A Little Relief. He's Not Unique

We spent some time yesterday visiting some friends.  One couple has a two year-old boy and just had twins.  The other couple has a three year-old and is pregnant with twins (glad we missed out on the twins train).  I'll try, probably in a clumsy fashion, to keep from naming the other family's and their children since I don't know if they would like their children's names out on the intertubes.

James is alternately a delight and a lot of fun to be around and really trying.  Most of the time I chalk his not listening and sass up to being three, but there are times that I wonder if we have...

Time out:  James is currently crying because Sarah won't let him eat sugar out of the sugar bowl.  He seems to really like to eat sugar, and apparently eating sugar is now one of the reasons he wants to make pancakes with Sarah.  He's now crying and stirring the pancakes with a whisk.  It's a little funny, really.  Now he's crying and adding flour and stirring and he is really really trying to keep crying.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

I wonder if there are things that we have done in raising him that have lead to some of his more frustrating behaviors.  I'm sure this is probably a common thought among parents, but that doesn't stop those thoughts from floating into my head.  The thing that I am struggling with the most lately is his deliberately doing things that we tell him not to do or that he knows he is not supposed to do, and it's even worse when he grins or laughs while doing it.  Another behavior that is particularly tough is that he's started running away when we tell him to come to us (or come in, or stop doing something, etc.).  This all wears down my patience pretty quickly and can make me kind of grumpy.

One of the things that I struggle with sometimes is staying crabby for an afternoon  (especially in the afternoon after nearly a whole day of boys before Sarah gets home).  I continue to be crabby about things, but James has since moved on and is happy and laughing.  He doesn't hold on to things like that very long, and I wish I had that ability.  I feel like I was able to let go more when I was meditating regularly and going to the Dharma center.  Maybe one of these years I will make time to do that again.

So it was all a little comforting seeing other families with young children dealing with some of the same behaviors that we've been dealing with.  The boy, who has been potty trained about as long as James has been, still has accidents and needs to read books while in the bathroom.  The girl is also sassy and has a hard time listening sometimes.  I won't go into the details of stories I heard from their parents nor am I passing judgment on them and what they're doing with their kids.  It is all just a little reassuring that we are not alone here.

All in all, I really am having a good time as James is growing up.  We hare have fun exploring parks, pretending, playing trains, etc.  That doesn't make those days where he strings some of his behaviors together any easier or faster, but I suppose with some more mindfulness I can remember that a little kid is a little kid and is learning, testing, growing and even though they may be trying some times that they are also pretty wonderful.

Ukulele - Now with video

Perhaps five years ago, I went out to San Diego to visit my father.  While I was there, I took the opportunity to visit my uncle Paul and his girls Ellen and Annika.  We played a rousing game of chutes and ladders (or the like).  I got a short piano recital from the girls as well as a short classical guitar recital from Paul.  I mentioned to Paul that I missed having the opportunity to be musical.  I played trombone for twelve-ish years, but stopped about ten years before.  Besides, the trombone isn't exactly the greatest solo instrument.  I also said that guitar would be fun, but that everybody plays guitar so if I were to pick up a new instrument, it would probably be a ukulele.  Besides, it has two fewer strings than the guitar, so it must be easier.

I had been thinking about that for a couple years, but when a ukulele arrived on my door step about three weeks later, I didn't have to think about it any longer.  The ukulele that Paul surprised me with is a beautiful Hawaiian made instrument.  This is clearly not a dime-store toy.  So I didn't have any excuse to not be musical... except teaching... and then Jamesing... and a hundred other things.  I could play a few chords, but that was about it.  Then this last school year, I had a perfect opportunity to start practicing again.  The last period of the day at the school I was working at was a "skills" class, where students could learn guitar or make music in our computer lab.  So out came the ukulele, and I played on and off through the rest of the school year and almost daily this summer.

One of the main times I've been practicing is when we go to a park or open gym where James can run around and play and Thomas can either have some tummy time on a blanket, or sit in his stroller.  It is hardly uninterrupted practice, but it is regular.  The thing is that I've never played a strummed instrument before and there is a lot to figure out.  I can play chords, but I am sure my technique is mediocre at best.  There is a strumming pattern or two I can do, but I couldn't tell you much about them and I fall apart when the rhythm of the lyrics to a song don't match easily with that strumming pattern.  I've also kind of been doing the lazy-man's version of learning the instrument.  I have a lesson book that I've mostly worked through, but I rely pretty heavily on tab sheets.  I am not particularly comfortable with the treble clef, so tabs it is.

