Bucktown Record

Catching Up - August

2011-09-22T17:26:00.005-05:00

The kids have been using my old camera since Christmas or so. A few weeks ago, the lens retractor got broken, so I set it aside and pulled the photos off it. About 800 pictures - lots of blurry photos of toy cars, of course. But a few I quite liked - I think Lizzie gets the probable credit on these:

Big brother is missing a few teeth:

Harriet, coming up on 10 years old:

Wimsey, a venerable 16:

And Teddy. During "nap" time. Sigh.

Finally, August photos:

First day of first grade! So grown up!

At Spencer's first soccer game, I didn't have an easy time watching the soccer, because these two were at the other end of the field:

But even if I couldn't watch much, The Stinger Bees won:

Ontario

2011-09-22T17:00:00.009-05:00

In early July, we loaded up the mini-van and headed to Kingston, Ontario. The kids travelled reasonably well, all things considered.

At a rest stop (a mall, actually) on on the way:

In the backyard, hockey and lacrosse seemed to be the favorites:

Relaxing up at the cottage:

At the Springbrook house - we pulled fresh potatoes and peas and had them for dinner!

Ice Cream!

At the Frankfort splash pad:

And at various parks, in Belleville and Kingston:

At Nanna & Poppa's anniversary party (with cousin Alex!)

Summer

2011-08-15T13:53:00.007-05:00

Summer flew by - various non-vacation photos from June & July:

Powers Lake

2011-08-14T11:55:00.015-05:00

In June, we rented a cabin just across the Wisconsin border, on Powers Lake. Grandma and Grandpa came with us, and Aunt S and Uncle J joined for a couple days at the end of the week.

We did lots of fishing, swimming, canoeing:

Teddy had the kids' first unintentional dive in - he tripped on his feet on the dock. But he had a life jacket on, and I jumped after and pulled him out before he had time to register anything more than anger that his toy boat was floating away (I got the boat, too):

We drove into Lake Geneva one day for a round of mini-golf:

And on a rainy day, we drove over to Kenosha and checked out the trams and the dinosaur museum:

Fall Winter Spring, Fast

2011-08-11T17:02:00.017-05:00

It has been brought to my attention that I haven't added any pictures in quite a while. Ahem.

So, fall, 2010:

Christmas, 2010:

And finally, Spring, 2011:

Well, Summer Went Fast

2010-06-11T11:11:00.018-05:00

Summer, 2010, in, say, 100 words or less.

Climbing like big brother:

Sitting on balls:

A 5-year-old dude ("dude" was defined for me initially as "someone who wears his hat backwards", and then later amended to "someone who dresses cool, like the players on Daddy's guitar game"):

Lots of golf:

Baseball, played and watched:

Fishing & hiking:

General playground stuff:

Some driving (you know, Montana driving laws are a bit laxer than Illinois's):

And, alternately, travel on horseback:

Some napping:

Tree climbing:

And that only gets me through July!

Spring!

2010-04-12T20:39:00.002-05:00

Spring has arrived! And, amazingly, we have a nice backyard, filled with toys, to enjoy it:

Spencer has been registered to attend a full-day kindergarten in the fall - there's no question he's ready. He asks most mornings if it's a school day, and is overjoyed if he gets to go. From his teachers, I hear he's ready socially and academically; he's not reading, exactly, but often guessing words from context combined with the first letter(s). He seems more mature every day - he got a child's atlas for Christmas, and tells us about countries and cities and oceans. This last weekend, during the Masters, he explained the golf to me any number of times (Tiger hit it into the woods and had to settle for a par! Phil gets to try for a birdie!)

He jumped into bed with us one morning a month or so ago, and announced that he was going to marry A, one of the girls at school. I was barely awake enough to say "Oh? Uh, which one is she?" We eventually confirmed that the marriage is a fair ways off, so we're not reserving a chapel or checking out caterers yet.

His favorite color has been green for at least a couple years, but a few days ago he announced that he still liked green, but his new favorite color was red. We'll see how long it lasts. He got to wear red Spider-man underwear to school today, I'll be interested to hear if he showed everyone there.

He has lost 3 teeth, and another one is loose - the dentist thinks that early teeth loss is normal, just a bit early. But it did make me feel pretty awful when I made him eat corn on the cob until I realized that he really couldn't get it off the cob!

Spencer is a wonderful big brother, and both twins love getting any sort of attention from him - I protest that he's being too rough at least 10 times a day, but usually, if I stop to notice, whatever baby is on the receiving end of the roughness is grinning like a maniac, loving being tackled, shoved, twirled, jumped-over, or whatever Spencer is doing.

Lizzie is entering her terrible-twos, with firm ideas of what she wants to do and fairly strong reactions to those who try to prevent her. Taking a toy or something else away usually leads to a screaming-on-the-floor tantrum, and the yells are pretty close to eardrum-shattering. But she's fairly cheery most of the time - all enthusiasm and energy, sharing her joys and tribulations both at full volume.

Lizzie climbs and runs and jumps (kind of - her feet don't quite leave the ground yet,) she throws and kicks balls, and scoots herself on tricycles. We were at a play date and I was explaining to a 3-year-old that the babies wouldn't probably be able to use the climbing wall up to the slide, and I turned around and there was my girl, getting ready to slide down face-first. She tries to imitate her big brother and hit the ball off the tee - it doesn't go more than a few inches away. (It doesn't help that she's often trying to bat at a football with a golf club.) If we leave a baby gate or a door open, she's off, up and down stairs with glee, and off to some other corner of the house. She talks constantly, but aside from a strident "Teddy! Wherarya?" we're not picking out lots of words. She likes singing, and she tries to imitate me after certain songs, like "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." I sing "Edelweiss" to the twins before they go to sleep most nights, and sometimes when she hears the first few notes she tries to climb into the crib herself, and cuddles up with her blanket happily.

Teddy is my little problem solver - he's not as skilled a climber as Lizzie is, but he figures out how to get where he needs to go. I was taking a shower the other morning and thought "huh" when I saw him leaving the bathroom with the stool that is normally in front of the sink. When I got to the bedroom, the stool was next to our bed, and all three kids were happily jumping on it - no doubt a visit to the ER is no doubt in my future. Teddy stacks, and reorganizes, and pages through books incessently (he pulls Spencers books off shelves every morning - I guess the 30 or so books in the twins' room aren't enough for him. At least he stopped tearing pages out.) He's definitely fascinated with shoes - tries to get them on and off, and messes with the velcro.

Teddy is picking up words, an odd selection of them - he calls his sister "Zizzie", but other than that, his vocab includes shoe, sock, cheese, banana, ball, baby, meow, and there were several other words I've noticed him trying in the last week. And it still seems like he's often a bit fussy and flushed with teething pains - Lizzie has always sprouted teeth easily, while it's a struggle for Teddy, and he chomps on anything that might give him some relief.

The twins are quite reasonable eaters - they both munch on whatever we give them, and I haven't noticed any food-tossing driven by disliking the options. When they toss their food, it usually just means they're full. Lizzie is maybe a bit pickier - she doesn't care for the texture of rice, for some reason, which is a bit of a problem since "stuff in rice" is one of my go-to meals. (At least she eats my other specialty, "stuff in pasta.")

Watching the two of them learning to play together is wonderful - of course there is shoving and grabbing stuff away from each other, but we're seeing more and more peek-a-boo and cooperation, and they're always so delighted to see each other.

Tapping the trees

2010-04-02T10:15:00.006-05:00

Spencer and RB made it up to Ontario for GG (Great Grandma!)'s 90th birthday party last month.

Spencer tried a little curling - I hear he managed to get the rock all the way down the ice, after a bit of practice:

And they went to the woods to see RB's Uncle's maple still - Spencer got to tap a tree (with a little help.)

He and Nanna made maple taffy in the snow:

However, the part I heard the most about when he got safely home was the birthday party cakes - the vegetable garden made of icing made quite an impression!

Winter 2010

2010-03-31T18:26:00.000-05:00

Winter 2010 has passed in a blur - suddenly I find myself able to catch my breath, and it's 70 degrees out and the tree in the front yard is getting ready to bloom!

Stuff that happened, back when the cold weather was slowly sapping my will to live:

Teddy discovered a love for dinosaurs, something to share with big brother:

Stuff was ridden around in the basement!

Lizzie climbed everything. Repeatedly.

Then she fell on her head. Repeatedly.

Diamond Bear visited from Spencer's preschool class. He helped Spence play with cars:

And he watched Spencer pummel his Wii opponent:

Lizzie's hair fell in her face. How do we get that lovely shine? We shellac it back with snot!

Bathing beauties:

Happy 2010

2010-02-06T11:22:00.010-06:00

Nana and Poppa came for a visit for New Years - and the kids basked in the attention.

Spencer got to go to a Blackhawks game with Daddy and Poppa (and posed before the game):

Teddy got his second haircut, and we took the twins to California Pizza Kitchen afterwards:

And I've borrowed some of the pictures from Nana & Poppa's camera:

Spencer and Daddy reading:

Spencer does some playing:

Spencer and Poppa:

Poppa fed the twins:

Spence shows off his cars:

Daddy and Spencer played some football:

Happy New Year

Christmas, 2009

2010-01-19T21:26:00.009-06:00

So Christmas was, um, almost a month ago. Many photos were taken, a turkey was smoked, and approximately a gazillion presents were opened.

