Matt & Andrea Thieman

When Carter turned a year old, I felt pretty good about myself keeping a baby human alive (and well) for that long. A couple of months later when he burned his finger on my hair straightener under my watch, I figured every parent is given a chance to slip up at least once. About a month ago when he ingested Shout while I tended to packing other items for our weekend away, I reminded myself that I need to think my actions through a little bit better. But this morning when Carter chipped his tooth on a bouncy zebra at the park (once again, under my watch), it got me thinking that maybe I’m just not good at this parenting thing.

Yup, that’s right, Carter’s smile is no longer perfect, and I have nobody to blame but myself. Each time he giggles, smiles, or even cries, I’m reminded of how horrible I felt (and still feel) when his head hit that zebra and chips of tooth were left on his lower lip. I figure I’ll feel bad for the next five years until he loses the tooth, but the incident really got me thinking about whether or not we should have another child. I mean, if child protective services were to read this blog, I’m sure they’d be knocking at my door to check in on the little guy on a regular basis, and if I can’t even keep track of one child, how will I ever keep a watchful eye over two?!?

Matt read up on tooth chips in toddlers and he says we’ll need to call the doctor or dentist tomorrow, but there’s a good chance that there isn’t any damage to the permanent tooth or nerves since the chip doesn’t bother Carter at all (he didn’t shed even one tear over the incident) and there hasn’t been any blood. It still hasn’t made me feel better though. I feel just awful about the event.

On a more positive note, we had a nice relaxing weekend. Yesterday morning we went to the farmer’s market and then out to the house to check the electrical work (plumbing is finished now and inspection has been done). Then in the afternoon we got our appliances ordered for the house and found the mirrors we want to put in our master bathroom. This morning I went for a long walk/jog so I could take Carter to the park (which totally backfired), and then we spent the day at the apartment doing laundry, cleaning, and relaxing so we’ll be ready for the work week tomorrow. Matt’s Steelers are playing the Broncos tonight in a preseason game, so Matt is happy. I’m hoping that a good night’s rest will help me to feel a little less guilty about the tooth. I need to keep reminding myself that nobody is perfect, but I can’t help but feel bad that my imperfections are affecting Carter in terrible ways.

Maybe Monday will be a better day…

The framers have come a long way this week and have nearly finished the roof on the house now!  We were surprised this morning when we drove by and realized they worked on the roof yesterday (Saturday).  They must have been trying to make up for the hours they missed on Tuesday when they didn’t work – - I assume because of the heat.  Here are a couple of pictures of the latest stage -

A view from the front.

A view from the back...you can see where our covered deck will be.

This weekend was nice and relaxing. After spending Friday night at the apartment, Carter and I went to Milford on Saturday morning for a play date with my friend Lindsay and her two boys – Conner and Johnny.  Carter got to ride on their mini tractors, eat fresh pear tomatoes, and take a ride around the farm to see the cows and get a little taste of country life.  He had a lot of fun and was so tired that he took a short nap on the short drive to Wilber.

While we were at our play date, Matt went golfing in Crete with his brother Jamee and my dad.  Once done with golfing, he returned to Wilber with Dad and we basically just hung out and relaxed.  Matt got to try out his new ‘birdie balls‘ in the backyard, Carter got to run around the house and down the driveway to retrieve the mail, Ace was free to run wherever he pleased, and I got to enjoy hanging out without worrying about meals or cleaning – except for a few loads of laundry, but Dad even helped with those, so I didn’t even have to do all of them!  It was just a relaxing 24 hours and then we returned home this morning in time to put laundry away, have lunch, and take naps.    This evening we went to Matt’s cousin Derek’s home for dinner and had a great time.  The food was good and the company was fabulous too.  Carter was busy showing off his animal signs, blowing kisses, and chatting it up to show off for the girls, so he seemed to have a good time as well.

On Saturday morning, Carter was reading a book (aka – looking through a book and doing the signs he knows), and I sat down to read it with him.  Turns out he knows the sign for flower and he knows the sign for banana too!  He’s also been very good at trying to say words this weekend.  His newest word is ‘deer’, which he pronounces as ‘dee’ and says over and over again as he points to any animal that resembles a deer on Grandpa’s walls (moose, elk, and caribou are all ‘dee’ to Carter).  He also attempted the word ‘yellow’, which sounded like ‘ello’, but it’s not something he says when we sees the color yellow, so I’m not calling it an official new word yet.  He’s progressing in both sign language and words these days, so we’re very proud of him and are enjoying each new step in his language development. 