I have a stelf-study music theory book that I opened a couple years ago, but I haven't spent much time with it past counting eighth notes.  Back in high school, I took an independent study music theory class that I enjoyed.  It seems to me that I got as far as constructing different types of chords and chord progressions.  I'd like to at least get that far again here, but it is just a matter of spending time with that book and a keyboard.

Anyway, so I have a pile of tab sheets printed out for different music, and I am more or less competent at about half a dozen of them.  I have spent the most time with Rainbow Connection, and can mostly play it without mistakes without having to look at music.  So without further ado, here is a short video of me playing Rainbow Connection (no Kermit the Frog voice, sorry).  It isn't without mistakes, but it is good enough.

Hmmm... stay tuned while I figure out how to post a video.

The Brown Boy at Swimming Lessons

James said something the other day that has had me thinking quite a bit.  Every Monday since early June, I've taken him to "Tiny Tots" swimming lessons where we are both in the pool together.  The lesson is half an hour long and there are lessons after ours is done.  There is an African-American mother and son who arrive a couple minutes early for that next lesson each week and James has asked what they were doing sitting at the side of the pool.  I told him that it was their turn for swimming lessons after our lesson was over and we said hello.  On the way to swimming lessons on Monday, James asked me, "Is that brown boy going to be at swimming lessons tomorrow?"

It is a little hard to infer exactly what he was asking. James's conception of time is pretty similar to the Doctor's.

For example, yesterday we went camping a long long long long ways away.  That would be last summer on Madeline Island.  If he is talking about the future, he will try to be specific and say things like, "tomorrow this morning."  So my assumption is that he was simply asking if the boy was going to be at swimming lessons later that evening.

My mind was reeling, though.  Was he possibly expressing his hope that the boy wasn't going to be there that day?  Was he hoping to see him in the near future?  What was it that made James think about the boy?  For that matter and probably more fundamentally, what does James think about the brown boy?

While we live in one of the most diverse cities in the upper Midwest... it is the upper Midwest.  While we are always seeing people from different backgrounds and different parts of the world, the fact of the matter is that a pretty large majority of the people we have any meaningful interactions with on a regular basis look an awful lot like us.  Even at James's pre-school, most (not all) of the students and staff are various shades of white.  That is not to say that we don't see people that look different than us.  Be it at the co-op we do much of our shopping at, playing at various parks, etc. we are in a city with people from around the world.  So he does see them and he does notice them, apparently.

I also spent some of my young years growing up here in St. Paul.  We lived for four years in married student housing next to the St. Paul campus of the U of M, and we lived in married student housing in Fargo for three years before that too.  My elementary school years in married student housing is one of my most valued experiences and most formative experiences growing up.  Off the top of my head, I remember having friends from Nigeria, Lesotho, Iran, Malaysia, Peru, Madagascar, Bangladesh, South Korea, India, and Japan.  I'm probably forgetting a few countries too.  The community was wonderful, with parents looking out for each other's children, children playing anywhere and everywhere.  I suppose we must have thought about and talked about different races and cultures, but I don't ever remember it being an issue.  I wouldn't say that I was ever especially informed about any one culture in particular, but I think the mere exposure to other cultures was a valuable experience.

Looking at a few articles (did you know that you can look at and read JSTOR articles for free?  Wow!), it seems to be the consensus that a pre-school child's concept of race is pretty-well developed.  Differences are not as superficial as clothes or even other physical characteristics such as weight, suggesting that they understand it is a fundamental thing and something they think about.  I suppose at this point in time that there isn't a whole lot I can do to foster a positive view of children who are different than he is.  He is observing, and developing his own understanding of how the world works.

Perhaps all I can do right now is to give James the opportunities to meet other children and adults who look different than he does.  We have favorite playgrounds in our neck of the woods, but there are other neighborhoods in the city too where he is more likely to play with Somali or Hmong children.  Maybe we make it a priority to go to the festival put on by the Coptic church next week or to other cultural celebrations in town.  The opportunity to be curious is something we should take advantage of and we really do have a lot of opportunities like that here in the Cities.  I guess I should be thankful for that.

