far from home

Even though Ellis has spent only a year of his young life actually living in the Midwest, we are trying to make sure his gastronomic education isn't too badly damaged. So far, we're getting no arguments.

Exhibit A) CornBicolor, I know, and early yet. But it's important to get his jaw in fighting shape anyway.

Exhibit B) PieIn addition to this miniature pie, Ellis has been loving the strawberry-cream cheese pie a la Catherine. Last night Trey was dishing it up and was about to cheat Ellis out of his crust.
Trey: The crust is kind of sticking, but you don't like that part anyway do you Ellis?
Ellis: No, no, Dad. I only don't like crust on cornbread. I always like crust on pie.

garden update

Our garden has really burst into life over the last week. The beet seeds we planted didn't come to much and the chard seedlings have been slow to get started, but pretty much everything else seems to be growing inches everyday or blossoming like crazy. Last night Ellis helped me put in one more row each of spinach, kale, and lettuce. He's been very excited as we've pointed out the teeny cucumbers, summer squash, peppers, and tomatoes.

Seconds after I snapped this picture, the tomato stem also snapped. This seemed rather inevitable and like not much a big deal, but I did tell Ellis to please be a little more careful next time. "But what I should I do with it Mom?" he asked. And I said "Well, honey, we can't really do anything with it; now that it's broken off the stem it can't grow anymore. That's why we have to be very gentle." And then the child who has never willingly eaten a tomato started crying, making me feel really terrible. But we talked about accidents and how every flower on that plant will turn into a tomato so we have lots more chances to get big, red tomatoes. He helped me finish up the planting and then really confused me when he started freaking out and shouting, "look, a lizard!" In fact, it was a newt in its terrestrial stage.

Ellis enjoyed watching the little guy climb around, though he was extremely concerned that it might somehow push the lid off. We all ate supper and then Trey and Ellis released the newt at a nearby stream. Following his emotional roller coaster in the garden, Ellis fell asleep about 30 seconds after his head hit the pillow.

happy father's day

The boys and I gave Trey his most requested gift of sleeping in this morning. The two little angels were then remarkably quiet while I canned the last of the strawberries in the form of Trey's beloved Green Bluff Sauce. Then Ellis and I proceeded to make French toast. As a product of 2 years of Montessori education, he insisted on an apron. And as a product of my (apron eschewing) mother, I didn't have one for him. So we improvised with a clothespin and a dish towel over his pajamas and were on our way. Ellis refused to touch the slimy egg and milk mixture, but would drop the bread into it from significant heights. He also loved using the spatula to flip the toasts and plate them. Unfortunately, his enthusiasm did lead to one small burn on the penultimate batch of toasts (of course, this was just as I'd been lulled into believing he wasn't going to burn himself and walked over to the sink for a minute). Luckily, it was minor enough that it didn't stop him woofing down two helpings -- one with maple syrup and one with strawberry syrup and whipped cream. I think he even shared some with Trey, maybe....

forests, ocean, lobsters

The five of us headed out for Maine on Saturday afternoon. Trey had to work at a lab course on Mount Desert Island and we were able to go along. The only downside to this was Trey had to work during much of the trip. Catherine, the boys, and I, however, still had plenty of fun adventures. We stayed in a house near Trenton, which is on the mainland right near the island. Ellis was really like walking on the beach and trying to spot tiny crabs, snails, and barnacles. He was also introduced to the concept of tides. When he woke up from a nap and found the tide had gone out, he said "Mom, the beach came back!"

On Sunday, we visited Kisma Preserve, which is kind of rescue operation for a wide variety of animals ranging from black bears found swimming in the backyards of Maine to former "show" animals. Sadly, the tour was largely a series a tales of woe for each animal, but we did see one of the world's only golden tabby tigers.

Monday, we were off to the Mount Desert Oceanarium to learn all about lobsters. This facility also contracts with lobster fisherman to collect female lobsters with external eggs. Then they "foster" the lobster babies until they are large enough to be released back into the sea. This apparently increases the survival rate by orders of magnitude. Interestingly, the lobster babies are delivered back to the ocean using a Coleman cooler and 25 ft of tubing (not exactly the height of technology). Following the educational presentation, all the kids in the audience received a tiny gummy lobster; this was the only lobster Ellis actually swallowed on the trip, though he did taste and reject a tiny piece of real lobster flesh at dinner the following evening. The oceanarium also featured a touch tank with sea cucumbers, sea urchins, sea stars, moon snails, hermit crabs and horseshoe crabs. Catherine is checking out a sea cucumber here.We finished off the day at Acadia National Park, which we learned was the first National Park east of the Mississippi. This part of the trip was far too rushed as I'm sure a couple days of hiking, camping, and bike riding would have given us a much better feel for the park. But we were able to drive up to the top of Cadillac Mountain and check out Thunder Hole, which is a cave that amplifies the sound of the waved.

