Biga Bed (aka an act of desperation)

For the last week+ Anders has started a new and exhausting habit of getting up multiple times per night, frequently starting around 3 am and doing it every 20 minutes or so. It is very tiring for all of us. One thing we tried to remedy the situation was move him to a big bed (biga bed as he calls it). Though he was very excited about it, it was not so exciting that he stayed in bed all night. Hopefully this situation won't go on much longer.

We bought this cowboy bedspread last summer, I just couldn't resist putting it on the bed.

He is also very into wearing pony tails lately and when I tried to take this picture, he kept saying "smile" but wouldn't produce one. Sadly, he is getting a haircut later today, so pony tails may be out for a while.

Ok, now for some pictures from October.

Trying on Dad's bike shoes: I just thought the hat, shoes and boxers were pretty cute together.

Hide and seek with Drew in their big basement play room.

Using The Force to do some baking.

Getting ready to go Trick-or-Treating at the Living History Farms in Des Moines.

Anders was a little behind Zach and Drew the whole time, I guess The Force wasn't with him.

This picture makes me laugh every time I look at it. I guess I should have let Sarah know that I was including her in the shot. The rest of us were holding our place in line for a wagon ride.

The next day we went to the tree and pumpkin farm. Notice how Anders just took over on driving the tractor - he loves to drive. Hopefully this picture doesn't make you cross eyed - a few of my shots were out of focus because the camera got switched to manual focus and I didn't realize it at first.

Herding cats: Mike is working very hard to get all 3 boys on the hay bale for a picture. They had all already been up there together and just as we were ready to snap the pictures they started getting down. Anders is trying hard to make a quick get away.

Ah, finally! Nice work Mike!

It was October 30th when we went to the pumpkin farm, the guy driving the tractor that pulled the wagonload of us out to the pumpkin patch basically wished us luck finding good pumpkins. They were fine, but perhaps a little uniquely shaped.

Dog pile on Mike. Zach is somewhere in the pile and Anders is totally going over the back on purpose. Mike stopped him in time for those grandmas and aunts that are worried for his noggin.

All dressed up and ready to go - this was Anders' first time Trick-or-Treating house to house. He seemed to like it. He especially liked handing out candy to the people that came to our house on Halloween (in Des Moines Trick-or-Treating was on Saturday night).

Ok, now to earlier in October when we went up to Northern MN for a week.

We stayed one night at Cascade Lodge so that I could help band Boreal Owls that night. It was great - we banded owls until about midnight. This is Anders outside our cabin at Cascade.

Here he is driving again, finally this boat is useful for something.

Transporting water is always fun.

This was actually a double rainbow and is taken from our deck at the cabin, but with the lens we have on the camera, I couldn't get it all in the frame. We actually had some good nature sitings that week - grouse, a moose, purple finches, chickadees, a fox, the rainbow, and...

here it comes...

this wolf on the Sawbill Trail! Oh sorry, Anders has informed me that this is a tiger, not a wolf - an even rarer sighting on the Sawbill Trail - watch out Bill and Cindy!

Joyce wins!

After looking at the pictures Joyce sent the link for I think she nailed it.

I was thinking porcupine quills but that didn't look right. It definitely matches the pictures of the sea urchin spines, and the theory about the wind chime makes sense as well.

My mom gets runner up for coming up with the sea urchin explanation as well but she gets a penalty for insisting at first that it was wood and for taking over night to come up with sea urchins.

Anyways, thanks Joyce.

So we found a thing...

OK, so Rob and I were digging some post holes in his back yard for a deck extension...

We dug this thing up. It was less than a foot from the foundation of his house in the top 10" of soil.

It's not metal or wood. It's kind of a reddish/brown mahogany color with two partial rings around one end, the rings are whitish/tan. It's pretty light weight, probably lighter than if it was a piece of pine the same size.

So I have one idea of what it is but it's really just a guess and I'm not going to bias anyone by saying what I think.

If anyone knows what this thing is Rob and I would love to hear your theories.

A Rare Moment

When I started this post, I was taking a rare moment in which I was the one relaxing in front of a football game and Will and Anders were upstairs doing something. It was nice while it lasted, except that I feel like crap. I may have a cold and allergies at the same time - all I know is that I cannot stop sneezing and it is making my nose red and my head hurt.

We had a whirl wind weekend with family in town for Will's cousin Sarah's wedding. It was a very nice wedding, Sarah looked gorgeous in her dress. Congratulations to Sarah and Josh! Here are some pictures from the reception, where the kids tore up the dance floor.

This might be my favorite picture from the night. The couple's first dance and what is that in the background? Oh Clara! So cute!

Check out Henry's fancy moves.

Anders also had lots of fancy moves including some kicks...

Some fancy walking...

Dancing a with a cork, while Clara rests a little or maybe that is one of her moves.

And he also included some jumping in his repertoire. It was a fun reception, Pete was a great DJ, and the kids crashed when we got home.

