13 Best Photos from January

Oh, January. Where do I even start with you? We've been hit with triple the average amount of snow, which arrived every five days or so. And so commonplace have become these annoyances: where are we going to park the car? Can we get it out of the spot once we get it in? Can I get the double stroller to Thora's school and back, or do I convince her to walk the .7 mile while I carry Auric on my back? How many parking spots will we have to shovel out this week? Will the melting snow turn to ice or slush? Sadly, I don't even wonder anymore if I can run with the double stroller, since all the paths are intermittently shoveled at best, and a slushy, foot's-width path at worst.

It's really too much and we've all had it up to here! Except, there are some beautiful sights to take in, like the one above, shot while running across the Harvard (Mass Ave.) Bridge on one of my few runs this month. And there are more pretty pictures of the snow-laden trees and other quaint New England sights if you click here to see all of the photos from January.

The Snow

The first big snowstorm of 2011

Thora is enjoying the snow (as evidenced in photos below). Climbing the "snow mountains"--the massive snowbanks created from neighbors digging out their cars combined with the city's snow plows--is one of her favorite activities on our walks around town.

This massive snow mountain actually doubled in size at one point.

Yes, I do try to keep my chin up and find the fun and sense of community as all the grown-ups dig out their cars, or as we share an astonished smile or sigh with other pedestrians making their way through snow and slush. And then something like this happens:

Yes, that is the rear window of our car, shattered by the weight of the snow during the first storm of 2011. What a day that was! I was moving the car from where we were lucky to find a spot prior to the storm, back to a spot in front of our place. After picking Thora up from school and walking us all home, I loaded the kids into the car and noticed that the snow seemed to bounce off the rear window as I closed the door. That was weird, I thought. Until I got into my seat and heard Thora say, "There's something wrong with the window." I looked and to my shock, there was a hole about the size of a grapefruit above her head. I got out and went to her side, checking to see if she was okay, and she was. The glass so far had fallen onto the back ledge and not on her head. But as I closed her door, the hole grew, the whole back window buckling in as easy as fabric. The hole grew as I gently closed my door, and as I drove the 3 blocks to a parking spot in front of our house. By then, the hole had opened up across the back of the window and was dropping small bits of glass on the seat between the kids' carseats. Thankfully, despite all the glass, the kids were completely unscathed. And within a day, our insurance company had sent out someone to replace the rear window. All in all, it was painless. But seriously, that's a bit much.

I try not to be too curmudgeony about the amount of snow we've had to deal with and remember that from a child's perspective, all this snow is dressing up our city to look like something totally different: the sounds are muted; the cars move slower down our snowy streets; our walks around town take on elements of adventure as Thora leads us through a narrow valley just the width of a grown-up's boot, or through a deep, icy "lake" of slushy water. I think of Thora when she occasionally drapes a blanket around herself and asks, "Do you recognize me?" as if the glamour achieved by the long, dramatic folds of the blanket can completely mask her identity ("Are you Lina Lamont?"). I try to enjoy the fun of the snow until we eventually (right?) shed our collective layers and are back to our old selves again.

We're still Dancing and Singin' in the Rain

And speaking of Lina Lamont, January has seen the continuation of Thora's love of the movie, Singin' in the Rain.

Her interest in the movie has been so intense and devoted, I wanted to broaden her appreciation for the movie. I found a pair of barely-used tap shoes on ebay for her ($10 including shipping!), and for $5, I bought a 3' x 5' piece of hardboard at Home Depot, a flexible, brown, shiny sheet of building material that makes the best portable tap floor ever! She loves it! She gets on there and just stomps and taps to her heart's content, belting out the tunes! Check out these videos here and here.

I don't know how many times we've seen the movie, but we finally sent our Netflix copy back and purchased our own. And not only does she continue to watch with rapt attention, but she loves to talk about it, day and night. She's still trying to process a lot of the motivations ("Why do the fans rip Don Lockwood's suit to rags?" or "Why does Kathy Seldon 'grab her things and bolt' after she hits Lina Lamont in the face with a cake?") and the movie within a movie is still a little tricky for her to grasp. But the song and dance numbers never fail to captivate us all (I still stop whatever I'm doing to catch "Moses Supposes" or Donald O'Connor running up the walls in "Make 'em Laugh"). And the fancy dresses of 1920's Hollywood is about the best Thora could ever hope for, particularly the over-the-top ensembles showcased in "Beautiful Girls." As our friend Paul pointed out, I'm your go-to gal if there ever was a Singin' in the Rain trivia night.

