Samantha is Seventeen Months Old

The kids are getting so big--I don't know how time is passing. They play so well together, and Marcus is so sweet with Samantha. His big fault is that he loves carting her around a little too much. She usually loves it, but occasionally they have different directions in mind, and then she makes her displeasure known (heard).

Marcus can recognize some simple sight-words, like "stop," "go," "Samantha," "cat," "dog," "Mommy," and "Daddy," and is really getting better at writing his letters smaller and more accurately. He learned how to read bass clef in piano class, he can count by tens, he can do simple addition and notice patterns, and he can count the number of syllables (beats) in a word and tell you which word has more beats and which has fewer.

Samantha has expanded her vocabulary as well, and can now say things like "swing," "window," "yellow," and "tissue," as well as "bird," "neigh," "[w]oof [w]oof," "bus," and "tiger" (random but true). She is a champion dog-spotter, spying them from way across the street and pointing and cheering gleefully. Of course, she also calls squirrels and prairie dogs dogs as well, but she's getting there.

We opened up our roof deck, and the kids have gotten to spend some nice afternoons up there playing with sand, mostly.

We even got to have Robert's father over for a barbeque, and we all ate upstairs on an early Saturday evening.

Jocie came up to Boston for the day one Sunday, and we went to the Museum of Fine Arts with her and Sarah and Sean. There was still life sketching inside, and also a scratch-art stained glass activity (Jocie made Marcus's name, Marcus and Robert made the rocket, and both are now displayed in our kitchen window at home). Samantha participated in everything, of couse--she is nuts about the fine motor things, and her grip on a pencil or crayon is pretty perfect. Sidewalk Sam had some amazingly vibrant sidewalk chalk out for people to use in front of the museum. My blue jeans are probably never going to go entirely back to blue, but it was worth it. We also got to see the very cool samurai armor exhibit downstairs and walk down to Brigham Circle for West Indian food (mmmm, beef patties and curried goat, never mind those fried dumplings) and J.P. Lick's.

Another day we had lunch with Marissa and family at Grass Fed and then went to the zoo with her and Alex. Samantha's Tuesday mornings alone with Marissa and Charlotte have ended, but we will of course still see them, especially throughout the summer.

My parents came up for the weekend the first weekend of May, and it was great to see them. Marcus really misses them, I think, when we don't see them for a few months. We had 13 adults and 6 kids in the house for Greek Easter, on a gorgeous day with lots of outdoor playtime.

We also went to Wake Up the Earth in the Southwest Corridor Park; there was outdoor mini golf for kids, hula hoops, a playground, and cardboard sliding down a big hill. We all had a fabulous time, and I managed to meet up with two local babywearers (Marissa and another mom) and one visiting from Illinois.

We took Marcus to a kids' pipe organ demonstration at Park Street last weekend with the new church organist; he explained electromagnets in the organ, the organ as "the original surround-sound system," the different stops and keyboards and pedals, etc. He played bits of the themes from "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones," just for fun, and then let any child who wanted to go up and play the organ (Marcus was too shy). Marcus had a great time and edged his way all the way into the group to watch the demonstration, and then watched from above as the other kids played. Then Marcus and Robert got to climb up and crawl into the pipe chambers. (Sarah and Sean wanted to go too, but felt that they couldn't really unless they borrowed a child for the event.)

The next day, Saturday of Mother's Day weekend, we picked up our tomato plants for our garden, went to the new Shake Shack in Chestnut Hill, checked out a steampunk festival in Waltham, bought fancy Indian mangoes at Patel Brothers, and came home and planted our garden and grilled dinner. Samantha was enchanted by this steampunk dog.

 

I'm done teaching until after Labor Day, though I'll still be going into school three days a week in May and June to work on a book project. I get to have some easier afternoons, though, and we've managed to get a lot of playground time in, as well as a Children's Museum trip just for Samantha.

Samantha's started sleeping part of the night on the bottom bunk of the Ikea bunk beds in the kids' room, and when she wakes up she squawks for me and I bring her into our bed.

The school year is winding down for Marcus. It's been a great year, and he has learned so very much. He's going to be switching to a different BPS for K2, though, just because of logistics and other factors that make it a better fit for our family, but we have really loved his first year of "real" school. Below is the perfect-attendance club for his class for April--they hang up the pictures outside the school office for every class every month, and Marcus loves pointing to the picture of him and his friends.

 

Finally, lots of little videos this month!

 

 

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Created: 5/15/13. Last Modified: 5/15/13.