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Congratulations HH on caving in to our relentless nagging.

Explanation

I was videotaping the kids yesterday, and amidst his raspberry blowing, B sounded like he said, "hi Annie." It was really cute, and I wanted to share it with you. This is my first attempt at audioblogging, the clarity of the recording might not be the best because I was recording it from the camcorder via my cell phone's speakerphone. And then transmitting it to my blog via my high speed internet connection. Talk about technology!

Little B's First Words...

Looking Forward to a Weekend

I am going out to dinner tonight! Yes, that's right, I didn't say we- Mike is staying home with Joy #1 and Joy #2. I am going to Salut with my friend since grade school, Kim. I am looking forward to a meal which doesn't involve helping someone keep a straw upright in a cup of milk. Bridget, Steve, and Maren will be in town this weekend to attend a wedding, and we hope to see them at some point during the weekend.

I had fun picking A up from school today. They read The Secret Birthday Message, by Eric Carle, which A already has, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa J. They also talked a lot about birthdays (great, we already talk about her birthday enough!) To my surprise, A ate a blueberry muffin which the class made with the help of Teacher Lisa! Woah- now if she can just remember that she liked it, next time we offer her one. Actually, she ate the top of the muffin, and the rest was sent home with us in a baggie. Teacher Sue told me that A was watching everyone eat their muffins, then she finally tried licking the top of her muffin, and finally started to eat the top, and Teacher Sue had to take her muffin away, since the class had already moved on to the next activity.

Have a great weekend, all! Love, K

Mr. F is back!

Yay! It was a long two days, but Mike is home from San Fran. He is exhausted, and now has more work to do than before he left, but it is great having him home. I did really well with the kids; having dinner with Danielle and the boys last night really helped. Danielle made an excellent dinner- see her blog for the corn fritter recipe(http://www.areyoueffingkiddingme.blogspot.com/) My Texas friend, Mrs. B, sent a bumbo chair UPS today, for B to try. Her little Miss F was not a fan of the bumbo chair after approximately 3 days. Let's see if it was worth mailing to us to try it. If you don't know what a bumbo is, that's okay, it was new to me too. Amazing how quickly things change in the world of baby-rearing, even two years ago it was a whole different ballgame. If B likes it, I'll post his picture so you can see him happily sitting up, and to get a glimpse of the revered Bumbo.

Hanging On

What an isolating day... sometimes this staying at home with babies is lonely work. I'm doing well though, Mike was off for San Francisco before the kiddos woke up this morning. We didn't go anywhere until I absolutely had to get out of the house, so we went to Old MacDonald's for supper, because we couldn't rustle up any other action. Everybody busy with their own stuff, I guess.

Now I have to get everything lined up on the counter, so we can be out of the door no later than 8:20 tomorrow morning. I have A's outfit layed out already, so there hopefully will be no discussion about that in the morning; B is going to school in his pajamas (again, poor second-born). I showered this afternoon, while A whined about something, sitting on the bathroom floor, and B cried in his travel swing in the shower area with me, so I will be ready to go tomorrow (with crazy, frizzy, air-dried hair, no less). Diaper bag for B, backpack with change of clothes for A, car breakfast for A, kids' snacks for tomorrow and Friday, and adults' snack for tomorrow! Wooh! ( I know that Danielle thinks this is no big deal, but it's still a really challenging feat for me.)

I was going to post a picture of our motley crew today, so Daddy wouldn't miss us too much, but I never had a good opportunity to snap one. B was cracking us up on the way to McD's with his talented raspberry-blowing.

Lost tidbit

In the Buddhist context, Dharma means “existence”, but it also means the
teaching about what actually exists.

Lost is such a cool show. All of the little things that jump out at me, sure enough, when I check on the internet, turn out to have some cool symbolism. Like for example, wondering what Dharma meant after seeing it in the hatch all the time.

Flashback to October, 2004

Loves to Eat!

Who doesn't? Anyway, that was specifically referring to B. Poor B- he wears pink gingham well, doesn't he? It is going to be so much fun feeding this kid! He has eaten everything we've tried so far. Today we tried sweet potatoes. It's funny, I've heard about kids grabbing at their parents' food, but since A never did any of that, it's neat to appreciate another difference between my children. B grabbed Mike's grilled cheese sandwich right off his plate yesterday.

Yesterday and today were both pretty low-key, stick around the house days. We had our Chipotle Saturday, and went to church last night. A likes to hold my hand and walk up the aisle when I go for communion. Today B is wearing a Vikings sleeper, in support of his daddy's football habit. A has been very enthusiastic about doing art lately; yesterday was with sparkly paint tubes on butcher block paper. We bought an easel at Ikea, but haven't gotten it assembled yet.

Mike goes on a business trip to San Francisco on Tuesday and Wednesday this week- look for some posts of frustration after single parenting for two days straight. Darn the US postal system, that mail isn't delivered on Sundays. We've finished Lost disc 4, and have to wait until tomorrow to return it, and get disc 5, probably by Thursday. Oh, I guess we could keep plugging away at ER in the meantime.

Note to self in 15 years: When I was putting A in her carseat after school on Friday, I leaned in for a kiss, and she said," mommy's hair is brown, just like chocolate milk." I love her observations! Oh, and another one from this morning, after she wiped, "toilet paper is yellow when it's not white." True.

