joy #2438 of having two kids

Megan is so lucky to have a big sister. Not only is it like having a second mother at times but she also gets helps and tips on how to do all those things a 16 month old needs to learn how to do. Just yesterday Helena taught Megan how to crawl under the baby-gate. We keep (or kept) our baby gate raised up about 8 inches so the cats can make it under. Until yesterday, Megan couldn't figure out the whole "ducking your head" thing and we've made it all this time without having to completely baby proof the kitchen.
Helena obviously thought it was time for Megan to learn a new skill.

And now the cats will just have to learn to jump over the darn baby-gate.

Required reading

It's the weekend I know, and while I admit I haven't felt inspired to post much lately don't think that this is some sort of busy work assignment. I really want everyone who stops by here to follow this link and spend a few minutes reading and exploring the site. It's from an old PBS program but its message certainly needs repeating.

One of the little tidbits I discovered - the sickling cell gene linked to protection from malaria (and the cause of sickle cell anemia) is just as likely to be carried by someone of Greek ancestry as someone Central African ancestry.

Tagged

I'm it.

AdventureDad tagged me with another one of those popular blog meme lists. Normally I shy away from these things but trying to get back into the swing of things I thought I'd give it a go. So without further ado...

7 Things I want to do before I die.

1. Not die. I've read enough Kurzweil and similar SF to think I may have a shot at immorality.
2. Hold my grandkids. If the girls decide to start a family in another 30 years or so.
3. Run a marathon. There was a time I enjoyed running. Maybe I still do, but my feet hate the after effects
4. Return to the Big Island of Hawaii. Perhaps the most beautiful place on earth.
5. Write a book Have a book published.
6. Start my own successful business and be fabulously wealthy
7. Hike the Appalachian trail
   

7 Things I cannot do.

1. stand still while on the phone.
2. stop songs from popping into my head
3. smell asparagus pee
4. schedule well
5. Just enjoy a stupid TV show/movie rather than pointing out how many plot holes and inconsistency are in it.
6. Listen to racist comments without calling people on it.
7. appear organized (whether I'm actually organized or not is questionable, but I certainly don't look it)
   

7 Things that attract me to the opposite sex:

1. happiness. Not into the pouting bit.
2. intelligence. I like it when people make me think.
3. short hair. For some reason, I've always had a thing for necks
4. sense of humor
5. a nice posterior
6. a libidinous attitude
7. a pulse
   

7 Things I say most often:

1. Megan, no.
2. Hey Helena....
3. Lisa, when are you coming home?
4. ummm...
5. ask mama
6. have you seen where I put the....
7. well....
   

7 Celebrity crushes:

1. Charlize Theron
2. Geena Davis - more a decade ago then now, but I still carry a torch for her.
   
3. Téa Leoni
4. Jessica Alba
5. Matt Demon (I'm quite comfortable with my hetrosexuality thank-you very much, but were I into guys, Matt is just so dreamy)
6. Salma Hayek
7. Tina Fey cute, smart-ass and glasses

7 People I Want To Do This (mostly so they'd update their blogs)

1. Son of Taeper
2. Ed
3. Tina & Mike
   
4. Michelle
5. My mother Nevermind, I don't want to know what she find attrative in the opposite sex.
6. Bruce and Lois
7. Jimmy, because he's never on gtalk anymore.
   

there you go. Of course anyone else please feel free to share your list of 7.

And we've got pictures

Picked out a few photos to share but I've still got dozens to remove the redeye. And once you open up your favorite photoediting software- the hours disappear.
Also trying to catch up on everything I've missed while away. In general, I'm having a hard time getting out of vacation mode. Here are the first batch of pictures to act as filler before I get my fingers warmed up to writing some more.

Megan and her cousin Logan at the Asheville Farmer's Market.

Helena and some jackass.
and Lisa

Helena watching the wedding... what is she thinking?

Megan getting her groove on.

Helena taking a fishing break with Grandpa Don & Grammie

Yep, that's me. Reverend Tom.
(Sherry and Mike, also photoed)

I'm not from West Virginia

Yet somehow, I still managed to marry my brother during our little vacation.


We have returned to our home after our trip to the mountains of North Carolina. We had a wonderful time visiting with family and friends in the Asheville area. We were just days too early to see the autumn color but still that is some real beautiful country up there.
And, yes, indeed I did marry my brother. What happens in the Appalachians stays in the Appalachians, or something like that.
I did have the honor of officiating the marriage of my brother Mike and his dear wife Sherry. Years ago on a whim, I got ordained through the Universal Life Church and when Mike and Sherry were in the planning stages of their wedding I volunteered my services (after checking to make sure it was completely legal). I didn't get to do my impersonation of The Impressive Clergyman or dress like a pirate during the ceremony but it went well regardless.

