Our First Home

This is the apartment building Seth lived in for a year before we were married. We lived there together the first month of our marriage. Like so many others, we didn't have insurance at the time.

We sure are glad we didn't stay there.

An Eventful Christmas

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. We had 4 celebrations and we were all a little exhausted by the end of it. It has been great seeing all the family though.

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents' house, and Elena loved handing out the gifts to everyone. Sammy had a good time hanging out with Papi.

We spent Christmas day at Seth's parents' house and had a great time except for Elena burning her hands and nose on the fireplace. It was a pretty traumatic for us all.

She is very good about staying away from the fireplace when it's on because she knows it will be hot. Unfortunately, it had been turned on previously and was turned off when she touched it. Not only did she not realize it was hot, those of us in the room didn't either. I was feeding Sam when she started to cry with her hands on the fireplace. I thought they were stuck because she wasn't taking them off (I think she was just too shocked to move). Uncle Richie quickly grabbed her and we saw her hands had been burned. As we ran them under cool water and watched them blister, we noticed her little nose was also forming a blister (she now looks like Rudolph).

We got her some ibuprofen and stuck her hands in cold water. She cried and cried for over an hour when she finally fell asleep. Seth held her as we soaked her hands and iced her nose. She slept almost an hour before she woke up and continued to cry for about another hour. Then we moved her into the room with all her cousins and they did a superb job of entertaining and distracting her. She managed to stay in a surprisingly good mood the rest of the evening as long as we could keep her hands cool.

Here she is laughing at her cousins.

The hard part was when she wanted to get up and play. She could handle about 5 minutes of jumping or dancing, but soon her hands would start to burn again and she was just so tired of soaking them. Then we would have to force her to sit down and put her hands in the water again until she calmed down.

Here she is on one of her breaks.

Seth slept with her that night and she did really well. I am amazed at how well she adapted. She doesn't let it bother her any more than necessary. I think we could all learn a lesson from little kids in that respect. They don't waste any time feeling sorry for themselves. While we were all feeling so bad for her, she was happy and smiling as soon as the pain subsided.

The next day we celebrated with the DeCock side of the family (Seth's mom's side). Almost everyone was there so there were around 70 people - and too many babies for me to count! It was a little crazy and a lot of fun. Luckily, Elena's doctor happens to live next door to Seth's Aunt and Uncle's place where we were celebrating, so we ran her over to his place to look at her burns. He was kind enough to call in a perscription for her cream so we wouldn't have to spend the whole day in urgent care.

She had fun with all her cousins and adjusted almost immediately to her new condition, using the backs of her hands to climb and play.

Rudolph and Cousin Maddy playing with a Nativity set.

The best Christmas present of the year: Sammy.

(Fake) Laughter

We were reading "Who took the cookies from the cookie jar?" to Elena last night. On each page, the animal accused of stealing the cookies says, "Who me? Couldn't be..." and then says what he eats. After a few pages, Elena started reading along and said "No, not me. I eat meat." (At least that's what it sounded like). Anyway, Seth and I burst out laughing and then she decided this book was just hilarious and she laughs hysterically for each page.

Sammy slept through the whole thing - he is very used to Elena's noise and always wakes up from the quiet when she goes to sleep.

Sammy: take 2

Ok, to start I will explain Sam's name because people keep asking us why we named our child after a beer (which, in our defense, is at least a good beer). The first name we picked out easily; Seth's initials spell Sam, and we both like the name. The middle name was a little tougher. We thought it would be neat to have Sam's initials also spell Sam. Our favorite choice for a middle name was Seth's middle name - Adam. We went back and forth between James and Adam throughout the pregnancy, and on the way to the hospital, we decided to go with Samuel Adam and hoped that maybe someday (much) down the road he'll get a free beer or two and thank us for it.

