New development

Meet Ian: New fan of some hippy teething tablets we still had from when Anja was a baby.

That's right. The teething started so quickly today that we were caught unprepared. Luckily, Ian appears to have a high threshold for pain. His first tooth was already through before he needed the hippy tablets!

Random Ramblings

OK, cell phone purge and catch up time...(Funny that it took me until the night after my first day back at work to find time to do this.)

*Dan, his dad, and our neighbor Kevin beat all odds and put together a new massive playset in one day for the kids after our new fence was installed. Ian was clearly beside himself with excitement.

*Then we had a surprise visit from one of our German friends, Michael, and his mom, Eve. They were on a cross country trip and discovered the Twins were playing the Red Sox, so they altered their route and came for the game and the visit. While they were in town, we took them to the Dakota County Fair for a very cultural experience. Anja absolutely loved the fair (well, the rides anyway - the giant slide and Ferris wheel were her favorites) and playing with Michael and Eve. The only wet spot on their visit? When Anja attempted to use the urinal in a biffy again. This time she mistook Dan's foot and sandal for the urinal. But at least this time she had the right, well, you know.

*Token hysterical picture of Ian when he first discovered his feet.
*Anja had her first trip to the dentist. This was the before picture.
There were no after pictures. It didn't go well.

*And, of course, what summer would be complete without several trips to the zoo with our friends Lyla and Rowan? (Can you tell which one is Ian?)

*My sister needed to take 2 of her kids to an event for the day about a week ago, but needed someone to watch her youngest kiddos. So in a stroke of genius, we decided that I would watch Gabby (4), Liam (3), Anja (2) and Ian (5 months). It started off all innocent...

...but it actually went really well. I do, however, have a new and profound appreciation for any moms or daycare providers who watch 4+ kids. I don't know how you do it. I got lucky because Ian fell asleep for a large portion of it. Thank god for my Moby wrap!

*Ah, my bathing beauties. Anja still is scared of baths, but will take a shower. Odd. And she still loves to be wrapped up as a "burrito baby" after every shower.

Ian, on the other hand, looks like he's had a few burritos.
*Token picture of my goofy family. Love 'em.

*Since Dan had never been to the Children's Museum and Anja loved the one in Chicago so much, we took her there a week ago. She had a great time, especially in the water area.

*Anja had a several weeks when she was boycotting naps. I settled for "rest time" in her room. But on some rare occasions, she actually fell asleep. Including a few days ago when she was watching a show and asked me, "Mommy? You turn that off, please?" and immediately fell asleep for an hour and a half on the couch with her special kitty. (swoon)

*For one last hurrah, I took the kiddos to a new park with their friends Lyla and Rowan and their dad. Although you can't tell from the second picture, the swinging twins was one of the highlights for all 4 kiddos. And got lots of funny looks from the other people there.

*This past weekend, we made a quick visit to Wisconsin for a family wedding. Anja had a blast since she is currently obsessed with weddings.

Ian enjoyed himself, too. Especially trying to keep up with his older cousin (10 weeks his senior).

*Is it a bird, is it a plane? Can't tell? Just ask Anja to go outside with her ever-so-fashionable Mickey undies, sock mittens, and 'noculars and she'll figure it out for ya!

*And finally, today was my first day back at work which means the kids were in daycare for the first time together. Anja hadn't been since the beginning of June. But both did well and no crying issues for anyone in the family! And after we picked them up, Ian decided today was a good day to enter the world of sitting unassisted for a longer period of time. A few days ago it was only for 10 seconds or so, but tonight he managed to go for a few minutes while playing. Go little man! He was probably just trying to get a new trick to show off for Uncle Mike who arrived in town this morning for a visit.

Chicago

A little over a week ago, we made the journey to Chicago to visit Auntie Kimmie and Uncle Mark. We took off Thursday afternoon and made it in 7 hours. Not bad for having an infant and a potty training toddler! They both slept in the car. For the first 45 minutes. That was it.

Friday was spent lounging around in the morning, meeting Mark for lunch, and then the local Children's Museum and outlet shopping in the afternoon. Anja decided that it was Auntie Kimmie time and couldn't have cared less that we were there. It was fun to watch the two of them play with the bubbles and everything.








