Skader Gator

Is what Leif started calling Skadi. She is none too pleased by this and tells him, "I SKADI!"

We are headed full on into summer after a very mild – okay, dreary, wet spring. As expected the day hit that we suddenly went from 60’s and dreary to mid-80’s and hot. There was a week of 70 degree weather in there somewhere.

My baby girl seems to have disappeared and morphed into a squealing, giggling, opinionated, bossy, but fun little girl. At 2 years and 2 months it is interesting to me to compare her to her brother. I went back in my blog to Leif at about this age. I was pregnant with Skadi and we were getting ready for a weekend at the Shelton cabin with grandma and Bompa. That seems like just yesterday even though I know in my head that I didn’t have Skadi there. We are looking forward to the same trip with them this year. (Three years later!)

Skadi has proven to be far more verbal than Leif ever was at this age. My update from where he was 2 years 2 months has him just starting to talk in full sentences. Skadi has been on that for months now. She communicates very effectively verbally and occasionally uses sign language as well. She can’t say “all done” or “all gone” without also signing.

One of the funniest things she says is a phrase she picked up from her brother – “sure dude”. I can’t explain how she says it other than that there is an emphasis on “dooood”.

Skadi can count to her teens – or at least she knows they exist. She has learned to try and trick people and she will often count to ten in her own way – “one, two, three, seben, eight, nine, ten!”
This is my fault since she did this once and I asked what happened to four, five and six?

“They fell off,” she replied, which now is accompanied by much laughter and giggling. She waits for you to ask what happened to those numbers with a silly little smirk on her face. She gets to twelve and then it’s the teens. This morning it was “eleben, twelve, sixteen, sixteen, sixteen, sixteen!” Somedays it will be “fourteen, fourteen…”

Her favorite numbers appear to be two and seven. She likes things that come in pairs and usually exclaims, “two feet! Two hands! Two bananas! Two cups!” You get the idea. If there are more than two of any object, she usually just declares there to be “seben”.

Skadi knows her A,B, C’s through K at this point. She will mumble the whole alphabet while hitting the high points after K. That would be “P”, “S”, “W” and “ZEEEE!” with lots of mumbling between those letters.

Skadi and Leif seem to be about on the same time schedule for potty training. Skadi has shown some interest and even had a few days of hitting the potty regularly. Then she changes her mind. Which is fine with us, neither of us are pining for the coming day of no diapers, racing a child to the potty in Costco from the opposite end of the store, getting everyone loaded into the car and three minutes on our way only to have to turn around (or go into Starbucks) when said child decides now is the time to go potty (when five minutes ago was not). I expect that she will hit the milestone at the same time Leif did, 2 years 4 months. (We will just hope she masters #2 a little easier than Leif.)

She can take off her clothes and put new clothes on. A feat only recently mastered by her brother 2 years 8 months her senior. This makes getting her ready in the morning for school a very difficult challenge. Thankfully she is more into layering than taking the time to remove her clothing. She is terribly opinionated on what she wears on a daily basis and most days it just isn’t worth the battle, she has way more shoes than a two year old should have (thanks to AB… KIDDING!) and insists on wearing shoes to bed every night.

Skadi also likes to have her hair done everyday. This morning I pulled the top half back into a half ponitail. I don't do this very often. In the car we were pulling out of the driveway and she squeals, "mommy, where my ponies?" while she patted the sides of her head. I told her to touch the back of her head. Once she found it she said, "oh, otay!"

Skadi enjoys reading and her favorite books are the Elmo book Leif got her for Christmas, Goodnight Moon, Dinosaur’s Binket, Ten Little Ladybugs, The Bedtime Book, Winny the Pooh, and Yertle the Turtle are her favorites. She loves turtles which may be why Yertle is in there – but I think she strives to learn about world domination from Yertle.

She enjoys art, particularly laying on a large piece of paper and having us trace her. She also enjoys painting. She loves her Little People and her play kitchen enough that AB is considering moving it downstairs and into an area where we tend to be more when we get home from work.

