Great Thaw Weekend

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm done with winter. Finally, I live in a place with a real winter and I'm delighted, of course. But something about a bad stomach flu followed almost immediately by a head cold (both affecting the whole family, by the way) within three weeks makes me over-eager for Spring. Or at least for a temporary respite. Happily, we got to soak up some Vitamin D this weekend! It was in the 50s and low 60s! And I was not, this time, enraged but humbly grateful.

We started Saturday with a walk to Price House, one of my favorite Blacksburg finds. We documented our trip with the Nickoloffs in November, but this place has become so important to us I'll share a few more shots:

Number one current Miles obsession: COLORING!!!! But an adult has to help or he gets kind of emotional. It's very curious.

I did a small puppet show for him, much to his delight.

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Price House is expanding its collection of live animals (as well as the taxidermied you see pictured). Two new turtles! We both found it soothing to watch them punch each other with their webby little arms.

Coloring is serious business.

So much art to make, so little time!

Click on the picture and see if that doesn't look like an appealing place to run around! Miles gets so excited anytime we go anywhere that's less cluttered than it is at home and he can really get up a run.

Back amongst the clutter, Miles pursues another favorite occupation: cornering and harassing the cat.

Grendel's fuze is getting low.

Unfortunately, none of us realized how low. Grendel went on to punch Miles and hiss at him quite alarmingly later. That's the first time he's behaved aggressively toward Miles, and the latter was devastated. We had a long cuddle session and a talk about Giving Cats Space and how Kitty Still Loves You and Kitty Doesn't Know Better. By evening, though, Miles was up to the same tricks. We're watching a bit more closely now, though, don't worry.

Rogue cat contemplates his next act of evil.

Sunday it got to 61 DEGREES! REALLY! NO LIE!

So naturally, we went to the duck pond.

The noise a duck makes according to Miles underwent some serious evolution while we were there.

Oh NOW I get it! Quack QUACK! It all just clicked!

Half of the pond looks like this...

...While the other half is still frozen. It was still January, after all.

On the agricultural studies part of campus. Experiments are run on these cows.

Ask me sometime what I've been learning in Animal Nutrition. Just make sure you haven't eaten recently.

Miles has been growing by leaps and bounds. Next post should contain "18 month Stats" (though visit is occurring at nearly 19 months because we kept having to cancel due to illnesses and work schedules). Here, however, is a short list of skills Miles has acquired:

-Knowing almost all alphabet letters (darn you, Q and C!)

-Singing along with selected words of songs, almost matching pitch

-Beginning to identify the colors of things. Yellow is his favorite.

-Put words together, at times "More 'Nana, Peez!" "Wabbit, peez!" "Papa weed! (read)" etc.

-Calling friends and family by name. He can name his caretakers at daycare and several/most of the children there, and does decently well remembering who is Mamaw (Grandma) and TaTa (Tita, Auntie Mic) etc. His own name is still MaMa. We're working on this.

-Naming his lovies: Woworm, Wabbit, Eer (Eeyore), and Burr (Bear) and requesting them

-Building stacks of blocks

-Kicking balls

-Putting puzzles together

And more. It seriously seems to be more every day.

Sometime I'll post about the tantrums, though. ;-)

Ponderings on my walk to work

Walking to work yesterday morning, all the beauty of a snowy sunrise walk was intensified by the fact that I was out of quarantine for the first time in two days (ask me sometime about the Flu of Despair and find out how much you don't want to get it).

The pines made me think of driving to my old job. There used to be this little forested area next to my work, with some brush and tall pines, where little groups of kids used to... hang out...before school. Anyway. I used to park near it and get out of my car and linger to smell the sweet air, look at the new sun through the trees, admire the birdsong... and I always used to be struck with a desire to make a break for it.

Just forge out into the Wild and see how long it took before anyone started looking for me. Eat my lunch under a tree and just take my chances out there, because anything seemed better than the jungle I was about to enter, another tedious nerve-splitting 9 hours on the job... The urge was so strong.

Nowadays I walk to work and I wonder why the beauty no longer has that effect on me. I no longer desire to duck under the nearest copse and make a break for it. Sometimes I think it's because I get my walking needs met and get enough nature on my way to work.

Or possibly it's just too cold.

Today, though, I'm pretty sure the reason I no longer want to run away into peace and beauty is this: I already did. I did that last August. Here I am.

I look forward to setting foot out my door in the morning AND to getting to work.

What part of this is not beautiful?

In other news, Miles has learned to work a jack-in-the-box all by himself.

And he has a new hat.

Here's to a beautiful life.

The Last Enemy that Shall be Destroyed is Death

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.

