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I was just doing the dishes and thinking of the time when Lewis was unnamed and about three or four days old. Jess and I were at Turtle Bread bakery and had our tiny new baby in the car seat on the table (Art was at Bubbe's house). We were discussing different names and admiring the tiny warm thing on the table. I remember thinking then that it was an extraordinary moment, to be sitting there with our baby, thinking what name might best fit this little person and his long life. A woman walked by and asked about the baby. It was funny to tell her we didn't know his name, and we asked her what she thought of Lewis. She loved it.

Unfortunately, this is the only picture we got of the full Stegosaurus costume today, but there will be more opportunities. Art's preschool had a "party" during the last hour of school and he wore his costume. Also at the party was a T-Rex, Obi One Kanobe (sp!?), The Green Lantern, a princess, a butterfly and a Wild Thing. Ms. Jen, Art's teacher, just sent over this photo:

My sister dropped off some glue sticks for her hot glue gun and I'm using them to make Art's costume. She stayed long enough for Lewis to help her with her zipper, up and down, up and down, up and down.

Today I headed up to Brainerd to watch the press run of the Ant Farm book at Bang Printing. It was a real thrill. My friend and publisher Norton and I spent the day tweaking color on the prints. It looks really good and will should be bound and in book stores within two weeks! (Jessica made me take this photo...)

Bubbe made this for her Halloween bake sale at her job at the hospital. She stopped by after work to deliver us the morbid remains. thanks, Bubbe!

I am making Art a stegosaurus costume.  I didn't have a pattern so I made a practice model on Pinnochio.  Oh, and the real costume is totally cute - if you don't look too closely at the duct tape and staples holding it together.  Will post pics when it's done.

She sings a beautiful song and I'd feel guilty if I was the only one who was able to enjoy it... Art had taken a late afternoon nap and Jessica was trying to wake him.(video is audio only) [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qlC-NXaZIQ&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&w=480&h=295]

From a year or so ago. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnVY-6e7idk&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&w=480&h=385]

Today we took the kids to the bird sanctuary at Lake Harriet, about a 15 minute bike ride from our house. Jess and I are gonna try and make Monday's nature day (zoo's, nature walks, etc). Nice for the kids to know what to expect, and also for us to know what the hell to do with them. Here are some lovely photos from our time there. Jessica, as usual, was taken with the mushrooms. It's actually a real treat to be around her and absorb the excitement and fascination she has for them. And for nature in general. Things that I take for granted are fascinating and wonderful to her. I love that. just after we arrived we stopped to watch the street sweeper show.

As I've said before, I am just salivating in anticipation of seeing Art make some representational art. I just so desperately want to see how he translates what he sees in the world to paper or clay or whatever! But alas, Art is not into realism. He does, however, love to manipulate his materials! Any project I've ever done with him that had scissors nearby eventually disintegrated into cutting for cutting's sake. Making lots of pieces for some unknown purpose. Or going and gluing and gluing, probably just because he likes to squeeze the bottle. But he did make a beautiful abstract crayon "piece" at school last month (picture coming) and he did a project at school where he cut up fall-colored tissue papers and dropped the pieces, like leaves, onto a precut tree-shaped paper. That was a nice collage. We sent it to his great-grandma. So I thought, maybe I could get him to draw a face if I gave him paper in the shape of a head! These are the results. He act...

Art tells Mama about our visit (he also threw in a nice 'pumpkin butt'): [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ieew7m9ETk&hl=en&fs=1&&w=480&h=385] Last night Arthur said he wanted to go to the aquarium where you move by yourself (the mall's overpriced underground thing where there's a moving walkway) and see the sharks, and he wanted me to stay there the whole time. So today we went. Sharks have been on the forefront of his little mind ever since we saw the massive and amazing great white shark attack seals in 40-times slow motion on the nature show. It really is incredible footage. In fact, I just found it on YouTube! Watch the whole clip, but the most incredible part is when the thing soars out of the water with seal in mouth at time 2:10: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHnS8_0da6A&hl=en&fs=1&&w=480&h=385]

This is a very common thing for kids Lewis's age - Art did it and so does our little 2 year-old-friend, Elsa;  Lewis just wants to play in the sink ALL DAY.  I think he was at the sink on and off for three hours today, maybe more.  He transfers water from one bowl to another, dumps and then does it again.  He then might call for me, "Mama?  Mama?" so I will give him a new scooping device.  He holds a measuring cup up to the tiny faucet stream we leave on and then dumps that cup out into a bowl.  I don't bother clearing out the sink of his many bowls and teaspoons and cups.  I know he'll be back at the sink within the next hour or so.  Fortunately there's a toy that makes any tub or bowl into a fountain for just such water play.  I'm getting it this weekend in the interest of conservation . As for the warning, that is two fold.  First of all, we have a new and improved basement (look out, Mike!) which both boys like to spend lots of time in.  There's al...