As far as his arrival, labor lasted about 13 hours (half the time of Elena's!), only 2 of which were hard labor. Once I started pushing, he came out so quickly that the doctor hadn't even been called yet. That didn't surprise me much considering that the midwife at Elena's birth said she "came out like toothpaste." I was actually glad he didn't make it. For one thing, the doctor I planned on having was out of town, and I wasn't thrilled about the one I got (rumor has it he has given women episiotomies without their consent). Also, we knew my nurse from Minneota and we were thrilled to have her deliver our baby. After he was born, she told us he was her first so it was a neat experience for her, too. Of course, the doctor (who showed up 10 minutes after the birth and stayed no more than 5 minutes) will get paid for the delivery.

Once again, Seth was a great help during the birth. Our nurse actually said that she wants Seth to prep her husband for labor whenever she gets pregnant. So far, I have somewhat enjoyed the labor process (up until the end part) because it is such a great bonding experience for Seth and me.

Elena stayed with my parents the 2 nights we were gone and she had a great time. We were worried she would struggle being gone from me so much, but she didn't seem to mind a bit. She came to visit in the hospital and fell in love with Sam right away. She wasn't quite as thrilled when we brought him home. Sharing Mommy and Daddy has been a bit of an adjustment, but her temper tantrums are gradually decreasing day by day. She loves holding Sam, giving him kisses and helping change his diaper (she hands us the wipes).

Holding Sammy for the first time

He loves being bundled up in his car seat.

Kisses

Sammy

Well - I just spent an hour writing about Sam's entry into the world and Elena somehow managed to delete the entire thing so you'll have to wait awhile more. Sorry!

It's a boy!

After a few false alarms, Samuel Adam (not Adams - I'll explain the name later) was born on Nov. 30th at 3:12 am. He was 6 lbs 12 oz and 20.5 inches. Everything went well and we're very happy to have our little boy with us. He's just beautiful. The general consensus seems to be that he looks like a Myhre only with lots of dark hair. I'm pretty tired so I'll just put up a couple of pictures and write more later.

Gobble gobble

Playing with a spider in her Thanksgiving outfit.

We started our trip up to the cities to celebrate Thanksgiving and my grandma's 98th birthday, and I started having contractions every 10 minutes. After 5 or 6 contractions, we were almost halfway to the cities and decided to turn around. Once we got back to Minneota (where we celebrated with Seth's family) the contractions, of course, stopped. But after driving 3 hours to go to a house 4 blocks away from where we started, we enjoyed a lovely afternoon. To all of you on my side who missed us, we made the video below for you.

Elena's Cure for Cabin Fever

Step 1: Place an object on the floor. Examples of good objects might be a hat, a book or your mother.
Step 2: Turn on some music, preferably something fast, repetitive and upbeat.
Step 3: Wave your hands and run in circles around the object until you fall over.
Repeat step 3 as often as necessary.
(Clothing is optional)

Case In Point

Less than 24 hours after writing my blog about hunting (see previous post), I was enjoying a monthly ritual of having supper and discussion with a group of friends at our priest's house. During dinner, Father Jeremy brought up the subject of hunting. He began talking about his first time hunting a few years ago and he described it as this "enlightening, freeing and liberating" experience.

He didn't get much farther before 2 other women at the table and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. Joy and Lila had both read my blog that day and we just couldn't help it. Sorry about that, Father. Your timing was just too perfect. We'll listen to the rest of your hunting story next month.

Hunting Season

It's that time of year again. I actually used to go through the years relatively unaware of the passing of hunting season...until 7 years ago. As I joined myself with the Myhre clan, I became aware of what a huge deal it is. After witnessing this event year after year, you'd be hard pressed to convince me that there is no instinctive difference between men and women (in general - I realize, of course, there are always exceptions).

Obviously, the vast majority of hunters are men. It's not so much that women are discouraged from hunting. In fact, I think most men like the idea of a woman who hunts. It's just that we don't have that ambition and desire to spend all day out in the cold, tracking down and killing an animal for food that is more difficult to prepare than what we could easily pick up at the grocery store.

