Fish

Henry is really interested in fish and fishing.  (Another aspect of his primal caveman self, I guess.)  Michael and I went out to a fancy restaurant a couple of days ago (for work), and I had a whole fish, head included, on my plate for my entree.  I felt like I used to feel when I saw a backhoe and Henry wasn't with me: what a waste!  No one else at that table appreciated that fish as much as Henry would have.  Last summer we were driving and Henry saw a man fishing off a bridge.  "What's that guy doing, Mom?" He was immediately fascinated, and we explained fishing to him.  I have promised him that we will go fishing this summer, even though neither Michael nor I am much expert at it.  

Today I got a piece of salmon for our dinner, and Henry was quite intrigued, although he was disappointed that it wasn't a whole fish.  He wanted to know where on the fish the piece came from (Michael drew him a picture), where the fish itself came from (Scotland), and how it was caught.  I was trying to explain that this fish was farmed, and I used the word "harvested" to avoid saying "killed."  He asked me, "you mean cut and ground up, like a harvester harvests a field?"  (Being from Lancaster County, he knows all about combine harvesters.)  He doesn't shy away from the death involved in eating creatures.  He did comment on how the fish didn't want to be caught, and we talked about that.  I'm quite curious to see how he would react if we really caught a fish and cleaned it and ate it.  

And then we all devoured the fish-- including Agatha.

Cape Guy

Coming home from school: "Mom, we were playing Fire Rock today on the playground." "Fire Rock?  How do you play that?"  "It's a shooting game." [insert here my sermon against playing at violence.] "Who were you playing with?" [I asked because I am trying to figure out who is responsible for all this shooting business!]  "Just my friends, who I usually play with. [said in a fierce voice:] Fire Rock is a Cape Guy, Mama!"  "A Cape Guy?  You mean a guy who wears a cape?"  "Yes."  A few moments later, said in a sweet three-year-old voice: "Mom, what's a cape?"

So Michael showed him what a cape was.  Unfortunately, in that picture Henry is shooting Michael with a "shooter" (he doesn't yet know, or at least utter, the word "gun") made out of legos.  His fascination with superheroes and shooting is massive, deep, and ongoing.  I am helpless against it.  The only thing that I console myself with is that every time I say that we don't play at violence, that violence hurts people, and that there is no pretending to shoot at people, I am at least communicating our values to him, which will hopefully sink in as he matures.  

So Big

Arms raised

Agatha has learned a new trick-- she raises both arms above her head.  This seems to mean both "pick me up!" and "so big!"  

I know every baby can do this eventually, but it's still super-cute when it's YOUR baby!

My newest theory

Being the parent of a newborn requires a lot of theorizing.  The baby can't tell you what's on her mind or bothering her body, so you've got to be a scientist: observing, collecting data, looking for patterns, coming up with a hypothesis, testing it, coming up with a working theory.  When Agatha started waking up more often at night a few weeks ago (after we'd gotten to nearly sleeping through the night) and getting more fussy and impatient during the day, my theory was "teething"-- which is the default theory for nearly all new parents to explain nearly everything!  It seemed to fit my data, and occasionally seemed to be confirmed by testing things like, did Tylenol help.  But no teeth have appeared, and my favorite sleep scientist writes that teething does not cause night waking (unlike ear infections, psoriasis, and few other things).  My new theory is: she's simply growing.  She's getting more interested in the world and more aware of the connections between her actions and things that happen in the world.  She can't move herself yet, but she's more impatient with sitting in one spot and want us to move her around to see the world (hence her increased fussiness at times during the day-- at least compared to the serene girl who would happily play on her own or watch you from her bouncy seat).  And she realizes that if she fusses at night, we will come in and attend to her. 

All this is wonderful, of course.  And it helps to have a theory to explain it!   

Foodie

Today is Wednesday, and our normal Wednesday routine is: Henry goes off to school in the car with our wonderful neighbors at 8:15 am.  (We used to walk him in the stroller and leave the stroller at school for pick-up.  But now H loves to ride with the big boys and insists on it every day.  Luckily they are all sweet and accommodating!)  I go into the office for office hours, and then pick up Henry at school at 11:25.  Michael and Aggie have time together at home.  When we get home around 11:45 am, Michael goes into work and I stay home with both kids in the afternoon.  Michael gets home around 4:30, and then our very early dinner-bedtime crunch ensues, with everyone small in bed and asleep by 7 pm (Aggie at 6; Henry varies depending on how tired he is).  

So anyway, today I was holding Agatha, eating my lunch of pasta pesto, and talking with Henry.  Aggie grabbed a noodle off my plate and got very quiet and absorbed.  I put her in her highchair and put a few noodles on her tray.  She ended up devouring maybe 6-8 pasta noodles covered with pesto.  Just like Henry at this age, she really seems to love strong flavors and textures.  Yummy, and keeps your skin moisturized! 

