Help Wanted...please...

We've been home and settled in to summer for almost a full week, and the feeling is fantastic.  It is so nice to be on our own time, doing what we want, when we want.  I've started running again...something I always enjoy and always talk myself out of doing during the school year.  This morning as I was leaving Cora told me: "Mommy - you go and run fast.  And have fun."  And so I did.

As much fun as we've been having, however, I have to say that I'm running out of ideas of what to do with a couple of two-year-olds to keep us busy, entertained, and educationally active.  I mean, I can plan activities for 10-to-16-year-olds like nobody's business, particularly if they are social studies related (C & E better watch out in 8 years...plans for archeaological digs and GPS scavenger hunts are already brewing in my head...).  But two-year-olds...here's where I'm stumped. 

We play with play-dough.  (Does anyone have a good home-made recipe for this, by the way? I suppose I could find it with a quick Google search, but if YOU've got one, then I won't have to look :-).) We read books, and we play "I spy" with their books.  We sing songs and dance.  We take walks and talk about what we see. And of course they love to help Ian and me bake and cook. And yet...I'd like to do something more.

Does anyone have some advice, websites to check out, ideas that you've tried, games to play, more songs to sing, alphabet or counting games, etc, etc, etc...if so...we need your help!

The most creative thing that we've done is get out some dried beans and popping corn and go to town sifting, sorting, pouring and playing.

Thanks in advance!

Rocky Mountain High.......Montana

I think that I've found my new favorite place. Of all the places that I've been (admittedly limited), I think that this might be my favorite one.  It may also be that I've just returned from a fantastic week-long vacation and am still feeling that Rocky Mountain High.

Let me start with this: I LOVE the mountains.  Specifically the Rockies.  If you have never been, you are really missing out and you should book that trip post haste.  There's just a feeling you get (or at least I get)being in the mountains.  It gives me a perspective on life and on myself that I don't feel anywhere else.  But those awe-inspiring views make me feel and understand how small I really am.  It is humbling, and it is also very empowering.

I've vistited several different places throughout the Rockies.  Growing up in New Mexico, I've been several places there, of course.  About four years ago Ian and I took a trip to Colorado (Dillon, Ridgeway, Durango, Great Sand Dunes Nat'l Park, Colorado Springs), and the summer I was pregnant we went back to Colorado (Estes Park).  I have to say, though, my favorite Rocky Mountain state is Montana, specifically Bozeman, MT.

Bozeman is the home to Montana State University, and sits at the Northern end of the Gallatin Gateway along the Gallatin River that carves its way through the Gallatin Mountains.  The town is fantastic...not tourist-y in the least, it is quaint, it is sophisticated, it is homey.  Ian and I are considering creating a savings account to purchase a place there in retirement :-).

OK, enough of these ramblings...what I really wanted to share with you all was the highlights from our trip!  (By the way...the trip was sans girls!  A whole week away was a bit much...but we had such a good time, and got to do a lot of things that we just couldn't have done with them in tow.  Instead, they got to spend a great week going back and forth between the Petersens and Coopers.)

Most of the trip was spent hiking.  Well, the mornings.  It was fairly cool (highs around 65) and it rained every afternoon.  So we spent the mornings hiking and the afternoons reading in the coffee shop above the local food Co-op. 

On our way out there we stayed the first night in Wall, SD...home of the famous Wall Drug, where the ice water is free and the coffee is only 5 cents.  When we were there it was a drizzly 52 degrees outside, so we bypassed the water and splurged on the coffee.  Wall is also the closest town to the Badlands of SD...amazing.  If you haven't gone, you should.  It's a National Park, so it costs $15, but its well worth it just because its so freakin' cool.  I'm not completely sure about the geology of how it was created...something to do with the area having been covered by a shallow sea and then as it drained out these were created:

Once in Bozeman, the most difficult hike we took was a trail to the "Storm Castle" mountain peak. I'm not sure of the elevation, but it was 2.5 miles straight up a mountain side (and back down again) It took us just under three hours.

This the view from the top, overlooking the Squaw Creek valley.

The next two are up at the very top...I love the view of the snow-covered peaks behind Ian in this one.

 This is the only picture of both of us together...and now that I mention it there is only one other picture of Ian (above) and one other one of me. 

