Once We Had a Yard...

and now it's gone!

We're undergoing the house project of our lives right now. In preparing to finish our basement and turn it into a playroom, John discovered small cracks in the cinder block walls. While we were assured by many that it wasn't a huge deal, we've come to realize over many months that our foundation was never waterproofed, and thus the moisture from the yard outside has been pushing our walls inward and compromising the foundation of the entire house. Ugh.

I'm thankful for honest and helpful contractors who have helped us diagnose, and now fix, the situation. This week we are paying an exorbitant amount of money (equal to more than 50% of my early post-college paychecks) to a landscaping company who is pulling up all of our bushes, digging 7-foot trenches around our house, taking a closer look at newly-discovered cracks in the walls, waterproofing the foundation and walls, and demolishing our backyard in order to regrade it. This is no small feat. There are typically a half-dozen guys here working their butts off, and we've also seen some heavy machinery.

Boy I wish our little boy was able to see this -- he'd go crazy checking out the trucks! One of Katie's little boy neighbors has been watching intently from the sidewalk across the street.

Here are some photos of the demolition. I sure hope we have enough money leftover to actually do the playroom! And we're definitely interested in any of your recommendations for small, shade-friendly, low-maintenance plants that deer won't eat. We'll have to replant our entire yard.

Backyard:

In this first photo, you can see the top of a man's head in the trench near the corner of the house. The second shows all that's remaining of our backyard -- just the swingset and the shed! -- and you can also see the pieces of the window wells, which they had to pull out. The third photo is of a forklift, which was carrying huge cement slabs out of our yard. To be honest, I really have no idea where those slabs even were to begin with.




Front Yard:

This first photo is from our front door, showing the pile of just some of the trees and bushes that they've had to pull up. The second photo is another similar pile, and also shows the tree stump from a tree that John and our neighbor Sean pulled down this weekend by themselves (ack!). The contractor offered to pull up and haul away anything in our yard that John was able to cut down, so John took the opportunity to get rid of an ugly tree that was interfering with some power lines.

First photo: A row of bushes used to frame the path leading to the backyard. Second photo is a huge piece of equipment (is it called a backhoe?) that they had to specially bring in today when they realized that our wall cracks went below the level they could dig out with their smaller machines.

Here's the trench in the front yard, as well as a larger view showing a very bare front yard.

As a point of comparison, here's what our house looked like six years ago when we bought it. Not that the landscaping ever looked that nice again after we assumed responsibility for it. :-)

Katie Performs for the Camera

These three videos astound me. I can't believe how quickly Katie learns things, especially if they're put to music!

Katie has learned the motions to "If You're Happy and You Know It", demonstrated on the beach on November 9:

From her obsessive watching of "Sesame Street" videos, Katie has learned many of the lyrics to the Madeline Kahn/Grover echo song "Sing After Me" (if you're not familiar with that song, you can watch the original version here).

And this weekend we introduced Katie to "The Muppets Take Manhattan", which was my brother Stephen's favorite movie as a preschooler. One of my favorite scenes in the movie has Miss Piggy fantasizing about what it would have been like to have been babies together with the other muppets (seen in this clip starting at the 2:00 point) (I believe this scene inspired my favorite childhood cartoon, "Muppet Babies"). Katie also loves this scene, and had a dance party on the couch this weekend to express her enjoyment:

I Never Thought I Would See This Day Again

Gas under $2.00. Did you ever think you'd see this day again? All I can say is, Praise God!

Halloween 2008

Well you know I'm behind on blogging when I'm not posting our Halloween adventures until November 19! Sorry!

Our Halloween adventures lasted a week, so let me give you the scoop chronologically.

Saturday, October 25

Our friends David and Emily threw a wonderful Halloween party. The kids' costumes were a big hit. Katie was Nemo (aka "fishy fishy" since she's never seen "Finding Nemo"). Her friends Hannah and Meghan also got in on the animal fun.

Katie got into the groove at the party by dancing in her fishy costume:

Friday, October 31

Katie went trick or treating for the first time. We only visited a handful of neighbors (the ones we know best) but she wasted no time learning how to show off for candy. :-)

Saturday, November 1

For me, the biggest event of the Halloween season is our neighborhood block party, which includes a costume contest. Last year Katie the Lion won 3rd place. Could she outdo herself this year?

Sadly, John couldn't come, so I recruited my saintly future sister-in-law Lindsey to help me watch Katie and take pictures. Katie LOVES her Aunt Lindsey!