Sitting Pretty

For some time, Aggie has enjoyed sitting in her bathtub and playing with toys (at least the tub is getting some use--we're certainly not bathing her much, due to her intense dislike of it).  But now she loves sitting up on her own.  She's become very stable the last couple of days, and is especially happy when she can mess with Henry's toys. 

Springtime!

At last, we had a beautiful, warm crystal-clear day today.  Everyone was outside enjoying it.  We had a very early dinner on Mom's porch, chatting with the neighbors who stopped by to check out the construction next door.  Henry ate a ton of grilled chicken and ice cream, and Agatha ate a ton of grilled zucchini and asparagus.  (I guess they are like Jack Sprat and his wife right now.)  With the skin cut off the zucchini, she could gum it to oblivion, and her asparagus technique is to snap her gums down on it and then yank it out, stripping out the good "meat" and leaving a bunch of strings in her fist.  Yummy.  She gets VERY annoyed if you take something out of her mouth, like an indigestible piece of zucchini skin.  She is easy-going and happy, but still a fierce individualist who does not like to be thwarted or humiliated.  Maybe all children are like that, but I certainly see in both of mine a strong sense of pride.  

Where's Your Little One?

Henry and Michael just came in from a trip to the milk farm; they also stopped and ate breakfast out.  Henry: "We had a gooder breakfast than you, Mom."  And then: "So where's your little one?"  "My little one?"  "Yeah."  "She's napping."  "Oh."

He's really refining his small talk skills!

Comments, please

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It's Henry's World

Henry made this awesome globe this week at school.  He traced each continent shape, then punched it out with a pin-punch tool, a painstaking process of making tiny holes all around the outline. His teacher labeled them and helped him tape them on in the right locations.  So cool!

Construction Management

The work on renovating the church next door to Mom's new house is proceeding rapidly.  Yesterday they dug up the driveway between the properties and today laid down a bunch of gravel.  We visited to check out the work, and Henry made free to chat up one of the guys who was packing things up for the day.  "Why did you dig up Gran's nice grass, there?" he asked, pointing out an area near her back porch.  "You should only dig on your side."  "You're right, we did go a little over there," the guy replied.  "You should have been here earlier to talk with the operator.  We'll fix it," he assured Henry.  

See How Strong I Am

Some Henryisms: during the Easter egg hunt, Henry popped his head above the fence, waving a Reese's peanut butter cup that he had found inside a plastic egg.  "Look, Mom!  It's a tiny pumpkin pie!" (Imagine his disappointment to find it was only peanut butter.)

Henry is starting to enjoy hide and seek, but just learning the concept.  A couple of weeks ago, we were sitting on Mom's porch and Henry had the idea to hide something he was playing with underneath the stroller, sitting at the bottom of the steps.  He had an elaborate game where we would each take turns finding these cards he had hid-- but he just kept hiding them in the same place.  Mom and I took turns looking all around, pretending to be stumped, and Henry was so delighted.  The first time he hid it and I said, "I wonder where it is?" he couldn't stand it.  "IT'S UNDER THE STROLLER!"  The next time, getting the concept a little more, he tried to fool us.  "It's not under there!" he said, pointing right at it.  The third time, he was cooler still.  "I don't know..." he said.  He loves to hide green bear and ask me where it is, and is not above lying if I guess too soon.

Happy Easter

It's still not as warm as it should be here, but we had a beautiful, clear sunny day.  Two Easter egg hunts (one at our next-door-neighbors', one in our yard), a ham dinner for 11, and only one time-out (infraction: hurled truck).  We've had the same group of friends over for four years in a row now, and it is becoming a nice tradition.  Both kids seem to have new colds on top of their old colds, but are still mostly cheery and fun.  Henry hate-hate-hates taking any kind of medicine, but he really has to take something for his cough, to help him sleep.  Tonight he still panicked and freaked out but he did manage to swallow most of the medicine, and I told him how proud I was of him, and asked him if he was proud of himself.  Boy, was he! "I swallowed almost all of it, Dad!  I am so proud of myself!" 

Agatha now disdains almost all spoon-feeding.  I think this is partly because she is teething and the spoon hurts her gums, and partly because of her rugged individualism.  It's a challenge thinking of foods that she can feed herself and fill up on-- cheerios, at the rate she eats them, only get you so far.  Bananas are great, and she can eat a whole one at a sitting.  My latest brainstorm is to mix up her baby multigrain cereal to a thick consistency and putting balls of it on her tray, which she can then feed herself.  Messy, but good. 

So Darling

Mom left her camera here after Easter dinner, so I filched these darling pictures of Agatha from it and had to post them.  They are from a couple of weeks ago.  

