The Return to School

After two snow days Andrew and Mari were back in school today. There is a lot of snow around town and in our yard. Some reports say we got 16", but it is hard to tell because there were also high winds so there are a lot of large drifts. Temps this weekend are supposed to be in the upper 20's, so hopefully we will be able to get out and do some sledding.

Snow

Our third snowfall of the year has started. We actually got our first snow two months ago, on Andrew's birthday. He was supposed to have a soccer game that day, but it was cancelled. We had some more snow a few days ago, but it was mostly flurries and didn't amount to much. It looks like we will get an inch or two tonight, with more coming Tuesday.

The Cincinnatian in me still loves the snow. I suppose at some point I will get used to the fact that it is a more regular occurrence in IA. Hopefully the kids will be able to get out to play in it over the next few days.

Welcome, Winter

We had a bit of a Winter welcoming this weekend, and just in time.

• Last week we put up our outdoor decorations.
• Saturday morning we got our tree, and put the lights on.
• Saturday night we celebrated Wintergarten with the Des Moines Waldorf Association.
• Sunday morning we prepared for the Winter term of Susan's Bean Sprout Parents & Tots class.
• Sunday afternoon we went to Winter Magic at the Des Moines Art Center.
• Sunday evening, just as some snow flakes were beginning to fall, we lit a fire in the fireplace and decorated our tree.

I will get some pictures up ASAP. Our computers are our of commission right now.

Living History Farms CC Race

Erin, Eric Martinez, and I ran in this year's Living History Farms Cross Country Race. We had a great time and plan on doing it again next year.





Susan and the kids made it out to cheer us on and the kids tried their feet at a creek crossing (there were nine in the race).

Elliot's First Haircut

School Pics

Mari

Andrew

Bonus - Andrew Soccer

Beggars' Night

It took us a minute to find the sweet spot in our new neighborhood and it was pretty cold and misty, but our first Beggars' Night was a success.

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PS - I forgot to mention that there was one guy who was passing out hotdogs. He was grilling in his driveway and he told us that he buys 400 of 'em. Interesting.

End of Soccer Season

Tuesday marked the end of the soccer season. Andrew played and I coached, and we both had a good time. We plan on doing the same in the Spring, and Mari may be joining us. I am not quite sure if she is ready to start yet, but I think she may be planning on it.

Andrew Turns 6

Andrew turned six a couple of weeks back. We had a big party the day before his birthday, in conjunction with his friend Bianca, who was turning five. This party involved a parade, skyline, cool weather, cool lighting, and cool people.

The day of his birthday was more chill. Soccer was cancelled because of the snow so we hung out at the Reagens' some and then headed to Mimi & Papa's for dinner.

» here are some pics from his actual birthday

Once I get some pictures from the parade I will post those.

Revolver

We used to deal with diapers, pacifiers, and baby monitors.

Now, it is soccer, school, and Capoeira.

Where has the time gone?

The Pacifier Fairy

Two years ago the pacifier fairy paid a visit to our house in Cincinnati to take Andrew's pacifiers. Elliot stopped using his pacifier when he was one, so the only one left was Mari. Heading into a long weekend we decided it was time for the Pacifier Fairy to come visit again. We hung Mari's pacifiers in a basket in a tree in the back yard and, sure enough, the pacifier fairy came again.

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Ledges State Park

While Susan was in Seattle this weekend, the kids, Rebecca, Bianca, and I went camping at Ledges State Park. We had a great time, and there were no major catastrophes. On Sunday we packed up early and headed back to Des Moines for the Every Family Rocks music festival. Justin Roberts and the Not Ready for Naptime Players, one of our favorite kid musicians (he is not a kid, but he plays kid-friendly music), was playing.

Check out some pictures from our trip.

Andrew Sliding Down the Rock Slide




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

Happy Ending

Our weekend started off well, with a bike ride on Saturday morning. It ended well, too, as today was spent biking, at the Iowa Cubs game, and the Iowa Midwives pot-luck for dinner.

The bike ride this morning actually wasn't too great, as I was headed to meet our naturopath to talk about my pink eye.

The I-Cubs game was fun. It was nice to see some baseball, and it was cheap and easy. The only problem was that I kept cheering for the other team by accident, probably because they looked a little like the Reds, and the I-Cubs look like, well, the Cubs. The other team was actually the Albuquerque Isotopes.