Every year we are challenged with a decision of what to do for the first weekend of August since my hometown festival (Czech Days) and my husband’s family reunion (for the Thieman side of his family) fall on the same exact weekend.  And this year we decided to go to Petersburg for Thieman reunion…but not without making a trip to Wilber for a little duck dinner, kolaches, and polka music. 

Thursday evening we got out of Lincoln as fast as we could and made the short trip to Wilber to go to Hotel Wilber for their famous Czech duck dinner – roasted duck, sauerkraut, dumplings with gravy, rye bread, applesauce, and a kolache for dessert.  MMMmmm!!  It was delicious!  And Carter got his first taste of duck that night too – loved it with the applesauce.    After we were done with dinner, we decided to walk up to the town park to let Carter play for a little while before heading home.  On our way back we walked by the hotel again and the little czech dancers were in the beer garden by then dancing to the polka music (the dancers were probably 3-8 years in age…and weren’t drinking beer), so we stopped to let Carter watch.  He was clapping, pointing and dancing for about 10 minutes until we needed to get going.  Our last stop was to pick up fresh kolaches at the Catholic church where the women of the parish baked all day to make 1,200 dozen kolaches (that’s 14,400).  I was expecting to see a bunch of workers still slaving away, so I was shocked when I walked in at 8pm and they were getting ready to close!!!  I remember being at the church until 11pm or 12am finishing up in years past.  They must have gotten a more efficient system figured out.

On Friday, Carter’s daycare was closed, so I stayed home with him.  We went to the plumbing store and I picked out the hardware for our new home that morning and then Matt took the afternoon off so we could head to Petersburg early.  We got to Petersburg around 3:30pm and quickly unloaded the truck and then went golfing with some family.  That night, Pat took care of Carter while Matt and I went for dinner at the Legion and drank a little too much (common for a Thieman reunion).

Saturday was the Annual Dan Thieman Golf Tournament, so we went golfing at 1:30pm that day (which was hot, but not as bad as yesterday or today) while Codi watched Carter during his nap.  After the tournament they had an awards ceremony and then it was off to the reunion at the park.  It was a hot evening, but Carter enjoyed the playground equipment, the food was delicious, and the company was (as usual) excellent.  Fortunately, I got to bed at a decent time that evening and got a good nights rest to make up for the night before. 

Sunday was a nice lazy day.  We left Petersburg after Carter’s nap (around 4pm) and got back to town to check on what was finished on the house on Friday.  They’d finished framing the upstairs and had started to put plywood up.  It’s hard to see from the photo, but the entire basement has been sheeted with plywood.  They’d also started framing the garage.  It was really nice on Thursday evening (which is when they finished framing the main level) to actually be able to walk “into” the house.  I got a feel for how big the rooms will be and could imagine a little better how things will look.  Here’s a picture of the house as of today.  They didn’t get much done with the heat, but they did start putting plywood on the garage.  Since it’s supposed to be so hot this week, I don’t really expect to see much progress on the house…and don’t blame the framers.  I know I wouldn’t want to be out there working!!

Front view with the garage framed with plywood.

On the Carter “front”, I have to admit that I felt like a horrible mother on Friday morning when I had to call the Poison Control Center (and had to google the number because I didn’t have it posted anywhere at home).  As I was trying to get things packed up for the weekend, I set out our laundry detergent and such.  I went off into another room and continued to pack.  When I came back to the laundry supplies pile I had made, I noticed the Shout bottle missing and quickly walked into the living room to find our little boy holding the spray bottle up to his mouth and spraying it inside his mouth!!  A fairly quick call to poison control helped me to calm down as they said the ingredients are pretty mild and to just watch out for a tummy ache.  What a relief, but I still feel horrible for even letting it happen under my watch.

Carter has been using words more frequently within the last week and I think his usage will increase in the weeks to come.  He surprises us sometimes when he says a word that we haven’t really worked on…like ‘cracker’ (pronounced ‘kah-kuh’), or ‘baby’ (pronounced “bebe”).  I also found out that the reason he says beebeebee when he sees a bird is because Matt was saying ‘peep peep peep’ when he’d see a bird with Carter around.  So I guess that explains my confusion.

Daycare was closed again today, so I was at home again with Carter.  We went shopping this morning for some new size 2T pajamas, to the museum right before lunch, and then finalized our plumbing for the house this afternoon – he enjoyed the plumbing store because there were a ton of displays at his level and the girls in the store didn’t care that he would play with them.  Tonight he got another hair cut.  He’s getting much better at sitting for me and allowing me to trim up his ears and neck line, so I’m getting a little better at making it look decent…I think.  I save $12 each time I do it myself, and I guess that’s the important part.

I’m happy this is another four day week.  Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!!