New Belt

It's been a bit of a tough month for Allison with the excitement of Thanksgiving, followed by a birthday party, a snow day, a birthday, and then more parties plus the countdown until Christmas. But today was a pretty good day for her. She sat through the holiday concert at school, and told me she enjoyed watching her 6th grade buddy sing. Then she got a new belt in karate tonight. They earn a new one at the end of each session by collecting stripes on their old belts. At the end of class, though, her teacher commented on how much better she's gotten since she started and asked if she was coming for the next session (in a way that suggesed they wanted her back, not the "please say no" kindof way). I think, too, now her periodic (and much less frequent) antics amuse her instructors more than annoy them.

Birthdays and Holiday Parties

Here are some back notes....

Allison turned 6 last Thursday. Her birthday party was the Sunday before. I believe the kids had fun, but Brian and I were pretty exhausted. First we cut out cookies and while the cookies were baking, the kids played a pin-the-bow-on-the-cat game (just like at my 6th birthday party) and then hit a pinata in the basement. Allison really wanted a pinata. Then we had cake, opened presents, and finally decorated the cookies. We then sent 8 kids hoped up on sugar home to their parents for dinner.





Also that weekend, Brian had his company holiday party, which was followed by a terrible morning of standing in line for Wicked tickets at the PAC. After 3 hours, including one with Jacob after Brian and Allison had to go to their holiday party, I ended up getting tickets by calling Dad and having him order them when they went online at ticketmaster at 10am.

Then Jacob had his daycare holiday party. Here is a picture of him singing with his friends on stage. It was equally cute to see the kids on stage singing as it was to look out to a sea of cameras and camcorders in the audience.

Snow Day!

We've shoveled three times today. No school all around.




(Note - the shovel is for scale - it's upright. The kids are sitting on top of the snowbank along the driveway.)


New rule in the Douglas household - "No snowangels in the street"

Thanksgiving

I'm belated in posting the Thanksgiving pictures. Apologies - they're from the crappy camera.

Sometimes it just turns out that way.....

We woke up this morning to 2 inches of snow and the sudden realization that I hadn't bought Jacob any snow pants this year (last year's were gotten rid of last year because they were size 18 months and he's now 4T). Brian was off for the day, so he was going to take Allison to school and I was going to take Jacob and get in a little early. So we rushed out of the house with the plan of hitting Target before daycare. Unfortunately, Target didn't open until 8am and it was 7:40am. So I was heading to Walmart (which I hate) when I called Brian and he agreed to get the snowpants after taking Allison to school and then he could drop them off at daycare. This was followed by another call when I realized I'd left Jacob's sleeping bag at home and a third call when I realized I'd left Jacob's shoes at home (he'd worn boots).

Brian wasn't having much more luck because they got to school and realized that Allison had left her hats and mittens at home. So they went back to the house for those. Then Brian bought Jacob some snow pants, and all was pretty well for the rest of Monday.

Friday phrases

A few phrases heard at the Douglas house last night:

"Sorry Dad, I didn't mean to poke you in the eye with a fork."

"Look - bubbles came out of my penis!"

Weekend fun

We had a good and just-the-right-amount-of busy weekend.

Friday we baked cookies from Allison's cookbook. They said "butter cookies" and frankly had such a high butter to flour ratio that I wasn't sure they were going to turn out. But they did, and they were good.



Saturday morning, we had swimming lessons and it was parent watching day. Allison is working on "big arms," which is hard because she's just rather submarine her way across the pool. I don't know where she gets that from...... Jacob is liking this session a bit more, I think, but he is still working on going fully under water.



We had friends over for dinner on Saturday night and the kids enjoyed playing Rock Band. Brian still wishes they would include a keyboard.



And Sunday, Brian scored a last minute ticket to the Packers / Bears game, while the kids and I spent the day hanging out with friends and crafting in downtown Appleton and then playing at our house.

Mini Cones

Allison has had her snack cookbook out lately and asking to make all sorts of recipes (all desserts). One thing she wanted to make was "ice cream" cones which are actually cool whip and not ice cream. So the last time we were at the grocery store store I bought kids cones - which turned out to be approximately 2 inches high and one half inch in diameter. Apparently the regular sized cones are "jumbo." But that's ok, because the tiny cones are just the right size for a spoonful of cool whip.

