Distinctly them

Annika and Declan have quite the little personalities. I'm sure it's tedious for most to hear about Annika's interest in zombies or Declan's fascination with dropping plastic Easter eggs, but for us, it's what makes them distinctly unique. Here are a few pictures celebrating who they are.

Annika

Annika is a ham. She loves to pose for photos. She likes getting into preposterous positions for each shot. That is annoying because what I really lack is one really good face shot of her. Recently I got a couple. The one on the left is this face she makes when telling a joke or when she's looking for a reaction. The one on the right is one of her many, many poses that she thinks I'm looking for when I take out the camera. Though that usually ends in some half-closed eyes or blurry images, this time I managed to get the ridiculous position...but it's definitely all her.



Declan

Declan is a wanderer, always lusting for the next interesting experience. If he's holding an iPhone which he's spent the better part of an hour trying to wrangle, once he has it, he wants to know how if he can get the gum out of my purse, right now. He loves drawers, cabinets and anything that opens and closes. Doors, window blinds, boxes...you get the idea. The picture on the left is Declan in our hall cabinets - a favorite destination. The picture in the middle is the windows in our great room where he stares out the window and then grabs for the blinds to rip them down. Finally the picture on the right is an image of determination. His absolute favorite spot in the house is our desk shelves which happen to have our printer in his line of sight. He loves that printer, having spent the first two weeks of his crawling skills heading right to it and touching it over and over and over. I don't know the specifics of this picture, because Chris took it, but pretty sure he was in the middle of getting changed and decided to crawl over to his favorite spot and cause some trouble...Declan style.



None of these personality quirks alone are probably all that interesting. However, sprinkled together over their little hearts, they belong to them and them alone. Love you guys!

First word alert!

Declan has officially said his first word............

Is it?: Dada, Mama, ball, doggie....

No; it's: Cat.



He'll say Kitty cat or cat when confronted with either a picture of a cat or an actual cat. (Hi, Tom Cat!)

He's also a genius in case you were wondering. The other day he was trying to get a bottle of ketchup off a table, so I tried to distract him with a spoon...he used that spoon to try and grab the ketchup! Genius!

Happy Easter!

Trip to the snow

Annika asked us a while ago if we could visit the snow to make snow angels. I have a thing about not being cold, so we waited until we could make a trek to the Tahoe/Truckee area to enjoy some spring snow. That's my favorite kind - enough so that you can play with it, and warm enough so it's not an uncomfortable experience. Everyone's a winner!

Our dear friends Lisa and Gabs let us stay at their house for the short weekend, so we had all four kids under one roof. Not as hard as I thought it might be, but it's probably wise to point out that we had a 1:1 ratio of children to adults. Annika and Nico (4) had an amazing time - they didn't fight once and clearly enjoyed each other's company. Dario (15 months) and Declan sort of sniffed around each other like dogs.







Annika said her favorite part of the snow was building a snowman and sledding (I have video of that, no pictures). She said that snow angels "were boring - you just lay there and move back and forth." Fair enough.

School picture

Geez...next year it'll be for Kindergarten! I'm not ready!

Also, I did not order the cheesy farm hills background...I picked blue.

Nothing to see here...

...Nothing to report, but they sure are cute.

Disneyland wrap-up

My parents, my brother and I moved to California when I was 10 (yes, about 19 years ago) and we happened to move to a city within 20 minutes of Disneyland. I know we went as a family at least once, though my mother swears we went one other time, but to be clear...we didn't really go a lot as kids. That changed when I started to drive and I went a whole bunch (that's a very specific number) and basically I consider myself sort of an expert. (In related news, I also consider myself an expert in apple fritters, handbags, the number 48, amber ales and Grey's Anatomy). However, the whole expert thing took on a whole new meaning when I took my firstborn to The "Big D".

As predicted, she was a big fan. Some things were fun (Teacups, 'Pinocchio's Daring Journey', churros and 'Star Tours'), some things were scary (the little kid roller coaster in Toontown, parts of 'Haunted Mansion' and the drops in 'Pirates of the Caribbean') and some things were overwhelming (nursing a cold the whole day, shopping for Mickey ears in the Princess shop and cream-cheese filled pretzels). But of course, the whole experience was a success. Now I can truly consider myself an expert since I saw Disneyland through the eyes of my baby girl.* Thanks Walt!





* Declan did not attend the festivities. Instead, he got the royal treatment at the grandparents' abode. From all reports, he was an angel. Of course, two hours of Yo Gabba Gabba never hurt anyone...This is exactly how we found him: (Thanks Pop!!)

Yes, we went to Disneyland

...and yes, I almost lost it on the Teacups.

Star of the Week

Annika's class started a new program called "Star of the Week". Despite a bit of disappointment at not being the very first Star of the Week (little Faith claimed that honor specifically for being "very helpful to others"), she can now wear the crown proudly. The Star of the Week gets to give an interview and have a poster of his/her answers outside of the room for a whole week.

Without further ado, here's my little star's answers to the interview questions:

Birthday: July 1
Who do you most admire: My brother
Favorite food: Candy
Favorite animal: Dog
My wish: To get a dog
Favorite book: The Monster at the End of This Book
What pictures do you like best: Rainbows and unicorns
What's your favorite thing to do in school: Arts & Crafts
What are you good at?: Art projects

Valentine's Day bliss

A pretzel at the mall in seasonal clothing. Happy Valentine's Day!

A note about the videos

Hey everyone,

Yes we know that the videos aren't working most of the time. There's a known issue with Blogger that Google is working on...hopefully it'll get fixed. In the meantime, enjoy some lovely still shots of the children...

