The Life and Times of Our Monkey Family

Optimism

2012-02-15T08:43:00.002-06:00

Papa and M.G. were in the middle of a discussion and Papa said something along the lines of "at least shoes are made from cows."

M2 interrupted, "How do cows make shoes?"

They didn't hear him at first, so he had to say it a few times. So, by then he was saying, "Tell me how cows make shoes! Do they have tools?"

Papa said, "Cows don't make shoes, shoes are made from cows. We get leather from the skin of cows."

Joe, "Woah, cows shed their skin like snakes?"

The rest of us, "Um... no."

M.G. was able to think positively about how it is less wasteful to get meat and leather from cows. But I think it might be easier to become vegan than to have too many conversations like this with M2!

2012-02-11T21:38:00.001-06:00

It's so much fun to see the kids playing nicely together. I tend to peek in at them occasionally, but try to stay out of the way when they are doing so well on their own. Here they were making robot movies and then watching them in double speed on M.G.'s camera.

M3 is in a hat phase. She was wearing her cow baseball hat for a while, but last week grabbed this hat (which I had accidentally shrunk and then put in with the doll clothes) and she's been wearing it for big chunks of time.

She and M2 have been little buddies this week. They'll run off and play together a bit more than they used to.

M2 and I made Grandpa M noodles on Friday. He was very excited to learn all about it. His job was to turn the crank on the pasta machine. He was happy to tell everyone we used the noodle-making machine to make noodles. I thought he sounded very funny, but when I went to put the box back on the shelf I saw that it is indeed labeled a "noodle-making machine!" (He didn't read it, he just was stating the obvious, I guess.)

Everyone proclaimed the noodles yummy, so we'll have to start making them more than once every other year or so.

Last week he was asking me a lot of questions about the U.S. map that hangs in his room. I don't know why he was so excited about it all of a sudden. He'd ask me to show him where New York was, then he'd find where his Grandparents live in MN. Then he'd say, "WHAT?? We drove that far to visit when we lived in New York?"

Then we'd repeat with other mind boggling geography facts.

This morning M.G. and I went to the hair salon to get trims. She enjoys going with me and feels older because they wash her hair and she sits and reads if she gets done before me. Today the stylist asked if she could add some curls. M.G. has been done with her pink princess phase for a while. She never wants hair clips anymore and tends to get impatient if I do anything more than the basic brushing.

Her hair was all down in front of her face during the styling, so I wondered what she'd think of the curls. I guessed that she'd say something polite, but vague, at the end, like, "nice." I was so wrong. The stylist turned the chair toward me and M.G. was grinning from ear to ear. The other ladies at the salon were giving her lots of compliments and she was floating on a cloud. She was very excited to come home and see what Papa would say.

M3's world

2012-01-27T22:32:00.000-06:00

M3 has been having a lot of fun with her brother and sister lately. She wants to be doing what they do and always has an opinion on just what she thinks they should all be doing.

For the most part they are really good at including her.

Here M2 was helping her get her doll dressed.

She likes to listen to them read stories too.

Lately they all have been taking care of their dolls together. This was some sort of doll choir.

M.G. was taking photos of the younger two with her digital camera. M2 and M3 came running out to me so that M2 could use my camera to take a photo of M3 with me.

Even when the older two are busy with other things she is trying to copy them. I caught her here trying to see what all the Lego excitement was about. That is her "What, am I doing something wrong?" look.

Checking in

2012-01-19T08:07:00.000-06:00

A couple weeks ago I was nursing M3 and reading my book. M2 was playing in his room. He came sauntering out, with his hands in his hooded sweatshirt pockets and watched me for a moment. I kept reading.

He reached out and poked me with a finger, saying, "So, you got a lot of milk in that tank?'

Trying to keep a straight face, I said, "There's enough."

He said, "Is your tank going to run out?"

I told him it wasn't likely and he walked off again.

Totally felt like he was appraising a piece of farm equipment.

Talk of the dinner table...

2012-01-15T20:52:00.000-06:00

M2 is still a fan of the "Every day I'm shufflin'" song. Papa plays it for him on the computer a few times a week. Originally they just listened, but at some point they started watching parts of the video to see the wild dancing. It's a fairly tame video, but there are parts we avoid.

Tonight at supper M2 was talking about it and M.G. said, "That is really not appropriate for kids to see or listen too."

The night before she had told Papa she was finished listening to the song at one point and when he kept it going she went to her room. Turns out she was protesting.

We asked her to clarify. She thought having people dancing on the tops of cars showed kids something dangerous and it made her want to dance on top of a car.

_______________________________________________________________________

M.G. doesn't have school tomorrow, Martin Luther King Jr. day. M2 loves having her home from school, so he's been very excited this weekend. Earlier today he shouted "Tomorrow's Hanukkah! Wait, no I mean Martin Luther King Jr. day!"

Tonight at supper he was asking questions. "Who was Martin Luther King Jr.?" "What did he do?" "Why does he have a special day?"

We gave him a little civil rights run down and MG threw in some facts she had learned last year. It was quite a step beyond our normal supper conversation level.

Then he asked, "Do you think people make cakes for Martin Luther King Jr. day?"

Me: "People could, I suppose."

M2: "Do you think we should make a cake tomorrow?"

Then he and M.G. tried to figure out the best dessert for Martin Luther King Jr. day.

M.G. is 7!

2012-01-12T23:09:00.000-06:00

M.G. is 7 years old and is such a great kid. 7! Still can't say it without an exclamation point behind it. I've been thinking a lot about our year in Iowa when M.G. was 18 months. She was my little co-pilot on errands, helper at home, and just starting to talk. With the younger two we can kind of see the path they'll take over the next few years, but with M.G. it has all been wild discovery.

We've reached a calm, easy bit of time with her too, as far as the ups and downs of parenting go. She's becoming very independent and more easy-going. Last weekend Papa and I decided to go to separate church services so that the sick younger two could stay home. We had a conversation to see which one of us had the privilege of bringing M.G. with us! (Which totally would not have been the conversation we had a few years ago!)

We celebrated her 7th birthday in Minnesota with a big lunch at Buca!

She's a girl of many interests. She really wanted more books, some things for her American Girl doll, science/craft kits, and ballerina music box jewelry box because she loves dancing. She was hoping for a bigger bike this year too. She was just a little jealous of M2's new birthday bike (with kick stand) - I am glad we had one waiting for her. It's purple, which was a hit.

We just had snow yesterday here, until then I was feeling pretty guilty that her bike is still in MN, waiting for grandparents to bring it on the next visit. Who would have guessed that a December birthday girl would need to be able to use her new bike in South Dakota?

Music box from Grandma and Grandpa M!


Can't wait to start reading Ivy and Bean from Gran	dma and Grandpa B!

She requested strawberry cupcakes with chocolate frosting and a ballet theme. It's not her fault that her birthday is right in the middle of wild Christmas/New Year plans, but her cakes never get the attention I'd like to give them. This year I printed out some clip art dancers to top the cupcakes.

All through December her front teeth were so loose. It seemed like every morning she'd walk out to the kitchen and they would be sticking out in a new direction. She put up with a lot of comments from everyone we saw over the holidays! She claims to have wiggled them, but she was pretty cautious about it. Occasionally she'd let Papa wiggle them a little too.

Just like with her bottom teeth, a few times she asked if M3 was interested in seeing them. M3, without a pause, jabbed her little finger into one of the teeth! That was a surprise for M.G., but it helped loosen things up! Every so often M.G. would give M3 a chance to do some dental work.

1/3/12

1/11/12

She lost the first top tooth on the 3rd and we really thought the other top tooth had some time before it came out. Yesterday morning, on the way out the door, M.G. gave M3 a hug and they collided tooth to forehead. It was a painful surprises for both of them and by bedtime that tooth was ready!

Christmas 2011

2012-01-08T13:16:00.000-06:00

Here is a mostly photo update of our Christmas celebrations this year.

There was no snow here or in MN for Christmas this year, making our travel plans so much less stressful!

We stayed with Grandma and Grandpa B a couple nights before Christmas, including Grandma's birthday on the 23rd. M2 has such a way of wording things. I think it was something like, "Grandma, do you think it would be nice to go to Moose & Sadie's for breakfast on your birthday?" How could we say no to that idea? He also wanted to go out for pizza to celebrate Grandma's birthday and to go with Grandma to the coffee shop on the corner to see its two robot statues.

It's so fun to watch the kids opening gifts. We gave M3 a box of bath ducks mainly because it is so fun to hear her quacking. M3 demanded to immediately try on any new clothes she was given.

M2 really wanted a watch for Christmas. Grandma and Grandpa M found something great and he wore it proudly, showing it to nearly everyone we saw.

M.G. said she'd most like books for Christmas and we all obliged. She came home with a huge stack and was very happy about it.

The older kids asked Santa for reading lamps, among other things, and M3 got her very own harmonica.

We spent time at Grandma and Grandpa M's too. They had pulled out Papa's boxes of He-Man toys when they got out their Christmas decorations. I had forgotten how much I had played with Uncle Dave's He-Man toys! They brought back a lot of memories and kept the kids busy for a long time!

We had a busy schedule on this vacation. Lots of gatherings and events!

The weather was beautiful for the whole trip. We spent some time outside every day - walking, playing on the playground, and a trip to the zoo!

The polar bears were wild and full of energy. They splashed and jumped in the water, playing with big plastic toys. We watched them for quite a while!

We enjoyed having a few days at home before school started up again. At supper one evening we starting talking about all the fun we had on vacation - the polar bears and other zoo animals, playing bingo, seeing family, on and on - then Joe threw in that he had fun seeing the gorilla at Casa Bonita and we started reminiscing about all of our summer travels. 2011 was a year filled with adventures!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-05T12:58:00.000-06:00

We are starting to get back into our regular routine here after our holiday celebrations in Minnesota!

For New Year's Eve this year we watched a YouTube video of the celebration that had taken place earlier in Australia. The kids enjoyed the countdown, noisemakers, and streamers. During the video of the fireworks over the opera house they partied hard. Once that 12 minutes was up we shuffled them off to bed.

Here's to a great 2012!

Christmas photos 2011

2011-12-21T23:03:00.002-06:00

For the first time ever, taking our Christmas photos was easy and fun.

I struck a deal with the kids to take 3 shots each and 3 of them as a group right when we got home from school one day before they even got in the house.

It was a super fast photo shoot and they were having fun. The two group shots were the only two I took before my camera ran out of batteries!

The first group photo was the one we used in our Christmas card this year.

December

2011-12-20T21:46:00.000-06:00

The kids helped frost sugar cookies yesterday after M.G. came home from school. They have a lot of fun with it and we make a small batch so that they don't get bored with the decorating.

M2 helped me cut out and bake the cookies earlier in the day. He's really good at being delicate with the dough.

M.G. had been having fun in school lately and is so much more conversational than before first grade. It's nice to have her spontaneously talk about random things.

M2 has been a big helper a lot lately. He likes to sort laundry, dry the dishes, help with any cooking or baking he can. He'll even help pick up toys, which is a skill we never thought he'd pick up. He still cracks me up a lot. He was dancing to "Every day I'm shufflin'" a few nights ago and had to be sure we noticed he was pretending to shuffle cards while dancing.

Today M3 spent quite a while playing with these two little dinos. She was walking them around and growling a lot. She's understanding so much of what we say lately and loves to try to jump in - tonight at supper she wanted more and more "ooles" (noodles).

M3 at 18 months

2011-12-17T13:53:00.001-06:00

M3 had her 18 month well child visit on Thursday. She's healthy! She's only gained a pound in the last three months, bringing her up to 22lbs. She's 32 inches tall. We're supposed to focus on protein. It was a fairly quick check-up, ending with her final Hep B vaccine and her first Prevnar.

These days M3 is a bundle of energy. She likes to run around and chase the older kids. She still loves to roar and is adding new words all the time. For the most part you really need a lot of context to understand what she is talking about. "teee!" is obviously "Christmas tree" when she is pointing at it and shouting. She follows the conversation and tries to throw in what she can.

She knows lots of her body parts and that is my favorite way to distract her when I need to carry her or keep her in one spot. She's got a sense of humor already. When I ask her to show me her hand she'll wave one. Then she'll wait a moment and throw the other out with a flourish. You can picture her saying, "Ah ha, there is one over here too!"

She loves to sing loudly and dance with her whole body. She likes to sit and look at books. She is very attached to Papa's old baby doll and sleeps with it. She likes playing with small things like cars or other little toys. She's not afraid to push and shove to get the others out of her way. She likes to talk on the phone or video chat on the computer.

She's really cut back on nursing. At bedtime she'll nurse for a short bit and then sit up. I put her in bed and she falls asleep on her own! We're amazed at how easy her bedtime has become!

M2 is 4!

2011-12-12T23:42:00.000-06:00

M2 turned 4 on Saturday! Definitely a big guy now!

His excitement was contagious all weekend. We gave him a new bike for this birthday. After using his balance bike all summer he was ready for pedals! We decided to skip the training wheels and see how he'd do. Papa even ordered a kickstand, since M2 always commented on Papa's. It was a great idea, M2 went on and on about that kickstand!