Jacob got to go to the fire station today. He really liked that. Allison gets to go a week from Monday. I never remember taking a field trip to the fire station as a kid. I guess once you cross off the annual trek to Lincoln's home, Lincoln's tomb, and New Salem - there weren't any more field trip times.

Just like IDOT

I was laughing pretty hard this afternoon after talking with Allison's teacher at pick up this afternoon. Apparently, her mornings are improving a lot with our itinerant teacher blitz (she's working with Allison daily through Thanksgiving). But I guess afternoons this week were hard - possibly the time change is playing into it.

But what was funny were the activities that they were coming up with when she would get the "wiggles" during play time. One thing that they said has been working well is to give her a folder with a "note" in it for the front office. The "note" apparently says "Allison needed to take a little walk." The office secretary apparently takes the note, gives Allison a big thank you, writes something back on the note, and Allison returns it to her classroom. It reminded me of working summers at IDOT, where the mantra was "if you are carrying around a piece of paper, then you must be doing something important."

Happy Halloween!

It was a balmy 60 degrees yesterday for Halloween. The kids had fun trick-or-treating. Brian also had fun because apparently someone was providing trick-or-treating for the adults in the form of brats and beer. The leaf piles were fun too.

Zoo Boo

Yesterday was a busy day. It started with a swimming lesson disaster. It was the last lesson of the session, which was safety day. We were running late (and later when I realized that I'd forgotten to put Astro back inside). Brian took the kids in while I parked the car, and when I got in, Brian was in the kiddy pool area and Jacob was refusing to get in the water. Given that Brian was in with him and I was out (thus presumably unaffiliated with him) - I got the opportunity to overhear two other parents commenting on how we must have enrolled him before he was ready and if we'd started him at 6 months in the parent child lesson (like they did with their precious little fishes) we wouldn't have this problem. (No contradiction at all in those two opinions :). Of course, it took about all the restraint I had to not say "well, I guess you guys are just lucky that your little angels are perfect." But I later walked in to help Brian out and hopefully just made them feel a little like a**es. It's not like Jacob has refused to get in the pool at any lesson prior to this one.

Brian and Jacob eventually ended up sitting in the waiting area while Allison finished her lesson. Then when we went to get dressed, Jacob started screaming because he didn't get his swimming lesson and he wanted in the pool. Sorry buddy - too late. He screamed all through the changing, all through Allison changing, and all the way out to the car. So Brian and Allison got to explore the farmer's market, go to the library, and Jacob and I went home. We read a Thomas book, all was well with the world, and we picked up Brian and Allison later. Perhaps his swimsuit was in a knot - who knows.

Then we watched Illinois screw up a game against Wisconsin.

After that it was into our costumes and off to the Earth Science Museum on campus, which was having a Halloween event (which was free to UW affiliates). It was a good thing it was free because I would have been disappointed if we'd paid for it. The kids did make Halloween bracelets, which was about the only thing to do. Perhaps it's because the kids have been to the museum about 20 times before, so they aren't as enamored with the displays themselves.



Finally, we drove up to Green Bay to do Zoo Boo, which was a lot of fun, but expensive. The lions were out and pacing up and down the fence, and that was neat. The bobcat was hunting something in the tree, and there was a hay bale maze that Jacob really liked. Allison didn't have her Cinderella costume yet, but given the great abundance of dress-up clothes, she went as a ballerina fairy. Jacob was a dinosaur.

On the road

I drove to Green Bay on Monday. After years of commuting to Madison from Fond du Lac (and passing the time by chatting on the phone), I find that I have a nearly pavlovian (?) desire to talk on the phone when I drive. Yes, I know, it's a terrible habit.

But what I really discovered is that electronics have taken over our cars. The van has two cigarette lighters, which when we bought it (a whopping 3 years ago) seemed like a great thing. We can charge a phone while also listening to satellite radio!

Now, there is always something that could be plugged in that's not. There is the phone (and long car rides always seem like a good time to charge a phone), the ipod (because really, the radio sucks - and we got rid of the satellite radio a while ago), and now a GPS.

