Soft foods only

Allison lost another tooth - on top. That makes three across the front, but no new ones have really come in yet. So I'm wondering how she bites things. Not that it was an issue today.... the kids lost their lunch due to goofing off that led to an argument that led to lunch ending up on the floor. Kids went into timeout and Brian and I planned to drive a mealtime manners point home by being rather sympathetic to the kids afternoon hunger, but steadfast in the fact that the next meal was dinner.

We ate dinner early-ish and let the kids have extras. We'll see if they remember tomorrow. Of course, this did lead to an interesting incident at the grocery store where Jacob and I were standing in line and he said something like "Do I get lunch when we get home?" Me: "No." Jacob: "But you didn't let me eat lunch earlier...." It's like 2pm. The guy in front of me kindof turned around with a funny look on his face.

Merry Christmas

Here are a few pics from Christmas Eve and Christmas in WI.

Christmas Eve - a couple of superheroes...


wrestling......



and making a gingerbread house.



New Christmas pajamas, and hanging stockings by the chimney with care. Note that stockings do not normally hang by the chimney because the stocking holders are heavy and mom fears that a good hard tug will result in a cracked noggin. But we transported them for the night.

And then we danced.


Christmas morning.... lots of goodies. Jacob loved "all his gifts," which included the Batcave, Bakugan (which mom and dad don't really understand), some superhero costumes, and a variety of cars. Allison (oddly enough) was more reserved, but really liked the Peeps, sewing machine (which she kept asking Santa for so she can grow up to be a seamstress - note anyone who hasn't gotten her a gift yet - let me suggest a sewing box), stuff to play teacher/school, and a grown up camera - which she's currently running around taking pictures with. Perhaps the next post will be Christmas though the eyes of a 7-yr old.

It's NOT Christmas Eve!

To continue with the string of Jacob posts - he is insisting that it is NOT Christmas Eve. He gets really mad when you try to say it is. Of course, Christmas Eve is not on our calendar - so that didn't help.

In his mind, Christmas Eve is the eve of Christmas - and tomorrow is Christmas, so tomorrow night is Christmas Eve. We've tried the Santa comes on Christmas Eve and Santa comes tonight bit - no luck.

As for our Christmas Eve - so far the kids have played Superheroes and decorated a gingerbread house (will need to add pictures). Brian has made Vodka slush and chex mix. Next I'm going to convince the kids to go chip ice off the driveway and then we'll bake some cookies and bars for Santa.

Boy with blue nails

Yesterday after school the kids wanted to build a snowman. They played outside a while but never built the snowman because Jacob didn't have boots and they were distracted by throwing snowballs at Astro (Astro honestly likes this - especially if he gets to catch them in his mouth - way better than playing with a tennis ball).

We came inside and Jacob had to take off his pants, since they were wet from the snow. Then Allison wanted her nails painted. Ok. Jacob wanted his nails painted - blue. Dark, punk rock blue. Ok.

Then the kids wanted to put on a Christmas singing "show." Each one takes turns standing in front of the tree (which is in front of a window) and sings a song. Allison sang her Christmas concert. Mom sang "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," and Jacob rocked out to his very own, homemade, heavy metal song. In his underwear. With blue painted nails. And an air guitar.

Verbal Clutter

Our students evaluated each others' group projects and one person kept saying the presentations were full of verbal clutter. Does that mean there were too many verbs?

We're having some verbal issues of our own at home - mostly involving Jacob. He has developed two (annoying) habits. The first is to ask a question and then tell you what you are supposed to say in response.

J: Do you like it? Allison, say, 'Yes, I like it.'
J: Can I have a snack? Mom, say, "you can have a snack Jacob."
J: Here's your toy. Allison, say, "Thank you."

I think it bothers Brian and I more than Allison. Allison simply says whatever Jacob suggests. I think this leads simply to more suggestions. It's a positive feedback cycle.

The second issue is that Jacob has adopted the "northern" accent and language tendencies much more than Allison. Asking for the "bubbler" was kindof cute, but now he says many phrases followed by "don't cha know?" On a similar note - Allison briefly picked up the Sarah Palin "You betcha," but we finally traced that back to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (thank goodness!).

Happy Birthday Allison

Allison turned 7 this week! She had a great day. She loved her gifts - dress, toys, purse, and nail polish. She really liked the Raven costume (see below). Jacob gave Allison a barbie and a hotwheel car. Brian had to talk to him a little about giving a gift for the recipient, though Jacob had a solid argument that if Allison had a hotwheel then they could play together.

Blizzard

Where do we start?


Pictures from our snow earlier this week.

The limit of my altruism

Yesterday, we shoveled ourselves out of the blizzard snows. It took us until about 2pm. We borrowed a snowblower from our neighbor to handle the 12 inches of snowfall. I still took 3 hours of work. Too bad it's too fricking cold to enjoy it today.

By afternoon, things were looking better and Allison and I headed to Walmart at 4pm for our shift at Salvation Army bell-ringing. The booth was supposed to be heated, but the heater wasn't working. Also, the booth was facing directly into the wind. At first, Allison was very excited. She rang and rang and sang Jingle Bells. That lasted approximately 10 minutes of the two hours.

