Are We There Yet?

We have been having lots of fun finding things to do in the house this winter. Not really. Actually, we've had 3 or 4 days of 50 degrees or higher this past week, which is REALLY exciting. We've been able to go to the park again, although the playground and swings are surrounded by enormous puddles from the melting snow. But we brought the stroller out from the garage and have used that to visit the park, and boy, what a treat it has been. We're already planning some camping trips for the summer and just can't wait.

Elise and Linnaea are at the cutest stage now. Well, every stage is the cutest, right? They love to repeat everything we say, and Linnaea constantly tries to have conversations with us while we have no idea what she is saying. They were very much into hot and cold last week, and love to tell us when something is cold (milk, ice) and hot (bath, oven). They are also extremely into telling us which objects belong to who: Kevin apparently owns the ketchup, cokes, and all the hats, jackets and shoes. I own the phone, the toilet, and the kitchen chairs. They also love the characters on their diapers. For those of you who don't know, Pampers diapers are decorated with Elmo on the back, and a different Sesame Street character such as Big Bird, Ernie, Cookie Monster, or Grover on the the front. They get so excited about who is on their next diaper!

We've been on a few trips to Steamboat Springs to visit the indoor playplace at McDonald's. Those trips are quite fun. We do a little shopping at the Safeway in the racecar cart, then head over for some play time and a cheeseburger at McDonald's. However, it is an hour away so we only get to do that every 2 weeks or so.





Elise love to put on her backpack, shoe, and hat to go around the house.





A glimpse of my new haircut. I'm not sure my hair has gotten used to being short yet.





Elise watches Sesame Street in Linnaea's easy chair.





Elise reads Mommy's book about toddlers. She wants to know when she should start potty training.





I tried to get a nice, natural photo of Linnaea, but I ended up getting 4 in a row of her cheesy fake smile.





Elise can put away some food.





This is how they insisted on being dressed to play in the house. Elise is upset because I won't show her the photos on the camera.





Elise likes to wear her bath towel around the house in the mornings.





The girls "help" Mommy with the dishes.

What We Did For Valentine's Day

We decided to have a two day Valentine's Day celebration. On Friday we went to the library for story hour. We dressed up in our new Valentine's Day outfits and went over to visit our friends. It was definitely an improvement over last time. We sat still in Mom's lap for two and a half books!





When we came home we found Rosie had an accident.





We got Valentine's Day tattoos from Miss Kathy. Elise decided she wants to look like a sailor.





On Saturday we woke up and brushed our teeth. Linnaea has an Elmo toothbrush, while Elise's features Cookie Monster.





After we brushed, we got a piece of Valentine's Day cake Mommy made. Elise was scared of the icing. They both ate about half a piece after a LOT of coaxing.





Then we colored!






Then we got to take a bath, our all time favorite activity. Linnaea is sporting Mommy's old swim cap from the Tri For The Cure she did two and a half years ago. Linnaea kept the cap on during the whole bath.

There's Nothing Better Than Sisters

Elise as "The Coat Monster"



All of a sudden, Linnaea has started to love giving hugs to Elise. She actually cried last night when Elise wouldn't come over and give her a hug! Elise was into it the night before last but lost interest since.

It's the Little Things that Count

Elise and Linnaea reached 20 months old on January 29th and are two little joys (most of the time). I just love watching them play together and by themselves. Sometimes I still wonder what I have gotten myself into, but every challenge is worth it when I look at their little smiles and hear their little giggles and words. They have picked up over a dozen words in the past two weeks: Mommy and Daddy (instead of Mama and Dada), rice, box, backpack, rock, sleep, water, wet, cookie, night, apple, red, blue, brown, etc.

Linnaea has even combined words, which is a big and exciting milestone. She can say "night night Taffy (or Daddy or Mommy)" and yesterday she said "Daddy apple" about the apple Daddy was taking for lunch.

