Happy holidays!

Happy holidays to all our family and friends!

Meet Betta-pet!

Today Mira and I went to Petco to pick out a new Betta fish. So, meet Betta-pet! We hope he lasts longer than the 6 months Betta did. Mira seems to like him and decided to pick a red one this time.

Good-bye, Betta

Tonight I was cleaning Betta's tank and noticed he wasn't moving. Betta died today and I debated whether or not to tell Mira, but decided to let her be a part of the flushing ceremony. She handled it well, then after a few minutes had this to say:

"I wish Betta was home and not died. I want a new fishy. I want Betta-pet. I want a blue fish. "

She wants to name the new fish Betta-pet. We will go to Petco tomorrow and pick one out. Betta lasted 6 months, which is pretty good, I think.

And here is one last thought from Mira: "After Betta-pet, I want to get a new fish when Betta-pet dies." How quickly we get over it.

Home at last

I was right: There is nothing better than walking into your home after a tiring trip. Making it even more worthwhile: Mira threw up twice on the plane (we caught it in the barf bag the second time . . . yay!) and has been throwing up all evening. She's finally asleep, but I think she caught what Amelia had yesterday. Say a prayer that Chris and I don't get whatever it is. So that puts a big question mark on if we drive to my parents' house tomorrow for Thanksgiving. If you are reading this, Mom and Dad, and we don't make it down, Happy Thanksgiving! We love you! Plus, the roads are icy tonight. 2 1/2 hours in a car with a sick kid and stressful icy roads? Not so sure.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Michelle

Disney World, Days 5 and 6

Yesterday was a nice relaxing day. We went with Chris's aunt, who works at Epcot, to a employee souvenir shop and got a few souvenirs at a discount. Then we drove 1 1/2 hours to Palm Coast where Chris's aunt and uncle, cousin, and her two girls live. We visited with them for a couple of hours, had dinner at this great seafood restaurant, then drove back to the hotel.

Today we tackled Islands of Adventure, part of Universal Studios. It was awesome! Chris and I had been there before a few years ago. I quick rode the Spiderman ride, which is my favorite, then Chris and I took the girls to Suess Landing, a whimsical, colorful land based on the Dr. Suess stories. It's a great place for kids and Mira really loved it! She got to meet the Grinch and the Cat in the Hat. Then Chris went off on his own to ride the rides I've deemed too scary for myself.

Amelia, on the other hand, got a stomach bug and basically threw up and slept the entire time we were there. She's not feverish or acting sick, so we're not too concerned. She's just starting to keep an ounce of milk down every 15 minutes now, so I think (hope!) the bug has passed through her. We're going to take the rest of the day easy and go down to the pool after the girls nap. It's our last night here, then we return home tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to that moment when we walk in the door of our house. There is something wonderful about a vacation when you finally return home. I just wish I'd had time to clean my house before we left. My mom would always make us do that before we went on vacation when I was a teenager and I never understood it . . . until now. Now I realize how wonderful it is to come home to a clean house. So, if anyone wants to sneak into my house to clean it before 5:00 tomorrow afternoon, feel free!

See you all soon!

Mira on Caro-Suess-el:



Mira with The Cat in the Hat:



Mira and me on Caro-Suess-el:



Mira playing on the playground called "If I Ran the Zoo":

Disney World, Day 4

Wow! We've been here 4 days already. Such a wonderful vacation, although I think we are going to need a vacation after we get home. There's your nice relaxing vacation, then there is your tired, pack it all in vacation. This is the latter, although we are making sure to plan a couple of "off" days so we don't get too tired.

Today we tackled Animal Kingdom. It's a pretty nice park, but not as fun as Magic Kingdom. Mira only went on one actual ride, but she saw "It's a Bug's Life" show and "Finding Nemo, The Musical." The Nemo show was OUTSTANDING. Very Broadway caliber. It was a really great time. Chris rode a couple of the scary rides and we saw some of the sights.

Mira's big highlight was meeting Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet, Pluto, and Goofy! She got pictures with all of them and really loved giving them hugs. After 6 hours, we headed back to the room. Just pizza out for dinner and maybe a walk to the playground at the hotel. Tomorrow is a trip to Chris's aunt and uncle's house and souvenir shopping with his other aunt.

Chris, Mira, and Amelia near The Tree of Life in Animal Kingdom:



Before "It's a Bug's Life" starts:



Mira meeting Piglet and Tigger:





Mira playing the bongos in "Africa" at Animal Kingdom:

DisneyWorld, Day 3

We had a wonderful, relaxing day today. We got up slowly, ate breakfast in our room, and decided to go see "Bee Movie" at Downtown Disney. It was Amelia's first move, and Mira's second move. And believe me when I say tthat movie is FUNNY! I can't wait to buy it. It reminded me a bit of Monster's Inc. Really really good.

Then we had lunch and took Mira for a swim in the pool while Amelia napped in her stroller poolside. It was a nice safe pool adventure and Mira did great listening to us near the water. She still talks about that incident (see our Day 1 entry).

