Catchup post II: The holidays! November 1st- January 1st

 

Halloween was just the first taste. After that, we joyfully plunged into the winter holiday season. It started with Nora’s first plane ride and my first conference since her birth. My postdoc advisor Chris and I flew to Manhattan, Kansas for an Ecological Genomics conference. Aunts Becky and Rachael met us there to watch Nora Bean while I gave a talk, read posters, and schmoozed to the best of my ability. Nora even got to meet Scott Edwards, the famous Harvard bird geneticist. I was so thankful the aunties came to help out. The meeting was fun, but seeing the great pictures they took while I was busy was by far the most joyful part of the weekend.

After that, we had a few quiet weeks (well, as quiet as our weeks get anymore), followed by the excitement of our first flight as a family of four.

 

We’d planned to fly to the Midwest to spend Thanksgiving with my family, but ended up tacking on an extra trip at the beginning. Instead of driving east from Chicago, we headed west to the quad cities for my first interview! (Good friends Rachel and Colin sent cookies and stickers to help us celebrate this achievement – joy in small things!)

 

 Augustana College in Rock Island, IL was hiring a professor to teach botany. Luckily, we have family in Davenport (one of the four cities) – Matt’s Aunt Barb and cousin Kelly, with her son Russ. Toby and Russ are about a year apart, and are fantastic cousins. While I prepped and interviewed, the boys got to play in the snow, go to the John Deere museum (!) and chase each other around the house.

 

Nora got photographed on the hotel bed again, which somehow brings out the cutest in her, and Toby enjoyed the Christmas decorations.

Interviewing was a great experience, and I even got the offer! We liked the Quad Cities and loved the idea of living near the Kuhl-Rettig-Firsching relatives, but I decided I’d rather aim for a job at a somewhat more research-oriented college. Since I still have two years of funding in Oregon, it feels safe to be picky for now. Fingers crossed for the perfect job opening next year.

After the long drive across Illinois and Indiana, we had a lovely long holiday visiting with they Royer side of the family and introducing everyone to Nora. Until then, only her grandparents and Uncle Jacob had gotten to see her in person. She was remarkably unfussy, mostly enjoying being passed around. She especially liked chewing on Uncle Chris’s fingers and falling asleep on Aunt Ragan.

We had our traditional Thanksgiving at Aunt Cathy and Uncle Kenny’s house, where the boy cousins all ran around like wild things and Toby completely overcame his fear of dogs with the help of the sweet German Shepherd Marian (who ran around like a well-controlled wild thing). Nora got to meet her Nana while the boys romped.

We also got to spend some low-key time at the Royer-Miller’s new(ish) Garden House, where they’ve been gradually settling in. Toby had been looking forward to Uncle Dan’s banjo for weeks, and the cousins seem to have more fun every time they get together.

In Trotwood, we had the incredible treat of a visit with the Zarate-Kolp family; Christina and Martin came down for a couple of days over Thanksgiving to meet Eva and hang out. After a year in a new place, I can’t overemphasize how amazing it was to spend time with an old friend. They get tons of props for making the drive. Naturally, Eva fit right in with the cousins and loved on Nora.

After that, we headed over to Richmond in the penultimate leg of our epic holiday migration. Of course more cousin fun ensued, including a nearly endless game of “chase me with a plastic sword” courtesy of Uncle Jacob’s truly impressive sword collection. Toby made friends with the trombone and the Albert the hairless cat. Uncle Dan snuggled Nora some more. It doesn’t sound like it, but it was actually restful!

Nora even got to meet Aunt Jean and squeeze in an extra visit with Nana, and then we headed back home to Oregon.

Getting ready for Christmas was fun, since Toby is old enough now to be a whole-hearted participant. We went out to a muddy farm to pick out a tree, and got the extra bonus of using the apple slingshot. There was even a deer there, eating the apples, more or less ignoring us!

