November 2017

It's been a nice November--lots of sunny, warm enough days, lots of bike rides, and lots of fun fall events. Helen giggles and has a great sense of humor and runs to great the big kids when they come home from school. She even makes some two-word sentences now, such as "more Pop-pop" (signed "more," said "Bop-Bop"), or "more eat" (signed "more," said "eesh"), or "mama wawa" (both spoken, meaning she wants to nurse).

Marcus took a one-day kids' cooking class at my university, where he learned to make jambalaya, cubano sandwiches, fortune cookies, and crab cakes.

At home, Samantha helped me bake a few cakes and a King Arthur Flour "Bake-Along Challenge" cinnamon yeast star.

We had a small but fun "leaf party" in our neighbor's yard, raking up big piles of leaves to live out Robert's dream. Helen loves to "help" rake.

Samantha is doing very well in orchestra (Marcus too), and is super excited about the "Golden Bow Challenge" to see which orchestra in the school has the best posture. She also sings with the kids' choir in church.

Samantha's Daisy uniform arrived (she was thrilled, of course), and her Girl Scout troop held a food and necessities drive for Rosie's Place a couple weeks before Thanksgiving outside the neighborhood Stop and Shop.

After brunch in the Back Bay one Sunday, I took Marcus home to make ice cream and Robert took Samantha to the Copley Mall, the main library children's room, and then a group piano master class a few weeks before her recital.

Marcus got a volleyball medal in his after school, and we celebrated Richard's birthday with a poached-pear and tres leches cake.

Marcus's Cub Scout troop sold holiday wreaths, practices weekly stretches and jumprope and other warm-ups, and held their annual Raingutter Regatta, in which Marcus's balsa-wood boat came in third in his division.

Samantha continues to be a prolific artist, making sympathy cards for our neighbor whose elderly dog died, scientific drawings of the lifecycle of frogs, her own "counting book" for Helen, and her own invented version of script.

On Thanksgiving morning, I helped facilitate a "Solidarity Stroll" around the pond. Helen slept through it all, and Marcus and Samantha played with other kids, tried to drag home the biggest "sticks" they could find, and stole rides in someone else's wagon.

After cocoa, hot cider, and pumpkin bread, we headed home, and then went to my parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner.

The Friday After Thanksgiving, we did the MIT FAT chain reaction challenge for our second time. Though we were incredibly unprepared, and basically just brought materials there and worked on it for five hours straight that day, it all came together and we had some really cool string pulls and a motor that coiled a chain up in a cup.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Debbie and Chris came over for brunch, and then went with Marcus and Robert to the Roslindale tree lighting to see Sarah and Sean and Emil and Roman. The next day I took Samantha and Helen (who slept through the entire thing) to the Quincy Christmas Parade, so each kid got a little bit of an early Christmas event that weekend.