Pictures

I liked this picture -- Mary and Andy with Kieran followed by my dad with Megan on his shoulders.

Meg catching a ride with Bjorn as we walked to the take-out spot on the Colorado River.

Mary and Emma sitting in the boat. Yes, it's broken and yes, it's out of the water, but it's a nice place to rest down by the take-in spot on the river.

A self-portrait of Mark with the fire and the sunset in the background.

Margaret and Megan really hit it off at the end. Here they are on the chair in Mom's living room.

Here are all four grandchildren -- Megan, Andy, Emma and Margaret in their matching pajamas.

Another picture we tried to get of all four kids in matching Christmas pajamas. Emma, however, wished to have nothing to be done with it.

Phew

We are back. I, for one, am exhausted. I have a feeling my mother as uber hostess for many is beat as well.

It was so fantastic seeing my parents, my sisters and my adorable five and 2 1/2-year-old nieces. Andy and Margaret had the times of their lives. I loved watching that. It all made me wistful that we don't live closer. It is always hard traveling for the holidays and then trying to be a good house guest when my kids insist on smearing yogurt on the kitchen floor and then while I'm trying to triage that situation, the other one starts eating her yogurt with a knife. Oh, and let's not forget Meg forgot how to sleep while we were there. No fool, she sensed our weakness and inability to let her cry and ended up in bed with us probably every night at least for a bit before waking up before six FOR THE DAY. Of course, today -- our last morning -- Mom had to wake her up in order to leave for the airport to catch a flight that was then delayed nearly three hours. Fortunately both kids were angels on the plane, once Andy got down throwing a 30 minute fit that his new favorite cat Meowey was in our checked luggage. This after I asked the kid before I checked it if he was okay with that. Poor kid is practically luggage himself after so much excitement the past week. I, too, and worn out.

I also look forward to the years to come with the kids are easier to travel with and easier to send out of the room to play games with each other while we catch up and play bridge.

There are lots of great pictures to share, but right now I'm just too damn tired. I am planning to watch a little Tivo BY MYSELF IN MY OWN ROOM and then go to bed. I am crazy like that.

Thanksgiving

We have just gotten back from a weekend trip to the ranch down near Brownwood and it was great! The kids had a truly marvelous time. I think they could have happily thrown rocks, built fires and collected fresh water shells for another week. Andy shot his first gun, Dad's little pump action 22-caliber rifle. Andy was excited, but I don't think he is quite ready for it. Next year. Meg loved playing with 2 1/2 year old Emma and Andy and five-year-old Megan were truly inseparable. It was nice that they each had a buddy. Except for the close quarters and the fact that Meg woke up before six for the DAY both mornings, it was really great. I need to figure out how to get back there again. I'm thinking my birthday 2010.

It was a full house -- five Egans, two Miller babies, the four of us plus Mark Bennett (Jennifer stayed home this trip) and my Uncle Bobby. Pretty close quarters for a four bedroom, but we managed and didn't fight over the bathroom. Too much anyway. At night, I got both my sisters to drive around with me with the big spotlight looking for animals. The first night we took the big kids, but they quickly got bored. I loved it though. We even managed to get in a few bridge games before we all sacked out. No stars, sadly. It was cloudy both evenings. At least the weather was fantastic -- mostly sunny and highs in the 60s. It was a good trade.

In fact, this trip made me love Texas again. I'd never really not loved it per se, but I have lots of fantastic memories of summers down at my dad's place in Kerrville and at the Y.O. Ranch Adventure Camp and it was really great to get out of the city. We weren't roughing it by any stretch, but I did enjoy it. I am sure my parents are exhausted from hosting, but it really has been a marvelous time.

Picture above is Meg with her Pop. The rest of the pictures will come later from my camera. This I managed to upload from my iPhone to Mom's Macintosh. Cool!

Happy Thanksgiving

There is so much to be thankful for, especially my awesome family that never fails to make me laugh, even when I really want to throttle them.

We're off to Dallas in 36 hours. Andy wanted to start packing yesterday. Fortunately we're going to be down at the ranch so I'll really just needs lots of casual clothes. Well, that presumes I have formal clothes.

Meg is *just* on the cusp of talking. She says things sometimes that are so clear and crisp I think they must be from Andy and then they're not. I'm hoping time with the family, especially her cousins, will help her pick up a few new phrases. I hope they're clean phrases at least.

Andy and I have been talking a lot about the stars so I'm excited to him out of the city where we can look at the stars and see the Milky Way and Orion. When I got back from Chicago, I put some glow in the dark stars on his wall in the shape of the Big Dipper and Orion (Orion was much more complicated than I remember). It will be fun to get away from the city lights and see the sky. We've also been doing lots of "hikes" around the neighborhood. I have a nice backpack for Meg and then the three of us start tromping. I love that they like it half as much as I do. I find Andy's not so whiny on a mission. I'm not sure how we're all going to fit at the ranch house. It should be an adventure for everyone.

