Caught Reading

6 Months

Ilan,

Today you are exactly six months old.  You are sitting up on your own for long stretches, but you eventually will tip over.  You've started sticking your tongue out all the time.  You are very social.  You love to eat mashed up foods and never make terrible faces when I give you a new flavor - you eat everything I put in your mouth with relish.  You want to eat everything that your family is eating, and get frustrated when we won't share.

Here you are in San Antonio, sitting pretty.  Happy half year, Lani Lou.

Father's Day

Dear Jay,

I went all out for your first father's day.  Roan was 7 months old and I dragged him around to all the places we went when we were first dating and took pictures.  Then I made a photo book, and told the story of our courtship, accompanied by photos of our extremely chubby son eating baby food at Gramercy Tavern, throwing popcorn at the Angelika, chewing the menu at Frank's, sitting in your old chair at Curtis Brown.

I'm not going to top that this year, or even come close.  I am tired.  We are so, so tired. I pulled out that photo book, and looked at the introduction I wrote you.  I said, "I always knew you would be good at this, but I never dreamed you'd be this good."  And you've only gotten better.

I could point out a million reasons, but there is one that immediately comes to mind - YOU POTTY TRAINED ROAN.  God bless you my husband.  If you do nothing else... I think you could just sit back now and rest on your parenting laurels.  But you won't.

Look at these boys, how much they love you.  And so do I.  Happy Father's Day.

Hand-Me-Downs

Jay's parents recently moved into a smaller home, and didn't have room for all of their furniture.  We totally scored!  They were kind enough to ship us a bedroom set, a buffet, and a 500 pound piano that's been in Jay's family for three generations.

Before everything arrived, I was most excited about the new bed.  For years we've slept in a bed that once belonged to Jay's old roommate, and it creaked and groaned every time we made the slightest move.  Getting in and out of bed made such a fuss that Ilan, who sleeps in our room, would often stir and wake.  

The new bed is incredible, and it's so nice to have a matching dresser and and end tables.  It's almost as if we are real grown ups now. But I am most happy with the piano.  It was initially slated for our basement,  but the movers couldn't get it down the stairs.  Now it sits in our kitchen / dining room, dominating the space.  It came with a ton of sheet music, so we are learning to play everything from children's folk songs to Billy Joel to the Beatles.  Jay and I do a moving Heart and Soul duet. Roan does scales and calls out the name of each note. Even Ilan takes pleasure in pounding the keys.  How is it that Jay's two older siblings passed on the opportunity to own this?

Also great about the piano: we have now become those people who put framed portraits on it.

I have a thing for hand-me-downs.  My engagement ring belonged to Jay's maternal Grandmother.  My wedding ring was my Grandma Em's wedding ring.   Though I rarely think about it anymore, I love having this little bit of history on my finger.  It makes me happy to repurpose things.

In addition to the large furniture items, the Lyons also sent us small pieces of memorabilia, like photos from Jay's childhood, and this poster they had made from one of our wedding photos:

This last photo is for my mother-in-law.  Barbara, I want you to know that we are making good use of all those napkins you saved from Jay's barmitzvah.  From 1989.  We are using them for special occasions, like Shabbat.

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.