Nearly ever gift was, "just what I've always wanted!" He even said once, "I've always wanted one of these! What is this?" He opened gifts throughout the day, as guests arrived for his family party, and it was a good way to spread out his enjoyment of each gift.

He had a chance to try the bike out Saturday morning. We don't have any ice or snow at this point and it was a mild weekend. On his first attempt he giggled with joy the whole time. He struggled to pedal and steer at the same time, but had a huge grin on his face.

He is still at an age where I feel like I can pass really great gift ideas along for things I know he'll love. (And things I'll love too! He and I have already spent quite a lot of time with this Trio set.)

We were so happy to have all the Grandparents and Joe's Godparents here for the weekend. He really loves spending time with all of them. He was excited for his birthday party to arrive for quite a while. He requested a planet cake for his birthday. (I couldn't resist adding Pluto on the far bottom left.)

After lunch he tried his new bike again and off he went! Now he can zoom all over the place.

M2, at the age of four, is full of energy. He can be very wild and rough, but he is also quite a sweetheart. He's starting to take more of an interest in books, writing, and coloring. Up until recently, he was never one to pretend to write or read. But, now he can write quite a few letters and is starting to retell stories from the illustrations.

He loves to jump into conversations. Today at his check-up the doctor mentioned that getting outside and playing or riding bike was better than screen time. M2 could hardly wait to volunteer that he had a new bike and that he could ride it.

He is still napping and still loves to wake up as early as possible. (6 is sleeping in for him.)

He is at an age where he loves to help around the house with chores and cooking. I was impressed at how delicate he was when we were making the Christmas cookies.

At his check-up today he weighed 35.5 lbs and was 39.5 inches tall. He gained about 5 lbs and 3.5 inches this year! He's a healthy, happy guy!

Nativity

2011-12-08T13:29:00.001-06:00

It might look like she is acting out the Christmas story, but she was really helping them dance wildly to the Christmas music.

It's time to light the lights...

2011-12-04T21:01:00.001-06:00

We had a busy weekend filled with fun activities.

Friday night we had a picnic in the living room while watching Elf. Last year and this year both the kids were very excited about it. It's a nice way to end the week and relax together.

Saturday morning we walked to our grocery store and picked out a Christmas tree! We'd have preferred to go to a tree farm to cut our own tree, but this was an adventure that was nearly as fun (especially because we didn't need to fuss with strapping the tree to the car.) Our tree was from a farm about 4 hours away, which is pretty close to local, considering the other alternative in town shipped trees from North Carolina.

That afternoon we did some deep cleaning and organizing in M.G.'s room. I wouldn't normally mention it on the blog, but she was just having such a good time. She has no fear when it comes to throwing things away and she likes to find a good place for everything in her room. M2 wandered in after his nap and she said something along the lines of, "Look what we are doing! Maybe Mama will let you organize your room too! It is a lot of fun!" Just like many enthusiastic organizers, she hit a wall at one point, but we managed to finish up.

Once everything was back in place I took the older kids to see The Muppets at the movie theater. We are all big fans of the classic Muppets and this movie did not disappoint. It was M2's first trip to the movie theater and it was fun to listen to him talking with M.G. before the lights dimmed about what to expect.

He loved the musical numbers, but the plot was a little over his head. M.G. enjoyed it quite a bit and caught many of the references to The Muppet Show. Tonight she was laughing about Beeker singing in the barbershop quartet. ("Hello", "Hello", "Hello", "Meee Mo")

This afternoon we brought the tree in and decorated it. Papa put it in place during nap time and M3 was so excited when she came out. She couldn't stop pointing, smiling, and trying to say "tree!"

The older kids did a good job placing ornaments. We hadn't tried a White Pine before. It's soft and pretty, but difficult to find a sturdy branch.

So far they have been good about leaving it alone. We'll see how M3 does as the days go by!

Getting into the holiday spirit!

2011-11-30T23:22:00.001-06:00

M2 picked out one of our favorite Christmas CDs this morning and the two of them instantly started dancing!

So much excitement and fun in those two!

The art of war

2011-11-23T11:05:00.001-06:00

Last month I taught M2 how to play War with some cards he had in his room. He has fun with it and he thinks it is funny when we are dramatic about it. ("You'll never take this queen!" or the excitement when a 3 beats a 2.)

It's really funny when we try to play when M3 is around. She runs over and grabs the cards as we set them down. Sometimes she hands them over and sometimes she keeps them.

It's like the wild militia attacking the trained formal troops.

M2 and I have our decks and we each play one card. The person with the higher card wins the battle and keeps the cards. M3 jumps on top of M2 and pulls until she comes away with some of his cards. Or she'll climb up on me and shout, throwing all my cards in the air.

If the point of the game is to collect the most cards, then her nontraditional approach is truly successful... but she does not seem concerned about escalation!

Deep lunch thoughts

2011-11-22T12:28:00.001-06:00

Lunch is usually a drawn out affair for M2. I can serve his lunch, make my own, change the laundry, check my email, eat my lunch, clean up the kitchen, and he'll still be finishing up on some days.

Today I was loading the dishwasher when he said, "I hope I can ride on a rocket some day. You know, I love rockets, but I hate bananas."

A short time passed and then he said, "Rockets and bananas have the same outside shape, but their insides are completely different."

First snow!

2011-11-20T20:33:00.001-06:00

It snowed here on Saturday morning. It was very nice that it happened on a weekend. We took the kids to an open house at the campus horse barns, which had been set up as a petting zoo. The older two also went on short horse rides.

We came home and watched the flakes continue to fall. Very peaceful and cozy.

That afternoon everyone went out to play!

M3 spent a long time trying to walk in these boots on the day they arrived in the mail. She'd fall over and over, but kept trying and each attempt added a step or two. I'm glad she did because she was so excited to crunch out into the snow on her own!

Even with practice, M3 fell down a lot. M.G. was happy to take her for a ride!
M2's first thought was to find a shovel and get to work!

M3 became cold and frustrated long before the other two. She and I were out about half an hour, but Papa and the older kids stayed outside at least 90 minutes or more. I looked out the kitchen window after a while and saw this...

M2 had started at the front door and shoveled down the front walk and sidewalk. A pretty good attempt, considering he was working on his own!

It's only Tuesday!

2011-11-15T12:28:00.001-06:00

Today M2 started packing his toy bag for our Thanksgiving trip. Favorite part of Thanksgiving? "When I see the Grandmas."

****** ****** *******

M3 has entered a new phase where she walks around dumping things all over the place. Shelves and bins that have been open to her all along are suddenly tempting her to pull stuff out to scatter. It is the fun of spreading everything out that she likes, too. She doesn't play with any of it. She'll scatter a deck of cards and then open the Bananagrams. Then she'll pull some books off the shelf and get out all of the musical instruments. This morning I apprehended her pulling all the Duplo blocks out of M2's closet.

It's interesting to watch their minds develop. Something changed from last week to this and whatever it is likes disorder!

Photo Review

2011-11-13T22:45:00.001-06:00

Wolverine making bread dough!

Browsing the toy catalogs. We keep trying to tell M2 that he is not "ordering this."

The weather has been very nice lately.

We're holding on to Fall with all of our might!

First attempt at the 2011 Christmas photo.

Priorities

2011-11-07T08:28:00.000-06:00

Overheard in the car:

M2: I wonder when we will go see the Statue of Liberty again.

M.G.: Me too! New York would be a good place to live because it has the Statue of Liberty and other really interesting things.

M2: Ya, like people dressed up like the Statue of Liberty!

Halloween 2011!

2011-11-02T23:13:00.001-05:00

We had so much Halloween fun this year!

M2, M3, and I went to a MOMS club party on Friday morning. M2 was a cowboy this year. He was very excited about his cowboy belt and the lasso we made.

M3 was a little monkey!

Earlier in October M.G. entered a scary story contest at the library. She was very motivated to write, type, and edit her story and get it dropped off at the library. They called her last week to make sure she was going to the scary story reading party to accept her prize! She won 2nd place in the K-1st grade division. She was so proud of her trophy!

Saturday morning we carved our pumpkins. M3 was not excited about touching the pumpkin guts.

M.G. and M2 each drew a face on a pumpkin and supervised Papa's carving. I carved M3's pumpkin.

Sunday afternoon the kids got all dressed up for the Family Fest at the Children's Museum.

M.G.'s pumpkin has the rectangular mouth, M2's has eyes of different shapes, and M3's pumpkin is the one with big eyes.

M.G. picked out the pattern and fabric for her witch dress and I sewed it up for her.

Yee-ha! M2 wore Papa's cowboy sweater.

Monkey!

The museum had games, face painting, free ice cream, and prizes.

Running around at the museum!

Monday evening Papa took the kids trick-or-treating around our neighborhood with some friends. They all had a great time and even M3 seemed excited when they got home.

Candy!

Chocolate!

Happy Anniversary House - Year 2

2011-10-30T23:22:00.002-05:00

1st day of school, 2011

The end of October marks the end of the second year in our house. This is the longest any of the kids have lived under one roof!

This summer the house really started to feel like something we owned, to me, instead of another place we were just living for a while.

We finally purchased a new kitchen table. We had used a hand me down set for years, but now felt settled enough to buy something to fit this house.

We had several large yard projects that made the space more useful to us. Papa did a lot of digging and rock moving (with help from our parents!) and created two garden plots in our yard.

In the spring we had a few trees removed and we spent the rest of the summer modifying those areas. We moved a lot of rock away from where the trees were (again with lots of help!). Then Papa moved some border stones and rock and we planted some new plants.

Before

After

Rocks and border stones moved!

New plants to replace the giant tree!

The grass seed Papa planted did really well this fall!

Another project I was glad Papa had time for was painting the entryway. It was an peachy-pink color, but now is a warm brown and looks so much nicer! Now every wall and ceiling has been painted (except for the laundry room, which still has exposed studs and drywall.)

Here's to a great year 3!

2009

2010

2011

A little bit of ordinary

2011-10-17T15:03:00.000-05:00

We've had an unusually busy month. Hopefully "unusually busy". I suspect we are creeping toward this being the new normal. We've had weeks in a row where we have had extra to plan for. Fun stuff like visitors and visiting, friends and family. But also a variety of meetings, work events, and projects. They are the sorts of weeks where I have to make detailed lists so that we squeeze every moment out of every day. Yesterday I was surprised that October is already more than half over! The busy holiday months are approaching.

All of this made today, a plain old Monday morning, feel nice and regular. We had planned to go to a playdate, but two cranky kiddos and a really tired Mama decided to just stay home. This week looks a little slow (probably because I haven't looked at my calender much yet), so I did not have any major chores we needed to get to while the getting was good. We read a lot of books, we decided on the spur of the moment to make cookies, we played with cars and sat in the sun. The radio was on, we wore slippers. The kids had lunch and got down for good solid naps. It was rejuvenating!

I took these photos of M3 last week. She was just over 16 months, but in that outfit I think she looks so much older! It was one of M.G.'s favorite shirts for over a year and a pair of M2's favorite pants. Big girl!

I asked her to "smile for the camera!"

M.G.'s new winter gear looked big on her. M2 thought he'd give it a try...

Adventure to MN!

2011-10-16T06:31:00.000-05:00

Last weekend was a four-day weekend for M.G. The kids and I took advantage of it and visited MN. It was also the last few days Uncle Dave and Aunt Nissa would be there before they started back home to CA.

The kids are great travelers, but I had not tried driving all the way to MN without Papa since M3 was born! I was a little worried about how the drive would go.

Friday morning we set out and stopped for lunch at this beautiful riverside park. The kids played on the playground a few minutes, but it was really too windy for a comfortable picnic.

We improvised and ate in the car. M3 was really excited about her armrest chair.

All three of them did very well in the car. It was smooth sailing!

We played at the playground near Grandma and Grandpa B's house, ate supper at one of our favorite places, and played with lots of toys.

Saturday morning Grandma and Grandpa took us to the big farmers' market near their home.

Grandma did buy some nice produce. The kids picked out bird whistles (that trill when filled with water) and we shared some mini-donuts.

Every summer needs at least 1 bag of MN mini-donuts! Plus, we had read Homer Price over the summer and a chapter dealt with an out of control automated doughnut maker. It was fun to show the kids how this doughnut maker worked.

We fit a lot of fun into a quick weekend visit and it was great to see Dave and Nissa another time. Saturday night the kids stayed up a little late to watch the first part of The Music Man. They were very excited about the musical numbers.

M3 grabbed the weather station from Grandma and Grandpa's room and did some computing with Nissa.

I was trying to decide who to take to church at the Basilica in the morning and talking with Grandma about it.

Two bits of backstory:

At the farmers' market I had pointed out the Basilica dome in the distance to M2.
We recently checked out Make Way for Ducklings and then looked at all the photos from our Boston trips.

Basilica of St Mary

M2 visiting Boston's State House in 2008

While I was talking about church, M2 came over to me and in a stage whisper said, "What was that dome building in Boston that I saw?"

