Christmas, Round #1

A good weekend: small group on Friday (Jaclyn sat both boys with her usual aplomb) and friends for pizza and holiday cheer on Saturday night. Sunday I worked with Sam to make an ornament for him to give Susan as a Christmas present. Then we opened gifts from Nana, Grandad and the Westerville Collinses. A good time was had by all.

This was followed by a viewing of The Nativity Story, which none of us had seen. I have a real fondness for that movie. And I think it helped make the events celebrated at Christmas much more real for Sam. Certainly did for me.

Next stop, South Dakota! Merry Christmas, all.

Zombie brains

 From Susan:

Sam got the Dr. Dreadful Zombie Lab for his birthday from a friend. I have to admit, it's kind of cool! The little "experiments" really work and are quirky (pour stuff into the skull, press something and it comes out the nostril and fizzes...stuff like that). 

Yesterday while Sam bounced in his exersaucer, Sam and I made the Zombie Bugs (inject stuff into molds to make gummy candy) and Zombie brains.

The brains were actually quite good. Sam, amazingly, doesn't like any of it. But, purist that he is, he still enjoys the ``experiments.''

Again from Susan:

The first thing we made with this "lab" was called "zombie vomit," and it was way, way grosser -- had a mucousy texture and I can barely bring myself to taste the tiniest bit. The zombie brains were much better.

Saturday we left Josh briefly in the crib and returned to find him standing, laughing and looking extremely pleased. It was as if he were saying, "I see you guys standing all the time--and look, I am standing too!"

Sucking on the railing as well. That's more his thing than ours.

Finally, he Joyful Singers (1st grade and under) singing Mary Had a Baby at our church. We are officially not supposed to sit up front and videotape our kids. (The focus of worship is God, after all.) Didn't stop me. Fortunately, the ipod is small enough to surreptitiously palm. Notice the kids are actually singing! Ms. Walsh did a great job with them.

I have come down with S. A. D. D., so this post may be fragmented. No, it's not Seasonal Affective Disorder. It's Seasonal Attention Deficit Disorder. Finding it hard to maintain a train of thought.

So, the photos.

Josh playing with tinsel.

We have an Austrian pine. What do you have?

Also, several photos of a gingerbread house Susan and Sam made. Susan provided the construction materials and Sam did the assembly and decoration.

This is was for a classmate's birthday party a week ago. The friend's mother bought gingerbread houses as a group activity. They weren't safe for someone with a peanut allergy, so Susan made one ahead of time for Sam to use. As you can see, it worked splendidly.

As is usually the case, the cake was also not Sam-safe. So Susan made and brought a cupcake for Sam. Turned out to be a good thing, since the chocolate cupcakes the friend's mom bought had chili powder in them. Yes, they were meant to be gourmet, and in the spirit of some spicy mole sauces, they were zippy. It's unclear why the bakery cashier didn't mention this when told they were for a birthday party.

Happily, Sam's just tasted like chocolate. :-)

Some Thanksgiving photos

Not a lot of text this time, but a few notes. We did a whirlwind Columbus trip.  Very good to see family, and enjoyed meeting Stu's new friend and conversation partner, Hiaming. 

Susie and Stu gave Sam five Mo Willems Elephant and Piggy books. These were the perfect level for Sam to read himself, which he has spent hours doing. We decided to donate a book to his class to mark his 6th birthday. Today school he'll read it to the class, as is the tradition. 

Also shown, the family with Grandpa Gene. This is the fruit of several photographic attempts.

And Mom at the C.O.W.S. show in German Village. Hers is the top photo, "Pop Art." Mom and Sam are shown conversing outside the exhibition site. 

Dad and Sam are pictured excavating--an archeology project given Sam by the Mansons for his birthday. I believe I mentioned it in the last posting. Since then we have abandoned the weak little plastic tool they provide in favor of a screwdriver pounded with a pair of pliers. He's found a shark tooth, a green gem, some iron pyrite, a few fossils and at least one rock. Maybe finish it tonight?

Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving!

A passel of photos and some news

Shown first--a fun birthday gift from the Mansons to Sam. It's a block of clay which has imbedded in it ten things to find, including fossils, a shark tooth, a gem, and rocks. The owner is to slowly chip away with authentic-looking tools. Sam's been having a lot of fun with it.  Didn't hurt that he found the shark tooth right away. I've given him a center punch to use which has sped up the excavation a little. Thanks, Mansons!

Also shown at the bottom of this post: Sam's new Drinking Glasses, being enjoyed with milk. Never has it looked more studious to drink milk! Thanks, Nana and Grandad!

Josh continues to thrive. He loves to suck on the finials of our dining-room chairs--he's pictured here taking a break from enjoying one. He's now able to pull himself up to a sitting position, which is typically followed by his crowing with delight while playing with some previously-unreachable toy.

Speaking of unreachable, we need to baby-proof the house. This weekend we twice had a fire in the fireplace and Josh eyed it with great curiosity.

We may also just not leave him alone with a fire.

The real news this past week was Grandpa Gene's visit. From what I've been told, all went well and the visit was a smashing success. (If for no other reason than no one got sick! Last visit from Grandpa Gene saw him sick with a stomach 'flu. It took no little courage, I think, to return to Rochester.)

Grandpa Gene played with Josh and read to Sam and a good time was had by all. It's especially nice to know we'll see G. G. before the year is out...

And now, I leave you with this, from Susan:


Sam (having just been returned to his bed): But I'm scared.
Me: What are you scared of?
Sam: Monsters.
Me: Fortunately, as you well know, there's no such thing as monsters.
Sam: Burglars.
Me: No...it's a safe house, well-lit, good neighborhood...
PAUSE
Sam: Meteor showers?

News from out west

 Actually, no news, just some pictures.

When I began this post, I was in Salt Lake City at a conference.

I decided not to post it until my return, just to be safe.

These photos are from a skype session with the family.

So glad to be back.  :-)

More photos and news to follow!

A.A. visit

At school Sam's class made flags from around the world

A recent, heart-warming conversation:

Sam: All kids are not orphans, are they?
Susan: No. An orphan is someone without any parents, living in an orphanage.
Sam: I know. I wish I could be a orphan because it sounds exciting
Susan: Wouldn't you miss your parents? You can't do that--your parents would miss you too much!
Sam: Well, if I were a orphan, you'd be dead or something, right?

A psychologist will give this as evidence that Sam feels safe in his current context and relationships. 

Really.

Quality/TV time

Amy visit this weekend. As you can see, she caught up on a little sleep.  :-)

She also attended small group with us (not that there was much choice--we hosted!) and went to Sam's music class and the library with us as well and played with Sam and held Josh. Very good getting some Amy time!

And witness Sam's breaking open of geodes he just received from Nana and Grandad. (See movie.) Sam was very thrilled!

He enjoyed the geodes enough that last night he indicated some large geode bookends I have, and said he'd like to have those too. 

So not only would life be more exciting with us dead, he is already picking through our belongings. Well, the geodes, anyway.

Josh and Sam have head colds, and Susan's starting down that road too. Not terrible, but Josh is having trouble sleeping while lying down. You know, the preferred way. Ah, well: First-World Problems.

Have a great week!

Special Hallowe'en Edition

 Summary: Sam had the most fun he can legally have at this age, and Josh was accepting of being dressed up like a jack-o-lantern and hauled around the neighborhood.

Nice weather. Brisk but dry, with a hazy moon.

Sam was in heaven, running from door to door talking loudly and non-stop about pretty much everything he was seeing and receiving.

The neighborhood houses put on a decent show. One house clearly had a bachelor, as he was handing out FULL SIZE candy bars.

Boy, peanut-butter cups are popular! They will all get migrated to the lab, where they can't hurt anybody, just make us fat. Susan had a primo stash on hand to swap for Sam's peanutty haul. We barely bothered with dinner, and in fact Susan and I ate at 9:30 once everyone was down.

