Sick Times at Standish High

Well, the bug is definitely making its rounds.  Not completely sure whether the high amount of absences reflects an increasing awareness/fear of flu-like symptoms (i.e., people staying home longer when sick = a good thing; or people staying home with the cold = still not a bad thing).  Either way, the result is that Standish doesn’t have school today.  Fortunately, I’m schedule to be in AuGres  :-)

Sophie’s been a little extra fussy lately.  She’s been working on some more teeth and has been chomping on anything she can get in her mouth.  The tooth I see is front left of center but she’s chewing on stuff in the back too.  Her appetite had been down for a few days but it has definitely rebounded!  She eats everything in sight lately!

She stayed overnight at Nana and Grandpas last night…she sure does like going there!  The best part was when I told her to give me a kiss because I was leaving she grabbed my face and attacked me with a kiss.  When I asked for another, she did it again but without the face grabbing.  What a cutie!

  This weekend we tried on Sophie’s giraffe costume for Halloween and Tom let her try the whole spoon to mouth thing with applesauce (not bad).  Oh, and she loves to crawl under and through things.  Especially if she shouldn’t be there!  Oh, and she’s an absolute pro at pulling herself to standing along the crouch and actually moved past the army crawl and on to “real” crawling.  She even stays on her knees sometimes to play with things.  And of course she absolutely loves to play with a ball…to try back and forth, to keep it for herself, to put it in a bucket.  She’s getting so big so fast!

Alright, back to the kiddos in class.  Play group tomorrow.  Full week ahead.  Costume party on Friday.  Trick or treating on Saturday.  Our one free weekend has come and gone.  From here on out, it’s busy busy busy again!

Oops…forgot to post updates

[wrote this on Tuesday last week…just now posting it]

Sophie had her 9 month checkup last week.  Everything went well – she’s still growing like a weed.  She weighed in at 19+ pounds (I have the paper at home) and 29.5 inches (I think, again, paper is at home).  The moral of the story is that she’s 92% in height and 75% in weight so pretty consistent with the last appointment.

Unfortunately, she’s at a difficult size for clothes shopping.  Most 12 month clothes fit very perfectly (and by perfect, I mean that’ll probably only last for about the next month or so).  This makes me hesitant to buy 12 month stuff when I get her something because the 18 month stuff will last a little longer…but most of the stuff is just a little too big yet.  Oh the joys.

We’ve had a busy couple of weeks.  I’ve started taking Sophie to the BAISD playgroup at Standish Elementary on Tuesdays.  It’s been great because she gets to have some free time to play with other kids and learn some social skills but it’s also very structured so it’s nice to start to introduce that kind of routine.  She absolutely LOVES when they play the guitar in the circle.

On Saturday we went to Moore’s Farm for a hayride and fun with friends.  What a great place they have out there!  (I guess you could say it’s a bit of an improvement over the cabin we went to in high school!)  It’s so much fun to get to see everyone and chat, eat, and drink.  It can be fun to go to the bar sometimes, but I’d much rather do something like we did on Saturday so you can actually get a chance to talk to people (I know, I sound old when I say it like that!)  Sophie wasn’t great on the hayride until I let her look out the back; maybe she has issues with peoples in hats.  If anyone has pics, please send them along as I didn’t take my camera with me.  Thanks!

Sunday Sunday Sunday.  Tom, Grant, Pat, and I golfed in the Huron Breeze end of the season scramble.  It was a good time – I’d never golfed a “big-hole” before so that was interesting.  Unfortunately, I didn’t golf my best game – my irons were struggling.  However, my driver was probably the best it’s been.  Tom suggested a change in my stance and it’s really added more power to my swing.  We ended up even-par.  Tom picked golf balls for his gift and I picked a pullover.  It was a good day.

Tom took Monday off (he had some time built up from his extra work last week) so we ran out to Caseville and visited Greg, Rosie, and Evie at their cabin.  We’ve been talking about getting out there for a couple of years so it was nice to get up to the place and hang out.  Sophie wasn’t a great baby (she was starting to get a little tooth next her bottom ones) for the trip but we were still able to play some Scattergories while Evie was taking her nap.  I can’t believe how big she is getting – she’s so inquisitive and quick to pick up different words.  It’s just funny to watch because she was always so intense thinking about everything she sees and explores.  We stopped by Riverside for dinner on the way out – at this point Sophie was so exhausted she slept through dinner and part of the way home.  I think she was asleep before we even got to the paved road!

