Dorisa Quits Going to Church

Oskar works on his masterpiece. I realize this was a couple months ago now.

Masterpiece completed. I would do some things differently next time, but it was
still a good experience. Oskar loved painting.

No, it's not because I lost my faith when we were sent to South Dakota. Turns out He knew what He was doing and we are doing quite well here. As the weirdly confident Park Nicollet receptionist predicted, we are in fact, thriving. Seriously, I mentioned where we were moving and she couldn't have been more excited for us and no, we do not know her.

Back on track. Ignoring all previous knowledge and experience, we have decided to have another baby. Baby is due 11/25 and is being referred to as Turkey Baby. For those of you who were witness to my first pregnancy, no, right now I have no idea what I was thinking. I currently find that I am unable to stand for more than a couple minutes without having to lean on something and the nausea, which is actually not as bad as last time, is doing it's best to keep me near the bathroom. My situation with going to church would be difficult enough with just me, but add in a spunky 2 year old and I guarantee you I will lose the morning. I really did go into this pregnancy telling myself that every pregnancy is different and that this one will be great. One thing I have learned is that all the optimistic thinking in the world does nothing for how your body responds to a parasite.

I know that we are lucky to be able to have children, I get that. I know many people who would love to be sick for 9 months in order to get the family they always dreamed they would have. Honestly, it is just very difficult to remember how lucky you are when you do not remember the last time that you didn't dread having to stand up. I try to remember though, I really do.

It is a little better this time. I forced myself to eat a lot at the beginning when it was easy to eat and that has helped tremendously but I still find myself underweight which I think is where some of the lightheadedness comes from. I wrote a detailed description of my weight fluctuations, but it was boring. What you need to know is that I should not weigh as much now as I did in 8th grade. I am seriously trying so hard to eat and I am eating super calorie rich things, and meat, much more meat than I usually do and this parasite just keeps sucking it out of me! I am playing tug of war facing uphill on a 30 degree slope with something the size of a prune and I am losing. LOSING. I have rarely been so frustrated which often manifests as crying and then Dan thinks I'm sad but I'm not sad, I want to punch things, but oh wait, that would require energy and I have NONE.

The frustration only deepens when I think about all the stuff I want to get done around the house and the lack of energy and money I have to accomplish this stuff. One thing I am especially thankful for during this time however is a job that I can do from home, at any time of day. Yes, this is good.

Benefits of needing to be horizontal? I can binge watch Netflix without feeling too guilty. I'm almost done with Fringe, then I'll finish up Heroes and then go back to my Star Trek adventures. Good stuff! I could also write or work on genealogy which have been neglected hobbies as of late, but that sounds pretty close to being productive. Side note: Many of you know that I'm a fan of Doctor Who. If I can recommend just one episode to watch it would be "Vincent and the Doctor" in season 5. It is so good and can pretty much stand alone and give you an idea of what the show is like.

How is Oskar taking this new information? Well, he doesn't quite get it yet, but Mommy is on the couch a lot so this clearly means we should use her as a climbing gym. Double points if you headbutt her in the face. Dan and I have decided that if our next kid is even half as spunky as the first, we are screwed.

Oooo! I almost forgot! Sometime between now and 11 years ago they changed the formula for easy cheese. It's still great and if you're judging me I don't care. It doesn't get hard on the end anymore between uses! It also doesn't come out in quite as precise of a line as it used to, but that's okay.

So folks, here's to the next 7 months. We are going to share this "beautiful" journey together, because if I'm going down I'm taking every one of you with me. Have a good night!

Oskar Hits a Phone

Oskar is a boy. That's all you can really say about this picture.

