Dude Quotes

Today after lunch Otto started to fall apart. He was very tired and a bit sick and could no longer hold it together. I told him it was time for a nap and while he was whining and crying telling me he didn't want to, the whole time he was walking upstairs to his room. I tucked him in, closed his door and didn't hear a single peep until 3 hours later when he woke up. Clearly he was very tired. When I went into get him from his nap he said this to me...

"I was a little mad at you mommy but then I took a few deep breaths (quick deep breathing example) fast like a race car in my bed."

Then he jumped down from his bed, grabbed my hand and we walked downstairs to have a car race.

In our midst

Who knew that right in our house was a budding Ray Charles?? Otto was quite taken with the concept of preforming songs while at the cabin. There will be many more pictures to come and stores of the wonderful time we had, but for now bed and perhaps some tea are calling my name to help ward off the cold the children are hell bent on sharing with me.

Cabin

Both kids in bear jammies, good food, family, music... What more do we need?

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving. We are enjoying a lovely mini-vacation at the cabin where we are about to embark on a three day feasting event. This is by far my favorite time of year. Enjoy your turkey!

Happy Birthday Shannon

For the record

Ever since we installed radiant heat in our kitchen I have been tripping over toys while I am cooking. I think that the cats may not be the only members of the family that like to lay on the floor.

Just a thought.

This about the boy who refuses to wear socks or slippers as "he is NOT cold!!"

A tale of two stories

The first story of the evening really isn't much of a story. There really aren't words that do justice to how fantastic this outfit is. Rachel bought this tank-underware combo for Isaac a long time ago and when it became apparent it was not going to fit him, Otto scored it. He was kind enough to model it for us this evening. It is perhaps the greatest thing I have ever seen.

Action Shot

For the second half of this evening's post we go to Mette. Poor little girl. She is teething again. It explains the sudden regression in sleeping. She has been stuffy at night, clingy during the day and chewing on everything while drooling up a storm. All signs point to teething. I don't know what teeth she is working on now but I hope they cut through fast, or stop for a while. It's funny with teething she really seems to be most bothered by it at night. Which makes us all tired. During the day she can often be distracted though sometimes it is all too much and she just needs to be held. This afternoon was a time like that. She didn't take a great nap and was pretty cranky when she woke up. There is only so long I can hold her before my arms start to give in so out the ergo comes. That thing is a life saver. We were dancing around the kitchen to some good music on Pandora having a lovely time. I tried knitting while holding her, but my arms get sore. So I read magazines and straighten the kitchen. All the bouncing and music made her tired and she finally fell asleep to catch up on some much needed sleep. It is hard some days to have someone literally attached to you all the time but it is important to remember that she won't be this little for long. Before too long I won't be able to hold her all afternoon. So even though it isn't always what I had planned for the day, it is always a nice treat. Besides, she is really snugly and smells so sweet.

Sleep Fail

For the past few days we have been making huge breakthroughs with Mette's sleeping. After a terrible night of eric comforting her while she screamed for an hour and a half insisting that I nurse her to sleep despite not being hungry, she started stretching out. In fact she was doing 3 and 4(!) hour stretches. It was all going so great, then last night hit. Let's just say by 11:30 I was exhausted and put her in bed with us. That isn't a great fix, she still wakes up, but at least I am not getting out of bed as much. Let's hope that tonight is better. I would say it couldn't be worse, but I know not to temp fate that much.

No Excuses

I realize I haven't been up to the bar with the posting lately and there are many reasons, just plain forgot the first night, too tired the next... but really what you want is news, not excuses so let's move on.

As I mentioned before, Rachel and her boy are back from Uruguay which has meant much fun and playtime for all parties involved. Yesterday Rachel had a chiropractor appt. in the morning so the boy came here and we hung out while she went to be cracked. Being schlepped from continent to continent has made this little one a bit on the shy side without his Mama and he was in need of some extra coaxing to get him to play. In fact he seemed so quiet and snuggly that I suggested we head up to Otto's room to play quietly. This seemed like a great idea and he headed upstairs right away. Once there he climbed in bed and started reading books. It didn't take long for Otto to join him and before long they were snuggled in together reading stories. You better believe I found the camera for that!

While in South America our friends also traveled to Buenos Aires for a vacation within a vacation. While there they picked up these wonderful t-shirts for Otto and Mette. I LOVE them! Otto is shown below showing his "sharp claws".

sleep

want to know something amazing? I was in bed, horizontal, from 12:15 am to 6:15 am this morning. It was glorious. Mette was up at 2:30 but eric was able to get her back to sleep without me!! I can't remember the last time I was in bed for that long. Before she was born for sure. Now lets just hope that we can do that again some time soon. I could get used to it! That being said, I am not getting my hopes up, then I won't be let down!

