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 5th, 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 23rd,
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 20th,
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.
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