The frogs are croaking...

in the woods behind us and that apparently means only one thing here in Massachusetts: Spring has finally arrived. And it sure has. The sun is shining, there is a warmth in the air and the kids have replaced mittens and beanies with caps and sunglasses and sometimes even umbrellas.



The kids have been out exploring their backyard after the wintery wonderland has melted away. And look what they discovered:


- taken by Noah, March 25, 2009



- taken by Eva, March 25, 2009

Krokuses. Yay! there is no turning back now. And from what I've heard the weather is like back in Stockholm, I am pretty happy to be here. Hopefully we don't have a nasty snowstorm waiting around the corner to put a damper on our spring. But as i write the frogs croak happily away and well I am putting my trust in them.

What we have been up to:

Theo is completely into cars, trucks, anything with wheels. He pushes, he pulls, he hammers, whatever he does with them, he loves them. He is actually a lot more into toys in general then I remember noah ever being. Probably because with big brother around the amount of toys is more than twice whatever Noah grew up with. Theo is also working very hard on standing up and taking those first tentative steps. Whenever he gets a chance he pulls himself up and locks his knees. Sometimes he gets stuck and cries out frustrated before he goes toppling over. He is a furniture mover. Any chair, cart, easel that allows for movement will be slowly pushed or tugged over to another part of the room. He loves crawling under things. So more often or not I will hear a cry, run into the kitchen and find theo tangled into a chair, one leg over the lower cross support, one leg under. Head butted up against the seat of the chair and arms sort of bracing his weight somehow. I untangle him from the chair and before i have even put him down his little legs are moving just rearing to get in under that chair again. What he wants to accomplish exactly is completely beyond me.











He is our little social butterfly. He loves people. No matter how crabby he is, as soon as our neighbor April comes over, he shines up and puts on his best behaviour. Though this is a blessing, it is sometimes frustrating as nobody ever gives me the least amount of sympathy if he and i are having a bad day. All i get is "theo? No! He is so sweet. He is like the nicest baby I have ever met!" Argh!







Noah is our big boy. He is now a real bonafide little boy. He is completely enthralled with dinosaurs. He loves reading books about dinosaurs and talk about dinosaurs, where they might live, what they eat, how and why did they become extinct. He also plays dinosaurs with Theo, which is pretty funny to watch. Theo is either a t rex hunting noah or it is vice versa. Theo just sits in the middle of the floor bouncing up and down with a goofy smile on his face while noah is either running towards him or from him, making argh or help help noises. Great to see the boys enjoying each other, each in his own way.





Speaking of roleplaying, this is all that noah does now. If we watch a movie about penguins and a seal happens to hunt one (we were watching March of the Penguins on one of our sick days) noah is a seal hunting penguins for the next week. The next movie we watch might be a japanese anime movie with giant cat that is a bus and now we can't do anything without noah asking if we want to ride on his back as he is a cat-bus. It is truly wonderful to be part of this great imaginary world that blooms up wherever we may be.

He is also hard at work learning his letters and his numbers. He loves using his etcha-sketch to write his T's and O's. Which he has pretty much down. He also practices drawing a eights, which is two circles somewhere in the vicinity of each other. I of course am so proud of him.





Jensen is busy at school. Working, doing workshops and independent studies. He has met a lot of great people, both poets and fiction writers. When at home he is usually holed up in his office, typing away. I am really proud of him, his ambition and his discipline. I know it can't be easy get anything done hearing us down stairs having both good days and bad days. His work seems to be really appreciated by both his peers and his professors which is very encouraging.

I am whole heartedly enjoying this new phase of our life. I have now mastered the sourdough starter and starting to become curious about how to go about making your own buttermilk, filmjölk, ricotta, mozarella. We will see which of these crafts come into fruition. Well I am definetly going to try and make buttermilk and filmjölk. Especially as now it seems as though Theo does not have the same aversion to dairy as Noah does.

By the way, theo is my little eater. He LOVES everything I make. Ahhh, the 12 month old and their appetites. Poor Noah, he just doesn't stand a chance. Of course he is still going through the preschool age fobia of food. One day he loves fish sticks the next hates it. He likes mammas bacon but not pappas (there is absolutely no difference, but shhh don't tell him that). Desperately trying to avoid the pitfalls of becoming a short order cook, I am trying not to worry, but of course it is hard. If he only wasn't so slender to begin with.




- taken by Noah



Well that is our update for now. I will be posting again soon with photos from Grandma and Grandpa Beach's recent visit.