summer reading

my intention for this summer was that it be full of serious learning, aided by my doula training course and the two-week summer school course i was planning to take at regent college (christianity and the political economy of capitalism). intentions have given way to reality, and though i did take and enjoy the doula training course i haven't really continued my doula studying since then. and i recently decided not to take the regent course at all. this will be a loss, i know, but somehow i couldn't imagine reading karl marx and adam smith when i've only been whetting my whistle lately with where the wild things are. (which i think i actually have memorized.) which i know is a good reason to read something else, something more challenging, but i just don't have the energy to be a good student right now. i barely have the energy to grow a baby and keep my two-year-old alive. so no summer school.

but i still wanted to have a goal for summer reading, so i've embarked on something a bit more realistic. basically my rule is that if a book is geared toward readers over the age of 18, it's too much for this summer. so far, my summer reading journey has been lovely.

my favorite book as of yet has been the mysterious benedict society by trenton lee stewart. it's a moving, smart mystery about four gifted children risking their lives to save the world. i loved it. and there's a sequel, the mysterious benedict society and the perilous journey, which is waiting for me at the library. hooray!

another book i really loved, but which was a little harder and sadder to read, is the green glass sea by ellen klages. this one was about a little girl who lived for a while at los alamos, new mexico, while her scientist father worked toward creating the atomic bomb. it's mostly about her life and losses, and her own scientific ability, but it's also really interesting to glimpse life in the strange temporary community that was los alamos. it was sad but really beautiful. (the main character in this book reads a book called the boy mechanic, which i since found out has been recently re-released as practical projects for the handy man: over 700 projects including a hammock, kite, toaster, sundial, lantern, swimming pool, camera and much more. i got this one from the library for aaron, and he's enjoyed perusing the many project opportunities.)

and most recently i read a fun and heartwarming book set in boston, called my most excellent year: a novel of love, mary poppins and fenway park. it was about three ninth grade friends who learn a lot about themselves and others through musical theatre, JFK, baseball and sign language, among other things. it was just a really nice book to read. (and i loved the details of the city and the north shore.)



and now i'm onto rule of the bone by russell banks, thanks to my brother kevin, who just finished it and recommended it highly. it's pegged as a modern-day catcher in the rye, and kevin said he really appreciated reading about the journey of a boy he can relate to. so far it's definitely holding my attention, though it is more serious and challenging a book than i had planned to focus on this summer. but i think it'll be worth it. maybe it'll help me understand kevin's struggles a bit more, and help me prepare a bit for the complexity of a boy growing up.

and not to be left out are the piles and piles of books i read with noah every day. we have really been enjoying the library, and noah even signed up for his own summer reading club! he has a little booklet to fill out, where he colors in a bug after each book we read together. after five bugs, ten bugs and fifteen bugs he wins a prize (a pool coupon, a pizza coupon and a free book). aaron asked if he could join the club too in hopes of getting a free pizza. i think noah reads way more than aaron does these days, though. we could probably complete the booklet on a daily basis, but we'll take it slow. it does seem like a great way to keep noah involved in thinking about all the reading we do and participating with other kids in a challenge. there will even be an awards ceremony at the end of the summer for all the kids who complete their booklets! pretty exciting.

my favorite of noah's recent library books is bye, bye baby by janet and allen ahlberg. it's "a sad story with a happy ending," about a baby without a mommy who goes in search of one. he ends up with a lot more than a mommy in the end. noah loves it, and it's so funny! at the beginning, the baby without a mommy lives alone and has to feed himself, change his own diapers and put himself to bed. he suddenly realizes he is too young to be doing these things all on his own, that he needs a mommy, and his search begins. i also love thinking of him talking in a tiny boy's british accent. so cute.

piggy bank (a movie)

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wherein we take noah's first full piggy bank to the bank coin machine. exciting!

spring wrap-up

tomorrow it will be summer. really?? i'd love it if that were true. "spring" in bellingham has at times felt close to winter, so maybe summer will at least feel like spring. so much rain! so many sweaters! so few flip-flop days! i was looking forward to the end of this pregnancy coming in the summer so i could wear cute sundresses and tank tops instead of piles of sweaters adding to my already-bulk. that has yet to happen.

