Catching Up...

So, I have NO IDEA how I let an entire week go by without any blog posts. For those of you who are entertained by the photos (like Bill and Jan), I blame Doug and Christine and our friend Josh, our long-weekend visitors. 'Cause they were so much trouble to get ready for and entertain. :)

If you're my sister, you're probably somewhat thankful for the extra room in your inbox. ;) Just kidding, Mary!

So, I have some catching up to do and will bring you all up to speed. But for tonight, here are some photos from Doug and Christine's visit that you might enjoy. Sleep tight!

So Stinkin' Cute

How do you resist a kid like this when he asks you to put Thomas on the TV? Freddy has been interested in imitating and pretending lately. He'll lie on the floor, say "nigh - nigh" and pretend to snore (really just with the "shew" part of the fake snore). Do kids just keep getting more and more fun?

Little Buddy

Our friends and former neighbors Virginia & Chris came over for dinner last weekend with their kids, Emmett (7) and Roxy (3). We had a great time catching up, and Emmett was VERY patient with the little guy. E is becoming quite the reader, so he helped put Freddy to bed with a few books. Roxy is spunky and has a head full of blonde curls. She is ADORABLE. At one point, we were sitting around the table with dessert, and she came up to me and whispered in my ear "can you please stop talking?". I have no idea what I was saying, or why it annoyed her, but it was the cutest thing (and a little embarrassing).

Yum, Rabbit Food...

I thought I needed a red pepper for a recipe the other night, and didn't - so I left the pepper on the counter while I was cooking. Freddy spotted it, and although he had plenty of good toddler food on his plate, he decided that what he really wanted was a raw red pepper. So - fine- go for it, kid. He ate about half of it. I won't tell you what his diaper looked like the next morning.

We had a pretty good weekend. Got a lot accomplished, picked up some things for the house, took Freddy to the pool...and Bill is pretty sure he tore his MCL (knee ligament) skiing on Saturday. That might mean no more Sunday night hockey and we really hope it doesn't mean no ski trip to Romania at the end of March as planned. He's going to have it looked at tomorrow. if that's what it is, there's no surgical 'fix' - he just has to go easy on it and let it heal. Raise your hand if you think it's possible for Billy to go easy on it?

I'm Ready...

For some new snow! Come on!

Long-Haired Freaky Boy

Well, as I've mentioned repeatedly, Freddy really needed a haircut. I meant to post these photos BEFORE the posting with the 'after' photos, but I accidentally hit 'post' before I changed the date. Here you can see the full demonstration of how long it was in the back (that, plus the two people at the museum last weekend who thought he was a girl).

Voila!

I guess we could have gone shorter, but considering that he screamed as if Scott, the hair cutter guy, was actually scalping him, we thought we ought to just make sure we took off enough to avoid my putting in a ponytail this weekend. :)

A Rare Quiet Moment

Freddy quietly reading some kind of adult book with no photos. Bill calls this the Abe Lincoln photo (reading by candlelight).

Yogurt

Freddy got to feed himself some yogurt on Sunday morning. As you can tell, he had a great time giving himself a goatee.

Here are a few photos from our trip to the children's museum last Saturday. You can see that Freddy looks a little stunned in the first few photos...but he had a great time in the end! You'll also see his buddy Henry (who has a new little brother or sister due in a few months) hanging out in the kitchen. :)

The Up and Down Weekend

Well, no new photos today. There are some on the camera, but not yet downloaded, so you'll just have to be ok with a verbal report today....

All in all, I'd say we had a good weekend! The weather was good (blue skies, although the inversion pollution is creeping back in). Bill had a 24-hour bug that kept him on his back for, well, 24 hours. Although I wasn't feeling great early in the weekend, Freddy seems ok - for now. I took F to the children's museum downtown on Saturday, where we met up with some other friends. It was his first time there, and after he got over his initial paralysis brought on by being completely and totally overwhelmed by the amount of fun things to do and the number of kids there, he had a great time for about two hours. I'll upload some photos as soon as I can, although I know they won't capture the insane fun that is the Gateway Museum. I think it's most ideal for kids who are a little bit older (at least 2), but F definitely had fun. They have a membership special going on now, so I went ahead and joined because you make up the membership fee with 5 visits.

