Yes folks, I'm late for posting. Worse yet, this isn't a full blog post this time. So much has happened that I'm going to be the dog forever chasing his tail if I try to go all the way back. Let me explain...
No, that would take too long, I'll sum up.
* * *
We've got two kids with bad sleep patterns. Marcus is a teething fiend. We're talking molars left and right, eye teeth unsure if they want to come in, and the sorest gums this side of the Mississippi. These days we expect a long wake up from our little man and his teeth. No fun.
Alya is fighting bedtime a bit more these days. Sometimes she actually sleeps in our bed for a little while and then we move her into her room. Honestly, it's a little fun, but it's not a good thing.
But for big fun, they both now have an indoor slide! Sasha's Aunt Jan found this slide in her house and passed it along to us. We're pretty certain that this is the same slide Sasha used as a child. Both Alya and Marcus love it. Alya likes to slide down and jump with both feet. Marcus likes to climb up, but is real hesitant to slide down. Both are very cute with it.
* * *
Meanwhile, the adults got to slide a little this past Saturday. Yep, Sasha went skiing and I went snowboarding over at Wilmot. Temperatures in the single digits meant we had to bundle way up. Snow pants, thermal long johns, combination hat and scarf caps, new wicking socks. Lots of stuff to keep us warm. And it was a good thing because we got out there well after sunset and that wind was something fierce.
Sasha was fierce* on the hills, too. She tore up the hardest slope there like no body's business. She's been skiing for quite a long time now, so it's not surprising, but a lot of fun to watch.
(*Yes, that is a Beyonce reference.)
On the other hand, I was snowboarding for the first time. And now it hurts when I laugh. No, not from falling, but from trying to maintain my balance. Attempting to prevent a tumble is priority one in this cat's book.
Not that I didn't fall. I fell a lot. Nearly ten times just trying to take the tow rope up the Turtle hill. Truth be told, I was best on the "lump" and that was all of 20 meters long.
The odd thing being, I'm much more comfortable snowboarding than skiing. Skiing combines the fear of falling with the fear of doing unintentional splits. Snowboarding is the fear of falling with looking like a fool as the 10 year old kid zips by you. I'll take fool over splits any day of the week.
* * *
Other items - the kids are back in swimming lessons again. Both are happy to play in the water. Alya more so than Marcus, but he does come around eventually. The best part was that the pool was 92 degrees this past Saturday. Swimming in the largest bathtub in Milwaukee - very nice.
We went to the Admirals game this past Friday. Horrible game, but lots of fun to hang out with some of Sasha's family. We had the fish fry at Turner Hall before the game - delicious! If only they didn't have cinnamon in their apple sauce for the potato pancakes.
That's all for now, but I hope to get another post up sooner than latter.
Be seeing you,
Jon
Monday, January 26, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Just Daddy and the Kids
Gods, I love my kids.
Tonight was a solo night for me as Sasha is having a much deserved night out to see Slumdog Millionaire with a friend. And it was such a joy to have them to myself.
Step one - have a Plan
Before I even picked them up, I got the plan for dinner together. Cheese omelet, fruit and toast. I considered a veggie, but I didn't think of one that would work with eggs and cheese that the kids would eat.
Pick up was a breeze - as usual - and we started home to...
Step two - Don't let Alya decide to watch TV
color at the kitchen table. Yes, I began talking it up in the minivan in order to keep any thought of Dora/Wonderpets/Nihao Kai Lan from getting into that girl's head.
They started coloring while I got dinner together. Easy as pie.
Step three - Persistance is key
Easy except for trying to get them to eat what I put in front of them.
Alya wasn't interested in anything but toast and Marcus was kind of following her lead. Now I made a nice fluffy omelet, great for him to practice fork use, but neither of them were having any of it.
But we stayed at the table as I ate with them, and then we played "Where's Marcus".
He started the whole thing by putting his pear bowl over his face.
Then Alya did it.
Soon it was both at the same time.
They are just too cute.
Fun times at dinner. Not only was there lots of smiles and laughter, but they also ended up eating just about everything on their plates!
