16 Best Photos from May 2011

I hate that I'm writing this so much later. Because I'm sure I would've written very passionately about the warming temperatures and the beauty that is Spring after a New England winter, or about the fun we had while Sean finished up the last week of his recovery from surgery, or about the giddiness I felt when the weather got so warm that we could pretend we were already in the full embrace of Summer, or what I'm most ashamed not to have better documented, the kids' lightening-fast development. But alas, it is from vague memories that I write all this. Please forgive me.

So, back to May. (Click here to see the whole photo album.) The colors burst onto our landscape and over one very lucky day, we got to take it all in at the Public Garden in downtown Boston. The tulips and trees were in full bloom in all sorts of colors all over the garden. Color exploded from the ground and the air, everywhere.

That's Thora running through the grass.

Thora finds a stray tulip on the ground amidst this stand of tulips.
(She knows to pick only weeds, never flowers.)

During May, I took Thora shopping for some summer clothes. It was a kind of chaotic girls day. Thora couldn't tolerate the hour or so in the mall. But it wasn't all bad, because she scored these awesome red boots. I was in the Gymboree outlet store, stocking up on reduced-priced staples like sundresses (she can't get enough of these), as well as the occasional stretchy t-shirt and shorts. While I was wandering around the store, trying to find her size on the various sale racks, Thora repeatedly found her way to the only full-price rack in the store, showcasing items for Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. She kept asking me if she could get the boots. I kept breaking it to her that they weren't the most practical thing, especially since we were there to get her some sandals. (Her gold ones finally went to sandal heaven.) After the third or fourth time that she found herself admiring them, she turned to me and said, "Mom, I'm just in loooovve with these boots." I had to admit that they'd totally grown on me since we'd been in the store. And since we couldn't find the right pair of sandals in her size, with a cringe, I obliged her.

Well I needn't have feared. Thora wore those boots everyday until they went to boot heaven at the end of July. (Actually, I couldn't bring myself to throw them away, and so I turned them into planters where they're currently housing some yellow begonias on our front steps.) She ran around parks in those boots, wore them with any and all outfits, climbed all sorts of playground equipment in them and got at least 5 compliments a day. She even ran a kids race wearing them in June in NYC's Central Park. Here she is the day we got them.


Auric continues his love of all things motorized. The city has been doing work in a few spots along our route to Thora's school and everyday he points out all the equipment. Here he is fulfilling his dream of driving a Bobcat (driving a back hoe is up there too), at the Children's Museum.


The dads all took the littlest kids to the Children's Museum that day while Hilary and I took the older ones to a birthday party. Here are the dads enjoying a much deserved beer with lunch.

Clockwise from left: Ellie (sleeping in the stroller), Daddy Dave, Daddy Sean, Auric, Daddy Greg, (aka Buba), and Etta.

Later that same day, our friends watched all the kids while Sean and I snuck away and met up with our old Tucson friends, Hans and Lisa, and their kids, Emily and Steven. We did an abbreviated walking tour of the Freedom Trail through historic Boston. It was great to get to see them!


During May, we cashed in a few gift cards for the kids and got Auric his first train set and Thora some incredible dress-up clothes and accessories. Below, Auric plays with his train for the first time. (This is, by far, his most beloved toy. Thank you, Grandma Jane and Grandpa Terry.) Click here for a video called, "Auric's Budding Vocabulary Part 4" which features the trains, along with a new expletive. Fun! Additionally, it shows his newfound understanding of color. Initially, I think he may have combined the words "color" and "yellow" so that whenever he was asked a color, he always said it was yellow. Then, he added the word blue. So that whenever you asked him the color of any object and it was yellow, he was probably going to guess it right the first time. If the object was blue, he'd most likely get it on the second guess. (In this video, he actually does the opposite, although this was very rare.)


The kids are getting to be more like peers everyday. Despite Auric's forays into the terrible twos, they find more ways to play together and get along. For a very cute, if a bit long, video of Thora and Auric doing what they do best (Thora plays the teacher, Auric, the happy-to-please student), click here.

Below, is another sweet, and sadly rare, moment. They were watching a video, having some down time while I made dinner. Auric cuddled up with Thora and she began playing with his hair. They sat there just like that for 20 minutes or so. It was beautiful.


