January 2008

January
updated December 29th, 2007 at 9:22pm

Goodbye 2007! Here's to good luck, happiness, health and wealth in 2008. I'm sure we could all use a little of it all.

2007 for us was a great year, albeit exhausting and completely unexpected. Like most years it went by as quickly as a blur
but was full of living and adventures.

Pictures of the kids

December share

Make sure you click "Download this photo" or right-click, save as
if you want to save any of them for yourself.

Kiddo news:

Nick is almost 10 months old. He's doing more cruising and climbing. He's also standing unassisted for a few seconds, when he's not paying attention he can stand for longer. He's steadier than he thinks. He's started taking a few steps holding on to one of our hands. It won't be long now. Above you'll see videos of him walking behind a clothes basket. With the new walkers he got for Christmas he'll be cruising all over the place.

Nick's newest favorite thing is to tear off into our bedroom after his bath and hijack one of the wooden cups from the set Gramma gave me from Czechoslovakia. These cups are by far his favorite item in the house, he clutches one while we get ready for bed and oftentimes takes one to bed with him.

Nick had a good Christmas despite being sick. He got lots of awesome toys! Thank you so much to Aunt Sue for taking care of him all night on Christmas Eve when he was refusing to sleep - we got our first real stretch of sleep in over 9 months!

It looks like we'll be going back to the pediatric GI in January. Nick had a regular check up with a new pediatrician before Christmas and we discovered that his weight had plateaued and started to drop off. The Ped thought Zantac might not be the right medication for him so she switched him to Prevacid. We also tried not giving him bottles of soy formula for a few days in case he developed an intolerance that made his reflux worse - there was no change.

The Prevacid is a huge PITA and is an extremely large dose for an infant. At first we really thought it was working. The first night we gave it to him, he slept much more peacefully and even though he woke every 1.5 hours, he was returning to his crib after being settled. Now, a few days later, he is more agitated than ever and is back to not sleeping AT ALL.

I've been talking online to a pediatrician who suggested we give the Prevacid in the morning on an empty stomach, and go back to giving the Zantac at night. She also suggested we get back in to see the GI and schedule an endoscopy. She also said we need to do another full elimination diet and consult with an allergist.

We're also giving chiropractic a shot and doing probiotics. I guess at this point we're going to exhaust all our options because we're just plain exhausted from trying to figure this all out on our own.
On a positive note, I've already started planning Nick's 1st birthday (are you kidding? I'm almost done!) and we're super excited. He'll be having a Baby Einstein 1st Birthday themed party on March 8th at 3pm. I'm working on the invites now.

Nicky fell while in the bathroom and got his first black eye. He hit the toilet with his face and cried pretty hard... the swelling and bruise looked bad at first but it's looking better now:

Ouch!

This is Nicky earlier:

Right now he is snoring while sleeping in a bouncy seat right next to me. It's the only places we could get him to sleep tonight:

Nick is currently in 9-12 month outfits. He's 29" long / 18lbs.

Marlee is doing really well at daycare and has been earning treats
via sticker charts for things like listening and using her inside
voice. She's also been working really hard at home on her chores and earning stickers for her charts here too. She loves to wash the dishes, help mom cook and bake. She did most of the work on the Pretzel Rolos we gave away for Christmas.

Marlee is enjoying her Christmas presents. She plays with them all and loves all the clothes she got! (She's watched A Bug's Life 10 times already!! AH!)

She is still super interested in figure skating and keeps asking when I will get her into classes. Registration is at the end of this month but I haven't told her we're doing them yet!! She will be SO excited.

Not really too much to say about Marlee this month, she's been a really good little girl and very helpful. This morning she told Tim he smelled like "slop" and once when he was singing she said, "Dad, everyone's looking at you." Like stop dad, you're embarrassing yourself. Where does she come up with these??

Marlee is a size 5. She's 39" tall and 35 lbs.

