Growing Up

Lately Olivia has said or done so much that has made me feel like my little toddler is truly growing into a little girl. Sigh...

I haven't been so good about taking pictures lately, but here's one of Olivia and her newest cousin, Ivy Anne Hoden.

1) Reaches the light switches without the need for a stool. For awhile she carted her little stool with her everywhere so she could accomplish this "big-girl" task and feel independent, but suddenly, there's no need for that.

2) While still shy, the crying/whimpering/whatever you want to call it that was occurring at school drop-offs, is over - actually it's been over for quite a while. Olivia still talks about Mrs. Bohr and Mrs. Kane as if they're gifts from heaven - which they probably are! She likes to put her art work from home into her school folder to show her teachers and friends. I often get to see her school group finishing up their recess when I go to pick her up - it's been fun watching her pump on the swings and, most recently, lead a group of girls racing around the playground. When I asked her about this later, she told me that the "Alligators were coming!"

3) Taking full responsibility of herself in the morning - picking out her clothes (getting it from her dresser herself too with the help of a chair), getting completely dressed, and deciding how her hair is to be done (usually either a pony or a braid). She's actually pretty decent at matching - picking up on the idea that pink in a shirt design means it might match with her pink pants. There's been a few days where the outfits verge on "socially unacceptable," but I guess I'll save our battles for something that truly matters.

4) Building off #3, Olivia has (knock-on-wood) stopped throwing fits about tight clothing! If something is tight, she usually makes a face about it and then says, "See, Mommy, I don't cry; it's okay."

5) Making great advancements with spelling, letter recognition, counting with higher numbers, and writing - we didn't exactly give her the easiest name with all these letter that get so easily confused when learning to write - I, L, and V. We only catch this development as Olivia's sharing her knowledge with Grace. I hear lots about school and who Olivia plays with, etc..., but she's shy about sharing any "learning" with me.

6) Right now as I type this, Olivia's attending her first movie with Grandpa Roger.

7) Mastering how to work my touch-screen phone and the DVD player even though she's never received any official instruction on this. She can scan through my "apps" and find her favorite games - puzzles, letter tracing, memory, and drawing.

8) Olivia's always been a great talker, but sometimes the phrases she says are just too adult and so sweet: After going potty - "Mommy, I missed you today." After helping me pick up the basement - "Mommy, I'm a good helper; we're a team!" After agreeing to share with Grace - "Mommy, it's okay, Gracie is just a little baby."

9) Oh, and how could I forget the truest adult phrase to come out of her mouth: After struggling to get the two stools I had bought apart - "What in the H***" My mouth dropped open after hearing that one. No comment was made from me, however, and although we did here the phrase one other time, it seems to have disappeared from her vocabulary already - thank goodness... Maybe not my proudest parent moment, but a good story to say the least!

10) And last, sleeping without a diaper...sometimes. I have to put the "sometimes" in because as of late we've had a bit of a relapse. However, Olivia is very excited to try sleeping without a diaper and it's a major topic of conversation these days, so I hope that we'll get back to no diaper shortly!

Turkey Trot '11

In case you aren't familiar with our family tradition, every year after finishing our Thanksgiving meal, the Huinker/Hoden families head down to whatever track is close at hand to run the "Turkey Trot" - a timed mile of gruesome competition and even physical illness. The winner has to write a press release...and, in case you were wondering, I 've never had to and I don't anticipate ever having to write one of these myself! Enjoy a few pictures too!

The Dubuque crew

Grandma Pat watched over a sleeping Gracie and Ivy.

Tara's race day t-shirt.

And this year's winner goes to...

TURKEY TROT ROOKIE SHATTERS RECORD

Its' as much a Huinker tradition as turkey. It's about the clash between perennial rivals on the track, trying to run as fast as they can, and fighting the urge to heave their favorite meal of the year. Once again, this Thanksgiving tradition was served up under bright, brisk skies on a Thursday afternoon in two different locations that measured a whopping, 1,886.2 miles apart. "Showing the Spirit" in scenic Dubuque, Iowa, this year were the Huinker/Hoden families and out in sunny Murrieta, California, stood Anthony and Tara. One could say that based on temperature, California weather might have been an advantage, but with the lower elevation on Dubuque's side, it was an even playing field.

