Still Here

Let me catch up on a few details since my last blog posting. First, here are a few pictures I took from Ryanne and Lucas' wedding last month in Illinois. Ryanne and Lucas' first dance:


We were so happy to see Alex's first Mandarin Chinese teacher Christine at the wedding! She and Alex had a really good time and it was wonderful to catch up with her.


And here is the blushing bride with "that other guy"


Here is Daddy and his little girl. It scares me to think someday she'll be the one in the white gown

Sometime after we got back from the wedding, somebody snapped this picture of me. It pretty well sums up how I've felt lately:
We had a lot of fun in Chicago. Traveling with two kids is a real challenge. It was definitely not a relaxing vacation, but it was an exhilarating adventure, and helped us feel more confident in our abilities to know that we are capable of managing travel logistics together while keeping the kids in tow.

The day after we returned from Chicago, my parents came out for a great visit. My Dad and Alex helped me finish up the rest of the siding on the new trailer:

Genevieve thought that was pretty boring

Alex has been warming up slowly to Genevieve. He's still not that interested in her most of the time, but he's at least indifferent, if not affectionate. Believe me, with a rambunctious 2 year old, that's saying a lot!

A two-part video I took of Alex shows him in one of his more affectionate moods:





Here is a very painful looking shot of Genevieve all tucked in in her car seat. This crazy 90-degree neck angle doesn't seem to bother her one bit:


Genevieve does really well in the car. She sleeps mostly. Alex did not enjoy car rides for his first several months, so we were hoping G. would do better!

On the subject of sleeping, Alex is a really dedicated nap-taker. He takes a 2-hour nap very consistently starting sometime between 12pm-2pm every day. But very rarely, he can't seem to fall asleep and wants to get up and talk or play or read. In these cases we often leave him in his room and let him wind down on his own when he's ready. One afternoon a couple of weeks ago, Dana found these unbelievably cute scene:
Alex had gotten up, played, wandered around upstairs for a few minutes, then "passed out" at the doorstep to his room, too exhausted even to turn the knob and open the door.

I'm closer still to finishing my plumbing project on the North side of the house. A couple of Fridays ago I took the day off and rented a concrete saw to straighten up the edges of the area I had to jackhammer up to replace the sewer elbow.
Alex has been at his new preschool for two weeks. He LOVES it, and so do we. He is there all day Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. He spends Tuesdays and Thursdays with Ryanne and Genevieve. So far it seems to be working out beautifully.

Dana also started school two weeks ago, beginning her second-to-last semester at law school. She has classes Tuesday and Thursday from about 2:30-7:30pm. She's taking Antitrust Law, a Civil Litigation practicum, and a bar review class.

Genevieve spends weekdays with Ryanne. They have become fast friends, as far as I can tell. Genevieve still sleeps an awful lot during the day, so that probably helps.

Genevieve has also learned to sleep through most of the night. She dozes off around 11pm and wakes up around 2am and 4am for snacks. She gets up around 7am. Remarkably she's still getting easily 6-8 hours of sleep during the days. The hardest part is making sure that WE get to bed at the same time she does! Otherwise we get a pretty short night's sleep.

Work has been hectic, but I'm quite happy to still be employed. It seems like everything is changing, but at least there's never a dull moment.


In other news Gene's Airline has taken delivery of it's first aircraft, complete with its new livery!


We are eagerly awaiting our first visit by Glasair of Grandma & Grandpa Stangel!