Truck Day, X-Ray Day

A week or two after we moved to Woodbury two years ago, I read about "Truck Day." I was so excited to learn our new community offered great opportunities like this for kids - basically a chance to climb in and pretend to drive a variety of large vehicles. For free!


Little did I know that year was the first-ever Truck Day. I was about to write that we have now gone to all three years of this fun outing, only to look back at the blog history and be reminded that we did not go last year. We felt like we'd be torturing Zach since he would've had to just sit and look at the trucks... that pesky cast didn't allow for clambering in and out of trucks. Funny coincidence, given what else I was about to write about here, but more on that later!


Anyway, Scott took Zach on Saturday while I stayed home during Charlie's nap (have I mentioned before how hard it is to stay home mornings???? It's bad enough during the week, but I hate missing out on fun family outings on the weekends too!). There was the usual fantastic array of vehicles - fire trucks, various delivery trucks, garbage trucks, police vehicles, buses, and on and on. I am particular impressed with the person at UPS who said not only would they send a big brown truck, they'd send the one with the flames on it! What kid wouldn't love that??



Saturday was Truck Day, Monday was X-Ray Day, Zach's one-year follow-up for his broken leg. As you may remember, the doctor recommended we return annually to ensure the leg is still healing fine, but mostly to make sure that the growth of the broken leg matches that of the unscathed one. So off we went.

Previously when we went in for x-rays, Scott had to be the one to go in the x-ray room with Zach, since I was pregnant. Obviously not an issue this year, but I was strategizing exactly what I would do with Charlie when I went in the room with Zach. So when the x-ray tech called his name, I stood up with Charlie, about to ask what she would recommend. Before I could say a word, she looked at Zach and asked if he could come in alone, so his mom could wait in the hall with his little brother. Once again, before I could say anything, Zach unhesitatingly said sure, and followed her through the door.

I confess, I felt a little left behind and unnecessary! Who was this mature boy who was not the least bit scared of the big machine, willing to head off with a stranger for a medical procedure??? I thought back to the first few x-rays, when I would stand outside the door and listen to Zach scream in pain and fear, even with his dad there for comfort. This time, instead of cries, I heard the funniest conversations. When the tech teasingly asked him if he'd smiled for the first picture, he said no, he didn't need to smile because it was a picture of his leg, not his face. Then he asked what the red light was on his leg, and the tech explained it was so they could see exactly where they were taking the picture. Zach then launched into a story about a recent trip to Home Depot with his dad, where they used a big saw that had a red light like that. After more conversation I couldn't quite hear, both techs were laughing when they brought him out, and complimented me on our smart and funny son. Brave too, I think!

As far as the results of the x-ray, they were as expected - his leg looks fantastic. Within another year or so doctors won't even be able to tell it was ever broken when looking at an x-ray. None of this was surprising news to us, since we see this boy running incredibly fast, jumping, hopping on one foot, etc etc on a daily basis. We know he's fine!

However, we did get conflicting advice from this new doctor. The original one (who has now moved on to a new rotation) had recommended we return annually until Zach hits puberty, due to the concern about the equal growth in both legs. This doctor thought that wasn't necessary to expose Zach to that much radiation; that if we don't see differences two years after the break, we never will. This is one of many times I've wished we had a good friend who just happened to be a pediatric orthopedic doctor, so we could easily get a second opinion!!!

But I'll ignore that frustration for now and just enjoy that our boy is healthy. Especially after I went back and read where we were a year ago...

Mmmm... rice cereal

I swore I was going to be more creative with Charlie's first "solid" food than I was with Zach's, since if you've ever tried rice cereal, you know it's horrid. But, for many different reasons, few of them good, I stuck with the tried-and-true recommendation. Here's how it went:


^ Uh, mom, what exactly are you doing?


^ Oh, is this what you guys are always putting in your mouths? Yuck. But boy can I make a mess when I blow a raspberry with it.


Zach wanted to be a part of all the excitement, and since I didn't really think he was ready to put a spoon in Charlie's mouth, he was on camera duty with Scott. While many of his shots were of the back of my arm, he did get some that captured the moment:


I particularly like this one:


I've also gotten started making some baby food for once we move past the yummy rice cereal. The fun part is that we got to use some of the bounty from our garden - our sweet potato experiment was mostly a success (check out the shape of some - I think our soil might be a little hard)! I do need some tips on how to harvest these things, since I ended up unintentionally slicing many of them with the shovel. So now we have some sweet potato cubes in the freezer, as well as some made from the tomatoes from our and G&G Willard's garden! And I'm about to get the squash from the garden too. Some things for Charlie to look forward to. :)

Grandparents part III & Target Field

You would think I'd be caught up by now, but I'm not. Here we go!

