Tuesday, November 4, 2008

The child-proofing begins

Josiah's started playing roly-poly on his bedroom floor.  He no longer just flops around on his blanket.  He rolls until he can't go any more.  Just a little while ago he bonked his head into the bottom of his little rocking chair.  It left a red mark but it's already gone.  So now there is a blanket in front of the chair.

Next thing I know he'll be crawling!!

Saturday, November 1, 2008

6 Months

Josiah turned 6 months this past Tues.  Wed. he had his check up and shots. We also started him on rice cereal that night. Below are two videos of his first tasting. I'll warn you ahead of time the first one is about 3 minutes long and the second is about 4 minutes. I didn't edit them because one, I'm not really sure how and two, I know our families want to see it all. If you are not family, don't feel obligated to watch the whole thing.  He makes some pretty good faces in the first video, so you don't miss much not watching the second one.



More cuteness...



Monday, October 27, 2008

Two post in one day!!

The first weekend in Oct we took advantage of the beautiful fall weekend and went camping up along the North Shore of Superior.  We didn't get to the campground until after dark only to find out they were completely full as were all the other state parks along Superior!  Apparently you had to reserve a site 3 weeks in advance.  We just don't work that way.  Thankfully there were two forest campgrounds just down the road that had plenty of space available.
That night the temperature went below freezing to somewhere between 25-27 degrees.  It was cold but I surprisingly stayed warm if I didn't move, Mike didn't have as much luck.  Usually we have the aid of sleeping pads to soften the ground and keep us warm but yours truly didn't pack them!!  So we did not really enjoy our sleeping that night.  You're probably wandering how Josiah did during his first below freezing night.  Well, he didn't sleep as good as normal but probably because he was too hot!  We had that little guy wrapped up snug on top of a folded blanket and sleeping between us.  So we didn't end up staying another night since we didn't know what the temps were going to be.
I think Mike was more than eager to get out of the tent in the morning to get the fire started. We had a great breakfast of skillet hash: eggs, tater tots and bacon all cooked in bacon grease. 

 It was good and rich!  You can only get away with that when you're camping.

Hanging at the campsite with Dad

We enjoyed a nice relaxing morning cooking breakfast.  When we finally packed up, we went driving.  Usually Mike's not up for this, but he was that day.  We ended up driving to Ely.   Ely is a popular place due to it's proximity to the Boundary Waters, which is a popular canoeing destination in MN.

We ended our drive back at the state park we were going to spend the night.  We went for a short hike along the Baptism River.  

The fall leaves were pretty but we only saw one really red maple, the rest were birch trees and evergreens.



The following weekend was the University of Sioux Falls 125th Anniversary.  This is where Mike went for his undergrad and is only one hour past his parents house.  We stayed at his parents for the weekend and went to Sioux Falls on Sat to visit with Mike's college friends and one of his professors.  We had a good time visiting.

So that catches you up on our events. Somewhere along the way Josiah started sitting up.  He doesn't have any teeth yet but I keep checking.  Two boys born a few days before and after him have their bottom teeth in.  Mike and I didn't get any teeth until we were at least one, so I'm hoping he'll be the same way.
One more post will get you caught up to the present!

I'm a slacker...

I keep telling myself I need to post more often.  By the time I sit down to do another post there is sooo much that has happened I don't feel like going through it all!  It's been over a month since the last post! 
Well here's brief summary of what has been going on: (I have to read my last post to see where I left off)  Ok, ok, it's been WELL over a month since I've posted! (Now I'm looking at our calender to remind what has happened, sad.)
Not long after Josiah and I returned from TX, Mike and his brother went on a road trip out to California to go surfing for a week.  They only surfed for a day but took the week to travel, they hit several places on the way out to to CA: Vegas, Zion, and Hoover Dam.  They had more planned but they aren't as young as they used to be.  While they were enjoying themselves out on the road, my mom came up for the week.  We had much planned also but didn't get it all in.  We did go the Science Museum to see their Omnitheater movie about the Great Lakes.  The following day we drove up to Duluth for the day.  I always love going up there.  Lake Superior quickly became one of my favorite destinations since my time at Honeyrock.  We drove along Skyline drive above Duluth and ran into alot of bird watchers.  Early Sept. is when the hawks, eagles and other raptors start migrating south and Duluth is the place to watch.  We also went down by the harbor and watched a freighter come through the canal under the lift bridge.  It was really neat to see it up close.