And another milestone, Toby’s first school “play.” His class sang a few Christmas songs, with hand gestures. The sound system got confused, so we didn’t get to see Toby’s rumored world-class air guitar, but we did get confirmation that he is THE CUTEST, especially in a Santa hat. I’ll be honest, I was overcome with the (irrational?) conviction that my child is the charmingest, smartest person to ever walk the earth, and I nearly gave in to the urge to jump up and block every other parent’s view so I could get the best pictures. It was extra overwhelming because the room was full of at least 150 other people who felt THE EXACT SAME WAY. (About their child.) Crazy energy.

 

For the Christmas holidays, we stayed quietly at home and received visitors – the Schultzes! Aunt Becky started off the festivities making cookies with Toby, which was one of my top holiday goals. Including making their own icing and spilling the sprinkles. Toby was in charge of the spilling. I checked with other preschooler-mom friends, and it turns out that spilling the sprinkles is universal, and genuinely impossible to clean up. It’s May, and just yesterday Toby found a $%@!! sprinkle and offered it to Nora. (Luckily, her pincer grasp isn’t that good. So she doesn’t eat sugar off the floor, just stickers and leaves. What a relief!)

We revived our annual caroling tradition with the help of Becky and a few of my work friends. Santa Chris brought Toby a MONSTER COMBINE!!! And he scared Nora with his weird beard and the ho-ho-ho’s. But that’s what Santa is for, right?

 

Nanny Elizabeth gave us a Christmas hat that I’m pretty sure is going to be central to our family celebrations for decades to come. She also gave Toby a fire chief hat which he loves. (I had to cut one side to fit his fun-sized head in, but he’s fine with that).

 

The rest of the Schultzes arrived a couple of days before Christmas, with enough time for a day of overlap before Becky had to head home. It was delightful to have everybody together. Nora spent a great deal of time establishing her cuteness…

….including on Christmas Eve….

 

... and, of course, Christmas Day.

 

Toby loved having extra people to play with, and this was the first year he understood Christmas well enough to feel real anticipation. So opening presents was faster than when he was 2.5, but still extremely sweet.

 

He started playing with tiny Legos at the Montessori school, and Aunt Rachael got him his first big box of his very own. This has been a source of joy ever since. We love how creative and absorbed he is with the wee blocks.

 

Toberman took a fun walk with MommaSue and Grandpa Fred for Christmas afternoon. (I’m pretty sure I took a nap. One of my favorite parts of visits.)

 

Right before departing, Toby got to go ice skating with Daddy and Aunt Rachael. Quintessential Schultz.

 

We followed the hockey theme by spending New Year’s Eve with our Red Wings fans friends, the Andrades. They have a daughter Toby’s age and were expecting #2 (who arrived happily in April), so they’re just our speed. The friendship even managed to survive an unexpected (and therefore, for us, even more delightful) Penguins victory. Hurrah!

Of course, it wasn’t all holidays. We had lots of run-of-the mill family happiness and mind-blowing developmental leaps.

 

By early November, Nora was enjoying sitting up with support. It was fun to watch her discover what she could do with toys from this new angle. 

The newfound autonomy seemed to contribute to her cheeriness. She started smiling more and finding her voice. Mostly vowels and screams of joy, but sometimes “goo” and “ma” as well.

 Annoyingly, she outgrew my favorite dress. This sort of thing should not be allowed. I squeezed her into it one last time for the end-of-semester lab party.

 

And there was her first time in a swing! She said it was okay. For a few minutes.

 

She also started eating. Her enthusiasm didn’t match her brother’s at the same age, and some of the things she liked the most didn’t end up agreeing with her (cauliflower and potato soup!), but steady progress was made. (And we all like the new additional of the “lobster seat”, which is both smaller and more secure than the old highchair – perfect for Nora’s “throw-myself-headfirst-out-of-whatever” personality.)

 

Toby was quite excited about Nora eating too, and continues to enjoy helping feed her. He volunteered a spoonful of squash from his plate in early December. (More and more of these turn-Mama-into-a-sentimental-puddle moments seem to happen every week.)

Of course, her favorite thing to do is feed herself…

 … but the two of them just get cuter and cuter together.

