Christmas in Michigan!

This past week, we have been privileged to spend Andrew's first Christmas with my Mom in Michigan.  It has been a wonderful week - unhurried time with family, without the stress of going back to work anytime soon.  In fact, when we leave tomorrow, I will still have over a week of vacation until going back to work on Jan 9th.  Wow!

We arrived two days before Christmas, and scrambled a bit to get some last-minute Christmas gift/projects done.  But once Christmas Eve rolled around, it was all about spoiling Andrew with everything an (almost) 8 month old could hope for - paper, plastic, and colorful toys piling up on the floor in easy reach of little, drool-covered hands.

 Andrew, still wearing his dress clothes, sits in awe in front of Grandma's present-laden Christmas tree.  Definitely overwhelming!

Yummy presents!

 He did not have a lot of present-unwrapping stamina.  So Rachel stepped in and opened a lot of packages in his place.  She did not complain too much about this extra Mommy responsibility...

 On Christmas morning, Andrew awoke to yet ANOTHER present-laden tree.  In his more appropriate Christmas PJs, he tore into a few more gifts.  Paper is even yummier than boxes!

 Grandma got him an awesome soft car, complete with string.  The string is meant for pulling the car, but for now Andrew is content to munch on the string as he fingers the pig (in pink) in the back of the truck.  

So it is not all about Andrew - Rachel also took part in some Christmas morning kid-like grins as she got some spiffy new clothes.

Returning from church (thus the change of clothes!) Andrew helped his Mom and Dad to open some more gifts.

And as the youngest Allmen, he got to play in the piles of wrapping paper once the gift opening was all complete.

Can't wait to put that cool new sign on our house!

Grandma, Andrew, and Dad posing by the tree.

And when all the hard work of opening presents and smiling at relatives is done, some power naps are a must.  Andrew slept long and hard all week!

So what other fun things did we do in town?  Well, Christmas Day we traveled over to my cousins house in Birmingham to see the extended Allmen family.  That is a good recipe for good food, plenty of drink, and some laughs.  We entertained Becca, who had been in Chicago with us previously.  She got to visit Michigan for the first time and see a little of what Detroit has to offer.  We played Xbox Kinect for the first time (I can't dance as well as Matt?) and had a fun game night. 

It was the first Christmas in Michigan in which I was not at Commons Ct; but it was just fine.  I like Mom's condo and so it makes for a nice new home away from home for us.

I have met some Christians who have poo-pooed Christmas for its commercialization; and while I can understand the danger of presents overpowering the celebration of the birth of Christ, I appreciate how the holiday's traditions bring focus to the importance of family.  Thank you Allmens (and Millers!) for a wonderful Christmastime!

-alan

Sick boy!

This month, Andrew faced his first illness.  Just a case of the sniffles, like everyone at winter.  We are thankful for that - no major fevers or problems we have had to face as parents.  But when it comes, I know we will be okay, because Andrew's Mom has a knack for dealing with a kid like this:

Don't worry, he is ok now.  There will not be any sick boys for Christmas!

-alan

Merry Christmas!

On Tuesday, Becca, Sarah, and Dave came over to our house for our inaugural "Miller Family Christmas."  
We ate ham with all the fixings, and opened presents by the tree.  Andrew opened some gifts from his Taiwanese grandparents, as they watched via Skype.  He did pretty well - he loves paper, so being able to grab at the box and rip the paper was natural for him.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for sending along those toys and getting the Christmas season started!

We have all traveled now to Michigan to be with Mom for the rest of the holiday.  This is a wonderfully timed vacation - I finished school with a half day on Thursday, and now I am off until the 9th of January.  There will be uninterrupted time now to spend with family with no cares about work - yet there will be plenty of time to get that business squared away after the New Year.

Andrew was not too helpful in putting things on the tree, but he mostly stayed out of the way.

But of course, once the tree was done, all bets were off.  The challenge of having a slightly mobile baby at Christmas was learning to be vigilant in watching what he was getting his sticky fingers on.  The stage of setting Andrew down and letting him play while casually watching him are over - the time to baby proof and hover have begun.  He loves electrical cords, trash cans, and anything plastic. 

