Thursday, November 20, 2008

Thirteen Months


Welcome Lena Clementine Jones, daughter of Rachel and Tony! Our new baby friend came into the world on Election Day in her first of many bold moves. Congratulations Bailey-Joneses!!

Also, Serena and Stephen Struble had a baby boy named Zachary Logan Struble on November 9. Congrats to your new family!

























At thirteen months, the Ivers boys have all kinds of new tricks and noises. Liam and Oliver both know that a cow says MOO and a sheep says BAA. They are working on MEOW and attempt it every time Lefty (our cat) walks in the room. When Liam MOOs, he puts his tongue between his lips and concentrates very hard before making a grunting noise that starts with an "M" sound. Very convincing. Both boys can locate their own belly buttons and have unfortunately found mine. Whenever we play "find the belly button," one boy eventually lifts up my shirt and points mine out. This is fine and even quite clever except in front of adult humans for obvious reasons. Oliver can find everyone's nose (including stuffed toys) except his own, and rewards you by giving your nose a big squeeze. Liam gives a gentle poke. When I tell Oliver "no," he shakes his head and continues doing what he's doing (usually poking around in the garbage) while laughing at how funny he is. Oliver said "Babcia" to Babcia Ivers and has said it a few other times while looking at her picture. To review, he still doesn't know who I am, but can successfully make several barn animal noises and say a Polish word. Hmmm... The boys also enjoy head-butting the cat. Oddly, the cat enjoys it as well. Liam has been saying a word that sounds like "DIT dee" for months, and I think he is referring to the kitty. While attempting monkey noises, Liam shouts glottal vowel noises. This is how I wake up of late. Grampa Scherer taught them "how big is ____? SOOOO big" and the boys do it while lifting their short little arms almost over their enormous heads. Liam's sign for "more" is a thumb poking at a flat palm (usually it is a finger pointing at the palm). Now that Oliver knows the sign for "more" he uses it almost constantly, from the time I get him out of the crib in the morning until bedtime. He looks so intensely serious about it at he jams his index finger into his hand as if to say "get on the food already, lady." Both boys love food. Any food. The other night (Dr)Uncle Ick came over and made a spicy Indian meal. Chris offered some bites to the boys and they went crazy. They were bruising their hands with their insistent signing of "more, more, MORE!!" We feed them what we eat- all except Thai because of the peanuts- and they love it.
Oliver got sick for the first serious time this month with pink eye and a double ear infection. We only found out about the ear problem because of the eye problem- when the doctor looked in his ears she was visibly shaken and couldn't believe the festering infection. Poor, tough boy.
















We had a fun Halloween and Gammy Scherer made adorable costumes for the boys: a Panda Bear for Ollibear and a Lemur for Liam. On the deliciously temperate holiday, our family made a pilgrimage to Main Street of Geneseo to march in the Halloween Parade with the Giorgises and a very pregnant Rachel. Dominick went as a super pumpkin and did many laps around the Bear Fountain while we waited for the parade to start.
When Gammy first brought the costumes over for the boys to try on, the sleeves and legs covered their feet and hands. Oliver had his bear suit on and was trying to crawl on the linoleum floor, and brought an entire room full of adults to tearful laughter when he could not grip the floor and looked like Bambi on ive with arms and legs akimbo.

Another exciting adventure Oliver and Liam had this month was helping their mom cast the first presidential ballot of their lives. Politics aside, I am proud of our nation for choosing a man from a humble background who is half African-American. Growing up with a Grandfather who, as a product of his generation, spoke about how the "coloreds" enjoyed using a separate entrance to his pharmacy in the 1930s and 1940s in the city of Rochester, I am excited that we have come to a place in American history where race is not all there is to a person. Also, I figure that in another fifty or sixty years a woman might have a chance of being elected! Speaking of Righteous Babes, go Aunt Nancy for traveling to Ohio to register voters!

Another exciting event was the party at Lauren and Erik's to welcome our continent- hopping parents home and see their photos from all over the world. Also invited were Aunt Nancy and Aunt Mimi.

