The Wasians and the Rest of Us

We are going Linsane

2012-02-24T10:55:00.003-06:00

Sorry, had to give a little shout out to my boy Jeremy Linand thought the title was fitting. By myboy I mean Asian guy who gives dad’s who want their children to be athletes andthose children are part asian so you want to prove to the world that Asian orpart asian kids can be good at sport. Idon’t know if that’s remotely close to a real sentence, but thought I’d writeit anyway, and you get the point. Iconsider myself an Asian in law, and like anybody I get into things that I orsomeone I live with can relate to. So JLin is Asian, I can relate due to being accepted by marriage. J Lin went to Harvard, I went to Simpson. Virtually identical. I played point guard in high school, he playsit in the NBA. We are practically bestfriends.

So. . .remember the last post where I said we aretired? We still are tired if you werewondering, possibly going Linsane. Workhas only recently began to let up for me and let’s just say Kinsley has spunkto her. sleeping in 30 min incrementssome nights spunk. So until we get theearth to work on a modified 28 hr day system, sleep is more scarce than we wishit was. Knocking on wood or any othermaterial available, but it could be worse. While she likes to party like Charlie Sheen at night (minus all theillegal and immoral aspects that tie into that of course) she is prettychill. Sometimes that’s almost moremaddening though where people come over and see her and think she’s easy becausejust just likes to be held and look at faces. We should probably do follow up calls with said people at 4 am whenKinsley has been up every 30 min, lela’s going insane and I am responding ingrunts or nothing at all due to tiredness and my lack of ability to wake up(lela really is happy when I do that also btw). The other thing is due to the aforementioned cuddliness it’s really hardto not be in love with Kinsley.

I am going to knock on wood one last time for this post andjust know it covers all remaining things I say. Emma has been really good with Kinsley and the whole life alteringsituation. If Kinsley is crying, emmawill give her elephant (aka emma’s prized possession). When Emma gets up in the morning shegenerally first wants to see Kinsley (who is sleeping due to her Sheenesqueparties). Emma seems to be able to play by herself better too, she’ll come homeand while one of us makes dinner, she’ll occupy herself. Sure we still have tantrums and every once inawhile she’ll hit Kinsley’s feet for attention, but she seems to be embracingbig sisterhood. Emma also changed roomsat daycare and seems to be enjoying the new challenge. I was encouraged to hear that while her roomis 75% boys, Emma doesn’t take any crap from any of them. Watch out world, this is a feisty one, and watch out boys you don't want to mess this one. Emma’s had her ABC’s down for awhile and is gettingpretty good at being able to count things rather than just throwing out random numbers if you ask herhow many of something there is. We mayhave another accountant on our hands. . .you know if accounting was aboutliking math and numbers like is the stereotype, even though 99% of accountantsdon’t like either. I am the 1% though,hopefully nobody protests outside our door anytime soon because of it. . Emma did have a lovely day about a week agowhere she decided it was 1987 and having slits cut in your shirt is cool. Let’s keep the scissors away folks!

Anyway, here are some pics of the kids and a visit from the Rumery's

philisophical

Kinsley watching the Iowa/NW game

What its like

2012-01-18T23:42:00.000-06:00

People had been giving us the look for awhile. The "you have no idea what its like" look in reference to doubling our little people count. We knew it would be different. We remembered the good old days after Emma joined our house when sleep was special and there weren't a ton of words coming out of the little one, just poop and yelling. But we thought, eh it wasn't so bad, right? Well it is. And it isn't. First of all, Kinsley is starting to look almost identical to Emma more and more each day (minus the previously mentioned rug that Emma had that Kins couldn't quite replicate). But it is just as hard as we (or at least I) expected. This time around I am at a very busy point in the year (no not doing taxes for the 100th time:) and oh yeah there is the Emma factor. Overall Emma has been better than I expected - I would knock on wood right now if some were near but I am too tired to go find some (even though its under my feet). But her emotions are still running rampant and at any moment we could literally have a 30 minute meltdown for very little reason. So there is that new variability. then there is the newborn factor. They are just so much more variable than toddlers and I think I forgot. you literally don't know if they are going to sleep for the next 4 hrs or get up in 10 min. you don't know if that lovely noise you heard is a shart - a term which I am not afraid to use where appropriate- or just pure gas. So Emma volatility + baby variability + mommy being tired = fear by daddy. Not like I may not live fear, but the kind of fear where I too am worn out from consecutive nights of little sleep and don't think I can handle a major event. Cooper feels the same way, he is looking at me while I type this with uncertainty in his eyes.

At the same time I forgot how much fun it is to have a little person who doesn't almost throw out your back to pick up, you will lay on you and not move for more than 2 seconds. How weird it is to have a little being who really just wants their diaper changed and to be swaddled. And again Emma has been good. She is obsessed with Kinsley in a good way. Emma got a little bunny when Kinsley was born , but insists that its Kinsley's bunny and tries to put it in Kins's face when she is sleeping. Someday we will explain to Emma what a suffocation risk is, but for now we'll just enjoy it. She also wants to hold Kinsley a lot, which I think is a good sign. and when Emma is talking to Kinsley in what a teacher would call an outside voice, Kinsley doesn't budge because she's used to it already. And Emma overall has gotten a bit more affectionate which isn't something I will complain about. So really we are blessed. I am still scared but blessed.

Lela seems to be recovering well from everything. Pinterest is her obsession this time around, so there's a 50/50 chance that Lela will forgo going back to work to be a chef who exclusively cooks Pinterest meals and that I will have to cut back in hours to work on the new projects that pinterest proclaims are so cute and neat. Thanks Pinterest.

I don't think I posted either but we've had some big developments in recent months. while grandpa and grandma were here in December Emma decided it was time to work on some potty training. she's been doing really well since and even has pooping down. by down I mean it is our new favorite stall tactic. if I had a dollar for every minute Emma was allegedly going poop, I could go to starbucks for a month. Wait, maybe I should do that, good thought to self. Anyway, Emma also moved to a big girl bed. Its so weird to go in there and see her in this giant bed, but due to her ever increasing stuffed animal population it was necessary. Not kidding, we are up to about 10 friends in bed, with some nights where their presence is requested around Emma's head to the point where she is no longer visible. She's our little hoarder. But she likes the bed. Knock on wood but it all seemed to go well, we tried to be cautious to not throw too much change into the mix around Kinsley's arrival, but some of it just happened and it seems to be going relatively well. Which is scary. yes i live in constant fear. In a good way.

Here are a few pics from our professional session and one from Kinsley's birth. I will upload more later, but am too tired and scared.

Kinsley Hope

2012-01-11T19:29:00.002-06:00

So I am sure I shared the birth story for Emma, so here goesfor Kinsley. I was saddened it didn’t interruptwatching the national championship game or iowa’s bowl game or any other gamethat I wish I hadn’t spent time watching. Maybe I need to watch less sports if it is bringing so muchdissatisfaction to my life. Anyway, it all started around 4:30 with me turning offmy alarm and deciding Tuesday wasn’t a working out kind of day. Coincidentally, I made of similar decision onthe day of Emma’s birth because I had to take some physical exam and wouldn’t be able to eat thatmorning. Lela got up and did work out,because she’s crazy like that. On herway back from the gym, Lela elected to treat herself to a pumpkin spice lattefrom Sbux, something she rarely does. Ithink that woke miss Kinsley up. Aftershowering, Lela claimed that she didn’t feel quite right. When I probed her what she meant it, itsounded like the convo we had with on Emma’s day of birth. Lela said “sort of but not really.” I was pretty sure at that point we werehaving a baby that day, but we went along our merry way because lela doubtedit. Basically the moral of that story is that I am really smart, and Lela should listen to me all the time and never question me. We both went to work, I called Lelawho still wasn’t convinced, but about 8:45 Lela called me that she was on herway home because she didn’t feel well and I should “work from home for a bit tosee.” I packed up after sending an emailor two about Hawkeye football (you don’t want to leave people hanging importantabout things), and ran home. As I arrivedit was clear it was coming. To me thatmeant we probably would get to the hospital around 9:45, Lela would labor for afew hours and about 2 we would get to meet our little girl. I was wrong. . .

On the drive it was very apparent that lela’s contractionswere a minute apart or so, which for those of you with children that meansclose. So I sped up some, noting thatLela wasn’t a fan of life. We pulled into the drop off (9:50), I walked Lela in (who collapsed to the floor so theyforwent the usual paper work they for some reason make birthing moms do whenthey get there) ran to the car, noted that valet parking had like 10 cars init, squeeled into a parking spot and ran in. I ran into the room and was told she was about to start pushing. WHAAAAT? What happened to the first labor that was allegedly fast but took 8 hrs?????? Lela pushed once, rolled onto her back,pushed twice and it was over. 10:01. I am still processing thecraziness that that was. Lela was a champ,shocker I know.

Kinsley was in perfect shape. She was 7 lbs 8 oz, 18 inches tall, soshorter and chubbier than Emma. She hadless hair than Emma (who had a frickin rug that made my balding head jealous)but was perfect. It was just nuts to bearriving at home less than an hour from when the baby was born. Not a revelation here to anyone but it wasalso crazy to hold such a little person after being used to wrestling aroundwith a crazy 2.5 yr old.

Emma did well with meeting the baby. She hit a point after a few minutes where Ithink she realized that the baby was real and got quiet. But she moved on and her favorite thingbecame sitting on Mommy’s lap while mommy held Kinsley, which is as safe as itsounds! As the pictures show, Emma isdoing well with everything and wants tohold Kinsley as much as possible. Grandpa and Grandma came down to play with her, she got to open somepresents (some for her, some for Kins) so its basically a 2^nd Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, I didn’t post about ourChristmas. It was very quiet this yearbecause we stuck to OP due to Lela’s state of being (as in being really pregnant). Wet facetimed with the cousins, which was agreat alternative to just calling (and apparently a shout out to the evilempire that is Apple), but it wasn’t the same without watching all the kids openpresents and have fun together. Emmaenjoyed opening presents this year, though she was painfully meticulous, as init may have taken her 3 hrs to open presents if it weren’t for prodding by impatient daddy. Anyway I haven’t uploaded all those pics justyet but will have more later. Here arethe first pics of the 2 together.

What we're thankful for

2011-12-14T21:15:00.001-06:00

I know, I know, I am a few weeks late on this post. I hadn't gotten a chance to talk about in addition to all the other stuff in our lives though, and its not like Christmas is a time to not be thankful. Here's the details of our last 6 or so weeks.

We headed up to Iowa the day before thanksgiving. Mom, Lela and My sister went shopping at Jordan Creek that day because they didn't want to miss the Iowa/Nebraska game on black Friday.... Bad idea. I prefer to pretend the game didn't happen. But if it were to have happened and Iowa were to not have showed up for most of the game making a miserable 3 hrs on black Thursday, then it would have been their fault for jinxing them by changing a holiday tradition. Since the game never happened, won't blame them for anything. Anyway, we had a great time with the fam. Emma has 2 older cousins who are unbelievably great to her. They love to play with her, are extremely patient with her so it is really a blessing to just watch the 3 of them interact. Plus there is the whole Emma is entertained and worn out from trying to keep up so we get some chill time factor. My mom also has about 20 activities for the kids to do, so Emma had a blast. To boot, on our way back my parents bought us all tickets to Disney on Ice. Emma didn't know a lot of the characters because when it comes to tv she has the attention span of a gnat, but she thought it was great. We came back feeling very blessed and sad we weren't going to be able to go back for Christmas to enjoy that with everybody. It will be too close to baby #2's arrival, so we will have to have a facetime Christmas party with the fam.

We are starting to get close to the arrival of baby #2. So very exciting. So very exhausting. I am scrooge, I know but it just seems like there is so much going on with that and Christmas that sometimes I feel like we need to slow it down and get frustrated with life. Oh and in the time honored tradition of things I do when Lela is pregnant I changed jobs. It was a great opportunity and what I wanted to do with my life when I grow up, so I couldn't pass. Its scary to do that though and it adds that much more going on with life, so life has been crazy at our house! Anyway, we are excited for our little miss to join us.

In preparation for that event we moved Emma to a big girl bed. She looks so tiny in it, but she loves it. Knocking on wood. Its sort of a pain to put her to bed because reading on her bed creates a situation where she can be extra lively in bed, because like her mommy she likes to procrastinate on the whole going to sleep thing. Random semi related note - Emma has started requesting that I sing you are my sunshine immediately followed by the Iowa Fight song ("The Go Hawkeye song"). Again clearly Emma is turning a blind eye to the state of Iowa athletics the past month and how depressing it is. I am glad we are raising a sunshine pumper, pun intended.

Finally, last weekend we went to see Santa. A local Hallmark had him and I think we are the only ones who go the memo (or email) as there was nobody there to see Santa. No line sounds great in theory, but it would have been helpful to have some examples of what to do with Santa. Tears were appearing, it wasn't pretty. On top of it this Santa clearly had an agenda, selling Elves on the shelf. So while he was pushing his product on us (even though I think I told him 10 times that we were going to do it next year when there as a chance Emma might slightly understand), Emma wanted far far away. Finally they suggested that Lela sit on his lap and have Emma sit on her. A little creepy yes, but it was worth a try. Then Lela claims he put his hand on her back, creepier. Then they suggested I sit on his lap too. We entered a new weird level of creepiness. Anyway, we got a few pics at the bottom. A few nights later Lela's work had a Christmas party with Santa. Emma and I waited in line for awhile (10 min extra due to a poop break), and when we got there Emma was only a little afraid of Santa. As we were the last ones there, and this Santa was a good Santa rather than a creepy, Elf on the Shelf peddling Santa, he talked Emma into sitting on his lap and even giving him a kiss. So lesson learned, a good Santa won't creep you out and won't sell you stuff, he'll just talk your daughter into sitting on his lap and giving him a kiss, which somehow isn't creepy.

