the latest

Time flies when you're having fun and livin' the good life.

Today we are prepping for a St Patty's themed party - Irish soda bread, corned beef, cabbage and root vegetables. And trying to finish our closet reorganization project.

Currently trying to get Zach to take a nap- second attempt - not going well.


Updates-

Dylan - registered for kindergarten last week. He's very excited and ready. Too bad it won't be for another 6 months. Preschool is going well, he enjoys it but comes home at lunch time ready for an afternoon full of excitement that's not always there.

Zachary - Is a full fledged jabberjawed 22 month old boy. Just minutes ago he dumped a full cup of water over his head and earlier today during some naked time peed on one of our chairs...the first time for this but not being naked for a time for diaper rash purposes. He loves mud!

Me - busy with wegoshop, preschool, playdates, beer merchandising...but amazingly happy and doing well. I've lost 15 pounds since January and I'm feeling great. Trying to reprogram my brain for eating a normal amount of food. So far so good.

Tricia - for the most part pretty good. She's older than I(7 months) so she's dealing with many more physical ailments, namely spreadsheetitis. It's complicated but seems to originate in one's head and park in your neck and back...nothing a treadmill or workout regime while working wouldn't cure. All practical additions to an accountants work day.

Update

Zachary has been walking well for about 5 days. What I mean by well is he can go the length of a room, turn around and not fall over. He's got words but they're not always understandable. The answer to every question is either "yeah" or nodding his head. He's already agreed to change my diapers when I'm old.

Dylan is currently dealing with the poopy/pukey flu and sleeping. Don't worry we will have him checked at the dr during Zach's 1 year appt this afternoon.

Me - can't wait for our trip to Texas!!

Tricia - ??, same as above.

Eye drop trick works!

Have your child close there eyes. Put one drop on the inner part of the eye lid where they meet and then have them open there eye and turn so the drop falls into there eye. Repeat with the other eye.

Thanks Ms Deb!

Update

Me - I want warm weather and I want it now!

Dylan - enjoying school, riding his big boy bike everywhere, using his spider man umbrella, hating eye drops. I just got a tip from Ms. Deb; I'll let you know how it works.


Zachary - standing without help, not walking but pushing things around the house, throwing tantrums, getting teeth 5, 6, & 7, sleeping erratically. Currently sleeping.


Mommy - Work is challenging and assistant is on vacation making working very tiring. It doesn't help that Zachary's engages in one to two wrestling matches every late night to early morning.

Hey it's small but that would be indicative of the time I have for posting observations. Not much. I'll publish the eye drop trick if it's worthwhile....I'm not holding my breath.

Today is colder....

ssdd.

Today is cold

and I'm taking this opportunity to let Zachary sleep on me as long as he likes. The post will be short cause it's hard to type with one hand. I'm off to play mafia wars on facebook.

A bit too much

On a day that hasn't gone as planned....probably because I tried to do too many errands...Dylan and I are having fun updating the blogs while Zachary naps. (This also means that Dylan isn't taking one)

It all started when I went into get the list from my first delivery. I locked that doors, left the car running (with the kids in it) and walked into the entry way. After I got the list (I was literally gone 1 min.) I tried to unlock the doors with my remote.....it didn't work. And to make matters worse, I left my cell in the car. So, I'm sitting outside the building with my car running, children inside and no way to get help.

Since I'm so smart, and there are social workers who have offices in the building, I asked one to use their phone. Thankfully, Tricia was able to come straight over from work (we were only 1 mile away) and unlock the door. I was able to finish the job and get going on my way.

Another note, it's sometimes a good idea to warm frozen breast milk on the dashboard. Today was not one of them. As I was driving in the snowstorm, I periodically took the tube of milk off the dashboard and shook it. Most of the time, and I've done this before, it works fine. But this time it spurted all over the place. Needless to say, I wasn't very happy.