Catherine and I were both excited for our whale watching trip on Tuesday. We went out with this company and were impressed by the naturalist's narration of the natural and man made points of interest. Our first stop was checking out puffins on Petit Manan, a nature preserve that supports many birds. Amazingly, we saw a peregrine falcon take a tern right out of the air and then all the terns chase him away. Though the birds were fun, we were very eager to see a whale and were lucky enough to see two minke whales. While I doubted that just seeing a flip of tail or a whale's back would be exciting, it really was very cool. The boat's pilot did a nice job circling the whales so that we had many chances to see the whales. Even Ellis spotted them a couple times and was really excited. On the way back to Bar Harbor, we also visited an island with hundreds of grey seals and harbor seals. Sorry we don't have picture of the whales, but it was just too difficult to capture the quick event while juggling a kid.

We had to head home on Wednesday, but left early enough to make a stop at the Desert of Maine in Freeport. It's a unique man made/ natural phenomenon, in which glacial sand (almost as fine as flour) was exposed by high winds and ridiculous levels of overgrazing. It was amazing to see trees and structures totally buried by the sand dunes and we learned that the trees branches, when covered in sand, can actually turn into roots. The high moisture in the deeper layers of sand allows the trees to thrive, but it was quite a sight to see the pine trees growing in apparent dessert. For kids, there was even a small area with buried gems. No surprise that the sandbox king loved this part.

maddox is 4 months old and we are in Maine

We're visiting Maine near Bar Harbor, so here's just a quick update on Maddox now that's he's officially four months old. I took a look back at Ellis's 4 month post and thought that, since I'm low on creativity, I'd borrow that format.

Weight: ~20 lbs

Height: ~28 "

Health: Very good, but has some kind of snotty cold this week. Always disgusting to have a kid "snozz" all over you while nursing.

Mobility: He's rolling over like crazy and is very fast. He seems to have finally mastered the art of positioning his arms to push himself up, too.

Lots of kicking and the beginnings of scooting. He also does what I can only term "crunches" in his little bouncy seat; basically squeezing his abs and pulling himself up.

Motor skills: Major developments here this month. He's suddenly so much more aware of the world and wanting to literally grab onto it. He's reaching out for whatever is near him, studying it up very close to his face, and tasting it whenever possible. On the drive over here yesterday, I watched him gazing out the window and his eyes tracking back and forth (like reading a book very fast) as the scenery whizzed by. It's so cool to see him watching something like that when just 2 months ago he couldn't even focus that far away.

Favorite Hobbies: This kid is so laid back and happy it's hard to even say what is preferred activities are. But he loves snuggling, especially on Aunt Catherine. And he really likes being held upright to study faces and anything exciting that's going on.

Favorite song: Neither Catherine nor I could really choose anything th

at's a clear favorite, so we will say Rigabamboo, since Ellis's rendition does tend to grab his attention.

Vocabulary: Short pops and squeaks, more guttural than piercing. Plus some truly adorable proto-giggles.

Disposition: Amazing! So sweet and easy going.

happy birthday to ellis

Ellis had a birthday extravaganza that stretched over several days. On Thursday, Grandma Lise hit town and she and Aunt Catherine took over the birthday party planning. Good thing, too, because they were in a pretty abysmal state. I managed (barely) to get RSVPs from a few friends at school, decide on a camping theme, and order a few favors. Even

that was largely bungled and the favors didn't arrive until Friday morning for the Friday evening party. Luckily Grandma arrived with cake decorations and lots of presents in tow. She and Catherine handled the shopping and planned a few activities for the kids. The cake was adorable, but planning activities wasn't actually necessary since the kids spent much of the party trying to shake each other off the hammock.

Since Saturday was technically his birthday we allowed another round of birthday candles on pancakes and he opened presents from family. Then we headed to the Shelburne Museum (perhaps another post on this later). He got some excellent birthday presents including lots of books and toys. These sandals were apparently so irresistible he couldn't even wait to get

dressed. He also proved that "over socks" isn't necessarily the goofiest way to wear sandals:

He also tried out his new sleeping bag and was overwhelmed by multiple "Cars" tracks and new DVD:

On Sunday, we made cupcakes to take to school and printed out some pictures for today's"birthday walk" at school. The cupcakes looked kind of like this and a birthday walk is this. He claimed it was fun but was a little scanty on the details.