News from May

First of all, Nathan is cute as ever.


Logan completed a semester of Homeschool soccer classes (a friend recently home from England calls it Home Ed--a much more accurate description in my opinion, and easier to type). It was helpful to me to see that he doesn't pay attention to his friends consistently, so it's not just me! By watching the class, I could see where his gaps were, so we practiced some at home. Logan got the hang of dribbling with his feet to stay in control of the ball. I learned that Logan needs a calm, low-distraction environment in order to take in new instructions, and a few reminders to focus his attention, along with demonstration plus verbal description. "Net" result? He had the best time running around with other kids his age every week this spring. He was absolutely impressed with the trophy handed out at the end, and proudly displays it on the mantle in his room.


Logan was a weather man at the Children's Science Center in West Hartford. We also visited the turtles, reconfirmed the physics of gravity by comparing golf balls on two ramps, drew up a bubble around his whole body, and dusted for fossils. The most surprising thing we discovered this trip was how satellite dishes focus sound waves. Have you ever been to the whispering points in an oval room like the first congressional meeting house? Because of the curves in the walls and ceiling, the sound waves are focused to a particular spot far from where you are speaking (thus allowing the leader of "the other side of the aisle" to listen in to conversations assumed private!). The Science Center has a pair of satellite dishes which achieve the same thing. It was terribly cool.

Some time in May, Logan had a birthday, and I can't find a single picture of it. My usual backup photographer, Nana, wasn't there due to a horrible bout with the flu that night.


We planted a garden! Having a vague idea of Square Foot Gardening, I went with it, without reading the book at all. Seemed simple enough. Micheal gave us these oak beams, salvaged from one of his freight customers. Andy dug up the grass underneath the 4' x 10' area, and then we filled it with approximately the recipe my mother gave me from her careful study of Square Foot Gardening. And then I planted it willy-nilly with basil, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, beans, peas, and broccoli.


Nathan tried three kinds of cereal. He is NOT digging it at all. Not interested. Clamps his little gums together and says no way.

Three Babies

Remember this?








Now they are this!


And it's their fault!

This is the Behind-The-Scenes Photo-Shoot shot. We blinded those poor blokes with three cameras going all at once.

Three months of pictures! But first, Mystic:

It's not so easy to have time enough to think straight such that I can write these. We had a wonderful trip to the Mystic Aquarium with Nana and Granddad, and so because I hadn't gotten those up, I couldn't put up anything else!

Thus, without further apologies:


Nathan enjoys the fishies with Granddad


Logan Touches A Star


Look! The Turtle Came When I Called Him!


Logan observes 10 Beluga Whales (7 in from Chicago!)


Logan shows me how he can make the photo look like he's looking right at YOU by staring directly at the lens.


Afterward, we visited with Grammie (Helen) Slater, and although we have several pictures of her with Nathan, I thought this shot that Logan took of her was lovely.

Don't Tell Him the Family Secrets!

Nathan had recently taken to talking to his little giraffe, which is on the bar of his swing. They are becoming fast friends, even though Orange Giraffe is on the quiet side.

In other baby news, Nathan is now able to use his very own hands in order to make a hanging toy move enough to jingle. He has been caught doing it on purpose several times.

Nana made him laugh yesterday. It was a "ha!" followed by a noisy intake of breath - our closest yet to a multi-syllabic laugh. Mommy was able to recreate the laugh that night on the changing table, but Daddy missed it.

We brainwash young

Part of the joy of getting Nathan new clothes (in 6-9m size now!) at the second-hand shop was finding two Red Sox t-shirts that fit. Here he is, sporting it for the first time. This was just after clean-up of a blow-up and -out of Pampers, so the changing pad cover hadn't been replaced, yet.


Logan was thrilled to receive a custom-made sweater from Grandma. Truth be told, he was just as excited about the little candy hearts with the words on them.


Logan's been taking ice skating lessons at the local hockey rink. His goal right now is to learn to skate well enough he can learn hockey. This past lesson, each of the kids had a turn to get up in front of all the other students (4 skill levels) to show off their new moves. Each kid had to do what the others had done before them, plus their own twist. Logan was third, so he started with "march march march, swizzle, then my super fast tight turn!" He was awesome, and his turn was indeed, tight.

Here's Nathan!

Yeah, I've got a lot to catch up on. The last two months haven't been very condusive to sitting in front of the computer and thinking clearly at the same time.

Yesterday, I was caught dancing in the grocery store. I was wearing Nathan in a brightly colored Maya Wrap, but the old man only saw me from behind. He met up with me at the end of the isle, as I had gone around the opposite direction from his travels, and he exclaimed, "Oh, it's a baby!!"

I stopped to let him ogle, and he explained that he had seen me dancing but didn't know I was carrying a baby.I assured him that the dancing was merely to keep the canned vegetables entertained, but he didn't believe me.

Today, Logan is reviving his building blocks as an augmentation to his race track. The race track has become a model roller coaster and the blocks make the ticket gate and other buildings around the fair. Logan was astonished to learn that Mommy loves riding on roller coasters and would get onto one with loops like he designed in a gleeful heartbeat!