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Karlito Approved

Turns out Karl's a big fan of Eva's new cradle.



I thought for sure Eva would be upset when she saw this, but when she spotted him she just laughed and started rocking him to sleep. I think Karl now believes this is a new bed just for him.



Have a great weekend, everyone! Enjoy your fourth--whatever you do. This year, we're planning to take Eva to see the fireworks...for the first time! She's pretty excited, so I hope they live up to the hype.

Greg Maddux, Pitching Ace

The other day, Eva and I went to the library, and she picked out a book "just for Ducka." Here it is:



According to Eva, this book is called "If You Lose Your Baseball Mitt," and it's written by Britta Teckentrup. She reads this book to Ducka multiple times a day, and apparently it's about "baseball mitts and guys." Before all this, I didn't even realize she knew what a baseball mitt was.

Our Little Three Year Old

We had a party planned for Eva. We were going to go to her favorite park with lots of family and friends. We were going to have cake and ice cream and do lots and lots of playing at the playground. Except. My grandpa passed away...and that changed everything. Last week we scrambled to cancel her party (hopefully no one showed up at the park waiting for us), and we decided rather than postponing we'd just stay in the cities for an extra day and give Eva a whole birthday day with Grammy and Grampa and her aunt, uncle, and cousin. Which kind of morphed into almost two days of birthday fun. Ready for the pictures? No really--are you ready? Because I think this is a new high on the photo count for me. You should maybe go get a snack or something before you start...

Saturday was Eva's actual birthday, and her day started early with streamers and balloons and a special (Eva-requested and designed) birthday crown. As a surprise, I made a little one for Ducka too.



That morning was also the day we buried Gramps' ashes, so we spent the morning in the cemetery, but then we were off to begin the birthday festivities. We had lunch (yummy pizza!) with Eva's cousin Sebastian and his mama and daddy.



After lunch, we made a quick stop at a party store so the birthday girl could pick out a couple balloons. And, after a chain of ridiculous events, Daddy ran back into the party store five minutes later to buy new balloons to replace the ones that flew out the car window.



<<<pause for a birthday nap>>>



We spent the evening at "Grammy's Playground." And then Eva asked (very sweetly) to please go to McDonald's for dinner. So chicken nuggets it was.

You'd think that would be enough birthday fun for anyone, but we hadn't even gotten started. We all headed home to get a good night's sleep so we could get up early to enjoy the "Birthday Day" we'd planned for Sunday. Click below if you're not yet tired of birthday pictures...

Home. And tired.

Hi everyone! We're back in town after a much-needed extended visit with my family. I'll be back here tomorrow to tell you all about Eva's third birthday. (Three! Can you believe she's three??!)

Thank you so much--everyone--for your kind words about my grandpa. We are really, really going to miss him, but he had a long, full life, and he was blessed with a peaceful death...there's not much more we could ask for. One really neat thing that happened is the Minneapolis paper contacted my family and asked to write an extended featured obituary about him. The story appeared in yesterday's paper, and the reporter did a great job capturing Gramps' spirit. If anyone is interested, you can read the article here. (My mom is even quoted!)

Happy Tuesday to you all!

Three!

Happy, Happy Birthday to our favorite three-year-old!
We love you, Eva.
Mama & Daddy

Sad.

Eva: Why are you sad, Mama?
Mama: Oh sweetie, I'm sad because Gramps died.
Eva: What's died?
Mama: Well, when people get really, really old, their bodies stop working. And then they can't walk or talk or eat or sleep anymore.
Eva: Or climb.
Mama: Or climb. And we won't see Gramps anymore.
Eva: But when we go to his house we will see him.
Mama: No sweetie, he won't be at his house. But we can remember him in our imaginations. And we can look at pictures.
Eva: I'm not old.
Mama: No baby, you're not old. You're very, very young.
Eva: Mama and Daddy aren't old.
Mama: No way, we're not old.
Eva: The workers won't take down Gramps' house. They'll leave it there.
Mama: You're right. No one will take down Gramps' house. It will still be there.
Eva: But Gramps won't.
Mama: That's right sweetie.
Eva: Mama? Ducka's kind of sad about Gramps.
Mama: Well, let's give Ducka a big hug. That's the best thing to do.



William Arthur Reimer
June 16th, 1922—June 22nd, 2009

He was a very, very special person, and I can't begin to describe the hole he's left behind him. I suppose in 87 years, a person can't help but make an impression. I'm not sure whether I'll be posting much here in the near future...we'll be spending some time with my family--and we'll also be trying to carve out a chunk of special birthday time to devote to a certain soon-to-be-three-year-old. I'll be back here for sure sometime after the weekend. Be well, everyone!

Can't Say No To That

Yesterday, as I was in the middle of a marathon vacuuming session (oh, nesting, you're so much fun), poor little Eva walked up to me and said in her loudest (non-yelling) voice, "Mama, please turn the vacuum off? I want to talk."

Giving Daddy his card:

Hope your day was happy, too!

Happy Father's Day

...to Eva's daddy, my own dad, and the rest of you dad-type people out there. Enjoy your day!

A HUGE Thank You to my brother Derek (Uncle Dicky) for taking these beautiful pictures. We had an impromptu family photo shoot last weekend, and he did a wonderful job capturing our little family. I'll share more soon...

