Happiness for brothers!

Brothers. Cars. Playing together. Playing TOGETHER!!

One of my best yard sale freebies ever: a parking garage for toy cars. Mattias has just reached the age (12 months) where his personality and ability to communicate is coming out stronger, and he is getting more interested in cars. Now these brothers spend many happy minutes together crashing cars and loading them up on the parking garage and arranging them on the treehouse and racing them on the floor. (Oh hallelujah, says this mother!)

Still in pajamas - and straight to the first order of business for the day.

I love how they are both concentrating, with tongues out!

Takes me back to when we had first moved here and I got this toy at a yard sale. I put it out on the back patio, and Timo and Gemma would play together. (And then Timo would start rolling cars off into the grass, and Gemma would be dancing around and exploring in the backyard.) Now, once again, we have two siblings in the house, happily enjoying each other's company as they play.

Mountain views

Late afternoon sunlight, from the back deck

Sunrise

Sunrise, at the front of the house

A much needed respite

After the sudden adjustment to our family life with Jim's resignation from his position at DAI - whoops, if you haven't heard, more on that later - we treated the last two weeks as Family Time before jumping into the next phase of job searching and assessing the future. We have needed very much to reconnect and spend daily life together, without pressures of busy schedules and travels. What a privilege to have such time (and gratefully DAI is continuing Jim's salary until the end of the year), particularly after a long, intense fall season. Some wonderful family friends from the Wheaton area have a second home in the mountains, about 2 hours northwest of us, and they offered to let us stay for five days last week while it was vacant. 

The house itself is on a large piece of land, with a beautiful overlook to the mountain range. It's very peaceful and quiet. We loved being able to just wander around in the woods and climb on the rocks and explore.

The owners have grandkids that frequently stay, so the house is STOCKED with toys. It felt like Christmas for our boys! Timo was so excited to wake up every morning and start playing with the cars and trains and action figures.

Billiards, toddler-style: rolling balls and aiming them into the pockets. Note that father and son are both sticking out their tongues...

The house is about 20 miles from Boulder, Colorado and at the top of a ridge with a long, steep driveway (4x4 required). We were very grateful that we arrived midday on Tuesday, in advance of 6 inches of snow and strong, blizzard winds that night and all day on Wednesday! First snow of the season for us to experience!

Timo LOVED it. He didn't mind the cold and the winds.

Back inside, more playtime. Mattias's favorite thing was to go up the stairs, from the basement to the main floor and then up another flight to the second floor. Boy though those open stairs made me nervous...

Discovering some dress-up clothes.

We invited some friends from church, Brian and Mandy and their 4 month old baby Millie, to join us for the weekend. Great to have some friends there and stay up way too late at night chatting about life! Millie was a star happy baby on the trip, although she didn't much care to go out into the snow. And Timo talked to her very sweetly and kept giving her kisses.

Timo's absolute highlight of the weekend with the Caves was reading Richard Scarry's What Do People Do All Day? What a great book!! I think he spent about 3 hours on Saturday reading it (with Mandy, then Mom, then Dad, and then on his own).
 

Time to go back outside! There was still snow on the ground but the weather was warmer and sunnier on the weekend.
 

Family photo! Thank you, Brian!
 

Mattias's first rock climbing experience. Unfortunately, a few minutes after this photo he took a tumble and scraped up his head.

One of our favorite neighborhood spots

Sunny, cool autumn morning at one of our favorite parks, Monument Valley Park. First we walked a brisk mile and a half on the trail (with Timo on his balance bicycle) and then we had playtime and lunch at the playground.

Are these boys brothers or what!!

I love these boys. They drive me crazy sometimes but they are wonderful! And we LOVE being outside together. I love seeing them learning new things and challenging themselves to try new physical feats. Mattias is very close to walking (and already good at stairs and climbing on top of things) and Timo is really improving in his balance and strength and jumping.

A good-bye to some good neighbors

We really like our neighborhood - within a mile of Colorado College and downtown Springs, close to the library, YMCA, grocery store, trails and multiple walks, safe & walk-able neighborhood with lots of friendly folks and dogs and kids and people of all ages - and we like our quiet street and neighbors. Unfortunately we recently had to say good-bye to some of the neighbors we knew the best, Henry & Laura and their two kids, Henry and Chloe. (Henry the dad is actually Henry IV and Henry the son is Henry V. I think that is so cool.) Their landlord recently decided to put the house up for sale, so they had to find a new rental and ended up moving further south of town. We will miss chatting with Laura (always holding a mug of coffee), seeing the kids running around the block and yard playing football, having Henry come over to play soccer in the yard with Timo, Chloe wanting to hold Mattias, and being able to go hang out in their backyard at the sandbox and slide. "No, Mommy, that is so sad!" said Timo when I finally had to tell him that they were moving to a new house.

Of course, being neighbors who run into each other just doing daily life - watering plants, playing in the yard, going outside to run in the rain - we hardly ever took any photos with them, but they have been good friends for Timo in the 16 months we have lived here so far. On the last night that they were packing up, we managed to say good-bye and snap a quick photo (but there was so much going on, Timo didn't want to look at the camera!).

And now we have inherited a tricycle and double bicycle trailer and Big Wheel from them, so we can always remember playing together!

