Tonight is my last night before I start a new MBA class, and I said I would make a new post before I started so here I go. It's been a very busy and hectic break, just in the last week or two does it seem like any rest occurred. November and December were extremely busy. I'll highlight some of my favorite recent, and one not so recent events:
Culvers: This is not so recent. On the way back from Appleton in December we stopped by Culvers for lunch. We washed our hands and got Bea settled into a high chair while I was ordering food for all of us. I was at the counter and turned around to see Bea and Melissa sitting all the way across the restaurant within eye sight, and when Bea saw me she started yelling "Matt! Matt! Maaaaaatttttt!" as loud as she could. See when we were in Appleton Melissa was changing Bea in a seperate room and to get attention she yelled "Matt!". Thus now Bea yells "Matt" when I'm far away and needs to get my attention.
After I returned with the food at Culvers I was cutting up Bea's vegetables and somehow Bea had managed to reach across the table and steal a couple of fries under my arm without me looking at it, and we've rarely given her fries before. Very sneaky...and smart. After polishing off our food we needed to burn energy for the rest of the 2 1/2 hour ride home, so we started to walk around the restaurant. A recent fun game is to put our hands together behind our backs and waddle like a duck while going "quack, quack, quack..". Bea did quacked as loud as she could and waddled as much as she could with me back and forth the restaurant for several minutes, at least, to the amusement of many.
Zoo: Two weekends ago we went to the indoor section of the zoo for the first time. We have a family pass and saw the tropic (warm animal) and aquatic exhibits. Bea was extremely happy and loved everything, with the freedom to run around and look at stuff (that is meant to be touched by toddlers so there were limited "no's"). By the time we finished the tropics she was pretty wore out and the aquatic sections went quicker as we needed to hustle her home for food and a nap. Her favorite animal may have been a simple duck. They were doing a lot of paddling and diving for food. Melissa and I thoroughly enjoyed it all.
Zoo 2: The past weekend we went to the zoo with Bea's cousin Sadie (and my sister and brother-in-law). Bea and Sadie had a great time. Similarly to the first zoo visit, one if the favorite things (maybe better then the animals) was a little tunnel/cave about 38 inches tall that they went in and out of and played for a solid 10 minutes with many other toddlers about 30-34 inches in height, it was very amusing for all.
Edinborough Park: Nearby is a large indoor play area/park with trees, etc. There is a four story climbing and slide area for the kids. There's also a much smaller toddler section to climb on with a slide. We've gone there twice in the last month. Bea can do well on the toddler slide but it's not easy to climb up on. I then took he on the smallest intermediate slide with me (about 10 feet tall and 40 feet long). We did that many times. On the second trip without Melissa, I could tell Bea really wanted to do the slide by herself, and since it wasn't very slippery like the first time I used my instinct and gave her a push. I followed right behind her. She LOVED it. At the very end she was a little scared then stopped at the end of the slide and when I came down she giggled histerically then ran as fast as she could to the beginning of the slide - which is a lot of work for both of us. There is a lot of climbing up and around things to get to the first level. After about 7 more times we were both tired and Bea had to give up as she couldn't crawl up anymore.
Then we made our way to a large gym area with lots of BALLS and little carts that spin around. Bea enjoyed the "BALLS" the most and also stacking the cones (like road construction cones) and pushing the cones around because she saw another kid do it. She also likes to grab whatever ball, toy comes rolling her way and abandoning her current toy. So while pushing the cones on a cart a ball rolled away from another kid and Bea immediately stopped and grabbed that ball. The other kid without missing a beat grabbed the cart and cruised off. You should have seen the look at Bea's face. It was puzzlement, anger, confusion, embarassment... I laughed and told her that's what happens when you try to scam other kids toys, it happens to you back.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Hey, We Finally Updated the Blog!!
