so long, 2008!

i'm beyond excited that today is the last day of 2008. it's been a kind of rough year for us, but still with some definite high points. let's take a look back, shall we?

january: we get settled in our new apartment. it is the awesome. lots of snow falls. abby forms her league of imaginary friends: sarahpaula, roto, and hinko.

february: more snow. kim comes here for oscar weekend, ian makes it somewhat difficult.

march: easter trip up north. more snow.

april: we buy the minivan. 8 months later i'm still excited about it.

may: i turn the big 3-0 and attempt to not freak out about it. i'm only semi-successful. we go to brat fest as usual, and are irritated by the new emphasis on "fest" rather than "brat." brats are yummy, though, and abby and i enjoyed the ride on the golf cart from the parking lot to the park.

june: i break my arm, but don't know it for about a week. in the middle of that week, we all go to minneapolis for the national AGO convention and family vacation. the days are good, the nights are bad. the minnesota children's museum is awesome. we hang with erin and ed, and they break their way into abby's list of friends.

july: ian starts crawling. brian and i celebrate our 6th anniversary.

august: abby meets wordgirl! surprisingly, her head does not explode. we go to fremont for the annual rogers/beers family campout, and abby does "limpic diving." we watch a lot of olympics, obviously.

september: abby starts preschool! she loves it, of course, and has made many new friends. brian turns 39. we make the long drive up to superior for angie's wedding and it's lots of fun.

october: abby has her big toenails removed. they're doing very well now...one is completely healed with no scab now, and the other one's scab is on its way out. abby is wordgirl for halloween, and ian is a packer fan. it's 70-some degrees on halloween, which is bizarre.

november: ian turns 1! abby turns 4! joint birthday party with grandparents and the bahrs. trip to appleton for thanksgiving, and on thanksgiving day, i start feeling sick.

december: i am sick. abby is sick. ian is sick. brian is not sick (knock on wood). it's a bad month overall, complete with many trips to the doctor, antibiotics, steroids, a trip to the hospital and a stay overnight there for ian. good things were: christmas, abby learning the word "diabolical," and ian finally learning how to walk!


so that was 2008. things we are looking forward to in 2009: a mini-vacation to the dells in january, a possible trip to chicago in the spring to the aquarium or museum of science and industry, my annual oscar weekend jaunt to st. louis, getting a laptop, brian's 40th birthday, and kim and matt's wedding in october! it's going to be a great year, i can FEEL it.

happy new year to all!

house of sickies

well, there's a reason i haven't updated in over 10 days. it's because the illness in this house exploded and involved a few scary moments. on the 18th, abby developed worsening cold symptoms, including a major cough that made me worried she had picked up my pneumonia. so, off to the doctor we went. they did a chest x-ray and didn't see anything, so that was a relief. however, she did have a raging ear infection (in the doctor's words, "red and bulging eardrum"), so we got antibiotics for that. the next day, she started having trouble breathing, and of course i flashed back to when she had croup last year and couldn't breathe. so, off to the doctor we went AGAIN, where they prescribed her steroids to reduce the inflammation in her airway. she's now being evaluated for asthma since she's had these breathing problems twice now, and having had RSV as an infant puts her at higher risk for asthma. so she missed school thursday that week, and then school was canceled due to snow the next day. the weekend passed relatively uneventfully. then on monday (the 22nd), ian's nose exploded, and he started coughing. i could tell by the cough that he had croup. so, we did the home remedies for croup, which didn't really work too well. then he had a terrible night of sleep. the next morning, he was having trouble breathing, and was wheezing quite a bit. so, off to the doctor we went again. they were pretty freaked out by his breathing, so they gave him a nebulizer treatment of albuterol, which didn't help at all. they decided to send us to the ER, so we went to borders so brian could take abby home while ian and i went to the ER. we got there about 12:30, and they saw him pretty quickly, and gave him a nebulizer of something else (something epinephrine) and a shot of steroids. all of that helped him quite a bit, but they still decided to admit him to the hospital to stay overnight. this all happened exactly one year to the day after abby had her croup experience and ambulance ride to the ER. december 23rd is heretofore known in this house as "croup day." they discharged us the next morning and he's been doing much better. i decided i wasn't comfortable bringing the kids to church that night, which i would have had to do because brian was working, so my very nice sub agreed to fill in for christmas eve.

abby was VERY into santa this year, so that was entertaining. we read "twas the night before christmas" before bed, and put out the cookies and milk for santa. we also sprinkled reindeer food on the patio. we used the NORAD santa tracker, and she was very interested in seeing all the places he went. after she went to bed, brian and i stayed up and wrapped like crazy. i had to go to bed before it got too late, though, because i had gotten next to no sleep in the hospital with ian, so brian did the majority of the wrapping.

christmas morning, abby was up before 7, despite getting to bed late, so we all got up and opened presents. the kids loved everything we got, and we had a nice relaxing time. then we packed up to head to menasha, and got up there around noon. had a nice lunch there (hot beef, macaroni and cheese, cheesy potatoes, pickles, veggies and dip, and christmas cookies), then opened presents. ian was a grump most of the day because he was sleep-deprived and still not feeling too great, so that was unfortunate. lots of nice presents, and abby had fun playing with james and hayden. around 4:30 we headed over to my parents' for supper (pork tenderloin, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, raspberry applesauce salad, and christmas cookies). ian ate a gigantic supper and was definitely ready for bed, so we decided to postpone presents till the morning. and we decided against going down to springfield due to weather and ian's illness. so presents the next morning went very well, and it was a low-key day. i got a mini-stepper, which abby calls the "mommy-stepper," so we're all calling it that now. brian got a new ipod shuffle to replace his old one that broke. we came back last night and all slept very well.

so, that's what's been going on here. next thing we're looking forward to is brian's week of vacation sometime in january. if we can find a good deal, we'll go up to the dells and stay a night up there someplace with an indoor waterpark and let the kids go nuts. new year's eve is the 9th anniversary of brian and i meeting, so that's a special day for us too.

hack hack cough cough

lots of coughing going on here in the rogers household. abby's still got a lingering cough from last month's cold, and i'm dealing with pneumonia. fun times. so far the y chromosomes in the house are doing fine, knock on wood. ian's bonked his head a couple of times in the last few days, but that's par for the course.

ian is 13 months old today! he's had a busy last couple of weeks with lots of new milestones.

skills: walking about 5-6 feet before falling on his butt, finally starting to use a consonant or 2 in his babbling (dadadadadadada), saying ah-dah (all done) (ok, fine, he only did that once), having quite the vocal range, standing up for himself more with big sister, getting better with nonverbal communication.

likes: eating, milk in his sippy cup, playing on the couch, playing on the big bed, reading books, being read to, baths, pulling big sister's hair, screeching like a pterodactyl, the christmas tree.

dislikes: diaper changes, wiping face and hands, pasta, people interfering with what he's doing, waking up from naps, mixed fruit.


in other news, abby helped us decorate the christmas tree last night. this is the first time we've had the tree up since the christmas immediately after she was born. 4 years ago. we didn't put it up for a couple of years because of the possibility of her messing it up, and then last year we didn't put it up because we were moving. this year i was determined that we would put up our tree. and we learned something: 4 years in a box is not kind of a christmas tree. it's, um, crooked. but, whatever. we may get a new one on after-christmas sale. we've had this particular tree for 9 years...it's had a good run.

abby's doing her postponed holiday program for school this friday. all the grandparents are coming, and it should be a good time. then she'll have 2 weeks of no school...i'm not excited to see how that'll go. she's getting some awesome christmas presents, though, so that'll probably help.

celebrate good times, come on!

we did a LOT today. church in the morning, home for lunch and rest time, then to the storage space, target, borders, dinner, and the grocery store, just in time to get home and put the kids to bed. we had our celebration dinner at texas roadhouse...we'd been wanting to try it since it opened, and figured this would be a good opportunity. everyone had a blast, and we'll definitely be going back. they have buckets of in-shell peanuts on the table to munch on, and abby was totally entranced by the whole process. by the end of the meal, we were hearing, "look, i can tear my peanut all by myself!" it was a nice dinner.