Emma with her hair did

Emma and Julia working hard

Emma's firs tractor ride. With no cab. In November. In Iowa. Wait, did that really happen?

Cookie decorating time

These kids endured many pictures to get to go to Disney on Ice

Pregnant Mommy

See, I wasn't making up his stuff

Buy this, its awesome

Fall with Emma

2011-11-02T14:05:00.001-05:00

Sigh. I am getting progressively worse about blogging. Sometimes blogging is much harder than one would think, to me at least. Blogging has somewhat of an emotional investment to it, one that I can’t totally explain, but one that explains why to be frank I haven’t just not felt like blogging the last month or so, but rather the thought of blogging almost made me nauseous. I can probably point to a few things that may or may not cause that, but at the end of the day it is what it is, but hopefully now I am back. By the way, that paragraph was in no way meant to show emotion, because I am a man and above emotions.

Emma is a really great kid. Every morning we wake up not necessarily excited about going to work, or watching the Hawkeyes (seriously, Minnesota and ISU???), or getting lawn work done. We wake up excited because we can’t wait to see what Emma does. Will she make me sing the Iowa Fight Song 40 times or 50 (not even kidding and her daddy is very proud)? Will she run around the entire neighborhood on Halloween? Will she tell a joke that she doesn’t know is a joke but we die laughing? I can’t express how exciting every day is now. Every day she seems to be more fun than before, and its very easy to ignore that we have been told she is one of the more strong willed kids in daycare and that she fights us more than a lot of kids would because the fun far outweighs the not fun.

Emma has been very into a few things among others. She loves planes, hot air balloons, the moon and school buses. We live near an area where there are a lot of hot air balloons, a small executive airport and within a half mile of k-12 of BV West schools, so she gets to see 3 of those a lot, plus the moon is there wherever you go so those are point out to us frequently. It also turns parent's minds to mush. As I drive to work and see more school buses, I think in my head "Schooooool Bussss!!!!!". Only its just me and 810 radio in the car (Border Patrol style), so yeah, a little weird.

We did the whole pumpkin patch thing again this year. Again it was warm and everything is dried out because Kansas is turning into a desert. It was a short lived visit. We got the required photo and got out of there. This post is not at all jaded against the pumpkin patch visit that is required for parenting young children

The weekend before Halloween was very unique in the land of Huebner. Lela went to Charlotte to visit a friend who has an infant. Emma went to Grandpa and Grandma’s house to have some “the world revolves around me” time. and I had man time at our house to hang out and do man stuff. When I say man stuff, it no longer means what it used to. Back in the day, man time meant waking up at 9, grabbing a breakfast sandwich at mcD’s, lounging around, spending 5-10 min doing something constructive, then lounging something more with trips to chipotle in there somewhere too. Now man time means I get up no later than 7, maybe treat myself to a bagel I bought the day before, get to work on various projects around the house as soon as possible, take a break that is the length of a movie and then get after some more projects that I haven’t had time to do most weekends. Granted, there is still plenty of trips to chipotle, but they are lessened by the requirement to finish the leftovers that are in the fridge and time requirements for projects. So yeah, life is different now! Anyway, I was proud I got various projects done while the ladies were gone, including a couple painting projects which were exponentially easier without having to worry about keeping a little wasian out of the way. and while a day or 2 of solitude is a good thing for me, I was ready for the craziness that our house is many days to return. Also, it’s much easier to get over Iowa losing when I have Lela and Emma around than when the way I have to get over it is by staining a chair. And they lost. . . .not that I am bitter or anything.

And then there is Halloween. Emma was a lamb. She loved it. And we loved it, it was our first real Halloween where Emma sort of understood. Emma went to lela’s work and quickly learned that accumulating candy is fun. It was however warm there, but Emma refused to take off her “hat.” It was also unseasonably warm for trick or treating around the neighborhood, so Emma got pretty warm. Not from sitting in her wagon as we had thought, but from literally running through the neighborhood. We went to walk to a house of Lela’s coworker that is about a half mile away. Emma ran there. I thought she would be tired from that and ride home, quietly into the night. Nope. She ran all the way home, then would not go to bed as she wanted to hand out candy. She’s a crazy kid. As Ludacris once said, “She gets it from her momma” or something like that. I don’t think he was talking about energy for running either, but we’ll use it in that context.

Anyway, here are some lovely pics

Last Trip to Deanna Rose for the year

Random bath pose

Its amazingly entertaining to watch Emma eat bananas

Pumpking patch time

Happy Halloween from our favorite lamb!

Its a. . .

2011-09-21T00:55:00.000-05:00

So we found out awhile ago, but I haven't been on the blogging boat for various reasons. As many of you know by now, we have having yet another crazy wasian gangsta princess. I don't think Lela gets this much, but whenever I tell people I get the "oh, that's so sad for you Mike" look. Maybe its the look most guys get, maybe its moreso me because I am extra masculine (I am being somewhat sarcastic), but it strikes me as a little odd as I reflect on it. Really, have you guys met Emma? I mean she is the greatest little kid ever, regardless of gender. Maybe I am not sad in the least because I don't know what I am missing, I quite frankly can't imagine life with a little boy. Maybe its because a part of me looks forward to protectiong my daughters from evil boys (I am less kidding than you probably think). Maybe its because I now never have to make the decision of when to allow a little boy to play tackle football. Maybe its because there is less risk of being hit with in the face with urine while changing a diaper. Maybe its because someday I dream of having a quiet afternoon watching non-Hawkeye games in the fall as the girls go shopping (note, when the Hawkeyes play, all members of the family watch, gender neutral style). Regardless, of which of those are more or less relevant, I am just as excited about having another girl as I would have been having a boy. Its probably a reflection on my shallowness, but because of my propensity to care a little too much about sports, the main thing that girls don't really do that boys do is football. And thanks to Title IX, that arguably gives a wasian Huebner girl a better chance at a full right athletic scholarship to the University of Iowa than a boy. And yes, I fully acknowledge that I am 35,000 steps ahead of myself and that as Lela reads this she is rolling her eyes.

Emma is a funny kid, there are very few things she can't cheer us up from. They have been learning about sizes at daycare and Emma's favorite thing she has learned from that is "Big Truck" only Tr sounds like K, and well. . you can imagine what it sounds like as we drive down the road. . .Emma also now loves to ask what things are, which is amusing now, but I am sure someday the why's might wear on us a bit:) it also appears that Emma has pretty good eyesight (knocking on wood). She sees the most small minute things and amazes us. She also loves hot air balloons, and there are a fair amount of them periodically floating around South OP. One night one even landed in the little park in our HOA and Emma was in heaven. That was 2 weeks ago and Emma still talks about that night.

Here's a few pics, I will keep up better in the coming weeks. Below Emma is sporting her first hawkeye jersey of 2011, courtesy of Grandma.

Role reversal?

Wasians for the Cure

2011-08-18T09:07:00.001-05:00

Normally my posts are relatively light, but this one may not be. So if you aren’t in a heavy mode, you might want to check out msnbc and read about how the Kardashian wedding is coming along or whatever. Kim is getting married, right? Anyway, a little over a year ago, our family was struck by some unfortunate news: my mom had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Mom went through various rounds of chemo and radiation starting last July, and finished all that in Jan/Feb. it appears as though they have rid her of the cancer, which is great. The previous sentence about mom going through those things is not to diminish how hard it is to go through chemo or radiation, but moreso how seamlessly Mom made it through. Not to say she wasn’t a bit more tired, or that she didn’t lose her hair, or that at times it noticeably worried her or dad but at the same time she was still the same person in most ways she always has been. My mom is the person who will sit and play games with Emma for hours (not exaggerating), who can’t find most things without being driven, but always knows where the nearest mall is, who buys Emma endless clothes and books, including a lot of Hawkeye gear (which we like a lot of course), and who sings songs with her grandkids no matter where she is or how it may embarrass other parties around. That’s not all, but some of the high points and in many ways mom is the linchpin that brings and holds our family together. My mom never wanted to be known as Cheryl, breast cancer survivor, but rather Cheryl, grandma (among other things), with the breast cancer beating being something she did on the side. That’s probably why it was all relatively seamless, she wouldn’t let herself change in a good way.

So Kansas City has a Race for the Cure, similar to many other cities. Lela and I have participated in it previously and always thought it was a great event, and a great cause. We thought it would be great to have Mom come down and participate in it with Lela, so she could experience the celebration it is and also participate in her first race of any kind (my mom runs quite a bit btw, so the running wasn’t something abnormal for her, just hadn’t participated in a race). With many things we do for others or attend, we expect it to be moving and to a certain amount it is. With other things you think it might be, but you don’t consciously think about it, and then when you are there the gravity hits you and it is amazing. For us this was in that category. Maybe because we had participated in the event previously and thought it was cool. Maybe it was because we were running around the day before utilizing the grandparent babysitting system. Regardless it was extremely moving to be there, to get to share the experience with Mom and fight back tears at various points for no particular reason other than the aforementioned general gravity, and we were so happy it worked out. Oh and by the way we were blessed not only with Mom and Dad’s presence but a day where it was 65 degrees at race time, something that doesn’t often happen in KC in august! It was great to share it all with my mom, crazy grandma who sings endless songs, knows where Von Maur is in relation to our house within 10 min of us moving, loves the Hawkeyes and her grandchildren and who happened to do a number on breast cancer.

You may be asking where the title came from. I saw a group of Asians who had t-shirts “Asians for the Cure,” which cracked me up, so I thought Emma will likely want to start Wasians for the Cure. As a side note, the Asians surprising weren’t taking pictures of anything and didn’t have cameras around their necks.

Straight Cash Homie

Some other musings and I couldn’t resist adding a subtitle. Emma has developed some more interesting habits in the past few weeks. She found this dollar bill from a purse she got and has been obsessed with it since. She walks around saying “My cash” all the time. I have tried to teach her how to say “straight cash homie” ala Randy Moss, but she has refused to this point. For some reason Lela also thinks I shouldn’t do that. Weird. Emma also has become obsessed with laying cloths and blankets on things. For example she spent about a half an hour the other night laying a wash cloth on a basketball and putting her cash on top and then kicking the ball. Um, okay. Coincidentally, this was just after testing the Elmo Loves Potty dvd with Emma. IN theory such a dvd sounds like a good idea, since the only thing Emma likes is Elmo. However, Emma decided most of the time that she just wanted to practice climbing over and over. She did dance to a song by Elmo and Grover, but mostly thus far the dvd has just resulted in me having Potty songs in my head all day and no real results on the potty end of the world.

Two weekends ago was one of several first for Emma. We tried out a little kids soccer “practice” to see how she liked it. Emma was in what I will call a special mood that morning, so it wasn’t fully enjoyable. Plus it was 80+ degrees in the room she was in. . . Emma really enjoyed the race at the beginning, to the point that for 90% of the class she just wanted to run around the room rather than trying any of the stuff the kids were doing. I got a pretty good workout chasing her though I guess. That afternoon we went to the lake for emma’s first trip on a boat with some friends who have a boat. Due to the soccer fun we had that morning, we were a bit nervous. It was also 100 degrees near the lake so we were anticipating her not only being a cranky mess, but sweating profusely while it happened. We were very pleasantly surprised to find out that emma loved the lake. She spent hours in the water, and didn’t really have a sad moment the whole time, so no “fun” stories to tell on that front thankfully.

Some candids of emma showing her Elmo shirt (courtesy of Grandma of course)

Emma's first soccer "practice". Girl's got skilllllzzzz, that is when she isn't running away from everyone!

Emma likes to wear my belts, not a bad look!

Pre-race picture

I asked someone who was about 80 years old and didn't understand how to run our camera to take this. The looks on everyone's faces are priceless though!

Much better, with Union Station in the background even

Birthday stuff

2011-07-29T13:41:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the delay on posting. The week of Emma’s bday was a whirlwind, a good whirlwind, but crazy nonetheless. The house invasion began on Wednesday night, with the Johnson clan coming down. Thursday the ladies split off and went shopping while we hung out. Nothing overly exciting, other than it was hot and this summer . Friday we enjoyed a morning of pictures with the grandparents and grandkids. A little note on Emma. You know how some kids are the types who when they see the camera, they turn to the camera and cheese it up? Emma is NOT that child. The lady taking pictures didn’t grasp this and had Emma sitting the longest of the grandkids, so that process was lovely. Saturday morning we headed to wonderscope with the kids. They seemed to have fun, so it was a great way to start the day.

So Saturday afternoon was the party. Let me tell you something about my wife. She takes this stuff very seriously, she wants to put her touch on it and make it special. Even though in 25 years when Emma has just started dating (I am a firm believer that if you say something enough, it will become reality) she isn’t going to remember what happened at her 2nd birthday, it’s important to Lela that everything is perfect. Year 1 bday party wasn’t so seamless, I’ll be honest. We were literally running around until the moment people walked in, putting things up after people arrived, it was a cluster. This year was much better. Lela also likes to put her touch on everything, and as she is a phenomenal cook and baker, she likes to make things for various events. Side note, Lela doesn’t think she is very good and generally thinks her food only tastes okay, but as a foodie wannabe, I can tell you she makes a lot of really good food. So the point I am trying to get at is we got all the food made that Lela wanted to make, and it all seemed to taste good, without the insane scramble that was year 1. Did I mention we had about 10 kids ages 1-5 there? I think when you become a parent, you get dulled to the craziness that is kids, because it didn’t seem nearly as insane as you would think. Of course when I spent 3 hrs cleaning up all the toys and dishes on Sunday, it probably also proved that it was crazy, and we just didn’t notice. Anyway, it was a great party, it was great to share it with friends and family and get to see all the kiddos play and allow the adults to mingle. We love to get everyone who has and will continue to mean a lot to us and to Emma together in one place, and missed those who are in that category who couldn’t be there.

