apron, holding a whisk, juggling the pots and pans, filling them with various play veggies, and taking pretend sips. He's even started to get into the tea party thing with his big sister. He's also learned how to "plie and releve" from Harper's ballet class and when they both do it together, it is hilarious. They've got great form. Whatever their scenario, the kids' pretending always involves the maximum amount of accessorizing and props possible.

Jack's telling me his pot is "too hot-- don't touch!" in this photo.

Pretending to be in sleds.

In fact, the two of them are becoming quite a pair. Harper often says she wants to marry Jack because he "makes (her ) laugh...has a nice smile, and gives (her) hugs when I'm sad"-- all of which is true of Jack. He's funny, handsome, and empathetic. (And if that's Harper's three year old criteria of a mate, well, she's off to a good start...) When Harper's upset, Jack's always ready with hugs and even kisses to help her out.

As their Mama, it pleases me to see how they empathize differently, because both kids have genuine empathy for others. Harper will seriously feel the other person's pain as acutely as he/she does. Her instinct, when near another kid who is upset, is to cry the same way, need hugs and comfort likewise. At this age, she has to physically remove herself from the upset kid's presence to prevent too much despair and to help her keep a healthy emotional distance. Once physically apart, we can talk to her and she understands that the issue is not something she need bear. It is my hope that she is learning how to distinguish and separate others' pain from her own, and that she'll eventually learn when she has some responsibility to help and when she need not get emotionally involved or feel responsible. Does that make sense to anyone but me? Anyway, those are my goals in terms of Harper's empathy. I adore her for her sensitivity because, frankly, I can relate. I'm sure some of my thinking here is colored by my own tendencies to want to shoulder others' burdens, and my own learning about how that turns out not-to-really-work-for-anyone, and my own learning in how to distinguish and separate. Hopefully, I can spare the girl some time by setting up some healthy patterns while she's still little.

When it comes to her parents and brother, Harper's particularly sweet and affectionate. The other night, I stuck my feet into their bath because the warm water looked inviting. They loved having my feet in there and immediately started rubbing my legs with their washcloths and scrubbing my toes. Harper noticed that I had a small (old) scratch on the top of my knee. She got her wet washcloth and laid it gently on me. "Mama, if there was cold water, I'd put that on your leg to make it feel better, but there's only warm water."
"Oh, sweetie, that warm one feels so good, thanks. Harper, I just love you. You really care about others, huh?"
"Yes, but, I care about you the most." Needless to say, I melted. (I'm so glad that's written down so I'll never forget it!)

Jack is very aware of how people are feeling around him, and likes to report to me his concern. He'll tell me, "Harper's sad. Harper's crying." when she's on naughty chair. He then goes to her without hesitation and tries to comfort her. His willingness to get right up close to the heartache is a contrast to how Harper reacts in the same place. He hugs and kisses her, and Harper is instantly comforted! He is a balm to her aches often, and even though H's trip to the naughty chair is intended to teach a lesson, I never stop Jack from comforting his sister. I love that he has such sweet instincts, and I think he is learning about the transforming power of his affection in those moments.

Speaking of emotions and how pleased I am with my sweeties, we had our parent-teacher conference a couple of weeks ago. First, I was proud to hear that she is not only "an excellent reader" and the teacher's astonishment at just-how-well she reads, but also that Harper's into math as well, gets the concept of zero not just as nothing, but also as a place holder, and that she can do the "binomial cube" with her eyes shut.

This is the one she's so adept at constructing. The teacher said that they recently bought an all natural wood colored one to provide a greater challenge and that Harper's able to do it as well. The teacher also shared that Harper's got all of the solid shapes down, including ones such as ovaloid, ellipsoid, triangular based pyramid, square based pyramid, triangular based prism, cylinder, all of those 3D guys.
Aside from the academic successes, which are not surprising but fun to hear about, there were a couple highlights for me. It was nice to hear from an unbiased, knowledgeable source that your kid really does offer some special gifts to the world. Teacher Lori said she thinks Harper may end up a scientist of some sort, or a professor of some difficult or obscure sort of literature (hmmm.... kind of like her Aunt D?), or something else very heady. She has told me that she's "never had a kid like Harper before" and she's been teaching preschool for 11 years. And although all of the above is super cool, my favorite part of the conference (and the part that choked me up) was when I read the little written report her teacher had prepared and it said, "when there is a conflict, Harper knows how to make her needs known."

Her sensitivity has had me concerned that she might be run over by other, more dominant personalities, but this eased that concern. I couldn't be more proud to hear that my girl is able to speak up for herself, let others know what she needs. It's definitely something we've explicitly worked on, practiced, even role-played, and I am so glad it is becoming natural for her.

Harper's silly smile.
Harper and Rylee at Rylee's Gymnastics party.

The last couple of weekends, Harper's had birthday parties for girlfriends, Rylee, our neighbor, turned 4, Paige (from school) turned 4, and Chloe (from school) turned 5. For all three, I made homemade clothes. Harper is eager for me to make her a similar outfit. Chloe wore her skirt, bow, and embellished tank top to school on that first Monday, and Harper and I were pleased and excited. According to the teacher, Chloe is Harper's best bud at school. She tells me that they play "princesses" a lot. It's neat for me to see H making friendships that have absolutely nothing to do with me. She's friends with Chloe and Paige because she was most attracted to them in her class at school, not because they are the children of Mommy and Daddy's friends. There's something extra cool about that to me.

Speaking of growing up, Harper has a new nap deal: Each week, she gets to skip 2 naps. The rules are posted on her closet door, along with the week. It'd become more difficult to get her to nap, she kept coming out for various "reasons" and trying to stall. Since we've established the nap skips, there's much less commotion over nap time. I feel like a successful Mama having figured out a solution to what was becoming a problem. It not only gave Harper boundaries, but it also alleviated my anxiety about losing some of my alone time (since nap time is when I get things done, like this blog post, for example, or all of the home-sewn gifts I'm doing these days). Now, we use her "nap skip" days as a chance to have some one-on-one Harper and Mama time, have big girl conversations and do things together. Some days she watches me as I sew and asks me questions about sewing. Other times, we do something semi-academic-- reading from a "Reading Comprehension" workbook (princess stories) and checking for understanding. Sometimes we color side by side in a coloring book. We check our email (don't forget to email Harper!). Sometimes we bake cookies together and indulge in a milk and cookies treat. Harper's nap skip days have turned out to be good quality time for us girls.

Followed the recipe on the back of the Nestle bag of chocolate chips. Made a ton, were super yummy.

The warmer weather has been good for our family. We've been outside more and gardening. But Jack's eczema has been bad lately so we saw an allergist last week. We're still waiting for results, should hear next week, to see if there's anything we can easily avoid to help his sensitive skin. In the last month or so, we've been avoiding soy as well as we can (it's hidden in EVERYTHING!) and I do think I've seen a connection between less soy and less itchy, red patches. We'll see.

The frog in the watering can was a fun surprise when we were watering the garden the other day.

Since the spring has sprung, we've been going to Farmer's Market most Thursday evenings and it's always fun to strollerler through and run into friends, find compelling fruits and sample local cheeses or honey. The other evening, on our way home from said market, Harper was reading her Your Big Backyard magazine. It was an article about skunks. At the end, she held her magazine down to peer over at me and said (direct quote), "Mom. Two reasons why I don't like skunks. One: they eat birds. Two: they are stinky." Though she can be exhausting, I love that her mind doesn't quit and that she's constantly taking in, analyzing, and deciding about things.

But lately, my favorite time of day has been bedtime. Harper still fits into a set of white onesies (this will definitely be the last time) and Jack wears them too. They both sleep in them during these warmer nights and I feel like I've got two babies. I do. I've got two babies-- big enough to talk to me and make their needs known, but small enough to wear onesies.

Their skinny bods, their fresh-from-the-bath, moist skin, their eager bedtime story choosing, their side by side teeth brushing... it's just too cute. After the lights are turned out and Harper's tucked in, she gets kisses and lovey reassurances. Then Ethan and I stand in the middle of the room, Jack in my arms and sing our lullaby to her ("This is..."). Lately, Jack's been joining in, singing each word with us to his sister. Then we leave the room with a CD of 4 sleepy songs playing to help her get drowsy.

I walk with Jack up and down the hall, around the living room, singing the same song to him repeatedly. One night, full of joy, I paused the song to whisper to him. "Jack, I love you sooooooo much."
He surprised me by being awake, and he spoke back. "Mama, I love you sooooooo much."
"You're a good, good boy, Jack."
"Yeah."
"You're nice to Mama."
"Yeah."
"Sleep tight, Jackie."
"Sleep tight, Mama."
Ever since that night, I always find a moment to interrupt the singing for a similar little conversation, to remind him that I love him, to tell him how good he is. He pats my back with his tiny hands and I pat his, too. This special time is so important in my day.

On the more difficult days of mothering, when I tend toward over-worrying and I wonder if what I want them to know is sinking in, their hugs and their eyes say it all. They love their Mom and Dad. They are well-loved. They're gonna be just fine.

Garden Roll Call

2009-04-25T16:58:00.001-07:00

Here's the current status of our garden. Yes, we've got lots of plants, but no, we're not eating 100% of our own food yet. Our yard is becoming increasingly edible and the kids munch on it while they play. Our salads these days are to die for, and there's so much more on the horizon... should be a yummy Summer.

Aside from the spearmint which grows around our hose spigot,

the lavender, which is in full bloom throughout our yard,

and the dill and watercress, which likes the more shaded, wet fence line (both seeded together about three weeks ago),
we've got the perennial herbs together in one bed:

the chocolate mint (the kids' favorite)

the sage (hard to believe this was in a little plastic cup about 3" x 3" last Spring!)

the thyme (hasn't grown much in a year, but has stuck around)

lemongrass (new this year, dug up from Kenny's garden)

oregano (been here since Grandma shared some from her yard last Spring)

rosemary (4 plants, all planted last fall. I'd tried rosemary in the past a couple of times and killed my plants. Perhaps the fall timing was key?! Who knows!)

fennel (2 plants, just planted about 2 weeks ago, already larger!)

We also have chives seeded between two rosemary bushes, near the fennel, but they've not yet sprouted. And then there's the garden proper, which contains:

broccoli (2 rows, about 10 feet long each)

peppers (varieties include: pimento, thai dragon, espinoza, jalapeno, serrano, ancho-- a total of 8-9 plants, planted three weeks ago through yesterday)

squash (varieties include: sunny delight scallop and salmon, about 6 plants)

pickling cucumbers (about 4 plants)

peas (2 rows of snow, and 1 of sugar snaps)

carrots (nantes variety, 2 rows)

beets (ruby red variety, 5 rows-- anyone want beets?)

lettuces (mixed varieties)
About half of our lettuce made it all year, but in the gaps we seeded more a few weeks ago.
tomatoes (about 20 plants, 4 varieties... should have enough to share, no? some planted about a month ago;

the last few were added yesterday)

and artichokes. We'd had these 2 plants since last Spring, but not until last week did one bloom. Can't wait to eat some home-grown artichoke!

