3 Years: Birthday!

Today August officially turns three! Here are some photos from an early celebration we had on Monday morning (and afternoon) back at Grandma and Grandpa's.

It all starts with an amazing, themed cake. Kudos to Grandma!


August was overjoyed with it!


Wait, is that real lava in there?


Open some presents in the afternoon:


Balloon joy:


Bonus photo from the day before: hiking in the snow with Grandpa and Uncle Doug. What's Uncle Doug doing standing on August's head?!

8 Months | 2.9 Years: Xmas Photos

It was a pretty gaudy display awaiting the kids on Christmas morning. Santa had come, and he had snacked on the milk & cookies we left for him.

During the mahem:


Kazoo makes a good stocking stuffer... also a good baby waker during nap time:


Lela with Grandpa

8 Months | 2.5 Years: Hiking

Snow is almost melted here in Idaho, August and Daddy were privileged to have a walk in the wilderness this afternoon with Grandpa and Uncle Doug.







OK, so for some of us it was equal part hiking and riding, but it still qualifies as a hike.

8 Months | 2.5 Years: Pre-XMas Footage

Before we left for our annual Christmas-time trip to Idaho, August's class had a PJ party on the last day of school. Thank goodness for Aunt Deeda's birthday gift, opened somewhat before August's actual birthday, because if not for her we wouldn't have had any actual, official PJs, much less these cute dinosaur ones. Since August refuses to use a blanket, he sleeps in a lot of extra-warm clothes, so it's been a while since we had any PJs... much less the cutest PJs in the entire class! Thanks Aunt Deeda:




And then, some footage from our trip to Idaho.

Lela in Denver, waiting:




At Grandma & Grandpa's: "Lela Boots"


August has his very own snow shovel at Grandma & Grandpa's, where shoveling snow can be a near-daily exercise. Here's our guy shoveling snow with Grandpa, a video and some photos:

8 Months | 2.5 Years: XMas Shopping

A couple of photos from our outing yesterday.

Here's Lela, who can now clap when we suggest she does so (how very advanced!).


And August, relaxed.

7 Months | 2.5 Years: My Charts

Latest genealogical pie charts, for me, based on new-ish information:


[click to enlarge]


[click to enlarge]

Note that not all of the labels in the legend are represented in this particular pie (the chart has to work for me, Mary, the kids, and any other individual in the tree, and I can't figure out how to make Excel ignore zero-value fields). The eastern European segment in this case is Hungary. I've actually combined Germany/Prussia in this chart, so it's all reported under Germany. The Scandinavian portion is entirely Norway, in my charts.

Another interesting (to me!) point: a healthy chunk of the "Scottish" pie slice is currently somewhat in doubt.

The way I do this is to track back as far as I can in a family tree until I get either into the 1500s/1600s OR to the Old Country, somewhere. Then I apply the appropriate mathematical weight for that generation to the country where the person is from (12.5% for a great grandparent, 3.125% for a 3rd-great grandparent, etc.). Obviously, since some of my branches are fuzzier than others, I've had to make some assumptions.

One of my fuzziest branches traces along my maternal line to a 2nd-great grandmother who's name was Kerr and who married a man whose heritage had been well shuffled already through several generations in the States. Rather than assign her as "Unknown" I have her down as Scottish, and 6.25% of the pie chart above is assigned Scottish on the strength of this.

The problem is that my maternal Halplogroup, which I inherited from this individual and which was discovered via DNA testing, indicates heritage from Eastern Europe, the Caucuses, or even the Middle East / Persia. This could either indicate that our Kerr's mother was, say, 100% Armenian, or it could just mean that her mother's mother's m's m's m etc. came from the Caucuses (or wherever) to Scotland (or wherever) 500 years ago, and this more-exotic heritage has been completely watered down except for a tiny fraction.

The fact is that about half of the Scottish portion of the chart above should probably be assigned Unknown until we're able to dig deeper on Ruth Kerr's heritage (if we ever can). It might be (virtually) correct as is. It might be only partially correct. It might be completely wrong.

Who are you, Ruth Kerr?

2.5 Years: More Typing

August won't be three for another month, so we think this is pretty impressive! Just for the record, typing is a part of the pre-bedtime routine that he thought up and he actively requests. This is not us pushing him.... not that we haven't taken advantage of his interest, though!

It's more than 4 minutes, so you don't have to sit through the whole thing to get the idea.



Mary points out that we really don't know if this is unusual. All I know is that I remember being excited on the first day of first grade because we were finally going to learn this mystery of reading and writing. I thought it was about time! August is less than half that age right now. What were people thinking back then!?

7 Months | 2.5 Years: Thanksgiving

A triumph for Mary:


OK, so we could have found one with a better photo of August, but nearly all of them were some variation on him making a face, and we liked this one for the rest of us. Serves him right! Plus, there's no shortage of cute photos of August on this blog!

Delicious food:

7 Months | 2.5 Years: Genealogy Update

Good news and bad news today, Thanksgiving 2010.

Bad news first:
After signing up for the same DNA sequencing site which led to the "discovery" that my maternal grandmother had Jewish and Nigerian and Chinese ancestry (described in this post), I'm now convinced that those exotic connections were actually just a misinterpretation of the way that site presents information. So, I'm sorry August & Lela, you're not as diverse as we had once hoped you were!

