Seasons

Madeline and Jaime

Artwork I created on my work dry-erase board

With a cool breeze in the air, the earthy smell of freshly cut grass and a small pit of excitement in my stomach we enter football season. I can hear the techno twang of the tunnel song right before the Huskers break out onto the field. Goosebumps rise on my arms and tiny tears swell up in the corners of my eyes. College days gone by I can still remember what it's like to sit in the student section of Husker stadium. Pretty soon we're going to have to take the girls. They won't have the enjoyment of a hot Fairbury hotdog wrapped in foil and doused with ketchup or foil-wrapped Runza, but they will be able to experience the electricity in the air and will probably as strongly associate Valentino's cheese pizza with football as we did with Fairbury hotdogs.

Husker season ushers in the fall season and the school activities begin in earnest. Madeline attended her first roller skating party last night. The mildew-y odor, dim lights, psychodelic decorations, carpeted benches, sticky snack bar counter, all girl skates, concrete block walls and relentless 70's and 80's music harken back to my own youth. They are, in fact, still playing the same songs they played when we were at the roller skating rink. Needless to say, Madeline had a fabulous time with her buddies Lissa, Andi and Jaime and will probably pester me in perpetuity to take her to the roller skating rink.

Photos

Pensive

Sweet

Sisterly love

Hanging out on a paddle boat

Nearly 11 months

Annie is almost 11 months old. She loves to pull up and cruise a little bit. She loves to scrunch up her face to smile (and looks a little like Popeye). She is extremely fast on all fours, is a daredevil and active. She can go up and down the stairs, babbles a lot and is still very smiley. She easily occupies herself in the playroom with musical instruments and markers. She loves to chew on an emery board in the playroom. She doesn't like to sit and listen to books, but enjoys lifting flaps on books and occassionally feeling a "touch and feel" book. She eats like a horse and loves broccoli. Raspberries and broccoli are her favorites. She is still cloth diapered and nursed. She eats two meals daily and a couple of snacks too. She loves to poke her index finger into her mouth while she's nursing, which is of course counterprodictive to the whole idea of nursing. I guess she's just trying different things to see what happens.

She lost a little weight since she became a speed-demon crawler. I think she's alomost 19 pounds. She was closer to 20 before.

Maddie made some new friends at school; Jamie and Lissa. Maddie had a play date with Lissa last week. The two girls drug us to each other after school one day so we could "meet" and plan the playdate. We'll probably see Lissa this weekend after our houseguests leave. Maddie wants to have her over for dinner. I am not sure what is the significance of dinner but for some reason it has high importance for Madeline.

Ryan just got back from Virginia. He had some trouble in Chicago due to the tornadoes yesterday. He finally made it back at 830 this morning (he was due back at 6:50 last night). I came down with a fever and have chills. I guess I caught a bug. We have friends from Peoria coming this evening and staying through Sunday. We hope to have some fun with them while they're here. That's all for us. Nanu nanu.

Everyday fun

One of Annalise's favorite things to do: pull books off the shelf!

Look how cute I am...

So proud of herself!

Madeline and I played Balloon Lagoon last night.

The bathroom: post-grout.

Stuff

At lunch with Maddie (goofball)

Bathroom slate

A few random things. Anna now likes to wave goodbye. She does the side to side wave like most people do. If she wants more ice cream, she likes to give a short high pitched screetch. A third tooth on the top looks like it might be poking through.

Maddie starts Spanish tutoring tomorrow with her former Montessori teacher Miss Trina. She's looking forward to that. We're having "Mexican night" this Friday where we are going to try and speak as little English as possible.

We went to the Zoo on Sat. and met up with Maddie's bestest friends; Ashley and Audrey. We enjoyed speding time with them and their parents; Teresa and Jim. Our neighbor offered to sell them their house behind us. That would be great if they did! Maddie would be in heaven. We decided we'd have to put a gate up in the fence so we could go freely back and forth.

I had lunch with Maddie on Friday at her school. It was fun. It's amazing how in all her years at Montessori she could never eat within the time frame, but she was able to eat much faster at her school. Today she's having hot lunch (cheese pizza) for the first time! We'll see how that goes.

As Ryan professes "the floors are now substantially complete". He needs to do some finishing touches, including the trim/quarter round, and grout the bathroom. The bathroom looks great. We're ordering new bathroom hardware from Ikea. It will look pretty cool.

And today is my parents wedding anniversary. They're celebrating together in heaven for the first time in 9 years.

Kindergarten!

Getting ready to leave. Wearing her backpack full of "supplies"

Feeling kind of shy

In she goes. A little too fast for me. All the parents were wiping tears.

Mrs. Wittmuss' classroom (she's right inside the door there)

Still feeling a little shy as I sleuth a picture from outside in the hall.

Madeline Sue started kindergarten today! She said she was feeling a little shy but when it came time, she grabbed her teacher's hand and went straight in. I went by right after they went in and she looked like she was still feeling shy, but about thirty minutes later she looked pretty content.

Goodbye

From the moment of birth, the ensuing cries
come the inevitable start of goodbyes.

Goodbye umbilical cord stump, fuzzy fur,
goodbye lanugo, winkles and cradle cap.

Goodbye teeny cries, scooting, crawling,
babbling, and grunting. Goodbye rice cereal,
pureed foods.

No more rocking and nuzzling. Goodbye tiny
bites and breastmilk. No more biting, hitting
and crying. Goodbye sleeping on back.

Goodbye diapers and afternoon nap. So long
daycare, stroller, carseat and training wheels.

No need for band-aid patrol, close supervision.
Goodbye "mommy" and "daddy", dress-up and
princesses.

Goodbye Barbies, dolls and finger paints. Cherish
them while they are young, because goodbyes come
too quickly.

Hello daughters; my loves, my life, my girls.