Fall pictures

Last weekend Grandma Gail and Grandpa Kerry visited. We had fun during the short visit. Getting outside a little while it wasn't actively raining and receiving some much appreciated help installing the new dishwasher. (It works!) We documented the weekend with a few pictures.




At Minnehaha Falls Park

Meredith's Brain and Hair

At school Meredith has been learning about how the body works. They've talked about the brain, the heart, blood, lungs, etc. Meredith will tell you that the brain does your thinking for you and "it's always working and never stops, even when you're sleeping."

Meredith talks about her brain as a separate entity. Such as, "Let me ask my brain that question." Tonight she told Grandma Gail, "I will wake up in the morning and my brain will tell me to come downstairs and get you."

Meredith truly loves all things scientific. She's also been discussing how vaccines work and what germs are.

Besides science, Meredith does art projects. Earlier this week while I was tending to Elaine, Meredith used her scissors to cut up paper into tiny confetti pieces all over the first floor. She and I spent about 40 minutes cleaning it up. At least she was a pretty decent helper on the clean up. Today, it was discovered that she used the scissors on her own hair. She cut a couple bunches, several inches long and placed it with her art supplies and toy lunch box. Upon Grandma Gail discovering some hair in her lunch box she was asked why. "That's hair, we should clean it out," Meredith responded matter-of-factly. Where did this hair come from? "Junior?" she suggested. Way to pass the buck!

The scissors were given a time out, one of the most traumatic events in a while. Our challenge now is to impress upon her how unacceptable it is to be her own hair stylist. The damage looks minimal. She appeared to cut from both sides of her head. Fortunately she didn't take a chunk of her bangs, which would have looked wonderful. Meredith also had the good judgment to cut the hair the weekend after the school pictures, versus before.

October pictures of the girls

Meredith all set for school


Elaine gets a good meal from Grandma Cathy




Elaine is already surrounded by playthings


Elaine is probably intently watching her sister

Sharing

Late last Saturday, it became clear that Meredith was feeling a bit under the weather. Soon Jen got sick. Then me. And finally, Elaine. We're a sharing family. It's a nasty head cold and it's been a miserable few days here. This is Elaine's first experience being sick. Her coughing and sneezing is pretty pathetic; but despite that, she's kept up her spirits.

We're all on the upswing now. It just feels like we've lost a few days. Meredith continues to enjoy school. Recently she's been telling us about how our bodies work. She refers to her brain as a third party that keeps information and makes decisions for her. Today she informed me that blood is a liquid, just like water and milk, and our heart pumps it through our body all the time, even when we're walking. Her interest in such things, paired with her fascination with dinosaurs and volcanos, sometimes causes me to think she'll be a scientist someday. But she has lots of other interests as well. She can be whatever she wants to be.

In the last couple of days Meredith has talked extensively on who vaccines work and why leaves change colors. I've given the answers in the way that I know them. I'm not quite sure if she quites understands the concept, but there will be time for her to nail these and other concepts down.

Elaine is making all sorts of noises. She is on the cusp of making consonant-like sounds. She responds to her name. Which is impressive when you think about how many variations of her name we use. For your viewing pleasure is a list of nick names in use in rough order of frequency:

• Elly
• Els
• Ellikins
• Elsworth
• Lainey
• El

Earlier this week I was showing Elaine a little book with pictures. She liked looking at the pictures of babies but then got to a picture of Jen with Meredith as a baby and Elaine got really excited. I turned the page again and she got frustrated. I repeated it twice, once for Jen to see, and she had the same clear response. Elaine just loved gazing at the picture of her mommy.

Into the groove

We're getting into a groove here. Both Jen and Meredith have a few weeks under their belts at the new job and the new school respectively; and I am getting into a pattern with Elaine. It's been a big change for Jen, having to be away from her family and having to do her hair every day. But she enjoys where she is working and looks forward to finally getting her bar exam results in another couple of weeks.

In the last two weeks Elaine and I have gone to an ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education) class held by the Minneapolis School District. We spend a couple hours weekly with 11 other 5-12 month olds and let the kids play and talk about infant and parenting stuff. It is amazing to seek babies near Elaine's age and a bit older and how different they all are. When Elaine is the only baby I'm around for a while, I think of everything she does as a typical baby. But these kids all have their own personalities, strengths, and interests. I'm one of the few parents in the room on their second child, so I find myself repressing my feelings of being an expert since I've gone through this before. This is good, as I am finding I am learning new things and there are unique issues to tackle when you are a stay-at-home parent.

