shaving...already?

on tuesday afternoon calla was napping and greta and i were hanging out in the bathroom. she was putting all of her bath toys in the tub and playing teacher. we were chatting and then all of a sudden it got very quiet. (sidenote-i was sitting next to her, but when i say sitting i mean i was on the toilet so i was not able to see what she was doing). i quickly got up to see greta standing in the tub with two bloody lines on her chin. yes, she got the razor & yes, she tried to shave. she stopped as soon as the blade touched her sweet little face and she realized it did not feel that good. she said she wanted to shave like daddy. it is a very minor injury and today we took off the bandaids (b/c it's picture day) and there are two faint lines. we have talked a lot about how daddies shave b/c they have beards, but that girls/mommies don't need to shave b/c they don't have hair on their faces. i have thought recently we might need to watch out for scissors b/c greta & her friends might want to cut their hair, but never did i think she would try to shave...at least not until junior high when she thinks it's cool.

moral of the story- keep your razors very extremely high (or in a cupboard they don't have access to) so your kids can't reach them!

proud mama

yesterday was an exciting day in our house...probably not that exciting to anyone else, but exciting for us none-the-less. after months of "working" on letters with greta (identifying them in books, trying to write them, etc) and her having absolutely no interest (which i will admit was very frustrating to me) she wrote her name! she was coloring on the coffee table with her friend and i wrote out their names on each piece of paper. after a few minutes i asked greta what she was drawing, to which she responded, "i'm writing my name silly!" and there you have it...her name, complete with an E that has about 10 lines coming out of it, an upside down G and all. we've already dated the piece of paper and put it in the baby book...this is one for the records!

more greta speak...

after a 2 day hiatus greta speak is back! tonight greta said, "tor ta- do you know what that means? tor ta- it means 'i'm ready.' seriously...where is this coming from!?!?!

Greta Speak

a few nights ago greta started talking in a new sort of language. we will call it greta speak. it's basically a variety of sounds that resemble toddler babble. after a few hours of talking like this this she started saying, "mom, do you know what E means? E, e, e- do you know what that means?" to which i said, "no, what does that mean?" and greta replied with, "it means you can E-eat anything that you want." i think she said this b/c all she wants to eat lately is candy corn!

later that night when she was going to bed she started sounding out K and then said, "kai, kai- do you know what that means?" again, i said "no, i don't know what the means," to which she replied with, "it means- i think the train is coming." (sidenote-we have a train that runs basically in our backyard).

we have no idea where this came from, but i LOVE the vivid imagination and just wonder what else goes on in that head of hers!

our summer at a glance- Part 1

we started the summer the day after mike finished his first year of grad school. we hopped on a plane and were off to minnesota for a wedding in wisconsin (brian & "big" greta), a trip in the middle to chicago & a wedding on the other end (ben & emily). we then spent some time at home, hanging out with friends and making the most of what's around us. then back to pilgrim pines to spend more time with family...the rest will come later when we download our remaining photos! :) this is just a glimpse of all of it...it's hard to get a full summer into one blog update!

the growing applequist & johnson families

cousins reunited at last!

good friends sneaking in a little time together...

bathing beauties already?

couldn't be cuter!

are we allowed to set them up already? (calla & emmett mckernan)

calla on the ride back...we made it all the way to the car, then she woke up!

calla's first pigtails

from the back.

greta showing off her "ballet" moves

happy birthday carolyn (greta, carolyn & jakob carlson)

a baby shower for amy...congrat on new baby holly!

another move...if we move again before mike is out of school i think i might go crazy

we've had lots of lazy backyard days with friends

birthday parties

new hampshire with grandma j

lovin' the pilgrim pines lake

our true water baby...calla could not get enough

aunt beth turned greta into fancy nancy!

more time with greta's favorite cousin (no offense linnea!)

mike snuck a mountain climb into the summer too (i wish there were some pictures of him, he climbed the tallest of the sisters mountains).

that is the first half of our summer (we get a long one-mike doesn't start school until sept. 29th)...the rest we've yet to download from our camera. missing from the photos above are our 4th of july trip to maggie's cabin just outside mt. rainer. we had a fabulous time with maggie, her future husband brian & her mom. also missing is the trip i took with carolyn poterek and the girls to cascades camp to stay with becky morhweis (poterek). the girls loved playing together and it was a fabulous get-away.

calla the klepto

last week i was getting things organized when i noticed a new (but very used) doll in our house. i figured greta's friend had left it when she was over playing at our house. i asked greta about it. the conversation went as follows:

me- "greta, is this emma's doll?"
greta- "no."
me- "who's doll is it?"
greta- "it's the toy stores."
me- "you mean you took it from the toy store?"
greta- "no, CALLA took it from the toy store."
me- "you can't take things from the store, you buy things from the store."
greta- "silly calla."

so here i am imagining calla just walking out of the store with one of the display/play dolls in tow, assuming that now greta thinks it's okay to take things. turns out that my dad had taken the girls to the toy store and was so caught up in the fact that greta had taken money from us (she took money from our change bin-which she then would not use b/c she felt guilty and quickly returned it to it's rightful place when she got home) that he didn't notice that calla walked out of the store with a "new" doll (when i asked my dad about it he laughed and said, "i thought the doll was hers!"). in the end we returned the doll to the toy store and i asked that they give a little "lecture" to calla about why we do not steal (a lecture that was really meant for greta to hear). hopefully this is it for the girls. i think at least greta learned that it's wrong to take things. it's like the time i stole a piece of gum and my mom made me return it to the store. lesson learned!

just a tease...

pilgrim pines 2008: greta (3 1/2), calla (1 1/2), maja (3 3/4) & linnea (11 mos)
outfits compliments of aunt beth & ice cream compliments of grandma & papa j

...in case you think we dropped off the face of the planet, we didn't. we have just been really very extremely busy (any charlie & lola fans out there?). and maybe, just maybe, we've been a bit lazy about downloading our pictures (if only you knew how long it takes!). so we stole a picture from grandpa j and we are currently getting the pictures going so this week...i promise...they are coming!

ps...calla has a shoe fetish, which explains why she is the only one wearing shoes!