Halloween Night

We'll upload pictures of Halloween later, probably by Thanksgiving. There is a picture 2 posts down that pretty much does the job.
We got our H1N1 shots today--well everyone buy Katy--it wasn't so terrible. We waited in line for a hour and a half in a line that moved pretty good. Then we went out to lunch as a thank you to Nyssa for being so cooperative.
When we got home Katy went to put Leila down for her nap and as I was doing my breathalizer Nyssa got out a blanket and laid down on the sofa and fell asleep. So that is where she took her nap. I took half of mine in the chair and half in bed. I have been feeling better the proof being that I spent half of last night and all of my nap laying down. So I wake up unable to hear in one ear, at least I'm not coughing.
When I got up it was time for Halloween proper. Katy and Nyssa cleaned and I started dinner. Then I hemmed up Nyssa's Abby-Kaddaby costume and started to carve our pumpkins. Not my best Pumpkin effort, I threw down 2 in 35 minutes. which is pretty good.
Our friends Alica and Matt and Ruby and Greta came over for dinner (Ruby is a Mudskipper with Nyssa and Greta is a Duck with Leila) and then we went out trick or treating. I do not get it, but I had a lot more nergy as a 6th grader than these 3 year olds did. We T&T'd for about an hour, hitting like 15 houses and then were pretty pooped.
When we got home...AND THIS IS THE REASON I AM WRITING...we dumped out the candy on the sofa and Nyssa picked up a box of DOTS and said, "These are what aunt Muermann had." And she was right. The last time Nyssa saw Aunt Muermann was the 4th of July, it is also the only time she's ever had DOTS.

Here are three videos from our friends the Patitz's. I've written some poor things against that family in the past, but I was mostly only joking.

2 stories

I've got 2 entries for the there is a real difference between girls and boys file. (I am not predisposed to believe in this file, but I think these are both sound examples)

1) we went to a Halloween party on Sunday for which Nyssa dressed up as AbbyCaddaby of Sesame Street fame. Her costume was basically a blue dress with fairy wings, pink pig-tails, and a wand. As we were leaving I thought I would be a be a good and proactive father and tell Nyssa that I expected her to share the wand with her friends if they wanted to see it (I also told her not to wave it around and clobber people with it). Nyssa and Leila turned out to be the only girls at the party. That night as Nyssa was going to sleep she said to Katy, "No one wanted to play with my wand at the party. They just wanted to play with trucks." (I think she thinks that my judgment of what would happen, and her friends judgments of what was fun, were incorrect.)



2) Since I've been sick for like 2 weeks and Katy has had a cold all week, Katy's co-worker sent dinner home for us tonight. We had to pick it up from a separate co-worker of Katy's, which necessitated Katy going inside Susan's house. Nyssa decided she wanted to go in as well (but that she wouldn't knock on the door herself) and by the time I got to the door with Leila and Nyssa Katy was coming out. As we were not invited in, we turned to leave, which prompted a fit from Nyssa. She really wanted to go inside. She really didn't want to go home. She refused to get into the car seat. Nyssa was still crying as we were leaving town when she said, "Susan's hair used to be more curly."


(pictures by Nana)

Back in Time

Our friend from Earlham College, Corey Hadden drove by the other day with his daughter Nona. They stayed with us for 2 nights which was tons of fun. The girls biked and ran and blew bubbles and had negotiations about what sharing meant. It was just like when Corey and I lived across the hall from each other (without the biking and running).

Happy Birthday Babies!

Someone, who until VERY VERY recently was only rumor and speculation, got on me to post pictures of our babies birthdays. I will now very happily comply.

Here are some pictures of the artist at work. The concentration was amazing, and you couldn't even taste the sweat she reigned all over the cake.

The cake was specifically requested by Nyssa. The thing she wanted on top was a Cow Candle. And she got it.
Leila, for someone who screams an enourmous amount, amazingly had no choicevoice in the matter. "Nappy Birthday." what could make a dadda more proud.

