Our Last Supper

We just finished our peaceful Pizza Patron special out on the patio (the new neighborhood pizzeria with a drive-thru pick-up--BONUS!) The Papenfuss family arrives tomorrow. Chaos will ensue. Here's the latest haps from the house:

Wed, March 4: I brought Amelia in to Dr. Grant for her first sick baby visit. She had an irritation in the crease of her ear which has just exploded in the past few days--raw skin, crusted scabs, general grossness. It turns out she has impetigo. I think the initial irritation is from scratching herself behind the ear (one of her habits) with her long fingernails (bad Mommy). This irritation turned into the secondary infection when a bacteria found its way in there. Poor girl. She's cutting three upper teeth, has one tender ear and her allergies are terrible right now with the high oak and mold counts. She's miserable.

She really is miserable I tell you...just a fussypants!

Nate's night-time potty progress comes with a price! He's kept his pull-up dry 6 of the past 10 nights, but he wakes up first thing in the morning to check if it's still dry. (First thing in the morning is 5:45 or so!) Of course, he yells from his bed or even comes into our bedroom to announce his dry-or-wet status. For those who know me, you know I am not an early morning riser! There is a big difference between waking up at his (my) normal 7:00 versus 5:45.

Thurs, Mar 5: We booked our big celebratory trip to Peru--through emotional highs and lows, long waits and periods where we didn't think anything would come together (timeline, budget, itinerary requests, etc.); but, it was meant to be! We have booking number and itinerary in hand...thanks, Alyssa!

Saturday, Mar 7: Another jackpot father-son outing at Home Depot! Jason and Nate were out pricing ceiling fans for the landing before the Papenfuss family arrives (Anna and Ashley usually sleep on the futon in the landing). When he walked into HD, the Kid's Project was a racecar track! Nate got to help saw, hammer, glue and paint his own derby set with Dad! After the project, they had juice, cookies and big-wheels races in the parking lot. Nate won his first medal! If you ask him, he'll modestly tell you he won because his opponent had "car troubles," but we know he's got mad racing skills! ;)

Part of Nate's handiwork!

Sunday, Mar 8: Phil Collins at the Alamo. No, really. Jason's family is a descendant of Johnathan Lindley who died defending the Alamo. His Dad was invited to the 173rd Remembrance Ceremony for the Alamo Defenders Descendants Association (a private, by invitation only deal) at the Alamo Shrine. The surprise guest speaker happened to be PHIL COLLINS; yes, like the Su Su Sudio Phil Colins! As he tells the story, he grew up on Disney's "Davy Crocket" TV series. This led to a fascination with ol' Davy, which led him to study the Alamo, which led to a love of the plight of the Alamo and the courage of the people who stood for it and what they believed. He has one of the largest private collections of Alamo memorabilia in the world. (And now you know.) Sorry; no cool Phil photos! The association respectfully asked the members not to take photos of Mr. Collin's speech--and he left immediately following the formal ceremony. Bummer. Jason wanted to get a side-by-side of Phil and his dad (whom the boys have labelled a Phil Collins look-alike)!

Do you see any resemblance?

The distant uncle, Jonathan Lindley

To top off his evening downtown, Jason got [almost] free parking in the parking garage. He didn't have cash, the ATM nearest the garage was down as was the cc machine in the attendant's booth. So the guy said, "well, what do you have?" "Jason pulled one dollar out of his wallet, the guy shrugged and opened the gate!

Me? I'm still sick with what the locals call the San Antonio crud." With this drought (no significant rain in 10 months) the mountain cedar and oak counts are ridiculously high. It might even be approaching "ludicrous" levels! For a few days, SA registered as the worst place in the US for allergy sufferers. That's me. Usually it's just a stuffed nose and headache (can still breath...and smell...and taste); but the fever, aches, fatigue & sweats hit again on Friday.

I'm sick with Sally. The Sally Forth cartoon this week was oh-to-appropriate: Sally says, "I've had the flu for so long, I'm beginning to forget what it's like to feel healthy...It's as if all my life my body has ached, my nostrils have been stuffed and I've been lying on this couch. I don't know how much more I can take...Now let me die in peace."

