Bragged too soon

Norah is unfortunately back on her old schedule. The other night was apparently a fluke. Major bummer.

Our little monkey

I don't know when this happened, but overnight it seems Lolo has turned into a monkey. The other day we're in her room. She turns to me and says "Mom, watch me." She proceeds to climb up the headboard of her bunkbed, up and to the top of the other bunkbed and touches the ceiling! Clearly this was not the first time she had done this trick. We had a long talk about climbing furniture and beds. (Later, Jim was reading a book to her about going to the dentist....the book has a picture of bunkbeds and a little girl was hanging over the side...Lolo explains to her dad "We don't do that.")

Then this afternoon, we have a snack, we're in the kitchen getting ready to go upstairs. She calls out "Mom, watch me." I find this monkey HANGING on the fridge. Both hands on the handles of the fridge. Feet OFF the floor. There is now a footprint on the fridge and the freezer side. Unbelieveable. Yes, we have another talk. But gosh.....secretly, I'm quite impressed!

Hooray for Nor

Today is a BIG day. Last night, Norah went to bed a little after 8pm. She cried a bit around midnight, but put herself back to sleep. Then she didn't wake up until 5:30 am!! WOW. I couldn't believe it. I woke up around 5am in a panic and was up trying to decide whether I should go in and check on her. Unbelieveable. I think it must have been the durian I ate yesterday...the flavor probably came through in the milk and it really agreed with Norah and she slept extra long. Speaking of durian, Lolo really loves it as well. Both girls are going to be good international cuisine eaters.
This morning, Norah was all smiley AND her tooth is officially through! It's the bottom front left tooth. I think the one right next to it is about to come through as well.
OK. Confession time. Vicki has noticed that Norah is usually naked in most of the pictures. Here's the deal. Nor is constantly sweaty AND she's a mess.....therefore, if she were to wear clothes throughout the day, she'd have to go through at least 3-4 outfits a day in addition to all the baths she takes after each meal. I am not enthusiastic about laundry. Hence, naked baby. I promise to try to dress the child this winter (when she's in Minnesota).

Update from school and more

As an FYI - Lolo did fine at school after I dropped her off. Long story about why she was so upset (but the essence is that they put her in another class on wednesday because her regular teacher had so many kids crying and they thought Lolo would do fine because she's usually extremely easy going.....)
In other news...Norah's first tooth is starting to emerge!! We saw a little white on her gums this morning....although I guess technically it's not all the way through yet because you can't really feel it. You can just see it. Anyway, we've waited soooo long for this tooth. I'm counting it as here.

Tough day

We're off to a rough start. For the first time ever, Lolo decided she didn't want to go to school. She wanted to stay home with me and Norah. What a tantrum. Boy, it was tough dropping her off with the tears flowing. I seriously thought about turning back and saying "it's ok. come home with mom and we'll play today." But gosh, what a bad precedent. Needless to say, she's at school....tears and all.
Today is Ashley's last day. We're going to be very very sad. I don't know that we'll be able to find anyone close to being as wonderful as her. Lolo is so in love with Ashley and Norah does exceptionally well with her.

More from BWCA

Trouble with uploading pictures

I'm having some difficulty uploading pictures from our trip today. I think it's an issue with blogger.com. Will keep trying when I get a chance.
In the meantime, here's a video of Lolo paddling Lake Saganaga with her dad. We got her a miniature paddle that looks just like ours.

ag

If at first you don't succeed with mom...try someone else

As you know, Lolo has been trying to get me to take her to the playground during Norah's naps - effectively trying to ditch poor Norah at home by herself. Well, obviously it never works.
Yesterday, I found out she tried this tactic with Ashley - only with a twist....she tried to convince Ashley it was ok to leave Norah at home while they went to the playground - saying Norah wouldn't know that they were gone. How scary to see how Lolo's mind works!

BWCA Part II

Norah really blossomed this week. It's like she's making up for lost time during her colicky period. All smiley and giggly. She's constantly cracking us up these days. At the cabin, Norah sat next to Jim all week and she'd purposefully throw her spoon down, look at Jim who would say "You crazy little rat!", and she'd squeal in delight.
The cabin was really nicely situated. There were ripe raspberries and blueberries all around the house. We had wild blueberry pancakes a couple of mornings, mixed berries with cream for dessert, and just fresh berries out of hand....though Jim and I quickly learned if we wanted to have berries for pancakes or dessert, we had to pick them when the girls were down for naps. Otherwise, if I had Norah and was picking berries, as soon as I had picked a berry, you'd start to hear Norah "ah ah ah ah" until I popped a berry in her mouth. Lolo, being older and more sophisticated would just say "Can I help hold the bowl?" And then she would sit down, say "I need to rest", and proceed to polish off whatever was in the bowl.
Norah and her daddy really bonded this past week. There were daddy-the-pony rides, upside-down-Norah times, and of course lots of fresh berries.

