Knitting Circle

Ah, yes - that reminds me that I forgot to wash out his wrist crevices today.

On another note, let me first state that I openly admit I am not cut out for stay-at-home-mom life. In fact, I've decided that daycare providers are crazier than people who want to teach middle school. And that's coming from someone who chose to teach high school. But since I had/have 6 straight months of being a stay-at-home mom due to maternity leave and summer break, I decided the best thing to do was to schedule at least 1 thing a day for at least 4 days out of the work week. It's basically to insure that I have adult human contact. So we have swimming lessons every Monday and ECFE classes every Wednesday. The other days' activities vary drastically, but we try to get out of the house as often as possible.

Anja loves her classes, especially ECFE, which she calls school since it's in the same building that her preschool will be in.

I talked Lyla's Daddy into signing up with us. Little did he know that he would be the only dad and that there would be an hour of separation time, during which the moms (and dad) go to another room and kibitz about poopy and pee pee and bed time rituals and the most effective way to wash a lovey. He likes to refer to this as the women's knitting circle. So when he discovered Wednesday when we met him and his kids at the pool that I had met another ECFE mom and her daughter at the pool the previous Friday, he asked how our sweaters were coming. I wonder what he'll think when he hears that I was there with 2 ECFE moms and their kids today. We finished the sweaters and started on matching hats.

Attitude

Ian now weighs in at 18 pounds. In related news, my biceps/triceps are becoming far less flabby.

And yesterday, while forcing Anja into clothes, I may have developed a bit of crankiness. Anja smirked and simply said, "I don't like your attitude." At least she used it accurately. After that episode, I was reading a sheet we received from our ECFE class on where she should be developmentally. Did you know that at this stage she should be saying basic words and beginning to form 3 word sentences? Huh.

Bath Time

Bath time around our house had gone through some major changes recently.

Anja, our resident diva, has decided that she no longer likes taking baths and insists that she takes showers now.

She no longer screams whenever the water hits her head, but she still requires Mommy or Daddy to be in there with her. Baby steps.

And our little man is getting too big for the infant side of the tub. He better get better at sitting up on his own so I can switch him to the sitting side soon!

Meanwhile, we're working on his abs in his exersaucer.

Cereal

Mr. Man has been continuing to pack on the pounds and has been eating more and more and isn't sleeping as long through the night any more. So, like any horrible parents who ignore the "your son/daughter isn't exactly 4 months old yet and will therefore grow up to be obese and allergic to all foods" research out there, we attempted a tiny bit of rice cereal tonight. It went pretty well.

He gobbled it up and then continued to drink 4 oz of formula and then nurse. Yeah, he eats a lot. I tried to tell you. Well, if I'm honest, I guess I should tell you there was a slight break in the action. After the cereal, Ian decided that eating was exhausting and had too take a short break. After a five minute snooze in his Bumbo with his eyes partially open (frequent occurrence), he woke up and continued feeding.

Unfortunately, the cereal, which was supposed to help him feel full and therefore provide more sleep, has done quite the opposite. He woke up hungry while I wrote this. Maybe we'll wait a bit before trying again.

Or maybe I just had no idea how much he really eats.

Milestones

Every day things happen around our house that make me think, "Ooh, that'd be good for the blog." The catch 22 of the fact that so many funny and random things happen around here is that I rarely have time to sit down and put them into said blog. Here's my attempt at remembering things over the past few weeks and regurgitating them for you in no particular order.

Anja has gotten very good at using the bathroom and telling us when she needs to go and what she has accomplished when she's done.

*While driving to WI, we had her in a diaper since it was over a 2 hr trip. She refused to go in the diaper and always managed to only need a bathroom when there wasn't one for another 30 miles. But she always held it. And then she informed us, "I'm upset. Sometimes it's hard to be patient waiting for a bathroom." Um. What? Did my 2 year old just say that? I wish she could communicate more clearly. She's so difficult to understand and she never expresses herself.

*The following things have been uttered after a #2. (It's descriptive, so skip ahead or don't say I didn't warn you!) "Look, Mommy! I pooped a moon!" (It was crescent shaped, I'll grant her that.) "Look, Daddy! I made a Christmas tree!" (I wasn't in the room, but could hear that one from the living room. I didn't want to know why she thought that. I will say that she doesn't think it's a Christmas tree unless it has multicolored lights.) "Oooh, look! Corn!" So proud.

ECFE and swimming classes are going well. She loves going to school and likes swimming class once I am in the water with her. In related news, she now prefers showers over baths. Odd kid.

Oh, and Anja's still growing taller, but is still only 30 pounds. But the dress that she's wearing in this picture was actually a dress when we bought it a month before this picture.

We brought it with us to Ian's baptism and put it on her once we got there, only to realize that it was now more of a tunic. We had to leave her shorts on. We were in a church, after all, for a very serious ceremony.

