I can pedal!

Had a nice weekend of chilly temps and rain.  Fall has arrived as fast as summer came and disappeared again.  Time just moves too fast.  Both the Packers and the Badgers are undefeated and the Brewers look destined to win their first division crown since 1982.  I was 6!  The leaves are starting to turn their autumn colors and it's getting dark all too soon.  The house has turned to talk of going to the apple orchard, pumpkin patch and deciding what to be for Halloween.  Justin Bieber?  Too much?  Quinny does have the sweet hair.

While enjoying the temps outside Carrie and I were hanging out in the front yard after work discussing how Quinny never learned how to ride his bike we gave him for his 2nd birthday.  His bike is stationed horizontal like a big wheel instead of a more traditional tricycle that sits high.  I thought maybe this was why he was having trouble mastering the pedal action.  The trikes they make these days sit that way so kids don't have as far to fall if they bite the dust.  As we were literally talking about it, our big boy busts out his bike and decides he's going to ride it down the hill.  Sounds good to me.  I know, but he doesn't think I do, that he's going to test the waters and see how close he can get to the street before he gets in trouble.  You can see it in his face.  I wonder where he gets that defiant attitude? And then, bam!, out of nowhere the kid turns the corner and is pedaling like he's riding a chromed out hog through the neighborhood.  Our jaws drop.  We are literally sitting there discussing it and he walks into the garage, almost to prove he heard us, and just starts riding that puppy.  So, one more thing for Quinny to cross of his bucket list - learn how to pedal - check.

While Quinny was learning how to pedal in secret, son number two is starting his own little, but less fun, adventure.  Gavin was practically born with an ear infection. He's been on antibiotics maybe six or seven times so we made the visit to the ENT today.  He was a hit.  I know I've been to an ENT before but not for a while.  In case you haven't been lately the average age in this place was approximately 107.  You can imagine the effect the cute lil' G had on the patients as well as the nurses.  When the nurse comes out it's GAVIN! IS THERE A GAVIN HERE!?  Yup, we're not deaf and we're over here.  I bet the jokes in that place never get old.  "Did ya hear the one about the...no, I guess you didn't. Ha!  Now, I can't hear in my left ear, had plenty of my own ear infections and from about 20 on have been consistently dizzy due to an inner ear issue they can't quite fix for me so I'm actually pretty concerned for our little turkey.

He starts off with a hearing test, which he can't hear very well due to the fluid in his ear.  The doc described it as listening while under water or Charlie Brown's teacher.  Click here for Miss Offmore's voice demo.  In the short term this will cause him to speak a bit later.  Carrie did some research and said it would even out by the time he was 3-4 but we're not ones to start from behind the pack.  They recommended we put some tubes in so I think we are going to do that in the next couple of weeks.  It's a fairly big deal because he gets a general anesthetic and goes completely under for roughly five minutes.  They puncture the ear drum and throw a little tube in there until his Eustachian tube grows a little bigger allowing fluid to drain easier.  It should do away with ear infections altogether because the ear can drain excess fluid automatically through the tube.  In the rare case he does get an ear infection you can treat it with a direct ear drop antibiotic that, according to Dr. Ear, is 400 times more potent/effective than taking an oral medication.  He will get through any ear infection in 3 days and no more doctor visits - hurray!  We'll let you know if we go through with it.

We asked what it would be like for Gavin and he said it will hurt like hell and he'll wake up screaming so at least we know we can trust the doctor.  I can't recall too many doctors telling me to sit down and grip the table because this is going to hurt like hell.  So I feel good about the doctor.  Iowa - you really can't beat how nice people are.  Even the bedside manner is top notch.  He said after 20 minutes of screaming while coming out of the drug induced haze he'll realize mom and dad are there and relax a bit and calm down.  He'll be fine once the pressure equalizes and he realizes he can hear for the first time since birth.  Wait until he realizes how loud he's been screaming this whole time.  I wonder if we have a shot at peace and quiet?  You're totally right, we shouldn't be getting so greedy.  And yes we're still getting up every day around 4:45 am.    

Straight Up Solo Parenting

Friend's B-day party

I solo parented this past week and I don't know how any single parents can make it through a week much less a year or a lifetime.  Sheesh.  You're up at 4-5 am and you sit down around 9:30 pm.  And as soon as your comfy rear hits the couch you realize you don't even want to be sitting on the couch. You want your booty in bed because you see the clock, do the math and know you have to get up at 5 am again tomorrow, and the next day and the next day and the next day.  You try really hard to not think about the fact your wife is enjoying Will.i.am and her favorite band, Metallica.  It's fine.  She should enjoy a little headbanger's ball once in a while too.

