The Lieslands

Andrew pooped in the toilet yesterday. We would like to believe that is a step in the right direction.

Something strange must be in the water at our house (my mom would say it is probably just hormones). Ever since Andrew stopped taking a nap he has been consistently sleepy at 8 in the evening. For the past week or so, he has gone to bed in less than ten minutes. Well, I guess he has had enough of that. Last night I took him upstairs at 8:15, and at 8:30 I decided I was wasting my time. We went back downstairs and played until abuot 9:30. He has been this way for the past two days. Not only is he going to bed late, but he slept in today until 8:45.

Mari has been having some slep adventures of her own lately. She just can’t decide on a firm routine. Last night she fell asleep in the sling on our walk at around 7:30. I tried to lay her down, but she refused and eventually woke up and was up until 10.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: experts always say that kids need consistency, but I think that parents need the consistency. I wish that my kids would just make up their minds already.

Some hot weather has greeted as as we get back into the swing of things after our trip to Des Moines. Susan and the kids were out there for a week; I made it out by lunchtime on Friday. It was a pretty busy weekend, with Mari’s 1st b-day party on Friday night, a brunch (which Susan attended) on Sat morning, followed by the World Cup game, mass, and Susan’s ten-year high school reunion. We left Des Moines Sunday morning and made it back to Cincinnati just before dark. I should have some pics up soon.

Things are getting a little back to normal in our house. The kids’ sleep schedules are still off from the trip, but hopefully we will get them back on track tonight. Andrew is much more fun to hang out with when he is sleeping right.

Speaking of the World Cup, which I did a little bit ago, the US is still hanging in there. We need a win on Thursday combined with an Italy win to advance to the round of 16. There are actually other ways in which we could advance, but they are a real stretch.

Mari is moving around really well. In Des Moines she learned to go up the stairs. She pulls herself up a lot and likes to stand now, which is a radical shift from a month ago. She also learned the sign for “more,” which she puts to use a lot. She also likes to wave “hi” and “bye.” She even occassionally waves at cars as they drive past.

Susan is going to the Ani Difranco concert tomorrow night. It should be a great show and it is at a cool outdoor venue. I really wanted to go, but Mari and Andrew are still a little too demanding these days when it comes to bedtime.

I am headed to the Pearl Jam concert on Saturday with Holly. It is in Cincinnati, which is nice. Last time they were supposed to play here (my birthday, 2003) it got cancelled because the venue was flooded. Hopefully they will play a good make-up show.

Julie is out of town taking her massage boards so that she can be a licensed masseuse in Ohio. She will be gone until Friday. I just noticed that Susan and I haven’t watched a movie since May, so maybe we will be able to get one in this week, if the kids ever go to bed on time.

Catch ya later!

Two years after we joined the fray, the Reagens are on board with a blog of their own: Reagen Blog: Random Notes from the Reagen Southern Division.

Susan had Wild Women Wednesday last night, and it must have been wild since she was out past ten. This afforded me the opportunity/challenge of getting both kids to sleep, by myself. I had done this once before, and was very successful. Last night I was again fortunate and the kids were asleep within twenty minutes. I fear that sometime they are going to stage rebellion, and I am going to fall down the stairs crying.

In other useless news, our hummingbird feeders are doing well. We don’t get too many hummingbirds, but we have seen consistent activity at our front hummingbird feeder, and yesterday Susan saw our first hummingbird at the back hummingbird feeder. Exciting stuff, I know.

In baseball news, the Reds just swept their second straight series and are now tied for first place in the NL Central with the St. Louis Cardinals. They now have a ten-game homestand and hopefully I will be able to make it out for a game while Susan and the kids are in Des Moines.

Did I forget to mention that Susan and the kids are headed to Des Moines? We are going to meet Nate at his old elementary school in Normal, IL for the handoff on Sunday. I get to come back to Cincinnati and work while Susan vacations in Des Moines.

I’m not talking about gas. I’m talking about our house. Erin, Nate, & Ian are visiting right now, which means that we are just about filled to capacity. With Julie in the basement and kids all over the place, we don’t have room for many more people.

The Reagens (E, N, & I) got into town on Saturday for a quick little visit. So far we haven’t gotten around to doing much, with so many naps taking place. I think that they were going to try to do something today, but I am at work, so I don’t really know.

The kids are well. Mari is eating more and more. Andrew is Andrew.

Susan is Susan. I think that she is trying to take up knitting, but I am not sure if that will catch on. I don’t quite know if the embroidering wave has passed yet.

That’s all I got.