Zen chimes

We had a bit of a rough afternoon yesterday, but by 6 pm Agatha was sleeping, and Michael, Henry and I sat down to eat dinner together.  By way of making conversation, I started mentioning to Michael all the things Henry had told me about his day on his way home from school.  "Henry made a globe today using a balloon."  "No, Mom, not a globe, it was the world; we put all the continents on it."  "Okay.  And Henry came home with a snakeskin in his backpack."  "He did?! Where did you get that, Henry?"  "From Tate's class.  And I saw geckos and lizards and snakes there!"  "Who is Tate? Is he a teacher?"  "No, he's a friend."  [Hmmm...]  "And Henry got to ring the chimes today."  "No, not the chimes, Mom, the ZEN CHIVES."  [Imagine this said forcefully, in the most un-zen-like manner, with a mouthful of pasta.]  "The ZEN CHIBES." [He's still trying to pronounce it correctly.]  "The zen chimes?"  "YES, THE ZEN CHIVES."  Ah, Montessori school!  

Curse of the Blogspot

No sooner did I push the "publish" button on my last post bragging about Agatha's good sleep than she woke up screaming.  I did resettle her after a couple of tries and she slept through till 4:30 am, but then she was up again for good at 5:30 am Sunday.  What's more, there was NO NAPPING on Sunday (well, only about 30 minutes for each nap, which is as good as nothing). What the heck?!?!  By the end of the day, I concluded it had to be teething.  She's the right age, and was as cheerful as she could be when she was awake, but something was disturbing her sleep.  It's not a cold or ear infection, so I think it must be a tooth coming in, even though I can't see or feel anything.  We had the same sleep pattern last night, and this morning she really didn't want to nap, even though she was so tired.  After a couple of tries and about 10 minutes of fussing, she did fall asleep for her morning nap, thank goodness.  I've forgotten how bad teething can be-- holy heck!  Just when you think you're getting into the clear...

Here are some early morning pictures, playing with Agatha's ugly plastic thing (which was Henry's ugly plastic thing) that they both love.  Note Henry's fake smile.  

Halushka

I know, I need to post some pictures!  But one more textual post today.  Yesterday and today Agatha had her first meal with the family-- red lentil soup yesterday, and halushka today.  She is eating like a horse lately and loves to feed herself.  She can pick up peas and corn kernels, and also is eating rice cakes, cheerios, and pieces of soft avocado and banana.  Her sleeping is still great-- about 12 hours at night, with one wake-up around 3 am at which I just replace her pacifier and pat her on the back, no picking her up or nursing.  I'm hoping that one of these nights she'll sleep right on through.  She also naps well, about 2 hours in the morning and about 1.5 hours in the afternoon. Just a wonderful, happy, sweet, easy-to-manage baby.  The only times she gets mad is when she has to take a bath or I have to take a too-large piece of food out of her mouth. 

Henry is more intense and high-maintenance, but is also doing wonderfully.  He's been fighting some illness off the last couple of days, so he's been taking long naps and not eating too much, but it doesn't seem to really be getting hold of him, so I'm hopeful he'll be back to normal tomorrow.  He came home from school with a neat piece of work the other day: his kindergarten-age classmates do work where they sound out words, match them with a picture, and then write the word in their "composition books" (I hear all about this from Henry, who is fascinated by the older kids).  He has been doing the sounding out and matching for a couple of months, which we thought was wonderful.  But this week he came home with a little worksheet that his teacher had made for him so that HE could write the words too.  He had carefully written three words: jet, pan, and something less intelligible; maybe FAN.  I put the page up on a hook in the kitchen because I thought it was so great, but today Henry asked for it and was dissatisfied because he made a mistake so he crumpled it up and threw it in the trash.  So much for my little heirloom.  

One more funny story: it was chilly today, so Henry came running back inside and went up to his room.  We heard him thumping around for a while, and then he came back down suited up for outdoor play-- he had put on three shirts and three pairs of pants, one on top of the other.  The outermost pair of pants was his doggie-print PJ bottoms, pulled on skin-tight over his cargo pants.  

Quickie

Too busy to really post right now, but I had to say hello and that all is well.  Agatha has, for the last couple of weeks, been undergoing a developmental change in her sleeping that means she is almost sleeping through the night-- perhaps one wake-up at 1:30 am or so, and then sleeping on through until almost 7 am.  Henry has been sleeping "late" too, so we are in heaven!  It is wonderful to feel so well-rested.  It's the mad dash till the end of the semester now, complicated by the fact that we are bringing in three job candidates for a new position, so thank goodness Gran is in town!  Henry's big thing of the moment is building complex lego ships.  They have tall masts, pirate crews, and cargo.  "Daddy, can you play Construction Guy with me?" is the constant refrain at our house these days.  

More soon, when I can!