What was also a little funny about the GPS is that I let it navigate me to my destination without paying too much attention (I was listening to Wait Wait on ipod), but then I also had to use it to get home because I was paying so little attention that I couldn't backtrack. Somehow, I find this kindof sad and a little scary.

Fall Days

Pictures from our nice fall weekend. We raked up the leaves, only to have as many on the ground today as we had yesterday. But the kids made a big pile at the bottom of the slide and then had fun wheelbarrowing the leaves to the street.

Last night Brian and I attending the student scholarship event e.a.t.s. where Brian was one of the cooks. (It's kindof a sampling / tasting event). He made smoked pork on a corn cake that was very well liked. Then we went out afterward with some friends and found a nice wine bar close to our house with very reasonable prices. All in all - a very nice Saturday.

Lignite

So my students were doing a lab this morning and they were supposed to dry their sand samples on Tuesday so they could sieve them today. Only, one group didn't - so they asked if they could microwave it dry. I said sure (much to their total amazement) and they went to the cafeteria. They came back a while later reporting that 5 minutes on high was plenty to dry it out. And they were amazed it worked - I don't know why.

So then another group forgot which sample was theirs so they went to dry a new sample too. Only, the girl returned in a minute saying that it started sparking and almost blew up the microwave. Turns out she had a big chunk of lignite (coal) in her sample. Ha! Could you imagine if my students would have blown up the microwave? I laughed for a while, but she was less than thrilled.

On my honor

Allison is now a girl scout Daisy - something I'm pretty sure they didn't have when I started girl scouts. She had her first meeting this afternoon, and I went as the parent helper (NOT leader). They learned the Girl Scout Pledge, which I'm pretty sure has changed a little bit too.



In our first true case of "perhaps our kid does have a common name," of 14 girls there was an Allison, two Allie's, an Ellie, and an Alyssa. I believe the three Allison's are each in a different kindergarten class. Oh well - can't change it now (and probably wouldn't even if we could).

Jacob had an unusually rough day today. His teacher said he was very contrary, which wasn't his usual MO. I don't know what the deal is, but I do know that since he "went to bed" he's had to pee three times. (I'm not sure he REALLY had to pee three times).

One month

We all feel like this:



So last month flew by. It's October already! Not that I'm counting down. Not that we're 1/3 of the way through the semester. No, not counting down at all.

Here's an update. Last weekend I took my LEC100 (freshman) class on their retreat. Thank God that's done. After having all three classes for the weekend (not by myself), I now have proof that my students are dysfunctional. But most had fun. Kristin and Joy are planning for next year (which we just got partially funded) but I'm not quite there yet.

Brian stayed home with the kids for the weekend and then brought them up to Lakewood (where the camp was), dropped Allison off to ride back on the bus with me, and then headed to Traverse City, MI with Jacob to meet Bruce and Sue for a little fishing time. Jacob caught a few fish. I heard it was rainy but very relaxing.

Allison and I enjoyed a few days of "girl time" and went shopping and out for bagels. (Seriously, I'm pretty sure that we haven't gone grocery shopping in about 6 weeks.) The CSA brings us fresh produce every week and we go from there.

Today, Brian was home again with the kids, as I took my GLG101 students on their field day. This time I made them bring rock hammers and their field guides. I think it went a little better than just me pointing things out to them. It was still a long day. Brian said the kids did well in swimming lessons this morning, with Allison having a very good paying attention day. We have a meeting with her teachers tomorrow to discuss her goals for the year and perhaps wrangle a little more aide time too.

For those who didn't get a last minute call from us regarding a health history information, Allison saw a geneticist the other week. We didn't expect much info and didn't really get much info, but they're going to run a standard chromosome picture and see if anything looks weird. They did measure her head 4 times (twice by the nurse and twice by the doctor), it's like a medical mystery head. We'll hear back in a few weeks, but the doctor said that honestly they probably wouldn't find anything. Process of elimination.

Jacob has stopped screaming when we drop him off at school. He has a lot of friends. His best friend most days is Elizabeth. Last year it was Gillian. I guess he likes the girls (though I believe there are more girls than boys there). Jacob has been the morning stinker lately, getting us up at 6am sharp,with Allison usually making it to 6:15 or 6:30 (or in rare form - we had to wake her up at 7:20am on Friday).

