Catching Up...Again

Why is it that I feel like I am in a perpetual cycle of catching up? I'm trying to remember when it last was that I actually had real free time where I had absolutely nothing I had to do? Anyway, here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks.

Anders made some wrapping paper for me to use to wrap presents for his cousin's birthdays. Drew just turned two and Cam will be 4 very soon. This highlighter was left out by his dad and one of us (I think it was me) gave it to him to use. He now loves markers way more than crayons. He looks like a very serious artist at work here.

He found some M&M's in Grammie's bag. Nothing is safe from him any more - he can climb pretty much anything these days and does. Thankfully he cannot doorknobs yet.

Ah, the new skis. It was a very exciting day when we opened the skis. Anders was very excited about them. Skis in one of his words - it sounds more like keys though.

Once we got outside on the snow (aka "no") he was a little less confident, but did well. There were a few tears involved and now the snow is melting away, so we probably won't make it out again this winter, though I'm sure there is a huge March storm in store for us.

The other morning he decided to take some of my shoes for a spin. This is the first time I've seen him do this.

So the highlighter led to washable markers. He did get some on the paper, despite how it looks.

And some on his face...

And some on his shirt. He didn't want to pose for this picture. Thankfully, the markers truly are washable and the shirt is clean again.

Saturday morning I was sitting across from Will, eating breakfast and looked out the front window behind him and saw this!

Yep, that is a wild turkey walking down our street, right in the middle of Minneapolis. Anders and I looked for it on our way to music about 45 minutes later, but it wasn't in plain sight.

Crazy!

Out of laziness, or rather being behind-ness, I have a laundry basket full of diapers in the living room and we just started changing his diapers downstairs for the day. Well, that led to trying some more time on the toilet and Anders ended up pooping and peeing in it twice. It was very exciting for all of us!

Weekend Goings On

I'm going out of town this afternoon for the remainder of the week, so I decided to hang out with Anders for the day. We started the day with some bus watching. We seem to be on at least 3 bus routes, maybe 4 - it is very exciting.

Anders likes to stand on the window sill for a different point of view.

Next, we headed for the play ground at the nearby elementary school. It was around 25 degrees or so, but nice and sunny.

Anders loved the slide, until the one time when he went a little fast and ended up laying down at the bottom.

This thing was only kind of fun for him, despite the smile.

This weird swing was his favorite thing.

He wanted to walk home - this is what happens when you let him walk home. So I put him back in the stroller and got to the corner of our street and let him walk the last block home. I bet that took us a good 15 minutes. We met some of our neighbors that we didn't previously know. They have a 2 year old and I cannot remember the mom's name - annoying! At any rate, I think we have some good play time ahead of us this summer. They were heading out to take Huxley snowboarding - people after my own heart - we just ordered skis for Anders (skis is one of his words).

After our big trip (we were gone for 1.5 hours) we came home and had a smoothie together. Anders loves smoothies. Now I'm hoping for a good nap as I need to pack!

The rest of the pictures are from this weekend. We weren't too busy - stayed home and watched the Olympics, Anders and I went for a 4 mile run both days (for some reason my quads are killing me - I think from pushing the stroller in the snow), went to music and walked around in the snow.

Will's mom called shortly after Anders and I got home from music. Anders was playing in the living room when suddenly it got very quiet. I discovered him in the back bedroom.

I have no idea how he knows this is a phone, but he does. Will and I never use it, but it is plugged in and now a favorite toy.

He is getting better about putting things away - they are working on this at school.

I also went to REI and discovered they were having their super clearance - an additional 50% off anything ending in .83 - REI Super Clearance and Scratch and Dent sales are a good way to get some good deals.

Here he is modeling his new rain coat. The pants that I bought to go with it come up to his shoulders. This will be good in a few years - hopefully they will keep the rain away on a canoe trip!

Some hijinks were had in the box that Will's new bike came in. Actually, Anders might think it is his bike - I heard him say "me bike" on Sunday.

And Anders got to eat his first piece of toast without having it cut into tiny pieces! I wasn't there for this, but Will said he ate it right up.

I'm not saying Betsy's comment (after the previous post) about keeping the Play-Doh colors separate is wrong...

But anyone who would do this with their breakfast might be inclined to not mix up the Play-Doh.

Happenings, in no particular order

Lots going on in MN: work, work, & more work, Grammie came for a visit, New Mamas went to Roller Derby, skiing and snowshoeing in the North Woods, and more...

Valentine's Day Party at school - good food and lots of fun was had by all.

A huge milestone - peed in the potty for the first time ever! We were all very excited, the reward: lots of cheering and flushing the toilet!

Play dough from Cindy Lou - he loves it!

Helped Dad put fenders on his bike so that they can start riding home from school and work sooner than later.

Found something better to watch.

Goofed around a bit.

Helped shovel a bit.

Added a few more words to his repertoire: gentle, down stairs, skis, stink, cereal, shovel, apple and figured out how to climb up on the chairs and the couch, now we have to figure out how to keep the counters and table tops clean! Never a dull moment.

Winter in Wisconsin

We headed up to Wisconsin this past weekend for some time with Grandpa Bill, Grandma Kathie and Josie. Will and I got a very rare chance to go out skiing together, while Anders hung out with Grandma and Grandpa - thanks! I skate skied for the first time in 2 years and the 8K ski I did was exhausting, I did change into my new classic skis for a quick 2K loop while Will finished up his ski. Oh, did I say we skied together? I meant we drove there and back together - Will has surpassed me in his skate skiing skill. Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Anders is really into dogs these days - he was exposed to several of them over the holidays and seems to really love them. Here is Josie being very patient with him. She was very tolerant, though I'm wondering why we decided we would let him pester her on her bed long enough for us to take a picture! I tried to get Anders to understand that the bed was Josie's space and that he should leave her alone - he didn't always listen to me.