I am also thankful for curious, learning, developing, pondering, growing children, and the chance to watch that happen.  Maybe I can't guarantee that James will be a raging humanity-embracing liberal, but I guess I can open some doors for him to go through when he's ready.

Bed now... brain not working coherently any longer.

Of course, your thoughts and insights are welcomed.

Book Reviews: Monkey With a Tool Belt and the Noisy Problem

In order for this blog not to simply be a "here's what I did today" thing, I need to broaden my topics a bit.  Books are pretty good direction to go, I think.  We started reading to James literally from day one and we are very happy that he asks to have books read to him and that he'll even happily sit and "read" his books by himself for extended periods of time.

As far as Thomas goes, we've not been reading to him as regularly, though we've been making an effort to sit him up on our laps while we are reading to James.  I think the reason we've not been reading to Thomas as much is because we've gotten so used to James being so interested and engaged with books for so long.  Thomas isn't very good at telling us which books he likes, or making the noises for different animals we encounter.  That's no excuse, though.  We are doing better about this than we were a couple months ago.

Anyway, between our own precarious piles of petite, precious books (sorry, it's late.  I couldn't help it) and our regular trips to the library we have seen lots of books from the wonderful to the nauseating to the just plain bad.  I don't know why some of these books are even published.

It's funny too, seeing how books seem to change periodically in terms of types of stories and illustrations.  I'll jump ahead of myself here and say that the proliferation of non sequiturs, mixed-media illustrations, and over-the-top craziness by characters found in so many books from the 90s through maybe the early part of the last decade get old real quick.  More on some of those another time.

So for the first review, I'll cover one of our favorite books by one of our favorite authors.  Monkey with a Tool Belt and the Noisy Problem.

Chris Monroe is a Duluth-based author who is also known for her off-beat comic Violet Days that is all about her experiences growing up, strange stories and other facts that may or may not be true.  Here's a taste:

She also does numerous posters and illustrations for groups and events around Duluth.  It is always a treat to see something that she's illustrated because everything she does is full of whimsy.  She definitely included that whimsy in her Monkey with a Tool Belt books.  Now there is certainly some silliness that were the rest of the book not so well done could get a little annoying, but her style is totally engaging and a lot of fun.

Chico Bon Bon is our protagonist in this series of three books.  Chico Bon Bon is a monkey, a monkey with a tool belt.

Chico stumbles across adventures in and around his tree house and needs to solve problems that this not-very-mechanically-inclined dad wouldn't handle very well.  As you can see, Chico has every tool a monkey would ever need, and is able to take care of any problems he runs into.

Now Monroe's work will probably never be found hanging in a fine art museum, but I love them.  The comic-strip nature plus all of the little details she includes make the books extra charming.  There are so many details that it is hard to not discover something new each read and that keeps the book fresh each time through.  That freshness is something that so many other books lack.  If there is one complaint I have (and it's minor), it is when dialogue moves to speech bubbles.  This is a problem in some other books too, and is a pain because without the indications of who is talking I feel like it can be a little confusing to kids that I am reading this to... without doing voices.  I guess I am ok doing voices to a point, but I'd rather not.

On the other hand, the stories are so sweet and the "I'll have to build her one" line at the bottom of the page above make me more than happy to put up with minor gripes.  Chico is kind and thoughtful, things that I value quite a bit.  I think Chico would be a pretty great monkey to have as a friend or neighbor.  Besides, if he was a neighbor, he'd probably invite us over to use his game room, and disco.

Inevitably, Chico has to solve some big problem with his tools and we get to see this monkey in action.

I won't give away too much of what is going on in this book, so if you want to know just what's going on, you'll have to find the book yourself.  I can't recommend the Monkey with a Tool Belt books enough.  There are two others that we both have, "Monkey With a Tool Belt," and "Monkey with a Tool Belt and the Seaside Shenanigans,"  but I think I can say confidently that Noisy Problem is our favorite.

Overall, I give this book three bananas up.

Fire Station. Wee-Woo-Wee-Woo!

