A day in the life of the Niemis - fun conversations and new words

December 30th, 2011: Although not a typical day, definitely a noteworthy one as we had some fun conversations with Avie and Archie said 3 new words.

Wake up: 6:00am

Morning:
Mommy: "Avie, do you think you'll get to open presents today?"
Avie: "If Libby and Chris say it's okay. If they don't say it's okay, then we'll have to wait. That's just the way the world is."

Archie says two new words.
Dog - as he is chasing around Aunt Libby and Uncle Chris's dog Jack.
Car - as he is looking in the toy box for a car


Nap time: Mommy, Daddy, Mummi and Ukki play 7 Wonders

Late afternoon, after naps:
Avie, Archie, Mommy, Mummi, Libby, and Taylor head to the park while Daddy, Ukki, and Chris go biking.
Archie says another new word.
Warm - as he is playing outside at the park and it's 55 degrees, he puts his hands in the snow and Mummi is trying to warm them up while he is on the swing.

Evening:
Mommy: "Are you going to ask Libby and Chris if we can open presents now?"
Avie: "Chris, can we open presents now."
Chris: "Yes"
Avie: "Hooray"

Avie and Archie had fun playing with Archie's new toy.


As Mommy and Daddy were cooking dinner, Avie was busy cooking herself. She was mostly making desserts including peanut butter Minnie [Mouse] pancakes, pie, cake, ice cream, cookies, frosting, and fruit. This video is a bit long (2.5 minutes), but the cutest moments are from 1:00 to 1:15 and 2:00 to 2:32.


Bedtime: 8:00pm

Archie kicks a ball!

Archer always has a blast at Play Pals too. He runs from one thing to the next. There are so many toys there and he is still pretty easily distracted. He really enjoys running and kicking the balls and he has gotten really fast now as you can see in this video. He often takes off running to get away from me and I have to run now to catch him.



I remember Avie at this age loved to push around anything with wheels including push toys, shopping carts, etc. Archie is the same way, except he does everything faster. Here is a video of Archie running with a push toy.

Avie rides a trike!

Avalon has been starting to pedal a trike outside a little bit over the past couple of months. About two weeks ago, Avalon hopped on a trike and pedaled it all around the gym at Play Pals. It was the first time I've seen her pedal so far and for so long. On Wednesday, December 15th, I captured a good video. If you watch closely, you'll see Archer in the background falling down as he goes for a ball. Oops! :)



The first time we went to Play Pals, Avie discover the Buzz Lightyear spaceship and it has been a favorite of hers ever since. The last couple of times we've gone, Avie has been counting down to blast off in the spaceship.

Play Pals

Now that it is cold outside, we've been going to an indoor gym with riding toys, push toys, slides, blocks, balls, etc. It's called Play Pals and both of our kids love it!

When we first started going to Play Pals, this was Archer's favorite toy. I never did get a great picture of him playing with it.

They also both like riding in the cars and filling up gas.

First Trip to the Boundary Waters

Avalon made her first trip to the boundary waters this past summer. She did an awesome job in the canoe and had lots of fun swimming, hiking and playing around the campsite. I have tons of pictures, so I haven't had a chance to sort through them all yet, but I had a request for some videos from the trip so I'll post those now and hopefully get the pictures up another day.

Avalon and Uncle Chris playing a game where they dance around and then freeze.


Avalon and Aunt Libby laughing. There were many episodes like this during the trip.


Avalon and Ukki playing catch. Well, Ukki was catching anyways.


Daddy and Avalon swimming, which they did lots of times during the trip.


And one last video of Chris putting up his first bear bag rope to keep our food away from bears. Good job Chris!

Avie loves to talk

Avalon talks non-stop at home, but when I take her to gymnastics class or busy beavers class, she will not say a word. Busy Beavers is a 1.5 hour class where they play with toys, play games, play in the gymnastics room and read a story. During this class, which she has attended 7 times now, she has not said a single word during class.

When we got home from class this past Tuesday, Avalon went on a 10-15 minute rant about Santa Claus and when we were going to see him, where we'd see him, and what she'd tell him she wanted on her Christmas list. Towards the end, an alligator showed up and was going to take the presents, so we'd have to hide them. I captured about about 5 minutes of that conversation. The funniest part is that Archer was also there trying to walk on the aerobed, hug Avie, and tackle her and for the most part Avie just brushed him off and continued to stay focused on what she was saying.

If you have 5 minutes and want to watch this video, it is a pretty good laugh.

Winter has arrived - playing in snow

We had a our second snowfall here in Ames on Thursday night. So I took the kids out to play in the snow on Friday morning. As it turns out, beach toys are great for the snow too. Check out this snow castle that Avie and I built.

Of course, Avie was more into smashing it that building it.



