With Eleanor's (proposed to be shortened to L for the blog, though I'm sure we'll debate L vs. El vs. Elle for the spelled version if it becomes an actual nickname) arrival, our family has now cornered the market on matched month/date birthdays, with at least four: mine (1/1), papa's (5/5), Z's (8/8), and now Eleanor's (3/3). I've also been surprised to find at least three people in my high school class share her birthday (they each made a comment on our favorite social media site about 3/3 being a superior birthday) -- so in my sampling, it would appear that September has got nothing on March 3!
Yesterday after the many hospital staff visits, I ran home to collect O and mima to come meet their new sister/granddaughter; I had accidentally forgotten to leave the car keys, so mima was housebound with O this morning, but successfully got Z off to school (and informed our favorite elementary school bus driver, who was ecstatic!). Meh was awesome enough to plan for L to have presents waiting for her brothers (and, impressively, O had also decided on a board book present for Tiny "to chew on" so she wouldn't try to eat the big kid books). O was very excited to meet his sister and had a giant smile on his face the whole time, even if he was a bit shy and preferred to focus on the present she gave him (a book about Jake of course). Afterwards, Mima took him for lunch at his favorite restaurant and he apparently walked in and immediately announced to the host/waiter that he now had a sister named Eleanor.
We were discharged from the hospital after Meh had her dinner, with L decked out in her first of many pink outfits (with matching hat). And we were home in time for the boys to welcome L before bedtime. She clearly has both of them already wrapped around her finger; O did an excellent job of holding her during story time (and kept talking about how she was "super cute"), and Z very gently wrapped her in his favorite blanket and gave her a little hug -- super cute indeed!
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!
O's obsession at the moment is pirates, specifically Jake and the Never Land Pirates. So of course it was time for an epic pirate-themed birthday party! And with Tiny on the way right around his birthday, we decided to both host it at a non-home location (the local community center, actually down in the same room where they have the "parents night out" programs) and schedule it for the weekend before his actual birthday.
No birthday party of our kids would be complete without an amazing Meh cake, and this year's Jake cake was pretty awesome; Meh even found some figurines at the local Disney store, which O helped position on the boat - though he really wanted Captain Hook and Smee to be in the already crowded ocean. Instead they looked on and guarded the cupcakes, which had gold doubloons as well as sparkly gold sugar working as pieces of treasure. Both O and Z were totally into it, with O wearing a fancy new Jake shirt, and both boys sporting pirate-y bandanas. All of the kids seemed to have a fabulous time, playing first in the party room and then moving on to the racquetball court for some pirate-themed games (it was apparently crazy loud to stick 15+ kids on the enclosed court and many of the parents opted to watch from outside; I myself stayed in the party room to guard purses and redirect arriving guests). Then back to the party room for singing, snacks (cupcakes, fruit, and veg), and more play time - a wonderful party was had by all! Happy early 4th birthday, Mister O! Many more pics here.
Z does love schedules. He generally knows the current date and day of the week. He enjoys talking about the most recent ("Happy Valentine's Day!"), upcoming ("O's birthday is next week!"), and far future ("We'll light the candles in December") holidays. He's also been fascinated with posted schedules at restaurants and other businesses, and I'll often see him write out faux signs with days of the week and their hours of operation -- sometimes even logical: "M 5:30-2:30" I think would work for a breakfast joint? And when I visited his class a few weeks ago, I saw they have a nice large-format schedule at the front of the room, which matched pretty precisely his own verbal enumeration of his day's school activities ("...and we're going to have recess... and then lunch... and then music..."). So it should perhaps come as little surprise that he made this drawing today:
I particularly dig the little drawings that accompany them - especially the "shushing" figure in the quiet time and the percussionist (or conductor?) for music. He's becoming quite an artist actually; here's another recent creation of his, where he retconned the "Wizard of Oz" to feature Dorothy and the Wicked Witch going off in the balloon while Toto and the Scarecrow look on:
I should add that he self-curates our refrigerator art exhibit; many mornings he'll decide to take down a particular work for a newer or rotating work -- sometimes even one by his brother, a true sign of his artistic integrity (or something).
