"Where Do They Come From?"

A little while ago while I was preparing lunch for the boys, Noah (sitting at the table, waiting for food) asked me, "Where do they come from?" "Who is they?" I asked. "They" he insisted and then just kept on repeating the question with increasing urgency, getting quite agitated. So I started guessing who "they" could be and it only took a few guesses until I struck gold..."they" was trains, of course. Noah was so relieved when I finally understood what he was talking about. I told him the trains were from the Island of Sodor (because when he talks about trains, it always refers to the Thomas trains). For the fun of it, I decided to continue the conversation so I asked him, "Noah, where are you from?" Without any hesitation, he said, "The Mall of America." Then I asked him about the rest of our family, and with the utmost certainty, he told me that Kai is from Minneapolis, Mamma is from Sverige (Sweden in Swedish) and Daddy is from the office. Kids are so funny!

Picnic in the Park

Today we met up with Katherine, Sam and Jen for some playground fun and picnicing at a local park. It was a glorious morning with crystal clear blue skies and beautiful blooming trees, bushes and flowers everywhere. The kids ran around with their never-ending bundles of energy for a couple of hours. Then we all enjoyed a picnic under a shady tree. Phil and I never thought we would find a kid who could out-eat Noah, but I think we've found him --- Kai! He just loves to eat and makes the cutest grunting sound when something is particularly appealing to his taste buds. All the kids decided to help feed Kai today and I don't even know how much he ate! We look forward to lots of more fun playdays in the park this summer.

Memorial Day Parade

Yesterday we went down to our little downtown for the local Memorial Day Parade. Kai was sleepy and was happy to hang out on Phil in the Baby Bjorn. Noah was so excited to see all the firetrucks, police cars, waving flags and people.

Potty Update

Phil and I thought we had painlessly gotten through the whole potty training thing...turns out we weren't quite there. After having successfully used the potty (both home and out and about) for about 2 weeks without any accidents, Noah had a full day of total regression this weekend. He was kind of out of sorts the whole day in general and I think we ended up going through 9 pairs of underwear! The next day, things were back to perfect again and so far we're back on track. Who knows what that was all about!

On a related note, Noah has gotten really into analyzing his bodily outputs. He still prefers using a potty rather than sitting on the little seat we bought that goes on top of the real toilet. I think he kind of gets into the whole dumping his waste in the toilet procedure. It also allows him to get a really good look. So a week or so ago, he noticed that his urine was red. I told him, "That's because you had beets for dinner last night." So now, he looks at his output (liquid and solid) and occasionally tells me what he thinks it is. He is most enthusiastic about urine, but is running out of yellowish things to name it!

Walk at Lake Elmo

Noah could spend the entire day from sunrise to sunset outdoors. He just loves it and seems to be able to find an endless number of things to entertain himself with whether it is digging around in sand, or looking for animals - both real and imaginary. A few weeks ago, Phil needed to spread some fertilizer on our lawn so I took the boys for a walk at Lake Elmo , a county park near our house. Noah walked the entire 2+ miles while Kai enjoyed the scenery from his perch in the stroller. It was a beautiful day and the walk took us through some wooded areas as well as along fields and near ponds. Winter is but a distant memory!

Finally getting some of that spring sun on us!

Noah loves looking for sticks - they can become just about anything in his vivid imagination!

Stopped for some refueling.

Potty Training

My friends here had told me that if we just waited to potty train until the right time, it should be a piece of cake. Well, I'm probably jinxing us by posting a blog, but it seems that they were right (more or less)! This weekend we said good-bye to daytime diapers and threw a pair of training pants on Noah (basically just an extra thick pair of underwear). Within 30 minutes he had completely soaked through them. But that was all it took! The next time, there was just a slight bit of wetness that didn't quite make it into the potty and after that he recognized the urge and got to the potty on time. He had already been having all his bowel movements in the potty for a week or so and has not had any accidents at all with those. Could it really be this easy? I guess we'll wait and see.... I have to admit that I have stuck a diaper on him if we are running an errand - I'm not quite ready for public toilets yet, but I think I just need to bite that bullet and do it soon. Or put a travel potty in the car. At least he's a boy and can take care of business outside easily if needed!

