O's class pictures were Thursday, and he was arguably more excited than we were about the big day. Without a word or cue from me, he picked out his own ensemble and came downstairs in the morning looking quite dapper, ready for his pictures. "Wow, I look very good today!" And he knows it. This spells trouble I suspect.
In other news, L continues to be pretty much in love with her brothers, with many smiles and giggles as she watches them and as they all play together.
Today the boys and I had an early guys' movie morning, allegedly at a "sensory-friendly" screening where they would turn down the volume and turn up the lights just a bit. When I bought the tickets, I double checked we had the right screening, and the staff at the ticket counter first had a blank look and then nodded and said "yes, that's the [mumble] screening". As far as I could tell, it turned out to just be a regular showing, but the boys loved every minute of it and did a great job of quietly watching the movie and mowing through an oversized bag of popcorn. Afterwards, there was a giant version of Baymax in the lobby, and Z confirmed for himself that the robot was indeed as huggable as had been depicted in the movie.
A big milestone is seemingly just around the corner: L appears to be on the verge of crawling -- forward, that is. She already can scoot herself backwards fairly consistently, if slowly. If you dare to look away while she's on the ground, when you check back in mere seconds later, she'll often have rotated herself as well as moving surprising distances. Often you get an audible warning of this because she'll start complaining when she's backed herself up into a wall or piece of furniture.
So so close -- go L! (Or, perhaps, no need to rush - it's actually nice knowing at least one of the three is still fairly contained?)
The boys continue to have a fun if exhausting time while mommy and L traverse Bulgaria (and appear live on national morning TV and even a cooking show airing in another month or two apparently?!). O's early afternoon park tour has continued this week, even despite the weather finally backing off from the unusually warm; on Tuesday, O was insistent that we find a park with a water feature even though it was overcast and in the 60s; here's a shot of him enjoying the spray hoses for, oh, about five seconds before asking for his towel. From there we reverted to a more standard park, where he and I had a delightful time (re-)discovering the joys of whirlybird maple seeds.
Thursday was O's teacher M's last day of class before moving to Arizona - she's been a fabulous teacher and the two of them have been so close, we'll miss her! She left a very cute goodbye note for all of the parents at the sign-out sheet, and she also made a custom card for each of the kids featuring a picture of them with her and a very sweet and child-specific note. We wish her the very best in her next advenutre! After school (and before camp was over), the rain was coming down, so O and I headed over to the trendy Seattle combination indoor play area/restaurant. While he was a bit shy and made me climb around in tubes and tunnels clearly meant for 4-6 year olds, we had a great time and then a very civilized nice snack together before looping back to Mercer Island to pick up Z.
Z for his part has been continuing to love camp and has really developed a solid friendship with his counselor E; as so many of his teachers are women, it's great to see him having a guy role model and talking about both E and camp, having big smiles as he's dropped off (and picked up), and overall clearly enjoying every minute of his days at Camp Kef! Z even shares at bath time some of the songs he's been learning ("boker tov" means good morning in Hebrew):
Hope everyone had a good fourth of July! We had a busy one, starting with breakfast: Meredith made some amazing US flag pancakes for the boys. They were very excited to have them on their plates, though Z wouldn't actually eat his (though he talked about it all day). Then it was time to go visit our favorite local parade. As in years past, there was an excellent collection of classic cars, big trucks, military vehicles, motorcycles, and more. And as a bonus, mommy and L were in the parade, joining up with friend L! The boys and I got a spot on the opening corner of the route to watch mommy -- and by "got a spot", I mean I was able to get everyone to sit for about 5 minutes to eat snack before they were running around again (thankfully out of the path of the actual parade route, though often a bit too close to the boat load-in dock), occasionally watching both the various vehicles in the parade and the many boats approaching the beach. We did catch mommy's eye and wave hello, but not enough free hands to grab a picture.
Exhausted from all of the outdoor sun exposure, we came home for a quiet afternoon. By which I mean O got L giggling for a good fifteen minutes.
