Memorial Day in Columbus

...which meant Josh got to finally meet Aunt Amy, Aunt Sue, Kevin and cousin Em! And generally get passed around for feeding, sleeping and cuddling.

The drive down to Columbus, thanks to God's merciful care, went just fine. Josh slept almost the whole way. It took 50% longer than usual, but that's not unexpected.

Got to enjoy Columbus in late May, which we rarely get to see. It's Columbus at its finest, when Rochester is still cool and Columbus is well into summer.

We got to be present for, and celebrate, the high-school g

raduation of Sam and Josh's cousin Emily. Congrats, Em! Tuesday night we celebrate the same for his cousin Katie from SD. Woohoo!

As I write this I can hear bird noises coming from my parents' bedroom. Mind you, it's 11 PM.

After church this morning (at St. Pat's), one of the clergy, Cricket, had golf on the lawn for the kids. Sam was 50% of the kids and contributed his fair share of enthusiasm, especially after it transitioned to kicking a big bouncy ball. Fittingly, inside Dad was leading Sunda

y school on the topic of The Theology of Golf.

Great to see everyone! Looking forward to a repeat over the next month and a half!

Mobile fun

Josh's graduated to the crib, and with it the plush safari-animal mobile. He saw it for the first time at 11 pm last night when he was starting to pass out. Instantly he was awake and excited, talking to them and us.

A new Josh experience for me last night: It was my turn to give him a bottle at 2 AM. Susan handed it to me as I sat in the rocker, Josh in my lap.

Next thing I knew, I came to, and the bottle was empty and sitting nearby and Josh was asleep in my arms. I have no memory of giving him the bottle, and at first thought I hadn't. First time I've ever fed anyone in my sleep!

Today is Science Friday at MSR (but on Wednesday). I am bringing in a guest scientist: my officemate John. The theme is Projectiles and Rockets. He'll show an air rocket (a nerf toy), a water rocket, and some chemical rockets (Estes B and C). And the coup de grace will be the trebuchet he and his son built a year and a half ago as a high-school project. Should be fun! We'll use it to shoot tennis balls and water balloons. We'll even have the LLE staff photographer, Eugene, on hand, so I hope to have a photo or two to share in a future post.

Oh! And as a bonus, here's a time-lapse movie I found of the same sort of antfarm as Sam has.

Good weekend! Really enjoying some warm weather which has come our way.

Shot off water rockets with Sam. Went well above the height of the house.

Cleaned out the garage while Sam played around, pausing only briefly to set some things on fire using a 3'x4' Fresnel lens.

Sam is doing really well with Joshua. He is patient with him and enjoys trying to interact. Joshua is often in a chatty mood and happy to exchange burbles and incoherent phonemes back and forth. The greatest challenge here is keeping Sam from being in Josh's face.

The greatest thing in Sam's world, though: Using Christmas money from Grandpa Gene, Sam has now received in the mail an ant farm! It has LEDs which gradually change color, and about a dozen and a half ants at the top of a container filled with gel. They have already begun digging down into it. Sam is THRILLED to watch their progress and has all but named each one.

We let him put it on his night stand to look at as his gently drifted off to sleep, underestimating the looking and overestimating the drifting. Finally, well past when he's usually asleep, Susan went in and sang to him a little, beginning with "The Ants Go Marching One By One". :-)

Btw, the ant farm directions say the ants are all female. Sam has named them all Rosemary. (I asked why all the same name and Susan countered, Can *you* tell them apart?)

grandad -n- nana!

My parents, a.k.a. Nana and Grandad, visited for a long weekend, arriving Wednesday night and leaving after church today. We had a marvelous time and were reminded of how lucky are those who have grandparents living in the same city!

Dad oiled squeaks, fixed striker plates, figure out a sneaky way to deal with an old and peeling heat register, and even held and fed Josh. And Dad proved a natural at burping the newest Collins.

Mom was invaluable in her Josh care as well, giving us hours of child care, so we could (while Sam was at the VandeBrakes', bless their hearts!) make tremendous inroads on our garage, which we think of fondly as the heart of darkness.

At least as much fun as getting those things done and enjoying the blessed break Mom and Dad afforded us was the chance to just chat and catch up, and even watch the occasional Columbo mystery.

One great joy has been a new hobby for Sam, Perler Beads. These are little plastic beads of different colors which get put on peg boards to make fun patterns. An iron is used to melt them into permanence. After, they can be fixed with a magnet for use on fridges.

Sam's made over 20 in the past week. These include butterflies, cupcakes, an alligator, a Jerusalem cross, geometrical patterns, and most recently a huge (4"x4") cross between the face of the Incredible Hulk and his blond friend Ian.

Right now it's almost 10 pm, and time to finished chores and jump into bed. Two nights ago Josh suffered from the Knives of Gas from 4 am til 7. Last night he just wanted to be fed every two-3 hours, with the occasional bout of gas pains. But recently we had a glimpse of glory in a night with just two feedings and no long digestive palliative sessions. After such a pleasant visit, one finds it much easier to hope for easier nights, soon.

Chika, Hideto, Ryo and life since

Ten days ago, our good friends from Japan, Chika and Hideto, and their son Ryo (who is 8), visited for four days. It was great to see them! We visited the Play Museum, hiked in Linear Park, went out for Mexican and Japanese (though not at the same time), and had a great time catching up. Chika was tremendously helpful in holding and feeding Josh while we did other things, and Ryo was also enamored of the littlest guy, often asking to hold him.

Since then Sam has also gotten into the act, as you can see.

They struggled with sleep during their time here. I am still unsure whether they ever made it onto a diurnal schedule.

Since then... since then's been a blur. Susan's birthday, Mother's Day, and about every other night going well these days. Yesterday took Sam and Josh to the zoo.

Josh was content being wheeled around in the stroller and Sam always enjoys t

he zoo.

We often see something new. This time, two: We got to see the tiger at feeding t

ime, ripping open a paper box filled with hamburger.

And we got to see two large tortoises working on making little tortoises while a teenage girl stood by giggling. Could have done without the latter. The former brought to mind the Ogden Nash poem,

See the happy bounding flea

You cannot the he from she

But she

can tell, and so can he.

Other than that, not much going on. Which is good--that's plenty.

Friday movie

Nothing special--but you get to see Joshua awake!

Deep questions

Had an interesting conversation while driving Sam to school yesterday. Listened to Weird Al's song "Bob" (the lyrics are all palindromes) and music from the Incredibles sound track (which has made him want to learn trumpet).

Sam pointed out a sign with a fire on it announcing a fire fighters' fund raiser. I told him how at traffic lights they go around with boots asking for money.

He said, "Like that poor man you gave money to." (You never know what will make an impression.) I said yes, and a moment later he said, "Sometimes poor people can have white skin."

Suddenly, unbeknownst to him, it's an Important Conversation.

I asked him, and he said poor people usually have brown skin. I asked why. He wasn't sure, and turned it back on me.

First I said that when your parents are poor you are more likely to be poor.

Then I added that sometimes people are unfair to brown-skinned people. He got excited about that because that triggered all sorts of other things he knew, like how African-Americans used to have to go into theaters through different doors, and sit in the backs of buses.

I asked if he knew how that stopped, and he excitedly explained the African-Americans just stopped doing it, even though some of them went to jail. He said there was one woman who stopped it first. "Rosa Parks?" "Yes!" He mentioned having learned this from a book at Lexie's house, though I know we have also read some books about racism. I mentioned slavery a little, and then we moved on.

Very interesting.

The photo, by the way, is his Sunday-school class, last Sunday.