Thirty-five minutes after eating the biggest meal he has ever cooked in his entire life, Turkey Trot rookie, Anthony Brown, scorched the competition with a time of 5 minutes and 30 seconds. "I think you are supposed to do that before you eat...ya know, run...then eat guilt free" Brown said after throwing up the delicious meal he spent 5 hour cooking. "Rookie mistake to have 2 glasses of wine and eat like I was gonna watch football."

Congratulation goes out to Tara Huinker who again took home the award for "complaining-the-most-about-a-tradition-you-claim-to-love." Despite her less than enthusiastic attitude towards the competition, she did finish in a very respectable 7 minutes and 1 second - some 50 seconds ahead of the nearest competitor.

The hardest fought race had to be between Chris Hoden and Amanda Huinker who were only 3 seconds apart at the strip. Coming in at 7 minutes 51 seconds and 7 minutes 54 seconds, it was a tough battle. Last year's winner was heard saying, "you guys don't know how hard it is to train when you have 2 kids and one on the way...it really takes a toll on your body." Amanda Huinker, who heard the remark, just shook her head and mumbled something to the effect of "you would think it was Chris who gave birth a couple of weeks ago."

Max Hoden receives the "hard-charger" award for steadily improving his time by 3 minutes from last year and not calling it quites until he did 6 laps. "My predition is that he will beat all of us in five years" said this year's winner.

Brian Huinker struggled this year claiming "Dubuque's air quality is not that of Decorah." Brian's ongoing study of the air quality and his newly onset asthma should draw to a close just in time for his research presentation at Christmas entitled "Robbed of Victory."

Best spectator award comes in as a 3-way tie between Rog Podge, Bes, and Patski. As they had their hands full with the little ones, there support is very much appreciated by all participants.

All in all, the event was a hug success. You can bet there will be trash talking throughout the year, only thickening as Thanksgiving 2012 nears. Till then...train for 2nd place!

Finish Lap 1: Chris and I were apparently still in good humor at this point...
Brian...maybe not so much.

Below: Beth comforting a crying Olivia and Mya -
Olivia because her mommy was ignoring her;
Mya because brother Max was running too fast.
Guess we know who the true competitors are going to be!

My Girls: Fall 2011

Fall has certainly been a busy time at the Huinker household. These last couple of weeks in particular got a little overwhelming with conferences, the fall musical, and grading, grading, grading. We enjoyed a great visit with my mom, Mark, and Thyme this last weekend, and we're looking forward to meeting the newest baby in the Hoden family - Ivy Anne, born 11-11-11 weighing in at 7 pounds 14 ounces - over Thanksgiving. It's hard to believe the snow will be flying soon and Christmas is right around the corner!


These last few months the girls have grown in so many ways. I figure it's about time for an update on both of them! I'm interspersing some fall pictures I took on a lovely weekend in September. Most of you will be getting your own copies of these pictures shortly!


Miss Grace: Our little Gracie girl is busy learning how to talk these days. She's mastered a number of two-word phrases - favorites include possessives followed by some object - "my mommy," "sissy baby," "me coat." She loves watching football with her daddy and asks for either it or "Micky" every time the television is on. She can sing the "abc" part of her abc's and also "hot dog, hot dog, hot daaa" from Micky Mouse Club House. I've caught her saying "one, two, three" a couple of times, but she'll never do it if I ask. Grace has continued to be our little goof - loving to dance, jump, tackle, and laugh all the time. She's crazy and shy, outgoing and hesitant at the same time, taking most her cues from Olivia. Her favorite activities include "Boo" (peek-a-boo), playing babies and kitchen, coloring, dancing, and generally following Olivia around wherever she might go. Grace and I are still rather joined at the hip. She eats every meal on my lap except breakfast (and lunch during the week), and to be honest, I'm not sure what to do about this problem because listening to her whine is rather hard on the ears. Grace is definitely a LOT louder than Olivia - a second child trait perhaps? Hmmm...I better not give too much away - otherwise I won't have much new to share for Gracie's birthday post - it's hard to believe our little girl is almost two!


