Happy Thanksgiving.

Well, I have yet again been neglecting the blog.  I blame it on my incredible lack of sleep.  In fact, I should be sleeping right now.  The beautiful young baby I call Felix hasn't been sleeping much at night for the last 5 weeks.  I'm just now realizing I need to adjust my life and change my standards or I will definitely go insane.  Most definitely.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and we went to my aunt's house.  I love her home.  It's so cozy and cute and filled with great things that I love.  The food was great, the company was great, but I was exhausted from lack of sleep.  We made cute little pinecone elves and stayed nearly until bedtime (for the kids that is).

My new favorite thing to do is go to the YMCA.   I like going to the group classes, I love Spin and Bodypump, and I especially love the free childcare. It has been pretty awesome for me to get a little break and a good workout, and I think even better for Amelie to get some time to run around and play with her "friends," as she calls every toddler she sees.  I have been called out of class a couple of times due to a crying Felix or Amelie peeing her pants in excitement, but mostly I have gotten in some great workouts and relieved some stress.  I may be able to ween myself off of coffee if I keep this up.

Amelie has also started and finished one trimester of ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education), which we just refer to as school.  At first she was like a ping pong ball running around the classroom from toy to toy, but after  a a few classes, she has mellowed out a tad and is able to finish some art projects and sit in the circle when we read and sing.  After an hour of playtime the kids have a snack and the moms separate to go talk about the kids.  It's actually quite nice for me too.  Like my sister said, most of the moms in the classes are stay at home moms, and it's really just nice to go have some adult conversation and get advice and tell stories about our own kids.  

So, because I really should be sleeping instead of blogging, here are some photos instead of words.

Little Miss Thing started helping in the kitchen.  Cutting bananas for her lunch.

So excited for school!

We got lot's-o-squash to eat from our CSA

Stump Jumping at the cabin

On a nature hike at the cabin

We added a reading library to the basement playroom.

We also added a dress up station to the playrom.

She loved her monkey costume for Halloween, free from the YMCA!

Expert rock climber!

"The Fonz"

Felix, growing up too fast.

Got to celebrate my BFF's birthday, lot of fun!

Met the midwife of all midwives...Ina May Gaskin!

I can see it now, these girls are gonna get into so much trouble!!

Smiley Felix

Addy's first birthday, wearing the cape I made her.

 We finished our basement playroom.  It pretty much rules.  I've already rearranged it and added some kid projects to the walls, so I'll have to snap some more photos soon, but here is what it looked like after we finished it.

Laying down the carpet padding.

Furiously playing with everything, making a quick mess!

Grandma Ane and Grandpa (great grandparents actually), came by for a visit and to meet Felix.  It was so nice, Grandma had saved up some bottles and brought over one of those super bouncy balls to show Amelie how to bowl.  They sat in the dining room bowling for at least a half and hour!

Great Grandpa Doug holding Felix.

Here is my little monster messing with the laundry I just finished folding.  She took all of her underwear and put them in a pile in the dining room.

Then, she decorated her doorknob and nightstand with some of them.

She has been napping terribly lately.  At one point I gave up, but after 3 afternoons of tantrums I realized that the trouble of getting her to nap was worth avoiding the tantrums.  I started trying to mentally prepare her for nap time, am trying to give her some extra attention and get her involved in some kind of activity that will wear her out so she's tired enough to want to nap.  It's worked the last few days, but a couple of times I gave up and let her watch some Dora or Diego and she passed out on the couch.  

While I was pregnant, I would nap every afternoon while she was napping.  Due to these new nap time patters, my naps have been cut out for the most part.  On a good day, I may be able to get both kids to nap simultainously for a while, and I have to chose between napping, and EVERYTHING else that needs to get done around the house.  This has prompted me to make some cold press coffee.  I found a good recipe on Pinterest and made some last week.  It was delicious.

I had a delightful visit with my bestest friend Krista and her boys.  Her is her Kye and my Felix chilling on the floor together.  They are about 2 weeks apart.

I know this photo is a little dark, but this is my little baby burrito that I get to stare at every night. 

And my little dog too.

He is growing bigger and his neck is getting stronger.  He is 7.5 weeks in this photo.

And Amelie is the proudest big sister ever.  She kisses him and tells me how cute her baby brother Felix is every day.  Tyler took her camping tonight, and she took the pacifier out of his mouth so that she could kiss him goodbye on the lips.  I'll admit, I was pretty worried that she would be too aggressive around him and accidentally hurt him if I wasn't careful enough, but she is so sweet and gentle with him it's adorable.

I received a package in the mail from Tova today, it was a special charm for my kid necklace that she make me when Amelie was born.   I love it!

Me and my little buddy went for a walk this evening up to Minnehaha Falls, it was his first ever ride in a stroller and it was a fantastic walk.  I LOVE living so close to the Minnehaha Creek.  

I just made some Rice Crispie bars, so I'm going to eat half a pan now!

Labor Day Weekend 2011

We decided to stay home this holiday weekend to complete yet another house project, and to go the State Fair.  Thursday I had the bright idea to convert our basement dungeon into a playroom for the kids.  We cleaned it out, primed it, and painted it over a couple of days.  We are going to lay down some carpet remnants, put some kid art on the walls and bring all the toys downstairs.  It will be really nice this winter to have a place to play, create, and get messy without worrying about anything.

Things we have done in the recent past:

Abby and the kids joined us in cheering Grandma Tracy, Aunt Kelly and Cousin Josey on while they were doing the 3 Day Walk.

Frank, Ingrid, Amelie and I walked up to the Falls to cheer Tyler on during the MPLS Duathalon.

 Go Tyler Go!

Stared at Felix's cute face.

Amelie is pretending to breastfeed her baby Felix.

The real baby Felix turned one month old.

The sunflowers I spontaneously planted grew pretty damn tall.

Tyler sawed our kitchen table in half and I am currently sitting at one half of it in our bedroom where it is now our 2 person desk.

We started using our "new" kitchen table that I got at a garage sale this summer for $25.

Amelie drowned all my plants, I mean, helped me water the plants.

Tyler made us a little "deck" out of some old deck pieces from Grandpa Stan's new house.

Amelie made sandwiches, pizza and a doll with her playdoh.  

This morning, after many hours of priming and painting, we got up nice and early to get to the fair before the crowds.  We magically found a super close parking spot on the street for free (!).  We walked through the gates at 8:36, ate some breakfast burritos at Tejas for $2.50 and sipped on some free coffee.  Thanks to one of Tyler's co-workers for the great tip!  We got our annual fair photo booth picture taken, and Felix only made it into 2 of them...my head takes up one of the 4 shots.  After that, we found the big slide and Tyler and Ami went down together.  She LOVED it, you should have seen her face on the way down.  She was grinning HUGE!

Our very cheap breakfast at the fair.

 

Ready to ride the big slide.

Loving it!

Checking out the swine.

Felix slept the whole time.

Rock and roll!

After the fair, Ami went to play at Grandma Dorothy's house and Felix and I took a nap while dad finished painting the basement.  Look at my little baby burrito.  

I am also very happy that there is finally a new batch of good shows and movies on Netflix.  We have the 2nd season of Eastbound and Down, which is super inappropriate and hilarious, and I love it.