And then over on the west end of our yard, beneath the hammock, we've got pumpkins sprouting (Jack O'Lantern variety, three plants going). Hopefully we'll get to carve our own this year!

Next on the garden to-do is the melon bed, which we'll probably plant in about two or three weeks. Also, we're going to need to string some twine in the next week or so to support our growing peas, and put up a lattice structure (or something like that) to train our squash and cucumbers to grow vertically to save space. We also plan to add hay over the soil to help keep moisture in as the temperatures rise.

This is only our second year attempting a garden, but we learned a lot in our first year and we're hopeful to have more crop than our last harvest. We also consulted our good friend, Kenny, who helped us prep our beds, placed a seed order with us, shared seeds, and even started some of our seeds for us. His encouragement and advice is invaluable to us newbies. A big, fat THANK YOU to Kenny!

We'll check back in a few weeks so you can (hopefully) see the progress!

An Homage to Our Public Library

2009-04-22T08:20:00.000-07:00

Since we've been weekly library-goers for about 3 years now, we remember the less attractive days, when the walls looked decidedly seventies and the carpets were dingy. The Children's section was tucked back in a corner of the open floor, and the tweedy, textured wallpaper darkened the space. But the decor didn't bother me. It was nostalgic for me to attend Storytime with little Harper in the place that matched my memories, and where damp, book glue smells brought me back to when I was just beginning to read. I thought this reminiscent experience couldn't be topped, but the remodel completed last year has made our time there all the better. We love our library!

The ambiance is beautiful, fresh, and bright. The Children's Library has its own wing, and the decor is tasteful and calm. It's like a library out of the movies or something.

Here's Jack climbing on the padded "books" in the little kids' section.

But the best part of our Wednesdays at the library is the people who run the show, Miss Valerie, Miss Lisa, and Pierre. Here they are singing the greeting song, "I have a friend, the very best, and we read books together. You are my best friend. You are my best friend. You are my best friend, and we read books together."

Pierre is a volunteer for our library. It is clear he loves to read for the kids because he puts on different voices and really engages the audience. He frequently pauses the story to ask the kids to predict what will happen next. When they know, he always asks, "Have you read this before?" with a bewildered look on his face. Never seen without the Seuss hat, Pierre is an animated reader who keeps the kids' attention.

Miss Valerie leads the show. She chooses the theme for the week, finds stories and songs that dovetail and reinforce the concepts, and keeps everyone entertained. But perhaps most important, she loves my kids. She is so good to them, always friendly and cheerful, always glad to see us. She gave Harper and Jack each a Baskin Robbins gift certificate at the holidays. She has given us countless lollipops, spent silly shakers, special nods and smiles when she sees us arive, and book recommendations. She's also given us CDs of great kids' music, and a soundtrack for this time in our lives: how could we do these young years with out "Shake Your Sillies out?" or "I Know a Chicken?" or "The Noble Duke of Books..." and so many others? She's got a talent for her job and it's so nice to reap the benefit of that.

Miss Lisa joined Miss Valerie about a year ago and she instantly fit. Always kind and sweet to my kids, she has helped us search for the right book to fulfill my children's latest curiosities. She is quick to laugh and very animated when leading a song, acting out a rhyme, or reading a story. She ooo's and aaaah's over Harper and Jack's artwork. She receives my kids lovingly; she makes us feel welcome and encouraged.

We almost always run into buddies there, too. Here's a happy Miles, Isaiah, and Harper shaking their sillies out.

"Shake Your Sillies Out" is basically the library kids' anthem.

And here's Harper greeting Jovial another week.
Speaking of buddies, we usually attend the library with Grandma or Grandpa Paul and Grammer Lynda. It is such a help for me to have a grandparent with me-- to keep an eye on the kids, the purse, the book bag, to return the super heavy bag of (usually about 30) books, to search out and find new books for the next week. Gotta keep our "library shelf" stocked each week with new treasures!

Harper loves it when she's gets called upon to have a starring role in the song or activity. Here she is holding up her pig proudly for the "Old MacDonald" song.

And here she is with another fun prop.

Hmmm... I wonder if this is enjoyable?
Look at this rapt crowd of preschoolers!

It's not unusual for this girl to be so excited about a new book that she begins reading her stack before we've even left the building. Here she is reading a book about princesses, one of her favorite topics, on our way out to the car. (By the way, she continued to read this book all the way home, and during our picnic lunch in the backyard, finishing the 127 page book in just a couple hours.)

And here's another program we love: Elf Club. Elf stands for Early Literacy for Families. It's a grant-funded program designed to promote early literacy activities and model for parents how to engage their children with books. Once a month, on a Friday morning, we go over to the literacy center for more fun: books, songs, a craft, a snack, and a free hardback book based on the month's theme.

Here's Harper helping to tidy up so we can begin the story.
Here she is raising her hand to answer a question. That week, the reader asked the class (probably intending for the question to be rhetorical) if anyone knew what a buttercup was. Harper said, "Yes-- a flower!" much to the crowd's surprise. That's my smartie!
We loved this month's book choice-- a rhyming book about a much beloved topic.

The craft always connects with the book. Here's Jack gluing his kitten together before coloring it.
And here is what Harper looks like basically the whole time we're there.

My kids feel at home in this special place and I am so grateful that during my years at home with my young children, we have a weekly routine of going here. We have arranged our kids' preschool hours to avoid library programs-- leaving Wednesdays and Fridays free for the library. It's important for us to be there. And why wouldn't it be? We read books, sing songs, play, color, learn rhymes, hug buddies, and smile a lot at our library. And we take some of that home with us for the remainder of the week as well.

Thank you, library!

Roomies, Playmates, Zoo trip, Easter, and the Garden... Phew!

2009-04-13T14:34:00.000-07:00

It's a good thing Harper and Jack love eachother because Jack Jack got a big boy bed in the beginning of March, and he now shares her room! He's proud of his bed, but he's not a master at solo sleeping just yet. He's done great there for naps, but not so great at bedtime. We're working on it.
Sweet Harper has been really great at being patient when he cries out and abruptly wakes her. She's so sensitive and occasionally it makes her cry to hear her brother cry in her room, but she usually calms right down when we get Jack and tell her everything's okay. In a few months, the adjustment will be done and I think they'll enjoy each other's company for a couple years.

Harper and Jack really love playing together, especially outside. They're actually awesome at taking turns with toys. They both love the slide (notice the teeny tiny broccoli plants in the photo, to the left of Harper's head in the moist soil of the garden bed).

Here they are at our neighborhood park. Whatever Harper's doing, Jack's attempting-- and often successfully.

Jack loves the twisty slide.

He looks up to his big sister so much and he really looks forward to her return when she's away at school. They play so well together, largely because Jack's always game for whatever Harper wants to do. Their conversations are hilarious, too.

Wherever Harper is, that's the place to be! Here he is wearing his "scootadoo" shirt. That's what he calls scooters, including Dad's.
And here are he and Harper loaded in the double "strollerler", another case of Jack's adding syllables. I think he does it out of love.

One day, Dad had a great idea to carve the chest freezer box into a house with windows and a door. Harper and Jack had a fun time with it for a while, eating their snacks in there, pretending. We still have it, in the garage for now, ready to be brought back out for a rainy day or when we need something novel again.
Here's a wistful Jack in his cardboard playhouse.
Peeking out.

We just had an awesome weekend that began with a zoo trip Saturday morning. Here are the kids in their car seats, getting pumped for all the animals!

The last time we went to the zoo, Harper was just over 2 (shortly after Jack was born, she and Daddy went there for some special time) and she was still in diapers. She wouldn't get near the giraffes to feed them. We were excited that she'd grown up so much and was brave enough to feed them this time.

We could tell she was proud of herself, too. (She's wiping giraffe spit off!)And, not to be outdone, little Jack was excited to feed the giraffe! Look at him stick his hand out there!
Pretty cool to be that close to such an odd-looking, rad animal! (And to see it from safe-Daddy's arms!)

The birds were particularly friendly this visit. The Australian birds kept swooping over us, back and forth. In the picture below, we were in the Rainforest habitat, and the birds there were awesome. We got up close to a bird who was singing in a very soft, mellow, almost clarinet-sounding monotone. His beak opened subtly each time and I pointed it out to Jack. I looked down to watch Jack's face as he watched this bird, and each time the bird sang, Jack quietly opened his mouth the same way. It was so cute, and so exciting to see that he was quietly taking it all in.

In this picture, these neat birds were swooping by us for a while and then landed soooo close. As you can see, Jack or I could've touched one easily.
Aren't they awesome-looking? The curly moustache was too much! (This photo was taken without a zoom lens!)
We had to do the gorilla photo. Look at those buddies!
It was fun to have them dressed alike for the trip, too. We were in the zoo-going spirit. When we went into the tropical, warm, moist room where they have poison dart frogs and tree frogs, the kids were excited to see the frogs from their shirts.
Both were exhausted by the trip and snoozed on the way home. I still can't get over the sweetness of my kids' faces while they sleep. (Harper named this bunny from Gran "Easter Bluebell Dutton".)

Speaking of Easter, the Easter Bunny visited our house this year and brought the kids Peeps (Harper wanted blue, Jack went with yellow), art supplies, and a bucket full of Easter eggs for Mom and Dad to hide. When the morning warmed up a bit, we hid the eggs for the kids and they hunted in our backyard. Then Harper sat down with Jack and opened them. They each contained a message from the Easter Bunny himself-- all compliments about what great kids they are. Harper liked that, and we parents thought the ego boost was a cool alternative to candy!
We colored our eggs a day late, but better than never! Cat and Jov Jov were here for a playdate. It was nice to have our buddies over on the last day of Spring Break.

Harper really got into painting the eggs with little sponges. I was proud that this year, the mess didn't deter her participation. She went for it!
And the results speak for themselves! Gorgeous!The hands afterward...
Here are the kids painting with their new paper and paints from the Easter bunny. As you can see, Jack sampled the paints, but decided they weren't so tasty.

Jack's work in progress.

Harper's work in progress.

