A Few Days of Peaceful Play

Look!  Sometimes Ethan is not trying to smother Sam!

 

 

Little Bug

New Friends

It has been a challenge for us to build community here. Rarely a day goes by that we don't miss our many dear friends back in Madison with their crazy kids and similar values and bike-freindly neighborhoods.  Here, we live in grad student housing, so there are other families around but there is often something in the way of us making deep freindships: the kids are mostly younger than Ethan or on a different schedule than us (how often have we seen buddies go out to play exactly when we sit down to eat or lie down for a nap!) or we don't connect at all with the parents or we love the parents but our kids fight and try to smash each other with trucks, driving grown-ups to the brink of insanity.  The few buddies we've really connected with in our neighborhood (here's your shout-out Nidhi, Morgane and Jenny!) have moved away.  I have quite a few good friends in medical school but nearly none of them have children so they can't really fulfill Ethan's profound desire to play with other kids and our endless need to talk/vent/commiserate/revel/joke/go-on-and-on about our kids and the crazy world of parenting. 

So it is no surprise that we are REALLY excited to have a new family of friends just down the block.  Ethan pretty much spends all day asking when he can play with four-year-old Donovan and his little brother Quinn.  There are many squabbles over toys and who will be first and Ethan is rough and controlling with Quinn but there is much sweetness too.  And sometimes we even get to chat with their awesome mama Marcy for more than two sentences!  So, here's to new friends! 

(Thanks to Marcy for the photos.)

* Footnote: Ethan relishes the one-on-one, high-energy attention some of my childless friends lavish on him - so please keep swinging him around by his ankles and playing chase and croquet with him at Emma's parties!

Squish Food

The day for squish food has arrived.  

Ethan has literally been waiting for the day to feed Sam squish food since I told him I was pregnant.  Really, he equates baby with mashed up vegetables.  For almost a year now we have been pantomiming squishing food in the food mill and feeding it to baby Ethan or baby Mama or Mama's belly during our sweet snuggle time before bed.  

Today, the young man finally got his wish.

 And how did Sam feel about it?  

He devoured his avocado and then tried to eat the bowl.  

Let's just say he liked it.

Autumnal

Cute boy selects his prize pumpkin.  Still in good spirits despite missing his playdate with new buddy due to surprise nap-attack, constant drizzle and getting lost in corn maze.

 

 

Cute baby often looks serious or surprised.

 

Uncle Dan!

 Tunbridge World's Fair Highlights: Ice cream, scary rides with flashing lights that are fun to oogle but not to ride (yet!), dart game resulting in cheap plush dolphin, tractors, kiddy tractor pull iwth Ethan in 3rd place, running into many pre-school friends, sandbox filled with corn and toy tractors, goats in costumes, old-fashioned machines and motors spewing smoke, leaking grease, and utterly fascinating my four-year-old friend.

Live Action Shorts

Going Steady

Although there has been a good bit of turmoil in our lives in the past month (a long string of hard tantrums, Ethan went up to two days a week of child care, Rugby season went into full swing,  and Jody went back to school for two weeks) the past week has seen Ethan present a soft and loving sweetness that I have not seen in a long time.

 - At night this week, during bedtime, he and I have been playing a game in which he pretends to be scared and then comes and cuddles with me on "my" pillow.  We often do it three or four times and then on the last time he stays tightly cuddled as I sing him to sleep.  For the past two months or so, he has not wanted singing at night and I thought it would be gone for good... I am happy to have it back, even if it is only for a while.

- Today, as we were all driving to play at the CCBA (our local community center with a pool), Ethan had been being a little rough with Sam (perhaps because he hadn't seen him much in the past two days as he was away at day care) and Jody and I were both surprised when we looked back to see Ethan gently holding Sam's hand.  It was like a little bridge of love between their two car seats.  They held hands almost all of the way to the CCBA.  It was so sweet I just had to write about it.

Addendum (AKA The Sweetness Continues):

- Ethan frequently leaps up from the dinner table when some exciting idea strikes him.  The other day when he ran off mid-taco, I said (with just a touch of frustration) "Where are you going!?!" Ethan replied, "To give Sammy a hug." And then did exactly that.

-Sam has started sitting at the kitchen table in his high chair, systematically dropping every toy we give him.  Jeremy refers to this set-up as the toy conveyer belt.  Whenever Ethan sees that we're getting Sam set to buckle up, he runs and grabs a stash of toys "to make Sam happy".  He carefully selects only the most interesting toys and puts them in a huge pile right by his own dinner plate.  When toys start hitting the floor, Ethan passes over one from his collection with a sweet little voice saying, "Look Sam! A new toy!"  Occasionally he does this without looking up from his meal, passing along a new toy like just another worker at the toy conveyer belt.

-Ethan loves to have a little time with Sam when they've been apart (sleeping, pre-school, playing with friends).  Sometimes it's all over-zealous face-tickling/scratching the baby's cheeks off.  Sometimes the physical affection actually correlates with Ethan's kind intentions.  For example: the other day Sam was fussing when Ethan came in from playing and Ethan got right up in his face and said "It's okay, buddy.  It's me.  Do you recognize your brother, Sam?"  This was rewarded with a huge gummy smile from the babe.