Weekend update

Norah's breathing much easier now that she's back on steroids...and thankfully, she's sleeping much better too. We're hoping everything resolves before we head to Thailand. I just checked the weather...the high today thru monday is 102 and on tuesday it's supposed to be 107. YIKES! It's going to be quite a change from Minnesota temps. Let's all pray that it cools down while we're there. Temps in the lower 90s would work for us. In hindsight, we probably should have taken the girls to Thailand in October when the temperatures are more reasonable; but, at the time we were planning the trip, it was cold and I was ready to get out of town. In any event, it will be an adventure.
It's been a rainy day here today. We basically just stayed home, spent a lazy day with the girls, and visited with our friend, Arvind, who is leaving MN and heading out to Washington in a couple of months.
Jim did take Lolo into work with him briefly when he got called in to take a look at a case. She was so excited to go with her dad. When I put her down tonight she was busy telling me all about how she got to sit in a special chair, and how daddy was looking at a lot of pictures at work :-)

Update on Norah and Lo

Norah had another really rough night. We went back to the pediatrician this morning, got 2 additional steroids for Norah, and a lecture for mom. There's always a question in my mind about when to take the kids to see the doctor. Do I take them early and (potentially) needlessly subject them to a visit or do I wait until it seems like they've really got a problem? Obviously, I lean toward the latter.
Lolo is with Willem today. She went over to play while I took Norah to the doctor. When I went to pick her up, she informed me that she wanted to stay there and have "quiet time" with Willem. Actually, she looked as if she could use a nap. We've had a busy time this week. Out to dinner with friends on sunday, monday, and tuesday night; multiple playdates; and lots of outside playtime. Yesterday, the Lolo ended up playing with Gordy and Frankie from down the street (after playing with Eileen earlier). Gordy, who is clearly very sweet on our Lolo (he's the one who gave her his only candy cane over Christmas), asked if Lolo could stay and spend the night. Um. No. That Gordy, at only 4 years old, he's a real slickster. We're going to have to keep an eye on him ;-)

Errand girls

We seem to be the errand girls lately. We've been trying to catch up on all the things that we (I) didn't do before Mexico and now, we're trying to get things done before Thailand.
Norah is still transitioning to one nap. We've had a rough few weeks with Norah's asthma...the cough she caught from Jim won't go away and she's been getting up every night to be nebulized. Lolo wants Norah to sleep with her, but we can't get the girls in together until (a) Norah learns to go to sleep without crying and (b) she's breathing better at night. So, in the meantime, Lolo is trying to convince either me or Jim that one of us needs to sleep in her room at night...because Dadabooboo's daddy sleeps with him so his mama can have more room to sleep at night.

Lolo reports...

Lolo reported this morning that her friend, Jacqueline, (from preschool and who lives down the street) "washes dirty movies."

Norah on her tricycle...finally going forward!

Jim's genes

This has to be the result of Jim's genes. Norah's working on learning how to use her spoon ;-)

A moment of peace

Norah is down for her mid-day nap. It's looking like we have a good shot at a one nap day today. Lolo is out with her dad. Jim has today off and he took Lolo to Schmidty's while he gets a haircut. She was beside herself with excitement over the prospect of going out with her dad. It's another gorgeous spring day. We've been keeping the girls outside as much as possible these days. Yesterday, Norah actually went forward on her tricycle for a bit, but mostly, she goes backwards. It's a real challenge keeping up with the kids on our bike outings as Lolo goes forward on her big girl bike and Norah keeps backing up. We'll try it again today. I'm hoping the girls will be moving in the same direction by the end of summer.

Advance trip alert...

Just a quick note...we're heading out to Chiang Mai, Thailand in two weeks. We're actually starting to make travel preparations now (shocking, I know). If anyone knows of good airplane games and/or toys (small, compact, lightweight...being key factors), please let us know. I'm struggling to think of things to keep the girls occupied in a confined space for 24+ hours.

A moment to brag

Lolo made a great pesto to go over our noodles tonight. She is quite the cook and seems to be developing a very nice palate. She, Norah, and I would taste it and then we would decide if it needed anything. She'd say, "I think it needs more pine nuts." And we'd throw a few more in. The resulting recipe had less basil, about 2 (maybe 3) times the cheese, and twice the pine nuts. Both girls are crazy about pine nuts. It's not your standard pesto but it sure tasted good. Lolo and Norah both ate a couple of pesto sauce straight up from the spoon.

Another wonderful spring day...

