Jedi Training

I just got out of the shower. The entire time I was washing my hair I couldn't figure out why my arms and upper back hurt so much. We have been walking a lot more the past few days, but that wouldn't effect my arms.

Then I figured it out. For the past few mornings Otto and I have been doing Jedi Training on the Dagobah (aka the third floor). I am usually Luke (it is the only time he relinquishes control of the Luke character) and he is Yoda. As Luke I do a lot of push-ups and plank position with Yoda (otto or, if I am lucky, mette) on my back.

I see a work out video in the works.

When they don't sleep...

To be fair, it is only Mette who isn't sleeping. Otto is still a champ in that department. Mette is still holding strong with the whole "I don't take naps anymore" routine, so we are countering with the "we will run you ragged and you WILL sleep" approach.

These first two photos are actually from a few weeks ago, but they are too cute not to add.

To start, Mette has taken to falling asleep in the shopping cart at the grocery store. One moment we are cruising the produce aisle and she is chatting away, the next she is bobbing her head and coming darn close to creaming into the handle with her head.

From now on, car carts are the way to go. Luckily they both LOVE them!!
We are fortunate to have a University which kindly supplies us with a Field House where we can take the kids and run them hard regardless of the weather outside. Racquet ball courts are fantastic for kids. They can hit the ball anywhere they want and not break anything and there is a door to keep them in. Genius!

Like I said about the door.... Remember to close it all the way!

Otto is actually getting much better at hitting the ball back to eric. All of the sudden he started making contact with the ball.

Power Shot

Mette ran in circles for a long time, then decided to rummage through my bag and found the tissues. Tissues are like empty boxes, hours of fascination.
While it is at times tempting, I promise we don't just line them up and beam them with frisbees.
Otto is getting pretty good at throwing the frisbee. Catching it is still a bit scary, but he gets some great throws in.
So much that he was all sweaty and had to relax with some water.
Better check out your knees. Otto falls full speed on his knees all day long. They are one big bruise. It hurts just thinking about it.
Today was crazy beautiful. We were outside from 11:45 this morning on.
We had lunch at a place just outside of town with lots of room for the kids to play and explore after lunch.

Today was one of those crazy light spilling from the sky, every tree and flower is blooming isn't life amazing kind of days.

Complete with bunnies

and chickens.

To top it all off, I took Mette to the doctor so they could tell me I was paranoid and crazy but yes, they could look in her ears again. Wouldn't you know she has a double ear infection!!! Now they are putting her on an old school medicine for 20(!) days three times a day. Aren't you jealous. The appointment with the ENT can't some soon enough.

Wait, where were we...

I don't even know to be honest.

Things have been a bit crazy here and I am tired so bare with me. Let's see, where to begin. Perhaps a list to start.

1. We had a great visit at the end of last week and again at the beginning of this week from YiaYia and Papou to and from their way to New Jersey.

2. Mette gave her beloved Pink to the Pink Fairy for which she received a My Little Pony per her request. Rainbow Dash now escorts us most places.

3. Mette stopped taking naps. Done, no sign of going back.

4. I don't remember what 4 was going to be. See #3

5. Eric has had a guest speaker visiting for the last two days, today he did an info session on the London trip and he is filming with students until late tomorrow night.

6. I got food poisoning.

7. A dear friend under went a mastectomy yesterday and while she is home and doing well, the scariness of it all still is shaking me to the core.

8. Otto has a sinus infection because it will NEVER be spring here!!

So, yeah, I am feeling a bit scatter brained. I have been trying my best to keep us full of fun projects and trying to keep the kids from being too bored. I would like to say our days are filled with fun educational games fun frolicking, but that might be going a bit far. We are all eating good homemade food, the house is as clean as it usually is, the laundry is clean and in the case of the kids, put away and I even made Otto some light saber pants the other day. These are normal jammie pants that have a long pocket on the side for him to put his light saber. I made them out of some robot material he picked out a while ago. Our heads are above water and once the sun starts shining I will have a much more positive spin on all of this.

