Playing hide-and-seek.
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we made a real huge snowman
A woman walking by noticed art swinging and me focusing on the snowman. "Looks like somebody else is interested in making the snowman," she said smiling.
It was in the mid-40's today, first time for months.
oh it was so nice. we went on a tricycle ride through lots of puddles and slush.
Pawing Mama.
from Jessica: I like to sit next to Art for dinner. Art likes to lean over and touch my shoulder while we're eating. Art's hands get dirty during dinner. I'm wearing a napkin on my shoulder for protection. I usually just say, "Don't touch me!" But this way he can paw me as much as he wants.
Whup-pshhh!
Been cracked the whip and said, "You've gotta blog that!" about a few things that Art said. So here I am blogging some lovely things that Art said that I have failed to blog. Thanks for crackin' it, Ben. As we were walking from the car for school we saw Ms. Wendy pull up. Art waved to her in her car and said, "Hello, Ms. Wendy!" Then he kept walking and said, "I said hello to her because...I love her." As we were eating dinner, Kale and Potato Stew with Cornmeal Dumplings, Art looked at Lewis. Lewis was eating pieces of sweet potato and chicken off the table. Art said, "Lewis doesn't use a bowl? Just a table?"
Lewis and Jessica in muisc class.
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2975623&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1 Jessica and Lewis in music class. from Ben Garvin on Vimeo .
Teachers are now Miss Wendy, and other things about school
Art's new school is a big hit. This weekend he asked several times if it was a school day. "Is I'm going to go to school today?" or "When I wake up from my nap will it be school time?" Our friend Becca was over and asked Art about school last week and whether he liked it. He said, "Pretty much." On Sunday night Art knew he had school the next morning. We had both kissed him goodnight and we were downstairs watching a show or something when we heard, "Mama!" I went upstairs and Ben followed me. Art said, "When I wake up from my nap will it be school time?" "Yep. Tomorrow is a school day." "I'm too tired to go to sleep." Ben knew what was going on. "Art, are you excited about school tomorrow?" "Kind of." "I know what it's like to be really excited about something and not want to go to sleep, but if you go to sleep it will feel like ...
Laughing Lew
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2976276&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1 Laughing Lew from Ben Garvin on Vimeo . Lew laughts so hard carrot oozes from his mouth.
We made dinner for you, Papa!
Art cuts the tofu. Jess adds: Let it be known that Art is using a frosting spreader as a knife. It has no real blade and is only good for spreading frosting, cutting playdough and, as you can see, cutting tofu.
Jessica's Chicken Enchiladas
Hey! I made up a recipe tonight to up some stuff in the house and to employ some ideas from two different recipes, neither of which I had more than a few of the required ingredients. It turned out AWESOME! Here it is! Preheat oven to 425. Stir together: Half a roast chicken, shredded 1 1/2 c or so shredded cheddar cheese 1/2 zucchini, shredded (This will be the filling for the tortillas.) Blend in a chopper or processor: 4 cloves garlic 1 1/2 c diced tomatoes 1 7oz can enchilada sauce 1 cup butternut squash, roasted and peeled 1 tsp chili powder Pour an even layer of the sauce mixture over the bottom of a small oven pan. I didn't have the smaller enchilada-size tortillas, so I ended up filling and rolling three burrito-size tortillas. Lay in the filled tortillas and pour remaining sauce over them to cover. Sprinkle a little cheddar on there and bake for about 25, 30 minutes. Let sit for 5 and EAT! Was totally good. A little sweet from the squash, but spicy from the ench...
notes from DC
Family and friends, For those interested, I thought I'd write a bit about my experience yesterday at the inauguration. My friend from high school Shad (he works for the NSA, shhhhh) lives just across the river from the Lincoln Memorial ( here's the route I walked from his place to my spot on the mall ). I'm drinking coffee from his National Security Agency mug right now, which I'm hoping isn't bugged. Jim Ragsdale, the writer I'm working with, was given an incredible ticket less than 50 feet from Obama. Here's a link to the great column he wrote about his experience. I had a standing area ticket that was fairly close to the stage, but I actually didn't try to use it and stayed further back near the Washington Monument. There was more space to work and move around and I didn't want to be locked in to a location. It was cold, below 30 all day, and many people, including small children, were not dressed for it. It was sad actually. Waitin...
A sweet thing that Art said.
There are a few questions I ask Art every once in a while to keep track of whether he's developed certain opinions. Like what's your favorite color? Is it just what he's looking at that moment? No. It's always blue. I have a new one that I started asking about a week ago. What do you want to be when you grow up? Fireman. Every time. Last night I asked him again and he said he wanted to put 'on' the fires and drive the truck. Then he said, "And I want you to come with me. Won't that be fun!?"
Donations accepted.
Nanna saw the video of Lew's gimpy crawl and said, "He looks like Tiny Tim! I was about to send money!"
From the Inauguration.
