More Playtime & Language Skills

Yesterday morning, I had three 2 year olds here at home. S, my friend had asked me if I could watch her K during the morning, as she had a job fair to go to and no babysitter.

Sure, as we didn't have any plans anyway, I didn't think that it would be a problem. She brought her around 8.30am and my kids, especially Isabella, was so excited. "Girl coming!" "Girl coming play me?!" "Mamma, girl coming play now?" "Girl play my room?

As it's pretty hard to say Katherine, we just call her K or "the girl". The name Katherine will come I'm sure as we spend more time together. Talking about names, because we've been talking a lot about K and her mom, and the names, I also been teaching them to answer the question "What's your name?" and both Benjamin and Isabella now can say their names. "Ben" Isabella has been able to say for a long time, but Ben has always just said "ME", but never his own name. Now he can say "Ben" too, and it sounds so cute. 

Isabella, has not said her name before either, so yesterday was the first time she actually said "Bella". It sounds really cute, and they were both so proud! I kept playing with them asking them, are you Ben, but to Isabella and vice verse, and they just giggled and Isabella said "No Mommy, me Bella!" Something else that has stuck right away is this boy or girl thing. They know who's who, and Ben points to himself "Me Boy" and Isabella does the same and says "Me girl". When I ask about other people, they always say it right. I was surprised how well they understand that, that all men and boys are "boys" and women and girls are "girls".

Isabella has become so verbal anyway over the last couple of months. Around their birthday, she was verbal but didn't yet put many words together, but now she talks more and more every day. Puts things together and starts talking while she's playing.

Like the other day, she was sitting in her room playing with her doll, and the doll was supposed to sleep. "No, lay down now, shush shush, night night." Wonder where she has picked that up? Haha.

She also sings a lot, some made up words but also more and more "real" songs. Sings along with movies, TV or radio. Favorite song right now is "If you're Happy and you know it" and "Five little monkeys sitting in a tree" Even if she doesn't say all the words clear, she almost knows them all to both of these songs. She also can count to ten, I guess it comes from all the Hide and Seek...Sometimes it only goes correct until six, but then with a little help, she can easily finish.

She is also very "bossy" sometimes..With upset voice she can for instance say, "Mamma come sit me now!" Mamma - NOW!" "Mamma, pat me!". But she can just as often come up to you and put her little arms around your neck and say "I low (love) you Mamma".

Ben is not as verbal, has for the longest time not said anything else but Mamma, Daddy, Titi (Cassie) Bye bye, No, Yes, Home, Mine..Now just the last couple of weeks, he starts more and more to put words together as well, and says things like "Me too mamma", "Mamma, help me mamma" "Me home now". The word home, means everything as in the question "Are we going home now/soon?" "I want to go home", "We are home now", "I'm home now"..since all the driving in the car, from the move and other trips we take, he's very keen on coming home and is enjoying it at home. His safety, his security. As he always seem to wonder, I always make an effort to tell him that now we are going shopping and then we are going home! And then in the store, we are just going to pay and then we are going home. To make him understand and it seems to do him good! OK, he says then and nods his little head...:)

Anyway, here are some pictures from yesterday when Katherine was over here. It is so good for the kids to have someone else over here and play with their things. Learning to share is a hard thing to do!! Especially if it's your own things. When we've been at Toddler time when they have playtime it hasn't been an issue really, but then it's nobody's toys, now they have to share their own toys, much harder!! Benjamin kind of left the girls do their thing, he was wondering around in his room, playing with his cars, I was reading to him for a while and then we all played in Isabella's room. The girls did really good together. They played with duplo and My Little Ponies. They also built a castle and K had her little doll Rapunzel with her, and kept playing and screaming " Let down your hair!", Isabella was playing the prince (in her mind it didn't need to be a prince so her little doll Tinkerbell was just as good as a rescuer!). So fun to watch and to hear them. K is very good verbally, and speaks very clear. She will turn 3 in December, so she is a little bit older then mine, and you can tell for sure.

