Abram and Aila Say...

I've been keeping a little sheet of paper in the kitchen where I write down cute things the kids say or do...I'm guessing these are from the last 6 months or so...

Abram
(When we were working on potty training) "Abram, do you need to go potty?" "Nope, I already went last summer."

"...and, SUDDENLY--!" (he's a great story teller...they can last up to 15-20 minutes easily) "..and a couple whiles later..."

"Aila, wanna come in my room, sweetie?  I might be sad if you don't come play with me!"

"Aila, that was a big 'scuse me!" (she had gas)

He looooves singing in Primary.  His little face is so sincere when he sings and you can often hear him singing over everyone else.  His Sunbeam teacher told me he always wants to say the prayer in their class.

He often loves to lead family scripture time, where he usually combines about 3 different scripture masteries along with some of his own doctrine.  He can quote 3/4 of 1 Ne 3:7 word for word.  Impressive memory.

We have toilet locks on our toilets...so when he needs to go, he runs down the hall, then shouts in distress, "Mom!!!  It's un-mocked!!!"  (Meaning, it's locked.)

He's very good at saying "yes, please" and "no, thank you."

We were reading a Berenstain Bear book about before Sister Bear was born.  He asked, "Is Sister Bear in heaven with Jesus Bear?"

"We're so blessed to have food that Jesus gave us."

In Napa at Grandma Eide's, he got to have honey-nut cheerios...after his first bite, "Whoa!! I like this! I've never had special cheerios before!"

Me: "Abram, look! It's raining!"  Abram: "Wow, that's amazing!"

In a prayer: "We're so grateful for the opportunity of the Gospel."
"Please bless all the natures and home  that animals live in."

"Mom, 3 and E both have three sides...maybe they're friends."

To Aila, "Wook at that wittle face!"

Abram: "Aila, you have tired eyes." Aila, while touching her eyes, "Eye! Eye!"

He's recently been into dinosaurs so we've read some books from the library.  One day he was digging out clumps of dirt in the backyard and told me he found fossils from the neck of a Stegosaurus.

Also out in back, out of nowhere he stands behind the railing and starts giving a Primary talk.  Then proceeds to say a prayer...I look over at Aila and she has her little hands folded.

"Mom, what happened to the pioneers?"  "They lived a long, long time ago and died, so now they're in heaven."  "...with the dinosaurs??"


Aila
Aila is never at a loss for words, noise, screaming, yelling, growling (which annoys Abram, and she knows it) and/or and kind of expression.  She keeps things very exciting around here!  (And at the grocery store.)  She is very social and we always know how she is feeling.  :)  I tell Ben that I never knew so much emotion could live inside such a little body.  We love our sweet baby girl (who is actually almost 18 months!).  We don't go anywhere without one of her swaddling blankets.  If she has that and her thumb, she's content.  In public, she gets lots of comments about how much hair she has.  She absolutely loves Abram and Abram is so patient (most of the time) with her ruining his towers and creations.  He loves to make forts for them to play in.  I dare say her appetite has slowed down a bit in the last couple weeks.  I used to feel like I exhausted all my energy making food for her and feeding her.  This girl loves her food and eats it fast!  She also loves her Daddy.  She and Abram get so excited when we hear him unlock the door and they can't help but run around in circles, yelling and laughing.  Of course, Ben joins in the running and noise-making. :)  Aila loves looking at books and sitting on our laps to read (on her own quick agenda). She enjoys putting her diapers in the garbage.  Unfortunately, she enjoys putting a lot of other items in there too (like her sippy).  She has become an adventurous climber lately.  She climbs on our bed, the toilet and up to the bathroom counter, and the kitchen chairs up onto the kitchen table.  Poor girl has had some falls...but no stitches yet (eeek!).  I love when she just jabbers, excitedly telling me something. She's using a lot more consonant sounds every day.  She often points to letters/words and says, "I!  I!  I!" (she must be copying big brother, who is learning his letters.)  I love watching her bustle around, her hair swishing behind her back.  She loves playing outside and going for walks.  She makes sure she wears her helmet just like her big brother.  She loves playing in the sand and going down slides--after I say, 1, 2, 3, she says, "Weeee!"