Unfortunately we had a bit of the bubonic plague the week before the holiday. (Ok, fine, it was just some random virus that gave Spencer 48 hours of throwing up, then Teddy a good solid week of fever-plus-no-will-to-live-itis, followed by red eyes, then finally Lizzie and me a quick few days of the same. Fun was had by all.) So poor Ted wasn't quite at his best for the festivities, but he made enough of a recovery to enjoy stockings and such.

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit, so Spencer helped Grandma make some pancakes.

This unfortunate "winter" thing continued - the silver lining is that Spencer and Grandpa could build a (diminutive) snowman. Bonus: he's still almost the same height, several weeks later!

I've heard that some people do something called "baking" for the holidays - Grandma brought sugar cookies with and Spencer helped decorate. He was enthusiastic in adding sprinkles, but wanted us to remove them before he ate the cookies. And, at least the first day, he only licked the frosting off - no need to dilute it with a cookie, thanks!

Lizzie discovered climbing just in time for the holidays. And look! Someone put these handy colorful stools just below the tree she'd like to pull down!

Teddy had mostly recovered by Christmas Eve, happily. The sweaters, incidentally, are an extremely fun (handmade!) gift from Grandma.

Spencer helped set the table! He didn't eat anything, however. Ah, well. There's always next year.

Wheelbarrow!

Teddy found the cookies that Santa didn't finish. Yes, he was feeling better just in time for Christmas.

It's Slinky! It's Slinky! for fun, and love, and Joy!
It's Slinky! It's Slinky! It's fun for a girl and a boy...

Important to get your look just right for Christmas day.

Ta Da! (Another sweater from Grandma! One that has been worn pretty regularly since Christmas.) The bunny hand puppet has been quite a hit - I'm not sure why, but all 3 kids crack up whenever we make the bunny sing or talk.

Who invited the Irish warrior guy? Good thing he's appeased by a Guinness.

Spencer plays Connect-4 with Grandpa.

Yes, it looked like Christmas exploded in the living room.

Farewell 2009

2009-12-29T16:00:00.002-06:00

Catching up quickly... the last of the pre-holiday photos.

Skating lessons!

Poor Teddy - he's not adapting too quickly to the only-one-nap-a-day plan.

New House

2009-11-17T20:35:00.001-06:00

The new house is working out just fine so far.

And we are taking every possible opportunity to play outside while the weather permits.

There are three definite cases of coughing and sniffles in the house (five, if you count adults. I haven't heard the cats coughing yet, but I assume it's only a matter of time.) So I wasn't surprised that Teddy was waking up regularly - but when I was checking the progress of his eighth tooth yesterday, I found that 2 new molars had sprouted, in addition!

So, for the first time, Lizzie is losing the tooth count battle with her brother! She doesn't seem too disturbed.

October

2009-10-30T23:13:00.000-05:00

If I wait for coherence to strike, it may take years before I post again. So pictures, instead.

Happy Halloween, from Spiderman, a puppy, and a fire fighter!

So, we've had an eventful month.

We've learned to climb things, like boxes:

And stairs:

And - we acquired a back yard! With a tether ball! Note that every time Lizzie gets a good whack at the ball, it ends up hitting her in the head.

So, we're now suburbanites. And the blog name is an anachronism.

As Teddy is reading, Urban Babies Wear Black - and apparently suburban babies wear lilac.

The new house is lovely - 1890's, lots of good woodwork, and separate bedrooms for the kids (well, the twins are still sharing, but eventually we'll probably separate them.) I'm pretty sure we'll even finish unpacking someday.

And - a four-year-old I know lost a tooth! (Note that the red around his mouth is spaghetti sauce, not blood.) It came out during a wrestling session with another boy, and they never found the tooth itself - since it didn't hurt much, and didn't bleed much, we're assuming it was a natural occurance, and his adult tooth will show up sooner or later. Though obviously we'll take him to the dentist one of these days to be sure.

We decorated the new house.

Also - Lizzie had a minor surgery to remove a dermoid cyst over her right eye - the picture below shows the worst of the swelling. I have to say, she was a champ throughout - we thought she would be shy around the strangers, but she smiled and chatted with them like there was no problem. She was pretty grumpy when she woke up after the surgery, but we left an hour later, and she slept through the car ride home - and after we got home, I think she just never acted like it bothered her at all.

Happy birthday RB! Banana cheesecake was enjoyed by all.

Improbably, Wimsey still seems to enjoy the attention he receives. Most of the time.

And that's all for now.

1-year-olds

2009-09-22T22:57:00.005-05:00

Just a quick post - I can't just let my babies' first birthday pass totally without a picture or two! (Technically I guess I did, since the birthday finished 23 hours ago. But I'm very close to being on time!)

An announcement, too, for those who haven't heard: we're moving! In 3 days, movers will show up bright and early, load up all our earthly possessions, and move us out to the nearby 'burbs. Keeping 3 kids in one room is a bit challenging, so we're looking forward to spreading out, and sending the kids out to play in the yard. I'll send out an email with revised contact info at some point.

Anyway... the accumulated photos - friend A has been around for much of the summer, which has been lovely:

Bubbles!

First day of school... I probably wouldn't have gone all-navy for clothing, but he picked clothes himself.

And - a White Sox game with Daddy! (Note a bit of an ice cream mustache.)

And babies, now one-year-olds!

The level of activity has become somewhat alarming - we finally invested in, well, basically a plastic cage. Because Teddy has an alarming tendency to play with cleaning supplies he finds in cupboards, and Lizzie loves stairs. As long as they don't notice they're locked in, they don't mind the playpen so much.

I think one of Teddy's new teeth is visible in this picture. He now has 6, tied with Lizzie - but both of them are probably going to be getting two more in the next month or so. Sigh.

Finally: sugar! Lizzie, as per usual with food, focused on neatly transferring it from tray to mouth. Teddy focused on spreading a thin layer of chocolate over the entire living room (and, as a bonus, he got quite a bit in the tub when I gave him a bath later.)

Happy birthday sweeties!

Michiana!

2009-09-05T20:55:00.002-05:00

Before vacation, a rite of passage for every young boy: haircut! Teds wasn't thrilled with someone wielding scissors near him:

And afterwards: what a handsome little guy! My babies are pretty much gone: little toddlers, almost.

We rented a house on Birch Lake, in the southwest corner of Michigan ("Michiana" is the term used, for the counties around South Bend, Indiana.) It was a lovely lake, and we rented a lovely home, with two docks just right for fishing, and a shallow area just right for swimming. It came well-equipped with grandparents, as well - all four were around for at least part of the week, to Spencer's great joy.

Unfortunately, the weather was only warm and dry enough to swim for part of the week - but it was just right for fishing! (A real fisherman doesn't mind the rain.)

Spencer learned the important basics: How to exaggerate the size of the fish you caught, and the ferocity of the one that got away. How to avoid messy associated activities like putting the worm on the hook ("I'm not allowed to touch worms!") and cleaning the fish ("Oh no, we won't eat it, we always let the fish go back home!")

In fact, he was so successful he won a trophy! Which now sits proudly on the headboard of his bed, even though most home staging professionals would advise that we put it away until the house sells.

There was a canoe at the cabin, and some friends showed up with kayaks, so everyone got out on the water a bit.

Even me! (Spence took the picture - though I may have leveled the horizon a bit in Photoshop.)

Grandma made a trip or two out on the lake:

And the pictures are small, but I think Daddy and Grandpa are in two of these:

The swimming was lovely, while the weather lasted:

The twins... well, due to their new-found ability to get anywhere, and their continuing desire to eat everything, I was pretty nervous whenever we took them outside. They were pretty-much stroller-bound after I found Lizzie taste-testing rocks. Plus - rain! So mostly they hung out indoors.

Aunt S keeps testing my assertion that it's tough to carry them both at once:

They each climbed stairs. Or rather, they climbed one stair, and then fell back down and screamed. Repeatedly. It was fun.

Patty-cake! Over and over! With occasional versions of "We Will Rock You" for variety.

Teddy gets the haircut - but Lizzie gets the pretty ribbons. Which end up on the floor as soon as she notices them. But you know, we make an effort.

Grandma and Grandpa enjoy the patio:

The grandmothers admire Spencer's muscles:

And finally, and early 1st birthday! Three weeks early, but with family gathered it seemed like a good idea. And it looks like we're packing up and moving a few days after the actual birthday, which makes it a bad time for a celebration any bigger than a cupcake or two.

It's hard to see in this picture - but Lizzie was a bit confused about the whole procedure. My girl who eats cat food was hesitant to put frosting in her mouth. Teddy, on the other hand, got fully into the spirit of the thing, and was covered in frosting still the next day.

Flying by

2009-08-12T14:00:00.010-05:00

Summer is flying by. It's disturbing, actually... we finally had our first hot weekend, and suddenly I'm seeing trees with bits of red and yellow.