shopping was less nice. i don't know what we were thinking trying to do all this on a sunday when every maniac and their dog are out shopping too. target was insanity, and i get very, um, unhappy in crowded stores. so, that was unpleasant. borders was fine, though we were pretty disorganized. and by the time we got to copps, i was feeling very sick. i've been fighting this cold/creeping crud for a week and a half now, and there's no sign of it letting up. the aches hit in copps, so i pretty much staggered my way through the store and powered through. we didn't get all the stuff we needed, but we got enough to get us through till mid-week.

tomorrow night abby's school is doing their holiday program. also slated for tomorrow night is 6-12 inches of snow. we'll see how that all shakes out.

a little youtube for your pleasure......

turkey day wrap-up/bday time!

so! hope everyone had a festive thanksgiving weekend and are sufficiently sated with thanksgiving-y goodness. i'm partial to stuffing. :)

our thanksgiving was mostly good. we headed up to my parents' on thursday morning for a midday meal. we had turkey (of course), stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry relish, cranberry fluff (?), rolls, and pumpkin and chocolate tofu pies (made by yours truly). it was a lot of food. the afternoon passed in a food coma, and everyone else headed out late afternoon-ish. that evening after the kids went to bed, i started feeling kind of achy. yes, this has happened before, not so long ago (see christmas 2007). i took tylenol and felt kind of better. slept in the next day and felt okay till mid-afternoon when i started coughing and getting achy again. long story short, i'm still achy and coughing, with a low-grade fever. woo! it doesn't feel like a cold, so we might be looking at bronchitis. we'll see what the next couple of days bring.

anyway, other than that, the weekend was great. abby had a blast with grandparents, as usual. ian was a little grumpy, thanks to some evil teeth, but he did okay.

4 years ago today, at 3:26pm, abigail beckwith entered the world. she took a long time in coming (43-hour labor), but is totally worth it. i'm having a hard time believing it...4 seems so grown-up. :) she had a good birthday...we went to church (where everyone sang to her), then came home, lunch/rest time, then went out on some errands which included stopping at cold stone creamery for her bday treat. she chose chocolate ice cream with strawberries mixed in. looked pretty good to me. she also chose pancakes for supper, so i think we all know her loyalties lie with carbs. :) i spent part of the afternoon reading old blog entries and reminiscing to myself about how much she's grown. tonight when i was feeling sick, i laid on the couch and she came over and told me a story (transcribed verbatim):

"once upon a time. there was a cupcake! named......CAR. one day. he walked, and bashed into a BOX! then he jumped OVER the box! then he jumped onto the train table! and that was the end."

there were other stories that seemed to be in a similar vein (walking, jumping over things). she's just so smart and funny, and as much as she and i have problems sometimes, i wouldn't change a thing about her.

happy birthday, princess peanuthead.

whoa.

so ian has decided to celebrate his first week of being 1 year old with that major milestone: walking! he's not really walking, but he's definitely starting to take a step or two on his own. he really likes to walk holding people's fingers, so he's motivated. i'm betting by this time next week, he'll be up to taking 5 or 6 steps, and then there'll be no stopping him after that.

sniff.

let the river run

yep, that song's in my head. nope, i don't know why.

sunday is abby and ian's joint birthday party. i'm stressing quite a bit about it. tomorrow's the big prep day because brian's home all day, so we'll be trying to get as much done as possible. saturday is for making the cake and mopping the floor.

then we have thanksgiving, and then decorating for christmas...argh. at least we don't have to move this year! woohoo!!

i'm having trouble with the slideshow, so expect it in the sidebar when you see it.

quote from abby: "this poop seemingly doesn't want to come out!"

happy birthday (a day late), ian dale!

yes, ian turned 1 year old yesterday. i, being a delinquent mommyblogger, neglected to update the blog.

we had a very low-key day, since the main birthday celebration is next sunday, a joint party for both abby and ian. we did church in the morning, as usual, and then came home for lunch and nap, then went and did some errands, and picked up pizza for birthday dinner. ian had a very good day, and enjoyed learning how to deal with stairs at borders, where he crawled up and down the 3 little risers in the children's area.

current skills: crawling very fast, standing alone, walking with assistance, pointing. still not saying any recognizable words, or even any recognizable consonants 99% of the time.

current likes: most any food (especially hamburger), books books books, any of abby's toys, baths, screeching like a pterodactyl.

current dislikes: being in his carseat with a winter coat on, having his face and hands wiped, having his nose wiped.

he and abby have their joint checkup tomorrow morning, so i'll update after that with weight/height/etc. meanwhile, enjoy pictures from ian's first year in the sidebar slideshow that i'll be working on today.

day 10, or worst day ever

so! we had a simply FANTASTIC day today. i'm going to cut and paste from brian's myspace about the events of today, mostly to save time:

***
So this morning at work I started getting a pain in my side. After a couple o' trips to the restrooms I decided it probably wasn't gas as the pain increased. I called Maggie at home and begged her to come and get me. Both Serena and Sara offered to drive me to a clinic or call 911, but I just wanted to lay on the couch for a bit. The pain subsided, and by the time Maggie got there - having frantically packed the kids - it was mostly gone. On the way to the hospital we called our doc and set up an appointment for the earliest we could: 1:30pm.

So we decided to drive home. But then the pain started to grow again. It was bad...we're talking 9 out of 10 on the painness scale (Ed: "painness" is not a word. just sayin'). Back to the hospital we head. Because of the construction there, we could not locate the emergency entrance. We pull into the valet parking area, and as Maggie deals with the attendant I shuffle in. It's kinda neat to see how fast they scramble if you walk into a hospital almost keeling over clutching yourself in pain. So it's into a wheelchair and they take my quite a ways to the ER.

Now admitting of course could care less about the pain you are in. It is MUCH more important -even though you are in the system- to get your address and cell phone number. Then park you in a waiting room so they can prepare a room. Um....this is an ER....aren't the rooms prepared for an emergency? Because of my huffing thru the pain my mouth is pretty dry at this point. Hey, there's a bubbler. And before I get to it I'm pounced on with a speciman cup....little did I know the restroom was right next to the bubbler. I tell them I'm just getting some water so they back off. Now my room's ready. I follow the ER person down some long corridors - which doesn't make sense to me - to my room where Maggie, Abby, and Ian are waiting for me. (? Yep. They got to my room before me....because I was the one in the waiting room.

To make the whole drama short...I had tests run, bloodwork, and an ultrasound and was put on narcotics for the pain. They don't know what it was. They DO know it wasn't my gall bladder, kidney, stomach, liver, or appendix. Sign here....here's your painkiller prescription....see you later.

Back in college at Oshkosh something like this happened....my dad drove from Menasha to Oshkosh and then took me to Neenah to the hospital. They kept me overnight back then....I don't remember an ultrasound being an option...for observation and never figured it out.

I'm feeling fine now. Hopefully it's gone..and won't reappear in another 18 years.

***
sounds like a super-fun time, eh?

day 7, or: well, that's that

it didn't even occur to me until just now that i didn't blog yesterday, thus ruining my nablopomo hopes. sigh. well, did any of us really think i would actually do it? :)

our trip north went well. both kids are still snot-factories, but are acting fine anyway. the party last night was good too. we got to see lots of people we hadn't seen in at least 2 years, and some we hadn't seen in closer to 5 or 6 years. it was a fun time.

the kids got some good grandparent time in too, despite the colds.

yep, i'm boring.

day 6

good evening! 3/4 of us are sick here! it started with ian, which is strange. his nose-faucet was apparently left on, starting on tuesday night (happy election night! here's some SNOT!), abby's started this morning, and my throat is suspiciously sore now. not cool, since we have big plans this weekend.

tomorrow morning abby'll go to school, then we'll leave straight from there for the fox valley, for reasons i can't go into until after tomorrow night (just in case). anyway, we're hoping to have koreana tomorrow night for supper since abby's been requesting chicken katsu. then saturday we'll spend time with grandparents, then head back here late in the day. a quick trip, but should be pretty fun.

i'll probably blog tomorrow morning, just so i don't have to worry about it. :)

day 5

oh HELL yeah.

day 4

day 3

well, the open gym thing didn't pan out. we went there and were there a little before 10, but nothing was set up, and there was one other kid there with her grandma. there seems to be some sort of scheduling miscommunication with the whole thing, so i don't know what's going on. needless to say, i'll be calling the woman in charge of it tomorrow or wednesday and finding out what's going on.

