Thora at 23 months

Trip to Eugene
We spent a week in Eugene, OR visiting Sean’s parents. We had a wonderful time. The weather was amazingly cooperative, giving us practically a week of sunshine and mild temperatures, something that’s pretty remarkable for February in the Pacific Northwest. And so Sean and I were able to do some of our favorite “Eugene” things, like running at the Amazon Creek bark-dust, 1-mile loop path and climbing Mt. Pisgah 3 times.
We enjoyed the company of Brian and Beverly, and grandparents and grandchild adored their time together. Beverly and Brian generously babysat at least some part of everyday so that we could go for a run or make a quick trip to the gym. Sean and I were even able to go out to dinner just the two of us and to see a movie, our second(!) cinematic experience since Thora was born.

Thora’s Numbers
It was during this week that Thora finally said the word “two” instead of her version up to this point: “kng.” And she’s begun down the path of the numbers between 11 and 20. She often now goes directly to 11 after 10 and then says 12. However, she hasn’t grasped 13, 14, or 15. She jumps straight to 16, but then gets 17 (“Fesen-teen”), 18, 19, and 20. She also regularly completes any counting to 20 (or sometimes to 10) with an impression of Count von Count from Sesame Street: “Ah Ah Ah!”

Thora Singing
And it was also during this week that she really started to sing along with us when we sing songs. Also recently, I’ve caught her, a few times now, singing a few lines on her own of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” or her absolute favorite, “Let’s Go Fly a Kite,” from Mary Poppins.
“Why these songs?” you ask. While we’re still holding off going whole-hog with tv/dvds for Thora, occasionally we will sit with her in front of the computer and play her short YouTube videos. In the past, I would catch myself singing a song from my childhood memories of Mary Poppins or some other movie. But usually I only remembered a couple lines and sang those over and over. Until, that is, I thought to check YouTube, where I found short clips from Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, ballerinas dancing the “Sugar Plum Fairy” solo in The Nutcracker, Ernie from Sesame Street singing, “Rubber Ducky,” Dorothy singing in The Wizard of Oz, etc. This has been great for Thora—she loves these videos and getting visualization of these songs I’d been butchering—and great for me, since it’s allowed me to re-learn all the words. The obvious drawbacks: she asks me to sing these songs CONSTANTLY and asks to watch these video only slightly less constantly.

Random things that I want to put down for posterity: Thora is fascinated with Sesame Street’s The Count and his “Ah, Ah, Ah!” She fixates on his bit roles in books like Molly Moves to Sesame Street and Oscar’s Grouchy Day. * * * I know a lot of kids do this, but she just started to tickle her ear with one hand while drinking, holding the sippy cup with the other hand. It’s really adorable. * * * Thora says, “Keys...Wallet...Phone.” When we’re all bundled up, ready to head out the door, before we even say something to this effect, she says it for us. * * * When Thora wants to be watched, when she’s doing something that she thinks merits someone’s attention, she’ll say, “Thora doing,” a shortened version of “What’s Thora doing?” This is another example of her saying the phrase that we say. * * * Some great books we discovered while in Eugene: Kitten’s First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes, Late Night Moon by Cynthia Rylant, and Time for Bed by Mem Fox, what will likely become our new final book before bedtime.