The Iowa Midwives pot-luck was a lot of fun. I feel like I knew most people there, and the ones I didn't know I was glad to meet. There was Capoeira, belly-dancing, guitars, food, & good weather.

I'm Worn Out

We just got back from a great bike ride with our whole family, the Reagens (Susan's sister's family), and the Liesses, Susan's parents. We start off by Erin & Nate's house, and rode along the river for about an hour. We stopped for lunch at one of the beaches along the river. The kids had a great time playing.

Then we had to ride back to our cars.

Capoeira

Andrew and Mari have been taking Capoeira classes at the Roots Capoeira Wellness Center. It is a Brazilian martial art that is sort of like a combination of martial arts and dance. It is really neat. My favorite thing about it is that it is always set to music and has a really nice rhythm.

Grilled Pizza

Kathie, Susan's mom, made some great grilled pizzas last night. First she grilled the crust for a few minutes, put some toppings on, and then grilled a little longer. My favorite was the BBQ Chicken & Mango.

While she borrowed the neighbors' grill, the kids had a great time jumping on the trampoline with their cousins.

PS - This is actually a double-post, as I also posted it on my the dinner blog. I was going to just post it there, but I decided to post it on both.

Photo Update

I just added about 60 pictures to our 2009 photo gallery - including shots from the Spring up through our recent vacation.

Kicking in the Rain

We had our first official soccer practice tonight for Andrew's soccer team. It rained all day and I was hoping it would take a break for practice, but no luck. The kids had a great time, and I think the adults enjoyed it also. Our first game is Saturday.

East Coast

On Thursday, we got back from a two week vacation. We spent five days in Cincinnati, for my cousin Jeff's wedding, five days in Leesburg, VA, for a work conference, and then three days in Virginia Beach. The trip was capped off with two straight days of driving - the first being nauseously hilly, the second being mind-numbingly flat.

It was a really fun trip and everything went well. It was nice to see family/friends/coworkers while in Cincinnati. We were really busy, but we got to see a lot of people.


The conference in Leesburg was for ColdFusion, a programming language that I use for work. I had a great time at the conference and Susan and the kids had a nice time at the hotel. They were swimming for at least 4 hours every day and the kids had a great time.

Once that was over we got to have a few days of real vacation in Virginia Beach. The kids (and I) really liked playing in the ocean. It took a little while to get used to all the sand, and the taste of the water, but after that it was smooth sailing.

Some time in the next few days I will get some pictures posted.

Potty-Training Update

Elliot has been doing well with the potty training. He has been staying dry at night and has been relatively accident free. We just need to work on getting him using the potty more, and the tree less.

Some Videos

Here are some videos from the past couple weekends.

The first video is Mari riding her bike. She is a little distracted by the camera, I think, and forgets to make the turn at the end, but you get the idea.

Mari Riding a Bike




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



There has also been a lot of hula hooping going on this summer. Here is a video of Mari trying to get things figured out.

Mari Hula Hooping




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



The third video is just a short chat with Elliot. Generally, he is a fairly quiet kid, who would much rather use body language than words.

Elliot Talking




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No More Diapers?

Is it a possibility? Possibly.

Elliot has not been wearing a diaper for the past couple days and has been doing very well. This morning he even woke up with a dry diaper, which surprised me. We did not really push it, but it just sorta happened. I will be happy if it works out.

One of the coolest things about it is that he invented his own way to pee on a tree. It is a great technique for him and and both Susan and I thought that the other one had taught him.

Cousin Camp

Andrew just got back from the first ever cousin camp, at Aunt Mary's. it sounds like he had a lot of fun and stayed up too late. Mari and Susan went down for one night, and then he stayed down with Ian and his Kansas City cousins, Joe, Luke & Colin.

Activities included berry picking, swimming, Luke's baseball game, a water slide, a petting zoo and a campout.

Big Creek State Park

Today, after we finished painting, we hit Big Creek State Park. We played at the beach for a while and then hit the playground.

80/35

So the 80/35 music festival is going on right now, yesterday and today in fact. This is only the second year and we were not in town last year. Turns out that the festival is in our neighbor's back yard. OK, not exactly, but is sure sounds that way.

The festival is actually about 2 miles from our house, in downtown Des Moines, but the music is still really loud on our front porch. Last night was Public Enemy. Tonight is Ben Harper. Tonight should be extra fun - with fireworks and the music, and then fireworks at the conclusion of the show. I look forward to it.

