Strep!

Alex has his first case of strep throat. The poor guy has been miserable since Sunday. The first round of strep tests were negative, but we went back to the clinic today and even the rapid test was positive! So, he's now on an antibiotic and should be feeling better soon. I've spent a lot of the week with him and it's hard to watch your child feel so badly.
The nurse commented on how tall he is for a 3, almost 4, year-old. He is 44 and 1/2 inches tall and 48#. The PA we saw commented on how bright he is as Alex pretty much answered all the questions on his own. He did pretty well for the most part until it came time for the PA to look in his mouth with the light. Alex wanted no part of that. We tried everything and the PA finally got out the tongue depressor. He got it in just far enough for Alex to lock his teeth around it. So, that was the end of that.
It's been a pretty lazy week just hanging out at home. I am very behind on my Christmas shopping and will have to do some rushing this weekend to get it done. I had vowed to get it all done early this year, but I'll have to try for next year!

I'm such a blogger slacker...

It's been a busy month (and it flew by!). Wil's mother moved here from Indiana earlier this month, so we've been busy getting her settled in.
We had a nice Thanksgiving with the family-the food was awesome! Alex enjoyed playing with his cousins very much. It's hard to believe that Christmas and Alex's 4th birthday are just around the corner!
I realized that we haven't been taking as many pictures as we used to, but I'll post a few new ones anyway.
Looking forward to the weekend-we're going to get our tree tomorrow and get the house decorated. Hopefully then I'll get into the spirit.
Alex and Wil are going to the Dome tomorrow night for the Monster Jam. Alex cannot wait to go and is excited to see all the Monster trucks. I'm looking forward to a night off :)

October Fun!

We had a great fall weekend! Spent most of yesterday just puttering around the house. Then we were off to the annual Leaf Crawl at Cousin Robbie and Betsy's! We had a great time as usual and Alex came home with some fun stuff. He picked out his own costume this year, a Black Knight. One of his new favorite movies is "Night at the Museum" and he wants to imitate a lot of the characters on there. Jenny and Jim came over last night and we had food and played cards. We also played 'Apples to Apples' and had a great time. We stayed up quite late, but it was worth it.
We probably picked the worst day to go to the pumpkin farm. It was very cold and we actually saw some snow! But, we got 3 pumpkins and are getting ready to carve them up tonight. I made a great turkey breast dinner and we kind of just laid around and relaxed today. Overall, it was a wonderful weekend!

Fall is in the air

The leaves are starting to fall and the temperature is cooling down (except for a 78 degree day today). This is my favorite time of year!
Wil was gone last week to take care of some things with his mom. She has sold her house and will be moving here within the next few weeks. Alex is pretty excited that grandma M is coming.
We've been kind of laying low, hanging out around the house and in the yard. I have the next two days off with Alex, so hopefully the weather will be nice and we can go to the zoo or something.
Wil is starting a new job with Quicksilver tomorrow. We're happy that he will be home nights and weekends now!

Probably the funniest skit to come out of SNL in years!

Our anniversary weekend

Wil and I are celebrating our 4th anniversary this weekend. We've made it a habit to take this weekend and go out of town somewhere while Alex spends the time with my parents. With a dog around now and Wil being injured, we decided to just stay around here. Friday night we went to dinner and ended up coming home and looking at pictures and tried to watch a movie (Children of Men-bad, couldn't even finish it). Saturday we decided to go to Stillwater for some wine tasting and antique shopping. Got through the winery and brought home 6 bottles of wine and hit a couple of antique shops before it started pouring. So, we headed to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch and played some trivia. I won. Saw 'The Dark Knight' finally and have to say that we were really disappointed. Heath Ledger was great, but overall thought it was a way over-rated movie. I can't stand Christian Bale-awful! We also went and saw 'Bangkok Dangerous'. I kind of liked this movie, but hated the ending. Came home and watched 'Sweet Home Alabama' and went to bed.
Today we are going to the Dome to see the Vikings/Colts game. Wil is a big Colts fan and football isn't my thing, so it should be an interesting trip.
Too much rain for the weekend.