I'm a huge advocate of getting Anders outdoors in winter - I am really hoping he embraces outdoor winter activities as he grows up in Minnesota. So, he got lots of outside time over the weekend. An no, he isn't down on the lake alone.

Here he is making sure his dad's sled is in good enough shape to ride in. It passed the test earlier in the day with Grandpa Bill, but he had to check out again.

Here Anders and Grandma Kathie seem to be wanting to go to different parts of the lake. We ended up making a big loop and they both seemed happy with that.

We went out with Grandpa on Sunday and this time the sled really wasn't worthy of a ride (in Anders' mind, anyway). He really enjoyed walking and pushing the sled. He fell a few times and would get stuck in the downward dog yoga pose as he got up. He would saw "oh-oh" as he fell - it was pretty cute. He also enjoyed picking up snow. He just loved it out there.

I love the trails he made in the snow.

All that fresh air and a full belly led to falling asleep within a couple of minutes of us leaving the house. We didn't even get to the mailboxes before I took this picture and the mailboxes are less than a mile from Bill and Kathie's place! He slept almost the whole 3 hours back home. Thanks for a great weekend Bill and Kathie!

Words

No, we haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I'm just a bit (ok a lot) overwhelmed by work these days and TIRED at the end of they day. So here is a quick entry, while I listen to Obama and simultaneously crack up at the faces Biden and Pelosi are making and feel sorry for them for having to sit where they are. I guess that is just part of the job though.

Anders is growing up fast. We started making a list of the "words" he is using. Some of them, probably only Will and I would understand, but some of them are very clear - like diaper! He is also very interested in sitting on the toilet - with the lid up like the adults do. On one hand the idea of potty training him is exciting (the Montessori will help even) but on the other hand also seems daunting. So we are starting with pointing out when he is pooping - if you ask him he will point to his diaper. Don't worry, we have no delusions of grandeur here. The first thing he did with the potty was put the bowl part on his head, he then spent the weekend pushing and carrying the potty all over the house. Not a good habit to get into...

Ok, words and my attempt spell his way of saying them.

• Diaper = generally clearly diaper
• Boo = boo!
• Chickadee = ka-dee
• Dad = da or da-da
• water = wawa
• banana = nana
• apple sauce = bapa, though last night he clearly said apple
• Brr = burr
• All done = ahh dah
• Bye-bye = clearly bye-bye, with either a wave or sometimes a kiss, which involves a nice kiss sound
• Hi = clearly Hi - I love this - he and Will get home a few hours before I do, so when I come in each night I am greeted with a hearty Hi!
• Yogurt = gogur
• Hot = hat! hat! hat!
• Dog = dah
• Outside = ow-si
• Oh-oh = oh-oh or sometimes ooh-ooh
• Good job = goo jaaa
• Bike - ba-ba?! The question mark at the end is because he always says it with question because he wants to go downstairs to see the bikes.
• Go Hawks! - this doesn't really sound quite like Go Hawks, but he clearly is saying it and he gives a little arm pump, which is hilarious.

He also loves brushing his teeth - if you ask him if we should go brush his teeth, he drops whatever he is doing and heads for the bathroom. This morning as we were getting ready to leave, I said "we need to get your hat and mittens on" and a minute later he brought me his hat and mittens. I was pretty impressed. Things are going well at the new Montessori. He really loves it there - sometimes he doesn't even want to stop to take off his jacket before joining in whatever activities they have going on. Today when we got there, he said hi to one of his classmates. It was cute.

Pictures from Thanksgiving

We had many visitors for Thanksgiving weekend. Unfortunately, Will and I spent so much time running around the house, that we didn't get the camera out often enough.

This is actually a few days before everyone arrived, but explains why all of his Aunts and Uncles voted Anders mostly likely to have the first broken bone amongst the cousins.

The kid has no fear - in fact last night shortly before getting ready for bed, he wanted to look in his fish tank so I put him up on the chair that he was patting. He then wanted something up on top of his fish tank and I wouldn't get it for him, so he climbed up on the arm of the chair in order to reach the wanted item.

Anders got to ride on Uncle Rob's shoulders while at Como Zoo.

The obligatory picture showing how tricky it is to get so many people to look at the camera at once. Carrie looks cute though!

Anders also likes to wear hats around the house. This one was made by his Aunt Betsy last year.

Another hat - this one was given to him by my friend Michele last year. I'm wondering if he is going to be one of those guys that wears stocking caps all of the time...

This was taken after everyone was gone. If you click on the picture it should get larger and you can see that Anders is fixing the locomotive. His dad is right next to him trying to fix the dehumidifier. Anders spent quite a bit of time fixing this toy yesterday. He also thought it might work on it a bit tonight possibly as a stall tactic right before bed.

It was very nice to have everyone here all weekend, hope everyone had a great weekend!

No time to blog

We went to IA this weekend. Got back late last night and I had an audit today and need to pack to go to California for the rest of the week. Other than the Hawkeyes losing and losing their QB, it was a great weekend. We celebrated Pete and Carrie's birthdays and enjoyed some time outside.