but lots is happening in our lives, nonetheless. here are a few updates:

the house is coming along. since we closed on may 15th, the house has a new roof and a new fence, it's pretty much empty inside, a few walls have been knocked down, paneling has been torn off, and the furnace and ducting have successfully been moved upstairs and hooked up. this weekend aaron will work on updating the electrical and installing new outlets. then comes plumbing, then comes... stuff that will actually make it start to look livable! i'm excited for the rebuilding process, which will help me envision this new space we'll soon be transitioning into.

aaron has mastered the city permitting process, and has been drawing plans and meeting with city planners and inspectors. he's learned a lot and we feel good about doing the demo/rebuild process all above-board. aaron spends all day fridays and saturdays and parts of sundays and most evenings at the new house, so noah and i have had to entertain ourselves a lot lately. it has helped to have a fence up at the new house, which allows me to work outside while noah safely plays. i've been enjoying planting things in my two new raised beds, and noah's been enjoying playing in his sandbox, riding his bike, peering through the fence at the neighbors and playing with his new "blocks" (i.e. fence scraps).

aaron has put me in charge of researching things like floor coverings (meaning lino for kitchen and bathroom and area rugs for other spaces), wall coverings (meaning non-toxic paint, blinds/curtains, etc.), appliances (we need new everything) and fixtures. i've been falling asleep reading home improvement magazines. it's funny.

so far i have bought a rug for the kids' room, and i've been enjoying thinking about decorating a fun space for them. that's about as far as my research has gotten, though. any advice from any of you on the above purchases?

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noah is terribly and terrifically two. he amazes me and challenges me every day. his vocabulary grows by the minute, and i'm always shocked at how quickly he memorizes new words. (just this morning we talked about fire hydrants while walking through town, and then before his nap he pointed one out in a book we were reading, remembering exactly what it was called!) no longer does the word "digger" represent all construction vehicles. now he points out the difference between backhoes, skid-steer-loaders, rollers, impact hammers, graders, etc. and he will correct me when i'm wrong. he also knows all the names of train cars (like boxcars, hoppers, tank cars, passenger cars, flatbeds, caboose, etc.) he's pretty much obsessed with all vehicles still, though trains and construction trucks take precedence over airplanes and boats.

he loves puzzles and does them so fast! he loves to read and will sometimes sit in front of his bookshelf for half an hour, pulling books down and leafing through, saying the titles and pointing out favorite characters and objects to himself. (we're working on putting the pile back on the shelf when he's done...) he loves stickers and uses them to decorate his "green sheet," the big piece of paper we have tacked onto the wall. he's mildly interested in coloring and drawing. he likes to count, but this usually means he says, "dit, dit, dit, dit, dit...many!" although i think he understands the number two...

noah is fiercely independent but also still strongly attached. he wants to sit in a big chair (not his booster seat), drink from mama or daddy's cup, use a big fork, serve his own food, etc. usually he does really well but messes do abound. he's an amazing climber, speeding to the top of any play structure, hill or stairway. he does not seem all that fond of slides or swings, though.

he's starting to get excited about using the potty, though it's still merely a novelty. he will scoot his little bum backwards until it lands on the potty, settle in, push and grunt with a great effort, and then hop up to check his progress. usually only a tiny trickle has come out, but he's so proud! then he'll scoot his little bum backwards and do it over and over again.

i think he understands that we'll be moving soon to the "new house," but i can imagine it might be hard for him to think of it as a real house yet. i also think he understands that a new baby is on the way, but that also might not be real until he meets that little person. he does give my belly kisses, pretends to share his pacifiers with the baby, and talks about how when mama eats food it goes down, down, down to the new baby. i think he'll be a great big brother.

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in early may i did the doula training workshop at the seattle midwifery school. it was an intense four-day (over two weekends) training, which, if i follow through, will certify me to become a licensed doula. it was a wonderful experience, taught by really smart and talented women and attended by really smart and talented women. what made it even better was that my friend jessie (wife to aaron's friend mike) took the training with me, so we got to process what we were learning together. we're both unsure of what our doula-ing futures will look like, so it was nice to share the experience with someone else who was there mostly out of curiosity. certification would mean attending and documenting three births and joining one of the local doula organizations.

i feel pretty sure that i'll pursue certification in the future, though it's hard to think about being a doula for someone else right now. currently most of my energy is spent growing and preparing to birth my own little baby, and i'm lucky that my dear friend sarah will be my doula for this experience. maybe next spring or summer i will feel ready to lend that support and encouragement to other birthing mothers in a doula role.

