Charlotte Trip (Feb. 14-18)

We visited Charlotte over President's Day weekend. Jodi, Paul, and Gavin also came down for the weekend so the gang was all together.

On Friday, the guys all went to a go-kart track in North Charlotte. They were talking about it for the rest of the weekend so it must have been pretty fun. :)

Meanwhile, Jesper, Gavin and I went over to Stacie's house while Jodi and Mom got ready for the day. Elise and I made boats out of plastic bottles while Ari, Jesper, and Gavin played with the toys. After we were done with the boats, all the women and children walked up to a little pond in a nearby community. We fed the geese and tried (somewhat unsuccessfully) to float the boats, and the children played on the playground for a little while.

On Saturday, Grandma June got Jesper when he woke up. One of my favorite moments of the trip was waking up and finding Jesper, Grandma, and Grandpa in the kitchen making breakfast. Jesper was having a blast sitting on the counter, eating a banana like a big kid, and helping open the biscut tins. :) Another favorite was how Jesper had to say "night night" to Papa every night before bed. He loves his grandparents!

Feeding Gavin....probably my favorite photo series ever. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jodi, Stacie, and I went to Mary-Jo's fabric store later that day. I picked out fabric for a flannel blanket and twin duvet cover for Jesper and Jodi found material for curtains. 

It snowed later that night! We must have brought our Minnesota weather with us. It was perfect snowman-building snow and nearly everyone got into it. It might have been the largest snowman we've ever built.

 

 

We stayed around the house on Sunday. I got a chance to dig through some old pictures. Wow - those were some hairstyles! We need to find a way to digitize all the old photos that my mom and dad have. Some of those pictures are priceless. :)

On Sunday night, Jodi and I made mushroom stroganoff for the whole crew. Robbe and Amy had gotten engaged earlier that week and came over to celebrate with us. We took some family pictures and the kids played together. It was almost exactly how I remember family get togethers when I was little, but viewed through a different lens. It makes me so happy that Jesper can experience something similar!

Valentine's Day

I had Valentine's Day off, but Jesper and I went to his school for his classroom party. The look on Jesper's face when he realized I was going to hang out with him for a little while at his school was priceless. :) It was so fun to see him interact with his classmates and see what his days are like.

The kids all sit around a rug on their special animal at circle time (Jesper sits on the cow). Then the teachers, Christa and Allie, sing an introduction song for each child and they all jump around in the middle of circle at their turn. Jesper did his "Jesper shuffle" - it's a little like a jump and a gallop in one move.

They read books and sang songs and then had free play. All the other kids ran over to the toys, but Jesper played with the garbage can - it had a foot pedal that made the lid open. I should have known that would be most interesting to him - it has a lever. :) After some free time, they gathered back around the circle to hand out out the Valentine's Day candy and then played with balloons.

I have a new appreciation for Christa and Allie. They do a great job with getting the toddlers to listen and follow directions and move on to the next activity.

Butts!! (i.e. Blocks)

Jesper loves "butts". :)

 

Christmas 2012

Jodi, Paul, and Gavin were in town to visit the Brandenburgs and stopped over on Friday. I also met up with them on Sunday for church and to visit our neighbor from Mt. Lake, Lindsey Reddeman. Then we went back to Bruce and Marnee's house for a late lunch and to open presents. Jesper got a really cool 4-wheeler from Paul, Jodi, and Gavin. What a lucky guy! He's still a little nervous about it, but he'll be tearing around our basement on it any day now.

Opening presents Christmas Eve - Jesper got musical instruments!

Golf set (otherwise known as "football!)

 

Josh's parents and brothers couldn't make it up so only Nissa, Brian, Grace, Walker stayed at our house over the holidays. They came up on Christmas Eve and brought Grandma Millie over to our house for a lasagna meal. We opened presents in the evening.

On Christmas morning, Nissa made a delicious egg bake. Josh, however, crawled out of bed and onto the couch with no appetite (he didn't even want coffee!). When the rest of us finished breakfast, he crawled back into bed and stayed there for the rest of the day. Grandma Millie came over again for our Christmas meal of ham, vereniki, and roasted vegetables. We (everybody but Josh) spent the rest of the day relaxing - watching movies, reading, and playing with Jesper. Brian and Nissa left for home the next day.

