Weekly activities

November & December 2012

     We've been busy this past month and a half since I last posted.  Our main excitement has been making our weekly rounds.  Esme and I have several specific things we do every week -- 

going to the local library branch's Toddler Hour on Tuesday mornings, 

going grocery shopping once or twice, and stopping by the pub for snacks before or a, 

walking up and down the sidewalk in the neighborhood, 

and now that it's gotten colder, we've added trips to the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum.

     

On a cold day in early November, Esme went to her first presidential election.  (It was actually her fourth time at the polls, so she knew the drill.  We weren't really prepared for the lines, though, so a really nice mother and daughter pair pushed our stroller forward holding our place in line so Esme could run around inside and outside for most of the time.  So many things to vote for this time, and it was hard to juggle with her still wanting to roam.)

Mornings are sometimes slow around here, with a sleepy Esme eating breakfast, or sitting in her chair at the base of the tree of life.

 Esme has started trying on several hats lately.  She never liked to wear hats, so this is a welcome development as Michigan's winter will be upon us soon.  (Theoretically)

 

 We enjoy naps together sometimes, though I usually take her nap time to get other things done.  (Today I cleaned the bathroom, and I'm writing in this blog.  I like a sense of accomplishment.)

 As I mentioned, we've been going to all the AADL's Toddler Hours.  (Not every one every week, but we've made it to all of them as of this morning's trip to the Downtown Main Branch.)

Downtown:  Mondays

Mallett's Creek:  Tuesdays

Pittsfield:  Wednesdays

Traverwood:  Fridays

Our local Mallett's Creek Branch...

The Traverwood Branch on the north side of town...

And also at Traverwood, where she first started pulling a wagon.

And the day after the Traverwood wagon, she started pulling Jim's old wagon around the porch.
(Quick learner, that girl.)

      When we're not out and about, we tend to hang out in the living room and play with various toys.  She's been pretty happy knocking down any block towers I build, but lately she's starting to build a little of her own.  She also likes to 'share', which means she tries to give you something.  But with Esme, you'd better take it or she can get more than a little bent out of shape.  (I like to called it 'forced sharing.')  Though I was talking with a parent of an 18 month old who's just turned the corner into the world of 'mine.'  Ahh, the things we have to look forward to!

We play games at home for most of the day.

When Mom gets home, it's time to play a whole new set of games!

And perhaps my favorite new activity:  Cheers, when we're eating
the same food item.  (And it only happens then -- no other food toasting allowed.)

So these are the ways we fill our days.  I've got several videos and many more pictures of various activities, but this is already a long enough post.  And I can hear the little one stirring in her room down the hall.  Thanks for reading and sharing in the joy that is Esme!

Halloween!

     I feel I'm on the cusp of something.  In a very literal sense, tomorrow is November 1st, and November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).  Last year, I wrote The Rapscallions during my first NaNo.  (And incidentally, I learned that it is going to be the featured book this December at a book club in Missouri!)  I feel compelled to participate again, but not at all in the same way.  Last year, I had an infant who slept about 20 hours a day.  She's down to about 12 now, most of which (usually) occur between 8 PM and 6 AM, with a two hour nap sometime during the day.  So instead of stopping what I'm doing to feed her, change her, and put her back to bed, the times are reversed.  Most of my time is spent directly interacting with her --

taking her places, 

 playing games, 

exploring bookshelves,

feeding her a dazzling array of foods, 

making funny faces, 

going to the library,

taking walks -- 

and the time I get to do 'my stuff' is limited to that two hour nap.  [I have to admit, I relish that time, and I wonder how parents of more than one kid do it.  (I've yet to hear of someone whose kids both take naps at the same time consistently.)]
     As I said, I'm on the cusp of something.  For the past two months, the first two months of the school year, when I'm back to being alone with Esme every weekday, I've been insanely busy.  To pull in some extra income, I've been designing elementary-level project based unit plans for a local consortium of schools.  I've written nine of them, which, ask any teacher, is many hours of work.  I've also been writing post-session reports for Growing Hope to comply with grant funding requirements, so you can imagine the detail -- or maybe you can't.  I certainly didn't.  But I'm almost finished with both projects, so I have a sense of my time being mine again.  Which coincides nicely with NaNo.
     I've already decided on my NaNo writing for this year -- I'm going to continue working on Ride Collector, my book about hitchhiking from Maine to Mississippi in late summer of 1993.  Unfortunately, that violates two NaNo rules:  1)  you have to start a new work in November (I already have almost 7,000 words) and 2) it has to be fiction, a novel.  Now there may be fictionalized sections, as I can't remember every one of those 25 rides, but it's still a memoir, not a novel.  I decided that didn't matter, since I'm not going to write 50,000 words this month, either.  I simply won't have the time.  Instead, I'm going to use NaNo to reawaken my muse.  With all the focus on getting work done in the time I have to do it, I haven't done much else.  No new songs written for Bowling Green.  No new writing on any of my book ideas.  No new writing on my blog.  That all changes starting right now!

