Lots and lots of posts below to catch you up--tgif!

We had big bad storms this week--feet of snow inches of ice. The Ohio State University actually closed, which NEVER happens and lots of roads did, too. This picture is pre-storm, though Gus has become accustomed to snow and cold at this point, unfortunately.

Underpants!

I spared you the picture of poop in the potty.

Soup

Show spoon who's boss.

Skills necessary to life

He can find and play everything he wants to listen to, and can make it do things that Mama and Papa cannot.

First Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

After the go-ahead from our pediatrician to introduce peanut butter (Gus has been eating everything else, including common allergens like tree nuts and shellfish for awhile), Gus had his first pb&j with whole wheat bread (crusts cut off, natch), concord jelly from Janet Radcliffe, and the good stuff. Crazy big hit.

Batik dyeing

As Gus gets older, his long term memory becomes elephantine. We thought he might enjoy doing a project that would develop over several days. After looking in a lot of vintage children's craft books (the old craft books are better as they do not worry about trivial matters of mess and safety), we liked the look of batik dyeing with natural dyes. We dyed a series of muslin panels using glue as a resist (the material that keeps the dye from penetrating certain areas in order to make a design) and tumeric, coffee, and beets as colors. We also learned that dye needs a mordant, or chemical to bind the color to the textile. We used vinegar (like you do with easter eggs). Stay tuned on Rumpos Inc. as there will soon be our first "give away" contest involving a prize made from the fabric from this process. And Gus really did do everything except put the pans on the stove to heat the dyes.

Pouring the vinegar mordant that will be added to the fabric in the pan.

Watching Mama handle the heavy lifting.

Painting on the resist in various designs.

Smelling the tumeric before adding it to the pan (sorry about grainy photos, if the only light is the kitchen fluorescent, my camera thinks there is no light).

Adding coffee (this is where Papa died a little inside).

Grating beets. Finally, a use for beets (because they're certainly NOT for eating)!

Completed dyes, ready to paint them into the prepared and batiked fabric panels.

He mixed colors, tried different ways of applying, and wore an old shirt.

Martin Guitars

Gus loves guitars, and playing guitars, and the awesome Columbus Metro Children's Library librarians introduced Gus to a book about the Martin guitar factory. Gus read and read and read it, and we all became experts on guitar manufacture, and one day Gus said "Dus make guhduh." So we roughly followed the steps in the book and this is Gus finishing up the varnish process and inspecting the final product, which he played all afternoon.

Inaugural Poem 1/20/2009

Praise song for the day
by poet Elizabeth Alexander

Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others' eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.

A farmer considers the changing sky; A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin."

We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, "I need to see what's on the other side; I know there's something better down the road."

We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign; The figuring it out at kitchen tables.

Some live by "Love thy neighbor as thy self."

Others by first do no harm, or take no more than you need.

What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance.

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

On Sunday, we went to and listened to services, lectures, and music dedicated to Dr. King, learning especially about his views on power, justice, and love:

"What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting eveything that stands against love." MLK, 1967

On Monday, we headed to the library to learn more, and came home to do some civic art:

January visitors with Gus at the science museum

Susan and Troy came to see Gus for a winter vacation. These pictures are from our visit to the awesome science museum where everyone but Gus became worn out and tired. Expect to see more science museum visits in the future, as Matt found out that his professorial status means that he and Gus get in free ('free' is Matt's siren call).

laser harp

3-d pixelated Matt

yo dj

flying a helicopter

dressing a baby after her Dr.'s appointment

Cafe Gus

Susan and Gus

Troy and Susan take a break from toddlers and science in the ocean room

balancing balls on vertical jets of water in the ocean room

It's difficult to get good pictures of a baby doing yoga

Gus loves yoga and works hard to learn new poses. Normally, he doesn't really want mama taking pictures, but instead working along with him (though Gus is rapidly becoming much better, which mama tells herself is because babies are younger and bendier). Today, however, Gus requested photography, and it seems like better justice could have been done to his session, bit here you are. The first two are floor poses, a cobra and a triangle pose that he's learning.


The next blurry set are parts of his 'salute to the sun,' where at one point, he incorporates his pal Jungle Kitty.





If you're interested in learning yoga with your favorite tiny one, Gus recommends Little Yoga by Rebecca Whitford or the popular Itsy Bitsy yoga series. However, there are also beautiful vintage (usually from the 70s) pictorial yoga books (think serious young people in black leotards) at every library that never get checked out that are really easy to learn from.

21 Months!

This baby is so awesome. Without prompting he says "please," "thank you," and "bless you." He is gentle to animals. When mama takes off her shoes he runs over to rub her feet. He is generous with the squeezes and the smooches. Here he is eating blue fingerpaint and laughing at how revolting it tastes. Oh how we love our "Dus" (what he calls himself).