After the first exhausting day I knew I was going to have to reach deeper if I had any hope of surviving munchkins v. dad II.  By the second day I realized consistency is key.  I cheated a bit too. Chef boy R dad served up some succulent frozen pizza on day 1.  Bon appetit!  My coworkers lobbied for McDonald's for night number two but I knew I could do better than that.  I did the only thing possible.  I left work 90 minutes early so I would have time to cook something before the boys finished school.  I still barely had the ridiculously delicious cheese and noodle casserole (and no that's not code for macN'cheese.  It was better than that.) on the table by dinner time.  It's impossible to hang on to two kids and cook at the same time.  Impossible.  It's no different than cooking with no arms.  (I'm sure there are great no arm cooks out there. No offense meant). 

Mobile! - loves all things Lucky including his bed

By day three I had this thing totally mastered.  It was like Camp Pendelton and I had a couple of grunts working for me.  The boys were on a regimented schedule and unless you like a clean house I was dominating single parenthood.  I was still working 9 hours a day, and up for another 20 but bottles were getting washed, dinner was getting served, baths were being handed out and I still managed to find the time to win a charity golf tournament during the day on Thursday with my trusty teammates.  I'm awful so they carried me but we still won and I had a handful of nice shots in there.  Yup, things were rolling by day four.  Carrie finally decided depart the west coast choosing a red eye home.  Ugh.  I can't believe there is enough people wanting to take those flights.  They are brutal.  She got home shortly after we took off for the day.  It was nice to have her back and we took the long weekend to re-energize and just relax. 

The weather was freezing here this weekend.  I woke up to 46 this morning and we have more of the same tonight.  Yowsers.  The heat index was 105 on Thursday when we were on the course.  So we're talking three days and 60 degrees.  I believe that was September 1 and we set a record high than yesterday we set a record low.  Seriously who can take this kind of weather drama?  Doesn't everyone have enough drama without the weather chiming in?  I can't imagine what it's like to be a farmer glued to the TV where a 23 year old weather gal that basically gets away with saying anything, because let's face it - it could snow tomorrow or be 110.  Last night she was blabbing about how it hasn't been in the 40s since May.  So, you're saying it's only nice here for maybe 90 days a year?  Rrrrrrrrrrrrright.  It rained so hard on Saturday, opening day in earnest for college football, that every game worth watching was rained out during the day (Iowa V. high school team, South Florida v. Notre Dame (first upset of the season) and whoever Michigan played).  I can't recall a game ever being rained out.  I'm sure it's happened but what was a fella to do?  I was out on a man-date with a buddy trying to regain some testosterone after a long week with the kiddos and we're watching reruns of last season.  Unbelievable! 

It's 5 O'clock somewhere

The boys are doing fairly well.  Gavin is still struggling a bit.  He can't seem to kick these fairly minor issues and they escalate into more serious problems. We are digging deep into research on putting in tubes and other alternatives.  Something has to give because he can't put a month together of being healthy.  He had another day of a high fever this weekend and has a persistent cough with lots of wheezing.  He's sleeping okay and I hope he's feeling better for school tomorrow.  He's moving around and starting to say more words.  He's working on bah and bye-bye.  He's got the wave down and he's good at shaking his head no like are the Bears going to win 5 games this season (wagging his head no- see he's doing it right now)?  Sorry Bears' fans.  Wait he's doing it about the Vikings too.  Well, ya, they wear purple. 

Promoted to 3s room!

We told Quinny we would take him to the magic kingdom for his birthday.  Might have been a little early for that.  It's pretty much all he talks about.  Dad, we're going to the clubhouse right?  For roll call?  Ah, ya, something like that.  Then he whispers, "meeska, mouska, Mickey MOUSE!"  Oh boy, Mickey better show.  He's also obsessed with his cake. He gives us a daily update on what he wants on his cake. Tha

t may be tricky too as he's thrown so many ideas out who knows if we're going to get it right.  I hope we nail it.  C'mon buddy consistency!  He's also massive.  We checked his height and he's just short of 40 inches.  He's really going to be a monster.  He told me the other night during bedtime routine he didn't want to be tall.  I explained to him it was going to be really hard to play any kind of professional sports if he wasn't tall so I think that helped.  He's pretty decent about hitting a ball pitched to him with a bat from maybe 5-6 feet.  He's not clearing fences but making regular contact.  Baseball seems the safest and no salary cap!!

