The rest of June

June started to get pretty hectic towards the end... or at least busy!! Lets see...




Weekend of June 20-22:

Friday we went to Chicken Fest and met up with friends to play at the park. Josh had a lot of fun playing with his friends at the park. Later we danced to some music and watched fireworks. Josh was mesmerized by the bright lights. No tears!

Saturday I ran the YMCA 2 mile Mom's run with my girlfriends Mandy and Melanie. I have decided that I always start way too fast. This trail covered everything from asphalt to rocks to dirt! It was tough! The last two pictures on this post show how much Josh enjoys the runs... he has his sippy cup, snacks, hat, sunglasses... loving life! The last one is of him watching Eric (Mandy's 3 yr old) run his race.

Sunday we likely went to Church and breakfast... don't recall... :)

Weekend of June 27-29:

On Friday Jim's family came into town for a weekend visit. It was a BLAST!! They all arrived late on Friday night and Josh woke up just to say hello. Miss Izzy was very tired and slept.

Saturday we had breakfast and relaxed for a while at the house. Izzy and Josh got in a morning nap and then we went to the Building for Kids. Although I thought it was on the spendy side - $6.50 per person (including the 13 month olds!)... it was a very cool place. Josh loved the water room - they have rainjackets of all sizes that the kids can put on to keep them from getting too wet. There were 3-4 water tables with lots of trinkets and things to play with. Josh again - Loved It. Then we explored the rest of the building and saw a sports zone with mini golf - which Izzy didn't like anyone leaving the clubs on the green... And a firetruck with mini firefighter outfits to wear... And a huge mousetrap type room with balls that went everywhere... After about an hour of this place you could tell the little ones were on sensory overload... so we called it a day. That night we had a big dinner and played a few board games.

Sunday we had a nice big breakfast and said our good-bye's. It was a blast having them visit and so fun to see Josh excited to see them too!

Latest updates on Josh is his sign language. We have been teaching him milk, juice, more, bath, please, swing, and don't touch. He regularly signs milk, juice, more, bath, and please. I was so excited when I picked him up from daycare the other day and he gave me the sign for please... It was so ridiculously cute! This could be a problem in the future! And it really does work! Believe me - in the middle of the night... we are much better at figuring out the issue. Ha ha!

Another new not so awesome habit is the fact that Josh is waking up at 4:58am... and has been for a few weeks now. I couldn't find anything in my "sleep problems" book so I decided to email the author himself, Dr. Ferber. Within 1 hour I received a response back with a plan to move his bedtime back (which we had tried) but he said it can take up to 7 days to get him to wake up later. And after 6 days... we officially have him going to bed between 8-8:30 pm and waking up around 6:30am. We determined that this all started once he got comfortable in his new room at daycare... he started taking a 2 hour solid nap each day... and that meant he didn't need the 11-12 hours at night. Lesson learned - don't be afraid to email an author... sometimes they could surprise you and actually respond! :)

WALKING....

Josh has officially started walking. Since about February I have been waiting for this... up until last weekend he would take about 5 steps without holding onto anything. Then this Friday... he took a few more and quickly grabbed onto the nearest peice of furniture. That night he walked from the kitchen table into the family room all by himself! Which is like 20 steps!

He is so serious when he walks and as soon as he realizes someone is watching he starts to go faster and gets this big grin on his face right before he tumbles. It is SO amazing to see how much he has grown!

In other news... Jim and I completed the 10K this weekend that we had set out to do. Our friends Bob and Mandy along with their two kids and then another friend Melanie and her daughter all ran the race. Jim and Bob decided to start out pushing the strollers. The first 2 miles were CRAZY. There were over 15,000 people running. They had those with strollers start after all the runners and at the same time as the walkers... DUMB! At least let us go after the runners but BEFORE the walkers. So for the first 2 miles we literally zig zagged through hundreds of people... and sprinting... walking... sprinting... walking. Finally we seemed to get to an area that we could actually run and I looked at Mandy and she said, "If we keep this up there is no way I am running the whole way". I completely agreed. So we watched as the boys pushed the strollers like crazy men. They finished about 3 minutes ahead of us gals. But we had a blast!

