No Daddy?! Then a Sprotte-Holiday It Is!

With Nate on his short-tour in Korea for the 2011 Holiday Season, I decided to pack-up the girls and take them to visit my parents and sisters in Arizona for the holidays.  So with my dad, "Papa Bill", as my driving side-kick, we made the 22-hr drive from Belleville, IL, straight through to Pinetop, AZ! We were heros that trip--no really, we were.  It's a mind-blowing fact that we made that trip straight through, and the little girls only melted-down...I'd say, uh, thrice.  I'm not afraid to say it (while knocking on wood), that these little Irish Twins of mine are pretty good car-trip takers!
Side-note: can anyone tell that I've recently learned what the term Irish Twins means?! Yep, I've used it two blog posts in a row now, AND it's even in THIS year's Christmas card! I like to put my knowledge to use! Or in this case, into stories...
So when we got to AZ, the fall season was in full effect and park-playground time was the name of the game!  Luckily in my home town of Pinetop-Lakeside, we have a pretty nice park, Woodland Park, that's centrally located between Nana and Papa's houses.  So while we stayed with Nana Barbie (Grandma Barbara to some) while in AZ, we had morning park time very frequently with with Papa Bill.

I wish I could say she wasn't stopping the snot stream with that tongue :/



Lauren the Leaf Eater

Olivia-2 months old



Lauren's Park Playhouse...she needs to update!

Cross Country Traveling

Here's a quick look at us preparing for our cross country traveling... Shocker! My dad's asleep on the couch...and balancing Olivia on his belly without a support arm to keep her from flopping off no-less! No worries, I rearranged this sleeping arrangment post-photo op...



Papa Bill and Olivia pre-napping for the drive out to AZ



Lauren sleeping for the first 8 hrs of the cross country drive



The first official nose-picking photo...what a Charmer that Lauren is...

Trunk or Treat - Round 1!

The girls and I went to the Civil Engineering Squadron's trunk or treat a week before Halloween... The costume theme for us this year was large mammals. No specific reason for the theme, except costume availability from friends (I wasn't on my A-game, so costumes were not made/bought/etc). As you'll see, Lauren is the adorable elephant, and Olivia, the tiny cow :)  Lauren went from game to game slowly destructing it, while pillaging the candy supply :(  And Olivia was slowly overheating in her costume. BUT, overall, was a great time with friends...just wish Daddy was there to see his adorable girls.

The Cutest Elephant in the World!

Eating delicious fruit snacks

I've heard of a monkey on your back, but an elephant?!

Disrupting the first of many carnival-type games :/

Finding the gold coin in the rice for a prize-Lauren's FAV game this day

Still at the rice game...

...and more rice!

Lauren's at the treat bag for the corn-hole game, while
harboring a stolen game piece from the ring toss!

Again with the game disrupting...

And at least another kid jumped up on the game to interrupt as well!

Ah, ring toss and suckers-what a life!

This way mom!

Stealing cones from the hockey slap-shop game

No hood mom, no hood!!!

Ahhhhh!

Beautiful baby Olivia

Overheating cow...

Finally PLAYING a game, verses raiding it!

Lauren playing with her plastic eyeball prize from a game...

Lauren embracing her costumes customs...yeah for all-fours :)

Lauren's Version of Food Storage

On Saturday I went to put on my tennis shoes for a walk with the girls--to get them out of the house. Grabbed my shoes, of which Lauren had spent an absorbent amount of time with that day...and found out why that was her preferred toy all day.  Two words: snack storage!

Needless to say, Lauren cleared that "storage unit" out once she saw that I had discovered it! She's got to have her snack caches--she's crafty like that!

Babe in a Basket

Here is Lauren playing IN one of her toy baskets, of which she's quite obviously too big for! :0P

First time she realized she could actually fit in the basket

Decided she would try head first, but got frustrated with that attempt

Back to trying feet first

Happily achieved feet-first for second time

Realizes that feet-first hurts!

Ah, sweet relief from captivity :)

She Speaks!

So Olivia has been grunting and squeaking more as of late. I was actually able to coax and capture some of her noises on "film" today.

She's also working on those neck muscles, as well as learning to lock-out her legs to stand...so now it's just a matter of strength training to get her a bit more agile. :0P She's doing pretty well for her 7 weeks and 2 days on earth!

Lauren "MacGyver" Olsen

So I had my hands super full the other day with an exhausted, yet fighting it, Lil' Miss Olivia. And when this happens, Baby Lauren has a little bit freer reign of the household. Dangerous, yet true. So when things were just too quiet and she stopped her jabbering responses to my "Lauren, what are you doing" inquiries...I had to go searching. Not in the bathroom (a favorite, TP in he toilet-woohoo), not in the laundry rooms (she uses the laundry baskets as hauling carts), not in the family room (our coffee table now functions as her own personal chair, much to my dismay)...so where was she? I venture back into the kitchen, where I've already passed through twice in my search, and I see my diaper bag moving across the kitchen table--by itself?! What?! I walk over, and to my surprise, Lauren has MacGyver'd her way into the table highchair (via moving and climbing on an adult chair) and is quickly emptying the contents of our diaper bag... Start MacGyver theme music because it was that impressive! :0P

Notice how NOT close the adult chair is to the table highchair?! No doubt I would've interrupted this voyage had I actually been there to witness it--DANGEROUS! Like dismantling a bomb with a ball-point pen dangerous! ;) Go Lauren MacGyver Olsen!

