Settling in, new adventures, and the beginning of nesting

 It’s been a wild few months since the last update. Aunt Rachael helped us move, Uncle Craig went to Sierra Leone and back, Matt got a new job, and I made two trips to Nevada. Now it’s time for a deep breath or two before Baby Girl arrives. (Okay, hopefully a month or two of deep breaths.)

  First for the move! It was exhausting, but we got it all done. Rachael even made sure the furniture was in place and most of the boxes unpacked before she left! Toby enjoyed helping to pack and unpack, got really excited about the moving van, and became dreadfully fond of Aunt Rachael swinging him around and around (a trick Mama and Daddy find too tiring to replicate.)

There are still a few boxes left, and some furniture still to chase down (our couch will arrive in a few weeks), but we’re feeling more at home in the new place than we ever did in Eugene. Our second weekend there, we even made a foray to Ikea in Portland to get a big-boy-bed for our big boy. Toby was pretty excited about it. He knows the best way to test out a bed is to jump on it, but that you can’t jump on a bed with your shoes on. And once your shoes are off, why should you keep your pants on? So it was an exciting trip. After we got his clothes back on, we took a lunch break. At the end, he even got to pick out his own bedding. We’re all pleased with how it turned out.

I’ve even made peace with the lack of bathtub – I got a cover for the drain, and we can accumulate a few inches of water in our super-nice shower. Combine that with the flexible hand-sprayer, and Toby finds the new bathroom even more fun than the old one. There’s virtually no limit to the splashing that goes one now.

Matt’s super-duper new job is with the Institute for Applied Ecology in Corvallis (~45 minutes away). He spends some time at the office, some at his various field sites, and occasionally a day working from home (hopefully this will happen more often as he gets a handle on the job). He’s focusing on habitat restoration for endangered and threatened species, and living up to his fancy new title of Restoration Ecologist/Botanist. Toby, Noni and I even got to meet some of his wonderful coworkers at the welcome gathering last week. He interviewed for the job the Friday before we moved and heard he got it the Monday after, so this made an already exciting time even more so.

An unpleasant side effect of finding employment was the sudden need for child care. Toby wasn’t in love with his Eugene daycare, so I felt lukewarm about shopping in Salem – his spot in the local Montessori school won’t open until September. But IAE wanted Matt to start soon, so we plunged in. I’ll be honest, this caused a full-on maternal freak-out for me. Luckily, the YMCA a few blocks from my work had an opening, and I’d heard good things about it from a colleague, so we signed Toby up and started him a few days later. He LOVES it! For the first few weeks, one of his favorite sentences was “I had fun at the YMCA!” He’s never been so happy to head off in the morning or so reluctant to come home (he’d rather drag me around and show me everything in the room – caterpillars, bottles of sparkly glitter, the firefighter hats, teacher “Wifbef” [Elizabeth]…). This was a delightful surprise, and such fun to see how every week he’s relating more to his classmates and telling us more stories about his day. Montessori had better be fabulous, or we’re heading straight back to the Y.

 The Toblerone had barely gotten settled when I had to drive a van of students down to Nevada for the Joshua tree field season. My advisor’s herniated disk precluded him from doing it himself, so I spent two days driving down and a third flying home from Vegas. It was good prep for the longer trip when I would be staying to actually do field work – Toby, Matt, and I all weathered it just fine. My big trip was April 1-11^th, and we had the advantage of MommaSue flying in for most of that time. She made sure that Easter and Matt’s birthday were celebrated properly in my absence (including a pink-frosted tea cake straight out of Toby’s favorite Amelia Bedelia book!).

 And here he is making his very own birthday cake for Daddy…

 In the meantime…

 I had a wonderful time in the Nevada desert. The Joshua trees and moths were amazing – I spent so much time with my face in them, I could still smell the mushroomy flowers every night as I fell asleep. The culture was also intriguing; our field site is just east of Area 51, and between the locals thriving on alien kitsch, the conspiracy-theory tourists, and the wacky camo guys who prowl our field site as contract Area 51 border guards, we were never bored. All the hiking made me extra exhausted, but also seemed to strengthen my pregnant body in healthy ways (it helped that my colleagues were so accommodating, and barely laughed at my waddle and frequent watering of the desert.) I was too busy during the day to miss Matt and Toby too much, but still managed to have a much harder time than Toby did. Of course, if I’d had MommaSue with ME, I’d probably have been perfectly happy too.

