Bathtime

I keep thinking I will get a good picture of the kids that I can use for a new banner picture. No time like the present to try, right? I like bathtime pictures... when the water stays in the tub.

Ok. Who is this? When did this big kid appear at my house? He is still supposed to be an itty bitty boy!

Maybe we should have clothes on for the banner photo?

This is my little girl too

I can never resist a great deal. Especially if it is on cute little girl clothes.

Last year I found this dress on PBKids on clearance and of course succumbed to it. Nevermind that it is white. And white is so impractical.

But it was like $6.99!

And she looks like a little tennis pro in it.

(That's her monkey with the stretchy arms she is playing with.)

And never mind that it so isn't her. Like at all.

Amazingly she picked it out the other day and declared she wanted to wear it to school. I figured it might be the only time she ever wears it and so I better jump on it... and get pictures.

She is my little girl...

But this picture isn't *REALLY* my little girl.

The princess update

Every night at bedtime Skadi announces now as she is falling asleep that the princess has not come and taken her binky.



She announces this with pride. Too much pride. Pride that kills me to actually follow through with the plan to take the binky away.



Tonight she announced, "princess no take binky, no take my monkey, no take my blankey OR my baba."



I know I am overthinking it all, but I just can't take it away now. She is actually fearing losing her things to some evil princess! Or so it seems.



Nope, I am a sucker. I reassure her every evening that no, no princess is coming to take her binky.



AB has commented that "it isn't like she is walking around with it during the day, she just uses it at nap and for bed. It's not THAT big of a deal."



Nope it isn't.



We will live with a binky for awhile longer.

The past few weeks… ok, months, I have been a touch stressed. I don’t like owning two homes. I want the one that is up for sale to sell. We hardly have time to maintain one house, let alone a second one about a mile away and empty.

I took active mental steps to get us on the road to dealing with the new house. I needed focus and clarity on what exactly needed to happen beyond “empty boxes” since I can easily dump a box out. Where to put the stuff laying on the floor in a pile is a bigger issue.

When I started packing the house up to move I saw it as an opportunity to purge. At least early on I did. Later in the process I just started dumping stuff in boxes. The real opportunity to purge is coming now. Because there were boxes and piles of things that were garage sale or Goodwill… and instead of getting hauled to Goodwill, or actually having a garage sale, instead they were just moved to the new house and are still my problem to deal with. And despite having a larger house, I am still struggling with where to put things.

My answer to a lot of the issues in the new house is to do the one room a month thing. Each month (or other set period of time) I tackle one room. I set out a plan of attack, figure out what would make that room fly, scale back my dreams to somewhat realistic, and then put it into action. I am not always great with the deadline aspect. But sometimes it is just best to move on to the next room without the one room being completely finished. I am nothing if not a good procrastinator. Sometimes best to say, “just not going to get done, maybe next year”.
I actually didn’t do a single thing to the foyer this past weekend.

So I guess this introduction really isn’t that valid here. Since what all I did get accomplished didn’t have much to do with the room (or really area) that I am currently tackling. Except suffice it to say that there are three things that need to happen in the foyer, one of them for AB to do (hang the mirror) and the other is so easy to forget that I need to keep it on my radar by mentioning it (get 'off white' paint to touch up the ceiling where I was unable to keep my brush on the wall - what exactly WAS I doing while painting? Apparently not paying attention...). I also want a bench, but I can’t justify the money for that right now when the other house has not sold.

Since tackling the foyer wasn’t in the cards for the weekend I decided to steer myself towards the room giving me the most angst… the Master bedroom. There were still boxes all over to be unpacked. Boxes that upon examination of the contents were things that for the most part could be ignored for who knows how long. Except that every time I walked into the Master bedroom – which is a lot of times – I cringed at the boxes lining the wall under the windows.

So Saturday while Skadi napped and Leif went semi-neglected in front of the computer – I unpacked them! I did a lot of throwing away… purging, of things that should have been purged before moving and during the packing phase.

Once finished I made AB go in and admire the room more than once. It gave me such a feeling of peace and calm to have those boxes gone.

Truth be told, one box remains. One small, but very full and heavy box. I know what is in it… the many books that were stacked in our bedroom at the other house. Books that need to go in the bookshelf… that AB has to modify to fit into the office. So for now, until I can get that box hauled downstairs, a box of books sits in there. I can deal with a box of books for now.