We passed the time, and let me say that Walmart blizzard shoppers are not the most generous shoppers ever. Although one woman was so nice, she went to her car and returned with stickers for Allison to have after her shift.

About 40 minutes in and the sun went down, the wind picked up, and it started to snow. The manager of Walmart got our heater working, but it was too little, too late. We slugged it out until we got to an hour - and then had to call it quits. I feel a little badly for not making it the whole time, but we did bell ring for an hour in a blizzard. Apparently, I found the limit of our altruism.

Holiday Magic

Allison had her holiday concert tonight. It was very cute. They held it at the high school. It was sandwiched between the light snow of the afternoon and the blizzard that's expected tonight.

There were four groups - grades 1, 2, 3 and the older choir. Allison will happily sing you three of the four songs that the 1st grade performed. She did a great job at the concert too!

Classic Conversation

Me: Allison, don't wipe your nose on my pillow!

Allison: But Mom, it's not in the middle, just over here on the side.

Counting Down the Days

I am counting down the days until the end of the semester.

The kids are counting down the days until Christmas.

Brian is not counting down the days until the Alcan / Bemis sale closes - primarily because he has no idea when (if?) it will be.

The kids have two ways to celebrate the advent (a.k.a. counting down) season. First, they have the advent Santa made by Grandma Sue, which they get to hang felt ornaments on every day. So far, they have been remarkably good at taking turns - probably because they are too young to do the math to figure out which one gets to hang the LAST ornament - which is of course the 'best' one.

Secondly, we got them these little Playmobile advent calendars. We did this last year and the kids had a lot of fun with it. Each day they pull a little box off the poster and it contains a small piece of a playmobile set. Allison's is Santa woods and Jacob's is knights. Some boxes have really neat things in them - like a deer, or a treasure chest. Some days are less exciting (yesterday, Allison got two small leaves in hers - presumably to "feed" the as-yet-undiscovered deer). But the kids open each with enthusiasm. "Wow - look at this... this... what is this Mom?" "A tree stump." "A tree stump!! WOW!"

I hope, hope, hope that the kids hold on to that exuberance for a long time. To soon, we find ourselves with a smile on our face saying "oh thanks for that American flag shaped candle holder lamp, I know just where I can put it." But not yet, and maybe (hopefully) not ever.

Thanks to Family

Thanks to the growth of our family over the years, and the adding and blending of traditions. And to all you out there near and far - thanks for your food.

A sampling of the recipes making an appearance this weekend:

Swedish meatballs (my Grandpa Jackson - note that this recipe came with lessons compliments of my dad)
Apple bread (my mom)
Nutty Yam bake (Brian's mom, Sue)
Strawberry Pretzel Salad (Aunt Karen)
Pecan pie (Grandma Jackson - maybe not her original recipe, but thanks to the last one she ever made - she will be forever linked to pecan pie)
Pumpkin pie (Sue)
Corn pudding (I don't know - Jeanne?, Karen?)
Better than Sex Cake (Brian's Grandma Lois)
Breakfast pizza (Sue)

Plus all the wonderful new recipes that might be credited to us (well, let's face it - to Brian) by Allison and Jacob in the future.

And then there are the jello magic carpets - compliments of Allison and Jacob - which exploded marshmallow and jello all over the microwave and kitchen counters / floors - and may never be made again!!

Misty Foggy Rainy

I agreed to ride my bike today. Actually - the plan was to ride Allison to school, come home and shower, and then walk to Fox. For some reason I've been craving a long walk. But then Jacob threw a fit because HE wanted a bike ride to school. I convinced him that a ride home was just as good as a ride there - so Brian dropped him off and I was relegated to the bike for the day. Fine - except that it was foggy all day, and thus wet and icky when it was time to actually ride home.

Also - a note that the kids are now too big to ride in the trailer together, especially with winter coats on.

Food, Inc.

Friday night we got a last minute babysitter and went to see Food, Inc. at the Menasha Public Library. It was interesting - focused a lot on the meat side of food production. There was also a panel discussion - which Brian found to be the most interesting part. Although - anyone who willingly gives up a Friday night to watch a free movie on the evils of the food industry at the library.... well, let's just call it preaching to the choir.

Love and Logic

A long, long time ago - the psychologist and the councilor that we took Allison to recommended some books. Of course, being caught up in the moments and stresses of that year, I promptly nodded my head and set the list aside with a promise to get to them soon. So, I guess in the spirit of the three year cabinet project - I have started checking these books out from the library. (To be fair - we did read two of the books on the list then - but I did not find them particularly helpful and set the rest of the list aside).

I've gotten through one - Parenting with Love and Logic. The book is slightly dated (1980's), which presents a few problems. I think the general philosophy is interesting - it promotes letting children learn from their mistakes when they are young and the stakes are relatively low - rather than always rescuing them and eventually when you can no longer step in - the stakes are much higher. For example - if your child does not practice their words and fails a spelling test - the logical consequence is that they have failed the test. They contend that said child already feels badly about the F, and you stepping in with additional consequences, you simply insert yourself into a situation and then said child gets mad at you for the additional consequences. So, rather than being mad, you are supposed to be sympathetic.

