Toft girls' world tour comes to Madison

"My friends are my estate." - Emily Dickinson

My friend Nicole and her two girls, Jane (6) and Lucy (3) have been on a 5-week long road trip across the midwest and east coast visiting friends and family. This past weekend they stopped in Madison, just before the home stretch of their journey. It was so much fun to have them here. I feel like it has been far too long since Nicole and I had some time to hang out and catch up and it felt so good. All 4 kids (Zora included) slept in Owen and Zora's room. And they actually got some sleep, with Owen and Zora , of course, getting a little less than Jane and Lucy. We hit the farmer's market downtown on the Capital Square on Saturday. We got home in time for a little quiet time/nap time. Zora and Nicole were the only ones who actually napped and Nicole managed her nap while Owen, Jane and Lucy all played on the bed she was sleeping in. I always did envy Nicole's ability to take a nap just about any time, any where. We put the kids to bed early which left us grown-ups a little time to relax and talk - so nice. Owen and Jane and Lucy (mostly) had fun together. Owen and Jane worked together on several jigsaw puzzles while Owen and Lucy were just generally silly. Owen called Lucy "crazy Lu" and Lucy kept saying how Owen "likes to be silly with me." It is a little frightening how similar the two of them are in many ways, good and bad.

Having good friends around is so wonderful and it recharges me. When they left, Owen and Zora both were sleeping within 30 minutes and Ken went to work and the house seemed so quiet. I know that should be a good thing, but I was sad. I still haven't found a good friend here in Madison and I really miss the easy conversation and the ease of just being together and sharing all the little daily challenges of parenting and life in general. Thanks for a wonderful visit, Nicole. And thanks to all my friends far and wide who I never get to see as often as I like.

Here are a few pictures of the weekend:

Nicole reading to Jane, Lucy and Owen before bed.

Jane on Owen's old bike which was a little small - she made her first attempts at riding without training wheels shortly after this. Go Jane!

Lucy cruising on the trike.

The girls (with a little help from Owen) show off their map documenting their trip, complete with a polaroid (yes, a real old-fashion polaroid) taken at every stop.

Zo is on the go!

Zora is officially crawling. She has been pulling herself along on her belly for about a month now and she has been up on all fours, rocking and making motions. But yesterday when I came home from work Ken told me to sit down on the floor and hold out my arms and sure enough Zora came crawling across the floor with a big smile on her face. What a relief! She has been wanting to be on the move for so long and has been very frustrated with her inability to get where she wants to go. So now we have to get really serious about baby-proofing (which, of course, is a whole different ball game when there is an older sibling with a love of small toys in the house) and we will have to chase her around, but still it is a relief. Maybe it's just that I've forgotten already, but I really don't remember Owen seeming so anxious to move. Maybe it is having an older sibling that does it. Zora seems desperate to keep up with Owen already. She is in constant motion - when you hold her she turns and squirms and bounces and jumps. When she is up she wants down, when she is down she wants up. And she is pulling herself up on everything. Suddenly bath time is a real challenge because all she wants to do is try to stand up in the tub. And when you sit her back down she looks up with a smile that just screams mischief and then up she goes again. And her smile is so hard to resist. I think we are in trouble.

This was actually taken about a week ago before she was really crawling (and before it got ridiculously hot, as evidenced by the fact that Zora is actually wearing clothes).

She's pulling herself up on everything and starting to cruise a little too.

Bike crazy

Memorial Day weekend, Owen learned to ride his bike without his training wheels (the Hendicks' were visiting at the time and Katrina captured his very first 2 wheeled pedals on video. I will try to post the video soon). He picked it up pretty quickly and while he liked riding his bike before, he really LOVES riding his bike now. We have a small little loop that goes around the parking lot outside our house and he rides around and around and around pretty much whenever and for as long as we let him. He also recently checked out a book from the library called "Lance in France" and we have been reading it over and over again. Now he is joining Ken to watch bike races on versus and is eagerly awaiting the Tour de France. He has even started doing "tricks" on his bike - taking his feet off the pedals while he is riding. I'm getting a little nervous already and I've told Ken that he better not start encouraging him to ride on curbs or show him "hucking" videos online. I don't want Owen getting any crazy ideas.

