While the Father's Away...

In the absence of our husband/father, who's in New York City until July 8, Tor and I have been yukking it up both at home and in California. We're actually flying out to visit Lars on Wednesday, so I had to do a photo dump before they built up too much. (I learned that lesson after winter break.) 

Grandma and Grandpa sent a shipment of summer outfits for Tor, so now he's rocking the preppy-casual look like it's his job. Tiny flannels and Carhartts just don't scale down too well, but I assume that eventually he'll be a sartorial as well as physical copy of his DaDa.

Demonstrating his flair for accessorizing

 Tor is in a repeating phase that extends to activities as well as language. It's charming that he wants to help with chores, but hopefully he'll get better at them over time. Dendro gets pretty antsy watching each individual piece of food hit his bowl.

Not pictured: my foot covered with anticipatory Dendro drool

On our days together, Tor and I frequent the park by our house, which has a wading pool that provides hours of amusement. Tor prefers to stand at the edge and throw things into the AGUA! rather than to actually submerge any part of his body. He makes allowances for splashing on a case-by-case basis. That, plus a few laps on the jungle gym, usually exhaust him before lunchtime.

Studies in Somnolence 1

Studies in Somnolence 2: Sans pants

I only have one photo of our California trip so far, and am hoping our relatives will share theirs with me. (Andersen clan, you're on the hook.) Problem is, Opa wasn't wearing a shirt when I took the picture. Fortunately, I'm a wizard with Paint.

You're welcome, Mom

Tor was engagingly punchy after we got off the plane and back to our house, even in the 95-degree weather.

Acting out my recurring first-day-of-class nightmare vision

Last Saturday, we tooled around the house before having some buddies over for dinner. Tor discovered his remaining birthday party hats and insisted vehemently on figuring out the elastic for himself.

"Oh, can I help you with that, Tor?"

*RAGE BLACKOUT*

With elastic repositioned, recovery can begin

Graceful segue into xylophone concert by unicorn

With the Burnetts, Lindsay and Owen, Joe, Annia, and our friends Ben and Julia, we had a lazy afternoon. As lazy as you can be around kids ages 0, 1, and 2, that is.

"Guess I've got enough creeping Charlie to go around"

As the evening wound down, Madeline and Tor treated us to an impromptu jam session. M.J. discarded xylophone for drum early on, so with Tor's hand-clapping, the whole thing was heavy on percussion.

Flashes of O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Sunday morning, Tor was still feeling energized from the previous night's activities. This produced less-than-ideal church behavior, but he made up for it by flirting with our new pastor at the coffee hour.

And he doesn't even drink coffee

You can lead a horse to the staircase...

Day Care Interlude

The photographs for this post are courtesy of our incredible day care providers, Melissa and Ulises. I'm particularly tickled by the ones of Tor with the classic cars that Ulises restores. I wonder if auto sales would increase if advertisers marketed their cars using adorable kids instead of chicks posing in bikinis and stilettos. 

"Uno...dos...TRES!"

"Quit mugging and move it along, Stripes--here comes Big Trouble"

Felt boards: not just for Bible stories anymore

"Let's hit the soda fountain before we head to the drive-in"

Thematic shirt unintentional

"My whole birth experience cost less than this paint job"

Could be systematic...hydromatic...automatic...

Leather is a good choice for toddlers

A Sprinkling of Tor

In the past few weeks, Tor has surprised me several times. The first time was when we were sorting shapes (for the uninitiated, that means pushing squares, triangles, and so on through appropriately shaped holes in a little box). As I picked up each shape, Tor pointed to the correct hole--every time. In the past, I'd only seen him nail the circle consistently.

I was impressed, all right, but more ground remained to be broken: when I asked him to put the star through the star-shaped hole, Tor said, "No, MA-ma," and pointed to the hole, as in, "YOU put it in the hole." He'd never strung together two words before in my hearing, and since then he's repeated the formulation often, along with its "Dada" variation (and I don't mean the post-war art movement). Then this morning, he said, "Bye-bye, Mama," at day care.

Third surprise: Tor repeated his hole-finding precision with a wooden "modes of transportation" puzzle. This is not the kind of puzzle with interlocking pieces (he won't get those under his belt for another several months at least); rather, it consists of a board with discrete holes to accommodate each car/truck/plane. ("No, MA-ma" was heavily deployed during this activity.)

Fourth surprise: last Monday, Tor and I were hanging out in his room (he's staying home Mondays and Wednesdays now), when he ran to the closet to hide. The usual chain of events this kicks off is me asking, "Where's Tor?" and calling, "To-or! To-or!" until he jumps out, at which point I mock-scream and he giggles madly. Instead, this time he stopped at the closet door, turned around, and said, "Doo! Doo! Doo!" in the same rhythmic way you might count, "One! Two! Three!" Then he charged over and tackled me. (Fortunately, I caught him with my ninja-like maternal reflexes.) He repeated this game about ten times before collapsing for a nap.

On to the photos. We've had summery weather here and Tor's been practicing running, climbing, and generally stretching his outdoor wings. It's hard to keep him inside with the amount of steam he's got to blow off!

Your toddler: now with tool-using capability

Hansensanity!

How many Tors can you bench? Add him to your unit conversion list today!

"So, y'all are obviously putting these things IN your ears, right?"

After breaking the spray nozzle showing Tor some high-pressure agua, we busted out the sprinkler and stripped down the toddler.

Nary a fig leaf to be found in our yard

Regrouping for another charge

You can almost hear the giggles

Waiting for me to yell, "RUN! RUN!" before the spray overtakes him

This photo inspired me to take him for his second haircut

Over Memorial Day weekend, we went to Madeline Island, one of the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior, with our friends Lindsay and Dave, Aaron and Allison, and their kids Owen and Madeline (respectively). It was a blast. We took the ferry out, escaped the stiflingly hot Minneapolis weather, watched a crazy thunderstorm rage for hours, fished from shore and boat, ate good food, drank from morning till night, and got lots of sand in Tor's diaper.

"I'm on a boat!"

More gripping than the scenery: the wilds of Dada's beard

Collecting rocks to chuck in the water so he can yell, "SPLASH!"

Just before soaking himself to the skin in Lake Superior's frigid waters and being really, really cranky about it

Fishing with the boys...

...and building a fort with the girls