Twin Cities

This past weekend we made our annual pilgrimage to the Twin Cities. The drive was a little shorter this time, which made it nice. We had a great time staying with Hope & Jeff and seeing a lot of friends. I think that the kids spent most of the weekend adjusting to various dogs, and it has been mostly what they talk about since we returned.

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The Dishwasher is my friend

We have always had a dishwasher. In the beginning I appreciated it for its function. It certainly did do an OK job washing the dishes, most of the time.

When Andrew was young sometimes he seemed to be soothed by its rhythmic noises.

Now, as our kids get older, and recognize the rustling of a bag, or a utensil clanking against a plate or bowl, the dishwasher serves as a cover, as I sneak a few chips, some ice cream, or a piece of cake.

I guess it is a good thing we have never chosen one of the really quiet ones!

Mari's 4th Birthday

Yesterday we celebrated Mari's 4th birthday. It was a fun Summer BBQ, water-balloon fight and all.

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The Infirmary

In the past 6 months we have dealt with both lice and chicken pox. Anything else we need to know about?

Adventureland

This past Friday we went on our first trip to Adventureland. Like most things in Des Moines it is a little smaller than in big cities, a little cheaper, and a lot more convenient. We did not tell the kids we were going until the morning of, and they were very excited. Andrew could not wait to go on a rollercoaster, and Elliot and Mari were up for anything. It was a fun day.


Andrew's First Rollercoaster




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

Playing

I have a rule about asking more questions. Basically if there is a question I want to ask, I have to ask it. Maybe I will share some of the Q/A's here.

Yesterday at Mahoney State Park there was another family at the playground and they were all playing together really well. They had four kids, ranging from 6 or so to an older teenage boy. All four kids seemed to be engaged with each other in various games.

I asked the parents a few questions and I think that the two most interesting answers dealt with how they get them all to play together and how they spend their Friday nights. First of all, they said that in any activity they do as a family they try to find a way to get everyone involved so that the older kids are interacting more with the younger kids, rather than doing their own thing. They also encourage the older kids to play at the littler kids' levels.

They also shared with me that on Friday nights they have 'Special Treat Night' where one kid gets to pick what they eat for dinner and then after dinner they play games - usually one for the younger kids and then after they are asleep they play a game for the older kids.

It seemed like they had to work hard to get where they were, and probably had to make some 'sacrifices'. In the end they seemed very excited about where it has gotten them and were very excited to share with me.

After we left the playground to say goodbye to the Connor's, who were playing tennis, we saw the family again at the tennis courts, playing 'triples', with three members of the family on each side of the court.

Swimming in Omaha

On our way back from Mahoney State Park yesterday we stopped in Omaha to hang out with our friends Andrea and Grace for a while. They are usually in NYC, so it was nice to have them so close. Since we were passing right through we stopped for a little while to hang out and visit.

There was a large number of veggie straws consumed.

Mahoney State Park

Last night we returned from a 4 day trip to Mahoney State Park. Susan's sister, Mary, and her family have been going there for the past few years and this year they convinced the rest of us to come out (it didn't take much convincing). We had a nice time swimming, hiking, fishing, playing tennis, mini-golfing, and melodrama-ing. The kids were totally worn out by the time we made it home. All three were asleep by 8 and slept late this morning.

Wallace Farms

This week I picked up my first order from Wallace Farms. We found out about them at the Natural Living Expo and I have been on their mailing list ever since.

We started out small, ordering five 1 lb packages of ground beef, but I really like the entire process, and plan on ordering more in the future.

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Elliot, who has always refused to come anywhere close to the potty, said 'Meeeeeeeeee' tonight when I asked if anyone needed to go pee before our bike ride. He sat on the toilet for a couple minutes and sure enough he managed to pee for the first time on the potty. He also peed in the potty after our bike-ride, before bed.

I know we have a long ways to go, but after 5 and 1/2 years of diapers, it will be nice to be done.

Swingin' on Up

A couple of weeks ago Mari started pumping when she was swinging and a few days ago I noticed she was actually doing something. Today she learned how to start all by herself and get going. Congratulations Mari!

She has also shown some interest in riding a bike this Spring. A couple of times she has asked to ride Andrew's old bike. She doesn't quite have the confidence yet to pedal enough to stay up, but it is nice to see her try.

