The Fifth day of Christmas

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, the kids and I went to my parents' and we decorated gingerbread men and a house. They had their new disposable cameras and took lots of pictures. Once the house was built and they were decorating it, Adin drizzled tiny colored balls on the house and said, "It's snowing in Pepperkakeby!" which means 'it's snowing in gingerbread town'. He said this about five or six times before I started the video and unfortunately, you only catch a little at the beginning, but then Erik started saying it, too. We have already begun to eat the men and house. I figure they aren't going to get any better. Adin ate the arm of his man, but tonight refused to eat his leg.
Update: Ok, I just posted this, and I can't get the video to play. It may just need some time to load, but I am not up for tinkering with it tonight! I will try to repost tomorrow if it still isn't working.

The second day of Christmas

 

 

Sunday evening my parents and Gary came over for dinner. We played a game that Harald and Ronnaug sent us home from Norway with this past summer and we saved as a Christmas present. It involves filling in picture cards with colored pegs. We've had to make a house rule of being able to share pegs with the other players to help the game move quickly enough to keep the attention of a two year old.
The boys became enraptured with my mom's disposable camera and wanted to take lots of pictures with it. They then wanted to use our digital camera, as well, which makes us nervous! So we used a little of their Christmas money to buy them each a digital camera. It will be fun to get the pictures developed and see all the pictures of the walls, floor, and who knows what else!

Christmas Day

 

 

 

 

So Friday evening, Joe's dad and sisters came over, but I guess I didn't take any pictures! The boys got a toy chainsaw and hedgetrimmer from Paul. Our tree is very well trimmed, let me tell you!

Christmas Day we went to my parents' and Joe's sisters and mom came too. We had a delicious lunch of meatballs and roast. During gift opening, Erik frequently commented that this was the best Christmas ever!!! He and Adin received a variety of police cars and fire trucks and Erik also received a fire fighter costume, complete with a little extinguisher and a little bullhorn. (Is that what they're called? You can talk into them to make announcements? He loves making announcements.) Adin received an mp3 player and microphone which he said were really cool. Oh, and Santa brought him 'a fancy guitar' which he had been talking about all month. It is so fun to watch him play it. He frowns and takes a wide stance with his legs to brace himself like he's working very hard. I will have to try and video it sometime.

Christmas Eve morning

 

 

 

 

My parents and uncle came over Christmas Eve morning for brunch. Gary brought Adin a puzzle, which the boys enjoyed putting together. My parents brought along some cookies that my mom's cousin Cindy and aunt Barb had made. They made some Sally Ann (or Aunt Sally?) cookies in the shape of gingerbread boys. They had found frosting markers and decorated them with faces and red bow ties, very cute. One had Adin's name on it and one had Erik's. Adin enjoyed playing with his gingerbread boy and talking to it, but he would not eat it.

Julebord

 

 

 

Adin has been attending Barnehage with my dad some weeks and me other weeks. In December they had a Julebord. Family was invited and they had some activities for the kids to do. People brought finger food to share and then there was a short and informal program. The kids sang some songs from class and then we all joined hands and walked around the Christmas tree. Finally, julenisse came with a big bag of presents for the children. It was very fun, although hard for kids to wait their turn to get something from julenisse. Adin had fun and participated in all or most of the activities. I don't remember why Erik wanted to wear his pajamas, but it didn't seem worth it to fight him on that count!

O Christmas Tree!

 

 

 

Here are some pictures of the boys helping to decorate my parents' Christmas tree. They enjoyed climbing on the step stool to reach up higher. I notice that the next time I visited, some of the ornament clumps had been more evenly redistributed around the tree! The picture of them lying on the floor shows how they posed when asked to sit in front of the tree for a picture.

playing and sharing

Last week I posted about the boys just starting to play together more. This week there have been amazing stretches of them playing together. They played together in the basement for a half an hour while I made dinner. Today they played in Adin's room, tossing stuffed animals back and forth. What's been really wonderful for me to hear, is how they will do a little negotiating. Erik will state how he wants the play to happen, Adin might say a slightly different plan, and Erik will comment on how they can do both, or take turns or compromise. It's really different from just a couple months ago, when any idea that wasn't his was an affront to Erik's very personhood.