We also went to a party at Chris, Cat and Logan Brent's house to see our good friends Al baby and Christy. The visit, as usual, was lovely and too short.

Our boys are now intrepid international travelers! We crossed the dangerous border to Canada this month for a get away vaycay in Toronto with Tia Lu and the Giorgis family. It rained cats and dogs the first day, and even though we planned on a trip to the Art Gallery of Ontario, when we saw the line to get in(outside in the rain and wrapped around several blocks of the building), we wheeled the strollers to a jazz club instead. It was the first time I've ever ordered a pitcher of beer and three milks. We all stayed in the Delta Chelsea, the hotel my parents took us to growing up, and we were able to swim in the pool, slide the slide that goes outdoors, and the boys were able to trash their first hotel room. (Don't worry, we picked it up- but try to imagine the havoc wrecked by three one-year-olds in such a small place.)

In other family news:
  • Paige Brent turned 5 years old and the boys spent a wonderful Saturday at the Brent house celebrating. Happy Birthday!
  • I am teaching a beginner yoga class on Monday nights. I enjoy teaching but am not quite ready to go back to the real deal yet.
  • We moved back into our house this month (after the other house deal fell through) and baby-proofed the living room so that the kids don't have to live in the baby cage. Renovations will start the week after Thanksgiving.
  • Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Happy First Birthday Ivers Boys!!



Can you believe these boys are a whole year old? I absolutely can not. What a year! Liam and Oliver went from loud and poopy dough balls to walking, speaking, laughing little boys. This month Liam became a dancing fool. He especially enjoys the beautiful and soothing melodies of electronic plastic toys. When these go off, he stands up on whatever surface he can and wiggles to the "music." Liam also became an expert clapper, pointer and yeller. The pointing is quite darling- his little hand is crooked like a very old man's and is generally dripping with drool as he points to everything and anything while shouting DA DA DA. Oliver has also become a successful clapper and also can make the signs for "milk" and "more." When our little Olibear dances, he moves his head back and forth like a soulful Stevie Wonder. He still enjoys all percussive instruments and has begun making a lot of "th" and "z" noises when he points. Both boys have successfully pointed out their dad, Lefty (the cat) and Poppy, but not mom. Both Oliver and Liam have also taken their first steps, but are still a long way off from walking solo (thank everything good in the universe.)
When we went to the Year One Checkup at the pediatrician's office, we learned that both boys are healthy and average. Well, except for their size. On the positive side, both boys are IN the curve for one-year-olds for their size; they are in the first percentile for height and the 14 percentile for weight (each around 20 pounds.) Their heads on the other hand are in the 70th percentile for size. Again, I'd like to stress how both Chris and I have adopted a biological deterministic stance since the findings about how enormous our children's heads are- and we encourage you to do the same.














This month we had a lot of parties. It's funny that we used to think that having children would change our social life- it has indeed made it much more social. The photos you see with the beer, pork products, polka dancing and silly hats are OKTOBERFEST! We paid money to get into a big tent so we could pay more money for drinks and food. Obviously, we had a blast. The gentlemen had so much fun drinking beer and eating pork that when we left, they bought more beer and pork and made another dinner at Tia Lu and Erik's house. It is important to teach Ollie, Liam and Dominick how to enjoy our German ancestry properly.








Another very fun grouping of parties this month were the Presidential and Vice-Presidential debate parties held at Tania and Scott's house. The election hoopla is quite frankly more entertaining than the Olympics. The watching of the debates was as fun as the debating that we all did before, during and after the televised programs. Hooray for American politics!!!



Some other parties we attended and threw this month were the various birthday parties for the prodigious number of Virgo and Libras we know. Tania, Scott, Babcia, Aunt Nancy, Megan,
Gammy Scherer, Julie Brent, Uncle Ick, Zio Jonathan, me and of course THE IVERS BOYS all had a birthday somewhere in September or October. We attended parties in Batavia, Rochester, the Tap and Mallet, and our home to celebrate.









Another exciting adventure we had this month was helping Tia Lu and Uncle Ick move into their very first and very beautiful home. Congrats! We stayed overnight at their house after their large and fun housewarming party.