Well, the sun needs to start shining and I need to come up with something to do with the kids that in some way shape or form resembles the glorious quiet time Otto has perfected while Mette napped. Because the free for all that has been the past three days will wear me down real quick.

So, let's move on to some pictures shall we. Lighten it up a bit.

Here is Mette at playgroup last week in a sea of pink. I wonder where she gets her pink obsession and then I think about Lindsey's house. Mette LOVES Lindsey who is Otto's age, largely I think because she actually plays with Mette and is very sweet to her. But she has the greatest pink room you have ever seen. Complete with bins of dresses to try on, and shoes, tiaras, and fairy wands. Really, why do I wonder why she likes pink??
I only managed to get pictures of the grandparents and the kids with my phone and ideally there would have been more light, but still these are some cute shots. We have finally gotten to the point where having visitors is totally exciting for the kids, but they don't loose control. They keep their cool, have a fantastic time and really get to enjoy the extra attention.
This summer we are heading out to Chicago for the BIG WEDDING and afterwards we are staying to hang out for a while. I am really looking forward to it. We will be museum hopping and just hanging out with family we don't get to see as much. Otto hasn't stopped talking about the box of Legos, Matchbox cars and STAR WARS toys that YiaYia said she found in the basement.
Remember how I said I am trying to keep the kids occupied and somewhat engaged? Well we made homemade pretzels on Monday. I think it was Monday, might have been tuesday. I can't tell anymore. Not only were they a ton of fun to make with the kids, they are really yummy. Otto helped measure out all the ingredients and they both helped roll out the "dough worms". I let Otto help sprinkle sea salt on them which I was really scared was going to turn out bad. He was great. He carefully sprinkled just enough on each one. I was foolishly not anticipating Mette getting a fist full of salt and helping. Good thing it can just run off!

As I mentioned before, this is the summer of weddings. First in June Uncle Ben is getting married. Mette is to be the flower girl and Otto the ring bearer. Otto has already been fitted for his tux so he is good to go. I had planned on making Mette's dress along with mine but not anymore. Yesterday I found a dress, tights, shrug and headband all for about the same price as I would have spent of the materials. It fits perfectly and she LOVES it. I won't ruin the surprise but I couldn't help post this photo. I am a bit nervous about having the kids behave in a big church, it is a catholic wedding, but seeing her in the dress made me realize, it doesn't matter what she does, she will be too darn cute for anyone to care!
As if all of this wasn't excitement enough, Otto has a new passion. Photography. Wonder where he gets that?? His dad, my dad, my step father.... who knows :)

I got a new camera for my birthday so we decided to give Otto my old one. He, no lie, takes about 100 photos a day. A lot are of nothing, but way more than you would expect are great. I am getting a post together with some highlights of what he is taking. Because he is showing such an interest, eric brought home his big camera to show Otto.
He took to it immediately. He doesn't want anyone else touching him and right away was moving it around lining up a shot he wanted to take. He is more interested in being behind the camera then in front of it which is a huge change for him.

Of course, anything Otto does, Mette has to try.

Speaking of Mette, let's go back to the whole Pink and napping thing. I have been thinking for a while that maybe it was time to be done with Pink, but I wasn't sure how to do it. Then this weekend happened. On Saturday night Mette was up until 10 p.m. (bedtime is 7:15 in these parts) screaming and pulling a full on two year old power struggle. It was awesome. Ugh. At some point she bit a hole in a new Pink. I was really frustrated with her for not going to sleep but when I realized we had to take Pink away I actually felt really sorry for her. I explained that she couldn't have a Pink if she was going to bite holes in them, it was too dangerous. I explained that we could box up the Pinks and leave them for the Pink Fairy and she would come and leave her a present. She knows about this concept because we have talked about the Nuk Fairy who came for Otto. Right away she told me she wanted a pony. Luckily I knew what she meant. When we go to CVS to pick up prescriptions, which lately is all the time, the kids play in the little toy aisle while I wait for the meds. They have a few My Little Pony's there and Mette always wants them. She looks at the ponies and the PINK phone while Otto looks at the light sabers, TRANSFORMERS, and cars. It keeps them entertained so I don't have a problem with it. A little pony seemed like a fair trade for her Pinks so I said I would let the Pink Fairy know. She was still up for almost another two hours, however she never once asked for Pink. It has been amazing. The first few times I put her in bed she would say "where is Pinkie" but when I told her she didn't have Pink anymore there was no crying or even sad face. She just snuggles up with Bibi and is fine. The day after she gave up Pink when she woke up from her nap there was a present waiting for her from the Pink Fairy. She was so excited and still is. Rainbow Dash is her new best friend.

