Little Gym

I am so excited!  We enrolled the boys in a parent-child class at the Little Gym.  I love the Little Gym.  I had parent-child classes at the Little Gym with 3 of the 4 children I nannied.  I'm a firm believer in their program.  I love how it helps children gain self-confidence, build physical skills and gives them a place to grow and learn.  We are in the "Beast" class that meets every Saturday morning.  The class is for children ages 19 months- 3 years old.  It's wonderful going on the weekend because that allows Nate to participate in the classes with us.  Both boys have really been enjoying their class.

Magnus & Ragnar on their first day at The Little Gym

Minnesota Visitors

Nate's dad and his wife came to meet us and visit for a long weekend in September.  Ragnar and Magnus warmed up to them quickly.  We had a great time site seeing in Seattle and then spending time together at the house. 

Magnus & Grandpa Helgren

Ragnar & Grandma Helgren

Art

Ragnar and Magnus are starting to show interest in expressing themselves through artwork.  I have been trying to break out the crayons and paper more frequently.  We had a large section of the photo paper backdrop to play with and color on.  It was great!  Magnus still has a tendency to eat crayons, but he is also enjoying coloring with them too.

 

We also did finger painting for the first time.  They loved the colored paint on their papers and would move it around a bit and then sign "more" to have more paint on the paper.

Beach Day

Right before school started up for Auntie, we did a beach day on the Puget Sound.  We went to Golden Gardens in Seattle, and it was the perfect day for it.  We set up our umbrella, towels and gear and let the boys go for it.  They dug in the sand, collected rocks, walked on the beach and down to the water.  We had lunch and then packed up and headed home.  It was a fantastic outing.

Ball!

We went to the zoo with Auntie at the end of summer.  I figured that Magnus and Ragnar would enjoy seeing all of the animals.  Nope.  Their favorite thing about the zoo was all of the balls that the animals had in their areas to play with.  Each exhibit we came to I would point out the animal.  They would look around, see a ball and yell "BALL!"  At the elephant exhibit there was an actual ball to check out on the outside of the exhibit.  I think that may have been the highlight of their trip to the zoo.

Newspaper

Grumpa broke out the newspaper for the boys to play with.  They started out with gently pulling the pages apart.  Then the paper got crumpled, torn up, rolled in, thrown and eventually Ragnar tried to eat it.  It was a giant newspaper/newsprint mess, but Ragnar and Magnus loved every second of it. 

Papa's Helper

We stayed at a hotel for our trip to Utah and decided to nap the boys at my parent's house most days.  Because of that we had to bring our pack n' plays with us every morning and take them back every night.  Magnus loved helping Nate with the luggage cart each night.  He took his "job" very seriously and wasn't easily swayed from doing it.

Fry Sauce

Magnus is a fan of all dips.  There hasn't been a dip he has come across that he hasn't enjoyed.  While we were visiting in Utah, we indulged in fry sauce when we went out to eat.  Magnus immediately fell in love with fry sauce.  A couple of days into the trip we had stopped for dinner before heading to Katelyn's art show at her work.  We were finishing up dinner and cleaning up when I looked up, and Magnus had grabbed a cup of fry sauce and was drinking it.  All the adults grabbed cameras and snapped away.  This picture is my favorite of the ones I took.  It captures the bliss he had while "drinking" the fry sauce.

Swimming!

The hotel we stayed at in SLC had an indoor pool.  We were very excited to take Magnus and Ragnar into a big pool for the first time.  We took them after breakfast the second day we were there.  We had walked past the pool several times by that point and talked about it and how much fun it would be.  We got them all dressed in their swim gear after breakfast and headed down to the pool.

 

 Nate got in first with Ragnar.  He was very, very unhappy and wanted out almost immediately.  He then had Magnus in the pool with him.  Magnus was a bit unsure but did great. 

I then got in the pool with Magnus, and we bounced up and down in the water and walked back and forth in the pool.  He really liked it.  I then had Nate hand me Ragnar.  Once again, he was quite unhappy and got out very quickly. 

