Dev and Summer

Two Dolphins: A Study in Crayon

2012-01-23T22:25:00.000-08:00

Beatrice's first semi-representational drawing, which she identifed to me and Marie as a big dolphin and a small dolphin. And they really look like dolphins! leaping through some waves.

Arthur, Month Eight

2012-01-21T22:10:00.000-08:00

Looking thoughtful

And classy

Arthur's eighth month was mostly spent on Christmas activities, a trip to Texas, and then a New Year's visit from my parents (photos to follow). But he also made some big strides in both standing and speaking.

He has been trying to stand without holding on to anything and a few times he's succeeded—for a few seconds, at least. He is also working on walking while pushing a wheeled cart—though he emphatically refuses to do so on video.

Meanwhile, he is constantly squealing, laughing, and babbling. He spends all day saying "dada," a meaningless phoneme that Dev nonetheless swears refers to him. Whatever Arthur means by "dada," he enjoys saying it, and just today when I said "bye" to Marie as she was leaving I swear Arthur said "bye" too. He is also fond of waving—but also not on video.

Arthur refusing to say "mama"

As Arthur gets older he is also starting to play more with Beatrice.

Marie took this picture of them having a tea party outside

Unfortunately Arthur spent much of the past few weeks with a cold and/or an ear infection and so he wasn't always in the best mood. However, if there's one thing that always cheers him up, it's Bagels and Beyoncé.

A few more highlights, including Baby's First Lightsaber and Baby's First Shoes.

NERD!

Marie managed to capture Arthur's halo

Introducing Marie

2012-01-16T12:56:00.001-08:00

I've been late to introduce this on the blog, but back in September I returned to work part-time (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) doing technical writing at an office in Sherman Oaks. The contract job will end in two weeks, hopefully to be replaced by another contract shortly after.

The job has been a mixed blessing at best, but one unequivocally good thing that came out of it was the chance to start working with Marie, an absolutely wonderful nanny who used to watch Rosemary when the Spindlers were living in Pasadena. Mina still raves about what a treasure Marie was (and is) and she's absolutely right.

Arthur adores Marie - you should see his face light up when she enters the room - and despite a mild bout of separation anxiety caused by me going back to work, Beatrice loves her, too. In fact, the other day as we were driving to preschool, Beatrice said excitedly, "Maybe Marie will be at school today to pick me up."

Marie also earned Beatrice's undying gratitude (and mine) by packing Beatrice this adorable tiny suitcase full of toys and snacks to keep her occupied on the plane to and from Dallas.

Christmas Gifts: Silhouette Magnets

2012-01-16T12:56:00.000-08:00

This year we made sets of silhouette magnets for two groups of friends: my old school friends Amy, Amy, Summer, and Stephanie; and our Caltech/college friends Dev, Travis, Michael, Laura, Sam, Lilli, Travis, Aubrey, Melissa, and Monty.

I started by gathering up digital photos, used hand drawing to create the images, re-scanned them back into the computer, and converted them into vector files. Then Dev used a laser cutter to cut them out of plastic and we mounted them onto small wooden disks with magnets on the back.

Clockwise from top left: Amy Robb, Summer, Stephanie, me, and Amy Turner

Clockwise from top left: Dev, me, Melissa, Lilli, Laura, Monty, Travis, Michael, Sam, Aubrey

It's also a good band name.

2012-01-10T23:46:00.000-08:00

We were up and in the car at 7am on the way to the airport and there was dew on our windshield. Beatrice asked why there was water on our car and I did my best to give her a toddler-sized explanation of condensation.

Beatrice replied, "No, it's people, people put the water on our car. People who live in the trees. A sparkle army that lives in the trees."

Though her comment took me by surprise, my mother commented that it is just the sort of thing I would have said if someone had put the question to me when I was two and a half.

She's not wrong.

2012-01-10T23:45:00.000-08:00

My mother was helping Beatrice get ready for preschool.

Marilyn: What shoes do you usually wear to school?

Beatrice: Tiny ones.

Christmas Gifts: Doorway Puppet Theater

2012-01-10T23:24:00.000-08:00

This year I sewed (and serged! thanks to the serger Dev got me for an early Christmas present) these doorway puppet theaters for the all the children in my life.

I got the original idea from the excellent blog Skip to my Lou, though I made a few modifications that I think made it a little faster and easier to sew, important when you're making so many of them.

Thank you to my mother for modeling the chicken puppet.

Winter in Austin

2012-01-06T00:19:00.000-08:00

After Christmas in Dallas, our whole (slowly recovering) group headed to Mina and James' beautifully remodeled house in Austin.

In the car on the way from Dallas to Austin

Some of the highlights of the trip included two hikes, a canoe ride, the Nature Center, a trip to Lockhart for some barbecue, Tex Mex at Matt's El Rancho, and a New Year's Eve spent toasting marshmallows with the kids.

Travis helps Beatrice pick a leaf

Stopping on a hike for a snack break

Beatrice enjoys some ribs at Smitty's Barbecue in Lockhart, Texas

Getting ready to go canoeing, perhaps B's favorite activity all week

And of course just enjoying drinking, eating, and relaxing at home.

Merry Christmas! Dallas

2012-01-05T23:26:00.000-08:00

On December 22 we left to spend almost two weeks in Dallas and Austin with Dev's family. We had eleven adults and four kids this year: Mamo, Naresh, Suzan, Mina, James, me and Dev, Julie, David, Maureen, Paul, Rosemary, Beatrice, Louis, and Arthur. Plus several visits from Travis.

The whole group first met up in Dallas - where every single one of us immediately fell sick with a host of illnesses including colds, flus, ear infections, allergies, and even scabies. It made for a rough start to the holiday, but despite it all we still had a wonderful Christmas. Mostly due to Arthur's bow tie.

Arthur is a born model.

Beatrice uses her new doctor kit to examine a stuffed dinosaur.

And her cousin Louis.

Dev helps Louis unpack his Craftsman tool set, one of the highlights of Louis's year

We all received some beautiful presents but the best part of my Christmas Day was when I took Beatrice aside to eat some breakfast during the marathon gift unwrapping session and just she and I sat together in the kitchen while she mimed wrapping and giving me imaginary packages. "What's this?" "A triangle!" And so on. It also delighted me to see Beatrice open her stocking in Los Angeles, pull out a set of bangle bracelets and a plastic giraffe (both from the dollar section of Target) and exclaim, "Bracelets and a giraffe, I have so many things!" I only hope we have at least one more year of such innocence ahead of us.

The kids' table at Christmas dinner

Merry Christmas! Los Angeles

2012-01-05T15:47:00.000-08:00

We had so many hundreds of Christmas photos this year that I think our only hope is to divide it up into Christmas in Los Angeles and Christmas in Dallas. So without further ado, Christmas in L.A.!*

And it's not over yet. My parents are arriving on Saturday to do more celebrating - Christmas, Part Three!

Christmas Gifts: Bread Jars

2012-01-05T14:50:00.001-08:00

Best idea ever, from Sunset magazine:

We gave these to Beatrice's teachers this year - each jar is filled with all the dry ingredients to make Chocolate Chip & Oatmeal Quick Bread.

It's pretty much the easiest gift ever - you don't even bake anything - just buy glass jars, fill them, and package them with the accompanying recipe. I am definitely doing this every year.

Cauliflower Kale Soup

2012-01-03T23:50:00.001-08:00

I just made the most wonderful soup, from the January 2012 edition of Martha Stewart Living. It's fast, cheap, easy, and healthy - perfect for my current post-holiday-excess-New-Year's-Resolution-fueled vegetable binge.

