You be Tiger Lily, I'll be Michael

I've had very few nicknames in my life, but i just got my favorite: Tiger Lily. Eirik watched Peter Pan last week and suddenly we're playing following the leader every day and chasing crocodiles and running from Captain Hook all the time. And I hear this constantly, "Come right back Tiger Lily, Come here Tiger Lily... Now you all ready Tiger Lily." I'm pretty fond of the new name. I've never been a princess before.. so thanks Eirik.

This great drawing is by this character designer from her blog. Great work Sarah.

On Mothering

check this out

Link Love

I just have to give Tasheena some link love..
You have to see this video!

A Season of Love

I love Valentine's Day.
#1 It breaks of the dreadful winter.
#2 It gives me something to decorate for
#3 I can insist that Paul take me dancing.. the one time this happens a year
#4 I really look forward to the surprises that Paul comes up with.
Our valentine's tree- When I pulled out this pink plant this year Eirik said, "A beautiful plant!" That's the first time he's used the word beautiful and from a two year old it made me laugh. Do I say things are beautiful that often?? (uh... I'm sure I do)


Katherine's Sugar cookies are one of my favorite things to make. Maybe because frosting them is sort of like painting! Fun and delicious!

Happy Valentine's day everyone!!
We love you

First Smile

We're finally getting some incredibly cute smiles from little Jbird.
He is such an angel baby! Have I said that yet? He is so good!
May I apologize again for our ridiculous camera that is totally inept at taking pictures of moving objects. This is unfortunately the best picture I have been able to get of his great grins..

Mothering a toddler...

I know a better woman would never think about putting her kid in a closet for a while when the whining never stops, but I am not that woman. This last week almost got the better of me, but I have a great husband who is totally here for our family, and I called my sister in law who gave me some much needed encouragement and from their help I was able to make a plan that is working for us.
Eirik is spirited, or so the "Baby Whisperer for Toddlers" says. That means he needs a LOT of stimulation and if I don't stay one step ahead of him, he will trample me to the dust, and that is what has been happening .. so I've been implementing these new ideas the past few days, and we are having a great time. Those of you who already have had toddlers, these are probably old news ideas to you... but to me they have been lifesavers.

*we hung a calendar in his room with pictures of things we do on the days. We count down to holidays and his birthday every day.
*I made this awesome schedule chart that is really helping us. He needs structure, but I need it more.
Obviously, this is a "flexible" schedule and we don't adhere to it exactly.
*we have planned a once a week play dates with two of his friends that we can put on the calendar as something to look forward to since he loves to have friends over, (or maybe I love to have less attention on me for a minute.)
*I have started giving him more responsibilities, like sweeping with his broom, clearing his plate, setting the table, helping me load the dishwasher, reading Joren books and making Joren smile. He loves this!
*we started quiet time in his room for 5 minutes a day (which I will slowly make longer and longer). He cries the whole time now, but he'll get the hang of it.. hopefully!
*We set the timer for play time for 30 minutes here, and 30 minutes there so I don't get bored and stop playing and so that I can tell him, it's not play time right now...I'll set the timer when it's playtime." This way I'm able to direct some of his demands better! Phew~
*We started 10 minutes of exercise time where we can't stop moving.. run in place, gallop, somersaults, stretches jumping, follow the leader, do as I'm doing, If you're happy and you know it... etc. This was a great idea!
The schedule really helps with TV too since I hate saying "no TV right now" all day long. If he has set TV time, he knows when he can watch and when he can't and I do too and we can keep it to a minimum. :)
*I've also started making a better point of teaching him how to think through problems. I ask him, "how can you help yourself with this problem?" and then I walk him through it. This helps a lot too. He's fond of saying, "I'm frustrated!" It's really cute actually and he's starting to problem solve instead of just scream about it.
*Choices. I've learned more about choices I can offer. Instead of saying, "you don't have a choice, you have to put on your diaper." instead, I can say, "you can lay there or here to put on your diaper." He still has a choice that way.
*"The One Minute Mother" is a great book. I am going to start on the goal setting ideas from this book with Eirik when he's just a bit older.