 Now the pregnancy is in week 34. My belly button is disappearing, the linea negra has been visible for over a month, and Baby Girl is keeping me up at night kicking. She gets hiccups every day, which are charming and something I never felt with Toby. Matt and Toby have both felt her moving. I’m definitely slowing down, and thankful that we’re settled in a home with no more big trips planned. Nesting time!

Toby continues to process the idea of getting a little sister. He enjoys reading his new books about the baby (The New Baby and Snuggle the Baby); his favorite activities in the latter are feeding and changing the diaper. He also likes to hug and kiss my belly. And says that it’s stinky, for unknown reasons. I convinced him that “smelly belly” is more fun to say. Maybe I’ll regret this?

 Obviously we’ve been preoccupied with big events over the last couple of months, but Toby is also doing the usual amazing new things. He’s now a pro at playing Memory, and occasionally requests we all play Old Maid together (he still keeps an open hand.) Matt’s been testing his understanding of numbers, and it seems like he can add physical objects and subtract small abstract numbers (like 4-2). This blows my mind. [Retraction: Matt says he's no longer convinced Toby can subtract yet. I haven't detected a significant decrease in the blowing of my mind, though.] His interests in music and all things wheeled have really blossomed in the last months. He goes through phases of wanting to dance endlessly, and has more recently started singing Alouette, Twinkle, and the ABCs spontaneously. He even composed his first originally ditty, which we call “The Pizza Song.”

 And everywhere we drive, he discusses the vehicles he can see from his carseat. He tells us that the wheels are moving, or they’re going to. He wants to know what everything is called. He wants to examine all the hubcaps in the world, up close. He wants to take the shiny red car out of the pages of the book and ride in it. Here he is inspecting wheels with our friends Ramona and Tyler, who watched him while we took a hospital tour (and loaned him the wings later, too!). You’ll notice he doesn’t restrict himself to things with four wheels.

 Moving into a house has taken some planning. And purchasing. We got a washing machine, which Toby loves just as much as he did in Michigan. He can happily sit and watch the thing spin for 15 minutes.

 And a bike trailer, so that we can commute by cycle TOGETHER (later… I really can’t bike anymore, even without a toddler behind me). Right now we use it as a stroller to get to the nearby parks, and Toby LOVES it. (Can you tell that it has wheels?)

 We even bought a reel mower for our tiny lawn! It’s amazingly easy to use, and we feel like hipsters. Except that we don’t live in Portland, drink coffee, or have tight enough pants. (Well, not Matt at least – my pants get tighter every day.) It also inspires Toby to run his noisy wood “mower” toy all around the house. This is genuinely charming (although in my pre-baby days I might have found it chaotic).

 Which reminds me, we have a yard! This is probably my favorite thing about the new house. We can turn Toby loose and let him explore. He likes digging in the planters, tossing dandelion fluff in the air, pulling leaves, blowing bubbles, throwing balls, pouring water… there is something about being outside without close supervision that is totally magical. He NEVER wants to come in. I am so, so glad we were able to get this rental.

 Our next small adventure was getting a piano. We made sure we chose a rental that could fit one in the living room, but it took a while for Matt to find the right instrument. Last Thursday we moved it into the house, with the help of some friends. Another thing that is great about moving to Salem is that we have a community here! We’re making friends! A few of the students from the lab I work in and a few of my work buddies came over to eat pizza, drink beer, and move the piano. Noni even helped (in spite of my promises that she didn’t have to). Hopefully this was just the first of many fun gatherings in our new space.

 Everybody has been enjoying the new instrument – Toby plays it every day, and asks for us to play songs for him too. It feels much more like home now that we have a piano again. And the piano isn’t the only new instrument – Aunt Becky sent a classic jack-in-the-box! (When this video was made, Toby didn’t like the “pop,” but he’s since become enthusiastic about “stuffing Peter back in.”)

 Another fun thing about Salem is the weekly swim lessons at the Y. I’m too ponderous to consider taking part, so Matt spearheads the outings. As you can see from the videos, Toby is learning a lot, and enjoying himself.

