test garvin wordpress

Well, as advised by experts in the field of kids transitioning into preschool (aka, his previous preschool teachers) Art and I have come up with a special goodbye.  The special way of saying goodbye is supposed to act like a "catch and release" letting them know you are leaving now, they can safely go and play and that you will come back later.  Anyway, we pat each other on the cheek.  It's really quite wonderful.  And he has been handling goodbyes much better lately maybe because of the new way or maybe he's just turned a corner.  Probably both.  It's always "both".

(Photos taken with my cell phone.) Ever since he moved to Minnesota from Arkansas, my brother Josh has learned to ice skate and loves it. Today me and Art and Lew and Josh all went out to a rink near his house. Josh, being the smart fellow he is, turned a old Ikea chair into a skating chair of sorts and pushed Art all around, and at one point all three of us around. As we went into the warming house nearby we noticed they had skates Art's size (the kind of skates with 2 blades on each shoe). Art wanted to try them, so Josh strapped them on and took him out on the ice. He loved it, and especially loved skating with Uncle Josh. He'll likely go again tomorrow.

asked Art today. I held back my smile and asked him to go ask Mama, maybe she would know. So he went downstairs. "Mama!? Mama?! Do mermaids fart?" After a pause, "I think so," she said. "Anybody that poops, farts. Anybody that eats, poops. So, anybody that eats, farts."

As we posted earlier , Arthur loved a particular spatula when he was a baby, as did Lewis. All that changed when it broke. But thanks to Auntie Em's thoughtful Christmas gift, we have welcomed THREE new spatulas into our family. And here's Art with Uncle Mike trying putting on a puppet show with Emily's very large robot. We went over to Mike and Em's on Christmas Eve and at Mike's delicious tortilla soup, complete with tomales.

During Christmas we exchanged joke gifts, and Jessica ended up with Emily contribution--Petey the Pee Cup. He's the mascot at where Emily works, Health Parnters. http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf I printed off a set of homeade phallic memory cards with these images I found on the internets. joke gift giving overall.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2628268&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1 a few tiny videos taken with my pops digital camera.

This just in from Jessica who's home with the kids cooking a dish to contribute to our 20+ person christmas gathering tonight at our Aunt and Uncle's house in St. Paul. (I'm working a short christmas shift): --------------------- Oh my f%cking god. That's all I could say while i piled the ingredients into the giant blue bowl for my spinach dish. Four cups of cream? Four cups of milk? Two cups of wine? EIGHT BOXES OF FROZEN SPINACH! TWELVE EGGS!! FIVE CUPS OF CHEESE!!! You will NOT be embarrassed about us skimping on our contribution. Not at all.

Evva came over to play today. watching the Nutcracker. Art and Evva (not sure who's who) wear a couple pairs of stretchy pants. post sledding cocoa. photo by jess.

Barely past 5:30am. Art calls out that his clothes are wet. Go in there and he wants to be awake. No way. Told him it's too early and he started angry crying. Not feeling compassionate. Went back to bed. Told Ben I'm super irritable. Can't deal with Art right then. Hear Lewis cooing and likely gleefully touching whatever he can reach. Got more irritable. Can't tell Lewis it's too early. Told Ben I have a sore neck. Wake up every morning with this stupid sore neck. So sick of it. Lewis is making those airy, super-happy sounds in his room. Ben says it's just another reason he's glad he's not me. "Fucking sore neck and a piece of shit baby." We laughed super hard. I didn't know you could laugh like that before 6 o'clock.

a gift from Bubbe.

Art and I had a great time in NC, but the trip back was less than perfect. Summarized, we missed our first flight and waited in line more than TWO hours to be rebooked the following day. Many flights had been canceled due to snow, so Art and I waited in line with lots of unhappy, unpleasant people. I quickly realized my singular task was to entertain and occupy Art (luckily I had the help of clown). We read books, danced, spun in circles to get dizzy, rolled a little car back and forth. I was a performance Papa. We ended up staying an extra day in NC which was fun, and we were rebooked on a direct flight and upgraded to first class ! That was especially fun for us commoners. I had our neighbor in line take this setup photo of Art and I finally making it to the ticket counter. Art eats his favorite, sausage, as we flew home in the spacious first class (we boarded last so we could avoid shaming the commoners who had to march past to the rear). Although one bad thing about first class: yo...