Speaking of Paul, we had a great visit with him in early January. Here he is with Auric. And together, with all their combined dimples, their adorable factor is off the charts.

Thora and Paul shared a fun game of I Spy. Paul's patience with the excitement, chaos, and tantrums that occur in our house on a seemingly hourly basis, was saintly!

Tae Kwon Do

Thora continues to practice Tae Kwon Do twice a week. And this January saw her move up to the Advanced Tigers group when she graduated from her white belt to a yellow striped belt. Below, Miss Amy is giving her her new belt.

They continue practicing the various blocks and kicks, the Star Block set, and they've added to their collection of moves crescent kicks and chun ji, a choreographed set of moves that showcase all sorts of blocks and punches. She is proud of herself with this study. It's great to have her practice discipline in a setting that also allows her to be physical in a controlled way. And her class is becoming populated with more and more of her neighborhood friends. So it's a fun place to be twice a week.

Auric, the Toddler

Auric continues to grow into a very cute, flirty boy. He's begun to exert his will in surprising ways, considering he is normally sooo easy going. The first of his tantrums have been almost cute. (Surely, I'll eat these words when he hits the "terrible twos".) His verbal ability is different than Thora's, who was such a chatterbox. But I can't say that he's behind where she was, because he seems to be attempting more difficult sounds. While he does jibberish, he also tries the harder "l" sounds, like in his friend's name, Ellie, or in the very cute, "Hellooo?" when he pretends to talk on the phone. For a glimpse at Auric, the talker, click here for a short video. I've taken a bunch of video in February, so stay tuned for more videos of our talking boy.

The photo below was taken on our first snow day, when thinking of activities to stretch throughout the whole day is critical. And so of course we started the day with one of his favorite chores, helping me with the dishwasher, or more accurately, crawling onto the open door and feeding utensils down below the bottom rack.

Auric is a climber. Within seconds he can be up on the chair at the computer table, standing on the coffee table (which is meant to be an obstacle to him pushing buttons on the dvd and dvr players) pressing buttons on the dvd and dvr players, or up a set of stairs. His climbing abilities stem from not only his strength, but his understanding that he can be very quiet, while his sister never can be, and so more often than not, I'm talking her down from the peak drama of some injustice or tantrum and that's when he strikes. What's extra amusing about it, is that his desire to climb seems less about doing something he's not supposed to, but rather for the giddiness he feels when the adult swoops across the room and scoops him up into his or her arms. He sees one of us walking towards him, gets another stair higher, or a few more random tv shows recorded, and then squeals as he is rescued from his own bad behavior.

Thora Loves Sugar

I couldn't resist including this photo, since it really gets at the heart of Thora's reaction to sugar, which is to say, she becomes possessed! She's just eaten a cupcake at her friend, Olive's, birthday party. And the sugar has just hit her blood stream. Clear the deck!

Another one of Thora's activities, gymnastics, commemorated the end of their semester with a Mini Olympics, in which all the students in the various levels showcased the skills they'd been working on over the last four months. She takes the class with her friend Zach and here they are, posing after the big show. For a look at the event, click here for the 5-minute video. I admit, it's a bit slow, as my videos go, but I've put it to some entertaining music, so just crank up the volume and rock out for 5 minutes.

12 Best Photos from Christmas 2010

Christmas was a fun time in our house this year. Sean was home for the whole 3-day weekend, we were still anticipating our trip back to Chicago (our flight wouldn't be canceled until Sunday night), and there was much fun to be had together. Below, I get lovingly attacked while trying to get the kids bundled for some Christmas Eve playing at the park.

Can you resist kids with tassels on their heads? The answer is, no.

Below, Auric walks in snow for the first time, in his steel-toe (just kidding) work boots. I find these boots hilarious for some reason, perhaps because he looks like a man from the ankles down, but is still clearly a big baby. We were about to get over a foot of snow in about 48 hours.

Christmas Day

Auric gets a bottle first thing in the morning. And even new presents could barely command his full attention. Here he is opening his first present, a recycling truck (made from recycled plastic) with little sorting holes on either sides, which is great for his love of inserting objects into containers.

The Thora Puzzle Stool now has a companion piece, the Auric Puzzle Stool.

Our friend, Nicole, who bought Thora this awesome coat last year, happened to see its matching hat this year. It is perverse how sad I know I will be when she outgrows this ensemble.