Of course it's very individual at this age how much or little the kids speak, but once it starts there is hardly any stopping to them! We did have a few little issues with sharing of favorite things, but in whole, I was very happy with my kids. One have to consider that they are not used to having kids in their own age over and in their things, so this is all new to them!

S came back around 11am and then they stayed for another hour where we talked and the kids continued to play. Then mine were getting tired, as lunch and nap time was getting closer and then they left. It was a very successful play date I think, and after the nap, the kids couldn't stop talking about it, about K aka "The girl".

"Let down your hair Rapunzel"

Pink Ponies and Princesses

Thumbs up for playtime mamma!

I will I will - Rock You!

It was a while since I posted a video clip of the kids, but here is one of Ben from last week that is really cute!

Playdate At Jumpoleenz

Isabella and her first friend K.

On Tuesday morning, my friend S checked with me if I wanted to meet up with the kids to play at the local Jumpoleenz. Yes, I haven't talked about it or mentioned it here on the blog, didn't dare to take out any joy in advance, but now after meeting her a couple of times I can say that I found someone! I found a new friend, it feels great and she is truly a very nice woman in my age and has a daughter K that will be three years old in December. We seem to be a good match and I'm really happy to have found her, it took me long enough to get out of isolation and get to know someone.

We met at the library in summer when I took the kids to Toddler time, and when it stopped we decided to meet up privately when we were back from the vacation. So we did. I invited them over here for a play date two weeks ago, last week we were supposed to meet for a playdate in the park, but I had to cancel that one. 

So now again this week, we met again. I had never been to the Jumpoleenz with the kids, but it was close and perfect for their age, and I'm sure that I'll take them back soon, they had lots of fun. They only have open for an hour at a time, and it's a little pricey with two (or three) kids for just an hour. In that hour, it's a lot of running around and not just jumping but they had also a nice crawling area for younger kids, but as we were the only ones there, we could let the kids "run wild" and play there too, without having to worry about them running over some babies.

An hour goes fast, and the kids didn't want to leave, but were getting both hungry and tired, so this was a perfect activity for an hour before lunch- and nap time. I didn't bring the camera, but I took a few pictures with the phone, but the quality isn't the best. they weren't really standing still long enough for the phone to focus!

Dinner Choices & Beautiful Surprise

Like I said in my earlier post, we had a great night. You who know us, know that we can be "hard to please" when it comes to food and that we often get disappointed about the food when we go out to restaurants. Yesterday was no exception. BUT, we choose not to focus on that, but to focus on us, which was nice. Sure we made comments about the service and the food, but we didn't let it ruin our night.

For a starter we ordered a baked brie with caramelized onions and a plate of calamari with fried onions and bell pepper. The calamari dish was very good and very big, could easily been a starter for 4 people! The brie wasn't creamy at all but rather hard, let's just say, I've had much better ones, so that one was a bit of a disappointment.

For the main course, I ordered cedar plank grilled salmon and rice and Chris had a rib eye steak with the same rice. The rice wasn't good at all, and the citrus sauce for my salmon was not tasty. Luckily I had ordered the sauce on the side, otherwise the whole fish would have been ruined. The fish itself was OK, nothing special, but the vegetables were just plain tasteless and not good at all..It turned out to be an expensive dish with just eating the salmon and leaving rice and veggies..Good for me there was plenty of bread!

Chris liked his meat and didn't care to much for the rice either. One little funny touch that they had was a portable salad bar. They came to the table with it, and you got to choose what items you wanted in you salad. Nice! As a complimentary for it's being our anniversary, we got a chocolate desert to share, but we were too full (mostly because of the large starters, salad and bread on my part) to eat anything more than a nibble. Took it home for a happy 10 year old instead!

So for you who wondered about the night, the company was way better than the food!