A tisket, a tasket....

Yes, this is just a bit posed. Not totally Anne Geddes, though - they were playing with the basket, so I figured I'd pop them in and see what happened. (The cheeriness in the pictures was short-lived.)

No, it isn't possible for 3 kids to look at the camera at the same time.

The twiddlebugs are totally, terrifyingly mobile by now. Lizzie opens and closes things repeatedly, until her fingers get pinched. I ended up blocking the fireplace with a toy box, because I really don't need ash everywhere.

"Hey! No fair! How come she gets clothing that's convenient for eating and I don't?"

The glamor shots are only somewhat ruined if the front of your shirt is covered in drool and food.

I seriously hope that the amount of drool and flushed faces I'm seeing recently means more teeth soon. We're currently at 10 down, 30 to go - Lizzie leads by 2 teeth.

If someone gets a phone, everyone gets a phone. Yes, they do acidentally dial people from time to time, though usually it's just the recorded message beeping and telling us that the number they dialed is not valid.

For the last few years, we've spent a weekend with friends just up across the border in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin. This year I didn't take any pictures at all - turns out that chasing after the young 'uns in an un-baby-proofed environment makes messing with a camera kind of hard.

However - our hosts got lots of great ones, so I'll borrow a few:

We undressed the twins, and got the swim diapers on, and slathered on the sunscreen, and inflated the little baby floater thingies, and we were ready to go in the water! Then, they screamed every time the water touched them for a good 10 minutes, before we gave up and went back to the shade.

However, someone wasn't scared of the water - Spencer isn't quite a proper swimmer yet, but I think if we can get some good water time, he will be soon.

The stairs down the hill to the dock - note that we did not carry the babies down the hundred stairs.

Finally, a boat ride! Unfortunately, the babies haven't been sold on the necessity of a life jacket yet.

And.... back home.
I tried to get her to wear the glasses, no dice.

Kitty! Poor Wimsey... between being old and tired, and being sadly in need of attention, he puts up with quite a bit. And he doesn't use the claws until he's taken a fair amount of (loving) abuse. Lizzie has a much easier time catching him than Spencer did 3 years ago.

Rub-a-dub-dub.... note that Spencer has decreed that Teddy is the butcher, Lizzie is the baker, and he is the candlestick maker. (Though I don't think he'd argue if Liz and Teddy switched.)

Apparently the twins don't dislike water per se, they simply prefer that it be heated and indoors, and it's helpful if big brother is around to show how much fun it is.

O Canada

2009-07-22T20:23:00.000-05:00

Of course, we're good patriotic citizens of 2 countries. And Spencer and I, at least, are quite fond of blowing things to smithereens. Which made it a bit odd that we managed to spend Canada's national holiday home in Chicago, and the 4th up north of the border, with no fireworks either day.

However, Spencer and his Nana did manage to conjure up a patriotic cake:

And, before dinner, after grace, Spencer added the pledge of allegiance. Plus, after we watched the DC fireworks later that night, he exuberantly announced "Those were the best fireworks I've seen in years!" Always good to have your 4-year-old getting nostalgic about years past.

Lots of baseball. Teddy and Lizzie are getting to the point where they really want to play ball.

Of course, mostly they just sit on Mom's lap and cheer on their big brother.

Plus: the cottage! Every minute not spent fishing is clearly a waste of time.

The morning I made it out on the boat with the guys, Spencer caught 12 fish! Of course, Poppa put the worm on the hook, and cast, and unhooked the fish. But Spencer reeled like a pro, and once he held a fish, until it flopped out of his hand!

And the kiddios pretty much played and charmed their way back and forth across southern Ontario.

Spencer had a quick ride in Uncle R's ATV: (um, not Teddy. This pose was just for photo purposes!)

Out at the campfire, before bed. The bug spray was extremely important.

Woah, who is that?

And the tradition of wearing funny hats in Ontario continues:

June

2009-07-14T12:40:00.009-05:00

I have to admit, June in Chicago wasn't the meltingly-hot time it often is. Which was fine. Really, the only disappointing bit is the large number of cute outfits for Lizzie almost never got worn: the twins pretty much both shot past the 9-month size, and I think it rained the whole week the outfits might have fit.

Last week we had the 9-month checkup (2 weeks late, actually.) They're both good-size babies now, switching from the special high-calorie formula to the regular stuff. Lizzie is a solid 20-pounder, and Teddy is catching up, at 19.5. Their height impresses me more, actually - Lizzie is 29 inches long (75-90th percentile!), Teddy is 28.5, but big brother Spencer was only 28 inches at that age! So we're officially ignoring the 5-week-preemie status now - on to worrying about other things.

Finally, photos!

Here's Grandma and Teddy, in the last pic from May's visit:

Lizzie, then Teddy, on the swing:

This chair is no longer a safe resting spot. Also, note the long sleeves - it's freakin' summer!

On the floor rolling all the time now:

Bathtime - I've since stopped using the seats:

At Spencer's graduation - from the first year of pre-school. Yes, it's possible there are a few too many commencements for kids these days. But it was a cute ceremony.

We had our floors refinished, and so spent a week in the Hyatt downtown (used Priceline for the first time - the room rate was great, but the hotel's fees for parking and sundries were not.) Chicago was the kids' oyster - however, it was a rainy, grey version of Chicago, which wasn't nearly as much fun.

Plus, Teddy's first two teeth led to lots of this:

Good thing he's cute. Because seriously, kid. There's no way that growing teeth hurts more than childbirth.

Good sleeper:

And the big kid (plus a change in hotel). Who spent a nontrivial portion of the week wanting to go home, and when we got home started complaining that he missed the hotel.

Bed head:

They don't match too often. At least when they do match, it's in outfits that are 2 months out of date. We can't have too much fashion in our household.

Back home.... ooh! a cat!

A rare sundress-worthy day. When I put this on Lizzie, her big brother said, unprompted, "She looks like a princess!" I guess they're teaching princess clothes to them in preschool? (I was going for a woodland fairy look, actually. But, you know, whatever.)

The guys, hanging out on the sofa:

Now the twins are sitting and rolling and scooting and there's no keeping them still. And no counting on anything left on the floor remaining uninvestigated.

Yep, it's time for the baby gates.

And 8 months!

2009-05-28T20:02:00.001-05:00

Besides a new 4-year-old, the household has two new 8-month-olds!

Lizzie and Teddy have definitely entered a new, dynamic time of their lives - they suddenly realize that they are here, and perhaps it would be nicer over there. Of course, they can't actually get there yet, but I think we're counting down the final weeks of immobility. And then, up come the baby gates, and out the window goes my sanity.

Lizzie gets up very very early most mornings - when I stagger out of bed at 6am, she has often been awake and chattering for the better part of an hour. It's a very good thing she's so cheerful and cute in the mornings, because I'm generally not thrilled to be up.

Why yes, this is Teddy, wearing his sister's hat. Big brother Spencer doesn't care about gender-appropriate-garb. And I have to admit, it's cute on him.

Almost sitting! Or rather, sitting just fine 90% of the time, and flopping over and wailing the other 10%. Plus, we have rolling, and reaching, and occasional toy theft.

Four teeth! All on Lizzie - Teddy is still toothless. Though the drool suggests they're coming soon. Of course, I keep being extra-sympathetic to Teddy's problems sleeping and bouts of fussiness because the teeth are coming! Any day now! And then Lizzie smiles at me and cuts another one. Which, not to propagate gender stereotypes or anything, but kind of lends evidence to the "boys are wimps" school of thought.

We go through huge amounts of solid food - they're still at that lovely stage where they're willing to try most any food, as long as it's pureed (unlike, ahem, a 4-year-old I could mention. Oh, not to imply that Spencer is pureed. Simply a picky eater.)

As for other benchmark-type information:

Lizzie, with her multitudes of teeth, has had her first experiment with biting a tender area of her mother's anatomy. Yelping ensued.

In related news, the twins are mostly weaned. I've been nursing them to sleep in the evening and if they wake up at night, but I think we're done soon. They don't seem to automatically collapse into sleep when they start nursing anymore, and I don't think they're getting much nutrition at this point anyway. Plus, teeth. Oh, the teeth.

Most nights the babes crash by 7:30, occasionally as early as 6. We have had one complete night of sleep (no stirring until 5am, which is, of course, much too early) and a couple nights of sleep from my bedtime until morning (11pm-5am). But those were just to tease me - most nights Teddy, especially, will wake up at least twice. I hope to regularly sleep all night very, very soon.

Aunt S gives Teddy a kiss. Or maybe whispers in his ear about the importance of sleeping all night long?

4 Years Old!!!

2009-05-22T11:46:00.008-05:00

Spencer is 4 years old, a bona fide big kid!

(Aside: does the word "bona fide" make anyone else think of Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? With Holly Hunter repeatedly describing her new fiancé as bonified? Just me? Ok, then.)

We had a glorious cake from Aunt S (I had already purchased the Wall-E candle when he announced that he wanted a train cake), and a multitude of presents. The crowning glory of which has to be the Mack truck with the interior set up for Lightning McQueen to dance, get a car wash, and play video games.