Family

I am of the opinion that family comes in many forms. Anyone who knows even a little about my family tree will not find this hard to believe. There is the family you are born into, and the family you are given and the family you choose. Here in the burg we have some wonderful family. I am lucky enough to know some wonderful women with children the same age as Otto and Mette, (some just a few weeks apart! ). Together we share the good and bad of raising children. It is always good to have someone to talk to when you are thinking about selling your children to the next person you see on the street. In August Rachel and her family headed to Uruguay to soak up the culture while her husband was there on a Fulbright. While we were very excited to hear about all of their adventures while they were gone and enjoyed reading Rachel's hilarious and very well written blog, it way better having them home. They arrived home this afternoon and it was quite the hero's welcome. For a little we had three 2 year old boys, Mette and her partner in crime Jack all in Rachel's living room making sure every toy that had been neglected for the past three months saw it's fair share of action.

Things are back to normal. Feels good.

Why teach your children to speak . . .

. . . when you can teach them to ROAR!

This never gets old

Little did I know that the Moses Basket was going to turn into the best toy ever.

They have literally been entertained by this for two days now.

Everything old is new again

Last night a friend returned the Moses basket I had leant her (well, actually her daughter) that we used for Otto and Mette both as babies. As a baby I can count on one hand the number of times Otto actually seemed like he wanted to be in the basket and actually slept. Mette was a bit better, but not much. This morning however it was a different story. The basket was returned while he was sleeping and was still sitting in the living room when he came down this morning. It didn't take him long to climb in and demand a pillow and blanket. He also wanted me to sing to him while he "fussed".

Later in the day is was a racetrack for cars, it is oval after all.

Mette 9 Months

Mette had her 9 month appt. today. News flash, she is healthy, happy and right on schedule. She weighs 19.4 lbs. and is 28" long. Tapering off a bit in percentiles but that is totally normal. When they asked about her eating I responded "well, she is sometimes in the mood". The doctor didn't seem the least worried that most of the time she scorns all things on a spoon. I did say that she likes it a bit better if she can feed herself, but still it can be hit and miss. She was glad to hear that she has had yogurt, cheese, tofu all the categories they look for at this age. Mette wowed them all with her cuteness and darling babbling. Both she and Otto got flu shots which went better than expected. Mette didn't even flinch or cry! Amazing. Otto was a bit weepy, but I think it was more drama than anything. He got over it pretty quickly. The one thing we did discuss is the small bump Mette has had above her left eyebrow since birth. At first they thought it was a small piece of bone that hadn't settled but they are changing their tune now. It looks like it is a cyst and actually both the doctor and I think it is getting bigger, though not very quickly. She doesn't think it is dangerous, but since it is on her face she is sending us to a plastic surgeon who works on babies to see what they recommend. They may say that it will go away over time which would be great. They may also think it is a good idea to get rid of it now before it gets bigger or causes problems. This also being her 9 month milestone, we get to take her to the hospital next week for the iron and lead level blood work. That is always a treat! Ugh.

Other than that, we are having a nice day around the house. Got some cleaning done, have Thai Chicken soup on the stove and am off to fold laundry. Nothing but glamour, glamour, glamour here.

Hi Ho

If I didn't think Otto and Mette were cute before, I sure do now. Today after lunch they spent a good 20 minutes playing together without me having to intervene at all. They were hiding in and amongst the kitchen chairs for a while. Otto was pretending to be a fireman and rescue all of us while sliding down the kitchen chairs like they were firemen poles. Then they moved into the dining room where Otto followed Mette everywhere much to her delight. He was crawling right alongside her and talking to her the whole time. She was in seventh heaven. He would get toys to show her and she would chew on them, it was perfect. He even played in his cardboard train which makes her belly laugh. There is something about seeing him in the train that she thinks is really funny. He thinks the reaction he gets out of her is the best thing ever.

Mette got so dirty climbing all over the place (really, I had JUST cleaned) that I put her in new clothes for her nap. Well, new jammies, but really when you are just little does it really matter? During dinner,while wearing her second jammie outfit of the day she managed to get ahold of the bowl, the only part of eating she is really interested in, and do some serious damage.

I know, I know, I know

I missed posting yesterday. I wish I had some great reason why but honestly, I chose sleep over the blog. Eric got home last night after being away or super busy for most of last week. Once the kids were tucked in their beds I realized there really wasn't much else I was going to be capable of other than following suit. I will have more to write later but now I am going to attempt to get both children to sleep, at the same time!!