Then Chris and I hired a babysitting service and went to Magic Kingdom by ourselves. What a different experience! Not having to tote around a stroller and a diaper bag and two kids was very nice for one evening. We love showing the kids around, but Magic Kingdom is a completely different experience at night without kids. We rode on all the adult rides that the kids wouldn't have enjoyed. Cinderella's castle all lit up at night was spectacular! It was a wonderful date night for me and Chris.


Michelle

DisneyWorld, Day 2

Hello! Yesterday was a wonderful day in DisneyWorld. The kids got up around 7:30 after BOTH of them slept ALL NIGHT! So we were all well rested for our day in Magic Kingdom. And we had so much fun! We got to the park around 9:15 and went straight to the back like all the guidebooks say to. We rode the Mad Hatters Tea Party ride first, then went to Mickey's Toon Town area and saw the sights, then over to Fantasyland where we spent pretty much the rest of the day. We rode the Dumbo ride, Winnie the Pooh's Adventure (twice at Mira's request), Peter Pan's Flight, Snow White's Scary Adventure, the Carousel, Pirate of the Carribean, It's a Small World, The Magic Carpets of Aladdin, and Mickey's Philharmonic. Amelia was able to ride on nearly all of these, which was really nice. Mira did well, even though she didn't understand the concept of waiting in line at first, but got used to it by the end of the day.

So 10 hours later we finally left the park. It was a chilly day for Florida (about 65 degrees all day), but better than being really hot. Mira took a nice trip on the way out and skinned both her knees AGAIN (she did that near the pool the night before), so her knees are a pretty big mess today.

But both kids did a great job at Magic Kingdom yesterday. Today they both have colds, it seems. So we are planning to take it easy, walk around Downtown Disney, see "Bee Movie" and have lunch, then make sure they both have a nice nap. I think we'll head to the pool if it warms up enough, or maybe some mini-golf. I love an uplanned day!

Tonight, Chris and I are going to try to get a sitter for the kids while we go out to dinner and maybe to Magic Kingdom again to go on the adult rides. Chris was only able to go on Splash Mountain yesterday.

Hope you are all will. Will post again when I can. In the meantime, here are a few photos:

Greetings from DisneyWorld

Hello from Orlando! We arrived today around 11:30 am, made the prereqisite stop at Target, had lunch, and finally made it to the hotel. We unpacked, took a walk to one of the hotel pools. Scary, scary moment: Mira was in the kiddie pool, then decided she wanted to go in the big pool. We told her to wait a minute while we got Amelia in the stroller and gathered our stuff. Not even 15 seconds later, I looked around and didn't see Mira. I ran to the big pool in time to see Mira struggling in the water in the deep end (5 feet). A woman jumped in fully clothed and grabbed her right before the lifeguard ran over. I have to say it was the scariest moment of my life. We had a long talk with Mira about the dangers of water and why she needs to listen. The worst part is, I thought I knew Mira and that she would never jump in the pool without me there. I guess I was wrong. Needless to say, please watch your kids near the water for they can get into trouble in seconds, and Mira will be getting swimming lessons this winter.

Tomorrow we head to Magic Kingdom to see all the great characters Mira knows. Mira is looking forward to getting her "Mouse Ears." I think it will be a great day if we take it at the kids' pace and don't get too overwhelmed. WIll try to post photos in a day or two, not sure we'll have Internet access every day.

Michelle

Best friends

Much like my sister and I are, I see Mira and Amelia on their way to becoming close friends. I'm so grateful they both will grow to know the close bonds of sisterhood. I feel so fortunate to have a sister/best friend all wrapped up in one wonderful person. I pray my girls have that same bond as they grow. They are well on their way.

100 pieces? No problem!

Mira loves to do puzzles. After buying her all the 24 piece puzzles I could find, I was on the hunt for some in the 50 piece range. No luck. Apparently, they don't make 50 piece puzzles, or else Target just doesn't sell them. So I opted for a 100 piece puzzle, hoping Mira would find it challenging but not frustrating.

And boy did she like that one! It's a good Care Bears puzzle that allowed her to divide it up into 3 sections: blue bear, pink bear, and purple bear. She put each bear together one at a time and after about 45 minutes had the entire puzzle completed (with a little of mom and dad's help). Very impressive! She was so proud of herself.

I used to do puzzles all the time in the winter. A nice steaming mug of cocoa, a bowl of perfectly buttered popcorn, and a puzzle were great for cold winter nights. I'm looking forward to carrying on the tradition with Mira this year and every year after this. How long before we are to the 550 piece puzzles?

Getting a good start:



Almost done!


Success!

Amelia is 6 months!

Amelia was officially six months old yesterday. I can't believe how quickly the time flew with her. She's really growing into a little girl now. She smiles all the time and is a happy, babbly, chubby baby. She's starting to sit up on her own and can hold a pose for a few seconds. It's going to be nice to be able to put her on the floor in a sitting position soon. Her best friends are her toes and they are in her mouth a lot.

We've eliminated the carrier car seat and I'm really loving not having to carry that thing around in the store now. So much lighter! Amelia has her 6 month doctor appointment in 3 weeks, so I'll update on her stats then. Here's a photo of Amelia at 6 months, having tummy time and another one of her in her winter bunting!