I got to hit the gym while Freddy and Bill napped, which is always a happy day.

We had a mellow Sat. movie night with Bill still on the couch, but by Sunday we were all feeling well enough for our regular Sunday ski day. Freddy had a great time at Olivia and Tripp's house - their playroom (courtesy of our friends Michael and Robin) is like a kids' museum all by itself! They have a lot of cool toys, and F was in heaven. Then we stayed there to watch the superbowl. Or, at least, it was on TV and we caught glimpses of the game as we played with the 5 kids who were there. So much for my dreams of watching all the commercials.... Oh, and I discovered that Freddy might be the only kid in the world who really isn't interested in pizza.

I got a nice long conversation in with Mary (sister) while at our friends' house last nightk, which might have been rude, but we haven't talked in so long and I was happy to hear that she and Erik had a rare nice weekend away at a cabin in western Virginia. Big thanks to Mom and Jack (brother) for helping take care of their kids so they could get away on a SERIOUSLY DESERVED break!

All in all, a solid weekend, and everyone is more or less healthy this morning! (knocking on wood right now)

Cuddly!

Freddy has been so cuddly and cute lately, with everybody. He was reaching out for hugs from Uncle Doug and Billy, and although he's also a little more needy for attention, this is the first time he's really actively seeking hugs and kisses. No complaints here!

What to do?

HAPPY FRIDAY!! And yes, that's Uncle Doug in the background.

Big Helper

He really does like the vacuums, sweepers, etc. Too bad he's not good enough that we can just hire him! Notice the awesome partly-unzipped PJs. What a stud.

Beautiful, but Doug is in Bed at 9 pm Tonight....

I think Billy showed Doug the best of the mountain today, but also the hardest...lots of hiking/skinning for some beautiful vistas (but D is clearly beat tonight!!). Doug leaves tomorrow morning, and we sure will miss having him here. I think he's a calming influence. Somehow, since I got back from San Francisco last Friday, it just doesn't feel like we're running around with too many things on our plates and too many places to be. It might also mean that Doug has been a little bored (who knows?), but it's been nice for us!

More Doug!

Yes, Freddy loves Uncle Doug more than mommy or daddy right now. :)

Uncle DOUG!

Freddy's new favorite thing to say might be..."s'Doug" [where's doug]. Or "bye bye, Doug". Or just "Doug". Over and over. I don't know what he's going to do when Doug leaves on Wednesday!

We had a heck of a day. Our 'ski Sunday' babysitter showed up almost on time, and with a quick stop by the hospital for Bill to check on a patient, we got up to Alta at about 11 am. We got 2 runs in, hopped on the lift for a third, and the lift promptly stopped. Of course, when we were loading on, we were smelling diesel fuel, and Bill said "that's not usually a good thing, they must have the generator running." That must have jinxed it, since we got stuck at just about the highest point where there was no chance of jumping off. 50 minutes later, they finally got it going but made everyone get off at the midpoint. I guess the lift was then closed the rest of the day. :( So, while we were on the lift, we got text messages saying they were closing the canyon at 3 pm for avalanche control. Since we only had our sitter until 4, we got moving to hit the road...only to get stuck in such bad traffic that we couldn't get out before the gate came down.

