Alden and Elliott Fiddling

Alden has been practicing like a champ and really making strong headway with his violin. We thought Elliott might be ready to start about a year ago, because of his earnest interest in what he saw Alden doing. However over the course of the year Elliott proved to be an unreliable practicer, so a couple months back we stopped taking him to lessons and will wait and see how he develops his dedication.

Elliott still likes to noodle around with a violin sometimes, and especially when he sees Alden being silly, like with his practice for an upcoming concert. The Pop Goes The Weasel doesn't showAlden at his best... especially with the silliness, but it is great to see the two kids playing together.

Alden's Suzuki Concert

Alden did an amazing job at his Suzuki concert in the end of March. Last year at this time he hadn't yet learned twinkle. This year, he's at the very end of book 1! We are so proud of all the hard work he's put into the violin this year and are amazed at his progress.

Alden is hard to see in this video because the lighting wasn't good on the seats, but he's the little one at the far left, in the second row. The younger students not yet playing this song were dancers who performed a somewhat bastardized Minuet dance. I cut to them during the minor part, since Alden doesn't play that part yet.

The concert was more playful than most benefit concerts. There were some jazzy and folksy re-interpretations of Bach, and a downright silly piece featuring a viola for 4 hands, which I'll try to upload later. A former Suzuki student even performed a Cirque du Soleil-like chicken dance during the fiddler's routine. The dance starts at 1:33:

This is a long way from the days of Mrs. Wear!

Alden Holiday Series 1

Original artwork gifts from Alden. He did this series of things that he likes/ is interested in. 

 A monster with a gold stick.

 Cat with stripes and butterflies behind clouds.

Cheese robot with wheels floating down to cheese moon holding some cheese.

 Alden and Elliott taking a bath.

  Butterfly sun and snake.

 Fish from the fish tank.

 Orange cat and grey cat playing with balls and ribbons.

 Cage above three mice with cheese.

Candy.

Elliott Hair Cut - Alden at School

Elliott got a haircut this weekend;

Before 

After

We had our first parent teacher meeting for Alden. They reported his academics are advanced, but he needs to work on social skills... basically listening, eye contact, and some impulse control... nothing serious. It was nice to meet his teacher and see his school again.

Steve's Wedding

My friend Steve got married yesterday in Houlton Maine to his special lady friend Jess. Alden and I made the trip and Ilana stayed home with Elliott. My work friends Chris and Priscilla and their sweeties also attended, which was great. 

It was a three hour drive, but it was worth it. Steve is a great guy and Alden has been asking about marriage lately. How do you get married? when can I get married? When do you know you are married? and so on. 

Alden had a nap on the way up. He ran round the ceremony-seating like a rat stuck in a maze before the opening. He was very well behaved during the ceremony, bet was very anxious to see Jess and asked 'is that Jess?' when each bridesmaid entered. 

The ceremony was short and sweet and then we went to the reception. Alden ran around the tables like crazy, was well behaved at the meal and we left at 8pm to drive home. Alden slept in car so he was ready to go the next day. I was a little beat, but enjoyed myself a lot and it was worth it.

Half Birthday

Alden's friend Evelyn had a half birthday this week. Her real birthday is just over a month past Alden's and she was tired of the snow.

Instead of snow there was running around and water balloons.

Cady was there, who Alden is especially sweet on, and they hang out for most of the party together.

Kindergarten

Kindergarten for Alden, Back to daycare for Elliott.

Wednesday was the first day of Kindergarten for Alden. Elliott was supposed to start daycare Monday, but had a fever that lasted to Wednesday.

Alden was most excited about riding the bus by himself. He is also very excited about a new school, but the bus thing is the primary conversation.

We waited for the bus on the lawn, on the big front rock, on the porch sofa and finally on the front steps. The bus came at 7:45 and away he went. I then took Elliott to daycare at the Boys and Girls Club, which was the next stop on Alden's bus ride... so I got to wave good-bye to him again.

Picnic Portland

We all went to Portland to the 'Picnic Portland' Festival (and to the Children's Museum) this weekend. The festival was mostly discovery bands and hipster clothes/ food. Very fun.  

Alden got to run through a dirty fountain (when Ilana was not looking). Elliott mostly relaxed in his stroller.

Bee Swarm 2 Collected

Last year we were very proud of ourselves for capturing a swarm of bees that were high in a pine tree. 