Grandpa's visitation arrangements

Grandpa's visitation will be this Wednesday from 4-8 pm at the Lundberg Funeral Home in Cannon Falls (5839 Hwy 19 Blvd.,507-263-4246).

His funeral will be Thursday at 10:30 am at St. Anscar's Church in Cannon Falls.

Rest in Heaven, Grandpa

A much loved father, grandfather and great grandfather; Orlando Curtis Norstad passed away on November 4 at 12:57AM.

Grandpa was 91 years old. His was a life filled with much hard work, but he had so much love and happiness about him. He is survived by 9 children, 22 grandchildren, and many more great children. We'll miss you, Grandpa!

Happy Halloween!

We had a wonderful Halloween with the girls tonight. Chris's family came over for dinner and trick-or-treating. Mira was a scarecrow this year, and Amelia wore a little Halloween onsie. Chris's mom and her husband watched Amelia while we trick-or-treated up and down the neighborhood. Mira's cousins, Cole and Cara, came with, along with their parents (Matt is Chris's brother). Everyone was out tonight! It was fun to run into so many of our friends and neighbors. And the kids made a HAUL! In fact, we went to so many houses that Mira actually said, "I don't want any more candy" and promptly quit walking up to houses, preferring instead to stay on the sidewalk with the parents. We live in a wonderful neighborhood where the families are friendly and we all know each other. Makes for a comfortable Halloween night.

Hope you all had a wonderful day! Now we just need to decide what to do with all this candy. Sorry in advance to our coworkers!

Michelle

A piece of nostalgia

Yesterday at Chris's dad's house, he had raked up a huge pile of leaves for all the kids to jump in. It totally reminded me of when I was a kid and we did that. Of course, now that I'm an adult, it's hard to take the time to rake up all those leaves (we all know how much hard work that is!) and then let the kids mess it up only to have to do it again. I was thankful for the opportunity for Mira to jump in the leaves to her heart's content.

But if you could see the teeny piddly tree in our front yard, you'd know that a stiff breeze blows all the leaves from it into the neighbor's yard. We don't even have to rake!

Below are two videos from the day.

Halloween surrounds us.

Last night, Chris and I took the girls to PF Changs for dinner, then to Borders bookstore for what their flyers promised to be a Spooktacular Halloween Party! Well, 10 minutes after the party was supposed to start and we were the only people there, we finally left. What a disappointment! We bought Mira a Halloween book to make up for it, but I really don't think she noticed that the party never happened. So we won't take much notice of their party for next year. Mira looked adorable in her costume, though!

Then today we went to Grandpa Randy's house for a Halloween party with Mira and Ameila's cousins. The kids played "Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin" and jumped in a huge pile of leaves they raked up. It was a really nice day for it. Below are a few photos from both days.

Monday is Mira and Amelia's daycare party, then we still have Halloween night for trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. We have a fun week ahead.

Oh, and my sister and her family is back permanently from Australia on Monday night! The kids and I are driving down on Tuesday afternoon to spend some time with them. It's been 10 months so we can't wait to see them! Welcome home, Kelly, Duey, Chesney, and Logan!

Scary bedtime story

Mira (at bedtime): Mommy, do you know the monster story?
Me: No. What is it?
Mira: Once upon a time, there was a monster. And he went up to a shark and poovered him!
Me: What's "poovered"?
Mira: Jumped. He jumped on the shark and bit his head off! Then he stomped him into pieces. He stomped him into pieces. Then he put a lego on his tummy belly button.
Me: Ooh, that's a scary story.
Mira: Yes.

Ahh, the imagination of a child telling bedtime stories. I particularly like the appearance of a lego at the end.

Michelle

Happy almost Halloween

It's quickly dawning on us that Halloween is just around the corner. You know what that means? It means that Thanksgiving is just 3 weeks after that, and Christmas is just 4 1/2 weeks after that. It's going to be a busy next few weeks, to be sure! Plus we are throwing in a 6-day vacation to DisneyWorld right before Thanksgiving. Tip: Never tell a three-year-old SIX MONTHS before a trip to DisneyWorld. Lots of "Are we going to DisneyWorld today?" has occurred over the summer. Mira is thankful to hear it's getting close. "Soon after Halloween," we tell her.

So we've been spending some time getting ready for Halloween. I'm not a big decorator for that holiday. Too many witches and ghosts aren't really my thing. But I do like pumpkins on my porch steps. Mira and I went to pick up a pumpkin today, and Chris carved a great face into it. Now I'm drying out some seeds to toast. It's a great fall treat! We love to make our "harvest blend" in the fall, our little nod to Chris's late grandma, Beverly. Peanuts and candy corn in a bowl. You can't beat it! But I made it last weekend and we went through two jars of it in about 3 days, so no more of that in the house. It's addictive!

Here are some random photos. We're doing crafts in the house to pass the time and Mira really enjoys playing learning games on sesamestreet.org on the computer. She's really getting good at navigating the games by herself, and she uses the computer mouse with relative ease. Amelia is enjoying her exersaucer and Bumbo seat more, which keeps her head off the floor. We're working on keeping her upright when possible to get her head to round out a little.

It's a nice fall!

Michelle