You're about to watch a pretty impressive video in which Oskar gives the camera a hi-five, but before we get to that I'd like to offer up some tips for the DIYer:
-Generally, one knows to wear scrubby clothes when painting, but try not to get in the habit of wiping your hands on your paints when there is paint on them because one time you will be wearing jeans and you'll get done with the MINISCULE project you were working on and there WILL be paint on your jeans. Not that this happened to me...
-I have no doubt that you have the most amazing dog/cat/hamster/insert pet type here but for the love of Pete please wash your walls (and ceilings) before painting them. It is not necessary to preserve their fur in a coat of paint on your walls.
-Get the high end paint rollers. I recommend Purdy. I do NOT recommend Shur-line. There is a definite difference in lint remnants.
-Any amount of spray paint is too much to spray indoors in the middle of winter. You might think, "Oh this is just a tiny project, the fumes won't be too bad." STOP. Do not do it. Either get other paint or postpone your project.
-Always, always, always do 2 coats if you are looking for a good, even finish when painting walls. For every wall I've painted I have paused and wondered if I really need to do 2 coats and each time I am so glad that I did. Even the most careful and obsessive painter can not guarantee an absolutely even coat of paint.

And now, what we've all been waiting for:

He was growling and I wanted a video of that because it sounded like Simba on The Lion King.
He put his hand up to block the bright light from my phone but then took it to a whole new level.

My lack of posting indicates that we have been busy, and we have. We have been mostly healthy, but life keeps happening. Oskar has grown an inch and a half since his 2 year appointment and is alternating between eating everything and eating nothing. Very fun.

I have been busy fixing up our laundry/storage room. New drain, newly painted floor, some concrete repair, less dust, new drainage tube for the furnace- overall it looks a lot better and I was able to put some shelves in there for storage. Now I just need to put up a couple walls, seal the foundation walls, and add a door and it'll be good to go. If you are interested in helping with this, feel free.

The terrifying, disgusting pit of despair in our laundry room.

Post CLR and significant scrubbing. 

My beautiful laundry room! Still annoying that the machines aren't be each other,
but worlds better than before. Success!

Oskar has fallen in love with puppies. It is quite annoying because every time we look at our phones or computers Oskar comes running, saying "Puppy?!?!?" and looking to see puppy pictures and videos. This is especially inconvenient since both Dan and I occasionally work from home. Luckily, my phone doesn't have access to any puppy pictures or videos. Oskar and I watch orchestral performances. He loves them and I find them more interesting than puppy videos.

Oskar's room is FINALLY almost done. I just need to install his headboard (which turned out great if I do say so myself, thanks to the guy who makes all our furniture, but more about that in another post) and Oskar and I have a very fun art project to do together which will either be awesome or end disastrously. We'll see.

Oskar's headboard before. I think I got it for $5 or $15. I can't remember.

The finished product perched oh so beautifully on our asbestos tiles.

I hope you are all well! And Jan, Oskar says you need to stay healthy. You have not been doing a good job at this and it makes him sad.

Oskar Demonstrates the Importance of Nap Time

After weeks of illness I am thrilled to announce that we are ALL happy and healthy. We were viciously attacked by the flu just after Christmas. It just so happens that Oskar was the only one who got the flu shot and he is the one who brought this plague upon us and brought us all down. It is incredible to me how much the flu hurts. I've had it twice in my life and thankfully this time wasn't as bad as last time, but it was still absolutely awful. After the flu past we each had lingering issues and illnesses, however.

Oskar kept waking up with his eyes sealed shut from eye goop. I'm not going to apologize for how gross this is because none of you had to deal with the clean up. He had no other signs of pink eye so we waited a bit to take him in. We went in and discovered that, long story short, all his mucus was draining through his eyes while he was sleeping. Penicillin worked its magic and Oskar is good to go.

Dan had a cough that was doing nothing but just wouldn't quit. After about 5 days it was just gone. I was left with a terrible sinus infection. It actually made my teeth hurt. That was a new experience for me. After powering through bronchitis in November and December, and having gotten through the flu, I was fed up with powering through. Thank you Z-pack. I love you. Then earlier this week my stomach was attached with metaphorical knives. This hasn't happened since college and its return was quite unwelcome.

It seems I've been sick since moving here. It is beyond annoying. We are lucky though that we have jobs and schedules that allow us to be sick and heal at our own pace. So so so lucky.

