A Short Work Week of Fun

Monday was President's Day and we actually had no school!  Look what a glorious day we had - and we sure did enjoy our time outdoors.

We went for a walk along the Orca Bay road -  and about half way there's an old boat landing area.  The tide was low, so we ventured down to the water to see what we could find.  It was a bit chilly, but Leinna was not going to keep her gloves on with so many fun things to check out.

Besides all the seashells, this was our favorite find. 

Lukkas enjoyed the time from the stroller! 

After such a wonderful day off from work and time spent with family - we also got some fresh snow.  Leif was just inching to take Lukkas for his first ride.  

As you can see, Lukkas was ready to take over Papa's job of plowing snow!

Leinna enjoyed the fresh snow too - informing us that she was going to the beach.  Oh, my poor Alaska child has no idea what a real beach is.  She's going to have all kinds of fun this summer in Wisconsin at the lakes with sandy shore lines!

Finally we ended our short work week with some dinner time silliness.  Leinna's bangs are growing out - in a rare moment they were actually not in her eyes - just had to capture a shot.

Lukkas on the other hand- we are at the stage of letting him self feed - oh I love watching him explore what the foods feels like and the success on his face when he finally gets some into his mouth!

And after the meal time messy clean up- I love that I can make his hair stand up - just look at my little rock star!

May you have a wonderful week! 

Go to school too!

It's been quite the week - between the weather and obligations at school - I'm just glad we all survived and are looking forward to a nice 3 day weekend.

Even with all the stress, I love the time I have with my children. Every "bad day" at work just vanishes when I'm home with my little ones.  I often wonder if I'm making the right decision to be a working mother, but until a different option presents itself, I'll enjoy the moments we have.

  

Leinna- playing that she's going to school.  Seeing her walk around with her backpack on is just too real. In a short 2 1/2 years she will be headed off to kindergarten.  Wow - time just goes too quickly. Until then, we'll enjoy playing that she's going to school :o) 

Lukkas- what a busy boy he is!  He's mastered walking and has now figured out how to climb on and off this toy on his own.  The toy bounces up and down and it keeps him happily entertained. 

Until next week, enjoy the moments you have with your loved ones! 

Sleep

One would think with all the running around (yes, both of them) these two do, sleep would not be an issue.  I'm finding it rather ironic that in a week of challenging bedtime for Leinna, my photos are mostly of the kids sleeping!  

Thankfully while Leinna was being challenging during bedtime, Lukkas had no trouble at all sleeping.  I just loved how his feet were hanging out of the bed.   

And here - didn't even make it upstairs, he was so tired. I just couldn't get over how huge he looked in Papa's arms. 

As for Leinna - I wish I knew what got into her this week.  My little sleeper just wasn't going to bed.  We followed same routine, no major changes in her day or night - just pure 2 1/2 year old independence/stubbornness I guess.  Just one look at her in this photo, you can see how exhausted she is. 

Finally, today (after an entire week of very dramatic/exhausting bedtime), Leinna calmly asks if she can sleep in the blue chair.  The chair is actually a chair in a half -so she has plenty of room to sleep in it.  After the week of fighting with her at bedtime, I said sure.  The above was during her nap today and sweet little girl couldn't even finish reading her book she was so tired.  As for bedtime tonight- yep, in the blue chair again and she was out within half an hour of going to bed.  Whew... what an improvement from the rest of the week.    Now, it's time for this momma to go and get some much needed sleep too!

10 months old!

January 28th marked Lukkas turning 10 months old.  My oh my where does the time keep going?  Seems like we were just bringing him home from the hospital and now we are thinking about planning his first birthday.   

10 months old and walking! Yep- he took his first steps on Christmas Eve, but since then he'd only 'walk' if we were playing our little game.  Well, this week he decided he could stand up in the middle of the floor and just go.  He's still got that cute learning how to walk stance: legs pretty stiff and hands straight in the air for balance.  I had forgot what this new level of mobility means- time to move things up to a higher level.  Let me tell you- he is into EVERYTHING!  One of his favorites to get into, is turning the knob on Papa's receiver for the TV - oh, how this makes Papa mad and it just makes Lukkas laugh!  

So besides the walking, Lukkas loves to say hi, give you a high-five and I swear when he does not know where Leinna is, he says her name like he's looking for her.  He's starting to show interests in stories - but if there's a pot to be banged or a car to push around - forget it - he's on the move and making noise. 

It's funny how two children from the same parents can be so completely different!  Leinna- easy to dress, loved to just sit and look at books or sing songs, loved to go for car rides... Lukkas- might as well declare WWIII trying to get him dressed or change his diaper. The kid just hates to lay on his back - even from birth would prefer to lay on his stomach.  So, I'm learning real quick how to dress him while he's standing up versus laying down, hates- oh- just hates to be buckled into anything - high chair, car seat- you name it - thankfully, once he's buckled he settles down - but the process of getting the buckles - whew.... the adult should get an award for accomplishing that feat! 

This past week, Papa was out of town for 4 whole days!  We all survived and had a fun night of playing with Papa's hats!  I tried my best to try to get Leinna to smile- but she wasn't having it.  What I didn't realize was how long her hair is getting.  We are trying to grow her bangs - we're just at that length where I know if we stick it out a little while longer, we'll have met our goal- but oh, how I want to cut them! 

Leinna continues to amaze us each and every day.  Her newest things, potty trained (well, during the day time hours), telling you that she lives in Cooh-doba (Cordova), Alaska and that Grandma and Grandpa live on the farm in Win-scon-skin and Pope and Grandma live in Fairbanks.  She continues to love doing her arts and crafts, sing songs, take care of her babies.  One not so good habit has been chewing on everything.  Finally, our day care provider called her a goat- and Leinna said, I'm not a goat! So now when she's chewing on things - we ask her, "Are you a goat?"  I just hope that she's not doing damage to her little teeth!

Well that's the update from our little family.  Now if we could all just get to being 100% healthy again- we survived the flu but now we have the chest cold.  Anyways, so glad to have our Papa home again and looking forward to a weekend full of fun local tradition (Iceworm Weekend) and don't forget about the Super Bowl!