It is a little strange how well she has handled it, but in a good way. It makes me feel good that this was the right time to do it.

That being said, I would have been really happy if she had decided to keep napping for another year or so. I have been saying for a while now that next fall when Otto goes to p.m. preschool Mette would stop napping, just to spite me. Well, she beat me to it. Granted she was starting to be a total bear to get to sleep at night so this will hopefully be for the best, but still it is hard on me. I count on quiet time each day. It is my chance to get stuff done, or do nothing at all. Both of which make me feel better about things in general and in turn helps me to be a more patient mom. Because she is so young it is going to be hard to make quiet time work the way it did with Otto but I have to come up with something. Bedtime has been getting a bit better. I am hoping that in a few more days her body will fall into a new routine. Like giving up pink though it is going far more smoothly than it should. When Otto gave up naps it was a long and difficult transition. He would some days, wouldn't other days. The days he did nap he would stay up late, the days he didn't he would crash in the evening and be a total pill. Eric can't even tell if she has had a nap or not from her behavior. Sunday she wouldn't go to sleep so I brought her downstairs and she hasn't look back since.

Think kind thoughts for me. It is only wednesday and it has already been a LONG week.

Dance Party!!

There are many reasons that I love eric, but him making great videos of the kids like this is definitely one of them!!

Mettezilla

There has been a lot of talk of Otto here these days. It always seems to work in ebbs and flows. For a while Mette takes the stage, then Otto, back and forth. It feels like Mette is up for some news.

Mette, what to say about her? She is crazy. Like, really crazy. Shake your head and wonder if it is all going to work out ok crazy. It is, I think. I hope. No, it will.

They say that one of the reasons they call two the "terrible two's" is because children have the same hormonal swings that puberty will bestow on them later in life. This is SO true with Mette. You can literally watch the emotions and hormones course through her veins. She is sweet as pie, funny and charming one second, then screaming, crying and PISSED the next. Despite the fact that she has been talking in complete sentences for almost a year, these fits of rage leave her unable to form words let alone sentences.

She asks for a drink, juice to be exact.

You give her the juice.

She takes a sip and likes it.

She takes a second sip, decides it is poison and screams bloody murder with real tears and extreme angst until you are able to get it out of her that, in fact, she would like a straw, please.

"oh, thank you" and the moment has passed.

She is totally over it and you are left trembling with adreniline from trying to fix or deal or ignore the problem (all depends on how far into the day we are).

This goes on from 7 a.m. until late into the evening. Every day. So yeah, she is one of the funniest kids to be around and she is beyond cute. Doing and saying things that crack you up and melt your heart numerous times a day. But that is because otherwise she would be in the alley with a free sign around her neck. I am kidding, sort of. Like my mom always says, babies are cute for a reason. Otherwise we would never keep them!!

Here are some of the reasons she is still around:

Sporting a Jem wig at Leo's house

Last weekend one of the preschool's in town hosted their annual kids sale to raise money for the school. I scored a few cute outfits for Mette and this wonderful tutu. She has a few books on ballerinas and has been wanting an outfit like the girls (or mice in the case of Angelina) have in the stories.

Showing me her MOVES!

Not sure what move this is, but I like it!

You are in luck, Eric is just finishing a new video of the kids! I better stop hogging all the internet so he can get a uploading!

Insurance

Every once and a while I like to reassure myself that we will have good blackmail material for their teen years.

Word on the Street

The word on the street is that any day now (though not this week according to the weather forecast) it will start acting like spring outside. As I type this it is 34 outside and going below freezing tonight. Tomorrow will be a balmy 50-something and rainy.