We've got quite a garden going now... it's quite large, but all the plants (besides the lettuce) are babies at this point. So, we're eating a ton of beautiful salads. Here's a bouquet of the various lettuces I stopped to photograph as I put together our salad for dinner last night. The best has been just the variety of lettuces from the garden, along with some chocolate mint leaves, rosemary, sage, oregano, and spearmint leaves, a little feta, some chopped spring onions, and a homemade viniagrette.
The kids love helping in the garden. They each have their own gloves and tools (thanks, Spears!). They really like helping us water the baby plants. I'm actually surprised by how well the kids respect the garden and don't bother the small plants too much. I think they both like to have a role, and feel like they are a part of all of the activity.

In an empty bed, which was waiting for more tomatoes, Harper enjoyed digging one afternoon with Jack's help. Jack loves to be Harper's "little boy assistant", but he doesn't like to get dirt in his sandals so much, so I kept having to pour out his shoes for him ("Mama, yuck!"). Here's Harper making "dirt soup".
Here's Farmer Jack with his rake (see the baby brocolli plants behind him-- they've grown, huh?).And here's one more photo, just because Harper is breath-takingly gorgeous. Wow.

Consolidating

2009-04-13T08:42:00.000-07:00

Hooray for one place for the family! Having two kids and writing separate posts about Jack's zoo trip and Harper's zoo trip... well, that's just extra work, right? I'm going to be importing their blogs and everything should be here from now on. The family stuff, that is. Ethan's bread blog and my Milk and Cartoons will continue to exist, since they serve different purposes. But for the purposes of checking in on the family, change your bookmarks/favorites 'cause this is where it's at!

The Troubled Artist

2009-03-02T19:50:00.000-08:00

He finds such raw emotion in his own artwork it brought him to tears. (Click on the photo to enlarge, for a better view of what I'm calling "Green on Wall, #1". I'm seriously hoping there is no #2)

I wonder if he is sorry? Look at that lip. If that's not the saddest/cutest thing you've ever seen, you're dead inside.

This was a first for Jack (and amazingly, Harper never even tried this). I think he inherently knew it was wrong because I said one "No" and he started tearing up right away. I could tell he was very honestly sorry. He's a good boy.

School Girl

2009-02-19T21:42:00.000-08:00

Here's a tired Harper and Daddy spooning on the couch for her late nap after Chloe's birthday party. The girl loves her Daddy! We get to take home her school journals every few weeks and last time, about 5 of the pages were drawings of her with (just) her Daddy!

Harper was especially proud of her work here, so I snapped a shot. The three hearts were all cut out by her without anyone's help. The red one was done with the usual fold in half method. The pink was not. (Both of those were done at school.) Harper's showing so much improvement with her cutting that Dad was in disbelief. I traced the pink one on black paper and she cut it out for him at home so he could see his girl do it. We were all impressed and pleased. I know her teachers have really worked on this with girl. She happily pasted the hearts on her "painting" that she'd just finished. Harper kept stepping back to admire her work. It is quite pretty, don't ya think?

Talking Up a Storm

2009-02-19T21:14:00.000-08:00

This is Jack's pick-me-up-Mama look. He's saying his usual, "Mama-- hug!" I had to snap a shot and post the picture because Jack does this a few times a day. I find the hug requests sweet and always pick him up and hug him, except when it's being used as a transparent attempt to avoid eating vegetables. In that case, I squeeze his little shoulders and lay my head on his for a moment (cause who can not-hug a kid who wants a hug?) but then I hand him a loaded fork.

Here's Jack having his "morning milk" with "sister". I warm two sippys of whole milk up and hand Jack both. He walks over and hands Harper's to her, then climbs up to sit next to her. They suck away. Jack also has a cup last thing at night (to replace his night night nursing). Yep, he's down to just one breastfeeding a day now-- just before nap. He's definitely noticed the change... it took him over a week to go to sleep as peacefully. He even asked about his "ninnies" and we've told my ninnies "night night" several times to help him understand they weren't coming out. I don't look forward to the final weaning though... knowing he's my last one makes it tough. I'm trying to just enjoy his baby-ness while it's still here.

Here are the kids after re-coloring their posters from the library's storytime. They'd colored them once there, but wanted to add to them tonight after dinner so I pulled out the markers and we sat on the tile a while to color. Jack's really digging the markers and crayons these days and is getting into coloring. He knows his shapes like nobody's business, and in this picture you can see he's tried to actually color them (i.e. scribbles centered on the square, etc.). As he did so, he'd say "green square" or whatever-- calling out the colors he was choosing. He also recognizes about 10 letters by sight, including the ones you can see on this poster. I was asking him "What letter is this?" as I added them to his poster and he was correctly identifying them, even telling me the
'M' is for 'Mama', 'D' for 'Dada', 'H' for 'Harper' and 'J' for 'Jack'. He remains a smartie and strangers often stop and ask me his age (stores, doctor's office) because he talks so much. His sentences are lengthening and he's got a few books memorized.

Here he is by the alphabet I just put up in the kids room. I hung it tonight since he seems a promising student. So far, he's more into telling me the colors than finding the L, but once he learns a few more, he'll feel more successful and it'll get more fun.
Here's his "cheeeeeeeeeese" smile. Whenever he sees the camera, the boy says, "Cheese!"

And here he is kissing A goodnight.

I just love that sweet talker!

Funny Kid

2009-01-27T20:00:00.000-08:00

Jack Jack is becoming more of a big boy every minute! He started putting words together a couple months ago, and since then, the boy's been cracking jokes and really expressing himself. One of his first sentences was "Dada work" when Dad wasn't home. He began using this same explanation for anyone who came to mind, but wasn't at our house. "Grandma work." "Jov Jov work." (That's his buddy, one-year-old Jovie who you'll see in this post later.) Other examples include "Mama's water" (yep, he's got possessives down!), "water drink", "kitty out", "jacket off!" etc. Most of his sentences are two and three words at this point, and I am happy to report that he's getting pretty good at asking with "please", and his "thank you"s and "sorry"s are melt-your-heart cute. In fact, he just asked me for "more princess water" and handed me an empty princess sippy. When something falls down, he'll often say, "uh oh a cheerio!". The little rhyme delights him.

Although he's probably a better enunciator than Harper was, he's still a baby. The other night he was repeating "cream bubbles" over and over and I couldn't understand the first word. I thought it might be game, and it was holding me up. Finally, I remembered the bubble gum ice cream in the freezer and realized he was trying to request it! When I finally said, "Oh! You want bubble gum ice cream!" he clapped his hands to signal I'd gotten it right.

Jack's making more connections lately. A week or so ago, I was totally perpelexed about why Jack kept saying "sticky" when he was reading a book with animals in it. I knew the book wasn't sticky and he seemed to get more frustrated every time he said it. I looked at where he was pointing and it began to make sense. He was touching the picture of a tree frog and expecting it to be sticky but it wasn't. Another book of his (one from Aunt D, for his 1st birthday) was a touch and feel, and the photo of the tree frog had sticky fingers. Once I gave him the book with the tacky fingers, he felt satisfied.

Another evening E and I were talking about weekend plans, planning to attend the Clarks' "Soup Sunday". He overheard the word "Clark's" a few times and he started asking for "Chlo Chlo". I was amazed that he knew Chloe was a Clark even though her name had never been mentioned. He definitely understands more than we realize!

He has several books memorized and a good memory in general. If I pause while reading, he often fills in the blank in his baby-voiced-version-of-the-missing-word. He surprised me the other night by knowing what was beneath the flap of a book when we hadn't read it in forever and I didn't even remember!

I haven't posted in a while, so here are some shots of Thanksgiving. Here he is playing at the Tootles' house, offering Mama a leaf he has found.

Aunt Carie, Mama, Jack, and Aunt Erica
This is Jack's hug. He hugs like he means it-- rests his head against your neck on your shoulder nice and tight. Jack's a fantastic hugger, and he asks for hugs often.

This was a hilarious moment at the end of the day. Jack Jack had been telling me "shoe" all day long and I couldn't figure out why he was so preoccupied. I'd taken his shoes off and on several times for diaper changes already, but at the end of the evening, I pulled off his sock to discover Jack had been wearing a toe ring the entire Thanksgiving day.

Harper likes to play while I am putting away laundry, and I had seen her recently putting her rings into a sock so I think when I pulled the sock on him the ring was already waiting for him there. Somehow it maneuvered onto his little toe. When I pulled off the sock to discover this, I burst into laughter and urged E to get the camera. Jack was a little confused about the excitement over his toe/foot, hence the upset face. Ha!

Jack's second holiday season was much more participatory than his first. Here's Jack trying to spin the dreidel. He loved the dreidel game because of the chocolate. In fact, he learned the word "chocolate" as a result of the Hanukkah season. Chocolate is one of Jack's favorite things.

Here's Jack opening his Hanukkah gift from Aunt D and Uncle Marty-- an okapi, of course! They knew of Jack's love for "neigh neigh"s and chose the closest endangered version from WWF's donation page for Jack Jack. It was a hit!

Here's Jack helping to decorate our tree, enchanted by the lights.

I was worried this season would be full of broken ornaments, but I am happy to report that only one Big Bird ornament lost a limb during the course of the season. He got dropped on the tile. Otherwise, Jack was a good boy about not playing with the ornaments. Jack's good about not-doing what has been designated as a "no no", but he's not so good about coming when called, that type of thing. He's also great about following directions like putting things in the trash for me, handing things to Harper, relaying short messages to Dad, holding my hand when we're walking.

Here's Jack playing in his little cave at Grannie's house, Christmas celebration night. He loved to peekaboo out of it and crawl back in over and over-- it was just his size.

Just like Harper

Jack continues to look up to his big sister, and he tries to do everything like her. The good news is, she's usually doing good things like reading books or being polite. As a result, he's a braver boy and can do more things because he's trying stuff he wouldn't otherwise. But she's not perfect either. He's picked up some attitudinal maturity because he's got an older sibling, and they don't always agree. They get into little tiffs, but it never lasts more than 15 seconds. (He's learned all about the naughty chair the last few months, and it's helped us to establish some boundaries.) When it comes down to it, though, they're great friends. Harper calls him "Little Buddy" and when Harper pretends that she's in fairy princess school, Jack is her "little boy assistant", and he plays the role gladly.

Jack looks out for Harper, too. Whenever I dole out a snack, or pretty much anytime I give him anything, he asks for one for Harper, too, and then he delivers it to her. I know he misses her when she's at school because he says "bye bye sister" ( he pronounces, "sitser"), and when I announce it's time to get her he claps his hands and smiles.