I will say we went and saw two more preschools this morning one of which being the "crunchy granola" (eric's words) I am involved in and it was awesome!! Beyond awesome actually. The other one was in a basement with horrible lighting which kind of made me squirm. Plus one of the bouncy ball things had "I LOVE JESUS" on it in big letters. I know Otto can't read and I know the preschool is housed in a church though not affiliated with it, but it was a bit more than I could handle. A shame though because the space is really nice and they seemed to have nice toys. The crafts were totally lame though in my mind. Letting the kids pick what color paper they want to rip to fill a pre-formed shape does not count as artistic creativity in my mind. They didn't hold a candle to the Nature school where they were making pictures using leaves and seeds they had found outside and I heard the teacher correctly i.d. some unusual leaves for the kids as they were making projects. While she was softly singing clean up songs in spanish and getting ready for circle time. Like I said, too cool.

nothing better

the kids and I are spending the weekend at the cabin with my parents while eric is in L.A.. One of my favorite things about being here is sleeping. Since the kids were born I haven't been able to take full advantage of what we like to call the cabin effect and essentially sleep through the first day spent here. I am happy to say though that Otto is starting to catch on. This morning he slept until almost 8, even with Mette and I walking right by him at 7 to go downstairs. He sleeps in the coolest bunk bed/cave here right outside eric and I's room. I just went to peek in on him and he is totally sacked out. I don't think I have ever seen him so out. He looks so snuggly and comfy I want to climb in bed with him. But as soon as Mette woke up in the next hour or so the fun would be over. There is something so nice about all three of us being tucked into our cozy beds in the woods. The only thing that could make it better would be if eric was here.

Breakthrough

Otto has always been very afraid of anything loud. For some kids the sound of the vacuum cleaner is calming, not for Otto. When he was a baby it was almost impossible to ever vacuum because he was so freaked out by the noise. Luckily we have true earphones meant for racetracks for him now. Up until just the other day you could vacuum if he was wearing his headphones but he wouldn't come anywhere near you because he was still scared. He has overcome his fear and now wants to help. I am not sure which is better....
If his skills improve I will like this better, but he has a ways to go before he actually picks up dirt.

This is going to be a long road

In an effort to post everyday, I have some great photos of Otto that I had planned to post today. There has been a sort of technical error and I will not be able to show them to you today. The photos have already been uploaded to iPhoto on the silver mac which I use for all posting. Now eric is using that computer and I am using his work laptop. Tell him to switch you say, yeah, he is doing real work and I am just babbling so he wins. He just returned from a work trip to New York working on this
and is now preparing to leave early tomorrow to head to L.A. for a few days. Somewhere in between all of this he is trying to prepare for classes next week which includes finishing a new chapter in his series of "you suck at final cut pro" videos. So here we sit, me blogging and him editing away on his time line. It is a wild and crazy friday night here at out house.

I will say though that I did make it out of the house for a bit this evening and met with some friends for a drink and discussion about the future of the Nature School that we all sit on the board of. Which brings us to the discussion of preschool. We are currently in the throws of visiting and eventually choosing a preschool for Otto to attend next year. I am going to say it now, I am over thinking this to the extreme, but knowing that is not stopping me at all. We saw one school this week where some good friends whose opinions I respect send there children. I was not filled with buckets of love for the school. The truth of the matter is the school I really want does not exist in our town but I am hoping to find something that is close to it. On Tuesday we are going to see the school I am involved in as well as another contender in the list. The more I talk about all the options with friends, the more I realize the granola school I have been working with for many years now, really is the place I want Otto to be. The whole thing is overwhelming and crazy and it is just preschool. Sending him to Kindergarten where they now have standardize testing is not going to be easy, if at all doable for me. Lack of schooling options is one of the main drawbacks to living where we do. What I have to remind myself of all the time is how much of your education comes from your home life. I am totally confident that the enviroment our children are raised in at home is one of continued interest and enthuiasim for learning. That helps me put everything in perspective. Sort of.

Two in one day!

NaBloPoMo and I am using up two good posts in one day! Crazy! But thanks to Nona Jen, I figured out how to easily access the photos on my phone. I have a bit of catching up to do.

First, here are some photos of eric and Otto at the Bean in Chicago from the summer.

Awhile ago I promised you some pictures of Otto riding a pony at the Apple & Cheese festival in Canton. It's really a shame it's not pretty there.

