The Oistad Family: April 2012

Monday, April 30, 2012

One-on-One with Noah

A few of my good friends recently interviewed their young kids and posted the responses on their blogs. Kids say the funniest things. They inspired me to do the same, although my interview with Noah took a couple attempts. The first time I interviewed him, Noah thought it would be funny to answer all my questions with a color. What is your favorite activity? Red! What do you like to eat? Brown! He thought this was so silly and and would crack up at himself. The other night, he was in an especially talkative mood, so I tried again and had more luck. (I used explanation points because he was excitedly SHOUTING back his responses to each question). Love. :)

What is your favorite show? The McQueen Show!

What is your favorite snack? Cereal!

What is your favorite color? White! (is this a color?)

What is your favorite number? Three! (his age, of course)

What do you want to be when you grow up? An astronaut. (Sadly, the U.S. no longer has a space shuttle program, but I didn't have the heart to tell him that)

What is your favorite toy? Mickey Pumpkin! (This is a stuffed pumpkin with Mickey ears that Grandma Jan brought him back from Disney world. It is an odd toy, but he loves it.)

What is your favorite game to play with dad? Guns!

What is your favorite game to play with mom? Cars!

Who is your best friend? Mommy, sissy and Bodi!

What is your favorite book? The McQueen Book!

Our "Mean Old Dinosaur"

Noah is such a crack up sometimes. Yesterday, we were at Red Robin for lunch and all of sudden Noah jumps up on the seat and starts singing this dinosaur song to the tune of "I'm a little teapot," with hand gestures and everything into his reflection. Wes and I were laughing so hard! We were so amazed because he is usually too shy to sing or dance in public! Since Noah learned the song at pre-school, we had never heard it before. We googled it as soon as we got home. Below are the words. It was just too cute!!

I'm a mean old dinosaur (make mean frown)

Big and tall (stretch arms high and wide)

Here is my tail (point to imaginary tail)

And here is my claw (curl fingers on one hand)

When I get all hungry (rub tummy)

I just growl (growl the word "growl")

Look out people (hold hand above eyes like you are looking)

I'm on the prowl!! (lunge left and right)

We love our little dinosaur! Here is a video that we took with my iphone. (Disclaimer: There is a lot of background noise so you might have to crank the volume to hear him.)

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Friday, April 13, 2012

Family Picture Day!

We recently headed out to take some new family pics to document Callie's six month (actually 7 month) milestone and get some pics of the kids together. While we are waiting to get our photo proofs, here are a few "teasers" our photographer posted. We lucked out on the weather big time. The very next weekend it was BOMBING snow!!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Noah is 3 ½ and all boy!

Noah is 100% boy. As he is coming into his own and getting older, he has really gotten into pushing his rules/limits with us…. and pushing in general. Sigh. Daddy can be kind of a pusher too when joking around with his buddies and looks like Noah has inherited that trait. The worst part is that Noah pushes kids out of nowhere, unprovoked. One minute he is playing nicely and the next minute he is pushing them down and says “I want to say sorry!” or “I want to go to Timeout” like it is a game. We are really working on correcting this bad habit with him and hopefully next month we will have good progress to report!

However, he isn’t always so rough. He can be very gentle, especially with Callie. He will often ask if he can “take care of his sissy” which means he wants to hold her and give her hugs and kisses. I also catch him holding her hand gently in the car since he sits right next to her in the back seat.

This winter we had the highest snowfall that has ever been recorded in Anchorage!! My good friend Annie and I had decided to co-host an Easter Egg Hunt for all our friends who have young kids at a nearby Elementary school playground the day before Easter Sunday. That morning, we woke up to huge snowflakes coming down (this was the day the snowfall record was broken)! Nearly everyone we invited showed up and we had 27 CHILDREN ranging in age from just a few months (in strollers/baby carriers) to 6 years old running around digging for plastic easter eggs in the snow and in full snow gear. It was hilarious to watch and so much fun to get everyone’s kids together. This hunt is definitely an Easter tradition we will continue for years to come, but hopefully there will be less snow next year! Noah loved the egg hunt and even when all the visible eggs were collected, he still had fun trying to find more eggs in the snow... he was able to discover two more eggs with daddy’s help that had been buried way down deep.

He is still a whiz at his puzzles and remains obsessed with anything related to the Cars movie or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Disney is making good money off the Oistads and the 4 grandparents who love to feed his obsession. The Easter bunny brought him a “Miles Axelrod” toy in his basket and Noah was so excited that he even mentioned it to his teacher on Monday. He can recite several short books from memory (Good Night Moon, Brown Bear Brown Bear, the Good Night Book by Sandra Boynton (he will say the author’s name when he says it) and the Artist who Painted a Blue Horse book. It is really fun to see him read these short books to his sissy. We also catch him singing several songs from time to time. The other day he was on the potty singing “I’m taking home a baby bumblebee, won’t my mommy be so proud of me?....” so cute. We say “catch” because if we point it out or start singing along with him, he often stops singing. Our shy guy!

