Two-Word Sentences!

The title says it all: Col is obviously highly advanced for his age! Ha ha. Actually, he is now saying a handful of words, but they're largely unintelligible except through context. He says "bye-bye" with a wave, "Hello doggie/duckie/Da-Da" (these all sound exactly the same), "all clean," and "all done."  I am no longer "mama" but "mummay," since Col's imitating Tor.

The animal noises are the easiest to distinguish from each other. For a horse, he clicks his tongue like hooves; for a lion or tiger, he roars; for a pig, he grunts (my favorite). We are working on cow. I've got to get some video.

Speaking of which, here are two older ones. This will surely motivate me to get more recent footage during this life stage of rapid growth and change. More on Tor in the next post--suffice it to say he's hanging tough.

December 2014: just learned to play a kazoo (excuse our messy room)

January 2015: just learned to blow his own nose (again, excuse our messy room)

Terrible quality, but captures him off with a book as usual

Books: even better with a buddy!

Col tries the web, undaunted by the playground specter
who frightened all the other children off this particular structure

Coffee/bun break while shopping for gardening supplies (or, "The Specter Unmasked")

Captured in mid-claw

"What're you looking at, horse?"

Right before attempting to fling himself from the moving
merry-go-round--no match for maternal reflexes

Not kid-related, but we had a partial solar eclipse and Lars's work set up a whole thing to watch it!

Multiple Personalities

One of Lars's colleagues recently asked me what the two kids' personalities are like. Of course any quick response to a question like that is reductive, but in short, I said Tor is sensitive and has wild mood swings, and Col is more happy-go-lucky and even-keeled. There are exceptions--Col certainly screeches to make his wants known, and Tor reacts calmly to bad news plenty of the time--but on the whole it's a good rough sketch.

"We made a pirate ship!"

Col is in a charming phase where he's eager to help with anything we're doing. Hanging up laundry to dry? Col will take it out of the washer and drape it on the drying rack. Getting cereal out of the pantry in the morning? Col will hand you each box individually along with his main utterance: "Ta?" Raking leaves? Col will snatch up fistfuls and sprinkle them near the yard waste bin. Opening a door? Col will open it for you. Then close it. Then open it. Then close it.

"I'm loud! I'm proud! Get used to it!"

Thigh rolls captured for posterity

Amazed to be riding the train at the zoo

Col has also taken a serious liking to reading. He'll hold out a book to us and not give up ("Ta? Ta? Ta?) until we take the book, put Col in our lap, and read it to him. Tor loved Good Night, Gorilla when he was about this age, and Col is super into it now. He's even been taking it with him in the trailer ride to school--that and a graham cracker, which is usually required to coax him into the seat.

He can, however, be distracted from his book

"I saw this dude in Good Night, Gorilla!"

Tor is unpredictable but when he's in a good mood, he's great company. He can be helpful, and I mean seriously getting things done, not just cutely pseudo-helpful like Col--setting the table, getting himself dressed, cleaning up toys, playing with Col while we're working on something else, sweeping the driveway, flagging down the bus. As I mentioned last post, he loves learning about new things, like what trees eat ("sunlight") and what an osteopath does ("help your spine and muscles"). He is also frequently funny, whether inadvertently or intentionally, and he generally does a good job describing things when we have trouble understanding him--which happens mainly when he learns new words.

Zoo train, part II

Reading a story about Angelina the mouse at a costume ball
Tor: Angelina's a girl, so she does a Quincy.
Me: Huh? What's a Quincy?
Tor (stands up): When you're a girl dancing, you stand like this and cross your legs. Then you bend your knees and put your hands out. Like this.
Me: Ohhh. A curtsey. And when boys dance, do they usually curtsey too?
Tor: No. Boys bow.

Reading an alphabet book
Tor: K. K-k-k-kangaroo. (pause) Kanga-POO!
(We laugh about this for a few seconds.)
Tor: A kanga-poo is a poo that jumps!

Happily playing Pooh sticks . . . five seconds before Tor
dropped his toy car into the deep, icy river and melted down

Basking in the limelight at his fourth and final birthday party

Post-party Spiderman Lego action

"Dad! Dad! Dad! Can we pleeeeease play rock-n-roll band?"

The Holiday Stragglers

The verdict is in: we not send a holiday card this year. Nor did we put out a holiday email. I didn't even manage to get the holiday photos on here until today. Apologies to all fans of the boys for thus reserving them from the public eye. You're effectively having the same childhood as Michael Jackson's kids, fellas, so don't say we never did anything for you.

The photos! These span Oregon, Nevada, California, and Oxford from mid-December to early February. They've only got captions, no narrative, since I just need to get them up and end the photo glut. 

A few new developments this month:

1. Col is saying a few new words that are completely unintelligible, but given the context you can tell what they are: "all done" after eating, "all clean" after washing hands and brushing teeth, and "Mama" when he wants me (that one's clearer, right up there with "DaDa").

2. We bought a car! So we will be exploring more of the country. First on the list is getting on people's calendars who live close by--the Lascus and Sunningdale Andersens can expect visits soon (if they'll have us).

3. Tor is very into "science" at nursery. I put this in quotation marks because he calls any kind of fact about the world "science." For instance, he told us, "We learned some science at school today and it was about owls. They can turn their heads ALL THE WAY AROUND to see behind them." (Lots of praise for being interested in this before we clarified that owls are not in fact like the little girl from The Exorcist whose head spins 360 degrees.)

I'll empty our camera for the next post and see what we find on there. Hopefully I got a few good ones of Tor's "friend party" (i.e., his fourth and final birthday celebration)--he got cake-sick and passed out 3/4 of the way into the party, but I'd still call it a success.

You'd never know the weather-related whining that bracketed this photo

Anticipation!

Birthday breakfast (pancakes by Opa)

First introduction to blindfolds--he's a peeker

"Follow my finger"

The seldom-seen contemplative side of Ironman

Orinda: Li'l Danish Chef

"Oi! Hands inside the vehicle!"

Don't get used to the sun, son, we're heading home soon

"I'm going to wear my trousers down HERE and
my new pants up HERE so you can see how cool they are."

Col was surprisingly gentle; Dendro was surprisingly tolerant. A success on all fronts.

Rolling beeswax candles for his teachers

A talking robot birthday card: who needs presents?

Baby GQ: Rugged Tot Edition

"WOOOOOOO"

Different day, same pose

Stopping for Ahbee cuddles before running off again

"Speak softly . . ."

"This will be my bed and the leaves can be my blanket"

Two haircuts, not alike in dignity, in fair Genoa where we lay our scene

"Peekaboo!"

Aunt Sunny spoiled the kids (and us--with dim sum!)

Adventure playground near SFO: getting the wiggles out

Right before the security guard made Tor get down

"This is our tent": winning friends all over the airport

Back in Oxford, our first visit to DaDa's lab

The verdict: needs more toys

Catching flies

First Oxford snow!

"Release me! I must play in this stuff NOW"

Ah, work. So peaceful with fresh snow . . . and no children.

"Anything you can do, I can do"

The suit remained miraculously untouched by
peanut butter, Gak, or snot . . . this time.

Unkempt hair runs strong in the Hansen bloodline