Then, off to REI to pick-up an exchange. I think, oh a quick pit stop for a diaper change and window shop while Zachary drinks his bottle. I didn't realize that today was the largest sale day of the year. Cars everywhere! It took me 20 minutes just to wait in line and pay for the item I had shipped there. Not to mention the time it took for me to keep Dylan away from the flaming Frisbee toy that he pesters me about. Zachary's diaper change was annoying not because they didn't have a changing table in the men's bathroom, but because they left a toilet plunger in the handicap/baby changing stall.....and guess who played with it and threw a fit when I made him stop. Any other day of the week I can walk in and out without a problem. I didn't buy anything except two Clif bars (one pumpkin pie and one chunky peanut butter flavored) because someone was hungry and ate all of the snacks I packed for him. He didn't like either. So I ate them.

Beer pick-up at Frank Beer was uneventful.

Dylan ate a good lunch and playing quietly in his room. My stomach is full of Clif bars and feeling funny. Zachary is sleeping(and recently moved to me to finish it).

Zachary & and Grandma Johnson

This may seem strange to many of you but I've been convinced for awhile that Zachary's been seeing ghosts. And after our experiences over the past few months, I'm sure we know whom, My grandma Johnson. In the hospital Zachary would smile (not just any smile a huge smile) at random areas of the room. As he got older it happened less but on X-mas eve it happened again and I'm convinced.

We went to X-mas eve service at the church where my dad's family (my great grandparents, grandparents) were charter members. Anyway, I didn't think about it initially but Zachary was constantly looking over his shoulder smiling and giggling. I thought he was making faces at the lady three rows behind us but most of the time, she wasn't paying any attention to him. I also noticed that he was waving less like Zachary waves (hand over mouth and saying ahhhhh) and more like my grandma used to wave(like you're making a shadow puppet on the wall). That's the way he was waving and he hasn't done it since.

Needless to say I wasn't quick to believe this but I got to thinking....my grandparents always sat 1/2 way up on the left side of the sanctuary and we were right in front of that. It gets a little more peculiar, I have a bookmark with my grandmother's eulogy and photo printed on it that I still use. Tricia showed it to Zachary the other night and he got a huge smile on his face, like Tricia said at the time, it's the smile he gives when he recognizes someone. The next night, we tried it with different pictures of relatives on the wall (some he knew and smiled at and others he didn't and we got no reaction)

As a child, I remember her playful nature, and as I got older watching and seeing her affinity for children. I can think of no better place for her to visit than a house of god and playing games with children.

at walgreens

Dylan informed me today, right before we got out of the car, that if I bought him one more car from Walgreen's it would be his last. "then, I'll be done with cars", he said. DID I HEAR YOU CORRECTLY? DONE? That's hilarious! I was laughing at his proposal and trying to tell him that it's not nice to tell lies to get your way.

He's manipulating me.....or is he? Maybe it's true and I won't get to buy more cars for Dylan. Wait there's still Zachary, no problem, bring on the action figures!


(I don't have any witnesses because Zachary was sleeping in the car and in the teeny tiny shopping carts that they provide. So, I figured that I would make anyone that reads this a witness. Also, I didn't buy him a car with the hopes that he will forget about forgetting about cars.)

On the status of life.

Well, I'm back from the holidays, and a bit sad to see them go. Why? It marks a new year and I'm going back to work. Not full-time or even enough to be part-time, (it's every two weeks on the weekend) and yes, I'm still operating my business out of my home. It's the principle that with the state of everything, and we're all feeling it somehow, we need a bit more money coming in.

So that's gonna complicate things a bit. Hey, what would life be without loads of everyday tasks to muddle your progress and make you feel unable to read a book, talk to yourself(uninterrupted), see your wife, talk to your wife (when there's time, energy, and something besides the logistics and/or strategies of parenting), have sex(this is a joke, if I can't talk to my wife how the hell will this occur), and think. It's amazing to me how I can stare off into space(or at a car, tree, the wall) and be completely entertained by my thoughts or the complete lack thereof.

(I just stared at the computer screen and nothing, yes nothing, went on in my head.)

Child update.

Dylan is watching a movie at Auntie JJ's. He's learning how to argue a point. Last night after he was informed that he wouldn't be taking a bath because Zachary was too sleepy to join him, he responded by stating this fact. Before we had our baby, I used to take baths by myself. Good point, I said, but you're still not getting a bath. At some point, because I said so, isn't going to work anymore.

