more christmas pics

a few more christmas pictures, courtesy of grandma and grandpa bandstra.









and we call this, "series with cousins on couch:"

book reviews

i'm excited about these library books i've recently come across.



this is a page from the board book "swimsuit" by kit allen. each page is a simple illustration with a one-word description, which together tell the story of a day at the beach. i love it because it reminds me of eastern point beach in groton, connecticut, where i grew up. it really evokes the feelings of the heat, the itchy sand, the cold water, the slimy seaweed, the yummy treats from the beach house, and the exhaustion on the way home. and the illustrations are great. his website is fun, and he has three other books in this series: "sweater," "long johns," and "galoshes."



this book, "river town," by bonnie and arthur geisert, is one of a series of four books on small towns, each dedicated to a different way of life depending on the landscape. the others are "desert town," "mountain town," and "prairie town." the illustrations are intricate, and you have to look really closely to follow the small changes that happen in each town over the course of a year (like weddings, births, funerals, fires, new buildings, etc.). they're great at teaching how geography and landscape affect how people live. we haven't attempted to read these to noah yet, but aaron and i have really enjoyed them.



this board book, "awake to nap" by nikki mcclure, i read about in mothering magazine--a few days after our friend rachel told us she'd gotten some of nikki mcclure's posters for christmas. i love that it's an alphabet book, with beautiful cut-paper illustrations for each letter, but it stops at the letter "n." (this is because, according to the review, that was just as far as nikki mcclure could get, since she was working on the book during her infant son's naptimes. she felt like stopping there said something about life with babies.) her paper cuts are really lovely. she also has another kid's book, "welcome," which she wrote while pregnant with her son, and a baby journal, "the first 1000 days." you can buy her stuff here.



this book i read at sarah and jessa's house. we just ordered it with some christmas money and now it's one of our absolute favorite books. "a teeny tiny baby," by amy schwartz, illustrates the daily life of a teeny tiny baby, and it rang really true to our experience. the baby talks about how often he likes to eat (and the illustrations show his mother nursing--all the time!), all the places his parents have taken him in the city, all the different ways he likes to be transported (i.e. snugli, sling, carseat, stroller, his "other sling," etc.), how moody he is, how everyone jumps to make hime happy... it's really funny and great. you can read an interview with author amy schwartz here.



okay, one more! this book, "that's not my truck" is a "touchy-feely" book from usborne. we got this one and "that's not my puppy" from grandma and grandpa bandstra for christmas. they're awesome! noah's just become interested in touching and feeling the sensory parts, and the text is really funny too. they choose sort of random aspects of the items in question to compare (like, "that's not my puppy. its collar is too shiny." or, "that's not my truck. its radiator is too holey."). there are a bunch more in the "touchy-feely" series.

and more snow!

this winter has been crazy! we've gone from windstorm to rainstorm to snowstorm a number of times now, with people all over the state losing power more than once. the rivers are flooding, the roads are icing, tree branches are cracking, and skiiers are probably in paradise. the weirdest part is that christina told me last weekend it was 70 degrees on the north shore, and that it hasn't really snowed there all winter! what is going on??

actually, i love it, of course. i love waking up and peeking out the frosty window, and seeing the ground covered in white. i love noah's expression when snowflakes fall in his eyes, or when aaron throws snowballs at me. it's funny, because we thought moving here from new england meant sacrificing these simple pleasures. apparently not! it only means sacrificing city snowplows.

here are some photos from our neighborhood during yesterday's storm. we ventured downtown for mother's group at a coffeeshop. noah fell asleep on the wintry walk home.

wild bells

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more,
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease,
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkenss of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

-- Alfred, Lord Tennyson

you are my little bird

one of the presents we got for noah with christmas money we were given was elizabeth mitchell's new kids cd, "you are my little bird." i've been thinking about it since i heard this interview with elizabeth mitchell on npr. she plays with her husband, daniel, and their daughter, storey. our favorite song is "little liza jane," which i just can't get out of my head. you can listen to clips at elizabeth mitchell's website or at the smithsonian folkways website. she's a big woody guthrie fan, and a few of the songs on the cd are his (including grassy grass grass, sarah's favorite song). and ida pearle did the cd liner art, which is so beautiful and fun. i love the little boy with the maracas, especially.

grumble bath (video)

click here to watch this video of noah grumbling happily in the bath.

more bath pics:

new year's bike ride

on new year's day we took the ferry to lummi island and biked around with aaron's parents, sarah and jessa. the weather was sunny and temperate, and it felt great to get out and see the bay.

cousins

one more picture from christmas, from john and jess. we're constantly forcing noah and kate to smush together and pose for pictures. it looks like kate's had enough of that!

irene and kevan's visit

and then on friday night irene and kevan came for a sleepover, which was a lot of fun. we did a lot of lounging around, which noah is especially good at. on saturday kevan and aaron worked on the boat while irene, noah and i walked around town. the week between christmas and new year's is "celebrate bellingham" week, where all the museums and lots of other activities are free, and there are horse-drawn trolley rides every day. so the three of us checked out "mindport," a cool interactive gallery. irene and i checked out the exhibits and noah checked out the fish.






irene tried to put noah to sleep...


and kevan succeeded


posing with noah's new grinch (from grandma helen). irene was really attached to the grinch, which came with us downtown.

rachel's visit

last week our friend rachel, home from san francisco for christmas break, came up for a visit. she came bearing gifts for noah--no frankinscence or myrhh, but two great board books, which they read together.


so many ribbons!


rachel and noah reading


could his cheeks be any bigger?

christmas presents

thank you to everyone for all the wonderful christmas presents!! thanks especially to those of you from afar who sent money for special needs--we just put some of that toward a new crib for noah, which we'll set up and try out tonight. we also ordered a few neat things from amazon, including the new elizabeth mitchell cd, some rubber duckies for the bath and a few new books. thank you, thank you!

below are some pics of a few of noah's favorite new things.


a painting from oma to noah. aaron says it looks like a nova scotia dock scene. it's lovely!


new elephant shoes from grandma and grandpa bandstra


a sailer suit, handmade by grandma bev (in addition to the turtle suit, shown previously)




a tagasaurous, handmade by aunt jessica. we're trying to make this noah's "lovey." it's awesome!

christmas!

we had a great christmas weekend in ladner with the whole bandstra clan. noah had lots of fun hanging out with cousin kate, eating ribbons and crinkling wrapping paper. we tried to get him to emulate the baby jesus--asleep on the hay, no crying he makes, etc... but noah is no baby jesus. he wanted to party!


why reach in from the outside?


uncle colin and aunt nic, pajamafied with the christmas babies


chillin' in his new turtle suit, handmade by grandma bev


a blurry pic of me in my birthday shirt from aaron


he spent some downtime eating his new dan zanes book/cd from the wassells (why is he so sad?)


more packaging bliss! this package from terry had awesome shredded ribbons for playing with


and eating!

and finally, series with santa penguin hat from grandpa peabody and debbie: