A Different Kind of Milestone

Beatrice came home from school on Thursday with a "Great Job!" sticker on her dress. I asked her what she had done to earn the sticker.

Beatrice: I said, "I'm sorry."

Summer: Why did you say you were sorry?

Beatrice: Effie [one of her friends] hit Miss Maria and I said I was sorry.

Summer: I don't understand - if Effie hit Miss Maria, why did you say you were sorry? [pause] Beatrice, did you hit Miss Maria?

Beatrice: Yes, and I said I was sorry.

So, I guess we'll call that Baby's First Lie.

Arthur, Month Five

Arthur is five months old! And while it may be a cliche to say it, the time really has gone by remarkably fast, even faster than it did with Beatrice. I might want to hold on to the fun of having an infant as long as I can, but Arthur has other plans - he's on the move and ready to learn new things every day.

This month Arthur's grandparents Naresh and Suzan came to visit and Suzan helped me set up Arthur's fall photo shoot (another failed attempt to get photos of the kids together, but after Beatrice left in a huff we got some good photos of her brother).

Arthur's Halloween photo shoot

The big news this month - food! Arthur has now sampled rice cereal and oatmeal as well as apples, peas, bananas, and sweet potatoes, and he loves them all. He insists on holding the spoon and trying to feed himself, until inevitably in his enthusiasm he sticks the spoon so far back into this mouth that he gags and starts to cry.

Unfortunately the other development this month is fussiness. All day long Arthur is perfectly charming but at 4:30pm on the dot he collapses into a hysterical mess until he goes to bed at 7:30pm. Beatrice would get fussy during the "witching hour," too, but nothing like this.

Only a few of his favorite things cheer him up. One is textiles.

Arthur loves the color and feel of fabrics - during his fussy evenings he can be distracted by the sheep skin rug or this stack of tablecloths. He also loves baths, trees, and the Food Network - we went to a restaurant the other day where they were playing the Food Network on a wall-mounted TV and he was beside himself with excitement.

But his favorite evening activity is Naked Gymnastics Time, where we take off his clothes and diaper before his bath time and let him scoot and roll across our (carpeted) bathroom floor. It never fails to make him happy.

Arthur can't quite crawl yet, but he can roll, pivot, scoot, and drag himself along the floor. Unfortunately, he has limited control over the direction of his movements, which means he will often start off towards a toy and end up six feet to the right of it.

Here Dev captured the agony of defeat:

Arthur has a close relationship with the Sleep Sheep.

And he loves this stuffed rabbit in a hat from IKEA that plays a lullaby.

He can sit up for a limited time if put in that position, and both crawling and real sitting are both definitely on the horizon.

Arthur plays with his friend Ivy at the baby gym

You can find these and many more photos on Flickr.

Stay tuned for his Halloween costume!

That's what Photoshop is for.

Outtakes from one of my failed projects - trying to get one decent photo of the kids together where no one is crying, running off, or looking away, and Arthur doesn't have a look of abject terror on his face.

I love the fear in his eyes in this photo.

Maybe next month...

Toddler Parkour

Today we took Beatrice to The Little Gym for her first gymnastics class (thank you, Groupon).

I don't know if we'll stick with the classes once our four-session Groupon series is exhausted, but during today's class Dev and I developed curriculum for the Toddler Parkour class that's going to make us both rich.
Parkour!

Thank you (again) Suzan and Naresh!

This past weekend Beatrice and Arthur enjoyed another wonderful visit from Nani and Nana. On Friday I had to have a minor surgery so Suzan and Naresh came back to Los Angeles to help us again!

Just as with their last trip, Nani and Nana were wonderfully helpful around the house, assisting with everything from creating fall flower arrangements to repairing the driveway fence, but most of all it was just great to have two additional baby-wranglers on hand.

Suzan's fall centerpiece creation

Beatrice and Arthur showed their grandparents some of their favorite places, including the pirate park, Toddler Treks at Descanso Gardens, and the farmer's market.

Arthur enjoying the Farmer's Market

We were so sorry they could only stay for a long weekend, but we can't wait to see them again with Mamo, Mina, James, Julie, Maureen, Rosemary, and Louis at Christmas.

(A Little) Better Late Than Never

Shortly before Lucas and Veronika's twins were born, this post on the crafting blog Two Little Banshees inspired me to make two baby quilts to celebrate the then-eminent arrival of Genevieve and Celestine.

In just a few days I designed, cut, pieced, and basted the quilts. Only then did I realize that my sewing machine didn't have the proper machine foot to do quilting and I couldn't find any other machine to use. My only option seemed to be to quilt the whole thing by hand. Intimidated, I set the half-finished baby quilts aside.



Last weekend, Lucas, Veronika, Dev, and I took all of our kids to Griffith Park, where we reflected on the fact that the twins were just turning nine months old. I figured that the last possible occasion for which I could give the babies these quilts was the twins' first birthday, so I had to finish them. (I also wanted to clear out a backlog of half-finished projects before the holidays.)

Still intimidated by the idea of all that hand-sewing (with invisible thread, no less), I decided to grit my teeth and just try quilting with the regular sewing machine foot that I already had.

It definitely wasn't easy - quilting feet exist for a reason - but it is possible.

From far away, as in these photos, the quilts don't look half bad. From close-up? Well, they aren't going to win any prizes, that's for sure. If you look carefully, you can see many, many very glaring - and embarasssing - mistakes.

But they're done! And I can tell myself that the fact that the quilts are already a little rough means that L&V can let their kids drag them around with abandon.

At least I can say I learned a lot making these "practice quilts" and someday when I have all the proper equipment I'd love to embark on a queen-size bed quilt for the guest bedroom. Or maybe just two slightly nicer toddler-sized quilts for Genevieve and Celestine...

Halloween Party Invitations

I just finished this year's Halloween party invitations and I couldn't wait to share them.

The invitation text reads:

"Whereas you have demonstrated conspicuous merit in the fields of Exploration and Inquiry,
You are hereby invited to attend
The Royal Geographical Society Annual Gala
To be held on the evening of 29 October in the Year of our Lord two thousand and eleven.
The Royal Geographical Society is a learned organization known for the financing of extraordinary voyages of Daring and Discovery, and dedicated to the scientific exploration of the Earth and Heavens for the advancement of Human Knowledge.
The Gala is to be held at the Explorers Club, a private dining hall and august repository of relics and artefacts, natural curiosities, and the Exotic and Fabulous.

All Matters Discussed and Things Witnessed will be held in the strictest confidence.
For all particulars inquire via Electric Courier to summer.kumar@gmail.com."

Here's the RGS logo I designed, a sextant and a pistol above the motto Turbare Altum (Latin for "disturbing the depths").

Each invitation is packaged in a gold box (wholesale jewelry boxes from North Hollywood's illustrious Box City) lined with scrapbook paper printed to look like an antique map and stamped with red sealing wax (for the stamp I used one of Dev's cufflinks with a Pisces symbol on it*) and a small compass.

Thanks to Dev for helping with the graphic design, the printing, and spray-painting three dozen compasses black! (For some reason, inexpensive plastic compasses only come in pastels.)

*Even though Dev is a Taurus.