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which leads to an update on this new little baby. so far, this pregnancy has been uneventful, in the best ways (i.e. no ovarian cyst or other complications!). today i am 31 weeks pregnant, leaving 6 weeks until we move into the new house and until the baby is considered "full term" (which is usually between 37 and 42 weeks). things have gone so quickly this time! i'm sure it has to do with the bulk of my energy going toward noah; i hardly have time to notice what's going on in my belly! but i've done prenatal yoga again this time, which is always a lovely quiet time to be present in my body and connect with this baby. generally i am more achey and painy this time around than i was with noah, but probably that also has a bit to do with the fact that i sometimes heft around a 30-pound toddler. alas!

as the baby's birth gets closer, i feel both excitement and anxiety. i've tried to let go of most of the grief, disappointment and frustration i felt with the experience of noah's birth; i can honestly say that i now understand that we all did what we could every step of the way. and what i hope for this upcoming experience is that i'll be able to say that again.

this time, however, i feel so much more prepared. i know what to expect, and i know about the things you don't expect that might happen anyway. and i know how important it is to have strong, assertive, knowledgeable and loving support around me as i labor. i'm counting on my friend sarah's doula skills and her friend skills to be important supports that last time were missing. i'm also hoping this baby has the kindness to be in the anterior position and maybe come a bit earlier than noah decided to. but... we'll deal with what we get!

we're planning to have this baby at the skagit valley hospital, which is about half an hour south of us in the town of mount vernon. SVH has certified nurse midwives on staff, which, sadly, our local hospital does not. and their team of nurse midwives are all very supportive of VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) and have not put any random bounds on my labor and birth experience. they all say that they will help me have the experience i choose to have, as long as the baby seems safe. i will have to be monitored more closely this time around, but the hospital has a telemetry unit that will allow me freedom of movement and bathtub access. and there will be an OB down the hall who could perform an emergency cesarean, if necessary. but we are hoping that he won't be necessary!

in my search for a VBAC-supportive care provider, i was saddened by the realization that i'd have to go to a different town to have the experience i wanted. there isn't a midwife in bellingham who is willing to risk losing her license by performing an out-of-hospital VBAC (either at home or at the birth center), and there are no in-hospital midwives. there is one family practice doctor/surgeon who has VBAC privileges, but he told me that if i didn't go into labor by my due date we would schedule a cesarean for my due date. and the only other local VBAC options are OBs, which i did not want. i'm happy to have found the nurse-midwives in skagit valley, but i hope that it won't be long before bellingham gets some in hospital nurse-midwives of their own! as soon as my friend sarah finishes her training, i am lobbying to get her in there...

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so that's life these days for us bellingham bandstras--a summer of work toward new creations. and hopefully a summer of sunshine too!

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house picture above from mike van eerden. and lots more pictures of bandstra life here.

energy (a movie)

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noah gets out some pre-nap energy by running around the house. (please note the big-boy haircut, the cat-scratch bruise under his eye and the very funny grumpy face mid-way through the movie.)

funny walk 2 (a movie)

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a bit more funniness

funny walk (a movie)

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noah struts his stuff around the neighborhood

foot-pots and pearl's house

today was a big day for me and noah, separately. it was noah's first day of childcare--meaning official, i'm-paying-someone-to-care-for-him style childcare. i've been thinking for a while about trying to organize a regular break for myself and playtime with other kids for noah. and then a few weeks ago we ran into our friends heather and joey, who have a two-year-old named pearl, and who are running a childcare at their house and had an opening on wednesday mornings.

so noah and i visited pearl's house on monday and he had a great time. they live a little bit out of town and have a great big yard, a garden, chickens, a sandbox, a little slide, little bikes, etc. the kids spend lots of time outside and help work in the garden and feed the chickens, which are both new activities for noah. and they do more messy projects than we usually do at home (like painting, play-doh, making mudpies, etc.), which is great. i feel really excited for noah to be exposed to difference, and to learn that the world is bigger than our little life. and to learn to play with other kids and to be okay with other grown-ups.