Yes, I still read the comics. In fact, that's one of my favorite rituals--perusing the Sunday paper throughout the afternoon--especially the comics, coupons, current events, community calendar and crossword puzzle. I'm big on the letter C on Sundays; because while the kids are napping (which is now turning in to "quiet time" for Nate) we have our coffee & crossword on the couch as a couple!

Mon, Mar 9. Craigslist purge. We sold Nate's would-be heirloom airplane desk we bought at a bazaar in Japan. I still love it, but he's getting too big for it. I just couldn't see lugging it around for the rest of our lives. It was a hot item. I even had one lady offer to pay me MORE than I was asking (but I'd already agreed to sell it to someone else). We sold Amelia's activity center, too--after many hours of edu-tainment between the two kids.

Amelia's last stand

Nate's fini-flight

UPDATE: I can smell! (circa March 9) After two+ weeks with a never-ending bug, I finally feel like me again! No more crushing headaches, no more mucus, no more chills and sweats...

11-Month Milestone for Mia!

Her last month with "infant" status!

Amelia:

She's officially a walker! Or, as Mike calls her in this video, "a walking machine!" She's getting more confident daily and now walks across the room on a regular basis. But when she's looking for speed, she still drops down to super-crawl!

Some of her first steps

And his first steps! (Nate at 10 months)

In other exciting news for her tired Momma, Amelia is sleeping through the night! Well, more aptly put, I'm no longer waking to breastfeed her after 7:30 pm or before 7:00 am! I decided we were both in the habit of waking up for that nighttime feeding (usually 11:00 pm or 4:00 am). So I just stopped. I'm so tired I slept through most of the crying, but Jason says she didn't ever wail, it was more of a whimper as she soothed herself back to sleep. When I've heard it turn into a wail, I've held strong! I've just gone in and patted her back without feeding her! I've learned with most routine changes for Nate or Amelia, they are fairly adaptable; it's usually a bigger deal for me than for the kids.

Amelia's not sure she likes this "weaning" idea.
Actually, she seems to be going with the flow (uh, so to speak).

She cut her top two (maybe even three) teeth this week. So she'll probably sport a set of four teefers in her first birthday photos. We'll see how fast they grow.

She's curious, curious, curious. We need to watch her like a hawk. She's an expert at finding the smallest bauble in any room. If you've lost something small, just call Mia; she'll find it! (But first you'll have to pry it out of her mouth!)

Nate:
His latest obsession is the shark--the great white (the "meanest"), hammerhead (the "silliest"), whale shark (he thinks the fact that Mom & Dad swam with this "gentle giant" in Okinawa is pretty cool), the black-tipped reef shark (I told him that there was a shiver of them swimming with us on our first ocean dive in Tahiti--again cool points for Mom!), lantern shark, cookie-cutter shark, leopard shark, tiger shark, etc. We hear trivia about all of them!

He's also in a big cars phase again. He'd been focused on trains for a good while. Now his cars are new again. The most fun is to go "tractor tipping" with Lightning & Mater, line up his collection end-to-end or smash his Hotwheels into each other.

The Goodwin Toy Store Floor

As I mentioned in an earlier post, he's big into letters, words, drawing, making cards, and finally using the easel Granna & Papa gave him for Christmas last year!

Our House (He wanted me to draw the black car, blue car & our family.)

A chart he made (he gives himself a check whenever he does one of his self-proclaimed chores--like closing the door!)

Sidewalk Letters--he's tagged most of the neighbors with his name. The masterpiece pictured here is the whole family--look closely for Nate, Kid, Mom, Mia and Dad!

Have I blogged about the hiccups? How could I forget this new social quirk?! For Christmas he received the Disney book "365 Bedtime Stories" from Mommy & Daddy! It's a really cute book, each day assigned a one-page story starring a character from one of the myriad of Disney/Pixar movies. In the August 17th story, Simba gets the hiccups. On the page in three-inch letters is the word, "HIC!" Well, that tickles Nate's funny bone. Ever since he found that story in January, he responds with a loud, "HIC!" to most questions or introductions. "Hi, Nate! Welcome to MOPS today!" "HIC!" "Nate, this is Mommy's friend Ms. Lisa." "HIC!" "Nate, can you say HI to Sarah?" "HIC!" That's why it's a good thing their Momma's love 'em!

