Making gingerbread cookies

I just had to post these two photos of our gingerbread cookie-making afternoon. Donned our aprons (Larson: "We're chefs!"), mixed large quantity of dough, then rolled and cut to our heart's content! Yum.

Family snow fun

Here is a lovely view of the fresh snow we were treated to last week. Just like a dusting of powdered sugar! Post-snow, we got a morning of cool, sunny weather, perfect for dusting off some very old equipment of mine:

Once a skier...always a skier. I don't know if it's part and parcel of my Norwegian background, but there are just certain people who are born to love the snow (and if you aren't one of them, you probably at least know one...), and I get all giddy and smiley when the white stuff comes falling down. Even now as an adult. I remember when I was working in Chicago, in an office on the 40th floor of a skyscraper in the loop: we got a big snow one afternoon and I was just gazing out the windows, happy as could be and admiring the view. My coworkers, however, had nothing at all good to say! Lots of grumbling and complaining...it was then that I knew there was just something different about my constitution where winter was concerned. :) My ski coach used to say that it didn't matter how hard he pushed people or how hard they trained, if you didn't have "the love", you'd always be missing the most important ingredient. I'm sure this could apply to lots of other sports/pursuits, as well, but I've definitely learned what he meant.
Cora got treated to a ski around the 'hood on fresh but not too powdery (ie, perfect!) snow last Sunday. I think she liked it! Larson felt left out, but I'm not talented enough to manage to hold him and ski...and he's just a little too big for the bjorn. :) I'm trying to get him all psyched up for some ski lessons next winter! For now, he had to content himself with playing musher to Brett's sled dog action :)
Happy, happy snow day to all the snow bunnies out there!

More cute baby...

"I'd like peace on earth and some teething toys, please"

"Hmmm...this is taking a little longer then I planned; I wonder when lunch is?"

"Oh! There you are, mom! Hey, how's it going?"

"Just...can't...get 'em...all...in, no matter which way I try!"

+ Snow Day! +

Schools were closed for the second day in a row for unseasonably cold and snowy weather. Since our city has little or no snow removal equipment, we spent the day close to home. Here are the boys doing "work" at the breakfast table this morning:

And here is Brett pulling Larson in a vintage Sno-Tube. This gave Brett yet another occasion to gloat about keeping every piece of sports/recreational equipment he's owned since 1985. I'm still waiting for those first-edition roller-blades to come in handy...
Needless to say, Larson got a kick out of riding around on it and joining all the other kids in our neighborhood at the park for a slide down the hill. Yes, those are rain boots on his feet, but who would have thought we were going to need the other kind this winter?
Cora all bundled up for a walk in the snow:

It was a hot-chocolate-making, Christmas-cookie-baking, extra-book-reading, rosy-cheeked kind of day.

Tree trimming, shorty-style

Got our tree from a local lot this year, in my efforts to support local businesses (ie, not the big orange store...).

Larson was very into the whole deal and was super-excited to start putting on all the decorations. I loved getting all these pictures of him walking around the tree, putting up the ornaments exactly where they should all be if you're 3!

+ 4 months +

I can hardly believe our little cutie is 4 months already! Put differently, 1/3 of that magical first year is already over! The top photo is a picture of Cora in a hat that was mine as a baby. Not exactly the latest fashion, but pretty darn cute and warm to boot. And may I also point out the ruffle-butt pants?
So, what is Miss Cora up to these days? Most of her awake moments are spent as you see her above: fists/fingers in the mouth. She hasn't quite gotten to a thumb-sucking stage, but just loves to chew on the entire thing. Lots of drool. And here's a cool thing: have you ever read about "having a conversation with your baby?" You know, you make some sounds and she/he makes them back to you? Well, either I didn't have the right skills or Larson was too serious to participate, but I never really believed that this actually happened. Until now...Cora loves to make this gurgly sound at you and I've even initiated a back & forth with her by making it myself. She really is trying to communicate. I probably look totally wacko trying to do it, but aren't all of us parents willing to look like fools for our little ones?