Something New...

So, Declan is entering his next phase of mobility. Prior to today he would "crawl" (and I use the term loosely) when he was on a hardwood floor. Basically, the slick surface provided him the opportunity to use his arms to drag his legs along for the ride as he semi-crawled wherever he wanted to go. The catch was that if you got him onto carpet, the resistance was too much for him to overcome and he would either give up, or just start flailing and rolling around until he got where he wanted to go.

Apparently, the flailing wasn't cutting it because today he decided to do this...

I'm somewhat conflicted at this latest development. On the one hand, I'm proud of my baby boy for doing something his sister never did. On the other, he's now capable of getting into all sorts of new hazardous situations.

Annika built a fort

...and other things we do as a family.

We lead pretty boring lives...I always struggle when someone asks how our weekend was, or what "new things" the kids are up to. The truth is, we really just hang out. Sometimes we go shopping. Sometimes we go out to eat. Usually we play with the kids. That's about it. But I love it - wouldn't trade it for anything.

A couple of weeks ago, Annika asked Chris to build her a fort, and this is the fruit of their labor. I came home and was like...wow! I wish I had something like that as a kid! The end result of that is, 3 weeks later, our couches are still 'fort style." But that's ok. I wouldn't trade it for anything.
'

Declan loves to play with things that are not toys. As the second child, he doesn't really have a lot to choose from, truth be told, but the collection has gotten better over the last 9 months. Anyway, he loves measuring spoons, tape, shoes, belts, and most of all, the remote control. (though, what little kid doesn't?) I'm not sure exactly what he's playing with in this picture, but he did enjoy it.



Yeah, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

"Clap, Clap!"

New trick - clapping on command.

Old trick - being adorable:

Molly

Annika has been asking for a pet for...well, ever since she could talk. She wants a dog (they all do, don't they?), but i told her we can barely take care of her and her brother. She did admit, "Dogs are a lot of responsibility. I learned that on a TV show."

I have been thinking for a while that Annika deserves a pet of some sort. She's a nurturing person, a sweet soul and a good girl. Maybe some sort of low maintenance pet is in order?

The price she had to pay was to not whine for 24 hours. I know...easier said than done. In fact, she failed 4 times before the magic day. (I think it also somewhat cured her whininess...she does it a lot less now, which was really the point.) I said she could have a toy or a fish if she managed to abstain from whining for a day. She chose the fish.

We got a 2.5 gallon tank, set it up. Waited a day to make sure the tank was up to temperature and the filter was working. She & Daddy went the next night to pick out a fish which took her a while to decide on...she went from frog to some small white fish thing to a goldfish and finally settled on a molly. The molly's name is Molly and she is yellow and quite cute.

Molly's first night in the tank was rough. She tended to stay at the top part of the tank and seemed to be breathing heavily. We explained to Annika that fish have pretty short life spans and though we would do our best to keep her healthy, sometimes fish don't make it. Annika was ok with that though told us she was already very "attached" to Molly and would "never want to let her go."

Day 2, Molly was fed for the first time and ate like a champ. She was swimming throughout the tank and looked great. To celebrate, Annika and Daddy went for ice cream! Yay!

I watched Molly with a relatively grumpy Declan who rather enjoys the tank. Something else was swimming in that tank. A tiny Molly. Molly had a baby!

I texted Chris. I ran to the Interwebs...what do I do?? Will Molly eat her baby? Does the baby need a special tank? Special food? Turns out Molly might in fact eat her little guy, so I camped out in front of the tank until Chris got home because well, he knows everything. As I stared at the tank, I realized...Molly had two babies...twins!!!

Annika and Chris got home and I asked Chris if he told Annika. (He had not). I told Chris that we have to separate those babies, and he said...let's let nature take its course. Look, I am no environmentalist, nor am I particuarly a friend to the animal kingdom, but I just really felt that we had taken Molly into our home and it was our duty to take care of her babies as best we could. I knew we couldn't guarantee their survival, but I wanted to at least try.

We showed Annika the twins and she was shocked. She was so excited but we told her there was a chance the momma could eat her babies. She took that rather well...weird. Anyway, Chris started calling all the pet stores in the area to find out what they had to separate the babies, and after 15 minutes of calls, found a store that had something. He left. Annika and I watched Molly and the twins for a while until we got bored. (Sorry twins!)

While Chris was out, I asked Annika what she wanted to name the twins - she said "Skipper, Fishy and Mo." I said - well, that's three names. She said "OK, only Mo if there's another baby." Turns out she's quite prescient.

Chris came home with the contraption to separate the babies and as he fiddled around with it...he found some more babies. Four more. So now they are sextuplets. Their names are Skipper, Fishy, Mo, Jacker, Spirit and Sugar. Annika rattled them off as if she had known them her whole life. And now we are a family of 10.

Addendum: I couldn't find Sugar this morning.

Declan opens

Declan opens his first ever Christmas present. Enjoy the spectacle.

Costco baby

Chris says I picked up our baby at Costco. I said if I had, we would have 50 babies.

Anyway, he thinks the Costco diaper box baby looks like Declan - you decide:

Baby's First Christmas

...and Annika was there, too.

- Annika leaves Santa his homemade cupcake and the reindeer a few carrots. (Only four because she said they had to share).


- Getting into the spirit.


- Dutiful Big Sister teaches Baby Bro how to open the bounty.


- Looks like he figured it out.


- The end.

Robot Fight!

Merry Christmas!!

"Don't worry Baby Bro, we'll open the presents soon."