Let’s just say that some change is on the way. We are not exactly sure when, but it is coming.

The past few weeks have been pretty good to us. Mari finally got over the hump and has started crawling. We are working on some video, but it seems like whenever we get the camera out she stops crawling. She appears to like getting around, which works out well most of the time. It does present some problems, such as it being easier for her to get into Andrew’s things.

Andrew continues to do well. He is always surprising us with how much he is learning.

Susan made some great May Crowns for the kids’ May Festival at the Waldorf School. I will get some pics up in the photo section soon and put up some links when I do. They turned out great. Next up: knitting. We tried to figure it out the other day from a book, but we didn’t get too far.

I have been up to the same old stuff lately. I go to work. I have been running several times a week, which is great. Soccer is going well. We just have a few more games left.

Julie finally moved in. Wait a second, Julie? “Who is that?” you might be wondering. Julie is our friend who is going to be living with us for a few months. She finally moved in this week and her presence in the house will certainly add a little twist on the everyday routine.

That’s all for now. Check back soon for some great video of Mari getting around and some pics of the May Crowns.

UPDATE: I put some video of Mari crawling on the cute kids page and I added some Easter and May Crown pics to our photo page.

Having kids is crazy. I think that most of the people who read this have kids, but if you don’t have kids then there is one thing you need to know: it is crazy.

The past few weeks have not been an exception.

Anyways, here we are near then end of April. Mari is getting cuter and cuter. The more she does, the cuter she is. Andrew is awesome. He has his downtimes, but in general, he is awesome. Nothing makes me happier these days than seeing Andrew and Mari play together. Maybe happy isn’t the right emotion. Maybe it is.

Susan and I had a great relationship with a jogging stroller for a couple of weeks, but we had to give it back. Our hearts are broken. Mostly it was nice because it allowed us to run together. We are on the lookout for another one.

We recently added some good stuff to our movie review page.

The Reds are doing OK.

PJ played their first show of the season last night.

My soccer team is 1-1, with the chance to avenge our loss tomorrow.

FIFA World Cup 2006 starts in a few weeks.

Should we join the zoo or renew our children’s museum membership?

Yesterday’s post didn’t quite cut it, so I will try again:

Mari has her first ear infection. She has been a little fussy/clingy for a while. Susan and I kept lieing to ourselves and saying that it was her teeth, but eventually she forced our hand. Two nights ago she cried, which she doesn’t do very often. We finally gave her some Tylenol and she had one of her best sleeping nights ever. Yesterday morning she was still fussy, so we took her in. We paid the obligatory $25 to have someone look in her ear and say, “Yep, she has an ear infection.” Then we paid the obligatory $10 for the amoxicillin, and we are on our way. This morning she was back to her old self: smiling, sitting in her seat for more than three minutes, eating cheerios. Only 27 more doses and we are in the clear.

Spring. I love Spring. Who doesn’t? Maybe people who make their living shoveling snow; but I bet they like the break. This Spring has me a little more excited than usual.

Our Kids:
I was talking with one of my friends who is finishing up here at Xavier. He was telling me about how he spent his Spring Break in Costa Rica, and all of the things he did. He asked me what I have been up to. I said, “Nothing.” Sounds pretty boring, but now that I have kids “Nothing” is pretty exciting. Having kids makes even the most mundane things interesting, exciting, and fun. As the weather gets nicer I look forward to walks, playing in the backyard and at the park, eating dinner outside on our picnic table.

Visitors:
We love having visitors. Susan’s sister, Mary, Mary’s son, Luke, and Susan’s mom, Kathie, just left after visiting for a few days. Susan’s dad, Gary, comes to town tomorrow night, and Susan’s mom comes back Monday.

Weddings:
The next six months bring five weddings in our direction, starting in May: three in Cincinnati, one is Chicago, and one in Denver. Along with these weddings come several wedding showers.

Those are the big ticket items. Here are the small ones:

• Soccer starts Saturday
• Reds’ Opening Day is April 3rd
• Pearl Jam in Detroit on May 22nd
• Our second anniversary
• Getting to use our new tent (Simon and Rachel’s backyard, here we come!)

I think that will do.

Mari has her first ear infection. She cried a lot last night. We were finally able to get her to go to bed by giving her some Tylenol and she actually had one of her best sleeping nights ever. She was still fussy this morning so we took her in. At least now we know what is wrong.