It was a very uneventful weekend otherwise. We cooked. We went on a few hikes. AB held an open house. We worked on maintenance on the yard at the other house - a sprinkler has broken and left a large patch of brown grass in the backyard... gurrr. We played soccer. We watched the thunderstorms and lightning. We watched movies. We were lazy.

It was a good weekend.

I am ready for another.

Backfired?

I have been testing out different tactics for getting rid of the binkies. Or binky, since Skadi only has one left.

We talked about giving all the binkies to Cate's new little sister. That worked for about a day, but evidently I have a me-centric daughter who doesn't think that is the best route and baby can buy her own.

Then Brooke's mommy posted about a fairy coming and taking the binkies. I liked this idea and so we have been suggesting that a fairy princess is going to come and take her binkies and leave cupcakes and a present (kind of like her birthday... that she still thinks is everyday... and apparently her teacher is STILL singing happy birthday to her daily at lunch). This was showing a little promise.

The other day one of Skadi's doll blankets went missing - it was in the other room, but oh well. It was missing.

"The princess took it," Skadi said matter of factly.

Ok, maybe this WOULD work! I started pushing it and talking about cupcakes and presents.

Then this evening hit...

Skadi was thrashing around in bed getting ready to fall asleep. While jabbering away about whatever the binky falls out of her mouth. I saw it slip under the cover.

About 5 minutes later she says, "binky?"

I said, "I don't know, maybe you should try falling asleep without it?"

She sits up on her knees.

And SCREAMS at the top of her lungs.

"PRINCESS YOU BRING MY BINKY BACK NOW! NOW PRINCESS! MEAN PRINCESS!"

I am mean, I was laughing so hard I could hardly stand it. I thought I would try and let this play out.

Then the lip started quivering... it dawned on me I didn't have a gift yet in exchange of the binky... and I certainly wasn't going to go downstairs and make cupcakes.

I started fishing around the bed for the binky.

Stuck it in her mouth.

"Princess needs to buy her own binky," Skadi tells me.

Sigh.

Leif update 4 years 10 months

Leif’s 5th birthday is just around the corner. Less than two months and I will have a five year old. It sounds cliché, but I have no idea where the time has gone. No idea whatsoever.

Since Leif was little I have commented on his OCD nature. He gets on one subject/TV show/game/whatever, and he will take it to an extreme. Curious George has gone by the wayside, but soccer has entered the picture. If a child doesn’t play soccer during recess, then Leif isn’t going to be playing with that child. And there is nothing I can do to convince him otherwise. He is fully obsessed with soccer right now, insists on only wearing soccer shirts, must practice soccer daily at home and plays at every recess.

And he is good. He dribbles the soccer ball around the field better than I can.

He starts soccer for 4-5 year olds in two weeks. I am both fearing this and looking forward to it. He will practice once a week and have a game once a week. So twice a week we are going to be hanging out at the soccer field. The aspect of this I am fearing, is Leif’s seriousness about the sport.

When we were signing the kids up for soccer the woman at the YMCA desk indicated that the special training that a parent coach volunteer should have was an ability to keep the kids on the soccer field. Okaaaayyy then. I was suddenly recalibrated.

Oh and did I mention there are no goalies? Right, no goalies. Leif’s favorite position to play. And yes, he knows there are positions in soccer.

I work with a woman who lamented to me when her son was just older than Leif that her son was very annoyed by sports. Annoyed that the other kids didn’t take it as serious as he does. Annoyed that they would hang out and talk on the field instead of focus on winning. I have a feeling I am going to be feeling Mary’s pain soon.

So yeah, Leif likes soccer.

He also likes the computer. We bought a new computer a few months ago and AB happened to find a set of games (free trials) that Leif enjoyed – Polar Golf, Polar Tubing and Polar Bowling. All starring a Polar Bear who announces, “I’m the bear!” at the start. And we have to wait for him to announce this before proceeding to the game. They are fun games that even AB and I enjoy sitting down and playing with Leif. Yes, Leif stomps me at most every game.

Polar Golf has inspired Leif to declare that he wants to learn to play golf for real – he knows what an eagle, birdie, par, bogey and double bogey are and announces which he got on a hole before the narrator announces it. As you may have guessed, unfortunately these games have also morphed into a little bit of an obsession with Leif. However, losing computer privileges is THE most powerful threat ever.