Saturday, the four of us and Kim headed to downtown Chicago. We had spent our money shopping the day before, so we just went to look at the sites. We discovered the best spot for a view on the cheap. The women's bathroom in the restaurant in the Hancock building! Check this out!




From there, we went to Navy Pier. Namely because Uncle Mark had planted the seed in Anja's mind that the big Ferris wheel was THE thing to do and she could not live life without going on it immediately. All day, she was asking us when she could go on the Ferris wheel. So Anja, Ian, Kim and I went up while Dan waited with the strollers. Except for one millisecond at the very top, Anja loved it and still talks about it.




After the Ferris wheel, we headed to Gino's for some Chicago style pizza where Mark joined us. While we were waiting, we checked out some of the graffiti and found a good one.


And Sunday after breakfast, despite many protests, we hit the road back to MN.

Biffy

Tonight, Dan and I took Anja to a park. After a bit, she needed to use the bathroom. Dan volunteered to take her to the biffy. It was her first time. A momentous occasion, obviously.

Upon their return, Dan mentioned that she refused to use the regular toilet inside and asked to use the urinal. Who could blame her really? Dan acquiesced and held her up so she could use it.

Suddenly he heard the hard to mistake plunking sound of a no-longer-constipated toddler relieving herself.

Wordy Wednesday

Meet Lyla and Rowan's dad, Headless Dan. At ECFE today, he was in charge of the boys while I took the girls outside to play. While I was gone, there was apparently some deep conversation (and some cuddling). We're okay with it.

On the way to ECFE today, Anja and I had the following conversation:

Anja: Mommy, what is that?

Me: A car.

Anja: Why is it a car?

Me: Because that's what somebody made.

Anja: Somebody made? Oh. Look at that little girl. What's that little girl doing?

Me: Going to Caribou.

Anja: Oh. Caribou coffee place? Why she go to Caribou coffee place?

Me: To get coffee.

Anja: Oh. Why she want to get coffee?

Me: Because she likes it.

Anja: Why she...(continues list of random questions about clouds, boats, water towers, Ian, school, etc.)

(5 minutes later)

Anja: Mommy?

Me: (exhausted by all the questions) Yes, Anja?

Anja: Sometimes I like to talk.

Whales Jumping Over Turtles

Anja, a whale ready to attack.

A few weeks ago, Anja and I started playing a new game - the Turtle and the Whale game. This is truly a "Dad's game." I simply huddle up on the floor (as the Turtle) and Anja hurls herself over me (as the Whale). Fundamentally, I lay about while she expends all her energy jumping over me. Anyone with a toddler should recognize the genius in this game. This game repeats itself until Anja is distracted by another potential game or she hits her bean on one of the surrounding pieces of furniture. These may seem like advanced animals for a two year old. It's certainly beyond simple piggies and cows. Her animal recognition is mostly due to watching the combination of Diego and Dora. The two of them have become constants in the house despite a drastic reduction in the amount of TV Anja actually watches.

She's also managed to learn some songs from the shows. The piñata song is one that happens to be rather cute. She'll start singing, "Piñata, my piñata," then whack something with a stick. While less cute and more hopeful, she also sings a rendition of "Rain rain, go away." Instead of the standard, "come again another day," which has never made any logical sense to my adult sensibilities, she continues with another verse of "go away, rain rain." Apparently, the traditional second clause makes no sense to a toddler either. Pay attention illogical nursery rhymes: your days are numbered.

Lately, there has been much more need for singing the "Rain, rain" tune. It rained very heavily on Saturday and Sunday nights. The sirens sounded and the wind made the type of terrible noise that justifies a look out the window. The rain on Saturday was bad enough to justify sneaking into our basement. We keep up a guest room down there and so the entire family snuggled into the bed and waited out the weather. On Sunday, we were already annoyed by the frequency of the sirens. We readily prepared to ignore the suggestion we head to the basement yet again. Settling into a comfortable half-sleep state, Susi and I were awakened not by anything outside but by a call for, "Mommmmmy!"

The noise was a bit much for Anja. Ian was perfectly happy to simply stay in his crib. He remained blissfully unaware of the goings on out side of his bed.



Ian, blissfully unaware.


We hustled her into our bed and calmed her down. Susi's tactic was a stroke of brilliance, the scary thunder is simply the clouds playing a very noisy game of Turtle and Whale.

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.