Nothing Exciting to Report

No real news to report, so here's a couple of pictures of our cheerio obsessed power ranger. We are anxiously awaiting warmer weather... it's been bone chilling cold here and we're sick of it!

Saturday

Chris is a little under the weather today, so I've kind of been on single parent duty. Kind of a bummer on a Saturday, but the kids have been good. I think the highlight of their weekend thus far was going to McDonalds with dad last night while I had book club. Chris came home commenting on Jerod's charisma. Apparently in the hour they were there (playing in the indoor play structure), Jerod had met four kids and was asking for emails so we could arrange play dates. One of the girls he met wanted to kiss him goodbye... who can blame her?!

Jerod had soccer this morning, then we had some quiet time at home, then he and I headed to Blockbuster and Sam's Club while Elise and Chris took a snooze. Jerod picked out some new Scooby Doo cartoon to watch. Boy, was it awful! Some things just don't get better with age!

Elise continues to talk more and more, and only had one potty accident this week (and, in her defense, she did try to tell us... long story). I keep waiting for disaster to strike, because this has been way too easy (though I feel I deserve an easy one after Jerod!).

We missed watching the 'hawks play today with all the hubbub, but they took it to Nebraska 84-49. Very Impressive! FYI-the Jayhawk in the picture on the right is Cole Aldrich, who went to high school in Bloomington- just a few miles from us.

Things we're looking forward to:

• A visit early next week from Grandma & Grandpa Keith
• A visit in a couple of weeks from Grandma Kathi who has asked that Chris and I leave while she's here. I don't know if I should be ecstatic or offended... I think I'll go with ecstatic!!!
• Kindergarten- The J-Man is definitely ready for more stimulation than I'm able to provide these days!
• Summer!!!!! It was slightly warmer today, but this winter is seeming sooooo long (and unfortunately we've got a ways to go!)

How Could I Forget to Mention...

Can you tell that this Darnell Jackson fellow is my favorite Jayhawk? KU defeated Iowa State 83-59 this evening and we actually got to watch it on TV (not always a given since we've migrated so far to the north). Thus far it is a very fun year to be a Jayhawk fan... they look SWEET!

The Justice League of Bernard Place

Now Jerod has his own super hero jammies (found for the bargain price of $2.18 on clearance at Target... just the thing for his cheapo parents!!). It's nice because, for the time being, we don't get any complaints when we say it's time to get your jammies on. It's less nice, however, because it's the only thing Elise ever wants to wear. The minute we walk in the house it's, "I want batman jammies." We went out to eat this evening and she ended up wearing them under her street clothes. I didn't have the energy to take on that battle, so she won. It was a whopping six degrees outside, so I suppose an extra layer of clothes didn't hurt anything.

Elise has recently started swimming lessons at the YMCA. The girl was born for the water and has been in heaven. One of these weeks I hope to remember my camera... it may be the only way I get a picture of her in something other than the jammies! She sits on the side of the pool and gives all out belly laughs. It's awesome :)

Jerod registers for kindergarten tomorrow. He's going to quite possibly be the oldest kindergartner in the history of North America, so I guess we can't put it off any longer! Times they are a changin'. I think it's safe to say we all have mixed feelings about this new chapter in our lives. Despite the fact that when he starts school we will have lived in this house for four years, I think he still probably won't know a single soul in his class. There's so many different programs and schools here that the neighborhood kids just scatter in one hundred different directions when they leave for school in the mornings. It's like living in a foreign country for those of us who grew up in small towns. I'm not sure I care for it!

The Weekend

OK, my motives for starting this blog were two-fold. One was to keep friends and family updated on the antics of the Holt family. The other was to do a little journaling. I thought it might be nice to document our lives a little since neither of my kids have a baby book. This one's more on the journaling side, so it will be a little mundane.

Elise woke up at 4:30 this morning. She's had a little night waking issue. I haven't dealt with it in a manner that one would call effective. It doesn't happen every night, so I've maybe gone a little too easy on her. She'll wake up and lots of times and if I go and rock her for a minute, she'll go right back to bed. However, there are days (like today), where when I put her back in bed she comes to the door and lays on the floor calling, "Momma, Momma, Momma." Why do they never say, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy???" The result is that she and I have both been up since 4:30. Ouch! I thought we'd have a nice long nap to look forward to this afternoon, but she's bucking that system :-(

My wise husband tells me that we should just take her potty (when yelling for me, she often says she needs to potty... she's REALLY working us over!), put her in bed and let her wail. Seems simple enough, but why have I not taken this approach???!!?? I have no good answer, though my sympathies for her are running low, perhaps because I've been awake since 4:30. Have I mentioned that she woke up at 4:30 this morning????