(But also several presents that didn't feature licensed characters at all! Really! He even asked me to read him a non-Pixar-themed book last night!)

The celebratory birthday week has had several other notable events - Grandma and Grandpa are visiting, and we all had a lovely time out at Kiddieland. We hear they're closing, which is sad - though not so surprising, given that the rides were at most half full on a glorious Sunday afternoon in May.

And, we had a rematch with his nemesis from last fall, the slide. Well, this time it was a different slide, and he tripped and fell on the stair, rather than going down the slide head-first. But the result was the same: another 3 stitches at the ER (different part of the face, at least.)

Before (with the numbing medicine and a clear bandage on it):

After, with the therapeutic purple Popsicle:

It must absolutely be said that this almost-4-year-old was a little scared, but lay perfectly still and answered questions about his coming birthday (in a tiny brave voice), and earned every one of the little prizes the staff gave him (stickers! popsicle! a car! A big bubble wand!)

And I'm kind of hoping that that's the last ER visit for a while.

Finally, we had a silly face contest last week - Spencer won that one, at least! (I'm pretty sure finger placement in the last picture is accidental.)

Quick!

2009-05-04T16:10:00.000-05:00

Quick! Must post spring photos before they're entirely out of date!

First, the Big Kid. Spencer poses for photos now, which makes his smiles look a bit forced; the candid shots are nicer:

Some Easter egg dying:

Spring! This weekend I got to see the kids' legs and feet!

Lizzie is my beautiful, beaming smiley girl:

And Teddy is more a silly grin kind of guy:

Awwwww! Of course, Teddy likely grabbed Lizzie's hand in order to shove it in his mouth, but still...

Six Months

2009-03-26T19:40:00.001-05:00

So, six months old! How did that happen? I have some excuse for losing track of time because the twins are each quite a bit smaller than Spencer was at this age, but still....

Lizzie and Teddy at six months... Bullet point format because I am sleep deprived:

They're both sweeties with lovely smiles. It's possible that that's not unusual for babies, but I happen to know that these two are cuter than most.

Teddy has started rolling over, back to front. Lizzie seems to be trying, but she's somewhat halfhearted about the whole endeavor. I think she'd rather focus on chatting with us.

They're both incredibly into the Jumperoo and (to a lesser extent) the Exersaucer. If they're sitting in my lap, each of them will rock back and forth, and Teddy especially slams his whole body backwards into my collar bone very energetically.

Naptime and bedtime sleeping are going well - they each take a morning and an afternoon nap easily, and when I put them to bed at 7pm, they both go to sleep quickly. Sleeping through the night, though, isn't going so well - each of them wakes up to eat 3 times a night, which means I'm up at least 5 times a night (often they both wake up at the same time for one feeding. This seems like it would be better, but actually it's worse - 2 babies crying means it's harder to get anyone back to sleep, and we run the risk of having 2 babies and a preschooler up and crying, which is pure hell.) Unfortunately, the only way I know of to reduce the number of nighttime feedings is to let them cry a bit, but that's tough, with 4 of us crammed in one bedroom.

We're tentatively starting with the solid foods - one cereal feeding a day is all, right now. The doctor thought it was best to wait a little later than usual, since they were early.

I see more and more small bits of interaction - one of them cries or yells or makes raspberry noises, and the other one looks and reaches out to explore this other person. It's touching to see one of them grab the other's hand - but usually that's followed by him/her trying to shove the extra hand in his/her mouth.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Teddy - he's my wide-eyed boy, with an infectious grin and eyelashes that go on forever. He was more into snuggling than his sister - but in the last month or so he suddenly has ENERGY! and can't sit still long enough to nurse, even. When I'm giving him a bottle, he can't keep his hands still - they're always batting at me or, more often, batting the bottle out of his mouth, resulting in frustration and mess. He works very very hard to roll onto his tummy. Of course, once he's there he hates being on his tummy. He's smaller than Lizzie, so when I pick him up it seems like he's fragile - but he's clearly the one who wants to be going and doing and, I suspect, joining his big brother in making a big big mess.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

And Lizzie - when she smiles, she smiles with her whole body. She has slightly longer legs than Teddy, so when she gets to jumping, she gets some definite air. When she's awake she wants to be talking and flirting and smiling and laughing constantly - so being left by herself is definitely not her thing. When she sleeps, on the other hand, she stretches out her limbs, takes up all available space, and collapses into sleep.

Happy (belated) birthday, kiddos!

Two Babies and a Big Kid

2009-02-24T18:32:00.001-06:00

The stars aligned! 3 kids, all looking at the camer and smiling! Admittedly, Spencer's smile is a bit forced, but most of them are these days - at least in this one he doesn't look like he's in pain.

Teddy is normally my little grinning boy, but the camera makes him suspicious. It's that silly red light or something.

Aunt S and Uncle J try to provoke a smile from him:

Ha! Got him! (Teddy's on the left, if that's not clear):

Uncle J holding Lizzie - the angle on the picture here is a clue that this one was probably taken by our budding photographer, Spencer. Lots of his pictures turn out great; others turn out to be of more limited interest (if you're interested in somewhat-in-focus pictures of toy cars, we have enough to fill a gallery.)

Aunt S tries to perfect her baby-juggling skills:

I took Spencer up for bed a few weeks ago, and when I came down, RB was trapped - it's surprisingly difficult to move once you're covered with sleeping babies:

Some Spencer news, since he can get lost in a haze of baby pictures if we're not careful. He seems to be growing up every time I see him - when I gave him a bath last night, his legs splayed out and were straight and long and tub-filling, and I realized that he's not going to want me overseeing his baths forever. Sigh.

And the school thing... it's still strange how much he's learning when we're not around, and we're always surprised when he pulls out something new. Last week, RB was working on a puzzle of the US states with him, and at some point mentioned "the United States of America." Without missing a beat, Spence continued "... and to the republic, for which is stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with libery and justice for all. Please take your seats!" My sweet little baby boy knows his phone number and address, can pick Montana and Illinois out on a map, and has figured out how to sound thoughtful when he's answering a question (he prefaces every answer with a drawn-out "Wellllll, you see..." Sometimes it seems like he's stalling at a press conference.)

We've been disciplining him by giving him time outs from time to time - the strange thing is, he occasionally gives himself a time out. The book recommended by the pediatrician that is in vogue these days suggests counting infractions: "That's 1!", "That's 2", "That's 3, take a time out" - with the minutes of time out equal to number of years of age. A few times, after I've counted to 1, he'll say "I need a time out!" and sadly go up to his room. We check on him a few minutes later, he comes back down and apologizes for whatever.

His favorites: cars, dinosaurs, rockets, trains, tools, puzzles, books. Occasionally someone presents him with a doll, which he generally tries to use as some sort of weapon. He has learned to sound out a few words, mostly due to the Leapfrog videos, and adds numbers like crazy, as long as they fit on his fingers. He tells us jokes constantly - generally over and over and over again, finding them more hilarious each time (since he only knows a couple jokes, I guess he gets through his repetoire pretty quickly. Quick, why is 6 afraid of 7?)

He loves to flip coins, and to race from one part of the house to another (PLEASE tell me winter is over soon so we can get the poor kid out to the park again!) And he's no longer satisfied with my attempts to declare us all winners - I guess he comes by a competitive streak naturally enough. Really, the desire to win races is quite handy recently - the easiest way to get him to go somewhere is to announce that I'm going to win: "I'm going to beat Spencer upstairs!" "No! I'm going to win!" he shouts, pushing past me in his eagerness to get upstairs, where once again I reveal that it's time for tooth-brushing and pajamas. I would have thought that he'd realize by now that if I'm offering a foot-race, he won't like the results at the finish line, but it still works so far.

And finally, he loves surprises - we get surprises from him at least a few times a day, and sometimes he'll present me with a "Surprise!" every two minutes for an hour. A toy car! Yay! Though he never lets me keep the toy car - he always takes it back so he can surprise me again later.

Surprise!

Merry Merry

2009-01-08T18:05:00.001-06:00

Well into January already! Oh well. Holiday photos:

Me and babies:

Lizzie in the Bumpo seat:

Smilers:

The Christmas morning haul:

Aunt S and Uncle J came over to enjoy Christmas brunch with us - sweaters she made! Lizzie is in yellow with the ruffle, and Teddy is in the green:

Daddy with the two:

Nanna and Papa came for the week after Christmas - Nanna with Lizzie:

And Lizzie, in a sweater knit by grandma:

Teddy in his matching sweater:

Teddy has started looking at the camera, the same way I remember Spencer being fascinated by it. It's convenient for photo purposes:

Poppa and Daddy took Spence out to the Bass Pro Shop in Indiana - lots of fun:

Plus, then they ate lunch at a Nascar-themed restaurant:

Nanna & Poppa & the twins:

And me with all 3!

And Daddy with Lizzie:

60 Pounds

2008-12-20T22:15:00.002-06:00

We're getting close to 60 pounds of kid, right here:

Teddy starts smiling for the camera:

Me and my boys:

Half-decorated tree:

It's so much easier to get a feel for a baby's personality, once he starts smiling. This one's going to be my giggly boy:

And simultaneous smiles!