We know, we know. We have been very remiss. Our November and December were so eventful that we had little time to spare. As a result, our blog was not updated since Halloween. To make it up to you, here are THREE blog posts with tons of pictures from the last few months. We'll just pretend I posted them in a timely manner. Enjoy!
Merry Christmas and Snow Fun
One of my favorite pictures of all time: Bea and Bullet on Christmas morning. It should have been our Christmas card picture... oh well...
The prep for Christmas this year was extremely hectic. I usually have all my Christmas presents purchased by Thanksgiving and the cards sent out by the 10th... not this year. With all the craziness of November and December, things got even crazier by Christmas.
As a person who makes her living in online consulting, it made sense that I did a lot of Christmas prep online -- but it seemed everything I did online got majorly screwed up!! I spent two hours making our Christmas cards online, but the company called the next day and said the pictures wouldn't work; so I wound up buying store cards. I ordered Bea's big present (a kitchen set) online, but the shipping got delayed and it still isn't here. I tried to make calendars online for the grandparents... but of course, they got botched. So, anyway, I learned my lesson. Yes, I will still shop online, but I will shop earlier next year.
When Christmas actually came, however, things went smoothly and we had a lot of fun.
We spent Christmas Eve at our house with my parents. They gave Bea a rocking horse (see below). She likes the horse, but she's still a bit affraid of it -- especially because if you squeeze its ears it whinnys and moves its nose and tail. I think she'll really love it in about a week!
We spent Christmas Day with Matt's family at Karyn and Jorge's house. We were especially happy that Matt's grandma, Hazel, was well enough to join us. Below is a picture of Grandma Pat reading to Bea and her cousin, Sadie.
And, here are Bea and Sadie giggling together in a rocking chair...
First, we had our picture taken with the Santa, Rudolph, and sleigh display in front of my parents' house. My parents made these decorations when I was little and have pictures of me with them every year, so this is an important Christmas tradition. Santa's list (which one of the elves is holding) has always had the names of my cousins and childhood friends on it. This year, it got ammended to include Bea, Sadie, Gwen, and others. Here we are with Grandma Liz. I like that Bea isn't even as tall as an elf.
In the end, our holiday was sure great. We hope yours was just as happy.
We spent Christmas Eve at our house with my parents. They gave Bea a rocking horse (see below). She likes the horse, but she's still a bit affraid of it -- especially because if you squeeze its ears it whinnys and moves its nose and tail. I think she'll really love it in about a week!
We spent Christmas Day with Matt's family at Karyn and Jorge's house. We were especially happy that Matt's grandma, Hazel, was well enough to join us. Below is a picture of Grandma Pat reading to Bea and her cousin, Sadie.
And, here are Bea and Sadie giggling together in a rocking chair...
The day after Christmas, Matt helped his mom move Grandma Hazel to a new place. Since it was pretty warm that day, Bea, Bullet, and I took the opportunity to have some winter fun with my parents.
First, we had our picture taken with the Santa, Rudolph, and sleigh display in front of my parents' house. My parents made these decorations when I was little and have pictures of me with them every year, so this is an important Christmas tradition. Santa's list (which one of the elves is holding) has always had the names of my cousins and childhood friends on it. This year, it got ammended to include Bea, Sadie, Gwen, and others. Here we are with Grandma Liz. I like that Bea isn't even as tall as an elf.
After getting our picture taken, it was time to try out Grandma and Grandpa's backyard sledding hill. While I was making the sledding course (going down the hill enough times to make it a smooth ride while unintentionally getting tons of snow in my pants), Bea got to go on the swing (aka the "weeeeeeee"). Bea loves the weeee, but of course, she has not been able to go on it much when it is 40 below. She always sees it from the window and begs to go on it. So, she was thrilled.
