Last day in January

Sorry local meterologists, we did not have the coldest January in 30 years because today it got up to 40 degrees!! Woo hoo! And we seem to have fully recovered from our colds (knock on wood). We are going into February with great spirits and a ton of energy.

Here's Penelope wearing Chris's hat.

Penelope with her bunny We went for a long walk along the river. Despite the bumpy ride, Penelope slept the whole time.

So sad...the cliquot club all closed up. (read below post if this doesn't make sense to you) Cece is excited to be on a walk with the whole family.

Lacey and I went ice skating. By the afternoon the ice was a little soft. Tomorrow we are back down to the 20s so I may try to get out there again.

Enjoying the beautiful day. (after seeing this pic, I'm so glad I have a hair appt this week!) Senorita Fussbucket and Daddy Fusszilla

"I don't find this fun at all!"

"Okay, this is more my style. Princesses shouldn't be thrown in the air. They should sit on nice comfy laps"

Hard Times

Okay, I'm going to try not to get too deep into politics here because I've got loyal readers on both sides of the aisle....but I do have some things to say regarding our current state. Too bad I don't have any answers. Since I've spent many more hours watching TV this year (maternity leave, sick leave etc) I've witnessed news/talking heads at their best. Every day you can find a morning show that has a personal finance guru going on and on about how people need 12 months of savings in their bank accounts...commercial break...now we've got the economist who repeats over and over how Americans need to restore confidence with the economy and get out there and spend. Wait a sec? Isn't this the same audience? Who should be saving and who should be spending?!

Last weekend I had a downer when Chris came in and said the Cliquot Cafe closed. One of the best parts about our house is that you go one block east and you are at the Birchwood Cafe, which is a very hoity-toity organic restaurant that people from all over the city come to. Really good, but expensive and always packed. When you go one block west you come to the Cliquot Cafe, a local neighborhood restaurant/coffee shop where you can actually meet people that live around here. Unfortunately it couldn't stay open. Now I know we couldn't single handedly keep this place open, but I felt bad that we hadn't been there in months. In the fall I would sit on their patio with Penny in the sling with a coffee and a book. It is such a good memory. Chris and I make an effort to eat at local places, but lately we've settled to buying better quality food at the co-op and Chris makes awesome meals that last for days. I wonder how many other Americans are doing this now?

Well, anyways, this brings me to answers. Should we be getting bail outs and stimulus packages? I don't know. If we didn't, how bad would it get? I don't know. Is it worth the years of debt to future generations? This morning my brother emailed me a quote from a book he is reading:

In 1789 Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to James Madison in which he argued that a federal bond should be repaid within one generation of the debt, because as he put it, "The earth belongs...to the living...No man can by natural right oblige the lands he occupied, or the persons who succeeded him in that occupation, to the payment of debts contracted by him. For if he could, he might, during his own life, eat up the usufruct of the lands for several generations to come, and then the lands would belong to the dead and not the living."

definition:
Usufruct-the right of enjoying all the advantages derivable from the use of something that belongs to another, as far as is compatible with the substance of the thing not being destroyed or injured.

Whether the stimulus is right or wrong, I think we all know that it will be part of our legacy that we leave to the next generation. I guess it is good that Penny, Molly and Dylan are geniuses. They are going to need to be to fix this mess...

She's a genius!

Now I know why every parent thinks their kid is a genius. I mean when you meet the little suckers they are just little blobs that don't do much. In just 4 months that little blob can do amazing things like grab the toys on her exersaucer, make all these "talking" noises that you make back, and smile like you are the best thing in the world. Chris got out the exersaucer that Jill gave us. We showed Penny all the neat toys and within minutes she was grabbing on and moving things around. She was hard at work! We were amazed! "Look at our genius! The way she is working on that she is sure to be an engineer...oh, but look she threw that toy down...learning physics totally on her own. How did we produce such a genius?!" This morning I was telling the daycare owner about her first time in the exersaucer and was told "yeah, Penny loves the toys on the exersaucer." Lo and behold, I turn around and see that they have the EXACT same one. Little pooper was practicing for days and was a total pro by the time we saw her in action. Ah, well, I still think she is a genius...how else could she go from a blob to squealing every time I sing skimmarinky doo in just 4 1/2 months :)