Tuesday we had Emma’s 2 yr appt. Everything is going great, per the doc. Emma has shot up to around the 75th percentile for both height and weight, which the doc attributed to a likely growth spurt in recent weeks. After 2 min of being around Emma, without me saying a word, the doctor went into her “here’s how to potty train, change to a big girl etc with a strong willed/stubborn child.” So it’s that obvious, huh? Of course 90% of the time Emma is the happiest, most loving little girl ever, but she also has very strong opinions. Like about how she wants string cheese when she walks in the house and how I am not supposed to open it. Or how she wants to enter the bath. Or how we aren’t allowed to help her with something unless we have asked and she decides she doesn’t want to do it. Oh and on the hugging thing, should I be concerned that toward the end of the party Emma went around to all the adult guys in the room and hugged them. Then she reluctantly went to the women and did the same after having to be prodded? Not cool Emma, not cool.

This summer I also got back into soccer a lot. Other than intramural 3 on 3 in college, I haven’t played soccer a lick in my life, so my obsession is probably odd. But ever since I moved in with random guys in Iowa City in 2002 and got up at 3 am several morning with one roommate to watch the US world cup matches in Korea, I have loved it. This has grown some over the years and I loved having the women’s world cup this summer. The matches were mostly midday, so if I went to the Sprint Gym over lunch or around midday, I could watch something other than Sportscenter repeats, it was great. Plus there is that whole Abby Wambach miracle goal stuff and my overlooking the whole “they are playing for something bigger” garbage about how we should be happy for the Japanese. Emma’s part Korean, go read about what the Japanese have done to the Koreans over the years, we are disallowed to be okay with anything Japanese. . besides our Honda’s that are in the garage I am also kidding about most of that, though I was literally mad about the US losing for about 4 days. I need some Hawkeye football to get here so I can be mad about a 19 year old losing a game and ruining my life for 6 days rather than 25 year old women, you know, much more important. Anyway, I am now obsessed with getting Emma in soccer lessons. I think it’s a great sport that translates well into all other sports. She likes kicking the ball okay now, and what is likely going to happen is the fact that I would love for her to be the Wasian Mia Hamm is that she will not like soccer at all and will make me go to dance recitals all the time, something I have nightmares of from having a sister. No, I am not dramatic at all, those things were like monthly (in reality probably once a year, but that seems too frequent to a 10 yr old) and they never even had snacks there, of course I have nightmares. . .. I will have to post once she gets going how soccer is going. Anyway, that’s a random musings paragraph, but I wanted to get it in.

Oh yeah and then there’s that whole last post I put up. So the baby is due to arrive Jan 16. The accountant in us thinks, hey, if you came 17 days early it wouldn’t be bad as then we could get the tax break and get all the insurance this year. The Dad in me thinks, this needs to happen after Jan 5 or so, so the child can celebrate his/her bday at school. I always felt bad for the Christmas break birthdays, because their half birthdays are in the summer so they get hosed often times, plus there is the whole overlap with Christmas thing. Well maybe I didn’t care back then because sympathy wasn’t a strong point for an adolescent Mike, but because it could now have implications on my child clearly its important Anyway, Lela is doing all right for all who have asked. She’s been squeamish at every meal, never to the point of throwing up (tmi and I don’t care) but enough where no meal goes fully enjoyed. Lela also likes to pretend she is not pregnant and fights going to bed and getting enough rest. We are now somewhat the opposite of other families as Emma now requests her bed and her mom won’t go to it. We are excited about the new addition (for some reason saying that makes me think of the band New Edition from the 90s), we find out Aug 30 the gender and my prediction is another girl,. . .who I will try to make into the next Mia Hamm, but we’ll see!

Water table time

Picture time before some Oklahoma Joe's

Julia understands pictures better than Emma. Oh and we were enjoying the Family Feud.

Wonderscope pics

The cake. Kudos to Barb's Kolache Bakery!

Chaos ensued.

I think this says how Emma felt about pics

Costco

2011-07-21T13:50:00.002-05:00

We'll have a post about Emma's bday in a few days. So Emma and I were at Costco the other day. I am one of those people that enjoys Costco, I think they have made me one of their minions. I love get really excited when I find a shirt there as its always reasonable and for some reason nicer. I love buying milk there because its cheaper, even if those cartons make you spill part of the time. The samples can be a nice side item as well. Anyway, Emma and I had a nice conversation. We decided that its nice for parents that the carts have 2 seats, in case parents have 2 children who want to ride. We also decided that its irrelevant to the Huebners because 1) Emma no longer believes in riding in carts, only pushing them or walking beside them and 2) we currently only have 1 wasian who could ride in a cart anyway. As a side note, I bet you didn’t notice the change in title at the top of the page. .. . see below

Independence Day weekend with the Huebners

2011-07-05T00:31:00.001-05:00

So this whole Independence Day weekend thing isn't for Emma. We have made her watch a lot of Ricky Stanzi, the most patriotic Hawkeye since Nile Kinnick (see link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlU0GQgooWM), but Emma is at times rebellious. It all started last year when Emma and I headed up to NYC to enjoy the 4th with Lela and we thought, it was NYC, it was crazy insane hot, it was clearly an anomaly. . . well after this year I am beginning to wonder.

It all started Friday July 1. Lela and I were getting a head start on the weekend and took the day off to try to get various things we haven't been able to get done around the house. Around 3 we got the call. Apparently Emma had decided to revisit lunch after nap, so we needed to go pick her up. I went to pick her up and she was running around the room laughing. Ah, lunch may not have agreed with her, she'll be good to go for the weekend. Let's just say various things didn't agree with her for the next 6 or 7 hrs. Lovely way to start the weekend. Saturday Emma was a bit under the weather, but mostly okay. Sunday I got whatever she had had, followed by lela getting it on monday. Emma had clearly decided she was going to infiltrate Independence Day weekend and distract us. Doesn't she know that Will Smith made a movie about defending this holiday from aliens when we were in high school? That rednecks everywhere live for this holiday???? Okay, so maybe that's not a good argument.

The thing is, we still had a good weekend. When you are laying in bed wanting to die there is nothing better than hearing "Daddeeeeeeeee" followed by emma climbing on top of you and jumping on you. Usually that is followed by more nausea and wanting to die, but that's irrelevant. Or when Lela is sick, getting to go to Walmart on the 4th and getting to interact with said rednecks. I know lela feels the same way since she literally crawled over to Emma's room while I put Emma to bed when she was sick.

Emma is also excited to have a new cousin, Jaxon Gregory Johnson. He joined us on June 30, so he has his own month and won't add to the long list of July bdays!

Here's the main pic from the weekend, of Emma who decided she wanted to carry the basket in walmart. Please note the PJ outfit, as I dressed her and decided I didn't want to get her out of her PJ's. Emma picked the shoes that clearly match. I think it helped us to fit right in with the locals. . .

Happy Father's day to me

2011-06-21T10:14:00.000-05:00

Most people who blog about families seem to be females. Maybe its because women are more expressive and like to talk about their families and remember details and all that stuff. Maybe its because men are outside being rugged and mowing and stuff like that when their wives blog, who knows. And yes I am fully aware that I just made a comment that is very much a stereotype, but then again many stereotypes are stereotypes because more often than not they are true. I didn’t choose to be obsessed with whether my lawn is the perfect length with perfectly straight diagonal mowing lines or to secretly die a little inside every time something I grill something and it doesn’t turn out perfectly. Lela didn’t choose to love All Clad and Le Creuset or be happy when I get those things for her for various holiday or to think that immersing emma in pink is the greatest thing ever. These things just organically happened. Anyway, the point I was getting at was every blog I see was how awesome of a dad the husband is, etc because it was written by the wife. So I am going to congratulate myself with a happy father’s day blog entry to myself.

It was a great day. Well really weekend. I think they should change it to Father’s weekend. One day isn’t enough to be able to say “you can’t say anything about what I just did because its Father’s day, you have to be nice to me and ignore any wrongdoing,” it should at the very least be a weekend. And by weekend I mean starting Friday am, not just the days you don’t work. Once we get everybody adjusted to thinking of it that way we can begin talks about a full week. I have learned this expansive technique from my niece, Julia. Julia doesn’t have a birthday she has a birth month, and every year that seems to get longer. She turned five a few months ago and I am pretty sure by the age of 11 we will just celebrate Julia’s b-day will have become a B-11-month-thing. It’s really a well-played plan. This is why we need to listen to kids, they can teach us things. Hopefully my sarcasm in most of that paragraph came through so I don’t sound like too much of a self centered a-hole.

So yeah, Father’s weekend, I don’t normally do a detailed run down of festivities because I usually forget 95% of the important details and it becomes really boring, but here goes. We hit up the OP farmer’s market for the first time this year. We love the OP farmer’s market, it is the perfect size. Not one of those farmers markets where there are 2 things but also not like the River Market farmers market where it’s a 30 min ordeal to get just one thing. And then that evening Lela made us Linguine with clams. Delish. I am glad I married a good cook, even if it just perpetuates the aforementioned stereotypes or if it makes it so I have to run to 18 grocery stores a week because some grocery stores have better versions of various things. Sunday we started off with church, and our pastor, Dan, agrees with me on the expansion of father’s day as we are apparently doing a 3 week series on dads. See my expansion theory is catching on already. Anyway, for some reason getting to church every Sunday is a scramble. It always happens, I feel like every Sunday is going to be better, but its not. On this particular Sunday we were planning on having some homemade Korean BBQ with our homegrown bibb lettuce for lunch. Everybody knows that in addition to pork belly and lettuce you obviously need rice for Korean bbq. . .except when you forget and your wife has to remind you 3 times that morning to get the rice ready and set the rice cooker to start while you are at church (when you live in a wasian household you have rice cookers and they have timers). . .and then rather than setting the timer you just start the rice cooking. Did I mention that Asians are very particular about their rice not being over cooked and that cooking rice in our rice cooker for 2.5 hrs could overcook the rice? It’s a good thing it was father’s day so as lela had red flames in her eyes I could say, “it’s a good thing its father’s day so you can’t be mad at me.” Again, expansion of Father’s day could only be a good thing. So after a lovely Korean BBQ lunch, I was treated to a lovely professional massage, not to shabby. After some pool time (to be discussed later), we headed to Blue Koi, to cap off a very Asian day. Except Blue Koi wasn’t open. . .but luckily some random person had the same plan to treat her husband for fathers day. As discussed in the previous post, people talk to me if I don’t know them, so of course she signals for me to roll down my window. And she says something to the effect of “we are going to Red snapper, you should too.” So we did. But we didn’t sit with them because that would be weird. But it was a good end to an Asiany Father’s day that will someday be known as father’s weekend.

So the weekend before my mom treated us to a zoo and water weekend in Omaha to celebrate her bday. She shares a bday with Emma, and Jill is 9 months prego, so she figured this would be the best time to celebrate. So anyway, that Friday we headed to Omaha, a trip which thanks to a lovely overturned trucked was an extra hour or so. But we got there. Emma thought that it was awesome that we were all sleeping in the same room, to the point where she stayed up til 11. We prepared for a rough day at the zoo. . .but somehow emma was good to go on her little sleep. And it was pretty much the perfect zoo day, the weather was surreal it was so good and all the kids had a great time. Julia and jacoby are extremely good to emma too, so that makes it even more funny and easy for a weekend like that. The hotel we were staying at also had an indoor water park, so after we got back from the zoo we headed down there. We had a good time, even emma enjoyed it (again more later). That night we even got our first night out to the movies since emma joined us just under 2 years ago. After meeting up with one of my college friends and her family for some lovely Vietnamese, we headed back to KC, both tired but having had our fill of fun. Thanks Grandma!

Emma isn’t a water kid. She gets it from me probably. Some kids loves baths, always have and think they are great always. Some kids are like fish, you put them in their bathing suit and give them a body of water than they run in. Emma isn’t one of those kids. She’s okay in the water, she loves transporting water, and pouring it or doing water table type activities. But as far as being in it, she’s sort of Meh about it. At the water park it took her a half hour to warm up to the idea of playing in water. After we showed her some of the fun stuff she gradually warmed up to it and had a good time. When we go to the HOA pool Emma generally takes at least 15 minutes to decide she wants to do more than lean on us and watch the other kids. After she gets going she will play in it and again she loves water table type activities, but she just isn’t a kid who thinks it’s the greatest thing ever and runs into it like crazy. Probably a bit similar to a young red headed boy I used to know. Sorry Emma!

Here are some recent pics of the Wasian and some of the events in random order

Random park pics

Love it when she gets a head of steam going

Why me

2011-06-08T15:23:00.002-05:00

With alarming frequency, for some reason random people tell me things. I have no clue why. More than a few people I am now friends with have said I looked mean or scary or like a prick when they first encountered me, so it’s not like I am some guy who could live around the corner type. So as stated in the previous blog, Lela and I went to Chicago a few weeks ago. I really enjoy going to larger cities, I actually enjoy taking mass transit and getting to feel a little like it would to live in the city. Lela and I have lived in KC or Denver, and both times we were in the ‘burbs which means we drove a lot and didn’t do the mass transit deal. Coincidentally about 4 months after moving from Denver they finished the light rail about a 4 min walk from my last apartment, and taking the light rail would have been much more pleasurable than my 45 min commute downtown. Not that I am bitter or anything.