Finally, when the sledding run was ready, it was time for Bea to have her first sled ride. First we tried Bea going down by herself, but she wasn't heavy enough to go very far and she had to lay down. So, after awhile, Bea and I went together. With the two of us on the sled, we probably went a good 40 feet down the hill (with Bullet running along side) -- see picture below (if you click on the picture, you can see my Dad is holding Bullet until we go). Bea loved it and kept saying, "AGAIN!" Eventually, Mommy, Grandpa, and Grandma got tired of going up and down the hill and we made a snowman instead. The snowman lasted about two hours before it melted. Oh well, fun was had by all!
In the end, our holiday was sure great. We hope yours was just as happy. - M
Bye to Grandma, a Visit to Appleton, and SANTA
The blog I should have posted in mid-December...
We hardly had time to relax after Karyn's wedding, when Matt's Grandma Hazel broke her hip. Then, in the same week, my Grandma Marcie died (she was my Dad's mom). We had been planning to go home for a visit to Appleton anyway, but we got an entirely different kind of trip. On the good side, we got to see our relatives from far and near on that side of the family. Bea even got to meet some of her cousins, Isaac and Logan. Grandma had a lovely funeral and we are all happy that her suffering is over.
One funny story was that after spending four hours at the funeral home for the visitation, we had a short service. I asked Matt, who was going to be holding Bea, to sit closest to the door, in case Bea got noisy. I wound up sitting a row back. Sure enough, we weren't seated for more then 15 seconds before Bea went into all-out tantrum mode. So, Matt was trying to get up with Bea, a sippy cup, and toys while trying to get the door open. Eventually Matt (struggling) was holding Bea horizontal, with her head sticking out on one side of him and her little feet kicking out on the other side. Just as Matt got the door open, Bea realized that the whole room full of people was looking at her. She put on her best smile, waved, and said, "bye-bye!!" as she was carted out the door. Grandma would have thought it was pretty funny.
Bea spent a lot of the weekend in Appleton getting to know my mom's side of the family, too. She spent lots of time at Aunt Diane's house -- which was super fun because Diane has TONS of toys, had presents galore for Bea, and there was even a playmate -- Bea's cousin, Gwen. (Gwen is actually the daughter of my cousin, Kelly.) Gwen and Bea are only a couple months different in age and they had a great time together as you can see. Bea is still saying "Gwen?" and "Di?"weeks later.
Here are Bea and Gwen "rockin' out" in Aunt Diane's kitchen. Gwen called Bea, "Ba." Bea called Gwen, "Gen." But a good time was had by all. Bea and Gwen liked to ride together in the little red car you can see in the upper left of the picture. It's really only made for one kid, but they'd squeeze in together -- with limbs hanging out of every window.
Here I am reading to the girlies.
We hardly had time to relax after Karyn's wedding, when Matt's Grandma Hazel broke her hip. Then, in the same week, my Grandma Marcie died (she was my Dad's mom). We had been planning to go home for a visit to Appleton anyway, but we got an entirely different kind of trip. On the good side, we got to see our relatives from far and near on that side of the family. Bea even got to meet some of her cousins, Isaac and Logan. Grandma had a lovely funeral and we are all happy that her suffering is over.
One funny story was that after spending four hours at the funeral home for the visitation, we had a short service. I asked Matt, who was going to be holding Bea, to sit closest to the door, in case Bea got noisy. I wound up sitting a row back. Sure enough, we weren't seated for more then 15 seconds before Bea went into all-out tantrum mode. So, Matt was trying to get up with Bea, a sippy cup, and toys while trying to get the door open. Eventually Matt (struggling) was holding Bea horizontal, with her head sticking out on one side of him and her little feet kicking out on the other side. Just as Matt got the door open, Bea realized that the whole room full of people was looking at her. She put on her best smile, waved, and said, "bye-bye!!" as she was carted out the door. Grandma would have thought it was pretty funny.
Bea spent a lot of the weekend in Appleton getting to know my mom's side of the family, too. She spent lots of time at Aunt Diane's house -- which was super fun because Diane has TONS of toys, had presents galore for Bea, and there was even a playmate -- Bea's cousin, Gwen. (Gwen is actually the daughter of my cousin, Kelly.) Gwen and Bea are only a couple months different in age and they had a great time together as you can see. Bea is still saying "Gwen?" and "Di?"weeks later.