Here she is trying to figure out Daddy's toy. She doesn't think it is much fun.
This is more her style.
"Mommy, I've got this taken care of. I don't need you to spin the monkey"Gosh, who's that beautiful girl? All toys must have mirrors because I'm just that adorable.
Okay, this has to be one of my favorite pictures. My little reader.

"So I have a rattle on my arm now? I don't really get it."

Penny wants a tutu

Okay, so maybe Mommy wants a tutu for Penny!
Let me explain...Facebook and blogs are amazing for reconnecting me with people. I've found so many AZ friends that I haven't talked to in forever. Some of you may notice Caryn who posts on my blog. We were in Limelight together almost 20 years ago and were friends in high school. (Oh my gosh, Caryn, it will be 20 years this year! We were in Christmas Spectacular in 1989! That was my first show) I hadn't talked to her since I left Buena my junior year, but this year we became friends on Facebook. She has a 5 year old and a newborn, is in law school and keeps up a blog all about the crafts she does. Yeah, I'm just a little jealous of her energy. And then this past week I found Nikki who grew up a street away from me. We pretty much lived at each other houses for a couple of years....hadn't talked to her since I moved either and I'm so excited to catch up with her, especially as she is expecting her first little one. Anyways, on to the tutu, so this morning Caryn had a link to Ashley's blog. I knew Ashley in high school too. Turns out Ashley is another one of these craft wizards with a great blog and store on etsy.com. She is giving away a tutu, slippers and hair clip. All I have to do is to post her blog site on here to be entered for the tutu so here it is: http://makeitandloveit.blogspot.com I'm sure some others of you out there want to enter once you see this tutu.

Ashley's other projects make me drool. Who knew I'd want to make a plastic bag holder so bad, but once I saw the one on her site I was like "Whoa! I need one of those!" Actually I probably don't since we've made it a goal to use reuseable shopping bags but it is still pretty cool. Problem is that most of the projects require sewing. I've never touched a sewing machine. The year I was required to take Home Ec there was some sort of overcrowding or something so I had to take two quarters of music. I'd be quite the recessionista if I learned how to sew. Whenever I buy pants or a skirt I have to take them to a tailor or hope that I have heels high enough that I won't trip. Maybe I should make learning how to sew a goal for this year.

(Did I really use the word recessionista? This is what I get for laying on the couch and watching the Today show for a whole week)

One last post of sick

Okay so big thanks to Chris for updating the blog. It was the laughter I really needed. As fate would have it I too have an ear infection. Here was the conversation between me and my mom after Penny's appt on Wednesday:

Me: Penny has really bad ear infections. I feel so bad for her. I can remember how those throbbed. I hope she isn't like me and has them on a monthly basis all through elementary school!

Mom: Oh no! Poor thing! Well, at least she has antibiotics now. Do you ever get ear infections any more?

Me: No, I grew out of them...haven't had one since middle school. Remember once I got to high school and college I got sinus infections all the time. I'm pretty sure that's what I have now.



Then of course Thursday morning I woke up to that throbbing pain in my right ear. Chris went to work in the morning and came back at noon so I could go get checked out. I went to one of those urgent care places where you don't need an appt and it is all nurse practitioners. On my drive over I felt this horrible pop and next thing I know there is orange goo running out of my ear.Warning:there will be bodily fluids in this post as that is our current life. So the NP looked in my ear and sure enough my ear drum popped and I have a moderate size hole. I asked her how common this was and she said she doesn't see it too often because most people can't stand the pain. I swear I didn't feel anything in my ear until that morning. Plus, she said my left ear was "bulging" and I was correct on the sinus infection.She told me as I left that with everything she saw and no sleep I must feel like I'm dying. Well, that must have been what my brain needed to hear to allow myself to be miserable. Thankfully Chris stayed home another day and all I did was sleep and leak goo out of my ear. It is continuing to ring and feel stuffed. I have to see a dr in 3 weeks to make sure it healed properly.
Phyllis, Chris's mom, checked up on me via email every day. (Let me tell you, the blackberry is the best invention. I was able to keep up on facebook, some of my work, and email all from the couch and bed) When I emailed her about my ear drum she said that the same thing happened to her when Laura was a baby. What?! I quickly emailed back "How in the world did you deal with this when you had 3 kids?!" This was her response:

