March 2013

Samantha has eleven teeth, weighs 21 pounds and change, and measures 30 inches tall. Marcus can read the treble clef and mark up a simple piece of sheet music for the right hand and play it on the piano. The weather is getting nicer, and life is good.

We got to go out for an adults-only dinner with Bob one Friday night with Marcus in the kids' fellowship night at the church and Samantha in the nursery there--it was great to see Bob and hear how well he's doing in his second semester of seminary.

We went to the MFA with Sarah and Sean for their March members' family day--we had great fun painting on real canvas, making sculptures out of rolled paper, hanging out in the modern art wing, and visiting Marcus's favorite painting of Achilles and two horses (Marcus can even navigate us through the galleries to get there).

We still have to wake Marcus up at 6:00 in the morning for school, and he's still tired by 6:00 in the evening. He loves sleeping on his top bunk--he stopped co-sleeping for even part of the night right after Thanksgiving, and he's been alone in his top bunk all night every night since we got back from Thailand. Samantha sleeps everywhere else, it seems, but we love our sleepy snuggles.

With Robert in California one weekend for work, I took the kids to a family concert at a high school in Brookline. They loved dancing and jumping, and then Samantha figured out how to unscrew the bolts and washers holding the bleachers in the open position. Marcus ran around finding the pieces and putting them back in after she unscrewed them.

Marcus went to the Museum of Science twice in a week, first when Basil ("He's not old enough to be Jayden's uncle!" Marcus said. "Uncles are older.") helped me out in a pinch by taking Marcus there on Evacuation Day (drat these ridiculous school holidays that the rest of the world does not observe, and then the following Saturday, when I'd reserved a library pass a couple months in advance. He loves the dinosaurs, the hatching chicks, the snake and turtle, the musical sculpture, and the Apollo model.

We went tubing to Nashoba on Palm Sunday after church, the last day of their season; Marcus and I got twelve runs in while Robert and Samantha watched. The workers were complaining that the warmer weather made the conditions slower, but I did not mind. Combined with a stop at the H-Mart on the way home, it was a great day.

On Tuesdays after school I've been bringing Marcus and Samantha together to a mixed-ages (0-5) music and drumming class in the South End.

Marcus still goes to karate on Saturdays, even though Alex switched to ballet; we've gotten together for a few lunches and trips to the comic book store after their separate classes, though, and we also met at a playground on Good Friday for some spinning fun.

Samantha eats everything. She recently devoured Vietnamese-style shrimp cakes; pizza with bacon, garlic, and spinach; kale chips; and pretty much anything you could name.

Marcus is the master of "funny" faces and voices these days.

We have all sorts of silly fun in the house. Samantha loves dressing up, whether in her new summer bonnet, Marcus's boots and rainjacket, or assorted boxes.

Easter was a gorgeous sunny day this year, at last. Robert and Marcus dyed eggs on Holy Saturday, after dim sum with some Considines, and while I did some food prep and Samantha slept on my back.

Then Easter morning we went to the 8:00 church service, Samantha happy in the nursery while Marcus stayed with us in "big church" all morning. (Marcus has a scrape on his nose in these pictures, in various states of being picked-at, because he came home from school on Maundy Thursday with it. "What happened?" I asked. "I was trying to see what Mario was doing in gym class!" he said, with hand gestures. "What was Mario doing?" I asked. "Hula-hooping." Ah.)

After we came home, Robert took the kids to an Easter egg hunt at the South End library; Marcus loved the eggs and balloons but stayed clear of the giant bunny, and Samantha slept through it all on Robert's front.

Then we had Easter dinner, with Richard/Grandpa, Sarah and Sean, and Bob in attendance.

Samantha enjoyed making the rounds of friends and family; she saved the messy orange-mousse-consumption for my lap, nicely.

At the end of the day, when she wanted a bit of space, with Richard already home and the rest of us in the living room--Sarah and I talking so happily but noisily that Marcus kept asking us to be more quiet--Samantha just went into the dining room and climbed up to the kids' table and worked busily by herself. It was a lovely Easter!

 

 

 

 

 

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Created: 4/1/13. Last Modified: 4/1/13.