Just Another Week

Using tweezers to pick up and transfer beans

Using a tea bag filter to pick up and transfer corks 

Coloring with broken (short) crayons to help with writing grip 

Pinching clothespins to strengthen fingers and play with color 

First sewing project (homemade using shelf liner)

Outlining trains and other shapes using thumbtack (also reinforces writer's grip)

Smileoise in her sling (4.5 months)

First basket 

Window markers on light board 

Strawberries!

The single greatest news flash over here is that over the past two weeks I've seen a real connection forming between my children. I think they're finally (or should I say already?) starting to dig each other. Eloise has loved Benjamin since the moment she laid eyes on him, but Benjamin has been less than impressed with Eloise since about week 7, when the grammies left us and the baby moon was officially over. 

We appear to be over the hump now, though. which I attribute to the fact that Eloise giggles at pretty much everything Benjamin does. She's so darned friendly that she once laughed when he *whipped* her with a dish towel. He can be unintentionally rough with her, but she loves it, I guess the way a puppy loves being thrashed around by its mama. Whatever it is, I'm learning that my role is to hold back as much as possible in terms of intervening and reacting and instead trusting that they have a lotto learn from one another. They seem to want whatever the other's got, whether rough or gentle, sweet or sour, so why not let them be? Ah, that sibling relationship - it's such a special and twisted little thing. 

In other news, we went to an open house at a Montessori school last weekend. I love visiting schools - I always get lots of ideas, and I like challenging my beliefs about education. For early childhood, I'm rather smitten with Waldorf education, but I do love the prepared environment and the practical life skills components of Montessori education. I also believe the best advice when caring for children, whether at home or at school, is to follow the child, so that part of Montessori is very appealing to me. 

At the school we visited, I saw lots of activities to help with fine motor development. Bebe still holds a marker or crayon with a fisted grip, so I thought some of the finger strengthening activities I saw would be helpful and fun for him. I stole a few ideas from the school, and then made up a few as well (like using a thumbnail to create cards with different shapes on them). 

There's been other fun stuff too - setting out Eloise's first toy basket and doing some very light gardening with Bebe. Eloise, by the way, is a gigantababy. At her four month appointment she weighed 18 pounds. I'm blushing like a proud mama! 

And now we're off to New York to celebrate a very special friend's wedding. It'll be Bebe's first night without me, and Eloise's first plane ride. Big steps - wish us luck! 

Happy weekend. I hope some of these activities are fun for you and your littles. 

Slow Week and Homecoming for the Girls

Last week was a slow kind of week. Scott was traveling for work, and I was solo parenting these two little people who need an awful lot.

I've finally figured out that the only way to make it through these demanding stints is to give myself a lot of free passes. I'm generally not very good at being gentle with myself - I tend to overdo and overwork - but I think I'm getting better as I realize that doing so is the best thing for my littles. After all, they model what they see and experience, and they're happiest when mama's happy, rested, and relaxed.

So it was a quiet week. Lots of snack meals (minimal cooking), no projects (just a birthday cake for Scott before he left for travel), and lots of time outside in the yard and in the woods with friends from the forest school coop we've just rejoined. A friend and her three year old stopped by one day to "check in on us" and do some painting, which was great fun (thank you, Jacey and Benjamin!), but that was it. Mostly we were just trying to survive and keep our heads until daddy came home on Friday night.

Boy did he bring the rainbow when he came home. The parts for our coop arrived on Friday afternoon and he and Benjamin spent the weekend putting it together and perfecting it just so for the girls. The girls   - currently named Chicky, Chicky (yes, there are two Chickies), June and Pearl - couldn't be happier. I didn't realize how stressful that little brooder, which they had outgrown, had become. They were literally trying to escape by the end and unfortunately I couldn't build them a new one because - like I said - I had my hands full with Benjamin and Eloise.

Anyway, everyone is home and happy, and we are all looking forward to caring for our new little bird friends. We're especially excited to see who ends up really being a rooster - we've placed bets - and of course gathering eggs in a few months.

 Hope you had a fun weekend at home!

All in a Spring Week

I'm holding a babe with one arm and one leg, so I'll let our photos tell the story of our week. Lots of play, celebrating (Seder and Easter), decorating, easter egg hunting, baking, and making. And lots of time spent in the warm sunshine...

Hope you had a warm week!

