Happy 2008!

Happy New Year to all! We hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas.

Lots of new pictures have been added to the Photo Gallery. Finishing out the 2007 Family album are some new photos in the Nov-Dec 2007 album, including a few in early December that were hiding on one of our digital cameras of Z & A enjoying an early Christmas present from Papa and Grandma Pat - a new play table. Also included are a gift of Buzz and Woody from Debbie and fun for the whole family with wooden blocks from Grandpa Dan and Grandma Marilyn.

Debbie and I took the boys to visit Santa. They were really excited about Santa - right up until it was time to actually meet him. Alex had a death grip on me, while Zach was wary of this strange man and found that exploring the area was more interesting. Debbie captured a picture of a struggle to keep the boys still enough to get that split-second portrait. Once we left, they got excited about Santa again. What can you do? :-)

In the Christmas 2007 album, we have pictures from our mid-December trip to celebrate Christmas with family and friends in Chicago - we had such a great time visiting everyone! For Christmas, we opened all our family gifts on the 23rd so we could take our time and enjoy everything with Cole. On Christmas Eve, we made the trek up to Grandma Pat and Papa's house and spent the day with them; we also were invited to invade the Aberle's holiday celebration to spend a little time with them.

Christmas Day brought a visit from Santa (fortunately for the boys, while they were still sleeping) and a fantastic meal with some dishes that have become holiday traditions for us - a roast duck with apple and prune stuffing that is to die for, the Vandermark traditional Green Death (lime Jello salad with cream cheese and pears - yum!), and a new butternut squash risotto that was a lot of work but was wonderful with the duck.

New photos for November and December

We've got some great new pictures in the new Nov - Dec 2007 Family photo album, including a trip to Underwater World at the Mall of America, playing in class at ECFE (Early Childhood and Family Ed), preparing for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and getting out during the first big snowfall of the season.

We also went to Joe's company Holiday Party on December 1 at the fabulous Varsity Theater in Minneapolis. It was a 70's disco theme party, complete with a great, well-known local cover band called Boogie Wonderland, and it was a ton of fun. Most of the crowd, including Joe and me, dressed the part in all its cheesy glory, and everyone got out on the dance floor - or even on stage (yep, that is me on stage with Heather, the wife of one of Joe's coworkers). The pictures are a bit grainy/fuzzy given the lighting in the room, but the Dow Jones Holiday Party album will give you an idea of the fun that was had by all.

Back to the crib

After about a week of letting the boys run like manics and a week of sitting in the room for up to an hour at a time to get them to fall asleep, we decided the boys just aren't ready for beds yet and put the crib fronts back on. Now we're having fun playing the "put the baby back in the bed" game, complete with the "let's hide from Mommy to see if she can find us" bonus game. It's taken as much as 2+ hours to get them to go to sleep, but I think in the long run, this is the right thing. We sure can't wait until they get the idea that they're supposed to stay in though!

Some new pics in the Sept-Oct 2007 album include another example of the mess the boys made when they should have been napping, a special breakfast made by Debbie and Cole, and dressing up as Pooh (Zach) and Eeyore (Alex, of course!) for Halloween.

Yikes, that didn't take long...

Just four days after Zach started to figure out how to get out of the crib, we had to take the front of the cribs off to turn them into toddler beds. We just couldn't get Zach to stay in, and Alex was quickly catching on too.

With that, all of their good sleeping habits seem to have gone right out the window. They've been having a blast running around (and running into things until we put their nightlight back on), climbing, and pulling everything out of every drawer possible. After they broke a dresser drawer and pulled down a radio and some books from the top of the dresser, we've put locks on the drawers and moved a bunch of things out of the room.

When they finally do fall asleep, it tends to be on the floor where they happen to pass out from exhaustion from all the fun.

Pictures of the toddler bed milestone and the following day's naptime have been added to the Sept - Oct 2007 album. Enjoy! :-)

They're having a ton of fun, but we can't wait until the novelty wears off and they start to actually sleep again...

Uh oh, we're in trouble now!

Zach has figured out how to climb out of his crib. Debbie heard some noise in the boys' room at the end of naptime, when suddenly the door opened! He did it again yesterday evening with a big thump on the floor when I was trying to get Alex back down at bedtime and this morning with a really controlled climb out of the crib once I went it to get them. So much for having a place where we know they can be contained. :-)

Latest photos

Here are the photos we've added from the last month or so:

Karen's day at the MN State Fair with Mom and Dad B: Family July-Aug 2007 album
A new Family album - Sept-Oct 2007 - which includes fun with hats, shoes, brooms/vacuums, shades, magnets, climbing and noisy kitchen stuff
New pics in the 2007 Friends album from the birthday party of one of Karen's college roommates

18 month checkup

OK, so I'm posting this just a bit late, but Zach and Alex had their 18 month checkup on 8/1. They are healthy and doing well, although they have apparently inherited their father's body type since they grew in height but not much in weight. Alex measured at 32.5 inches tall (60th percentile) and 20 lb 11 oz (0 percentile). Zach is also 32.5 inches tall but is a little lighter at 20 lb 2.6 oz. The doctor was OK with the weight because their height and development are doing so well (in fact, they demonstrated their climbing abilities for her right in the room).

They are learning new words and new things almost every day. Both can walk halfway up the stairs with the help of the balusters before they crawl the rest of the way. I'll have a pic up on the site soon that shows Zach nearly climbing into his crib. They have learned to say "all done" when done with a bath and can imitate many farm animals. They've become big fans of watching bee-ball (baseball) and wheel (Wheel of Fortune). They still love to read and can often grab a certain book that you ask them to get. They are now starting to figure out how to open doors (uh oh!) It's truly amazing how quickly they learn.

Check out the latest photos in the July-Aug 2007 Family album.