Happy Thanksgiving

Andy's school celebrated Thanksgiving this week. They invited parents so Bjorn went. Andy was thrilled to show off his school and his daddy.

Edited to add his headband says Andy is "Chief Danger Ranger," in honor of one of his favorite DVDs.

Oh no

Meg can say, "Oh no." She can also close the toilet seat cover so she can stand on it and poke around in the medicine cabinet. Oh no, indeed.

No good deed goes unpunished

Jennifer (with the help of Mark and Margareta) babysat the kids overnight Saturday night so we could go out and enjoy our 11th wedding anniversary. It was the first time we'd left both kids and gone out. It was a really decadent 20 hours and it was great to get some time alone with Bjorn when someone wasn't demanding more juice or Magic School Bus on television.

The kids had a great time. Andy even cried when he saw us because he was having so much fun and didn't want it to end. To pay Jennifer back for her hospitality, Andy snuck into bed with her this morning about 4 a.m. complaining of a bad dream. She thought it was really cute, I mean, the kid did walk past our bedroom, past Mark in his bedroom who was home for the weekend, past Meg's room and down two flights of stairs to the dark basement to find her. Jennifer wasn't quite prepared for the kicking and fidgeting from the almost five year old though. Later she woke up at 7 a.m. to start getting ready for work and he laid there sprawled all over his bed until nearly 8:30 a.m. I took a picture with my cell phone that I need to upload.


It was a great anniversary. We trekked out to Strasburg, Virginia, a place we used to visit in our younger, less encumbered days. The best was this place called the Strasburg Theater with the best performers at an open mic night that I've ever seen. We had planned to tour some antique/junk stores, but ran out of time. Next time, but hopefully it won't take us 11 years to get back.

Evidence

During the parent teacher conference at Andy's school last week, his teacher told me Andy can count to 41, which is pretty good for his age. That night I asked him how high he could count in the bath and he counted to 59. At 60, apparently, the numbers start over at 20.

It's amazing to see how different he is in a very similar situation just three years ago.

Spiderman

Stupid Kodak EasyShare is impossible so use these days which is part of the reason I haven't uploaded pictures recently. I just started using the Windows picture import thing which is better in that it works, but something about it just not intuitive to me. Anyway, I did manage to get some pictures and videos uploaded. I forget how much Andy delights in seeing himself. After we got these up, we went back and watched some of his earlier videos on here. I have personally watched him age every day and yet I'm still amazed at how far he's come.

Report card

Andy got a report card of sorts this week. It's an interesting preview of what's to come, that's for sure. The good news is he seems to be right with his peers in terms of language development, speech, interaction, socialization, math, motor skills, etc. He's even above average in his counting, being able to count solidly up to 41 was apparently impressive. Bjorn is thrilled about this part. It cracks me up to see his delight in his kids excelling at something, anything.

I was worried about the socialization part. He's new to this school, well, a few months now, and when I ask him about who he played with, he won't tell me much. But his teacher said he's got a core group of buddies -- Leonard mostly, followed by Elliot and sometimes Matthew. That was good to hear.

Things have been chaotic here otherwise. I was out of town for a week for work, which was both good and exhausting. I'm always glad when it's over as I don't have to do it again for a year, but I've been working toward this for at least six months so it's always nice to see the fruits of my labors.

Jennifer also moved in last weekend. Right now the house is still brimming with too much stuff so we're still sorting out what furniture to keep, what to put in the attic and what to get rid of all together. She's taking over the basement and it's been interesting to see all her stuff mixed with ours and trying to find the best way to give her privacy and space while keeping the TV and Wii station and access to the laundry room. Right now I am bumping into furniture in the wrong places still, but we're slowly getting it all situated. The bonus? She makes coffee every morning and occasionally folds laundry and does the dishes. I can get used to that.

Babies!

Meg is obsessed with babies. Really. Her favorite thing to do is to scream out wherever we are to point out any babies in the room, even if said baby is actually older than her. In her mind, anyone smaller than her and/or under the age of three is a baby.

She has a series of toy dolls of various shapes and sizes that she carries with her practically everywhere. A few were gifts from my mom and a couple we stole from her babysitter's house. I am amazed how stereotypical it is -- Andy loved trains and she loves babies. Believe me, we tried to make her love Thomas as much. It sure would have been cheaper and easier since we already own the stuff. No, she loves her some babies. It really does make you think there is some genetic component at work here beyond the gender roles assigned by parents and friends.

