Sickies

Luke came down with a fever and a cough yesterday. Sadly he had to miss BSF this morning. Devota, a friend from my days in the evening class, came to watch Paul and got two for the price of one. Praise God for friends who love my kids. Luke spent the entire morning lying in our bed watching videos on my computer. I have never seen him be that still for that long, but he also doesn't get much media, so this was a special treat. Paul, meanwhile, charmed his caretaker and even learned to say her name. As she was leaving he said, "Bye Ota." So sweet.

These pictures are from a few days ago, but I know my mom, who has been back at her place for twenty-four hours, is probably missing her boys. :-) They miss her too.

Paul with a vehicle. That's pretty much all it takes.

Luke outside in his "tree." It's a rhododendron that has been pruned well over the years. It's a perfect spot for him.

Pictures for Grandmas

I'm not sure what has been keeping me busy, but I've not had much time to post. Both Grandma and Oma are away from their boys, so this post is for them. These pictures are from last Friday when I attempted a trip to the park. Brrrrr. It was so cold that we only lasted about fifteen minutes. That January sunshine can be deceiving. Regardless, the boys enjoyed the trip out and there are pictures!

EE-OL! (Wheel)

Waiting patiently for snack...looking more like a little boy every day.

The Swinging Bangsund Brothers

Monday Night Reflections

It goes so fast. Today we went to the indoor playpark at our local community center gymnasium. On one side of the room they had all the toddler/preschool toys while the other side was set up for older kids due to the holiday. Luke is allowed to run around and do his own thing while I hang out with Paul. At one point I looked up to find Luke and found him across the room actually engaged in using a lacrosse stick properly, playing catch with another boy. He is growing so fast. As Erik headed out for BSF tonight I realized it is two and half short years until Luke heads out with him. Suddenly Monday evenings with both my boys are more precious. We danced in the kitchen. We were elephants in the livingroom. And the dishes didn't get done.

Weekend

It has been a weekend. Yesterday we spent the day attempting various projects. Erik worked on the garage a bit. We are hoping to actually park a vehicle in there sometime in the new year. I managed to un-decorate the house from Christmas a little bit. Neither of us were completely successful in our ventures, but progress was made.
The cutest moment of yesterday was the dance fest in the kitchen. We have discovered Pandora, a website where you create your own online streaming radio stations, based on your personal preferences. We have stations for Oldies, 80's, Christmas, A capella, and finally Erik created the early 90's mix yesterday afternoon. The dancing commenced. There are no pictures or video because Mommy was too busy dancing! Everyone joined in and I must say, both my boys have moves.
Yesterday evening Erik and I went to Anthony and Sarah's for dinner, some new friends. They have an adorable baby boy who is at that super cute stage of crawling up into your lap just so he can smile at you. I'm addicted to him. We also had fun teaching them to play Settlers of Catan, a game that is complex to learn but crazy fun once you have it down. We had a great time with them, but the best part of the evening was arriving home and hearing from Brenda, our babysitter, that the boys were sweet all evening. Brenda is a BSF buddy from my time in the evening class. Her two girls are a senior in high school and a sophomore in college. Her life is different from mine. Erik and I prayed as we drove away for the evening that the boys would be a joy to Brenda and she would be blessed for the time she spent with them. God is faithful and He can do ANYTHING!! :-)
Today was a mixed bag. We served in Mosaic Kids, the Sunday School program at church, for just the second time. It is so fun getting to know everyone and the program itself. Our role is Gathering Host. It's a jack-of-all trades kind of job. We help get knew folks checked in while also helping teachers get needed supplies. When there is an emergency teacher absence (usually because of illness) we jump in and fill the position. This is easy because there are two teachers in every class, so the other one does the teaching. I got to be in the third-fifth classroom today. It was a blast! I forget how much I enjoy kids and then I get tossed into the mayhem only to discover, I belong there. Good times.
So the not so fun parts of the day involved violent action on the part of my three-year-old toward my one-year old. Luke has the horrible habit of pushing Paul and today Paul was pushed hard enough to fall down and smash his head into a doorframe in the hallway. I didn't realize the extent of the injury until later, but I could tell by Paul's reaction that he was in a lot of pain. I have never been that angry at Luke before. It was awful. When we finally got everyone calmed down, Mommy included, we showed Luke the small cut and large bump beginning to grow on Paul's forehead. Luke immediately apologized to both Paul and Mommy, of his own volition. I think he knew that he had damaged my baby and I wasn't happy with him. Forgiveness is precious because God is able to show Himself through us broken human beings. After dinner, during which Luke was rude, defiant and in all ways unpleasant, I was able to sit down with him and say, "Today was a hard day. I forgive you. Tomorrow will be better." Those were my exact words. I could almost see the weight of it lift from his face. His response was a simple, "Okay, Mommy."
And now some pics:

Luke loves Paul and vice versa.