Anyway, when you take mass transit you encounter interesting people. We were staying outside the loop in Chicago, so we ended up taking buses quite a bit more, which almost seems to bring in more “unique” persons. It was rainy and crazy cool our first day –think 47 degrees, mist and a wife who is threatening to throw me in a very cold Lake Michigan because she didn’t want a cold vacation. So we are sitting on a bus after a lovely meal and a man, who appeared to be an older business professional, turns to me and has the following interaction

Random dude, “You know why it’s so rainy this spring, don’t you?”

Me, “Um, no”

Random dude, “it’s because they are killing the rainforests in South America. I have been there, its all becoming farm land and that makes it so the rainforests can’t contain that water content and it comes up here.”

Me (internally) – weird I thought it had something to do with La Nina or any number of other variables, but apparently just one thing is causing it

Me “interesting, thanks”

Then the guy walks off the bus and everyone starts laughing. First of all I want to state that after our church did a documentary series (what I called church heaven because I got to make lela watch documentaries with me because it was what God wanted us to do) and one week was about Environmental Stewardship, which had us watch “An Inconvenient Truth.” Though that movie is admittedly one sided, we came away from watching it with a strong feeling that we needed to actively be better stewards of our environment by wasting less and doing more to support environmental efforts. Watch the movie, it will change how you think about not recycling, wasting gas or various other things(stepping of my soap box). Anyway, while deforestation could have an effect on it raining in Chicago in may, its just weird why people tell me these things. Coincidentally during another cab ride in Chicago a few years ago, I was given a dissertation by my cabbie about how to create sustainable mini communities after Armageddon hits. Then there is the time when I was asked in a ghetto gas station in Denver if I thought Aurora housing prices could keep pace with the other suburbs when the housing boom was in effect. Not remotely kidding, there are many more instances

So the real reason you read this is for the star of the show, Emma. A few weeks ago, lela and I discussed how we should get some animal crackers for Emma. They seemed like easy to grab snacks that weren’t insanely bad for her and something she might like. This is like saying that Apple thought by creating the iPhone a few years back they might sell a few phones. We created a monster. Emma loves playing with them. She loves eating them. Rarely an hour goes by where we don’t see our Wasian princess look at us, shrug her shoulders and say “cackers?????”. Tantrums have occurred for 20 min time span because Emma wants 5 crackers and we only will give her 2. Oh the animal crackers and the joy they have brought to our lives.

The next post will have some pictures, but right now I don’t think we have any that haven’t been posted.

A few of our favorite things

2011-06-01T10:51:00.001-05:00

Emma is a funny kid. A lot of these things I have previously mentioned, but I thought it would be fun to mention a few of Emma’s favorite things

1) Emma has become increasingly concerned with the whereabouts of everybody. If you leave a room, Emma will same something about you followed by “go”. She especially constantly wants to know where lela is. For example, we went to Iowa for her cousins’, Julia and Jacoby’s bday celebration. So with 10+ hrs of car time, Emma got used to all of us being in the car together. When I went to take Emma to daycare she asked about 30 times in her 3 min drive to daycare “mommy go?” its pretty funny the first 5 times at least, someday we will teach miss emma that if she asked continuously the answer doesn’t change

2) Emma’s favorite foods to this point – virtually anything Mexican or Korean. The girl likes her spice, if her face is red and she is chugging water its almost as if she feels challenged and eats more. She is off and on for all types of fruit, for a while she will eat something nonstop and the next week she won’t touch it. Emma has become enamored with dipping as of late, though it often morphs into using food as a different form of spoon, rather than eating it.

3) Puzzles. Emma loves them. It’s not always the same ones every day, but rarely a day goes by that she doesn’t spend time with her puzzles at home. At daycare if she doesn’t have one in hand within 20 seconds of walking in she is less than happy.

4) Jumping and bouncing on everything is her favorite past time. If you put a thick blanket on the floor emma will let herself fall into it about 30 times. If you put the girl on a mattress she will bounce up and down. If you put her to bed she will bounce her head for at least 20 min. its just how she rolls.

5) Emma doesn’t like tv, but likes Elmo. If you ask her what her favorite animal is, its elmo. I guess Elmo is sort of an animal, so her opinion is not completely unfounded, right? She also enjoys saying the sounds that various animals say. I have taped a few sesame streets and she will watch the “Elmo’s World” portion, but gets mad at the parts where Elmo isn’t involved.

Anyway, that’s not by any means a full list, just seems to be what emma is generally into lately. We have had a busy few months We of course had mothers day in there, Emma gave Lela a Panini press for making among other things make quesadilla’s that emma loves. We went up to the IA for Julia and Jacoby’s bday. We all had a good time up there and if you ever see the video of the gift opening, emma is in almost the entire thing. Emma wasn’t worried about the wrap or any of that, but seemed to notice that toys were being pushed off to the side and she decided she was going to play with each of them.
A few weeks ago we took our first Emma-less trip and went to Chicago for a few days. I think Emma did all right as she went to Grandpa and Grandma’s, aka the land where there is a million toys and people play with me from the second I wake up til the second I go to bed. Even though we knew she was in good hands and having fun, we obviously missed our little princess to death.

We have also noted the coming of toddlerhood. We used to think that toddlerhood meant a temper tantrum once a week or so when Emma would be hungry or something. We were wrong. Toddlerhood has become a battle of wills at any and all times. Some days Emma will fight everything. Some days she’ll go along her merry way and not fight anything. It’s the uncertainty that’s the biggest fun as we can’t see it coming. I know, shocking that Lela and I would have a strong willed child. She is still fun most of the time and still loves to laugh, but she’s now like the raptors in Jurassic park, testing every fence until she figures out how to overcome it. That’s my requisite movie reference for the day. Go Hawks.

Some Easter pics. Emma wasn't being uber cooperative, so they are action pics.

Emma playing at the Johnsons

Picture time with the kids. Jacoby got tired of smiling after 500 pictures, so he had to hold his smile with his hands below. I can relate buddy.

Note the black eye. I look pretty BA, right? Unfortunately I wasn't defending my families honor or something cool, but ran into someone playing bball.

Emma's many faces

Even if I was a cheerleader, I would dunk on them.

Lela and I at Frontera Grill. Thank you Rick Bayless, it was divine.

Architecture boat tour. I am a nerd and could have spent all week doing architecture tours, but apparently that's not cool.

Gilt Bar on our last night

The view of navy pier from our room. Of course this was the 15 min window where it wasn't foggy, but what are you going to do!

The Musical Event!

2011-04-13T10:38:00.001-05:00

The Huebner house has been extra fun/crazy the last few weeks. A few weeks ago Grandpa and Grandma came into town. As usual they came bearing many clothes and toys. Emma was very gleeful of course, who would ever complain about nonstop interaction! This also leads to Emma taking epic naps, which Then last weekend the Engebretsons returned the favor of a few months ago and made their way to KC from Charlotte. In order to commemorate their arrival, we first of course went to Oklahoma Joe’s. Bobbie and Dylan joined us to add to the fun. That’s why this web post is a collaborative arrangement, sort of like when Grey’s anatomy and Private Practice have a collaborative event. I don’t even really watch either of those shows, but I do know that Grey’s had a musical event a few weeks ago. Lela was watching it and pointed out various parts, all of which were unintentionally comical. What a terrible idea. So to commemorate that musical event, at various points over the weekend we all broke out into song to properly take advantage of the situation. Okay so I made that part up, but could you imagine if we broke out in song periodically that weekend? It would have likely been as awesome as that episode of Greys. Sorry, random, I went from collaborating to musical events, my mind is odd, I know. When we arrived back at our lovely abode, after the kids went to bed, Josh filled us in on various facts about beer, how to pour it, etc. Sometimes I feel like I go to Wikipedia a lot to find out weird tidbits and feel nerdy. I think Josh doesn’t even have to go to Wikipedia, he just knows them. See pic of josh appropriately pouring whatever beer it was we had. After staying up entirely too late that night, we met back up at Deanna Rose. As Emma gets older, it is becoming more apparent how great of a treasure that place really is. Problem being emma is struggling with transition. Which means every animal was the greatest animal in the world and she never wanted to leave it so we had multiple minitantrums. But once we got to the next animal Emma was good to go and loved them, sometimes a little too much. And the cycle continued. It was like 90 degrees that day and I was smart enough to wear a black shirt. That and because I am the person who is appointed to carry 3 bags at all times are why they pay me the big bucks. After a night out on the town it was time for bed. We re-united for some First Watch Sunday. There was a 20 min wait (is there ever not a wait????) so the kids took turns running up and down the sidewalk. Sounds really not fun, but it was great, the kids loved it and it wore them down in a good way. Kids are clearly the epitomy of it doesn’t cost anything to have fun. The Engebretson left that evening, we were both tired and sad.

Emma has had an explosion of words in the past month or so. I posted this on facebook but for those of you who aren’t on fb, aren’t fb fans or just love the story, I need to tell this wonderful story . About 3 weeks ago I taught Emma to say Hawkeye. A few days later when she saw a tigerhawk to say it. A day or so after that I put Emma in a Hawkeye shirt and sent her off to daycare. When we arrived at daycare I asked Emma what was on her shirt and she said “HOOOOOOCCCKEEYYYYYEE”. Apparently that wasn’t the end of that. Emma continued saying that over and over all day. Eventually all the other kids were saying the same thing over and over. Emma is a saint, clearly! I was such a proud dad when I heard about it.

Emma of course has said many other words, I don’t think we fully grasp all the words she knows at this point. Another word she learned at D Rose is what turkeys say and it is one of the cuter events ever to hear her say “Gobba gobba gobba”. Her most recent thing to say over and over and over is momeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. I know it melts lela and emma loves saying that. She also enjoyed her time around Bobbie as she says “bobbiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeee” from time to time also!

Here are the pics from the big weekend. No pics of the grandparents visit, Emma was too busy playing with them to have time for pics apparently!

Yes, we got rid the Wasian finally!

Let's work on pound also

Jack does not yet know he got conned into holding lip stick. . .

Emma lounging on our favorite Royals fan

This was the stage for the weekend, look at our performers!

Jack and Dylan showing Emma how to jump. emma is not yet so daring.

Josh teaching class about how to pour this type of beer.

Grandpa would be proud that Emma picked the green tractor. . .

The infamous turkey

Feeding the goats. Bobbie came prepared, she was the MVP of Deanna Rose and the goat station for sure.

It was hard to get an actual pic of Dylan's face, he was going gangsta with his hat

Dylan, watch out that goat is eyeing you. . .

Hey Asian kid, I am Wasian, why don't you get off my back and let me roll at my own pace.

Emma and Dylan thought these things were pretty neat while Jack was on the wagon ride

Hallmark card photo opp! Looking for the prairie dogs

Came home Saturday to find Ashley reading the kids books. I think they were disappointed that we ruined the fun.

Emma wasn't being overly cooperative about the photo opps at First Watch

Dylan - 'Dude, this girl is crazy'

And time for sleep, the KC kids showed Jack how to party!

I need a Doctor

2011-03-29T07:07:00.001-05:00

Sorry, just felt like titling the blog in honor of Dr Dre's more recent song (I don't know if its the most recent because I don't listen to anything but sports talk radio). I am currently flunking the blogging class I know. So our dog, Cooper, has had a problem since we started showing our previous house. He chews on his tail during the day when we are gone, apparently he developed seperation anxiety while people were coming through our previous house and couldn't shake it. So he sort of looks like a shelter dog, and after trying different pills the vet and I decided to put him in the cone of shame. If you have seen Up, you know what I mean. So every day when we leave for work I put Cooper in the cone of shame. Why am I telling you this? Well I am figuratively putting myself in the cone of shame for creating seperation anxiety in others. FIGURATIVELY, which means nothing will really happen because I could be fired or mocked or just look insane if I put an actual cone on my head like a dog.

So our daughter Emma. Yeah, she's a crazy Wasian mofo. This begins every day between 12am and 5am (insert beeping from 24 with Jack Bauer voice). At some time almost every night between those times Emma wakes up and begins banging her head or her feet while saying "oh, oh, oh, oh." Sounds cute, and is once in awhile, but for the most part its just a goofy thing she does that wakes us up! Oh and she begins every night in similar fashion, usually doing it for about 30 min after we lay her down. She is really good about going to bed, so we won't complain, we just find it interesting that our daughter likes to bang her head for over an hour a day. I like to imagine she is practicing headers for the University of Iowa women's soccer team, but that likely isn't the case.

Emma's new favorite phrase is, "no, no, no." I think she learned it from us and Cooper and it started with something she would say to Cooper. But its developed into something she says often, whether she means it or not. There are new words every day it seems, with the most important one coming last weekend. I finally taught Emma to say "Hawkeye" whenever she sees a tigerhawk. It was a big day in our lives, there was much rejoicing. We have officially started educating her that she is going to be a Hawkeye. She will have to endure much Wildcat or Jayhawk or Mizzou talk in her life, so she needs to be prepared to defend herself and her people.

Emma also loves adventure. She loves being on my shoulders and swinging around. While doing so she may love to grab my ears which is, um, interesting (see below). She loves climbing on peoples backs or other things that she shouldn't be climbing on. Emma continues with her ornery ways, she will look at us with a little smirk and then run and do something she isn't supposed to. Its so hard not to laugh sometimes, sometimes not so much, like when she does this in public and then flails on the floor screaming when we won't let her do whatever it is she wants to do. Not embarrassing at all.

Anyway, that's an update for now, I will try to post again within a week as in not wait 5-6 weeks. Go Hawks!

Time to bust out the Spring clothes!