Skadi has been in a big girl bed since we moved to the new house. The downside to this is that many nights, consistently about 1:30pm she gets up and walks across the hall to our bedroom. Where we promptly lead her back to her room and put her back to bed. About half the time she sleeps through the night. We are getting there.

Cuddling is still her favorite activity and she requires far more arm time than Leif ever did. Her favorite weekend morning activity (outside swimming) is laying on daddy’s chest and watching Dora. Daddy sleeps. Leif is the recipient of most of Skadi’s outward signs of affection. While she loves to cuddle and snuggle, her kisses are rare. Leif, by far and away, receives the most kisses, followed by her best friend Lexi, then maybe daddy and about last on the list is mommy. Apparently I am the chosen one for snuggles, but not kisses.

Swimming is Skadi’s highlight of the week. She is very animated in the water and so very happy to be there. She has picked up an interest in soccer courtesy of Leif and even knows which ball is a soccer ball.

Skadi still believes it is her birthday most everyday, but particularly if she wears something with a cupcake on it. She picked out a cupcake outfit at Costco the other day - politely declined the other outfits, "no thank you". As we wheeled through the store anyone who looked at her, she lifted up the outfit and said, "it's my birthday!" To which we were quick to respond, "actually it's not, her birthday was 2 months ago". But she is still milking it for all it's worth.

Skadi will move up to the next daycare room here in a few weeks. She will do great!

Catching Up

It seems as though a lot has been happening recently, then I go to blog about it and I might have a hill of beans, but only if I tried really hard. So here is a hodge podge post of all that stuff that hangs there, fleeting thoughts really, but aren't really malleable into blog posts of their own.

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AB has just hired a company to come in and tackle our back patio. We started with a narrow wave of concrete back there, then enlisted the help of some really awesome friends to come out and poor a huge patio area for us. It has been nice (particularly with the pergola), but the concrete isn't in great shape. So during the Parade of Homes this year we kept an eye open for concrete treatments.

On Friday AB had a guy specializing in epoxy treatments come and look at the patio. It isn't cheap, but they start on October 22nd and our patio will be out of commission for 3-4 days while they repair the concrete and epoxy coat it. Looking something like this when finished (photo pirated from their webpage):

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I am working towards finishing off my Master bedroom organization goal. I seem to just make it a touch further each weekend either because we are busy, or in the case of this past weekend, because I wasn't feeling great. At this point I need to plow through AB's dresser, clean off the top of it and apply the (likely) faux leather organizers I bought at Target to corral some of his odds and ends. Then I need to tackle the corner where things go to be stacked and ignored. VCR tapes... toss? Garage sale? I hate to just toss them, but they seem pretty worthless. Let me know if you are interested in the titles we have.

Then I need to think about painting. I would love to get it done, but have to admit I am a touch hesitant. I need some thoughts on finishes. I did our bathroom in semi-gloss because I like the sheen in bathrooms. It really lightens it up a lot and I like the way it looks. However, I am not so sure I like the idea of semi-gloss for the Master bedroom. Can I mix the finishes in adjacent rooms connected by a larger archway if I keep the same colors?

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Today I spent money. I am really good at doing this. Up until four years ago I would say my technical savvy level was about 8 out of 10. I wasn't a pro, but I could do most anything from whip up a webpage to program in a few languages (now likely obsolete) and had a lot of the new gadgets. Then well... children put a cramp in my techno ways.

This weekend though AB and I realized that 18 hours on the Tivo hard drive just isn't enough. We were in that first wave of Tivo users. I had thought previously about just getting a hard drive to help the storage issues. But there were other issues... like the phone cord (tripping hazard) running down a hall and across a room. And hating the fact we couldn't record two shows at once. (The only two shows we were really interested in the premiers for were the 2 hour openers of Survivor and Grey's Anatomy and they overlapped by an hour.) Issues like this are just silly in the technology era!

I got with the program and upgraded our DVR to an 80 hour one capable of recording 2 shows and then I bought the wireless adaptor AND a router. I would say we have caught up with the rest of the general public though I noticed when I bought this one it was the lesser of three options and since we don't have HD in our immediate future I will just have to accept being a step or three behind.