Zachary is sleeping. He is crawling, munching on graham crackers, and standing while holding onto semi-stationary objects. He gets very upset when the objects move or when he tries to free-stand. Until recently, he was averaging one dead man fall per day, but those seem to be lessening due to his increasing coordination.

Everything you wanted to know about effluent.....and more

Dylan has been relatively persistent with the question, "Where does peepee and poop go?". So, we took a virtual tour via the Madison Metropolitan Sewer district's website. (http://www.madsewer.org/) It's quite informative and way to wordy for a 3 year old....it takes me back to my dates as a Water Chemistry Student, of which I don't' remember much. It's waste water management at it's finest complete with biological organisms that help breakdown the peepee or poop (sludge) depicted by green looking pacmen in there cross-section drawings.

I'm writing more as an FYI - so when Dylan starts spouting off information about waste water treatments finer points, you'll know where it came from which is how we got into this situation to begin with.

If you're interested in attending a tour of the facility, we would be "very" excited to join you.

concerning time

Both napping, pizza dough in the machine and really nothing better to do. I didn't say nothing to do.....I said nothing better to do. I could be cleaning, folding, straightening, marketing Wegoshop.com but I'm not going to because this is my time and it may only last a few minutes. Fortunately for me, when both children nap, I can choose what to do. (To all those simpathetic with the matriarc of the family, of which I am one, we'll have to work something into the schedule) To make matters worse, Tricia is sick with a stuffing, aching, not-so-much-of-a-fever but with plenty of kleenx for a nose that really could use some medicine but she would rather not drug the baby sort of situation. So again, she's my hero. I'm the biggest baby in the world, including Zachary, if anything doesn't feel quite right. I'd like to thank you for my health.

An update:

Zachary has developed a method of locomotion. We can it squiggling. It's a combination leg thrust/up on his forearm/driving his head into the floor kind of motion. It's effective and gets him where he wants to go. Most notably but not limited to - small magnet letters, cat hair, balloons, dylan's hair, shoes, the wheels on grandma and grandpa's walkers, the edges of rugs, and his own puke.

Dylan has made an evil friend. Candy.

Me - I'm perfect.

Tricia - See her last post or her next one. I had no idea she was actually going to blog. I'm excited and alittle frightened.

Mommy Time

Zachary is now 5 months old. He is a wonderfully, smiley, little baby. But, he still demands all of my attention from the minute I get home to the minute I leave for work again. But how can I get frustrated when he smiles at me like that?

Dylan is such a big boy. He loves his little brother and is a very good big brother to him. However, Dylan has learned from Zachary, that the only way to get any Mommy time, he has to cry for it. So, when Zach is monopolizing Mommy's time, Dylan will cry. At which point Mommy hands Zach to Daddy and Dylan gets Mommy for about 5 minutes until Zach realizes he's been had.

So this morning Dylan wakes up mere minutes before my alarm goes off (5.27am) crying for me. He has had a bad dream. So I tuck him into bed with Daddy & Zach and head off for the shower. After my morning bathroom ritual, I sneak downstairs (well aware that Dylan is still awake) for a quiet cup of coffee. It is now 5.50am. I barely get a coffee cup down when I hear two crying baby's. Upstairs I head because I know Joel doesn't do well being woken up like this.

So much for my quiet cup of coffee by myself. Both kids are up and now that I've been spotted, both are vying for Mommy Time.

I think Joel has become used to not getting any Mommy Time. He's adapted well. I however, have not. I know that as they get older, the kids will want nothing to do with us and I will have all the time in the world to be by myself. But will I live to see it? Right now I'm sitting at my desk with my head pounding because I can't remember the last time I had any down time.

On taking a nap

Dylan, or should I say No Napping Nate, has developed a number of tactics to prevent naps. Quite frankly I've had about enough. He will do any one of the following and most of the time results in a winning combination. (Thus, I don't get anytime to myself.) Zachary is currently sleeping, and during this part of the day is my favorite by a large margin say....from here to the moon.