What do you get if you're still a little boy and someone else is blowing out candles? Well, more often than not you get to help. Doing "The Noble Duke of York" with Josh. Garvin brothers doing simultaneous Noble Duke of Yorks.

Art helped me make a chocolate cake for Ashley's birthday last weekend. I didn't have to ask him twice. He was right on it, knowing he got to use the electric beater! Of course, we loved licking the batter. Yummmmmy!

Sometimes Art gets preoccupied with something worrisome and can't shake it.  Yesterday I read Peter Rabbit to him.  In the very beginning the mom warns her bunnies not  to go into Mr. McGreggor's garden because the papa bunny went there and ended up in a pie (!).  That concerned Art.  So when Peter Rabbit was in the garden and did end up tussling with Mr. McGreggor Art asked me, very worried, "Is Mr. McGreggor going to eat him?"  At first I said I didn't know, that we had to read the story to find out.  The second time he asked if Peter would be eaten I said that Peter does NOT get eaten, but I don't know how he gets away. We'll have to read on to find out.  The third  time he asked he added, "And don't say that again, that we have to read the story," so I didn't say it, but I still said that I didn't know how he'd get away.  Then he didn't want to see the picture of Mr. McGreggor, because he was mean.  Apparently this story w...

I was driving the kids to IKEA to go get another set of hanging rings for the basement, like those gymnastics rings men do amazing strength moves on?  You'll see pictures soon.  Anyway, We're just driving along 77 and I was suddenly flooded with a deep feeling of love for both kids.  I mean, I almost got teary with gentle joy!  Same thing happened as we were eating our meatballs and chicken tenders.  I love them both and just want them to be safe and happy.  Then we went and ran through the hanging rugs.  It was a very nice evening.

In the same tone a voice Art would've asked the question, "Why do people die?," this morning on the way to preschool he asked me, "Why do Papa's go to work?"

Art wanted to wear his napin on his head so Jessica obliged. Lewis immediately grabbed his napkin, held it over his head, and said, "uhh...uhhh...uhhh".

On the way to the "Slipper Store" (Lands End to get Art some slippers that fit) Art said these things.   "Mama, you think mushrooms are interesting.  I think SNOW is interesting!" And, while Lewis was sleeping, "But sometimes when Lewis is sleeping I touch him and he looks up and says, 'Agah!'" It's true.  He says 'agah!'.

While I was watching Lewis and Art play in the deserted parking lot of the clinic tonight I thought, "Getting stitches was the best thing that's happened for a long time!"  I mean, watching the boys together - Art being a loving, dutiful big brother and Lewis being a real champ and just totally cute - has made me so proud and happy.  When Lewis initially got hurt on Tuesday night we were at the clinic for at least two hours and it was great!  They played and laughed and climbed and just had a good time.  Well, we must remember that it was very  scary and painful for Lewis to get the anesthetic shots in his eyebrow, but I could not have been prouder of him for being able to remain calm and focused while I sang to him during the stitching or of Art for how attentive he was to Lewis that night.   Oh, and it was so  cute when we got to the clinic tonight and the nurse opened the door for us to enter.  Art walked in and Lewis was behind him, just following along.  The doctor...

This morning there was a dusting of snow on the ground. What!?!? I kind of think of snow as not really being a possibility until Halloween, thanks to the infamous Halloween Blizzard of '92. (Ask any Minnesotan about it and they will chew your ear off with stories about it.) Anywho, I was downstairs with Lewis and suddenly heard Art at the top of the stairs when we woke up this morning. "Snow?!?" I called back to him and said, "I know! Isn't it weird?" "Is it real?" he asked. "Yeah, it's real snow! Not a lot of it, but it's snow." "You're silly, Mama." And when I insisted it was real his first impulse was to say, "I want to taste it!" I suited him up in Ben's heavy sweatshirt, some mittens and and sneakers and he ran outside to eat the snow. He ate and ate and ate. He's like a dog. And then when he came in his face was all cold and slow moving and he tried to offer some snow off his mi...