Leif’s interest in movies and TV has taken a back seat to soccer, computer games, his Leapster (which he turns on when he is frequently told he has had enough computer games) and tormenting his sister.

Ok, truth be told, his sister torments him. But he usually starts it, then ends up the one in tears thanks to his sister the brute.

Leif is in a terribly emotional phase right now. He fears being separated from us, hurting himself, dying, loud noises and the unknown. I haven’t figured out if this phase is normal for his age yet. Or if he is just a very emotional little boy. (AB votes for the later.) That’s alright, I will take my mama’s boy. We had to print up a picture of he and I to keep in his locker box at school for the occasions when he gets lonely for me. He cried yesterday in the car as he misses grandma and Bompa. His tears, usually prompt mine, so we have been an interesting pair the past week!

Leif enjoys his works at school and prides himself on his progress. He works at his penmanship, reading and numbers works daily. He can write his name as well as other words when spelled out for him. He can read simple words. He quickly memorizes books and songs – a skill I don’t have, I suck at memorizing. And he is doing basic addition. His fascination with numbers continues and he is constantly asking questions like, “what is 1000 plus 60?” and requests that we quiz him regularly on his addition.

His favorite number is 1021 and he cracks me up when he asks me if I would please count by 71’s (or some other unconventional way to skip count). I am a numbers geek and yes, I can count by 71’s, which thrills Leif to pieces. But it fascinates me that he has chosen prime numbers as the numbers he shows the most interest in.

Leif loves the Mo Willems, Elephant and Piggie early reader books (thanks to Kelley for recommending them). We have read Little House on the Prairie and are looking forward to continuing that series when we get the boxes of books moved out of storage and to the house. For some reason I didn’t pull that set out… kicking myself.

I bought a few other chapter books to read aloud and have been met with mixed success. "Choose Your Own Adventure" books have proven to be a bit hard to comprehend, but the Patrick Carman (from Walla Walla – making him even cooler) books, Elliot’s Park Series are big hits so far. I am looking forward to getting Leif the Land of Elyon series, but I think he may be a touch young for them just yet.

We are at a difficult point with Leif because he is a very intelligent kid (according to his teachers), yet very emotionally immature. By age, just barely, he should go to kindergarten this year. However, it is typical for boys with summer birthdays to not go into kindergarten and to wait a year. We have waffled on this because we also would hate for Leif to eventually be bored in school. However, studies have shown that kids’ ages catch up with them about grade 3. That is the point where the younger kids tend to fall behind and start to struggle. Add into that sports, Leif really enjoys sports and as a smaller, younger child, he may not have the opportunities or positive experiences that he otherwise would. His teachers have encouraged us to not stress about it, he will stay in his same school where he will work at his own pace and we will ignore the lines of “this is kindergarten work” and “this is preschool work”. We will see what happens with the coming year. Leif is not enrolled as a kindergartener, however, he has switched to the group of children who will have the kindergarten teacher as their lead. Confusing and for an analytical person like myself a little disconcerting to not have the quantitative measure. However, I am learning to put aside my need for quantitation in favor of the Montessori approach.

Leif’s 5th birthday will be at the gymnastics gym and he is already making plans. He intends to have a Star Wars birthday (hopefully I will have his bedroom done in Star Wars colors by then also) and he is counting the days.

It should also be a good experience for Skadi… though startling for her to realize that the 4 solid months of it being her birthday everyday will come to an end. I am eager to see how she spins his birthday party to benefit herself!

Leif continues to say funny things and come up with interesting observations. When he is happy - like this afternoon when I told him we would be meeting grandma and Bompa at the cabin this fall - he exclaims, "hooray!" I am not sure where he picked up "hooray", but I like it.

Leif has a list of girls he plans on marrying. It is typically Niranjana and Cate at the top, but occasionally the top tier is toppled by a kindergartener... his heart maybe broken when she moves on later this summer.

Along with the proud moments comes those mortifying moments too... A few weeks ago Leif and I were out and about. We were standing in line and the woman behind us, younger than me and assumably no children, asked Leif how old he was. He told her and said, "but my birthday is coming up". She asked him what he wanted for he birthday?

He didn't even pause before he spit out, "a shotgun".

I could have melted right there. In the house I draw the line at squirt guns. Everyone says, "boys will be boys" and I am starting to believe this. I am even softening a touch at the one thing that Leif really wants for his birthday - a Nerf gun. Sigh. I don't know where my son has ever heard of shotguns, but wow he is attracted to anything that shoots a projectile.

