Mary at 5 days old

Here are Mary's baby pictures, taken when she was just five days old. I keep forgetting to put them up. We were a little bit on the busy side to send announcements to everybody, so this is the next best thing. Have a great day, everybody...

More Vacationing!

Well, last week it was the Riesgraf side, this week it was the Sprengeler side. Both sets of grandparents took us in this summer to their respective Lake Villas. Grandma and Grandpa Sprengeler rented a cabin up in Park Rapids for a week, and it was loads of fun for all. (except the three and a half hours in the car to get there.....)

Am I a bad parent for investing in a portable DVD player for car trips? Julia is glued to the thing when we drive....she is going to need a twelve step program one of these days...

Anyways, we spent the week with grandparents and aunties and uncles that spoil the nieces/granddaughters. So, this week will be spent trying to get our children back from the "I AM SO CUTE THAT YOU"LL DO OR GET ANYTHING FOR ME, RIGHT?" stage. Ahhhh parenthood. Life is grand!

Here is Julia after she came out of the bedroom holding the camera. I knew she was up to something...it was too quiet for too long. Her dirty fingers found the lens. Notice the blur. Here's a picture of strawberries bought at a roadside stand. mmmmm. They didn't last very long.
Here is a picture of papa and miss Mary. She has earned herself the nickname, Mayday Mary. When you are holding her and you hear the sound of "liquid," your prompt response is, "MAYDAY, MAYDAY..." Let me explain: this child doesn't do anything half-arsed. She goes all day without pooping, and then blasts a dookie so huge that it comes out all ends of her diaper, through her clothes, and then comes dripping out onto your lap....all in a matter of about two seconds. I have learned to feed her over a changing pad.

This photo is illustrating her other talent: projectile vomiting. (I think she is trying out for the sequel to the exorcist...) She is NOT a "spitty" baby, never drools, never spits little bits after every feeding, no reflux....BUT...if you feed her a teeny bit too much, then watch out. Every couple of days, you'll be feeding her...and she has this cute little content look on her face and you get real close and try and give her a kiss...and then breast milk comes flying out of her tiny little mouth at MACH THREE. And there's a LOT of it. It spews out all over everything...the velocity and momentum of the partially-digested breast milk have made it on the walls, the ceiling, the bedspread, the lamps, the CD player, MOMMY's CLOSET, oh you know.....few things in our house have been spared the wrath of the spew.


above: another one of those oops pictures that I couldn't delete.
Below: grandma Ruth with Mary
A beautiful sunset over the lake. Mike took this picture...I was probably either drinking a margarita or cleaning up Mary's latest project.
Julia, who never puked when she was little and always pooped a little bit in every diaper as an infant.....is enjoying her favorite food: corn. Take a good look at her plate. YES, she ate all of that corn before this cob. I believe there is one whole cob and three halves sitting there, all devoured. I don't know where she puts it all...
I think everybody else got one ear because Miss Julia was pounding the rest of our feast.
Here is Julia roasting marshmallows for smores. She is very particular about things....she won't let you hold her stick and she will hold it there until SHE decides they are done. I think she's gonna be a cook like her mommy.
Evidence of a smore attack.

To all the single ladies out there.....

Hi to all the single ladies out there...here is a picture of my single, obviously handsome and quite personable, twenty-six year old cousin, Matt. He has skills with children...he's an elementary school teacher and also knows how to hold an infant! ( Notice that baby Mary is not crying?!) He also has a job and lives in St. Paul.

He enjoys pretty much everything, including Twins games, golf, anything else outdoors, playing cards, and reading stories to small children. (He knows all the good books, you see...)

Hurry up ladies, this one is going fast, better act now....times a-wastin'
Contact me and I'll give you his digits.
Matt, if you check this, please don't kill me...it's for your own good. :o)

A Week at the Lake

Here's a selection of pictures from our week at the lake. We had much fun, and I tried to remember and bring the camera, but, let's face it...sometimes you're just having too much fun to remember the camera. Oh well.