On Tuesday we went to playgroup again.  Yesterday we hung out most of the day until I had to go work at the JH Football game.  Sophie’s new trick is pulling herself up to standing in the crib.  Hopefully today Tom will get a chance to lower it down.  She’s definitely got a personality that comes out more and more every day; however, that personality may best be defined as “stinker”.  She hasn’t been eating much lately – not sure if it’s a result of teething, the fact that she’s preoccupied with other stuff, a natural shift in growing and appetite, or a precursor to a growth spurt.  If there’s one thing I know about Sophie, it’s that she loves to keep us guessing.

Whew! Done!

OK!  I cleared out my email!  Also thought I’d let you all know about a Shutterfly promotion for 3 free cards (3FREECARDS) expiring 11/4.  Not positive if it is just something sent to me or if it’s good for everyone, but I thought I’d pass it on.  Feel free to comment to this post to share other good deals or freebies that you guys might know about!  Thanks!

Fall Pics

Scanned in the pics I got from JCP the other day.  I think I mentioned that I got a few more poses for free, so that’s cool.  Enjoy!

bye bye bear

took this pic down to change out some frames – really liked it so i thought i’d share it one last time before goes into storage (or a scrapbook page one day…)

it’s from my trip to San Diego (Spanish for whale’s … nevermind).  this playful polar bear was quite the show stopper and mom was able to take this pic.  cool, huh?

argghhh!! and not in the pirate-sense

so my stupid internet wouldn’t connect and i had to restart my computer (after trying to restart my internet and that didn’t work).  i was working well (partly because tom was playing football so he was quiet) until that hiccup.  good thing firefox has the restore session button if you restart the computer without closing the windows!

just a friendly tip…

so, i don’t know if anyone ever ends up with a seemingly endless amount of emails but if you do (and use gmail) here’s a tip to expedite the sorting/responding process:  when you open an email from a company or person, hold the mouse over the name (it’s usually bold in the top left) and then it will pop up with the address and a “more” button; click the button and choose recent conversations and then you will see all the messages from that person so you can stay focused and move through emails faster.  unless you get distracted by blogging, then that’s not too much faster.  ok, back to work.

mason and sophie

this is the pic from my cell of mason and sophie playing the other day…

hello email, it’s been a while

so i’m finally getting around to taking care of my electronic responsibilities:  email, facebook, blog, pictures, other stuff that comes up through email.  in honor of my current state of focus, i thought i’d blog like i email, with no regard to capitalization.  i don’t know why i find it acceptable in email but abhor it most other forms of communication.  i mean, come on, anyone who’s been around me and a typo know that i can’t just sit there, i have to point it out.  i don’t think that i actively search them out, it just happens that way.  anyway, i’m able to do this because mom came over to pick up sophie for a few hours so that i could have uninterrupted time to get through this stuff.  of course, my first though is:  i could vacuum, pick up the house, cook some lunch, clean the bathrooms, wash mirrors and windows, and countless other things.  it’s a combination of free time and yet again procrastinating and avoiding my electronic obligations.  but i’m going to stick to it…right after i finish this post.

sophie has been in a good mood lately.  her nana bought her the cutest little dog hat yesterday at the outlet – i can’t tell you how many people commented on that hat!  it really makes her face look chubbier so i think she looks like a little eskimo in it.  she’s really working on pulling herself up to her knees and trying to stand.  we don’t really have much for her to grab on to though so mostly she just climbs on me when i’m on the floor. 

she’s also perfecting her fake cough.  i think she picked it up because paul is usually coughing and then sophie was mimicking the sound and we all laughed so now she’s been doing it quite a bit.  i’m sure it will fade as our response does…  she also likes to be chased…usually when she’s getting into trouble, playing with something that she’s not supposed to.  if i say something and start to walk toward her she’ll turn around to look at me, squeal, and then take off in the opposite direction.  it’s a fine line between an OK game and reinforcing the trouble she was getting into because it turns into a game.  parenting is a constant fine line to be walked.

next week will be busy, i have a couple days lined up for subbing and a couple of game management days.  sophie has her 9 month check up, so hopefully they don’t poke her too much.  now that i think about it, this might be the one time she doesn’t have shots.  i hope it is!  we’re also going to try and go to the toddler and baby playgroup at standish elementary that morning.  the baisd puts them on and sends out notifications so that may turn out to be a busy day!

oh, and sophie loves strings.