Happy Labor Day!

Hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend (if you are fortunate enough to get one, that is). We have had a very quiet and laid back weekend so far. Wil fell at work on Friday and cracked some ribs and sprained his knee, so he and I spent most of Friday at the ER. We're just taking it easy and I'm getting some stuff done around the house (in between taking care of all the boys).
Alex has spent a lot of time playing around the house and outside. It's been pretty hot, so we got the sprinkler out yesterday and he loved that. I'm hoping that tomorrow Wil will be feeling well enough to go somewhere for a little while. It's been a little dull just hanging around here. We'll see.

Summer is wrapping up

It's fair time and you know that means that the end of summer is near. I'm very much looking forward to fall weather!
Wil and I went to the fair last night to see Buddy Guy/Johnny Lang at the Grandstand. Alex got a sleepover with grandma and papa. We went late, quickly stuffed ourselves with some fair food and then met up with Uncle Bob, Rico, Angela, Samantha, Jason, and Dave for the show. Big Head Todd and the Monsters opened and they were good. I like their music. Buddy Guy was awesome! He put on a good show and was a lot of fun. Johnny Lang was okay. He didn't play any of his old stuff (that I really liked) and just went on too long. I really think he only played like 4 songs, just super extended versions that went on forever. It was a great night though and we had a good time!
Wil, Alex, Clifford and I went for a Jeep drive on Saturday. We intended to do some geocaching but didn't have much luck. But, it was a great drive anyway and an all around great weekend!

Fast weekend

The weekend went by way too fast! We spent yesterday afternoon and evening at the Dakota County Fair. It was a great time! We went through the animal barns and some of the other buildings, ate some fair food, watched the Native Pride Dancers (and Alex even got to dance with them), and went on some rides and played games. Alex's favorite thing was the blow up climbing wall/slide and the ferris wheel. I really enjoyed myself. It was not so overly crowded or big that you couldn't see and do everything. I could skip the State Fair every year and do this instead. This county fair was reasonably priced ($11 to get in AND park as opposed to spending nearly $30 to just get into the State Fair). It was a beautiful day. Alex went and went until about 10pm and then crashed for the night.
We spent most of today just hanging out and then went to my great aunt Edna's 90th birthday party for a little bit.
So, we had a really good weekend and looking forward to the next!

How did it get to be August already?

The summer is just flying by! Nothing too exciting going on with us. Alex got his full size big boy bed this week and loves it. It's weird seeing him sleep in something other than his crib/toddler bed, but we couldn't keep him in it forever! We've been enjoying a lot of time outside and the weather has been great. We're going to take a little road trip today and do some geocaching, in Wisconsin I think. It will be a great day to put the top down on the Jeep and just cruise.

Another great weekend.

We spent time yesterday shopping for Alex's really big boy bed. He's been using the toddler bed for awhile now, but he's getting pretty long for it. So, we shopped for a mattress yesterday so that we can convert his bed to to full-sized. He really enjoyed trying out the beds and we found a great deal on one that should last him for quite some time. It won't be in until Thursday, so we'll get it all put together next weekend. With that, we decided it's time to redecorate his room as well. The pale purple walls and Pooh border/pictures just doesn't fit him anymore. He says he wants racing stuff. So, we'll have to make a trip to Home Depot too!
Alex then went over to grandma and papa's last night for a sleepover. Wil and I realized that we hadn't been out together, just the two of us, since about April! We had dinner at Outback and then went to see Wall E. It was an okay movie, not my favorite Pixar film at all. Alex would have never gotten anything out of it and probably would not sit still through it. Despite that, it had a good message and there are plenty of people who could get something from it if they let that message sink in. We came home and had a few drinks and watched "Fool's Gold". Pretty good movie as well.
Alex got to go to Chuck E. Cheese and apparently didn't sleep much. So, Wil is now on his way to pick him up. Not sure yet what we'll do today, but it's supposed to be hot and humid, so I'm kind of hoping for a lazy day in the air conditioning!
We got Dish set up the other day (not happy with Direct TV). We now have VH1 Classics so now I can watch all the 80's stuff I want:)

Sunday night...

