Ten months and counting

Annalise turned 10 months on Sunday. She's over 19 pounds, crawling like a crazy baby, has two bottom teeth poking though and has a definite preference for her mother. he he he She's only two short months from turning one and I can't believe it. She still nurses well, she loves her food but can sometimes be moody about what she eats. She doesn't dislike anything, but will sometimes refuse things she's not in the mood for (like her pasta bites yesterday - not interested). She has a very loud screech that she occassionaly belts out, just to see if anyone is listening. She still gets up once per night (sometimes more). She pulls up on things and stands but is not interested in walking. She did discover the art of climbing the stairs but only seems interested if *I* am up there and she wants to try to re-cement her body to me. Did I mention that she loves me a lot? Did you know that an otherwise perfectly happy baby can be turned into a Tazmanian Devil if she can see her mother but is not being held by her mother. It is an interesting trait that Madeline never experienced. I don't mind at all though! :) I just eat up her attention.

Maddie is also doing well. She had a little bit of gratuity overload between her birthday/party and Chicago so we're trying to reverse the ill effects that we caused.

Anna, Maddie and Ryan all had a bout with the stomach flu. The jury is still out on whether or not Madeline actually had the stomach flu or suffered only from flu-envy. She did not have any expectorating like the other two, which leads me to believe she was only having sympathy symptoms. Everyone is now cured.

The garden is doing well. The eggplant are now being harvested and should continue to produce throughout the summer and fall. We harvested 106 onions and some 50 beets. We planted a new batch of beets and beans (and something else I can't remember). The blackberries are done but the raspberries are looking good and should be ready in a couple of weeks. There are many pumpkins, muskmelons and butternut squash developing. The cucumber keeps having something happen just when the cukes are starting to get big. The plant thrives but everytime one string looks good the whole string dies back. There's a few cukes on there now just waiting to grow. We'll see what happens. And the tomatoes are going crazy. I am going to can some salsa in a couple of weeks. The peppers are doing well too. The yellow squash died but the zuchini still produces well. There's the long and the short of it!

Happy Birthday Mom

I just wanted to say happy birthday to my mom. She would have been 62 this year. I really wanted to throw her a 60th birthday party but it was never organized. She wasn't really keen on the idea of having a party anyway, but I really wanted to give her one.

I wish I could be celebrating your birthday with you, here in Papillion, but that's not reality. So I just wanted to let you know I miss you and wish you a happy 62nd birthday. I know you're celebrating with dad.

More Chicago!

Maddie with the Ahlmans at the restaurant

Anjou and Annalise playing at Dave and Yukiyo's in Peoria

Myra and Maddie at BK

Maddie and Myra on their playset

Being goofy before we head back home

Chicago!

Boat cruise

Navy Pier ferris wheel just after their ride

Ryan and Anna sitting with Bob Newhart

Maddie atop the Hancock Tower

Anna and I at the Children's Museum

Five YEars Ago...

I had Madeline Sue on July 16. We celebrated her life on Saturday with a tea party. Nine of her friends came to the party. Everyone loved the clown, who painted their faces with butterflies and dolphins.

Recap on last week... Ryan went to Vegas on Monday and Grandma JoLene came over to help. Anna had a high fever all last weekend through Tuesday. She wasn't eating or sleeping well. I stayed home with her to offer her food at every opportunity. Finally on Tuesday evening she started eating again. As her teeth come in she's not nursing very well, but still growing like a chub chub.

I worked on Maddie's party all week, as did Ryan. Everything came together. Aunt Mary spent the afternoon with Anna during the party and Grandma JoLene and Grandpa came over to the party as well. We had a "family" celebration yesterday on her birthday and she opened her presents from us. I took two naps over the weekend to recover from the whole party shindig and I am STILL tired from the whole ordeal!

Anna is standing and starting to cruise around things. She loves being up. She still sticks everything in her mouth which is why we're replacing the downstairs carpet with cork in the next few weeks. It's all sitting at home waiting for Ryan to install :) Lucky Ryan!!!

Summer Fun

Tea time

Chair decorations

Fruit boquets for the tables

Finished playset, bridge to the tramp and platform with slide off the retaining wall.

Maddie at the zoo with her class.

