Hello Spring

We woke up this morning to several inches of snow and Beckett yelling, "It's snowing outside! It's snowing outside!" It's now 2pm and still snowing.

Best Library Finds (3)

Emergency! is a good choice if you have a vehicle enthusiast. Lately we play a lot of "Fireman Beckett" and "Fireman Mommy" around here, so B was really pleased with this library book. It also has a breakdown train in it, so it counted as a train book when we found it at the library. (Thankfully. Sometimes it's really hard to find a train book, and we cannot leave the library with at least one or two.)

This is Not My Hat won the Caldecott this year. A little fish steals a big fish's hat. That's a mistake. A big mistake. Beckett wanted to read this again and again.

Sleep Like a Tiger won a Caldecott honor. It is a goodnight book featuring a little girl who sleeps like a bunch of different animals. The illustrations are enchanting and reminiscent of Marc Chagall and Gustav Klimt.

I Want My Hat Back is a companion to This is Not My Hat and was written first. I think I liked the story better. I enjoyed reading, "Okay. Thank you anyway." The Bear, who is looking for his hat, demanded to be read with a slightly slow, rather depressed voice (think Eeyore). Beckett really liked these hat books.

Felix is One

This guy had a birthday. He is one, and we are so happy. We celebrated by giving ourselves a pat on the back for getting him through his first year.

Things to know about Felix at one:

This kid really gets around. He took his first steps before he even turned 10 months. He perfected his walking over Christmas, so now he can really move. He is pretty fast. He can climb up and down (!) the stairs. He can climb off the couch by himself.

He loves electronics. One of the perks of walking, I guess, is that now he can walk around carrying remote control or an iPod. Sometimes its pretty hard to figure out where Felix left the remote control.

He has the most beautiful eyelashes. Seriously. He is still the cutest baby in the world.

He eats most everything, but he mostly likes meat. Give him a high chair tray full of different choices and he will always eat the meat first.  

Felix loves the hairdryer. It's so weird. I'll bring him into our room in the morning while Nate is drying his hair so that Felix can enjoy the hot air.

Felix has curly hair. I am so happy because I loved Beckett's curly hair, but now his hair is pretty straight. I think Felix's hair is even curlier than Beckett's was, so maybe we'll get to keep the curls.

Beckett is helping me write this post about Felix. I asked him what Felix does. His reply, "He not talks."And that's true. He does say "mama" and "da," but it's hard to know if he is actually referring to mom and dad. I think he actually has da down, but I'm not sure about mom. Although one day when I got him out of bed he said "mama" and clapped. It's never been repeated. Felix will respond to questions with baby talk. It's pretty cute.

Felix is into everything. My house is such a mess. Partly this is because I started teaching again and now instead of cleaning I work, but it's also because I can't clean while Felix is up. I can't do the dishes without his climbing onto the door and pulling all the dishes out of the dishwasher. Since I don't want to spend my Felix-free time cleaning, the house is a wreck.

Felix still has 8 teeth.

Felix sleeps all night! (Hooray!) From 8pm to 7am. He also takes two naps. He really is on a good schedule now. Finally.

Felix loves Beckett.

Felix is our little monkey. Nate made up a song that goes "Felix the little monkey." It was appropriate that we have monkey wrappers for his birthday cupcakes. True to form, he enjoyed his cake. (Beckett at one wouldn't touch his. Not much has changed there.)

We had a pretty quiet birthday celebration. I had to work on Felix's birthday, so the boys opened one of his presents. The next day we had cake.

Felix likes his new shoes. (Help from Beckett again.) Felix loves the outdoors.

Best Library Finds (2)

Machines Go to Work in the City is not quite as wonderful as Machines Go to Work, but it does have a lot of new machines. Garbage truck, vacuum truck, airplane, bucket truck. We saw a bunch of bucket trucks on the road the other day and Beckett knew exactly what they were.

Airport would be a good way to prepare your young child for a airplane trip. The people arrive at the airport, wait in line to check their bags, go through security, board the plane, and only on the last page take to the sky.

Creepy Carrots! is by far the best of this bunch. A clever and funny book about a rabbit who is stalked by the carrots he loves to munch, at first it seemed too scary for my 3-year-old. Pretty soon it was the most requested of the bunch. I can see why this book recently won a Caldecott sticker.

