More fun with cousins

On Christmas Day, while I was taking a nap, the kids all went in the backyard and played in the leaves. It looks like they had a lot of fun!

Happy Birthday

Today is Sam's 34th birthday. We discussed that birthdays are no longer as much fun as they used to be. The reason - you still have adult responsibilities of work, cooking dinner, changing diapers and taking care of sick kids. Add that to the fact that the gifts are not as exciting and you are no longer able to have your party at places like Chuck E Cheese or Pump It Up and it is just kind of a downer.

Today was especially low for Sam. It started when Katherine woke up at 6:15. He is taking morning duty as we are finishing off weaning. As soon as he went in to get her she wanted to eat so there was no chance of getting her back to sleep. Since she has been a little sick we decided that only one of us should go to church and the other stay with her. He chose to stay with her for some quality father daughter time. Usually a good choice, today bad move. Katherine was still having some stomach issues and was a bit fussy.

We were going to meet my parents for lunch and to see the train display at the mall. Sam had a hard time getting out of the house and by the time he got to the mall, Katherine had fallen asleep in the car so he decided to go home. Usually she transfers pretty easily to her crib but not today. After a lot of crying and clinging to mom and dad I finally got a 30 minute nap out of her. Not enough sleep! So she was cranky all day.

Our evening plans included having Jen, Richard and their 1 year old Evie as well as Gary, Alysha and their 2 boys Caleb and Ethan over. Katherine was so fussy (read hysterically crying) and we were having such a hard time getting dinner ready that I thought about calling to cancel. I am so glad we did not. The evening with close friends was what salvaged Sam's birthday. Both of these families are some of our closest friends and they understand things like fussy kids, dinner that runs late and a less (much less) than perfect house. Luckily, once Katherine had her friends over her attitude changed and she was a pretty good girl.

After everyone left and Katherine was in bed, Sam was able to open presents. Like I mentioned, a 34 year old does not get the best presents. He received a rain check for brown dress shoes, a casual shirt, an electric tooth brush, king size pillow cases for his funky chiropractic pillow, 2 CD's, Godiva coffee (a perk of after Christmas sales), and a BBQ wireless thermometer. I think he ended up doing just fine.

Another perk of his 34th birthday. It is the eve of his last day working at his current company. He has had the last week off for the holidays and he has the next two weeks off before he starts his new job. We are enjoying time with the family, completing projects and getting things done.

Happy Birthday Honey! I love you!

Something that bugs me

Katherine outgrew her tennis shoes over a month ago. Since then she has been wearing every other shoe and I have been searching all over town for tennis shoes. Why in the world is this such a problem? Here is the thing - I don't want Dora or Barbie or Elmo or any other character on her shoes. Neither do I want it to be overly pink with flowers, butterflies or glitter. I just want a pair of tennis shoes that are mostly white and velcro so that they stay on and go with all of her clothes. The pair that she just outgrew is what I am looking for. I bought them at Kohl's but they are no longer there. I have found them at Famous Footwear but not in her size. Why does this have to be such a difficult quest?

Christmas Celebration #1

Our first celebration of Christmas was at Sam's parents house. We were there on Sunday for a small post-wedding reception for Justin and Leah who were married in Hawaii, where they live, in October. Somehow I do not have any pictures from that event.

Christmas Eve we got the kids ready for bed in their Christmas PJ's. They used to all get matching PJ's but with kids ranging in age from 1-almost 7 and being both girls and boys it is impossible to find matching sets that are gender neutral in all of their sizes. So, the boys had matching penguin PJ's and the girls all wore pink Christmas PJ's.

After the kids went to bed, the adults opened their presents. I made the mistake of saying we were opening "adult gifts" at lunch and that was pretty funny. With 15 people we thought this was a good way to split the presents and focus more on the kids in the morning. They don't have the patience to wait for the adults to open their gifts. The most popular gift item of the year was a cookbook. Between the 10 adults there were 9 cookbooks given.

Shannon and cookbook #1

Joe with his Hawaiian cigar

Christmas morning we all get up and start by letting the kids open their stockings. I like the way we do stockings. Everyone buys something to put in every other person's stocking. We get quite a variety of gifts that way and no one person has the pressure of filling 15 stockings.