I'm in D.C. and spent the day today, the 19th, roaming the city with my colleague Jim Ragsdale, a really good writer. The city is stuffed with very happy people waiting in long lines for everything. "Something big will change tomorrow," said the an Ethiopian cab driver I was chatting with who was also quite smiley. Here's are two videos I did today. One on Sen. Amy Klobuchar and her daughter demonstrating various 'fistbumps' her daughter made up in honor of Obama and Michelle's famous gesture. The other, created in part from an interview I did last week in St. Paul, is on Matt Little, the former head of the MN NAACP who led a group of folks to the famous march on Washington and MLK's 'I Have a Dream' speech. Ilm not sure if the embedded videos are working below. You can see the work at this website, too: www.twincities.com/video http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9/1870915446?isVid=1&publisherID=1616725016 http://c.brightcov...
Hospital corners are secure again.
So, Ben is off to D.C. for the inauguration and it's just the three of us until Thursday. I made the bed with some good hospital corners and am looking forward to not redoing them every morning, but I will miss Ben a lot. We all had a lovely morning of pancakes, playing with cornstarch and lots of rolling around with the kids. Ben will post some rolling pictures later. Lewis loves to get into trouble. Tipping over trash cans is one of his favorite things to do. Art liked to do that, too. I velcroed Art's diaper pail and trash to his changing table so he couldn't knock them over. Lew's trash is behind a chair. Lewis will also gimpy-crawl at top speed if he hears the bathtub running, or if the bathroom is just open. We have to keep that door closed. He will also made a beeline for a potty chair. Ew. I'm latching the cabinets, turned the nightstands around so the drawer is to the wall and the cat food is on the counter. But despite his getting into st...
Art's like the process.
Jess and I were talking last night and realized that Art is alot more interested in the process of things rather than the result. He focuses so closely on how things work, how water flows over a toy, how flour plops into a bowl. Yesterday Jessica said she had an art project set up for him with glue and scissors and tape and paint and paper. He got totally distracted with the tape and it's stickiness, instead sticking it places and trying to figure out its properties. He has no interested in the finished product, and often there isn't one. Which is fine. Part of the reason this was a nice realization is that it might inform the way talk with Art. Or already has. For instance, rather than saying, "Art, you need to brush your teeth," I could say "Would you like to use my buzzy (electric) toothbrush?" We actually already sorta do emphasize the process of things already, but it's nice to think of it on it's own.
Swimming at the Y.
Our new camera is not so good and takes blurry photos. Rather, awesome painterly ones!
This sucks.
It's barely 6am and I've been up for an hour. Doing what? Being crabby. If I knew that waking up with Lewis at 5, 4:30, 4am would mean I got to finish "work" earlier I probably wouldn't be so crabby right now, but we all know that's not how it works. I'm still going to be working at my job until 8pm. And even after 8pm I'll still be on call all night. Many of these super early-rise mornings have been quite productive for me. I've made bread, I'll empty the dishwasher or clean something else, sometimes I watch a show... But today I'm just pissed. If I'm going to wake up this early I want it to be to do something just for me! Like exercise or meditate or read. Waking up two hours before anyone else in the house just os I can do more of what I do all day long feels like punishment. I'm tired and almost, just almost able to resist smiling at Lewis, the smiliest baby in the world.
Mama? Mama? You know... Mama?
I actually thought about counting the number of times I hear "Mama?" in a day, but that seemed too daunting so I thought I could do a minute-by-minute average, but I lost focus. Lately it seems like I'm hearing "Mama?" more than ever! Every sentence, every observation, every utterance seems to start, or just be "Mama?" Over and over and over. Sometimes, many times, my patience wears and I slip and say, "What?!?!" I try to remember that most of the time he is not actually going to ask me anything or tell me anything, he's just checking to make sure I'm still tuned into him. Actually, a lot of the time he says, "Mama?" or "Mama? You know..." and then nothing comes after it. Or he says, "Mama?" and after I say the obligatory, "Yes?" I can hear his brain churning as he tries to think of something to follow up with. "Mama?" "Yes?" "You know.... this is a fun ...
Lew crawls.
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2782750&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1 Lew crawls, etc. from Ben Garvin on Vimeo .
Arthur the photographer.
Let it be noted that Ben cropped some of these pictures so they are not all Art's compositional choices. And the one of me in the green sweater was taken by Ben. He forgot when he was making this nice collage.
I wish I'd brought the camera!
It was so cute when I picked Art up from school. Six little kids were running from room to room with Miss Wendy saying, "He's not in here! Where is he? Have we looked in the refrigerator?" and they would all go into another room together. And guess who was leading the pack? Art! He'd say, "Miss Wendy! Miss Wendy! Let's look under the table!" I thought to myself, "I'm using this against him the next time he says he doesn't want to go!" The boy was having some serious fun with everyone. Well, I won't really use it against him, but it sure was great to see. While he was running around with everyone he had in one hand the small picture of myself I had cut out for him. Wendy said that he kept it in his hand much of the day and every once in a while he would look down at it and then keep playing. The kids were all running around looking for the Gingerbread Man. Wendy had hidden a paper cutout of a gingerbread man on the front d...
