Arthur, Month Seven

Arthur is turning seven months old just in time for Christmas!

He had a couple of "firsts" this month, including his first crackers, his first playground swing, and his first shoes, but the big news is that he can almost walk - not bad for a seven-month-old! Arthur pulls himself up to standing and "cruises" by walking while holding on to furniture. He can also climb up stairs, though his face-first method of climbing down stairs leaves something to be desired.

In addition to perennial favorites like power cords, tablecloths, and "The Daily Show," Arthur's favorite things this month include Baby Mum-Mum rice crackers and our toy train set from IKEA (which we bought for Beatrice but she's never shown any interest in it). He also graduated to real baths (that is, in the tub instead of in the sink) and he loves bath toys and taking baths with his sister.

Unfortunately Arthur is still very small - sub-1st percentile in weight and yet to double his birth weight, he is only 14 lbs. (which, for those of you without babies, is really tiny). We're trying to fatten him up with yogurt, cottage cheese, avocados, you name it, but in the meantime he's still active, happy, and healthy.

Watching Beatrice watch "Charlie Brown"

#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.

Beatrice's Imagination

Beatrice loves books, storytelling, and pretend play, and while she usually pretends to do everyday adult activities like feeding the baby or driving to work or "making cocktails," she also makes up some very unusual stories. A few of her recent observations:

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."

#6: Visit Santa Claus

A few more

great movie night photos from the very talented Amy Robb.

#4: Host a Christmas Party

Today's activity was "Host a Christmas Party" so Beatrice invited some of her friends over to drink hot chocolate and eat cookies while watching an outdoor showing of "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

And in addition to her old friends like Jack, Miller, Ivy, Genevieve, Celestine, and Asher, she welcomed some new preschool/baby gym friends, Donovan, (the other) Ivy, and Finn.

#1: Write a Letter to Santa Claus

This morning we opened the first advent calendar bag (I had told Beatrice about the calendar the night before and she was very, very excited about it despite having no idea what it was.) In fact, the very first thing she did when she opened her eyes this morning was demand to see the advent calendar. We pulled out the first activity and I told her we'd do the letter after nap time. All through breakfast, all the way to and from school she pondered what this letter might be: "I will tell him I love him," "I will tell him a story," "I will give him a dog and a coat."

Beatrice has some idea what letters are because she loves receiving cards and other mail from her grandparents (the Snoopy Thanksgiving from my parents was a particular favorite). And she more or less knows who Santa is.

And yet, naturally, there was some confusion. For awhile Beatrice thought the small paper slip inside the calendar bag was the letter to Santa, and she cried bitterly when she accidentally tore it while sleeping with it during her nap. "I ruined it!" she cried. (I had to print out another slip for her.) She also seemed to think that she was supposed to give gifts to Santa. And of course she confuses Christmas with Halloween and thinks it involves trick or treating and costumes. (Santa's costume, she explained, is a hat and a red jacket.)

We took her to our local Macy's where they have a Santa letter mailing station (for each stamped letter you send they donate $1 to charity) and we got down to letter-writing at last. Her first draft?

"Dear Santa,

Please."

After some coaxing, she continued:

"Dear Santa,

Please.

Thank you.

Dear Santa Claus,

I want Madeline. Arthur wants an owl.*

Books

Dinosaurs

Color cool

Bye-bye.

[P.S. - ] My name is Beatrice."

*These, of course, were their Halloween costumes.