All About Noah

Guess who's going to kindergarten?  OK, the beginning of the 2011 school year is many months away.  But really, not so many months.  I made an appointment for kindergarten registration yesterday.  Seriously - you have to call to make an appointment to register for public school?  This must be strategic.  Like a twelve step program to ease a parent into the school system.  1. I admit that I am powerless to stop my child from turning five.  2. I have come to believe that a teacher greater than myself will make sure my child learns to read, write and function in society.  3. I have made a decision to turn my family's lives over to the Public School System.  That one's pretty heavy.

Here's shaggy-headed Noah around Christmastime trying on his new dragon wings.  His hair is styled after Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon.  A kid could have worse role models.  I let him do his unkempt thing for as long as he wanted it.

Noah, Amateur Dragon Trainer

Hiccup, The Real Deal

The dragon flying away.

Here's freshly-shorn Noah today.  He could only tolerate the hair in his eyes for so long.

The face of the class of 2024.

(More) Snowflakes and Birthdays

The arrival of the FedEx carrier is always cause for running, screaming and children frantically trying to figure out how to undo the child-proof lock on the front door (foiled again - ha!).  Really, any time the door bell rings, it's kind of a big deal.  Here's yesterday's speedy delivery.

Two pair of the most awesome kids' mittens of all time.  Some of their awesome features include: waterproof construction, extra long length, elasticized draw string wrists to keep mittens on hands and snow out of mittens.  We're never coming indoors again.

I promise not to assault you with weekly pregnancy photos (like I've done in the past), but I will share this one.  Beginning of the second trimester.  Kind of a milestone.  I will say that although I can no longer button my jeans, I can still sleep on my stomach.  I would also like to tell my 25 year old sister out there to appreciate your abdominal wall musculature.  You may long for it to return someday.  Not in a "I'm going to start doing some sit ups" kind of motivated way, of course.  Just wistful for muscles past.

I tried to get the birthday boy to pose for a picture last night, but he declined.  It was his birthday wish.  Here is a photo of yesterday's art project instead.  My, aren't we crafty?

Last, I can't believe I forgot to post this one last week.  Another for the kid v cat files.  For those who don't know the personalities of our two cats, this one is the fast one.  As in, he could totally outrun a three year old if he wanted to, and there are plenty of dark corners for a black cat to hide himself in.  It's not like she's sneaking up on him all stealthy-like.  The look in his eyes (not pictured) is one of resignation.  A cat who was around years before the small ones existed is now sentenced to rib squashing hugs from our youngest.  Why doesn't he run?  Why doesn't he push away with his three foot vertical leaping back legs?  Why doesn't he even try to squirm out of her fat fingers?  Poor kitty.  We've broken his spirit.

An Apology to Winter

Some days, when the sun shines and the wind isn't so harsh and there is a fresh layer of snow on the ground, I don't hate winter so much.  Like the days when an hour is spent following a new set of fox tracks, then a set of mouse tracks, then back to the fox tracks, person + dog tracks, toddler size nine Sorel tracks, and back to the mouse again.  There are stories told about the fox chasing the little field mouse and the boy in the toddler size eleven Sorels running through the snow to its rescue.  The field mouse can't bite the boy's finger.  He's wearing mittens.  And the bears are hibernating, so don't worry about them either.

He's so smart.

Very, very infrequently I am aware that my kids are making memories that will someday, unexpectedly, come flooding back to them.  I don't have any memories particularly of tracking foxes through fields - but of sunny winter days - I have lots.  I'm not cold in any of them, oddly.

Noah now takes his hot cocoa with soy milk...

...which doesn't change the amount of cocoa on his face one bit.

He is a bat (like Batman).  He can sleep upside down.

And this is the other thing I did today.  Nuchal translucency testing.  Ultrasound + labs to assess the nugget's risk of things like Down and Edwards syndromes.  AKA, baby's first photo shoot.  I wish there was video.  Imagine skinny arm waving, spindly leg kicking, bouncing and somersaulting.  The ultrasonographer is about a zillion times better and faster at this than I am.  I was amazed.  And I promise to leave all future prenatal photography to the professionals.

If grainy, skeleton-y ultrasound pictures creep you out, you should skip this last part.

Five of the ten fingers.

Profile of the nugget.

Closeup of the crown-rump length measurement.  Measures the babe at 12 weeks, 4 days.  That means July 23rd is the day.  Or if this one is anything like pregnancies past, THE day will be sometime at the beginning of August.  I'll try to be patient.
 

It's a Småland After All

This post is to thank Grandma and Grandpa for the Christmas gifts.  For Noah and Greta, an hour in Småland at IKEA.  Ball pit!  Movies!  Coloring!  A giant shoe?  For Kevin and I, an hour to wander around the store and pick out this picture:

Crescendo of Light

And also a giant map of the world that isn't put together yet.  Some assembly required.

Thank you.

A Happy Thought

Greta dresses down to help with the dishes.  No heels.  No jewelry.  She even detached her Tinkerbell wings so they wouldn't get sudsy.  If only she'd use her pixie dust to make the house work fly away to Never Never Land.

We have made it outside since the New Year.  Thank goodness.  The winter spirits heard our threats to move to Flagstaff and decided to cooperate.  (Why would it be in winter's best interest to keep us in the Midwest?  That doesn't really make sense.  Oh well - I'm going with it anyway.)

I got the dreaded call from the clinic this week that they had some lab results that they wanted to talk to me about.  Oh no!  I'm Vitamin D deficient!  Even worse - my HealthPartners plan does not cover Caribbean vacations.  Sad.

Cheers

To hot chocolate.

Plotting Escape to Central America

I hate winter.  Specifically, I hate this winter.  We've been trapped indoors for way too many days now by sickness or bitter cold or both.  This weekend's planned escape to the west(ern side of Minnesota - exotic) was canceled by ice storms and kid quarantine.  Evil Winter even crushed our hopes of sledding in the backyard today.  We survived 90 seconds of barely-above-zero temperatures and wind-blown snow stinging our faces before we retreated back to the house.  We did celebrate a minor victory (90 whole seconds!) with hot chocolate and marshmallows.  Marshmallows that were meant to be roasted over a camp fire tonight, but whatever.

Everyone's getting a little punchy.  Mostly me.  Please, please, please let us get outside tomorrow, Winter.  Santa still hasn't brought me that SAD light.

Here is what the kids would look like (and probably someday will look like - sorry, guys) if they were blind as bats like me.  They were pretty tripped out by the distortion.

Noah, grabbing at something about three inches to the left of his target.

Greta, already dizzy from two full minutes of twirling.