Tomorrow I'll share photos from our trip but for now, I need to catch up on some high speed internet surfing then some sleep.

They learn so quick

Just Sunday I was congratulating Megan on how she was now aware of what was going in the diaper department. The first step of potty training...
Well today we realized she started another very important skill.

That child can lie.

We've made our first stop on our little vacation and of course the girls are thrilled to be out of the car. Megan is running around looking at the new surroundings and as she passed by Lisa it became apparent that Megan had made a deposit. So Lisa asks her , "Did you make poop?"
Megan looks up and begins to nod then starts shaking her head no and continues running laps. She didn't want us to interrupt her play so she lied to us.
I'm so proud of her. Sure potty training is great but being deceptive- now that's a milestone.

We're off!

Heading to the mountains for my brother's wedding. hope to be able to give some updates while we're gone but the in laws only have dial-up so....

More soon.

Success

Another achievement for In the Schutte House? I can say I've been active as this place has developed. There is plenty of evidence that the experience has had an impact on me as an individual and being involved in the planning of it all has been, if nothing, else a transferable skill.

Of course none of that made any sense whatsoever, but wouldn't you hire me after hearing that?

What do you mean? I used all ten of the magic words?!

Dear Megan

In your nearly sixteen months in this world you've reached so many milestones. Sleeping through the night, holding your head up by yourself, learning to crawl, tasting solid food, the first almost understandable words you spoke and your first steps. We have been so proud of every one of your accomplishments even though with each one we can see that our little baby is growing up. We can see when you watch and study (and idolize) your sister how you are desperate to be able to do more, but soon enough you'll be riding a bike and skipping down the hallway and sitting in a big chair at dinner. I know it's hard, but trust us - those milestones will be coming all too soon.

But today I want to congratulate you for starting on what may be one of your most important journeys. You see you are now on your way down that magically transforming path of potty training. It will still be many long months and maybe years and hundreds of diapers before you master this so important task but like those first faltering steps before one learns to run, you have started.

You can now tell when you've made poop.

It is such a joy, isn't it? No more suffering the indignities of having us check your backside to locate offending odors. Now we can simply ask, "Megan did you make poop?" and you, you our little baby understand enough of the English language and her own body to cheerfully nod your head and race to the changing table or shake your head and continue and play.

It will only be a short matter of time before you'll be able to tell when you are in the act and soon after you'll get to the important step of noticing before it happens. After that it's pretty much just fine tuning the mechanics of the deed.
It will still be awhile before you get introduced to the potty but you might notice now and then the odd smile Mama & Papa have when we change you. We know soon we'll be buying pull-ups and singing "Potty all the time" and discovering the restroom in every business establishment we go near.

So again congratulations Megan.

A year?

Last year at this time we started this blog.
How the time flies!

Remember when it was okay to let helium balloons go and you didn't worry about choking a sea turtle somewhere? And the school project where you'd attach a note card with your address and see how far it'd go and if someone would write back? I've been keeping track of visitors to the site and you know it's kinda cool. We've had well over 3000 visitors to this blog since I started keeping track a few months ago. Fricking amazing huh? Of course before the days of word verification I'm sure we had a thousand spammers here- and our special visitor from earlier this week
I'm glad we've been able to share the past year of our lives with everyone and hope you'll stick with us for another year.

I thought I'd toss in some older pictures and a few that just never made it into any posts this weekend.

Helena's first day.
Uncle Jim & other Uncle Jim with Helena

Us in Hawaii before we became Mama & Papa

that's it for now. Will try to toss in a few more and again to all the friends and family, old and new, thanks for sticking with us.

more pictures!

Halloween 2002
Getting the hang of chopsticks

Megan & 'GG' Polly

Megan walking in Mama's shoes

Helena walking in Mama's shoes

Who is that knocking on our door?

Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of In the Schutte House. I prewrote a little post thanking all the visitors we get from around the world to our little home on the internet. Even though it's a day early I wanted to thank a particular visitor. First you'll all have to follow along for a moment.

During some of my spare moments I do some reading at other blogs. Many are the personal musings and daily trials like this one but I do enjoy the news oriented sites as well. Lately one of favorites has been AmericaBlog.

Yesterday there was a post about Bush's poll numbers and terror alerts. I won't summarize it here, it'd be quicker just to click on over. I commented on the story- here's what I wrote (though if you didn't read the story it doesn't make as much sense)

So tomorrow we can all expect a 'major' bird flu story, right?