Emma eating pictures never get old

Emma's V-day gear courtesty of Grandma and Grandpa

Picture time doesn't work out so well these days

Also, morning bedhead pics never get old!

So so long

2011-02-18T14:18:00.000-06:00

Okay, we are back on board. Sorry to all 5 of the blog followers, this time of year is generally a bit hectic. No, I am not doing taxes because Lela and I don’t do taxes, not that we haven’t ever been asked that. . .Where do I start, its been awhile! Well Emma had her 18 mo appt. She’s doing great, she’s down around 50% for height and weight, so she’s a lean, mean kimchi machine. Emma is showing more and more personality. That’s a parental way of saying she’s getting a bit of orneriness to her. 90% of the time she’s the same Emma, laughing and playing and doing whatever any happy, obedient girl would do. But now there is another 10% where she gets a look on her face like,”let’s see if I can get away with this. . .” for example when I go to pick her up from daycare a few times she has been just playing, having a good time. But when she sees me she runs for this little table and tries to climb on it, laughing the entire way. Hmmm, who could she have gotten this from? Not her mello, perfect child of a dad (past or present tense, you pick). Anyway, she’s still a fun little girl. She still will play with blocks or a puzzle for 20 min at a time. But now she just keeps us on our toes a bit more.

We made a nice little weekend trip to Charlotte to visit friends Josh, Kelly and Jack. Lela and Kelly are old friends, and Josh can generally follow my odd sense of humor, so it was a good time. It was also during the dead of this year’s terrible January so it was nice to get some warm weather in. We hit up some teppanyaki, a children’s museum (see pics below) and enjoyed some nice weather. Coincidentally, we got back on Sunday and snowmageddon came in the middle of the week, so I guess we timed it right? That was the worst we have seen it here in KC, literally couldn’t get out of our driveway because the street wasn’t cleared. Emma was getting cabin fever, so we rushed out the first chance we got. By Emma I mean all of the Huebners, taking shifts while all being at home trying to work is not such a good time. Since we are both busy this time of year NOT DOING TAXES we couldn’t just take the days off to play. Hopefully now we are done with the hard part of winter, the last 2 winters have been rough by KC standards! Yesterday was the first day Emma has gotten outside to play at daycare in awhile and the difference was very noticeable. She was more wore out yet more happy. So clearly it’ll be nice to have spring type weather here finally!

My mom and dad also stopped down on their way to Phoenix. Emma loves it when they come. Basically it means that she has someone to play with her the entire time she is awake. It means that story time at night is 45 minutes long (and that everyone on the main floor can hear it, ahem). So basically Gpa/Gma time is heavenly.

We got Emma bball hoop for Christmas. I have been working on her game with her. Really right now she is the Dikembe Mutombo of to the toddler world. What does that mean you ask? It means she Dunks on them. The 10 people who remember the Dikembe mutombo 90s video game commercial or remember how the only think mutombo could do is block shots or dunk know what I am talking about. That reference is so abstract that I couldn’t even find a youtube video of it, even after researching for 30 min. Not that I would spend 30 min researching such a thing

Okay, that’s all for now, I will keep up more. I promise.

A few pics of Emma and coops. Emma likes to harass Cooper (like stand on him, pull his ears, etc), he is pretty good natured about it. But if he starts to follow her around she gets mad at him. Its a classic love/hate relationship.

Emma and jack going for a walk

Emma's first slide experience. Someone forgot to mention to me that its not quite Mike sized. . ..

Emma driving the boat at the children's museum

They had this little grocery station. Emma grabbed all the raisins as you could see below. Emma likes to maintain good regularity, don't worry about it.

Dude, lay off, that's mine!

Picking corn, grandpa huebner style

Jack pushing Emma on the train while Emma tries to eat some tennis balls

Come on ride the train (yep, had to give a shout out to the Q City DJ's)

Emma doesn't understand hugging boys. That's a good thing:) Also, Josh is wearing a hideous shirt.

Who knew sitting on a box could be so fun!

I Dunk on them!

Sporting the new V-day outfit courtesy of grandpa and grandma

Pumpkin muffins, one of Emma's fav's

Emma working off some calories while eating

I wonder who Emma got her "Put everything into my mouth at once" technique from. . .

Emma's Gameday prep

2011-01-07T09:48:00.000-06:00

You don't become a Hawkeye fan, you are born a Hawkeye fan, sometimes you just don't know it at first. Well Emma will know it, thanks to her parents being fanatic about it and her grandparents providing a continuous supply of gear. You can take the Wasian out of the Hawkeye state, but you can't take the Hawkeyes out of the Wasian. Here's her gameday prep for the Insight Bowl.

I laugh at you Gary Pinkel and your silly visor

Whole lotta stuff

2011-01-04T10:41:00.002-06:00

Wow, a lot has happened since I last blogged. Everyone knows holiday time is crazy busy so here’s my stab at ours.

It all started with Emma’s daycare Christmas party. Apparently toddler daycare parties generally go as follows: 1) You rush around on a Friday to get off work early so you can get there by 3 or whenever it starts. 2) You then stand there awkwardly with several other parents watching your children eat food. By food I mean they put fruit and cookies in front of your child and wonder which they will eat. .. 3) You stand awkwardly for awhile longer while your child continues to eat.4) you have a gift opening. In our case this means books and so rather than just buying your own child a book you buy a book that someone else gets and hope that everyone in the room has the same taste in books – random side note, I may have come home from Walmart with a $2.50 book. . .which said “$2.50” in big letters on the front of the book, which apparently is a cheap, crappy book. . .anyway we didn’t take that one for the exchange-5) after the gift opening your child already begins to sugar crash and is bed before 6pm. Oh and if you don’t go, even though you didn’t miss anything, your child is that child sitting there with no parents and that has to leave after everyone, so its lose-lose. But hey, we had a nice long evening to ourselves I guess!

Fast forward a week. Inevitably a snow storm is approaching the Midwest and we are trying to figure out when the best time to travel would be. I don’t remember a year since we moved to KC that this wasn’t the case. At least we don’t have to worry about flights I guess. This year we guessed right and only hit about 45 min of snow on the drive home. One bonus of traveling north is there’s a higher likelihood of having a white Christmas. Cooper loves it. He could romp in the snow for hours. We also gave Emma her first real taste of snow, she enjoyed it. The first day we were back it was perfect, no wind, fresh snow, 25 degrees. Anyway, we had a great time in Alden, Emma obviously doesn’t totally get the whole Christmas deal yet. Her favorite part of the whole weekend was walking up and down the hallway at the grandparents and taking magnets off the fridge. It’s the little things. Outside of naptime with grandpa (a notorious rocker) and walking around with grandma as she shows her the ropes. Of course Emma also loves playing with and watching her cousins too, as always we were reminded of our blessings during that time.

Got back to the OP Sunday evening. Emma literally cried from the time we entered Missouri until the time we crossed into Kansas at which time she fell asleep. We crossed into KS about 15 min before arriving home btw, yeah good times. The next day we were driving home from running an errand to see a hawk swooping down to get kill (not kidding) but getting clipped by a truck with Missouri plates. At this point you are likely asking yourself why you care about this. Well this is why – Iowa was playing Mizzou on Tuesday night! So we clearly have properly trained Emma to dislike Mizzou and we were worried that the hawk incident was a precursor for the following night in a bad way. Instead the Hawks faught back and made us all proud. Again, you might not care, but when you have to stay up past bed time to watch your team play a local team, its nice when they come out with a win. Especially when you like to talk crap all the time leading up to the game and the opposing fan based doesn’t understand the concept of only talking smack before the game because real fans know you don’t talk after because the losing teams fans are still upset about the loss. Did I mention I get a bit overly passionate about things and believe there are strong rules to fanhood? Or that Emma’s daycare teacher is a mizzou fan and thus I had Emma wearing hawkeye gear almost every day leading up to the game? Anyway, I digress.

This is where “vacation” began. That brings me to the definition of vacation. Lela’s definition = time when you aren’t at work but you try to get a list of things done that would normally take 2 weeks in 4 days, ignoring that you have a toddler around. Mike’s definition = time when you aren’t at work when you lay around and watch football. Anyway, you know how that one ends. We got a fair amount done. I painted Emma’s room the same color as her room in our previous house (its ridiculous how much it costs to pay the builder to do a different color and to paint in non flat sheen). I survived. I really dislike painting, but its nice to have it done. Emma boycotted naps during that time because she wasn’t in her room so she went to bed early NY eve. This translated into a nice little NYE for us. Lela cooked a great meal, we watched a movie while drinking wine, we even watched the clock strike 12, though we didn’t intend to stay up that late. I felt so old and sophisticated, sitting and eating a quiet meal at 8pm, since normally we are slinging food around at 5:30 while Emma laughs and plays and decides if she will eat anything but bread and pasta. Not that I would trade it for anything, but it was a nice change of pace.

We did a bunch of other things and then had the day of bdaymuch of a martyr. . . Oh and Emma got her first hair cut. It was turning into a bit of straggly mullet so it was nice to help her class up the show and even it out. Sounds like Emma did great. I wouldn't know because I was stuck in a room painting. . . Anyway Sunday afternoon we had 2 bday parties at the same time, about 25 min from each other, so it was a very filled day of cake and lots of other kids’ toys to play with. Emma likes to go into whoever’s house and pick up toys and just begin playing. Luckily, no one objected at either of the bday parties, it was great to see Latham and Clara as all the adult guest, but alas no pictures, we were all pic’ed out so no pics of such events. Oh and happy bday Clara and Latham!!

Daycare party

Emma preparing to brave the elements

Grandpa, the nap master

Christmas time!

First Haircut!

Classy lady

Christmas Party

2010-12-14T12:32:00.000-06:00

HOld on a second, I have to go on a rant about Christmas parties. I want to precede my comments by acknowledging that I am a scrooge when it comes to these things and openly embrace that and these opinions are mine and mine alone and are not necessarily shared by lela. I really don't like Christmas parties. Lela and I were previously cursed as Deloitte and PwC always had their christmas parties in completely different places on the same night (both in denver and in KC). So what that generally led to was us going to one of the two christmas parties fairly early, and being there with one of two groups - 1) the people who are nerdy (even for accountants) who don't understand you don't show up when the party starts and 2) the people who were trying to get a head start and who's sole purpose was to get smashed only they weren't smashed enough yet to be entertaining, only drinking heavily enough to remind you of the Fieldhouse parking lot on game days before they closed it down (Hawkeye fans, you know what I mean). So we would stand there awkwardly with said parties and just as people started to show up, we would have to leave so we would be able to make the other one. Oh and did I mention that generally we would either miss the food at the first party, or not think it was worthy of eating and wait for the second party which was always a mistake?

So we drive the half hour to the other one (again, never close) and we show up to the second party, and every one is inevitably in their spot. Food is generally gone, and drinks are waning. People are generally either wasted to the point where they are annoying (not entertaining) to talk to or if they are more sober they are in the process of starting to make their way to the door. I don't know how this works based on how the first parties always seemed to work, but it always seemed to work this way. So we have various awkward conversations and eventually go home. Oh and all of this was after Lela see sawed about which dress to buy/wear and whether it looked good after spending hours shopping for it. Not to mention the fact we didn't have kids so childcare was not an issue.

So anyway, yeah, i generally hate Christmas parties. Sprint luckily has mostly done away with them an we simply have a potluck at work. Big fan of that. And now, ATI had another decent plan. Sunday early evening, kids are invited, business casual rather than cocktail attire. At a place that is approximately 5 min from our house. So basically it was the heaven of christmas parties in my opinion. We were obviously worried that Emma would boycott naps that day or just decide she is bored, but she was perfect. She got a little annoyed with her dress as she tripped over it some, but not enough to warrant more than a wimper. Food was decent and we were even there to eat it! So word to the wise, schedule christmas parties on Sunday's, allow kids, and make it near our house. Thanks.

I will now do what annoys lela to no end, post a bunch of similar pictures. In this case I think she will approve as it gives a bit of the story of Emma and her dress and all of them were decent also!

Chocolate cheerios

2010-12-07T09:11:00.001-06:00

Chocolate cheerios

I need a minute to complain and sulk here. Our Hawkeyes have let us down. We were all pumped for a good to great season and ended with 7-5. I have spent many nights not able to eat or sleep, just lying awake wondering why oh why. And Emma has gone on a weekend nap strike just to show she doesn’t tolerate this kind of season. But, many of our problems were solved one day as we walked through Costco and saw this. . . .

We didn’t buy any at the time, as there weren’t any samples and we have a strict policy against buying things we don’t know that we like from costco, but the seed was planted. I soon found myself in the Walmart cereal isle grabbing the first box I could find and when I got it home, after Emma went to bed. . . Heaven. Emma has not yet been allowed to try it, Honey Nut Cherrios are her drug of choice, she likely would refuse all food if she ever got Chocolate Cheerios. . . Seriously, it can operate as breakfast, as a snack, as a dessert, if I were a single guy, it would likely also be dinner on several occasions a week.

Anyway, I digress. We have been relatively busy, with the holidays and all that lately. Emma’s favorite word continues to be “Mine”. She doesn’t yet really understand that word, apparently it’s a word said frequently by her classmates at daycare, so to Emma its just a word she uses when she wants something that’s in your hands. She is quite the monger (made up term we have in our house for being a beggar, but more fun than that word). If you have HN Cheerios or a pumpkin muffin (which is one of lela’s excellent, not so bad for you goods) or any other tasty treat, emma will follow you around saying “Mine, Mine, Mine” like the bird on Up until you relinquish some. Its hard to resist, but at that point she is clearly mongering (good use of the term, eh?). Emma no longer walks places, she generally runs, which is interesting. She is obsessed with Cooper, her favorite word is “dah” which she especially says when he is around, but also uses for any 4 legged animal. Emma had great fun playing with her cousins over tgiving break, we didn’t get any pics of them playing, but generally every toy imaginable was on the floor by the end of the day. . .good times. She also seems to be talking a lot more since we got back, likely an attribute who she picked up from her cousin Julia who is rarely at a loss for words. She also LOVES when books are read to her, especially before bed. When you combine that with Grandma’s love of reading/singing, good luck getting your hands on Emma at night while in Iowa!

