Traveling Crazyness

This past week I went to UW-Platteville for oncampus recruiting. We are looking for 2 co-op students at our plant in 2010. So because I like to go on these trips, I asked my boss very early on if I could remain involved on recruitment when I started at Alcan. Well now I am his go to person. Which is nice, but it is a lot of additional work. This trip him and I went down. I was quite impressed with Platteville. It is a very good engineering school that I never had heard of until I started working for Alcan and they are really tiny. It is even smaller than what it was like in Houghton! :) Their career fair was from 10am-3pm and then my boss and I interviewed candidates from 3:30-9pm. I was definitely sick of talking at the end of it all! We found some really good candidates so that is always nice!

I was excited to be home, although Jim was getting busier and busier at work so I feel like we are just passing the parenting baton right now! This weekend we laid low for the most part. We spent time outside and Josh washed his outdoor toys, Jim continued working on Josh's big boy Thomas the Train bed, and I got caught up on homework for school. Monday night I head to MTU to attend their career fair and interview again. So taking the time now to relax as much as possible!

Baby is doing well. Kicking, rolling, moving all of the time. I am feeling so much better than I did in the first trimester. I am hoping it lasts well into the third trimester which is right around the corner. Belly continues to grow although not so much around anymore. THANK GOODNESS!

Fun things Josh is doing/saying:

• Singing all the time. Songs he knows are ABC's, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Twinkle Twinkle, Farmer in the Dell, Rock A Bye Baby, I Love You You Love Me, John Jacob Jingle Heimer Schmidt, Itsy Bitsy Spider, I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumble Bee, Wheels on the Bus, Hot Dog! song from Mickey Mouse, and many many more I can't think of.


• Say "my" in front of everything. "How are you doing MY mommy?" ,"where are we going MY daddy?"


• When he wants to be held he says, "Hold you my mommy". TOO CUTE!


• Playing fetch with Hilo, although Hilo doesn't quite play back, Josh really tries.


• He loves kissing my belly and saying "Hi baby". He gets really excited when he feels the baby kick. So far he is asking for a sister more often than a brother. But I don't think he'll mind either way.

Mom and Josh Time

Wednesday night I had a hair appointment and unfortunately realized that Jim had stuff at work that night and I failed to get a sitter. So I debated on whether or not to cancel and well... decided to try bringing him along. He was an ANGEL! I had packed up a quick dinner for him, PB&J, apples, juice, cheez-its. He loved it. And all the girls at the salon just kept coming over to say hi. When we were done, he asked to go get his haircut... he loves going to get his haircut. So I said sure, why not. So off to the barber shop.

This is the type of shop that is first come first serve. I have been hesitant to put a specific stylist down just cause I feel guilty doing it. Unfortunately, the girl Josh ended up with was less than thrilled to be cutting a toddlers hair. I should have stopped it at that point. But I just kept going cause he was SO EXCITED to watch cartoons and get his haircut. She didn't put the kids fish cape on him and instead used a big adult black one. Josh looked up at me with a puzzled look and said, Mom - fish? She immediately commented how the adult one covers more so it is better. I then realized that Josh was watching Malcolm in the Middle... a show which i have never understood... and one that is definitely not appropriate for Josh. So I grabbed the remote hoping to find a kid appropriate show. The stylist was not happy with this and quickly said, "it's on Nickelodeon already". I said, "sure, but this is not an appropriate show for him" and flipped to some cartoon on the disney channel. The rest of the haircut involved her using a buzz cutter and having all the hair fly into Josh's face/eyes, then her taking the hair dryer right up to his face to blow it off, which went over really well! Josh never cried even though you could tell it really hurt to have the hair in his eyes. When the stylist brought out the hot towel to put on his face, normally used on the adults, I said, "um no, that is too hot for him". She looked confused. SERIOUSLY?? Being pregnant and well just slightly opinionated and outspoken, I said, "I know Josh, this isn't typically how your haircuts go, I am sorry, next time I promise it will be better". She probably didn't even acknowledge it. But man alive... if you don't like kids, don't cut their hair. I would have gladly waited another 5 minutes for a stylist that does like kids. On our way out I did hear her comment that he was the easiest kids cut she's had.

Jimbo had his fraternity reunion up at MTU this weekend, so it was a Josh/Mom hangout weekend. Friday night we watched a movie and cuddled on the couch. Saturday we did a lot of errands. Went to the post office, the bank, and the laundromat to wash all of Hilo's bedding. Josh loves running errands and is a great helper. Saturday night we had dinner and watched the Incredibles before bed. Sunday we went to church. Josh decided that he was going to sing the Halelujah part this time. So he belted it out, it was actually pretty good. HILARIOUS! He got the father-daughter in front of us to turn around. Of course at the end he added his own lyrics which were a combination of the ABC's and twinkle twinkle little star. The kid sings 24/7. And if you try to sing the song with him, he quickly tells you, "No, Josh sing it". OUCH! :)

A very busy weekend!