Me: What?
M2 (still in a loud whisper): What was that dome building in the duck book?
Me: The Boston State House?

Then M2 walked over to Grandpa and said, in a dramatic voice, "The only big building with a dome that I would go to tomorrow is the Boston State House!"

Sunday we went to my Aunt Julie and Uncle Dan's house. They have a big dog and a little dog and Hank visited too. The kids were really excited about all of the dogs! Snickers is a quiet dog and M.G. and M2 both enjoyed sitting to pet her.

We took off for home around 3 that afternoon. I was a little concerned because the kids were pretty wild after lunch and it felt like herding cats to get them in to the car. After a frustrating coffee and gas stop, things got much better once we got on the open road. All three kids fell asleep in the car for about two hours and I enjoyed cruising across the Minnesota countryside.

They all woke up in time for a supper picnic and were in much better spirits for the rest of the ride. We have a CD of cowboy music which fits nicely for long drives across the prairie. We all sang along to Don't Fence me in. For a while they pretended we were driving a covered wagon. M2 needed a few extra potty breaks on this trip, so we were all happy to see Papa when we finally made it home!

For as much as the kids fight over toys and get frustrated with each other, it is so nice that they can pull together and be helpers when I need them too. That and they really do enjoy each others' company a lot of the time. Monday night M.G. was showing M2 and M3 a video she had taken of M3 playing the kazoo.

October, part 2

2011-10-07T00:21:00.000-05:00

We've had a busy, busy week. Here are a few random photos from the slower moments.

The kids love digging around the yard. Here is M2 and M3 "helping Papa by getting the garden ready for winter."

Dragon feeding time...

This was one of M2's most cozy outfits. It looked really cute with M3's blue eyes, but we kept doing double takes because she looked so much like a younger M2!

M2 at 14 months

M3 at about 16 months.

The kids and I found a Fontanini Nativity set at a garage sale last week. Grandma and Grandpa M have a Fontanini set and the kids really enjoy it. The pieces are a hand painted resin - durable, yet intricate. All 3 spent time playing with it before we packed it away until Christmas. Here M3 was setting up each figure and then she'd sit back and look at it for a bit before moving them again.

Tonight M2 was having a time out. M3 checked in on him and then sat down to keep him company. M.G. joined them and sang a song about singing a song on time-out.

Toddler with a kazoo...

October!

2011-10-03T22:50:00.002-05:00

Today will be a random stuff post... it has been a while!

* M.G. has started getting a little bit of big girl attitude, except she has kind of a bookworm attitude. Last week she turned off her light while I was getting something out of her closet. When I complained, she said (in her best put upon voice) "Mom, it isn't like you can't just use your rods!" (From a website: "Rods can't tell the difference between colors, but they are super-sensitive, allowing us to see when it's very dark."

* M3 does some signs. Lately she's been doing something with her arm, wrist, and hand. It looks kind of like she is tipping an imaginary hat. She does it a lot, but none of us have any idea what she is trying to say. It doesn't remind me of any sign I have taught her. She uses it when she is excited, when we are goofing around, and at other times.

* M3 has been making animal sounds lately. Roaring and making a woofing sound are still her favorites, but she's added a few more as well.

* M.G. is really quick with math computation. She amazes us all the time with how quickly her brain calculates figures as a part of every day conversation, as opposed to someone asking her to solve a math problem. At random times over the weekend she dropped into conversation that I would need 2.5 times more yarn then I expected and that it would cost a little under $23. She also suggested we cut each quarter of a cake into 5 pieces to serve the 20 people at the party.

* M2 has a set of Trio blocks. I think Uncle Dave was giving him some building tips last week. I sat down with M2 to build something today and he was doing surprisingly well at reading the patterns and counting blocks to decide where to place things.

* M3 likes to play with the library books I keep stacked next to the rocking chair. She thinks it is really funny to pull out my bookmark and wave it at me. She also likes to sit down and flip through the pages. In the last week she has started a new nursing routine. She gets my attention and makes it clear that she wants to nurse. Then she runs over and grabs me a book or magazine and gives it to me while I'm picking her up.

Visitors from the West!

2011-09-29T23:27:00.001-05:00

We were so happy to have Uncle Dave and Aunt Nissa visit us! They arrived Tuesday afternoon and left this morning. It was wonderful to catch up in person and the kids had a great time playing and reading.

Even Hank the dog came along. M.G. got to take him for a walk and M2 and M3 enjoyed playing with him a bit.

Grandma B came over yesterday and today she drove Dave and Nissa to meet up with Nissa's family. They left just before lunch. M2, M3, and I had a low key lunch and then got ready for nap time.

As I tucked M2 in to bed he said, "Do you remember when Uncle Dave was here playing with me?"

I said, "Yes, that was just this morning."

M2 said, "That Uncle Dave is sure a fun guy. We were laughing and laughing at that big tree!" (Dave and Nissa gave the kids a View Master with a Yosemite disk.)

Harvest

2011-09-27T00:17:00.003-05:00

Papa planted a few varieties of dried beans. We weren't sure how well they would do, so it was fun to see how many had grown and dried out. M2 and M3 were very excited to help me shell the beans. I was surprised that they stuck with it until we had finished the job. M2 took quality control seriously and sent any under-developed beans to the compost bin.

Eventually even M.G. came out and helped for a while. It added to the fun when occasionally one of us would pop open a shell and send beans flying all over the kitchen!

I hope we can find a soup that they are this excited to try.

South Dakota road trip flashback

2011-09-22T23:33:00.000-05:00

Earlier this summer we took a road trip to Wall Drug and Mt Rushmore.

I was cleaning out my closet yesterday and finally took the time to show the kids these gems from when my family took a similar trip many years ago.

I'm not sure what year this was... I'd guess 29 years ago. (Is that possible?) Wall Drug hasn't changed much!

Mt Rushmore before the new fancy visitors' center. We were hosting a foreign exchange student temporarily and he's in the photo below.

September update!

2011-09-20T23:36:00.000-05:00

Squash harvest!

September is flying by here and we're getting into a good school routine. We spent a relaxed weekend at home with Grandma and Grandpa M visiting.

M.G. is enjoying school, although she is ready to sink her teeth in to the academics. So far 1st grade is heavy on the review.

1st grader!

Grandma M brought M2 this cowboy sweater that her mom had made for Papa when he was young. It's bright red with yellow fringe and M2 LOVES it!

M3 is so full of excitement about all the new things she is learning to do. She really wants to communicate with us. She gets so happy when it is bath time!

Baths in the big tub now!

M.G. gets some time to play computer games after school. It's really exciting for the other kids too.

M3 is playing with M2's foot in that 2nd photo. He's so tuned in to the computer that I doubt he even noticed!

Our letter "E" has been missing for a week or two. Leave it to a first grader to solve the problem!

M.G. started dance class a few weeks go. They work on ballet, tap, modern dance, and creative movement. The studio is run by a dance professor from the college and I really like their philosophy. It's less learning a routine and more focused on creating art through dance.

M2 is taking a weekly gymnastics class. He's in the level where parents sit in the waiting area, instead of helping the kids with class. It's really fun to see him listening to his teachers and trying everything out.

Sticking the landing!

We gave M3 a ball popper for her birthday in June. It's a toy we had played with at a friend's house, years ago, and always wanted to have here. The kids all enjoy it, but it is especially fun to watch M3 chase the balls, dance to the music, and play with the air coming from the fan.

September is good for us here!

Airplane!

2011-09-16T13:23:00.000-05:00

Last week our friend Chris took a few hours to fly his plane from the Twin Cities to our town's little airport. M2 thinks it is just great that Chris has his own plane and can fly all over the sky. He often wonders where Chris's airplane is on any given day.

Papa, M3, and M2 drove Chris back to the airport at the end of the afternoon and M2 got to check out the plane! He thought it was really neat and said, "Chris's plane is my sized!"

M3: 15 months!

2011-09-08T22:34:00.000-05:00

M3 had her 15 month doctor visit today. She's a healthy little girl and had fun with the nurse and doctor. She even smiled through her DTaP booster!

Today M3 measured 31 inches tall (75%) and weighed 21 lbs (30%).

These days M3 is a bundle of energy. She's running, climbing, dancing, and playing. She always wants to be in whatever we are doing. She is trying to add more words, but is also very good at ~~communicating~~ getting what she wants with gestures and loud noises.

She can be a sweetie pie, with kisses and hugs, and moments later she is a banshee holding on to a toy or book with all of her strength. She likes being given small tasks, like "Please put your shoes away." When we were gathering the landscaping rock in the yard she helped. She dropped a rock in the bucket and then would get right up in my face until I thanked her. Then she'd grab another and be sure I noticed.

She really loves brushing her teeth and runs to the bathroom to be sure she is not forgotten. Although, we don't have much luck helping her - she wants to do it! It is the same at meal time - she is starting to enjoy more solid foods, but don't try feeding her unless she wants your help.

She always pats my back when I pick her up after nap time and gives me big smiles. When she hears the garage door at the end of the day she runs to the stairs and calls for Papa until she sees him.

M3 with the Sign with your Baby book!

Biking to school!

2011-09-06T13:43:00.001-05:00

Our new routine is for Papa and M.G. to ride to school together in the morning. M.G.'s school is right on the way for Papa! He has been riding home with her in the afternoons too (before heading back to work to finish his day.)

M.G. is very happy to be able to ride to school!

Watching her turn off of our street gave me that same bittersweet feeling as seeing her walk in to school for the first few days of kindergarten last year - surprised that she is old enough for this milestone, but very proud of the girl she is growing up to be.

First day, first grader!

2011-08-30T14:36:00.000-05:00

M.G. was very excited to get back to school. She's been counting down for a while.

M2 wanted his own backpack for this next photo (he's making a "zero" with his hand to show he is not in school yet.) Grandma and Grandpa B stayed with us over the weekend to help with our big landscaping plans and to see M.G. off on her first day.

It sounds like the first day went very well. She's excited to have her own desk ("There is a special spot to set my eraser!") and enjoyed school lunch ("There is a salad bar this year!") She was happy to see her classmates from last year on the playground.

In kindergarten they held the parents' hands a lot with open houses and information sent home. Now we're in the big league. We dropped her off at the door having no contact with her teacher before the year started and she came out at the end of the day with no "back to school" information in her bag. But, she did have a big smile and lots of exciting stories to share - so I think I'll be ok!

That afternoon the kids had a special back to school treat that M.G. had read about - ice cream and grape juice pops! M2 was a little lonelier today, so I think he'll be excited to pick her up soon.

End of summer vacation

2011-08-27T21:37:00.000-05:00

School starts for M.G. on Monday! She's excited and so are we, but I still haven't really thought about getting back in to that school day routine. M2, M3, and I will miss seeing M.G. during the day and we'll miss the routine we've fallen in to this summer.

The last two weeks we stayed close to home and I tried to really set everything else aside and give the kids extra attention. We've had a busy summer, so this was great time to really soak up vacation. Our days went something like this:

- Papa got up with M2 and started getting ready for work while getting the kids started on breakfast.
- I got up a little later and Papa went for a run.
- The kids watched a PBS show or two.
- Then we would go for a fairly long walk, with the kids riding bikes or scooters and M3 in the stroller.
- Next up was snack time and usually some indoor playing before lunch while I did some cleaning or organizing.
- Lunch!
- The younger two napped while I did a little work and M.G. had a short amount of quiet time in her room. She usually watched a show and played a little on the computer too. On most days she and I also had time to read together or play a card game or two. I really enjoyed some one-on-one time with her before school started again.
- Once everyone was awake we had afternoon snack and headed back outside for more play time until Papa got home.

I think we made good use of the end of vacation and now we're trying to gear up for school to start. It will be strange not to have M.G. around. The summer went very fast! But, we're all excited for the new year.

Last road trip of the summer - Denver!

2011-08-23T23:22:00.001-05:00

About two weeks ago we had the chance for one more road trip adventure this summer! We set out Wednesday morning and planned for a long day of driving. We stopped for lunch at small, independent sub shop and then we stopped at a random park in Nebraska later in the day. We tried for a more relaxed supper at a restaurant, but by that point we were all a little fried.

We spent our first night at a hotel in Sterling, Colorado. We drove between two storms that evening. We could see rain on either side and some ominous clouds. Just as it was getting too dark to see much of the landscape we noticed something glistening along the side of the road. It almost looked like snow, but then we realized it was a lot of hail! Sterling had been hit by a large storm less than an hour before we arrived, but we didn't get anything on our drive.

Thursday morning we just had a few hours before we arrived in Denver. Our first stop was the Denver Children's Museum. Our local museum membership has reciprocal benifits and we were glad to check it out. The kids had a lot of fun playing in a fire truck and with bubbles. The museum had an exhibit where they kids were able to fire compressed air rockets and make little parachute air craft that they really enjoyed.

For lunch we took a recommendation from a tourist magazine and tried Two-fisted Mario's for excellent slices. We walked up the 16th Street Mall to browse in Tattered Covers. Catching the free shuttle bus back down the street was a highlight for the kids.