Anyway, here are some more pictures.

Allison in her karate outfit (and new glasses - they fit!).



We had a fun weekend at the Dells with our friends Cyndi, Corey, Andy and Josh. Jacob loved the waterslides most of all (once he dared go down them). Most were bigger than this, but this is the one I have a picture of.



And Brian made bacon from scratch. (this was August, but I haven't posted this before)

sorry

I'm sorry there have been no updates lately. This semester is going to be busy beyond what should be reasonably expected of a person. I'm preparing to take 60 college students on a weekend "camping" retreat. Should be fun.

Will have lots of pictures to post someday. We had a good weekend last weekend in the Dells. Jacob LOVED the waterslides. Allison loved the water, and making her new piggy bank at the pottery painting place. Mom and Dad enjoyed getting out of town for a fun weekend with friends.

The weekend

Before it fades too far into memory - we had a pretty good (albeit cold and rainy) weekend. Saturday the kids had their first swimming lessons of the fall (at the same time at the YMCA!). Jacob did very well for his first non-parent lesson. I think they practiced getting in and out of the water, which Jacob loves to do in that pool.

Allison moved up a group - ok I signed her up for the next group because the group she used to be in had kids who didn't want to put their heads in and after a summer in the backyard, Allison could swim across the pool by herself and retrieve diving sticks off the bottom with no help. I thought she could at least move into the group that learns to kick and glide. She was a little distracted. Can't say it went well.

Saturday afternoon, Brian took Jacob to Toys R Us for a unexciting "Thomas Day." Allison went to the neighbor's birthday party and came home with her hair and nails done, but had a good time and even hit the pinata (twice) but wasn't the one to break it.

Sunday, we bummed around the house until I left to grab a coffee with Jen before our soccer game. Unfortunately with the weather, we did not get to Quarry Quest this year, or the farmer's market on Saturday.

On a positive note - our new housekeeping person started today! She comes every other week. Yay!

Karate!

Since there isn't enough time to go into all of this last week / weekend, we'll go in parts. Part 1 - karate! Again, we really need to get a new camera so I can take pictures more easily. Allison started karate at the YMCA on Wednesday. Knowing Allison, one might wonder why on earth we selected karate. Two reasons - she loves ballet, but the last ballet class went poorly and we ended up with a $52 costume (!!) for a recital that she did not want to go to. Secondly, they advertised its great ability to help kids learn focus and self control. Voila!

The karate class was actually pretty interesting. There were about 10 kids and 4 instructors - good ratio. Also, it was very positive. High fives for doing things correctly, and reminders and instruction for doing things less correctly (like, say, doing a ballet twirl instead of a stand at attention pose). Allison was one of 3 kids who had not done it before. One kid ran crying from the mat. One kid did everything perfectly. And then Allison did well for a little bit and then got distracted. Quite distracted at times, but she was also somewhat engaged.

I think she really liked it, and like I said it was very upbeat (plus all the extra people to help her refocus). The instructor came up to talk with me afterwards and said "My, she has a lot of energy." I said, yes, that's why we are trying this. We had a short conversation which ended with "well, let's try it and see how it goes." So we bought the little belt and outfit ($25) and will be going back this week.

Thoughts on Growing Up

So tonight we got some reflections of what our children think of us. First, Jacob says that in a few years, he's going to start going to work too, just like Dad. (This was after a very cute and totally unprompted "So Mom, how was your school today? And Dad, how was your work?")

Allison then said that when she's a mom, she wants to work (which, by the way, she wants to teach kindergarten). And then Allison comes downstairs tonight wearing just her underwear with one of my bras on, and toting a swiffer sweeper saying "now I'm just like you Mom!"

Where is the camera when you need it!!

For those who pray....

A friend of a friend, though not someone I personally know. Thought I would forward along for those of you who pray. (Their family lives in the Normal area and 7-yr old Annika is waiting on a 3rd liver transplant).

http://moreena.typepad.com/

Sometimes the Powers that Be send along something to put life in perspective.

Sigh...