US news:

We had a great Christmas. On Christmas Eve, my mom announced to me that she stopped smoking!!! I am SO proud of her and love her so much! Thanks Mom! Keep up the good work. Bruce quit too and they are both doing really well! YAY!!!! Christmas Eve night we also got a present from Aunt Sue... she took Nick for the night and let us sleep.

Thanks for all the gifts we received also, as always more stuff than we expected. The Meltaways are in my freezer awaiting the day I can eat chocolate again! Thanks also for the gifts of money. I have finally something to put into my savings fund for my new DSLR camera. I am hoping to save enough to buy a system by next Christmas. I am looking at the new Sony Alphas, the Nikon D40/D80 and the Canon Rebel Xti. The time it takes to save enough for these cameras is also giving me the time I need to research the best camera! I figure I am a far better photographer than my point-and-shoot cameras allow so it's about time I get a camera that I can do something with!

Tim got actual heat in his garage, so now he can stand to work out there when it's negative temperatures. We have some upcoming projects that we'd love to get finished by Nick's birthday. We're thinking of extending our lower bathroom/laundry closet into an actual laundry room. Then we can get the new carpet installed in the living room. And of course we still have the upper bath to remodel. New tub/cabinets and flooring. Someday our bathroom won't have peepholes!

I'm very excited about our new home phone. We have been without a phone since June and had been trying everything to fix it but nothing ever worked. We ended up in a huge dispute with Vonage but in the end we walked away and called it a loss. Now we have our phone service through Merrimac where we get our internet from.

If you ever happen to call and can't understand me (which happens more often than not) just hang on for a minute while I disable Tim's computer. He's usually doing something with it that jumbles the phone connection.

We celebrated my birthday on the 15th with our friends at Ginza for Japanese Hibachi. Thanks for Kim and Ken coming to our house to watch the kids! Nick was a little pistol that night too with the not sleeping. Gotta love him. Anyway we had a blast and definitely enough fun to keep us out of trouble for a long time.

It was Kerstin's birthday too!

Kerstin Amanda Chrissy Me and Tracy

We are planning to lay low for NYE. Steaks and shrimp for us and sparkling red grape juice for Marlee! Hope everyone has a happy and safe New Years and an exciting 2008!

(NICK IS STILL SLEEPING OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG)

Love you!

Sam, Tim Marlee and Nicholas

Here's what's going on with our family in the upcoming weeks:

January 8th -
Nick's 2nd GI appt

These updates are cataloged
at this blog site, in case you
want to reference past updates:

So Much Mohr

Christmas 2007 Pictures

Christmas Share

December update

December
updated November 28th, 2007 at 8:39pm

I'm tired. Really tired. I need some sleep for Christmas.
I know I've asked before, but I haven't gotten any pictures from Marlee's birthday from anyone. If you have pictures, please share them with me!!

I don't have any pictures of her with her cupcakes or blowing out
candles, etc. Opening presents, or any other guests.

Check out the recent updates, new pictures, and Christmas lists below.

Pictures of the kids

November photos

Make sure you click "Download this photo" or right-click, save as
if you want to save any of them for yourself.

Kiddo news:

Nick is 8 months old. I get sad at the end of the day that he's gotten so big and it's happened so fast. He has a mouth full of teeth top and bottom. He worked on most of them Thanksgiving weekend but there's still some coming through. Tim and I have both walked miles around the house with him and spent many nights taking turns getting out of bed every 20-30 minutes to soothe him - I hope this part ends soon!

Nick is pulling up and cruising, he will stand next to anything. It's been a little more difficult to get him to bed because he'll stand up and doesn't know how to get down. A couple of times now he's gotten his arm and a foot caught outside the crib slats. He's finally consistantly "crawling crawling" instead of "crawling -army crawling". It's too cute. His favorite game right now is playing "Gonna getcha." Right after his bath, I set him down in his room and go about getting his diaper, pj's, lotions and meds ready. He waits poised in the crawling stance till I just about sit down, then he takes off for the hallway. And he's QUICK. He keeps turning his head to make sure I am right behind him, and giggles the whole way. I catch him near the stairs or in Marlee's room, then we start the game over. Too much fun. He's so funny.