After a big breakfast the adults opened their stockings and then we head to the living room so the kids can open their presents. We separate the gifts into piles and then they just dig in. With the adults we open one at a time and everyone gets the spotlight while they open their gift. Whit the kids, it is a free for all. Each parent is helping their kids and poor Grammy and Grandad are trying to watch all of them.
Katherine came home with a lot of great gifts. Justin and Leah gave her a book from Hawaii that is so cute. Ty gave her a talking clock. Emily, Nathan and Hannah gave her another play silk and some wrist streamers that are so fun to play with. Grammy and Grandad gave her a small pack and play and high chair for her baby doll, play food and a cute sweatsuit.

Wrist streamers

Katherine had a lot of fun. She really got into opening the packages and ripping off the paper. Then she wanted daddy to help her open the boxes so she could get to what was inside.
Hannah's new baby doll

The pack and play required some assembly but was a great hit when it was done. Baby loves to sleep and get rocked while looking at her mobile.

After lunch, mommy took a nap. Katherine was not happy about not being able to go get mommy. Unfortunately her crying outside the door did not let me sleep very well.
Katherine did not really remember Justin from last year and this was the first time she met Leah. We wish we could spend more time with Uncle Justin and Aunt Leah but it is hard when they live in Hawaii.

Fun with the cousins

Christmas with Sam's family is crazy though very fun because there are 5 cousins. Emily will be 7 in February, Nathan is 4, Ty is 2, Katherine will be 2 in February and Hannah is 15 months. There are three born in 11 months so the house is full of toddlers. This was the first holiday where Ty, Katherine and Hannah were all walking and more able to enjoy one another. Last Christmas Ty was a good walker, Katherine was a crawler and cruiser and Hannah was only 3 months old and did not do much but sit in the bouncy seat so there was not much playing together.

Katherine and Hannah are starting to become great friends. Don't they look like sisters?

There were many meals shared around the kids table.
Some meals were in the booster seats.
A great amount of fun can be had with Grandad and an empty wipes container.

Snuggling with Grandad and Emily.
Nathan and Ty are interested in whatever is on TV.

Bath time with Ty

poo poo again mommy

That was a common phrase today. Oh what fun to have a potty training toddler with diarrhea and a 11 week pregnant mommy for whom this illness wants to make her ill as well. (if mommy's news is new to you, keep scrolling down a few posts, you are behind:) We spent a lot of time today in the bathroom. At least we are not to the point of wearing big girl panties yet, diapers are still nice. It was also a good thing that Daddy is off this week and around to help when Mommy couldn't handle it. This is the first time Katherine has had this so I do consider myself lucky. She has a horrible cough and congestion as well. She took a 3 hour nap today so that was good.

Amazingly while she has been awake she has been in a good mood and had fun playing with all of her new toys. She only asked to nurse once but it was pretty relentless and made mommy cry. As of tomorrow morning it will have been a week since she has been weaned. She still asks for "moot" at least once a day but it is getting easier to distract her. At this point, there is nothing there for her to eat.

Fantasy of Lights

We went to Sam's parents house for Christmas this year. There were 15 of us this year so it was a crazy house full of people. It is a lot of fun to have family together though. One tradition is to go to the Fantasy of Lights hosted by the University. Way back when a family had most of these displays at their home. When they passed away, they left them to the University. Sam and his siblings as well as his parents remember seeing these displays as kids. It is fun that there is a tradition that spans 3 generations.

The Raggedy Anne Carousel
Annual photo in front of the train
Western Santa
Peter Pan
The Nativity

At least half of the displays have nothing to do with Christmas. They are different fairy tales and even a robot that blows bubbles which I think is pretty random. More traditional are Scrooge, Santa's workshop, Santa's sleigh and the nativity scene.

Could this be it?

First of all, I am making several posts tonight to catch up so make sure you scroll down and read all the new ones, especially "Priceless".

Could this be it? Are we about to be weaned? Last night Katherine spent the night with Nana and Pops. The last time I nursed her was at 7 am Friday morning. We had a busy day with friends over to play and running errands before I dropped her off at Nana's at 5. Then Sam and I were not around until this afternoon at 3. She only asked to nurse one time and that was right before dinner so we just fed her. Sam put her to bed with no fuss and I did not nurse.

I have to admit that tonight I cried about it. Kind of funny since I have been trying to wean and know that it is time. She is certainly old enough! I have loved nursing Katherine. It is such a sweet time that we both have really enjoyed. I will miss it. Today it was hard because in my efforts to not nurse her, I was more distant from her. I played with her on the floor but we did not read or cuddle. I did not want to provide a time where she would realize that we were snuggled and she could nurse. That is what made me sad. I missed my little girl today. I know that when this process is over she will me just as snugly but today I missed it.

