Playing

Quilt-maker

Isaiah: I am going to be a quilt-maker when I grow up.

Mama: Oh, will you make a special quilt just for me?

I: Yes, but there is just one thing I will need first.

M: What's that?

I: Rainbow-colored string.  And a place to live and a place to sleep.  And someone to marry.  And food.  And drinks.  And a thimble.

Sled fears

That should say "sledders," but autocorrect is sort of right. Bernadette said "No like it" after a run and definitely didn't want to go again after I tried to take all three of us down the hill and wiped out in a big cloud of snow. Isaiah enjoyed it two days in a row, but probably needs a couple of weeks off before sledding again.

Conversations

Isaiah: What are we having for supper?

Mama: Chicken and spaghetti.

I: [Jumping around and beaming.] Hooray!  Chicken and spaghetti!  Two of my favorite foods!  YAY!!

M: [Surprised but relieved dinnertime won't be its usual struggle.] Wow, I'm glad you're so excited.

I: [Suddenly calm and serious.] Except I don't really like spaghetti that much.

*********

Bernadette: Gamma's. Ice cweam.  Pajamas.  I watch Wall-E.

Mama: You ate ice cream and watched Wall-E in your pajamas at Grandma's house?

B: No!

M: Oh, I got it wrong?

B: No! [Pause.] Spinkles!

M: There were sprinkles on the ice cream?

B: No!

M: Well, where were the sprinkles, then?

B: Uumm...Gamma's house!

***********

After telling Kateri a long story involving race cars (which enraptured her), Isaiah informed his baby sister, "Daddy tells the most wonderful tales.  I do love them so."

Snow-flower

Tonight Isaiah came home with a present for me: a handful of snow.   When he asked where I would put it, I suggested the freezer.  Isaiah disagreed.

"I think the best place for it," he said, "would be the ground, because I really want a snow-flower to grow."

The guitar

Initially not big enough, in Isaiah's words, but it got heavy use by both Isaiah and Bernadette yesterday.

Christmas cuddles

First Christmas

In an outfit from Great Aunt Kasee.

Christmas Day

A new race track. And many other gifts.

Christmas Eve

Siblings dinner. Bernadette and Isaiah subsisted mostly on sweets.

Paul and Liz are fun

Hung with care

Firsts

Kateri takes her first subway ride, visits her first Indian restaurant and hangs out late at a bar on the Lower East Side for the first time (somewhat against her will; that Peter Tascio guy is kinda loud).

The tree

It's up. Of course my decision to use only one color of lights, and white at that, has "spoiled Christmas," according to Isaiah.

Framed

Bernadette Saves Christmas

On the first Sunday of Advent, we set up our wreath on the table, but with only three candles left over from last year.  Bernadette was especially fascinated by the new centerpiece, but she was disturbed by the absence of the fourth candle, despite our reassurances that we would replace it soon.  Later that evening, I heard a little voice murmur, "Dawe we go" and turned around to see Bernadette carefully steadying an upright soup spoon in the vacant candle holder.

A cab on a train

Almost a movie

 Bernadette watching the big screen in the Ocean Room at the Natural History Museum.

Toes, head

Bedtime companions

Isaiah: a bear, a squirrel and an owl
Bernadette: a big bunny and a baby bunny
Kateri: Mama

Songs of the season

Bernadette has unleashed a torrent of language in recent weeks. She chats and cajoles and sings and tells stories. She's able to say anything she wants, although sometimes the words come out in pidgin form, either truncated or with extra syllables added. Still, if you listen closely and pick out a word, suddenly the whole phrase makes sense. I'm convinced she knows just about everything she's saying, even when we don't.

She's also able to sing just about any song she hears, and she's a vocal duet partner with Isaiah. "Puff the magic dragon" is quite popular right now. In the car last night, the two of them were singing "Jingle bells," when Isaiah segued to a mashup of the two, singing "Jingle bells" as the chorus with verses he made up sung to the tune of "Puff." Bernadette, unable to join the improvised verses, would periodically throw in another chorus over the top of the verse.