We have kept him out of harm's way so far, but as you can see, he already does not like to be told "no."

It was a busy month for me, with the beginning of bowling and Science Olympiad seasons - together with holiday parties, Northwestern basketball, etc.  But at the end of the day, how can you not enjoy seeing this face?


Andrew is sleeping now, this Christmas Eve Eve, hopefully dreaming of sugar plums...

-alan

Housing update - Christmas edition!

With my extracurricular season at school ramping up, work on the house has not progressed much in the last month.  However, decorations are a different category, and so on a cold and drizzly Sunday afternoon I strung lights on the house.

I took a crate of lights from Mom and Dad last year, and I thought there were way more lights than we would ever use.  But once I weeded out the burned-out strands, I used almost all of them on the bushes and gutters (which are only on the two sides of the house as shown).  The new gutter clips I bought made installation a snap, other than moving the extension ladder.  Rachel wanted to put wheels on the bottom, like a library ladder, but I decided that was not a great idea.

On the inside, there has been a modicum of work done on the basement.  Last month I stripped one of the storage rooms in preparation to build a larger workshop, and found some water damage to the interior wall that will probably need replacement.  We are now negotiating on how to design the area...

Finally, I mentioned long ago that we received a grant from the Bungalow Association to have some energy efficiency work done.  Well, their contractors came in and insulated like mad!  They blew in insulation between the first and second floors, added insulation in the crawlspace under the roof, and sealed the cracks between the basement and the first floors.  To top it off, we replaced our 40ish year old water heater with a brand new GE model.  Not bad for filling out a 2 page app, eh?

The only problem was that they used that spray foam to seal in all my access to the bathroom plumbing (shown above) which will make things inconvenient whenever I decide to work on that bathroom!

Long-term plans? (in no particular order)

Build storage areas along our north basement wall, next to the new laundry table.  Build the workshop.  Build a family / rec room in the basement.  Rehab the first floor bathroom.  Buy and refinish old wood doors for our bedrooms. Refinish the faux fireplace and get an electric insert.  And so on and so on until we are broke.....

-alan

Thanksgiving!

After a wonderful week of vacation, it is time to look back on the week in pictures.  I am thankful this holiday for all the people below that I was able to spend this week with.  Happy Thanksgiving - be thankful to God in all ways and at all times!

hri

Grandma and Andrew - it has been almost 2 months since they got to play together!

We visited Bronner's - the mega-Christmas store in Frankenmuth.  I went there quite often as a child, fueling Mom's awesome Christmas displays.

 If you were a baby, could you resist all the shiny things there were to touch in this store?

Andrew meets Santa for the first time.

So much fun!

Our courteous waiter at the Bavarian Inn offered to take our picture - so we paused for just a moment from our scrumptious chicken dinner.  Andrew was not too cooperative, but he was overdue for a nap.  Oops!

On Thanksgiving Day, we went over to Sharon and Matt's house - so we ended up having dinner in the same house and same room that we have for many years.

Andrew got to eat sweet potatoes and turkey - it was his first time eating meat!

Play time with his cousins.

Giggle for your aunt!

Finally, a grin to show off Andrew's surprisingly sharp bottom teeth!

-alan

Toothless?

I do not have proof yet, but the gums are bloody and sharp on the bottom of Andrew's mouth, where 2 little teeth are on their way through.

Rachel was waxing nostalgic about the loss of toothless grins.  I think she will get over it fast when she sees those cute toothed grins!



It has been a long stretch at work.  As a public school teacher I am conditioned to have random government holidays breaking up my month so that I have long weekends and half days.  But alas, they have been few and far between.  So I am looking forward to the refresher of having Thanksgiving week off (ok, I understand the irony of complaining about working when I have WAY more time off for this holiday than anyone else...).  We will travel to Michigan to see Grandma (it has been too long!) and the rest of the Allmens.  Looking forward to the trip!

A month ago, I proposed to my administration two possible extracurricular activities to start up - bowling and Science Olympiad.  Getting different answers about which was a better club, I decided to pursue bowling...and hit a dead end when the schedule had no space for us.  So I went with Olympiad and got us signed up to compete later this winter.  Meanwhile, a spot opened up for girls to bowl, and so of course, I am now suckered into doing both.  We held tryouts for bowling this week, and league play begins Monday.  Unfortunately there was not an overwhelming response, so I am feeling a little desperate in having to plead with girls to commit to join the sport.  I am somewhat confident it will work out, but it is certainly not settled yet; my roster is still TBA.

