Making Faces

A leaf wreath

We collected fallen leaves and seeds at the Arboretum last week, and made a wreath with our bounty.  Here's how!

The collection (check out those sweet acorns - I'd never seen anything like them! They ended up being too big for the wreath, but got passed around at dinner as we told Daddy, Grazi, and Rebecca about our day)


I outlined a wreath on orange card stock using a pot lid and a small bowl


Frankie cut hers out, I did Dex's:


We added plenty of glue




And carefully arranged the leaves around the wreath










They are proudly hanging on Daddy's door at work!

Field Trip

We're at Turner's Pond in Milton with Ashmont Nursery School. Ducks! Geese! Pinecones.

Arnold Arboretum

We spent this delicious fall morning at the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain.  The leaves aren't quite in full color yet, but it was 65 degrees, sunny, and best of all, Momma had a fully-charged camera in her hands.  Kiran Auntie joined us for a morning of reading tags (all the leaves are tagged with dates, type of tree, etc).  It was so much fun to wander the park with no agenda except to enjoy the morning and decide which woodland creature lived in each hollowed tree we found.





Meow cat






Check out the attitude on this one


Kiran Auntie reads a tag




I see tag!








We discovered this "tunnel" and rolled acorns down it for the chipmunk we decided lived in the hole underneath it.






Found some little acorns


Mmm, they smell good


Here you go

The New Camera!

I got my new camera today!  After we found the old one in the dryer about 3 months ago, Chris decided we need to "earn" the next one by selling things on Craig's List.  This was great motivation for me since I've also been on an organizing spree (that has involved eliminating a lot of no-longer-used and unnecessary junk from our house).  I also found it gave me time to really think about what kind of camera I wanted, try them out, and research them online.

Today was the day.  I'd liquidated the extra couch on Thursday pushing me to my goal of $500, and we did our final testing on Friday.  We went up to New Hampshire today for a hike, and took the opportunity to buy a Nikon D3000 tax-free (because NH has no sales tax for those of you who don't live nearby and know this sort of thing).  It's their lowest-end SLR.  We went with the SLR in the end, because I felt from the testing that I did that I wanted the fast shutter speed that an SLR offered in the hopes of taking better pictures of my favorite fast-moving subjects.  I'm also hoping to learn more about taking pictures with the manual settings, and figured an entry-level SLR would give me plenty of room to grow.  I chose the Nikon over the Canon because I liked it just a little bit better when I tested them out.  I can't really site any technical performance reasons, I just kind of liked the Nikon better.  But I'm sure the Canon would have been a good choice too.

The good news is that it takes great pictures.  The sad news is that we took a hike today in New Hampshire on the Welch-Dickey loop, at the height of leaf-peeping season, and the camera battery died before we left the parking lot.  We'd bought it on the way up to the hike, so didn't have an opportunity to charge it before we left.


In the car on the way up

"Mom, take on with me like this"

The trail was insanely crowded. We've done this trail about 4-5 other times, and have never had to park outside the 20-car parking area. This is the line of parked cars in one direction of our car...

And this is the line in the other direction

Frankie with her camel-back equipped backpack

Sadly, the best picture I got of Dex.


They were lining up so I could take their photo on this log when the batteries died. I know, I just shed a little tear too.

But we had a nice hike, and couldn't have asked for better weather (highs in the upper 50's) and saw great leaf color. We got to the ledge, which for us, today, was the top. Considering it took us almost 4 hours to complete 2.4 miles, we would never have made it back to the car before dark if we'd done the entire 4.4 mile loop.

At the ledge, Frankie brought out her bubbles that she'd carried up (with some assistance) in her backpack. She'd brought one for Dex too, and the two of them blew bubbles off the top of this ledge looking down on a gorgeous valley. There were lots of other people at the top, and I have to say, thoroughly enjoyed these bubbles being blown by my 3 and 2 year olds.

This was all rather humbling for me, because I was annoyed at Frankie for wanting to bring her bubbles this morning. "Really, Frankie? You really want to carry those bubbles all the way up the mountain? Do you think bubbles really belong on a hike?". I wouldn't be surprised if I even rolled my eyes a little as she stubbornly put them in her pack.

But they turned out to be perfect for a hike. And she remembered she had them, and took the initiative to pull them out, offered one to her brother, and created a beautiful memory with them.

I'm so thankful for my little girl and her creativity, and desire to make things beautiful, even when her momma can't see the forest for the trees.

(taken with Chris' cell phone camera -- note the bubble wand!)

Dexter's Language update

Dexter's language "explosion" has finally arrived!  I estimate he has about 100 words, combines up to 5 at a time, and is constantly trying new words.  His pronunciation still need considerable work, but we're so happy for him that he's hit this milestone.  Some fun things he's been able to communicate recently:

• He just told me "I nee meh-sin".  (I need medicine).  When I said no, he said "I hot".  We just got flu shots yesterday, and I had to give him some medicine yesterday afternoon after he'd woken up with a fever.
• "I nee sue-me"  This one of my favorites.  He's saying smoothie, but it comes out "sue me" every time.
• "I spy my eye....um, tree!" This is one our favorite car games, and right now he always spies a tree.  Yeah, we play I spy on the the easy setting.
• He now says everyone's name in the house!  He added Frankie last week (Frenchie), and finally started saying Rebecca!  It comes out "Betcha", but we're all happy to see him calling Rebecca something instead of just pointing at her and saying "dis-dis".
• He sings all kids of songs.  His favorite for the last few weeks has been "ABCs".  He gets most of the way through (with a little h-i-j-j-m-m-m-p) and then towards the end just finishes with "s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s".
• His favorite book is his Bible.  He asks for it every night in his crib and we have about 3 kids "Bibles".  He knows which ones they are! 

He's currently telling me "I nee watch Elmo", which means he wants me to watch Elmo with him.  Who can pass up an invitation like that?