Here it comes...

Closer...

There it goes under the lift bridge.


As you can see it was a beautiful day!

Josiah was mesmerized by the water.
I think this is the most sun he's had in his entire life, can you tell?

Josiah is waking up from his nap, so I'll stop here and try to continue during the next nap time.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Only in Texas...

is every other vehicle a SUV or bigger and can you go to a Mexican food restaurant and have the waiter ask if you want tea, water or Dr. Pepper!!! Man, I missed Texas!!

Josiah and I just spent 10 days down in Texas. We flew down the Tues before Labor Day and came back last Thursday. We had a great time and he did really well flying. I'm sure all the business men and women on our morning flights were excited to see me walk in with a baby, but thankfully he slept the whole time!!
The first few days we spent time in Abilene with my grandmother, Dad and Lauren. During the weekend we spent time with our Labor Day crowd (all of mom's college roomates and families, who we've gone camping every LD weekend before any of us kids were born). This time we stayed in a hotel which I didn't mind since it was hot! I've been spoiled by being up north already...
The last few days we spent with my mom in Dallas. My good friend Bethany also got to meet Josiah, we had a good visit with her!
And were able to see my Aunt, Uncle, cousin and her family. Here's some pictures from that visit:

Josiah, Lisa and cousin Ben

Cousin Ben was nice enough to let Josiah use a swim diaper, it worked even if a little big!

He didn't like his first time in the pool but...

he adjusted, you know he doesn't mind if he's chewing his fingers.


Josiah, Ben and Ben's older brother Kyle.
Three blue-eyed stud muffins!!

During this busy but fun month, Josiah started rolling from his back to his stomach and grabbing his feet!!
August was a month of many firsts:
  • boat ride
  • plane trip
  • time in TX
  • swimming
  • rolling over
  • grabbing feet
  • getting licked by a chihuahua...just kidding Mike!!
  • sticking feet in Lake Superior
  • meeting friends and family

WOW! August flew by....

I'm not even sure where to start but I'll try to catch you up on everything we've been doing! I'm at Panera enjoying ME time and catching up on this blog.


The first weekend in Aug. we got together with Mike's college friends and families at a cabin north of here. It's seems everyone has cabin up north in MN, they even have a weekend cabin weather forecast on the evening news. There were six families that came from Minnesota, Wyoming, Illinios and Iowa. We slept outside in a tent and went to sleep to the sound of loons and people talking around the campfire. The weather was absolutely perfect, warm enough to swim during the day and cool enough at night to wear pants and sweatshirts! Josiah went on his first boat ride around the lake, he didn't say if he liked it or not? I already new most everyone or had at least met them once, but it was really nice that two other mom's had little guys too. We had a mini la leche group! I didn't have to hide away while I was feeding Josiah, instead got to talk to the others a lot.


The following weekend went camping again with one of the couples from the previous group. They where one vacation the whole time and we met them up in Bayfield, WI. We went berry picking at a farm up there. Bayfield is right on Lake Superior and by the Apostle Islands. It's a beautiful area that would be great a great place to live if you could stand the harsh winters! Funny thing is this time last year we were pregnant but didn't know it yet! So technically, this is Josiah's second time to be there. This is us last year!!
The blueberries were huge and very tasty! And the weather was a lot warmer! Here's some more pics from this trip this year:
Full moon coming up over Lake Superior and Madeline Island


Blueberry bushes


Some berries where the size of quarters!!

