Interesting week

It has been quite the interesting week for us.

We had quite the snow/wind storm on Tuesday. There were several pileups on Highway 7 coming in to Manson because of the white out conditions. Paul came upon one only to find that it was two of his students who had hit a school bus full of Iowa Central charter school kids. Thankfully everyone was ok and Paul was able to bring the kids back into town. That school bus wasn't as lucky though - on their way into town they were hit TWO more times!! The drive that typically takes Paul 20-25 minutes instead took 2 hours yesterday! The winds have died down and now it's just bitterly cold. I'm hoping that it warms up soon because I have a list of things that I want to get done including cleaning out the van.

Grace loved the extra time that she had to spend with Daddy yesterday. But now she is teething again. It looks as though another handful of teeth are trying to make their way through all at once again. She's running a fever and begging for ice cream so we know it's a teething issue. But with a little Tylenol and Blue Bunny ice cream she's happy as a clam. Grace has also realized her love for Shrek and asks to watch the movies often. This has kept her somewhat entertained lately.


Grace is practicing her "but Daddy I really want it" look.


After a spoonful of ice cream, Grace relaxes on Daddy's tv tray (aka. tax work desk) to watch Shrek 2.

Potty update - part 2

Gracie went poopy in the potty at day care today!! She was very excited and got one chocolate chip for a job well done.
Grace is so excited about the potty chair that she even got her "baby" into the act.

Potty update

Yesterday Grace went pee pee in the potty!
She was very excited especially when she got her reward of one chocolate chip!
Today she isn't showing as much interest in the potty chair. She is still so young for potty training that we aren't pushing it. If she shows interest, great. But like the doctor said, most kids don't show interest until 2 1/2 years old.

Interactive Grace

We know that the experts all say that tv for kids under the age of 2 isn't good. But we tend to disagree. We don't let Grace watch a lot of tv and what we do let her watch we make sure is kid friendly and something that she can learn or have fun with.

Yesterday we were snowed in with 6-inches of snow that was also blowing around making visability terrible. I was trying to get some work done and Paul was trying to finish our tax preparations. Grace had had enough of mommy and daddy not playing with her so she tried to "help." After a lot of "uh-ohs" and temper tantrums we finally put the Shrek DVD in. Grace has watched this movie on and off in smal bits for the last few months. This time around she really got into it. When the towns people come looking for Shrek and they meet him and all start screaming, Grace chimed in with a scream and a run around the room too. When Shrek tooted in the opener of the show, Grace laughed and said "pee-you." It was fun to watch Grace understand some of what was going on on tv.

Later that night, Grace fell asleep on my shoulder while I was watching one of my favorite tv shows, Jon and Kate Plus 8. It's a reality show about a husband and wife who have two sets of multiples - twins and sextuplets. I thought that I was obsessive compulsive about some things, but I'm pretty sure that Kate has everyone beat. But then again with 8 kids, you'd almost have to be OCD to surive. Plus, the kids are absolutely adorable. Anyway in the new episode last night, Kate was potty training the three little boys, Aiden, Colin and Joel. Grace knows what the big girl potty is because ever since the bigger girls at day care starting using the potty, she wants to too. So we got out the Elmo potty chair and am practicing sitting on it. Grace sings songs and reads books while on the potty. Although we have yet to potty in the potty chair. But as the doctor said, we have plenty of time for that. She is still young for potty training. Anyway, as Joel, Aiden and Colin were using their potties on the tv show, Grace woke up. She sleepily looked at the tv and said "boys potty." I told her that yes that's what they were doing. Suddenly she got very excited when one of the boys went pee-pee and started clapping her hands and screaming YAYYY! On the show, Kate gives the kids a mini-M&M if they go on the potty and Grace evidently understood this. She got up from the couch, went into the downstairs bedroom where the potty is, sat down on the potty and started singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider." I follwed her in to the bedroom not sure of what was going on. She sat on the potty for a few minutes, got up and came to me with an open hand and said "em-em pease." Well, I guess she understands potty training more than I thought!

Bust a move Gracie!

We knew even before Grace was born that she loved music and liked to dance. When you're pregnant, especially in the third trimester, they say a good way to get the baby to wake up and move around is to drink cold water. I never had to do that. I just turned on music - mostly Godspell, Wicked or jazz and Grace would get her groove on. It was almost comical how music would get her to move around. And with our love of music, we're not really surprised at all.

