Mom Remembers

1. His smile makes me smile. 2. He throws diapers in the pail for me. 3. He loves to be read to. 4. He also "reads" to himself during his independent play times. 5. He still loves to snuggle.  I really like it when Scott gets him up in the morning; then he will come find me and snuggle with me. 6. Sometimes he says "mm-hm" instead of "yes".  It's really cute. 7. Also cute: when he says "yes", he hyper-articulates the s sound. 8. Actually, everything he says is really cute.  He's a big talker. 9. He is small for his age.  That makes the talking all the more cute and impressive. 10. It also makes him easy to carry around.  Whenever he asks me to "carry you", I always reply, "I love  to carry you!"  And even with a bran new baby, that's true. 11. He will "sing" (rather tunelessly) and "dance" (rather formlessly) around the living room. 12. He likes to play outside.  And life is certai...

Sven is TWO!  (Look out everybody, here comes big trouble.) This is what we did to celebrate: 1. It was Saturday, so I made our traditional pancake breakfast.  But I shaped the pancakes like letters of the alphabet!  Because that's cool, right?  Sven helped me put in the chocolate chips. 2. After breakfast, I put on Sven's birthday shirt.  It has been sitting, folded and waiting, in his dresser for the past six months.  Today was it's big day to shine!  Once he was dressed, Sven and I practiced telling his age.  "How old are you?"  "Six."  "No!  You're two!" 3. A few days before, Sven helped me pick out a cake.  It was funfetti, of course.  So after breakfast, we mixed it up and put some cupcakes in the oven. Sven was really upset about the whole mixing process.  He seemed to think that everything was ruined.  After an hour in the oven, I started to wonder if maybe he hadn't been right.  The cupcak...

I had intended to keep a log of all Sven's words up to age two, just like we did with Soren.  But, like Carl, Sven's language progressed so quickly that I gave up early.  By around 21 months, I was no longer surprised by any word he said and was probably using five to ten new ones every day.  Now, at two, he is producing multiple clause sentences. He still says "carry you" instead of "carry me" but other than that, his grammar is impressively good.  We have another talker in the family. Anyways, without further ado, here is the list that I maintained, up until it became unfeasible: By 1 year hi, ow, more, all (as in "all done"), mama 12 months dada, please 13 months ball, bye, whee! 14 months up, no, uh-oh, shoe 15 months down, diaper, stick, side (as in "outside"), flower, nose 16 months ears, cat, juice, milk, day (as in "someday"), cake, night (as in "good night"), mine, rice, door, poop, thank...

1. He is friendly and happy when meeting/greeting people. 2. He responds when I talk to him.  He doesn't always like what he hears but I always know he heard me. 3. Sometimes, he responds with a cheerful, "Yes, Mom!" 4. I love to hear him sing. 5. He expresses sincere gratitude without prompting. 6. His lego designs are surprisingly elegant. 7. His new belly button looks great.  He had surgery last month to repair an umbilical hernia and he was a really good sport about it. 8. I appreciate how very attentive he is to baby Leif.  He asks to hold him at least once every day and likes to sooth him when he's unhappy. 9. He is also really sweet with Sven, who is going through an emotionally turbulent time right now.  Carl likes to help his little brothers feel better. 10. I love to watch his pretend play.  Frequently, he and his friends pretend to be lego minifigures.  Carl holds his fingers in a c-shapes in imitation of the minifigure hands. ...

When Carl first showed me his very wiggly lower central right incisor, I told him the story of the tooth fairy. "When I was a little girl," I said, "my dad told me that I should put any teeth I lost underneath my pillow.  And then, at night, the tooth fairy would come to take them away and leave me a coin in their place." "That's just a trick," Soren interjected.  "The tooth fairy isn't real." "Well, I  think she's real," Carl said. Carl was smart to believe.  When Soren lost his first tooth, he ended up with nothing to show for it but a hole in his mouth.  He responded to my tooth fairy story with incredulity and then threw the tooth away.  In the trash.  So much for my attempt to share a fun, childhood tradition with him. But with Carl, I got to try again.  One morning, he came out of his room, still in his pajamas, and very excited to show me his detached tooth.  He wanted to take it to preschool and show all...

They're big.  They're beautiful.  They're finally here! Baby's first smiles: This picture really doesn't do them justice.  But you know how hard it is to get a baby to smile at a boring, electronic devise.  I had to use a little bit of misdirection to catch even this shy beauty.   He started busting them out just yesterday.  At least, those were the first real smiles that I  saw.  Soren was raving about smiles on Saturday but I refuse to believe that Leif smiled first for Soren.  Soren does nothing  for that baby!  I slave  over him!  Sigh ... I guess babies have no concept of fairness.