Post 200

School last week. The kids have to walk back from recess with their hands on their hips. Elsa's the second kid in the orange shirt. She saw Lila and started smiling. They're very affectionate toward each other at school.


While Elsa was in class, Lila and I went to Target. She's been adamant about wearing her winter hat in this warm weather, so I talked her into getting a summer hat. She was easily sold and insisted on this plaid cabbie. She wears it everywhere, even to bed.


Same goes with her sunglasses.


A couple days ago Tim scored a girls bike at a garage sale for $5. Elsa reluctantly took a ride.


She's not that into it, but Lila loves the thing and wishes she could ride it. She helped while Tim put the training wheels on.


"I fixth Essa's bike!"


Meanwhile, Elsa blew bubbles...


and went on the swings.


Here is Elsa asking me if it's okay...


to take her pants off. She's a free spirit, man.


Mr. T here has to wear sunglasses, hat, a jacket, and gold mardi gras beads most of the time. Plus she always has to carry around some kind of sidekick. This time it was bubbles.


All is well. Lately the kids are really into The Princess and The Frog. Lila likes to smack my behind and say,"A big back porch!"
The other day we were talking about all the houses for sale in the neighborhood, people buying houses, etc. Elsa looked confused and said,"But how do you fit the house, in your cart?"

Elsa likes to sit in a pile of books and "read" them for ages. It's so great - if only Lila could sit that still. Have I mentioned the Nap Monster? He makes sure Elsa takes her nap every day, and it totally works. He has a purple tail, and when it gets close to nap time we see it whooshing through the woods. Sometimes we see a "flash of purple" zip by the window. She'll grab my arm and squeal,"He's here!" She loves to be scared. The other day when she wouldn't eat her lunch, she looked at me excitedly and said,"Hey, is there a lunch monster?!"

Lila is super cuddly and clingy. When she gets bored she likes to hang on me and get carried around. "MOMMY, UP!" When I'm really busy it's annoying, but I try to slow down and enjoy the moment. The other day I said,"Here you go, baby." She said,"I not a baby, I a big girl!" She is. Tonight at dinner time, we were asking Elsa all about her day. Suddenly Lila jumps in and says,"Daddy, I go store with Mommy today! I ride in cart!" Hey, she does stuff too! I can't believe she's this old already. She's super into music and is always moving to whatever's on the radio. The other day an Atmosphere song came on and she said,"These good tunes, mommy!" When she talks about herself she likes to use her full name: Wyza Zoon Wick.

catch up

I've taken 100 photos since the last post. Where to start? Let's work backwards. Here are the girls at Easter. We went casual this year, so they didn't have Easter dresses. Tim and I went out the night before and they stayed at my parents house. They had an egg hunt in the morning, and were sufficiently sugared-up by the time we got there.

Elsa dying eggs.


Afternoon Easter egg hunt at our house. Notice Elsa has the same shirt on as the day before when we were dying eggs. She always insists on wearing this particular t-shirt for at least 3 days and nights straight.


Lila couldn't grasp the concept of putting the eggs in the basket for later!


It's been pretty nice around here, weather-wise. The kids had fun playing in some mud last week.



These were taken on the last day of March. Grilling with dad.


Eating chives! In March!


Lila woke up super crabby from her nap. I took her out to the living room and turned on a DVD to get her to chill out, gave her a snack, then went to put clothes in the dryer. When I came upstairs, she'd passed out again.


As we were leaving my parents house one day, Elsa refused to put her pants on. It was cold outside, but we decided to pick our battles and let her go without them. I figure we won. Photos like this are priceless! She does have a thing with no pants, though. At home she runs around without pants and socks all the time.


Lila, decked out in accessories as usual, pretending to change Hippo's diaper.


Pajamas, knit hat, Easter hat.


Elsa can't stand ponytails or anyone touching her hair, but we talked her into it. Lila had to have one, too.


Night night.

Nice weather means LOTS of photos...

After I got back from FL we had a straight week of cold, rainy weather. Blah. Our spirits brightened when we got out of the house and went to Ashley's birthday party. The kids had fun running around and playing with friends. Here are the girls, clockwise from left: Maddy, Elsa, Violet, Lila and Ashley.


The next day was supposed to be cloudy with a chance of rain, but ended up being the first beautiful day since probably October. We headed to St. Paul and walked around Como Zoo.



