Sunday, May 30, 2010

Look what we have!

I stumbled upon this while I was working in my flower garden this afternoon:



Zane and I are very excited! My parents came over last summer and planted a bunch of strawberry plants for me. While we won't have a lot, it looks like we'll have a small crop this summer, which is awesome!

Friday, May 28, 2010

Poop!

This post over at Dooce** made me think of Raegan. Except for the eating pizza part, because solids are somewhat abhorrant to her still. Still. Mom, read it, and tell me does that not sound like many poop-splosions you've had this last year?

**She does swear in her blog, so if that bothers you, just pass on the link.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Uh oh

Time for the baby gate?

Raegan was facing the other direction about three feet away when I went outside to get the mail. When I came back inside, not even a minute later, this is what I found:

Luke and I are of the conclusion that she had to have crawled. Or power scooched, I guess. She was pretty dang pleased with herself, I tell you what. And miraculously, did NOT throw a fit when I told her no and moved her back to her toys.

More on sleep

So if you recall from my previous post, we (i.e. mostly me at the moment, due to Luke working on the deck) are working on getting Raegan to start self soothing and putting herself to sleep at night. I learned in the infant development class I took at K-State that you are basically there to ask how high when your newborn says jump. But once they are able to understand object permanence (that something can be gone and still exist) you can start to let them cry a little bit. Raegan is demonstrating some very obvious object permanence. Now when we hide something under a blanket or behind us, she goes after it whereas before she would be instantly distracted. This coincided beautifully with the beginning of summer, which means that if she kept me up a lot for a few nights I could always nap during the afternoon.

I started Monday, and it was rough. Tuesday was a little better. And last night, we hit the jackpot, with maybe 5 minutes of crying/fussing, then sleep. And she slept from 8:30-2:30. Apparently, "sleeping through the night" for an infant is considered to be 5 hours in a row, so we're golden. For a couple weeks now she's been waking up only twice in the night, and last night was only once.

Everything I read said have a consistent bedtime routine, which was always hard before with classes and homework and bell choir. Now, we start about 7:45 - bath, books, nurse, cuddle. Then she gives everyone kisses goodnight (or gets them if she's not in the kissing mood), then it's off to bed. I probably shouldn't be bragging about how well last night went - I'm probably jinxing tonight. But I just have to say hallelujah, praise Jesus. As much as I loved rocking Raegan to sleep every night, I was so worried that I would have a 2 or 3 year old that had to be rocked and patted to sleep. Hopefully this will continue to go well.

Nap this afternoon went really well also. I snuggled her up for a couple minutes, then put her in her crib, gave her Cookie Monster, and left. After 3 minutes or so of fussing (not even crying) she was out like a light. And is still out an hour and fifteen minutes later. I'm hopeful..... :)

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

My graduation

My mom gave me a wonderful gift today - a photo album/journal of every week that she watched Raegan from October until last week. It is AWESOME! As Luke said when he saw it, "How is any day care provider we have from now on going to live up to this standard?" Very true! And she gave me a CD full of all the pictures she took over that time period. This is also wonderful, because as I got back into the swing of working full time, the amount of pictures I took of Raegan really tapered off.

My camera kind of sucks, so Luke didn't get very many good pictures of my graduation. So now with my picture-CD-of-awesomeness, I can post a couple pictures.
I'm really glad my mom took this picture, because now I can actually see what the stage looked like. You would think having been to two commencements here, I would know, but it's all just a blur.

Keeping Raegan entertained for the HOUR that my family had to wait for the whole thing to start. Total time at Bramlage = 3 hours. Yeah. Not cool.



Walking in.

I thought this one was kinda cool how it was all blurry.



Me with my fake diploma. The real one will be mailed to me sometime here in x number of weeks.

Me = has a master's. :)


Not sure what I'm doing with my hands here. lol



I'm a little bummed. Out of all the shots of our whole family, none turned out with us all at least looking at the camera. I need to figure out how to cut and paste in pictures, because then I could trade this Zane out for another one. Worth the effort? For the few family pictures I have because of Luke's aversion to getting his picture taken, yes it would be.



"Oh hey, I'll take that!"

Me and my parents. I love this picture (and I love them!)

Monday, May 24, 2010

Trip to the park

Today's weather was much better (still windy as all get out, but it didn't heat up nearly as quickly) so the three of us went to Jerry Ivey park this morning. It was Raegan's first official visit to a park - her and I stopped at Oxbow on a walk a couple weeks ago and I pushed her in the swings for a minute, but nothing else. She really liked the merry-go-round and going down the slides with Zane. She wasn't too keen on the geese though. We went out on the dock to look at some ducklings in the pond, and the geese put up quite a racket because of the lawn mower. She got a VERY serious look on her face and would not smile or make any noises until we went back to the playground equiptment. We actually got trapped on the dock for a couple minutes because all the geese were gathered at the exit of the dock. I am quite familiar with geese's nasty attitudes from having them growing up, so I wasn't about to try to bust through that flock. :)

After the park we went back to the house for awhile, then took Luke lunch. It was too windy to sit at the picnic benches at Lakewood, so we just stayed in the car. This big guy with a teeny tiny black poodle was at the park throwing a ball with a slingshot for the poodle. It was really funny - the poodle would take off like a shot and go retrieve the ball. We were all wishing we had a good dog.....

