Anika is 2 years old!

Our little princess is 2 years old, which is hard to believe.  She adds so much fun and laughter to our household and I feel so blessed to have this one daughter who I’ll be able to share my girly needs with.  We could see very early on that it will take a whole different approach to raise a daughter than it is to raise a son, but it is also a lot of fun to see their differences and their own little personalities.  Ani has a little mothering touch in her and if Kason is on the floor she thinks it’s her duty to bring him all the baby toys at once.  She is very gentle with him and it’s nice because I don’t have to worry about her hurting him or doing something to him.  Ehren and I have been a little worried about her lately because she has not been saying sentences and just seemed like she was getting a little behind developmentally, but the last couple of months she has been changing so much and just absorbing everything around her.  All of a sudden she loves reading books and keeps bringing them to me all day long.  She can also sit and listen to a story after story when before I would have to chase her with a book.  So, I took it upon my own challenge to focus on her in the mornings when Kade is at school because she really needs it and she also wants to learn so much right now.  Anika also loves being outside and lately Kade is even ok with being outside by himself as long as Ani is with him.  The two of them can be so cute together and then they can fight so much.  Ani really just wants to keep up with Kade no matter what and Kade thinks he has to be her boss.  This Wednesday I’m taking Anika to the doctor for her 2 year check-up so we’ll have a lot to talk about from her speech, left-handed mannerism, to her flat feet which after seeing my mom again, look just like her flat feet so we’ll see what they say.

So anyway, this last Saturday we had a little birthday party for Anika.  We didn’t make a huge deal of it since she doesn’t quite understand yet what birthday means.  She does know you need to blow the candles off (although it took about 10 tries) and I think she was the most excited about the balloons.  Ehren’s coworker owed him a favor so she made us a pink care bare cake for Anika and it was really cute.  Ehren and I got her a kitchen set which we didn’t put together because we have no room for it in this house and we didn’t want to put it together in the new house, show it to her and then she couldn’t play with it.  So we just got her a couple little things and she loved them all, just like any 2 year old would.

one month with babka and dedko

The time with my parents went by so quick and we really enjoyed having them here.  They worked so hard the whole time they were here and my dad has done so much on our house.  He did most of the shelving for our closets, a huge shoe rack in our mud room, shelves in the pantry, and on and on.  It is so nice now that when we move in we can start getting organized right away.  I especially can’t wait to have the kids’ bedrooms organized since right now we have all the 3 kids’ clothes in one small closet and are pretty much living off of totes.  Our kids really liked my parents, especially Ani who was chasing my mom and dad with books all the time so they would read to her.  She is blossoming so much right now so I am trying to give her as much attention as I can in the morning when Kade is in school.  Kade and Ani loved going outside with my mom because she made the walk in the field really fun, like trying to catch as many grasshoppers as they could.  Kade would keep asking her when they can go outside again and that is not like him because he is so scared of bugs.  So it was really nice that they were here and our kids got a chance to get to know them better.  I miss my mom not being here already because it helped so much when she watched the kids while I had to run to town for stuff (and with building the house I have to go to town a lot), not to mention she had all our meals planned out.  Now I’m back to asking my friends to help watch the kids when I need to be gone longer, which is not bad, I just hate asking them so much.  The weather has been really nice the whole time my parents were here, except for a few rainy days.  This last week or so it has been especially warm for MN so that was nice and my parents came back to SK where it is cold and rainy.  At least once in a while it’s nicer weather here than over there.  I am hoping the cold weather will hold off as long as possible.

it’s a race, it’s a race

The title is from a movie that always makes me laugh – Rat Race.  I love Mr. Bean in it.  Anyway, I got my glimpse of running a couple of weeks ago and it was so much fun to be in a race again.  Me and my friend from TRF – Tiffany ran a relay half marathon, meaning we both did about 6.7 miles.  I started and at the mid point I gave her the timed chip to go around her ankle.  We both did it in right around an hour so it wasn’t that bad for a couple of moms.  I am still recouperating from the pregnancy and having a baby and Tiffany has 4 kids between ages 5-1.  So we did great considering neither of us had a regular time to train.  Funny thing is that both of us thought at the end – this is it?  We could have run the whole half marathon.  I would have been really sore after that but at the half way point there were runners behind me that looked a lot worse than I did.  So if everything goes well next summer we will for sure try for the whole 13.1 miles.  And maybe some day I’ll be able to train for the marathon again.  I was really happy about the weather and I have to say it was the best weather I’ve ran in any race before – a little cool but with a nice sunshine.  Some of the people that know me well know that it is very difficult to have a perfect weather for me, that is for running.  If it’s above 65 F it’s too hot and if it’s below 20 F (and it gets that low around here a lot) it’s too cold.

Kade was really cute the night before my race.  Once I told him where I was going the next day and why he had to stay home with dad, he kept saying he hopes me and Tiffany win the race.  I told him Kade, I am very sure we are not going to win.  But he just kept on saying it would be so cool if I won.  Yes, that would be cool but I’ll never be one of those freak runners that win these races.   It still makes me proud of myself and just to show our kids that they can be active and do things like this even when school is over.  Well, enough ramblings.  I have to go to bed.

Pumped up before the race

my medal

stinky after the race

Ford Contour: 2005 – 2008………………..?

She was a good car, despite the c-clamps in the dash

While it was a joyful night last night, it turned to shock and sadness this morning.  Ivan and I had a ‘lost in translation’ moment and the keys were left in the car last night.  No big deal.  It’s Thief River Falls, in the country, nobody locks their door at night.  However this morning, no car.  Much speculation has been made that it may have made a trek east to a land reserved to others.  If so, it is lost for sure, burning among trees mourning the loss of a great friend that helped a family out during difficult times, traveled with us during exciting building times, and just kept us happy when we needed to be happy.  As many know we’ve been blessed to have 3 vehicles in our possession all paid for.  The Ford was great for transporting Ivan and Julia between our place, my parent’s, and the new house.  Each day she started faithfully, bringing it’s passengers to their desired journey.  Now she is gone.  Please join me in a moment of silence as we mourn her loss and pray the Malibu (which was a replacement car for another car stolen from our possession.  Yes, now you can say you know someone who has had two cars stolen from them) will last a long life for us and provide reliable transportation.

1st day of school

Kade started kindergarten today and it was the first time he got on the bus by our house.  He was a little shy but the bus driver had him sit up front with her daughter so that should help him.  He is growing up so fast and we are both so proud of him.  He learns new things very quick but he also needs to be motivated because if he’s bored with something he won’t keep doing it.  I had to take him to school on Tuesday already for some testing and he did really well.  I purposely did not work on reading and writing with him during the summer because I think it’s too young to push kids into reading and writing but here they were testing them on just that before kindergarten even started.  He was supposed to read as much as he could and also try to write a sentence.  Are they crazy?  Despite all that though I was shocked that he was able to write 12 sounds down.  The teacher said usually kids can do about 3 or 4 sounds.  And that has nothing to do with me teaching him.  So I was really proud, but still upset at how much they expect of these little kids.  They all catch up to each other within 2 years anyway so why the stress and pressure?  He is only doing half day kindergarten and I think it will be good for him since he’s the youngest in his class but what I don’t like is that they try to pack so much curriculum into that little time.  Well, we’ll see how it goes for him.  I know he’ll love being in school because he was starting to get bored at home.

Kade’s first bus ride

my baby leaving me