O has been getting into the act of writing thank you notes for his many birthday presents -- and he's liked doing it so much that he's started to want to thank people and give them gifts for no apparent reason at all. Yesterday he informed Meh and myself that he wanted to give a thank you present to one of his school friends "for saving the whole class" (perhaps when they were role-playing?), and he proceeded to make a card for her with his name on it and a picture of "the beanstalk from Mickey" (he saw this short film a month or two ago). Then when we were at the store, he really wanted to get her a present. I wasn't quite sure how to handle a present for a single person in the class, but one of his teachers helped us through the adorable exchange this morning, where O and M went out into the hall, O gave her the present (he seemed as nervous and excited as if he was receiving the gift) and she was super happy to have received both the card and the cute little elephant. Nice job O!
For his part, Z has been watching O working on thank you cards, and suddenly I think he decided he wanted in on the action as well. Today while cleaning the play room, Meh found an adorable card he had quietly made for his school teacher -- and when I picked him up from his after school program, he had just finished coloring an oversized card for one of his school aides as well. We'll put them in his folder tomorrow to take to school; it's great to see such spontaneous and relevant giving from both of our sons!
This week is the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. While I've been there nearly every year for the past 14 years, this year with our due date right in that window, I opted to not attend -- probably for the best, as it's been a whirlwind of adjusting to L's sleep schedule (or sometimes lack thereof) and coordinating for the boys so the ladies can get some good quality (hopefully sleep-involving) time together. That said, L and I did put together a proposed late lecture to add to GDC -- I indicated to the event planners that we could probably make any time in the 1:30 to 4:30 am window work. No response as of yet, but we've still got three days of the conference.
New milestone today: for the first time, L took a nap in her own crib (not pictured) -- and for two hours no less! Yay! The baby monitor is back up and running, so we're once again getting used to that gentle whoosh of white noise coming from a little speaker in the corner of our room. We had a number of visitors today -- R stopped by in the morning, and O had a play date with his 5-year-old friend J, who was being watched by friend I while his parents were at work. The boys for the most part played very well (the only incident being a highly sought after green Candy Land player marker), and J was super awed by the hidey hole. O also has been talking about just how nice one of his friends has been at school, so he wanted to go buy her a present -- I indicated that he certainly could using his allowance, or we could get her something for her upcoming birthday. He opted for the latter, thoughtfully perusing the store before selecting a cute little elephant figurine. He complemented the gift with a nice card today. Nice, Mr. O!
The grand experiment with family mealtime continues to go mostly successfully (when we can keep the boys at the table); tonight it was my turn to cook, and Z watched with eagerness as I made their favorite (pasta), and then concern as I transformed some of it into homemade mac and cheese. Both boys stuck with plain and wouldn't venture even a taste, though mommy assured me it was yummy.
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.
O had his four-year check-up already booked for today, and as it happened to be just over a week since L's birthdate, Meh phoned the doctor last week to see if we could do a two-for-one. Thankfully it worked out and we were able to get both appointments done in a single sitting -- both of them are in great shape! The gratuitous stats:
For L:
Weight: 6 lbs 12.5 oz (25th percentile)
Length: 19.3 inches (25th percentile)
Head circumference: 12.8 inches (<5th percentile)
And for O:
Weight: 37 lbs 2 oz (50th-75th percentile)
Height 39.8 inches (25th-50th percentile)
BMI: 16 (75th-85th percentile)
I was really impressed with how well O did listening to the doctor's and nurse's instructions - he answered all of the questions very politely, laughed a lot at the doc's silly jokes about dinosaurs in his ears and frogs in his tummy, and even got to do his first eye test; we tried letters but he was a bit shy and/or unsure, so we flipped over to shapes. And he was super brave for the two shots as well; L had her second PKU foot prick and got slightly angrier, but all in all I was pretty proud of them! L gets to come back for her one-month appointment in three weeks; O visits again in a month for his second flu vaccine booster, but we were told he shouldn't need another shot until he's 11 years old (!).
Happy *official* birthday to O! He had a busy and action-packed day. We gave him his birthday presents: an excellent ukulele from Uncle B and Aunt J, which he was performing on almost immediately, though he wasn't quite patient enough for me to show him how to hold and care for it, so we may have to work into that a bit; cars from grandma and John, and a car carrying case from us -- partially with the hope that this will be the beginning of instituting a rule to limit the vehicles in the house to those he can actually travel with. Then his friend J (and his parents R and G) came over to both welcome L and celebrate with O; J and he did this through a combination of running, jumping, giggling, wrestling, and loud talking.
Mima and papa had graciously invited us over for a birthday dinner (O: "and presents?"); alas, things went a bit south when he and I went to go pick up papa from work and O completely conked out -- I couldn't get him awake again throughout the birthday dinner, so mima and papa's lovely preparations were mostly enjoyed by O's parents and brother. Naturally when we got back in the car to go home, he woke up and was completely confused and upset that he'd missed cake and presents. Fear not, mima had packed up a piece, and when we got home, he had a late last celebration, complete with cake and the opening of his two last presents (shock of shocks, they were cars).
Yesterday was his school birthday party; after dropping him off in the morning with supplies for his birthday class "activity" (Froot Loops and landyard gimp to make necklaces), I arrived back for their lunch and saw this poster on their classroom door. When I walked in, a few kids had necklaces already around their necks and others had clearly already eaten theirs -- but it was still fun to get to see O interact with his class, and of course we all sang a raucous chorus of happy birthday. Afterwards, O posed with two of his best friends and his birthday poster for the school's daily documentation -- so cute! Oh, and his birthday necklace? Green and blue Froot Loops only, of course.
Once more, a very happy and busy fourth birthday to O!
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:
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.
O has been getting into the act of writing thank you notes for his many birthday presents -- and he's liked doing it so much that he's started to want to thank people and give them gifts for no apparent reason at all. Yesterday he informed Meh and myself that he wanted to give a thank you present to one of his school friends "for saving the whole class" (perhaps when they were role-playing?), and he proceeded to make a card for her with his name on it and a picture of "the beanstalk from Mickey" (he saw this short film a month or two ago). Then when we were at the store, he really wanted to get her a present. I wasn't quite sure how to handle a present for a single person in the class, but one of his teachers helped us through the adorable exchange this morning, where O and M went out into the hall, O gave her the present (he seemed as nervous and excited as if he was receiving the gift) and she was super happy to have received both the card and the cute little elephant. Nice job O!
For his part, Z has been watching O working on thank you cards, and suddenly I think he decided he wanted in on the action as well. Today while cleaning the play room, Meh found an adorable card he had quietly made for his school teacher -- and when I picked him up from his after school program, he had just finished coloring an oversized card for one of his school aides as well. We'll put them in his folder tomorrow to take to school; it's great to see such spontaneous and relevant giving from both of our sons!