A couple days ago we decided to go to Costco. This is not a rare occurrence. We enjoyed a lunch while there ($8 for the whole family, and that's only because Dan got a fancy sandwich) and we were super pleased with how well Oskar ate his food. We were going to pick up a couple things at Target, but Oskar fell asleep in the car so we thought we would bring him home so he could get a good nap. The transfer to his bed was successful, but about 10 minutes later he was giggling and singing. The day carried on and he fell asleep on the couch at 5:00 for a couple hours. No big deal, these things happen. What ruined everything was that Oskar was on antibiotics which need to be taken with food. He woke up and ate a bit and we put his medicine in his milk... and then forgot about it. Oskar woke in the night saying he wanted his milk (that he hadn't finished). I was exhausted so I got it out of the fridge and gave it to him and he fell asleep. A while later he was crying in his sleep. Dan went in and noticed that he had moved down to the middle of the bed. This was weird. Never happened before. Dan put him back and went to bed. Couple hours later- my turn. I pick him up,cuddle with him and watch a movie. He smelled a little weird, but again, I was exhausted and it was just a weird-ish milk smell. That's not new. At the end of the movie he reached for his cup again and drank some and fell asleep. I investigate my assumptions.

Sure enough- vomit all over his bed, that his father unknowingly placed him into when he moved him back up the bed. I had noticed his PJs were wet when I picked him up. I thought it was pee so I changed him and didn't think about it until I kept smelly his funky head. I threw the laundry in the washer and it clicks- the milk must have been weird! I'm rinsing out his cup, in which the medicine had turned the milk an exceptionally weird color. And what's that I hear? A vomitty Oskar on the couch. For never throwing up when he was little he sure is making up for it now. I call in reinforcements. Dan, who is disoriented at best when woken suddenly from sleep, pulls it together and helps. Oye. I love how this second episode was minutes after I had started the laundry too. Too late to add it in.

In spite off all illness, the holidays were a win. We were able to see many family members and I ate a lot of puppy chow.

I'm not sure how many of you know, but I am the Handbell Musicians of America Area 7 Publications Manager. Pretty much it means that I put a newsletter together 4 times a year. After this current issue, I will have *successfully* completed a year of newsletters. I say successfully with stars because while the year will have been completed, I don't think the people who read it know that I really don't know what I'm doing. I mean, I try, and I'm generally happy with the outcome, but it's really a guess and check process. I feel like there is a level of deception here, like I'm tricking people into thinking I have experience that warrants this responsibility. I don't. I went to school to design buildings and research cultures. And they won't even let me do those things...

We had a sparky outlet incident in our kitchen when we unplugged our popcorn popper the other day. I'm afraid to replace the outlet because I don't know what I will find in there that may have caused this. It's probably nothing, but I remain hesitant.

I hope you are all enjoying your start to the new year! And that you are and remain healthier than we have been.

Oskar Gags on Jello, Imminent Doom for Dorisa's Favorite Sweater

Oskar makes faces now. It's great.

We met a friend for dinner a couple weeks back. Dan was especially pumped because we were going to have Chinese food. Dining with out with a toddler is not easy in our family. We trade the work of cooking a meal for the work of dealing with Oskar. The previous night we had gone out and Oskar was so good. He was a little antsy at the end of the meal, but considering he is 2, he was spectacular. I thought we had turned a corner. The next night, dressed in my favorite sweater and over-confidence from the success of the previous night's dinner out we headed into the largest Chinese buffet I've ever seen. Oskar was excited to see his plate, which included french fries, mandarin oranges, and wobbly red squares. I thought the jello squares looked a little big, but he handled the first one just fine, so I let it be, trying to ignore the voice in my head telling me to cut them smaller. Five minutes later, he gagged on some jello. It cleared pretty quick, but it still frightened him and he whimpered a bit so I gave him a hug. He had gagged once before this, and it was followed by an episode of vomiting. I did not know that this would become a "thing" of his. Hug, you're okay Oskar, pat pat pat, vomit. Mostly on me, his sweater of course is fine. Dan was wearing a sweatshirt so I was able to change but the smell lingered on my pants and the stain set on the sweater slowly freezing in the car. I was still hungry, so I tried to eat, but I was unsuccessful. It will be a while til I am able to go to a Chinese buffet again. For my part, there was no gagging or tears, but an utter deflation of spirit. Defeated by vomit. I was doomed to chase a toddler, who was crazy as ever despite the previous day's victory by the way, smelling like vomit, with crusty vomit hair, hungry but not hungry, and beyond frustrated. Dan helped chase too, no worries. Let it be known that even a vomiting toddler can't ruin good company, for without her the evening would have been a total loss.

