Author and Publisher

title page, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

Fruits Book 1/31/14 Friday Zacharys

pages 1 and 2, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

What do you see? I see a Cherry 1 What do you see? I see a Banana 2

pages 3 and 4, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

What do you see? I see a Strawberry 3 What do you see? I see a Strawberrys and Blueberrys 4

pages 5 and 6, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

What do you see? I see a Apples 5 What do you see? I see a Waters (Watermelons but ran out of space) 6

the end, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

The End 6

Big brother sings

What are *you* thankful for today?

PJ Library is fantastic, as always. The fact that they deliver high quality kids books where Judaism is normal is a great addition to reading time, and our kids library. Last month we got a CD of great songs (Uri Uri, by Elena Jagoda) and it has been on rotation in the car.  We got in the car yesterday and Z requested it - and then sang along with the whole first song, all about being thankful and counting your blessings. And then he told us all about what he was thankful for.

We even overheard him singing it later in the evening as we got ready for bed.

I'm thankful that I've got a kid who is keeping an eye out for all the good things in his world.

In unrelated news, Young Ms. Miriam had her 1 month appointment today. She is, and I quote, "perfect". (That was from the resident who I suspect has not seen *that* many babies, but mostly seemed relieved that the whole thing seemed quite as expected.) She is 11lbs on the nose, and growing like a champ. She's also starting to play, although at this point that just means track things, and whack at things we hold from her and look disgruntled about being on her tummy during tummy time.

one month old, six years old.

Untitled, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

they just grow so fast

Cuteness

Zachary has been getting brave with Miriam. He has been asking to hold her. It started out every few days. And he'd hold her for a just few seconds. But today he asked at least twice. The second time on his lap on the couch, he jiggled her back to restful when she fussed. Then Z leant forward and whispered

"I love you Miriam"

in her ear. It was barely audible, then he glanced at me to see if I'd heard. He really is enjoying being a big brother to his little sister. 

saw this

DSC_0073, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

and thought of 6 years ago .....

All Worn Out, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

Old and New

DSC_0092, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

Sarah's Vest, Mark's shorts and Miriam's spectacular new quilt.

Because words matter

Tonight Mark was putting Zachary to bed, and I was trying to convince Miriam that intestinal function was not actually something worth being really angry about (funny, because I went back to the very beginning of this blog and found Z had exactly the same dramatic reaction to intestines.. and the same angry WHY IS MY DIAPER WET AND WHY AM I HUNGRY?!? face.. two peas in a pod they are..)... Anyway, I made some offhand comment to Mark to go help his eldest settle down (since bedtime is always so relaxing around here).. And Mark just froze and looked at me like I had spoken some language so exotic that it wasn't even identifiable... "My... eldest?"

It turns out words matter. It turns out it is a bit strange, with new vocabulary like "two" and "eldest" and "daughter". It isn't quite the same as getting married, but in some ways it is bigger... Marriage felt like a moment. This feels like a tunnel. It takes time to transition and we're sort of getting our sea legs but everything changes so fast at the beginning. We're trying to keep things sort of sensible for the "eldest".. but what is sensible when you've got a new person who has been alive for less than three weeks and makes 75 noises but they all mean either "Poop!" or "BOOB!" or "WET!" or "Tired." We're trying all the ways to be four people all pulling in different directions together, especially when two of us are getting roughly enough sleep combined to still not be allowed to operate heavy machinery.

And, as an exercise in optimism that only human beings can achieve.. somehow we totally believe it is possible. Not only possible, but inevitable, and probably it'll all be ok, and we don't have too much heavy machinery anyway. And one of them made it to 6, which is a card we're playing heavily around here.

(a tiny diversion - this one coos. She actually coos. I didn't even know that was a noise babies actually made. This baby does make it. Sometimes it is just an exploratory coo. Sometimes it escalates into "WHY ARE YOU NOT FEEDING ME YET? I am losing patience." But regardless, she coos. It is amazing and fantastic.)

Peaceful PomPom Afternoon Nap

Miriam catches her best sleep in the late afternoon. Joke is on us, I suppose. Doesn't she look relaxed? If we follow the standard newborn axiom, we should be asleep instead of taking pictures, and tidying up, and eating, and helping Z with homework and....whoops. Maybe someone needs to revise the manual for once we get past the first child. Or sans in-house help. Ah, well..We are having a lot of fun, and even occasionally getting sleep. Even those of us without magical vibrating bouncy chairs.

