The R~ Rear View Mirror: A Look Back at 2008

This was our Christmas letter this year. I had it formatted like a newspaper.

Two Year Old Breaks Leg
Cole R~ had just finished his swimming lessons the night before. The following afternoon his mom, Becky, took him out in his kiddie pool. “He was just playing around, getting in and out when he caught his foot on the edge, twisted his left leg and broke it” reports R~. “I didn’t know it was broken. I thought he hurt his ankle or knee, but he just kept crying so I took him to the doctor.” After the x-rays they realized he had indeed broken his left femur. They casted him from his belly button down to his toes on his left leg and to his knee on the right. “He couldn’t sit or stand or anything. All he could do was lay there” says his mom. It took him about a week to figure out he could crawl around on his belly. His dad, Pat, claims the break didn’t seem to phase him. “He just kind of rolls with the punches” he stated. Cole was in a cast for only 4 of the projected 6 weeks. It took him about a week after the cast was off to start using the leg again. To date he is back running, jumping, and being a normal toddler.

Are We Over Scheduling Our Kids?
“We are always on the go” reports Becky R~, mom of 2 boys. “Between play group, ECFE, story time, doctor’s appointments, swimming lessons, and everything else, we never seem to spend much time at home.” R~ states that her reason for scheduling her 2 year old in so much is that he is very shy and needs to be around other kids. “I also want him to feel comfortable when he starts school next year” she claims. While most parents agree it would be nice to slow down, they also agree it’s hard to choose what to cut out.

Mom Delivers Second, Unexpected, Preemie
In 2006, Becky R~ unexpectedly went into labor at 30 weeks. She gave birth to a little, but healthy, boy. With no reason to believe it should happen again, the couple decided to have a second child. “The doctors monitored me very closely and never found anything unusual” claims R~. Still, the local mom went into labor early again. On July 14th she gave birth to their second son, Tate David, in Marshall at 34 weeks gestation. “He is doing just fine. He’s nearly 14 pounds and is a pretty happy baby” claims R~. Tate weighed 5 and a half pounds and was 19 inches long when he was born. He was discharged from the hospital after 4 days.

Local Dairy Farmers Keep Expanding
Local dairy farmer, Pat R~, started farming with his parents in 2006. Then they were milking about 70 head. With the addition of another free stall barn, the second since 2006, they will have capacity for 140 head. “It’s a lot of work, but it allows me to stay home with our two boys” states his wife, Becky. While he may not enjoy the long days, R~ does enjoy farm life. The couple moved onto the dairy site this summer, along with their two young boys. “My parents built a new house less than a quarter mile down the road. This way no one has to travel very far to work.”

R~ Trivia
Tate and Cole are a lot a like. True or False?
False. Tate has a more extreme personality where Cole is more laid back. When Tate is mad, he’s mad, but he can also be very smiley and giggly.
Pat is
a) A volunteer firefighter
b) Lazy
c) On the elevator board
Answer: a & c. I think he’d like some time to be lazy, but rarely finds any. He had a very busy year as the elevator went through a lot of transition.
Cole’s favorite past time is
a) Riding in the tractor
b) Chores
c) Throwing fits
d) Hugging other kids
Answer: Most certainly not d. He does not liked to be touched by other kids. He also throws relatively few fits. So that leaves a and b. He loves to be in the tractor and if you tell him it’s time to go work he heads straight for his boots and the door.
Becky will graduate this spring. True or False?
Answer: False. She would love to be done, but two kids makes it tough to take many classes. She can see the light, but it may take a couple of years to get there.

Vodka Four

My sister, Jennifer, recently had her first book published. It is now available at amazon.com. I had the privilege of proofreading it for her. For those of you who like chick lit, I think it is worth the read. It can be little graphic, which is why my sister, Kristen, has decided not to read it, and why Jenn and I don't think my parents should read it. However, it is very exciting for her to have a book published. I can't wait for my copy so I can see all the changes she made. Be sure to check it out!

Christmas Day

So I'm a little behind in my blogging. My goal today is to write posts to put up while we are gone this week. We'll see...

Christmas was very good this year. We spent Christmas Eve with Pat's family and Christmas Day at home. That evening some of Pat's extended family came over for oyster stew. It was a good time, but I have way too much junk food left over. I even took it to the big family Christmas on Saturday and still have left overs. Ugh.

Cole and Tate made out very well this year. Cole was easily distracted by every present he opened. He wasn't as thrilled about books and clothes, but he got plenty of toys and games that he would run off with to play with right away. We had to take away the trucks he got from my sister so he would finish opening presents. Tate slept through the whole ordeal. Pat and I also got a lot of nice things. The boys got me an electric fireplace. Pat got MarioKart Wii, so we've played that quite a bit. Cole likes to play racing, which means he sits and watches. Pat also got some Christmas money so yesterday we headed out and bought ourselves a new dining room table. The one we have we bought second hand pretty cheap. It's not our style and it's not in the best shape anymore. It served its purpose, but it was time for a new one. We picked out a very nice solid birch table. I searched online for a picture but came up empty handed. I guess you'll all have to wait until it arrives in about 6 weeks. In the mean time you'll have to be satisfied with pictures of the boys from Christmas Day.

