Updates on Progress

Several updates to add to our previous stuff:

1. Milk was introduced late last month. The first day was a mess and I truly thought we might never get this kid weaned. However, part way through day two with milk, something changed and now we are good to go. We've slowly started increasing the amount we give to him throughout the day so that after our one year appointment, we can start cutting out nursing sessions (with the doctor's approval, of course).

2. My second choice name for this post was the King of Babbel. William has been talking non stop for the last week. He seems pretty intense about what he is saying, but the rest of us can't figure out what he is talking about. We're still working to get some great recordings/video of this going on. The problem is our son loves (LOVES with a capital L) anything with button to push. Every time we take out the video camera or the recorder, he will stop whatever he is doing immediately and try to take the recording devise away so he can have his way with it. Here is a small sample of the meowing: Meow and Meow Again . This is probably the cutest thing I've seen this week alone. Anytime Will sees a cat, hears a cat meowing, or is looking for one of the cats, he will meow just like this. The funniest part is when the cats don't respond or he still can't see them, he will start yelling "MEOW! MEOW! MEOW!" trying to get them to come closer to him. Unfortunately for him, our cats don't respond to louder noises and tend to shy away.

3. Walking/Running: The walking and running are getting better and more accurate every day. The bad news is that it is getting harder to stay 5 steps ahead of our troublemaker. Most days, I'm settling for just 1 step ahead of him. This means a whole lot more work as he rarely sits in one place for more than .2654687 seconds. The accuracy is important as we have some pretty close calls with wall corners and the fireplace bricks and a few run ins that stopped my heart momentarily.

The new big thing is to walk places while holding things. I guess he figures, as long as I'm walking over here, I might as well take this ENORMOUS toy with me. Tonight, he got ahold of a four foot level tool of John's and was trying to

This isn't an update. William is still INTO everything. He now knows how to open this oven drawer (and oven door) all by himself! Scary I know, but we are working on coming up with safe solutions (current solution: don't use the oven).

Helping Mama cook dinner.


Getting dressed for church! This outfit is from Great Grandma Nona - it is almost too small! This is how we do most of our dressing/diaper changes these days. Getting him to lay down and be still is like wrestling a small but very strong alligator/wildebeast/insert animal here. The kicking, screaming, and crying are just not worth it to me anymore. We were needing to end many diaper changes with a 20 minute long cuddle session to settle down. Sure, I can get it done faster when he is laying down - but the stress isn't worth it!


I'm calling this photo "Kisses from Daddy". Although, a more accurate name might be "Trying to figure out how to get that neat looking toy from Mama"


Smile! Or not, whatever...


And the last update! Our TV shelf project now has trim around the edges and we've touched up the paint. Last steps are in progress: the shelves are in the midst of polyurethane-ing and the doors for the cabinet have been ordered! The end is in sight!

Finally Caught up!

I think I am finally caught up! Whew! That was a lot of work. On my honor, I swear I won't let it get that bad again! We have several updates I've been waiting to post so everything can stay in order.


1. William's walking: Walking/running are now the preferred mode of getting from point A to point B. He still isn't super steady on his feet and several times a day sends himself flying at great speeds into the closest pointy/dangerous object. I am now breathing normally only between the hours of 9pm - 7am.

2.William's first word/s! I was going to post about this before we left, but I wasn't entirely sure that he knew what he was saying. Also, I didn't want to write down in the baby book that his first word is : "No". Officially started 12/18/2007. I was kind of hoping for a mama or a dada or something else cute to write down. But, no it is. I guess he hears it often enough... Although I'm not thrilled that it is his first work, I have to admit it is the cutest darn thing when he says it! Somehow he has picked up a little southern accent (eek! We might need to move! Next he'll want grits for breakfast!) and it comes out "Nnnnoooooah". He uses it all the time now: No he doesn't want to drink his milk, no he doesn't want to be wiped off, no he doesn't want to be dressed, etc. My favorite is when he does something naughty like dropping/throwing food off of his high chair tray and tells himself "Nnnnooooah"

3. Over Christmas we added "mama" (sounds like MAH! and always at top volume) and this last weekend we added "Meow"! So cute! He is working on Dada too, just isn't as consisitent with it yet. All done, bye bye and night night are also in the works. I can't tell you cute the night night one is. He said it back to me the for the first time on Friday night after he was in his crib. I said "Night night William, I love you." He looked back at me and said "nye nye". I just wanted to scoop him right up and love on him for being so cute...but I didn't. I was strong and left him to go to sleep. He has now said "nye nye" every time I've put him down for a nap/bedtime since then! I'm not counting it as a true word yet because right now he is just repeating what I'm saying. I want him to MEAN it!