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, chopped (I used more like 6 cloves)

Sea salt

1 medium head of cauliflower, cut into one-inch pieces

1/4 cup chopped fresh dill (I omitted this because I didn't have any)

5 large kale or collard leaves, roughly chopped (I used kale, maybe more like 6 leaves)

(Very slightly edited) Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat; cook onion until soft, 4 to 5 minutes. Add garlic and salt, and cook for 3 minutes more. Add cauliflower, and pour in water until it just covers the cauliflower.

2. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer until cauliflower is just tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in greens and simmer about 3 more minutes. (I also added more salt here.)

3. Puree soup in a blender until smooth.

And that's it! 5 ingredients and 3 steps.

I was pretty skeptical about using only water instead of stock and/or cream but the soup is incredibly rich and flavorful, you would never know it's vegan. And it doesn't have any of the bitterness sometimes associated with kale, it's very creamy and slightly sweet. Even Dev liked it.

Arm rest

2012-01-03T23:46:00.002-08:00

On the airplane coming home from Texas* on New Year's Day:

Beatrice: What's this?

Summer: An arm rest.

Beatrice sets her arm down on the arm rest and holds it there very still for at least a minute.

Beatrice: I'm resting my arm.

Another minute passes. Beatrice lifts her arm.

Beatrice: Now my arm is awake!

*About which a long entry is coming tomorrow.

Arthur, Month Seven

2011-12-21T14:16:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-15T14:14:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-12T23:20:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-07T08:20:00.000-08:00

A few more

2011-12-05T23:27:00.000-08:00

great movie night photos from the very talented Amy Robb.

#4: Host a Christmas Party

2011-12-04T21:37:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-01T23:16:00.000-08:00

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.

Advent Calendar

2011-11-30T23:24:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-11-28T01:11:00.001-08:00

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

2011-11-22T15:29:00.000-08:00

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,

2011-11-21T18:02:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-20T20:15:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-19T21:56:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-11-15T14:34:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-08T14:18:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-11-05T00:04:00.001-07:00

A Toddler's Monologue

2011-11-03T15:52:00.000-07:00

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

2011-11-01T22:36:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-11-01T15:35:00.000-07:00

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.

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-01T05:51:00.000-07:00

We started off our Halloween the night before when we took a family trip to a wonderful neighborhood haunted house* and then came home to eat Chinese food and carve pumpkins.

Beatrice drew on her pumpkin with a marker and then I carved along the lines she drew (correcting for basic structural soundness). She was so, so proud of the pumpkin she carved "by herself," especially when we took it outside on the porch to light it up.

Then we were up early Monday morning to attend her preschool's Halloween party, which featured a costume parade, trick or treating around the church building, and classroom parties. Beatrice had a wonderful time, even if she was terrified of Adeline's father in his Shrek mask.

Then, trick or treating!
This was the highlight of Beatrice's month, not least because she spent all of October "practicing" trick or treating every night, wearing her costume, carrying her treat bucket, and running up and down the sidewalk, getting ready for the Big Night. (For a month now she has been reciting over and over, "On Halloween you dress up like Madeline and eat chocolate candy.")
Arthur also enjoyed his owl costume, or at least put up with it quite well.

After making the rounds ourselves, we all sat on the porch and Beatrice handed out candy and toys to other kids. Trick or treating was particularly nice this year because it gave us a chance to get to know our new neighborhood better - the families on our block all stayed outside talking while we distributed candy.

And with that, sadly, a month of leaf hunts, corn mazes, petting zoos, pumpkin festivals, pie baking, cider drinking, face painting, pony rides, pumpkin carving, seed roasting, apple picking, costume sewing, mask making, Victorian galas, "scary" stories, and chocolate candy comes to an end. I can truly say this year's was the best Halloween I've ever had.

*When the zombie popped up from the ground at the haunted house, Beatrice shouted at it, "I love you!"

(Mostly) Sewing My Own Halloween Costume

2011-11-01T05:11:00.000-07:00

I knew when I bought my Halloween costume pattern last July that I was in for a challenge. My only other experience sewing clothing was a pair of simple drawstring pajama pants, and this was a 24-piece, 61-step pattern requiring zippers, stay-stitching, gathering, boning, yolks, and ruffles. Plus something called a "sleeve flange."

But I went into it confident that when I got in too far over my head my mother would bail me out. Which she did. Repeatedly.

Still, I sewed the skirt and the coat mostly by myself. (My mom sewed the bodice, which is why the bodice looks so much better than the skirt and the coat.) And I learned so much on the way, including how to set zippers and how to attach sleeves. I also got to stay up until 3am one night pleating and hemming 27 feet of fabric for the skirt ruffle.

Of course my mother and I were up at midnight a few days before the party working on the finishing touches when my sewing machine broke. On step 58 of 61. My industrious mother got up at 7am to finish the sleeves by hand - and as for me, I took one look at all the yards of fabric left to hem, went to Jo-Ann's, and bought some fabric glue*.

Thank you, Mom, all your help! I couldn't have done it without you!

*I told my friend Stacey that I felt bad about gluing the ruffles and the hem of the coat. "Don't feel bad," she said, "they do that all the time on 'Project Runway'!"

The Royal Geographical Society Annual Gala

2011-11-01T05:06:00.000-07:00

This year we welcomed more than four dozen adults and children to The Royal Geographical Society Annual Gala, a Victorian/natural history/exploration/steampunk/cabinet of curiosities-themed party.
We set up the Royal Geographic Society Explorer's Club ballroom in our backyard, complete with shelves of curiosities, artifacts, and rare specimens, as well as armchairs, an Oriental rug, and a fireplace.

In the back, partially obscured by foliage, you could find some large-scale specimens: a femur and a tentacle, each about eight feet long.

In the background we projected old black and white travel documentary film footage from 1900-1930 showcasing various "exotic" places - this 1909 North Pole journey is one of my favorites.
Our distinguished guests received the RGS Medal of Valor.

Our Junior Members received these gift bags filled with Diversions and Amusements and amused themselves in the Junior Members' Library (playhouse) with a bean bag toss game and a trunk full of disguises*.

Thank you so much to Sam, Lilli, Colleen, Amy, and Summer for all your help!

There are tons more photos on Flickr and Facebook.

*The trunk is full of costume parts from previous Halloweens, my old clothes and jewelry, and items I buy on after-Halloween sales to stock up our ever-growing dress-up clothing chest.

A Different Kind of Milestone

2011-10-22T13:30:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-20T00:33:00.000-07:00

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.

2011-10-20T00:28:00.001-07:00

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

2011-10-15T23:47:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-10-10T22:58:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-03T13:54:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-01T22:20:00.000-07:00

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.

Come Out, Moon!

2011-09-27T15:46:00.000-07:00

I was driving Beatrice home from preschool this afternoon when she looked out the window and said*, "Hello, sunshine! . . . The sun is out in the day and the moon is out at night," repeating a lesson I taught her a few weeks ago.

Then she added, "Mommy? Where is the moon?"

I told her, "The moon is always up in the sky, but you can only see it at night."

"The moon is sleeping in the day. The moon is having nap time. The moon is sleeping in his bed. The moon wants his blanket."

Then she shouted, "Come out, moon! I want to give you a blanket!"

*I know, this blog is quickly becoming Beatrice Quote of the Day, but I can't help but be delighted by the things she comes up with. And by typing them here, I make sure I have a record of them someday.