Here are Bea and Gwen "rockin' out" in Aunt Diane's kitchen. Gwen called Bea, "Ba." Bea called Gwen, "Gen." But a good time was had by all. Bea and Gwen liked to ride together in the little red car you can see in the upper left of the picture. It's really only made for one kid, but they'd squeeze in together -- with limbs hanging out of every window.
Here I am reading to the girlies.While in Appleton, we all also went to see all of my Dad's old friends at the Fox River Mall, including Santa (aka, Russ). We're really happy to have the chance to see such a great Santa again this year. Bea didn't really get the concept of Santa bringing presents, etc., but she definitely knows what Santa looks like and points him out at every opportunity.
Before I forget, I would like to publically congratulate my cousins Kelly and Angela who are both expecting new babies! More friends for Bea and us. Hooray.
- M
Happy November!!
Happy Thanksgiving. Ok, so considering it's almost New Year, that's kind of fake, but I sincerely hope you had a happy holiday.
If I had written a blog in November, I would have told you it was a very busy time for us -- Matt's sister, Karyn, got married on Thanksgiving weekend and Matt had finals for his MBA class. So we had much to do.
Karyn's wedding was beautiful. Conducted in Spanish and English, it was very unique and fun. I don't have alot of pictures from the wedding, but here are a couple good ones:
This is a picture of Matt's dad, Matt, and the girls. Bea spent the entire dinner yelling, "Hi Grandpa" (to Matt's dad) and "Hi Cots" to Matt's cousin Scott (who was staying with us and became Bea's new best bud). Matt and I were at the head table, and my parents were watching Bea, so we could blissfully ignore all of it. :)
And, here's the bride with her mom and her sister. (I just thought everyone likes to see a picture of the bride.)
If I had written a blog in November, I would have told you it was a very busy time for us -- Matt's sister, Karyn, got married on Thanksgiving weekend and Matt had finals for his MBA class. So we had much to do.
Karyn's wedding was beautiful. Conducted in Spanish and English, it was very unique and fun. I don't have alot of pictures from the wedding, but here are a couple good ones:
This is a picture of Matt's dad, Matt, and the girls. Bea spent the entire dinner yelling, "Hi Grandpa" (to Matt's dad) and "Hi Cots" to Matt's cousin Scott (who was staying with us and became Bea's new best bud). Matt and I were at the head table, and my parents were watching Bea, so we could blissfully ignore all of it. :)
And, here's the bride with her mom and her sister. (I just thought everyone likes to see a picture of the bride.) In November, Bea also had some pictures taken at Babies 'R Us. They actually do a pretty good job there.
The photographer tried to give Bea one of those snowballs (made of fleece) to hold in the picture, but she kept throwing it at the photographer. The girl knows what to do with a ball -- she's got quite an arm and pretty good aim.
The photographer tried to give Bea one of those snowballs (made of fleece) to hold in the picture, but she kept throwing it at the photographer. The girl knows what to do with a ball -- she's got quite an arm and pretty good aim.
Well, that's about all I remember in November... it was a long time ago.
-M
Friday, October 31, 2008
Trick or Treat!
Happy Halloween Everyone!
Halloween is the probably the #1 day of the year to share cute pictures of your kids, and we're no different! Here are a bunch of pictures of Bea in her Halloween finery. As you can tell, she's a Minnesota Gopher cheerleader. (As a consolation to the Wisconsin fans, she still said "Go Bucky!" despite the costume.)
I originally wanted Bea to be something she could say (Dog, Bear, Horse, etc.). Matt and I scoured the city for a decent animal costume that would fit her. We finally settled on a dog costume, but when we brought it home and put Bea in it, she freaked out!! She didn't like it at all, and it scared her when we showed her the mirror. Sooooo... on to plan B. We had the cheerleader outfit at home -- so we just added the pom poms and wha-la... Halloween costume. Daddy was very, very happy.