Our main goal for this trip was to meet up with some good friends. My godson and his family live in Texas and were visiting his Grandparents in Colorado. We were happy to have the chance to cross paths with them for a visit!

C just turned 3 and is a fun little guy. There was a lot of playing with trucks, slip 'n' sliding, and digging in the dirt. It would be great if we could see them more often!

Friday morning we made a short visit to the Denver capitol building. The kids were impressed with the big staircases and ornate building materials.

We met back up with our friends and headed to Casa Bonita for lunch. Casa Bonita is a wild restaurant that is part Chuck E.Cheese, part Wall Drug. The kids enjoyed watching cliff divers and a man in a gorilla suit during "lunch." (I think they ate about 3 bites between them.) Then we wandered around the little indoor village. They saw a puppet show, played arcade games, and Rebecca was chosen to take a swing at not one, but two different pinatas.

After that adventure we said goodbye to our friends and caught one of the last tours of the day at Hammond's Candies. The tour was well worth our time. Hammond's makes all their candy by hand and we watched hot gooey sugar turn into candy canes! The kids watched with interest! (They are eating free samples of peppermint candy in this photo, not frowning!)

It was really quite hot that afternoon, so instead of finding something to do outside we decided to drive the Lariat Loop in to the mountains. (That website would have been great to see before our trip! We were kind of flying blind and looking for tiny road signs!)

We had an exciting ride up in to the mountains and watched the elevation tick up on the GPS. There were a lot of bicyclers shooting down the twisting road, which was scary to me! But, the drive was beautiful.

We drove through a canyon on our way back to Denver and through some scenic little towns.

We went back to the 16th Street mall for supper and another free bus ride. We went for a quick swim in the outdoor hotel pool that night. It was a big deal for the kids and beautiful to be out under the stars.

Saturday we drove all the way home. It was a long day of driving with very little to stop and see. We wanted to play at a playground and have a nice supper, but after lunch there was nothing but road and bikers returning from the Sturgis rally. We ended up eating supper at Al's Oasis (The first restaurant for the 100 miles we were on I-90!) for the 2nd time this summer and it was again a perfect choice. Nice comfort food, room to move around a bit, and then just 3 hours home.

We drove by and waved to the Corn Palace and M2 was disappointed he wouldn't get to see the man dressed as corn! But, that was our last detour and we motored the rest of the way home.

Bike rider!

2011-08-18T22:52:00.000-05:00

M.G. wanted to take the training wheels off her bike last fall. She tried to ride a few times, but did not want to risk getting hurt if she crashed and quickly decided it wasn't for her. For Christmas she really wanted a scooter and has ridden it so much this summer that I don't think she missed her bike much at all.

Over the summer we took the pedals off of the bike so that she could try using it as a balance bike, like M2's. She never really took to it and still was afraid of really going.

At some point we decided that bike riding was a skill she needed to have. We waited until we had a good two weeks at home here and I let her know we'd be riding bike after supper each night until she got it. She was not happy at all! But, we decided to hold strong and give it a shot. (We also mentioned we'd go out for ice cream once she figured it out.)

She wiped her eyes dry, hopped on her bike, pushed off, and started pedaling! She didn't make it too far, but she caught on really quickly with some help from Papa. After just a few minutes she was biking up and down the sidewalk. She was quite proud of herself!

I'm glad it worked out, but mainly am happy about how excited she is to keep riding her bike - I hoped she'd see how much fun it can be, and she did!

M.G. is home and so is a scary guy!

2011-08-10T00:22:00.000-05:00

We were all happy to have M.G. home with us on Friday. It sounds like she had a wonderful vacation! I noticed in a couple super tiny ways that she might have missed us a little bit, but she also spent some time crying on that first day home because she missed the fun of vacation.

She was extra snuggly when she got home and we took another rocking chair photo. That chair is starting to overflow! (You can see earlier versions from the posts where M3 came home from the hospital and when M2 came home as well.)

Grandma and Grandpa M stayed with us until Sunday afternoon. Since then we've had some ups and downs as everyone gets back into our normal routine. But the ups are super happy!

I'm reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to M.G. during nap time when the younger two are sleeping. (The actual edition in that link, with nice big print.) So far it has been a great read-a-loud book. She was on the edge of her seat as Lucy found Narnia the first time and as Edmund found it later. She squealed when all 4 kids stumbled into the wardrobe this afternoon. It's one of my favorite books from childhood and I enjoy visiting Narina with her now.

The library's summer reading program has ended for the year and the kids went in to redeem their library dollars with Papa. M2 was very excited to try out his new Wolverine costume!

M2: I have a great idea! I can wear this next Halloween!
Me: It's a little big. I bet we can find a better costume for Halloween.
M2: Do you think it will fit by Christmas?
Me: It would fit better than it would at Halloween.
M2: Then I know what I will do! I will wear it on Christmas to scare Santa!
Me: Is that a good idea? Would he still want to give you gifts if you scare him?
M2: I don't care, I'm still going to scare Santa when he sneaks in to the house! (Long pause) Maybe I should find someone else to scare...

Every day we're shuffling...

2011-08-03T23:02:00.001-05:00

M2, M3, and I have had a fun week together while M.G. has been on her Minnesota vacation. M2 spends a lot of time playing with M.G. on a normal day and he spends quite a bit of time just hanging around waiting to see what M.G. wants to do next. This week he's been calling the shots and he has been keeping me on my toes!

We've played with a lot of cars and blocks and went on a great bike ride/ stroller walk yesterday. He wanted to build a surfing robot too.

Today we had a playdate with some of our Moms' club friends. Most of the kids we know through that group are 3 or younger, so this was a nice chance for M2 to play with his friends without M.G. feeling like she was too old for the group.

He has been helping me out around the house - with the dishes, sweeping, and folding towels and diapers.

Lately M2 has been really enjoying LMAO's Party Rock Anthem. We had a couple days last week where we'd hear him singing "Every day I'm shuffling." a lot! And once he got it in to my head we'd be shuffling all day.

Here he is dancing with M3:

August

2011-08-01T22:50:00.000-05:00

M3 loves doing what the big kids do and at bedtime lately she wants to hear bedtime songs with M2. She also likes wearing slippers like a big girl! (We have a photo of M.G. wearing Aunt Nissa's big black cat slippers at the same age, but I must not have been the photographer - it's not on my computer...)

M3 really wants to ride a scooter like the big kids. She is happy to just stand on M2's scooter for now!

Our big event of the week is that M.G. is staying in MN! She is spending the first part of the week with Grandma and Grandpa B and then will spend time with Grandma and Grandpa M before they bring her home on Friday! Here she is, ready to get on the road. It sounds like she is having a really good time on vacation!

Mt Rushmore vacation!

2011-07-29T00:00:00.000-05:00

A week and a half ago we took a short vacation with our friends Chris and Jenny. Jenny brought along her 6 year old nephew and we headed West toward Mt. Rushmore!

We stopped at a lot of those touristy places we had all seen as kids. First was the "world's only" Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. The kids really got in to the many billboards advertising the Corn Palace and Wall Drug that we saw along the road.

On our East coast vacation we realized that the kids were often more interested in random things along the trip instead of the main attractions. South Dakota has lots of attractions that rival the most exciting rest stop or park bench. They got to see a building decorated with corn with a man dressed as an ear of corn inside! They got to climb on lots of random statues! And the rest stop we stopped at had a big boat and free coloring books!

Jackalope at Wall Drug!

Cowboy Joe!

The 8 of us shared a chalet in Keystone, SD. It was great to have room to relax and eat some of our meals. The chalet had a big deck that was perfect for our early birds to play while everyone else slept until a decent waking-up time. What it did not have was an oven! Frozen pizza on the gas grill tasted great after a day on the road.

The next morning we set off to see Mt. Rushmore. We had checked out a great book from the library ("Who Carved the Mountain?" ) and it really helped the kids understand what we'd see there. Again I was impressed by how interested the kids were in looking at the mountain and watching the video in the museum. M2 really wished he could have visited when they were using the dynamite.

The hiking trails near Mt. Rushmore were closed that morning, so after a drive by the Crazy Horse Memorial we headed to Rapid City to walk around the Dinosaur Park. These dinos were built in the '30s and the kids had a lot of fun checking them all out, climbing, and exploring.

After lunch we went to the South Dakota Air and Space Museum. The museum is free and they have many airplanes, rockets, and helicopters on display outside. The older kids enjoyed walking around outside and showed interest in some of the indoor exhibits as well.

M3 was ecstatic about the airplanes outside. She wanted to get down and walk to each one and she pointed excitedly at everything. She made the "want that" sign for a missile! She and I started walking toward our group to enter the museum, but she kept turning around to go back to the planes!

After the museum we headed back to the chalet for a bit and then saddled up for dinner at the Circle B Chuckwagon. We had a great time at the ranch. There were activities for the kids (pistol shooting, goat feeding, pony rides, panning for gold, and more... ) before supper, a shoot-out with the Biscuit Bandit, a "cowboy style" chuckwagon supper on tin plates, and a Western entertainment show after dinner.

The next morning we drove to Jewel Cave. M3 and I stayed above ground, but everyone else went on a 90 minute tour of the cave. They decided that it was interesting, but 90 minutes was about 45 minutes too long. They did enjoy that point in the tour when the guide turned all the lights off.

We had a great time traveling with friends and the kids liked having a friend their age along. On the way home we all had supper together at Al's Oasis. Al's is big restaurant, grocery store, gift store complex that has been around for ages. It was a great atmosphere for relaxing a bit mid-drive and one more chance to have fun all together before our cars split up and our friends headed back to Minnesota.

Victory!

2011-07-27T22:30:00.000-05:00

Tonight M.G., M3, and I went to watch M2 and Papa in their last Parent & Child swim class.

One activity had the kids, in life vests, jumping from the side into the arms of the parents and then trying to "race" a set distance and back. M.G., M3, and I clapped a little and M.G. was cheering for M2. He reached for the side of the pool to finish his lap and she excitedly shouted, "He finished before some of the kids! He was not the last to finish!"

Tough questions

2011-07-25T14:00:00.000-05:00

This summer M2 has had a lot of questions about death. M.G. also had questions at this age, but she's always been on the hunt for facts. She asks a question on any topic. I answer to the best of my ability and try to show a couple points of view in my answer. She might ask a follow up or two, but for the most part the matter is settled. If I misstep it usually works to tell her that I explained it poorly and that I need to try again.

M2 brings much more emotion to tough topics and that makes it so difficult for me! One night he asked me several questions and I tried to find ways to answer him that would not cause him to worry too much. I could see fear in his eyes and each question seemed to get right at my heart. He asked all the typical "when," "why," "what" questions, but he also had a lot of questions about things like "who will read to me when I die?" and there is no happy, useful, good answer to questions like that, no unsaying anything that scares him.

The horrible car accident that injured Uncle Dave has brought up some conversations about injury and healing and a small bit about death too. We've tried to inform the kids without causing them to worry excessively and it seemed like we'd been finding a balance.

Yesterday at supper we were talking about the great news that Uncle Dave can now try walking without his leg brace, but that it is very difficult still. M2 had a shocked, scared look on his face, but we were talking about a positive step.

Finally he said, "How can Dave take the brace off his leg and walk?"

Me: "His leg is getting better, he can try taking some steps without the brace, but he still needs to heal before he can really walk well."

M2: "But how can he just take the brace off?"

Me: "I think it has velcro, it is made of plastic."

M2: (getting a little more upset) "But Dave broke his leg. How can his leg stay on when he takes the brace off?"

We talked a bit about bones and muscle and skin, but yikes. With him it is not just the confusion about a factual mix-up: is the leg attached or is it not. It was the amount of worry he showed when he imagined Uncle Dave taking the brace off a leg that had broken off.

Happy kids!

2011-07-24T23:16:00.000-05:00

M3 loves to get herself up into this rocking chair and rock, rock, rock!

We're starting to get some great veggies from the garden. Papa put a lot of work into getting two small gardens planted in our yard and he also rented a city plot again. The kids jumped at the chance to pick the first round of green beans yesterday. Then they snapped all the ends off! We had close to 3 lbs of beans and the kids devoured all but the small serving Papa and I each took.

Mid-July update

2011-07-20T07:31:00.000-05:00

Kindergarten and a messy winter kept us close to home and we are making up for it now! We've been on the road to MN for a 10 day visit and we spent 2 nights on the western side of South Dakota. In between we get used to life at home, catch up, and find a lot to do around here.

I realized this morning I never posted photos from our MN trip, so they will be here, mixed in with a quick update.

M.G. and M2 are both taking swimming lessons now - M2's class is parent/child and he really enjoys it. M.G. also looks forward to each lesson. She's taking park&rec tennis for a few weeks as well. M2 and M3 play on a playground while M.G. is at her lessons. M3 is climbing on the baby equipment and M2 is climbing high in the air on some of the bigger kid stuff.

M2 had his first dentist appointment yesterday. He was a champ! He was a little nervous, but didn't need extra prodding or his hand held. M.G. has a referral to an orthodontist because her little baby teeth are so close together and they expect trouble with crowding. M3 is still working on her molars.