I don't know for sure if we are totally through or not. Tomorrow I may cave. We are about to spend a few days in a house full of people which could either distract her or make her crave closeness with her mommy.

It is a bittersweet process.

22 months

Katherine, you continue to be an utter delight. It is so much fun to be with you. You make me laugh all day long and I am amazed by your cuteness! Every month you do so many new and fun things and then when I sit down to write this post I never seem to remember them all. Here are a few.

• Today you said your name on your own for the first time. We did not think about the fact that the name Katherine is actually phonetically challenging when we gave it to you (not that it would have changed anything). Usually when we ask you a question like "whose sippy cup is this?" you will say "ooors" which translates to "yours". We are still working on pronouns with you. It is a difficult concept. Today when I asked you that question, you said, "fafrine" which is a fairly close rendition of your name.
  


• My new favorite time of day is when we eat breakfast. You have a new table that we moved to the kitchen and we sit together as we eat. Mommy does not fit on the chair very well but I endure it to have breakfast with you. We actually eat all of our meals here unless daddy is with us and these pictures are actually of your lunch. You are becoming a much better eater these days though there are still some meals where I am challenged to find what it is that you want. You usually can tell me though. In the morning you tell me if you want bagels, waffles or pancakes. When you get food on your hands or face or on the table you ask me for a towel so you can clean up your mess.

• The other day you were trying to help by bringing cleaning up a mess on the floor. You dipped your paper towel into Hooligan's water and used it to clean the floor. You had a little too much water so then you were able to wipe it up with a dry towel. I love that you like to help mommy to clean up.

• You love to give a record of what you did that day. It is so amazing to see what you remember about each thing we do. When daddy gets home I will ask you to tell him what you did and you start to spout of lists of words. On a day you go to MDO you will say, "Abby, Robert, eat, house, doll" After the arboretum you said, "house, walk, water, flower, Hannah, deer". After playing with Ben you say, "Ben, be nice, two puppies, outside, down, sleep (Ben always sleeps)". When I tell you that daddy went to work, you say, "daddy, foffee (coffee), bagel, cheese, towel, bye-bye" because those are the things that daddy takes with him when he leaves for work.


• When we get in the car you love to have a "roll call" and name off all the people that were there. If I am on the phone with someone in the family, you name off all the other people in that family. I hope you can remember all the names for Christmas, there will be 15 of us at Grammy and Grandad's house.


• Every day you will astonish me with new words that you know. Daddy and I were talking about how we think you know everything now. It seems that you can label just about every noun that you encounter. I tell people that I think you have well over 300 words but I have long since lost count. It is so fun that we are able to communicate. Life is so much easier when I know what you want and you are so much less frustrated now that you can communicate with me. Some new words this week are buckle, basket, syrup, waffle, ya, OK and yawn.


• You have begun to try to train the puppy. You give her the commands of "down", "sit", and "stay". She does not always obey you but she sometimes does. I like that you are establishing yourself as an alpha member of the pack. You really love your puppy and actually are starting to say her name. You say it "hoogan". You always know where her bone is and try to give it to her even when she does not want it. There are many mornings that the first thing you say is "puppy.


• You have started to say "ya" a lot. I am glad that the answer to everything is no longer "no". It is pretty cute the way you say it but I would like to work on you saying "yes" and ultimately "yes mam"
  
• One day when we were playing outside you started to take slow, big steps as you said "big steps" It was so cute and I have no idea where you got it.
  
• When you burp, you will say, "burp" and then say "excuse me". I am so glad you are polite when you burp.


• You often will say that you are a big girl. I think you got this from when I told you what a big girl you are because you can go up and down the stairs in our garage all by yourself. You really are getting to be a big girl.


• You sure love your baby doll. You are so nurturing. Often during the day you will get baby and sit down to feed her milk. You are very discreet and cover her up with her blanket. You love to give her kisses and change her diaper.


• You are starting to be a little bit of an exhibitionist. You have gained the skill of pulling off your clothes. I think it started with pulling off your pants to go to the potty but now you are also able to pull off your shirt. Sometimes you will just decide that you are ready to strip down. Pretty quickly you can pull off your pants and take off your diaper. To our knowledge you have only done this at home. It could get quite awkward if you were to do this out in public.
  
• Ever since we went to Norway you have been waking up at night almost every night. I am really ready for this to stop. Over the next few weeks when Daddy is on vacation we are going to work on this. All of us need our sleep.

• You sure love your daddy. I love to watch the two of you spend time together. You love to snuggle up with him to watch your "moomeee" or to read books. You are quite a cuddler.

