A picture (or three) is worth a thousand words!

Andrew is a funny little guy. Here is the proof! None of these are posed--I kid you not! The top picture was taken as I was getting ready for bed. I heard a rustling below and this is what I found. Then yesterday, I caught him in action underneath our kitchen sink (don't worry--I moved all cleaning products to a high cupboard awhile back). He is very interested in playing underneath the sink, so I had to capture the moment! I have come to the conclusion that he's either going to be an OB/GYN or a plumber! LOL! (Either way, he's working with plumbing of sorts...bwahaha!

I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by Julie/Jewels and now I get to bore you with 7 random facts about me!

7 random facts about me:

1. I can swallow my tongue and touch my nose with it. I don't have the connector thingy under my tongue (and no, I never had it surgically cut). My tongue is extremely long and maybe someday I will be brave enough to share a pic of it! Think KISS.

2. I have a calendar in my head. Like, if you say a date--take today's date for instance, September 25th--there is a certain location on the calendar. September is located at about the 5 if you're looking at a clock. The calendar is circular. December is on top, at the 12, and June is on the bottom at the 6. The calendar in my head is more oval than round. It is very hard to explain.

3. I don't talk to my dad because he is an abusive psycho. He beat the living daylights out of my mom and us kids. He also verbally abused us and that is much worse. My great-grandpa murdered his wife and then shot himself. It was 1939. I am proud of my mom for breaking the cycle of abuse (it's now been 7 years since she filed for divorce). My husband's father passed away when my hubby was 11. He died of cancer. I am sad that I never got to meet him because he was a great guy. This is why I question God. How is it fair that we lose a good guy and my dad still walks the earth? I am sad that Andrew will never have a grandpa. The only hope is if my mom someday remarries!

4. I have a hard time talking to people when they're wearing dark sunglasses. I don't know where to look when I can't see their eyes. It freaks me out!

5. When I was 18, I had bell's palsy. It's a temporary condition that causes facial paralysis. The left side of my face was paralyzed and it was very strange. I couldn't taste anything on that side, or wink, raise that eyebrow; and my smile was missing on that side. Luckily, since I was a young pup, it completely healed. I pushed and pushed myself to get better because I was preparing for solo & ensemble (I play the flute). I would practice with just my fingers on the keys because I could no longer form my embrochure (to play the flute, one must make an "o" shape with her mouth and I could not do that). One day, I was in the practice room getting so frustrated and my band instructor came and talked to me and told me it would be okay. I actually ended up making it to solo & ensemble; albeit a week late. I received a "1*" on my flute solo, and then went on to State and received a "1" on my solo. :) I also received the Benton Fowler Memorial Scholarship for band--an award given to one senior. It really helped me out because I was footing my own college bill.

6. I am obsessive about having clean hands. If I have someting on them, even if it's a dot of ink from a pen, I must go wash my hands.

7. I wish I were beautiful. Sometimes I feel like I am so boring. I am jealous of beautiful women. I would like to be beautiful for just a day... EDIT: Okay, so I'll clarify this a little. I know I'm not totally butt, but my mom is like, drop-dead gorgeous. She could be a model. Sometimes I feel like the ugly duckling and I hate that I look more like my dad. I wish I had gotten more of her genes because sometimes when I look in the mirror, I can see my dad in me and it bugs me. Does that make sense? I even tried having long hair like my mom and I still didn't look like her. I am constantly trying to think of things I could do to look better--new hairstyles, etc. I still feel just average. Average is okay, though. KWIM? This is where I am coming from.

Now I am tagging 7 other fellow bloggers, so you must do the same (okay, so I only know 6 bloggers besides Jewels and I don't want to re-tag her)!

Rachel
Molly
Nancy
Sarah
Cate
Jessi

The quest for the Oktoberfest Medallion...

So, for those of you not from the area, every year La Crosse, WI hosts this HUGE festival that goes on for over a week. This year, it will start on Friday, 9/26, with the annual tapping of the Golden Keg (i.e., an excuse for area drunks to skip work and get toasted), and the party carries on through the weekend, the next week, before wrapping up on Saturday night, October 4th. La Crosse is known for this festival, a time when our city of 50,000 doubles in population! If you want more information on Oktoberfest, visit http://www.oktoberfestusa.com/ . The origins of Oktoberfest are from Germany (where the largest of Oktoberfest celebrations take place), but you don't have to be German here to partake in the festivities.

Anyway, one of the annual traditions is the Oktoberfest Medallion Hunt. In the past, my husband and I would peek at the clues but we haven't actively searched in about 10 years. The year we almost got the Medallion was when we were at the wrong school. There are 2 big public schools in La Crosse--they are Logan High School (northside of La Crosse, where my hubby graduated from) and Central High School (South side of La Crosse). One of the clues that year (I think it was 1999 or 2000) led us under the bleachers outside at Central High School. We couldn't find the medallion, so we gave up. Later that day, the medallion was found under the bleachers at Logan High School! We were so close. The prize is $500 cash, tickets to the Festmaster's Ball, and gift certificates for local businesses.

