Thora's First Real Crush
It's also been the month that she's explored the complicated internal realm of a crush. She's had crushes before. She used to get this mesmerized look about her when she was around "fancy" ladies, women with long hair, who wore makeup and dresses and jewelry. If we knew them and were friendly with them, she'd often ask me to ask the object of her infatuation if she would let Thora sit on her lap or carry her. Most recently, she fell for our new friend Greg, the dad to one of Auric's playmates. I could get her to do almost anything if the promise of seeing Greg was on the horizon. But in retrospect, these crushes were small compared to the emotions she's been showing us recently.
This month, we've talked more about her former teacher, Rich, than perhaps anything else. Rich was a student teacher for her class over the summer. And although her teachers announced that his summer teaching job with their school had come to an end, it was confusing for her to have him leave. What has proven even more confusing, and perhaps what launched this crush into the intense state it's in now, is his periodic returns to fill in for absent or vacationing teachers. But even prior to his surprise return, we spent most of our time talking about him unceasingly at home. For example, Thora will ask things like, "Do you think Rich would like to be all cozy with me under these blankets?" or "What would Rich say if he had a tummy ache and I was there." In all of these scenarios--and they go on for a mind-numbing 5-10 minutes at a stretch--Thora seems to want me to portray Rich as only needing and wanting her, to send all others away so that they can be alone.
It's been kind of painful to watch, actually, since the intense emotions she feels for Rich has brought along with it a new sense of self-consciousness, something I thought was years away. Whenever she talks about Rich at home, and is momentarily and acutely possessed by these strange-feeling emotions, she talks in this strange, shy, pinched voice. It's like she knows these feelings are intimate and private and to share them is to reveal something very vulnerable about herself. And then after a few days of this, Rich was suddenly back at school. It was most painful to witness her body going rigid upon seeing Rich there at one of the tables with some of the other kids, just like none of this was happening. Isn't it just like the person who is oblivious to your crush to go on with life as if all this torment isn't happening to you?!? She acts just like a love-struck teenager. She can't go near him when he's there. And when I timidly made the suggestion that she might sit with him and talk with him since she likes him so much, she conveyed the simple impossibility of it. With a quick shake of her head, she told me that being near him, that talking to him was just out of the question. It broke my heart the recent morning she said to me, "Don't tell Rich we talk about him." I reassured her that we would never do anything like that, and she followed that up with "And tell Daddy not to tell Rich too." We may have crested the peak of this crush--our "Can we talk about Rich" sessions seem to be ebbing--and are hopefully on the slope away from this fixation. She seems to be relatively unscathed by her first crush; however, I can't help but recognize that our baby is only 3 and there are many more hearts out there that will cause hers to ache. I just hope--admittedly selfishly--that she does more of the heartbreaking.
Thora regularly works her dress-up clothes into her regular rotation.Speaking of love, it reminds me. Thora got married. How could I have not led with that?
They'd just been pronounced husband and wife.If there is a boy in her life who has been true and loyal to her since the day they could walk, it's been Zach. And a few weekends ago, they were wed. The grown ups were finishing dinner at Zach's house, and the kids disappeared down in the basement where the dress-up clothes are. Zach's mom went down there to check on them, and when they were ready, escorted them upstairs in their wedding attire (Cleopatra dress for Thora, Zach in his upcoming Halloween costume, and bunny ears for both) and told us that they wanted to get married. It was a sweet, hilarious moment. I let Thora borrow my wedding ring, something she's always wanted to do and what I've always said is off-limits. Zach got his daddy's ring and we had a little ceremony for them. Since then, Thora asked me one afternoon, "Where's Zach? I want him to get here so we can get married again." Young love...
Thora, the Performer
Thora is still a performer. And one day at the museum, we found the perfect outlet for her: this colored light exhibit that projects three silhouettes from three foot lights onto a white wall. Here she gets to dance and strut and pose while watching the many larger-than-life Thoras do so as well.
In fact, she got so into this exhibit that she began to create a song and dance number. Here's a short video of this moment. It actually had been going on for awhile before I realized that it wasn't ending any time soon and that I still had time to pull out the camera and capture it.
Another favorite exhibit at the museum is racing the blinking lights. Thora still loves to run.