Here's the whole gang at Zach's house. Thora, Zach, and River all had gymnastics together. We'd all get together, and two moms would watch the little siblings, while one mom would drive the older kids to gymnastics. When they returned, we sometimes had impromptu pizza parties. Here they all are, eating pizza and watching a video, while the moms got a brief moment to relax as well.

From left: River, Ellie, Auric, Zach, Thora (wearing the red boots, naturally)
and Lila, the only civilized one of the bunch, eating at the table.

Zach turned 4 in May and Hilary put together a great treasure hunt birthday party in a nearby park. Here the kids listen to the instructions.

Zach got these awesome kid play guitars, which re-opened the door to let in Thora's rockstar persona. (The red boots, again.)


Auric. He amazes us everyday with new abilities, new charm, and new defiance (which is still cute, somehow). He is very much his own person, but he takes so many cues from his sister. Click here for a short video of the first evidence of him singing, "Singin' in the Rain." (As I write this in August, he can sing it all. Video of this to come.) And here's another video, called, "Auric Sings with Feeling." I love his expression in this one: eyes shut tight, emotion (of what, I have no idea) all over his face. This is another example of his ability to dramatize a moment, something that's been modeled for him by his sister everyday of his life. And lastly, here's another short video of Auric being cute, called, "Auric Falls Out of a Box."


May gave us some rainy days (click here for a short video of Auric splashing in a puddle, one of his absolute favorite activities). But it also gave us some warm days in which we had lots of fun. On one of these days, we traveled out to Lincoln, MA to visit Codmon Farm, one of favorite trips to see the animals. Click here for a short video of that. And later that day, we enjoyed our first cookout of the season. Below is a shot of us after dinner. Sean likes to wow the kids by making these long baskets into the kids' hoop. Here he is mid-shot. And to prove how good he is at this, here is a video of our backyard fun which includes Sean shooting baskets (and wowing me), of Auric saying some words (through a mouth continually full of cantaloupe), and a great flashback to Thora of two years ago. Watch all the way to the end for that little treat.


And lastly, here's Auric's friend, Etta. She's a darling girl. Auric plays with her almost everyday, along with their friend, Ellie. They're just too cute. I had to include this.


Thanks for checking in with us. I hope to have June up before long! Check back soon.

20 Best Photos from April 2011

April... what a month. The most notable event was Sean's somewhat troublesome (for him, not us!) but ultimately successful surgery. We're grateful for the team of doctors, nurses, and hospital staff who gave him such great care. He was home and walking around during the beginning of April, enjoying lots of time with his family, including his parents, whose visit lasted through the first part of April. Sean was on the go a lot, always testing the limits of what he could do physically, not one to lay around and recover through rest. And his determination has paid off. As I write this, four months after his surgery, he's back to running the same distances (25-35 miles per week) that he was prior to the surgery. It's amazing, really. I count our blessings every day.

(I think many of these updates have been Thora-focused. Be forewarned, this one is clearly Auric-focused. Be sure to click here to view the whole April photo album. It might be less biased.)

And one of our blessings, is our little Peachy, aka Auric. What a character he is. He's been a little charmer from his first weeks, cooing and cuddling, and always flashing those dimples. His charisma and likability continues to shine as one of his most outstanding features. Click here for a short, cute video of him performing, on command: crying, laughing, and our favorite, yawning. Even his tantrums are a little cute. Click here to see one of those. As Winter transitioned to Spring, he hit a language boom, and his ability to parrot became really noticeable. For a video, "Auric's Budding Vocabulary, Part 3," click here. (Read on for an explanation for one of the stranger words he came up with for "spoon.")

Most of his words are pretty dead-on. And in fact, he hears if he doesn't get the word out the right way, and so will repeat it several times, unprompted, until he gets it as close as he can, which is the opposite of his big sister. She was very verbal from very young. But despite talking sooner, her words were less sophisticated. She had a tendency to hear the syllables, but process them in reverse, and so "meow" was "owmm". And she liked double-syllable words: "cereal" was "cee-cee"; "Thora" was "Sa-sa"; and our upstairs neighbor "Carl" was "Ca-Cow." She also came up with some doozies: "lass-i-mo," for "mollasses," "lez-lo" for "Lopez," and "bommut" for "bottom." Thora had many of these funny words. Auric's words sound pretty accurate right from the beginning; thus, so far he has only had two pretty funny words: "Ahh-poh" for "open" and, our household favorite, "Up High" for "spoon." We have NO IDEA from where this last one generated. The only explanation that I came up with, was perhaps he was connecting the idea of sitting "up high" in his high chair and the spoon with which we fed him. Regardless, it's a pretty cute Auric-ism and we enjoyed it while it lasted (several months).

