Friday, September 26, 2008

Oh, Baby!

Most of you already know this, but for those of you who are in contact with us by "blog only"...baby #3 is on the way! I guess no one will need Dr. Phil to break this one down for them...After going back and forth for like a year whether or not this would be a good thing, we got to Omaha - finally had our whole family in one place after one heck of a long year and it just sort of seemed like the right thing. Consider the built in "leave of absence" for me, and the timing couldn't have been better. We are excited -- well, Ellie is the most excited -- never mind the fact that she only refers to the baby as a "she"... we'll see what we can do about that! Due the first week of April, officially, but with the "luxury" of the planned c-section, we're pretty much advertising "the end of March." (And if they would do it in February, that would be even better!)

Everything is going well so far -- except that there are NO doctor's offices in Omaha that are open in the evenings or weekends (none that are affiliated with our hospital and insurance, anyways...) That has made scheduling appointments a little tricky - we've been trying to make them all for "lunchtime" - Frank comes and meets us in the parking lot at the doctor's office, takes the kids to lunch, and meets me back at the office...a great plan in theory, but when you're dealing with any doctor's office, you never know the kind of hold-ups you'll run into...even on a perfect day, he's away from work for over an hour. I guess he's the "boss" so it's all good. It's worked out OK, so far (don't know HOW we'll handle the 3-hour glucose test when I no doubt flunk the first one again -- maybe Frank can just take the whole day off!).

So, the upstairs bedroom that we had set up as an office (and had painted a nice shade of taupe) has since been painted a nice baby shade of yellow (it's called "cuddle" -- awwwwww) I know - who the heck paints a baby's room when you're only in the first trimester? But, as frank asked me "well, how superstitious are you? I mean, I'd rather just paint it again while the tape is all still up and the furniture is still in the middle of the room..." Solid plan -- and see? Now we're out of the first trimester, so it all worked out for now...

Had an appointment yesterday - everything is good. Baby is already measuring almost a week larger than its due date, so at least we know it's really our kid :) We'll really be sure when the head continues to measure large and the rest of the body levels off -- :)

Have a great weekend!

Thursday, September 25, 2008

AppleJack Update

I am sure that most of you are concerned after the last post... let me assure you of two things:

1.) We are about halfway through the the 10 pound bag of apples that we picked - I found a recipe for apple muffins which took up a bunch. I am the only one eating them, however. Nathan says, "uh, this is not good..." and ellie said they were good "except for the apple part." Hmmm - at least they both enjoyed "helping" me make them (and we used up a bunch of apples...)

2.) Nathan's hair situation has been remedied - it was looking a little wild in the orchard picture. It has since been cut and he looks like a little boy again. :)

Sunday, September 21, 2008

The AppleJack Festival and the Block Party

We got a tip from a co-worker of Frank's to head out to the Applejack Festival in Nebraska City this weekend. So, of course, we have nothing to do here and we're pretty much up for anything these days, so we went. It's about an hour drive from here - we didn't really know what to expect, but what the heck. I think that we really only saw one tiny piece of this festival. We ended up at the Arbor Day Farms, but from what I understand, the whole town of Nebraska City has events going on. We were most interested in finding an orchard (or as ellie called it "torch-ard") so that we could pick our own apples. At the Arbor Day Farm, we could pick our own apples and the kids were really into it - they had trees that were low enough to the ground that they could easily reach them... the 10 pound bag filled up pretty quickly! (Everyone has promised to eat apples every day until they're gone and you never know, I might be baking another pie pretty soon...) :) After we picked our apples, we set out on the "exploration trail" - very Arboretum-esque... nice trail, pretty scenery, lots of trees, and plenty of things to look at and read along the way. There were also lots of "nature playgrounds" and the kids found it "worth the trip." We ate lunch there - just at one of those "food tents" - burgers and dogs and chips - that'll be $30. Funny to say, but it felt kind of good to be ripped off for once (just like home!) :) We decided that it was a very fun day - I don't know that we would be driving all the way down there every year to do it, but it was definitely fun to try once.



Now, on to the Block Party...we were all pretty tired after the apple-palooza of the morning, but we mustered up enough energy to head out to the front yard for the Dickinson's Landing Block Party - quite the extensive affair. Maybe it's because we'ver never really lived in a neighborhood that did an official "block party," but whoa! There were three of those big inflatable "bounce house" things for the kids, a live band (the first song they played was "sweet home chicago"...the irony!), pony rides (right in front of our house, as luck would have it...there's still the ring of brown to remind us of all the fun...). As you can imagine, when the ponies pulled up (again, RIGHT in front of our house) the kids could not wait to get out there! There were a good two or three hundred people out there, and we were encouraged to see that there really are a lot of people with little kids here. Ellie and Nathan had a great time (Nathan, unfortunately, missed his last pony ride becuase he asked to go inside to go potty...major success!) He also requested to go to bed around 7:30 -- it had been a long day at the apple fest and all with not much of a nap...so Frank and Nathan headed in around 8:00. I thought the bounce house things were supposed to "blow down" at 8:00, so I told Ellie we could stay out until they were done...well, I waited and waited and waited and it never happened ... basically, I convinced Ellie to come in around 9:00 -- it was pretty dark - I don't know how more kids weren't getting hurt in those things! She was also pretty tired and agreed without much of a fight... when Frank and I looked out the window around 10:15...the bounce houses were STILL UP! yikes. Ellie thought the block party was the "most fun ever" and we met lots of new aquaintences, so it was a success all the way around.