Every time we return home from a trip our garden plants have jumped in size! It's a satisfying way to watch plants grow. Papa harvested some great looking beets and turnips last night (and we had a meal of turnips last week as well.) The cold start to summer pushed back everything, but veggies are in sight now.

It's fun to see the elaborate situations M.G.and M2 set up to play together. Lots of camping and space themed adventures. They do really well together most of the time, but we have some squabbling too. M3 is walking really well now and wanders around the house looking for things to chew on. Our new gate at the top of the stairs has really been nice now that she can move so fast!

We still are considering another road trip this summer... we'll see if it pans out. We'll have some grandparent visits as well and the pool calls our name quite a bit when we are home, too. I've been printing and building the calendar of the month this year and July's is just perfect for us this summer.

Summertime!

2011-07-11T22:44:00.002-05:00

M.G. and M3 were giggling in M.G.'s room this afternoon. Eventually M3 wandered out to find me - she is ready for the beach!

She's been trying to talk - we sing a belly button song during diaper change and now she'll grab her bare tummy and say "bel buh, bel buh." She's working on "bo ki" when she blows a kiss too!

Random Wednesday photos

2011-07-06T22:04:00.000-05:00

M3 reading and barking at the doggies.

Showing off her super cute summer jammies.

When I do the dishes we listen to music. I'm in charge of washing, drying, singing, and dancing around. M3 is in charge of instrumentation and background vocals. (Tonight's selection was Cake.)

Last road-trip post!

2011-06-28T22:38:00.000-05:00

Spending a day in New York City was high on our priority list for this vacation. I really enjoy just walking around the city and there is always more on our list to check out on some future visit. My grad school roommate lives and works in NYC and it's always fun to catch up with her. I do also like to live vicariously through her when I hear about her life there.

I (and I think Papa) were as excited as M2 to ride the ferry. The view from the boat was great, both of the Statue of Liberty and the skyline of Manhattan.

We check off another of M.G.'s request - NYC hot dog from a cart! M3 tried a little NYC hot dog bun.

The entrance to Central Park that is off Columbus Circle wraps up so much of what is iconic NYC in my mind. How many countless times have I heard about that corner of the city with each Thanksgiving parade! It makes me smile every time I get to stand there and I love bringing the kids along (even if they probably won't remember it!)

We attended Mass at St Patrick's Cathedral that evening. It is beautiful and huge inside. I enjoyed experiencing something so familiar with so many people from all over.

On our other visits to New York City we started by walking from Grand Central station to Central Park. This time we started at Battery Park and didn't get to Midtown until early evening.

Times Square was much busier and flashier at this time of the day!

The kids had a lot of fun on the train back to Tarrytown even though it was after bedtime by that point. We learned that the promise of a fruit cup when we got back to the car would always give them an extra boost at times when they started to get a little cranky. (I think they are nibbling on Goldfish crackers here...)

Here we are in Champaign, IL. I did not expect our walk on campus to bring back so many memories of baby M.G. She was 18 months when we left Illinois and as soon as we saw this Quad I thought about how much fun she had running on those sidewalks when she first learned to run!

Champaign, IL

Madison, WI

The kids learned how to beat box by watching the Electric Company on PBS. They will go on streaks where they try to beat box all the time. We've had several talks about appropriate beat boxing locations. Walking up and down State Street in Madison they were really getting in to it. We started teasing them about putting their hats down for some money once they practice a bit more. Here they are performing.

Fountain near Engineering Hall in Madison.

Indiana Dunes and Niagara Falls

2011-06-25T14:44:00.001-05:00

On our second day of vacation we were looking for something to break up a day of driving. There was a large green "nature" area on the map right on our route and it looked like we'd hit it a few hours after lunch when we'd all be ready to move around. The green patch was Indiana Dunes State Park. We had heard of the Dunes when we lived in Illinois, but never visited them. The park was along the southern edge of Lake Michigan. Large sand dunes built up over time and eventually supported the growth of a forest.

We hardly had to pull of the highway and were able to take a short (just over a mile) hike over the dunes to the lake. The landscape changed from forest to beach, but even in the wooded area the trail was eroded to the sand of the dunes. We all enjoyed emptying our shoes at the end of that hike!

Day 3 of vacation was a drive to Niagara Fall, NY. We found free parking very close to the river and enjoyed walking along the river to the falls. I was surprised at how suddenly the falls were right there next to us, without fanfare.

We saw the Falls from several locations and it really helped show how tall and powerful they are. After seeing them from the side of the river at the top of the falls, we purchased tickets to ride the Maid of the Mist. We took a very fast elevator down to the bottom of the falls.

For the boat ride we stood right up front on the upper level!

American Falls, as seen from the boat.

After the ride, we explored the staircase next to the American Falls. You can see the tiny people in blue ponchos climbing that path in the next photo. The kids all loved the spray! We rode the elevator back to an observation deck that sits out over the river... look at that difference in height between where the kids are and where the blue poncho people are!

American and Bridal Veil Falls, from the observation deck.

After a snack (and sword fighting) break, we walked on to Luna and Goat Islands, which are located between the Falls.

Here are the American and Bridal Veil Falls from Goat Island. We could see the water just at it fell over the edge! You can see the elevator tower and observation deck in front of the bridge in the center of the photo.

Horseshoe Falls, from Goat Island

That evening we tried to find a grocery store for supper supplies and our GPS kept trying to trick us into going to Canada! The kids enjoyed waving to Canada a few times that day.

M3: 12 months and first big vacation!

2011-06-22T23:07:00.000-05:00

M3 had her birthday while we were on vacation. She's not a baby anymore, as M.G. likes to remind me when I slip up. She can be such a content ~~baby~~ toddler and I think she is equal parts sweetheart and wild animal.

M3 really likes giving kisses! Here she is kissing the little animal on a birthday card she was given.

She is curious about everything around her and now she tells us, with lots of noise and pointing, about what she sees. She was excited to watch the passing traffic while the rest of us enjoyed ice cream at Oink's Dutch Treat in Michigan.

She celebrated her birthday at Niagara Falls. How will we top that? We were all excited to ride on the Maid of the Mist. It wasn't until we were on the boat that I started to worry that M3 would be scared, cry the whole time, and ruin the trip for those around us.

She hated the blue plastic poncho and cried miserably when we put it on her. She was quickly distracted by the drops of water sliding down the metal behind us, but occasionally would remember the poncho and cry. When we entered the spray from the waterfalls she started laughing and reaching for more water! She loved the motion of the boat, too!

We tried to take time when possible to give M3 a little freedom. We had a quick snack break here before getting back into the car after our afternoon visiting Niagara Falls.

That evening we gathered supplies at a grocery store and had a picnic supper in the car. We found small cupcakes to celebrate M3's day!

I think M3 is starting to look much less like a baby. She has 8 teeth now and her molars are starting to bug her. She's getting quite a bit more coordinated and opinionated! She enjoyed playing with our Albany friends as well and didn't have any anxiety about new people. She wanted to snuggle or joke around with the adults and was happy to crawl around after the kids.

We didn't realize it until I started working on this post, but this was M3's first voyage outside of South Dakota and Minnesota. She's a natural traveler. She dipped her toes in her first ocean in Rhode Island!

M3 spent a lot of time in the Ergo on this trip. For as rambunctious as she can be, she really did well snuggled close. It also gave me a chance to talk to her and give her some attention after she was in her car seat for hours.

Now M3 is cleared to eat most foods. We made sure to share some of our treats with her along the way. We can now record her "first slice of NYC pizza!"

For as peaceful as M3 is around most people, she is so wild at heart. She loves to make noise! On the train from NYC to Tarrytown she was dancing and making lots of monster noises.

Here she is on Madison's terrace!

I had wondered if we'd made a mistake trying to take this long trip with a 12 month old. She did cry a bit at times in the car, but overall was content. She was so happy whenever she did have some time to explore.

M3's walking seems to have taken off now that we are home. I think she's made it 8 to 10 steps without holding on to anything and she's very excited every time she makes it a few steps.

M3 really thinks about what is going on around her and tries to figure little things out. She spent some time for a few days in a row trying to get the little Connect 4 disks to slide in to place. Finally she got it and was so happy for herself. M.G. and I were able to play a few games together and M3 took a turn each round to put in a disk as well.

M3 had her 12 month check-up this morning and is strong and healthy. She's now 20 lbs, 10 oz. (50%) and 30 inches long (80%). She hasn't grown much since her 9 month visit, but that is to be expected with all of the moving around and her insistence to try feeding herself more often.

Today she had a HepB and MMR vaccination.

I have trouble believing it has been a whole year since she was born! I think of all she'll learn in the next year and look forward to that adventure with her.

M.G.'s Vacation!

2011-06-21T23:26:00.003-05:00

M.G. was such a great traveler on this trip. She was very easy going and was dependable to jump on the bandwagon and have a good time (for the most part.) She took the lead when she could and had a lot of fun on the little stops we had. She had more of a memory of New York and I enjoyed hearing the details she remembered along the way.

(This is the hiking trail we took in Indiana Dunes State Park. It's a sand dune that is so old that a forest grew on it!)

We had expected that the younger two might need more help in the backseat then I could easily provide from the front and that M2 might get on M.G.'s nerves along the way. Our solution was to offer M.G. a babysitting job ($1 for the trip, which is the same as her weekly allowance) and she really took to that idea. Her main responsibilities were helping to engage M3 with toys when needed and to try to be tolerant of M2 if he got irritating. It was very cute to see her offer to read to M2 at one point and when they were having a lot of trouble sitting still at lunch one day I asked her if she could help me with M2 and she calmed right down and asked him to sit by her. She also was able to play with M3 at times where M3 wanted a break from the car and it often bridged the gap until we could stop.

(Indiana Dunes State Park, Lake Michigan)

M.G. also enjoyed the Maid of the Mist boat tour at Niagara Falls. She spent the whole ride in the position below. I was behind her and had no idea what she was thinking, but when it was finished she was exuberant!

M.G. was our junior navigator. My mom had given her a road atlas with games and puzzles. M.G. checked it often over the vacation - looking for our route and giving us facts about the states we traveled through. She liked knowing where we were, where we were going, and when we'd get there. We purchased a GPS for this trip and she enjoyed the "estimated arrival time" feature. It eliminated a lot of the "are we there yet?"

Before the trip we talked a lot about what we each wanted to do on the trip. We wanted to find several things for the kids to look forward to along the way. One of M.G.'s fondest memories of living in New York was eating at Friendly's, so we made sure to stop there for lunch on our way to Albany.

The reason Friendly's is such a great memory? An ice cream sundae with every kid's meal!

M.G. remembered bits and pieces of the things we saw in Troy and Albany. In some ways less than I expected, but she'd remember little details, like the hill we walked down at the old apartment complex.

I've mentioned before that M.G. always says she'll ride on a carousel horse (like in my post about a different vacation) but then she gets scared and balks at the last minute. So, we smiled and nodded as we approached the State Museum carousel and she said, "Today I'm going to ride a horse!" She did grab a horse and climbed right up! She was a little nervous at first, but by the end was having a lot of fun!

M.G. spent a lot of time on a boogie board on the beach of Newport, RI. She enjoyed splashing and running in the water.

Starfish!

M.G. enjoyed hanging out with her 7 year old cousin, Ella, in Rhode Island. They had met at two family reunions and I always wish we had just a little more time for them to play together - as soon as they start getting to know each other again the visit is over!

M.G. was given several chapter books that Ella had enjoyed as a 6 year old and suddenly we lost her for the car ride portion of the next two days as she read them and read them again! She was so focused that she perfected answering us with vague one word responses said with pretend emotion without looking up.

Me: Beck, are you cold with this vent pointed at you?
M.G.: Nice!
or
Me: We're going over a really neat bridge. You might want to look out the window.
M.G.: Good!

We saw a glimmer of an older M.G. on the Staten Island Ferry. She was interested in the boat ride until she found out we were getting off on Staten Island, because they make you re-board, and then getting directly on to a boat going back to where we started. She found this to be a really silly idea and it showed!

So the start of M.G.'s day in NYC was off to kind of a rough start. She was hungry and had to take an unnecessary ride on a boat. We left the Ferry terminal and it was drizzling slightly. We expected rain and had carried our umbrellas with us. Suddenly M.G.'s day turned around - she got to use her umbrella that Grandma had given her! She's only gotten to use it a few times and so it really did make her day.

This was M.G.'s 3rd trip to NYC. The first photo is from 2 years ago when she was 4. One thing she looked forward to was getting another photo with a fake Statue of Liberty.

She also enjoys wandering through Central Park. The first photo below was also taken 2 years ago and I wanted to have a comparison photo because she just looks so much older now!

On this trip we ended up walking through Central Park really fast so that we could get to Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. M.G. really enjoyed trying to rush through the park and crowds. She had been complaining a bit about being tired, but suddenly she was animated and pointing out all the sights along the way. After Mass she was also much more interested in what we were seeing. We passed through Times Square and all the people and lights had her looking around in wonder.

