Best Moments from February

I've fallen so far behind that now February seems like a blur of snow and shoveling and endless viewings of Singin' in the Rain. Actually, of all the movies for us to watch practically daily, we got very lucky. Singin' in the Rain is a great movie and it stands up to a gazillion viewings. But despite Thora's good taste in movies, I'm happy to say that those cold, cooped-up days are but faint memories. Here are some photos that take me back to those cold, short, but at the same time, very long days. For the entire album, click here.

As I've mentioned before, we got almost record snowfall this winter. And with all the very cold days, there was nowhere for it to go. It wasn't melting, and so with each new snowfall, we all just dug out our sidewalks and cars, and added to the mountains of snow. They took on such height that the local hoodlums began tagging them. To give you a sense of scale, here is Thora near a snow mountain just outside our house. (Notice how her feet aren't touching the ground.)




Many of our afternoons were spent indoors and we were grateful for all our friends with whom we passed the time. Here is Thora and her friend, Ally, in one of their spirited dress-up/tea party sessions.



But mostly, my memories of the late winter are of Thora doing her best to express her desire to perform, while in the confines of our living room. With the daily viewings of Singin' in the Rain, there were daily performances. Here is Thora performing "All I Do is Dream of You." Click here for the Debbie Reynolds version from the movie to see what Thora is imitating. And if you're an It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia fan, you might like Thora and Auric's rendition of "Dayman." Click here for that.

We tried to get out of the house as much as we could this past winter. A few days a week, we braved the elements to attend various activities. Thora practiced Tae Kwon Do twice a week, continued with tumble tots gymnastics once a week, and we added a great Creative Movement dance class once a week. Thora loved it. The kids were encouraged to trot and twirl and leap and skip to various styles of music and with accompanying storylines, e.g. "Now the ponies are going to gallop to their friends on the other side of the river [represented by a long line of scarves tied together]," or "When you get tapped on the head, you become a bird and you fly through the sky to your tree." Thora loved it. And so did Auric. The instructor is wonderfully accommodating when it comes to younger siblings. As long as I kept Auric from hurting himself or disrupting the class, he was welcome to dance and move (which usually translated into him mimicing the older kids) as much as he wanted to. The picture below shows Thora off to the left in the middle of some expressive dance, while Auric reaches up to the ceiling (in the red and blue striped shirt), surely mirroring what the older kids had all been doing a moment before.



Thora continues to enjoy her mornings at her pre-school. And during the winter months, they are lucky to get a second day of swimming each week. And with her lessons on Sundays at MIT and her twice-weekly lessons at school, she was getting lots of time in the water and getting better and better. Here is a progress report that came home with her in February. We were very proud parents!


In addition to all the activities and time with friends, there was still plenty of time for Auric to develop his love of getting into what he shouldn't. For him, some of his favorite elicit activities are indiscriminately pressing buttons on the DVR and DVD players, turning the microwave on, and his favorite, getting at our computer. Here he is, giddy at being caught, and waiting to be scooped up and away.



This month also saw him really flexing his vocabulary muscle. Here are a couple cute videos of his new-found power of speech: "Auric's Budding Vocabulary" and "Auric's Budding Vocabulary Part 2."


In February, Thora got her first taste of live theatre. The Boston Children's Theatre put on a production of Lily's Purple Plastic Purse, a mash-up of three Kevin Henkes books that feature Lily, the mouse. This is a character that Thora knew well and we thought it was a great opportunity for her to see some kids acting on the stage. Thora loved it. She wondered what the next play we would see would be and asked if she'd be one of the kids on stage. Somehow I don't doubt that there's some acting in her future. Here she is with the girl who played Lily, who posed with audience members after the play.



February wasn't all inhospitable weather and graffiti-tagged snow mountains. In fact, one day in late February, we got a surprisingly warmish day (for February) and we all went for ice cream after running around in the park. Here is Thora and Zach enjoying a well-deserved cone.




And lastly, February marked my first attempt at giving the kids haircuts. It was quite the milestone for me and Thora, since it marked Thora's first ever real haircut. (She'd had a few snarls cut out by Grandma Jane when she was 18 months old.) I was nervous, having never cut anyone's hair that didn't require buzzing it with electrical clippers (Sean's). But they both cooperated superbly, thanks to Gene Kelly and the rest of the gang in Singin' in the Rain.

Here's Thora about to be shorn.



And here's the final result. I was actually really proud of myself, giving it a good trim while maintaining the natural layers she's had her whole life.


And here's Mullet Boy, watching Don Lockwood try to woo Kathy Seldon.



And here he is, about to be enlisted in the army. I couldn't believe how easy he made it for me. And by him, of course I mean Gene Kelly. Auric sat bug-eyed, just like during each daily screening of our family's favorite movie.