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Skadi has become Miss Chatty. She now has a number of words though her favorite is still "no". She says it so quickly and with such determination you KNOW she knows exactly what she wants. And that look in her eyes also says that if you don't comply, a meltdown will ensue. Among her new words are "nana" (banana), "juice", "coat", "socks", "brother" (isn't it easier to say Leif??), "hair", "bug", "bird", "fruit" and "meat" among others I am likely forgetting.

Leif has learned that Skadi can repeat what you say and is taking it upon himself to teach her to talk.

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I have always bought Leif's clothes ahead of time. In the spring I buy clearance for the following winter. Fall I buy summer clearance for next spring. Leif has (knock on wood) so far never deviated from his growth curve and has always been dead on for size.

Skadi... nothing can be easy with her! Last spring I was sure she was on her growth curve and bought a number of 2T outfits for this fall. Appears she will be wearing most of those next fall. I was happy last week when I finally got to use my Gymbucks to buy her a few cute new outfits for this year. Otherwise she is solidly back in 12-18 month clothes again and should get two years out of most of her outfits from last year. I did buy her Gymborree clothes in 18-24 months being optimistic that it is only October and that by December they will fit her. Except for the red tulle skirt... that I bought in a 2T knowing that I can cinch it in this year and she can (and will) wear it next year as well.

My biggest issue there is going to be keeping it off my son. His best girlfriends are projecting the love of princesses onto him and his little sponge of a brain appears to have soaked it all up.

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Work is good for both AB and I. I had an "informal" lunch meeting last week where I was offered another major project to manage. With the addition of this project my umbrella over this client will be complete. This one wasn't a big surprise or a coup, it was offered up by the current PM to me and it was truly just a matter of time before it scootched over as she moves on.

At my informal lunch meeting last week I was also asked if I would consider taking over management of a project that is pissing off most of the upper management due to its lack of management.

This one will be the major coup. I know enough about it that I qualified my yes answer pretty heavily. I know the project well enough to know that one person in particular may walk off the project if I jump rank. A few others will just be hostile. The program manager didn't seem to have a problem with this and said that he may walk, but he will likely only do the talk since he has nothing else to fall upon. And if he does find something than more power to him and they will have underestimated his resourcefulness.

My saving grace in this regard is that if this comes down, it will come down from up way high and outside of the program. Which should provide me a little bubble to cushion myself when they start storming the gates.

Scared? Me? Damn right I am. But more terrified of being a wuss and not even trying to bring the project back onto the straight and narrow.

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Then the last topic is moving. It is still looming out there. We want a new house. We need a new house. We think.

There are the days we remind ourselves that MANY families live in houses much smaller than ours with no problem. We look around and see all the things we love about our house and our yard (our soon to be gorgeous patio) and wonder what our hurry is. Particularly if I get new floors in the kitchen this winter. And wow we need new carpet. With just a little injection of cash into the house, it would be a really pretty house.

Then we see other homes out there that would give us so much more of what we want and need in a home. And we remember how little storage we have and that we have no real guest room right now. And we complain about the depths of our closet pantry. And needing a three car garage. Then we start looking again.

Basically the update is that we are going forward with preparing our house to either go on the market or possible rent next spring depending on the market. It may happen, or we may decide to build at that point. But hopefully this spring we will have a clearly defined path forward.

Skadi 18 month well baby

This morning was Skadi's well baby exam. Her doctor called this the Tasmanian Devil stage and she wasn't kidding.

The actually called us back quickly so Skadi didn't have any time to play with the waiting room toys. This put a short lived cramp in her style. Of course then we got the requisite 15 minute wait in the exam room with her in just her diaper with no toys. Yeah, sucky mom I am, no toys in the diaper bag since I had just cleaned it out from our Idaho trip. Though it isn't hard to convince her that her shoes are toys.

The reason kids this age wear clothes is to keep their diaper on. I am convinced. Ok, too look cute too. But clothing at this age serves a very important purpose. Could not get the child to keep her diaper on. I finally gave up.

