Bloggers Block

I have total bloggers block and really don't feel like posting a darn thing.  But I have some crazy cute kids, so I'll just post a few pictures and call it good for tonight.

Love this little girl

Saying Cheese!

Wordless(ish) Wednesday

Sammy injured his nail a couple of weeks ago. They had to put him under to remove it. Hopefully it will grow back. This was him the night we got him home. He's doing fine now, but he looked pretty sad with the big bandage on!

Nature Center

I'm behind on posting. We've been fighting colds, feeling somewhat better and then feeling worse again. I'm hoping this week goes better.  Here are some pictures I took of the kids at a nature center a couple of weeks ago.

Upstairs they have a room with these huge windows. There are a lot of bird feeders, so lots of birds. But there are also turkeys that come around. The last time we were here, we didn't get to see them, but this time the turkeys came around right away!

 In the next room, they have more big windows, but they also have bee hives. There is one outside and one inside! The bees come in through a tube and there is a panel that comes off, so you watch the inside of the hive. The kids were fascinated with it!

 They also have tanks on the first floor with turtles, frogs and snakes. Here is Edith checking out the turtles.

15 Months!

My baby is 15 months!  How did that happen? She walks, she talks (some) and she makes us laugh every day!

She loves her brother so much. She thinks Sammy is ok, but only when she remembers he's around.
She LOVES to unroll the toilet paper in the bathroom.
She likes eating with a fork. Sometimes she'll just hold it while shoveling food into her mouth with her fingers.
If she sees me, she prefers being held and comforted by Mama when she's upset.
She likes to scream - just for no reason or to see if she can get her brother to scream along with her.
She likes to go down slides and swing. She loves to be outside.
She loves to eat food. Almost any kind of food, but not apple pie.
She loves to give her baby doll kisses and hugs. She loves to make kissing sounds when she gives you a kiss.
She waves and says night-night before going upstairs to sleep. She'll say it to Eddie, to Sammy, to the tv, to pretty much anything.
She loves to dance.
She'll hum when cuddling. It's the same hum that I have been humming since she was a baby.
She likes to climb on the couch and jump and scream. It's even more fun when Eddie joins. It's funny when we tell her no and to sit - funny to her that is.
She likes to hold Eddie's hand when we walk from the parking lot to a store.
She likes making truck noises when playing with cars and trucks.
She'll repeat lots of words that you ask her to say, but when you ask her to say "thank you", she simply does the sign for it.
She sleeps through the night. She sleeps for 12-13 hours.
She's amazing. She's silly and funny and beautiful and smart. Oh boy is she smart! She observes and learns. I am so grateful everyday that she is in our family!

And all I can think is - she is Eddie's age now, when she was born.  How did I ever survive?!!!

Say What?

Edith has been starting to talk more and more. We've sort of stopped introducing any more signing.  She hasn't really picked up too many more new signs, and it attempting to actually say words. Currently words she can say are:

• please
• no
• yeah
• Eddie
• Mama
• Dada
• up
• hop
• JoJo

She will often try to repeat words if you ask her, but some words she just laughs at you when you ask her to say them.  One that I try daily is "Sammy". I do it for my own amusement now - it's almost like she laughs because she is knows she can't say the word!

Eddie on the other hand is a talking machine. The stuff that he comes up with is so funny sometimes. I really want to get better at recording what he says - especially the funny stuff.  Lately he has been very vocal when he doesn't want you doing something.  He'll say "Don't do that Mommy" when I sit in the wrong spot. Or he told Uncas to "Stop doing that" when Uncas was making the beeping sound while backing up the car!  He will also talk to Edith a lot which I find interesting because she doesn't really respond to him (unless you count ear piercing screaming when he's taking a toy out of her hand while asking her and she's not done with it).

Eddie's imagination when he plays is astounding to me! Last week he was using his toy phone and calling Daddy to get his order for "Old McDonalds" (which is what he calls McDonalds). It went something like this:

Yelling into the phone

"Daddy, do you want Diet Coke for your order at Old McDonalds?"

"Daddy, do you want a hang-gerburger from Old McDonalds?"

"Do you want pizza from Old McDonalds?"

Mama: "Old McDonalds doesn't have pizza"

Eddie: "oh" pause "Do you want chicken from Old McDonalds?"

I'm hoping to try and write down some funny things both kids say and feature them here more often.

Weekend at Papa's

This past weekend we headed up to Duluth to hang out with Papa! We haven't been up there as a family since April and at that point Edith was just crawling. We were lucky to have really nice weather, so we spent as much time as possible outside enjoying it!

Learning how to sit in the little rocking chair.

She figured it out!

Saturday morning we went to Two Harbors which is about 20 miles north of Duluth. They had a couple of big train engines, which the kids, especially Eddie loved checking out.

We also were able to tour a tug boat.  Unfortunately I didn't think to take any pictures when we were on board (primarily because I was holding Edith), but I did take one from a distance before the tour.