Her latest words are:
"Naaaayyyyy!" (meaning blankie) "Eh naaaay" means I want my blankie
"Eh poooo..." means I need a diaper change.  Speaking of which, she has pooped in the tub about twice a week lately.
"Moooooooow" (more)
"Doddy" (Daddy)
"Doddy" (doggie)
"Doddy" (kitty)
"Doddy" (squirrel)
"Doddy" (bird)
"Mommeee" (she sometimes uses this for Ben too...)
"Hi!"
"Byeeee!"
"Pweesh" (please)
"chsss" (cheese)
"cheeesh" (brush teeth)
"shoosh" (shoes)
"baby"
"meh" (amen)
"nah" (snack)
"buh-bo" (bubbles)
"buh-bo" (apple)
"bie" (bite--she always wants my food)
"nnnnnoooooooo!!"

Abram Boy

Some notes about Abram I recorded back in February also...(last lost post!)

"buddies" with daddy
wearing fire chief shirt--have to call him "fireman"
Gives Aila hug and kiss before nap
To Aila when crying in the car: "It's okay sweetie.  We're going to get gas.  Yeah, we are!"
Picked out a French family saying, "Merci" (from the primary song..."Some say 'Tak', others 'Merci')
Impeccable memory
Just started sunbeams
"Ohhh, Mommy, you have an owie on your foot?!  Ohh, I'm sorry..."
Picks up songs very quickly.
"Santa gave me this train?  That was so nice of him!"
At least once a day, "So how's your day, Mommy? What's it about?"
Recently transitioned to his "big-boy" bed, with a little encouragement--he loved his crib so much.
He is innately obedient. Example:  He never climbed out of his crib.  Even now, in his bed, he still calls for me in the morning or after his naps and waits to get out of bed until I get there.  I was sure that once he started sleeping in a bed he'd be coming out at night or playing with his toys instead of napping, but that hasn't been the case!  Of course, I may be speaking too soon...but so far, so good.

Loves pomegranate seeds

Frequently recites lines from books we've read, out of the blue.

"Mommy, did you go pee-pee?"  "Yes."  "Oh, good job, Mommy!!"

"Mmm, this is so yummy.  Thanks for making this, Sweetie!" (using Ben's term of endearment, ha)

"Mommy, I feel a little nervous because I need to play with my cars!"

"Mom, me and Daddy are buddies, but you can be a girl-buddy.  You and A-wuh (Aila) can be girl buddies."

Every bathtime, he 'baptizes' all his little creatures.  Sometimes he even passes the Sacrament.

Imaginary friend, Carter.

Christmas & Monterey Bay

Another lost post I just found that I wrote shortly after Christmas 2013....

Christmas 2013
We had a lovely Christmas.  Since we were in UT last year for Christmas (we surprised our families!), this was our first year without snow.  A little weird, but when we spent Christmas Eve playing at the park, I was in heaven.

A quick synopsis:

On Christmas Eve, we had our traditional International picnic by the fireplace (a tradition from the Wade side) and each opened a present (a tradition from the Kujanpaa side, since Santa visits all the children in Finland on Christmas Eve night).

I made "riisi puuro" (Finnish rice pudding) with kiiseli (fruit sauce) for the first time!  We also had Russian piroshki, Italian meatballs, mashed potatoes, and some cheese from France.  Yum yum.  Lots of comfort food.  Abram was totally sold on the idea of eating special food on a big blanket.  :)

Christmas morning was so fun.  Abram got a little train set from Santa and kept saying, *gasp* "Oh, Santa brought this for me?  That was so nice!"  We all felt spoiled and grateful with wonderful gifts from our families.

In the afternoon, we packed up and drove to Livermore to have Christmas dinner with Ben's uncle Mike and Aunt Vickie.  More fun yummy food!  They were generous enough to let us stay there overnight, and the next day we drove to Monterey.  We debated going to the aquarium due to the expense, but decided to go.  When we were literally 20 feet outside the entrance, an older couple came up to us and gave us two extra tickets they had!  Talk about a Christmas miracle!  We all got in for free because Abram was still 2. :)

We had fun exploring Monterey and Carmel, where we did the infamous 17-mile drive.  It was beautiful with lots of different beaches and scenery to explore.  We also went to Point Lobos, where we spotted a family of whales!  Our last adventure was on the way home--Ben can now check off "visit Stanford campus" on his bucket list.  It was good to get out and walk around the beautiful campus.  Ben took some pictures on his phone...maybe he'll post them!!  *wink wink (Ben)*  I had to laugh at how disheveled we all looked after driving in the car for hours amongst other visitors who were dressed so fashionably for their visit to Stanford...especially when Abram ran around like a hooligan and an Asian grandma gave us her disapproving look...oops. :)  We also found ourselves walking behind two Russian women, so we of course tried to walk a little closer so Ben could hear their Russian, but I think we were a little too obvious...they looked back at us a couple times and then ended up stopping to admire the kids.  One of them was a little too friendly with Aila though, and when she started screaming, the Russian lady got out her altoids and tried to use them as a rattle to calm her, and when that didn't help, she gave us all a mint, haha.  Then I can't remember what we talked about, but they were nice.  Anyway.  It's always fun to run into Russians.  I think I'm about as good as Ben at spotting them now!

