Filling in for Lucy

Today Anders and I went for a 5-mile run.  I need to start training first for the Twin Cities 10 mile race on Oct. 4th, which I am doing as a training run for the Des Moines Half Marathon on Oct 18th (both with my sister Sarah, though I suspect she will leave me in the dust).  So, off we went for our first 5 miler ever and my first 5 mile run in well over a year since I stopped running when I was pregnant in January.  It went well, but let me tell you, running with a jogging stroller looks a lot easier than it is.   Plus I'm out of shape.  Plus, I've been sleeping like crap lately.  Anyway, I generally have a smoothie for breakfast after I go for a run and Lucy used to love to lick the glass when I was done (which sounds kind of gross, I know, but whatever - the glasses got washed afterwards).  She was even known to try to sneak a taste before I was done with the smoothie.   Well, it seems she isn't the only one who wants a taste...

Ok, now I'm sad.  I miss Lucy.  I've been reading a book (The Story of Edgar Sawtelle) that has made me think about her a lot lately.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised when I miss her at random times.

Redial

Tonight this little guy called his Aunt Betsy while playing with the phone.  We thought he was just turning the ringer volume up and down and checking our voicemail, but it turns out they had a minute long conversation and then he hung up on Betsy.  We need to work a little on phone etiquette.  

Another Fun Weekend

Sarah, Mike, Zach and Drew came up to visit us for a whirlwind of a weekend.  They arrived at bedtime on Friday night, so we didn't do much that night, but Saturday started out with some good times including feeding the fish, dropping clothes down the laundry chute, and eating some tasty blueberry coffee cake and yummy scrambled eggs.  Then we rushed off to the zoo.  You might notice that we are all wearing sweatshirts or jackets because fall seemed to come a bit early this past week with temps barely getting into the 60s.  Will refused to wear a sweatshirt because it is the middle of July. 

Zach and Drew's parents are cool enough to shell out the $5 to feed the giraffes.  Who knew giraffes ate crackers? 

Anders skipped his morning nap due to all the fun stuff to look at, he also got tired of the stroller and found this prime seat for checking stuff out (and for pulling hair).  

Here he is ignoring the really beautiful Siberian Tiger.  The tiger was nice enough to roar for us a few times, it was pretty cool and got Zach roaring.  It also got several grown men roaring, which seemed a bit odd.  

After a rather chilly lunch, we went into the tropics building to warm up a bit.  Does anyone know what made these tracks?

Here is your answer - the Radiated Tortoises warming themselves under this lamp.  

The zoo was great, but it would have been good to have slightly warmer temperatures.  After the zoo, the 3 boys took naps, as did I.  I had had a terrible night - I was asleep for about 20 minutes when something woke me up.  Suddenly wide awake, I ended up reading for a couple of  hours and then ended up waking up early.  I got around 3 hours of sleep Friday night and was obviously tired as napping for me is unheard of.  

There was lots of playing at our house this weekend.  Drew had a tough time with Anders, who seemed to like to do everything Drew was doing.  The old tractors from Will's grandpa's house were a big hit, as was Anders' walker wagon.  It was interesting for me and Will to see Anders interacting with the boys - it makes us wonder what he is like at the Montessori.  In this next shot Anders is terrorizing Drew.  

We ended Saturday with some delicious home-made pizza and brownies made from scratch.  The boys slept extremely soundly Saturday night.    We started Sunday with some really good waffles that Will made.  After Anders took his nap, we rode bikes over a park on the Mississippi for a picnic and some playing. 

Zach really seemed to enjoy this digger quite a bit. 

This thing is a teeter-totter of some sort.  They made the other side so an adult can join in on the fun too.  

Somebody asked if these two are twins.  

Slides are always good.  There is also a fun water play area, but it still seemed a bit cool for swimming suits followed by a bike ride home, so we avoided that.  Next time though...

We forced Drew to ride in the trailer with Anders on the way home.  We expected some pestering by Anders, but it seems that didn't happen.  Will just told me that at one point he looked back at them and they were just staring at each other.   They are just 6 months apart and we are expecting some good times between them, but maybe also some good fights. 