This is the first year we have decorated much for the holidays. Last year we didn’t as we were selling our house and it was a no-no apparently. Not decorating clearly worked since we had about 30 showings around the holidays and didn’t sell our house for 5 more months. But at least I am not bitter about it or anything:)

Oh on the wife front, Lela accepted a new position at Assessment Technologies Institute. Her previous employment was not what was advertised, so it was a good move. And for now (though they may move due to growth) it is literally a 2 minute commute. As in if there were sidewalks she could walk there commute (though there are not).

I might be crazy and post twice this week, you wait and see.

Emma loves to pat cooper. cooper, well he endures it

Even the hard slaps!

Pictures are hard with Ems as she generally thinks mom is the funniest. . .

In spite of food or bugar, I am still cute!

Favorite word "dooooooooh"

Tickle fights are fun

Sup gangsta, you want some of this?

Fake waffle and Los Numeros in hand (see previous post on that book), time to blow this pop sickle stand.

Halloween

2010-11-04T10:49:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we headed back to our first Hawkeye game since Emma was born. Shockingly, Grandpa and Grandma agreed to take her off our hands. I know, who knew grandparents would want to take a little ball of fun back with them with no parents messing up gparent time! Anyway, we had a great time, perfect weather and of course the perfect outcome. It was our first game since Iowa beat Penn State (then undefeated #3) in 2008. With a great outcome Saturday against number 5 (37-6 for you sad Jayhawk fans who think its already bball season), I told Lela if Ohio State comes to town in a few weeks in the top 5 we are obligated to go back. Kirk Ferentz would want us to. Hayden Fry would want us to. Heck, I bet Nile Kinnick is looking down wanting us to. We’ll see, it’ll probably be too much and we’ll probably blow it beforehand (I say we as if Lela and I are a part of 20 yr olds’ lives) but I will feel bad if we don’t go back and they lose. Yeah, totally not a crazy, illogical Iowa fan at all.

Anyway, we had our first Halloween experience (putting emma in her costume for 75 seconds last year doesn’t count). As you can see, emma was a pumpkin. She didn’t seem to notice that she was wearing what was essentially y a big orange cloth bag and just walked around like it was no big deal. We got to meet some more of our neighbors (which seems to be a never ending process in a neighborhood with houses still going up). Oh, met a few Ohio State alums, think it’s a sign????? Yeah, one track mind. Anyway, it was a good time but I am sure it’ll be even more fun when emma can walk around and at least think its neat when people give her a substance she can’t eat:)

Oh, and we also had Emma’s 15 month appointment. All was well, she’s still in the 60s for weight, 40s for height and has a good sized noggin. We also did a little self assessment thing with our Parents as Teachers rep. Emma scored REALLY well on all the fine and gross motor stuff and is doing well in language though its not her focus yet. Apparently they work on one or the other for periods of time, which is interesting. Anyway, could have fooled me, the girl likes to talk! After we picked her up from the gparents she talked for an hour straight “telling us” about her time in Alden.

Pumpkin Patch

2010-11-03T22:02:00.001-05:00

Pumpkin patch

Well we officially made our first trip to a pumpkin patch. Like picking out a Christmas tree, the pumpkin patch seems to be a right of passage that all parents must do. From what I could tell everybody gets in autummy colors, takes a picture in front of some corn stalks and have a grand old time. Well we took care of that part as you can see by the pictures but well. . .I am just going to say it, I think the pumpkin patch is overrated. Granted there were several hurdles that we had which you might not. One it doesn’t seem like fall has hit yet. I keep waiting for a nice 50 or 60 degree day to put on long sleeves and enjoy some time outside in the crisp fall weather. Every weekend it has been in the 80s and Kansas is doubling as a desert this year so there is no crispness. We arrive at the pumpkin patch via a gravel road that was dusty and narrow to the point where our lives were likely in danger. Also there were several people standing around smoking at the entrance and let’s just say I could see these people having a #3 hat at home if they weren’t wearing em. I normally wouldn’t be that snobby but smoking at a place that is very kid tailored is very not cool if you ask me. Then as we walk around nobody really tells us anything. We meander out to the patch, sweating all the way, with lovely dust collecting on the sweat. We find a respectable pumpkin and take a pic and get out of there. I am sure someday it’ll be fun as we can do the corn maze, it won’t be hades and Emma can enjoy all the festivities.

As always Emma is learning new tricks of the trade. She now will put her arms out to her side when she is “all done”. We also have taught her “touchdown” though when we do it during Hawkeye games I think she is too alarmed from the yelling that preceded that to know how to react. We will work on her in game skills. She is generally enamored with various balls and loves to carry them around and throw them on the ground. She generally eats anything if she is in the right mood, if she’s grouchy it’s a fruit or bread only basis. Emma’s also developed a unique habit. If she hears you in the bathroom, she will come in and close the door behind her as if she has you trapped. Even if you turn off the lights and leave the bathroom she will then close the door after you left and hang out in the dark. Its interesting to say the least. Also, I finally got the baby gates up. Emma loves climbing stairs and while that’s not a problem, we have to monitor her in case she falls back, so its nice to not have to run back and forth 20 times every hour to either bring her back to the living room or follow her up the stairs.

Oh and this is a catchup post, another coming tomorrow

We're baaaacckkk.

2010-09-29T13:37:00.000-05:00

And we are back. Contrary to popular belief, I did not get fired from my blogger job. Anywho, a lot has happened in the past month. Emma is now way past just walking. She no longer ever crawls and rarely walks. She has even developed different techniques of walking, such as shuffling if she is trying to get through a tight space. Emma no longer has her previous love of meat. . . it has been replaced by beans. Yeah, the resulting deposits are um, slightly less desirable. Lela has furthered this love as she has started purchasing “bean bars” which is a Korean treat that is like ground up beans that are frozen like a pop sickle. Its heaven for Emma, and if she doesn’t get it when she sees it, we might as well just put in ear plugs. Also, no longer does emma just eat most things that are put in front of her (for us at least, at daycare she cleans up allegedly). It makes meals very, um, vocal and interesting. Also her other favorite thing to do is after she has drenched her hands in fruit juice she will then put her hands on her head which is lovely. Of course when I ask day care they say she's their best little eater and they have no such issues. Already putting on a show for them, not for us.

Emma has also grown very fond of the stairs. If we lose sight of her for 10 seconds she heads to the stairs and wants to climb them. She has decided that crawling cautiously is overrated, so now she wants to “walk” up them while holding the rails and scoot down as fast as possible throwing all worries of stomach burn to the wind. Emma loves adventure, adventure with mom and or dad standing 2 inches away trying to make sure adventure doesn’t lead to danger!

Emma has also started to show some OCD tendencies. If there is a cupboard or drawer open, she will walk over and close it. At day care in an effort to delay nap time she has been known to pretend make her bed which sounds funny, though again it isn’t so funny if she is tired at night and a beast to deal with. We have flipped her car seat finally, so now she loves to watch us to see what’s going on up front. For me she especially seems to like when I sing and dance while I drive, specifically to Eminem and Rihanna. I mean that is sort of like Lela and I (white and asian) though I don’t think there is any talk of tying anyone to a bed post and lighting the house on fire:) Thus ends my musical reference for the day.

Emma has also decided that she wants to start a boycott of the entire state of Arizona. First they took her friend Lily away. Then they made her mommy and daddy stay up til the wee hours only to watch the Hawkeyes come back from a huge deficit to tie the game and then lose. This old man is made to go to bed at 9:30 on saturdays, not start watching games! I think my grandpa or some older Huebner used to say nothing good can come of a place where you can’t grow anything. We are starting to agree. . . .darn desert.

Bunch of pics from everything that’s been going on

Riding the ranger with the grandparents and cousins

Emma and Clara

Emma loves her cantelope. by love I mean likes to see how much of it she can fit in her mouth at once

Some pics with the grandparents before dinner

Morning crazy hair time

For once a picture with MOM's eyes closed!

OUr little beggar

Good luck getting these 3 to sit still at the same time!

Catching up

2010-08-24T09:06:00.002-05:00

Sorry, I have been really slow about blogging.

2 weekends ago Lela ran in the Susan B Komen Race for the cure. Whoever decided long ago that that race should always be the first half of August is not a friend of ours. Seriously, how many times has that race not been hot? I know that its for a great cause, but can’t we have a race for a good cause when its not 10000 degrees? Anyway, Lela was a champ and got 2nd in her age division, so Emma and I were very proud. After the race we raced out of there and got one of Emma’s favorite things in the world. . .smoothies. Emma becomes somewhat insatiable when she realizes that’s available. I normally make them every morning, occasionally we will stop at Smoothie King, but I like to think mine are the best!

Last week also marked another milestone in the whole having kids thing. . . Lela stopped breastfeeding. If you would have told Lela she would breastfeed for over a year when we started this whole journey, she would have likely looked at you like you were smoking pot. Even though pumping took so much time, much like many things in our lives, it became a challenge to Lela. And generally with challenges, lela wants to win. Even though we have no competition per se, Lela sees how long she can do it and how much we can accumulate. Of course there is the whole connection that breastfeeding helps nurture from both mom and daughter and the fact that its not exactly bad for the kiddo, but that's just secondary:) Needless to say that just because the act is over, our supply is not. Even in spite the travelling and the long hours at work, we will be feeding emma breastmilk into September. . .and likely October! Anyway, I could tell it made Lela a little sad but I think she agreed it was time to hang up the pump.

Last weekend we headed up to Ann Arbor to visit our friends Travis and Missy. My first thought whenever I hear Ann Arbor is to reply “is a whore.” Yes, I am mature, but ever since I saw that t shirt back in 2001 at an Iowa/Michigan game (coincidentally I was actually with Travis at the game). Anyay, Lela has vowed to divorce me if I say it again, but I thought I deserved one more time! Anyway, we had a great time with Travis and Missy exploring the town. We hadn’t previously realized that the Arbor is for trees, so there’s lots of trees -I believe that when watching the history channel that Michigan was once the leading logging state but they over did it and are now 40 yrs into letting the trees go back, yeah, I am a nerd. We hit up a few local eateries (including Korean which is one of our favorite cuisines to eat with the rumery’s as they are very adventurous) saw the sites, etc. We did get into the big house, long story, better told in person than on a blog. We also got yelled at by some random dude for stealing his parking spot even though we didn’t. Again, long story, ask Lela she’s better at non blog, live story teller.

We were worried prior to our trip that Emma would still be retaining a cold she had had but magically she got over it the day before we headed out. We also had a layover at Midway and Emma did great on all the flights and we didn’t have any big hang-ups. We are so blessed to have such an easy going little girl!
Emma has also really started to walk. She’s up to about 5-10 steps at a time and has really started to push it. Its so amazing watching her learn and grow. She did have a 24 hr bug this week which was torture but pulled through it like the champ she is. She has also taken on a love of putting her shoes on. She isn’t quite there (at all) but she likes to at least press the shoes against her feet. She’ll soon be self sufficient!

Lastly we got proofs of emma’s 1 year photo session. If anyone wants to look its this

http://www.mauraphotography.com/index2.php#/proofing/

enter password: "huebner3"

Emma proud of her mommy after her run!

Emma taking a snooze after a rough day

Emma enjoying some fine ann arbor cuisine

Us after enjoying some fine korean cuisine. Travis' hat makes me vomit

Us after sneaking into the big house

2010-08-10T13:14:00.000-05:00

Well I think we have started to finally recover from Emma’s B-day week. It’s amazing how now that we are old and stuff things like that are great but then we need forever to recover. I personally can’t get over that we are just one year removed from that beautiful day. I mean the day emma was born it was in the upper 70s. . .for a high. . .in July. . .in Kansas City. Seriously, are we sure it happened? And then we brought her home to our well. . . home. The place where we no longer live. . .sniff sniff. And then we moved. . .and almost died. . . but made it. There’s about a billion things that happened in the meantime so I could go on and on, but it is INSANE to think of all that transpired with our little girl who was once a lil wasian noodle (that’s not a racist comment, don’t worry) and is now a crazy wasian gangsta who only stays still for more than 3 seconds if she is sleeping.

Speaking of gangsta, Emma has gotten into music more and more. Apparently at daycare they have dance time, something that Lela has witnessed and they say that Emma loves it. Well based on her moves I am guessing she is friends with someone who loves metallica. Emma loves to headbang, as in headbangs so hard she has frequently hit her head on things, then cries for 10 seconds then starts headbanging again. Sometimes she hops on her knees while headbanging, which is extra dangerous. She also loves to sway back and forth, as in holding a lighter (or cell phone if you are young enough) during a metallica ballad. Luckily even though her skills are based on that genre, she keeps true and loves her hip hop. Lastly she will grab a bib and twist it around her head like Petey Pablo. Nobody knows what I mean, but I throw on a little chris brown or Jay Z or Lil Wayne and she loves it. Such great role models, Emma and I have discussed that she shouldn’t listen to their words or think they are good people because they aren’t. She understands, but also wants to keep it real, Wasian style.