Nate loves color--especially in his clothes! He insists on picking out his own clothes in the morning. He'll often come out dressed in every color of the rainbow (orange shirt, green sweats, bright red socks. When I try to coax him into another pair of more-neutral pants for example, he screams, "No! I don't want to match today!" It's a battle I've stopped fighting (usually).

What have WE been up to for the past few weeks?

• Jason brewed beer--an "Amelia Beerdelia" brew in honor of Mia's first birthday (Nate has an honorific beer, too. While still in Japan, Jason brewed up a "Little Boy Brew" in honor of his birth--it was a blueberry wheat beer. Get it? Blueberry, to extend the Little Boy Blue" pun!) Amelia's beer is brewed in the style of a Scottish Ale with a good underlying malty sweetness (like sugar & spice and all things nice...that's what little girls are made of!)


• Jason is a movie star. He had his last ride with the EMS ambulance on Friday. His final call was responding to a double-stabbing that made the news. As his crew was filling out the paperwork in the hospital, they saw themselves on the local news wheeling one of the victims into the ambulance on the stretcher. Autograph requests can be sent to this address.

Jason--EMT in training (at least for 6 weeks)!

The "new" digs

• We painted the front door and shutters "pool house blue" (as opposed to the dirty brick red that matched every other house in the subdivision)


• Jason planted the garden this weekend--hooray for fresh basil, spring spinach and tomatoes


• Fighting a cold-maybe-flu-turned sinus infection. I can no longer remember what it feels like to be healthy--where my head isn't crushing my skull and my limbs aren't so weak they feel like they're just going to fall off my body. Jason is getting hit with the first signs of it now, too (that tingle in the nose and chills-fever cycle). Great--both Mom & Dad are on the bench!


• Tax preparation


• Vacation planning


• Jason's been up to his elbows in the paperwork chase as he prepares to re-enter the active-duty military in June for his preliminary intern year in general surgery


• I turned on the oven 4 times this week to bake! I had a list of fellowship meals for new babies, snacks for Bible Study, our table's turn to provide brunch in the MOPS rotation and a hot meal from scratch for the family. Nate loves helping in the kitchen; so I turned many of the items into "projects" for me and Nate. (That's what he calls any planned activity. "Mom, I'm bored. Let's do a project.")
• I'm in full birthday planning mode--"Sharks" for Nate's 4th birthday party in a few weeks and "Kitty Cats" (based on her lovey) for Amelia's 1st birthday next month!

This is what it's all about!

Birthday party season continues in our neighborhood (Feb-June is packed!) Saturday the kids attended their first Chuck E. Cheese party for Kail's 5th Birthday! Amelia was not having the pizza at first, but ended up eating an entire piece! Nate was running all over the place, fascinated by the TV dance camera and having a grand ol' time (until it was time to leave--he forgot how to listen and minor meltdown ensued).

His favorite game--push the button and the monster truck smashes down on the car for a ticket. Exciting!

Waiter? More pizza please!

Hey, she had broccoli when we got home!

Oh-by-the-way, my sister, Julie, and Wes announced yesterday that they'll be here Sunday with Anna, Ashley & Adam for the week of spring break! They desperately need a Northern Minnesota escape and their other options kept falling through. This will be their 4th springtime adventure to SA (they love SeaWorld). We're happy to have them; we always have a great time, but suddenly life got busy! We leave for the lake this Wednesday, return Sunday to the Papenfuss family, entertain for the week, roll right into Nate's 4th birthday, then Amelia's 1st party, then our big celebratory vacation to somewhere and finally med school graduation festivities throughout the month of May! I guess we'll buckle up, keep our hands within the vehicle at all times and hang on for the ride!

I know, enough with the walking videos, but she's so proud of herself and I want you to see her progress! They'll stop soon enough.