We've been busy getting ready for Maddie's party. I am including some in-process pictures of her tea table and chairs. It looks pretty cute. I bagged the dress up clothes last night so everything is in gallon plastic bags for them on Sat. They will pick out their bag and dress up with the stuff inside each bag. I am making a couple of fruit boquets for the table too. You can see the empty boquets on the table. I will get the ready on Saturday.

Ryan finished the playset and built a cool boat-like bridge to teh trampoline. I am going to paint something on the top like "Pier 5" or "Horner Pier". Something with a boat theme but I am not sure yet what to paint. Ryan also built a platform off the other side of the retaining wall that is attached to the yellow slide from her last playset. So you can either slide down from the retaining wall, walk over the bridge to the trampoline or play on the new playset. Next year we're adding a playhouse loft over by the other slide. That's next year's project.

Last Friday Maddie went to the zoo with her school. Ryan drove a couple of the kids and a teacher and chaparoned the kids. I heard it was a very fun time. The kids all wore their tie-dyed shirts they made at school. It was very cute to see the pictures with them all in their matching shirts.

TEETH!!!

You heard it right folks, Annie is cutting her two bottom teeth simultaneously, which explains her SUUUUUPER crabby mood and runny stools. She has a med-high fever today so we're home. Maddie is home too because taking her to school would be more of a pain than it's worth. I had Anna's ears checked this morning and they're fine, so the cause of her pain lies squarely in her mouth.

Happy 4th of July

God bless America!

First glance.

The triumphant turnip

Almost done!

Happy 4th to everyone. Ryan is finishing up the playset. We had lunch at cici's pizza (YUM!) and are just hanging out until the big fireworks show starts on our street.

I forgot at add some other misc. pictures from before so I will attach them now. Have a fun and safe holiday!

9 months

Potatoes, beets, peas and cukes

The gardens are behind the tramp, but this shows the two retaining walls Ryan built.

Anna turned 9 months on Friday and she's officially lived as many days outside the womb as she lived inside. She's now signing "more" and I am trying to get her to sign "milk" but she's still working on it. She had her check up and is doing well. She weighs 18 lbs 10 oz, which is in the 50th percentile. I think she's 28 inches tall and her head is in the 75-80th percentile. She now eats two table meals each day and nurses the rest of the time. Last night she slept two 5 hour blocks in a row. She has a little bit of a cold and still NO teeth! She doesn't even seem to be getting close to cutting any teeth. That doesn't stop her from chomping and chewing like a pro.

Maddie is gearing up for her big day. She's having a tea party with a few friends over. Ryan is building her new playset and he's almost finished. She discovered it last Saturday. We were able to keep it from her for a week, which is pretty good. She told us she "was still surprised" when she saw it. So we all went to the back and sang happy birthday and she proceeded to climb all over it. She's been having a blast in it, even though it isn't finished yet. She's already invited the neighbor kids over to play.

Big news: Maddie decided that she wants to attend the public school program this fall. It's hard for me to accept, but that is what she wants. We'll try it and see how it goes. In the meantime she's still on the waiting list for a great montessori school (along with Anna) that goes through elementary school. It's the fallback if public school doesn't go well. I may have a nervous breakdown over the whole thing!

The first session of swimming lessons just ended and Madeline passed into the next level; level two. The swim teachers noted her lack of fear and willingness to try anything. They also said that "if you could bottle Madeline's energy, you could sell it in energy drinks", now THAT'S a big surprise! Ha ha ha. The second session begins next week.

We ordered my parent's monument. It will be very pretty and I look forward to having it set so we can put flowers at the grave.

The garden is growing well. The peas are done and there's a large frozen bag for the rest of the year, the beans are beginning to be ready. We had beets last week. I picked a turnip that I like to call my "triumphant turnip" because it was one of the plants Maddie and Ryan had "thinned" during the winter. Maddie asked to place the plants, they had picked during the thinning process, in water. Ryan said no and stated they would not live in a glass of water. I told them that we should just stick them in water to see what happens and if they die then we learned something and if they lived then Ryan learned something. Lo and behold the plants grew and grew until we transplanted them into dirt literally months later. Thos plants eventually were transplanted into the garden and are now three turnips and one kholrabi. They all look wonderful and I enjoy a chuckle everytime I see them. Maddie is very proud of her plants, even though she isn't interested in eating the turnip.