Emma also has an increasing flair for the dramatic. When I get to daycare to pick her up, she first makes her way to me, then she pretend cries for a second until I pick her up. Then I pick her up and she laughs as if she thinks she has successfully manipulated me. . .which she sort of has. We also went to our pool for the first time as a fam last weekend. Emma loved it for about 20 min while we took her around the big pool in her floaty and she loved it splashing and kicking around. And then the signature lip came out and it was time to head back.

Emma continues to work on the walking. She now does not want to have her hands held and to be walked around and will only take steps if its on her own. She usually gets 4 or so and then plops to the ground. She also loves to kick while she eats. This makes our house sound like we are in the movie Jimanji, minus of course the jungle actually coming into our house.

Anyway, below are some picks of our Jimanji machine and of her having fun in her chair.

THE B-DAY BASH of 2010

2010-07-26T22:06:00.002-05:00

Phew, well Emma’s bday week is over. It was a lot of fun, but as most of you know since you’ve already been through this rodeo, it was a lot of work too! Totally worth it of course.

So the festivities of sorts started on Friday with Emma’s 1 yr appt at the doc. Yeah, Emma didn’t see this so much as an aspect of birthday week, I guess shots aren’t her thing, weird. She only cried for about 3 seconds and then moved on to bigger and better things. Emma was 22 lbs, 1 oz (66th percentile) ,29.25 inches( 56th) for height and 67th for head circumference. So she’s leaning out as expected, but doing it and doing it and doing it well as LL Cool J would say. You know around 1997 you bought his Mr. Smith CD and were disappointed. Okay, maybe that’s me, nevermind. Anyway, per Emma’s note sheet from day care she was “emotional.” That’s day care code for she was being a woman. . .i kid, I kid. This is where Lela would tell me that I am in a bad place and ask me if I realize that, but alas the beauty of this internet thing is no one can touch me. . . until I get home at least.

Friday we picked up Emma on our way to try to take some pictures of the grandkids (my parents, not mine, because that would mean that emma clearly didn’t follow the don’t date til 25 rule). For the record Emma is in that stage right now where if you set her down and try to get her to do something that you want her to, she gets mad. You can sit her down next to something and if you try to get her to play on it she gets mad. But if you set her a bit away from the same thing and let her find it herself, then it’s the greatest thing ever. Again, already acting like a woman. . .I kid, I kid (in a bad place, I don’t care, internet rocks!). Well the moral of that is the pictures didn’t go overly well. There was a short time when some bubbles in the air caught her eye and calmed her down, unfortunately they also caught our 2 yr old nephew’s eye also and he may have accidently hit emma in the head which turned the situation back to grim. Just so I don’t make Jacoby sound like a little barbarian, he LOVES Emma as does our niece, they love to go right up to emma about 2 inches from her face and say hi, which is pretty funny as Emma looks at them like woah, you are 2 inches from my nose . . There were a few pics that were okay but with the earlier shots, I think it wasn’t in the cards. We got Emma off to bed in order to get her beauty sleep.

Saturday was nuts. We all laugh at my Mom when she is running around the house at Christmas trying to get everything ready but I think we caught a glimpse of it Saturday. There is just so much to do, everybody was helping, we were scrambling to get everything and try to get everything right. We were collectively trying to take care of the kids, Jill was helping with decorations because she is one of those crafty party types. Right after lunch Jill, mom and the kids headed to our pool to check it out. It has a slide which the kids loved. I have now lived here a month and haven’t gotten to go down the slide. . what’s wrong with this picture! Anyway, we were putting the finishing touches on everything as people arrived but everything seemed like it would be great. We had bubbles for the kids and we were so excited that we could all go out to the yard and we could let cooper out and enjoy our big back yard while parents mingled and checked out the deck and walked around. That plan didn’t so much work as the monsoon hit. My boy, Gary Lezak said that south overland park got hit the hardest. . .thanks Gare (that’s what I call him when we have fake convos about being weather nerds in my head) we noticed. All of course was not lost, our grill was on our covered deck, so I could get the burgers done and all that and we could even spend a little time on the deck, but then the wind picked up. I felt like Tom Hanks on Joe vs the Volcano when he’s on the ship, only without his expensive luggage. The .0001% of the population who know what I am talking about is chuckling right now. But the food was served, tasted okay to me (lela’s stuff was great as always), I didn’t get any word of food poisoning so it was successful. Oh yeah, should probably talk about Emma since she was the reason for the season or day or whatever. She had a lovely tutu which her grandma and aunt had found to go with a birthday shirt and she was loving it. Well she of course ate about an entire burger, some pasta salad and then it was time for the cake. At first Emma was intrigued by it , but as you can see in the pics dug in. Special thanks to Barb’s Kolache Bakery, it was great. BKB is by where we used to live and we have had great experiences with her as have others so we were fine with sending grandpa over to Shawnee to pick it up.

Anyway, we finally pried the cake out of Emma’s grasp and moved on to presents. Everyone brought such great stuff but of course grandma brought the most ever seen. A little note about my mom. She could probably live in the toy section of target. She loves buying toys and her and dad always have new ones for the kids. When they are here alone for a day, toys appear that we didn’t know existed or sometimes that we had (because they had given to them to us). If I were more entrepreneurial, there’s a decent chance I would open up a toy store and hire mom as an advisor. You know and then attach it to my Korean BBQ restaurant with Midwestern flare. Pretty much should take it to market. Anyway, Emma got lots of loot, we are very thankful. We were reminded all night and week how blessed we are by all of the people in Emma’s life who have a hand in it and care about her, along with just getting to enjoy all the joy that there was with all the children running around. Not everyone could make it whether because they live far away or were out of town for the weekend but we definitely were reminded of all those blessings we have in our lives.

One more thing on that night. . .Emma took her first real steps at the party!!! What a little show off!

Sunday we headed to Deanna Rose, which is all of 7 min from our house . It was getting a bit warm by the time we arrived, and emma wasn’t exactly energized by the heat (see reaction to the zoo a few months back). She did liven up when we got to see the cows though. Also, she enjoyed the festivities at the goat yard or whatever its called. Not just Emma, the rest of us did also. We thought, neat, Julia and Jacoby (our niece and nephew if I haven’t explicitly said that) can give the goats milk, that’ll be fun. So Jill and Lela got in with them with the intent of feeding the goats. . .apparently goats smell fear. All of a sudden goats were surrounding the 4 of them, the kids were almost in too much shock to cry or run. Lela and Jill weren’t exactly more fluid. It was comical, especially if you looked around the rest of the goat yard to see goats much more passively not attacking others who had bottles. Anyway after we survived the great goat attack of 2010, we hit up a few more things and got out of there. Emma absolutely had so much fun all weekend and took a huge long nap. Lela and I were tired but just sat on the couch and talked for a few hours, which is something we hadn’t done in forever with all the travel and party prep and moving. It was great. We even enjoyed some time on the deck Sunday evening just talking. Its weird how now we are old and sometimes enjoy just chatting. . .of course in there was also catching up on Friday Night Lights which is something you make time for. No week is complete without a little Dillon East.

Anyway, no captions on the pics, I think they speak for themselves and I have captioned and tagged enough pictures for a bit. They also posted in reverse order, but you get the jist! Have a great week after Emma’s bday!

ONE YEAR!

2010-07-21T14:20:00.000-05:00

Well, its weird. One year ago our lives completely changed when Emma decided to join the fun of the outside world. She may have come early, she may have come sideways, but she came with a furry of laughter and fun. It is the weirdest feeling to know how much she has grown, how different she is every day, and how much the worst day can go to the best day with just one squeal. Because this year has been such a joyous blur, I picked a semi random bunch of pics from the last year to remind of us all the stages of Emma. And I left them out of order because of that blurriness. . it has nothing to do with the fact that when I uploaded them they got out of order and I didn't want to spend an hour trying to re-organize them. Nothing at all, so move along. Happy first b-day to the most precious gift we could have asked for!

Emma watching her first hawkeye game, phew almost lost that one!

Emma going out on the town with mom and dad

One of the first Emma laughs, something that is now a staple

the precious nap with mouth open. .

Emma at her first race, very confused!

Emma making friends now that she is fully mobile

Emma at her first Easter

Emma's pig tails, love em

Our little prodigy already reading, amazing!

Emma learning the fine art of pretending to be sick so she can stay up later

Emma's first swing ride

Nothing makes emma more happy than getting up in the morning

Emma's first trip to the pool

The hair is fun at bath time

Emma playing serious with her cousins

The "I'm about to get tired and cranky" lip

Play time in the winter

Emma loves her Hawkeyes, watching the Orange Bowl here

The Huebner ladies

Completely cheesing it

Very good perspective on "the fro"

Our little flower

Sup, how you doin?

Loving the car ride

G-ing it, even in the first 3 months

Emma at her dedication

Mommy showing off her new girl

Just born. . .

Just a few days before the big day! Looking good after her last pre-Emma run

One of the last Lela and Cooper pics. After Emma came, Coops became secondary

No more hair in these eyes

2010-07-19T21:29:00.000-05:00

Not much going on as we are preparing for Emma's first birthday crazy wasian gangsta bash. One thing is that most nights emma has gone to a pure banana and meat diet. You can put things in front of her other than that, which she generally will nonchalantly pick up and throw on the floor while looking at you as if she is saying "um, I don't know if you knew this but this is not meat, and its not banana, therefore it goes on the floor. . .homeboy". The last part is her gangsta flair. Anyway, this creates some interesting um results but most nights there isn't much to fight her, plus its not like she is requesting cupcakes from Small Cakes or something even though those are a slice of heaven. . . I think I just started drooling with hunger. Anyway, Emma has also seemed to figure out how to request such items and sort of says 'nana' or she's just babbling and I am projecting words here.

Emma has also seemed to get a real attachment to Lela now that she is back from mofoing NYC FORRREVVER. Sorry, had to add that. Tonight Emma literally said "Momma" when I asked her who was walking through the door and then squealed with delight when she walked in. Emma also was struggling with the old hair in the eyes conundrum so we had to start pulling it up which is hilarious as seen below. She's a pretty good sport so far. Only 15 or so more years of Mom v. Emma hair battles. . .why didn't we request a boy from the stork again???

Its rough getting these things in place

You seriously are going to leave my hair like this?

okay, I guess it is pretty funny!

Emma's new toys

2010-07-12T19:53:00.001-05:00

These are not conventional toys but lately they are what Emma chooses to play with.

Friday I had our real estate agent over to help advise us on possibilities on rugs and blinds. While we were talking and I had a lovely curtain rod in my hand, I turned around and Emma was already on step #3. HOly crap! After I ran around trying to get rid of the rod, Emma showed off by climbing up the entire staircase, with me of course sitting about 2 inches behind her secretly freaking out.

The other item is the chair. Emma seriously will play on the chair for hours at a time. She generally has an item in hand also while she climbs up on it, as if she doesn't want to get up there and discover she has nothing to play with. She has also been getting up on it on her knees and will jive around. . .sometimes with no hands. . . again with me 2 inches behind secretly freaking out. Through these things among others I have discovered that Emma is a very determined little girl. She will go silent for extended periods of time just going up and down on her chair and turning around, occasionally taking a few minute break to stand next to the chair and do a little dance. If she ever drops a toy that she brought up with her she logically gets off the chair and then grab the item and get back on. its mesmerizing and hilarious all at the same time. And on both items I can see Lela's concentration in her face which makes it even more enjoyable.

Anyway, sorry for the short post, just thought those were some interesting developments.

If you ain't a goldfish, you ain't sh--

2010-07-08T21:27:00.000-05:00

To add to my previous post, Emma clearly is fighting off addiction. . . to goldfish. I have been trying each night to give her canned food and for the first 2 nights back had the bag of goldfish in view - game over. Being the tough dad I am, I of course didn't cave. Well I sort of caved but not fully, I gave up on the canned fruit (I think the mushiness may not be Emma's thing) and went with fresh fruit. Since I haven't really had time to grocery shop and have been eating take out more than I would like to admit, all that means is bananas. Emma knocked out 3/4 of a banana, which amazed me. Of course there was also room for various meats, because Emma is extremely carnivorous. I like this mostly because I rarely eat very vegetarianesque and because I love the word carnivorous, even though I am only 50% sure it is a word and refuse to check a dictionary for fear of being proved it isn't a word. My other fail safe food is nutragrain bars. Emma literally licks her fingers clean which is humorous until she screams when I try to get the food in between her fingers.

Few other things with Ems
1) She now enjoys covering her mouth and doing the whole stereotype of american Indians thing.
2) Emma has begun to throw her food which is lovely. She used to accidentally drop things, now if she doesn't want thing she tries to sneak throw things. And then laughs as if that well cover it up. Okay, it works sometimes, I won't lie.
3) Its becoming more and more easy to be able to tell when emma is full. She starts spitting out food but also will lean her head back and squeel. Very cute.
4) Emma is learning to share. By that I mean she will hold out and object expecting you to grab it from her. Problem being she doesn't get the concept of letting go sometimes, but if you pull hard enough she'll let go. This can entertain her for a solid half hour.

I am very ready to get my wife back this weekend, Emma smiles every time I put Lela on speaker. Emma and I can handle ourselves but the house just feels so empty. Happy weekend!

Mmmmmmm, nutragrain bars

Emma loves books and here she is showing off in her chair pretending to read. She thought it was the funniest thing ever.

