Kids (AKA remembering things that I never remember to put in a baby book)

 I have not been nearly as good at keeping track of Forest's milestones as I was for Olaf.  Typical of the second child, right?  I was doing really well - every time that little fella did something new, I wrote it in my "notes" on my iPhone and had a nice running list.  Then somehow after Steve got an iPhone and our accounts linked and our notes synched and whatever, that list of notes got deleted into cyberspace never never land.  I cried when I realized they were all gone.  So bear with me as I take a moment, for me, to write these things down so I can look back and remember them farther down the road! 

Olaf.  Big 4 year old boy now!  He just had a checkup and he is 40.5 lbs and 40.5 inches tall.  Which means for those of you without growth charts in front of ya that he is an average height for his age, and slightly over the average weight.  Well, he's not a toothpick!  Which we already knew :)

Olaf can count to 50 by himself, and to 100 with a little prompting.  He's been doing this since he was about 3 1/2.  Crazy and fun!  I credit our superior academic genes (ha ha ha) and his pre-school that he loves with some great teachers.  He also knows all the letters in the alphabet by sight, and can write his own name.  Reading, I suppose, is the natural progression, however I don't think he is super motivated just yet.  He'd rather be read to, and doesn't seem to want to put in the work to sound things out.  I am not pushing it though, he'll read when he reads!

Olaf is still a hilarious conversationalist.  Case in point: our conversation over bratwurst this last Saturday:

Me: "Olaf, did you know that Chira is going to be on the preschool side at Cashmere kids when you go back on Monday?"
Olaf: "What!, seriously, are you kidding me?"
Me: "Yup.  Are you excited?"
Olaf:  "Oh yeah, that is totally wicked."

I died.  And almost fell of my chair laughing.

He got a new bike with pedals for his birthday!  Like rock climbing, he was stoked on it...until it tipped over with him on it.  Now he is being SUPER cautious with it.  He's my reserved one, that Olaf.  Definitely not much of a risk taker if he knows the consequences to the actions might hurt :) At this rate Forest may ride a bike faster than Oly!

Foresty Forester, sweet baby of mine, is a crazy runner/climber, who still likes to take about 4 hours worth of naps a day (sweet blessing!) and doesn't like to eat food unless he is in the mood.  I never know if he'll eat the sandwhich/macaroni/chicken/veggies until it's in front of him.  If all else fails, he will always eat granola bars, chicken nuggets, blueberries and croutons. And yogurt.  Perfectly balanced right?  I had resorted to making him smoothies full of spinach to get his veggies, until I broke not one but two blenders...  so we are back to carrot sticks and cucumber slices since he'll eat those!  Raw foods are supposed to better anyway, right?  All this non eating means he's the opposite of his brother in weight gain.  He's a slight little fella, definitely built more like my sisters and I at that age than his chunko daddy was!

In his 22 months, Forest has shown us he is more of a risk taker.  He'll climb anything.  And then roll off.  Or jump.  He runs full speed wherever he goes, and when he inevitably falls into the asphalt or gravel and scrapes his knees, then just picks himself back up and keeps on running.  Usually trying to keep up with Olaf, of course!  From what I hear, this is typical younger brother behavior :)

Forest is just starting to string two and three words together.  "Mama eat now".  "Abba (Olaf) ah-ba (Granola bar)" (that's my favorite sentence -- Abba ahba.) "Mine water peace"  "Hello mama, bye bye."  "Yay go!"  (let's go).  "Abba wide bike.  Mine bike"  "Big Twuck.  VOOOOOOm!"  "Lellow bus" (for the record, every color is yellow to him).  And I credit Julie's kids with teaching him the offbeat animal sounds too -- cayotes say "YIP! YIP!" and wolves say "AWHOOOO!"


Forest and Olaf are turning into quite personable little fellas.  Which is good, since we have guests in and out all the time, and family and friends to visit with many nights a week.  Life is never dull with these two scallawags!