At the airport

At the airport
Originally uploaded by pkellyspurles.

Ron (accompanied by a licensed pilot) took a short flight on his 40th birthday last month. He taxied, took off, and flew for a bit. The pilot landed, which I guess is the hard (ha!) part. They flew from Moncton to Sackville and back. Our Flickr account (click on this picture) has an aerial view of Sackville that almost shows our house (we'd be under the wing, a block in from the water). Anyone who really doesn't know just how small our little college town in will find the photo enlightening. It really is small. [Nov 22: I wanted to add that the plane Ron went up in was like the little one on the right, though not that one itself. He said later that the cockpit was smaller than the inside of our Mazda Protege.]

Two teeth

Two teeth
Originally uploaded by pkellyspurles.

At eight months, Peter now has two teeth. He tried them out on my finger yesterday, and they work quite well.

Faster and faster, and Ron on TV

Peter's crawling like it's old hat these days: fast forward, and (since Ron forgot the undershirt one day last week) with his tummy up off the ground. He's still enjoying trying to walk, but usually content to hold someone's hands while he does it. For a few days last week his proper and rational-looking babysteps were exchanged for goose-steps that were much, much too big, but he's back to babysteps again today.

Mum and Dad babysat yesterday so that we could go to Halifax for the closing of Ron's play. They say that one of the news programs ran a clip about the play, as well as a bit of an interview with Ron. Peter was facing the other way when that came on, and he whirled around when he heard daddy's voice. Dad says he obviously recognized Ron on tv, and was so entertaining that they missed the story all together. The play went well, and got two standing ovations.

Alphabet blocks

Alphabet blocks
Originally uploaded by pkellyspurles.

I bought these blocks at the auction in Amherst a few weeks ago where I also got the rocking chair. We've been having lots of fun with them. I make towers and imaginary crosswords, while Peter bangs blocks together and sometimes takes a baby swipe at my towers and brings them down. He's mobile enough now that he can creep across the playroom, sit up, and get a few blocks out of the basket (on the bottom shelf of the bookcase) himself.

From Nat's blog ...

It takes sunlight eight minutes to reach the earth. We never actually see the sunlight of the present, only that of the past.
Staring into the evening skies, we can gaze upon a star that scientists will tell you no longer exists, a star that went extinct ten million years ago.
Both are points made by Thich Nhat Hanh. Both cause one to stop and think for a moment what our perception is and how subject to influence it is. The observer and the observed are essentially one and the same because we inter-are. We are a part of what we are observing: If we do not exist, then nothing exists, the subject and the object are part of each other.

See Sangha Fairytales.

Forward

Peter started moving forward this evening, commando-style and pretty slowly, but definitely, definitely forward.

Catching up ...

Peter took his first step today (at 7 months and a week). He was standing balanced against my legs, and stretched one foot out as my mouth fell open. He put it down, I grabbed him before he could fall, and he grinned. He's been walking laps around the downstairs for the past few days, always aided by two steady hands from above. He's got the left-right-forward momentum technique down pat, but has absolutely no balance (or fear, for that matter). And he's figured out how to sit up from a lying position in the last week too. The first time he did it was last Friday at lunchtime. It was so slick that I almost missed it. He crawls backwards well up on his knees, then sticks a leg out sideways and takes one more step backwards with the other knee. And he's taken a few crawling "steps" forward in the past week, but never more than two at a time.

Camel, maybe?

Camel, maybe?
Originally uploaded by pkellyspurles.

Ron worked on the office for a few weekends, removing lime green carpet (and a layer lino tiles and cardboard and glue underneath that) and wallpaper border, and then painting it in a quiet camel shade. (Not a noisy camel shade! Or rather the noisy goldfinch yellow some previous owner had chosen.) I've moved one of the cream armchairs in, as well as a Moroccan rug, and one of the red Persian carpets. It's much better.

Rocking chair

I got a rocking chair at an auction over the weekend. It's very solid, but probably dates from the mid-Victorian period so it's been well taken care of. I hope rocking Peter to sleep at 4 am every day won't be the end of it; perhaps it's already rocked four generations of babies to sleep.

Carrots

I tried carrots tonight, and that went better. I'm still surprised at how sad he appeared when he tasted the green beans: the corners of his mouth turned down, and he seemed about to cry. What did he think we were eating all this time? I wonder if he's holding out for cotton candy, or apple crisp.