Proof of the walker--take a look!

Here's a 30 second clip of Oliver walking.

There's also a clip from Ollie's first birthday. Enjoy!

Really walking

proof of the walker
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

Today Oliver really started walking. Yesterday he still held on to a wall for support most of the time, but today he motored around without any help. Tonight before bed he walked all through the house with a huge grin on his face, clearly excited by his new skill.

We've been pretty busy here--Kate's organizing an event for code pink (women for peace) and I'm starting my second freelance manuscript of the year for a company I've written for for several years. I finished one on football last week and have a deadline for a soccer book on March 20th. If postings are scarce for a little while you know why!

Cora started her transition from the Montessori school to public school this week by going in for evaluations and testing with the public school system. She will finish out the school year at her current school and then will start public school (kindergarten!) in late summer. The public school system here has a program for (hmm...advanced...smart...precocious) kids and you have to test into it. When I was in school you got your own class of nerds to be around all the time, but here you only have one class per week with fellow smarties. It's interesting because a smart child is considered disabled here; a gifted child is technically a child with a disability. So we received a big packet for parents with disabled children. Cora finished the first round of testing and will proceed to the next phase late next month.

Cora was in a room alone with the tester while Kate waited outside. According to Cora they read books and played games and the lady asked her questions about them. Anyone who has spent any time with Cora knows how relentlessly observant she is. The evaluator scored Cora in the 99.8th percentile in the social sciences category, or her observations of the world. Afterward, as the evaluator explained the results to Kate she raised her eyebrows and said, "Clearly she observes a lot."

Oliver's Travels and the Power of No

Oliver has learned the meaning of the word "no" now, with amusing results. He likes to touch the computer power button, look up at me, and say "nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh." Yesterday morning he went into the bathroom, unspooled the toilet paper, put it in the toilet and then tried to flush. When I came in--"nuh nuh nuh nuh." He went behind the chair to the power outlet yesterday--"nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh." He's obviously watching and learning.

He's walking in bursts, usually from one "station" to another a few feet away.

Kate and I just finished watching the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know" last night. Highly recommended grist for the mill.

Cora and Leo

Cora and Leo
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

Cora and Leo spent some time in the snow last week while we stayed at G'ma and G'dad's house. Leo is a neighborhood dog with a great personality and impeccable timing. He always knows when dinner is being served.

We finally found a good contractor here in Nashville. Cora's bathroom looks great and the new wall in the bedroom is perfect. I thought we would grieve for a while over the loss of our large bedroom, but the new wall is so well done that it feels like we added space to the house. Double doors open up the wall, so it still feels spacious. Oliver now has his own room and it's very cozy. We still need to paint one of these days but all the dust is gone and we're back into the routine here.

Staying with the parents was a revelation for us. We just had the best week at the grandparents' house, and it's a great reminder of how much we have to be thankful for--in this case, the power of family and loving support. Cora and Oliver are surrounded by an extended family that loves them to pieces. From the beginning Cora has always had a strong bond with her relatives, even those that we only see once a year or so. Living together under their roof for one week felt natural and lighter. We watched Olympics together like my family did when I was young. It's hard to go back to the nuclear unit.

Oliver's really starting to walk now after a few weeks of mostly crawling again. He staggers around like someone's holding his ankles, usually four or five steps and then plop on the butt again.

Go Sarah!

The Grammys are on tonight, and I'm proud to say that Alison Krauss won Best Country Album against some heavy hitters. This is great news because Aunt Sarah wrote a song on the album. Congratulations Sarah!

We're staying at my parents' for at least a few days while we get some work done on the house. We figured it was time to move Oliver out of the bathroom into a proper room of his own. The only problem was that we knocked down the bedroom wall when we moved in to make a spacious master bedroom. Adios spacious master bedroom, hello old wall. The new wall is actually better than the old one because it is now a custom wall with a four foot opening right in the middle. That way the room shouldn't feel too small and during the day we can keep the doors open. The wall is framed out already and it looks really good. Meanwhile, we've had a wonderful time and have soaked up the feeling of familial "village" life.

Cora is also getting a new floor, toilet, and sink in her bathroom. She's very excited of course, having acquired a taste for the finer things during her stay at the bed and breakfast last weekend.

Home again....

We made it home safely last night and drove straight to G'ma and G'dad's for a Super Bowl viewing party. Cora refused to sleep on the way home from Asheville even though she was completely sleep deprived over the weekend. I don't know what she thinks she'll miss. I guess it will be a few years before she realizes that her parents are completely boring and not good for much except food, shelter and transportation.

I had been looking forward to the drive to Asheville as we had not been on a road trip with all four of us in the same car. About twenty minutes into the trip I realized I had been romanticizing things. Asheville was still over five hours away and two young children were strapped down just three feet behind my ears. I realized on this trip that minivans are designed to keep your children as far away from you as possible while driving.

Kate and I both pinched ourselves that we are now the parents carting the kids around. We have our own memories of family road trips--both dads always finding the old staticky radio stations that barely came in at all, John managing to always find a polka station somewhere in Pennsylvania. As we left I had a strong memory of my Dad stopping at the gas station on our way out on road trips and picking up a cup of coffee for the road. As he pulled out of the parking lot he would hold his coffee in his right hand, steer with the left, pull into traffic and start exploring the lid with his lips, testing the temperature in a combination blow-sip-slurp. I never knew how he did all those things at once. I just thought he liked coffee (and never understood that either). But now I understand the valuable self-medication aspects of coffee--it acts as some sort of psychic insulation from other stimuli. Car sleep was also a fond memory for both of us. We shared our fond view of sleep with Cora but she's not buying.

Asheville itself is a beautiful city nestled in the North Carolina mountains, and Anne and Nathan have a sweet little place just a few minutes from the city and just off the Appalachian Trail and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Nathan's parents were there for the weekend and we all had a great time hanging out.

Cora had two sleepovers with G'ma Carol at a bed and breakfast. They had wonderful girl time together. The proprietor made Cora a special order of Belgian waffles(Cora called them "bargain waffles") on Sunday morning.

Oliver took about twelve steps at once on Sunday. He looks like he's walking over hot coals or a very cold floor.

The Wingate Men

self-portait(s)
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

We're home again

reunion
Originally uploaded by Wingates.

We're home again safely from our Asheville trip.....update coming soon. To bed now.
Love,
us

First Steps!

We are in Asheville for the weekend visiting Anne and Nathan. The trip took about six hours and went pretty smoothly.

Last night Oliver took his first steps. Two shaky staggering steps and then he hit the floor. But it's a start!

Happy Birthday little man!

Olliecouch
Originally uploaded by cree78.

Aunt Sarah made a wonderful video retrospective of Oliver's first year. It's about eight minutes long. Get out your Kleenex or at least be prepared to smile a lot. There is audio also so turn on your speakers too. She posted it online here:


She had to compress the file to fit it on the site, so the picture quality is poor compared to the original. Kate and I haven't watched the original without crying yet. If you would like a good quality copy, let us know and we'll mail you one.