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!

24 Great Moments from September 2011

We started this month with a trip to Chicago. We had a great time (despite the heat wave that rolled through). We did a lot of the usual (the playgrounds, our traditional dinners at the Silo and the Rainforest Cafe) and a few things for the first time, like two trips to the LF beach and the LB beach. And miraculously, thanks to that heat wave at the end of a hot summer, the lake was warm enough to swim in. We had some great times. Behold! (For a look at the whole album, click here.)

We had a mini birthday celebration for Auric, even though he wouldn't turn 2 for another week. I'm glad we caught this on camera. The picture at the right is him having just been sung to. And it was by far his favorite experience EVER! Check out his giggling fit in the video below.

I like this one, although sadly this moment caused a ban of kids on the piano. Oh well. I have this photo, at least.














We spent a great time with my sister. As always, she drove all over Chicagoland from her place in the city to hang out with us.

We made our traditional visit to the Rainforest Cafe, which the kids love, and is conveniently located near my mom's place. Here is Auric with Grandma Jane.













A big hit after dinner is always the prospect of rides on the coin-operated vehicles. Auric absolutely loves this part of the tradition.














Just for fun, I wanted to juxtapose the photo of him from the previous January, 9 months earlier, in the same Garfield car. Look at that little baby boy!










Anyway, back to our trip in September. This was another highlight: riding in the wagon on the back of Grandpa Terry's tractor! If you can believe it, I'm squeezed in there with them, too.








This day up north included a trip out onto the chain of lakes. The kids loved the trip on the boat, even though it was windy and we had to wrap the towels around us when we were moving fast. However, that didn't stop the hot-blooded Thora from taking a dip when we anchored near the sand bar. This outing also saw Auric's first try at fishing. It was very cute.





On our last day in Chicagoland, we took the train downtown to the Lincoln Park Zoo. The outing as a whole was pretty much a bust (motion sickness on the train, poorly timed travel in relation to Auric's naptime, etc.) Ugh. It was not good. But while that wasn't a "Great Moment from September 2011," I'm quite partial to these two photos taken of the kids on the train down.






























When we got back, we had an incredibly active few days. To start, Thora had her first day of school on the Thursday after Labor Day. Here she is in a great First Day of School photo. She is in a Chinese Immersion program that does 4 out of every 8-hour day in Mandarin. It's a great program, and one that I'm so happy she's in.










Here she is, holding up her Chinese name, pronounced Ing Lay, which means ballet dancer. The transition to school and a language immersion program was a little rough, which is to be expected. But within a week, she was looking forward to school each day.








Here we are, celebrating Thora's first day of school with dinner at her favorite burger joint in Central Square.








The very next day it was Auric's actual birthday. Here we are celebrating it by doing his now all-time favorite thing: being sung "Happy Birthday." While yes, this is in fact another video of him being sung to, I like it for his attempt at showing Two with his fingers. Enjoy.

And then, the day after that was Sean's birthday, and the joint birthday party for Sean and Auric. Here are there cakes. (I show them only for their cuteness, and not because I made them!)




And yes, I'm about to share with you a third (yes, I know) video of Auric being sung to. But I like this one because it shows everybody, something our other videos don't capture. We had the party on a very windy, and unseasonably cool day in the park across the street. A lot of friends were there to help us celebrate.

Ok, now that you've seen that one, I promise, there are no more videos of us singing "Happy Birthday" to Auric. Just a bunch of photos of cute kids, for the most part with birthday cake all over them. Here is Auric and one of his friends, Ellie. Don't you just want to squeeze her?!?

Here is Thora being photogenic with a bouquet of flowers.


















Here are the birthday boys.













We got an informal game of t-ball going. I really like this photo because it highlights Auric's unconventional batter's stance and grip. Surprisingly, he actually hit the ball a remarkable number of times, considering.










Here are the kids going to town on the remnants of poor Elmo and Cookie Monster.











The big kids playing some sort of game. I'm guessing it involved chasing and killing invisible aliens or "bad guys" with super powers.









Daddy Thom was awesome. Not only did he pull wagon load after wagon load of kids, he also brought along his balloon twisting kit and made some wild hats and animals and swords for the kids.









Auric got some really cool gifts for his birthday, like this incredibly realistic recycling truck, which for months, he referred to has the "garbage can."










And we expanded his train set with two accessories, including a great bridge. Needless to say, these toys went over really well. We know our boy.






The second half of September was spent on a wonderful trip to England. See that post here.

But when we got back, Sean had the great idea (I admit, I was very skeptical) to go to the Southwick Zoo. Despite the rain, it was a great experience. We were one of just a few families there. And perhaps because it was less crowded, the animals were so active. In fact I've never seen such activity at a zoo in my life! It was a great time and the kids took a nap in the car on the way back, which helped them get back to EST.





One of the highlights of this zoo is their fawn meadow. The fawns were very friendly, while not being aggressive. We bought some feed from the coin-operated dispensers, and made a lot of deer friends.






And then finally, here is a video of Thora's new skill, acquired in the month of September. In this video, she's giving her friend Zach a Monkey Bar tutorial. She's saying, "And then I swing. And then I do this a little. And then I swing. And then I do this a little again." You can see, she's got the idea that she's supposed to be trying to create momentum between swings; however, as she demonstrates, you can see that she doesn't quite grasp how to create that momentum by swinging her body side to side. She basically just pauses and while dangling there, she twists her body back and forth. It was still a big accomplishment for her after working on this for years now. Enjoy.

Stay tuned for the next update of October's photos and videos!