Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Arthur, Month Seven
Thursday, December 15, 2011
#15: Make a Gingerbread House
Yes, we cheated and used a pre-made gingerbread house kit to do all the hard work, but Beatrice loved decorating the house and then showing it off to all our subsequent visitors.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Beatrice's Imagination
1. Beatrice assured me the other day that the sun has yellow hair and takes baths while the moon has white hair and takes showers. The moon is an adult but the sun is a child that lives with her mother.
2. Looking out the car window last weekend, Beatrice said seriously, "The mountains are sad because their toys broke. But the clouds' mommy will fix the toys and then the mountains will be happy again."
3. After putting on a pair of butterfly wings Aunt Mina sent us, Beatrice shouted, "I'm a rabbit! . . . with wings."
Beatrice also loves making up songs. Last week she made up new lyrics to "The Wheels on the Bus." All her friends and family members took the bus to different fun locations: Rosemary went to the bookstore, Suzan and Naresh went to see whales, and so on. And Uncle James? Uncle James went to "pick up waste" in the backyard.
However even Beatrice cannot imagine a number bigger than nineteen, and while she certainly cannot count to nineteen, she uses the number to mean "a number uncountably large," as when Marie offered her two marshmallows and she countered, "I need nineteen."
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Monday, December 05, 2011
Sunday, December 04, 2011
#4: Host a Christmas Party
Thursday, December 01, 2011
#1: Write a Letter to Santa Claus
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Advent Calendar
Here's our list this year:
1. Write a letter to Santa Claus
2. Buy a new Christmas book
3. Buy a Christmas tree
4. Host a Christmas party
5. Drink hot chocolate
6. Visit Santa Claus
7. Hang Christmas stockings
8. Preschool Christmas party
9. Leave a Christmas treat out for squirrels and birds
10. Draw a Christmas picture
11. Bake Christmas cookies
12. Sing Christmas carols
13. Get Christmas books from the library
14. Donate a toy
15. Make a gingerbread house
16. Make Christmas cards
17. Buy a present for Arthur
18. Christmas breakfast
19. Buy a new Christmas ornament
20. Take a drive to see Christmas lights
21. Wrap a gift
22. Take a family trip*
23. Go visit penguins at the aquarium
24. Leave cookies and milk out for Santa
I made sure to assign "big" events to weekends and days when I'm not working and to schedule activities around parties, travel, etc. Someday when our kids are older we can also add new things like holiday concerts, the ballet, or ice skating. I'm really excited about this month.
*To Dallas, that is.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Happy Thanksgiving!
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Project: Standing, Day Two
Monday, November 21, 2011
No one will ever believe me,
At six months, two days old, Arthur stood up on his own*. Just now I was sitting on the sofa, beside the ottoman, wearing a long skirt that trailed to the ground. Arthur crawled up to me, grabbed my skirt, and climbed up it hand over hand until he was standing. Then he carefully transferred his hands from my skirt to the ottoman and stood there holding the ottoman, quite steady. He then pushed both hands off the ottoman and just stood, perfectly straight, not holding anything, for a few seconds before he fell over, hit his head, and starting bawling.
Of course, I couldn't move to get the camera because he was holding my skirt, and no one was home to see it except Beatrice, but he stood up! Hopefully next time I'll get it on film.
*This is technically the second time he's stood up unassisted like this, he did it first on Sunday, but that time he fell almost instantly.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Beatrice Sings
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Arthur, Month Six
It's hard to believe, but Arthur started crawling at 21 weeks! Unfortunately, he mostly uses this new-found skill to pursue his hobby of chewing on power cords, but we're proud of him all the same.
Here he's getting ready to peruse a copy of Better Homes and Gardens
And he can sit on his own now, too! He's also trying to stand - of course he can't really do it yet, but I respect his ambition.
This month Arthur enjoyed his first Halloween as well as visits from my parents, Aunt Gillian, Sam, Lilli, and Colleen.
He babbles and coos constantly and seems to really be trying to speak. He's very interactive, loves to charm strangers, and pretty much the smiley-est baby I've ever seen.
Unfortunately it was also a difficult month, as Arthur struggled with his first bad cold, then an ear infection, then another cold, plus all the upheaval of learning to crawl and a switch from exclusive nursing to formula. At times the result was extreme fussiness as well as very disrupted sleep, for him and me both. This evening fussiness was starting to creep into more and more of the day until it was more like 1-9pm instead of 4-7pm, but happily things seem to be returning to normal once again. In fact, he's even slept through the night all this past week.
The baby gym continues to be the highlight of his week.
Playing with Amy, Miller, and Ivy
Arthur just came back from his six-month checkup and we found that he is healthy, happy, and - way too small. From tenth percentile at birth his weight has fallen to below first percentile, or about 13 pounds at six months old. It's hard not to worry a bit, but he's clearly thriving in other respects. For the next month we'll be feeding him extra formula, calorie-dense foods like avocados, and yes, even adding olive oil into his baby food, all to see if we can get him out of that sub-zero ranking.
I suspect one reason he's so skinny is that he never stops moving. He's already wiggled/fallen out of all three of his baby seats/chairs, so I have no idea where to put him. He's even working on climbing out of his cosleeper every day during what is supposed to be nap time.
One of the few things he will sit still for, though, is the mirror baby. He continues to adore both his bath and his pre-bath play time on our bathroom floor, but now he's added the fun of kissing his own reflection in our full-length mirror.
Meanwhile, I am so proud of what a great sister Beatrice is turning out to be. All day long she talks to, with, or about Arthur, and she loves to show off for him and make him laugh. Whenever she does anything cool, like walk on her tiptoes or go high on the swings, she shouts, "Look at me, Arthur!" She sings to him and "reads" to him. She calls him "my baby" and often shouts out of nowhere, "I love my brother!" She warns her preschool friends to be gentle with him (ironically shoving one girl while shouting at her, "Be gentle!")
They love eating dinner together
Their favorite thing to do now is to play duets on the electronic keyboard. "It's duet time!" Beatrice shouts. Unfortunately it's hard to get a good photo of them doing it because neither child will stay still.
Arthur waves to his babysitter Marie from underneath a chair