We are both very scared for when Nick starts walking. He is terrorizing our house already. He gets into EVERYTHING and turns his nose up at toys. Yesterday he was in the bathroom (yes he sneaks off to these places by himself) and when I found him he was yelling in frustration while trying to pry the cabinet doors open. Yikes. I don't think Marlee touched a cabinet door till she was 3. And she was perfectly content to sit her little round butt in the middle of the floor with the same toy for over an hour. Nick is gonna be Trouble. <--- notice the capital T. He's already electrocuted himself once with the baby monitor - unplugged the cord from the receiver and put it in his mouth. ZAP!

Nicky's ped. GI appt was on Tuesday and we both feel like it went really well. It was at the new Children's Hospital in Madison (that Tim spent a year working on so it was REALLY cool to see in person). The GI agreed that Nick has a dairy allergy but at first wasn't overly concerned - he said dairy allergies in infancy are extremely common. After we started discussing our family history, he suggested that we have Nicholas tested via RAST (blood) and skin-prick testing at 1 year old to determine if he has the infant kind of allergy or the adult kind of allergy. The testing will let us know if he will be able to grow out of this. He said we could have done the testing now, but there is a high chance for false negative results, and in that case we wouldn't change anything that we are doing until we had him retested at a year, so we opted to wait until the results will be more accurate.
As for our current situation, he suggested we keep doing what we are doing which is TOTAL AVOIDANCE of dairy for both Nicholas and myself. The GI said that Nicholas is one of the lucky babies who is not allergic to soy - about 50% of people who have a dairy allergy also are allergic to soy. Previously I had been concerned about soy but we switched Nick's formula twice until we found one that he does better on. He spits up much less and has less gas on the new formula. His stomach seems to be getting stronger and more mature, so I worry less about the other foods he had previously been reacting to in my diet (soy, wheat, eggs, peas, beans).
Nick still has pretty bad reflux, unfortunately, I thought he may have been growing out of it. The doctor attributes his frequent night wakings (that aren't teething related) to the reflux and said we should continue with his current dose of Zantac until he is at least a year old. At Nick's next appt (December) I am going to ask his ped. about trialing Prevacid again to see if it helps.
Overall I think the appt went really well. We have a referral to the Allergist and a case file started as well as a timeline. It's nice to know we've been doing the right things and all the sacrifice is worth it.

Nick is currently growing out of 6-9 month outfits. He fits most comfortably in 9 month outfits and will be in 12 months sooner than later.See Nick's Christmas list for things he needs.

Marleeis doing really well. Sheila is doing a sticker chart with her at daycare to work on her "hyperactivity" and inside-voice as she's quite loud. So far she's gotten a sticker almost every day except one. Three more and she gets a cupcake.

We also have a sticker chart at home for Marlee's chores. Right now her chores are simple: Putting her dirty dishes in the sink, emptying her backpack at the end of the day, putting shoes away in the closet, assembling baby bottles when they come out of the washer, folding towels, refilling wipes containers and picking up her toys. She's done really well on all her chores. Right now OUR biggest struggle with her is listening. Marlee is really interested in figure skating right now (could she have picked something less dangerous?!?) and she'll be excited to know I found a skating school that she can start taking lessons at. Registration starts late January and classes run through March. I've been looking for another activity to get her involved in since she had such a fun time with Tumbling. I believe gymnastics (next level after tumbling) starts up in February in Baraboo. Hopefully there isn't too much overlapping - I know she wants to do both but I don't want to over-schedule her.
The GI also said we need to get Marlee in for testing too. Based on her symptoms, the he told us she probably has an allergy along with lactose intolerance. The allergy attributes to her rashes and the stomach cramps are from the lactose intolerance... we THINK that's what he said (Nick was sort of freaking out). We definitely need to know before she goes to school - I just read that children in Wisconsin schools must have one half pint of (cow's) milk per day. If they are not to receive milk they need a note from a physician and in that case... juice is offered. Juice? That's the best they can do? If I were the other kids I'd be jealous. hehe. I can send those little singles of rice milk I bet.

