Best of Friends...

Wally and Moose are best of friends these days. Their favorite game is "flashon." Some might call it "flashlight." Wally and Moose will seriously spend over an hour locked in Wally's room in complete darkness with their "flashon" and star turtle (projects stars on ceiling from Grandma Janet (in-law). Luckily, Wally has not lost any fingers, just a few flashlights have been sacrificed to Moose's jaws.

Wally is also still obsessed with Mickey Mouse. Joel managed to catch some fairly decent footage of Wally doing the "Mickey Mouse Hotdog Dance."

More of Wally being Wally...

Though there are no mountains, there are some nice things to look at in Iowa...a cardinal under our porch from our bedroom window. Notice the ice...a common feature around here.

Settling and veggies?

I feel like this week I have become more settled in Iowa. I'm feeling more like I belong here, or that I am part of this place, as opposed to someone just visiting.

Wally's playgroup has been such a blessing for me. Not only does it make it possible for me to get groceries by myself (a time a thoroughly enjoy as "me time"), but I have met some wonderful Moms and Dads, not to mention the kids. It is an amzaing feeling to have your own child come running up to see you when you've been gone, but to have another's child need you, and only you, for comfort while their parent is gone is amazing. Having a small child know me well enough to feel safe in my arms makes me feel at home. I am now at home at Wally's playgroup.

I have also met many parents from many different backgrounds. To see everyone care for eachother is amazing. To see the kids of all shapes, sizes and colors playing together as though none of them is different is refreshing and should give us all hope and peace. It is also a great way to learn about different cultures, and in that way is very interesting. I am glad Wally and I have this opportunity. That is the great thing about a college town.

Wally and I went swimming with some friends from playgroup yesterday. Sander and his mom live near by and enjoy many of the same things we do. Sander is a little over a month younger than Wally. It was great to do something with friends. I guess I could say that was my first time doing that in, oh 5 months or so. We are also getting together tonight to go to a kids night at the mall. Wally and Sander have a blast together. We sure miss Reder and baby Ruby though. Nothing can replace family by any means.

So, I am starting to feel a bit sentimental and should get to some pictures of Wally to keep all happy.

As you know, Wally likes veggies. Jason and Katie sent a comic strip that describes Wally's veggie fetish...

Here are some examples...

Wally eating frozen broccoli (still frozen)...

Wally eating a spinich salad...

Sorry for the "see food" shots!

That's our Wally!

Videos

Wally is not napping this afternoon. That makes me dread this evening. I think what happened was that he had to poop while he was trying to fall asleep. I guess I would have a hard time falling asleep with poo in my pants. I guessed we missed the magic window of napping, because I can't get him to lay down at all. I'm begging Joel to come home early so that we can eat before the monster is released. We'll see.

I'm trying to up load a few videos of Wally. None are spectacular, but he is still cute. First we have some of Wally playing in the snow a week ago. It has been too cold to play since. Hopefully, it will get into the mid 30s this weekend and we can play again.

Last weekend, Joel's friend Todd and his girlfriend Megan came for a visit. We played Settlers of Catan a lot! Though Joel and I enjoy playing 2 player, 4 player is so much more fun. They also brought a Wii with Rockband. That was crazy...there were 2 guitars, a microphone and a drumset. Wally and I didn't play much because he said, "Scarey downstairs." I think he is like his mom and doesn't enjoy loud music. Wally and I did play the drums together though. One morning before everyone got up, Wally was a Rockstar during the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song...

Well, I haven't yet posted this blog and the monster has emerged. What do you do when a kid puts himself down for a nap at 4:45pm? Hmm... I guess I will find out!

So, I tried waking Wally up at 6:00. He was very calm, but wouldn't move...still sleeping. Maybe I will just see how he does. See if he wakes up. Otherwise I will just wake him up at 8:00 or so and change diapers and put him in PJs and back to bed. It might be an early morning. Aye!

Mickey Mouse House!

Last Thursday was an absolutely beautiful day in Iowa. The sun was shining (which it actually does a lot around here) and it was a balmy 37 degrees! So, Wally and I played outside for the first time in quite a while (and likely the last time for quite awhile again!). The neighbor kids dug a snow cave in a huge snowplow snow pile. Wally saw it and decided immediately that it was "Mickey's House." He was quite proud to be in Mickey's House.
While Wally was playing in Mickey's House, I took the opportunity to make our first Iowa snow man. It was about 4:00 in the afternoon (after nap time), so the sun was getting low and the snow was cooling off again, so it was a bit of a battle to get the snowballs going, but we did it. During Christmas Wally loved snowmen (we made some at Grandma and Papa's house), so I expected to hear, "Snowman," when Wally saw it. However, he is now obsessed with Mickey Mouse, so he yelled, "Mickey Mouse!" So, I had to add ears. It is so cold now, that Mickey should last for weeks! We love looking out the window and waving to Mickey.

