Into the summer... (March 14th - June 13th)

We had a wild, fun spring!  Settle in for a lot of great stories and pictures.

Nora’s been learning and growing dramatically, of course. She’s become delightfully interactive...

… and independent! (She’s much more into “doing it myself” than Toby at her age.)

Her hair has been growing delightfully, too; here she is with her first hairstyle (a Mohawk, as is traditional in our family).

 

We had Nanny Elizabeth around through June, and enjoyed every minute of it. Nora and I can’t agree about who enjoyed it more, but she wins the cuteness competition every time.

 

Toby, in the meantime, has been getting ever more agile - physically and verbally.

Easter was more fun than ever this year. We started with an Easter Egg Hunt with Toby’s Montessori school. He was very excited about getting dressed up, and enjoyed showing people his special Ukrainian shirt.

One of the other moms is a great photographer, and she offered to take pictures of everyone at the event. Thanks to her, we have some great family photos, and you can see the super sketchy bunny costume one of the teachers sweated in all morning!

 

Then we had friends over for an Easter Egg Hunt and feast (including asparagus with hollandaise, OF COURSE). There were five little ones (Toby, Nora, Harriet, Charlie, and Elodie), two in utero (Tiago and Milo), and eight grown-ups. It was my first time organizing a hunt and dinner on my own, and it felt like a proper celebration. We dyed eggs afterward on our own.

By early April, were out on our first family hike at Basket Slough, a local marsh.

Nora wasn’t actually hiking herself, but she DID start crawling!! She first started crawling about April 3rd; by the 10th she was crawling from the living room to our bedroom. And clapping. And giving zerberts! A while new world. Here she is going for my glasses (still a favorite item, and the most reliable way to motivate her back then).

  

And she was standing supported by then, too! So exciting to free your hands up for getting into things, and for cruising. Between the crawling and the standing, we definitely noticed she was getting happier and easier to entertain. Toby, on the other hand, became reasonably concerned that Nora was going to get into his room and break/eat EVERYTHING.

 

Really, I think the theme of the whole month of April had to be busyness. Toby started piano lessons, and began spelling and reading short words (a favorite pastime in the evenings). Little independent Nora declared herself ready to forage on her own – when I tried to hand her a bit of banana, she grabbed the whole thing and tucked in.

Nora also started doing good work in her very own kitchen drawer, which she still loves unpacking to this day. (Taking things out of containers in general is a bit of an obsession... although around the end of May she starting putting things back IN - what a relief!) And she and Toby got busy cooking in their toy kitchen, too, of course.

  

Toby, in the meantime, was busy climbing “trees” (the rhododendron in front of our house) and fixing things (a lot of hammering with his plastic hammer, but in this case he’s pumping air into the shoe rack).

 

In mid-April, we all went to a conference together on the Washington coast. The kids enjoyed playing on the driftwood-scattered beach, and Nora made appearances at poster sessions. At the end of the month, Noni visited, which made everybody happy. Including Nora.

 

SOOOOOO BUSY!!!! This did not stop in May. On a good day, Toby built towers for Nora to knock down. You can imagine what happens on a bad day. Two kids is kind of crazy, in a delicious, distracting, exhausting, entrancing way.

Seriously, don’t mess with this girl. She drives trucks and wields a cleaver WITH HER TEETH.

For Mother’s Day, Little Friends (Toby’s School) had a special tea. I snuck out of work. It happened to be one of the days Toby insisted on going to school in a tutu (in fact, maybe the first day… since then, once every couple of weeks…) They sang “You are my Sunshine,” fed us cake, and generally made me feel like a million bucks

 

Toby’s fascination with letters – well documented since at least 18 months of age – continued into the summer with writing letters and numbers. For a while he would come home from school and fill any scrap of paper he could find with letters. He loved stapling together scraps of paper to make "books" (a pastime that lasted for at least 9 months; something he got from school). He got really excited about making up songs, singing and rhyming. Other times he would dictate wild, rambling stories to any adult he could rope into writing it down. I’ve saved several – they remind me of dreams. Here's a (very short) taste: "Nora is Jupiter and you're Mercury. I'm going to destroy you. But for pretend, not for real. For pretend, so Nora doesn't get lost."

And he hasn’t forgotten about Star Wars, either. And he ropes Nora in whenever he can (here she is playing with a light saber, ahem, I mean light “saver.”

 

As time marched on, Nora didn’t get any less independent about her food. But she did discover new things she loved (smoothies! Beans!) and we discovered things that didn’t love her (beans are now forbidden – even 4 will have her up screaming several times a night). And she discovered the joy of sharing; by late May she was into peas, and would insist on taking turns feeding them to herself, then me, and giggling.

 

She spent May stolidly practicing her standing while refusing to take any steps. Daddy was very focused on progress in this regard, while I was openly pleased at her slow approach to walking. She got into plenty of trouble without that.

 

While she wasn’t ready to walk, she channeled plenty of energy into growing. She was confused and frustrated, for example, to find that she couldn’t stand up under the table anymore. What happened?!?