Drew and I took some time to relax while his parents packed up their car.  

Zach played with the old school Tonka truck we have.  He wants us to bring the claw to Iowa the next time we go down. 

And Anders rested a bit.  

Anders ended the night with a much needed bath and hair inspired by his cousin Zach.  He is looking forward to see you guys again in September, thanks for coming up! 

Busy! Busy! Busy!

We had another very busy weekend.  I cannot remember the last time we had a weekend with nothing do to.  We aren't very good at doing nothing actually, so even if we had a weekend like that, I'm sure we would fill it up.   To start things off, Anders practiced walking sideways - he went all the way to the kitchen like this.  

After that, he and I went for a quick 3 mile run.  I don't have any pictures, but lately he gets very, very excited when he sees the jogging stroller.  In fact, on Thursday, we were heading for it and I forgot something and when I turned away from the stroller he got really upset.  After our run, he took a nice 2 hour nap and I mopped the floors.   

After lunch we headed out for a 47 mile bike ride.  Anders took his afternoon nap in the Burley, which he loves as much as the jogging stroller.  Hopefully that will be his attitude towards canoes...

He also loves water bottles.  So we rode from home out west to Wayzata then south along Lake Minnetonka, or rather some of the many bays on the lake.

Then stopped in Excelsior for a little break.   The weather was perfect - 75 and sunny, it was actually a little chilly in the shade.   We were on bike trails for 90% of the ride, which was nice, but crowded.

We relaxed and watched the boats on Lake Minnetonka and the people in the park.  Then we went and got some custard and frozen yogurt, neither of which Anders liked.  I guess he was spoiled by my peach ice cream (which I made with a modern Cuisinart, Carrie).  Then we headed home, which was still 22 miles away.   This was Anders' longest bike ride ever and he was so good.  He used to get upset when we rode over bumps, but there was no fussing on this ride.  What a guy! 

After dinner, it was time for all of us to get cleaned up.  Anders finished up his big day with some big splashing. 

Then on Sunday, oh good the font is mysteriously blue again, anyway, we went to the flea market and got suckered into buying Anders another bike.  We are bike crazy.  He isn't even a year old and has 2 bikes already.  He is bike crazy too - he loves to check them out.  This one needs some work - it was only $4.  He will now have his choice between riding the yellow bike with the old school seat or the blue bike with the banana seat.  

Then, what?  What is up with this font changing?  Arrggghhh!   He wrapped up his Sunday playing in the water again.   It was a good weekend. 

Oh!  I just remembered a first we had with Anders.  I was feeding him dinner on Saturday and he reached over, put his hand on my leg and then dug his nails in.  I said ouch and told him not to do that.  The next thing he did was look at me with those big blue eyes, and then lean forward and put his hand on my knee and then look at me again and then DIG HIS NAILS INTO MY LEG!  It was one of those moments when I knew I needed to not laugh, but it was so funny to watch him think through that whole cause and effect process.  He tried it about 10 more times and I finally moved my leg out of his reach, but it was interesting.  He also has been copying us lately with fake sneezes, coughs and other random things.  It is very interesting to see him pick these things up.  Ok, bed time for me. 

Mmmmm....Ice Cream

So, my peach ice cream is pretty good, but I think I could have used one more peach.  It seems like it was more flavorful when it was being made vs. now that it is frozen.  I might have to try again some time - I'm very peach crazy for some reason.  Anders shared my ice cream with me tonight.   I guess he didn't get quite enough though...

Almost there...he actually screamed in frustration when we pulled him away.  It seems he might be living up to those AWD initials.  I think we might have our hands full.  

Um...that looks good.  Can I have some? 

Lesson Learned

Um, can anyone recommend a carpet cleaner?  Tom? 

July 4, 2009

Ug...will this night ever end?  It isn't even 10 pm yet and the noise outside is out of control.  We are hoping that Anders sleeps through it.  This is just all the people in the neighborhood having fun - the official city "Red, White and Boom" hasn't started yet.  Hopefully people will run out of their fireworks soon.   We think the people who started celebrating the 4th last night did wake Anders up briefly.  