Skadi was diagnosed anemic a few months ago and has been on iron supplements since. She had her second blood draw last week - oh and by the way, not fun for a toddler... or mom. Her iron levels are on the low side of normal, but we are happy with this. Supplements will decrease to 3-4 times a week - basically every other day for the next three months and then a month off and blood work again. And a hope that her anemia is resolved.

Then the moment of truth... the height and weight check.

Height - 33" (86th percentile)
Weight - 24 lbs 7 oz (50th percentile)

Being a paranoid mom type, I couldn't help but notice that my daughter has lost weight in the last 6 months. Her stats 6 months ago have her at 25 lbs 2 oz and 3 months ago (apparently not blogged about) at 24 lbs 8 oz. She was a chunk once upon a time. Now? Not so much. She has really leaned out. She eats very well - better than her brother. So I am not going to worry about it. As her doctor put it, "this isn't uncommon for bigger babies as they enter their Tasmanian Devil stage".

Milestone-wise Skadi's vocabulary just suddenly took off. AB and I noted receently that even though Skadi had fewer words than Leif did at this age, she is much more communicative. She has picked up sign language very well at her Montessori school. Often times I have to go in and ask what a sign is. She signs "more", "again", "food", "drink", "all done" and "all gone" routinely.

Her vocab is growing and she has just started stringing two words together... though one of those words is very often "no". This morning it was "no no apples" as she didn't want to wear her apple polo shirt. She repeats a lot - we are pretty sure she said "hi grandma" a few times on the phone to my mom. And the other day we were amazed when in the daycare parking lot she pointed to one of Leif's best friends and said, "Niranjana" repeatedly. She even pronounced it better than Leif does! Though we are very shocked that she does not say "Leif" yet.

Some of her words are: more, no, hi, bye bye, hug, baby, swim, boat, plane, apples, fruit (which she has finally decided is not poison), mama, dada, cat, nay nay (horsey), cracker, yummy, baba (bottle), bath, poo poo, diap (diaper), and wipe. I know there are more but I am blanking.

Skadi is much more into toys than Leif ever was. She will sit and play Little People for awhile - whereas Leif is into interacting with people and currently his imagination. Our downfall is that we tend to forget she and Leif are different kids. The perils of the second child? I make assumptions a lot that she likes doing the same things, when she clearly does not.

TV does not interest her at all. (Leif could watch an entire Disney flick and be mesmerized at this point.) She likes to be held and she likes to sing songs, dance, swim, read books and play with her baby. Skadi's favorite song is "Row Row Row your boat". She wobbles back and forth singing "wo wo wo boat" to try to get you to sing with her. And yes, she does love boats and freaks out when she sees one. Her daddy's genes there.

Everyone says Skadi looks a lot like me. She has my hair, but her complexion is a touch darker (she has tan lines...) her eyes are still mix between blue and brown - I hope they stay that way. And she has her daddy's long black eyelashes amazingly enough. I think she has AB's families eyes.

Not overly surprising

I have always thought my son was funny. Says the funniest things, does funny things and likes to make us laugh. His teachers have always told us he is such a funny little guy. But to a certain degree I always wondered if it wasn't normal.

We haven't seen that side of Skadi's personality develop yet, but she is only 8 months old. (And officially crawling, have I mentioned that yet?) She can be a smiley baby, but compared to Leif, she is probably more on the side of normal. I fear her claim to fame is going to be her temper... her teacher has declared that the reason she has hair at this young is her way of indicating to others around her that she has that stereotypical "red-headed temper". This is the same teacher that called Leif her "willful charmer". She has an uncanny ability to peg baby's personalities.

Yesterday one of my friends told me that her son came home and said, "I want to be like Leif". She said he was pretty down and depressed sounding and went on to say he didn't want to be himself anymore.

"Why do you want to be like Leif?" she asked him resisting the urge, she told me, to ask him if he wanted to go live at Leif's house then since he had been such a turkey lately.

