All Done

I know, it's been a long time. I've been feeling guilty, really guilty, for not updating the blog. Sometimes I forget that no one even reads this blog except grandparents. And maybe the occasional pervert who stumbles upon the blog in the middle of the night while surfing every last page of the internet. So really, I shouldn't feel guilty.

We are somewhat settled into the new house and Lucy has adjusted to her new home. The first few days she wanted to leave and would shout her favorite two mantras - "GO GO GO GO" and "ALL DONE ALL DONE ALL DONE", while trying to bust out the front door. She loves her new play room and spends lots of time counting blocks in there. She's always asking to go 'stairs - downstairs'.

Our first days in the new house were also filled with two plumbing leaks, faulty wiring that burned (with smoke and fire) two brand new Bosch dryers, a painter who just about destroyed our home with his 'handywork', fights with the home warranty company (we lost), arguments with the inspection company (lost again) and LOTS OF NEW FURNITURE (that made me feel better for being such a loser). After and in between all of that, we've endured the hottest month on record, EVER, for the state of Georgia. Weeks and weeks of 99 and 100+ days (and of course we get extra credit for the humidity factor). To add insult to injury, they start school down here on August 15th, so that means all the pools are closed during the day and don't open until 4pm. I was back to the opposite problem of Minnesota winters, but really the same problem. What to do with an active todller when you can't go outside? Thankfully, we have Grandma and Grandpa's house to explore, as well as many a Home Depot. One of Lucy's latest favorites is to climb on the tractors and pretend she's driving.

Lucy, although in the full throws of toddlerhood and turning two in less than a month, seems to be figuring out her place in the world a little better and happier on the whole.



















She's talking LOUDLY and often and if for some reason you don't hear her the first time, she'll repeat it even louder. She enjoys playing in her pretend kitchen and playing with her school bus, house and little people. She jabbers away to herself most of the day and every sentence seems to include the words ALL DONE. Those were her first words and she hasn't stopped saying them yet.
ALL DONE nap
ALL DONE orange
ALL DONE diaper
ALL DONE water
ALL DONE ALL DONE ALL DONE

We haven't been able to help ourselves and taken on a few home remodeling projects. One room is missing a ceiling. Several doors have been replaced or are in the garage getting painted. Several lights have been replaced. Ken replumbed the entire laundry room. Carpet has been cleaned or replaced. And a whole host of other things that are even more boring to list than the ones above. Next is a new floor in the laundry room as well as cabinets throughout for more storage. After THAT, we'll embark on the big project, a new garage and screened in porch. And somewhere in there, we need to do some major work on the landscaping of the place. We've really let things go, especially in the back of the house. Demolition has been piling up and we feel Georgia has already started rubbing off on us. Our back yard is truly embarrasing and most days we feel like we are going crazy. We don't get out much, as you can probably see.













One last thing. I had Lucy retested for allergies. She's still allergic, as you can see in these pathetic pictures of her back. Poor kid, to be tested like this, but she really was quite a trooper during the whole process.














Those hives are reactions to the axis of evil: Milk, Eggs and ALL nuts. The eating fun continues...














Oh, all right TWO MORE THINGS, to rid myself of the guilt for not posting in so long. Two videos of Lucy in a bib way too small for her, eating dinner after getting home from the pool (thus no shirt), with stools on the counter in the background (because they are used as a ladder to access anything Lucy can get her hands on). Can she get any cuter?
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A Life With Many Faces

We Are Rednecks Now!

Another guest entry! This time, it's Ken who has something to say.

Amy and Lucy have spent a lot of time in Georgia over the past 21 months. I even made the trip twice last year. We finally made our move to the peach state at the end of March. That being said, it has seemed more like an extended visit than a new state of residence. Well, all that changed last week. What changed? Why would last week be any different than the previous three months? Maybe you are thinking our house closing changed all that and made us feel at home. Wrong! We do not even live at that place yet. Rather, it was a series of events that finally brought it all together for me.

First, and most importantly, Amy registered the Saab in Georgia! The license plate with the canoe gently gliding across a quiet Minnesota lake has been replaced by a wildflower and the word “Fulton” stamped on the bottom. Fulton County; home of Bobby Brown and Whitney, the Atlanta Braves, and regular tapings of the television show “Cops”!














You can visit places or even move places. But if you don’t put the plates on your car, you have not committed. We have arrived. We are rednecks now!

