Preschool Roller Derby

Double-click on this title too for a little video action of the rollerskating.

Just kidding about the roller derby, but I did take Einar rollerskating/rollerblading last Sunday afternoon for the first time. We met up with my friend Marianne and her daughter Reeder and went to SC-SK8, an outdoor! skating rink in San Clemente. It is a big roller hockey rink that is under an open-sided roof. At first we put the kids in traditional roller skates thinking that would be the best place to start. I had explained to Einar on the way to the rink that there are two different kinds of skates: car ones with 4 wheels and motorcycle ones with the wheels all in a row. However, that wasn't the best place to start. The kids could hardly stand up and Einar just kept going backwards. It was certainly not going well so we switched to the motorcycle skates and at least the kids could stand up.

Einar and Reeder posing in the motorcycle skate room after our time on the rink. Notice that everyone is still smiling.

Chilling with the car skates.

Check out these skates! Look mom, I've got wheels! We are resting on the other side of the rink for a few minutes. There were only two other small groups skating that afternoon, so we had the rink to ourselves and didn't have to worry about staying upright the whole time.

Another break with Reeder. Reeder was borrowing a helmet and it got too floppy for her to see. She's also a lot closer to the ground.

Look at him go! The guy who owns the place led him around the rink for a personal lesson to help him get his feeling for skating. It also gave me a chance to go around a few times by myself. Having not been on skates in a long while, I was a bit shaky myself and found it challenging to hold Einar up and make our way around the rink.

This shot was taken just before we headed out for our first attempt. They sure look ready, don't they?

Soren Now Walking with Footstool Aid!

Double-click on the title of this entry and you'll be connected to video of Soren walking across the living room with the help of our IKEA foot stool. He just figured this out this afternoon!

Here is another picture of a huge helicopter that flew over our neighborhood the other day. As you can tell, the weather has been pretty nice down here. We've had a bit of a heat wave with a couple of days into the low 80's. Shorts and t-shirts have been a nice change from the several weeks when we didn't even hit 65. On the news this morning, however, they are starting to worry about the unseasonal heat and lack of January rain and contemplating more water rationing this summer if it doesn't start storming up some rain here soon.
On Sunday we drove down to San Diego after church to have lunch and visit with my cousin Connie and Auntie Arlene. Connie lives down there and Arlene is up visiting for the holidays from her home in Mazatlan. We thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon and bar-b-que. Eating hamburgers, watching the Charger game (they lost), playing with squirt guns, and making fabulous ice cream sundaes wore out the boys and we took one more picture of Einar zonked out in his car seat.

Ok, so this is the decorator of the sundaes with his handicraft displayed in front of him. Connie had 5 different types of sugar sprinkles, chocolate, caramel, and whipped cream to top both strawberry and vanilla ice cream. Einar decorated every bowl and mine had so many red sprinkles that it was crunchy throughout!

The boys really took to Connie and Arlene. Connie can now say that she was the first one to teach Einar how to fill up a squirt gun. He even got to take two of them home with him. I think he's coming down from his sugar high in this photo. Soren is still on the move in the background.


And here is the little guy who is starting to walk with the help of his stool. Not only is he getting into all of the garbage cans, he's far more mobile than before. Long gone are the days of the little peanut asleep and hiding in the sling while the rest of the world keeps on spinning around him! He'll be 10 months in just two weeks and he's changing every day.

Bowling, Christmas, Lefse and More

Such form! I've never bowled with a baby in a front pack or in my arms before, but even so I scored 96 points! The shoes were a bit too big as well, but I had a great time. I'm not sure that Soren is ready to go bowling again anytime soon.

Have you ever wanted to go somewhere and cause lots of frustration for the folks who work there? My recommendation would be to take 10 toddlers and preschoolers to a bowling alley. Last Wednesday we met some other moms with their kids up at the Saddleback Bowling alley and had a great time introducing the kids to bowling. They had tons of shoes in their sizes, so people must do this on a regular basis. They have guards that pop up on the lanes so the balls don't automatically go into the gutter. The only thing they haven't figured out is how to tilt the lanes towards the pins when the kids are playing so that the bowling balls gain some momentum after the kids have rolled them instead of getting stuck in the middle of the lane. The stuck bowling balls are what was causing the most frustration for the employees since one of them had to walk down the lane to get it. At first we tried to help, but that only made a loud voice come over the intercom "Stay off of the lanes! Someone will come and help retrieve stuck balls." Needless to say, that "someone" ended up hanging out at our end off the alley.

Have you ever seen this many balls rolling down one lane? The kids had these two lanes and then the moms also shared a lane and played a game.