Emma takes on NYC

2010-07-06T19:52:00.000-05:00

As many of you may or may not know, Emma spent last weekend in New York City. Lela's team had to stay the weekend there so everybody was able to fly their spouses out. Well for us that meant Emma was coming with me too! I was borderline in denial that the day was going to come. I kept waiting for something to happen which would mean that I don't have to take an infant by myself to New York. Such an event never happened. So at 4:30am on Saturday morning I walked up to Emma's room, got her up, quickly gave her milk to calm her anxiety over being awakened at such an hour and we were off. In tow I had a suitcase to check, our diaper bag, another backpack, an umbrella stroller and her infant car seat. We arrived at the airport with a lot of time to spare (bag cut off was an entire 15 minutes after we checked in:)) I ran to the gate to talk to the person checking everyone in and see if I could get next to an empty seat (which I was told they do for people with infants). I was basically laughed at and told I needed to check my car seat as there was no way there would be room on this flight. Yes its preposterous to think such a thing would happen for a 7am flight on a Saturday, sorry. So as I board the flight, AFTER I had checked the car seat, they informed me I was moving next to an empty seat. Oh, why thank you, especially now that I have to hold my baby the entire time anyway. Effers. Well the flight was pretty good. Emma ate A LOT of puffs, but my motto for the trip was whatever works, we do! She started to get a little crabby but then crashed for the last hour and a half of the flight. Again, great job by the flight people not allowing my car seat on so I had to hold her that hour and a half rather than laying her in a car seat so I can read or something. NOpe, not bitter at all.

We arrived at the hotel without any further hitches, other than the fact that Satan himself had taken over NYC and brought the heat with him. HOLY CRAP it was hot. We ate lunch with Lela and while she went back to work, we napped. I had all these plans of things I would read while emma was napping in our room, but determined on the trip that I missed naps, thus when Emma napped, I napped! We went out to eat that night but nothing special.

Sunday the 4th started out in an uneventful fashion. Emma and I played all morning in the hotel room, she started to figure out the whole put the right shaped hole thing it seemed. We went and met Lela for lunch and then we napped. Oh and at lunch, Emma ate a TON of burrito. We were so proud, more on this later. . . How sweet was this schedule btw. Play, eat, nap!!! Lela came back early from work so we looked some stuff up and went out for some yogurt. On our way back Emma seemed to be getting grumpy, so we headed off. Yeah, the heat was getting to her we talked as we walked back to the hotel. Lela found out everybody from her team was going to a Brazilian steakhouse. I was like, SUWWEEEET! While living in Denver some of my friends/coworkers would frequent a good Brazilian steakhouse but I never got to go for a handful of reasons. For those of you not familiar with the concept, dudes walk around with giant, tasty, well seasoned slabs of meat and cut you off slices. There are veggies around somewhere, but the main concept is eat a lot of good meat, get the meat sweats, go home and go into a coma where you feel like you may die, but its okay because you were just in heaven. At least that's how its been described to me, again, haven't yet been. Anyway, we are prepping to walk out the door when Emma has a gag sound. . . .and then throws up what seemed like an entire burrito. Hearts are sinking here. . .This is a good example of how my mind differs from Lela. Lela's mind immediately goes to "Oh no, I got to aggressive feeding my baby and her tummy couldn't handle it" and "I am sad that I don't get to meet coworkers spouses and socialize and show off Emma". My mind went to, "Oh no, NO MEAT SWEATS!!!!!". Well we came to find out the food wasn't the cause, merely the projectile (yeah, its gross, but I don't care) as Emma had a temperature all night to the point where there was question if she would actually start her crib on fire. So everyone around NYC is out watching the most glorious fireworks ever, we are eating Chinese take out (well some of the best Chinese EVER at least) and watching foodnetwork. And sleeping in 15 min increments because that's how often Emma is gagging. Yeah, not cool. As I said to Lela, if all that was going to go down, at least we were all together and could help each other out and be there for each other in various ways. . .while everyone else partied like it was 1999.

Monday morning was rough for obvious reasons. Emma seemed to be slightly better and wasn't throwing up so Tylenol helped her break her temp. We eased into the day (code for layed around all morning trying to get energy via Dunkin Donuts and air conditioning) and ventured out for lunch. Emma started screaming as we were packing up, oh boy. But once we got going and arrived at a local pizza place, all of a sudden OUR EMMA WAS BACK! Granted we were all drenched but it felt good to see her again. Insert nap that afternoon and we decided it was time to venture to Little Italy for a place one of Lela's coworkers recommended. Much to Lela's chagrin I was on a mission to take the subway. See when I am in a city, I love to blend in as much as possible and embrace the city. When in a city with a subway, that means take the subway as much as possible. Well when we have done that previously, obviously we didn't have a lovely umbrella stroller, which added some interesting aspects that I will choose to not talk about as it may have made it obvious that we weren't locals. Anyway, we get to the restaurant at 5:20, which has become standard we have a kid so sometimes eat at senior citizen times time to eat. Dinner was phenomenal, great call Vinny (yep, true story, that's the dude who recommended it). Emma also did great, though we didn't risk it much and supplied her with many goldfish. We also saw another baby that was 2 months older than Emma and dwarfed her (Emma is not a tiny baby by the way) which both entertained Emma and provided us with a 'holy crap that baby is giant and has a full set of teeth' moment. We ventured back to the subway, which may have been a worse fiasco than the way out and headed to central park. Emma was fully back this confirmed, laughing and having a good time as you can see by the pics. The park was also noticeably cooler, so only like 94 degrees (not kidding) so that was nice. What a great way to end our stay in NYC!

Tuesday we got up and got ready to leave. Lela's coworker who handled the travel arrangements (which was very appreciated!) had us leaving the hotel for la guardia 3 hrs before our flight. NOrmally I don't care when its just me, I can hang at the airport, eat terrible food and generally amuse myself. But with an infant this was daunting! I improvised and stole a giant towel from the hotel and we set up shop for the 2 hrs that we had after we arrived at the gate. Something happened while we were waiting for our plane. . .Emma figured out that she could manipulate people with cuteness I think. Emma's normally a happy baby, but has a hint of shyness going lately. ow Emma had been experimenting with New Yorkers flashing smiles while we walked around that could break even the angriest east coaster but she hadn't gone full out. Something clicked at the airport where she figured out that if she squeeled and made gestures at others they would smile back and sometimes it would help her attain a goldfish and then everyone would smile back. So the rest of the time we were there she played with anyone who would reciprocate (lela's coworkers spouses, not randoms, don't worry I am not that bad of a dad). Then on the plane she continued her trek, laughed with every goldfish and clapping for everyone. We have a monster on our hands folks! Anyway Emma did great on the flight, slept the first 45 min which allowed me to read. I started reading 'Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters' which has been recommended several times. Got through 2 chapters before Emma woke up, it got quite dusty in the plane if you know what I mean during those 45 min, so we played the rest of the time. Great book by the way, I can already tell, any dad who hasn't read it should.

After the trip a few things were confirmed.

1) Emma loves and misses her mommy. When she saw her saturday you would have thought Lela was a giant human sized goldfish. Yeah, a lot of goldfish themes in this post.

2) We are so blessed to have such a great little wasian gangsta princess who will go through whatever we ask and just wants to be loved (and to have goldfish).

3) Never travel with Lela in the summer. She was in europe for the heatwave where people were dying, now its 20 degrees hotter than KC, a place that isn't known for cool summers.

Completely out of order, but
this is Emma happy to be back in Kansas!

Emma drinking water, boy it was hot!

Emma loving Central Park!

I was going with the "its too hot to shave" look

Italian dude took our picture from a quarter mile away. Nice guy. Terrible pic!

Emma ready to show NYC what she's made of

Emma ready for some italian!

some pics also posted on facebook

2010-07-02T09:26:00.000-05:00

for those of you who aren't fb'ers, here you go.

Los Links!

2010-06-24T10:24:00.000-05:00

Okay, so that title has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that one Friday a few weeks ago we had some bad storms outside of the KC metro. This caused my boy Gary Lezak to be on tv more than some would consider necessary (but I heart Gary and his mega nerdy meteorologism so I can’t say anything bad about him or his shaved head ever), which caused a situation where we couldn’t have a DVR’ed Friday Night Lights. Thus we had to watch it on computer and when you do that you have to watch one commercial over and over and the one they showed was a Bing commercial that was in Spanish with English subtitles that ended with some guy screaming “Los Links!” at the end and never stopped being funny. Its not even a had to be there type thing as I am probably the only person in the world who would laugh all 6 times we watched it. Anyway, I digress, might be the last spanish title we have, we don't want to go overboard.

Since our last post much has happened. Well not numerous things but one giant thing. . . we moved. In moving we were reminded of something that while is common sense, sometimes we forget – change is hard. Even though we love our new home and it has some bells and whistles our previous home didn’t have, it was really sad to leave. That was the home our marriage started in, it was our first major joint purchase and started to figure out what being married is. That was the home where for the first time we actually met neighbors and gasp, liked them. That was the home where we figured out how to maintain a home, and figured out that I can’t do some things because I am an accountant and not a construction manager. That was the home where we brought this little puppy who would morph into a crazy lovable beast. That was the home where we prepped for Emma and then brought her home on that pristine July day. That was the house where we lost sleep over a newborn and where Lela spent her maternity leave and spent all that time cuddling with Emma back before she was crazy mobile and morphed into a crazy wasian mofo. So there were a lot of memories there that were just hard to leave. But just like the time in Denver which we so enjoyed, it was the right time to leave and the Big Guy helped bring everything together this time just like that last to show us where we should go and that we were making the right decision.

That being said, the Big Guy clearly has a sense of humor and apparently likes to make things harder than they need to be. That which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, blah blah blah. So Tuesday started out as a great day. Everything was coming together, our buyers were supposed to close first thing that morning, it was my last day of work before the move, we were supposed to be set for our close the next day. I used the term “supposed to” because none of that happened. First our agent after trying to get ahold of the other agent forever figured out the buyers hadn’t closed and weren’t going to until Wednesday. This was lovely as all our documents were set on that basis so our lender and title co had to scramble and I had to help them because apparently they lacked the ability to adequately communicate. We finally got everything ready and then closed 2^nd thing Wednesday on our side. Lela went to training and I went back to the house to prep for the move. Finally at 4:45 we found out the other people had closed. First sigh over. Of course packing was never ending, I stayed up later than I would like to admit and of course the movers were right on time Thursday morning on the day when we could have used a little extra. Well the day actually went relatively quickly, move took longer than expected but finally we were in the house. There were a few goodwill things left behind and other junk, but not much I thought to myself.

Well Thursday night as lela went to bed as she had to work

Friday, I made my way back to the house to get some stuff done so Friday wasn’t a scramble. I walked into the house and neared nervous breakdown. OMG so much to do, how will it ever get done. Normally, I celebrate such emotions by getting onto my computer or watching a movie I have seen 143 times and procrastinate, but luckily there were no such amenities. Then I discovered a lovely hornet had let itself in during the move and had to spend 10 min trying to kill it without it attacking me. Also fun. Thankfully that night I got more done than I originally anticipated, so I left in the wee hours feeling good about everything.

Friday was installation day. I couldn’t imagine living another day without cable so I had all that kind of thing installed. After all of that went down I went back to the house hoping it would be a quick trip just to get things and then Lela and I could walk through and make sure we got everything and Lela could say goodbye to the house and any neighbors that would happen to be around. I pulled up and for some reason my garage door opener didn’t work. Hmmm, interesting. Well the electricity was off. When I had called to transfer utilities they told me that when title transfers on the weekend of a house, people typically transfer before the weekend (as you can’t do it during the weekend), so I had it transferred out of my name on that day and assumed the new owners would find that out and have it transferred. WRONG! They forgot to turn on the utilities so I was greeted by a lovely 90 degree house. Thank goodness I had done most of the work the night before, otherwise I might be in prison right now for just burning the house down.

Saturday came and we headed to the house one last time to get our plants. Lela talked to a neighbor while I tried to get a few of those things and the new homeowner came up. Our agent had always preached not ever interacting with them until everything is completely done but he walked up to me so I couldn’t help it. He wanted to put his washer and dryer in the garage so I let him. He also started walking through the house which he wasn’t supposed to because the carpets had just been cleaned. Its his house in 12 hrs so whatever I thought. Well its annoying to have 2 people (he had a friend who looked like a bouncer) who are walking around judging things and talking in a different language so that I can’t understand them. Anyway they finally left and we left for what we thought would be the last time. Well Monday we get a call that there were all of 10 boxes which we had left in the back corner of the basement (nice boxes btw) that they wanted removed and they wanted our garden box removed. . .um, it’s a garden box, it comes with the house, get over it. And after all the crap we went through because they couldn’t get their crap together (some of which has never been mentioned here) I went back and got those last boxes out cursing all the way. So some of the previous memories are currently somewhat tainted by all of this. Okay I will end my rant there.

Anyway, we love the new house. We are starting to get more and more unpacked so its really starting to feel like home. We have met a few neighbors (who’s names I always immediately forget) and have started to explore the area and love it. Cooper has been riding the struggle bus as we are just now getting sod and he for some reason doesn’t like to take care of business in the dirt. Lovely!

Emma seems to have adapted seamlessly, like a crazy wasian mofo champ that she is. She had to go pack and play for sleeping for a few nights and did okay but the night she got her crib back, she slept until 8 and we finally just had to get her up because we had to go to work! So apparently she missed that. Her new daycare seems to be going well, she is in the toddler room now and seems to be doing really well. She now stands for quite awhile and has begun twisted back and forth. She loves to walk with someone holding her hand so the next step is walking, no pun intended. She has also become more and more vocal in the evening, so that is also lovely. . . She’s doing great with the sippy cup and no longer needs a bottle ever (which was a requirement to get into the toddler room)

Oh yeah, fathers day was in there, first one for me! It was great, Lela got me some weber grill tools (no I just need to get the weber grill to go with it!) and made me several meals which sounds easy but the state of our kitchen at that time made it a bit more challenging! Great day though

Anyway, no pics for now, we have been too busy moving!