Archie really wanted to go outside and was happy to be in the fresh air, but he hated his boots and did not want to be set down. So I carried him around for a while. We went to the back deck and started to build snow mountains (or more accurately snow hills) because we couldn't get the snow to stick for snow balls, which is what Avie want to make. I finally talked Archer into getting down when I asked him to knock down the snow mountain.

He stomped down a few mountains and then sat (or fell) onto his bottom. His mittens had fallen off by now and he wouldn't put then back on. At this point, he was done with the snow and wanted to go back inside.

Halloween

Avalon really wanted to be a tiger again this year for Halloween (I wonder if she'll want to be a tiger every year now), so we created some costumes around that idea. We bought a zebra costume for Archie and Jarad and I were safari tourists. We were on a pretty good safari with such a cute tiger and zebra. I'm still not sure if one could even see a tiger and a zebra on the same safari, but we did! :)

Halloween this year consisted of 3 days and 4 events with trick or treating! We had a great weekend. Avalon had a blast! Of course, I took so many pictures and videos that I haven't even looked through them all myself. Hence, December has arrived and I still haven't posted any Halloween pics. So, in an effort to make a Halloween post before Christmas, I'm going to try to post a few pics from each event. This blog post has turned into a lot of pics from the first event.

Event #1 - Night eyes at the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines:
When we first arrived, Avalon met Jasmine and Belle. Next, we got to trick or treat our way through the zoo seeing some real animals along the way. Avalon was a bit shy to say trick or treat at first, so we went with the "roaring" strategy from last year. Mostly because I think it's cute to hear her roar!


But it didn't take too long before she was ready to say trick or treat. However, we never really did get the "thank you" part down this year.


As it was getting dark, we stopped to play in the pumpkin patch, which was probably Archie's favorite part as he got to get out of the stroller and run around in the pumpkins!We even saw Humpty Dumpty along the way and Avalon sang the nursery rhyme as soon as she saw him. Too cute!


We also stopped to play at the park and the area with the air filled slides and bounce houses. Archie wasn't too into trick or treating but he had a blast pointing out the animals as we walked through the zoo!


Avalon had a blast jumping in the bounce houses,


and sliding down the air filled slides!

Nodding - Baa Baa Black Sheep

Archie has been able to shake his head to say no for quite a while and he can also say the word no. As of last week, Archie started to nod his head to say yes. It is so cute!

Grandma and Grandpa are in town this week and Grandma was singing Baa Baa Black Sheep to Archie and he would nod his head during the "yes sir" part of the song. And then he would just ask Grandma to sing it over and over again. Thus, we were able to capture a pretty good video.

Avie's second haircut - Thanks Daddy!

Avie had her very first haircut this past summer on July 8th just before she turned 3 years old. (I hope to have a post up about the first haircut soon too). Over the last few weeks, Jarad has been telling me that she needs it cut again, which is true. It was getting difficult to brush especially since she doesn't want to sit still.

Last night while I was gone, Jarad decided to take matters into his own hands and cut her hair! Can you believe it? He just took it all together and made one big cut, since she wouldn't sit still for anything more. It's a bit shorter than I expected, but actually does look really cute!

Should I take her to a hair salon to get it cut again (evened out a little bit) or just leave it the way it is? Please vote on our poll to the left.


After Jarad saw this picture, he said "don't they call that the layered look?" Haha! :)

Go Cyclones!

Iowa State's women's volleyball team is having a great season. We've been able to take the kids to a couple of games. Avalon's favorite part is seeing the mascot. And for this great smile, she got a treat too, raisins! It was definitely worth it. Although, now anytime I ask her to smile for a picture, she says do I get a treat.

Archie mostly enjoyed watching the people and running around on the bleachers. But he did spend some time hanging out with Daddy.

The kids did watch a little bit of the game, sort of...

And a few pics from the first game we attended.

Avie was very excited to see the mascot and give him a high five or should I say low five!

Hide and Seek

I was playing hide and seek with the kids and I thought this would be a fun place to hide. Archie thought so too! Eventually after Archie made it through, I had to stand up to get out of the tunnel. Haha! Needless to say, Avalon found me right away! :)

Archie's favorite game

At the end of September, I started to play a game with Archie where I place a soft block on my head and then let it fall off while making a funny noise. Archie loves it! I remember Avalon loving this game too when she was Archie's age, which is why I thought of playing it. He asks me to play it over and over. He has added his own modification as well. He likes to balance the block on his head and then shake his body to make it fall off. I then mimic him with the same movement making my block fall off my head (which is not seen on the video, but would probably make me laugh too if I'd could see myself) and he thinks its hilarious. It is so fun and rewarding to see you child smile and laugh that I can't get enough of the game either!



Not only is it lots of fun because he smiles and laughs, I've also captured tons of amazing pictures of that smile! As you can see by the pictures, Avie had fun with the game as well.