Well, Friday afternoon 6:30pm and Allison is asleep. We think we've never seen her so exhausted before. Today was a difficult day for her. I think we knew it from the moment she woke up. Her teacher stopped me when I picked her up asking for suggestions - saying that she was very attentive during story time, but was having difficulty during free play and recess times.

I think I was prepared for a little backslide with a new environment, new expectations, new schedule, etc. Hopefully it will be short lived. If not... I don't know. She does get 2 hours of aide time each week, and we've met the aide who is very nice. I hope that will be enough.

What is so frustrating about this whole thing is that it seems that we've talked to a lot of different people and found out that she does 'not' have a lot of different problems. However, no one can say "well, I saw this boy a few years ago with the same issues and here is what worked." Instead, people keep turning back to us saying "well, what should we do?" as if we're keeping some magical behavioral secret to ourselves.

While I would *never* ever wish any medical issues on my children - at least illnesses come with numbers to gauge "sickness" or "wellness." You can take temperatures or blood counts and know whether it is getting worse or better. Behavior seems like this gypsy crystal ball of "well, you can try this for the next 6 months and hopefully you'll see more improvement that you would have if you hadn't done that for 6 months."

Additionally, there is this general sense that all behavior problems are rooted in parental dos and don'ts. A blerb in the parents newletter came home with Jacob (it went to all parents at the daycare) about discipline and it said something like "if you hit, they will hit. If you yell, they will yell." Is there no room for kids to come up with some things on their own? It's not like Allison watches us draw on the walls with sharpies and then mimics it.

Sigh....

Little Girl, Big School

Today was Allison's first day of Kindergarten. To say she was excited would be a mild understatement. She was dressed and ready to go by 7am, and at one point said "Mommy, get me my socks and my shoes, so I can go have fun at kindergarten."



I think it went well. Apparently they sang the ABC song, her favorite thing was recess, and she even had the 2nd graders teach her to jump rope.

Cousins, Cousins

We had a good Labor Day weekend. Most of it was spent in Chicago, where we got to visit with the Douglas clan, and then make it to a family dinner at Jillyn and Mike's.

Allison and Jacob enjoyed playing with cousin Kellen....



..and with Aidan, Paddy, Quin and Dane.



We also got to meet little Addison and see lots of people that we don't get to see often enough.

Back to work

Ugh - it's back to work time, when summer officially ends. I went to campus three days last week and every day this week (though I officially have no contract yet - another story another day). Jacob has started back at the children's center, and we've arranged babysitters to watch Allison every day except next Tuesday (the high schoolers go back on Tuesday, but the elementary schoolers go back on Wednesday) so Brian is going to take the day off.

Tuesday was an exciting day of campus retreat where we learned to love our campus and I knew a surprising number of answers to the "campus trivia" quiz even though this is only my third year. No one at my table was apparently paying attention, as they gave us many of the answers in the morning sessions. And even though I insisted there were only three speed bumps in the parking lot (they are more fun when you bike), our group nominated me and the new math guy to go out and count them. Team building. We also heard a presentation on how to spot a campus mass murderer and what to do if someone starts shooting in your classroom (run, call 911, hide, all else fails - fight them). Hum.... they paid someone to come up with that?

Today I learned everything you wanted to know about clickers and more. That is to say I learned nothing about using clickers. It's a new technology and to do the presentation, it seemed like our head IT person spend about 1 hour testing it out and then showed us what she did. BTW - did anyone know that if you were born in 1982 or beyond you are part of Net Gen (though my colleague's moniker of Gen Tech sounds better, I think). High school enrollment is dropping which apparently has something to do with birth control in 1966. It's cyclical. This means we need a whole new revenue building plan at the college level. As you can see, I learned little about clickers, but gained an incredible amount of trivia knowledge. So it's "to each his own" regarding the clicker business, which should be interesting.

Tomorrow, we have an all day meeting in Fond du Lac. Party on! I realized (at about 3:30 this afternoon) that I was supposed to take all this software stuff with me to the meeting - which is an incredibly long story and even longer rant. And then the lab tech spent the morning trying to figure out how to dry green beans and keep them crispy (which was an off-hand question I had) rather than going into the lab and changing the papers on the desks and washing out the ceramic dishes, which is the request I put to her just prior to the offhand comment about green beans. That'll show me to make small talk.