Blue Vista Farm




Our happy little guy!!

Josiah in Mike's hat...

Wyatt in Mike's hat.

After all that fun, we drove home with the driver's side window down because it broke and with a faulty driver's seatbelt buckle! So we took the slower scenic route through WI.
Mike has spent the last few weeks working on the Explorer. All these things and more would quite working right after we bought new tires!!! The Chilton and Hayne's manuals and Joe's salvage yard have become Mike's new best friends! By the time we're done, the Explorer will be made of more used parts than original. Also each of the used parts have come from every state we've lived in minus Idaho.
Okay time for a new post...

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Josiah meets Chewie



What better way to celebrate a 3 month birthday than to introduce our son to Star Wars. The funny thing is we're not huge, huge fans, we just grew up watching the movies.
The Science Museum has a Star Wars exhibit going on right now. They have all the original costumes and model ships used in the movies. It was neat to watch how they filmed the ships flying and how they came up with the sound effects. Since CGI wasn't around back then, they were creative in making the movie.

In the omnitheater, a special effects movie was showing on how they made the model cities in Star Wars and how they blew up the capital in Independence Day. Josiah added his own special effect to the viewing. We went Monday night so very few people were in the theater. We sat away from everyone else so I could feed Josiah while we watched the show. Mike was burping him afterwards. Josiah's special effect was too much for the disposable diaper and Mike's hand, shirt and pants were the back up. As Mike was laying him down in the aisle for me to change him, he discovered the extent of the effect. He was a little grossed out and I was laughing a lot. Afterwards, he just shrugged it off being in Dad mode and we finished looking around the exhibit.


This is Josiah smiling at me while waiting for Dad to wash off in the bathroom. He's smiling cause he knew what he did!

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Lumberjack Days at Stillwater


Stillwater is the birthplace of Minnesota and is on the St. Croix river that is the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin. Back in the day lumberjacks would float logs down the St. Croix to the mills there.
So each year the have a festival with concerts, lots of good fried fair food, inflatable toys for kids and competitions. This started on Wednesday and ended tonight with a big fireworks show that we did not stay for. And silly me took our camera but didn't think about getting out to take pictures, I'll see if I can get some from our friends.
The competition for the lumberjacks consisted of sawing, chopping, running and climbing on or up logs. It was very impressive! The Outdoor Channel was filming it and will be airing it the fall.
They also had dogs competing on distance jumping and retrieving and vertical jumping. We saw mostly the dog competitions which where world championships. The dog that won the distance jumping beat his world record twice. The highest jump for the vertical was 7ft 8in.
At the end they had a dogs and logs competition. This involved the lumberjacks and dogs doing a relay in two teams, it was a lot fun to watch.
As far as the food was concerned we did pretty good only spending $20 on 5 things: 2 drumstick icecreams, a corn dog, cheese curds and a big refillable cup of root beer. The drumsticks were a deal at $1 each. Since I didn't grow up in a land that sold cheese curds, I've always been skeptical, but really it's just fried cheese. And we all know anything fried is generally good, but I'm not going to try the fried snickers.

(Side Note having nothing to do with Lumberjack Days...Sonic just opened up their first one in MN a few weeks ago and plan on opening 35 more in the twin cities in the next 5 years...How can they be the All American drive thru if they aren't ALL over America??...But none the less I am excited about this hope to go visit Sonic soon...after the 30 min wait to get in the parking lot is over!!! I believe the Minnesotans knew what they were missing.)

Josiah was a trooper the whole time, as long as he can eat, sleep and poop he doesn't mind were we drag him to!!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

A Good Visit



Last week my mom came up for a visit. We had a good time running errands and playing with Josiah. The last day she was here we tried to take pictures with Josiah smiling. We really should have done it in the morning since that's when he's all smiles.
Josiah's starting to grab things more and I think it's intentional. It's more like if it is by his hands he grabs it but he's not reaching for things yet. He's making all sorts of sounds now too. It's great. We have a video camera so maybe I can catch him giggling. He usually just stares at the camera so maybe I'll have better luck with the video camera.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

I love my Nerd!