We went to Tatum and Justin's Pig Roast this year! We hadn't seen that group of friends since the last Pig Roast at their place two years ago. It was fun to see everyone and all of the kids, man alive, in two years there have been a lot of new little additions! Josh had a blast with the yard games and bubble maker. We also found out that there were four other pregnant ladies there, so it was fun to chat about how different our pregnancies have been and well, just enjoy talking while not drinking! ha ha! A fun thing, non of us were finding out the sex... so that was pretty cool to hear, not too common these days! The night ended with the HUGE bonfire. This one was definitely the biggest they have ever built... and quite scary to be around honestly. Good thing Justin got out the garden hose to put out the fire on the grass.

The next day we had church, breakfast, nap, and then my company (plant only) family picnic. It was really fun! I was on the planning committe and was very surprised by everything they were going to do, but was excited. They had two jumpy gyms outside, face painting, tatoos, snacks, hayrides, arts and crafts, yard games, a silly shower (dunk tank concept but shower), and lots of food and snacks. We of course spent a majority of our time in the jumpy gyms. I even got in there, all pregnant... it was just too much fun to see Josh get so excited. It was quite warm that day, 85F, so I had to keep reminding him to drink water and take breaks... his little face was so read and he was sweating from all the jumping! We stayed as long we we could, 3-7pm... and I could tell Josh was getting tired, the crying after falling routine. So we left. On the way home, mind you only 15 minute drive, Josh let us know he had to go potty. So Jim pulled off to the side of the country road and I jumped out to let Josh go on the side of the road. After he peed, he then said, go poop mom? I said, um, no, we are going to have to wait on that till we get home. Thankfully he cooperated. Oh, and this was on the main road leaving the picnic, so at least 3 coworkers saw this whole thing. NICE! :) At least they all understand!

21 Week Ultrasound pics!!!

Baby was moving and shakin... so many kicks and punches. We were in there for nearly 2 hours when the ultrasound tech finally gave up on trying to see the inside of babies mouth. Baby gave a little smirk at the end which I thought was pretty funny. Stubborn you think. Never! Not from two "non" stubborn parents such as Jim and I. Ya right. Heartbeat was at 150bpm, belly measuring 35" around, and weight up 14 lbs! YIKES! Just halfway?? The pics turned out awesome again... so we will get them up on the blog as soon as I can get to my scanner at work.

We had a fantastic Labor Day at Nanna and Puppa's lake. Josh actually was picked up on the previous Sunday afternoon and spent the first few days with Nanna and Puppa all by himself! Jim and I had no idea what to do with ourselves! We got there Wednesday night to find him completely content... didn't miss us at all I bet!

Thursday Jim and I went to the MN state fair... it was AWESOME! Ate way too much food, but it was all good. The corn dog won in the corndog/pronto pup challenge. The waffle on a stick was even better than I imagined. The cheese curds, roasted corn, and root beer floats were delicious as always. We got back to my parents to find Josh wasn't feeling that well. I think he ended up having the 24 hr stomach bug.

Kids being sick. They just don't understand that eating blueberries when you have been vomitting all day is not a very good idea. And rather than argue, I let him eat all the blueberries he could eat. BAD IDEA! When they came up, it looked like blood and it freaked me out just about as much as it did him. And it stains. Don't recommend it.

The rest of the weekend was a good one at the lake. Too cold to swim, but that didn't stop us from enjoying the pontoon and sand. Josh learned to cast all by himself. And he can cast better than I can I think. It is quite impressive. He LOVED fishing with Nanna and Puppa on the pontoon. We were out on the lake just cruising around when he said, "Mama - go potty". So I attempted to get him to pee off the side of the boat... no luck. But he did make it back in time to pee on a tree near the cabin, thanks to Uncle Joe's help. And that might have been the coolest thing ever!

The drive back home to WI was split up. Sunday night we left the lake and went to my parents in the Twin Cities. Along the way we had a potty incident. Josh told us he had to go just as we passed an exit with plenty of restrooms. Neither of us could remember exactly how far the next exit was going to be and when I looked back at Josh... we were already too late. Awesome! We pulled off at the next exit, used a gallon ziplock bag torn in half to cover the wet seat, gave Josh a wetwipe bath, and got back on the road. Thankfully we were not making the full 8 hour drive home that night. All in all, Josh did great on the trip and we became much better bathroom stop planners on the remainder of the trip! The last picture is of my grandparents... Grandma Donna and Grandpa Roger. My great-granny Leona, Donna's mom, is still alive and doing well! Blessed to have them in our life.