Friday, November 6, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Day 365, Eve of Callum's Birthday
"Bye bye babyhood, hello toddlerdom!"
There's barely time to breathe
And here I'm writing "365"
And I cannot believe
Any comments for Callum's birthday book, please write away with thanks! Always lovely for prosperity.
Tonight after the boys are in bed, I need to:
- bake an organic birthday cake (because that's what I want to eat)
- bake high fructose corn syrup cupcakes (because that's what everyone else wants to eat)
- wrap the party favours
- wrap Callum's birthday presents (simple, inexpensive, educational and creative)
- go shopping for the party food
- get my hair done
- and try to beat my record of putting the birthday cake in the oven at 2.30am as happened on Reuben's 2nd birthday
- write my monthly letter to the boys and my birthday mistle to Callum
But I just had to post these pics of Callum, the first picture of which is the last entry in the Callum 365 project, day 365. It makes me tearful to think he's going to be one; silly hey? I'm way too sentimental...
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
All about Reuben
Signing pumpkin with pneumonia
Reuben, 3 days after the start of his treatment for pneumonia and on sparkling form today, back at UCLA School, signing away at circle time, excelling in his developmental assessment with his occupational therapist and beyond excited with his speech therapist this evening, saying words such as apple, car, baby, dog and flower.
Looking back to last week, Reuben had an assessment at UCLA school. Entering the small office of Dr L, he looked ominously at the small orange blocks that he was supposed to stack at that moment, just because the Dr told him to. And in true Reuben, defiant style, he was having none of it. The Dr asked "Can he put blocks into a bucket?" which made me smile to myself and I thought, well, Reuben, let's show him what you can do and, speaking softly into his left ear, I say "Reuben, can you count the blocks?" (Kristi: we learnt this task from you, with thanks), and Reuben dutifully, because he'll do anything for his mama, starts to count in sign 1, 2, 3, 4, 5..., placing his signing fingers on the little orange blocks in turn before him. "And if you ask me nicely, Dr L, I'll count to 25 in sign for you too?"
"Can you point to the boy's eyes?" continues Dr L and Reuben takes my index finger and points to the boy's eyes in turn.
"What is this?" he says, pointing to a bird, and Reuben takes my fingers and makes the sign for bird.
Can you put the red circle in the hole and Reuben, with a side smirk, tries to put it in the red square hole.
We all laugh of course whilst Reuben is thinking. I can play you too, Dr Loo!
On reflection, I wonder how many typical kids are asked to perform to cues. I truly understand the importance of these assessments, but we do need to give our kids a little bit of creative leverage too...
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Halloween at the Pumpkin Patch
Can you see the witch on her broom?
Heading deep into the country under sweltering heat, I took Callum, dressed in exactly the same outfit as Reuben was for his pumpkin patch adventure, for a day of haystacks, pumpkins, tractor rides, corn mazes and sunflowers. Funny, it was 93F on that day too. What is it with crazy weather in late October in SoCal?
(Reuben's getting better but has been home all day today recovering from pneumonia).
PS: OK I realise 700 pics is way too many to take, which means only posting 30 is hardly any at all! I'm just savouring the last few days before my boy turns One.
And, I have no idea which photo should be used for Callum 365. Any thoughts?
Halloween at the Pumpkin Patch III
Callum is extraoardinarily like Reuben in these pics, don't you think? and the last shot is a recreation of this shot of Reuben. There was such a sweetness in finding a little bit of corn from Reuben's pumpkin adventure in the back pocket of the jeans, one year on.
Happy Halloween
At Reuben's school, they celebrated with trick or treating around the different parts of the rehabiliation centre in the hospital. Poor Reuben is sick with pneumonia, so just Callum and I went along, with Callum dressed as a calf. There were 2 huge pumpkins in the playground which we're taking home this week for Callum's birthday party which will have a mini pumpkin patch for all those photo ops.
(Note to Brit friends: it's a lovely tradition here that kids dress in their favourite costumes, not just traditional gouls and ghosts which can be a little scary for some kids and it makes for a very colourful celebration)
My own memories of Halloween are of dunking for apples which Mum used to organise. In the UK, we have the closely followed celebration of Guy Fawkes or Bonfire Night, on 5th November, a rather strange celebration on the face of it, remembering the failure of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London and thus commemorated with fireworks and bonfires burning effigies of Guy Fawkes, to warm up what's often a cold and blustery Autumnal night.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Reuben's glasses
Reuben, Aged 22 months. In this 25 frame collage from March 2009, Reuben opens his new glasses box, proceeds to take out his new glasses, open them up, correctly align them and then adjust them on his nose. I'm so glad I captured this wonderful fine motor skill. I just came across it and am delighted to publish this post.
(Poor little love has pneumonia and only his eyes betray him as they looked so tired tonight when I put him to bed. That said, he was rascalling around the house this afternoon with Callum, still dressed as a little calf as he and I had gone along to Reuben's Halloween party at UCLA school).
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