- Edna St. Vincent Millay

Christmas Part II: Rochester

It has been since June that we've been in that cold cloud-heavy city where I was born. It felt really, really good to be back.
It's a challenge to drive so many miles with a toddler, but to gain perspective, I remember when every moment driving after dark, or every time we had been driving more than 15 minutes before dark meant endless crying, singing the same seven songs over and over again because they were the only thing that quieted him, reaching back over and over to squeeze Miles' glowworm because he could not do it himself.... Given that memory, the trip was a breeze. We got a little too familiar with McDonalds/Chick-Fil-A playplaces for my taste, but the result was that he got a little play in between driving stretches so that this could happen in the car:

After a long and tedious drive, however, we arrived in Dad and Kate's beautiful house!

Grandpa and Kate loved on Miles every moment they could, reading him stories, teaching him how to play with his new toys, even taking him to the Fairport Rec Center Pool, which is truly a wonder of the aquatic recreational world. Perhaps there will be a post about that adventure when we're sent pictures of it; our camera was misbehaving at the time.

We were able to get to see both my grandparents during this trip. Miles saw Grandma and Grandpa Revell on Thursday and the Cornells on Friday. He struggled a little with all the car time, but was playful and affectionate with his great-grands. He could tell they were Important people. Here, we've convinced Grandpa C to play his mouth-organ for M. He's playing "Buffalo Gals Won't You Come Out Tonight." His audience was entranced.

NONE of the group pictures were flattering to everyone. The one in which Miles is smiling has the rest of us appearing to have a group seizure. I am smiling so broadly with my hand so ridiculously and theatrically behind my back because I have just seized Miles toy and he has not yet started crying.

Playing with just one of his Christmas toys: a sock-monkey-in-the-box! He adores it and can work it by himself (much to our relief).

My little elf, on yet another car trip.

Perhaps the crown of the Christmas gifts was the yet-unnamed horsey. Miles always goes for the horse at his babysitter's and makes a beeline for the teeter-totter at the library, so I thought having his own would delight him.

Well, it took a bit for him to warm up to riding it because he was so fascinated by the effects from pulling one of its ears. One ear produces horse sounds and spoken invitations to brush him, etc. The other ear produces a highly contagious song which is running in my head at this moment. Miles feels very differently about this song than his parents. He watches that horse's mouth amazedly as it moves to "sing" to him, and applauds for it as if it has performed some majestic aria. He's so impressed. But, he'll now also chant "rock, rock, rock!" and climb on by himself.


I had to include pictures of this McDonalds because I found it so astonishing. Those are real old books encased all over the store in glass. A display case contained dozens of china figurines and the walls were covered with framed 19th century art prints. Classiest McDonald's ever?

Okay, here the display is just the books' spines. But still. It's a MCDONALD'S! I was floored.

Of course, this is where we spent most of our time. It was a giant habitrail hamster's dream come true. Miles adored it.

It's hard to say Bye-Bye.

A view from the road... Somewhere in PA... I think in the past ten years I have subconsciously renamed Pennsylvania "The Drive Through State."

We arrived, tired but delighted to be home, at about 5pm on Tuesday. Alas, we took no pictures of our delightful time at our York friends' house, having left our camera in the car in a daze. We're back to find we are once again far from family and so many of our friends. But, we're back in a town that has been and is still good to us. Happy Epiphany, everyone! May we all be enlightened to new joys and amazing discoveries this year!

Christmas Part I: Annapolis

We are returned from nearly two weeks of holiday tour in the Northeast, so that I am no longer taking time away from family and friends when I blog. We had a blast but we're so please to finally be back in our little flat and be OUT OF THE CAR! We hadn't realised how spoiled we are in our daily lives, driving no more than a few miles a day and almost none on weekends. But it was all worth it to have memories like this one, watching the trains go by at Homestead Gardens in Annapolis:

They had a whole world in miniature, so that even the adults could happily gaze at it for almost 45 minutes.

Wasn't sure how the big train was going to go over...

It was a hit! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for bringing us!


Saying "Choo Choo!"

How can you not press your face against the fence and stare at this stuff?

Even I got into it.

We got to dig out Miles' birthday present from one of his church aunties from St. Paul's in Crofton: dragon suit from China! Silk! Perfect Christmas attire, yes? The above face is what he does now when we ask him to "smile." My new favorite.

Family shot on Christmas Eve.

Good old classic toys make the best Christmas gifts!

Loving his front loader on Christmas morning! Don't you love the simple and unspoiled mind of a small child, to be so enrapture by a toy that he cannot be distracted by a new one? How much longer do we have with this utter lack of greed, veteran parents?

Haha! Snow in Maryland! God's Christmas gift to me! Miles really was having a wonderful time. He's somber because I picked him up from his snowy ramble.

We had many plans to take Miles to nearby kid hotspots: the D.C. zoo, Kinderfarm, etc. Alas, we were unwilling to drive in the weather with the other Maryland drivers, and also feared that the very real cold situation would take some of the fun out of it for Miles. We put off our outdoorsy fun until another trip and contented ourselves with a trip to the mall ( I needed a new phone) that allowed Miles some playground adventures. It was a bit overrun with savage and feral children (my perspective since my kid is so little) but he came through unscathed and quite enjoyed himself.

On to New York!