Toby seemed to hit peak 3 around December. Lots of frustration, but also lots of interesting logic and quick accumulation of new skills. For example, getting dressed! There was a memorable moment combining many of these things that started with putting clothes back on after a trip to the potty (which involves stripping EVERYTHING below the waist, of course – and sometimes everything above the waist, too!) J

Here’s how it shook out. Toby wanted to put his shoes on before his pants, but then couldn’t get his pants on. Frustration. I suggested he take his shoes off and do the pants first. He tried for just undies. I recommended pants too. "Why?" Because it's cold. Why? Because it's winter. Why? Because we're in the northern hemisphere, and it's further from the sun right now. Why? Because the axis of the earth is tilted as it goes around the sun. Earth doesn't go around the sun! Yes, it does. Why? And then I explained gravity. That finished him off. We do have a lot of fun together (here he is with one of our CSA rutabagas, the size of his head, exerting its own substantial gravity).

 

Other favorite Toby quotes from this period: “I’m going to go to the store and get a symphony and then I'll PLAY it!" Also, when we lost half of the toilet paper dispenser and I asked him while we were making pancakes if he’d seen it around, he looked around thoughtfully and made "mmmm...." noises. "Maybe under the hot pans?!?" With that exaggerated question-exclamation tone of voice of a 3-year-old. Delicious.

 

He continues to be enthusiastic about cooking, and is capable of being both more helpful and less helpful than ever before. Just depends on the mood! Stay tuned for the next update. It may not SEEM like I’m catching up, but really, I am.

Catch-up post 1: August 18th- Halloween

 

Back on the horse! After a long blog pause, I decided to break up the posts to catch us up over the last months – today, posting through Halloween. So here’s what happened: I went back to work, and to no one’s surprise, many things fell through the cracks for months. I spent my extra energy on 1) hanging out with our awesome kids, 2) feeding us, and 3) sleeping. The food was passable, and the sleeping sometimes happened. Blogging and cleaning did not. 

 

Nora adjusted quickly to having “Nanny Elizabeth” full time, and they really bonded. Elizabeth even does some invaluable dinner prep for us, chopping veggies during the day when Nora sleeps. On days when Toby’s school was on break or he is sick, she’s a lifesaver. (And she’s quickly become a favored playmate, as well). The fussing improved gradually, but it didn’t stop; I’d say Nora was colicky into November, so it was a great blessing have a patient, loving caregiver to take her during the week. (Below I'm holding Nora in my favorite anti-colic pose.)

 

But she certainly wasn’t grumpy all the time – here she is at the end of October, showing her true self.

We loved hearing her start to talk, and growl! Sometimes we would lie in bed in the dark, and it sounded like a little monster was in the crib. She still loves to growl, it’s amazing.

 

Although Nora’s colic improved, the cuteness has only worsened with time. And the clothes! Here she is in Mama’s favorite party dress (a gift from Smith lab manager Ramona), and exhibiting her increasingly infectious smile.

 

 

We all enjoyed watching Nora’s personality continue to unfold. She was definitely more active than Toby at that age; we sometimes buckled her in the Froggy chair, or she would nearly roll right out of it in a frisky mood

 

Plus she started doing amazing new things in September, like grabbing! And looking at books! She rolled over back to front for the first time at the end of the month, although it took many more months before it happened regularly. And even holding her head up (it’s a big head, but not as big as this unfortunate angle made it look).

 

 

 

Toby and Nora have been doing better and better together. He’s loved watching her get more interactive. As the weather got colder and we put footie pajamas on, he would throw fits because he wanted her feet to be out. Sometimes he would settle for her hands. They starting enjoying sharing zerberts and screaming together.

Increasingly, the problems we have are from Toby just wanting to be with Nora TOO much – there’s a lot of “give her some space!” in our house. One of the things he really enjoys is helping out at bath time.

Toby’s not great about letting Nora nurse, but not because he’s interested in nursing himself– it’s just that he’d rather be on top of both of us all the time. But he definitely thinks pumping is awesome. Probably because it’s a machine. Here’s big brother “pumping breastmilk for Nora.” (This is one for embarrassing highschool sweethearts, right?)

He's also often interested in "being the baby," begging to be swaddled next to Nora or be put in the crib.

And snuggling, of course, is a major family pastime.