"Because he is always so funny and always makes other people laugh. I want to make other people laugh," he told her.

I felt his pangs, his agony. And it isn't that he isn't a funny kid. All three year olds are funny to a certain degree, aren't they?

I was one of those kids. The ones that were never very funny, took awhile to pick up on jokes, couldn't tell a joke to save my life (AB thinks that is just hilarious - my inability to tell a joke). The kid that saw those spirited funny kids that walked into a room and lit it up just by their presence. I wanted to be one of them.

I would say I didn't know where Leif gets this... but if you know my family, it is quite obvious where he gets this personality trait.

My mother in law.

Thanksgiving prep day

I reveled in today. *I* woke up with smiles (the rest of my house didn't).

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of year. This goes back to when I was a kid. The first memory I have of Thanksgiving is probably from when I was about 6. I looked forward to wearing my long skirt and baking with my mom. She always made fresh bread and pies on Thanksgiving.

Dinner was always at my grandmother's house with games afterwards. We had to cross the North Platte river to get there and I envisioned myself a pioneer girl crossing the river while I sang "over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we go". There wasn't any through the woods though. In fact it was more like, down the street, over the river and down the street again. She lived about a mile away as the crow flew. By the time I finished my song, we were there.

I loved the smell of baking bread and my mom always gave me little bits of dough to shape and bake in my own little pans.

That year I was so excited to be baking with my mom that when the neighborhood boys came and inquired as to if I wanted to go sledding, I turned them down. I remember my mom saying I could go if I wanted to, she could get things done without me, my only hope was that she didn't MAKE me go sledding. I loved sledding, and the neighborhood boys were nice enough. But cooking on Thanksgiving happened only once a year. And at least in Central Wyoming, snow happened all the time.

My first year in grad school we didn't go back to Colorado. Instead we had a few people up to our place in Reno. I think that was the year my sister flew in, JB (AB's best friend) came over the hill from San Fran as did Brian and maybe Josh too. I am even thinking JB's sister came out too. Our turkey was late. (The plastic popper thing never popped.) I discovered AB really didn't like mayo, it wasn't just his imagination. I tried to convince him it was yogurt in the spinach dip - he replied, "well I guess I don't like yogurt either" - it was a year or so before I could convince him to try yogurt again. We had mashed potatoes, lumpy gravy and not much else.

My first Thanksgiving was a real learning experience.

My second Thanksgiving though was different since I had a little cooking experience under me with a real professionally trained chef. My stepbrother cooked the rehearsal dinner for 50 people as his gift to my other stepbrother on the eve of his wedding day. I was thrilled to act as his sous chef. I am not sure I have ever learned so much on one topic in 48 hours. I still apply all that knowledge I learned that summer in any large dinner I cook.

I bought my last minute groceries this morning and picked up some different cheeses. In preparation for the games on Friday I bought a couple six packs of beer which resulted in a marriage proposal from the guy bagging my groceries. (Apparently his ex-wife never brought beer home and the fact that I did just made me the ultimate potential wife to him.) Ok, it made me smile. (He said nothing of the wines I happened to score... so much for him.)

Today I made the turkey broth/drippings for the gravy - all that needs to be done tomorrow is the roux base and mix it together. The cinnamon rolls are done and doing the final rise in the fridge. The components of the dressing done and ready to be combined and baked. The pumpkin pie is baked.

Tomorrow I will do my mushroom soup, make mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts and act as bartender while AB smokes the turkey and makes his yam and apple gallete with pomegranite reduction.

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I picked Leif up from daycare and his mood was vastly improved. I am wondering if it has to do with the fact I let him haul HIS blankey in. I fear this is going to be a routine now. My little Linus dragged his blanket in and out of preschool today with a smile on his face. I had a blankey too.

Leif has AB's speech patterns down to a science. This morning he was watching Skadi play and he said to me, "did you see what your daughter just did". It was all I could do not to just completely bust up laughing at him.

Oh and speaking of my daughter. Three forward crawl steps today. She has yet to reproduce it, but I fear my days are numbered!