GO SPURS GO! Guys Night #2

GO SPURS GO! In front of the scoreboard

Nathaniel and Jason set out for another "Guys Night" last night. They started out at Jim's restaurant (Nate's favorite Denny's-style diner here in San Antonio). Apparently there was a small crisis when the corndog he ordered showed up because he told Jason (not the waitress) he wanted the pancakes, too. (The kid shovels in pancakes--usually 7 or 8 at a serving.) He got over it.

Coloring the mask at Jim's

Nate with tickets in hand. This wasn't his first Spurs game (we attended a play-off game with Mike in 2006), but it's the first time he was an active participant!

The big event was the Spurs game: San Antonio Spurs vs Dallas Mavericks--a bit of a rivalry here in Texas (and the Spurs' first game back from their "rodeo road trip"). The tickets were part of Jason's Christmas present--two sets of a Spurs 4-pack including the Lakers, Mavericks, Bobcats and the Hornets. Once at the AT&T Center, Nate was in awe. Jason reported that Nate sat for the entire first half, totally engrossed in the game. "Did they win?" He asked every time the Spurs made a basket. Jason advised him that Tony Parker scored a goal. So Nate ran with it..."Tony Parker wins again! He won 3 times, 4 times, 5 times! He wins all the time!" Apparently last night he did.

Nate, taking it all in!

Highlights for Nate:

• The boys split a bucket of popcorn
• Shouting "Go SPURS Go!" and "Defense!" with thousands of other fans
• Using the Spurs clappers (noisemakers)--little boys love to make noise!

As Nate started to fade (no nap again), Jason took him to the "Fan Fiesta" area to play around for the third quarter. The boys shot baskets, raced on the video games, playing some HEB-sponsored arcade-style games (meltdown #2 occurred when the stuffed HEBuddy toy fell from the claw of one of those crane games and they went home empty-handed). After he regained control, Jason took Nate back to their seats for the 4th quarter, but Nate was fading fast. It was late (almost 10:00), the Spurs had a 15-point lead and J had one tired kiddo. They left a little early. Nate fell asleep in Jason's arms on the walk to the car (and of course it was a long walk because parking is still tight as they clean-up the rodeo remnants). He transferred to his bed without opening his eyes--he was down for the count! The Spurs crushed Dallas 93-76.

The boys, giving Ginobili some pointers.

Post note: Nate had an absolute blast! When he woke up this morning, I asked him if he had fun at the game and his eyes just lit up! Then he yelled, "Tony Parker was killing them!" (Hmmm, a favorite saying of Jason's, "He's killin' 'em out there! Killin' 'em!" Nate's picked up on another one of Jason's favorite sayings as well..."Oh, crap!" We're trying with limited success to replace this with, "Bummer!" But that's another entry.) Nate then went on to explain that Parker made a "scar" (score) and another "scar!" But then "he had to go in time out. But not because he was being bad, he just needed to rest." Oh their little brains.

All-in-all one successful "Guys Night!"

But I certainly need to keep an eye on their "Guys Nights" as they progress! This is the autographed poster our three-year-old brought home! :)

Mia and I had a little bit of girl time, but mostly we had a quiet dinner together and she got to bed early (well, on time). Here's her walking progress, or prowess!

Sneaking one of Nate's cars while he's entranced with "Aurthur!"

Oh! One last thing, I wanted to document that it was 88 degrees here in San Antonio yesterday! (For better or worse.)

Rodeos, Pajamas and Ballroom Dancing?

Friday ended up being one of those days where there's not a definite plan, but it ends up being a big day.

SEARS REPAIR GUY
First, the refrigerator repair guy was scheduled to show up in the window from 8 am -noon. This is Part 2 of Monday's appointment. Our refrigerator has stopped cooling several times since January. Suddenly, we open the fridge and the ice cold Shiner just doesn't feel as cold as it should. According to our internet research [enter pocket protector & glasses], the refrigerator is cooled by your freezer. There are vents that funnel the ice cold air--this airflow is controlled by timers and thermostats. Apparently ice can form in the vents. We looked, thought we saw ice, unplugged the fridge and defrosted it (after unloading all the contents to a cooler and the deep-freeze in the garage). When we were certain the ice was gone (after a full day or so) and we saw a nice puddle of water on the floor, we plugged her back in. Sure enough the fridge worked! We've done this 3 times now since early January with a shorter grace period in-between , so we decided to bite the bullet and call mx.

