Merry Christmas 2009

Hard to believe it's been six months since my last post. I guess we've been busy and I've not been as good about publishing as I should be.

Today is Christmas eve. We started to celebrate this morning with the kids opening a gift from Colette and I at different intervals through out the day. We did this on three separate occasions, that way they got to play a bit with each gift prior to opening the next and we didn't blow the whole thing in one shot.

Brayton got enough Lincoln Logs to build an entire city, as well as a toy globe that I won't be able to adequately describe, he also got a Leap Frog learning computer that has lots of games on it.

Lauren got a set of Disney princess dresses, blouses, and shoes that are Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella. She also got a Leap Frog computer, and a Little People Doll house for playing. She especially like dressing up in her new dresses and wore the Cinderella slippers on and off the entire day.

To finish off the evening, we baked some Christmas cookies to leave out for Santa. We were burning a fire in the fireplace and Brayton asked, "How is Santa going to come down the chimney if there's a fire in there?" It amazes me how observant kids can be.

We've been tracking Santa's progress all around the world on www.noradsanta.org . When Brayton found out Santa had crossed the Atlantic Ocean and was on his way to Iowa he decided he better get his pajamas on fast. I've never seen him get ready for bed so fast.

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

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June and July Highlights

Amazing that summer has come and is already more than half over. Time just flies, especially when it's summer and you have all kinds of time to spend out doors.

June started off well. In the video, the first clip is Brayton thanking Aunt Judy for his new blanket. Just loves them both and goes to bed with both every night. They are both wearing their tutu's that Colette made for them and I get a kick out of watching Lauren run around. She has this kind of wavy back and forth run, it's hilarious.

We did lots of fun things the past two months. We've been making lots of trips to the Farmers Market on Saturdays. The kids love the bands playing in the street, we get to dance to the music or just sit down and enjoy it too. Plus Colette and I can enjoy a Saturday morning bloody mary or beer of our choice.

4th of July was exciting. We went to the Urbandale parade with Uncle Matt and Aunt Audra. The Iowa National Guard flew in a helicopter, we figured that Gov. Culver would be getting out of it, but he didn't it was just some very nice pilots that let the kids jump into the helicopter and check it out. The kids got lots of candy, which we'll be divying up for some time one piece at at time.

At the end of July we went camping at Mom & Dads, in the back yard. Friday night was interesting enough in the fact the kids didn't get to bed until midnight and then they were up at the break of dawn. Colette and Lauren slept in one tent and they ended up heading inside at about 5am. Brayton and I in the other tent and we stayed out until about 7am. At that point I was unable to keep Brayton down he was ready to get up.

At the end of July we started harvesting our garden. First we picked the green beans, banana peppers, and some jalapenos. When I was cutting them up, I got the bright idea of eating one of the slices of jalapeno. It was so hot, I was coughing, gasping, and my eyes were tearing up. I've never eaten a jalapeno that hot, must be our good soil. Brayton helped to pick the sweet corn a week later, we also picked a couple more peppers, and a bunch of grape tomatoes. At the end of the video you get to see Brayton helping me to husk the corn and the final frames are us eating our bounty at dinner the evening of July 28th.

All the past two months the kids and Colette have been spending almost every warm day at the various swimming pools in town. The kids really love to go, and they are all getting the tans to prove it. We've also been spending quite a bit of time on our bikes. Brayton is getting too big for the bike trailer so we bought a tag along bike that hooks up to mine. Need to get that hooked up and try it.

Wow, what a fun summer!

This reminds me of another conversation...

In the last post I talked about our "Conversations with God." The other night we were thanking God for our food and our house. I make it a point to tell him that there are children in the world that don't have food to eat or a house to live in. Brayton proceeded to ask me where do they go to the potty? I wasn't sure how to answer that one...I tried to avoid the subject by changing it talking about how many children don't have enough food because their mommies and daddies don't have any work to earn money.

He persisted with his question about where do these children go potty. I answered him that they have to go potty outside. Then he made the exclamaition:

"DADDY, DO THEY GO POTTY IN THEIR PANTS!!"

I guess if these kids don't have a house to go potty in, the next logical place (to a 3 yr old) is in their pants...