Olivia's First Halloween Outfit

Here's our token Baby's First Halloween onesie photos. She was fine with it all at first, and then I took  too long, as seen in the sequence of photos. Sometimes I wonder if we parents are such suckers for buying the "First" type outfits. If they made Baby's Fifth Halloween onesies/outfits--would I buy it??? Maybe :0) If I didn't, well, Nate definitely would...PSYCH!!! He definitely wouldn't in a million years...I'm the sucker that would consider it. :(

Notice helper Lauren's leg in this picture.
She is always very concerned when Olivia cries.
This was no exception.

So much happier sans headband & flower.

"THE THINKER" Sleeper

No kidding, this is how I found Olivia asleep the other night. I did no posing of her limbs whatsoever, this is of her own doing. She has more funny sleep poses than any other child I've met and viewed sleeping time after time (i.e. Lauren). Gotta love this Olivia!

The Frustrated Pooper

This video speaks for itself...poor little Lauren has had a time lately having her BMs. We've recently put her on some Miralax to help out the issue, which it has--tremendously! I caught this on video earlier this month...it's not going to win me any Mother of the Year Awards--that's for sure. But I do have a reason for videoing this! I needed to capture one of the pooping episodes, so that Nathan could fully understand what's been going on with Lauren lately, and that no, I wasn't exaggerating...

The Secret Plummer

We've got a secret plummer in our house. I never know when she's going to strike, or when I'll discover that she's been around. She's a shifty one and I don't usually catch her in the act, but just witness the aftermath. Here's our latest documentation that she does exist! :0)

Teething Children are Like Dogs...

...because nothing is sacred and any household item is "on-limits" as a teething toy! Lauren's working on her molars so she will stick pretty much anything in her mouth these days and start gnawing and slobbering on it. This picture is just after she discarded my cell phone case as the latest chew toy and was on her way to working over this princess crown as her next victim...

Cell phone case-right side all slobbery!

Belly Time and "Donald Trump" Hair!

Baby Olivia seems to really like tummy time these days. In particular, she loves snoozing on her belly.  So I've taken to putting her down for a nap a couple times a week on her belly...just want her to know it's okay to be on your belly. Our Lauren HATED tummy time, so we're trying to avoid that issue with Olivia--if we can help it. :)

And yes, Olivia's hair does look reddish in this picture, but I will have to say that it's really just in this picture. She's still rocking the light brown "Donald Trump" hair. We call a tuft of hair on the top of her head, towards the back, that's twice as long as any other hair on her body--her "Donald Trump". Lauren had the exact same thing when she was born, and never lost it. It's namesake comes from the comb over you have to do with it so the girls look presentable and not like troll dolls!

Almost OT'd Out...

So we went to Lauren's OT at Memorial Hospital yesterday for the first time (first time at this location, definitely not first time we've gone to OT).  We met Ms. Laura, our new OT, and Lauren took to her like a bird to a feather... Ms. Laura took her snack cup, asked for her hand, which Lauren promptly gave, and they headed back to the OT area with Olivia and I in tow... I was so happy and proud to see Lauren being so sweet to strangers, and actually understanding and obeying what's being asked of her. Also on our way back to the OT room, Lauren was very alert to her surroundings and "hamming" it up, because she new all the PT and OT's were checking her out (there were about 10 just in that area alone).  I should note that I dressed Lauren in a very cute outfit, matching bow and all, and all the woman just wanted to check out how cute she was/is... So everyone was asking Ms. Laura to walk Lauren over near them because they wanted to see her..."Is this a new patient?!" "Ahhh, look at how adorable she is!" "What a doll!" "What a breath of fresh air!" All to which Lauren would wave or give a quick chuckle, just adding to the love she was getting from everyone. Just made a mother's heart warm ya know?!
Then when we finally made it to the OT room, Lauren quickly began playing (testing) with Ms. Laura, while we chatted about her history and what she was doing developmentally at home. About 30 minutes of play and conversation later, and Ms. Laura looks at me and says, "though I would LOVE to play with Lauren every week, I'm not sure your insurance company will continue to pay for this service. Right now Lauren is completing tasks at a 22 month old level, making her not impaired, but more-so ahead of the average child". With such an unknown diagnosis looming for Lauren (with no end in sight), I couldn't have been more excited to hear this fabulous news!!! Our Lauren is chugging right along with her peers developmentally, and we just couldn't ask for anything more!
So I told Ms. Laura that our neurologist had wanted us to see an OT every month at least, and did she think our insurance would cover a monthly visit--just to keep a pulse on Lauren's development. She looked at our referral and said she thought this would be possible and that we'd continue monthly appointments until we see our neurologist again at 18 months...to which she expects the neurologist will discontinue this service. But she'd love to see Lauren until then. :0)
I love that Lauren is such a people person that she seems to win over most anyone put in her path...and to see how they react to her, just an awesome and proud feeling all around!

Hiking in Korea

So Nate celebrated Columbus Day the Korean way this past Monday--by going hiking! Seriously, this could (and may be) a national pastime for Koreans. Nate took some beautiful landscape shots, and if you're anything like me before I went there, the scenery is a bit surprising/unexpected.

Then there's the Korean "way" of hiking. What I mean by this is that in addition to the paths and trails varying in degree of difficulty, they also always have stretching stations (as Nate and his colleagues are so aptly demonstrating below). And they have these stretching stations/platforms, everywhere. AND these stations are not just for show, as they are here back in the states. Koreans actually stop and use these platforms and poster demonstrations as guidance. Culturally, I'd say Koreans are much more avid hikers than any other place/culture Nate or I've seen...so these stations are no doubt there for a great reason. Though I'll admit, when I was stationed over at Osan from '06-'07, we Americans would always go right on by these platforms/stations... Good to see that Nate and his friends aren't following American suit, and are stopping to stretch it out. Even if their faces during stretches makes you feel there is an essence of mocking... ;)