Summer Flying By

This past month has flown by! We started of with 12 items on our summer bucket list. We have only one to go, and a plan to do that next week.

Summer 2015 Bucket List

• Go to the train museum
• Go to a zoo (8/9)
• See classic cars (8/2)
• Go swimming in Lake Wazeecha (7/26)
• Go to the Chain o' Lakes (7/25)
• Hit some balls at the golf course (7/22)
• Watch lightning (7/13, 7/18)
• Go out for dinner and eat outside (picnic at Nepco, 7/17)
• Sprinkler slide (7/11)
• Go to a Rafters game as a family (7/4)
• Bike all the way around Wazeecha (7/3)
• See a rainbow (6/26)

Since the last post, Felix has turned 6! We had two parties for him - one with friends and one with family - all on the same weekend. Some class friends, some neighborhood friends, some faraway friends. It was nice to see everyone! And have some peace after the chaos. He got so many Lego sets for his birthday... many of which are now currently scattered on the basement floor.

Two weekends later, we went to a family reunion, where the kids had fun, and I got this great picture. It looks like they get along sometimes, right? The weekend after that, it was classic cars and tantrums. Uff-da. And then last weekend, we were invited to a couple of get-togethers and went to Oshkosh. Nick and the kids went to the zoo, which Mom, Dad & I went to the Paine Art Center to look at the Downton Abbey costumes on display. Busy, busy!

We've seen lots of friends lately, too! We had a playdate with friends who have kids the same age as ours, and saw them again at the community picnic (among many, many others). We made new friends at a housewarming party. We got to meet the 2-week-old baby of friends visiting from Colorado. We have neighbor kids coming over all the time. And we hope to see more soon!

Iris has let me play with her hair lately. Most of these creations were at her own request, which is a huge difference from "Don't touch my hair!" of a few months ago. She is in full-on 2-/3-year-old mode, though. The speed with which she can throw a tantrum if you say "no" or "wait" to her is impressive. Oh, and the screaming/shrieking. (Yeah, you miss those days, don't you.) Plus, my wonderful little sleeper has turned into a night-waker. At least once a night, she'll wake me up so I can tuck her back into bed. I'm hoping this is one phase that ends soon!

We hope you're having a great summer as well!

Felix: 6 yrs & Iris: 2.5 yrs

Happy 4th

We've had a busy few weeks since my last post!

Felix was in T-ball for the first time. It was a lot different than I expected, having never played T-ball (I jumped straight into softball in 2nd grade). The coach pitches to the kids and the tee is only used when a kid has swung at 10 pitches or so with no connection. Once the kid gets a hit, they run to first... and so on for about 5-6 kids. The last kid up gets the equivalent of a home run, clearing the bases. It doesn't matter if it truly was a hit; everyone gets to run the bases. And all kids get to field. All 11-12 in the infield/outfield. It looks pretty cute, but crowded out there! Felix enjoyed it. He starts off being pretty tentative in sports, but seems to develop confidence as the season goes on. He only got to play in 5 games (one rain-out), so we'll see if he wants to do it again next year.

Iris is potty trained! They say if you wait long enough, you can do it in a weekend. That's what happened with Iris, unintentionally. She's been using the potty regularly at daycare since last fall, but was too comfortable wearing pull-ups to stop on her own. So the first weekend in June, I just let her go bare-bottomed for a while. And it clicked! She had no accidents when she was not wearing a pull-up in those first two days. And then we sent her to daycare in undies the following morning and haven't looked back. She's been very good about going and has been accident-free for a few weeks. I'll ask her if she has to go, to which she typically replies "Not yet!" or "Nope!" Yay! We graduated her to a "big girl" bed last weekend (my old daybed), and she has been diaper-free since Friday night.

We got to spend a night up north at Nick's uncle's cabin in Woodruff. The kids weren't thrilled about the car ride, or the dog, or the cold/wet weather preventing them from swimming. They did, however, really get a kick out of fishing for the first time. After the morning's rains, the fish were practically jumping out of the lake. It took about 30 seconds after every cast to catch a fish - I think we caught 10-12 total before we ran out of worms. The following day dawned equally chilly, so another round of fishing and playing outside before we left. Hopefully we'll have a chance to go back again in the fall!

I was on call for the week preceding and the weekend of the 4th, so we stuck around Rapids this past weekend. We still had a lot of fun! On Saturday, we all went to the Rafters baseball game with my parents. The kids had a lot more fun in the bouncy houses than watching the game, but that was to be expected. :o) We went to a neighborhood party, where the kids swam and stayed up very late watching the fireworks. I had Iris on my lap, her head drooping on my shoulder, eyes half open, mumbling "another one" through a few fireworks when I finally called time for bed. We hope you had a fun weekend, too!

