Abby's Birthday: The Video!

I forgot to post the video I put together for Abby's Fourth Birthday. It was much harder to whittle down the number of pictures this year - I've taken so many more!

Anyway, here is the video:



More posts coming about her birthday - but I wanted to be sure I got this on the blog before I forgot!

Photo Tales - A Girl and Her Baloons

Alternate Title: A New Favorite Picture!

Last weekend we took an Epic Roadtrip to Casper, Wyoming, to celebrate the retirement of Anny's parents. It was not only a long road trip, but also a quick one - we left Thursday and returned home on Monday afternoon. The drive took us across the state of Missouri, across the longest state I have ever driven through (Nebraska), and into one of the most beautiful drives I have ever done into Wyoming.

This picture is a new favorite of mine. Anny's mom has had a garden for many years - her rose bushes out front are beautiful from what I hear, and her other gardens have veggies and such. This year the only thing that is growing is Rubarb because they are spending a good deal of the summer just relaxing and doing some traveling. The sign is Rhubarb there reading simply "Carol's Garden" and it's perfectly centered and all. (I would expect nothing less in their yard, to be completely honest!)

Abby loves balloons (reminder to Rob: order some for Sunday's party!) and there were about 40 balloons for the party! They were in sets of red and white for my MIL's school and sets of orange and black for my FIL's school. Abby has recently developed a love of the color black. Her favorite is still green, as it has been for about a year, but she's a fan of black crayons and markers sort of all of the sudden. She requested to play with one of the black balloon bunches - and ONLY the black ones.

(I only put so much focus on that because I really wanted to color them, but don't have the time or patience for it this week. A friend suggested the same, which I thought was pretty funny!)

Stormy Season Upon Us

Alternate Title: Five Plagues Down, Glad I Have a Daughter!

Needless to say, this has already been a crazy year for us with the weather. Starting on December 31st we have had:

• Tornado hit Sunset Hills, between my work and my wife's, and only about a mile from each.
• Two snow storms that shut school down for enough days to push end-of-school back by a week
• An ice storm that helped contribute to those days, too
• A Tornado that tore up our airport, which is an international hub
• A Tornado that hit on the southwest side of the state, but tore down a hospital that is in the system I work for
• Just heard word of an earthquake less than an hour from St Louis, too!
• (The other "plague" is the locusts - I mean cicadas! They are insane so far!)

My Sister-in-Law asked that I do a blog post on how Abby is handling all of the craziness with the weather. In a word - oblivious.

She loved the snow and was unsure of the ice, though she was looking forward to ice skating lessons, so there was some upside for her, too. She had a blast staying home unexpectedly for those wintery storms, though she got pent up pretty quickly and we could only spend so much time at the mall.

The first tornado was interesting for all of us - we had NO idea what the siren going off was about. We were at the Recreation Center signing up for ice skating lessons for Abby, and getting our whole family ID cards for Parks and Rec. We heard the sirens blare on what was a beautiful December day. By the time we got home the sky had turned and Anny was opening the shades so we could see the impressive rain. When the next siren blew, being the third, I suggested we drop the blinds and maybe hang out in the closet until the worst of it was over.

Since then we have huddled several times in our very spacious master-bedroom closet. We have a lantern and books at the ready, all we need to do it pull the laundry out and we have a nice space for all of us to sit and read or catch up on the day.

Abby has really taken all of the craziness in stride - most of these bad tornado-style storms have hit at bed time, which I thought would be a major challenge. Abby has just relished the full-on attention and the extra story (or two) at the end of the day. I think we have talked with her in general terms about how dangerous the storms have been, and how some people have lost their homes or lives. I do not think she grasps it, and for now that is okay with me.

As for the earthquake? I am just adding that to the list of plagues that we are going through. I was relieved to hear a meterologist say this morning that we are having a VERY strang season. This is not the norm. I look forward to a season of normal soon, but I'm not counting on it until it happens! In the mean time I am going to drink lots and lots of water - in addition to the earthquake we are having a heat way of August-sized magnatude. Does look like it will let up for Abby's birthday on Sunday - fingers crossed!

Photo Tales - Week 5 - Trapped Princess

For days they were calling for rain, the severe kind, for the whole weekend last week. We had already tossed plans out the window and were trying to think of indoor fun for the family. Saturday morning they changed the forecast from severe to almost-perfect sun and blue sky! Our rain plans converted back to making outside plans really quickly.

We spent the morning at the local Renaisance Faire in Wentzville, MO. It was my brother-in-laws birthday, and for his big day he wanted to go and do that, and I was not going to turn that down! (Turns out he paid, too. And cooked us dinner. Not sure he knows what birthdays are about!) 