Marlee is a size 5 and needs clothes for Christmas, dresses, pants, sweaters, leggings etc. See Marlee's Christmas List for things she's been asking for and things she needs. She asked for a Princess Castle and I have no idea what she's talking about... something with a tub. She saw it on TV I bet!

US news:

We are done with our Christmas shopping! I still have plenty of work to do... always crafty fun stuff for the Holidays. Tim is getting sick (according to him it's deathly - but we all know males when they are sick). I am hoping to avoid it at all costs - for once the kids and I were healthy through Thanksgiving. Now Nicholas has a bit of a cough and stuffiness. Can't take him anywhere.

Tim is working lots of overtime and most of the children wrangling is falling to me. I'm just plain exhausted. The house is a mess. I believe we're in a funk. It doesn't help that it's so dark and cold out these days!

We have our tree up - HIGH up, on the coffee table. It's a cheapie Charlie Brown tree that I picked up at Target this year because I didn't want to deal with Nicholas the Ridiculous and our very large tree. I think it turned out nice, despite a little leaning - Marlee was very excited to have been the one to put the star on the top. She LOVES Christmas decorations and was sure to tell me it was only Skeletons and Halloween decorations that she doesn't like! :)

Can't WAIT for Christmas this year. We had such a blast at Thanksgiving, it was really great to hang out with all of you - we had the best time. Thanks for all the help with the kids.

Not spending too much time thinking about turning 28 this year. Birthdays are just so un-exciting these days. I like a nice even number though :)

Love you!

TEEEEEEEETH! And appts.

Yesterday I finally called and made Nick some appts with a pediatric gastroentonologist (omg we just call it a GI) and a pediatric allergist. And after having him in to our family doctor so many times with no answers, it's time to go to UW. Nick still has so many digestive problems, with spitting up, gas pains and bloating, watery swollen eyes, congestion. He's also had several skin rashes in the last week that are unexplainable. He's starting to want to eat more foods himself and I have concerns about soy, wheat and peas. My concern is that he is so reactive to things in MY diet, how will be react when he actually eats these things for himself?

Nick sees the GI on November 27th for bloodwork. We're hoping for a RAST panel on milk, eggs, wheat, soy, fish and nuts as well as peas, prunes, tomatos, berries, etc...It's also been suggested that we have him tested for celiac's disease (YIKES).

Nick will see the allergist January 7th, possibly for skin-prick testing. We really don't know until we find out more from the first appt. I've read that testing this early can be inaccurate.

We just switched him to a soy formula WITHOUT lipids (DHA and ARA) and he's been spitting up so much less. Though it's hard to say if it was the lipids or if he's just growing out of his reflux. Marlee outgrew her reflux at 8 months too.

Tim is interested in having Marlee tested as well. I'm holding off until I see how things go with Nick - But it seems we probably should have gone this route with Marlee a long time ago. The most we'd ever been able to get out of her doctor was a referral for a hydrogen breath test, which we skipped as it was for lactose intolerance and not an actual allergy. We do allow her to eat dairy but we probably shouldn't. She is still on rice/soy and WE do not serve dairy in our house but she's had access to it at friend's houses and daycare. She had a cheese quesadilla at a friend's house and that night had a rash on her bottom so bad she was crying.

