June and July Misc

June Miscellaneous

Marcus is such a strong, smart, funny, wonderful independent almost-four-year-old these days. Samantha is a smiley and strong baby, feisty in her own way. She can pull herself onto her knees, almost crawl, and occasionally pull herself to a standing position. She babbles, can sort of wave, blows raspberries constantly and kisses occasionally, and loves when Marcus plays with her. She's 15lbs, 10oz, and 26.5" long (still the 50th percentile baby girl). She's starting slowly to like the taste of non-milk foods--though she hasn't consumed terribly much quantity-wise, she just this weekend started nibbling broccoli florets, licking apples and potatoes, and seeming excited about the world of solid food. She's getting her first tooth, just peeking through a bit on the bottom, too! Life with the children has been, and continues to be, wonderful in all ways.

Robert rides his Hubway bikes to work most days.

We make "Marcus sandwiches" on the couch at night.

Everyone enjoys the playgrounds these days.

Even when it rains, we can amuse ourselves indoors.

Our garden is thriving.

Marcus finished preschool (he'd been there for two full years) and is getting excited about kindergarten coming up in September.

On Marcus's last day of school, before I picked him up, I took Samantha to a rally at the State House for the Safer Alternatives Chemicals Act, where we asked our state senators to "be our heroes" and require things sold in Massachusetts to use safer chemicals where alternatives exist. It's a small but important step. I signed the big card on Sam's behalf, by tracing her hand and writing, "Samantha, 6 months, wants to nurse on a safer pillow, sleep on a safer mattress, and cuddle on a safer couch. She needs your help!"

Grandma and Pop-pop came up to visit in early June. It mostly rained, but we did make it to the zoo at least.

We went to the first Free Friday Flicks of the summer, with Penny's family from Marcus's school, and enjoyed the DJ Morgan's trivia before the show ("Happy Feet 2") started. Both kids stared transfixed at the movie. Funny story before the movie, though: when Morgan came up to our blanket, with an assistant holding a bag of give-aways, he fixated on Marcus, and said, "All right, little boy, I'll give you a prize if you answer me a question!" and Marcus just stared at him. "What's your favorite Sesame Street character?" Marcus just stared at him. "All right, not a Sesame Street fan. What's your favorite Disney character?" Again, Marcus just stared at him. "We'll try another. What's your favorite cartoon?" Marcus still stared. "How old are you?" Morgan was seeming desperate. Marcus stared. "What's your name?" Marcus said, "Pablo." Morgan, satisfied, handed him a mini-frisbee. I keeled over in laughter. "Pablo"--pronounced with an /h/ as in Spanish 101, "Hablo"--is of course what Marcus calls The Backyardigans, which is indeed his favorite (two questions back) cartoon.

We went to Verrill Farm with Alex and her family to pick strawberries.

We had Robert's first softball game of the season (toddlers playing softball on the side as well, babies investigating baseball gloves, and everyone eating Abbott's frozen custard in Brighton after the game).

We went to the zoo to see their newly-donated "corpse flower" with Sarah and Sean the night before they thought it would bloom, and we unintentionally ran into a lot of Juneteenth picnicking traffic.