Connor learns to chat

In his debut outfit for religious school last Sunday.

Cracking up.

Oh so amused.

Talking to me and cooing.  He's strong, supporting himself on his own.

Listening earnestly to my response.

 Giggling about the prospect of rolling - he's learned to go from his back to either side.


And speaking of religious school... yep, I'm back at work.  It's wonderful and chaotic and fulfilling and exhausting all at once.  I'd forgotten the pace of it, and I do miss the baby.  But I love what I do, and I know it will all work out in time.

Why my child is crying

We asked Ari to pick up the popcorn pieces he threw to the floor.

The many emotions of Connor

The background of this post: I wanted to get a good photo of the baby for my picture frame at work.  So of course we had to take a bunch.  You're totally forgiven for not looking at all of them, I'm mostly posting these for my mom and grandmother.  But for anyone who is interested, behold Connor in all his 10-week old nuances!

Love.

Amusement.

Contemplation.

Dubiousness.

Admiration.

Alarm.

Shock.

Trepidation.

Dismay.

Joy.

Revolution!  (Photo taken by X.)

What made the photo shoot happen: me making cooing sounds and Xander entertaining his brother.  Here he is exploring toe tickling.

And finally, the winner: the photo I chose for my office frame.

Yummy food making

X stirring the waffle batter for Shabbat breakfast (Jonathan decided to shake it up, usually we have challah French toast).

Chopping up apples for the batter.

Eating the apples that didn't make it to the bowl.

I BAKED!   See the glorious cake.  I cut it in half and made it double-layered.  Can't go wrong with more frosting.

An Ari story

You might have noticed that I don't talk much about what Ari does at school.  That's not out of any sense of ignoring the middle child, but purely because Ari is more into active play and practical skills, not things with pieces of paper of which I can take pictures.  E.g. while Xander decides to do art or sewing or math, all with material take-homes, Ari loves to garden, to sing, to learn his letters and numbers, and to build towers and do puzzles.

His communication is getting much better, and as such, his behavior is too - I think lots of his "being two years old" anger was because he was frustrated that we weren't understanding him.  

Sometimes, however, his moods come out of nowhere...

Xander was running and tripped over his own feet.  Ari was running right behind and fell on top of him.

"I'm sowwy, Xander," Ari said.

"It's okay, it wasn't your fault," Xander replied, brushing himself off. "No worries, honey.  But thank you," I added.

"NOO!!!" he yelled, surprising us all.  "It IS my fault!!"  He then left the room, huffing and puffing.

J and I looked at each other and laughed.  His vehemence was just too cute.  Xander just looked baffled.

A moment later Ari came running back, scowling and indignant.  "IS NOT FUNNY!"  Then he ran away again.  Jonathan and I lost it.

You woulda laughed too had you been there, I guarantee it.

Interesting things of note this weekend

1) When did children's songs get whitewashed?  Listening to "Three Blind Mice" on one of our CD's, the lyrics said "they all ran after the farmer's wife/who cut them some cheese with a carving knife."  Isn't the original, "who cut off their tails with a carving knife"?  At least that's what I remember from my own childhood.

2) I've been in jeans and sweatshirts, my natural state, for too long.  Between bedrest and maternity leave, it's been five months since I've dressed up professionally for work.  My first day back is tomorrow, and when I did a "trial run" today and put on my jewelry, one of my earring holes had half-closed up!

3) Connor won't take a bottle.  It's freaking us out.  Any suggestions?

4) Rain, rain, come down.  It's great for California's drought, but bad for our backyard because we were going to sweep up all the sand from the sandbox this weekend.  Now we just have mud.

5) Robin can put anyone to sleep.  See below for proof!

Making mathematical pizza

At the kids' school different learning activities are called "jobs."  There's a "map job" in geography, a "leaf job" in biology, a "carrot job" teaching them how to use a knife to cut up carrots, etc.  The one below is the "circle job" introducing fractions - or, as one of Xander's friends call it, the "pizza job."

Hard at work.  You can see the red pizza circle on the lower right. 

The first page of his packet: a full circle and a creatively-spelled name.  

Halves.  Bad shadow, sorry.

Thirds.

Quarters.  I don't know where he picked up the European four notation.  Or, as he calls it, "fancy fours."

And voila.  Fifths.  A nicely cut-up pizza pie.

And in another entry in the "where did this child COME from?!" files, Xander's teacher has now resorted to making deals with him: she'll only teach him more numbers if he reads a book or does sight words with her.  Otherwise he'd do math all day, every day, and ignore literacy completely!