We stayed with Grandma Beth and Grandpa Dick at their cabin on Deer Lake. During our week, we managed to get Julia to the fireworks twice , and this is the first year that I've been more entertained watching my two-year-old watch the fireworks than my watching the fireworks themselves. Julia was in absolute awe. "Boom Boom Boom" she would shout, and then yell, "Watch out, guys, there's fire!!!" We watched one set from my aunt's pontoon boat, and Julia stood transfixed as they blew up over the water. She was amazed that the fire didn't come and get her. I was laughing too hard to take a picture of that.

Later in the week, Mike and I decided to take the Catamaran out for a sail on a particularly windy day. As we were leaving the shore, Mike said to me, "Woman, you need to wear a life jacket."
"Why?" I asked. "They're in the boat house and I'm afraid they're full of spiders."
"Too Bad" Mike said. "Wear one anyways, what if we capsize in the middle of the lake and you get thrown overboard and the sail hits you in the head? I can't swim very well, you know..."

Well, I gave in and wore the stupid jacket. (After I dipped it in the water to remove all potential insects...)

You can imagine what happened to us when we were out on the water. It was a particularly windy day...one where sailing becomes tricky. You don't want your sail perpendicular to the wind gusts because they're too strong and your boat will fly up out of the water and blow right over....so you try and get the sail to catch the edge of the wind....more like at a 120 degree angle to the gusts. All was going very well....we were going at a nice fast speed, but weren't gripping the boat completely terrified...and then I think I got too confident...and waved to somebody on shore. At that moment, my clumsiness "Kicked in" and I kicked the rope loose from the trolley at the end of the sail that controls the angle of the sail.

"Oh CRA....."

The sail suddenly made itself perfectly perpendicular to the wind gust, and before I could mutter the word, "Crap," We were flying in the air and then upside down...and I was underwater...and the mast came under and knocked me............in..........the life jacket.

...

Somehow, Mike and I managed to get the Catamaran standing upright in the middle of the lake. We learned that "go COUNTERclockwise can mean many things...depending on where your point of reference is from. We learned that the little thing that holds the rope at the end of the sail tightly is easily knocked free. Mike learned that the middle of the lake is much colder than the nice warm shore water.....and I learned that I should listen to Mike and wear the stupid life jacket....cause even a lifeguard can get violated by the mast on a catamaran.

Well, needless to say I didn't get any pictures of that, and If I'd brought the camera along, I'd have no pictures of anything at all....the muskies at the bottom of deer lake would have our camera.

Here are some random photos from our vacation:

Julia, preparing for a kayak ride
Playing cards, a Riesgraf tradition, complete with Fuzzy Navels and letting the kids play with the two's and threes during a game of 500
Mary's first boat ride. It must have been windy...
This is Lindsay, Dan's girlfriend,who is simply fantastic. Mary thinks Lindsay is her second mom....
Mary, smiling for the camera right before she poo'd all over this nice new onesie....and on the couch behind it...
Cousin Dan took the cousins to an island in the middle of the lake with a nice sandbar for swimming. Julia LOVED It.

Mike discovered a new love for crossword puzzles...
Grandma Mitzi and her great granddaughter #2
I seem to feel compelled to take a naked butt picture whenever I have the chance. Julia will someday want to kill me for this.
Papa, Julia, and I canoed out to an island. We wore our life jackets. :)
There was a nest of sea gulls on the island, and when we got there, they all flew up in the air and made angry squaks. Mike calls them "rats with wings."
Julia and I got out of the boat and did some exploring
A pair of loons dared to get close to our canoe. Later, I took the kayak out for a spin and got within six feet of a loon! He didn't seem to care that I was even there...I must say it was a bit intimidating looking him in the eye....their eyes are red and they are the size of a turkey!

Day two: on to St. Cloud

The next day of our adventure was spent in St. Cloud, celebrating Grandma Schwartz's 91st birthday. It was fun for all....Mike and I got a nice break from the kids because the rellies were more than happy to hold and/or entertain the kiddos. Plus, there are six or seven other girl cousins just about Julia's age that were there to play with. Ahhhh.....it was splendid....


