Category: Uncategorized

I’m learnin’. We’re all learnin’.

Art was jumping from couch cushion to couch cushion that he had laid
out on the floor, hopping back and forth over and over again. I saw
him do a really big jump and said, 'Wow! That's a big jump!" and he
said, "That's Hopscotch. I'm doin' hopscotch. I'm learnin'. We're
all learnin'. This is my work and that's what we do. We do hopscotch
and ballet, because that's what they want us to do, so we do it.
See?" And he jumped again and again.

Word up!

Hey!  Lewis definitely has some words.  I've been waiting to report just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, but I'm sure now that he says "Dee!" for tree and he seems to be saying "Mama!" with some real intention lately.  He's been saying "Hi!" for a long time and I would consider that his first word.  Oh!  And yesterday we were playing with a ball and I asked, "Ready?" and he said, "GO!"  He did it over and over!  Ready, set, GO!  So, this is cool.

What??!  A 17 month-old baby is communicating!  STOP THE PRESSES!

In Hancock.

This past weekend Arthur and I took a short trip to the cottage in Hancock, Wisconsin. Just by ourselves. It was nice if not a little lonely. It was the first time I had been without other adults, and I underestimated how nice it is to talk with full size people. But Arthur had a real fun time and that’s really the reason I wanted to go in the first place–to give his some quality Papa time.


We borrowed the motor boat from the nextdoor cottage and took it out in the deep weedless water where we promptly jumped in and swam around. It was a real highlight for Arthur. His little body was shivering and his mouth chattering from the chill, but he loved it. This photo was a technical feat in itself that I’m quite proud of.


And there was a Labor Day parade in the tiny town.

Oh, Art. You had a really hard day.

Before I write about Art’s hard time let it be known that no Art’s were harmed in the making of this photograph. Ben assures me it was taken swiftly and incognito (with his phone) without compromising his ability to compassionately deal with Art.
Art can be totally flexible and can handle disappointment and frustration with grace, but only if he’s been prepared for it in advance. Kind of oxymoronic, I know, but that’s the way it is with him. Catch him off guard and you end up with this heart-breaking moment. Art pleading to have the hose on when we were right about to sit down for dinner all because I had to spritz some sand a bit to finish my walkway and did not explain that we would not be playing with the hose, just a quick spritz. Art had a lot of those moments today, today being a stressful day of transition after Wisconsin. I think he’ll feel better tomorrow, and we’ll help him by letting him know what to expect.