 This is probably the last blog post before Little Sister arrives, since my ever-lessening extra energy is going toward sorting baby stuff. And probably, soon, compulsively washing windows. In the meantime, send good thoughts for a reasonable due date – Toby is lobbying for sooner than reasonable, since he heard we’ll have desirable visitors. “Noni will come visit when my little sister is born, in 14 minutes.”

Springtime, house hunting, and PLAYDOUGH!!

Not to rub it in, but it’s springtime in Oregon (here's Toby with his springtime ladybug pal). By the beginning of February, bulbs were sending up green shoots and birds were singing. By Valentine’s Day, there were daffodils, crocuses, and all manner of small trees flowering. We’ve even gotten to know some new local native flowers, Oregon Grape and Indian Plum. Now it’s on to MAGNOLIAS! Maybe I should stop complaining about being so far from the Midwest?

Since the last post, the big news in our house is playdough. Aunt Margo gave Toby an IOU for his 2^nd birthday, but thoughtfully postponed delivery until he was (mostly) interested in playing with it rather than eating it. When the box arrived a few weeks ago with a handmade ball in every color of the rainbow, full-on freakouts of happiness ensued. He stopped napping for days because all he wanted to do was play with it. Seriously. We started by making mosaics and decorating playdough Christmas trees. Sometimes he also likes to feed playdough caterpillars, but lately his favorite thing is cutting up playdough food with his wooden knife (grapefruit, sausages, chicken, and peapods) and feeding it to us. If it’s a big piece, we’re required to make gulp noises. But he’s also concerned that we KNOW how big it is: “Here’s a BIG piece of chicken, so you’ve got to choo, choo, choo wike a wittle twain.”

He even likes how it smells. Toby: “I think this playdough is good to sniff.” Me: “What does it smell like?” T: “Butterflies.”

His camera/camcorder savvy has also increased – at least half of the images in this post were requested specifically by Toby. He loves to take a picture or video and then immediately look at it. Many videos now end with him asking to watch it – and in this one you get to hear one of my favorite Toby mispronunciations, “vidywo!” Here he is using the garlic press…

And thank goodness we caught it, because a few days later he started saying it properly. Luckily we haven’t nearly plumbed the depths of his linguistic cuteness. “Washcloth” is “waff cloff,” and when I ask him if he knows how much I love him, he gives a number. Usually five. I tell him that's probably an underestimate.

Toby has been expanding artistically in media beyond playdough as well. I’d been afraid of markers, but since I discovered the washable Crayola ones really DO wipe off with water, there has been a lot of drawing with markers. He’s getting more interested in drawing specific shapes – he can do a fairly good circle and spiral, and even attempts stick figures! He recently drew something he said was a fish. It WAS kind of fish-shaped… although that’s probably a good default animal for any random scribble. More often, he tells us what to draw and then he colors on top of it. Anyway, we’re having fun with that.

Toby would like more independence with the markers, so he could draw on the walls and himself more, but for some reason his parents haven’t obliged. Legos are another matter, however – he spends more and more time doing his own thing with his building blocks.

Shortly after the last post, we told Toby about his little sister. First he looked under my shirt, and when he couldn’t see a baby he went back to playdough. A few picture books from the library helped, and now he talks about the baby in my belly, gives her pats, and debates whether he has a baby in his belly, too. He even offered her a carrot once. We’re currently focused mostly on giving him realistic expectations about what newborns are like and instilling a sense of affection/protectiveness so that the snuggles:pinches ratio is maximized. My own experience with big brothers suggests it may be a work in progress for ~20 years, so we’ll hope for the best and prepare for the, um, most character-building. Here I am at 23 weeks – and rest assured Toby is helping me see the beauty in my changing body. We were making bread in the bread machine last week; when the dough ball formed, he said, “It even made a dough ball, just like Mama’s belly!” Sigh.

For the grown-ups, the most exciting happening of the last few weeks has been tracking down a new place to live for our move to Salem. We wanted something that would feel more like home than our current digs, maybe even something we could love. We spent four days in Salem looking at places. The first day was mostly devoted to discovering we had set our rent ceiling too low, a.k.a. exploring which neighborhoods we should probably stay away from. I think the second day was when I discovered I REALLY wanted a house, not an apartment.