Those of you who have been to our apartment know that we live at the top of a pretty big hill. Last week we went to pick up our first CSA share of the summer in the neighborhood just at the bottom of the hill. On the way home, as we rode up this very big hill, Owen stopped only once to rest. I was pretty amazed because this hill is not easy on the bike I was riding which had bigger tires and at least a few gears. Just before he got to the crest of the hill and was riding the steepest part he shouted out as he was pedaling "I'm. Not. Giving. Up. At. All!" And sure enough, he pedaled right over the top.

Since Owen has mastered riding without his training wheels on his 12 inch bike, Ken decided it was time to get him a new bike. Last week he came home from work at REI with a new 16 inch bike for Owen. Just what we need at our house - another bike. And Owen has already picked up Ken's insistence on keeping his bike in the house so it doesn't get wet, etc. at night. So now we have at least 3 bikes in our entry-way/living room at all times.

Owen and Ken about to leave for a Father's Day bike ride down by the lake.

And they're off.

Ken is falling behind already.

Father's Day

We had a nice quiet Father's Day here. Ken had the day off so we all got to spend the day together. Owen and I had planned to make a nice breakfast for Ken and I really had every intention of doing so. But too many days of not enough sleep for me left me with a horrible headache Sunday morning so Ken got up with Owen and Zora while I slept in (I've read a couple of studies that say sleep deprivation effects women worse than men and I'd say that is certainly true in our house). Zora is getting 2 or 3 teeth right now and has also figured out how to sit up and pull herself up to standing in her crib (and her favorite time to do this seems to be about 4 in the morning) so we have been getting less sleep than usual lately.

Anyway, a couple of months ago, Owen decided that Ken need short pjs and he wanted to get him some for Father's Day. You see, Owen has short pjs and he wanted Ken to wear short pjs too (and Zora for that matter - though he doesn't seem to care if I wear short pjs or not). Ken told him that he didn't have any short pjs and since that time, Owen has been saying that he will get Ken short pjs for Father's Day. So that is what we got. And it wasn't easy. Most pjs for men are long pants, not shorts. But I did find some and a t-shirt to go with it. As it turns out, it was a great present as it has turned hot, humid and nasty here the past several days and without a/c, sleeping has not been too comfortable lately. Ken and Owen went for a Father's Day bike ride down by the lake where they found lots and lots of toads to play with. A bike ride and toads, what could be better.

Owen, Zora and I went to the Farmer's Market on Saturday and bought 2 quarts of fresh strawberries among other things so we made chocolate strawberry shortcake for desert. We discovered this recipe last year when Joanna was visiting. I loved strawberry shortcake before, but add the chocolate in and it takes it to a whole new level. Owen pronounced that it was even better than cake (but, he added, it is not better than G.G.'s blueberries. Owen compares all good food to G.G.'s blueberries and so far, nothing has ever been better). It was a great way to end the day.

False start

Well, it has been almost a year since I tried to start this blog and although a wrote a couple of posts last summer, I never made it public. So now I'm starting again and this time I'm actually going to send out the link to people, hoping that will motivate me to keep it up. So check back soon and hopefully this will not be another false start.

A lot has changed since last summer. The biggest change, of course is that we are now a family of 4 instead of 3 since Zora came along last November. As many of you know, I found the infant phase to be quite a challenge. Now there were definitely parts of Owen's first year that I loved, but let's just say that as he got older, I found it easier to enjoy him. Well, having an infant again has been a gift in many ways. Having gone through this before and made it out the other side has given me the perspective to relax a little more and enjoy this time instead of worrying so much if it will ever get easier, if I'm the only one that finds this so incredibly challenging, if we will ever sleep again (which by the way, we still aren't), etc., etc. It has also broughtback memories of Owen as an infant and allowed me to see that time with new eyes. And watching Owen enjoy Zora and get so excited with all of her new devolpments - from teeth to pulling herself up - has also been a gift. Of course this is not to say that there aren't plenty of times I'm still struggling, frustrated and exhausted with Zora like I was with Owen. But knowing that it gets easier, that these challenges are temporary (and new challenges will come along) has made all of the difference.

Our first family photo - Zora, 9 days; Owen, 4 yrs

Owen and Zora, Memorial Day weekend 2009 (photos by Katrina Hendricks)