Rollin' with my Gnomies

What's not to love about Halloween? Maybe the crazy rush to get back from work, pick two kids up at school, feed them and dress them in funny outfits all by the unofficial start time of 6 pm. Was it worth it? Of course it was.

James = garden gnome

Ava = kangaroo. Not pictured: joey in her pocket

Today in James

What a clever little sausage.

September 2012

Hot diggity, this boy can walk! Well, not exactly, but he has taken his first steps and he's so incredibly proud of himself he claps while he's doing it.

Other than bipedalism, the big news this month was the start of school for both Ava and James. James started daycare at Ava's school and Ava has, of course, been taking her role as big sister quite seriously by picking out his clothes and blankets for school, placing them in his cubby each day, and reading him and his new friends a story during drop-off time. Ava also started preschool this month and for the most part the transition has been fairly smooth. It's the same school, so as far as we can tell the only difference is that it's upstairs with more kids (or "friends" as they call them), fewer teachers, more structure, and more learnin'. For Ava's part, she's tried to maintain continuity with the last two years by screaming like a banshee when she's dropped off and refusing to leave at the end of the day, so our experience has remained the same.

Other than that, September was a really fun month with a day trip to the coast, lots of swimming, and a block party to beat all block parties. We have pictures and videos of both so we'll try to be good blog stewards and get all of it into some new blog posts soon. Until then, enjoy the pictures from this month...

Today in Ava

Helen: Ava, we don't ride the baby.
Ava: He's okay with it.

Baby Tricks!

Let me help you out here. I believe the phrase you're looking for is, "Oh my god. How cute is that kid?!"

August 2012

Ava and James are like two peas in a pod these days. If we wake Ava up in the morning, she screams that it's too early and demands that we leave the room. But then she requests that James stays and immediately transforms from Little Miss Grouchy to animated kindergarten teacher. They squeal with delight when they see each other. A little while ago when James closed the hallway door and got stuck, he immediately called out her name and she came running around the corner to help him.

James is turning into quite the little prankster. He's all about throwing his water bottle from his high chair to see how many times you'll pick it up. He also quite enjoys blowing a raspberry (a "Bronx cheer" to some) with food in his mouth. He is fond of tipping the dog water over, trying to dip his hand in the toilet bowl, and pulling plugs out and trying to stick his fingers in the sockets. To be clear...YES, we are watching him but he's very very fast and the king of misdirection. He often starts crawling in one direction (like away from the dog bowl) and then makes a swift sharp turn (to the dog bowl).

As for baby tricks, James has been expanding his vocabulary a great deal. James was oddly silent for the first 6 months--we even asked his doctor about it at his 6 month appointment but she shrugged it off to him not having the opportunity to speak, with Ava clogging the airwaves as she does. Now that he's started talking, he just won't stop and says all sorts of stuff all day long. Here is his current dictionary, which all revolves around his solid 4 letter alphabet of A, D, M, and N: mama, dada, aya, ah duh (all done), nigh nigh, di di (bye bye), nom nom, dah-dah (doggie).

Family Circus

There is absolutely nothing our children love more than silliness. Especially animal noise silliness.

Climb Every Mountain

Last week Ava went bouldering--you know, like they did when you were a kid--and she kind of kicked ass. The adrenalin rush didn't stay at the gym, however. Now she's climbing our bookshelves, scaling our dining room buffet (using drawer pulls as footholds), and using her planter box to catapult herself over the side of our porch. She's a climbing machine.

I Learned it by Watching You

The student becomes the master...

Straight Talk with Ava

We just found some old Ava-isms in our "drafts" file so we posted them here because she makes us giggle. She's a pretty sassy girl and has no qualms telling it like it is.

Here are some more recent ones:

• During a heated discussion about plumbing: "You should talk to Grandad in a gentle voice."
• "You should ask me why I'm upset. I'm an upset person."
• While teaching her imaginary friend how to rock climb: "Hold on tight, Leo. Hold on tight to your dreams."
• "James, you think it's funny that I got peanut butter on my shirt?" Walks out, disgusted.

Today in Ava

"Hey, Layna (neighbor friend). I got a new haircut for preschool. They're not going to know what to do with me!"

