Well, he's not drinking any milk at daycare--yet--but he's enjoying himself, doing well with the solid foods, and increasing his apple juice consumption. Everyone's sleep has definitely suffered, but it's only been three days...we remain hopeful that we'll all weather this transition with intact minds and bodies!
The daycare providers, Melissa and Ulises, shared a few photos with us.
Speaking of photo sharing, I meant to post this link months ago. It's to the album for our six-month photo shoot with local photographer and buddy Nate Grahek. I think he did an excellent job and it's nice to have these memories of our family at that point!
We've had an eventful past two weeks, which included trips to the Boundary Waters for canoeing, to Orange County for Lars's grandfather's funeral, and to the Bay Area for my sister's wedding. Let me tell you how it went down in chronological order. As you saw on the previous post, we prepped for canoeing by testing Tor's personal flotation device in our bathtub. It was so buoyant, we couldn't even flip him completely over.
Our three buddies flew into Minneapolis on Friday night, 8/26, and we started the five-hour drive north at 3:30 the next morning. We were at the outfitter by 8:00 and in the water at 10:30. That day, we canoed on four lakes with four portages, arriving at our campsite about 5:00 p.m. Tor was bummed to sit still for that long, but we tried to give him a few breaks while we ate lunch and stopped for a swim.
Wrangling Tor was a great excuse
not to pull my weight on portages
Our setup involved Tor and me or Lars in the middle of one canoe with Lars or me in the front and someone else in the back. Tor alternated between sitting on a lap and in his bouncer (not strapped in, of course). The other canoe held the two remaining guys and most of the gear. In practice, I ended up spending the most time in the middle, since hours in a life vest can be enraging, but nursing makes it all better.
The only one who didn't get a tan
Four geologists and a map = plenty of time for a snooze
We kept our first campsite, on an island, for two nights and then moved for the third. Both sites were awesome and situated so we could make shorter fishing trips.
Lawrence of Suburbia in the wild
We got a big sheet at Goodwill to stake down for crawling. Tor was most curious about its edges and the pine needles and dust beyond them, so we tended to place sentries on multiple sides.
Dirty hippies in action. Here, Tor eyes his godfather's wine cup.
The rear end of the Nalgene is the less tasty end
Fortunately, the bears on his PJs didn't attract the real deal
Impromptu bikini feeding
Everyone except me hooked a fish. (To be fair, I fished the least because I Torred the most.) We fried up some fresh pike every day. Below is Lars with his biggest catch: 23 inches, with baby for scale.
Words are inadequate to this
So, great trip. 12 hours after we returned to Minneapolis, we were in the air headed to the OC. Although it was sad to say goodbye to Grandpa Al, we enjoyed many precious interactions with family. Tor met his Ottobre cousins for the first time, and we're looking forward to more interactions over the holidays. (If anyone has pictures of Tor with family, would you send them to me, please? I'd love copies--digital or print.)
The very next day, we headed up the coast to the Bay Area, where Tor's Tante Christina and her fiance Caleb were to wed on Saturday. Thus ensued another wonderful period of introducing Tor to his relatives. He got a kick out of Cousin Elsebeth from Denmark:
who gave him the sweet wooden race car he's eyeballing here, while framed by Mormor and Morfar.
The day of the wedding, Tor arrived with bells on to help the ladies dress.
"I just picture-messaged Caleb a preview! Woo woo!"
Here we are post-ceremony with my gorgeous, radiant sister, our newly minted brother-in-law, and my irresistibly riveting bouquet:
They've yet to make a hat adults and eight-month-olds
can share without one party losing out
Once back home, he started sleeping nearly through the night again, thank goodness!! BUT. He starts daycare tomorrow, 8 to 5, five days a week. So we'll see what kind of wrenches that throws in his schedule. He is now very mobile and pulling up to a standing position on anything he sees, so I think he'll have fun in the daycare's completely baby-proof environment.
Elissa, why the hat, you ask? To cushion his
sad, bruised head, I reply.
From Aug. 5-12, Lars, Tor, and I hung out with the Karpluses (and those entrapped by our wiles) in Three Rivers, Oregon, about 15 miles from Bend. It was an awesome week for unwinding, enjoying natural beauty, and catching up with/getting to know each other better.
Left to right: Christina, her fiance Caleb, me, some guy I know, Tim, his wife Caitlin, and my mom Karen
Needless to say, our little ham reveled in the attention.
The perennially popular Opa ride
Funny, Opa heavily censored Hop on Pop when he was the dad
Favorite aspect of the multi-featured Little Penguin: its tag
Great, now the hands are free for havoc-wreaking
Both Hansens remained skeptical of the
Lava Cast Forest's geological narrative
Repping for Tante Caitlin's med school--can we get some free pens over here?
"A stroll! Oh boy oh boy!"
We checked out a waterfall near our rental house and took a few family photos.
Oma and Opa brought along a sleeping bag that we parked Tor on while we had adult time. He's legitimately crawling now, though, and he was close then, so he tended to stray.
To cap off the trip, Lars, Tor, and I joined my dad in a long-realized dream of hiking up South Sister (10,358 ft; 6 miles and 5,000 vertical feet one way). Boy, do we need to get more exercise. Dad jogs five times a week and was fresh as a daisy. Lars and I were sore for the next five days. Tor did better than expected, but it still took us 11 hours car to car.
First water break
See that mountain behind us? It was tough to walk up.
For the final mile and 1,000 elevation gain,
the kid insisted on riding in the front carrier
With the summit behind us! (I'm saving the good view
photo for the Christmas card. Take that.)
Scree: even worse on the way down (note Tor
occupied by rattle attached to pack with dental floss)
Definitely the two happiest of the four hikers at this point
Working on the calorie deficit from his trek
Next post: Tor goes canoe camping with five dirty hippies! Styling his nautical best:
What with finishing up the summer term, wrangling the tiny one, and traveling to Oregon for Karplus family time, I have been terribly remiss in keeping TorTales up to date. Here are some snaps from our month in Minneapolis between flying to San Francisco in July and heading to Corvallis in August.
A few mentions of moment: Tor has made it onto his knees (without forward motion) and popped out not one, but two bottom teeth! Nursing has begun to produce anxiety, but hopefully I can train him out of nipping (literally).
"Okay, what now?"
Unfolding the laundry
Tooth photography: harder than you think
Solid foods continue to be added to the repertoire. The list now includes rice cereal, banana, apple, apple juice, avocado, raspberries, squash, and sweet potato. He has not yet gotten the hang of the pincer grasp, but that's supposed to roll around by ~8 months, so he's got a little time.
All set up to toss some avocado onto his pants
It's been oppressively hot and muggy in town, and when Lars's adviser invited us to his cabin an hour north of Grand Marais, we jumped at the chance to get away for the weekend.
Stopping for pizza and a brief wiggle
A Superior baby
Scaring away Daddy's fish (excuses, excuses)
For one so small, Tor is a surprisingly harsh taskmaster
