Howeberry

From adulthood to parenthood, or something like that…

Sep 1

Hello,

by Lisa

Are you still there? Maybe?

I decided I needed to come back here. I’ve been away too long.

A Lot has happened in the more than three years since I last posted…

  • August 2013 – Julian was born.
  • September 2013 – Lucius began Montessori preschool.
  • December 2013 – Lucius turned 3. This was his first Birthday Party, held at his gymnastics, surrounded by his best friends. It was a small turnout and everyone had a great time.
  • We made and completed a LOT of renovations on our house. It was PERFECT!
  • August 2014 – Julian turned one.
  • September 2014 – Lucius returned to preschool and HATED it. I withdrew him after 2 days.
  • We made a BIG, BOLD, BRAVE decision to move our little family across the country. Ourselves. With a little lot of help from friends and family.
  • We moved in with my parents while impatiently waiting for our East Coast home to sell. We found a house and neighborhood just north of Seattle that we liked.
  • Julian begins to walk.
  • December 2014 – Lucius turned 4 and Christmas happened.
  • We found a school for Lucius that he LOVED. Wait-listed.
  • Our house in Jersey CLOSED!!! Offer accepted Thanksgiving, sale completed Valentine’s Day. The following Tuesday (Monday was Presidents Day), and we were homeowners in Seattle. Finally!!!
  • Spring 2015 – Lucius attended a local outdoor preschool at a park local to our new neighborhood. Enjoyed it well enough.
  • June 2015 – Received letter that Lucius has been accepted into the Seattle Waldorf School. Our little family gives a collective sigh of relief and get excited for our future.
  • August 2015 – Julian turns two, at our new home, surrounded by family.
  • September 2015 – Lucius begins first year of SWS’s two year Kindergarten program. Comes home exhausted and LOVES it!
  • Julian & Lisa attend SWS’s Parent/Tot class. Through the class I became more mindful and find increasing joy and passion for the Waldorf approach to early childhood education.
  • I learned how to knit.
  • December 2015 – Lucius turned five. His birthday party was at his gymnastics, joint party with a school friend who turned 6 the same month.
  • We hosted Christmas 2015 in our new home. Everyone left before dessert.
  • Lucius began ski lessons at Steven’s Pass. Lucius & Jason even tried Whistler for spring break skiing. Both enjoyed being on the snow.
  • Summer 2016 – Lucius does SWS summer camp, swim, skateboard camp, more swim. We keep busy. But mix in nothing time too.
  • July 2016 – Auntie Laura, Lucius, Julian & I traveled to Kauai, Hawaii for an old friend’s wedding. It was beautiful, relaxing and both boys keep asking when we can go back.
  • August 2016 – Julian turned 3! We celebrated with a train party. The space was huge, the trains were amazing, few friends came, but those who did had a fantastic time. The birthday cake was too big, but that’s never a problem.
  • We went camping with school friends. First time since Lucius was 11 months old. We bought no new gear and now have a good idea of things we need for next time.
  • Lucius and Julian’s good friends (sisters) moved to California.
  • Lucius is becoming a great swimmer. He just learned the breast stroke and is a natural!
  • September 2016 – Now we are gearing back up for school to resume. And I am excited! I love the rhythm enforced by the school day. I love watching Lucius interact with his friends and his teachers, and learn to navigate life. Julian will be starting preschool at SWS this fall. I am excited to see how he makes it his own and how he begins to grow away from me. Julian and I are still very much one being, in his eyes. He is a sensitive soul.

And that about catches you up.

It constantly amazes me how different the boys are.

The Family

Seattle

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Mar 25

Dreaming of the Outdoors

by Lisa

Maybe it’s because I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and miss being close to nature, or maybe because it’s now technically spring but still acting like winter (it snowed today), or maybe because there is just something enchanting and primitive about camping and being lost in the woods, but I would really love part of Lucius’s education to include a deep understanding of the outdoors and the natural world. I even have some direction on this one!

In a recent e-newsletter from Sparkle Stories, they recommended a summer camp in Vermont that really encourages the kids to explore and get to know nature. The camp is Kroka and they have a lot of neat looking programs for ages 6 through adult. Exploring their website led me to a list of schools they partner with for annual overnight excursions, which sound both to be very educational and a lot of fun. Unfortunately the only school in NJ is not anywhere near convenient. So I’ll squirrel these links away until Lucius is a little older.

This led me on a brief search to see what else exists out there. I stumbled across one which focuses not on primitive survival, but modern survival and ease in the woods. It’s actually the only one I’ve found so far that is for families. It’s based in Virginia or Oregon. So probably not one to keep in mind. Minimum age is 10, so we have a few years anyway.

