Nilssen Family: A quiet moment?

I'm calling this a quiet moment and I've decided to sit down and write a long delayed post. Through some miracle, BOTH of the babies are asleep in their beds right now. Yes, there are dirty dishes that I should be doing right now. However, I haven't been able to find a spare second to blog in a LONG time, so I'm taking a few minutes for me.

I posted the last bunch of pictures with full intention of sitting down the next day and writing an explanatory post. HA! I'll do my best to catch you up, and I may even get to some new material before I'm done tonight.

My sister Steph came into town the first week in February for a visit. We had beautiful weather and thoroughly enjoyed running her around town. We did some shopping, a zoo trip and got in some nice time at the park. Soren had tons of fun playing with Steph and Svea didn't mind the extra attention either. It was great for me to have a running buddy so I could run outside while she was here. We also got away to play a couple of nights of volleyball as well. We miss you already, Steph, when are you coming back?

While at the zoo with Steph, we were enjoying a picnic lunch of PB&J sandwiches when Soren made a new friend. A squirrel came right up to him and put its paw on his leg. I tried to gently tell the little critter to shoo, but it totally ignored me. The little guy's next move was to jump onto Soren's lap and put both paws on his chest. Apparently, Soren was not understanding what he wanted, so the squirrel took his lunch into his own paws and started eating Soren's sandwich right out of his hands. By this time we had started yelling and arm waving to get the potentially rabid rodent off of my babe. He totally ignored us until I grabbed a chunk of Soren's sandwich and threw it on the ground. He grabbed the sandwich and headed off to a more quiet spot where crazy humans weren't trying to stomp on him and break his ear drums with shrieking. I don't think I will ever forget Soren's face as he screamed in a high pitched voice, "get away, squirrel, just go away!" - trying to be calm and yet panic showing through (probably an exact mirror of what I looked like!)

We also squeezed in a few outings to the Children's museum, the AZ Museum of Natural History, the Heard Museum, the zoo, the zoo, and the zoo. I'm so thankful for culture passes that have allowed me to take the kids to museums all over the valley that I wouldn't normally pay full admission for. Our zoo membership ended in February and we crammed in a ton of visits to the zoo in an attempt to get really sick of it. No such luck, I am missing zoo trips already!

My birthday was lovely. Thanks for all the cards and well wishes. I'm truly blessed to have so many family and friends who care about me and recognize me on my special day. I really didn't think turning 28 would be any big deal, but I was surprisingly glum... a preview of those depressing "older" birthdays? Well, Erik took me and the kids out for a nice lunch at one of my favorite places and I did some shopping and it turned out to be a pretty good day.

I was able to freshen up my makeup supply with some of my birthday cash (thanks again, cash givers!) and Soren has joined me in my obsession. He "helps" me with my makeup and generally makes a big mess every time I let him near the stuff. I caught him several times with makeup, and the "boys don't wear makeup" message doesn't seem to be sinking in:

Svea has also been seen with some funny looks lately, courtesy of not-so-multi-tasking mom:

Yes, those are Soren's pants.

Valentines day was nice - we ate cinnamon rolls for breakfast and the kids got lots of Valentine's Day love. I finally got around to making my birthday cake, so we had "Valentine's cake" for dessert. Soren is a big fan of "Valentine's cake" and wants one for his birthday too. You can't go wrong with chocolate cake (fresh and easy cake mix mmmmm), whipped cream and strawberries!

Potty training. Ugggh. Can I just not talk about this right now? We were doing great for about a week. I made up a sticker chart with goals I thought were realistic and put together a prize box for incentive. Soren was very excited about earning the prizes, especially his first successful number two prize:

My plans soon backfired and Soren turned into an emotional wreck. I never would have imagined someone could cry for an hour and a half over not being able to earn a prize! We couldn't handle the turmoil, so we are on break from potty training for a month. Soren has brought it up a couple of times and been rewarded, but I am not pushing at all and the prizes and chart are out of sight. Hopefully I'll have a better report next time we try.

Svea. She has grown up so much since the last time I posted. Hair is finally coming in on her round little head, about a quarter inch of light brown/dark blond straight hair. Her eyes seem to get more baby blue everyday and I am so jealous of her lashes! She has 6 teeth, the 4 front top teeth and 2 middle bottom teeth and her new smile is adorable. The feeling of teeth must be a fun experience, she is usually grinding the tops and bottoms together - not a pleasant sound but it makes for a very cute expression. She is getting very strong - her constant push ups and rocking back and forth have allowed her to start moving around on her own. Last night was the first time she got consistently forward locomotion. I've already gotten myself into trouble today as she is surprisingly mobile and got into a few things I wasn't expecting. She is eating two meals of solid food a day and she loves every kind of food she has tried: peas, beans, squash, sweet potatoes, pears, applesauce, rice cereal, oatmeal, cheerios, you name it! Eating and drinking water come easily to this little one and I love that she loves food. She is a very intense little person and is always observing what is going on around her. She still gets excited and rocks and waves both arms in synchronized motions up and down, especially when mealtime is close or when Daddy is home. She has even master moving her exersaucer around on the tile. By rocking her body just right she can get that thing to travel. I'm just started to see glimmers of personality. She is very pleasant and pretty easy to take care of. I'm not saying she is not demanding, but she is very predictable and I don't have any problem meeting her demands. She sleeps well, taking two or three naps a day and then sleeping 6 hours at a time at night most nights. I could just eat her up - I love this age!