Mommy and L weren't up for it, but the boys had been obsessing about fireworks for some time (Z in particular kept asking when we went to Michigan when we'd be seeing them, since the previous visit had been for the fourth of July), so I'd been looking for a close-by show that wouldn't start and end with us sitting in a heavy traffic for an hour or more. Thankfully our adjacent city's display was super close to the house, so the boys and I hopped in the car about 30 minutes before the show, and eventually found a creative parking spot near the top of the lake, then walked to the pedestrian/bike path where we set up shop with a blanket and late night snacks overlooking the giant parking lot of airplanes at the air harbor. There was much discussing of the planes (and parked vehicles) while we waited for the display to start; the boys had a fabulous time, though O was clearly exhausted and a bit loopy by the end. Happy Independence Day!
One of the most surefire ways to get L to laugh is to start spouting Yiddish words at her. This video perhaps isn't the strongest example, but often she's in stitches from the various words and phrases we come up with -- some of which she perhaps shouldn't be repeating until she's a grown up. She'll also sit in rapt attention while you read books to her; this girl is most definitely an interested and engaged reader already - now where could she possibly be getting that from?
Father's Day has arrived - hope all of the dads have a very happy one! We had a very nice family brunch at mima and papa's house. O's class project was excellent, a fabulous popsicle stick-framed picture of himself answering as he does most questions, by tying it back to cars. Z did a nice fill-in-the-blank project at school as well. And all three of the kids did a super-cute mommy-organized card that featured all three kids' hand silhouettes on the outside, and more trivia questions inside. ("What does Daddy like to do? Make Xboxes.") True to form, Z aptly signed by heavily leveraging his new favorite book/punctuation mark: "happy fathers day! Zachary! Happy birthday - love mommy", while O continued to demonstrate his proficiency in writing out his name.
Meh had insisted that L had been laughing for her a few times already this week, but I hadn't yet witnessed it -- until this morning. So adorable, and we caught a bit of it on film, er, digital sensor:
We've now started entering the high season for birthday parties; O had one on Friday night at a bounce house, with a "Frozen" theme (they blared the soundtrack on a loop the whole time, as well as having an excellent Elsa/Anna/Olaf-decorated birthday cake with ice-chip looking rock candy). Needless to say, he had an excellent time -- though I've got to start remembering to put that boy in short sleeves for these things, he was a sweaty mess! We've gotten about 5 additional invites for the upcoming weeks; it's going to be a busy but fun season!
Happy Passover! We had two(-ish) nice seders with the kids; L wasn't quite ready to ask the four questions, but Z was super pleased to be eating matzah again (who knew?), even if the floor around his chair looks like we've been putting down peanut shells or something. For the first night, we met up with friends D & D and their sons N & B; it was a high energy affair to say the least, but everyone had a good time running around and cruising through my one-pager siddur. For the second night, we attempted to have mima and papa over. Alas, the boys were ready to go at, like, 4:30. We ended up doing a split seder, with the boys doing some of the traditions before their bath, and then mima and papa joining us for the festive and tasty meal once the boys were in bed. The boys' rendition of dayenu (complete with dance interpretation by O):
At last today I captured some footage of Z's very positive interactions with L! She's quite clearly got both boys by the heart strings; when she cries, I'll hear Z echo something I've been known to say: "What's wrong, little lady?", although on occasion lately he's morphed it into "What's wrong, old lady?" Close enough? Anyway, she was sitting in her little springy chair today ("that's for babies", says Z), and he once again brought over his favorite blanket to tuck her in all cozy.
Of course then O saw the attention she (and Z) was getting, and had to get in on the action as well, bringing both of his blankets downstairs to drape her in. Then both boys decided they had to lie down on the floor and take a "nap" next to her, so out came couch pillows and more blankets, and our three children sprawled out in a line -- alas, no photo of that one, but super cute even if a bit silly.
I forgot to mention that when we got home from the hospital, I noticed a sign taped up outside of the downstairs bathroom door; when we went upstairs to give the boys their bath, there was another one outside of that door. Z has been making signs for a while (occasionally I'll see them in the front or rear window of the house), but while he and O were with Mima waiting for us to return to the hospital, he apparently decided to start labelling the restrooms. The stick figures smiling on the toilet are my favorite part by far. This morning, another similar sign showed up just outside the master bathroom -- way to be thorough, Z!