Thursday

School was fun yesterday. It has been hard trying to figure out what A really thinks of school yet. I think it's going to take her a while to decide that she likes it; as for me, it will be really nice to have a few hours with A in class and B in sibling care, to discuss parenting topics with other moms. B did really well in sibling care. I think he loved all the uninterrupted attention. He had a bottle at 10, and actually napped from 10:15-10:45, which really surprised me, since I didn't think he'd nap while there. He was in the exersaucer when I came to pick him up, just beaming. I was told that the other kids came up to him while he was in the 'saucer, and that he just loved that. I bet. He is already so enamored with A, and with Shug. They are quite interesting, I would imagine, to a six month old.

Mike and I are finishing up Lost, with disc 4 arriving in the mail today. We watched the first episode of ER from last season last night, I think it is a good idea to not have anything on your Tivo for longer than a year. Hopefully we'll be able to tear through the rest of the season (20 more episodes) at record pace. It was pretty hard to get back into after a year break, quite truthfully.

B got his 6 month picture taken yesterday. That darn kid- he was too cute! I was just planning on buying 1 sheet- a 5x7 to put on the photo wall, since I did the same for A's first year. Well, he decided to turn on the charm, and I got more pics than I had anticipated. Oh well, the poor boy deserves to be fawned over a little bit. It once again makes me glad that I am a firstborn.

B has now tried rice cereal (okay), oatmeal (really good), and now sweet peas (jury still out, icky looks decreased in frequency from breakfast to lunchtime). Good thing he's gaining weight nicely on breastmilk, since I barely find time to feed him even once a day. I'm sure it will get easier, as everything has over the past six months.

We're heading to my parents' land on Saturday to visit my aunt Alva Retta who drove from Maryland for a visit. Hopefully the weather will participate, and we'll be able to take a nice walk in the woods, to visit the tree we planted from Stokes and Andy's wedding.

Work the Plan, or not

Had a nice weekend, husband is back home, can't believe tomorrow is Monday already. Well, instead of Oceanaire, I asked Mike to cancel the reservations, and we went to Matt's for a juicy lucy, and then to the Lagoon to see Little Miss Sunshine. I'm happy with our change in plans. We had a really nice time, and Nok and Pat said that the kids were really easy. That's a relief. School went really well on Friday, as far as I can tell. We went to Old MacDonald's for lunch afterwards with another classmate to celebrate the start of the school year.

Mommy is a Mommy

We were discussing A's future occupation at breakfast this morning, and she is either going to be a cookie monster or a farmer. She also thinks that I should be a farmer, and have a purple windmill. Then she decided that I shouldn't be a farmer, because I'm a mommy. "Mommy is a mommy." I guess that's true. We had a great time at a place called the Splash Pad yesterday. We met with some old (not old in that way, the kids are all two) ECFE friends and played in the spraying water, played on the adjoining playground, and ate a picnic lunch. Yesterday afternoon was an open house at A's school. We visited her classroom for a second time, said hi to Teacher Lisa again, and then visited the gym and new/improved playground. We're all really excited for the coming school year. Tomorrow, that is!

Mike is going on a fishing trip with his dad and other relatives this weekend, so I am packing the crew up and heading down to my parents' house. Bridget, Steve, and Maren are heading into town, so it will be nice to see them too. Maren apparently is quite the little talker. It will be fun to see who talks more, little B or Maren. It seems to me that they are so far apart in age (3 months, versus 6), but I was thinking about it the other day, and they'll go to kindergarten the same year, they'll get their drivers' licenses at the same time, and graduate high school, both in 2024. I hope that they see each other often while growing up, and are close cousins.

Sunday is our 7 year anniversary. My dear husband has arranged a babysitter for Sunday night, and we are going out to Oceanaire for dinner. I need to start dress shopping...

Not Much Happenin'

Hey, we've just been hanging around the house, except for our trips into the world to get junk food. We are the only people left in town this Labor Day weekend, it seems. Yesterday we took the car to a shop in Prior Lake to fix the brakes, mailed a bunch of miscellaneous packages at the post office, and then ate chicken wings at bw3. Hard to believe there's one in Savage now. Mike did his fantasy football draft online last night, while we ate Jimmy Johns. Today was productive- we washed the floors upstairs (spit up puddles everywhere), changed sheets, cleaned the bathroom, put baby clothes back into the dressers, and used the noo noo (vacuum). We also had Chipotle for lunch, and carry out pizza for supper. We only have a few more episodes of Lost, season 2 on Tivo, before we have to get the DVDs from Netflix, to catch up before the new season starts.

Now, what ever will we eat tomorrow? A keeps asking to go back to the Fair. We've already gone on Saturday and Thursday. Both trips with the double stroller went very well, filled with Sweet Martha's, french fries (with ketchup! A always adds), cheese curds, deep fried dill pickle slices, mini donuts, ice cream, and milk shakes from the stand at the cow barn.

Oh! I don't think I've mentioned school yet. We went to our preschool conference to meet Teacher Lisa on Monday. A really liked the classroom, and was soon busy playing with the sand table, a bucket of dinosaurs, puzzles, and cars. We had to go straight from school to B's six month well child visit, and A requested that we return to school after the doctor's office. That's a good sign! We got a packet of papers, and I need to gather things (a white pillow case, 5 pictures of A, etc.) before school starts! Wow, my little girl is growing up. Also, speaking of growing up- B had his first rice cereal last Friday (the 25th). It went well, pretty unremarkable really, which hopefully is how feeding B continues to be. We deserve one easy child where food is concerned!