Love our little man so much. It is so neat to watch him grow into this smart, funny, strong willed little person. This morning he wasn't feeling well so we kept him home from school but he still had enough muster to softly sing Jingle Bells to Callie and I all the way down to Pao Pao's house. Love.

Noah and his sissy

kisses from big brother are the best!

The boys love playing in all the snow!

Our little pusher in action.... poor Nathen! Aiden thought it was funny though.

Noah always gives Lucy her treats. Shake Lucy!

Our favorite little swimmer!

Easter Egg Hunt in the snow... only in Alaska!!

We tried to get a pic of the kids together... here is a handful of them. Classic.

Dying Easter eggs with Grandma Jan... one of Noah's favorite Easter traditions!

Our baby boy is no longer a baby. He is getting so big!

Noah was so careful with the eggs and didn't break any of them!

Daddy's tee = makeshift smock!

Ta Da!! Noah and Grandma did a great job!

Noah proudly holding his "Noah" egg

Noah wanted each of us to have our own eggs.

Easter morning

The Easter Bunny hid chocolate eggs around the house

The Easter bunny brought Noah a basket of goodies with a puzzle, mickey book, Miles Axelrod car, batman tee, candy and a microphone!

My handsome boys

Noah reminded me of a mini business tycoon in his Easter suit. He looks ready to take on the world!

Noah smiling at me during Children's Sermon

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Easter book take 2!
Noah got this book last Easter and we read it so much thoughout the year that it was missing several pages and stickers. I was so excited to find it at the store again this year. It is one of his all time favorite books!

Noah and his Pao Pao

Callison is 7 months old

Our sweet “Callie girl” is seven months old and oh so sweet. She is our Miss Petite! At her six month well-baby checkup, she weighed in at 12 lbs 12.4 oz (4-5%). She was 26 inches long (50%) and 42.5cm for head (50%). Dr. P said that her motor skills are definitely on track and tried to assure me (her neurotic mommy) that her weight is okay even if she is on the small side. She can sit up on her own, roll both directions, push up on her arms, spin around, jump in her jumperoo, pass objects back in forth between her hands and do mini sit ups. She is very active! When she is on her back, she lifts her neck and head up so she can see what is going on. She does more crunches than anyone else in the family. Her favorite activity is to watch big brother ALL THE TIME. She loves him so much. You can actually see the look of adoration in her face when she watches him.

Biggest news this month is that Callie sprouted her 1^st tooth! It is the bottom left front tooth! She loves to put things in her mouth. Favorite thing this month for her to suck on are her shoes. She grabs them off her feet and in her mouth they go! Thank goodness she isn’t walking yet, so the shoes are not dirty, but still.

She still doesn’t like to eat if there is a lot (or anything) going on. She doesn’t want to miss out on anything. This is nearly impossible with a 3 ½ year old brother running around the house especially if just one of us watching both kids, but we try to accommodate Callie when we can and when we can’t we just hope she will learn to eat in noisier environments. Last month we started her on rice cereal (she was not a big fan of this), but she loves her 1^st foods of peas, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, peaches and apples. The only food she didn't love was bananas.

Last weekend we had fun celebrating Callie’s 1^st Easter!! My mom got her a pretty pink dress and white patent mary janes (that she kept in her mouth nearly the entire church service). The dress was a little big on her since we got it a while ago thinking she would need a 6-9 month size, but she still looked so darling in it! Love playing dress up with my pretty girl!

One of the things I love most about Callison is her easy-going and happy personality. We recently took family pictures and I have to give her the best baby award for that day. We had scheduled pictures at 11am in South Anchorage. On the 40 minute drive into town, she was kinda tired but big brother was playing with her in the back seat and she didn’t fall asleep…. until 5 minutes before we met with the photographer!! I tried to let her sleep as much as I could by having the photographer take pics of Wes and Noah first but after 10 minutes I had to wake her up. I felt so bad about waking her, but she was fine with it and rewarded us with lots of cute smiles for the pictures. Then when we got back in the car to head to the photographer’s studio for more photos, I thought for sure she would fall asleep or be cranky from missing her morning nap. But she hammed it up for more adorable pictures for another hour! I could not believe it. She is such a trooper!

Can't believe she is already seven months old!! Time flies when you are having fun!