Monday, June 30, 2008

The Little Potty

I had a Baby Bjorn 'Little Potty' since before Madison was born. I've tried to use it off and on but she hasn't seem interested in it - or just hasn't seemed to get what to do with it. So with our ECing, I've continued to hold her over the potty (known as the "in arms" phase) when she goes. This morning, however, she crawled into the bathroom and was kind of looking at and handling the Little Potty. I asked her, "Do you want to go potty?" and proceeded to sit her on the Little Potty. Not only did she go, but she was content sitting there! She tends to fight me sometimes when I'm holding her (particularly when she's tired). Throughout the day, I took her back to the Little Potty and I think she went 8 out of 9 times. While she was awake, she had a dry diaper a majority of the time. I pray this continues!!!!!!!!

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Friday, June 27, 2008

UH-oh!


Amish Baby

Oh, the piety ;-)


Almost A Graduate

Last Saturday we were celebrating as Matt took and passed his final exam to complete his Bachelor's Degree in Business Management. After 3 1/2 years, he was thrilled to have crossed the finish line. Today, Matt received a call from Excelsior College telling him he had exceeded the maximum amount of math credits allowed for this degree and was therefore 3 credits short of graduating. As an additional complication, he had specifically planned to finish all his exams by the end of this month to avoid having to pay for another year's tuition. Needless to say, we're not very happy to just be finding out about this, and Matt's pretty frustrated that he's not 'done' after all. He's hoping to speak to someone else at Excelsior later today to see what, if any, remedy they might offer, since he'd been going on the advice & timeline of one of their guidance counselors. Please pray that the Lord would work this out and give my husband peace!

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

The Baby Room

I never actually decorated a baby room. In Nebraska, we were in a one-bedroom apartment. Now in a two-bedroom in NY, I don't expect we'll be living in this apartment permanently, so I still haven't bothered to decorate Madison's room. (And at a 11 months, she doesn't care!) However, when I recently found an amish bonnet, quilt, and 1800's christening gown at a rummage sale and thrift store (for a total of about $2.25), I couldn't help but put them on display over her crib.


Friday, June 20, 2008

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Non-Seabreeze Day

Today was supposed to be our big day at Seabreeze, an amusement park not far from us. We were so looking forward to it; it's been several years since we've gone to an amusement park. With the extra hot weather we've had lately, we were looking forward to cooling down in the waterpark, floating around the Lazy River, and enjoying roller coasters and tilt-a-whirls all day. Instead of a sunny, warm day, we were the victims of typical NY weather. Suddenly it's been cold and barely 60 degrees this week. After considering the forecast & the prospect of losing out on half the rides in the park, we decided to change plans for the day. We instead went to the Clubhouse for putt-putt golf and then to our friends' house for dinner and games. All in all it still turned out to be a fun day off, and hopefully we'll still get to Seabreeze - once it's hot and sizzly again.

More mini golf pictures on Picasa -









165th NY

Friends and comrades - We miss you guys! --

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Picasa Working

I was able to delete my temporary internet files to get Picasa working again. I've been getting 'error code 1' every time I try to upload lately, which won't let me do anything.

Anyway - the link with the rest of the Father's Day photos is here -

Monday, June 16, 2008

Father's Day

We enjoyed a wonderful Father's Day down at the lake with the rest of my family. The temperature was perfect as was our first attempt at kabobs! More photos on Picasa (eventually - it's not working for me right now).





Dance Review

WOW! The dance recital on Friday was amazing. The whole show - from music to costumes to choreography was unbelievable. We knew many of the dancers that performed. The theme was 'Dance Through The Ages' so the music and dance styles were very diverse. Of course, everyone's favorite is always the Irish dancers. They have done soft shoe in the past but this year also did hard shoe. The final dance of the night was their hard shoe performance to Simple Gifts. The song got faster & faster at the end, and it was amazing how fast those girls' feet moved! It was also amazing to see their teacher, Maureen, perform (original member of Riverdance). I've never seen anyone kick their leg and knee up so high and effortlessly, specifically at a live show. I didn't get any pictures myself - I'll try to get a few up eventually - but in the meantime, our friend Jeremy took some great pictures on his new camera, so you can check out his mini-slideshow on their blog.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Dance Recital

We're headed out of town to spend the weekend at the lake again. Tonight is the girls' dance recital and, as always, we're looking forward to seeing the Irish dance presentation. Tonight the girls' teacher, an original member of Riverdance, will also being doing a special performance. Should be exciting! Hopefully Madison will do OK being out so late past her bedtime.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Almost Tornado

Looks like we missed some pretty severe weather in Nebraska yesterday. The report of the Boy Scout camp that was hit in Iowa was awful to hear - 3 of the deaths were boys from Omaha. Saw Gov. Dave on CNN at the news conference they held this morning. I haven't been able to get on the Omaha World Herald site all day but from CNN's report, it sounds like at least one of the boys that was killed was a strong Christian.

The Lincoln Journal Star posted some storm pictures including the one below - the clouds on the right show a partially formed funnel cloud. Rather scary since we lived not far from there.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Uh-Oh

New word today: "Uh-oh" But on her it sounds more like "UH-uhhh" - Perty darn cute -- (More photos of knocking down the block tower on Picasa)

She's been driving me crazy today because she wants to take my fingers and walk ALL the time. I will walk her back and forth through all the rooms a couple times, then let go of her hands to sit down and give my back a break, and she starts crying. So when Daddy got home, he took a shift!

Monday, June 9, 2008

Summer & the Battle of Extremes

Ok, so technically summer doesn't begin for another almost 2 weeks. But it feels like the peak of summer already. With several muggy days in the 90's, we're ready for a little break. Our problem with this hot weather is we're either roasting or freezing -- can't seem to find a happy medium. Our apartment has an a/c unit in the living room. We were originally told we'd have no problem cooling our whole place with it. Later a maintenance guy laughed at that notion & said, "Well it's only meant to cool one room." Lovely. So we leave the a/c running 24/7 in hopes to circulate a little bit of cool air into the bedrooms. It usually results in being freezing cold all day long [I sit here at the computer with my slippers on & a blanket wrapped around me] and still being too warm at night. Conversely, when we stay at my parents, we have a/c in the bedroom at night but none in the rest of the house during the day. But at least there we are able to pass the heat of the day soaking in the lake.

June Weekend





Friday, June 6, 2008

This Just In

Boy that little girl keeps me hopping. You never know what she's going to do next! Just yesterday, for the first time, she --

-- said "Da da"

-- said "Thank you"

-- began clapping her hands

-- clapped her hands to indicate "yes"

Wow!!!

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Going Shorter

My short hair was getting a little long, so I decided to experiment and go a little shorter this time. What do you think? Do you like this or the other style better? I haven't decided yet what I think...

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

First Kid's Meal


We went to Denny's for dinner this evening. When we arrived we discovered it was 'kids eat free' night, so I thought I'd take a look at the kid's menu for the heck of it. We did bring our standard Cheerios for Madison to occupy herself with, but since it didn't cost extra, I decided to order a meal for her. She had a grilled cheese sandwich with a bowl of mixed fruit - bananas, grapes & pineapple. I cut everything into little pieces and boy did she enjoy it! What a feast!

Monday, June 2, 2008

Baby, Patting & Pointing

Madison's latest -- She just started pointing with her index finger a couple days ago. She also just discovered the baby doll, holding it close, patting it and saying "baby".