Happy Birthday Grandpa Bob!

First off, a big happy birthday to my Grandpa Bob! Miriam Reuben Aaron and I wish we could be celebrating with you in sunny, beach filled California. Sadly, we are far, far away in a land of ice and snow.

Despite the ugly weather, we've done our best to go on our daily walks. Here's Reuben geared up for the cold. He kept pulling the hat way down. When I tried to fix it, he pulled it down again and said his eyes were cold. So I let him walk around like that. Unfortunately he kept walking straight into snow piles and trees. Live and learn.

Reuben asked what animals do in the cold so I told him about burrows and hibernation. Ever since then he's been determined to make a "Reuben burrow." He keeps stealing our pillows for the purpose. Here are some shots of his construction efforts.

Go Away Snow

We are all looking a bit like Battle these days. This snow and ice is making us stir crazy. When I asked Reuben if he wanted to go on a walk, he looked outside, saw all the snow and said:

No!

Go Away Snow!

I think the poor kid has forgotten what warmth feels like. In another grand parenting moment I showed Reuben the Michael Franti & The Spearheads music video. When he saw the people dancing on the streets of Brazil in the music video, we had the following conversation.

Reuben - Those people are dancing! Dancing!

Reuben dances happily then watches carefully, clearly thinking.

Reuben - Those people cold.

Me - what?

Those people are COOLD! (Signs cold to make it clear to me)

Me - What? No, they are dancing. They're not cold.

Reuben - Those dancing people cold. Those people have no clothes.

0 to 6 in No Time

Miriam turned a WHOLE half year old on Sunday. My little baby girl is 6 months! Woah. When did that happen?

I set her on the couch to take her picture but she immediately wiggled away. The girl can MOVE. Really she never stops moving.

We've started giving her real food and she's a big fan.

Here she is eating green crepes Reuben and Aaron made.

More crepes.

Homemade bread. She ate the whole piece.

She's also developed some awesome ball skills. Notice that she's holding that big rugby ball all by herself. Now that's some power in that little body.

Here she is standing and holding the ball.

So happy with her dad

To Reuben's horror Miriam has learned that she likes to play with toys. His toys. She can even hold herself up at his train table and grab his trains, Godzilla style.

Speaking of Reuben, he's doing well too. Here he is eating home made yogurt. It was so good he decided one spoon wasn't good enough. Two were needed.

Here he is cleaning my bread hook for me - by licking it clean.

And here's the action shot of one of our daily walks.

Incoming

Miriam is getting the hang of sitting up. She's still a little wobbly. This series of pictures captures how her efforts usually go down.

Going strong all on her own.

Getting a little tired

Starting to tilt

Wooaah

INCOMING!!!

Don't worry. I got her before he landed.

One Step Forward Two Steps Back

I mentioned earlier that Miri has started eating solid food. Hurray! Out of jealousy or interest or a poor sense of taste, Reuben has decided he only wants to eat rice cereal or as he puts it "baby cereal."

Me: Reuben what do you want for breakfast? Crepes? Waffles? Eggs?

Reuben: Baby Cereal! Baby Cereal!

Me: Reuben what do you want for lunch? Sandwich? Yogurt?

Reuben: Baby Cereal!!

Me: Reuben what do you want for dinner? Pizza? Noodles? Eggs? Cheese? Broccoli? (He really likes broccoli)

Reuben: No. Baby Cereal?

Me: Cake? Cupcakes? Cookies?

Reuben: Baaybeee Cereal!!

You get the idea.

Thursdays are my OUT days. Out as in I can not take being at home anymore and we are going OUT, it doesn't matter where. Today we took a walk in the snow at the botanical garden. Three different people (the only other three people there, two being gardeners who have to be there because it is their job) passed us and said something like Cold day today. Wow, you're brave to be out here with those two. Which I know is the nice way of saying: You're a crazy lady to drag your kids out in this weather.

And they're totally right. I am crazy on Thursdays. And it was bitter cold. But Reuben had fun stomping around in the snow and following the bunny and deer tracks around. Then we warmed up in the car. Here's proof that nobody was too frozen after our arctic expedition.

Then stumbled upon the wonderful Brookside Nature Center. There were live turtles and snakes and fun nature books and lots of buttons to push and taxidermied animals and a great big window to watch birds at the bird feeders and a glass bee hive. It was heavenly. Seriously, that is what my heaven looks like. I love Montgomery county. And Reuben loves foxes, dead and alive.

Art Director Reuben

Reuben Miriam and I were doing some drawing together. Reuben started making requests and we ended up making this picture of our family. Reuben insisted that everyone get their own basketball, even Battle. Under Reuben's direction I learned that a squirrel bunny and fox also belong to our family.

Giddy Up

It's hard to come back to "real" life after a break. But life is going on and we've had some fun developments recently.

Miriam started eating solid food. Don't let her expression fool you. She LOVES the stuff. Also I've stopped feeding her at night which she's still not happy about but I'm a Big fan of the extra sleep. I feel like I'm slowly returning to the world of the sane.

Reuben's continuing with his basketball obsession. The temperature has been hovering around 30 but Reuben still insists on getting his hour + of shooting in each day. I finally got smart enough to pull the "big" basketball hoop inside so all three of us could escape the freezing temperatures. Now Reuben has four hoops inside including this "little basketball hoop" as Reuben calls our curplunk game.

But we still get a lot of outside time with the new addition of Reuben's "bean" table. It's a sand table filled with expired food storage beans. I love using the beans. They're cleaner - less residue than sand- and the variety of colors and sizes makes them more fun to sort. See the red hat? It's mine but Reuben keeps stealing it. I think he looks like a little french revolutionary in it so it's been dubbed the Gavroche hat.

We've gotten back to the zoo a few times too which is awesome in the winter because there is pretty much NOBODY there but the keepers the animals and us. I got to have a 20 minute conversation with the bird house biologist and it was the highlight of my week. Apparently Victorian Pigeons are not only gigantic and beautifully plumed but also make excellent eating. And the Argyle pheasant is bad tempered and occasionally tries to peck out its keeper's eyes.

The Victoria Crowned Pigeon

The down side is that it is FREEZING.

Miriam had a great time watching the prevost's squirrel jump around. It literally cracked her up which made me laugh which made Reuben laugh so all three of us stood in front of the little varmints cage and enjoyed some good giggles.

Miriam checking out the squirrel.

Miri laughing

Prevost's squirrel

And then I lost Reuben. But I found him. Riding the red panda sculpture. He put himself up there all by himself.

AND the Greatest of our events was thanks to the zoo. We were watching the elephants and one of them decided to poop. Then we saw the panda answering the call of nature. Reuben observed these events with fascination then couldn't stop talking about it. One thing led to another and yesterday Reuben used the potty. Hooray!! I was so proud of him. I said Yay Reuben! Did you poop? And Reuben said YES! I pooped! I pooped like an elephant! Like a bear!

Thank you zoo for being such a wonderfully education experience.