Nate Berkus Jr.

yeah, yeah, yeah.  I know I need to post about all our Holiday activities but it was all so fun it just seems overwhelming.  So, one more digression and then I PROMISE my next post will include the Holiday Happenings.

This morning Ben's Tante and I had a planned trip to Homegoods to search for some things for the new layout of her studio apartment.  She therefore wanted me to stop by first to help her brainstorm and see the new digs in person.  While she and I sat and chatted, Ben began gathering things and setting them gently on display in front of him.  We were both fighting back fits of giggles as he proudly searched for other additions to his display.  Soon enough he started not being so gentle with a mirror so we set out on our journey :).

"sob" "sob"

We are very blessed this Christmas to have had lots of time with family and have some friends from afar coming to see our new house Saturday.  I'm therefore way behind on blogging about said Christmas activities or anything else for that matter:).  Just wanted to note my sob-fest this morning as I started the post-holiday laundry.  After placing a couple of pairs of too-short pants into Ben's too-small bin, I looked into his hanging "to-grow-into" clothes and found myself grabbing several 3T shirts that I'm sure will fit soon if they don't already. "SOB! BLUBBER! sob! SOB!" How is my teeny tiny baby wearing 3T clothes??? 
How can it be that we'll be potty training him in the next couple months and transitioning to a toddler bed????!?
"SOB! OHHHHHHHHHH! WOE IS ME!! SOB"

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!!

Party Weekend!!

Last weekend was full of festivities and began with Ben's Hanukkah party at school on Thursday night.  Ryan was sent to Nashville for work at the last minute so Tante joined us fresh off a plane from her work trip.  Several parents commented on how overwhelming the party was with the drumming and kids running everywhere but Ben had a great time and there were amazing lessons to be learned in the very kid friendly activities.  A 5-6 year old or older child would have benefited greatly from the different stations with lessons about Hanukkah and with great religious and environmental motivations.  Ben LOVED the drums and loved even more the guitar sitting behind the drum station that belonged to one of the musicians.  We distracted him from the guitar only briefly with food and temple destruction before departing for dinner after almost an hour of slightly organized chaos. :)
One thing I loved about this night and about his school in general is the overwhelming feeling and showing of inclusion.  All "religious" lessons that are shared encompass love, inclusion and a caring for the environment.  They also show motivation in the greater good of humanity rather than one group of people or religion.

If you care to read it, this is the letter sent to us explaining the evening and some on-going projects in Ben's school:
 
Dear Parents,

As we prepare to enjoy our time together tonight at the ECC/Family Programs Chanukah party I want to share with you some thoughts and intentions we are developing at the ECC around the children and learning materials. Tonight at the party, you will see several experiences that we've created similar to those we facilitate with the children daily here at school. The experiences focus heavily on the processes of learning, not as much as the product. Blocks and cardboard boxes will be used to re-build the destroyed Temple. Projectors and light boxes will be used as tools to create and transform light, color, and reflection. And open-ended explorations of the symbols of Chanukah will be a part of the evening's experiences. You will see Jewish text and questions that support thinking about the deeper meanings of Chanukah. The party provides an example of how we can continue as educators and parents to nurture the child as a constructivist learner (a core element of the JCC Association's Sheva Early Learning Framework).

As we make choices about how we purchase materials for the school, we intentionally complement our three times per year order of traditional consumable preschool supplies (paints, markers, papers, colored pencils, glues, etc.) and manipulative materials from catalogs with collections of beautiful materials 
that fill our classrooms and our  new hallway atelier (studio in French) and those we purchase at RAFT (a Denver teacher recycled center). As we evolve our environments, we think about materials and the role they play in children's learning. Yesterday, I watched Steve, one of our infant-toddler teachers in front of the new hallway atelier and invite the children to see, touch, turn and explore the materials there. Later I watched another teacher, Diana, interact with one of our toddlers as he  explored the clears and whites of winter.

While watching, I could only imagine our older children arriving at the space and teachers asking them questions to inspire imagination and creative thinking like... Where does this material come from? What does it look like? What shape is it? What is it made of? What does it remind you of? What could it be called? How does it feel, smell, and sound? How might it be combined with another material? How might it be used in our classroom? How might it be used to represent your idea?  

As we embrace the power of open-ended materials for learning and support the children as constructivist learners, we will continue to observe and document their explorations and investigations. We will continue to purchase school supplies and we will collect and highlight the value of materials that don't have just one prescribed use, but rather materials that have hundreds of possible uses.

Your family can support our research by participating in an ongoing collection of materials that can be found in the world...interesting papers, metals, woods, recycled materials in various colors...the list goes on and on. Please visit our hallway atelier as it emerges and get inspired. Create similar spaces for your children at home and join us on the journey of facilitating your child's creative expression and learning.

As we light the last of this year's Chanukah candles, I wish your family much peace and love.  

Tante worked from our house on Friday as she was scheduled to watch Ben Friday night so we could attend Ryan's Holiday Party and 50th anniversary celebration.

This party was a masquerade ball and was held at the Hyatt downtown.  Last year's affair was pretty amazing and I didn't dream they would attempt to top it, but they did.  Cirque du Soleil style dancers that hung from fabric and did elaborate gymnatics to live violin were the opening entertainment as we were ushered to our seats for dinner.  Salmon, filet mignon, crab cakes and risotto made-up our delicious meal.  The entertainment hour featured impressionist/singer Jeff Tracta.  Although the beginning of his show featured lots of things and people from before my time, in the end he redeemed himself and was overall quite entertaining.   The evening finished with a live band and the owners of Ryan's company giving away $50,000.  Lots of people were not there as they were giving away the money in $1.000 increments so they soon upped it to $5,000 and wiped out the remaining 30K pretty quickly.  It was very entertaining although neither we nor our good friends won any money.