After some plans didn't work out, I took James and Thomas to Fire Station 1 in St. Paul.  It was a spur of the moment thing, but it worked out nicely.  As soon as we walked into the reception area of the attached fire department headquarters, James was handed a fire helmet, a sticker, and a couple tattoos and the woman behind the desk called over to see if anybody was available for us.  Two minutes later we were standing in one of the main bays of the station.

I wanted to do this with the boys... well truth be told, I also wanted to go for my own curiosity.  Back in elementary school, I got to tour a couple different fire stations and thought it was pretty great.  I can't help but be curious about all that machinery, all those buttons, and all that equipment.  I find it all pretty fascinating what specialized equipment and training is needed to do some jobs and would have loved to climb all over those trucks, open all of the drawers and wander around the station for hours.  I suppose I needed to keep up the appearance of just giving my boys a fun experience though.

The two fire fighters, who were named ummm... Friedrich and Maximilian (?)... were great.  They knew just what to do to give James a good time.  In and out of different trucks and demonstrating things, James was rapt.

I was kind of jealous, really.  I wanted to go in the hazmat truck too.

James is really excited to be in a truck where an angry eagle emits freedom vapor.  What could be better?

Though he was pretty quiet and shy, James listened very attentively the whole time.  When he was told not to touch the floor of the "ambliance", he made sure he didn't.  I suppose it hadn't been bleached yet after the last run or something.

Want to see your heart beat?

He was just as interested in playing with the radio as with the lights and other switches of the ambulance.

Again, I am really grateful that Friedrich and Maximilian took time out of their day to show a little boy around and to answer his dad's questions.  Oh, and the most surprising to me was that they have and still use a fire pole!  I wish I had thought for them to take a picture of me being dumb on the fire pole.  Maybe I'll have to do that the next time we visit a fire station.  There will certainly be a next time.

Minnesota Children's Museum

Just about any time we go downtown, James mentions that we are close to the Children's Museum.  It is easily one of his favorite places in town, and rightly so.  They do a wonderful job of stimulating imagination, exploring the natural world as well as mechanics and basic engineering.  James could spend all day there and not get bored, I'm sure.  It was great to read recently that the museum is going to be expanding too!  Any time we can expand places of learning, exploration, and culture (for any aged person) is a good time.

Tuesday is a good time to go to the Children's Museum too because it is "No-Group Tuesday", in which no pre-schools, summer camps, summer schools, or other organized groups visit the museum.  This generally cuts down on the crowds and makes things a little less crazy.  James has more than enough crazy in him already.  My thought was to go today since it was going to be raining on and off... well I guess plenty of other families were thinking the same thing.  It was pretty busy.

The museum is one of James's favorite places, and the exhibits are only a part of the fun.  Here is a representation of what he thinks as we arrive at the museum.

The museum is broken into different large rooms that focus on different things, including some traveling exhibits that rotate in and out periodically.  The first room we generally head for is the "Our World" room, where children explore places they might see in town.  There is a grocery store, a restaurant, a city bus, a stop light and street crossing, etc.

You get the idea and you can just see the nose of the bus poking around the corner ahead on the right.  James thinks driving the bus is his favorite thing about the museum.  It goes to the mall, you know.  It's a good thing we have a driver who knows his way around town so well.

He also told me that the first thing he wanted to do at the museum was to go to the little James kitchen, because it is his favorite thing.  He was very thoughtful to wash his hands before bringing me a nice breakfast of cabbage and a cucumber.

Yum.  I guess I will nom this to please the chef.

He also makes a point to wait for the green light before he crosses the "street".  Clearly this boy is advanced for his age.  He knows how to make a cabbage salad and how to not get run over by cars inside of a museum.

After he spends enough time in "Our World", he always wants to go over to the "World Works" room that is full of mechanical things, water features, and exploring play with light.  Thomas was overwhelmed with excitement for the marble run sculpture thing in the entry area.

James's favorite thing about the museum is using a series of conveyor belts to move big black blocks around.  It is pretty funny, actually, seeing a dozen and a half two to eight-year-olds taking this so seriously.  Up and down the stairs.  Stack the blocks.  Move the blocks.  Mostly work together.  James occupies himself for quite a while here.  I occupy myself sitting on a bench, watching the kids with amusement.