Lolo and I took advantage of the nice weather today and set up the birdbath in a more strategic spot for Norah at mealtimes. She's got such a fantastic eye for animals and we're really trying to encourage her enthusiasm....although, unfortunately, most animals seem to run from her (unless pinned down by their owners for her to pet). I'm not sure what it is, but something about Norah's unbridled enthusiasm really seems to spook animals.
We made another trip to the playground today. As opposed to the other day, when we had the playground to ourselves, today it was packed with kids. The girls wanted to swing for what seemed to be an eternity (my right arm pushing Lolo got a great workout). And then it was off to roam and climb and slide. There's a pretend "general store" at the playground where Lolo always likes to set up shop. Today, she was "Lucy" and Norah was her helper....they were fixing shrimp tacos and smoothies! LOL!

And finally, a video of Norah...

Here's Norah on her tricycle. She hasn't exactly figured out how to go forward yet.

A couple more pics of the girls

Jim says one day Lolo will look back and be mortified by her style statement. (Yes, she's wearing black ski socks with her striped pants hiked up to show off the socks).

Big day outside

We spent practically the entire afternoon outside today. It was a beautiful spring day. Norah rode Lolo's hand-me-down tricycle for the first time today and LOVED it. Surprisingly, she even enjoyed having her helmet on! Then the girls played with chalk and we visited with a bunch of neighbors outside. It seemed everyone was outside enjoying the beautiful day. Lolo was also invited to go watch her very first volleyball game this afternoon. She went with Julia (and her mom Nancy) to watch Eileen's volleyball game.

Spring in Minnesota

We're getting our first taste of spring. It's a beautiful day in the upper 40s with lots of sunshine. So the girls and I decide to walk over to the playground. We were there playing extremely hard for maybe 30 minutes until Lolo went down a big slide before I could check out the "landing zone". Unfortunately, there was a huge puddle and she splashed directly in it. Despite being soggy wet, she protested extremely hard over having to come home before she was ready.

The big day is not yet over. Both girls are taking some quiet time right now. And then we're going over to Willem's house to play. The girls are staying over there for dinner while I attend a parent/teacher conference at Lolo's school.

Getting ready for school

This morning as I am getting the girls ready to go out the door to take Lolo to preschool, Norah decides she needs to take her backpack to school too. No problem. But then, she also decides to help herself to a snack too. Hmm. It's starting to get a little complicated. And then comes the kicker.....she refuses to take off the backpack so I can get her buckled into the car seat. You wouldn't believe the fury that comes out of this 20 lbs bundle of energy!

Edible flowers and more

At school, Lolo is learning about spring and planted edible flowers today. She came home really excited...chattering about how there are certain flowers you can eat....just like the roses that Daddy got us for Valentines Day. It would appear that our little green thumb is looking forward to chocolate roses sprouting up in their school garden.
And as for our little ball of energy, Miss Norah has been getting herself into all sorts of trouble. She's discovered a way to climb up onto the coffee table in the living room and stand there like she's surfing. Every time I pull her off the table, she throws a huge fit. Luckily, Officer Lolo keeps Norah in check and reports her deeds to the proper authority. Norah also got "stuck" on the bathroom sink this afternoon. She climbed up to play in the sink, lost her footing, and ended up hanging on the sink for dear life. Just when we think we've got the house child-proofed, Norah proves us wrong.

Schedule change

Our schedule is a wreck these days. Lolo and Norah are BOTH down for an afternoon nap right now. I can't recall the last time both girls were truly down at the same time. Norah is slowly (but inconsistently) giving up her morning nap. And Lolo, well, who knows what is going on. She was so tired and irritable when I picked her up from school today and had multiple meltdowns before I got her in bed. Ugh.

Last video tonight

Norah and Lolo "jump" into the pool together...well,Norah has an assisted "jump". Her true version of jumping into the pool scares me. By the way, the sound on this video and the one below are terrible...we've got the underwater housing on the camera.

While Norah explores

Let's see if this video will work....
Check out Lolo making herself comfortable in the pool, while our explorer goes about her business...

More Norah and Lolo

Just because Norah's so darn cute these days.

And since we can't ever exclude our amazing three year old snorkeler....

While we're waiting on videos to upload...

An update from this afternoon.
Norah's early nap didn't "take". I got her back up. We played for a bit. Lolo got up. Norah went back down. Lolo and I decided to have a "cooking" afternoon since we weren't going to make it to Lifetime. Lolo made the sauce for noodle salad which actually turned out quite good. She was so pleased with her cooking and ate a bunch of noodles for dinner (all I did was cook the noodles and dice up a bunch of assorted veggies) . Even Norah thought it was good because she ate a decent sized helping as well.
After dinner, we cleaned up and the girls started dancing. Norah showed us a new move tonight. She has learned how to twirl around all by herself. It was so funny to see the girls spinning around to the music, getting dizzy, and dropping to the floor. I tried to get a video, but by the time I got the camera out (and Norah saw the camera), it was all over and I couldn't replicate the moment.
And more on Norah's new skills....she's figured out how to move the step stool over to the potty, climb up on the step stool, climb up on the potty, and then play in the bathroom sink. Lovely. This kid is two-steps ahead of Lolo on the "let's figure out all the things Mom doesn't want me to do" scale.