He is more interested in books lately and can sit for longer stories. His favorite book is "The Jolly Barnyard" (a little Golden book). Other favorites include "I am a Bunny", "Busy Horses" (a Christmas gift from Uncle Steve and Aunt Erica), "Goodnight Moon", and any Elmo book. Here he is reading with his guest and buddy, Jovial.

And here they are at Jov's 1st birthday party, checking in on each other. Jack adores Jov, even kissed her picture several times during the holidays when their Christmas card was within reach.

Jack's become more attached to our extended family and friends over the last few months. He talks about people he misses and its nice to know that he has so many people who love him and who he loves back. Grandma watches little Jack while I work Thursday mornings and they've got a nice relationship growing. She remarks that Jack is "such a boy" and that he "sure knows what he wants". It's fun to hear another perspective on my kids and I feel so lucky and grateful that Jack and Harper are so well cared for when I'm away.

This is Jack napping in our bed. We still haven't gotten him a big boy bed, so he's still in ours. I simultaneously look forward to having more space to move and a less stiff neck in the morning, and also LOVE his cuddles and the quiet warm peaceful space we create when he's on my arm. Here, Sadie moved in for some of Jack's lovey warmth and it was worth risking him waking to click the camera of this shot. (Luckily, he didn't wake!)

Here's Jack doing his "Phoney Bologna" face-- fake cry. Just had to post it.

And here he is moments later eating with a fork. He's eager to feed himself and has been using a fork since just after Thanksgiving.

Jack got this toy from Harper for Hanukkah. It's great-- teaches colors, shapes, AND it's got Sesame Street characters with Elmo's voice prompting the activities. Jack has mastered shapes since we got this toy and can identify colors with about 90% accuracy these days.

He's pretty happy to play with his toys or look over books, but nothing replaces a playmate or listening to a story on someone's lap. He loves to sing "Baa Baa Bamba" (a song from Sesame Street) and replace it with different animal sounds. That's endlessly funny to Jack. Harper and Jack are into hide and seek lately, and he's learning to count because of it. He can say "1, 2... 6... 9" so far. His new joke today was pretty funny. He's been saying "Shabbat Shalom" for a couple weeks and tonight he replaced 'shalom' with 'shine bear' (Harper's Care Bear) and said "Shabbat Shine Bear!" We all cracked up through lunch at his alliterative genius.

Here's Jack doing his "big lips" face. Anything for a laugh!

The boy gets more fun all the time.

Email Harper

2009-01-21T13:20:00.000-08:00

We just created an email account for Harper. She's writing to her friends overseas, but she'd also love email from her local buddies! She's way into checking it, and I type her thoughts for her replies. Feel free to add her to your address book.

harpersequoia (at) gmail.com

Such a Good Girl

2009-01-01T09:01:00.000-08:00

It's been so long since I updated this blog with actual content about Harper's life and personality. Guilt aside, I begin this post with so much gratitude for my good girl. I know that I'll never be able to remember all of the sweet moments of Harper's (or Jack's) life and that sometimes pains me, but in the constant push ahead sometimes a moment of notetaking provides a poultice to the ache. We all know Harper is smart, sensitive, imaginative, kind, loving... but the following stories illustrate those qualities. They're typical and revealing, normal to Harper and yet indicative of her uniqueness.

Christmas night, our good friends Kyle and Laura were over and Harper read the first page of The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming, by Lemony Snicket for them. Here's the entire text for your amazement.

This story ends in someone's mouth, but it begins in a tiny village more or less covered in snow. The snow had fallen during the long night, during which children had pressed their faces to the windows looking for a glimpse of a man who they suspected of bringing them wonderful gifts, but instead they heard a terrible noise from a certain cottage in the neighboring arrondissement, a word which here means "place where something was being born." The cottage was already regarded with some suspicion, as it was the only place not decorated with flashing colored lights at this time of year.

I admittedly helped her with the word 'arrondissement', but that was the only one I recall her struggling with. Although I hear her read often, this impressed even me because the syntax of this book is so adult, leaving less contextual clue for Harper's whole-language approach to decoding. She's a ridiculous reader.

Speaking of reading, Harper has begun what we call "reading in her mind", or silently reading. The first time we saw it was on Black Friday while standing in line and E quizzed her to see if she was actually reading/understanding. She was.

The girl still reads in the mornings when she wakes too early and the sound of pages turning has replaced the calls out for Dad or Mom. It's such a nice way to wake up, hearing my girl turning pages.

Her facility with language includes lots of idioms and grown up expressions these days. It seems she likes to include them or finds them fun. Phrases she tosses include "That's unfortunate," the yiddish "Oy vey, mein tatala," "It's no use", "Good as new!", "I feel bummed out.", etc.

Harper continues to be a very specific, detail-oriented girl. When we play and pretend with her, she often directs how or what we should say in response to her questions. "Pretend you're sleeping and you don't want me to wake you." It's like she's giving us our motivation before we go on stage to improv. She sets up scenes and she has a favorite opener/cue to let us know we're beginning to pretend together. "Um, hi, I'm looking for the ballet school. Did I come to the right place?" The answer is always supposed to be "Yes" and then you carry on with what follows. Here are a couple pretend photos from recent playing. Note her new side kick in pretendworld: Jack Jack!

Some of her favorite pretend scenarios include: fairy princess school, ballet, regular school, animal doctor, Mama/baby, ice skating with hands behind her waist in slippers on the tile, switching roles/relations (i.e. "You be Dada, I'll be Jack, Daddy will be Harper, and Jackie can be you... okay?). Here she is at Jovial's birthday party, playing teacher to the group of kids at pretend school. She also played "family" and she was the mom, Miles the dad, the rest were their kids.

She also started learning to use the computer and has gotten the hang of the mouse. She's spent a few hours so far playing on a preschool game site, starfall.com. She really likes the stuff there. Though it's a bit simple in terms of content, the motor skills and ease with the computer is beneficial.

She has a great vocabulary but still speaks in a 3 year old's voice, which makes the words sound extra cute. E likes to ask her why we use utensils at meal times (his gentle way of reminding her to use a fork) and she picks up her fork and answers, "Because we're civilized." She is very polite, almost to a fault! She begins many sentences with "Excuse me", even when she's not interrupting a conversation or getting someone's attention. After her ballet recital the other night, I overheard her telling a peer, "Excuse me, you look really pretty in that crown." Harper likes rules and likes things to be right.

Speaking of ballet recital, Harper loved dancing in the show! She beamed and I was amazed that she was so enthusiastic in her performance when her cohort was only 3 girls and the crowd was quite large! She loved the entire thing. She's doing great with ballet, but she has one noticable handicap in her left handedness. Her instinct is always to begin with the left foot, turn to the left, point her left toe when the routine always does right first. This aside, she still stole the show.

During the holiday season, she celebrated Hanukkah and Christmas and really enjoyed both. At storytime at the library, the librarian read one Hanukkah book alongside many Christmas books. When she began, Harper jumped up from her seat, walked up to the front to be sure the librarian would hear her, and said, "Hey! I'm Jewish!" enthusiastically. It charmed everyone because of her sweet pride. I could tell she really appreciated the affirmation of the Hanukkah book at the library-- the validation of both sides of her when the world in December is all Christmas, Christmas, Christmas. Harper helped us light the menorah each night and sang the prayers. After the first night of celebrating over at Grandma's, Harper came home all high on being Jewish. As we got her ready for bed that night, Harper told me, "Mama, I love you anyway you're not Jewish." Such a thoughtful, hilarious kid! I loved the kid-syntax of replacing 'anyway' for 'even though'-- perfect example of how she is still a little kid but she often has the maturity and thinking of a much older person.

Harper also celebrated Christmas with my family. She enjoyed decorating the tree, learning carols, and writing a note to Santa. Her favorite Christmas carol was "Rudolph" and she sang that song over and over. It was cute to listen closely to what she was singing. Anytime she'd mess up a word, she'd pause to think, and then start it again at the very top. It killed me! She desires so much to do everything just right! Even singing a little song when (she thinks) no one is listening! She believes in Santa and wanted a glimpse so we went out to the mall to see him. Santa actually wasn't busy at the moment and stepped over to the side to talk to her. I thought she'd shout out her wish list or something, but instead she told Santa, "I've been good but sometimes Jackie is mean to me!" I was shocked that she was ratting her little bro out to Mr. Santa himself! But then she qualified a bit: "You can still bring him a toy, though." Harper "mailed" a letter to Santa, and also left this one for him on Christmas Eve.

The cousins got her her much coveted Baby Alive doll. Here she is opening the gift she'd longed for-- check that smile!

A few days later, she spent the night with the cousins and had a great time sleeping with Caroline and Savannah, staying up late watching movies and playing. When I arrived to pick her up, she had two french braids sprayed pink. She's the center of attention when she's at their house and she adores them!

I continue to like her school: I get little notes home letting me know the teachers are working on special projects with Harper and give her some extra challenges. Harper's the only one to have read books aloud to her preschool class, and she's the only kid allowed to pull the teacher's books off the shelf and read them alone if she wants.

Our girl continues to be sensitive, empathetic, and astute. This morning is a perfect example. I walked in her room and I suppose I didn't greet her as enthusiastically today because I woke with a sore throat. Harper climbed out of her covers and asked, "Mama, did you sleep okay last night?"
I answered, "Yeah, alright. Did you?"
"Uh, huh. I was just asking because you seem like you don't feel good."
"Actually, I don't feel well-- you're right, Harper."
How she picks up on the subtle stuff like this amazes me. She is very aware of others' feelings. Even when she is corraling Jack away from her breakable or fragile belongings, she comforts him with, "I still love you, little buddy!" Along with this emotionality comes some extra drama sometimes. Her go-to when she's feeling devastated is, "Now I'll never ____!" She emphasizes her feeling of futility, anger, or sadness by imagining the current disappointment as never-ending. Her lollipop stick breaks and the candy falls to the dirty ground? In a sensitive moment, Harper would probably stick out her bottom lip and say, "Now I'll never get to eat a lollipop!"

She is kind and loving, always looking out for Jackie. Their relationship is really developing lately. She often tries to hold his hand in the backseat of the car and sometimes he'll oblige. The other day on the way home from visiting family out of town, Jack fell asleep in the car. Harper whispered up to the front, "Mama, I just rubbed a little of my love onto Jackie". She had gently touched his hand because she couldn't resist his charming sleepiness. Another day, Harper had woken from her nap before Jackie and she came to join me in the "sewing room". She got her Hello Kitty coloring book out and colored alongside me while I finished up the last few stitches on a project. We chatted away together and after a brief pause, she asked me, "Can you feel my love, Mama?" I replied, "Yes, I can tell you just like to be near me, huh?" She answered, "Yeah." and I told her that I like to be near her too.