Our Christmas decorations: the most we've ever done! Normally, we just plug in our 36" fiberoptic tree and that's that. I continued last year's tradition of displaying our holiday cards on a string along the ceiling above our windows. But this year, we actually put lights up: my old red chili pepper lights that I bought in college in Tucson, probably 12 years ago! And this year, we hung an ornament on the tree, one that Thora made at school.

Auric playing with his new pushing lawnmower.

Thora, the Rockstar

Thora got this Barbie Electric Guitar from her Grandma Jane. At first, I cringed at the thought of the noise this thing would make. (My mom acknowledged that she couldn't resist, even knowing that the adults may grow to hate it.) But within a couple seconds, I realized how perfect this is for her. Thora has lots of energy that she must channel. She spontaneously runs around in circles, regularly sings/yells a narration to accompany whatever activity she's doing at the moment, and periodically needs to kick the air or crush something into nothingness. She has a feistiness that has to get out. And what better way to express those screams, those growls, those rhythms, than through Rock and Roll!

At first she didn't have any real concept of what an electric guitar is for, how it's special, how it fits into the context of all other musical instruments, the attitude that people bring to it. And so, the first thought that came into my head was, "Joan Jett. I'll introduce her to a strong, confident, awesome female rocker." And so I played her "I Love Rock and Roll." She didn't quite get it initially, so I instead, I said, "Let's watch her on YouTube." And she saw, for the first time, what a rock star might do with an electric guitar. And she was transfixed! It took her only about a half dozen viewings (she kept asking, "Can we watch the lady that rocks out?"), and she had absorbed such a wealth of rock and roll moves, and postures, I couldn't believe it! Here is a video of what she can do, indeed could do, after only the briefest of exposure. The kicks, the stomping, the behind-the-back guitar solo?!? It's insane! Which makes me wonder, either she was born to be a rockstar (which is probable), or rock stars mostly go around dancing like a 3 year old. Maybe a little of both.

She couldn't quit rocking.

Here she is with Sean, dressed in her new favorite outfit, another stylish number from our friend, Nicole. In the ten days since Christmas, I think she's worn this outfit at least 5 times.

And here is Sean and Auric, holding his new stuffed lobster from Nicole.

Thora wasn't the only one to rock out. While I was giving the kids a bath, I heard sounds coming from the living room that sounded suspiciously like the Barbie guitar.

The 22 Best Moments from December

This December was a wonderful, crazy month. Auric is beginning to talk so much more and over all, is acting like a little kid. Click here for a short movie that showcases some of his new words. With this, Thora is finding more to love about him. And we get a lot of moments like the one above, when they are expressing their affection for one another so joyfully. However, with his growing cuteness and ability to participate and show his personality, come more opportunities for him to steal the scene, which as we know, Thora will not tolerate. So there is growing a natural, although painful, environment of sibling rivalries. We have years to come of dealing with that. So I love photos like the one above, that allow me to focus on the moments that are blissful and hilarious.

A Visit From Family

This December saw a long-awaited visit with the Geneva Pococks, Sean's brother's family who live in France, right outside of Geneva, Switzerland. On their annual trip to Iowa, where Julie's family lives, they stopped over in Boston for 5 days and we all had a great time. Here, the kids mellow out with some pizza and an episode of the Electric Company circa 1970. Aedan (6) and Chloe (3) were in great spirits considering they'd been traveling ALL DAY before reaching us.

The next day, Sunday, we all spent in and around Harvard Square. We ate lunch at the Border Cafe, a mexican place that happily takes big families with lots of strollers and gear!

Coleman (4 months) gets some attention from his older brother, Aedan, while sitting in Brendan's lap.

This is Thora's 3rd visit with her cousins, but only the second one that she remembers. The first happened in the fall of 2007 when she was just 5 months old and we traveled to France to watch some of the Rugby World Cup. They were reunited a year ago, in January 2010 in Eugene, OR and hit it off. This trip solidified their relationships. And it was a particular joy to see Thora and Chloe, just a month apart in age, be so fond of one another.

These photos come from a particularly cute scene. Julie and I watched on while, across the huge table, Thora and Chloe talked intently, confidentially, raucously with each other, like girlfriends who have known each other forever. What could they be talking about? It seemed so beyond their years, the way they concentrated so completely on taking in the other's half of the conversation.