Beatrice's First Work of Fiction

2011-09-26T21:47:00.000-07:00

I'm late to post this, but early this month Beatrice made up her first (very) short story. I was trying to get her to fall asleep so I told her to lie down, close her eyes, and then tell me a story (but she had to keep her eyes closed the entire time she was talking). After some squirming she finally relaxed, closed her eyes, and said,

"There was a little brown bird. He flew to the doughnut store. He bought doughnuts and coffee."

The End.

In general she has developed quite the imagination, from pretending to fly an airplane to the farmer's market (to buy "carrots, hummus, raisins, snap peas, sparkling water, [and] wine") to burping, swaddling, rocking, and nursing an empty juice box or package of English mufins. When I came to get her from her nap today she held out her stuffed Babar and told me definitively, "I want to put the elephant's jacket in the washing machine. He is going to a party."

A New Favorite Soup

2011-09-24T22:04:00.000-07:00

I used our last four pounds of this year's garden tomatoes* to make Roasted Tomato Soup with Broiled Cheddar (from Smitten Kitchen, my favorite cooking blog) and it was incredibly good, perfect for late summer/early fall. I made it almost exactly as directed except I doubled the amount of garlic. Highly recommended!

*We didn't grow plum or Roma tomatoes this year so I used Early Girl tomatoes instead; it turned out just great, though probably with a slightly different texture than you would have gotten with plum tomatoes.

Arthur, Month Four

2011-09-19T15:09:00.000-07:00

Whenever I describe Arthur on this blog or elsewhere, the word I use most often is "charming." Yes, I may be a bit biased, but he really is a charming baby - extremely social, interactive, and cheerful, and with a lot of personality for someone only four months old. Moreover, it seems like he's trying to be charming on purpose - as soon as you look his way, he pulls out all the stops, smiling and laughing and wiggling. He loves being around people and craves attention, especially from females. He also "talks" constantly, babbling and gurgling for long stretches of time.

He's also traffic-stoppingly cute! I was sitting on my front porch with Arthur when one of our neighbors actually pulled over, stopped his car, and got out to see the baby. (To be fair, that probably says more about our neighbor's eccentricity than our son's cuteness.)

Arthur can now roll over in both directions (tummy-to-back and the reverse) and uses this ability to move himself across the floor, tumbling side-over-side until he gets where he wants to be. Every day he works on crawling - I'm sure he's still many months away, but he's giving it his all. Like his sister at the same age, Arthur never stops moving - as I type this, he is flipping back and forth over and over on the living room rug.

He's very interested in toys of all kinds, including mobiles, the Whoozit, and Sophie the Giraffe, and yesterday he rolled/scooted himself all the way across the living room floor to look at a toy catalogue.
Playing "hide and seek":

The big events in Arthur's life this month were Mommy and Me and the baby gym.

Now that Beatrice is in school two days a week I have two mornings to spend just me and Arthur, which means I can take him to the same Mommy and Me and "baby gym" recreation center that Beatrice used to enjoy. Or we can just relax and watch the fountain at the Americana, as B and I used to do.

Arthur spent most of his first "Mommy and Me" session rolling over and over again, occasionally stopping to stare at Penelope, the baby next to him:

In typical newborn style, Arthur's sleep patterns remain unpredictable - he may sleep through the night one night, then be up four times the next night - but in general he gets up just once, at 4am, and goes right back to sleep after some milk, so I have it pretty good. Unfortunately he's not much of a day sleeper, though I can occasionally coax him into a brief nap - but pretty much as long as the sun is up, so is he. At least he makes good company.

Meanwhile, Beatrice is doing great with Arthur. She insists on sharing everything she gets with her brother, whether he wants it or not: today I gave her a new puzzle and she immediately took out a piece and said, "This one is for Arthur!"

"Playing" with Beatrice, who is decorating him with stickers:

She also respects his opinion: The other day Beatrice requested a certain dress to wear, then declared, "I have to go show Arthur!" She ran up to him in his seat and said, "Look at my dress, Arthur!" and then added, "Arthur, I like your shirt."

Shackleton and Arthur both begging for pancakes - next month we start solid food!

Adventures in Gardening

2011-09-18T00:18:00.000-07:00

I'm not planning on starting my big fancy vegetable garden until after we re-landscape the front and back yards next year but I still couldn't let the summer go by without planting anything, so I grew some tomatoes and basil in the ground plus some strawberries in a hanging basket and herbs in pots.

The experiment was mostly successful and I also learned some lessons for next year (for example, next year I will stake the tomatoes right when I plant them, not wait until they are already too tall to manage).

Eating things I've grown myself has delighted me since I first grew my own pumpkins in junior high, so you can imagine how excited I was to get those first tomatoes. But even more exciting has been seeing how enthusiastic Beatrice is about taking care of the plants. Every afternoon she asks to water them, to eat any ripe strawberries that appeared overnight, and to "harvest" the tomatoes. I have told her she can only pick the red, ripe tomatoes, not the green ones, so now she runs up and down the row shouting, "Only red! Only red!"

Five pounds of tomatoes waiting to be made into sauce

But perhaps Beatrice's favorite plant was the pumpkin she first planted at Toddler Treks using the classic seed-in-a-styrofoam-cup approach.

The other night Beatrice was in her pajamas listening to a story, ready for bed, when she suddenly sat straight up and said, "Water the pumpkin!" She was so concerned that she'd forgotten that I let her get out of bed and go water it before she went to sleep.

Unfortunately the pumpkin was under-fertilized and it never produced any fruit. But Beatrice loved this plant so much and she wished so hard and waited so long that finally after four months a pumpkin magically appeared! From the grocery store, where I bought it and left it in the pot for her to find.

She was absolutely thrilled and spent the rest of the day carrying the pumpkin around, talking about it, kissing it, and telling it "I love you!" Of course she also pretended to breastfeed the pumpkin, burped it, wrapped it in a blanket, and later offered it some snack crackers, so she may have something left to learn about the botanical sciences.

Oh well, next year we'll get pumpkins going for real . . .

The tomato plants grew as tall as I am

Beatrice the Brave

2011-09-16T00:35:00.000-07:00

Last week at Children's Fairyland in Oakland Beatrice rode a two-story Ferris wheel all by herself and loved it! (The ride was "No Adults Allowed.")

Beatrice embarks alone on the Ferris wheel

And this week she went on her first solo pony ride at Griffith Park - the ponies are trained to walk around the track on their own without any trainers walking alongside them. Beatrice loved it, too, and kept shouting, "Walk, pony, walk!"

Maybe it's just because I was such a coward when I was a kid, but I am so proud of how brave my daughter is!

Goodbye, Summer!

2011-09-11T10:28:00.000-07:00

It may still be in the 80s every day, but this is the time of year when we say goodbye to summer. The school year has started, swimming lessons are over, all the city's outdoor concert series and movie series and splash pads are winding down, and now we're getting ready for fall.

This summer was an eventful one, starting with Arthur's arrival on May 19. We welcomed house guests with visits from Marilyn, Richard, Gillian, Suzan, Naresh, Mina, James, Maureen, Rosemary, Louis, Monty, Travis, Sam, Lilli, Stacey, Rick, Adam, and Danny. We went backyard camping, took a road trip, grew tomatoes, played in the sprinklers, hosted barbecues, visited the beach, and worked on the new house. Beatrice and Dev took a special father/daughter weekend trip to Dallas and my parents spent the weekend and then we wound up the season with Beatrice's first days at preschool.

Beatrice swimming with Naresh in Dallas

But the best part of the summer for me was going out into our backyard in the early evening when the weather had cooled off to a perfect 70-something degrees and sitting with a drink and a magazine watching Beatrice play.