 

 

 

As I started back to work, Toby transitioned from the YMCA to the nearby Montessori school (above he’s pictured saying goodbye to his favorite Y teacher, Elizabeth – I don’t think he was quite old enough then to understand when we explained it to him. But he was definitely excited about his lunchbox, which we practiced filling, and I even got a first-day-of-school picture.

 

It was a tough transition in the beginning. He never wanted to go to Little Friends Montessori in the morning, but then also never wanted to leave in the afternoon. We even had a meeting with his teachers to troubleshoot because of the tantrums. Fixing steady, earlier times for both drop off and pickup helped a lot, although commuting by bike didn’t work out after those adjustments. We’ll try again in the summer.

 

Toby loves his teachers  - Miss Megan, the lead teacher (although they call them "guides", and Miss Gloria, the assistant. Miss Megan was pregnant when Toby started, and since he knows ALL ABOUT babies, he enjoyed hugging her belly and talking to the baby. (I’ll talk about his transition to a new teacher in January – when Miss Megan took maternity leave – in a later post, but no worries, it went fine.) Miss Pamela is in charge of Spanish, naps, and after school – she especially loves Toby, and affectionately detailed his daily fits until we worked them out. He likes her too, and can occasionally be heard singing Spanish songs around the house. He is learning a lot, and doing cool new things that he doesn’t get to do at home (like when the reptile man came to visit class, or the day a cool band played in their room!) It’s a great place for him.

 

Even if it does mean he comes home and wants to do “jobs” like at school… usually the messy kind. It’s so cool to see him excited about funnels and counting and scissors and cooking, I’m willing to clean up (almost) any mess.

 

Montessori philosophy includes a strong focus on independence, which is probably one of the reasons he got more interested in dressing himself. With the usual, regrettably short-lived, experimentation. He does lots of things on purpose to be funny, but this was earnest superhero wear.

Naturally we’re still collecting great Toby quotes. A few highlights, about Nora: "I'm putting her to sleep and she's still being loud. What a funny baby!" "She spit up like a geyser!" (They learned about geysers at school, at it was a favorite topic at home for weeks.) And when we were finishing up potty training: Toby, do you ever use the grey potty seat? "Maybe sometimes. Forever. But not forever right now."

On the weekends, we’ve kept pursuing various adventures. For local fun, Daddy took the lead on encouraging lots of walks to the park, often with Toby biking. It started to pay off in September with a big leap in skill.

Naturally we spend some of our downtime keeping up the estate.

 

And of course we hop in the car for more remote adventures (in the movie below we’re headed to the beach, but this general scene repeated itself regularly - "Where we goin', guys?".)

Toby got his face painted for the first time at an invasive species potluck for Matt’s work, we baked gingerbread men after Toby got excited about fairy tales, and we spent a day at the ocean. 

 

 

 

We scored Nora’s second visit from MommaSue in late September, which was a wonderful treat. 

 

And in other important Schultz family news, Aunt Becky sent Toby his first Star Wars toy in September – a talking R2D2. Stay tuned for his evolving obsession with the space opera.

We had lots of fun fall-related activities in October, including a day of cider and pumpkin patch visiting at the farm we get our veggies from…

 

 

 

And a wonderful pumpkin-carving party at our house. Toby’s favorite part was the power drill my boss, Chris, brought out for his extra-thick pumpkin. He cried when Chris, I mean the drill, left. But he enjoyed playing with everybody, especially our friend Ramona.

 

 

Toby was excited about Halloween, his first year actually trick-or-treating. At first he said he wanted to be a witch.

 

 But when it came down to it, I showed him two cool costumes at the store and he picked the (EXTREMELY CUTE) spider. We spent a lot of time practicing trick-or-treating all month, taking turns knocking on the utility room door.

 

 

When we actually went trick-or-treating, it rained. A lot. He carried an umbrella for the first time, made it through six houses, and went home happy. This was perfect, as far as I was concerned. All the fun, and much less sugar to deal with! We went out with two other 3-year-olds and little Charlie (who didn’t really trick-or-treat). The parents took turns going up to the door with the little ones. It was so cute to see them look at each other when the door opened to see who would get up the courage to softly say “trick or treat!”