Mother nature makes you forget the tough times and helps you remember the truly precious ones, like when you are holding a sleeping baby in your arms in the middle of the night and its all quiet and you look down and realize your baby is gazing at you with such love and amazement. That's what keeps you going and then when they are teenagers, you turn to booze!

In my opinion she has missed her calling as a Hallmark card writer!

Well, if you've sat through this whole woe is me then you deserve some pictures. Penny discovered toys this week. Well, actually it is a blankie with all sorts of textures and shapes coming off of it. (Does this look like a sick baby?! This was Monday when I thought she was getting better and then everything went downhill again that night)

And here's the new thing. She doesn't like to sit up very long so she face plants herself onto the couch...
And turns onto her stomach. All of that tummy time has paid off! Even though she'd get cranky we tried to do 10 minutes total each day like the pediatrician told us to and now she loves being on her tummy.

Okay, quick break to rest my neck

Back up again!

Here's Cece keeping Chris warm. Maybe you think she is a little big for a lap dog, but when you have been outside in sub-zero weather you want your whole lap covered.

Me with Penny. She slept like this for 4 hours on Tuesday night. My bum and legs were numb but I was happy that she got some sleep without coughing. As you can see I'm at my best! This is the outfit that happens when Daddy is in charge!

Mommy, you couldn't wake up and dress me?!Tummy time in her crib. No rolling over yet but I think it will happen soon

Penny breaking out of the swaddle. When she is older she is going to think that we kept her in a straitjacket for the whole first year of her life. We really don't...it is just the cutest thing.

Okay, daddy, this outfit matches. Love the garanimals

So I started this blog at 7:30 am when everyone else was asleep. By 8 am I had a grumbling Chris standing next to me holding a smiley Penny. I innocently said "Oh she's awake!" Chris said "You didn't hear her crying. I got up and changed her diaper" I blamed it on my stuffed up ear, but really, those of you who have been to our house and met Penny know that you'd pretty much have to be deaf in both ears and not feel vibrations in the floor to not hear her cry...yet Chris believed me and I got out of that first cranky diaper change. Since he doesn't check the blog unless I make him we'll just keep this as our little secret for a while, kay?

Destruction only Dad could do.

*The view expressed in the following blog are not necessarily by the main contributor and owner....because this is Chris's writing....and he's a bit more negative...

Alright so before I begin the tale that the title of this blog refers to I have a few things I need to get out first. First of all, infant germs should be banned per U.N resolution. HOLY $#*@! Seriously folks, there is something so very wrong when two full grown adults get wiped out for over a week. It's not like we don't have a life time of antibodies built up from 28 years of colds and flus. They should really let parents know in there birthing classes that they could potentially be bringing Patient Zero for a next worldwide pandemic into the world.

Well, enough on Typhoid Penny.