Video troubles

I'm having google video troubles tonight. Accidently deleted the Lolo swimming video below because the account listed it as a "failed" listing when actually another video that I was trying to upload had failed. Hope to have it back up in the next few hours. Also trying to post other videos. Stay tuned.

Transitioning

Lolo uncharacteristically requested a quiet time this afternoon. It's the post-vacation blues (or perhaps delayed jet lag). Norah is transitioning from two naps down to one....which, as most of you know, is a tough time. The past couple of days she only took one nap. Norah required a morning nap this morning and is crabby again this afternoon. I just put her down to see if she would nap but I'm doubtful because she usually doesn't go down for her second nap until 3pm (if she's had a good morning nap). Ugh. I'll be glad when she's really down to one nap. This transition time makes it hard to plan activities for the girls (and mom).

Here's our charmer

Norah has been charming everyone we meet lately. She had the girls helping us in Mexico head over heels for her and charmed everyone on the plane ride back with her smiles.

Our mermaid

Check this out. Lolo swims the whole length of the pool unassisted. Sometimes I can't believe she's 3!

The world according to Lo

While in Mexico, Jim had to inform me of a conversation he and Lolo had....
Lolo told him that if boys wanted money, they had to go to work. However, if girls want money, they just go to the bank.

Lastly, we corrupt our children in Mexico

We found an outstanding little restaurant/hole-in-the-wall called Lucy's....best shrimp tacos ever....ended up eating lunch there several times during the week (Lolo was partial to the fruit smoothies and homemade ice cream...Norah just ate her weight in shrimp). The ladies there would just grin when they'd see us. Other than Lucy's, we mostly at a places where we could sit outside with the sand between our toes. On St Patrick's Day, we took the girls to a restaurant that had swings at the bar. I would be surprised if Norah wasn't the youngest patron who sat in a bar swing by herself (we brought her high chair and strapped it in tight). Anyway, the girls had a blast. They both thought it was a really big treat to be sitting on a swing and eating dinner.

A bit more...

We also managed to get in a little bit of snorkeling on this trip. The reef just outside our condo was fine. Nothing outstanding, but certainly not bad (as if going anywhere warm and sunny and getting to snorkel could ever be bad). Lolo got a new snorkel for this trip ended up working quite well. And, the best thing? She spotted a turtle (aka "Crush" from Finding Nemo) while out snorkeling one afternoon!

Back to the girls in Mexico

As you can imagine, we spent most of the week in the pool and playing in the sand on the beach. Norah, who has developed at an amazing pace the last couple of weeks, wanted to jump in the pool just like her sister. (Video to be uploaded later). We really had to watch her like a hawk. You wouldn't know it to look at her, but Norah is as quick as lightening. She'll be at the side of the pool in a second and then plop in without hesitation. I thought Lolo was fast as a baby, but she doesn't hold a candle to Norah when it comes to speed.

Another amazing Norah-factoid....this baby-girl has an amazing eye for spotting animals. On this trip, she would spot birds, lizards, cats, dogs, etc. way before any of us would see them. She'd wave at them and start babbling up a storm to the various animals. Jim and I would look in that direction and sometimes it would take us quite some time to see what she was looking at. Neither of us have ever seen a kid with such a keen eye for animals.

More on Mexico

This post isn't directly related to the girls....but, one afternoon, while Lolo was playing in the pool and Norah was down for her nap....we happened to see a series of water spouts forming. If you click on the picture and see the large version, you'll see the funnel cloud and you can barely make out where it connects to the ocean gets the water spinning. Wickedly cool.

Back from Akumal

Well, we're back. It's a miracle we went to Mexico at all. The day before we left, Norah had developed a runny nose (happens all the time)....unfortunately, this time things were a little different. By about 11 pm we realized she was having trouble breathing and ended up in the emergency room. Yikes. After a couple of nebulizer treatments and steroids, Norah and I came home around 2:30am. Jim and I got up around 3:30am and we were all in the taxi on the way to the airport by 4am for a 6am flight. Thankfully, Norah's airways cleared up by monday evening and our sweet little pumpkin was back to her old self by wednesday. In any event, we think the warm air and humidity probably helped considerably.