tomorrow we are extra super special excited to go vote! all 4 of us are headed down to the village hall tomorrow morning and casting our votes and getting our stickers. we are also happy to know that we probably won't have to wait in any sort of line, unlike 95% of other people out there. then possibly a lunch at the chinese buffet, then brian goes to work. then i'll be sitting here election night drinking cava and celebrating (hopefully).

day 2

made it with 2 hours to spare. :)

today was insane...i played in a concert at church celebrating the newly-restored steinway piano. it went very well, and i've been surfing the adrenaline high for a couple of hours now. i'm starting to crash so this will be a short entry.

tomorrow starts open gym in deforest. they have it mondays, wednesdays and fridays. monday is the only day we can make it, but you can be sure we'll go every monday. i need to doublecheck what time it starts though...make sure it won't interfere with ian's nap.

ian drank an entire sippy cup of whole milk today. i think he likes it. :)

day 1

welcome to nablopomo! this is the lazy person's way of saying national blog posting month. every november, bloggers challenge themselves to post every day for the month. some succeed, some do not. i will succeed.

halloween 2008 was a huge success. abby dressed up as wordgirl (of course) and ian was a packer fan. we trick-or-treated for much longer than we thought we would, and abby came away with a huge haul of candy. brian and i will doubtlessly be raiding it ourselves. :) abby was a bit scared of some of the houses with the more elaborate (and scary) decorations, and i was sure we'd have nightmares to deal with last night, but not so. she told me this morning that she wants to be superman next halloween...i'm not ready to deal with this again.

in other news, ian tried whole milk for the first time at lunch today, as part of weaning-fest 2008. he was fine with it at first, but then started making weird faces and letting it drip out of his mouth. he's not sure what he thinks, but i know he'll learn to like it.

today we headed to ward-brodt to pick up a score to mozart's requiem for a presbyterian church good friday celebration. unfortunately, they were completely out of any and all editions. then we hit target to raid the clearance halloween candy and picked up some good deals there. brian has inventory tonight, so will be working very late.

shall we all lay odds on whether i'll remember to change the clocks before i go to bed tonight? i think i'll write a note to myself now...

place your bets, ladies and gentlemen...

as you can see by the new badge in the sidebar, i've decided to join NaBloPoMo. for those who don't know, it's a challenge to bloggers to make 30 posts in 30 days. november is the big month for this, so i've decided to jump on the bandwagon and challenge myself. so, i will be posting every day in november.

god help us all.

11 months!

ian is 11 months old today! hard to believe that in only 1 month, he'll be a year old.

current likes: his sippy cup of water, legos, music, any piece of paper he can find, books, FOOD of most any kind, going in the van, pushing furniture around, crawling over big pillows, emptying the recycle bin and strewing the contents everywhere, baths, eating abby's play food.

current dislikes: having his diaper changed, having his clothes changed, having his face and hands wiped after meals.

artsy pictures of kids outside

these were taken last week in our spurt of unseasonably warm weather. enjoy!

toenail fun!

yesterday went very well, though it did take a lot longer than it was supposed to.

we got there at 2, as specified, and were told we were a little early and to go into the playroom and wait. the children's hospital rules. playrooms everywhere. :) so, 2:30 came and went, and 2:45 came and went. eventually at 3:00, the nurse finally came in to talk to us and get things started. she put EMLA (numbing) cream on 3 possible IV sites, then covered those with clear tape thingies. we did the paperwork, and finally got to go back to the room. after that, things seemed to move along fairly quickly. more talking, and then they gave abby an oral sedative to relax her for the IV placement. it took a little while to take effect, but you could definitely tell when she started feeling it...brian and i couldn't stop laughing. she was swaying back and forth, to and fro, with her mouth hanging open watching arthur on pbs. it was pretty funny, and she seemed to feel pretty good. :) they came in to start the IV, and they had a child life specialist with them to help distract abby from what was going on. between the child life specialist, the numbing cream, and the sedative, she didn't feel a thing. once that was in, she got a little restless, wanting to sit up but not really being able to sit up on her own. so, we had her supported sitting up when she fell asleep. at that point, brian and i left, because we really didn't want to be part of what was happening next, so they gave us a little pager and we walked around for a while. it took about 15-20 minutes, and then she was done. it took her forever to wake up from the sedation, though...longer than most, apparently. it was about a half-hour from the time we got back in there until she woke up. and she woke up CRANKY. and who could really blame her? she had no clue what had just happened, she was groggy, and her toes hurt. so, brian managed to calm her down by carrying her around the hallways for a little while, and then she agreed to drink some juice and eat some teddy grahams. after a little bit longer, they said we could go, and we did.

she's been doing very well since then, and today is back to her normal self. she was taking tylenol with codeine for the pain, but we just switched to regular children's ibuprofen. we took the bandages off today and soaked in warm water/epsom salts, which we're supposed to do every day for 15 minutes. the toes don't look as bad as i thought they might, so that was a nice surprise. the real chore is keeping the bandaids on...between the socks and her being an active girl, even the heavy-duty ones with the super-strong adhesive don't do the trick. so, we're changing them pretty frequently.

so, that's the story of how abby lost 2 toenails.

the end. (?)

good thoughts for abby, please

tomorrow afternoon is abby's toenail procedure. grandma and grandpa schultz are coming to watch ian while brian and i go with her...we need to be there at 2.

we're stocked up on children's ibuprofen and bandaids and we're ready.

the driving....oh, the driving

so our weekend trip up to superior for brian's cousin angie's wedding went as well as could be expected. we got up at 5 on saturday morning, left at 6, and were up there around 12:30 or so. we made one stop for gas, bathroom, and a snack, and that was it. abby watched nemo on the portable dvd player, ian slept, and all was well. we even found the hotel without incident. i know it sounds like you need to be waiting for the other shoe to drop, but there is none. it all went well.

the ceremony was long, and abby managed to eat half my stash of cheerios, but it was well worth the quiet. the church was large, with a very high ceiling that managed to magnify her sounds "who's THAT?" pretty loudly. luckily, she wasn't the only kid there, so she wasn't the only one making noise. ian occupied himself with the program, perusing it and then finally chewing on it. after the ceremony, we went back to the hotel for a while before the reception...ian took a nap, abby hung out with james and hayden. social hour was at 5, and featured (trumpet fanfare) A CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN. also, A CANDY BUFFET. it was like a child's dream. we let abby partake pretty much as much as she wanted since it was a special occasion. it was definitely enjoyed by all. dinner was nice, and then was the dancing. abby made it till about 9, and then requested to go back to the hotel and go back to sleep, which was a source of endless amusement for us. we got back, got ready for bed, and everyone went to sleep without a problem. it was truly amazing.

the next morning, ian woke us up at 6, and we were ready for the day. continental breakfast, ian's nap, abby and brian did some swimming, and we were ready to head out around 9:30. grandma and grandpa rogers followed us to eau claire to partake of godfather's pizza, which is a family fave that's not accessible for anyone anymore. we got home about 4 or so. during the last hour of the trip, brian and i realized that ian had gotten very quiet, so brian looked back there. when ian woke up, brian had given him a box from the wedding reception, thinking he couldn't get it open. well, he got it open, and ate part of what was inside...hershey's kisses. he ate about 2 or 3 of them, but amazingly didn't seem to eat any of the tinfoil. he was COVERED in chocolate. face, hands, clothes, everything. fyi, babies are not supposed to have chocolate (for obvious reasons) until they're 1 at the earliest. abby was probably 2 by the time she had any.

so, that was our wedding weekend. we had a lot of fun, but were glad to get home.

i'm going to make my own ice cream house!