I just have to show you what our wonderful daughter had done earlier during the day. She was busy for a while, and I thought that she was just playing in her room not wanting the little ones in there and that's why the door was closed, but I soon got to see why. Isn't it the cutest thing ever?!

Cassie had made our bed and collected favorite photos of us on the bed given us a Happy Love Day note. So cute - So thoughtful - So loving - Sooooo Cassandra!

Anniversary Date!

Last night, we went out for dinner. Chris had surprised me with booking a babysitter (the same one we used another time from his work) and was originally being able to take the Sunday off, but things changed in the last minute so he still had to work. He did manage to get off earlier than normal so he was home here at around 5.30pm to take a quick shower, pick up pizza for the kids and then when the babysitter came we were off.

We went to a nice restaurant down town, that had got lots of good reviews and it was very nice. The atmosphere was nice, tablecloths and cloth napkins, real glass etc, which isn't always the case even in "better" restaurants here I find sometimes.

We had a nice meal, a good talk and a good time. Being a Sunday night when everyone needed to get up early the next morning, we didn't stay out very long. We were back home around 9pm and the kids were all still up. Getting ready for bed though, and when the baby sitter left, we put the kids to bed. Everything had worked very well, much thanks to Cassie, that is their rock and security when they are with new people. She also knows where everything is and understands what they want and mean, which isn't always that easy to get out of a 2 year old.

The kids fell asleep pretty early thank good, because we were both tired. Chris had been up since 4am and I had been up with the kids and not getting much sleep the night before either so it was an early night. Luckily the kids slept pretty good, had to get up a few times, but not nearly as many as some nights where I hardly get any sleep at all.

It was very nice to get out, we should do it more often, that's for sure. The pictures didn't come out very well in the dark restaurant corner, and when you turn the image around taking on yourself, the flash doesn't even kick in, so the quality was very poor. That's why I this time choose to do something different with the pictures to get the most out of the quality, and in sepia and a little softener, they did come out much better!

My First Earth Quake!

Source: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/ci/15200401/us/index.html

Yesterday, it wasn't just strong feelings in the heart - there were also very strong feelings in the ground! During the whole day, there were several earth quakes in south west California, close to the town Brawley, not far at all from us.

The local newspaper, The Yuma Sun, writes:

The U.S. Geological Survey recorded one of the biggest tremors at 1:58 p.m. It had a magnitude of 5.5 on the Richter scale and hit two miles south-southwest of Brawley and 11 miles north of El Centro. It originated 5.5 miles below the surface of the ground.

An earlier quake of magnitude 5.3 struck at 12:31 p.m. three miles northwest of Brawley and 16 miles north of El Centro. It had a depth of 5.8 miles, according to the USGS.

The earthquake was preceded and followed by several smaller tremors between 2.5 and 4.9 magnitude. The USGS reported the first tremor of 2.5 magnitude at 8:33 a.m., about two miles north of Brawley and 15 miles north of El Centro.

Read more: http://www.yumasun.com/articles/felt-81311-yuma-brawley.html#ixzz24oQrcVJZ

Another good link is the Real-Time Earthquake Map.
There you can actually see how they are spreading and where they are. Pretty interesting to see how close Yuma is to the "action".

I could easily have missed it too, if it wouldn't have been at that time as it was. I had just put the little ones down for their afternoon nap, and just sat down by the computer. It was quiet in the house, Cassie was watching TV and all of a sudden the glass sides in the big lantern that we have standing in the corner just a couple  of feet from where I was sitting, started to shake pretty hard. When I looked up to see what was going on, I felt the ground shake and my whole legs got a tingling wave.

It only lasted for about 20-30 seconds, and I never got scared as it was so short and not more than that. I called Cassie over and we sat down on the floor just in case it would come back soon again so that she too could feel it, but it didn't then. I then read online what was going on and checked out some links like the ones above to see how strong and where the epicenter was..

