Liesland Dinner Blog

I have decided that we don't have enough blogs on our website, so, without further adieu, INTRODUCING. . . .


The Liesland Dinner Blog

Floored

We re-finished our living room and dining room floors this weekend. We actually started on Thursday night, painting the ceilings in each room while all the furniture was out. We stayed the weekend at my parents, which was fun, but tiring. The kids have not been sleeping well and I think we are all looking forward to sleeping in our own beds.

Andrew's First Day of Pre-School

Today was Andrew's first day of school, which I think had us all a little nervous. He was up early, and trying to keep himself excited. I just spoke with him and Susan on the phone and it sounds like he had a great time. She said that he was a little nervous before-hand, but once they got there he just went and played with his friends.

He was only there for an hour today. They were supposed to have another shortened class tomorrow, but the whole school is going to be closed due to the heat. Next week he will go for two hours on Thursday and then finally on Friday the whole class meets for the whole time, 3 & 1/2 hours.

I am glad and relieved that things went well.

Waldorf Meetings

Friday night, at the new-parent pot-luck, we learned that we had another meeting last night, the New School Year Meeting. The first hour was just new parents, and then the second hour was all parents, and then after that we had a meeting in Andrew's classroom, with his teacher. Overall it was a really nice experience. The community at the Waldorf School is great and we feel that the atmosphere and philosophy coincide nicely with our parenting principles. I think that my favorite part of the evening was at the beginning of the second hour, when all the parents were led in the singing of a song. I have never been to a meeting that started that way.

6 Months

Elliot is 6 months old today, which I have always considered a major milestone. He is definitely starting to act older, showing a preference toward certain toys and getting very upset when he drops them or they get taken away.

Transferring

Due to a late breaking development, Andrew is going to be transferring to the Cincinnati Waldorf School for pre-school.

Tonight we have our first parent meeting. First, as in, first parent meeting ever, as parents. Kinda' exciting, but honestly, I am feeling a little intimidated.

Appliances

We got all of our appliances in place and operational. There was a slight delay with the new washer because of a manufacturing defect, but that has been fixed and we are on our way.

I tried to take a picture of the kids watching the new washer, but now the camera is acting up.

First Tooth

Elliot's first tooth just broke through: bottom-right.

The Sheds

Speaking of Cam, his band, The Sheds, are going to be on Studio 89 tonight at 9. If you are not in the cincy area, but want to check them out, WNKU will be streaming online.

The Sheds Website, with free music

WNKU's streaming content

Weekend Wrap-Up

We had a fun weekend. Friday night we hung out with my parents. On Saturday we got some errands done, got measured for new carpet, took some naps, and then ended the day with dinner at Cam & Eli's. We had a great time there, as always. We even got to go for a little swim in the camp lake, which was fun. Sunday we hung out at home for a while, had Emory over, took some naps, and then headed to the Y with Simon and Rachel.

Now we are ready for a busy week . . .

Backin' Off the Bactrim

We read the JAMA article DrGreene recommended, recommended it to our doctor, who read it and spoke with a urologist at Children's. The decision: parental decision. Great.

We think we are going to take him off. He seems to feel bad when he is taking it and we are going to keep a very close eye on his temp.

Homemeadow Song Farm

After a few weeks of careful consideration, and figuring out what our remaining options were, we have registered Andrew for a program at the Homemeadow Song Farm. It is a two day program will he will get to do some pretty cool stuff, on a regular basis. We are really excited about it, and Andrew is too.

The Little Red Hen's Early Mornings

Let the Bactrim Begin?

We went to the doctor yesterday to talk about Elliot. She said go see a urologist (which we will on Sept 5), but in the meantime start taking Bactrim, a prophylactic antibiotic, to keep him from getting another UTI, which could spread to his kidneys. So we started him on a very low dose of Bactrim.

No sooner than I sat down to write this post did I get an email, from DrGreene.com, whose website I linked to in my last post about Elliot. I had never communicated with him before, and I must have popped up on his radar because I linked to his site, which sent him some traffic.

Here is what he, or someone on his website's behalf, has to say:

if preventive antibiotics come up as a possibility, you might want to talk with your pediatrician about a major new study in JAMA in July where there was no difference between the kids who go antibiotics and those who did not in the number of subsequent UTIs -- but those who got the antibiotics were much more likely to get resistant infections. Everyone here is re-weighing the benefits vs. risks.

Great.

Testing the Renal Waters

Since Elliot had a urinary tract infection a few weeks back, it was recommended that we have some tests done to make sure that his kidneys and his bladder are working properly, so today we headed to the hospital to get some tests done. Turns out that he has a little vesicoureteral reflux, or kidney reflux. Elliot has the mildest form, grade one, and will hopefully grow out of it. Tomorrow we see our pediatrician, to see what she recommends.

Andrew's First Bike

Andrew's First Bike

If you can't see the video, Click Here.

We picked up a bike for Andrew at the Northside Yard Sale on Saturday, got some gear for it on Sunday (training wheels, and a helmet for Andrew), and by Sunday night he was off. He was a little tired, which made things interesting, but he did well, and he had fun.

Fun Weekend

Everyone else is in bed, and I just got finished carving up my first whole chicken, so I thought I would take a minute to wind down/not fall behind on the blog.

We are just wrapping up a fun weekend here in the Liesland home. We started off the weekend with the La Leche League Pot-Luck on Friday night. It was hot, and there was a lot of dessert, so it was pretty fun.

We were back out again on Saturday to enjoy the Northside Yard Sale. We didn't make it out until 11 and it was heating up. Holly came with us and did her best at reverse-bargaining. We came out with some fun stuff, including a new bike for Andrew.

Saturday afternoon we hit the Y, and then headed to Walt's Barbeque on Cincinnati's West Side. I would definitely recommend it. Cool place.

Today, Sunday, started off slowly. Susan slept until 10, and then Elliot slept until 12:30. Mari went down for her nap at one, Elliot went back down at 3, and then finally everyone was awake by 3:45, just in time for us to head to Home Depot to snag some new appliances. We got a new washer, dryer, dishwasher, and stove. Don't worry, we have 10 days to figure out where we are going to store the old stove. I just can't bear to have it taken away by people who will dis-respect it.

Later. . .