Mid-summer pictures

Below are some highlights from this past month. We traveled to Missouri to visit grandparents. We hosted the other grandparents in Minneapolis. We've had a lot of swimming fun. Meredith did a week of "art camp" in the mornings and Elaine told her first knock-knock joke, sorta.

Swing time!

Meredith's first shiner

Meredith is a tough girl. Like many preschoolers she gets lots of bumps and bruises, but usually doesn't let injuries get in her way of having fun. Sometimes though a spectacular injury occurs.

The below picture was taken the day after Meredith suffered from a football drill gone bad when she collided with her sister who had snuck on to the drill course. Both girls were howling at first, but Elaine calmed down quickly and suffered no visible injury.

Meredith, on the other hand, had part of her face sticking out. After some ice, a consult with the family doctor (Grandpa Kerry), and some rest, the swelling decreased. It will be a while before the black eye disappears. Meredith assures us that she still loves football.

The Porch: Before and After

We've been in our 100 year-old house for nearly 6 years now. Over the years Jen has voiced that we need to do something with the porch. Apparently using it as storage/overflow isn't doing something.

What did we need to do with the porch? For starters, Jen told me, some decent furniture to sit on. And maybe a carpet to cover the beaten up floorboards.

After a multi-visit Target adventure, we were able to procure some chairs, table, and carpet for 50% - 75% off. After a few frustrating hours of chair construction, the porch was ready to go!

BEFORE
Picture it also with 6 garbage bags full of pillows and stuff from the last (false) lice panic. I put the chair on the curb with a "free!" sign and it was gone within an hour.

AFTER
A place to relax in the early morning or evening with a drink and book.

Next up: Painting said porch...

Missouri dreamin'

Owing to a de-centralized, cooperative method of picture-taking (a.k.a. sometimes my parents' camera was there, sometimes my brother's, and sometimes ours), pictures from our recent vacation are now scattered about the country. I hope that we will have at least ours to post here soon.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share some of the highlights of our weeklong visit to my parents' house in Springfield, Missouri:

--Elly started eating like a toddler! Which is to say, not all pureed, and enjoying feeding herself macaroni and cheese and such. And last night she ate spaghetti and meatballs with gusto - both brand new foods. What a change from two weeks ago!

--Meredith learned to jump in the pool, and is working on her swimming. It's amazing how much more comfortable she is after swimming every day for a week.

--Meredith got to sneak down early in the morning and snuggle with her grandparents. To hear her anticipation, this is a top-priority activity. Very sweet.

--I only billed one hour the entire week. Hooray! I did check my Blackberry frequently, though.

--Derek and I got away for a 4-course, 2-hour anniversary meal at a nice Italian restaurant in Springfield, Gilardi's. Check it out if you're in the area - it's delicious northern Italian fare in a beautiful old carriage house in the historic district. Evidently the Italian owner-chef married a woman from Springfield. Nice way to import talent.

--We drove back overnight on the fourth of July and enjoyed spotting fireworks throughout central and northern Missouri. Many kudos to Derek, who proved himself an able overnight driver both ways, with only post-4 AM help from me. The girls slept, as planned. Lovely, but a 2-day recovery from staying up all night.

-JRR

June pictures

Summer has begun and we've done our best to enjoy it. In June we went to Wisconsin twice, we went to a bunch of beaches and parks. We've spent time with grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, and friends. Sometimes we took pictures.

Elaine shows her stuff

Elaine is a quick mover, but she's been in no hurry to walk. She has been crawling, cruising, and "scooting" for many many months now, but hasn't been all that interested in walking. She seems to get where she wants just fine through her other methods.

But each day she does give us indications she is moving towards walking. Her favorite activity this past week is to do an unassisted stand from the sitting or crouching position. She'll stand for a bit and then plop back down. We captured one of the brief instances on video.



Oh, yes. She does like to clap for herself just about every time.

Bouncing Meredith

Earlier in June, Meredith got to participate in the Pre-Kindergarten Olympics near the end of the school year. It involved several fun relay races. Well, "race" in that the kids were going very fast. No winners were recorded or tracked. Each kid of course got a medal at the end.

May pictures

A baker's dozens of pictures from May. Occasionally--these days--we remember to take out the camera. We'll try to do a good job taking pictures in June.

mid-May musings

Loyal reader, you may have noticed that our blogging has slowed in recent weeks. It's not just your imagination. Here are a number of factors, in no particular order:

1) Some of us have been sick. Off and on. Nothing horrible. And we're feeling better now. But every time one of us is sick it sets us back on everything else, farther and farther into the red.

2) More happily, the weather is nice! Gorgeous, even! And Derek has been consumed with tearing out bushes and sod, planting the garden, scraping long-peeling paint from the garage in the continued quest towards painting the garage, and other outdoor tasks instead of blogging.

3) We had a garage sale last weekend. I don't think I've ever had one - they are a surprising amount of work! And this may be our last, because they are also not economically sensible. We may have made minimum wage. But we did sort through and rid ourselves of a variety of things, which needed to be done. And doing it jointly with our neighbors was fun. We even made T-shirts (yes, as if we were in high school.) And the kids found a toad, which was not caused by the garage sale but which kept them very busy during it. Poor toad.

4) We have had guests. Not a lot - you are also welcome - but Derek's folks came for a long weekend and we've had a couple of friends to dinner. I forget how much I like our friends when we are too busy to call them. And then it's so fun to see them. I wish I could find a better balance there.

So, in a nutshell (or four) that's what we've been up to! Happy Memorial Day to all!

-JRR

Elaine's communication skills

Unlike her big sister, who acquired new words in an orderly, almost dogged fashion, Elly is a much more freewheeling communicator. But here is our attempt to catalogue the words and signs that she spontaneously uses (as opposed to those she has repeated after us, which is a much greater number) so far:

Words:
--dada
--mama
--dog [doh]
--kitty [kee-tee]
--no
--car [cah]
--down [dow-nuh] (when she wants to be put down)
--hi
--there (dar?)
--that (dah)
--all done (ahd or ah-da)
--yes (ya) (showing her Norwegian heritage?)

Signs:
--milk (often made while drinking or milk is mentioned (as in, "I know what you're talking about!"); we hope she learns to make it when she wants milk soon!)
--all done (a one-handed version, with flair, sometimes accompanied with 'ada!')
--a wave for 'bye-bye' or 'good night'

And, for fun, here are the words that, if someone says them by accident, make Sadie start jumping with excitement:
--walk
--outside
--go
Meredith has learned to say, 'Are we going to take the dog for a [stage-whisper:] walk ??!!" Or, better yet, "w-a-l-k," or a similar combination of letters. We know what she means. But Sadie usually doesn't, which is good. Very perceptive of Mer, I think.

-JRR