charlie 6.0

the love for this little boy continues to swell exponentially every day. he knows his name. he rocks, lunges, scoots and inchworms and is so close to actually crawling. another week or two and he'll get it. he chews on paper and loves to crinkle plastic. his feet and hands are constantly sweaty and constantly being used to grab, pull, tear, kick or push. everything is better in his mouth; fabric, eve's hair, his little thumbs. he sighs, talks, laughs and complains. he prefers to stand. he favors his family but loves kissing only me, not the girls. he's always happier when people are around and happier still if those people hold him upside down or throw him in the air. he stares and laughs at chip and swats at me. he's calm and happy and so good, even with an ear infection and cough. deep, deep down there is a tiny secret part that wonders if he is my favorite, but then i remember the girls at six months and how i could hardly stand how much i loved them... oh, but this boy...

getting colder

the weather has officially shifted. we can no longer walk the streets of brooklyn unbundled without seriously regretting the decision. so, the coats and hats and gloves have come out of storage and onto the big and little bodies around here. a few days into the cold, eve began requesting a scarf. ruth soon joined in. after two weeks of being reminded (scolded?) by my daughters i got to work making the scarves, in the laziest ways possible. instructions below:

scarf #1: find abandoned, half-finished scarf wadded up in the bottom corner of yarn/knitting bag. stick needles in one last time to cast off properly. sew on largest button you have and fasten around daughter's neck. 

scarf #2. think back to when you made a scarf for your sister-in-law four christmases ago. recycle exact same idea. get a bunch of yarn, cut into strands at desired length. holding all strands together, sew back and forth at desired intervals with whatever color(s) of thread you have near your sewing machine. wrap around daughter's neck.

feel really good about yourself. you might have been lazy, but you've just made scarves two scarves in less than an hour. and that's something. 

last weekend

wow. two weeks have gone by quickly. between each of us taking turns being sick, chip taking a week off from work (yay!) and (what feels like) a billion school activities, we've been busy and distracted and having fun.

soon after the election eve began asking questions about the president-elect; does he know i voted for him? (in her pre-k class), can he come to our house? when can i see him? once she realized he would not be making a personal visit to brooklyn, she decided that we really needed to go see where he was going to live. a break from life sounded great so we happily gave in to her requests, packed up and drove down to d.c. this past weekend. 

highlights:

eve's letter to her future president. mild frustration when she was told she wouldn't be able to deliver in person.

a stop outside philadelphia to see some great friends and revel in the last, and possibly most shockingly beautiful, bit of fall.  

cousins in d.c.. the girls fell in love. complete break down and several minutes of sobbing when we drove away. 

and of course, there was the white house. seen hundreds of feet away and through a fence, the girls weren't as taken by it as anticipated. eve just wanted to go inside, and ruth just wanted to run away. i think our next visit, which will involve a tour inside this "super big white place" will live up to all the hype. if not, i might be dealing with some seriously disillusioned patriots. 

++

this post is dedicated to my mother, who continually states her dismay (horror, even?) that she has not only managed to raise a "liberal" daughter but that that daughter is raising a liberal of her own. but really, my preference out of it, there is no way mr. obama could avoid becoming a hero to this girl- his picture is everywhere in our neighborhood and he has two little girls.

a great day

today ruthie turned three. 

today molly, my brand new and beautiful niece, lived her first full day of life.

today i couldn't stop smiling as i thought of the cheers, the honking and the shouting in the streets that kept me up all last night.

this was a really great day.  

happy halloween!

a full day already, and the fun has just begun. while the biggest bat plays at school, her bat sister colors spooky portraits (and sings a song to herself whose only lyrics are "poopy mommy". . . she really loves me), and the little bat baby rests up for the second round, which is set to begin in just over an hour.

hope your halloween is as full of as much sugar as ours! (yikes).  

++

update: a local kids shop was offering "professional polaroids" today. strait after school i took my bats in. i could not be happier. aren't these great? now i feel like i need a professional photographer to follow us around every day, preferably with a wagon-full of polaroid film.

after our very long and very festive day, the littles are in bed and i'm thinking the only right thing to do is to throw in the watcher in the woods. if you are not lucky enough to own the dvd, borrow it from someone (i can't be the only one that owns it. . ). the alternative endings are insane and so awesome. 

the big green book

two facts: chip is really good at drawing and i am really not very good. 

over the years as i've lamented the fact that i cannot make a decent looking animal chip has told me that i should get Ed Emberley's Big Green Drawing Book. it helped him as a child, it could certainly help me. 

two weeks ago on a trip to the library the girls and i came home with the big green book. the Drawing Book of Faces followed a few days later. making a horse that actually resembles a horse (as opposed to a flinstones-esque dinosaur) has never been easier. for myself or eve, who has been able to follow the simple step-by-step instructions all on her own. 

   

in addition to the wonderfully clear and simple instructions, mr. emberley's sense of humor has us all chuckling (or roaring in doubled-over laughter if your name is eve and you are now fully immersed in the world of pre-k humor). i think it is about time we made these books a part of our collection, the vintage editions if possible. i'm not sure it gets better than that first cover. 