Thinkery water fun

Cuddling Miriam

Untitled, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

Granny and Grandpa Collins enjoying an evening snuggle

Peter Pan mini golf

3 generations playing in the Austin sunshine on the first of the year.

Rifting on Lego

Lego rift, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

Lego magazine had jail instructions, shown here together with Z reimagining, including smoke and the hello kitty guard.

End of year Sunday

Sleeping And Eating

That is how the days are passing, here in the Collins house. Miriam is adjusting well to life on the outside. Mostly she is getting lots of snuggles, napping, and eating like a champ.

big brother cuddles

Untitled, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

Zachary has been amazing with Miriam. He keeps sneaking up and giving her the gentlest of kisses on the cheek or forehead.

Welcome, Green Jello!

We made it through the first night! Miriam Edith is hale and hearty, and Sarah got the green jello she had been dreaming of.

The Boys

Headed out to the Thinkery.

Our Little Candle

"Ok. I am overexcited."

Zachary declared that at dinner tonight, having with the enthusiasm of a viking warrior just sloshed grog (or water) all over himself.

Who can blame him. It is the last week of school. They have a field trip tomorrow. They had "Orange Santa" come today. Then a holiday party. Then pajama (half) day. Grandparents are arriving in waves.  The baby is coming Monday. THE INSANITY HAS REACHED FEVER PITCH.

This may explain yesterday's falling asleep on my lap like he hasn't done since he was a toddler. Or the fact that he's currently sneaking towards me disguised as an orange towel ghost.

We're a little overexcited. We'll let you know when we're back to our normally scheduled programming.

Rock a bye baby

Boomerang on a sunny sunday.

Z is starting to get the hang of it.  The lack of wind really made it much harder to get it all the way back to us. It landed about 15 feet away, my closest was about 25 feet away.

Thinkery - Austin childrens museum

a) The new space is fantastic. Z and I went both days on opening weekend.
b) so many really really cool things to do; light art, stop motion movie making, and aeroplane ...

this involves picking parts, testing them in the wind tunnel and then loading their planes into the cannon winding up the large bowling ball to 14 feet (see the blue ball in the column in th background) and then pressing the launch button.

Nutcracker field trip

Thinkery

Light art with a giant lite-brite

Last night

Eight chanukkiah for the last night! Each with candles (or oil) made for quite a heat wave in the house.
Z got to open the last of his presents and here is a ohmy! awesome surprised face.

Untitled, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

In other news the Boomarang he got the other day was a huge hit. And today when he tried it out he got it to go all the way across the street in a 40 ft arc.

Night six

Birthday sack racing

A classmate's birthday in Mueller park.  We had Sack racing, sunflower seed spitting and an impromptu tug o'war.

Kids who are not allowed to spit really have no clue. Most of them got it 1 to 3 feet, Z averaging with 2'. Those in the know were hitting the 6 foot mark. Hysterical.

Biking is getting better ...

this time we didn't run out of steam, get tired and have a crash that knocked back his confidence (last two times out). Plus he got to see Oliver nextdoor crashing on purpose and laughing about it, and a bit of competition was good for Z too. The crazy noise at the end of the second video is a head on challenge from Oliver playing "chicken".

Sugar skull

The sugar skull finally made it home. Zachary has been telling us all about this since before Dia de Muertos! Mexican day of the dead. He made it in multicultural arts.

Halloween

Z is having a traditional Halloween. He drew the pumpkin face for me to carve by copying his pumpkin candy bucket face. The amazing ghost costume is by Sarah.

autumnal leave in NYC

Apparently Z was missing real fall leaves. 

What is the etiquette for a second child?

A second blog? A new combined blog? OH GOD OH GOD WHAT WILL WE DO??

(Obviously panic about the important things. Obviously.)

Baseball ready

With sunglasses to see. Thank you grandma Jackie

DFW to LGA

What are the numbers for?

Birthday boy

Assembly at UT elementary is amazing. After the dance party revolution, they stand and pledge allegiance to the USA in English and Spanish. Then to Texas. And then comes the school song and the pledge to be a peace keeper. Plus there are birthdays......

Making shelves

I'm trying to put some shelves in Zachary's closet. But block city has occurred.

Sukkah in action

This is the first year we have managed to get a sukkah happening. Really, as you can see from the picture, Mark is the king of the sukkah.
Of course, this week we have rain predicted. We will hang our paper chain and gourds, and hope for the best. We need rain too badly for me to wish it away. Happy harvest!

New phone camera

playdate with kindergarten classmates

Zachary had a great time with Noah and Felix from his class. It was great to see he has made friends so quickly.

