Post #300

It's been a while since we've blogged and it seems like we've forgotten a ton of funny quotes, but we've got some photos anyway.  Work has been busy and it was sweet/cute to hear Nina tell Ben after conferences, "I missed you, daddy."  After a not-so-sweet slapping incident, Vivian got put on time-out and said 'sorry' from her crib.  Ben told her that she needed to say sorry to Nina's face and she responded with, "Sorry to your face, Nina."

Vivian's current favorite band is Guster, but both girls are enjoying the new weezer album.  In addition to being obsessed with babies, Vivian's favorite activity is pretending to be a baby.  Nina continues to be a bit better with sleeping now that she has her sticker goals.  She got her fingernails painted and is working her way towards a Frozen magazine with posters.

Kara's birthday

Waiting patiently for the bouncy house

First family bonfire

Someone is excited for dance lessons

 

We had a nice, but too short, trip to Nebraska for Josh & Ami's wedding.  The girls did a great job on the ride and we only stopped twice on the way down and once on the way back.  Nina did a lot of drawing and we've been impressed with her work - birds, spooky trails, ice cream, and spiders (which scare Vivian - "Nina spiders scare me").  We enjoy that she writes Nakagaki on most of her work lately.  We've all been fighting slight colds, with Kara's hearing being affected.  So when Ben shouted about an email from Nana, Kara responded, "who's Anna?"  Nina chimed in, "No, not Anna, Nana, your mom!"

"Pip, want to snuggle with me?"  -  "okay"

In full swing

We've hit our stride with school and work, and the girls have been sleeping a bit better lately.  Kara has a sticker chart for Nina for every good night of sleep, and we hit our first reward today.  Nina got to go get her toenails painted and loved the experience.  Pip was sad to be left out, until she realized she got ice cream instead.  Nina has been busy at school with projects and coloring, she had a field trip to the apple orchard, and has fun deciding what to bring for show and tell.  When asked about her thoughts on Nina's schooling, Pip said, "I little bit miss Nina."

We couldn't believe our fortune to have such a warm week.  We made it to the chutes and ladders park, a few other fun parks, the zoo, como, the Homecoming game, and even got to play in the sprinkler.  It was a nice change of pace to have the football teams playing so well that we could go outside and count on them winning - Go Gophers/Huskers/Vikings!

Friday Night Lights        -----        Go Bears!

 

Summer in September    ----    Story time at the zoo

Reflecting on summer

Now that we're in fall mode, Nina has been reflecting on summer and how she misses swimming.  We went to the St. Paul pools 37 times, the zoo 6 times, and to 21 concerts at the lake.  We all miss our daily trips around the lake and taking in all it has to offer.  The rest of the time they enjoyed coloring, playing on the iPad, going to parks, taking bike rides, visiting the library, playing on the porches, finding and running from bugs, drinking chocolate milk, and screaming.  It was another great summer and we didn't get cheated!

 

Currently, the girls are still having fun at school and daycare.  Nina was thrilled to make her trip to the dentist and Pip did a great job too.  They enjoyed meeting baby Owen and it was great to see Adam and Megan back in Minnesota for a bit.  We're trying a new reward systems with stickers and end goals to see if we can get Nina to sleep through the night.

 impromptu "do you want to build a snowman" re-enactment

Pre-School

Nina has officially started preschool and is loving it so far.  She likes her bus, her teachers, her activities, the stuff they send home… etc.  She is very proud of her work and of the fact that she leaves daycare three days a week to go to school.  She also has started using some of what she learns in casual conversation.  When we were discussing construction workers, teachers, and police officers, she added, "My job is smaller.  My job is to make friends."  She is very sweet and we look forward to what the rest of the year will bring.

We all had a good time at the St. Croix Vineyard when they had their fall festival with rides, grape-stomping, apples, a maze, and treats.  Vivian continued her obsession with babies and will seek out other tiny ones and usually just stand next to them awkwardly.  She says a fair amount of adult phrases that make us laugh such as, "hold on a sec," "Dylan was playing, no wait, it was Mason," and "I think Nina needs to change her attitude."