Bill and Doug turned around and went back to the lodge. I walked a little bit to catch up with our friends Michael and Robin (with whom we share the Sunday sitter) so that the three of us would be in the car, in line, ready to rush down when the gate opened. Our sitter was nice enough to stay late, and luckily, we got home around 5:15. Whew! Not a great day. But it did snow like CRAZY, so Doug and Billy will get a good ski day or two in early this week. :)

Fly Away

Well, Mommy is leaving Freddy in the capable hands of Daddy and Uncle Doug for 2 1/2 days...I'm heading to San Francisco for board meetings today and tomorrow, and, if all goes well, dinner with Meghan on Thurs night! Then back Friday morning for a mostly full day of annual strategic planning with my colleagues here in Utah. Doug seems to be prepared to do some Freddy caretaking when Bill has to go to work early or stay late...! Last night, I was reading Freddy a few stories, and he kept saying "Dug Dug Dug Dug" over and over, and finally walked to the top of the stairs and looked through the gate as if he could see him. I don't think Doug believed me when I told him, but it was so cute! I'm sure the guys will have a good time hanging out.

I leave you with this photo of Freddy with peanut butter on his hands until more posts when I get back.....

FTG Stats @ 15 Months

Took Freddy to the pediatrician today - he apparently fell asleep for 1/2 hour in the car with Bill (while he was picking Doug up at the airport), so he arrived at the doctor's office only to have me wake him up, take him out of the carseat, and carry him up to a strange place for some poking, prodding, and three shots (I finally got him a flu shot).

He weighs 22 lbs, 13 oz, which is only in the 24th percentile! Funny, he doesn't look skinny...the doc says it's ok and that he thinks F is doing fine, just active and burning calories. More peanut butter for this kid.

He's 31 1/2 inches 'tall', which is the 60th percentile (up from 52nd at 12 months, hooray!), and his head is 49 cm (why do they measure heads in cm and height in inches?), which is in the 91st percentile. Once again, a big head. In fact, an even bigger head - he was in the 88th percentile at one year. Here's hoping it's not full of air.... :)

SMOG

As much as I’d like to think we’re going to convince Doug to move here soon, job or not, the current weather is probably not going to help. We have a terrible inversion (where the cold air and pollution gets stuck under a warm layer between the two mountain ranges east and west), and it’s like pea soup. You can’t see the mountains from our house (which is unusual). Here’s someone else’s photo – it’s actually worse than this today.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/provincijalka/3201619501/

This is taken from a little higher than my office ‘on the hill’, and I can’t even see downtown today! It’s not supposed to clear up until at least Sunday. Great.

At least we have a gas fireplace - if you have a wood-burning fireplace, you can't make a fire when it's a 'red' day like today. :(

Fun Around the House

We haven't really started playing dress-up, but apparently Freddy is ready. See evidence to the right of him in Daddy's vest/Freddy's cape. Daddy also made him a little fort inside the tee pee, and the proceeded to talk on the phone while Freddy played....

Weirdness

For some reason, my mom just got sent a posting that I put up on Dec 3 for my dad's birthday...so if any of the rest of you received that by e-mail, sorry! I didn't intentionally send anything at all last night, so I don't know what happened.

Not an Artist

But he's trying! Thanks to Aunt Steph and Uncle Rip for these awesome markers that only show color on the actual coloring book. So far, that's saving our counters...Freddy loves to scratch around with the markers, even if he doesn't hold them right....

Clean Up, Clean Up...

Freddy insisted on helping Daddy vacuum after we finally got the tree out last weekend. I'm not kidding!

Just words today

I just have not been taking any new photos lately! Will try to remedy that tonight.

We had a great weekend (other than the Giants' loss to the Eagles). Saturday was a call-day for Bill, and although we had good intentions of a family cross-country ski outing, his cases took a little longer than anticipated, so we couldn't make it work before lunchtime for Freddy. So F and I took a walk, hung out at the coffee shop for a while, cleaned up, and then Daddy got to get out on his skate skis that afternoon during naptime. We had a great dinner with friends Sat. night, and a nice ski day with friends on Sunday while Freddy played at Charlie's house with a babysitter. I skied with 4 friends who definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone (2 are former competitive skiers). I'm still sore...but it was fun to ski with the girls.

Back to work now, looking forward to a nice long visit from Doug next week, and from Billy's college friend Josh in about a month. I head to San Francisco for a few days next week (Doug gets to do some Freddy babysitting and transport to/from daycare when Bill is working - oh, and he gets to ski a lot). No new snow expected for the next week or so, but hopefully that will change so Billy and Doug get some powder days while Doug's here.