A few days after our quick trip to Milwaukee, Scott's parents arrived for a visit. Yes, we had just seen them, but they like to enjoy the wonderful things our city has to offer, and they're welcome here any time!

I didn't take many pictures, perhaps because I was still trying to edit my way through all the ones I took in Montana. I did manage to take a fairly decent one of the boys with their grandparents - tough to get both kids with their eyes open, looking towards the camera, etc etc. So I'll be happy with this one. :)

We continued our adventures while Alan and Teri were here. The guys got in a few rounds of golf, the girls got in a lunch and shopping outing (without kids!), and we all enjoyed outings to Stillwater, the Mall of America, and many many meals out. Not to mention lots of play time, trips to the park, and chasing Zach around the block on the new Lightning McQueen big wheel that G&G brought him. And beyond the usual appreciation of having grandparents around to help with the kids, I was so grateful Teri was here while we were going through the chicken pox scare (Scott & Alan were golfing). It was nice to have someone to panic with, and to stay with Zach so I didn't have to bring him along to the germy doctor's office.

We also had a few ventures to Target Field (the Twins new outdoor stadium). First Alan and Scott went, and then on Labor Day Alan, Scott, and I took Zach to his first game at Target Field. He hasn't been to a game since he was about 18 months old, so this was the first time he went with a least somewhat of an understanding of what was happening out there on the field. It was very fun to watch his reaction, to the national anthem, to seeing "Minnie & Paul," and the players in the flesh.

Before the game started we went down near the field, and got pretty close to Denard Span as he was signing autographs. It was hilarious - he was about 10 feet away but somehow Zach didn't see him for a long time! But he kept yelling out all the names of the nearby players, he was so excited.

Once the game started, you could see him looking back and forth between the action on the field and the jumbotron, trying to figure out which he was supposed to be watching. But eventually he declared that he liked watching the game better at Target Field than at home because "he could see all the green part and all the players at the same time." You forget how narrow the view is on tv until you look at it from a newcomer's eyes!

Zach made it through the entire game, although he didn't want to stay in our seats when it started to rain. So he and I made a run for the Metropolitan Club (an indoor restaurant/bar/viewing area for season ticket holders), and while we were on our way heard the crowd give a big roar. Turned out Thome hit a huge home run - it hit the top of the flagpole - and we missed it! We also missed the next home run... oh well. I made it up to him by getting him an ice cream sundae, complete with M&Ms, in a Twins helmet. Pretty cool.

(^ Zach took this picture... his view of the cotton candy vendor. And if you noticed Scott and Zach are wearing different clothes in the first picture, that one is actually from Zach's second trip to Target field, about two weeks later!)

The game was an afternoon game, and not surprisingly, Zach conked out on the way home. What did surprise me is that he stayed asleep when I got him out of the car and carried him inside. And then stayed asleep when I eventually transferred him to Scott's lap. We ended up having to wake him up about 5:30 - a day at the ballpark wiped that boy out!

All in all, we had a great visit with Scott's parents. Zach is already asking when we're going to Montana again...

Five months

Our Charliebug is 5 months old already. Wow.

Let's think... what's new with Charlie? Well, he has discovered he has toes, and that like his fingers, they are darn fascinating. And his new talent? Blowing raspberries!

He continues his love/hate relationship with tummy time and rolling over. A few days ago I put him down and he promptly rolled over, so I put him back on his belly. Rolled over again. We repeated this six times! But in the days since... put him on his belly and he'll smile at himself in his mirror for a while, chew on some toys, and then put his head down and cry in frustration. I guess he's going to roll over only when he feels like it.

We are going to be starting this boy on solids soon. He is absolutely fascinated when we're eating; he watches so closely you start to feel a little guilty that you're eating in front of him! Zach never did that, so this is a new experience for us. We've given him a few tastes of ice cream, and he loved it - didn't even seen to react to the cold or the unfamiliar taste. Put a spoon near his face and his mouth opens. Put a plate of food in front of him and he'll do his best to eat it!

I also had been trying to slowly introduce formula, to make it easier for Scott, babysitters, and occasionally me to give him a bottle. He was doing fine, until the contents reached a 50/50 mix, and then he wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with that bottle. So I'm back to the drawing board, sneaking the formula in a bit slower. Little stinker.

We're at the stage where everything goes into his mouth - toys, blankets, towels, your arm. We don't feel any teeth yet though, so I think it's just the usual exploration.

On the ever-important sleep front, we've been having a bad stretch. I think I missed the ideal window of getting him into a good nap routine, since we've been on the go so much the last month+. His nighttime sleep patterns started deteriorating when we were in MT and have just gotten worse; we've been up twice per night for several weeks now. And boy, is it hard to go back when you'd adjusted to at least 8-9 hours at a stretch.

