vonRoeschlaub Family News

Avery’s Birthday party went without a hitch. e had to rush home from Church and then Claire had to run out to Codee’s birthday party (missing the first half of Avery’s) before we finished last minute decorating and the guests arrived.

The planet theme went over well, starting with rocket balloons, half of which ended up in the neighbor’s yard. We ate pizza, and went in just before the rain for making satellites out of gum drops, finding moon rocks (balls of tin-foil with toys inside), and keeping balloons in the air.

Cake was from Stop & Shop, but very nice. Diana found star shaped candles and everyone went home with space music CDs (mostly Jean-Jaques Perrey).

One highlight was Aunt Rachel’s gift: a 5 lb chocolate bar and a lollipop three feet tall land a foot across.

Claire and Avery put on a seal show. Claire lay on the floor in a sleeping bag and Avery gave instructions: clap hands, sit up, roll over. At one point he forgot a trick and Claire shouted out “Don’t foget the show your birthmark trick.”

“Claire is upstairs.” Avery explained, and tilting his head back shouted at the ceiling, “I don’t remember that one!”
“Just say ‘show your birthmark.'”

“No, she’s upstairs,” he insisted as we looked at the sleeping bag, then he shouted “Say what?” at the ceiling again.

A little actor is born.

On her way back from New York on Thursday, Claire read a Shel Silverstein book she purchased (or was purchased for her, I’m not clear). She loves his poetry. This morning she showed me a picture she drew that looked just like a Shel Silverstein picture. When we showed it to Diana she asked Claire to write a poem to go with it.

Click on the thumbnails to see the full-size picture. In case you can’t read it, the poem is also below.

Yesterday I Met A Head

Yesterday I met a head
While I was eating lunch. She said
She wanted my sandwich.
So She got it.
I am still waiting for my sandwich back.

Last night I picked Claire up in the city from her stay with Aunt Marlene. Claire had a great time, but David dropped her off at 8:45 necessitating a rush to catch the 8:49. As we walked down Main Street to get to my car Claire said she was hungry, so we stopped at Carlos Pizza for dinner.

While there Claire noticed the Missing or Exploited Children poster and asked how long the girl had been missing. I checked the date and it was 1998 — 10 years.

“Wow,” Claire said, “she must be really lonely by now.”

Got a job working at Proto Software.

Yay.

Went for an interview with Raytheon Last week.  It looked like it went well, but it’s so hard to tell and there is no way to really guess how many people were applying or their skill level.  I did get to see Rachel and have a little lunch with her which was nice.  I also had dinner with Kurt Mittelstaedt who set me up with the interviews in the first place.
This week Victoria started eating Cheerios (well, Oaty-O’s, I have to watch the budget) so she’s excited to be able to feed herself solid food.  She seems to be handling them very well, and preferrs them even to some of her favorite foods, like carrots.

The nickel chart with Avery seems to be working well too.  It isn’t perfect, and he goes some days earning only one or two nickels, but he gets very excited when it is brought up, and has been an angel in Church School ever since he started earning nickels for that.  It isn’t even that big a deal since his allowance is about whet he ends up earning each week. If perfect, he could earn about 50% over his allowance, but in practice he falls 25-30% short.

Claire is doing well with her piano lessons, and can now play a few complex tunes.  She is starting to learn other keys.  She still fights like a wet cat over doing her homework, and is not above staging a sit in that has her in front of her desk from 4-6.  Was I so bad with my homework?  I don’t remember.

Okay, I’ve gone a while without updating.  I’ll probably backdate an update on our trip to Disney for Christmas.

The big deal now is that Victoria is talking.

Diana and I have been playing a “game” lately where we say Mama or Dada whenever we pass her from one to the other.  She babbles “mamamama” a lot, but indiscriminately.  She also babbles “dadadada” occasionally so it is even.  But lately she has said “dada” three times in a way that might be considered intentional.

1. I was sitting next to her and twice she reached over and touched my leg, immediately saying “dada.”  Claire overheard and insisted it was intentional.

2. As Diana walked towards the TV Victoria caught sight of me in the study through the window and said “dada.”

3. I was walking past a mirror while carrying her and waved at her reflection, catching her eye.  She looked, smiled, and said “dada.”

Diana is convinced this is her first word.  I’m still not fully sure though.  Regardless, there are two more words that she definitely is saying.

We have been feeding her, saying “More?” doing the sign for more, and then giving her another spoonful of food.  She signed “more” a few times, then replaced it with saying “Mo’, mo’.”  I keep joking we just need to teach her to say “money” now.

Today I was feeding her squash and, after two bites she looked at me and said “Nanana! Nanana!”  At first I ignored her, but she kept repeating it and refusing to eat any more.  Suspicious I got bananas from the kitchen and gave her some.  At first she thought it was more squash and fought eating, but after one taste she said “nanana” one more time and started gulping it down like a baby bird.  After that if I hesitated even for a moment she would repeat “Mo’, mo’ nanana.”

Considering her favorite song at three months was “Banana Paradise” maybe she just loves the sound, but I suspect we have a real winner for first words here.

Victoria had her daily dose of semi-solid food.  Today it was bananas, which she loved.  But no matter how much she loved them she got more on her outside than on her inside.  As Diana whisked her away after the meal she announced “I’m changing the banana basted baby.”

Avery perked up immediately, “Basted?  No, don’t eat the baby!  I will miss her!”

I guess he knows what “basted” means.

Claire has seen Star Wars a few times, but finally I got my say in the matter.  Today Claire watched Star Trek.  The episode in question was The Trouble With Tribbles, mainly because it was humorous and one of the few episodes with no death (aside from a few million tribbles).  She liked it so much she begged to see the other episode on the disk, I, Mudd which was a bit darker (but still not frightening).
This may work out.

Well, the cat seems to have adopted our family,but it make be a week or so before we know for sure. He is very forceful about going outside (he bit me the first time I tried to stop him), we let him out frequently, but he is happy to come in when the mood strikes him and he likes being inside too. Sometimes he just sticks his head out for a minute to be sure he still is free to go.

The kids love to play with him, but he isn’t always in the mood. But he always seems to be in the mood for getting his head scratched.

I get the feeling he knows more than he’s letting on. It’s actually a bit annoying, but I often feel that way about animals and babies. Maybe it’s part of why I always treat animals kindly — there’s the odd impression that they are evaluating my behavior for some dark purpose. Probably nothing beyond getting the next meal, though.