Just stealing away here to announce that Lewis now moves!  He will drag his body along the floor slowly, very slowly, and get whatever it is he was interested in.  Often it's a shoe or a box.  Or the plug of an unplugged lamp.  How do they know that's dangerous?

Well, I've had a lovely time being a single mom-of-one these last few days. I've driven all over town, spent some quality time with my cousin , hung out with my sister and her hub , ate a lot of ham sandwiches and fixed a few things in the house, between a lot of baking. Sent off the Christmas gifts, gave Lewis some serious undivided attention and watched a fair amount of T.V. But I'm ready to see Art and Ben and get my family back together. I can't wait to hear Art tell me about whatever he chooses to tell me about, to make a meal for everyone and watch Top Chef with Ben!!! It's so quiet at night. I want to talk to Ben about Obama's choice for Inauguration Invocation and beat him in 36-pair memory. And I want to play Jenga with Art and I KNOW that Lewis misses Art. Even when Art doesn't want Lewis around Lewis is still intrigued and excited to see his brother. I really do think that Art is Lewis's favorite person. "Brother". Makes me...

Art and I have been on vacation out here in North Carolina now for a few days. We leave Sunday. It's a been really fun, especially to see Arthur play with his cousin Mira who's about 9-months older. I've never seen Arthur play so well and fully. It's been a real treat. Separate from that, I shall never underestimate the organization and energy it takes to be a parent without Jessica. My god, it's a real task. I have always taken for granted the idea of going on an outing somewhere. She always get everything we need together. Snacks, toys, ect, and most importantly she times it well. I just get dressed, put a coat on a kid or two, and go start the car. Art has adjusted well for the most part. I was initially worried about the idea of him being displaced without his mama. And at times my fears are briefly realized (tantrums, trouble sharing, etc). At one point last night I held him while he was crying and asked him, "Do you miss Mama." "Yeah," he ...

Art flew for the first time when he actually knew what was going on. We looked out the window some, but after we got higher he wanted to close it and not look out. He slept, ate, peed, pressed lots of buttons, had placebo earplugs that didn't really work, drank bubbly pop, and was invited into the cockpit. We also missed our flight and spent a few hours in the Detroit airport, including this beautiful tunnel. here's a youtube video (someone else's) that gives you a sense of the music and space they created. It's Art in functional art! finding a pig while playing memory with the wonderful home-ade set Mama made us.

Well, the house is pretty quiet without Art running around, and without Art and Ben screaming and jumping all over the place. And, as is the usual when Ben is out of town, I don't really know when to go to sleep. I need to say goodnight to someone and since he's not here the night seems to never end... But on another note, there are advantages to being home alone with Lewis. First of all, I can go places so much easier!!! Bundling up and buckling in one kid is a breeze compared to two. And Lewis can't put up a big enough fight to stop an outing, either. Even if he's not in the mood, I can always zip him into his suit! Not so with Art. Or with Ben for that matter. I also don't have to retuck the sheets on our bed. Ben always kicks them out. I don't have to cook new things every day. I've had ham sandwiches three times since they've been gone! I'm also enjoying missing Art. I spend SO MUCH time with him that it's kind of nice to wonder...

Ben just called me from the airplane to North Carolina. He and Art will spend the next four nights there with Ben's dad, Tim. This is not the first time Art's rode a plane, but it's the first time he's been old enough to "appreciate" it. Anyway, Ben took this picture on his phone and called me right after to tell me to post it. Art calls it his skeleton face. I don't know why he thinks this is the face a skeleton makes, but it's a classic.