New job - many of you have been asking how the new job is going. Well I am on week 2 and so far really like it. It is very different compared to my old job. I have spent most of my time out on the machine floor talking with operators, following them around to learn the equipment, and getting to know my fellow process engineers and shift supervisors. I am really the only female in the engineering group, but there are a few females in the building that I interact with on a daily basis who are very bright and know exactly how to get things done. My hours haven't changed much except that I am much more in control of my schedule. At KC we were in meetings about 90% of the time so getting any work done seemed to require longer hours. Granted I am only into week 2, but it seems that the others in my position have a very good work/life balance. We are on call, but it is almost always something you can answer over the phone. So more to come...

Couple of things I have laughed about since switching jobs.

1. Whenever refering to my previous job I start with "We" blah blah blah. I wonder how long it will take to stop doing that.


2. All the acronyms... everyone has them. And it is incredibly hard to keep up with conversations when you don't know them.


3. I had to call the help desk to get my email to work... I couldn't understand a word the guy said. I finally had to tell him, "I am sorry but I can't understand a single word you are saying, could you please talk slower." Later I found out the help desk is in Mexico. So I traded India for Mexico. When are we going to outsource to Canada? ha ha!


4. Microsoft Office. I didn't realize how much I knew about it until I opened up Lotus Notes. I am getting used to it. But definitely not the same.


5. I thought my email was down today because I only received 3 emails all day. One from my sister, my mom, and one from a friend. And there was only one meeting on my calendar for the entire week. The co-op cleared it up though... emails are only a formality... and meetings happen on the floor.

So that is the Kirkwood 411. :)

Week of vacation

Started off the week of vacation with a road trip to MN to meet up with my sister, catch a plane to Phoenix and meet up with Miss Blair. We flew first class thanks to my moms free upgrade certificates. So nice to just relax and have a few drinks. That night we went to dinner with Blair and her fiance Chris and relaxed over some more drinks. Sunday morning we went for a walk, headed to a pool for the afternoon. My sister and Blair love laying in the sun... me not so much. I can do it for about 10 minutes... then I need to find something to do. I kept myself busy by doing water exercises, reading magazines, and eating. ha ha!

We went back to the airport to pick up my mom and drove to dinner. We did some shopping then drove to my aunts in Cave Creek. Their house was beautiful. Monday we went shopping with Barb and had some lunch. That evening we went to dinner with Barb and Paul. Hung out at their place and of course had to watch the bachelorette. That night was hilarious... Shannon and I were sleeping on a sleep number bed and trying to figure out what number to try. We were goofing around so my mom decided to come figure out what we were doing. Only she didn't say a word so when I looked up from the remote she was standing right next to me. I jumped so high and completely on top of my sister. We laughed for probably 5 minutes... Random. But one of those funny times in life. Tuesday - more lounging around. Shannon laid in the sun, my mom and I sat in the shade. :)

We flew back to MN Tuesday night. I left early Wed morning to get back to WI and see my boys... I missed Josh, Jim, and Hilo immensely. Josh continues to get closer and closer to walking. The transition to the 1-2 yr old room at daycare went really well and he loves his new teachers. My favorite part - he gets a 2 hour solid nap every day. Something that NEVER happened before. He is just to noisy... and if there is any noise - he wants to be there to see what is going on.

The rest of the week we relaxed even more. We went garage sale-ing and I bought a Trek road bike for $60. Pretty excited about that and so is Jim because it is way cheaper than the $500 bike I was looking at. We went to our friends house to partake in the 3rd annual Beer Decathalon. Once again - another good turnout and another year of fun. Josh had a riot playing with all the boys and his friend Ella. He was so dirty by the end of the day... 6 hours outside and there wasn't a single part of his shirt that was still white. BOYS!

Sunday night we grilled out. And this was Josh's first experience with corn on the cob. He is doing this thing lately where when he wants something he gets really excited and kicks his feet and flails his arms and makes some weird noise. He does this with more enthusiasm as this "something" gets closer to him. If you turn away... instant tears/screams of protest. Turn back toward him... instant flailing and grins... turn away... tears/screams... turn back... more flailing. You get the idea. So Jim and I are sitting at dinner eating corn and Josh began his flailing. After having a few rows myself... I handed the ear of corn to him and to my surprise, he actually was able to bite off an entire row. I didn't dare take it away from him at this point. Oh Nanna Lu Lu... make sure you have extra corn on the cob for Josh... I have a feeling he is going to be your biggest threat. My mom (Nanna Lu Lu as we call her) will easily eat 5 ears of corn if they are available...

So a one year old eating corn on the cob... didn't expect that.