I understand in a neighborhood near Ruth's they had hundreds of kids come through. (Ruth, is this right?) Wow! Katie posted to fb with the dire message "Out of candy in 10 minutes!", which reads like a wartime post from the the front: "Out of bullets in ten minutes." Hopefully she wasn't overrun by Fuzzy Wuzzies. (ah yes!)

On the way in this morning I wished Sam a happy All Saints Day. Being in a Reformed church, that holiday's been squashed by Reformation Day. Really a shame, if only for the hymns which are lost. "For All the Saints" is amazing. (Why couldn't they have chosen one of the nameless Sundays in Pentecost? Or, as they call it, "ordinary time.")

Anyway, told him that the day after Hallowe'en is All Saints Day, when we remember all the Christians who have gone before.

Also had to warn him that no one at school will have any idea what he's talking about if he mentions this--a common refrain these days, since we read about the Gerasene Demonaic on Saturday and I had to tell him all about demons. (He did tell me this morning that a girl in his class, Meliss, is both allergic to nuts and believes in God! I asked how he knew the latter and he said he simply asked her.)

But back to All Saints': As an example of a Christian we might remember fondly I used our predecessor Jonathan Brace Hammond, a Methodist circuit-riding preacher in upstate NY. Sam, who now judges ancestors by his connections to Gov'r Bradford and, through Uncle Paul, the Wright Bros., immediately asked if Hammond was famous. No, but still important.

Weekend fun

This weekend Trevor came over for an afternoon play date. They played outside a lot--it was sunny, if cool--including vast stretches of time on the rope swing. Here they are shown creating a graveyard out of leaves and sticks. Sam's idea, I think.

I've uploaded several Josh movies:

• Josh, in a good and chatty mood
• Josh exhibiting his crawling technique when Susan's cell phone is placed in view. (Also shown: Emily, Trevor's mom.)
• Josh playing with a mostly empty bottle

It was a quiet weekend. Rochester didn't get any of the snowy weather, just sun with a chill in the air. We carved pumpkins Sunday.

Sam and Josh preparing for bed

Also practiced bicycling with Sam. He's not yet able to balance, so I run or walk next to the bike holding his shoulders. They said this bike is too big for training wheels, and anyway, the trend is to take the pedals off entirely and let the kid walk the bike around til he gets used to balancing it. Unfortunately, it's a little high for him to do that.  I expect what we'll do is practice a few more times before winter arrives in earnest, and by next spring he'll be tall enough for me to remove the pedals and let him practice without them.

An alien on an alien planet, with his dwelling

After our bicycling session Sam asked me if "una" means one, and "bi" means two, and "cycle" means wheel. :-)

I uploaded a drawing Sam did at bedtime last week. He's always looking for ideas for what to draw. He's picky, though; he rejects most of the ideas we come up with. This one he took: An alien standing outside his home on his alien planet. His comment on this drawing is that he likes to add lots of detail.

In two weeks Sam has his birthday, and the same day Grandpa Gene arrives for a week! We are all extremely excited about that!

This last week Josh slept through the night for the first time. 11 PM-6:30 AM. It's not commonplace yet, but is a good sign for the future.

Enjoy the movies, and have a good week!

Westerville Collinses

The big news here is a visit by Stu and Sue and Kevin. They were up for less than 48 hours (like an Amy visit only slightly shorter), but we managed to play pool (Stu & Sam and I), visit a local orchard for fresh apple pie, cider and donuts, get lost on the way to the orchard and wander into Walworth, NY,  and enjoy a communal Josh bath. Sue also got some reading time in with Sam, and lots of face time with the smallest of our faces, Josh's. A good time was had by all!

Josh had his first Cheerios over the weekend. Didn't quite know what to do with them, but then maybe he wasn't hungry at the time. Still, fun to watch. This video is from Monday showing Josh's propensity for holding forth, old-man style, while eating.

