Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I know I am a couple days early, but we are leaving tomorrow for the cities to celebrate with Chris's family. We will go to Bloomington on Thursday (after looking through every single ad in the paper 3 times) to Chris's grandparents for a huge turkey dinner and then Friday morning we get up early and go shopping with all the other crazies out there. Not exactly sure how that's all going to work this year with Mya and the whole nursing thing, but when there's shopping involved, Linda and I usually find a way:)

Friday afternoon we are going to Decorah to see my family. Friday night my dad's family is coming over for pizza. Saturday we are getting a big family picture taken and then Sunday we'll celebrate with my mom's family. Oh...I almost forgot. We will also run the dreaded "turkey trot" on Sunday. It's a tradition started 8 years ago by my brother that we drive down to the track and run a mile in between the 2 football games. My sister won the very first one (Brian was still a little gimpy from his accident, but a win is a win) and then Chris went on a streak for 5 straight years and then Brian won it last year. Notice my name hasn't been mentioned. I pull in the rear every year and don't even care! Someday, I'm going to secretly train and surprise everyone!

We have a lot to be thankful for this year. Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with you family and friends!

4 months old!!

Hard to believe, but Mya Patricia was 4 months old yesterday. This is going to sound really cheesy, but it seriously feels like just yesterday the doctor said, "it's a girl!" Chris and I were both shocked. We were sure it was a boy. She has been a great baby (except that she doesn't nap very well and she takes 1 1/2 hours to put to bed at night:) You wouldn't know that if you looked at her though...she is happy most all the time she is awake despite being short on sleep. Must take after her daddy...I need a lot more sleep to function than Chris does.

We had Mya's 4 month appointment today. Her stats: 13 pounds, 24.5 inches. Both at 50th percentile. I was suprised that she didn't weigh more. Chris and I always bet how much they will weigh before doctor appointments. I guessed 15 lbs and Chris 14-8. Obviously she looks a little pudgier than she really is! The pediatrician said she looked great and is hitting all of the milestones she is supposed to. (well..except the whole sleeping through the night thing:) The shots were bad and she was pretty fussy the rest of the day. Thank goodness for infant tylenol!

I took the picture tonight before Mya's bath. After I snapped it, she rolled over and konked her head on the linolium. She let me know that it hurt for about 3 minutes afterwards. No mom of the year awards for me today. I'll try again tomorrow.

Need a good laugh???

Usually when I'm feeding Mya, Max is right in my face trying to play, read books, needs a snack or something to drink, etc. Today, it was oddly silent so I thought I better figure out what Max was up to. I called and he didn't answer. I called again..nothing. So, I got up and started looking for him. The picture is what I came upon....Max was pumping in my bedroom. I luckily was able to get the camera before he noticed me. After he noticed me in the room, he said, "mommy, door." Translated: Get out of here because I know I'm doing something wrong. Thought you'd get a good laugh out of this picture:) By the way...Chris was 100% against me putting this picture out there, but I couldn't resist.

State Volleyball

Yesterday we went to Cedar Rapids to watch Pleasant Valley play volleyball at the state tournament. It was really fun to see some of the girls we used to coach along with their parents. It's crazy to think that they're seniors and the last we had contact with them, they were 8th graders!! We were a little disappointed to see that many of the girls we coached weren't on the team anymore. When we inquired as to the reason, we found that they had been cut as 9th graders. I was sad, because these kids were such great girls and pretty decent volleyball players if you ask me. I also found out that they are now having 7th and 8th graders try-out for the traveling team, so basically if you don't make it in 7th grade, you have no chance at high school volleyball.

This whole scenario got me thinking about how thankful I am that I grew up in a small town where everyone got a chance to do everything and there was no one trying to persuade you to "concentrate" on one sport and let the rest go. I didn't touch a volleyball until the summer before 7th grade when I realized that I should probably learn how before going out for the team. I ended up being 2nd team all conference by my senior year. If I had gone to a bigger school, I never would have been given that chance. I also played basketball and tennis all throughout high school. My best friend Julie did all of the above along with being in the band and playing softball in the summer!

There are definitely some positive aspects of bigger schools like better class selection, less cliques, more choices for things to do, etc. but I think if I had a choice, I'd rather Max and Mya go to a school like Decorah. I won't have any problem if they're not the stars of the team, but I want them to be involved in everything they want to be. Unfortunately, there aren't many John Deere factories in small towns:) Anyway...those are my thoughts on that. Kind of random, I know.