Gotta love that smile! It just makes my day. As you can see, she's getting pretty good at lifting up her chest while on her tummy. And she's also pretty good at rolling onto her back these days. Still working on the reverse direction, so stay tuned!

+ 3 Years +

I can't hardly believe that it's already been three years since we brought our little baby boy home. And now he is a bona fide preschooler! By now I'm sure I sound like a broken record, but how time does fly. Larson, we are so proud to be your parents and we love watching you learn and grow. You surprise us all the time with your astute observations about the world around you, especially when we think you're not paying attention. You entertain us with your stories, made-up words and imaginative play. You are the highlight of our day when we get to hear your squealing laughter and see your bright-eyed smile. You catch us off guard with your pointed questions because sometimes we draw a complete blank trying to answer them. You've already become a watchful and loving older brother to Cora in just 4 short months. Happy birthday, congratulations on being three!

We had a family celebration with just the four of us for Larson on his actual birthday: cupcakes, teriyaki chicken (his favorite food) and presents. It was a great way to start out being three.

A party for the preschooler

Well, I disregarded the advice of some very smart and savvy people and decided to actually have a birthday party for Larson. At home. Turns out that when you turn three, it's not so cool to have all your parent's friends over for conversation and cake. No, we've reached the age where the little guy has his own friends and just wants them to come over and play. I've heard and read about little kids' birthday parties "gone wild" with hired performers, entertainment, etc, etc. Brett and I weren't quite prepared to go down that path (I was having nightmares about the opening scene from "Mrs. Doubtfire"), so we decided just to have a small gathering of Larson's friends for some playtime and cake. It's a fine balance between providing your child with happy birthday memories and going overboard with things that are really only important to adults. First, the cake: Larson wanted a chocolate cake with green frosting, so that's what we made. He was a great helper! I actually made the bigger mess when I dropped the bag of powdered sugar and coated my pants, apron, socks, floor and even Cora's toys with it. Oh, well, that's what dishrags and mops are for, I suppose :) I made "dirt" with crushed Oreo cookies for a couple of construction trucks to drive around on. Those were a big hit: here's Larson trying to guard his digger from everyone else and trying SO hard to be patient for my pictures before he could pick it up.
It also turns out that catering for a crowd of preschoolers is pretty easy: chocolate milk, mini corn dogs (sans ketchup, of course...I'm not that crazy!), PB&J and some fruit did the trick. Plus a few extras for the grown ups. Lots of people told me to keep the party short (my plan was about 2 hours) and keep the activities moving. I felt a little like a cruise director with my: "OK, everyone...who's ready for cake?" and "Let's all sit down so Larson can open his presents now." I'm a bit of a wallflower at social gatherings and I don't particularly like being in the spotlight, so it felt a little weird, but it was definitely necessary for someone to be in charge of the whole operation. Whew! Who knew it would be so complicated? :)

Anyway, it was a great day. I'm pretty sure the kids all had fun, especially when one of Larson's friends cried after his parents told him it was time to go home. Thanks everyone for celebrating with us!

We are grateful...

This year on Thanksgiving, our family has much for which we are thankful:

• An imaginative, happy, lovable and healthy little boy
• A thriving, smiley, cuddly baby girl
• Living in an amazing city where places like what you see in the following pictures are a very short drive from our home
• Two sets of doting grandparents to shower our little ones with love
• Our home which, though it be small, is our haven from the busy world
• Our friends and extended family who all make our lives much happier and joyous

I am also grateful for a loving, wonderful husband who is a fabulous dad, handyman, and partner. Not to mention all that he has had to put up with during my roller-coaster career, which he continues to do with very little complaint.

We spent Thanksgiving morning as a family walking the trail at Discovery Park. It was quite chilly, as you can probably tell by how we're dressed, but the views of the snow-covered Olympics were gorgeous and it just felt good to be outside. Even though most of the leaves are off the trees, I still find beauty in the quiet, barren landscape that is just patiently waiting for another warm season. And who can resist rosy-cheeked children?

