Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas
We woke up this morning with a little lion riding. (The reason you see so many pictures of her on this is that if you lay her down on the lion it takes her a few seconds to get off and around. These few seconds allow you do take a sip of water, loose a too warm sweater or let the dog out before Amelia is once again on the hunt for life threatening objects to put in her mouth.)
We then went over to our friends the Lenehan's. This isn't a good photograph of the action but this depicts a quiz off that was happening between Will and Heidi. Will, an afficianado of the show "Full House" was in a battle with fellow expert Heidi. In the end Will won out. He knows way more about Uncle Jesse and Uncle Joey than Heidi does.
Rosie, on the right, and Amelia, on the left. 
And finally at the end of the day we had to pack up and get ready to leave. Amelia has had trouble staying in the bag though :)Tuesday, December 23, 2008
a thought
When I was in Alaska a few years ago I bought some synthetic hiking socks called Genius.
They were very comfortable.
But given that they are called Genius don't you think they would be able to stay together? I can only find one.
They were very comfortable.
But given that they are called Genius don't you think they would be able to stay together? I can only find one.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Red House Visit
Uncle Chip and Amelia.
Matty checks out Amelia--she smells good!
Some winter video from our hike!
Here is one of Matty jumping a small stream. He could have used the help of Amelia and her ice axe.
Fortunately we finished the hike without her help, and we made it back to the Red House to see Heidi, Griffin, Peyton and Cole. (The last 3 being dogs.)
I always love the walks around the Red House/Squam area with my great friends Matt and Chip. We have a great friendship that is now, amazingly 13 years old--wow! Today we walked through the beaver ponds, tossing dogs over the small streams and plowed through 3 feet of snow.
Here is one of Matty jumping a small stream. He could have used the help of Amelia and her ice axe. Fortunately we finished the hike without her help, and we made it back to the Red House to see Heidi, Griffin, Peyton and Cole. (The last 3 being dogs.)At lunch Margie told us a story of Charlie's shopping. All we can say is mission accomplished.
Matty checks out Amelia--she smells good!A view from the car on the ride home. I just wish we hadn't taken this picture at 3:30. Lots of darkness in a New England winter.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
New Feeding Method
In one of the few occasions where Heidi has come around to my way of thinking we are now feeding Amelia wearing only pants. Umm...we wear our normal clothes--she only wears pants. I always forgot to get her a bib which ruins the outfit she is wearing (also making Heidi mad :) Now that we have found that she loves berries so much we have given up on the bib and just take her shirt off for lunch and dinner.
She still finds a way to feed some of her food to Yoda. One of the cute things she does is, when she's full, to feed Yoda. When she is done eating she just picks up her food and immediately slides it under the tray to Yoda. While we often are exhausted by baby and puppy it has been very fun to see them start to grow up together.
She still finds a way to feed some of her food to Yoda. One of the cute things she does is, when she's full, to feed Yoda. When she is done eating she just picks up her food and immediately slides it under the tray to Yoda. While we often are exhausted by baby and puppy it has been very fun to see them start to grow up together.more apologies
From now on I'll be taking requests on how to show I'm sorry. Since I think--since I'm the second newest member of the family--that everyone will blame me for us not going to Utah :)
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Sorry Evans and Grandmother
So we decided that since we were in the middle of a 3 day storm we would forgo our trip to Utah. I think the final argument to ourselves was--If we saw a couple with a baby, stuck in O'Hare, a couple who knew they were flying in the middle of a storm--we would say, well duh! What did you think was going to happen?
So I know we may have disappointed some people but we hope you understand that having a 9 month old isn't always easy. We really love you all--even though we won't see you.
I just wanted to get this out before any of you had the chance to post nasty messages about us on your facebook pages. We are REALLY sorry!
Christmas Video
In this first one Heidi tries to ruin Christmas by bringing receipts for each present.
This one shows Amelia doing what she does best with paper.
Thanks to Grammie for the great day and the great presents. Today was a great start to our Christmas celebrations.
Amelia's First Christmas
Santamelia!
Amelia loves opening packages. She isn't so concerned about what's inside yet--but she sure loves to tear up (and eat) the paper.
A collage of our 10 inches of snow that hit on Friday night. It was all light and fluffy so really easy to shovel and great to take Yoda for a walk in. Thursday, December 18, 2008
Just a cute picture...
