Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Out of the Mouths of Babes...

Alright, this is maybe going to be one of those times when someone is telling you something that is just SO funny and they are telling you, and you are thinking, ha - yeah, that is kind of cute. But the person is laughing and then repeating it, because clearly you didn't hear it correctly if you are not laughing out loud as well, and you are thinking, no - I heard you, it's just not that funny....You just had to BE there! I'm going to put down for posterity some of the things Kate has said/done lately so I can always remember them:)


  • (talking about Tony and Tara living in Japan) - "Oh! Peter Pan lives in Japan!" She thinks this is very cool.
  • After making her walk the loop a second time (I know, it was pushing it) - "Mom! I'm tired. My brain hurts" 
  • If you ask her how old she is going to be on her birthday - the answer is six. Just so you know.
  • The morning that I was headed to Decorah and was packing up and running around the house, I had to stop and pause to hear that, yup, I just overheard Kate singing, "Like the ceiling can't hold ussss, like the ceiling can't hold us..." Later at Luther, while down at Marty's waiting for food, she was walking around singing, "I know you want it, I know you want. She's a good girlll.." And finally, in the car, I heard, "Boys 'round here - drinking that I cold beer, talkin' bout girls, talkin' bout trucks...." She will sing the whole verse, but mash up the words, still making it rhyme....okay! Time to closely monitor what music is on when she is around! A special thank you to Dave, for playing the Blurred Lines video of Jimmy Fallon, Robin Thicke and The Roots on his phone while Kate was in his lap. While in the bathroom at Luther, I told her that we don't need to sing that song anymore, can she sing something else? She started screaming Jesus Loves Me at the top of her lungs. So, you know, at least there is a variety to her repertoire.
  • Yesterday, while I was nursing Collin up in his room, she came in with a pillow and said that I was a princess, Collin "my little prince" and she was a knight that was going to "boom" the dragons that were "lining up to bite" me! She stood on the bed and defended me while Collin (surprisingly) ate. I jump in and go with it, I LOVE her imagination and try to let it run wild sometimes, but probably three times a day, I am convincing her that we can no longer pretend these things or that we really can't "decorate the house for a party" - translate - hang, arrange, place her toys ALL OVER the living room. That makes Mommy's brain hurt:)
  • She is sort of fascinated with weddings (hmmmm, wonder why:) and anything that remotely resembles princesses, so twice in the last few days, she has wanted to pretend to marry me:) We hold hands, a bouquet and just stare at each other ("someone else talks") and then go to the party. :) I plan on watching Dave and I's wedding video from 8 YEARS ago today, and see what she says. I was talking about it and she said..."I wasn't there, right Mommy?" Nope, but it got kind of hard to explain why......By the way, she is pretty progressive, she told me that girls can marry girls and boys can marry boys. So that is all cleared up:)
Let's see, Collin is not exactly saying crazy things yet. His update:
  • On the way home from the grocery store yesterday, I saw him take off his sock and put it in his mouth. Just sort of let it hang there and looked around. Hilarious. 
  • He likes to hang upside down. If you are sitting, you place him lying down with his head down by your knees. He doesn't want to come back up. 
  • It's hard to describe, I need to video him "saying" "Ahhhhh.." He can go like five minutes straight, I swear. He is starting to get some other sounds in there as well. And yesterday, I think he made his first tractor noise:) He made that noise kids make when doing the sound for cars/trucks. So cute:) 
  • Kate is his endless source of joy, he laughs and giggles at her all the time, will look around until he finds her, they are ridiculously cute right now. This lasts forever, right? :) 
  • Speaking of how much these two like to interact, it is almost impossible for me to nurse Collin if Kate is around. I really don't nurse him downstairs much at all. Kate was not so distractable at this age, as I recall - of course, she didn't have a sibling around to make noise! Thank goodness I found a glider for his room so I have somewhere comfortable to nurse him in peace. Well, that is if no knights and dragons come to bother us:)
  • He is not loving as much of the solid foods as Kate did. It is possibly he will be my tricky eater. In general, he isn't that interested in eating at all lately. I'm not sure if we are not trying it at the right time of day, if he is not that hungry then? Or there are more teeth working through...I need to play around with it. Yesterday at lunch he scarfed the sweet potatoes/plums down, but otherwise, I am throwing away a lot of homemade baby food! 
  • Dave and my father have been trying to help him start crawling - they get reprimanded when I see this:) He can get around just fine. He can roll around and is trying to move forward a bit. I can put out a blanket on the floor in the living room  - he will still be on it minutes later - yay! In Kate's room, he has maneuvered his way from the middle of her floor to her doorway. 
In related news - we have new baby gates! If you have been to our house, you know our staircase presents challenges for such things and we, along with some friends with a log house, found a guy that could make custom gates. So, we paid a pretty penny, but we have some beautiful, functional gates at the top and bottom of the stairs. We figure this is a great way to keep our children safe, but also corral unruly guests:) 

Well, Collin is still sleeping. I think I'll post some photos and then get to my long list of other things I should be doing...
Collin hydrating while on the boat last week:)
I finally got a glider for Collin's room! I love it
She wanted to pose and get her picture taken while out in the Dells
Silly faces at the park
Collin on Daddy's shoulders at the art fair
Collin looking too big!
He is sitting, by the way! Still nose dives occasionally, but doing really well
One of our new gates!
How can she be four (six:) years old next month?!!