December Photos

2008-12-12T19:22:00.004-06:00

Obviously, there are bloggers who put together actual entries, with words and maybe a theme, or pithy observations of some sort. This isn't that sort of blog. Commence the photos.

Almost simultaneous smiles!

Lizzie isn't really always hitting her brother. It just looks that way - accident of timing.

Sweaters courtesy of A, with construction details at the link (incidentally, I forgot to say thank you when we saw you a couple weeks ago: Thank you! We've been slipping them on quite frequently, as the living room is drafty.)

Trying out the bouncy seats:

I'm starting to position them more vertically:

Sadly, all these calm happy-looking photos aren't total representative. Sometimes this is closer:

And another attempt at a picture of all 3 kids together:

Down goes Teddy - I think his expression here is more smile than scream, but I'm not sure.

Aunt S, with the hat she knit for Lizzie:

Posting Photos Before They're Too Out-of-Date

2008-12-10T23:12:00.001-06:00

We battled our first set of preschool germs over Thanksgiving week. We're mostly not sick anymore, so I guess we won, though it felt like it lasted years and seems like a hollow victory at best.

If I don't post soon, I'll have another 50 pictures just sitting here waiting. So, almost completely context-free:

"I'm going to work, like Daddy. This is my tie!"

"Teddy, this is a very important thing called a car!"

Smiley girl:

Friend A, visiting briefly over Thanksgiving weekend, managed both to make Lizzie smile and to catch our germs. Sorry about that!

Thanksgiving dinner was Turducken, minus the "Tur" and the "-en". Pretty tasty, though we definitely weren't in the best of health to enjoy it.

Note only 2 placesettings: Spencer was still sick at the time. I think we maybe finally managed to convince him to eat some crackers or maybe some yogurt for Thanksgiving. Woo hoo.

We have begun the quest of parents everywhere: can we capture a photo of all children looking kind of the same direction at the same time, with expressions on their faces that aren't too weird? Not surprisingly, the answer is no. Good thing modern Christmas cards allow you to put up multiple photos.

Wrapped up in their straitjackets for the night - they're not so fond of being swaddled sometimes, but no one gets any sleep otherwise.

Lizzie's about 2 or 3 weeks ahead in social skills - she's been sitting here smiling and chatting as I've been typing, even though it's late and she's supposed to be asleep.

Teddy has just started really smiling recently, so hopefully I'll catch it on film soon. So far all serious:

Toes!

2008-11-18T23:16:00.000-06:00

Because these two are fall babies, I've missed seeing them exposed all the time the way Spencer was when he was born. We got a couple days of beautiful weather around the election a couple weeks ago, though, so I pulled out some onsies - aren't they lovely little toes?

Playtime on the floor:

One minute you're chatting away with your sister:

The next minute she starts slugging:

Sadly, right after I took this shot of Lizzie, I dropped the camera on her. No lasting harm, but the peaceful moment was definitely ruined.

As nursing has grown to occupy more and more time for the twins, Spencer and Daddy have had some good bonding time:

Mom's lap is the location of choice, for eating, sleeping, or playing:

Big brother:

Bundled up and ready to go to Target:

Hanging out:

Teddy sleeps more than his sister, right now at least, so I get less one-on-one awake non-nursing time with him:

In the kitchen, keeping Mom company:

Academic Pressure

2008-11-07T15:54:00.004-06:00

So, the preschool thing seems to be working out ok so far - we don't want to be particularly pushy about academic achievement, and Spencer is learning letters and numbers and colors and days of the week, and fire safety, and the various other things that kids learn in early school years. We do want to be involved, though, so we ask him about school on a regular basis - for the first month or so, we would ask "What did you do in school today?"

He pretty much answered "I played with cars again," verbatim, every day. At first he sounded cheerful, but eventually he started sounding irritated with the question - his tone sounded more like "You idiots! I played with cars! I always play with cars! Quit bugging me!" We tried to ask questions that led to non-playing-with-cars topics ("Did you draw a picture? Did you sing a song? Did you play with other kids?") but no dice.

Then, maybe a month ago, a new response appeared: "I didn't play with cars again." Of course we were pleased that preschool didn't consist entirely of car-playing, but this response isn't much better at communicating what he actually is doing all day.

Finally, maybe last week sometime, some clarity: his response sounded contrite: "I didn't play with cars again. Sorry." It seems like, somehow, Spencer has got it into his head that we've been sending him to school in order to play with cars? Like, maybe, refine his car-playing techniques? Create a new theory of car-play? I don't know. But it's worth remembering that kids can create pressure for themselves out of thin air.

Finally a few photos.

Twins with open eyes! Simultaneously!

Getting out of the house! It's rotten that the weather has gotten so cold, though. One advantage of having spring babies.

Enjoying a bit of the remaining pleasant days:

Finally, our racecar driver on Halloween:

At the museum of Science and Technology:

An outdated shot on the chin injury - by now it's almost completely healed:

1 Month

2008-10-25T15:28:00.005-05:00

One month has passed, and we're getting ready to celebrate the twins' due date on Tuesday, October 28! They're definitely biggish for newborns - from their appointment on their 1 month birthday:

Teddy - 7 pounds, 2 ounces (up from 5 pounds even at birth)
Lizzie - 7 pounds, 10 ounces (up from 6 pounds 2 ounces)

They're both making eye contact, and have occasional bursts of quiet observation time. We are eagerly looking for smiles (Lizzie seems close) and for the holy grail of early parenthood: sleeping "through the night" (well, for 5 hours or so anyway.) Nursing seems to be going fairly well, though they both have bottles at night, because it seems like they both sleep for longer periods if I fill their little bellies to the point that they can't help but collapse into sleep, at least for a while.

Photos:

Spencer with Uncle J, and with Grandpa, at the pub at the end of the block:

Teddy, Grandpa, and Spencer:

Grandma, Lizzie, and Spencer:

Aunt S with the twins:

And Grandma with the twins:

Sleeping in the bassinet in the living room:

Spencer shows his sister how the bouncy seats work:

Teddy wonders: just who is that person?

Cozy sleeping (Lizzie on the left):

First emergency room visit! Spence took on an opponent (the slide, I'm told) who defeated him, to the tune of three stitches. The cut didn't bother him much at all. The stitches, on the other hand, were clearly the most devastating thing to happen to anyone, ever.

Daddy with twins:

A racecar driver gets ready for Halloween:

Once you get the pillows in place, it's much easier to nurse two babies simultaneously than to bottle feed them. But, um, no pictures.

They're snuggly little critters - Lizzie on the left:

Early Documentation

2008-10-16T13:48:00.005-05:00

The first month is almost gone, and it's getting blurry already. So I'm going to document things quickly, as I think of them:

The twins were born at 34 weeks 5 days; my water broke at 4 in the morning, we were in the car on the way to the hospital at 4:15, and Spence was sent off with Uncle J by 5:30 or so, so I was in surgery by 6:15 (two transverse babies => automatic C-section.) Babies were worked on, each with their own team, and then wheeled around so RB and I could wave "Bye" before they went to the NICU.

Surgery was uneventful, though I bled more than they liked afterwards - if I recall correctly, almost 2 liters of blood came out as they pounded painfully on my abdomen. They called back my OB, and just as they were deciding to wheel me back into the OR to deal with the bleeding, it stopped. From my perspective, it wasn't too bad: lots of shivering, lots of poking me with needles (at some point there were 3 different people poking various points on my hands and arms looking for a vein - apparently I don't have them), and, the worst bit, "stomach massage" every 5-15 minutes, basically poking hard at my abdomen to see how much blood came out this time. RB made it to the NICU to see the babies at some point in the morning, and by 1pm or so I was cleared to go up and see them (wheeled in a gurney) before going to my room.

My recovery was pretty uneventful - not too much pain medication required, really, the hardest bit was trying to make sure I woke up to pump my breasts every 3 hours at night, when I really kind of wanted to sleep.

Teddy spent just 5 days in the NICU, mostly a result of the hospital protocol (if they had been born one day later they wouldn't automatically gone to the NICU). He was only a 5 pounder, but scrappier than his big sister - and almost from the start he was pretty dedicated to continuous eating as a way of life. His placenta was the one that ruptured - medical knowledge may suggest that was just because he was closer to the exit, but we suspect that he was just tired of his sis getting more of the resources in utero.

Lizzie was in the NICU for 10 days - I'm told that often the bigger twin has more strain on their heart, and has a few more problems than the smaller one. She had trouble staying awake to eat in the NICU, as well a a few apnea events, pretty normal for babies 5-6 weeks early.

The NICU nurses commented that their eating habits were pretty dissimilar, and they still are - Teddy eats slowly, and takes a long time, and will never, of his own volition, stop eating. He will eat until his stomach is filled way past capacity, then he will spit the excess up, and then he will just keep on eating until he is asleep. Lizzie wouldn't wake up to eat much at all at first, but when she did, she was a chugger: Teddy will take 20 minutes to down his first 1 1/2 ounces, Lizzie will do the same in about 3 minutes, give a big belch, and collapse into a food coma (at least until half an hour later, when it repeats.)

