Bird!

Reuben is growing up fast and lately he's started doing a lot of communicating. He's started to say Bird. It sounds closer to brrrrrt, brt, brt! so we get to reenact this scene from Bambi every day.

Consequently as he's toddled about and inevitably plopped to the ground I keep saying "Did the young prince fawwwll down?" in my best Thumper voice. Reuben seems unimpressed by my impression which I think is spot on.

He's also started doing a lot of signing. This is rewarding because Aaron and I have been signing to flat stares of seeming indifference for the last four months. It's rewarding to know it sunk in.

It's also great because we get a sneak peak at what is going on in the kid's head. He really likes the birds that come to our feeder. When they arrive he usually stops what he's doing and starts signing bird frantically and "whistling" to them. So I guess he's decided it is equally important to learn how to communicate with them as with us. I actually think he might spend more time "whistling" than speaking words.

Now when I say whistling I mean Reuben's adapted whistle. We whistled bird calls to attract birds out of the woods. Reuben started to try too and very cutely blew as best he could but to no avail. He changed tactics and now emits long high super-soprano shreaks instead. They are remarkable similar in sound to a whistle. So way to go Reuben. The Vienna Boy's choir awaits you.

I really need to get a picture/video of all this. This blog was supposed to motivate me but I've been really busy so I decided it'll have to come later and posted the picture I had on hand.

And what's that giant green thing he's happily leaning against? If you guessed a Giant Okra man from the Irmo Okra Strut you'd be right. Good Guess!

Here he is not smiling because he's trying to swallow a gigantic glob of fried Okra.

And here he is not smiling because he's in front of the scariest clown painting EVER.

Here's the close up. That's how it made me feel too.

See what I mean.

Fall Friend

I've heard some rumors from Northern folk that fall has come. Around here it's still wonderfully green and warm and steamy - just the way I like it. The picture above is Reuben taking Aunt Abby for a stroll in an afternoon rain shower.

The only sign that autumn is approaching is all the creeping and crawling beings have come into their own. They're as large and as numerous as they will ever be. Growing up we could be pretty laid back about Halloween decorations and still have our house COVERED in spider webs and spooky enough that only the bravest trick or treaters dared venture to the door.

Recently a real beauty of a spider has taken up residence outside the living room window. She's easily the size of Reuben's face. I know because they've been face to face or well, body when I've held him up to see her. We've cheered her on as she's ensnared several vicious hornets and a variety of other pesky bugs. Reuben now waves hi to her. She's really a lovely creature, black and silvery golden yellow.

After a little research I think she's a Black and Yellow Argiope spider also known as a "garden spider" or "writing spider" since they often leave a zig zag in their web.

While I was looking this up I learned the the American Museum of Natural history currently has an 11 foot woven spider silk scarf on display. It was made using a spider silk harvesting machine created in the last century -those Victorians thought of the most useful machines- that can spool out spider silk without killing the spiders. The lovely golden color is completely natural. More than a million spiders contributed. You can learn more about it here and here and here - I particularly enjoyed the NY Times article which provides the history of past spider silk fabrications .

Why would you want to learn more about spider silk cloth? Two reasons 1. It's a holy grail of material. Stronger than steel, more elastic than any plastic, incredibly light and soft. 2. If you are reading this you must be looking for a way to kill time.

Found it!

I finally found all of the necessary cords and equipment to get the camera working. So here're two of my favorite pictures from the last month - Reuben drawing.

Comfortable AND Attractive

Aaron went to his first Pack meeting tonight. He recieved some material to help him get ready. He's been reading it ever since he got back. My favorite section so far is a bit advising Aaron to start wearing his scout leader uniform As Soon As Possible and to ALL events since it is both COMFORTABLE and ATTRACTIVE. It is SO hard to find that combination. At last Aaron will have something to wear on our date nights.

