Sofi's 4th Birthday

Sofi is now four, which she is very excited about, because she knows she gets to go to pre-school when she is four. She was disappointed to find out that the right to public education isn't immediately effective and that she has to wait until the fall.

She requested a surprise birthday party for her fourth year, and even though I'm not sure you can really request a surprise, we did decide to grant her wish. We ended up celebrating in the Twin Cities (we were up there to attend the ordination of one of Mary's friends) at Edinborough Park in Edina, a large indoor rec center, complete with a playground that has a huge tree to run around inside. Thankfully the Jacobson's were also attending the ordination, so along with family and other friends from the Cities Sofi also had friends from La Crosse at her party. She didn't seem to know what to think or do when she turned a corner in the park and found familiar faces there shouting "SURPRISE!" I almost got the impression that she wasn't all that excited. But she quickly warmed up and enjoyed playing in the playground with friends, and days later she was overheard pretending to be "in a forest" when she is startled by friends hiding there. So it clearly left an impression on her. (Even months later she will occasionally request a surprise party for her fifth birthday at the park "up where Michelle lives"). Below is a photo from the party, thanks to Vicki and Kelly who were there and actually thought to take pictures (thanks so much guys!). Click here if you'd like to see a few more.



Here are some reflections on this past year with Sofi:

Princesses become a HUGE deal this past year.

Likes watching movies and TV. Favorite shows are Clifford, Arthur, Sesame Street (notice a pattern?), and Dora and Diego. Also likes Disney princess movies and Barbie movies, but Dad has put the cabash on the latter.

Very interested in rhyming. Likes to make up words that rhyme and then declare "That rhymes!" Mary even heard her mumble "Stinky winky" in her sleep one night!

Likes dancing and has started taking dance class on Thursday nights through the local Park and Rec.

Likes listening to "my music" in the car (as opposed to listening to NPR or Dad's music), and she will sing along when she knows the words. Actually, if she doesn't know a song she will listen very closely, and since most songs repeat she can be heard singing along by the time the song is over.

Likes swimming.

She has become very helpful with the dishes, putting them away and is able to set the table. She even helps to a degree with folding the laundry, but not very well, because Dad likes to watch TV when he folds the laundry, and the TV gets too distracting for her.

She has learned how to whistle this past year, which blew us all away (I don't recall being able to figure that out until I was well into elementary school). She assume she learned from Grandma Ardelle, who whistles often to call her dog.

Likes puzzles and games.

Likes to change into different outfits several times a day. She usually doesn't wear anything that is appropriate for the weather. For example, most days during the winter she is wearing one princess costume or another, which don't cover her arms nor her legs. Occasionally she even sneaks on a swimsuit and just wear that around the house. She claims she isn't cold (though she is constantly making demands for hot chocolate and to start a fire in the fireplace), and I've given up trying to make her change into something warmer, though I do insist that she put on a sweater and tights before I start a fire or before she can have hot chocolate.

She's gotten over her bad habit of dumping her drawers all over the floor in search for one single thing within them. But she still has the bad habit of not putting her clothes away after she's done wearing them, and considering how often she changes in a day (she's been known to change her outfits four or more times in a day, and has been on her third outfit before Mary left for school one day) that by the end of the day her room usually looks like she emptied her drawers.

Another bad habit she began this past year is lying, which we are working on with her.

Another bad habit she broke herself of is biting her finger nails... she now has nice finger nails that she likes to have painted.

Doesn't nap much anymore. She does about once a week, the rest of the time she just hangs out in her room and plays until her nap time is up.

Likes to look at books.

She likes to draw people and faces, and has shown a big interest in writing, using lines of scribbles to represent words that she can recite back to you as a story.

Likes drinking hot chocolate, "with a smarshmellow in and a smarshmellow out".

Likes to eat mac & cheese, cottage cheese, grilled cheese and tomato soup. Actually, she's been requesting soup a lot. This is a winter thing, and I think she's doing it because she doesn't dress warm enough and in turn wants to eat warm food and drink warm drinks. Has also been requesting pancakes a lot lately. I asked her what she wanted me to make for lunch for her birthday. I thought for sure I was going to hear "Mac & Cheese!" Instead she replied "Chicken bone soup with black specks!" I was very surprised, but a week ago Mary made this chicken soup with wild rice (the black specks), and I served her some leftovers in a bowl for lunch, and she ended up having four helpings of that soup that day---she really loved it! More than mac and cheese it seems!