After the World Works room, we went up to the Habitot room that is designed for children aged four and younger.  This room is a pretty good break for parents since we don't have to watch out for our little kids accidentally getting bowled over by bigger kids.  It has a small padded area for very little ones, and some relatively tame things for big little ones to climb around and through.  This is Thomas's favorite place in the museum.  He got all excited and just about leaped out of his stroller to go climbing and exploring... or he was just happy to have a bottle.

Before we left, we had the Earth World room to explore for a few minutes.  James's favorite thing about the Children's Museum is crawling through the extensive ant tunnels... but I didn't particularly have to face the possibility of crawling in after him for some reason while leaving Thomas outside, so James decided to pretend to be "the kind of turtle that sticks its tongue out."

I think that turtle has some growing to do before he really fits into that shell.  Clearly, the shell fits dad's much better (from a previous visit).

James then pretended to be a beaver in a beaver lodge, and Thomas pretended to eat a beaver from a beaver lodge.

That was about all the time we had for the museum today.  It was a good visit, as it always seems to be and there was plenty we did not do.  I guess what I really like about the museum is that it is pretty child-directed. Children find things that interest them and then figure out what to do.  Maybe they don't necessarily do it "right", but they are doing.  It is a very active place with something for everybody.  It seems to support a lot of the Montessori philosophy, and for the age I think that is pretty healthy.  There is also enough here to keep parents interested too.  You see parents exploring and playing right along with the kids all the time here.  I can't speak highly enough about this museum.  We've got our family membership, and I expect we'll be renewing that for years to come.

Fresh Strawberries = Strawberry Pie

Sarah is being kind of dumb.  She saw the title to this post and then had some sciency mathy comment saying that it doesn't make sense.  Well, fresh strawberries defy science and math.

Moving on.

Sarah took James to pick strawberries a few days ago.  It sounds like there is a bumper crop of strawberries now.  They're about three weeks late due to the cool spring and early summer, but their flavor more than makes up for their late appearance.  It is nearly impossible to put one of those strawberries in your mouth and not make a yummy noise.  Once Sarah heard that this strawberry patch doesn't mind if you eat while you pick, she stopped trying to rein in James's gorging on berries.  Clearly his face and fingers show just how good these berries are.

While simply eating them alone or with whipped cream is pretty good, I thought it would be fun to try to make a strawberry pie.  Strawberry pie usually looks pretty good, but you know those strawberry pies at so many restaurants usually fail to please.  We did not want strawberries floating in artificially colored jello.

Crappy pie is not allowed in our house.

Sarah found a recipe based on a Cook's Illustrated recipe that we thought looked good.  Cook's Illustrated is a fantastic magazine.  We got it for ourselves one Christmas and there's never been a question about whether to renew our subscription or not.  Sometimes the recipes are a bit involved or take a long time, but we've never had any bad food when we used one of their recipes.

The first thing to ponder though, was the crust.  I wanted to be sure to have a good flaky crust since it was going to be a pretty moist pie.  So I decided to go another Cook's Illustrated recipe, their vodka pie crust:  http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2007/11/cooks-illustrated-foolproof-pie-dough-recipe.html

About the only change I make when making this crust is using lard instead of vegetable shortening.  The lard kind of smells bad, but it is great in pie crust.  It is very important to use some kind of pie weights while blind baking the crust too, or it would puff up like crazy.  Even after I remove the pie weights (I use a couple pounds of dry beans with some parchment paper to separate them from the crust), I still dock the crust to reduce air pockets.

Here is the result.  I was VERY satisfied with how flaky it was.  But as you can see, there were still some air pockets.  Oh well.  There are worse things in the world.  About the only other thing that I don't care for about this crust recipe is that the dough is so soft, that you can't really flute the rim of the crust very well.  I suppose that I will still survive if there are a few things I do that aren't pretty.

Here is the recipe for the filling:  http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2011/06/14/fresh-strawberry-pie-recipe/ And here is the result, once I put the filling into the shell:

The taste was pretty good.  I don't know that I've had anything that was so intensely strawberry-flavored as this.  The glaze is essentially cooked down strawberry puree with some sugar and corn starch.  Though the taste was pretty good, there are a few changes I would make for next time.  

