Mid-Summer Update

It is the middle of the summer. (How is it possible that we are closer to 2011 than 2010?!?) We've had some good days at local swimming pools and beaches, the garden is ripening, the flowers are in bloom. And both kids are blooming too. Here are the highlights of the last month and a half, starting with some developmental advances.

Thora writes her name!

July 16, 2010; Thora at 3 years and 3 months

Here is her first successful attempt. Up until this point, she didn't have the desire or attention span to write more than the first two letters. It would bore (or possibly frustrate) her. But on this day, not coincidentally the day after her first parent-teacher student evaluation, while I was picking Thora up from school, she handed this to me and very proudly showed me her name. I was breathless for a second, and of course flooded with emotion. (It's amazing the complex tangle of emotions I feel upon witnessing my child grow up right before our eyes: pride, nostalgia, bliss, sadness.)

And I mention the evaluation at her school: this was a good experience for us. We heard from her "point" teacher, Stephanie, the one she had her first teacher-crush on, all about the Thora we already know. And lest you think that the meeting was redundant, it was actually a bit of a relief to hear that Thora is herself when she goes to school. She is such a social force to be reckoned with when she plays with her neighborhood friends, the boys and girls she has known since she was 3 months old. (And believe me, many of these sweet children have to reckon with her.) But we weren't sure that she was as confident and social at school. While she still takes time to feel out the various dynamics on a given day, the core of who she is shines through for her teachers to see as well. "Thora loves to tell stories," we were told. Hah! Ummm, yes, she does a bit of that at home. In case you've forgotten, here's a good example, and another, and one more.

Thora is growing up on several fronts at once. Her once-weekly swim lessons at her school have given her the confidence and skill to really improve. She started in February with four flotation aids strapped to her, kickboard-like rectangles, "bubbles" they call them, that are belted around the kids' waists. But when I went to observe the lesson last week, I was astonished at her improvement. Not only does she swim with only two bubbles now, she regularly swims with her face in water. And most amazing: for brief periods at the end of the lesson, she swam without any flotation aids. Here is a video of that lesson. I couldn't believe I was seeing this. I was proud to the point of tears. I wanted to squeeze her, eat her up, something! I wanted to stop people on the street and tell them. (I guess this is kind of what this blog post is doing.)

And before I finally move on to Auric's major developments, here's one last point to mention about Thora growing up before our eyes. Her quirky, adorable speech impediments are mostly gone. Over night she could say "skirt" and "school" (before she said "khirt" or "khool") and instead of "file" she says "smile." And the sad day came when she said "bottom" instead of "bommut." Watch this, here, for a glimpse of the old favorite words, "bommut" and "fezen." Sniff.

Now on to our boy, Auric. He's a crawler! And the learning curve was flat, flat, flat, and then BAM, he got it and within 24 hours was trying for the stairs! Here is one of his many attempts.


And here is a cute video of that same moment, in which he crawls with his upper body while his back half remains fixed to the carpet.

But then he got it. Watch it here. And this video was taken today; you can see he's making lots of progress. And more in Auric news: he claps his hands, and does some baby sign language. (Mostly he signs "eat" but has done "more" as well.) And he may have said his first words, although I'm quick to recognize that this could be blind maternal optimism. In the correct circumstances, he says "caa" for "clap" and "cuh" for "truck". And speaking of which, boy does he love his trucks. His face lights up when you wheel a toy truck in his direction. Thora was never into trucks, but thankfully we have a few random truck toys around the house. And there are always truck toys at the local playgrounds. Also, is top two teeth are coming in as I type this. That has made for a bit more fussiness than normal, but on the whole, he's handling it remarkably well. In an effort to get him to sleep in more in the mornings, (his favorite time to be up for the day is in the 5 o'clock hour and that doesn't go over well with his parents), we've been pushing his bedtime back a bit, to around 7. We've had a couple later mornings, but the jury is still out on whether we'll see any real, long-term progress. And it was in mid-June that we moved Auric into Thora's room. So far we've had a lot of success with this. They rarely wake each other up. And we've even seen a more controlled Thora right at bedtime, since she has to be quiet so as not to wake her brother.

Other highlights of our life this summer:

We just returned from a sunny and sandy couple days at the Cape. Sean knows a woman at work whose family owns a house in Falmouth, MA which we rented for two nights. We spent all of our time at either the beach or at Coonamessett Pond. The weather couldn't have been more perfect and we enjoyed many hours swimming with Thora, and spent a lot of time doing her most favorite beach activity: collecting rocks. At one beach, along with some of the older kids, we scooped up various sea creatures, snails, tiny crabs and shrimp, and made a miniature aquarium for them in our sand pail.