Chicken Pox Update

Andrew is still the only one with the chicken pox, and he is handling it well. Yesterday was his worst day, as he was really itchy and had a hard time getting to sleep and sleeping. Today he is doing much better, and looking a lot more scabby. Hopefully he will be out of the woods soon.

Elliot is still not showing any signs of having it this time around, which means he will probably get it in a week or two, and worse because of all of the exposure from being around Andrew.

Mari accidentally had the vaccine, so she may not get it at all. We'll see.

The Pox Is Upon Us

This afternoon we noticed that Andrew is starting to develop the chicken pox. Hopefully Elliot will have some popping up soon, so we can get past this quickly. Otherwise we will have to do it all over again in two weeks, and it will be even worse.

Gray's Lake

Yesterday the kids and I hit Gray's Lake in the evening. Gray's Lake is like a little piece of Minneapolis in the heart of Des Moines. We had a nice trip around the lake with Andrew on his bike, Mari on her balance bike, and Elliot on his scooter.

Part of the lake was flooded, and rather than head to the playground the kids opted to play in the water a little.

Organizing the Basement

I didn't think it could be done, but today Susan organized the basement. I think she also has plans to tackle the attic this afternoon.

New Pics

I added some new pics to our 2009 photo gallery, including some shots from Elliot's birthday and Easter.

WKRP

We just got back from a week-long visit to Cincinnati. We drove there last Saturday, meeting my parents as they returned from an Easter dinner in Columbus. On Sunday we hunted for eggs, went to Mass, and attended Easter dinner with some folks from my Mom's family - mostly just the Van Horns.

Monday I was off, so we ran some Cincinnati errands - including trips to Kroger, Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods. I also got to stop by my eye Dr, so he could tell me I have pink eye. I could have told him that, but then maybe he would have had to pay me, so we just kept it the way it is supposed to be.

Tuesday, and for the rest of the week, I was off to work. Susan spent her days visiting Cincinnati friends and doing Cincinnati things. We also had the chance to catch up with some friends during the evenings, which was nice.

Saturday we were off to Bloomington, IN for my cousin's wedding. It was a nice wedding, and it was nice to see some folks from the Hyland clan. We stayed in a hotel after the wedding, as we do maybe one or two times a year. This was our easiest stay ever - I think because the kids are getting older. They are sleeping better than ever and Andrew is getting to the age where we hardly have to worry about him at all.

Sunday morning we were up just before the continental breakfast ended, grabbed a bite to eat, hit the road and were home by dinner time.

Mimi & Papa were waiting for us when we arrived, with some real food, which we definitely needed.

Welcome home, us.

5 months

We have been in Des Moines for over 5 months now, and in our house for four. I feel like we are getting settled in well.

Our house is coming along nicely. I feel like we have taken care of all of the immediate things that needed to be done inside - including some painting and room re-working. Our bedrooms our set, with the kids in one bedroom and us in another. They have been doing great on their own.

As the weather gets nicer we are starting to turn our attention outside. There is a lot of landscaping that needs to be done as things have been neglected for a couple of years and there are several vacant spots in the yard. We also need to do some gutter work and paint our trim, both of which I plan to tackle.

Susan's Bean Sprout Parents & Tots class has had three classes so far, and has gone well. She has really been enjoying it and the kids have as well. It is really neat to have the class in our house and it also gives us a nice excuse to clean every week. I feel a little like we are getting ready for a showing every time we have to clean.

Andrew has been playing soccer for the first time, and he has loved it. He just has a great time running around. He is not in a school yet here, and we are not sure what the future will hold in that department.

Mari can't wait until next year when she is able to play. She loves to be as involved as possible with Andrew's soccer, which is nice. She is not nearly as athletic as he is, but she has a great time.

Elliot has been doing well also. We still think of him as our baby, even though he is two now. He is a very quiet boy, unless he is talking about animals, sees water, or I am trying to get him to sleep.

My work has been going well. I feel like I have gotten into a bit of a rhythm and have found the right communication balance to keep things flowing. I have been working on some fun projects and I have more coming up.

We spend most of our free time outside when the weather is nice. We all like to ride bikes and play in the back yard. Whenever it is reasonable I have been trying to ride my bike instead of taking my car, which has been sitting idle a lot lately. We have a nice bike trailer for Mari and Elliot and we recently stole Mary's tag-along (which they no longer use), to make longer rides possible with the whole family.