Conversation with Brayton

My how time flies. It's been a month since I've posted here. I know we've got at least 20 minutes of video and tons of photo's I've got to go through to get a really good post up, but my conversation tonight with Brayton deserved it's own post.

Sometimes I don't know where my child comes up with the topics he chooses to talk about. Tonight after we said our prayers, he proceeded to tell me a little story. That story went from one thing to the next and was just hilarious. I had to do my best not to laugh while he told it. I think what planted the seed in his head is after we said our prayers, we do a "Conversation with God." We proceeded to thank God for our food and our house. We proceeded to thank him for all Mommy and Lauren. Then we thanked him for all our Grandmas and Grandpa's, Aunts, and Uncles.

When we got done with our prayers, here's how the conversation went:

Brayton:
Daddy, when Grandma Coke and Pappa Allan come they sleep in the room next to me.

Me:
Yes they do.

Brayton:
When Grandpa Gordon comes, he snores.

Me:
He does? How do you know that?

Brayton:
When I go to Grandma Cindy's house, I sleep with Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Gordon sleeps in the other room and Lauren sleeps in the baby room in the baby bed.

Me:
Really, how do you now Grandpa Gordon snores? (I wanted to figure out how he knew this, if he actually heard it or if he heard someone else talking about Grandpa's snoring)

Brayton:
When I sleep in Grandma Cindy's bed, I can hear Grandpa Gordon going "Hnnnooooggg, ssshhhhh, Hnnnnoooogggg, sssshhhhh." (He was doing his best to imitate snoring).

Brayton:
When Grandpa Gordon and Grandma Cindy come they sleep in the room next to me too. And when they go home Grandma Cindy sleeps in her room so she doesn't have to hear Grandpa's snoring...

It amazes me how perceptive a 3 yr old can be, and what a long memory he has.

Rugby, Belly Buzzers, Chows, a Garden, and some ABC's

Hard to believe the month of May is almost gone. It's been a really fun month, with so many activities to talk about, most I won't even be able to write about here...

May started off with Brayton and Lauren going to Grandma Cindy's and Grandpa Gordon's for the weekend so that Daddy could go and play rugby in the All Iowa tournament. We had a great time, the Des Moines Old Boys went 2-1 for the weekend. Actually losing our first game in a couple of years. The third picture is me running with the ball on Sunday against Central College which was basically their football team disguised as a rugby team. The Des Moines Old Boys turned out to be a bit too savvy for these youngsters as we won 54 -10. Nick and I got to play together quite a bit in this game so that was really fun for me (I think Nick had a good time too.).

The next weekend we concentrated on getting our garden in. Brayton was a great help to us, moreso this year than last. Last year the corn got scattered all about and didn't really stay in the rows too well. Brayton also got to help plant the cucumbers, cantaloupe, green beans, peas, tomatoes, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries. He got to help me harvest a bunch of asparagus this year too.

Sometime during the month Colette found 2 tu-tus (not sure how to spell tu-tu) at a garage sale. The kids both loved them, especially Lauren. She dances around in her tu-tu almost every day. The arrival of May means lots of outdoor activities and that means we get to wear fun summer clothes and put the kids in funny hats and Lauren in pig tails sometimes. What fun.

May 21st was my 35th birthday. Amazing how the years fly by and I still feel like I should be 25 years old. I suppose someday I'll be 80 and still think in my mind I should be 25.

Our neighbor Jenna Rogers 4th birthday also came in May. She goes to Chow's gymnastics studio for dance and gymnastics lessons. Chow was the coach of the US Women's Olympic Team at the Beijing Olympics last summer and also the coach of Shawn Johnson, a gold and multiple silver medalist. Jenna's folks paid to reserve the entire gym for a Saturday afternoon to have her birthday party (wonder what that cost?) and Brayton got invited. He got to jump on all the trampolines, swing on the rings, do the balance beam, and jump off a high tower (about 6 ft high) into a "pool" of foam blocks. Jenna's dad is the one helping Brayton on the rings. I think he had a great time as attested to by the video. We've thought about enrolling both kids in the programs there (they can start as young as 18 mos), we're still thinking about it but it isn't cheap. I don't think Chow is handing out discounts these days, considering every gymnastics wannabe is moving to West Des Moines to get coached at his gym.