I guess this post is me ranting about Jamie stuff - as opposed to filling you in on kid stuff. Variety is the spice of life!

Facts and Fees

Well, good news - Allison's school got a last minute third kindergarten class - which means the class sizes dropped from 28-29 to 17-19. Awesome! Allison also got one of the experienced teachers who we have heard good things about (particularly that she's very patient) - so yay!

It was Facts and Fees day, where I wrote at least 4 different checks - school fees and milk fund, hot lunch account ($2.25 a day - who remembers what it was when we were kids? I remember $0.25 milk), PTA, and a school T-shirt (smallest size 6-8). I found out that Allison could do either girl scouts or 4-H. Interesting.

We also went school shopping on Tuesday. We bought a backpack, pencils, markers, scissors, erasers, bingo dobbers, gym shoes, and - to our amazement - 16 glue sticks. There were other things too like hand soap, kleenex, and disinfecting wipes which just shows that public schools don't have as much money for 'classroom supplies' as they used to.

In other good news topics - we found a time that both kids could take swimming lessons at the downtown Y. Allison is registered for a martial arts class too (won't that be interesting). Also, after going 5 rounds with the optical store, they finally agreed to replace Allison's glasses. This after I superglued my finger this morning trying to get the ear things back on. So I think it's been a pretty good day.

Mirror Lake

We had a good time this weekend camping at Mirror Lake SP with our friends Theresa, Robin and Connor. We drove down on Friday afternoon and camped Friday and Saturday night. The kids were very excited to be there on Friday. Saturday morning Theresa and Robin cooked up breakfast (awesome) and we took a "geology hike" in the morning. I will admit to being a tough customer as a geology teacher and admittedly we didn't hear the whole spiel because some persons were walking very slowly - but it was less than exciting. The hike itself was neat to a large rock outcrop. Saturday afternoon we took the boats out, paddled around, and taught Allison that when you are kayaking - lakes and rivers are for peeing in.

The big 'excitement' of the day happened right before bed when Allison grabbed the business end of the hot dog cooker. Dora bandaids were insufficient, but Theresa had a first aid kit so we held ice on it as long as she would allow and then wrapped her hand in gauze. We relegated ourselves to non-water/non-beach activities on Sunday (Jacob was upset about this development). She has a sizable blister that runs about halfway across her palm, but I think it's a minor burn overall. It must have really hurt, but she says it's not bothering her anymore and she's quite proud of her big bandage.

Sunday we hiked several trails that were not on the map, but ran across the second "big" butterfly of the weekend. The kids need to hone their hiking skills - as Allison starts asking for a piggyback ride just about when the trail head disappears from view.

All-in-all a fun weekend. We're all lining up tonight to take showers to rinse off the alternating layers of bug spray, sunscreen, and beach sand.


Theresa and all the kids post-paddling. It was Connor's first canoe ride and he did great - even went swimming with the 'big kids.'




Watching the big butterfly.

Subterfuge

I'll admit, all our parenting strategies are not perfect. (shocking!) However, sometimes you employ a flawed plan because it produces results. One of the things we will do can be called "the race." "The race" essentially pits the kids against the adult (or sometimes each other) in the great events of - putting on shoes - going to the bathroom - getting in pj's - or going up the stairs.

Today, I noticed that the kids were employing strategies of their own. During the "who can put their shoes on first" event - Allison took Jacob's shoe and placed it just out of reach, something I found slightly amusing if only because she's never done that before. But after the Power Shower (more to come on that), the kids were supposed to put their pj's on before I did. This led to first - the Naked Kid Hallway Collision, and second - Jacob's attempt to steal first place by shoving Allison's pj's as far under his bed as he could while she was distracted by a twist in her underwear.

We also had an anatomy lesson this evening. I took both kids in the shower with me (otherwise termed the Power Shower from a woman I used to work with a B&V who employed this to get 4 children bathed in short order). Jacob was - um - exploring his "belly button" while waiting to get in - upon which I informed his of the correct anatomical term which prompted Allison to search for hers. Most amazing may be that this subject hasn't come up yet in any broad sense. I've never been one to give things cutsy names like "that's your wee wee" but the kids have never really questioned their anatomy or anatomical differences. So we had a discussion about the fact that only boys had them and girls did not - though Allison did put up a short insistence that hers was in there somewhere. Sorry kiddo - no peeing standing up for you.

