Leif 8 Months Old

A couple funny things from the girls, then a few pictures, then off to preparing for and looking forward to Christmas!

The girls have a game they play sometimes while eating at the table. It's called poop fork. They run their forks towards each other until they crash. Then the forks poop on each other. And lots of laughter ensues.

Freya also made up a very handy contraction: nenemore. Not anymore. Like, there are nenemore blueberries. We can't do that nenemore. Totally makes sense. Why isn't it a thing for real?

I'm sure I've mentioned here before how much Freya likes to pretend to be other things or people. It often changes minute to minute. And when she's serious, she's "real" whatever. So she says, when for instance you mistakenly call her Freya (rookie move), "No I'm real Dora." That's a common one. Real Nana with Real Marshall is another. Real Marshall is pretend Snoopy, of course. And my favorite is Real Alli Mama. Usually that's Signe.

As I was writing this Freya had another good one. When Kurt came in the room, she told him that he was "real Freya daddy." And then she was wondering out loud who should daddy be. "Oh! Oh! Ray [the cat] can be daddy! I'll pretend he's a man and he can be daddy!!" That sort of stuff happens all day.

Leif is 8 months old today! Wow it's just gone so fast. He was a teeny little baby just a minute ago, now he's crawling super fast, standing, climbing onto things, playing games, interacting with everyone, and finally sleeping a little better again. He is also starting to get more wordy - his vocalizations are sounding more and more like real words. I swear he has said "mama mama mama" while he is crawling over to me and standing up on my pants, wanting a cuddle. Cute to imagine anyway :-)

Girls' first pedicure with nail stickers. Daddy did it! What a guy

We took a night walk to look at Christmas lights in the neighborhood. It was really fun

Turns out the dishwasher is the perfect height for Leif to crawl up

Why, how do you wash your baby?

Trampoline and December Splashing

Mark and Laura gave a little trampoline to the girls for their birthday. It is pretty amazing. Leif loves it too. It's actually a perfect height for him to practice climbing, which he desperately wants to do. The girls are starting both gymnastics (thanks to Nana and Papa and Aunt Kerry!) and pre-ballet in January. We're all about getting that energy out. Also, we got good deals on ballet outfits on Cyber Monday. Just tried them on, oh man so cute. Will get pictures when we actually go for the first time.

So Signe has a little beanie baby cat named Snips that she loves. It's her favorite and has been for several months. But on a couple of occasions she had trouble getting to sleep at night and at naptime, and claimed that Snips was keeping her up. So we offered to take her. Now, Snips is sleeping in my and Kurt's bed every night. She doesn't want to cuddle her most special stuffy because she is allegedly keeping her up. I thought it was just hilarious. Kurt did have the idea that possibly the sound of the beans actually had kept her up. I dunno, but either way, it's cute.

Leif is very persistent. If there is something he wants, he's going to get it. In a good natured way, he will keep trying and trying. He also loves bamming. He'll take most anything and slam it against the ground, table, or his booster seat tray. He is crawling super fast, pulling up all over the place, and can occasionally sit back down again after standing around. He's starting to move along furniture, etc, too. One of his favorite things is when the girls take a bath, he loves standing and grabbing at bubbles and toys. He laughs a bunch. Happy boy. We're just hoping he sleeps through the night again soon and we will be a happy AND well-rested family ;-)

Bugging baby Theo

Signe loves making multimedia creations

You can see our tree, still bagged, behind Freya. I forgot the camera to document searching for and cutting down the tree, and seeing the reindeer

Turns out a broccoli stump is a great teether

Wouldn't be a bad little selfie if it wasn't so overexposed. I like Freya's expression

The girls had a splashing adventure. The trouble with a splashing adventure in December is that the temperature, while above freezing, is usually just barely above. And so they splashed and had fun and ran, and then suddenly were SO COLD. Luckily we were just a few houses down, so we hurried home and I stuck them in a hot bath, and that day was not the day that Mama let her girls get frostbitten

Kerry, Birthdays and Thanksgiving

It has been a VERY jam packed time in the Pedersen household. Aunt Kerry came to visit and we had an amazing time. Just wish she were here for, well, all the time ;-) She and Kurt took the girls to the Children's Museum while Nana Carol took care of Leif while I worked on Saturday morning. All three kids got one-on-one adult time!

Then Aunt Kris took me and the girls to a play, Stella Queen of the Snow. It was at the Capitol Theatre at Overture Center, and was made for little kids - big puppets, slow story, no shushing allowed. It was really neat!

Then it was my birthday. I love UWCU - even though I'm a very part-time worker and don't get any ETO, I still get my birthday off paid. Nice! So Kurt and I went to Interstellar at Sundance when I normally work, and Diana took care of the kids as usual.

We were all sick for various times before, during, and after these events. Winter :-( On the plus side, we thought Leif had croup, but then decided he just had a cough. Phew.

Then it was Thanksgiving and the girls' birthday. We stayed up way too late, ate way too much cake and pie, and saw lots of friends and family. Grandpa Jim and Ann hosted Thanksgiving at his house. It was fun and delicious. They had a little birthday celebration after dinner since Grandpa couldn't make the girls' party. Ann made very cute, yummy little layer cakes, decorated green (Freya) and yellow (Signe) per their instruction.

Then it was the birthday party. We had it at Warner Park Community Center. The kids got to play in the gym with all the toys first, then go to a room for cake and ice cream. We had lots of fun playing and catching up with friends.

And then two days later it turned into December and we started our Advent calendars. We're planning on getting our Christmas tree this weekend. Wow what a blur.

Oh and it is public now, our kids will have an official cousin (Of course we have lots of 2nd cousins and such that we love so much). Aunt Lara is pregnant and due in June!

Phew. Pictures!

This guy loves the bathroom and makes a beeline for it often. It think because the stools and bathtub are great for him to pull up on.

These cuddles are not going well

Crafting with Aunt Kerry

Freya's plate of spaghetti and meatballs

The girls named it of course

Kerry taught them pizza stretch - something she did when she taught kids gymnastics

Aunt Kerry is so cool, she built a rocket ship with the girls!

Complete with instrument panels they could use

Seems unconcerned about getting himself stuck

Yummy

On our way to the play

Signe's bandage

I don't even remember the game

Using the watercolors Diana rescued from her childhood room

First sledding!

Leif's first kind-of moving-while-standing-using-Signe-as-leverage

He loves watching their baths. He even took a bath with them once!

Thanksgiving cranberry sauce - he did seem to like it ok but not for this picture :-)

Great-grandpa Welch

Helping Papa do the dishes. She was super helpful because we had to wait to have cake/pie until the dishes were done

Uncle Will and Great Grandpa

The cute little cakes Ann made for them

Their birthday party

Janna, Betty, and Sophia

Timothy, Aileen, and Signe

Freya didn't really ever stop, This was the best picture I got of her

Cynthia and Viggo, Robin and Eowyn (it was a Nordic bunch)

And there's Rebecca and Charlie

My Olaf cake as requested. A suggestion of Olaf perhaps? Banana chocolate cake from http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2010/09/monkey-cake/

Key lime cheesecake, http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2008/01/key-lime-cheesecake/