Currently, Elaine likes sitting up and playing with a variety of toys. She really doesn't have much interest in rolling or any other type of movement. Once this week she rolled from her stomach to her back--the first time she's done that roll--but has shown no interest in repeating it. She did the roll with such easy and nonchalant, that I didn't realize that she hadn't done that before. It was to reach a toy. Despite using the toy as a motivator, it hasn't occurred to Elaine that she can do that again to get what she wants.

Meredith loves pre-K. Twice when I've picked her up we have spotted cute green tree frogs on the planter at the entrance of her school. She loves to talk about the songs they sing in Spanish class, as well as her other favorite moments of the day. Friday is her favorite day of the week because they have swimming class AND get to have chocolate milk at lunch!

Grandma Cathy and Grandpa Dave visited this week and had good quality time with the girls. There was hope for some help with some outside projects, but the rain literally dampened those prospects. Elaine, who has resisted proximity to non-parent adults in the last few weeks, quickly became comfortable with both grandparents. Indeed, she was left alone with them on a couple occasions and fared quite well. Each time grandparents visit, Meredith finishes the time exhausted from the fun. This visit is no different. When she's tired, Meredith enters her "manic" stage. The grandparents got to see some evidence of this, including the last hour and a half before they left.

Elaine cam

Elaine likes a certain sound...


Elaine thinks Meredith is hilarious


Elaine makes her joyful noises as Meredith pretends to call Grandpa Kerry.

Meredith's Birthday Pictures, and more!

Last week, we celebrated Meredith's 4th birthday with 13 of her closest friends at ArtiCulture, where a teacher led the kids on a special art project. The messy project was followed by cake and juice. What could be better?

PICTURES

The kids work diligently (sort of) on their animal creations.


Controlled chaos


Meredith's cake featured noisy dinosaurs and volcanoes


Opening Meredith's birthday presents. Don't all of them look excited?


Elaine loves her bouncy seat





Early morning reading (coffee within arm's reach)



VIDEO

Sweet baby in her bouncy seat

Football!

Meredith is officially a football fan. Tonight we attended the Augsburg College season opener; vigilant past readers will remember that our next-door neighbor is the head coach there, and we have all been swept up in all the preparation for the season.

Meredith and I had a great time. Derek (who is the one who actually knows about football, having grown up in Green Bay) stayed home with Elaine. One would think that I would know enough about football to satisfy a four-year-old, but it was a three-hour interrogation: why did they stop? whose turn is it? why are we clapping? who is that? did we win? Mer was working so hard to understand the game. And she loved cheering "Go Auggies!," giving the mascot a high-five, and watching the game intently through the chain-link fence. She also ate a great deal of popcorn, shared with Jr., with a big sweatshirt wrapped around both of them as it got colder. The funniest part, though, was the first time-out. "Why did they get a time out?" Mer demanded. "What did the gold team DO?!"

-JRR

Milestones at 4 yrs and 5 mos, respectively

Just a few updates of what the girls have been up to recently. Elaine recently turned 5 months. (She's growing up!) Meredith's 4th birthday is tomorrow.

Elaine's favorite things:

• Looking at books and playing with toys. She wriggles and vocalizes enthusiastically!
  
• "Talking" to mom, dad, and big sister, and occasionally giggling
  
• Grabbing whatever is within reach
  

Elaine is learning:

• She can roll from back to stomach one way but is still working on rolling back.
  
• She can sit upright without support for several minutes! - before she tumbles in some direction.
  
• Recognizing her name (we think) and recognize the hand sign for milk (she excitedly kicks her legs and starts leaning forward for the not-yet visible bottle).
  
• Eating more foods. So far she has had rice cereal, bananas, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, and pears.

Meredith's favorite things:

• Playing with friends, including pretending, hide and seek, tag, and watching occasional movies. (Jr. is really into a 1980s Ninja Turtles movie now.)
  
• Rock and roll music on the iPod, including the Beach Boys, the White Stripes, and They Might Be Giants.
• Books of all sorts, including Paddington Bear and about dinosaurs.
  
• Helping to cook. She can crack eggs quite ably. Licking the bowl after brownies remains her favorite.
  
• Goofing off for her sister's benefit.

Meredith is learning:

• Spanish at pre-K (she is very excited by it each day).
• The importance of being gentle with her sister. Some days are better than others.
  
• About dinosaurs. They lived really, really, really, really long ago. Even longer ago than when anyone we know was little. Wow. Her favorite is Triceratops, I think on the theory that he eats plants but is still really fierce.
  

