Instrument Petting Zoo 2016

Stony Brook University has this interactive program for kids 3-5 years old called "Instrument Petting Zoo." While I was in Richmond, Kevin took James. (Miranda was also there but strictly in an observational capacity.) James could listen and play real instruments from an orchestra.

Stony Brook University Music students demonstrated how each instrument works and then James was able to touch and play some of the instruments.  He was able to slide a trombone, blow through a recorder and wave their arms to make sounds on a Theremin. James and Miranda both got a  kazoo as a gift to keep.

James playing the recorder.

James playing the guitar

Video of James playing the guitar!

Video of James waving his arms to make sounds on a Theremin

James Can Read! 2016

James has been able to write certain words for a while and he could read a little here and there, but recently we noticed that he can sight read kids' books he's never seen before. He's functionally literate! Congratulations little buddy!

He'll be turning 5 years old in two months!

Reading to Miranda

Bonus cuteness!

James's Winter Concert 2016

James had a winter concert, "Winter Song Night" at school. This was our first nighttime school event ever! There was a lot of excitement. James wakes up EARLY no matter when we put him to bed, so this event was running right through his bedtime, and Miranda not only goes to bed early, but is currently sleep-training... again. But a school concert! So fun and worth it!

Hello parents!

Dancing Emma, Lexi, Cora, Adrianna, Lyla, Myla, Dillon, Rebecca, Ellie and James!



Video

Singing Lyla, Myla, Dillon, Rebecca, Ellie and James!

I LOVE YOU!

My mother will surely object to this style, but the concert was after Miranda's bedtime so I put her in footie pajamas and a coat so that if she fell asleep we could still pop her in the crib. I also thought she'd want me to hold her the whole time, as she sometimes does when she's tired but no. She's desperate to go to school and won't miss me at all, thank you very much. Haha.

Miranda taking over the playroom

After the concert there was a little snack party for the kids. The parents mingled a little and then we braved the cold again.

Table art and hats by Miss Tasha (navy sweater)
Miss Jill in rainbow sweater behind James, Miss Jackie behind Ellie


Miss Jill talking to Ellie

This week's besties: Rebecca, Lyla, and James

James introducing Miranda to Ellie

Miranda has taken over this laptop.

James's Nursery School- Fall 2014

Post by CSTL.

Here's my favorite picture from the video of James holding a bunch of worms. Note his unrestrained joy:

It's a nature school, that's why.

Belly Dance 2014

I took a similar video when I was pregnant with James, but Baby Girl is way more visible.


March 25, 2014, 35 weeks + 6 days

• Belly Dance with James in 2011

Superstorm Sandy 2012

In Long Island, Superstorm Sandy produced up to 75 mile-per-hour gusts. At our place, we lost power around 2 p.m. on Monday, and for some reason it clicked back on around 5:30 p.m., giving us about 30 minutes to do all the things that I regretted not doing when we lost power at 2 p.m. I made some pasta, checked email, recharged our phone again. We had bought a radio, but we didn't check it before the storm, and it was broken. So after 5:30 when we lost power, heat, and phone we had no connection to the outside world except for text messages, but we were trying to save the charge. We had no idea about the devastation that was happening in the East Coast.

We were in pretty good spirits on Monday because we had bought a lot of food in preparation and it was pretty warm inside the apartment (as well as outside). I spent my power-free time cleaning the entire place and feeling pretty good about my productivity. In the evening, James entertained us by singing (sort of) and dancing (totally). After he went to bed, we had a nice evening of drinking wine and chatting.

How to entertain a toddler in a blackout, Monday night

But things were getting kind of old on Tuesday. Getting up with James at 5 a.m. on Tuesday morning in the dark was not fun. I had to juggle a flashlight and his breakfast, and him, and there was no entertainment or even light for reading, beyond the flashlight. It wasn't light out until 7:30, and I was too bored and tired to wait until James's nap so I woke up Kevin to take over until naptime. On Tuesday we were antsy to get out so we took a walk around the neighborhood. That's when we realized it might be a long time before we got power back. And the temperature was dropping.

In front of our home

On our block

Power lines in the street

A prepared local business

In our neighborhood

More trees down in our neighborhood

A tree that hit a house

It was really cold Tuesday night, and we decided that we should probably go somewhere Wednesday. My mother lost power too, so we couldn't go there. Ash had generously invited us over even though her parents were already staying with her, so Wednesday afternoon we drove up. Driving around, some places had traffic lights and other places didn't.  We saw crazy mile-long lines for gas in New Jersey.

Gas lines in New Jersey on Route 17 near Ramsey

We listened to the radio in the car, and we heard for the first time that Hurricane Sandy was the largest Atlantic hurricane on record by diameter to date, spanning 1100 miles. It's official categorization changed several times in the 5 days it took to travel from the Caribbean through New England. On October 29th it brought the most damage to the Jersey Shore, Lower Manhattan, Staten Island, Coney Island, the Rockaways. In the US, it cost at least $20 billion (but possibly over $50 billion in business interruptions) and at least 97 people died due to the storm. Today we found out that one of those people was a student at Stony Brook and we are so sad about it. I feel so terrible for her family, friends, professors, and the University community.