After we set our requirements (house, fenced yard, safe neighborhood, preferably three bedrooms) the search got simpler. We narrowed it down to a clear first and second choice, and those were the only two we applied for. Our application was accepted at our second choice, and then we had to waffle for a few days waiting for the application in front of us to be rejected at our first choice. It worked – we got the rental of our price-range dreams! It’s got too much carpet and too few windows, but also a fireplace in the living room and LOTS of space. Including a completely amazing yard Toby is going to love.

The outcome was gratifying, but the process taxed all three of us severely. Poor Toby had to come along for three of the four days, and the last two he was sick. To view the house we eventually got, I had to give him Tylenol before I strapped him in the carseat. :( On the upside, he probably got more sleep that way, which is the best way to heal, right?!? He ended up with croup. Between sleep lost over that, and sleep lost over housing anxiety, we had two rough weeks and all of our schedules got messed up.

In addition, Toby seems to be transitioning out of naps (it turns out it wasn't just a playdough-inspired fluke). He’s happier when he gets one, but it’s hard to get him to go down. And if he DOES take a nap, he isn’t tired at night. He gamely attempts to go to bed, but really isn’t sleepy until as late as 10:30 pm. That’s way past my bedtime, so we’re in a quandary. Mostly we’re just pushing through these next few weeks until we move again… hopefully we’ll have energy then to figure out the next stage in sleeping! It will definitely involve Toby getting a bigger bed, which should be fun. In the meantime, we sleep when and where we can…

We still made time to celebrate Valentine’s Day with a trip to the legendary local doughnut vendor, Voodoo Doughnuts. We bought four. Matt and Toby each ate perhaps a quarter of the fritter picture here, and felt sick. I ate the other 3.5 doughnuts, and felt great. Baby Girl and I maintain it’s all about training.

The next update will be posted from our new home, so lots of new stories and pictures to look forward to. We’d like to give a preliminary shout-out to Aunt Rachael, who is coming to help us pack, move, and unpack (i.e. saving our lives). Also, love and props to Uncle Craig, who is setting off at the end of this month to serve in Sierra Leone in an Ebola clinic, and Aunt Becky, who is supporting his decision (i.e. letting him go). We’re privileged to have family full of generous and compassionate people, making the world a better place and being the best role models imaginable.

Big news

As most of you already know, our biggest news is that #2 is on the way. After we’d lived here ~6 weeks, we decided the time was ripe. We assumed that it would take a while. Haha! That apparently only happens when you assume it won’t. This pregnancy has been less fun that the first – nausea started sooner, peaked higher, and is lasting longer. Also, I don’t remember being tired until the third trimester last time. Probably because I slept 10 hours a day, got massages, and did yoga (cue more laughter). But in spite of discomforts, we’re happy and excited. The due date is June 5^th, for what that’s worth. I felt the first movements the day after Thanksgiving! Now lil’ Schultz is kicking up a storm.

Toby hasn’t heard about it yet, but he’s noticed my lap isn’t as comfortable as it once was. (Above is me at 18 weeks; if I look worried, it's because I wonder what Toby is doing while Matt takes the picture.)  My postdoc advisor heard about it before almost anyone, since I needed to explain why I was working from bed for six weeks. He’s been great.

Another thing that’s different with this second pregnancy is that I’m three years older. I’ll turn 35 a few weeks before the due date, which qualifies me for “advanced maternal age.” That’s the nice way to put it, apparently – my chart refers to me as “elderly multigravida,” but no one has been silly enough to say it to my face. Being ancient qualifies you for extra ultrasounds, which is why we have the nice ~3-month image above. The third ultrasound was January 15^th (below, 4 months). It was epic – almost 1.5 hours, looking in detail at everything from the kidneys to the brain and each vertebra. We wanted to find out the sex, but baby was so wiggly and uncooperative, we weren’t sure it would work out. I dreamed it was a boy three times, but it turned out I was wrong. A girl! This is great, because (among other things) it means Toby has no competition for Best Baby Boy. I’m nervous about raising a girl in the Princess Pink culture, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out. Maybe she’ll turn out to be much more frilly and sparkly than me by nature, who knows?

In the meantime, we still spend most of our time thinking about Toby. He’s developed lots of cute new hobbies since the last post, like putting coins in the piggy bank (until he experimented with throwing it… oops… now the piggy bank is a yogurt container with a slot in the lid). Snuggling in bed with friends is also super fun.