4. It was almost 75 degrees here on Sunday! It was a beautiful day! So, off we hiked with our hiking pals to Busch Wildlife area. It was great to get out and enjoy the fresh air as well as reconnect with our pals.

Daddy and William hike together

Jeff always has his laminated map ready to go (and alphabetized in his ring binder of course!)

It is funny the stuff you see out hiking...like kitchen sinks!

5. Over Christmas, I was starting to feel a little concerned about William's appetite. He had really slowed down to eating almost nothing with every meal, which is very usual for him. After some poking around, I discovered he is cutting at least 4 teeth (molars). Yuck! That would explain his lack of appetite as well as his crabbiness over the holiday! As of yesterday, we have molar completely through with 3 more close behind. Bring 'em on! Let's get this done!

Also, it seems like as soon as we got home, someone switched the hungry button back on again. Not what was the cause, just glad to not be worrying about it anymore.

6. Dancing. William got a Little People CD from his great grandparents McGarry and he LOVES it. He loves to "sing" along with it and dance also! It is too cute! Video is in the works.

7. I'm not sure love is the right word to describe William's feelings for the vacuum cleaner. He has always liked it and loves when I pull it out to clean. He especially likes this smaller vacuum as he can push it around himself....

When do you think he is old enough to have chores? I don't really care to vacuum...


Leave me alone! I'm busy!

I think he played with the vacuum for close to an hour yesterday...

The Rest of December

We hung out at the McGarry's for the rest of December. We visited daily with Grandpa Heidt and recovered from the flu. We got to go out to eat with William's godparents, the Gaedke's, without a baby (it was like being grown ups!) and we played lots of cards.

On December 29th, we celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary! I thought 6 years deserved something pretty special and so I had lots of ideas swirling around in my head. I knew I wouldn't be able to beat some of our previous anniversaries, but I could try! Here is a look at some previous anniversary celebrations!

Where else? Welcome to Melbourne (Mel-Burn or they'll make fun of you), Austrailia.


Dripping wet in front of Russell Falls, Tasmania, Austrailia.

Dressed for our Hole in the rock adventure

At the Hole in the Rock in New Zealand for our honeymoon

On our first anniversary, we were driving home from MN after Christmas. We had car trouble and ended up having an unromantic disagreement on the side of the road.... From then on, I promised myself we would always make plans and go somewhere to make our anniversary special.


On our 2nd anniversary trip to London and Paris. The Roman Baths on 12/29/2003 in Bath, England.

At Stonehenge

On the same trip, we took the Chunnel train to Paris for the day.


On our 3rd anniversary in Hawaii


Together on our 4th anniversary at the romance capital: Niagara Falls.


Together shortly before our 5th wedding anniversary. John is behind the, ummm, belly there. We made it back to St Louis for our anniversary, but I confess to being huge and miserable and putting something together very special. We went out to eat and didn't fight.






And this year? Well, Christmas and traveling with a baby and recovering from the flu took its toll on me. Grandma and Grandpa babysat while we went to dinner and then a movie together. Is it the Eifel tower? Nope, but that is our life now I guess! I confess to be a little disappointed with the lack of fanfare, but it was good to get out together and then have some great people to toast our marriage with champagne when we came home at the end of the evening.

Happy 6th Anniversary!

Ketchup

I am playing major Ketchup here! Please scroll down as I have added MANY posts in the last two days. I'm also trying to keep things in order. The next big event is:

William is 11 Months Old


Click the link above to read about our day or to see the new pictures I just put up!

PS Can you believe I am already planning a 1st birthday party?

Christmas Day with the McGarry Family

Our family tradition calls for us to spend Christmas Day with my dad's family. Lucky for us, both sets of my grandparents live in the same town. Everyone was feeling a little better with the exception of the new flubies (Great Grandpa Tom, Aunt Kaye). We opened gifts with Great Grandpa Tom and Great Grandma Gerry and then had a wonderful breakfast of homemade caramel rolls. Unfortunately, we had to pack up and head out early in the day so we could be back in time for Uncle Mike's flight back to California early on the 26th. Mike's travel plans and some weather concerns meant we were on the road by late morning. When we stopped by the Wennersten's to say good bye, we found Santa had come for us again! (He must be getting old, that Santa!)

William helping Mama with her presents: rubber scrapers! Weeee!


Getting more wear out of his "Baby's First Christmas" shirt! Staying out of trouble with Aunt Megan.

