Dare Devil

Anders and his dad have been riding home from work and Montessori for a week or two now. This has greatly increased Anders' obsession with bikes (which was pretty big to begin with).

He really likes to wear his helmet now, and mine and Will's...

He might miss winter and bundling up a bit, I bet he won't miss it too much in a few months.

He did some building today. This was all done on his own, maybe he can be an architect if professional biking doesn't work out.

Or maybe he will be a chef, famous for his use of applesauce as a condiment. I actually did get him to eat all of this, despite how disgusting it looks.

Oh! We just had an exciting moment, Anders just came and got me and said "ba-ba" which means bathroom. So, we went in there and he sat down and pooped in the toilet! This is the first time he has told us he needs to go. I would love it if it was the first of many, but I won't hold my breath.

I'm cleaning out the secretary and Anders discovered these twine balls. I worked out a trade for a real ball before I had twine all over the house.

Here is an action shot of his throw to his dad.

We also had some outside time today.

This is his new coaster bike. He loves it, but is a little leery of it. He is much more comfortable on his little Radio Flyer tyke bike, but he is getting the hang of this. Hopefully we can get motivated to put a video of him on the bike on the blog soon.

We also refilled the bird feeders for the squirrels, chickadees and cardinals.

After nap time today we rode bikes over the park near the Mississippi. We had two main purposes in going - so Will could ride his new bike and so we could check out the herons, which have returned to their rookery.

Anders has a new found love of slides.

He went head first down this one on his own. No kidding.

This is a big slide - probably 7 feet or so. Here he is getting ready to go down.

Again this was all his decision to do this. He decided to treat it like stairs.

And go down feet first on his belly! He went at least twice more and loved it!

Hah!

Usually this time of year my sister, Sarah - who lives in Iowa, and I have a conversation that goes something like this:

"Mom called me today and just happened to mention that the crocuses are blooming. It is 20 degrees here."

"Yep, I was on the phone with Becky today and she was getting hot sitting on the deck in the sun. We have 6 inches of snow on the ground still."

Becky and our parents still live in Colorado.

Well, this picture is for those of you who usually experience spring several weeks ahead of us in the upper Midwest (and who got snow while we had a 60 degree day yesterday).

Yes! My tulips are coming up already and they are even about 3 inches tall. I just discovered them tonight when the Schwan's man stopped by. It is very exciting.

We do still have some piles of snow, but those will be gone this week.

So, Anders is 18 months old as of March 4th. We went to his 18 month appointment and his doctor was pleased with him. He was back down to slightly above 20 pounds, but he had been sick for a couple of days and hadn't eaten, so she figured that was the issue. He had a bit of a belly ache last week, complete with messy morning diapers and throwing up a few times right after breakfast, so we kept him home Wednesday and Thursday.

Here is what happened with his play dough on Thursday. This happened while he was in the seat.

He also did a little reading.

On Sunday we enjoyed some tea and milk in our mugs after breakfast. That lump on the table is what is left of the banana he ate. He lately has been interested in eating bananas out of the peel rather than sliced up.

So, as I said, we had a wonderful, warm, sunny day on Sunday. We spent a bunch of the afternoon out in the backyard. Anders is trading in his shovel for a broom.

I had forgotten how dirty Anders gets when he plays outside, so that combined with being sick this week led to lots of baths. Last night he didn't want to get dressed, but instead wanted to watch his dad make spaghetti (which he called getti).

Finally, this is one of his new things. We give him a napkin and he puts it in his lap. It is very hilarious. He did it for the first time last week and had to remove his bib in order to get the napkin just right.

Another thing he just started doing is when the 3 of us are standing close together saying goodnight or goodbye he pushes Will's and my heads towards each other so we kiss. It is very funny! New words include: owl (which he correctly identified in one of my bird books), goose, turkey, chapstick, dirty, back, and truck. Also on the way to Montessori every morning we see about 8 buses, which means I hear "baa!" about every 5 minutes.

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!