Joseph's imagination

Joseph's imagination has really taken off. All day long he is pretending. He loves to be read to and all the time we're not reading to him, he is acting out the last book he heard. This morning he spent a good deal of time being "Sal." First he took off his socks and shoes, then he dug some clams, then he found a baby clam and threw it back in. Then he found a big clam and asked me to break it open for him. Sometimes "Sal" also offers me an ice cream cone or requests clam chowder for lunch. Anyone know what book we've been reading, lately?

The picture above is from a slightly less-well-known book, "Lentil" by Robert McCloskey. That book features a boy (Lentil) who plays the harmonica. Fortunately, Joseph owns a harmonica, so pretending to be Lentil isn't too much of a stretch. This morning, he decided to act out scene involving a whole marching band. The yogurt container is his "tuba hat," but I guess he couldn't find a boy big enough to serve as a tuba, so he settled, instead, on being a piccolo player.

Then there's Margaret who, today, is teething and very sad. Lately, though, she's been a bundle of giggles and fun. Quite a change from her former serious self. She has really gotten into peek-a-boo. When I'm reading on the couch she stands below me and peeks around one side of my book. Then she runs around my knees to the other side of the book and peeks around that edge. This goes one for quite awhile. Joseph has only just barely stopped thinking peek-a-boo is funny, and I think the fun has been resurrected by Margaret. I had trouble getting a good picture because the camera distracted them from their game, but Margaret was playing peek-a-boo with Joseph around his highchair yesterday. They were both shrieking with laughter and having a great time. Fun kids.

No one even tried!

I thought Robyn would at least take a stab in the dark in the hopes of getting some cookies in the mail. I thought Amy might remember that we were planning to look at some family baby pictures over the weekend. Oh well.

All three pictures are of "Grandma Carol" my mother's mother. We were pretty floored at the likeness. We've looked at so many baby pictures trying to find Margaret. For the first few days of her life she bore a startling resemblance to Eric's mom, but that faded quickly. Who knows how Margaret will develop, but Grandma Carol still looks pretty good, so I'm optimistic!

The verdict on Joseph, by the way, is that he strongly favors the Johnston line.

Pictures from our week in New England to come soon!

She wasn't switched at birth!

We've had a running joke for awhile: Margaret must have been switched at birth because she doesn't look like anyone in the family. This joke breaks down when we recall that Margaret was born at home and, as far as we know, the midwife didn't have any other babies in those big bags of hers.
We've done a bit of photo research on this trip to New England and we think we've found a likeness!




There will be a prize for anyone who correctly guesses which ancestor of Margaret's is pictured here. Enter your guess by Wednesday. You are not elibigle to win if you were with me when I scanned these pictures.

We're back!

Our move went very well. We had an amazing crew of volunteers and moved most of our furniture via mini-van and pickup truck by lunch time. A few folks stayed behind to help us and we got a lot of unpacking and setting up done by that evening. Three weeks later, we have just one box left to unpack and a few pictures to hang on the walls. We also have to organize all our books--but that's sort of fun.

I'll post a virtual tour as soon as the camera batteries are charged. We'll also send updated address and phone number in the next few days. We only got phone and internet service yesterday, so communication has been a bit tricky.

In the meantime, here are a couple cute pictures from just before the move that I never got a chance to post. Joseph loves to pretend he's a priest. He comes up with some way to pretend he's a priest almost every day (lately, by giving us "Jesus bread" at every opportunity). On this particular day, he built a cross out of some other toy and was processing around the room with it. He built one for Margaret, too. We're still working on the "girls can't be priests" thing. For now, I'm just glad whenever they happily play together.



Then there's this last picture: Margaret grinning impishly because she knows she's not supposed to bite her brother's toes.

and by the way

I changed the blog settings to allow comments from those of you without google accounts. So, feel free to send gushing remarks about the kids, or my writing skills . . .

Move in progress . . .

. . . and therefore, limited time to blog. Things will be slow over the next couple of weeks as we transition and wait for phone jacks. That's right--our new place has no phone jacks. We're only the third tenant since renovation and, apparently, no one else ever wanted phone jacks. Anyway--here is a bit of a preview.

I'll send an address via e-mail, but the new apartment is roughly in our same area of the city. It's about one mile from our current place in a "transitional" neighborhood. A bit more rough around the edges, but perfectly safe. We're excited to watch things develop over the next year.

The front door opens onto the longest hallway ever:
The kids already love racing up and down this hallway. It's too narrow to use for anything, unfortunately. There are two bedrooms, then a bathroom and one more room at the end of the hallway. I didn't take pictures of the bedrooms. They are boring while empty, but each has a window and a closet. They are a bit on the small size: roughly 8X10. We'll be in one and Joseph will be in the other. The bathroom is pretty standard. The last room will be the "study" but also has a laundry closet with large (!) washing machine. There is back door out of that room with this view:
Sorry, it's a bit blurry. There is a bit of a patio where we will soon be putting a little grill. There is a small side yard where the kids could play. Across the street, you can see the vacant, overgrown lot. Ahhh, urban blight. This would be an awesome neighborhood if all those vacant lots were developed.

The other room, to the right of the front door is kitchen/living/dining all in one. The kitchen is at one end:
That's all of it. Pretty small, but very beautiful. I'm so happy for the nice counter tops (I really hope that formica is out of my life for good) and the gas range. I'd definitely take more cupboards over the microwave and dishwasher, but, oh well. Next to the dishwasher is the world's largest refrigerator:
This thing is crazy. It also almost completely blocks the window behind it. We uncovered the top part and we like the urban view of brick walls. The other end of the main room looks like this:
That is, more or less, the living room. The whole room is about 20X13. Definitely small, but I'm glad that I'll be able to work in the kitchen while visiting with guests or watching the kids. Plus, since the dining room table will be, essentially, in the kitchen, I'll have more surface area for working that way.

We are really excited about this place. The configuration is a bit odd, but works well for us. Eric's study is so far down that hallway that he'll never hear us during the day while he works. And, sleeping kiddos won't be disturbed by noise in the living room. So, for example, when we pack up all our stuff again in one year, the sound of the tape gun won't bother anyone.

I'll try to post again more specifically about the kids soon. But, keep us in your prayers as we move Saturday!

In case you were wondering . . .

. . . why the baby aisle at Target carries jumbo-packs of those little plastic things to plug into electrical sockets . . .

Margaret is such a little climber. She still won't crawl on her knees, but I think that's in part because she is SO FAST on her belly, and partly in imitation of her brother. They look so cute racing around together commando-style. But, Margaret easily gets up to her knees when she wants to stand. She's cruising all around the apartment. Yesterday she got from end-table to couch to bookcase to end-table to Daddy! She can scale small piles of things (and not-so-small piles of things). I'm a bit nervous for her safety as we're beginning to pack and there are pyramids of boxes everywhere.

She has tried letting go and standing on her own a couple times and immediately plops to the ground. But I think we definitely have an early walker on our hands.

And she's doing her best to get in the way of the other walker in our family . . .