NerdTests.com says I'm a Nerd.  What are you?  Click here!


I've always thought Mike was a well rounded computer geek.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Who's the Cool Non-Nerd?

That would be me!


NerdTests.com says I'm a Cool Non-Nerd.  What are you?  Click here!


We'll see how Nerdish Mike is when he gets home. He's an IT guy, how nerdy can it get?
This weekend he is doing a very non-nerdish thing, haying. He went home to help his dad and brother bale hay.
Fortunately my mom is coming to visit tomorrow so I'll only experience single-parenthood for less than 24 hours.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Do you see what I see...

in that big ol' cotton wood tree?

Yes there are cotton wood trees up here, tons of them!!

Who wants to watch fireworks when you can sleep?


Yup, that's what Josiah was thinking last Friday night. A park near our place had an all day celebration for the 4th. Mike's family was here for the weekend. We met some friends from church at the park for a picnic supper and listen to two community bands play before the fireworks started. Since this would be Josiah's first experience with fireworks we had a backup plan to head to the car if he didn't like it. Fortunately he fell sleep shortly before they started and slept right on through. Of course I was holding him with a blanket and my hand over his ears just in case, but he did well.
We had a busy and fun weekend with Mike's family. While Grandma and Grandpa were watching Josiah, Mike, Matt and I went for a swim at the lake across the street. I wasn't planning on going under since I thought the water would be freezing but it was actually very nice. I guess the summers up here in MN don't start until July, June was very cool and the first day it got into the 90's was the end of June. We also all went and played disc golf while Grandma carried Josiah around in the Baby Bjorn, then we ended the evening by stuffing ourselves at Maggiano's. All of which Josiah slept through.

Friday, July 4, 2008

Two months

This is a late post, so I'll play catch up for a little bit.


We went camping the weekend Josiah turned two months. He did well but we didn't. I don't know what I was thinking camping in the summer in Minnesota. It did not even cross my mind that the mosquitoes would be bad and boy were they!! We were so worried about him getting eaten up that we weren't having fun. Camping is meant to be fun, so we stuck it out for a night and then went home.
Mike and I have camping gear but it's all for backpacking also, so our little two man tent was nice and cozy with the three of us. Granted Josiah is 1/5 of a person right now but he had the best spot, all nice and snug between us. He slept all night which tells you how comfortable he was!

Backing up some, at 6 weeks he started smiling more than just the random smirks. And everyday since then the smiles have been getting bigger and better!! Around week six we went in to weigh him and he was at 8lbs 7 oz. We get excited to see how much he is gaining. He started out slow but we are filling him up as much as I can.


A few weeks ago we started switching Tues nights babysitting with another couple who had a boy four days before Josiah was born. Right now it's easy since they just lie around. Mike and I could only think of a few things we like to do but can't take him with us, so we went canoeing on the lake across the street from us. Oh, we also took a pizza with us and ate it out on the water. Every third Tues, we'll all do something together. The dads held the boys up to look at each other and they started grinning!! I'm sure those grins will lead to a lot of mischief if a few years!

Here's few things Josiah's been doing (with me of course):

  • two trips to Ikea
  • one trip to the Mall of America, he was a little overwhelmed with that as I was my first time!
  • at least three disc golf games
  • numerous walks
  • one camping trip
  • one trip to see Grandma and Grandpa Loosbrock
  • every Wednesday, he gets to stare at the kids at our New Mom's group
  • stuck his feet in a cold wading pool and didn't like it

Thursday, May 29, 2008

1 month old and going strong



Nothing consumes your time like a newborn right? Amazing how fast someone else eating, sleeping, pooping and crying can pass the hours.
I can't believe he is already 1 month old. Everyone says the time will fly by and it has. But I'm looking forward to seeing facial expressions he purposefully makes and him being able to recognize us with his eyes.
He's spent this past month visiting with a lot family and friends, going on walks and even one disc golf outing. He's made it to church twice and gone on a few shopping trips with me.
This weekend we are heading to the Grandparents, it's a 3 hour drive. It's a nice test of traveling with Josiah, here's hoping he'll sleep the whole time!!