We stopped to look at the library lions and

she enjoyed the constellations in Grand Central station.

M.G. spent nearly all of Sunday reading in the car as we headed West.

Once we got home, M.G. told us that stopping in Champaign to see where she first lived was one of her favorite parts of the trip. We enjoyed showing her the important places from when she was a baby. Seeing her running around campus brought back memories of a toddler monkey on the go!

Madison, WI was around the point where M.G. was ready to get home. But, she was still happy to pose by one more Statue of Liberty!

M2's vacation

2011-06-21T00:01:00.000-05:00

M2 had a few things he really was looking forward to on this vacation - he wanted to ride a train, see the Statue of Liberty, swim, and eat the fun snacks we packed. He had no memory of living in New York and was kind of too young to appreciate some of the sights, which we learned quickly.

Here he is at Niagara Falls. The Falls are directly behind him in this photo and he's digging in the dirt. He took every opportunity to dig in the dirt no matter where we were.

He did enjoy the Niagara Falls boat tour - the spray of water and adventure of riding the boat was very exciting!

He had a wonderful time with our New York friends and was really comfortable around them, not shy at all. He keeps asking when we'll go back. I wish we would have taken a few more photos with our friends there.

We took some time driving around Troy - the city we lived in when M2 was born. He was excited to see the apartment building we lived in. One of the buildings in the complex was torn down due to damage and he thought that was really neat to see. We saw a lot of emergency vehicles driving around and that also made an impact.

We made a stop at our favorite ice cream place in Troy and M2 was a little disappointed that there wasn't a real snowman.

We rode the carousel at the NY State Museum and M2 was very excited to be on one of the horses. He knew we'd see a carousel that morning and asked over and over when we'd get there. Then after the ride he started crying because he had been so excited and it was over so soon. He agreed that watching the next group ride would be enough to cheer him up, but the man running the ride waved us over for one more ride!

Playing at the beach in Newport, RI was a big highlight for M2.

He and M.G. were also shown how to find all sorts of creatures hiding on the docks. He's showing us a snail here...

We walked along the boardwalk and he thought climbing this anchor was awesome!

The next day was our trip to New York City. I can't express how much M2 was looking forward to this day. He knew we'd take a train in to the city. We also told him we planned to ride a boat, which he now knew he'd like. There was also the Statue of Liberty to look forward to. I'm really not sure why he is so interested in the Statue of Liberty. He's seen the Liberty Tax guys out in front of their store at tax time and he's seen pictures and photos in a variety of places. Almost every day, with every stop, he asked if it was time to see the Statue of Liberty. We'd be getting out at a rest stop to use the bathrooms and M2 would say, "Now we see the Statue of Liberty?"

The train did not disappoint!

Here he is on the Staten Island Ferry, moments from seeing the Statue of Liberty!

Success!

New York seemed a little overwhelming for M2. The subway rides were loud and hot, there were a lot of people everywhere, and so it is difficult to know how much he took in. He did enjoy seeing a digger as we walked around! And he liked Central Park.

M2 did really well in the car for most of the trip. He was impressed by the tunnels of Pennsylvania...

but, then he was ready to be finished. I asked, "What do you think about spending another day in the car?"

We enjoyed introducing M2 to Madison, WI. Here he is looking out of the Noodles on State Street. He enjoyed vehicle watching.

Madison had a lot of construction going on. M2 would have spent hours watching. I loved how he was kind of surprised we thought we had anything better to do.

Papa and I really wanted to wander around the engineering campus a bit before we left town. It was clear that we had taken too many vacation photos when M2 calls out from behind me, "Quick, take a picture of me with this fire hydrant!"

But, even on the last night M2 was ready to add some fun when he could - hotel dance party!

Vacation overview!

2011-06-18T00:18:00.000-05:00

The Monkey Household has returned from our voyage to New York and back. We covered 13 states and 3745 miles in about a week and a half. Overall it was a really great trip. We all had a good time and the kids did really well, considering all the driving and late nights. I plan to post a few different vacation photo posts, but will outline our trip here.

We left South Dakota on Saturday, June 4th, drove through Minnesota, and headed to Iowa to attend a wedding.

These first two photos were taken in our own town. The kids wasted no time breaking in to their activity bags.

M.G. and M2 had a blast on the dance floor that night!

The next morning, after Mass in Waterloo, IA, we headed through Illinois,

and stopped to hike in Indiana at the Indiana Dunes State Park, getting our toes wet in Lake Michigan and having a quick picnic.

We took scenic highway 12 into Michigan and made an unexpected stop at Oink's Dutch Treat. We saw a small building covered in wild pig paraphernalia and surrounded by a crowd and it was just what we needed to finish off that leg of the trip.

We spent that night in Ohio and got a fairly early start the next morning. We drove so that the kids tended to fall asleep in the car each night. This prevented any wild hotel room bedtime scenes or super early wake-ups. Being able to get up before the kids is really different than our regular routine!

June 6th was M3's first birthday!

We headed through Pennsylvania and in to New York! The kids were really very upbeat about all the driving (at least until the final two or three days when M2 was just ready to be done!)

We spent that afternoon exploring Niagara Falls. I had never been before and found it amazing! Papa caught this photo while we were on the boat tour.

We were so very glad to spend June 7th - 9th staying with good friends in Albany, NY. We were able to see quite a few people from the time we lived there and toured around to see the old sights as well.

The kids really enjoyed just relaxing and playing at our friends' house.

We drove around a bit pointing out important places to the kids and stopped by our favorite bakery for a treat.

We spent part of the next day in downtown Albany exploring the view from the Corning tower, running on the Plaza, and playing in the museum.

We were a bit sad to leave Albany, but we still had adventures awaiting us. The next morning we set off through Massachusetts (picking up some delicious strawberries at a toll road travel center)

and arrived in Newport, Rhode Island to spend the afternoon and night with family there. We hit the beach, had great seafood from a clam shack, explored the docks for starfish, and had a nice walk around that evening.

Saturday, June 11th, we got an early start and drove through Connecticut, with a stop for breakfast sandwiches,

on our way to our favorite train station back in New York.

We spent that afternoon and early evening exploring NYC and meeting up with a friend from our grad school years.

We spent that evening in Pennsylvania and on the 12th headed toward home. The mountains of Pennsylvania and a small sliver of West Virginia were beautiful and had us wishing we could spend more time in this area.

This day was when M2 started having enough of the small confines of the back seat. I think M.G. read her way through 5 states. But, we had a lot of fun running and blowing bubbles at a rest stop in Ohio

and we had a really lovely picnic and hike at a MetroPark near Dayton, OH.

That evening Papa drove us through Indiana and we stayed the night in our grad school town in Illinois.

The next morning we walked around campus and drove around so that M.G. could see where we lived and what we did when she was a baby. It was a really beautiful day for walking around.

We hopped in the car and drove up to Madison, Wisconsin for lunch. Papa and I went to college in Madison and had not been back in several years. It was great to be back!

We had hoped to get all the way home late that night, but it was a rough trip through Wisconsin. We ended up spending one more night in a hotel. This time we arrived a little earlier than we had been and it was a fun "watch TV and dance around on the bed" party.

We did make it home the next day, traveling back through Minnesota to South Dakota again.

This post feels almost as long as the vacation! I can't wait to share a few more photos of specific spots along our way!

Pay to see the trucks in action, get the trees down for free!

2011-06-03T23:06:00.000-05:00

We had some big, overgrown trees cut down this week. We were happy that the tree guy arrived to give us some extra space in the yard. The whole process was really exciting for the kids. The tree guy had two big trucks and made quick work of our trees. M.G. was even able to blow the horn on one of the trucks! M2 watched everything closely. He particularly was amazed when the tree guy drove a big truck on our yard to get to the backyard and he asked lots of questions about everything!

M3's birthday party!

2011-06-02T22:34:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we had an early, informal birthday party for M3.

She and the older kids were very excited to see the sand/water table from Grandma and Grandpa M.

This is M3's "excited" face. She had a lot of reason to make that face over the weekend!

She really wasn't sure about the cake, candle, and singing at first.

But she knew it was something everyone should check out.

Eventually she grabbed some frosting.

A big piece of cake is exciting, but she wasn't sure about eating it.

But she liked it once she gave it a try!

She had a lot of fun playing with her gifts!

And she tried helping Papa put together her ball popper!

First week of summer vacation!

2011-05-29T23:37:00.000-05:00

Summer vacation is off to a great start here! We now have a first grader and here she was on her last day of Kindergarten.
Her teacher had so many nice things to say about her progress and personality. We were all very happy with how the year went.

It took us a few days to get used to a new schedule and what felt like a lot more time in the day. We've been spending a lot of time outside and went to the museum twice on what turned out to be the two rainy days.

M3 is doing really well with her little walker now and trying to talk more and more. Recently she's started trying to quack when she sees a toy duck.

We gave M2 a balance bike for his birthday. I really wasn't convinced that it looked like much fun, but he has it figured out now! He can coast along at top speeds and we're thinking he'll be ready soon for us to attached the pedals that will turn it into a big guy bike.

He has been having a great time with M.G. around more. They have more time to get on each others nerves, which does happen daily, but they also have more time to find ways to play together and individually.

Of course there have been many small moments I want to blog about as we have been spending so much time having fun. But the 3 of them really keep me hopping. I noticed by the end of the week they were already starting to spend more time playing independently and less time needing me to offer ideas. So there is hope that I'll have time to get some work and other things done this summer. (Although we have a lot of travel planned this summer so "routine" will be something we're always getting back to.)

Here is a short video of M3 trying to keep up with the big kids.

And here is M2 speeding down the driveway on his bike.

Last week of school!

2011-05-17T22:39:00.000-05:00

Spring is here for sure! It's M.G.'s last week of school and kind of busy around here. She's very excited about summer, but is already saying that she wishes summer vacation was shorter. Tomorrow she gets to meet her 1st grade teacher and classmates!

Sunday afternoon I heard several neighbors out mowing. I checked on the kids who were outside with Papa and saw that M2 was working hard.

He had a big job to do!

M.G. scooters at top speeds for huge stretches of time.

And M3 spends a lot of time trying to play with the big kids!

M3: 11 Months!

2011-05-10T14:31:00.001-05:00

M3 is now 11 months old. So strange to think that she's nearly a year. All weekend I was thinking about how we were all waiting for her arrival a year ago and now her tiny baby days are over!

She is expressive and is trying to talk to us. Like M2, she's good with the "bah" sound. She says, "Bah bah," while waving when anyone leaves and she says, "bah bah," if we roll a ball to her. She also says "bah bah" when trying to get Rebecca's attention. It's a useful sound! I think she can say Mama and once we heard her make a "Pa Pa" sound. She'll also make a deep "jah" sound sometimes for Joe. She likes to try to communicate with the people around her. Last week a friend was pointing at the kangaroo on M3's shoe. We saw the same friend a week later and M3 caught her attention and then started pointing at her shoe!

It was kind of a cranky month for her and we soon realized that her new teeth were to blame! She went from 2 teeth to 6 teeth, with 2 more nearly here. She had been eating 3 big meals a day with snacks, but the painful gums and a rough cold really cut back her appetite. We're trying to give her lots of finger foods and she's slowly gaining interest in solids again.

She has become a master crawler and easily pulls up to standing now. She'll let go and balance for just the tiniest moment before grabbing on again. She's creeping along the furniture and can push the walker up the driveway. (The walker moves too fast on flat ground!)

She really likes watching the big kids and trying to play with them. She's still especially fond of music and playing with instruments. She also likes toys she can chew on and looking at books. It's been a lot of fun to watch how she plays with things. When we play outside she points at the trees and clouds. She loves the strong wind. I think she'll have fun this summer.

Mother's Day 2011

2011-05-09T10:37:00.000-05:00

They are smiling so big because this was the day before Mother's Day and we were on our way to a birthday party. After years of Mother's Day photos of cranky kids who don't want to stop what they are doing for a random photo, I lured them into nice clothes with the promise of cake.

M.G. brought home a clay bowl she made and glazed at school as a Mother's Day gift. First tooth, first step, first words, first elementary school art - another happy milestone.

2011-05-06T09:05:00.000-05:00

I just have a few random photos and updates today...

* The kids have been enjoying the nice weather. M2 has gotten much better at riding his balance bike...

and M.G. scooters around and around our cul-de-sac.

* The Easter bunny brought the kids each a big chocolate bunny and after guessing at the size they wanted to measure one before we ate it. M.G. has always been pretty generous, but it is easy to forget that when you hear lots of silly squabbles over toys. ("I can't share the pretend pizza because you want pretend mushrooms and I don't.") When we opened her bunny the first thing she said was that it was big enough for all of us to have some. Papa and I suggested she just save some for another day, but she thought it would be better to share it with all of us.

* M.G. has a way of bringing up topics that she thinks are controversial. A tone in her voice that makes it clear she is wondering where we will stand on the issue. Last night she, in her bomb dropping mode, said, "A lot of my classmates are excited about the Boys & Girls Club this summer." Then she sat back and waited to see what we'd do with that.