Aunt Nancy came for one of her enlightening visits and we were able to head to Main Street, Geneseo to check out an Art Stroll. Of course she then kicked Chris and me out of our house to get Liam and Oliver all to herself.
Babcia and Grampy Ivers also visited to babysit the boys when I went into work for a day. What spoiled boys these are with so many relatives who love them!









The boys had their first trip to the airport when we dropped Gammy and Grandpa Scherer off to globe trot across three continents: Europe, Asia and Africa. Bon Voyage!

I've begun to spin the boys into my yoga web of late with my friends Sara, Maggie and Jean. We put the boys to bed, have a practice, then eat lunch or drink tea as the boys tear apart the Kelly or Cashman homes. Oliver and Liam are excelling at sleeping on the go, so I am able to enjoy the life of a stay-at-home mom to the fullest.

Liam and Oliver also took a trip to the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester with Tania and Dominick to check out some Russian Icons. They were all remarkably well behaved until we tried our luck a little too hard and went to a coffee shop. My boys were everywhere- pulling out electrical cords and grabbing neon signs- as soon as they hit the floor. Tania and I were outnumbered substantially by these little destructors and ended running for the door with screaming Boys tucked under our arms. I believe I was asked not ever, ever to return my patronage to this particular coffee shop. Unfortunately, I could not hear what the proprietor was saying over the noise of my children. He may also have been commenting on how cute their hats were.

Tania has started a new playgroup where we speak only Spanish. (Obviously I do not speak at all, except to agree or disagree. I say "si" and "no" very nicely.) Tania and her friend who lived in Spain are going to introduce Espanol to the boys!

We also had a fun and lovely morning picking apples at an apple farm with Katie, Johnny and Andy Scherer, and Tania and Dominick. It is so nice to have the cousins play! In the photos you can see how comfortable my children are with cages- they sprinted towards the animal gates as soon as they could and stayed there while the rest of the children played in the grass. Very curious phenomenon, eh? Perhaps it has something to do with the work their father does?






We had the boys' birthday party on a perfect 75 degree, sunny day at a park in Geneseo. It was a wonderful gathering of family and a few friends with good food and a tremendously generous outpouring of birthday loot. We had some out of town guests nice enough to make the schlep up north: Aunt Judy and Marty from downstate, Lipa, Chris Perry and KeithJones from the Binghamtons, and Joe, Katie, Johnny and Andy Scherer up from Pittsburgh. We also hosted some Buffalonians such as Aunt Nancy and Mimi and Aunt Kathy. And of course the Ivers, Brents, Reinerts, Joneses, our amazing babysitter Eileen, and the gorgeous Giorgises from Ithaca, Rochester and the Genesee Valley. Zio Jonathan stayed the whole weekend to hang with the boys and help us out. There were a ton of kids at the party who monkeyed around on the playground. The funniest moment came when the boys ate their first birthday cake. So, being the reluctant hippie that I am, I made them a cake without added sugar and with whole wheat flour. I spent literally hours on this project (I am not a baker by any means) and probably a couple dozen dollars on the ingredients. Obviously, the cake was the worst tasting thing in the history of dessert. Sand with frosting may have tasted better. But my sweet birthday boys ate it and pretended to like it. The rest of us ate the monster cupcakes shown in a photo that Tia Lu, Lipa, Rachel and I made with an excess of sugar and corn syrup products. These were actually quite good and enjoyed by all.



In other family news, we did not get the house we were hoping to purchase. Leave it to us to attempt to sell our house in the worst financial crisis since the depression. Oh well, now we just need to move back into our house with all of the stuff we took out to make it look un-cluttered. Maybe we can even baby-proof some rooms now and take the baby jail away. (Here's where you all respond with sympathy and platitudes about how it was not meant to be and the right thing will happen in due time. Thank you for your kind words in advance.)

Finally,
  • Best of luck to Rachel and Tony who will have their little Lena imminently
  • A shout out to Cat Brent who started back to work
  • Happy fall
  • Happy voting!!!!!