• It seemed a little too much like strawberries piled into a pie shell, so next time, I would probably use fewer strawberries, and make a little more of the glaze to bind things a bit more.
• I would let the pie set a bit longer... but I don't know if that is a possibility in this house.  The slices we cut the following day held together a bit better than the first couple of slices we cut.
• The glaze was a bit sweet with the strawberries being so sweet on their own, so I would  cut down on the sugar.  I suppose this would really have to depend on the strawberries though.  I'm not sure I've ever had fresh strawberries that were this sweet.

There are a couple changes I would consider just for experimentation too:

• Perhaps put a small layer of custard down on the bottom.
• Sarah said that she found a few recipes that have a sweet cream cheese, like cheesecake, on the bottom.  That could be pretty good.
• Sarah also says that it could always use more whipped cream... I mean the pie is really just a vehicle for the delivery of whipped cream.

All in all, we were pretty happy with this pie.  I just may have to make another one while it is still strawberry season.

Good Tracks, Bad Tracks

As I mentioned in my previous post, James can spot railroad track layouts that have problems pretty quick.  I suppose when you spend as much time with tracks as he does, flaws are pretty easy to spot.  Unfortunately for me, those flaws are harder to construct on demand without making things very obvious.

So here are the track layouts I posted originally:

1.

2.

The bad track was maybe given away by the fact that James wasn't playing with it.  Oh well.  But track number 1 was indeed the bad layout.  The reason is that once you get the train going clockwise around the track, it can no longer go counter-clockwise (or anti-clockwise, if you talk funny).

I tried to illustrate bad turns... but I'm afraid my explanation doesn't work very well beyond what I already said.  Technically, it doesn't work out because math happens or doesn't happen... or daddy just didn't make a good track.

Always make good tracks.  This is important.  Don't forget this lesson, or the 10 minutes you spent putting together what you thought would occupy the boy will result in complaints followed by more track building... which, I suppose, isn't all a bad 'cause that kid sure likes his trains.

Next time, I think it may be time for a book review or two, or perhaps some cooking.

Tracks!

tracks.  TRACKS!  TRACKS!

Few things makes James as excited as trains and train tracks.  I don't know exactly what got him so crazy for trains, but I suspect it may have been when he was little.  I'd drive him back home over a quiet siding from his day care.  He'd get excited as we came to the crossing, or sad if we went some other way home.  Soon he was spotting railroad crossings left and right.  His eye for spotting railroad tracks has become pretty sharp.

Can you see the railroad tracks ahead down the road?

James can.  They're up there.

Though he seems to be able to pick out tracks in the distance on any road, this is in fact one of James's favorite streets in town.  Here's why:

Eight tracks!  Bumpity bump bump bump.

Yesterday we went to one of James's favorite destinations in town, Choo Choo Bob's.  Choo Choo Bob's is a train store that has some modeling supplies, but primarily caters to children.  There are kid-friendly model trains, lots of wooden train sets, and much more.  One of the great things about Choo Choo Bob's, in my opinion, is that they created their own children's television show.  There aren't very many locally produced children's shows any more and these guys have really put together a pretty decent show.  Check it out.

I told James that we were going to go to Choo Choo Bob's today and he immediately said, "we have to go straight a long time then turn and then we're at Choo Choo Bob's!"  I guess he knows the way.  So we went straight a long time and then turned to get to the store.  The store is fun because it has a few model layouts with trains running around.  He has a good time watching them go in and out of the tunnels and all over the place.  But what he enjoys the most are the eight tables in the back of the store with wooden train set layouts.  He could stay there for hours playing and planning and doing and playing some more.  

This is a picture that my dad took a few weeks ago.  That is Toby the square engine on the front of his train, if you didn't know.  I am learning.  Not much choice... though to be honest, the Thomas the Tank Engine stories aren't that bad, especially the original ones from the 40s through the 60s.  More on that later, though.

It was on my calendar, but I forgot that it was story time at Choo Choo Bob's and the place was crazy town.  Spot the James:

We stayed for a little while, but it was just too busy.  He would have liked to stay longer, but is getting much better about changes in plans and having to leave when he is having fun (mostly).  Not all train fun was done for the day, though.  We had the tracks on Cleveland Avenue to go over on the way to a farmers' market.  We also have quite a few pieces of wooden train tracks for him back at home.  James is pretty good about putting together his own layouts.  He'll sometimes need some assistance, so we put together different layouts together and play trains.  Choo choo!  Ding ding ding ding ding.  A holy smokestacks is coming! (just work with me here).