Some pictures from the park:

Raegan loved going down the slides with Zane!



She also LOVED the merry-go-round. I got on it with her while Zane pushed us, and me = not a big fan. Blech!


This is where she was pretty freaked out by the geese.





Ducklings!!!!


They were looking down into the bushes at more ducklings.


Look at how cloudy it was on that end of town. It never did end up raining though.


Wild hair!



She was just kicking her feet!



Awwwww...


Sunday, May 23, 2010

Weekend things

I'm loving my new layout. Eventually I would like to get a customized header with the kids' pictures, but the setup I have going on right now will do just fine.

Luke spent the weekend putting up a deck off our back door. The frame is up, with the help of his brother Darin. Over the course of the week he's going to put up the stairs, planks, etc. Hopefully (and that's some big hoping!) it will be done by the end of next weekend. When Zane got home from his mom's tonight he helped Luke for awhile. The two of them have started doing more things together lately, which is really neat to see. At least a couple times a week they go out on the trampoline and work on their ninja moves. lol

Quick offshoot story: On Zane's last day of school he was filling out a piece of paper. It was something about a time capsule. I don't know when exactly they'll get to look at them again. The one thing that I noticed on there was under, "Person I admire the most" Zane wrote "my dad". It kind of made me tear up a little, honestly.

Today was freakin' hot, y'all. I just now at 10:00 p.m. feel like it's cooled off enough to open the windows up. Every year I say that I want to wait until June 1st to turn on the air conditioning. And every year there's a few freak hot days that cause me to have to turn it on before June. I think I must jinx it by putting a date out there. So note to self: next year, no talky talky about when I want to turn on the A.C. :)

I am highly disappointed that the weather forcast continues to call for rain All Week. I was really hoping that we could go to the Manhattan zoo sometime this week, but I don't feel comfortable driving that far if there's a chance of rain. I guess we do have all summer, but I thought it would be a fun thing our first week. Oh well. I think we may try to go to the library tomorrow, and then if it really does end up raining all week, we might go to the museum here in town. It's not anything all that big or super!cool, but it would be a nice thing to do to get out of the house.

New sleep habits coming up!

Well, Raegan is on a pretty regular nap schedule, unless something we are doing throws her off because we're not at home. She typically sleeps until about 7:30 or 8:00 in the morning, then takes her first nap around 11:30. How long the first nap is depends on how long the second nap will be and when she will take it. Anymore, on the weekends she's been taking about an hour and a half for the first nap, then going down for the second one around 4:00, and that one lasts an hour to an hour and a half. Even not waking up until 5:30 p.m., she's typically down for the night by 9:00 at the latest.

Putting her down for nap is hardly ever a struggle, but putting her down for the night can be. Now that I have the opportunity to nap in the afternoon if I need to, we are implementing NO MORE SWING at night. So while we get into that habit, I'm still letting Raegan come into bed at night, but once we get her sleeping for long stretches without the swinging motion, we will implement NO MORE MOMMY/DADDY BED. I do love waking up to her in the morning, because she pats my face and talks to me and it's just too sweet. But Raegan is such a stinkin' bed hog. I don't know how someone who is barely over two feet tall can take up so much room?!?! And this morning she was scooching backwards in her sleep, effectively taking up the ENTIRE! bed. Which now when I think about it, it's funny, but at 6:00 a.m. it was not. :)

Ah, sleep. The Holy Grail of being the parent to an infant or toddler.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Thoughts

I managed to hang out on Zane's last day of school for about an hour before I had to get back to work. Hanging out with him at school is so much different than it used to be. When he was in kindergarten, first and second grade, hanging out meant I was right with him the entire time. I sat by him on the bus ride to a field trip. I sat with him while he ate. I stayed right by him and some friends on a field trip. I'll be honest - I didn't make it into his classroom nearly as much in third and fourth grade. This last day of school was the first time I've been in all year, which is not what I wanted, but with using all my time off on maternity leave, it just wasn't avoidable. On Thursday, hanging out meant looking at his artwork with him, chatting with him and his friends for a couple minutes about Chuck Norris (lol) and taking some pictures. I helped serve pizza, so I didn't sit by him while he ate. But that's okay. It's a part of Zane growing up. There was a boy there who actually sat on his mom's lap for a good portion of lunch, and I was thankful that Zane is not like that with me. That Zane was making memories. That Zane was with his friends laughing and telling Chuck Norris jokes. On that note, did you know that Chuck Norris sleeps with a night light because the dark is afraid of him? Oh, I laughed so hard.

So yes, being around my kiddo is different now. But it's still great. I leave you with a couple pictures:


Zane has played soccer with the kid in green for years, and he's moving this summer. :(

He really looks like his dad in this picture. I am oh so familiar with that look.....

Zane's best friend.

