Monday, March 03, 2003

At last, a chance to sit down with a (mostly) working computer and try to knock out an update. The computer still has it’s side off, exposing its innards to Quincy’s curious gaze – but so far not his curious digits. And a new hard drive, motherboard, and videocard. Good news is that the old hard drive works enough to copy over our old info, a discovery made after a couple of weeks of sweating it. Chalk up a lesson on the value of backing up your computer!

We have had continued nice weather around here with the occasional sprinkles. We received e-photos from my parents and 4x6s from Nanma Phyllis of some of the piles of snow they are living through. I have just gotten us reservations to head to Tahoe with Thomas & Zoe for 14th & 15th of March where we hope to see snow – although it is quite possible that it won’t even be right outside our door like it was last year. I have been taking lots of snapshots (as usual) with my new camera – and will upload some to ofoto one of these days. Included are ones from a place called Hidden Villa that we visited down near Palo Alto a weekend or 2 ago. What a nice place – in a fairly steep valley – neither of our cell phones would work – and the nation’s purported 1st Youth Hostel is there. There is an organic farm and also some animals that our friendly guide Duncan took us around. There was only us and another family with small kids on the tour and he did a great job of keeping Aidan’s interest for the 90 minutes but also imparting information that the adults could enjoy. He started off with having us try to put our fingers into the soil in the “people places” and the “plant places” – there were raised plant beds that were of course well aerated and hard packed dirt walkways in between. A good way to explain to kids why they need to stay on the path! He cut up a stalk of rhubarb for all to try – Aidan thought it yummy to my surprise. Aidan has become the epitome of preschool picky – “no, peas are yucky!” – leaving me to pick them back out of the mac ‘n cheese – but not a word about them today floating in his ramen noodle soup – and rice in sushi is fine, brown rice with take out Chinese is fine, but any rice that mom makes is sure to kill you… Back to the farm, after that we checked out the composting heaps and got good looks at all the do-gooder worms in action. Pretty amazing how quickly they can convert the greens into “worm poop” otherwise known as nice soil. We learned the hand/body movements to “munch munch, wiggle wiggle, poop poop” – a favorite with the kids as might be expected. We got up close and personal with some sheep and a cow but kept our distance from the goats and pigs. Quincy was fascinated by the animals as usual – and also as usual, a bit terrified. He wanted nothing to do with touching a sheep. We took one short treck alongside a babbling stream in the cool shade of the trees and it looked like there were many other nifty pathways to explore another time. To our sorrow our friends Thomas, Sara & Eric are moving to Redwood City – 35 min away south on a good day. But maybe we’ll go back with them. Thomas is pretty delighted with the move as he will now have a pool, and Sara is looking forward to one of the 5 bedrooms being her craft room. He will continue to stay in his Acrosports class with Aidan and go to his nursery school so we should still see plenty of him hopefully.

Yesterday after my yoga class while the boys picnicked on the grounds of the Legion of Honor we trundled down to Ghiradelli Square for the 1st time in forever. While there Aidan noticed a lot of coins in a fountain. Why are they there? He asked. I explained that sometimes people liked to make a wish and throw coins in the water. He asked for a coin. His wish with his penny? That he could have a playdate with Thomas. Later amended to be a desire for Thomas to come to the Dolphin Club sometime with him. (We stopped in for him to do a poop). Cousin Sue does the polarbear swim there – something like 50 miles in the little cove there during the winter months – no wetsuits allowed. Cousin Phil joined her one winter but now just goes on the rowing boat expeditions. A much saner approach! A few weeks back we joined the Garfields and Eggerths there one Saturday evening (after the twins had their 1st sleep over with Sue & Jeff in the city) for the usual pizza and salad. A few weeks later we were heading back again to meet with the Garfields and Phil, Julia & baby Ellie. Aidan was looking forward to seeing cousin Bobby & Johnny again and Rick “who threw him high in the air”. None of those guys were there, but Phil always rises to the occasion. He took Aidan & Ellie for various wheeled object rides (and Quincy too sometimes). 1st one of the rowboats on it’s little trailer. Then a wheelchair with Aidan clutching both Ellie & Quincy, then a dolly, then a tiny dolly, then a desk chair on wheels – and finally Phil ran out of found vehicles. Yesterday we were supposed to head to Phil et al’s house to meet up with the whole gang + his parents – but Ellie decided to be sick instead. Aidan doesn’t really understand why the Dolphin Club isn’t someone (perhaps Sue & Jeff’s) house – just like he has trouble understanding that his teachers don’t live at his school.

It is also interesting watching Aidan try to get some understanding of how time works – or at least all of our expressions for it. Yesterday, today, tomorrow are very hard let alone any expression that refers to a timeframe that is further out. There are some good quotes in this arena if only I could think of any offhand. We are crossing off days on a calendar as I hope that he can see a visual of the passage of time. I think some more cognitive development needs to happen plain and simple though. Aidan is dressing himself top to bottom including buttons and Velcro items. Hasn’t mastered starting zippers (on jackets) nor of course tying shoe laces – but those will be coming soon enough. He has some interesting fashion statements. He will claim that all sorts of colors are his “favorite” or his “really favorite” or “most favorite” but I think orange really is it with red following close behind. Bright. He likes to “layer” – as in wearing 2 shirts. But he is all for layering one short sleeve over another. He does have some logic usually for why he selects what he does (it used to be TOTALLY random) – and usually there is some tiny area of the color of one thing in the other. And he will say “I look VERY cute wearing this shirt and pants”. Not too modest my boy!

Quincy puts up with outfit changes much better than he used to – not so much screaming. And if you ask for specific cooperation he will often give it.

Took Quincy for his 15 month check up today. 76 cm tall I think and only 17 lb 14 oz in weight! The Dr called him “petite”. I think Q is behind where Aidan was in language although his comprehension is very good – his pronunciation skills are still lacking. The Dr said he was right on track though. He is clearly ahead of where Aidan was physically. Quincy went back to waking up every 2 hours for a couple of weeks – I was going crazed. Turns out that 2 more molars did start popping out and just in the last few days he has gone back to more of every 4 hours for waking – SOOO much better although still far from sleeping through the night! I often leave him on Aidan’s bed toward the end of the night – and if I am not in there with him he will wake and come running down the hall. He’ll climb right over Pete if he is in the way. Funny in a pathetic sort of way. Then there are the nights that Aidan comes running down the hall in search of me. There was a night last week when we had the sofabed going to (so we could close door on Q’s crying in crib if needed) and I put in some nighttime hours in each of the 3 beds! I currently have a sinus infection which has been a real drag. Funny too as it didn’t follow a cold. So no real congestion to speak of, just the pain… The kids have been quite healthy although I noticed that today Quincy is coming down with something as he nose has started dripping. First time I think that he has had something before Aidan catching it and giving it to him.