At a wonderful playground in downtown Falmouth, Thora did her impression of a Giant, something she's fascinated with lately. When she was younger, she was fascinated with owls. They could be wonderful, but they could also be the thing she imagined was in her room "to get" her, particularly when she wanted to play the sympathy card when she was sent to her room for a time out. Now that fascination has shifted to the duo of Giant and the Big Bad Wolf. They are always together in her mind, pairing up to do bad things to little girls and boys. So getting to see herself as a Giant was particularly interesting to her.

Another highlight was our trip down to CT for a Fourth of July party, an invitation from our good friends, and Thora's best friend, Zach. The whole family thoroughly enjoyed itself. Thora and Zach played over the 30 hours or so that we were there. We kayaked and swam in the adjacent river and Thora loved the tree swing that Zach's uncle installed, tied to a branch about twenty feet up. The long arc of the swing covered much of the lawn and out over the bushes that lined the river. (I wished that the swing was built for adults, but alas, it was only a kid's swing.) And it was at this party that Thora had two more firsts: fireflies and fireworks. The backyard was teeming with fireflies and since Thora was cleaerly too keyed up to go to bed in the same room as Zach and Auric and not keep them up, we got her up and let her stay up. It was pretty magical and fun to watch her experience fireflies for the first time. And then later, Zach's dad and uncle put on a pretty impressive backyard firework display. I think Thora was totally impressed with these two experiences. I know that I will not easily forget creeping around the back yard in the darkening evening, trying to make out the fireflies before they lit up so that I could catch one for her, or the weight of her little body in my lap and my hands over her ears as we looked up at the exploding fireworks in the dark night sky.

We had a short visit from Sean's dad, Brian. This was lots of fun. There were trips to the park and yummy dinners cooked at home. The kids loved the fun times with their granddad. Brian is always totally engaged and playful. Here he is in action.


Thora had a great time at Zach's 3rd birthday, a trike/bike themed event. Here she is with her two closest friends, Zach and Noah. They are the 3 Amigos. Sadly, Noah and his family are moving back to the UK at the end of September. They all will leave a big hole in our lives. Thora and Noah have been friends since they were newborns. Thora and Noah were in the daycare coop together. Noah's mom was the first woman that Thora adopted into our family, calling her "Mom" to my "Mama." They will all be sorely missed.

Gardening in July: Tomatoes Ripen

Check it OUT. It's been a long time coming, especially if you take into account the tomato blight of last summer that halted the growth of our two lonely brandywine tomatoes and then rotted them on the vine. So it's been a summer and a half of waiting, watering, checking, pruning, more watering, brow-furrowing and disappointment. But now there's renewed hope and actual anticipation!

Is it ridiculous how I'm planning the celebration for the harvest of this single tomato? The mozzarella I'm going to buy, the rosemary I'm going to pick from our garden, the slices of baguette I'm going to toast and then brush with olive oil. This plate will be the highlight of the dinner. I can't wait!

The Fruits of Last Year's Labor

A few weeks ago, in an attempt to round out Auric's meal of banana mixed with yogurt, I went to the fridge to pull out a jar of applesauce. We usually go through applesauce pretty regularly in our house, since Sean makes a weekly batch of his soon-to-be-famous homemade powerbars*. However, we'd been gone a lot in the previous weeks and it was clear that the opened jar of store-bought applesauce was passed its prime. And so I looked in the direction of our pantry, wherein lurked the seven jars of applesauce that I'd made from an apple-picking outing with Thora and a 3 week-old Auric. While I was pleased with the initial result after I completed the home canning process, I'd been hesitant to determine my real success by opening a jar. I just kept putting it off. And mostly, it has to do with our pantry cupboard.

Just a day before Auric was born, we had a "superpantry" put in. This is one of those tall cupboards with internal shelving on hinges that allow the shelves to swivel out of the way to reveal more small shelving along the back wall. Anyway, I was so excited about this new addition to our kitchen that that night I went into pre-term labor almost 6 weeks early. (Kidding of course, but now that I've written it, I think that this will be my explanation whenever anyone asks me why Auric was premature: "Well, it's because we got this super pantry. The new organizational opportunities were pretty staggering.")

The problem was that it sits on top of a portion of our base board heaters. And with the doors closed, it collects heat inside whenever the heat is on. It was never cooking food in there, I don't think. But being a novice home-canner, my limited knowledge and zero experience told me that the food needs to be kept at room temperature or below (like in a basement, for example), not in the warmest part of the house.

