asteroid B612

Today I was sitting on my little blue MAMMUT stool and Ellis was sitting on his, and I had a moment of epiphany. We were experiencing one Those Moments. The kind of moments you think of wistfully from the naive pre-kid days.

Ellis and I were having a tea party with a cute blue checkered napkin. Teacups in place, apple juice for him, tea for me, happily munching on chocolate chip cookies that we had made together yesterday.

Marlowe was rolling around on a homemade baby quilt, talking and zerberting in baby contentedness.

It was beautiful. Every was happy. The moment was idyllic. I think it lasted a whole 90 seconds!

Then it was back to cleaning up poop. And the baby started crying. "Did I love a dream?..."

Ellis slept in his bed all night until after 7 am for the past two nights. Great was the rejoicing! I have renewed energy and spirits, for now. I know we're not immune to the crazies in the sleep dept, but today was lovely. I took the boys to Fairmount Park, the first time I've gone for a little hike in the woods since I was 32 weeks pregnant.

I was amazed at how much more sure-footed and independent Ellis was from a few months ago.

I was a fun mom again! I brought extra clothes and shoes so he could frolic in the water as much as he pleased. And I packed a picnic!

I encouraged him to hike a little further, and we found this way cool stripey rock.

On the way back, we went to a different spot by the river, and saw the fish swimming in the water. E ran back to his bag, got his little shovel, and ran back to the water telling me that he was going to PICK-UP FISH. No fish were harmed in the process.

Even Marlowe enjoyed being outside. He was so wide-eyed and kept looking around with a pleasant expression on his face.

It was a good day.

We went over to the arboretum again this afternoon. It's hands-down a much better place to walk than, say, the mall. The mall is sort of the cliche place where a pregnant woman who is desperate to have her baby goes to walk and walk. Since I go to the mall maybe once a year, if that, you can see how much appeal that has for me.

When we go over to the arboretum, it seems that one special thing strikes me every time, whether it be birthday daffodils, exhilirating flowering trees, or fiddle-headed ferns. I never know what it's going to be until I get there. Today it was dandelions. Last week, my mom showed Ellis how to Pick a Dandelion and Give to Your Mom. We walked along, and he picked a puffy dandelion for me. I showed him how to blow the puff (sorry, arboretum). Before I knew it we were plopped in the grass blowing puffs and sniffing buttercups. It was magical in the way only a kid can make an pesky weed be.

Before we went over to the arboretum, I was in a majorly crabby mood. I didn't sleep well last night. I'm cumbersome, tired, and huge. blah, blah. I know it sounds cheesy, but being there in the quiet with the green and the trees and the scent of honeysuckle in the air was incredibly soothing. Yes, it really is that idyllic there. Communing with nature is in my roots, and it comforts me in a deep primordial way. I hope I can give my kids a similarly satisfying experience, of pointing out all the details that my parents showed us, to show the pleasure we take in watching the ordering of the seasons, first the bulbs, then the trees, trillium, lilacs...

Ellis noticed the pollen strands littering the sidewalk underneath the oak trees. I showed him a branch with a few strands still attached, and we watched them blow down in the breeze.

We stopped by the little cabin that sits next to a gurgling brook. I sat on the bench and Ellis threw bits of leaves into the stream. I saw a woman painting with her easel set up on the bridge. I thought that if I could paint, I would want to capture the way the sunlight glimmered through the young maple leaves.

I enjoyed this afternoon with E. We have so few remaining, just the two of us. He probably won't remember his life before his brother, but I will.

We've been having a lot of spring fun at school lately.

Almost two weeks ago, the early childhood center had their spring fling, which included presentations by all the classes. Ellis's class (the youngest) did a little play/presentation of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which they've been studying this unit. E and his best buddy A and Cute Little Girl were the "narrators" with some help from the power point on the big screen behind them. The other kids took turns showing big posters of fruit. E and A were especially cute. They were like a standup comedy routine, totally playing off of eachother and interacting with the powerpoint. They had everybody cracking up! I wanted to make a little movie of it with my clips...there's still time. My boy's first play!!

After the presentation, the kids played outside for a bit in the warm spring sun, and then we had a little pizza lunch in the kids' classroom. E was such a little host to me, I was really touched. He went up and got a plate from the teacher who was serving and chose his little pieces of fruits and veggies (he doesn't like pizza). When the teacher instructed him to go sit down at the table, he said NO, picked up another plate and signed Mommy, and made sure I had exactly what he had and then we sat down together. It was so sweet. *melt*

Saturday was Community Day at PSD, which basically translates for our family into Inflatable Paradise. Ellis went down these slides for about two hours straight. As soon as his feet touched the ground he was saying/signing "MORE", and off to stand in line again.