     Which brings me to the point of this post.  (Ha!  You thought I'd forgotten the title, hadn't you?)  Tonight was Esme's first Halloween in a costume.  (Tinkerbell, if you must know.  Pictures may follow if they turned out on Zoey's phone.)  She was definitely super excited to see what all these kids were doing coming up to our door.  She wanted to go outside and cavort with them, but it being only about 35 or 40 out, we didn't let her stay out long (and you could barely see her little wings sticking out the neck of her coat).  I think the big story of this Halloween, though, was our pumpkins.  On a sunny afternoon last week, when it was in the 70's, we all sat outside and carved our pumpkins -- one small one I grew in the garden, and one big one we bought.  Unfortunately, this turned out to be a bit too premature.

Mmmm, pumpkin guts!

Should've taken a picture on day 1, but this is the next morning,

Which is when I decided to document this process.

The carnage continues...

Notice that you can see through the left eye.

They still looked pretty good at night, though.

When I looked outside a couple of days ago...

I saw one of the culprits.  Stupid squirrels...

They'll steal your face...

right off your head.

Esme didn't seem bothered by it, so we put them out on the front porch tonight anyway!

     Happy Halloween everyone!  And a big welcoming hello to the inspirational month of November!

Summer Retrospective

      Well this summer has certainly flown by, and I now sit in our quiet house.  Esme is asleep for her nap and Tina is having her first day with a new crop of 5th graders.  Esme and I just got back from our weekly trip to the Library for Infant/Toddler hour.  We were going to ride the bike, as we've been doing that quite a bit lately, but the rain arrived just in time to turn us back for the car, but not too late to have us stuck out in it for any length of time.

 This video comes from June 20th, right after the school year ended. 

Here's Esme, about two weeks later.  She's definitely got the moves by this point,
but almost seemed to want to get up on her feet, or at least foot, while moving.


     Looking back over the summer, I'm amazed we fit it all in, but there seems to have been too much going on for it to all be from one three month period.  When Tina finished up the school year in mid-June, Esme was not locomoting.  She could sit up, and move her legs as if walking if you held her above the ground and moved her forward, but over the past two and a half months, she learned to crawl, to shuffle, to 'topple/run', and with a few focused efforts, she has learned to walk.  The toddler I'm caring for now is not the same infant I was caring for in the last school year.

Cheer shows Esme what fun it is to wear a helmet

Tina gets in on the action

Esme's turn!!

     Cheer and Trevor kicked off our summer in fine style, not only joining us for the opening week of Top of the Park (an annual outdoor music festival), but also teaching Esme about the joys of wearing a bicycle helmet!  As those of you on facebook and twitter already know, Esme has come around quite nicely after her initial dubiousness.





She even lets me take her shopping by bike these days.  (This photo is from later in the summer, but there's little to no objection when I go to put the helmet on her anymore.  It may help that I get her in the seat first, or put on my helmet first, though I think she really likes to ride on the bike.)

     Two weeks later, Cathy and David came to stay with us for the hottest week of the summer, escaping the 80° heat of Houston with the 95°+ temperatures here.  We didn't go out much, but Cathy was able to take some great photos of a show my band, Bowling Green, was playing the night before they left.
     (There are a lot more photos of their visit, but they're all either on Tina's iPad or Cathy's camera.  Hoping to get access to more of those, soon.)
     It was especially neat to see David carry Esme around.  He's well over 6 feet, so she was able to play with the hummingbird fan pull, which she's been wanting to do ever since!

     Esme also got to visit with her Grandma and Grandpa in Lansing a few times.  

Here she is showing her newfound prowess ascending stairs:

     During the month of July, in addition to progressing with the whole crawling thing, Esme also got her first popsicle when we threw our 3rd Annual Porch Party.  There was a stage set up on the porch and Michigan blessed us with a sunny, but not oppressively hot, day.  Seems like it was our biggest party yet, with great food, friends, and musical fun.

     We also continued our weekly outings.  This shows Esme warming up to the idea of crawling as she travels through a play tunnel at the library.  (And we get there in record time thanks to the bike seat and fabulous purple helmet.)  We also try to go downtown on Tuesday afternoons:  either to Ypsi to the Farmer's Market or to Ann Arbor to pick up staple items, like coffee and beer.  Either way, I love making sure Esme is familiar with her community and feels comfortable going out to explore.

 Just a few other random tidbits from the summer.  Such as the fact that (and I think this was back in May, technically, but whatever) she went to her first wedding and was able to dance with Mom & Dad.  She also made it over to the Ypsilanti Heritage Festival and enjoyed the sounds of local folk musician, Dave Boutette, who runs the open mic where Bowling Green got their start.

     She's definitely become aware of the camera, especially when it's an iPod with the viewfinder showing her what she's going to look like in the picture.  I won't embarrass her with too many of these (for I fully expect her to read my perspective on her life story someday), but once or twice it's worth it.

     And let's not forget all the wonderful foods Esme has experienced this summer.  She loves tomatoes fresh out of the garden.  As you can tell, she also likes carrots, even without the molars that greatly help with such crunchy foods.  But she just gnaws away with her front teeth, taking little bit by little bit.  (Just stay close to listen for the tell-tale crunch that means a larger piece may need to be extracted.)

Grateful thanks to Jimmy & Somer for providing the mute button.
It reads 'Censorship SUCKS' for those of you who can't make out the photo.

And I leave you with what may be our favorite photo of Esme to date.

      Perhaps this is a reminder to savor every drop and enjoy life -- after all, as my friend Joel likes to remind me, this is not a dress rehearsal.