Here she is dressed to attend a princess-themed party. Pink, pink, pink!

and here she is at another friend, Syndie's birthday party, playing dress up.

Since she's been in school, Harper's really begun identifying with the common little girl stuff. She quickly rattles off that she likes purple and pink, Hello Kitty, My Little Pony, and Care Bears. She's figuring out the dynamics of her peer group and navigating childhood friendships.

I'm very proud of this special girl we are raising. Harper is a delight. Even in tough moments, her learning and her self is right there on the surface of her crying or mad face-- and she's a wonder even then.
.

Halloween to Election Day 2008

2008-11-05T07:50:00.001-08:00

Halloween through Election Day

2008-11-05T07:50:00.000-08:00

Fall Fun

2008-10-22T09:27:00.000-07:00

Here's Jackie at his second visit to the Pumpkin Patch. I'm guessing he doesn't remember much of his first visit, spent in the baby sling, asleep at just 6 weeks old. This year, the boy ran around, played in the dried corn, rode in the wagon, and sat among the pumpkins observing the bigger kids. Here are some photos to show the fun.

Here's a couple more photos-- first, of Jackie with Aunt Betty. Although he didn't want to be held by her, he loved on her a lot while she was here, even giving her like 10 kisses in a row when she left our house. I think she fell in love a little bit.

and here's my little one wrapped in a towel after his bath. I love that slippery worm!

and here's Jack with his big sis, playing babies together.

Buddying Up

2008-10-22T08:21:00.000-07:00

Harper got a chance to visit with Aunt Betty recently as she was out here from New Mexico for a week. Harper loved Aunt Betty; they read books together, they sat together for meals, they chatted it up (Aunt Betty even offered to take her home to NM with her several times). Harper asked "if Aunt Betty was going to be there" when we'd go places for a few days after her visit.

Here are Harper and Jack at the Pumpkin Patch, living it up sibling style.

And here are my babies playing one of their favorite games-- babies.

Oh, boy!

2008-10-10T08:13:00.000-07:00

This one is a quick shout out to our baby cousin in IL-- a little boy who is getting bigger everyday in his mama's belly. We can't wait to meet you in the Spring! Jackie is going to love having a little partner to do daring things together, like climb up on stools when you're only 13 months old, etc...

Mazel Tov, Aunt D and Uncle Marty. We love you, we're excited with you, we miss you!

Playing Around

2008-10-09T16:24:00.000-07:00

Sadie jumped up on the highchair tray to give an eager hello one morning during breakfast. Harper's not so sure...

Harper loves the Manichewitz at the holidays. Happy New Year!

Daddy with a tortilla mask... Silly Old Papoose!

With buddies at the farm... Chloe and Miles.

Mostly September

2008-10-09T15:32:00.000-07:00

Here's the family at the top of Dome Rock. Jack was glad to be tethered tightly to Mama up there, and I was glad to hold him securely on my hip, too!

Jack and Harper are becoming great buddies. The girl has always said that he's her best friend, but now that Jack is 100% mobile and talking more and more every day, they are playing more and more together. Here are a few photos documenting this deepening friendship.

(eating Dada's next-day Challah with butter, mmmmmm...)

Jack is a real family man. He's begun loving on baby dolls, giving them kisses, humming little lovey songs to the baby and rocking dollies, too. Here he is with Harper's famed "Haffie".

Although Harper's been the one up on the counter cooking with Daddy lately, Jack has absorbed some of the learning, too. Here he is whisking away.

Ever since Sue and MaryAnn's wedding a couple weeks ago, when Jack met his first horse (their "Class"), Jack loves to say "Neigh Neigh" to refer to horses. He's been so obsessed with horses that he began to call cows "neigh neigh"s, too. In an effort to correct his mislabel, we took a field trip with some buddies to the COS farm, where Jack met some real cows, sheep, pigs, a goat, and (to his delight) more horses. Here's the group: me and the kiddos, Chloe Clark, Cat and Jovie, and Erin and her boys. Grandma Arlene also came with us (she's taking the photo).

These shots show his joy. There was a bounce in his step, many smiles, signs, and animal sounds. He had a great time checking out the farm.

Jack loves being outside, and he really loved seeing the real, live animals that we've been reading about and mimicing in his board books. Here he is keeping up with the big boys.

Ponderosa Adventures

2008-09-14T20:18:00.000-07:00

Harper had a great time at the Ertls' cabin up in Ponderosa. Her "hike" to Dome Rock really wore her out so she needed to stop for a quick drink.

Even with all of that outdoor excitement, Harper found time for one of her favorite pastimes...

Bad Dreams

2008-09-10T07:55:00.000-07:00

Poor girly, poor family... we had a rough night last night. Harper woke at about 12:40 AM crying with a bad dream. It took her a while to be able to talk about it and at first we thought she wasn't feeling well. Her brow was sweaty, and after she took a few drinks and used the restroom I asked her again if she had had a bad dream. She began to cry and tell us that a monster was trying to eat her. I held the girl as she worked through some of her fear and Ethan and I reassured her that the dream, although it felt real when she was asleep, was only a dream and that real life was her lovey family and her safe house. She laid her little head on my shoulder and neck like she hasn't done in about a year (baby style) and her getting-big body shuttered as she regained her breathing. She hugged tight. When we sang "This is" to her, she wanted to get back in her bed so we set her there and sang the song with all the family members' names (she specifically requested the "Jack Jack" version), and rubbed her little back. We put on a second night light in her room and replayed "The Elephant" song. She went back to sleep hugging Hop, and Daddy told her he was going to be hugging Humphrey bear in his room and sending love through Humphrey to Hop to Harper. Harper liked that idea a lot.

At 2:30 she woke again. Ethan helped her through some more tears and she went back to sleep within five minutes.

At 3:30 she woke again. This time I told E to just bring her to our room. She climbed into bed with us and she slept there until 7:10AM. This morning when I asked her why she struggled last night she said she had seen "two hands coming through the door to get her". This is like the 10th time she's said that she's seen hands on/in her door, usually as she starts to fall asleep at night. E and I are going to try to see what might look like hands on her door tonight and see if we can problem-solve. If there's nothing shadowy causing this, then it may just be our Harper's vivid imagination and we'll continue to work on separating and delineating what is real and what is not, and reassuring her that we're always protecting her.

I guess this is the age for bad dreams. I remember having a few as a child and how terrifying they can be. They come at a time when your pretending and reality can blend so easily and you can be duped. Anyone who's played with girl in the last year knows that when she's pretending, there are moments when you can tell she isn't just playing a part but choosing to believe it, too. She gets invested in her play. If anyone out there, any moms or grandmas, dads or grandpas, uncles or aunts, have good ideas about how to help girly, please pass them on!

Jack is One!

2008-09-07T08:47:00.000-07:00

Our good boy is getting big, and he's as curious and adventurous as ever.

He's trying to talk more and I wish I could replicate for you the sound little Jack makes when you ask him how old he is. He holds up the single finger and swallows the word "one". It's clearly in his throat. And since he turned one, this kid has turned some sort of corner and all of a sudden, he's a big boy. They say the official threshold from babyhood into toddlerdom is when the kid walks and that was a big change for us. But seriously, the birthday marked a major transition for Jack. He can basically run now, and he is just tons of fun. He fake reads, much like Harper did, but his is full of 'g' sounds rather than z's. He's beginning to follow directions (i.e. "Give to Mama", "Close the door", "Put it in the hamper.", "Don't touch!")and he's trying to mimic words more.

We made Jackie's 1 year old words list (all of the words he could communicate at his birthday, including spoken and signed words). Here's the official list(as far as we can recall right now), the asterisks mean signed words:

kitty cat, said and *
cracker
car (bbb)
all done *
Mama
Dada
owl (hoo hoo)
cow (moo moo)
sheep (aaa aaa)
flower *
Itsy Bitsy Spider (puts arms up to cue us to request it)*
Twinkle, Twinkle (opens and shuts hands to request it)*
one *
sing/song (sings)
pig *
yum (mmmm)
yay *
hot, said and *
grapes (gggg)
elephant (trumpets)
bye bye
boo, said and *
beep *
phone *
bonk a head *
knuckles *
high five *
cheers *
shake *
ear *
nose *
tongue *
eye *
hair *
hat *
blow a kiss *
light *
book
up
clap*
more
quiet *
loud (laaaa)
lion *
bite/eat (smacks lips)*
monkey *
baby *
talk-talk (while holding a phone)
yes
"flap those wings" * (and makes wings' flapping sound)
crab *
silly *
cold * (and says "brr")
song/dance *

That's fifty four words. He is clearly a communicator and very involved in his world around him, but he cannot enunciate words very well yet and this is his biggest block toward acquiring more. He has a classic, ascending "uh?" sound that he uses often to get us to name things or answer whatever question in whatever context. Sometimes it means "hand that to me", sometimes it means "what's that?", sometimes it means "put on a song".

He's also a man of many faces. Here's some of our favorites that we've captured.
making the bbbbb sound, look at those lips! Ha!

rooting for Michael Phelps-- go USA!!!

doing snorty nose, the sign for flower

just the regular interested Jackie face

the upset Jack face

clapping after Uncle Marty played a song on the piano for him

Jackie adores his sister. He often gives hugs and kisses to the girl, but mostly prefers to initiate these lovey acts himself rather than have them pressed on him. When he isn't hip to the idea, he will swing his little arm to create some personal space for himself and say, "uh uh, uh uh!" This sometimes upsets the eager-to-"queeze" Harper, but she still says Jackie is her best friend, so it must not be too damaging. For as sensitive as Harper is, she has really done well rolling with Jack's babyness and they have more and more fun together all the time.

Here's Jack imitating Harper. I watched as Jack climbed up onto Harper's bed (he's quite a climber, that Jack), scoot over to the head of the bed to where girl usually sits, and pull out one of her books and pretend to read it. This is the way Jack first sees Harper every morning as we ALWAYS find her already awake, reading quietly to herself when we open her door to greet her. They say imitation is the best form of flattery...

Jack is still a Mama's boy. Here he is doing his regular lovey lean, typical of the after 7 P.M. hours.

Jack had two birthday parties: a family one and a friends one, what a lucky, loved guy. When my kids have birthdays and my house fills with the people I love, I get really grateful and happy. I am reminded every year at the end of the hot summer months that I am a part of a "village" that is remarkable. Such great, salt of the earth but simultaneously smart and sophisticated people. It's why we're still here in Visalia; we love our community. Here's a couple shots of the festivities.

