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.