This is the view straight down from the top, if you follow the creek valley (horizontal), just to the left of the center is a bridge that crosses the creek (it looks like a grayish rock-looking thingy), just next to it (if you zoom in really close you can see it) is the car next to where we parked.

And...a view from the bottom looking up.  In the upper center of the photo you can sort of see a rock peaking out above the trees...that's the top.

Next, we went to Buffalo Jump State Park.  This is one of the places where the Native Americans who used to live here ran buffaloes off the cliff to kill them en masse instead of having to shoot each individual one. 

Here's the cliff they ran off, meat was processed (dried) and skins were tanned at the bottom:

And just a beautiful view from the trail here, notice the clouds rolling in over the mountains in the distance.  I just love that.

Our third day, we unsuccessfully tried two trails:

We were excited to try this trail by the Madison River, unfortunately, the river had washed out the trail about 10 minutes in...

The drive to this trail - Spanish Creek - held our favorite views of the whole trip.  The road goes through a valley owned by Ted Turner...and it was absolutely gorgeous (the pictures don't come close to doing it justice).

Instead of a river washing out this trail, we decided to turn around after running into a herd of buffalo covering the road.  Chances are, that if we had continued, they would have gotten out of our way.  But...considering that one of the buffaloes is about the same size as our car...and potentially way more aggressive...we opted for turning around.

We did find success that day on our third try, here's a breath-taking view from Indian Ridge:

 Those are the highlights!  In addition to the great hikes, and reading (of course Ian and I would spend a good chunk of our vacation reading...but here we got to do it in a great coffee shop with a marvelous mountain view), we also ate at some fantastic restaurants.  The best was our last night (fortunately...so it didn't spoil us for the rest of the trip), we ate a tapas-style restaurant and the food and wine was amazing. 

All in all...it was a great way to spend the beginning of summer vacation.  And now I'm happy to be home, with my girls.  Who, by the way, are just waking up from their (2 1/2 hour!!) nap...

Actual Footage

A little glimpse into a day in the life of the Petersens.  Or, at least about a minute.

Translations:
1) Evaline is singing her favorite line of the "Five Little Ducks Went Out to Play" song:  "Five Little Ducks"
2) Cora is playing with blocks until she realized that I was filming...when she runs off camera she is running to sit in my lap so that she can "see".
3) About 10 seconds after I stopped filming Evaline kicked Cora's train.  Laughter (Evaline) and tears (Cora) ensued...as well as a forced apology and help rebuilding.

Getting older, not bigger

**WARNING** Long post.  If you're here just for the pictures, scroll all the way to the bottom :-D


Judging just by physical size, the girls haven't grown very much in the last 6 months.  They both weigh the same: the same as each other, and the same as they did back in November.  Cora is still wearing 18 months clothes - especially the pants.  Poor little girl is built just like her mommy.  Evaline (who is in size 2T for height but everything is a bit too big around), on the other hand, is built like her Aunt Katie - lucky girl. 

Although they haven't changed in size, they have changed oh-so-much.  Here's a little look at what's going on in our two-and-a-half-year-old world:

Singing.  Oh the singing that goes on around here.  Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.  Some dinosaur song (something about a Mommy - or Daddy, or Baby - dinosaur (while slaping legs), earthshake...listen...ROAR!) **If you know this song: please clue me in on the actual lyrics and/or movements: this was a song learned at their previous daycare and I'd love to sing along with them. 
Best of all is their ABCs.  I'm not sure if a stranger could understand it with clarity, but they've got it down.  The whole thing. 

Counting.  Counting everything.  A few days ago when driving home the girls were counting houses that we'd pass.  They'd get to about 13 and then start over.  Evaline usually skips 4 and 5, and she adds in an "eleventeen".  It's pretty cute.

Ownership.  "Mine" is a favorite word around here.  So is "I want it".  So is fighting over whatever the other one has.  Example: I was heading to my parents with the girls in tow, Ian was leaving at the same time to drive to work.  When we left Cora said "Bye Daddy" and Evaline got very upset because she wanted to say "Bye Daddy" first.  When I merged off the interstate, Evaline said "Bye Daddy" (long story as to why she'd say it again) and this time Cora got mad because she wanted to say it.  Almost to my parents house, Cora pointed at me and proclaimed "MY MOMMY".  Evaline got upset and replied "No!  My Mommy!  Cora - Daddy!  Evaline - Mommy!"  (Ever since Evaline went through her unbelievably whiny phase, she's been clingy to me, and Cora has been clingy to Ian.)

