Reuterskiold Family Blog

On May 22, we went to the San Francisco Zoo with our friends Map (Matt) and Jessica. We had a really fun time. Carina loves to hang out with Jessica and had fun looking at all of the animals with her. Carina also loves to climb on things. She particularly enjoyed climbing on the animal statues that are around the zoo.

Carina hugging a Lion

Carina has lots of favorite animals. When asked which were her favorite, she responded, “All of them, actually.” She particular enjoys “Raja” (Tiger), monkeys, giraffes, zebras, and koalas. Here are some pictures of her favorite animals.

But, she said, “I like the petting zoo the mostest.” Here she is feeding a goat.

Heather and Caitlyn also enjoyed the zoo, particularly since Jessica did most of the Carina-wrangling. Here they are by the fountain.

It was fun to watch Carina run all around the zoo looking at the animals. She didn’t get bored or complain and she like to see whichever animals we came to next. It was a fun day and we hope to go back again soon.

This month, Carina’s school is celebrating The Month of the Young Child by doing a special thing about two of the children each day. They asked the parents to write a story about something their child likes and to create a picture collage. Here is the collage we made for Carina with the story below.

Carina’s Friends

Every night at bedtime, Carina likes to hear stories. Some of her favorite and most requested stories are ones about where she got some of her “friends”.

Baby Hamley is one of Carina’s friends. Three summers ago, Daddy was traveling in Europe for work and Mommy decided to join him for a few days in London. While there, Mommy and Daddy went to see the “Queen’s house”. They looked through the big gold gate at the house, but they weren’t allowed to go in. The Queen was home and was not taking visitors. Later, Mommy and Daddy went to Hamley’s, one of the world’s oldest and largest toy stores. There they saw a doll that they just knew Carina would love. Mommy picked out the doll and brought her home. Carina named her Baby Hamley. She still likes to snuggle with Baby Hamley at bedtime.

Big Dora is another of Carina’s friends. During Carina’s second year, she became a big fan of Dora the Explorer. On her second birthday, one of her presents from Mommy and Daddy was a big Dora doll. Carina loved her right away and wanted to take her everywhere. Carina loaded Big Dora into her new tricycle and rode with her all around the park in front of our house. She also enjoyed pushing Big Dora around in a toy shopping cart that she got from Grandma Laural. Still today, Big Dora sleeps in her own place at the head of Carina’s bed.

Carina has many other friends that she loves to play with and each has their own special story.

Here is a picture of the finished poster!

I know, it’s been a while since you’ve heard from me. There’s a reason for that. Things aren’t really going my way these days. Let me tell you the story…

It all started a couple of years ago, shortly after my last post, Are You Kidding Me?. That thing they brought home started following me around more and more and trying to touch me. That’s when I decided I needed to take action. I needed to get Maya and I out of the house.

I crafted a plan to get the humans to evict us. It was pretty simple, really. I know how sensitive they are to odors, particularly the female one (and she thinks she’s in charge), so I had a talk with Maya. I told her she wasn’t supposed to pee in the litter box anymore, that the humans wanted her to pee on the carpet and floor. It’s pretty disgusting so I wasn’t going to do it myself, but I knew Maya would fall for it. I told her to be sneaky about it so the humans wouldn’t know who it was. They’d get sick of it really quickly and throw us outside — we’d be free.

They were particularly tolerant at first, more than I expected. They kept spraying different things around the house where Maya was peeing. They also kept spraying stuff around my litter box. THAT was annoying. After I told Maya to start peeing on the carpet upstairs, the humans just banned us from upstairs and got new carpet. Also quite annoying.

Then, something even worse happened. They brought home another one of those small human-like things. It smells funny and makes this ridiculous screeching noise. It was time to kick it up a notch. I told Maya to start peeing everywhere, including on the new rug. It was working.

Then, Maya got lazy. They discovered it was her. I thought everything might work out, but it didn’t. Maya was freed and now lives outside. She’s got a warm cozy box and she can roam free all she wants. She even sits on the table and taunts me through the window. In the meantime, I’m stuck in the house with two small stinky loud people.

At least there’s more room on the end of the bed now.