Naptime

Yesterday I'm trying to get the girls down for an afternoon nap. Lolo looks at me intently and asks "Why I have to take quiet time when you're tired?"

BWCA Part I

We drove up to Lutsen late last friday evening. Stopped for the evening at a little roadside motel. The girls got us up bright and early. Once we stepped outside, there were mosquitos and biting flies everywhere. Yikes. Not off to a good start. But the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. We picked up the key to the cabin after breakfast and headed up the Gunflint Trail (about a little over 2 hours more to drive).
The cabin is at the end of the Gunflint Trail. Part way up, we noticed dark clouds of smoke. Hmmm. A forest fire appeared to be raging. But, the cabin rental office hadn't mentioned it and we hadn't read anything in the paper about it. Must be ok.
We've got a canoe at the cabin and decide to take the girls out for a paddle and swim. Norah had a rough time in the canoe. Actually, it was hot (around 90) and she hated being in the life vest and hated that she couldn't move about freely in the canoe. It was a very short ride. Instead, Lolo and I jumped into Lake Saganaga for a swim. Brrr. I've about decided that if it's a lake in Minnesota, I'm going to need to wear a wetsuit. Lolo loved it and just swam her heart out. Jim had to take over once I got uncomfortably cold. Since we haven't had a video in a while, here's one of Lolo "schwimmin". The videos from this trip are a bit blurry in the conversion but you get the general gist. Hooray for our mermaid!

In any event, the wildfire turned out to be a big deal (Jim took the fire photo about 5pm one evening....eerie don't you think?) So far, more than 30000 acres have burned. (This is a link to a really nice blog in the area to read more about it). And unfortunately, it was quite close to where we were staying.....however, we found it very interesting. The folks at the cabin next door had their sprinklers going on their roof. I have to say, I've never been anywhere before when people have felt the need to water their roofs before. The first night it was hot and we didn't think anything about the fire. During Norah's 2am wakeup call, I got up to find thick smoke. I woke Jim up and we ended up closing up the windows every night. (The cabin, obviously, didn't have airconditioning and in 90 degree weather, we had the windows wide open).
More to come....

Back from BWCA

We got back on saturday evening. Getting back into the swing of things. The house is complete chaos right now. Not only do we have to contend with the post-trip mess, but we've got painters here working on our house.
For those keeping up with the BWCA fire....yes, we were right there. It was a smoke-filled week. The house next to us had sprinklers going on the roof. Full trip report with pics and videos later.
I've got lots of work to do in the next few days.
ag

Procrastinating

Our trip is tomorrow. Haven't packed anything. Here I am blogging instead. The ultimate procrastinator.
The girls had a big day today. Lolo got invited to Eileen and Julia's house to make vanilla ice cream and then stayed to swim. We're heading over to David's house tonight for his birthday party later tonight.
I really should be packing.

Hide & Seek

We just finished playing the loudest game of hide & seek I've ever played in my life....probably the loudest game that's ever been played on this planet. Lolo would count. Norah and I would "hide" (usually around a corner some place). Lolo would call out "1-2-3 - I coming! And I'd call back "OK" (so she'd have a hint about where we were). Then thud-thud-thud. Lolo would come running. Lolo would find us and both girls would squeal and giggle like you wouldn't believe. If Norah saw Lolo before Lolo found us, she would start to giggle and squeal - giving away our "hiding" spot. You wouldn't believe all the noise!

Packing up again

We're heading out on friday night to the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area...yes, of course, with the girls. No, we're not really camping this trip. We've rented a cabin and a canoe at the end of the Gunflint Trail. It's supposed to be fairly remote so packing up is a bit of a challenge again.....can't just run to Wal-Mart for something I've forgotten (and I've never been really good at planning menus a week at a time...every day I just cook according to mood). It's a 5 hour drive up north to pick up the key and then another couple of hours to the middle of nowhere. We're doing the first portion at night again. It seemed to work fairly well last time.
Hopefully, it will be cooler up north. We're supposed to hit upper 90s and maybe 100 this weekend. Ick. Are we really in Minnesota?!?!
We've been plagued with home repair issues all summer so it's nice to get away and to try to forget about all the troubles (we've replaced a bathroom sink, repainted inside, replaced drywall....but still need to replace somemore, need to repaint some more, have had our screened porch area worked on and reworked on and reworked on, new compressor and motor in the fridge, new sprinkler heads for our lawn, and the list, unfortunately, goes on and on). Boy, there are days when I do wish we were renting again. I'm not exactly sure how a couple manages to both work outside the house AND still get stuff like this done. Seems like I'm letting people into our house and overseeing things all the time.
Poor Lolo. Summer camp is her chance to get away from it all too. Yesterday, Jim asked her what she did all day. Lolo sighed and said she had to help me. Oh the drudgery of being 2 and having a cruel mama who makes you "work" instead of playing outside all day! (OK, we did manage to sneak in a tea party or two while we worked).