When I picked the boys up one day last week there was an organized soccer pamphlet to sign him up for.  I went home and threw it away without reading it, thinking to myself my kid is two.  Really?  The next day as I was driving to daycare to pick the boys up I was thinking to myself, "What would Carrie do?"  Then I recalled Tiger Woods was playing golf at two.  Then I started digging through the garbage trying to find that pamphlet.  That might have been a daddy-oops in all that dad had going on.  But alas I couldn't find it.  There really isn't any money in soccer these days so I'm probably okay.  (Quinny, don't read this when you're older if baseball, football and basketball don't work out).

We hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday weekend.

It's about the Festivus Festival

Another weekend, another festival.  It was a crazy end to last week.  My brother bought a house (Wahoo! Congrats!) and my parents sold a house (Wahoo! Congrats!) and Gavin survived his bout with RSV.  I took off Thursday afternoon with Q in tow to help my brother move, which puts the moving score at about 12:1.  I guess I'm fortunate he doesn't like to move as often as I.  His new home, all the walls pink on the inside, didn't have stairs so that made moving easy but it made you really non aggressive.  One might say passive.  I think the Iowa football team may be on to something (visiting football locker room is all pink including the toilets, walls, lockers and carpet).  I think the next day he was going to paint it Badger red for football season.  Atta boy!

Gavin is doing much better and is back to his old self.  He's still on meds and hacking a bit but sleeping fairly well.  He was so babied during his tough seven days that we are weening him back to falling asleep by himself so he's having middle of the night fits.  I'm solo parenting next week as the wife is heading to San Fran for a business trip.  She's a baller.  Entertainment for my conferences - dumpy tavern around the corner. 

Her?  She's got tickets to Metallica.  Ya, Metallica.  Really?  We've been practicing her mosh pit skills to make sure she properly fits in.  I'm sure she'll survive.  At any rate Daddy needs him to be sleeping through the night or it's going to be a long week.

He's ultra mobile at this point.  He's full fledged crawling and gets in bear mode all the time where he has his hands on the floor but is on his flat feet. I take this as a sign he wants to walk but can't figure out how to get his top half vertical. He can pull himself up and is officially standing so it won't be long before we have a walker.  I am predicting 6-8 weeks which would put him right around 1.  October 13th is his birthday.  Wow.  Time is flying by these days.

Quinny and I got some nice bonding as we continue the festival tour.  When in Lake Geneva to help with moving, the 49th Annual Jaycee's sponsored Venetian Festival was going on.  I don't think I have attended since high school so it was fun to be on the parenting end of the event. The entire 4 hour drive Quinny was repeating about a million times, "Dad I want to go to the CornBestibal.  Yup, we'll go tomorrow buddy.  Dad, I want to go to the CornBestibal.  Yup, buddy, we're definitely going to check that out tomorrow.  Dad, I want to go to the CornBestibal."  Dude!  Nowhere near as cheap as Cornfest 2011, though. I was dropping $20 bills in 30 minute intervals to go on the kiddie rides.  I mean it was $5/ride for the kids!  That's approximately $1 every 15 seconds.  Yikes.  Corn, our abundant supply of corn, was going for $2.  Wowsers.  I need to get in the commodity market.  I kept reminding myself it's all about Quinny's happiness.  Seriously, how many years are you going to ride the strawberries with your ultra-manly son?  I did run into an old classmate that I hadn't seen in probably 10 years with his two girls, wife and parents in tow.  His wife was an aeronautical engineer, as in way out of my buddy's league. Ha!  Oh, how time does fly.  My mom was able to join us as well and after riding all the rides Quinny played on the playground near by for probably an hour.  Hmmm, maybe should've started there and we could have saved a few bucks.  We finished the night by riding the ferris wheel, a first for both of us and were rewarded with some beautiful sunset views of Lake Geneva.  He hit the balloon ride, plane ride, strawberries again, carousel again and the aforementioned ferris wheel.  The kid does enjoy a good ride.  And I enjoyed visiting with the carnies.  Such pleasant folk.

 

This weekend we are doing a last hurrah at the river.  We probably don't have too many more weekends and the Stinks gets to come and enjoy the great outdoors with us. We'll head up to Prairie Du Chien on the big muddy Friday afternoon.  And speaking of Stinks he got a modeling gig this week.  We entered him into a cutest pet contest and it sounds like we are dominating the voting.  $65 in gift certificates are on the line.  The old dog needs a new bed so if he's a winner he'll be sleeping on a bed again.  Here is the pic we submitted.  Cheers!