  

Toby and Nora keep having more fun together, and getting on each other’s nerves. I got this cute bath picture, but joint baths were prohibited shortly after this because Toby couldn’t figure out Nora’s personal space. And as she started crawling faster and faster, yells of “she’s COMING!! And “STOP HER!!” became more common. Nora loves Toby’s room – it’s full of crunchable Legos, and he screams in such an entertaining way when she bursts in.

 

Swinging is something they can agree on – Toby loves to push Nora (once he figured out how to not get whacked on the return), and Nora prefers Toby’s pushes to anyone else’s. Maybe because they’re crazy? Both kids also agree on the coolness of forts (thank goodness for Nanny Elizabeth, who is the queen of fort building at our house).

 

Nora’s not sure about Toby’s singing, though. I can’t blame her.

 

We spend a lot of time in the kitchen, where Nora likes to help unload the dishwasher (whether the dishes are clean or not). About this time, she figured out how to turn light switches on an off. I forgot how entrancing that is. Toby started calling her "Norlets," and demanding that we do too. Initially we resisted, but... it was irresistible.

Toby helps out in the kitchen too, sometimes. Most frequently he likes to cook imaginative things that involve baking soda and vinegar, plus whatever else he can find. It’s because of his volcano obsession; his classroom got one of those baking-soda-and-vinegar volcanoes, and they must have been talking about Mt. Hood too. Because lava and eruptions of every kind started finding their way into Toby’s stories. I digress. Sometimes Toby does really, truly helpful things in the kitchen too. Like shelling fava beans from our CSA!

Nora's first words were on Memorial day weekend - I swear Nora said "buh" for book and "bah" for ball. Matt thought he hear "nana" for banana. And she was pointing to everything, asking for the word. That baby was already so ready to talk. And her sweet baby curls were growing - I loved them so much! And Toby had cool milestones, too - like buttoning his own buttons in May. I may have cried at his independence.

Late May and early June were really packed with new adventures. We bought a tent, and Toby and Daddy camped out in the back yard. (We still haven’t actually camped yet, but I’m sure it will happen eventually). Toby’s school went to the zoo, and I got to be a chaperone, chasing a group of wild boys around. And we had our first family bike ride! That was particularly sweet.

Early June at our house means BIRTHDAYS!!! Nora’s first one was on the 6^th, with Toby a week later. It turns out Monday evening is a fantastic time for small child birthday parties. MommaSue and Aunt Becky came to help us celebrate, and the Penguins even obliged by winning the Stanley Cup. (That was a big deal, seriously. I’m still processing it, and hockey season is about to start again…)

 

Nora’s party was a sunny day, and she wore her fancy plaid party dress. Then she took off the dress, ate strawberry shortcake, and got in the pool with her buddies. It was completely lovely.

 

They opened their presents in the middle of the week, and Toby got (GASP!) an actual light saber. (Which he still plays with incessantly.) Also, some R2D2 luggage from Uncle Craig that he loves to bits and has plenty of years to grow into.

Before it was Toby’s turn for cake, he got to spend lots of fun time with MommaSue, and celebrate his friend Elodie’s birthday (he was the only boy in a sea of pink, but didn’t seem to notice).  For Nora, it was the beginning of a long summer of passionate watermelon eating.

Toby was full of anticipation for his birthday this year, which made it a lot of fun for us. He got to wear a special hat at school, had his first dental cleaning (which I successfully pitched as SO SPECIAL!!), and got to have a colder and wetter party than Nora – but still fun. He chose a green dump truck for his cake, and enjoyed his day from beginning to end.

Catchup post III: Into the spring... (January 1 - March 13)

January brought a visit from Noni. We celebrated a second little Christmas; Toby got a ride-on fire truck and Nora got a ball track that rings a bell when the balls finish. Both of these gifts have gotten tons of love. Toby did a lot of dancing with Noni to his new favorite album, the zydeco “Choo Choo Boogaloo.” Somehow I managed to get very few pictures of the visit. But toward the end, we took Toby to the local children’s museum, where Mom and I had fun watching him play with another little boy who happened to be there. Both of them clearly love buttons, vehicles, and urgency.

Other than that, we experienced a return to the regular rhythms of life. Toby went back to school on January 5^th, and both of his teachers said he was visibly taller. He outgrew his few remaining 2T clothes over the break. He’s been making great strides in drawing, with all kinds of media (the second one is a pancake with a chocolate chip face).

Toby started putting together his first puzzles early this year, too!

He’s also gotten very excited about Star Wars. This was initiated by a Lego sticker book from Aunt Becky, but there’s obviously something magical about the stories, because he immediately started acting them out and embellishing. Daddy got him some Storm Troopers for Valentine’s Day, because he couldn’t stop talking about them. 

(Nora and I celebrated Valentine’s Day by dressing up to go to a Mama-baby party – the pictures is at the top of this post). Anyway, usually we use our light “saver” straws to battle Sith, but sometimes Toby enjoys being a “bad guy” too.

He’s generally been relishing his increasing independence. We love seeing his pleasure in learning how to do new things.