Later, we stuffed ourselves in the company of our wonderful friends, with Matt's deep-fried turkey that was delicious, as always. I shouldn't be advocating that method of cooking, because I know it results in many ED visits every year, but done safely it's just so yummy! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Firetrucks and parenting

A recent (abridged) conversation over lots of screaming & tears while trying to leave the house in the morning:

Me: "Larson, would you like to put your shoes on, or would you like me to do it?"

Larson: "I want to do it!"

Me: "Ok, then, please put them on."

(L continues to play with truck)

Me: "Ok, well, if you're not going to do it, then I will."

Larson: "NO!!!!! I WANT TO DO IT MYSELF!"

(a couple more rounds of this...)

Me: "Ok, then please do it yourself or I'm going to pick you up and put you in the car without your shoes on."

(L plays with shoes, but doesn't put them on)

Me: "Alright, Larson, you're not listening. We're going in the car."

(LOTS of screaming as I pick him up, carry him to the car and practically sit on him to get the car seat buckled)

Sound familiar to anyone? I realized many months ago that negotiating with a toddler is pretty much a dead end and not really somewhere I want to go anymore. Fun times are not had by anyone. However, I'm not perfect and sometimes find myself doing it despite my best efforts. But really, who is in charge here? It's definitely not the 2 year old! I have to laugh at how commonly the toddler seems to rule the family. Sometimes I feel that actually having rules makes me the odd parent out, if you will. I was recently at a birthday party for one of Larson's friends and gave him the one minute warning (aka: time to leave soon). Another parent looked at me and said, "Yeah, right!" It took me a second before I realized what he meant was that it was a given that Larson wouldn't listen to me. I must have looked confused before I said, "well, actually, he knows that when the minute is up, I'll just pick him up and put him in the car, so yes, he probably will listen to me!" The look on this guy's face was quite entertaining, as if the idea had never occurred to him...

A woman at work told me this week that she read a study by the phone companies stating kids in college call their parents as many as 6-8 times a day. A day? I didn't even call my parents that many times in a week! My sister told me about a recent article in Business Week about business schools noting the increasing presence of parents in the application process. Whoa. This is a whole new level of the parent-teacher conference. What is going on here? Why are we so focused on pampering and spoiling our kids so that they will never encounter anything unpleasant in life? So they never experience frustration, disappointment, feeling "deprived"? Is that actually a good thing?

Granted, these situations are actually not that common in our house but regardless, do I like hearing all that screaming and crying? No, I hate it. It's definitely not the easy way out in the moment. But would I rather have Larson scream for 15 minutes because I made him get in the car/go to bed/sit at the table to have a snack, than have him grow up thinking that the world revolves around him and what he wants? Definitely.

All the above photos were taken last weekend at our local firehouse's "open house", where kids had free rein to climb all over the trucks. Very cool!

3 months old already

I can hardly believe that 3+ months have already gone by since we brought Cora home. It's actually kind of hard to get a good photo these days because she is constantly in motion. The one above was the best of about 15 that I took! She is a very social girl and loves to laugh and smile (sometimes all it takes is a laugh from someone else and she'll start in), but I haven't managed to get her to laugh and take the shot all at the same time...
Cora is definitely going to be a lap baby. There is a very frustrated, loud cry she has that's just reserved for when you put her down and she still wanted to be held (which is pretty much all the time anyway...) It's like she has her own little language. And the pouty lip comes out when she's mad about that, too -- so cute!
Other recent developments: Going for walks facing out in the baby bjorn/moby
Loves sucking on her fists
Discovering her hands, but still not quite sure of how they work
Likes sitting up or standing on your lap
Can be very chatty when in a good mood

Larson enjoys holding Cora on his lap occasionally, but will last about 2 minutes before he declares, "I'm all done." I suppose that's better then just shoving her aside! He's really been a great big brother so far: he's so interested in what she's doing, love giving her hugs and declaring "I love you, Cora" without any prompting from mom or dad. He also likes to name all the toys she can play with when she's bigger (no, Barbies aren't one of them, it's pretty much diggers and other various trucks) and the food she can one day try (mostly candy, which he's been fixated on since Halloween...).