But on this recent day, I was forced to face the possible disappointment. I pulled out a jar, unscrewed the band, and with a surprising amount of muscle finally pried up the lid. And inside... was... the most delicious applesauce I'd ever had. And I was immediately taken back to the memory of my first solo outing with the two kids. The air was cool and crisp. My blood flowed with optimism and sleep-deprived adrenaline. Things were so new and rich and vivid-seeming then. I was on my own with both kids and that had a surreal feeling to it. I was a mom of two. Our lives were so different now. The seasons were changing and each day, each outing felt laden with discovery and challenge. ("Is the baby warm enough? When will he need to be nursed again, and can I keep Thora occupied at the same time? Will I remember to put Auric in the car if Thora is throwing a tantrum in a parking lot?") I remember, with Sean's help, collapsing the double-stroller and wedging it into our trunk just as rain drops fell from the sky. I looked at him. The kids were in their car seats, we were packed and ready, Thora and I, to a lesser degree, were happily anticipating this activity. I didn't want to give up now but also didn't want set out on this adventure amidst certain failure. An hour drive to pick apples in the rain? I let out an exasperated laugh. But often, sprinkling rain in New England fades away just as you change your plans. This is what I was hoping for. And so I didn't change our plans. I drove to Shelburne Farm in Stow, MA, got the kids around the small orchard, and picked a ridiculous quantity of apples.




And then, after filling our half-bushel (20 lbs.) bag, we rewarded ourselves with apple cider doughnuts. We got home and showed Sean our loot. And we were eating baked apple and apple brown betty like crazy and loving it. And then I made applesauce. I think now about the effort and/or babysitting it would take to preserve some fruit or vegetables in jars. With Auric at 10 months old, he wants to be a part of things so much more. I couldn't hole up in the kitchen for an hour or so. (He's a very accommodating kid, but not that accommodating.) I do hope I can finagle an hour or two to do that this year. But back in October of 2009, my newborn boy slept all the time. Granted, I was up a lot in the night. But I had seemingly endless freedom during the day. That's what I remembered while tasting this applesauce: stirring the apples, steam rising out of the pots on the stove (the apple pot, the lid-warming pot, the canning pot); the prospect of all sorts of visits from family and friends; the approaching Halloween festivities; the optimism of our new life as a family of four. And a little baby, asleep on the floor in his car seat. Like this.


*more later about Sean's powerbars. They merit their own post.

Vegetable Garden in July

This heat and sunshine is doing wonders for my container garden. The cucumbers are still out of control, sprawling all over the place, stretching out their tendrils and pulling themselves up on anything they can reach. Here they are, gripping the leaf of the neighboring pepper plant:



After all this sprawling, the plants finally appear to be bearing fruit. Here is the tiniest cucumber I've ever seen.



I don't know why their size and shape in the very early days surprise me so. What would I think a immature cucumber should look like? Somehow, I'm totally taken aback by a vegetable in miniature. I actually catch myself cooing at some of these brand new vegetables, the way people coo over newborn babies.

One thing I'm learning is how much water these cucumbers need, which has caused me to discover a very small-scale water-conservation practice, that of keeping an empty milk jug in the sink to catch all the over flow when we're washing dishes, rinsing off rags, etc. Now, our family goes through what I'm sure a lot of people would think is a RIDICULOUS amount of milk, like 5-6 gallons a week (and that doesn't include our kids). So we're always rinsing out milk jugs for the recycling bin. However, over the last week, while it's been sooo hot and sunny and the cucumber plants wilt seemingly within hours of the last watering, I began letting the jugs fill up over the course of our normal sink use, and then using that water to feed the plants.

Here are some of the other gems of my garden:

The yellow cherry tomato plants have been the work horses so far. We've already enjoyed about 2 dozen tomatoes on salad, or on occasion, plain.

They are so flavorful and couldn't more appealing to the eye.



Here are the brandywines, which are taking longer to mature.



We've yet to harvest one. For the longest time, these were the only two fruits ripening. However, just the other day, I was relieved to see a third baby brandywine.

And here is the eggplant.



Last year, we got one lonely fruit that ripened to the size of a kiwi and then... nothing. It didn't grow, shrink, rot... it's growth just arrested. This year, however, there seem to be many more eggplants popping up. Fingers crossed.