But before we get to the costume contest, let me tell you about Katie's other fun block party adventures. She amused herself (and the rest of us) by trying to eat the ice in the drink bin, saying hi to a neighborhood dog, and picking up all the leftover toilet paper from a Dress-Your-Mom-Like-A-Mummy contest.

So now, back to the contest. Katie had stiff competition from about two dozen of the neighborhood kids:

The awards were given out based upon applause level, so when it was Katie's turn to shine, she made sure to applaud for herself:

Sure enough, her clapping must have helped, because Katie made the semifinal round. And when the applause was tallied again, Katie got... 2nd place! Go Katie!!!

Katie enjoyed the entire afternoon, but was glad to cuddle up with Aunt Lindsey and Sesame Street afterwards while Mommy helped clean up.

It's a Boy!

It took less than a minute for our sonographer to be able to tell us what gender our new baby is!

All measurements and indicators are looking wonderful. And John and I (and most everyone who ventured to guess) were right in our guesses that it's a boy. It's a happy discovery. I know that boys can be a handful. But it also means that our last name will be carried into another generation, and that John has a little boy to teach lacrosse to (although I'm sure Katie will also get lacrosse lessons from Daddy).

I'm even gaining less weight than I'm allowed to gain. If only I felt that way -- I feel huge! My second trimester has definitely been harder than my first. As Baby Boy Biddison gets bigger, he's pushing into my stomach, which means I'm often having stomachaches, especially at bedtime. And worst of all is my back -- it's hard carrying one baby in my arms and one in my tummy! Still, I'm really glad that our baby seems to be healthy -- it makes the rest worth it.

Thanks for your prayers!

Our 4th Tiny Talk Tuesday

Now 17 months old, Katie is talking more and more every week. Here's what she said this week:

"Beh-bee" = "Belly Button" (first said on Oct. 30) (thanks to my friend Katie for giving us the Belly Button Book -- you're right, Katie, it's been a big hit! Toddler Katie loves pointing at her belly button and exclaiming "Wuzzat???!!")

"Where's Mommy?" and "Where's Daddy?" (first said on Nov. 1 to Lindsey). My future sis-in-law Lindsey was watching Katie while I helped run the neighborhood block party, and Katie's way of thanking her was to share a few phrases that she'd never said before! Thanks again (and happy birthday), Lindsey!

"Grover" (first said on Nov. 3 to Grammy)

"Ah ee ah ee" -- This is Katie's version of reading. Whenever she sees letters anywhere, whether on my Wheaton College t-shirt or the words on our dishwasher, she tries to sound out the letters. Of course, she can't tell one letter from the other, but it's still cute. :-)

And a new fun activity today: Katie has been giving me "eskimo kisses" (aka rubbing her nose against mine). She discovered this trick totally on her own and thus thinks it's hysterical.

Happy Election Day!

Fun Photos from September and October

I'll save the Halloween photos for another week and post them all together. (Can anyone guess what Katie will be? It's orange and cute and she can make the appropriate facial expression.)

In the meantime, here are a few cute photos from September and October that haven't yet made the blog:

Dressed up for church:
Enjoying a bouncy seat that we bought from a friend for Baby #2:

Enjoying Mommy's soup bread bowl from Panera:

Playing with her best friend Daniel's car at playgroup (this car is definitely being added to Katie's Christmas wishlist):

Katie's obsessed with dog leashes, so I decided to see just how much she enjoyed them. Guess not this much:

Reading her Tails book with Great-Grandma:The best way to amuse Katie while waiting in the Costco customer service line? Allow her to play in the cart:

Bottoms up! Katie tries to swig the Tabasco sauce at my college reunion event. Since the bottle was closed, I thought it was a safe bet, but I guess there were traces of Tabasco on the cap. Whoops! I was too busy trying to cool off her mouth to get a photo of the resulting facial expression.

Our 3rd Tiny Talk Tuesday

Katie is 17 months old this week and learning how to talk. Here are her new words this week:

"Mama" and "Dada" are quickly being replaced by "Mommy" and "Daddy" (starting 10/24, as first witnessed by my mom). My heart melts every time she says "Mommy." :-)

"Jay-Ja-Je Jee" is a favorite phrase. It's easily translated "Sesame Street".

Along the same lines, "Mamo" is now heard regularly -- that's "Elmo".

And when she sees Grover, the response is either "Gucci" or "Cookie" (her name for "Cookie Monster", who's also fuzzy and blue)

One of Katie's favorite foods is "cocker" -- a Ritz cracker.