Here is Bea beating a drum in her costume during the day care Halloween party.
The day care took the kids around the local shopping center for "Trick or Treat". There's Bea in the middle row of the buggy with her friend, Kamari. Her two best friends, Gustavo and Monroe are the pirate and vampire in the front row.
Here are the older kids at the head of the pack, heading over to the Perkins.
Here is Bea playing with one of her teachers, Miss Houng.
Here she is on Halloween night before going trick or treating.
She likes the pom poms a lot.
Here's Bea in crossing our yard to the neighbor's house. She is really too young for the candy, but she likes to put things in and out of her pumpkin bucket... and she likes the candy with crinkly-sounding wrappers best.
Here we are coming home from trick or treating in the neighborhood (this is our porch). Grandma and Grandpa were there taking pictures and helping out.
Halloween is the probably the #1 day of the year to share cute pictures of your kids, and we're no different! Here are a bunch of pictures of Bea in her Halloween finery. As you can tell, she's a Minnesota Gopher cheerleader. (As a consolation to the Wisconsin fans, she still said "Go Bucky!" despite the costume.)
I originally wanted Bea to be something she could say (Dog, Bear, Horse, etc.). Matt and I scoured the city for a decent animal costume that would fit her. We finally settled on a dog costume, but when we brought it home and put Bea in it, she freaked out!! She didn't like it at all, and it scared her when we showed her the mirror. Sooooo... on to plan B. We had the cheerleader outfit at home -- so we just added the pom poms and wha-la... Halloween costume. Daddy was very, very happy.
You can click on the pictures to see them bigger (you can do that to any pic on this blog, actually).
Here is Bea beating a drum in her costume during the day care Halloween party.
The day care took the kids around the local shopping center for "Trick or Treat". There's Bea in the middle row of the buggy with her friend, Kamari. Her two best friends, Gustavo and Monroe are the pirate and vampire in the front row.
Here are the older kids at the head of the pack, heading over to the Perkins.
Here is Bea playing with one of her teachers, Miss Houng.
Here she is on Halloween night before going trick or treating.
She likes the pom poms a lot.
Here's Bea in crossing our yard to the neighbor's house. She is really too young for the candy, but she likes to put things in and out of her pumpkin bucket... and she likes the candy with crinkly-sounding wrappers best.
Here we are coming home from trick or treating in the neighborhood (this is our porch). Grandma and Grandpa were there taking pictures and helping out. Hope you had as nice of a Halloween as we did. -- Melissa
Friday, October 24, 2008
Good News
It was announced today that one of Melissa's doctors performed the first successful Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS)at Abbott in Minneapolis. This is the syndrome that Bea and Elsa had and we flew to Cincinnati to one of four or five hospitals in the country that performed the surgery. Thankfully there are now more opportunities for parents to perform the surgery, because in most cases there are literally days from diagnosis until fatal or life altering complications typically occur. We were diagnosed on a Friday morning and spent all day and much of the weekend trying to get an appointment in time to save the girls. With the weekend it wasn't until Monday that we were able to finalize everything and we flew out on Tuesday and did tests all day Wednesday and learned the horrible news that while we were candidates for the surgery Elsa had no placenta share and was not going to make it and we had surgery on Friday, seven (short), yet the longest and most horrible days of our lives, after our first diagnosis to save Bea.
We had to pay our way to fly to Cincinnati and stay there and we were fortunate we had the means to do so. We were even more fortunate for the excellent care in Minneapolis such that we were put into a high risk pool early on and monitored for just such a complication. Without the quick diagnosis we wouldn't have Bea today, and that's unthinkable as she's become such a part of our lives that we can't imagine not having her around, and it's hard to remember what it was like before her.
