Play time and clean time...daddy's favorite / Week in Review

Wow, what a week. Meg and I both were pretty busy with our jobs in these last five days. Meghan had a really nice lab set up for her students this week as they experimented on cow urine that Meg had donated from a connection with a local farmer. Ok, it was actually fake urine she had created and totally had the kids buyin' into the whole farmer and cow deal. She spent time before and after school setting up this lab and making her fake urine.

I did not get to play with urine, I got to play boss. My superintendant was gone most of the week at a concrete convention. I know you are all laughing right now, yes I did say (or type for that matter) a concrete convention. The funny thing is that I really wish I could have gone! Not only to find out the leading techniques to install and finish concrete, but also because it was in Vegas baby! Besides not getting to see Elvis in person, it was good staying here and getting to call the shots on the jobsite. The building didn't fall in or collapse, so I am going to call it a successfull week. There were a few late nights as I had to be the last one to lock the gates and herd everyone out.

Sofia is doing great, she is napping less during the day and is sleeping ok at night. We are close to a full night's sleep but not quite there yet. Determination will defeat sleep deprevation! Sofia has certainly found her hands and is stuffing them in her mouth whenever her nuk is not in there. Meg thinks she may be getting a tooth soon as her gums are getting hard. I haven't read the baby book to confirm this possible development, but she is probabley correct...she almost always is. Bath time is tons of fun and is some of my favorite time with her. I love her little frog legs kicking the water around, so cute. We also like to prop her up and watch a Baby Einstien video with her. Even Layla enjoys play tme with Sofia. Man this girl has got daddy wrapped around her little fingers!

Like Father, Like Son

Growing up, we watched a lot of movies together as a family. Mom likes the "feel good" and Oscar nominated films while Dad likes the movies chalk full of drama, thrills, and suspense. My dad got quite the reputation for returning from the movie store with movies that he had previously rented. Sometimes he would realize this at the begining of the movie, sometimes in the middle, and sometimes not at all, at least until my mom convinced him.

Today I got one of my Netflix movies in and sure enough, it was a movie I had already seen. The sad thing is that the movie is one Meg and I both saw in the theater together. After all those years of teasing dad, now I am the one with the movie short term memory. I guess that's karma for ya...

P.S. Meg has finished her third week back to school. She is adjusting well and doing a great job. Keep it up Meg!

Beauty and the Beast...

Meg went to change one of Sofia's diapers, and found Jack snoozing away on her changing table. Needless to say, Meg knows a photo opportunity when she sees one...Who's crowding who's space...
Sofia and Jack yawning
Sofia, are you wearing Mom's perfume?

Great-Grandparents Clint and Katie Weltsch

This Christmas my grandparents were healthy enough to travel to Michigan for another happy holiday. They have helped with my parents to start a college tuition mutual fund for Sofia. We had a great time visiting with them and thinking of all of the Christmas memories of the past. Grandpa and I continued our tradition of playing a game of Cribbage. Meg and I are very proud to bring Sofia in their lives as their first great-grandchild. They often eat dinner with a picture of Sofia on the table and bring the picture with them to social events with their friends. How cute!!!

Christmas Pictures

This was definitely a Christmas to remember! Chris, Sofia and I were blessed to have been able to spend time with family and friends over the holidays in Michigan. Despite the lack of snow, it was a beautiful Christmas filled with lots of love. While it was impossible to put all our pictures up on the blog, we hope that you all know how special it was spending time with each of you. There were lots of cameras present during our visit with our little bundle of joy around, so we would LOVE any pictures that you may have that we were not able to catch. Thanks for all the memories in 2006 and may blessings be bestowed upon you all in 2007. Enjoy the pictures!


Talk about a cat nap...


Why the hell did you guys put this on my head?!?!


Look at me! I'm so strong!


Sofia's first plane ride!...No screaming allowed! :) She even got a first flight certificate for being such a great passenger.


Playing at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport wasting away our 4 HOUR layover on the way to Michigan.


Chris! I missed you so much! Come here! a.k.a. Lindsey hammin' it up.


Last but not least, Grandpa Brian finally meets Sofia and spends time watching Hockey Night in Canada. Go Leafs!


Ahh, Penni. We missed you. This is the first time EVER that he didn't want his picture taken. Smile Zoolander! :)


Sofia's baptism on Christmas Eve morning.


Aunt Mairi enjoys some quiet time.


Grandma Mary and Sofia investigating presents on Christmas Eve.


Meg and Lindsey catching up.


If it has to do with cleaning, you know Grandpa David will be there...Sofia gave him PLENTY of opportunities for this!


Walker and Maggie on Christmas morning. Where's the snow?


Sofia wanted to help with the laundry.


A night out to celebrate Chris's 26th birthday.


Four generations! Great-Grandma Johnson, Grandma Debbie, Meg and Sofia

Won't you take me to, Sicky Town...