Here is my favorite picture and video from the first time we played the game on September 26th.



And one more video, just for fun!

Avie the tiger!

As I'm sure many of you remember, Avalon was a pretty cute tiger last year at Halloween. Well, the tiger is back! We received another tiger costume from our neighbor in Santa Barbara. Avalon has discovered it about a month ago and loves to wear it and chase us around the circle.
Avalon has been working on her roar too. Pretty scary! :) Just watch her Daddy jump...





She is a cute tiger and scary too! Just check out the look on her mommy's face...
You also get a glimpse of the full costume with the hood up, which she doesn't keep up for very long. Although, if (or should I say when) it's cold on Halloween, she may decide to keep it on.

Avie can do a Sommersault!

Avie started a gymnastics class this fall and she loves it! After the first class, I asked her what she did and she said "I didn't want to do the roll like this (using hand motions)." I asked her what her favorite thing was and she said "hanging from the bar."
After a few classes the instructor said she still didn't want to do the forward roll, so we decided to work on it at home. And it wasn't long (actually just a few rolls with my help) before she was doing it over and over again all by herself. The idea on being on mom and dad's bed was a big motivation, but I think the reason she wanted to keep doing them again and again was the mirror that she could see herself in.

Kids...everything is a toy!

Yesterday afternoon I was making a snack for myself (yes, mom's try to eat sometimes) when I realized it was a little too quiet downstairs. So I go downstairs to see what the kids are into and this is what I found...
Archie was having a blast! Finally, he got to play with one of the things I always take away from him. Avie had opened the bathroom door for him and he was happily playing with the water in the toilet bowl with the toilet bowl scrubber. He was soaked from head to toe and he even had bits of toilet paper in his hair. Needless to say, it was time for a bath.

I did let him play a little longer to get a few pics.

About an hour later, Jarad came home and we were talking upstairs when again things were just too quiet downstairs. I had put a lock on the bathroom door, so I knew they weren't in there. Again we headed downstairs to find this...
Avie and Archie had emptied the bottom two dresser drawers of all of Archie's clothes. They were having a blast! How fun it is to play when the parents aren't around.

Avie pushes Archie on the swing!

Back when we were still in Santa Barbara, Avie met a friend at the park and her friends Grandma spent a long time pushing them both on the swings. She would say "one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, and four to go (or go Avie go)." Ever since then, I often use this saying when pushing Avie on the swing. Here is Avie pushing her little brother on the swing in just the same way. Too cute! Archie loves it too! This video was taken back at the end of June.



She also learns some fun tricks from her Grandpa too! Grandpa loves to push Avie and Archie on the swing making noises to make them smile and laugh. :)

Avie singing

Avalon has always loved to sing! She is constantly singing all kinds of songs that she has learned. My favorite is the They Might Be Giants song that starts "the sun is a mass of incandescent gas." But since I haven't captured that on video yet, here she is singing "baa baa black sheep" microphone and all. And as an added bonus you even get to enjoy a bit more of Archie's dancing.

Archie dancing

Archie has turned into a pretty cute little dancer. See for yourself...

Great Ames Adventure Race Winners!

Jarad and I competed in our first adventure race together and we took first place. Well, it was sort of a modified triathlon and there were only two teams in our division. But we had a great time! Thanks for Mummi and Ukki for watching the kids!

The race consisted of a 2.7 mile kayak, 15 mile bike, and a 5k run. We did the race as a relay team where Jarad did the kayak and bike and I did the run. Maybe next year we'll both do all three parts.

Niemi Speedway

Since moving into our place in Iowa, we have discovered a new raceway right here in our own home. Avalon and Archer love to race around the circle in our house. This is a video from the very first night we arrived. Thanks to Mummi, Ukki, and Uncle Grant and Aunt Marie for the noisy props! The kids had a blast! And still do almost every day.

Archer makes animal sounds!

Archer is now 16 months and he can make 7 signs: more, milk, all done, food, change, up, and down. He can also say 9 words: stop, shoe, hi, food, ball, hot, rock, night night, and banana (nana). And he can now make 4 animal sounds: woof, roar, moo, and baa. Here is a video showing off his animal sound talents. Roar is personally my favorite!



And not quite as exciting, but still impressive are a few videos of him doing his signs. Milk is definitely my favorite sign!


And here he is signing more correctly. But even more surprising, as seen in this video, Mummi discovered that Archie loves beets, just like his Daddy! Also notice his gigantic maroon big, perfect for beets. Thanks to our friend Clarice who made this bib for us! Funny thing is that he is now back to signing more incorrectly, but in a totally different way.


His sign for change is really good now, but he never actually uses it to tell us he needs a change.


And lastly, he recently learned to sign down.

I love these shopping carts!

Seats for two kids, the kids face forward, and each kid gets there own steering wheel. Awesome!