Long time gone...

Well, it's been a while since I last posted. I was at a conference in San Jose, CA, and now completely understand why people overlook the whole earthquake / fire / landslide thing. Sue came up and stayed with the kids. Bruce wasn't waiting at the door to pick her up, so I think it went ok. Jacob got over his pooping phobia, but not without some .... er.... distress?

I had a great conference, learned a lot, but there was not a lot of free time so our team didn't get as much accomplished as we'd hoped.

Now it seems like the summer is gone. This weekend we're going camping with some friends and then Jacob will start back at daycare on Monday. Monday is also kindergarten orientation night (though class doesn't start until Sept 3rd). So we have a lot to do in two days - finish a quilt, write a paper, visit the zoo in Madison, go to the children's museum in Appleton, visit the train museum and the zoo in Green Bay, etc. Hum......

24

Ahhh - finally Sunday and a little bit of time to rest. We had a busy 24 hours from Friday - Saturday night. Friday was Brian's company picnic. Jacob LOVED the inflatable slide and Allison's favorite was the balloon blow up race (mostly because she got candy at the end). The evening was overshadowed by Jacob's need to poop but refusal to do so - a theme that carries through the whole 24 hours.




Saturday morning we got up and headed down to Milwaukee to the Wisconsin State Fair. We were unable to find the shuttle lot (we just didn't look for the location before we left) so we parked a little outside the park and walked. Jacob really wanted to do the carnival rides, but after determining that a carousel ride was going to cost us $16 ($4 a person!) we steered him towards other (cheaper) activities - like the animal tents. The best part of the Wisconsin fair is not the cream puffs, but the Wisconsin products pavilion, where you can get goat cheese, honey sticks, apple sundaes, baked potatoes, lamb quiche, cranberry fluff, cherry everything, and ice cream. We walked to the far end of the park and took two tired kids back on the skyride and then walked (with kids on our shoulders) back to the car. Jacob visited the bathroom 5 times - and refused to go in any of them.




One big rabbit!

Saturday afternoon we returned home with a little time to rest and change before heading to Josh's birthday party at the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers game (baseball). Jacob was 2 days out from his past poop and fairly determined to hold it in forever. Many runs to the bathroom, screaming, bribing, and finally one warm bath later and we were only 45 minutes late to the game.



We enjoyed the game, and Jacob especially liked the fireworks that they had after the game was over. We got home and to bed way past everyone's bedtime - and yet today started right when the clock turned 6am. We were hoping they would sleep in a little.

Ohio

Here are some pictures from Allison's and my trip to Ohio. We had a lot of fun, the weather was nice, and we spent many hours in the pool and playing with the outdoor kitties. Allison mastered the diving rings and we threw them and retrieved them in many combinations of colors or "get all the ones with a "r" sound." Sunday, we took a short hike in Hocking Hills and visited the Columbus Zoo, which was a little more amusement park and a little less "zoo," but still nice.


Allison and Moe - Allison now wants a cat.






Diving ring retrieval.


Andi claims she was on the "low end of the stump," I think maybe I grew.

Parenting - on the fly

Sometimes, at the end of the day, you have to mix it up a little. This is particularly true when the normal list of "consequences" either doesn't make sense or has already been used up. Sometimes, you are forced to get creative. Two wide-eyed children were thus presented with this option: Share that glass of water - or get it dumped on your head.

A note of caution on this approach - be prepared to follow through (though not necessary in this instance).

Freaking out!

Ok - so sometimes you know how you forget things? It seems that I forget more than I remember these days. In fact, I was up the other night remembering many things that I had forgotten about. This morning (at a meeting that my colleague had forgotten about - so I'm not the only one) I was reminded that I am going to have a clicker box in my classroom this fall. What's a clicker box? It's a "student response system" that allows you to poll your students in class using these little remote clickers. That's cool you say (or not), but so what? I forgot this meant redesigning all of my powerpoint presentations for my geology courses this fall. Again - seemed like a better idea in March when I was going to be teaching 2 courses than it does in July when I know I'll have 4 plus hybrid development for spring. So I'm now downloading the software to add to powerpoint and am officially starting to freak out a little bit.