To make a short story long, Monday's appointment was a 5-day wait (the refrigerator went out Wednesday night), so we consciously made the decision to unplug & defrost and just tell him what the problem was. Wrong decision. The repair folks need to be "eyeballs on the problem" to diagnose. So "Lennie" couldn't do anything. But, what he could do, since he was looking at a perfectly good unit and I was sure this was going to happen again, he sold me a one-year mx agreement with Sears. All house-calls, repairs, parts, labor and 1 free cleaning are covered under this warranty. So I gambled and bought the policy for $80 (in addition to the $70 he had to charge me for telling me the fridge was working). Thank goodness the gamble paid off! ;) This time he was able to make the appointment the next day. For you curious types, the problem was a timer for the defrost unit. We're awaiting parts.

The Culprit (I mean the refrigerator in the background, this time Nate's innocent!)

SAN ANTONIO STOCK SHOW & RODEO
Since the repair guy actually showed up at 8:45 (early in the 8-12 window), we were able to pack up the kids and head out to the rodeo. Today was dollar days, but when we got to the gate we discovered it was also military appreciation day; so we got in for free. (And free is almost always good in my book!) We didn't get tickets to the actually bronco ridin', bull-bustin' rodeo this year, but we took in the walk-around events and free entertainment--petting zoo, commercial exhibits, livestock barns, Animal Adventures, The Texas Experience, HEBuddy Kid's Corral (complete with shark jumpy) and AT&T Chute where Nate got to practice lassoing a steer. It was a BEAUTIFUL day to be outside--electric blue sky, about 73 degrees and a slight breeze.

The animals were pretty aggressive at the Petting Zoo this year.

I'm surprised Amelia kept her hat as long as she did!

The Shark Jumpy! (a big hit)

Nate, learning about cotton at The Texas Experience

Animal Adventures

(Nate's favorite attraction are the baby chicks, but I didn't get a good shot this year.)

Bo the Pig in the Livestock barns

Of course, we test drove some tractors this year, too!

The good news is, Amelia passed out in her stroller from exhaustion (head collapsed forward in her tray) and Nate fell asleep in the car. They both got naps! This was important because our day wasn't done...

PAJAMA PARTY

The kiddos had a pajama party for the Kids Night Out theme at church this evening. Nate wore his Harley-Davidson jammies and Lightning McQueen slippers. They were told to bring their teddy bear, but Nate couldn't decide on just one lovey. We limited it to three stuffed animals. After a tough elimination round, he chose his big SeaWorld dolphin, his sloth and "Doggy." It was a Lions & Tigers & Bears theme. Nate's class had a hotdog party, read stories, did lion crafts & activities, etc.

It's Pajama Time! (Nate & Amelia ready to pajama-de-bop!)

BALLROOM DANCING
While the kids were entertained 20 minutes away, our Sunday School class met at Studio One Ballroom. Yes, we took ballroom dance lessons!

1. Waltz--simple box step
2. Rumba--our favorite, simple box step with different timing
3. Salsa--arghhhh! The one we practice the most at home b/c it was our most difficult! (But it is fun to say!)
4. Merengue--actually one of the simplest--especially for the guys (but difficult to do well), you just sort of march in place for 7 counts, swinging each other around or twisting into a pretzel

We had loads of fun--the key is to practice, practice, practice! Our instructor Carlos said as we left, "use it or you lose it!"

We're naturals! :)

(And, yes, sure I planned to coordinate with the studio colors!)

Afterwards, we all met at Fudruckers (we hadn't been there in probably over a decade!). I had the buffalo burger, sweet potato fries and root beer. Yum! OK and we (er, Jason) succumbed to the cookies & cream shake after we'd cleaned our plates!