Josh is showing more personality. The other day Susan was sitting on the floor with him. She decided to pick up a little, and moved a book which was lying near him. At this, Josh yelled at her and then painstakingly crawled over her leg, grabbed the book, and carried it back, putting it right back where it was. So there!

Both boys are well. These days during the drive to school Sam requests "the song both you and I really like", Take My Hand by Shawn McDonald. (Here live if you prefer.) That's often accompanied by the classic All You Zombies.

This morning Sam was excited to put birthday invitations, which he'd labeled, into mailboxes at school.

I got to chat with Danielle, his art teacher, about what they are doing in class.  Sounds really good:  They are doing a project inspired by a video game called "Big World Little World" or something like that.  She's taught them about thumbnail sketches, about value (light to dark), and since they are currently working in colored pencils she's taught them about different shading styles including pointilism and cross-hatching.  

She says they will show their work in December around the time of the holiday party.  She will have sparkling grape juice and cheese and make it like a real art show.  The entire class before the show will be spent learning how to mount their artwork for the show.

Sunday Sam went to a birthday party for his friend Ian. The party was at a party facility so the kids got to run around on indoor playground equipment, play a limited number of games (and win miniscule prizes) and there was even a roller-skating area. Sam tried that and fell down a LOT but was never bothered by it and had a great time.

Sam's been having stomach aches daily. Anxiety? Yet he's also been happier lately.

Hope you are all well!

he crawls!

Just happened this a.m., so no video yet. Susan points out it's a modified army crawl. She motivated it using her cell-phone charm, which he is OBSESSED with--when he saw it he shifted to high gear, his little legs trembling with anticipation.

You can really imagine him crawling through trenches and under barbed wire on the front lines to rescue a fallen buddy.. or suck on a fuzzy cell-phone charm.

This morning I gave Sam a bowl of dry cereal to eat on the couch. A little later we were both wondering where it had ended up. Sam, in a great example of rhetorical jujitsu, says, "You were the last one to give it to me."

Sam continues to study and enjoy his poster of all the Marvel superheroes and heroines. Last night at bedtime he was looking through the vast array, then excitedly ran downstairs to Susan and asked, "Mommy, have you been wondering what She-Hulk looks like?"

[Yes, there's a female Hulk, created by Stan Lee after the TV series did well. One wonders: if that's her name, why isn't he the He-Hulk? Ana points out that she was a lawyer--who, in fact, argued before the Supreme Court (Ana, is that the cover you have framed on your wall?), when not busy battling Titania.]

From worst to second best!

Tickling a very tired Josh

 

Friday night Lexy came over for a playdate. I should have good stories from that, but I really don't. We were happy they played well together.

Saturday afternoon I took Sam and Josh to the Play Museum.  We hadn't been there in a long time.  Their new exhibit is on football, including plaques with center-of-motion and moment-of-inertia equations for those kids who are interested. Also, Batman himself was present to pose for photos with kids. Oh, and Word Girl and SuperWhy.  (Word Girl rocks, for those not familiar with modern PBS offerings.)

Sam couldn't be bothered with any of them. I was barely able to drag him to see what Batman looked like, and he was careful not to get in line for WG or SW. His real goal was to confirm that the poster of Marvel superheroes in the permanent superhero exhibit is the same as the one now hanging on his wall. Yes, yes it is! Which is why I chose it. That it cost 44 cents from Amazon ($4 shipping) didn't hurt.

We also went to the butterfly exhibit at the PM. Sam was wearing a red fleece and one butterfly was convinced he was a flower, landing on him a couple of times, til Sam said he really didn't want a butterfly on him anymore, and we wandered away to other parts of the atrium.

Friday night we went to a neighbor's Hallowe'en party. Two hours of kids in a permanent floating scrum increasing the entropy of the local toy collection. We had a pleasant time hanging out and talking to other parents. Josh is shown here in his first costume.

