23 Great Moments from November 2011

Oh, November. You were great, I think. I hardly remember you. Here's a glimpse of our life during that month. Click here to see the whole album.

We were the lucky recipient of another Cubs hat for the kids from Aunt Natalie. I guess that must be the frustrating aspect of buying toys for kids you love. They often lose it or break it before they've had a chance to enjoy it, or you've had a chance to enjoy watching them using it. Well, I was quick to snap a photo of Auric in his new awesome baseball cap before some tragedy could befall it.








(He put it on like that. I have nothing to do with that nonsense.)










Thora and Zach, winged fairies, at dance class. While Zach has kind of tired of the costume insanity that accompanies each dance class, and therefore chooses to dance in regular clothes, Thora insists on dressing up each week. The only thing I prohibit is the black Wonder Woman wig. That just seems like a little too much. But the wonder woman costume and rose petal fairy wings, and often accessorized with a scarf tied around her rib cage (I'm not sure what that supposed to be) is juuust right.







A meeting of the minds. Auric, Etta, Ellie, and Lila hash it out during one of their weekly morning play sessions.








Actually, in case you want to know what goes on in the mind of a 2 year old, here it is:

Thora saw improvement in her English and Chinese classes at school this month. She's getting better at sounding out words in English, figuring out the beginning and ending sounds, writing the letters and numbers (9 still stumps her, as do the counter-intuitive letters y and w). Here she is, proudly exhibiting her ability to write Moon in Chinese. She can also write part of her name. (There are two characters, one is simple and the other is incredibly complex. She can write the simple one.) I'll get that on film soon, I hope.










In November, Hilary, Zach's mom lined up tickets for us to see the 360' Peter Pan performance. It was exceptional. If it comes to your city, you should try to see it. Prior to the show, Thora, Zach, and I were killing time while Hilary grabbed us all hot chocolate. Thora was inspired by the poster behind her and performed her own version of magically flying. See the album here for a nice little series of photos, culminating in this one on the right.



Auric painted his first painting in November. And while Auric and his sister surely have different personalities, I was shocked to see it so obviously displayed in their respective first paintings. Notice in Auric's he dabs. It seems kind of careful, dare I say, thoughtful.











Compare that to Thora's first painting. Need I say more?



















On this particular week, Thora's great friend Mia also dressed in fairy wings for dance class.













Behold, Auric, the lead guitarist of his rock band.












And here we have a tub full of Ed Grimleys.












This was one of Auric's favorite activities. It was just like his beloved puddle jumping, with added dryness. This went on for about a half hour, me kicking the leaves into a pile and then watching him run through it, kicking the pile apart. Oh to be a kid...

"What ink pad?"

We attended our first live sing along in a movie theater of one of our favorites, Mary Poppins! They gave us a goodie bag upon entering, full of glow sticks for fireworks at the end of "Step in Time," a mini cup for the tea party on the ceiling, and a tambourine for "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." It was great fun!









Mary Poppins on the big screen! Good Times!












With no real plans of our own, we were kindly invited down to Zach's grandparents' place in Connecticut for Thanksgiving. A great time was had by all. Here are Zach and Thora during the big meal, drinking chocolate milk out of plastic wine glasses.






We went down to the beach in neighboring Greenwich for a hike on the incredibly unseasonably warm day. These photos were shot by Zach's Aunt Becca. Thanks, Becca for the great pics!

Here's Auric, not realizing that it's hard to look contemplative and philosophical when you're wearing a leash. He almost pulls it off, though, doesn't he?





Here are the buddies, Auric and Zach, the two most photogenic boys I know.











Thora loves these guys, even when she's torturing them.







During November, Thora's JK/K class had a parents breakfast, after which, the kids put on a performance. Thora and her classmates did a few songs and stories in both English and Chinese. Here are the highlights from that. (Don't worry; when I say highlights, I mean it. The video is only 53 seconds long.)

Thora's kind of hard to see, so if you want a closer look at them singing "How Many People are in your Family?" click here. The teacher recorded both halves of the class, and Thora is in the video near the bottom, the second kid on the left.

Here is the other song that they sang, "The Fruit Song," during one of their practice sessions leading up to the big show.