Fang

Mette has been super busy lately. With teething that is. On Tuesday of this week she cut her second top tooth and fourth bottom tooth bringing the grand total of teeth up to 6. I thought Otto got teeth fast but she is putting him to shame. Thankfully, now that the teeth are in she is much happier. She has not really been her happy self for a while now and we can see why. She still has some nasty teething diaper rash to get over, but it is looking much better already. With her new chompers comes a desire to eat more things she can gnaw on herself. I got her some of the Earth's Best little ABC's crackers as I remembered Otto loving them. Well they are a huge hit with the girl. They also keep her occupied for a while which allows me to get dinner on the table which I love. One drawback, they make a HUGE mess. Well, actually it isn't the crackers making the mess, it is really Mette smearing them all over the place. Good thing a bath is always next on the agenda after dinner!

You may be wondering why if I am giving her something so messy to eat I don't have a bib on her. Good question. The answer, she just pulls them off. Ugh. Otto did this too so I can't be too surprised, but still. Soon she will be ready for the straight jacket bibs from IKEA that were the only thing to stay on Otto but they are just too big right now. So I just strip her down to her onesie and let her go at it. We start meals with bibs, but they only last a bite or two.

Treat

So there is a certain someone in the southern hemishpere who has been wondering about our Halloween pictures. I personally think that perhaps he is just missing the candy that comes with Halloween but I will oblige with pictures. It should be said that this is really just a tease. We took very few pictures as we had Grandpa Chris along and he was taking pictures. Just as soon as he posts his photos from the weekend, you can rest assured I will steal them and post them here for all to see.

We had a great weekend with Nona Jen and Grandpa Chris filled with laughs, yummy food, gelato and candy. Otto had a wonderful time Trick-or-Treating. He totally got the concept this year. He pushed doorbells and knocked on doors. He had no hesitation saying trick-or-treat as soon as some one came to the door. I was surprised that he was very good and only took one piece of candy each time. He hesitated just long enough to choose the best piece, but never long enough that the offer might be withdrawn. He was quite pleased with his loot and has been enjoying his special treats. Mette charmed everyone with her fierce tiger ways from the stroller and seemed to enjoy being out in the night air.

Otto and I carved this pumpkin as our lure for Trick-or-Treaters. It seemed to work well as we gave away almost all our candy.

A sneak preview of the night in action.

Food for thought

Today after a bit of a battle getting Mette to sleep I went to work in the kitchen. Right now both the kids on a good day are taking a nap at the same time in the afternoon which allows me a golden opportunity to make dinner. It is really my only time to work on such things as Mette has given up her morning nap. An hour and a half later, as I was reloading the recently unloaded dishwasher, after getting dinner ready for the oven, I was thinking about how I spend my time. I had just spent over an hour madly chopping, peeling and stirring (you think prepping for a dinner rush is hectic, try getting dinner done before the kids wake up!) when I could have been doing any number of other things. From here I began to ponder the feminist movement, and my place in it. I have always had a tough time with feminism. I am very grateful for the opportunity to embrace the work force. The chance to go out and be anything I want to be is a gift countless generations of brilliant women before me would have given anything for. And yet, what I really want to do is stay home and cook. Well, to be honest I want to do more than just cook, but I want I don't want to do is join the BIG workforce. I want to stay home and teach my kids to cook. Teach them how to bake, and sew. Plant a garden with them, teach them to care for it and to look forward to each harvest. I want to take that harvest and turn it into food for the winter by means of canning and preserving. Basically I want to teach by example how to live a more sustainable life. Not just because I think it will help them lead fuller lives, but because I want to live this way and well, they are at the mercy of my decisions.

So how does all this fit into feminism? I want women to have all the same opportunities as men, but I am not interested in them for myself. Honestly I think men and women have different strengths and are just simply better at different tasks. That isn't to say that all women are better cooks or nurtures or that all men should carry the heavy loads, but in many cases it works better that way. And why shouldn't it? The best teams always have players with individual strengths. Nobody would want a baseball team of all 1st basemen, why should a marriage be any different.

While all of this is buzzing through my head I sat down to take a quick check on Facebook before the small ones stirred. A good friend posted this (you really should click over and read it, it's short but great) which played right into what I was thinking. Am I helping women take a step back by not joining the workforce? Is a dinner of real food and true time spent with my family more important to me than that? These are big questions. But when it comes down to it, I believe that making a life where you understand where the things you have come from, largely because you were part of the process, it more important than just about anything else.

Love

This has nothing to do with the kids, but I saw this and have to share it.

If I were a free wheeling hip single chick I would live in places that looked like this, and this. I would have fabulous parties that everyone would die to be invited too. I would read long books all the way through. I would make my own clothes from fantastic one off fabric designers. I would wear hats and fantastic scarves. and boots, tall impractical boots.

Not saying I don't love the life I lead, but a girl can always dream.