Those First Pigtails

Yay!

*Thanks to Addie for the microscopic rubber bands, and Beth for the distraction.

This evening

I gave Tjabe his first styled haircut (meaning I didn't just attach a #3 guard to the clippers and run them over his head). Here are some after pics. For a before shot, see the previous video post. I think I did okay, considering it was the first time I really put any effort and thought into it.

He insisted I get a shot from every side of his head, including the top.

Hi from the kids

This afternoon

This afternoon Maggie sucked on an ink cartridge for our printer that she found within her reach. And I didn't freak out about the mess once.

This morning

This morning I watched as three three-year-old male "crackerdiles," one one-year-old male "crackerdile," and the lone female, a nearly-ten-month-old, roared around the house and created general havoc in the living room and bedrooms. And I didn't freak out about the mess once.

I've come a long way, baby.

Tjabe

As we drove from Kansas City to Iowa, the sun was beginning to come up (we left at 5 am). Tjabe, who hadn't gone back to sleep, commented, "Look Dad, it's getting day-er!"

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The other day I thought it would be good to mention to Tjabe the whole "Stranger" lesson. I explained to him that if someone he didn't know came up to him outside and asked him to go with them, he should say no and run away to find me, or someone he did know. I also told him to never open the door to someone he didn't know. After letting him think about this for a minute, I asked him: "If a person you don't know comes up to you when you're playing outside and says, 'Little buddy, come for a car ride with me,' what should you do?"

He looked confused, and replied: "Run away." (long pause) "But Mom, if they ask me to go in their car with them, and they don't have my carseat, I can't go with them."

So he kind of gets it, but maybe not for the right reasons.

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On our way to Denver, we left home very early (3 am). We woke the kids and put them in their seats. Maggie was happy as a clam, as usual, but I wasn't sure how Tjabe's attitude would be at that hour, since he can be a bear when he wakes up. But as he was waiting in his car seat for us to go, he practically shivered with joy and said, "I'm so esciged [rhymes with excited]!" Down the road Sam asked him (yes, we were making fun of his mis-pronounciation) : "Tjabe are you so escited?" "No Dad," he replied, "esciged."

When his tiredness finally hit him, half an hour later, he began getting poetic, and we heard him murmuring in the backseat: "...Big trucks in the night... bright moon in the sky..." Then he drifted off to sleep.

A lot of catching up to do...

Well, we're finally home. We enjoyed a month-long road trip, visiting family and enjoying each other's company as we toured the US in our Birdvan. We spent a week with Sam's parents, then ventured to spend two weeks with my parents in Denver, continuing on to central Kansas to spend a night with my Aunt Linda and Uncle Glenn, then to Kansas City to spend a few days with Grandpa Chuck and Grandma Lisa (aka Daddy and Lisa to me), then up for a few days in Wisconsin for my grandparent's fiftieth wedding anniversary, then back across South Dakota, stopping for a night to visit my good friend Michelle. After one more night on the road, spent in a hotel in Gillette, WY (with a pool and a water park!), we arrived home. And now, the month in pictures (minus our time in Denver - see previous post):

Tjabe and Uncle Glenn having a serious conversation on their back deck

Tjabe playing in Uncle Glenn and Aunt Linda's "cowboy hot tub"

In Kansas City - one of Maggie's post-dinner cleanup looks

Tjabe fishing with Daddy and Grandpa Chuck on Grandpa's boat

Grandpa Chuck and Grandma Lisa

Here we have the first of Maggie's multiple on-the-road blowouts. We were made aware of this by Tjabe calling from the back seat (and I quote): "Mom, there's poop everywhere!"

We pulled over, laid Maggie on the hood of the car, and went to town with the wipes (since the poop got all over her legs and feet, on her hands, and subsequently on her face).

Here's Maggie after the blowout while we're cleaning up the hood of the car

On the trip between Kansas City and Wisconsin (or through "Iwowa" to "Wisconskin", as Tjabe puts it), we stopped at the Amana colonies. Our favorite part of them was the brewery, with it's lush outdoor tasting room, where both kids fell asleep (see photos above and below) while we enjoyed the beer.

Below are some pictures from the photo shoot with the family in Wisconsin:

Grandpa S and Tjabe

One of us and the other one

Grandpa and Grandma S

Us

Me and Michelle

We were excited to return home to a fruitful garden:

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Here are some shots from the short hail storm we got Friday. It made the parking lot by our condo flood more than usual so Tjabe and I and some neighbors were out playing in the lake.