The end of a well timed yawn, and the lock screen on my phone.

I generally don’t condone drinking alone before 11 AM on a Sunday, but Oskar whacked me in the butt with a spatula he grabbed out of the sink the other day, so I took the opportunity. In my defense we eat lunch crazy early around here, so I was drinking with a meal. I don't condemn drinking alone on a Sunday before 11 AM either. It just isn't something that comes up very often.

It may look like he's praying, but no, he is mooing.

Our guest room is painted! Come visit us! There is a bed and everything. It is very exciting.

Yes, that is my Alma quilt. If you don't know what that means don't worry about it.

Are there any other parents out there that would like to give Raffi a high five AND punch him in the face? The dude has crazy catchy songs and they do not leave your head. Oskar is absolutely in love with "Baby Booga." Listening to the whole CD over and over again isn't too bad, there are just 2 things I dislike a bunch. This includes the nonsense at the end of Biscuits in the Oven and the line "Nothing can go wrongo I'm in the Congo" from Joshua Giraffe. Wrongo is not a word and I'm sorry, but you are in the Congo- EVERYTHING can go wrong.

Smile Oskar! No. This face.

Oskar got really excited about running in Macy's the other day and took a significant multi-stage tumble. Knees then belly then face. His hands got trapped under his stomach so they couldn't prevent the face plant. The lack of coordination is definite evidence that he is the child of Dan. The mouth bleeds a lot. I was certain that he would have a loose tooth or be missing one, but they are all there and he was fine about 3 minutes later. He is very good about getting over getting hurt. I wanted to get a picture of all the blood, but that clearly wasn't a priority. I kind of got a picture of his fat lip afterward. It stayed poofy for about a day and then the poof retreated.

Poofy lip.

Trying out the toys.

He found his old chair in the basement. Then Dan carried him upstairs in it.

During dinner, the phrase that is repeated most often around these parts is "Oskar, sit down and stop conducting." Anyone else have this problem? No? Just us? Great. When the choir sang one Sunday, he stood on my lap and conducted them from where we were sitting- on the opposite side of the sanctuary. I just don't get where he got this from. He has seen plenty of conductors in his life, but not a crazy amount- definitely not a daily or even weekly occurrence. He is very strange. Our day care provider said he has a wonderful spirit about him- or something like that. This was nice to hear. She also said that he has never thrown a tantrum while in her care. This made me happy and hugely frustrated.

We got our first real sized Christmas tree this year. It was a little scary because we didn't get to see it because it comes all wrapped up since we got it at Costco, but it is one of the fullest trees I've ever seen. To water it, we have to use our baster. A watering can might work, but I'm not confident enough to go out and actually buy one. We had to cut the end ourselves when we got it back (so it was like chopping it down, right?) and this would have been easier if we had better saws. Even with that hassle it was worth the savings in price. We are very happy with our tree and Oskar has been so good about not touching the ornaments.

Photobomb. How dare I take a picture of anything except Oskar.

Official 2 year picture

We celebrated Oskar's 2nd birthday partially on Thanksgiving and partially on his birthday, December 7th. Dan and I had had a crazy weekend so we were not at all prepared for a party, even a small one. We were going to run to the store after church and get a cake, but luckily for us there was a funeral out at Split Rock the day before and they had lots of leftover cake. Yes I know how that sentence sounds and I don't care. Candles were provided by grandma and grandpa and Oskar blew them out. Twice. The church sang Happy Birthday to him and then we sang during cake time at home and then he initiated it once more before bed. I think he likes when his name is in a song. He also fully understands opening presents now, so Christmas should be extra fun.

Oskar has officially and successfully transitioned to his twin size bed. He has only fallen out twice and once was when he was trying to get down and got tangled up in the sheets. I do have to go in before I go to sleep though and adjust him around a bit. He doesn't usually move in his sleep, but when he does it is in a big way. Observe:

I'm thinking he was trying to make his escape and fell asleep...

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! Thanks for reading and sorry I'm such a slacker with posting. Maybe posting more will be my unrealistic New Year's resolution.