O returned to school yesterday, and his sister was the talk of the class -- I spied them working on a giant greeting card for her, but it wasn't quite ready to bring home. Today when I went to pick him up, first the entire class seemed to say "awwww..." with disappointment that I hadn't brought L with me -- soon kids, just give her more than 2.5 days! But they presented us with the finished card, featuring a bold "Welcome to the World Baby Eleanor! (Tiny)" cover, and opening to display color drawings from most of his classmates, annotated by the teachers with what the students said they meant or were thinking about. Super cuteness all around; a sampling:
Dear baby Eleanor, Are you coming to see us? I am making you letters!
Dear Eleanor, I drawed you a race track. You are special because you are a baby.
Dear Eleanor, I drawed you Smog's Mountain. I want you to learn to talk. You are cute! [Clearly this came from the kid who got O interested in The Hobbit, right up until we started to try to read a few pages...]
She looks so cute. I drew a bed.
I have a baby brother too! I drew sleepy eyes.
I'm good at drawing arrows. We will see you soon!
Dear Eleanor, I drawed you a tooth fairy.
Eleanor, This is a slide. I love you.
And from her brother, the note read: "Eleanor, I think you will like it. I love you. I hope this card is going to be cool to you. Love, Owen"
When mima came to visit today, she brought a sampling of pictures of Meh from her own first few days -- there's certainly a resemblance, though L also reminds us both of what O looked like. As far as the crying from Meh's picture, we haven't been seeing too much of that except that L doesn't appear to like getting her diaper changed. Here O helped try to sing her through it:
As she wrapped up making O's amazing birthday cake, Meh announced that, with its completion, she was now ready for the baby to arrive. The baby must've been listening (to both that and all of Meh's reverse psychology, saying that she was resigned to the baby being late after Z and O), because she waited less than another day and a half, and has now arrived! Meh even went into work yesterday, but around 4 pm I received the call that Meh was heading home and that I really should collect O from school and head home too. The boys had a mostly normal evening, though as I'd mentioned that Tiny might be arriving soon, every time O heard someone downstairs (mima, papa, and Uncle J came to visit) during bath and bedtime, he was asking if that was Tiny making noise. At 9 pm Meh decided the time had come, and the two (three) of us were headed to the hospital, while Mima settled in for a reverse slumber party with the boys two nights after they had one at her house. (Thank you mima!)
By 9:30 we were admitted, and at 11:29 pm, she arrived! Introducing Eleanor Batya Selfon! By the numbers (also now enshrined with an age counter in the rightmost column of this blog):
6 lbs 14 oz
19.5" length
Head circumference: Shoot, I recall them jotting it down in the records, but somehow it didn't make any of the paperwork we were given. Ah well.
Eleanor: A name we liked (plus mildly Hebrew derivation - "Eli nor" = "My God is light")
Batya: Named for Meh's grandfather Bernard (Hebrew derivation = "daughter of God")
Here she is just a few minutes after being born:
She was super cuddly right from the start, and had much snuggle time with mommy right after she was born; I don't think we got the actual weight for a few hours -- and that was after a bath that she emphatically did not like! But beyond that she has been very happy and making tiny little snuffling sounds.
The pediatrician came by this morning (as part of a cavalcade of medical staff visitors -- hearing test, Hep B shot, hospital photographer [who actually seemed to do a nice job, though we'll still be visiting our favorite baby photographer before she moves to Arizona], lactation consultant, nurses, and more), and announced that she was looking great -- so much so that he was fine with us heading home this evening after dinner. More pictures of Eleanor's first day here!
J had been working with Z as a babysitter, a para-educator at his camp, and a therapy assistant much of last year. We haven't gotten to see much of her now that she's off to college, but last month she e-mailed asking if she could come take Z for a fun day out, and that day was today! They ended up going to the Pacific Science Center. When J arrived, Z got a big smile and said "J's going to take me to camp?"
