Raindrops Keep Failling on Her Head

Hurricane Isaac hit the Gulf Coast a couple days ago, and its remnants have been moving up the middle of the country, though of course at this point it's producing nothing more than rain.  Today was Kansas City's day to get soaked, so we got a reprieve from our drought with a day-long downpour.  Although Joshua loves the rain and tries to go out in it every chance he gets, Clara hasn't had much experience with it.  Earlier today I opened the back door to look out, and Clara quickly came over and wanted to go out.  So I let her crawl out on the back deck.  She was fascinated by it.  She wasn't sure what was going on, but she knew something was happening from above.  Here are a couple of her reactions, where she tries to taste it and then holds out her hands in an effort to try to understand what exactly is happening, although she really ends up looking like an actress making a dramatic pose.  She was really happy, giving us two kids who'd rather be outside than inside on a rainy day. 

Bath Time

Joshua has liked water for a very long time, but his enjoyment of baths has definitely grown in the past few months. Our friends, the Bartons, got him a mini-basketball toy for the bath and, given his huge love of any kind of ball, it is definitely the hit of bathtime at this point. He also really likes his boat (which is on the other end of the tub in this picture) because it plays music. But mostly he likes pouring and dumping water and splashing and being wet. Clara is not at all a fan of bathtime, though she will tolerate having her hair washed if she doesn't have to sit in water. But it probably makes it extra hard for her because everytime she is in the bathtub with Joshua, he wants to wash her hair himself, which mostly consists of him dumping water on her head. Joshua doesn't mind too much having water dumped on his own, so it's hard to explain to him why it may be a problem for Clara (this is a similar issue we have with him throwing balls at Clara's face. Joshua loves having balls throws at his face. He thinks it's hilarious).

Team Effort

When Joshua was learning to walk, he really wasn't into walkers. I would encourage him to push things around and he acted like I was encouraging him to play in traffic or something equally life-threatening. But Clara likes them quite a bit, both to stand up and push and to push while crawling. One thing she is always trying to do is push the back of whatever ride-on toy that Joshua happens to be riding. Usually he is a bit too fast for her, but today he decided to slow down and she got her chance to push him along. They had a great time playing together, which is always really great to see.

Corporate Dining

I'm in Chicago for a couple days for training.  The target group was larger than my direct team, so I got to see some of my colleagues that I hadn't seen in awhile.  After today's session, which went until 6:00, we were treated to a nice dinner at a nearby restaurant.  Here we are as we enjoy a break before we get right back at it tomorrow morning.  Fortunately tomorrow's session is only a half day, but I'll be flying to Detroit in the afternoon, so my road trip will continue.  Unfortunately tomorrow's dinner won't match this, as I'll be on my own, which means I'll probably get Subway or something, which isn't bad, but it's not exactly a nice Italian restaurant.

Ice Cream with the Smiths

Tonight we met our friends, the Smith family, out at Twisters. I had told Carla that it's my favorite custard place and I think it's actually better than Sheridan's and she wanted to try it herself. I am not sure she is convinced, but we had a good time catching up and enjoying dessert. You can see Clara and Aiden are especially interested in this new-found delight. Too bad that's pretty much the pinnacle of tasty food to a child, or to an adult for that matter.

Yellow Polos and Jeans

It's cute to me when Joshua and I wear similar outfits.  I suppose it's something about him being my son and a little version of me that it sort of makes sense when he wears a little version of my clothes.  Today for church I decided to wear my yellow polo shirt and jeans.  When I went to get Joshua dressed, I figured why not dress him in his little yellow polo shirt and jeans.  His shirt is a little better than mine, because it has a little palm tree with buttons as coconuts and a sea turtle.  Here we are in our similar outfits.   

Sushi Burger

As I've noted about a billion times, Meghan is a fantastic cook.  She repeatedly finds great recipes and customizes them for our tastes, and nearly without fail they turn out to be delicious.  Although I never ate sushi growing up, I've had it as an adult, and I like it a lot.  One of the most common and most popular forms of sushi is the California roll, as it doesn't actually have any raw fish in it.  Tonight for dinner we had California roll burgers.  I wasn't exactly sure what it would be like, but of course I really had no reason to doubt, as they were delicious, perfectly blending the flavor of a California roll with a juicy burger.  Any of the recipes we try that we deem to be "keepers" go in our recipe book, which is actually in the form of another Google blog.  Here is the entry for the California Roll Burger, which was definitely a keeper. 

