Drawing with Markers

Bowie helped me decorate the map to my sister's wedding for his grandparents in Dallas. He learned how to take the lids off the markers! Uh oh! And very nearly how to put them back on, too.

2 Months from 2

Ah, my son is nearly two. He speaks to me in sentences. He tells me what he wants and loves. He totally trusts me. He cracks himself up. He loves/hates all messy and noisy things. He tells me, "Mama has big breasties." He knows how to ask nicely. He counts 1 2 6 7 8 9 10 11. He narrates the scene of us driving to Central Market, "Papa drive left side. Mama sit ride side. Bowie sit carseat. Bowie want to drive BIG car on street in left seat." Bowie says, "Bowie sad." He still gives kisses. He "likes movie and pizza with Nonnie and Gramps." He kicks a football pretty well. He goes fast on the tricycle. And can steer pretty well, too. He loves Tuba Dog. He wants to love the standoffish cat of ours, Bovine. He can't ever get his fill of "raspberries blackberries, blueberries, strawberries." If you have been read the book daily, Jamberry over and over again, reciting the book in the car during traffic for the past 22 months, you know the source of his obsession. He strokes his sheepie, the lambskin I slept on for two months before he was due and that he has slept on everynight night since the night he was born.

As I write, I look over my left shoulder and see the corner of our room where the birthing tub was. I am in the same place where my mom stood when Bowie was born, on her birthday. The same lamp that was the only light except the mag light our midwife turned on discreetly and turned off quickly is on, the only light of the room except the glow from monitor. Through the baby monitor I am lulled by the synthetic grasshopper song Bowie has heard every night of his life, except for the many, many nights we've spent in our tent hearing the sound of grasshoppers, dog tags, armadillo digging. Oh my, I am flooded with the bounty of memories for the best days of my life. Chris sleeps heavily and noisily behind me. He is everything that makes this life possible for us. He makes our world light and easy. He will soon be Bowie's favored parent, I suspect.

These photos were taken last night about an hour before sunset. The night before was loud with thunder and rain. The windows shook. The glass of a photoframe broke when it fell from the wall of my friend, Michele. Bowie happily recited "Boom Boom Boom, Mr Brown makes thunder" through the whole morning. But if he was away from my side when a big one clapped, he ran to me quickly. After being kept inside all day, I let him go out into the muddy, filthy yard and exlpore. He didn't get nearly as dirty as I expected.

Karaoke and Car Shoes

We had a pajama party with some of our friends. They gave Bowie these insane Hot Wheels slippers. He calls them car shoes. I am very surprised that he wears them as they are cumbersome, but come to think of it, most of his favorite footwear is not very practical. He was inspired by Finn's toy microphone to sing Charlie Parker Played Bee Bop over and over again to us. And later that day I found him leaning over a page of Ten Little Elvi with 10 microphones on a stage singing Charlie Parker again. This morning he was sitting on the potty all by himself singing You Are My Sunshine. He is really getting a singing voice too, holding out notes and adding a bit of vibrato.

Swimming in the Big Bathtub

Bowie and Chris have been taking swim classes at the Y. The teacher calls the swimming pool the big bathtub. Bowie just loves the water and is very comfortable in it. This summer should be fun!

Bowie at Honey's School

We went to a surprise wedding shower for my sister at Honey's school yesterday. Bowie LOVED it. It is a really fun place to explore. It is a gardening montessori school. Each child has his or her own plot and there are chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs, a dog. All the children wear gardening boots when outside. It's a dirty, organic playground with tubs full of water all over the place (which is not so great in mosquito season). Bowie walked across this rope ladder with total ease. He has been really working on balance recently, like climbing ladders, placing stools on top of other things and standing on them, even standing on the back of the rocking bear on loan from a friend. SCARY! But he really does seem to be fairly aware of his abilities and usually exhibits some amount of caution. I registered him for a gymnastics class today. Maybe that will satisfy some of those balancing needs.

