One of my LONGEST days...

This past Friday, was one of those days, that just seemed to go on and on...Yes, a big part of that was due to the craziness of my decision to partake in "Black Friday's" Christmas shopping extravaganza. As Erik and I looked through the adds on Thursday night, the vacuum cleaners caught our attention. Our vacuum cleaner has been smoking and we decided that when a vacuum cleaner leaves the carpets dirtier than when you begin that it is probably time for a new one. Erik researched all the vacuums in the ads and we decided on one that was being sold at Kohl's. When I flipped to the front to see the timing, my heart sank when it said 4 am. Oh dear, a short night. So, we made a plan that I would get up early and then later get to nap as Erik drove to Spring Grove. I was at Kohl's at 4:20am, which apparently was late. I could barely find a parking place and was greeted with mass confusion when I walked inside. The line wrapped all the way around the circumference of the store. I got the last vacuum on the shelf and went to get in line...an hour and a half I was out of there. I had so many things on my list, but had to settle for the most necessary. Then I made a relatively quick stop at Target and Sears and made it home by 7:10. As I walked in the house, I was greeted by a pale looking husband who had gotten the flu while I was out. He convinced me that he was ok and could manage to watch the kids while I did my 4 hour shift rating the English proficiency exams. It turned out to be quite the difficult shift. Erik could hardly stay awake, so the kids kept wandering in to my work space. I was trying to do various arts and crafts and listen to the examinees on the computer at the same time. I sometimes had to listen to them 3-4 times, but I eventually got the job done. After I finished working, I fed the kids lunch and packed the suitcases. Erik had progressively gotten worse and decided to just stay home. So, the kids and I drove up to my parents' house in Spring Grove to leave him to a quiet house to rest and heal. The car ride was nice and quiet with two sleeping kids in the back. A few hours after we had arrived in SG, my mom wanted to go and check out the Festival of Trees. This was simply a marvelous event. They had all these adorable store fronts that made you feel like you were walking in this quaint village with places to buy candy, cards, decorate sugar cookies, watch Christmas movies, and visit Santa. In the past, Santa has not been one of Olivia's most loved people. But I had hopes for perhaps just one tiny photo this year with her standing maybe within 5 feet of him. As Santa came in she waved and said, "Hi Santa!" But she had a death grip on my jacket. Soren turned around and was frightened by him and his cries were just enough to feed Olivia's fear. She screamed and clung onto me so tight. I reassured him that we wouldn't go and talk to him and was finally able to get her settled down by going over to watch a movie. She checked Santa every few seconds just to make sure he was still sitting in his chair. She was ok with him now, because she knew he was going to stay there. But then, out came Frosty! Frosty, unfortunately had the misfortune of not having a predictable location and was walking around greeting children. As he approached the movie area, Olivia stood on her chair and began screaming at Frosty at the top of her lungs (I can't emphasize that enough) while wagging her finger. "NO, NO, FROSTY, YOU GO AWAY, BYE, BYE, NO, NO!" I could feel my face getting red with embarrassment. She was wrapped so tightly around my head and body. Her fear had been just enough to send Soren into a huge screaming fit as well. They were both wrapped around me so tightly and screaming so loud that I had the attention of the whole Fest Building. As I was walking out, Soren was screaming so loud that his pacifier fell to the ground. So now I know I was quite the sight as I had to try to pick up the pacifier with 2 screaming kids wrapped around my body. Oh dear. I was so relieved to get outside. All the tiredness of the week and the day engulfed me and soon we had the Ouimette, party of 3 crying outside. I was so thankful to get back to my parents, feed the kids supper and put them to bed, so that I too could hit the hay. Sleep cures so much, as I woke up the next morning with a refreshed view of the prior day's events, I could hardly stop laughing thinking about what a spectacle we must have been. Rest assured Santa, we won't be making any visits to you this Christmas. That's ok, this gives us another opportunity to focus on the true reason for the season.

Healthy Snacks

This past June I had a lot of fun picking strawberries, and like usual, I got a little carried away. I made four batches of strawberry jam and frozen many to have for snacks. Now that there is a blanket of snow covering the ground, these strawberries are tasting even better than I could have imagined. The kids especially enjoy strawberry smoothies. I use this great recipe from the book, Super Baby Food. It has yogurt, wheat germ, flax, a little brewer's yeast, and of course, strawberries. It is definitely a favorite around here!

I used another recipe from this same book to make homemade wholegrain pretzels for Olivia's preschool class. These soft pretzels along with some grapes made a great snack for her class. It must have been a hit because they were all eaten! Olivia loved helping making the dough into a "snake" and then twisting it.

Siblings!

As Soren gets older, it is becoming easier for Olivia and him to play together. Olivia usually makes up a game and gives a variety of commands for Soren to do, and he most often happily follows her lead just thankful for being included. It has been so fun and rewarding to watch them become closer. While I have been looking forward to the development of this relationship, I seem to have neglected that along with this relationship would come fights. We have entered the world of sibling rivalry, and what a world it is! Soren doesn't have much language so he usually tries to get what he wants by grabbing, hair pulling, and biting. He usually does these behaviors when Olivia provokes it with not sharing, or not giving Soren a turn. Some days I feel like a interpretor and referee, but those moments when they play so well together, I just love to sit back observe.