Upon closer inspection, it became clear that the content of their deep conversation was the ABC's. Perhaps they were discussing the differences between the ending ("Won't you sing along with me?" versus, "Next time won't you sing with me?"). Click here for a short video of this great moment.

Whatever it was, to them, it was captivating and hilarious, relevant and silly. More likely, it was just an excuse to share ideas with someone so much like herself.

Below is one of the few shots when we've got 80% of their family in the frame at one time. I thought this merited inclusion!

Later, we walked to the Cambridge Common and played at the playground there. Thora and Chloe loved this swing that goes in all directions. They thought it was hilarious to barely hang on, so that their bodies flopped around, giving themselves the illusion of flying off at any moment.

Later, while the temperatures dropped, and the sun set, Julie met an old friend at a coffee shop while the rest of us wandered around Harvard's campus and then back home.

Aedan gets a ride on Uncle Sean's shoulders

We had to make a couple trips each night to get their family back to their hotel room across the river, and so Chloe and Thora enjoyed a few more moments together, this time preparing food in Thora's kitchen.

Later in the trip, we all descended upon the Science Museum. And as expected, the kids had a blast. This enormous Lite Brite-esque toy is great for kids. But it particularly aligns with Auric's love of putting objects into containers. Here, these pegs make very satisfying thonking sounds as they slip into the holes.

At home, Auric loves his shape sorter, but when he tires of using the shapes, he loves to slide dominoes into the shape sorter. And he'll sort small things into all sorts of big things. He'll sort dominoes into his new sorting recycling truck, or into a slit that I cut into the top of a shoebox; he'll sort his toothbrush through the small holes in the step stool in the bathroom; he'll sort one of my stray hair clips down through the top of my small bedside lamp, to watch it fall back onto the base of the lamp. Our kids look so much alike; it's fun to be reminded how truly different they are.

Here is the one and only moment that their whole family is in the camera's frame at the same time! Julie and Brendan are sitting on a bench at the back, Brendan holding Coleman. And in the foreground, Aedan, Chloe, and Thora build in the K'Nex exhibit in the museum.

Then, with a few minutes left before the museum closed, we took them to Thora's favorite areas, namely the reflecting light and science in the playground exhibits.

More Weddings

Thora's fascinations with weddings has not diminished. She still marries Zach at least once a week and is constantly planning it. We went through a few weeks when she would plead for me to show her my wedding shoes, and the jewelry I wore at my wedding, and finally she asked to see my wedding dress. I pulled it out, lifted up all the layers of dry cleaning plastic, and let her see the white, silky fabric. Then one night, she asked if we could both wear wedding dresses, she would wear her red dress and I could put on my dress. And I thought, "Why not? It's just hanging in the closet? Why not get some use out of it?" So we fancied ourselves up, Thora wearing my only other pair of high heels, the long, red dress that makes her feel queenly, and my bridal veil, while I wore my wedding dress and shoes. She particularly liked orchestrating the drama of presenting me to my Prince Charming, Sean, as he cooked our dinner. "Tell her how beautiful she is, Daddy," she ordered.

This was such a bittersweet moment. Perhaps you can see the tears in the corner of my eyes. It was impossible not to reflect on our wedding day 8 years before and all that has happened since, the two wonderful children we have now, the life we've made together. I couldn't help but acknowledge how much she would've enjoyed our wedding. It's fun to think of having done things (like have kids) in a different order so that she could've been around for all the pomp and pageantry of it.

Winter Fun

One snowy day, Thora and her friend Zach made and decorated sugar cookies. This food coloring took days to come off!

Afterwards, they burned off some of that sugar in the park, (they ate an incredible amount of icing), throwing snowballs at each other and making snow angels.

The Month of Singin' In The Rain

Here's a great shot of the four kids, Auric, Ellie, Zach, and Thora, one cold afternoon, as we all enjoyed Thora's current favorite movie, Singin' in the Rain.

Thora absolutely loves this movie. The dresses, the singing and dancing: it is a perfect fit for her! She can do some great impressions of Lina Lamont's squeaky, nasally voice: "What's the big idea?!?" Click here for some Gene Kelly-inspired tap dancing. I found this great reference book called, The Best Old Movies for Families, written by Boston Globe movie critic and parent, Ty Burr. I'm encouraged and excitedly await the future of great movies we get to watch with her.

Thora's had quite a bit of fun sledding after the big snow storm we had at the end of the month. Here she is with her friend, Ally. And below, she's sledding with Zach.

10 Best Moments from November

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.