"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.
29 June 2008
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.
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.
26 June 2008
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...
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...
18 June 2008
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.
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.
10 June 2008
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.
05 June 2008
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!
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!
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