...so abby says. i don't know what she means, but it makes as good a post title as anything else.

we've been struggling here the last few days with some behavior issues. they're the same issues we've been struggling with for a long time, everything's just coming to a head right now and no one knows what to do. the primary issue is with abby's interaction with ian. she will bother him to the exclusion of all other activities, including playing with toys. i would think that at 10+ months, the novelty would have worn off, and she would be over him already. but not so. books like 1-2-3 magic and parenting with love and logic have been no help. the love and logic book quoted the bible on page 3, and that was it for me.

we've instituted "no-timeout day," which yesterday was the first one of...she made it until mid-afternoon. today made it to about 11am. so, tomorrow we start again with a new reward, and we'll see. tomorrow is school as well, so that ought to help. school has been going very well for her, and as far as we know, she's doing well in the classroom.

last week friday, she was playing with brian, and somehow bent one of her big toenails back, which caused some trauma and bleeding. for those who are new here, abby has had issues with her big toenails since birth...they're thick, discolored, and not as attached as one might hope. so, after almost 4 years, we've decided (with the podiatrist's input) to have her big toenails permanently removed. this happens on october 10th at the children's hospital sedation clinic, so she'll be asleep for the procedure. we're sad that she'll be growing up with no big toenails, but mostly it's a relief to know that the end is in sight. these things have caused no end of problems, and i won't be too sad to see them go.

this weekend we travel up to superior for brian's cousin's wedding. it's apt to be a stressful drive up, but we're determined not to stress once we're there, and just enjoy ourselves. most of the people there have never met either abby or ian, so it'll be a fun time and we're looking forward to it. expect pics a-plenty.

10 months

ian turned 10 months today! hard to believe that there are only 2 months to go till he turns 1...

current skills: pulling up, crawling, waving

current likes: pulling up on anything and everything he can find, peas and carrots, cheese, baths, books, getting into things, making messes, making loud noises, big sister, car rides, music, drinking water.

current dislikes: getting his diaper changed, getting his diaper changed, getting his diaper changed. also getting his clothes changed. being held by anyone other than mom, napping for more than an hour at a time.

he is still our super-mellow, laid-back baby, but he is definitely way more active than abby was at this age.


in other news, abby started preschool last week. she went for a half-hour on thursday for "orientation", then for an hour and a half on friday. everything went fine, she had absolutely no problems. they had pictures taken on friday, so i'm very curious to see how those turn out.

we went up to appleton friday night and did quarry quest on saturday. very damp, some rain, and not too warm, but a fun time anyway. pictures to come...

masked meat marauder

well, summer's officially over. temps here have already dropped into the high 60's, which is just fine with me. i've never been one for the super-hot weather.

we had a great summer...trip to minneapolis, several trips to appleton/menasha to see the grandparents, and lots of little things too.

last friday we went to janesville to the thresheree with my parents and my aunt and uncle. we went last year with abby, and i sweated myself silly in the 90-degree weather being hugely pregnant. not so much fun. much better this year, though. not hot, and overall a great time. we all rode the train there, which everyone enjoyed.

the 3rd was brian's birthday, the big 3-9. we've been celebrating for the past 4 days. :) abby made him a crown to wear, and colored him a comic book for his present. last night i made his birthday dinner: manicotti, garlic bread, and salad. turned out pretty well. today i made the cake, which we'll probably have tomorrow.

thursday night we had the parent meeting for abby's preschool. grandma and grandpa rogers came down to babysit so both of us could go, which was awesome. they even took us to dinner at culver's. :) the parent meeting went pretty well...we learned some stuff, signed up for our "helping parent" days (it's a co-op), and signed up for our committee. we wanted the book committee, but were not aware of how hyper-competitive the committee sign-up is. we ended up on the cell phone/toner cartridge recycling committee, which is just fine. it's just us, which is even better, since i don't work well with others. :) her first day is the 11th, where she only goes for a half-hour. i don't understand it, but whatever. then for the next week or so, she goes for slowly increasing periods of time. i know that she won't have a problem adjusting, and the biggest problem is going to be getting her out of there. :) there are several fundraising opportunities through the school, which i will post on here, just in case there are people interested.

ian's doing fantastic. he's burning rubber with the crawling, and is getting very good at pulling himself up. starting to cruise a little bit too, so i'm expecting walking around a year. last night he had his first "all finger food" meal with no baby food. he had cheese and peas and carrots. he's definitely showing his personality too, very goofy and mellow. hmm, remind you of anyone? ahem, ahem...his DAD. :)

this month will be filled with preschool stuff, but we'll also be going to brian's cousin's wedding in superior at the end of the month. long long drive, and another hotel stay, but i'm definitely more optimistic about it this time. we've learned from our experiences, and are ready to try again.

and for your edification:

freeeeeeeee-mont!

well, the fremont campout was a huge success. it was great to see everyone, and great fun was had by all. we got there sunday afternoon and abby was already there with grandma rogers. bonnie and bruce and the boys were also there, so we hung out for a bit, then headed to the pool. abby was a little shy in the pool at first, but quickly figured out how fun it was. we were in the baby pool for a while, then she and i headed to the big pool with her floaty vest on. before long, she was jumping off the side of the big pool into my arms and having a great time, saying, "i'm a diver! just like in the limpics!" my heart asploded from the cuteness. after a great dinner (tacos, sloppy joes), we headed back to appleton to stay with my parents.

monday morning came, and we headed back to fremont and got there around 10 or so. hung out for the morning, and after lunch hit the pool again. more "limpic diving" for about 2 hours or so. sore arms on my part. she even got to the point where she didn't want anyone to catch her...even with the floaty vest, i don't think we're quite ready for that. she did go under the water each time she jumped, though, which is a big improvement. ian had a great time too, but wasn't such a fan of the swimming.

we got back here tuesday morning, and immediately had to go to ian's 9-month checkup. he weighs 19 pounds 4 ounces (30th percentile), is 27 inches long (15th percentile), and is 45th percentile for head circumference. these are the lowest percentiles abby or ian have ever had for anything. it's weird. i attribute the weight drop to his level of activity, but am not sure about the height and head drop. no shots this time, so overall a pretty good appointment.

yesterday afternoon, we went to middleton to the brand-spankin'-new costco that opened there this week. we thought it was pretty nice, and will start going there instead of sam's club. they seemed to have better deals than sam's, and a nicer building, plus i'd like to stop supporting the wal-mart/sam's conglomerate.

next week has very little going on, which'll be nice after the busy-ness of this week. current countdown to abby's preschool? 19 days. woo!

nine months

ian turned 9 months old yesterday. it kind of snuck up on us...we went to get haircuts yesterday and the stylist asked how old he was, and i said "almost 9 months." stopped, realized what day it was, and then was like "oh, wait, he's 9 months today." impressive mommying there, not knowing how old your kid is.

current skills: crawling, pulling up.

current number of teeth: 3, with a 4th on the way.

current likes: moving moving moving always, a yellow plate from abby's plastic dish collection, blowing raspberries (especially with food in his mouth), cheerios, big sister, kitty, big sister's toys, being in the van, shopping.

current dislikes: the jumperoo (that'll be going back to auntie jenny pretty darn soon), having his diaper changed, having his clothes changed, any baby food that involves meat, when strangers talk to him, pulling up in the crib and not remembering how to get back down.


today we leave for the annual fremont campout. abby is with grandparents and will meet us there with grandma rogers. ian and i will get home from church, have some lunch and maybe a nap, pack, and then get on the road. multitudes of pictures to follow.

gigantic waste o' time

abby had her first dentist appointment this morning. after a close call with oversleeping, we got to the office and got checked in. we had talked about the whole process many many times in the past few months, had read the berenstain bears go to the dentist book many many times, and i was feeling optimistic. we got into the little cubicle, and it was all downhill from there. the hygienist showed her the gloves, mask, and tools, and i started to have a bad feeling. abby had her hands near her mouth, which is what she does when she's feeling scared or shy. so, i got in the chair and abby sat on my lap, and we were tilted back. long story short, she wouldn't open her mouth. not for all the bribes in the world. so, that was that. the hygienist recommended trying again in a few months, maybe when she turns 4. she also gave abby a pair of gloves and a mask to take home and check her dolls' and stuffed animals' teeth, which abby seems to think will be a LOT of fun. so, she'll check our teeth, we'll check hers, and we'll role-play this sucker until she's ready to do it again for real.

sigh.

abby's version of the wordgirl theme song

"word up, it's wordgirl, WORD UP? from the planet hexagon, watch.out.willans....here she COMES!"

planet LEXICON, and willans = villains. the real song is much longer, but she's got the gist.

me bad mommyblogger

lots has happened, but somehow this blog totally slipped off my radar for like 10 days there. i am heartily sorry and will endeavor to do better in the future.