And playing with the kitty! He’s actually gotten much better with her – he hardly ever chases her around the house while hyperventilating anymore, and only throws things at her when he’s really mad about something else. (We’re pretty good at seeing this coming, but are too slow more than we’d like). At this point, he’s more likely to annoy her by trying to be nice, and more and more often she actually enjoys his attention. As in, <10% of interactions. Huge improvement! (He's only allowed to play in the cat bed when she's not in it - he's convinced he fits.)

He went through a long phase of enjoying spelling out words with his magnetic letters on the refrigerator. We helped him sound them out – some of his favorites have been Frozen, Octopus, Daddy, Fish, Penguin, Pen, Vulture, Hippo, and No. (Currently, the influx of new toys at Christmas has taken over instead!) His linguistic gains continue, and are increasing entertaining. He loves constructing long sentences with multiple clauses (now approaching that charming stage of preschooler stream-of-consciousness). With the piggy bank, it’s “First I put the coin in, and then I shake it!” Other recent favorite phrases have been “I put the chocolate chip cookie in my belly WITH the chocolate chips!” and “I frowed [threw] my pants because I was SO GRUMPY!”

That last sentence highlights two more advances: Toby has mastered past-tense (at least for regular verbs), and he has also mastered the temper tantrum. It started in late October. At it’s worst, there would be five minutes of screaming, followed by five minutes of crying and a snuggle. Then he would happily do (or not do) whatever thing caused the fit: wear a shirt, not eat another cookie. There was a lot of spitting and throwing of things. We’re definitely not through it, but we’ve learned how to deal with it better, and Toby is slowly learning to cope too. He’s gotten good at saying, “I was VERY FWUSTWATED because I …” Then we can agree that XX is very frustrating/disappointing. For me, this often comes out like, “Yes, it’s can be hard when we can’t have/do something we want.” Which is basically what all my own temper tantrums (and maybe all the suffering of existence?) come down to. Most of us have learned not to hit the kitty or throw things at people, so I bet Toby will eventually too.

But it’s not been all nausea and tantrums at our house. One tremendous highlight smack in the middle of the horrors of “morning” (24/7) sickness was a visit from the intrepid Royer-Millers. They were warned of my invalid state but drove a very long day up from California anyway. We were all entertained, and our souls refreshed, but maybe Toby most of all. He’s got a great Aunt, Uncle, and cousins.

Here they are demonstrating my diet on a good day… Margo got me hooked on celery with peanut butter, which was a huge improvement. I ate it for a whole two weeks before developing an aversion.

 

Around the time of the Royer-Miller visit, Toby got a book of amazing insect stickers from his MommaSue. This spawned a new favorite hobby – most days he now spends at least 15 minutes peeling stickers and putting them on himself, his parents, and the furniture. It’s pretty great.

He’s also shown more interest in doing grown-up things, like vacuuming! We can’t vacuum alone anymore. Although with such a charming companion, who would want to? And since I commute by bike in Oregon’s rainy season and park in the living room, regular vacuuming is quite welcome. (I took 6 weeks off biking, but by Christmas the nausea had retreated sufficiently for me to get back on, hooray!)

Toby’s bed is getting more grown-up too (even though he’s still unbearably cute when sleeping). On November 13th, we took the fourth wall off his crib. He took to it right away – was thrilled to be able to climb in and out, play and dance in his crib. Climb in, climb out, climb in, jump. He was playing in the living room the day of the change and suddenly said, "I want to look at my crib!" He had never been so excited about night-night time. Lining up his binkies under the crib became a key part of the bedtime routine. Soon it became a stage for one of his current favorite pastimes: dancing to “The Bear Necessities” with his friends, Rat and Armadillo. We just took the crib apart and put the mattress on the floor so Mama (who is gaining weight) could still read Toby stories in bed, but even this change hasn’t put a kink in the song-and-dance routine.

Our favorite grown-up thing Toby is doing is using the potty. He might have been ready to start training around his second birthday, but there was so much upheaval of various kinds that we put it off. This inadvertent strategy ended up serving us well, because when we actually decided to take the leap it was nearly effortless! The no-pants approach resulted in immediate potty training. One week with no pants, one week with pants and no undies, and the tot was ready to wear clothes and use the potty by Thanksgiving. Amazing! He still wears a diaper at night (only actually needs it maybe half of the time), but other than that we’re managing ~ 6 months of diaper-free life! Woo-hoo! And although he skipped a few naps initially after potty-training, the dreadful possibility that this was a permanent change did not materialize.