but i was still nervous and a little sad as i left him today and worried while i was out that heather would call and tell me noah was a wreck. not at all! he had a great time and was still quite content when i came to pick him up. he said "hi, mama!" but continued playing happily. what a surprise! i'm so glad to have found a safe, fun place for him to be for a little bit each week. he seems genuinely happy to go to pearl's house and is excited to do it again next week. who knew?

here is his first take-home art project, which he points to proudly on the fridge. note how it's labeled "noah b."--welcome to the world of not being an original!

i spent my few hours running errands, which was easier than it would have been with noah but still not all that fun. (next week i've decided i'll do something really relaxing.) my guilt at leaving noah led me to buy him a few special items, including a little watering can. he's been really into watering lately, although he likes to water the sidewalk just as much as the plants.

and i also got him his first pair of flip-flops, which he calls foot-pots. i recently broke out mine for the season and he was super intrigued. he tries to wear mine, but has a hard time walking in them. so when i saw these tiny ones today, i got them. and noah loved them! he put them on right away and didn't want to take them off for naptime. i love his chubby little feet!

iron street: demolition

since we got the keys to the new house last week, aaron has wasted no time moving ahead with projects. a lot of what he's been busy with has been logistical--planning, meeting with planners at city hall, ordering supplies, etc. but now that those things are getting settled he can start doing the fun stuff--demolition! the house is currently full of piles of yuck: the old tub, toilet and sink, the old kitchen cabinets, and random other walls, doors, fixtures, etc. that are waiting to be thrown into the dumpster. in his tearing things apart, aaron discovered these cool layers of arts-and-crafts style wallpaper. he said he also discovered a happy meal toy from about ten years ago.

yesterday's demolition was the chimney, which is no longer in use and which was falling apart. aaron, patrick and kevin climbed up into the attic and threw bricks down to the ground. aaron later stacked all the bricks under the back porch to save for a patio.

the ascension.

and looking cool. ("look cool!" i said to the guys as i prepared to snap their picture. "how would that be different from normal?" kevin asked.)

a little piece of earth

we are homeowners! somehow a miracle occured and we have received the keys to a little blue craftsman house one block from where we live now. here is a photo of the proud bandstra boys in front of their new home.

although i've been a content renter for a long time, and have especially enjoyed our years here on humboldt street, i'm beginning to understand the mythology of homeownership. while i'm not sure it's necessarily the american dream, there is definitely something very special about having a little piece of earth to call one's own. (remember mary's garden in the secret garden?) i haven't seen aaron so excited in a long time--always thinking of ways to make our new little home better, more beautiful, more solid, more efficient, and mostly so happy to be able to do something very useful for his family. and i am finding myself dreaming about growing food and flowers, and learning how to care for our little piece of earth, and teaching noah to tend things too. and it's so fun to have a blank palette from which to work--to consider our family's needs, our values and our style, and how to help our home to embody those. there's just so much possibility! so suddenly i am understanding that there is a difference in the level of care given to a place that is someone else's versus a place that is yours. i hope we can be good stewards of this little piece of earth we've been given.

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our plan is to stay in our apartment for a few months while aaron works on making the new house lovely, and to move in at the end of july. hopefully that will leave enough time to settle in before this new baby comes!

i'm excited to start my little garden over there and noah has requested a sandbox, which should keep the two of us occupied while aaron does the big work. aaron began today by tearing out the contents of the bathroom, the kitchen and a closet in the front of the house. work will continue this week with removal of the chimney and the three layers of old roofing. then next saturday will be a big work party to put up a new roof. and then... well, that's enough for now!

we'll keep posting pictures as things progress. here are some symbolic images of our new status.

i'm not sure why there is a steelers emblem on our house key, but it worked to open the front door. note that the other one says wal-mart. we will be making new copies of these keys soon.



our very own mailbox! i affixed this label today and clipped on some outgoing mail... we'll see if it works!

mother's day at the beach

we had a very relaxing mother's day, which was exactly the thing after two long weekends in seattle (more on that next post). aaron got up early to make me breakfast: fruit salad, coffee and the delicious and not-at-all-good-for-you orange rolls that come in a little tube with frosting. it was great. and he and noah gave me some new gardening tools for my theoretical new garden. i'm looking forward to getting them dirty!