1 Year Check-Up

Yesterday while Noah was at his last day of school for the year (we're both going to miss it!), I took Kai for his 1-year check-up. The doctor pronounced him in excellent health and is pleased with his progress since our last visit. Here are the current stats:

Weight - 20 pounds 12 ounces (18th percentile)
Height - 30 inches (60th percentile)
Head - 18.75 inches (85th percentile)

We talked in length about Kai's physical therapy. The most current theory is that Kai has hypersensitivity to side-to-side movement which is related to ear canals and balance which would delay gross motor development. The only thing to do for this is to desensitize him by continuing with our therapy. During the summer, there will be a break in therapy since it is provided through the school system; fortunately, our doctor has referred Kai for private therapy so that we can continue it during the summer - I would hate to take such a long break since Kai clearly is making progress and we don't want to lose the momentum!

The doctor was impressed with Kai's eating habits and the variety of foods that he eats with much gusto. When I mentioned that I'm still getting up to nurse him around 3:30 - 4:00 am each night and that I can literally hear Kai's stomach growling across the room when I open his door, he said that it is completely normal considering that Kai goes to sleep at 7 pm. These little engines can require a lot of fuel!

Swedish School

On Saturdays, Phil is in charge here at home while I get to spend a few hours in Minneapolis teaching Swedish at the American Swedish Institute. I think it's great for the boys to get some time alone with their dad and I love getting to use the teacher part of my brain for a few hours so that it doesn't completely shrivel up and disappear. Last year I worked with both the younger and older kids' groups but this year due to scheduling, I'm only with the older crowd (8-12 years). This semester we worked on a large floor puzzle type map of Sweden that we created together. Each student was responsible for a few provinces and had to make different things to attach to it. Then we pieced the whole thing together - it was a lot of fun and the students enjoyed working on it as well as hopefully learning a thing or two. Here is the fruit of our labor:

Kai Turns One!

Yesterday, May 8th, our sweet little Kai turned 1! It's unbelievable that a whole year has gone by since we first got to meet our little guy and at the same time it's hard to remember what life before Kai was like. We started off the day with some balloons and "Happy Birthday" singing:


For lunch we met Daddy at Red Robin where Kai had his first taste of french fries which he appeared to enjoy. Noah insisted that we go by the office after lunch to meet Daddy's 'work friends'. He then proceeded to have a melt down when he discovered that there are no trains at Daddy's office!

Lunch with Daddy

Later in the day we opened presents with Noah's help:

"Hey, I thought this was my birthday!"

Dinner included delicious beets:

One of our grocery stores offers a free first birthday cake:


Kai didn't hesitate for long before digging in to the cake. We eventually took the cake away concerned that he might eat so much that it would make him sick. He was not happy! Noah waited as patiently as he could, then we cut him his piece which he devoured with some serious concentration:

Happy Birthday Kai! We love you so very much!

Swimming

The last couple of weeks, Noah has been begging to go swimming every time we pass the pool area at the Y. Usually I drop the boys off at Kids Stuff while I get a nice workout - I love having that hour of 'me' time and both Noah and Kai are usually happy to be dropped off. Last week I finally promised Noah that we would go in the pool this weekend. The leisure pool is heated and drops off gradually so it's perfect for little non-swimmers. Plus there are fun toys for kids to play with and quite an impressive water slide (it is only turned on for a few hours each week). We ended up having the pool almost entirely to ourselves and both Kai and Noah had a blast. Phil took Noah down the water slide and despite ending up completely submerged when they shot off the end of the slide, Noah was not the least bit terrified and wanted to go again. So Ebba got to take him for a ride and it was a wild, fun ride! Getting Noah out of the pool and dressed to go home proved quite a challenge - he had no intentions of letting the fun come to an end. Here are a couple of pictures I snapped before being sternly told by the lifeguard that picture-taking in the pool area is strictly forbidden: