Oskar and Elena Make Life Busy

I know I said a post was coming soon. That was a couple weeks ago. Strangely enough, I decided to work instead of write. Hard to believe, I know. This also might be full of errors, but I can't get anything done with these hooligans hanging about.

I just realized I haven't posted since before my birthday. That was a while ago. I'm not a big birthday person, but we enjoyed Surly's entrance into South Dakota and some delicious Mexican food, so the day was a win. I'm also happy to report that I turned 30 with no mid-life/third-life/quarter-life (depends on your confidence, I suppose) crisis and the world kept turning.

Dan got me flowers for my birthday and Oskar was quick to spot them. Oskar loves flowers and assumed he was responsible for their appearance in our house.
Oskar: "Oh! You got me flowers! They are beautiful! Thank you so much!"
Dan: "Oskar, those are flowers for mommy."
Oskar: "Mommy, I got these for you. You're welcome."

I decided a few weeks ago to build a patio because I would like to use our yard more and we don't really have the money to hire the job done. In theory, this is a great idea. In reality, I have 2 kids, a job and weekends that insist on being over 90 degrees. People have asked me if I know how to build a patio. No, not really. But the pavers came with an installation instruction video online and I enjoy learning as I go. We are almost done with the excavation and I have already learned something really important that I can apply if and when we ever need to build another patio: HIRE PEOPLE TO BUILD THE EFFING PATIO.

You know you are having a bad day when you are seriously wondering if you should take anger management classes. I recently had such a day. I look at Ellie and I think, you really are wonderful, but seriously, two kids? What was I thinking? She had slept for only 60 minutes on this particular day. Forty five of those minutes were spent with Oskar yelling at me because he can't read.

Oskar is in an extremely trying phase of his life. I alternate between thinking he is the most amazing thing in the world and wanting to throw him across the room. He has many of his books memorized and insists on "reading" them. This is fine, except he will get to a page he doesn't know or a less familiar book and he realizes he can't read and starts yelling and crying. The tantrum builds, because it's bedtime and he is over tired and eventually he is just screaming. It is delightful. I'm slowly learning some tricks to deal with this situation, but I don't look forward to story time right now and that makes me sad.

Baby ducks!

I recently told Oskar that we had to go on a walk to get Elena to sleep. She finally passed out and Oskar said, " Mommy! You're right! It worked!" I would really appreciate if he didn't always sound so surprised when I accomplish something. Often we will drive somewhere and when we are getting out of the car, he will say, "You did it!" or "We made it!" Thanks, buddy.

Elena continues to grow and develop. She is still freakishly loud, strong and is walking along furniture and transferring weight from subject to subject. She is also really good at carefully lowering her weight down instead of just falling to the ground. She is also a super climber and problem solver. She is eight months old today and is a mostly happy baby. She enjoys a variety of food and STILL REFUSES TO SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT. I'm so tired. One nice thing about Ellie is how absolutely enamored with me she is. Dan is all fine and good, but holy moly does she react gleefully when she sees me. Then when I hold her, she climbs me in a fit of joy.

Oskar is Dan's child. Elena is clearly mine.

Some of you may have seen her poofy eye on Facebook or in real life. I'm happy to report that after being diagnosed with some sort of eyelid infection, she is on the mend and it no longer looks like she was abused. I'm always hesitant to give my kids antibiotics when we don't know for sure what the problem is, and in this case the doctor pretty much said that the eyelid infection was his best guess, but the medicine is working its little antibiotic magic and she is looking great.

We spent the Fourth of July at my parents' cabin. What a beautiful weekend. Perfect days and cool nights. Dan and I have come to the conclusion that we will never live further south than we do right now. There is simply no relief from the heat. When we worked at camp there would be a hot week, but then you would get a cool week to recover. It was great. All I want is to leave my windows open for a few days to get some fresh air in the house. Apparently this is not a possibility. I got an alert on my phone that the heat index was going to be 105. This is too hot.

At least someone is enjoying our beach and the six inches of rain we've gotten today...

While at the cabin I tried to get some good pictures of the kids because my mom had gotten them some really cute outfits. I can photograph them separately fairly well, so I greatly overestimated my ability to capture both my crazies at the same time. I walked back into the cabin, sweating from our little photo shoot, and my mom asked me if I got any good shots. I answered, "I got an accurate depiction of our life." The few decent ones I got are scattered among this post.

Loon friend!

Oskar wanted to share his thoughts with you all"
"I'm gonna tell the world about a volcano. It shoots lava HIGH in the sky! Once upon a time there was lava. Once upon a time there was a Mauna Loa Volcano. It's a loud volcano."

Princess Dibble

The fanciest stroller in the whole land (it was a gift). Needless to say, they both approve. And so do their parents.

Oh where to begin.

It seems that we have a creative three year old. If you remember your Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? There is a part that goes: He can go like the rain dibble dibble dibble dopp. Dibble dibble dibble dibble dopp dopp dopp. This is just one of many books that he has memorized. It is very cute to hear him recite his books, but I digress.

I think the first mention of a Princess Dibble was in reference to one of Elena's toys. He's always enjoyed princesses because of Phantom of the Opera. And who can blame him? They dress a lot fancier than we do on a day to day basis. So yea, the bunny taggie became Princess Dibble. You can kind of see her in the picture below, on the trampoline. Then things took a turn for the humorous.

They get along so well. I hope it lasts.

Oskar is loud. Powerfully loud. The other day he screeched and I sternly (yes, sternly) said "Oskar, please don't screech like that!" and the response was, "It was Princess Dibble!" Dan thought it was an imaginary friend, but luckily he was playing with a Barbie at the time so I thought we were in the clear. I asked if Princess Dibble was real or imaginary and he said she was imaginary. I asked if he knew she was pretend and he said yes. Let it be noted that the next time I had to tell him to be quiet it was a rocket. He has a lot going on in his brain.

Obligatory Easter picture.

During my toddler bath time siesta the other night I heard: "Dibble! That's not safe! (pause) Dibble! (pause) Wake up!" Good Lord, I thought, she's dead. My toddler just killed off his imaginary friend.

Dan asked him about it the next day and it turns out that Princess Dibble went down the drain and back to her castle. She was going to stop by later on to play. Kid's got plans.

"I'm wearing leg warmers!"

In other news, I am done nursing and Ellie is happily gaining weight on a healthy diet of formula. I am so glad to be done with nursing. Before you go and tell me how lucky I am to have nursed a child and how lovely it is and what wonderful bonding it is I will have to kindly remind you the nursing is not automatically a good experience for every woman. Besides exhaustion, pain and crabbiness it also caused me to dread my daughter waking up. Dread is not the feeling I want to associate with my baby. She's too precious for that. As a parent of a baby, you already dread your child NOT waking up. This was just too much. My patience with Oskar was even worse than usual and while he is generally exasperating. this wasn't very fair to him. So now feeding Ellie, which used to take about 6 hours out of my day now takes about an hour and everyone is better for it. It is absolutely glorious.

Despite all odds, the blue eyes are still present!

Not only that but we went back to the doctor and I'm happy to announce that she climbed her way back on the chart and is currently rocking out at the 14th percentile. They were very happy and extremely surprised. I've been lucky that all my medical staff have always been of the "nurse if you can, but if you can't, that's okay too" camp. Especially since nursing was clearly not providing her enough nutrients, even when supplemented with formula. Suffering AND failing is not a great place to be. When I was hating nursing Oskar, at least he was fat and happy at the 105th percentile.

She's a toe chomper.

Weaning went well for Ellie. I recommend introducing a bottle to your baby early and often (once a day) whether it has formula or breast milk in it. This is what I did for both my kids and weaning was not a problem at all. Ellie needed a little extra cuddling one night, and that's it. They were both used to formula by the time they switched to formula only, so I think that helped too.

Whenever we take Elena's monthly pictures, Oskar has to get in there too.
This is fun. Clearly in this one they are both looking at Dan.