Touching Moments

At first I saw this picture and I was like, "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."

And then I looked a little closer and I was like, "Oooooooooooooooooooooooh."

July 2012

This month Brian's parenting dreams came true as we finally cracked open a hefty box of real Legos "for Ava" to play with. Moments later "Ava" had created a stunning display of jets and marine craft, complete with headlights, retractable roofs, windows and working doors. By the end of the work session, Brian--who generally would prefer that we don't own many possessions at all--declared that what we needed were more Lego sets. His creativity is being stifled.

July also began Ava's countdown to preschool. We are very excited to see what preschool is all about. Ava has been giving us previews, like when Helen ties her shoes and Ava announces, "Momma. When you get to preschool, you can do that all by yourself." We made a countdown chain of stars, which we ceremoniously reduce by one each evening.

James now has three baby teeth which he likes to use to bite cheeks. When he's not inflicting bodily harm, he's opening up cupboards of pans and attempting to pull everything on to the kitchen floor. There is absolutely nothing he can't get into and nothing he won't put into his mouth. In keeping with our general, "it takes a village" approach to parenting, we have taught Ava the signs of choking and practiced the screaming that we expect from her, should she hear gagging noises from James. You might say we're relying too heavily on a 3 year-old, as evidenced by her asking Helen to "keep an eye on James" while she "goes potty."

Wiggity, Wiggity, Wiggity Wack

 

 "Put the Jump song on. I LOVE the Kris Kross."
- Ava

Big Sis. Little Bro.

Outta My Way Greenhorn!

June 2012

Somebody once told us that when you have kids, things are very hard in the beginning, and then they get easier, and then get hard once again when the second child gets mobile. In our house right now, it's absolute anarchy. James seems to have catapulted from chubby ball sitting on the floor to Olympic medalist (the event is unclear) in a couple of weeks and we are far from prepared. Every moment of the day is spent either sweeping his throat for a foreign object, gasping as a sharp corner narrowly misses his eye socket, or counterbalancing a bar stool just as it gets ready to crack his skull. In our spare moments, we're daydreaming about baby helmets, infant cages, and weighing whether our friends and neighbors would judge us if we installed some sort of a stake-in-the-ground tether system.

So about June, we say this: we're glad we're all still alive.

Coast to Coast

Grandma and Grandpa Rabold came out to Portland from Savannah for a 10-day visit this month. At first glance, the timing was unfortunate--the same week as their visit, James moved into the "stranger danger" phase of development. Just to prove he could give his sister a run for her money, he spent an entire day screaming his head off.  But over the days of their visit, he succumbed to their loving grandparently presence and rewarded their persistence with the development of some new tricks. While they were here, James went from dragging his big ole body across the floor to fully crawling. He also started clapping, pulling himself up on furniture and generally became a menace in our completely un-babyproofed home.

While Layne and Gary were here, we took a trip to the Oregon coast with both sets of grandparents. Oddly enough, Layne and Sue celebrate the same birthday so it seemed like a birthday field trip was in order. Although it was rainy, dreary and cold (it is still the Oregon coast in June), it was a rugged good time. Just to make sure it was, the adults drank lots of wine. Here are some pictures of the whole gang:

Fanciful father-daughter spin shot

James's first ocean toe-dip. That water averages 58 degrees in June...James was not impressed.

Who needs warm weather? We have starfish!

Birthday girl #1

Birthday girl #2

We mentioned it was rugged, right?

Dining al fresco, Oregon coast style.

Life at the Frat House

I swear we've had these same exact conversations with drunk friends...

• "I'm just going to pee on this grass so I don't have to go all the way inside."
• "James and I are playing drinking games. When you're done with dinner, I can show you how to play drinking games."
• "Ava, where are your pants?"
• "I threw up in my bedroom. Just a little bit."
• "I don't drink wine. It makes my body sick." 

What are we playing here? Quarters?

Going the Distance

We've been playing "Eye of the Tiger" pretty much constantly for the last three months, just psyching James up for this exact moment.

No, really we would prefer that he just stay stationary for a while and make our lives a whole lot easier. But the heart wants what the heart wants. James's heart wants to be on the move.