I have tried this a few times. I have a difficult time showing sympathy while not sounding sarcastic. Example - Jacob is supposed to brush his teeth before bed. Lots of times he "forgets" and then wants to get up after lights out. Last night I said that I was sorry that he forgot to brush his teeth, that I would not like to go to bed without brushing my teeth, but that he could do it in the morning. See - how do you do that without sounding a little less than truly sympathetic. I think it's the "I wouldn't like to go to bed with fuzzy teeth either" line.

I'm typing this now because Jacob also just missed his shot at a vitamin this morning and he's being rather persistent. Actually - he was offered a vitamin and refused to take it because he didn't get to pick it out of the container himself. That was 20 minutes ago.

Why the book is dated - I think one suggestion to bickering in the car was to make the kids get out and walk. Didn't someone get arrested a few years ago for that? What does that say about society that written (and still recommended) parenting advice from 20 years ago could land you in jail today. Good thing no one checks on fuzzy teeth.

Cabinet

It's been three years - but we're getting closer. When we moved in, we had to take out two cabinets to make room for a normal-sized refrigerator. Well, we put a bookcase in the "hole," bought an unfinished cabinet to replace it and then three years went by.

The unfinished cabinet is now (almost) finished and the bulk of it is in place. This only required removing several sections of kitchen flooring, the trim and door jam between the kitchen and dining room, removing an outlet plug, and many hours of frustration.

But hey - progress is progress. The new pantry is deep! We will have to figure out shelving that will work so that things don't get lost in the back and/or piled 4 layers high. Also, it doesn't have doors yet. They are waiting on a final coat of polyurethane. Then there is the big gap and the over-fridge cabinet that needs to be stained that is inexplicably missing a door. We still have a lot to do.

Happy Halloween

Well, I figure since we still have tons of candy, I can still post about Halloween night.

Spiderman and Pink Batgirl:


Before heading out for the evening, we had a little pumpkin carving. Yes, I know, carving pumpkins about 45 minutes before trick-or-treating started was a bit late. They are still on the porch, so we're late with that too.

Chef Brian

Not this past weekend, but the one before, was the annual e.a.t.s. fundraiser at UW Fox for student scholarships. Basically, you buy a ticket and get a night of free food and drink sponsored by local chefs and bars. This is the third year now that we (read: Brian) has cooked something as one of the guest chefs. Here is our table. Brian made smoked pork on a tortilla with homemade guacamole. (did I spell that right?).

It was well received - several people came by and said "so-and-so told me this was really good and I needed to come try it." However, no one said "this is the best thing here" like they did last year. So Brian might have been a little disappointed. It's difficult to top "this is the best thing here." It was still very, very good. I decorated the table.

Parent - Teacher Conferences

Erica's post reminded me about Parent-Teacher Conferences, which we had on Tuesday night. Allison has been off school at the end of this week for teacher conferences and Wisconsin Education Conference. Grandma Mary is visiting to stay home with her during the day. As soon as I get a picture - I'll post about the tooth follies. Thankfully, the tooth fairy pouch came just in time.

But we did have Allison's parent-teacher conference. Well, it was us, the teacher, the two autism teachers, and the occupational therapist - a true "conference." Overall they said that she has shown herself to be very capable academically, but she's stubborn when it comes to things she doesn't feel like doing right then. **Shock** They also mentioned that one problem they had enforcing rules with her is that she's 'too cute' when breaking them - and so they have a difficult time keeping a straight face.

Example - I guess one day she was late coming in from the playground. Her reason was that she had waited for the tire swing and just got it when the bell rang, so she wanted to stay out and have her turn. However, when she picked up her bag and skipped in to talk with the principal - her response (in the best Junie B. Jones impression) was "Oops Mr. Waters, I guess I forgot to line up when the bell rang." One of the autism teachers was standing there apparently saying to Mr. Waters - "don't you dare laugh."

But, they did say her writing is improving, her math is good, and her social skills are improving too.

Pumpkin Picking

On Sunday we went out to the pumpkin farm to make up for Jacob missing his field trip with the flu. We first took a hayride out to the pumpkin field.




Given the lateness of the day and the pumpkin season, we were able to pick as many pumpkins, mini-pumpkins, and Indian corn as we wanted. We got a variety of small pumpkin and squash and 6 nice, big pumpkins. The kids picked out their own and did a good job.

Then we went and played in the hay maze.



And also on the hay slides and climbing piles. All in all a very fun trip.

Dryers

The part of the story I skipped: when I was called to pick Allison up on Wednesday, I wasn't at home. I was at the laundromat with three weeks worth of clothing. Being sick last week, we didn't get our laundry done on the traditional 2 week cycle. When we did start doing it (8 loads - 4 adult, 2 kid, 2 towels) the dryer mysteriously quit. It simply stopped mid-cycle and wouldn't start again.