Oskar is back on Phantom of the Opera after a considerable break from watching the film. The other day I told him we had to turn it off to go brush his teeth and go to bed. He ran to the bathroom and stood on his stool by the sink angrily sobbing while shouting Angel of Music at me. That's right, he picked the most gentle song from the whole musical and made it sound like a metal song being sung by a heart broken teenager. Good work, son. I asked him if he thought he could play the Phantom's part some day and he said, "Ya-huh, but I don't want to scare people." So if he never plays the role of Phantom, know that it's not that he can't, he's just doesn't want to scare people.;)

He finally gets that the end of Phantom is sad.

Oskar got a bike! It is a tiny bit big, but the one that fit a bit better was $199, so that wasn't happening. He is doing well with it, but will definitely have the training wheels on for a while.

Elena Falls off the Chart

I love Oskar's eyes. So much. This photo doesn't quite capture it, but they are stunning.

You do things when you're a parent that you thought you would never do. For instance, I said my kid would never eat McDonald's. At least not as a young child- eventually of course it would probably come up. The crafty little bugger stole two of my nugs when I was indulging a pregnancy craving. So, really, I haven't bought him McDonald's but he has consumed.

Ellie-3.75 months

Let's do a size comparison. The above picture is Ellie at 3.75 months. Below is Oskar at 2.5 months. How did I make both these babies? You'll notice that Ellie is a bit more tightly wound than the lounging Oskar as well. THAT trait is no mystery.

Oskar-2.5 months

I've always been a bit picky regarding cleanliness. I'm fine if things get a bit messy, but downright dirtiness bothers me. As such, potty training has been difficult. Oskar is house broken now but little dudes are little dudes and too often I find myself thinking, "Well, at least pee is sterile." This makes me sad. In my mind I see King Theoden: "How did it come to this..."

Elena got baptized! It was fun to have all of our family here. Nothing makes your house feel smaller than when you try to shove 20 people in it- five of whom are 6 and under and take up an astonishingly large amount of room. We were lucky to have a wonderful pastor baptize her and were super glad that Dan could just be a dad. Ellie was a star and slept through the service and woke up happy for the pictures at the end. We also got a beautiful Faith box from the Men in Mission at the church which is possibly nicer than most things we own.

I know most people saw this on Facebook, but oh my goodness I just love it so much.

Totally ready for the cabin this summer.

Do you know what is difficult? So many things, I know, but I'm going to talk about children in photographs. Oskar is generally quite photogenic. I guess for Ellie's baptism he just had a bit too many bits of crazy in him. Looking through the photos it's like he's trying to be all of the Three Wise Monkeys at once. Add to that a kid who hates being in pictures and another who confuses a smile with a grimace and let's just go ahead and be thankful that everyone could be there. Forget trying to get Elena smiling. That was not even worth an effort worth making. Another thing that makes it hard to take a nice photo? Waking up at 4:30 AM. I don't know if you know me, but "Morning Person" is never a title that I've earned.

Dan's siblings are Elena's Godparents.

We had Ellie's 4 month appointment yesterday. She seems to be moving up the chart in length and head size- I think her length was at about the 15th percentile! She, however, has fallen off the weight chart. This isn't great, but they aren't too concerned yet. We will go in for a measure in a month and worry about it then. The girl eats ALL THE TIME, so I find this particularly frustrating. No, I'm beyond frustrated.

Tranbys!

In all other respects Ellie is doing great. Very strong and alert and full of personality. She has a beautiful chuckle/giggle and tells me very loud and lengthy stories in the middle of the night, which honestly, I could do without. At least she is generally happy at those times. I can't believe how loud she is. She is so tiny! Where does it come from? Girl is going to be a great singer because of this. If you sing to her she will sing along. It is so sweet. Understand that when I say 'sing along' I mean she makes noises that are lengthy. I'm not claiming a prodigy here- just cuteness.