It seems like much to handle but at this point I would rather be over-reacting than under reacting. I have been in contact with several friends who have BTDT with the testing and they assure me (as did the nurse) that the worst part is holding them down, not the actual blood draws or skin pricks. And that it is so much better to know so we can avoid a potentially serious reaction later on.
Still keep little Nick in your thoughts on the 27th :)

November 2007

November
updated October 28th, 2007 at 8:39am

Before we know it, there will be snow on the ground. I'm not looking forward to the snow, but the cold weather is actually welcome around here. Time to slow down and recuperate here at home,
grow the kids and stay healthy.

Check out the recent updates, new pictures, and Christmas lists below.

Pictures of the kids

Click here for New Pictures

october share

Make sure you click "Download this photo" or right-click, save as
if you want to save any of them for yourself.

I didn't take a lot of pictures of Marlee's birthday, so if you have some please share them. Thanks.

Videos from Marlee's tumbling show:
Backwards balance beam
Balance Beam
Jump somersault roll
Jump and Wave
Kick Over
Somersaults


Kiddo news:

Nickis 7.5 months old and still suffering the affects of a URI (a glorified cold at this point). It's viral so there's nothing we can do but wait for him to feel better. Last night I used saline drops and a bulb syringe and you would have thought I was trying to kill him. He's every bit as dramatic as his sister. At night the pressure really starts to bother him and he has troubles sleeping. He also has 4 teeth ready to bust through on the top and those two on the bottom keep peeking through and then disappearing. He's been eating lots of new foods lately - chicken and crackers, lots of finger foods. Despite how much he eats, he's still the smallest baby! This past weekend we were at a birthday party with 4 other babies, all younger than Nick (4-5 months old) and they were ALL bigger, longer and fatter than him. Such a difference from Marlee the moose at that age ;)

Nick tasting chicken

Now not only is he crawling, sitting unsupported, pushing to a sit, he's also pulling up and CLIMBING. Yikes. He is SUCH a boy. The other night I found him surfing on top of a pack of diapers. He also climbed the first few stairs in our family room. Leaving him on the floor is no longer safe and he is QUICK... we are shopping for good wall-mounted gates for our stairways. This is what he was doing as I was typing this update:

Nick climbing my leg

The most exciting thing to report is Nick's first words! He says "dada", "mama" and "hi". All at appropriate times! The other day I was making dinner and Nicky crawled across the kitchen, climbed up my leg and begged "Mama, Mama, Mama." I almost died. He also knows his Daddy and says "Dada" whenever he sees him.

He is also a pretty typical "little brother" who is constantly crawling all over Marlee and interfering with whatever she's doing like coloring, playing with her leapster etc. He picks on her and she teases him. As a matter of fact he's chasing her around the family room right now. Now he's kicking her in the head. LOL!! I love it.

Nick is currently in 6-9 month outfits. He will be in 9 month outfits in a month or so. See Nick's Christmas list for things he needs.

Marlee finished tumbling last week with a "recital night". She learned a lot and made some new friends. I can't wait to get her back into another class. It was a great experience for her.

Marlee has learned her alphabet thanks to her Leapster and Leapfrog letter factory video. She can spell her name, car, dog, cat. She can read and spell "Baby" and "Super" and is pretty good learning simple math. Everyone keeps asking me if I will be putting her in preschool but I don't know how to make it work unless preschool offers a bus service!!

Marlee this morning

All the MRSA stuff in the news has been upsetting lately. I had really hoped Marlee's infection had been a total fluke and wasn't something we had to worry about happening again. This morning I was watching CNN and more kids have died in the past week and more schools are closed and a doctor on the show called it a national epidemic. They said it will get worse and die out eventually. I guess the best part of all the coverage is hopefully people will be more aware.

Marlee is a size 5 and needs clothes for Christmas, dresses, pants, sweaters, leggings etc. See Marlee's Christmas List for things she's been asking for and things she needs.

US news:

We're hanging in there. 7+ months of no sleep, back-to-back illnesses and the constant busy schedule are trying to beat us down.

