Felix is 7!

Felix turns 7 today! Wow, time has flown! Let's go back in time...

And bam, 7 years ago I became a mama. We had Felix's family birthday party last week with far-flung family. Friend sleepover coming up!

Felix: 7 yrs & Iris: 3.5 yrs

On To Summer

Usually, I try to get in a post per month, but it seems like lately that either there's not a lot new to report. Then I wait for a bunch of updates. Like today! 

Felix's second school year has come to an end. Grade 1 is done! He did very well academically-speaking. Things have been a little challenging on the behavior side, but we have recently been advised a cause: Felix is on the ADHD spectrum. He's on the lower end, so no meds, but it's going to make us change how we communicate and react to him. That's probably going to help us all out a lot. Felix was in soccer in May (scored a couple goals!), and is starting his t-ball season with Nick as an assistant coach. He seems to like both a lot.

Iris is everywhere, as usual. She is currently obsessed with WordGirl, riding her bike, and throwing tantrums when I drop her off at daycare in the morning. *sigh* It's just a phase, it's just a phase. She's been singing a lot lately, which I find charming. We're trying to work with her on being nice to the kittens. They're pretty good about it, but there's only so much manhandling they can take. 

The family gave me a nice birthday/Mother's Day. I got my "present" a couple weeks before that - a brand new car! Gone is the micro-van that couldn't be trusted in a dusting of snow. Now, I've got a safety-feature-packed AWD Outback that makes Nick very jealous. (He'll content himself with driving the family in it until his Tesla 3 arrives).

Last weekend, we left the kids with the folks and headed up for a mini-getaway/family wedding in Minneapolis. We had a nice time visiting friends, having a grown-up dinner, and having a ton of fun at the wedding. It definitely helped us recharge our parental batteries. 

We've got a lot of fun stuff coming up this month, so I'll likely update the blog more often! Hope you have a great start to the summer!

Felix: 6.5 yrs & Iris: 3.5 yrs

Where is Spring??

I write this post on a day where yet again, I woke up to fresh snow on the ground. C’mon, Winter! Give it a rest! The kids and I long to be outside, but this slushy wetness doesn’t make going out very appealing.

We’ve had a few adventures in the last few weeks. The Adventure of Felix with a Marker at Quiet Time! The Adventure Finding Felix’s Artwork in the Elementary School Art Show! Visiting Grandma and her New Knee! The Adventure of Getting Blue Hair! Taking the Kids Curling!

Our biggest adventure was going for a mini-vacation down to Madison over Spring Break. Felix spent the first part of break up in Green Bay, then I collected him on Wednesday, and immediately got ready to go down to Madison on Thursday. The hotel we stayed in had a little waterpark inside, which the kids were raring to get to the minute we checked in. A million thanks to whomever invented Puddle Jumpers for kids. It was a huge relief to know Iris would float if she fell in while no one was watching. And she did get away from us and go down the big slide all by her-little-self. After swimming, we took the kids out to dinner*, then spent the next several hours trying to get them to sleep in the unfamiliar environment*. *I’m not sure if we should do that more to get them used to it, or less because it’s such a pain. 

Friday morning, we got some breakfast then headed to the Vilas Zoo, where we met Cassie. We got there just as the gates opened and the ice that had formed on the trees started thawing and pelting us from above. The kids liked the monkeys, prairie dogs and snakes, but everything else was pretty quiet. The kids were disappointed the carousel wasn’t working and the playground was closed, and Iris got accidentally pushed into a puddle by Felix. (insert head-banging emoticon here). But, with a new pair of pants and a lunch of Indian buffet, things were much better. After quiet time, we went swimming again, this time with Cass while Grandma & Geepa watched. We spent the evening between our two connecting rooms, getting take-out pizza and watching the Badgers’ tourney run die. Alas! The next morning, it was Bloodies and breakfast at Paul’s, and headed back home.

We had a quiet, cold Easter with a lovely brunch. Last weekend, we went to the Kienert Cousin Reunion and the kids started ice skating lessons. Both kids want to play hockey, and according to Nick, are doing pretty well on the ice already. :o)

Felix: 6.5 yrs & Iris: 3.5 yrs

Leap Day

It's hard to believe, but it was four years ago on Leap Day that we announced we were going to have another baby. And now we have a 3-and-a-half year old Iris, and she's a year older than Felix was in that picture. Wow, time flies!

We've had a big change to report since my last post: Nick has taken and started a new job! He was offered a position at La Chapelle Kryshak & Nettesheim here in Wisconsin Rapids. It's a great opportunity for him, and he's excited about keeping the firm going strong for another generation. (Personally, I like that he's going to be doing more of the work he wants to do and that he'll be working a bit closer to home.)

Other than that, things have been pretty much sticking to the status quo. We had a nice visit from Nick's parents last weekend.  The kids are still slowly working through their piles of Valentine's Day candy. 

And the kittens have settled in well. I've learned that our mild-mannered Roary reacts to laundry folding add some cats react to catnip. They are getting bigger! Amy is little and feisty, a feline version of Iris. With big pointy teeth. 

I'm enjoying the mild weather - my brand-new fitness tracker is giving me motivation to keep moving. And we'll keep cheering on the Badgers as far as they go! 

Felix: 6.5 yrs & Iris: 3.5 yrs

Kittens!

Holidays: survived. We stayed pretty close to home this year, and had a nice time. It was very unusual to get so much rain around the holidays. We didn't do anything special for New Year's. This year, as a present to ourselves, we sent the kids to daycare for three days between the holidays and stayed home ourselves. :D And those days were filled with visits with friends, Star Wars, and... kittens!

