Colorado: Part 2

We headed to Winter Park after a fun morning and afternoon in Boulder. The kids were anxious to play after the car ride. Luckily, Cindy and my dad thought to bring toys.

Playing in the condo:

 View from our balcony:

 We traditionally make breakfast burritos before a day out on the slopes.

My dad, showing off his big burrito:

 Caroline did ski school the first day. She did okay, but I'm not sure how much she learned. At least she stuck it out the whole day (6 hours) which was more than we expected her to do. The next few days, Cindy (who used to be a ski instructor) worked with Caroline and she made lots of progress. Cindy is a miracle worker!

 We were so glad the resort had these wagons. They made it easier to get from the car to the slopes with an almost 4 year old and all of our ski gear.

 Throwing snowballs:

Cindy stayed at the condo with Matthew while Caroline was in ski school the first day...so Matt, my dad, and I headed out to ski. It was a beautiful day! Gotta love Spring skiing in the Rockies!

My dad and I have always had a great time skiing together and he's the BEST ski buddy. He never leaves me no matter how slow I go ;-) Don't make fun of our helmets...safety before beauty, of course!

 Matt and I had lots of ski time (just the two of us!) after the first day since Cindy was with Caroline and my dad was at the condo playing with Matthew. It was such a treat, and we felt so fortunate to get so much quality time together, knowing our kiddos were with Grandad and Cici.

God's beautiful handiwork:

Me and my ski date. Love him.

Sometimes, we'd ski over to where Cindy was working with Caroline and spy on them. If Caroline saw us, she would immediately start crying and want to go home. But if she didn't know we were around, she did great with Cindy. Why does it always work like that? Anyway, we snagged some pics undercover (we were able to get pretty close because she couldn't recognize us in our goggles and helmets, ha):

Matthew had fun playing while were were skiing. Give that boy a cup and he's happy:

Apres ski-time was spent in the hot tub everyday. It even snowed on us while we were in there the last day. Gotta love a hot tub in the mountains.

Colorado Part 3 coming up...more skiing and time with my Boulder fam!

Colorado 2012: Part 1

We recently returned from a trip to Colorado! My dad and his wife, Cindy (a.k.a. Grandad & Cici), live in Boulder. We were looong overdue for a visit and some Colorado skiin'. It was our first time to fly as a family of four (2 big suitcases+4 carryons+1 carseat+1 booster seat+1 stroller+1 portable high chair+ 2 kiddos= TOTAL CRAZINESS).
Some of the chaos:

It was also  Matthew's first plane ride and first trip to CO! Luckily, the flight out wasn't very full and we had a whole row of 5 seats all to ourselves. We took up every bit of space :-)

It was nice Matthew got to sit in his carseat and not in one of our laps. He did great as a first-time flyer:
 

Caroline had a grand ole' time and was so excited to be flying "high in the sky". She was all set with some Fun Dip and a Dr. Seuss book (her first book to read all by herself, other than a BOB book!): 

 

The very nice pilot gave Caroline a chance to sit in his seat and pretend to fly the plane. She was so excited! 

We rushed off the plane eager to see my dad. It had been too long!! Caroline gave him the biggest bear hug when she saw him and were were so happy to all be together. We drove from Denver to Boulder to spend-the-night at my dad's house. We had fun seeing Cici and eating pizza when we arrived. Soon after dinner, the kids crashed and we visited with Grandad and Cici. The next day, we went to downtown Boulder and spent some time eating, shopping and playing on Pearl St. I love it there!
Playing with Cici at lunch (Cindy is a pediatric OT and was trying to teach Matthew how to draw a vertical line :-):
Apparently, in CO, kale chips are a very popular appetizer...yum (note the sarcasm)
Also not a fan of the kale chips:

Climbing/sliding on the boulders on Pearl St. 

 

 

 

Sweet boy, just taking it all in:

The Krauss Fam + Grandad
 
Coming up...Colorado Part 2...Winter Park!