Assembly

(Taken by a friend Angela Yowel)

Kindergarten! The saga continues...

Week one, a success! Granted, it was only three days long, but the fact is everyone managed to mostly be where they were supposed to be, and back again. Zachary has concurred that a return on Monday is likely (and, he pointed out, required if he understood things correctly. Which he has).

PS? I want to go to kindergarten. It sounds kind of fantastic.

UT elementary has breakfast and lunch for the students. So far Zachary is only dabbling in lunch, although already I think figuring out the cafeteria is a bit brave. They've got a vegetarian option for the mains every day, which is beyond fantastic. And he's eating it. I will have to write Chef Mario a thank you note.

They also do two "specials" a day. They alternate - one day they have PE & multicultural arts, the next day they have STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) and Wellness.  This week in wellness they dug up the garden to start planting in their plot, and in STEAM they had building stations (Tinker toys, legos, etc.). Did I mention it sounds like fun?

Zachary asked me on the second day when they would start "Real Math".  I asked what he meant. He said he didn't want patterns, and matching, and counting, but doing math with pencils and like that.

Heh. Soon enough, I suspect.

After his first day, I asked him what his favorite part of school had been. He had just stumbled bleary eyed into the car (the day is long - 7:30am-3:30pm, and clearly working hard to figure out all the new things.). "Nap time. I was *so* tired."

*grin*

We'll see how long that lasts.

Kindergarten

DSC_0048, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

Z's first day went well. He was zonked after school, but had lots of stories to tell us.

Update

I put four chess apps, on the iPad, Z spent an entire afternoon* glued to playing either me or the 'puter.

* except for the three hours he spent running around and in the pool at Connors birthday.

Chess

At the end of a playdate, with a kindergarten classmate we know, they ended up playing checkers. It was cute the rules are simple enough to follow without much parental supervision.  After his friends family left, Z expressed a desire to play chess. And forty minutes later I am writing to say I lost, although I was mostly playing myself which is quite challenging. Z really understood, protecting pieces, threatening pieces, and check. So he managed to concentrate for almost an hour and was starting to think at least a move or so ahead. And he could see the moves I might choose, I think we need to this more often, it was super fun.

Bits and Bobs

I'm currently under threat to write a blog post or else.

I don't know what the or else is. Probably Mark will hide the ice cream, which frankly seems inhumane.

Zachary is barreling towards Kindergarten. He starts school in just under a month, which is completely mind boggling. But as I watch him it is clear he is incredibly ready. He's reading a smidgen, and writing (backwards) a lot. But he's also totally grown into his body, which is awesome. Swim lessons are hysterical. He might try the swim test tomorrow (which I think means he could be in the pool without getting yelled at? It is so hard to know...) but he's starting to get the hang of breathing, rather than gasping.

In other news, he is also exploiting language to the max. It is pretty fun to watch. He correctly segued in the middle of a conversation Monday. Especially funny because he was TOTALLY rude about wanting a snack. I called him on it, and we talked about other ways to handle it. And then he goes "Talking of rude, (my friend) did XX today in class."

Well, there you go. I guess he's paying attention some of the time.

It doesn't rain here very often! So here was a chance for Z to use his umbrella and enjoy the spectacle.

sparklers

July 4th 2013

IMAG0643, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

We went to a baseball game and afterwards enjoyed fireworks with a very patriotic mashup. And this weekend, we had sparklers before bed.

Texas Fight, #SB5

Our whole family was out in support of Wendy Davis, and the other hard working democrate Senators at the Capitol building.

Kiln night!

Eric (nextdoor) is a potter and has built a wood fired down draught kiln in their backyard. On Thursday morning he fired it. We visited in the morning, before dinner and again before bed. Here is Zachary all relaxed, watching the logs burn in his PJs. He (and I) were totally fascinated by the process.

 

With the glow of the kiln and the flames shooting out the chimney, and an almost full moon it was really quite spectacular.

 

One of the wonderful things was the kiln was so hot it actually made the Texas evening air feel less than the 90F it was.

 

Barton Springs

Zachary and I had a great Fathers day. We ran a bunch of errands and then cooled off at Barton Springs pool. A weird swimming pool, river hybrid, but it works out well. Z and I saw a couple of ten inch and one 16 inch fish down in the depths of the clear cool water. Completely changing the subject, after dinner tonight. Z said out of the blue "lets surprise Mum when she gets home. Lets tidy up the house really good and we'll be nice to each other. won't that be a great surprise" why yes, it would be amazing.