All we need now is a bumper sticker

Andrew started soccer yesterday, which was interesting. He has been wanting to play for a while so we signed him up on a team with a couple of other kids that he knows. He has a great time out there, but he is totally in his own world. I guess he does not have to listen to instructions a lot because he is not good at it at all. Whenever someone tells him what to do it is like he has ear plugs in.

He had a great time and will hopefully have a fun season. Next year I think that Mari will be ready to join him, which will be even more of a treat.

Another funny thing is that there is another Andrew on his team, and we have yet to come up with a naming convention.

If you get the chance, hurry up

A couple of years back, when Andrew was starting to ride a bike with training wheels, an older gentleman who was out walking his dog said to me, "Take your time, Dad." I am not sure if he meant in the short term or the long term, and I am not exactly sure what caused him to say it, but I think about that every now and then.

Yesterday evening I was out working on our swing set and the NFC/city inspector stopped by to check out our garage. As he was leaving he said to me, "Hurry up, if you get the chance." I am not sure exactly what he meant, or what caused him to say it.

Should I slow down?
Is there something wrong with youthful zeal?
Do they want me to slow down for me, or for them?

I know that I probably do need to slow down, but there is just so much to do. Gotta go finish lunch. . .

Self-Proclaimed Fixie

So I have two bikes - one that I ride around town and one that I use to tow the kids. Neither of them are in the greatest shape, but they get the job done. The one that I ride around town is an old bike, even older than me, and has been dormant for many years. I dusted it off, put some air in the dry-rotted tires, and was off. It seemed to be doing just fine for a while.

After a few longs rides, some of the dried plastic parts started to fall off, which was no big deal. The front basket collapsed, so I tightened some screws. One major problem that it had was that it kept shifting gears on me, so I stopped into a bike shop and they showed me how to keep that from happening, basically turn a screw.

On the way home from the bike shop everything froze up, and when I looked back my rear derailleur was in pieces behind me. I knew that this was not good. The bike was dead in the water, and I was not in the mood to be buying parts. My friend Tom had the great idea of picking a gear and simply converting it to a single speed, which I did. This took some tweaking, but also gave me another opportunity to clean the bike up some. Eventually this was done and riding the bike was even more pleasurable. It was liberating to ride a bike without worrying about switching gears, and the relatively flat terrain in Des Moines makes this possible.

Then, one day when I was riding around the block with the kids it happened. I went to move the pedals backwards and CLICK, they were locked. Now whenever my bike is moving, the pedals are moving. I know that some people do this on purpose (Tom being one of them), but I am not sure how I feel about it. I may try to make this permanent, so I no longer have to worry about hand brakes, but I am not sure yet.

Swing Set

On Sunday I picked up a swing set that we bought off of Craigslist. It is just a simple A-frame with swings, but I think that the kids will enjoy it.

Our Garden

We plan on having a nice vegetable garden of some sort at our new house. We aren't totally sure yet what form it is going to take, but we definitely have plans.

This past weekend we start some seeds. We started 12 tomato plants and we have plans to start some cucumbers in a few weeks.

We don't know where we are going to get a lot of sun, so we are going to have to see how our garden plays out over the next couple of years. We have visions of raised-beds and containers. I want to plant a garden in our tree-lawn - the area between our sidewalk and the street. We have a corner lot, so we have 150 feet of curb that runs down the side of our house. It will be a little weird to try a garden there, but I think it could work, and it wouldn't have to take up any space in our yard.

Bean Sprout Parents & Tots

Susan comes up with a lot of sort of 'entrepreneurial' ideas. Not always business related, but usually ideas that involve starting something. Most of the time these ideas leave as quickly as they came, but one actually managed to make its way to fruition.

Starting in a few weeks, Susan is going to be leading Bean Sprout Parents & Tots in our house. It will be a Waldorf-inspired Parents & Tots class, similar to what she used to attend with Andrew, Mari, & Elliot in Cincinnati.

She is really excited about it, and I am too. It has made us think a lot about the layout of our house and what is in each room - mostly on the first floor. I think it will be great to have a living space that is Waldorf-inspired.

House Work

We have been doing a lot of work around the house lately. We took out the closet in our dining room a few weeks back and a couple of weeks ago Tom and I got some drywall up to make the room look more normal. This past weekend Susan and I textured the wall, to match the others, and painted the room blue, cornflower blue. I still need to finish up some of the trim, but the room is just about done.