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Happy Mother's Day to Me!!!!!



I am officially a Mom as of April 28!!! And am learning to type with one hand as I hold J!!
This is how things happened the weekend before he arrived...
Friday night we get last minute tickets to the theater to see A Midsummer Night's Dream from a friend. We took them figuring this might be the last chance we get to do something like this. We rush to get there just as its starting, so there's a lot of fast walking and stairs involved. The next day we do some more unpacking and get things put away. That evening we go visit our friends who just had their baby that Thurs. Going home that evening, Mike calls his mom and tells her we're leaving the hospital just to tease her. Off and on during that day I feel things happening but not too sure if they're contractions. Sunday the things happening get more severe and frequent. So we stayed home from church and Mike was running on adrenaline getting last minute things done. We go shopping for stuff we have to have before baby arrives. Sometime that weekend we finally decided on a boy name and girl name plus middle names. Monday comes and I'm not having fun. I had been having contractions starting some on Sat and getting worse. My next appointment wasn't until Thurs and I did not want to wait until then to see what was going on. So I called the Dr office, I went in and was dilated at a 3. So they gave me something to help me sleep while I could and said the baby's probably coming in a few days! (before Sat, the due date) Mike stayed home the rest of the day just in case. Around 8 that evening the contractions were getting worse but not always that frequent so I paged the midwife and they told us to head to the hospital to get checked out. We got there at 9pm, I was dilated to a 6 and they said the baby was coming tonight!! It took about an hour to fill the tub and for the midwife to show up. At 10:15pm I got in the tub and at 11:30 J was born!!
I had him by water birth without any drugs and it was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Towards the end I asked about it being too late for drugs and the nurse and midwife kind of laughed saying the baby would be out before they could get me the drugs. Mike thought I was joking....
Mike was great during the whole thing and he got to cut the cord. It all happened so fast, I can still see them pulling J out of the water and handing him to me but I had to ask Mike if he cried. I couldn't remember any of the sounds. He didn't cry but just lifted his head up and looked around with eyes wide open. It was amazing!!
He's a healthy little guy and the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Mike's family has been here to visit and my mom and sister are here right now. My aunt and cousins stopped by for a short visit and my dad and grandmother are heading up here next week.
Tomorrow will be our first trip out as a family and I'm anxious to see how he will do. We're just going to church but I'm excited to show him off and to see our other friend's newborn, a boy J also. He was due two weeks before my J, but ended up being born only 4 days apart!!
I added a link on the side bar to a photo album the will be updated as we get more pics, enjoy!!

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Even the little things help...









Little things we do:
  • recycle all the paper products, glass and plastic that the city picks up here, this cuts down a lot on the amount of trash we produce
  • try to buy items with less packaging, but not necessarily in bulk (due to storage space)
  • Mike bakes bread and I've found recipes for taco seasoning mix and Bisquick mix, this goes with less packaging but also I'm sure is healthier than store bought. We've cut down on buying boxed food with tons of sodium and have been using make from scratch recipes. Allrecipes.com has been a huge help with this!
  • switched to cleaners from concentrate that do a little bit of everything, and also earth friendly dish detergent that the verdict is still out on. I can't tell if it's the detergent or our half-size, hard-to-fit-dishes-into apartment dish washer. Sometimes it's less frustrating just to wash by hand!
  • with all our new necessities coming up with the baby, we've been able to buy/get all the big stuff second hand. We have a hard time buying new when there is used still in perfectly good shape. Don't worry, we've haven't put the baby's safety in jeopardy by doing this.
  • we will also go the cloth diapering route once baby is here, we have diapers ready but can't really comment on them until after we've used them. I'll definitely be posting about this later along with our reasons to go this route. You'd be surprised and overwhelmed by all the options available now.
  • I've been getting a lot use from the public libraries everywhere we've lived. Why buy a book that you'll only read once when you can get it at the library?
  • Mike bikes to work and we only have one car, granted this one car doesn't get good gas mileage but we will drive it until it drops then get a used more efficient option.
Much of these little things may not stand out as being better for the earth but are. Less consumption and production puts less stress on our resources. Which also leads to less trash and junk being thrown out.
We don't consider ourselves extremist and obviously there are many things we aren't doing that we could and need to work on. But we want to make a specific effort to take care of and use wisely all that God has given us whether it be natural resources or the financial and physical blessings we've received.
So if all you do is change one little thing at a time, that will eventually make an impact.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Loosbrock Current Events

