Playing Catch-Up . . . Again

As usual, I'm behind, so here's a smattering of snapshots and stories from the past few weeks. First, a couple of Oma and Opa with Tor:

Learning to pass

Pajamarama!!

New blanket, blanket cover, and pillowcase = instanap (thanks, Oma!)

Party's at our place, kids

Helping DaDa with Saturday breakfast

Tor finally repeated his January achievement of pooping on the potty, so as Lars had been promising him for weeks, we took him out for ice cream. The kind where you get to choose your own toppings. Turns out he's more of a fruit guy than a chocolate guy, but he picked a healthy mix of options.

"Hey, this is soy froyo, not ice cream! No more toilet for me!"

Taking his seat at the Super Friends table

Fisherd

A chance to dance sans pants

I mustered my courage to hook up the bike trailer while Lars was at a conference in Vienna, and over the course of the week, I took Tor to day care, all over the neighborhood, and to a nearby regional park where we enjoyed a picnic and wildlife-viewing.

Tor was not even a little bit intimidating

Ready for our "hike"

Trawling for reeds

Falafel fiend

Also during Lars's absence, Tor and I enjoyed a visit with Mormor. We got deli sandwiches for a picnic at the park and Tor tuckered himself out.

Lower math

He groused until Mormor would take a turn

Did not want to leave his "fairy house" 

Five minutes after our departure

We got together with a few moms and kids from our Bible study at a local park.

Inventing a tetherball/dodgeball hybrid

Unequally yoked on the teeter-totter

Easter Retrospective

Tor's Easter week involved--count 'em--FOUR egg hunts: one with our mommy-and-me music group, one at Little Hugs day care, one at church, and one at our house after church. Fortunately for my data storage fees and this blog's reader attrition, we just have pictures of the ones at Little Hugs and our place.

At day care, Sonia helped each kid dye a hard-boiled egg with his or her name written on it in crayon. Then she released them to hunt for the plastic eggs hidden in the backyard, each with a treat inside.

"Pink for the 'Tor' egg, please."

It's a fine line between excitement and concern about what's
going to happen when those eggs come out

"Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!"

Circle of life: stuffing a chick with eggs

Too busy flirting to mug for the silly picture

Once the Sunday school egg hunt concluded, we took Tor home for an Easter brunch with Oma, Opa, Tim, Caitlin, Christina, and Caleb--the Oregon branch had rolled into town the previous Friday for our cousin Paul's wedding. Tor had been consuming Easter books voraciously for the week before Easter, so he was excited about celebrating the actual holiday. (Although it turns out that the Resurrection is hard to explain to a two-year-old, he got into the idea that we were happy Jesus is alive.)

Both awesomely and bizarrely, Superman and his pup Krypto were introduced into the mix when Tor opened a package from Ah-Bee and Pakka. After helping them punch through a brick wall, Tor conscripted them to hunt eggs with him. He ended up being a little disappointed that in our yard, far more eggs contained stickers than candy, but since we'd rehidden a few from the previous hunts, at least there were some hidden treats.

"WHOOOOOA"

"Leaping lizards, a superpunch feature!"

The mounted portion of the hunt didn't last long

Please don't call Child Protective Services

Opa with the assist

Inspecting the goods

By the way, photo credits go to DaDa for these

"THIS ONE HAS CANDY, MAMA?"

Eagle-eyeing the next target

Superman and Krypto were fading by this point

But Tor was still up for another version of the Easter story

Happy Easter! (sans Easter photos)

Bit of a hodgepodge again this month, I'm afraid. Who thought that keeping current on a blog would be tougher when Tor was two than zero? Not I, but strange to say, he's more constantly demanding now than he was then.

Fortunately, the demand is usually for me to play with him, which I enjoy; the hard part is convincing him to play by himself while I get any kind of meaningful task accomplished. So to all of you whom I owe emails: I'm sorry.

Lars pokes fun at me for not being able to sustain attention to anything else while Tor's around. Last night we took him to the climbing gym and tethered him to our harnesses while we belayed each other, and I got a way better belay than Lars did. (Tor was gung ho about it at first, gamely tolerating the chest harness, but lost interest after three "climbs.") I do have a tough time focusing while he's yelling, "Mama! Mama! Mama!" So we're going to have to train him incrementally to play solo at times. And to be patient when others are speaking or working. Easier said than done, I fear, for someone who cried every time he cried it out during sleep training.

The reason I like playing with Tor is that he is turning into a card. He not only laughs at the slightest provocation, he makes (beginner's) jokes. For example, last night, he showed DaDa his "prune fingers" after bath and good ol' DaDa, misunderstanding, said, "Poop fingers?" Tor about lost it. Then he came back with, "I put Dendro poop on my fingers and put it in bed! I put Dendro poop on DaDa's head!" (Actually, this may go to show that our whole family has a two-year-old's sense of humor. Life could be worse.)

Two other behavioral updates before I get to the photos:

1) Right now, Tor likes to say what things are NOT before he identifies them: "It's not a square. It's not a triangle. It's not a circle. It's a RECTANGLE!" "It's not an A. It's not a B. It's not a C. It's an F!" Same with animals, colors, numbers, articles of clothing . . . you get the picture.

2) The kid's also obsessed with pointing out similarities between things. I ask him what color a bird in a book is; he says, "It's blue! Like my agua!" I ask him what shape a cookie cutter is; he says, "It's a circle! Like that plate!"

These two probably go hand in hand as marking some kind of "categories" phase. It's neat to see him start grouping items by their properties, but I also (of course) worry about his identity formation in that respect--what's the loss if he also starts to view himself as "boy" or "young" or "white" or "working class" or whatever?

On a lighter note, the photos:

The comeuppance to a good whack on the slide

"STELLA!"

Eyes like augers

Saying goodbye to Great-Aunt Diana . . . and carrying on
her passion for all things chocolate

Now hell on wheels with a camera--thanks, Nick

We took a Saturday morning trip to the Stanford campus with Aunt Christina to see where DaDa worked, get Mama a library book, and mingle with the tourist groups.

"Impressive, but it's no Ivy League"

Freaky Friday, Hansen edition

Not pictured: Tor's incessant begging to jump in a fountain 140 feet below

"We're here to look at these rocks, right?"

Two toys that never mix well: Barbie ATV and ninja sword

We took a drive north to see Mormor, who took us to a park and cafe by the library.

"Focus. Focus. Do not fall through the hole again."

Dampness right of fountain attributable to
the kid in the sodden sweatshirt

Mormor found this way funnier than I feared she might

Big boy bed voyeurism

"Where my pockets, DaDa?"

For his birthday, Oma and Opa got Tor a gift certificate for a backyard play structure. We conscripted them to help assemble it last weekend.

The kind of guy who doesn't read instructions

Oma picked up all the Dendro bombs before green-flagging this

Three generations, two species

"May I please have snack in my fort?"

This aspect's going to take a little more time

Crafting his own very hungry caterpillar
at a toddler group we attend

Bet you haven't seen cray-pas in a while, eh?

Happy Easter to all! I'll do my level best to post some Easter photos next week. We've got a lot to sort through!