We asked her what she heard about it and what they were excited about. At first she didn't want to show her hand - she said, "What do you know about it?" So, we explained that it was a place for kids to go during the summer if both parents worked. She, still trying, I think, to turn this into a really useful thing she discovered for us, said, "So many kids are excited about it."

We had to get at her point. Papa explained that it was basically day care. At that point, she dropped her informative stance and said, "I think it really sounds like fun."

She's wanted to go to day care for years. I don't think she knows what boarding school is, but I bet she'd be interested. I'll have to look and see if the B&G club here has day camps.

* Every time we are at the grocery store the kids want to stop by the lobster tank. Last week, during supper, M.G. wondered if we'd ever buy a lobster to try. I commented on not really wanting to eat a lobster from a South Dakota grocery store and Papa talked about the time he did try lobster. We chatted about when we might have a chance to try it. M2 suddenly interrupted, "The lobsters at HyVee are for pets, not to eat."

We tried to gently tell him that no, those are for food, they are at the grocery store. What a sad misunderstanding!

A few days later the kids and I were on our own for supper. We had picked up some fish sticks (because I was just not in the mood to be the only person not being picky about what I served.) During supper M2 informed us, "They call these fish sticks because fish also love to eat them."

M.G. and I actually exchanged a look, I love that she is old enough to do that, and I broke the news to M2. Then M.G. jumped in with the idea that sharks would eat fish sticks and we all pretended to be whale sharks (because M.G. told us whale sharks don't eat people.)

*M3 is 11 months today, so we'll take some photos and I'll get them posted some time soon. Here she is last week with that grin telling me that she's pretty proud of the mischief she thinks she's getting in to.

*Today is the day M2 has his parent/child class at the museum. Today is also the day that M.G.'s class is visiting the museum and Papa is a chaperon for half the day!

M3's first Easter

2011-04-29T14:23:00.001-05:00

This isn't a photo from our weekend, but I really like it...

We traveled to Minnesota for Easter weekend. The kids had a lot of fun with Grandma M, Grandpa M and Grandpa B. They asked many times when Grandma B would return from California.

While in MN we learned that M3 can climb stairs!

We have such early birds, but by both Christmas and Easter mornings there is usually at least one that wants to sleep past 6. This year it was M2 and M3, who looks a little cranky in this photo...

I'm really glad we don't send Easter photos out like those in Christmas cards...

M3 fell asleep in church after really enjoying the music.

But she was wide awake at snack time. What a little lady! She skinned her nose trying to crawl over something at the museum a few days earlier and she tends to make a lot of monster noises lately.

We went to two family celebrations and the kids enjoyed an egg hunt at each. They also enjoyed a lot of candy and playing with cousins.

M3 held on to her little baby pea doll all day. I'm not sure what she was doing with that butter knife, but she was sure having fun!

M3 was worn out by all of the family fun!

Spring?

2011-04-28T14:04:00.000-05:00

Hopefully we've turned the corner and can embrace warming weather now. (Last week we had a few tiny snow flurries!)

Yesterday the kids and I went downtown to take care of some errands after school. Since the sun was shining I parked the car and we walked from place to place. It was refreshing to be able to be out without coats and just one of those afternoons where we had fun together. (Sometimes that after school time can be kind of rough for all of us.)

As we walked the blocks from where we parked to the bank we heard the museum's two outdoor animatronic dinosaurs roaring. The dinos get turned off for the winter and so we were excited enough to stop and cheer when we heard them.

We made a stop at the library and I think the older kids are finally at a point where they can read or quietly play in the kids' area for a while. I was able to browse for some books I think they'll enjoy without worrying about running or shouting. (At least until M3 is free from the carrier.)

We finished up at the library just in time to make a quick stop on campus to see Papa riding a giant teeter totter. (26 feet long! 10 feet at the highest point!) The engineering honor society built it and was offering rides as a fundraiser. Earlier in the month they had let the students vote on which 4 professors would have to try it out and Papa won a spot. The kids were very excited to see Papa up in the air and each wanted to try.

M.G. and M2 each took a turn and then M3 started pointing and reaching toward the teeter totter. She practically jumped into Papa's arms when I brought her over and she giggled as she went up and down a couple times.

It was a great taste of Spring. (Let's hope it sticks around this time!)

Simple joy

2011-04-19T22:45:00.000-05:00

Our thoughts are with Uncle Dave this week as he is recovering in California. I'm not much in the mood for regular posting. But, musical kids always make me smile.

Tonight at supper M.G. discovered that M3 loves to follow along during songs...

M3 was not acting sleepy at bedtime. I let her crawl around a bit and this is what she decided to do...

We love you Uncle Dave!

Doctors Dolittle

2011-04-13T08:38:00.000-05:00

Yesterday M2 was pretending that he and M3 were horses wandering. I was also wandering around putting things away. Suddenly he ran into the room I was leaving and said, "Catie just said, 'Neigh,' I think. Catie's first word was a horse sound!"

I love seeing how excited they get for each other. He ran back to her, patted her back, and said, "Good job, Catie! Good job, Horsey!"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On an after supper walk last night a little dog barked and barked as we walked by his yard. M.G. said, "He is telling us he wants to play with us. If we had a dog I'd be able to understand it, I'd..."

Then I interrupted, because she kept getting distracted by things, to finish her thought. "You'd tell us what it wanted?"

M.G.: "Yes, I would just need to hear it..... and know the time of day... and the weather."

Then she ran ahead to be with M2.

(My guess is that the time of day would help her know if it were hungry or sleepy. Not sure about the weather...)

Guest blog post: Kindergarten art

2011-04-12T11:45:00.000-05:00

Instead of a blog post I just scanned in a bunch of M.G.'s recent school art.

One night the kids were being super wild at supper and I reminded them that they needed to have good table manners if they wanted to be able to stay at the table until dessert. There was some wild dancing and one of them knocked over a full glass of milk. I ~~asked~~ told M.G. and M2 to go to the living room so that I could clean up the mess and much crying followed. I believe, in my frustration that instead of apologizing they were crying about pie, I shouted, "Now there will be no pie for anyone!" In the end Papa was able to mediate a solution where they apologized, helped clean up, and we had small servings of pie.

Never the less, this is what M.G. brought home in her bag the next day... (it says, "No more coklit (chocolate) pie.") That is how I look when I am angry.

M.G.'s teacher has mentioned to us that she is trying to cultivate M.G.'s creative writing skills. She asks M.G. to write a story, then Mrs. B types it up and gives it back to M.G. for illustrations. This is the first book she brought home:

(The 2nd princess here is saying, "I like you.")

Finally, here is an awesome family portrait she drew. (She said including a pet was part of the assignment.) M2 saw it and said, "That looks like us because they are smiling." I totally agree!)

Sound byte

2011-04-10T12:55:00.000-05:00

M3 has been working on finger food, but she still gets pureed food twice a day. We add pureed fruits or veggies to either rice cereal or yogurt. Sometimes I need to add a little water to get the right texture. Of course, sometimes I then add too much water and must put in a little more cereal.

Last night I had some trouble and Papa laughed at the very full custard cup that I set on the table for M3.

MG piped up and said, "Well, Catie's supper is sure bigger than a bump in the road!"

Of course M2 than said, "Indeed it is bigger, Becky!"

M3 surprised us all by gobbling it all up!

Spring is here!

2011-04-08T14:02:00.000-05:00

The kids had fun outside with Grandma and Grandpa M last weekend!

Wednesday afternoon they had fun scooting around the neighborhood on a walk. It feels good to play outside without needing to bundle up!

M3: 10 months!

2011-04-06T22:09:00.000-05:00

M3 is 10 months old now! She's definitely starting to turn that corner from baby to toddler, even though she hasn't started toddling yet. She watches her brother and sister carefully and really has a mind of her own.

When we set her down now she often starts crawling away at top speed. She likes to crawl into the kitchen, the bathroom, and M.G.'s room. If she gets down to M.G.'s room she heads right for a baby doll and starts slapping it on the head. I don't know, she's kind of a rough girl.

She crawls really well now and is starting to pull up more often. She'll take a step or two just to be more comfortable next to whatever she is holding. Sometimes she pulls up and holds my shoulder for balance and then dances back and forth a little, laughing in my face. She's really excited to crawl away from me while I try to change her diaper too and will have such a grin when she turns to make sure I'm trying to catch her.

She continues to try new foods and her appetite has increased in the last week or two. I keep thinking I see her teeth starting to poke through, but she still only has the two. She makes lots of sounds and we have babble conversations together.

She's really a handful these days - always on the move, still doing a lot of scratching and pinching. But she's also a sweetheart and I love making her giggle and smile.

Where has the week gone?

2011-04-02T00:00:00.001-05:00


Bedtime!

Random happenings:
M2 has started a parent/child gymnastics class and really enjoys it. I was nervous that he'd act too shy with the instructor to want to participate, but he is excited to try all of the activities. It's only a few times in each class that the instructor helps each kid and most of the helping is done by the parents. I love his enthusiasm. If the teacher asks them to run then he runs the fastest!

He's also taking another month of Friday classes at the Childrens' museum. This month is focused on mixtures. Today they made goop to play with and dough that they shaped and will paint next time. Fun!

So big!

Is it time for Spring yet? Thursday brought rain, then snow, then rain again.

He still occasionally says "Where did the day go?" His most recent little thing is to add the word "indeed" into sentences.

Me: Do you like that type of crackers?
M2: Indeed I do!

Me: Have you put your shoes on yet?
M2: Indeed I have!

Earlier in the week M2 had a rough time waking up from his nap. He was sad and grumpy that I had turned on fun dancing music. M3 crawled over to him, crawled up him, and then started doing her little moving back and forth dance. It was hilarious!

"I'll help you dance!"

M.G.'s busy weekend

2011-03-27T23:41:00.000-05:00

Friday, after school, M.G. had her appointment with the dentist to have two of her baby teeth pulled. She didn't talk about it much at all in the days beforehand, but I know she is nervous about losing teeth. I picked her up from school, then we picked up Papa, then we dropped Papa and the younger kids off at home.

As we pulled into our garage she started to get scared and started crying. Papa and I each tried to give her a little pep talk and we picked out a tiny dinosaur from her room to put in her pocket in case she needed help remembering to be brave. On the way to the dentist she and I tried to come up with a good incentive for walking right in and hopping in the char. We decided that she could stay late and watch the Jungle Book if she could just stay calm so that the dentist could get started.

She marched right in and, while her body language showed her fear, she was able to answer the receptionist's greeting and chat a bit with the hygienist. They asked me to wait in the waiting room and for a split second M.G. looked panicked. But the hygienist did a great job chit-chatting M.G. right back into the chair. The receptionist heard the dentist ask if M.G. had any questions and then heard, "Will it hurt?" The dentist said "No." and 10 min. later she was done.

She was so happy and proud when she came out with her teeth in a little case. They had given her gas to stay calm and also numbed her. She told us that she was surprised at how easy it was! I'm so totally impressed by how brave she was! The dentist called later in the evening to check in on her and told me that she did a really great job and that it couldn't have gone smoother.

M.G. and M2 did stay up to watch Jungle Book and they split a strawberry shake from DQ while they watched. We gave her one dose of pain killer, but she reported that everything felt fine after that.

Saturday she woke up feeling fine and found two dollar coins left by the tooth fairy. She has lots of theories on where the tooth fairy gets the money and what she does with the teeth.

Saturday was also the school festival at M.G.'s school. It's a huge fundraiser that takes over the school building with carnival games in every room and other activities. The kids were very excited to go as soon as we could. Here the girls are trying to fill the time while M2 and Papa went grocery shopping on Saturday morning.

The kids had fun playing games and winning prizes. I went back to volunteer for my shift and this is what I found when I got home...

Then Papa spent some time moving car seats around so that M.G. could start using her new booster chair! M2's car seat has expired and we decided to move him into M.G.'s chair and transition her to a booster. Another really exciting event for both of them. Of course I'm a little nervous, but I suppose the time has come.

Later that day:

And then she came out of her room dressed for church this morning and looked so much older! (I should have kept track of how many hours of magazine reading she did this weekend - she was on a kick I guess.)

After church she and I both got much needed haircuts. This was the second time we've gotten cuts at the same time and I really enjoy that she is old enough to not need my supervision during the cut. She was finished before me again and did a great job reading (and eating a sucker) while she waited.

Monkeys with monkeys

2011-03-24T10:38:00.000-05:00

M.G.'s monkey was a 1st birthday gift.

M2 randomly got his own monkey for Christmas when he was younger.

So, it's only right for M3 to have one too!

Everyone needs an Uncle Dave

2011-03-23T00:02:00.001-05:00

Uncle Dave created some awesome mix CDs for M.G. They cover a huge range of musical styles and every once in a while we get on a kick where we listen to them all the time.

M3 is our musical little girl and she's having so much fun with these CDs. She likes the variety - with each change of style she starts up dancing and singing along. She tends to stop and watch me if I try to video her, but here is a short clip. (Sorry the quality is low, I couldn't get a larger file to load.)