Chris had felt also the one around noon, and then the one around 2pm that I felt. So now I have one more thing I can check of that I have somewhat experienced from what mother nature brings:

- Hurricane: North Carolina, September 2008
- Tornadoes: Kansas, several warnings and several that hit the area but thankfully not close to our house. Still tornado warnings and sat in shelter.
- Blizzards: Kansas, several during the winters
- Extreme heat: Arizona, summer 2012. Over 100F/38C for soon 4 months. Highest temperature measured 119F/48.3C
- Earthquake: Arizona, August 26, 2012

I always used to say that it doesn't matter where in the US you live, you always have some kind of disasters. Hurricanes on the east coast, tornadoes in the mid west and earthquakes on the west coast. Yep, now it has come true! I hope that it stays with that though, I don't need to have a bad earth quake to happen, this was enough!

This is not unusual but as you can read here, not that usual either:

The seismic activity is not unusual, but scientists have puzzled over the cause. The last significant swarm occurred in 2005 when a thousand quakes, the largest at magnitude-5.1, shook the south shore of the Salton Sea. In 1981, a cluster of quakes hit a region five miles to the northwest of Sunday's sequence, with the largest measuring a magnitude-5.8. The region was very active in the 1960s and 1970s.
"They seem to light up and turn off for reasons we don't understand," said USGS seismologist Susan Hough.
Despite the shaking, the swarms have not triggered any significant quake in the past, Hough said.

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/08/26/2268919/a-series-of-earthquakes-rattle.html#storylink=cpy

Happy Anniversary!

Today it's our 6th Anniversary! Time flies...There is so many memories that comes back to me on this special day. Many happy ones. Instead of repeating myself from last year, when I wrote a lot about our wedding, I refer you to read the entries I wrote then.

If you would like to read about and see pictures from our wedding, you can read here, here, and here .

This year, to recognize our 6 years, I choose to post 6 special photos from a very special sunset not long ago. I guess you all can guess where it was taken, even if the sun had already set too much to get clear pictures from the background. I have many other ones to share with you on another day from there.

I choose these pictures as they are very suitable in this entry, romantic, special and filled with love.

Still, I can't write an anniversary entry without at least one picture from our wedding, so here it comes:

Happy 6th Anniversary Alskling! Love you always and forever!

Happy Birthday My Friend!

Today it's my dear friend Linda's birthday!! Happy Happy Birthday Sweetie!! As always I wish that I could be there celebrating your day with you, and especially last night when you all had a big crayfish celebration with friends. I so would have loved to be there - not just for the crayfish and wine, but also to celebrate and spend time with you!!

Last year, I wrote about how we met and about our friendship, and much would be a repetition if I wrote it again, so I refer you to read HERE. 

The picture below is taken the first birthday we celebrated together, hers that is. She turned 20 in this picture, taken 1993. I can't believe that it will be 20 years ago next year...and I DON'T want to think about how old we then will be!! To me it feels like this was taken just last night.....

I miss you so much and wish that we soon can meet. It's been two years now, much longer than we are used to...Hope you have a wonderful day, lots of love!! 

Celebrating Linda's Birthday 1993 in Bern, Switzerland

Yuma Mosquitoes Carry West Nile

So after days, weeks?, of reports on the news on new cases all over the US of the West Nile Virus, it's now gotten proven in the mosquitoes in Yuma, so the news say:

“Fight the Bite” - News - YumaSun

It's very scary, as there is no cure, and even if there is not such a big risk that you will actually get infected, that they have tested the mosquitoes in Yuma as 48% infected - is frightening and it's all of a sudden so many that could infect you. Every second mosquito that you see or worse bite you, could carry the virus. Then it's a lot al of a sudden...

For you who don't know what it is, here is some information: 

West Nile Virus, WNV, is a mosquito-borne disease that is spread by the bite of an infected mosquito. An estimated 80% of people infected with the virus show no symptoms. Approximately 20% of infections cause a clinical presentation known as West Nile Virus fever, which is characterized by an acute onset of fever, and can be accompanied by, but not limited to, headache, muscle aches, fatigue and joint pain.