More events happened last week to confirm we have settled into Georgia life. Local news is a tell tale sign of where you are. Minnesota has stories about upcoming snow storms. California has car chases shot from helicopters. Georgia has news stories of guys complaining about getting citations for having issues with their property. I am not talking about the city of Minneapolis giving someone a ticket for a broken hand railing or a cracked sidewalk. This guy received 12 citations this year regarding his property. Picture this in your mind. Billy Joe wearing his greasy ball cap with a thick southern drawl complaining about the tickets he got for the abandoned car in the front yard, broken down RV in the backyard and bags of garbage piled up around the RV. Did I mention that he has not mowed his yard yet this year? You can’t make it up! They even hauled away his seven month pregnant cousin Cindy Lou for said violations. Jeff Foxworthy would be proud!

Finally, Lucy has given up all the sophistication that comes with being born in Edina and has decided to join those that surround her. This picture was shot the other night after she wildly drove her car into a pile of mulch. She decided it was as good a spot as any to wet her whistle. What you don’t see is the confederate flag and NRA bumper stickers, the twelve pack of beer and loaded .45 she keeps in the front trunk! We may have lost her for good!














The truth of the matter is that we have all adjusted to our new life in Georgia. The painters will be in the new house all this week and we may even have a home of our own by the end of July. Amy is holding up well. She has the toughest job of all of us. She has to chase Lucy all day long, coordinate everything from paint colors for every room to new furniture purchases for our new home. This is in addition to keeping me on task with all the projects that need to be completed prior to our final move in date. I don’t know how she does it. I take that back. I think I know how she does it. She takes one look at the sweaty smiling girl below!

Mechanical Munchkin

In an effort to spice things up here at Baby Coffee, I'll be employing guest writers from time to time. This could either mean I'm getting lazy, or smart. Today's guest writer is G-pa Wilks. Welcome Dad! We are still camped out at the W ranch. Hopefully, all will go well tomorrow at the closing of our new house.

Lucy’s mechanical skills are developing nicely. The plastic triangles, squares and circles all get back in the correct holes in her busy board. She is pretty good with a fork and spoon. She uses them right side up without dropping too much.

















A recent mechanical revelation was realizing that you can turn the lock button on the inside door handle of the bathroom door and BREAKOUT. Mom locks her in with her to keep track of her while conducting serious business. Lucy now enters rooms and locks the door behind her . . . because she can. We navigate this house with a screw driver.

Lucy recently rattled the outside door handle of a bathroom door while I was sitting locked inside. Next I heard the unmistakable clink of old keys on a ring I had given Lucy as a toy. She was trying to unlock the door from the outside using a key as a screwdriver. She has seen me do that unlocking twist thousands of times. She might have succeeded had not Amy intervened. Lucy will try again . . . and again.




















Someday, if I am a very lucky guy, Lucy might help me repair my wheelchair . . . or my hearing aids. Perhaps I’ll tell her for the umpteenth time the story about when she tried to unlock my bathroom door. Perhaps she will pretend she never heard it before. She’s going to be nice like that I think. You can see it in her smile.

unmotivated to write

Sold

It's been a long two weeks, but as of yesterday, we officially got the house. There were inspections and requests for repairs, and addendums to this and extensions to that. There was a tub with a broken jet (a jetted tub!) that I was refusing to back down from and various repair quotes sought. Somehow, it all came together. Here is our cute little new house. The current plan is to build a two car garage with a screened in porch in the back. We'll let you know as the plans progress. The front:














The view from the front porch:














The view to the side:














Do you get the theme?

Lucy loves it (at the botancial gardens):














And I do too:














We close on the house in about a month, so I have only a few short weeks to pick out my new paint colors! And the house isn't as small as it looks. There are actually 4 decent sized bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a huge laundry room and extra playroom. Plus, a tuck under garage that will be used as our workshop/studio. I think it's even slightly bigger than our previous house.

House Hunters

It's starting to warm up here in Atlanta, getting a little bit humid and sticky. Just a little, not too bad, yet. We've been spending all of our time looking at houses online, driving around looking at houses, calling our realtor and going inside houses, thinking about houses, stressing about houses and then stressing some more. We just couldn't find anything we really liked. We viewed plenty of beautiful homes that most normal people would fall in love with, but all we saw were $$$ signs, big empty rooms, pool and tennis clubs and finely manicured lawns. But, unwilling to give up, I actually found something no one would ever think existed in this suburban Atlanta sprawl. A small hilly community, frozen in time, with lots of trees, eclectic homes, two small lakes and a place where everyone seems to know each other. We made an offer on a home today, so we'll see if we can both come to an agreement. The town is called Mountain Park, and for those familiar with the area, it's within the Roswell city limits. The house is basically a renovated cottage. Once everything goes through, I'll post a photo or two. We are very excited!

Lucy has regressed back to two naps a day. Two LONG beautiful naps. She's back on more antihistamines, but its helped with all her allergies tremendously.