Up next is the entry way and the stairs. The stairs had some paint on them that we have been removing. We are going to refinish the stairs and repaint the walls and trim. Right now all of the trim in the main entryway is still mauve and forest green. Like most of the painted trim in our house, we are going to be painting it white.

Once the entryway is done we are going to move on to the living room, where we are going to repaint the walls and trim. After that, I think we are going to be moving outside. I can't wait to get out and get some work done. There is just as much to do outside as there has been inside.

Elliot's Second Birthday

We celebrated Elliot's second birthday tonight. It was our first birthday party living in Des Moines, which was a little different. We were joined by the Reagens and the Lewandowskis. Holly tells me that she and Alex, Jill and Will, and my parents had a nice dinner, and at the end wished Elliot a happy birthday.

Leading up to 2 Elliot has really seemed a lot older. He doesn't nap all the time now and he has been sleeping great at night. I am even thinking about moving him out of our bed, which would be the first time in over 5 years that Susan and I have had the bed to ourselves. I don't think that he is there quite yet, but he is getting there.

At the age of 2, Elliot is a lot like Andrew, with some of Mari's spunk. He likes to play games, and play with balls. Like all of our kids he likes to play outside. He still needs to be held a lot, and since we don't have a baby this isn't really a problem. He does great at meals but once Susan or I sits down he wants to come site on our lap, which we also tolerate. He is a fun kid.

For his birthday Susan made him a doll. This was a follow-up to the doll that she made Mari at Christmas. For Christmas she made Mari a 'Little Sister Doll', from Joyce's Waldorf Dolls. It was basically your standard doll. She made Elliot is 'Heavy Baby', which is basically a doll head and arms, with a body that is filled with millet. There are no legs. Because it is a little heavy it feels a little more real than most babies. Because it is filled with millet we have to make sure that mice don't find it.

Photo Updates

I just added some new photos to our 2008 II gallery and also I started our 2009 gallery.

Sleeping Through the Night

It took almost two years, but last night Elliot slept through the night for the first time. Up until two nights ago he stilled nursed several times during the night, but it seemed like he was ready to have some daddy time during the night, so two nights ago whenever he woke up I would comfort him back to sleep. Last night he never even woke up, until this morning! It was quite a treat and I know not to get too excited.

Bike Trails

Des Moines has a nice bike trail system and today I was able to check out the parts closest to our house, well some of them. Gary has mentioned that he could make it all the way to the B-Bop's on 73rd. I wanted to see if there was a way to get from the B-Bop's to close to our house, and there is. I was able to make it to a park that is fairly close to our house. I could have gone a little farther, but there was high water covering the trail and with Andrew and Mari in the trailer I did not feel like going up and around (and I was tired). It was a great ride and I can't wait to try to get all the way from our house to Gary and Kathie's. The system should make for some nice rides this summer.

Growing Up

Elliot will be 2 in 2 weeks. Hard to believe. We still think of him as our baby, but I guess he is not. I think he will seem a lot older when he stops nursing all night.

Andrew slept in his own bed a few nights this week, even going to bed by himself. I think he got bored with it and is now back to going to sleep with us and sharing a bed with Mari.

Mari is still a little challenging, but she is showing signs of pulling up out of her funk. I think that she is beginning to understand a little more about her actions. She has also taken a great interest in the kitchen lately, enjoying helping whenever she can. Every morning she wants to help make the oatmeal by scooping it into the pot, stirring it as it cooks, and then portioning it out into our bowls. She is also in charge of distributing raisins for our oatmeal - a handful in mine and hers, and a few on the table for Elliot.

The Liesland Cafe

Andrew got a guitar for his last birthday, and all of the kids enjoying playing it and making up songs, even Elliot. Here are some videos of Andrew & Mari making up some songs of their own.


Exploring




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The River




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Come Up With Me




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Snow Days

We had some good weather today, so we decided to take the new bike trailer out for a spin. Since Susan doesn't have a bike yet, we attached the stroller converter, loaded in the kids, and went for our first family walk in the new neighborhood. It was a nice walk followed by a grill-out/hang-out in the backyard. We had a fire in the fire pit and a fire in the grill.

The kids played in their recently completed 'snow house'. We started building it a couple days ago and Susan and the kids finished it today. It is cool, but in the traditional American style I want to build a bigger one next time. They also put together a nice snowman in the back yard, whose name is Andrew Mari Elliot. Both the house and the snowman should last a while, as temps are supposed to be pretty low over the next few days.

