Pictures, Pool, Etc.

It is a strange feeling for us to miss the place we live.   We used to dread the waning days  of our Upper Midwestern vacations.  The Petersons have enjoyed their time up here, but we are also excited to return to the land of sugar.  I was watching the Twins-Rangers game last night and my mouth started watering as I thought about Texas cuisine.
Much has happened and much will happen before we return, however. 
After returning from Colorado on Saturday (by the way, I cannot stop playing The Marshall Tucker Band's "Fire on the Mountain" since returning), Anders and I drove down to Decorah on Monday.  Anders was excited for the road trip.  I could not believe a two year old could be amped up for a four hour car ride.  Anders, however, busied himself with our USA road atlas, our Garmin or as we call her "Lady," and the alphabet game in the car.  Anders knows J, Q, and Z are particularly hard letters to find on road signs. 
Anders has started eating more like a toddler than a baby. "Not eat like a bird," Anders says to me all the time now whether he's woofing down the Buffet at Ridgewood Bay in Zimmerman or pieces of Mabe's Pizza in Decorah.  He still loves the ice cream cone more than the ice cream.  Anders wowed Grandma Ingrid with his ability to read the signs on the businesses as we walked down Water Street. I kept telling her, he reads.  I've been saying this for weeks now, maybe a couple of months.  Anders doesn't read a few words, he is a reader, he reads.  I know how crazy that sounds for a two year old.  I didn't read until I was in 1st grade, and I don't think Anna read until she reached school age.
I made the joke on Facebook that Anders is taken with geometry, foreign languages, and writing on a typewriter, but it is also the truth.  He loves banging away on Grandma and Grandpa's old typewriter.  When we were changing in the Decorah pool last week, he started counting to 100 in Spanish at the top of his lungs, apropos of nothing.   He likes watching as the pizza changes shape from a circle to a rhombus.  Our biggest goal in getting him into a daycare/school is to socialize him to prevent what we jokingly call his "descent into madness," which is why we couldn't send him the Montessori route since they'd let him do whatever forever. 
Anders' genius is the reason I was so happy that he enjoyed going down the water slide at the Decorah pool with me, the Nordic Noodle.  We went down at least ten times.  Anders we undeterred even though he went under water once, and he must have climbed at least 260 steps (26 steps to the top, 10 times).  He was so happy when he got back on ground that he ran around like a chicken with his head cut off owing to his explosive level of excitement.  Anders had no idea where he was going, but he knew he wanted to go down the slide again!  It was hilarious and heartening to see him having fun with a physical activity.  He also had a great time at Dunning Springs in Decorah, saying that he'd be read to climb to the top of the springs when he turns 18.  Anders has a lot of plans for the coming years.  He'll start school at 3, start gardening at 6, dye his hair blue at 15, drive at 16, wander around at 17, Dunning climb at 18, and stop farting at 100. 
Speaking of farts, we went down to Rogers to get Anders' 3 yr old pictures today.  It was a buggy mess.  The Deer Flies were too thick to take pictures on a bridge, so we settled for an old barn.  Anders was mostly "out" on pictures, but he did pose with an elbow on a board as he looked over his shoulder, sort of like a senior picture.  He even climbed on a rock and sat.  We was about to melt down during a venue change, when I started talking to him about farts and boogers.  That sustained Anders through the rest of the photo shoot.  I think we'll get a few gems out of it.