Taking advantage of a nice day

I checked the weather report and noticed that we're supposed to get about 6 inches of snow tomorrow. How crazy is that?!
Anyway, since today was so nice and since the sidewalks are clear (but for the huge puddles), I took the girls out for a very short bike ride. We got to the end of the block and saw Eileen and Julia. The girls stayed and played for a bit and then we headed back home for lunch and a nice nap for Norah.
After Norah woke up we walked to dinner with Eileen & Julia's family. Unfortunately, on the way back, Lolo stumbled and skinned her knee and her chin. There's probably going to be a scab in upcoming pictures. In any event, she cried pretty much all the way back, into the house, all through our goodnight call with Jim, and through getting ready for bed and brushing her teeth. The stories seemed to get her mind off of it and by the time I tucked her in, I'd say she forgot all about it.

Tricycle

I forgot to mention....Michael's old tricycle is the same size as Norah's old tricycle. She still can't reach the pedals. She got frustrated and tired on the tricycle and I ended up carrying her back from the playground. Bummer.

Norah's first show

Norah attended her first theater production this afternoon. Photos are from intermission.

But first, I should provide the full story.

We did have a very busy morning. The girls and I went for a bike ride to the coffee shop with Willem & Michael's family. And then from the coffee shop, we went to the playground. After the playground, we came home for lunch and then Norah took a brief nap (maybe 45 minutes....she usually gets in at least 2 hours...preferably 2.5 hours). I woke her up early, so we could see "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie". The girls seemed to enjoy the show....although Norah was very sleepy through most of it. You can probably tell from the picture she was dozing in my lap and was rudely awakened by intermission. Lolo enjoyed it as well...although she was disturbed by the mess the mouse created and the fact that there wasn't much singing. I think she prefers shows with singing and dancing (frankly, I kind of do too). Anyway, after the show, we came home for dinner and the girls collapsed into bed (after a bath and three stories). Another adventure awaits us tomorrow....

Face painting

Of course, the girls needed to get their face painted too...

Children's museum

In case you haven't guessed, the girls and I went to the Children's Museum this morning. More pictures to follow...

Climbing Wall

Jim and I recently went to a local climbing wall. While there, we were debating whether or not the girls could do it. Well, here's the answer...Norah loves holding on at the lowest level...not really climbing but having a good time. Lolo is a monkey just like her dad. She climbed all the way to the top of this wall.

Since we have to be fair...

And because we have to be fair....here's Lolo's song. Norah is standing beside me listening to the recital and she so sweetly claps for Lolo when she's done. I just love these girls to pieces.

Norah's song for Jim

Here's a song from Norah to her Dad...I don't know if you can tell, but Norah picked out her own outfit this morning. It appears that she's developing a uniquely creative style just like her sister has.

The past two mornings, Norah has come into our room and looks for Jim. She goes over to his side of the bed and acts really surprised "Oh. Daddy not here!" And yes, we've talked about Daddy being in Thailand many times.

Jim - Norah is requesting that you shop for the same Elmo shirt that you got for them last time. I told her you might not be able to find it again but that you'd look. We'll keep our fingers crossed that you'll be able to find it.

Tricycle

I just took a good look at the tricycle....I think the chance of Norah reaching the pedals is slim....very, very slim. She wants so badly to be a big girl and pedal like Lolo. The other night after dinner, Jim and I took the girls out for a bike ride. Norah was chattering on and on about how she was a big girl just like Lolo and didn't need a boost. (Of course, I'm pushing her the whole time she's chattering on her trike because she can't reach the pedals).

With Love to Dad from His Girls

Jim is on his way to Thailand right now. I believe he's currently over the Pacific somewhere. The girls and I are staying put here in Minnesota this week and will be uploading pictures for Daddy all week.

Another busy day...Willem & Michael came over for dinner and a playdate. We're heading over to their house tomorrow afternoon for the same. Today, Norah got Michael's old tricycle that he's outgrown. We're going to test it out tomorrow (hopefully it will be warmer) and see if she can reach the pedals.

