Black Hills 2018 : Day 1- Wind Cave & Custer State Park

Our first night we stayed at the State Game Lodge inside the Park. It was a really beautiful place to stay. We wandered around nearby to blow the car stink off us. The main visitor center was neat, loved the architecture. But the Peter Norbeck Education Center was amazing! The kids loved all the hands on displays. We stayed there for about over an hour. My favorite was watching the bird feeder and identifying the birds coming into to get a bite to eat; River and Skyler liked building a course for a rolling ball; And Robin happily played in the sandbox.

Image Via

The Next Day we got up and out the door and headed to Wind Cave National Park, a "hidden world beneath the prairie".  We did a walking tour where we entered through the natural entrance. It was really neat inside and the kids liked it, especially River. We learned about "box work" and "popcorn" formations. Robin liked saying "popcorn" and "echo". It was really kid friendly, but by the end, Robin was done. She just wanted to run around and touch everything. River earned his Junior Ranger badge and took the oath.  

After wards we drove the Wildlife loop in Custer State Park and visited the old death march- I mean hike, I took Skyler on the first time we visited 5 years ago. We didn't do the whole trail Just wandered in a little and stretched out legs.

Best part was venturing out on an unpaved road all by ourselves through fields of flowers and bison.  We unbuckled the kids and let them ride free with the window down. (Robin sat on sky's lap, remember riding around with no seatbelts as a little kid? those were the days". Sky and River explored the ponds and found all kids of stuff - turtles and Water snakes to name a few. At the top there was a Prairie Dog Village  with tons of the cute little critters. 

Robin Hope : 10 Months

Our little RoRo the explorer is 10 months old, and explorer is a perfect description of her right now. With her perfected crawling, climbing, and pulling-herself-up-on-everything skills - this girl is exploring her environment every day. Her latest endeavor is to play in the kitchen opening the cupboards pulling everything out and climbing in. The tupperware and mixing bowls never stood a chance. She spent a few hours at a friends house the other day and learned how to go upstairs. She's so curious about everything. I was really proud of her when we were visiting the Oregon Coast a couple weeks ago. She loved playing in the sand and on the rocky beaches. She had no hesitations and got down and dirty, crawling and digging and basically having a ball.

I can't believe how quickly she's changing. I can't keep up as she's blazing through all these different stages. They grow and develop so much in the first year. I feel like I am getting to know her better everyday.

Now Robin comes when you call her, crawling excitedly to you. When she wants you to pick her up, she climbs up your legs to standing, which is tricky when I am wearing a skirt and comical when she climbs up on River. He always says, "Uh, I need a little help here," not quite sure what to do. She's about 3/4 of his height already. 

She's becoming so much more social and interactive. She laughs and giggles and plays with us. It's so fun. And her smile is the Best! She laughs and smiles when I sing and dance for her, and when we dance together. We all love our little Robin. She's such a funny, wild sweetheart. I could spend all day watching the funny things she does, like pulling the garbage can over on herself, getting stuck underneath a drawer she pulled out, teasing Charlie with one of his bones, or vigorously swinging around one of her toys. She loves to splash wildly in the bath tub. It's becoming quite the wrestling match to keep her from slipping and sliding all around. But she loves it.

I love her full cheeks and kiss them endlessly. I love her thickening soft hair, bright blue eyes, and plump little hands and fingers.

10 months, that was fast. 

We love you RoRo!

These Two

 

These two are like a silly old couple.

There's so much love and laughter there.

Robin Hope : 9 months

This next sequence/gambit of emotion is typical Robin.  

 Such a silly girl!

Even Charlie adores Robin!

I just love my little girl. It's nice to have someone on my team, but also for all her brut-ness, with her super strength and huskier build, she's so sweet and feminine. I love how her hair falls so sweetly and sweeps to the side in the back. I love her blue eyes, pink lips, and chubby cheeks. I love dressing her in cute outfits and putting bows in her hair. I can hardly wait to paint her petite nails a pale pearl pink. I hope I can teacher her the joys and importance of womanhood and the inherent divinity in our gender. Dont' get me wrong I adore my boy beyond words! It's such a blessing to have one of each!

Robin is officially a crawler, no more army crawling. She's up on all fours (belly clean off the ground) and crawling all over the house causing mischief. Especially with the dog bowls ... grrr. She know's she not suppose to play with them, so she flirts with it, waving her hand above it and looking around to make sure we're not looking and then -- SPLISH SPLASH! EW! I guess I can't blame the girl, she loves water, including baths, sippy cups of water, oceans, and apparently dog bowls. But back to the crawling, my favorite is that she will follow people or going looking for them when they leave her sight. I am hoping she'll stat coming when I call her. (Just like training a puppy right? Charlie was good practice.)

Robin is hilarious, expecially when she gets mad. She shakes her head no -- vigorously if it's something she's really upset about and opposed to; like getting in her carseat, having her face wiped, changing her diaper, being swaddled and rocked to sleep, and mixed vegetables. Oh she HATES mixed vegetables. This girl has learned how to communicate her dislikes. Like with her Full body kicks. I call it the fish wiggle, like when they're being suspened in the air by the hook and are thrashing all over. Charlie does a similar thing when he's excited, we call it the fish butt. But for bittty, it's the fish wiggle.

She's just as talented and effective at communicating her happiness and excitement. She wildly flaps her arms and kicks her legs when he's happy. She laughs and giggles, squeals and squawks. She does this funny panting breathing when she's super excited for something. I swear she breathes at the same rate as hummingbird wings flap. Robin loves her family and is quick to laugh and play with us at just the hint of a smile. 

Robin is just so busy, just like River, and is "going" all day long. She's rolling and playing, getting into things and exploring all day long. She's what I can a non-napper, and really a non sleeper too. We're working on it. Things were going a lot better until she started teething :( Hopefully we will all survive this and Robin can learn to start sleeping soon. She's just too worried she'll miss something. She loves to be apart of everything going on and sneakily gets her hands on anything you are working on while holding her. I can't even get out a piece of bread without it becoming a bit of a wrestling match. 

Robin and River are really starting to pay together and she just loves him, laughing at things I thought would for sure bug her. For example, having blankets thrown on her all day long, but she excitedly kicks her legs in true bitty fashion and squawks and giggles until either she finds away out or River sets her free, There's a lot more wrestling going on at my house. It's not rough or mean, but until she can talk it's the way they can engage each other. Mostly they just roll around on the ground next to each other until one rolls on top on the other a little bit. :)

She still loves people -- maybe more appropriately  people watching. We went out to eat the other night and she spent the entire evening literally turned around, feet out the back of her high chair, watching all the other families come and go and eat the dinner. In all fairness, people love to watch Robin too. People are quite drawn to her and interact with her all the time, even though she's actually quite shy with strangers. While we were in Santa Fe last week, we got stopped all the time. I feel so flattered and thankful for people's kindness toward both my children. It does make us a little sad that we don't live close to family, because they don't really get to know Robin like we do. We're kind of the only ones to get to know Robin so intimately, and so that makes it such a treasure. She's such a treasure. She's Our Treasure- Mine, Skyler's and River's.

I love everything about my little Robin bird, from her soft feathery hair down to her smelly hobbit toes (yes, they really are stinky). I love her so much, it makes my heart hurt. She has been challenging at times and as equally rewarding. For all her craziness, She's is doubly, triply, no, quadruply more Sweet and Fun. I just enjoy her so much. 

A sweet boy in the store asked me her name the other day and I loved his response, "Robin, that's perfect with her eyes the color of robin eggs." 

Oh My Robin. My Sweet lil' blue eyes.

How could you ever say no to that face and that request to be picked up??