Step four - Have fantastic children
Step four is kind of cheating, but I gave them both baths and they behaved wonderfully. Alya understood how important her role was in being a good sister, while Marcus didn't put up a fight about anything - diaper, hair washing, getting dressed - none of that was a problem.
Although I did get rather wet as Marcus is an expert splasher and Alya just likes to put cups of water outside the tub. But that's what happens when kids take baths, and I don't expect it to change for quite a while.
After getting them both dressed and blow drying their hair - Alya more so than Marcus - it was time for bed.
The little man just goes out like a light. No fighting or fussing from him. Alya needs a few stories and a little rocking. But again, very easy with no fights from either of them.
Step five - Blog to avoid cleaning up
This last step doesn't really work. The disaster of a kitchen and the mess of a bathroom still awaits me upstairs. But a few minutes to share the story is worth it.
Be seeing you,
Jon
Tonight was a solo night for me as Sasha is having a much deserved night out to see Slumdog Millionaire with a friend. And it was such a joy to have them to myself.
Step one - have a Plan
Before I even picked them up, I got the plan for dinner together. Cheese omelet, fruit and toast. I considered a veggie, but I didn't think of one that would work with eggs and cheese that the kids would eat.
Pick up was a breeze - as usual - and we started home to...
Step two - Don't let Alya decide to watch TV
color at the kitchen table. Yes, I began talking it up in the minivan in order to keep any thought of Dora/Wonderpets/Nihao Kai Lan from getting into that girl's head.
They started coloring while I got dinner together. Easy as pie.
Step three - Persistance is key
Easy except for trying to get them to eat what I put in front of them.
Alya wasn't interested in anything but toast and Marcus was kind of following her lead. Now I made a nice fluffy omelet, great for him to practice fork use, but neither of them were having any of it.
But we stayed at the table as I ate with them, and then we played "Where's Marcus".
He started the whole thing by putting his pear bowl over his face.
Then Alya did it.
Soon it was both at the same time.
They are just too cute.
Fun times at dinner. Not only was there lots of smiles and laughter, but they also ended up eating just about everything on their plates!
Step four - Have fantastic children
Step four is kind of cheating, but I gave them both baths and they behaved wonderfully. Alya understood how important her role was in being a good sister, while Marcus didn't put up a fight about anything - diaper, hair washing, getting dressed - none of that was a problem.
Although I did get rather wet as Marcus is an expert splasher and Alya just likes to put cups of water outside the tub. But that's what happens when kids take baths, and I don't expect it to change for quite a while.
After getting them both dressed and blow drying their hair - Alya more so than Marcus - it was time for bed.
The little man just goes out like a light. No fighting or fussing from him. Alya needs a few stories and a little rocking. But again, very easy with no fights from either of them.
Step five - Blog to avoid cleaning up
This last step doesn't really work. The disaster of a kitchen and the mess of a bathroom still awaits me upstairs. But a few minutes to share the story is worth it.
Be seeing you,
Jon
Monday, January 12, 2009
Kids and water who would have thought?
And now I believe that Christmas is finally done for the BSer household. We got our last gift and had one of the best outings ever.
It was a grandmother's gift, Susan (Sasha's mom) gave her children and their families (all ten of us!) a day at the water park in the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva. We had a nice big suite and passes to go to a rather nice indoor water park.
When we told Alya about our destination, she became so excited. "Alya go to water park." was a phrase we heard most of Saturday and all Sunday morning. The little squirrel loves swimming anyway, so the idea of slides in the water was too much. In fact, she was the first one in the water - I took her down there an hour before the rest of the family made their way!
Alya took a few minutes to get used to the idea of playing in this giant room of swimming stuff. But soon enough she was going down the little slides with Daddy watching on. Great stuff.
When Sasha and Marcus joined us after lunch, we made our way to the lazy river. Marcus wasn't nearly as excited as Alya, but he relaxed with me on the inner tube as we took a couple of laps around the slow stream. I did take him down a small slide, but it was a little too scary for him.
On the other hand, Alya graduated to the bigger slide. Maybe ten feet long, but she'd go up and Sasha or Fran (Susan's boyfriend) would catch her at the bottom. I'm sure that if you counted the number of times Alya went down a slide, it would easily be over 40 total. She's a dare devil.
