Little Readers

Recently, Wren has been very interested in board books about trucks. Its that whole construction obsession that strikes young (male) toddlers from time to time. As with Frost, we have started to haunt construction sites in hopes of seeing a digger at work.

Wren's favorite construction board book is this one, by Caterpillar. He reads the book by turning pages rapidly until he comes to the one of a skid-steer loading gravel. He sticks at that pages for 5 minutes saying and signing "up, up" presumably because it is lifting gravel up in the picture.



Next, he turns to the following page of a mass excavator with its shovel down. He says "up up" again for a long time. He cries if I turn the page. Again, he obsesses over this particular picture (does he remember the excavator we watched digging?) The only way to "read" this book with him is to stop on these two pages FOR AGES and talk about them.

I end up talking about excavators digging (Wren says "dig") and lifting rocks up ( he echos "up up.") I tell him about the excavator claw and make a claw with my hand (he copies the claw and makes digging with claw motions). Eventually I tire and hide the book which results in tears.



I have been explaining to Frost that he can't watch so much TV because it is bad for him and Wren and that he is a big role model for Wren. I told him that Wren would do new things if he showed him how. This worked very well when Frost was persuaded to read his chapter book on the couch. Wren brought his board book to read next to Frost. They were a very sweet picture and for once did not pose for my photograph.

The Melancholy of Grinding Cinnamon

This morning Frost asked for cinnamon sugar toast but when I checked the cinnamon it was all gone.

In the pantry I have a huge glass jar of cinnamon bark which I helped prepare from the cinnamon (kayu manis - sweet wood) tree while living in Banda, Indonesia. I took down the jar and started to grind up a piece of the bark to refill the spice jar. While grinding, the aroma of cinnamon dust gave me a flashback to the patch of grass and blue tarp where we laid out the wood. To the heat and humidity of the island, of Mamamina whom I have neglected to write to (because my bahasa is so foul after a decade of misuse) and the coral sea so rich in fish and hot springs from the volcano.

From that glimpse of melancholy I drifted to missing Africa and the trees with extravagant flowers and seed pods that hang like whole chickens from the low branches. And I miss the sun and the family and rivers that flood with red topsoil into the green-greasy ocean.

My kitchen feels so isolated by comparison with other worlds where people are anchored by need in each others lives.

Wren is now unpacking the dishwasher and poking the clean knives and forks into the heating vents. I hope they are not going down.

CHD's in dogs?

Among the blogs I enjoy daily is one by a South African named Tertia. Her blog "So Close" is about her family life (with twins) after a long period of infertility. In today's post she writes about the sudden death of the family puppy. Here she reports on the autopsy findings:

A full examination is done and we have our answer. Thank goodness, thank you with all my heart, the dog didn’t suffer. She had heart failure due to a genetic disorder. She must have died instantly and peacefully. I can’t tell you how much that helps me. The thought of her suffering was killing me. She was such a sweet, loving dog.

The vet says it is fairly common. Their hearts become enlarged and simply give in. My heart feels like it has taken a severe beating this week. I’m exhausted. I feel so terribly sorry for my baby dog. I’m glad she had a good life, albeit a far too short life. And I am so glad she went peacefully.

Inherited Heart Disease
The breed's primary heart problem is Subarterial Aortic Stenosis (SAS) but goldens also face Mitral Valve Dysplasia and other valve problems.

SAS is a restriction of the aorta, usually by a ring of fibrous tissue, just after it leaves the heart. This restriction results in a distinct murmur (due to backflow and turbulence), heart enlargement, and restricted blood flow. As with CHD, affected dogs can be asymptomatic or severely crippled by this disease. SAS can also lead to sudden death, even in very young dogs. It is thought to be a genetic disease with a polygenic dominant mode of inheritance. Since many goldens have innocent (non-SAS) murmurs as puppies, breeding adults must be cleared by a board-certified veterinary cardiologist.

So, the puppy died of Wren's CHD (without treatment)! I am surprised to hear that there is even a veterinary cardiologist!

Spring, Summer, Snow

We have had really peculiar weather recently as these before and after shots show. In the first, Wren is enjoying a popsicle last week. It was 78 degrees in the afternoon and we wore sunblock, hats and t-shirts in the garden.



The second picture was taken this evening. Wren is surveying the "doh!" [snow] from the front porch. You can also see the poor little spring flowers I planted last week, their tags snowed over and one of Frost's little "guys" [another of Wren's new words] lying forgotten under the slush.





Josh has dusted off the firelogs in the basement and we are having a nice warm fire while the spring snow accumulates. According to our local paper this weather is atypical and we should have record low temperatures and fresh powder snow on the passes tomorrow.

Random Daddy Sightings

Now that Wren can speak a bit I am able to understand his squeals more easily. This morning, we were playing in The Minivan in the Swanson's Nursery parking lot when Wren starting pointing and squeaking out the window. He was saying "dada, dada, dada" with some urgency. I looked up from my novel [which I carry at all times because Wren insists on play-driving the minivan rather than getting directly into his seat] and saw that he was pointing at a bald-headed guy in a great long-sleeved t-shirt and gray jeans. Apparently, Wren thought he was Joshua because of the head.