Adin has finished up another round of antibiotics this week and getting him to take the medicine was challenging. One strategy that sometimes worked was to continue to insist that he take it until he became mildly upset, then offer a treat afterward. Adin would then counter offer to eat the treat first and then take the medicine. And he actually usually did. Monday night, Joe was at a meeting and I was trying to get the medicine into Adin. We reached the point where Adin (and Erik) would get a sugar cookie after taking the medicine. Adin never counter offered! I was frustrated and told Erik he could go ahead and eat his cookie. No, he said he wanted to wait and eat it when Adin ate his. Adin's cookie fell and one point of the star came off. I let him eat it, but still he wouldn't take the medicine. Knowing we had more stars and hoping to get him a little upset, I ate one of the points off Adin's star. When he was running around he crashed into me, the cookie fell and one or two more points fell off. I ate more of the points. Still he wouldn't budge. Finally I ate the cookie (planning to give him another star cookie if/when he took the medicine). Adin was upset and I was about to tell him my plan, when Erik ran over and told Adin that if he took his medicine, Erik would give him half of his cookie! Adin agreed, took the medicine and Erik gave him half his cookie!

post Christmas crib talk

Adin was cracking me up so I went and got my computer. The things he said after I started typing weren't quite as funny, but you might get a kick out of them. I have no idea what he was talking about in the first line.

What does that other thing you got for Christmas after something else?
Mama did you know that you and me and papa and Erik all have beds? All of us!
Why did you get a turkey baster for Christmas? [this was a gift from Joe]
Mama, my favorite game is football.

lillejuleaften 2010

The following vignette perfectly summarizes the boys' relationship right now:

I came out of the shower and they were playing doctor in the rose room.
Erik: checked Adin's right ear "Looks fine."
checks other ear "You have a carrot in there.
checks first ear again "You have a potato in here".
Puts blood pressure cuff on Adin. "Looks good."
Looks in doctor bag, pulls out plastic bandaid. "Are you ready for a bandaid?"
Adin: backs away, cringing. "Noo! I'm not ready."
Erik: gets really mad, "Well you need a bandaid and you're stupid."
Fighting ensues.

So basically, they alternate between playing together wonderfully, and fighting over things like a glass of water. (Anne: "We have plenty of water! You don't need to fight over that glass!") I learned that they are not yet able to control themselves better when I threaten them with Santa watching, so I have given up.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Adin's baby Erik

Sometimes when I'm lovin' on Adin, I tell him that even though he's not a baby anymore, he's still my baby. He usually says, "I'm not a baby. I'm a kid." A couple days ago he started pretending to be a baby, crying, laying in my lap. Then he started telling me he had a baby named Erik. Fortunately, he's said that when Erik's not around, I don't know that Erik would appreciate it. Today he wanted me to be his baby. So I finally decided to bring the baby doll out of toy storage. Erik never played with it, so we put it away. Adin enjoyed wrapping it in a towel and putting it down to sleep. I'm hoping this will give him a focus for his intense love for Erik.

Erik LOVES snow

We woke up yesterday to snow covering the ground, and falling in fat flakes. Erik went out with Joe and shoveled, then he played by himself and with the neighbors. Joe's mom came over to watch the kids so we could go to the MN Orchestra (thanks Lois!) and she and Erik worked really hard building a snow fort. [This picture doesn't really do it justice. It's melted some, and you can't really see the shape. Oh well.] Today he's been out there all day, as well, and enjoyed showing off the fort to the neighbors. Last spring, he told me that fall was his favorite season and winter was his second favorite. I scoffed inwardly, thinking, he'll have so much fun playing outside this summer he'll change his mind. Nope. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if winter bumps fall to the number 2 spot.

Another step

When I picked up the kids from daycare, Erik told me he learned how to read a new word, map. How do you spell it, I asked. M-A-P At home, he got out a crayon while I was making dinner and wrote out the word, then asked me if I could read it. I could! Knowing that he can write many letters, I showed him that now he can write M-A-P he could really write lots more words. We got through cap,lap, and nap before he lost interest. He wanted to write wagon. The G gave him trouble (kept writing e) and he got frustrated and wanted to stop.

Later on, Erik and Joe were talking about writing a play. Bert and Ernie could discuss what they would be for Halloween. Ernie would be a fire fighter. Someone suggested that Bert could be a police officer and I pointed out to Erik now that he could write C-A-P he could also write C-O-P.