What else? Not much. In Sunday school Sam's class re-enacted Noah's Ark by bringing in a vast collection of stuffed animals. Emily, our friend who teaches the class, even had a CD of sound effects for the purpose, including the sound of the rain and the ark finally hitting Ararat.

They were short on birds, so the penguin had to go get the olive branch.

Sam is enjoying his first video game, of Clifford the Big Red Dog, sent by his birth grandma Susan!

Picked out pumpkins. Need more decorations. And cider and doughnuts.

As for the title: In a fit of misery and anger Sam gave me the title Worst Parent in the World early in the weekend. It was for not letting him draw downstairs when it was time for bed, and then not being willing to read aloud to him from one book while he paged through another, not listening.

By the end of the weekend some fluke made me Second-Best Person on Earth. The first is Jesus. I wasn't sure if perhaps Mommy would take that spot. It was for cuddling in bed with him during reading time. I told him that whether I was best or worst, I still loved him all the same.

One last note: Josh still isn't crawling, and is still not yet convinced eating sloshy pseudo-solids is better than the bottle. We'll get there, and have fun doing it. :-)

A rare visitor

Last weekend we had a real treat--Colleen Zeeman of Brookings, SD visited us. She was in Buffalo with Dave for a conference and took the train over. Aside from the hour delay due to a hazmat train in front of them, all went smoothly. Colleen was so helpful as well holding Josh that we almost cancelled her return tickets. Then realized Dave might object. And we don't really want to wander into a remake of Steve Kings Misery.

 

Josh continues to work on eating. Each kid is different, that's for sure. Sam made a mess but definitely got into eating. Josh is often delighted just to suck on the washcloth we would otherwise us to wipe his face. It's enough of a oddity from the natural kingdom that we thought a very brief video was in order.

This past weekend... well, to really describe it, I'd need to remember it. Hmm. Gorgeous weather. Two trips to L. L. Bean, which gave me a full refund of over $300 for a coat which is over 20 years old. Why, you ask? The salewoman actually told me this is their policy and urged me to bring it in and exchange it for one which is not disintegrating. Really, it was their idea!

I could try to tie this in to Sam and Josh, this being their blog. I could mention Sam had a lot of fun hiding among the racks of clothes. I could mention the endless cooing at Josh on the part of the many saleswomen.

But really I am writing this because if you have already bought a coat at L. L. Bean, you should. When Susan started to say, "But we can't really accept this much ow" the "ow" was the salewoman kicking her in the shin so she would stop talking. We were chatting with that saleswoman later she said, "We should accept God's gift graciously." Amen.

Really, not much else happened over the weekend. Sunday night was Family Movie Night, and we watched a hitherto unknown Scooby Doo movie involving ghost pirates, a short mesmerist and Fred's parents sporting exaggerated midwestern accents. Much fun was had by all.

To end, two exchanges Susan recently had with Sam:


Susan, taking Sam's hand as we cross the street: You'll always be my little boy, won't you? Even when you're taller than I am?
Sam: Well, even when I'm taller than you, I'll always be younger, right?

* * *

(later) Sam to Susan: I hope someday I get married and my wife has a baby, and then I can
play with the baby and make it laugh.

Sam's been very good with Josh. So neat to see genuine affection of the boys for each other. (At least til Josh can crawl and get into Sam's stuff!)

Josh in the exersaucer

WHAT FUN!  He'll work away at the toys in front of him as if he were sitting at his office desk. Then he'll notice someone looking at him, get excited to have made contact, and start bouncing up and down happily.

It also turns out to be a great cure for constipation, if that's ever a danger. (Why don't they market these for adults? Just put a tv screen on it...)  When combined with antibiotics, which lead to somewhat loose stools, the result can be, well, expansive.

So glad he finished the antibiotics yesterday!

I love to compare photos from when Sam was Josh's age. Somewhere I have a great one from the exersaucer.  Here's a silent movie, in fact. In lieu of the photo I want, here's a fun one of a very young Sam:

High of 50 expected tomorrow. Fall's here. Wonder what everyone's planning for the weekend?