Friday, September 12, 2008

The week in review

Not too much to report this week, but I thought I should update...

Ellie continues to go to preschool -- the first two days were "shy" days, as she put it. She would get in the car at pick-up time and say, "I have so much to say right now, because I've been so shy and quiet all morning at school -- I didn't talk at school -- and now I just have to talk a lot!" She comes by it honestly - exactly what I was like in school as a kid! (And Frank says she's gotten a "double dose" of it... he had a little bit of it himself...) Anyhoo, day three was "magic" as Ellie puts it -- she talked to her teachers and to the other kids and even took to comforting the ones who were still "crying and wanting their moms" -- She even made amends with one little girl (Tatum...now that's an Omaha name, huh?) that she alienated while she was being "shy" on the first day... so all is well at the Education Station! And for our Friday treat, we (again) met Frank for lunch -- at McDonald's this week -- it's just such a nice way to break up the day (and the kids are always in the mood for McNuggets...) Maybe we can make this a Friday ritual (and work in a subway or a panera once in a while...)

Nathan is also getting used to Ellie's preschool routine -- as soon as we get back from dropping her off (and whatever errands I drag him around to...), he drags ME down to the basement and commands my one-on-one time, which (of course), he has never had before. So, we play mostly with the train set and do puzzles and I desperately try to teach him his colors, but he is still "refusing." I'll say, "nathan, what color is ____?" And he'll just reply, "no." Hmmm - I guess a kid who didn't walk until he was 22 months old is marching to his own drum... he'll learn colors when he's good and ready - maybe when he's 12? :)

It's been a dreary week here in terms of weather -- lots of rain! Our nightly family game of freeze tag (oh, yeah!) has been rained out lately... can't say I've been too bummed out. How do you know you're officially out of shape? When you have trouble keeping up with a four year old! Man, she's quick! It's probably pretty sad when nightly freeze tag is the only exercise we are getting (and it's a pretty good workout, so far!)

Have a good weekend - more later!

Friday, September 5, 2008

First day of Preschool

The first day of school for Ellie was a smashing success! She woke up excited this morning, but I was still a little nervous after the princess camp experience -- she was excited that day, too... But, the whole drop off was seamless (and there were cryers there, too -- I was glad that it wasn't my kid this time...) :) She came home with the play by play about the whole morning -- lots of comparisons to Bright Horizons (the daycare in Illinois) - which kids reminded her of her old friends, which songs were the same (the weather song), which songs were different (the good-bye song)... and luckily, she was able to play with all of the toys that she remembered from Wednesday's Open House. As predicted, Nathan did want to stay and play -- and he was pretty confused all morning, "where's ellie?" "Mommy's car-car? Ellie?" He was glad to go pick her up (but again, he wanted to stay and play...) and then we all went and met Frank for a "first day of school lunch" -- one of the benefits of living in Omaha -- everyone is close enough to "lunch" together! Crazy to say, but it was good to have somewhere to go - a little structure to the day went a long way for us!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Preschool Open House

Last night we went to the Education Station's Open House - come and "meet your teachers and see your classroom." Ellie was very excited all day about going - we all were, actually...
It was a very positive experience for Ellie, I think. We underestimated how many kids were involved in this program, though. Ellie is in the MWF am class (20 kids), and there's a MWF pm class (20 more kids), a T/Th am class (another 20)... and that's just on the west side of the buiding -- that many kids will attend on the east side of the building as well! Needless to say, all of those kids plus their siblings plus their parents made for a pretty crowded event last night. But, nonetheless, Ellie enjoyed meeting her teachers - when I asked her if she thought her teachers were nice, she said, "all teachers are nice...duh..." All of the kids had different colored name tags on depending on what class they were in - she got really good at spotting the other "red circle" nametags and she was just going up to kids and saying "hi, I'm ellie, I'm new." It was pretty good (she didn't get that "outgoing-ness" from either one of her parents, that's for sure!)
Even though the building is pretty different from the daycare center they went to in Illinois, I think she was "comforted" to see that it was a lot of the same stuff - a rug for "circle time," a "housekeeping area," a "math center," etc. etc. etc. We were there for over an hour just checking it all out -- nathan was having fun, too. That will be the trick tomorrow moring, getting Nathan to leave...hmmm... we'll have to find something fun to sign him up for on MWF's, too!

First day of school tomorrow - full report coming soon...

Monday, September 1, 2008

The Williams' visit - Labor Day Weekend

What a great weekend! Frank's parents and his uncle charlie came to Omaha this weekend for a visit... we love visitors! Seriously, we do! Frank's dad and Uncle had not ever been here before, so we did a lot of the obligatory "touring" of Omaha (it doesn't take long - there's not much to see here...) :) We also hit the air and space museum, Boys Town, the River Walk and of course all of the "vacation" eating out -- dinners, breakfasts, ice cream -- yummmmm! We also used the club a couple of times, too - a round of golf for the guys and an evening swim for the whole group.

We all had a great time, and the kids are still "coming down" from all of the excitement - they both took HUGE naps this afternoon and woke up wondering what "fun thing" was next. Disappointed to be left alone with only their (totally un-fun) parents again, they lobbied for a "video night" and we just kind of chilled out.

And so the end of summer has officially come and gone...not that it has the same kind of impact that it did when I was teaching, but it is still a little strange nonetheless. Ellie starts up at her preschool this week on Friday - we are all looking forward to a little structure (and one more "network" to meet people, even if those people are only 4 years old!). A complete preschool update to come soon...