Advent Calendar

This year instead of our usual advent calendar filled with candy I decided to assign a different holiday activity to each day (an idea I got from this blog). I used the same small printed bags I made last year but filled them with slips of paper.

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.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Towards A Phylogenetics of Desserts

Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny*

This year we celebrated Arthur's first Thanksgiving (and Beatrice's third) with Sam, Lilli, Travis, Monty, and dozens of other friends at the annual Caltech Thanksgiving party, now in its twelfth year.

Not a very good photo, but it does encapsulate just how much Beatrice loved walking around in Lilli's fuzzy slippers

We also took some side trips to visit my parents and sister, Jay Kruse and his family, and the Nigams.

All in all it was a great trip (even if Jeff's car did catch on fire) but I have to admit, I mostly enjoy Thanksgiving as the kick-off to Christmas.

*Or PHYLLOgeny! Get it? Never mind.

Oh, and here is the official Dessert Cladogram (the highlighted desserts were ones we baked and consumed in the name of Science).

Project: Standing, Day Two

In a follow up to this post - like so many things babies do, Arthur's standing trick went from adorable to annoying in one day. Now he is standing constantly, holding on to sofas, chairs, low tables, or the ottoman, and then eventually letting go, falling backward, slamming the back of his head on the floor, and crying hysterically. But he will not stop doing it.

No one will ever believe me,

but I know what I saw.

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.

Beatrice Sings

These videos are a couple of months old but I just came across them again while editing Arthur's post and wanted to share them (and yes, Beatrice is singing while sitting in Arthur's infant seat for some reason).

Arthur, Month Six

Happy half-year anniversary, Arthur! You are one amazing baby!

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.

Enjoying the playmat

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.

The other day - having been told a million times "we always hold hands in the parking lot" - she reached out and grabbed Arthur's hand in his stroller and said, "I'll hold Arthur's hand. Be safe, Arthur!"

Arthur waves to his babysitter Marie from underneath a chair

Picture Day!

Beatrice's first school photos are back! Unfortunately her two good friends Effie and Adeline are missing from the group, but we're glad to have photos of many of her other friends. Plus of course Miss Charlie and Miss Maria.

Back row (left to right): Sophia, Miss Charlie, Christos, Ishan, Maya, ?, Samantha

Front row (left to right): Nicholas, Beatrice, Fisher, ?, Matthew, Angel

Next year we'll get Beatrice a haircut before class picture day...

The Eye of the Hurricane, or, I Love Two and a Half

Beatrice is almost two and a half, and boy, what a change from two!

Last night I was at a parents' educational meeting hosted by the preschool where parents could ask questions of a visiting child psychologist. We went around the room talking about sleeping problems, eating problems, tantrums, jealousy, aggression, and when we got to me, I found I had nothing to say.

Now before you think I sound too smug, remember that Beatrice was a terror from around 18 months to just about a month ago - constant tantrums and meltdowns and so physically aggressive I could hardly take her anywhere for fear she'd attack another kid. And now, miraculously, she is so easy! Just totally amiable and what's more impressive for a toddler, reasonable. This morning she was insisting on wearing "party shoes." "No," I told her, "you have to wear your boots, it's too cold for party shoes." "Oh, okay," she said, "I like my boots, too." This morning she asked for more juice while I was changing Arthur and when I told her that she said - and I'm not kidding - "That's okay, I can wait." Who is this toddler?

She goes to bed without complaint, eats what she's given, is nice to her brother and to her friends, listens to her parents and teachers, makes mostly fair and reasonable requests, and accepts being told "no." She's very loving and kind, too - the other day I was stressed out because an exterminator was coming and I had to bundle all the dogs and babies in the car and get them out of the house by myself. "You need a hug!" she said and came and hugged me.

What happened? I think it's a combination of getting used to Arthur, the good influence of preschool, and of course, just getting a little older.

I know enough to know this is all very temporary, though, so I'm going to enjoy this as much as I can before the next wave of terror begins.*

*And lest you feel too jealous of me, I might add that Arthur has been driving me nuts this month.

Happy Anniversary!

A Toddler's Monologue

I am listening to Beatrice talking in her room right now during nap time. She has been keeping up an energetic high-speed monologue on a wide range of topics - I decided to transcribe just a short section verbatim:

I love you, Miss Maria, and Miss Charlie, and Mr. Cardo* [sic], I can have a snack with Mr. Cardo! And we all play outside, with my friends, and with Ishan, and Madeline [sic], and Nicholas, and Maya, and Miss Charlie, and Amy and Miller, Jack and Summer, and Baby Ivy**. And a doggie, and the doggie went potty, and I went potty, I went potty in my little chair, and Mommy goes potty in the big chair, I went potty in my little chair and got a treat. But Arthur is too little! I love my brother, Arthur is my favorite, and tuna fish - tuna fish! [sings part of "Old McDonald"] A rooster, and a dragon, is a crocodile. And there was an emu! And the worm ate his food. And then they were friends! And then the worm went to his little home. And his daddy was a beaver. And the daddy beaver! And the baby, the big one and the little one and then LMNOPHIJKLMNO! [singing] Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! And there's a little bird, a toucan, it's a toucan! Mommy, Mommy, it's a toucan, he's outside! Invite him inside for dinner. This is Arthur's bed. Mommy, the dragon is from the [IKEA] play area. We can eat meatballs. You cook them in olive oil! It's not a dragon, it's a crocodile, he lives at IKEA, he lives with Arthur....

She has seriously been doing this for more than 20 minutes now.

*Her teachers Miss Maria, Miss Charlie, and Mr. Ricardo.
**Her school friend is actually Adeline, but Beatrice confuses her with the storybook character Madeline.

Next Step, Solid Gold Rocket Car

I just signed my first book contract!

Yes, it's for an anthology, not a solo endeavor (yet), but I'm still pretty excited.

More information will be coming at the end of the month . . .

Finally, It's Fall!

I just saw on the weather forecast that by the end of this week we can expect highs in the 50s and lows in the 40s - I am so happy that cold(-ish) weather is finally coming! But even during the still-hot months of September and October we got in a lot of fall activities, including two different pumpkin festivals, one with Lucas, Veronika, Chris, Nadia, and their kids.

Beatrice paints a cat mask

Beatrice thanked the cow for making milk

During October Beatrice and I also went on several leaf hunts at neighborhood park; later we coated the leaves in paint and "stamped" them onto paper in the yard.