Then we zipped over to Minneapolis for lunch at the Longfellow Grill. The kids ran around outside while we waited for a table. Lila did her Turkey Walk and made people laugh. It was going on 20 mins and kids were growing impatient, and hungry.

Our little Lake Street gang. Pink jackets and Converse only, yo.


Suddenly, a miracle occurred. After we were seated, the waiter brought by a bucket of toys for the kids. Toys that still had hot water drops on them from being freshly washed. Brilliant.


Nice Daddy let them order chocolate milk.


Later in the afternoon we walked around in the woods. Both kids did pretty well getting around in the brush.


Until...

Help, we're stuck behind a pile of sticks!


RARR! Lila and her wild face. This is actually how her face looks most of the time.


Monday was another nice day. After Tim got home from work, we headed to the park. Lila, as usual, wearing whatever goofy accessories she could get her hands on.


I'm special.


Elsa can't stand wearing footwear for very long. She hates wearing socks. Look how happy she is that we had some barefoot weather!


Hippo models one of the seashell necklaces I made for the kids. They're lovely until the girls realize they're actually wearing them, and then they want to trade, or fight over the purple one, or whip each other with them. But I'm still giving myself an A for effort.


Finally, the lovely view from our living room this morning. The girls, sitting quietly, reading and getting along. Just as good as any Florida sunset.

Back to reality

That was then...


This is now...

Got home early Tuesday morning. Just after breakfast that same morning, Elsa laughed maniacally and said,"I'm all done! Wash my hands, take my plate, wipe my butt!" That pretty much sums it up. Vacation officially over.

Before I left, I took a photo of the kids at school.


I also started putting their summer clothes into drawers, and they love wearing them. Hopefully it'll be good practice for the HOT summer we're wishing for.


Wasn't sure the t-shirt souvenirs would be very popular, but I was wrong. Before I could even wash her shirt, Elsa put it on and has been living in it ever since. She won't take it off, even for bedtime.


They also got some flavored lip balm. Watermelon was the first to get chomped into.


Then I gave them both a pedicure, just like the one I have.


While they were with Daddy they did a ton of fun things, including making costumes out of paper bags.


They also learned some new phrases. At dinner last night Elsa said,"Mom, you're really going to town on that!"

I ran across another good quote from earlier in the winter; not sure if I've shared it yet but will again just in case.

Me: Lila, you can't leave the table until you use your manners and say, 'all done'.
Elsa: She's going to be there all night!

Florida or Bust

5 hours until my friends arrive so we can leave for the airport! I'll leave you with some cute videos of the kids:

Lila and her "turkey walk", as Elsa calls it. What a ham.



Heard some commotion coming from the bedroom the other day and found this.



Lila has a tough time pressing the button on her flashlight, so she figured out a way to turn it on with her teeth!



Fare thee well!

Saturday Night Special

Here are some pics of the kids in the bath. As you can see, Lila is still doing her move: the ear pull, two-finger-in-mouth combo.



Today we went to Tim's work to see what he's been up to. 6 foot tall Snoopy figures! Too bad you can't see the photos because of confidentiality. The kids thought he was cool. Lila thought he was Barney the dinosaur.

Drawing with dry erase markers in the conference room. One minute later, Lila drew a big black stripe down Elsa's jacket.


Elsa's latest thing to say when she's happy with me is,"You are a kind and thoughtful Momma!" I think she got it from a book. Either way, a good thing to retain and use when describing me. A+. Elsa has an active imagination, and usually likes to play something dramatic, such as,"RUN from the thunder and lightning!" or "SAVE Hippo from the deep, dark waters below!" She also likes hide and seek and tag. She runs around the house a lot. While Olympic figure skating was on, she liked to skate around the house with paper on her feet. The teachers at school say she's doing great; she's quiet in the classroom, but really lets loose in the gym.


Lila grabs oranges off the counter, throws them to the ground and yells,"Bowling ball!" If it's time to head to another room, she'll start out running and yell,"Yee haw!" In the middle of the night, she woke me to get some water. I was whispering to her that this was the last time I'd fill her cup - no more water after this. She interrupted me by sticking her face 1/2 inch from mine and exclaimed,"Peek!" I don't know how many books she's shredded. Rips them apart, shoves the torn pages in my face and as I start scolding her, she dances and runs away with a huge grin. The other day I told her to "be careful of the puddle". The next second she was down on her stomach, moving her arms and saying,"I swimmin'!" She's something else.