-Frida

I went back to work on February 7th – my room and kids were not in the shape I would have liked them in, but the last two weeks have gone fairly well.  Luckily, my mom was here to help ease our transition.  She helped everyone get out the door in the morning (what will I do next week when I actually have to pack my car up myself), except for Caitlyn who she got to spoil and love all day!  On my first Thursday back she even went to Starbucks for me!  Here’s a group shot as I was heading out the door…

Workin' Momma

My mom enjoyed hanging out with CR2 (that’s our nickname for her since she and Carina both have the same initials CRR).  Caitlyn did a good job taking the bottle from Grandma and by the end of the two weeks was even taking better naps for her.  Mostly though, she was just cute and that was enough…

I love my Grandma Laural!

It was a busy time since it was also Carina’s fourth birthday.  She had a super fun birthday weekend with a Bouncy Land party.  We took her in to have her portrait taken, and she just looks so grown up…

I'm 4!

We had a few shots done of her with Caitlyn also…

I love my sister.

We took both girls in today for their well-checks – Caitlyn for her 4-month and Carina for her 4-year.  We are so lucky that both girls continue to be healthy and happy.  Caitlyn has started to think about rolling over, but hasn’t mastered it yet.  She’s also getting more interested in toys, especially when they are in her drooly mouth!  Carina is doing a great job in preschool.  We had a conference with her teacher (how nice to be a parent for once in this situation), and she is doing very well.  Her teacher said that one of the things she likes to do is play “teacher” with the other kids.  There was a great pictue she showed us of Carina using the felt board to teach her “class.”  I wonder where she gets that from?  We love to see her learning and growing and becoming such a neat little person. She’ll be moving to a new class in a couple of weeks due to growing enrollment.  We hope she has a smooth transition.

I have this week off for Mid-Year Recess.  Caitlyn is at day care for today and tomorrow so I can get caught up on some work stuff and some fun stuff.  This weekend Dave’s parents will be here for a few days to help us out and to have fun with the girls.  Dave and I are lucky to have such great parents that can help us out.

Carina started a pre-ballet/tap class last week.  She is so excited to get to wear her dancing outfits and her new shoes!  The class meets on Saturdays so Dave is taking her.  I can’t wait to go so I can see this cuteness in person…

Waiting to Dance

Carina has really been amusing us lately with her speaking.  She has started using a lot of inflection when she speaks, and she also uses her hands when she talks.  It is funny to listen to and see.  Carina is happy that she can use her words (and silly faces) to entertain Caitlyn.  She likes it when she is able to make Caitlyn laugh.

Carina is excited about her upcoming birthday – 4 years old already!  We let her decide what kind of party she wanted and Bouncy Land it is.  She’s made a list of items she wants.  My favorite: a magic wand…but, she has one stipulation: a magic wand that “really does magic.”  Hmmm…do they sell those on Amazon?

Caitlyn has a new name – Miss Drooly!  She is constantly a wet, drooly mess.

Bubble Mouth

Another new name we could give her is Banshee.  She has started making this high-pitched shrieking noise.  I think she is super proud of herself for this new sound, but it is a real ear piercer!  I’m proud of her for something else – drinking from a bottle!  Carina took a bottle so easily, that I didn’t think anything of introducing it to Caitlyn.  Boy was I wrong!  She wanted nothing to do with it!  I reached out to my mommy friends for advice and we started trying lots of different suggestions to get her to take one.  Nothing seemed to work!  We tried different bottles, different nipples, different positions, different times of day, different milk (frozen, refrigerated, fresh from the source), different people – nothing!  She wanted nothing to do with anything that wasn’t Mommy.  Finally, I decided to try and give it to her (most everywhere said the mom shouldn’t give it, but I was desperate)…and ta-da!  She did it.  Unfortunately, her taking it from me didn’t really help us out any since the reason for taking a bottle was so that I didn’t have to be there.  We kept trying though and finally she took it from Dave!  We’ve done a couple of days at daycare (just a few hours each) and she’s also taken the bottle from Michele there.  Such a relief since I go back to work in two weeks.

Speaking of work – yes, only two weeks until I’m back in the classroom.  I’m looking forward to being back at work, but I will miss my days with Caitlyn.  Only four and a half months until summer!