Thora Looks in the Mirror and Sees a Princess
Thora's love of all things Fairy Princess has increased recently. For a long time she's imagined herself as a princess. But recently, she's become fixated on the various Disney Princesses--to my dismay. She's only read abbreviated stories of Cinderella and Belle, but at school she's seen a few of the other girls' princess products, specifically a sheet for one of the napping cots that is decorated with Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Cinderella. So despite my hopes that we were going to bypass the phase of All Things Disney Princess, her interest appears to be unavoidable. I'm now asked to draw the various princesses. A hilarious moment was the recent pre-dinner tantrum that exploded because Daddy! Didn't! Draw! The! Princess! Right! Sigh.
In an effort to hold off against the Disney Marketing Machine, we got Thora some wings. She is a fairy princess or a princess butterfly or a butterfly princess, depending on the mood. She regularly wears these to the park and to friends' houses, to the point that they are already falling apart. But regardless of how long they last, they give her so much pleasure now. She asks me as we're walking through town, "Do you think that lady is surprised to see a butterfly? Do you think she wants wings like mine?" Her sense of herself as someone that people notice, as someone that people should be noticing, is really honed. This girl was born to perform, I think.
The Classes
Thora and Zach get ready for their first gymnastics class.Thora also started tae kwon do this month. And this past Saturday, she earned her first stripe! We're so proud of her determination and patience with this sport. Here's a, albeit unfortunately low-quality, video of Thora doing some moves in her class. In the first clip, Thora is in the front row, towards the right. But you might be better off finding her in the mirror, where her reflection is just to the left of Instructor Amy's reflection.
We'd heard that Tae Kwon Do is good for kids' sense of self-discipline, while at the same time giving them a physical activity and something to improve their confidence. This martial arts school came highly recommended to us as one that's great for youth classes. And it totally lives up to the hype. This instructor is exceptional at keeping the kids focused and positive, while knowing that they are youngsters who have to be wild occasionally, to break up the extended moments focus. We are proud that Thora was invited to join this class for 4-6 year olds. She is at times overly confident with her neighborhood friends, perhaps because she's taller than almost everyone and is pretty coordinated and well-spoken. So, it's good for her to be around older kids who are so much more coordinated and articulate. For the most part, she gets good behavior modeled for her by the older kids. And she really looks up to her instructor, Miss Amy. And because this question comes up a lot, they make the point repeatedly that tae kwon do is to be done only the studio and at home when they're practicing with their parents. That it's not to be tried out on friends at the playground or on little brothers.
And finally, Thora continues on with her swimming lessons. After a summer full of swimming in the local pools and reservoirs, we started her back in with lessons (in addition to the ones she takes once a week with her school).
Thora on the "Tot Dock" with her fellow swimmer before class.In the first session back, she was put in the Intermediate Beavers class. We checked in with her teacher midway through to get her feedback on where she thought Thora would be for the next session, so that we could enroll before the classes filled up. And she told us, that while Thora can swim on her own, in order to move up to the Advanced class, most of the other skills she'll need to be able to do relatively on her own as well, with minimal spotting by the instructor. We were anticipating keeping her in the Intermediate level for another session. So we were surprised to read Thora's report card on the last day, graduating her from the Intermediate class and encouraging her, "if she's up for the challenge" to move up to the Advanced class. We are very proud of our little girl and her big achievements. She's been in the Advanced class for 3 weeks and is doing well. She can do much of the skills, like floating on her back or using a kickboard, while just barely supported by Instructor Ashley. Similarly, in her swim class at school, Thora tells us that for the first part of each class, she swims with the flotation aid on, but that her instructor Dana has her remove it and she'll swim a good chunk of the time with no flotation aid!
Auric is in his second session of swimming lessons too. He doesn't do much but get comfortable in the water. But he's doing well. He's a great kicker, snapping his legs out simultaneously like a frog. It's a strong and funny kick. And when I help him up onto the edge to do jumps into the pool, I have to be careful to keep him close because he often tries to climb away to play with something that's caught his eye.
Auric also started another class this month: a Mommy and Me music class. This is the same class that I took with Thora back when she was this age. Auric loves it. When we arrive at the building he gets all excited, knowing what we're about to do. When I play songs from the cd for the class, his gets alert immediately as he recognizes the music.