9 Months

Today Clara turned 9 months old. She is becoming quite a big girl. She is self-feeding and eating more solid foods and can stand without pulling up and without assistance for several seconds. Drinking water is her favorite thing to eat or drink by far. She has gotten more used to our routine as well and now accepts that we eat breakfast in the high chair and other things like that, though she still doesn't ever think a nap is a good idea (but then again, Joshua is a year older and he also doesn't think that so maybe it just doesn't happen). She is a pretty good sleeper, but we have been doing one late-night bottle still to get in more calories. As long as the pediatrician thinks it's okay at our visit next week, we plan to stop that and get her sleeping all night. She likes playing with her toys and dancing to music and doing anything with Joshua (except taking a bath. She hates baths). This month she learned to clap well and wave a little and will repeat "mama", though I don't feel confident she knows what it means so I don't count it as her first word yet, but it is her first purposeful sound. She also is finally big enough to move up to the next size of clothing, so that's good. Although because she is small for a stander, things like pajamas are a challenge since they don't have the non-slip feet in that size. I am going to have to look around for a solution for the winter. Right now she just goes barefoot during the day and is happy that way.

Teeny Tiny Lady Liberty

I'd never been to New York prior to this year, but I've now been five times, all of them for work trips. I've seen some iconic things, such as the Empire State Building, the New York Stock Exchange, the Brooklyn Bridge, Radio City Music Hall, Times Square, the guy dressed as the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, the Freedom Tower, the 9/11 Memorial, the Wall Street Bull, and even some scuzzy Occupy Wall Street protesters.  I've even seen Citi Field from the plane, though not in person, but Yankee Stadium is still eluding me.  But there was one main thing missing: The Statue of Liberty.  Every time I take off or land, I look out the airplane window scanning the landscape, hoping to catch a glimpse of it, but to no avail.  Despite my efforts, I'd never even laid eyes on it.  Until today.  We had a business lunch at a nice restaurant by the water, and as I looked out, I saw it.  Barely.  Way off in the distance, I finally had my first view of the most iconic American landmark.  So here is a picture of me with the Statue of Liberty.  Yes, it's that tiny spire rising from the horizon to the left of me.  Hopefully I'll get a better view at some point on an future trip.  It wouldn't take much.

The Helping Continues

As we've mentioned a couple times recently, Joshua is really excited about helping.  One thing he really enjoys is putting things in the trash.  So sometimes we'll give him a piece of trash, open the cabinet door for him, and let him put it in.  He's always very good about completing the task correctly.  For example, here he already had one of his toys (an old measuring cup) in his hand, and Meghan gave him her empty food container to throw away.  He knows the trash is "yucko", so he put the food container in but kept his toy away from it.

One Installed Mirror Away from Completion

I've been working on a project to redo Clara's dresser, both by staining it (and the mirror frame) and replacing the hardware.  Today I finished it and set it up in her room.  I still need to connect the mirror to it, but other than that it's done.  It turned out surprisingly well.  The stain is notoriously difficult to work with, and it wasn't easy, and the dresser didn't turn out perfectly, but it still looks pretty darn good.  I'm quite happy with the results.

Closing Time

Today we closed on our mortgage refinance. I was really excited because I am very financially conservative and was not really comfortable having a thirty-year mortgage, so when the rates dropped and allowed us to refinance to a fifteen-year without a much higher payment, we were really excited to take advantage of that. We used the same mortgage broker who helped with the purchase of our house and he helped us lock at just the right time so it was a very positive experience to work with him and the closing went very smoothly despite the fact I had to bring the kids, which wasn't ideal.