Anyhoo... other than the early wake up call this morning, we've had a nice (though bitterly cold) weekend. Jerod had soccer yesterday morning then we were home for the day, except for Chris who had to brave the far below zero temps to go to the grocery store and computer store to buy a new monitor to replace our dead one. We had the middle midwestern favorite of chicken and noodles with mashed potatoes for dinner. There's just nothin' like good, starchy comfort food on a cold night! Friday evening I went to neighborhood bunco, a mindless dice rolling game that's really just an excuse to get out of the house and eat :) I had to fill out a card that said, "The bad habit I hope to drop this year is_____________." I filled mine in with "being mean and negative." Hopefully I'll get a little more sleep tonight so I'll have a prayer of that happening!!

I haven't taken any pictures recently, so here's some older ones. Elise at her birthday party and Jerod sometime this past summer.

Talking up a Storm

After chatting with Elise's pediatrician at her three year checkup, we decided to err on the side caution and have a speech evaluation done. We were still having a fair amount of trouble deciphering what she was saying and she seemed to be pretty frustrated about life in general. We were pretty certain there wasn't a real issue, but the evaluation is free and I just wanted to make sure her language and speech were headed in the right direction.

I took her for part one of a two part evaluation right before Christmas and we went for part two today. Elise happily went off with the speech language pathologist, Pam, for about 45 minutes while Jerod and I hung out in the waiting room and read. When they came back, Pam asked me if Elise seemed like a completely different kid than she was a month ago. My answer was a resounding yes and Pam agreed. I'm happy to report that we've had a real language explosion since the new year. I don't think anyone is happier about that than Miss Elise herself. She really is talking up a storm and just seems SO MUCH MORE pleasant. Not that she wasn't fabulous to begin with, but the decreased number and severity of meltdowns has been a nice change of pace. Despite anything I'm writing here, however, her will is still by far the strongest in the household!!!!!

The other nice development of 2008 is that Elise is pretty much potty training herself. We've got quite a bit of work to do before we can ditch the pull-ups altogether, but she has been dry all this week. As long as she can wear boy underwear with characters from the movie 'Cars' or batman or transformers, she's a happy camper. Good thing she doesn't have a girly mom! Speaking of which, here's more pictures in the infamous batman jammies. They're going to be worn to threads soon :)

Big 12 Hoops (finally!!)

Finally, something to make winter more bearable... the Big 12 basketball season began for our beloved Jayhawks last night. They looked awesome in their 85-55 victory over Oklahoma.

As for the family, I took Jerod and Elise to the Minnesota zoo today. The last time we were there was when we saw Santa. When I told Elise where we were going, she kept saying, "I want to go see Santa." When I told her he wouldn't be there, her second request was to see a dinosaur. Thankfully the komodo dragon was close enough for her purposes.

Soccer, etc.

Here's some random pictures. Jerod playing soccer, Elise and Jerod playing dress up, Elise in her most favorite batman jammies, and Elise hanging out with her pal Charlie while Jerod plays soccer. I feel I should mention that I have video of Jerod tap dancing in the ruby red slippers from the Wizard of Oz dress up set and he begged me to post it. We compromised and posted the photo, which I'm sure will one day cause him sufficient mortification (but he REALLY wanted it on here). The video would just add salt to the wound...

Big drama of the weekend is that Jerod has been wait-listed for the continuous progress program that we REALLY wanted him in next year. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but definitely a disappointment. He had a spot last year, but we decided to wait another year for kindergarten. For the first time, I'm having to deal with a little regret about that decision. As I said, not REALLY a big deal, but when you live in Edina (which folks say stands for 'Every Day I Need Attention'), these are the things one gets worked up over. He'll miss out on being in the program with some of his best pals, which is my biggest disappointment, but I suppose this is how one builds character. These big city schools still throw us small towners for a loop!

On a higher note, Elise's word of the week is AWESOME. The other day Chris told her she was cute. She replied with, "No, I'm awesome!" There is no shortage of entertainment around here these days!

Partner!!

Chris is celebrating his last day as an associate, as the powers that be at his firm voted today to make him a shareholder. Reality is that the next couple of years could be a little daunting, but this is definitely a big day. Way to go, partner!

Jerod's new song

The kids went back to preschool this week (yahoo!) and Jerod learned a new song he wanted to post.

2007 is in the Books

The holidays are officially over. Jerod got a little snowboard from Santa that he LOVES. Today is our first day back to reality after Christmas, a trip to Grandma & Grandpa Keith's, and New Year's Eve at the waterpark.