Felix: 5.5 yrs & Iris: 2.5 yrs

Kindergarten Done

Whoosh! That's the sound of this past school year flying by. Felix finished up his Kindergarten year on 6/4. I took a day and a half off last week to spend some good goof-off time with him before he started summer club.

I took a day off recently to be a chaperone on the Kindergarten end-of-year trip to Pizza Hut and a dairy farm. It was nice to share the experience with him - he was a bit nervous about getting too close to the cows, but as you can see from the picture, he handled it well. :o)

A few reflections on the school year:

• It's amazing how much he grew this year (physically and mentally).

• His behavior started off a bit rough (found a number of like-personality kids who couldn't quite figure out how to play with each other), but got progressively better.
• His report card showed improvement in all areas from math and English to keeping on task from the first quarter to the end (yay!).
• He's gotten into reading. Though reading books on his own still overwhelms him, having read him Harry Potter at the end of the year got him hooked on longer books with complicated storylines. And he's starting to realize that he can sound out words all around him.
• He tells fantastic tales with his drawings and the stories he writes on them. I loved seeing the "draw a picture and tell a story" schoolwork he brought home.
• He has most recently expressed interest in being a train driver, a chef, and a writer.
• We're hoping that it's only a matter of time that his listening skills improve like everything else.
• He tends to police Iris, even though we're in the same room. He's like an overzealous sheepdog.

Felix played in rec soccer for the first time in May and enjoyed it. He seems to have a defensive mind, which we can try to nurture if he decides he wants to do it again in the fall. The kids played in five games over the course of the month, and during the last, a very rainy affair, Felix scored his first goal. It was a very proud moment for us. Go Purple Beetles!

It was a pretty quiet month for the rest of us. Iris has been her delightful, headstrong, chatty, daredevil self. She's starting to play pretend, which I've been anticipating for a while. Either Duplos or trains - it's nice to hear her making up her own little worlds. I picked up a little bicycle for her, which I assumed we'd put away until next year. Nope. She saw it and had to ride it NOW, even though she just learned how to pedal her trike a few weeks earlier. We can't get her off it now, and have to make sure she doesn't try to emulate Felix and cruise down the street instead of staying in the driveways.

Nick and I took a little getaway to Door County for our 7th anniversary over Memorial Day weekend. Left the kids in GB, went to Egg Harbor, enjoyed uninterrupted sleep, took a trolley tour to four wineries, and sampled wines galore. Every so often, it's nice to not have to be constantly vigilant or picking out a dinner based on a five-year-old palate.

We hope you have a great summer!

Felix: 5.5 yrs & Iris: 2.5 yrs

Tummies & Tantrums

We've been dealing a lot with this blog's title subjects lately. And, as you can imagine, not in a good way.

For fear of spreading more of the evil, I'm going to say little about the tummy woes we endured. Suffice it to say that Iris had a tummy bug that took her nearly 5 full days from which to recover. Nick and Felix each had their own bouts. I, miraculously, escaped (cue me getting it any second now).

Boy howdy, whoever introduced Iris to tantrums, I'd like a word with you. They may have started before, but they sure gained steam after Iris was sick. On her first day back to a normal routine after the tummy bug, she had 3 epic tantrums lasting a total of 1.5 hours. All based on some minor thing (I told her it was time to get ready for daycare / I wouldn't let her go down the slide one more time / it was time for bed). Last week, I dealt with getting her rigid, screaming little body into her car seat - all because I gave her a mint that SHE DIDN'T TAKE OUT OF THE PACKET HERSELF (note: she threw the tantrum instead of asking me if she could do it). I'm a terrible parent. There, I said it. It's moments like these that make me repeat my parenting mantra: it's just a phase... it's just a phase...

Nick's grandpa on his mom's side passed away last week. Nick and I went up to the funeral today. Nick gave a killer eulogy (figuratively speaking).

There. Bad over. And now, on to the good! We signed Felix up for rec soccer, which he'll play in May (he's on the Beetles). He's excited to give it a try. Look at that game face! This is the summer we'll have him try soccer and T-ball, then see what he'd like to keep playing next year. Felix also lost his first tooth! It happened when the kids were left with a sitter, so we couldn't make a big deal about it. :o( But he was very proud. He had a shark tooth for over a month, so the tooth was loose for a while. And it's not too jarring now, because the big tooth has already grown in so far. He also had his first school program. His classes sang three songs about farm life. He looked so nervous!