A few nights ago I was sleeping out in the living room on the couch. No I was not in trouble, but I was keeping the dog company....look the dog doesn't like to be alone....look don't judge me..Anyway moving on. Penny had just woken up and was finished feeding. Laura was not feeling well so I decided to take her in the living room with me to get her to go back to sleep. So I figured that I could prop myself up in the top corner of the pull-out. I piled up the pillows, picked up Penny, then proceeded to sink right to the floor. The front legs of bed and the rear legs of the couch both shot straight to the ceiling. Imagine a couch that is built into a V shape with a 230 lbs man and his 4 month old daughter (who is asleep) being sucked into the unknown bowels of the pull-out bed at 3:30 in the morning. After calling for help (Penny is now awake at this point) Laura was able to bring the bed back to the floor. Unfortunately we did not notice that the side table had shifted and as the couch was corrected the table was knocked over. It is now 3:33 AM and the early morning is filled with sounds of crying baby and breaking glass. Luckily we only lost one glass, but several items are in need of repair. Who knew that putting a baby to sleep could be a such a hazardous ordeal?

So that was just one very early morning out of a week that has included the realization that my daughter could be a WMD, your wife can get an ear infection so bad that her ear drums can burst, and that I probably would have gotten more rest if I went to work than stayed at home.

Ah well...no one said any of this would be easy...and if I ever get my sanity back and realize any of you out there in reader land did, know that I will hunt you down.

You are invited to the Strand pity party!

Location: Strand household
Bring your own flu, fever, and ear infections!
Okay, I'm the first to admit that I am the most melodramatic sick person. I've had many friends say "gosh, you sound like my boyfriend/husband" In our house I am the big wimpy sniveling baby.And you don't have to know me very well to know that I am a cranky no good very mean person when I don't get enough sleep. And I must say that our princess seems to take after her mommy...oh wait, she IS a baby.
Chris and I are now sleeping in separate rooms. Don't worry, nothing is wrong with our marriage. Penny just couldn't stay asleep on her back in the crib and with her coughing fits I wanted her in the same room. But she is too big for the bassinet so is either sleeping on our chests or in her vibrating chair. Well, Cece sleeps in our room and if we are asleep I don't consider that supervision. So why not just throw cece into the living room? Because she will whimper and bark for hours so we are taking turns on who sleeps with the dog and who sleeps next to the baby.craziness,yes! Penny was waking up every hour but last night she went 3 hours at a time.
So I did take penny to the dr. She has an ear infection and bronchiolitis, which is why she has the cough that makes her throw up. There's so much mucous that she has neon green poo diapers.The doc said it is often caused by the RSV virus and the cough can last 3 weeks. I went online to find out more about it. Here are the kids that usually get it:
Boys--nope
Formula fed--nope,still going stromg with exclusive breastmilk
Smoking in the house--nope
Under 2 years old,specifically between 3-6 months--yes
Winter--very big yes
Day care--yes, and this is where I burst into tears as my working mom guilt came out strong. Chris was very comforting, but with all of us sick with no end in sight (see, very melodramatic) I was an emotional wreck.
Thankfully chris is feeling better and coming home this afternoon so I can go to the doctor and hopefully get some work done. There's just so much you can do on a blackberry while holding a sleepy baby.

"mommy, if I wanted to be born in the arctic...

I would have been born a penguin!"

Yes, I know this is her Halloween costume, but it was too good to pass up with all the snow. Plus, we finally got up to the 30's and I wanted all 3 of us to get some fresh air. We were below 0 for over 90 hours. Glad that is over! We were only outside for 10 mins but it sure felt good.

Unfortunately, we are all sick again. I'm trying to disinfect everything, but my lysol spray is no match for these germs. I'm not sure if this was the cold we had 2 weeks ago or a new one. Poor Penny! She looks at us with a pitiful expression "Why don't you make me feel better? What kind of world is this?!" If it was up to Chris, we would have been at the hospital at the first runny nose...I'm trying to keep my head, but the whole "follow your gut" saying is meaningless to someone who second guesses everything. She had a fever that could have been caused from her shots or her cold. Tylenol brought it down. Now it is the coughing fits. I may take her to the doctor tomorrow just to make sure there isn't some sort of infection. We have a humidifier and everytime we take a hot shower she sits in the bumbo in the bathroom. That calms her down more than anything. We've gone through multiple sleepless nights and I feel so hopeless. Once again it makes me think of all the parents I've met at work. If I feel hopeless with a baby dealing with the common cold, how do you comfort a baby going through chemo treatments? I think in that situation it must be one hour or even one minute at a time.