We spent the morning frolicking and taking in a Birds of Prey show. We followed that up with a good Ren Faire lunch: hot dogs for most, but a turkey leg for me and corn-on-the-cob for Abby! We all enjoyed walking the grounds and see people in their period clothes. We adults felt badly for the guy in full chain-mail, especially after the sun really started to blaze. He looked miserable, but was making up for it with a nice big, ice cold beer.


My favorite part was when we got to smell fresh herbs - Abby got REALLY into it. The nice woman spotted us sort of wandering, except that Abby's eyes had gotten big and friendly, so she invited us over. She told Abby to press the leaves of different things and then smell her fingers. Funny was when the host said "smell this one, it smells like gum!" Abby looked at me like "does she know I'm not four yet? I don't chew gum!" She keeps telling me that when she's seven (or is is eight?) she will be allowed to chew gum. She has a lot of life planned out already, come to think of it.


With all of the fun things that went on, it made me chuckle that all three girls were most easily attracted to the plastic playhouse that they could play with anywhere! They played on this stuff for a good half an hour or so! Abby, in particular, loves to play princess/queen games, so she had a blast. They took turns "locking" each other in the tower, and then took turns setting the captive free. This particular picture was of Abby right after she got to be the rescuer she agreed to pose for a picture, and I never pass that up!

Want to play along? Just want to see other pictures and stories? Click on the button below - it's fun to be a part of this group of folks!

CNN Article on Infertility - from a Dude

A while back I wrote a blog post about our infertility journey from the perspective of both of us - I even had Anny proofread and edit as she saw fit. I do not mean to imply that I held anything back because I was afraid of what she would say or think, I just knew that for the post in question it was a retrospective type with a dual purpose, and I value her input on things like that.

Yesterday I came across an article on CNN.com that I think is worth a read if you, or someone you know, is going through infertility. This is written from the perspective of ahusband, but I think it would be great for friends and family to read as well.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/LIVING/05/17/sedaka.infertility.husbands/index.html?hpt=C2

It's been literally years since we went through our fertility issues, but I can tell you that Anny and I had our biggest struggles with communication when we were struggling with infertility as well. It was only when we broke down and talked through the hard things that we made progress and decisions that we needed to make. 

The best part of the article is the suggestion to not use absolutes when talking about either the future, or just the future of treatments. We had all but given up when Anny asked me to reconsider my "declaration" that we were done.  I was young and not thinking things through at the time - and that experience was a great teaching lesson on giving up absolutes when it comes to anything in our relationship (or life). 

And really, guys, doing the guy test is NOTHING and if you do not just go and do it without complaint, your spouse has every right to punch you in the crotch.

Anyway - wanted to share this article and a little bit of perspective from a guy who went through some of this. We are lucky ones - we only went a little bit in debt (compared to others) and we have a wonderful daughter to show for it. My heart goes out to those who are not so lucky.

Photo Tales - Week 4

On Monday my darling little one had a fever, and with daycare involved there are firm rules about that. Sniffles are okay, whining is okay, but fevers end the conversation about whether or not to send a child to daycare. I totally get that - better to keep any illness in the house of one instead of passing around the whole group!

After a morning of taking Abby to my office to get some Monday-essential work done, we went home and just vegged. By the time dinner rolled around I jumped at the chance to make it, because it was more exciting than reading another Caillou book. After dinner I insisted on doing something, anything, outside of the apartment, so we settled on blowing bubbles!

I don't know anyone who does not enjoy blowing bubbles - it's simple and amusing, both of which are right up my alley. In the past we have even bought bubble machines so that we could all enjoy without the "work" of blowing? I have never felt as lazy as when I bought a second bubble blowing machine in two years.

Someone on Facebook commented that the reflection is cool - the sun was beginning to set on a beautiful day and the two apartment buildings behind us lit up beautifully. Well, as beautifully as three-story brick buildings can look. Turned out really great for the reflection, though!

Follow the link below if you want to participate in this fun Meme! No word requirement, just a picture and a story to go along with it!

Summer is Coming, and BUSY!

Abby is already focused on her birthday, but is aware that there is a lot that happens between now and June 12th!

• Next weekend is Paul's birthday and Renaissance Faire
• The week following is the last week of day care for the year
• Then a holiday weekend
• Then a day at work with mom & dad (half at each) and a day at a friend's to finish out Anny's school year
• Then a driving adventure to Wyoming to celebrate the retirement of Nana and Grandpa
• A week of Bible School
• and then Abby turns Four!!

It's only a month away, but when you look at all of those things, it's going to be a long and fun month of waiting!

After her birthday things will be calmed down...for about ten days! Here is what the next five weeks look like, as it stands now...