Smooches for Mickey!Oh, that Mickey has cold lips!

Yaowee!! That's cold!

Now that I seem to be able to move pictures, etc on the blog, here are the vacuum pictures from the previous one. I think he vacuumed the whole house that night!

Well, "heart cakes" are done, so I better run!

Burgers and Vacuums!

Last night it was a lovely 17 degrees outside, so I was able to talk Joel into grilling hamburgers. We decided to make Wally a little burger assuming that he wouldn't eat it, as he has a history of not liking burger in anyform. Well, our boy is growing up!

As much as he seemed to enjoy the hamburger, we still had to keep telling him to stop eating little trees (broccoli) and do some burger bites! That kid!

Well, I was going to add a picture of Wally vacuuming. He really REALLY likes to vacuum. However, I am having issues with this blog and can't get it to let me rearrange the pictures or anything and what is with the first bit of text being a hyper link?. Therefore, I quit! (For today, that is...did I mention that Wally decided 4:45 was an appropriate time to wake up this morning?)

Presidents, Quarters, and This!

Today is a historic day. As you know me, I am not one to get much into politics. You might also know that I have more republican-like tendencies than democratic. Regardless, this is a great day, but at the same day it is sad that it is a great day. It is great in the sense that a black man has been elected Commander in Cheif of the United States of America. But at the same time, isn't it sad that history has made it this way? What would it be like to live in a world where no one cared about skin color? That everyone treated everyone with love and respect, no matter what? At least, in some aspects, the world is getting closer to this hope of mine, and many.

On a less serious note, I have been collecting the state quarts. I was so excited yesterday when I came across a Hawaii quarter. The last one!! I rushed downstairs and to our book shelf where I keep the quarter collection. At last I had them all, and before January 2009 was over! I flipped it open to pop in the last piece and much to my dismay, I am missing New Mexico and Alaska...I was saving them on a shelf in the kitchen (too lazy to put numbers 48 and 49 in the book). I was also collecting quarters on the same shelves for using to ride the city buses. Well, the quarters are gone. Guess my days of quarter gazing aren't over yet!

Wally is in a very fun stage right now. He is into mimicking everyone and everything he sees. He tries to hold his hands in just the same position as Mickey Mouse on his milk cup, tries to scratch his neck with his back leg like Moose, tries to make a goofy smile just like the grandma at the end of his book, and everything in between. It is fun watching him try. I can just see him concentrating on the object he is trying to copy. He is so proud when he has accomplished (in his mind) being the same. When he has it figured out, he yells, "This!" so that we can see that he can do it too.

This would be Wally mimicking his Daddy doing science.

This is just Wally being Wally in his Big Boy Underpants, which we no longer wear...basically, we tried potty training, and he soon realized that he got a new pair everytime he peepeed in them. This was the last pair mean old Mom let him peepee in!

Sunday=More snow

Well, it is Sunday and it is snowing. That seems like a theme in Iowa, but I guess it is winter. At church this morning someone mentioned that today is 50 degrees warmer than it was on Friday! We are still only in the 20s thoough!

So, Gramma Kathy checked the video and said that it worked, so I will try to upload a video of our basement too. It seemed to work well for her, so maybe I will be taking a lot of videos of Wally and posting them here. Those will likely be more fun than the ones of our house.

Well, I best get to checking out football on TV to make sure I am up on who is still in the playoffs... But first, a quick Wally story...

We have been teaching Wally how to pray. He folds his hands and says, "Thank you God." Sometimes we even get an "Amen" out of him. This morning at church we were praying and I was trying to get Wally to fold his hands to pray, mostly to keep him from squirming. Suddenly, he understood what was going on and said in a not-so-quite voice, "Daddy pray!" There were a few giggles from the people around us. What a joy he is to us and to the people around us!

Entering the Blogging World

Good morning everyone. Welcome to my first blog ever. This is actually my second enty, but the first just sat around for multiple days and then didn't make sense to post, so I will try again. Being the genius that I am, I just figured out how to post pictures and even videos. Not sure if the videos are a good idea. It might take forever for others to download. We'll see. They are also boring videos. People (Kathy and Katie) have been curious what our house looks like from the inside, so Wally and I took some videos to appease them.
So, I thought that winters in Montana were nasty. I changed my mind. Winters in Iowa are nasty! Winters in Montana are just long. Though the tempuratures, etc. are similar in the 2 places, the humidity in Iowa just cuts right through you. And what is with this freezing rain/ice storm stuff? Just recently Wally was able to play in the snow for the first time in a long time. It was so cold that it couldn't make a frozen crust over everything. He thought it was great!

There is a slight slant in our backyard that with a push, Wally thinks is a swell sledding hill (nothing compared to Grandma Mary and Papa Randy's driveway though).
I think I'll sign off with this just to see what it is like. I will try to make more entries soon.