The above pictures are from our first day in Mexico. Lolo is her usual smiley self...showing off her sunglasses (that she picked out herself because they look like her dad's). And Norah is feeling good enough to be blowing kisses.

More to follow.

Next week...Mexico

Just an FYI - we're heading down to Mexico on monday and will return on sunday. We're renting a tiny condo in Akumal and won't have any blogging access from there.
Jim's had a tough week....lots and lots of work. Plus, all the snow is melting at a rapid pace and our backyard is now a swamp (sadly, the igloo is basically gone)....except for the ice rink on our driveway. Our driveway is in the shade and collected huge snow drifts during the storm, which we then packed down with our cars as we drove in and out.
This afternoon, Lolo was "ice skating" on our driveway....showing off the spins that Ashley taught her....all the while chattering away about how to spin on one foot, how you have to keep your balance, how Ashley is a really good ice skating teacher, and how we should really call her Miss Ashley. LOL!

A first for Lolo

In addition to helping me bake a chocolate cake this morning, Lolo made herself her very own peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch today. Woo hoo! It won't be long before she's making meals for everyone.

Walter

This morning, Lolo brings her "Walter the Farting Dog" book in to Jim and asks him to read it to her.
He said no.
She asked why.
Jim replied because he didn't want to read about a farting dog.
She said "But you have gas."
I about bust a gut.
Thanks for the book Nick & Carolyn.

Being 3 is frustrating

Lolo has had a frustrating day. She woke up this morning in a funk. As she said, "I don't know why I'm crying, but I just can't stop." Things seemed to even out after breakfast (I think she was just hungry). And when she came home from school, she was trying to tell me about her day and what Miss Karen and Miss Deidi said about her. Unfortunately, I had a hard time understanding. They said she was a shark? (They're learning about ocean animals). "NO Mama!" They said she was sharp? "NO! Mama!" They said she was short? "NO! NO! NO!" Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to both of us, I finally figured it out....Miss Karen and Miss Deidi said our Lolo is SMART! I couldn't agree more. I have a translator (Lolo) for Norah but sometimes it would really help to have a translator for Lo.

Igloo

It appears the igloo is stronger than we thought. Jim climbed on top of it tonight and it seems to be holding up quite well.

More from today...

It's warming up and the igloo is starting to implode. I actually just closed off the door to keep kids and animals out...just in case.
Norah is transitioning to one nap. I think this time it will take....a little more than half of the kids her age are down to one nap now. It's a struggle. Some mornings she needs a nap. Others, like today, she just refuses one. And then she'll fall asleep in the car on the way to pick up Lolo. Well, in any event, I think she'll most likely be down to one nap by summer....which really opens up the world as far as things we can do.
We're still trying to go to the gym after lunch...I don't know how long we'll be able to keep that up. We may need to switch to the mornings in the near future - nap dependent, of course. Lolo is my motivator. Every day she'll ask me, "can we go to Lifetime today?" For some reason, she just loves going to their child care center.
Speaking of going to the gym, I had misplaced my gym card this afternoon and was searching for it. Lolo looked at me and said matter-of-factly, "well, it can't just walk away!" I guess she's heard that once or twice.
Anyway, Lolo is at Willem's house playing and Norah is down right now. Hooray. A moment of peace!

Oops...Busted!

Yesterday afternoon, Lolo and Norah were digging through my office trash can. Lolo came upon some of her drawings that I had discarded (since she makes many drawings a day, her art is overflowing our house). Lolo was shocked. "Mama, someone threw away my drawings! Who would do that?!" Oh boy.

Big strides for Norah

Norah has been making some remarkable strides lately....well, I guess, it's technically, a bunch of little things that add up to one big stride. As most of you know, we've been a little concerned about Norah missing various milestones. Well, she's still not talking (although the other day, Jim insists that when he asked the girls who wanted to do something fun....he and Lolo were stunned to hear Norah say "I do!"). In any event, Little Miss Negative Attention Span is slowly increasing her attention span. In the past week, Norah has managed to sit still for a couple of short books at a time. A big wow for Norah who previously couldn't sit still for a single page of a short book. She has also become increasingly snuggly. It's like a switch went off in her and she decided that she likes to be hugged and kissed and perhaps more sweet (to me anyway), she loves to give hugs and kisses. A very nice change. Of course, a lot of this is probably due to Norah copying everything her sister does (which irritates Lolo to the ends of the earth).

Lolo's search

Yesterday, Lolo was outside digging in the snow. When she came in, I asked her what she had been working so hard on....she said "I digging for polar animals. " Our artic explorer was searching for polar bears and penguins. Unfortunately, we report disappointing results, as there were no polar animals to be found yesterday. We shall continue the search later....