Summer Girl

Eating oranges for a snack, while wearing her tie-dye watermelon dress.

Have a happy, summery weekend everyone!

Inquiring Minds

Last night, while Mike was helping Eva in the bathroom, I heard her ask "Daddy, how do you say 'toot' in Spanish?"

Four Day Weekend

Whew! We spent the weekend at my parents' house, and, as I mentioned on Friday, Eva and I sent Mike back to work on Monday and stayed for a couple extra days--a mini-vacation before the new kid arrives. Eva's Grampa drove us back to Eau Claire yesterday afternoon, and Eva and I promptly collapsed from Too Much Fun.

I'm a little overwhelmed at the thought of summing up for you all the things we crammed into our happy four days, so instead you're going to get a bunch of pictures. Ready? Go!

Highlights include (but are definitely not limited to...):

A haircut from Grammy. First thing. Because I could feel my mom cringing across the internet when I posted that picture of Eva's bangs on Friday. Grammy's a hairstylist, and it's pure torture for her to know her grandchild is walking around looking like a sheepdog.

This haircut included (for the first time ever!) a trim of the rest of her long, long, growing-since-she-was-in-the-womb hair. Two inches, people! Aaaand no one but her mama can tell. Which is just what I was hoping for.



We spent most of our days outside, playing, blowing bubbles, and running through the sprinkler. Well, Eva and her cousin Sebastian ran through the sprinkler. The rest of us sat back and acted like their own personal paparazzi.



We had a small early Father's Day celebration for my dad, since we were all together.



And on Monday, Eva and I joined Sebastian and his mama (Auntie Alix) for a trip to the Minnesota Zoo. They were kind enough to share their zoo membership with us, so we were able to enjoy the zoo for free! I'm sure you can imagine what a trip to the zoo is like for an almost-three-year-old, so I'll just tell you this: there were ducks. And big kitties. And at the end of the day, Eva told me she was going to live at the zoo--in one of the empty animal "houses."

And also, there was a fountain at the zoo...specifically for running in!!

Although, if you ask Eva, she'll tell you her favorite part of the zoo was the "Automatic" bathroom. An enchanted place where the toilets flush themselves, the water runs all by itself, the dryers just magically turn on, and the soap! Pumps itself! (We used a lot of soap once she figured that out.)

Finally, on the way home yesterday, we took a small detour to visit with my friend Mira and Eva's buddy Chaz...and to meet their new little baby, Marcus. Eva was a little unsure of the baby at first, but then, just before we left, she asked if she could hold him (!!)

On the way home, she told me that maybe our baby was going to be a boy (which is a first, usually she insists it's a girl), and that we could probably name him Marcus. I think she liked him.

Well, that's it folks! We're back. You're all caught up. See you tomorrow!

Guess who's getting her bangs trimmed this weekend?

We're off to Grammy and Grampa's house for the weekend! Eva and I may stay a few extra days, so if you don't hear from me until later in the week, don't assume I'm in labor or anything like that. I'm probably not.

I hope you all have a fun weekend! Be good.

Brace Yourselves.

Here, in all its almost-35 week glory, I give you The Belly:

And because I made you all wait so long to see (thanks for being patient, by the way), you get the whole Belly experience...stretch marks (from Eva, still no new ones, thank goodness) and surgery scars and all:

 

Pregnancy brain has kicked in big time. Which seems to be a pattern with me. When I was pregnant with Eva, I worked as head baker at a local coffee shop/cafe, and about a month before my due date, I had to leave work. Not out of exhaustion, but because I kept doing bone-headed things like using salt instead of sugar. My manager and I had a very nice conversation about how I maybe wasn't being so helpful anymore, and I should maybe just take my leave early and stop torturing them all with salty muffins.

This time around, I can't exactly be asked to leave my position early. So my poor family is having to bear the brunt of my absentmindedness (That's a 5 syllable word, people. Take that, pregnancy brain!). Yesterday, while trying to make Eva lunch, I managed instead to melt a package of string cheese (in a ziplock bag, no less) to the stove. My wonderful husband is still slowly peeling plastic off the burner.

And a few days ago I stood outside our house, staring at the door in confusion, helplessly pushing the little lock button on my keychain. It took me an embarrassingly (5 more syllables. Just saying.) long time to realize that I need to actually use my housekey to open the door.

I'm kind of wondering when Mike is going to sit me down and talk to me about my driving priveleges.

Waiting for the Sun

We've had a lot of rainy, cold, miserable weather around these parts (Although yesterday we finally got to play outside--no rain!), and on Monday Eva and I spent the morning at the library. We got a big stack of new books to help entertain ourselves while we waited for better weather, and, on a whim, I also picked up a Blue's Clues DVD for her. She'd never seen Blue's Clues before this, and to say it was a hit with her would be an understatement.

The best part, as far as Mike and I are concerned, is that she keeps tiptoeing around the house saying "I'm leaving clueses. See my clueses, Mama?" Which is just beyond adorable--because she's our kid, yes; because of her mispronunciation, naturally; but mostly because she now thinks "clueses" is another word for paw prints.

And I'm way too entertained by that to correct her.