Here are a few pictures from our weekend up at the lake. We had lots of work to do and Anders pitched in.

We had lots of timbers from the timber framing classes taken in the last two summers that needed stacking. If you enlarge the picture you might notice the gloves he has on - we bought some kid-sized work gloves after the trip was over.

We also took some time to go out in the canoe, or 'noo as Anders calls it. He loved it, which was a relief because his first time in a canoe last year consisted of a lot of yelling and crying.

He went "up, up high" many times on his own, which was alarming. Being up high and pointing out other things that are up high is favorite thing for him.

This was so cute. Will and I were working hard to stack wood the last day before we left and we looked up and he was bringing us this 2x4.

Couldn't resist the typical spaghetti face picture.

Oh and one final thing - I have a piece of scrap paper batting around there that says, "honey, no stop it" which is what he said to me when I was washing off his face one day.

Ok, free time is over, Anders just peed on the rug. Dang it!

I Two Now

Anders is two now. Crazy. I took him to his two year appointment today and the doctor was pleased with how much he is talking, the fact that he has been wearing underwear for 4 weeks now (do I dare say he is potty trained?) and with his health. He jumped up to the 5th percentile with a weight of 23 pounds 8 oz and is in the 25th percentile at 33.5 inches. He used to not even be on the charts for weight, so we will take the 5th percentile. While we were at the appointment, he showed the doctor his climbing skills by scaling the exam table. Typical Anders - he also climbs fences, out of his crib, opens the back door now, etc. He keeps us on our toes for sure. So, here are way too many pictures from his birthday celebration (way too many in that it took Blogger two days to load all of these, so if you get worn out looking at the pictures, it seems to be for good reason).

We started the birthday celebrations a few days early with a visit from Grandma Kathie and Grandpa Bill. Here is Anders helping them put together the easel that Grandpa Bill made for him. It is very cool. Anders likes to fix things and figure out how things work, I won't be surprised to come home to this taken apart some day.

Beautiful artwork by Anders. And no, we did not get a puppy - that is Tighe and he belongs to Josie. Or maybe Bill and Kathie.

Fast forward to the weekend. We drove down Thursday night and spent Friday hanging out at Aunt Carrie, Uncle Rob and Eleanor's house. Anders requested waffles for breakfast (eata faffle) for his birthday so Rob was kind enough to make them for all of on Saturday. Oh and the best part of the weekend was that Anders absolutely refused to sleep in the pack and play - he insisted on sleeping in the "biga bed". It was real fun - we had to give in and let him fall asleep and nap in the bed we were sleeping in and then transfer him to the pack and play. What a nightmare, but thankfully, he was happy to sleep in his crib (with the side down of course to make climbing out easier) when we got home.

After breakfast we gave what may be his most important gift - a new Hawkeye jersey and a another Iowa t-shirt.

Eleanor and Anders on game day/birthday day with their coordinating Ricky Stanzi jerseys.

Before the game we had time to go to the park near Rob and Carrie's for a bit. Anders got some climbing out of his system.

Baby Dee (or is it D) even got in on the action.

Pete ran the general store, while Clara shopped.

After the game, which Iowa won, Anders got his hand in the cake - despite the fact that his Aunt Sarah and I were right there.

This is the cake that his Aunt Sarah made. The tire wasn't messed up when she brought the cake in the house, it still tasted great. We had another cake at the party too - a lovely green and purple angel food cake that Grammie made. I don't think she chose the frosting colors, though, I'm pretty sure Henry had something to do with that. Anyway, I didn't get a picture of it - bummer.

Ok, more park time - this is the birthday party - the picnic shelter we were at was right next to a play ground. Here are Henry and Zach flying and maybe checking out a real airplane, while Drew and Anders rush to a fire.

The park also has some amusement park rides, including this train - or choo-choo train as Anders calls them these days.

The birthday boy.

This is a music-less carousel. The kids loved it, but it was kind of strange to have no music.

Clara seemed to enjoy the elephant.

Drew and Anders teamed up again for some flying.

I love this action shop of Henry.

Eleanor and Rhiannon were very nicely color coordinated with their plane.

It was very late when we finally got a family picture taken. Unfortunately, this was one of the best shots.

The next morning we met everyone in Amana for breakfast. Anders enjoyed the food - especially this piece of toast.

Then we tried for a family photo - I think this one is pretty good considering all the people in it. After that, we left town to spend some time with Aunt Sarah, Uncle Mike and Zach and Drew at their house.

I love this shot of the 3 boys gathered around whatever Anders is looking at.

Anders got a new umbrella from Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Dick. He immediately headed outside with it, so Zach got out his umbrella to join in the fun.

For some reason, Anders decided he could go down this slide sitting down. All other slide rides were taken on his belly, feet first. We ended the day with some more amusement park rides and fire works, which thankfully Anders enjoyed. Then headed home on Monday. It was a fun weekend.