Finally, a couple pictures! Aunt S and Uncle J with the two:

And Teddy's first bath:

Presenting...

2008-10-15T18:03:00.000-05:00

Announcing:

Edward ("Teddy") Harrison - 9/21/08, 6:37am - 5 pounds 0 ounces
Elizabeth ("Lizzie") Linda - 9/21/08, 6:38am - 6 ponds 2 ounces

Everyone is home and in good health, after a few extra days in the hospital. Photos below are in no particular order. But if I don't start posting soon I'll be 6 months behind again!

Teddy in the NICU:

Lizzie in the NICU:

Teddy, with the UV light for jaundice (a mild case):

Teddy, protesting life in general:

Spence, checking out the new little brother:

Teddy in his going-home outfit:

Lizzie getting ready to head home:

Poppa, at home with his two grandsons:

Uncle J, with Teddy:

Mommy and Teddy:

Brothers:

Lizzie, with Daddy, Spence, and Poppa:

Aunt S with Lizzie, and Mommy with Teddy:

Daddy and Teddy:

Nanna & Teddy:

Poppa with Lizzie & Nanna with Teddy:

Milestones, and an Announcement

2008-09-06T15:27:00.003-05:00

Looks who's riding a big kid bike now (well, he still rides his trike too):

And even bigger, look who went off to his first day of school last Tuesday!

Of course, it's just preschool, and the whole first week was just an hour to get kids used to it. But it's our local public school, and he wears a uniform and everying! Starting Monday he'll be spending the whole mornings there, while I wander around angst-ridden. Despite lots of questions, I haven't heard what he actually does at school yet, beyond playing with cars - hopefully I'll get more information out of him this week. I'm not ready for the sullen teenager thing just yet.

In other news... probably everyone who stops by from time to time has already heard that I'm pregnant. Very pregnant. As in, more than 7 months along with fraternal twins, one girl and one boy. Which means there's almost 10 pounds of infant in my abdomen right now - my recent ultrasound estimate of their weight had the girl at 5 pounds, 3 ounces, and the boy at 4 pounds 8 ounces. So, since SA's birth weight was 7 pounds 0 ounces, I figure I'm about the equivalent of 45 weeks pregnant total, which seems about right given my current comfort level.

Seriously, everything seems to be going just fine so far (knocking on wood), and my guess is that we'll end up scheduling a C-section for sometime in early October.

Twin Lakes, Wisconsin

2008-09-06T15:20:00.000-05:00

Almost done playing catchup with summer photos!

Toward the end of July, we visited friends in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin (just barely out of Illinois). Lots of boating and swimming, and just relaxing outside. Many thanks to our hosts!

Ontario Reunion

2008-09-01T17:15:00.000-05:00

In mid-July, we all went up to Ontario to visit Poppa and Nanna for a family reunion:

The best bits were the boat rides:

And look who caught a fish! Specifically, the same, 2-inch-long, plastic goldfish. Over and over.

Listening to talks with Daddy after dinner:

And finally, SA's photography debut - his first chance with the camera. Not bad - certainly reminds me that his perspective on everything is probably a bit different than mine:

Montana Fourth of July

2008-08-13T22:50:00.000-05:00

Summer's fading quickly... but it has been a good one.

Over a month ago now - off to Montana for fireworks and celebrations:

It wouldn't be Montana without a bit of practice with firearms:

And some chillin' in the pool:

Finally, fireworks!

Yay! Great Grandpa is back in Montana!

California, Here We Come

2008-08-09T13:50:00.001-05:00

On to June! We spent about 9 days, about half in Anaheim and half in San Diego. Some bits were lovely - we managed to see some friends in Riverside and SA had lots of fun running around with their daughter.

We swam in the hotel pool:

We saw Anaheim play the Blue Jays (note the confused team allegiance):

And we wandered the hallowed sidewalks of Disneyland:

One of SA's favorite bits: as the hotel shuttle bus pulled up to the Disneyland entry, and other kids were excitedly pointing out the Matterhorn, Sleeping Beauty's castle, and the like, SA was delighted to find Green Cones! Yay! for green cones.

The next day we went next door, to Disney's California Adventure - I hear the plan is to change the theme more and more to the various Pixar movies. Which is just fine with us.

Unfortunately, halfway through the day, SA started complaining about a tummyache. We stubbornly made him eat his lunch and took him back to the hotel to nap it off. When he woke up, it became clear that the tummyache was just the beginning - he had the sort of bug that made leaving the hotel for any time at all a bad, bad idea.

We spent the next 4 days in San Diego mostly doing this:

By the day before departure, things were looking better - we made it to the zoo for a good hour before it became clear that we should go back to the hotel. Turtles!

And we had an excellent 10 minutes at a lovely La Jolla beach:

We did manage to find a several-hour interval where SA perked up enough to go visit some friends - but all in all, we'd like to go back and visit CA when we're not rushing back to the bathroom for another change of outfit every half hour.

3 Years Old

2008-08-03T18:49:00.000-05:00

SA's Montana grandparents came to visit for his third birthday:

Binoculars were a big hit:

One major outing was a Cubs game:

Spring, Finally

2008-08-02T18:39:00.005-05:00

Just some random spring photos...

Winter 2008

2008-08-02T16:36:00.006-05:00

Winter in Chicago this year lasted roughly 20 months. You'd never know it from the number of pictures we have, though:

SA adores our tired old cat Wimsey. Wimsey is, generally speaking, not so fond of SA.

A visit to the Museum of Science and Industry - the museum has whole sections devoted to odd things like oil drilling and refining, but we mostly focus on the trains and the space industry:

Oh, and any room with a tractor is a good room:

A winter trip to Ikea:

Miscellaneous music-making:

And Easter egg dying!

Plus, lots of fun in the kitchen. Because we're always cooking around here.

Finally, winter wrapped up and we were free to go outside!

Apparently Time Flies

2008-08-02T15:07:00.000-05:00

Hm... Interesting. Apparently the last set of photos I posted were from Christmas which, according to the handy calendar function on my computer, was over 7 months ago. Who knew time went that fast?

So, turning back the clock to January, when Chicago was cold and unpleasant, we had a lovely weekend in Safety Harbor, Florida, on the west shore of Tampa Bay.

The weather could have cooperated just a bit more - we only went to the beach one time, and it wasn't quite swimsuit weather:

We did make it to the pool once or twice:

And we did make it over to Orlando to see some Rodents of Unusual Size, and various associated attractions.

Naturally young SA was eager to drive his first racecar:

Plus, at 36 inches, he was just big enough to get on a Goofy-themed roller-coaster:

Some of the weekend was misty and rainy, but that didn't stop us from exploring some of the local parks, one in swampland, and one on the bay:

All in all, a lovely weekend.

Christmas in Montana

2008-02-09T20:20:00.000-06:00

The winter is flying by! The family spent a lovely 9 days in Montana over Christmas, with presents and food and normal sorts of holiday cheer. Some developments:

Astronomy! Rockets are the new cars! (Well, not quite.) We spend hours each day counting down from 10 to 1 and blasting off various rockets. Plus, he loves watching Youtube videos of Space Shuttle liftoffs, to the point that now, when we count down, he says "3... 2... 1... Ignition... and Liftoff! of the Space Shuttle Atlantis... [indecipherable]... space station! [indecipherable]... tomorrow!"

He opened a cowboy wallet, and discovered two dollars. A few presents later, he opened a Lightning McQueen wallet, found it was empty, announced "No money," and tossed it aside. Apparently, it starts early.

We finally got a portable DVD player up and running. The difference of flying with and without a DVD player is amazing... on the way back, we got stuck in Denver for many hours, and watched most of Cars, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles between laps up and down the terminal halls.

Playing guitar with Daddy:

And arriving at the airport in Great Falls, Montana. Note that we arrived quite a bit past bedtime, and that SA slept exactly ZERO hours on the two flights.

A bit of fancy dining out:

A white Christmas would be nice, but a brown one allows for more soccer:

Finally, the airport goodbye. After we left Great Falls, we spent lots of time in planes and airports before getting home at a very late hour.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-12-01T22:05:00.000-06:00

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and I suddenly realized that I haven't posted photos since September! So, in one fell swoop - Autumn, 2007:

Suddenly glasses are very fun to try on. Especially other people's.

Not quite as exciting as riding a horse:

A visit to the Chicago Botanic Gardens (sadly, none of my pictures with the trains turned out):

I wonder if these two are related?

Where'd my chubby little baby go, the one whose legs folded up under him, who wanted to be held all the time? Nowhere to be seen in the lanky little guy who climbs everything at the park (and who insists on bright green socks.)

As the weather gets colder, time to pull out the winter gear:

He shoots, he scores!

Finally, a visit from Nanna and Papa over Thanksgiving weekend:

Breakfast at Walker Brothers:

And then a model train convention.

Lots of playing chase around the living room, and a fancy new firehat:

And a brand new guitar!

Happy holidays, and stay warm!