This morning Jess and I and the boys went to ECFE class. For the second half of the 2-hour class the parents go into a separate room to talk and leave the kids on their own. Art and Lewis have had no problem with us leaving, and today when we got back I snapped this photo before either of them saw us. Arthur was holding Lewis, playing with him, and more or less asserting his brotherness. For some reason there are few things in life that make me happier than knowing that Arthur really loves Lewis and cares about him.

My mom will attest to this, after watching the kids last weekend - Art is always  asking for food.  "What can I eat?"  All day long.  It's sometimes kind of maddening trying to come up with another snack or to suffer the whining and rolling on the floor if the snack is not produced.  Here's is tonight's exchange, while watching our nightly pre-bedtime nature show. Art : I want something to eat. Me : [Pausing nature show and letting out a big sigh.] Do you want something hard and crunchy or soft? Art : Soft. Me : [Taking a moment to think something up.]  Cheese? Art : Cheese is hard and flat and when you bend it, it cracks so I'll have to eat something else. When you bend it, it cracks?  I tell you, I really am starting to believe that children under six are all obsessive-compulsive.  Can't eat cheese because it's flat ?  So strange.  And what did he decide he wanted?  Cheerios.  So weird.

These are some photos my Pops just sent from our recent trip to North Carolina...

No afternoon naps and a lot of "Mama, come here!" had made me in need of a break.  I gave the boys some Bunny Grahams, plunked Lewis in a chair in the dining and went to the basement.  I brought down a load of laundry and took a pit stop at the computer to write a little blog post about being annoyed and  Art came down to see what I was doing.  Then we heard a big bang.  Then a cry.   "I think Lewis fell down,"  Art said.  And we both went to see what happened. Lewis had been climbing on the dining room chair I had sat him in when it tipped and he face planted on the floor.  Bloody, bloody gash over his eyebrow.   While I was holding Lewis and trying to apply a bag of frozen peas to his wound I asked Art to get a gackoo from Lewis's room.  Art dutifully ran upstairs and came back with a yellow gackoo for his little brother.  (This from a boy who an hour earlier said, "My hands are cold so I can't walk!")  I kind of knew right away that it neede...

Yesterday morning around 10am Ben and I left for a night in Wisconsin with relatives and Art, Lewis and Bubbe stayed back at the house. Ben and I had a great time with my cousins and aunts and uncles drinking beer and wine, eating cheese and crackers and lamb and having a poetry slam in honor of our dear cousin, daughter and niece, Nora. We laughed, cried and just had a really good time. And we slept in our tent in the cold, damp autumn air. So nice. We love sleeping in the tent. Back at the house the kids had extended Bubbe-time making brownies, playing with toys and attending a neighborhood birthday party. When we got home around 7:45 they were on our bed reading books. Both kids smiled big, broad smiles when they saw us and laughed and laughed. It was a great reunion. I know my mom had a good time, too. She was all smiles when we got home and when we called for reports she sounded happily busy and just in her element. I asked her for details. She said that she was cleanin...

Art and Lew's uncle Josh teaches Latin at a school in St. Paul and he's likely the best teacher of ALL TEACHERS, as evidenced by this wonderful note from a parent he just received (names removed): ------------ Good morning, I just wanted to take a few minutes to say thank you to you for making the learning of Latin so enjoyable for my daughter. As a new student to the school, she is learning many new things and trying to stay on top of it all. Everyday when she gets in the car I ask for "bests and worsts" from all of my kids. Her "best" is always Latin, along with some Mr. Garvin story. Thank you for being such a positive influence in her life daily and for "teaching" that learning is fun, especially a subject that could have been intimidating to a new 6th grader. We appreciate you.

1.  Checking Lewis's diaper before leaving the house.  If it's poopy I'm probably in for a battle.  I have not yet found a reliable distraction/incentive for him to lay still while I change him so I am often wrestling with an extremely strong toddler while deftly avoiding getting poop on my hands, his socks and any nearby surfaces. 2.  "Mama, make your truck talk."  In fact, this is a running, inside-joke for me and Ben.  I hate  it when Art asks me to make my truck talk.  What am I supposed to make it say!?!?  To make it worse, lately he's been saying, "Make your truck talk A LOT." 3.  Meal time.  Unless it's hot dogs.  Lewis is fine.  He eats anything and everything.  Art, on the other hand, is getting more and more restrictive about which foods are acceptable.  The family rule is that he can have something else if he doesn't like a dish that's new, but if it's something we've had before (with success) there will be no oth...

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