Pastor Steve was awesome, as always. He did Anja's baptism, as well. To give you an idea of the kind of pastor that he is, he invited the kids to try out the water (and didn't say anything when Liam was splashing around a bit, enjoying the coolness on a warm day).

And when Ian screamed his head off the entire ceremony (hungry, as usual), he told us how his own daughter was the worst he's ever heard during a baptism.

Afterwards, the kids were running around the chapel and instead of getting upset, he commented that there was no reason to be upset at the kids for playing because Jesus wouldn't have been, either.

Just like Anja's baptism, short and sweet were the themes of the day, followed by a very classy dinner at Grundy's in the game room. Best baptism plan ever. The day would've been perfect if Auntie/Godmother Kimmie could have made it, but we're glad she's feeling better now!

Ian with his Mommy and 3 Godparents (Uncle Mike, Auntie Kim, and Auntie Jill).

Anja looks unnaturally short in this one because she's trying to hide. As Dan recently pointed out to me, I barely have to bend at the waist to pick her up because she's so tall.

Did I mention that Pastor Steve also performed our wedding 4 years ago? We celebrated in style our anniversary night. Chipotle. We made up for it the next night - Solera and a show. Good stuff.

The day before the baptism, we celebrated my Dad's 70th birthday. Lookin' good, Boppa! (The flames are not photoshopped, believe it or not.)

Whenever we go to my parents' house, it's tradition for my Dad and I to weigh Ian. Remember that Anja weighs 30 pounds and is nearly 3 years old? Ian's trying hard to catch up. He's already 17 pounds. No wonder my orthopedic surgeon told me I have tennis elbow.

Other randomness:

-Anja today described her Uncle Matt to my Mom. "Uncle Matt is a troublemaker." She's a smart girl, that one!

-Ian is really starting to like the idea of toys and even enjoyed the Exersaucer for the first time today and could already grab the sun.

-Anja is still a big helper, but has moved past helping with diaper changes. Tonight she helped me bathe Ian. She washed his belly, legs, and feet and did a decent job of it, too!

-Anja's working hard at her numbers and letters. She's been able to say them for awhile, but now she's working on recognizing them on things like my shirts and signs.

1st Day of ECFE

Today was Anja's first day of ECFE. We talked Anja's best friend, Lyla, into going, too. Her dad too more convincing than Lyla. But since Anja and I have a weekly tradition of going to Caribou for oatmeal, coffee, and milk, we added it to today's activities. So after a quick trip to Caribou, where we like to take funny faces pictures to send to Daddy, we packed back up in the car and headed to "Anja's school."

I have deemed the entire class a success for two major reasons.

#1 - There was no crying or complaining. At least not from Anja. Ian's crying and complaining was minimal.

#2 - She left in the same outfit she arrived in. Considering there was snack time with little cups, painting, and she's potty training, I am quite pleased.

Anja and Lyla were definitely 2 of the most independent kids there in a class of all 2 year olds. There were a lot of thumb suckers and kids scared of a bear song. Whatever. Our kids are so much better than your kids. ::sticks out tongue:: I was a bit surprised that they played individually and weren't always stuck like glue to each other.

In the car after leaving, I asked Anja what her favorite thing about school was.

"My fav'ite thing's my friend. Lyla is my best friend."

And after lunch with Daddy and a quick trip to Target (is there such a thing?), Ian and I headed home for a much needed nap before Anja's "mermaid" lesson tonight. (Did you know that Anja will scream if you try to get her to float on her back during a swim lesson, but if you tell her the mermaids do it, it's suddenly cool?)

Yin and Yang

Anja has a new morning routine. She demands to hold Ian in his glider while I get dressed. Luckily, I have no issues with this since it means I don't have to argue with her about getting up and dressed, since that's the prerequisite for holding him. She also tells me to go get my phone and take their picture. So I'm developing quite the collection of pictures that all look the same, just with different clothes.

But the diva-ness is strong with this one.

She will let you know if the outfit you had picked out for her is unacceptable.

She will tell you, "Mommy, you a mess!" And sometimes means it.

She can grab the attention of the other neighborhood kids and make them do whatever she says. Even getting the older kids, boys included, to play in her "Dora house" for hours. And tell them when they're doing it wrong. Which, of course, is often.

Yesterday, I was looking at a new baby nail clipper I had purchased. She instructed me to put it away since it was for her and Ian. I was not allowed to touch it. I asked her the usual, "Anja, are you being bossy?" And for the first time, she responded honestly. "Yes. Daniel say I'm bossy." (Yes, Kim B, she still tells us how Daniel tells her this regularly. Or did once several months ago. Hard to say.)

And when she tried to get Boppa to play on her "scoot scoot" (think small ride on toy for a 1 yr old) and her thought she meant her scooter, he was quickly corrected. "No, Boppa! You're too big! You'd break it and I be mad!" Points for honesty and understanding emotions?

But at the end of the day, she is still a sweet, young lady who loves her baby brother, who, for his part, is as calm and chill as his sister is bossy and active. Definitely yin and yang.