But there's also good news:
Through that genetics site and based on information I've found there, I've been connected with many distant relatives who are helping me piece together my own heritage—this time with the power of science behind it! I have intelligence today from a 4th cousin 1x removed who explains the actual heritage of the same maternal grandmother mentioned above (on her mother's side, at least, she's all Norwegian)... this goes back into the 18th century.

Setting the record straight. Have a lovely Thanksgiving!

2.5 Years: Typing

august
mommy
daddy
lela
watson
collar
leash

The text above is from August's pre-bedtime typing exercise, which he loves and without which he refuses to go to bed; copied and pasted from his preferred word processor. Obviously this still takes coaching and interaction with me, but he's pretty good with consonant sounds. The various myriad sounds the vowels make still confuse him a bit. I think he kind of understands that letter sounds combine to produce words, but I don't think we've had that "a-ha" moment just yet.

He knows how to spell his whole name (he's getting close with other names), AND he very quickly seems to have picked up an instinct for where, on the keyboard, he should look for various different letters. Example, when he needs an O for Mommy, he knows generally where to look for it. If he needs a less common letter, I can often give him a hint by referencing another letter whose general position he sort of already knows ("the W is near the S"). Some keys he knows exactly (the A, for example).

He knows the back-space and the space-bar, and he knows he needs to start each word on a fresh line by hitting the return key, which is now second nature.

I'm so impressed by him. These little learning tricks of his are great, but he's most impressive in so many other ways. His attitude, for example—towards us, towards his friends, towards his sister. He's a love bear. What an amazing, great kid he is.

For the record, while we do encourage his natural curiosity about things academic, we don't drill him or push him or pressure him. We take advantage of his native curiosity, which is ample!

Here he is at school making cookie cut-outs prior to "Grand-Friends Day" at school, last week. He's wearing one of my favorite of his shirts, too!

Love bear!

7 Months: Lela Sitting Up

6 Months | 2.5 Years: Who's Who

Similar?

August at 2 Months:


Lela at 6 months:

6 Months: Wiggle Bug

6 Months: Grandma

Grandma & Grandpa are in town for Halloween!

2.5 Years: Baseball Player

Ladies and Gentlemen, now batting... the catcher... number 17... the Monkey Moon... Auuuuuuguuuust FAUUUUULKnerrrrrr!






Bonus picture: Lela with Daddy a couple of weeks ago:

2.5 Years: August's Stories

When Mommy tells August a bedtime story, it's usually a Prince August story. Prince August always leaves the castle on horseback, with the whole family in tow. He named all the horses. His horse is Jock (not Jaques). Lela's horse is Belle (or perhaps just Bell). Watson always rides Pinky. Daddy's horse is named Jet and Mommy's horse is Jig (and not Chartreuse).

Adventures then ensue.

Lately, he's been riding Belle and leaving Jock for Lela instead.

When Daddy tells a bedtime story, it's almost always a story about "one boy named August" and frequently ends at Fenway Park, where a most surprising announcement is heard after the 7th inning stretch:

"Ladies and Gentleman, your attention please. Now batting: the catcher, number 17... The Monkey Moon!... Auuuuuuuuuguuuuuuust FAUUUUULknerrrrrrrr!"

(and the crowd goes wild with excitement!)

6 Months | 2.5 Years: Scenes From Our World

New look for the blog today to celebrate that Lela is 6 months old today! Backlog of photos and video from our world, including our family visit to the ER last night. August banged his forehead onto a toy box and opened a very deep gash over his right eye. Poor kid, that's twice in two months. Too many. I love him so much, it just breaks my heart that he feels any distress... which he very much does during suturing. It's not the pain, it's that he doesn't like people messing with his face/head or any part of him, and being held down is trauma.

Video of Lela: bouncy chair and evening-time visit with Mommy:


Video of August: running around at the mall, play date with Nora, Duke's birthday party:


Two photos of Lela (sort of old by now):



August with good friend Grady, sharing a Bel Air, a few weeks ago:


And swinging on the tire swing with Maureen:


Sleepy Bee:


August last night at the ER. Poor kid. Tough guy.


The Watty Woo by the play mat:

5 Months | 2.5 Years: Updates

Parent-teacher conference today at August's new school. Unsurprisingly, August is a star. His caring good-natured attitude has won his teachers over. They clearly like him (I think best of all, but I wouldn't dare blog that... ooops, I just did it!).

He's a love bear.

On his way to school:


In the classroom:



Lela is growing up too. She's a smiler. And a cutie. Has a tooth, working on more all the time. Loud. LOVES to watch her brother do stuff, the more physical the better. She thinks he's HILARIOUS!

Peeking at you:


Crib:


Lela is getting much the same treatment as August as regards nicknames. Today I slapped together a little flow-chart to demonstrate how we arrived at some of her nicknames. So if you wonder how we got from "Lela" to "Dazzle Baby", this is how.

Click to enlarge:


The ones with asterisks are August's baby-talk versions of their root names ("Bussey" = "Butterfly", "Wiggle Bug" = "Lady Bug"). Of course, if you try to speak his own particular dialect of baby talk with him, he'll correct you immediately.

"August, let's go... me loo".

"No, don't say that word, say 'me & you'".

"Oh... 'me you'"

"..... no me loo!"

Ever the mischief maker!