Under other circumstances, this might actually have been welcomed. Why? We've really wanted a high efficiency washer/dryer for a few years but haven't been able to stomach the cost of a new one while we had an old one that still worked. And our dryer actually worked pretty well (drys a load in about 45 minutes).

However, now we're faced with repairing our old dryer (spending $200-ish) or getting new ($2000 for washer/dryer) and neither is very appealing right now. So, we're going to try a few repairs on our own. This is a basic dryer - not rocket science, right? Will keep you posted...

Oh dear flu

Allison's fever was down. It broke Monday - we kept her home Tuesday as a precaution. Wednesday - back to school - 8:30am.

Wednesday 10:30am - call from Allison's teacher. She vomited while on their field trip. Can we come pick her up?

Yes, that mysterious fever that disappears for doctor's visits is back. Starting from initial viral infection we are now on day 10. Good grief.

Where was the field trip? To Discovery Land - to learn about rocks - at a church. Perhaps it was being in church that made her ill? If so - I'll blame Grandpa Jim.

The problem now is that she can't go back to school tomorrow and Friday is a half day. So, perhaps it's better to just can the whole week. Although she missed a good chunk of last week too, and next week is only 2 days long. So she will end up with attending only 4 days of school in a 3 week period. And getting her to do school work at home is no picnic.

Land of the ill

It's been a while since I've made a post. Sometimes the longer it goes between posts - the more difficult it becomes to create one.

We have been ill. It started last Monday when Allison came home early from school and promptly fell asleep on the couch (Allison gave up napping at age 2 and a half and has never looked back). Then Brian got home from work feeling a little badly. Both stayed home Tuesday and Wednesday with fevers / fatigue. Wednesday night was my turn, but luckily Brian and Allison went back on Thursday. I can't speak to Brian's experiences - but generally I think adults are not equipped for high fevers. Give me a temp of 99.5 and I think I might be dying. So three days around 101 was truly miserable.

Friday I went into urgent care to learn - wonder of wonders - I had the flu. We do not know if it is "The Flu," but given the patterns in the area, I think that is the presumptive diagnosis. Friday also brought Allison's fever back up. She fell asleep during library check out and apparently napped for about 20 minutes - but that was 2:50-3:10pm, so she didn't get sent home from school. She also got a cough and runny nose (symptoms avoided in the initial phase).

Saturday morning, Jacob fell too - leaving Brian as the only well person in the house. Jacob is a relatively easy kid to be sick. He took a 3 hour morning nap in bed with me and then chilled on the couch for the remainder of the day.

Sunday morning prompted me to go back to urgent care (as I was only getting worse on day 5) to learn I had pneumonia and shouldn't return to work until Thursday. This will be fodder for a future post about what I am and am not paid to do. The doctor also said we should take Allison into the ped's office on Monday because her pattern of getting better and then worse was a concern.

Monday morning - Jacob's fever is gone but not in the 24-hour window (and he has a bloodshot eye - so the daycare won't take him back anyway before ruling out pink eye) and Allison still has a fever. So I call the, presumably inundated, ped's office and get a 10am appointment. We go in and viola! the 101 fever at home (measures by mouth thermometer, mind you, not that inaccurate ear one) was gone and my kids are bouncing off the walls while I am trying to explain that yeah, Allison has had the flu for a week now.

There must be magic curative effects in simply making the doctor's appointment. Or perhaps children have a biological ability to make their parents look like idiots. Of course - the fever was back by mid-afternoon.

So today, Jacob returned to daycare (very, very sad to learn that he missed Monday's pumpkin patch field trip that he'd been talking about for a whole month), Allison's fever finally broke last night so she should be OK to return to school tomorrow. And the antibiotics have kicked in and I am finally also feeling a bit better today. So hopefully, we can put H1N1 (?) behind us and look for a pumpkin patch to visit this weekend.

Words of Wisdom from Jacob

Here are some pearls from Jacob:

"When I weigh 100 pounds, my stomach will be so big that it will blow up to the moon"

"When I get big, I'm going to jump fences. Little fences. Just in my shoes. Not in my socks. Socks would not be good. Can you jump that fence? Maybe if you had suction cups on your shoes you could jump that fence. Or springs on your shoes. But I think I'll jump little fences. In my shoes."

Soccer

We are a few weeks into soccer season for Allison. She seems to like it pretty well. Their team got assigned the brightest color...


Allison is #6. This was this past week's game. Brian took Allison to the game and said she got her foot on the ball quite a few times. Jacob and I actually went to walk a 5K (Jacob strollered) with a few friends and then Jacob did a kids fun run.

The game, I guess, went better than the first game where she picked a dandelion for the ref and managed to get tangled in the net. She did fall and twist her ankle at the end of the game this week, but it's better now. Tonight she was practicing her kicks in the front yard.

Here is her team. It's a mix of kindergarteners and 1st graders. The two girls in the back row on the left are in Allison's class. The girl sitting in front of Allison is our neighbor. Most of the girls are from either Allison's elementary school or the school from the next neighborhood over.

Back to School

We've gone back to school! Allison started back on Sept 2nd. I think she likes her teacher. Her class is big (30 students!). There were three small (18 students) kindergarten classes last year that they consolidated into two 1st grades (referendum didn't pass in Feb).