Enjoy the following sequence of photos/ videos that illustrate this roller coaster ride.



Best Friends 1minute...

Come on Soren, let's go play "hotel." Let's go buddy!

30 seconds later...

3 1/2 and 1 1/2...Wow!

Can you believe we are already at the half way mark of another year? Just the other day I was looking through some pictures from their birthday party in May. Somehow it feels like we just had this party, but looking at the pictures I was amazed at just how much they have changed in the past six months. I have heard many times about how time goes faster as you get older, but I never quite understood it...now, I am getting it. I want to cherish each stage the children go through, they are such rich blessings in our lives that we are so very thankful for!

Benchmarks in Development:

Olivia: She is such a delight! I so enjoy her witty humor and honest insights to life. She is making friends and learning such important social skills, such as sharing, taking turns, being helpful and kind, apologizing and forgiving, ect. She listens very intently and is detail-oriented. Our conversation about the day's events at preschool can go on for 20 minutes as she gives me the run down of the exact directions the teacher said for each activity (First, we needed to color the squirrel, then cut...), the snack (sugar-free red Kool-Aid with graham crackers in the shape of animals), and even may include a pretty outfit she noticed (My friend had a sparkly pink shirt on today...). She doesn't miss much. This intense observing has served her well also in the alphabet area as she knows the majority of letters and their sounds. We are working on rhyming, phew, what a tough thing! She can identify numbers to 20 and do simple adding. She has made friends with the scissors and loves to cut out just about anything! Olivia has enjoyed imaginative play for a long time now, but in the recent weeks, it has shifted up a couple gears and she gets very emotionally invested in her make-believe world. We were pretending to play Cinderella, I got the role of Cinderella, while Erik and Olivia were the wicked stepsisters. They were ordering me around to clean this and that and then we got to the part where they ripped off Cinderella's pretty dress and necklace. I made a sad face and pretended to cry, until I looked at Olivia and she had a couple sympathetic tears running down her cheek. Oh, game over and time to talk. I just love her compassion! While the imaginative play has increased, so has the drama, she can cross her arms, stomp her feet, and push out that bottom lip further than we knew possible. She is definitely testing her boundaries and learning how to control a large range of emotions.

Here's her name:

And she started writing mom and dad.

Soren: There has been a common phrase we have heard since he was born, "He is all boy." And that continues to be the case. He is rough and loves to play hard! He doesn't only play with his toys, he jumps on them, stands on them, throws them against the wall, bites them...this whole gentleness is very difficult to teach. When he is eating, we need to be ready for the moment he is full and get him down otherwise, we will have food all over our kitchen and living room. He talks more everyday and always attempts at repeating any word you say, some more successfully than others, but we are happy that he at least tries. His most commonly words are: Mommy, Daddy, ma (milk), ju (juice), agua (water-we didn't teach him agua, he thinks he is saying water), yeah, eat, ca-ker, cook-ie, cheeeeese, tuc (truck), tac-tor, puppy, kitty, pony, hot, up, down, ba (book), and numerous others. We are also beginning to wonder is something is wrong with his legs because he has forgotten how to walk, he only runs full speed in every direction. He loves to dig in the mud, play with rocks, and give me bugs. (I think he found about 10 ladybugs in our house yesterday.) His favorite toys are anything Olivia is playing with, stroller, babies (he will be a great Daddy someday...once the gentleness develops!), Little People, balls, and the number one favorite is books. He is always bringing me a book that he wants to read. His favorite is a photo book that Naana made about his birth. He always says, "ouch!" on the page of me pushing...very funny. He is so full of life and his infectious-dimpled smile brings a lot of older ladies to our grocery cart while we are shopping. He definitely keeps us on our toes!

Although some days we get frustrated with tantrums, hair pulling, biting, fighting, messes, we wouldn't trade these days for anything. We are so thankful for being entrusted with the responsibility to raise Olivia and Soren. They bless our days with much happiness and thankfulness! Happy "Half Birthdays" you two!

Happy Halloween!

"Trick-or-treat!" and "Boo!" followed by "Thank you!" and "Tang doo!" may have been the words you would have heard if our little chicken and bumblebee visited your house last night. We had such a great night. First of all, the weather was a beautiful 60 degrees. When I bought the kids' costumes at a local garage sale this past summer, I never dreamed that they would actually be a little hot in them. We started the night out at a friend's house where we did a pumpkin craft and played Pin the Face on the Pumpkin, a spin off of the game Pin the Tail on the Donkey. The kids thought the faces were so silly! We then enjoyed a potluck, complete with Mummy hotdogs, they were so cute. We then walked around the block going to about a dozen houses. It was just so much fun to not be shivering as we were trick-or-treating. We went back to the house and had a great bomb fire, the girls got in their pjs and watched Winnie-the-Pooh Halloween movie, while the one years fell asleep. Since Soren fell asleep, we were able to sit outside and enjoy, what might very well be, the last pleasant night of the fall. It was so great to just sit around the fire, talk, and enjoy the night! Happy Halloween!