2015 Week Thirty-One | July 27 - August 2

This could also be called, "The Week Apart."  I was in Portland, OR. The kids were in Iowa with their grandparents. And Darrin, well, he was at home working and living the bachelor life (picture evidence below). 

My sister sent me this picture of the kids playing with their cousin at a park back home. I'm so glad they're always able to spend a week back home every summer being spoiled by their grandparents and spending some great time with their cousins. 

The girls I was going to spend the week with had been posting pictures of their feet and the airport carpet, which I later learned was a thing specifically at the Portland, OR airport. Anyway, I snapped a picture before I left the Omaha airport. I flew Southwest and we stopped in LA, though it was a through flight so I wasn't able to deplane. I just stared at the palm trees out my window instead. 

These are the wonderful ladies I spent the long weekend with, scrapbooking, laughing, and eating. 

And this is the place I went walking/running each morning. So beautiful!

My work space, complete with a delicious truffle :) 

While I was hanging there, Darrin was hanging out with our new porch furniture and enjoying a case of the beer he had at the restaurant we ate at for our anniversary. It was delicious (I could even stand to drink it, which is saying something). We had looked for it and never found it in stores, until this week. 

At the end of the week, Darrin met his parents at Adventureland, where they all had an awesome time. Seeing this picture reminds me I really need to scrap the pictures Darrin took of that day. The kids still talk about it to this day. 

2014 Week Twenty-Three | June 2 - June 8

The first week of summer vacation. I only had pictures of a few events, which I think is proof we were pretty lazy this week, enjoying the first week of break. I read four books this week, almost more than I read the entire school year. I also wanted to test the camera on my phone, so I put away the big camera for this week and shot everything with my phone. 

By Thursday, we had had enough with being at home, so we headed to the Children's Museum.  The special exhibit currently is dinosaurs.  Annaliese was able to climb up into a cage-like thing to get a closer view of this T-Rex.  And the ball room is always a hit.  They community section of the museum was different, with the fire truck no longer present, and in its place, a hospital and bank.  Ian was there, too, but apparently I didn't get any pictures of him.

Friday we celebrated National Donut Day at Pettit's Pastry.  I love donuts and this was a new place for us. Still not as good as Pedretti's. 

It was a warm afternoon, so the kids ran through the sprinklers for the first time

Sunday after church we headed to "Sand in the City". They deposit lots of sand in the parking lot around the Century Link Center and companies make sculptures. There was also large piles of sand the kids could play in (it had rained earlier in the day and was cool, so the kids opted to avoid those) and Fat Brain Toys was there with bikes, rockets, and other fun things for the kids to explore. 

After all that fun, I caught these two and had to snap a picture. Melted my heart.

March Weather

The weather this week has been hovering close to 80 every day. My daffodils are open. My lilacs are leafing out. Our grass will need mowing before we know it (especially if we get the rain they're talking about for next week).  It's hard to believe it's March!  We have spent at least a little time every night outside.

Monday the kids had their 2-year and Kindergarten check-ups.  Annaliese's stats: 36 inches tall (94 %ile)  and 32 pounds 10 oz (96%ile).  She is such a big girl in more ways than one.  The doctor said she had never seen her ears look so good, which was great to hear.  Of course now, almost a week after the appointment, she's got a runny nose and is congested...  Ian's stats: 45 inches tall (88%ile) and 48 pounds (87 %ile).  He's fallen a bit from the last year, but we  figure that's because he's busy burning all his energy off. He's a tall, skinny guy.  He had to get three shot and finger poke- his tonsils are enlarged so they were checking for infection, but he got the A-OK to go to kindergarten next year (gulp).

After the doctor, we got to babysit Walter for the night.  We headed to the park first.  Everyone went down the slides a few times, but Annaliese preferred to play on the swings and Ian in the sand.

The rest of the week we stuck to our yard, playing outside every single day.

It sounds like the temperatures this next week will be between 60-70 degrees.  Perfect for getting stuff done inside and outside the house while home on spring break.

He's not a "little" guy

I often alternate nicknames for Ian, going between Big Guy and Little Man. But one thing I never say is Little Guy. He has never been little, and his 4-year check-up on Wednesday continued to prove that he was big. His weight was 44 pounds (89 percentile) and his height was 42.25 (93 percentile). Not exactly off the charts like he was in the early months of life, but I definitely think he got his daddy's genes and not mine. The nurse was asking us developmental questions in the beginning, and more often than not, Ian answered them even though they were directed towards us. She didn't even need to have us answer the question, "Can he speak sentences of six words or greater?" because he was doing that the whole time. As the doctor was checking him out, she said she had no concerns. That he looked perfect. It was so nice to go to a doctor's appointment and have it be good news instead of those we'd been going to for Annaliese. Ian didn't get away without getting a shot, during which he only said, "Owie!" Annaliese had to get shots, too, as she couldn't have them at her check-up right before her surgery. She cried a bit, but not for an extended period or really loud. To reward them for doing such a great job, we drove across the street to Village Inn, where we took advantage of Free Pie Wednesday.

Little Man's Long Weekend

Ian's weekend started early, when he greeted me on Thursday at the door like this:

Darrin had to pick him up early from preschool because he had a rash. After a trip to the doctor's to determine if it was contagious, we discovered that kids quite often get this type of rash in conjunction with strep throat. So Ian spent most of the day Thursday and all day Friday home from preschool. Had it not been for the rash, though, we never would have known he was sick, and apparently his tonsils were HUGE (the nurse practitioner repeated that several times to us). Ian was his normal self, running around the house and eating like crazy. I won't even get into the debacle it was to get his amoxicillin. Just know that it took more than 10 different conversations to get it right.