And last, but not least, our boy got his first haircut yesterday. Here's a couple befores (it's getting pretty long-- looks like a rocker)...

during... (notice the red, wet face from crying... he wasn't stoked on this)

And... dum dum dum duuuuum... here are a couple after shots.

Special thanks to Erin Largoza for "cleaning up" his messy, hacked hair cut. I did my best, but it's thanks to Erin that the boy ended up cute. With two boys of her own (and a brand new baby girl, born yesterday), she's experienced and quite capable.

Ballerina Harper

2008-08-23T11:00:00.000-07:00

Today was Harper's first ballet class and she LOVED it. I was so proud of our girl. She was 100% committed, trying to do everything the teacher modeled, answering questions, thoroughly enjoying herself.

It was a very happy surprise this morning when we arrived to find that Sydnie Tyler was in Harper's class! We were so pleased that the girls get to share ballet. They stuck together through a lot of class.

It was also extra cool that Teresa (Lee) Vidak helped Harper a lot today. When it was time to learn how to skip, Harper told her, "Excuse me, my Aunt Carie showed me how to skip already!" I also heard Harper tell Teresa that her mom had taught her first position when Teresa instructed the girls to stand that way.

Her leaps were more like hops, but you couldn't fault her effort or enthusiasm.

We were all impressed with Harper's bravery (including Harper) when Harper hung from the bars.

She had a great time and we are very happy she's begun ballet. It is such fun!

Harper, circa 1982

2008-08-19T21:38:00.000-07:00

Tennis phenom Harper Sequoia

Recently

2008-08-07T15:22:00.000-07:00

Harper was very happy to have her big cousin Caroline spend the night with her last week while the rest of Caroline's siblings were away at camp. Harper adores Caroline and looks up to her very much. She likes to think of them as both-big-school-girls and Caroline is kind and gentle enough to let Harper think that they are in the same league. It's funny to watch both of their faces when they play together-- Caroline's sometimes reveals a confused amusement when Harper wants to pretend something very random, and Harper's face shows a real admiration for her wonder of a cousin.

I like this photo because you can see that expression of amazed love on Harper's face here. I got the girls matching outfits for fun (this is their second matching outfit and they don matching crocs often, too).

Here are a couple more photos of the recent girl. She helped Daddy wash our cars this weekend and she also washed her own car in the process. She had a great time.

Ever since the trip to the aquarium, Harper has loved her baby otter souvenir. Here she is with it "in her sutemi" (baby carrier).

Fran and David Lieberman visited us this week, long time friends of Arlene's who live in LA and Palm Springs and who hadn't seen Harper since she was one and had never met little Jack! They brought both kids thoughtful gifts and although Harper started the evening "feeling a little shy", she quickly lost that and played all night with David and her new dolly baby that cries and laughs. Here are some cute ones of them.

A couple days ago was Harper's actual birthday-- she's officially 3 years old. She spent the night with Grandma on her birthday eve and the next morning I came over with Jack and pinned a ribbon on her to commemorate the important day.

Grandma made matzah brei for breakfast, but girly gorged herself on a breakfast of mostly blueberries. We hung out at Grandma's in the morning (me, Jack, girl, and Grandma) and then Grandma treated us to Red Robin for the girl's special day. She left with a green balloon and was delighted and surprised when the servers sang to her. After naptime, we had the Correas over for dinner (grilled chicken and sausage with a really yummy pasta salad) so Harper got to play with Rylee that night. She's looking forward to her party on Saturday!

11 months old!

2008-08-07T08:11:00.000-07:00

Jack Jack is officially a walker! He is getting better and better all the time and can now walk across the room, pivot and turn himself 180 degrees and return. His only trouble is standing back up after he's fallen down. If he isn't near something he can pull up with, he will scoot his way to something. The result is that he's doing about 90% walking, 10% scooting these days. It is crazy how quickly the scooting/crawling phase is gone. I am going to miss his peculiar crawl-- that downhill skiier style pulling forward with his feet, dragging on his bottom. He's gotten fast at it, too! Those days are waning and as excited as I am about his new walking confidence, I am also savoring the scoots when he does them.

Here's one of the last looks at Jack doing his classic scoot.

Jack continues to be a super musical guy. He can't help but bounce to any rhythm (musical or not) that he hears. Last night we took Johnathan to dinner at Big Bubba's Bad BBQ restaurant and at some point toward the end of our meal, a rockin' song came on and two guys dressed in black did a routine of mostly popping and locking. Jack LOVED it; he bounced along and even turned around twice during it to smile proudly at Dad, as if to say, "Are you seeing this, too? Isn't this great?" Harper's about to start ballet, but we're thinking maybe Jack will be a dancer, too! Or maybe he's just very musical... he also sings a lot and even has a favorite song ("This is the Way We Get Up in the Morning" by Hap Palmer... curious thing that my two kids' first favorite songs were both by Hap Palmer-- he must have some sort of special baby appeal). That song has a lot of "ooooo"s, and Jack sings along with those parts, ooooing from his little car seat and bouncing wildly.

Meal time is definitely more finger foods lately, but he still eats some baby food (snuck in between his cracker bites, when his mouth sort of involuntarily opens in anticipation of his next bite). He doesn't eat as much thick or chunky stuff as Harper did at this age, but that is because he has half as many teeth! To keep him regular, he has some pureed prunes about every other day. Here he is with a prune mustache.

He still only has four teeth, but he's clearly working on the bottom two to flank the two in the center. His left is further along than his right... maybe he'll have six teeth by his birthday.

Jack communicates more and more as he gets bigger. He's definitely been focused on conquering the walking more than talking the past month, but he's also picked up a few words. Besides the things I've previously reported, he can do "cheers" with his sippy cup,

swing his arms for "monkey", open and close both sets of fingers together to make the pinching arms for "crab", hold a block or other object by his ear when I sing "I called you on the telephone", knock on surfaces when I sing "went to your house, knocked on the door...", splash in the bath when I tell him to, say "boo" when we play peekaboo, smack his lips to tell you he's hungry, direct his eyes at a person when you ask him, "Where's ________?" (He knows all of our families and most of our friends' names, apparently.) He's also pointing a lot more and makes it very clear that he wants something by pointing right at it, bouncing and vocalizing his impatience. The other day I showed him a few shapes with the wooden blocks: the square, the circle, the triangle, and the rectangle. I left many blocks out around him after I'd repeated it a couple times and then I asked him to put each shape in the box. He got them right about 90% of the time. I thought that was pretty good for not having the same kind of undivided lesson time that Harper used to enjoy. She learned her shapes right at age 1, so I definitely think Jackie is just as cognitively capable, but he's a different kind of guy.

Jack doesn't perform as much. He isn't as eager to please, much more internally motivated. However, he is definitely easily upset if he thinks he has displeased you! He knows the words "no", "don't", and "not post to" mean that he's done something he is not allowed to do and he will often burst into some crazy crying when he hears it. The result of that is that I don't like to see him so upset and I am tending to just divert or distract Jack from the things he can't/ shouldn't do.

The boy remains very lovey and enjoys giving kisses. Last night, Jack alternatively gave me and Ethan kisses-- back and forth between the two of us. He leans his head over on us when he feels tired or wants reassurance. Despite our attempts to put Jackie in his crib at night, he wakes pretty quickly and joins us in our bed. Knowing he's our last baby and having been through this before, E and I have more patience about things like sleep and we know he won't be in our bed forever. I am soaking in his babyness because already (little walker!) it's passing us by and someday I know I'll miss it.

Here's Jack giving Daddy his "bye bye" kiss in the morning as E leaves for work. Jackie always gets excited and gives kisses, says bye bye and waves to E. He even wants to follow Daddy outside and watch him until he's gone down the street each day.

Here's another lovey with Daddy picture. Look at that contented face.

And here's the boy with one of his best friends, Jovial Blair. We had the Blairs over for dinner the other night and it was funny that the two little ones looked like they were dressed for Sadie Hawkins dance... extra funny because after they said that, we remembered that I had taken Heath Blair to Sadie's in high school! Crazy.

Here's bathtime Jackie showing us his fish.

In preparation for his upcoming first birthday, the boy (quickly) learned how to answer the question "How old is Jack?" or "How old are you?" with the classic one finger point. It's charming!

Nearing 3 years

2008-07-22T21:44:00.000-07:00

Wow. I sorta can't believe it. Girlie is turning three in a couple weeks. On the one hand, she seems so much older than 2, but on the other hand, her life has really whizzed by. It does happen so quickly.

Harper continues to be the same girl she's always been: inquisitive, sensitive, aware, curious, busy, imaginative, purposeful, energetic. She is very sure of herself, confident in who she is. Even though she is young, she is not especially impressionable. Harper knows what she wants and she has strong opinions. She continues to have an ease with language and communicates really well. Her latest phrases include "Actually..." and "Speaking of_______, (something that relates)" She's learning to ask for things nicely instead of demand or throw fits. "Would you please help me unbutton my shirt, Mama?" was a good example of this tonight. She came to me with this question with tears in her eyes after she'd already tried herself and gotten frustrated.

When the girl is upset, our go-to is to teach her to express how she is feeling and try to tell us what is making her feel that way. We've found that when she gets her feelings validated, she recovers sooooo much quicker-- even when the answer is still no or she still has to do what Mom or Dad is asking. "I can see that you look sad when I ask you to do your potties in the toilet. I am sorry you don't want to do them right now, but we always do potties before naptime. Please obey."

It isn't always natural for me to be so rational all the time, especially on days when things aren't going as well as we'd like, but I am learning, too. My first inclination is to feel frustrated when Harper questions me or tries to disobey, but when I address her this way, I feel like it helps in many ways. 1. I remain calmer and more in touch with her heart. I treat her like a real person who has her own perspective and feelings. 2. She learns to communicate better and bring her feelings out so they can be helped, and she can feel understood. 3. She learns to respect Mom/Dad not out of fear but because we respect her first.

Harper loves school and loves the structured environment where she can play with other kids her age. She prides herself on being a "preschool girl" and reminds us when she's embarassed or not as able as she'd like that she's "still a preschool girl". A good example of this is wiping her own bottom. She hates doing it but we're trying to get her more comfortable with it since it's a pain to have to attend to her throughout the day for tukus-wiping and if she ever does poos at school, that'd be an issue. When she can't wipe well, she tells me, "But I'm still a preschool girl, Mama!" (more to reassure herself than anything).