The last few weeks have flown by, but did feature an excellent Valentine's Day, with a nice sign created by Z (featuring all of the, um, standard Valentine's Day romantic gifts; left to right: ice cream cone, heart, apple, candy, piece of chocolate, pasta) as well a fabulous themed breakfast by Meh (heart shaped sprinkles and chocolate chips on heart-shaped pancakes, naturally served on heart-shaped plates).
There was also an excellent bounce house birthday party for one of O's classmates -- though really I think Z had the more extensive fun, since O either got hungry or overwhelmed and was hiding in the lobby eating a snack for half the party.
On the plus side, both boys ended up eating pizza crusts (and Z even tried a full slice of onion- and pepper-covered) at the party, something I'd witnessed from Z but which was totally new to Meh. And O ate his cupcake's frosting while Z somehow ate only the underlying cake - complementary brothers, no?
While the east coast, Midwest, and southeast probably think Seattle's second approximately 1 inch snowfall of the season is adorable, it's a perfect amount for the boys -- we rolled out another even bigger snowman, and gave this one a scarf and (fireman?) hat, in addition to nose, mouth, and eyes, and then had some more fun backyard sledding yesterday. O's boots were at school and Z has outgrown his, so I pulled the knotted plastic bags trick from my childhood (though I feel like at the time they were usually worn inside of boots rather than outside).
Again, the snow was already melting by the afternoon, and was mostly gone by today.
I'm not entirely sure why, but I haven't gotten to spend a ton of solo time with O -- with his school on break today, we changed that! It was a full and very fun day, and fascinating to see how he acts differently when his brother and mommy aren't around. His hairdo has been getting a bit shaggy, so we started with a trip to the barber shop. I've finally trained myself that it's no longer a given that they'll have lollipops, so I actually brought one for him to have in the car on the tail end. He of course watched the beginning of his favorite movie during the trim, amusing the stylist. From there, we headed to lunch at a local kaiten sushi place near his swim lessons -- O looked at their logo and commented: "That sushi looks angry!". Then it was time for swim lessons! (Oddly, though school was out, the "pull out of class" swimming he does was still going.) He was right at home in the guys' locker room, and had to show me the whole pool area while we waited for class to start. Of course there were large oversized lego-things, and of course a car was constructed. He did great during his actual lesson; I hadn't seen in swim in forever:
After lessons wrapped up, we'd been planning to hang out with one of O's classmates for the afternoon -- another classmate joined us and we caravanned into town to go check out the Experience Music Project's expansive new Lego architecture exhibit. The kids loved it, and we had a good time as well -- in addition to the many impressive buildings rendered in blocks, they had a giant set of tables of random blocks to build from.
O built a (what else but) vehicle, while his friend J, always the Seahawks fan, built a giant blue and green pyramid. After more than an hour of intense lego building (you could leave your creations; they had put a bunch of them up on a center display table), we went up to the music-focused part of the museum. The kids had a great time banging on drums, singing into microphones, playing keyboards, and impressively holding up guitars and basses that were roughly their height and weight. We had a very loud and crowded jam session in one of the (thankfully for anyone else in the museum) soundproof rooms.
A full day complete, we dropped off the other kids and moms back on Mercer Island before heading onward to collect Z after school and collapse back at home. Hooray for quality O time!
Today we all met up with friends R, M, and their son J (who is clearly among O's best friends at school) for an adventure into the city. Dropping the car at the park & ride near their house, we hopped the bus, crossed the bridge into the city, and got delivered via the giant bus tunnel to Seattle's excellent International District. There was a... park? Community center? Some kind of open outdoor area where there was a well-maintained ping pong table, and M and I had a few rallies with O and J. Then it was onward to Chinese food lunch with some new friends of R and M's who had just moved into the city. O actually tried some noodles; alas, it was a leisurely affair and at one point Z did fall apart and need a break outside. Anyway, after lunch, we walked another block to the fun (if mildly sensory-overloading) Seattle Pinball Museum, where admission got you all the free plays you could ever want of like 50 pinball machines. Z was in general more interested in watching than playing, but O had a few turns at some pinball games. Z's favorite was the one non-free-play machine in the museum (of course!), a nearly one-of-a-kind 2013 MGM Wizard of Oz table complete with a giant screen and miniature spinning Dorothy's house to shoot the pinball through, as well as a host of twinkling and shifting emerald and ruby lights -- he really does love holiday lights!
