O Tannenbaum

When we put up the tree a few weeks ago, Myka was so excited to decorate she couldn't wait for all of the lights to be put on before she started hanging ornaments. I asked her to "put them near the bottom" of the tree so I could finish stringing the lights around the top.
Merry Christmas from our literal angel!

Smile for me, will ya

A few days ago the kids were both wearing blue and looking rather adorable, so I thought I would try to get a nice Chirstmasy picture to possibly put with our Christmas letter this year. Kurt was gone, so it was just me trying to get them set up, looking in the right direction, smiling, and actually click the camera while all this was going on. Luckily, with the convenience of digital cameras, I was able to just snap away and see what we could come up with.

And since Eli was clearly not cooperating, Myka thought a stand-in baby may work better. So here is our kid picture for 2008. Merry Christmas!

First Food Fun, No Notes Necessary

Thankfulness

Despite my lateness in reporting, we did have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday. Myka and Eli managed to see both of their first cousins, all 4 of their aunts and uncles, a great uncle and great great aunt, all 6 grandparents, and 2 of 3 great grandparents in the span of 1 week. It was fun to think about how just a year ago we were wondering what life would be like with 2 little ones and trying not to let anyone notice I wasn't drinking the wine.

We are blessed.

All Smiles...almost

Last weekend we took a quick trip to the Cities for a couple days away while Kurt had some time off. We spent some time in the hotel pool and hot tub, the Mall of America, and the Como Zoo. It was wonderful, and Myka is at a fun age to vacation with (well, for the most part). She had been to the "big mall" almost a year ago with some Seminary friends and remembered being there. Then she was much more hesitant and in awe of everything around her. This time she was eager to try each ride and went on her favorites again and again (and again).

If you look close, you can see that we were pretty much the only people there. It was a Friday morning and we walked onto every ride since school was going on. This was fun for us but Myka was looking for "friends" to ride with. Particularly Aiden and Alexa who were with us the last time.

The ride above seemed to be her favorite of the day. It lifted her up about 20 feet in the air and then bounced its way back down to the ground giving about a fourth of a second of weightlessness for every bounce. She went on it about 26 times in a row at one point.

Then we came to the mini bumper cars. This was one we couldn't ride on with her unless we paid, so we explained it to her and the worker explained it to her and then she was on her own. She pushed the pedal and got it moving, and even steered a little bit until crashing into the back corner. Then she was stuck. We were all trying to tell her to turn the wheel, which she would do a little bit, but then turn it the other way. Eventually, each time she actually started to turn it, the park worker would say, into his microphone, "keep turning. keep turning. keep turning. keep turning." And this wasn't like motivational or enthusiastic in any way, it was more like "Bueller. Bueller. Bueller." of the Ferris movie. Kurt and I couldn't hide the laughing fits we were having. Myka was not amused in any way.

And of course, she was the only one on the ride.

Eli spent much of the trip in his car seat. Luckily he is happy in there. He got some good naps in while I pushed him around and did some shopping.

Finally...

With a little help from Kurt and I, Myka managed to fill up her marble jar last week. She has been working for quite some time to move marbles from a bowl to a cup to earn a trip to ChuckECheese. Standing in her way was her love for the word "poop" and the tendency to scream at random. I wanted to make the trip to CEC over the lunch hour on a weekday knowing that it wouldn't be crowded and Eli would be in a better mood than dinner time. Kurt took a few days off last week so we secretly decided to shoot for Wednesday and made a point to get the marble cup full by then. Lately she had been doing pretty well and deserved the trip, but we were a little creative in the last 24 hours finding ways for her to earn marbles. I'm not sure that "you walked by Tetley without hitting him" deserves a marble, but whatever works I guess. (I'm kidding here. Well, kind of.)

When we got there, there was only a birthday party group and two other families. By the time we had eaten our pizza we were the only ones in the whole place. We knew it was the slow period of the day when the workers started playing the games. It was a perfect time to go and we had a great time. Now we just hope it doesn't take too long to fill the cup back up so we can return.

