Four Acts of Kindness

In honor of Ava's fourth birthday, Ava "decided" (or perhaps more accurately, "agreed") to do Four Acts of Kindness for others.  Everyone's doing it...get on board, people.

Ava was pretty thrilled to take part and she chose each of the four acts, apart from the first, which had already been chosen for her.

1. Food to the Food Bank - This year, Ava had a joint birthday party with two of her best buddies, Griffin and Jolie. [Though she may not be aware of it, Ava has known these kids since the earliest days of her life when--sleep-deprived, confused, shocked, elated, and overwhelmed--the new mothers banded together in a new-mom's group, wisely determining that parenthood was not a battle to be fought alone.] In lieu of gifts, party attendees brought donations for the Oregon Food Bank. We collected 66 pounds of food at the party and later took a field trip to deliver the donations. The Oregon Food Bank is a pretty amazing organization and Helen's good friend and Associate Director of Development at the Food Bank, Ellen Dully, gave us a tour of the facility.

2. Cookies for Postal Carrier Allison - Ava knows the name and personal business of everyone who lives on our street, along with most others who walk down it. So we are pretty tight with our postal carrier. Ava runs onto the porch whenever she sees her coming and attempts to keep up conversations with her as she dips in and out of houses for deliveries. On Ava's birthday we baked her cookies and she outdid us by surprising Ava with a purple vest for her birthday. Seriously?! That woman is awesome.

3. Cupcakes for Nate, Amy, Olivia and Carter - Our beloved next-door neighbors were out of town for Ava's birthday party and Ava felt like they really deserved some cupcakes to celebrate in her honor.  After making the cupcakes, we realized that they were again out of town so Ava dutifully sat by the four cupcakes until they returned that evening to receive them.

4. Coffee Gift Card for Clark - We have the sweetest neighbor, Clark, at the end of our street. Every morning he takes his coffee mug and walks past our house to go to one of four coffee shops, where he meets his friends for coffee. Ava is OBSESSED with this lovely man and runs out of the house every time he passes so that she can scream hello. We're fairly sure he can't understand a thing she says but he's always happy to see her. We got him a gift card to one of his coffee shops and I don't think we could have confused the man any more than we did when we told him that for Ava's birthday we were getting him a gift.

Monster Mash

Ava drew you a picture of a monster.

December 2012

Mele Kalikimaka

The Rabold family escaped to Hawaii in December for an early Christmas treat. We met up with Brian's parents, his Aunt Joanne and Uncle David, and Paula and Joe. And though Joe waited to perfect his Mai Tai recipe until after we left, we still managed to enjoy ourselves.

For James, this was his first flight. Apart from being understandably disappointed at being caged into a 4 x 6 ft space for 6 hours, he remained jolly and spent lots of time flirting with the airline attendants.

This wasn't James's first trip to the ocean but it was the first time anyone had threatened to put him in it and he was quite horrified by the idea. Because we are wonderful parents, we made sure to dunk him down to his shoulders, amidst his screams of protest. Luckily, he does love to roll around in the sand and made himself quite at home in the kiddie pool.

Since our last trip to Hawaii two years ago, Ava has made a complete turn-around and loves the ocean, and loves the pool. She also loves the hot tub, and she stationed herself nearby so that she could wait for unsuspecting parents to put their babies in the water and then lecture them on the spa being too hot for small people.

In addition to lounging around at the pool, we also took a trip to the Maui Ocean Center, where Helen went SCUBA diving in a tank with 30 or so sharks. James and Ava looked on, waving and blowing kisses. Oddly enough, Ava was terrified by the idea of Brian going into the dunk tank at our block party a few months ago--screaming, wailing and gasping for air--but seemed at peace with the idea of Helen swimming with man-eating sharks. We'll try not to over-analyze it.

It doesn't feel like we had enough time at all, but we're glad we got to spend some quality time with the East-coast Rabold crew.

Mommy's Little Sweatshop

It's not all fun and games around here.

November 2012

Sadly, we lost about half of our November pictures and half of December in the great technological catastrophe of 2012. In our house that amounts to a few hundred photos (or "precious memories," as we call them when we're feeling dramatic) lost. But you didn't come here for a moping session (or did you? I could go on...) We do still have some photos to share. And share, we will:

Happy Birthday, Ava!!!