I remember back in social studies class each week we had to read the newspaper and present a current event to the class. Well this is similar but I didn't have to read the newspaper to find the events:

Baby news: Everything is going right on schedule and I'm officially in the 9th month!! After having an ultrasound today that my mom got to sit in on, the baby is healthy although a little on the small side. So that means I will be pounding the water, food and getting more rest.
House-hunting news: We've had our eye on a particular house for a few months. We'd go back and forth on deciding if it's too much work or not and how cheap is cheap enough. So with some family advice we've cut it loose. It probably will get cheaper but not what we need in the long run. We kept our eyes open for 2 br apartments just in case we didn't do this house thing and found a much bigger place for a smidgen more than what we are paying now. It's a complete God thing since the owner is a Christian, the location is better, and we can move in now. Now is imperative since Baby will be coming within a few weeks. One great thing about the new place is it's across the street from a public swimming beach on a nice lake. One potentially hazardous thing is across the street from this beach is a DQ, which means it's basically at the end of our driveway!!! Thankfully it's not open year around or I'd not be loosing my baby weight!!
So all that to say we will be making our annual move but not cross-country, more like 5 miles to east. How do you even pack for a 5 mile move?? Will paper bags work instead of boxes?

Family news: Mike's dad has made it back safely from his second and final tour in Iraq. We were able to meet him at the airport and spend a relaxing weekend with him.
My mom has made it back safely from Kenya and Philippines. She has been up here this week visiting before Baby comes and helping clean the new place.

And now for the weather: Whoever came up with April showers bring May flowers, I hope was talking about MN. We still have some sort of snow falling even though it isn't sticking and nothing budding or blooming!! And did you know it can be snowing during a thunder and lightning storm?

Monday, March 24, 2008

I was NOT dreaming of a White Easter!

When we lived in Idaho, I was amazed that it snowed during Easter! We helped hide eggs in couches and house plants.
Here in Minnesota, it started snowing Friday night and didn't let up until yesterday afternoon. Forget wearing any cute Easter dresses and white shoes! Some kids down the street made a huge snow Easter egg and even decorated it! If it's still there I'll try to get a picture. We also saw a few snowmen/families decorated in spring colors and hats instead of gloves and scarves.
My sister came for a visit this weekend and I had been telling her it should be nice, no more snow. Shows how much I know about Minnesota winters!!!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

7 Random Things About Me

I've been tagged by fellow blogger Kecia to write about 7 random things about me.
Here it goes:

1. Even though I am right-handed, I've always brushed my teeth with my left-hand. I've tried to use my right-hand but it's not as smooth.

2. I have scoliosis, but it was never severe enough to have a brace. Dr. thought playing sports throughout high school probably helped it not get so bad. To go along with that, my left leg is about 3/4 inch shorter than my right leg, so that throws my hips off. With being pregnant, I thought my back would really be killing me on top of normal pregnancy back pain. So far it's not been terrible, just different types of pain through different stages.