She was excited to be back with her friends, though. And so far, the reports coming home have been pretty good.



Jacob is excited to be back to school too. Fortunately, his friend Dominic is back two days a week, and he gets to see Matt in the afternoons. Menasha has 4-K, and so many of his friends are not at Children's Center this year. He did get to play with his much-missed friend Kaden over Labor Day weekend.

Disney

It's not possible to post all 300 pictures that we took - but here are some highlights.



Kids and the castle. I think that was actually one of our last days.


Here we are with Goofy in our Goofy t-shirts. There was also a picture from the back to see the "I'm with Goofy," but I was wearing the backpack and had backpack sweat lines. It was hot most of the time we were there - but only a few days were super hot.



Jacob at the Star Wars ride at Hollywood Studios. Jacob loved the roller coasters. Allison loved the carousel and many of the "dark" rides (It's a Small World, Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan's Flight, Nemo).


Here are the kids at Hollywood Studios.


Spaceship Earth! Epcot was actually a little disappointing, especially since we were looking forward to it. The lines were long and the attractions were so-so. The food was good, though.



Meeting Mickey Mouse!


Jacob loved the Nemo fish sculpture.


Allison loved the princess breakfast at Cinderella's castle. We went the first morning. The breakfast was huge. Allison loved meeting all the princesses.



Brian and the kids in one of the 3D movies. We saw several, some much better than others. Jacob loved them, Allison had mixed feelings.

Bye-bye Tuesday

I think of all the parts of summer, I will miss Tuesdays. Since June, the kids and I have had the same Tuesday morning routine - swimming lessons, coffee/snack downtown, followed by a trip to the library. Sometimes we'll top it off with lunch at Bela's infinite cereal bar, and on really great days we have to swing by the bank which lands the kids a dumdum sucker.

I remember when Allison was a baby I used to scoff at routines. Perhaps it was the barrage of parenting magazine articles about parent-directed scheduling and baby routines which seemed destined to turn you into one of those cookie-cutter, dull, "my Susie is already playing Chopin" parents. Even now, though the YMCA program guide looks so appealing, I hesitate to enroll the kids in more than swimming + one other weekly commitment.

But I think perhaps I was confusing 'routines' with 'schedules.' 'Schedules' are full of stress and now require the computing power of google for me to keep track of what they all entail. Routines, on the other hand, are the neat little predictable things that you learn when you repeat something on a regular basis. For example, my former student works at Brewed Awakenings every other Tuesday. The guy who works every Tuesday now gives the kids a little extra gelato because one day I bought coffee for a women who forgot her wallet. There is a group of older women who have also made Tuesday mornings a coffee/snack time. We run into school friends at the library, and we relish the opportunity to refill the "quiet time" DVD coffers for the week. The kids know what's coming and instantly head off to the "yellow sign" when we come out of the Y. The kids are also usually on good behavior because they know treats, books, and computer time comes when things go well.

When Mom visited in June, she called our Tuesday "very busy." Perhaps it is. Perhaps it's even "scheduled." But I love our Tuesdays. I love our routine. And I will miss it until next summer.

Paddling around

Had a great day today - took the boats over to Hartman Creek for some kayaking. We paddled back to Marl Lake and went swimming with the kids and packed a picnic lunch. The promised 94 degree heat didn't quite show up - which was ok except that the spring-fed lake seemed kindof cold.

Jacob tried out his remote control fishin buddy boat. He launched it for a while from the dock and later he and Allison were running it from the kayaks. He liked it - but we did not tie the fishing hooks to it so I don't know what'll happen if/when it catches a fish.

Two kids were sleeping in the car on the way home. We decided to keep the boats down out of the rafters in the hopes that we'll get in again later this week. It's so nice to paddle along and listen to birds and watch the turtles, geese, fish, and dragonflies.

Back to School, Already?

We went school supply shopping yesterday. I think Allison was excited, and the kids were notably well-behaved in Target. We still need to get gym shoes (which must be left at school) and black expo markers and a 12x18 inch drawing pad. I found 12x16 inch and wondered if that was acceptable - but figured I could try another store before going "non-standard." Last year, the big search was for "bingo-dobbers."

It's weird that next year I'll be buying supplies for two. Fortunately, we don't need to do a lot of clothes shopping this year. I will probably look for some clothes for Allison, but Jacob moved up a size late winter / early spring, most of which still fit.

It still seems early to be school shopping, but next Friday we leave for Disney and then when we come back, Jacob and I go back to school.

Maine

Brian and I managed a get-away sans kids (thanks to Grandma Sue) to Bar Harbor / Acadia National Park in Maine. We packed a lot into our few days there. We had a great time, and maybe in a few years we'll return and bring the kids with us.

We rented bikes one day and rode along the carriage trails in the park to a place called Jordon Pond, which is famous for it's pop-overs. They had very good and exceptionally fresh food - as I got a free meal due to the caterpillar that I found wandering through my salad.