Coordination.  Running, jumping, climbing, kicking (balls, not people), throwing, catching.  The girls are improving their physical and motor skills tremendously.  Once or twice so far this spring its even been warm enough to go outside and play (they are tough and could stand the cold...their mommy, on the other had, is quite the wimpy-doodle). They can go up and down stairs without help - in fact, they often insist on doing it without any help.  They really enjoy "sewing" cards (where you "sew" a shoelace through holes on a card).  They are always on the go.

Not-so-coordinated.  Everything happens to Cora.  When she was 6 months, Evaline pushed a mirror over onto her head and sent her to the ER, at about 16 months she did a face plant in a friends' driveway and skinned up her face, in September she was bitten - twice - by another kid at daycare: hard enough to leave bruises in a perfect imprint on her cute little face, and now she's the one to slip in the tub.  It gave her quite the black eye.  We started calling her "Shiner".  For several days she looked like she was in a bar-room brawl.
Speaking of the bathtub...about a month ago Cora accidentally pooped in the tub.  It was just a little turdling...easily scooped out and cleaned up with a little draining and replacing of the water.  Cora was beside herself.  She felt so bad about having had an accident like that in the tub.  She still won't take a bath.  Flat out refuses to get in the tub.  We've had to shower with her instead.  When I ask her why she won't take a bath she simply replies "I no poop in the tub."  In addition to short, chubby legs I fear she has inherited her mother's sometimes-unreasonable sensibilities.

Manipulating.  On Saturday Ian got Cora up from her nap when Evaline was still sleeping.  He told her that when Evaline woke up, he would take them to the park.  Every four or five minutes after that Cora would stop, pretend to listen, and say "Eva talking!  We go park now!"  (Eva wasn't talking...still VERY sound asleep).

Opinionated.  Most days they won't wear anything but a dress. They are picky about what they eat and what color of plate they eat it on.  They have assigned seats at the dinner table...and now so do Ian and I.  They prefer their blankets folded in a particular way.  And they have definately developed the lungs to throw a tantrum to let us know when something isn't quite right.

Photos.  We haven't taken a whole lot of pictures lately...but here are a few recent ones that make me smile:

Silly Cora...with her black eye and pretty dress

Evaline is such a "little mommy."  Ever since meeting Baby Maggie at daycare, s he plays with her own babies almost non-stop. Feeding, diapering, rocking to sleep.  She's got it all down. 

**Please note: I did not put the burp-cloth on her shoulder, that was all her. 

And this one...nothing too special, just two sisters, two best-friends, having fun.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Back at it...

Going back to school after spring break is always kinda weird.  Spring break gets me feeling ready for summer, but the weather isn't quite there yet, the sun still sets too early and rises too late, and then, of course, there is still about 10 weeks worth of learning to be done.  For me, this means that we've got about 10 weeks to learn about all the really important stuff in the whole world that happened from about 1900 to 2011.  And ya know, there's a lot that happened during those 111 years.  So...although Spring Break gets me itching for summer, there's a lot of work to be done before I can scratch that itch.

The end of Spring Break marked a change in the Petersen household.  While Ian and I headed back to school, Cora and Evaline did not.  We have been extremely fortunate that we both have our parents in town, AND they have been absolutely wonderful with helping us out childcare.  For the first year and a half, the girls went to grandma/papa-care instead of daycare - with both sets of grandparents splitting the time with the girls.  This year we started the girls at a large(ish) daycare center three days a week (the girls are still lucky enough to get to hang out with their grandparents two days a week - one day each side). 

We'd had no real complaints about the center, except for the cost.  So, after spring break we switched to a small in-home place (a place that some friends/co-workers use)...and are saving over $400/mo.  So far, the switch seems to be working out really, really well.  The girls are comfortable and get excited about going there.  They are napping well - which was a HUGE surprise, since they never napped very well at their previous place. There is a little baby girl there, which the girls find absolutely fascinating and none of the other kids have bitten Cora yet.  AND (knock on wood) its been almost three weeks without a trip to the doctor (knock on wood, again)!   

Its always such a big decision when choosing daycare, and before they started there we were questioning a lot whether or not we should make the switch.  But I think we made a good choice.

Oh, and the official countdown is now 8 weeks until summer.