The weekend has come to a close and we had a wonderful time. Despite the nasty hot and humid weather on Friday, we managed to find fun things to do. We spent some time at Ikea and got a few things for the house. Then we went over to MOA so that Alex could go on rides at Nickelodeon Universe. He had such a great time and LOVES the rides, especially the roller coaster. We spent most of yesterday out and about in the jeep doing some geocaching. We went to the Hastings/Prescott area and found 5 caches. It was a beautiful day and we got a lot of sun and exercise. Today was a low key day with the family. It was nice to have a mini vacation. Even though we didn't get to camping, we found such fun things to do!

Extended weekend

I took a half day today and tomorrow off with original plans to do some camping. The weather is not cooperating, so we ended up staying home. It rained and stormed a little today, but the evening has been very nice. We took Alex to see "Kung Fu Panda" and we really enjoyed it. Cute movie. Alex did pretty well (this is the first theater movie we've taken him to). He said he really liked the movie and even developed a few kung fu moves. He needed to go to the bathroom at the very end, so I ended up missing about the last 5 minutes of the movie, but it's one we will definitely rent or buy so I'll see it at some point. Had Chipotle for dinner and came home for a walk with the dog. It's Wil's birthday today and I think he had a nice day.
Not sure what we'll do tomorrow. It's supposed to rain and storm again and be really hot (over 90). Not my idea of great camping weather, so we may just hang around town again.

Happy 4th of July weekend!

We took Alex to see fireworks last night for the first time. Jenny and Jim met up with us and we went to the Taste of Maplewood, which was basically a dinky festival with a band and some food vendors. We ate corndogs, fries, mini donuts, and ice cream and listened to the Lamont Cranston band for a little bit. The fireworks display was great and Alex absolutely loved it! He was so excited with everything going on and very intently watched the fireworks. He would clap and yell and say "Good Job!" It was such a fun night. We didn't get home until about midnight and he did just fine with that-crashed when his head hit the pillow. The rest of us stayed up until 2am playing cards. Of course, Alex woke up at his usual 7:30 so we're all a little sleepy today.
We also did some planting yesterday during the day around the tree in our back yard. We have some shrubs to put in today yet, so our plan is to work on that after dinner. It's pretty hot, so doing this when the sun is low is a better idea to me! We got the pop-up camper cleaned out today in preparation for camping next weekend. So, it's been a full weekend with a lot accomplished!
Hope everyone has had a nice weekend!!

It's raining and pouring....

The dish is out, so I'm checking out some youtube videos. Love this one!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgrrQwLdME8

One week....

It's been a week now that we've had Clifford and we're just all fitting really well together. It's amazing how good and well trained he really is-I have to think that someone out there is really sad he's gone. We're just working on establishing ourselves as the leaders now and he's getting it. He saw my good friend, Dr. Jen, today for a checkup and she determined that he's really healthy overall. She showed me how to take care of his ears (Hound ears get buildup and infections easily) and he needs a good teeth brushing.
Clifford has a really cool howl and luckily he only uses it rarely. He's been howling at dogs that live across the street (I didn't know those people had dogs and it took me a couple days to figure out what he was howling at)-maybe he just wants to meet them! I used his howling as a good training tool tonight (since we wanted a watchdog afterall). The neighbors were outside and one of their friends came up into our yard, real close to our window, just talking away over the fence to others. It was kind of annoying, so I got Clifford over by the window and i gave a little howl or two. Clifford then just howled a few times and the guy moved away pretty fast. Good...just the way I like it. He stopped as soon as I 'shhhhd' him. Good dog.
Alex really adores Clifford and we're teaching him to be a good dog friend. He tried to touch Clifford's eye today and I caught him in time. I also caught him trying to get on him for a ride. He now knows those are big no-no's. Clifford is very tolerant and sweet, and while he doesn't seem to know what to do with Alex, he's been very good to him. I hope they become good friends.