we spent the morning at clayton beach, which was a great place to relax and let noah explore. he was very tentative at first, given the dirtyness of the sand and the coldness of the water, but he got used to both and enjoyed himself a lot. his favorite part was climbing up a little sand dune with aaron and running down again at full speed, yelling "geronimo!" see video below.


aaron also made me a chocolate cheesecake for dessert that night, which was awesome. actually, i'm now reminded that there's still one piece left in the fridge... must go check!

bike basket (a movie)

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wherein noah thanks the wassell boys for his new treats, most of which are stored in the basket of his new little bike from daddy. not a very exciting video, but a chance to hear noah's little voice and check out some of his birthday loot...

birthday party in the park

Saturday morning was Noah's birthday party (aka "rumpus") in the park with family and his little friends. We picked the location strategically, for its proximity to the train tracks and the water. And while we were there TWO freight trains went by! Very exciting for all the little ones (and a bit overwhelming for some). Here's some of the group watching the BNSF.

I figured I'd keep going with the train theme, and used some vintage train images to iron on to little canvas bags as party favors. All the kids seemed excited about the bags except for Noah, who was quite distracted by other presents, treats and grandparents.

We had great weather, thankfully, and got to lounge on blankets, play on the playspace and check for crabs down at the water's edge. The grown-ups made coffee runs to the conveniently located coffeeshop right next to us, and we all munched the delicious birthday scones Aaron made. Here's Noah getting a little help from Elliot in blowing out his two candles.

After the party in the park we came home for lunch with the family (and the Lier girls, who are basically family at this point), and Noah promptly conked out. He didn't even have any of his birthday carrot cake! But we felt like he was on the verge of "The Berenstein Bears and Too Much Birthday," so a little less cake was probably fine.

So our little birthday prince has been celebrated thoroughly, and things are calming down now. Well, do you count getting ready to buy and fix up a house and have a new baby as calming? We'll see!

birthday the second

i've just tucked into bed a very tired but very happy two-year-old, and his mama is ready for bed too. noah has had a busy birthday! it began with a special breakfast for the birthday prince.

he has been really into the book "where the wild things are" these past few days, and we've talked a lot about how max wears a crown to be king of the wild things. here is noah proudly wearing his birthday crown, just like max.

here's the whole set-up, including birthday coffee cake and fruit, and his new dolly from mama. this is noah's first doll, and i'm hoping he'll bond with her enough to help prepare him to help nurture his little sister. he named her annie, and she's already come for a car ride and had a nap with noah. he even offered her a pacifier! very generous little boy.

after breakfast we headed to fairhaven for a trio of treats. first we chose a book at village books, where we also enrolled noah in the young readers club, earning him a "ticket" for a free ice cream cone at the colophon cafe. pretty cool! then we walked across the street to the fairhaven toy garden, where he turned in his "ticket" from them for a birthday treasure. he chose a little blue train from the cool treasure chest, and then we played for a while with all the toys. finally we ended up at avenue bread, where we shared a croissant and watched traffic and passers-by out the window. on the ride home for lunch he managed to hold on to his new train, his new book, and annie.

this evening we met sarah, jessa and cassin at mallard ice cream downtown, where noah enjoyed his very first ice cream cone. (it looks like jessa's making a move on noah's cone...) he made a mess and had a great time.afterward we drove back to fairhaven to await the arrival of the evening amtrak train headed for seattle. noah calls it the "am" and loves to talk about how loud the train is and how the "ding-dings" have to go down to stop the cars. he watches the train like a hawk the whole time, with a very serious look on his face. we went out onto the platform to see the passengers board and to check out the "hooks" between the cars, and the conductor waved and said, "all aboard!" just for noah. a pretty special ending to a pretty special day.

tomorrow we'll celebrate with friends and family with a party (or a "rumpus," as max would say) at boulevard park. if we're lucky a train will go by while we're there!

birthday prince

happy second birthday, noah barnes!

good faith

an apology to faithful blog-checkers for the lack of new postage in the past few weeks. i've been busy trying not to let noah drive me crazy, he's been busy trying to drive me crazy and we've all been busy attempting to buy a house!