These times when the kids are on the cusp of new developments are so exciting. They have so much potential!

You're telling me!

Adin had an ear infection last week, so he's been (happily) taking medicine ever since. Tonight was the last dose and when he was done, Erik asked if now that Adin was done, could he please have the rest of Adin's medicine? I told him that medicine can help you when you need it, but can hurt you if you take it when you don't need it. Two minutes later, Erik said, "Life is very complicated."

O ya!

Wow. It's been a long time since I've posted. Adin asked to try sleeping in the toddler bed tonight. Because Erik was very tired, we put them to bed early. Adin is just regular tired so he is lying in bed singing the closing song from Barnehage: Alle barne smiler, alle barne smiler, o ya, o ya, o ya! [All the children smile, all the children smile, all the children smile, oh yes, oh yes, oh yes.] I'm glad I'm not on the floor in his room, or I would be giggling and keeping him awake!

Family Day

I thought maybe today was Mother's Day when I came down for breakfast. Erik came right over to me, gave me a hug and said, "There's nothing like having a mother." That's about the best version of "good morning" ever! Then, I got to shower before Joe and when I came down from getting dressed, Joe had the kids fed and dressed for church, all by 7:20! I told them they must have gotten confused and thought this was Mother's Day, and we decided today was a special Family Day for loving our family.

The pictures are of the boys trying on some 'safety' goggles Joe bought for $2. Erik likes to pretend he's a construction worker, but we just read that archeologists wear goggles when working, too.

tonight

Adin found a little wheelie thing and told me he was going to Cub. Here's his shopping list:
"lettuce, pizza, chocolate, chocolate cake, custard...Does anyone like custard?"
It really started off healthy, but just went downhill fast.

As Erik was waiting for dinner to cook he went in the basement and played drums. He made up a song that went, "I love the whole world" over and over.

You make me happy.

Joe did Adin's bedtime routine tonight. They sang a bunch of songs and then Adin said, "Now let's sleep." Joe reached up his hand to put it between slats of crib. Adin squeezed his fingers for a bit and then twisted his hand back and forth a few times, and said, "Papa, you're my wrench." Joe said, "Adin, you're so sweet. You're my boy." Adin replied, "You're my grownup."

Now he's singing in his crib, "The Lord is good to meeee," over and over.

Oldemor

Adin is lying in his bed singing, "Happy Birthday dear OH-deh-mood, [that's how he pronounces 'oldemor' which is great grandma in Norwegian] happy birthday to you" on a continuous loop.
Oops, he just switched to a medley: "E-I-E-I-O! Thank you, Wisconsin! A-B-C-D-E-F-G",...nonsense syllables, huge yawn aaaand silence!

Erik to the rescue!

Joe and Erik went grocery shopping this afternoon. I guess Erik was well prepared for any emergency.

Picnic

We went to a neighborhood picnic tonight. Some neighbors from down the street (who also go to our church) were there. The older son, who must be 10 or 11, loves kids and came up to Adin on the playground. He kept a good distance between himself and Adin, and squatted a little and smiled like he was about to say something. Adin looked at me, looked at him, and said to him, "I'm a little bit afraid of you." Fortunately, the neighbor found it as hilarious as I did.

National Night Out

I organized a block party for National Night Out on Tuesday. It was really fun! Erik asked if we could have one every night and then yesterday he asked me about 20 times how long it was until we were having another block party! It was really fun to watch the kids. My boys love playing with our neighbor boys, so that was no surprise. Erik really, really wanted to invite Gavin to come play in our house, and I finally gave in. I don't mind having Gavin in there, I just hadn't cleaned at all! We've seen another 4 year old around but she doesn't play outside much so the party was our first chance to get to know her. Adin really took to her and they played together all up and down the block. Including making a run for the other side of the cones blocking off our street. Yikes. Erik made an attempt to get to know her. He walked up to her and said (very fast) "I'm Erik. What's your name?" and then ran away before she could say anything. Hilarious.

There are two houses of kids across the alley from us. They ate at their own block party, but then joined up with Gavin and Jackson and ran/biked back and forth several times. I had a similar sort of feel to my block growing up, so I really hope those families stay. I love seeing the roaming pack of kids.