Miss Olivia - Livy has gone through a gigantic spurt of independence this fall. She pretty much gets herself completely dressed in the morning - only requiring a little help with socks on occasion. She still has some issues with things being "tight" which really means issues with anything that might rub - example, seams on shirts, jeans, tight elastic, etc... For a period of time, putting socks on equaled nightmare at our house, but since we went out to Walmart together and I let her pick out her new socks, these issues have virtually disappeared. Olivia's such a pleaser and even if she resists something for a brief moment, this pleaser instinct has prevailed lately resulting in some impressive sharing and cooperativeness. Olivia worships the ground her teachers walk on and talks fondly of school and her friends. Favorite activities include "writing," coloring (working on staying in the lines), playing babies, directing Gracie in their play, playing hide and seek, and just generally being a goof. Oh, and I might as well admit that she likes to watch TV and wrestle too - although these two activities are not related!


The girls: Olivia has taken to informing me that she and Grace are my princesses - a true fact, I suppose. Grace has taken to sleeping with Olivia. This started a while back when we had a babysitter in the evening - Grace would have nothing to do with lying down in her own crib, so the sitter let her crawl in with Olivia and they both went promptly to sleep. Since these last weeks have been busy and conferences/the box office kept me away from home for a number of evenings, sleeping together has become the expectation. For the last week and a half, the trundle bed has been permanently pulled out for one of the girls. They seem to switch being on the top or the bottom, but are rather particular about their pillows. At first, I would move Grace to her crib before I went to bed, but these last couple of nights, I've just let her alone. The first night, we woke up to them coming down the stairs at 4am - yikes - thankfully, Grace went straight back to sleep in her crib - she was definitely not as thrilled as Liv to be coming down the stairs to wake us up, but Liv had to cry for about five minutes about Gracie not being put back to bed right alongside her. Last night, all was well. We've enjoyed watching them give each other high-fives and comforting pats before falling asleep, and their chatter hasn't been so much. But, what to do? I never imagined this happening, and while I don't want to discourage it, I'm not sure I'm ready for Grace to be in a big-girl bed yet either! As of right now, I think we're planning on getting a mattress for the antique bed we currently have in storage and then just moving them into the same room as Liv's room is certainly large enough.


The bond between Olivia and Grace is so strong. They look to each other for comfort, they provide that comfort, and they seem to have a true desire to do whatever necessary to ensure the happiness of each other. Their laughter is contagious, and they enjoying being silly and causing occasional mischief. As, Grace gets bigger, I get asked all the time "How close are they?" I should probably think of some shocking answer to this as most people ask this question with a bit of suspicion and shock in their voice, but so far, I've refrained. Mostly, I'm just glad it's as obvious to others as it is to me how much my girls love each other!

Good Times with Family AND Cousins

We've had some great times with family and cousins this last month. The first weekend of October, Beth, Max, and Mya came to visit (Chris was in Brazil on business), and we all (including Pat and Roger) headed out to Pinter's Pumpkin Patch - a new hot spot just a few minutes outside of Decorah. The kids had a great time as you can see from the pictures...

Ready to go!

Racing ducks and checking out the bunny houses.

Enjoying the slides (kids and adults alike)!

And just for fun - here's this year's "pumpkin patch" picture along with last year's. The kids have grown so much - and pretty soon (11-11-11) another cousin will be added to the mix! As you can see, we still have to master the skill of looking at the camera!

October 2011

October 2010

This last weekend, we (Pat and Roger, Hodens, and us) spent Saturday/Sunday morning in Des Moines for Brian's cousin's wedding. The kids enjoyed some extra-special time in the pool with Brian and Chris while Pat, Roger, Beth, and I went to the wedding. The kids held up great considering they barely napped and even got busy on the dance-floor as soon as dinner was over. "Well," of course, does include the 15 minute tantrum Livy threw because of not wanting to wear her "fancy clothes" which resulted in me forcing her into her clothing and dragging her through the entire complex screaming. Thankfully, Livy returned to her normal self quickly enough and enjoyed practicing her spin movies and her "chicken-flap" as I like to call it on the dance floor. We got some pretty cute pictures of the kiddos in the photo-booth too. This morning we hit up the pool again, but the kids were absolutely exhausted and had had enough after an hour. Our ride home was relatively peaceful, although neither Liv or Grace slept enough. I don't have any pictures of the weekend (although Beth does - check out http://hodenblog.blogspot.com), but I did snap this picture of Grace taken at 5:30pm (she never really did get up after this besides to put her jammies on and drink some milk).

Needless to say, the kids had a great time and were totally exhausted.