big things first: we bought a house! (i think...) well, we signed a purchase and sale agreement on 1716 iron street, a cute 2-bedroom craftsman in the york neighborhood. in our process of looking at homes around town, only this one fulfilled most of the criteria we came up with for our ideal house. really, the only thing it doesn't have that we were hoping for is 3 bedrooms, but that was low on our priority list. highest on our list was location, and for that, this house wins hands-down. here are some other stats about 1716 iron street:

--it's only a block away from our current house in the york neighborhood, the best neighborhood in bellingham
--it's a classic craftsman, built in 1915
--it has a spacious front and back yard, with room for a garden and a garage
--it has a west-facing porch
--the inside layout is open and flows well
--it has been largely untouched, structurally, which makes it easier to restore
--it's a bit bigger than our current apartment
--and it's affordable!

we are super excited but also aware that nothing is set in stone yet. this process is so involved! it's overwhelming but also interesting to learn all about it. just yesterday we had the house inspected, which revealed mostly things we already knew--i.e. the house needs a lot of work. it did reveal that a new roof, new wiring and new plumbing need to be done asap, and these are things that the bank might not like to hear. next is the appraisal, which will say for sure if the house is mortgage-able as is. if so, then we pretty much just wait till closing and make a game plan! if not... then i'm not sure what the next step is.

aaron already has a detailed plan for the work that needs to be done before we move in, and he's thinking it'll take about two and a half months of some full and some part-time work. so we'd stay in our current apartment during that time, and aaron says i'll be a single mom. (anyone want to come visit?)

and aaron's mom has worked a few late nights on a detailed design for how to best orient things to make the smallish space most useful. she has some fantastic ideas and hopefully we can make them reality. see below.


my plan is to sit back and watch the house get pretty! well, not really, although i can't actually be very helpful, given a) noah and b) all the toxins that will be floating around the house. aaron says he'll put me, noah and irene in charge of building a picket fence.

so if everything goes according to plan, our closing date (i.e. when we get the keys) would be may 15th. and we probably wouldn't move in until late july or early august... hopefully in plenty of time to get settled before this new baby arrives!

for fun, here's a map of how to get to the new house from our old house. we've joked about moving everything using noah's wagon.

so that's that, regarding the house, for now. i'll keep you posted!

this weekend we're off to oregon to visit john, jess and kate, and to see their new house. i've got lots more to report on noah's recent hilarity, but i'll work on that next week. hope everyone is well!

easter weekend

we had a lovely easter weekend, celebrating with aaron's family and maryka and kevin. (although we were certainly missing our north shore friends and the christ church hullabaloo!) we hosted a pre-easter-vigil dinner here on saturday, which i know is sort of cheating, but it just worked out. we had a yummy ham and potatoes dinner, along with cakes from maryka and aaron's mom and truffles made by aaron. the weather was lovely and the easter egg hunt in our yard was a big hit with noah and kate. at first noah was super generous, handing over all his eggs to kate, but then it seemed to dawn on him that it was a competition, and he got a bit more possessive. you can see the video in the post below.

we also kicked off the first annual secret bunny basket trade, where we all made simple baskets filled with less than $10 worth of treats, crafts, gifts, etc. it turned out to be a big hit. aaron's brother colin says we should do this sort of exchange for every major holiday, and by major he means president's day, canada day, columbus day, etc. we'll see! (the basket i made was really a bag with a "faerie tree" freezer-paper stenciled on the front. you can see it slightly in the picture.)

i also had a lot of fun putting together noah's basket. i ended up choosing the book "the story of easter" by aileen fischer, and he likes to look at the pictures. he identifies jesus on each page, but seems more intrigued by the easter egg trees and the spring solstice dancers. maybe next year we'll make an egg tree. and the little wooden eggs are fun--i thought maybe next year we could paint those. the harmonica replaces the one that we left with grandpa wedell last fall. noah is pretty good at playing it already. he likes the little wooden elephant too, and the train switch track really opens up new worlds of track laying. i also made him a little icon from a picture i found online, of mary and a resurrected jesus surrounded by angels.

the easter vigil at our church was beautiful, but not nearly the pomp and circumstance i'm used to from easters of yore. maryka and i rang our bells with gusto, though we were in the minority. oh well! and noah stayed home and snoozed with grandma, which worked out just fine.