(i'm withholding my own drawings. while i was really pleased with myself, i think it is really much more widely impressive that a four-year-old can draw a unicorn made mostly of circles than her 29 year old mom. . .)

wedding attire

as of friday, chip's littlest -and youngest- sister is a married woman. mim was stunning, martin was handsome, the weather was perfect and everyone was beaming. 

the girls can't stop talking about it. 

ruthie: "remember mim's married dress? ya, dat was really really pretty. and white."  

eve: "i liked martin's flower. but i caught lots of flowers when mim threw them. so, bonus points for me."  

i can't stop thinking about the happiness of beginnings. . . sigh. . .

beyond moral support, making mim's hair pins and some minor altering of the wedding dress, my main responsibility was getting myself and my family dressed in fall colors. orange dress for me, plaid dresses for the girls plaid pants for charlie. . . i'm one scary step away from making all of us match all the time. . . chip could look pretty great in a homemade plaid suit. . .

throughout the entire day- from the manhattan temple to central park's sheep's meadow to soho's i tre merli- the plaid served us well. but the real beauty of these dresses is that at any moment they could have been turned inside out for a whole new look. ruthie's is reversible! eve's is reversible too but as the maiden attempt i kept it really calm and her reverse side is a little more hausfrau compared to ruth's party girl. i'm going to have a hard time just making a regular dress again. two for one! no self-respecting daughter of my mother's passes on a two-for-one deal. . .   

but, while the newlyweds are honeymooning in the tetons i'm taking a few more days to catch my breath and stay away from any new projects. i'm also going to try my very very hardest to forget all the "it seems like just yesterday miriam was eve's age" or "it will be here for you so much faster than you realize." comments. ugh. . .  i can hardly handle how big they are already. maybe i'll just have more photoshoots with ruthie because the attempts to photograph this charmingly unreasonable little girl drag on forever. 

++ first photo courtesy of joshua brown photography. 

charlie

    

he stares. he smiles. he laughs (but not a lot). he sticks his lower lip way out when he is about to cry; so sad and sweet. he likes to hang out on his stomach. he sucks his thumb and puts himself to sleep. he swings his arms and grabs for toys, but hasn't really figured out how to work his fingers yet. he kicks and flaps when he's excited. he cries when his sisters go to bed. he really likes chip, but likes me a little more. he spits up and now is starting to drool. he grabs his toes and stretches his legs. he swats at me over and over and over while he nurses and rolls to his back when he's mad. he talks more and more all the time- a nice high squeal to start then brings it down to a raspy and low "oooh" and "mmm". the girls have heard him say "mom" and "ice cream". . . he sweats a lot and gets smelly fast. he's not sure about baths but feels pretty good about what he sees in the mirror. 

i am completely in love. and shocked that in one week from today he'll be four months old. 

artistic temperaments

each saturday, if his work schedule cooperates, chip spends the mornings with just the girls. they go the park, or the playground or the botanic gardens, or sometimes they just hang out in the apartment. but no matter where they go, there are always markers, crayons and paper in tow, because no activity is truly complete without some drawing. it usually begins with chip doing the majority of the work (make a princess! a t-rex! mommy and a rhino on a trampoline!) but soon the girls take over as the artists.

i adore their art, but what i find most interesting and endearing is the consistency in approach the two girls take, regardless of age or artistic phase.

ruth keeps her work free and spontaneous. she never plans or thinks too much about what she draws, just does it. when she is finished she throws the crayons down (or across the room) shouts "i all done!" and walks away.

eve takes her time; drawing slowly and carefully. she tortures herself trying to get just the right color, make just the right line. finally, when she is ready, her art is taken to the door. other pictures are shuffled, magnets are chosen and the piece is gently placed. as she backs away she holds her marker at the ready, just in case.

i love how who they are is so evident in everything they do. . . and really, is there anything better than kid's art?

school: the first day

eve has begun her life as an official student. a pre-k student, but an official, full time student of the nyc public school system nonetheless.

the night before the first day i told eve i'd be waking her up in the morning. "oh, so you're gonna hit me in the face with a pillow? you can do that to wake people up." clearly i didn't hit her with a pillow. instead i made a liar out of myself, stayed sound asleep in my own bed and let the girls wake me up by "carefully" climbing on our heads to get to charlie. throwing pillows at a person's face, or stepping on that face. . . you choose, they both work.

once my eyes were open eve wanted two things from me: final confirmation that this day was the day she goes to the school with all her new friends and, second, that she see her new "super special school skirt." she was pleased, gave me a "check" (as opposed to an "x"), and we were on our way. we washed, we ate, we dressed, we grabbed the baby and each other's hands and flew out the door. eve bit her fingernails the entire 10 minute walk to school and once we arrived she met the flood of kids with wide eyes and more nail biting. but she was amazing. her two moments of despair were handled so maturely; the little well of tears didn't even spill over. so careful and sweet and attentive and such a big girl. . .

if she weren't so happy and ready for tomorrow i'd be dealing with my own moments of despair (and i wouldn't stop before the tears spilled- have i mentioned that i cried every first day of school through the SIXTH grade? emotional maturity has never really been my strength). . . but, if i were about to ball up and hide under my desk for thirty minutes (third grade), it is good to know i could take some real comfort in two things:

first, the fact that this little wrap number is going to fit her for longer than she'll ever want it to- move the buttons over, let down some of the high hem and it's a size 7. and then ruthie gets to wear it too! that feels good.

second, that i finally got to put that little apple button to good use. i've been trying to for over a year but nothing seemed just right until last night. apples! cursive! pleats! school!