He is always dancing! I love it!!!

The girls randomly inserted themselves in the picture. :)

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Ch-ch-changes

Today is Zane's last day of fifth grade, which means he is officially done with elementary school. I cannot believe how the time has flown. Is it going to go this fast with Raegan too? I'm managing to find time between a million meetings at work to go to the 5th grade pizza party for a little while. Hopefully I can get some good pictures of him with his friends. If I do I will post those later.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Zane's Graduation

Zane's fifth grade honors night was this evening. (We're not *supposed* to call it a graduation, but that's what I keep calling it!) He got the President's Award for outstanding academic excellence, which means that he had to average a 90 in all subjects in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades, and get above an 85 on state testing. Smart boy! My pictures of the ceremony are not that great, because the lighting in that gym hates me (ha!) but I'll leave you with a couple. I cannot believe he's going to middle school in a couple months! Scary....

In front of the school before the ceremony.


I don't like this picture at all because she looks like a little girl instead of a baby. Ugggghhh!

Cheeseball :)

Singing songs at the beginning.


Goodbye Heusner!

Zane with his fifth grade teacher, Mr. Boyer.

Daddy trying to keep Captain Fussypants entertained for a moment longer. :)

Sunday, May 16, 2010

My Kiddos

Somehow this photo didn't make it into my last post. I really don't like the way Blogger loads photos. It takes me forever because I have to make sure to load them from newest to oldest to get them to show up on my post in order. :( Anyways.... I had subjected Luke to family pictures at my graduation on Friday, so I figured I would just get a picture of me and the kids. It turned out pretty good, huh?



Raegan's Dedication

I don't have very many good pictures from the dedication, but hopefully my mom will have some more to give me tomorrow. These are mostly from our barbeque afterwards. We had Luke's family and mine over to celebrate my graduation, Zane's graduation from elementary school, and Raegan's dedication. I am exhausted now. But it was well worth it!


"Explain to me WHY you are taking my picture, Mama?"

I love this picture! I think very highly of our pastor and I am so glad that she was able to do Raegan's dedication.





This is my new favorite picture of Zane and Raegan.



Uuuuhhhhhhh.......

Don't ask....


I love my baby girl something crazy!!!


All of the cousins on the back of Grandma and Grandpa's truck. This is something my mother-in-law used to do a lot, but it's been really hard to get them all together for a long time. I think the last one she has was from when Zane was 4 or 5!




It's really too bad Zane's looking down in this one because this one sums up all of their personalities really well.



Again, don't ask.


Dada! (Snuck in a picture of him. hehe)


Tired kiddos!

Radar


Before I upload a couple pictures from today, I wanted to post this picture first. This is our cat Radar grooming Zane before bed. I probably shouldn't say "our" cat, rather Zane's. Luke and Zane found him 4 years ago in January when he hopped over the fence into our backyard in Manhattan. He hung around (probably because we fed him) and we slowly started letting him inside. When we moved to Salina that September, we took him with us. We kept him inside only the first month (which just about drove Radar - and us! - crazy) because we were worried he might run off.
We lucked out because he did not, and we have this wonderful indoor/outdoor cat. He's very dog-like, in that he comes when you call him and he much prefers to be around humans. He does get his moments when he *has* to go outside to "prowl" but he also loves being around his humans. Especially Zane. Many nights you will see Radar stalking down the hallway to Zane's room about a half hour before Zane goes to bed. If Zane goes to bed with wet hair Radar will "groom" him, as you can see in the picture above. :)

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Busy busy!

In the middle of a crazy busy weekend, so this post is going to be quick.

Yesterday I walked at commencement for my master's degree. Veeeeeerrrrry cool! I am officially done with school, for good this time, except for the few credit hours I have to take every five years to renew my teaching license.

Raegan wants to scooch and crawl and just be mobile so badly. She just can't quite coordinate her movements forward yet, although she's getting pretty good at scooching backwards. And using one legs to turn herself in a circle when she's sitting up. She loves making clicking noises with her tongue right now, and her tooth looks like it's pretty much in. We're working on sign language now - "more" "eat" and "milk" for starters. She's such a smart girl - I think she'll pick it up pretty good.

Zane has four more days of elementary school! I can remember his first day of kindergarten so clearly. It just doesn't seem like it's been that long. I'll have to scan in one of his first day of kindergarten pictures to post up along with a last day of fifth grade picture! He has a busy week ahead of him - Tuesday is Honors Night, Wednesday evening he gets to go to The City ("club" for teens and tweens), and Thursday is the last day with memory book signing, a pizza party, and an early dismissal. I've been assured that it's "still okay" for parents to eat with their kids (meaning it's not uncool yet), so I'll be going to his pizza party on Thursday. It's always fun to be around his classmates and friends - they think they're so grownup and they're still such kids.

Okay, back to getting ready for the party. Once my mom gets me the pics from my graduation, I'll post those plus the dedication pictures.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Sleeping Beauty



How can she be so cute even when she's sleeping? I know when I'm sleeping, it's not nearly as pretty. :)

Monday, May 10, 2010