So, this year when the first clue came out, we decided to give it a try. Last Monday was the first day of clues. We kept in mind that often the first clue will give a very general hint at the location of the medallion (this year it started out, "As we chug ahead with each crisp fall day...") so we were pretty sure a train/train tracks would be near the location of the beloved coin. Anyway, I'll just touch briefly on some of the experiences we had this year. Let's just say at one point we thought we knew where it was so off the hubby went with his flashlight in hand, looking in and around a cemetery at 9:30 pm....along with 20 other people. The whole family made several trips, quite a daunting task when you're dealing with a baby/toddler who likes his stroller to keep moving (set him on the ground and he will eat rocks and other non-edible items). My mother and I went looking all over the place on Saturday and we were so close to the location of the medallion, it wasn't even funny. We were literally a block over from it. Sunday morning, we woke up at 5:45 am to get the day's clue and were so certain of it's location that we grabbed Andrew and took off in the car around 6:30 a.m. We were the first ones there, and more and more people showed up as the time passed on (obviously we were all thinking the same thing). Let's just say that we were so certain it was hidden in a pine tree that DH crawled underneath it and climbed inside to take a peek (not an easy task, considering how sharp the needles were and how low to the ground the branches were lying). After an hour-and-a-half at the same location with no luck, we were brainstorming in car when Andrew started fussing. That's when the hubby said, "I'm done looking for this thing; let's wait until tomorrow's clue" and we went home. Later on that day, we heard the news that the medallion had been found (Aunt L heard it on the radio, but was not sure of the location). I was at my grandparents' house along with the rest of my family, and I just had to know the location so I called the radio station and they told me. Zephyr Circle. Zephyr was the name of the silver bullet train, and I had uttered the word earlier in the morning, not knowing there was a road by the same name. I told my mom and we started screaming because we were JUST in that area the day before. We could have had it. Not to mention, the location was just one of the few grassy boulevards in the center of a neighborhood in the area. The husband and I checked two of these the day before and they were almost identical to the one where the medallion was found. Here are the clues so you can read for yourself; now that the medallion has been found the website gives meaning behind those clues: http://www.oktoberfestusa.com/2008/Medallion/medallion.htm

The good thing to come of this is we learned a lot about the history of the area, including Granddad Bluff (which we sometimes take for granted in this area). We did so much reading (thank you, Google) and we checked out this sweet book from the public library (a 700+ page book that came out earlier this year on the history of La Crosse...we will most likely purchase this book from the La Crosse Historical Society). We were dead on with all of the clues (all but one of them) and we know that we came close. I keep telling myself that we came in 2nd place, and next year we will find the Medallion. Also, we congratulate the winner--Amber!

He just makes my heart smile!

Daddy showed up at lunch today with Dragon (a side note, I found his Halloween costume on Saturday at Old Navy, and it's a dragon costume!). They got here a little before noon, and I don't take my lunch until noon, so Daddy was just sitting in my office with Andrew on his lap. I was trying to work, but out of the corner of my eye, Andrew was giving me the biggest smile! I smiled back at him and tried to finish up what I was doing. I just kept thinking how lucky I am to have both of these "boys" in my life. Daddy said something then, something to the effect of, "this is my baby in my lap". :) We don't dare set him down when my office door is open because out the hallway he will go! I'm always afraid a resident is going to trip over him (or run him over with a wheelchair).

Ah, the memories Dragon will have someday. I just know he's going to ask me why he remembers a sea of people in wheelchairs with gray hair and glasses! They love him though; they really do. He elicits a lot of return smiles for his big grin!

Funny habit...

I noticed something a couple months ago but forgot to post about it. Andrew does not like things to stay together. Case in point: he has these stackable cups (6 different colorful plastic cups that fit inside one another from littlest to biggest). Anytime I hand them to him together, he has to dump them out. He can't resist! The same goes for his Fisher Price Rock-a-Stack (you know the 5 colorful rings that stack on top of one another on that yellow tube-looking thing?). I love putting it together and he loves dumping it upside down. I build him beautiful towers with his wooden blocks and I love watching him make a beeline for it so he can smash it down. Hehe--my little guy is the Master of Destruction. Such a boy!

Also, Andrew loves books. He loves being read to. He gets a big smile on his face when I grab one of his favorite books (I like I Love You Through and Through). He drools the entire time I read (I like to think I'm activating his pre-frontal cortex or something exciting like that). :)

New layout!

Sweet. For those of you that don't already know, I am obsessed with the color aqua (any variations of it--teal, sea green, etc). If you were to look in my closet, you would see that an insane amount of my clothing is in the aqua family (I have to work really hard on myself to buy something red).

I think this new layout matches my personality so I had to update the boring default Blogger layout to reflect that.

-Back to regular programming-

1 year check-up

It was last Wednesday--I apologize for not updating until now! He's doing great--he weighs 22 lbs, 1 oz (he was 6 lbs, 6 oz. at birth, so he has more than tripled his weight); he is 30.55 inches long. The doctor (whom Andrew hasn't seen since his 2 day check-up, since every other appointment has been with the Nurse Practitioner) said Andrew is doing great. He's just above the 50th percentile for height, and just below the 50th for weight.

He's funny--Dr. Manson. Andrew was on the exam table and he was pretty active and Dr. M. said, "No diving without a parachute!" because I think he thought Andrew was going to jump off. Andrew is pretty good with boundaries though--he will crawl around the bed and go to the edge but not go off the edge. Maybe it's just a coincidence.

Anyway, the next appointment is at 18 months.