We had a friend in town last weekend and we all met at Turner Field for some home town Atlanta Braves baseball. The seventh inning stretch was complete with a rendition of God Bless America, followed by Thank God I'm a Country Boy by John Denver and then finally, Take Me Out To The Ballgame. Seriously. No shit. Ken and I could barely keep it together. We aren't in Minnesota anymore.

OUTSIDE

All the time. It's lovely.

And occasionally relaxing on the couch.

Entering the Terrible Twos Six Months Early

Are you going crazy waiting for a new post from me? I've been a little busy going crazy myself. Lucy's latest antics include, but are certainly not limited to:

1. Pulling the phone cord out of the phone jack, then proceeding to put it in her mouth. This was followed by lots of crying and drooling. Since no one wanted to replicate the incident themselves, we assume she got a nice shock?




















2. Discovers it's fun to put food and crackers down the vent in the dining room, instead of eating them.

3. Licks her hands when caught doing something wrong, like playing in the toilet.














4. Eats crayons. Likes blue. It sticks to her molars the best.

5. While in the car, screams EEEEEEEEE IIIIIIIII EEEEEEEEEE IIIIIIIII OOOOOHHHHHH, the entire time if 'her' music isn't on/ and or the song she would like to hear at that exact moment in time isn't playing.














6. Cries, screams and flails to get ahold of KEYS! Once gets ahold of said KEYS!, hides them so we can't go anywhere.

7. Falls down hills, up hills, down stairs, off couches, into walls...you get the picture. It isn't pretty.

8. Developed hives on her face after brothers dog licked her. Confirms suspicion that she is indeed allergic to yet something else. Now carry Benadryl with me at all times (again).














And baby King Kong likes to visit daily as well!

ATL

Lucy's been throwing signs like mad since our arrival.




















Perhaps that is why it looks like she was the loser in a bar brawl and has bruises on both sides of her face?

Really, the kid just loves to climb ladders now. And since the house we are currently invading was just completely repainted on the inside, the opportunities for accidents were a many. Thankfully, Ken and I coordinated our first long weekend without Lucy during the exact time the painters were in the house. We missed out on most of the chaos. My parents on the other hand were very excited for our return.

Go ahead and mull over the fact that we went away for the weekend without Lucy. That should keep you smiling until the next posting. Because it was SO relaxing.

Georgia

We all made it. We are exhausted and worn out. All you need to know is that it has been warm and sunny and beautiful every single day since we arrived. In the 80's. We had to go out and buy Lucy sandals for her hot little toes, which she wears to play outside muliple times everyday. No hat, no coat, no boots. Georgia really rolled out the welcome mat for us all.

Tired. Must sleep. Here are photos:

Clint saves the day by driving one of the cars down with Ken. Here is the caravan.













Lucy's new ball













Do you see the barefeet?













The hair, honestly, it's lighter than it was when we arrived.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye, all faithful readers, we finally have news to report. We have a moving date and a plan (sort of).

The house is SOLD. We like to boast that it sold to the first people that looked at it because it makes all that blood and sweat seem worth it. Someone liked our work enough to not only say it, but back it up with a big fat check. And in a housing slump. BRING on the next renovation project. Thankfully I have an entire photo album documenting the hell we lived through to snap myself out that type of thinking.

Ken officially accepted an offer for a new job in Alpharetta Georgia, starting, uhm, March 26th. Yes, March 26, Two Thousand and Seven. That gives us less than two weeks to pack it up, say goodbye, coordinate two cars and a drive a truck load of unnecessary crap to Georgia, get Lucy down to Atlanta via airplane (because although we might be crazy, we aren't stupid enough to actually attempt driving in a car with her for more than 30 minutes, much less two days), unload crap into storage unit, unload more crap into my parents house, and then take a little breath before Monday the 26th. We'll be camping out at the Wilkenloh ranch for a few months until we find a home of our own.

Grandma and Grandpa = Babysitters! FREE BABYSITTERS! I can taste the moments of freedom already.

Lucy and I are leaving on Monday, March 19th. So between now and then it's lots of goodbyes, and packing and this-will-be-the-last-time-we (fill in the blank). Here's Lucy saying goodbye to the water fall at the Mall of America. May I never have to step foot in that place again (because it's cold outside and what else do you do with a toddler who has to run everyday for at least two hours).




Cheers to warm weather, southern accents and lots of iced tea.

Dancing with THE star

As promised, a video of Lucy walking. And as a bonus, it includes footage of her latest favorite, dancing.