Then, to round out the month, after months of planning, we finally got to celebrate Sean's birthday with my present to him, a couples' cooking class with Mark, the chef with ArtEpicure. It was an amazing experience. He tailored the menu to our interests, particularly our hope to get better at cooking a meat dish, and to have guest-quality dishes in our repertoire. We made fresh spinach salad with poached eggs and a warm shallot dressing, braised beef short ribs, sage butternut squash risotto, roasted asparagus, and Julia Childs' chocolate mousse. Everything came out perfectly, and more importantly, we've been able to replicate the dishes at home with a fair amount of success! It was a great experience and I would whole-heartedly recommend it to anyone who likes to cook who lives in the Boston area. It was a very fun and memorable night!

Stay tuned for the next post, December. Until then...

39 Great Moments from October 2011

October was a rockin' month. I seriously loved reliving it while sifting through the photos to find the best moments. There were just so many. For a look at the whole album, click here.

One of the first great outings of October was a trip out to the DeCordova Sculpture Museum, in Lincoln. Our summer was going on and on and we were astonished to have a balmy, sunny day for this outing. We wandered around, listening to the buzzing bees and taking in the almost-turning leaves, and the sun, as well as the arresting sculptures scattered around the manicured lawn.





Here are Thora and Auric with their heads in the armpits of this large, abstract sculpture. They loved running around this one, pretending the holes were doors to a house, secret passageways, and all sorts of imaginative inventions.












I'm so happy that I'm capturing more and more of these blissful sibling moments.

While there, we shot a little video of Auric marching like a Royal Palace Guard. Back in September, on our trip to England, one of the most memorable and talked-about experiences for Auric was watching the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace. For months now, he marches all over the place. Sean and I capitalized on this by having them march to the bathroom to attend the very serious meeting on Teeth Brushing and Flossing! Here's a short video of him marching at the DeCorova Sculpture Museum.

Here's one more quick video of both Auric and Thora doing some marching at home.

We thought fall had arrived. Our Cambridgeport Potluck festival was rained out and then rescheduled for the next afternoon. And during that party, held at a local playground, Auric surprised me once again. He's an energetic boy who loves to run, who loves to be chased, and who can take off and be across the park before you can blink. But on this particular drizzly afternoon, I look up and I see him like this:

And still, summer would not end! In mid-October, we were hit with a surprisingly hot day, with highs in the mid 80's. Our friend, Hilary, kindly suggested that the two of us take all the kids (5 in all) out to the cape, where her in-laws have a place. What a wonderful, and yet strange experience, walking around in just our swimsuits, swimming and catching minnows and crabs, applying sunscreen, all while eating apples picked at the apple orchard just the weekend before.











Here are Ellie and Etta, eating those aforementioned apples.














Here are Auric, Etta, and Ellie getting a kayak ride.













Auric and his mom.













The next weekend, I attempted my first race in months, having been forced to give up all running due to a terrible case of plantar fasciaitis and a bone bruise, both in my left foot. But after months of not running, I was basically just sick of it. Over some drinks with my friends one night, I roped some of them into running and/or walking this 5k with me. I had shirts made and 6 of us got out there and did it, injuries be damned. (Well, one of us walked her own course. It's a long story. She completed 3 miles, so we allowed it.) C-Port Moms Run!





On that same day, while I was out running my race, Sean cashed in a gift I'd gotten him for Father's Day, a 2-hour introductory sailing lesson. He had fun and didn't get knocked into the harbour. What a success!










How did we both manage to do these things on the same day, you ask? BaBa and NuNu were here for a visit! Here are a few photos from their time at the park. Great photos, NuNu!













(photo credit on this one goes to BaBa.)










































Another highlight from this weekend visit was a trip to the Ringling Bros. Circus at the TD Garden. (Thank you, NuNu.) The production of this circus was a sensory overload. They had acts in each of the three rings going simultaneously, as well as images on the screens surrounding the floor and ceiling. The kids enjoyed the whole thing. It was great fun.









Here's Thora in a ridiculous hat that came with her cotton candy.