One in 150 people infected with WNV will go on to develop severe symptoms, which can include fever, headache, stiff neck, disorientation or confusion, vision loss, seizures, and paralysis. In some cases, the neurological effects of WNV infection can be permanent. There is no treatment available for WNV. Treatment for severe cases consists of supportive care. The best defense against WNV is to protect yourself from biting mosquitoes and to eliminate mosquito breeding areas.

Source: Here

Suntanning

Yesterday I did do something that I haven't done in a while. When I had gotten the kids to sleep for their nap on the sofa and carried them inside into their beds, I switched into my bikini and went outside to suntan for a while. I had made plans to Skype with my dear friend Linda at the time, and as I can't speak loud inside this house on the phone while they are sleeping I would have to go outside anyway. It was hot though! I almost forgot how hot it gets as I haven't been tanning for a while now.

I sprayed myself with sunscreen, and it almost felt like I was laying under a broiler...Most of the phone call, I was sitting in the shade under the patio roof, it was way too hot in the sun for long. It's almost crazy, we have this hot sunny weather, but it's too hot and sunny. Which means that you still can't go outside and suntan all the time at all - it's just too hot! So even if you'd think that I would have the best tan ever, so is not the case unfortunately. A short time here and there is all one can stand outside.

The season is far from over though, so I hope to use the somewhat cooler temperatures in September and October to keep the tan going....

And I haven't forgotten about the rest of the vacation pictures! The Grand Canyon ones are soon coming up!!

New Friendship & Playdate In The Pool

Today, Cassie had a playdate with a new friend. Allison just moved here to Yuma with her family this summer and she started in Cassie's class now. I went up to the parents at the School orientation night to introduced myself as Cassie had been talking about this new girl that seemed nice. I always want to meet the parents and I wanted to open up the contact and hopefully therefore help Cassie make friends with her as the parents then already would know me/us. Since then I've encouraged Cassie to talk to her about playing on the weekend, and this week they did make plans.

I called her mom yesterday to double check what would work and Cassie was welcome to come over and play there in the afternoon if she wanted. Ofcourse she wanted! To make it even better, they have a pool, so it was one excited girl that I drove there around noon today. They have a very nice house and the mom asked me in and we talked for a while. Really nice, and as I'm not used to that really from other moms here, I was happily surprised! The little ones were getting tired and needed their nap, so after a while it was time for us to go. 

Cassie stayed until 5.30pm when I picked her up, again was asked inside by the mom and dad while the girls changed from their swimsuits, they had been in the pool pretty much all afternoon. 

They had had a great time, and the mom was happy that we got contact and hope that Cassie wants to come over soon again, and we said lets see what the plans are for next weekend, if she wants to come over here or Cassie again goes over to their house. 

Cassie was so happy, which made me feel very good. She so deserves a really good friend, and as the friendship with Aubri has been a bit rocky since they started school again, and the other friend Taryn hasn't even contacted her (and not answered any of Cassie's texts or phone calls) since school started, it's great that she now makes more friends.

As the temperatures were around 105F/40.5C today, I too would have loved to spend an afternoon by/in the pool!! So happy for her though, and again I'm crossing my fingers that this will turn out good.

 Cassie had her iPod with her and asked Allison's mom to take a few photos. 

Here also with Allison's brother.

Something funny happened today when I picked Cassie up. This family has a big fat cat and he was very nice and the kids got to pet him already when we dropped Cassie off. Now anyway, instead of being all nice to the cat, the little ones started to wave their hands and go "shuuu, shuuu, away!!!" to the cat!!! It was so funny! I didn't understand then, but only said to them no, pet the cat, not push the cat away. Pet him gently etc.

