Feeding the ducks

I mentioned in my last post that one of the activities Stian and I did last week was feed the ducks at Columbian Park with the moms' group. One of the other moms took pictures and just shared them, so I thought I'd post them.

Here are me and Stian and Talin and Raffi. Talin is actually the wife of one of my new anthropology colleagues.



And here are some of the other moms and kids and some ducks too.

Busy Week

(I wrote this last night, but Blogger was having issues, so I couldn't post until this morning)

We're having a very busy week this week. Well, for us anyway. On Monday Stian and I went to a local moms' group meeting at the library. Stian loved it. He laughed and smiled and kicked and just seemed to have fun sitting in my lap watching all of the kids running around and playing. On Tuesday Stian and Kris came to my doctor's appointment with me (just my allergist, nothing exciting, although my asthma seems to have disappeared, which is awfully nice). On Wednesday we went with the local moms' group to feed the ducks at the park. Stian and I didn't actually feed any ducks (which is just as well, as there were like 15 kids and about 6 ducks, there was lots and lots of bread just floating in the water after awhile), but again Stian seemed to get a kick out of watching the other kids. Today I had a dissertation defense I had to be at, so Stian went and hung out with Kris at his work for a couple of hours. And tomorrow we have a lunch out with the local moms' group ay my favorite local Thai restaurant.

The moms' group is pretty neat. It has about 100 members, so it's not always the same people that show up at everything. And they have probably 4-6 activities going on each week. A lot of them are activities that are too old for Stian. For instance next week I think one of the activities planned is a behind the scenes tour of a local supermarket and then decorating cookies in the bakery. Sounds like lots of fun, but obviously Stian is too young for it. I've only been to three activities now, but I think it'll be nice to have things for Stian and I to go do. And he sure seems to like being around other kids.

This evening Stian sat in his high chair and watched us make dinner. He looks like he actually fits in his high chair these days.



After dinner we went for a walk. Notice his bare feet! Notice the green grass! The radio said it was 78 degrees here today! Wow!



We went and looked at the eagles. They are nesting right by us again this year. It's neat to watch them.



We also met our new neighbors who were also out for a walk. Kris had met the woman before, but I hadn't. It's a couple with two young sons, one is 3, the other is 9 months. They seemed quite nice.

Spring Evening

Spring has sprung - at least temporarily.

Gobble Gobble

Just a little bit ago I was sitting here at my desk and looked up and saw this:



Five wild turkeys walking across my backyard. Wacky.

Dopey Kid

Stian has discovered the joys of sucking on his fingers. The other night I was giving him his evening massage and he was really sucking on them quite vigorously. I said to him "be careful kid you're going to make yourself ..." and that's when he threw up. It was nice of him to demonstrate my point, but yuck! Unfortunately, I doubt he has learned his lesson.

More fun with the girls

Laura, Anna Sofia and Sunniva left this morning. It was fun to have them here. Stian seemed to enjoy it. When they first got here and he was sick he seemed to be overly stimulated by them. But towards the end of their visit when he was feeling better, and also maybe a little more used to them, he appeared to enjoy watching them and interacting with them.

We had more outside play time. I put Stian in the Snugli facing out for the first time. It was nice to do that while Laura was here as the Snugli is a hand-me-down from them, so she was able to help me figure out how all the straps and buckles work when he is facing out. Stian seemed to like being carried around that way, being able to see out.





I was really amazed at how well the dogs did with the girls. They have not been known to be particularly good around kids. And although they growled a few times, they did so much better than I thought they would. I thought Toop would be fine, but Morri really surprised me.



Of course both the dogs loved being outside with all of the tennis balls. Here's Morri emploring Kris to put down the camera and throw the ball for her.



Even Toop was into it. Although we were careful not to throw the ball too far away for her. But she wanted to chase it.



And of course the girls had fun running around as well.

Laura, Sunniva and Anna Sofia are here!

Laura, Sunniva and Anna Sofia are here for a visit! We've gone for walks, gone to the park, out for lunch, played with tennis balls in the front yard (who knew tennis balls could be so much fun? Well, I suppose Toop and Morri have been telling us this for years), we've been eating good food (Laura's been cooking for us - yum!) and just having fun.

Poor Stian has been sick though. I'm not sure if it's the bug Kris and I had last week or it's a reaction to the vaccinations he had on Monday, but he had a couple of rough days - lots of crying, and he even threw up. Poor little guy. But he was feeling much better today, thankfully!

So here are a bunch of pictures taken so far during their visit.