In this picture, Amelia gets ready to go to the doctor for her 9 month visit. She weighed in at 18 pounds 6 ounces and is 27 1/2 inches long -- both in the 50th percentile. She is also doing everything expected of a one year old (right, she's only 9 months old)... and the doctor said we should expect to be chasing her on foot soon (her feet, that is). We are excited of course, but also not forgetting to cherish these last few days or weeks of a non-walking Amelia. Also, Amelia is showing us her strong-willed character during feeding time now. She absolutely refuses to eat anything that we put on a spoon - she wants to feed herself. The only tricky is part is when giving her the rice cereal, which she has to have for the iron. So, we make it into a paste and dump it onto her high chair tray and she mashes it around with her hands and amazingly manages to eat all of it. We aren't sure where this stubbornness comes from because neither of us are at all stubborn... :)
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Amelia's First Christmas Tree
Amelia allowed me to briefly photograph her in front of the Christmas tree yesterday. Note all of the hazards around the Christmas tree (cords, wires, etc...) We don't let her in the Christmas tree room anyway, so it seemed like a good place to put it. Fortunately she's pretty oblivious to the whole thing and hasn't tried to get in there anymore than usual...
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Sesquicentennial Post
I'm not sure if that is the correct use of sesquicentennial but it is post 250. I find it amusing that electronic post 250 is about the power being off.
Friday at 5:13 am I woke up and looked out to the garage. The lights were out. I always forget and leave them on but now they were out. I immediately knew—“Heidi—we lost power!” This was the beginning of the ice storm of 2008 for us. Eventually we would find that ½ of NH lost power—five times as many as in the big ice storm of 1998, but first, our little bit of the tale.
At 5:13 I still didn’t know if I would have to go to work or not. After some frantic discussion and the daily search for my glasses where I ask Heidi, “Where are my glasses?” and she responds, “I don’t know, where did you leave them?” and then I eventually find them, I decided to drive down to where I had cell phone reception and check our messages.
Near the general store I saw the owner trying to pull start the generator to his store—bad sign. On the drive there (1 mile) I had driven over 3 small birch trees.[1] When I reached the hot spot I called our voice mail. First a message from Vanya, Heidi’s cousin, funny but not what I was hoping for. Second was the message I was hoping for—no school.
Back at home I saw that the house was at 56 F so I began to start the fires. The big one had coals and went quickly and the little one caught after a bit. I was worried about Amelia but for once she was sleeping in a bit.[2]
A few hours later everyone was up and the house was warm but we couldn’t contact anyone. Not knowing what to do we decided to drive to Heidi’s Mom’s house thinking that a much nicer house might have power or at least be more comfortable. But first more problems.
On the way home I had noticed that I didn’t have much gas in the tank but I had really wanted to get home. So we began our icy morning trip with the needle on empty. I figured there would be a place on relatively large Rt. 28 that would be open. First we passed the local general store. The manager had gotten the generator running and there were about 10 people waiting in line for gas. I confidently told Heidi that there would be gas at the spot on 28 just down the road. But there was not. Again, less confidently this time, I told her that there might be gas at the big traffic circle down the road.
As we drove past ice covered trees that were bent to the ground and noticed houses without lights and roads blocked with orange cones I began to worry. We reached the traffic circle and unbelievably none of the gas stations were working. “Heidi, what do we do?” “Just keep driving, it’s better to break down closer to Concord.”
There was one more chance to get gas before Concord and it too was out of power. At this point we were one mile from our friends Frank and Wendy’s house so in a spur of the moment decision we decided to head down to see if they had gas. Frank is a landscaper in the summer so I figured that he would. We headed down the dirt road to their house and had to cross/drive over several downed trees on the way to their house. Making it to their drive we pulled up to the house. “Should I honk,” I said, “No, just go up,” Heidi said.
I walked up to the door and Wendy, Frank’s wife, opened the door. She apologized for not having taken a shower but we obviously we made her laugh that off. She invited us in and told us that she would find the key for the shed. The following conversation ensued…
“Drew,” her son, “Where did Dad leave the key?”
“Umm, he left the key in the place where he left it, I know where it is.”
“Yes, but where exactly?”
“You know, in the place”
Following this mom got serious and shortly we had located the actual location of the key. I went and filled the car, we exchanged thank yous and IOU promises and we were on the road. I had added about 3 gallons to the tank and the needle rose to empty when we turned on the car—we really were running on fumes.
This entire time Heidi was awesome—very encouraging and supportive and great at calming Amelia. We drove on toward Concord and Grammie’s house. As we neared her house we noticed that the ice on the sides of the road and on the trees was getting worse. Then we ran into a spot where a huge cable was down over the road. People were out in their yards staring at it and police sirens were blaring. We turned around and decided to try another route. We drove a bit in that direction and again ran into lights and downed lines.
Eventually we realized that we couldn’t make it and we turned around and headed for home. This entire time Amelia was in the back and being relatively good. But we needed supplies—damn this is boring let’s skip ahead.
Groceries, Amelia crying, hardware store, Amelia crying, battery stop, Amelia crying—back home.
With 2 fires going we had a fun night. The quiet of a house without power is relaxing. We put Amelia to bed and played Trivial Pursuit and some cribbage. Then we watched the movie Swingers on Heidi’s computer and went to bed.