We invited about 6 families up to a park in story city: The first picture is Laura and CJ (her other son Cole is unpictured).
Baby Greta. Is about 2 months older than Leila. They are in the same room at Childserv and her big sister Ruby is in Nyssa's class. We are interlinked with the Harper's in babies (and after the party) lawsuits.
I work with Sarah and her baby Sadie is so pretty, sweet, and saucy.
The Patitz's are better left unspoken. However Joe-joe (you'll remember her from Nyssa's special forces days) is so wonderful she can get me to do anything she wants.
CJ is not Anna's baby, Cainin and Trayton are, but they were too busy running around and sliding.
Miss Darcy is a fantasy Football Guru, wife of Zach (loser) mother of Oscar and TBD. She is the greatest.
I was busy making lunch so I didn't get any pictures of actual playing or fun. but here are pictures of Nyssa opening presents. Here she is dressed like a princess thanks to the Patitz's

One thing that was so sweet was that the presents people brought were thoughtful and specifically directed towards what our babies would like. Here Leila is getting Pots and Pans to make a lot of noise around the house. AND she has.
Every baby cries at her birthday. Nyssa did, at the end and at an exceptable level. But most of the day she was so happy. Not forced, not greedy, but pleased and proud and excited.
At cake time. Everyone settled down and made happy messes. It is cute that Ruby, Josie, and Nyssa sat at one table and Cole, Trayton and Cainin sat at another one.



Nyssa was touching her cake and I was going to take a picture and Katy came over and said, "Nyssa stop that." but I would miss my picture so I said, "Do it again." And she did. That is good parenting!
Blowing the candles out. I don't know why this picture is last, but have a nice day.

Retirement already?

Should I be worried that Nyssa is only 2.9 and already contemplating retirement?


and again:


I tried to get her to only wear her underpants, but happily Nyssa was anti-thong.
So what is happening around here.?. Not much, and a lot. Leila is thinking about walking. She's starting to stand by herself for seconds at a time, and she loves to take steps if you are holding her hands. She'll walk until her thighs are burning. She is also climbing stairs, which is ridiculous.
I think that comparing siblings is a faulty comparison. I simply do not remember what and whens of what Nyssa did or didn't do. But here is one real difference between the two: Leila is much less concerned for her physical well being than Nyssa. Nyssa was never a risk to climb up the stairs, she was not a risk to fall off the bed, she was (IS) always hesitant about where her body was and what might happen to it. Leila bumped her head more this weekend then I think Nyssa has her entire life. I think this is good, leading with your head. We were eating dinner on Friday night and Leila was screaming her head off in her high chair, so we'd put her on the floor and she'd try to climb on something and fall down, so we'd pick her up and she'd start to scream so we'd put her down and she'd bump her head and we'd pick her up.
There are 2 times when I am a bad father. When I am lying down and thinking about sleep and when there is a plate of food in front of me, especially at dinner time. So when Leila is performing her shenanigans it is maybe my fault cause I am not paying my most attention, so I decided to pay attention and put her in a safe location where she couldn't hurt herself. So I did and turned back to my plate, and 2 seconds later she is crying and screaming and Katy is picking her up, and she has a giant welt on her forehead. This would never have happened with Nyssa and it might drive Katy bonkers by the end.
Here is a good example, Nyssa was standing on her booster seat and I said, "Careful. You might fall." and then I thought maybe I was being over protective so I said, "Honey, I was just trying to let you know you might get hurt. Would you rather I let you find out for yourself or give you some warning?" and she said, "Give me some warning." How cute is that!?!
This is maybe my favorite video from the recent batch of videos. Even with the fuzzy UHF aspects to the front and back of it. I love Leila's tongue, I love that she and Nyssa are all kissy face, and I love that I am sitting on the couch 1000% belly. What a dad!

An extended video

I started a folder on the desk top of my computer with videos and pictures for this blog. I opened it today and there were like 20 videos in there plus pictures. That would take me forever to upload here, and then you'd all have to go along and look at each one and it would take you forever. So I decided to throw it all into the iMovie program that came with my computer.
Here is what I did. I selected all of my items in the folder and drug them into the imovie thingy.
Then I pulled them into the bottom section. I put a picture at the beginning and one at the end.
Bookending, baby.
Feel free to not watch the video. It's like 8 minutes and not sequential. Although there is one spot near the end, which is kind of tricky and you need to pay attention. It seems as though I did it on purpose, but I didn't.



What I learned was the magical mix of picture and song. I chose, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" because it is pretty and sweet, its my friend Sharon's favorite songs, and Judy Garland is one of my dad's favorite singers. And I chose Joe Strummer's "Johnny Appleseed" because he is the best there ever was.
"Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is a song about hope and longing and I guess childhood and growing up and "Johnny Appleseed" is a "toe tapper" and is also essentally a song about hope and moving forwards.