Philadelphia (Day 2 in More Detail)

One of the most glorious things about our trip to Philadelphia was this:

An enormous walk-in closet. We knew we were getting a kitchen, but the walk-in was a lovely surprise. When I opened the door to the closet and was pleasantly surprised by its enormity I said, "Felix! It's your bedroom." And he slept very well in the closet. It also contained the safe, which provided many minutes of entertainment for both boys.

On our second day in Philadelphia we wanted to go to the Barnes Foundation, but we had failed to get our tickets three weeks in advance. Albert Barnes was an early twentieth-century collector of avant-garde art. He bought post-impressionist, cubist, and fauvist art when it was brand new. I've wanted to see his collection for a long time. It used to be in his house but was recently (and controversially) moved to a new museum. I guess we'll just have to take another trip.

We saw the Rodin Museum, and Beckett and Nate sat down to think with The Thinker.

Then we went to the Please Touch Museum. This children's museum is housed in one of the buildings built for the Centennial Exhibition of 1876:

It looks like it could be another art museum, and Beckett was surprised and delighted when we walked in the door. He shouted, " There are toys in here! There are toys in here!"

The Please Touch Museum is the best children's museum I have ever been to. It's huge and spacious. They had all kinds of cool exhibits, like the Alice in Wonderland exhibit below.

This was a construction site exhibit where the kids could load up pulleys and chutes with bricks from this truck.

The water exhibit was not just one table, it was a gigantic display of rivers, waterfall, and lakes. Beckett loved it.

The transportation exhibit had a bus, a train, and several cars. Beckett pumped some gas. Felix slept through most of the museum and missed all the fun, but there were several three and under zones that he would have enjoyed.

A tired kid finished his fun on the carousel.

And with that we headed home. It's fun that Philadelphia is only two hours away.

Philadelphia (Day 1 in more Detail)

Here's more on our trip to Philadelphia. 

 

Ready to take on the city.

We started our day at Independence Hall.

Here's the room where the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution were signed. Philadelphia was the nicest city in America in the 1700s, and the Pennsylvania State House was the biggest building in the colonies.

Felix slept through most of the Independence Hall tour. (Go Felix!) Afterward we ate our packed lunch outside.

 

In 1784 Charles Willson Peale opened the country's first museum in the upper room of Independence Hall. You can see a reconstruction of his museum a couple doors down from Independence Hall. Charles Willson Peale painted many portraits of famous contemporaries, and many of these are housed at the Museum Branch, as well.

We also saw the Liberty Bell. It's pretty impressive in person.

Next we took a taxi to the Philadelphia Art Museum. Beckett loved the taxi. He kept telling us: "This is not a car. This is a taxi."

Admiring Benjamin Franklin.

Nate and I were completely enchanted with all the reconstructed rooms and doors. Below are images of a Medieval Cloister, a Hindu Temple, and a Chinese study.

The room below is a reconstruction of a Japanese Tea Room. It is inside the museum, but the lighting and landscaping is such that it looks like it is outdoors. Beckett, took a break from iPading to ask, "Is this the backyard?" He asked a couple of times, and we went back into the room just to hear him say, "backyard" one last time. 

 

 Felix liked the sculpture best.

After hitting the top floor of the museum we were all hungry and the kids were bored, so we left and went for an early dinner. Afterwards, we felt refueled, so we walked back to the museum. On the way back Felix fell asleep in the stroller. Beckett quietly played the iPad while being pushed from room to room. It was almost like a date.

Nate and I were really glad we went back to see the first floor. Look at what we would have missed:

Left to Right: Winslow Homer's The Life Line, Henry Ossawa Tanner's The Annunciation, Charles Willson Peale's The Staircase Group, Cezanne's Mont Sainte Victoire, Degas's The Little Dancer of Fourteen Years, Picasso's Man with a Violin, Thomas Eakins's The Agnew Clinic. 

Definitely some gems from American and European art history.

We also enjoyed this Sol LeWitt room.

One of the highlights, was seeing Duchamp's The Large Glass (or Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even) in person.

We also love Brancusi's The Kiss.

 

With that it was time to head back to the hotel. Beckett was thrilled to be leaving. (Although I must sing praises to our double stroller. A trip to a museum like this would not have been possible without the double.) On our way to pick up our coats Beckett stopped two museum guards and told them, "We are going home. We are going back to the hotel!." He also informed the girl at the coat check of our plans. Felix charmed all the museum guards. Good thing, it's a little nerve wracking taking a baby to a museum.