Fun in the leaves

Some of the most exciting words for a 3 year old boy to hear: "Let's go outside and rake leaves!" And then Timo races outside to help. "I being a good worker!" he says proudly. Don't worry, Timo, we will have more days like this in the next couple of weeks. It reminds me of last fall, just before Mattias was born, when he and I went out to rake numerous times, and I kept thinking, "Surely this will get my labor going..."  The changing colors and cooler days also remind me of two years ago, when we left the hospital, and left Gemma, and were driving home in the late afternoon on Oct 10th. There was a beautiful sunset and the leaves seemed to have changed colors during the two days that we had been in the hospital.

We love our neighborhood at this time of year!

Mattias was also elated to be outside, throwing leaves and crawling around (with no parent saying that he is being too messy!).

The best part is scooping all the leaves in the bin, and then climbing in to stomp them down. By the way, Jaja: Timo insists on wearing his "leaf jacket" to rake.
 

"Oh this will be fun; let's get a photo of the brothers in the leaves." Umm. Oh well.
 

"Mommy, what are you doing to me?"

Now, this just about captures it for Timo.
 

Birthday follow-up: Mattias at 1 year

Mattias ENJOYS: wandering from room to room in the house, opening doors, exploring shelves and making messes; pushing carts/boxes; wandering around the yard, finding leaves/sticks/mud; playing mealtime 'yelling game' with Timo, where they yell noises and imitate each other (we're working on the volume level, Grandpa, don't worry...); bathtime is still his favorite; snuggles and tackles - if he sees Timo and Daddy wrestling, he makes a beeline to climb on; crawling through tunnels; going for walks in the stroller and looking for dogs; pulling Mommy's hair and rubbing Daddy's scratchy face; seeing Timo as soon as he wakes up in the morning!

Recently, he is: learning to put things into containers (e.g. dumps all the cars out, and then puts them back into the basket one by one); getting very interested in books, with a longer attention span and while pointing at pictures and turning pages; learning to use a spoon to feed himself without help; getting close to walking but still not quite taking steps on his own; figuring out how to roll/push cars; able to open the back screen door to go onto the patio to play; getting a lot of long, fluffy curls on the back of his head; now only taking one nap, in the afternoon.

Favorite foods: porridge; bread/toast; Cheerios, pretzels, crackers, rusks, etc; applesauce; apple slices; tofu; rice mixed with anything; most soups; hot dogs; pasta dishes. He isn't really drinking from a cup yet though we try water and (now) soy milk sometimes.

If he's in a good mood (and that is almost always the case when we are playing in the backyard), he will give some BIG grins for the camera!

Mattias's birthday - 1 year old!

Wednesday, Oct 28th! A year ago we were holding this little guy in our arms for the first time - and now look at how far you have come, Mr Giant!

Jim was able to come home from work a little bit early, so we had time for supper, presents and birthday cupcakes (plus lots of wrestling with Daddy) - and wearing of the origami birthday hats!

Mattias's new pewter cup from Nonna with his name engraved on it! Timo was very helpful opening all the gifts.

Number candles for both boys!

Mattias was so cute and excited about the candle and kept trying to grab the flame, yikes! He liked the frosting (coconut whipped cream) but disregarded the chocolate cupcake.

Birthday follow-up: Timo at age 3

Timo LOVES: reading (will do this for a long time on his own and together); trucks and digging in the yard/driveway; sports and outdoor games - anything from basketball, soccer, baseball, lacrosse, hockey, tennis, frisbee, anything!; helping in the kitchen; wrestling with Daddy and playing 'the pillow game' on our bed; having 'quiet time' in his room, listening to music/stories and reading books; helping with projects and anything that involves tools or yardwork; going for "long, long, long walks very far away" (as he requests) - he rides his bicycle and I push the stroller. He easily goes a mile on the bike now, and sometimes close to two miles, on the sidewalk or a trail.

Lately, Timo is: very interested to hear stories & songs about Jesus (and re-enact Jesus's arrest, not unlike Gemma at this age); saying "I love you" and giving kisses (so sweet); trying to entice Mattias to play with him at wrestling and other games; getting more interested in painting and using play-doh; intent on keeping things organized around the house (he makes sure all the drawers and cabinets are closed...); pretty reserved around people; a great night-time sleeper but starting to move beyond an afternoon nap (or maybe it's a phase??); no longer sucking his thumb, at his own initiative; VERY talkative and expressive and funny.

At breakfast on Timo's birthday, I asked him some questions, which he answered very readily and easily. Here are his answers (thanks for the idea, Katie and Elsie).

What is your favorite toy? Fire truck
What is your favorite food? Porridge, shredded wheat, flakes (what he has every morning for breakfast)
What do you like to play with Mattias? Trucks
What do you like to play with Mommy? Books
What do you like to play with Daddy? Play basketball
What do you like to do outside? Soccer ball
What is your favorite music? Sesame Street and Bible songs
Can you count from 1 to 10? "1, 2, 10" (laughing)
Can you say the days of the week? Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, 'fursday, 'seconday
What is your favorite place downtown? sidewalk and campus
What is your favorite trail? park with big steep hill (Monument Valley)
Who are your friends? Aunt Katie, Nonna, Jaja, wildebeest (laughing)
What is your favorite book? Cars and Trucks and Things that Go (Richard Scarry)

 
 We love you, Timo, and your funny, sweet, helpful, easy-going personality!