See ya.

Dorisa Is a Liar

Never disrupt an artist.

We did not carve pumpkins of favorite characters and we have not made a pumpkin pie from scratch. I know this is a huge disappointment. Sorry for our infinite failure. Time has been in short supply.

I did, however, get Oskar's room painted and I am ordering a bed for him TODAY. This must happen. I was a little nervous at first when I put the paint on the walls because honestly it looked like putrid vomit. I powered through though and I absolutely love how it turned out. It is so much brighter in there. I also was able to touch up the floor quite a bit and it looks really good. I used a furniture polish that said to not use it on floors but to be honest, the floor looked thirsty and needed some love. I do not regret my decision at all. Sure it is a bit slippery, but Oskar doesn't fall down in there any more than in any other room, so I think it's fine. We got his windows covered with plastic and that is dramatically helping with the condensation problem and keeping the room much warmer. I was happy to learn that it is a pretty easy process too. The tiny shelf on the bottom of the windows made it a little more difficult and it probably will leak a bit, but hopefully it works okay for a while.

Before

Before

After. I will post more pics once his bed arrives. Also, this picture was taken with my phone at night,
so the coloring isn't great. I promise it looks good.

Work has been pretty busy, which is good. It was slow the week I painted Oskar's room, which was nice because I was able to get it done without too many late nights. I enjoy being busy because I like the work and it means more money, but I have another bedroom to paint and that is not happening very quickly.

This was the best Halloween picture we could get. It's a struggle to get him to wear pants,
we didn't want to deal with a costume.

Between nearing 2, getting 2 year molars, learning at the speed of light and alternating between feasting and fasting, Oskar's behavior as of late can at best be described as unpredictable. His favorite activities currently include building towers of Legos (see pictures), conducting whenever he hears music (audibly or in his head) and counting (2,3,4,5,6,8,9,10- he does not like 1 or 7). He also enjoys helping (and hurting) in the kitchen, reading books (if we only read 10 books we consider it a light day) and does not enjoy wearing pants.

We tried to get Oskar excited about leaf piles and jumping into them, but we weren't very successful. He eventually enjoyed running through them and throwing them in the air, but that's all we got. We tried to get him outside to play in the snow on Saturday but he wasn't interested. This is strange because last year we had a hard time keeping him inside.

This dude seriously holds a pen better than most adults I know.

Oskar is standing on a stool, by an end table, conducting while Dan plays the piano.

We (Heartland Handbells) had a concert a week ago and it went pretty well. I of course made mistakes I had never made in my life, but I don't think they were too noticeable. People said they liked us though and we were able to make a little money for our group. In other handbell news, I am going to a town called French Lick, Indiana in May. Can you believe that there is such a place? That is a ridiculous name.

Oskar "helps" at bell rehearsal. Because how is an arrhythmically malleted  F throughout an entire song NOT helpful?
That's not true, he had a rhythm going. It was all his own and he didn't care.

And a beautiful picture to end the post.

Dan and Dorisa Destroy an Ecosystem

Oskar says hello and apologizes for consuming all of his parents' free time and preventing the updating of the blog.

It all started when we moved in and learned about garbage. Technically the garbage can we had was too big so we went and bought a smaller one. We have a pleasant small garbage company that backs up your driveway where a guy gets off the truck and puts the garbage bags (limit 3) into the truck. It is completely unfathomable that garbage is done this way and after 4 months I still get nervous every time they back up the driveway thinking, "Really? Is this okay? I don't think this is right." I actually watched them do 3 more houses one day just to be sure I wan't missing something. Anyways. When we moved in there was extra garbage made and there was garbage left here (in the too big bin) by the previous inhabitant. Over the first couple months of the summer we made sure that we got rid of the garbage bit by bit... or did we?

Around the beginning of August I was working in the garage just being absolutely annihilated by mosquitoes. If you know me at all you know that mosquitoes are the worst and cause me to get giant welts. Frustrated, I chose to work inside that day instead. We noticed at other times that fruit flies were bad, but they were bad inside the house too, so whatever. Then the real flies were bad, but garbage cans have flies and it didn't seem ridiculous, so we didn't give it much heed.