This Spring will be an exciting time around our house. There is no big news, but there is a lot happening. Susan’s sister, Mary, Mary’s son, Luke, and Kathie just left after visiting a few days. Gary is coming to town this weekend, and Kathie flies back in on Monday. We also have soccer starting up, weddings, showers, PJ in Detroit. Our weekends are filling up fast. Hopefully we will still have plenty of time to enjoy our back yard. I also can’t wait to put our tent to use.

That’s all for now.

Andrew and Mari both have little colds. For the past two nights Susan and I have spent a lot of time lying there wondering if we are going to have to get up. Both nights I have come very close to trying to give Mari medicine. Andrew sleeps through his stuffiness ok, as does Mari; but for the past two nights Mari has had long fits of coughing. She does not wake up and I don’t know how. Crazy.

We also think that Andrew’s cold is making him a little whiney. Last night, instead of joining us for dinner, he laid on the couch trying to collect himself. After we were finished he insisted on eating a granola bar for dinner, which we insisted on not doing. Finally, we let him get some yogurt out of the fridge. He complained for about five minutes becuase the spoon that Susan was trying to give him to eat his yogurt with was his spoon. Finally we convinced him that Susan was giving it to him. Then he was mad because there was a lot of yogurt on the spoon. We got him a fresh spoon and he did ok for a few minutes, before he accidentally got a lot of yogurt on the spoon again. This put him over the top, so I called it and we put him to bed.

He did go to bed a little early, which was nice because it allowed Susan and I to watch Related, which we had taped from the night before. This show is really growing on me.

After Related we watched Scrubs, which is always a little wacky/enjoyable. Last night’s show was a good one for me. I had been stressed out all day because Pearl Jam announced Leg 1 of their tour schedule. I was pretty annoyed because they weren’t coming very close to Cincinnati and since the other parts of the tour have not been announced yet, it is hard to plan. Note: Leg 2 of the tour has already been leaked and it looks like they are still not coming close to Cincy. From the looks of things they are not playing in regions that supported Bush in ’04. Weird and stupid, I think. Anyway, at the end of Scrubs they played Long Road, a good PJ song. Coincidences are weird. Sure, it was a coincidence, but it was also a connection. Isn’t that what life is about? Maybe, maybe not. Something to think about.

Who wants to go to Cleveland on May 20th? I think that I am.

Warmer weather and rain are on the way. Mr. Schweppes’ cute little purple & white lawn flowers are popping up, a sure sign of Spring.

Wild Women Wednesday (or something like that) tonight. Clogging tomorrow night. PJ tickets on Friday at 10 AM PST.

We’ve added some movies to the movie review page.

I think that is all for now. We’ll keep you updated. . .

It has been a while, I know. I’m sorry. I said “I’m sorry.” Is that not good enough for you? You are never satisfied.

Anyways, we just got back from a good trip to Des Moines. It was kinda’ spur-of-the-moment, which we don’t get much of anymore, so it was nice. The kids slept really well, which is always a treat. I guess I could have stayed up past 9 PM, but you never know when we are going to be up in the middle of the night. (That’s not necessarily true. Sometimes I know I am going to be up in the middle of the night. I guess it would be more correct to say “You never know when you are going to get a full nights sleep.) There, that’s better.

Good time was had by all in Des Moines. It is always fun to hang out with the Western Extension of our family. Good weather. Good walks. Good cheesecake. I will never forget the Vanilla Ice/Ton Loc concert. OK, so we didn’t go to the concert, but just the fact that there was one makes me happy.

Let’s see. Backwards. Hung out with the fam. Went to Church. Leftover pizza. Colin’s basketball game. Rural Illinoisite came one whole hour early to pick up the R-cade. Pizza. Starbucks. Playground. Walk. Lunch at Mary’s. Panera. Figure Skating (though I cheated and knew who won.) Burritos. HyVee. Jason’s Deli. Tuna Casserole. Now I am just confused. It was fun.

We decided to go on Sunday, hit the road on Monday after I got off work. Andrew fell asleep right away (at 5:15 PM). We hit some strange dead animal around eight. Got a flat tire 5 minutes later. Spent the night at a Super 8, which is also where we stayed when we got stuck in a snowstorm in 2004. We had the tire replaced with tires for all seasons the next morning and were on the road again by 9.

Previous to this trip, we have all been trying to get over weird sicknesses. We all seem to be stuck with perpetual colds. This of course led to Andrew having an ear infection, and pink eye. Mari is also very clogged up. I think that we need some spring, and some sleep.

I am ready for spring. Walks after dinner. The playground. Open windows. Flowers. Shorts & sandals. Baseball. Soccer. Should be a fun one with Mari and Andrew.

New Pearl Jam album May 2.

I’ll keep you updated.