In the evening, the boys gave us an impromptu bathtub concert. (If you're wondering, Z's singing one of Meh's choral breathing exercises.)
Happy new year! We had a nice low-key birthday brunch (and by low-key I mean only about a dozen kids plus their parents and our other friends) for me this morning; it was great to catch up with everyone. Yesterday we really needed to find a way for the boys to expend some energy despite the rain and cold weather, and nominated a local trampoline place where Z had previously gone to a birthday party (and allegedly just jumped around the entire time). The boys were both super pleased. Z stuck with the main jumping area; O tried the foam ball pit, though I'm not sure he quite caught on to the whole jumping in thing.
It was somewhere between hilarious and stressful to see the other kids in line waiting for him to squirm his way into and then back out of the foam blocks -- they were all very polite and tried to be patient, but O definitely backed up the queue with his attempts.
Last night for the countdown, we went to friends R, M, and their son J's house; it was fascinating if somewhat exhausting to watch just how amped up O was to see his friend J after a little over a week off from school. They're thick as thieves and were tackling each other the whole evening. When the pile of boys neared Z, I saw him pick up a toy and duck away into the corner. All in all, the boys did a good job lasting until the ball dropped (thank goodness for time zone differences), and they even kind of sort of slept in a bit this morning.
We're all very excited by Meh's new work schedule, which kicks in next week; currently she works every other weekend (including this one), but starting next year it's only one weekend a month! The boys and I have been passing the weekend with a number of different activities, but one of their favorites remains biking around at Z's school playground.
O is getting braver by the moment, and will pedal for minutes at a time all by himself. Z is still a little less certain, but does well when I help guide the handlebars a bit, and sometimes he'll even go off by himself. Uncle J came along today and Z did an awesome job biking around by himself between us.
Of course, biking can certainly help you work up an appetite; snack time on the playground is almost as popular as the bikes themselves.
One of Z's other favorite activities has been a renewed interest in the Bananagrams letter tiles. He's generally very insistent that the letters go the correct way, even for nearly symmetric ones like the S's -- so I was surprised the other day to see him placing I's sideways and E's upside down. Finally today I figured it out: he's using them as dashes and 3's. I's and O's also nicely double as 1's and 0's. It's always impressive to see the words and sentences that he's spelling; this one felt to me like some kind of sea shanty.
While Z has always been one to recite his books, on occasions where I've tried to be silly and sing bits of the books while reading them, he's always stopped me and told me I was reading it wrong. But in the past day or so, he's suddenly taken up the call himself -- sometimes with little melodies, and sometimes just more of a lilt, but nonetheless singing some of his favorite tales. It reminds me more than anything of what in college musical history class was the 20th century avant garde technique of speak-singing, though thankfully Z prefers to stick with more traditional dominant/tonic tonal relationships and accessible rhythms rather than going full-on Schoenberg atonal on us. Anyway, here's this morning's rendition of P.D. Eastman's "Go, Dog. Go!".
(Irony: the local children's theater did a musical of this same book a few years ago. Time for a revival?)
Snow day! Just in time for the holiday break, the last day of school was at first delayed (for O) and then outright cancelled (for both boys), with a covering of maybe an inch or two of perfectly snowball-packable white stuff. We all headed outside bright and early (the boys got to try out their new snowpants, which O indicated were "warm and cozy"), and set about making a snow man. O helped me roll out the three body segments, Z stuck in the arms, and both of them helped with rock eyes -- Meh contributed a carrot nose from our CSA box, which O positioned on the face.
Then it was time for sledding! No need to hike all the way to the school; Meh pulled out the disc and the boys took turns dragging each other up our little hill and then pulling each other down (with parental supervision of course) -- they didn't get tired of this for a good half hour, and it was interspersed with snowy time on the swing and a snowball "fight" (where O would ask for a snowball and then refuse to actually apply it until people turned around so he could smoosh it into their backs). Hooray for early exercise, and all in the comfort of our yard and away from the not-yet-plowed streets.
