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.

Week 8 Wrap-Up: The DuNord MEGA POST Edition!

Happy Sunday everybody! Boy do I have a big post for you today...we had a big week!  

First up, if you missed my anniversary post from yesterday, you can see it by clicking here. I'm pretty proud of our wedding photo recreation. ;)

Ok.  Let's do this!  One week ago we left for Camp duNord!!  This year we brought our good friends Jeremy, Jennifer, Cam (8), Gus (6), and Mae (4) with us.  Chris works with Jeremy and they have been good friends for a number of years.  Our families were introduced to each other a few years ago, and we all just mesh very well.  Their kids are littler than ours, but they all have so much fun playing together!

Anyway, J, J, C, G & M had never been to camp before, and we were all SO EXCITED to share the Magical duNord Bubble with them.  

Last Sunday Chris worked his car Tetris magic and got all of our stuff to fit in the car, once again!

We got the road trip started and our first stop was up in Hinckley at Tobie's for doughnuts.  We stopped again for lunch and to get some energy out at a park before hitting up Zup's for groceries in Ely.

We made it to camp about 3:30pm, showed them around and settled into the cabin...including the new sign we brought with to remind us all NO CRABBY ATTITUDES (at camp). We made pizza for dinner and played games before bed.

I was excited to start my Monday morning with yoga and a beautiful 3.5 mile run up in the north woods.

Then it was time for the first POLAR BEAR PLUNGE and opening celebration.

One of the most awesome things about Camp duNord is AGE GROUPS.  There is programming for kids with counselors every day from 9:30am-12pm.  The kids have a blast with other kids their ages, and adults get 2.5 hours of kid-free time each morning.  While Jeremy and Jennifer did a little exploring on their own on Monday morning, Chris and I reacquainted ourselves with the lovely surroundings (and I got my first lavender latte).

After age groups and lunch, we did some more exploring and enjoying all the things camp has to offer: the lake, boating, the beach, etc.!

We opted to get camp-provided meals each night, so we enjoyed our first full day's dinner together and then went fishing!

On Tuesday morning after my deck yoga, I went for a walk and captured some more beautiful scenes.

During Tuesday's age group, Jeremy, Jennifer, Chris and I went for a hike up to Old Baldy!

We spent some time relaxing on the rocks and then picked a bunch of fresh blueberries on our way back down.

We got back in time to sneak in ice cream cones before picking up the kids.

Chris and Jeremy used the fresh blueberries for pancakes and made a delicious breakfast for lunch!

 

Callie had MUD DAY at age group and came home SO dirty.  She loved it!  We went back to the beach for a little bit and then clouds and rain rolled in.  So we started the puzzle I brought and played games in the cabin.  Then I got a fantastic massage in a little cabin while it rained. It was lovely.

Thankfully the rain stopped after dinner and we were able to go do our family sauna!!! DuNord's sauna was built in 1933.  It feels so amazing to heat up in the little room and then run down the ramp into the lake.  The kids loved it (as did the adults...we each got to sauna again during men's and women's saunas later in the week).

On Wednesday morning I completed the 3rd day of my August yoga calendar on the deck and went for another walk.  I have been waiting to do my daily yoga on the deck at camp for MONTHS.  Every single morning it was so lovely, no matter if it was a bit misty, sunny, or chilly.  I loved it all.

After my walk I stopped to get another lavender latte and enjoyed a bit of hammock time.

As you can see above, there were definitely some clouds rolling in on Wednesday morning.  But after sending the kids to age group, we were undeterred and decided to canoe/kayak.  Except as we were paddling, the rain became very obvious, so we paddled to Pine Point (a different location to return the canoe and kayak) and walked back to camp in the rain.

It cleared up again so we wandered around camp for a bit and the boys wowed Mae with their juggling skills.

Then we decided to all go out on various forms of boats.  We brought my paddle boards up, so I blew up one of them to use.  The kayakers paddled to Blueberry Island and had fun exploring. I worked on my paddle board headstand.

Once again...rain rolled in!  So the walk back to our cabin was a bit wet and cold.