I know, I know, check my email!

OK, so I am still in the middle of my anti-email phase.  No, I can’t really explain it.  I’m sure I’ll work through it all soon.  Although, as of now my internet isn’t connecting, so that’s a convenient excuse.

Sophie is still not sleeping great through the night.  I really think we’re in another teething phase.  I really liked the old days when we all slept through the night.

Sophie and I got a chance to hang out with Mason (Deborah’s little dude) today.  The kiddos played really well together – you should have seen them playing together, sharing a book, crawling over each other and stuff.

I haven’t been taking as many pictures lately, not because Sophie isn’t doing anything but because she’s doing everything so I’m usually tracking her down.  Plus, still pictures really don’t seem to do it justice.  I have little videos on the camera, just haven’t got around to putting them up on the blog (they take awhile to load to the web).

Tried to take some pictures of Sophie and Zeke yesterday in front of the straw and gourds and pumpkins and corn stalks.  Zeke didn’t want to stay still and Sophie was mostly interested in eating dirt, so it was met with variable success.

Tom and I golfed 9 at Singing Bridge today.  Not great at the beginning and OK later on.  But, it was nice to be outside.  Some of the trees are turning so it was a nice chance to enjoy some of the outdoors.  I really like maple trees (who doesn’t) – I still remember the one that was across the street from our place on Towerline, it had great orange color in the fall.  Fall is way better than spring, it just feels warmer even if the temperature was the same.  Maybe it’s because the ground is warmer so the breeze across it is nice (and dry).

So yeah, I guess that’s it.  This is a distracted post, but I guess it’s better than nothing.

 

It’s Raining Pandas?

OK, so it’s been a while…a long while…since I posted.  First, I would like to explain that I had written the other post a couple of weeks ago but forgot to add pictures and put it online.  Oops.  Second, you have to understand that I’m in one of my anti-technology kicks.  No, I don’t really understand it, but it probably has roots in procrastination and avoidance.  For some reason, every once and awhile, I just avoid my email and computer.  It’s not accidental, quite the opposite, it is a very willful avoidance.  iGoogle is my homepage and I have my email preview set up and I’ll actually type something in the address bar really quick so that I won’t have to see how many emails that I have waiting (so I’m not lying when I said I didn’t get your email, and I’m not avoiding you in particular, it’s really everyone).  I really need to go through my email and clean it out, that’s probably the root of my avoidance.  That and the fact that I know I have a bunch of stuff to do on the computer (post to the blog, get pics up, nothing real important – just time consuming) so I procrastinate by doing other stuff.  This is not a completely terrible system though.  Think about this example:  I need to wash windows and mirrors.  I don’t feel like washing windows and mirrors.  I need to find an excuse to not wash them so I do something else with my time like dust.  Something productive is getting done and at some point washing windows and mirrors is going to sound better than some alternative so they will eventually be done.  Anyway, I’m rambling so let me get back on track and tell you what’s been going on lately.

German Fest
We took Sophie to the German Fest in Frankenmuth.  This was her first time outside of the womb at the Festival and it was not a big hit with her.  I think things got off on the wrong foot by the tapping of the keg (Shhhooosh…..followed by everyone yelling and cheering); this scared her and set her in a wary mood.  This mood was worsened by the loud playing of polka music.  I guess she just doesn’t realize her Polish/German heritage requires her to embrace polka music (I know, this can be a foreign concept to some, but she’ll eventually come around and be singing:  Roll out the barrel… or my Grandma’s old favorite: I don’t want her, you can have her, she’s too fat for me).  But, this was not the year for her to join the fold and since she can’t drink beer or eat brats, she was not impressed with the German Fest and proceeded to scream and cry real tears (not just crying because I can’t talk and this is the only way I know how to communicate, but crying like “get me the hell out of here can’t you tell that I’m miserable) so we left and went home.  It was a long day of shopping for Jen’s shower and German Fest so she seemed pretty happy to be in the car.  We did have to stop for a diaper change before hitting the road and the bathroom had the changing table in the stall and the toilet was one of those motion sensor flushers which sounds like, you guessed it, a tapping keg.  So needless to say, it is now a disaster to change Sophie when out in public because the sound of the toilet scares her now.  Uggh.

