Merry Christmas to Blog, and to Blog a Goodnight

Keeping up on this blog is always so much work but I love looking back on it. You know who doesn't? Adam. So Merry Christmas to the guy who has commented to me a number of times this year how blogs are dead. Well baby, your wife still writes on hers!

Anders and Oliver

I think I've mentioned on here before that I was watching another little boy (Adam's co-resident's son) during the day. He started coming last May when he was two months and Anders was four months. Before the job started I told myself that it would be hard at the beginning but if I just powered through the payoff would be when they were both toddlers and could pal around together. And that's basically exactly what happened. The first six months were rough to brutal and I thought about throwing in the towel a few times but I stuck with it and magically, about a year ago things just started to get easier. And since we've been home from Idaho its been a dream. Despite having completely opposite personalities, they've been the best of friends and it has been so fun to watch them chase each other around the house and crack up at their inside jokes. Oliver's last day was Friday and it already feels weird not to have him around. Like, how does one entertain a toddler by themselves? Especially at 32 weeks pregnant. I just don't have the energy for it. Come back and watch my kid for me, Oliver!

 Tiny babes. I hardly remember them being this small, probably because I've blocked these early months from my memory.

 I was trying to take periodic pictures of them sitting in this chair but that kind of died out after a while. But here's a good comparison shot. Anders is really looking like The Donald in this one.

Notice one keeps growing up and the other is growing out  

 

 First trip to the (dirty, dirty) sandbox. Back when I was knocking fistfuls of sand away from their mouths every 10 seconds.

 Dental check-up

 

 

Tried to have a little photo shoot on their last day. Trust me that this was the best shot. Toddlers...

Luckily for Anders, I'm making him another playmate right now! T-minus 8 weeks until delivery, and then only another oh....year and a half until they'll be friends?

Copa-hagen

In September we had the chance to visit Adam's parents who are serving a mission in Copenhagen. We wavered for months about if/when this trip was going to happen but when we found out we'd be having another baby during residency I knew we had to bite the bullet and go while we just had one kid. I would've loved to go with no kid (sorry Anders!) but there was just no getting around that one and actually I'm not sure we would have been all that welcome by ourselves anyway. The sad truth of being a parent. As it turned out, Anders did amazingly well on all SIX plane rides and handled the time changed like a champ, the two things I was most worried about. He wasn't really fond of visiting all those palaces/museums but who can blame the kid? The trip must have really left an impression on him because anytime we ask him where he's going, even if he's just walking into another room, he tells us he's going to Copenhagen (on a "big big airplane, flying in the sky", of course).

I can't not post these pictures of Anders looking like a little man on the plane. 
Catching up on the safety features of the plane and enjoying limitless screen time. 

 This only lasted about 2.5 hours so.....

juuuust a little jet-lagged

The only thing his parents would pay for in Tivoli

Copenhagen is amazingly pedestrian/stroller friendly but we still had a few of these experiences during the week. Not pictured: me, laughing maniacally behind the camera.

The menfolk figuring out how to play some Danish lawn game.

Either sniffing flowers or ready for lunch

Descending from the Round Tower with Gampa

Traveling with a toddler means pausing to climb on benches in museums

Visiting the Lego store; the highlight of his trip for sure. 
Ok, tied for first with Belgian waffles.

Adam didn't hate it either

 One terrible picture to represent our pretty terrible side trip to Amsterdam. Lost stroller, lost travelers, and 2 hours waiting in line for the the Anne Frank museum in the cold and rain. Still can't decide if it was worth it. We might need to give Amsterdam another shot some day.

Back to Copenhagen and reunited with our stroller after its fun adventure in Berlin!

My two best guys. This picture makes my heart go pitter-patter

We all had such a good time on this trip and the more time that passes, the less I remember the hard or stressful things about it- sore feet, cranky kid, one tiny shared bathroom, etc. Although the memory of the time we got separated in the Frankfurt airport and missed our connection to Copenhagen is still very fresh. BUT we were able to check off about 95% of the things on our to-do list and Adam's parents took the whole week off work, which meant we had great company and we didn't have to figure out the transportation system. Hallelujah! We had a home cooked meal every night (thanks Charlene!), pretty spectacular weather, and Anders got his first stamps in his passport. Overall a very successful trip!

Life has slowed down quite a bit for us since we got home. After taking 19 plane rides (not including layovers, of course) in his first 20 months of life, we probably won't be going anywhere until spring or summer. I can't tell you how happy this makes me (#fearofflying) but I'm glad we were able to squeeze in this last hoorah before our family of three becomes four in a couple of months. (gulp)