Not until when I talked to Cassie about it at home tonight at dinner it hit me what they were doing or why they were doing it!! The whole spring I was doing just that every day several times a day when we had the cat problem and all the cat came to our backyard to do their business, and I always tried to scare them away. Isabella especially who said it, must have remembered that (this is now 4-5 months ago!!) and thought that this was the way to act around cats! I totally laughed when I realized this! My sweet little girl, I wonder if I forever now have ruined your chances to become a cat lover? Still, she loves her two stuffed cats that need to go with her to bed, so at least those cats are loved!

Wupatki National Monument

The last stop on our trip before we went ahead to Grand Canyon, was a stop at the Wupatki National Monument.  

 Wupatki ruin - Picture Google

To get the best information about this, I googled to best describe what it is and when it was built. 

The many settlement sites scattered throughout the monument were built by the Ancient Pueblo People. Wupatki was first inhabited around 500 AD. Wupatki, which means "Tall House" in the Hopi language, is a multistory Sinagua pueblo dwelling having more than 100 rooms.

For its time and place, there was no other pueblo like Wupatki. Less than 800 years ago, it was the tallest, largest, and perhaps the richest and most influential pueblo around. It was home to 85-100 people, and several thousand more lived within a day’s walk. And it was built in one of the lowest, warmest, and driest places on the Colorado Plateau. What compelled people to build here?

Human history here spans at least 10,000 years. But only for a time, in the 1100s, was the landscape this densely populated. The eruption of nearby Sunset Crater Volcano a century earlier probably played a part. Families that lost their homes to ash and lava had to move. They discovered that the cinders blanketing lands to the north could hold moisture needed for crops.

As the new agricultural community spread, small scattered homes were replaced by a few large pueblos, each surrounded by many smaller pueblos and pit houses. Wupatki, Wukoki, Lomaki, and other masonry pueblos emerged from bedrock. Trade networks expanded, bringing exotic items like turquoise, shell jewelry, copper bells, and parrots. Wupatki flourished as a meeting place of different cultures. Then, by about 1250, the people moved on.

 Source: here and here.

Reading about it, I realize that we actually missed a lot when we were there, and it annoys me a bit. As I like to plan ahead and research about things that we are going to visit and see, before we go, I had now by this last minute plans no idea what we actually were going to see and visit. Not until we were there, and then we only went around to the first ruin that we saw, the Wukoki ruin. That we could/were supposed to walk/hike around and there fore be able to see all the rest and the main ruin - the Wupatki (see picture above from google) - we just didn't know. It wasn't really advertised or any information out there, so I guess that it was our own fault not knowing what we were able to see.

A visit like this should most likely take a whole day, to walk around at the different sites, take it all in, and not as fast as we did it, as this was just one in many stops in this one day, and we hadn't even reached our main goal yet, the Grand Canyon.

Walking to the ruins..

The girls checking out the sandstone

They certainly choose a location with a view building this pueblo.

Cissi & Andreas

Taking the time to play a little bit of peek a boo with the little ones

Family pictures

After checking out the ruins, we walked the trail around it and it was really beautiful. The red sand stone, the fascinating carved out stones and stone walls and the very blue sky. So beautiful! Spending some time here in the heat, it was soon time to head back to the car and drink! It was very hot and we wouldn't even have been able to hike around the whole sight with the kids. They wouldn't have managed to stay outside in the heat that long. Even with hats, sunscreen and sunglasses, we felt as if we would melt under the strong Arizona sun, and we were happy to get back into the car and turn on the AC!

Click on the picture to make it bigger and more readable..

These are pictures that Chris took waiting on the hill in line to go to the bathroom before we took off. I had already taken the kids to the car and I didn't see this there. If I would have seen this, I probably would have thought that wait a minute - there is more? 

Still, we were very happy to see what we did see, I really enjoyed it and was happy to see something so special. I also absolutely find Arizona so beautiful. Here were we traveled, there were so many untouched areas, and with hardly any vegetation, you could see the horizon in every direction in this open landscape. Amazing!