Gardening: Flower Garden From Seed--Update

Here are the nasturtiums that Thora and I planted from seeds in the spring. They seem to be doing well. Although, I'm sure we need to thin the seedlings, to allow the stronger ones to thrive. I'll be reading up on that... I'm not sure when. But in the meantime, I LOVE watching these little seedlings fill out the plot and pots we gave them. And I particularly love their roundness.

In a line, along the wooden posts are the morning glories that we planted at the same time.

Gardening: Current Color

Here are some examples of the wonderful colors in our summer garden.

NYC June 2010

We spent a fun-filled 10 days in NYC. (If you have to skim, don't miss the links to three videos below.) Here's what it looked like:

Day 1: Friday, June 11

Sean was out the door early for an all-day conference. The kids, BaBa (Grandpa Bob), and I headed over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for some wandering around, exposure to culture, and a storytime in their library. Thora had the most fun on the roof, where currently there is a bamboo sculpture art installation. Here is Thora, wandering among the base of the structure:


Here's a view of the sculpture, looking up:

You can see a concentration of bamboo sticks sloping down from the upper right corner. This is actually a ramped walkway. If you reserve a spot, you can be taken up onto the sculpture and, as a small tour, climb and walk around.

The pieces of bamboo are tied together with climbing rope.


The whole exhibit was pretty unusual and fascinating. The artists were there, behind a partition, slicing more bamboo into lengths. Apparently, they are always adding to the structure, creating a fluid and ever-changing sculpture.

After our time at the Met, we grabbed a hot dog and sat on the steps of the museum, while listening to a group of acapella singers. Then it was on to a newly renovated Central Park playground. At first, Thora wanted to interact with us. Here she is getting some spotting from BaBa.


But soon, the game became pretending BaBa and Auric were monsters and to try to get close to them without them seeing. Apparently just eye contact from BaBa was enough to make Thora squeal and take off running. Here she is sneaking up on BaBa and then running away.


While on the swings at this playground, I captured Auric emitting one of his current favorite sounds. Click here to check it out.

Then, we walked up 5th Ave, picked up my race packet for the following day, and then made our way home through Central Park.

Thora on the path around the Reservoir, one of my all-time favorite runs. There's Manhattan's skyline in the distance.

We played at another tot lot playground inside Central Park before taking the bus back up to Morningside Heights where we were just in time for movie hour at the library.

That night, BaBa and NuNu babysat and we took the subway down to Bryant Park where we attended Columbia's resident graduation dinner. This year's graduating class was the last class that Sean worked with while himself a resident and he wanted to come applaud the accomplishment of his colleagues. We had a great time catching up with Sean's old friends and co-workers. (We left before things got too out of hand.)

Sean imparting some words of wisdom on his good friend, Dan

Day 2: Saturday, June 12

We woke early but with subway train delays, we got ourselves a bit late to the start of my annual run of the NYC Mini 10K (6.1 miles) around Central Park. I had a bit of a stressful start, listening to the start gun go off while still in line for the bathrooms! But since we wear a timing device on our shoes, and it takes so long for the racers to get across the start line, I was able to get into the pack long before the field was empty. I did reasonably well, doing it in 51:46, an average 8:20 pace. In fact, I was faster than Sean anticipated. Prior to the finish line, expecting to see my cheering section waving and yelling inspiring words, I found them standing around distractedly, chatting. (That's why there are no photos of me running. The camera was still in someone's pocket when I ran by.) Here I am after the finish.


After making our way back to Morningside Heights, we packed and headed to New Jersey to see friends Bob and Sue, and their kids Lizzie, Amanda, and Owen. To say that Thora hit it off with these kids would be an understatement. See below.


We spent an awesome afternoon/evening with them at their pool club, grilling out and swimming.

Bob (sitting on edge in navy blue), Sue (in shades), Sean, Owen (also in navy blue) and Thora up close in purple

After a delicious dinner, we made our way back to their place, managed to get the kids settled down for their sleepover (Thora and Amanda eventually went to sleep), and we had a few hours of hanging out before we collapsed into bed.

Day 3: Sunday, June 13

We woke up, took our time with breakfast, let Auric take a marathon nap, and then eventually said goodbye to our New Jersey friends and set off on I-95 to Westchester County, NY to visit our friends Kelly and Lloyd, and their kids Sidney, Tai, and Drew. Little did we know that we would spend much of the next 24 hours stuck in traffic on the 95. (We left our diaper bag in NJ, and then the next day, on our way back to NJ to retrieve the bag, we realized we'd left pumped breastmilk back in NY. We turned back around to NY, before finally heading back to NJ, and then on to NYC. Not fun!)

