Standing up

Elliott loves to stand. His surprisingly strong little baby legs can easily hold up his weight and he's even taking a few steps now and then. He is pretty chatty too.

Precious family moments

Elliott really likes the light fixture in the living room ceiling. That's what he's talking to in this video and also what he's smiling at.

We tried to get a family picture on the couch the other day. Everything was family bliss until Kerstin went for the camera. Elliott started to cry because he was startled by his own flatulence and Alden subsequently buried his head in the couch. Kerstin managed to catch this magic moment.

Elliott learns to smile

This video was taken on Sept. 21st. Elliott was 5 weeks old at the time and just starting to smile.

The Many Faces of Elliott

Big Brother and Little Brother

Alden is still digging little brother, which is great.

Yesterday at tummy-time Alden wanted in on the action.

Head Strength Galore

Elliott doing tummy time.

Alden gets the blues

Alden likes the Street Legal album by Dylan a lot, but always does this special, extra serious dance when "New Pony" comes on. The kid is feeling it! He seems to like intense songs (along with regular kid songs too). He has several other signature moves, but his serious face is his go-to expression.

Other music he is currently into:
They Might Be Giants Kids songs
They Might be Giants early albums
Third wave ska bands
Up tempo Gospel
Techno Dance trash

Alden Sings

The Stepping Stones school Alden attends had a Christmas show last week. It was held at a lovely mansion in Augusta (Governor Hill's Mansion).
The program was crazy long... 37 songs all together... It lasted at least two hours (Alden's songs were over an hour) we waited as long as we could but finally had to go.

At least half of the performance Alden looked lost. He did step up on a couple songs... and then he went and cuddled with his teacher for the last part.

Here is Alden at about 50 percent performance level.

Tennis puddles

I took Alden on a stroller ride this morning and stopped by the high school tennis courts, or what we now call Disney Land.

Young Artist Alden

We have been trying to get Alden to explore his art supplies more frequently. He is not particularly interested in sitting and drawing on paper, and when he does draw he quickly gets distracted and moves on to other things... although that is true for most stuff he does.

I am not sure where the bell-curve is for three year old interest in art, but as a parent, want some refrigerator coverings. Today I discovered that he prefers boxes to working on paper and believe may have witnessed a creative breakthrough.

Some earlier work of young artist Alden.

Alden and Kerstin Chase

Alden is yelling "tractor (English), tractor (Spanish)" here.
I have no idea why, but I think it's funny.

National Toboggan Championships 2011

We went to the National Toboggan Championships in Camden this Sunday. There were about 500 teams, most were local but some traveled from all over the country to participate and there were a even handful of international teams as well. The races were broken up into several categories: 2, 3 and 4 person sleds, as well as kids and experimental categories. Kerstin's friend from work, Steve (pictured above in the hockey jersey) was one of the participants in the 4-person category. Steve joined a hockey friend's toboggan team last year and has been hooked ever since. Their team made it to the semi finals last year, so he decided to look for sponsorship this year. Steve cold-called Sam Adams and asked them to sponsor his team, and lo, they did. They sent him a toboggan with a beer bottle on the bottom (Darrell is holding it in the photo above), gave the team a bunch of beer and basically told them to give it away during the event. Kerstin was happy to oblige their corporate overlords.
There were best costume heats as well. If these guys didn't win it, they certainly should have. I don't know what they were, but they rocked! We also saw a Star Wars team, a Santa Claus team and an owl-head team.
We pulled Alden around in his own sled most of the day. He wasn't so interested in the competition itself, but he enjoyed being dragged about on the ice and snow and he really liked "skating" on smooth patches of ice.
From what I could tell, toboggan championships mostly involve drinking in shacks on the ice, with an occasional sled run now and again. The sled chute funnels tobogganers onto the ice of a large lake, where most of teams were held up in their own ice shacks, drinking and barbecuing. There were also a handful of food vendors, and a large bonfire along the banks of the lake where one could warm hands and feet. Alas, there was no public indoor area to seek refuge from the cold. And it was COLD! I think it barely reached double digits (F) by midday. By the time we arrived on the site at 11, Steve and his teammates were pretty sloshed. (Note the bottle of Crown Royal on the ice. It was empty within a half an hour of this shot). We left at about 2. Alden did very well for being outside in the cold for 3 hours straight!The team names were fairly amusing. Lots of references to ash (the preferred toboggan material) with names like "Frozen Ash", "4 Ash wipes" and "Cracker My Ash". There were also lots of toboggan refs like "Soggy Boggin' Boys" and "Throbbin' Boggins". Beer and wood references were also rampant.
And here's a video of a team going down the chute. Most teams endured this rather terrifying (or so says Steve) run silently, but not these folks. I think sleds could get up to 45 miles per hour. There were a few crashes, but no injuries that I was aware of. There wasn't much technique to toboggan racing from what I could tell. As you can see on this video, the sleds are launched by officials, not the racers, using a tetter-totter-like device. Steve says there isn't much you can do to give your team the edge except for how you treat the bottom of your toboggan. The treatments varied from turtle wax to bees wax and animal fat. I have no idea which was more frictionless, but it was a heated topic of conversation among competitors.