It starts with a request for toys in bed. A reminder that I didn't turn on the music. He wants his fan on. Needs to be tucked in again. I have to go potty(peepee). I return each time asking him to lay down, close your eyes and go to sleep. I'm taking the toy away. I check again and he's laying on his belly reading a book (in his bed), I can't get too angry or frustrated with this. So, I let him finish the book and then take it away...and every time, trying very hard to remain calm, I repeat lay down, close your eyes and go to sleep. Next, it's I have to go poopy. (Which entails going downstairs with a book in hand and sitting on the potty for a ridiculously long time. 50% of the time he doesn't go but uses it as another opportunity to look at a book.) We return to his bedroom and I repeat my mantra. Lay down, close your eyes and go to sleep. By this time, I'm starting to get sleepy from saying this damn phrase so often. Finally, and usually after I'm convinced that he's either never going to take a nap or I've just chosen to ignore his movements, he either falls asleep or I have to enact the stay-in-your-room until Zachary wakes up command. And if I'm lucky this will last for 15 minutes.... giving me enough time to go to the bathroom, alone.

Me-mornings are great. afternoons can be trying. night time is exhausting.

Tricia - work is an escape but challenging. home is demanding. sleep is intermittent.

Dylan - Breakfast before Sid the Science kid is a bad policy. Pre-school is fun and naps are unnecessary. I want my mommy.

Zachary - I'm Happy! Mommy, Mommy! Every thing's too far away and I want my MOMMY!

If you've got so much time.....write your own blog

Whenever it takes me a few days (this time it was 10days) to post new pictures to the blog, I get a few (two to three this time) messages from friends and family about the need for new pictures. I have a suggestion. Take your own pictures and write your own commentary. I have a hard enough time finding clean cloths and remembering if I spend anytime in a shower on any given day.

Updates-
Dylan is finding naptime increasingly inconvenient. I view his attitude towards naps as very inconvenient. So what gives? He usually falls asleep later in the afternoon and 1 out of the last three times he slept from 4ish until the next morning. Last night he woke up 7ish, drank some juice and went to bed. (he went peepee before going to bed) At 3am I woke up with him next to me (I don't remember when he got in bed) soaked in pee. So, we got up washed him up. He slept in his bed. I slept on the floor. I hardly think this is fair. But I'd be more delusional than I am if I expected raising children to be fair. It's amazing, exhausting, and not fair.

Zachary loves to smile. At everyone. Including but not limited to me, Tricia, jj, Dylan, strange homeless people named Kevin that won't stop talking to us while we eat our lunch, Megan, Sandy, and anyone he's never seen before but looks in his general direction.

Me - My shoulder hurts from sleeping on the floor next to Dylan's bed. I'm sure it could have been worse. But I have to complain about something. Zach's crying to be held. Hope to read your blogs soon.

What's Next?

I have a solution to our government buying out/loaning companies money. Sell our companies to China. They're interested in our debt why not our "real" companies. Hell, they can take our whole economy.

If that doesn't work. Let's just give ourselves a loan and let our children pay it off. Oh, wait a minute that's what we've done.

Can we get some freaking fiscal responsibility? If someone knows where we could buy it; it would be our wisest investment.

Since when does deficit spending make sense. How many companies are engaging in this practice. And how many more need to be managed/bought out/loaned money so that our stock market might rebound in the near future?

I'm dumbfounded and completely annoyed.

Some answers from either one of the potential presidents would be nice. But I'm old enough to know that novel concept won't happen. Instead we'll hear about who's or what's wearing lipstick, whether or not comments are sexiest or racist and see how far the facts can be stretched in political advertising.

Utterly ridiculous.

For Zachary? He's continuing to screech, eat, sleep, laugh. He's begun to giggle when I tickle him. He's rolled over from front to back and back to front but not when he wants to, which is quite frustrating. He's still pooping once a week and that is still Tricia's problem.

For Dylan? He's starting preschool tomorrow. Yes, he's very excited!

For me? My wife. I got to talk with my wife. Even for a two hour period at the Malt House (on Milwaukee street) and thanks Jennifer for watching the kids! I got pants that fit and gave away the ones that didn't. I found my butt...I'm not sure where it went but I have a theory about men over 35 or maybe it was men with children but anyway.....it's that your butt leaves and reappears on the front porch or beer guttial region.

I can't speak for Tricia but I would think the best thing is new clothes!!!!

