Hang on Girlfriend!

As Grandma Vivi says, Emi is really starting to come into her own. But it is true! She has gone from the baby that wouldn't crawl, walk or roll over to the kid at playgroup that the teachers say- man you are going ot have to watch her! She is fearless!

She is up and down the stairs all over our house- I have found her in the basement checking things out- I think that she followed the cat down there on one occasion- and she also can swing her little leg up and over the double step we have that is supposed to be keeping her on the first floor of our house. She has been standing and rocking on the kid sized rocking chair for a long time and now is able to climb onto her rocking horse, give a few swings and a yehaw and then climb off the other side. She also loves to sit and scoot on her wheelie bug all over the house- which is a good reminder to keep that basement door shut!

She is also learning what different things mean. When I say that it is time to eat, she runs to her high chair, she knows how to go upstairs and where we change her diaper. She waves bye bye and says nigh-nigh when I say good night as well. Her favorite books are the baby flip books that Peter loved, Good-night Gorilla- she wave nigh nigh at the animals, makes a surprised face when the lady is shocked and admonishes the animals for being in the house, and any books with pictures of animals in it.

She also still likes to play with magnets, draw on the chalkboard and slide down the slide upstairs. She has started to go down on her bottom instead of her belly as well!

Hang on little one!

Peter skiing

Peter Skiing 2012 from garrick holey on Vimeo.

Happy Birthday To Peter!

Peter has become the funniest, craziest, joyful little boy that I know. He teases us, laughs with us, is learning to be a good big brother and knows how to play hard. Some of his favorite things are trains- watching them, reading about them or playing with them, reading books- Olivia, train books and Curious George are some of his favorites, playing with his friends- Julia, Oscar and Finn, and riding his bike to the playground,  the fountain park or to the river.

When you ask him how much he loves you he'll hold up his hands and put them an inch apart and say this much... until you look mad-- then he'll spread them all the way out. If he could pick he'd have oatmeal for breakfast everyday- and probably for every meal. His favorite color is green and he doesn't like to share it-

He and I celebrated his birthday the day before since I have to work on Thursday mornings. We took a trip around Winona to watch the model trains and to have a special treat.

 We started at the Watkin's Museum and watched the trains there- it is a model of Winona and Pete had fun picking out the places he knew.

 Ran around the museum for a little bit.

 and pretended that pete was willy wonka and that Emi was an Oompa Looma.

 Stopped by the Blue Heron for cookies and to read books for a little bit.

 On the way to the Hardware store we saw a crane lifting this new engine on the tracks. This was BIG.

 and finally ended at ACE Hardware and watched some more trains and talked to the guys who built it and are into model railroads. They told us about a few shows coming up in LaX.

 On his actual birthday we had a small party with his friends he sees regularly! We had dinner, played for a little bit and tried to break open the pinata!

 It took a lot of hits and some help, but we finally broke it open. I made it out of tissue paper and glue. That morning I decided it needed to be reinforced- looks like I could/should have left it as one layer for the 2/3 year olds!!

 Had cake

And Mike finally got to give Pete his pouch of beef jerky that he has been waiting to give him since he was born-- "man food"


Happy Birthday to our little monkey, Pete-star, We love you!

On The BIG Chair

We went down to go skiing again this weekend and after a few trips   on the magic carpet, Pete graduated to the BIG chairs- as he put it. Lately he is all about doing what the big kids are doing- he did not like it that we were the only ones on the magic carpet, so when I finally released him to the bigger hill, he was excited. We have a little harness we put on him which is really nice for two reasons- it has a handle on the back which we can hang onto him with and also it has a rope that you can hold onto and ski behind him to slow him down. He was able to make it all of the way down the bunny hill without falling almost every time. He also was trying to make little turns to go one way or another- he has the idea down, but isn't fully able to do it yet.

We then spent Saturday at my mom and dad's house, playing inside and outside and of course had some cake!!

Peter playing with his digger that grpa dan made him... coming soon... sand pit in our yard.

Emi wearing pete's helmet- everything is a  hat these days- hats, socks, pieces of paper and she's been wearing my running bras around her neck lately.

Blowing out his candles.

Can't decide if I like this one

Or this one... Pete with his two favorite people.

Dog dog dog dog dog..

Untitled from garrick holey on Vimeo.


Emelia LOVES Scout. She has loved him for a long time, he was the first thing that she would crawl after, her first word was dog and now she gives him extra treats a few times a day. She is always so proud of herself when she does this!

Singing

Untitled from garrick holey on Vimeo.

Important Jobs

Diesel tom was given an important job tonight... 

To go around the mountain, under the bridge and to successfully deliver a load of

CATS. 

It's goofy.

Chalkboard!

Over Christmas break I cleaned and threw away and reorganized Emi's room to change it from the "spare 'oom" to a fun play place for the kids and a nice place for her to sleep.

I'll show you the fun parts of her room one at a time to draw this out, but this is one of the kid's favs!

Garrick stole borrowed repossessed  this piece of old heavy slate from his parent's house and then made a beautiful chalk tray and frame for it. We are using sidewalk chalk on the board right now, but actually it works better since they are always dropping the chalk all over the place..

 Emi likes to stand there and make thousands of little vertical lines. Peter is a little more productive. He l ikes to decorate drawings that I make, draw his own "race tracks" and trace letters that I make in dots. He is also starting to make the letter 'P' and some shapes on his own up there. He also likes to drag a parking garage over to the board and drawing in the upper upper corners of the board as well. I'm really surprised at how much he likes to do this. He normally doesn't really like to draw and write

Also- do you see how tall they look? 
1. Peter is really shooting up, he looks like a giant next to little Emi.
2. Emi is also shooting up, I knit her those little brown pants this week. I thought I had measured her right to make them long enough but maybe she grew? Not to sure about this.

Our snowy weekend!

And it is just about the only one of the whole winter! Almost all of our snow is done as of right now- Pete and garrick just built a snowman in the front yard last week when I was at work with the rements of what was left!

But we did make it down to my parent's house last weekend for a weekend of taking Pete skiing (videos to come) and getting out skiing at Mirror Lake on our own!