Hyst"hair"ical

I've mentioned before that bath time is particularly funny for Eli. It was a normal night of getting ready for the bath when he first giggled for us, and always a time of joy in an otherwise cranky period of his day. Tonight was no exception. The video was taken after about 5 minutes of chuckles, when I was sure he had no more to give but just kept on laughing anyway. All I'm doing is saying, "That's not food!" because he was trying to eat his washcloth. But I think what actually brought on all the giggles was the way I was shaking my head as I said it. Since I swam tonight and had to wear a stocking cap home, my hair was kind of all over anyway, and it made for extra craziness when I shook it around. Luckily for me, there are no pictures of that!

Enjoy!

Quotographs

"Is this heaven?"

"We're Ba-ack..."

"Because we're good enough, we're smart enough, and doggone it, people like us!"

"Hey, hey, watch. Watch me. Watch what I can do. Hey. Watch this."

"Did she say 'ice cream'?"

"Hey, Jackson, let's see what Myka had for dinner."

Captain Catnap and the Master of Underwear

It's been a slow week...

Not too much to write about around here. Our two major happenings for the week are Eli regressing on his naps and Myka fully out of diapers. Like I said, not too interesting.

Eli is still napping, only now it's for about 5 minutes at a time. Like 8 times a day. And that is definitely not OK with me. So we are working on it, and today for his last nap I propped his mattress up again and turned on his radio to fuzz for some background noise, and he slept for 10 minutes. I'm not sure that's progress, but I'll take what I can get at this point.

Myka has had her Bachelor's in Potty Training for over half a year now by staying dry during the day, but this week earned her Master's as she is now in underwear all night long as well. She has been staying dry at night for awhile and waking when she needs to go, so the last diaper was used on Saturday and that was it. I'm excited for her to get her PhD; when she can just do it all herself!

Words I may never hear again

Judging by the amount of candy on my counter and the spaziness of my three year old I would say Halloween was a success. We decided to head downtown to the Main Street trick or treat since the weather was right for Eli and it is good for Kurt to be seen at public events like that. All of the businesses on Main sit outside their doors with oodles of candy and the trick or treaters go door to door and collect their goodies. It sounds like great fun. Like kids would be skipping from door to door and happily shouting "Trick or Treat!" as they get to each station, maybe even chatting a second before moving on. But this picture was taken before we turned the corner. It was gridlock. We were part of a line moving at a snail's pace along the sidewalk, and when a merchant with candy was near, pumpkin buckets were extended with nary a word and candy was dropped in. We did this last year and knew it would be like that. Myka still enjoyed it, and Eli got his third nap in, so that was nice.
And as we walked along with Myka in her warm Old Navy poodle costume, I heard a phrase I'm sure will not be uttered during another Halloween night for a long time - "Can I take this off, I'm HOT!" It was, after all, 70 degrees out, and only four o'clock. And this costume was built to withstand typical Iowa Trick or Treating weather; wind, rain, blizzard... So we wrapped up Main Street with the hood off and coat open, grabbed our dinner and headed home for the loop around the neighborhood. The weather was perfect for the evening stroll.

Eli and I stayed home to hand out candy to our 30 or so trick or treaters, and Kurt and Myka spent an hour and a half making their way around our horseshoe street. She made quite a haul. Last year, Halloween candy became the reward for using the potty, but this year I wasn't sure how to distribute it. However, by late Saturday morning I had already heard enough "poopy"s for the day and said if she said it again she wouldn't get any Halloween candy that day, and I haven't heard the word since! So I've found my new way to distribute the candy, but if her past couple of weeks are any indication it will last until Easter. At least.
And since Eli doesn't really get to enjoy Halloween much, here is a recent picture of him hanging out. Wipe the drool off your chin, kid, you're having your picture taken!

Pumpkins and Poodles

Sometime in August Myka started asking about Halloween. She saw a pumpkin somewhere and asked if we could carve pumpkins and "do Halloween". We decided to explain the timeline of the rest of the year with certain seasonal landmarks, and before we carved pumpkins the leaves had to turn colors on the trees. And before Halloween the leaves would fall down. That discussion happened daily, and when she got a grasp of that she started asking about other holidays. I remember her asking me when it would snow, and I remember saying that it wouldn't happen until after Halloween. Then Christmas would be coming and so on and so forth...

