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!!!