I hoped to awake to power in the morning but there still wasn’t any. We went to Concord again to pick up some more supplies and were back home by noon or so. I hadn’t wanted to buy water to wash dishes so when we got home I went down to the river and chopped through the thin ice and got a few buckets of water. I heated them in our lobster pot and was able to wash the dishes quite easily.
I then went took Amelia from Heidi so she could have a break and began to play with her in the family room. Warm house, clean dishes, happy baby and wife—this really wasn’t so bad. I could easily do this for a day or 2 more. This is the exact thought I was having as I was on my back holding Amelia and I heard a sound. I moved Amelia to the left and saw the light on behind her. The noise was the furnace coming back on. Well, I know that Heidi will be happy about that.
[1] Because of their flexibility birches are always the ones to suffer in ice storms. There are still many that are tipped over into permanent arches from the 1998 storm.
[2] Maybe she is like me and needs it to be cold to sleep—make a note to investigate this further.
Friday at 5:13 am I woke up and looked out to the garage. The lights were out. I always forget and leave them on but now they were out. I immediately knew—“Heidi—we lost power!” This was the beginning of the ice storm of 2008 for us. Eventually we would find that ½ of NH lost power—five times as many as in the big ice storm of 1998, but first, our little bit of the tale.
At 5:13 I still didn’t know if I would have to go to work or not. After some frantic discussion and the daily search for my glasses where I ask Heidi, “Where are my glasses?” and she responds, “I don’t know, where did you leave them?” and then I eventually find them, I decided to drive down to where I had cell phone reception and check our messages.
Near the general store I saw the owner trying to pull start the generator to his store—bad sign. On the drive there (1 mile) I had driven over 3 small birch trees.[1] When I reached the hot spot I called our voice mail. First a message from Vanya, Heidi’s cousin, funny but not what I was hoping for. Second was the message I was hoping for—no school.
Back at home I saw that the house was at 56 F so I began to start the fires. The big one had coals and went quickly and the little one caught after a bit. I was worried about Amelia but for once she was sleeping in a bit.[2]
A few hours later everyone was up and the house was warm but we couldn’t contact anyone. Not knowing what to do we decided to drive to Heidi’s Mom’s house thinking that a much nicer house might have power or at least be more comfortable. But first more problems.
On the way home I had noticed that I didn’t have much gas in the tank but I had really wanted to get home. So we began our icy morning trip with the needle on empty. I figured there would be a place on relatively large Rt. 28 that would be open. First we passed the local general store. The manager had gotten the generator running and there were about 10 people waiting in line for gas. I confidently told Heidi that there would be gas at the spot on 28 just down the road. But there was not. Again, less confidently this time, I told her that there might be gas at the big traffic circle down the road.
As we drove past ice covered trees that were bent to the ground and noticed houses without lights and roads blocked with orange cones I began to worry. We reached the traffic circle and unbelievably none of the gas stations were working. “Heidi, what do we do?” “Just keep driving, it’s better to break down closer to Concord.”
There was one more chance to get gas before Concord and it too was out of power. At this point we were one mile from our friends Frank and Wendy’s house so in a spur of the moment decision we decided to head down to see if they had gas. Frank is a landscaper in the summer so I figured that he would. We headed down the dirt road to their house and had to cross/drive over several downed trees on the way to their house. Making it to their drive we pulled up to the house. “Should I honk,” I said, “No, just go up,” Heidi said.
I walked up to the door and Wendy, Frank’s wife, opened the door. She apologized for not having taken a shower but we obviously we made her laugh that off. She invited us in and told us that she would find the key for the shed. The following conversation ensued…
“Drew,” her son, “Where did Dad leave the key?”
“Umm, he left the key in the place where he left it, I know where it is.”
“Yes, but where exactly?”
“You know, in the place”
Following this mom got serious and shortly we had located the actual location of the key. I went and filled the car, we exchanged thank yous and IOU promises and we were on the road. I had added about 3 gallons to the tank and the needle rose to empty when we turned on the car—we really were running on fumes.
This entire time Heidi was awesome—very encouraging and supportive and great at calming Amelia. We drove on toward Concord and Grammie’s house. As we neared her house we noticed that the ice on the sides of the road and on the trees was getting worse. Then we ran into a spot where a huge cable was down over the road. People were out in their yards staring at it and police sirens were blaring. We turned around and decided to try another route. We drove a bit in that direction and again ran into lights and downed lines.
Eventually we realized that we couldn’t make it and we turned around and headed for home. This entire time Amelia was in the back and being relatively good. But we needed supplies—damn this is boring let’s skip ahead.
Groceries, Amelia crying, hardware store, Amelia crying, battery stop, Amelia crying—back home.
With 2 fires going we had a fun night. The quiet of a house without power is relaxing. We put Amelia to bed and played Trivial Pursuit and some cribbage. Then we watched the movie Swingers on Heidi’s computer and went to bed.