Yay for Spring!

2011-03-21T00:04:00.000-05:00

The weather was really great this weekend. It was warmer (almost 50 degrees on Saturday) and it really felt like Spring! On Thursday we walked to pick M.G. up from school for the first time in 2011. I wore M3 in the Ergo carrier and M2 had so much fun in the many, many puddles. I am so happy the kids are ok with walking - M2 marched right along for the 20 min. walk there and the 20 min. walk home!

M.G.'s school party on Thursday really sounded exciting. I know it wore her out! Tried out a great tip today - you can very easily remove temporary tattoos using a little olive oil! Worked like a charm.

M.G. didn't have school on Friday. It was our final 3 day weekend for a while. She's been wanting me to keep M2 out of her hair much more in the last week or so, which made the extra day off last week a little less fun for him. He had been waiting to play with her and instead I spent a lot of time trying to cheer him up and keep him busy.

This Friday we were excited to have Grandma and Grandpa B visiting! We had fun relaxing and playing at home and it was great that the weather was nice enough for a walk on Saturday.

Here is M2 giving M3 a horsey ride. They were both giggling. M3 isn't really talking yet, but we all think she is trying. She seems to put together consonant sounds that are just convincing enough... "guh puh", "guh muh?"

M3 had her 9 month well baby visit last week. She weighs 20 lbs, 6 oz (80%) and 29.25 inches (95%). (She was 19 lbs and 28.25 inches at 6 months.) She's looking healthy and again was giggling and playing with the doctor and nurse. She didn't have any vaccinations because of her cold.

Milestone: Finding the DVD player.

2011-03-18T10:33:00.000-05:00

One of the babybook milestones I always miss is "finding her feet." I understand the concept - one day the baby suddenly realizes she can grab her feet and play with them. I just tend to notice much after the fact that the baby's toes are always in the baby's mouth.

A milestone that I never miss is "baby finds the DVD player." One day the baby is playing happily in the living room with baby toys. Then, out of the blue, it is like they suddenly see the entertainment center and try pulling up on it. From then on it lures them to push buttons all the time. M3 was actually playing happily with toys by my feet when I started typing, but sprinted over to push buttons right now.

I took this photo of M3 last week (with no posing or prompting)...

M3, 9 months

M2, 7 months

M.G., 7 months

2011-03-17T21:56:00.001-05:00

M3 loves to stand!

Favorite M2 quotes for today:

At lunch, M2: "I really like those earrings Mama. They really make your ear bottoms look nice."

Later when we were mixing up chocolate chip cookie dough: "Chocolate? I like chocolate so, so much!" (With a little Joe dance.)

Today M.G. had a St. Patrick's Day party at school. We made a Leprechaun trap for her to bring in and another for M2 here at home. At the time I told her Leprechauns were imaginary (because I didn't realize Leprechauns were a thing like Santa and the Easter Bunny now.) After all of the talk at school this week she was totally explaining to me this afternoon how real they must be.

We scheduled an appointment for M.G. to have two baby teeth pulled a week from Friday. Minor in the grand scheme of things, but we'll see how it goes.

Make-believe

2011-03-13T13:07:00.001-05:00

After the big kids were in bed last night I told Papa about something M2 said after his bath.

M2: With this towel for wings I am just like a naked fairy! I can jump and move just like fairy!

Then he jumped all around the bathroom. I told him little mischievous boy creatures were called sprites and then we spiked his hair up with Aquaphor and got him into his jammies so he could be a warm sprite.

Papa laughed and then told me what M.G. said while I was in the bathroom with M2.

M.G. was running and dancing back and forth to entertain M3.

MG: It's just like I am a magnetic field and Catie is a compass because she is always turning to look at me!

This week going on here...

2011-03-10T23:02:00.000-06:00

Little things going on right now...

M.G. has tomorrow off - her 2nd of 3 Fridays in a row. She's excited - she really likes school, but already appreciates the 4 day week.

It has been Papa's Spring Break this week. Instead of taking a whole day or two off he has been taking an hour here or there. He walked M.G. home from school a couple days, which she found so neat, and picked her up with the car on other days. He had a chance to take the big kids out to play a few times. I had the chance to go in and eat lunch with M.G. while he stayed home with the younger two. Plus, our evenings have been more relaxed without as many daytime meetings and classes to prepare for. I think we might even have waffles tomorrow, on a weekday! But, having a snowy, cold Spring Break has inspired me to start thinking of our summer travel schedule!

Today, while I was making lunch, M2 got the tie from his robe and used it to go fishing. He was very excited about how quickly he caught a super big (imaginary) fish and wanted to put it on our lunch plates. I asked him to clean it and cook it in the play kitchen while I put together the side dishes. He said, "Oh, they cook it first and then put it in the lake." How convenient!

M3 is having some sort of a knowledge boom - today she copied me when I gave her kisses from across the room. And after M.G. played a few rousing rounds of peek-a-boo she was saying, "Buh" over and over. She's putting a lot of effort into crawling and standing too.

I ate lunch with M.G. at school yesterday. It was really a lot of fun to peek into her school world. It was a wild scene and I had little bits of knowledge flying at me from kindergartners on all sides. I was kind of surprised at how glad she was to see me and it is cute to see how excited the kids are to have a visitor.

It looks like M2 and I share a similar sense of humor. Every night he finds it very funny when we turn out his light and I pretend I find a really soft pillow (his tummy) to rest on. He shouts, "I'm not a pillow, I am Joe!" Then I say, "WHAT?" Then we reverse the rolls. He says, "WHAT?" in the same way every night and it cracks me up. He has been helping to dry the dishes some nights (Because "Isn't it really nice to have a helper?") and yesterday we were giggling and saying "which whisk" over and over.

One of M.G.'s school library books this week is about a duck who keeps trying to put a turnip into the birthday cake for a cow. She came home with it and couldn't wait to show M2. She's been reading it to him all week and they laugh and laugh. (The rest of the time she's been building a private, quiet spot in her room and won't let him near it... so it's been an up and down week for the two of them.)

M3 was giving me sweet kisses on the cheek this afternoon and then suddenly stuck her finger in my eye and let out a wild yell. When I turned to look at her she bit my nose.

And the most exciting bullet point - M3 woke up and made some noise when I started this post and now is quiet again all on her own!! That is a rare, rare event.

M3: 9 Months!

2011-03-08T14:50:00.001-06:00

M3 is now 9 months old! She is still aggressive, but throws in enough kisses and snuggles. She seems to be constantly waiving her middle finger around. She can now get into the sitting position and can pull herself up to standing in her crib! She is just starting to crawl on her hands and knees and is also just starting to try putting weight on her legs in the standing position (outside of her crib.) Other than between midnight and morning she is a very content baby and is happy to sit and play with toys or ~~watch~~ "play with" her brother and sister.

She's doing well with finger food and has tried a variety of new things (broccoli, pear, egg yolk, wheat, cheerios). She gets really excited to try feeding herself if I give her a few sticks of cooked carrot for utensils and a plate of pureed foods. It's a mess though, so we don't do that very often.

She's still our musical girl. She starts dancing at the drop of a hat, regardless if it is a CD, a musical toy, or one of us singing. She likes to bang things and sing along too. She's making a larger variety of sounds and so the kids think she is already talking and she finds it really funny to make raspberry sounds.

Her fine motor skills are coming along - she's good at grabbing tiny things and then putting them in her mouth! (She seems to put everything in her mouth.) But, she also spent a long time playing with the Uno cards on Sunday.

The older kids are happy that she is starting to interact even more, but they get a little frustrated with her when she can quickly get into whatever they are doing. But, they do cut her lots of slack.

Discovery

2011-03-06T22:18:00.000-06:00

M3 likes to pull CDs off of the CD tower and sometimes I let her go wild while I am trying to get something else done. Yesterday she army crawled over there at top speed.

But then I noticed she was being exceptionally quiet and was content with just two CDS from the easy-to-reach end of the alphabet.

I watched her watching for quite a while. She was enchanted by the shimmers of light reflected from the cases and dancing on the wall.

She didn't understand how it was happening, but she had some idea that it was tied to her motion and she was thinking about it.

How curious!

Science with The Monkeys

2011-03-03T14:00:00.000-06:00

Several out-of-nowhere topics of conversation at the table in the last few days:

M2: Did you know that an octopus is made from bacteria?
(We determined that he was thinking of pearls.)
This led to a heated discussion about pearls forming in clams.
___________________________________________
MG: Do you know what a walrus eats?
Again this worked its way around to pearls forming in clams.
__________________________________________

M2: I know of a planet called Earth.

MG: We are all on the planet Earth!
_________________________________________
MG: We all have 3 types of teeth! (Followed by a mini-lecture on what each type of tooth is good for.)

March is here, time for spring?

2011-03-01T14:25:00.000-06:00

Not quite yet.

(MG on the snow pile.)

Just another Friday night...

2011-02-25T23:05:00.001-06:00

His Grandpa B look...

Hanging with the Tooth Fairy

Sir M2

I wonder when "older" is!

2011-02-23T08:47:00.000-06:00

Yesterday M2 and I were getting ready to pick up M.G. at school.

M2: When I'm older I'm going to have a motorcycle. Then when the snow melts I can drive my motorcycle.

Mama: Yes, it isn't safe to ride on the ice.

M2: I know. When the ice melts we will go fast and wear helmets and drive to Papa's office. He will be happy and surprised to see us!

Mama: What will we do with M3?

M2: She will have a baby helmet. She will also need to have a big pad on her to keep her safe. She has to ride with you on your motorcycle because I will be too young to drive a baby.

Mama: Wait, where will you be? Aren't you both riding with me?

M2: No, I will have my own motorcycle, but I will ride close to you so I am safe.

Mama: hmmm....

M2: And our motorcycles will have wings and fly too.

Mama: Great!

More snowy days!

2011-02-22T09:02:00.000-06:00

That is the view from our kitchen window right now. Look at that snow pile compared to our mailbox! It's huge! We had been planning to visit MN this weekend, but a forecasted snow storm kept us home. We ran our errands and went to church on Saturday and then watched it snow Sunday and Monday. It was a really cozy weekend (except for all the hours Papa spent shoveling!) I think we got between 8 and 10 inches of new snow. The kids had fun playing out a bit yesterday and made it to the top of that snow pile. The timing was perfect, since M.G. and Papa both had yesterday off.

M3 tried Cheerios for the first time over the weekend. I think we are a little late in starting her on finger food. She likes her food so thin that I thought she might have trouble, but she had a lot of fun with them. We also gave her some cooked carrot sticks to snack on.

She is going on her hands and knees more often now and has tried crawling like that but usually drops back down and does more of an army crawl pretty quickly.

I still feel like I'm reading the calendar wrong, but I think M.G. has 4 weeks in a row now with only 4 days! Yay for extra days off!

Blue eyes

2011-02-18T09:06:00.000-06:00

When M3 was born we weren't sure if her eyes would stay blue - at times they looked different enough that we thought they might end up changing. She has bright blue eyes now and it looks like she might have gotten the beautiful eyelashes that I envy!

Today M.G. thought it was really funny to hop out of the car and run for school without giving me a hug. I made a comment to Papa (our 2nd drop off on cold mornings) about how that hug is more for me than her. When we got out of the car at home, after dropping M.G. and Papa, M2 gave me a huge hug "so that my day would have a good start." He's such a snugly guy!

Two down!

2011-02-16T16:39:00.000-06:00

M.G. has lost two teeth now! As I've mentioned before, she's had some anxiety about her teeth falling out for a few years. She'd turn off the TV if they started talking about teeth falling out and she'd bring it up at random times to ask questions. She's been excited to see her teeth moving, but it was clear she wasn't trying to wiggle them very much and she didn't really want the falling out to happen.

Papa and I gave her a few wiggles here and there, since we knew the dentist visit was coming. Papa gave each tooth an extra strong toothbrushing when they each looked really loose and in both cases the tooth fell out the next day.

And both times she has literally lost the tooth. Suddenly she'll realize the tooth is gone and nowhere to be found. We've had to leave two notes for the tooth fairy explaining the situation! So she still hasn't had to experience the moment where the tooth is actually coming out.

Her two middle bottom adult teeth are still partially behind the 2nd baby incisors, so we're still bringing her to the dentist next week. But hopefully he'll tell us we can just wait and see for a few more months.

Snow!

2011-02-14T21:21:00.001-06:00

It was above freezing this weekend and after our very cold week it felt nearly tropical.

Grandpa and Grandma M visited for the weekend and it was great for the kids to be able to get out and enjoy the snow with them.

Even M3 got to go out to play a bit. I found M.G.'s first snowsuit and bundled M3 up!

It wasn't all play...

Grandma and Grandpa helped create a great snowman!

M3 enjoyed a ride in the baby sled and exploring snow.

Overall, I think it went well!

My Valentines!

Now reserving dates for your wedding or birthday party!

2011-02-09T14:08:00.000-06:00

M3 loves to sing, dance, and play percussion. Together the three of them are quite an act!

(You'll want sound for this video, but not too much sound!!)