Día de las madres

We've been on the road a lot in the past week.  In anticipation of the Maine winters and A's new commute we have decided we need to get a 2nd car, which means driving around to dealers and trying to have rational negotiations with arrogant vultures.  Fun!  An up side was that on Friday we found ourselves near Cuyahoga Valley National Park, where we retraced our steps on a short hike through Beaver Marsh that we did last year when M was still on the post-C-section mend and had no business walking any further than the bathroom.  This time was better. Baby geese (goslings?) were observed, and the light sparkled.

Swamp snack.  For the last month or so Nora has been really into grabbing the face while nursing.

Winter hat and shorts?! What is going on here?

Those four top teeth have been getting longer and longer for quite awhile but we have somehow had a hard time getting them in photos.

Today we celebrated the second Boyardie Mother's Day. We started out the day with a candelit brunch in Little Italy. Nora was feeling very romantic.

I accessorized Nora with these velcro-clasped rings she's been enjoying lately.

After brunch we headed down to Chagrin Falls for famous Jeni's ice cream and a little more nature.  However we got caught up in this grand metropolis (pop. 3,620) and all its wonders so really we didn't hike, just visited the falls that are situated in the center of the town.  Nora enjoyed splashing around- hands only- in a natural body of water (eg not the bathtub).

I should start selling DVDs about how to calm your fussy kid: put her on your shoulders. Done.  But I'd have to somehow stretch it out to 5 steps.

This display of mother/wifely appreciation really made Mom's heart beat fast.  By the way this is actually an action shot, halfway to tree pose.

And here some other recent developments with Nora.  Several have been documented on video which waits, like so much other video, to be posted here.

• She shrieks with glee and waves frantically at any dog we come across.
• She is getting pickier with food but the issue seems to be mostly that she wants choices within a meal, rather than that she actually dislikes the things we've been giving her.  No more plate full of oatmeal alone for breakfast.
• She cannot tolerate a basket full of anything.  Laundry?  Pull it out, one garment at a time.  Bucket of toys?  She unpacks it like a TSA agent.  Well, better than a TSA agent.  Stack of important documents?  What's important is that they shall no longer be stacked.
• More recently evolved is the yang to the unpacking yin; she likes to hand us things.  Unwanted morsels of food, toys, pieces of bark on the ground, etc.
• After pulling herself up she can stand unsupported briefly, as well as 'creep' along edges, but that's been going on for 2 weeks.

Riding & Wrighting

Yay for nice weather!  A sunny weekend got us outside and all of the social stimulation resulted in several 'firsts' this morning.  One was clapping, which may have been precipitated by Nora being surrounded an enormous amount of applause yesterday at the local Big Parade.  We 'marched' with the folks from the local bike store.

Wacky dress and streamers for the parade.

A and Jon decorated our tandem bikes together.  Jon and Lea pulled Sam in the kite-trailer.  Creativity points for the diaper-hanging clothesline!

After the parade with Erika and Sylvia.  Nice tie-dye, Nora!

Today Mike & Libby came from Michigan and we visited the Frank Lloyd Wright house in town, among other local wonderings.  The other first (not pictured) was that Nora cruised impressively through the house on her push-walking-toy thing.

Frank Lloyd Wright Lawn

Studs

Nora and George both enjoyed Lulu.

Looking to the future with Aunt Libby

Gainfully employed

Happy news! Now all members of the Boyardie family have secured jobs for the fall. A will begin working at the local Waldorf high school teaching math and science. We're all back on the academic year calendar!

This makes Nora very, very pleased.

In other news, the relationship between Nora and George grows more interesting and elaborate each day. With think her gentle demeanor matches his passive kindness perfectly.

Here we have some tummy proof of Nora's champion eating. (Videos soon) Miss Pat from daycare told us that she has not once met a baby with an appetite as impressive as Nora's (and she's been working with babies for 30+ years!)

Celebratory Shabbat BBQ with friends.

One more hiking picture, hanging out with Mom.

One Morning in Maine

We just returned from a long weekend trip to get ready for our big move. We visited with new colleagues, toured our rental home, possible daycares, and gazed lovingly at the ocean. So much to catch up on, but here are a few photos in the meantime.

Our new home. Come and visit us!

Leading contender for Nora's new daycare. Great play-based curriculum. We love the big windows and open space.

And a couple of (rare) sleeping shots from our flights. M tries to impersonate a car seat and it works.

We have officially learned not to take Nora on flights past her bedtime. We thought she would sleep on the plane, but mostly she doesn't and instead screams. Daytime flights are much better for happiness and easy naps. 