His love for cars and trucks and trains, really anything that goes, continues to be his guiding light in life. Here he is enjoying digging and dumping the pebbles into the trucks at the park.


Now on to one of our favorite Thora-isms, namely Baby Trash Can. She's been in Thora's room al this time, all but forgotten about. Until one time this month, Thora included BTC in her dress-up play. Here's is BTC, up on a foot stool, getting all glammed up.


Bath time gets fun, as Auric gets older. Good times!



Brian and Auric got lots of quality time during their visit. (Beverly also got lots of quality time. However, it seems that she suffers the same fate as I, that of always being the one behind the camera.)


During Sean's first weeks at home, he would regularly walk over to the MIT track and walk laps. Auric loved being brought along on the outing, for the wide open space to run, and on this occasion, the good fortune of finding a forgotten baseball.



The spring saw the official hand-me-down of Thora's trike to Auric. Here is one of his inaugural rides.


Auric continued with swimming lessons in the Spring. He still does not quite grasp what's needed of him. He's a great kicker, and has this very funny frog-like kick where he simultaneously kicks both legs out behind him repeatedly. What he thinks he needs to do with his arms, I'm not sure. Basically he mostly uses his arms to cling to me and at times, hang on to the straps of my swimsuit, just daring them to come loose. Fun! Click here for a very short video of him swimming (don't worry, my suit never comes loose!) in which I attempt to get his arms moving. But he's having none of it.



And it wouldn't be an update if it didn't include a photo of Thora and Zach, dressed to nines, and doing some kind of performance. Here they are, tapping away on our portable tap floor. (Notice Auric in the background, mimicking them, and also wearing a pajama top that his belly has out-grown.)


Easter weekend saw another great visit from Baba and NuNu. Here is Baba monitoring Thora's egg-dyeing. He's having about as much fun as you can while balancing a squirmy toddler on your lap and attempting to keep the various dyes in their respective cups while a 4 year-old, sort of willy-nilly stirs them all up, while she poses for pictures. Good times.


Here she is taking in her accomplishment. This look of satisfaction and pride changes dramatically (see link above to view the whole April album) when she notices that I'm snapping away, at which point she becomes absurdly protective of the eggs and refuses that they be photographed or even looked at. Oh Thora, she never fails to make an innocuous moment a dramatic one.


And speaking of Drama, Thora and Zach continued their Education of the Theatre when we took in a Wheelock College production of "Alladin and the Wonderful Lamp." Here they are, waiting for the show to start, with Zach holding up the program. It was a really engaging performance, with the actors regularly appearing out of the side doors to the auditorium and walking up and down the aisles. So the kids were pretty awe-struck at having the show come down to them. The costumes were also incredibly vivid and spectacular.


And again, what can I say? This kid just cracks me up and breaks my heart at the same time. Like a hundred times a day.


Thora's friend Ally and family hosted their second annual Easter party. The kids played and enjoyed the incredibly well-stocked easter egg hunt. A great time, as always!

Clockwise from left: Liem, Lila, Ally, River, Thora, Auric, and Khai.

Thora continues to put on shows, even when she's NOT putting on a show. How does she do this? Click here for a short video of Thora NOT being a mermaid, even though she's hamming it up as one. One thing you can say about Thora: she likes being unpredictable.


April also saw Thora and her friends, Zach and River, attend the Big Apple Circus in downtown Boston. This was such a fun outing. We started with the multiple trains to Government Center, a dinner at The Hard Rock Cafe, and then an evening of entertainment at the circus. My favorite entertainment of the whole night had to be when Thora turned to me, midway through the first act and said, with complete earnestness, of course, "Mom, take my boa. I'm going on stage!" See the long pink boa in the photo below that was part of her circus-attending outfit.

From left: Zach, River, and Thora

And back at the ranch... this is going on. Auric and his best buddies, getting a bath. Babies in bathtubs... it doesn't get much cuter.

From left: Etta, Ellie, and Auric.

And at last... April saw some color re-enter our lives in the form of blooming flowers in our yard. Here is a Bleeding Heart flower, something that Thora became obsessed with this spring. She loved spotting them in other people's yards and they were regularly expressed in her works of art.


Thanks for catching up with us. Look back soon for the best photos from May.