Klaasen and Oliver

Oliver was born the beginning of June and Klaasen was born the end of July.

They are almost the same size!

And already the best of friends.

Real Men Wear Moby Wraps

I love my Moby Wrap. I wear it all. the. time. It's the best $30 I ever spent on something for baby. I have used it for all three kids and with every kid, I find it more and more useful. The other day I was telling Erik about how much I love my Moby Wrap and I asked him if he would ever wear it. He said, "HECK no! It's too girly!" A few days later we were shopping at Home Depot and I was complaining about how my back was starting to hurt from carrying the sumo wrestler around since we left his car seat in the car. Erik agreed to carry Klaasen, but he still wanted to retain full tactile abilities. So, I suggested the Moby and rolling his eyes he said, "Alright, tie it on me." So, I tied him up and off they went! Klaasen loved being tied to Daddy and I have a feeling this won't be the last time I see Erik with the Moby on...

SKOL VIKINGS!

This is our sweet niece, Kinley.

We're so proud that she's sporting purple and gold, even though she lives in Oklahoma!

SKOL VIKINGS!!!

Goodbye Summer

Enjoying a smoothie on the deck on one of our last days of summer weather.

Minnesota Zoo

Last week our playgroup went to the Minnesota Zoo. We had a blast! I can't believe that I'm actually saying this, but taking three kids to the zoo wasn't as hard as I thought! I tried to take pictures, but I have no idea why. Pictures of the zoo always turn out of the backs of everyone's heads or the same-old-same-old animals. But, because I took them, I'll share them...

A New Game Plan

After eight solid weeks of not getting more than two to three hours of sleep at a time during the night, I came up with a new game plan.

After our Klaasen's last feeding of the night, he is going to start hanging out with Daddy until he gets tired, so I can go to bed and get some sleep. Then Daddy will put him to bed.

I think they're both excited about the time they'll get to spend together!

The Big Girl's In School

Last week Maida started preschool! She LOVES it. I really expected her to cling to me when I dropped her off on the first day, but she pranced right in her classroom and wanted to get started right away. Other kids were crying and holding on to their moms. Maida was smiling and waving goodbye - she couldn't get rid of me fast enough!

Here is Maida the night of her preschool orientation when she went to see her classroom and meet her teachers, Jessica and Tiffany. These are all the things she was required to bring to preschool...

Maida on the first day of preschool...

Showing off her cubby at school where she keeps all of her papers. Below is where she hangs her coat and backpack...

What she told me about the first day of school:

- She was too scared to play on the playground, so she just walked around and watched the other kids play.

- She had little crackers and apple juice for a snack.

- She didn't talk to anyone except her teacher and couldn't go potty at bathroom break.

Maida on the second day of preschool...

Posing in the hallway outside of her classroom. She couldn't wait to get in and get on with her second day...

Outside her preschool...

Things she told me about the second day of preschool:

- They said a prayer before snack.

- She talked to a little boy named Charlie who has bright orange hair.

- She visited the library and the gym.

- She had big crackers and apple juice for a snack.

- She went on a bear hunt.

Maida on the third day of preschool...

Things she told me about the third day of preschool...

- She had fruit snacks and apple juice for a snack and the fruit snack gave her a tummy ache. The tummy ache was so so so so bad that she couldn't even tell her teacher.

- They sang a dinosaur song.

- They played outside with sidewalk chalk.

I haven't posted in a week. With some serious sleep deprivation, along with a crazy schedule, and the added stress of the beginning of our basement remodel, I wasn't on the computer one time last week. The kids and I started MOPS last Monday, Maida had her first two days of preschool on Tuesday and Thursday, Wednesday we went to the zoo, Wednesday through Saturday night Grandma was here, and Saturday Maida had her second soccer game. On top of all of that, Skogen was really sick, we had to take everything out of our basement and put it in the garage, we went to a Mexican party at our Mexican neighbor's house, our new small group started at church, I went to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned, Erik drove to Camp Ripley for an Army meeting, and Klaasen giggled for the first time! It was a very long, but exciting week. Looking ahead at this week, it doesn't appear that things are going to slow down anytime soon! Along with everything going on, Erik still has to carry a heavy work load and deal with a strict schedule with school. Lots of prayers for him, and especially for his residency placement (and all the work involved in applying and interviewing), on top of everything else, would be appreciated! Pictures of all of our recent activities to come...

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There's Nothing Sweeter...

than a little baby's piggies.

Backyard Campfire

There is nothing better than a backyard campfire when the weather starts to get cold. Last weekend we had some friends from church over for dinner, a campfire, and games. It was such a nice evening to be outside and the kids really loved having us there to watch them play in the sandbox and run around the yard! They're always up for having an audience.

It was way too cold to be outside without pants on, but Skogen insisted on leaving them off!

Maida kept us entertained with her stories around the campfire! She is such a smart little girl.

Klaasen enjoyed watching the flames and snuggling with Daddy.