So what will I be doing this afternoon? Playing with the new T-ball thingie we bought this morning after learning that the kids love baseball and I suck at pitching. Why don't they take naps anymore!!!!

Jacob

Jacob went in yesterday for his 3-yr check up (a little late - but getting appointments in the summer is nuts). He weighed in at 35 pounds (80%), and that was an approximation because he REFUSED to stand on the scale and had to be weighed in the baby seat. He was also 38 inches tall (75%).

Jacob's big accomplishment is learning to poop on the potty, so he's now graduated to underwear. Yesterday was the first full day in underwear and he did very well. He even woke me up this morning at 5:45am with a "Mommy, I need to go potty!" and he was in fact still dry. Go Jacob!

Old Leg-humper

I feel like I have so much to catch up on, I don't know where to start. I'll start with Astro. This story begins all the way back in Cincinnati when we first got Astro. First off, he was crated so that he didn't poop in the house. Secondly, we had a friend named Jim and Astro loved to hump Jim's leg. We figured it was a puppy thing and when we moved to Madison and on to Fond du Lac, the leg humping thing seemed to go away. Until, that is, Jim came to visit once when he was on a plant trip to Green Bay. No sooner had Jim sat down that Astro was over giving his leg a little loving. No matter what we said, I'm fairly certain Jim did not believe that Astro hadn't done that in a few years.

But, after Jim's departure, the leg humping went with it. That is, until last night. We had a BBQ with some of Brian's coworkers. One of them happened to be named Jim. No sooner had new Jim sat down that Astro started to get friendly with his leg. What was even funnier is that he kept trying to go back to Jim's leg - no one else. How bizarre.

In other Astro news, he's back in his crate at night and when we are out of the house. After we got back from camping we had a run of 4-5 accidents in the house over the next 10 days. The neighbor kids were supposed to come over to let him out while we were gone (and I assume they did) but I don't know if something else happened to stress him out, but he's crated until further notice.

Biking

Per Grandma's request, here's a picture of Jacob on his bike today. We rode to one of the kids favorite places - the highway overpass.

Spectacled

Here is a picture of Allison in her new glasses. Sometimes she amazes me with how well she adjusts to things like this - (given that basics like hair brushing can be daily battles). It's kindof like the wheat and dairy thing. We tell her that she can't eat something that has wheat in it and she usually doesn't fuss too much. Today, I told her she needed to wear the glasses (like Daddy) and she was pretty Ok with that.

On the wheat and dairy business, we do have an appointment with the pediatrician in August to discuss it. Hopefully, we can start adding things back in. However, I'm worried because whenever it "slides" a little, her runny nose comes back. So, coincidence? Hard to say. But tonight we have concocted a wheat-free, dairy free pizza for dinner. Mom and Dad will opt for standard frozen. Actually, Dad is headed out to be part of an Uno's pizza focus group and Mom is wildly jealous.

My options

It's safe to say that our plan of presenting two acceptable options ("would you like apples or oranges?") and giving the kids a choice has come back to haunt us. Jacob informed me today that I could "play Monty with me here or play Monty with me outside. Those are your options."

In other news - Jacob decided a trip to Piggly Wiggly was the opportune time to start telling me when he needed to pee in the potty. I was standing there thinking 'can't you just go in your diaper?' but then in the end took a trip to the bathroom where he did in fact go pee. Go Jacob!

camping weekend

We had a good holiday weekend. Jillyn, Mike, Aidan and Paddy came up on Friday and we went camping on Saturday night at Hartman Creek in Waupaca, WI. We hiked a little (but never made it to the beach), roasted marshmallows, and spend Sunday morning kayaking around some little lakes. All in all a good time.

We were wakened in the middle of the night by VERY loud rustling, munching, slurping, and rummaging, as a raccoon was raiding our campsite for trash and goldfish crackers. If someone had been around, they would have been amused by us peering out of a slit in the tent window, shining a cell phone light in an attempt to scare away what we thought must have been a bear (given the amount of noise it was making). Crazy city folk.