I guess the one positive thing with a Nerf gun is that I will have another item that he can lose privileges with!

Or I can just push for a razor scooter like the kindergartener down the street has. He and Leif have recently (this past weekend) become fast friends after an afternoon of squirt guns and slip and slides.

A new topic

I keep meaning to post a Leif update, and I will. I just need the time to sit down and write it out. Leif has grown so much in the past few months. He is such an amazing little boy.

One new thing that has started to surface lately in his concerns is death. It started a few weeks ago when he asked me in the car how long something had to be dead, before it was alive again. I did my best to softly explain to him that dead is unfortunately, forever. This was the start of a lot of questions.

What happens after something dies?
(They go to heaven.)

What is heaven?
(Heaven is a wonderful place where we live forever after, but not on earth.)

Who is there?
(God and other people and animals who once lived.)

What does God look like?
(No one knows what God looks like.)

Is God a boy or a girl?
(That is disputable, but I believe God is a boy because he is Jesus' father. Leif replies, "well yeah, he is a boy then mommy!")

What happens if God dies?"
(God doesn't die honey. God lives forever.)

But what if God got hit by a car?
(God wouldn't get hit by a car because He is too powerful.)

What color is a dead person?
(Ummm uhhhh ummm uhhh... well kind of the same color as they are now, but I have never seen a dead person. Leif replied that he hadn't either.)

This conversation has stayed with him and he has over the past few weeks talked about things going to be with God and going to heaven with God. This makes it easier and I am happy we have our faith in conversations like this and it further reminds me that we need to start going to church/Sunday school on a more regular basis.

This evening at dinner Leif told us that a couple of the crabs in Rainbow room -- which is not his room, but his sister room -- died. The kids spend a lot of time between the two rooms everyday, so I frequently have to ask which room he is talking about since his room doesn't have animals his saying "the teacher that has crabs" wasn't going over very well at dinner time.

Leif went on to say "but it was okay because they went to heaven to be happy with God".

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!

The Foyer

So I have decided to get back to my one room a month routine. One month I will tackle putting together, organizing and setting up a room. I keep telling myself this will take forever and I would like to be "in" the house, fully IN our new house earlier. But it's not going to happen. It's just not a logical approach (yes, I am part Vulcan apparently... and if you haven't seen Star Trek, go see it. Now.). The one room a month IS logical and will get me further on my path to being IN the house and also it engages AB better because he knows whiat the priority for the month is.

The remainder of May (since I just started this) and all of June is the foyer. It doesn't sound like a lot, it isn't a huge area, but it is the first area people see when they walk in my house. And I have ideas and plans to put into motion.

The post from a few weeks ago is where I started.

Here it is during the Memorial Day weekend paint-fest:



Skadi loved painting and she was terribly helpful. When she decided she was done she had two green feet - and I had more paint on me than she had on her favorite "Icky Mouse" pajamas.

And here is where it stands now:

Favorite black and white pictures are up.

I have a great mirror to hang perpindicular to the pictures, but AB lifted it up, chastized me a little for thinking I was going to use nails and suggested he was going to need anchors and screws (same as in the other house I guess) to mount it and he didn't have time today. So the next task is to hang the mirror.

Next task after that is the touch up stuff. I have a lot of green edges to touch up.

And white on the ceiling... somehow.... somewhere I will find a white that matches. Yes, I am a klutz with the paint and am apparently no longer allowed to tape the ceiling... or paint near the ceiling.

I also want a bench. A nice bench to put under the photos. I had wanted a bench and coat hanging thing, but we don't use the front entrance to go in and out and we have a coat closet *right* there. So instead I will get a bench.

And maybe a side table to put across the arch in the photo above by the coat closet?

Yes, with it being summer and all, it WILL take me all of June to do this list.

Month of July is Leif's Star Wars themed room. Goal is to have THAT done before his birthday on July 29th.

A Belated Mother's Day

Leif was somewhere doing all this... soccer, stomp rockets, squirt guns... any of the above. My mom made the dress for Skadi last year and it fits this year! Last year the hem was about to the ground, this year it is perfect. This year's dress is "little girl yellow dress" as Skadi calls it. Or according to daycare it is "Me Skadi dress" since it has a little red haired girl with pigtails on it. Pictures of that will come later. (Once I get it hemmed... not that that has prevented her from wearing it a few times already.)

