2009!

Cinderella Dress, Monkey Suit

We're staying in for New Year's, but getting dressed up anyway. When asked what outfit Noah wanted to wear to get dressed up in, he chose his monkey costume. Of course. How fancy.

Christmas Two

Myriad Christmas cheer.

Some highlights:

The Aunt Pat pile.
Greta's first near brain injury, followed by her second near brain injury. Neither is pictured. And I'm not ready to talk about it.
Tea party.
Wii
Tots battle over the new ___ (workbench / baby crib / doll / car).
Noah wonders Where is the toy in this box of clothes?
A celery-nosed snowman.
The great thaw and the unfortunate basement.

Christmas One

We celebrated the Christmas / Solstice this morning.  A huge success.  See our favorites here.

The Giftwrap Overload Meltdown

Seacrest Out

To my new favorite stylist:  I love you.  You managed to defuse a potentially explosive situation with skill I would not believe existed.  How did you coax my kid from tantrumming outside the door of the salon to full-on enthusiastic about gel?

If hair doesn't work out for you, seriously, consider a career in hostage negotiation.

PS Thanks for not being super harsh with me about the haircut he came in with.  I won't do it again, I promise.

Boogey Man

 

9:20 pm.  Long past bedtime.  This tot's bedroom door opened the teeniest of cracks.  Just enough to see me giving him the Get back into bed look from the kitchen.  "I'm afraid."  Of what?  "the dark."

That's new.

Favorite Night Light

You, Me and A Fa La Latte

Noah is awesome in the kitchen, and very adventurous. These are no chocolate chip cookies. They are biscotti Toscani. We support diversity in our Christmas cookies. Italians welcome.

The best part of baking:

Greta agrees:

PS A short time after this photo was taken, I found the corners of the spatula missing. Think we should alert daycare to expect some diaper surprises tomorrow?

You Enjoy Ava Sun-Hee Howell

Congrats to my Sister and Brian.  She is wonderful and a joy to hold.  A love supreme.  

Born on 11/23/08 @ 11:03 p.m.

The Moon, Venus, & Jupiter

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27958792/

Delinquent

Greta is sorry it's been so long since we've posted. She wants to make it up to you.

Lion Mane

Wilson's Haircut

All Saints

Kid discovers milkweed on a windy day in Lake Elmo.

A day also spent trying to learn to climb a tree. Smoothly transitioning between Running start-Jump-Scramble to nearest branch is not as easy as the experienced tree climber would make it look. The 36 inch handicap was no help either.


Kid snoozes on a windy day in Lake Elmo.

Pumpkins

The Halloween 2008 album.

Just Before The Fall

Up

Ubiquitous

Permanent Press

The bad news is, our homely old washer died in its sleep last night, after getting one final load of laundry mostly clean.

The good news is, I am far too un-handy to be expected to make any attempt at figuring out what's wrong with the dead washer, and I can't bring myself to pay anyone to repair such an energy inefficient machine. So maybe I get to go appliance shopping?

Airbrushed

Dad's home.
All better.

Ole! Obama

"Noah, who are you going to vote for?"

(pointing to button on my jacket) "John Coltrane."

Um, okay.

Show Me Innocent

Now back to the real aim of this blog: gratuitous pictures of these guys.

Does this not look like a senior picture pose?

Class of 2026. Go Wildcats.

For Everyone

The one where Noah finds joy in covering himself in leaves and making dirt angels (not dissimilar from snow angels) and Greta finds him eternally hilarious.

For Kevin

We miss you too.

The extended-length version of the video we sent you yesterday where Noah shows you a scarecrow and Greta grunts in the stroller.

For Grandma Rose

We miss you already.

I visualize perfect scores on his calculus exams and English compositions covered in red marks.

Transcript
Sarah: B-O-O says...
Noah: PUMPKIN!

The 50 States Puzzler

Noah loves his puzzle of the United States. Below are two versions of him putting it together while I take photos. This is probably quite boring for most of you, so I provided two versions, one complete at 5 minutes and one time lapsed at one frame every 1/30 a second equating to 1 minute 44 seconds. This a one time only thing, since I took 400 shots in 10 minutes as he put it together.

The song in the first version is titled appropriately "the 50 states" and it is a live cut by Sufjan Stevens. The 'time lapse version' is a 1 and half minute cut from the electronic artist's 'Lindstrom' song 'Wherever you go I will go to". There were no edits here of photos, everything is in the order of when I took them, as you will be able to tell from the many out of focus picture.

Complete Version, 50 states ~5 min.:



Electronic Time Lapse Version ~ 1:44 sec.:

Photog

My second favorite picture from Greta's birthday.

Today is dreary. Our only obligation is Greta's well baby check this afternoon. I don't think Dr. Davis will be judgmental if we all arrive in jammies. I hope.

Here are some shots from the birthday celebrations with links to the albums.

Gooseberry Day Trip

Autumn Birthday

Happiest Birthday

A Birthday Hike. Willow River State Park.

How impossible is it to choose just one (or even a dozen) photos to post from a whole weekend of so many birthday wishes?

There was family, there was food, there were balloons and friends and toys, toys, toys. Giggles galore. Also, my first attempt at cheesecake was an enormous hit with the girl of the day. Thank you to Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte for the inspiration.

Album to follow.

Happy birthday to my favorite girl ever. You are so loved.

Triumphant Return

Dreams of our phirst phamily Phish show are soon to be realized.

Wee Jam

Hooray!