Jen’s Baby Shower
Jen had her baby shower the other weekend.  I think things turned out pretty good and she got some really nice stuff.  It reminds me of my shower and the wonderful gifts and my insane need to organize and sort it all right away.  Although, in hindsight, it wasn’t such a crazy plan since Sophie came 3 weeks early so it would have been a disaster (in my mind) to not have everything sorted, put away, and ready.  It was so cute to see all of the little clothes that she got too…they’re so tiny!  When Sophie was here the clothes just seemed normal because that’s how big she was.  Now though, it just seems improbably that a baby could ever be that small.  For Jen’s sake, I hope the Jones Family Genes don’t take over too much or she might be jumping right into the 6 month outfits.

 
In other news:
I subbed last week in AuGres and found out that it was National Punctuation Day.  Why would this be exciting you say?  Because I could tell the Panda joke!  I know, it’s Tom’s joke, but I still think I did a good job telling it (but my audience was Middle Schoolers – they laughed without actually getting the joke).  Not sure what joke I’m talking about?  Ask Tom, he’ll tell you.

Mom and I took Sophie to get her pictures taken.  5 diaper changes later, we had so many good ones to choose from that it was almost impossible.  (By the end of the day, Sophie was crying when she saw the changing table, before I even put it down to put her on it!  She really hates public bathrooms now!  Shhhooooosh!)  I had it narrowed down to 4 and Mom helped me pick the final one.  Tom and I just picked them up yesterday and they turned out great!  As an added bonus, the lady behind the counter accidentally gave us the extra teaser ones that they print up to try and get you to buy so I got three more poses in different styles.  My lucky day!

Picked gourds and pumpkins out of the garden yesterday – they really turned out great.  Also cut down some corn stalks to use for decorations.  Hopefully we’re going to get some over to the house today and decorate. 

Working the football game tonight, golfing in the Homecoming Scramble tomorrow morning with Liz, Becky, and Shirley, 10 year class reunion tomorrow night at T&C and class breakfast Sunday morning at H&H.  Monday is Mike’s birthday but that’s about it for next week.  We’ve been staying pretty busy since we moved up but it’s a good busy; it’s great to fill our time with friends and family!

OH, and I almost forgot until I was looking through pictures, Sophie is an army-crawling fool!  She can get where she wants to go and get there in a hurry.  She still army crawls, not sure if she’s going to figure out the whole belly-off-the-ground thing.  I imagine walking won’t be too far behind, she definitely likes to practice every chance she gets and took a few steps with the walker toy the other day!

To sleep or not to sleep, that is the question…

Little darling Sophie has been quite a stinker in the sleep department lately (well, really since 4th of July when she started getting teeth).  There are some nights (like last) that she’s up 4-5 times.  Sometimes it’s a quick fix:  move her to the middle of the crib so she stops banging her head against it, turn on her side, give her a binky, and that’s it.  Other times (like last night) something is truly bothering her and she just screams and I have to actually get her out and comfort her…and comfort her…and comfort her.  She still has a full night of sleep every now and then, but I really need her to string together a few nights in a row for me!

I mentioned before that she has two teeth on the top (not symmetrical though, middle one, skip one, and then side one) – well, now she’s trying to fill in the blanks.  I can see the middle one starting to poke through and I’m sure that other side isn’t far behind.  Because of this, she is definitely chewing on anything she can find.  The only time she chews on her fingers is when her teeth are bugging her and there’s been some serious chomping going on lately!  Mike gave her a chicken bone (drumstick) the other day to chew on – she really enjoyed getting at that; probably didn’t hurt that it tasted like chicken too!  She definitely gets all smiley when she sees her Grandpa, but then she turns her head like she’s being shy.  I’ve come to the conclusion that this might be a little game of peekaboo though because she does it at home too.
 