on the 1st, we went to the pbs open house down on campus. we had heard about it from jenny who got a flyer about it in the mail. our entire rationale for going was that (dum dum-dum!) wordgirl would be there. or, you know, someone dressed up as wordgirl. seeing as abby is full-on in love with wordgirl, we were there. we hung out for a while doing other stuff after we got there since wordgirl was apparently on a break (heavy costume, hot day). then i caught a glimpse of her, and we headed over. abby saw her and said, "(gasp) it's wordgirl! she's my friend!" and ran off toward her. unfortunately, i was behind her and couldn't see her face, and that's a picture that i really wanted to get. so, the whole rest of the day it was, "wordgirl's my friend! i met wordgirl at our surprise! she's my friend!" and so on and so forth. then a couple of days ago, she put her blanket on as a cape and got her stuffed monkey out of her room and started proclaiming that she was wordgirl. she was even talking about herself in the third person, and calling herself becky when she took the cape off. she wants to be wordgirl for halloween (obviously), so i've been trying to figure out how to make that costume. shouldn't be too hard. however, ian as captain huggy face may be a bit more difficult.

i started teaching piano lessons this past week. it's been quite a while since i've taught, but it's nice to finally have my own studio where i get to make the rules. i only have 2 students so far, and i'd really like 2 more, but they're difficult to find.

next weekend is the annual fremont campout with brian's family. we look forward to it every year, and have been looking at past years' pictures on the computer to get ready. this year, abby will go down the waterslide with daddy. exciting stuff.

ian is crawling nonstop these days. we still need to purchase at least 1, and probably 2 gates to prevent him from getting places he shouldn't be. we're also rearranging the living room tomorrow so that he no longer has access to various cords. he also has been learning to pull himself up, and was reportedly found in his crib this morning standing up. i'm so not ready for this.

other upcoming events: abby's first dentist appointment, ian's 9-month checkup, the campout, and the start of abby's preschool. all very exciting stuff!

abby's world

so, abby has created quite the imaginary metropolis in our apartment, with various rooms standing in for school, her house, grocery store, hat store, shoe store, etc. The other day, brian and ian and i were in the living room, and she came in from "school, " and announced that she was going to her house. we asked her where she lived, and she said, "down a sunny dirt road, deep in people country!" this is the first line of every berenstain bears book, although for them it's bear country, not people country.

nothing much has been going on the past couple of days, so i'm pretty boring. friday morning is the pbs open house where abby will get to meet wordgirl. we haven't told her this, of course. brian and i are trying to figure out whether she'll think it's actually wordgirl, or what she'll think. or whether her head will actually explode.

in other news, ian has learned how to sit up from crawling/lying down. he's pretty happy about this. although, i think his sleep has suffered because of it, since he likes to practice his new skill. naps and night sleeping have not been good the past couple of days. we may be on the verge of a new sleep plan because of it, i don't know. all i know is that 8.5 months is old enough to be sleeping better than he is, and i don't want us to be reinforcing behavior that we don't want to continue. we shall see.

hahahahaha

ok, this just couldn't wait. this afternoon while ian was napping, abby and i were snuggling on the bed and talking about halloween. she asked what i was going to be, and i said i didn't know, and we went on to talking about other people's costumes. mason might be superman, etc. so, out of nowhere then she says, "you could be...ladyman!" i said, "what???" "ladyman!" "what's ladyman?" "ladyman's a girl AND a man!"

seriously, dc? marvel? you gotta get on the ground floor here. ladyman's going to be HUGE.

100!

wow, this is the 100th post on this blog! somehow i'm very surprised by that. here are some pictures! :)

we've had a pretty eventful past few days. on friday, we drove up to appleton for a surprise birthday party for my friend lora. grandma and grandpa rogers took us out for lunch as a belated anniversary present, and then we went back to their house. i had sat down to feed ian, and about 2 minutes later, james and hayden walked in! they decided to visit, mostly to play with abby. so around 3 or so, we left for the par-tay. lora's husband matt put it together, and all of us were surprised as well that she had no idea. it's hard to put one over on her, but we did it. :) anyway, we surprised her at her office, then went for a drink (giant tube of beer!), then to katsu-ya for dinner. brian and i had never been there, but it was excellent. brian had beef katsu (not willing to try sushi), and i had the chef's choice nigiri. not sure what most of the fish was, but it was delicious nonetheless. all of us also split a bottle of plum wine and a bottle of sake. thanks, lora and matt!! after dinner, brian and i headed back to menasha to put the kids to bed, then back to lora and matt's house for board games. it was a great night, and we had a lot of fun.

saturday, we headed back here bright and early for brian to get to work by noon. then, nothing much happened for a couple of days. :) yesterday morning, abby had an appointment with a podiatrist about her toenails. for those of you who don't know, abby was born with pretty messed-up big toenails. they're thick, discolored, and not really attached to her toe except at the base. the pinky toenails are similar. the middle three are fine, except they don't grow. i've never cut them. so, the podiatrist seems to think it's a fungal thing, but couldn't explain how she got the fungus in the first place, since i don't think i have fungus in my uterus. so, she took some clippings to send to the lab to check for fungus, but in the meantime we're supposed to start treating her for it with vicks vapo-rub, of all things. this is likely to be a long process, one that we hope won't have to involve removal of the toenails. because seriously? i don't think i could handle that. toenails skeeve me out big-time.

the last bit of news is that ian is officially crawling! he doesn't move very fast, but he's doing a great job. it's necessitated some changes in our daily life, though. abby hasn't quite gotten it through her head that he will take her toys if she leaves them on the floor. hopefully it won't take long for her to learn that lesson, since fits are thrown pretty frequently.

huit mois

ian is 8 months old today! to celebrate, he decided to wake up at the crack of dawn and not go back to sleep. needless to say, i don't approve of this type of celebration, and feel that a more appropriate celebration would be to sleep in. we've agreed to disagree on this.

current likes: eating, big sister's toys, getting into anything he's not supposed to, showing us our childproofing flaws, baths, going in the van, big sister's room, pretty much big sister anything.

current dislikes: getting his diaper changed, face-planting on the floor, getting his face wiped, sleeping past 6am (or 5:15 in the case of today).

the sleeping thing has improved slightly, but not in the way i wanted it to. he had been waking up in the middle of the night to eat, then sleeping till 6 or so. now, the middle of the night feeding is pretty much gone, and it has been replaced by getting up earlier, and usually not going back to sleep after feeding. i.don't.like.it. not one bit. brian and i have a complicated system of who gets up with him on certain days and who gets to sleep in...obviously, today is my day up with him.

the good news is that he's a very happy baby. still very mellow and laid-back. although he has developed a new sound of happiness that sounds remarkably like a pterodactyl. that part's not so mellow.

i'll add a pic to this later, once the day has gotten going a bit more.

oh, and i also wanted to add that abby has acquired another imaginary friend to join the ranks of sarahpaula, roto, and hinko. this new one is named janie two-later. i don't quite know where that name came from, but it's pretty funny. janie calls on the phone a lot, and they have some pretty in-depth conversations that i'm not privy to.