Snow, Roly-Poly, Hawks, Vikes and more...

Hello Everyone!! Hope this finds you all doing well. We have had a busy few days around here. Friday came the first snow of the season. Max and I were out playing in it by 8:30 a.m. The neighbors thought we were nuts I am sure. He loved it until he got pushed over by Chloe and went head first into the cold, wet snow. He got over it pretty quickly when I started throwing snowballs at Chloe. He laughed pretty hard:) He wanted to go out all day long, but I was not about to do the whole boots, coat, hat, gloves, etc. thing more than once per day. When he wants to go outside, I tell him it's too cold and he goes and gets his hat on. it's pretty cute.

Mya rolled over this weekend for the first time. It was pretty exciting for us because I didn't think her neck was very strong, but it must be okay if she's rolling at 3 1/2 months. She has also started to show interest in toys and definitely wants to sit up and look around which we found out at church today when we wanted her to sleep, but she wanted otherwise...

Our friends from the Quad Cities Ron and Maryanne came on Friday to visit. Joe and Tracy came over after all of the kids were in bed and we had a really fun night playing games and catching up. The guys stayed up waaaaaaay too late playing poker, but that's what they always do when together so I'm not sure why I was surprised. We got to see the Hawkeyes upset Penn State and saw the Vikings beat the Packers today! Chris would have had the perfect weekend had the Gophers beat Michigan.

Not much on the agenda for the week. The girls that I coached my very first season of coaching 7th grade volleyball are now seniors and made it to the state tournament for the first time in school history (Pleasant Valley--in Bettendorf) Chris and I also coached them in AAU volleyball so Chris is going to take Wed. afternoon off and we're going to go watch them in Cedar Rapids. We're telling ourselves that we had a little part in it:) Have a great week!

Halloween Fun

Happy belated Halloween to everyone! We had a really fun Halloween watching Max take everything in. On Thursday night he carved pumpkins with Chris. He wasn't as interested as we thought he would be, but he still had fun running around outside with the "pumpkin guts." Chris didn't carve any ordinary pumpkins..he went all out. See below.

Friday night we had trick or treating here in Cedar Falls from 6:00-8:00. I worked with Max all day to say trick or treat, but it came out as treat. He's really good at that word because we have to give Chloe so many treats to keep her from eating various things during the day:) Anyway...Chris took the blue monster out and it only took one house for him to catch on. He wanted to go to the houses without lights on by the end! Most people thought he was so cute, so they let him take what he wanted out of the basket. He would grab 3 or 4 pieces of candy and then say, "more." After he did some neighborhood houses, we went in the car to some other friends. By the end, he was sitting down in driveways because he was so tired. Mya fell asleep halfway through the whole ordeal, but she was a pretty darn cute pumpkin anyway! Max filled his Elmo bowl with candy that Chris and I are enjoying during his naps.

I can't believe it is November already and we've been outside with no coat on this weekend. I'll take it until Christmas Eve, and then I want some snow:) Have a great week everyone...I'll go back to watching TV after Tuesday because I am so sick of the ads!!

Happy House Reunion

Last weekend we went up to Decorah to see all of my college roommates. Our senior year we lived in a house called The Happy House (no idea who gave the house that name, but we lived up to it:) We lived there with 7 girls, 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Somehow it worked great and we had an unforgettable senior year.

While in Deoorah, we spent some time with the husbands/boyfriends and kids and then some quality time with just the girls. I hadn't been out much since Mya was born, so it was really nice to catch up with everyone and enjoy an evening out. We also got all of the kids together in their luther shirts and took a picture. I'm going to send it into the Luther Alumni magazine and hopefully they'll publish it. I think we have the cutest kids around. Hopefully we can afford to send our kids there in 2025:) Here is a picture of all the kids....the future Norse!

Home Alone...AHHHH!!!