We still haven't gotten our new carpet. We've had absolutely NO time. We went car shopping last week for a SUV, but they didn't offer us much on our trade so it looks like we're sticking with my car for another year. I still love my car but more room with even better safety features would have been nice!

We painted some pumpkins and carved some pumpkins this afternoon. Trick or Treating is Wednesday. I'm super excited for the kids! I love Halloween!

Well laundry is calling and the kids are running wild.

Here's what's going on with our family in the upcoming weeks:

October 31st -
Halloween!

November 4th -
Packer's playdate at the Vest's

November 10th -
Spa day with Mom!
Sauk Prairie Annual Light Parade 6PM

November 29th -
Thanksgiving

I'm cataloging these updates
at this blog site, in case you
want to reference past updates:

So Much Mohr

Christmas Lists:

Marlee

She needs dresses/pants/skirts and jeans in size 5.
She's asked for:

Barbie Rollerskates
Pilot Case - Overnight Bag
DVD: A Bug's Life
DVD: Leapfrog Learn to Read
Mattel Barbie 3-Story Dream House

Leapster: Clifford Reading

Marlee could use some leggings (not tights) and "comfy" pants for lounging around the house. PJ's!

Nicholas

12 month sleepers
12-18 month onsies
Matching shirts/pants outfits - long sleeve
toys: activity/teaching toys

Baby Piano

Dance Baby Dance! Classical Stacker

Learn and Groove Alphabet Drum

Nick could use some "cute" baby socks (wool, slippy, fuzzy) and cute PJ's!

---

October 2007

Nick had his 6 month appt this week. He's 17.5 lbs, 27inches long. He's still a peanut compared to Marlee who was 18lbs at 4months, but he's right on track for growth and height. Our ped. says his sleeping is "not typical" but that we should just continue to be patient until his 9 month appt. At this point he is still waking every 2 hours. We weren't able to get his vaccinations because he had the stomach flu but we decided to delay most of his vaccinations anyway. We're selectively vaccinating him and possibly delaying all vax until he is 2.

He is crawling and pushing himself to a sit. He's also self feeding! He's just getting so big, so fast. He laughs all the time, I uploaded some videos of him laughing and doing other fun things. Right now his top gums are swollen and he has to be teething, of course, he's been "teething" for months and nothing has come through.

Nick is going to be Nemo for Halloween. He doesn't know it yet, but he'll be the cutest lil clown fish ever, don't you think?
Nick is currently in 6-9 month outfits.

Marlee has been doing really well in tumbling. We give her a little pep-talk before each class and she loves her "teachers". I can't sit in class anymore so I sit out in the hallway with all the other moms waiting for them to get done. Look like she won't get into dance until next summer.

Marlee's behavior has gotten a lot better since the big kids went back to school. Sad to say that was part of the problem, but it was. We think she may have a little bit of a blood sugar problem too, so we're always mindful to keep her full of healthy snacks to keep the crabbies away. She got bit for the THIRD time at daycare last week. Apparently the other kid, Barrett, got in big trouble there and at home this time, so I hope it will stop soon. This time there was a huge blue bruise on her arm. It was not provoked.

Marlee had her 4 year checkup this week and like usual, she's very healthy and on track for weight and height. She's actually a little below for each. Typical is 40lbs, 40 inches. Marlee is 35 lbs and 39 inches.

She's very much enjoying her birthday gifts and talks about her recent party constantly :)

Marlee is wearing her ballerina costume for Halloween. She'd wear it every day if she could.

Marlee is a size 5.

US news:

We (the entire family) just got over the stomach flu. Marlee got sick on Friday. Threw up twice and was over it just as soon. I got sick Sunday and was not as lucky, Tim on Monday (sicker than all of us) and Nick on Monday night (he recovered relatively fast). Thankfully I think we're all on our way to healthy again. It just doesn't pay to be the mom of the family when everyone is sick. There's no one to feed the kids and give them baths and put them to bed, there's no one to do the dishes and laundry and take the garbage and recycling out when you're sick. And there's no one to bring you tea in bed and check on you or email your boss that you're dying and can't come to work. Why'd we have to grow up?