We've got pieces of track from a number of different sets and brands and fortunately for us, they're all pretty compatible.  But sometimes there are problems.  Here are pictures of two different tracks we've set up.  One of them is a good track and one of them isn't.  It doesn't have anything to do with how cool they look, it is more fundamental.  Can you spot which layout has a problem and what the problem is?

1.

2.

The answer is to come next time.

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On an unrelated note, it was my birthday a couple days ago and I was very surprised to see that my dad sent us a new digital camera for my birthday/our Christmas.  While camera phones are pretty convenient, I'm often not very satisfied with how the pictures turn out.  This will be nice to start taking better pictures (not photographs, I am not good enough with a camera to take photographs.  I'm usually satisfied with pictures).

Little Brother, Big Brother

I've realized that I've not really written much about Thomas.  I suppose that is because compared to James, Thomas doesn't really do very much.  In baby terms though, Thomas is certainly getting bigger and doing more things.  His latest tricks include:

• sort of reaching out for things
• grabbing my arm hair
• eating fairly well from a bottle
• sleeping through the night
• holding up his head more
• pooping like a pro
• smiling in the greatest toothless way
• sucking on his wrist

Yeah, maybe he's not quite ready for Stupid Human Tricks on Letterman, but he's a pretty good baby.  It's hard not to compare him to James since James is so active and really growing up.  Then it is hard TO compare Thomas to James when he was three months old.  I just don't remember much of that time.  I was so busy teaching then.  I'd come home from school, crash on the couch for a while, have diner, and then go up to my desk to work for the rest of the night.  I'm glad those days are over (for now.  We'll see come the fall).

Thomas is pretty good about napping, especially in the morning.  He does pretty well with his magic swing.

Believe it or not, this was right after a smile... stupid phone cameras.  He usually naps for a couple hours in the morning after Sarah leaves.  This is something I really appreciate, since I am not usually ready to to go until I've had three or four cups of coffee.  It also allows me to watch the Tour de France (Go Cadel Evans!).

This morning after his nap was over and after the end of today's stage of the Tour, the three of us went to the Edgcumbe Rec Center for pre-school open gym.  This is a great time for James to get lots of wiggles out.  Thomas slept on and off and I practiced my ukulele.  I've nearly got Mr. Sandman down now.

Here's a happy little Thomas with a James streaking by on one of the many trikes in the gym.  I am glad that Thomas is often content to sit in his chair as my back would take a beating if he constantly insisted on being held.  So Thomas napped off and on, I uked, and James zoomed.  Then James and I decided to chase one another, which had the added benefit of having Thomas fall asleep again (doubly good 'cause I forgot a bottle at home).

"You can't catch me!"

So the little one is still pretty babyish, of course.  The big one is really embracing his role as big brother, and I am often very proud of him.  He is pretty helpful when I need him to fetch something for me, and is concerned when Thomas cries.

Thomas was kind of fussy as I was making lunch, so James went over, "I'm here, Thomas.  I'm close by."  He then starts singing lullabies to him and Thomas calms down and smiles.  "That's a good smile!"  Then James decides to draw some pictures for Thomas:

"What did you draw him, James?"  "A big happy snake."

I am proud of him.  Sarah and I were concerned about how James would do with a little brother, but aside from reminders that he needs to be gentle sometimes, he is doing pretty well.  My mom sent James a little doll with some clothes and a blanket.  Though James doesn't play with it often, he does pull baby Thomas out now and then and takes care of him.  He is also happy to be sharing a room with Thomas.  We got James a twin bed earlier this spring and made a big deal of moving to his big boy bed from the toddler bed.  We converted the toddler bed back into a crib and it wasn't long before James was asking when Thomas would be sleeping in there.  He still sometimes asks if Thomas will be sleeping in his room when we put James down for bed.  I think he'll be a pretty good big brother.  All signs point to that so far.

Here he's playing the little tickling game that I played with my little siblings.  You crawl your fingers up the baby saying, "Here comes the fox up the hill, gonna get the baby" and give a little tickle under the chin.  Then James invented, "Here comes the fox down the hill, gonna get the toes."  Funny kid.  Ask him to tell you a joke some time.