Also, someone stole one of my license plates. I guess I have to get my IA plates now.

Mouse-Making

We went to a fun craft event at the Ames Waldorf School this morning. It was about a 45 minute drive up, but definitely worth it. Susan needle-felted a mouse, and Andrew and Mari worked on some needle-felting projects of their own. I assisted and Elliot played with the toy kitchen.

Hopefully we will be able to attend more of their events. It felt great being in a Waldorf classroom again.

Working From Home

Since moving to Des Moines a lot of people have been asking me how work is going. Work is going well. It was a little bit of an adjustment, but I feel like I am starting to get into a little bit of a rhythm. I definitely miss going to an office and interacting with all of my coworkers. I was spending a lot of time in meetings before, which I actually enjoy, and now I am spending a lot of time sitting by myself in front of the computer. The nice part is that I am able to get a lot of work done, and I think/hope that I will get better at using the phone for that personal contact.

Working from home has been great for my home life. I have a very short commute/walk to the basement, which has helped free up time for other things, like hanging out with the fam. I have also been working on Eastern Time, basically from 8-4, which I have enjoyed. I get done in time to run some errands or do something useful before dinner.

Renovation Pics

Here are some pics from our new house:

We did not take any before pictures from our bathroom, but luckily Nate had taken a couple from the inspection. I think you will get the idea.







The closet is not quite as yellow as it looks here. It is more like the color of the cabinet that you see in the foreground.


Also no before pictures of the closet, but here is what it looks like now that we have it out. We still have some flooring and wall work to do, but it definitely helps open up the space.

Des Moines Differences, Part 4, I think

We got a lot of snow last night, and I did not even know that it was supposed to snow. Part of the reason for that may be that I never interact with anyone or anything outside our house, other than KCMP. I think that another reason is that snow is just not as big of a deal here.

I managed to make it to the store this morning and there was plenty of bread and milk.

renovating

I wanted to get up some pics of our bathroom tonight, but the kids took forever to get to sleep, and I was just annoyed. Maybe tomorrow.

Today we took out the closet in our dining room. It was the only closet on the first floor, and we liked it, but we didn't like that it took up a lot of valuable square-footage. The best part is that when they put the closet in they cut out the original hard wood underneath and the wall behind it, so now we have to get that cleaned up. Nice.

Tomorrow I hope that we can get unpacked. We have a lot of boxes in the attic still, and still haven't located the cloth diapers.

It snowed last night. I was supposed to be 1-3 inches, but I think it was more like 8 - no joke. We have a corned lot, which means we have somewhere around 200' of sidewalk. I was thinking that we should think about a snow blower, but I probably need the exercise. Besides, who know what would happen with our semi-gravel driveway.

Got Milk?

Elliot is still having BM issues, so starting January 1 we are dairy free. Andrew, Mari and I can still have dairy, but we are trying not to have any in our house. So far it has been going well. We have gotten fairly lazy with our food choices again and I have enjoyed being a little more intentional with what we are eating.

Hopefully it will help Elliot. He has been on a stool softener for over a year now and it would be nice if we could get him to function normally.

Update

• We had our bathroom re-done. We didn't get many before shots, but the after is much better. Andrew and Mari used to think that our bathroom was disgusting, and they were right. It is much nicer now. We still have a little to do, but the major parts are taken care of.
• Next up we are going to be ripping the closet out of our dining room
• It has been cold here, mostly in the twenties. There was snow on the ground for a while, then most of it melted, and the rest refroze, so now it is just and icy mess. I am requesting either more snow or warmer temperatures, neither of which is forecasted
• I was able to get out for a nice little bike ride today. I rode down to a local natural foods shop to get some ear oil for Elliot.
• Did I mention that Elliot has been crazy? Last night was the first night this year that he did not throw up, but he was still up in the middle of the night. We are not sure what his problem is. He has been great during the day. He has also has a cough. We are now putting Vicks Vaporub on his feet before bed and also giving him his ear drops.
• There has been a request to get up some pictures of our bathroom. They will be coming eventually.
• We still have our Christmas tree up. I guess we can take it down now.
• We have a lot of painting to do. When we bought our last house we were a lot more patient with our home improvement projects. Now we just want to get everything done.