We think her face is looking so old and expressive in these photos, don't you? 

Un año en fotos

On an unusually warm Spring day, we visited our local arboretum for Nora's first year photo shoot. When we first talked with Tanya about putting together a year-in-photos when M was still pregnant, we had no idea what our life would look like our baby was born, let alone how we would feel a whole year later. This link to our gallery will let you explore and purchase prints from the recent photo shoot, as well as the ones from our newborn, six-month and nine-month set. The password information is the same, email us or leave a comment if you need a reminder.  

all photos © 2000-2012 tanya rosen-jones. all rights reserved.

Spring Cleaning

Some new stuff, and some catch-up stuff.  Here goes.

First, new stuff.  Last weekend we had Nora's 1-year photo shoot on a beautiful day.  While Tanya took the Real photos (hopefully galleries will be up super soon!) dad snapped a few of the crew during the down moments.

Yesterday was gloomy outside but the Boyardies had a nice family day including a trip to the Cleveland Museum of Art where we had the gall to let our infant run rampant and screaming (she enjoyed the echo) through the galleries.  The neatest part was that most of the traffic was in only a couple areas and we spent time in a number of cool rooms (suits of armor for horses!) with zero or very few other people to be bothered by Nora's vocal experiments.

Then we ventured out to Cleveland's Children's Museum, which raised suspicions before we even entered due to the fact that it sort of looks like a bunch of temporary construction (eg mobile homes/tents) cobbled together. Museum, eh?  Inside was even weirder and sadder than we would have guessed.  Basically it's not a museum at all.  It's a low-tech chuck-e-cheez minus the pizza, with posters on the wall for parents, giving tips on how to play with your kids at the various stations (eg in the fake supermarket area, a sign reading 'as soon as your child can count, you should introduce her to the idea of money').  Kids screaming everywhere, a tiny empty bin reading 'if a toy has managed to find its way into your child's mouth, please deposit here for cleaning.'  In other words, they don't clean the toys.  Awesome!  Good thing we were all sick already.

Precarious position. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Fearlesscrow

Nora continues to get stronger with exploring and crawling all over the house.  At her 1-year check-up last week she was back into the <3 percentile for weight but even though she's smaller and slower on some developmental stuff, she continues to make steady progress on all the variables so we are just enjoying all the money we're saving on clothes.  Good thing head clothing isn't really popular, her head circumference is actually close to average.  Speaking of steady progress here are a few tricks she's been refining in the past month or so.

She totally made this lady's day.

Is being ticklish a trick?

Now some slightly old stuff...

Back on Nora's birthday party 2 week ago, I caught her in a moment of balloon bliss.

Finally, when we were in DC awhile back we took these Instagram photos with M's phone.  And now Instagram has been bought by Facebook!  Maybe Mark Zuckerberg and co. will take an interest in The Adventures of Baby Boyardie?!?!??  We're ready to sell out.

Some One!

What's tart, smooshy, and composed largely of milk?  Nora, of course!

Holy cow!  Friday was Nora's first birthday.  By now you may not be as surprised to hear that M has been secretly planning the party for many months now.  Strange colored paper would arrive at the house, I had no idea why.  Polka-dotted balloons have waiting for their special entrance.   Yesterday it was all rolled out for a lovely party enhanced by lovely weather.




Since it was the 2nd day of Passover we tried something fun and served mini cheesecakes with a Matzah base instead of regular birthday cake.  After candle-blowing Nora wasted no time in devouring her serving in one bite.

Eeeeeeeeeee!

First bite: sampling the raspberry while the cheesecake turned itself upside down in hopes of blending in and being spared.

Second bite:  "I do not like the raspberry, father. Nom nom nom!!"

I think there were 14 children at the party, seriously.

The usual suspects from Mama Cafe. Nora sports a Baba Malka sweater and a new headband from Bich Ngoc.

She actually tolerated the sun hat a little bit for once! I caught mom and baby doing some shared tongue faces but you can't really tell when the photo's this small....

Thanks everyone for your contributions!

The balloons felt left out and Nora took pity on them. 

Of course, Friday was the first night of Passover, and we were lucky to have Aunt Ev and Bisa Lina in town to help us celebrate both Passover and the birthday.  Our friends Cary and Lilli once again opened their home to us for the first-night Seder, but in contrast with 2011 when we brought 2-week-old Nora to find the Afikommen, this time M was actually comfortable enough to enjoy the meal without high doses of codeine.  Nora tore voraciously into matzo and gifelte fish, but we did not try out the horseradish on her.

Four generations

Happy Birthday, Nora!