Bathtime

These pictures are from February 2014; Aila 9 months, Abram just 3 years

Aila Girl

(I started this post about Aila in February of this year...about time I posted it. She was 9 months when I wrote this.)

Growing up so fast...crawling all over (big brother is learning to put his favorite toys out of reach).
"Swims" on her tummy...lifts arms and legs off ground and waves all four limbs excitedly.
Silly scrunched-up nose face
Two most common comments in public:  Her hair and how smiley she is.
Loves, loves, loves her big brother.
Looks toward the door while I'm putting her down for a nap, waiting for Abram to come in
Loves food.
Growls, donald duck sounds
Has the most delicious soft cheeks
Loves splashing, splashing, splashing

December 1987 to December 2013 (Aila 7 months)

This red dress is the one clothing item my mom saved from my babyhood.  She made it, of course, and I wore it for my 6-month pictures.

I was so excited when she brought the dress to me when I first had Aila.  The dress fit Aila perfectly for her 7-month photo shoot!

Kristin (6 months), December 1987:

Aila (7 months), December 2013:

She got tired of the photo shoot and decided to crawl over to the Christmas tree.
(The plan was for her to start crawling after Christmas...)

 Sweet baby Aila!

Family Pictures (November)

Our Bishop's wife was generous enough to take our family pictures in November (our ward has been so good to us; so many great people. We feel so blessed!).  I thought Abram would be hesitant and hard to get to smile, but he did great--he smiled constantly for the first 5 minutes and probably said "cheese" about 200 times!  :)

Ben realized after we showed up at the site that he had on black ankle socks with brown shoes...haha.  Ha.  For some reason it looked a little weird cropping it out for our Christmas card, so we decided to leave it.  I even tried to edit it a little, but it made it more obvious.  

Good times.

The Rest of November

(Some of these pictures are backwards chronologically, but I'm not taking the time to fix it...)

More bites for Aila...

Abram was ecstatic the day Aila became his "sippy-buddy!"  A sippy connoisseur himself, he was the first one to give it to her.

A lovely leaf-collecting walk in November.  Yes, short-sleeves in November.  Couldn't be happier about it!

Crunchy leaves.

Her first swing ride!

She loved it, despite the expressions in these pictures.

We love the park by our house!

And for an embarrassing tidbit, this picture is my only proof that we celebrated Thanksgiving:  a leftover piece of an amazing pumpkin pie made by the one and only BTW (Ben).  (Although I believe I do deserve a little credit since I found and suggested the recipe :) ...I made a chocolate cheesecake pumpkin pie--the filling turned out fine but the crust totally bombed.)  Anyway, what kind of a mother doesn't take pictures on Thanksgiving?!

We celebrated at my grandparent's in Napa with my Uncle Brett/Jessica/Alexis and Uncle Mark & Aunt Lesley.  We're so lucky to live so close to family!  Abram is always in heaven at Grandma & Grandpa Eide's house. (I think Grandma & Brett might have a few pictures...?)

Christmas tree shopping.  With no coats.  Or hats or mittens or scarves...!

A little Black Friday shopping (in the afternoon) at Target where we bought a new TV, and after setting it up at home, realized our fuzzy sound issue was in the DVD player, not our TV.  So we returned the TV.

Long live our Dinosaur TV!

On the morning of Black Friday, we went to the church to run around and play.  Family exercise!

After running in circles for about 15 minutes straight with me, Abram took a break to erase the chalkboard.

Miss Aila was a happy little peach chewing on her pant strings.

Mr. Basketball had fun reliving the glory days. :)

Abram loves getting Aila from her nap, and I love walking in and seeing her little dark head popping up to see us.

(We have since moved Abram to a toddler bed and Aila into the crib.)

This is my "spray-man" helping me wash the windows.  One of his favorite jobs. :)