Dishwashing Assistant

We go through a lot of dishware for Joshua and Clara, from plates to bowls to drinking cups to sippy cups to bottles.  We could wash that stuff in the dishwasher, but we use the heated dry setting on our dishwasher, and that can be tough on plastics, so we just wash those items, in addition to the bibs, in the sink.  It actually doesn't take very long, and we know it'll increase the lifespan of the items.  Usually we do this after Joshua has gone to bed, but one time recently Meghan was doing it during the day, and Joshua noticed and decided he needed to be a part of it.  He absolutely loved it.  Since then, if he sees us near the sink washing anything, he thinks it's time to wash the dishes, so he pushes a kitchen chair over to the sink so he can stand on it to help.  He loves moving things around in the soapy water and holding things under the faucet to rinse them.  As with other endeavors, he's not quite as helpful as he thinks he is, but it's still fun to have him involved, especially because it gives him so much joy to be a part of it.

If It Were a Car, She Would Have Wrecked It

This summer has been mostly nothing but obscenely hot days.  Both Joshua and Clara like playing outside, but it's just been too hot on most days to go outside much if at all.  For the past few days, though, the weather finally cooled down to the 80s, which is great.  Today I took the kids out to the backyard to play.  Clara likes to pull up on things and hold on to things while standing, so I thought she might like the steering wheel in our backyard playset, and she did.  Here she is steering like a big girl. 

Uproarious

As I've mentioned, I love going to rock concerts.  A new favorite is the annual Uproar Festival.  I went last year for the first time, and when I saw the lineup this year, I knew I had to go.  With Shinedown headlining, and Godsmack, Papa Roach, Adelita's Way, and P.O.D. all on the bill, it was a must-see event for me.  I had a great time and am excited to see which bands are there next year.

Pseudo Potty Training

Since Joshua is not yet two and I don't really want to focus on potty training before the baby comes anyhow, we have been letting him take the lead on it. Right now, he is pretty interested in it so he has been sitting on the potty at every diaper change and actually going the vast majority of the time, which is great. Today he said he wanted to wear underwear so I let him (with plastic pants on). He did very well with it. I am not sure he is really at the point where he would tell me if he had to go, but I had him sit on the potty every 30 or 45 minutes and he went every time and had no accidents from the time he woke up from his nap until bed time. I doubt this is something we will be doing every day since I would only do it if he wants to, but I am glad he is figuring out how it works and hopefully that will make potty training easier when we do really focus on it.

She's Happy and Knows It

Clara recently learned to clap and she is very excited about this new development. She likes clapping to music and also to approve of herself or Joshua, or really for any reason. Here she is, showing off her skills.

A Lifestyle Improvement

Our house came with a dishwasher, but we are pretty sure it was original to the house and wasn't that great to begin with. It was really almost a constant source of frustration to me because I loathe rinsing dishes and it not only didn't do a good job cleaning dishes unless they were rinsed, but also got rust on many of our white dishes, so actually made them more dirty than they were when I put them in. So we decided to get a new dishwasher, which was installed today. I am really excited about it because it is the newer model of the one we had in our last house, which I loved. I never rinsed anything except egg and very rarely had anything that wasn't spotless so I am super excited to try it out. Joshua is also excited about it and seems to think the brand label on the bottom is a button. Here he is pushing "maytag" to see what happens.

Dresser Cleaner

After finishing staining on the dresser, I moved it up to Clara's room, but I hadn't noticed how dusty it was on the inside.  I went downstairs to get a wet rag, and while I was down there I saw Joshua and realized this is the kind of thing he'd really like.  He's sort of a clean-freak and likes to point out messes (either with an "Uh-Oh!" or a "YUCKO!" depending on the situation) but also enjoys cleaning them up.  So we went upstairs and I gave him the rag, told him what needed to be done, and he went to town.  Although he got a large portion of each section, he couldn't quite get along all the edges, so I borrowed the cloth briefly at the end of each section to clean the parts he couldn't get.

Work in Progress

I am mostly, but not completely done with Joshua's room. The main things I still have to do are to sew a chair cover and find some curtains for him. Unfortunately, he is in a not-so-delightful new climbing phase and has broken his lamp during one of the many times he has been hanging out on top of his dresser when he should be napping, so we will also buy him a new lamp but maybe wait a bit for that. I am hoping he gets sick of the climbing once it is no longer a new thing.