We ate lunch in Two Harbors and then headed home for nap time.  Edith decided that afternoon naps were for suckers, so she hung out with Uncas, Papa and then Mama after I got up from my nap.  Once Eddie was awake, they snacked on apples from Papa's tree.

We then headed to Duluth to see some hawk migrating.  I don't know if they were really high in the sky or what, but we saw no birds at all!  Eddie really wanted to play at a park, so we drove to Uncas's childhood park - Lester park and played there for a while.

Eddie running to reunite with Edith

Yay! I found you!

When we got back home, Papa finished up dinner while we hung out outside.  Edith was still not really happy about sleeping, so it took her a bit longer to fall asleep.  The next day we just hung out around the house.  There is lots to do and see at Papa's.

Checking out the apple tree

Eddie being a forest guide while we hiked to the beaver pond 

Dried up beaver pond

Checking out Papa's ATV

After sitting on it with Papa, he decided he only wanted to go on it with Daddy

Going for a ride on the ATV with Daddy

Edith is beyond excited to be riding the ATV

Everyone, but Edith enjoyed a ride on the ATV.  Although Eddie was a little unsure at first, he ended up loving it and wanted to keep riding it!  But we needed to head home. So, we'll just have to go back up there again soon to have more fun with Papa!

First Day of School!

As I had mentioned before, last week was a big one for Eddie. He got his first haircut and then he started his first day of school!

I should back up a little, because it's not actually school-school.  This summer I was talking with one of my mom friends from the MOMS Club that I belong to.  I was saying that I wish Eddie could go to some sort of  school thing this fall, but the potty training* thing kind of ruled that out. My friend mentioned that her daughter was going to a preschool once a week, and you don't have to be potty trained!  I instantly made her tell me all about it!  As it turns out it's a program at one of the churches in South Minneapolis called Friday Mornings Out.  It was designed to give stay at home mom's a break during the week and it's open for kids ages birth thru pre-K. They go to "school" on Friday mornings from 9 am-12 pm. As a way to keep down the cost for this program you have to volunteer about once a month. The great part about volunteering is that even if you have another child not in the program, you can bring them with you when you volunteer.

I was immediately sold on this and once I received the information, I followed-up. We took a tour and I knew this would be perfect for Eddie.  He is in the 3 year old classroom which starts to have a little bit of structure. Fortunately two of his good friends from playgroup are also in his same class.

He was very excited to start school.  He was bummed that he wouldn't be riding a school bus (he pretends that I am his school bus driver and that our car is the school bus). We picked out a Thomas backpack and lunchbox, which he loves to carry around the house! Leading up to his first day he had asked me if I would be going to school with him too.  I explained that I would be dropping him off, but I would always return to pick him up.

As the first day approached, I started freaking out! I couldn't believe that I suddenly had to worry about sending him to school, worried about him paying attention, making friends, packing his lunch - it was overwhelming me. But instinctively I knew that this was the right thing at the right time. It would be good to have the break and I was looking forward to some one-on-one time with Edith.

He was very excited on his first morning. Here are some pictures before we left for school. I hope in another year he'll be a little bit better about posing for school pictures!

Standing by Daddy

Showing off his Thomas lunchbox - we didn't even bring a lunch the first day!

I asked him to hold it up - so it went in front of his face.

I told him to lower it, and here he is swinging it down.

And now it's back up again.

And then as I tried to get Edith to pose by him, he walked away.

When I dropped him off - he did fine. He made a beeline right for all the cool toys in his room. His teacher was very nice and patient and showed him where to hang his coat and backpack. His other friends showed up quickly and he immediately started fighting over a toy with his friend Emilee. The teacher quickly made her way over to take care of the situation and I decided that was my cue to leave. I was grateful to not have to break up a fight for a change!

Edith and I headed home for a couple of hours. The first day was a shorter one. We played, cleaned, did laundry and started packing for our weekend. She seemed fine without having Eddie around. I think she liked having all the toys to herself.

We got there a little early when we picked him up.  They were outside playing and Eddie seemed to be enjoying himself. When they came inside and going up the stairs to the classroom, Eddie noticed all the parents and looked around.  I waved and he got a huge smile on his face. He didn't really want to leave all the toys in his classroom, but he seemed happy to go home too.  In the car I asked him questions about the morning.  Throughout the rest of the I got other pieces here and there. He was pretty wound up when we got home, which wasn't surprising. I did my best to let him do what he needed to do. I have a feeling this might be a challenging time each week when he gets home.

I'm looking forward to this week's FMO and I am pretty sure he is too. I'm glad we decided to ease him into the school setting. I know that it's good for him to be around other kids and to be away from me for a little bit each week. Somehow this week my little boy seems very grown up! How did this happen so quickly?

*Just to clarify, we haven't even started potty training Eddie. While there has been some interest, up until recently, there haven't been a lot of signs that he is actually ready.  Rather trying to force the issue and make the process long and painful on all of us, we have chosen to wait until we really feel it's the right time.