But in part, listening to the music the videos seem almost solem and I'm afraid elegaic. When you upload a picture into iMovie it automatically plays them in, "Ken Burns Effect," which moves into a portion (focal point?) of the picture when I combined the photo's with music (especally the final one) it seemed over dramatic, almost sad. So I took the effect off. And taking it off the last photo I decided to take it off all the pictures. Now, maybe they feel stagnant.

We went to Madison for the 4th of July. It was a lot of fun and i'll put some pictures up when I get them. A big question of the weekend is whether Leila looks like what Nyssa looked like when she was 9month. At the end of the the video there is a clip of Katy singing Toe-knee-chest-nut with Nyssa on her lap. (Katy thinks this clip is proof that Nyssa could point to her feet when she was 9 months old...however, the truth is that Nyssa was repitiously grabbing her toes--she was doing it all through the song--and so i asked her to grab her toes...i.e. setting her up for success. Katy thinks the fact that she "points" to her feet is proof that she "knows" her feet. but if you examine the video you'll see she is pointing at her feet on her own before I ask the question. So, blah Katy.) The next clip is of Leila pushing her walker. My vote for the look like or not question is YES. Obviously not identical, but if you have spaced out at the end of the ToekneeChestnut, video you'll be confused when Katy says, "Nyssa."

I feel like this is boring. probably because it took like 45min for the movie to load.

Things is happening around here

This was a big big night. First Leila took some really good steps with the aide of a walker. Then Nyssa did some really nice work on her big girl bicycle and THEN Leila took her first crawls. So that was super nice.
So I went and downloaded some pictures and videos there were about 12 nifty videos. I gotta figure out what to do with them all. Most of them focus on Leila, but notice how cute Nyssa is in them too.


I'd like to show you more videos, but Katy is insisting on using the computer. Blame her.

Rainy Wednesday

We've been talking on the phone a lot the last few days. To Nana on Monday night, granddaddy and grandmommy last night, and Uncle Jim and Megan and Kaitlyn. Here is a Video from a month or so ago of Nyssa dancing with Grandma (whose on the phone).



There is also a ton of activity in our house these days. Leila, who has never decided to master crawling, is really en-raptured with standing and walking. Leila is really in love with Nyssa, she laughs and giggles whenever Nyssa appears. I like that behavior. At the center of it, I just love it whenever either of my kids smile. Laughing is like!!!



Here are a bunch of pictures that I really like: I am chatting with Heather Passmore rather than writing here.
Here is our baby Beans eating cherios.

As I said, our camera is crappy out. But here is Nyssa doing a summersalt. She's coming out of her shell more, doing more independent play and motions. We met one of her friend at the park and her friend was riding a bike (she's a few months older) and so we are working on that now.

Leila even eats chunks of fruit: Whats funny about Leila and parenting her is that I don't remember the exact date that Nyssa was able to do things...but I was so surprised and thrilled she could do anything that I was amazed. With Leila I am expecting her to do things so I always feel like she's (not behind, but) slowish.

We went to Chicago and here are Nyssa's cousins Katie and Jack. It was nice that she went off and played with her cousins and Aunt Laura, but as they stayed away for longer and longer, both Katy and I kind of missed her.


We also went to Duluth a couple of weeks ago and had a great time with our friends Jen, Nick, and JACK! We had a nice walk, and found this tree for the kids to climb in.

Here is a final video. Because there are 2 of Leila standing at the table and one is totally funny and I'm not sure which one.



Peace Out:

I brought the work Camera home

When Sally did that, she ended up with like 50 nice pictures of her kids. I got like 3 and none of Leila. Here are 2 of Nyssa, and whats nice is that she kind of looks like the hats giver.