Peace!

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Quick Update!

I just wanted to share some photos from last weekend. Dave was on call, Kylie was playing tennis at Luther and it was Steam Engine Days in Mabel, so I took the kids down to Burr Oak for one night. We didn't want to be away from the Dave for the whole weekend, so we didn't leave until Saturday morning, of course, we didn't get out of the house very quickly. The ride down was great though, the kids slept/were quiet and I listened to the Hawkeyes. 

It was possibly too hot to keep two little ones at the tennis courts on Saturday, but we did our best to keep them cool. We were able to cheer Kylie on (though Mom and I believe tennis is too quiet of a sport! We we want to yell!), grab some drinks in the Union, ever-changing as always, get inside Dieseth and see Kylie's room - oh my gosh! It is awesome, I can't believe how nice Dieseth is now  - boo, the Dieseth of my days seems even more drab than it did in 2002.  After we cooled off, we watched a bit more tennis, Kate was stung by a bee for the first time, we listened to a storm push through and bring a little rain and got some Whippy Dip:) Well, we had to fix the bee sting somehow!
Hiding in the trees to try and keep cool!
Kylie is the only one who really earned all that sweat:)
After a VERY rough night of having both kids in one room with me, we met up with Cass, Kris and the boys, as well as Andrew to go up and see the parade in Mabel for Steam Engine Days. It was a refreshingly cool day, though I wish the sun would have peeked out. I was super unprepared for this excursion - didn't have cash, didn't pack enough snacks/food, I was so grateful to have Andy there to help (and Peterson's). The parade was fun, Kate and Waylon were so cute - waving to every tractor and float, screaming in delight if they were throwing candy, and best of all, sharing their candy. Sometimes, they would grab their pieces and then give it all to the other one:) 
Collin was pretty sober, but liked watching the tractors:)




After doing a double nursing session in the van:) we headed into the grounds and got some some super healthy "fair food" :) I was very surprised and saddened to see that all the rides have been replaced by bounce houses! What?! I guess I get it, but that is sad. Kate thought it was cool, but is too scared to want to go in. She did want to ride the little train and of course Uncle Andy obliged:) Waylon and Kris found the demonstrations and they were pretty cool, though loud. It will be fun to go back with the kids next time. 
How cute are these two?
Chomp, chomp, chomp...

Had to get a shot of his teeth!
It seemed to take forever to get back to the car and get ready to go, but luckily, the kids were great again and the ride back was super peaceful. Gotta love anytime that happens!
This $5 waffle dog was a hit

The trip got a thumbs up from Collin:)

Labor Day Weekend

Going back in time....to Labor Day! We started it off right with some friends and fish fry:) This is one of our favorite new Wisconsin traditions, but this one was even better because of the location and our awesome friends. Devils Lake State Park is a beautiful place just south of Baraboo, about an hour from our house. We met up with Angie and Ryan and their two little girls, and some "new" friends - Karen, Tara and their little boy, Sevrin. It was warm enough that we played in the lake before supper (Kate, Collin and I - Dave stayed up in the shade with Ryan, a beer and baby Harper:) Then we had a super yummy supper and cupcakes to celebrate a few birthdays. The kids played and ran, we fed babies, ate and talked. Or talked as much as you can when every other sentence is interjected with, "Slow down! She can't walk as fast as you!" "I said don't push his stroller!" "Don't put that in your mouth!"  :) Dave always asks me if it was a fun visit with....well, any mom that I am around. And usually, I say - yeah! Well, I don't even know what we talked about, I'm not sure either of us completed a thought! Oh well, there is plenty of time to have quiet conversations later. 
 
Not my photo! But it is beautiful there....

Collin loved the fish fry:)
On Saturday, Mom and Dad came up to relax and we headed out on the boat to enjoy the warm temps. We went out to "Alcatraz" or Devils Island. As always, there were lots of boats, music, the pontoon grilling up brats and food. We ended up meeting up with some of Dave's friends from the hospital and played a little volleyball in the waist-deep water. After socializing at Alcatraz, we motored up to the restaurant, Splash and had a nice supper. 

The next morning, we walked/biked, boated out to Castle Rock County Park and then headed home to clean up for supper (need to do that every once in awhile:) and had a relaxed supper at Portofino Bay. I think they forgot about our order, we waited forever. We resorted to the the iPhone for Kate, Collin fell asleep, we sat out on the deck overlooking the lake - I didn't mind the wait at all! It was so relaxing and fun. 
We anchored off the beach at Castle Rock County Park
Not too bad, wish we could have stayed longer!
The next morning, we woke up to a very COOL day! Wow - what a difference. We took advantage and hit the tennis courts for awhile. None of us guessed Kate would love it so much! We couldn't get her to take a break:) We also played soccer and t-ball (Kate in a pink sparkly skirt of course:). It was a lazy day - too cool to even get to the pool, or get out of the pool! We can't really complain about that, though. Any time relaxing together is wonderful. Well, Mom and Dad and the kiddos and I. Dave got called in around 3 p.m.ish? He was there until 10:30 p.m. 
Pigtails flying!
Higher, Grandpa!
Future goalie?
Collin had a great time watching his sister play ball
It was a great Labor Day Weekend, like everyone, we can't believe how fast it got here!