We had another great visit with friends. Thora hit it off with the Kelly and Lloyd's kids as well.


Particularly cute was Drew's affection for Auric.


Day 4: Monday, June 14

We spent much of the morning with Kelly and Drew (we all took Sydney and Tai to school after breakfast).

Look at this character! Isn't it cute how he pretends he can be serious.

The rest of this day is a blur of seemingly endless traffic on I-95. However, at some point in the late afternoon, we arrived back in NYC. That night, we got Auric to bed and the finagled another night of babysitting from BaBa and NuNu so that we could hit the Manhattan Bridge Club for a duplicate tournament. This crowd was definitely more our speed, a bit more casual than the intense, high-level players we play against back in Boston. It was fun to play in a relaxed setting and to get our confidence back a bit.

Day 5: Tuesday, June 15

Sean had to drive back to Boston for a shift of work. But Thora, Auric, BaBa, and I spent some time in the Natural History Museum. There is a Kids Discovery Center on the first floor, and Thora had the most fun here. (We also saw animal skeletons, dinosaurs, and the big room with the massive whale hanging from the ceiling. But none were as engaging as this dresser.)

This dresser, full of drawers containing Natural History treasures (e.g., a 6-inch long shark's tooth, or amethyst) was fascinating for her.

Then after a stop at the new Upper West Side Magnolia Bakery for some cupcakes (we macked on them), we went to the awesome playground at the south end of Central Park.

Thora running through the castle-themed water pathways

Day 6: Wednesday, June 16

We spent the day at the Bronx Zoo. And while we saw cool animals like the lions, complete with wrestling cubs, protective mother and snoozing father, and the lemurs in the Madagascar exhibit, I'm sure the highlight in Thora's mind was getting her first tattoo!

To Thora, this is serious business.

Auric has found someone to flirt with while Thora's getting tattooed.

Showing off her new ink.

Before leaving, we were able to squeeze in a ride on a camel, surprisingly the same camel, Nikki, that we rode last year!


Then back to Morningside Heights for a relaxed evening and take out from one of our favorite Greek restaurants.

Check out these characters!

Day 7: Thursday, June 17

After runs in Central Park for both of us, Sean and I got back on the road and headed for the suburbs again, this time for a cookout with Sean's old colleague Russ, his wife Sarah, and their two girls, Macy and Sloane. It was great to catch up with these old friends.

Auric and Sloane play pre-bbq

Thora and Macy clean off the ketchup post-bbq

Day 8: Friday, June 18

This was a full day! Thora and I started off at the Children's Museum of the Art in SoHo with Kelly and her son Drew. The kids painted, played in a sand table, drew on a massive chalk board, and had great fun at the sing-along at the end of the session. They were by far the most entertaining kids at the sing-along!

Here, Thora and Drew start out drumming along.

Now, check them out with the drums on their heads.

They spent almost the rest of the sing-along with drums on their heads. Occasionally, the musician drummed their heads.
This was hilarious for Kelly and I. I'm not sure how funny all the other parents found this.

We spent much of the rest of the afternoon in the West Village. Here are Thora and Drew at the fountain in Washington Square Park.



Then, we worked our way to the Upper West Side where we met some friends for dinner and drinks at the Hudson Beach Cafe down in Riverside Park.

Awww. Auric nuzzles Dans

Me with our old friend, Joey. We've known him since Sean's med school days in Tucson.

Day 9: June 19

During the afternoon, Sean was off in NJ watching the final round of the Churchill Cup between the Canadian National rugby team and the English second team. The rest of us hung out in and around the Upper West Side: a long run in Central Park for me, naps for us all, park time in Riverside Park in the late afternoon, and then a delicious pre-race meal from Spoonbread, one of our favorite restaurants in all of New York. It's possible that I can't imagine a better day in NYC.

Look at this city girl! Thora walking Qali in Riverside Park.

Auric and NuNu

And the evening ended on this sweet note, Thora reading her version of Harold and the Purple Crayon. God, this was a great day!

Day 10: Sunday, June 20

Sean ran the Father's Day 5-Mile race in Central Park, followed by Thora's coming in second overall in the 3 year-old girl's heat. We had brunch with BaBa and NuNu and then hit the road back to Cambridge.

Sean finishing strong in his Father's Day 5 mile race around Central Park

Happy Father's Day!

Thora Pre-Race

And to see the actual race, click here and fast forward to 2:45 in the clip. Thora is on the far right. She ultimately comes in second. She looks incredibly happy when running. We couldn't be more proud of her! We were all beaming!