Thus I'm very happy for the healthy twin boys and their parents for the opportunity they had locally and that many more families in the upper west will have an quick and affordable opportunity to help save their twins. The television station stated 50 cases of TTTS arise in Minnesota each year, and that excludes families in Wisconsin, Iowa, the Dakota and further outlying states and provinces that have Minneapolis as an option.
This is post became a little harder to write then I first expected, it's harder that Bea is staying with my parents from yesterday (Thursday) until Sunday as Melissa and I are cleaning our house for an open house on Sunday. Thus I can't run up to her room and look in on her or touch her or pick her up and hold her. I don't think I'll share this blog with Melissa until after we pick Bea up on Sunday.
It also makes me think of almost every night this summer when I was sprinkling the lawn for many hours at night in an effort to keep our new sod from drying out. I had a lot of time to look up at the sky and with the very dry summer we had the stars seemed extra magnificent this summer. I would regularly look up at the stars and say hi to Elsa and tell her I miss her and I appreciated her watching over us and especially her sister. It wasn't nearly as sad as it seems and sounds as I write now, because the stars make you feel touched, special and in our case comfortable and happy.
Sometimes I stop and wonder did all that happen last year. Is there really an identical twin to Bea out there somewhere, because that's hard to comprehend. But it did happen and we're very happy for how much Elsa touched us and continues to touch us and we're just as happy for all the joy that Bea brings to us and we channel a little extra love and happiness her way. She's simply such a happy, smiley, giggly baby and she seems to be pretty good physically and mentally and I wonder if some of that is a bit of Elsa coming out through Bea. And probably some of the extra happiness Melissa and I feel these days is Elsa channeling herself to and through us. Now that's a happier thought to end the night on. Night night (as Bea can say now).
Matt
We had to pay our way to fly to Cincinnati and stay there and we were fortunate we had the means to do so. We were even more fortunate for the excellent care in Minneapolis such that we were put into a high risk pool early on and monitored for just such a complication. Without the quick diagnosis we wouldn't have Bea today, and that's unthinkable as she's become such a part of our lives that we can't imagine not having her around, and it's hard to remember what it was like before her.
Thus I'm very happy for the healthy twin boys and their parents for the opportunity they had locally and that many more families in the upper west will have an quick and affordable opportunity to help save their twins. The television station stated 50 cases of TTTS arise in Minnesota each year, and that excludes families in Wisconsin, Iowa, the Dakota and further outlying states and provinces that have Minneapolis as an option.
This is post became a little harder to write then I first expected, it's harder that Bea is staying with my parents from yesterday (Thursday) until Sunday as Melissa and I are cleaning our house for an open house on Sunday. Thus I can't run up to her room and look in on her or touch her or pick her up and hold her. I don't think I'll share this blog with Melissa until after we pick Bea up on Sunday.
It also makes me think of almost every night this summer when I was sprinkling the lawn for many hours at night in an effort to keep our new sod from drying out. I had a lot of time to look up at the sky and with the very dry summer we had the stars seemed extra magnificent this summer. I would regularly look up at the stars and say hi to Elsa and tell her I miss her and I appreciated her watching over us and especially her sister. It wasn't nearly as sad as it seems and sounds as I write now, because the stars make you feel touched, special and in our case comfortable and happy.
Sometimes I stop and wonder did all that happen last year. Is there really an identical twin to Bea out there somewhere, because that's hard to comprehend. But it did happen and we're very happy for how much Elsa touched us and continues to touch us and we're just as happy for all the joy that Bea brings to us and we channel a little extra love and happiness her way. She's simply such a happy, smiley, giggly baby and she seems to be pretty good physically and mentally and I wonder if some of that is a bit of Elsa coming out through Bea. And probably some of the extra happiness Melissa and I feel these days is Elsa channeling herself to and through us. Now that's a happier thought to end the night on. Night night (as Bea can say now).
Matt
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