A Little Light Dance

Alden is a big fan of mid-80's electronic hip hop, especially Pump Up The Volume, (or as he calls it, "Pull Out The Volume"). He rocks out hard to this song when Kerstin calls it up on the stereo and shows off all his moves here. I'm putting this up to entertain a certain member of my family but hopefully others would find it amusing as well.

Alden has seen the music video (below) so many times that he's memorized the cuts and likes to relive these moments. This is why he keeps saying "lunar lander" at the end.

Capricorn Ball Redux

Capricorn Ball 2011 was a little different than in previous years. A friend of the CB hosts has late stage cancer and his wife is one of the artists who frequently makes goat effigies for this party. She suggested a paper lantern salute to bring good fortune to her ailing husband, which was a very nice addition. Karen made the effigy this year, which was burned afterward.
Fifty Chinese paper lanterns were lit at dusk (video below). It was a bit chaotic because the lighting effort wasn't coordinated and it took about 5-10 minutes for the candle to heat enough air to lift a given lantern. The final effect was less a mass launch than a steady trickle of rising lanterns - they looked like new stars appearing one by one in an ever darkening dusky sky. It was magical and beautiful to watch.

The arrhythmic, quasi-tribal and uberwhite drumming that normally accompanies the bonfire was absent this year. Instead a young fella with an iPhone and a couple of large speakers made weird musical "soundscapes". His app allowed him to make different noises depending on whether his fingers brushed, tapped or made circles on the screen. This resulted in lots of atonal, extraterrestrial bleeping and digital whooshing noises. We could only stand a few minutes of it, but it went on for the whole lantern launch and burn. To spare you the same pain, I've muted the sound on the video.

Once all the lanterns were launched, Gust (the party host) lit the bonfire and the straw goat burnt up quickly.

The fire was followed by a potluck and live music by the Zulu Leprechauns, who have been the party band for years. Alden loved the band and was all over them while they were setting up and doing their sound check. However it was a bit too loud for him when they started playing and we had to scoot away to an adjacent room to dance.All the Capricorns attending the 2011 party are pictured above. It was Ilana's Dad's birthday, and since the Ball is all about celebrating Capricorns, we invited him to the party. I think he had a good time. We had black forest cake and ice cream for him back at home later that night.

Alden Sledding on Christmas eve

December 24th was a lovely day. I spent the morning replacing a ballast for the Artdogs Studios and then my pal Darrell came over and we (Darrell, Alden and me) went sledding in the back yard. Alden calls it "sliding", which I think is quite appropriate.
This was the first time Alden had gone down in the sled by himself. We went down together a few times, but mostly it was a solo venture, with either Darrell or me at the bottom to catch Alden.
The sled run was pretty great for a three year old. A long but very shallow incline, which is good because Alden could not hold on to the sled with his gloves on. The only major hazard was our neighbors deck (at the end of the run). It was just the right height for Alden to take a header if he got up enough speed and we didn't stop him.
Alden sometimes closed his eyes on the sled and sometimes turned his head around to watch me after I pushed him down the hill. When he did this I would yell to him to turn around and look forward, which never seemed to work. Alden crashed twice, but took both spills very well. He was only upset until I brushed the snow off his face... maybe 15 seconds. I was very proud of him.

Alden Throwing

We went to a fund raising supper last night. Across the street was a playground where Alden and I went for a break. It turns out that throwing rocks and sticks in a fountain is better than playground equipment sometimes. For those who don't speak Alden, he is saying "one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready..." he misses the four to go....

The Alden Sleeping Game

This is the night-night game that Alden loved to play with Jessie. It's usually played on or around a couch, but it can also be performed with a blanket on the floor, a beanbag chair, or a pile of laundry. The 'that's cold, very heavy' box of tile in the middle of the living room is optional for this game. It is more essential for the bathroom renovation taking place. The song Alden starts to sing at around 25s is Going to Marrakesh by the Extra Glenns, a truly fantastic song, but not one that I'd really classify as a traditional lullaby. Then again, when has Alden ever been traditional? He strongly associates this song with night-night, so it is sung even during play sleep. I like to think that somewhere out there, John Darnielle smiles with satisfaction whenever our little toddler sings it to himself as he drifts to sleep.

New Passover Song

Dianu is so passe. This year the hot new song was I've Been Working on the Railroad in three part harmony. The song was introduced as a stop gap measure to keep Alden from melting down in mid-seder. It worked beautifully, so long as we kept singing it over and over to the exclusion of the rest of seder. My favorite part of this video is my grandfather eating his dinner, completely unaware of what's going on. That and the gargantuan nose picking by my son at the end of the video. I'm so glad I'm able to share that tender moment with everyone.

Kerstin video

I made a quick video of the Poetry Out Loud event that I did for the Maine Arts Commission. Alden thinks it is a great thing to watch, which makes me feel pretty good. He calls it "kids building".



The video isn't sizing right on the blog, so you can also see it here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAIVDY64E50

Alpabet skills

This is a game we have been doing for awhile, but never recorded it. Here is Alden showing off his alphabet skills