Naturally, something did go a little wrong. I tried to take Alya down the full sized flume on an inner tube. Bad idea. We went too fast, flipped on a curve and completely lost the inner tube. However, I never lost hold of my little girl and I got her quickly on top of my chest as I went down on my back feet first. She was crying and very scared, but that was the worst of it for my brave girl.
After that point, she was done with being in the water. Then again, she had already spent over three hours down in the water park!
Dinner was up in the suite and then we left the hotel. While I went to get the car, Alya stood with Sasha by the viewing area in the lobby that over looked the water park. She continually spoke about the water park and waved at the lifeguards who saw her up there and waved goodbye. And before she fell asleep in the car those words came out again, "Alya go to water park." She had a great day with her family.
In fact, when Sasha picked the kids up from daycare after work today, Alya was still talking about the water park. And the best is when she told Sasha, "I like my cousins." Good stuff.
* * *
And in case you were wondering. While Marcus didn't get into the water park too much, when Alya took her bath tonight, he wanted to hop right in with his clothes on! Instead of fighting it, they both got to spend some bonus time in the water tonight. I've got a couple of water loving kids on my hands. And I think that's a good thing.
Be seeing you,
Jon
It was a grandmother's gift, Susan (Sasha's mom) gave her children and their families (all ten of us!) a day at the water park in the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva. We had a nice big suite and passes to go to a rather nice indoor water park.
When we told Alya about our destination, she became so excited. "Alya go to water park." was a phrase we heard most of Saturday and all Sunday morning. The little squirrel loves swimming anyway, so the idea of slides in the water was too much. In fact, she was the first one in the water - I took her down there an hour before the rest of the family made their way!
Alya took a few minutes to get used to the idea of playing in this giant room of swimming stuff. But soon enough she was going down the little slides with Daddy watching on. Great stuff.
When Sasha and Marcus joined us after lunch, we made our way to the lazy river. Marcus wasn't nearly as excited as Alya, but he relaxed with me on the inner tube as we took a couple of laps around the slow stream. I did take him down a small slide, but it was a little too scary for him.
On the other hand, Alya graduated to the bigger slide. Maybe ten feet long, but she'd go up and Sasha or Fran (Susan's boyfriend) would catch her at the bottom. I'm sure that if you counted the number of times Alya went down a slide, it would easily be over 40 total. She's a dare devil.
Naturally, something did go a little wrong. I tried to take Alya down the full sized flume on an inner tube. Bad idea. We went too fast, flipped on a curve and completely lost the inner tube. However, I never lost hold of my little girl and I got her quickly on top of my chest as I went down on my back feet first. She was crying and very scared, but that was the worst of it for my brave girl.
After that point, she was done with being in the water. Then again, she had already spent over three hours down in the water park!
Dinner was up in the suite and then we left the hotel. While I went to get the car, Alya stood with Sasha by the viewing area in the lobby that over looked the water park. She continually spoke about the water park and waved at the lifeguards who saw her up there and waved goodbye. And before she fell asleep in the car those words came out again, "Alya go to water park." She had a great day with her family.
In fact, when Sasha picked the kids up from daycare after work today, Alya was still talking about the water park. And the best is when she told Sasha, "I like my cousins." Good stuff.
* * *
And in case you were wondering. While Marcus didn't get into the water park too much, when Alya took her bath tonight, he wanted to hop right in with his clothes on! Instead of fighting it, they both got to spend some bonus time in the water tonight. I've got a couple of water loving kids on my hands. And I think that's a good thing.
Be seeing you,
Jon
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Farewell to the bottle
Well it's been a quiet day here at Casa Del BSers. Yesterday was a small party at Sasha's Dad and Step-mom's to celebrate the holidays. So we piled the kids and their necessities into the car and drove for nearly two hours into Chicagoland for a good holiday evening.
The day and night was filled with good food, homemade smoked salmon with a wasabi dressing as one of the appetizers. The rich flavors of the salmon was tempered by the dressing which had just the lightest kick courtesy of the wasabi. This was then joined by tons of pizza from Lou Malinotti's. While I am not a fan of their pan style, the thin, corn meal crust makes every bite a joy.