Somewhere there was a graph of Bush's poll numbers and terror alerts. It would be comical how obvious it is, except for getting away with it for so long.
Tom | Homepage | 10.13.05 - 2:12 pm | #

Like many bloggers I keep an eye on the logs of who stops by. It's sort of like attaching a self addressed postcard to the balloon back when we were kids. It's fun to see where people are coming from. To make a long story, well - long, my special visitor followed that link here to check out the Schutte House. Let me share what I know of that someone:

HostName : n005.dhs.gov
IP : 63.162.143.5
Last Visit : New
ISP: DEPTHOMELANDSECURITY
Country: UNITED STATES
Region/State: WASHINGTON DC
City: WASHINGTON
Domain: United States
Language: English US
Browser: Netscape [Win XP]
Screen Res: 1024x768 4 Billion colors (32 bit)
Javascript: Enabled
Page Views: 1
Daily Visits: 1
Visit Length: 0 minute(s) 0 second
Entry Page: In the Schutte House
Exit Page: In the Schutte House
Referring URL: http://www.haloscan.com/comments.php?user=katsiva&comment=112919163181292012

Department of Homeland Security! Color me a little surprised. Now maybe someone during their lunch break is surfing along at work, just like many folks. Maybe it's a prank and someone has spoofed an IP address. Maybe the government has spiders crawling through the internet checking out for threats. I really don't know. Let me just say thanks for stopping by!

Just in case anyone worries we are planning a trip next week (not to Cuba). So if you don't hear from us for a few days don't panic-
quite yet.


update: I sent the John Aravosis from Americablog my story and got the following response:

That's interesting. The thing is, we're a pretty big blog now, so a lot of us folks read us. DHS could have been reading the top blogs to see what people are saying about the bird flu, to keep up on the PR side of things. Or it could have been someone in DHS who's a fan of the blog. While I think Bush is destroying the country, I would not yet worry about them tracking down people who post comments on blogs. If they tried that shit - assuming you don't post comments that include threats, and you did not - the shit would hit the fan. So fret not - at most, consider it a compliment. :-)

Now I'm not say the shit has hit the fan but I'm not the only one who has DHS snooping around.

Dinner time

AdventureDad had a wrote today recently (he's in Sweden so I'm certain that by the time I post this it's tomorrow there) about the changing views on what to feed a baby. Seems some doctors are now saying it's quite alright to walk right past the baby food isle at the grocery store and just feed your youngster real food.
Glad to know. That's what we did. Yes both girls got some baby cereal in their diet - the stuff is like powdered vitamins, just wanted to make sure they got everything they needed. But most of what they got was what we ate, just a bit mushier. According to these docs unless there is a family history of food allergies you don't have to wait forever on the peanut butter and shellfish (please not together though, yuck)

But with that said, there is another important aspect to eating that everyone likely already knew but it nice to see research back it up- eating meals as a family is good for kids.

Shocking, I know.
The research focused on older kids but they came to the conclusion that families that ate together and had dinner conversation ended up with higher self esteem and a better sense of self control.

For us it sometimes seems like it would be great for the grown-ups to be able to enjoy a relaxing dinner in relative peace and quiet and free of flying food. It's obvious though that a relaxing life isn't that important. We did decide to become parents.

Mission Impossible (?)

Good afternoon, readers.

When Helena was born we learned from many parents to make sure we had duplicates of whatever plush toy she grew attached to. When she was a few months old we found she took a liking to her 'bear' and so we made sure we picked up half a dozen so we could rotate them around, wash them and always had a backup.

When Megan was just about 3 months old we thought her favorite was her little blue dolly. So we grabbed a few spares. Unfortunately since that time she has changed her mind as to what her favorite snuggly is.

My sister Tina sent us an adorable little carters bunny rabbit. It's soft and silky and just right for little hands. It isn't surprising that Megan has grown extremely fond of it - especially since we only have one.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to find where we can find backups of this toy. Close will not do. Fifteen month-olds are quite good at spotting fakes. Should you require additional photographs contact us and they will be supplied.

As always, should you or any of your I. M. Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.

This post will self destruct in 5 days.

About time.

The cool thing about Megan finally reaching the 20 lb mark?

We can turn her carseat around now.

And just in time. In a real short time we'll be going on a road trip. Megan will actually be able to see where we're going! Of course that mean it won't be long before we hear "Are we there yet?" in stereo.

Sunday Night Eats

I said before that I enjoy cooking. There are times however that with the wee ones about that meals must be on the simple side. Ah, who am I trying to kid? I make simple meals because I'm lazy at heart. If I didn't enjoy eating good food I'd likely live off of Ramen noodles and pot pies.
But even with my otiose nature, we do occasionally make some fairly complex and time consuming dishes here.

This is not one of them.

Black Beans and Rice

1 15 ounce can of Goya Black beans
1 cup of uncooked brown rice
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup of water
3 cups of fresh broccoli
½ cupish of shredded Cheddar cheese
1 tbsp olive oil

Add rice, broth and water to pot and bring it to a boil. Cover. Reduce heat to simmer for just under an hour.
Wait 10 minutes. Empty can of black beans in a second pot. Season with cumin, touch of garlic, maybe some bacon bits. Cover and heat on low side of medium.
Chase the kids around for 20-30 minutes.
Cut broccoli into florets and steam for 5-10 minutes depending on how you like you greens.
Turn off everything on the stove (this is the step I forget often)
In a large bowl dish out rice topped with beans and put some broccoli on the side. Top it all off with cheese. Serve with a cup of milk or a bottle of beer and a goofy look on you face and enjoy!

So it begins

7:45 this morning
Helena sitting on the couch. Megan trying to get her to play.

"Papa! She's touching me!"

I'm sure this is just a phase. This sibling bickering won't last more than what, another 15 years.
joy.

Helena's words of Wisdom

We're getting ready to pack up and go to Grandma's house and I was pouring a couple of cups of milk to take along. Megan's still drinking whole milk, Helena and the rest of us stick with the weak 1% stuff.

Helena asks how we'll be able to tell whose cup is whose when we get there.

"You'll just have to remember that you have the purple cup, sweetie."

"oh." she replies but you can tell the wheels are spinning.
A moment later she adds, "You know a good idea if you have two kids is to write the name of one of the kids on a cup."

"Yep that's right, we could do that."

"But that wouldn't be so easy for the seven dwarves."

Lisa and I start laughing then Helena recommended we add that to "In the Goofy House."
HA!
She has us pegged.

Caption contest

We've had like half a foot of rain in the past 2 days. And while we aren't trapped inside like we were last month with the storm, it's obvious that the weather is taking a toll on the sanity of some members of the household.
With that in mind, anyone care to write a caption for this picture?

15 month check-up

Megan had her 15 month wellness check up this afternoon.
For those playing along with the fantasy baby league her are her current stats:

Weight 20lbs 6 oz
Length 30.25 inches
Head circumference 46 cm

She's a perfectly healthy, happy and while on the small size she's growing just fine. The pediatrician office provides a nice little list of what you might see at this age and I can say our little one seems to have the bases covered.

Daily Activities

• Avidly explores everything. check
• Revels in water play. check
• Likes to feed self. double check
• Begins to use more objects conventionally (for example, may put comb in hair). check
• Enjoys throwing, rolling, pushing, pulling toys. check

Motor Skills

• Stands unsupported. check
• Walks without assistance with wide stance and outstretched arms. check, even without the outstretched arms
  
• Climbs stairs with assistance. check, but really uneasy about going down stairs
• Refines grasp. check, yeah she likes pulling my leg hair. Ouch
• Picks up objects from a standing position. check

Language Development

• Adds gestures to speech. more like adding speech to gestures but check
• Prefers adults to other children. Other than Helena, check
• Likes to watch and imitate activities. check much to Helena's displeasure at times.

Cognitive Development (Thinking and Learning)

• Looks to parent for help in solving problems. check
• Learns cause-effect relationship (repeats enjoyable actions). check, look I can be done with dinner when I start throwing my food!
• Looks for hidden objects in last place seen. check
• Begins to experiment through trial and error. check.

We also decided to go ahead at get her the flu vaccine. Sure she's not as much at risk being at home but who knows what nasty germs and viruses she'll come in contact with when we go to the wedding in a few weeks. I mean come on it's my brother's wedding.

Cheese

That's me, the Birthday Boy. Scary thing is this was taken before any bottles of wine were opened.

Thanks to Heather, Jimmy & Megan for sharing the celebratory evening with us and for the cool monster teeth and balloons and toys.

And thanks everyone for the calls and cards and comments of birthday wishes. Had I'd known I get such a response I would have started my wishlist sooner. So next year....

And yes, the cheesecake was delicious.

A word from our heartless sponsers

I don't believe I'm violating any of Google's rules bringing this up but, did anyone notice the ads near the bottom of the page? (of course I'm sure they'll change as soon as I post this)
Yes, we lost a dear cat over the weekend. No, we aren't in the market for a new one at this time, thank-you though advertiser.

Oh, the joys of targeted ads.

Oh, and it's my birthday.
37? I'm almost old.