Time with Daddy

I am always reminding myself these days not to stress so much about the small things - the kitchen floor, the dust bunnies, the laundry, but...I'm not necessarily good at following my own advice. I'm always trying to play and clean at the same time, make a game out of folding laundry, and multi-task in other ways that often leave me in trouble, like a bed unmade at 10:0 at night and smelly, "clean" sheets that have been in the washer since noon when I initially got distracted. When will I ever learn to just relax, to just play, and to just enjoy? Soon, I hope...I consider myself a work in progress.


But, to get to the point: I'm so glad the girls have their daddy. Someone who lets them jump off the stairs onto piles of pillows, who lets Livy "pick-up" herself not caring if things go in the right box or not. Someone who takes them for rides on the lawn mover, plays hide and seek when it's really not that fun since Livy tells you where to hide, and endlessly "roars" while the girls run and hide in their tent or tunnel. Someone who knows how to start the Wii and allows Gracie to "play boxing" even if it doesn't exactly teach her to love her neighbor, and someone who's willing to be to recipient of body slams, stomach jumping, horse-back riding, or any other type of wrestling the girls can come up with.


I know I play too; I'm good at the crayons/paint/playdoh, the music, the park, and the "help Mommy" activities, but I'm not Brian. I'm structured, he's not. I worry about messes, he doesn't. The girls love their mommy, I know, but the giggles and shrieks of happiness I hear coming from the basement as I clean up the kitchen, make me know they treasure their time with daddy to no end.

A Conversation...

A conversation between Livy and myself....

Me: Livy, you need to wear your coat.

Livy: Why do I always have to wear my coat now?

Me: Because it's cold out.

Livy: Why is it so cold out?

Me: Because it's fall.

Livy: Why is it called fall?

Me: Because the leaves are falling.

Livy: Why are the leaves falling?

Me: Because it's cold out...and pretty soon it'll be snowing outside (internal - "yuck" being thought).

Livy: And we can build snowmen? Yea!

Bathtime Fun

Lots of fun with Miss Mya.

And lots of fun between sisters too.

Preschool!

This last Friday marked Olivia's sixth day of preschool. Alas, this entry was, of course, supposed to have been written and published her very fist day, but, oh well, I should stop berating myself for late posts - this is life - at least it's my life.

Anyways - preschool, I think I can say, has been a positive experience. I have just the right amount of time to pick Olivia during my lunch, and I've really enjoyed doing this. She's always quite jaunty as she walks out the classroom doors, running to hold my hand and show me whatever is in her backpack - we frequently stop to do this before even walking to the car. She waves goodbye to her teachers who, after week one, she would tell people are Mrs. Kane and Mrs. Bohr, and she frequently talks about her friends Kelby and Dannika. So far it seems like her favorite activities include playing kitchen and being outside on the playground. I don't really get much else out of her besides this and what she had for snack. Her least favorite activity - ironically enough - is quiet "reading" time. I guess she resists this a little bit which surprises me as she likes to do this at home. Otherwise, her teachers say she has been very cooperative and a bit shy but slowing opening up.


Brian does drop-offs in the mornings, and, although Olivia hasn't fully embraced this part of school yet, we're told that the "tears" don't last long. I say "tears" because they really don't qualify as such - they're just some watery eyes that I have no doubt are gone by the time Brian is back in the car. Her excitement about school otherwise makes me feel like she's in the right place - and really, I'm not surprised to have her be a bit hesitant - that's my Livy.

Independence and maturity have been growing tremendously with Olivia this last month. I'm not sure if this is because of preschool or just because - probably a combination. Olivia's been much more apt to get dressed on her own (well, with a little help still), put her coat on and truly try to zip it, and even leave her silky at home during daycare hours on occasion. She's shown a lot of interest in picking out her clothes too, and we've had some dry night-time diapers. During the day potties happen pretty much completely on her own - a major step forward after the brief chaos we had this summer when we had a couple weeks worth of accident-central around here - not what you'd expect for a girl who'd been potty-trained for over a year. Olivia has become the please and thank-you queen (finally!), and frequently positively rewards herself by making sure I've noticed her usage of the words. She also has been really insistent on walking in to daycare completely by herself after school. The fist time she wanted to do this I told her I'd just come to the door - no, that wasn't okay, so I told her I'd stand by the truck. Her reply - "Mommy go in the truck and close the door." Well, okay! So, since then, that's what I do after getting just about the sweetest hug and kiss goodbye.