And she can also say "bubble". Bathtime is so much more fun with bubble bath, even though Katie won't stop trying to eat the bubbles, so she doesn't get the privilege very often.

And this isn't a new word, but just an FYI: Katie's new favorite book is Goodnight Moon. It's so fun to see her enjoying the same things I did as a kid!

My YouTube Playlist

With all the Sesame Street shows that Katie and I are watching on TV these days, I find myself on YouTube quite often, looking for old Sesame Street clips that I either remember from my childhood or that will fill me in on plot developments that I missed along the way. (Another great resource I've found is Muppet Wiki.)

Anyway, I thought those Sesame Street fans in my blogging audience might enjoy some of my favorite Sesame Street clips as well. After I list them, I'll also list some non-Sesame Street clips that rank as some of my favorites on YouTube. Feel free to list your own favorites in the comments section!

Favorite Sesame Street clips:
Luis and Maria's Wedding
35th Anniversary Montage
Bob and Susan singing "I've Got Two"
Grover and Madeline Kahn singing "Be My Echo"
REM singing "Furry Happy Monsters"
Feist singing "1-2-3-4"
James Blunt singing "My Triangle"

Favorite non-Sesame Street clips:
Josh Groban at the 2008 Emmys singing dozens of TV show themes in less than 4 1/2 minutes
The musical episode from "Scrubs": Part 1, Part 2
David Cook singing "Billie Jean" in last year's American Idol competition
Davy Jones singing "Girl" on "The Brady Bunch" (Oh, if I'd only been 18 in 1971 instead of -5!)
Ricky sings "I'm in Love with the Dragon's Dinner" to Lucy in a dream sequence on "I Love Lucy" (song begins at about 1:45 in the clip)

Our 2nd Tiny Talk Tuesday

Since I listed a bunch of Katie's new words last week, I'll list just the new words Katie has said this week.

1. "Hi" and "Buh-Bye".

The cutest example was when Katie's betrothed Kai was crying in his highchair, and I leaned Katie in to kiss his head and try to cheer him up. She got right into his face, started waving, and said, "Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi!" Kai, who seems to be crushing on Katie as well, immediately cheered up.

2. "Pooh" (as in "Winnie the...") (first said 10/17)

Winnie the Pooh is everywhere in our house, and now she's referring to him by name.

3. "Two" (first said 10/18)

Katie was trying to get into a bottle of floor cleaner and I was giving her a countdown of one-two-three to encourage her to walk away before I had to intervene. I started the countdown: "One". She immediately replied, "Two!" That was her first time saying "two" in context of counting, and of course I couldn't be mad as she showed off her new word. I did, however, still remove her from the floor cleaner. :-)

4. "Bee" (first said 10/18)

We've been reading the Dr. Seuss book, "Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?" before bed a lot recently. After Mr. Brown moos like a cow on the first page, he buzzes like a bee on the second page. Katie had buzzed once, but yesterday as she was picking up her bath toys and making animal sounds for each, she picked up the bee and said, "Bee." Good for her. Maybe we'll finally embark on a trend of saying the animals' names instead of just the sounds they make.

5. "Puppy" (first said 10/19)

Speaking of the animal name trend, another of Katie's new words is "puppy." No longer does every dog have to be "Bella." Unfortunately, I discovered this new word while trying to sit quietly with Katie during our evening church service this past Sunday. I handed her the "Puppy Love" book in the pew, hoping that she'd "read" it quietly while I listened to the sermon. Opposite reaction -- she started screaming "Puppy!!! over and over again in excitement. We exited shortly thereafter. :-)

(Others' Tiny Talk Tuesday posts are here.)

Our First Tiny Talk Tuesday

This is my first shot at Tiny Talk Tuesday, a blog event my friend Mary started to record the funny things her kids say every week. Since Katie's saying more and more words all the time, I decided it was time to join in!

Full sentences Katie (age 16 months) has said:

"She says moo." (response to the question "What does the cow say?")

"Whazdat?" and "Whoozdat?" (she asks this of everything she does not know the name of -- she is one curious child!)

"Bad Bella!!" (she says this constantly, whether or not our dog Bella is being bad and sometimes when Bella is miles away from us) (she also says this when trying to say "banana")

"It's a Bella" and "It's a baby." See video below as she marvels over the little plastic babies that I got as part of a twin baby shower favor.