Elephants arriving in the kitchen.

You can't tell, but Paul is covered in the dregs from a cup of hot cocoa he found sitting atop the piano. My bad. I was on the phone with Bestefar, Erik's grandpa, when I discovered my youngest covered in cocoa doing his best to spread it all over the piano. I described to Bestefar exactly what I was looking at. I didn't need the phone to hear his laugh all the way from Carlsbad, CA. :-) It made the clean up easier and my attitude better. I should call him every evening around 4pm when my boys can't manage to spend an hour without nearly destroying the house.

A.Y.P.

While cleaning the house this morning I entered the living room to find all the work I had previously done completely undone. A duplo bucket of cards (don't ask) had been dumped all over the floor, along with a small grouping of plastic magnetic letters. Picking up the letters, I happened to notice that they were A, Y, and P. These three letters used to hold huge significance for me when I was a teacher. Adequate Yearly Progress is the educational jargon for making the cut. If your school fails to increase its test scores, you have not met AYP. If this happens two years in a row, your school could be on the receiving end of some rather serious interventions. It has been a long time since I thought about that acronym. I can't help but notice that as a mom nobody is monitoring my progress nearly as closely. And what would AYP look like for a three year old and a one year old anyway? I'm pretty sure that if anyone tried to measure Luke's progress with any sort of test, he would scream, "NO! I won't do it!" and run away. Paul would climb up on the table and throw anything he could get his hands on. Maybe this is why mom's don't have to make AYP. We would all be fired and then who would replace us? Or perhaps our progress is adequate if we make it through the year with fewer tantrums than our kids. Now that I have two kids, I would say that I can meet that standard. :-)
And on an even more controversial note: now that I'm a parent I feel even more strongly that teachers and administrators alone cannot be held solely responsible for student outcomes. What I do here everyday for the first four years of his life matters more than what Luke's kindergarten teacher will do in an entire year. The content of his character is formed here at home and that will have more influence on his academic achievement than any teacher, curriculum, or test. And that's the way I feel about that.
Okay, enough of my soap box. Here are some adorable pictures instead!

Paul in his natural habitat - anywhere that is higher than the ground.

The bus in the kitchen.

Basketball in the playroom.

For Ellen

We received a card from Cousin Ellen, one of Dave's cousins in California, saying that she loves the blog and her favorite picture right now is Paul with the funny glasses. This picture was taken about a week before Christmas, but life was a little too busy for me to post it then. So here it is now. My current favorite picture of Paul.

As a former Choir Geek, I can't help but be proud of the eyebrow lift, albeit assisted, that Paul is able to achieve.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I've been away from my blog for a week. It's been a good one. We celebrated Christmas despite the crazy snowy road conditions. We made it to Grandma and Grandpa's Christmas Eve and enjoyed tamales and sopa torasca, a tradition from Mexico that this Norwegian family has adopted. Yummy. Christmas day we traveled to Uncle Bob and Aunt Cindy's and were treated to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride on the way up to their house. The road conditions were so bad that Bob met us at the bottom of the hill and drove us up in his all-wheel drive SUV. It was actually pretty fun! Luke and Paul loved it. :-)
This past week we have worked on projects around the house. We replaced two light fixtures in the kitchen area and did some major clean up in the basement. Our basement up to this point has been functional but not fun. Lots of boxes and not a whole lot of organization. All that has changed. The main room down there is now home to two reasonably comfortable couches, a projector that produces a 110 inch picture, a scrapbooking bar, and a Wii. It's pretty awesome! We hosted Game Day today and had such a great time watching football with Erik's parents, Oma and the boys. We look forward to many more good times. If you want to come over and play, just give us a call!
And now, a few pictures of the week's events.

Luke with our new play mat. He loves it!

Paul with his new fire engine riding toy. He couldn't be more cute.

Luke with his new easel. Great gift, Aunt Nikki! He drew this tree himself.

Paul and friend on New Year's Eve. We rang in the New Year at 7:30pm. Such party animals.

Paul with his new wooden truck and horse from Aunt Krista. His words: "Yee HAW!"