Fall is my favorite season, so we have plenty to look forward to, including (of course!) Halloween!

Technical Difficulties

2011-09-06T22:55:00.000-07:00

Incidentally, you may all have noticed some major formatting problems with this site lately, especially with alignment and spacing. I'm working on figuring out what is causing the problem and fixing it, and while I'm at it I'd like to freshen up the design - stay tuned!

A Visit From The Cousins

2011-09-06T22:34:00.000-07:00

Rosemary and Louis came to visit! With Mina, James, and Maureen, of course. Beatrice hadn't seen her cousins since January and of course they had never met Arthur, so all four of them enjoyed getting to know each other better. In particular, Beatrice and Rosemary had an absolutely wonderful time. Beatrice was so flattered by the attentions of an almost-four-year-old that she was more than willing to follow all of Rosemary's directions for how to play grocery shopping and airplane.

The girls drinking sparkling water out of doll cups

Playing "airplane" : Rosemary decided they were flying to Australia

The girls cracked each other up with private jokes - the hit of the weekend was "Too many corn!" Which may not seem that funny to an adult, but each time one of the girls said it it sent them both into hysterics. Too many corn!

The girls shared a bedroom and every night was a slumber party - we would hear them up after nine o' clock talking, laughing, and singing.

Maureen, Mina, Rosemary, and Beatrice making a peach cobbler

Louis spent some time joining in the girls' games, but he also enjoyed playing in the sandbox and feeding the dogs.

Meanwhile Arthur was fascinated by Louis and completely adored his aunts and uncle. He charmed everyone with his constant smiling, cooing, and babbling.

Arthur checks out Louis

We mostly played in the backyard where all three older kids could enjoy the playhouse, but we did also take a trip to Ventura Beach.

We were so sorry to see everyone go, but we're looking forward to seeing them again at Christmas.

There are a ton more (downloadable) photos on Flickr.

The cousins on a pony ride in Ventura Harbor

Rosemary and Beatrice's dinner table conversion

Rosemary and B discuss corn and Pasadena

First Day of School

2011-09-06T16:04:00.000-07:00

Today was Beatrice's first day* at St. Mark's Preschool!

And she arrived with quite the entourage: her aunts Mina and Maureen, her uncle James, and her cousins Rosemary and Louis all came to see her off, plus of course me, Dev, and Arthur.

When I dropped her off this morning, I was a little worried about how she would do on her first day alone at school. When I came back again to pick her up after lunch, I walked into the Red Room and announced "Mommy's here!" Beatrice didn't even look up from the play kitchen sink as she said, "I'm washing dishes in the sink!" Also she was completely covered in blue paint.

Beatrice's teachers told me that she loved preschool, participated enthusiastically in every activity, and never cried once. In fact, she refused to leave. I was only able to coax her into the car by promising her a First Day of School Victory Doughnut but since I can't give her doughnuts every day, I'm not quite sure how I'll get her to leave next time.

Beatrice takes off to explore on her own

Beatrice is in school Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00am-1pm (though we may later switch to a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule). Every day they have free play time inside and out as well as songs, dancing, crafts, a circle time lesson, a snack, and lunch. Today on the way home Beatrice talked enthusiastically about the sandbox, painting, snack time, lunch, and her new friend Adeline (who, Beatrice reported, cried because she wanted to kiss her mommy).

Since she's too young to read notes in her lunchbox, I printed out a bunch of family photos to include instead. Beatrice's teacher said she was delighted with the photo of Shackleton in her lunch and showed it to all the other kids.

Beatrice's cubby

Beatrice enjoys a celebratory half-doughnut on the way home from school

*Well, her first official day. The preschool recommends new students come to school a few times first with their parents and so twice last month Dev and I sat in on her class, met her teachers, and observed a typical day. On Dev's visit they even got popsicles.

Painting the Dog Silhouettes

2011-09-01T23:50:00.000-07:00

I had so much fun making Beatrice and Arthur's dog silhouette mural and it was also a very easy, inexpensive way to decorate their room - the whole thing took only four hours and cost less than $10.

After spending so much time painting and repairing the walls in this room I was a little hesitant to alter them, so I decided to paint on the back of the door. It's a cheap hollow-core door that we'll eventually want to replace with a nice hardwood door anyway, ideally just around the time the kids outgrow the mural.

I started by standing each dog in front of a blank white wall and taking their photograph in profile. This was, no joke, the hardest part of the whole thing. Cromwell, in particular, would not sit still, and it was nearly impossible to get a profile photo of Shackleton because he kept turning to look at the camera. Finally, finally, I got some photos I could use.

Shackleton posing for his portrait

Then I used GIMP (an open-source version of Photoshop) to reduce them to outlines.

Shackleton in outline

If you were better at freehand drawing on a computer than I am, you could then trace the outlines digitially using the pen tool, but I'm terrible at drawing with a mouse so I printed these out and traced them with a Sharpie.

Then I rotated them and touched them up a bit in GIMP and they were ready to go*.

I set up a digital projecter in the kids' room and projected the images onto the door.

I traced around the projected images in pencil.

Then it was just a matter of carefully filling them in with paint in Behr's Crisp Green and Electric Orange**.

After driving myself insane trying to get rid of all the visible brushstrokes left over from the combination of three different brushes and a roller, I told myself that the brushstrokes were an "effect" that gave the mural more "depth and dimension."

Conveniently, Beatrice was out of town for the weekend so I could do all the drawing and painting while she was gone and surprise her with her very own dog portrait when she got back.

*We made Cromwell bigger than life-size because Dev thought it looked better that way, and we actually made him less fluffy than he is in real life because his ultra-fluffy outline looked sort of fake.

**On the same paint chip card as Crisp Green there is also "Carolina Parakeet."

Before and After #3: Children's Room

2011-09-01T23:49:00.000-07:00

Ta da! I'm delighted to say we've finished the first room in our house remodel. The children's shared bedroom was a top priority because I wanted Beatrice to have a safe place to play while other parts of the house were under construction - and I wanted a nice space to welcome Arthur when he moves into this room to join his sister soon. I think they're really going to like what we came up with.

BEFORE

AFTER

We began by tearing out the carpet and one of the room's two built-in cabinets right after we moved in. This bedroom (like the guest bedroom) is from the original 1941 house and still had the original oak floors underneath the carpet. Overall they were in good shape, though with a lot of paint splatters in some areas. We'll refinish them eventually, but they're fine for now.

The built-in we decided to remove from this room was massive - it took up about 18 square feet of floor space and rendered at least 18 more effectively unusable - and it was cobbled together out of a curious mixture of plywood, chipboard, cork, and plaster. Removing it opened up so much more space, it felt like the room nearly doubled in size.

It also gave Dev an excuse to use a sledgehammer.

After tearing out the built-in, we discoverd that the walls were a modge-podge of dry wall, plaster, and cork, so with help from a crew of handymen we re-drywalled the room.

We also removed the terrible "popcorn" acoustic ceiling.

We added new door trim and crown and base moulding - I have to say, I think there's no easier or cheaper way to improve a room than to add trim.

Then we painted everything a clean, cool white that reflects a lot of light (Valspar's Subway Tile, if you're interested). This was particularly important because this is the only room in the house that has no windows.

We removed the overhead fluorescent light fixture and replaced it with a pendant light from IKEA.

The old fixture

And of course Dev's mother Suzan painstakingly painted the remaining built-in cabinet the same shade of white as the walls, to better integrate it into the room and to brighten up the space.

We also did a lot of minor touch-ups, like replacing all the switchplate and outlet covers.