A long time ago, before Art could smile, I wrote on the blog, "Art is a blob and I am his slave." Well, this morning Art wanted me to do something for him that he was totally able to do himself and I said, "No, I won't do that for you. I'm not your slave," knowing full well he didn't know what a slave is. Then he rolled on the floor, whined and said, "Noooooo, you are my slaaaaaaaaave!"

Well, Art has always gotten overwhelmed when he's in a space with new kids.  The more kids, the more overwhelmed.  The other day we had ECFE, a child/parent class.  The first 45 minutes is freeplay and then the moms go off and talk shop while the kids stay with some early childhood teachers.  Since Art didn't handle being left at preschool so well I was a little worried about how ECFE would go over.  Before we went in he said, "Will you not go away for a long time?  Only go away ONE time."  I guess that means a short time.  Anyway, they got the snacks out and that's when us mom's say goodbye and go off for an hour.  Art didn't cry. I saw him sitting in his chair with all the kids eating snacks.  When we all came back an hour later he was part of the circle time listening to a story. Lewis was standing up, of course, on the hands of one of the teachers.  Art immediately wanted to show me a shark puppet.  I was happy to see that he wasn't off alone in a ...

Boots, snowpants, jacket, scarf, mittens, hat... Now get out there before you have to pee!!!

This is something my dad used to do with me. I'm not sure if I'm doing it exactly right, but I do remember that I would hold onto his thumbs and I could "steer" him around the house, usually on the way up to bed. I would steer him into the walls as we walked up the stairs and laugh my head off. You can see that Art really likes it, too. - Jess

I have this fantasy that if Lewis could crawl my quality of life would improve ten-fold. He would go after the thing he wanted, he would be able to change his environment at will and I would not have to listen to him kvetch when I'm not holding him. On another note, and a quite wonderful one,too, Art made a big smile come over my face this morning. We were driving to a doctor's appointment for Lewis and Art said, "Mama, you know I love you, Mama?" "Yes," I said, with a supersmile. "I love you, too."

Art's nose was an inch away from mine when he said loudly, "Papa! We made banana bread for you!"

Art had his three year check-up and he's in great shape.  He's a little over 40" tall (96th percentile!) and weighed around 37 pounds.  He's a big boy, but we didn't need the doctor to tell us that.  The nurse had him do vision and hearing tests, but she said that it's not really vital until kindergarten, so if he isn't able to follow the directions no problem.  She showed him a card with four shapes on it and he had to identify them; circle, square, house and heart/apple shape.  Then he sat on a stool and was supposed to identify the shapes on the chart accross the room.  Now, I know he has great vision because he picks out the craziest things far away while we're driving.  Still, he didn't identify the first few lines of the vision test.  Then, when they were pretty big, he could tell what they were.  "Square...Circle..." Pause.  It was that heart/apple thing.  She skipped it because he didn't really know w hat that was. Neither did...

The last couple weeks we have seen an explosion of interest in animals talking. "Crocco" his new crocodile, finger puppets and the lion and lamb puppets Ben found at IKEA for Art's birthday. "Can you make the ____ talk?" Fill in the blank. It could be an elephant, a giraffe or a horse. Last night he wanted to have the lamb on his hand after bedtime books to make the lamb talk. I asked if the lamb was going to say goodnight. "He isn't going to say anysing," Art replied. Then I turned out the light and kissed Art goodnight. Later that night I checked on him and the lamb was still on his hand. I wonder if he's still there this morning... - jess

"Is this your car, Papa." "Yes." "It's smelly in your car. Why Papa?"

A notable occasion in our home--all dishes were dirty.

Now that we realize Art is just being a normal three year old (hitting his brother, melting down about his apple being cut in incomplete circles) our biggest wish for our family is that Lewis learns to crawl.  I mean, we really want him to crawl, but we are blessed with such simple wishes. Today we are thinking of Nora and her family.  We wish for you a really good scan!!!  Love to Nora!