So last night we had our annual Halloween party for my Mom's group. It is always a good time and the kids dress up in their costumes and we have a potluck and there are a few games and then it's over. Yesterday was freakishly windy and cold, and we were happy that this was just our party and not the real Halloween night. As we were leaving the party it was snowing. Really snowing. Probably not much more than flurries but with the wind it was really whipping around and cold and very pretty. As we were rushing from the party to the car in the snow Myka kept saying, "Was that Halloween? Was that Halloween?" I didn't get it at first. I know she remembers trick-or-treating last year and couldn't figure out why she thought that might have been it for this year. Then she kept saying, "but it snows after Halloween." Ohhhhhhhhh. So our clever little absorbs-everything-we-say-and-takes-it-to-heart remembered our timeline and decided that if it was snowing, Halloween must be over. I convinced her that we would still go trick-or-treating on Friday and it would be much warmer. I'm not sure what will happen Christmas morning if there isn't snow on the ground this year...

And here is our little poodle and pumpkin. Both costumes purchased the day after Halloween last year at 90% off in hopes of selling them, but they have come in handy and will be worn for this year at least. I'm thinking of using Eli's for his winter bunting...

Spitting Image

I'm convinced. My kids look alike.
Eli hit the 4 month milestone this week so we are officially putting away the swing (Thanks Emily!!) and getting out the exersaucer (Thanks Sarah!). Myka loved her exersaucer and some of her best pictures from months 4-8 were taken while she was playing in it. Some of my best naps were taken while she was playing in it, too, but that's another story.
So far he has hung out for a few minutes at a time and is so overwhelmed by all the baby fun-ness that he hasn't smiled for a picture, so here is what I have and one to compare with from Myka's early saucer adventures.


So if I had the guts to put the outfit on Eli that Myka was wearing (I still have it...) and could get the lighting the same, it would be pretty close. Somewhere in there, Eli kind of looks like a boy and Myka kind of looks like a girl, but really, they are babies. And they look alike. (By the way, the title was supposed to be "Out of the swing and into the saucer" but with the drool on each of their shirts {trust me!} I had to change it!)

What a difference a year makes!

We finally had a weekend full of only things we wanted to do (that's assuming Kurt wanted to preach on Sunday...) rather than things we had to do. The highlight was Saturday, as Grandma and Grandpa "Beads" came to visit and we had plenty of time to hang out with them while Eli was in a pleasant state. They enjoyed finding ways to make him smile and giggle and spit up all over. The following move incorporated all three techniques at once...

...but the smiles on every one's faces were priceless!

After naps we spent some time carving our Halloween pumpkins. Last year Myka was all about reaching in for the guts and then sorting the seeds so we could roast them later. This year she would only reach into the pumpkin with the little spoon, and I kept hearing "I need to wash my hands". She was much more dainty and aware this year. I guess that comes with being three. We'll have to work on that... She still managed to sort a lot of seeds and we are looking forward to enjoying them later in the week.

After the inside was clean Grandpa helped Myka carve out a face with "diamond eyes". Myka got to pull out the plugs as Grandpa finished each shape.

Our group picture doesn't do the final results justice, as Kurt spent a good hour creating his masterpiece and Sarah painstakingly took over creating the oblong pumpkin face since Grandpa was a little tied up. My simple smiley guy (the one on the left) was the result of my typical habit of spending too much time thinking and then just resorting to something I've done before when time is running out. (read: Eli was getting restless.) But the other three turned out great, and here they are in all their glory later in the evening.

Now we just hope they survive the next two weeks.

A boy, a crib, and a nap

We have finally entered the nap schedule zone. I'm very happy about that, as I had a great napper the first time around and was not ready to deal with a kid who wouldn't nap. He has been napping in a swing up until last week, when he suddenly started showing real signs of tiredness (rather than just falling asleep randomly) and seemed to be much more comfortable laying on his back to play on the floor (rather than reclining on our legs or a seat of some sort). So last week we got a few random naps in the crib, and Monday it was my mission to find a schedule. We are on day 4 of wake up/eat/play/sleep cycling about every 2.5 hours. We get 3 naps of about 45 minutes a time this way, except for the one time he slept for 3 and a half hours in the afternoon.

I don't have a picture of him napping to share, as I know better than to take a flash picture of a sleeping baby. (It only took Kurt once to learn that lesson with Myka...) But our other new event for the week is rubbing his head with olive oil before the bath to loosen up the cradle cap. His hair is still thin so the picture doesn't quite show the effect, but it's fun to style while we let the oil work its magic before shampooing.