He asks every night when he goes to bed, "When I wake up, I can go to preschool?" So we had to break the bad news to him more days than just the weekend days, and there were a few mild tantrums that ensued. He absolutely loves it there. When you ask him what he loves, it's a 50/50 chance you'll get one of two answers: playing or sleeping. Never really sure if he actually falls asleep, or if he just lays there quietly for the time. When I ask about playing, he says with his friends, but he never really says what they do. I think he enjoys what the teacher's teach as well; Darrin said when he picked him up once he was really into the story the teacher was reading, asking and answering questions. I love the school, too. In the three weeks Ian has been there, he's gone on two field trips, every Wednesday they have water play outside (at least while it's warm), they go on nature hikes to the lake nearby. I just love how interactive and learning through play it is.

As for learning through play, Darrin and Ian headed to watch the air show at Offutt Air Force base on Saturday. Ian had the chance to explore planes and see them doing tricks. Turns out, he must have been sleepy or the strep finally caught up with him (even though he was well into his antibiotics by then) because they only lasted there two hours. Darrin said he whined a lot and wanted to be carried; things that only happen when he's tired.

He got caught up on his sleep on Sunday after Marlena, Noah, and Walter left. And even wanted to go to bed early- he knows there's preschool tomorrow and can't wait to go.

First Day of Break

Well, I knocked a few things of my to-do list for today. Of course, none of them were the crafty things I want to do. But hopefully I'll have time for them tomorrow. Ian and I read A LOT of books today. It was all he wanted to do. After one session of reading, he was getting down off the couch and didn't quite get his feet planted. He hit his head on the end table. He had a pretty deep gash right behind his ear, so we headed to urgent care. By the time we actually saw the doctor, it had healed enough that it didn't need stitches, which I originally thought it would. He did apply something to it so that the skin would be pulled closer together. When we called to tell Darrin the outcome, he said, "Stickers on my ear."

I introduced Ian to sugar cut-out cookies tonight. He had fun helping me cut them out of the dough. Tomorrow he'll get to decorate them. I'm very curious to see how he does with that.

Forever

It seems like forever since I last posted- and I really have no excuses. I was on the computer daily checking out Ree, my email, and reading the blogs in the Prolific Quilter Blog Ring, but there never seemed to be anything really happening in my life. Then I sat to write this, and I realized there was a lot that went on, so forgive me for the long post. I'm amazed Ian's grandparents haven't gone crazy as this is the main form of picture/video updates for them.

So the last time I posted was Memorial Day. I spent Tues-Thurs cleaning up my classroom for the summer, except for Wed. afternoon. Wednesday I had to spend 3 hours listening to a speaker on getting kids to be great writers (or something like that). While I'm sure the speaker is a very nice, knowledgeable person, my brain was on summer vacation, not what I need to do next year.

Friday, May 30- Ian had his 15-month check-up. He'd had a wicked cough and purred like a tiger, so I was glad we had this scheduled. He always seems to come down with something right before his doctor's appointment and we end up making two visits. Thankfully not this time. He's still really tall for his age, but he's not so chubby anymore. That could possibly be because he's in constant motion. He did have a slight ear infection, but other than that, he looks great.

Saturday, May 31- DATE NIGHT! Darrin and I went on a date for my mother's day present. It was only our 3rd one since Ian's been born. We go out all the time (restaurants, shopping, friends, etc), but we usually just take him. We went out for dinner to Village Inn, because we didn't have time for my choice of P.F. Chang's (which is okay, because Darrin promised me we could go another time- yes, another date night!). Then we went to the Funnybone Comedy Club to see Josh Blue. He was on Last Comic Standing last year I think. He was hilarious, as was his opening act, Hippie Man.

Before we went, though, I went to Country Sampler to buy some fabrics. Tomorrow we were having our monthly quilting get-together and I had nothing to work on. Luckily, my American Patchwork and Quilting magazine had come earlier that week and I fell in love with this quilt. The only problem is that is has 36 different fabrics. It took about 3 hours, and the help of 2 store employees before I walked out of there- with only 34 fabrics. I love the high of starting something new and leaving with a big bag of fabric.

Sunday, June 1- Quilting Day at Marlena's. I got over there about 10 and started cutting fabric for the quilt. My original plan was to cut a little, then sew, but once I started, I decided just to keep going (and I'm still going...). I left her place with all of my tan fabric cut. I know it doesn't look like a lot, but it took forever.
We always invite our families to join us for supper on quilting day, so Ian and Darrin came over. Before they joined us, though, they took advantage of our zoo membership and went to the zoo. Ian got really worn out.

Marlena and Noah are Ian's godparents, and they had their pool set up in the backyard and had bubbles for him to play with. It was his first time ever playing with them, and he had so much fun. Looks like we're going to have to go buy some for home.

Monday brought around my first full week off of work. Ian and I have had lots of fun. We go for walks every morning before it gets too hot. Darrin usually comes home and joins us for lunch. Wednesday morning Ian and I went to the zoo. I'm going to try to take him once a week, because it gets us out of the house and gives us something to do. I haven't made much progress on cutting the quilt fabric. It's boring, and when Ian sleeps, I play the Wii. I don't turn the TV on when he's awake (although he loves to grab the remote and turn it on himself), so I try to work on the quilt then, so I can play when he sleeps. Good thing I'm close to beating Zelda. Hopefully beating it will satisfy me enough to put the Wii remote away for awhile. I posted a crazy sleeping position picture last week, and I've got another one.



I'm not sure I could bend my body like this. He's sleeping right in the corner of his crib and has his body bent around it. The picture doesn't make it look quite as uncomfortable as it looked in person. Darrin said it best the other night, "Whoever said sleep like a baby should have said sleep like a toddler." Hope you all have a restful night.

Colleen