Museum

Here is Van at another one of our favorite places to play

patiently watching the Rube Goldberg machine

Putting on a puppet show

The Alaska Museum of Science and Nature

I can't believe I don't know about this place earlier given how much Van loves dinosaurs.

It's great, they can touch almost everything in the museum.

Van in the geology room

Van riding a woolly mammoth

A view of the dinosaur room

Then they had activities and story time for toddlers, it was great.

Lessons in Breastfeeding

I was feeding Esther and Van was eating a piece of bread. He handed me a bite of his bread and said,
"you know, you eat food and it goes down here and to Esther" motioning from my mouth to my breast.
"yes!" I said, "that's right"
Van nodded in acknowledgement, then said,
"Ok, come here Esther" and offered her his nipple. He still hadn't put a shirt on after his bath.
"No Van, you don't make milk, only mamas make milk" I told him.
"I make milk" said Van with certainty. "I make it with my prey."

Beautiful Spring Day

We have really been enjoying the beautiful spring weather. I've been able to go skiing a couple times, and today Andy, Van, Esther and I went on a walk in John's park. Well Andy and I walked, Esther rode and Van snow biked.

Esther making her first snow angel

Pretty good. We'll have to work on that.

The bump is just as big, but now there are more blankets involved.

Family picture!

snow biking

Driving socks

Van walks into the room
Van: "Look Mom!"
Me: "Oh wow Van, you put your socks on by yourself, good job."
Van: "Yeah, I have a police car and a firetruck. I said to myself, 'I'm going to drive around'"

Myers-Briggs 2.0

I love Myers-Briggs, it makes my life better everyday by helping me understand myself, my husband and everyone else I interact with. So I bought a book about how to identify what type your child is and tips to help you parent them.

My best guess for Van is an ENTP, someone copied that chapter of the book here

http://personalitycafe.com/entp-articles/14767-development-entp-children.html

Here is the first sentence,

"ENTP children are energetic, creative, adventurous, and fun. But they can be exhausting to have around, both physically and intellectually."

Sounds about right. I'm tired right now.

Typical Van

I got Van a wooden car today for being good while I was shopping. Or something that resembles good anyway.

This is us in the store
Van: "RAWR!!!"
Me: "Van! that is too loud. You have to be good remember?"
Van: "Oh.
Is this too loud?
Is this too loud?
Is this too loud?
Is this too loud?
Is this too loud?"
(in his defense it sounded like he was genuinely asking.)
Me: "Van stop, you have to be good if you want to get your car and that means being quiet."
Van: "I am being good now. Can I have it?"
Me: "You have to be good for the whole trip"
Van: "I have to be good for the whole trip!? Mama what's a trip?"

Anyway, in the end he more or less earned it. He stayed in the cart anyway and told me I looked pretty when I tried on dresses. Here he is with it.

He says, "This is my new favorite toy ever that I just picked out." then he drives it around on his lap and adds, "and it's so drivable!"

***

Yesterday I made a chocolate cake. This morning I was drying my hair when Van comes into the bathroom to talk to me. 

"Van" I say, "you have been in the chocolate cake"

"What?" he asks incredulously. I can tell he's trying to decide if there is any way I could know that so he knows how to respond. He decides to the go with the defense of smiling. 

***

And being no trouble at all,

 here is baby Esther, helping me with my shopping.