8 months today

Norah is 8 months today. A milestone. We're trying something a little different and have moved her into the guest bedroom to see if that helps her sleep a bit more at night (in addition to feeding her full of avocado, squash, and cheerios). Theoretically, she doesn't need to eat at night. She just wants to eat several times a night. Unfortunately for Norah, she's the second-born and I'm just plain tired. Let's keep our fingers crossed and pray she does well.

Taking advantage of quiet time

Since it takes a miracle to get both girls down for naps at the same time, we're making the most of a no-nap-for-mom situation by giving both girls individual time with mom. At the moment, Norah is happily playing with Lolo's toys - the ones that usually get Lolo screaming "Moooooommm! Norah's trying to take my toy!" Earlier, Lolo got to run through the sprinklers and draw with chalk uninterrupted.....although she did try her best to convince me that it was ok to leave Norah at home to nap while we went to the park to play. Um. Yeah. Nice try kiddo.

Up and moving

Norah is crawling and pulling herself up all over the place these days. Lolo is finding it increasingly frustrating that the "baby" is getting into her toys. Norah really enjoys her new found freedom. She'll crawl away from me, go play with a toy for a moment, and then come crawling right back - as if seeking some reassurance. It's interesting to see the differences between the girls - Lolo just needed to hear my voice at this stage....Norah needs a little more.
Speaking of needing more, Norah's eating every 3-4 hours again. If she doesn't start sleeping for longer stretches at night, we're not going to get along very well. I'm trying to pack her little tummy full of things that will keep her full (high protein, high "good" fat foods) but to no avail. Hopefully, we'll get through this stretch in a bit. If she weren't 25th percentile, I'd probably be a little harsher at night but gosh, I wish she'd grow a little bit more like Lolo.

It didn't long...

Well, it didn't take long...
Today we're sitting down for lunch. Lolo points out a spot on our tile kitchen table where it's a shade darker.
Lolo asks me, "What happened to the table there?"
I reply "I don't know."
Lolo says "I know."
I ask "Do you?"
She says "I spilled milk and it left a mark."
I say "Is that so? How do you know?"
Lo says "I know everything."
Not even three yet and she knows everything. We are in trouble.
ag

Things we shouldn't laugh about in front of the kids...

Lolo has been keeping us in stitches. Unfortunately, it's with things that we really shouldn't laugh about (in front of her at least....I'll let her read about it in the blog after she's in college).
The other night, Lolo is singing at the top of her lungs (dad's genes at work). Dad tries to join in on a duet. Lolo doesn't want him singing "her song". She climbs up on him. "No! No! Daddy. Stop. Zip it. Tape. Tape." She proceeds to pretend to zip up Jim's mouth, throw it away and then tape it up for good measure. Where does she get this stuff?!?!
The same night, Lolo (who has discovered the art of name calling), decides that it is great fun to call people "booty cheeks." Oh boy. I'm anticipating getting phone calls and/or notes from school about this one.
ag

Lolo the mermaid

Lolo went swimming at school. Miss Sandy was again so impressed with our girl. When I went to pick up Lolo, Miss Sandy said "Lolo is a mermaid!" Lolo grins really big and says "I a mermaid!"

The other little girl named Lolo

Yes, it's hard to believe. I forgot to mention in the earlier trip report posts.....there is another little girl named Lolo in this world. While in Isle Royale, we met another little girl named Lolo who was from San Diego (of all places). How crazy is that!?! In one of the least visited national parks, we meet a little girl with the same name. And to think...we just made her name up as an extremely abbreviated form of Little Olivia.

I'll show you mom!

Last night, Norah is having a terrible time settling down. She's crawling all over her crib, pulling up to her knees on the side of the crib, sitting up, crying her heart out the entire time....just generally having a hard time of going to sleep.
Jim and I are watching her pull herself up to her knees in the crib. I make a comment about how it just seems that our Norah's not as aggressive about standing as Lolo was.......BAM! Norah-Kate pulls herself up to her feet immediately. Stops crying and looks at us with a big gummy grin. That will show you mom!

Backseat driver

Norah has a rough night. Therefore, Jim and I have a rough night. I try to sneak in an extra few minutes of sleep. Unfortunately, it was a few too many. We're late for school. I'm rushing to get the girls out the door and to school. Admittedly, I have a tough time backing out of our driveway on a good day. This was not a good day. On about the 4th try, Lolo pipes up in the backseat..."Daddy's a good backer."
I say, "Yep, Daddy's a good backer."
Lolo asks, "Why you not a good backer?"
arrrgh!