Spaghetti

Tasty

Sleeper

A brief excursion

From the light snow last week we managed a small snowman.

More Isaiah-isms

Slow, saxy jazz on the car radio: "Daddy, nobody listens to this music."

Later in the evening just before bed: "There's also a clock in my head and it has far more numbers than our clock."

This lament burst forth as I prepared to leave Isaiah's bedroom: "But I have no wife and children." He was very concerned about this, and my explanations of meeting people later on provided little consolation. Maybe I should start explaining grocery bills and insurance so he'll want to wait to start his own family.

Raising a child on a steady diet of traditional British literature: The down side

"What's more," Isaiah suddenly informed me this evening, "we have no cook, no nurse, no one to polish the knives, shine the shoes, or lay the table."

Uh-oh.

Thinking inside the box

Bernadette repurposes the cooler for a little reading time.

Washington Heights

 Crossing the street with Uncle Pete.

November sidewalk.

Faces

She's smiling and laughing a lot these days. I just need to catch her in action.

Best book ever?

A book about trucks written and illustrated by a truck driver. Found at the thrift store and now in our collection.

Thanksgiving

Thanks to Pete and Magda for hosting!

Apps

Appetizers, that is, with a little boost from Uncle Pete.

Morning girl

Kateri surveys the world. She definitely is trying to talk to us.

Painting

Bernadette refines her palette.

Fashionable

Rod captured this Bernadette moment the day of Kateri's baptism.

The Ungrateful Living

Over his peanut butter and honey sandwich, Isaiah suddenly announced that when Pete dies, he (Isaiah) will acquire one of his deceased uncle's guitars.  When I was able to speak again, I asked--curious how much he had thought this through--whether Isaiah expected Magda to give him one of Pete's guitars after he died.

"Well, I don't know," he replied thoughtfully.  "She might be dead, too."

Good morning

We love our chuthers.

Yesterday for the first time I heard Bernadette declare her affection for another human being.  Launching herself at Isaiah, she pinned him to the couch and cried, "I love-ah you!"  His response: "Get off of me!"

A few minutes later, however, after she had obeyed his command, from the kitchen I heard, "I love-ah you, too."

Bernadette musings

Some shoutouts from the past few days:

In the living room: "Fly airplane, see grandma and grandpa"
In the car: "Liz, Liz, Liz"
At the dining table: "Granma! Granma! Grandma!"
Around the house: "Uncle Pete. Uncle Pete"

She's continuously hopeful that some of her favorite playmates will appear or we'll go to visit.

Rumbling, stumbling, bumbling

 Isaiah runs toward the end zone after a high school football game Saturday. Sure, he fumbled on the 5 yard line, but he picked up the ball and carried it in.

And here's the relaxing TD celebration.

Snow

 Another year, another early snow. While Marian dug the boots out of the closet, Bernadette noticed her sandals and asked to wear them. Then she was not happy when I took them off and made her wear socks and boots outside. Of course, she made me carry her pretty much the whole time we were out.

Isaiah decided it was too cold to ride in the sled, but he was perfectly happy to pull the sled and then push the snow shovel.

Weighty subject

At her doctor's appointment Monday, we learned Kateri had gained more than four pounds since we visited the Monday after her birth. Dr. Browenstein said she'd gained about 2 ounces a day, pretty much the maximum a breast-feeding baby can add. Watch out Bernadette, she's coming for your clothes.

Morton and Friedrichs cousins

Everybody but Kateri seems to be interested in the movie ("Monsters Inc."). Also note the redeye, which reminds me of so many Menke cousin pictures over the years.

Kateri notes

The motorcycle throat noises sometimes work to calm down Kateri, too.

And she gets bored sitting on the couch or laying in the bed. So we walk the halls, and she stares at the various light fixtures like she's planning to be an electrician.

I had forgotten about these little baby details.

More Marty

Definitely will be missed even though this was a quick visit.

Aunt Marty

She's definitely a lot of fun.

Horsey ride

Cousin Daniel gives Bernadette a ride.

Jamming

A very young Kateri