Hallowe'en through Thanksgiving: Photos

It's been a long time! We are moving in two weeks, I spent a week at a conference in Dallas (where I got to see good friend Lars and his family!), and I am writing this from Columbus, where we went for Thanksgiving. Below are simply some photos from the last month, with captions. From Susan and Sam and Tim, happy Thanksgiving!













Aunt Amy visited in November; here she is with Sam at the Play Museum.















And here Sam is, exploring a plasma tube he'd never really noticed before. (Facing the other way is a documentary on the horrors of war, set to Stravinsky--I was glad to distract him with this!) He also played with a "connect four" game, which in his case is more of a "stack chips and then watch them plunge to the table while you giggle" game. At one point while we were playing a boy a few years older came over and stood very still behind us in the little alcove. He said nothing for a long while (except "bless you" when I sneezed). Finally I shot him a questioning look and explained that he was playing hide-and-seek. A real pro, by the look of it.



















Here is Sam with Uncle Stu at a playground called "Planet Westerville". It's a large wooden castle-like structure, and a huge amount of fun for a toddler to run around in.













And here's Sam with Cousin Emily, looking appropriately put-upon by being photographed!













Here's the Collins clan at Thanksgiving. The high point of Thanksgiving was perhaps the final evening before our departure. One thing led to another, and we found ourselves gathered in the living room shooting the breeze and watching Stu check the charge of nine-volt batteries with his tongue. Amy claims she was just joking when she suggested doing this to a fresh one.

No medical personnel were needed.

Oh, and there was the giant glowing inflatable turkey across the street which Sam, without prompting and repeatedly, referred to as a "love chicken". When asked why, he explained that it was "sweet".














And here's Sam with "Aunt" Carolyn, a long-time close friend of the family. She visited with us over the holiday and gave Sam another (different but compatible) marble racer, which has already been a tremendous amount of fun! Thanks, Aunt Carolyn!

No, Really

This evening we were at a potluck at Sam's Montessori school. The school is located in a public elementary school in Brighton, a classy suburb. Near the end I gave Susan a little time to eat some cake while I took Sam wandering around the hallways. While doing so we ran across a couple of middle-aged adults playing violin in a hallway. They were playing Bach's double violin concerto, even, and doing a very nice job of it!

Sam was very interested, and wanted me to carry him close by to listen. This alone is noteworthy, given the cloud of frenetic children he'd just been surrounded by. He wasn't alone: there were about four other toddlers sitting there for the impromptu concert. (Sam sat next to a little girl with chubby cheeks and curly brown hair who smiled and flirted with him.)

For a long time the two violins played simultaneously, but at one point, as dictated by the music, one violin was playing while the other was silent. It was at this point Sam looked over at me and said, excitedly, "he won!"

* * *

We've noticed that Sam has a good ear for music. The other night the three of us were listening to Messaien's Quartet for the End of Time on the radio. Being influenced by experiences in a Nazi POW camp, it's a little more existentialist and modern than I am used to, but we were interested to hear it. Sam referred to it as "spooky."

Well, at one point Sam and I went down to the basement to play a little, and you could only faintly hear the music in the distance. Sam, at one point, was trying to figure out what the noise was in the distance and asked me. I said, What noise? He replied by singing half a dozen notes of the melody, nailing the pitches!

Another time he identified Vivaldi's Gloria when we were driving someplace, because I had a tendency to listen to it when taking him to the zoo. After his third birthday we will be taking to a weekly music class at his school. I suspect, it being Montessori, this will involve wandering around and playing various "ethinic" instruments. Maybe it will help him develop rhythmic skills? Almost certainly he'll have fun.