30-Months-Old!

Here is my new favorite picture of my favorite 30-month-old:

Thanks for the picture, Boom!

I can't even stand how adorable she is. Doesn't she look like a little 2-year-old model?

This girl.

I looked back at Callie's 30-month-old post, and have to say I feel much more relaxed about Maya being 30-months than when Callie was.  If you want to read about her at 30 months, click here.

We sometimes have nap battles, but not really like that.  If she throws tantrums, we all just kind of giggle and wait it out.

We don't go to a few of places we used to take Callie a lot.  I don't know that Maya has ever been to the Children's Museum.  Or ridden rides at MOA.  I feel bad about that sometimes.  But she has an older sister that Callie didn't, and I think that makes up for a lot.

Except when they argue with each other or when Callie is mean.  But, then later Maya will want to "wrestle" and totally gets revenge.

So I try not to feel too guilty.  Sorry 2nd baby...

The thing that still throws me sometimes is how clingy Maya is to me.  I don't remember that from Callie as much.  Don't get me wrong, I do love it sometimes, but other times it is exhausting!  Silly silly 2.5 year old.

And here are my two babies at 30-months-old.

I don't think they look alike.  At all.  But I can clearly see their two sweet personalities, and feel so very grateful for two awesome girls.

Now we're getting closer to having a 3-year-old...uffda.  Time to start thinking about potty training and preschool.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!

30-Months-Old: Mommy gets Schooled

My first full week as full-time summer Mommy is almost done. LOVE IT.  Well, mostly.  Read on.

Just in time for all of us to be in the "30s club!"  (Though 30 months sounds WAY better than 30 years...ha!)

Callie had I have had a super fun week, and had an especially fun morning today.  I was so excited to come home and blog about it.

And then the nap time battle happened.

And happened.  And happened.  And kept happening. And happened some more.  An hour plus of a (now officially) 2-and-a-half year old SCREAMING- babbling-screaming in a weird non-real-word yelling type of way.  Screaming for her stuffed seal Heena, then screaming even louder "NO HEENA NO HEENA" when I brought it to her.  Etc.  Etc.  Etc.

So, let's be real for a second.  Two-year-olds are so awesome and so fun.  But they can also be as frustrating and maddening as they are awesome and fun.

I'm learning as I go, even though (once again) my teacher brain pops up and tells me I should know how to handle this.  My teacher brain seems to gape at me saying, How is it than you can handle a small group of hyperactive 8-year-olds, but ONE toddler (YOUR toddler) is giving you a run for your money???

I have to keep reminding myself to not be too hard on myself.  Today, I definitely need more reminders.

But enough of my wallowing.  I want to show you how much fun we have been having!

First up is our adventure to the MOA today.  We rode lots of rides and went to Sea Life Aquarium.

Carousel

Silly faces!

Chillin' with Diego

Diego's bus

New turtle named "Tutti" from Sea Life Aquarium for the big 30-month-old.

We kept ourselves pretty darn busy the rest of the week too.

Tuesday- Mill City Museum w/ Boom

Tuesday night- Swimming lessons!

Wednesday- Making rice and beans

Thursday- Getting ready for our playdate

Playdate- Casey, Ciri and Gianni came over!

Thursday- Beautiful day for swinging at the park

 Looking over these pictures is making me feel much better. 

As does knowing we have a fun weekend ahead!

Happy Friday!

Weekend Wrap-Up: The 7-Months-Old Edition

Somehow this baby is 7-months-old today!

Oh Kona, sitting up like a person again.

She is so sweet and fun and silly and cuddly.  Before last night, she seemed to be getting the hang of sleeping through the night.  I had 3 nights in a row of 8 hours of solid sleep (partially because I was asleep by 8:30 or 9:00 each night).  Then came last night....it was kind of a disaster.  Oh well.  Napping on her own has definitely gotten better, and she usually takes 3 independent naps a day.  They aren't the longest naps, but between all three of them she gets about 3-4 hours of daytime sleep.  Let's see...other things about Maya... She enjoys when other people do things for her.  I know, she is a baby, but there are some things that she COULD do that she refuses to.  For instance, she refuses to put her hands up to even try and hold her bottle herself.  She still doesn't really like to roll over and would rather have people just give her toys instead of trying to roll to get them.  She sits up and plays, but only for how long she wants to, and then just starts freaking out to be held.  She's kind of a diva.  And we're totally catering to her every whim, because who doesn't want to see that adorable smiling face instead of a sad crabby face?  Right???  She's the cutest little diva ever, and has me totally wrapped around her little diva fingers.