7/13/02

6 years ago today, brian and i got married. for me, it was a day filled with unrelenting nausea, david bowie, and cult classic films. for brian, it was a day filled with eating. tonight there will be lasagna, caesar salad, garlic bread, and our bottle of "special occasion" wine.

happy anniversary to us.

banana bread

choice abby quotes from the past couple of days:

scene: bedtime, abby gets to choose the song we sing. she chooses "five little pumpkins", but specifies that she would like it to be "five little BIG pumpkins" instead.

me: (singing) "five little big pumpkins sitting on a gate. the first one says, "
abby: (pause) "we're big pumpkins!"
(those are not the right words.)
me: (laughing) "the second one says, "
abby: "we like to live in houses!"
me: (curious as to where this will go) "the third one says,"
abby: "we like telephones!"
me: "the fourth one says, "
abby: (looking around the room) "we like...beds!"
me: "and the fifth one says,"
abby: "we like...books!"

and the song continued and ended as normal from there. that's the first time she's made up her own words to a song...she's pretty good. :)

scene: lunchtime, abby dawdling.
"hey mom, you wanna know what i'm gonna do when i get older?"
"sure."
"KUNG FU!"


we also have halloween all planned out already. abby had planned on being an octopus (i don't know why, so don't ask :) ), but has thrown out that idea in favor of being wordgirl. wordgirl is the main character on a pbs show of the same name...she's a superhero of vocabulary! ian will be playing the part of wordgirl's sidekick, a monkey named captain huggy face. i'm thinking this halloween's going to be pretty good.

one song glory

so, guess what? monday morning the doctor's office called, and said that they had sent my x-rays off to a radiologist, and he had indeed found a fracture. however, the fracture was such that it didn't need a cast, just a sling. so, i'm still going through some pain, and even went back today to see what was going on with it. nothing's changed, but the ortho guy apparently said i shouldn't wear the sling anymore to prevent stiffening. so, i have a broken arm that i'm just using as normal. hurts like hell, but whatever. sigh.

in other news: abby has changed the name of her restaurant. it is no longer food food go to me, unfortunately. the new name is housey how house. don't ask me why, i don't know. she'll spend a lot changing her signage, i'll tell you that.

i've gotten several internet freelancing jobs in the past couple of days...writing, and also working as a human ask jeeves kind of thing with a company called chacha. nothing pays too much, but it's something at least.

brian is back into the swing of things at work, and has finally discovered a coffee drink he likes. coldbrewed caramel mocha. apparently he's been downing these things like water, so he's been a bit caffeinated.

ian is still not crawling. he moves around in his own way, but i really thought he'd be full-on crawling by now. his new favorite place in the house is abby's room. he's always disappointed when we go down the hallway and turn into his room instead. he LOVES her little people and little people vehicles, and luckily she doesn't seem to mind sharing them with him.

kishi likes being outside on the patio.

there's your family update. :)

one last thing: i've got all our minneapolis pictures on the computer, but am having snapfish issues. anyone who wants them via picasa instead, please let me know.

why? why? but WHY?

"why does toast go in the toaster? why is jelly in the fridge? why do you need a knife for peanut butter and jelly? why does our house have a patio? why is it cloudy? why is ian having a nap? why do people eat? why why why why????"

grr. it would be different if the questions actually had an answer besides "just because." unfortunately, most of them don't. i feel like such a cliche now.

part 2 of the rogers minneapolis adventure

tuesday: after a much better night of sleep, we headed off to the minnesota children's museum! we were hoping to get there right when it opened, but of course that didn't happen. we had hyped it up for abby so much that we were a bit worried that it wouldn't live up to it, but no one was disappointed. exhibits included a nature thing, storybooks with dress-up opportunities, a special exhibit on physical activity, a whole town with doctor's office, grocery store, post office, etc, a rooftop art park, and a science-y part with water hydraulics, bubbles, a crane, and so on. we spent about 4.5 hours there...definitely time well-spent, and i would recommend it for your next trip to the twin cities. :) we went back to the hotel for some rest, and then i had another workshop in the world's coldest room. after that, we decided to order pizza for supper and had a little picnic with it. brian met up with his friend arvind that night, which meant i got to deal with the sleep monsters on my own. let's just say it was unpleasant and leave it at that.

wednesday! we all woke up and i immediately knew that this would not be a good day. i couldn't move my arm. every time i tried to move my elbow or wrist, i would have very intense pain. i had 2 workshops scheduled for the morning before we checked out, but i knew that i wouldn't be worth anything or get anything out of them, so i opted to go down to the exhibit hall to the publishers' booths and pick up the packets of music and just get ready to go. we got all packed up and checked out, and we were on our way by 10:45. after a bumpy start to the ride back, ian-wise, after lunch he pretty much checked out and slept the rest of the way home, which was awesome. i kind of expected abby to do the same, but no luck there. finally, we arrived at home. ahhhhh, home.

so, that's the story of how the rogers family took their first vacation. we're already looking ahead to september when we have a wedding to attend in superior, and trying to figure out how to make the sleeping thing go better. we shall see.

brian left for his geek fest in chicago on thursday evening and will return tonight. the kids and i went up to appleton friday and saturday so they could help me out a little bit. i'm off from church today because of the arm, and so we considered staying up there last night as well, but i was ready to just be home. visited lora and matt (hi, matt!) at their house friday night and had a very nice time, so it was good to socialize with adults with no kids around. :)

next up for us: marching in the deforest fourth of july parade on friday to support the open gym, and our 6th wedding anniversary on the 13th.

furry happy monsters

wow. lots to write about. i'm a little scared right now. :) as per usual, i will organize my thoughts chronologically, lest i forget something.

friday: packing, packing, packing. library, grocery store. i gave ian a bath and afterwards had him on the floor putting his diaper on. i sat him up, and then got up to get his pajamas. at the same time i stepped, he tipped over right where i was stepping, so to avoid actually stepping on him, i did this weird contortion and fell down on my right arm. very very painful. it was better on saturday and sunday, then started getting worse again on monday, and on tuesday and wednesday was unusable. i go to the doctor today to get it checked out. in other news, abby has turned her play kitchen into a restaurant and has named it "food food go to me." we think this is a pretty good name.

saturday: mason and lily and auntie bunna came over, as did grandparents schultz. more packing.

sunday: we got on the road at 10:40 for minneapolis. we stopped at culver's in tomah for lunch, where abby had a grilled cheese for the first time in months. we met erin and ed at como town in st. paul around 3:30, where it was incredibly crowded. parking was impossible. but, we made it and had a good time. como town is a small amusement park, similar to bay beach but more expensive and with fewer things to do. abby had fun, though, and has added erin and ed to her roster of friends. it now goes: sarahpaula, roto, hinko, mason, lily, erin, and ed. it's an elite group. :) after como town, we went for dinner at the highland grill, where abby had macaroni and cheese. big dairy day for our little lactose-intolerant. cute little restaurant, and we had a great time. after dinner, we said goodbye to erin and ed, and headed to our hotel. through a moderate amount of directional problems, we finally made it. we got checked in, and were forced to use a bellhop to get our stuff up to our room. apparently only bellhops have the advanced training necessary to use the luggage carts. thus began the night from hell. we got there a bit before 8, which is past both abby and ian's normal bedtimes. abby was overtired and overstimulated, and ian was just mad and confused at the situation. abby didn't get to sleep till around 10:30, and ian couldn't stay asleep to save his soul. brian and i got about 2 hours of sleep that night, and abby was up at 5:30.

monday: feeling not too sleep-deprived (surprisingly), we got up, had breakfast, and then headed for the borders in minnetonka. this borders cafe has not been converted to seattle's best, so brian wanted to go and relive the past there with a grilled cheese pretzel. after that, we came back to the hotel, had lunch, then i got dressed and headed for the convention. spent quite a bit of time in the exhibit hall, then went to my workshop. got lots of free music, and bought some for the church, too. after that, brian and abby went swimming while ian napped. abby bonked her head on the concrete at the pool because she was running, and then just crashed and took a little nap. everyone slept better that night.

my arm hurts now. to be continued...

over halfway there

wow. me bad for not updating in 8 days. i hadn't realized.

so, ian turned 7 months old yesterday! hard to believe. he is at a totally awesome age where he thinks everything's funny, including everything that he himself does. he's exploring various sounds he can make, and his current favorite is the german "ch" sound...you know, the one that sounds like you're hawking up a giant ball of phlegm.

current skills: sitting up like a champ, army crawl, rolling everywhere, making lots of sounds.
current likes: pulling hair, most any food, freaking me out by being about 10 feet away from where i left him, enya, pooping, jumping, baths.
current dislikes: sleeping through the night (although this is getting a little better), the highchair (until he gets some food anyway). that's it. pretty mellow baby.

he also got his first 2 teeth last week! just a little earlier than abby did, but cementing the rogers children's reputation as late teethers.

in other news, abby spent the last couple of days with grandma and grandpa and had a wonderful time. we'll see how the grandparent syndrome goes this time around...so far so good, but i'm betting this afternoon will be a bit rough.

we leave for minneapolis on sunday morning. we're excited about our first real family vacation, but it's still stressful. 4 hours in the van...ugh. luckily, we have lots of fun stuff planned around my workshops/convention time, including the minnesota children's museum, which sounds AWESOME. i'll try to post again before we leave.