The men I've talked with who hunt speak of this heart-pounding, sweaty-palmed, take-your-breath-away adrenaline rush they get when they see a deer. Apparently, the thrill and excitement of "the hunt" is practically indescribable. I actually tried the hunting thing a few years back. And I saw a deer or two. Yeah. I didn't get that reaction. I'm afraid I made a pathetic hunter.

After going out before sunrise and sitting in sub-zero temperatures for 3-4 hours (motionless, I might add, so as not to be heard by the deer), staring at a bunch of snow-covered trees, tears started to trickle down my cheeks from the pain of my nearly frost-bitten feet and hands. I later realized that the lining had been missing in my boots, which didn't help, but I'm one of those people who gets cold feet in the middle of July. I think it took several days for me to warm up completely. Fun, fun.

But the boys enjoy it and they get in some good quality male bonding, and that's what matters. It looks like Elena might want to join in when she's older. Although I think keeping silent and motionless might be a bit of a challenge for her. She likes the hats anyway.

Warm blooded

Apparently, this is all our little imp needs to stay warm. She'd go all day in just a diaper if we let her.

Bedtime Stories

I just love watching these two together.

Hats

Not sure what to do with all that junk mail?

Make it into a hat, of course.

Happy Halloween!

Elena went out trick-or-treating for the first time, and it was a success. Thankfully the weather was very nice. She was getting a little tired after about 15 houses so we went home. After a couple of pieces of candy, she perked right up and tore around (talking almost constantly) for about 2 hours. It was pretty funny to watch.

Elena's 1st CD

Yet another highlight of our stay in Rochester was visiting Uncle Tom’s studio. Seth’s uncle is a DJ on the radio, and we brought Elena to the studio to record her talking. Of course, she froze up and wouldn’t talk even though she talks almost non-stop otherwise. We eventually got her to say a few phrases, and Tom put her voice over a few songs so she now has her very first CD. He also put her on live radio. If anyone was listening to the radio in the Rochester area and heard a little voice going "uh-oh!" and "bye-bye" during a Mariah Carey song, that was Elena.
She loves her new CD and gets mad if we try to play anything else. Here's a video of her dancing to it in the studio.

Pumpkins

As promised, here's footage of Elena running through the pumkin patch.

Our Little Lab Rat

While in Rochester, we were able to go visit an orchard with all sorts of yummy apples and pumpkins. Elena had a blast running through the pumkins, yelling "Pumkin! Pumkin!" (although it sounded more like "Papi! Papi!") I'll save that video for another day.

Also at the orchard, there was a little maze for the kids to run through. We stuck Elena at the beginning and she very quickly ran through. It was an easy maze, but we were still pretty impressed. Here she is at the finish. As soon as she was done, she ran back to the beginning and started over. What fun!

Making Friends

We're staying with Seth's aunt and uncle in Rochester this week while he trains for his new job. It's loads of fun, and Elena loves having more people to play with. She woke up at 3:00 this morning and kept trying to get out of bed, saying "Ka-col" (that's how she says Michael, Seth's cousin).

I was also going to write about Elena's progress in the world of making friends, but the news has already made it onto another blog (with a better picture than I have) so I'll just direct you there. Joy writes better than I do anyway. Simply click on Muffinshire on the right side of the screen and read the entry for Sept. 29th. Ciao for now!

Goodbye, Old House!

This last week has been a time for major life changes around here.

1st, My sister had her baby Thursday of last week- you already knew that.

The next day, Seth had his last day of work at True Value. He was offered a job selling life insurance with the Knights of Columbus and, after many months of consideration, decided to take it. The first year or two will be a big adjustment for us, but in the long run it has a lot of potential. He will now be working from home, which is great...although he'll also be working mostly evenings which will take some getting used to. We also hope that I will be able to do some of the office work to give him more time with the kids. We've had to promise everyone at True Value, though, that we'd still stop by to visit - Elena has made quite a few friends there!