As for the weekend, we spent Saturday morning at the condo for a celebratory engagement brunch for Auntie Yoda and Craig.

Hooray!  A new uncle!

We are so excited for them- and they are looking at having a destination wedding next year.  So fun!

Last night Chris had reserve duty so I put both girls to bed.  I tried putting Maya down first, but she was totally wired, so she came with me to put Callie down.  She felt SUPER cool bouncing on the big girl bed and reading books with her big sister.

Grabbing sister's jammies is SUPER fun.

IMG 0630 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

They both seemed TOTALLY ready for bed, huh?  Thankfully Callie was out within minutes.  It's the little stinker that had her own idea about sleeping (or lack thereof) last night.  Needless to say, we did not repeat this little pre-bedtime ritual tonight, as adorable as it was.

Today we hung out at home and the Helds came over for lunch.  I managed to bribe the big kids with a cookie to stay still long enough to take a picture, and the little girls were more cooperative.

The C's and the M's

Later Callie went to play in the snow with Pa, and then we went out to dinner, and had some cuddle time.  At dinner Maya sat like a big girl in a high chair, AND tried some new foods: sprinkle cheese, pineapple, and hash browns.  The cheese and pineapple were a hit, the hash browns were not.  And she also downed a thing of baby sweet potatoes.  The girl likes to eat, just like her mama.

I can not get enough of those baby cuddles.

Hope everyone has a great week!  March (and maybe spring? probably not) is right around the corner...

20-Months-Old!!!

This little lady is has been in our lives for 20 months now.  It is hard to believe that it has been that long, though it is also hard to imagine life without her.

Gah.  That little face.  Those huge cheeks.  I can't even handle it.

She still wasn't feeling that great today, but Boom took excellent care of her, and she perked up after nap time.

(Thanks for the pictures, Boom!)

This evening she "read" Hop on Pop for me about 30 times.  Here is one of the versions, with a quick distraction from Kona mixed in there.


IMG 5364 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

Yes, there is a giant booger hanging out of her right nostril.  That's how it has been the past 48 hours, and I'll leave it at that.

As far as her sister relationship goes, she is in the driver's seat a lot of the time, and I love it.  I think she'll be giving Callie a run for her money once she can communicate even better, and it is going to be AWESOME.

In four short months we will have a two-year-old, and all I have to say to that is...BRING IT, MAYA.

Getting Older

So I'm settling into my 30s.  Callie is definitely closer to 3 than 2.

And it is freaking me out a little bit.

A couple things this week have totally weirded me out.

1) I have gotten to the point at work where I am now the same age or sometimes older than the parents of some of my students.  Granted, I work with a population in which they have children pretty young, but still.  For the first half dozen years of my career I was used to being younger than the parents.  Now we could be in the same peer group, and it freaks me out.

2) We're going to be volunteering in Callie's 2-year-old Sunday school class, so we went to a training session for it tonight.  The training session was just for adults, so we put Callie in the nursery.  Since Callie has always come to church with us, she has never been to the nursery.  And up until the past couple of months I thought she would be SO distraught if we were to leave her somewhere like that with teenagers (or any strangers in general).  So this situation is weird for a few reasons.
A) My toddler is getting older and had NO problem when we said goodbye and headed out.  We were the annoying parents hanging around...delaying the goodbye.  Turns out she had a blast and couldn't have cared less that we were gone. 
B) When I was a teenager I was the one doing the babysitting of all the kids in the nursery at the church we went to.  So I was the one greeting the middle-aged  probably 30-year-old parents and playing with their children.  And then I start doing some math in my head and realize that the kids that I babysat in the nursery are now like 23 years old.


I don't know why, but it is just SUPER weird for me to think about these things...you know, life coming full circle, etc.

And then I feel old.

And then I feel so thankful that I am where I am. 

It is exactly where I want to be.

Weekend Wrap-Up: Nap Time Experimentation

So mylast post discussed our nap time issues of late. She turned 18 months on Wednesday and it is like a switch was flipped in her brain. A "Mommy-I'm-Too-Old-For-2-Naps-A-Day" switch. And, after doing some research on babycenter.com, I came to realize she's right. Most 18-month-olds transition to one nap a day.

Well, unfortunately for her, we had plans on Saturday based on her 2-nap-a-day schedule. So our experiment for that day was to get her up early (6:30) in hopes that she'd be tired enough to still take a morning nap. We were marginally successful- I got her down in 20 minutes at her normal morning nap time, and she slept for 45 minutes. Then didn't nap again for 5 hours, but was able to go down for a 1.5 hour nap fairly easily.