15 & 16 Months

Matthew is 16 months old today! He has been a busy, busy boy for the past two months. I didn't do a 15 month post so here are some fun facts about Matthew at 15 & 16 months old:

• 15 Month Stats (from his well-check appt): Weight, 21 pounds (8th%)/ Height, 31 3/4 inches (70th%)/ Head, 45.3 cm (15th%)
• Wears 12-18 month clothes, a size 4 diaper, and a size 4 shoe
• is getting more hair (yay) and has a piece that likes to stand straight up in the back like Dennis the Menace (did I just date myself?? :-)
• still a great eater (except when sick!!)...some of his favorite foods at the moment are nutrigrain bars (he asks for a "bar" EVERY morning!), peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pretzels, pretty much all veggies, grapes/blueberries (finally got sick of bananas and refuses to eat them anymore), salmon and chicken, any kind of crackers and any kind of sweets, especially donuts (he's so my child!)

• had some firsts over the past two months: first time to get attached to a lovie (his abc blue blanket!), first time to move to a new house, first road trip to visit some of my best friends from college, first (diagnosed) ear infection/s

Speaking of ear infections, Matthew has spent the vast majority of his 15th and 16th months sick. It's been miserable for him :-( He had a couple of bad colds which repeatedly infected some standing fluid in his ears. We just can't get the fluid to drain before another infection hits. Matthew is currently going on 4 weeks of infected ears and antibiotic #3. Thankfully, our pediatrician is watching Matthew/the fluid in his ears very closely and if something drastic doesn't change over the next 2-3 months, I'm pretty sure tubes are in our future. I've suspected Matthew had fluid in his ears for months, and I think that could be the culprit of some of his speech/language issues. Jury is still out so we'll see. I'm not opposed to tubes at this point, esp if they will make Matthew feel better and improve his speech and hearing. At our last doctor's appt, Matthew had so much fluid in his ears, he failed his tympanogram (miserably) in both ears.

• Speaking of speech/language, even though Matthew isn't hearing 100%, he's made some great progress over the past two months...some of his new words are: go, sissy, nigh-nigh, Mimi, PopPop, bar (nutrigrain bar), caca (when requesting The Very Hungry Caterpillar), doggie & puppy (sounds like duhguh and puhpuh), sigh (outside), bath, bathtub and there are more that I'm forgetting. I think he probably has around 15-20 words if I had to guess. The best thing is Matthew's screaming and frustration have decreased dramatically! He also will try to imitate almost any word you ask him to say...it just doesn't sound anything like the word most of the time :-) 
• Matthew signs  "all done", "thank you", "more", "please" and "milk"
• can identify his head, tummy, foot, ear and nose 

 

• his love for reading continues to grow and he brings me books to read him all day long...favorites include: any of the "Daddy Hugs" series, Brown Bear/Polar Bear, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar
• loves to scribble on paper with pens and crayons
• doesn't love to finger paint because he hates having his hands messy...just like big sister

 

• is walking everywhere and never crawls anymore...he tries to run but isn't quite there yet
• loves to dance and will clap, sway and bounce anytime music comes on, especially Veggie Tales
• thinks it's hilarious to chase Caroline around (they're playing chase and "hide" as I type this, both laughing hysterically :-)

 

• still obsessed with cups, bottles and lids and one can almost always be found in his hands when he's walking around
• loves to play peekaboo, chase, "gotcha", and hide-and-go-seek
• does the motions to Patty Cake and Itsy Bitsy Spider while I sing the songs....then signs "more" over and over until we do it again (and again and again)

 

• recently started pushing his cars/trucks around and saying "vrooooom"...I LOVE this ;-)
• favorite outdoor activities: going on walks/wagon rides, kicking the soccer ball around and playing at the park (still HATES the swing)

 

• The VERY BEST thing about Matthew at 15 & 16 months old is his developing relationship with Caroline! I had friends tell me that the closer Matthew gets to 18 months, the more he will interact and play with his big sister. And it's true! I love nothing more than watching them make up and play funny games, be silly, read books, build legos, and laugh together. I could watch and listen to them all.day.long. I'm so thankful they have each other and continue to pray for their sweet relationship. Matthew just adores Caroline and she's pretty crazy about him!! 
• Happy 16th month birthday baby boy! We sure do love ya!!!