Here's a generational picture...Great grandma Schwartz, Grandma Ruth, Papa, and baby Mary Here's cousin Bernice and I. On the left is Elsie, on the right is Mary. Our girls were born five hours apart on May 30th. Note the size difference.....

Grandma Schwatrz and her two newest great grandchildren

A family photo with Grandpa Schwartz (93) and Grandma Schwartz (91).

Miss Mary....awake as can be and not a bit camera shy.

The first stop: wedding and IHOP....

Over the last week or so, we've put about a thousand miles on our minivan. (A van which I have grown to love...) It seems that all of my friends with kids have been going on marathon vacations this summer where they drive from one side of the family or engagement to the next, stay a few nights, and then get back in the van and drive some more. Well, I though they were nuts, until last week when I realized that we, too would be doing much of the same thing. I can't wait until we get that portable DVD player for our van......

Friday afternoon, we set off for the cities to go to one of my high school friends' weddings, Kristen Patton. We stayed at the hotel where the reception was held. I have always been too cheap to book a room at a nice hotel when there's a wedding....we usually stay at the super8 down the road....but this time we splurged and spent the eighty bucks on a room at the Holiday Inn. I'm so glad we did! It's so nice to be able to run up to the room when the baby bombs her diaper or your two-year-old needs a quick change of clothes because the wedding cake's bright orange frosting doesn't mesh well with her pale green dress.....

We had a great time. Julia literally danced the night away. I wish I had a picture of this, but I forgot my camera in the car, which was far away at the time. She danced from 7:00 when the DJ started playing music, until 11:00 when the ghetto rap came on and her mother finally made her go to bed. She danced all the way through the dollar dance. At one time, the groom tripped over her and she went flying....a few tears were shed, and then it was right back on the dance floor. How did she end up staying up so late, you wonder? Let's just say that Papa was up in the room taking care of baby Mary while Mama was downstairs taking care of the toddler.....

The next morning was swimming in the hotel pool and then breakfast at IHOP. We met Joy, James, Bobbie, Karsten, and Mel for breakfast. Everybody had a great time, except for when Julia decompensated after we ate and needed to vent outside in the parking lot.

After that, it was off to St. Cloud, which will be covered in the next blog. I am doing a good jog catching up, eh?

Here is Karsten, Bobbie, and Mel after a delicious breakfast.

Before the big road trip

When I turned on the digital camera this morning, it told me I had 55 pictures. Since the computer automatically cleans the pictures off the camera when I upload them, this means that I haven't blogged in awhile. So, here I am, catching y'all up to where we've been.

Our most recent endeavor involved lots o' driving in the minivan. But, before all of these adventures could begin, I had a day at home with the girls. Staying at home with your kids, as you all probably know, is a daunting task at times.

Here is a picture of Julia "feeding" baby mary. This is the only picture I have been able to get where the bottle is actually in Mary's mouth. Most of the other pictures involved milk being poured on Mary's chin, up her nose, or into her eyes or ears. In Julia's defense, she is always wanting to help out for a minute, and I try to take her up on her offers.... After the two hours that it takes us all to get ready in the morning, I try to do something with Julia. Mary is left behind to sleep. She is a couch baby. She hates her bassinet, her swing, her bouncy seat, the living room carpet, and even mom and dad's bed. Our couch, however, is the most acceptable thing on the planet to sleep on short of an infant-sized sleep number bed. It's very squishy...one of those pieces of furniture that you have to really work on to stand up from. It's actually Bung's couch in that he has been sleeping on it for years, Mary loves it and bung has agreed to share with her as long as he can have his own cushion.

Julia has rediscovered the amazement of the outdoor kiddie pool. This year, it's harder to keep water in it. She has two watering cans...

Here she is, dancing naked in the pool...

Since we were leaving for a road trip the day after I took these pictures, I decided to snap a photo of my beloved pansies....they will probably not look nearly this good when we return. (Unless the rabbits all disappear suddenly and it rains a couple of times...) Bung and Simon will not be outside to scare the little critters away. Poor, innocent pansies.....