So I've been doing my best to get this boy the naps in his bed he deserves. As everyone warned me, it is tougher with the second one, because life just gets in the way! But we're making progress, and the last couple nights he has woken up after sleeping 4-5 hours, made some minor complaints, and gone back to sleep for another 4 or so. Hurray, and please let the progress continue!

This is a fun time, and we're really enjoying watching our little guy discover the world with those big eyes!

Grandparent month: part II

Three weeks ago (where has the time gone???) I loaded up the boys and headed down to Milwaukee to see my family. Despite the fact that we had only been home from Montana for three days, it seemed like a good idea at the time: Scott was going to be out of town all weekend at a bonspiel, we hadn't seen my parents in a while, and my brother and his family hadn't met Charlie yet.

The trip started off great - I couldn't have asked for a better drive down. Charlie slept the entire way, other than when we stopped for lunch, while Zach happily watched a movie and then fell asleep 3 minutes after emphatically informing me that he was not going to sleep in the car. I take it back - I could have asked for one more thing... that Zach sleep an additional 25 minutes so I didn't have to answer various "are we there yet" and "how much longer" questions over and over.

We spent Thursday night playing with all of grandpa's great toys. Friday we got to celebrate my nephew's 6th birthday a little early. Cake, Chase's new golf clubs, and lots of time to play with his cousins equals a fantastic day for Zach.

Friday night we headed to our annual church festival. In my day it was called the "fun fair" - we even had carnival rides like the tilt-a-whirl. These days, the kids can enjoy some inflatable structures - which Zach certainly did! He also tried his hand at the carnival games and came away with some "prizes" - a hackey-sack and the usual various pieces of molded plastic.

Saturday we had the opportunity to watch my friend's 8 year old son play in his first football game (flag, but with pads). It was pretty fun and funny - those boys looked so tiny in those uniforms with the big shoulder pads! We had too short of a visit with our friends, and with my aunt and uncle that afternoon. But we needed to head home, for I had learned that there is, in fact, a limit to how many nights Zach will sleep well away from home. Skipping his nap Friday probably didn't help either... he had definitely hit the wall! So the drive home wasn't quite as pleasant, but we made it.

We jammed a lot into that short weekend, and had lots of fun as usual, but it was nice to get home to our own beds. :)

Cousins and siblings

One of the more fascinating aspects of our trip to Montana was watching Zach interact with his cousins. Since Zach was an only child for so long, it's always interesting to see how he does when he has the chance to spend any significant time with other kids.

In general, the cousins got along great. It was wonderful for us to have someone else to entertain Zach all day - and I do mean all day. Those kids were on the run from the moment they woke up until we forced them to go to bed, usually well past their normal bedtimes. Inside, outside, on our adventures - they had a great time together.

What was interesting was the difference in Zach's relationship with Bryn versus with Maryn. I think if strangers observed Zach and Bryn interacting, they would assume they were brother and sister, not cousins. Perhaps it's a case of being too alike in some ways - both are used to being in charge and are stubborn!

Examples? On our first hike, Zach was complaining that Bryn was running ahead. She turned around and said "oh yeah, well, you're whining!" On the drive up to the Palisade Falls hike, Zach and Bryn rode with Mandy and Teri. And reportedly, the racket from the backseat did not make for a nice leisurely drive. At one point, Mandy turned around and saw that they had quit arguing over who got to hang on to a particular leather strap, instead they were both clinging to it possessively, ignoring each other. And they both participated in the "he's touching me," "she's poking me" tattle-taling from the back seat.

My favorite? When Bryn later informed me that while "Zach was parented good, he didn't always act like it." (I couldn't agree more)

And then there's Maryn: if you had to stereo-type her, you'd put her in the "middle child" slot. Always peace-keeping, always happy to play with either or both the other kids. She was game to play cars with Zach whenever he asked, and he asked often. She and Zach spent hours jumping on the trampoline, giggling and laughing the whole time. And while Bryn often prefers to play independently, when she wanted to partner up with her sister, Maryn was always ready.

I wish I'd had a tape recorder when we took the kids to a local park. I'm not sure what the exact dynamics were that day, but for some reason it was a high demand day for Maryn's presence. Instead of playing on the very cool play equipment, it seemed all the kids did was call "Maryn! Maryn! Maryn!" Bryn would get her attention and then would lead her off to a trickier part of the park, so that Zach couldn't participate. So then Zach would be left to yell for Maryn. And when Maryn would eventually return to Zach, then it was Bryn's turn to yell. At one point, a complete stranger got into it too; a kid we didn't even know started chanting Maryn's name!

Since we've gotten home, it's been fun to hear the different ways Zach remembers his cousins. When we went to a baseball game, he saw the vendors selling root beer and decided Bryn should have come to the game because she loves root beer. And whenever he's gone to the neighbors to jump on their trampoline, he's mentioned the fun he and Maryn had. I suspect he's counting the days until he can see his cousins again!