It's September already.

Wow. I really can write and post to this blog. I was beginning to think that there would never again be time in my day for this sort of "me" time.

Edgewood Community Band started up again last night and, again, I'm having a hard time counting my rests through all the time signature changes. It was the first night in 5 months and the first time through the music but I can't help thinking that the music would be easier to play if the composer would stick with a tempo and time signature for at least 10 measures at a time. I think it would be easier for a volunteer band to play and a volunteer crowd to listen to.

Dylan - is a little big boy, because Logan is a big boy, and he routinely talks like a baby and makes up silly words. He just recently used the words actually and suddenly in sentences and can now say the word squirrel along with Puyallup, Washington (although this is not new) and we've been working on nocturnal and sustenance. He will be starting preschool on the 18th and is very excited about it.

Zachary - has displayed his voice. He screeches, screams, and ooo's whenever he thinks about it. He's also waved to me a few times. He likes to eat his hands, grab things and drool. Recently, he as decided that he no longer poops. (I think this is from mommy)

I'd write more but the 3 o'clock feeding is 20 minutes past due and the monster should be stirring soon.

An Update.

This month is almost over and I have written nothing but two posts about my camera. (I could write about the gas prices, global climate change, or the upcoming presidental election but those issues don't impact my life on a day to day basis like the health of my camera) It continues to give me the error and I continue to twist and pull to fix it. The pictures are still acceptable so we won't be taking any action as of yet.

Tricia has been back to work for three weeks by the end of today and finally Zachary is falling into a somewhat predictable pattern. He wakes. He eats. I change his diaper. He coos, squirms, and has tummy time. He gets fussy. He goes to sleep, sometimes. And during these sometimes he stays awake and requires holding, rocking in a chair or walking around to assist him into a deeper sleep.

When the predictable behavior happens, I'm able to clean the house, clean myself, make dinner, put out the buffet spread (Lois and Dylan's all-day meal) and complete other household tasks like - playing with Dylan, going to the park, changing Lois's diaper, and writing and posting pictures to these blogs.

Zachary is/and has been sleeping through the night since day 4 of his life. (Please don't send mean spirited comments or you'll be cursed with a non-sleeper.) I know that we've been lucky with Dylan and Zachary

Dylan continues to be a bit more whinny and needy, especially when it comes to mommy-time but we expected that. Overall, he's a great big brother and loves to play with Zachary whether it's touching his body parts and naming them or pretending to eat his toes. The past two mornings, they've watched Sesame Street together laying and sitting side by side on the couch, covered with the same blanket.

Camera - It's fixed...I think.

So the lens had been stuck open and the picture on the LCD screen was very blurry. After a few seconds the camera would beep and LCD would read, lens error, restart camera. When I restarted the camera it would produce the same blurry picture and repeat. This was and sometimes still is my problem. My advice. Don't buy a Canon Powershot CD1000 digital ELPH or any camera that has a lens that telescopes every time you turn it on or off. (That is if you ever plan on taking it out of the container) I will have to preface this by saying, it takes great pictures and I love it but there is a serious design flaw.

Here's what I found when I googled it.....paraphrased of course. After looking on various chat rooms regarding my error message, I've found that I have a few options to explore. Number 1, remove the battery, put it back in and then restart. No dice. Number 2, hit (with moderate force) on a the end where your battery is housed. This didn't work for me but fixed the problem for some people. Number 3 and the winning option, twist and pull(lightly) on the telescoping lens and it with click and all will be better. That is until it gets stuck again, and it has. Great design! A word of caution, don't toggle from camera, to video, to picture review while the camera is on....it makes the lens go in and out, gets stuck and gives this error alot! Number 4, send it to Canon. If a warranty would cover this problem, which it appears by reading these chats that it doesn't, you could send it into Canon. Since I don't have a warranty, I took it apart and looked at it just long enough to realize that I should put it back together. For the record, it's not a good idea. I was able to get it back together and it still works.

So far, no need for a new camera, but I've added it to the budget.

Lens error. Restart camera.

My day is officially ruined. What will I do? My camera won't stop giving me this message. I think I'm going to cry. Never mind, Zachary's awake, he'll cry for me.