Last but not least, Colette has been trying to teach Lauren her ABC's. She's not the ready performer in front of the camera that Brayton is. She does pretty well when the camera's off. She gets all the way to Q then seems to forget what comes next. In the video she gets to G then decides she's done.

May was a very fun month for us, the kids are really growing up and learning to play well with each other. It's been a good ride, especially since I didn't have any school to worry about. But that changes again next week. Oh well.

Happy Birthday Lauren!

Today is Lauren Claire's 2nd birthday. It's very hard to believe just two short years ago we went to the hospital to be blessed with such a wonderful little girl. She is growing up to be daddy's little angel (and sometimes devil).

To start the day, we took Lauren to portrait innovations for her 2 year pictures. Little did we know, she was in no mood to take pictures. After lots of coaxing and a couple packs of smarties (for her and Brayton who actually wanted to have his picture taken today) we got enough decent shots to make the trip worthwhile. The first picture is one of them from this mornings adventure.

After a quick trip to Jordan Creek to play at the park, we came home and ate lunch and got ready for naps. While the kids were napping, Colette baked the duck cake that Lauren had chose as her birthday cake. It actually turned out really well, it looked like a duck coming out of the cake pan, and once Colette got done frosting it really looked like a professionally decorated cake. Good Job Colette!

Lauren was really excited for her cake (and so was Brayton). While the kids were napping, Grandma and Pappa Anderson arrived, and an hour or so later so did Uncle Matt and Aunt Audra. After waking up, I asked Lauren what she wanted for dinner, of course the answer was PIZZA! So we played outside a bit, Colette went and picked up pizza from Nick & Willies and we had a pizza picnic outside. Once the pizza was gone, the kids opened up gifts from Matt and Audra and Colette and I. Brayton was trying to open them himself, I literally had to restrain him. Lauren got lots of fun new toys for her birthday. Matt and Audra brought a shovel, rake, and watering bucket for the sandbox and garden. We combined all the money from Grandpa Gordon and Grandma Cindy, Ryan & Mikhael, Grandma & Grandpa Hansen, and Colette and I to buy Lauren a new play house outside. The kids both had a ball playing in it this afternoon. After pizza and playing we had birthday cake and by 8pm they were both about cashed out.

The first film clip isn't actually from today, but from the other day when Lauren decided she didn't want to eat dinner at the kitchen table. She went into the foyer and proceeded to push the kids table and both little chairs into the kitchen to eat. I turned on the camera and only got a second of her moving the whole table, but the funniest part of the whole video is when I asked Lauren if I could help her, she abruptly replied "NO!" and that has been the new thing lately. She really is learning to speak her mind, with authority.

A few nights ago, I was trying to get Lauren to come to me to rock before putting her in bed. Colette and Brayton were already in Brayton's room and getting ready for bed. Lauren was milling about in the hallway as I was trying to pursuade her to come into her room so we could read books and rock before going to bed. She obviously didn't want anything to do with this, so she kept wandering the hallway stopping to look in the doorway at me. After having enough of this I got a little more stern with my request to her to come in or she was going to begin losing her books (for not obeying daddy). I said, "Lauren, come in here so we can read books and get ready for bed." She walked about four steps into the room, stopped, put her hands on her hips and shouted "WHY!". My oh my, I thought, she's not even two and already we're getting this. She said it in the same tone she said "NO!" in the video clip. It's quite funny really (the way she interjects), but I didn't show my hand to let her know inside I was really laughing.

Am I a bad Father?

That's the question I had to ask myself tonight.

Got home from work today and I asked the kids if they wanted to go play at the school park (Westridge). Of course the answer was an affirmative from both Brayton and Lauren. I told them we had to eat supper first before we could go. So, Colette had cooked a nice casserole for us. It had some hamburger, mixed vegetables, and was topped with macaroni and cheese. Everything by itself the kids love it, but mix them together and it takes a ton of coaxing to get them to eat it. I even pulled out the junior mints to try to pursuade them. Brayton cleanded his plate up only because he wanted the jumior mints worse than a meth addict wants that next fix. Lauren, well, I never got her to take more than two bites. She never got a junior mint either.

Colette wanted to go to Lowes and buy some flowers tonight, so she dropped us off at Westridge and we went and played while she took off to Lowes to buy flowers. I always stress to the kids going to the bathroom before we got to the park to avoid the exact thing I wrote about earlier this month, that is having to pee at the park. Well, tonight after playing for about 15 minutes, Brayton comes to me butt sticking out waddling along like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, he says "Daddy I've got to go poop!" I asked him if he could hold it or if he wanted to go home, he said he could hold it and kept on playing.