I am leaving for a week for work today so I bought the kids toys as a parting gift. Andy selected some Hot Wheels parts and I got her a baby. Heavens, some of the choices out there -- babies that pee and poop (gross! I already have one that does that, why do I want a toy to do more of that?) and others that cry and make noise (again, I already have one of those) or crawl. I settled on a baby that can go in the bath and doesn't make noise. Hurrah! Also, since all her others are light-skinned, blue-eyed babies, I picked one that has dark hair and dark eyes, you know, for diversity's sake (note -- in the picture it links to the white version). Adorableness. The only downside is she wants to take her babies with her everywhere, which can get quite cumbersome. Now I need to find a bag for her to carry them all in. Perhaps I'll find one in Chicago.

Breaking the baby

Meg fell down the stairs today. I'm not sure what happened. Normally the basement door is closed (usually she's the one who closes it) but this morning Bjorn was in the basement doing laundry and she must have decided to follow him downstairs. I didn't hear anything except the thuds. That's right, thuds PLURAL.

We both rushed to her and she was naturally screaming crying. And bleeding. She'd landed on her face just right and busted her lip. It was heartbreaking to see her so upset and awful to think this could have been prevented.

We attended to her quickly. We assessed that she didn't have a brain injury -- she was responsive, crying and all that. But I did worry a little about stitches inside her mouth. It was early enough on Sunday that we could just make doctor's office walk-in hours. I was glad I did. Dr. Murphy looked in her eyes and ears. He said with a real brain injury, she'd have bleeding inside the ears. That was good to hear. The nurse also taught me a trick to assess pupils -- turn off and on the light quickly and see if they dilate. That's the kind of test I can do.

He looked in her mouth and surprisingly, she wasn't that pissed off about it. There was some blood inside her mouth and all over her teeth, which was icky. He diagnosed her with a busted frendulum, which is that thing connecting the gums to the lip. No stitches necessary, which was good. He said to give her salt drops for her minor nose bleed and not to worry about cleaning her mouth -- the saliva would do that. Good thing, she'd be pissed to have me fishing around in there. I was really glad I took her to the doctor's. I think I would have stressed that she was really hurt and I didn't take her. Plus he swabbed her sore throat for strep. Bonus!

She came home and took a nap while the lovely Jennifer came to take Andy to the Halloween party at the lake. He was a champ while we were at the doctor's so it was nice he could get some special time with "Gemminer" rather than waiting for Meg to wake up. Once she did, we hiked down to the park and met up with a bunch of neighbors.

It was nice seeing friendly faces after a rough morning. Especially nice because as I showed off my girlie with her busted lip, they all expressed sympathy and had a similar story of their own to share. I love other honest parents. This parenting thing is quite an adventure that can get pretty competitive. I love finding other folks who are happy to share a bottle of wine, pat you on the shoulder, laugh and move on.

Adorableness

My kids are, gasp, actually playing with each other a little these days. It's sort of amazing. It's been 21 months getting here (well, 30 if you count the whole pregnancy thing), but them having each other to play with and entertain each other is pretty damn awesome. And awesome to watch. Granted, now that they can play together they can fight together. There is lots of, "Mine! Mine!" shouted out around our house. Usually from her. Sometimes because he stole something from her. Used to, he could take what he wanted and she didn't mind. Not so much these days. Now she shouts "Mine!" when he's holding something she'd like to play with.

Unrelated, I have been totally obsessed with Mad Men. I discovered it on Netflix first. Now my sister told me about FiOS on demand so I've been watching episodes there, too. Sure, I have work to do, in fact, a lot since this time next week I'll be out of town for work and have a lot to do professionally and personally before then, but damn, that Don Draper is pretty addictive.

Construction results

This is just a gratuitously cute picture of both kids in diaper boxes saying, "cheese." Those diaper boxes somehow hold a special appeal to these guys.

The finished kids' bath. I love theirs almost more than ours. So pretty! Bjorn bought some eggshell white paint and went ahead and put it on the walls behind the toilets after I got the wallpaper remnants off. He'll get the rest of the walls eventually.

Our bath mid-grout. See the cool tiles we have as a border. Love it!

New tiles in our bathroom pre-grout. Also pretty! We had them put them in diagonally, which is very nice. And far nicer than we could have done ourselves.

New tiles before grout. So pretty!

Our bathroom floor after the tiles and subfloor were up (and toilet removed). They then put down backer board before putting down the new tiles. Note the awesome wallpaper that was behind the toilet. That used to be on all the walls. I got it all off a few years ago, but couldn't get behind the toilet. I got it this time.

What we've been living with in the hallway. They did a great job keeping everything clean, but it's still been a mess.

The kids' bathroom floor before. They have already taken off the border tiles and covered it with something to help get the tiles up. Note, this pattern isn't a tile, rather it's lots of little bitty tiles that make up the pattern and thus, lots of grout lines to get dirty.

The leak that started it all. The workers cut out some drywall above the sink in the kitchen to access the pipes under the shower upstairs.