Then came the fun part - decorating. Virtually everything in the new room is stuff we already had from the old house but I still had fun rearranging it.

We hung up photo ledges that allow us to easily switch out art as we choose. The four framed prints I wanted to put here are currently lost somewhere in the garage, but until I find them Beatrice is really into these animal flashcards from the $1 bin at Target.

We also framed and matted these two beautiful prints we got as gifts, one from Lucas and one from Summer.

I had so many ideas for wall art (collages, decals, a family tree, a chalkboard wall, a magnetic wall, a city skyline, a forest, etc., etc.) that I had a really hard time choosing one, but finally I decided that the one "theme" that would appeal the most to Beatrice (and hopefully to Arthur) was dogs, so I this weekend I painted life-size silhouettes of Shackleton and Cromwell.

A few months ago Beatrice graduated to a toddler bed, leaving the crib for Arthur. I sewed the bedding for her new "big girl' bed and matching bedding for her doll bed.

Beatrice's new duvet cover

And a matching cover for her doll's bed

Above Beatrice's bed we hung the white eyelet paper lanterns from Beatrice's second birthday party.

We also added some low, outward-facing racks to display favorite books more easily (they are actually spice racks from IKEA), and toddler-height coat hooks that will allow Beatrice to get used to hanging up her own sweaters and jackets.

Most of Arthur's toys and clothes are hand-me-downs, of course, but this handmade mobile is all his own, made by my friends for his shower. And I can honestly say, the mobile is his very favorite thing in the whole world. He's not sleeping in the crib yet (he's still in a co-sleeper in our room) but every evening I set him in the crib to watch the mobile while I get Beatrice ready for bed.
All of Beatrice's toy bins are labeled with pictures instead of words which makes it easier for her to put her own things away.

Best of all, I made this great teepee for Beatrice and Arthur. Beatrice loves it so much that it was worth the fact that I had to get rid of the changing table to make room for it. The only downside is that now every night she asks to sleep in the teepee instead of in her bed.

And we filled the room with gifts from all their friends and relatives.

We tried to keep the space very flexible because Beatrice and her brother are growing and changing so fast, but I think this room can continue to accomodate them for at least a few years to come. I already have a wish list of things to do when the children are old enough for bunk beds(and therefore we have more floor space for desks, an art station, a train table - etc., etc.) but I'm very happy with this for now. And so are they.

Toddlers Have a Sixth Sense for Fingerpaint

2011-08-23T13:59:00.001-07:00

It was 101F today in Los Angeles so I decided to take Beatrice to a new indoor playground that recently opened up in our neighborhood. Inside there were several rooms dedicated to different activities like crafts, puppets, and reading. In the far corner of one small room off the main hallway there was a small table and on that table was a small cup of yellow fingerpaint left over from an earlier crafts session.

We walked inside, I set Arthur down on the floor in his carseat, and immediately, immediately, upon entering the play area Beatrice ran directly into the paint room, grabbed the cup of yellow paint, ran back out, and poured it all over Arthur, shouting, "Paint, Arthur!"

Thank you, Summer!

2011-08-22T09:54:00.001-07:00

Summer St. Pierre has been babysitting Beatrice for me twice a week every week since Beatrice was eight months old so that I could work on writing part-time. In those nineteen months, Beatrice and Jack have become almost like family. Not to mention the fact that Beatrice completely adores Summer.

In fact I would say Beatrice's relationship with Summer and Jack has been one of the best parts of her life so far.
Now fall is around the corner and with it will come some big changes. Summer is going back to work full-time as a teacher, making a lot of other (older) kids as happy as she's made Beatrice. Beatrice and Jack are starting preschool. We have a new baby. And I have new writing assigments and different daycare needs. Which means that this will be the last week that I drop off Beatrice at Summer's house and head over to Starbucks to write for five hours.

Naturally I'll still see Summer all the time (we've been friends since fifth grade, after all) and Jack and Beatrice will continue to be great friends, but I can't help but feel sad to see this part of our lives end. And not just because every time I pick up Beatrice, Summer has done something absolutely adorable to her hair.

Thank you, thank you, Summer! Whatever work I've gotten done the last year and a half is entirely because of you! I don't know what we'll do without you. (And you still have to come over and do Beatrice's hair before any special occasions.)

Arthur, Month Three

2011-08-20T02:01:00.000-07:00

Arthur is three months old! And his three favorite things are looking at mobiles, listening to music, and being outside. Every evening when it cools off I take him outside and put him on a blanket on the lawn where he lies happily looking up at the sky and occasionally chuckling to himself like he seems some private little joke up there.

Beatrice was never all that interested in mobiles and other dangling-object-diversions, but Arthur is absolutely giddy about any objects hanging over him. His favorite is the mobile my friends made for him, which he will stare at for almost an hour at a time, laughing and squirming and kicking.

In fact Arthur is always full of laughter and smiles (his laugh sounds sort of like a little happy hiccough) but unfortunately whenever you pull out a camera to document him doing something cute he completely freezes and stares fixedly at the camera instead. As you might expect, therefore, I have a lot of pictures of him staring fixedly ahead.

He's also a fairly clingy baby, at least more so than Beatrice was, and often insists on being held. Beatrice generally wanted attention only when she had a specific need, like a bottle or a diaper change, and so it's taken me awhile to figure out that sometimes Arthur doesn't want any particular thing, he just wants you to pick him up.

He continues to roll over daily and can move himself effectively if slowly across the floor by lying on his stomach and pushing himself forward with his legs (he hasn't quite figured out what to do with his arms yet). He can hold his head up more or less indefinitely, but of course that leads to a false sense of security in his parents and occasionally when he's tired his head will flop suddenly and dramatically over, reminding you that he is, after all, only three months old.

At this three-month appointment the doctor commented on what a sociable and interactive baby he is, and indeed Arthur seems to really love attention. He is also very vocal and makes a wide range of coos, sighs, and sounds like "ah-goo" and "goo-goo."

He also sticks out his tongue a lot.

Beatrice and Arthur continue to work on their new relationship. Beatrice "helps" me by bringing me Arthur's diapers and wipes and by choosing Arthur's outfit every morning. Every evening she "reads" him a story, often Madeline.

When Arthur cries she says to him, "I know, Arthur, I know, you're okay," in imitation of me, and reports to me "Arthur is sad!" She will then suggest to me that possibly "Arthur is hungry," "Arthur is lonely," "Arthur wants to eat milk," "Arthur's tummy hurts," "Arthur bumped his head," or "Arthur has an 'owie'." She might then kneel down next to the baby and shout, "Be happy, Arthur!" at the top of her lungs.

She is very good about sharing her toys with him and respects the idea that certain objects belong to Arthur. Whenever we go anywhere she asks eagerly, "Is Arthur coming too?" and often says unbidden, "I love Arthur. Arthur is my brother." She even made up a little song for him that she sings to him in the backseat called "Arthur's Song." He really seems to love her, too, and smiles and laughs whenever he sees her.

If all of this sounds perfectly ideal, of course, that's not the whole truth. She's still much too rough with him, though she's slowly getting better, and occasionally she lashes out - as when her best friend Jack was paying attention to Arthur and she got jealous and hit Arthur in the head with my car keys. But we're working on it - every day gets a little bit better.

Welcome, Ivy!

2011-08-13T09:18:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday Amy, Evan, and Miller welcomed Baby Ivy to our group of family and friends. I've met her and I give her two thumbs up - congratulations, guys!

Find out more about Ivy here.

That's one possibility

2011-08-13T09:09:00.000-07:00

Today while playing Beatrice threw three wooden blocks at Arthur, hitting him in the head.

