Sweet

We went out for Indian fast-food tonight for dinner (yum!), and on the way home Silje was crying because she was just so exhausted from her long day. I looked back to try and soothe her and Stian was holding her hand. Awwww!

Goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

Today is my birthday, and I decided I wanted to spend the day at the Indianapolis Zoo. It had been quite awhile since we had been there last, and I thought it would be a fun way to spend the day. The weather was absolutely perfect for a trip to the zoo.



Stian wanted to go see the sharks right away. He is both fascinated by and terrified of sharks lately. We had been talking about the shark exhibit and how you could pet the sharks, and he really wanted to see that. He did like looking at them, but was not at all interested in petting one. Neither was I. Kris wasn't either, but he was a good sport and stuck his hand in the water and pet one. Stian and I were talking before bed tonight about his favorite thing at the zoo today, and he said it was Daddy petting the shark.





They have a new tiger exhibity at the zoo. We kept hearing ads for it on the radio when we were sitting in the NICU all those many hours with Silje. It was pretty neat. When we first went up to it the tigers were just lying around in the grass, not terribly close to the glass. But suddenly one hopped up and came trotting over and came right up to the window. As the ads told us over and over, there is only a pane of glass between you and the tiger. Kris and Stian were right up at the glass. I was standing back aways, and it was interesting to see Stian's reaction. When the tiger came trotting rather quickly right over to him his eyes got huge and he jumped back. I guess those are instincts at work. Incidentally, I kind of think the tiger came over to eat the rather cute, chubby little two year old girl who was standing next to Stian.













Stian has a real knack for finding the most disgusting thing on a menu and getting it. The few times we've taken him out for ice cream he's ordered things that make me shudder - like cotton candy flavored ice cream and bubble gum flavored ice cream. And today he skipped over the normal ice cream treats like ice cream sandwich, or drumsitck, or Klondike bar, and selected this rather nasty looking Sponge Bob popsicle. Kris took a picture for Grandpa Skjervold, he figured he'd appreciate a Sponge Bob popsicle.



It was a very nice day. A good way to spend my birthday.

Hands On Trucks

The local children's museum had their yearly fundraiser yesterday. It's called "Hands on Trucks" and they have all sorts of trucks and other vehicles for the kids to get up close to. I believe they said yesterday that there were over 30 different vehicles. It was a really neat event, and Stian really liked it. Silje and I were there, but she was obviously not particularly interested in the trucks. And then the kids starting honking the horns on some of them and she really didn't like that. So we Silje and I headed back to the car while Kris and Stian continues on for a little longer. I guess we'll need to get some tiny ear protectors for her. I was pretty impressed with the event though. It's such a good idea, and all of the people there with their vehicles were so nice.

Playing

The therapists that were here last week suggested that we set Silje in the boppy under an activity gym to help her build up her arm strength reaching for the toys. She really appears to enjoy this, and will often happily sit in there batting at and grabbing at the toys. Kris was sitting with her this evening playing his guitar while she played, and he stopped to take some pictures.





While Kris and Silje were downstairs playing, Stian and I were upstairs playing with his emergency vehicles and putting out a fire at Huggy Bear's house. That was until Stian decided he wanted to go play guitar with Kris. He likes to play the ukelele while Kris plays the guitar. And he was fascinated by the harmonica holder, he had never seen that before and wanted to give that a try too. Stian has been really into musical instruments lately. I think we might need to pick one for him to start learning. He mentioned tonight that he wanted to learn to play the tuba, but I'm thinking he might be a tad small for that!





And then a video to hear him playing along with Kris. The ukelele is horribly out of tune, but it's still cute to hear him.

Summer Evening

Tummy Time

Silje was evaluated earlier this week to see if she qualifies for First Steps, which is an early intervention program. If she qualified she would get extra physical and occupational therapy at a pretty cheap price. But after spending about an hour with her, the physical therapist and the occupational therapist thought Silje was developmentally delayed, but not that delayed. So she didn't qualify for the program. I think that's both good and bad news. Good that she is good enough not to qualify, but she is delayed, so it would have been good to get her some therapy. But they gave me some things to work on with her and will be mailed me some more. So we've been doing our exercises every afternoon this week. She surprised me this afternoon by doing this:



I didn't know she could do this. She is on the Boppy, so she have more of her weight on her lower body than she would on the flat ground, making it easier to lift her head (this is one the exercises they suggested). But this is still really good to see. Her neck is definitely getting stronger!

By the way, the therapists just though she was delayed because she couldn't start tummy time until she was 6 weeks old. So her muscle tone is just lower than it should be. She should be able to catch up soon if we work with her.

Deep Thoughts by Stian

While contemplating the sky last evening:

"The trouble with cloud hats is that they tend to float away."

High Chair

Now that Silje is three months old, we figured she was strong enough to sit in the high chair. So I pulled it out last week and gave it a good scrub down. I reassembled it today and we put her in it. I think she liked being at the table with us.

Knut

On the way back to Indiana we met up and had lunch with Kris's friend Knut. He was en route from Madison to Minneapolis as we were on our way home - so we met him in Eau Claire. Knut lives in Norway, and Kris worked with him when he lived in Norway. Knut came over for our wedding back in 2001 and we visited him in Norway when we were there in 2003. He is a long time friend of Kris's family.

Trip North - Wisconsin - Part Three

Grandma read the boys stories every night before bed.



More goofy faces.



See, it's genetic.



Grandma bought the boys matching shirts. Notice Nathaniel's says "Nathanielosaurus" on it - Stian's says "Stianosaurus."



Silje hanging out with Grandma.





Silje hanging out with Grandpa.





Silje hanging out with Uncle Wayne.



Stian enjoys the view.



And finally a few wildlife pictures.





And then we headed home again.

Trip North - Wisconsin - Part Two

We had a campfire one afternoon and roasted hot dogs for lunch and marshmellows for s'mores. Stian had been talking about doing this for awhile because they had had a section at his school this summer all about camping. So he had been looking forward to the campfire and the s'mores in particular.







Yes, Silje was on this trip too - we didn't leave her in Minneapolis!





A picture Stian took (we should really dig out our old point and shoot for him, as he really liked taking pictures, but he was making us nervous with our good camera, and it's awfully big and heavy for him).



Yeah, I think it's safe to say he liked the s'mores.





It's possible that making goofy faces for the camera runs in the family...



I rest my case.



We also got the boys into the lake for a little swimming.

















To be continued...