Enter team radon. We had a radon mitigation system put in a couple weeks back and they happened to open the garbage can that we don't use anymore and thought was empty. I feel bad for them. At first I was angry because we don't use that garbage and everything needs to be in a bag- we can't have random bits of trash in there and because of this I new we would have to dig it out and deal with it. Then I was glad because they brought a truly terrible situation to our attention. There have been few smells I have experienced in my life that are that awful. We turned what was a mosquito free day into an June evening in the Boundary Waters in about 3 minutes. It was terrible. Doing all this with a toddler running around made it extra fun. But hey, what would life be without a bug infested summer boiled liquid garbage challenge? The answer is awesome. It would be awesome without this challenge.

It's funny how much they can say to each other without really talking.

Dan turned 30 on September 27th and my brother, sister-in-law, and nephews came to visit. We had a great time playing and eating and walking. As with all weekend visits with crazies who have jobs that require them to work on Sundays, it was too short, but at least this one time we weren't the ones driving!

Oskar and his long shaggy hair. Also he is about 3 seconds from sleep in this picture.

I cut Oskar's hair last Sunday. We both had colds so I put on Nightmare Before Christmas and noticed that he was sitting extremely still while I was playing with his hair. Then there was about 20 minutes of internal dialogue. "Can I do this? Probably. Should I do this? I don't know. It's only $14 at the salon. Yea, but he cries, and I dread having to deal with that. I dread even scheduling the appointment because it means that soon I will have to deal with him in the salon, that's why he looks like a girl. You could just bring him something to watch at the salon. That and a sucker might do it. I don't want to do that though. And then you are covered in hair, and sucker stick, which attracts more hair and you are thinking about adding a screen? No. Can I really do this? You've watched his hair get cut many times, you know what to do. Plus you've cut some of your friends' hair before and that went fine. Yea, but I've cut my bangs too short before and that is not good. He's a little boy. make small cuts it'll be fine. Can I do it? Do it. Put him in his chair, make him a sandwich and get started. Go. NOW!" That's just a sample.

Short hair- somewhat disheveled. Yes that is a potty. No it has not been used. No it will not be located in the living room. He did have a successful number two while sitting on it in his clothes and diaper. I take this as a good sign.

Lunch time during this process was a mistake. But he wasn't that hungry anyway. I started cutting my baby's hair about halfway though Nightmare Before Christmas and Voila! After that movie, 2 episodes of Super Why! and vacuuming both the floor and my child multiple times I found a little boy! Note: getting vacuumed with the bristle attachment probably is not the nicest thing you can do to your half naked toddler, but it works, and their memory is still pretty bad.

I found one bookshelf I liked after looking through many furniture stores. It was five hundred dollars. Then I went to JoAnn Etc. (Impossible to find in Sioux Falls by the way. I had two different addresses/locations given to me by the internet and they were both very wrong) I bought some crates (half price) and used leftover paint and stain to build my boy a book shelf type thing.

This was 20 minutes after I set it up. $30 for the win.

We had our first home ownership casualty last week. Believe it or not, our avocado green dryer stopped working. It had been in the throws of death since we moved in though. It squeaked with every rotation of the drum. And not just a little squeak. A resonating squeak that could be heard in every corner of the house. No lie. So, we say "goodbye avocado" and "hello cheapest dryer we could find." The dream of course is to have a beautiful matching set, but that doesn't make sense with our budget and a location in an unfinished room in the basement. We have had our new dryer for a couple days now and it works incredibly well. We are happy and our ears are happy.

Oskar is my little home improvement friend. He takes his little paint brushes and brushes the walls, tries to get color samples to stick on the walls and has been helping sand his head board. What wasn't great was when he started sanding an already painted wall, but it was fine. What I love is that everything he knows is simply in little blips of observation. He isn't really around while I'm painting or sanding, he just sees a little bit now and then but picks it up so quickly. All of a sudden a few days ago he started counting to 10 too. It's fun to watch him learn. And more rewarding than when he accidentally (or so we tell ourselves) headbutts you in the nose.

Stay tuned to see what happens when Dan and Dorisa try to turn a pumpkin into pie, and other pumpkins into beloved movie characters! Coming soon!