I put my hand inside my pocket and realized I hadn't brought my keys to the house. So even if we did go home to go poop, we couldn't get in. I proceeded to call Colette. She called me back and I told her not to worry about it because he seemed to be fine and to keep shopping for flowers.

Not 30 seconds later and Brayton is walking like the Hunchback again. I said "Brayton - what's the matter?" He said, "Daddy, I really really got to go poop!"

I said, "Can you make it home?" He said "NO! I got to go poop NOW!" I had no idea exactly what I was going to do, I had no diaper bag, no wipes, no keys to the house, nothing - I was going to have to improvise.

I told him to come with me under some of the playground equipment, he pulled his pants down and I told him to squat down so he didn't poop in his pants. Right there, he pooped under the playground equipment. Of course Lauren had followed us under there and was watching Brayton do his deed. She then proceeded to get curious and almost stepped in the mess, but I managed to grab her and move her away from Brayton's poop before she stepped in it.

Luckily there wasn't anyone else at the playground, it was about 7:30 PM. After he pulled his pants up I had to then debate what to do with his poop. Do I try to pick it up? No way...I decided to kick a bunch of the wood chips from the playground over it.

I buried it pretty well, but I can't help to think some kid is going to step in it tomorrow at recess. Here I sit, writing this blog entry, debating about going back to the school with a flashlight to try to find my son's duke and clean up the mess.

But I haven't, and I probably won't, so does that make me a bad father?

After we got back from the park, Colette met us and let us in the house. I took the kids up, gave them baths and put Lauren to bed while Brayton picked out a couple of books to read. After we read our books, Brayton looked at me and said, "Daddy you put wood chips on my poop."

I said, "Yes I did son, someday you'll do the same thing for your son."

That's what fathers do.

Spring is in the Air!

Spring is finally here! There's been lots of rain the past few weeks, but the weather has been cooperating enough we've had lots of fun the past month playing outside.

The weekend before Easter we traveled home to see Grandma's and Grandpa's. While we were in Pomeroy, Grandpa Gordon gave Brayton a ride in his new tractor. After starting it up Brayton decided he didn't want to sit in the cab anymore so he and Colette just rode around the block in the bucket.

At the beginning of April, Colette bought some cardboard building blocks off of Craigslist.org. The kids have had lots of fun building cities and tall stacks of blocks. Lauren figured out early on that if she went and got her potty step she could stack an extra block on top before tipping it over. It didn't take long before Brayton picked up this technique and he could get them stacked 5 high. What was really fun was watching the two of them cooperate together to build the big towers and knock them over as the video will attest.

Since we had gone back home to see Grandma's and Grandpa's the weekend prior to Easter so we decided to stay home and go to Living History Farms for an Easter egg hunt. They put on quite an event. They had a Easter egg hunt for little kids where Brayton and Lauren got lots of treats. Living History farms actually ran out of Easter Eggs to put the treats in so they just started dropping the little toys on the groung. There were lots of animals to see including sheep, cows, and turkeys. Brayton thought the sheep would like jelly beans, it was quite funny. And last but not least there were tons and tons and tons of people there. We had a great time and may invite the Grandma's and Grandpa's down next year to attend. Later that evening Joe and Lynette Streck came over to grill out and we had another little Easter Egg hunt in our backyard. Brayton by that time had figured out all the eggs had treats in them and I don't think I've ever seen him move so quickly to gather all the eggs. Also, above are photos of the kids in their Easter best clothes. Brayton got to wear a suit and Lauren got to wear her pretty pretty dress.

The third week of April I decided we were going to build a sandbox for the kids. Went to Lowes, bought the materials and we started to build. I thought it was only going to be a one or two evening project but we had so much fun we stretched it out for almost two weeks. Colette invited the Roemen kids over one day to hand paint the 2x12 beams and they all had a great time painting. Lauren got paint all over her face and one of the kids gave her a nice hand print on her tummy after she stripped down to nothing but her undies. And yes you'll probably notice she likes to wear Brayton's underwear. We can hardly get her to wear her own, I'm uncertain if it's because her's are uncomfortable or if she just wants to wear the same undies as her big brother.