We sure enjoyed our time in Grand Forks as it has been part of our family tradition for so many years now. Having William be there with us just made this Christmas very special to us. There were a few things we didn't get to do like: put the double bladed skates on William for a turn around the rink at Wobbly Park, take William sledding at the park and bowling at Red Ray Lanes. We were able to check off the list : William eating Mexican food at La Capana, eating Christmas dinner with the Wennerstens, eating Christmas breakfast with the McGarry's, and lots of play time in between.

Merry Christmas Eve with the Wennerstens!

This one is kind of long, here is a summary. Feel free to read the short version and then skip ahead to the pictures.

Short version: We spent Christmas eve with my mom's family. It was wonderful being together again after several years apart on Christmas. Out of my 28 Christmases, there have been only 3 years I wasn't in Grand Forks for Christmas. We didn't eat because we were sick. We took pictures and opened wonderful gifts.


Long version:
Growing up, we have always spent Christmas Eve with my mom's side of the family and that was the plan this year also. However, it turns out we were packing more than Christmas cheer when we left Rochester. On December 23, John came down with some kind of flu bug. He rested and rested and was sick for the majority of the day. We all stayed clear and tried to enjoy our time with the family and our traditional lunches at La Capana. The evening of December 23rd, the bug spread and took down me, my dad, my sister and eventually my mom*. It was terrible to be sick far away from home on such a special holiday as my baby's first Christmas. So, we spent most of the day laying around and trying to feel better. We were all miserable. Poor John wasn't feeling great yet and had to entertain one very busy toddler by himself in a house full of sick/moaning/whining people. It was a tough day.

We all managed to pull it together for an appearance at the Wennersten's Christmas dinner. I won't say we did much more than that. It was the longest I was upright all day long - and it was hard work. Needless to say, it wasn't the first Christmas I had been planning! I'm a little disappointed with the pictures/lack of pictures, but I do have to say that John is AMAZING. He still wasn't feeling great and was in charge of both photography and keeping William out of trouble. Those two jobs don't really go together!

It spite of the yuckiness, we really enjoyed being together with family for William's first Christmas eve. He enjoyed having lefse again, playing with the wrapping paper, and climbing the stairs at Great Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Cleaning up after dinner: Kevin and Scott clean up the dessert plates.


Great Grandma and Grandpa in front of the tree. Please note: Budd actually DOES know Santa.


Great Grandpa and Grandma with their kids!


Grandma and Grandpa with all their grandkids AND great grandkids.**


Mike is holding William here because I...just couldn't. I was so Very tired!


After the grandchildren picture, I sat down and wasn't feeling like getting up again. So, the McGarry family picture (minus John?) happened on the couch. And yes, I am a little crabby this is the best shot we have.


Wennersten family


I'm calling this one "McGarry Children, in Profile". Nice job John!


Luckily our little boy is brilliant and occupied himself by reading "Ole and Lena" jokes during the photofest.

Kaye & Scott in front of the tree

Again, this is our best shot :( The Heidt family! On the flu!



William playing with one of his favorite Christmas presents. Too bad it wasn't his! It was a rug that is all rolled up with a tag holding it together in the middle. He loved rolling it around!

*It is interesting to note the only people who did not get sick were Michael and William. Interesting, huh?

**The shirt Mike is wearing was ironed by HIM before dinner. During dinner, he managed to spill some sort of sauce on himself as per the Mike McGarry Effect (if you are wearing a shirt, you will spill on it). This shirt was purchased recently when his ship (boat?) sailed from Maine to California. I once knew exactly where it was purchased (somewhere in the south Caribbean?), but I am getting old and feeble and have forgotten.

Christmas Morninig with McGarry's (December 20th) followed by long drive to ND

Wow! I'm so glad we brought our stockings to Minnesota with us because Santa came last night! We must have been good this year because they were full of great gifts for each of us!

Just for fun, we then packed up and were out the door on our way to North Dakota before 10 am! I think we are crazy! We did pretty well, but realized we forgot Will's winter jacket in the closet in MN after it was too late to go back and get it. We got to have wonderful chicken and noodles for dinner and then got to visit with Great Grandma Nona and Great Grandpa Budd. Here are some pictures:

But, I like reindeer! William admires Great Grandma Gerry's Christmas tree.


Grandpa tries to distract reindeer boy.


Click on this one to look at really big - it is too funny with both of them laughing! Also note the climbing is beginning as Will stands on someone's present (Sorry!).


What makes us laugh so hard? Throwing Elmo off the chair onto the floor.

Uncle Mike takes his turn keeping Will out of trouble.


Helping Grandma with her crossword...

The past few days, the amount William eats has dropped dramatically. I wasn't sure what was going on - here is a toofer check in progress. The verdict? I can feel the spikes of four (4) molars coming in!

Here, let me help you with that. William loves all things with buttons that make noise. Cell phones, remotes, computers, and hand held games.