• A trip to Maryland (long weekend for me, a week-long trip for Abby and Anny)
• Fourth of July fun, and a long weekend too!
• Two weeks of swimming lessons
• A week of downtime (for now anyway)
• Then a week of Green-Focused Vacation Bible Camp

Wow - I thought that after a crazy summer like last year it would be hard to be so busy, but I was clearly wrong! What do you have going on that you're most excited about this summer?

Photo Tales Tuesday (Week 3)

Took this picture on Mother's Day. What is funny is that I had no expectations about the hike, just wanted to get Abby out of the apartment and give her a way to be in charge, which we did. Last fall Abby and her friends at daycare went to this place - Quarry Park in Kirkwood - and there was a whole story about one of them pushing the Park Ranger Emergency Call button and then having to apologize and learning a VERY valuable lesson about buttons and emergencies and such. Good lesson, and it stuck.

We wanted to go on this hike several times, but were never sure where it was. I broke down and asked Abby's teacher for a list of all of the fun places they go to - she put together a list of 25 places by the end of the day! Talk about being jealous of all the fun places that Abby gets to go while I sit at work, that list just reinforced it.

For Mother's Day I wanted to go somewhere new, and made a choice to go somewhere that Abby would be an expert and could lead us. Recently she really likes to be "in charge" of things. Unfortunately she usually only plays that card when I am running late in the morning, or while we are trying to get dinner on the table - not good times. We like to set her  for success, and this was an easy way to do it, and an easy way to celebrate what her ladership had gotten us! Win win!

So, the picture is one that I cropped specifically for the desktop of our laptop, so that explains the funny cut. The boulders were blasted and set into place to be easily taken out of the quarry and loaded onto the trains at the tracks on the top side. Since they had to abandon ship, quickly, they are exactly in teh same place, but now surrounded by an awesome, dense forest.

I hope to go back soon, and to take the more adventurous route down by the creek, maybe even scout enough to find the cave mentioned on the parks' website!

Mother's Day 2011

Alternate Title: A Week of Fun in 13 Hours!

First off - Anny got her first Mother's Day Card from me, on this, her third Mother's Day. I didn't want to do it, I'm stubborn like that, but I was stranded at Target for five minutes, and cards are cheaper than other things I could have spent money on!

On Saturday I asked Abby if she wanted to get Anny flowers for Sunday, but she insisted against in because she had potted a merigold at daycare on Friday that was already given. Bummer for me, because I like to be sneaky when it is on a whim. (I am notoriously a bad secret-keeper at home!) So bottom line, no cut-flowers for Anny.

Sunday was fun -

Breakfast made by yours truly - Abby refused to have eggs and instead had her normal granola bar

Walked to church - a favorite past time of Anny's, though we bicker every time about how fast is too fast

Had brunch for the first time in forever! Local microbrewery was packed to the gills, but we managed to get in without reservations

Ran home for a quick change, and then headed out to Laumeier Sculpture Garden for their annual Art Fair. It was huge, but too hot for us to really enjoy it much. We did have some summery treats (ice cream for Abby and I, fresh lemonade for Anny) and danced to a so-so band, so that saved that part of the day for us!

On the way home we hit up the grocery store, you know, so we can eat this week!

After dinner we went out for a hike at a place only Abby had been. She doddled on the first half, but once we got to the view spot and the forest part she was really into it!

All of that meant that Abby went to sleep really quickly when we got home at the end of the day, so we got to catch up on SNL and such on Hulu.

The real "present" part of Mother's Day this year is that she has gotten a coupon for Auto Detailing from a local cleaning company. She cares about keeping the car clean, so it is ideal. She found it herself and I did not have to keep a secret, which is ideal for me!

Photo Tales - Week 2

(or Friday Photoblogging, or whatever - here's a picture and a story!)

Our Little Reader

Abby has always wanted to read. We have made a point of reading to her at bed time, or any time she asks, since she was about six months old. I am not a reader, but I seem to be the only one in my family line that feels that way. I blame laziness - on my part - for my lack of reading!

Abby and Anny go to the library every other week while I am still at work, so I always brace myself when I get home for what crazy books they have decided to bring home. This week they brought home "How to Raise a Dinosaur" by Natasha Wing (Pablo Bernasconi on illustrations). It's cute, and Abby became immediately obsessed with it - we have been reading it at bed time, before going to school and before dinner. She loves this book. Good stuff - it has a cute story that has a lesson (spoiler alert - if you don't feed your dinosaur it will eat you!).

The cutest part was that when I was eating breakfast yesterday I heard her "reading" the story. I looked down the hallway and saw the picture above - she had assembled her favorite toys - lots of royalty, a fairy and a bear - so that she could read the story to them!

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it! (new signoff for the blog? probably not - seems lame in the long run.)