Lastly in the video, we have Brayton pitching a fit. I thought I'd bless all the Grandmas and Grandpas with a crying child just to bring back those wonderful memories.

Finally, though we didn't get any movies we went to our neice Emily's baptism in Omaha at Ryan and Mikhael's on April 26th. Lauren had a great time holding Baby Emily, she even got to help me feed Baby Emily a bottle. This was a big thrill for Lauren. The whole ride home Lauren kept saying "Bring Baby Emily home!" "Bring Baby Emily home!" I wanted to say "Sorry Dear, I hope it will be a few more years before we have another baby in this house!" I've attached a few pictures of Lauren helping Grandma Cindy hold Emily and giving Emily kisses. Lauren has quite the Mommy instinct already.

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If I only had the camera...

Today is Wednesday, April 8 and normally I have class on Wednesday's. This means I would leave work about 4pm, ride the bus home, and arrive shortly before 5pm. I'd eat a quick dinner, play with the kids for 15 minutes and then head off to class that begins at 6pm.

Tonight, Colette and the kids came to work to pick me up which meant that we got home about 415 instead of 445. Since it was about 55 degrees out, sunny, and I had an extra 45 minutes on my hands, I decided to take the kids to the playground at Westridge Elementary. This would give Colette a few minutes of peace and quiet and me a little play time prior to heading out to class.

Brayton rode his bike to Westridge and I pushed Lauren in the stroller. Once we arrived at the school there is this large slide that they can climb up and slide down the tube and they really love it. So, we did that for a while. There were about 50 kids there for after school care playing as well, and my two kids were by far the youngest on the playground. Also present were what appeared to be one father and 3 mothers standing in relative proximity to me while I was watching B & L play going up and down the slide. After a bit, Brayton started straying away from the slide, first he went to the swings then to the other items on the playground. I was able to keep pretty good track of him so I wasn't too concerned, I figured I'd just let him play.

While B was playing on the swings, Lauren was at the top of the slide playing and she was kind of getting bumped around by the older kids. They weren't doing anything mean to her, rather she was just slower than they were and she was kind of in the way so she was getting a little fussy. Because of this, I was trying to convince her to get on the slide and come down so we could go play over by Brayton.

While I was concentrating on Lauren, I heard one of these three women go "Oh, my gosh, look at that little boy." Obviouslly this peaked my interest because I knew it was likely they were talking about my son and I was concerned he had fallen or something while I was paying attention to Lauren.

I scanned the playground and could not see Brayton. I looked and looked for what seemed an eternity but in reality was probably only a few seconds. Then I heard another lady say, "I can't believe that, who's child is that."

It was about this time that I found Brayton. He had strayed to the edge of the playground and there he was, pants down to his ankles peeing on the grass...His bare butt almost glistening in the sunshine. My son... There were kids running everywhere and these 4 parents were watching my son pee right there on the edge of the playground.

One of the women said, "I'm sure glad that's not my child."

About that time, Brayton got finished, pulled his pants up and came running over to me saying "Daddy, I peed on the grass!!! Daddy, I peed on the grass!!!"

He was so proud, and there was no hint of shame or any idea that there was anything wrong with peeing on the grass. He did what came naturally. You gotta go pee, so go. I'm glad he didn't stop by the end of the slide and pee there, but he could have. At least he peed off the playground at a place where others don't regularly tread.

The sight of my son with his pants down at a fairly crowded playground would have been a great photo to add to the story, but unfortunately I didn't have the camera. Opportunity missed I guess.

This is one of those moments that will forever be ingrained in my memory though, and a story I'm sure I'll tell at his graduation or wedding someday. What a wonderful life.

Updates from March

I can't believe it's almost April. Until this week the weather has been fairly mild, but as you know with March in like a lamb out like a lion. We are supposed to get snow tomorrow (Saturday). Can't wait until that's all gone, I am ready for spring.

Since it has been so mild out, we got the opportunity to play lots outside. Brayton's cast has not slowed him down a bit. Hard to believe it's been 3 weeks now, he goes to the Dr. on Tuesday to get it removed.

Uncle Nick came down a couple weeks ago and installed a new water heater and water softener for us, he also got to shoot some hoops with Brayton. Brayton has been getting better and better at riding his bike, and Lauren is starting to want to ride as well.