Before heading back to Chicago, BaBa and NuNu accompanied Thora to school on Monday. And we spotted this piece of art outside Thora's Chinese classroom. Here is a picture Thora drew with the Chinese words for Dad, Mom, Me, and Little Brother, glued to each figure. (Thora thinks my head is HUGE! I'm self-conscious now.)






One day, we found ourselves at the indoor playground in Watertown, and saw that they had these new pieces of hilarious, kid-sized workout equipment. Here's Auric bench pressing, while Zach looks on, clearly impressed. I texted this photo to Natalie, and she posted it on facebook. I liked one of her friends' comments when he wrote, "The kid in the white shirt is in terrible spotting position!"








As Halloween loomed, Thora and I planned our pumpkin carving.












The kids trying to set themselves on fire. (Me: Why are you picking that up when there's a lit candle in there?!? Put it down. Auric! Get your hand out of there!)
















We have four monsters: a vampire, a mummy, the Grim Reaper, and Frankenstein's monster.















Thora loves to write. Here she is working hard to copy words from the Sesame Street book, Grover's Book of Cute Little Words.
















Thora hard at work.












We were a playground and I look up to see that Auric had surrounded himself with all the dump truck toys he could find. (Note to Auric: You're turning into a parody of yourself.)












On the day that Thora's second pair of red cowgirl boots arrived, somehow, Auric was the first to try them on. Additionally, there must've been a probably poop-related wardrobe malfunction, because he's also in Thora's leggings. Good times...












Thora strutting her stuff in her new boots.

















Again, a sweet sibling moment!
















Thora's dance class. Her friends Zach and Mia are in the same class too, so it's extra fun.












Thora gave her dance class friends a sneak peak at her Halloween costume.















Auric and his buddies, Ellie and Etta.










And what made the month particularly rockin' was attending (eventually!) the Pixies Doolittle concert, wherein they play the whole album from start to finish. With the help of 3 other families and Hilary's parents, we'd attempted to see the concert in Waterbury, CT (somewhat near Hilary's parents' place). However, a freak October blizzard canceled the show. Sean, undeterred, found tickets on Craigslist for the show the following night in NH, about an hour drive from our place in Cambridge. So after driving all over New England, our friends Summer and Thom and Sean and I finally saw the concert. And it was sooo worth all the trouble. Our other friends bowed out of the second show and Hilary and Dave offered to have a sleepover for 6 kids (I know!) on Sunday night so that the four of us could go. Thanks to them for making it happen. It was great fun, an exceptional concert, and a night I will never forget!




From wikipedia:
A 2003 poll of NME writers ranked Doolittle as the second-greatest album of all time, and Rolling Stone placed the album at 226 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".






The concert was so incredible. The venue was called the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom, but really it was a big rectangular barroom with the stage along one of the side walls. We were only 10 people back from the stage! It was amazing to be so close to these legends. In retrospect, we are very lucky that the first concert was cancelled, since it was in a traditional concert hall and we would've been sitting way up in the upper level.

If you want a recommendation for a great music documentary, check out loudQUIETloud, a movie about the Pixies reunion tour in 2004.


Here are Sean and Thom. Sean has been a fan of the Pixies since their formation but he'd never seen them live. He introduced me to them almost 15 years ago when we got together. We missed their initial reunion tour when it rolled through NYC when we lived there. And then once we had Thora, we were out of the concert-seeing business altogether. But we managed to be ready when they started this subsequent tour, called the Lost Cities Tour, playing all the cities they'd bypassed in all their years touring, hence the reason why we were seeing this Boston-natives band in small towns like Waterbury, CT, and Hampton Beach, NH.




And then it was Halloween. I was thrilled when Thora expressed interest in Wonder Woman, a welcome addition to her (albeit continued) love of princesses. So we found her a costume. She thought her brother should also be a superhero. And lo and behold, we'd recently received a pair of Superman pajamas from BaBa and NuNu. And we already had a red diaper cover. So we were set!

Look out, evil-doers!












Here she is blocking a bullet with her special bulletproof cuffs.















And here are some of her trick-or-treating buddies: a dinosaur, Slimer (from Ghostbusters), Spiderman, and Venkman (also from Ghostbusters).







Stay tuned for the next update... November!