Not Workish

I'm not feeling workish this morning, although I've a lot to do. This is marginally work. I watched, The Future is Uncertain last night. Its a good documentary about Joe Strummer the front man of The Clash. Like most non-fiction it left me wanting more. Strummer had 20 years of post Clash life...a 10 year semi-disapearance...and a great rivial before an untimely death via-heart attack. And although all those things are talked about, there was not perspective.
The director used 2 tropes to great effect in the movie. One was the symbolism of campfire, a unity activity that Strummer himself embraced. The other was less obvious. It was Strummers connection to George Orwell's Animal Farm. The director cut snatches of the story into the picture throughout allowing Strummers story to represent the different charecters.
Strummers life was of revolution, change, expression and freedom. It was facinating how he began like all of the animals, head down and working hard to initiate change. This would be his early life, his early clash days. And then, as Strummer says, the Clash made it huge and they made every mistake stardom allowed them, the director emphaisis the Pigs, "everyone is equal. Some are more equal than others."
After the Clash disbands and Strummer finds himself at sea, the director drops the Animal Farm references, but in many ways they are still relevant.
It has been since highschool since I read Animal Farm but it was one of the first books that I read and re-read, and the charecter that most stands out for me is the Horse, slow to motion, slow to be disuaded of the revolutions failure (the Pigs betrayal) and heavy of work. The horse is the moral center of teh story and his sentence to the glue shop the books key moment. Strummer, after The Clash, seems to personify the horse. Always believing, always moving forward, always accepting others, funneling other voices and ideas. And it is the loss of people like Joe Strummer and their instance on thier works and their voices that we most miss. It is those voices that are least replaceable.

Home Sick...

...But I am not sure we kept the right kid home. We sent Leila into school fussy, and Kept Nyssa home because she had the fever. But she's been happy and easy and energetic all day. So we've had a lot of fun together. We went to Wheatsfield. We went to the drug store so she could push the kid sized carts around.
We saw a small person there. And Nyssa said, "why's that guy so short?" Which was fine, I guess, except it was a women.
We spent the weekend in Chicago which was fun. The drives went ok. Getting there was much easier than getting home, maybe because both kids were getting sick, maybe because both kids were sick of the car. I was sick of the car. We didn't take any pictures because our camera is crapping out (as you'll see.)

This is as preppy as I hope Nyssa ever gets. At least she has a ball and glove.


After a long day in braids her Nyssa's hair comes out crazy and "Glamorous" like her school friend Billys mom.


No more captions. Nyssa wants to go outside. The last two pictures were taken by Katy at the carousel where Nyssa rode a pig and a horse!

Best Video Ever

This is by far the best video ever.

A Big Complaint

Last Friday Leila and Nyssa lost their day care teacher Sara B. She'd been with Nyssa during her time in the Ducks and had been Leila's teacher (because Katy and I demanded it!) for all of Leila's time at Childserve. More than the parental, we really appreciate her care and concern for our children. We really like Sara (and her chubby to be Justin). She's smart and funny and really meant to be a teacher. She takes her job and her kids development seriously. We like all of the teachers that Nyssa and Leila have had, they all seem energetic and seem to understand that their jobs are to be sweet and comforting and keep the kids safe. Sara just goes beyond that. She (and a couple others) make it seem like our kids are the most special ones out there. Not more special than others, but most special.
I've been meaning to sit down and hash out my thanks to her. I have this constant urge to give advice, and the immediate response to turn that switch off. So as much as I want to thank Sara I want to tell her what to do. Or what to keep doing. Don't get tired, don't let people get to you. I think she is great because she thinks she is making a difference, and she does. She really gave Nyssa a nice place to grow. Nyssa would be doing everything she's doing now, however she made it easy. So we are going to miss her, and we can't wait to see what she does in the future. Thanks Sara. Good luck.

No Complaints

Our camera is crapping out, but on it, somewhere, is the best video to date. I'll get the beauty off sometime, but for now here are some photos:

OK. Well, I have some complaints. But their large and their minor. First complaint, why do I have to get her dressed everyday?
Her pj's are cuter than most of her regular clothes.
Although, now that its getting summery and she's wearing little skirts and tank tops its getting pretty effing cute.


BB Leila is so sweet and funny. All of you out there that have never met her are really missing out. No blame. But she loves to sit and giggle and smile and, now, wave and play patty-cake, and kick her tiny little edible feet. She is so much fun. Until about 1am.

The Big Noodle is really a sweet snuggely nice girl. She is not perfect, and is entering into a kinda bratty phase...I always thought that the terrible two's was a 2 month thing, or maybe a 6 months thing and would start, take up, the first part of the two's...Now, I realize the Two's are a on again off again phase. You never know when it is going to start?
But The Big Noodle does so many things that are kind and sweet and thoughtful.




Like Nyssa really loves her sister. She very occasionally gets a little rough, but she shares, she kisses, she hugs. And whenever Leila does something new or different Nyssa is right there to celebrate it.

That's about it for me and talking. I should probably be telling you specific stories but...