Even though his room is not complete, the walls are. Here are the ones we used decals on. I am fairly happy with how they turned out, though I probably will move one of the pictures a couple inches over at some point. And it has been very good timing that when I chose to do some transportation decals, Joshua wasn't terribly interested in vehicles, but almost overnight they have become an obsession. So now he is pretty excited about all the cars in his room (and when he says car, he means all vehicles including ones that fly or float).

Faster, Higher, Stronger

I love the Olympics.  In general, I love pretty much every sport and every competition in life, and I really like learning about new sports.  The Olympics brings all of this together, as they give me exposure to a lot of sports that are never on TV at any other time (which is true for pretty much everything but basketball, really).  So it's interesting to me to learn the nuances of things like gymnastics but also the general rules of things like competitive kayaking.  And really, it's the way it should be for some of the lesser-known sports.  I can't invest time in following each and every obscure sport out there (I have to admit I didn't happen to know the latest news from the world of water polo, for example), so it's sort of nice to boil down four years of work by the best athletes in the world into an hour worth of programming for a given sport.  Convenient, right?  And having it all topped off with some pretty serious drama makes for must-see TV for me.  I went on a Facebook, Twitter, and espn.com fast all day each day until after the evening broadcast of the taped-delayed events from London, so I didn't know the results until they unfolded in front of me, which made for great TV.  The games are almost over, but they've been very memorable thanks to Gabby Douglas and the rest of the Fierce Five, Missy Franklin, Michael Phelps (sorry Ryan Lochte), Missy and Kerri, David Boudia, Usain Bolt, and multiple electric sprinting events.  Here the kids join me during tonight's telecast.  Joshua seemed to like to the diving more than anything else, for some reason.  The Olympics will be over soon, and I'm sad that I'll have to wait another four years for the next Summer Olympics.

Misadventures in Phlebotomy

Our pediatrician recommends that toddlers be screened for anemia because kids that young don't tend to show symptoms.  So I scheduled Joshua's appointment for today since I have the day off work.  We went once before, and they weren't able to find the vein, so they told us to reschedule and to have him drink a lot of water before the appointment.  So we did that, but they still struggled.  He did really well and wasn't crying even after he got stabbed by the needle, but again they couldn't find the vein, as they continued to dig around inside his arm, he couldn't take it anymore and started crying.  They then gave up and went to his other arm, which made everything worse, but they finally got a vein in that arm and were able to draw the blood.  He was crying pretty hard at that point, but I kept hugging him tightly through the whole thing.  Here we are after it was over.  He bounced back quickly though and was his normal self by the time we walked out the door.

Exploring a New Galaxy

I've had my Sumsung Epic, which was Sprint's version of the Samsung Galaxy, for awhile now, and it's pretty much at the end of its lifespan.  The Samsung Galaxy SIII was recently released, and as soon as I saw the details of it, I knew I needed it as my next phone.  I've been eligible for an upgrade for awhile now, but like last time, I've had to wait until the phone became available on the employee plan.  This week it finally did, so today I went to the Sprint store and got my new phone.  So far I love it as much as I thought I would.  It's always exciting to get a new phone and to see all the cool new things it does, and this time was no different. 

Local La Parrilla

Our favorite restaurant in Lawrence is La Parrilla, so we try to go there when in town because we don't often get the chance.  Fortunately they recently opened up a new location in Olathe, which is exciting for us.  I'm taking the next five days off of work so I can get things done around the house, and since we had childcare for the kids today, Meghan and I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and go to our new La Parrilla for lunch.  We don't get to go out as just the two of us too often, so it was nice to be able to do that.

Clara the Climber

It's sort of nice when a child can't crawl or scooch yet, because you can know that they won't be able to get things that are out of their reach.  But then when they start being mobile, you know that at least they won't be able to go up stairs.  But then they learn to do that, and it's time to install the gates.  Although we have the gate to the upstairs in place most of the time when the kids are awake, it was off for a little bit tonight, and Clara was really interested in the stairs.  It's happened before, but she's never been able to do anything other than hold onto the first step and stand up.  But tonight she took the next step and made a strong effort to climb onto the first step, and she did it.  She then proceeded to climb almost all the way to the top (of course with me right behind her to catch her if she started to fall).  I don't think she'll be hitting the rock climbing wall anytime soon, but it's exciting to see her reach this milestone.