We still haven't gotten our new carpet. We've had no time to actually place the order. ARG. We are looking at new vehicles... we don't necessarily need or want one, but the basic warranty on our Kia is expiring soon as is the service contract and there are some pretty good deals coming out of our dealership so we are looking at larger vehicles like the Sportage and Sorento.

Tim got his car back in working order just in time for fall. We keep saying we're going to do some fall boating but haven't actually had time to get out on the water. And now it's time to winterize the boats. Maybe next year. We just made a trip out to Peck's farm in Spring Green. They have a farmer's market, petting zoo and tons of stuff for kids. If you hear Marlee talking about the scary house... it's because I tried to get her to go through a haunted house with me (age appropriate!!) and she flipped out. Now she's scared of all Halloween decorations (though she has been since she was a year old).

The saga of the ground squirrel has come to an end - if you haven't heard, Tim has been battling a ground squirrel since early spring. He's dug up our entire lawn (free aerating! free twisted ankles!) and all my flower beds. He dug under our driveway, causing it to sink and crack in two places. He dug out the "landscaping" and left huge piles of sand in our driveway. One day Tim chased him into the storm drain and then held him there while deciding what to do with him. He ended up wrapping the end of the drain with a garbage bag and waited for the squirrel to crawl into the bag. He then triple bagged it, paper bagged it, and threw it in our regular garbage containers in back. 3 days later I was home alone and thought we had an intruder. The next day, I told Tim his little squirrel was alive and well and inside the garbage container. He left him there for almost a week before finally taking him for a ride. When he let him go, the squirrel ran out in front of the truck and almost got hit... and Tim said he was heading for our house. :lol:
I'm on a huge environmental kick and just got ourselves some reusable grocery bags so we can stop bringing home all that useless plastic from the store. I have yet to make a trip to the store to use them, though! We also switched all our lights to compact fluorescents and we are reducing our impact as much as we can (and I think you all should too).

September 2007

It's September!! This is my favorite month of the year.

Nick is scooting backwards and forwards now. He's really mobile,
which is both exciting and sad. I'm sad because once he starts moving
I'll never see him again... he'll be off exploring the world and I'm
going to miss my little snuggly boy. He found his voice and has been
using different sounds. His favorite games right now are peek-a-boo,
patty-cake and this little piggy, and BANG BANG SMASH DESTROY. I've
heard this is a popular theme among boys. I know Marlee was never
into it. He likes to bang on things, smash his toys together, and
throw things around the room. It's too cute.
He is hopelessly in love with his big crazy sister. I wish I could
just stop time.

Marlee didn't end up getting into a dance class this year which is
disappointing. There just isn't anything in our area available or
affordable. I couldn't see putting a 4 year old into a rigidly
scheduled, year long school for serious dancers at $300 a semester.
So now she will be taking a preschool tumbling class at the Civic
Center in Baraboo. It starts Wednesday, September 5th at 5p-5:30p and
runs for 8 weeks. I think tumbling is a little below her level right
now, but it will be a fun learning experience for her. She'll be in
the class with 3 and 4 year olds.

Marlee's been having a rough time lately - getting in lots of trouble
at daycare. It's becoming an issue. Yesterday she kicked another kid.
I can understand hitting is somewhat instinctual for a kid when
frustrated - but kicking actually takes some thought and is very
deliberate. She's also been very "mouthy" and backtalking a lot and
just being generally unpleasant. It really bothers me because Marlee
is such a sweet kid. Part of it is her age, part of it is all the
upheaval in her life lately (new brother, less attention, being sick
and picked at for a month). Also, even though I hate to blame other
kids, I do put a lot of the blame on the fact that she goes to
daycare with a 7 year old terror. She's Sheila's granddaughter and
she gets away with MURDER and is issued idle threats. She's rude and
thoughtless and Marlee just idolizes her. Tim and I are being very
patient waiting for her to go back to school next week and hopefully
things will turn around. I'm not sure what else we can do. If you
have any words of wisdom I'm eager to hear it.


