Hello Spring!

I will get to the trip home sooner or later. For now, I have a backlog of pictures from several weeks ago.

Bugs? Are you in there?

Got one!

Hello toes! I missed you this winter.

Hello knees!

The last bit of snow. brrrr

Hello arms!

And more toes!

Dear Laura,

I'm sorry about your pale complexion. Its not your fault, its your father's and mine. For all the future pasty pictures and painful sunburns, we are truly sorry. Please know that we love you just the way you are!

Love,

Mom

back in a few...

the kids and I are visiting my parents. We have been knocking things off of our to do list:

painting
playing
petting Kitty
playing in the "forest"
herding a loose cow
going to the park
sewing
sleeping
playing
planting green beans
eating
playing
hiding Easter Eggs
blowing bubbles
playing

Happiness is....

A tree to climb

A box to sit in

Interview with Laura #2

I revisited an interview I had with Laura last year. Here are this year's responses. These questions are mostly just about me, so I think I'll come up with a different set about her and her views on herself and the world.

What is something I always say to you? I love you

What makes me happy? me

What makes me sad? I don't know

How do I make you laugh? by telling jokes

What do you think I was like as a child? golden hair and ponytails like this on the sides

How old am I? I can't remember

How tall am I? this tall (one hand on floor and other up in the air)

What is my favorite thing to do? play

What do I do when you are not around? go to stores

If I become famous what will it be for? I don't know

What am I not really good at? I don't know

What am I really good at? cleaning. ha! (she laughed, not me)

What is my job? clean and take care of us

What is my favorite food? tomatoes

What makes you proud of me? cleaning

What makes me proud of you? being nice to my little brother

What do you and I do together? go to Adventures sometimes

How are we the same? when you were little, you had golden hair

How are we different? You have a little ponytail in back instead of two on the sides

How do you know I love you? because you hug me

What is one thing you wish you could change about me? no

What do you wish you could do with me? clean the knives with you

From "ball" to "tutu"

Tutu

So far, Laura has celebrated her birthday 2 times and today, we are doing number 3. Her actual birthday, next wednesday, will be the 4th celebration. Its a rough life! Below are some pictures of her first gift. Its a tutu that Michelle made, and has been a big hit.

Welcome Back Finches

They're back! Our friendly finches from last year are making another nest in our Christmas wreath. Looking forward to meeting the new babies.

Special Day

Bacon...

Chocolate Cheerios...

And a cake! It must have been my birthday!

(The "O" and "M" were courtesy of Laura)

Hooray!!

My man brings home the bacon.

(you know, because he is holding bacon? ha.)

THE CHEESIEST PICTURE EVER

But its the only one of me on my birthday, so we're going with it.

I had a fabulous day. We spent the morning together with breakfast and church. Then I went to lunch alone at one of my favorite restaurants, Birchwood Cafe, and a nice walk along the Mississippi river. I came back for cake and outside play. The sun was shining for the first time in weeks and it made it up past 50 degrees, so it felt wonderful to be outside! Then we had a great dinner together at Old Chicago Pizza. Everyone was cooperative at dinner, which was a fantastic present on top of everything else. Great way to start year #32.

Hat Girl

She's always been a hat girl. Jim took these photos in Target while we were wasting time one day. Love the "granny panties" in the background!

Our favorite

Nermal?

Nermal is alive and well.

And clean in certain places.

(No, I don't really think this is Nerm, but it easily could be. I saw it on The Pioneer Woman's cat photography contest.)

Bedtime for Bonzos

Something cool has been happening lately. Between Jim's recent business trips and his evening classes, I've had several opportunities to put both kids to bed. I used to try to get Laura in bed first, for fear that her presence might tip the balance we had in Adam's happy bedtime routine. But that meant that he had to sit through her bathroom, teeth brushing, PJ donning, and then the worst of all - big kid book reading. By the end, he was always wailing and everyone was unhappy. Then I started letting Laura watch a video while I put him to bed, but that didn't feel good either.

Duh!

I had her start "helping" me put him to bed and all is right with the world again. She uses the bathroom and brushes her teeth while I put his PJs on. Then we read his books, and often she reads them to him. (That is super cute!) The she turns off the light and helps me sing Twinkle Twinkle and Jesus Loves Me. And he lays down perfectly, with no worries about her presence. What was I worried about? Then she and I finish her routine in her room while he mumbles himself to sleep. I walk down the steps, usually by 6:50pm. The house is quiet, I have the evening to myself and everyone is happy until 12 hours later, when the craziness begins again.

Celebrating the small successes! Yippee!

The geese are returning, the geese are returning!

You know what makes me happy? Geese in Minnesota. They are a big, obvious, beautiful illustration of nature at work.

You can watch them go in the fall and come back in the spring.

They honk as they fly so you won't miss them.

Their V formation is so obvious and a great way to start an interesting conversation with a kid about flight, drafting, aerodynamics, friction, migration, teamwork...

They mate for life, which is endearing.

Their size is very impressive and makes them easier to spot that other migrators.

You can watch their fuzzy little babies follow them around on land and water.