At about three months, Oskar was giving me a good, solid 6 hours of sleep every night. That was delightful. Ellie is no such champion. If I'm lucky she might have a five or six hour stretch, but it will start at about 8:30 PM so I can hardly take advantage of it because of, you know, life. I guess I take advantage a bit, because this is when I can actually get my work done, but I would love some sleep as well. Maybe someday. 

Nelsons!

You may have noticed that Ellie definitely has red hair. It is super cute. I have a friend in town that has really vibrant red hair, actually, her whole family does, and Ellie definitely looks more like her kid than mine right now. It probably doesn't help that I get to church and hand Ellie over to her as soon as I can, but still, it's pretty funny.

Oskar loves flowers. I got these at Costco, brought them home and he goes, "My flowers! Thank you SO much!"

I am living proof that if you do not get an appropriate amount of sleep you will be sick forever. And 'living' is putting it generously because I'm not doing great. All I want is to be able to breathe through both sides of my nose at the same time. Is that too much to ask? According to the last two weeks, yes, yes it is. Oskar, Ellie and I all got colds, mine is lingering the most. Better me than them, I guess.

Dan is leading mind blowing discourse on the merits of cake.

I apologize for being so lazy with the blog, but it is simply not a priority. Somehow feeding and caring for children and working take priority over writing a blog. Crazy, I know. We have been doing much better round these parts with making and eating real meals. Heck, I made tortillas the other day. And a 3 year old ATE them. I may not be a domestic idiot after all. 

Doing what he does best.

The above video is Oskar singing "Oh yes oh yes it's springtime!" to the tune of Vivaldi's 'Spring' brought to our ears originally by the Little Einsteins. He started singing it when he went outside and it was nice the other day and pretty much sang it all day. He is holding a tiny coffee pot that he found somewhere that we now use for birdseed. I thought it would be fun to get him a Little Einsteins rocket and all the kid figurines for his Easter basket, but apparently the series is old and all I can find are toys at collectible prices. I will not be spending $200 on a TOY for a CHILD. Thank you very much. That is absolutely insane. By the way, misspelling Einstein makes one feel really stupid.

This video is of Ellie laughing- don't mind my fake laughs and giant head. 

Dorisa rambles on and on... and on...

My three year old doesn't always wake up in the middle of the night, but when he does it's two minutes after I've laid down. Seriously, the instant I lay down it would be fine, but he gives me just enough time to relax and trick me into thinking I get to go to sleep and then he ruins it all. Last night he wasn't even awake. He was just moaning in his sleep about how his slipper had fallen off.

They are so sweet. Sometimes.

My 10 week old baby can roll from front to back. This isn't supposed to happen until about four months. I think it's her way of telling me not to underestimate her because of her size. She can also scoot. It looks very funny and a bit pathetic, but it's great. She is sitting pretty at the 5th percentile and honestly, I have no idea what to think about that. She is just so tiny. She is about 10 weeks old and is almost as long as Oskar was when he was born. Although it should be noted that Oskar "shrank" an inch once that weird doughnut bump on his head went down. She is very strong and very aware though, and yesterday she had a little giggle. It was hearty and wonderful.

Oskar had a play date with a friend the other day. He doesn't get a lot of opportunities to play with boys near his age so he went a bit nuts (daycare is mostly girls). There was an amazing amount of little boy craziness happening and if volume is any indication they both had a blast. Afterward, Oskar had an epic crash. Witness:

"I not hungry! I hungry!" (The crash. A big nap was the answer)
Photo credit to Dan. He made me write that.

Oskar is mostly potty trained! Hooray! It's still a bit dicey when I'm home alone with both the kids and I'm nursing Ellie. That's 45-60 minutes where it is very hard to drop what I'm doing and help him in the bathroom, but if we're lucky we make it work.

I have been going to the gym! Pretty consistently! It is tricky sometimes because of the exhaustion from having a tiny thing who makes me feed her for 6-8 hours every day, but it is definitely nice to have some time alone. I don't really get any time alone unless you count time spent in the bathroom. And I don't.