The other evening I was walking around the backyard when I noticed this cluster of insects in our apple tree.

 Here is Alden standing directly under it to give a sense of scale.

 We took one of our extra hives and shook the bees into it.

Most were contained (including the queen) the remainder of the bees made their way into the hive over the night.

In the Water

Elliott is finally big enough to safely use the regular tub. 

He and Alden have  a great time, but it usually escalates to wild splashing, which Elliott loves but Alden not so much.

Gardiner Fest

We went to the Gardiner Downtown Festival. I took some sketchy pictures of the kids that I thought I would share. I did not see the cigarette butt on the bricks before I took the picture, but it adds some flavor to the image. Elliott was actually quite happy all day, despite looking angry and worried.

Baby Possum

The critters are back and so the traps are out again. 

We caught a possum the other week and let it go. Then, the next day we caught a baby possum.

Then we caught the baby possum three more times. He is super cute and pretendes to be fierce by showing us his teeth when we come by the trap.

We always let him go and he walks slowly away into the flowers. I like possums because they eat grubs, but baby possum is getting annoying because we are trying to catch the groundhogs and he keeps getting in the way. Alden is especially fond of the baby possum.

Printmaking

Alden and I did some printmaking this weekend. 

On Saturday Karen offered to open the press and teach us some techniques.

Alden and I went to the store and got a doughnut and then met up with Karen at 8am. I figure it is important to have ritual with this and the doughnut will be a key part.

Alden worked for about 45 minutes and then became distracted. I worked until 10, when Karen had a meeting. It was a nice morning. I hope we can do it again soon.

Alden loses another tooth

Alden fell and hit his mouth a few weeks back. His gum started to discolor last week and we had him checked out by the dentist, who noticed the tooth was loose and told us to keep an eye out for any signs of infection. Sure enough, he developed an abscess in his gum on Tuesday and the dentist had to remove the tooth. This brought the swelling down a lot, but it left Alden's mouth full of holes. He probably won't get his adult teeth for a few more years, so I guess we'll need to get used to this new smile. The tooth fairy brought him a little Lego set this time, which he's been enjoying during this vacation week.

Passover 2013

With our car situation still in flux when it came time to make our holiday travel plans, we decided to fly to Maryland for Passover this year. Alden's new ear tubes seemed to help with his airsickness. We had a handful of barf bags at the ready, but didn't use a one of them on either flight. We were very proud of Alden but I think he was the most excited of all. The only drama on the way down was a freak snowstorm that blanketed much of the mid Atlantic region. Our flight was delayed by an hour, but we were able to make it down just fine when the weather warmed slightly by midday. There was about 2 inches of snow on the ground in Baltimore when we arrived in mid afternoon and by the next day, it had rained and all the snow was gone. Still, this is the first time in my memory that the seder was marked with a snow storm. Usually the holiday falls when spring is well underway down there.

Alden received some wonderful gifts from Auntie Kay, several of which were wrapped in pokkadot ribbon. Kerstin, quick on his toes, fashioned a tie out of this ribbon for Alden for the seder, since we were unable to find him a proper tie in the kids clothing stores. Alden was really excited about it.

Geoff joined us for the first night of Pesach.

Alden still hasn't learned how to sit still or listen quietly during the seder itself, but he loves to entertain us with funny faces and still can't help banging the silverware together or reducing the tablecloth to moist shreds.

Elliott slept through most of the first seder, but he was awake for the second and sat in his car seat for a good portion of it. He got to meet my grandfather on Monday night and the two of them really hit it off.

The dinner always runs late and by the time we finish all the courses and find the afikomen, it's usually way past bedtime for the kids. Despite being cranky and tired, Alden got to stay up to open the door for Elijah this year.

It was Elliott's first time meeting Rob and Kay and he really took a liking to them. He especially liked the Mayan calendar on the wall of Kay's kitchen. It quickly became our go-to object to avert meltdowns.

Kay made amazing meals, as she always does, with several courses, and decadent desserts. We ate our fill and then some because there were so many tempting options.

Alden wanted to take his own pictures of the seder as well. We forgot to pack his camera so he borrowed ours. He took this picture above, which is a surprisingly well-composed and focused image of his gefilte fish plate. He loves gefilte fish. But most of the pictures he took were nasal numbers like this one of my mom.