SFO > MSP

At the end of April, our dear friend Annia came out for a weekend. We tried to pack in all the activities we could while allowing for nap time (which really breaks up the day).

Homemade bagels in the park

Larger than life

"But where are the rocks, DaDa?"

Prepping for sweet English rave parties

Between visits here and there, we've continued our regular Newark diet of library and park visits. Here, Tor checks in with some denizens of the children's section.

"Watchoo readin', ninos?"

Bad parenting 101: photographing when you should be spotting

"MAMAWE ARE MUPPETS"

The Oxford libraries probably have costumes too, right?

Pre-Minnesota Mother's Day pop-in by Oma

Handmade with a little help from Sonia

No clue where he picked it up, but he's started to exclaim, "Oh, MAN!" when either stymied or excited. At first a sometime quirk, it got reinforced when he dropped his cheese off a bar stool, leaned over to look at it and said, "Oh, MAN!"  and got an uproarious laugh from all assembled. Now it's popping up at least five times a day.

"Green playdoh! Oh, MAN!"

We stayed much of our recent two-and-a-half-week trip to Minnesota with our friends the Burnetts, including the irrepressible Madeline. She and Tor fed off each other's crazy, but in an overall great way that makes me hope they'll keep hitting it off every time they visit. Tor was also wild about MJ's sister Greta, who's just about ten months old and the smiliest chunk of baby you'll ever meet.

Whatever MJ gets, Tor wants . . . up to and including pigtails

I assure you this activity is much scarier to look at in person

The drama continues at the Children's Museum, enveloping Owen

About to get nailed in the belly with a perfect underhand spiral

Some of our buddies here got together and spent three days helping Dave and Lindsay redo the roof on their garage. Tiffany likened it to an Amish barn-raising, in which the men do the hard work while the women watch the kids and cook. We've come a long way, baby.

Lesson #1: Don't walk under the ladder

Sawdust, we discovered, is a lot like velcro

Tor's near-contemporary and comrade in size 4 diapers, Sonia, joined us for a day of shenanigans. If Tor is tricky to capture with a non-blurry photo, the pair of them is nearly impossible. We were delighted to learn that Sonia's dad will be doing a postdoc in Cambridge for our first year and a half in Oxford--I predict we'll get to know the bus route that connects the cities well.

Right before Tor's bricks slid out from under him

The mashed potatoes inexplicably did not pass muster

And back outside for pirate training

An evening of pizza and wrestling at the Lascus's

Of course, we also got together with Tor's beloved first daycare providers, Melissa and Ulises. Tor spent a day at their house and visited with me another morning, and we got to take them to dinner one night along with Dave, Lindsay, and Owen (who now attends My First Steps). They surprised Tor with a tiny Gophers basketball uniform, so he'll be the hippest expat in Oxford.

Abandoned the highchair after appetizers

Stone-cold sober and insisting the shorts are a hat