Tag Archives: Naptime

January 26th, 2019

January 26, 2019 shreffler

Waking up to fresh powder

Eleanor learning fifth position in her first dance class

Lunch with (great-)(aunt) Molly at Lalibela Ethiopian

Napping with all of her friends- Margaret, Blue Bear, assorted animals and, clutched guardedly in hand- beloved monkey.

Now officially a tradition: dad’s birthday weekend celebrated with an overnight hotel stay, swim and pizza party. Des is just as excited as dad-

Eleanor wastes no time finding the nearest slide, dashing down with only mild hesitation

Desmond fearlessly conquering the two-story waterslide

All washed up after the pool, the pizza arrives! The pixar gods shone down on everyone with a quick find on the cable (re-explaining that concept to Des for the fourth time) with Finding Dory

Ella snacking with some of aunt Molly’s candied pecans (so yum!)

Snuggles and Nemo- the best birthday present

While Eleanor takes quite some time to fall asleep, Des and dad build a fort in the corner with a laptop viewing of The Empire Strikes Back (or with all the pause-and-explain-the-plot-details breaks, up until meeting Yoda on Dagobah)

Boxing Day 2018

December 26, 2018 shreffler

Shenanigans with pa before brunch

Ready for ma’s special french toast

Three cousin peas in a pod

“My monkey!”

Des opening his present from ma and pa- a “fort building” set that’s effectively a life-size set of tinker toys

Everyone gets a UNO Mavs hat, though Ella’s has big googly eyes

And quite possibly her favorite, a (kids themed) duck call

“QUACK!”

Ella and Margaret taking a nap

Chilling like a mermaid

R2-D2 minifig, dad’s inner child is a little jealous

Feeding her baby after mom lends her diapering expertise

And again.

Although she’s becoming an increasingly active sleeper as well

December 22nd, 2018

December 22, 2018 shreffler

Daniel Tiger and friends laying some early morning mind grapes on healthy expression of frustration and problem solving. And the kids just think they’re watching cartoons…

Oddly enough, Des thinks the frog blanket is his (Ella got it at pa’s union hall when she was an infant and Des annexed it). The construction truck blanket actually was Desmond’s, but Eleanor has clearly claimed it as “her” blanket. A surprising symbiosis has emerged, possibly their first successful trade.

The good kind of buttons to push…

Ella, pizza artist

Des and Cal busy as beavers building damns

“Beep beep!” (as all tractors go?)

Ella getting in on the water play action, getting only slightly drenched

Pushing the button to talk, Cal respectively asks “Please give me some of your money.”

She’s definitely got part the bottle part down…

…giving medicine is a different story.

Likewise, the boys nailed their blood pressure testing

Slide! She sprinted back to go again about a dozen times.

Ella doing her signature dance move with mom

He’ll play with legos with a mouse, in a house. Or on the floor or a wall-

The crayon equivalent of dumpster diving

After Des is done assembling his creation with wood, nails and tape, Calvin quietly turns to suggest, “Uh, but it doesn’t look like an AT-AT walker” That’s ok.

“Game on!”

As he grows taller beyond the toddler days, a real Mavs hockey jersey puts it all in perspective

Game face.

Some kids like to kick around the soccer ball. Others enjoy collecting and stacking field cones 🙂

Excited to stop in and see aunt Kelli and uncle Mike at the restaurant

New favorite past time

A spaceport crane, naturally

Movie night: How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Rest well, little pretzel dough balls

December 15th, 2018

December 15, 2018 shreffler

The annual trip to Mangelsens for 2018 tree ornaments starts with the ceremonial browsing the miniature village displays- “SNOOPY!”

Des exploring the dark side with The Nightmare Before Christmas set

Ella: zero fear, as if, “Man, get a load of this guy!”

Playing with great grandma Jan’s original Fisher Price record player, nothing like that modern knock-off at home

Thankful for her new stocking, the family set is now complete!

Naps with Margaret

A young artist, still waking up

November 10th, 2018

November 10, 2018 shreffler

A brisk November morning at the outlet mall for new shoes, Eleanor her eclectic outfit

Des “presenting” (?) the tree

Yup, someone really understands what that bright box is. Eleanor wakes up from the nap and starts talking to the monitor

Eleanor lounges back for Saturday movie night, The Sword in the Stone

Apparently she’s found her new style

Ella snuggles

Special treat- Salween Thai!

Yeah, everyone was pretty stoked

October 8th, 2018

October 8, 2018 shreffler

Desmond amidst nap-time acrobatics

Upon the first piece’s successful extraction, one thinks, “there was surely no way he was going to pull that off, but wow, he got it. Maybe he has the hang of this…” Second turn, reliably, “yeah, that’s what I was expecting.” Game over.

Leave it to Eleanor to find entertainment in not applying stickers, but attempting to remove prior installations. She hears dad’s logic to the contrary, but just doesn’t care.

September 15th, 2018

September 15, 2018 shreffler

Sunrise after campout #1. Desmond and dad go hunting for donuts for sister.

Just pursuing some periodicals after breakfast

Morning trip to children’s museum, ahoy!

Slinging a few slices

Blanket ALL the things

Des checks mom’s cheek (for something)

Nailed it.

Ok, maybe she’s into dolls

While her lower half is soaked from water play, dad gets the traditional fruit sorting picture for comparison

Des pulling on a Newton’s cradle constructed with bowling balls

The faster you spin the platform, the stronger the water tornado

Milliseconds before lost grip and control of her emotions :/

Dad’s best attempt at face painting. Not too shabby.

In the construction room, each child lives out their fantasies

Des hammers and screws to his heart’s content

Eleanor let’s it rip and yanks off a few dozen feet off tape. Bliss.

That’s one arm around her llama

Maha 2018

August 18, 2018 shreffler

With Eleanor already at ma and pa’s house, Desmond naps for maximum festival energy. While the verdict is out on whether co-napping helped expedite the early “go to sleep” portion of napping, it was nice

The year prior, Des was pretty disappointed he didn’t get to go on the ferris wheel (admittedly mom and dad misread the height requirement sign, which only applied to children riding solo). So this year, stop #1 was the ferris wheel.