m-i-c-k-e-y m-o-u-s-e

so! we've had an interesting several days here! let's run it down, shall we?

saturday: uneventful morning, besides kishi going ballistic at random intervals (foreshadowing alert!). around 2:00, the weather decided to go insane for the rest of the day. multiple tornado sirens, weather radio going off every 2 seconds, pitch-blackness in the middle of the afternoon, the whole nine yards. long story short, it rained/tornadoed/thundered/etc for the rest of the day. all very exciting and very stressful for the mommy at home with 2 small children in a second-floor apartment with no basement.

sunday: rain. all the live-long day. and then more rain. flooding ensues. i go to bed around 10:30, and 10 minutes later brian comes in and informs me that there's a MOUSE crawling up the power cord behind the computer desk. so, for the next 3 hours, we go through a laurel and hardy/abbott and costello-esque slapstick routine of trying to catch the sucker. around 1:30am, we give up, blockade the kitchen (where he's taken up residence under the fridge), and go to bed.

monday: no sign of jerry, so the kids and i traipse off to the hardware store to buy some mousetraps (or mousecraps, as abby says, to my eternal delight). after the kids go down for rest time, i go back in the kitchen to bait the traps and about have an aneurysm when i look by the fridge and see his beady little eyes looking at me. i quietly bait the traps (taunting him under my breath), and set them up. i then retire to the living room to await the SNAP. it takes about 10 minutes. i feel much better. later on, we discover that ian likes peas. :)


so, that's what's been going on here. enjoy the pretty rainbow picture that i took after the storms stopped on saturday.

time is flowing like a...glacier

this is officially the longest day that has ever been, in the history of civilization. just thought you ought to know.

this morning (5 years ago?), we headed over to church to supervise the picking-up of the piano to be taken to the piano doctor for its restoration. all went well, and in 3 months, it should be good as new. i hope.

then this afternoon, the landlord came over to fix the patio door, which was having trouble staying in its track. he did a great job, and i was all excited about no longer having bugs creeping into the apartment via the gap in the door. about 10 minutes later, abby was out on the patio, and broke the door somehow. it's not broken broken, but it's again, not in its track. cue mommy putting her head through the wall. this is not a phone call i want to make to the landlord, "hi, i know you were just here fixing the door, but can you come do it again?" yeah, that'll go over well.

let's see, anything else new? oh, ian has perfected his dramatic pre-meal routine. we have to go through about 5-7 minutes of closed-mouth crying ("MMMMMMMMM!!!!"), then i have to basically shove the spoon in his mouth so he can taste the food, and then he's fine. "oh, it's FOOD! i thought you were trying to give me some sort of craft adhesive." sigh. i often do not have the time or patience for this production, but any effort on my part to shorten it has not proven effective. don't save the drama for your mama, ian. 'cause I'M the mama, and i don't want it, thank you very much.

busy day tomorrow: abby's exercise class, supertarget, library, and possibly chinese buffet for lunch. mmmm, general tso's and black pepper chicken. ooh, and egg rolls too!

a little furry around the torso

we're headed up to appleton tomorrow after lunch, so don't expect any new posts till wednesday or so. monday is my godmother's memorial service, the reason we're going up in the first place. we're coming back mid-afternoon on tuesday. it'll probably be a real downer of a trip, but i'm hoping that all goes well anyway.

so, today's been lots of packing and bathing children, cutting fingernails and trimming bangs. lots of fun, believe me.

i'm a kid!

i'm in absolute heaven right now...abby's been playing with her new little people airport for almost 2 hours now. ian's been sleeping the same amount of time.




ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

mr. monk takes his medicine

good news! we got the call yesterday from the preschool ... abby got a spot! so, she's officially (well, basically) enrolled in preschool, and we couldn't be more excited. this comes at a time when i've been pretty frustrated with her, and i know that preschool will help her with the issues that she has with certain things. so, yay for preschool!

as you can see from the picture above, today we went to bratfest. it was great to be able to go on the first day, before it gets too crazy on the weekend. brian never had fridays off before, so we weren't able to do it. they're really emphasizing the "fest" part of things, rather than the "brat." tables were only set up in front of the 2 music stages, so we had to sit there and have our hearing assaulted by an adam pascal wannabe the whole time we were eating. we felt, too, that we had to rush out of there to prevent early hearing loss in abby and ian. it was pretty frustrating, and i think that i may actually complain about it to the organizers, and maybe write to the isthmus as well. i just think it's ridiculous. abby and i got to ride the little golf cart shuttle thing, which she thought was pretty cool, and we debated doing the ferris wheel, but a little basic math showed that we'd spend as much to ride the ferris wheel as we did on all of our food. so, no ferris wheel. brian had 2 brats, one with the official world record mustard, and one with dusseldorf. i also had 2 brats, one with the official world record mustard, kraut, and onions, and one with garlic horseradish mustard and the kraut and onions. pretty good stuff. we're hoping to go back on sunday, but the weather's not looking too happy. i guess we'll see.

ok, time to work on this preschool paperwork a bit.

drive-thru chicken

not sure why i picked that as the subject line. maybe i want kfc or something...

anyway, ian's 6-month checkup was this morning and it went very well. he weighs 17 pounds 10 ounces (55th percentile), is 26.25 inches long (50th percentile), and is in the 75th percentile for his head circumference. so, he's dropped down in the percentiles pretty significantly, but i think it's just because he's become so much more active in the last couple of months. that at least explains the weight drop. but, as i recall, abby's height percentile dropped around this time too, so there's that.

check out the big man sitting!

long longity long long long

hi! i'm 30 now! notice me being excessively perky about it! better soon, i hope!

anywho, i had a super birthday. the morning involved lots o' driving around and exchanging various large playthings with people buying or selling such playthings. then the afternoon involved garage sale-ing and finding some good deals on abby's version of crack, little people. then after the kiddos went to bed, the babysitter came, and brian and i left for our date! we were early, but they seated us anyway despite being very busy. we got a nice booth, and a somewhat odd waiter. also, brian wants me to blog about how i accidentally bought a bottle of san pellegrino. they apparently have some sort of water sommelier there, but she was a water sommelier who was impossible to understand. she had a bottle of pellegrino, and a bottle of acqua panna, and said some stuff. i went into deer-in-the-headlights mode and gestured toward the pellegrino, because i like sparkly water. well, she came back with an entire bottle. end result was $4.95. sigh. it was stupid, but i was determined not to let it bug me. so, we got our wine (2006 rosemount estates shiraz...read about it here very soon), and split a caesar salad. then there was a significant lull in the dining experience, where the waiter AND the sous-chef came to apologize to us about the wait, saying they were "really backed up." maybe we should have complained and gotten free stuff, but honestly? we were just so happy to be there, and having already had some wine, we were pretty content. so, we eventually got our petite filets and our potatoes au gratin to share. can i just say, these steaks? awesomeness on a 500-degree plate. now that there's one here, we need to be extra-careful to not indulge too often...we don't want this to lose its special-ness. then, because i was the birthday girl, i got a free dessert. i chose the "chocolate sin cake", which was a flourless chocolate/espresso cake with a raspberry sauce underneath. good stuff. so, needless to say, we are disappointed that our ruth's chris experience is done for another year or so, but it was absolutely wonderful.

also on friday, ian turned 6 months old! hard to believe we're halfway through his first year.

current skills: sitting up alone for more extended periods of time (will still tip over and bonk the noggin, but doesn't seem to mind), rolling and army-crawling his way around the living room and eating the occasional magazine that he comes across (man, we are not ready for him to be mobile), and (da da-DAH!) finally eating cereal! mixed with baby food, but still! woohoo!

current likes: enya, being held, baby oatmeal with banana, big sister, trying to eat people's glasses, pulling hair, "exploring himself" (ahem) during diaper changes, abby's little people giraffe, baths, spitting, doing raspberries, and putting anything and everything into his mouth.

current dislikes: getting dressed and undressed, teething, and sleeping through the night. that's it.

he's at an incredible age right now, and he's hilarious every day. his laugh kills me. 6-month checkup tomorrow morning, i'll post stats and pictures afterwards.

whoo! that was LONG! mein fingers are tired now.