My little girl is growing up, that's for sure. I remind myself to remember some things - how she still calls popcorn, hopcorn and the elevator, the elligater. I don't ever want to forget going school shopping with her, seeing how excited she was about her Tinkerbell folder or how proud she was to show her daddy the "Sneezknexes" she picked out for school. Of course, I could just about lose my mind sometimes like when she threw a tantrum for 20 minutes about wearing socks for the first time this fall or when she gets out of bed for the 4th time at night, but the good far out-weigh anything else. The random "Mommy, I love you's" are, as cliche as it sounds, truly music to my ears.

Well, I see this entry has gotten a bit side-tracked from its title, but I guess that's what happens when you post an entry only once in a blue moon. Enough for now.

The Motorcade

Decorah, a small town of 8,000, made the news today! President Obama spoke at a local business - Seed Savers to a crowd of 500 people. I wish I could have been lucky enough to be one of the 500!

However, even though we weren't part of the audience, we were not disappointed as we got a close up of the motorcade as it drove by our house taking the president from Seed Savers (located north of town) to the Hotel Winneshiek. The road was completely blocked off for a half hour before it came through, and as we waited for the official motorcade numerous Secret Service vehicles drove by - the agents wore suits or shirts with bullet-proof vests (at least I think that's what I was seeing). They all had black sunglasses too - just like the movies! :) Just kidding - well, they did have sunglasses on, but maybe that was because it was actually quite sunny out!

If you look closely at the first bus (left side) you can see President Obama's arms - he was standing up looking/waving out the windows. Want to know what he was looking at - scroll down to see the sign the neighbor's made!

And a few pictures of the girls and their neighborhood friends. Clearly they were focused on "better" things like playing babies and eating freezies. :)


I went walking downtown with my friend Jamie later on...Snipers on the roof and Secret Service in front of the Hotel Winn. Gigantic construction vehicles blocked all the cross streets downtown and cement road blocks blocked main street. As my step-dad said, Decorah might be the safest town in the country tonight!

Bug Day

Back in July while Olivia was participating in the Wahlen Cabin play-group, she came home one day with a fancy "bug hat." It had been "Bug Day" at camp and before going exploring for cool bugs like ants, all the kids got to decorate a visor to wear. After their bug-hunt, each kid also made their own bug using construction paper. At this point in the play-group Olivia had finally gotten over her "I don't decorate anything" period, and came home with a pretty impressively decorated hat and an even more interesting looking bug. Not only was she quite proud of these at the time, but she still talks about her bug which is hanging up on the fridge and she and Gracie both enjoy wearing her hat on occasion.

Swimming Lessons

We signed both our water babies up for two sessions of swimming lessons this summer. Grace was a part of the "Mommy and Me" lessons, and Olivia completed two sessions of the "Pre-School" level lessons (without Mommy in the water). There's never been any doubt in my mind that the girls love the water and are on their way to becoming "pool-rats" especially considering our proximity to the pool, but it was interesting to see how they acted in lessons with teachers who they didn't know.


Gracie did great (although we did have a couple of trantrums when it was time to get out!). She continued to be her adventurous and independent self - showing off by pouring water over her head and refusing to hold my hand even though she was neck deep in water. Gracie stressed a little each day because the slide wasn't on, but thankfully was pretty cooperative despite this very upsetting fact (in her world at least) and made great progress with kicking and blowing bubbles. I'm not sure what we'll do next year - she'll be a little too old to repeat but not quite old enough for pre-school without special permission.



Olivia made awesome progress from week one to week two. Week one I was at the pool sitting on a bench watching her. She did okay, but didn't do a lot of the things I knew she could like putting her face in, laying back and kicking, etc. She also always wanted to hold her teacher's hand and sit on her lap. Week one ended with a recommendation to repeat the pre-school level, no surprise. Week two I came up with various excuses to "leave" her at the pool with her friend Lilah's mom when really I was watching from the nearby park as I played with Grace. The difference was amazing - Olivia was way more out-going and not nearly as clingy to her teachers. She passed week two with flying colors and was so proud of herself! I was proud of her too. I think it's important that she learn to be comfortable in the water with someone besides Brian and me, and it was great to see her take directions from others and dive into new activities increasing her abilities in the process.

The slide on the last day of lessons was a huge hit.
I love the progression of facial expressions as they hit the water.
The last picture is the girls running to get back in line.

Sorry no pictures of Grace!