Science Olympiad will begin in December, and run through to March.  Oh my - so busy!

Ok, on to happier issues - coming home to play with this little guy!

Getting much better at playing while sitting up!

Michelle Obama would be proud - he is doing his pushups!

And crawling faster too!

-alan

What do you do?

I feel like this post is long overdue.  It is time to face the facts and admit I have a pretty sweet job.  Sorry for those of you who have to work in a boring cubicle or on a chilly chain gang.  I might have one of the best gigs around.  I get the pleasure of staying home with my little boy and trying to keep our house in some state of order.  It has been an adjustment to appreciate this new role but I am really starting to love this stage of my life.  I do miss the classroom. I do miss having consistent interaction with other adults, but the sacrifice is worth it.

So what does a stay at home mom do all day?  Well, it really varies on the day but I try to mix things up as much as I can while simultaneously trying to set some routines.  A lot of the day is all about my little cutie and taking care of his needs.  Another priority I have is making dinner.  I try to have it done or almost done by the time Alan comes home.  Note, this isn't something Alan demands but I usually am hungry and want to eat as soon as we can!  In order to do this I might start chopping veggies as early as 1pm, although I usually get started around 3.  If Andrew cooperates I can get a lot done during his late afternoon nap, but if he doesn't I sometimes just wear him while I chop, measure, and stir.  It has been really fun preparing a lot of new recipes and learning more about cooking.  I don't necessarily think I'm a good cook yet but my confidence is growing daily. 


There are a lot of mundane things that I do almost daily like washing cloth diapers or sweeping the floor but I want to share some pictures from the last couple of weeks that show the joys of the job.

This was one of Andrew's first times in a swing.  He loved it!  One of the things we do almost daily is take walks around our neighborhood.  I try to hit up a local parks, do a little grocery shopping, or just drool over the beautiful features on century old homes in the area.

I try to take advantage of opportunities to meet other parents in the neighborhood and give Andrew a change of scenery whenever possible.  Here he is playing at a local church during their open gym time for the little ones.  He might be the youngest one there by at least a year, but we have fun scooting on the gym mats and watching the big kids run around.

Last Saturday we hit up a park that houses a really neat garden and greenhouse.  I tried to get some nice nature glamor shots, but Andrew was being less than cooperative.  I look forward to going back to this garden next year and teaching Andrew about all the plants.

Leaves are nutritious right?

I'm not digging the stump mom

Throwing a fit in the woodchips= one dirty jacket

Yay!  One good shot with my baby and the scarecrow!

I cherish the moments in the day when Alan gets to play and bond with Andrew.  It is so cute to see them together.  It is a blessing to share the joys and burdens of raising a child with my husband.

 Awwww!

What you looking at?!?

 Alan and Andrew have a little jam season.  Daddy plays and baby sings!

My new job is trying to get my boy to eat solid foods while minimizing mess.  He has tried rice cereal, bananas, butternut squash, and today a bit of sweet potato.  It is funny to see the faces he makes as he navigates the feeling of having bits of food stuck on his tongue.  I will admit that I'm not the best at eating  without spilling so it becomes even more difficult when trying to feed someone else with very active hands. 

Smiles abound!

 Squash make up

Finally one of the things I have really tried to do is make new friends and stay connected to old friends.  I have met a lot of other mamas through various meet ups including What's Cookin' Mama.  It has been a lot of fun getting to know them and their kiddos.  I have also enjoyed seeing friends from our old neighborhood and being shocked at how quickly they grow.  This week Andrew had a play date (although he slept through most of it) with this little cutie.  You can't really see but the blocks denote their ages (4 and 6 months).  I remember being pregnant with Jessica last year and it is just so amazing to see the fruits of our labor!  :-P

So, when I'm asked what do I do...I get to say I'm a proud mom.  Yes, I want to go back to teaching at some point but I'm loving every moment that I have at home.

 

-rachel