Since the man kept walking Wren changed to "buh bye" and resumed playing with the control panel.

I tried to explain to Wren that this guy had way bigger shoulders than Joshua. I mean, he looked like a discus thrower in that department, but perhaps that is not something babies notice.

Uh oh. I hear thumping from the bedroom. Wren has woken and is throwing books.

The Attack of the Preposition

This morning, Wren is walking around the house with a pair of spoons putting them up on things "Up, up" and then putting them on the floor and saying "down, down". Sometimes he climbs on a chair and says "up" and then gets "down down". I made a pile of folded sheets to put in the laundry cupboard and he climbed up on the pile "up" and then "down" about ten times.

He also does "ope" and "ut, ut" with drawers in which animals hide or spoons are secreted. Doors can also ope' and 'ut with the added drama of slamming and getting locked in.

I am following the prepositional olympics with my [second] mug of instant coffee and two slices of toast. These are the paths of least resistance after a long broken night of Wren with a fever and a board meeting than finished after 10pm

Still, I am loving the daylight starting earlier.

Throwupitis #3

You probably missed Throwupitis #1 and #2 because I didn't write them. Something about too much soap and getting sore fingers from hand washing and laundering bedding. Last Friday Frost had a whole night of vomiting. He was very limp on Saturday and languid on Sunday but is now recovered. On Monday Joshua came down with the disease and spent the night avoiding throwing up and feverish.

Wren followed.

Last night Wren threw up and was feverish. He is having many short naps today and refusing solids. It is at times like this that I am glad I am still nursing. All he wants to do is nurse and is very happy doing so.

I am eating extra to make up for their calorific deficiencies. Today I had egg and turkey ham on toast for breakfast, then yoghurt with honey and walnuts, then I fed a squirrel some walnuts, then I had half an orange pecan pastry and then (lunch) salad with chocolate pudding for desert.

I think it is all the nursing Wren is doing . I am just starved. The other explanation is that I am about to have a growth spurt. Lets just stick with the first approach.

Follow that giant burger!

The 4 kids are in the minivan on I5 over the ship canal bridge. A long delivery truck passes us in the lane to the left. Joshua notices it has a huge cheese and bacon burger on it and points it out to Frost.

Joshua: "Yuuum"
Frost: "No, yuck! I hate bacon"
Eve chimes in from the back "Is that the burger with pineapple in it?"
Joshua: No, its got cheese.
Frost: I know what that is... its the new breakfast croissant from Jack in a Box.
Eve: I think its that one with pineapple in.
Joshua: Yuck!
Frost: That is gross, did you say yum?
Joshua: No, I said YUCK
Eve: I said Yuck too.

The truck pulls away.

Joshua: The burger is escaping.
Frost: Follow that giant burger! I want Jack in a Box!!

I am afraid, very afraid. We need to hide the remote.

Seeds of Compassion

The Dalai Lama is in town. This morning Frost is at Children's Day at Key Arena, an event with the Dalai Lama especially for children. It is set up as part of the broader Seeds of Compassion week. It was wonderful to see all the buses lining up to drop the school-kids off. I think Ariadne might be there too because I saw the Evergreen bus.

Anyway, I dropped the kids of this morning in the fabulous almost-new minivan. I had 4 kids in the back with complete ease and amenity. I am tongue in cheek though you wouldn't know it but hey, what's not to love about mini-vanning once you relinquish the idea of yourself as someone groovy in a 60's citroen. Its like wearing big white underwear, like using your free time to watch TV, like giving up on asking your husband to help with housework. We all fall from grace into something different, or perhaps we fall from intention into grace.

The Great Lego Battle Party

On Monday, we hosted a school playdate party at which a group of 7 boys built a lego diorama called "the Great Lego Battle". They were presented with a large lego base which they populated with minifigures and castles and encampments of great complexity. Here is the base before construction began:



Unfortunately, the logistics of the event meant I failed to capture the final product adequately. There was too much icecream and chips and testosterone and Wren to remember but I found it interesting how much action was involved. Unlike grownups playing with Lego the boys did not build and then reflect on what they had made as an object. It was all a world in motion. A dwarf, in place, would suddenly rush forward and knock over a horseman with a sword and binoculars. A boat would capsize and knock over a tree. The black dragon would be captured by the "good guys" and then the "bad guys" would capture a blue flag (defining good territory). Toward the end the Battle became more codified with each boy taking a turn to move a guy and narrate what was happening like a role-playing game:

"This ninja is doing an air move and attacking this fort and BAM BAM he breaks it down and it falls ARRGGHGH"

No, you can't hit him, he's a GOOD GUY!"

My ninja is a BAD GUY

But he's got a blue flag.

He captured the blue flag. Its a decoy!

Well my dwarf captures it back. UGH.

Its not your turn.

It is.

But you moved the dragon!

Etc

It was very noisy. Wren tried to play but was rejected.

Here they are in action. It is still the building and mild skirmish phase:


Here is a detail of the armaments of a castle:

And finally, a rather splendid troop transport built by Zephyr.