Upcoming Holiday Weekend

I am really looking forward to the coming Memorial Day weekend. Since we have yet to sell our house, we will be hanging out here. One of the downsides to listing a home For Sale By Owner. If someone wants to see it, you are on the hook to show it. And Open Houses? That’s up to you. The good thing though is that we can Open House it every weekend if we want to. Try and get your real estate agent to do that.

Not that I have anything against real estate agents mind you. My mother in law was one for a long time and we adored our real estate agents who we bought our house with… just wish their commission and brokerage fees were a little less than $13K… that’s a lot of money and so far, worth our time to put into selling it ourselves. We don’t get the traffic that homes on the market with an agent do, it just requires more diligence on our part.

Since we will have a three day weekend without houseguests and with no major plans other than swim lessons, a playdate, a pedicure (much needed by me) and an open house, I am thinking this is the perfect opportunity to sink further into our living quarters. I still have boxes stacked in regions throughout the house and I really need to get those emptied. I have loads of boxes in my formal dining room that are full of wall hangings – art and photographs.

This is where I start trying to figure out cart before the horse and egg before the chicken issues.

I want the boxes emptied.

I want my art on the wall.

I want my photographs on the wall.

I also want the walls painted that will house many of these items.

Do I put them on the wall, then take them all down when I get around to painting and put them back?

Or do I leave them in the boxes, paint, then put them all up on the wall.

My inclination is towards the later. While AB (my tired of painting husband) leans towards the former.

I am currently fighting a very ambitious notion of painting my entryway this weekend.

Not the whole entryway, and certainly not the very, very tall area.

While my mom and stepdad were here this past weekend they helped me line out what to paint and how. I am leaning towards an olive green in the entryway where AB and I think some of our black and white photos will go best.

This is the foyer area:

I am not a big fan of the stenciling here.

So I am leaning towards an olive green - mahogany/Japanese maple color - and creamy white combination for the formal dining room and office with foyer and half bathroom region. The olive green an Japanese maple in more accent roles.

Office:

Formal Dining Area:

So what do you think?

Happy Mother's Day!

My Mother's Day was great this year. It was low-key, but very nice.

We got up and ate the remainder of the lefse as well as fried eggs (Leif's favorite) and Little Smokies (Skadi's favorite courtesy of Bompa). The kids gave me cards as their gift wasn't complete yet from Artsy Fartsy - I can't wait! Leif wrote "Happy Mother's Day" on the card for me all by himself! He learned this at school and was terribly bummed that his teachers would only let him write one card. I made enough of a fuss about it to him that apparently he wanted to do another and one for grandma too.

We released our butterflies (see below) and then hung around the house. Friends came over for a playdate with the kids. Then for dinner AB made filets - which were fabulous and we opened a nice bottle of wine.

See how unsuspecting they are. They have no idea I am taking their pictures. This is about the only way I can get photos anymore...

Because as soon as they find out I have the camera... THIS happens:

It used to be just Leif that would act silly... he has pulled his sister in on the antics.

This *could* go on for hours.

Me and the kids - ignore Skadi's short dress. I was going to try on all her summer clothes (that were found) from last year but we started with this dress and stopped with it too. Something about my daughter putting it on and saying, "I a princess now!" Oh and that she would NOT take it off. I will wash it and put it away after today. *Sigh*

Loving my front yard right now. Check out the Japanese maple and the blooming rhododendrons. Hope they are still blooming when my mom gets here.

Another unsuspecting photo - AB has the waterfall running. The kids are a touch obsessed with it.

Love this one - just ignore the ketchup on the face.

2nd Annual Butterfly Release

So the weather has sucked and so we didn't get around to releasing the butterflies as soon as we should have. Not all of them flew off as the kids expected. Some of them just layed there...

Leif is retrieving the butterflies:


Leif showing off his butterfly:

AB "said" he was going to help with this...

Ok, ok, Skadi needed help...

Oops, flew off her hand and onto her dress!

Then it flew onto the ground!

Then you *might* be able to guess what Skadi turned around and did...

Next butterfly please!



AB is saying, "no squishing this one!"

It crawls onto her tummy - she is terribly pleased with this!

Note Leif off in the background - this is where I was yelling, "don't fall in the waterfall Leif!" (He has once already.)