Here is Einar perfecting his roll. Notice how his ball doesn't seem to be actually touching the lane. I think his resulting technique involved a little bounce at the beginning. In the background you can see a metal ramp that they let people with disabilities and in wheelchairs use to get some velocity on their balls. The people line up the ramp how they want it and then let it roll.

Einar and his ball that he shared with the other kids too. He really liked his bowling shoes, but they fit better after I adjusted them so his foot wasn't crammed onto the top of the shoe's tongue.
Waiting at the ball return.

Soren's first beets. I think he liked them!

This is that picture that I was promising in the last blog entry. After I had told him one more time that quiet time wasn't over yet, Einar gave up and crashed in front of his bedroom door. He slept almost 2 hours there!

Now here come the Lefse Making pictures. Last Saturday we invited the Fenells over to make participate in the annual lefse making. Usually I like to make it before Christmas, but since I got sick the week before, that just didn't work out this year (for those of you who think that you got bumped off of our Christmas card list, have no fear all of our cards are still sitting on my desk just waiting for addresses. How about some Valentine's day cards?). Anyway, Rosellen, Nathan, and their boys Maddox and Zachary came over and we had an afternoon of intense lefse production. This is Nathan explaining the rolling process to Einar and Zachary.

Soren really liked eating the final product. Lefse on it's own without the butter and cinnamon sugar was his favorite. He had some with his breakfast for most of the week. Gee, I'm sensing a pattern here, however. So far I haven't been posting too many pictures of Soren disliking any foods. Tonight Jared took the boys down for a bath while I made some more baby food for the freezer (squash, sweet potato, rice and beans) and when he came up he said that in the tub he could really tell how much Soren has changed. This morning at church we sat down and my friend Christy hadn't seen us in a few weeks and she couldn't get over the changes either.

This is Maddox perfecting his rolling technique with Rosellen standing by for guidance. We are investing time into our lefse school so that in a few years the boys can all make the lefse and we can sit back and eat it. It's definitely time well spent and the kids sure had fun.

Here they are watching me do some rolling. I think this is the third year that we've made lefse with the Fenells. Our first attempts were definitely a bit challenging, but I think our results have been getting better each time that we try. Definitely not an everyday "greenlight food" but yummy once in awhile.

I'm not sure who likes this knee-bouncing activity more, Jared or Einar. Soren enjoys it once he's into the music. Notice the pink and red Hello Kitty socks that Einar got from Santa.

Dennis and Lynn came down on Christmas Day and spent a week with us. Whenever we drove anywhere, Soren and Poppa got to sit next to each other and Einar sat in the way back of the car which he really likes to do once in awhile. While they were here we had a picnic at Sunset Park, went on a couple of drives to see Christmas lights, caught up on some sleep, ate yummy rib roast and turkey breast dinners and sent the guys down to see the USS Midway on a "cold" and windy day. The cold is in quotations because I know that for those of you in Seattle this winter just laugh at our idea of cold around here.

Here is Einar in the Way Back of the car all decked out in his sunglasses. He also went to Garden Grove with Poppa and Farmor to see the Glory of Christmas at the Crystal Cathedral. Lots of Camels, Kings, horses, sheep, llamas, and flying angels.

Watching TV with Farmor.


Here is Einar flying the plane on the Midway.

He keeps talking about the ship and incorporates it into his play discussions with his cars. Mater the Tow Truck and Lightening McQueen are often on the Midway while he plays.

Playing with Farmor after Christmas with all of the new toys.

Happy New Year!

The monsters from the new monster bowling game hopped into the Barbie car and went for a spin. I think they prefer that over being knocked over in by a monster "bowling" ball.

This is a very tired boy who fell asleep in my chair after going for a Polar Bear swim with me in the afternoon on New Year's day. After we came home, he and Jared were watching a Faith Hill Christmas song special and warming up again and he zonked out. He is now zonked out again as I write this on the floor outside his bedroom door. Quiet time got to him I guess! I'll post a picture in the next update.

After the swim. Soren opted to just go as a warm frog. The pool is heated year-round, it's just the outside that isn't.

Watching crazy brother and Mom swim in the pool on New Year's Day.

A jump into the deep-end to start it off right! The actual plunge was much better than I was anticipating. It was nice and warm as long as you kept your body under water.

Einar dressed in layers to walk down to the pool. I think it's the first time he's worn his ski gloves this winter. There wasn't anyone else from our neighborhood at the pool. All the folks that were playing golf on the little course thought we were a bit crazy I think. Not as crazy as jumping in the Pacific though, Einar vetoed that Polar Bear option.