Arthur starts wailing.

Beatrice immediately brings me a baby blanket and says, "Arthur is crying! Maybe he is cold?"

Camping Practice

2011-08-07T23:49:00.000-07:00

We had wanted to take the kids camping this summer but we've been so busy with house renovation and house guests that we probably won't have time to go away this year, so tonight we took Beatrice out for a little "practice camping" in the backyard.

She had a wonderful time playing in the tent, eating campfire-roasted hot dogs, and of course, making smores (or "candy crackers," as she calls them). She ran around the yard with her flashlight, said goodnight to the moon and stars, then settled into her sleeping bag to sing songs and read camping-themed storybooks by the light of her flashlight. By ten o' clock at night it was pretty clear she wasn't ever going to sleep in the tent, so we carried her back into her own bedroom and said goodnight, thus ending her first experience "camping."

How to Build a Teepee

2011-08-07T23:40:00.000-07:00

Here are the instructions on how to make a teepee like this one. I started by combining these instructions from DIY Network with these from Rachel Denbow's blog Smile and Wave, then added some adaptations of my own.

This makes a teepee whose final dimensions are 66 inches high, 48 inches wide, and 48 inches deep, so suitable for small children and small bedrooms.

Supplies
* 6 - 1" x 2" x 6' pieces of wood
* 1 - 9' x 12' canvas drop cloth¹
* 3 yards of leather cord
* 3 yards of ribbon

Instructions
1. Using a ¼" bit, drill holes into each piece of wood, 12 inches from the top. You'll use these holes at the end to tie together the wood pieces with the leather cord, so make sure your cord fits through the holes.

2. Gather up all six pieces of wood and temporarily tie them together loosely using cord, rope, masking tape, or anything else. Space out the pieces of wood so that the base is a hexagon with each side 24" long.

This is your chance to check out the size and make sure it's what you want before you start cutting fabric. I knew we had only 48"x48" to spare in the children's bedroom so I made a masking tape square of that size on the rug and made sure our teepee would fit in it.

Thank you, Shackleton.

3. Now, unroll the canvas drop cloth and cut out five side panels and one three-part door panel. The side panels should look like this:

With dimensions of 11.5" x 54" x 30.5".

The door panel is in three parts that should look like this:
The top panel has dimensions 11.5" x 14.5" x 15.5". The bottom panels have dimensions 10.25" x 40.5" x 17.25".

4. (Optional) Add a pocket.
Cut a piece of canvas to this shape:
With dimensions 27.5" x 11.5" x 30.5".

Position it on the wrong side of one canvas side panel 11 inches from the bottom seam.

Stitch the bottom of the pocket to the panel. You can leave the sides pinned but not sewn because they will get attached later when you create the side seams.

The pocket - attach along the bottom seam.

5. Hem the tops and bottoms of all the side panels as well as the top of door panel #1 and the bottoms of door panels #2 and 3.

6. Attach all five side panels to one another using French seams to create a channel 2.25" wide to slide the poles into².

To make the channel, start by stacking two side panels on top of one another with the wrong sides together. Sew them together with a ½" seam allowance.
Then open up the panels and flip them around so that the right sides are together. Stitch the panels together again with a 2.25" seam allowance.
This creates a 2.25 inch-wide channel into which you will insert the wooden poles at the end.

Do this to connect all five side panels.
One panel will have the interior pocket, but you can just sew over that the same way as all the others.

The side panels attached with French seams, with pocket in the center

When you're done, your tent cover should look like this:

Five side panels connected with French seams.
7. Now make the door.
Start by hemming the straight sides of both door panels with a ½"
Then sew each door panel to the top door section with a ½" seam, aligning the panels along the outer edges. The two door panels will overlap in the middle – this allows the teepee to be closed securely.
I stitched back and forth over the place where the doors overlap a few times to make it sturdier.

Align the door panels along the outside edge so that the two flaps overlap in the middle.

Then sew the door panel to the rest of your teepee using French seam channels, just as you did with all the side panels.
The finished cover

8. Now put the canvas cover on the wood frame.
First disassemble your "test" frame.
Thread a wooden pole through each of the channels, then gather them back up and spread out the frame again.
Tie the top together by threading the leather cord through all the drilled holes and winding around each pole until it feels stable and secure.

7. Add ribbon ties³.
Cut eight lengths of ribbon to 12 inches each.
Hand-sew the ribbons in the following places:

I placed my side ribbon ties at 24" up diagonally from the bottom seam, and my center ribbon ties at 9", 20", and 31" from the bottom seam.
These will allow you to tie the teepee closed or tie back the door to leave it open.

That's it! You're done!

I also made the directions into a PDF here.

-----------------------------------
1. I used 8oz weight canvas because I was concerned anything heavier wouldn't make it through my inexpensive, lightweight sewing machine. However my machine had no trouble at all with the canvas and I could probably have used 10oz. without trouble.

2. Many people make teepees without channels, instead sewing the tent cover as one piece that is attached to the wooden frame with ties. However, while channels are quite a bit more work, they also result in a sturdier, more portable teepee.

3. You could do this before putting the canvas up on the frame but I find that it's easier to see where they should go when it's all hanging in proper position.

Make Your Own Teepee!

2011-08-07T17:38:00.000-07:00

This week I made a teepee for Beatrice and Arthur.

Several of Beatrice's friends have tents or forts of some kind in their rooms and Beatrice always loves playing in them. Ours cost only $26 to build, plus an IKEA sheepskin and some pillows we already had.

I think this will be a great place for Beatrice and Arthur to curl up and read and nap even when they're a little older - and it collapses when you need to store it, too.

I also added an interior pockets for flashlights, books, or snacks. (This flashlight, a gift from Suzan, is one of Beatrice's prize possessions.)

Putting the teepee together was a little tricky. In fact, we had to resort to a lot of trial and error as well as some junior high geometry to arrange the frame and scale all the pattern dimensions. And I even learned how to sew French seams! I wrote up all the final instructions mostly for my own use, in case I ever want to make another one, but they might also be useful to other teepee-builders so I'll post them here as a separate entry.

Our thanks to cows

2011-08-07T17:01:00.001-07:00

I may be a bit biased, but I think Beatrice says some pretty cute things. I had to share two quotes from the past week.

1. On Thursday night we were driving home late from our usual Descanso concert in the park. Beatrice was sitting in the backseat with her stuffed robot (a beautiful handmade gift from Katy Spindler) on her lap. She held the robot's head up to the window and asked, "Do you see the moon, robot? Do you see the houses?"

2. Yesterday we were at Baja Fresh, a Mexican fast food restaurant. Beatrice was eating tortilla chips and drinking milk out of a container with a cartoon cow on it. "Thank you, cow, for making milk," she said to the picture, then added, "Thank you, cow, for making chips."

New Dresser

2011-07-24T15:44:00.000-07:00

Several years ago Dev and I bought a desk on Craigslist for his garage. We went to pick it up at the home of a young girl in Pasadena who was selling all her stuff and moving to Colorado to get married. While we were there, I noticed this great old trunk. She said she'd bought it at an estate sale and that supposedly it had once belonged to Zane Grey. I gave her my email address and asked her to contact me if she ever wanted to sell it. A few months later, she did - and I wound up with this gorgeous, huge, impractical steamer trunk which is almost four feet long and weighs 90 pounds.

For the next several years it lived in the garage while I kept promising Dev that someday I would do something with it. Well, I finally did! Today during Beatrice's nap time I transformed it into a dresser for the guest room (while Arthur and Shackleton lay together on the floor watching me work).