We got the opportunity to go over to Matt and Audra's for an evening barbeque, the kids had a great time playing outside and then as the temperature cooled playing inside. In the video you can hear Brayton running around in circles squealing while Audra and Lauren have fun.

Brayton has been really getting into picking up worms, pretty typical for a little boy. Finally, Grandma & Poppa Anderson came down for the weekend and got lots of play time in with both the kids. Grandpa Anderson also helped Daddy install a new sink and garbage disposal, which turned out to be a much bigger job than I had anticipated.

All in March was a very fun month, and now with the new laptop we have and the fiber optic connection we can upload these videos in just a minute versus the old DSL that took 20 minutes.

Enjoy.

Highlights from the first week of March

One of the side benefits of getting the new camera and having to learn how to compress the video files was that I now have the ability to splice and merge multiple videos into one compilation. As you'll see I've even learned how to add titles! Imagine how good I'll be at this in a few more months. The best part is I can make a 2 or 3 minute movie in the same size file as I could do for a 30 second movie before. Oh the opportunities to forever share the lives of our children...

The first clip is Lauren wanting to go poop, and of course, there's only one potty downstairs. Also, her pants are a little too big so she has plumbers crack.Second is feeding the ducks at the zoo.Third and fourth are playing with Audra and Matt. They came over today and brought Lauren and Brayton new balloons and brought Colette some flowers for her birthday. In the 3rd clip I had hooked Lauren's balloon to the back of her pajamas and she was like a little dog chasing his tail. In the last two clips it's of the kids dancing with Dad, Audra, and Uncle Matt...They have such a ball dancing.

Enjoy.

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The Purple Cast

So, here's the photo you've all been waiting for. Brayton and his purple cast. This cast has not managed to slow him down in the least. Within hours of getting it on he was in the garage riding his bike. He was pestering his sister that afternoon also. The cast still seems to have a degree of novelty to it. I'm just glad he has not learned to use it as a club yet. That would warrant a long stay in the corner.

Houston we have a problem...

Got Colette a new camera the other day. It's a 10 MP (Megapixel) Canon. Nice camera.

I knew the photos and video's would be bigger, but I had no idea how much bigger.

Thursday evening, Brayton was learning how to ride his bike, Colette had been working with him that day. He did really well, going round and round the van about 20 times in total. I was really nervous because he'd go up the driveway slowly then as soon as he turned he'd go scooting down the hill and - in my mind tip over or ride straight out to the street.

Colette did a great job taking the little movie of it, it was 37 seconds long. With the old camera that would equal about a 12 MB film clip.

With the new camera, that equals a 70 MB film clip...and an hour and a half of upload time.

Wow, I'm not sure how I'll get these uploaded, but I'm going to try - if not then we'll have to figure out something else or only post photos.
___________________________________________________
20 minutes later - well, thank goodness for Google and Microsoft. After a couple of search queries, I've figured out how to reduce the size of the video from 70 MB to 4MB. Lets hope the increased compression rate doesn't ruin it.

I think it turned out allright...Alan and Colleen and Mom and Dad you'll have to tell me if the video is okay...

One last note, this video was taken on Thursday - March 5th, two days prior to Brayton breaking his wrist.

Thanks

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Broken Wrist #2 (Click the Xray for a larger view)

Went to Jordan Creek Mall to play saturday afternoon. Was a very rainy day and all we'd done is run some errands and played inside. Decided it would be fun to get out and go play a little bit since the weather wasn't cooperating.

Got to Jordan Creek, the kids played for a good hour. Running around sliding on the slides, and climbing on top of everything. Brayton is getting to be a really good climber, and Lauren is right behind. They have no fear, which is part of the problem.

Brayton was climbing to the top of a "log". It's a fake log of course, but it's about 4 feet high and has a tunnel through the middle of it. Brayton would climb up to the top and then jump down, turn around and climb up again.

One time he wasn't so lucky. I'm not sure if he lost his concentration and jumped hands first (versus feet first) or what, but he jumped and landed on his hands - specifically his left one.

He immediately popped up and grasped his left wrist carrying it around crying. We didn't think that it was broken at the time because he could still move all his fingers and hand fairly well but it obviously was tender.