Alya and Marcus were not fans of the pizza as much, but they were enjoying the family quite a lot. Since there are no pets there, Alya didn't have to over come any doggie anxiety and Marcus enjoyed roaming around holding his Uncle Scott's hands.
Unfortunately, too much fun comes with a price. Neither child was really willing to fall asleep.
See, we were planning on staying the evening and driving back on Sunday. However, both kids are party animals. The sounds of people having fun downstairs kept them from wanting to sleep. Alya just kept talking up a storm, while Marcus just kept fussing shortly after being put into the pack & play. Part of this also stems from a recent change in the bed time routine.
Just last week we had Marcus and Alya "kick the bottle". No more bottle drinking for either of them. Alya was certainly getting on the old side - although she only drank from them first thing in the morning and as part of bedtime. Marcus wasn't drinking from the bottle at school, but he did have it as the primary milk delivery system at home.
So taking that standard part of sleep time did not facilitate sleeping away from home Saturday evening.
Naturally, they both crashed out immediately upon being loaded into the car and driving away. Those little turkeys. [smile]
How does this all lead to the quiet day? Well, Alya took a four hour nap today, while Marcus had a 2 hour and a 3 hour nap. Quiet times for the adults. Every so often that's a good thing.
***
On a musical note, we have been listening to Peter Gabriel's album So this evening. I believe it to be one of my favorite albums of all time. Certainly it is his best complete work.
I have all of his releases since So, and a few of the prior albums and none of them have the timeless quality across all the tracks like I hear in this one.
You've got the evergreen "In Your Eyes" which works so nicely as a romantic piece. "Red Rain" kicks the album off with a strong beat and some vocals that carry such strong emotion that I just want to belt it out with Mr. Gabriel.
"Don't Give Up" blends Gabriel's rough vocal style with the beautiful lilt of Kate Bush. "Big Time" is just silly and feels like a musical powerhouse.
Good stuff. Give it a listen if you haven't in a while.
Be seeing you,
Jon
The day and night was filled with good food, homemade smoked salmon with a wasabi dressing as one of the appetizers. The rich flavors of the salmon was tempered by the dressing which had just the lightest kick courtesy of the wasabi. This was then joined by tons of pizza from Lou Malinotti's. While I am not a fan of their pan style, the thin, corn meal crust makes every bite a joy.
Alya and Marcus were not fans of the pizza as much, but they were enjoying the family quite a lot. Since there are no pets there, Alya didn't have to over come any doggie anxiety and Marcus enjoyed roaming around holding his Uncle Scott's hands.
Unfortunately, too much fun comes with a price. Neither child was really willing to fall asleep.
See, we were planning on staying the evening and driving back on Sunday. However, both kids are party animals. The sounds of people having fun downstairs kept them from wanting to sleep. Alya just kept talking up a storm, while Marcus just kept fussing shortly after being put into the pack & play. Part of this also stems from a recent change in the bed time routine.
Just last week we had Marcus and Alya "kick the bottle". No more bottle drinking for either of them. Alya was certainly getting on the old side - although she only drank from them first thing in the morning and as part of bedtime. Marcus wasn't drinking from the bottle at school, but he did have it as the primary milk delivery system at home.
So taking that standard part of sleep time did not facilitate sleeping away from home Saturday evening.
Naturally, they both crashed out immediately upon being loaded into the car and driving away. Those little turkeys. [smile]
How does this all lead to the quiet day? Well, Alya took a four hour nap today, while Marcus had a 2 hour and a 3 hour nap. Quiet times for the adults. Every so often that's a good thing.
***
On a musical note, we have been listening to Peter Gabriel's album So this evening. I believe it to be one of my favorite albums of all time. Certainly it is his best complete work.
I have all of his releases since So, and a few of the prior albums and none of them have the timeless quality across all the tracks like I hear in this one.
You've got the evergreen "In Your Eyes" which works so nicely as a romantic piece. "Red Rain" kicks the album off with a strong beat and some vocals that carry such strong emotion that I just want to belt it out with Mr. Gabriel.
"Don't Give Up" blends Gabriel's rough vocal style with the beautiful lilt of Kate Bush. "Big Time" is just silly and feels like a musical powerhouse.