Wednesday was Halloween, so we let James run around Ash's house in his costume, and my mom was even able to come over and see him so that was fun. We haven't been up to much since then because a lot of stuff in Ash's town is closed due to power loss as well. We're on Day 5 and we still don't have power at home. About 900,000 people lost power in Long Island and 400,000-500,000 still don't have power. The Long Island Power Authority has no real estimate of when we might get power back, though they're guessing next weekend. That is shockingly bad, and we're obviously going to have to figure something out since Kevin has to go back to work on Tuesday, and it's supposed to be 33 degrees. I'm also super nervous because meteorologists are now predicting a winter storm in the Northeast.

Thank goodness Ash is the awesomest friend and hurricane rescue center anyone could ever have. And today is her birthday! For your birthday... you get the Clous... and your parents!...um, forever... sitting on your couch. Happy birthday, Ash!

James is 13 Months Old! 2012

I don't think I'm going to do these updates every single month since James has passed the 1-year mark, but I noticed some things worth mentioning this month so here goes. He has 9 teeth, the 8 center ones and a molar on the bottom left. His walking and running is much better and he doesn't fall as often.  He will carefully step onto the sidewalk from the grass or vice versa. He can even navigate small hills.

James at 13 Months, May 20

James seems to understand a lot more, and is more willing to copy what we do or say.  He knows the words: mama, dada, no, and maybe "leche."  The other day he said "no" back to me.  We were watching Two and Half Men the other day (which Kevin does not approve of) and when they sang "Men..." between segments, James trying to sing back, "meh...."

He points to things he thinks are interesting.  I think he's copying what I do, more or less, because I'll point to things and say, "What's that?" and then tell him what it is. So now he points to things to get me to ask him and then tell him. And sometimes he points to copy us.

Pointing at fish at the Discovery Center in Charlotte, NC

He no longer just pushes down blocks and takes apart legos. Sometimes, if you watch him carefully, you see him stack some blocks, assemble legos, or play in some other advanced way.

He pretends to eat and drink from his stacking cups. He also pretends to feed me or Kevin. He'll take his spoon and some cup-like item and dip the spoon in, then try to shove the spoon in my mouth. Fighting it is not the best plan, so I usually accept and say "thank you" or "gracias."  He sometimes grabs a large container of some kind and tries to wear it as hat even though he hates real hats. My child is officially pretending. How awesome.

We taught him to raise his arms when we ask "How big are you?" just like Owen did at his age.  He's still very temperamental about when he will comply, and refused to do it the entire time we were visiting the Vonderhaars.

Showing all of Charleston, SC how big he is. 

He's done high fives for a long time, but he's finally starting to wave hello and goodbye now.  He's also a little spotty on this.

He loves music and enjoys his music box, a drum from Ash, and other children's musical toys. We need to get him a xylophone because he was really banging on Carter's when we visited the Padgets.  He also likes modern dance music, much to Kevin's chagrin. He is particularly a fan of Nicki Minaj.  But his favorite song is still "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and he's starting to do the hand signals in an almost recognizable way.

Video of James Sweeping 2012

Awesome.

Due Date 2011!

I have heard "Happy Due Date!" a few times today. Indeed. Let me explain something, my circumference is 49 inches, and my height is only 60 inches. Weebles wobble and they might fall down.

40 Weeks, holy cow!

In lieu of a baby, I have received another nefarious pregnancy symptom today, some sort of pregnancy rash. It looks and feels like it I was attacked by a swarm of angry mosquitoes last night. I counted 18 bug-bite-like-bumps. I can't be sure which one of three different pregnancy rashes I have, but I'm fairly sure it's harmless. I called the doctor two weeks ago with a more minor case, and I got one of the doctors I don't regularly see. She was fairly dismissive of the whole thing, which I hope is a good thing. Then I showed my regular doctor at the 38-week appointment, but by that time the "bites" had mainly healed and she wasn't concerned.   I'm going to call again tomorrow, but my educated guess is that she's going to tell me to slap some calamine or Benedryl on it and deal with it until Wednesday. And then of course, I won't use Benedryl because it's a class B drug and I'm the world's most paranoid mother-to-be. I have some calamine in front of me, which I'm using very sparingly.

The baby has been very active today despite how incredibly full-of-baby I am. How does he find any room? I would say that maybe he's getting ready for his debut, but I'm tired of predicting his arrival only to be shot down by the baby. I'm just focused on Wednesday now.  In the meanwhile, I constantly feel little poking hands and feet. It's weird that I can distinctly make out most of the body parts now.

All day long he's been doing this.