The Big Button: Ballet, Solids and Florida

OK, here's the deal: I have a backlog of blog posts just piling up one on top of the other. I have plenty of insightful, descriptive things to say but I'm afraid that, true to my nature, I've let the perfect be the enemy of the good and consequently nothing is being written at all. I've got to button up a few things here or it will never get done, I'll fall embarrassingly behind and the hole will get deeper until I give up. Lots of pictures, few words.

That toothless smile isn't going to be toothless much longer. Oh man, I do love it. 

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Between Christmas and New Year we battled a nasty virus around our house. There was a lot of robes over yoga pants, banana slug snot trails and cancelled anniversary plans. The flip side is that the concentrated family time was pretty awesome. Having an extra pair of adult hands at home made it possible for me to read a little, take a nap and think some thoughts uninterrupted. Some good came out of it.





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The boy is sleeping in his own crib now. He puts himself to sleep and when he wakes up he can often put himself back to sleep.

Part of getting him into his own crib was spending some good time there. Paka helped.

Tim had to go to Cincinnati for the weekend so my bestie came to town to hang out and help me with the kids. Since that terrible virus was finally gone we decided to start sleep training Ingram. I really didn't want to do anything that involved any crying at all but the reality occurred to me that on a nightly basis all three of us were waking each other up. Most nights he would awaken at some point and spend the next 20 minutes crying in my arms because he was so damn tired. He was crying it out with me right there anyway so I Ferberized him. It actually went really well and Ingram is even sleeping all night long sometimes! This is a little miracle in my life and has facilitated all sorts of other slow changes.

Funny how you can have a last moment with your children and not even know it. This was the last night of our old sleeping ritual. Sleep training started the following night. 

Heather helped me. She knows how important it is. 

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Ada had her first ballet class. Oh man, be still my heart. We went to buy her leotard and little ballet slippers. She was wearing a princess dress borrowed from a friend, which made the ballet preparation all the sweeter.

At the ballet store. So sweet. I can't even believe it how sweet the whole thing was.

On her first day, there were no pictures allowed but I was able to snap a single picture before class started. Once class started I was there with my face pressed against the darkened glass of the door with tears welling in my eyes. She was radiant, adorable and 100% into it. Best money I ever spent.





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Ingram has been lunging for our food for weeks now. I was trying to wait until 6 months to start solids but he has made it clear that he had a need to start sooner. Similar to the photo essay from Ada's first solids, here is Ingrams first rice cereal:

He wasn't sure at first about the whole rice cereal thing. I guess it was better in theory. In the end he seems to have decided it was all OK.

I'm approaching this the same way I do with kittens being introduced to solid foods: let 'em play in it. They get it on their hands (paws) and lick at it and check it all out. It's a messy process but it works well. 

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Finally, we are on our annual trip to Florida.



We've been to the pool every day.

Hey, Dad and Rob: notice that I finally got her hair cut?

I had a massage. I've been running again even though it hurts. There are have been moments of tired children crying and acting out but more than that have been the tender moments, the belly laughing and the squeals of delight.

This is the old enameled metal tub that Tim's dad was bathed in at his great grandmothers house in Kentucky. 

This is only the beginning too.