May 18, 2008

Binbin is growing up fast and furious. On the weekends he seems to go at high speed all day long. To give you some sense of his day, I thought I recount today:

Binbin had a very busy Saturday, so he slept until 8am, a very rare occurrence. After waking up he had his milk, got dressed and started playing with his drums. About 8:45 or so, he decided it was time to go to the Kopper Kettle diner and have breakfast. We all packed into the car, along with two drums, and went to eat. After a breakfast of yogurt and fruit with bacon done in the microwave, Binbin took the family to the local big playground where we all ran around non-stop for about 45 minutes. After running around long enough to get bored with the playground, we all got back in the car and made a pit stop at home and then headed to Keena's farm down the road. We spent over 2 hours watering and mulching an entire field of newly planted raspberry bushes. Binbin carried to bucket to help water and then used a huge shovel to put mulch in his bucket that he then dumped in the appropriate location. He worked hard in the sun for most of the time we were there. When he wasn't working he was feeding the piggies or running down to check out the barn and cool off in the shade and chase the local cats. After our farm work was done we went home and got the frog pool out of the garage. We blew it up and filled it with water. Binbin stripped himself naked and preceded to run around the deck waiting for the water to warm up in the pool. We ate a bit of lunch waiting for the pool to warm up. It never warmed up sufficiently for Binbin to decide to get into it, so we went inside to play and rough house in the sun-room. We did that until about 5pm, Binbin still completely buck naked. When, out of the blue Binbin says he is hungry and wants to eat. I ask him what he wants and he reads me a list of things: rice krispie treats, rice krispies, rice cake, senpei (another form of rice cake), seaweed, baguette, and alphabet cookies. We make the rice krispie treats and assemble the entire lot in a single bowl. He sits down at the table and takes two bites and announces he wants to put his clothes on. We put on his cloths at the table while he eats. He then sits on his chair staring at his bowl and eats non-stop for 15 minutes, continuously putting food in as he's chewing. He take one last bite of senpei, looks over at me, settle slightly in his chair, sighs deeply and then his eyes slide close and he pitch forward almost hitting his head on the table. He completely passed out at the table. I carried him upstairs and into bed and he didn't even blink. He is there now sound asleep and dreaming of the piggies we fed at the farm. If only we all had this much energy.

ce soir

One of Binbin's favorite albums is the soundtrack from "Moulin Rouge." It makes him want to get up on his feet and dance, naturally. Note: it's especially gratifying to be able to see one's reflection in the TV monitor.

with friends

At Cote's ice cream, from left to right: Binbin, Ian (goofy!), Cordelia and Everett.



Baba bought these noodles yesterday and we took them to the Topsham school playground after ice cream.



Earlier, Saturday morning, Binbin invited Anjali to play. The whole gang came along, including baby Isaac.



Binbin gave Anjali a hug.

Summer just around the corner

With the arrival of warm weather and plenty of sunshine Binbin has rediscovered some of his favorite activities.

Playing at the big playground on the slides and with his ball.




Helping Mama and Baba do things around the yard and house. Helping Mama water the plants, or helping Baba make bread.




Finally, Binbin has been exceedingly lucky at the dump and has acquired a fleet of small bicycles. He is deciding which one to keep and the rest will be returned to the dump swap area so other little children can ride them.

new word game

Use the word "pie" as a stem. Add a descriptive word to precede it, and repeat. The game begins with:

Pumpkin pie, pumpkin pie

Logical responses include:

Apple pie, apple pie
Banana pie, banana pie
Grape pie, grape pie

Creative and crazier responses include:

Refrigerator pie, refrigerator pie,
Bed pie, Bed pie,
Monkey pie, Monkey pie.
Blankey pie, blankey pie.

Also

Potty pie, potty pie,
Pants pie, pants pie.

Use your imagine and just have fun.

local colors

A couple of weekends ago, we brought Binbin to the Wabanaki festival, featuring music, dance, crafts, and stories of Maine's four native peoples. One little girl was especially friendly. She toddled over to Binbin, and he shared a pretzel with her. She later shared her mama's drum stick. Needless to say, Binbin was beside himself with delight when it comes to all things percussive.



Men's drumming alternated with women's drumming. Here, we watch folks circling from above in Smith Union.



As we left the Union, Binbin spied three older kids posing on this Bowdoin landmark. He clambered up for a picture, too.



There was some flooding in Maine these past couple of weeks, with the snow melt from the mountains combining with rain. The Androscoggin was high, and so we walked down to the river to see it...



And to throw rocks.



When Yeye and Nainai came to visit, we have much better weather. We took a hike to the water's edge at Wolf's Neck State Park.

May days

Spring has been slow to come around, but amazingly that enormous pile of snow near our driveway has vanished! Binbin did ask recently, though about when chrisman (his word for Christmas) is coming? and when is it going to snow?

Binbin speaks with an ever expanding vocabulary and is constantly trying to figure out how the world works. He usually begins his theoretical understanding with "how?" How can I use this rope and I can tie Baba up. Or, how can I go to Cote's and we can eat ice cream outside?!

He has daily admired Miss Donna's flower garden, its many daffodils, tulips of yellow, pink, red, purple, and white with purple edging. He has been especially impressed with the enormous bleeding heart bush. Miss Donna has generously shared with us about 8 square feet worth of day lilies, which we've have transplanted all around the bare spots of our yard. It's been fun working in the garden, and fortunately, after taking in 4 worms as pets in April, Binbin no longer feels the urge to adopt these particular critters.

His love of late has been a splendid drum kit displayed at Marty's music in Brunswick. We pass by the storefront twice a day going to and from daycare. The color? You guessed it: lime green! Binbin tells me everyday, at least once, Mama I want the green drum! And everyday, I tell him that Mama is working on saving up money for that kit.

Binbin now knows lyrics to Beetles' tunes: all together now, nowhere man, and (of course) yellow submarine. We cheerfully sing these from time to time on our car rides.