First I cleaned off about 80 years of grime. Then I removed all the very stained and faded fabric and replaced it with new Michael Miller fabric I ordered online (of course this required removing the many little tacks and screws holding things in place).

I lined the drawers with some great paper from The Paper Source.

And then I added a few things guests might need, like a set of house keys, a notepad, and a stack of cards with our contact info on them.

Now I'm really looking forward to renovating the guest room . . .

Arthur, Month Two

2011-07-18T21:39:00.000-07:00

Thank you, Arthur! For sleeping through the night almost every night since you first managed it at only four weeks old. I couldn't be luckier!

Of course he has to eat a LOT during the day to tide him over during his long nights of sleep, but I'm not complaining.

Arthur is super strong - not only rolling over every day but also holding his own head up for long stretches of time and even scooting himself a few inches across the floor.

He's a clever one, too - he's already figured out how to use his foot to move the mobile suspended over his baby seat, an arrangement of stars, moons, and planets that he loves to look at. He can focus on objects, bat at them, and at seven weeks he started smiling, though his smiles are so sudden and unpredictable that they are hard to capture on film.

This month he continued to tag along on his sister's outings, including a children's Korean music concert at the Hollywood Bowl, and he met our friends Sam, Lilli, Monty, and Travis. But mostly, of course, he ate, storing up energy for new feats ahead.

Working on crawling (while dressed as a surfer):

Hanging out after his bath:

Tanking up:

Keep up the intensity, Kumar!

Summer Visitors

2011-07-13T13:18:00.000-07:00

This morning we bid farewell to the last in a long line of visitors, starting with Naresh and Suzan, then Gillian, my parents, and our friends Sam, Lilli, Travis, Monty, and Richard - with more to come! as we expect visits from more friends and family before summer ends. I am so, so grateful we have a guest room to welcome all these friends (even if it still has a popcorn ceiling and a mysterious hole in the floor . . . )

Beatrice is finally at the age where she can remember and repeat names, understand relationships ("Amy is Miller's mommy"), and recall people later when she sees them in photographs. It's really fun to watch her begin to make sense of all the people in her life and talk about them even after they've gone.

Thank you, Mom!

2011-07-13T02:00:00.000-07:00

Now that I have finally recovered several weeks worth of photos, I wanted to post a delayed thank you to my mother, who came down for two weeks in June to help me with Arthur and Beatrice now that Dev is back to work from paternity leave.

We packed a ton of activities into her visit, including the baby gym, one of Descanso's Thursday evening concerts in the park, a session of Toddler Treks with Acorn Bear, Alejandro Wasserman's first birthday party, Kidspace, Paintbox Kids, a swimming lesson, and a trip to the zoo!

Swimming at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center

Planting a pumpkin seed at Toddler Treks

For the third year in a row, the Descanso Gardens Thursday night concerts are my favorite part of summer. Check out Arthur at his first concert compared with Beatrice at hers at the same age.

Beatrice painted "doggies" at Paintbox Kids and we took our usual Sunday morning trip to the farmer's market.

Beatrice and Dev at the farmer's market

Beatrice visits the guinea pigs ("pee-gos") at the farmer's market

And as always Mom also helped a ton with housework, errands, and projects, most notably helping me cut out the pattern for my (foolishly) ambitious Halloween costume. (It may sound ridiculous to start sewing a Halloween costume in June, but not once you see how elaborate this pattern is.)

Beatrice adored both my parents (my dad joined us for the last few days of my mom's trip) - in fact, she declared, "I love Grandpa, I love Arthur" - her first time ever using the word "love."

Of course, she was heartbroken to see them go - she kept asking, "Grandma potty? Grandpa outside? Grandma Starbucks?" guessing where they might be. In fact, my parents' departure triggered renewed sadness for Nani and Nana and she started asking where they were, too. Now she talks about all four grandparents all the time.

Finally, a Fence!

2011-07-13T00:16:00.000-07:00

This weekend Dev built a wooden fence across the driveway with the very kind help of our very kind friends, Travis, Sam, and Monty, who were visiting from San Antonio, San Jose, and Irvine, respectively. Thanks to them, we can now give our dogs and children access to the entire backyard without worrying about them running into the street.

Working late into the night

It's a marked improvement over the "temporary" patio furniture barricade we were using to contain the dogs before. ("Temporary" in that we had it up for three months.)

And as a bonus, it also means we have our patio furniture back!

Visit from Aunt Gillian

2011-07-12T23:22:00.001-07:00

This post, like several I am writing tonight, is long overdue - a hard drive crash caused me to lose all my photos and saved posts - but I wanted to post a delayed thank you to Gillian, who came and visited for a week while Dev was away at Aubrey and Melissa's wedding in Boston. A series of minor disasters unfolded, everything from a lost wallet to a clogged toilet to a (mildly) injured infant, but we did manage to squeeze a few fun moments into our chaotic week.

The best trip we took was to the Santa Monica beach at sunset, where Gillian, Lucas, and I gave Arthur his first glimpse of the coast and Gillian showed Beatrice the ocean for the first time in her memory (the last time Beatrice went to the beach she wasn't that much older than Arthur is now).

Lucas provided Beatrice with lemonade and corn dogs

Arthur on a beach adventure (whether he knows it or not)

And thank you Gillian for helping manage the disasters as they unfolded! Despite it all, we had a great time.

Beatrice discusses her brother

2011-06-20T21:39:00.000-07:00

but she gets a bit derailed.

Arthur, Month One

2011-06-20T01:13:00.000-07:00

Happy one-month birthday, Arthur!

It's hard to remember now that we're in the throes of the terrible twos, but Beatrice was a really easy infant: she almost never cried and she slept through the night for the first time before she was even three months old. When I was pregnant this time I kept thinking, there is no way I will be that lucky twice. Well, I don't want to jinx it, but I think I am!

At this age, infants can change fast, but so far at least, Arthur is a really easy baby. He spends almost the whole day looking around happily or contentedly napping, and while he remains a very voracious eater, as long as he's fed, he's completely content. About every 2-3 hours he lets out a shockingly loud wail for such a small person, but as soon as he's had his milk he's perfectly happy again. While he's not quite the amazing sleeper Beatrice was at his age, he's not a bad one, either, and I think and hope he'll sleep through the night relatively early like she did. (Right now he usually gets up every three hours at night, but he can do four hour stretches from time to time and once as long as five hours.)

This month Arthur met a number of our friends, including Zac, Colleen, Jeff, J. Ryan, Kat, Lucas, Veronika, Chris, and Nadia, as well as his grandmother Marilyn and his aunt Gillian. (He'll meet his grandfather Richard next week.)

He continues to roll over every day during "tummy time"and he is also working now on rolling the other way, back to front, and a sort of stymied proto-crawling.

He also learned to drink out of a bottle, though he remains somewhat resistant to it.

Not only is Arthur early to roll over, but he's early to focus on and reach for objects. He's already fascinated by the hanging stars and planets on his bouncer seat, by the toy hanging from his car seat handle, and most of all by the stuffed dog my mother gave him - in fact, he was even hugging the stuffed dog while staring intently into its face as if mesmerized. He will also stare at people's faces, completely absorbed, trying to figure them out.

As you might expect from the brother of a busy toddler, Arthur spends most of his days tagging along on activities planned for Beatrice, whether to the baby gym, the park, or the pool, but in the month ahead I plan on signing him up for Beatrice's old Mommy and Me class so he can have a little more one-on-one attention.

With toys Beatrice brought to him

Arthur has been sticking out his tongue a lot right from birth

There are more photos on Flickr and Facebook.