Sweet Revenge

So I was playing "Three Little Pigs" with Adin and it was my turn to be the wolf. He got a little mixed up with "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" and said I shouldn't eat him, I should eat his brother instead. But that I had to wait 'til he woke up. Then Adin offered to go wake up Erik.

No kick from champagne

Erik's latest thing is to say "I really get a kick out of it" whenever Adin says or does anything. For example, we were playing in the backyard with some friends this afternoon. Adin and Erik briefly fought over the slide and Adin lashed out physically. After Erik got over being upset (he wasn't appeased by Adin's apology but by seeing Adin lose out on a popsicle treat) he said several times that he got a kick out of Adin this afternoon, except for the part where Adin bit him. Later he got a kick out of playing Duck Duck Goose with Adin and some friends.

Wait, where did the mess go?

I hired a cleaning company to come out this morning and spend a couple hours cleaning my house. It was lovely and smelled so good afterward. When the boys came in the house from the neighbor's house, Erik noticed the smell of peppermint right away. He has said in the past how much he likes things to be messy, but I always assumed that was just because he didn't want to have to clean up. This afternoon he was driving a toy truck around, and he reached waaaaay under some heavy furniture to pull out a dust bunny and put it in his truck. He was just so at sea with the house being so clean, he had to find one of his old friends, dust bunny, to feel comfortable again!

Bittersweet

Erik is going to Vacation Bible School this week. Our church doesn't do VBS, so he's going to another Lutheran church in town. We visited there one week so he would be a little familiar with the building. I talked about it a little so it wouldn't be a surprise, but didn't dwell on it so much that he got anxious.

When I dropped him off yesterday, he was momentarily upset, but went right over, sat down and played with blocks. Adin and I left the room, talked to someone at a table in the hall and then peeked in, just to make sure he was ok. He was fine. I was very proud of him.

Then today, he was momentarily upset at home before we left, but did not show any distress at all at the church. He just sat down and played and could barely be bothered to say goodbye.

Both days, I was so proud of him, but also had a twinge of sadness. Joe and I have been working with him for years on transitions, separating from us, and mastering his emotions. It's very gratifying to see him do well, but it also hits home how he is one step further from his babyhood. sigh.

Really?

Tonight there was an ice cream social at church. During dinner Adin said he didn't want to go. I figured he was probably pulling a two year old maneuver and asked if he'd rather go with me to the grocery store. Yes he would. He steadfastly maintained that he would rather go shopping with me and how excited he was to go to the grocery store. [And by the way, through the entire shopping trip he did not shut up about how much fun he was having at the store. I had to tell the manager.]

I started up the car and as soon as the music from the CD started (Peter Himmelman "My Fabulous Plum") he said, "I love this song." We drove about two minutes and he said, "I love this music. I really, really love this song. It's really, really funny." I said, "It's not as funny as you!" He said in a small, sad voice, "It's a little bit funny."

Adin's language sample from tonight.

Here's what Adin said tonight as he was winding down in his crib:

Can you go over there?
I thought you was.
You have to look in the bookcase. (should have been past tense)
That’s a good idea mama.
He’s tired and sad. (he could hear Erik crying)
I’m a little bit sad.
Is somebody out the door?
Not you, no, not Mama.
But you was.
I was waiting for you and Papa.
What’s your name again?
What’s your names?
No, that’s not your names.
Anne is your two names.
Mama, can we meet Gramma here?
Ok, that’s a good idea Mama.
You said yeah. You said yes, too.
Can you tell me a knock knock joke to me?
You say knock knock. I say who’s there.
Ok. I will not cry. (after a boo who knock knock joke)
It’s gone on.
Is that a funny one?
Can you tell me a different one joke?
No. I don’t want another knock knock joke.
Papa dump it for me.
Me either. Not me.
That’s a laugh-y one. I laughed. (After I told him a joke. I love this comment.)
Should I lie down instead?
I’m asleep.
I want you cover me.
I want you lie down.
Oh no. I love jokes.
There’s two and three. I like those numbers. My number’s two.
‘K. I will be quiet.
So cozy Mama

Four years

So far, I really like the age of four. Yesterday, Joe was going to take the boys to the local kiddie pool. Adin tripped and skinned he knee. He refused to go to the pool. Erik was verrrrry disappointed, but he was able to say with a quivery voice that he was sad about it. Last summer, he would have had a flat out tantrum.
His Grandma was here Thursday night and he wanted to go downstairs and play 'Bert and Ernie Goodnight' with her. Adin said he wanted to play too, but he couldn't go down right away, I forget why. Lois (Grandma) said that Erik waited for Adin to start the play. So sweet, especially since once Adin came down they bickered quite a bit.