He still loves books, and regularly wants to read on his awesome green froggy potty. I have more pictures of this than I should. But it is soooo cute. On the downside, now that he’s figured out he can take of his pants for the potty, he doesn’t see much point in wearing ANY clothes. Sigh. Naked is cute, but it just won’t do when one is heading out to the playground or the library. Luckily if you can keep the clothes on long enough to get out the door, they usually stay on. Usually.

For Thanksgiving this year, we traveled to Aunt Becky and Uncle Craig’s house in Hibbing, Minnesota. Toby was really excited about the trip. The day before we left, I explained we would go the airport in the morning, and he wailed, “I want to go on the trip TODAY!” It turns out he loves airport toilets (but not airplane ones). Our flight out of Portland was delayed several hours, so we did a lot of running around the terminal. And when we got to MN, we were rewarded with delightful cold weather! All of us were happy to get the chance to bundle up and play in the snow.

Thanksgiving was a treat, with the whole Schultz clan in attendance. We got to sleep and cook and eat, and Toby enjoyed the attention of MommaSue, Grandpa Fred, and his Aunts and Uncle. He’s been fascinated with unpacking and packing things (primarily our spice cabinet, which he can unload and refill up to four times in a row, naming all the spices), and on this trip he got the pleasure of attending to Aunt Becky’s pantry. There were many fascinating items to investigate.

Another highlight was Uncle Craig’s dancing Snoopy. Perfect preparation for the upcoming Christmas season, since I had A Charlie Brown Christmas just waiting for our return! I think it’s not an exaggeration to say that many happy hours were spent in Hibbing with this toy.

Sometime around Thanksgiving, Toby also discovered how to take selfies with my iPod. Now every time I plug it in, there are ~10 new pictures of Toby’s forehead. Usually in the car, but there was at least one in the airport… I actually have the self-discipline to delete most of them, but some are too cute.

Although our apartment in Eugene is tiny, I felt having a real Christmas tree should be a priority. So I found a way to make space for it, and Toby and I went out to a local farm and picked out a tree together. Matt brought it in from the car and set it up, I put on the lights… and Toby decorated! He never really got the idea of hanging something on a branch (maybe next year), but instead picked favorite spots to use as shelves. Where piles of ornaments accumulated.

As the Christmas season wore on, he enjoyed taking ornaments off and putting them back on in his own special way. Sometimes items were repurposed as ornaments (Cookie Monster, the night light, Legos…). I was just thrilled to see him enjoying the tree. He would often get up in the morning, turn on the lights, and say, “It’s Christmas time!”

In December he seemed to get extra excited about numbers. He can now count to 100 with a little help (remembering the name of the new tens after thirty) and can make it to 40 in Spanish. (I believe this is all I’m capable of myself – his Spanish lessons at daycare definitely help!) I find his interest in letters and numbers fascinating.

Another cool development is that he’s clearly started to dream. He woke up a few times from bad dreams about trolls, saying that he had to make the troll happy (I think this came from “Three Billy Goats Gruff”). There seem to be good dreams too, like the time he pointed at the ceiling in his sleep and said, “Look at the FUNNY MONKEY!” There is definitely a lot going on in that little brain.

During the exhaustion and sickness of the first trimester, there was a lot of reading. And me lying on the couch, watching Toby play… and also a lot of Matt picking up the slack. There were a few times when Toby wanted a bath and I wasn’t up to it, and that morphed quickly into a dislike of baths. Luckily it was winter, so he wasn’t covered in dirt every day, but there were still some sad baths. Happily, when I started to feel better, he rediscovered his joy in the tub – the bath strike ended on December 17^th. Now he begs to take a bath at all hours of the day, and climbs into the shower with either of us at every opportunity. Could the discovery of bubble beards play a key role in this transformation?