Then it flew to the rhododendron:

Catching up

A few people have recently been harrassing me about not keeping my blog up. Yes, I admit it, I have been unusually quiet here lately. It's a combination of things - my being superbly busy at work - no, I don't blog at work, but when I am sitting there trying to figure out answers to my research problems, managing a team of 20 scientists on a multi-million dollar project, or writing proposals, then my time to think about witty things to say, or to jot down the funny things the kids did recently is limited. My brain hasn't been on my kids so much at work lately.

The second issue would be my ability to keep it positive. Some really crummy things have happened in the past few months. I don't like to read or write whiney blogs, so I haven't delved into that aspect here. I try to keep it positive.

That's not to say that there hasn't been plenty of good stuff to write about! There has been. We moved into a great house and we have our other house for sale by owner. The kids are wonderful, Skadi learns more words daily and Leif continues to crack us up with the things he comes up with.

Then there is my other addition that cuts into my blogging time. Facebook. I am strangely obsessive about keeping up with what everyone everywhere else who I may have known at some point is doing. I can get easily sucked into an evening on Facebook instead of blogging. Must.extricate.myself...

So I am making a Mother's Day Resolution to get back on top of my blogging!

Here's a quick update:

New house:
Bought new house.
Moved into new house.
Finally.
Unpacked about half of stuff in new house.
Boxes still sitting around.
Wondering if boxes will unpack themselves?

Old House:
Worked on old house.
Worked on old house some more.
Worked on old house even some more.
Grew increasingly sick of working on old house.
Bought signs to sell house.
Worked on old house some more.
Gave up and put the sign out.
Open house.
Show house three times.
Open house.

Freya:
Had dog three weeks.
Dog tore the fence board off and ran away.
Found dog.
Enrolled dog in obediance classes.
Discovered dog was trained with hand signs at one point.
Much happier with a few hand signs.
Wonder what else the dog knows.
Dog still missing housetraining gene.
Dog spends lots of time outside.
Thankfully the weather is nice and her counterpart loves being outside.

Speaking of weather:
Rain.
Cloudy.
Two days of decent weather.
More rain.
Grey.
Dreary.
Rain.
Wind storms.
Wind and driving rain.
Two days of sunshine.
(Speak softly out of fear of jinxing it all and returning to grey and dreary.)

Work:
Plodding along.
Got follow on work funded.
Got a new start funded.
Got an early start funded.
Enjoying the project management.
Team fails to meet deliverable.
Not liking the project management so much.
Spending as much time in the lab as possible.

AB:
The best husband ever.
Took the kids (together) to the paint your own pottery place for Mother's Day gift making.
The best husband ever.

Lefse making

I would love to say that as someone who is part Swedish, that lefse making is in the blood, or runs in the family, or share a story about standing in my grandmother's kitchen watching her practice her well honed lefse making skills.

But that wouldn't be me. If my mom and I have anything to say about it, we will bring it back to our family. A tradition that should have been adopted, and a recipe that should have been handed down. I guess maybe you have to know my grandmother, but she is anything but a lefse making Swede. Her specialty was spaghetti sauce made with canned mushrooms, tomato soup, hamburger and Velveeta.

Sure, turn your nose up. But if you grew up eating it you wouldn't. It is freakishly good. (Just don't ask my husband about it - he claims it is an acquired taste.)

Back to the lefse. See VargasGirl's Swedish grandmother DID make lefse. But few of her relatives learned the recipe. So when she was telling me that she didn't get time to eat lefse recently while visiting Fargo (umm, I wonder why, I still can't figure out how they fit in everything they did in less than two days!), I offered to one up that and "let's make it ourselves".

See my in laws are lefse making Norwegians. The first time I had lefse was in Alaska and when we visit, lefse is a Christmas tradition... and I am learning. Recently my mother in law brought lefse making supplies down to us. So needless to say in my suggesting to VargasGirl that we take this on - I had ALL the supplies readily available.

We had two ricers, four lefse sticks, a lefse mat and a lefse griddle. And a day with no kids.

Check her out!

Cute top huh? I had lied to her and said it was going to be in the 70's ALL weekend.

It rained.

Check out my new rolling pin my mom bought me. It rocks.

We are masters. Look how thin and perfect it is.

And the sugar and butter is sitting there for no reason at all... we would never cook and eat and cook and eat... honest... there are some in the freezer!