Come and get it

Here is a chickadee on our huge and welcoming bird feeder. Notice all the spring colors in back-- a pink cherry tree in full bloom in our neighbor's yard is lovely.

Mystery birds

Can anyone ID these cuties for me?

Bird watching

Bewick's wren: I am not sure if I really saw this one, but I think I did!
Black-capped chickadee
Steller's Jay: There are at least two that seem to dominate the big feeder. Very aggressive!
American Robin: has now all but destroyed our backyard digging up worms.
Spotted towhee! This one is pretty uncommon, I read, but I am positive this is what I saw!

It is the last few days of my all-too-short spring break, and in attempt to radically slow my life down, I decided to do some serious birdwatching! We put up a feeder with wild bird seed outside the den window, and a suet feeder outside the kitchen window (both left behind by the old owners.) Apparently, this house has a huge reputation for birds... it was like they had been waiting patiently the last 2 years to get our act together and hang up the birdfeeders already. Within hours, we started getting lots and lots of hungry customers. I am pretty new at identifying birds (and the fact that I am suddenly interested at all is clear evidence that I am indeed squarely in MID-LIFE and quickly approaching my 60s...?), so I don't know how accurate I've been, but above are a few internet-stolen photos of birds I am pretty sure I saw this morning.

Jesse's uniform

Jesse is going through a stage where he will only wear his "favorite pants," a "blue stripey shirt" and sneakers (with no socks.) Luckily, he has 3 blue stripey shirts, but that still only lasts three days... so on the other days, he wears them inside out and backwards so that they don't look dirty. The pants are worn EVERY DAY. I have to wash them when he is sleeping or he will go ballistic. Sometimes, out of sheer desperation, he has been known to wear his blue jeans.

I tried to upload a video of Jesse in all of his boyish glory, but it didn't work. So here is a transcript.

Me: Jesse, are you a boy or a girl?
J: Boy.
Me: What are you going to be when you grow up?
J: Four.
M: Oh, four! Are you going to be a boy or a girl?
J: A BIG boy.
M: And what are you going to do for a job?
J: Um...sing. And play my guitar in my studio. And play the drums.
Me: Will you sing a song for me now?
Jesse proceeds to sing "A-blue-be-lay," his first original composition!

The Non-issue

One really nice (and annoying) thing about Chelsea House Montessori is that we get 20 minute parent-teacher conferences every quarter. (Along with conferences comes the added complication of two days to find alternate childcare... I can't help but wonder why they can't have a normal school day with two of the assistant teachers, and then have the head teacher do conferences in another room?)

So last quarter, the teachers gushed about how great Elena is, except for this strange problem... she refuses to ask for help! The teachers will find her sitting at a work station, completely stuck, not doing anything for 15 or 20 minutes. They will even go stand right near her, helping other kids (and praising them for asking for help), and she will simply refuse to ask. We all laughed about it and chalked it up to new-school anxiety for the time being. I went home bursting with pride... You simply cannot beat the feeling of having someone in-the-know say nice things about your kid.

This quarter, there was no gushing. The teachers spent the entire 20 minutes discussing how bizarre it was that Ellie still refuses to ask for help. She struggles with her yogurt containers, breaks pencils, stares down puzzles and curses unthreaded needles for minutes on end before she will ask for help. Kevin and I were totally confused. Elena has no trouble demanding that her needs be met at home; she gets frustrated and gives up on impossible tasks in seconds, begging for help. So what is going on? Instead of trying to analyze the problem (of course we asked her what the problem was, and she just got embarrassed and sullen), I decided to go back to old-school positive reinforcement and start praising her for "helping the teachers do their job." Last night, we made a sticker chart and brought it to school and when Elena asks politely for help, she will get a sticker. So far, she seems excited about it! We will see if it actually works in a couple of weeks.

It is so fascinating to see our kids' personalities start to blossom. All things considered, it is pretty amazing that the only problem Elena has at school is that she wants to be independent to the point of paralysis. I guess this tendency could channel into some sort of internalizing problem (anxiety, panic, depression, perfectionism, eating disorders??), but for now, I am officially categorizing this as a NON-ISSUE, and one that will hopefully be easily resolved with a few glittery stickers.

Happy Spring!

"Elenae" says, "Happy vernal equinox!"
(Thanks, Chelsea House, for teaching my child overly-sophisticated nomenclature!)

Blast from the Past!

Last week we had a wonderful surprise visit from Kevin's OLDEST friend ever, from middle school, in town for a mid-week one-day business trip. Apparently, they were quite the dynamic duo in their day: two great friends running for school president and vice president together (see publicity photo above), scheming about starting a business together, and even swearing to marry if both had not found a spouse by age 35! So what a hilarious surprise to finally get to meet the famous Jennifer! We had a wonderful evening together, sharing stories and catching up on life. As you know, I am quite attached to my middle school friends, and feel like they shaped me in deep and wonderful ways... so it was really cool to meet one of people who was part of Kevin's life when he was forming his identity. And sure enough, she was just as smart, sassy, funny, and interesting as I figured she would have to be to have been a best friend of my smart, sassy, funny and interesting husband back when he was 13.

Meet Rosalina and Lavar

During Jesse's naptime, and while I get work done, Elena and I have been doing a lot of crafts together. She is really into making paper people-- she does most of the outlines, then all of the cutting, coloring, and assembling. She was especially proud of this couple. Rosalina and Lavar are fighting over a teddy bear while Lavar dances. (btw, Amy, those crayons you sent are so great!)