April 29: Andrew is really getting the hang of climbing ladders and jungle gyms! See a video here.
New photos of Vicki, Alex, Andrew, and me at the arboretum and of Andrew playing at Tenney Park are in the gallery.
Mom’s latest cat scan was clear!
April 25: What good news! I haven’t posted updates on my mom’s pancreatic cancer lately…mostly because there hasn’t been much news to report. Since her surgery at Mayo in January 2006, she has been cancer-free. She did follow-up chemotherapy treatments and a clinical trial for a cancer vaccine at Northwestern University last summer. Her cat scan in January did not show any cancer, and now the scan she had today also did not show any cancer. What a relief!! Mom is scheduled to have quarterly cat scans and appointments with her oncologist (they also check-up on her at Northwestern), so the next one will probably be in July. That means that we can all returned to our favorite state of blissful denial that anything was ever wrong with our sweet mommy. Thank heavens:)
Budding imagination
April 22: Andrew’s ability to put words together is growing dramatically, and he’s really starting to amaze us with his ability to recall things that we did and to tell us about how he feels and what he thinks. He is also doing just adorable make-believe games with his toys. His favorite is to put his toys in a pile and put them to “seep” with “bankies” and sometimes his “pacie.” He has his animals eat and drink and sleep, climb mountains (a big person) and the other day, they were dancing.
When we play outside, he likes to go to the side fence, look into the neighbor’s yard, and tell us about all the animals he sees. The pandas may be sleeping (shhhh), the tiger is hiding, the monkeys are eating, oh, and Bruno the dog is there too. When we were walking in the arb last week, Andrew suddenly stopped and very slowly turned to me to tell me that there were rhinos. They were sleeping, so we tiptoed by. I am continually stunned at the way he can suddenly share all this wonder with us. I find myself thinking, “Where does he come up with all this!”
Oh, sweet spring!
April 22: It seems hard to believe that my last post was ten days ago. I was working really hard on a grant application for work from the moment we returned from Wichita until last weekend. Then I’ve spent the last seven days riding the crest of new spring activity. I’m finishing up a four day weekend. Today was an amazingly beautiful Earth Day, and we spent nearly all of the last three days outdoors. Andrew’s not so into napping these past days, but other than that, out time together has been great fun.
I took off Thursday and in a fit of self-possession, I sent Andrew to daycare and spent the day doing my own thing. I cleaned and gardened and went to the library, and ate ice cream outdoors in the sunshine while reading a book. It was delightful. We dug up a flower bed in front of our house, and I supplemented the soil. Pictures of the new garden are in the gallery. On Saturday, we went to Madison’s first farmer’s market of the season, and we got cheese curds, tomato plants, and several perennials for our garden. This afternoon, I planted peas and radish and two tomato plants. Andrew helped drop the peas into the soil. However, after we covered them, he really wanted to “dig, dig!” them up again:)
Today we went to the zoo, and the little guy did not want to walk. Silly boy. So we ended up carrying him all around the zoo. It was packed with people and kids getting outdoors to enjoy this amazing weather.
We saw our neighborhood owl a couple times this past weekend. There’s speculation about which tree holds its nest and whether there are chicks.
Loads of pictures are in the gallery!
Exploring the floor
April 12: Andrew has discovered a new approach to being unhappy: throwing himself on the floor. Sometimes he isn’t even unhappy…he’s just done being vertical. While we were traveling over the weekend, he would regularly stop walking and drop to the ground, spread eagle. Staring up at the ceiling, he would then begin inching his feet in a circle. Bryan or I would stand nearby to make sure he wasn’t going to trip up a fellow traveler or be run over by a beeping airport car. At one point, her rolled over onto his belly and began crawling down the hall. This seemed to amuse some tired travelers.
We’ve found that picking him up usually results in an unhappy boy, so if at all possible, we let him spend his quality time with the floor.
Easter in Kansas
April 9: We’re back home after a really nice visit with our family in Wichita. We flew out on Friday and returned today (Monday). It was such fun to see Bryan’s parents, Melanie and Ben, and all four of Bryan’s grandparents. We even got to see Ben’s family as his brother’s quadruplets were celebrating their third birthday and we were invited to join the party.
Andrew had loads of fun finding the Easter eggs that his granny filled with fun treats, and we all enjoyed munching on the frosted Easter cookies she made. I wish we could see all the Dotzours/Harveys/Davis more frequently, but we sure do have a great time when we are together!