StickerChin

Joshua is at the age where he loves things that are sticky, and any kind of sticker is fun for him.  Tonight I opened a new package of baby wipes, and it had a sticky cover for the opening.  As I peeled it off, I realized he would probably love it, so I gave it to him, and we ended up delaying bedtime while he happily stuck it to various things in his room, including his own face.  Here he is with one of his variations.  Being a fan of the mid-'90s SNL seasons, all I could think of was Adam Sandler interpreting this as "I'm crazy StickerChin!  I have a sticker for a chin!  Give me some candy!"

Carrots

It has been a longer road to get Clara to like solids. She is a more typical baby than Joshua was, and liked purees at first. Unfortunately, I am just not a big fan of spoon-feeding so we never ended up doing a lot of that. But as she got older, she got a lot more interested in finger foods and she has recently been able to handle a wide variety of tastes and textures. Here she is eating carrots (they are cooked, since raw carrots would be very hard and probably a choking hazard). She isn't quite sure if she likes them or not.

Honeymoon in Olathe

A month or so ago, my dad called me and said he and Deb would be in town in August and suggested that we (meaning my sisters and I and our significant others) get together. We determined the date (today) and the place (our house), and everything was set. Today everyone showed up, and Dad and Deb surprised us with the news that they had just gotten married! Julie, Joanna, and I had long speculated on when they would get engaged and get married and had hoped it would happen soon. But since they weren't engaged, we were all shocked to hear that they had just gotten married a few days ago. But it was very exciting news, as we'd all been wanting Deb to be part of the family, as she's a good match for Dad and we all really like her.  This trip isn't their actual honeymoon, but it made for a really great and happy surprise for all of us "kids", and we're all very happy for the newly-wedded couple.

A New Style

Today I cut Clara's hair. I was very nervous to do it because she isn't going to hold still, but I couldn't see paying someone to do it when she would move constantly for anyone. I evened out her wings on the side and also gave her some bangs. I did it now because I figured if it came out horribly, we would have plenty of time for it to grow out before her birthday. But it really came out pretty well. It isn't exactly straight in every place, but it isn't bad and I really like her with bangs. I do plan to take her to a professional closer to her first birthday to even it out, but in the meantime, it is cute. Here is her new style, though it is combed a bit weirdly in this photo since she lost patience with me touching her hair and wouldn't let me comb it.

Freedom Dork

Today I'm in New York again, and one of my coworkers and I ate lunch at a restaurant that overlooks the Freedom Tower.  At the time, we thought it'd be cool to take pictures of each of us in our sunglasses with the tower behind us.  However, after looking at the pictures, we mostly look like dorks who are trying to look cooler than they are.  But whatever, it's the Freedom Tower.

A Happy Day!

A few months ago, the extended warranty on my laptop ran out and also my laptop started smoking every time it powered on so I could no longer use it. In the interim, I have used Jason's laptop. Though it's really nice that I had something to use and that he could use his work laptop as his primary laptop during this time, it has been far from ideal for either of us. The processor Jason thought would work best for me became available so we could finally get my new laptop. It is so great to have it! I love being able to set up all my software and organize all my files exactly the way I like them and also have a very thin and cute laptop again that I can easily lift with one hand. I am really happy with it so far. I also love that Jason is at least moderately interested in the specs of laptops, because even hearing the words processor or RAM makes my eyes glaze over, so I just told him what I wanted and then he chose the one that worked the best for my needs. I got most everything I wanted with only a few compromises (for some reason the exact thing I want in electronics whether it is a tablet, laptop, or cell phone very rarely exists and I feel like I don't have that high of standards, so I am always a little disappointed in manufacturers). And, it's still shiny and new, so no dog hair under the keys on the keyboard and no keys removed by Joshua and no fingerprints on the screen because he believes all screens are touchscreens. I am sure that part won't last all that long, but it's really nice for now.