Soon enough it warmed up and started moving on to freezing rain, so we went back inside and got ready to greet our guests -- friends (and fellow bloggers) M, K, N, and J are visiting from Texas for a few days, yay! We all met up at the boys' favorite local sushi joint, though I neglected to confirm that N would share the boys' appetite for cucumber rolls. But it all worked out okay, and we then headed back to our place for an afternoon of kids playing, napping (well, J at least), and just getting to catch up. After some early O/N disagreements, the two of them became fast friends -- the costume trunk and little play theater hadn't gotten such a workout in quite some time, and there was quite the show by Buzz, the Princess, and, um, a horse. Oh, and there was also pizza.
By this time, things had warmed up substantially and all that was left of the snow in the yard was a rapidly melting snowman. As the snowman's head melted, the carrot nose fell out and somehow pivoted as it fell down into the snowman's bottom segment to become, er, something possibly indecent. O just kept asking why, of course. Because! Anyway, it was so good to see our friends for the afternoon, and hopefully we'll get to catch up again before they head back out after the long weekend. Have a great time in Seattle, S family!
Today when we dropped off mommy at work, O suggested we go to the "park by the pool". Impressive that he still remembers where we used to have swimming lessons many months ago. I luckily had a towel in the trunk to wipe down the damp slides and swings (another mom who showed up soon afterwards had a towel of her own; in this area I suppose we train ourselves that the odds are ever in our favor of rain or mist), and the boys had a great time swinging, running around, and yes, riding these dinosaurs mounted on industrial springs. O in particular apparently wanted to both test out some of his personal whiplash theories and see the images from my camera as I was taking them:
Tonight was one of our favorite activities at the local community center: a parents' night out! The boys had a great time apparently running around in the gym "with a bunch of balls" (said Owen), then having dinner (pizza, which I don't think either of them actually ate), dessert (which they emphatically did eat, actually bringing it home in the car with us), and the beginning of a movie. Alas, mommy and I are such party animals that their film (which we emphatically approved of) was actually just starting when we showed up at the end of our date. Ah well, we'll have to bust out the DVD for the boys again soon -- but they and we all had a fabulous time!
With the weather beginning to turn cold and wet, it's important to be consistently expanding the repertoire of kid-friendly entertainment options. Meh had work today, so it was time to find a choice that involved an at least mildly constrained/enclosed play space. Enter this epic indoor playground with attached hipster-friendly food service (something seems inherently wrong about a playground serving craft beers, but who am I to complain?) and big screen TVs broadcasting college football, and we had a winner.
The source of the recommendation was even able to join us, as O's class friend J came out for play time with his dad M. (J had been talking about bringing O here for some time.) Needless to say, big win; the boys could hardly be bothered to sit for food, preferring to run, climb, hop, nest (Z found a particularly isolated corner of a giant tunnel; it took me a few minutes to relocate him, though when he spotted me he smiled and talked about daddy in the tunnel), and pneumatically launch foam balls at each other and other crazy kids. Here's a video I grabbed; somehow the audio didn't make it onto Flickr, but I'm sure you can imagine the placid quiet that would accompany this scene:
I'm off to Los Angeles this evening fortwo (no, make that three) conferences. The boys were a bit concerned to hear that I'd be gone (Meh perhaps more so?), though O was quick to add that I should bring them back presents of chocolate. Time will tell.
O's class pictures were Thursday, and he was arguably more excited than we were about the big day. Without a word or cue from me, he picked out his own ensemble and came downstairs in the morning looking quite dapper, ready for his pictures. "Wow, I look very good today!" And he knows it. This spells trouble I suspect.
Today the boys and I had an early guys' movie morning, allegedly at a "sensory-friendly" screening where they would turn down the volume and turn up the lights just a bit. When I bought the tickets, I double checked we had the right screening, and the staff at the ticket counter first had a blank look and then nodded and said "yes, that's the [mumble] screening". As far as I could tell, it turned out to just be a regular showing, but the boys loved every minute of it and did a great job of quietly watching the movie and mowing through an oversized bag of popcorn. Afterwards, there was a giant version of Baymax in the lobby, and Z confirmed for himself that the robot was indeed as huggable as had been depicted in the movie.