 

The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry is one of our new favorite places to explore doing new things. I’m looking forward to taking him back again soon, but here he was in March, innovating at the water tables.

His mastery of language and storytelling continues to be a pleasure. He got interested in spelling, working out "volcano" and "lava" in mid March (his classroom has a vinegar-and-baking-soda volcano, which has been one of his favorite things for months). He started singing and rhyming a lot. He entertains us with constant chatter. Much of it has a natural history bent, e.g. “"We have razors in our mouths so we can eat pointy sharp things, like bushy-tailed rats." But of course, fiction is also ripe territory: "Once Darth Vader got trapped in the dark side and he dropped his Light Saver and couldn't find it. But he didn't mind b/c he had his mask on." When Noni was visiting, he ran into the kitchen one day and commanded: "Take off your clothes!" "Why?" "We're having a naked clothesline dance party!!" And just one more: "My body is sore. My body is sore 'cause I had EXTERCISE, yeah.” I could happily listen to this sort of thing forever, providing only minimal leading questions.

Nora learned in January how much she loves taking things out of things. There are so many things full of things in our house! Baskets, drawers, cabinets, boxes, cookie tins… this favorite game gets so much mileage. (It still hasn’t gotten old, actually). When it comes to bookshelves, I like to pretend she loves the books, but let’s be honest. She mostly likes taking them out.

 

Oh, you’re wondering if she’s cute? I’m glad you asked. Yes, yes she is.

And brilliant? As a matter of fact, that too! Once we figured out the magic of naked tummy time, she rolled both ways consistently in January. 

Growling continued to be a major feature of her vocalizations, although they diversified charmingly. By mid-January, Nora learned to sit up quite well, and enjoyed her new perspective very much.

 

She got to sit outside on the ground for the first time on January 23^rd, much earlier than Toby did (thanks, Oregon!). She liked it, of course.

By February, she was standing with support…

… and by mid-March, she made her first grumpy ooches of crawling! (Really, she yelled while crawling for probably the first week, until she sped up. This girl knows what she wants, and she knows she deserves it YESTERDAY.)

 

Sometimes she stops moving. Briefly.

Teething was a big theme during this period, too.

 There was lots of drooling and chewing on things. Wooden toys, fingers, and me if she finished eating and I didn’t remove her quickly enough. At long last, the first tooth made its appearance in mid-February – this picture was taken on the 20^th, when she was finally willing let me get a good look.

And although she had been eating some solid food for a while, it really took off in the first few months of this year. (Brassicas from our CSA were a surprisingly big hit.)

In the meantime, I pumped extra milk at work and donated over 140 ounces to our regional milk bank. I think it belongs here because I couldn’t have done it without Nora! We ended up composting a lot of frozen milk when we left Michigan, and I’m determined not do that again.

Individual milestones are great, but there are more and more things we enjoy doing together as a family. Legos, for example. Both kids can play together with the big ones (as long as Nora isn’t in the mood for destruction. We call her “Nora the Destroyer,” a witty – if I say so myself – reference to the TV character “Dora the Explorer). 

Although Nora isn’t allowed to play with the little Legos yet, Daddy and Toby are. They spend hours a week at it. The first shipment of the Schultz stash (Matt and Rachael’s childhood collection) arrived in January, and was unpacked with great ceremony. Since then there’s been a steady trickle, each box greeted with joy.

I’ve even gained some confidence – I finally learned how to follow instructions, and helped Toby build this windmill. Watch for some of the amazing things Toby’s been making in future posts.

All this self-entertaining means that sometimes I have quiet moments while the kiddos play. This is amazing. I don’t think it happened with Toby until he was 2 ½, at least. 

Toby and Nora together is alternately the most wonderful and most frustrating part of our lives. I don’t have any pictures of the frustrating bits, because my hands are too busy keeping them apart, attempting to distract one or both of them, or – worst case – removing Nora to safety. Luckily, the happy moments are many! They include Nora giving Toby what he deserves:

 Toby dressing both of them up:

And, of course, heart-meltingly cute snuggles.

But playing isn’t the only thing we do together – we also get sick! In the first few months of this year, I think Nora went a solid two months without ever being completely well. At one point she had an ear infection, and another week she was diagnosed with Bronchiolitis. 

And she’s not only cute when she coughs – sneezes are good, too. (Photo credit to Nanny Elizabeth, who makes my day when she sends me stuff like this.)

 Luckily Nora and I both love her doctor, Emma Germann, and Nora loves the exam table paper. Even Toby eventually developed an ear infection that kept recurring, and got his first-ever round of antibiotics. It’s amazing being well again, I’m not sure I believed it would ever happen.

 

Of course, we still make pancakes together – nearly every other day, lately. Toby’s developed an aversion to flipping, but he loves placing chocolate chips or blueberries, and is enthusiastic about buttering the pan and pouring batter, too. Nora is a great pancake eater already, which Toby initially found fascinating. "When I was little I could eat pancakes because I had little hands and little feet and little ears and little eyes... and a BIG HEAD." So true, my son. SO true.

If you made it all the way to the end of this post, you’ve probably already forgotten what happened at the beginning. Take home message: life is good.