Matt & Andrea Thieman

The ambition we were feeling last week to get a few things done around the house has taken it’s toll in a good way. This last weekend Matt was able to get the exterior of the garage primed, caulked, and painted as well as our little shed. Thank goodness we bought a paint sprayer last year to do the house (which has come in handy a few times so far). He was able to knock the job out in just a couple of days. He also installed a new ceiling fan in our livingroom!! I’ve wanted to get a new one ever since we got married, so I finally just went out and bought one on Saturday. I’m loving it…a big improvement from our clicking 70′s fan. Matt seems to be enjoying it tonight as he plays his new “Tiger Woods Golf” game for the Wii. As he golfs in London via the virtual plug, it feels like the cool breeze he’d be feeling on the actual course. Too bad there is no grass, trees, or sand traps in our livingroom to help the true feeling of being on the course, but then again if he really wants the full effect he’ll have to go to the real course. Oh wait…he wouldn’t get as many eagles, pars, or birdies there…tough call! The game seems pretty cool though, even letting him play against the pros on the weekends and showing real time weather for whichever course he chooses to golf. So, if it’s raining in Augusta, GA when he wants to play, it will be raining the in game. It’s a pretty sweet deal.

As for me, I spent my weekend kind of taking it easy since I had little Carter on my hands. He and I went to the Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning with our neighbor Vicki. We loaded up with the amazing frozen enchiladas, brats, sausage, yellow watermelon, and other random fresh veggies. Then it was back to the house for his nap while I spent time cleaning and such. That evening after I gave him his bath, I thought he felt pretty warm, and he was overly fussy, so I checked his temperature and it turned out to be 100.3. I put him to bed, but he was up again at 8:30. This time his fever was at 100.5. I calmed him down, gave him some Tylenol, and Matt got him back to sleep. At 12:30am he woke up once again and had a fever of 101.2. Deciding that we didn’t want to be in and out of bed all night, we brought Carter to bed with us where he slept fairly well. Unfortunately, that means that I didn’t get very good sleep, but Matt slept like a rock, and apparently Carter is following in his dad’s footsteps with his ability to sleep through nearly anything. In the middle of pumping on Sunday morning, my alarm started going off. Since I hate to stop and start again, I decided to wait for Matt to turn it off while I finished pumping. Because if he didn’t hear it, surely Carter would awaken and fuss for him to get rid of the noise. However, the alarm went off for 15 minutes while I finished pumping and when I went in to turn it off, both of my boys were sleeping soundly. I guess I know now that it’s safe to run the vacuum when Carter’s trying to sleep.

On Sunday, after Matt finished up the painting on the garage, our neighbors Jerry and Vicki invited us over for brats, homemade onion rings and fried okra. Earlier that day Vicki dropped off some peanut butter cake too. We are so spoiled where we live. I mean sure, we have some crappy renters on one side of us (which have started to behave since our cop call), but on the other side of us we have some of the best neighbors in the country. There are a lot of days when I think about how nice it will be to buy a bigger house, but then we have weekends like this last one that just make me want to stay here forever…or at least until Jerry and Vicki leave. But in a few short weeks the dogs will be back inside, and I won’t care who our neighbors are – - I’ll want out!! Ha!

It’s been a while since we’ve posted some pictures of Carter, so here are some to fill you in with his activities…

Aside from chillin’ in the swing in the evenings…

And tugging on Mommy’s hair…

Carter has been busy hanging out on Mommy & Daddy’s bed while Mommy pumps or puts laundry away…

He checks the weather and the outdoor forums with Daddy…

Tries to eat his feet ALL the time…

Relaxes with his new toys…

Is busy rolling around into things like the livingroom coffee table…

Playing in the tub with Grandma Souder’s new bath toy…

Multi-tasks with his laptop and various other toys…

He’s getting good at typing!!

Tries to crawl, but seems to have too much upper arm strength and just pushes himself backward. And as you can tell by his shirt, he’s been eating plenty of carrots!!

Hangs out in his bumbo, playing with toys that are more fun sitting up…

He’s getting curious about the world around him…

And sometimes spends his time just looking super cute so Mommy will smile after a rough day at work…

So, the last couple of weeks have really flown by. So much going on!!

On the last day of July, Matt and I went to Petersburg so we could attend the first bi-annual Henie & Lucille Thieman family reunion. Before the reunion we went golfing with Matt’s cousin Joel and his wife Melissa while Carter hung out with Grandma Thieman (Pat). It just reminded me of how much I dislike golf. Don’t get me wrong…I enjoyed hanging out with Joel and Melissa, but the game of golf is just not my strong suit. After golfing, we went to the reunion. I was pretty bummed that we couldn’t stay longer because I love hanging out with the Thiemans (or any of Matt’s family, for that matter), but poor Mr. Carter was up WAY past his bedtime, and needed to go back to Grandma’s house to get some rest. So, we left the reunion early, put Carter to bed, then hung out with Tod, Andrea, Pat, and Chuck on the patio. It was nice to get to see everyone…wish I could have stayed for the full weekend, but…

Carter and I got up early on August 1st and headed down to Wilber for Czech Days. In years past, Czech Days was always fun for me because I’d get to see all of my old classmates, and catch up with everyone I grew up with. This year was completely different. Turns out I really wasn’t able to do much because I need to pump every three hours, and I didn’t want to put Carter in the sun too much since he’s not 6 months old yet (the magical age at which he can be exposed to sunscreen – even though we’ve already used it on him a few times). Not to mention, Carter only has about two hours of pleasant wakefulness before he needs a nap. I did take Carter to the parade, snagged some kolaches, sang with Mom in the polka mass (while Dad napped with Carter at home), and went to the church breakfast on Sunday morning before heading back home.

