Rose Triumphant

Today, I took Rose and Reuben to a nearby playground. After some time on the swings and stomping around the young children's area, I took Rose over to the bigger kid play structure. While Reuben sat in the stroller, I taught Rose, who approaches new playground equipment with trepidation, how to cross a rope and wood suspension bridge. At first I held her hand as she crawled along. Then we worked on walking much of the length of the bridge. At its end, there was a slide that she also went very slowly down, first in my lap and then on her own. Finally, after about ten times, she was able to walk with much more confidence across the bridge and slide the full length of the slide. Another productive day in the fathering realm.

Spring has spung!

I took Reuben for a very long walk today. We visited the hardware store to get a wind chain for the front screen door. It has bent the rod in the door closer when the wind catches the door and swings it way past its normal open position. The wind chain is a combo spring and chain. Hope it helps. We also got some other door hardware to do some repairs.

We then walked to Harvard Square stopping in several shops along the way. I have been needing to replace/supplement my one light weight pull over that I wear a significant amount of the time. I finally found something decent at EMS today. Still not fully satisfied. I may have to take a stab at making what I want.

Our last stop was the playground next to the school near our house. There is a section for very young kids. Reuben got a kick out of the steering wheel.

Cute Kids!

Whether toddling around the bedroom, bouncing on a ball at school, or just having fun with a box, there are moments of joy in the kids' lives.

Old photos from email

This is from last winter, I think. I just went through all of my old email. I saved photos and trashed or archived most of the rest. Spring cleaning.

Lots of doing

This evening, after a day of periodic meltdowns, Rose and I went around the house fixing things and doing chores. We made bread, we fixed both gates leading out of the dining room, and we fixed both her bed and Reuben's crib. She loved using the channel lock pliers and the hex wrenches to repair the house. She also loved taking them out from their places in the tool box in the closet and from the basement. She did most of the measuring and pouring of ingredients into the breadmaker pan. I assisted on the molasses fearing a mess that would be near impossible to clean up.

Farm Visit

One of Rose's favorite activities at the farm is climbing rocks. She gets such joy at reaching the top, and her excitement as each new one comes in view, a new challenge to tackle, is engaging. Of course, there are animals, too. A new crop of kids were fun to watch as they bounced around the enclosure looking for their mamas and just about anything to try to eat.

Playdate

Rose, Reuben, and I visited with Liv after school today. What had been a very chilly morning turned into a fairly nice day, so I walked down to Newtowne with Reuben in the double stroller. We met up with Liv, her mother, and her little sister. With our stroller seats facing forward and theirs facing back, the two girls started talking on the way to their house, and the conversation never ended until we left much later in the afternoon. They had a great time with pretend play, music making, and many craft projects. Great thanks to Laura for hosting us and providing a stream of activities for the girls.

Amazingly Reuben, who has had difficulty sleeping with his teeth hurting, zonked out and slept through some pretty raucous play.

Yay to growing friendships, play, and just being in another space.

The Long Walk Home

 More about the walk on my post in Dadding Ideas, but here is a pic of Rose walking along a fence. She really enjoyed balancing on curbs, walls, and fences during the walk.

 

Harvard Museum of Natural History

 This morning, Rose and I went to the Harvard Museum on Natural History. Sundays are free in the morning. The museum reminds me of the Natural History museum at Oak Knoll Park that we used to go to when I was a kid. Lots of fossils and stuffed animals. Rose was a little overwhelmed by it all, but she did enjoy it and shared lots of stories with Reena when we got back home. Of course, the bus ride there and back was part of the trip.

Here is Rose next to a large crystal.

 The museum houses a large collection of glass flowers. They are amazingly lifelike.

Rose in front of a large plesiosaur.

 Moose!

Who taught him this game?

Bread Time

Today we baked bread from the dough we made yesterday.


Flouring the dough.

Putting cornmeal on the pizza peel.


Making the loaf

Towering Achievements

Reuben has just started building with blocks. Development every day!

Random images from the last few weeks

The cart in front of me out of which the couple was performing an intricate scanning and bagging that left me to believe that most of the items were not being purchased.
The sign above the cart which claims that this is an express lane and that only 15 or fewer items should be purchased. Hmm. Perhaps they only purchased 15 of the items in their cart!


I rode the new elevator at Harvard Square! Yay. I doesn't smell like urine, yet. It is bigger, and it moves faster than a sloth with a hangover.
First real snow coats the top of the evergreen out of the window.

First snow

A light dusting a few fat ago.

Ragged Edge of Silence: Chapter 1

I am reading The Ragged Edge of Silence: finding peace in a noisy world by John Francis. Each chapter has an exercise, so I will chronicle my responses here.

Chapter 1: Beginning

Exercise in listening to sounds

I am sitting in my dining room with one window cracked barely open to let in sound. Rain and cold also vie for entry into the house, and I can feel a cool, damp New England winter's breeze at my chair. I welcome the fresh air and the moisture. I will turn off the constant hum of the humidifier that battles with the forced air heating to keep our living space livable.

The most prominent sounds are the rain pattering against the windows and siding of the house and the regular whoosh of tires on wet pavement. An occasional bus hums by on Mass Ave, a few blocks away.

The wind chimes on the back porch ring, bell-like, in the wind. They rise and fall from clear to faint. And the wind gusts blowing across the window screens and through the mostly bare branches of the trees. It follows the contours of roofs and sighs at their sharp angles.

Running water in the gutters and on the pavement now appears in a traffic lull. It is almost the sound of a stream in the forest bubbling over rocks.

Now, faintly, a train in the distance adds a rumble to the assembled sounds, and a siren fades in and out.

A lone horn calls out in the distance, a driver letting others know of their misdeeds.

And the siren continues to hover in the background with the hum of distant traffic. The hum pulses. Perhaps the gusts of wind bring sound in even intervals or the beating of my own heart opens and closes my ears.  

Barbapapa

I looked online to see how much Barbapapa books would be. Shockingly, they range from 20-100 bucks! I loved those books when I was a kid, but replacing them is not in the budget.

Rose meets Zeus

This was outside a local store tonight.

New Books!

Books are a constant in this house, and our recent trip to St. Louis and Seattle infused our house with some new ones. Rose is currently sitting on the toilet reading The Family Book that Gwen gave us. Rose is adding much more detail than the story has, creating her own story for each page and building on each type of family represented.

Kids, what kids?

Haven't posted pics of the kids for a while:

Rose and Hazel playing in the "boat."
Reuben is in the stage of putting everything in his mouth.

Flying Home

This is the Rockies from the plane window. The snow-capped mountains were picking up sunset's colors.
Ah, Boston skyline as seen through an iPhone camera!

Seattle to San Fran and then on to Boston. The first leg was ok, but the next was one of those times that expands my understanding of the word patience. Beautiful scenery as we passed over the mountains, though.