The following Wednesday, my best friend from college moved back to the UAE after 7 years in the States. We're really going to miss you, Rachana!

Also in the last week, my parents moved to a new house in Marshall and sold their house of 20 years. We'll miss the giant yard with all the fruit trees and the porch. We also had to say goodbye to Maria's cat, Blaze, who has moved to a farm. (The video below is of Elena saying goodbye to Blaze just before he left). It will be sad not having a home in Cottonwood, but it will be nice having Papi and Grandma in Marshall since we go there about once a week.

Welcome, Alex!

We've got a new arrival in the family. My sister and her husband just had their baby, Alex, on Sept. 18th. He is an absolute sweetheart, and Elena just loves him. She can already say his name.

Here they are meeting for the first time. Elena is pointing out his eye. (Why must it always be the eye??)

And here she is giving him a kiss.

In honor of the new baby, 2 of our best friends from the ol' Cottonwood days, Mandy and Alissa, came down to visit with their Mom (Deb is pictured above). The 4 of us girls grew up like sisters, and now we've all had babies in the last 17 months. It was so fun to see all the babies in their different stages - we had a newborn, a roller, a crawler and a toddler.

Here we are! (Mandy is standing with Sophie, and Alissa has Markelle (who was sleeping)).

And here's Elena working on sharing with Markelle.

Be ready for lots more baby pictures in the future. My "women I know who are pregnant" list was up to 25 at one point. It's actually been maintaining itself right around 20 because every time someone has a baby, it seems someone else gets pregnant. Looks like all the Baby Boomers' kids are starting a baby boom of their own. What fun!

10 Little Indians

My apologies to anyone who is offended by the political incorrectness of this song, but she absolutely loves it.

She does this all the time....

I don't even want to know what she'll be like as a teenager.

Wearing Daddy's Socks

New Pictures

Sorry about the long wait. It seems like life gets busier every day. Also, I've been reading a couple of good books lately which takes over computer time.

Not too much news here. Here are a few pictures from the last couple of weeks:

Helping Mom fold laundry


The downside: I had to sweep up and throw half a box of cereal.
The upside: It's probably the healthiest cereal available, and she loves it!




Showing her muscles!

She's even got the "stoned" look for her rock star impersonation.

A Day in the Life

I used to think it would be easier to keep a clean house being home all day long than it is being gone at work all day. Silly me.

For you dads-with-stay-at-home-wives out there who sometimes come home and wonder (silently, of course): "What did she do all day?" Here's an example of what may have happened:

Mom needs to get the dishes (or laundry or something of the sort) done. But in order to do so, Baby needs to be occupied or she will be yanking on Mom's pants, begging desperately to be held or played with.

So while Mom does chore #1, Baby keeps busy by emptying the kitchen cupboard:

When Mom is done, she now has a new mess to clean up. (Lest you think I'm a terrible disciplinarian at this point, remember that this baby is not old enough to properly clean up after herself...yet). So - while cleaning up said mess, Baby happily occupies herself by emptying her diaper bag:

While Mom repacks the bag, Baby moves onto yet another cupboard in the kitchen:

Finally, Mom gives up on cleaning for a bit and does some work on the computer (posting a blog, for example). During which time, Baby does this to the office:

And after a full day of cleaning, the house is in about the same state as it was at the beginning of the day (if not slightly messier). Keep in mind that this is only a partial picture, leaving out preparation and clean up of meals, reading and playing with the baby (when she might even play with actual toys).

Still...as frustrating as some days can be, I wouldn't trade this job for any other in the world.

Fashion trends

The other day I was taking Elena for a walk when a woman spotted us. She stopped to say, "Oh cute!" or something to that effect. Then she asked me, "How old is he?"

Now I can kind of understand thinking Elena is a boy since she has short hair and all....but she was wearing this. With the hot pink hat.

