March 11, 2016

Little Mina is two months old now! I can’t believe how quickly the time passes. It feels like just yesterday that a nurse set her on my chest just as she was born, and I marveled at how very solid she was. She is still solid! Her growth has been terrific, and her little neck is so strong. Just the same, she’s a very cuddly little girl. When you hold her close, she just sort of melts into you, pressing her little face into your neck. She’s so very charming.

Lately, she had become completely absorbed by the world around her, and is happy to spend half an hour lying on her back and just observing. Often as she observes, she chatters away, telling everyone in the room about what she sees. Here’s a little video of her taking to me before bedtime.

Meanwhile, Yen picked up a new present for Linus: a balance bike. He has been riding on a little tricycle for quite a long time now, and we’ve been waiting for his feet to reach the pedals. But recently we realized he might be interested in something little more challenging. Yen did his research and naturally got him a top-of-the-line model. It’s ridiculously cute, as you’ll see. It even has a hand brake! And he chose red so Mina won’t mind it when her turn comes.

Don’t have a video of his first attempt, but I can tell you that he was immediately interested. Much of that first attempt was frustrating to him, because he just wanted to go, and Yen needed to keep adjusting the height of the seat until he got it just right. We worked on it for a little while, then went back inside. A little while later, he was telling, “Car! Car!’ And pointing at the door to the garage. Everything with wheels is a car, you see, so that includes his bike. Yen took him out again, and he got more confident still. By the time I went with them for a third time as evening fell, he was really good. In fact, you’ll notice a big tear when he gets really close to the camera. We were keeping him in the driveway, obviously. He hasn’t figured out turning yet, so each time he reaches the bottom, we picked up him and the bike, and brought them back to the start. He hated being off for even a second, and burst into tears each time.

When he finally tired of riding, he decided to show off his stair climbing skills. This was lost surprising to me. He has always climbed up carefully using his knees as needed, and then backed down slowly. I think going to the park and watching the kids climbing the slide ahead of him had paid off.

By the way, you probably noticed a lot of traffic on these videos. Or street is generally very quiet, except between 4:30 and 6:00, especially on Fridays. That’s because it’s a cut-through to avoid a busy road a few blocks over. I wish it wasn’t, but at least it’s not always like that.