Around the house

Here are a few snapshots of moments in our life:

Max and I enjoy cooking together.  He grabs his stool and while I do all of the measuring, Max dumps stuff into the bowl and is in charge of stirring. 

  

Hana really enjoys sorting, arranging and picking things up.  She is a real help when it is time to clean up, she loves to put the legos or blocks back into the container.  Every day she spends time in her kitchen putting dishes in the sink, and then pulling them out of the oven.  It is a cycle that she'll repeat 20+ times.  Cracks us up. Oh yeah, she totally claimed Max's Christmas tractor.  She rides that thing all over the house. 

 

 

We are surprised daily at what Max has learned.  I was shocked when he told me that was a "two clock"  we didn't  know he could identify numbers already!  The other day he pointed at the chalk board where Leif had written Max's name.  "Mama, that's my name M-A-X."    He identified his name and told me the spelling! I think this is unique to his name, don't think he can do this for any other words yet ;-)

Ahh, what will they do next?

Sick day

Our family has been struggling with cold-after-cold-after-cold the last month.  A few weeks ago, Max had to come home from school sick.  He threw up a few more times before bed, but by morning he was 100% again.  It amazes me how quickly kids bounce back from stomach bugs.

He still had to stay home from school (their policy) so I spent the day at home with him. We had a lot of fun playing:  We took a long walk to the park, climbed the hill and played with all of the fun toys at home.

max took that picture of me in the lower right, with my iphone nice work right?

It is nice getting low-key relaxing time with my son. Glad he was feeling better.

Grandparents

Last Sunday afternoon we had lots of grandparents visiting us.  The kids love spending time with their "grands."

Sunday was beach day

On Sunday morning, Max and I got up early and did the normal morning stuff (eat breakfast, wrangle into clothes, debate the merits of shoes, wrangle out of clothes to use the potty, change into new clothes when we didn't make it to the potty in time, discuss why using small voices in the morning is a good thing... you know, typical morning stuff).

We were both pretty frazzled by 7:30 when we went to tell papa that "its wake up time."  Leif is great, he hugged max, told me to take some time for myself and then asked Max what he wanted to do today.

Max thought about it for a few minutes, then "hmmm.... we go beach today."  And so we did.

Max got to run-run-run his energy out in the waves and on the sand.

Hana got to meet sand for the first time, delicately tasting the grains.

We all enjoyed the unseasonably warm January morning.  The sun was shining, the air was warm and their wasn't even the typical ocean breeze.  That made for a completely relaxing morning where our little family could re-set and enjoy each other.  

This is why we live in San Diego. 

whats the buzz

Last weekend both boys gave themselves haircuts.  Hana and I documented the process. 

Max

Max is on the verge of his 3rd birthday, and is growing out of the toddler phase with gusto.  He's going to a great Montessori school, where he gets to play with the coolest toys ever! They call them "jobs" at his school, and he loves to do his "work."

A plastic whale is frozen in this ice puck.  With a toothbrush and a jar of salt Max is excavating that orca.

He has learned a lot of responsibility in a short time at this school.  He's pretty good about putting away each activity after he's finished.

On the way to school last week

As any pre-schooler will tell you some one of his favorite things to do is visit the park.

Hanalei

Lets talk about Hana.  She is eleven months now, my how quickly she grows up.  She continues to have a sunny personality and just adores her brother.

Hana's been teething hard core the last few weeks.  Though her first two teeth popped out at about 5 months, she finally got her 3rd tooth last week.  There are two more close on its heals, so I suspect she'll have a mouthful before we know it.

Hana is working on walking.  Leif practices with her every night.  She's standing on her own for about 30 seconds at a time, and loves holding to our fingers while she paces the room.

She is so curious about our every day actives.  She explores everything, and has a fascination with the dog dishes (so did Max).

Over Christmas, Hana caught a nasty cold that has lingered and combined with the pain of teething.  That meant that for a good week she was waking 2-3 times every night.  That was torture for Leif and I who are used to more regular sleep patterns from both our kids.  She's back to a more normal schedule, and we found that by moving her bed time later to 7:30 she's sleeping until at least 5:30 in the morning.   When it comes to napping, Hana's in the process of dropping her second nap.  Though we really fought that with Max, it is appealing to have both kids asleep for one long nap in the middle of the day at the same time.  

We love our little girl and everyday we are so thankful to have her as part of our family. 

Christmas

Ok, so I skipped right past Christmas but I'd like to show you a little peek into our wonderful holiday.  A few days before Christmas we visited with Forrest and Jancie and did a little celebration at their house.  I hadn't gotten my new camera yet, so unfortunately I don't have any pictures of our fun there.

Then we headed up to the Sequoia Mountains, where grandma and grandpa have a cabin outside of the national park.

the river across from the cabin

This deer wasn't afraid of me at all, I was out playing with my new camera and he was the perfect subject

We met up with all of the aunties, uncles and cousins and had a great holiday together.

Auntie Emily reads a story

All of the cousins with Uncle Chriss

Auntie Jessy and Julian 

Yummy steak for Christmas Eve dinner

Hana's new bike

Cousins!

Sleepy Mama

Happy Papa

Thanks for a beautiful holiday! 

Around the house

I got an awesome new camera for christmas (thanks Leif!) and have been trying out all of the manual functions.  It is great for pictures of the kids, and I've been snapping lots of those!  I think I am driving Leif and Max a little nuts with all of my pictures ;-)

Here are a few moments from our normal days:

Cost Co- a weekly destination for the whole family

One of our days off during the holidays we went to the San Diego Botanical gardens.  There is so much fun kid stuff to do at the gardens.  The kids can climb in the tree hours, dig in the dirt, and Max even got to go sledding on the snow they brought in for the holiday season.

Max is running around by the sledding area

Hana is "building a wall"

Max has a new favorite activity.  we'll be driving around town and Max will say  "Mama, lets go Starbucks!"  Our little kid LOVES his kids hot-chocolates.  I swear he even knows how to spell it.  The other day, i mentioned to leif that we should stop at s-t-a-r-b-u-c-k-s, and Max yelled "YEAH!!"

One thing about two-year olds is that they like routine.  In fact, Max wants the same breakfast every day.  "Papa, I want yogurt, 'nola and honey!"

Nice bed-head ;-)

Leif hung some new curtains in the dining room, and Max was quick to help with his new Christmas tools.

Hope you enjoyed this little peak into our days