Kids Say the Darndest Things (Take II)

Yep, sometimes it is just a laugh riot here at the Schutte house. You just never know what those kids will come up with - usually while your mouth is full of some splortable liquid!

Helena comes up with zingers at the least expected moment. Take the other night at dinner. We are all sitting around the dinner table, finishing up some red chicken and asparagus. Tom is casually singing "This is the dawning of the Age of Asparagus, the age of Asparagus..." to Megan when Helena turns toward me and notes in the most casual of voices, "Mom, your husband is a goof!".

Now I have to say I got lucky; I was drinking bubbly water (a.k.a. Seltzer Water) with my dinner and I was just lifting up the glass to have another sip. Have you ever splorted soda (that's pop to our northern neighbors, coke to our NC mountain visitors)? I mean, about the only thing worse to splort is beer - the nose is just not made to handle carbonated, alcoholic expulsions.

(Some other recent sayings:
"I am naming my pet cock-roach (don't ask) Cock - isn't that a great name?"
And during a discussion about pizza delivery companies, "And we have Domino's in our belly!" talking about the muscles.)

A simple dinner out

Last night we decided to go out for dinner. Lisa wanted a few books from Barnes & Noble and understandably we were all in the mood for a change of pace. One of the restaurants near the bookstore is Red Robin. It's a decent enough place. Little overpriced for a burger in my opinion, but the beer was cold and they do serve medium rare hamburgers (which I thought was a no-no now but I won't complain). It took a little persuasion for Helena - she's freaked by the giant bird-suited guy who greets the kids occasionally. I'd wager nearly all kids are terrified of clowns, animal costumed mascots and the like. You think places would get a clue but that's a different discussion. Thankfully last night the giant bird man wasn't there. Must be some Sabbath thing.

We had an enjoyable meal. Lisa & I have some sort of gourmet hamburger (ohhh, it has barbecue sauce on it!) Helena has the outside of a corndog and a salad and Megan has a bowl of mac & cheese and some cantaloupe. After all but inhaling the melon and a sizable portion of the mac and cheese into her mouth - and around her mouth and in her hair and table and floor - Megan grows bored being cooped up in the highchair. Lisa walks with her to the restroom to get washed up.
I'm watching as they return. Lisa is trailing Megan as she maneuvers by the tables and chairs. So many distractions for a 15 month old but she waddles along as onlookers admired the thing of cuteness she is. I must of turned for a moment to say something to Helena or taken a sip of my drink because the next thing I know. Lisa is awkwardly holding Megan over a large pile of orange vomit calling for me to give her a hand. Right in the high traffic area between the exit from the kitchen and the path to the restroom the slightly digested remains of Megan's dinner.
How pleasant.
Especially for the folks at the table right next to where it happened.
Needless to say we were quite embarrassed and left an ample tip.
In true form for a 'family friendly' restaurant the hostess offered Lisa a small cup of ginger ale to help settle Megan's stomach.


Note, sorry for the lack of weekly recipe. Provided that we make it through this week without any extraordinary circumstances, we will continue that feature on Sunday.

Goodbye Bunny

Well, today has been a sad and tearful day in the Schutte House.

One of our beloved cats, Melange - aka "Bunny" - has been very ill. I beleive Tom posted something yesterday regarding the effluent from this illness. She had been losing weight for several months - weight which she could ill-afford to lose. Bunny was never a big cat - at her heaviest, she weighed a mere 8.4 pounds. We thought we had a chance after getting her on some antibiotics; she started eating again and seemed to perk up a bit. After a week of her looking a little better, we noticed that the weight was starting to come off again. Yesterday Bunny really started to languish. She wouldn't eat or drink and she spent most of the day lying on the back porch.


After a losing battle with some sort of abdominal infection, we decided that the best course of action was to go ahead and put her to sleep today. Tom packed her up into the cat carrier and went by himself to get the job done. I hated to put it on him, but as I had already started to cry when we just talked about it, we thought this might be the best route. For "liability" reasons, Bunny got one last check up. At the time of her death, she weighed a little less than 5 pounds. While I am sad, I really do think this was the best thing. I don't know if she was in pain, but she definitely didn't feel good.


She had the face of a kitten throughout her whole life. I recall trying to find a name for her that would fit her looks and personality. She was such a mixture - calico tabby with both orange and gey tabby - that I decided on the name Melange. One of the things she did as a young cat was chase paper balls. We used to say "Bunny, ball, ball" and then throw the ball; she would run after it, play with it for a few minutes, and then bring it back for us to throw it again. After a while, she would only answer to Bunny. I will remember with fondness the 13 years I spent with her. I hope that in some way we gave her a better life than she could have had elsewhere.