News for us: We are getting ready for Marlee's party. It's the one
time of year we rush around trying to fix up the house and make it
presentable. We're decorating the kids' rooms and the family room.
We'll be getting new carpet in the family room, not in time for the
party, but in about a month. I am SUPER excited about this. Our
insurance finally cut us a check for the flood damage so instead of
just pocketing in the cash, we're going to replace it with this:
I love it!

Tim's car is unfortunately out of commission and has been most of the
summer. It has not been a good summer for the car :(

August 2007

Nick is 5 months old! He is starting to sleep a little better, some 3
hours at a time. A major improvement over the every 30 minutes he was
waking at the end of last week. He's been back on the Zantac for over
a week now, I contribute his sleep fully to the medication. He's
still a little wobbly when he sits, but getting stronger and more
independent every day! He's up on his knees rocking every day.

We started him on solids two weeks ago...a little cereal to see if he
was ready. Was he ever. He grabbed a piece of toast out of my mouth
and jammed it in his own. Now he's eating bananas, avocados, sweet
potatoes and all kinds of squash. He went swimming for the first time
this past weekend and he likes it.

If you're ever wondering what Nick could use, he never has enough
pajamas or footed body suits. He is a 6-9 mo.

Marlee is so grown up! She made all sorts of new friends this
weekend. She marched right up to them and said "Hi, I'm Marlee, like
my sandals, wanna play?" It was fun seeing her interact with other
kids her age. She needs to do that more often. She is learning simple
math and how to count to thirty. This age is so awesome. She was also
jumping into the pool unassisted - see here for some videos of her
jumping in.

The invites are out for Marlee's birthday, she is excited about the
ballet theme. She IS wearing a tutu and ballet shoes. All kids and
any adults are welcome to join in on the ballet/dance/princess gear.

I am waiting patiently for the class schedule to come out for the
local dance studio, to see if Marlee can make it into the ballet/tap/
jazz class for 4-5 year olds. Chances are she can't, I've been trying
to get her into this school for 2 years. Arg.... keep your fingers
crossed because I think she'd be really great.

If you're wondering what to get Marlee for her birthday, she could
use clothes in size 5, specifically khaki pants/cords/jeans/dresses.
She also would like an umbrella, princess dress, a rolling backpack/
small suitcase, a kids' tape measure and "tools", and a Leapster.
Just please no Polly Pockets!! I know how much she wants them but she
can play with them at daycare because I'm "allergic".


US news:

This past weekend we went camping as a family at MerryMac's and it
was a blast. We stayed in a cabin directly across from the playground
so Marlee got to go play on her own while we watched from the
campsite. We all went swimming in the outdoor pool, even Nick. It was
a fabulous time. Saturday night was a little scary, as security came
around at midnight to wake everyone up and tell them about the
incoming storm with 70 mph gale force winds. We barely made it out of
the campground on time. Trees fell on some campers but no one was
hurt. We spent the night at home and made it back to the campground
the next morning for breakfast and another round in the pool.

We got a new driveway to the garage/shop. It's huge, but really nice
to have. Less lawn to mow too.

In other news, we've sold our jetskiies. It's very sad. BUT, we were
able to pay off the student loans and buy a family sized boat. We can
seat 7, so come on down and we'll go out! Nick and Marlee are both
really good on the boat so we'll have a lot more fun together in the
summers to come.


Here's what's going on with our family in the upcoming weeks:
August 18th - we have plans with Kerstin and Scott and the kids
Labor Day Weekend - our anniversary -
September 15th - Marlee's 4th Birthday Party!
September 23rd - Kaitlyn's party