The words these days are flying out of her mouth like fire from a dragon's mouth. HI! BYE! All DONE! What's that? NO! Cookie, Kitty, Peas, Chicken/Turkey, Snack, Ball, Nite Nite (and if we are really really lucky, this is followed by her walking over to her crib - it almost gives me a happy heart attack each time).

Stay tuned for more important information. Things are happening around here, and fast. Soon, these Minnesota winters will be happy memories (because isn't everything better in retrospect)?

Ha ha ha ha ha ha HA

Here is today's forecast.

Bitter cold morning with windchills dropping down close to -40 this morning. Partly cloudy, with windchills continuing -25 to -40 throughout the day. Temperatures slowly creep up to zero.

Remember when the lakes were fluid? Remember when Lucy was a baby?

The New Lou

Someone came in last week and stole my cranky baby. I now have a toddler that is fairly content at spending time at home. She plays with her toys. She goes to bed at 7:30pm. She laughs and walks and eats food. I'm hoping this isn't just a stage because I'm really starting to like the new Lucy.

I've taken her off Zyrtec because I think it was affecting her sleep. So far, we are okay because it is, no lie, about zero degrees out right now. Hardly any type of airborne allergen can live in that temperature. I did give her a dose of Zyrtec last week after being off of it for a week due to uncontrollable scratching. But then I noticed Lucy stumbling all over the place. And I thought, maybe I should look up those side effects again (dizziness). And you know what - maybe part of Lucy's problem is that she's been drunk for 16 months.

While you think about that, take a look at the day in the life of Lucy. Eating meat (that was her 'bedtime' snack), eating homemade muffins and bundling up to leave the house. I hate hate hate the bundling up process. I'd document it here but you would either fall asleep from boredom, or kill yourself rather than hear the pathetic drama. And did you all know we are moving to Georgia? Well we are, so take - that - Minnesota, and your toddler hating winters!

Recovery

They say you have to hit rock bottom, before you can start the long road to recovery. I think last week was rock bottom. I had the stomach flu, Lucy had the butt flu. Ken was driving very slowly in a snow storm back from Iowa. In between throwing up in a bowl, I had the joy of changing diarrhea diapers. In between a few hours of sleep, I was up rocking Lucy back to sleep. And the after effects lasted for days and days. We both just didn't feel right most of last week.

And now we've moved to sweet, sweet, recovery. For the first time in 16 months, Lucy is going to bed at 7:30. 7:30. 7:30. And with nary a cry. That means I get almost 3 hours of pure freedom in the evening. I'm ashamed to say I spent most of tonight wastefully watching American Idol. And cleaning up toys and doing laundry and washing dishes and walking around not really sure what to do with my well earned freedom.

So now, three paragraphs into the post, I tell you the most exciting news of all. Lucy is finally walking! For about a week it was half crawling, half walking, but now it's almost 100% toddling around. I'm surprised to see her standing next to me with things in her hands and smiles on her face. She wanders around too, not sure what to do with her freedom, but very happy to have it.

It finally snowed here in Minnesota and that gave us the chance to put Lucy's new Christmas gift to good use. She loved being pulled around - fast.














Stay tuned for videos of the walking wonder.

Video Highlights. And yes we are getting our mo-nays worth out of her Christmas PJ's

As promised, a video of The Lucy Crawl. But first, an explanation and an apology. The video is sideways. I don't have the super duper editing version of Quick Time, which would allow me to rotate my video. I'll get there someday when I feel like waiting to download the file and pay $29.99.

Now, why would you walk when you can speed through life THIS fast on your hands and knees. The other skill not captured on video is when Lucy crawls like this, she can also hold something in her hand. Multi-tasking!



And as an added bonus this evening, I give you not one, but two videos. Lucy, sliding down the stairs. Many hours a day are spent monitoring the stairs. Sorry, but it too will put a crick in your neck. It was either this or no post at all. Yeah, I thought so.

Happy 2007

We all scored from Santa and are happy to report not one gift return! Because isn't that what it's all about anyway? Not having to go back to the mall until the next holiday season?

All the stuff that seemed like a good blog entry lasted too long ago to write about in detail now. But here are the highlights.

Lucy slept the entire way to Atlanta. That was her Christmas present to us, because she hasn't slept like that since. After she got the tubes, she was an angel from heaven for 3 days. Then.

Lucy got the flu in Atlanta, and we were all thinking, what's her problem? Then I got the flu when we got back, and I'm on the phone with Ken asking him to come home form work early because I can't deal! I'm just now getting over it after 6 days. Then.

More molars coming in, so our child has become, what we lovingly call her, Lucifer.

New Years Eve. Bor-ing. Asleep by 10:30.

Tomorrow is Ken's birthday!