everybody dance now

it's been a reasonably eventful past few days. friday and saturday we were up in appleton for mein birthday celebration. it was kitchen-gadget-birthday for me this year: a new george foreman grill, a blender that hopefully will not smell like burned rubber when you use it, and the tiniest cutest coffeemaker ever. :) plus a target gift card. woo! the trip was okay...ian slept about average, so it wasn't horrible. brian and i slept in the living room and ian stayed in our room.

we've put a moratorium on the cereal until ian's checkup next monday. since on saturday he cried when he just saw me making the cereal, i figure he needs a break. plus, i'd like to get some ideas from the doctor about what the heck is going on with this child.

other than that, not too much going on here. abby and i made pumpkin bread and pumpkin mini-muffins yesterday. exciting, i know. :)

book of days

so, the cereal adventures continue. night 3 was not as good as night 2, but not as bad as night 1. i don't know what the deal is with it, and i wonder whether i should just be skipping straight to the baby food, and maybe mixing it with the cereal. i need to give him at least a week on the cereal before moving on, just to make sure there are no allergies, but maybe after the week is up we'll call it good and go on to the good stuff. made so far: sweet potatoes, peas, and carrots. plus i have the stuff to do peaches, pears, and bananas. those are easy, though, much more so than the veggies. so, we've got a pretty good stash going.

tomorrow promises to be a busy day. i need to get all of our stuff packed for the night up in appleton, we need to get to the library, both kids need baths at night, but i have choir to get to. so, we'll see what actually gets done.

yay, brian's on his way home! and none too soon. :)

gerber baby

well, ian started rice cereal last night. what do you think? did he like it? :) he ingested maybe 2 bites and that was it. the rest drooled out onto his bib. overall, not an auspicious start, but we will persevere!

grandma and grandpa rogers came yesterday to take us to the semi-annual foresters brunch in sun prairie. everything was pretty yummy, although seating was pretty crowded. then after they left, brian took the kids on a walk, and i went out back and dug up two-thirds of the garden. i'm ready to plant now!

low-key week this week...only thing going on is friday we leave for appleton after abby's class.

...and how!

so, you'll notice that i've added a twitter gadget to the sidebar over there. twitter's the new big thing in the blogging world, and i have to admit, i wasn't sure about it at first, but i'm kind of digging it now. of course, those of you who use your feed reader to check here won't be able to see the twitters, so you'll want to either "follow" me (which i believe involves signing up for your own twitter account) or just check the actual blog every now and then. i like the idea of twitter because i often don't have the motivation or time to do a full blog entry and i might just have a little something to say. thus, twitter. i do feel somewhat like a bandwagon-jumper, but if it works and i like it, i have no problem with the bandwagon.

today abby started her exercise class at the y. it didn't get off to such a hot start, as we showed up at 10:30 as i had written down, but the class had actually started at 10. way to go, mommy. but, she did pretty well. seemed to be pretty intimidated at first, but got into it more toward the end. i think it'll be a positive experience for her. and she learned about hockey! hope we don't have to move to canada now. after her class, we had lunch over at auntie bunna's house and played for a bit there before heading home. after rest time, abby and brian went to the library and ian played in the pack-n-play in the garage while i cleaned out the car. ah, the car. that thing was a pit. but, it is significantly better now, although it does need to be vacuumed out and febrezed a bit. tomorrow morning, we'll head to 1 or 2 garage sales, and then on sunday, we have the semi-annual foresters brunch at herreman's with grandma and grandpa rogers. much food will be consumed.

old macdonald had a (excuse me) farm

well, everyone is healthy once again. brian managed to escape the majority of my stomach virus and was just a bit weak for a couple of days. i've been watching the kids like a hawk to see if they'll come down with it, but nothing so far. i think we're in the clear. of course, now that i've said that, they'll both start spewing from both ends. :)

so, in 15 days, i will turn 30! i've decided that i've been dreading it so much, and that it's silly. so, i will enjoy my birthday, and not be depressed about the whole actually-turning-30 thing. it's just that 30 seems so grownup. i'm not ready to be a grownup, despite being married and having 2 kids! :) so, woo birthday!

not much else going on here lately. ian's sleep is still bad, abby's still mostly off the lactose and doing okay. she'll have some cheese every other day or so, but i do think that's about the limit she can take. luckily, she's liking the soy milk.

ok, this is boring.

the creeping crud

so, it's been a yucky couple of days here. in the middle of the night on thursday (early morning), i came down with the first case of stomach flu that i've had in YEARS. 2 and a half thoroughly unpleasant days later, i'm finally on the mend. luckily, brian was able to take a personal day on thursday and had off on friday, so i didn't have to fend for myself and the kids alone. THAT would have been quite possibly the worst thing ever.

this case of ickiness even sullied what i thought would be the most exciting day of this calendar year so far, the day we BOUGHT A VAN. thursday afternoon we went in, the van got the bob schultz seal of approval, and we did the paperwork and drove it home. however, i couldn't enjoy one second of it, what with the hot flashes/sweat surges and insanely frequent trips to the bathroom. now that i'm feeling somewhat better, though, i'm ready to enjoy our new purchase. i did manage to get the carseats moved yesterday and we took it to the library and to the grocery store during one of my better phases. this thing's got more storage than you can shake a stick at. it's AWESOME. i shall post a picture soon.

abby quote of the day:
a: "why is it so windy outside?"
m: "i don't know, sweetie."
a: "i think it's because we have too much air."

natural sponsor of sesame street

so our james earl jones-sponsored van search is at an end! hopefully at this time tomorrow, we will have our new van comfortably parked in our garage. we're purchasing a 2005 toyota sienna, with only 6700 miles on it, plus some nice bells and whistles. we're VERY excited about this whole thing, and hope that the schultz seal of approval and paperwork all go well tomorrow. think of all the room that we'll have!

other than that, not much else has been going on here. on friday, we hope to head to lodi and check out their city-wide garage sales. tomorrow is the van, and definitely either target or the grocery store, since we're running low on food.

i'm too lazy to go back in the archive and see whether i've written about this yet, so i'm just going to write about it anyway. for a few months, abby's complained on and off of tummy pain, which i've chalked up to eating too much, or something like that. however, it's been getting worse and worse, as well as more frequent, so i took her to the doctor last week. there's also some poop issues that go along with this, but the less said about those, the better. the doctor suggested doing a one-week-trial of no lactose, to see if she's possibly lactose intolerant. the idea of the dairy princess having to go without her beloved milk and cheese blew my mind, but we've been doing it. we're actually over a week now, because i wanted to make sure that it clears her system. she's been drinking soy milk, with little objection, and has been pretty reasonable about the no-cheese rule. i hate to say it, but things have improved. however, i think that she could probably tolerate a small amount of dairy, and that we don't have to eliminate it entirely. this has made meal planning a huge pain in the patoot.

get culverized

don't mind if i do.

mmmmmmmmm...butterburgers....custard...............

ok, i'm hungry now.

5 months (plus 3 days)

i realized that i missed my monthly ian-birthday update, so better late than never.

5 months! definitely hard to believe. but, he's made a lot of progress this month. he's gotten to be quite the pro at rolling, and seems to be not too far from crawling. army crawl is very close. he's gotten very good at grabbing and holding on to things, especially my hair. he can pass toys from hand to hand, and pick them up after he's dropped them (sometimes). he LOVES his big sister, and is constantly smiling and laughing at her. no teeth yet, but the drool and the chewing of everything in sight indicates that it may not be too much longer. i would say probably another month or so. abby didn't get her first teeth until she was 7 months old, so we just have late teethers in this family. he's sleeping on his tummy almost exclusively now...i put him in there on his back, and he immediately flips over. he still loves his jumperoo, and can be happy in there for quite some time. we've also put together the highchair, which he'll start to sit in at mealtimes in preparation for the introduction of solid food, currently slated for mid-may.

current likes: jumperoo, getting his diaper changed, bathtime, being naked, big sister, kishiru, pulling hair, snuggling a burp rag, the music of sigur ros and chris daughtry (what can i say, he's eclectic like abby is), mommy singing pretty much anything.

current dislikes: getting dressed, riding in the car for more than a trip 1 place, getting his fingernails clipped, sleeping for more than 3-4 hours at a time.