He's also become significantly better at cleaning up after himself. He doesn't make a big fuss about it, sometimes he will even do it without my asking or with only one ask. When he does put up a stink, I tell him I will think about that next time he asks to play with the item. He goes right over and starts putting things away!

overheard

We were just reading a book. There was a picture of oscar the grouch listening to a bird sing. Adin said he thought the bird was singing the ABCs.

I was making Erik lunch. I peeled him a carrot. As soon as I gave it to him he asked where his sandwich was. I said I couldn't do two things at once. He said, "Ask God to help you. He knows how to do everything."

Come again?

Funny things the boys say:

When Adin wants to play baseball he says, "Play Minnesota, Mama?" I guess the only team that exists for him is the Twins! After we dropped off Erik at preschool this week he saw one of my coworkers in the hallway. He ran up to her and said, "I'm Adin Lindell!"

Erik has been learning a lot about animals and that some of them are carnivores. I find it very funny when he talks about how an animal can hide from it's 'creditors'!! He likes Gobstoppers but calls them Godstoppers. I tried to teach him by telling him I think 'gob' is another name for mouth so they stop your mouth. So then he would say, "Godst...mouth stoppers."

We are the dinosaurs

I took the kids to McDonald's for lunch today and there were lots of boys Erik's age. In the past, Erik has either not been interested in playing with the other kids or has been too nervous/shy. Today, he was right in there, climbing and rolling his toy car down the slide. Very fun for me to see.

However, as the play progressed, he seemed to get more excited and maybe was having a hard time controlling his energy. He would sort of get near kids and tense his hands like he sort of wanted to push them and was able to stop himself at the last moment. So I tried to keep a very close eye on what was going on. Soon, it escalated to making claw hands and roaring at kids. No one freaked out, but they didn't really like it, of course. So I gave him a warning to stop. He didn't. I forget now what he ended up doing, but I told him we were leaving in two minutes and he had to sit in the booth until we left.

Sitting in the booth, he became very, very calm. So I had an idea. I told him he was not allowed to be a dinosaur in Playland because dinosaurs were not allowed there. I told him we were going to the park later and he could be a dinosaur there. I asked if he thought he could play like a nice boy for a few minutes at McD's. He said yes he thought he could do that. And he did. When it was time to go he told me that he had pretended to be a baby dinosaur while playing. Yay!

Oops

I ran out to the car to grab Adin's nuk before naptime. When I came back in the house, Erik was trying to hide behind the couch. I asked what he was doing back there and he didn't answer. Then I saw the carpet was covered in whole peppercorns! He started saying, "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. It was an accident."

Because he was apologizing and it would be easy to clean, I didn't get mad, I just told him that's why Joe and I tell him not to play with the peppergrinder. Once I got out the broom and told him to sweep he could tell I wasn't getting mad. So then he stopped saying, I'm sorry and started saying, "sweeping up is too hard."

Figuring out the world

Adin has been asking us the same questions over and over. "What your name, Mama? What my name, Mama? What Erik's name, Mama?" etc. The other one is, "What your number, Mama? [how old are you] What my number, Mama? What Papa's number, Mama?" Today he was sitting in his high chair eating oatmeal. My mom walked by and he said, "I'm Adin Lindell!"

Erik has always been vehemently anti-bandage. He refused to cover even the bloodiest scrapes. I think he associated band-aids with the pain from getting a shot and twisted it to think that if I put a band-aid on him, it would hurt. Earlier this week he scraped his knee and it didn't seem to bother him for the first couple days. Friday night he was having trouble falling asleep and said his knee hurt. I offered him some Tylenol, which he accepted. Then he asked for a band-aid! I couldn't believe it. Saturday morning the band-aid got wet during swim lessons so he asked for a new one. Tonight before bed he commented on how his owie was getting better. I said I thought it was because of the band-aids, and he agreed!

