Peas, Revisited

Turns out when peas are spit up again hours later, they still smell like peas. The first, second and third spit up all carried the essence o' peas. I smell like pea. I hate peas. Who picked peas anyhow?

...and I believed you...

Now that William has been eating solids for about a month, we have noticed the change in the poo. You all told me it was coming and I believed you 100%. You said it was going to change colors and it was going to smell. Smell horribly. Even so, I was not prepared. Changing diapers hasn't ever been my favorite job, but it isn't the worst thing ever. Now, it is a whole new game. The other day, I handed him to John and asked him to change his diaper. John, none the wiser, took William towards the bedroom to change the diaper. As an afterthought, I mentioned "he might be poopy". Now, this was not fair. I knew very well that he was poopy - I just didn't want to change him myself. William has changed over from the yellow milk poo to the full on brown poo (or sometimes yellow due to the squash). The occasional slightly smelly diaper once opened has become a sewer gas emitting stench. All the time. It would be an understatement to say that the cereal has given William gas. The kid is a fart machine. If you were lucky enough to spend any time with us in the last week, William has something he would like to say to you "EXCUSE ME". I think that will cover it. At least we are now creating poo everyday with regularity. When we first started the rice cereal, everything kind of stopped. No poo for 3 days makes one scary diaper.

Moving along to other topics: Peas.

Yesterday the peas weren't exactly a hit. I thought maybe William was not a good mood, too tired, or something. So, this morning, I decided to add a second cereal feed to William's schedule and try out those peas again. The verdict is : I think he doesn't like the peas. He stopped opening his mouth and turned his head away. It was a struggle to feed him the tablespoon I had scooped out for him. Oh well. More later.

Peas Please

Messy baby

It is good to be home. I did some laundry, cleaned a whole bunch and ran some errands. Where did I get my energy? Turns out William remembers his bed and slept in it all night until about 8am. Heaven!

After conquering squash, it is now time to move on to the next new vegetable! John picked peas. Unfortunately, I realized after we started feeding William that he was probably too tired to start eating a new food or any solid foods for that matter. What can you do? He was already messy, so we soldiered onward. The pictures don't really capture the total meltdown that occurred. We'll have to wait and see if it was the peas or if he was just really that tired.

Based on William's behavior the last several days, I would also guess we are going through another round of teething. No sign of which ones are coming in, just a crabby baby so far... The other discovery is the speed William developed in his scooting while we were in Rochester. After pulling him out from under the couch (where I think the cat may have been hiding from him) twice this morning, I decided it was time to try out the superyard Jim and Kendra gave us. Works pretty slick (sorry no pics), although it makes him pretty crabby to not be able to suck on the cat brush or lick the carpet near the fireplace. Oh well. No one ever said life was fair baby.

The first peas! Sorry the picture isn't rotated. So lazy... just turn your head


Smiling for the daddy!


This look is probably more accurate as to his feelings during the feeding.

No more Legs

All legs of our trip are completed as we arrived back home today around 4pm. John had time to mow the lawn, water the grass and then we went together to pick up my car from the repair shop (another story for another day). William was REALLY good until the last 45 minutes of the trip and then required constant attention. All in all not so bad for the amount of time he has spent in the car the last few days. It feels good to be home - even if it is hot. I'm anxious to see how William does sleeping in his own crib tonight. I hope he remembers it and sleeps all night looooong!

More tomorrow!

Not the End of the Story: Rochester Part 2

All Done! And messy!

All in all, we enjoyed our North Dakota adventure. William did better than anyone could have expected given he was not sleeping in his own bed, not taking any naps, not eating at his normal times, passed around groups of strangers, riding in the car for hours at a time and completely off of any kind of familiar schedule.

We got back to Rochester on Sunday the 8th just in time for dinner. We got the car unloaded and William into his seat to feed him his cereal and....his first vegetable! SQUASH! He did a good job and ate all of it without even making a funny face at all. He went down to sleep pretty early Sunday and made it longer into the night than the last few nights. Last night (Mon. eve) he did make it all the way through! Hurray! Now we'll find out what will happen when we get him home tomorrow night... The last leg of our trip will be tomorrow as we drive back home. Can't say I'm looking forward to sitting again.

Today we have the whole day with Grandma and tonight we have dinner planned with Mike and Tien (and Grandpa Heidt). I think we are all caught up now, or so I hope!

First vegetable: SQUASH!


First few bites. I'm not sure if the look is because of the flash on the camera or the taste of the squash.


He is super thrilled...again not sure if it is the camera or the squash


Mmmmmmm....squash?

North Dakota Adventure: Tuttle

We left Grand Forks on Friday the 6th for Tuttle. We had been looking for a reason to go and visit the Tuttle relatives this summer and Jim and Susie Heidt's 40th wedding anniversary was the perfect occasion to see everyone. We had a nice drive to get to Carl and Anita's house where we stayed. They were great hosts!