That's a quick summary of the past two weeks. Pathetic, I know. But here are some photos to make up for my lack of creative writing this evening.


I was trying to put a caption above each picture, but this website has changed some of it's Html language and I don't know what's going on. So, the following captions should apply.
1st photo: The excitement of Christmas Eve
2nd photo: The crash at the end of a long Christmas day. But isn't this what most of us feel like at some point during the holidays?
3rd photo: Back at home, Lucy enjoys her new 'counter' high chair.

Tube-day

For Lucy's 15 month birthday today, we gave her what every kid her age wants. Tubes! One for each ear!

We were all prepared for doom and gloom. Long screaming car rides to and from the 'surgery center'. Claw marks on our (OK, mostly my) face. Puke on my body and a half listless child laying on the floor whimpering as we let her watch Baby Einstein until the DVD melted.

It all started out just as we had feared, with a 5am wake up cry. I was able to get her back to sleep, although in a position that completely prevented me from gaining another wink before the 7:30am appointment. At 7am I whisked her from her warm cocoon to the warm car in the garage, braced for 30 minutes of screaming in morning traffic with no food, no drink before the morning procedure. But she just sat there. Sat there looking out the window. Putting up no fight at all. And that's pretty much how the entire morning went. Smooth as a Slurpee on a warm summer day. Hardly any crying. We even stopped at Target on the way home to fill her post surgery ear drop prescription. If Santa is watching, and we know he is, Lucy is SO going to score BIG on Christmas morning.

Bad Hair

We've officially entered the baby bad hair days of Minnesota winters. We have no snow, but it's plenty cold and the static cling is unmanageable. The hats and hoods, and naps and barrettes and snot and food and static cling are really taking a toll on Lucy's frock. We haven't found a good solution - yet.


















We put up a Christmas tree, and surprisingly, it's still standing. I thought Lucy would dive into the spectacle and wallow around in the tree sap. We've been fairly vigilant at keeping her away. Now she spends part of her day, broadcasting the word NO! at the top of her lungs - like we yell at her and scream NO! every other word all day long. But, this means she can hear, and she's not going deaf from repeated ear infections and fluid build up - good good news. We go to the ENT on Monday to talk about the possibility of tubes. Oh please Mr. Dr. Doc, take pity on us all (especially Lucy) and put tubes in this poor kids ears. She's been much better lately, but that's because she's on antibiotics ALL the time.

To beat the Christmas crowd, we took Lucy to the, um, Mall on Wednesday and got her picture taken with Santa. As you can see in this picture, Lucy is so much happier these days. She was intrigued with Santa and spent most of her time touching his beard. Another successful Santa picture. I am so proud.

Walking Turds*

The big news to share is Lucy took her first step. There are other things I'll discuss, like the turd I found today on my kitchen floor, but I'll stick with walking for now. Lucy took her first step yesterday at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Atlanta. And then today at home, she took 2 steps. At this rate, she'll be walking by Christmas. Perfect timing for the destruction of tree ornaments. It will be sad to see the crawling go, as Lucy has the most unique crawl of any child I've seen. It always makes people smile. Someday, when I'm feeling ambitious, I'll post a video of it. For right now, enjoy Grandma and her grandkids.
















The Thanksgiving holiday (hold on, I'll get to the turds, be patient) was complete with more Lucy sicknesses and an expensive trip to CVS. We have new antibiotics, inhalers and new antihistamines to add to her medicine cabinet, but I think she is finally on the mend. I honestly think this poor child has had a recurring ear infection for months and I naively blamed her pain on teething. The guilt.
















And finally, the T-U-R-D. Somehow, not one, but two turds found their way out of Lucy's diaper and onto my kitchen floor today. For all I know, there were more and Lucy gobbled them up thinking it was hamburger she threw on the floor! I am not prepared for this. And if you recall, our kitchen floor camouflages everything, so there may be more. I bought new diapers today, more expensive ones with turd flaps. I really hope they work. I never thought I'd be a person who'd have turds on my floor. My house is CLEAN. I don't do floor turds. I can handle poop, and puke and all that other baby stuff just fine. But random turds landing like land mines on my kitchen floor? Please, please, please don't let my child be one of those kids that rips off her diaper and 'plays' in her poop. Next to a child that doesn't sleep (got that), my biggest fear is a poop player.


*This post is a pre-dedication to the much anticipated potty mouth phase.

JUST IN! I took the time (5 whole minutes) to post a video. Here is Lucy today, Wednesday, walking for the first time behind one of her carts.

Gallons of Motrin

Teething, teething, like 4 molars teething AND a DOUBLE EAR INFECTION. Poor lil Luce. I need some drinksssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.