Gardenspiration

I stumbled upon this old photo recently. It's a photo of my first real garden, one I planted and tended while serving as Peace Corps volunteer ten years ago in Guinea. I didn't know a thing about gardening (still don't, really) but somehow tasked myself with creating a demonstration garden right by the community well.

I needed something to do and, frankly, I was tired of trying to motivate people to work with me. Tending a demonstration garden was a way to work all by myself but with the intention of also giving something to the community. A novice gardener, I could show that even I could grow veggies that people were otherwise hesitant to experiment with. I also wanted to demonstrate sustainable gardening techniques like  starting seedlings in a nursery, transplanting seedlings, digging raised beds, building live fences, conserving seeds, and composting garden waste and kitchen scraps. It was not advanced gardening by any means, but it sure beat just throwing a handful of seeds out onto mud down by the river.

I had nothing to lose and would have done just about anything to eat something green and fresh and with even a trace vitamin (the food du jour - rice and sauce or manioc - usually included no veggies other than onions and wild tomatoes). I was starving. We all were.

It was hard work. I don't think I ever had a muscle in either of my arms until that garden. Every morning and every evening for close to four months, I pulled up about 30, 5 gallon gas bidons from a well with a starting water line that was usually about 20 feet below ground level. I did all the work by myself but hired two Guinean teenagers to build my fence. I think they charged me 10,000GF, which amounted to about $2 at the time. The rest of the fence was a live fence made of sisel and moringa.

The magic of the garden was that it was right by the community well, so people had to look at it and I gave away veggies to anyone who came to visit and chat. I had veggies that some villagers had never seen - carrots, soybeans, sweet corn that I brought back from a visit to the Ivory Coast. It was delicious but sadly no one ever got to taste it because the cows broke through the fence to get to it. Who could blame them - we were all starving on rice and sauce and very dry elephant grass (the cows).

It was the best project I did the whole time I was in Guinea. It's where I learned how to garden. I picked up all kinds of tricks from people who knew much more than I knew about growing things. And I met flocks of men and women and children. Best of all, I ate salad almost every day for a month or two. It was glorious. It's when I fell in love with gardening, or at least the idea of it.

Anyway, I loved this garden so much and am posting it here as inspiration to get my garden started this weekend. I'm a few weeks late. My friend Danielle got me started on a tradition of planting peas on St. Patrick's Day, but she up and moved to Portland, Oregon this year (to start a farm, so happy for her!) and  forgot to remind me to plant my peas. It's all her fault that I'm late, of course. Smile.

So here goes. Sweet (crazy) Guinea, thank you for inspiring me...

(And by the way, I'm loving this gardening blog right now. Check it out for inspiration!)

Happy gardening, friends.

Hands, Feet, and More Important Things

Eloise is four months old. I can't believe it. I blinked once and all the sudden she went from being a sleepy little baby to a bright and social bird, eager to coo and giggle and watch the world spin around her. 

She's really into her hands and feet too, which is why I've been hanging all kinds of grasping toys from our ceiling or sewing bells to her socks. I'm sure it's completely unnecessary - she'll find something to grasp (just ask my hair) - but I get such a kick out of making these little toys and I think she's having fun with them too. (If you're interested, the ring on a ribbon and bell on a ribbon are Montessori-inspired and can be purchased on Etsy or, if you have time, you can easily make them yourself with ribbon, elastic, and a bell and wooden ring). 

If I could remember just a few things about Eloise at this age it probably wouldn't be that she can grasp and hold, but instead that she smiles and coos easily, she energizes people around her (I have more energy with two children than I had with one, but way more laundry and far less time to bathe, and that is just the stinky truth), and she loves so very much. I hold her a lot, even when she sleeps, and my favorite time to be with her is right when she wakes up. At that moment, she always looks at me with bright and smiling eyes as if to say, "Agh, yes, you're still here - I missed you so! I love you so much" With upmost sincerity, I tell you that no one has ever made me feel so loved. She is such a little light!

Happy four months to Miss Eloise Lucia! 

Beeswax Easter Tree

There's been much talk about the bees this year. We took down an old and deserted hornet's nest from our backyard and have swarms of carpenter bees looking to nest in the eaves of our house. It seemed like a good time to bring out the beeswax paper and make ornaments for our Easter tree. 

I love how the beeswax catches the light. So pretty. 

And I can't help but post a few photos from outdoor play this week. It's been so beautiful (except today, it's freezing!) - we've spent almost every moment outdoors this week. 

Happy changing of the seasons!