She reads independently, every day. For the past few months we've made a concerted effort to bring home lots of early reader books from the library each week. A couple weeks ago, I noticed Harper reading in Ethan's club chair and she'd obviously turned on the lamp beside her. She was reading "Fish Out of Water" to herself. It's quite long, about 50 pages, about a fish who is fed too much and grows too large for this and that container... Anyway, she read there for about 10-12 minutes and Jack and I went into the bedroom to talk to Ethan. Shortly after we left the room, Harper came in with her book and leaned against our bed to continue reading it. She finished the last 8 pages in there with us. She'd simply moved to be near us, but she remained interested in her book and finished it there. The last pages I had her read out loud so I could hear her and see that she was really doing this. Then I questioned her a bit about the book and she recalled the whole narrative for me. She really is a gifted kid. We've known this for quite some time, but it surprises even us sometimes.

It can be tough to differentiate which things we can expect to be so grown up about her (i.e. reading, understanding and communicating her own feelings) and which things are more age appropriate (i.e. wiping own bottom). She's definitely in an in between phase and each day she becomes bolder and more of a kid, less of a baby. I wish she'd cuddle more and give me kisses every time I asked, but I am also proud that she knows what she wants and asserts herself.

She's also devastatingly beautiful. I am her mom, but I am just in love with her face, her curls, those puffy, pouty lips, those dark, dark eyes, dramatic lashes, gorgeous skintone...Whew! She says she wants to start ballet after she's three... I'm looking forward to seeing that girl in a leotard and tights, pointing her toes and extending her arms. Every year is fun with Harper. I just love her through and through.

LOVED the Aquarium

2008-07-21T21:16:00.000-07:00

10 months old

2008-07-07T08:33:00.000-07:00

Jack Jack got his own room yesterday... sort of. We'd been wrestling with the moving to the crib issue for a couple months, trying to set him in there for the first part of the night as we did with baby Harper but as soon as he'd wake crying (as babies do), this would upset Harper and we'd have two crying kids in need of consolation. So the decision was made to move his crib into the office, set up his own monitor in there, and see how it goes. Last night was the first try and he was set down at 8:45 after nursing, slept for an hour, was comforted back to sleep, slept another hour, and came into our bed with us. He then woke for the next two hours on the hour until I nursed him again at 2:45 and he slept until 6:30. My sensitive kids... when something's been changed they notice it.

Speaking of changes, Jack continues to grow up into a cutie pie big boy. He signs more words, including elephant (along with the trumpeting sound), and bird (pinchy fingers). We had a huge (bigger than my head) sunflower from our garden cut and in a pitcher on our dining table for several days, during which time he learned to do a snorty nose for the word 'flower'. He also puffs up his cheeks and blows when we read "Mirror Me" and we get to the page where cow puffs his cheeks. He also sticks out his tongue when the frog in said book "sticks out his long, pink tongue". He began signing "all done" a couple weeks ago, and uses this sign to let us know he doesn't want to eat any more. He makes the sign for water when he's thirsty. He can follow the commands "Arms up! Arms down!" and feels proud of himself for doing so. He says Dada (started on July 1st), and he says BaBa for bye-bye as well. He still uses the signs for these words as well, sometimes verbally communicating, sometimes signing, sometimes both simultaneously. Jack also says "fff--sh" for fish (which we first noticed when he was standing in front of Harper's aquarium, touching the glass), and "kkkk" for duck/quack. He can identify them in books this way, as well as point them out when asked. He also does a "vvvv bbbbbb" sound for a car.

Jack is also working on walking. That downhill skiier scoot (this side, now that side pull with the legs) is going to be gone soon (the crawling stage is such a short window of time!). Jack's been cruising furniture for a while now, but he's getting bolder, even taking a few unassisted steps (walking!) back and forth between mom and dad a few nights ago (July 3rd was when he first did it). We went to a 1st birthday party for Brooklyn Collins (Adam's daughter) this weekend and she had a push toy that you walk with. Jackie LOVE LOVE LOVED it. He pushed it along squealing excitedly. We had to distract him and give him his sucker when we finally pried it from his hands. He lets you know in no uncertain terms that he is mad when a toy is taken from him! He's a second child-- knows how to fight for his toys already! When we got home, we got out Harper's old walker/stroller and let him push it around. He loves it until he hits something and he's stopped. Then he gets frustrated.

In preparation for American Idol auditions coming up, I have recently eliminated breastfeeding until just before naptime, so he's going from his middle of the night feeding (the wee hours of the AM) until around 2 PM before nursing again. In the morning he's eating oatmeal cereal, some banana and yogurt. He is drinking a lot more water (I've tried formula, whole organic milk, and soy milk-- won't drink any of these) from the sippy cup too. Jack also eats graham crackers, bananas, Cheerios, tiny bits of bread, and he still eats a lot of baby food, preferably a tad warm.

Jackie had his first ocean experience the weekend of June 21st. We went to Cayucos with Amy and Jason. It was so nice to stay at a home, where we could have our bedroom for our family and a kitchen to feed the kids. Jack liked the water except for the coldness. He liked playing in the sand on the shore with big sister Harper, too. He pretty much likes everywhere as long as he's with his family. It was tough to keep him from being covered in sand. The first day, he (despite my best attempts to prevent it) tried to eat some sand. After discovering it wasn't so good, he never tried it again! It was funny that I'd spent so much effort trying to keep his sandy hands out of his mouth and if I'd just let him do it right away, it would've been a lot less stress in the end.

Jack's a hugger and a kisser. He will often scoot over to me, pull himself up and kiss my leg. He's also starting to do the "mm, mm, mmmmm" sound when he hugs. Today he even patted my shoulder when he hugged me. He is also a very ticklish kid, good spots include under the chin, kissing his ears, under the armpits, inner thighs, sides of ribs, feet just under toes. He cackles and laughs big belly laughs and loves to be tickled. He also sings. He does high-pitched aahhs and he vocalizes the b sound while flicking his closed lips to make the sound more staccato.

He's fun.

So Much to Report!

2008-06-18T07:52:00.000-07:00

Our enthusiastic little Jack Jack. Click this picture to see his top teeth coming in. The boy now has four teeth and seems to be working on more.

Jack has always loved being outside. Here he is in Daddy's new hammock (a birthday present from the Ertls-- thanks!) leaning over to pet Sadie.

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Jack loves kitties, but the other day while visiting the Correas their little doggie, Chuy, came over to Jack on the floor and got right in his face-- not in a threatening way, just friendly. Jack shouted and grabbed Chuy by the neck and pushed him away. It was surprising how instantly the boy defended himself; it also enlightening to see that this is how he reacts-- when he felt scared he defended himself. He didn't look up for help. He faced this little puppy head on.

Here's Jack on a recent trip to the neighborhood park. He's a swing-lover like his sister and true to his love of the outdoors, he adores stroller rides.

Check this confident, cute smile as he sits in the front of the double stroller.

Now that hes been pulling up for a month, he does it with such ease. Jackie scoots all over the house and gets to the furniture (Harper's bed right now, or the ottoman, couch, our bed, the highchair...), reaches up and ascends. He can be up in under-a-second, ready to play.

He is still very self-determined. When we call to him he begins scooting to us but often gets distracted by his own interests and diverted to something else (an interesting outlet, cord, something "chokable" usually).

He's cruising on furniture, taking steps while holding on. He is very interested in walking-- who knows when he'll take his first unassisted steps, but he is definitely bolder than Harper was. He really enjoys taking steps while a grown up holds his hands above him, (I usually narrate, "step, step, step" as we go) and the last few days he'll even take several steps while only holding one hand. His balance is improving.

His receptive language has grown this month and Jackie can follow the direction "Gimme Five", "Turn the page", "Pat, pat, pat", "Shake, shake, shake", or "Touch the ___." He demonstrates his knowledge of some animals by distinguishing them in books this way. He can also locate my nose, mouth, ears, and tongue when I ask him to touch them.

He went to the doctor's the other day for his nine month appointment. Everything looks great. He's 28 3/4 " tall, and 18 lbs. 1 oz. This means he's relatively tall and thin-ish. He has dry skin, a couple spots of excema which we keep at bay with some super thick cream I use. Sometimes I see him scratching, though, poor guy.

7 o'clock at night is his grumpy hour. Jack would probably prefer if that were his bedtime, but it's just too darn inconvenient for our family. He goes to bed at about 8:15- 8:30 by nursing and still sleeps in our bed because he wakes and when that happens in Harper's room it stresses her out. When he sleeps more soundly, he'll join her in their room but for now he enjoys the luxuries of babyhood.

He's eating more solids, but he has fewer teeth than Harper so he's not eating foods as lumpy as she was at this age. His favorites include: butternut squash and corn, turkey and vegetables, butternut squash, corn and chicken, carrots, prunes, oatmeal cereal w/bananas, and he's beginning to try puffs.

Jack is signing more. He can sign: Dada, all done, good, bye bye (with the "Ba ba" sound), hi (with the long i sound), light, eat (hand to/in mouth with a smacking lips sound), and he claps to show approval/celebration.

He continues to adore his big sister. Each morning, when we emerge from the bedroom, I ask him, "Do you want to go see Harper?" Jack kicks his little legs, and begins waving his hand, ready to greet her.

Jack is learning to give hugs and kisses. It's the classic, open-mouthed kisses. Love it!

Another important milestone: he's beginning to use the sippy cup. Yesterday he drank the most so far, probably about an ounce and a half from a sippy.

His nicknames these days are Sonny Son Son, Cutzal (like the bird Quetzal, or the Quetzalcoatlus dinosaur... but waaaaaaaaay cuter) and Cutzal McKay.

First Day of Preschool

2008-06-17T09:31:00.000-07:00

Wow... she's off and running! Our girl was very happy to be starting school today. It seems like no one in our house could sleep last night with all of the excitement and anticipation. Right at 7 AM, Harper and Daddy got up and showered together while I made the coffee and changed little Jackie's diaper. I laid out two outfit options (her new school clothes) and two options for underwear. When she came into her room wrapped in a towel, she chose the Dora panties ("Because she's a preschool girl") and the striped seersucker shirt with green shorts and sparkly silver sandals. I slipped one of my homemade clips in her hair (a pink one to match the stripe and because it stays in well). After dressing, she had her milk and part of a cartoon while I showered and dressed and Daddy packed her lunch: a PB & J sandwich, fruit snacks, a ziplock of nectarine slices, and an ice water, made complete with an "I love you Harper! Heart Dada" note.

I called her to my room while dressing and sprayed her little wrist with some of my "Eternity" by Calvin Klein perfume. I told her that some of my perfumes I wear every day and some of them I save for only the most special days. This was one of my special ones, the same scent I had worn on the day I married Daddy, the day she was born, and the day Jack Jack was born. Now I would wear it today and she would too... if she ever missed Mama, she could smell her little wrists and know that I love her very much and will see her soon. She was delighted to be treated to something so special and grown up, and I saw her smelling her wrists from time to time all morning long.