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 don't know how it happened, but somehow I completely missed the memo on a giant ferris wheel getting installed along the Seattle waterfront; when Meh mentioned it and I spotted it in a subsequent visit, I had no idea what was going on. Anyway, on a few recent trips into the city, the boys have pointed at it and excitedly asked about going to see it, so today it was time to finally play tourist and give the thing a whirl (oh, the puns!). We took the always popular bus and bus tunnel, and then walked down through the market, grabbing fresh donut holes on the way. O was very pleased to see they had some with green and blue Seahawks sprinkles! We arrived at the wheel, and after the gratuitous touristy picture in front of a green screen (later to be superimposed over the wheel for commemorative prints, t-shirts, mugs, etc.) and a short queue, we were on our way. The actual ride was quite nice, and the weather cooperated to give some excellent views of both the Puget Sound and the city.
After our ride wrapped up, we briefly visited the crazy carnival located in the same building, where both boys requested oversized gumballs. Clearly it was time to find some real lunch. We stumbled on the unexpected treasure of the new-ish restaurant at the Seattle Art Museum; a kids menu (with hot dogs [score one for Z] and grilled cheese w/ french fries [point for O]) and an awesome indoor play area with appropriately abstract vehicles made for a decent if somewhat disjoint lunch as the boys abandoned the table halfway through to go play. We don't spend nearly enough time showing the boys the city, but hopefully today was a move in the right direction!
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!
Z's school has conferences all this week, so he's had short school days. Coupled with ongoing rain, that left Meh looking for extra entertaining indoor activities -- and out came the PVC pipes from the sukkah, which she reconfigured into this excellent fort! The boys had a great time with it, and Meh brought down everyone's pillows and bedding to make believe they were camping out -- alas, when enough of Z's sleeping materials made it downstairs, he suddenly got very concerned and sad. I'm not sure if he thought this was going to be his new bedroom or if there were just certain props that he only wants associated with his bedroom and sleep, but he wasn't okay with things until every last piece of the bedroom (both his and O's) were back in the bedroom. But overall they're so cute and happy with the fort, and were back in there playing back and forth with cars this morning!
We were so excited to hear a few months ago that friends E and A were getting married! Alas, the wedding timing was such that Meh wasn't going to be able to travel down to San Diego, and it was her now-rare work weekend as well, so I figured I'd be out as well. But the fares cooperated and mima graciously offered to watch the boys yesterday, so I took a solo trip down first thing yesterday and am flying back momentarily -- just a few minutes in the airport to, ahem, catch up the blog a little bit (it falls behind so quickly!) and check in on work.
After my required southern California grilled cheese pilgrimage, it was on to the wedding! In addition to the Seattle crowd, I got to hang out with childhood friend B and his wife R -- I kept forgetting that they're good friends with E and A, and it was great to see them again. The wedding was fabulous and so very "them"; everything from using Rhapsody in Blue as the processional music (played by E's childhood piano teacher), to stopping the presses immediately after the ceremony to turn the cameras around and take a picture of all of the attendees plus the wedding party, to an epic Jewish hora (where E had to rile up the band to have another go when they thought they were done!), to a well choreographed and very sweet first dance, and just a wonderfully festive evening overall. More pictures here.
There was even an after-party back in the hotel lobby; I finally threw in the towel a little after midnight. O's friend J was actually down here (his mom, friend K, and I actually did a Seattle a cappella trio performance for E's walk down the aisle) and was off to Legoland with his dad and grandparents as R and I headed back to the airport -- we'll be using them as a scouting party for our inevitable future trip to the home of everything that Z and O love!
When Meh dropped off O today at school, she made the mistake of loitering in the classroom to jot down the names of his classmates for his upcoming birthday party. O noticed this and said "You're disturbing the class mommy. You need to leave now."
We had a lovely rest of our visit with Grandma and J, with trips to the park, meals at some of the boys' favoriterestaurants, and even a rare date night for Meh and myself, returning to the Italian place we used to go to when we were first dating. The boys are of course huge fans of Grandma and J, and Z has already been talking about how "we'll definitely see them another time -- after Tiny comes!"
