New Foods for Angus

It finally happened. Our kid eats food! this week he tried cheese quesidillas, (and liked them---gasp!) and a pb&j (not yet a fan). Last night he ate, and LOVED, a grilled cheese sandwich. Somehere in a chilly hell, pigs are flying.

Cars

Cars is giving the Teletubbies a run for the money when it comes to Angy's attention these days. Every big truck is a Mack, every red car a Lightning McQueen, every beat up old truck is a Mater. And me...I'm Sally.

Always in a Pickle

Noah is always finding himself into sticky situations. He is Danger Baby. He wants to climb high, and climb fast. He was "rearranging" the computer room yesterday, moving the clothes drying rack around the room and eventually onto my Cloud Walker, and then found himself all tangled up inside the mess. I let him challenge himself by figuring his own way out---which he did rather quickly. He gives new meaning to the idea of babyproofing the house.

The Brown Boys

.......

Ever had that feeling that the moment you are in right now may, in fact, be the very best moment of your whole life? I had it happen to me twice last night at Maymont. Once while Noah and I were playing together in the grass. He kept smiling up at me and crawling over to get into my lap and hold my face. The other one was when Angus ran to me in a full sprint from about 100 yards away, smiling his beautiful smile and laughing his perfect little belly-busting laugh, until he ran right into my arms for the strongest hug his little body could muster.

The End of Month One

Angus just completed his first month of school. To mark the occasion, he had his first bout of crying at pickup time. My man was having way too much fun and wanted to stick around a little longer. I don't blame him. His school is rad.

I was caught off guard by how happy I was to see him unhappy to see me. Sure, there's a part of me that still wants him to run into my arms each day, demanding to be held. But seeing him having so much fun, and learning so many new things, and making new friends, and falling in love with his teachers, and developing a life of his very own---living as an Angus wholly separate from the Angus-That-Is-My-Baby--- that is a reward unto itself.

We were really lucky to have gotten him into such a great school. Every day I am more certain that this is the very best place for him to be. Seriously.... look at these shelves. The class consists 16 children under the age of 5, some are as young as two and a half years old, and the shelves look like this at any given point during the day. All hail the magic of school.

Mister Dog

On a recent trip to Barnes & Noble, Tony and I picked up a The Little Golden Book Collection of Animal Tales for Angus because it contained Tony's favorite childhood story, Mister Dog by Margaret Wise Brown. At first, both Angus and I were pretty uninterested in the story. But, in the past few days it has become a must read for both of us. Angus smiles almost the whole way through.

It is a strange little rambling tale of an old dog named Crispin's Crispian who lives alone in a two story dog house and belongs to only himself until he finds a little boy who also belongs to only himself. The two decide to live together and the whole story is fairly uneventful. But there is something to the simplicity. A calmness and a kind of comfortable that can't be explained.

I think I may have pinpointed the reason why we all love it so much. There is this one passage that explains the way Crispin's Crispian lives his life that rings true for we Browns.

Crispin's Crispian was a conservative. He liked
everything at the right time--

dinner at dinnertime, lunch at lunchtime, breakfast in time for
breakfast, and sunrise at sunrise, and sunset at sunset. And at bedtime--- At
bedtime, he liked everything in its own place---the cup in the saucer, the chair
under the table, the stars in the heavens, the moon in the sky, and himself in
his own little bed.

We are taking the word conservative back from those who dwell in the far right of society and putting it back where it belongs.....as a way to describe a slightly OCD need for a comfortable routine and the peace of mind that knowing all is well can bring to those inclined to worry.

Feeding Success

Angus finally ate a pancake. Tony cooked up a few to resemble Tubby Toast, the snack most preferred by his BFFs the Teletubbies. Ours were not made of rabbits.

Baby Kong

Feeding Noah has become logistically complicated. In the past 24 hours, Deuce decided that he simply must be the holder of the spoon. This is great news to us. Spoon feeding two kids takes up a lot of time. One kid with feeding difficulties is enough, thank you. So, we are fostering Noah's desire to master self-feeding, even though calling it messy it a serious understatement.

Overall, Noah is doing a fantastic job of getting finger foods into his mouth. But until he can actually spoon food into his own mouth he will require a bit of assistance. To remedy this, we give him a decoy spoon to practice with. Then he divides his dinnertime into alternating intervals of (a) swatting at the mommy or daddy-held spoon and roaring, like a miniature King Kong batting away fighter planes, (b) slamming his spoon-clenched fist into the container of food, and (c) smearing the food drenched fist, spoon handle end, onto his increasingly messy face, and (d) sometimes getting some of the meal into the mouth.

Band Practice

Deucey and Me

While Angus is at school, No. 2 and I share special time...just the two of us. So much personality is packed into this tiny little body.