Alex has expanded his Spanish vocabulary a bit. He just picks stuff up and absorbs it. He can count to 10 in Spanish, and knows Red and Blue. We taught him white and yellow (because that is all I could remember). We're really just enjoying the great weather! He's very excited to see his Gaga and Papa tomorrow, since they've been out of town for the past week-he's really missed them. If we went over that way for something, he would say, "Let's go to see Gaga and Papa".

It's finally quiet in the house. Wil is working. Alex and Clifford are sound asleep. So, I'm going to watch "I love the 80's" on VH1 and read my new book.

On the move...

Clifford is doing just great in our home.  He lays around a lot, except when we go for walks or out in the yard.  He seems pretty happy and content to just hang out and sleep.  He slept all night last night and didn't make a peep when Wil came home from work at 2:30am (maybe not such a watchdog).  We left him alone for a couple hours today while we took Alex to his soccer class and he did just fine alone.  He's being a real good dog (except when he took some of Alex's lunch out of his hand today).  So, now when we eat, he's banished to the living room blocked  by a gate, but he did just fine with this at dinnertime.

Alex started soccer today.  I really want him to just try new things, play with kids, and have fun!  Unfortunately, there are always those parents who think their kid is the next David Beckham.  Anyway, Alex did really well following direction, running and kicking the ball.  He was NOT into trying to play an actual game.  I think he got overwhelmed with all the kids running together to the ball and he didn't get it.  There were a lot of kids and a lot of parents.  The coach divided the kids up into small "teams" and I think he didn't realize that Alex is only 3 and put him with the older kids (the ages are 3-5).  So, Alex had enough and just wanted to go home.  So, we left and made sure he knew how great he did and that we were proud of him.  He said he's going to try again next week.  

So, here's where I can start my mini rant about organized sports (because I'm truly not a fan, but realize that Alex can learn something and get some exercise).  There are always a handful of people who can just ruin it and turn it into more than what it is.  All the kids were under 5 and it was obvious that most never played before.  It was also obvious whose kids have parents who think their kid is the star (and there was the mother who is reliving her soccer playing days through her kid).  These are the parents who would not shut up and just let the kids play and I think that is where Alex got a little put out.  So, we'll try again next week and maybe Alex will be more comfortable.  But, if he's not, that's okay too.

Clifford, the big red dog...

We brought our new dog Clifford home today. It's a dog we've seen a couple times at the Humane society, but he wasn't ready for adoption until recently. He is a lab retriever mixed with coonhound. His name is appropriate because he's reddish in color. Very sweet dog so far and we're all just getting used to eachother. So far, we've played in the yard and gone for a walk. Now, he's finally settled down enough to lay down and relax on the floor while Alex watches a Spongebob episode before a nap. He knows some commands and is listening well so far-just tried to get up on the couch and when I made a sound for "no", he got right down. He really likes getting loved up and being outside. Alex is a little wary yet, but is okay and says he really loves Clifford.
Clifford has hypothyroidism, so he'll require medicine for the rest of his life. But otherwise he's very healthy! He has quite the Coonhound howl and I'm sure our house will be protected from now on. We're very happy to have our new addition to the family.

Weekends go by just too fast! We have been keeping ourselves busy, wanting to be outside more but with uncooperative weather. I had a nice birthday- I skipped out of work early on Thursday and Wil and I went out for lunch and a movie. We saw the new Indiana Jones movie-it was pretty good. Alex slept over at grandma and papa's last night and we went out with some friends. Today was just laid back with the family. Alex and I headed over to the park and within 5 minutes he had gone face first into the slide, cutting his lip so blood was everywhere. So, now we're just hanging out watching some Dora.
The other day we Alex and I were playing and all of a sudden, he starts counting in Spanish! He learned this from Dora apparently (which we really don't watch a lot of) and can count to 10 in Spanish now. He's doing so well with the potty and is now ready for a big bed (the toddler bed is just getting too small). So, I'm thinking that next weekend will involve painting and redoing his room fitting for a big kid. It's sad to see the pale purple and Pooh go away, but he said he wants baseballs and such now. My baby is growing up way too fast!
Wil found out this weekend that he passed his LSIT (Land Surveyor in training) exam! So, we're hoping that this will open up some doors in his field in a rather tough market right now.