22 Great Photos From Chicago

This January, I took the kids to Chicago for a quick visit with family. The original plan was for us to travel the week between Christmas and New Year's, because not only did Sean not have any extra time off work, he in fact had to work more than usual. So we all thought that would be a good time to go. Except Mother Nature didn't think the same thing, and we got slammed with a blizzard and our trip was canceled. But we rescheduled and made it there in January. Click here to see the whole album.

I love watching Thora and Auric play with classic toys! Here, they play with a Barrel of Monkeys.

Thora shows off her accomplishment while Auric mugs for the camera.

And I have to take this moment to flashback to the moment 2.25 years ago, when Thora was just a bit older than Auric is now. I love this photo of Thora and Baba.

Moving on, more mugging. This boy... what can I even say about him?

On our first full day, we worked our way over to the Lake Bluff's Park District, for a little sledding. We'd had success there the year before (see video here), and had quite a bit of success this winter in Cambridge. But I guess this sledding was a bit too intense for her. I mean, personally, I thought it was pretty awesome: it's easy to climb; it has a long ride down (so you get a thrill that's worth the relentless climbing); and in its current incarnation, it was really, really fast due to the melting and then re-freezing snow. But as you can see, either Thora was just in a foul, and therefore less-than-daring mood, or she was sincerely frightened, or both. Here's her second and final trip down the hill. And I'm holding back the link, just for one more sentence, because I have to say that her brother was tossed off the sled (out of my arms) and his body did a kind of little ninja-throwing-star move... face down! And he was fine. So again, I think she was in a foul mood. So here's the link--note the sobbing and running away at the end. And my "oh goodness..." comment.

Anyway, on with the visit.

On our first day with Grandma Jane, we made a visit to the Rainforest Cafe ("Rain Corest Cafe" as Thora says it) which has become a much-anticipated tradition.

As are the coin-operated vehicles kiosk that occupies some mall real estate between the Rainforest Cafe and the closest exit.

We spent much of Friday and Saturday watching the kids bounce around inside jumping castles and big inflated obstacle courses. On Friday afternoon, after a highly entertaining trip to the Rainforest Cafe, we hit My Jump Place near my mom's place. It's not flashy, but it's got the bases covered. Thora loves this place and bounces, climbs, and flops around until thoroughly exhausted. Which is what we're aiming for.

The following day, Grandma Jane and Aunt Natalie accompanied us to Monkey Joe's, a jumping castle paradise. This place--a midwest chain, I think--was very well-run and we managed to eek out about 2 hours there, feeding the kids in the middle, (which actually kind of had me worried... I mean do you really want kids full on pizza and juice to be bouncing around?) But we were puke-free and exhausted when we left.

Here's Auric "driving" a race car video game.

And when I say "we" went home exhausted, I do mean "we," since Auric and Thora love it when we do these activities with them. Natalie is always tireless when she's with her niece and nephew.

After some lunch and some outlet shopping, we headed back to Grandma Jane and Grandpa Terry's house, where we were treated with some sledding and frozen-creek playing. Below, Thora and Auric are loving the ride to the creek in the big sled.

Here's the workhorse, Grandpa Terry!

He kindly shoveled a path across the frozen creek. We loved walking around on the frozen water and throwing the frisbee for their puppy, Abby. And despite Thora's earlier protest that would never sled again, ever, here she is eating her words.

Here we are, later, warmed up, having eaten Grandma Jane's home-cooked Chicken and Dumplings (one of my favorite meals from childhood), and having watched Shrek (Thora's first time). Since then, she's comically referred to Shrek as "the Yoger." "The yogurt? Why does the Yogurt run into the church? The Yogurt?!? Oh... the ogre!"

Then, on our last full day, we headed to the Botanic Gardens, where we thoroughly (THOROUGHLY) enjoyed the tropical and desert greenhouses.

Below, Natalie helps Thora with a Botanic Gardens bingo game where you hunt for various sights within the garden. Here, I think they're checking off the banana tree square on her bingo sheet.

Here's NuNu and Thora, I think maybe identifying an orchid.

And here, the boy enjoys a new toy from Aunt Sue (Cathy's sister), a perfect fit for his interest in sorting, stacking, and just generally fitting things onto/into other things. He's happy. But really, when is he not?

And then we found a baby mermaid statue and we tried for next year's Christmas Card photo. We kind of got it. And it wasn't for not trying.

And then, while every other Chicagoan was watching the Bears' playoff game with the Green Bay Packers, we were allowing Thora to expel the afternoon's worth of cooped-up winter energy at the LB Park District's open gym. Here she plays with/forces her brother down the slide. Again, I mean what else can I say about this boy?!?

And then, I couldn't resist ending on a sweet note.

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.