Likes going to Culver's (requests it when she thinks we are vulnerable)

She is still scared of monsters at bedtime.

Milestones

• Learned how to use the potty this past year and is now fully and completely potty trained. Can't remember the last time she wet her pants or even the bed. I think I can even recall one night when she actually got up to use the bathroom.

Isaac's First Birthday

MILESTONES:

• Started cruising
• Took his first steps the last couple of weeks (Resists being set down to sit. When I try to set him down, he tries to remain standing and then wants you to hold his hands so that he can try walking.)
• Started pointing. It's kinda like a game of distraction, as if he's saying "Hey, quick, look over there!"

Along with the above milestones, he continues to climb up onto anything he possibly can. Constantly climbing on the hearth still, to the point that we are starting to realize that he is doing this simply because he knows he shouldn't. He looks at you with the side-ways glance as if to say "Are you watching, because I'm heading towards the hearth, and you don't want me to!" As if he knows and loves that he is doing something he isn't suppose to. Also started climbing up onto the toilets, giving him even better access to everything we originally put on the back of the toilet to keep out of his reach in the first place.

In the same vein, we've started to store our toilet paper and kleenex at higher and higher altitudes, because he has started to unload and unravel whatever he can get his hands on.

He has 8 teeth, perhaps more (he doesn't really let you get a good look at them when you really want to).

We've started brushing his teeth with an actual toothbrush, instead of using a wash cloth (it really hurt when he bit down!). The first couple of times we used a brush he was very still, as if amazed that he was being treated like the rest of us.

Likes to eat mandarin oranges, grapefruit, bananas, cheese, especially cottage cheese.

No longer interested in breast feeding, which Mary has mixed emotions about.

To go along the above, Isaac has now figured out how to hold a bottle on his own, and even how to hold it up so that milk flows down (this latter part had escaped him before).

His ability to wave has turned into the ability to use sign language. But he uses the same sign for EVERYTHING, so it is pretty much meaningless. The sign he knows, because I use it for him quite a bit and because it is a lot like how he waves, is the sign for "all done". But when he wants "more" food, he signs "all done". And when I sign to him to "stop", he signs back "all done".

Mary thinks he's a "Daddy's boy" because he keeps saying "DaDa" all the time. The thing is he says that for EVERYTHING, not just for me. He calls dogs "DaDa". He calls Grandma Ardelle "DaDa". But Mary does have a point... he doesn't use "MaMa" to refer to anything. Sofi was the direct opposite of this... she used "MaMa" for everything.

Like his Dad, he enjoys tech-toys already, especially our mobile phones.

Click here if you'd like to see more of his birthday photos.

If you can think of anything else that Isaac has done/accomplished this past month, or if you would like to reminicse about Isaac's first year, please feel free to add a comment below (for those of you who view this blog on the website)....

Older

"You're older than you've ever been
and now you're even older"
~Older, by They Might Be Giants

At one point in your life people actually counted your age by days. I remember telling people Isaac and Sofi were only two or three days old.

In a very short amount of time that changes to weeks. Counting by weeks hangs in there for a while, because so many doctors and pediatric books track development by weeks. But eventually that gets too hard to track, and your age is tracked in months. Isaac is 10 months old right now.

Me, I'm 420 months old, as of today. Not that anyone is counting that high, because eventually months become too unwieldy as well, and it all comes down to years. And for me, the years have piled up to the point now that I've actually lost track. I used to know, very firmly, and could recall without hesitation how old I was. Now, in order to tell you how old I am, I actually have to run the math. I have to subtract the previous or current year by the year I was born. The years too are starting to become a bit unwieldy to simply remember the number. All that I am able to remember is that I'm in my 30's.

So what do I want for my birthday? Not much new, same old same old, that is to say I basically want new music. But what I've decided to give myself this year is time. I've asked Loie, a friend from church, to watch the kids this morning, and I'm using that time right now to 1) blog this and 2) clean.

Ah, time and cleaning for a birthday gift. Truly, I am older.