Best finds - rock pooling

DSC_0201, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

Crab, Prawn, two Fish, Sand Eel, Starfish, Hermit Crab

Lamorna harbor wall

DSC_0252, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

In the Pink forest

DSC_0557, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

We return after a successful trip to England.
So many stories and no way to upload photos from the ipad. But now all the pics are up, Aswell JMI and the springs, Helen and Ross, Tim and Lucia, Cousin Peter, Penzance with Granny and Grandpa, rock pooling ( a theme through out our trip), Lands End, Paradise Park, Lamorna (because he loves the song), and culminating in the Sims wedding. What fun.

Dalek for sale

Dalek for sale, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

Also note the prefect badge holding up a Victorian dress medal (Kabul 1842). Thank you uncle Simon. The crazy lump on his is to stop the three day old shrunken balloon from blowing off.

Wonderwall

Ignoring the video, just listen! This is the state we call drunk tired.
Z "...to walk are winding .... what does winding mean?"
S "it means doing this" Sarah indicates with hands M "twisty turny ........ there are..."
Z "many things that I would Like to say to you But I don't know how Because maybe You're gonna be    the one that saves me And after all You're my wonderwall .... what does wonderwall mean, what does wond?"

as promised

bicycling

Swimming and now biking, Zachary is just racking up new skills. He was motivated because Tavi next door just learned how to ride without training wheels .
Z and I went on a ride to a quite street and then I took off the stabilizers.  I held the back of the seat and zoom off he went, a super speed. But as he got better at the balance, he slowed down and didn't need me sprinting along side him.  It was an awesome day (certainly a mothersday to remember) and we celebrated both with icee's.

Video to follow.

Swiming

With the abundance of hotel pools, Zachary went swimming each day of our trip. He is now swimming on his own!  It little looks like a cross between doggy paddle and slow drowning.  But even though it is inefficient it get him there and under his own steam, for which he is very proud and happy. He started out swimming the width of the lap pool, just two or three yards, and by the time we left Toronto he could go from one end to the other (14 metres).
Next we'll be working on closing his mouth, so he doesn't fill it with water every time he goes under.

Tagged out at second base

DSC_0177, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

Go Z

An Artist

Every time someone has asked Z what he wants to be for the last six months or more the answer has consistently been an artist.

While visiting Toronto for the wedding, we stopped by the Art Gallery of Ontario.  The build was designed by Frank Gehry. He got to play on the Henry Moore, and see his large collection sketches, models and statues on display. He also enjoyed the storm room, a modern sound/experience piece, as well as a number of other sculptures and paintings.

Holding hands

At Kyoung and Kenny's wedding there were a handful of kids, around Z's age and all girls.

And with the excitement of the wedding there was a lot of imaginative play involving weddings, brides and grooms. No surprise, Z (the only boy) was picked to groom and may now be a serial bigamist.

During the best person speeches I went over to keep the kids from being too rowdy and raucous. There was a castle like structure in the corner of the hall with stairs and windows. It was far to echo-y but very fun, and for I few minutes I sat listening to Sarah, Brian and others.

I glanced over to see Zachary and one of the girls sitting on chairs like a king and queen. Another girl was talking and seeing to the royal couples needs, while two more girls were dancing for them. Then the servant turned to watch the dancers, and there was a quick moment of privacy. The little girl nudged Zachary's thigh with her hand palm up. He glanced down and went back to watching the dancers. She nudged again, and left her hand for a second in his lap. He looked down again, then at her and slided his hand into hers, and they sat holding hands. Adorable.

Canadian side Niagara

Canadian side Niagara, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

American side Niagara

American side Niagara, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

Wedding in Toronto

DSC_0177, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

The three of us  (all matching!!) had a great time at the Kenny and Kyoung-Yim's wedding and in Niagra. More pictures (only 4 up for now) and stories to follow ...

warm up

DSC_0116, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

looks like a pro streching but really just waiting patently to bat.

Pajama day

Pajama day, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

with leg warms to fend off the sudden cold front.

Team pride day

Team pride day, a photo by m0nk3yphd on Flickr.

Missed a photo of Tuesdays silly sock day, but really odd socks aren't as exciting as team pride. Z is sporting his tigers uniform, Y teeball cap and his handknit "giants" scarf.
Wednesday, was an ice cream afternoon treat.  Z told us his teacher was funny, Ms Jessica said "I have a silly question, would you like more ice cream?" of course they all did and so he ate almost no dinner, as his belly was full because he'd had two tubs!