We went to Wendy's and got a happy meal for the kids, hoping that would cheer Brayton up a bit. It didn't, he wasn't hungry at all. After he had jumped, we had considered taking him to the quick care clinic, but his injury happened at 610pm and all the clinics close at 6pm.

We tried to get him to eat as much as we could. We immobilized his wrist with the splint he had from the first fracture and after a good dose of ibuprofen his mood seemed to improve. By the time we got his pjamas on he was back to pestering his sister. So, rather than take him to the Emergency Room and wait for 6 hours plus the $300 copay, we'd just keep him in the splint overnight and take him in to see the Dr. Sunday morning.

Long story short, we went in Sunday to the Dr. She had x-rays taken and immediately it was obvious our B had broken his wrist again. This is not the same wrist, it's the left one. He broke the right one back in October so the good news is it's not a rebreak.

The Dr. didn't want to cast it there because there is displacement in the bone, she wanted us to go see an orthopaedic surgeon (Dr. Schulte - that did Daddy's knees) Monday. So, B got home and is back to normal with his splint on. We ate supper and read some good books tonight - aside from the splint and his shuddering every now and then when he tries to use his hand too much he's back to normal. I'll update the blog tomorrow after our visit to the Ortho...

A look back...Lauren

Since I've not been very good lately about catching some good photos or publishing any good new video clips I thought tonight I'd take the opportunity to do a brief look back.


This video was taken in September 2007, Lauren was about 4 1/2 months old at the time.


We used to try and try to get her to talk, but she never did much talking or laughing for that matter. Brayton must have spoiled us with his belly laugh. We really had to work hard to get that same laugh out of Lauren. This clip was one of five or so originals. Colette and I worked for about 20 minutes to get Lauen to talk and laugh.


When she did start to talk, as the clip will attest, I think it was because she was tired of sitting in that green bumbo chair.

I also didn't realize we were holding the camera sideways, I think that's something Colette does...Still a great clip. Enjoy.

Maria Was Here...

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted. Seems like we've been so busy with kids, work, school, traveling back home, and oh yeah, basically having someone sick for the past month and a half or better. It seems as if I've hardly had time to do any posting. Well, that's going to change a bit tonight.

Just last week, Feb 7th weekend, we were graced by the presence of little Miss Maria. It was part of our Christmas gift to Ryan and Mikhael. We volunteered to have Maria come to Des Moines for a weekend of fun while Ryan and Mikheal got a final weekend to themselves before baby #2 gets here.


Maria arrived on Thursday afternoon, Mikhael brought her over and stayed for supper. That night we played a little bit and took a bath. This picture is of the kids all getting their teeth brushed and getting rid of those sugar bugs. Maria's little hair doo in the tub reminds me of Poindexter from the old 80's Saturday Night Lives.

After a great night's sleep, the kids all woke up at a decent time. It was a good thing they all slept well because we had a big day planned for them. First item on the agenda after breakfast was to run down to the Science Center. Brayton and Lauren just love the Science Center downtown and we soon found out Maria did too. They got to touch snakes:

Make bubbles:

We also got to build with the giant building blocks, go vegetable shopping at the "farmers Market" and then put the vegetables on the conveyor belt. We got to play with the beach balls in the "physics room", they got to put together the giant legos, and put their hands on a static electricity generator globe.

After all the playing was done, we all sat down and had a nice picnic lunch. Colette had made sandwiches, bananas, yougurt, chips, pears, and of course little rice crispy treats. We then trucked it home and the kids took great naps.

Once everyone was up from their naps, we decided it was time to go to play at a park since it was 55 degrees out and all the snow was melted. The kids had a great time swinging on the swings and playing on the playground equipment.

When we got home, we ate a little supper. Then it was time to make some desert. Colette mixed up some sugar cookie dough, and we let the kids make cookies. Maria was so cute, we let Brayton and Lauren toss some flour on the table and Maria looked at Colette like "can I really do this too?" It was great fun watching all the kids roll out dough and use the little cookie cutters to cut out the cookies. As the picture attests, the kids got quite dirty and we ended up doing baths again Saturday night.

Sunday morning came and we ate our last little breakfast with Maria. Ryan and Mikhael came back and picked her up after lunch at Hy Vee. We were sad to see her go. But we had a great time.