The cast is off!

This morning we all trekked to the orthopedic office (one of the worst-run offices I've ever been to) for Beckett to get his cast off. His leg is healed, though the fracture is still visible, and new bone is growing on the sides where the break was. He was very hesitant to walk or even stand on it at the doctor's office but was eventually persuaded to put some weight on it and take a step.

At home he crawled for a little while, then started walking almost as if he still had the cast on, with little weight on it and with the leg straight out to his side while he walked. But then he just kept working on it and after a VERY long solo bath, Beckett wanted to try out the toy motorcycle they received as a gift from a neighbor a few weeks ago that we have been holding back til he got his cast off. Unfortunately it wasn't juiced up enough or maybe it doesn't work well at all but the boys still had a great time riding on it and, alternately, pushing the other on it.

Origin of Reed's middle name

A couple people have asked how we came up with the name Warren for Reed's middle name, so I thought I'd write about it. My dad's father's name was Warren Grinnell, and when I was considering middle names for Reed it was my favorite for that reason. I also grew up on Warren Road in Ithaca, which Auntie Alexis pointed out to me, and I happen now to work on S. Warren Street in Syracuse, which actually only occurred to me at this moment. However after having floated a couple middle name possibilities to Jeff in the month or two before Reed was born, and having had those possibilities shot down pretty summarily, I was pretty confident that Jeff would not like Warren either, and I had not even broached the name to him. Then when we were about to be released from the hospital, earlier than either of us had previously imagined, I felt pressure to decide on a name (or no middle name, also a legitimate possibility to me) before we were discharged so that the birth certificate lady would get off our backs. So Jeff went home to install the car seat and I told him he had to think of a middle name while he was gone. He returned and said, kind of timidly, how about Warren? I about jumped out of my bed, since it was the only contender in my mind and yet I thought Jeff would hate it, so I hadn't even brought it up. He really admires Elizabeth Warren and thinks he may have seen on a wall at Crouse Hospital the name of a wealthy benefactor of the hospital named Warren. Anyway, Reed's name was born.

About a month after Reed was born I was at a work social event with Reed and saw an older gentleman who serves on a board with me. He asked about Reed's name and was thrilled with both the first and middle names because of United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren (which had also occurred to us earlier), known for many progressive court rulings, such as Brown v Board of Education. But this gentlemen, David, also pointed out that Stanley Forman Reed was also a US Supreme Court Justice, also having served during the Warren Court. I have since consulted the internet to learn more, and it turns out that Justice Reed was initially the lone holdout in the dissent for Brown v Board, which is what delayed the decision for about a year, because Chief Justice Warren felt it was so important that the decision be unanimous that he kept trying to persuade Justice Reed. Reed was from Kentucky and was apparently a segregationist, so it was a very big deal when he changed his mind to go along with the majority and signing on to the opinion which desegregated schools. I had not even known there was a Justice Reed and did not know this history but I think it's very neat!

More hiking with Reed!

Tuesday the boys didn't get back from Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Greg's until mid-afternoon so Reed and I spent the morning running errands and then going to Fillmore Glen State Park for a lovely hike. We practically had the park to ourselves and I really enjoyed the quiet, punctuated only by the loud snoring of Reed on my chest in the Ergo carrier.

Hiking with Reed

The big boys are staying with Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Greg so I went on a great hike Sunday afternoon with Reed at Clark Reservation.

Fruit Picking

Saturday we met Leah for some blueberry, raspberry, and apple picking at Abbotts. The blueberries were sparse but we still got several pints. The raspberries were sour and very few and far between. But the apples were at perfect Theo-and-Beckett height and very tasty!

Then Saturday night we went over to Emily and Chris's new house and the boys got to share their own table with Violet.

Museum of Play with the Bleisenbergs

Yesterday the boys and I met dear friend Aaron and his son Oliver (plus, for a brief shining moment, his daughter Dylan) at the Museum of Play in Rochester.

A favorite stop is always the Berenstain Bears room. At some point while Beckett still wanted to play there Theo asked if he could go out and look at books in the hallway on the way to the room. He stayed there, reading nearly ever book on the shelf, for about 20 minutes while Beck finished up with cleaning the giant bear teeth and whatever else he was doing. I kept checking on him and there was a Museum employee stationed at the entrance of the room who said she had never seen a kid do that!

We always love to fix the car at the Sesame Street exhibit.

Aaron took a turn baby-holding while I wrangled the big boys on the train. There was some drama with some other (much bigger) kids but we worked through it and they waited their turn for the guarantee of having the front car all to themselves.

Hide and Seek with Cast

Playing Hide and Seek when you're four and in a full leg cast is tricky.