Hogle Zoo

On our first full day in Utah, we went to Hogle Zoo with Gramsie & Grumpa.  It was a warm day and very sunny.  We saw the new bear exhibit and rode the carousel.  It was a lot of fun. 

Papa & Ragnar @ elephant exhibit

Magnus @ bear exhibit

Magnus on carousel

Ragnar & Papa on carousel

After the zoo we grabbed lunch at Leatherbys.  Magnus and Ragnar were AMAZED at the huge ice cream sundaes we had after our lunch.  Magnus loved the ice cream, and Ragnar wasn't as much of a fan (too cold) but enjoyed the cookies from Grumpa's sundae.

First Airplane Trip

We went to visit family in Utah in August.  We decided to fly this time.  We were very prepared with snacks and activities for the boys as well as goodie bags for the passengers flying around us.  We had a small mix up at the airport (we forgot a bag) which resulted in us making a mad-dash home to get the bag and then going back to the airport.  This resulted in us missing our original non-stop flight.  We were able to get on the next flight out which was to Reno, NV that then connected to UT.  We had to scrap our plan of bringing the boys' car seat on the plane.  We were unsure of how they would do unrestrained, but they were great!  They loved looking out the windows, eating their snacks, playing with their toys and watching everyone around us.  When we landed in Reno we had a lot of turbulence, which Mama hates, but both Magnus and Ragnar were laughing and smiling.  Ragnar signed "more" when it stopped. 

Mama (tired!) & Ragnar

Papa & Magnus

We had a brief layover which allowed for diaper changes and some running time. 

Magnus & Ragnar running in Reno

Ragnar and Magnus loved all the airplanes and new things to see. 

Magnus & planes

Ragnar & planes

We then boarded our second flight.  The takeoff was turbulent again, and they loved it.  They were sleepy on the plane but didn't fuss.  We made it to SLC, and they both fell asleep as we rented our car and drove to the hotel. 

Papa & Ragnar

Mama & Magnus

They did a fantastic job for their first flights!

Concert

The boys went to their first concert over the summer.  It was right after their 18 months well baby check and they were in pretty good moods so I thought we should try.  It was an overcast and chilly day but warmed up quickly.  The concert was part of the Kirkland Outdoor Music series at the Kirkland Marina park.  Auntie came with us and it was a lot of fun.  We heard a band, Johnny Bregar, I hadn't heard and we really liked them.  Magnus loved dancing to the music.  Ragnar was much more interested in watching the musicians and the other kids around us.  They both loved pulling up grass and trying to eat it.

Auntie & Magnus dancing

Dancing joy

Laughing and dancing

 

Grassy snack

Bringing Mama some grass

21 months Old

Ragnar and Magnus are such big boys!  They are now twenty-one months old.  They are learning so much each day.

Magnus

·         Size 4 diapers and size 4 overnight diapers

·         18 M pants, 18 M onesies/shirts, 18 M sleepers

·         No new teeth this month

·         Words:  boo, pat, yes, eek!, yucky, mop

·         Makes up words and sings them or repeats them over and over and over

·         Sings to his toys and makes them dance

·         Helps his puppets “read” books

·         Likes to help with yard work, especially raking leaves/pulling weeds

·         Jumps in his crib

Ragnar

·         Size 4 diapers and size 4 overnight diapers

·         18 M pants, 18 M onesies/shirts, 18 M sleepers

·         Words: baby, yes, beep, mop, me

·         One new tooth.  Now has 16 teeth!

·         Likes to play in the yard and collect leaves, weeds and rocks

·         Will tickle and chase Magnus

·         Is a bit shy with new situations and people

Both

·         Request belly kisses and “omps”

·         Pick which animals to sleep with at night

·         Choose which pajamas they will wear

·         Make “forts” with their chairs

·         Pretend that their stuffed animals sleep (tell us “shhhh”)

·         Understand to wave and say “bye” when they leave or others leave