And then there’s the Wilderness Awareness School in Duvall, WA. I’ve decided if we ever end up moving back to Seattle, I’m enrolling Lucius and Howeberry#2 in this school. They offer programs for home schooled kids ages 4 – 18, as well as weekend and after school classes so classroom-bound kids can participate too. Honestly, it looks like a lot of fun and like a great community (even if their promotional videos give a strong hippie vibe). I may have fallen in love with the program, which I should know by now never to do until after reading 3rd party reviews.. Oh well!

Back to the here and now, we’ve decided to enroll Lucius in a Montessori preschool in the fall. If all goes to plan, Lucius will be attending the Madison Montessori School which is comfortably less than a mile from Drew University. The plan is Jason will take Lucius to school when he goes to work in the morning and I’ll pick him up. We’re still waiting for the official paperwork to complete his enrollment, but we’ve applied, attended a one-on-one evaluation with the director, and she was charmed by him. The director was impressed with his skill and speed at figuring out the cylinder blocks (“How old’s he again?”). She quickly discovered Lucius’s passion for trains when we all heard a nearby train during the evaluation, which literally derailed his focus on exploring the classroom. With a little effort she was able to bring his focus back by sharing an awesome book called Freight Trains. At the end of the evaluation she said they’d love to see him in their classroom this fall – that she’d just need a stash of puzzles and trains, and they’d be good.. at least for September.

I’m still trying to figure out how the preschool will work with the possibility of homeschooling him in the future. It’s an option we’re entertaining, but have several years to work out and decide. If anything, having Lucius in school, even part time, will allow the new baby and myself some time to bond and figure each other out. All I hope for is a smooth transition.

Toddler

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Feb 16

The new constant is change

by Lisa

After living with an infant for 10 & 1/2 weeks, life is starting to feel normal again. We’re starting to get into a routine and I’m becoming brave enough to venture out into the world with the little guy alone.

Previously the trick was timing. Lucius was eating every two hours and taking about 30-45 minutes to eat. So this would give us about an hour to bundle up, run out, then run home again before the little guy became fussy. Add travel time, traffic, getting in/out of the car, and you quickly discover an hour isn’t much time at all. This is where I miss being just an adult. It use to be easy to just get in the car and go. No prior planning required. Just grab purse/keys/jacket and off I went. I understand this will come again with time, but for now it’s a semi-delicate balance of: change the baby, feed the baby, is he content?, okay, let’s roll!

I do love having a little shopping buddy and have found him to be helpful at softening the harsh attitude of Jerseyites. Everyone loves babies! People will smile at us in stores rather than just pretending other shoppers don’t exist. Clerks actually offer useful assistance and are pleasant, rather than act like we, the customer, are a burden.

It’s helping that he is gets older and more accustomed to this great big world. As he’s gotten bigger so has his stomach, which has helped him go longer between eating and he’s becoming a more efficient eater. He does still likes to nurse to sleep and will nurse to center himself when overwhelmed by a new place.

We tried a babies music class on Monday. Lucius was very chill for the first 10 minutes before class started as he studied the other moms, their babies and the new place. Once class started, that was it. He began fussing and squirming, wriggling his little body around to try to latch on to my clothed breast. Not being familiar with behavioral expectations for a guy this little, I was worried we’d need to leave.  The teacher politely informed me we were welcome to nurse wherever we were comfortable. We left the group to nurse, but remained close enough to listen to the class. While nursing, Lucius could hear the songs and activity. He looked up and smiled at me several times while trying to eat. This made for a very distracted nursing session, but it was fun to see him excited to return. After about 10 minutes of nursing, he was ready to return to the group and participate in the songs and games. Boy did he participate! He blew bubbles and tried singing along. He impressed the teacher by successfully holding resting tones at the end of a couple songs. She said babies this young usually can’t do that. And he stayed awake through the entire class. Apparently this is also unusual for babies because of all the stimulation.

Last night Lucius decided he was no longer content with our previous routine of nap, diaper, look around, diaper, nurse, repeat. Took us a few minutes to figure out he was bored. Oh no! A new thing to upset him! He quickly settled with some “airplane” and lots of silly noises and smiles. But it reminded me of all our baby classes – the little guy is going to keep us on our toes. As soon as we get use to him as he is, he’ll grow and change a little, enough to throw us off for a day and remind us to stay sharp and adapt. Just need to remember that if that tool (or swaddle blanked) didn’t work last time, it’s probably time to try it again!

Newborn

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