3. I had my tonsils taken out when I was 4 or 5. I remember being taken into a room with my doll and the nurse put the gas mask on my doll like she would do with me. Since that was the last thing I remembered, I always thought they had just sucked my tonsils right out. I don't think I learned the truth until middle school.

4. My college career was spent at four different schools and I was only in for 4 1/2 years. It took me a little while to figure out what I really wanted to do. I quickly found out marine biology wasn't for me when I wasn't doing well in the basic bio classes only to learn I'd have to take bio chem and other higher level biology. So I ended up doing Outdoor Leadership Ministries which has provided me with many amazing experiences and adventures.

5. I cannot stand eating beans of any type except green beans. It's a texture thing that also keeps me from eating oatmeal. My husband keeps thinking he can get me to like oatmeal and beans. I have tried and eaten them, and not enjoyed it at all!! I also eat my cereal dry with milk in a glass! This will be interesting to see which way our kids will go, my way or the highw...Mike's way.

6. I refuse to call any kind of carbonated beverage "pop" as the midwesterners do up here. I will still call it coke or Dr. Pepper. Our kids will grow up being bi-lingual, midwestern and Texan!

7. I taught water sports for four summers at camp during college. I never really picked up water skiing even though I could teach others how to. I just stuck with wakeboarding.

Now I'm supposed to tag 7 other bloggers to do a 7 random things about them. But I will just tag anyone who reads this and wants to play. Have fun!!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Could it be?

Is spring really coming??? Today our high was at least 42 which is the highest it's been since November!! Yea!!!!! I even opened our sliding glass door for a little bit while the sun was shining in. I don't think I've ever been more ready for spring!
I was worried about not having enough warm weather maternity clothes, HA! I'll be lucky if I can wear my chacos before baby comes. I may have to pull out the sock and chaco combo after all the snow and slush have gone.

This week starts month 8! Most people don't believe me, but we'll see if I'm on target as far as weight and such is concerned. Tomorrow is my last four week visit, from here it's 2 two week visits and then down to every week. We can't believe it's come this fast and probably should really work on the whole name thing!!!

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Parenting 101


This weekend we participated in an informal parenting exercise: we babysat some friend's kids Friday to Monday. Matigan is 3 and Wyatt is 2. We've watched them for an evening before, but never this long. Also, they've never been away from their parents for more than a day. We stayed at their place since our one bedroom apartment is hardly the place to keep two toddlers entertained for a whole weekend!!
Overall it went well. They were both a little under the weather, which curbed their energy level some but also curbed their desire to eat. I was able to reminisce of when I was little and was left seated at the kitchen table, not wanting to eat my food while mom was cleaning up.

Our main activity for the weekend was to go to the "Surprise World," otherwise known as the Como Park Conservatory. In the Surpise World, it's sunny, warm, humid and full of all sorts of plants and flowers that smell really, really good! Oh, and the occasional frog, snake, bird, fish and local variety of toddlers. This day the conservatory was doing an exhibit with frogs for leap year, so I'm sure there were more toddlers around than usual. Another great thing about the Surprise World is that it's FREE, but donations are accepted! There's also a zoo attached that we'll have to check out once all the white stuff outside is replaced with green stuff.


This place does wonders for the winter blues, which I never experienced before now. The room in the first and last picture is the sunken flower room where every few months they change the flowers around. Right now it's winter flowers like amaryllis, lillies and cyclamen. Then for Easter they'll do a big lilly show I'm told. This room smells amazing!! What I want to know is what do they do with these flowers when they change the room out, I'd be happy to take a few!

Mattie and Wyatt did a great job themselves being away from Mom and Dad for the whole weekend. They only really got sad on Sunday night. Wyatt provided us with some nasty diaper changes for us parents-to-be! Mike did a good job on diaper duty, and once we had to tag team to get the job done. Looks like we just got in the diaper practice in the nick of time since the word on the street is that potty training is just around the corner!

So that was our fun Parenting 101 class that skipped a few years, so now we are furiously reading to know what happens before this age!