on sunday we went north to ladner, where we feasted again on an amazing million-course brunch at aaron's parents' house. kate was a bit under the weather, but that didn't stop her and noah from feeding the ducks, hassling the bunnies and enjoying a raucous bath together. (see the video in the post below.) and they shared their cousin-ly love.

more pictures from the weekend here.

easter egg hunt (a movie)

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noah and kate search for easter eggs this weekend in our front yard

bath splashing (a movie)

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kate and noah go crazy in grandma's tub

tradition, tradition!

as easter approaches, i've been thinking a lot about how to celebrate it (and other holidays) with noah. for me, easter is the most special holiday of the year, and it's the biggest feast day in the church year. but easter is preceded by lent and holy week, which are neither very celebratory or very easy to explain to a child. but i don't want to skip over these hard parts with noah, and go right to the feasting. he's really still too young, but at some point i'd love for him to think about his own lenten discipline, and to ponder jesus's story, and to understand the sadness in the story that comes before the joy.

i've been looking for good children's easter books to help tell the story, and my favorite is jan pienkowski's easter. it's basically just the biblical story in the king james version, but the illustrations (beautiful silhouette characters and textured gold leaf detail) are what make it remarkable. one reviewer said she appreciated how the silhouettes make the story a bit less scary for children, and let them fill in their own ideas about what the characters are feeling. unfortunately it's out of print, but our library has it.

for this year, though, i was looking for something a little bit younger, and i finally settled on the story of easter by aileen fischer. it begins with a telling of jesus's final days, but then she goes on to tell a brief history of easter traditions, beginning with solstice celebrations and moving forward through easter european egg-decorating to modern-day easter egg hunts and fancy hats. the illustrations are also really classy.

a few other fun books i found:

rechenka's eggs by patricia polacco tells the story of a ukrainian woman decorating eggs for a festival, and how the goose she saves from death turns magical.

the birds' gift by eric kimmel, tells the story of a town graciously sheltering its wild birds during a harsh winter and how the birds repay the townsfolk in the spring.

and margaret wise brown's the golden egg book is a silly story of a bunny and a chick becoming good friends.

i'm excited also to share the joy of easter with noah. primarily this means (or will mean, once he can understand) the joy of christ's resurrection, which hopefully will be made real through our lenten and holy week observances, reading and storytelling, the symbolism of darkness turning to light and quiet solemnity into raucous bell-ringing... but i also want to make a space for the light-hearted joy of a springtime celebration with family and friends. i'm not sure exactly what shape that celebration will take over the years, but i imagine it will involve good food, easter egg dyeing and hunting, and the trading of special gifts. i'm still working on an easter basket for noah, which i hope will contain items that both point toward christ's resurrection but are also plain fun for him.

i especially love christina and sarah's lenten and easter gardens for how they help children see a tangible difference in the seasons. you can see sarah's lenten garden here. and here is a picture from christmas of the star path christina made for mary to progress on toward christmas. it was lovely. they have both used the book all year round by ann druitt to help them establish beautiful and concrete ways to help their children incarnate the changes of the seasons, the church year and holidays and festivals. i think i should get a copy of my own soon.

i would love to hear more ideas on meaningful and fun family traditions for easter and other important holidays!

retching and quickening

this weekend was crazy. the craziness started friday afternoon when i got noah up from his nap and found that he had thrown up all over his crib. he was so confused, sad-looking and pale. the poor little guy threw up quite a few more times that night, and probably had four baths. and it was so weird to see him so wan and lifeless. even a visit from grandpa that night didn't seem to liven his spirits. (when normally he talks about grandpa all day long!)

but i have to admit that while it's terrible to see your child suffering, it's also a great opportunity to cuddle with them a ton. i felt really sorry for noah being sick, but i also loved having him snuggle with me on the couch and in bed. it is so hard for me to think that as he continues to grow, his desire to snuggle with his mama will continue to lessen. what a hard thing! and a great reason to have more babies, i suppose...

which leads me to the quickening part of this post: on saturday i felt this tiny one move inside me for the first time! it was shortly after i myself had gotten sick, so maybe the little one was protesting to the violent contractions. but i am certain it was him/her and not sickness that i felt. and since then i've felt it more and more. it's really exciting, and helps bring a sense of reality to something i still haven't quite grasped. i'm really looking forward to stronger movements that noah will be able to feel. i'm betting that will help him bond with this little one too.