Here's us at the pond with the mountains in the background:


That night we also made reservations to take a sunset sea kayak tour of the harbor. Unfortunately, it rained, so we were very wet.



The next day we explored the some parts of the island recommended by the B&B innkeepers. We found this "you may enter cautiously at low tide" sea cave, which we entered at low tide and both managed to slip and fall in.



Then, not realizing we were choosing the "adventure" parts of the recommended stops, we climbed the Beehive. Here it is from the bottom:


Here it is mid-way up. This was a "ladder" climb, which meant they had graciously anchored metal rungs and ladders along parts of the trail. We still found ourselves clinging to the side in a few places - as you can see the "ladder" in the image. (Erica - I do not know how you rock climb).



Here is us celebrating at the top - where we dined on wild blueberries. Yum.

Reunion

I'm switching between recent and past activities. A few weekends ago, we went to our 15-yr high school reunion. We took the kids to IMSA in the afternoon and they had fun exploring the campus. It seemed to us that fewer things had changed since the last time we were there. The building itself had some fresh paint, but was starting to look like the 25-yr old high school that it was.

Here are the kids:


In the "hamster wheel"


The reunion itself was nice, but not well attended. We got to see some people we were excited to see - but all in all there were only about 40 people there (including spouses). The kids hung out with grandma and grandpa for the night - and had lots of fun doing that. Jacob, in particular, liked the view of the harbor.

Sleep minus 2

Last night we had a BBQ for some of Brian's coworkers. The kids were up late. Do they sleep in? No, of course not (6am). So this was our day with minus two hours of sleep.

First - pottery. The kids are taking a pottery class at the Y. It's for 4-6 year olds, which is perfect because then they can both take it and it fulfills my requirements that Allison be at the older end of the spectrum for age ranges. Last week went pretty well. This week there were more kids and it did not go so well. So I've been requested to stay for the pottery class and help. Bye-bye 45 minutes of quiet book reading time.

Then today was riddled with impulsive behavior from Allison. Like drenching a doll's head in orange juice, throwing a hat and whacking Jacob in the head, and playing a game of Sorry that involved rolling around on the ground in between every turn. What I wish more people understood was that we (as parents) cannot predict nor control behavior on days like this. (trust us - we've tried). There are consequences for her actions that seem appropriate to me - loss of doll and OJ for the day, timeout for 15 minutes in room for hitting, and - well - the last was just a game that went VERY slowly. But not much is really a deterrent. It's more fires and fewer tools in the arsenal.

Today, it wasn't just Allison. Jacob was out of gas by the end of the day, which is his parent/child sports class at the Y. I had to stand in for Brian because I forgot to bring his shoes along. Jacob spent the better part of the class pretending to be a frog. The sport tonight was football. When the teacher asked his favorite football team he said "the blue one." At least he didn't say Packers. He was not as excited about football as he was soccer because he kept trying to kick the football rather than throw it. European football. But it was fun, when it wasn't kindof embarrassing.

Catchup Part 1

Fourth of July - Allison, Chloe, Kellen, and Jacob

Race

The kids ran in their first race last night. It was 1K at the Kimberly Paperfest. They ran the whole way (as did Brian and I along with them), and got a goodie bag and a medal - that they put on again first thing this morning. Yes, Allison went with the broken toe. She had been so excited, we figured if it was bothering her that she would walk. She ran it.

In the goodie bag was a water bottle (nice) an ice cream coupon (nice), a brochure for sports physicals (ok) and coupons for the Mall of America (??). You know, for the next time you're 4 hours away in Minneapolis.

The kids library reading program has also earned them coupons for a meal at Texas Roadhouse and free Cinnistix at Dominos. They are accumulating a wealth of free stuff that will end up costing us in the end. It's more like two free kids meals with two paid adult meals at a restaurant I have zero desire to go to, and free cinnistix with the order of two medium pizzas.

Paperfest, by the way, was the worst excuse for a community fair I remember attending. Granted, it was early Friday night and kindof raining, but it was still bad. The 5K run was separated by the rest of the event by a long and not obvious walking path (there were no event maps anywhere). There were like 5 scary looking rides and several inflatable bouncy things ($1 for one ride down little the inflatable slide). I was given directions to the location for beer bracelets, then decided it wasn't worth the trek across the grounds to some other place and drank a pepsi. Then there was the world's worst karoke. Who messes up Happy Birthday??

Triathlon Pics

This was most of our team - post race. Looking happy. Brian was making fun of my sunglasses.

The Walking (kindof) Wounded

So it's been medical maladies up in WI this week. On Monday Allison dropped a bocce ball on her toe. Actually, she dropped the bocce ball and it bounced on the pavement - then fell on her toe. (yes, put it forever in the records that I let the kids play bocce ball in bare feet - well, Allison does - Jacob would typically rather throw a massive fit than wander outside in bare feet - don't know where that comes from).