We miss you Dad!

One more swim video

Just one more Norah swim video...

A few more swim school pics

First Day at Swim School

Today was Norah's first day at swim school....she's been waiting on the sidelines her whole life and FINALLY got to jump in and actually swim. Jim and I were so proud of our little fish. She was an amazing listener....paid very close attention to her teacher. You could tell she was just so focused. No problems getting her face wet and blowing bubbles...and her little legs just kicked, kicked, kicked. She'd swim a bit, turn to look at me and Jim to make sure we were watching her, big grin the whole time. Even Lolo was proud of Norah....she kept watching Norah during her lesson. So sweet. It took a lot of energy and concentration today, so Norah had a great nap.

Here's a video of Norah plopping into the pool with a big arm up "Ta Da!" at the end. What a tremendous first day of school!!

Circus dates

We just received notice that Lolo will be in the following circus shows. Please mark you calendars and we hope you'll be able to join us.
May 8 - 7pm
May 9 - 7pm
May 10 - 1pm

Chocolate

The girls found the candy in the eggs and you could just see the wheels turning in Lolo's brain while Norah just busily stuffed her face. Hmmm.

Easter Sunday

Today was probably one of our busier days. After church, we went over to Willem & Michael's house so the kids could have an egg hunt and lunch. Lolo was very excited about looking for eggs with Willem. Norah found about 2 and then got bored with looking for eggs and started to play with toys instead. Oh well.

Then we came back for some quiet time. And then we went over to Eileen & Julia's house for another egg hunt and dinner. For some reason, the second time around, Norah really got into the egg hunt. She found 5 and was so tickled...she was holding my hand and said proudly "Mama I find so many!" And then, the girls discovered candy inside the eggs. Up until today, I've managed to just do Easter eggs with stickers, matchbox cars, etc. You should have seen Norah's face when she discovered there was chocolate and jelly beans inside the eggs. Let's just say, both girls had more than their share of sugar today.

More on Easter Weekend

Since a walk to the Nook and then sledding wasn't enough enough excitement, we (mostly Jim & Lolo) built a snowman. The snow was perfect. Norah even managed to roll part of the snowman. And, I was very impressed with the snowball that Lolo managed to roll. When Norah went inside for her breathing treatment and nap, Lolo and Jim completed the snowman (with help from Willem & Michael who came by a little bit later).

Happy Easter

It's the snowiest Easter that we've experienced thus far. Very fun. Yesterday, we took the girls out for lunch and walked to the Nook with the girls in tow. Afterwards, we hit the hill in front of our home for a bit of sledding.

Big Girl

Norah is taking this whole being a "big girl" thing very seriously. You can tell she's still thinking about her pacifiers. Every now and then out of the blue she'll say "Babies use pacis. I not baby anymore."
This morning, Egon was here cleaning. He said something to Norah and called her "baby". Oh no. My, my, my. Our Norah was offended and proceeded to correct Egon with her little index finger up and wagging. "I not baby. I big girl." I'm not sure he's been corrected by a two year old in such a manner before.

Songbird

I really wish I could capture this on video....Norah has become such a song bird. She loves to sing...but gets a little shy about it. The other morning, Norah was singing a song (in the hallway upstairs) with the sweetest lyrics. "I love daddy.....sooooooooo.....much....." Jim was laying in bed listening intently with the biggest grin. Norah ran back into our room and we told her how much we loved her song. Jim asked "what about mommy?" She ran back out into the hallway to sing "I love mommy and daddy.....daddy sooooooo much."

Cookies

We took advantage of a snowy Good Friday to bake and decorate Easter cookies. Eileen and Julia came over to work on cookies with the girls. Norah's a pro at eating icing and cookies. Lolo is a cookie-pro. She's a real artist when it comes to cookies. Right now, Lolo is out at the Mall with the girls to ride some new rides while Norah takes a good nap to come down from her sugar high.