I hoped to awake to power in the morning but there still wasn’t any. We went to Concord again to pick up some more supplies and were back home by noon or so. I hadn’t wanted to buy water to wash dishes so when we got home I went down to the river and chopped through the thin ice and got a few buckets of water. I heated them in our lobster pot and was able to wash the dishes quite easily.
I then went took Amelia from Heidi so she could have a break and began to play with her in the family room. Warm house, clean dishes, happy baby and wife—this really wasn’t so bad. I could easily do this for a day or 2 more. This is the exact thought I was having as I was on my back holding Amelia and I heard a sound. I moved Amelia to the left and saw the light on behind her. The noise was the furnace coming back on. Well, I know that Heidi will be happy about that.
[1] Because of their flexibility birches are always the ones to suffer in ice storms. There are still many that are tipped over into permanent arches from the 1998 storm.
[2] Maybe she is like me and needs it to be cold to sleep—make a note to investigate this further.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Christmas Tree
When the power was out even Amelia needed a headlamp to play.
Here is a picture of our Christmas tree. We almost didn't get it up this year.
our odd dog
Yoda chases one of Amelia's toys. He, and she for that matter, does not differentiate between dog and human toys.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Amelia Eating
Amelia eating--she got a lot of blueberries on her face here. She has begun to be able to eat on her own which is awesome. We just cut up food for her and she eats and eats.
Here is a little video of her self shoveling:
Here is a little video of her self shoveling:Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Thanks to the Nesbitt's for this great baby gate!
Our flower child ponders how she can break through this gate...
Yoda is my best friend!
"Yoda, I just can't seem to get through there..."
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Danger is my middle name
Amelia dictated her morning routine to me:
4:30 am--I think I would like to stand in my crib and scream for about an hour or so.
5:30 am--Sweet. I wore her down--now I get some milk.
5:45-6:45--OK. I'll pretend to sleep for a little more, but really I'm just saving up energy to begin screaming again.
7:00--Nice, I finally tricked him into coming to get me. Now I get to go downstairs.
7:01--Thanks for changing my diaper but I still would like to stick my stuffed cat in the dirty diaper while distracting you from putting on the new one by flailing around on the floor.
7:02--He left me. Does he really think he can run into the other room and back before I can get to the TV cord and start chewing on it?
7:03--I'm tired of that TV cord. Oh--there's a dog bowl over there. That's probably pretty clean. Oooo! this bowl is filled with water--I love splashing in water!
7:04--What's that in the middle of the kitchen? I think it is a piece of broken glass from a dish that they broke 3 years ago, that is somehow in the middle of the kitchen. I would like to chew on that. Wait--why did you pick me up?
7:07--Oh, do you think you can check your email while leaving me on the lion rug? OK. Let me sneak over here and pull up to the wood pile for a splinter snack. Sure pull one out of my mouth--I have another chunk of wood in my other hand.
7:10--You're still trying to check you email. OK let me crawl past my toy over to Yoda's kong. Mmmmm, was there peanut butter in this?
7:12--I saw that--you just looked at the clock! Are you serious--its not time for my nap yet.
And it goes on like that.
4:30 am--I think I would like to stand in my crib and scream for about an hour or so.
5:30 am--Sweet. I wore her down--now I get some milk.
5:45-6:45--OK. I'll pretend to sleep for a little more, but really I'm just saving up energy to begin screaming again.
7:00--Nice, I finally tricked him into coming to get me. Now I get to go downstairs.
7:01--Thanks for changing my diaper but I still would like to stick my stuffed cat in the dirty diaper while distracting you from putting on the new one by flailing around on the floor.
7:02--He left me. Does he really think he can run into the other room and back before I can get to the TV cord and start chewing on it?
7:03--I'm tired of that TV cord. Oh--there's a dog bowl over there. That's probably pretty clean. Oooo! this bowl is filled with water--I love splashing in water!
7:04--What's that in the middle of the kitchen? I think it is a piece of broken glass from a dish that they broke 3 years ago, that is somehow in the middle of the kitchen. I would like to chew on that. Wait--why did you pick me up?
7:07--Oh, do you think you can check your email while leaving me on the lion rug? OK. Let me sneak over here and pull up to the wood pile for a splinter snack. Sure pull one out of my mouth--I have another chunk of wood in my other hand.
7:10--You're still trying to check you email. OK let me crawl past my toy over to Yoda's kong. Mmmmm, was there peanut butter in this?
7:12--I saw that--you just looked at the clock! Are you serious--its not time for my nap yet.
And it goes on like that.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Sarah's Boot
This video has nothing to do with our normal blog topics, however, it is too funny not to share. My cousin Sarah needed some help getting her boot off from her brother, Vanya, and my sister, her cousin, Becky.
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