We enjoyed snacks and more cabin time, and also went to the beach again when it wasn't raining.  The clouds were amazing!

After dinner Chris took the kids to do more fishing!  Fishing up at camp is definitely one of his happy places.

After putting the kids to bed (early...they were so tired!), Jennifer and I enjoyed face masks and we played another round of Qwirkle (we played a LOT of Qwirkle!).

Thursday was the most gorgeous day.  My morning views were lovely, once again.

All week a few of us did the polar plunge at 7:45am, and Jennifer snapped a picture of the group waiting to dive into the water.  Later, Jeremy snapped a cozy picture of me and Chris enjoying the morning.

My favorite adult time was Thursday morning when the four of us went paddle boarding.  We had a blast exploring the lake and looking at all the cute cabins along the shore.  Jeremy and I both worked on headstands (and did a fair amount of falling in and swimming too).

`Once again it was ice cream time...before lunch!

Because it was SO BEAUTIFUL out, we went to the beach after lunch.  Chris taught Jennifer how to skip rocks and we all had so much fun playing in the water and on the beach.

At 3:30 it was time for the family triathlon!  We called ourselves Team Uno Attack! (the game we played the first night).  Jennifer was our swimmer, Cam and I were the runners, and Jeremy, Callie, Gus and Mae were the paddlers.  Maya was the designated photographer, and Chris missed it all because he got a massage.  Ha!

We had some time before dinner, so Jennifer and I took the four big kids to paddle out to Blueberry Island again. Callie had fun posing on one of the rocks.

Thursday night was the camp auction.  There were funny skits and items to bid on.  More information on what we won in a little bit!

I did more yoga and a walk on Friday morning before our last polar plunge!

While Chris and Jeremy dropped the kids off at age group, Jennifer and I walked to the trading post to get iced lattes.  Then we headed out for another hike...this time to the troll bridge!

After our hike we stopped by the camp garden.

And still had a bit of time to lay out and fish at Siam Point. We relished every second of adult time!

After lunch, we headed to the trading post for the last ice cream cones of the week...where all the kids were allowed to get DOUBLE SCOOPS. Then it was back to the cabin for a foot sliver extraction.

There is always a counselor hunt on Friday afternoon, where the counselors all hide all over camp and the campers run around like crazy to find them and take them to "jail."  The kids all had a blast...until more rain clouds moved in!  

We were able to stay on the beach just long enough for Callie to get completely buried in sand, but then the rain, thunder and lightening came so she wasn't allowed to rinse off in the lake...let's just say the shower was a disaster after that.

While it stormed, we finished the puzzle!

And enjoyed hanging around the cabin together playing games.

Once the rain stopped, we headed to the trading post to get some souvenirs, and found out we won CHIPPY in the silent auction!  Chippy is a little chipmunk LDP (counselor in training) that came with his very own biffy and tons of accessories.  We learned that it has gone to multiple families over the years and comes back every few years to be in the silent auction again.  So there's pressure to make sure all the adorable hand made accessories don't get strewn all over our house!  We will be able to donate it back some day for a new family to enjoy.

Friday night ended with Closing Celebration, where all the age groups put on funny skits to share about their week.

After the kids were in bed, Jennifer, Jeremy, Chris and I popped a nice bottle of champagne that Jeremy brought to celebrate our anniversary (one night early).  

We had so much fun reminiscing about our week together at camp.  To thank them for coming with us, Chris and I got them matching shirts with a picture of the sauna so they had their own souvenirs.  

On Saturday morning we woke up, packed up, and cleaned the cabin before going to a few of our favorite spots for the last time.

As I hope you can tell, we had a great week.  Here are a few more pics from throughout the week that didn't make the cut.

And because we walk everywhere at camp, we all got SO MANY STEPS every day!

We left yesterday around 10:30am and stopped for lunch in Cloquet for one final meal together.  


We are grateful to have had another wonderful week as a family, and grateful to have been able to share it with our dear friends.

Here are a couple of videos from the week as well:

Video 1

Video 2

We love Camp duNord!