Good stuff. Give it a listen if you haven't in a while.
Be seeing you,
Jon
Friday, January 2, 2009
Happy New Year!!!
Hello. I am Mr. Beckett Schreiber, your host. Welcome to 2009!
Wow, I guess I do kind of miss Fantasy Island.
Anyway, the new year has begun and I'm going to try to give a few items reviewing the past year and things coming this year. And I will not try and do it all in one post.
Hopefully, everyone had a fantastic New Year's Eve and a nice, relaxing New Year's Day. We had a nice evening with Sasha's friend Holly coming by and we put together a small spread of food to enjoy.
The kids went to bed nicely after a little food and we snacked on meatballs in General Tso's sauce, buffalo chicken bits, sweet potato fries, and a taco dip. First was a game of Catch Phrase, which Sasha had tracked down that day after my unsuccessful attempt the previous day.
Then we moved on to some dominoes, which Holly kicked major keister without going out! Sasha and I just kept getting stuck with the big point bones, but still a lot of fun.
Finally we wrapped up with Time's Up. Kinda. See we were in the final round of the game, when at 10:30, Alya let out a little cry and then another stronger cry. Sasha went upstairs and then I heard over the monitor, "Jon, come up here right away." [which made me think of Alexander Graham Bell]
My turn to run upstairs to find that Alya had emptied the contents of her stomach all over her bed! My poor little squirrel had lost dinner, but did not lose her cool. While we cleaned her up along with the mess, Alya didn't cry at all. She talked (and shook a little) and allowed herself to be rinsed off and wrapped in blankets. Then after a little rocking with daddy, she returned to a peaceful slumber.
I've got a tough little daughter and I'm very proud of her.
***
January of 2008 found Sasha and I in very different working roles. I was still at Northwestern Mutual and she was working for Jefferson Wells. Her maternity leave with Marcus had just wrapped up and she moved into the new Manpower building downtown.
In the new building, Sasha ran into Angie who had a position open at Manpower and was wondering if I was interested. This was the start of the big change of the year when I sent over my resume to become a Business Analyst at Manpower.
Oh, and Sasha and came in second in our Fantasy Football league, so we had a nice post-holiday ka-ching!
Be seeing you,
Jon
Wow, I guess I do kind of miss Fantasy Island.
Anyway, the new year has begun and I'm going to try to give a few items reviewing the past year and things coming this year. And I will not try and do it all in one post.
Hopefully, everyone had a fantastic New Year's Eve and a nice, relaxing New Year's Day. We had a nice evening with Sasha's friend Holly coming by and we put together a small spread of food to enjoy.
The kids went to bed nicely after a little food and we snacked on meatballs in General Tso's sauce, buffalo chicken bits, sweet potato fries, and a taco dip. First was a game of Catch Phrase, which Sasha had tracked down that day after my unsuccessful attempt the previous day.
Then we moved on to some dominoes, which Holly kicked major keister without going out! Sasha and I just kept getting stuck with the big point bones, but still a lot of fun.
Finally we wrapped up with Time's Up. Kinda. See we were in the final round of the game, when at 10:30, Alya let out a little cry and then another stronger cry. Sasha went upstairs and then I heard over the monitor, "Jon, come up here right away." [which made me think of Alexander Graham Bell]
My turn to run upstairs to find that Alya had emptied the contents of her stomach all over her bed! My poor little squirrel had lost dinner, but did not lose her cool. While we cleaned her up along with the mess, Alya didn't cry at all. She talked (and shook a little) and allowed herself to be rinsed off and wrapped in blankets. Then after a little rocking with daddy, she returned to a peaceful slumber.
I've got a tough little daughter and I'm very proud of her.
***
January of 2008 found Sasha and I in very different working roles. I was still at Northwestern Mutual and she was working for Jefferson Wells. Her maternity leave with Marcus had just wrapped up and she moved into the new Manpower building downtown.
In the new building, Sasha ran into Angie who had a position open at Manpower and was wondering if I was interested. This was the start of the big change of the year when I sent over my resume to become a Business Analyst at Manpower.
Oh, and Sasha and came in second in our Fantasy Football league, so we had a nice post-holiday ka-ching!
Be seeing you,
Jon
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