Super Sweet BOY

Louis is a strange little boy. Mostly, he is filled with sweetness. He smiles at you when you pick him up from school -- the most delightful smile -- and hugs his friends (above hugging Wilder, which they did for several minutes until Calla came along and wanted to get in on the hug).

But sometimes he is unbelievably stubborn, jealous, and angry. I used to think this was mostly because of frustration from not being able to communicate (and still, at 2 years and 1 month, he is limited to "dog" "moo" (sometimes for a cow, sometimes for another random animal) and "hi"), but, as his understanding increases (though he still doesn't know the difference between pointing to his ears and nose), it is clear to me that it goes beyond this. Above photo was from an afternoon of digging with Paul. Louis insisted on wearing the gloves and even though Paul brought him a special small shovel, apparently preferred the real thing. And you should have heard the screams, bloody, angry, jealous screams, when James had to take away his shovel. Basically, he almost instantly detects any inequities (particularly with tools, and anything having to do with Rosemary), and the consequences are not fun. He also does NOT listen no matter WHAT... which might be partially due to not understanding, but mostly I think he doesn't think he has to listen.

This past Sunday, Paul and Maureen took Rosemary to the rock and mineral show. Rosemary was so excited to go with them that she had her money in her purse, her shoes on, and sat outside on the front steps waiting for about an hour! She got me special earrings and a neat rock for Louis. You can't always tell, particularly when she SCREAMS at me when she is frustrated (e.g when I do things like read the pages of Louis's book not in the" right" order), but there is still some sweetness left in her, too (though she also said to me twice the last weekend, complete with eye-rolling, "Fine, whatever.") For example, she is making crowns for her friends for Halloween, and thought all by herself that she should make one for Elianah, Stella's two month old baby sister.

We've unfortunately had to talk a lot about excluding and including everyone lately with her and her friends... I was proud of her today when she told me that two of the girls in her class were just a "tiny bit mean" to her today. I asked her what she did and she said, "I just left and played with Stella and Irene." This was the game plan we rehearsed in the car this morning.

This has to be one of the all-time best pictures of a toddler, ever.

Above pictures from our Halloween-themed happy hikers "hike" -- though this one I cannot really call a hike, more like a 1/2 mile stroll through the woods, followed by a cool playground romp and a pumpkin patch visit. Louis actually walked the whole thing, which was cool. And the girls played the "gate" game, where you had to press their noses in order to pass.
And from last week's (10/27) Happy Hikers at McKinney Falls -- we didn't get as much hiking in this time but lots of tree climbing!

Pumpkin time and more hikes

Last Thursday we tried the Southwest Metropolitan Park's "Primitive" Trail -- it was a blast! It has two fishing ponds and a 2.2 mile loop. We got about 1/3 of the way around the loop before the two year olds started falling apart (Miles in particular runs so fast that he tires himself out early -- Louis on the other hand, just wants to be carried on my back, sing songs, and eat snacks). So we did just shy of 2 miles, out-and-back, and the 2 year olds aren't quite there yet, but Esme and Rosemary, on the other hand, RAN most of the trail. There were markers numbered 1-60 along the trail every 200 feet and they would run to the next marker and wait for us. It was great! Talk about getting their energy out! We liked the trail so much that we returned with James today and did the whole loop.

Friday James was still on his business trip to New York, but we invited Esme and Miles over to start carving pumpkins. This was our first installation -- its still too early to carve them for Halloween or I think they'll rot. I toasted the pumpkin seeds which are delicious and we drank pumpkin beer. Maureen's friend Rachel got to see her first true 3 year-old melt down when Esme and Rosemary started crying hysterically about their botched croquet game :-)

Hiking club

More hiking with friends! This is from the Turkey Creek trail (which sadly had no water in it, but still fun "creek crossings" with large stepstones). The kids were great -- they hiked about a mile, and the snacking to hiking ratio was about 3:1, but they had a great time.


This trail was so great that we went back with James on Saturday. This time, Rosemary did the whole three mile loop and Louis actually walked about a mile. James figured out the secret to getting him to walk -- they each held on to the end of a large stick!

Louis's SECOND birthday

For Louis's second birthday, we decided to feature some of his favorite things: ice, large objects that are light and easy to move (e.g. cardboard boxes), and sticks! We had a variety of each, and invited his whole class over -- I believe we had about 6 2-year olds (many of whom JUST turned 2) and a few older siblings.

The first feature was a giant ice sculpture -- I had originally just ordered three giant blocks of ice from an ice sculptor, but I guess he couldn't help gussying them up when I told him what they were for. We added about 60 bags of ice around the sculpture and the kids had fun standing on the ice, pouring ice cubes into various containers, and... at the end... destroying it (though it did take 2 days to melt)!

The kids reactions were funny. Louis just stood and looked at the ice sculpture, more-or-less dumbstruck, for about 10 full minutes. Contemplating. Some of the kids climbed on it right away, some tried to hammer it right away.


Discussing how to attack the ice with Andy...

Louis and Wilder thinking about how to attack the ice (see the change in Louis and Wilder from his last birthday -- my posting October 8, 2010).


Then there were the regular backyard features. The sandbox, the tricycle, tree-climbing...




And there were some more unusual features... about 40 huge cardboard moving boxes and 30 cardboard tubes leftover from shelf lining paper(both thanks to our recent kitchen remodel)....Thanks to Nani for putting them all together! The kids really loved climbing in them and moving them around.



And, in what can only be interpreted as a very good omen for Louis's second year of life... Flora is back! We just discovered that she had moved back in during the party!


Louis loved the birthday attention... to a point. He was completely enchanted by the birthday card Esme and Miles had made for him and wanted to hold it and tote it around...

But actually got a little teary eyed and almost started crying when everyone sung happy birthday to him (check out Maureen's amazing homemade birthday cake -- recipe here)


After getting ampted up on cake and juice boxes, and most of the party guests had left (with LED glow sticks as a favor), it was time for getting out the seriously dangerous tools -- pick ax, sledge hammer, croquet mallet, and beating the heck out of the ice....


Maureen and Paul, and their friend Rachel (whom Rosemary adores)

On Monday we had grandparents day at St. Marks, where the kids had a special song performance at chapel (Louis cried the instant he saw my dad and me). Below is a picture of Louis with one of his teachers, Melissa, in his classroom.

Now, this is a very special video -- here is Louis, a man of very few words (e.g. three words, "apple," "mom," and "bye" -- with an occasional one thrown in for good measure like "Nana" or "hammer") singing GROUNDHOG -- one of our favorite songs by Grandpa George (click here to hear the original)