The latest Esther

Esther is so amazing to watch.
 -  She will be 8 months old on Friday.
 -  She is moving and exploring.
 -  When she finds something new she studies it intensely, turning it over  in her hands.
 -  Her face is very expressive and (as long as she's not too tired) she is quick to break out a huge gummy smile.
 -  She's making a lot of distinct sounds and it is easy to make her laugh with an expression or a game of peek-a-boo.

More pre-school

The flight home was actually fine, just to follow up on my last post. They both slept through most of it.

Here is Van going to preschool yesterday.

He's so handsome!

Crawling

She's been moving, wiggling, stretching, scooting, rocking and rolling, but yesterday I saw something that looked like hands and knees forward motion crawling.

She crawled to a basketball on the floor a few feet away and giggled with joy when she reached it.

Perfect, just in time for the 6 hour flight back to Anchorage...

Hawaii - Waikiki

The first few days of our trip was staying in on Oahu on Waikiki beach.
We were in a tall hotel called the Queen Kapiolani .
It was fun to be downtown in a big city, with a beautiful weather and a beach nearby.

Every morning, since we were up early, Van and I would walk to Starbucks and get Andy coffee.
This is a picture of Van with the hot chocolate he got from charming the barista.

I already posted some of these but these pics are from the hotel porch

Here is Esther on the beach after I realized I'd turned her face blue by carrying her on my back in this shirt.

Then mom and dad watched her while I got my hair highlighted.

Again ready for the beach, on our porch. 

Mom and Esther on the beach in their hats.

In the water at Waikiki

Van's first swimming adventure on the trip. He's become a pro since then.

10/21/2014

Van: "Mama are you going to have another baby?"
Me: "Not right now. Why, how do you feel about babies?"
Van: "Pretty good."
Me: "Cool."
Van: "What about a baby makes people stay home?"
Me: "What do you mean?"
Van: "What about a baby coming makes people stay by home?"
Me: "Ohhh you mean like Zamzam staying home because her baby is due soon?"
Van: "Yeah."
Me: "Well it's good to be close to a hospital so you can be by the doctors when the baby comes."
Van: "Why be near a hospital?"
Me: "Because it can be dangerous when a baby is born."
Van: "Dangerous like a dinosaur?"
Me: "Well…"
Van: "..what kind of dinosaur would even fit in a tummy? a triceratops?"
Me: "No, I don't think so. that's not exactly the kind of danger I meant…"

Esther's swimsuit

We are in Hawaii! Check out this beach-ready babe

More of the beach ready crew

Preschool

So van has done one week of preschool. It's three hours a day 3 days a week. So far he loves it, it helps that all of his cousins are there, especially Finn.

I met his teacher Miss Tamara on Thursday she said he's doing great, caught right up with everyone and was being very good.

His classroom is so cute, there is his name over the hook where he hangs his coat, a cubby for his newsletters and art projects.

Mom told me about his first day. He said, 'Bye grandma" when she pulled into the parking lot, he was just planning on walking himself in :)
She told him she wanted to walk him to his classroom, so they went in together and he was saying hi to people all along the way. So cute.

I hope he continues to enjoy it.

Love that man.

Van napping

Aunty Svea took everyone hiking yesterday at Kincaid.
Van came home and did something he rarely does, took a nap.

 

In a box.

Van's Picnic

I got home from work today and right away I had to take Esther upstairs to nurse her to sleep. I saw Van grabbing Alamo by the collar and leading him towards the door. "Hey Van, be careful with Mo Man" I said.

"I'm just putting him outside so he won't get into my picnic." Van said.

"Oh ok" I said and went upstairs. Alamo seemed pretty mild and was not actively biting Van so I decided to leave it alone. 

When I came downstairs again, sure enough, Van had put together a picnic. 

He said, "Look I made a picnic and I invited grandma!" 

He's pointing out who sits where.

He showed me where everyone was supposed to sit. He had given us all bagels on plates with napkins and poured us all milk.

He said, "I spilled the milk a little, but then I had to put the cups on the plates, so I wouldn't spill the milk on my blanket."

We ran over and invited grandma to the picnic, this is a picture from her spot.

Esther and I at the picnic (because I couldn't get her to sleep).

Van toasting the bagels.

Andy and I at our picnic date.  :)

New clothes

So Van goes to his first day of preschool tomorrow. Up til now I let him dress himself in anything he wants. And I generally steer him towards pajamas because they are most comfortable. But I think it's important to have  higher standard for pre-school to set up him to make friends. So we took him clothes shopping for the first time.

Mostly he needed pants, we have plenty of shirts. But I did let him pick out this one popcorn shirt.
Then we bought a hat for our trip to Hawaii next week.
Here is the result.

Really hard to get a normal picture of him these days.

This is him being angry because his hat has 'angry birds' on it.

Angry birds hat

Sweet little trouble maker. 

Hope he has fun at pre-school tomorrow!

Learning the rules

I was nursing Esther to sleep and Van came in. I was hushing him furiously trying to get him to keep quiet. "I brought this for you" he whispered and handed me a clif bar he had gotten from the pantry.
"Ok" I said and luckily he left without waking baby Esther.

When I came out, Van asked me to play in his room with him. "Look at what I'm building" he said.
Looking down at his blocks he said casually, "I brought a snack for you and one to daddy. But daddy didn't say 'thank you'. And neither did you."
I told him thank you, and sorry for not remembering to say so earlier.
"It's ok" he said he said pleasantly, "Just don't do it again. And if you do it three times. I won't bring you another treat."

Everyone has to learn the rules.