Still waiting for the nice weather to get here so we can be outside!

The dog search continues...

Unfortunately, we were not able to adopt Shelby the dog. Hopefully she went to a good family. So, we are still looking at dogs on petfinder.com and our local humane societies. It's amazing how many dogs (and cats) are just abandoned by their owners. But I know that we'll find the right one for us.

Potty talk.....and Dogs

Alex has had a first great week of using the potty. Just a couple of accidents all week! He's even figured out how to do #2 the other day, so we're very happy about that. He's earned enough stickers now to get his bike! Of course, when we went to pick one out, Toysrus didn't have the one in stock that he picked out. So, we'll have to search a little more.

We decided to get a dog. We've talked about this for awhile, but kind of kept putting it off because we don't have a fence up yet. Spent some time on Thursday looking around and found a couple possibilities. Then we found "Shelby".(http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=10949246)

So, we took a drive to Spooner, WI to meet her. She is a great dog, sweet and friendly. She seemed to like Alex. Alex really liked her! He's seemed a bit afraid of dogs so we weren't sure what would happen, but after he got used to her today he was fine. We took her for a walk and Alex just wanted to walk right by her. He got close to her and pet her, which he's been hesitant to do with dogs. Shelby walked very well on a leash and knows how to sit. She kept her eye on Alex, never nipped at him and never barked after she initially came out of the shelter (a lot of new dogs there due to a local confiscation and she didn't seem to like that much). She's very much a puppy, but listened very well and was pretty calm overall. I guess I thought that if we liked her and had the cash, we'd be able to bring her home. But, that's not how it works. We had to fill out an application, as a few others have, and they will let us know by Monday or Tuesday if they pick us to take her. Made me sad to have to leave her there, but hopefully we'll get to go pick her up sometime this week. Keep your fingers crossed!

So far, so good!

Alex made it through the entire day without a single accident! He went part of the day with undewear and part bare-bottomed. He went to the bathroom independently a couple of times and willingly went when I asked him. BIG IMPROVEMENT! We even went out for a couple hours geocaching and he kept his pullup dry. So, it seems we are on the road to really having a big boy now!

We found one cache today and could not find the second. It was an overcast day, but nice enough for walking around and enjoying the fresh air. I am so glad that winter is over-I'm ready to be warm.
Hope everyone had a nice memorial day-whether you were sleeping, playing, eating, shopping or whatever! I also hope that you took the time to think about where we are in the world today and the people who are sacrificing/have sacrificed their time and their lives. Everytime I look at Alex, I think about how time is such a precious thing and how lucky I am to have him and my family.

Progress! Potty training bootcamp Day2!

We got somewhere today! The day started out rough-multiple attempts at sitting on the potty only to have Alex go afterwards on the floor. I tried just underwear and then bare-bottomed throughout the day as I didn't know which would work best. Turns out that having nothing on worked best. He liked wearing the "Cars" underwear he picked out, but he just doesn't seem to get that he has to take them off first before going. After multiple attempts today, it seems like it's finally clicking. He ended up going on the potty 4 times today (well, actually 3.5). Twice tonight he just walked in there and went all by himself! So, he was very happy to get 4 new stickers and a special treat of popcorn and juice.
The funniest part of the day? We were watching a movie and he was bare-bottomed. I looked over at him and he was grabbing his bottom and trying to twist around to look at it. I asked him what he was doing and he said, "I'm trying to look at these big things!"
We didn't do much else today as our main focus was to get him going on this. I did some cleaning and we played games/puzzles. We're going to try and find a couple of geocaches in the area tomorrow, but mostly spend more time practicing the potty.
It's been a couple of intense days, so I'm happy to finally sit around and relax and catch up on some "Ghosthunters" episodes!