Getting back to real life

Back to real life....laundry, dishes, getting the girls back on their regular schedules. Norah's been running a slight fever since we've been back....lshe's got a virus that is making her feel kind of ick. On the bright side, she's still got her smiley moments when the tylenol kicks in. And, she's starting to pull herself up....not quite standing yet. She's able to get on her knees, gets tired, can't figure out how to get back down, and starts to cry. I'm pretty sure she'll figure it out in the next couple of days.
ag

Sandal rock art

A question has come up regarding the sandal rock art and its origins. To answer the question, here's a photo that shows art in progress, courtesy of a rock-loving 2-going-on-10 year old.

Happy to be home

Last thought for the day....
As we're settling in, Lolo is playing happily in the living room, talking to herself and her "little girls". She comes into the kitchen and announces "I miss my toys soooo much!"
Yes, it can be good to come home.

Trip Report Part V - the final installment

We spent thursday back on the ferry back to Grand Portage. A night at the casino lodge for a swim and good night's sleep. Then we made our way back south to home. But first, a few stops. The most interesting (to me and Jim- definitely not for Lolo or Norah) of our stops was to the Split Rock Lighthouse where we went up and down about 110 steps to get to the family photo-op spot and then a picnic lunch (unfortunately interrupted by some rain and an abundance of mosquitos). Further south, we marked spots on our MN State Parks map for future trips with the girls and did a quick drive through Jay Cooke State Park. We've got State Park fever now that we've got our $25 annual pass, we're going to see how many we can hit this next year.
So, that's the trip report. Next up....Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in two weeks.

Trip Report Part IV

We spent one morning hiking to Scoville Point. With Jim carrying Lolo and myself carrying Norah, we took a "leisurely" 4.2 mile hike out to a rock outcropping where we stopped and enjoyed a serene picnic type snack/lunch. We started the hike on the lookout for moose and the elusive wolves. Quickly, it became apparent that the 4 of us were not going to be sneaking up on any moose or wolves. Luckily, wild strawberries were ripe and we were able to sneak up on those quite effectively. (Next time, we're going to try to time the trip when the wild blueberries are ripe.) It was the very first time any of us had tried wild strawberries. Wow. Tiny, but intensely flavorful. Lolo couldn't get enough of them. Poor Norah is going to have to wait until another trip.
All in all, it was a very successful trip to the island. Wildflowers of all different types were in bloom. The mosquitos were manageable (considering where we were). We managed to spot moose every day on the island....we even saw twin calves on our way back to Grand Portage (from the ferry). One of the neatest things (to us) was encountering a mama duck with her 17 (yes that's 17) ducklings....and watching them follow her and climb up on her back.
Final trip report to follow....

Trip Report Part III

Early monday morning, we load up and head to the ferry. We're on the Voyageur II which takes us from Grand Portage to Windigo to Rock Harbor (our final destination). You'll see from the photo that the boat isn't very large. In fact, it's the smallest ferry we saw in Rock Harbor. A little boy saw the ferry in Rock Harbor and commented loudly how it looked like a tin can. The captain corrected the boy saying "actually, it's an aluminum can." I think quite a few of us had reservations about getting on this ferry (which also happens to serve as the mail boat).
We leave the dock promptly at 8am CDT. Stop for 30 minutes in Windigo (just enough time for a double diaper change) and a short rock hunt. Then back on the ferry - arriving in Rock Harbor a little before 3:30 EDT. Luckily, the lake was extremely calm on the way out. And, the engine was very loud so we didn't really feel bad when the girls had their mandatory crying fits during the day. The girls did exceptionally well on the ferry both on the way out and return trips. Lolo played with her toys, rocks, and sang a medley of tunes. Norah smiled and grinned at everyone....and thoroughly enjoyed the wind in her face.
Once we arrived at the island, we checked into our cabin. No, I wasn't brave enough to camp with the girls. The cabin is like an upscale 1950s girl scout camp (if there can be such a thing). It came complete with spiders and other bugs to make it a "wilderness" experience (I was pleasantly surprised to find that we were able to keep the mosquitos out quite well...and yes, they were enormous). However, the view (see side photo) from our back window (which is actually the entire backside of the duplex cabin) is beyond spectacular. Private and unspoiled. Isle Royale is a very interesting island. No roads. Accessible only by boat or floatplane. We (Lolo, Jim and I) actually spent part of a morning sitting on the float plane dock - throwing rocks in the water, looking for fish, watching canoes and kayaks go by, waiting for moose, and watching the planes come in. (Norah took the opportunity to nap in her pouch). Lolo was quite interested in why this prop plane (we watch Jay Jay the Jet Plane so she's familiar with different types of planes) would land on water and didn't have wheels. I'm seriously considering the plane option on our next trip there....either that or a shorter ferry ride from Michigan.
Trip Report Part IV to follow.