To those of you who actually read through this whole post.. wow.. thanks. :)

How much food coloring does it take?

Eirik got to hang out in the kitchen sink this week while I cooked dinner. As he was playing I got this crazy thought.... how much food coloring would it take to turn Eirik's skin a different color? At first I smiled to myself and thought how silly that was. But I just kept wondering and I decided that if he turned colors from the waist down, no one would know if I kept him dressed all the time (except Paul of course) so I put in about 8 drops of red. Cool! Eirik thought so too... but his skin did not change, he was just sitting in a pink bath, so I tried blue.... 8 drops... nothing, just purple water.. 8 more drops.... more purple.... a few more drops... and well... at this point, my better judgement set in and I decided I would love my son even if he were a smurf, but I better not push my luck.

Poll:
who thinks I should have kept going?
Who dares me to do it again?

A morning with a toddler

After I made it through yesterday morning I called my mom to get a listening ear and she encouraged me to write down my experience for future laughs. So here it is...

Joren didn't sleep well so I was up much of the night. Eirik woke up at 6:30. I went a got him a milk and insisted that he go back to bed for at least an hour since he is always WAY too tired when he gets up then. I sat by his bed until he was asleep to avoid the inevitable "process" of putting him back in his bed a gazillion times. Then I went back to my comfy bed for a few more Z's. 10 minutes later, there was Eirik screaming "Come on mommady, downsteeees. Wake up MOmmady." I knew my night was over but stayed in bed in a groggy state of stupor until Eirik turned on the radio on the alarm clock and turned up the volume all the way so I would have to stop ignoring him so that it wouldn't wake Joren up! So we got up and our day ensued. Grumpy, whiney Eirik could not be consoled and moved from activity to activity at breakneck speed crying in between each. As usual he refused to eat any breakfast so I threw it away. As I tried to put on some make up he found the sunscreen under the counter and squirted it all over. I put him on the counter so I could watch him better and he got soap all over his jeans. As we were washing his hands he "threw" himself in the sink and got soaked. So we changed his clothes for the first time 40 minutes after our day began. We were preparing to go to story hour at the library. Eirik insisted on wearing his church shoes instead of his snow boots. I put them on and his coat and he was out the door before I could stop him. Did he go and nicely wait by the car? or did he go straight to the biggest mud puddle and sit in it? B- he sat in the mud.
At this point, the baby got to wait in the car while I pulled off his mud soaked clothes and in the process got myself covered in mud head to toe. The idea of going to the library was sounding less and less appealing minute my minute, but we persevered. I finally got everything loaded and we backed out to discover that the brakes were not working in the car. I pulled back into our space and sat there thinking.... what are we going to do to fill up this never ending day?? I called Erin to tell her we would not be at the library and she suggested a walk in the stroller to her house to use her car. What a good friend. Well, the walk was just what we needed. It was 40 degrees, but no wind and Eirik and I had not had any good exercise for a couple of weeks. Up and down the stairs does not count. When I got everyone loaded in the double stroller and realized that there really was no wind and 40 degrees is not that bad with no wind, we decided to go to the park instead of the library. So I pushed and ran as much of the way as I could and then we went sliding on the rain soaked slides and got soaked and ran home. When Eirik started screaming because his mittens were soaked and he was freezing was when I called my mom.

I don't know about you guys but being cooped up inside all of Jan and Feb has always been hard for me, especially the past few years when I haven't gone to work everyday. Eirik is the same way so getting out, even in the drizzely cold was just what we both needed. We came home and drew pictures of palm trees and hammocks on beaches. We're making big plans for Mr. Sunshine when he comes back around.

Be this guy!

You may all think this is very cute, but you haven't heard it 500 times a day for the last 2 months straight! Fortunately this video doesn't illustrate the ensuing tantrum that inevitably follows my refusals.
You try being a horse or a pig or He-man all day long to appease your toddler. I don't think I can snort like a pig one more time and retain any of my adult humanity!

Design Star here I come!

So my awesome cousin Juliana wrote an article about me and the design of our nursery that is featured in a new Utah based Parenting magazine.
Thanks Juliana, you totally rock!