I'm only a month behind, but it feels like it's been ages since November. We are almost a week into our first snow-bound, deep-freeze of the winter, and already these photos of us back in November seem like a different lifetime ago. I can hardly remember life before snow, pushing the double stroller down the middle of the residential streets because I can't get it through the piled up snow on the corners, the interminable bundling and unbundling, the soggy rug by the front door where our wet, snowy boots are in various stages of drying. The other day, when we ventured out amidst the snow storm that canceled our Christmas trip back home to Chicago, I walked with Thora and Auric (on my hip) to the grocery store at the end of our street. Thora was crying as the wind hurled tiny flecks of snow into our faces, saying, "I want it to be summer again!" Oh, don't we all! But anyway, that's December. Back to November, when we had mild temperatures, crunchy leaves, and lots of fun. For a look at all the photos, click here.
The month started with a visit from our old friends, the Hendersons. Sean worked with Kelly back in NYC and we've stayed in touch, visiting one another regularly. They made the trip up to Boston and we all thoroughly enjoyed catching up. The twin girls (7) are great. They included Thora in their play, particularly liking to dress her up. Here they are having just styled Thora in her dress-up clothes. Thora has a unique sense of style, to be sure. But Tai and Sydney really took it to a whole new level of glamour!
Tai and Sydney, the stylists, and Thora as the over-photographed starlet.
Thora could be girly with the older girls, but also silly and rowdy with Drew (4). One of the games they thoroughly enjoyed was running and hiding from Toilet Hands (Auric). Sadly, our new walker has earned that nickname from the many (!) occasions wherein he gleefully splashes around in the toilet water (thankfully, always recently flushed). Thora still tells friends about the time that her and Drew were running from Toilet Hands. (Usually we were all talking about something else, and Thora felt the need to turn the conversation in this direction.)
Drew and Thora have managed to get both of their bodies into a toy designed for a single baby. Good Times!
All Things Wedding!
In our house right now, Thora is infatuated with one thing, and that is weddings. This is a natural spin-off of her recent fascination with princesses. Brides are modern day princesses for a day. They wear the lavish dresses that princesses are seen wearing, on every page, in her fairy tale books. And to her parents' great delight and amusement, she has acted out these weddings with her best friend, Zach. Thankfully, he likes to get married as much as she does. It happens at least once a week these days. Here they are in the middle of their second wedding ceremony.
Whereas most of the time, Thora can hardly contain her 3 year-old energy and wackiness, when it's time to get married, she has the focus of a zen master. She is all business, concentrating wholly on the preparations, the exchange of rings, reciting the vows, all of it. These days, getting married to Zach is the best possible outcome to each and every day. In the morning, she asks, "Is it a school day today?" Regardless of my answer, she asks, "Are we going to see Zach today?" And I tell her. And then, again, seemingly regardless of the answer, she says something like, "Oh yea! I need to make the dresses so we can get married!" Click here for a short video that reveals how wedding preparations permeate our activities.
The Bride and Groom comparing rings.
This fascination with weddings reached a high point over Thanksgiving break, when Sean took Thora to Oregon to spend the weekend with his folks and to see the Duke basketball team play Oregon in Portland. (More about that later.) At one point they stopped in a Hudson News for a drink and snack during a layover and Thora, for the first time, noticed that not only is there such a thing as a bridal magazine, in fact there are handfuls of them! Sean said that she stood there, speechless, taking it all in. (Thora? Speechless? I know.) When telling me the story, he said, "How to describe it? 'Mesmerized' is not a strong enough word." Then, when she regained her power of speech, in a voice still deep in the trance, she began pointing, saying, "I want that one... and that one... and that one..." While kind of horrifying to have a 3 year-old girl already obsessed with being a bride, it is still cute and pretty hilarious. And we're glad to know that we now have a secret weapon up our sleeves: to avoid a meltdown during a restaurant dinner, supply her with a bridal magazine, and she'll likely sit, quietly, for an hour!
Thanksgiving
Yes, we split the family in two for the holiday. And strange as that sounds, there was a decent reason, and his name is Auric. We would've all stayed home together. But Sean read that Duke, his alma mater, was going to play Oregon in basketball over the Thanksgiving break. This is very rare occurrence, since they're not in the same conference and wouldn't have reason to play one another, unless they met in the NCAA tournament. So, he felt like this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. And it's hard for him to pass up seeing Duke play live, if it looks like it's a reasonable possibility.
So then came the issue of getting us all to Oregon for Thanksgiving. And now we're back to Auric. While he frequently answers to the name Easiest Baby on Planet Earth, there is currently one situation where that is not true, and that is the long-distance flight. As a new walker, he just cannot sit still. And as a "lap" ticket, he is not particularly fun to fly cross-country with. And then there's the adjusting to the new time change and then back again, which is hard to do over a 4-day weekend. We were not thrilled with the idea of traveling with such an uncooperative and high-maintenance traveler over the busiest travel weekend of the year, but Sean did think taking Thora to the game, going on a special trip alone with her, might be fun. While Thora can be high-maintenance in a lot of ways ("Thora, why are you putting that in your mouth?!? You're almost 4!"), she is a very easy flyer these days, especially given her lengthening attention span and her love of a few good movies (Mary Poppins, for one). And so we decided that while sad to be apart, the best choice for all of us was to split up for the holiday.
Upon hearing that Auric and I might spend the weekend alone, we were immediately invited to accompany our great friends, the Sheas (Zach's family), down to Zach's grandparents' house in Connecticut where Auric and I were given the warmest and most generous of welcomes. (Side note: Thora doesn't really know that we spent Thanksgiving with Zach without her, so don't go telling her.) Here is Auric and his friend Ellie, with the grown-up Sheas, Hilary and Dave.
Meanwhile, Thora was in Oregon with her dad and grandparents. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, they traveled up to Portland to watch Duke beat Oregon. Thora enjoyed the first half and seemed to enjoy being there, getting to eat concession food, taking in the spectacle that is an arena sporting event, etc. But the game couldn't hold her attention for much beyond the start of the second half, and the portable dvd player and Mary Poppins had to be brought in as courtside entertainment.
Otherwise, our November days were spent as they often are: Thora at school in the mornings and then meeting up with friends in the afternoons. Here we were taking advantage of the some of the last mild days of fall, before winter set in.
Auric clearly doesn't see himself as a baby. He sees himself as his sister's peer. Here he is longing to keep up with her.
These are his best friends, Etta, a wonderful, talkative girl who is just a few weeks older than him, and in front, Ellie, the darling littlest one of the crew.
No comments:
Post a Comment