Act Three – Page 39 – As the length of the archive below indicates, act three is now well underway. Check back for updates.

“10 Months Old today…

but don’t ask him to be happy about it. ” Some days are good days and some are not, this is true for everyone, today is not a good day for L. For that matter neither was yesterday. Overall he is very busy exploring his world, either walking along furniture or crawling when he is wanting to travel further afield. He can pull himself up, sit back down and reach for things that are on the floor.

L is weaned now which is one of the issues he is in opposition to. Mom’s arms have the bruising to show for it; L has no teeth yet, but those little gums are hard. The other issue L is in opposition to is sleeping. Sleeping is fiercely objected to 5 times a day (2 naps, bedtime and twice overnight), today and yesterday he refused to take one of his naps, hence not very happy days.

Well if he is not always cheerful at home at least we can take him anywhere. L loves people, it doesn’t matter who. If they will look his way he is sure to give them his big toothless grin.

Entertaining Ourselves

Lowell has joined the choir at Grace Episcopal Church, they practice Thursday evenings and Sunday mornings before the service. Grace is in Amherst and we drive there Sunday mornings, so L and I have to entertain ourselves while Daddy practices. Last Sunday we enjoyed lattes with Aunty I, the Sunday before we roamed the grounds of the Emily Dickinson Museum. This morning was an absolutely beautiful autumn day and we checked out Amherst College and enjoyed the fall foliage. Just a piece of trivia for you, Robert Frost (The Road Not Taken) was part of the faculty of Amherst College for 40 years.

Enjoying Western Massachusetts

L has really enjoyed spending time with his aunt I.

Today we decided to do some hiking. We drove to Chester and hiked into the woods to see some old bridges. The bridges were built in the 1830s and were built without the use of any mortar. All of the stones in the bridges were handcut. They are pretty impressive structures, towering 70 to 80 ft above the river.

Celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving on Columbus Day

While Canadians are celebrating Thanksgiving, Americans observe Columbus Day. In what is becoming a bit of a Columbus Day tradition, we are again hosting family from Calgary. Yesterday, we took in King Richard’s Fair e. This is basically an excuse to spend a lot of money in the company of people dressed in Robin-Hood-era costumes. We had fun and will remember one of the jugglers for a long time; he had us laughing till the tears were flowing.

Today, we drove to Gloucester to see some whales.

After we enjoyed the whales, we did some sightseeing in the area. Below you see Pam and L standing in the garden of a replica of a medieval castle. The last picture was taken in Rockport, MA.

These feet were made for walking

L would rather be walking along furniture then crawling. He does move around slowly now, but he would rather do it on his feet even when there isn’t anything or anybody to hold on to.

Oh the treasures found in a fabric store!

I have been working at my sewing machine lately, but I have not been quilting. When I was in the fabric store looking for ribbon for the remote control home I came across this beautiful fabric. I loved it, so, I did an uncharacteristic impulse buy and came home with enough material for a skirt. It actually came together fairly easily; I was amazed when I got the zipper in nicely on the first try. I still like the material in the form of a skirt, and I like the skirt after some minor fitting alterations. Now I need to find something to wear with it, which I find is the problem with skirts. I guess this means that I need to spend some time in a shopping mall, oh well!

Hilarious

Last Christmas, some family members set me up with a subscription to Macleans. Even though I’m not always able to keep up with the reading, the magazines allow me to keep up with Canadian news and provide me with some light reading on the bus rides to and from the office. Well, yesterday I was laughing out loud on my bus ride home. Scott Feschuk’s column is one of my favorite columns, and the one I read yesterday is one of his best. You can find it here. Be forewarned. You’ll never be able to look at a duck in quite the same way.

Autumn

So fall is creeping slowly into New England. The first sign is the fields of pumpkins, then pumpkins and mums start turning up on doorsteps. The Fall Foliage is the biggest tourist season in New England; hopefully over the next couple of weeks I can get some pictures that show you why that is.

He’s not so little anymore!

Lowell said this weekend that having a 6 month old isn’t nearly as much fun as having a 9 month old. I must say that L makes parenting lots of fun. He has enjoyed peekaboo for a long time, but now he can initiate the hiding. I was folding diapers on the floor this weekend and L was having a great time throwing them over his head and peeking out from behind them.

L still hasn’t figured out how to put all the parts of crawling together yet to go forward, but he is discovering the joy of furniture walking. Moving around on his feet comes with many anxious moments for both L and his parents as he wobbles around corners and reaches on his tip toes for toys that are just out of reach. L has bonked his head a couple of times, but no bruising yet.

Checking In

There haven’t been many new blog entries in the past two weeks, because there hasn’t been much to report and, once again, our home computer is in the shop. (I could probably have fixed it myself, but I suspect that the problem is a hardware problem and, moreover, that the problem is with one of the new pieces I had installed a mere four months ago.)

The semester is already in high gear; there are three days a week in which the only time I see L awake is in the morning before I leave. I have several evening classes and I’ve joined the choir at the church (Grace Episcopal Church) we’ve been attending. Sometimes I compensate for my absence in the evening by starting my day more slowly, leaving the house later in the morning.

L is still refusing to crawl, and it’s looking more and more as though he will walk on his own before he ever crawls. He has the mobility, coordination, and strength to crawl, but he just hasn’t clued in to how it’s done. He’s pulling himself up, with the help of nearby furniture, into a standing position. He’s also taken to placing his mouth on bare skin (Pam’s or mine, whichever happens to be handy) and blowing, making a lovely farting sound. Don’t ask me where he’s picked this trick up.

The weather has been gorgeous this week. Right now I have the AC on in the office, because it would be uncomfortable if it wasn’t. It feels more like a Manitoban August than it does September. We’ve taken advantage of the nice weather. Over the last several weeks, Pam and I, with L in the stroller, have taken up jogging. There’s a paved bikepath right near our apartment, which makes jogging, while pushing a stroller, much safer than jogging on the street and much smoother than jogging on the sidewalk.