Visiting the (un)Frozen North

2007-09-17T21:56:00.000-05:00

Good grief, I'm behind! Accordingly, just photos from our trip up to Ontario the week before Labor Day.

A few snippets of memories:

- The first day on the road, we were driving through "Western Ontario" (it's in quotes because it's not really the western part of the province... really it's more south-central. But I'm assured it's called Western Ontario because it's the westernmost bit with any people in it.) We were pointing out all the animals with enthusiasm: "Look! A cow! What does a cow say?" etc.. We saw cows and horses and sheep, then SA asked for an elephant. Um... I guess the various books that teach animals haven't covered which animals you're likely to see in North America.

- In Toronto, we saw Riverdale farm in the city one morning - all the usual suspects, but up close, with lots of little paths ideal to use up toddler energy. After we wandered in the farm area for an hour or so, we walked out into the main part of the park to chat and play, and as we left, RB and I waved "Bye-bye, farm!" SA looked puzzled, maybe a little worried, and grasped his forearm as he said "Bye-bye, arm."

- As we were heading back to our hotel room the night before our long drive home, we drove by the Royal Ontario Museum, specifically the ROM Crystal, a large glass wing of a museum that juts out kind of impressively. As we drove by, the tired little boy in the back seat said agitated-ly "Building fall down! Building fall down!" And, yup, that's kind of what it looks like. Nothing to do but applaud his insight (and try to explain that it's really not falling down, and isn't it cool looking?)

A Weekend in the Country...

2007-08-16T07:46:00.001-05:00

Up to Twin Lakes, Wisconsin! Where SA got to ride in, and sometimes drive, a boat:

Then out to Kiddieland - we rode the rides, and drank the free soda. Seriously, a great park for someone his age:

Finally: is someone ready for potty training? Well, probably not, but maybe in a few months:

Summer's half done already?

2007-07-20T15:00:00.000-05:00

Woah, that was two months that flew by...

Golfing, anyone? Actually, SA likes the golf cart, and he likes the clubs and the balls, but rarely uses them together.

We're into summer proper when it's time to run through the sprinkler.

We're all about the climbing... this little ladder gives me a bit of a heart attack, but SA just goes up and slides down like it's no big deal.

Finally, a visit to Montana: a scooter is just ok if you have to push it yourself, but if you can get Grandpa to push it for you, it's great!

Helping with the morning errands: feeding the birds and brushing the cats:

Plus, some raking!

Huh... so there's this big area out in back of the house that isn't part of a park? A "yard" you call it? With a swimming pool?

Finally, SA shares one of his prized posessions with the cat. You can barely see Lightning McQueen in his hand - his current obsession is all things Cars (both the movie and the vehicles).

Sample conversation (monologue, really, though he stops from time to time for me to repeat key phrases) from the little guy:

Red car, blue car! Race car fast! Oh no, blue car broken. Red car help blue car, blue car broken.

Tow truck help red car, red car broken. Tow truck, red truck "Rrrrrrr", tractor down! Moooo! Hahahaha! (if you've seen the movie, this is clearly hilarious.)

Other important topics:

"Yellow shoes on, yellow shoes off"

"We will, we will, rock you!" (I'm correcting pronunciation - "Rock You" actually comes out "Rock-ki-ki" here for some reason.)

Older and Wiser

2007-05-26T14:07:00.000-05:00

Happy birthday number two, SA!

Yep, my little guy is a whole year older already. Plus, 25% toothier! The last molars have broken through the gums, and in another week or two, I imagine we'll be much happier. (Technically, there's one more set of molars to go, but that's a couple years away, so I don't care.) This teething session has been less intense but more prolonged than the previous ones - he doesn't have a fever, and isn't lying listless in my arms wimpering for an entire afternoon, but he has been waking up at night quite a bit, and rising very very early.

Random age two notes:

Brand awareness. We've known for a while that he can identify "Mommy car" (any Toyota) and "Daddy car" (Volkswagen). It has become clear that he knows the logos, rather than the cars themselves - I'm thinking we should probably try to teach him the brand names instead. It's silly to point to a red SUV and say "Mommy car!!!" when Mommy has a green Corolla.

Many many words. A month ago I started making a list of his vocabulary to prepare for his 2 year assessment - some guideline or other suggested he should know at least 10 words, and more normally at least 40. I finished the list at around 90, then after he woke up, he used at least 4 words that weren't on the list, and I realized that we've busted right through any slowness in picking up vocab.

Speech! Grammar! "One two three blue cars, cars crash, cars down." After I explained "the dog is broken" to him this morning (a mechanical dog that used to bark and walk, but has been much abused), he looked at it sadly and said "broken dog." Which made me excited - he understands how adjectives and nouns go together! Maybe in a few years we can diagram sentences together! He makes plurals - often correctly - but I become confused when we're talking about sheep and feet because, do I use the plurals correctly and risk confusing the general rule in his mind, or do I reinforce the rule and mess up the exceptions? It's possible I'm overthinking the whole thing. Especially since, at his current rate of learning, he'll be correcting my grammar in a year or two.

Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles!

The birthday haul: baseball mitts - his grandparents weren't sure if he was a lefty or a righty, so he has both mitts, just in case. (Wouldn't want to screw up his major league career before he turns three.)

He shoots, he scores! Eventually I'll convince him to try shooting from further away than 2 feet.

Train cake! Cake + new teeth = drool.

"This administration will not rest until no child need choose between a green steering wheel or a blue steering wheel, but instead has easy access to both!"

Too Cool For... Um...

2007-04-29T21:02:00.000-05:00

Sometimes you have to wear your sunglasses in the house, just to show how very cool you are.

Is there a chair-throwing competition anywhere? Because we're totally ready to enter.

It takes a bit of help to get up into the tree, at least the first time. But the view is amazing!

And our old standbys: the steering wheel on the back deck, and the car at our local park are still very very important.

Finally, babies smell lovely. They're a mix of milk and talc and baby shampoo, and just baby-ness.

Toddlers, on the other hand, sometimes smell like they spent the day rolling around in dirt. There's a reason for that.

Sprung

2007-04-16T21:17:00.000-05:00

Random notes from the last month or so...

- So many words! All the usual suspects, plus things he has picked up randomly: "up-a-down" for upside down, "ji-tar" for guitar. He a nominally polite child, says "peas", "kinku" and "scuzi" (Of course "scuzi" doesn't seem totally sincere when he's repeatedly running into your leg with a trike).

- He has been counting things quite a bit, and has somehow made the mental leap that if one has multiple examples of one item, one should count them. He makes it up to 10 occasionally, but usually skips 3 or 5 or both.

- One morning last week, I was getting some milk ready for SA - when (ahem) I passed gas, audibly. SA said "Mommy poo?" I was torn - he's making impressive connections! He's recognizing his own bodily functions, and extrapolating to other people! He might be potty trained sometime in the next decade or so! But...... I don't really want him thinking that everyone is going around with a diaper on. He walked around me and started poking at my backside, until I produced a distraction in the form of oatmeal.

- We watched parts of "Cars" over the course of the day today. He's pretty sure it's the best movie ever, especially the races.

- It's a challenging thing to find a pair of high heels in our house. SA managed it and then walked around in them for 20 seconds or so this morning before toppling. Plus, he correctly identified them as "Mama shoe!" How on earth does he know? I last wore them Labor Day weekend of 2005, so I don't think he remembers. Maybe he can just tell from the size that they're not Dada's shoes, and I'm the only other option?

- We say "Bye-bye" to everything now - when we left the park this afternoon, we spent an extra 5 minutes saying "Bye-bye, swing! Bye-bye, slide! Bye-bye, tree!"

A new tricycle - SA can't quite pedal, but he pushes himself forward pretty fast:

April showers bring SPLASH!

Time for spring training!

Finally, we've been sprung! We're back at the park regularly now - if anyone puts on a coat, SA whines for a coat too, and has a fit if he has to stay inside.

Finally - we've started to work on the hitting, above, with an improvised tee-ball. Below, we're working on the pitching... (and more videos on youtube under bucktownrecord, for those who are into that sort of thing...)

Winter Wrapup

2007-03-10T14:38:00.000-06:00

In February, the Bears were in the Superbowl - the game started with the Bears returning the kickoff for a touchdown, and RB and I yelled with excitement the entire run. Up until his bedtime, SA yelled wildly any time a player ran with the ball - we tried to explain that context was important ("No, sweetie, see the player is wearing white? We only yell if the player with the ball is wearing the dark jersey!") At least we communicated that football is exciting, right?

There have lots of additions to the vocabulary - some recent highlights:

- Snow - White, fluffy, exciting, Mom won't let him play in it nearly enough

- Twee - Tree. Or leaf. (I'm pleased but mystified that he figured out that trees and leaves are related - how do you do that in the middle of winter?)

- DaaDoh - This means firetruck, for some reason. Or sometimes tractor, but firetrucks are relevant more often in the city.

- Plee - Please. Said with increasing urgency as we fail to provide whatever he's pointing at.

- Kankoo - Thank you

- Baa - Bat - use this to hit the bah. Or the daadoh. Or possibly the kiki (but that's seriously discouraged.)