I was so surprised to find out that most people hate geese and think they are a nuisance. Obviously the droppings everywhere are irritating. But I think of that as the geese's way of showing us that we can't make everything concrete covered, antiseptic or convenient. Sometimes there is just poop you have to step around or clean up.

Laura and I were both thrilled to hear some geese in a forest this weekend. And I loved seeing her face light up when she watched a pair flying overhead yesterday. I am so glad she recognizes their beauty and that they signify the return of spring.

And yes, I ripped off all the pictures in this post. I apologize and thank the talented photographers who are responsible for them. To the 20 readers who read this post, please don't send me to jail.

Lab Rat

Tonight, I tried an experiment on Laura. I sat her in front of a Thin Mint and told her that she could eat it if she wanted. BUT, if she could wait to eat it until I get back (after about 10 minutes in the other room), I would give her another one too.

Michelle had told me about this experiment a while ago and then I listened to this Radiolab podcast about it today. Apparently a 4 year old's ability to wait for the second cookie says a lot about their chances of a stable, "successful" life, based on SAT scores, education, job, etc. (I used " " because everyone's definition of successful is different.) Radiolab is a great podcast, and this episode was fun.

Knowing Laura, we fully expected her to wait for the cookie, and she did. She sang some songs while she waited and did some counting. The cookie was innocently laying on the table when we returned. However...she did mention that she just kept licking it and licking it. Is that cheating? I didn't think so, and she got the 2nd cookie.

My Pioneer Girl

When kids dress themselves...

Made it

We have reentered the land of the living after a bout with the crud.  Jim stayed home as nurse yesterday. By the way, he is an awesome nurse.  I hope I can return the favor if he comes down with it too.  The rest of us are recuperating, with Adam still having some diaper woes and extra naps on Laura's part.

I am washing every sheet, pillowcase, and blanket in the house. We have also washed 3 couch cushion covers, all stuffed animals that reside in a kid's bed including Laura's 5 foot centipede, 2 pillows, and many items of clothes multiple times.

And I cracked the windows to air out the house. Thankfully, its a warm, sunny day.

The kids and I drove to the airport to sit in the car and eat our snack while watching airplanes. It was good for us all to get out of the house and a nice, low energy activity.

We shall survive!

Snappy Snapperson

Notice the courtesy laugh towards the end. Thanks Laura.

things, they are a changin'

Laura can zip her own coat.

Adam goes up and down the stairs well enough that I took the bottom gate off.

Adam feeds himself with a spoon and drinks from a regular cup by himself.

Jim was gone all last week and the kids and I did really well with no Mommy breakdowns.

And Adam got real shoes:

mini polar bear plunge

toes in the snow

let me back in!!

Wow, what a weekend

This post was a brain dump from several weeks ago and I just never had interest in fixing it up for posting until today.

Holy cow, what a weekend we had. Saturday morning started out early. We hopped in the car first thing and drove to Hudson, Wisconsin to go to a hot air balloon festival. Really! We started out at a masonic lodge for a pancake breakfast that we read about online. Then we headed to the launch site just in time to see this:

Just a little too much wind and it was blowing in the wrong direction (toward the twin cities) so they were going to try again at 3 that afternoon. Oh well.

Laura played on the school playground while Adam played in the car. It as been a long time since Laura got to sit in a swing or climb on a playground. That part was fun!

We were heading back with no real destination in mind when we remembered the indoor playground in Woodbury on the way back into the cities. That turned out to be a great time for everyone. Laura was the bravest she has ever been, climbing in the tunnels to a seriously fast and long slide. At one point, I found myself sitting in a pretend rowboat singing "Row, Row Row Your Boat" to 4 little boys, including Adam, while they all just stared at me smiling. Their moms were all standing over us surrounding us, so I think it was a nice little break from the chaos for all of them. It was pretty cute and felt nice, if a little strange. I forgot my camera, of course!

Adam fell asleep as soon as he hit the car seat after the playground. So Laura and I headed into Trader Joe's to spend money on things we love but don't need. Adam woke up when we returned and we all went in to Pei Wei for lunch. Whew, I was tired already! The rest of afternoon was mostly spent at home, except for a short trip for Jim and Laura to Sams to get some flowers for me (ahh, how sweet!).

Sunday brought church (during which Adam fell asleep), pineapple yogurt popsicles,

(photo by Laura)

a short nap/quiet time, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Jim and Laura have been there a few times on "adventures" but it was new for Adam and me. They gave us the tour. It was great! and we ran in to my cousin Sue and her son Joe, which was extra special. We stopped by the library on the way home to get Laura a few books . She thinks she is ready to start learning to read? I'm not sure where that came from or how to deal with it. Of course, I want to encourage it, but I don't really know how to start. We just pick out lots of books and make sure some of them have short words, with few on each page. And then we sometimes pick out a word that she gets to "read" each time we come across it on the page. I thought I liked to teach people, but when it comes to Laura, we have a lot of trouble with the teacher/student relationship.

We finally returned home for mac n cheese with broccoli. And then collapsed in our beds.