The only way we were able to get her to nap yesterday was with Penny lying on our chest. Anything to help her get some rest and beat this bug.

And then here are pictures from earlier in the week when she was feeling fine. She was practicing her raspberries.

We're frozen!!

Okay, so my last post was so idyllic...like that painting of two girls skating with their hands in nice fur mufflers and the preacher skating by them. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Anyways, forget all of that, why the heck did anyone settle here?!
We are heading into day 3 of below 0 weather! Tomorrow the low will be -18. I hate how excited people get when we get above 0. People, it isn't like we hit 70. The high on Friday is going to be 5. However, we will be up to 28 by Sunday so my idyllic skating weekend will return.

When we were doing research on places to live I remember being on a website about top places to live. That's where I found out that 85% of Minnesotans were born here. The article was all about how people love it and don't move away. Well, you'd think that being in marketing I could figure out that is one way to spin it. I'm sure all you smart readers figured out from my last post something that has taken me two years to understand. The statistic is so darn high because no one chooses to move here! That other 15% is made up of poor folks born in the Dakotas and people who need to have their sanity checked (me and Chris).

Now I know why Minnesotans always plan their vacations in January even if it means pulling their kids out of school for a week. Say we went to a nice 80 degree beach in Mexico today. We'd experience a 94 degree change in temperature. I think Chris and I will always plan vacations in January. The summers here are absolutely beautiful so why leave then?

Just a quick update on Penelope...she is staying warm! I put her in a fleece snowsuit and then under the fleece cover on her car seat. We went to her 4 month dr appointment. She is 13.5 lbs and 25 inches long. That puts her in the 50% for weight and 60% in height. Besides needing to change the lotion we were using (who knew Johnson & Johnson's baby lotion is one of the worst products on the market for dry skin?!) the doctor said she looks really good. Oh, and she took a 3 hour nap at day care today, and greeted me with smiles at lunch :)

Embrace the cold

Now this may seem silly but I feel that I can't complain about the weather. I mean, we chose to move here. We could have done more research on say, San Antonio, or maybe Albuquerqe, and been sitting by a pool right now. But here's a weird statistic...a very high % (close to 85% I think) of Minnesotans were born here. When we lived in AZ it was the exact opposite. Isn't that strange? In a way maybe the natives can't complain about the cold either. They could move away.

I must say, if you do want to move to the arctic, you might as well move to the city of parks and lakes. Last year I started ice skating because there was a small ice rink near our apartment building. When we looked at this house last year I was very excited to see that the nearby park also turns into an ice skating rink in the winter. Yesterday we finally got a "heat wave" i.e. it was in the 20s. Right when Penelope went down for her nap, I grabbed my skates, walked one block and was on the ice for an hour. It works well for us because Chris does not skate at all. He had no problem staying home. This park is great! They have 2 hockey rinks and an open rink. Plus they offer hockey leagues and figure skating lessons. I went in the warming house and found cubbies filled with skates you can borrow. It is all on the honor system. You find your size, skate, and then return them. Isn't that cool?! Since it was so warm there were a ton of people there. I met a little girl named Hazel that was literally skating circles around me. She is only 4 years old. A bunch of kids were playing tag, and then there were the group of boys that skated really fast straight into the snow bank...hmmm...no wonder many of the parents made their kids wear helmets! It made me excited to think of teaching Penny to skate. I took skating lessons when I was 12. It meant my mom and I driving 2 hours to Tucson for an expensive 1/2 hour group lesson. That only lasted 4 weeks before I gave up on that activity. Penny and I will only have to walk 5 mins for a whole afternoon of fun...maybe we'll even talk Daddy into joining us some time. After skating I was heading over to the Birchwood cafe which is 2 blocks from our house. The Star Tribune voted their hot chocolate as the best in the twin cities and I still haven't tried it. Right then Chris called with a screaming Penny in the background so she probably saved me from drinking double the calories I burned.