One super fun new development since the last post is that Toby is interested in playing games. Okay, only one game – war. He still loves setting up the chess board and knows all the names of the pieces, but he actually gets the rules of war. This is 100% Matt’s doing. He taught Toby the names of all the cards – including suits – and has patiently walked him through enough repetitions that the tot can now play through a whole deck before he resorts to flicking cards everywhere. (Granted, it’s the deck reduced by months of flicking, but still! And I’m convinced there will be ~26 cards unearthed from corners when we move in six weeks.) We’re working on Memory and Old Maid too, but we’re not there yet.

As Christmas approached, we were lucky to have Noni come for a visit. It was lovely to have a quiet holiday at home, but wouldn’t have really felt like Christmas without some extended family.

This was the first year it felt like we were putting together a proper Christmas for Toby – he is old enough to understand and take part, which made the work totally worthwhile. From baking cookies, to prying Christmas lights out of his hands when he tried to pull them off the tree, to late-night wrapping sprees, it was wild and wonderful.

When he woke up Christmas morning, he didn’t jump out of bed looking for presents, but when he walked into the living room and saw the gifts and stockings, he said “Santa came!” We opened stockings, ate my family’s traditional breakfast (Swedish tea ring and cups of tea), and got to work on the presents.

Opening presents – even the stocking – took a very long time, because Toby wanted to immediately play with/read everything. At first I felt goal-oriented (finish opening presents so I can make dinner!). Luckily, with a little encouragement from Noni, I was able to relax and enjoy this delightful pace. He looked at each book (and asked to be read Go, Go Grapes! three times before moving on) and played with each toy before unwrapping the next gift. Just like last year, the actual act of unwrapping was one of his favorite parts, so he helped the grown-ups with theirs too. And everybody got a share of the Christmas sticker love (thanks, MommaSue!).

When he opened his Legos, we had to take a full 45-minute pause before he was willing to look at another gift. We left his bicycle and kitchen for last, because they required some assembly. Matt heroically took on that task later in the day, and Toby helped by holding down the box.

He took to the kitchen immediately (his big present from Mama and Daddy), and has spent some time making oatmeal, chopping vegetables, or baking rolls every day since. I wish I could say that this has made the sharp and breakable parts of the real kitchen one iota less attractive… but either way, at least we’re fueling his culinary passions.

We had a great Christmas meal. Matt made the chicken, Noni supported throughout, and I was the head cook. Not to brag, but I made a really gorgeous peach pie. We ate leftovers for days, so it felt like a proper holiday.

One of the sweetest groups of gifts was the Penguins gear, for the Pittsburgh hockey team so dear to the Schultz family (including me). We took Toby to the nearby school playground to get pictures worthy of it.

Toby’s been to see Matt play several times, and we also watched the local team play once, so he already knows we’re a hockey family.

This playground is also where we take him to ride his bike. He’s barely big enough for it, but with the main part of the frame flipped upside down, it fits! It’s wonderful watching him scoot around, making his first short coasts.

Since Christmas we’ve settled slowly back into routine. I’m feeling almost completely better, and able to enjoy the more noticeable movements of the new baby as well as the day-to-day coolness of our fast-growing little boy. Matt spent a crazy month over the holidays sorting packages with the post office, but is now back to looking for a more permanent and satisfying job. We’re both thinking about our impending (end-of-February) move to Salem, and watching the listings online (current cool websites: Zillow and Padmapper!). Here's Toby helping put away our Christmas decorations.

 

Toby’s routine is getting back to normal, too. Now that I’m up for cooking pancakes again, we do it several times a week. Lately he insists on wearing his apron (made by Nana for me many years ago). He’s enjoying daycare; often he’s playing gleefully outside when we pick him up, and he regularly sings Spanish songs we didn’t teach him. We found a Montessori school in Salem that looks promising, and they have a space for him to start in September.  

We’re also back to our weekly family hikes. Winter hiking in Oregon means raincoats, but it brings its own delights – like muddy boots! Toby loves running up and down trails, finding (and breaking) sticks, and poking at moss. The nearest destination, beloved by many in Eugene, is Spencer Butte. The trail is a mile to the top, and progress up is slow, but we’ve made it all the way a few times. Going down is ~5 times faster, and it’s hard for me to keep up! But the pictures in this post are from my personal favorite spot, Mt. Pisgah Arboretum. There are lots of winding trails meandering along the middle branch of the Willamette River. Perfect for our family’s style – focusing on the journey, not the destination, and stopping to look at EVERYTHING.