First we stopped at the Tuttle cemetery to see Grandma Heidt. It was nice to see the stone marker and talk a little bit about Grandma with William. He was a good boy and did not spit up on her, although Grandpa said she would understand if William did. As part of a separate project, we took pictures of about a third of the stones in the cemetery for some genealogy work Grandpa Heidt wants to do later on.

After leaving the cemetery, we drove down the street to Carl and Anita's home. We got to visit for awhile and helped to make a sign for the back of the wedding buggy ("Just Married 40 Years) before we got ready and went to see Jim and Susie renew their wedding vows. Jim and Susie had a very sweet service to renew their vows. Their 12 grandchildren were the attendants! It was perfect and emotional. After the service, we walked down to the "Blue Hall" (it is blue on the outside) for dinner. During dinner was a wonderful time to talk with some relatives we knew and meet some relatives we didn't know. We were sad we had to leave on the early side as William hadn't really had a nap or time to play on the floor during the day. He was getting restless and tired, so we took him back to Carl and Anita's house. When everyone came home later in the evening, we got to enjoy some great music Carl had recorded at a local variety show including himself. We were sure impressed with his harmonica skills!

On Saturday, we drove to Bismarck to see John's Uncle Earl and Aunt Violet. We had a nice visit with them and then had lunch at Perkins. We enjoyed lunch very much as we don't get Perkins in St Louis. After lunch, we drove to the cemetery to see where John's Uncle Wilbert and Aunt Ardella are buried. It nice to see the cemetery after hearing so much about it. It was time to hit the road again and we drove back out to the Tuttle area to have dinner with John's Uncle Charles and Aunt Dorothy. The last time we were at their house was after Mom's funeral, so it was nice to be there with happier circumstances. John's Uncle Harry and Aunt Lorene (hey! dad, I think we spelled her name wrong!) joined us. It was nice to visit and the food was amazing as always. I think John and I gained about twenty pound each in the last week! Back to the Y next week!

We left Tuttle on Sunday the 8th for Rochester. This was our longest day of driving yet. We hit several areas of heavy traffic and then a big rainstorm in the cities. Those two things added at least an hour to our drive time. Yuck. William was very well behaved and discovered that he could see different things out of his window. His favorite thing to look at out his window: Trucks. All in all we had a very nice trip and got to see a lot of family. And we ate way to much. But, we had a great time!

Smiles with Mommy!

William and his Grandma Heidt

William and his Grandma Heidt

Our family with William's Grandma Heidt

John's Uncle Carl and the buggy he built!

John's Aunt Anita had a beautiful flower garden!

Grandpa and John's Uncle Jim with William at the anniversary party

Mommy and William all dressed up


Grandpa Heidt, John, William with Aunt Violet and Uncle Earl

John's Uncle Wilbert and Aunt Ardella

William and 2 Great Aunts: Lorene and Dorothy

John's Uncle Charles and Aunt Dorothy and William

John's Aunt Lorene and Uncle Harry with William

Aunt Anita, William and Uncle Carl

Sleepy Baby boy!

PS If you are reading this and you know John's dad: ask him about the sheep. The story is worth it.

Grand Forks

We had a wonderful time in Grand Forks. Our family plus Grandpa Heidt enjoyed the hospitality of the McGarry Motel for two great nights. William was a trooper with the long drive and was very well behaved with the exception of at night. He slept through the night once when we were in Grand Forks. Bad boy. He succeeded in charming everyone with his smiles, giggles and sunny attitude (no lie! Ask anyone who was there!) He even impressed us with sleeping through the fire works on the the 4th.

William had a lot of important firsts in Grand Forks. It was his first time in North Dakota, his first time at his great Grandparents' houses, his first time eating at La Capana, his first visit to Ben Franklin Park and his first night in the train bedroom. While we were at the park, William discovered that cars are fascinating to watch. He wouldn't look at the camera or anyone else if there was a car driving by. We had to get a little creative in order to get some pictures!

We also enjoyed seeing Grand Forks with Grandpa Heidt. Grandpa Heidt hasn't been back to Grand Forks since his wild college days (okay, I'm making up the wild part). It was fun to look at the University and visit places where he lived when he was going to school and with Grandma Heidt.

So happy to be out of the car!

My new favorite thing! Standing and practicing walking!

Can we convert TA?

William's second time at La Capana (we forgot our camera the first time). This is a restaurant Mommy's been eating at since she was a baby!


At the Wennersten's

At the McGarry's


Ben Franklin Park (AKA Wobbly Park)

Swinging

Our beautiful horse! and William looking at cars!