This ain't your mother's hopscotch anymore...

Inspired by Curious George. I bet you can't tell who colored the even numbers and who colored the odds.

While we were out there, I was playing with the camera and trying to bring out the orange leaves in a tree near our house. The pictures of the tree didn't work out, but I did get this fun shot of Myka on her trike. I picked a great day to put her in a pink shirt and shoes!

You're a rock star!

Today was the annual UNI alumni swim meet. Last year there were at least 30 of us and it was a great time, albeit VERY short. This year there were 7 of us and it lasted twice as long. I guess the mailing got screwed up so only a handful of people got the info, but in my personal opinion, not a lot of effort went into this and the current team could care less if it happened. Since I live right here, I of course knew about it and was excited to see who could make it. It turns out the only guy I knew I kind of keep in touch with anyway, so it really wasn't that fun. BUT - it was Eli's first swim meet, and Myka's first swim meet where she kind of paid attention, so that made it all worth it.

Myka started cheering for me from the moment I helped Kurt get settled in the bleachers and started walking toward the pool. Since the crowd was quite slim, it was not hard to hear her. I could even pick out her little voice shouting "Go Mommy!" while I was underwater during warm ups. As we were getting on the blocks for our first race I heard, "You're a rock star!" and realized Kurt was now prompting her on what to say. I was a little worried at that point, but they kept it clean. Just being allowed to shout while indoors was excitement enough for her.

Eli, along with everyone else there, didn't share quite the same enthusiasm as his sister.

He hung out for a little while, then took a nap.

Hail to the Cheese

Chuck E Cheese is a special treat for Myka. We have been there a handful of times and tried to make it tie in to something extra-ordinary so she doesn't think we can go there all the time. Right now we have a little cup that she is trying to fill up with marbles (for things like putting her shoes on when asked, spitting the toothpaste out, saying polite words, not whining, etc.) so she can go to Chuck E Cheese again. The point of the marbles was to have something to take away for what I like to call "The Three S's". Spitting. Screaming. Swearing. (Words like "poopy" and "butt" are swear words at age three...) So anyway, we still have not filled up the marble cup, and last night getting ready for bed was particularly hard so we lost quite a few marbles. Then comes today. Our mom's group has a new thing going called "Preschool Lunch Bunch" for preschoolers to get together once a month. Today, of course, was at Chuck E Cheese. I was obligated to go for a number of reasons of which I won't go into, but imagine Myka's surprise when she gets in the car after preschool and I tell her were going to Chuck E Cheese for lunch. She of course says, "because I was such a good girl?" Hmmmm. No. But we went, and luckily for me, it has turned into new motivation to get the cup filled so we can go back. She went down for her nap without a hitch!
I wasn't able to snap any photos- with coins in one hand, tickets in the other, Eli strapped to the front of me and Myka pulling on my leg to get to the next machine there wasn't much room for the camera. But we do have our traditional photo from the sketch booth that Chuck E drew for us. I don't mind the extra big smile; the fact that we both were in the shot when the camera went was a miracle in itself.


Also, I thought I would see how it goes to post a video, so here is Eli and a few giggles. This was actually a couple of weeks ago right after I found out he was ticklish. Enjoy.

So Big!

These kids are growing fast. Myka has a 4T coat that we got two weeks ago at a garage sale and it already doesn't fit. (Stupid Target small sized clothes...) Eli has some 3-6 month clothes we just hung up in his closet that make him look like we dress our boy in capri's. So I decided it's time to set this thing up so we can share with those who care about all of the things happening in our lives before we are shopping in the men's and women's departments.

Overall, things are well. Myka is in preschool and loving it. Today she even walked in by herself (from the car), which is quite a turn around from 3 weeks ago when we had to take her all the way into the classroom and she cried as we left. Here she was on her first day.

Eli is getting to be pretty fun. He giggles and talks and still cries a lot but is much more content for long periods of time. Even though he is cranky in the evenings, he always finds getting ready for bathtime hysterical, so I look forward to that every night.

Kurt and I are fine, but this site isn't really about us. :) We want to have a place for those who are wondering to check in on our little cherubs once in awhile. I'll do my best to keep up with it. Thanks for checking!