Hiking

This is so late, but two weeks ago we went hiking up Heliotrope Ridge by Mt Baker. We thought Saben would probably enjoy walking for maybe 10 minutes or so, the trail is not ultra steep, but does have hills, roots & rocks to step up & generally heads upwards the entire time.


One hour later, he was still chugging along, and really into it, having the time of his life. He loved the climbing parts (steps for us) where he had to pull himself up rocks & tree roots. Whenever other hikers approached, he would actually grunt louder to make sure they knew how hard he was working. It was so incredibly cute and since we love hiking, we were estatic.


The trail finally got too steep and we loaded him into the pack & carried him until we reached about 5 minutes from the end of the trail which features an overlook to a Mt. Baker glacier. There is a stream crossing at this point and it was just a bit to sketchy to jump over with kids attached to your body. So we were stuck, 5 minutes from the end and couldn't really see much from where we were. ARGH!!!


Great view of the glacier, just over that ridge....

On the way down, we timed that it took us about 25 minutes to hike the length of section Saben did all by himself. That's two adults walking downhill.

Anyways, we all had a wonderful time and stopped at the Northfork Brewery on the way home for pizza. mmmm.....

Annika 9 weeks

Annika's first mini skirt.
(update: Annika's left hand is missing in all the pics because I was keeping her from tipping over with it. She definitely does not sit on her own yet!)

bodily functions

I do not kid you, every morning, the very instant I pour milk onto my cereal and sit down to drink my coffee, this is what I hear:
"Mommy, I pooped"

It is so appetizing to change a diaper right before you eat, and soggy cereal is just a special bonus.

I realize that I have also forgotten to mention a habit of Saben's that has been around for quite some time - handing people the green treats he finds up his nose. "Mommy, I have a booger!" as he thrusts his finger in your face.

The best was when we were sitting next to the bride (Kyle's cousin) at a shower and he actually managed to get one out without me noticing and then offered it to her while everyone was watching her open gifts. "I have a booger!"

Smiling

Smiles and the things annika loves at 9 weeks old:

• Annika smiled at 6 weeks almost exactly and just started giving huge grins at 8 1/2 wks. (I count the first smiles when I can see it in her eyes. Gas smiles don't go to the eyes)


• Her first smiles were all induced by standing. Everytime you hold annika up to stand her eyes light up and she gets so excited.
• Annika loves to watch my mouth as I sing. Singing to sleep doesn't help her out much, but if she's alert, she really enjoys it.
• Annika does not like her bouncy seat, play gym or swing yet. Sigh. She usually seems scared/overwhelmed by most toys or things dangling in her face.
• Annika loves any sort of baby massage, even though I'm just winging it. We also do some mouth stimulation therapy to help with her nursing and she loves it, even though my finger is poking and brush all over her mouth.
• Annika already enjoys Saben's favorite book as an infant "I Kissed the Baby"
• Annika loves the baby bjorn and on "bad nap days" it is the only place I can get her to sleep

Stupid bullet formatter.

recipes

I finally found time to add a few new recipes we have been loving this summer.

Annika 6 weeks, Saben 2 yrs - 5 months

At the beach

Wearing Mommy's dress & bonnet

Saben had to be bribed for this picture by including Percy (the train) by his knees

Babies

I was thinking last night that there are two things I've felt "this time around" that I didn't experience with Saben.

1. The pure bliss of holding a new infant in my arms. The contentment I felt right after Annika was born was amazing and for a couple weeks I thought "I really want to do this again, no way are we stopping with just two kids. I'm ready to get pregnant again right now!" With Saben I was just really nervous that any second something was going to go wrong or he was going to get colicky and it was still wonderful, but different not knowing what to expect.

2. However, I don't remember Saben causing me the encompassing anger and frustration I've felt while spending HOURS trying to get Annika to sleep. Now I've been thinking "No way on earth am I EVER going to do this again. Two kids is plenty and if this one doesn't fall asleep soon I am chucking her out the window."

The funny thing is, I would definitely say that Annika is MUCH harder than Saben was, but I vaguely have this feeling that I had a few tough weeks with Saben too. I just don't remember.

What is fascinating to me is that Kyle remembers all the hard parts with Saben, while I only remember the good parts. Part of the reason I write down the difficulties of raising my children is that I want to remember ALL of it and I have realized that somehow mom's brains (mine at least) are wired to forget just how exhausted and frustrated they were with their precious bundles of joy.

This last week was really really tough, Annika refused to nap unless she was in the Baby Bjorn carrier, hated being set down for more than 5 minutes and wanted to nurse constantly. Its not that she wouldn't nap, she just woke up after 5-20 minutes every single time. After I'd spent 30 minutes bouncing/rocking/nursing her to sleep. She wouldn't go to bed till 9:30 pm or so, which meant I had 30 min - 1 hour to myself each day and last night I was really losing it.

Then out of the blue, she slept from 10:30 pm till 6:30 am last night, napped 2 hours this morning and then fell asleep in her swing for the first time ever this afternoon. Hmmm.... this isn't so bad. In fact I could totally see us having just one more.....