• One day you were in the den bouncing up and down on your chair. You did this for a few minutes and had a ball. Here is a video of you "bouncing".

I love you Katherine!

5 years

Yesterday was our 5th anniversary. We decided to fore go the traditional 5th anniversary gift of wood and decided instead to get away for a night - our first night away from Katherine. We went to the Adolphus hotel where we spent our wedding night. It is a beautiful, historic hotel downtown.

We started with dinner in the French Room. Oh my goodness! It was nice. The room was gorgeous. I felt like I was eating in an Italian palace. There were frescoes on the ceiling and the chandeliers had clear, blue and pink glass from Italy.

Our dinner was fabulous. They serve either a three or a five course meal. We chose the three course meal. It really was a 6 course meal though with all of the in between steps. Before our appetizer they brought out a teeny, tiny, demi tasse cup of soup. I think they said it was asparagus soup with shrimp and a coffee froth on top. It was yummy. I had a crab cake for an appetizer and Sam had smoked salmon. Most of the time crab cakes have a lot of bread crumbs and are fried. This one was almost all crab and had a lobster cream sauce over it. After the appetizer they brought out sorbet to cleanse our palate. Fancy!

For our main course Sam had a Chilean sea bass with squash risotto and I had a fillet with goat cheese manicotti and vegetable tart. When I took my first bite of steak, the sounds that I involuntarily made let Sam know that it was incredible. It was the best steak I had ever had. It was a choice of meat, cooked perfectly and it had an incredible sauce on it. My sides were great as well. For dessert we both had the white chocolate bread pudding with vanilla pecan ice cream. Yummy! After dessert they brought us our "pre-dessert". As one would expect it should have come before dessert but one of us was in the restroom and they did not want to delay our dessert or else the ice cream would have melted. As you can see, they even wrote "Happy Anniversary" in chocolate on our plate.

If you ever have an occasion for a really nice meal, the French Room would be a great place. They really treat you first class. Every single person that worked there was fabulous. The busboy that switched out my forks was even able to explain what they were all used for when I was curious about the new forks and knives he gave me (they were specifically for the crab cakes).
As a special treat I had contacted the lady who make our wedding cake and had her make a small cake for us. I did not know that we were going to have dessert so we waited to eat it until today. It was just as yummy as 5 years ago.

This morning we were able to sleep in until 9:30 when we woke up on our own. Since Katherine has been here, we have not had a day where we were both able to sleep in. It was wonderful. We ate breakfast in our room before running a few last holiday errands and picking Katherine up at Nana's. She did great spending the night and had a fun time with Nana, Pops and Jack (the dog).

The past 5 years have flown by and have been wonderful. I can't wait to see what the next 5 hold for us.

Priceless!!!

Plane tickets to Norway - $6000

Train tickets to the fjords - $450

Norwegian sweater $300

Telling everyone that the family Christmas photo is a family of four, not three - PRICELESS

Yes, that is right, we will be a family of four. Right before we came home from Norway we found out that we were pregnant with baby #2 whom we call "Squeak". On our final Sunday we went to our traditional breakfast place, United Bakery. As we were eating, I gave Sam a card. It happens that November 11th is Father's Day in Norway so I gave him a Father's Day card. After complimenting how great a dad he is with Katherine, I ended by saying that he would also be a great dad to "Squeak". He was so shocked (I don't know why, it was planned) and so excited.

It has been so difficult not to tell the world outside of family and close friends but we decided to wait until after my first appointment with my midwife. Well, at that appointment they could not hear the heartbeat. My new practice does not do confirmation sonograms, they only listen with the Doppler and it was too early. So, two more weeks of waiting and secret keeping until this week when I had another visit. They still could not hear a heartbeat with the Doppler so they did end up doing a sonogram and everything was fine. I was kind of glad they had to do a sono because now I have an "alien baby" picture to match Katherine's.

So, Katherine will be a big sister sometime mid to late July. We are so excited.

By the way, why do we call this baby "Squeak"? Well, when we first found out we were pregnant with Katherine, we wanted to have a nickname that we called the baby rather than referring to "it" or "the baby". I jokingly said, "well, we have a pup so let's have a pip." So, we called Katherine "Pip" when she was still in my belly Then when we decided to change our blog's domain name so that it was no longer our first and last names, we thought that Pip and Squeak was cute and planned then that the second kiddo would be "squeak". Now you know the story of our blog name as well (which you may notice has now changed since we are back from Norway and have made our announcement.)