Construction

We are replacing the tiles in our two upstairs bathrooms. We had a random leak the precipitated the replacement in our bathroom. And while we had the guy in, it was just another few hundred to replace the tiles in the kids' bathroom. All fine, right?

Well, it never occurred to either of us that they would remove the toilets to put the tiles down. Or that it would take more than one day. So we're down to only the half-bath off the kitchen. Not great for me with my small bladder and a kid that often needs to be walked to the toilet at 3 a.m. As Mary would say, this is suboptimal.

As the work began, they naturally discovered that the problem with our bathroom tile is not the source of the leak, but something in our shower. So we're spending $1,000+ to replace something that wasn't broken. Oh sure, the tile was old and yucky and in definite need of replacement, but we didn't have to do it. We still would have had to cut open the ceiling in the kitchen, but that would have been a far cheaper project at a time where it appears we're hemorrhaging money. Personal property taxes are due, yearly insurance rates are here, Mark needs a lot more money for college and Jennifer has decided life on the outside is too expensive and is moving in. Bjorn's got a few deals in the works that, if they work out, would ease our pain quite a bit. Fingers and toes [or legs, as Armando prefers to say] crossed.

Language

It's exciting -- Meg is putting words together and almost meaning some of what she says. We were at Ikea and she was trying to climb into a baby crib. After a few minutes, I pulled her off and started toward where we were going. She protested harder than usual, crying out, "Sho! Shew!" Something like that. I walked faster and tried to distract her. When I caught up with Bjorn, turns out, she was missing a shoe. It had gotten wedged on the crib rail and I'd pulled it off when I picked her up. I know! She's brilliant!

Of course, as I type this she is busy taking her dinner, noodles, and dropping them on the floor. Then she's examining them and eating some. Tasty.

iPhone Pictures

Margaret's first hair cut.

This girl has manners. She likes to eat at restaurants with her bare foot on the table.

Andy getting his sticker on the wall for finishing his summer reading list. It was pajama day at school that day, hence the classy outfit.


My dad and Meg in Dallas. How adorable.

Meggie and her babies, Callie and Daisy. The iPhone camera is convenient, but it can be messy. Plus, as you can tell, I'm not so good about remembering to download them.

Sick ward

We've had illnesses this week, and boy has it been fun! Meggie Meg spiked a fever Saturday afternoon. We'd had a nice day, a birthday party (Meg's first as a guest!) and then went with some neighbors to see George Mason women's volleyball play William and Mary. Not my normal outing, but they invited us and it was fun and different. Meg was lethargic and warm, but I somehow had my eyes on the game and totally ignored all the warning signs. Serves me right because she threw up all over the car and on me as soon as we got home. Poor chicken.

She slept well that night and was perky and a bit warm the next day. I deduced a sore throat as she wasn't eating or drinking much. Then she had a hideous night where she was up every 45 minutes practically whether she was in our bed, hers or what. I thought it must have been strep, instead it was the virus hand, foot and mouth. It basically put a bunch of mouth sores over her tongue and back of her throat. She was one pissed off and tired kid all Monday who also refused to take a nap. Mommy was also quite exhausted. Monday night, I drugged her up with Motrin and antihistamine, took and Ambien and went to bed.

Naturally, she slept fine, but Andy came to our bed twice. The second time we noticed he was warm. Then in the morning he started screaming, "Why is there no air conditioning in my room!" Turns out the kid was burning up with 102 fever, but no symptoms. Miss Ayesha watched him for a bit and Bjorn stayed home with him the rest of yesterday. This morning he woke up saying his mouth and ear hurt. I schlepped back to the doctor today.

Fortunately no strep, HFM (not to be confused with High School Musical, HSM) or an ear infection, but Dr. Murphy looked in his right ear and pulled out a hunk of ear wax the size of my pinky fingernail. He thought that the sinus pressure of a cold and slight sore throat put pressure on the wax that was making his ear hurt. He was in a better mood the rest of the day with a low fever.

I took the opportunity to ask about the H1N1. I'm fascinated because all the health agencies are saying it's safe, but all the doctors I talk to at work and personally are not recommending it for themselves or their patients. Dr. Murphy said in the late 1970s when he was in medical school, they had a vaccine that wasn't tested enough that sent lots of people to the hospital with Guillane-Barre. I asked about the mercury, which is what I'm hearing is a problem from other mommies, but he said that's not it. He's totally advocating the seasonal flu and with folks (fingers crossed!) on the mend, we'll get that this weekend.

H1N1

Turns out lots of us are unsure about the H1N1 vaccine as evidenced by this article in the Post today. The article, sadly, doesn't address any of the facts vs. myths in the whole thing, it just addresses that a lot of us are uneasy. It did bring up an interesting point that just as many parents are freaking out that their kids aren't going to get is as are freaking out that it's a bad idea for their kids to get it.

Ah, parenting. No shortage of neuroses here.