We measured Meredith today and she is about 39 3/4 inches, which is about average we think. She went through a spurt during the summer. My how these kids grow. We don't know Elaine's current weight, but she keeps on growing out of clothes and diapers.

Labor-free weekend

After traveling much of August, we're happy to stick around the old homestead over Labor Day Weekend. Much of the weekend has involved hanging out with friends and eating well.

A few days ago, Jen decided that we needed to do a treasure hunt with Meredith and her two neighbor friends, Frank, Jr. and Cate. This was after a successful experience at a birthday party where the kids had to find the cake through clues. I set up a six part treasure hunt and Jen hid the clues. The three amigos got really into it; they screamed as they ran from clue to clue between the three houses. In the end, they found the treasure: mini lunch boxes with Spiderman, Sponge-Bob Square Pants, and Dora the Explorer, respectively. (Check out the pics and video below of this memorable event.)

On Saturday, I brought Elaine, Meredith and Cate to the neighborhood farmers' market. The objective was to get there for the 11:00 AM children's storytime, buy muffins, listen to a little live folk music, and return in time for lunch. It didn't quite work that way.

First, don't underestimate how long it takes to walk anywhere with preschoolers. The walk is normally 10 minutes for an adult. Forty minutes later we still have a few blocks to go. I ask the girls to pick up the pace if they want to get there for storytime. I hype up storytime to increase the motivation, taking a risk of blow-up disappointment should we miss storytime. As we're within one block and about to cross the train tracks I hear a bell and a train whistle. A train is coming! We stop and step back. The train goes in front of us... and then stops and sits. It slowly backs up. It goes forward. It backs up. It stops. This is across Lake Street in Minneapolis, a very busy street. Then, finally, it moves forward. By this time we are hopelessly late. We scurry up to find that storytime has just ended. Sigh... "That's okay girls. We got to see a train instead." I say, knowing it is not a persuasive argument, even for a preschooler.

I have to buy some bacon and wild rice brats and get behind the most uncertain customer debating out loud if he should get 5 pounds or 7 pounds of ribs and if he needs chicken for later. All the while, the girls are waiting patiently in the hot sun. I get the meat eventually and we go to get the muffins. They are out. All they have are two kinds of rice krispee bars. The girls consent to this option and I buy it. Cate then asks if it has peanut butter because she doesn't eat peanut butter. I ask. "Oh, yes, lots of peanut butter." Does the other rice krispee bar have peanut butter? (It's a different type.) No. Okay. So we sit down with both mammoth-sized bars and proceed to snack as we wait for the folk singer to set up. She never comes.

It's about time to leave when Elaine wakes us and is h-u-n-g-r-y! So, we wait another 10-15 minutes while I make a bottle and she eats. We head back. Meredith needs to go potty. "Do we need to go into Arby's (four blocks from home) or can we walk home?" Meredith informs me she can definitely walk home. In front of Rainbow Foods, two blocks from the house, Meredith really has to go. "Can we hurry home?" No. We run inside to the bathroom in the grocery store but Meredith doesn't want to go in the ladies room alone because she is afraid of the loud flushing noise from the toilet. I certainly can't go in, and I have a sleeping Elaine in our SUV stroller, too. So Cate goes in with her. The two are in for about five minutes and emerge without tears but smiles on their faces. I ask if they did all the necessary steps and they say yes. But they do say they have a secret. I ask what the secret is. They can't tell me. I am still worried about what the Rainbow Foods Bathroom Secret can be.

All in all, despite the total failure of the trip's objectives and the fact that it took 3.5 hours rather than the 1.5 I had guessed, the girls were pretty good. We had no tears, little whining, and hardly any preschooler conflict.

On Saturday we had about 15 adults and a mess of kids over for Jen's 1st annual 29th birthday celebration with food from Buca di Beppo. I thought it was a hit. And on Sunday morning, the neighbors made homemade donuts and eggs and coffee and mimosas. Breakfast merged into lunch with an interlude of a slip-in-slide for the kids. They spent more time playing with water in a bucket than the fancy new sliding water set-up.

A good long weekend! Too bad we didn't have more three day weekends with perfect weather.

PICTURES

Meredith and Cate help shuck corn



Finally getting a table at the Sea Salt restaurant at Minnehaha Falls. The oysters were excellent!





Finding clues during the treasure hunt.


Discussing a clue.



At the market


VIDEO

Treasure hunt