When we're there, he is very engaged, playing with all sorts of different instruments, shakers, bells, and drums. Last week, the instructor pulled out the big, rainbow parachute and he sat staring up at it for about 10 seconds, taking it all in, before pointing excitedly at it, his face beaming, like he was saying, "Are you seeing this!?!" It's great fun to be there with him. The only trouble is that he likes to crawl and is very speedy. So I spend some of each class following him around, scooping him back up and bringing him back to the group. The class is held in a dance studio, so the front wall is a floor-to-ceiling mirror. That is just too irresistible sometimes.
At Home
Here's Auric playing with some of his favorite toys. He LOVES those cubes. And in playing with him, one sees how much he loves to nest things, stack things, and drop things into larger containers. He is so fun to watch. He'll get a few of those cubes linked together and then over and over he'll drop a small toy down into the middle and say one of his favorite words, "Uh-oh," and then fish it out again. In this photo, you can also see his little musical keyboard. He likes music, loves to dig out the rattles and bells to shake along to music, and he likes to dance.
Speaking of... speaking, Auric's vocabulary is really starting to grow! He is starting to use recognizable sounds for words. "MMM" is moo; "Yow yow," is meow; "grunt grunt" is woof woof, for dog; he will roar when you ask him what a lion says; he will do a pretty good impression of an elephant, accompanied with the raised arm for the trunk; he will make a siren sound to indicate a firetruck. And of course, there's always his first word, "Guh" which is truck. You can see almost all of those words by clicking here for this video. He loves to point at things and says some version of "gibberish gibberish ... dish." He uses this word, "dish" or a version of it, to mean "this." He'll point at ceiling lights, small details on fabric, at the sky and say "dish, dish" and we'll tell him what we think he's pointing at. His signing more and more now too. He waves his hand in the air for airplane, he'll put his fingertips together for more, he'll squeeze his hands open and shut for milk. And he's proving to be a great mimic. When Thora is having a moment and can't control all that 3 year-old energy, and roars, Auric mimics her right back. It's hilarious--and sometimes scary--to see him take it all in, all of Thora's emotional displays. On an hourly basis, I say something to the effect of "Pay no attention to that girl throwing a tantrum," in the voice of OZ. But he loves his sister something fierce. She is the most wonderful thing in his eyes. And so he can't look away.
And most of the time, she loves him right back.
She loves that he can balance better now--she thinks that gives her license to wrestle with him--and that he can chase her (on his hands and knees, of course). She can tell that he loves attention from her and so she gives it. Sadly, like most sibling goofiness, it's great until someone gets hurt (usually Auric, although she's gotten her hair pulled more times than I can count). You can see that she can't wait for him to be her peer.
Here he is quite pleased with himself having pulled himself up to stand and look out the back door. He'll be walking soon, I think. But for now, he still crawls like a speed-demon around the house and occasionally walks around holding onto furniture. Check out this great short video of Auric crawling around the perimeter of a kids' movement class at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.
This month also marked my second half-marathon this year. I completed the 13.1 mile, 2-loop course in 1:50:39, a personal best. The course was flat and favorable in that the downhill section was paired with a tail wind for the second half of each loop, e.i. miles 4-6 and 10-12. It finished around the dirt warning track in the baseball stadium for the Lowell Spinners, the single-A minor league team for the Red Sox. That last tenth of a mile felt really long, coming in at the back corner of left field, seeing the finish line over at first, but having to run the long way around the outfield. However, it was a fun and festive way to finish the race. My dad came along as my cheering section--he and my step-mom, Cathy were visiting that weekend--and it was great to see him up in the stands.
And from that same day that I captured the video of Auric above, here are a few more great moments. We met our friends at the Institute of Contemporary Art. On the last Saturday in the month it hosts a free family fun day, with lots of kids activities. Here we are, enjoying the great space.
Thora and Zach look out onto the water.
Auric and Ellie take in the sights, too.
Auric loved crawling the perimeter of this big room, following the path of the heating vents.The following is for Sean and I, to help us remember the passing months. Thora bonded with "Doggy" and "Lamby" and they became her sleepmates this month. She's enjoyed reading along with Lilly's Pink Plastic Purse and Brave Irene--we have the cd audio books from the library for both of these books. She also likes the new Charlie and Lola books I've gotten from the library--a favorite of her cousins. Auric still likes anything truck-related and also likes those sliding window or lift-a-flap books. He also really likes it when there's a peep hole in the page that tempts him to find out what's on the next page, like in peekaboo, puppy! or Windows to Color.
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