Welcome one and all, big and small. I got either food poisoning or the stomach flu on Monday night. I thought I just ate too much on New Years Day, but it turned out to be a whole lot more, and I mean a whole more. I went to bed that night feeling bloated and in some pain, and when I woke up shortly after, I couldn't even make it out of bed. Lets just say I had to clean carpets, mop the bathroom floor, and wash all the clothes I had unpacked and organized to be put away. I couldn't even hold down water and tums. I stayed home from work on Tuesday and felt almost perfect on Wednesday.
Thursday, Colleen (Sofia's at home daycare provider) said Sofia had lots of gas and loaded three diapers. Later that night, she loaded a nice one that spilled up her back, right AFTER we gave her a bath. We striped her down and held her little toosh under the faucet, and gave her another bath. She gave us a curious look like, "Wasn't I just here?"
Friday was Meg's turn. She started the day great with a snow day on an already short 4-day holiday week. Denver got it's third winter storm in as many weeks. In just over half a day, 6-8 inches of fresh snow fell on top of the old 2-3 feet we had accumulated. Meg stayed home with Sofia, then her rolling stomach from Thursday night turned into the stomach flu. Our neighboor Jen, working from home due to her stuck car, took Sofia to her place for the afternoon to care for her while mom was out of commision.
I am now home from work and taking care of Meg's stomach and Sofia's bottom. I love Friday nights! It was great to see most of you all over break. Thank you again for the shower of gifts and love. Holidays are the best when shared with family and friends. Our camera needs some repair, so well ge the pictures up soon.

Sorry if there is any bad spelling/grammer, Meg's too sick to check my work.

Winter Wonderland

Wow, what a blizzard! On Wednesday morning at 5:00am, we had no snow. These pictures were taken at 7:00am on Thursday, 26 hours later. Some areas got up to 42" of snow, while we got a mear 22". The airport is closed until noon on Friday and all the North/South and East/West highways are closed from state border to state border. The National Guard and Red Cross are here digging people out of the ditches and bringing them to shelters. There are 4,800 people stranded at the Denver International Airport. One of people not at the airport is son of Rose's friend, Justin. He goes to school in Utah and was stopping in Denver on his way home to Michigan. We are going to board him here and try to find him a new flight home. His luggage is lost so we'll be doing lots of laundry. Hopefully the airport will be somewhat functional by Saturday morning when we fly back to Michigan to celebrate my Birthday and some holiday with a pine tree.

Layla chasing snowflakes

The front door

Cold chair!

Back entrance to the garage

Snow drifts on the street

There is a sidewalk here somewhere...

View from inside the garage

Oh Karma, How I Love Thee...

Today was perhaps the hardest moment I have experienced as a parent. All smiles, Sofia played with the doctor as she was poked and prodded for her 2-month check-up. She weighed in at a whopping 10 pounds, 11 ounces (almost TWICE her original weight!) and was measured at 22 and 1/4 inches (almost 4 inches longer from when she was born). After a few moments and basic questions, she pulled out 3 HUGE needles, looked at me and said, " This is probably going to make her cry."

Duh!

I held my breath and grabbed onto Sofia's little fingers trying to distract her from the impending doom of vaccination needles. I HATE needles, so surely my daughter will too! The nurse wiped her leg down with alcohol...Sofia SCREAMED. "Great." I thought. "She hasn't even been poked yet. This could be bad." Needless to say, after three shots into her cute little thighs, she had cried so hard she had the silent cry going on - you know, contorted, red face with tears but no sound...This really stunk. I felt terrible.

Just after the doctor finished, she looked at me and said, "Now Meghan, have you had your flu shot yet this year?" Oh crap. I HATE NEEDLES! As I tried to talk my way out of getting the shot (to no avail), Sofia oddlly stopped crying. Karma, perhaps?

We have both taken Tylenol.

Sleep is Overrated

It's 10:20 p.m. I'm sitting on our bedroom floor in the dark typing this because Chris is sleeping and Sofia is almost there. We're trying to help her learn how to fall asleep on her own so that she will hopefully begin sleeping through the night very soon. Who knew that parenting had to be so calculated!

Life has continued to fly by since our last post. Chris's best friend came in town for a last-minute quick visit. The boys lived it up downtown at night and even made it to a Broncos game in the 20 degree weather!

We put up our Christmas tree. Decorating the house and tree always feels like such a momentous occasion. I'm not sure if it is because of the feeling of completion after putting everything up or realizing that we are about to spend way more than we can afford in the upcoming weeks on gifts for people. Who knows. Christmastime rocks. This year, I proposed a challenge to Chris. With $20 spending limit, we each have to buy/make the most creative gift possible. Time to get those creative juices flowing!

I took Jack to the vet. He started to act funny when I got pregnant by wizzing right IN FRONT of his cat box. The frequency only increased once Sofia was born. The vet's solution: a psychotropic drug! Yup! We get to send our cat on the trip of his life for 10 days! I'm sure this is going to be interesting to watch. :)

I have been on a serious daycare hunt. So far, dead ends. Please keep your fingers crossed that we find someone soon!

I have started having random thoughts. The most recent: What is the purpose of one's chin? Does it even serve a purpose at all or is it just for looks? Hmm...

Alright, that's it for now. Here are some new pics of Sofia to keep all your appetites wet!

xoxo

Nerdalicious

It's true. I accepted long ago that I am a true Nerd with a captial N. There is nothing wrong with being a nerd. In fact, being a nerd affords one certain advantages in life like having a large collection of button-up collared shirts, packed bookshelves and subscriptions to Consumer Reports. :) Life is good. I have, however, recently reached my pinacle of nerd-dom when I discovered how to put a website hit counter onto our blog. Yes, in my obsession to know if people are actually reading our blog, I actually learned how to insert in the proper HTML coding to put flashy numbers at the bottom left hand side of the webpage. This then tells me how many people "hit" and hopefully read our website. It's pretty cool and yes, nerdalicious.