Today we decided to try the 1-nap-a-day thing. Luckily for us she slept until 7:30, which is later than normal. So we had her up and active until 12:15 and she went down pretty easily. But only for another 1.5 hour nap. Aren't the 1-a-days supposed to be longer? Hopefully we'll make it through this transition time and end up with a schedule that gets her enough sleep.

Okay, enough with the nap talk. On to the weekend.

Friday
We had a little ABC lesson

The ABCs from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

Since it was finally a nice day out, we set up a little play area outside underneath a big umbrella so us pale white girls wouldn't get sunburned.

Saturday
Auntie Laura flew in for the night, so we got to hang out with her and Auntie Mari in the afternoon. We also went to a party at little George's house (which also happens to be G-ma and G-pa's neighbors' house). There were LOTS of kids at the party!

Then we spent a quiet evening at home.

Sunday
We went to the condo for a bit to see the Henderson Aunties again. The blondies had fun reading together.

After the nap, we spent a long time outside "playing golf" and playing with the girls who live across the street.

Ready for the links? from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

It was a fun weekend and now we're looking forward to a fun busy week ahead!

Approaching 2

We seem to be in a transitional time these days, though I suppose all the time is transitional as Callie grows and changes.

But somehow, since I went to back to work, things have been changing a lot.

1) Bumps and Bruises.  My friend Casey always told me about how her daughter Ciri fell down a lot and now I know what she meant.  Lately Callie always seems to find a way to hit her head on something.  Seriously.  It seems like it happens all the time (falling to the floor, running into a kitchen drawer, etc).  Case in point- she face planted on the sidewalk when walking to the park yesterday.  Yay for goose eggs.

2) Lots and Lots of Words.  Her vocabulary is growing in leaps and bounds by the minute.  She is quick to point out everything she sees (always putting an "a" in front of the word), especially in the car.  "A BUSH!!!!!" (bus),  "A CHOO CHOO!!!!!" (light rail)   "A PANE!!!!!" (plane), "CAW CAW!!!!!" (bird).  We're working on colors now and she is THISCLOSE to mastering them.  I'll get a good video soon.

3) POOP.  If we had a dollar for every time she has said "POOP" the past few days, we'd be rich.  Or at least be able to pay for the $30 portable potty we went to Babies R Us to buy.  Thirty dollars?  For a little potty?  It seems ridiculous, but whatever.  You may be thinking that we're jumping the gun, but her fascination with poop and the potty has grown like crazy.  In fact, when I got home from taking Kona for a walk over the weekend, I walked into to this scene:

So maybe we'll get lucky and she'll be an easy potty trainer like my sister Laura was.  All my mom needed was 4 hours and some M&Ms.

4) Increasing independence. Her need to do things on her own is becoming constant.  It is good, but hard for me to let go the control I'm used to.  Especially when she asserts her independence when eating really messy foods and refusing to wear bibs.  And the F-R-E-A-K-I-N-G out if we don't let her do things on her own.  Whew.

5) Meltdowns.  As I alluded to in #4, toddler meltdowns and temper tantrums are becoming a regular thing.  She knows what she wants (and what she doesn't) and has no trouble showing it.  Even if it means throwing herself on the ground and screaming.  Or arching her back in the car to try and avoid getting buckled in and screaming.  Or what Daddy got to experience today: screaming for no good reason in the tunnel at Underwater Adventures at MOA.  I got this in my email inbox at work today from Chris after a particularly trying afternoon:


6) Sleep.  And by sleep, I mean less of it.  We were so spoiled the first 18 months of her life.  She has always been a great sleeper.  And, up until recently, she would go to bed at 8pm and sleep til 8am no problem.  Now she wakes up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed anywhere between 5:30 and 6:30am...and we, her parents, are the opposite of bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at that time in the morning.  We lay there and listen to her "blah blah blah" away in the crib, and no longer does going in and putting in the passy work to get her back to sleep.  No longer does going in and giving her a bottle work to put her back to sleep.  She's just up, and so then, are we.

7) Little Girl.  I don't know how it happened, but when I look at her I don't see my baby any more.  She is my little girl.  She can still melt my heart with a single look or hearing the word "Mom" from across the room.  She loves to give hugs and kisses now, in addition to the usual high fives and bumps.  Her personality is hilarious...she is so playful and smart.  Her brain is constantly going, learning, soaking the world up like a sponge.

So, as we gingerly advance in to the 2-year-old realm (and all that I've heard it entails), I continue to be thankful for the little family we have created, and all those who love and support us.

A San Diego Picture Update!