Potty training bootcamp-Day 1

We have been having a hard time getting Alex to consistently use the bathroom. So, this weekend is training camp for him. Day 1 hasn't gone so well. He got to pick out his underwear and I just kept putting him on the toilet throughout the day. He would sit there and sit there and not go. Once we got back out in the living room...then he would go. We went through multiple underwear changes and didn't do a whole lot that was fun, but it didn't seem to bother him. Kind of a frustrating day, but hopefully today will go a bit better.

Freebie day!

I had an unexpected day off due to our computers being down at work. So, Alex and I got to spend the entire day together. We went to Como Zoo and it was such a beautiful day for it. We saw all the animals and Alex rode some of the rides. We had a great time. We spent the rest of the day just kind of hanging out at home.
Dinner was low key. I feel like we've been eating out so much, so I just had a salad. Alex wanted macaroni and cheese. He specifically asked to have it "with peas". Then he was mooching off of my salad too! Such a healthy little boy! We planted 3 herbs in a pot tonight too. I think I overwatered it, so I hope it grows.
Alex went to sleep tonight quite readily after going through his astronomy flashcards. He just loves doing them and I was surprised at how much he remembered (we hadn't looked at them in quite some time)- How many 3 year olds know what the "dwarf planets" are? He amazes me everyday!

Happy Mother's Day!

Long time, no blog. We've been keeping ourselves pretty busy lately. Wil is finishing up with school and will graduate this week! It's been a long 2 years, that's for sure. It will be nice for things to get back to normal.
Alex has been having a blast doing all kinds of things. He just finished up a tumbling class last week. He really enjoyed it and learned some new things and had fun hanging out with some other boys. He's really good at somersaults now! We're thinking about getting him into a soccer class this summer. We had a visit last weekend from my cousin Lora and her family. Alex got to meet Lora's daughter, Madison and loved hanging out with her. They got to go to Como Zoo and Chuck E. Cheese. He asks where she is now and we dig out the map and show him where Nevada is. He told me the other day that he missed her and he wants to go to Las Vegas!
It's time to start thinking about the yard and what kind of flowers we want to plant. We ran to Home Depot the other night and picked out a bunch of seeds. Alex is excited to help me plant them and he helped pick them out-he's especially fond of the Alyssum. The weather is finally getting nice and we're looking forward to summer.
Had a low key mother's day-it was nice just to hang out and relax for the day.

Random pictures

Tumbling

Alex went to his first tumbling class today at Longfellow Park. He goes for the next few Tuesdays at 5:30. I wanted to get him involved in things where he could meet more kids and kind of learn how to follow directions and participate in something fun. We had a blast and Alex really liked it! There are just 4 little boys and they were all very good. Alex did a great job and was interested in what was going on. The instructor was very good and did a lot of different things with them. Of course, they all started to get a little silly towards the end, but it was so fun. He did some somersaults, walked on a balance beam, did log rolls, and jumped around. He was so tired when we got home that we watched a Spongebob episode and he went right to bed, no argument! I'm very excited to go next week!
Spring is finally on it's way. I can't wait until we can be outside more doing things. We want to do a lot of camping and geocaching this year!

The Children's Museum 1/08

Been awhile

I just realized that I haven't blogged in quite awhile. We've been having some computer issues , now it seems everything is in working order.
Alex turned 3 on 12/31/07! I can't believe what he big boy he is. We're working on potty training and he's starting to get a little better with it. He just really doesn't want to interrupt whatever he's doing to do it. We finally took his crib down and turned it into a toddler bed. So far, so good. He's napping in it right now.
Been keeping busy with various things. Alex really likes the Children's Museum now, so we are thinking of getting an annual pass. He really loves Spongebob these days. He is always so busy doing different things. He gets smarter every day! We sure have a lot of fun.