First lost tooth

Felix is 2nd row on the right

More good: I've been thinking about donating my hair to create wigs for women with cancer for a while. It got to the point where my hair was finally long enough and I desperately needed a haircut, so I made the cut last week. I chose to send my locks to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program. Win-win! I'm getting used to the new look, but it was amusing to get double-takes and compliments my first day back in the office. Although I'm being asked for my ID again to buy liquor... Yay?

Felix: 5.5 yrs & Iris: 2.5 yrs

Springing Up

Spring has finally decided to make an appearance recently. We've emerged from our hibernation and rediscovered the outdoors thanks to some lovely weather. And, when we've been inside, we've been very happy Badger fans.

So proud!

First off, Felix! He's got a shark tooth that hasn't dislodged the baby tooth in front. For the squeamish, I'll withhold a photo, but it does look rather funny. I took the week off to stay home with him over spring break. He's been a good sport, enduring a shopping trip to Madison with minimal irritation. Yesterday, he decided he wanted the training wheels off his bike. I ran behind him for about 20 feet before letting go... and he was gone! He has to learn his limitations, though; he tried to do too much and ended up falling off his bike twice and scraping up his elbows.

Iris is showing her tomboy colors. I didn't think she'd really get much use out of the playset while she was so little, but she has proven me wrong (which you can see in the video below). She's such a silly chatterbox most of the time. She likes to "hide in the vegetable patch" (sit among the grocery bags when we leave the store). She had a playdate with her daycare buddy a couple weekends ago. So much high-pitched chatter! Oh, it's nearly impossible to get a non-blurry picture of Iris.



We hope you have a Happy Easter! Go Badgers!

Felix: 5.5 yrs & Iris: 2.5 yrs

Still Winter

​It dawned on me that I hadn't done an entry in a while. Frankly, not much has been going on in our little world lately. Lots of staying inside, watching Thomas and Friends, waiting for Spring. ​

Nick's legal work has been picking up lately, much to our happiness. I've been settling more comfortably into my job as well. It's going to get crazy for me as soon as construction season starts, so I'm enjoying the calm before the storm. 

Nick and I did take a little get-away mid-February, heading to Milwaukee for the Alton Brown Live! show. We bid adieu to the kids, leaving them with my folks and enjoyed all the the things that come with not having the kids along. Adult conversation! Not having to hand out snacks or break up fights every 2 minutes! Sleeping in! (gosh, if that doesn't paint a vivid picture of our life...) While the frigid temperatures left something to be desire (that something being at least 30 degrees), the show was fantastic and we had a fabulous dinner to start. Scallops. Old Fashioneds. Mmmm. The next day, we had a delicious Irish brunch with an old friend. Good stuff! Anyway, it was great and something we hope to be able to do more often now.

We've also been enjoying curling again. If you have the opportunity, try it. It's nerdy chess on ice and a lot more fun than that makes it sound. Sweep HARD!

Felix has been behaving better lately, and that's been a relief. He was Star Student of his class the last week of February. Each child has a week where they get to share information about themselves and be line leader and get other special privileges. For Felix's Special Share day, I came to his class, brought a special treat and shared his favorite book about trains. The kids were very much into one-upping each other and showing off to me. I went out to recess with the class and ate lunch with Felix in the cafeteria. Mmm, fish sticks! That was a fun day for both of us.

Iris has gone the other way. Suddenly, my happy, obedient, "of course!" little girl has turned into a my-way-or-the-highway Miss Independence. It's starting to be a struggle getting her to do the smallest instruction. "Please take this." (ignore). "Iris, can you come here?" (ignore). "Let me help you with that." "NOOO! (tantrum)". What happened?! She has also been waking up way too early. At least she's now best buddies again with her daycare friend, and can't wait to show off to her. And we're trying to get her interested in potty training again. Maybe it's just too much at once. She is still completely obsessed with playing with Thomas stuff at home.

Felix: 5.5 yrs & Iris: 2.5 yrs

New Year's Eves

When we had our roomie reunion on New Year's Eve in Madison, we decided to recreate a picture we took when we were all undergrads, back in 2001. So much has changed in 13 years!

Roomies, 12/31/2001
(minus Anne, taking the picture)

Roomies, 12/31/2014
(standing in the wrong order - oops!)

Plus most of the changes in our lives. :o)
(Plus two spouses, two friends, four of five kids and one dog)