My middle name is Joy!

Oskar can finally kind of do puzzles. He has a cousin who is an absolute puzzle wizard who still puts him to shame, but he's finally starting to understand what to do. His patience isn't great. The pieces of the puzzle set we have are a little hard to get together sometimes and he often gives up in about 10 seconds. We'll get there.

In an effort to actually eat decent meals together as a family I have started preparing and freezing meals which I then heat up in a crock pot. This has been going okay. I haven't made any amazingly delicious dishes yet, but it is food and it's not mac & cheese every night. For now, I will call it a win. I have many more recipes to try so we should find some that are legitimately good. Not just edible.

So much personality.

I also have started eating smoothies on a daily basis. It is a fantastic way to get some fruits and greens in. I add in my protein powder and my omega 3 supplement and I have an amazing little healthy treat.

Play time.

Three year olds are not the best. They are so difficult. Every meal is a struggle right now as we are forcing Oskar to try new food. Luckily at times Oskar is very funny and surprisingly clever. He still has some verbal doozies. Like "Cinderbagella" for Cinderella and sometimes he says babagel instead of bagel. My favorite is when he adds a 'b' sound to mommy so it sounds like mbommy. Some other recent gems:

"You must have had a very good nap."
"That's right! I have so much energy now! To sing! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" (said while jumping on his trampoline.)

"la la laaa la la laaa la la la la laaaaa... FORTISSIMO! LA LA LAAA LA LA LAAA LA LA LA LA LAAAAA."

"I can not believe it! Mommy eat my banana! That is not fair! This is terrible!" and yes, 'I can not believe it' was said like Quincy on Little Einsteins. Speaking of Little Einsteins, Oskar loves it. He sings the songs they feature on there all the time. The other day I was wondering how much he was learning about the composers so I asked him who he likes better, Mozart or Dvorak. He responded with, "I like to play with my toys." Hooray for having a normal little boy. Well, on the spectrum of normal I suppose. I do enjoy his quirkiness.

"Who else are you going to play with at daycare? Are there any boys there?"
"Ya huh. Bobby*."
"Oh yea? Is Bobby nice?"
"Yes. Bobby plays volcano with me"
"Wow, that is so cool, Oskar."
"No. It's hot."
*Not his real name :)

Dan was just trying to get Oskar out the door and kept being a frog. I told him to stop being a frog and he made his arms into wings. We get no where fast in this house.

I think one of my favorite things about Oskar right now is how incapable he thinks Dan is of taking care of Ellie. When she starts crying and I'm not around Oskar immediately says, "Mommy can help her!" Oskar knows that Dan can't do anything.

Ellie has reached the age where she is quite aware of how she gets her food. She gets this psychotic look when she is about to eat. It's hard to understand that such a tiny person can understand and have so much excitement, but she does and it's great.

"She's so sweet" everyone says. Yea. Right. Y'all have no idea.

This is a fantastic book. Read it.

Here are some pictures of updates to our kitchen. It took me so long to post these because I wanted it to be clean and finished, but it wasn't happening so I thought I would just get it done with. New paint, cabinet hardware, back splash, under cabinet lighting and curtain (which matches the dining room chairs).

NW Corner Before

SW Corner Before

NW Corner now. Still figuring out how to get a microwave and vent above the stove. Any volunteers?

SW Corner. I don't know what all that reflection is on the left hand side. It really isn't shiny paint.

Kitchen art! I might lower it. It's a bit high.

So yea, in our opinion the kitchen looks better now and I hope you enjoyed playing "Spot the Oskar." I also refinished a table to use as our dining room table. When it's treated a bit rough it's a mixture of feelings. One part of me goes, "Ugh, I worked so hard on that table/those chairs" and the other part of me goes, "Thank God I didn't spend any money on buying a new table and chairs." The second thought wins every time.

Various stages of refinishing the chairs. They had orange velvet cushions in VERY bad shape.

Table Legs Before

Table Top Before

After. There is another chair. It's not done yet.

Thanks for reading!