So, Anders turned 10 months old today.  To celebrate we rode over to one of our local farmers markets.  Ah, Will just closed the window closest to us.  Ok, back to the day.  So we went on a 16 or so mile bike ride broken up half way by some time at the farmers market where we got some tasty food and some more basil for the garden.  We also stopped by the nature center near our house - oddly, I have never been there.   We found out that our neighborhood had a couple of large swimming pools way back when.  They were built because kids kept drowning after doing crazy things like diving off of bridges into the Mississippi.   I wouldn't be surprised if Anders did crazy things like that some day - he seems to be into climbing and reaching for things out of his reach lately.   This next picture might be my favorite.  

If you look at the top of the side of the oven, you can see a digital thermometer and some magnetic hooks there.  They are up there so that they are out of Anders' reach - they aren't.  A few minutes after I took this picture, he was on his toes getting the thermometer.

Then he was after stuff on my bedside table.  

Today Anders got busy climbing on things. 

 

And learning about fulcrums. 

Tonight he had a delicious meal of lentils, carrots and brown rice with cottage cheese, with an avocado appetizer, and then he tried (and loved) the halibut we had for dinner.   He did his funny little hand wave and said "mmmmmmmmm" when I gave him the halibut.  It was quite good.  Then he relaxed while Will and I finished dinner.  He might need some manners training from Eleanor though...

Also, I made some peach ice cream tonight.  I've very excited about it.  It is going to be delicious - I might already know by having a few tastes.  I seem to be into peaches these days.  

Ok, the noise is sort of better.  Hopefully we will get some sleep tonight. 

It's July Already?

Today is July 1st. I'm having a hard time believing that. June flew by, but I knew it would. I was supposed to do 3 audits in June (only did 2 and had to reschedule one for August), the lab is under construction, and we had lots of plans over the weekends. So here is a quick recap of June.

Anders was cute a lot of the time. He will be 10 months old on July 4th - hard to believe.

He started eating egg yolks. This one didn't last very long, it is too similar to a ball and ended up on the dining room floor. Lots of stuff ends up on the dining room floor these days.

We had a free weekend after my first audit. We had breakfast outside one morning - it was very nice. Anders loves blueberries and strawberries.

And after we went to an art festival in our neighborhood, he got to go skinny dipping.

The next weekend it was down to Iowa as Jessica and Mike got married! I was running late for the wedding and didn't grab the camera, but Will had it at the rehearsal. Mike is already proving to be a great guy by buying Jessica that great dress before they got married! The wedding was very fun, as you might have guessed if you have seen the pictures on some other blogs.

Joyce came to Iowa City to help out with the babysitting during the wedding activities. Here she is teaching Anders some secret sign.

Not sure what these two are doing, but they are pretty darn cute in their pajamas.

Clara was very cute. Henry was there too, but somehow avoided the camera.

Anders LOVED this wagon. He pushed it back and forth from room to room. We just got one for him last night. I found it on Craig's list and got it for half price! The minute we got home with it, Anders crawled up to it, stood up and started walking with it. It is very funny to see him walking.

A few days after getting back from Iowa, we were off to Utah to see Tom, Emily and Alex and so I could go do another audit. Alex was very, very helpful and Anders thought she was just great.

This was our makeshift high chair designed by Will and Tom (I assume, all I know is that I got back to Tom's Thursday night and this was there). A belt from a robe and a stool from Will's grandpa's house. Other than the opening at the back, it worked very well.

Anders made great music.

And he used the papasan base as a walker - it also worked well as a baby jail when you needed a few minutes to eat dinner and keep Anders away from the stairs.

We went to a very nice arboretum in Salt Lake City. We also enjoyed the farmers market and the Arts Fest. The weather was super nice and it was great to see everyone again. Emily, like Henry, was there but managed to not get her picture taken. Thanks Tom, Alex and Emily for having us!

Finally, Anders found that the keyboard also worked well as a step.

Now it is July. We were supposed to go to the lake next week, but for various reasons are staying home. Maybe we will actually catch up on some stuff around the house...