I've been hearing bits and pieces from many of our friends scheming about it for months, but today at long last was Tiny's baby shower, an Alice in Wonderland-themed tea party! For my own part, all I could contribute was sneaking a tiara and clock into grandma's bag to be used in some way at the event. But it sounds like it was a fabulous affair, and the boys and I returned home to an alarming collection of pink things along with a custom-made Alice in Wonderland trivia quiz where I'd be lucky to score any correct at all. Meh reported that she was really overwhelmed by all of the creativity, thoughtfulness, and love of her friends and family; the pictures really say it all. The food and ingenious decorations all looked amazing, and Meh is already planning out how to incorporate many of the items into Tiny's "Alice in Wonderland"-themed room.
While the girls were at the shower, J and I took the boys to a local children's museum, where we met up with the spouses and kids of a few other shower attendees/planners. The kids had a superb time as always, though I think they ran J and me a little ragged. O got to show off his mad K'nex skills, working with me to build (what else but) a car, and Z had a great time mostly involving the large truck cab. The shower was still going when they shut the children's museum down, so we and the H boys headed onward to (where else but) Red Robin for dinner. Alas, there was a bit of a crash and burn on trying to get the boys' food order in first (it instead was forgotten, twice), but everyone I think had a nice if exhaustingly complete afternoon out.
We finally picked up O's class pictures today (they were taken in *blush* November), and they did not disappoint. As grandma and J (who arrived today) would say, "What a rascal!"
One of the fabulous presents Meh and the boys got me for my birthday was an official Lego Back to the Future DeLorean. Z was certainly interested in looking at the box, talking about the DeLorean, reading the license plate, helping pick out the dates it should go visit (our birthdays, Halloween, and also December to see the holiday lights) and eager for me to assemble it. And I don't think I was quite prepared for just how into it O was going to get. For the past ten days, he has spent probably at least 30 minutes a day demonstrating his excellent fine-motor skills (and patience, actually occasionally even sitting in a seat for minutes at a time!); I hunted down the specific parts we needed to put together, and then he did most of the actual assembly. We'll ignore for the moment that he was constantly asking if it was time to add the wheels, as that is his favorite part of any vehicle he makes. Thankfully we were able to overcome the fact that the box somehow came missing at least two parts -- Meh's giant canvas bag full of childhood Legos saved us with some appropriate size and color replacement parts. Anyway, all of this led to the completion of the DeLorean tonight! O was super excited to show it and drive it around, though being a Lego model, it's a bit on the fragile side and the gull wing doors kept popping off -- I'll probably take the completed creation to work in the next day or two for more permanent display. But super impressive, complete with rotating wheels to convert to hovermode, a tiny time control panel (with the destination date set to the invention/patent of Legos), Mr. Fusion, 2015 license plate, hood-mounted 1955 time control circuits, and more! Hooray for fun presents and good bonding time with Mister O and Mister Z!
After O's school yesterday, Meh decided to introduce the boys to the MGM classic Wizard of Oz. (Z actually had a head start; as I mentioned, one of his favorite pinball machines at the museum on Saturday was the Wizard of Oz one; the spinning house and yellow bricks perhaps makes a bit more sense to him now.) Both boys were enthralled. O insists his favorite character is the witch, and he'll even do a little version of her evil laugh if you ask him. Z commented towards the end as Dorothy bids farewell to her Oz friends, "she's sad because she doesn't want to go home". It's been fabulous to hear them both singing the songs; Z's rendition of "We're Off to See the Wizard" is about as magical as a pair of ruby slippers -- I'll have to try to record it. To top it off, Meh has a copy of the original L. Frank Baum book -- we're going to start reading it to the boys, chapter by chapter, tonight! O already saw a few pictures and was wondering why they looked different than in the movie. I tried explaining that the pictures came first, but he was still concerned -- one challenge we have trying to read books to him with illustrations is that he'll immediately start asking questions about the pictures, even if the text would give him in the answer if he'd wait long enough to hear it!