When I got home there was a lovely cooking smell. Chris was cooking up the venison Lacey brought us. Lacey goes deer hunting every year so she gave us some steaks. Having the hunter deliver your food...now that's local eating! We have a wonderful venison stew that we'll be eating all week. We are getting 6 inches of snow today and the high this week will only be about 5. For the rest of the week, my way of embracing the cold will be with a nice fire, a warm blanket, and a snuggly blanket!

Here's a picture of Cece while chris was cutting up the venison. She doesn't act like this with burgers so she somehow knew it was wild game :)

Evan's birthday

On Saturday we went to Evan's birthday. He turned two and is in love with Elmo or "Melmo" as he says. There were kids everywhere! Penelope had been so smiley earlier but she didn't crack one smile the whole evening. I think it was sensory overload. She didn't know where to look as you can see from this picture: Getting ready to blow out candles.

Isabella and Penny sitting with Roger. She seemed to be quite content and sat with Roger for a while.

Pat the tush, raspberries and a full week of work

Will start the week in review with some pictures :) The reason I'm able to blog is because Penny has been taking a very long nap. Here's a picture of her...still does best with a good swaddle. The people who invented the miracle blanket and swaddleme are geniuses!

On Monday we did a little photo shoot in her room. I got a few smiles. The red light that goes off before my flash distracts her so the smiles are hard to catch.

As I was changing her I noticed she matched the green eggs and ham guys. I thought it would be a cute picture. We've now retired the red diaper cover. She's too big for it now. I love her expression in this picture.

okay, she obviously thinks I'm pretty ridiculous to pose her on the changing table, but I can't help being a paparazzi mama This morning we had some errands to run. Chris pulled out this outfit and I said "that'll never fit her!" I remember when a coworker gave it to me when she was born and it seemed so huge. He put it on and it fits perfectly. She does look splendid in pink sparkly pants :)

Out to get bagels...daddy is so funny
I don't think you should be giving that to me, Daddy.
This week was exhausting. It was my first four day week back at work. I'm taking Mondays off until the first week of February. Penny's first day back to daycare did not go very well. The whole day she slept a half hour. This is the same baby that takes a 2 hour nap in the morning and a 3 hour nap in the afternoon at home. I was very worried, but everyone said she'd adapt quickly and they were right. By Friday she was doing an hour and a half in the morning and 45 minutes in the afternoon. Still not as much as I liked but she is getting used to day care or school as we like to call it. In fact, all the teachers commented on how smiley and alert she was the rest of the week. I was able to feed her every day at lunch. Work was hectic this week, but to have a break during the day and hold my sleeping princess penelope keeps refuels me for the afternoon.

She now has a new talent. She loves to blow raspberries and will do it over and over. Most of the time it isn't a full raspberry so it sounds more like a little boy doing farting noises, which of course makes Chris laugh hysterically and then she smiles at us. I have a video that I'll have to try to get up on you tube. It truly has been an hour of entertainment every night!

She is starting to go to bed earlier...around 7-8 at night. It is hard to put her down, especially for Chris who doesn't see her all day, but we've learned when she starts rubbing her eyes and ears we better get her to sleep fast or else it will be a total meltdown. Now according to my Happiest Baby on the Block, the majority of babies can learn to go to sleep without the 5 Ss around this time. Not our Penelope, she needs 4 Ss while we rock her to sleep (swaddling, side laying, swinging, and sshsing which is the static from the radio) plus patting on the tush. Chris has been doing this for a long time, but I've found it to be very useful. The moment I start patting her eyes close. I don't know about you, but I don't think this would be very relaxing. I wonder when it will lose its sleep potency. Once we get her to sleep she is out until 5 am. Only once did she wake up at 3 am. After talking with some other moms I realize I'm really lucky that she consistently sleeps through the night.

Well, we are off to a birthday party. Probably will post tomorrow with more pictures!