Well Grace has again proved that she has some good moves - even for a 19 month old. She still loves Elmo and Sesame Street, but lately she's been requesting musicals. She loves to watch Hairspray, Newsies and Annie (the Carol Burnett version of course.)

This afternoon she asked for Hairspray (yes she knows it by name) and has been dancing around the living room for the past half hour. Her favorite song is "Run and tell that" and funny enough she's starting to copy some of the dance moves that they do in the movies. (Thankfully all of these movies are kid-friendly and have good messages to them, so we aren't worried about what she's learning.) It's pretty cool to watch. She has even gotten her groove on to the High School Musical movies from the Disney channel. High School Musical 2 was on the Disney channel last night and she showed her moves off to Daddy.

It's funny how even at 1 year they are already showing off their personalities. You can bet that as soon as Grace is old enough, we'll have her in dance classes!

Grace's big girl hairdo

Grace's hair grows longer and longer everyday. I finally gave in and put her hair up in "big girl" pigtails (pulling up all of her hair) instead of tiny pigtails on the top of her head. Grace was so enamored with her new look that she kept staring at herself in the mirror and saying "pretty." So today when we ventured out to run errands, Grace picked out her own "big girl" hairbrush so that she can learn to brush her own hair everyday. She's getting to be so grown up! :(

Grace has also learned that cheesy, funny smiles make mommy and daddy laugh, so she does them quite often.

First nickname

We evidently wouldn't win a Swedish spelling bee.
We should (and will) spell it Emilia. No e's. Wow those Swedes sure do like vowels!

We have been talking to Grace about Emilia today. She can't say the name yet and has started calling the baby "me-me" instead. We say Emilia - Grace says me-me. Looks like Emilia has her first nickname.

And the ultrasound says...

It’s another girl!!!
Sorry for the delay everyone in posting a message on our web site or for emailing.
We had our ultrasound today and found out that Grace will have a little sister. She looks well and is healthy (and active too!)
Her name will be Emilea Faith. Emilea is pronounced just like Amelia. We are spelling it differently for two reasons: 1. Paul’s great-grandfather that immigrated to the U.S. from Sweden was named Emil. This is Paul’s way of paying tribute to that. 2. Bloomquist is obviously Swedish and we looked it up and Emilea is the proper Swedish spelling for Amelia. So yes, we are one of those parents that spells kids’ names weird.
We would send you pictures to show off the new little girl, but she was camera shy. Every time the tech would get her to turn towards the “camera” she would quickly turn her face the other way. So we don’t have any cute face or body ultrasounds. But we know for sure that it’s a girl with ten fingers and ten toes.
All is well and we’re still set on a June due date!

Love,
Paul, Kelli & Grace Bloomquist

Grace's big girl bed

Grace wasn't wanting to sleep in her crib. Instead she kept begging her way into mommy and daddy's bed. She said that her crib was for "baby's." So last week daddy converted the crib to a toddler bed and even bought Grace her very first Elmo sheets. Now sleeping in the big girl bed isn't a problem at all - it's fun!

What will it be?

We have our ultrasound for baby #2 next Tuesday. For the longest time I was convinced that this baby is a boy. I was nauseous the entire first trimester - yet never was with Grace. I had cravings for fruit, veggies and pizza - lots and lots of pizza. With Grace I craved lots of sweets. My biggest craving thus far has been BBQ sauce. I could drink bottles of it at a time and be perfectly content.
But lately I've had sweet cravings too - Fruit Loops, ice cream and Paul just got back from the grocery store with a big bottle of apple butter (and I ate 1/4 of it right out of the jar!)
All this eating and you'd think that I'd be gaining weight like I did with Grace. But according to the doctor, I haven't gained a thing in the past three months. Although they did remind me that I lost about 15 pounds in the beginning.
Needless to say I have come to realize that all of the wives tales and myths of how to tell if it's a boy or a girl are proving fruitless this time around.
We have a boy's name and a girl's name all ready for next Tuesday. Now we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed that the little one cooperates!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We have had lots of fun over Christmas break. I think Grace really enjoyed having lots of time with both mommy and daddy.


We had a picnic in the living room while we watched the movie Ratatouille.


It's Dr. Jack to the rescue! Grace received a Sesame Street doctor's kit for Christmas and she is constantly checking mommy and daddy and the dogs to make sure that we're all healthy!