Chatterbox

Stian is a little chatterbox. He talks and sings all the time. I tried to get some of it recorded this evening, but of course he stopped talking quite as much when I pulled out the camera, but this gives a hint at it anyway. Imagine this only moreso - and less prompted. (don't mind the avocado all over his face)

Sunday Evening

Just some pictures from this evening.

Tractor

Just as we were going up the stairs this morning for Stian's nap we saw the tractor coming down the road to harvest the horse mix in the field across the street from our house. So we quick ran outside to watch. Unfortunately Stian was pretty pooped by that time and I think the tractor and the noise were a little overwelming as he seemed a little scared of it. But we watched for a few minutes before he said he wanted to go take a nap.

Accent

Stian woke up yesterday morning with an accent, and it's still here today. It's pretty goofy. He is suddently pronoucing things differently. I can't place it, but it sounds like a cross between a Canadian accent and a North East U.S. accent. I don't know those accents well - but perhaps Maine? Anyway, it's quite cute, so we got an example on video.



We have no idea where he has picked this up. As far as I know he doesn't talk with anyone with an accent like this.

Bike!

Stian is outgrowing his little bike. He has used it so much and loved it so much (thanks Grandma and Grandpa Loftus!). But he has started asking for a "full-sized bike" or a "bike with pedals." So we've started looking around. We want to get him a "tractor bike" like Klebo's, but he's too little for it now, and will still likely be too little for it next year. So what to do in the mean time? We've been looking around for a good, small bike that wasn't too expensive. We found some good candidates. In the mean time, Kris was talking with his co-worker about trikes, and as it happens he has a good, small trike that his daughter has outgrown! So lucky us - we can borrow it for awhile!

Kris brought it home from work today. We left it in the back of the car until after dinner as we knew it would be near impossible to pry him off of it to go eat. So after dinner Kris snuck outside and set it out on the driveway and took pictures of Stian coming out the door and seeing it. He was very excited. He hasn't figured out the pedals yet, but that's pretty advanced, I imagine that will take awhile. But so far so good. He played with it for over an hour this evening, and it was darn near impossible to pry him off of it when it was time to go to bed!

Oh - and after we were done taking pictures Kris had to move the bell from his old bike to this one because he was asking for it. Fortunately it was easy enough to do.

Pasta!

Now there's a kid who likes his penne.

Singing

I’m sitting here listening to Stian over the monitor. He’s supposed to be napping, but instead he is singing:

“Wheels on the bus, round and round
Wheels on the bus, round and round
Driver on the bus, move on back
People on the bus, bumpy bump
All through the town.”

It’s not quite right, but it’s darn close! He’s been doing this a lot recently. We went for a bike ride before his nap and he was in the trailer behind me singing:

“Bah, bah, black sheep have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full
One for my master
One for my dame
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.”

He’s not quite on key, but then again, perhaps he takes after his mother on that front.

He also appears to have learned Happy Birthday at school recently as he’s been running around singing “Happy Birthday to Mommy! Happy Birthday to Mommy!” which is rather timely as Friday is my birthday!

Now, if he would just stop singing so he could take a nap that would be good!

Movie Night - Part II

You might think we're mean for putting this up, but you're the one laughing. (he was fine, he didn't even cry)



What's the last word in each of these?

Movie Night - Part I

Just a couple of silly videos from the last couple days.

A stormy Wednesday evening

We had some nasty storms roll through here this evening, and we spent probably 20 minutes hiding out in the basement reading stories. It didn't amount to too much for us and was over pretty quickly.

But before the storms came through we had some fun playing outside and took some pictures.

More Water!

One of Stian's favorite activities is "helping" Daddy water the plants. This is an activity best left for after dinner and before bed as he invariably ends up soaked from head to toe. Today was a hot, humid evening, a perfect night for getting soaked.















Is it bad that this one makes me laugh? He doesn't like it when Daddy takes the hose to a new location and he has to give it up for minute. He stands there crying and yelling "More Water! More Water!"

Tip toes

Stian has learned to walk on his tip toes. It's pretty cute to see him tip toeing around, although it's kind of hard to see in the video. As you'll also see in the video he can stand on one foot and he thinks he can jump. You'll see him attempt it, and then he wants Mommy's help. By the way, right at the end of the video he asks me for "upside down" and I tell him no. He loves it when Kris holds him upside down, but so far I've been able to convince him that that is just a Daddy and Stian thing.

PittyPittyPotty

Yes, for once you’ll appreciate not having an accompanying photo for a blog entry….

This evening, on the changing table, Stian said something along the lines of “poot” and then “potty chair.” It was already late and it had been a rather arduous evening, but, OK, just because he said something, I got him down off the changing table—nakey nakey—and sat him on the potty chair. “Daddy sit on potty chair!” Fine, daddy sits, too. (The potty chair is in by the grown-up sized potty chair.) We were just sittin’ there, havin’ a conversation when, yep, you figured it out long ago, there was a previously unheard noise in the potty chair.

There was much rejoicing, and inspecting and hoopla. We dumped the contents of Stian’s potty chair into the grown-up sized potty chair, did some more inspecting, then pushed the button and “aw gone, potty!”

This probably won’t happen again for a while, but we note here this inaugural for the potty chair for posteriority. (Hah! Get it? “posteriority”?!)

More fun with bikes

This picture doesn't really do it justice, but I thought it was quite cute when I looked out the window this evening while I was making dinner and saw the boys biking back and forth in front of the house. Stian is getting much faster on his bike and was following Kris around. He's also starting to take turns more quickly, which makes me a little nervous. I suspect there are skinned knees in our future.

Silly Boy

One of Stian's favorite things to do these days is make funny faces. Ask him to make a funny face and you'll get one of these:









He also likes to shut his eyes tight and yell "Mommy! Where are you?!" when I'm sitting right in front of him. He thinks that's quite funny.



Standing on one foot and trying to jump are also hysterical, but we haven't gotten those on film yet.