It was such a beautiful night and really felt like fall! We're looking forward to a couple more campfires before it snows.

One afternoon last week I had a complete hour KID FREE while Erik took the kids to the park (and Klaasen on his first walk!). I had thoughts of jumping in the car and running up to get a pedicure, or even just staying home and relaxing in a bubble bath. But instead, I had glorious, wonderful, alone time mowing the grass. :) I finished just as they were walking home. I quick snapped some pictures of them running home as fast as they could.

Maida was getting a good work out!

Skogen was so stinking cute trying to keep up with his sister.

Klaasen apparently slept all the way to the park, while they were playing, but decided to wake up and cry all the way home. I think it was a mixture of not liking a hat on his head and being a little hungry.

The Gift of Siblings

I'm so thankful that we were blessed to give our kids the gift of siblings. I treasure my time as their mom, watching their relationships with each other blossom.

In Good Hands

Whenever Erik is gone during bedtime, and I have to get the three kids to sleep by myself, I usually leave Klaasen in Maida's room with her while I put Skogen to sleep. She "babysits" Klaasen and it makes her feel really special. Klaasen seems to enjoy it, as well, because he rarely cries or gets upset when he's hanging out with his big sister.

Last week while putting the kids to bed one night, I had just come out of Skogen's room, and opened the door to Maida's room to see what her and Klaasen were up to. Upon opening the door, I found this:

Discovering that I had left Klaasen in the hands of a doctor, I was fairly confident that he was well taken care of while I was putting Skogen to sleep. :)

And with a stethoscope that really works, Maida's been practicing up on her doctoring skills because someday she wants to be a doctor, "just like Daddy."

"Bye-Bye Massie"

On Monday night, Erik was studying late, which meant that I had bed time all by myself. Usually when this happens, I lay Klaasen down on Maida's bed with her and they play while I put Skogen to sleep. A week ago, Skogen moved from the crib into a big boy bed, and since that happened, it takes a little bit longer (usually) to put him to bed because he keeps getting out of bed! Well, this particular night, he was pretty tired and I could tell that he would go down pretty fast. When I laid him down, with his bear and paci, he asked for apple juice. I usually say, "no," to drinks in bed, especially juice, but an idea quickly came to me at that time that maybe Skogen would exchange his paci for some apple juice. So, I went and got the apple juice, came back into his room, and said, "Skogen, do you want to be all done paci?" while I handed him the apple juice. He said, "Yeah," and handed me the paci. I wasn't sure if he really understood (even though I had been talking to him about being all done with the pacifier for several weeks, now), so I said, "Skogen, can you say bye-bye to your paci?" He put the cup down from drinking, looked at his paci, and said, "Bye-bye massie." That was it! He went to sleep without asking for it again.

All day Tuesday I was trying to think of what I was going to do and say that night if Skogen asked for his paci at bed time. So, I ended up cutting the end of the nipple off of one of the paci's and my plan was if Skogen asked for it, I was going to show him that it was broken and tell him that was why we had to say bye-bye to the paci. Well, while I was putting him to bed, he said, "Massie?" and I said, "You are all done with paci, now, remember? You said bye-bye to paci last night and now you are a big boy." He asked, "Massie come back?" and I said, "Nope, paci all gone." That was it! He has not asked for his paci ever since Tuesday night.

I did a quick clean up of all the paci's I could find around the house and I'm really hoping that I got them all so that I don't have to take one away from him again. However, he doesn't seem to be interested in Klaasen's paci's at all. I want to believe that we are truly all done with the paci's and that I don't have to go through all the trouble I hear other moms and dads having when they take away pacifiers. I really wanted this transition to be smooth and to do it at a time when Skogen could understand what was going on, not just take his paci away cold-turkey. I think I accomplished this by talking to Skogen about it for a long time before actually doing it (an approach our kids respond well to) and doing it at a time when things were going well for him (not when he was teething or dealing with other issues).

Now if I could only get Klaasen to take his paci, we'd be all set! He thinks that I'm his pacifier and is not falling into the typical "Babywise" eating/sleeping pattern, which has me puzzled! For the past week I've been feeding him about every hour... for feeding time and to go to sleep. I'm hoping that this will all change when he's awake for longer periods of time, or when he finally decides to suck on a pacifier, but we'll see!

Special Day with Daddy

Maida spent a special day with Daddy last Friday. He had to go up to the medical school to get his picture taken for graduation and residency applications (can you believe that we're already talking about graduation and residency?!) and he took Maida with him! She was so excited to visit Daddy's school. When we lived in Duluth, we went up to the medical school all the time, but for the last year, Erik has mostly been working in the hospitals around the city, so we've never been up to his school.

On the way up to Daddy's school, he stopped and bought Maida a treat! She got to try her first Reese's Pieces candy and loved them. At the school, she talked to many of Daddy's friends and Daddy even took her to meet the deans! She felt very special and when they got home, she couldn't stop talking about how much fun she had. Erik told me later that he had a really REALLY good time with her, too!