It was fun to meet more people Ryan works with and we stayed much later than last year when we hardly knew anyone.  Saturday was tough only because of lack of sleep but we all enjoyed a 3+ hour nap and were quickly back into the swing of things.  Sunday was a catch-up day for holiday gifts and baking.  With Ben out of school this week, it's been fun to relax a little more and finish all the little tasks that seem to accompany Christmas.  I'm getting excited to spend some quality time with our families and for Ben to "get-it" a little more this year than last.................

Christmas Came Early

Well, actually lots of amazing gifts have been arriving at our house.  Wonderful gifts that remind us of friends from afar and one particular meat and cheese platter that makes this ball gown diet I'm on quite a challenge. :)
Today's gift is the kind that can't be bought and the kind I need to write about so maybe....perhaps........somehow, someway in ten years I can remember just a moment of it.  Ben really struggled to go down for nap today.  My guess is the cookie making at school as even as I left his room he was chanting, "more cookie."
Well, he finally gave in but awoke little more than a hour later.  My usual attempts did little to settle him so I got him up and gave him a drink of milk and set him on the sofa in front of the tree wrapped in the softest throw on earth (one of those said wonderful gifts from afar received last year,) and thought he'd drift back to sleep.  
As I peeked at him he asked for me and I scooped him up for a cuddle.  He snuggled in with his head on my chest, nearly horizontal thanks to our deep sofa, and within minutes was fast asleep.  I held him there as he snored away with the lights on the tree the only light in the room besides the quickly setting sun outside.  
I daydreamed about how Christmas morning might go and about how much less room he took up on me when he snuggled like this as a wee thing.  I tried to focus some upcoming decisions on him and what's best for him and thought a lot about how all he needs.......and any of us need.....is love, and that love will always be in surplus in Ben's world.  I thought a lot about the families in need we are giving to this season and about all we have and how overwhelmingly blessed we are.  
Finally, I gave gratitude to the universe for those rare 35 minutes of maternal bliss and for our beautiful tree in our Tiny Tudor that sits in a place on this earth that is pure perfection to me.  Even the castle next door with it's very kind inhabitants....................in that moment of bliss I even wished the castle the blessings of the season..........really!!

What I wish most for everyone during this season and throughout the year, is the gift of feeling GRATITUDE-way deep down in your soul-it really is the best feeling there is.

for Ben

1st Annual Holiday Hayride on Gaylord St.

Last Saturday night we took part in the 1st Annual Holiday Hayride on Gaylord St.  It was coordinated by a local advertising magazine and sponsored by local businesses so that all the ticket proceeds went to the Season to Share charity campaign.  I was thrilled I had decided on the earliest 5pm time-slot as Denver got it's first real taste of winter just as we started the trek back home.
We gathered at our house to warm up with some adult beverages before walking to Gaylord St.  Though Ben sheepishly awoke from his nap to a house full of people, he was excited to find Grace and Sara in the basement and even more excited as the horses pulled up to take us on our adventure.  He was stomping over and over with excitement and we later realized he was imitating the horses:). The hayride was only 20 minutes and though there weren't very many houses with lights, there were families out and waving and local singers on our "sled" telling about Christmas around the world and caroling.  
When we returned to Gaylord St., Father Christmas was waiting in an elaborate little hut and a bonfire warmed the adults.  The Washington Park grill also had warm adult beverages streetside so all ages were happy.  After the kiddos took their time with Father Christmas we made the blistery trek back home for dinner.  I made Molly's apple cheddar butternut squash soup and lots of pot luck goodies completed a scrumptious meal.  The kiddos retired to the basement to watch Elf and the adults made merry and celebrated the season. 
I wrote to the sponsors the next day to thank them and tell them it will be a tradition for our group.  As the tickets sold out quickly even after extra "sleighs" were added, I think our new tradition is secure.  Now if I can just get every house on the route to put up elaborate light displays......perhaps another good New year's resolution??

Sara and Grace-sissie love:)

Kinsey, MeeMee and Tante

off we go.....

this is when I begged for a picture of this cute couple and their dog outside their AMAZING house saying, "you have to take a picture, I mean that's America!" This many million dollar home steps from Wash Park is far from most of "America," but the charm worked on me!

The whole Lineberry clan

Nana and Papa

the Tiny Tudor housed all 12 of us just fine but she was full!

Thanks to ICT neighbors Bruce and Cheryl for Ben's adorable outfit.

Just as the evening wound down, the snow began to fall.  You could hear kids up and down the block yelling, "it's really snowing," "it's really snowing." It's been a DRY winter in CO so far.

You can watch a short and poorly lit video of our caroling here :)

Quincy

On Tuesday of this week I had the overwhelming pleasure of taking some pictures of new baby Quincy for our good friend Jill.  Quincy was nearly 3 weeks old and so wonderful and new.  I learned how much I took for granted from a photography standpoint by having Ben around all the time.  It was easy in my own home with Ben to take advantage of deep slumber or particular light.  Jill's house was gorgeous with lots of windows but Quincy was less than sleepy for most of the shoot and HATED the basket we tried to put him in.  His smart Daddy had also turned the heat back down so Quincy let us know it was a little chilly for the nakey baby shots.  Overall it was pretty successful for an hour long shoot and I know from a Mama perspective that nearly all pics of your own little one are perfection to you.  
Huge congrats to Jill, Jason, Quincy and pup TJ!! You are a beautiful and amazing family!!

"ok. now I'm tired!"

I tried to convince Jill to let me try a family shoot when Q is about 3 months.  Fingers crossed!