We decided the day after Christmas that it might be nice to add a couple of kittens to our house, now that we have more finished space. We went to the Humane Society as a family on the 26th to see what animals were available, and two little kittens caught our eyes. We put in an application, but there were some things that needed to be done first, like getting Cricket checked out at the vet. I was able to get him in Monday morning, much to his chagrin. The Humane Society okayed our application on Monday afternoon, and we got the kittens when they opened on Tuesday! Such little things. We named them Amewlia Pond (Amy) and Roary Williams (Roary). [Yes, I am a huge Doctor Who fan].

Amy and Roary

The first few days were interesting, getting to know the kittens, them getting to know the house and especially Cricket. But now we've had them for two weeks, and they seem to tolerate each other. Cricket and Roary seem to get along well, even playing together - they have similar laid-back personalities. Amy is a feisty one. And so far a naughty girl who keeps wanting to use well-chosen spots as a litter box. She's not quite 3 months old, so I'm hoping that stops with a little more maturity. And they are very cuddly.

Iris has finished extra swimming lessons, but started tumbling again last week. It's pretty basic stuff - run around a little, jump on the trampoline, swing on the bar. She's in a huge class, so I'm afraid she won't enjoy it too much, having to wait a long time between turns. I'm hoping that with the number of teachers they had last week, they can split the kids into smaller groups.

Felix lost another tooth, giving him a decidedly vampirish appearance. He's still doing well in school and in swimming, and he just turned 6.5 this week. He's still drawing and playing and roughhousing and being every inch himself.

I recommend... The Detectorists on Netflix if you like your humor dry and British. Watch Sherlock: The Abominable Bride on PBS before it disappears!! 

Final notes.... Nick celebrated his birthday last week by being out of town all day at a speaking engagement. Work's been quiet for me lately. ​

​And no, we did not win the Powerball jackpot​, although we did have a pleasant conversation discussing what we would do with it. Invest! Donate! No handouts, you slackers!​

Felix: 6.5 yrs & Iris: 3 yrs

Merry Joyous Happiness!

Well, we survived Thanksgiving and are coming up fast on Christmas!

Happy Holidays from our family to yours! 

The past month and a half have been pretty busy. We've had a few opportunities to get together with friends from both near and far, and have had a great time! Birthday parties, boozy Christmas parties, and let's-just-chill-and-chat get-togethers.

This year, we didn't make a traditional visit to Santa. Instead, we tried a few new things. We bundled up and saw fireworks in Nekoosa. We did Breakfast with the Grinch at the Y Camp. 

Iris didn't like The Grinch at first. 

Fireworks!

Iris had a daycare holiday program last week. She played the role of Martha is her class's recreation of the book The Gingerbread Baby. So cute! I seem to have two little hams in the family.

Felix had his program this afternoon. He's been practicing his four lines of the class poem for weeks. They sang many songs and I got to take him to work with me afterwards, where he drew up some road plans for the toy cars I have. 

Nick and I have started up curling again, and our team actually won recently. It only took 4 or 5 weeks... :P Brand new brushes do not a well-oiled team make, apparently. But onward and upward! 

I, for one, do not mind the fact that I haven't worn my snow boots once this year. I know it's inevitable that we'll get a few big snows before the season ends, but I'm savoring the traction my car has right now.

And, speaking of roads/traction/weather, one of my side job duties is to be on call every 4-10 weeks. "A traffic engineer on call? WHY?" you ask. It's our job to help maintain traffic in the event of an incident on state highways. Helping to find decent detour routes, getting inspectors out for bridge hits, notifying people about infrastructure damage and incidents with several fatalities. In short, a necessary PITA. Since my last post, I've been on call twice, and been involved a pedestrian crash in Merrill, a fatal wrong-way crash in Waupaca, another crash in Wood County, and an incident where a firefighter was hit attending a scene on the interstate. I only went on-scene for one of these, and it's not pleasant, yet there are others who do it every single day for their job. But here's my point in writing this: Please be careful when you drive. If you're the driver, that's your job, so do it well, with your full attention. It's just mindboggling that a person would miss the flashing lights on a firetruck at dusk, and yet it happened. I just want everyone reading this to have a safe 2016. *steps off soapbox*

Felix: 6 yrs & Iris: 3 yrs

Basement: Finished

It's done, it's done, it's done! Can you tell I'm excited?! It's finally done! Our blank-canvas of an unfinished basement has been given a brand new look! Gone are the cinder blocks and cold concrete floor. Hello year-round space! Work started on September 21st and the last pieces of trim were installed on November 16th. If it weren't for some delays on getting the right pieces (we have strangely sized doors, apparently), it would have been done a few weeks earlier.

While we might be missing some wall art (it's so hard deciding where to put things when you can do anything!) and some furniture pieces, all the contractor's work is done and the rest is up to us.

Fun fact - before they put down the flooring, I traced each of our hands and put the date on the concrete by the stairs. Our own little time capsule to be discovered when we swap out the carpeting.

Here are some pictures of the transformation:

Prior to buying the house

 Framing complete

Midway through drywalling

Mudding, day 1 of 3

Textured, ready for paint

Paint and carpet!

Lights!

Trim, doors, furniture and TV

Looking the other way.
This area is now the kid zone.

Bathroom to be finished later

Shelves!

Future bar/beer area?

Guest room