To start this last weekend off, Carter had symptoms of a cold on Friday night – runny nose, watery eyes, and a cough, so I knew we’d be dealing with a fussy babe for a day or two. But then he also had signs that maybe we were adding solids too quickly, adding to his misery. So, first things first, we cut back on his solids, which helped clear up those symptoms, but he still had the cold symptoms throughout the weekend. On Sunday evening when we were headed back from Wilber, he was crying inconsolably in his car seat, so Matt pulled over and I got Carter out of his car seat. Not thirty seconds later he puked all over me. I got him calmed down (because he was a little freaked out), put him back in the car seat and as soon as we got home I checked his temp which was 101.3. That night he slept like crap, and Monday morning he still had a temp of 101.4, so I stayed home with him from daycare on Monday. Since his fever didn’t diminish until Monday evening, and he can’t go back to daycare until his fever has been gone for 24 hours, I stayed home with him again on Tuesday. And by Tuesday night I was completely exhausted, ready to go back to work. Carter seemed to be himself at daycare yesterday, but last night he was super fussy. So, I put him to bed at 7:30 and he slept like a rock. Hopefully he’ll be more cheerful tonight.

Aside from getting sick and being fussy, Carter really seems to be enjoying his vocal cords these days, chatting with us (or to himself) more frequently. He’s still enjoying playing in his exersaucer, has taken a new interest in the baby laptop I got him a couple of weeks ago, and will even hang out to listen to a book reading by his mom. He’s also giggling up a storm when we’re able to do something new that’s amusing to him. I’ve found that the newness wears off quickly though. For instance, I played peek-a-boo with him this weekend, and for the first time, it had him giggling every single time I’d do it. For a whole day, he’d laugh at peek-a-boo. The next day, nothing. The game was old hat. I guess this means we have our work cut out for us in order to entertain the little man! He’s also getting more mobile in his crib and can reach up to fiddle with the monitor as well as turn on his nighttime jungle “lights & sounds” toy, which means we’ll be moving the mattress down soon. Before we know it he’ll be standing at the hand rail in the mornings to greet us. Ah, how the time flies by!

Even though Carter was sick, Matt and I still had a pretty eventful weekend. On Friday night we made some jalapeno jelly together. Well, I washed all of the jars up, Matt made the jelly, and it was a team effort to get it in the jars and seal. Turns out we bought the wrong kind of jalapeno plants for our garden (a variety that isn’t hot at all), so we had to buy jalapenos from the store which weren’t even as close to as hot as we’d like them to be. Oh well, maybe next year we’ll get some spicier jalapenos. The jelly still turned out good, so we can’t complain too much.

Saturday morning I decided to get Carter out of the house and take him to the Farmer’s Market here in Lincoln. Boy was it packed!!! We picked up some buffalo wing sauce flavored cheese, some awesome tomatoes that reminded me of the days eating fresh picked tomatoes topped with sugar at my Grandma and Grandpa Souder’s house, a couple of onions, some sweet corn, and some amazing frozen homemade enchiladas that my neighbor recommended. We were only there for a short time, but I think Carter enjoyed it as he seemed to be watching everything going on. Once we got home he went straight down for a nap without fussing…it was perfect.

Matt and I also worked on cleaning the garage a little that day, Matt got the garage trim primed, and then that evening we went to a little wedding celebration for some friends (yay, I didn’t have to make dinner!). By 7:30 we were back home so we could get Carter to bed, and then we walked over to hang out with the neighbors and share some of our jalapeno jelly.

On Sunday morning we shredded all of our zucchini and yellow squash and froze it for our future baking desires (as I was getting really tired of seeing it in the fridge and lying on the dryer). Matt then agreed that he’d pull out the zucchini plants this week because lets face it…we can only handle so much zucchini. I also made a pineapple upside down cake that morning to take to Wilber with us in celebration of my Dad’s birthday (which was on Monday). We were in Wilber by 12:45 that afternoon and had a little surf & turf (rib eye steaks and salmon) for lunch with my parents. It was delicious! I felt so spoiled to not have to make two meals in a row!! Then Matt, Carter, and Grandpa watched golf while Grandma and I got our hair deep conditioned. Once we got home that evening and put Carter to bed, I halfway cleaned out our chest freezer in order to get more breast milk to fit, which basically means I took out the caribou and deer meat that was in there from last fall…forcing Matt to make jerky…forcing Matt to buy a new big dehydrator (I really had to twist his arm on that one). Unfortunately as soon as I moved the breast milk from the fridge freezer to the chest freezer, the chest freezer was full again. I’m going to try to reorganize it within the next couple of weekends, but after that I’m not sure what we’re going to do. There’s just too much milk, and not enough space to store it. We may have to take Pat up on her offer to take her old chest freezer so we’ll have enough space for our fall deer harvest as well as Carter’s first year food supply.

Speaking of Carter’s food supply, I have good news (well, good news for me – and really only me). I’m only 53 bags away from having enough milk stored in the freezer to feed Carter at daycare (3, 5oz, bags a day) through March 1st of next year (his 1st birthday). Yay!!! Let’s just hope the freezer doesn’t break. Ha! Once I’m done with his daycare supply, I’ll start counting down the number of bags we’ll need for him at home and then I’ll be able to stop pumping, but we’ll still be giving him the breast milk benefits (or so that’s what they tell us – that freezing the milk doesn’t affect any of the benefits it has). I think I’m only about two and a half months away from getting about two hours back out of every day.

This weekend we don’t have too much planned. Another semi-productive weekend at home will be just fine with me!