Dad's Shoes

These days Odin wants to do everything dad does... including wearing his shoes! Big shoes to fill!

Drive the motorcycle dad is borrowing from a friend...play with his tools...etc...

But he also enjoys playing with good friends!

Grandpa Eicheldinger Visits

Grandpa Eicheldinger is down for a visit from Pilot, VA. Odin's shown him all his favorite toys!

And taught him how to sword fight!
With good aim for the "center of power!"

Quiche

Yesterday Odin helped mom make quiche! He cracked over a dozen eggs...the quiche came out a bit bigger than normal b/c Odin was enjoying cracking eggs so much we cracked a few extra!

Happy Birthday

Odin turned two on the 30th! We threw a party for him with lots of friends and fun was had by all! Mom made a blueberry pie and all the kids helped Odin blow out his candle...

and taste it!

Odin got many cool gifts, including a Long Island Expressway Train. As he was opening the gift he exclaimed, "Train! Two!" Great gift, from Uncle Anthony.

Lately Odin has been requesting beer and wine at dinner...(it is apple juice in the wine glass).

Odin's abilities to help Mom around the house have increased dramatically. He helps her make dinner ever night, vacuums (especially good at moving stuff so mom can vacuum everywhere), wipes up messes, and really enjoys spraying cleaner (all natural, of course!) on surfaces.

We went to the doctor for Odin's two year check-up. All is well...he weighs 27 pounds, 6 ounces (43 percentile) and is 35.25 inches (73 percentile).

Camping and Potty Training

Odin on his first Kawasaki. Much like Dad's Kawasaki, it is mostly self-propelled! Ha!Odin enjoying flowers in his ears!

We went camping for a week up in Northwest PA with our best friends Mark and Mel and their daughter Madelyn. Odin loved Madelyn and some of the time Madelyn loved Odin! They really enjoyed swinging in the hammock together.

Madelyn and Odin also really enjoyed the kiddie-pool we brought with us camping. It got up into the 90's two of the days and the pool was a great way to cool down.

And finally, a note on potty training. Odin has gone 1 full week with no diaper at all, including at night! A few times during the week he has woken up in the middle of the night, sleepy-eyed but saying "pee-pee." Daddie jumps up and carries him to the bathroom. Though last night he slept all night (10 hours), no diaper, and no accidents (something Mom and Dad can't do...the sleeping through the night, not the accident part). When he woke this morning he ran to the bathroom yelling "pee-pee."

All of this comes as quite a surprise to Mom and Dad as we were not trying to potty train him, he just wanted to mimic Daddie and go pee in the toilet. He has essentially potty trained himself and he's not even 2 years old! We were thinking this wasn't going to happen until he was around 3 years old. But now that we're not using cloth diapers, we've only done wash one time this week.

House-trained

A quote from Grandma Fern: Well he's definitely house-trained! Yup, that's right Odin is house-trained. While playing with Grandma Fern (now titled Bubbe) Odin stopped, ran to the door of our balcony, opened it and proceeded to pee off the balcony! Mom was so proud when she heard the story.

Today Odin had his first diaper-free day. We went to the farmer's market, peed on a tree; drove home, peed on a tree; drove to the Kid's museum, emergency pull-over on the way, peed on a tree; parked the car, peed on a tree while walking to the museum! And finally while in the museum...peed in the POTTY! All day, no accidents, but lots of "watered" trees :-)

We are very proud of him and certainly hope this is the beginning of the end of diapers (aside, of course, from nap time and nighttime)!

July-Eve

We've been so busy with our Swedish guest, Evelina, that we haven't had time to upload the blog for an entire month! Sadly, Eve, left for home yesterday. Below are some pictures of our many travels and good times with Eve.


Mom had a family reunion in Buffalo, NY. Of course, Eve, joined and took the opportunity to go see Niagara Falls. We all enjoyed a wet trip on the Maid of the Mist where we got super close to the falls! Very exciting!

On our way to Buffalo we stopped in PA to visit our cheese friends! Madelyn, Daddie, Mel and Odin collected chicken eggs.

Taking a break from farm work Mark, Madelyn, Daddie, Odin and Eve go for a quick dip in the river.

A visit to the US in not complete without a trip to DC. We spent a fun but exhausting dad touring the capitol. Fortunately Mommy had the ergo so Odin could rest and have a little momma's milk!


While in DC we had dinner with Tracy. Odin and Tracy colored the placemats!

We also took Eve to an SCA event so she could meet the "King and Queen" of Atlanta. Mommy and Odin found a playgroup and went for a ride on the see-saw.