In other news, Reuben has started walking and signing. Both are really fun to see. Reuben's first sign was "dog." His second sign he created himself. He pointed at an open palm repeatedly and it roughly translated as "I AM VERY ANGRY!!" His third sign is "bird" which he'll do when he spots a bird out on our walk or the birds and hummingbirds that comes to our feeder. He occasionally does "more" and "all done."

In my news I'm busy with work as usual. Tonight as I was getting Reuben to sleep I heard an owl calling. I took Reuben outside so he could hear it. He listened to it hoot and then tried to hoot back with a whoo whoo whooo. That made my day.

Akela Leads the Pack

We've moved into our new place but we're still waiting to get the internet. Once we come back online you can expect more consistent updates.

In recent happenings, Aaron Reuben and I have spent most of our time unpacking. One of the best parts of unpacking is discovering wonderful things you forgot you had. Our recent great find was a 50 cent Walmart copy of The Jungle Book Vol 1. I LOVE the Jungle Book Stories. They've got everything I want in a story: vicious animals, an impenetrable jungle, poetry, a rugged individualist, ruined civilization, the epic struggle of man vs nature, bowing sea cows, and so on.

When I started to extoll the greatness of the book Aaron responded with "Akela Leads The Pack!" When I asked him where he got that from he informed me that it was a boy scout salute to a leader. I find this HILARIOUS and slightly disturbing.

In the Jungle Book, Akela, the lead wolf of Mowgli's pack, is deposed by a gang of corrupt young wolves. They have every intention of ripping their leader apart but thankfully Mowgli intercedes and Akela escapes and becomes a lone wolf.

So now I'm wondering why the scouting program chose to use Akela as the model leader- Perhaps as a reminder of the constant peril of leading the young?

A few days after our conversation, Aaron got a new calling. He is the Bear Leader. All Hail Akela!!

If you want to see some more amazing illustrations for the Jungle Book go here.

Wild Dogs Couldn't Drag Us Away

Today was kind of crazy. We moved in to our new place - hurray! But before we did Aaron and I had some interesting encounters.

Reuben and I go on a walk every morning before his first nap. This morning I put him in his stroller and we were about a quarter mile from the house when I noticed some commotion. A pack of skinny, mangy big dogs were trotting quickly up the street heading straight towards us. The dog in front spotted us, picked up his gait and lowered his head menacingly. I picked Reuben up and looked for a stick or rock to fight with. The other dogs hadn't noticed the front dog and just when they would have turned one of them caught sight of a little kitten in the yard they were passing. The kitten ran for its life and the other dogs gave chase. The lead dog faultered which gave me a chance to turn and walk quickly back to where I had seen a neighbor. I glanced back and the lead dog had decided to keep following us and was catching up.

Luckily I made it back to our neighbor who had his power hose out and was washing his car. The noise scared the dog and he spun back to join the other dogs. Our neighbor was really nice and walked us back to the house to make sure we were safe. I called Animal Services when I got home. I really hope that kitten got away. She's a sweet little animal that always comes over and says hi to Reuben. He loves her and laughs every time they get to visit. The distraction she caused made the difference in helping Reuben and me get away.


Meanwhile, Aaron was in the process of trying to get some paperwork taken care of for our new place. When he pulled up to our apartment complex he saw more than a dozen police cars and officers were strapping on bullet proof vests. Turns out the gas station next door had just been robbed (with a gun) and the guy had taken off running into "our" apartment complex. There he tried to offer people 100 dollars to give him a ride and when that didn't work began to try to force his way into apartments. When that failed he tried to hide in the woods behind our specific apartment unit. Awesome. But they caught him. So Aaron signed the papers and we moved in this evening.

Not a bad day.

Put the Kettle On

Starting in Early September Hawks start to Kettle -group up in the hundreds to thousands to migrate out of North America. Their path takes them straight through SC over Table Rock and Ceasar's Head where they catch thermals over the Appalachians. Most of them end up around Veracruz. There the kettles reportedly number in the MILLIONS. Someday I'd like to be in Mexico to great them, but this year I'm looking forward to seeing them on their way in Carolina.

If you want to read more about the hawk migration go here or here or watch a good video here.