Talking

Esther is almost two. She is shy in front of most people, but talks quite a bit in front of her family. Oftentimes she'll talk whole paragraphs but we don't understand any of the words. Other times she can make you understand what she means with just one word.

Here are some examples,

 - She'll look at me, point at my wedding ring and then at her own finger and say, 'On.'
 As in, 'Put that ring on MY finger. Right now.'

 - She'll come up to me with a rubber band, hand it to me and point to where her ponytail would be and say, 'Owie?' then lean forward so I can reach the back of her head.
 As in, 'Mom would you please make me a ponytail?'

Then she happily walks over to daddy, pointing and showing off her new 'owie'

 - In typical toddler style, she uses the word 'no' for both 'no' and 'yes'. You can only know what she means by the tone of her voice.
"no." = yes
"No" = yes or no
"NO" = no
"Noooooooo" = no

Rabbit Creek Dance

Svea designed and produced cards and posters for Finn's elementary school, Rabbit Creek.
She was going to sell them at their Valentines Day Dance so she invited us along. Van will go to Rabbit Creek next year, so it was a fun opportunity to visit the school.

Here are the kids dancing early, before most of the people arrived.

See how Finn notices me taking pictures, then dances staring right at me.

 Nothing can compare to Finn's dance moves.

Then it's time for a break to eat a snack.

Svea and mom selling the merchandise.

More dancing.

One of Finn's girl friends.

Later when it was pretty busy.

Happy Valentines Day!

We went on a Valentines Day ski with the Lunoes

2/9/2015

Me: "What are you doing?"
Van: "I was just thinking of different things I could be when I grow up. Like, I thought, I could be a shark battler, but then I thought, no, too hard."
Me: "A shark battler? like someone who battles sharks?"
Van: "yeah"

***

On our way home from sledding
Van: "When I am a grownup, I will decide everything. I will pick out the movies for the kids."
Me: "Will you take them sledding?"
Van: "Yeah, I'll do all the outside stuff."
Me: "Will you give them chocolate?"
Van: "No."
Me: "Really? but I always give you chocolate." (I carry a bag of semisweet chocolate chips in my pocket for when we're skiing or sledding outside. In case someone needs a pick-me-up)
Van: "No, I want them to be healthy. They'll just eat anything healthy."

***

Last night we let Van stay up past his bedtime to watch 'American Ninja Warrior: USA vs the World'. He loved it. I loved it too. I loved cheering for all the athletes. I loved watching him watch it. The commercials were so horrible though, previews of super violent shows. So we practiced our ninja moves during the breaks, pushups, pullups, handstands and somersaults.

Captain America

Van was dressed as Spiderman and Esther wanted her own costume on. 

Cold weather sledding

We went back today and the wind was out, so this time the cold was serious.

Here is Van going down the ice hill.

The view from the top

 The view from the middle

The kids going down penguin style

 Van sandwhich

 Cool fort

 Pretty views

 We added to the fort