Brief update

Well, with two parents teaching full-time and taking grad school classes as well, and Brendan's keyboarding skills being still less than stellar, blog updating has fallen by the wayside a little bit. Fall has been busy, but we've had so much fun with our into-everything toddler! This post includes pictures of apple picking in September and our outing to ZooBoo last week.

In mid October, Brendan had a bout of roseola, which knocked him out of commission for more than a week. You definitely know that something is wrong with Brendan when he's not interested in playing at all! He gave us a scare one day when his high temp caused him to have a febrile seizure. We took an ambulance ride to the hospital and spent some time in the pediatric ER getting some quality Motrin. Fortunately, Brendan is just fine, and lots of rest and snuggles finally got him back to his funny, busy self!

Labo(u)r Day!

Another summer has come to an end, and we're back to school and daycare. The start of this year had its transitions, but has a much different feel than last year. For starters, Brendan sleeps through the night this year! We have a whole year of working and parenting under our belts, so we've learned lessons like which bags can go into the car the night before.

Brendan has settled into his new daycare very well. One of his main caregivers is a former student of mine, which was an unexpected but nice happening. Brendan loves fingerpainting, and it's so cute to see him in a room of well, toddling toddlers.

Although we both started school before Labor Day, we took the holiday weekend to go to Canada (the 6th was Labour Day in Canada also). For the past couple of years, we've gone to the Harrow Fair, and this year was no exception. Brendan was so young last year, and it was fun to see him even more engaged in what he saw this year. He loved looking at the cows and calves, and was intrigued by the tractors (is he Nick's son or what?). After the fair, we went with Brendan's Grandma Kator and Great-Grandma Gaspard to Viewpointe Winery on Lake Erie. We had a nice tasting, then enjoyed a glass on the patio overlooking the lake. Brendan had a lovely sippy cup of water, then enjoyed toddling around the patio.

One of the best parts of the weekend for me was seeing Brendan with his peach tree. We read a book last year called Leo's Tree. One of the phrases repeated in this book is "Grow little Leo, grow little tree." In comparing this year's picture to last year's one, it's amazing to see how our little baby from last year looks like a little boy this year. Grow little Brendan, grow little tree.

Brendan checking out displays in the Ag building at the Harrow Fair


Nick and Brendan at Lake Erie


Brendan and his peach tree - Labor Day 2010

Reunion! (Or, "As if we haven't traveled enough this summer..."

In 1995, my dad's side of the family decided to have a family reunion. Now, this is no small thing when your grandfather is from a family of 13, your dad is from a family of 10, and some of your grandfather's siblings had large families as well. Three generations of family met in Potosi, MO at Trout Lodge . After that first reunion, we've had one every five years since.

So, this year was reunion time! We began our trip by heading to Chicago and spending the evening with our friends the Marks. I had not seen my goddaughter Elizabeth since our wedding, and we each had a baby boy for the other family to meet as well! We also got to Evanston and took Brendan around the Northwestern campus. We also got to church at Sheil (my parish when I was at Northwestern) to see friends there before heading to St. Louis.

We had an amazing week with family - a blog post won't be able to do it justice. We had fun family gatherings like the family soccer game and homecoming dance, family "Sound of Music" sing-along followed by toga party, and lots of singing and laughing in general. We did some geocaching, arts and crafts (made a new stepping stone for the garden), riding in Uncle Paul's golf cart, and capped off the week by doing the "moonlight zip" - a short hike, then a zap line through the woods lit by a couple of lanterns - very fun.

Brendan loved dancing, playing in the lake, a pony ride and also more unconventional activities such as "push my stroller down the hall". The dining room had large windows overlooking the lake - at every meal, Brendan loved toddling over to the windows and checking out the hummingbird feeders - he was fascinated.