Christmas Dinner

Walker and Jesper with their digital toys

Reading books

Josh went to the minute clinic the next day and they confirmed that had a virus (but he was negative for the flu - thank goodness). He still stayed in bed most of the day, getting out only for a trip to the clinic and for lunch with my dad and brother. They arrived on Wednesday and were heading down to Mt. Lake to pick up my parents' pickup for Curtis. We opened Ratzlaff family presents when they arrived and then they drove down to Mt. Lake.

Jesper and Papa Ron

More presents! Car track and toy from John and Stacie

Curtis was having a ball with the racetrack and cars that he gave Jesper

Curtis and Jesper watching TV

Lunch at Kramarczuk's with Duane, Darlene, Cari, Seko, and Ezra

Jesper loved Papa Ron's hat

Dad and Curtis drove back up on Friday and we spent the weekend with them. Jesper loved hanging out with his "Papa" and with Curtis. We met my aunt and uncle and my cousin Cari and her family for lunch on Saturday at Kramarczuk's restaurant. They serve vereniki, borscht and other Ukrainian specialties - yum! Later that night we got sushi with my dad and brother.

We had a great time visiting with family over the holiday. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to a healthy and happy new year!

Christmas present - new playroom benches!

House Projects

I decided in November that I needed to try to be more productive in the evenings. As a result, I decided to refinish our basement vanity in November. Here is the finished product. I'm really happy with it and feeling motivated to move on to the next!

The "before" picture is actually in our master bathroom, but it's identical.

Finished product!

Jesper - 20 Months Old

Ok, so I know the normal update is at 18 months, but I was a little behind on these posts. So you get a 20-month-update instead. Jesper's vocabulary is EXPLODING! The pronunciation can be a little suspect, but the intent and consistency is definitely there. Here are some of his new words:

- "hop hop" - what a bunny rabbit says
- "money" - monkey
- "nigh-nigh" - goodnight (also a favorite game of putting his stuffed animals to bed)
- "puppy!" - This one isn't new, but he received a new stuffed animal that looks a lot like Sabi and he absolutely adores it.
- "wa-wa" - water or other liquids
- "see see" - TV
- "football" - Golf
- "hockey" - hockey (Josh is pretty excited about this one)
- "no" - snow
- "yah-yay!" - Hooray
- "bus!" - bus or delivery truck or anything else that might resemble a bus
- "butt" - block

He says a lot more than this list, but I wanted to preserve a sampling of some of his favorites. :) He's also starting to put two words together - "more hotdog" for example.

19 Months Old

 

We kicked the bottle habit in September and he has been a typical picky eater since about that time. I hear that's normal for toddlers, so I try not to be too concerned and just offer him a balanced diet (even if he doesn't necessarily eat it).



Watching Frosty the Snowman with Dad for the first time

Lately, I've been changing him standing up. He really tests my patience during diaper changes and I've found that this is about the only way I can do it without losing my head. Not sure what it is about diaper changes...I feel like I have a lot of patience except in that situation. Anyway, changing him standing up has been working much better.

Cooking with Daddy

Stir, empty, repeat

His new favorite activities are doing puzzles and playing with matchbox cars. He also likes to read "Little Blue Truck Leads the Way". I think cars and trucks (and busses) will be around for a while - he can't get enough of them! He's also learning to jump. It's pretty cute because he only lands them about 60% of the time. But he will stand in one place and just try to jump over and over again.

Jesper is starting to say "no" to things he doesn't want to do, but his automatic response is still "yes" to most things. Let's see how long that lasts. :)

RIP Sabi

Per my last post, Sabi had been having health issues (a torn ACL and seizures).

We started the potassium bromide medication for seizures on Friday after Thanksgiving. He was fine the first day, but as we added more days of medication, he became very confused, uncoordinated, and aggressive. The uncoordination is normal, but it was amplified by his bad leg. He would fall down on the floor and snap at Josh and me if we tried to help him back up. He was also vomiting and peeing in the house.

We went back to the vet in a week and told her that it was not going well. She took his blood to check the bromide levels and said that she would check in later that week.

The vet called a couple days later and said that Sabi's bromide levels were actually about half of what they should be. However, since the medication was affecting him poorly, she didn't think they should increase the dosage. The other medication option for Sabi needed to be monitored closely for its affect on liver levels. Sabi already had elevated liver levels and would need to have his blood checked frequently.

 

 

After considering for another week and watching Sabi's reaction to the regular levels of medication, Josh and I made the very hard decision to put him down. He was not improving, seemed to be in pain, and continued to be aggressive.

 

Sabi was a wonderful dog and we did not want to remember him as he was for the last few weeks. We love you, Sabi! RIP.