Maggie will surely die if you don’t come down this instant to eat our breakfast!!!!!
—Text message from Sarah this morning
PS: Yeah, we text each other across the house.
All posts by Andrew
Oliver’s First Flight
Travel with three is definitely harder with three than with two. Even though Griffin and Maggie are great travelers at this point, they still need a fair amount of guidance and support, especially around luggage handling: “Don’t run over that lady’s toes!” “Your bag is tipping over!” “Your coat is dragging on the floor.” And then, of course, they simply don’t have the muscle power yet to get bags onto shuttles or sometimes even escalators. Add Oliver to the mix and at least one parent is relatively hamstrung. He comes with additional supplies too. We ended up traveling “light” with merely five suitcases, five backpacks and diaper bags, two booster seats, one full car seat, and the seemingly infinite writhing tentacles of our winter coats. There were a few moments when we were entirely beholden to the kindness of strangers.
But we made it, unscathed, and the flight itself was largely peaceful. Let the mayhem of a seven cousin holiday begin!
Modern Fashion
We’re immersed in madcap packing for our holiday trip to visit Andrew’s family in Maryland. Kids are asleep. Adults are exhausted, going over checklists.
Sarah: “Did you check on Maggie’s clothes in her suitcase?”
Andrew: “Well, she seemed pretty organized about it…”
Sarah checks the suitcase and finds the following items, very neatly packed:
- 7 pairs of pants
- 2 skirts
- 1 shirt
- 4 pajama tops
- 0 pajama bottoms
Dialect in Dialogue
I love the little tidbits that the kids come up with as they engage more with the world. At a recent meal, Griffin noted that the word because is spelled one way, but is often spoken a different way: ’cause. He knew that he should spell out the full word in writing, but he wondered what he should do if he were writing the words that someone else said (i.e., quoted dialogue). This led to a great conversation about written dialogue and how the conventions of writing don’t always match the conventions of speech.
This would have been a great discussion topic in English workshop with 8th graders, so it was a real treat to have it spontaneously emerge from our 3rd grader’s ever-curious mind.
Oliver’s First Birthday
Oliver’s birthday landed two days after Thanksgiving this year. Pam and Jeff were able to join us for the day. Sarah had been pummeled by a rough case of strep earlier in the week, but everyone was healthy by the weekend. We went for a walk around Lake Como, ate cake, and enjoyed more Thanksgiving leftovers.
We began the day with Oliver’s presents.
Breakfast from PJ Murphy’s (who also baked the cake)
Suited up for a chilly walk around Lake Como.
The never-to-be-topped “Amazing Lotus Flower Birthday Exciting Candle” (which may have slightly traumatized the birthday boy).
In case we run out of birthday cake… we have a whole cheesecake!
Party Supplies
Oliver found his way into the party supply cabinet this morning and had himself an early birthday party.
(Did I mention that this party animal decided it was time to start the day at 3:45? Yep. It’s that kind of Monday.)
Mountain Climbers
Pike Island
Despite its proximity to our neighborhood, we’ve been here in Saint Paul for seven years without visiting Pike Island. The island lies at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, visible from many of the roads and bridges on the nearby bluffs. Sarah and the two older kids finally visited it a few weeks ago with some other friends. She gave it great reviews, so we planned a family outing for today. Alas, the fates were arrayed against us, and both Oliver and Maggie were sick. Griffin and I decided to face the cold north winds on our own and had a great time.
It’s about a three mile loop, and we decided to start on the north edge of the island. The wind was blowing down the Mississippi, so it was mostly at our backs. The return trek, along the Minnesota at sunset, was less windy because the trees on the island acted as a windbreak. This was fortunate, because it would have been a cold walk with the wind in our faces. Highlights of the walk included hollow trees (big enough to climb into), a huge paper wasp nest, trees taken down by beavers, conversations about why there aren’t any three-eyed monsters in real life, and a monument showing how deep the river has been during flood stages over the past 150 years.
First dusting of snow
Pairs of Skin
Maggie, after scratching a scab this morning:
Maggie: Luckily I have another pair of skin!
Daddy: What?
M: I had another pair of skin under my scab, so it’s not bleeding.
D: Oh.
M: I have three pairs of skin.
D: Three? Pairs of skin?
M: Yes. If I scratch off one pair, then there’s another pair. If I scratch off that one, then there’s a third pair. But under the third pair is my blood.