 
I think we’re really close to all-out crawling.  She’s got the quick army crawl down (though yesterday without pants she moved her legs back and forth better, still out to the side a bit though – try to keep pants on her though because otherwise she’s getting a rug burn from dragging her legs behind her) and can get from the living room to the kitchen in no time.  At first she’d just go to the edge of the couch and then turn around but now she is into exploring the house.  She’ll also try and get you to “chase” her because she’ll look back and if you say you’re gonna get her she’ll turn back around and squeal and start moving and kicking.  She still has a lot of fun if you carry her around to chase people or the dog.  Making noise is definitely a favorite pastime as Mom can attest since Sophie likes to take anything hard and then find the wood floor to bang.  In our house she likes to get to the kitchen wood floor and either bang her hand or slide it back and forth so it squeaks.  Yes, that sound is annoying.

This weekend is GermanFest in Frankenmuth but it doesn’t look like Sophie and I are going to make it this year.  The plan for tomorrow is to head to the city and get stuff set for Jen’s Baby Shower next weekend.  It’s crazy to think back to either this time last year when I went to GermanFest or even my Baby Shower and think about all the unknowns and anticipation over Sophie finally getting that whole gestation thing over with and getting out here and into the world.  And then there was the waiting for her to open her eyes.  And the waiting for her to actually smile.  And the waiting for her to open her hands or play with a toy or roll over or get a tooth.  Man, kids do a lot in this first year!  These first eight months have been great and just keep getting better (well, maybe I don’t feel like that at 2am, but…) and I can’t wait to see what’s next!  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not rushing things and I really do try to enjoy each stage for what it is (as opposed to Tom whose nature is usually just to get things over with and then you can look back and enjoy…not the best trait when you’re hiking up a mountain, but it is a useful characteristic sometimes).

In other news, I am working to get the pictures up to Ofoto and will repost links on the side of the page.  Thanks to everyone who’s mentioned reading the blog lately, it’s nice to know who my silent-because-I-won’t-comment stalkers are!  We are maybe/probably/kinda looking for a boat right now so I’ll give you a prompt for comments:  boat name ideas.  If we do get a boat and are going to name/rename it I’ll put up a poll – who knows, your idea could end up there (but you’ll never have the chance to see your idea in pixels unless you COMMENT).  It’s easy and painless…trust me!

Don’t Call Me a GIMP!

Took the opportunity to play with GIMP a little today since Mom had the baby while Rosie and I had lunch (and she was keeping her until dinner).  Thought I’d post and share…

(this is cropped for a 5x7)

Bye-bye summer…hello fall!

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Well, it may not have been a warm summer (there was that one week…) and I guess it’s still here for another couple of weeks but for all intents and purposes, fall starts today.  I think we made the most out of our last summer weekend; here’s a recap:

Friday
Started the day off at the outlets in West Branch with Sandy and Keri.  Fabulous sidewalk sales.  It’s just crazy how cheap you can get stuff sometimes – it makes you wonder what their profit margin is on stuff normally!  Of course, my favorite is the Carters store because you can take stuff back there FOREVER.  So I like their clearance sales because I can stock up on stuff I might need this winter or spring or next summer and if I need it, great, I got it at a good price, and if I don’t need it, great, I just take it back!  I’ve talked about it before but the system that works for me is writing the date on the hanger and then keeping the receipts in a separate envelope that way it will be easy to take things back and find the right receipt for the item.

The busy weekend continues because when I got back it was time to start getting everyone ready for Megan’s wedding.  (btw Megs – loved the “When Hardy Married Hoover” line on the photo show at the reception)  The weather was absolutely perfect for a wedding and the venue had a ton of awesome flowers.  I think most married people think of their own weddings when they go to another and I always enjoy refreshing my own memories so that they don’t slip away.  Ever notice that about memories, they stick around better if you refresh them every now and then…that’s why I sometimes let me mind wander from thought to thought and really try to pay attention to what it wanders to.  Of course, after a while, I like to try to retrace my steps to figure out how I got to that thought.  But I digress…  Sophie was pretty good at the wedding and reception…no angel, but not bad for someone who hasn’t even finished 8 months of life yet.  It sounds really crazy when I say it like that. 