Other words she says on her own now, besides the ones I mentioned in July:

"Shoe"
"Eye"
"No" (for both "no" and "nose")
"Mow" (for "mouth")
"Yes"
"Cookie" (for both "cookie" and "Cookie Monster")
"Wheeeee!"
"Bella" (she calls all dogs "Bella" now)
"Dank you!"
"Ow ow ow!" (as she hits Mommy -- we'll have to work on curbing that one)

Animal Noises she's improved upon:

Cow -- "Mooooo" (it's the first animal noise that she's really mastered in terms of both inflection and pronunciation)

Elephant -- "Brbrbrbrbrbrb!" (High-pitched motorcycle noise while she lifts her arm like a trunk -- it actually is the best elephant noise I've heard a child make)

Chicken -- "bak bak" (refers both to the animal and to the food. At least twice a week I have to go through the drive-thru, and all I have to do is ask Katie if she wants some "bak bak" -- chicken nuggets -- and I have one happy little girl)

Wolf -- "HOOOO-oooo!" as she points her mouth up to the sky

Tiny Talk example of the week: The word "Wheeeee!"

Katie's just learned the expression "wheeeee!" We use it when pushing her around the room on her fire truck or when pushing her in the swing or when going down the slide.

She had never used it in observation before, but we were watching a classic Sesame Street segment of gibbons swinging from rung to rung in a zoo. Since gibbons are similar to monkeys, I expected Katie to start making her monkey noise "Ay yi yi yi" (see this post to find out why that's the noise a monkey makes). Instead, as the gibbon swung from rung to rung, Katie started cheering it on: "Wheee! Wheee! Wheee!"

And tonight I was checking email while Katie was absorbed in watching Sesame Street behind me. Suddenly I heard her saying "wheeee!" and there were no gibbons swinging this time. She had climbed up on the coffeetable, and was using her "wheeee" to describe the adventure she was having. Note to self: Listen carefully for "wheee"s whenever Katie's out of sight. :-)

Katie Has An Important Announcement!

That's right, we're due March 20th with Baby #2. We hope to find out the gender on November 5. Please keep us in your prayers!

Mommy's 10 Year College Reunion: Boy She's Old!

Last weekend the three of us flew to Chicago for my 10-year college reunion. It was an exhausting but wonderful and fun weekend.

The flight there was the best flight with Katie so far -- there was an empty row of seats so she got her own seat in between us. Then we fed her some donut pieces at the beginning of the flight and she spent almost the entire flight bouncing in her seat and waving to everyone around us. When she started to crash after her sugar high, she fell asleep in my arms in minutes. Amazing. Thank God!

Once we landed, we decided to do a little sightseeing before my friends arrived. With our new GPS (thank you, Grammy and JayPa!), we were able to make several spontaneous detours without getting too lost. First up: Superdawg, a 1940s-style drive-in hot dog joint. John loved his burger, and the shake was so good we went back for a super sundae.


Next we drove over to Lakefront Drive to enjoy the views of Lake Michigan. We stopped long enough for John to hop out at Soldier Field and enjoy the spectacular architecture of the Chicago Bears' stadium.

That evening my three college roommates arrived, and spending time with Ruth, Karin, and Kelly (some of my best friends ever) was definitely the highlight of our trip. Here the roomies visit the suite where we first lived together our sophomore year (though we'd been inseparable since September of our freshman year):

We also lived together in an apartment our junior and senior years. Our senior year, we lived next door to an apartment that included Kelly's future husband, Jeff, as well as three other guys (Dan, Josh, and Jason) who became close friends. In this photo, that other apartment is represented by Rachel on the left, who was dating Dan that year and is now married to him with two kids; Josh making a muscle in the background; and Kelly on the right (my roommate and Jeff's wife) with one of their two children, Riley.

And here are the roomies with our unforgettable friend Duane.

While roommate time was wonderful, I also enjoyed my time reconnecting with friends I don't have as much contact with. Friday afternoon we met up with the professor I used to TA for who just got married for the first time at the age of 74! Then we met up with Emily and Morgan, a friend from home and her five year old daughter. And Sunday, just before we left to go home, we had lunch with one of my prayer partners from college, Amy, and her family (husband Kris, children Elena, Ian, and Anneliese). Here are photos from that fun afternoon:

Katie's highlights of the trip were playing with all the children she met -- Amy's three children, Kelly's daughter Riley, and Emily's daughter Morgan. She learned the word "baby" that weekend as well, and got to practice it on Anneliese. Unfortunately, a college campus isn't very babyproofed, and Katie has been sporting "war wounds" on her face this week from the four faceplants she did while in Illinois.