The toe turned purple and swelled up and so Tuesday afternoon we were off to the doctor for toe x-rays. Turns out she probably did in fact break the very tip of the very tip of her middle toe. The x-rays are in radiology now, but the pediatrician thought it looked like a break. So right now it's buddy taped to the toe next door and if she's still walking funny next week we can bring her back for a hard soled shoe. If radiology thinks it's not broken, his advice was to burn a little hole in her toenail to relieve the pressure - though the instructions were not more specific than that so I imagine it would not happen. Allison seems to be doing fine - though walking a little gimpy.

Also on Monday, I had a small surgical procedure to remove a thing on my back. Won't go into great details - I think it's yucky. So I actually brought this up with my doctor over a year ago (when it was considerably smaller), and she said it's something that you don't mess with unless you have to. Well, it grew and became painful - so we had to. So I show up and the instructions are eat normally, you can drive yourself, simple thing. Well, I inform the nurse and the doctor that I don't want any information about what they are doing. Just do it. They sound suprised and say that all the research shows that patients feel they don't get enough information. They also mention (precipitiously so) that people who swear during pain can endure that pain for 40 seconds longer than people who don't swear (it had been on the news that morning).

They put on the local anaestetic and start to go to work. Let's just say that it DID NOT work. It was not totally numb, and I considered a lot of swearing - but opted for just a lot of yelping. (yes, they did try to numb it again, but it was apparently too big). I tell them again to stop the play-by-play and they're like "you really don't want to know?" and I'm thinking "yeah - why do you think I said that at the beginning?" Perhaps it's difficult for doctors to realize that everyone is not fascinated by medical things. That some of us would prefer to be completely knocked out before giving a blood sample. That we tend to get queasy when other people talk about accidents and broken bones. This can't be that odd.

Future tatoo artist

This morning has been interesting. Jacob decided he wanted to take a shower when I was done, and so I was sitting in the bathroom while he played around in the water and I started to wonder if Brian thought it was still me in there (thus preventing him from leaving and going to work). So I go downstairs to tell his it's Jacob in the shower and Brian is sitting at the table reading the newspaper in work pants, but no shirt, and he has a huge blue heart and polka dots markered all over his back.

I'm a little stunned that Brian would let Allison "tatoo" up his back right before he leaves for work, so I'm like "nice back," and Brian is like "what??" and I think the next word out of my mouth might have been "seriously??"

So as I pouring my coffee I realize he really doesn't know he has a mural on his back. So he goes into the bathroom to look and is like "when did she do that?" Now, perhaps the Post Crescent would be thrilled to know that their paper is so engrossing that your daughter can draw a full-sized picture on you and you don't even notice.

I, of course, am laughing so hard I can't manage to explain to Allison why she wasn't supposed to do it in the first place. Fortunately, we've managed to hide the Sharpies to the extent that I can't even find them anymore - so the marker she used was washable. Given that - it was pretty hilarious.

(Brian does have an explanation - which involves a comment I made earlier this morning about a red mark on his back and the fact that Allison was playing around with a brush and he didn't know she'd switched to marker when she was dotting his back - so unfortunately for Gannett Media - the Post Crescent isn't THAT riveting).

Notable Differences

Everyone says that the second child is nothing like the first. I was definitely thinking that today. We went grocery shopping and because neither is all that wonderfully behaved in the grocery store (I guess they have that in common) - I took along an "incentive." The bribe for following Mom's Rules of Public Behavior (which trust me, are pretty basic) was two suckers that I'd found while cleaning the other day (they were from St. Patrick's Day - so not too bad). At the checkout line, they earned their treats. Allison's was consumed before a single grocery item was even scanned. Jacob's was finished approximately 3 hours later - after many careful licks, and a break while he ate lunch. On the way home from IL, I believe Jacob might have answered the age old question of how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop. I lost count.

After lunch we met a friend at the park. I took pop-ices to share and told the kids that we would have them in a half an hour. Jacob (the more patient one) went off to play, while Allison hung on my arm watching the minute hand of the clock go around asking every 2 minutes if it was time to eat the snacks.

On the way home we decided to turn on the sprinkler and invited two neighbor boys over to play too. While Allison, Jack (in Allison's class) and Alex (Jacob's age) ran headlong through the sprinkler - tossing around the ball - "drinking" the water - and getting thoroughly soaked - one hour later and Jacob had barely gotten his feet wet. He seemed to be enjoying himself, just from the sidelines. He prefers the quieter activities of life, while his sister is in constant motion.

Now, the real question is which traits did they inherit from me.....

Week

It's been an interesting week. Jacob has been spending time down in Springfield with Grandma Sue and Grandpa Bruce. I was pretty excited to be down to one kid at home - thinking we'd spend some quality 1-1 time, and have a relaxing week. What actually keeps popping into my head is the week - several years ago - when we didn't have the dog. I don't even remember why the dog was gone, but what I do remember is picking up lots of food off the floor that I didn't even realize fell from the table during each meal.

A week sans Jacob has been much the same - though there is not significantly more food on the floor. But I didn't realize how much time the kids played with each other until I was requested to fill in the slack. I can usually count on 20-30 minutes of morning time to read the paper and eat breakfast, about 45 minutes - 1 hour around mid-day to check e-mail, contemplate my next Wordscraper move or read a chapter of whatever cheese-filled summer novel I got from the library that week.