Went to the gym early this morning (Freddy slept until after 8 - lucky Bill!) and forgot to pack one of my shoes for work. Nice.

Go Giants (since the 'skins are out)

Freddy got a Giants jersey to match daddy's new jersey - just in time for the new game. He wore it to daycare on Thursday (Bill got him dressed that morning), and he loves wearing it!!

More Presents!

Well, first - Bill tries again with the skis...on the snow this time...Freddy thought it was a good idea until they were actually strapped to his boots. Oh well. We'll keep trying!

We got the "Christmas Box" from Pop (Grandpa Gowski) the day before last and opened it last night. He's been waiting anxiously for us to receive it, and now I know why! Here I thought it just had a soccer ball for Freddy (which he loves and I had to pry away from him to avoid it ending up in the crib with him tonight!), but we had an unexpected and fun second Christmas.

I left early this morning, before my boys woke up, to go to the gym and then to work. Bill didn't have to operate until noon or so, so he and Freddy had a boys breakfast. I think they had a good time, but it's always that funny mix of fun/games and work...Freddy is no longer operating on our preferred schedule if it doesn't suit him. Oh well! He'll live. ;)

Getting Back in the Groove

Why does it take so long to change gears these days? Is it part of getting older? Well, who knows - but my nice regular almost-ever-day-blog posts seem to be hard to pick back up.

Great-uncle Craig from Colorado sent a surprise Christmas gift for Freddy - a pair of 'trainer' skis! Freddy was pretty nonplussed the first time he tried them on (ok, was forced to try them on), but since then, he really likes playing with the poles (how does he even know which way is up?) and has wanted once or twice to put the skis on! Of course, once he does that, he cries and wants them off. But Bill is taking this as a sign that he will be a great skier, even if I didn't let him name Freddy "Huck".

Fun with Christmas Toys!

Freddy received some cool new bristle blocks from Aunt Steph and Uncle Rip - although he can't make them do all the cool stuff they're supposed to, he really loves taking them apart and trying to stick them together. Great gift, guys!

We had a nice mellow weekend here. It has been FREEZING, and we got a few inches of snow Friday night and a few more today. Lucky Bill gets tomorrow off, so he'll be skiing. He took Freddy cross-country skiing on Saturday morning, then went up to Alta to ski that afternoon, and then skied all day Sunday. Oh, and afterwards played hockey on Sunday night. Give that guy a long nap! I skied Sunday morning, since we had a babysitter until noon, and it was great (but COLD). I also got a lot done - organized the third floor (which is now ready for toys and maybe an elliptical trainer!), did about 10 loads of laundry, unpacked from our trip, and took down the holiday decorations. All in all, a good weekend...and then back to a week of work. Fun, fun! Freddy seems to be getting over the cold he had over the holidays, slowly, and is gradually warming back up to being at daycare. I think he really missed us for the first week back last week. :( I'll try to get back in the groove of regular blog posts!!

Christmas 08, Captured

Sorry for the long hiatus...we had an incredibly great trip 'home' (well, home for one of us) to Virginia to visit the Geier family (which now includes Kauffmans and Poseys). The cousins all got to play, we played with puppies, it didn't snow, and there was plenty of love and good cheer to go around. I don't know if it'll hold me until the next trip home, but...seeing everyone is always a little bittersweet, since we then have to leave at some point to fly back to Utah. I miss all you guys already! Freddy flew well and seemed to be over the croup he acquired before we left.

We returned to a LOT of snow in our yard, and it looks like it's going to snow again tonight (although it's rain right now). Freddy had to remember how to put on his snow boots, and we had to turn up the heat! Looking forward to a nice weekend. The U of U plays in the Sugar Bowl tonight, which is a big test for them. Neither Bill nor I are huge fans (not really being alumni), but it's hard not to get swept up in the fever that's gripped UT this week, so...GO UTES!