On the way home, we stopped in St. Louis and toured at Anheuser-Busch, before heading to Indianapolis for the night. We checked out the Indianapolis Children's Museum before driving home. This place was really fun. So many of the exhibits had great things to look at and touch - Brendan (and Nick) had a ball touching dinosaur bones and taking a crack at an archeological dig. We spent the most time at a Playscape exhibit designed for kids under 5. Brendan had a ball flipping switches, pressing buttons, climbing stairs and picking vegetables from a pretend garden. There were plenty of push toys for kids to play with, including the toddler lawn mower. Brendan really wanted to play with that mower, to the point that he would crawl after other children pushing it. The problem? He's just not a good enough walker yet for that toy - he pushed on the handle for balance and it tipped over. We decided that it was near nap time, so time to get in the car anyway. Brendan protested quite vocally when we put him in the stroller!

And so, we're back home. At an evening sharing at the 2005 reunion, I remember thinking about how different things were at that reunion compared to the one before. I was out of college, teaching and talking about marriage with the guy I was dating. I remember wondering what things would be like at the next reunion. I'd be married, probably, I thought. Maybe we'd even have a baby. Turns out that's the way it was. So, what will happen in 2015?

Our little family on picture night...


Brendan loving the horse ride...


One of Brendan's favorite spots at Trout Lodge - the dining room windows!


At Indianapolis Children's Museum...

Anchors aweigh! (and garden update)

Here's a post that I had started at the end of July -


This week we popped over to Canada for the day. We checked on the progress of the garden (more on that later), and had the opportunity to take Brendan out for his first sail.

Brendan's life jacket made him look a little like Randy in A Christmas Story - he could put his arms down, but when he fell forward it was hard for him to get back up! Before we went out on the sail, Brendan ate lunch down below deck and had lots of fun finding pots and pans in the cabinets and exploring the v-berth.

Once we got underway, Brendan loved looking at the waves and playing with the lines. At one point, he had fun playing with the shower (a small pump connected to a hose in the water, and a small hand-held showerhead on the other end). When trying to get a closer look at the showerhead, though, he didn't take the water into account and got very indignant when he sprayed himself in the face!

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Garden update -
The Canadian garden is doing well - tomatoes are a bit late, but it works well with out schedule, so we don't mind. Pumpkins aren't looking so good, and all of the rain has caused the grapes to be a bit further along than they should, and some of the clusters have grape rot. There were so many grapes that we're hoping we'll still be able to save some. We've been eating tons of beans from our home garden, and we have plenty in the freezer for winter. Beets weren't so good this year, but we did have a couple of meals. Brendan liked them, although they were really messy. Zucchini are in (and yummy)! For dinner the other night, we had harvest grains (a mix of couscous, quinoa and a couple of other grains) topped with a mix of baked veggies - all from our garden. Delicious!

Here, There and Everywhere! (Plus a garden update...)

First - a quick garden update. Things are exploding! Beans are up, and we got lots of garlic (Nick threw some leftover cloves in a couple of years ago, and we got quite a harvest!). Potatoes and beets are chugging along, and zucchini, squash and pumpkins all look good.

Whew! The past few weeks were packed with happenings. Nick and I wrapped up the end of the school year, and Brendan finished his time at his old daycare when they closed at the end of May.

Nick kicked off our family travels when he headed to New Mexico for an IB conference. Brendan and I had a fun few days at home without Dada, then headed off to Florida to visit Aunt Shirl. Brendan did great on the plane, and got a tour of the cockpit from the pilots when we landed. We spent a few days at Disney, seeing where Aunt Shirl works. Brendan spent most of the time just staring at everything - trying to take it all in. He loved Finding Nemo: The Musical, and It's a Small World was probably his favorite - he loved all of the colors and moving figures, and the music got him giggling and dancing! He met many of the characters during an afternoon at Epcot, and got to see Pooh and Tigger just before we left Magic Kingdom - he was very curious to reach out and touch Tigger's nose and paw. We also got to visit my cousins Melissa and Angie, and we got to meet Melissa and Amine's son Aiden! Brendan and Aiden had fun getting acquainted and playing. Brendan is about 7 months older, so he got to show Aiden some new tricks to try in the coming months.