Hey everybody!  This has been quite a whirlwind week for us.  Thanks to MEA break, and the desire to go on vacation, months ago we booked a trip to San Diego.  The girls, Chris and G-ma left on Tuesday morning, and I had to wait to leave until Wednesday night because of my work schedule.  It was a lovely time!  Here are the pictures!

On Tuesday morning Chris, G-ma and the girls headed to the airport at 8am, and the pictures started flowing to my phone (which I was happy about!).  This was the first trip that Callie had her phone, so she had a blast taking pictures too!

Once they got to San Diego, Chris dropped G-ma and the girls off for ice cream and the Navy boat tour.

They got to see all kinds of old jets and officers' rooms on the Navy ships!

And even got to go in a rescue helicopter!

Then I started getting sent beach pictures while I was at my desk doing conferences.  It was a lot of fun. ;)

On Wednesday morning, they walked around near our condo and looked at all the awesome palm trees and seaside property.

Then they headed to the ZOO!!

They took the sky ride and the double decker bus at the zoo...and then had dinner and did more sightseeing back by the condo.

By 6:50pm I was finally on my way and landed in San Diego around 8:20pm. Hooray!

On Thursday morning the girls were up eating breakfast at 6am, so I went out to greet them and Maya and I snuggled a bit.  One of her deep thoughts of the morning was "Why don't I have a long name like 'FERDINANDLE'?"  Then we both just giggled.

Soon after that I went for a seaside run.  It was beautiful! Our condo is in the bottom right picture.  

After my run, the girls, G-ma, and I walked a bit down the beachfront to a cool pink and purple park. The girls would like you to know it was super wet. But we survived, just with a couple wet butts.

Then it was BEACH DAY!  We drove about 30 minutes to the first beach (Silver Strand State Beach) and because we are from Minnesota, we were the only ones there in swimsuits in the water.  IT. WAS. COLD.  But that didn't stop us!

We brought boogie boards and enjoyed the ocean waves. Click here for some videos of Silver Strand State Beach!

The sand was muddy and wet at this beach, so Maya was able to build a bit of a fortress to try to keep the waves from getting her.



After beach #1 we found a local Mexcian restaurant for lunch.  I wanted a margarita, and boy did I get one!  It was all delicious. Maya was in taco heaven!

Then we went to beach #2- Mission Beach- which was by our condo.  It was still cold, but we boogie boarded again anyway! Click here for some more boogie boarding fun.

Then we headed back to the condo to shower and get ready for a sunset WHALE WATCHING cruise! 



One of my friends from work was also in San Diego and told me about it, so we were able to get tickets and hang out with her and her two girls on the boat. They had a blast hanging out together and watching for whales and dolphins. It took over an hour of rough riding out to the middle of the ocean, but eventually we saw a big humpback whale and a ton of dolphins.  Click here for some videos!

It was just a beautiful evening!


And the sunset on the way back was stunning.

I snapped a picture of the marina as we were leaving.  

Yesterday morning we got up and headed to the SAFARI PARK!  It is such an amazing attraction and was our favorite thing we did in San Diego when we were there a few years ago.  We had so much fun bringing G-ma along with us this time!

After a morning of seeing all the animals and beautiful views, we at lunch in the Africa section and enjoyed more beautiful views.

After lunch we had tickets to a behind the scenes tour of the RHINOS (and we got to see a bunch of other animals on the way).

Our tour guide took us to the Rhino Rescue Center, which is not accessible to the public.  It had a number of rhinos there, and we got to get pretty close to them, thankfully behind a big metal gate.  They were so fun to watch!

She then took us out on a ride through the different African sections of the park to see more animals up closer than we could see when we overlooked it all at lunch.

We had a great day!  Click here for some fun animal videos. Cal and I got matching hats on our way out.



When we got back, Cal was determined to go back to the beach and eek out every last minute of fun we could before having to head home the next morning.  It was chillier than the previous day, but she did not care at all.  She needed to boogie board and that is all that mattered!

Maya had fun too...and once again we were the only ones in swimsuits at the beach.  Everyone else we saw walking were bundled up in hats, scarves and sweaters!


After ordering pizza for dinner, we walked down to the waterfront one last time to see it in the evening.  The view did not disappoint.

This morning we packed all our stuff up early so we could head to the beach one final time.  We read that the waves would be gigantic, and they definitely were!  It was drizzly and cold, so no swim suits this time!

We had fun watching the waves and all the surfers out in the waves.

Then we headed to brunch before the airport.  It was delicious!

Here are a few more random videos from our time in San Diego.

We had an easy flight home.  

I'm so grateful for such a fun getaway! San Diego is definitely one of our most favorite spots to visit (now that we have been there twice) and I'm sure we will be back!







Now...back to reality!