However, this week, it isn't so. Breakfasts are filled with a girl dancing around the table asking what we're going to do today. Secret sneaks onto the computer are twarted by attempts to spin my chair around or kitchen timers buzzing in my ear, an attempt to sit on the couch this morning was greeted with a presentation of books that Allison picked out from the library and the request to read them (how can you turn that down?). Brian is bombarded as soon as he gets home with endless games of Go Fish, Crazy 8s, and Old Maid. I'm even followed into the bathroom (ok, well, that happens all the time, so I suppose it doesn't count).

I think she's lonely without her brother. (and yes, I only have time to write this because right now she's over playing with her friend Melanie).

A fun people week

I know it's Wednesday and we have two more weekdays to go, but it's been a fun week so far with our friends - despite the heat. On Monday, Jacob had a morning playdate with his old school buddy Dominic. Neither of them are at the Children's Center now, with Jacob off for the summer and Dominic transferred to the YMCA preschool. We hung out at our house and then walked down to the park for a little while. I am making a note to have playdates for Jacob and Allison at the same time. Last week, Jacob very reluctantly played in his room during Allison's time with Melanie and on Monday Allison insisted on playing cars with the boys.

On Tuesday, we had swimming lessons in the morning and then Kim, Natalie and Gillian came over to swim and beat the 90+ degree heat. (BTW - the pool is now 88-90 degrees perfect, but if it gets much warmer or stays so sunny - the water will get too warm to be in). We were all a little water-logged, but that's OK.

Today, we drove down to Madison and went to the zoo with Theresa, Conner and we got to meet the new little (and heat sleepy) Reece. The highlight for the kids was feeding the goats, as most of the animals were resting / napping in the heat. The monkeys were out making noise and the bears were swimming - which was kindof neat. Funny note - as I was distracted by my ipod on the way down to Madison, I didn't realize that the kids watched almost the whole movie "Bolt" in Spanish. Neither one said anything and insisted they WANTED to watch it in Spanish. The rest of the day was filled with them saying "blahblah" word is "Spanish for ------." None of it true, but whatever.

This is what I was hoping for in a summer off - lots of time to spend with friends. I can't really believe it's the last week of June!!

Cute

Jacob's cute quote from yesterday. Brian had been picked up early in the morning by a coworker for a drive to MN. When the kids and I later went into the garage - Jacob noticed both cars where there.

J: Where's Daddy?
Me: At work
J: (pause) Did he walk?

Camping Weekend

Last weekend, we went camping at Peninsula State Park in Door County. I'd never been there before, and continue to be impressed with the facilities at Wisconsin's State Parks. Our trip started out a little rocky - we'd forgotten the tent poles - but as Brian went off to try and buy rope and/or a new tent at a semi-local Walmart (because Walmarts are everywhere), Dad and Darleen tried to attempt some sort of structure with ropes, the people camping next to us came over and offered us an extra 4-person tent they had in their camper. Super-nice people. So we did that. We gave them some beer - but I think we got the better end of the bargain.

Some highlights: we didn't take the boats but kindof wished we had. We did take our bikes and went exploring around the park, including the lighthouse that we weren't willing to pay $4 a person to tour.



We played in the water for a while, not swimming as Green Bay is cold and it's not that warm out. Jacob played for about an hour and half down at the canoe launch. First throwing rocks into the water, getting his shoes all wet, then finally taking his shoes off and rolling his pants up to wade in and play. He probably would have played there for another hour as well, but Allison and Dad had headed back to the campsite 45 minutes before and I worried they would wonder what happened to us. Walking back to the campsite was funny because his pants were wet and his shoes were wet and he didn't want to walk but when I picked him up - he kept asking to be put back down to investigate the flowers. So it was slow going until we ran into Allison and Grandma with dry sandals. To solve the pants problem we just took them off and Jacob walked the rest of the way in his underwear.





Saturday night it rained - and we were glad we had an actual tent to be in. Sunday was wet - but I think we looked.... um.... respectable.



Brian left early on Sunday to catch a flight to Germany. We climbed up Eagle Tower to enjoy the view - and then Grandma and Grandpa headed home and the kids and I went up into Sister Bay. We ate at Al Johnson's Swedish restaurant (with the goats that live on the roof), played at the local park, and then did Pirates Cove mini golf. Thankfully the mini-golf was not crowded because the kids were racing through it like mad. Allison did score two hole-in-ones though. Despite the slow beginning - we ended up having a great time and I hope to get back to Peninsula again.

Happy Belated Birthday Jacob!

So I'm late posting things. Last Sunday was Jacob's 4th birthday. He was excited, and had been planning his birthday party for months (absolute truth).



There was an overall Lightning McQueen theme - from the cupcakes to the wrapping paper. He had a great time. My overall plan was for the kids to spend the whole day outside, but then it rained and was very cold, so we had to improvise. The kids played "who can keep the balloon up in the air the longest," colored McQueen coloring pages, and played "balloon basketball." Those balloons were seriously a well spent $1.50.



Here are the "boys" - Kaden, Dominic, Josh, and Jacob.