Two Getaways

As promised, I've procured the photographic evidence of Tor yukking it up on both coasts. First up is his time with the Andersen clan in California. After a great barbecue party at Erik and Heather's in Orinda, we slept at Grandma Betty's and headed down to a Pacific Grove rental only a few miles away from Mormor's house in Carmel.

Holding court at 15 Southwood

Our family descended on the Pebble Beach Club for lunch as only an army of hungry Scandinavians can. Nearly everyone had been there at some point with Mormor and Morfar, so it holds special memories as well as serving food fit for gods. Another evening, we also enjoyed dinner at Lugano's Swiss Restaurant, another of Morfar's favorite places to bring guests.

We can Photoshop Lars in for the Christmas letter

Steven and Yuqin chartered a boat for the family so that we could scatter Morfar's ashes off the coast of Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey. We sang a few hymns and left a trail of roses in the boat's wake--I think Morfar would have liked it. Tor was a little put off by having to don a life vest, but his good humor returned when he was allowed to drive the boat for a stretch.

"Why aren't YOU all wearing these?"

Slight correction by actual captain

The rental home was absolutely massive, and since we were feeding upwards of 25 people, we tended to congregate there.

Showing Aunt Caitlin his stuff

The premise of Connect 4 still escapes him

And since the fog held off for nearly our entire stay, we spent plenty of time outside.

All that fresh sea air, etc., etc.

Gymnast in the making

Tor's first album cover?

Bubbles were a HUGE win (thanks, Aunt Heather!)

And thus was Tor ostracized at our Danish family picnic

His sense of object permanence forestalled a serious freakout

Way too early in the year to be playing St. Nicholas, buddy

Interlude: This is from a couple of months ago, but I found it on Lars's phone and thought it was cute enough to post. Take that, chronology.

"Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm," if you know
what I mean

Upon returning home from the reunion, Tor and I generally hung out and did some packing. Nothing too exciting, except for a couple of good dinners with friends. Then we took off for New York. The first night we were there, we got to have dinner with Rhonda Hadi, my best friend since first grade/maid of honor/behavioral science PhD candidate/generally excellent human being. We hadn't seen each other since our wedding--which, the numerically minded among you might recall, was ten years ago that week. It was definitely a highlight of the trip; the only downside was that she departed the next morning for a conference in Europe! Terrible timing on Tor's part.

"Wait, so who is this again?"

One outcome of this trip: we can say with certainty that we never want to live in a studio apartment with a toddler, especially when it's 95 degrees out and there's no air conditioning. Tor morphed into a sweaty human pinball in the tiny space, and the only relief came from plunging him (and one's self, usually) into a cold bath. So we tried to spend a lot of time at parks, museums, or restaurants. 

Finally figured that holding on is the key to swinging comfort

Admiring himself (and one facet of Saraceno's Cloud City) atop the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fambly!

The American Museum of Natural History: Inadvertently giving kids
weight-related complexes since 1869

Predecessor of the arcade's claw game

"Not as cuddly as you pictured, are we?"

Making a break for the Malachite

Doppelsnooze on the way home from visiting DaDa's work

Lars gets home tomorrow, and then the push to the finish begins! Four weeks remaining in Minnesota...and not a little to do.

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