Cuteness

Oh dear, the boys are always up to some cuteness, but by evening, I can't remember what it was! I shall do my best to remember. Erik has been very interested in telling jokes lately, so Adin has picked one of them and will attempt to tell it. Tonight I was laying on the floor next to Adin's bed and he told me his joke about two eggs about 2 dozen times. Then he went to his next routine, asking me how old each person in the family is: what your number mama? what my number, mama? what papa's number, mama?, etc. Then he started in on: what your name, mama? what papa's name, mama? By the time he got to, "what Adin's name, mama?" my patience was worn a little thin. So I said, "robert". He must have thought I misunderstood. There was a long pause and he asked again. This time I said, "susan." Since Susan is his aunt's name, he must have thought I was confused. He said, "what you talking about, mama? no, not Susan. Not Susan, mama." I don't know if this story will be funny for other people, but it made me laugh!

March of the Penguin

We got tickets to the Lions Club Pancake Breakfast this morning. Each kid gets a raffle ticket and every now and then someone reads off ticket numbers. When your number is called, you can go up to the stage and choose a stuffed animal. Adin chose a patchwork elephant, Erik chose a penguin. He named his penguin "Penguinologist", but told me I could call him Penguin for short. He has been talking to his penguin and showing him around the house. We all went downstairs and Erik asked if Penguinologist could watch a show on the computer. Joe found "March of the Penguins". Once it started showing the landscape, Penguin said it looked like home. Then the penguins appeared. Erik started gently sobbing because Penguin missed his home and friends. Joe has offered to turn it off but Erik says it's more fun than sad. I suggested Penguin was excited to take this trip to Minnesota, but Erik says he still misses his home and friends. He's been crying for 5 or 10 minutes. Part of me thinks it's very sweet, part of me thinks it's hilarious.

Wheels

A couple weeks ago, Erik was riding his trike to the park and calling out, "look out, squirrels, here comes Trike." On Thursday our generous neighbors gave us their younger son's outgrown little bike w/training wheels. Erik is in heaven. He bikes to parks that are a half mile away! Today we were leaving a park and he started off down a gentle hill yelling, "look out, here comes Super Boy"!

Adin

I bought a container of cherry tomatoes last night, to use for beef and veggie kabobs. Adin was a big fan of the grape tomatoes from the garden last summer so I had high hopes. While he was waiting for dinner, he asked for an apple, which I gave him. Then he asked for grapes. I said, "no, but you can have tomatoes." So he said, "Want 'matoes, mama, in my mouth." He's been requesting food that way for a couple weeks. "Want ... in my mouth." It's so funny. I have no idea where he picked up that phrase. He ate lots of tomatoes, by the way, also the sweet peppers on the kabobs. He did not like the onion, though.

Elbow? What elbow?

We went to a kiddie concert tonight and the band played the Hokey Pokey. Joe told me that on the way out, Erik said his favorite part was "put your right elbow in" because your elbow isn't a part of the body!

Adin has moved on to saying four word sentences sometimes. "No tickle me again" for example.

Away in a Manger

I just checked a rarely used hotmail account and found a picture of Erik with the other Sunday School kids singing in the Christmas program. So cute.

Little math whiz

I was planning to take the kids to the Little Tot Drop In at the St Louis Park Rec Center today. It's a chance for the kids to run around and it's two dollars per kid. I was in the shower when Joe left and just moments after he yelled goodbye to me I remembered I only had one dollar. I yelled and yelled for him to see if he was still there. The kids came to see what was going on. Erik told me Joe had left and asked why I wanted him. I explained I wanted a couple dollars, but that we would raid his piggy bank for three dollars. He asked how much three dollars was. I asked if he knew which ones quarters are. He said they are the big circles. I said three dollars is four quarters, three times. So he went and got a piggy bank and made piles. When I came to check on him he had two piles of four quarters (which impressed me) but had run out of quarters. I found two in my jeans pocket, and we used dimes and nickels for the rest. I really think that if there had been twelve quarters in the bank he could have gotten me three dollars!

At the rec center they have several large vending machines and Erik wanted a snack when we left at 11:30 (lunchtime). I explained he'd had fruit snacks already and we were going home for lunch. But he was sooo hungry now. He was afraid by the time we got home he wouldn't be hungry anymore. So I reminded him we'd used our last nickel paying admission. He shuffled his feet a moment and said, "I wish we'd brung some more pennies."

