Good Weekend

Month 4

Dear Ilan,

You will be 5 months old next week.  Time is passing more quickly now.  Where did your 4th month go?

We ate dinner outside tonight, and I got Daddy to help me take some photos of you and your brother. I was going for a spring theme, which is why, in these last two photos, you are surrounded by random plants.  All this did was distract you (we have many outtakes of you trying to eat the flowers), and I have to admit that the whole thing looked a lot better in my head.

It's easy to capture you smiling.  You smile whenever I look at you.  And you fuss when I look away.  When I leave the room you start wailing.  As soon as I'm back you turn off the crying and are all smiles.  It's cute, and I'm flattered, but it's getting old.

You had a checkup this month and are still a small fry - in the 25th percentile.  Strangers are always telling me you look big for 4 months, and I think that's because you have a lot of hair.  Your hair is naturally thicker and longer on the very top, like a faux hawk.  Or maybe people think you're older because you are never asleep.  You sleep well at night but you're a terrible napper.

You are at the stage where you are drooling something fierce, so that the front of any shirt I put on you in is drenched within an hour.  I've started putting you in bibs, since they are easier to change than shirts. They make you look so big, like you are ready to grab a spoon and fling some food around the house.

The best games to play with you are Plop, where I sit you up on the bed and you balance for a few seconds before falling over, and Whoosh, where I float a blanket over your face. It's like a lively version of peek-a-boo.  You love these games, and smile and laugh when we play them. It is wonderful to hear you laugh.

Here you are, at 4 months:

Art Show

Dear Roan,

Every Wednesday, for the last two months, you've gone to art class at an old armory that's been converted to our neighborhood YMCA. Instead of taking your art home each class, your teacher Miss Julie kept it all and put together a grand art show last Saturday.  We all got dressed up and went.

When we got to your classroom Miss Julie said, "Roan, welcome to your opening!" Your art was organized into exhibits. There was music playing. There were snacks and juice boxes laid out. Just like we were gallery hopping in Chelsea!

The artist poses under his favorite piece

Inspired by Kandinsky - Roan's is on the bottom row, 3rd from the left

Your class also made an outdoor installation, two large flowers to mount on the supporting poles for a young tree.

Neighborhood installation - painting this was a group effort

You seemed to enjoy art class. Every week you walked right through the doors and seated yourself at the table, awaiting instruction. This session I signed you up for puppet making with Miss Julie. The first class you made a bird, which looked nothing like a bird, but you flew it all around during our walk home, making it loudly eat everything we passed.

I also signed you up for a Saturday morning soccer class. Your Daddy was so excited to take you, but from what I heard you weren't into it.  Instead, you pretended you were a monster and chased after the ball, trying to eat it. You ran in a strange bent-over-sideways way to keep your mouth close to the ball and made loud monster chewing noises.  Do you see a pattern here?  We do.  You are obsessed with eating things, and being eaten.

Not everything can be successful as art class.