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!
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Really walking
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."
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."
Sunday, February 19, 2006
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.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Cora and Leo
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.
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.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
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.
Monday, February 06, 2006
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.
Sunday, February 05, 2006
We're home again
We're home again safely from our Asheville trip.....update coming soon. To bed now.
Love,
us
Love,
us
Saturday, February 04, 2006
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!
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Happy Birthday little man!
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.
Monday, January 30, 2006
First Birthday extravaganza
We all gathered at G'ma and G'Dad's last night for Oliver's first birthday party. It will still be a few days until the actual event (Feb.2), but we'll be out of town next week and it's never too early to celebrate. Especially when you've never had a birthday before.
We arrived in the early afternoon and Cora helped Sarah decorate the cake. That meant a fair amount of icing was ingested during the decorating process. Once the early sugar rush set in, Cora started running around the house while we all hung out and loafed while Grandma slaved away in the kitchen.
Oliver wore a new outfit-a slick nylon jumpsuit that Grammy Stella sent for Christmas. He looked quite stylish and Grandma couldn't stop squeezing his chunky legs.
We opened presents and enjoyed a fabulous dinner and then unveiled the cake. There were quite a few candles on the cake, and when Oliver saw a burning cake coming his way he started squirming in his chair, ready to head in the opposite direction. But once the candles were out and the ice cream and cake were safely on his plate he was happy to indulge himself. As you can see, the cake and ice cream eating soon devolved into a chocolate-sugar-fueled-face-smeared-plate-licking-kid-fest. Both of the kids had a ball, and we all did too. Kate and I were too uptight to let Cora have that much fun when she was one. Then again she had barely started eating food when she was that age. We practically have to hold Oliver back from digging into our plates he's so eager to eat grown-up food already. Once the carnage was over G'ma and Kate bathed the kids, got the chocolate out of their hair, we took them home, and tucked them into bed. A great first Birthday.
We arrived in the early afternoon and Cora helped Sarah decorate the cake. That meant a fair amount of icing was ingested during the decorating process. Once the early sugar rush set in, Cora started running around the house while we all hung out and loafed while Grandma slaved away in the kitchen.
Oliver wore a new outfit-a slick nylon jumpsuit that Grammy Stella sent for Christmas. He looked quite stylish and Grandma couldn't stop squeezing his chunky legs.
We opened presents and enjoyed a fabulous dinner and then unveiled the cake. There were quite a few candles on the cake, and when Oliver saw a burning cake coming his way he started squirming in his chair, ready to head in the opposite direction. But once the candles were out and the ice cream and cake were safely on his plate he was happy to indulge himself. As you can see, the cake and ice cream eating soon devolved into a chocolate-sugar-fueled-face-smeared-plate-licking-kid-fest. Both of the kids had a ball, and we all did too. Kate and I were too uptight to let Cora have that much fun when she was one. Then again she had barely started eating food when she was that age. We practically have to hold Oliver back from digging into our plates he's so eager to eat grown-up food already. Once the carnage was over G'ma and Kate bathed the kids, got the chocolate out of their hair, we took them home, and tucked them into bed. A great first Birthday.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Roofers...
Things have been relatively quiet around here....Cora and Oliver both weathered their sicknesses pretty well without taking nosedives.
We've had a stack of shingles in our yard for two weeks now, waiting for the roofers to come give us a new roof. They dropped off the shingles and have not lined up a time to actually use them. The tarps are holding up well so far, but I imagine there's only so much sun, wind, and buckets of rain that tarps and duct tape can withstand. Since our house is at the top of the "T" in a T-intersection, our yard is highly visible to all the cars that stop there. Word must have spread in the "shingling" workers pool that our house had a large amount of shingles sitting in the yard with no one to use them. A guy approached Kate last week and offered to shingle the roof for cheap. This morning as I left our driveway a truck pulled out of another driveway nearby. He backed out and blocked the road and gestured for me to roll down the window. I did, and he pointed to our front yard.
"Do you have someone to put on those shingles?"
I assured him that we did. It feels like we're being staked out by opportunistic shady shinglers.
As soon as I got to work I called our supposed roofing company. Evidently our work order got lost in the shuffle. So hopefully the roof will soon be out of our yard and on the roof.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Winter bug
The winter bug has descended and taken Cora and Oliver down. They're both fighting colds or some sort of sickness. Cora has a classic cold and Oliver keeps running a high fever with no other symptoms. Cora has been out of school for two days so Mommy has been on double duty.
Oliver is still crab crawling happily with occasional balancing moments. He'll probably walk in a month or two. He has stopped talking (he had a total of three or four words) and has chosen to go back to his native tongue of baby babble. He's doing that quite a lot with great enthusiasm. It's clear that he knows exactly what he's saying to us, we just don't understand him yet.