Pictures of January

I'm not sure why my formatting is so weird. Grr.

Erik's been napping again lately, yay! One day last week, after cuddling with Joe on the rocking chair, Erik fell asleep. When Adin wandered by later he said, "Erik sleep."








Then he went and got Erik's blanket from his room and covered him up! Sweet!


Here's a picture of Erik and Adin in Erik's bed. They played a little peek-a-boo after I took this picture.


And finally, here's a picture of the gingerbread pieces Erik and I decorated. We didn't bother to assemble the house. It was too hard, and we just wanted to eat them, anyway!

Well, la ti dah

Adin is now saying three word phrases on a regular basis. I've been writing them down, but of course they are upstairs as I am writing this. When we came in from outside he said, "no jacket on". At bedtime yesterday he talked about, "Elmo blanket book". This evening he even said, "yellow ball go in"! 'No' plus two words or 'my' plus two words are very popular ways to get in a three word utterance. And he's trying to imitate everything. Because it's past my bedtime, of course I won't remember what the funny long word he tried to say was, but maybe tomorrow there will be a good one I can report. He's had an ear infection and does not want to take his medicine, so all week he's been saying, "no medicine" but it comes out all funny and cute.

Ginsa!

Here's a picture of our family at a Japanese restaurant where they cooked our food in front of us. I may update later with a picture of column of fire, if I can get my pixels on one. Oh, the little girl by Joe is the daughter of our friends.

Wilderness Adventure

We went to the Wisconsin Dells this weekend for the first time and stayed at the Wilderness Resort. It's huge, with multiple waterpark areas to explore. Erik blows hot and cold when it comes to pools, so I didn't know how this would go, but he loved it. The wading pools were nice for him, just a tiny bit too much spraying water. We drove down Saturday and came back Monday, and he was sad to leave. He said three days wasn't long enough. He wanted to stay at least five days, or even better, could we please live there? The picture of Joe and Erik in the yellow inner tube was one of Erik's favorite activities: floating on "Lazy River".

Adin had fun, too, but he had a bad ear infection, so he was pretty zonked out the whole weekend. By the time he had antibiotics and was perking up, we were headed home. Oh well, he got lots of cuddle time.

Little Stinker!

Most of the time, Adin is a great one for sharing. He'll share candy, fruit, almost anything. Today we went to the grocery store after dropping Erik off at school. Cub has free cookies for kids. Adin often can't finish his, so I get to have a taste. Today they had M&M cookies and he named the colors, licked the candy, took the occasional nibble of the cookie. After a while, he told me he was all done. I asked if I could have a bite. "Noooo." Could I have a nibble? "Noooo." I picked up a bottle of hand soap, and Adin said again that he was all done with the cookie and held it out to me. Before I could stop the cart, reach and take his cookie, he'd dropped it on the floor so he could pick up the soap! I was so frustrated that I could have had the rest of his cookie if he'd only waited a moment longer! Oh well. The last thing I need is a delicious M&M cookie!

Like Mother, Like Son

The kids and I were downstairs. They were watching Sesame Street and I was reading blogs, comics, etc on my computer. Adin kept peeking over the couch at me and saying hi. After the show was over, I started playing Legos with them. Next thing I know, I look over and Adin's tapping away at my netbook.



Cheese!

verbage

Yesterday I noticed after Adin does something he thinks is special (kick a ball, for example) he will say, "did". I'm sure he hears Joe and me say, "You did it" in situations like that. Today I heard him say "is", although I forget why. I think it's sort of unusual for 'did' and 'is' to be among kids' first words. And for good reason, they aren't that functional. But it's still pretty fun to hear!

A Day of Firsts

Adin had quite a day today. He said his first three word phrase: more juice please. He also peed in the potty! He's been saying, "pee pee" and standing near the toilet. A couple times I tried sitting him on it, but he was a little scared. So I when he says that, I let him sit on it with his clothes on. Then one time Erik was on there when Adin said, "pee pee" so I put Adin on the little potty seat. Tonight when the kids were getting ready for baths, I guess Adin said it again, so Joe had me get the potty seat and we put him on there. It's physically a little hard for him to sit on it and aim down, but he got some pee in there! And some on the floor, but still! Then during books he requested the potty again, but I'm not sure that he peed the second time. Wow! How fun for him to have a little success so early.