There's definitely a reason why every child needs a mom and a dad. Tonight Chris is gone and I'm attempting to put 2 kids to bed alone. As I write...Max is crying and has been for 35 minutes and Mya has been asleep and then awake 5 times in the past half hour! Max is very much into his routine and if we mess with it, it usually means some tears will be shed. I didn't give him a bath tonight for fear that Mya would wake up while he was in the tub and then I'd be in real trouble! I'll get through it, but I thought writing might help me de-stress. I have been drinking a glass of wine as I go back and forth between Max and Mya's rooms which is helping too:) Someday, I'll just have to say, "Max, Mya...time for bed." They will be able to go to bed without a bath, without milk, without rocking and without reading books. When that day finally comes, I'll probably miss nights like this.

All is quiet now...I think I'll drink some more wine!

Weekend Update

Hello! Hope everyone had a nice weekend. We are just sitting down to watch Desperate Housewives and wind down from a busy weekend. Friday night Chris's parents came down to watch Max and Mya for us on Saturday so we could go to Iowa City to tailgate and watch the Hawkeyes slaughter the Badgers! We had a great time getting away despite leaving Cedar Falls at 5 a.m. to drive to the game in the fog. We went with our friends Joe and Tracy and met up with Ron and Maryanne. Max and Mya did great with
Grandma and Grandpa!

The only other new things are that Mya doesn't nap, Max now can poop on the little potty, and our computer has a bad virus so no internet again. Seriously...Mya doesn't nap. Today she slept at church, for 20 minutes in Linda's arms and then for 10 minutes on the way to the mall. That's it. Now you can understand why I can't find time in a day to bring our garbage can in from the curb!! Luckily, she does sleep at night, but we'd like her to get this day sleeping thing figured out soon.

My sister Tara is coming this week to spend a few days with us, so we're looking forward to that. I'll put some more pictures on when I get my computer back!! For now..it's Chris's work computer in the evening. Thank goodness for wireless internet!

Pee!

We have had a nightly routine for the most part since Mya was born. Beth gives Mya a bath while I try to distract Max from wanting to get in the bathroom. Many times it just ends with me giving up and Beth having both kids in there at once. Then once Mya is done and Beth takes her to bed, I give Max a bath and then read him a few books before putting him down. It's worked pretty well so far even though we think that sometimes it feels like we are single parents with one taking each kid every night.

Well here's a quick story about Max and bath time. When he was a baby, he hated, and I mean hated, water and baths. So much so that I of course called upon my wife's superior child rearing skills during those times and let her handle him. It might sound like a cop out, but there are certain things that I just think a mom can handle better than a dad. At least this dad anyways. Eventually, Max mellowed out and Beth and I would trade off baths and story time every other night. Then comes Mya and it just made sense to have Beth take care of her because of nursing. Since then, it's been Me and Max. My system for him is to get him cleaned up immediately and then let him have some fun before getting out. Sometimes he asks for "bubbles" and we do bubbles - that's thanks to Grandma Huinker that he wants that all the time. Lately fun has meant filling up this little fish that has a hole in it and squeezing it so that the water squirts out all over me and the bathroom. He loves that game and I love hearing his infectious laugh over and over again when he sees me get all wet.

Tonight was a special night though. We got him a "potty" a couple months back just thinking that we would have it around for when the time finally came. First few nights I would sit him on there and use word association and it has a fun tune that plays when the bottom of the bowl gets wet so I'd throw some water in there to show him how fun it was... After those first few times, he would just sit on it himself before getting in the tub. He says "potty", then backs up, sits down, nothing happens, he gets bored after 10 seconds and then is ready for the bath. Tonight he said "potty", backed up, sat down, and peed! I never thought I would be so excited, but I felt like my kid aced his ACTs. He loved the music it made so much, he did it a few more times. And then he said "poop". "Poop" is one of his favorite words thanks to his Grandpa Hoden taking him out in the yard with a shovel to clean up after Chloe. We can't go outside now without him saying "poop" a few dozen times. At least tonight when he said it nothing happened, but it's obvious he knows what's going on. I know he's far from potty-trained, but it was fun to see this little step.

That was the real excitement for the night. After the bath ends, we read a few books together. I have a few memorized - Beth has many memorized. Max is starting to fill in words to the stories (at least when he doesn't have his blanket shoved in his mouth). That blanket is a topic for a whole different story... When I think he's had enough reading, he gives me a big bear hug, repeats me saying "Lub you" and "night night". At the risk of sounding too sentimental, I love that part of my day.

So here's to Max and peeing in a bowl!