My "artisan bread", attempt #2
I wouldn't pay $4 for this loaf of bread, but we did nearly finish it the night it was baked. Third try this weekend! (When I made the first airless solid loaf Art said, "I like this bread!"
new camera.
Well, we got a new little point and shoot camera today. I shot Art, he shot us. It takes movies, too, so look for more of those coming soon!
School today went well!
I've already been called by Nan(na), Ben and my mom and given them all the scoop on Art's first real day at his new preschool. Here is for the rest of you out there and for posterity. It went very well. We did our special goodbye when I left and he was proud to show Miss Wendy how we do that and she said he did a really good job. Of course, I got next to no report from him, but luckily Miss Wendy is really good at being a preschool teacher and she hands out a list of the things they did that day. Ben asked, "When does she have time to write that?" I'm guessing she writes it during lunch, which is one of the last things they do, and runs it off real quick. Today's note said, in large and very claer handwriting, Today we practiced singing the "Gorilla" song! We made a wonderful list of Gg words and we discussed the 2 sounds Gg makes ~ G orilla / G iraffe We read "The Gingerbread Man" and discussed the story. We reviewed the sign lang...
Spin Art.
I got this great idea from the Children's Museum! Use your salad spinner to make spin art. Put a circle piece of paper or a paper plate in the bottom of the spinner, dribble some watery pain on the paper and make the spinner go. Art had a fabulous time. I think he was doing spin art for about an hour and a half. I made "artisan bread" while he worked on it. - Jess
Now I know why Artisan Bread costs $4 a loaf.
I've been trying to bake good bread lately and decided to take on some bread that required more than one rising. Little did I know that this "hearth bread" would be such a long involved process. I was up at 4am the other day so I thought I'd just get it going. Started a "pre-ferment" sponge starter while Lewis whacked the broom against the floor. Then five hours later added the rest of the flour for kneading and it's first rise. An hour later it had not risen. Put it in a slightly warm oven, turned the heat off and let it go another hour. Good. Doubled in bulk. Punched it down and put it in for it's second rise, which I thought would be the one when you shape it. No. That's the NEXT rise! Oh well. Let it go again, but it wasn't really growing right so I put the oven on for a minute or so again and turned it off. Whoops. The bread had started to bake a little. So much for rising. This Artisan bread thing sucks! I sort of shap...
Death of a gackoo.
The "green gackoo" has been a perennial favorite. Often requested even in the presence of other identical gackoos of different colors. The green gackoo is no more as it sprung a leak and could not be kept sterile. Goodbye good friend...
The digs on Art's new school.
Art, Lewis and I visited his new school today and it passes the test! I think he'll do real well this time. The class is smaller, just 8 kids total, the oldest kid is a young four, no five-year-olds. And of course Art is older than when we tried preschool in the fall. I think he might have actually turned a corner in readiness for school and separation and all. After about 15 minutes he jumped right into the class activities - circle time, clean-up, walking in a line like a choo-choo train (he even made a chugga chugga sound) and of course, snack. During the circle time they played with a parachute and for the first time EVER Art went under the parachute! We've gone to ECFE (early childhood classes) on and off for most of his three years and he has never wanted to go under the parachute even when all the other kids are laughing and having a great time under there. See, I think he's turned a corner. The preschool program is throught the Minneapolis Parks and t...
The end of a lovely day.
I really turned it around today, I must say. Up at 4am? Ben working after a day of meltdowns yesterday? Could have been bad. But I got a nap before Ben left and some nudging from Ben to get a plan in order and things were pretty smooth all day long. Quite wonderful, actually. So, Art's been really losing it when he has to hear "no" or when something falls apart or when he wants cherries and we don't have any cherries... Some of the reading I've been doing has recommended helping the child recognize when he's getting all "flooded" with feelings and starting to lose it. Sometimes I say, "Are you getting all flooded up again?" and sometimes I say, "Keep your cool! Hold on! You're losing your cool!" The cool thing started months ago when I (cringe) yelled at him in the car and then apologized later for "losing my cool". It is starting to really stick and has produced some funny exchanges about Art's cool ...
e-mail from art.
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jessica Parker < parker.garvin@gmail.com > Date: Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 4:17 PM Subject: Hello Papa! To: bengarvin@gmail.com Hello Papa! I love to play on the beanbag with you! -Art
5:59am
It's about to turn 6 o'clock and I've already boiled potatoes for hashbrowns, started a loaf of artisan bread, written email and checked out my friends on Facebook, surfed the web for kitchen storage, emptied the dishwasher, eaten an apple, strolled the baby around the house a few times and gazed into space for long periods. I have Lewis to thank for this early "productivity". He was smiling and ready to go! at 4am. Not even seven o'clock and I think both of us are starting to wind down for a nap.
2-year-old.
This is my christmas gift from Jessica, a beautifully painted watercolor of one of my favorite photos of Arthur (taken by my brother Josh--it's posted below). Isn't it wonderful?