The funny thing is, this isn't actually that uncommon (although it's usually men who are colorblind or completely oblivious to anything clothing-related). People have thought she was a boy when she was dressed in a variety of different dresses - some of them completely pink.

So I have a question for all of you moms out there who have little boys. Is there some new fashion trend that I'm unaware of? Is it becoming popular to dress your boys in pink and purple flowers with ruffles along the neck? If that's the case, I suppose I won't even need to bother buying new clothes for our next child if it's a boy.

Family Fun

Since I last wrote on here, we all went on our first sailing trip with my Uncle Paul on his sailboat, Break Wind. It wasn't too windy so we just sailed slowly across the lake. Elena enjoyed it for the most part, although she was desperately trying to jump into the water for much of the ride. Afterwards she was able to swim on the beach for a bit, which she loved. She had no fear and scooted out (walking was too hard with all the rocks) until the water was at her chin level.

The following weekend we had a family reunion on my dad's side of the family. That's the biggest side of our families. For those of you who know Seth's family - yes, it's even bigger than that. I'm the youngest of 40 cousins. There were about 130 people there (and I'd guess at least 1/3 of us were missing). It was a lot of fun for us to see so many family members again; and Elena, of course, enjoyed being in a huge crowd of people to entertain. Here's a snapshot of us standing around - the kids were all running around playing so we weren't able to get a whole group shot. If you look in the lower left corner, you can see Elena putting herself through the hole of a bean bag board.

Playing with Daddy

We're keeping busy, busy, busy this summer - especially Seth (he and I have had only 1 day at home together in the last 6 weeks, and we will not have another for 4 weeks). Needless to say, blogging has taken a second seat to trying to keep up with life, so I'll just leave you with this little video for now.

Big news!

We were visiting a few friends in the cities this weekend, and Elena had a great time playing with the other kids. She must have really liked them because she kept smothering them with kisses, espeically little Elliot.

With Adrianna

Getting a kiss from Jerome

Elliot with his mom

Anyway, onto the big news. After spending Saturday with Adrianna and Sunday with Jerome (both of whom walk very well), Elena took her first steps. We were at Jon and Duquesa's home when she took her first steps, and she was so proud of herself that she just kept practicing and practicing for about 20 minutes. It's been a long time coming so she caught on pretty quickly. Here she is walking within about a half hour of taking her first few steps.

Cheesehead

I think we lived a little too close to Wisconsin when Elena was born. She was winding down by the time I got the camera out, but you get the idea.



By the way, if any of you visit us in the near future and happen to eat cheese, we will make sure to start a new package for you...unless you prefer your cheese full of tiny bite marks.

Deer

A couple of nights ago we got to pet a doe and a couple of fawns. That was a neat experience for Elena and Mom and Dad. A friend of ours in Minneota raises deer on his farm. He has around 90 deer ranging from newborns to 3 years - the younger ones (a few of whom just hang around the back yard) are really tame and will walked right up to us. Too bad I didn't bring my camera.

A week ago we went to visit our friends Joy, Dan and Ana (their 1 1/2 year old daughter, soon to be Elena's best friend...once they figure out how to play together). Dan made Pad Thai for us, which was delicious. They had baby kittens, which Elena loved - she was squealing and shaking with delight. They also had chickens, which were very friendly...maybe a little too friendly. One of them pecked Elena, and they followed Ana around like puppy dogs. She's trying to back away from them in the picture below.



And, as promised, here's a shot of our new baby niece, Kelly.

Looking for new dance moves?

Elena will let you borrow hers.

Camping

Elena had her first camping trip 2 weeks ago on the annual DeCock family camping trip (that's Seth's mom's family). Thankfully we had cabins and the weather was gorgeous all weekend. Elena didn't sleep much, but she had a blast with so many people around all weekend.

giving kisses to Aunt Tina

with 2nd cousin, Maddy

with cousin Madison

her first sucker (she stole it)

Happy 4th of July!