The Grand Finale for the class's unit on The Very Hungry Caterpillar was a trip to the Academy of Natural Science. One of the perks of being a stay-at-home-mom: getting to go with my kid on his first field trip! And let me tell you, there's nothing cuter than a little school bus full of car seats. So how does a field trip of 2-3 year olds work? One adult per child. There were a couple of other moms/grandmas and some extra staff, and I was impressed with how smoothly everything went.

We had some time to look at the exhibits, which the kids loved.

Then it was our turn for the Butterfly Exhibit, which is a room like a greenhouse, humid and full of plants. Butterflies and moths were flying freely everywhere and sitting on the plant life. It was really cool. I think everyone was entranced from the littlest kids to all the adults.

E and I popped into the Arboretum this afternoon for a short walk. The flowering trees are really hitting their stride. We find them intoxicating. Who wouldn't?

Our first really beautiful, nice, and warm truly spring day. The flowering trees are blooming and are spectacular. Our drive along the Schuykill was just gorgeous between the daffodils and trees.

Ellis and I went to the zoo along with the entire population of the Midatlantic Region and got our zoo membership. We didn't have time to see much because we had to move on to speech therapy. The zoo is right on the way to the hospital, so this will be really convenient. We stopped and had a snack with the giraffes. I'm fascinated by the giraffe faces. Did you ever notice how much they look like camels?

Ellis and I took advantage of the slight increase in temperature to go for a walk in Fairmount Park, which is Philly's extensive park system. You can feel like you're in the middle of nowhere but are really in the city's backyard. It's lovely. I finally figured out where to park to actually go for a walk on some trails.

I was surprised at how well E did. He knew just what to do and took off down the trail. I was impressed at how well he handled hill and rocks. But we didn't get very far when he decided we had had enough. That's okay. This belly isn't going very far either. We spent some time by the water throwing rocks and having a snack.

We looked at pretty sparkly rocks, quartz and graphite, noticed the first flowers, and budding trees. Spring is coming.

(thanks to my church friends who explained to me where to go and gave me the great idea to send forth my child into mud and water in his favorite yellow boots)

Ellis and I went to the penultimate day of the Philadelphia Flower Show today. This is a major annual event that I remember going to once or twice as a kid. Every year there is a theme, and this year's feature was a New Orleans/jazz/Louisiana theme. So everything from music to bayou themed displays or both.

One of the bayou themed displays had the facade of an old shack with lots of Spanish moss hanging all over the place (and a brilliant metasequoia in a place of prominence--thought of you, dad). There were fake alligators strategically placed. E looked at me and signed alligator, and a woman saw him (and his CI, no doubt) and began signing (and talking in a jovial manner, she was hearing), "do you see the alligator? is he scary? is he gonna bite you? wow, look at the alligator!" It was really sweet.

But it was the end of a week, and the flowers were starting to look a bit lack-lustre. I didn't make it to the vendors, and I didn't see anyone I knew or was related to. And they were out of 2008 souvenir mugs. Still, I was thrilled to be able to go, and it was a fun date for E and me.

We took the train home, which was probably the highlight of E's day. He signed train and said "ooo-oooo" (for choo-choo) the whole way.

We played outside for a solid two hours.

And built a snow Daddy and a snow horse.

And enjoyed some drinking hot chocolate and watching a little monkey when we came back in.

(Originally uploaded by hbomb1947)

Ellis didn't have school today, for President's Day. It also turned out to be a really nice day, and I was feeling pretty good, no doubt thanks to the wonderful nap I had yesterday. So I decided to take him to the Art Museum again. I wanted to go in the morning while he was still somewhat fresh, but we didn't get off until around 11. I didn't have high expectations, but I thought he might enjoy it a little. He enjoyed about 5 paintings, a sculpture of a duck, and a small pool and fountain in a room full of Cezanne, Van Gogh, and the south of France. But that's why I finally bought my membership today, so that we could enjoy the museum five paintings at a time. In the room with the small fountain, he sat on a bench for a long time looking the water.

Eventually, I put him on my back in the Beco and was free to linger over these beautiful tapestries in the modern art collection.

But a security guard came up to me and said that it's against museum policy to allow children in back carries. WHAT!? Even though I can understand a tiny bit (it's harder for parents to monitor wandering, tiny hands programmed to explore when little ones are on the back) I'm really annoyed. This will drastically alter how I pictured my museum experience for the next few months. Oh well. Five paintings at a time, five paintings at a time. Just have to really come to terms with that. Maybe I'll go back and look at the tapestries when he's in school.

The day was gorgeous, though, we really should have gone to the zoo. After I left in my Beco-rejected huff, we ate lunch outside on a park bench by the river next to some boat houses. The sun was warm and lots of bikers, joggers, and dogs passing by entertained Ellis much more than Cezanne did. We walked around the grounds, and he was elated by the waterfalls and ran around in the false spring euphoria with his arms outstretched like the seagulls.