A few more pics

A picture of the igloo and winter campers. Sadly, it's supposed to get close to 40 degrees later this week. We're guessing the igloo will start to implode sometime late this week. In the meantime, we'll try to get some playtime outside in the next few days.

And lastly, a photo to provide a sense of scale from the inside of the igloo...I think you'd be surprised by how spacious it is inside. Anyone interested in camping up here with us next season?

Winter camping report

Well, they did it. Sort of. It was kind of rough going last night. Lolo had to go potty around 12:30am and getting from the warm sleeping bag to our house got her really cold. I ended up carrying her upstairs and tucking her into bed. Jim stayed out there with Mike and Julia. But around 4:30am, Julia started getting cold (we don't think they had the right gear) and so they went home. Jim decided sleeping by himself in the igloo wasn't any fun, so he ended up in bed around 5am. As Lolo explained to me this morning "I cried two times in a row and had to come inside. Next time when we sleep in an igloo, I won't cry." We love her spunk and spirit!

Finally, winter "camping"

Jim built a HUGE 11 foot igloo today. Supposedly, it can sleep 6 adults comfortably. Amazingly enough, we have lots of snow to spare. Jim and Lolo are finally outside sleeping in their igloo tonight. Mike and Julia (from down the street) came over to camp out in the igloo too. It was really hard to tell who was more excited about sleeping in the igloo tonight....though, I think Jim has the slight edge on that one. Lolo was more excited that her friend, Julia, was spending the night. It's currently 13 degrees outside...supposedly, it will be about 34 degrees inside the igloo. We'll see. The back door is unlocked in case anyone gets cold. Photos to follow.

My Little Pony

Here's a conversation from this morning between Jim and Lolo, as Jim was getting Lolo dressed for the day:
Jim: Here Lolo, you can wear "My Little Pony" panties today.
Lolo: Daddy, it's not your little pony, it's my little pony.

Sometimes I forget...

Sometimes I forget that Lolo is only three years old....at times she seems much older and mature. But then, she picks a book to read, such as her current favorite..."Rootie Kazootie & the Pineapple Pies" to which she cackles with glee as she merrily rhymes "Rootie Kazootie Tootie Pootie". Lovely. Thanks Gramma Peg for the book. And then, because the pineapple pies in the story are very special polka dot pineapple pies, Lolo insists on "poking" me whenever we talk about "poke-a-dots". Yeah. Thanks again Gramma Peg.

Tonight, Lolo and her dad are out to see her friend, Eileen, in a church play (Norah is down for the evening). We had been talking about the play at the church for the last couple of days. As we were getting her ready to go out the door, she was excitedly chattering about getting to play with Eileen and Julia at church. Oops. It seems we didn't explain that "going to see a play" is different from "going to play". I hope she's not too disappointed.

Lastly, photos of Lolo's hairdo when she returned from Eileen and Julia's house this afternoon. It seems that the girls enjoy treating our Lolo like she's a real life doll and had a lot of fun getting her all fixed up for her evening out.

Icicles for the girls

We've got icicles and the girls were very excited and curious about them. I couldn't get over how Norah wanted to hold and taste her icicle. It really made me smile to see her enjoying a bit of winter. And of course, Lolo enjoys anything that has to do with winter. Here's another picture of Lolo in the igloo.

Snow day

It's still snowing outside. Yahoo!

I took the girls down the street to visit Eileen and Julia's igloo. Tried pulling Norah in the sled but it was rough going. She didn't like all the bumps...so I transfered her to the pouch and we walked there....me, breaking the trail and Lolo trying to make her way through waist deep snow.

Remarkably, Norah seemed enchanted with the igloo. She crawled right in after Lolo. I was pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, Norah got cold after a bit and I ended up bringing her home for an early nap. Lolo is still playing hard at Eileen and Julia's house.

Supergirls

Here are our superhero girls....Super-Nor and Super-Lo...busy saving the world!

In the spirit of snow....

Here's another Tico "pulling" Lolo video:

First real blizzard?

Looks like we may get to experience our first real blizzard today. The prediction is for over a foot today (on top of the 13+ inches over the weekend). Very exciting. We're planning on building an 11 ft igloo this weekend.
I was debating whether or not to take Lolo to school this morning with all the snow that was coming down. But, they didn't cancel school, so off we went. I hope that I'll be able to pick her up without issue. My mommy-mobile doesn't have the clearance that Jim's wagon does....this is the first time we've been here in MN that I've wished that I had a high clearance 4 wheel drive car.