Sandy-Lego and Other October Fun

In early October, Elsa and I joined Arne in San Diego for a conference he was attending. We had a wonderful time. As the plane was taxiing down the runway after landing, the flight attendant welcomed everyone to San Diego. Elsa was thrilled and announce to everyone that we were in "Sandy Lego". 



Legoland was too expensive for a short Saturday afternoon visit so instead we went to the San Diego Botanical Gardens. It turned out to be a great place for kids. Elsa got to play with blocks, float toy boats down a stream, explore a tree house, and see a bunny.



Saturday night was warm and beautiful out and we went to Seaport village. The gardenias smelled wonderful. Elsa rode the Merry-go-round and we bought her a music box (Puff the Magic Dragon). The highlight was a short horse drawn carriage ride.





On Sunday, we went to the San Diego Zoo.  This was a great adventure with flamingos (fling-a-ming-gos), elephants (la-los) and even a polar bear (Elsa doesn't have a cute name for bears).


On Monday, Arne went to the National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators conference and Karna and Elsa went to the San Diego Children's Museum. Elsa got to climb old tires and play with blocks.

Every day there was time to go swimming in the hotel pool and now several weeks later Elsa calls all tall buildings hotels. She really liked the hotel room.

The rest of the month has been filled with other fun activities.  Arne went to Michigan to help his brother build a tree house for his nieces.  It turns out Arne is an expert at siding.





While Arne was in Michigan, Elsa and I went to a pumpkin patch.  She loves her pumpkins.





She also loves petting the bunnies and is very good at being gentle.



Elsa is growing to love her preschool (Downtown Children's Center or DCC) and this month they started doing Yoga.  It is quite fun to have her call out Namaste with her hands together in the carseat.  I am not as fond of the yoga on the stairs.





Elsa also went on her first big field trip with DCC to Happy Hollow.  For days she talked about riding the big yellow school bus.  She was so happy during the outing, running and playing and going on rides!





We went to a Stanford volleyball game and cheered on the home team.  Elsa is good at focusing on the game. She's wearing headphones because the band is too loud.



Then Arne and I went to the Big Game - sadly Cal lost, but the rebuilt stadium is nice and the team that won 30 years ago in the Play were honored at half-time. Elsa did not join us at the game, but she does have the right outfit for it - her Cal cheerleader dress.  



Now we are getting ready for Halloween, with lots of costumes and events.

September Fun

This month we went camping in Big Basin with the Young Scandinavian Club.





It was great fun to see Elsa with all the other little ones, running around and playing by creeks.

 

At 26 months, Elsa is continuing to develop into a wonderful little girl.  She continues to thrive at her preschool, DCC, having lots of fun with park outings, play, and other learning adventures.  Her teachers say she is a good listener and very focused when learning new things.





 

When we are at home she loves projects, in particular cooking projects. It seems like every morning and night she asks to make pancakes, waffles, pasta, or just something with flour. The kitchen is often messy.



One of her favorite make believe games is having a picnic - she really loves picnics and had a great time at the BART company picnic - with firetrucks and swimming.





This month I have also had fun dressing Elsa up in my old clothes.





As we move into fall, I look forward to more fun times with our growing girl.

Late Summer Fun with Elsa

August has been a great month of watching Elsa develop into a wonderful little girl.



At the start of the month, Elsa graduated from MINI, her infant care center that she started at when she was 5 months old, to Downtown Children's Center (DCC), her pre-school.  It was so sad for us to leave the warmth and love of MINI, but after a rough few weeks adjustment, Elsa is thriving at DCC.  She is now the little one in a group of 2-5 year olds and we hear her talk, sing and count more.



Elsa likes her friend Emilia a lot.  She and Emilia are so cute holding hands and running around.



In late August, we headed down to LA for a weekend of friends and a wedding.  Elsa's friend Sage had fun putting lip gloss on Elsa.  Elsa really enjoyed the experience.



The next morning Elsa got to ride a pony - her first pony ride - all by herself!

We are blessed to have such an energetic girl.  Our latest activity is to cook.  Elsa loves cooking with mommy and wearing her apron.  She is particularly fond of stirring and pouring.  We made muffins, apple pie, cookies, spaghetti, tuna melts and fried rice.  Arne put together a great video of us making muffins.

Cooking with Elsa - Part 1 from Arne Stokstad on Vimeo.

Lair of the Bear 2012

This was Elsa's third year at the Lair of the Bear. Last year was a lot of fun, but this year was even better.

Elsa loved the water, and went swimming every day.

She was fearless, jumping into the water again and again. She was so quick to jump into the water that we developed a game where she had to go give someone a high five, in order jump into the water.

One of the new things this year was Elsa jumping off the diving board toward Daddy. After all the fun she still wanted to play with Daddy.

Once water play was done, we would wrap Elsa up in towels and she would finally take her afternoon nap. It was great.

At one of the parties, we had our annual picture with Mike White. He was back as the manager of Camp Blue and as always was a fabulous leader.

Later, Elsa crashed - she was so tired from missing her nap.

Arne played softball - I watched his great hit and him getting on base. It was awesome.

Elsa really just liked the post softball Popsicle.

Elsa was a pretty good sleeper, using a sleeping bag for the first time ever.

Elsa also made a good friend in Mackenzie. They would jump off of rocks together. I found this terrifying, because like in the pool - Elsa would just jump, without looking to see if anyone could catch her.

We had a wonderful week and were lucky to have Grandma in the tent next to ours. Elsa called our tent "my house" and grandma's tent "grandma's house."

Elsa's Second Birthday

Elsa is now TWO! It is amazing how big and interactive she is getting. She loves to play and explore. We love our baby girl, who is not really a baby anymore. It was at a park a few blocks from our home. Tunnels were new this year. Elsa exploring. Elsa and her aunt. Can't have a birthday without birthday cake. Two grandmas. Arne made a video of Elsa's birthday
Elsa's Second Birthday from Arne Stokstad on Vimeo.