A few things from lately

So I have long dreamed of the day when I would show my youngan, boy or girl, how to roll logs and flip rocks to find critters. Sunday, splitting some wood and getting to the bottom of a pile, I rolled a large section to find five (!!) Many-lined Salamanders. I was quite exited. Any experience reminding me that this neighborhood is not sterile of such life is always welcome. And moreover, I realized that Alder is now old enough to appreciate it. Only he was napping, so I gently put the log back, leaving them, sluggish and cold, where they were. Alder woke in one of those iffy moods, whining a bit, but I had JUST THE CURE for THAT! Just LOOK at how excited he was:
uh, not so much... He did come around; stopped crying, touched one smiled and commented on how cold it was.

Lately, he has gotten much more intereted in shapes and colors, and this has been really neat to watch. We have these pom pom balls, a spoon, and a muffin pan he uses to sort. He also likes these paper cut outs I made (I have to inject this) from some of the leftover paper from OUR WEDDING INVITATIONS!
Here are a couple of shots from when Grammy and Pa Pa came for the holiday. While Alder was showered with fun gifts from family, this visit brought one to remind us that sometimes big fun can come from the simplest things. Pa Pa cut doors and windows into a deep freeze box and Alder has been throughly enjoying that as a little playhouse.

He also got a hand-me-down cabbage patch doll we thought would help prepare him for a new baby. Hopefully he wont drag new bro or sis around by the tuft of hair. We are working on that. He's pretty gentle though.

On that note, Alder will be moving into a new room and so we have started migrating some of his things in there. He LOVES ransacking the bookshelf. Funny how when books are in sets, he likes to have them ALL out at once, spread around him. Come to think of it, we talked about the child's proclivity for "collections" of things at a Montesorri meeting last Friday night, hmm. He likes to sit there amidst them and flip through one after another until reaching the one he just has to bring and have read to him.
Last Friday, while company was here and Alder was up way past his bedtime, he decided to work on a new installation we call "Kitchen Floor Quilting". He gets into this about once a day now. We think it stems from him learning how to spread his cloth napkin out as a place mat for lunch each day. Les caught this in a video and we will leave you with this. Its sort of long so feel free to watch only part. Much love.