I keep reminding myself of that one gorgeous day we had a few weeks ago where the sun was shining, the kids were playing in the yard and the doors were open. I even treated the kids with popsicles which they insisted on eating while sitting together on the steps. Apparently that is the only place to eat them.

Of course, since Otto took off his shirt, Mette had to as well.

I promise, I don't dress them the same on purpose. Maybe now that Otto is helping pick out his clothes more they won't match as much.

Warmer Times

Pictures Please

Goodness I have been blabbing for days without any pictures. I will get some more up soon, but now, feast your eyes on this.

Otto getting fitted for his tux for Uncle Ben's wedding. With any luck his hair will be that long again for the wedding so we can recreate this look :)

I did buzz it last week though so it has a ways to go!

Third Time is the Charm?

I took both of the kids to the doctor today. Otto had a bad bout of fevers which is unlike him over the weekend. Yesterday, after sleeping on the couch for and hour in the afternoon at 4 he went upstairs and went to bed while I was in the kitchen getting him a snack. That alone was enough to merit a trip to the dr. Mette was due for a three week follow up after her last battle with an ear infection. One month ago she got an ear infection which we treated with the usual round of pink medicine. When the doses were done though she didn't seem really over it. Back to the dr. we went. Her ear was still red and swollen so this time she got a new dose of a stronger medicine.

Since then whenever she sneezes she cries and says her ear hurts. She has also bit a bit of a pill, to put it nicely. The doctor looked in her ear today and it is still red and infected. Damn thing won't die!! So, now she has a white strange smelling medicine which thankfully she will take and a referral to an Ear Nose and Throat specialist.

I am pretty granola about most things, as eric would say. We eat organic local food, no extra sugars for the most part. I cook from scratch. I nursed the kids forever, we watch what they are exposed to and I am sure I worry about all of it more than I should. But that is my job. I don't like giving them any more medicine then I absolutely have to. Normal colds, even green snot will usually clear itself up. Luckily our dr. also agrees with me on this. However ear infections are not something I mess with. My brother has serious hearing loss most likely due to ear infections as a child and I want to avoid that at all costs. That is why I didn't hesitate to put Mette on the third antibiotic in four weeks. Needless to say that girl will be eating yogurt and kefir for quite some time. Good thing I make our own :)

Still it kind of makes me mad that I do all of this to be healthy and poor Otto ends up having a pic line to his heart with antibiotics for three weeks and now Mette is on her third big dose. I would like to be done with the yucky meds thank you very much. I really hope this dose of drugs makes her feel better and I hope the ENT dr. will be able to advise us the best plan of action. Our dr. says they most likely won't do anything right away, but it will be nice knowing they are watching her ears closely for additional signs of trouble.

Breakfast

Otto is still sick today so he and Eric opted for a little Return of the Jedi for breakfast. I think I may need to come up with something for mette and I to do while they enjoy their day of Star Wars.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Breakthrough

Today we took a giant leap forward in this house. As every post for the past many months now have had some reference to STAR WARS you know how important a topic it is in our house. Otto lives and breathes it. He spends all day playing Lego STAR WARS, reading STAR WARS books or acting out scenes he makes up with his action figures. Up until now he has not actually seen any of the movies. He knows every character and plot twist, but only from books and what we have told him.

That all changed today. Well it started yesterday afternoon. Otto has been on a streak of being so nice and kind it makes you wonder who the other child we had here last year was. Yesterday afternoon we were both a little bored from being stuck in the house so much with yucky weather I asked him if he would be interested in finding some Ewok speeder bike clips on YouTube. He has seen the Ewok song and thought it was very cute so I thought this would be a good transition. From there we slowly felt our way around more clips. A few seemed a bit scary to him so I would turn off the sound. A trick I learned from Papou and Uncle Matt. That eased his fears. 30 minutes after we sat down he was watching the battle scene over Endor followed by the Hoth battle scene. When eric got home he watched the light saber duel between Darth Vador and Obi Wan where Obi Wan dies. Because he knows the stories so well he can ask to see scenes he knows about.