New Feature

I'm testing out a new computer feature today. I've set up my office for video conferencing and thought it would be nice to have it available to family/friends who might want to video chat with the girls. I think we're going to use AOL's IM video feature. Email me if you're interested.

Bike ride

The snow has started to melt and so we dusted off the bikes this past week. Lolo grew like crazy over the winter and has completely outgrown her Dora the Explorer bike from last summer. So we got out Eileen and Julia's big girl bike and discovered that we had to raise the seat on that too! I don't exactly know how much she grew over winter, but it was significant.

And well, Norah....let's just say, she's almost able to pedal her tricycle. She still needs about 2 more inches before she can reach the pedals for a full rotation. She can rest her feet on the pedals now if they are positioned "just so". Anyway, we went out this afternoon. The girls got on their bikes and then got distracted with making "mud soup". Lovely. We had to go back inside once Norah found a bit of ice on the sidewalk, slipped, fell, and got muddy. (Luckily, she was all bundled up and even still had her helmet on so she didn't crack her head).

Speaking of mud....get this...Norah, our resident mess maker...the girl who is the messiest eater on the planet...the girl who makes mud soup with her sister....got a little bit of mud on her rain boots, and then the mud got on her tricycle pedal. Oh my! You would have thought the world needed to stop. "Daddy! Mama! Mud on my pedal. Wipe it off!" Gee.

Smiley girl

Here's our big girl at lunch... in her booster with a big pear smile.

Overview of events

I have to say that I'm frankly amazed at how well Norah has done with giving up her pacifiers AND staying in her big girl bed (now that she doesn't fall out). She has made such huge strides this week....no more high chair, no more pacifier, no more crib....all while being sick. On top of all that, we had to go shoe shopping this morning since Norah outgrew her sneakers and dress shoes. (Actually, Lolo outgrew her shoes too....but it seems Lolo grows everytime I sneeze.) My baby is now officially a big girl.
Speaking of growing girls...here's my venting for the day...Lolo needs long pants. And Target is selling SHORTS and dresses for Minnesota summers. Yes, they are in spring/easter colors but come on....it's Minnesota...there's snow on the ground still. What's up with retail? Don't they have kids who grow inches over night like mine does?!?!

The vicious bug

We've got a vicious bug that has been circulating in our family the past 7 weeks. Jim's been sick for a little over 7 weeks now (despite 2 courses of antibiotics). The girls and I had the first round during our trip to Whitefish. I'm just now getting over my second round. And, poor Norah is now right in the midst of the cold I just got over. She's miserable today. Poor kid. In a way, it's good she gave up the pacifiers yesterday....she sure wouldn't be able to breathe with it in her mouth now. Let's pray Lolo is spared from the awfulness of this round.

Success

Norah made it through the night in her new big girl bed. I did have to go in and create a make-shift headboard for her so she wouldn't keep falling out. And, last night was a bit of a challenge as she kept waking up and had a hard time falling back asleep (presumably because she didn't have a pacifier). In any event, she woke up in her new bed this morning and was able to get out by herself. Lolo and Norah were up and about; happily wandering around upstairs first thing in the morning.

Oops

Just came back from a Norah-rescue...she fell out of bed. Apparently, she's used to sleeping with her head against the top of her crib. Her big girl bed doesn't have a headboard and she just fell out and bonked her noggin. Oops.

All tucked in

The girls are all tucked in. I'm waiting with anticipation for them to fall asleep. Norah was completely jazzed up over sleeping in her big girl bed tonight. I'm hoping she'll be able to stay in the bed. Luckily, we've got Lolo the Watchdog sharing the room.

Big Girl Bed!!

Big news today. This afternoon Norah took her first nap with no pacifier. When she woke up, she was ready to "send her pacis to Vic's baby" and sleep in a big girl bed. Woo hoo! We said goodbye to her pacis and set up her big girl bed.