Papa's Birthday

Bowie can sing the Happy Birthday song. We've been singing it a lot lately since Chris's 31st birthday was Saturday. Bowie understood that the packages coming in the mail were for Papa's birthday. He would walk by them and say "Papa's birfday pesents." And he was beside himself excited that we were going to make birthday brownie for Chris (brownies with ice cream is his favorite dessert). He poured in the vanilla, the nuts, the sugar, helped me stir, and of course licked the spoon. I'm not sure why he was so excited about sugar. We don't talk about it ever but both of my parents call him sugar for a nickname, so maybe that's why he responded to it. After we poured it in, he was saying "Bowie eat sugar. Cake has sugar." with such glee that you'd think sugar has some scent that is mind altering. It has been so much fun seeing him understand and enjoy the idea of a birthday because it will make his 2nd birthday so much fun. Yesterday we went out to my folks' house to celebrate both my sister's and Chris's birthday. They have the same birthday though Destiny is one year older. We have a lot of shared birthdays in my family. Chris and Des. Me and my dad. Bowie and my mom. That's pretty wild isn't it?

Chris took off three days from work and we just spent time together at home, got some projects completed, had dinners with friends, and Chris went to a couple SXSW parties and shows. It will be hard when he goes back to work tomorrow. I know that Bowie will be missing him tremendously. And I will too. I love spending time all as a family, and it's been really nice for us as a couple too. The first few days were actually a bit hard, trying to get into a groove with each other. Bowie and I are so used to our patterns and routines, and Chris has his too. I can't wait unitl our next vacation!

Drum Kit

So, not my most artistic grouping, but I love the expressions and the meaningfulness of these pictures. For anyone that has seen Chris drumming, you will recognize the grimace on Bowie's face in the first photo. And seeing Chris pass on his passion for drumming with Bowie is amazing. Of course Bowie has an affinity to it. What 2 year old (well, nearly) wouldn't love the freedom to bang and be noisy? Whether Bowie will be passionate about drumming or music we will have to wait and see, but what is important to us is not that he like what we like (though wouldn't that be nice?) but that he sees us be passionate and that we share our
passions with him.

Tonight we went to a free outdoor SXSW Spoon show down along Town Lake. It was a nice evening (still a bit of spring left for Austin I hope). Bowie had a grand time wandering in the crowds, rolling in the grass, throwing his glow-in-the-dark ring, and grinning ear to ear at friendly strangers. He has a huge social grin now. He's totally interested in interacting and communicating with other people. Sometimes it's a struggle for him, more so with his
peers.

Honey Day

It's spring break for Honey, so we spent yesterday together. It was easier than I thought it would be. She is so easy to reason with and Bowie adores here. We had lunch with Chris at a park near his office. As fun as it was, I am glad to only have one now.

Blue Shoes, Green Boots

This was Bowie's look this morning. What a goof! He loves his frog boots and his drumming shoes (have NO idea why those bright blue shoes are his drumming shoes, but they are.) My sophmore year at UT I worked at a montessori school where there was an adorable, wild haired boy named Boone. His parents let him dress himself and he'd come to school in the wildest getups, one boot and one sandal, for example. I have been anticipating such a day for years, and here it is.

Sunday Workday

We worked all day in the backyard. We threw every bit of trash and rubble (except the actual cement rubble from the destroyed bomb shelter and the enormous heaps of fallen branches) over the fence into a pile of danger temporarily to be located in our driveway. But I am very excited to feel safe sending Bowie back into the yard. He totally enjoys the freedom to explore. We observed worms and pillbugs uncovered when raking. Time to get one of those bugscopes.

Turtle Hide Out

Bowie is really enjoying being under things lately. Here he is last Wednesday at Northwest Park under the turtle. Today he spent a good deal of time under our bench, saying "good night" and pretending to snore.

Underwear

Bowie wore underwear for the first time today. I think these briefs are adorable. He's using his potty a lot lately. I know that it looks like he's already peed, but that's the drippings of a strawberry popsicle. Already in the upper 80s here.Skipped straight to summer.

The Kite Fest

Bowie's second kite fest. What a nice day, just a tad warm with a nice breeze and overcast. We didn't have any success keeping our kite up, but it sure was fun. Bowie insisted that we take Tuba with us. I had so hoped that Bowie and Tuba would have a close relationship and it feels good to see how much he loves her.

Sleepy Head

We had a great morning out at the Mayfiled Preserve and Garden with our friends Michele and Finn. There were peacocks all over the cottage making beautiful courting displays and up in the trees napping. Bowie was intrigued but cautious. We went down to the lagoon and Bowie made a muddy mess. I did plan ahead and brought an extra pair of pants but Bowie just went on with the hike in his diaper and muddy shoes. Defintely taking my camera back there. Well, Bowie got well worn out and here he is sleeping soundly as I click away.