Today eric brought home the first three movies. Once you are on a roll you might as well go for it. Plus, today is one of the first nice days we have had in a while (by nice I mean in the 40's cloudy and windy, it's all relative) and poor Otto has almost lost his voice and has a fever of 101.6. He needed to lay low and movies seemed like the perfect way to do it. He watched half of the first movie before wanting to go and play and a lot of Return of the Jedi. I am sure there will be more. The best part, he isn't scared at all, in fact he loves them! He gets so excited to see all the characters he has read about. He points out all the obscure droids in the background and knows all of their names.

This is a huge breakthrough for Otto. Not just because he loves STAR WARS and now he can say he has seen the movies, but because he can be very fearful of things and the movies were something he was really scared of. Even though he plays with Legos all day long and dreams of going to the Lego store, the first time we took him he went screaming out of the store and refused to go back in, not even to pick out a toy, because they have small tv's playing bits of Lego STAR WARS movies. He was TERRIFIED. This past time when we went to the store he talked a lot about the tv's before we got there, but was fine with them once we were there.

I can't begin to explain how much he has been changing over the past few months, but something is happening. Eric and I were saying that just in the past two weeks he has grown by leaps and bounds. I am sure there will be many more difficult hurdles to leap over further down the road, but right now we are in such an amazing place. For so long everything seemed like a battle with him. He was struggling to go against the grain with everything that everyday felt like a battle. The frustration was mounting between the two of us where I know I felt like I needed a break and I am sure he did to. Right now he is an absolute joy to be around. We are all having so much fun together.

I can see a real sense of pride in himself for finally conquering something he was really scared of. He did it all on his own. We weren't pushing him to watch the movies, he is the one who asked to see everything he watched. It has been pretty amazing to watch the transformation in him. Almost makes you feel like your hard work is paying off in some small way.

He-Looo is there anybody out there?

Forgive me for being so quiet lately. It is not in my nature.

I blame my mother.

Ok, that isn't really fair.

I blame her for taking me shopping for my 30th birthday and helping me find my new love.

Seeing as she shamelessly set me up with eric, it makes sense she would have a hand in this too.

This pretty little baby found it's way into my life thanks to her this past February and we have been courting ever since. It is serious. This is a committed relationship. BIG. She is wonderful to me. She purrs and never even thinks about wobbling. She has yet to jam in any way (knock on wood) She has beautiful little cubbies for all of her wonderful feet and attachments. She is such a pleasure to work with.

I love blogging and telling stories here. I love being able to look back over the past four years and remember things I otherwise would have forgotten. But it is something I do in stolen moments when children are sleeping and chores are done. That time has been taken.

Since February I have made:

New curtains for the kitchen

New curtains for the quest bathroom

Re-did the curtains in the dining room

New curtains for the living room

Made Otto three pairs of pants

Made Mette two pairs of pants

Made myself one pair of jammie pants

Two shirts for myself

pair of shoes for myself (yes, shoes!! they were a bit small but a GREAT first attempt)

Three small coin or make-up purses

I am most of the way through making pants for eric

A Darth Vador cape for Otto

plus a few other small projects and some mending

On my list of things to make is:

More shoes

A new purse for me now that I am post diapers

A dress for me for Ben and Shannon's wedding

A dress for Mette for the same wedding

A few more jammies for everyone

A few cute shirts and skirts for me

New pillows for the couch

Seat cushion for the rocking chair

Long curtain for the basement stairs

...that is all I can think of off the top of my head, but there is for sure more.

So, I am sorry that is has been so quiet here, but I promise to get back in gear soon.

The kids are growing like weeds. Literally. I measured them yesterday and in the past month they have both grown about an inch, or more. CRAZY.

Otto has turned into the sweetest thing ever. He has manners and is kind. I think he may have been swapped in the night.

Mette, well, growth spurts do not make Mette happy. Let's just say that. There has been A LOT of screaming from her. She seems to be a bit better these last few days, but it has been a little rough.

I will post pictures and stories soon. This post, if nothing else, is my best attempt at a good excuse.

thanks,

-p