I just love watching these two little guys with their developing personalities and skills. The time is so precious because I know I will blink and they will be leaving the nest soon enough. Here's Larson hard at work in his new playspace that he and dad worked on a couple weeks ago. We've had to get creative in our tiny house as our family has expanded, but at least it gives us an excuse to control the amount of stuff we have!

Halloween!

Yes, I know it's November, but I know there are some very eager grandparents, aunts, etc out there who didn't want to totally miss out on all the fun. Larson was very excited to be a pirate this year. He obviously had no recollection that he was also a pirate last year, or at least didn't seem to mind wearing his costume again. I didn't mind either, because my mom sewed him this really, really cute costume last year and I was quite happy to get it out again. We added a cool hat this year but I wasn't quite ready to get him a sword or any other kind of weapon. (Isn't it just so great that there are all these little kids out there who are in love with pirates but have absolutely no idea what a pirate actually is???) Here are Larson and two of his pirate friends:
Our Halloween festivities basically consisted of a boisterous party at Larson's school, then pumpkin carving at home with the family. It was really fun to see how changed Larson was this year compared to last at the same party. Last Halloween he really didn't have much of an idea about what was really going on and many of the activities and games they had were over his head. This year he could kind of do his own thing, with supervision from a few feet back as he made the rounds. My baby is growing up!

This is probably one of the favorite activites: the cookie decorating table! Above are Larson and friend Theo enjoying unbridled access to frosting and sprinkles. (too unbridled: Larson took the spoon in the bowl with chocolate chips - meant to get the chips onto your napkin, of course, and basically just shoveled an entire spoonful directly from the bowl into his mouth:)

Larson was a big helper with the pumpkin carving while Cora kept watch from her swing (see above...) I couldn't find the cute cat pattern that I used last year, so both pumpkins just got funny faces.

Happy Halloween to all the little ghosts and goblins out there!

Lagging behind...

In my posts, that is. We've had a busy few weeks in our household. First off, Brett was in Australia on a business trip for 2+ weeks at the end of October, so that presented some interesting challenges. Enter Grandma and Grandpa to help keep our family in one piece until he returned. Then multiple birthdays, a trip to the pumpkin patch and, of course, Halloween. I think I will probably turn all these happenings into a couple posts, rather than try to get it all in at once.

So Australia: Brett was in Brisbane which, for the uninitiated to the Southern Hemisphere, is on the eastern coast of Australia. He really enjoyed the friendliness of the people he met there and, despite having a very busy work schedule, was able to visit the Great Barrier Reef for a day just before the trip home. Maybe I can persuade him to do a post on his own about his experiences.

Enter Grandma to help out while he was gone (thank goodness!). She got to meet Cora for the first time and was a big help with both little ones. We ladies held down the fort just fine, thank you very much...

Our October would not have been complete without a trip to the pumpkin patch. We chose a different farm this year, and really enjoyed our trip. Just like our drive last year to pumpkin-land, we left on a very foggy morning and it was just so beautiful to be out in the fields as the fog burned off. A little cold, though, as you can see from Larson's bundling up. It didn't really occur to me to check the weather where we were actually going, instead of just in our neighborhood :)

The highlight of the entire outing for Larson was undoubtably the GREEN tractors that pulled the hay wagons. Picking a pumpkin was definitely secondary! Note the green pumpkin carefully selected by him at the farm. Our neighbors across the street joked with us that they knew which pumpkin on our balcony was Larson's and were chuckling to themselves as they watched it get more and more orange (and less and less green) every day.

The following weekend (still sans dad) was my first back on call, so more reinforcements (ie, Grandpa) were flown in. Everyone rose to the occasion wonderfully and we got through the weekend quite smoothly. Larson got to go "trick or treating" in our neighborhood downtown (for some reason they do it the weekend before Halloween) and his Grandma was very proud to report to me that he said "Thank You" unprompted to every person who gave him a treat. That's my guy!

Stay tuned for more on Halloween and our little 3 month old!