A couple of weeks after getting back from Florida, we hit the road for our next trip. We drove out to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, to spend some time with Nick's family. On our way there, we decided to break the drive into two days and stopped at Gettysburg. We took Brendan to the new visitor center (it's about 3 years old, but the first time that we had been there) and to the battlefield and National Cemetery. We did not do the entire tour (we'll leave him in suspense until next time), but did get to see and reflect a little bit.

We had a wonderful time at the beach. Our entire Kator family was there, as well as Nick's Gaspard relatives. There were 5 kids who were 4 or under there, so Brendan had a ball exploring a new place and playing with new people. The crashing of the waves on the beach puzzled him at first, but he enjoyed putting his feet in the waves and exploring the sand.

So, some general observations after all of this traveling. Packing for any number of days seems to require the same massive amount of stuff for a little one. Putting your son's bedtime cd in mp3 format on your cell phone can really help a hotel room feel like home. Sand looks good, but tastes pretty yucky. And the best part of being anywhere new - the airport, Florida, Gettysburg, Delaware - is seeing your son take everything in. Watching him study Tigger's paw, or a bottom drawer in the hotel room. Watching him take in ocean waves crashing near his feet. Watching him make sense of these new experiences, this ever-expanding world. Listening to his giggle in response to your laugh, a crawling race, or passing a dog on the street. Feeling his head rest on your shoulder after a long afternoon of play. It has all been wonderful. But the best part of the best part? It's not over.

What fun, what fun - someone we know just turned one! (And garden update)

This past Saturday was a very special day for our family as we celebrated Brendan's first birthday! We'd been planning a barbecue for a while (even though every time we talked about it, we described an indoor affair - not wanting to tempt Mother Nature). We were blessed with a nice warm day, and plenty of family and friends to help us celebrate. Brendan got to officially meet his godfather at the party as well.

Brendan loved playing with wrapping paper and boxes, and his Uncle-to-be Jesse enjoyed assembling his water table and cozy coupe. I made Brendan a pumpkin-apple cake (two of his favorite foods) with a little cream cheese frosting. He was a little tentative, but ended up enjoying it. He really wasn't sure what to make of the day (I don't blame him) but certainly liked the balloons and celebration.

In other toddler progress, we've finally heard Brendan's first word! He's been babbling for quite a while and using a couple of hand signs. Brendan and I were at a family gathering. Nick arrived late after the NDP graduation, and Brendan looked up, smiled, reached out his arms and clearly said "Da-Da!". We, of course, melted. No "Ma-ma" yet, but he reaches out to me with a smile at almost any opportunity, so I'll take that for now. Auntie Andrea has also taught him how to high-five. Last Sunday at church, I took him with me into the sacristy before Mass to check in with the readers. He gave each of the readers a high-five, but shied away from poor Father Dan! (A few minutes later out in the chapel, he did give Fr. Dan his high five, and wanted him to hold him as well!)

Fr. Ken at Sheil used to talk about time passing in long days and short years. That phrase came to mind many times in the past week. It is amazing how much Brendan has changed in such a short time. It's also amazing to me how hard it is to remember what life was like before he was part of our family, before we knew who he was. Don't get me wrong - I remember things like sleeping in on a weekend morning or being caught up on schoolwork!

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Also, in our garden, potatoes, carrots, beets, melons, beans, pumpkins, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes are all in the ground and growing. We've had lots of fresh lettuce and spinach salads with dinners, probably the equivalent of 8 or 9 bags of greens.

Saving by Gardening Update

Well, we're not even one week in to eating food from the garden, and we're already saving money. Our Black-Seeded Simpson Lettuce and Danvers Spinach (both heirloom varieties) seeds cost $1.35 a packet, so we estimate that we paid about $3 for seeds and shipping. This week, we ate our first meal from the garden - we used spinach in an egg and cheese pie. We've also had delicious salads at dinner two other nights. I know it's not a completely scientific experiment (when there's food from the garden, we plan our meals around what's available rather than planning meals then shopping for ingredients at the store), but this week, we would have paid $2.49 a bag for organic lettuce, and another $2.49 for organic spinach. Plus, the only transport costs for our garden food are the steps out to the garden and back! Good (and yummy) deal!