The Lieslands

Since Elliot had a urinary tract infection a few weeks back, it was recommended that we have some tests done to make sure that his kidneys and his bladder are working properly, so today we headed to the hospital to get some tests done. Turns out that he has a little vesicoureteral reflux, or kidney reflux. Elliot has the mildest form, grade one, and will hopefully grow out of it. Tomorrow we see our pediatrician, to see what she recommends.

Everyone else is in bed, and I just got finished carving up my first whole chicken, so I thought I would take a minute to wind down/not fall behind on the blog.

We are just wrapping up a fun weekend here in the Liesland home. We started off the weekend with the La Leche League Pot-Luck on Friday night. It was hot, and there was a lot of dessert, so it was pretty fun.

We were back out again on Saturday to enjoy the Northside Yard Sale. We didn’t make it out until 11 and it was heating up. Holly came with us and did her best at reverse-bargaining. We came out with some fun stuff, including a new bike for Andrew.

Saturday afternoon we hit the Y, and then headed to Walt’s Barbeque on Cincinnati’s West Side. I would definitely recommend it. Cool place.

Today, Sunday, started off slowly. Susan slept until 10, and then Elliot slept until 12:30. Mari went down for her nap at one, Elliot went back down at 3, and then finally everyone was awake by 3:45, just in time for us to head to Home Depot to snag some new appliances. We got a new washer, dryer, dishwasher, and stove. Don’t worry, we have 10 days to figure out where we are going to store the old stove. I just can’t bear to have it taken away by people who will dis-respect it.

Later. . .

I added a new blog to our website called ‘Rob’s Books.’

https://liesland.com/books

I forgot about the early mornings. Elliot has been getting up earlier and earlier lately. This morning was the first time in a long time that we have been up before six. I don’t mind being up early, but I do have one rule: if you are going to get me out of bed early, then you have to be happy. I am still working on this one with Elliot. He is waking up too early for some reason, and he is not ready to be awake. Could be his cold, his teeth, his bowels, could be anything really. The worst part about the whole ordeal is that when we got our house ready to put on the market we out away our stereo, which means no NPR news in the morning. I usually turn on the Channel 5 news, which is mostly a daily update on homicides, car crashes, house fires, sexual offenses, weather, traffic, and the Reds score from last night. I miss my NPR.

Things have been going OK lately. Elliot is about half-way through his latest antibiotic. He had an ear infection and luckily this antibiotic does not appear to be messing with him too much.

I am headed to the doctor this afternoon so he can drain some fluid from my eye-lid.

Elliot is headed to the doctor next Monday for some kidney tests to make sure that the urinary tract infection he had earlier this month is not a symptom of something else.

It seems we need to do this every few months – get all the kids out of the car, have them run around, and then end up in new seats.

Elliot has outgrown his car-seat (setting a new Liesland record in the process), so we had to shift everyone’s seats. This always makes Andrew happy, because it means he gets a new seat.

The exciting and sad part of the whole ordeal is that it is just another step away from infancy for Elliot. Pretty soon he is going to be starting on food, which I can hardly believe.

As a parent, sometimes the hours are slow, but the days,weeks,months seem to fly by.

I guess it’s my fault. For the past few weeks, things have been going well. So well in fact, that I was starting to get a little confident – maybe too confident.

Sunday I got sick. Whenever someone gets sick our routine goes out the door, as well as our ability to keep up with the kids. Susan handled herself well – even getting all three kids to sleep on Sunday night.

Now I am better, and it is time to clean. . .

I put up a few new photos in our 2007 I gallery and some shots from our trip in the new 2007 Vacation Gallery.

At the Dr’s office, the hospital, Northside, KY, Onalaska, Duluth, Minneapolis, Clive.

Dr’s Office

Elliot had his 4 month check-up in late June, where things went well. At the end of the visit he got some vaccines and the Dr said that he may act sick/have a fever for a couple days, which he did. After 6 days the fever had not gone away, so we went back to the Dr, who told us to go to the hospital to get some tests.

The Hospital

We got some blood tests done, an x-ray, and finally a urine culture. Finally, we figured out the he had a urinary tract infection. We got him on an antibiotic, which made him a little fussy, but his fever went away.

Northside

We were supposed to skip town the morning of July 4th, but due to Elliot’s illness, we decided to take a day to gather our selves. In the morning, we made it to the Northside 4th of July Parade, which is pretty cool.

KY

Not leaving on the 4th also made it possible for us to make it to our 4th of July family party, which was a lot of fun.

Onalaska

Finally, we made it out of town and hit the road. It took us 11 hours to traverse the 600 miles from Cincinnati to Onalaska, WI, which is right next to LaCrosse, WI. We visited with our friends Sarah, Kevin and Samuel for a few hours, and then it was back on the road.

Duluth

On Friday, July 6th, we hit the road again and travelled a few hours farther North to Duluth, MN. We got settled into our cottage, and then headed to Hope and Jeff’s pre-wedding party. We got to hang out with a lot of Susan’s friends and had a good time. The wedding was on Saturday night. Sunday we hit Gooseberry Falls, and then headed south to Minneapolis.

Minneapolis

In Minneapolis we stayed with Susan’s friend from high school, Maribeth, and her husband Erik, whom we hadn’t seen since our wedding. While in Minneapolis we visited Susan’s college in St. Joseph, MN.

Clive

Tuesday evening we left Minneapolis and headed to Clive, IA, just outside Des Moines, to stay with Susan’s parents. We stayed in Des Moines for a few days, and had a grand old time.

Now, we are back in Cincinnati, trying to get settled back into a routine. It always takes a while for everyone to get back in line after some time away from our normal existence.

Hopefully I will get some pics up soon.

I will try to keep you updated. . .

Yesterday we celebrated Mari’s second birthday. Susan’s parents are in town, and my family came over for some sandwiches, presents, and dessert. The party was fairly low-key, with simple foods and a lot of playing. It seemed to me to be a lot of fun. I think that Mari is now old enough to consciously have more fun than ever before, as is Andrew.

For those of you who don’t get to spend much time with Mari, she is a very interesting little girl. She is very dramatic in everything that she does. She likes to be wild and have fun. Last week at the Y we were playing in the baby pool and I was spinning her around as fast as I could and dragging her all over the pool, similar to when you are water skiing and you lose a ski. She was having a blast and could have gone all day. She loves to play with Andrew, and loves to try to play with Elliot. She tends to be fairly quiet when things are going on, but when things slow down her mouth runs faster than her two little feet. She likes to talk and sing, usually making up her own songs.

Happy Birthday Mari!

Heading into birthday season (Erin won the pre-season tournament), we have put a fun couple of weeks behind us. We have had a lot or get-togethers and a lot of fun time as a family. This has been aided by the fact that all of the kids have been relatively healthy and Elliot has been a gem. He is happy most of the time when he is awake, and when he is not happy he needs to go to sleep. He has been letting us lay him down for his naps, which makes the day a lot easier for Susan.

I put up a few new pics.

Not much action on the house.

My eye is looking & feeling a lot better, but I fear I may have to have it drained because I am just about done with my medicine and I still have a medium sized bump.

This blog is over three years old now.

We joined the Y.

Later. . .