Her crib is still set up in the room (in case she develops a bad case of "get out of bed-itis") and needs incentive to stay in bed. Norah is really keen on being a big girl and not a baby these days...so I think the threat of being sent back to the baby crib will be incentive enough to stay in bed at night. I said something to her the other day about being a baby and she corrected me..."No I not baby. I two!"

Getting back in the groove

We're working on getting back into the groove here. Unfortunately, I've been a little under the weather the last few days....but, I've been on the upswing since this afternoon. No more fevers/chills/aches. But enough of my moaning and groaning....
Norah has now switched into Lolo's cushy purple booster. She's completely excited to be out of her high chair and into Lolo's booster. Lolo is thrilled to be rid of her booster.
I've been debating about when to move Norah into her big girl bed. She hasn't tried to climb out of her crib in the last few days. A part of me is tempted to keep her in the crib for a little while longer. We'll see. I'll probably change my mind and be up for the challenge once I'm rid of this cold.

"Toy" of the Week

We had groceries delivered during the week (we didn't want to drive because of road conditions). Thankfully, our order came in two cardboard boxes. As you can imagine, the boxes were the hit "Toy of the Week." The girls spent an unbelieveable amount of time in the boxes. Sometimes I wonder why we bother to buy toys.

Another ski video

After some consideration, I've decided to upload the following video of our "extreme" four year old skier....but first a little context.
In order to "ski in" to our cabin, we had to ski down this seemingly steep incline (we kicked in steps with our boots up the hill to ski out in the mornings).... You'll notice that the hill starts about the height of a garage (I've got my ski poles in the snow for a slight reference point as well)....Jim and I packed the snow down with our skis to make a "trail" with a small jump at the end...by the end of the week, Lolo was able to ski down the "trail" to our house.
Frankly, this wasn't nearly as scary as having Lolo ride a chair lift. The kid has absolutely ZERO fear (or respect) for heights. She was complaining to me the whole week about how her teachers wanted her to sit with her back to the chair, but it wasn't "comfortable" for her to ride that way and they wouldn't let her hang her arms over the bar. (Lolo would complain "Why I have to do that?! It's NOT comfortable!") I have to admit that I've got a strong grip on her everytime we ride the lift together...whether or not there is a bar in front of us...I tell her I'm just hugging her because I love her so much....one day she'll figure out the death grip is because she terrifies me on the lift.

Pop Paul...you may not want to watch the following video.

Ski Buddies

And then for some smores...

Some smores after the hot tub....

and some light map reading with dad to determine the next day's adventure...

After a hard ski day...

After a tough day on the slopes,

we all enjoyed the hot tub....Norah couldn't wait to get in and swim in her private pool.

Lolo ski update

We had Lolo in ski school for a total of four days. She will proudly report that she started off as a "yellow dinosaur", did a ski off, skipped "red dinosaur", skied 2 days as a "green dinosaur" and then finished off with two days as a "purple dinosaur". She's solidly a level 4 skier (out of 6...she still had orange and blue dinosaur left). I should mention that the age group for her class was 4 to 6 year olds and she was the only 4 year old purple dinosaur during our stay.

On our last day, Jim and I took Lolo out on the mountain and skied all over. (Click here for a link to trail maps). As a special treat, we took her to the top and had a very special "grown up" lunch with her on mountain. By the end of the trip, Lolo rode the following lifts : White Otter, Explorer, Swift Current, Ramcharger, and Southern Comfort. Not bad for a four year old!

Just one more picture

Back from Big Sky

We got back last night from Big Sky. It was probably the longest 2 hour flight we've ever taken. We sat on the runway for what seemed like forever on the way back. Then we waited and waited and waited on luggage. Ugh.

Anyway, we're back. The girls were thrilled to see their toys. Lolo commented that she'd love to stay in Montana - if she could bring all of her toys with her.

Notice, I do have my card reader. I'll upload later this evening once the kids are down. They're stirring in their beds and I'll be hearing Norah calling out, "MOM, I hungry!" and "MOM, I poopy!" before too long.