Oliver is still crab crawling happily with occasional balancing moments. He'll probably walk in a month or two. He has stopped talking (he had a total of three or four words) and has chosen to go back to his native tongue of baby babble. He's doing that quite a lot with great enthusiasm. It's clear that he knows exactly what he's saying to us, we just don't understand him yet.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
It had to happen eventually
Yesterday, as I picked Cora up from school, her teacher April personally escorted her to the car. This never happens. Bad sign number one. As April helped Cora into the car she asked me casually, "Will you and Kate be home this evening? I would like to give you a call." Very bad sign, ominous even. Surely a death blow. Then she turned to Cora and said "Why don't you tell your daddy what was happening this afternoon. I'll give him a call tonight and we'll see what you talked about."
April then shut the door, leaving me confused and obviously concerned. Just as I began to turn back around, April mimed with her hands a pair of scissors across her forehead and mouthed the words "She cut her hair." Three other teachers were standing by the fence, all smiling from ear to ear as we drove away.
Cora had a hat on because it was cold outside, so I couldn't see the damage done. I figured it was significant though. I asked Cora how her day at school had gone and if she had done anything unusual. On to me as usual, she talked about the playground and lunchtime. Then with a flourish she whipped off her hat and said "And I cut my hair!"
I must admit she did a pretty good job. The picture is after the visit to the barber. She had hacked the front bangs to the nub and then cut back the sides to just over the ears, leaving the back long like a supermodel mullet. It looked stylish in a weird way. She was quite tickled about it.
One self-haircut is fine, and probably to be expected, but it's not a habit we want to encourage. So we tried not to appear too amused and insisted that we go to Fantastic Sam's where people are trained to cut hair. We all agreed that would remain their job in the future and Cora would concentrate on other skills.
The funny part is how cute her new haircut looks. She has a little pixie cut and it looks great.
On another note, once again, as Cora was brushing her teeth today, she came up with another pearl.
She said, "Daddy, I had a dream last night that I was a giant chicken."
"Yeah? What did you do when you were a chicken?"
"I got baked in the oven."
April then shut the door, leaving me confused and obviously concerned. Just as I began to turn back around, April mimed with her hands a pair of scissors across her forehead and mouthed the words "She cut her hair." Three other teachers were standing by the fence, all smiling from ear to ear as we drove away.
Cora had a hat on because it was cold outside, so I couldn't see the damage done. I figured it was significant though. I asked Cora how her day at school had gone and if she had done anything unusual. On to me as usual, she talked about the playground and lunchtime. Then with a flourish she whipped off her hat and said "And I cut my hair!"
I must admit she did a pretty good job. The picture is after the visit to the barber. She had hacked the front bangs to the nub and then cut back the sides to just over the ears, leaving the back long like a supermodel mullet. It looked stylish in a weird way. She was quite tickled about it.
One self-haircut is fine, and probably to be expected, but it's not a habit we want to encourage. So we tried not to appear too amused and insisted that we go to Fantastic Sam's where people are trained to cut hair. We all agreed that would remain their job in the future and Cora would concentrate on other skills.
The funny part is how cute her new haircut looks. She has a little pixie cut and it looks great.
On another note, once again, as Cora was brushing her teeth today, she came up with another pearl.
She said, "Daddy, I had a dream last night that I was a giant chicken."
"Yeah? What did you do when you were a chicken?"
"I got baked in the oven."
Friday, January 13, 2006
Big Week
We just finished an exciting week. Cora went to the dentist on Wednesday--her third checkup--and discovered that she has big teeth underneath the baby teeth in her lower jaw. She is very excited about them and is telling everyone that her big teeth are pushing on the baby teeth. It will probably be a while before they start getting loose, but it's still a reminder that her body is only getting bigger and older.
Another reminder is her new bed, which she is sleeping in tonight for the first time. She inherited it from Anne, who won't have room for it in Asheville. It's a big girl bed, big enough for adults to sleep in. She has a new set of Pooh sheets that match her pajamas and she's snuggled in for the night. Quite a big coming of age week for a four year old.
We helped Anne pack the moving van today and she's heading to Asheville tomorrow for the next chapter in her life. It will really sink in soon that she's not just down the road, but for now it doesn't feel real yet.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Science lessons
This morning as Cora was brushing her teeth for school she turned to me with an excited expression. She gets her most inspiration for deep thoughts when we are on a deadline. She said, "Did you know, plants breathe out the air that we need to live. And we breathe out the hydrogen peroxide that the plants need! Isn't that neat!"
Monday, January 09, 2006
sunny day
We enjoyed an afternoon of unseasonably warm weather today--it was probably mid-60's all day, San Diego weather.
Oliver got his own photo shoot while Cora was at school. Check out the set at the flickr site. Click on the picture and then "view as slideshow". Also check out the "new Camera" set.
Oliver got his own photo shoot while Cora was at school. Check out the set at the flickr site. Click on the picture and then "view as slideshow". Also check out the "new Camera" set.
Sunday, January 08, 2006
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