Saturday
Saturday should probably be considered the unofficial start of fall since Michigan opened up the season against Western.  Ok, I admit it, I was dreading this a little.  I didn’t know if I could take another fall where I was apathetic about Michigan football.  I didn’t even care last year if I watched the games, that’s how bad it got.  But I have hope this year.  The offense isn’t completely offensive where was last year it was completely offensive (read the two meanings into that word and you’ll get what I’m saying).  Seriously, last year I was the absolute biggest critic of the Spread Offense because it was ridiculously bad.  I still prefer the Pro Set and it was just one game, but I have more hope than last year and it actually looks like an offense.  Keep your fingers crossed…

We also got a chance to hang out on the Queen Bee on Saturday (Jamie and Keri’s boat).  It was a fabulous day to be out on the lake – calm and sunny!  We cruised around a little before heading out to the island and anchoring for a while.  Everyone got in the water for a little Frisbee action.  It wasn’t exactly a hot tub out there, but it wasn’t that bad.  Brisk and refreshing were words that were often used.  After leaving the island, Jamie wanted to take advantage of the situation and get in a little last season tubing.  Good fun was had by all as we watched him bounce around behind the boat.  Next year may be the year that we have a boat of our own – it’s tough being this close to the lake and not having one!  When the day comes, I’ll through out a poll for boat names for everyone to weigh in.  Feel free to leave ideas in the meantime (either ones that you think we could use or ones that you just think are funny).

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Sunday
Started the day off early with a little harvesting in the garden.  Need to head back today and need to spend a day canning some stuff.  Waited too long on the potatoes, some were giant and others actually fused together to form crazy giant Mr. Potato heads.  Something is killing our plants right now, they’re getting brown spots and dying off.  Not sure what it is (bug or disease) but it’s threatening to end our growing season quite soon.  Second round of corn looks like it’s about ready.  I think it will be hard to use this summer as a judge for next year’s garden just because it wasn’t really warm.  Ever.

After gardening it was a quick nap for Sophie and then off to Ingrid’s for a cookout.  The whole crew was there (except Connie and the kids…apparently the commute from Florida can be a pain…) and it was a nice day to just hang out.  Sophie was pretty good for the day, especially since she really didn’t nap much before.  Other than just kind of sitting there and chewing on things, she got a chance to show off her army crawl (can’t just throw any old toy out there for her to get, it has to be something she’s not supposed to have and then she’ll really move!)

After Tom went to the gym on Sunday we had a few people over (Jamie and Keri, Mike and Stephenie, and later on Dwayne and Marsha) for a little Apples to Apples action.  It’s usually a funny game and it started out with giggles on the first card.  Mostly it seemed like we were poking fun at Mike (Wow…wow… – …wow) and Tom (well, the Mississippi River thinks it’s the best river around).  There were definitely a lot of laughs for that game – it was a great way to wind down the weekend.

Monday
…and that brings us to today.  I think we’re heading back over to the garden to finish up some harvesting.  Other than that, Rosie is coming up tonight with Cali to take her to the vet up in Tawas to get a tooth pulled (and a cleaning while she is under).  It is ridiculous how much more expensive that stuff is in the city and opposed to up here.  When Zeke needed his pulled (was it getting run over by a car or kicked by the horse that broke it…it’s hard to tell) the vet down in the city wanted to do a root canal.  A root canal??  Are you serious!?  He’s lived a pretty good life with one less tooth so I’m glad we just got it pulled.  Tomorrow Sophie and I will hang out with Rosie for the afternoon and then it’s time to start waiting by the phone for someone to call for a sub.  6-12 Social Studies/History anyone?  Anyone?  no?  ok then…maybe next time.

Oh, and for those of you keeping track, Sophie has 4 teeth now:  her two bottom ones, her top right middle, and her side one that is just left of middle.  Yes, she’ll look goofy if she starts getting them every other instead of symmetrical.  She’s cruising through size 12 stuff (shirts anyway, the pants still can last longer, all of her length seems to be in her upper body) and is probably at the upper end of size 3 shoes.  I have to actually start putting shoes on her now that the weather is cold.