Extensive pictures of our visit are in the gallery.
It’s a rainy day
March 31: We had a really quiet Saturday today, which was a nice thing. Yesterday Andrew and I visited Olbrich and saw the conservatory in its newly pruned loveliness. Andrew has the best time running around, looking at the fish, pointing out the water falls, and navigating the stairs.
I was hoping a bit for sunny, warm weather so we could work on some new garden beds, go biking, and in general play outside. Mother Nature had other plans in mind, though, and a soft rain has been falling off and on since morning. So we hung out around the house. Andrew helped me set up a new composting bin that I finally acquired, and he got to wear his new froggie rubber boots for a quick romp around the yard between showers. April is here tomorrow, and it really feels like spring. Speaking of April, this will be our first April without our pooch April. It’s been 10 months since we put her down. I was thinking about her with all the storms tonight. Sweet doggie. We sure had fun having her in our family.
Pictures of Andrew playing in the back yard are in the gallery.
A day at the farm
March 25: The weather today is stunning! The temperature is in the 70s. Wow. Yesterday we pulled out bikes out of storage, got them ready for the new year, and took a little trip down to a playground. I put away all my snowmen and winter decorations, and now bunnies and eggs fill our home.
This morning we went to the Pancake House for breakfast. Andrew loved his blueberry pancakes. He also ate most of my sausage patty:)
We took advantage of the lovely weather today by taking a trip to the A-Z Farm just outside of Madison. Andrew has been on the somewhat fussy/unhappy side recently, and I wouldn’t say that he had a terrific time at the farm. It was packed, and he was very overwhelmed. Sometimes he wanted to get down, but as soon as he was on his own, he would start sobbing. I took lots of pictures and video, and I imagine that we’ll spend a lot of time in the next week reviewing al the animals we saw in the safety of our own home. One perk of our visit was seeing my friend Lucy and her daughter Isobel while we admired the sheep. Pictures of all the adorable animals and of a worried Andrew are in the gallery. What a great way to spend some time. I LOVE the farm!
We’ve passed the equinox
March 23: I have a hard time believing a week has gone by. I’ve been so busy, having fun and hanging out with my siblings and cranking away at work. I hope this weekend gives me a few moments to find some quiet. I’ve just uploaded two new photo albums to the gallery. The last one in the Winter 2007 album, and the first one in the Spring 2007 album. At some point here, I also hope to find an easy way to post video. I take lots of video clips of Andrew with our camera, and I’d like to share those too.
A quick synopsis of some of the fun activities in the past week: Last Sunday, I helped host a baby shower for my good friend Liza. She’s expecting a baby boy in early May. I finished knitting her baby blanket just in time for the shower! Maretta and Joe watched Andrew on Monday morning, and Monday afternoon, I took off work to hang out with Michael, Maretta, and Joe. The five of us (including Andrew) celebrated Michael’s birthday at Pedro’s, and then we went to a walk down to our neighborhood park. Andrew was just delighted to get to play on his beloved swings and slide again! Pictures of the baby shower and the park fun are in the gallery.
The rest of the week has been an utter blur, but today Joe and I took Andrew to the Vilas Park Zoo for the first time since last October. We met up with my co-worker Vicki and her son Alex as well as Budgie and Wyatt, along with their dad’s, Benson and Steve. Andrew loved the rhinos, we got to hear the lions roar, and I was happy to see some active polar bears. Pictures of our time at the zoo are in the (spring!) gallery.
Sleeping late
March 18: I woke up this morning with a start. It was 7:35 am, and both Bryan and I were asleep in bed. Since Andrew normally wakes up sometime between 6:30 and 7:00, and since I don’t believe he has ever in his life slept past 7:10, I kind of panicked that something had happened to him. I leapt out of bed and raced into his room, and there he was, soundly sleeping at 7:35 am. He was bunched into a corner and had his “bankie” tucked under his arm. What a sweetheart. Tiptoeing out of his room, I thought I’d pop on the computer as long as I was now wide awake!
Fifteen minutes later, I still have a lot of adrenaline pumping through my body. I can hear that he’s woken up now, and he found the books at the foot of his bed. He’s reading them out loud to himself. What a sweetie.
Hope your St. Patrick’s Days was a good one. What a fun and happy holiday. It will be such fun to share the excitement of holidays (especially St. Patrick’s Day since it is my favorite) with Andrew as he grows. Pictures from the last few days including some of his daycare pals and a big Babler family celebration are in the gallery.