Continuing to take advantage of Meh's newly freed weekends, today we all journeyed to Bainbridge Island. We had a bit of a slow start (and some routing challenges from the phone's turn-by-turn directions), but eventually made our way to the ferry terminal. The boys remain big fans of boat travel, and we even took them out onto the blustery upper deck for a few minutes before going back inside for a snack. Once on the island, we sought out their children's museum, and the moment we entered the door we knew we had a winner, with O and Z running over to both an electric car and a table full of wooden blocks. There were a number of faux "retail" stores inside as well - a grocery store, a restaurant, and a bank with an ATM. I wasn't quite sure if O was thinking heist as he grabbed a stash of play money, ran over to the electric car, and pretended to drive, but it was all super cute. The upstairs of the museum was even more fun, with a bunch of golf bar-driven physics games, a giant kid-controllable pneumatic/hydraulic dinosaur, and a big soapbox derby car that both boys somehow squeezed into.
The boys had fun for hours, only tearing themselves away when it was time to go find some food in the cute downtown area. We ended up eating at a bakery and listening to a street performer; it might have almost been relaxing if O hadn't insisted on climbing up and walk along the lip of a raised flower/tree bed. After our late lunch, it was time to return to the car and ride the boat once more back to Seattle, having a tasty snack and wrapping up a very nice if exhausting day on the island.
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.)
Z has been a huge fan of holiday light displays this year; there's a particularly large one on our route home where he'll frequently say "Look at all of those lights! Woahhhhh!" as we drive by. Many afternoons he'll ask when all of our neighbors' displays will be going on, and in evenings before we go upstairs at bedtime, he'll have to peek out the window one last time and talk about all of the lights. Last night, he was asking when the lights would be going on, and it was already pretty dark -- clearly some neighbors are on the ball and already taking down their Christmas lights. When I indicated this, he got worried and then teary-eyed, even though there were still a few viewing options to choose from. Holiday lights have also started to infiltrate his drawings, both on houses, trees, and the always favorite telephone poles.
Meh had the excellent idea to see if we could create our own local solution to this inevitable end of the holiday season, and today picked up (on super discount no less!) some white holiday lights with which to adorn the hidey hole. It was a huge success! Then we topped it off with a family dinner (after O's first day back at school - "that was a short day, mommy!") and a tour of the Bellevue Botanical Gardens' excellent annual Garden d'Lights. While the mist gradually turned into full-on rain and there was a long walk due to some construction in the gardens, the boys were happy with both the temporary exterior lighting and the beautiful interior displays, including animated lights for a "river", and both flowers, decorations, and a number of animals (Z spotted a monkey in a tree; O liked the snowman made completely of lights).
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.
With Eleanor's (proposed to be shortened to L for the blog, though I'm sure we'll debate L vs. El vs. Elle for the spelled version if it becomes an actual nickname) arrival, our family has now cornered the market on matched month/date birthdays, with at least four: mine (1/1), papa's (5/5), Z's (8/8), and now Eleanor's (3/3). I've also been surprised to find at least three people in my high school class share her birthday (they each made a comment on our favorite social media site about 3/3 being a superior birthday) -- so in my sampling, it would appear that September has got nothing on March 3!
Yesterday after the many hospital staff visits, I ran home to collect O and mima to come meet their new sister/granddaughter; I had accidentally forgotten to leave the car keys, so mima was housebound with O this morning, but successfully got Z off to school (and informed our favorite elementary school bus driver, who was ecstatic!). 
Meh was awesome enough to plan for L to have presents waiting for her brothers (and, impressively, O had also decided on a board book present for Tiny "to chew on" so she wouldn't try to eat the big kid books). O was very excited to meet his sister and had a giant smile on his face the whole time, even if he was a bit shy and preferred to focus on the present she gave him (a book about Jake of course). Afterwards, Mima took him for lunch at his favorite restaurant and he apparently walked in and immediately announced to the host/waiter that he now had a sister named Eleanor.
We were discharged from the hospital after Meh had her dinner, with L decked out in her first of many pink outfits (with matching hat). And we were home in time for the boys to welcome L before bedtime. She clearly has both of them already wrapped around her finger; O did an excellent job of holding her during story time (and kept talking about how she was "super cute"), and Z very gently wrapped her in his favorite blanket and gave her a little hug -- super cute indeed!