Hampton Coliseum = not that kid friendly. But the second tickets go on sale for Alpine, we're there.

Marrones, won't you too step into the freezer? (We know how cute Peter looks in tie dye already).

Unfractionated

He: "This is the loudest scream ever. The acoustics in here are awesome."
She: "You are hilarious. I idolize you."

I do not believe in counting my kids ages (or mine, for that matter) in fractions. Until Noah is really concerned himself with not being mistaken for an eight-year-old when he's actually eight-and-three-quarters, why can't he just take one year at a time?

Kevin is not with me on this conviction, for the record. He's been rounding Noah up to two-and-a-half for at least a month now. I realize it's a pretty trivial issue. I haven't always felt this strongly about whole numbers. I think my annoyance comes from the playground. Why do you need to force mental math on me to get across your child's precise 31 months of age? I won't expose you if you want to fib a little and just tell me he's three.

The exception to my no-decimal rule, of course, is the first year. We've taught Noah that he's two and Greta is zero, but no one else seems to think that's very funny. So for now, she's eleven months. Or 51 weeks, if you prefer. By next week at this time (and until next April), my kids will be one and two.

Ahh... the hard part's over. (wink, wink)

Sail the Ship, Chop the Tree

A long overdue video montage of Greta chugging around the house on two feet. Also with her two favorites: Noah and Wilson.

Greta Truckin'
by houseofhanson

She took her first steps almost two months ago, but it's only been in the last couple of days that she's been able to trek from one side of the house to the other with fewer than three wipe outs. The cautious and contemplative Hanson. Not so cautious when it comes to smothering the cat. Thank goodness he tolerates her.

Violated

There were a handful of panicked moments last week when we thought our computer had been lifted from our home. It was here all along, hidden better than Kevin could remember he'd hidden it.

In the 150-second window of feeling invaded and vulnerable, three were spent worried about all the passwords and bank information. The rest were spent sobbing about all the photos stored here and the complete lack of any backup. This is not the first time this has happened.

When will I learn?

A Bed Fit for a King?

To all those who stay over at our house, the guest queen size bed is back for you. That is the good news. As you can see below, even though we upgraded to a king, I still don't see any room for me in this bed when Mr. 'my sleep number is 360' enters the room.

Stockholm

View Larger Map

After lunch today I drove down to Lake Pepin on the Wisconsin side. It gave the kids a chance to nap and I got to enjoy the first signs of fall colors. The kids woke up an hour and half later in Pepin, WI while I was filling up so I decided that Pepin was as good a place as any to stop. Pepin is the home of Sarah's relative, Laura Ingalls Wilder. There was an outdated park there with a tall slide and many 'long' and 'loud' freight trains to watch go by. Noah asked me once if Thomas was going to come down the tracks? I replied, of course not, Thomas can only be found on the Island of Sodor which is really far away from Lake Pepin. I can't imagine what was going through his mind while gazing at those train tracks awaiting an animated blue engine with a smiley face. Maybe he was thinking Harold the Helicoptor was somewhere close as well.



After Pepin we went on to my favorite small town, Stockholm, Wi, which is just 6 miles north of Pepin. It is a lovely little town that has a very mayberry feel with a progressive touch since the majority of residents are artists. Noah enjoyed a couple scoops of ice cream on the step and I had a cup of coffee at an outdoor table. For a moment there I felt at total peace as a parent.



Tourists strolled by and everyone said hi and made conversation. We spotted some more trains and strolled down the stockholm pier, which is pretty much a break wall, to end our afternoon.



I am going to try and make a point to never stay indoors with these kids when Sarah is working or away. It proved to me once again that these kids do much better outside than inside. No tantrums or whining for 6 hours. That time was quickly forgotten when Noah decided to unlock our front door and go outside while I was putting Greta down tonight. I hope he doesn't do that again. I made him well aware that it is not going to happen 'again'. Too bad the word 'again' is only understood when wanting to play a favorite song or video multiple times, rather than when doing something wrong.

Here's Mud in Your Eye

Happy 31 years to my amazing, lovely, intelligent, and wildly hilarious wife!

Cheers (American), Prost (Wisconsonian), Pure Vida (Costa Rican), Salud (Worldly), Down the Hatch (English), Cin Cin (Italian), & of course Skal (Scandihuvian)



By the way, I am taking you out to dinner tonight. We leave at 530 pm. Dress is upwardly casual. Below is a hint to where we are going:

She Loves Iams

Swinging Bridge

Kinnickinnick

Kevin has been doing all the blogging lately, and he's just not as into the commentary as I am. I'm at a loss for new observations on parenting these days. It's all just the same old, Dude, this is exhausting. Aren't you exhausted? Although, truly, much less so than we were only a few months ago. Parents of older kids tell you it never really gets easier, it just gets different. Which, of course, you never believe, until you hear yourself telling someone with kids younger than yours the same thing. Who knew that keeping Greta out of the cat food could be a full time job? I expected potty training to be painful, but honestly... this is painful. When it's finally all over, there will be a ceremonious burning of The Potty Movie in the backyard.

The O'Gara's Cabin 2008

Photos from this weekend in Garrison, MN on Round Lake.

...on a stick

Minnesota State Fair 2008


Merry-Go-Round Near Grandstand


Giant Slide - Run #1


Giant Slide - Run#2


Water Boats (This lasted about 1 minute, not a fan)


Dragon Wagon


Change on a Stick


Sky Pilots


See ya next year!