We had a picnic with my parents and some friends from Cottonwood for the 4th. We had a great meal followed by another great meal: there was a Mexican group next to us who brought over a few plates of steak, rice, guacamole and a couple of Coronas. I gave them some of my pasta salad, but I don't think it compared even remotely to the deliciousness of their guacamole. We were so stuffed, but the food was too good to throw away so we were hurting for a while afterwards.
Thankfully, Elena didn't wear out before the fireworks started. I don't know which was a better show - the fireworks or Elena watching the fireworks. When the fireworks went off, she would throw her arms up in the air and squeal with excitement. She was laughing and "wow"ing and "ooooh"ing up a storm. Unfortunately it was too dark for our camera to get any video footage of her, but we got a few good pictures.

Here she is waiting in anticipation for the next explosion.


Wow!

Animal Sounds

I've been trying for weeks now to get Elena to do all of her animal sounds for the camera. She did a pretty good job this morning, although she's eating her breakfast at the same time....and her bear is usually much more ferocious :)

It's wedding season!

My cousin Jake (below, with Elena) got married this weekend to his now wife Anne. We got to enjoy a great party with delicious, organic food on a beautiful flower farm. My family on that side tends to be very loud, a lot of fun and pretty laid-back. I think the laid-back part was apparent this weekend in the fact that our bathrooms at the wedding were port-a-potties (although for some of the men, even these proved unnecessary due to the ample surrounding of trees), and after we ate, the caterers washed the dishes with a garden hose. In the port-a-potties' defence, they were comparatively nice - complete with flush toilets and sinks for washing. The sinks, by the way, had little signs next to them advising people not to drink the water. I hope that the signs were not really necessary to deter people from drinking the port-a-potty water.


Lest you think that the most memorable part of the wedding was how we all went to the bathroom, I will move on. Jake and Anne made a beautiful bride and groom, and it was so fun to watch them share this day together. I love watching couple's make their vows, especially when you can tell they mean it. There is something very moving in watching two people promise each other that their love is not contingent upon constant happy days and romantic feelings, but that they will wake up every morning for the rest of their lives and do their best to love each other even on days when they might not feel like it: for better and for worse (not for better or forget it). I love this picture because you can see Anne holding back the tears.




Aaaahh...marriage is a marvelous thing and I love it. I am moved with pity whenever I hear someone tell me that their marriage "doesn't really mean anything" or "didn't change anything." Marriage always means something because at that point, the two enter into a relationship that they cannot simply walk away from - the 2 become 1 (yay!). This is a very important aspect to any relationship that carries with it the potential for children, who all desire to grow up with their loving parents.

And so many others have told me that they don't want to get married because they think it will ruin the relationship. If you think promising someone that you will stick by them through thick and thin will harm your relationship, you may want to reconsider that relationship. Call me a romantic, but oh! these people are missing out on the beauty of true love (even when - especially when - every day is not happily ever after). So congratulations to Jake and Anne for grabbing onto and embracing true love with all of its joyful potential, scary uncertainties, and assurance of trials to come.

Elena got to wear a very pretty dress for the wedding (thank you, Pavi). Later we changed her into play clothes so she could crawl around, and she started walking (on her knees, of course) straight for the middle of the dance floor, trying to dance with everyone. Unfortunately, the people dancing couldn't really see her and we had to pull her out when people started stepping on her. Someday, Elena...



And my Aunt Linda came up to me at one point and whispered, "Can I ask you something?....are you pregnant?" "Uh...yeah. You didn't know that?" Her husband (my Uncle Paul) had failed to mention to her that we were expecting when he found out 2 months ago. She had figured it out because I was going to the bathroom so much and not drinking wine. Poor Aunt Linda - she loves babies and gets so excited to have more in the family, while Uncle Paul is a little less excitable when it comes to babies (and cuddling and affection and stuff like that...) Here's a shot of them at my sister's wedding. It's a little fuzzy, but I think it portrays their personalities pretty well :)