Monday, January 4, 2010

How I Spent My Summer (and Fall)--at least Tuesday and Wednesday Nights

This is me watching my favorite show, So You Think You Can Dance. Loved season 5 and 6, although I still think Jakob should have won season 6. I never vote, though. I prefer to see who other people vote for and then get annoyed when I think it should be a different way. Luckily, I don't maintain this same practice in matters of politics.

This is what I did during commercial breaks.

The Sleepy Second Child

Wyatt stopped taking naps much earlier than Jonah because it is way more fun to stay awake and play with Jonah. Sometimes though, it gets to him.



And I should note that Wyatt stopped stuffing his blue blankies in his mouth about mid-summer, just before his birthday. I didn't know how we were going to get him to stop, but after we went to the dentist, who said that his mouth was starting to be affected by all his blanket sucking, we talked to Wyatt about it. I told him the dentist said that if he keeps sucking his blanket it was going to make his teeth stick out and that would make it harder to chew and talk. I gave him the choice: keep the blanket and don't suck on it or let mom put the blankets away. He chose to keep them and amazingly stopped sucking them that day. I guess I didn't expect so much self-discipline out of nearly 3-year-old, but then he often surprises me (like when he showed me that he could read the Hooked on Phonics workbook we have 2 or 3 months ago). Lately he doesn't have much use for the blankets. Usually they reside in the closet, but every once in a while he likes to get them out if he notices them up on the shelf in there. He still never sucks on them, though. Just the other day he even gave one to Emmett because, of course, every baby needs a blue blankie.

Solon Beef Days

Yet another small town Iowa fair. This time we headed to Solon for Beef Days. These fairs are seriously one of my favorite parts about Iowa. At this one, the boys got to participate in big wheel races--and got a can of pop and a ribbon for participating, and they couldn't have been happier. We watched a magician, who reminded us of Michael from The Office--kind of awkward, trying to get the crowd to laugh but no one did--pretend to cut off a little girl's hand, which really upset Wyatt and we had to walk away. Then this time, I got to ride a fair ride with the boys. My dad used to go on all the rides with us at Lagoon and now I realize how impressive this is because by the end of this one tilt-a-whirl ride I wasn't feeling so hot. I don't know if he just never felt motion sickness or if he just pushed through it to be a good dad. Probably the later, and hopefully I can do the same.



Our Soaking Wet July 4th

It rained like crazy this year on the morning of the 4th of July. There is a fun parade in Coralville and we decided to brave it, thinking it might be easier to find a spot on the parade route. It was still really busy though much to our surprise. Some of the parade entries had to change things up--the saddest to me was the Shriners who usually ride around on these awesome three wheelers. They just waved from a bus instead.

Here is a photo of our boys picking up candy that was streaming down the gutter. They ate soggy tootsie rolls for weeks.

Later that afternoon we had our first (and hopefully annual) July 4th barbeque at our house and then went to a fireworks show once it was dark. Fourth of July has treated us well in Iowa.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Riverside Iowa--Future Birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk

Back in June we attended Trek Fest in Riverside, Iowa--the future birthplace of Captain Kirk. We're not Trekkies, but we are fans of unique and unusual fairs so we had to go. Trek Fest was definitely unique, to say the least. We missed the morning parade (guess we'll have to go back next year), but we did get to mingle with Trekkies, keep our kids from touching the very expensive Starship Enterprise models, let the boys participate in a tractor pull and ride a carnival ride all in one stop. All in all it was a pretty good day.


Apparently this was neutral territory for the often contentious Star Wars vs. Star Trek crowd. I guess all sci-fi geeks...er, I mean....enthusiasts were welcome. For some good Star Wars vs. Star Trek fun watch this edgy clip.


Friday, October 23, 2009

Ponseti Races

We got to be a part of the Ponseti Races this past weekend. Dr. Ponseti is the man who developed the non-surgical treatment of club feet. Wyatt was treated with this method and so it was really special to be a part of it. The race was last Friday and Dr. Ponseti wasn't able to attend because he had a stroke last Tuesday. His wife attended and sat in his place at the finish line of the children's races. Dr. Ponseti passed away on Sunday and will be missed. He was an amazing man. He kept working right up until the end of his life helping children like mine to be able to run and jump and play. We will be forever grateful for his work.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

My Boys


I caught a great photo of my boys at the park yesterday. I love it because it shows a little bit about their personalities...well mostly Jonah and Wyatt's personalities since Emmett is still just showing off his sweet baby self. Jonah is the big brother who always asks to hold Emmett and wants to make sure he's okay. Wyatt is a little jokester. He always tries to make Emmett laugh. I love these boys.