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T23:39:00.000-07:00

In honor of the occasion I had Beatrice decorate twelve paper lunch bags with paint pens and markers. Now when Dev brings his lunch to work, he can bring some art along with him.

Arthur contributed little to the project

My mother (who is visiting this week) and I also presented Dev with gifts and then for dinner he barbecued some excellent pork chops from the Vallarta Mexican supermarket just a few blocks away (yes, I know this means he cooked his own Father's Day dinner, but that's what he said he wanted...)

Boot Shoes!

2011-06-17T15:34:00.000-07:00

I asked Beatrice what she was doing and she said she was "baking a cake for Mommy Ami." "What is in the cake?" I asked her. "Corn!" she replied definitively. Then to Celeste she added, "Eat this!"

I know everyone's probably tired of hearing it by now, but I continue to be totally amazed by the rate at which Beatrice is picking up new words - by now she can talk about pretty much any object in her daily life, and she's adding more adjectives, verbs, abstract concepts (like "scary" and "happy"), and full sentences. Every day she shocks me by saying some new thing I had no idea she knew, like "I'm baking a cake," "Food makes the doggies happy," or yes, "Starbucks."

But a particularly funny verbal mannerism she's picked up is the use of two-word phrases where one word is general and the other specific. For example, she calls her boots "boot shoes," and her stuffed duck (technically a stuffed least tern) "bird duck," and she calls butter "butter cheese" (based on the mistaken impression that butter is a type of cheese). She calls motorcycles "motorcycle cars" and grapes "grape berries."

There are also a few words she continually says incorrectly. Elephants are "amis" (pronounced like "ah, me") - the stuffed Babar and Celeste dolls that Dev's parents handed down to us from when their kids were young are "Daddy Ami" and "Mommy Ami." When she hands us something she says "Ah, go" (presumably for "there you go") and when she wants you to help her open something, she asks "Ah, me?" (Yes, it sounds the same as the word for elephant.) She also refers to her favorite food, macaroni and cheese, as "hot cheese."

Toddler Treks with Acorn Bear

2011-06-17T15:03:00.000-07:00

Today was Beatrice's first session of the delightfully named Toddler Treks with Acorn Bear, a weekly series of educational nature walks for children 2-4 years old at Descanso Gardens.

Despite the grey skies and light rain, the group of toddlers gathered for songs and stories around the day's theme, "Frogs Make Me Happy." Then they did a frog-related craft (making a frog out of paper plates and affixing bug stickers to its outstretched tongue) followed by a walk around the gardens to look for frogs and other things.

Beatrice learned the words "spider web" and "pond," and though we didn't actually see any frogs because of the rain, she had a wonderful time watching fish in the pond, declaring them "funny" and "happy."

Best Birthday Present Ever

2011-06-05T23:29:00.000-07:00

Summer gave Beatrice two big balloons for her birthday last week and they made Beatrice about as excited as I have ever seen her. I wish I had a video of her jumping up and down shouting "balloons!" but I did get a few good photos of her in front of "Summer and Jack's house," as she calls it.

Beatrice is (really) Two!

2011-06-02T16:48:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday, Beatrice!

Enjoying a birthday trip to In n' Out. She now starts shouting "fries!" as soon as she sees the sign from the car window.

Well, this is quite extraordinary,

2011-05-31T19:28:00.000-07:00

but today, at twelve days old, Arthur rolled over, on his own, on purpose, three times in a row.

The first time we set him on his stomach on the sofa during dinner and looked up moments later to find him lying peacefully on his back. But I couldn't believe it, so I put him back on his stomach and watched him and a minute later - over again. The third time, we videotaped it. Sadly, by this point he was pretty mad that we kept putting him back on his stomach when he clearly wanted to be on his back, so he's crying in this video. After this, we let him rest on his back - he deserves it.

For those of you not up on their baby development facts, most babies learn to roll over between four and six months. Beatrice did so just shy of three months. Doing it at two weeks - I have never heard of anything like that. In fact, my friend Joanne said that in medical school they were taught that if someone brings a baby into the hospital under 3-4 months old and claims they were injured when they rolled over and fell off something, they should consider that person to be lying, because it's not possible for a baby that young to roll over.

So there you go! Arthur is apparently incredibly strong. He also gained 11 ounces of body weight in six days, so we may have a superhero on our hands.

Beatrice and Arthur

2011-05-26T23:20:00.000-07:00

Beatrice practices kissing Arthur gently

Beatrice first met Arthur at the hospital on Friday morning and she was absolutely delighted by the baby. She wanted to hold him and hug him and kiss him and carry him around, and we had some trouble getting her to be gentle and sit still, but at least she was enthusiastic about him. In fact, the first thing she did after giving him a hug and a kiss was to attempt to shove a piece of lemon scone into his mouth while shouting "Eat! Eat!"

Learning what babies do and don't eat.

She also cried when the nurses took Arthur into the nursery for a routine blood test because the doctor was taking the baby away. Of course, she also wanted to put Arthur into her doll stroller and wheel him around the hospital, so clearly we have a lot to learn about boundaries.

We brought Arthur home from the hospital on Saturday and since then it has been a real challenge to teach Beatrice to be gentle. She is constantly trying to grab him, squeeze him, or pick him up. I need her to be careful around him but I also don't want to punish her for trying to interact with him. It can be very trying at times, but worth it when she does something adorable like hold his hand or kiss him carefully. I'm grateful she at least seems to like him - I'm just looking forward to her growing more cautious or, more likely, Arthur growing more hearty.

Beatrice loves to set toys around Arthur, though he rarely thanks her for them

Every time Arthur cries, Beatrice announces "Arthur is sad! The baby is sad!" Or when he is quiet, she will ask, "Arthur is happy?"

Today we took Arthur along with us to the baby gym and then later in the afternoon, to the park. Beatrice spent most of her time climbing and exploring, but occasionally she would check back in to make sure that Arthur was still under the blanket.

This is how Arthur spent his time in the park.

The First Week

2011-05-26T22:30:00.000-07:00

Arthur is one week old!

And he is strong, healthy, loud, and hungry - the in-hospital pediatrician described him as "vigorous." We're just getting to know him, of course, but so far I'd say he's very calm and content - unless he is hungry. When he is hungry, though, he completely freaks out. I remember how many hours we spent coaxing Beatrice into eating, but her brother is another story entirely. From the first time he latched on minutes after being born, Arthur has been a dedicated and voracious eater. Every two hours or so he lets out the loudest newborn cry you've ever heard - but as soon as he's eaten he's perfectly happy again.

Arthur took his first few outings this week - first to the pediatrician, where he was given a clean bill of health, and then to IKEA and Target, where we got to try out first the double stroller and then the Ergo baby carrier, both of which he slept in happily. He also tagged along with his sister as she went to the "baby gym," her regular Tuesday and Thursday morning play group at the local recreation center.

Arthur sucking his thumb, as he was doing in all his ultrasound photos

This week he had his first (sponge) bath. Not a big fan.

He also met a bunch of new friends, including his sister, the dogs, his grandparents Suzan and Naresh, his uncle James, Lucas and Veronika, Amy Turner, Amy Robb and Miller, Summer and Jack, and Sarah and Kaitlyn, with many more visitors scheduled for the coming weeks. Dev has three weeks off work for us to spend together, then my sister arrives in early June to help out after that.

Arthur and Uncle James

Arthur and Naresh

Arthur and Suzan

In the future we'll be uploading photos to Facebook and Flickr every month just as we did with Beatrice for her first year.