Next, she said goodbye to Daddy and sat down for her breakfast of Golden Grahams cereal (without her shirt so it would stay clean) while I fed Jack in the highchair and tried to slip in a few bites of granola and yogurt for myself. During breakfast, the girl had to go do her poos and I changed Jackie again. I was relieved that she had pooed at home and wouldn't have to ask a teacher for help wiping! I also added a note in her lunchbox, saying, "Mama loves you very much. Jack sends love, too. Hugs and kisses, Mama"

When breakfast was done, we quickly took a picture of the school girl outside in the bright morning sunlight, next to our sunflowers. Here it is.

Then we headed off to school. Here's Harper arriving.

On our way in, we found the list of classroom assignments, along with the schedule for the day. (Click to see larger and read the plan for her first day).

(Photo removed by request of another student's family.)

Harper was happy to see Mrs. Sigmund (Grandma's friend) and Mrs. Souza because she's met them before when we've come to visit, turn in paperwork, etc.

We found her cubby hole and parked her backpack in there.

Harper felt free to explore the room, stopping to check out a puzzle, a toy, going over to make a tea party.

One girl, Vivian, was clearly upset when her Daddy said goodbye and Mrs. Sigmund had comforted her to help her stop crying. Harper introduced herself to this girl, but she was too upset to engage a new friend. After Harper had set up the tea party, she said she'd made a place for me to have tea with her but I told her, "Actually, Mommy's going to be leaving soon, so maybe that should be for a buddy. Why don't we invite a friend to have tea with you?" She looked over at Vivian, who was now standing on a chair and looking out the window, hoping to see her Dad returning to rescue her. I encouraged Harper to ask Vivian to join us and Harper walked over and tapped her leg very gently. She said, "I would like to invite you to my tea party." Vivian just looked at her with a sad face and then turned back to the window. I walked over and introduced myself to her and said, "I'm Harper's Mommy, Ruth. Harper made a tea party over there and would like you to play with her. Do you want to come?" She shook her head yes, so I said, "Cool! Let's go girls!" and Vivian hopped off her chair and made her way over to the table Harper had prepared. Harper showed her which cup was hers and poured pretend tea for them both.

I gave Harper a kiss then and reminded her that Daddy would be back to pick her up after lunch. She was engaged in her party and it was a seamless goodbye. I am now home with Jack Jack napping, and I do miss the girl. I am (of course) wondering what she's doing at every moment, how she is feeling. Can't wait to hear the stories!

Gearing Up for Preschool

2008-06-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

Harper is getting excited about starting preschool in mid-June. After some agonizing and hand-wringing, we've finally made a decision and we feel good about it. Harper will be starting preschool at "Stepping Stones" in just a few days. She will attend on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.

Last night, while on our way to Porterville to celebrate my mom's birthday, E's birthday, Uncle Steve's birthday and Father's day (talk about combining occasions) Harper got my attention and I turned around in the car to find her eyes full of tears. She said, "Mama... you said that after Uncle Steve's birthday and Grannie's birthday I would start preschool and we're celebrating them tonight. I have tears because I am happy that I am really going to start preschool soon!" Ethan and I couldn't believe it. We've cried with joy before and talked about how sometimes tears mean lots of joy-- they don't always mean sadness. Apparently she's learned or experienced that feeling first hand and school is something she's been longing for and it's finally here.

Yesterday I read a short piece online about the joys and frustrations of parenting. One of the joys listed was seeing yourself in your child. I do indeed see myself in her sometimes (not to the exclusion of Ethan's influence... as Grandma likes to say, "That's so Danielle..." I am aware that being a learner is quite consistent with her other set of genes. She comes by it naturally, as they say.) I just remember how I'd consume the workbooks my mom would splurge on when I was young and between grades. I would long for school in the summertime boredom-- both because of the slow, hot hours and because I so longed for the challenges and the socializing I missed at school. My mom would sometimes buy me little workbooks to bide some time and they'd resemble the handouts we did at school. I would inevitably finish them within a couple hours and be left hungry for more.

I can see myself in her constant longing-to-learn and it is part of being a parent that I hadn't counted on. I really did start this adventure with an open mind and heart, open to the possibility that my kids may be totally different than I am and educated by my marriage and teaching experiences about how to communicate through those differences. I have to admit though, that it is so much easier to have a few things in common. I feel like I know where my girl is coming from, and I feel gratified to know how to meet those needs. She's a learner, and I try to give her more and more to learn each day, always aware of where-she-is and trying to give her just enough challenge to remain interesting along with just enough success to feel like a little smarty boots.

E and I just wanted to share that we're all excited over here. I got Harper's calendar set up at her artist table and she marks off the days and can see how close we're getting. Preschool marks a new chapter in the girl's life and we're all so happy about watching her navigate this one.

The Writer

2008-05-17T09:39:00.000-07:00

Harper is learning to write letters. Check out her latest writing samples. Here's her "Writing Process": she tells me what she wants to write, I write it on a paper and post it on her magnet board at "artist table". I sit with her as she writes and explain how each letter is made. She follows my direction with minimal help (s's are still tough for her...)

And here are a couple of her latest drawings. The first is a picture of Rylee and Harper (left to right) and the second is another favorite subject of hers: flowers. Note the green stems and colorful tops.

Harper and her Best Buddies

2008-05-17T09:25:00.000-07:00

Harper loves and enjoys her buddies. Here she is with her oldest friend, Miles Largoza.

And here she is with her newest friend, our neighbor, Rylee Correa.

Healed!

2008-05-17T09:22:00.000-07:00

Harper and I made "Wellness Crowns" for her and Jack this week. Turns out, there's power in the crown! What improvement, huh?

Dalmatian Boy

2008-05-15T07:38:00.000-07:00

Jack had pneumonia last week and ended up with an allergic reaction to the amoxicilin and broke out in hives. He doesn't seem to be too fazed by it but it looks something awful.

8 months old with a mind of his own!

2008-05-12T09:53:00.000-07:00

Jack Jack is getting to be a big boy and enjoys exploring and playing alone more and more. He's gotten markedly more mobile in the last couple of weeks, rotating 360 degrees in the sitting position, traversing the floor in pursuit of a toy by pulling with his legs in the sitting position as well. When he nears the toy he wants, he will lean onto his hands (over his knees) to reach it, but then quickly sits back on his rear to inevitably bite the thing.

Speaking of biting, he is working on his top two teeth. The gums have been swollen for a couple weeks now and the other day I thought I saw his top right one poking through the gums. It's hard to confirm because when you try to pry, the boy purses his lips tightly and won't allow a gander. Nevertheless, from the occasional finger bite and quick glance I think it's safe to conclude that the teeth are coming in.

Last week was pretty rough for the little one. Jack started the week with a low fever, which I attributed to his teething. Monday and Tuesday he just wasn't his usual cheery , babbling self and his sleep (and ours) was severely disturbed. I held him by my side all night long (our usual arrangement) and noticed that his breathing was labored. He was working way too hard to breathe. By Wednesday with no improvement, I decided I needed to take him in to be checked out by a professional. I'd noticed a wheezy sound that bothered me. The doctor said she heard something in his lungs and ordered a chest x-ray. It was sad to watch Jackie get his x-rays. The contraption was medieval-looking, and certainly uncomfortable for the boy: sitting on a bicycle seat-like thing, held in a clear plastic tube with a cut out for the face, clasped closed to hold his arms straight up. The good news was that the results were conclusive and treatable-- Jack had pneumonia in both lungs and was prescribed an antibiotic. Although I hate to hear that antibiotics are necessary, there is an element of relief when I do-- at least I know that a couple days from now, the kid will be much better. When it's "just a virus", we're looking at another week or more of a sick kid. He's slowly improving.

On a happier note, Jack loves music. I put on the "Latin Playground" Putumayo CD yesterday (a gift for the girl from Raquel) and when each new song would start, Jack would begin bouncing to the beat and dancing-- very aware of the new tune and enjoying each one. He also really likes and responds to my singing. It can make otherwise uncomfortable situations (like diaper changes) more bearable.

Little Jack is a talker and a singer. He likes to draw out vowel sounds in sing-songy ways, muffle his voice with his hand to create different rhythms, and experiment with new consonants all the time. The newest sounds to emerge are the g and k sounds, but his favorite fake-words have lots of y's in them.

Jack is enjoying books more and more too. He wants to touch each page and is learning to turn pages and open and close books. He has a couple soft cloth books, one of which is about farm animals (why is it that all kids love farm animals?) and he really likes playing with the many textures. When I read a couple pages, one animal on each side of the page, I can ask him to touch one or the other and he'll accurately do so. It's fun to begin these little tests and start to see that his receptive language is definitely there. As they say, he understands much more than he can speak. Another favorite book is "Peekaboo kisses", where different animals say peekaboo and readers are urged to kiss them. Jack began kissing them about a week ago, leaning in with an open mouth and giving each his little baby love. We'll work on transferring that skill to actual people ASAP because I can't wait for the day when I get an actual kiss from Jack, not just stolen ones!

I woke up this morning with an immobile neck and I know it's from holding the extra-needy Jack so so much, even while pulling weeds and gardening all day Saturday. My lovey husband saw that I was in no shape to be solo with the kids today, so he called in sick to help me out. As I type, he is sitting with Harper on his lap, singing different songs to the kids from the "Children's Song Treasury" book. Jack scooted up to them and sings and bounces along to the songs. He's enjoying their company and the songs, but occasionally looks over at me plaintively and says "Mama, Mama..." and does his closed-mouth mmm sound to register complaint or frustration.

This morning E and I decided to test out Jack's mobility to see if his movement was really purposeful. We see him in different places (hey, he was three feet over this way five minutes ago!) but it's been tough to confirm how much intention was involved. We set up the cell phone and pacifier to motivate him and he did make his way to them, several feet away. He scooted on his bottom, pulled forward by his feet to the toys.

One thing we've noticed with Jackie is worth noting, though. He's more motivated by his own ideas and desires than the urging of others. He's a self-motivated dude, not easily impressed with our ideas. It's not very convenient for getting any kind of routine established or getting him to nurse when my boobs say he must be hungry. No matter how often I offer ninny milk or how long it's been since he last ate, the boy won't take it until he decides he's ready for it. He has a mind of his own and feels very confident making his own decisions. It's admirable and interesting for such a young guy to be so in control of himself. I hope that we surround him with good options and experiences so that he will always choose well for himself.

He's more and more fun daily. Harper says he's a fuzzy, cute, and funny boy.