Elise LOVES to sing and dance. Her favorite song to sing is Patty Cake, which sounds like "Pa kee, pa kee. Rooooo. Paaaa. BEE!" Interpretation: Patty cake, patty cake. Roll it. Pat it. Mark it with a B. And she does it over and over without any prompting. Elise also likes to pretend sneeze. I think she got it from one of her favorite books, The Mitten, when a mouse sits on a bear's nose and tickles it with his whiskers, making sneeze "AAAAA Choo!" So she walks around going AAAAA choooo. It is absolutely darling.

They are still crazy about Sesame Street and anything Elmo. They have also started watching The Jungle Book movie and LOVE it. They get so mad when I turn it off.

Lots more is still to come!

It Wasn't Me

I don't know who ate all the M & M's, do you?

Middle of Winter Update

Well, here we are in the middle of winter in Walden and we've got a looooong way to go until summer. But our house is nice and warm thanks to our wood stove, which we've been lighting every day. The temperatures have been reaching 30 degrees pretty consistently, which is actually quite pleasant if the sun is out and there is no wind. The sun is out most of the time, it's just that pesky wind that hangs around. So we finally took the girls to the park this weekend. It was warm enough to not even have to wear a hat and gloves! Still lots of snow and ice on the ground, hence the snowsuits.

The girls are learning new words by the minute. This past week they've learned snow, nose, shoe, more, Elmo, and milk. They've known the signs to most of those but they've just started saying the words. Elise also knows one and two, and Linnaea knows two. Elise walks around the house going "wa, doo, wa, doo" (for one and two). They also love to tell us that they have a poop, or that Rosie has pooped in the house by saying "ba pa" and pointing at either their diaper or the offender. For those of you who don't know, Rosie has developed a degenerative nerve disorder that has made her lose a lot of feeling in her hindquarters. She falls a lot and has frequent accidents in the house. She is not in any pain, thankfully, so we are hoping that with some supplements and exercise the disorder will progress as slow as possible.

They also had their first Oreos this week. Linnaea is a lick-the-cream-first Oreo eater, while Elise just shoves the whole thing in her mouth as fast as possible. Both of them absolutely LOVE Sesame Street, so this gives Mommy a little time to clean the kitchen and post on her blog.




Daddy walks his girls around the park.





Elise stretches out with Mommy.





Linnaea practices being like Daddy.





Elise found the secret stash of stamps that Grandma Sue had given us for Christmas.





Linnaea plays with her bouncy ball.





Well, if we can't get to the park, the bar in the closet will suffice as a swing. Elise's favorite word is "Whee!"





Elise dons a hat, mitten, and purse to do her rounds of the house.





Daddy and Elise read on the couch.

Christmas Continued

Here are some photos of our wonderful Christmas presents.

Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Tim sent us some super cool sleds to use on all of our snow here in Walden. There is a hill in back of the elementary school that shoots you onto the high school football field. Linnaea had a blast going down by herself. Every time she stopped at the bottom she asked for more, so we had to haul her back up to the top and shoot her down again. Elise was ok with it at first, but she hit a few bumps and fell face first into the snow twice, so that was the end of that. She absolutely loved being pulled in circles around the football field.




Elise gets her kicks going in slow circles.




Linnaea gets ready to go. She's got the need for speed.




Elise plays with the stroller Grandma Kitty sent. She also likes to dress herself. She put on her hat and one snow boot all by herself.




We took a trip to Steamboat Springs to do something different. We stopped at the Safeway for some groceries and the girls got to ride in the race car at the front of the shopping cart. And they are looking super cute in their stylish clothes from Aunt Carolyn.




Playing with the doll house from Grandma Kitty.




Our new tent from Grandma and Grandpa Kovacs. "Tent" (te-te) was on of Linnaea's first words. They like to play underneath a blanket with daddy, so Kevin started calling it "playing tent" and Linnaea caught on really fast.




Our new table from Grandma and Grandpa Kovacs.




Linnaea talks to Elmo on her new Elmo phone from Grandma and Grandpa Kovacs. You can download their names to the phones so Elmo talks personally to them.




Their new chairs from Grandma and Grandpa Bartosik.