Every year I video tape Ava waking up on her birthday. No one would call Ava a morning person, but this is the first time I've actually been kicked while taping--bless her little cotton socks.

4 years! It's hard to fathom, really. I can't say we feel like better parents after so much practice--I did get kicked this morning, after all--but we certainly have a better appreciation for life's little moments. That first silence after the kids fall asleep, holding hands, giggles, sibling love, our own parents, the patience of teachers, good health, tiny noses, tiny shoes, babies humming, living room dance parties...you get the point. We'll leave it there before we go all mushy on you.

Happy 4th birthday, Miss Ava Kate. You are one of a kind.

Oh Man...We're So Hooked on Phonics Over Here

Being a parent can transform one of the worst books ever into pure poetry. Ava reads for the first time:

Boy, she's come a long way.

Straight Talk with Ava

Faithful readers, we haven't forgotten about you. Last month one computer broke, and then our other computer broke, and last week our camera broke. We do have lots to share and we hope to get you all up to date soon.

In the meantime, we hope to satiate your Rabold appetite with a few quotes from Miss Ava Kate...

• In response to my repeated requests to get out of the car and stop playing with the console: "I'm just a kid. Sometimes I'm going to play with toys you don't want me to play with."

• H: "Ava, why did you push Isabel away when she tried to kiss you?"
  A: "I didn't want a kiss."
  H: "You can say, 'No, thank you.'"
  A: "I thought it was communicated."

• While getting ready to sing us a song before bedtime: "Everyone, silence your phones and zip your lips."

• A: "Momma, do you toot?"
  H: "I'd prefer not to talk about this during dinner time."
  A: "After dinner, do you prefer?"

• B: "Ava, do you want to practice back floats?"
  A: "I'm not too into that."

• "My body can't handle the sugar."

• H: "Ava, please don't ride your bike in the house."
  A: Giggles. "I already rode it around the house once before you even noticed."
  H: "But, Ava, you know we don't ride bikes in the house."
  A: Chuckles, then sighs. "Ohhhhhhhhh, baby cakes."

October 2012

When Helen was 9 months pregnant, a coworker told her, "the best thing about having two kids is that you really appreciate having just one." At the time, it seemed like kind of a cruel thing to tell someone when it's entirely too late to have just one.  But one year later, we can both appreciate what she was saying: when you're hanging out with two kids all the time, you forget that they each have their own personalities. While it's fun to see them playing and giggling together it's pretty cute to see them on their own as well.

This month we didn't do much at all, but Helen and Ava did go on a mommy-daughter date and you could tell she's never felt so special. Ava had "Ava-skeeters" (ebelskivers) at a restaurant and went shopping, and didn't have to share at all :)

This month James finally went from wobbly steps to wobbly strings of steps. He also started stacking blocks and rings. But lets be honest, the most exciting achievement this month was a full night's rest for all as James FINALLY slept for 11 hours straight.

12 Things About James

1. James falls on his face at least once a day. Most falls are due to poor balance but a good portion are due to sister abuse.
2. James used to eat anything but now throws all his food on the floor. Brody has a new-found interest in the boy.
3. James loves to dole out high fives. It makes him giggle.
4. There's nothing better than a hug from James. He lays his head on your shoulder and pats your back.
5. He now ventures down stairs backwards
6. James really likes tunnels. His teachers recently had to rearrange the classroom so that he would stop climbing through the cubbies and landing on his head.
7. He also loves to sit in baskets...wicker, laundry, you name it, he'll climb on in and hang out for a while.
8. After a few weeks of hating the pool, James is now a regular little goldfish. Swimming is the highlight of his week.
9. James has added "B" to his alphabet, and can now say book, bottle, and ball.
10. We're not sure James will ever learn to fully walk.  He took a few steps five weeks ago and got his fill of the whole thing.
11. James has seven teeth and sports a high-fashion gap between his front teeth.
12. Our little guy barks at both our dog and the neighbor's cat. When he wakes up, James woofs until we bring Brody in his room to say good morning.

I am One

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.