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!

first day of snow play

It has been just gorgeous here with the snow!  Cold, yes.  Slow driving, yes.  But super beautiful. 

Olaf was really excited for the weekend because he knew we'd get to go outside to play in the snow.  So yesterday we got them all bundled up and went for a little walk into the woods, picked out our Christmas tree (didn't cut it down yet, just found it), and did some sledding.  Olaf has finally gotten a little tougher, and actually walked most of the way himself instead of crying to be carried.  Bonus!  Awesome!  Forest was content to babbled while on my back.

We all came back rosy cheeked and ready to warm up by the fire that Steve had started.  COZY.  Just in time for naps :)

The boys seem to be growing up so quickly.  It's crazy how Forest went from baby to toddler in like 2 months I swear.  He doesn't talked a lot yet, mostly just babbling.  But we can make out what he means for ball (ba), bottle (baba), binky (baba), blanky (baba)... ha ha, do you see a trend?  Usually it's accompanied by a pointing finger.  Well there's also "go", "up", "dada" and "mama" and I think he says thank you sometimes "tay-oo" and olaf "o-ah".  Who knows though really :)  We just love that he's trying to communicate.   He loves walking, playing cars, putting little people in cars and taking them back out, throwing balls, terrorizing the dogs, blowing raspberries, chasing people and climbing stairs.  Ah and DANCING like a maniac.  Love it. 

I want to send lots of love to Grandma Riley in Oak Harbor today -- hope you are feeling good today!  The boys are all sending you lots of hugs and kisses!

Hello friends,

Well, it's been a while.  We have missed you.  Or rather, perhaps you have missed us?  Well we've just been trucking along.  The first 9 days of October were rough, as it was the fourth week of Steve working in New Jersey.  Hence the fact that I really had no time to myself to write posts!  I was pretty much in survival mode...  The bad news is, Steve was gone for a really long time.  The good news is, we all survived!  AND we'll be able to pay our bills for quite some time with all the hard work we put in during that time, which is so nice heading into winter :)

My boys are getting sweeter (and sometimes more sour) all the time.  The sweet moments just seem more precious, and of course the tantrums are louder and more dramatic.  And sometimes more hilarious.  I forgot the one year old tantrum that happens the MINUTE they don't get their way.  Including facedown on the floor sobbing, or throwing oneself backwards off whatever surface they make be sitting on while screaming.... ah, the joys.  My boys are little masters of getting their way...  I am probably too easy on them while Steve is gone (hello, it's called survival.  Which is easier, listening to 45 minutes of crying, or giving the kid juice...?).  So when Steve returns from long sessions away, he gets to help break them (me) of our bad habits.  Sorry Hub.  However I still think the kiddos are doing quite well considering it's just me trying to direct their little lives a lot of the time.  It's a lot of responsibility raising these little people!  Holy moly!  I just keep on praying that they keep those sweet innocent hearts for a long long time.  And that I don't do anything to screw it up :)

This morning the boys and I returned home from Church, and Olaf immediately ran into the office and jumped on a pile of sleeping bags and Steve's multiple puffy jackets we had stashed in there.  He then invited Forest in to play too.  A few things to note in this photo below...  1.  Olaf is wearing gardening gloves.  Why?  He loves them!  He kept stealing mine so I bought him his own.  I don't get it, but if it keeps him happy why not?  2.  I couldn't get a happy picture of Forest without that bottle all up in his mouth.  Whenever I tried to grab it away the cuteness melted into not.so.much.  So there it is in the photo.  and 3. Matching shirts.  We had family photos taken yesterday, yay!  So they were wearing the same cute outfits for the second day in a row.  LOVE button ups on little men.

And now October is halfway over.  Whoa.  Happy fall!

I love these goofballs

I really really do.  Steve was home for 3 days (yay!) and we spent a lot of time just snuggling, intermixed with bouts of tackling Daddy :)  Mostly I watched.  I love watching my little people interact with eachother!  I can tell already that Forest adores Olaf and wants to do everything he does.  Got a red car, Olaf?  Well Forest wants a red car.  Running around in circles, Olaf?  Well Foresty is crawling right behind you.  (at about 1/10th the speed...)  Blowing bubbles, sticking your tongue out, petting the dogs?  Yes please!  They are hilarious.

Thanking God for my many blessings today.

Sunny Saturday

Finally some decent weather in Plain! Oly informed me at 6:45am that it was most certainly "hot" outside and that wading pool time was needed. So, with the addition of some cold irrigation water plus some hot water from the house, we had the perfect temp at approximately 9:30am. Forest and I watched while the crazy boy splashed!

























P.S. I don't know why these were all a bit fuzz-tastic...  maybe I had a tad of water on the lense of my phone?  I don't know.  Ah well.  You get the picture.  Ha ha.  No pun intended.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone. That's right, I an totally technologically hip and with it.

2 things

1 -- Check out Forest's hair. It sticks up like that all by itself with no help from me. Today a lady at Costco described it as "dandelion puff" hair. LOVE IT.

2 -- I have a photo of Olaf sleeping in these jammies in the pack and play at a very similar stage. Sigh. Melt a momma's heart!!

Oh wait, here's that picture!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone. That's right, I an totally technologically hip and with it.

my lovies

We have been having a rough week here.  Spent some time at the doctors, and some time waiting for prescriptions, and spent some time wiping snot, and missing work, and putting in eyedrops for yucky pinkeye goop.

And some time snuggling, watching movies, and looking at the daffodils, crocuses, and grape hyacinths that are starting to come up through the snow and leaf mulch... so not all bad :)

While killing time waiting for a prescription, we spent some time at lions club park.  Nothing makes boys happier than running and climbing on rocks and jumping in a million puddles.  Even if it means sitting in the cart and then the carseat with wet legs for the next hour... :)