He can Moo and Bah and Grrr and Woof with the best of 'em, and has started saying a few 2-word phrases (the favories are "Dada Shoe!" and "Byebye Dada!")

More hats!

Playing at Gymboree:

Bat and ball!

Snow!

Cabin Fever

2007-02-11T12:37:00.000-06:00

After a mild January, winter has hit Chicago with a vengeance. We're trying to figure out what to do with ourselves, with outdoor play out of the question.

One answer - Ikea! We picked up 2 small train sets and a cheap coffee table, suitable for a toddler train setup, plus - Balls!

Ikea's meatballs were less well-received, though the fries went down just fine.

Other recent activities include wearing hats:

And general frolicking:

Finally - it's important to spend time keeping in touch with people on the phone. SA still won't talk on the phone when someone is on the other end, but he's great at chatting the rest of the time.

New Year, New Hobby

2007-01-21T22:47:00.000-06:00

Climbing is the new thing. Plus, when the stairway is blocked, what else is he supposed to do?

And new favorite shoes! They're shaped like the Wiggles' Big Red Car, and look enormously silly.

(I don't mean to feature the staircase, just a coincidence.)

The last two weeks have been one impressive vocabulary-building session. A new partial dictionary:

- Shoe - Any shoe, but especially ones that are big and red and have wheels.

- Haa - Anything that can be put on the head. A hat, a shoe, a sippy cup.

- Ow - A bird that says "Who?"

- Taw - A shape with 5 points - often seen in the sky or the ocean.

- Puh-puh - A color. Looks blue to me.

- Nana - SA's first food word! He looked with disgust at a chicken noodle dish I offered this evening, pointed to the fruit bowl and said "Nana!" So I gave him one.

Christmas! Part 2

2007-01-11T21:55:00.000-06:00

The Christmas roundup continues:

A new cousin!

A visit to Santa - I have to admit, SA was not totally thrilled to sit on Santa's lap.

But the old guy pulled through anyway:

Two balls!

Choo choo! I'd heard that Thomas and Friends were pretty much royalty among the toddler set - definitely true here.

SA went for several short walks around the neighborhood with Poppa. Apparently, puddles are for splashing.

They're never too young to get them out on the ice, eh?

Christmas! Part 1

2007-01-05T21:48:00.000-06:00

Better late than never - holiday photos! We three went up to Kingston, Ontario to spend Christmas with RB's family - some highlights:

SA flew like a champ this time around - he's finally started enjoying looking at the pictures in books and magazines. The Sky Mall provided much enjoyment.

We were met at the airport by RB's parents.

We spent a magical half hour in the basement of one of RB's college friends - his boys were at school, but Oh! the toys!

RB and his dad:

A little father-son duet:

The decorations were mesmerizing - these penguins and snowman sang and danced and rang bells, and SA was entranced. And the tree ornaments were too high to be exciting, but the lights!

We think this old horse belonged to SAs great grandmother, maybe? It was a hazard - every time he tried to ride it he ended up on his head. Naturally, it was the toy he had to drag everywhere he went, including several lengthy sessions of trying to ride it on the hearth.

Obviously one important aspect of the holiday season is dressing up in festive clothing - specifically hats. We wore many hats.

Belated Happy New Year! More photos to come...

Happy holidays!

2006-12-21T20:31:00.000-06:00

We're off to Canada - Merry Christmas to all!

Incidentally, I'm putting the occasional video up on youtube, under the name "bucktownrecord". Here, we have a little music.

Testing...

2006-12-10T12:34:00.000-06:00

Does this work?

One and a Half

2006-12-09T17:20:00.000-06:00

[Note that I wrote this first section almost 3 weeks ago - it's been a crazy sort of fall.]

Alas, we are photo-free here recently - the camera has gone walkabout. We hoped for a while that it would find its way home, but it's starting to seem unlikely.

But birthdays should be documented, regardless of whether there is photographic evidence! So a few notes about SA's august new status:

26 pounds 13 ounces, and 33 1/2 inches tall. He's a big guy, but not enormous.

Climbing! Up onto the coffee table, to delight us all with a dance. Using the box of cat food as a stool, to climb into the window sill. Up onto the computer desk, to grab the phone and make a few calls while surfing the net. The parks seem to be full of things he can finally appreciate properly, now that he knows how to boost himself on top of them.

Vocabulary: No. Uh-oh. Oh no! Kitty. Yay (with clapping hands)! E-I-E-I-O (this gets interjected into all songs.) Mama and Dada. Choo choo (very high pitched, I think it's the whistle on the Thomas & Friends trains.) Ball. All done!

Vocabulary he understands: Brush teeth! Thomas, James (trains, of course), ball, car, firetruck. Many many others.

RB and I now double as jungle gyms - a hug or a snuggle session usually ends with him trying to get a foodhold somewhere on my body to boost himself somewhere higher. I've explained that he'll probably fall on his head, to no avail.

We watch the Teletubbies and Thomas & Friends pretty regularly - when they get to the part in the Teletubbies where the Tubbies all say "Big hugs!" and have a group hug, he runs to me for a hug.

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Since I wrote the above, we've obtained a new camera!

Time for carols:

And climbing! On anything he can find!

A little drama:

And helping Mom at the office:

Miscellaneous Fall Scenes

2006-11-13T14:10:00.000-06:00

Sadly, summer is done. A few weeks ago we could still go out in a sweater, at least.

Wimsey the cat used to be kind of, well, mean. I have no idea why SA can get away with chasing, poking, and tackling him.

Aunt S and I took the little guy out trick-or-treating. Of course, we had to convince him to go up the stairs to someone's door, and then when the door opened he usually tried to just walk in. And he had no interest at all in holding the bag, and "Trick-or-treat!" is beyond his vocabulary. But the candy he tried (Kit Kats and the new Kiss-ables and Smarties) went down just fine.

Second haircut! At first, he sat still long enough for me to snap a picture. Afterwards, there was much wiggling.

Splash!

The park is still fun, even when you have to wear a coat.

Our Ancestral Home

2006-10-30T22:23:00.000-06:00

One should explore one's roots. So a few weeks ago I took SA to explore the exotic homeland of his great grandparents - Shoshone, Idaho, population 1,398.

We were there for his great grandfather's 80th birthday party, but we did take in some sights - the Snake River gorge, farmland, and desert. We watched potatoes grow - sadly, much as he enjoys potatoes when they're boiled or baked or fried, SA was underwhelmed by their natural form. We mooed at the cows and baaed at the sheep, and kind of shrugged at the alpacas (um, I think. Or llamas, maybe?) And SA spent lots of time with some of his extended family.

Grandma helps him check out the decor:

Grandpa, Grandma, and Great-Grandpa, checking out the fruit trees:

We missed the bulk of Great Grandpa's fresh fruit, but we made it for the last of the grapes. For now, grapes have replaced citrus as SA's fruit overdose of choice.

Finally, Grandpa figured out the obvious: if SA likes toy steering wheels so much, maybe he'll like the real thing.

Ever since that fateful day, I've been battling to keep SA out of the driver's seat.

When we could pry him out of the rental car, SA mostly wanted to follow around his 3-year-old cousin, DP. They wandered around the Shoshone park during much of the party (the Shoshone Senior Center wasn't built for the convenience of toddlers.)

Look at the handsome guys!

Finally, a new love. SA spent several hours one night, and then most of the next day, running around with the birthday balloons. I'm not sure what he would do if he had to choose between a steering wheel and a balloon.

4 Generations

2006-10-22T21:47:00.000-05:00

RB's mother and grandmother came for a visit a couple weeks ago - we had a lovely time, and SA got to know that side of the family a bit better. Highlights:

SA enjoys his morning coffee (what, other toddlers don't drink coffee?)

A little football - we suddenly find ourselves ardent Bears fans:

An attempt to take a picture of the 4 generations together:

Some peek-a-boo from under the barbecue - he loves the folding shelf:

Another attempt to get the 4 generations shot:

A little music:

And a (Canadian) Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat - turkey, stuffing, squash risotto, asparagus:

And finally!

Thoughts from the Peanut Gallery

2006-10-02T20:28:00.000-05:00

If I had my way, there would be steering wheels everywhere!

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I want you...

to capture the cat and put him in here, because that would be awesome!

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Behold the hills of tomorrow, behold the limitless sky!

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Did I mention the steering wheel thing? Steering wheels! Everywhere!

Pictures

2006-09-22T08:06:00.000-05:00

You know, SA used to be easier to snuggle with. He used to be happiest in someone's arms, preferably mine. Now he'll lie in my arms if he's teething, or if he bumped his head (again), or if it's 4:30am, but otherwise it's pretty clear he'd prefer to be running around.

Grandma and Grandpa visited last weekend - much fun was had by all.

SA pushed this truck (belonging to - who knows?) around the playground for a good half hour. But unfortunately, his hands kept moving too far back on the dumping bit, and it would flip down, and he would fall on his face.

And the resulting sore on his nose:

Time to organize the family's canned goods! At least these, unlike the spices, didn't end up all over the house.