The Excitement of Christmas

I remember the excitement of Christmas growing up. I remember being up very early and spending hours in my sister's room doing puzzles because we weren't allowed to go downstairs until 6. Once allowed downstairs we were not allowed to touch the presents. I remember breaking that rule and hearing my dad yelling "don't touch the presents." My parents' room was probably the furthest room away. I have no idea how he heard that. I think the most exciting gifts we've ever given were the announcement of the coming of both of our boys. Even that excitement doesn't match the excitement of over 2000 years ago when the angels announced the birth of the Baby Jesus. How amazing it must have been!

I hope you all have a Blessed Christmas. My wish for you is not that you get everything on your list, but that you remember the reason we are celebrating and that you are filled with excitement over our Savior's birth.

With that I leave you with a picture of the most handsome boys ever..., but I may be biased.

Someone's In The Kitchen With Mommy

This is what happens when you let a 2-year old help make sugar cookies and tell him it's time to clean up. Apparently he thought cleaning up meant crawling under the chair on his belly and smearing the flour around on the floor...

Snowy Sunday

Well, we are snowed in for another weekend. They even cancelled church this morning. We got quite a bit of snow yesterday and now it is blowing, so they haven't cleared the road yet. I'm guessing the school kids, and teachers, are getting sick of this. Nearly everything has been cancelled and closed the past two weekends, but they've only had a late start for school once in the past week. I don't mind the snow. I just don't like the bitterly cold. Cole wants to go out and play, but it is way too cold for that. It is supposed to get warmer by mid week and Christmas looks pretty nice. Hopefully we'll get a chance to go sledding or build a fort. We've got enough snow for it!

For your viewing pleasure, I managed to get a pretty decent picture of the boys ready for the Vikings game today. Right after I snapped the picture, Cole hopped off the couch and Tate fell over. Cole wasn't too fond of "snuggling" with his brother.

How many times does it take...

to get a decent picture of a toddler and an infant together.

This is as good as it gets. I really need a camera with a faster shutter speed...

A Few of My Favorite Things

This post has been brewing for a while, but I never take the time to actually sit down and write it. I've discovered some really awesome things lately that I wanted to share.

1. Mary Kay tinted moisturizer. I don't wear a lot of makeup. I love this stuff. My face is always dry and I never wear enough moisturizer. I use it like foundation, daily. Love, love, love it.


2. Bogs boots. OK, most of you probably don't have much call for a winter work boot, but if you do, get these. I spent years trying to find boots to keep my feet warm. I never succeeded. Last year I finally bought myself a pair of Bogs. I would have bought Cole a pair this year, but they don't go small enough. Well worth the money. They're warm, and they last.


3. Best Buy in Eden Prairie. They have family parking! I don't care so much about the store, but they have family parking! I think all stores should have that. It is such a pain to tote a baby and a toddler across the parking lot in the winter, or summer, for that matter.


4. Screen cleaner. I ironically bought this at #3. Our laptop is full of junk and little boy finger prints. I have tried everything to get them off, but no luck. So I picked up some cleaning wipes and I can see again! It worked on the touch pad too. Having a lap top in the kitchen isn't always a good idea.
5. Schwan's pre-cooked cubed chicken. I don't know why I haven't been buying this for years. So much easier than thawing, cooking, and chopping up chicken breasts.

You Know You Are Getting Older When...

1. You start subscribing to a daily newspaper because you are more interested in what's going on in the world instead of who won the basketball game Friday night.
2. You are more anxious to GIVE Christmas gifts than you are to receive them.
3. You have no idea what to put on your own Christmas list because it's either a) too expensive or b) you already bought it.
4. You wear a hat in winter because it's cold out, and you don't care how stupid you look.
5. You wonder how girls get into those skinny jeans and why they want to.
6. Your husband goes to do the doctor, willingly, twice, in December because you've already met your deductible for the year.

5 Months

Tate turned 5 months yesterday. Can you believe how fast that's gone? Just crazy! He is getting so big. He can roll from his tummy to his back and from his back to his side but not all the way over yet. He loves to watch Cole. If Cole is in his line of vision he rarely cries. He is also trying to sit up when being held. He's just started eating solids. I can't believe how much he's changed. Cole has been looking at photo albums a lot lately. We noticed a picture of Tate from when he was about two months or so. He had so much hair, and now it's all gone. It's starting to come back in, but he's still pretty bald. Here are a few pictures.

Tate's hair.

5 Months Old.

This week is my finals week. I have my one final on Wed. Hopefully I make time to study between now and then. I'm anxious to be done. I'm hoping to find time to do some reading and baking over break. We'll see how much of that happens. I can't believe it's only 10 days until Christmas. It really snuck up on me this year.

Jealousy is Setting In

So Cole has been very attached to his baby doll lately. He carries it everywhere and sleeps with it at night and bed time. He feeds it juice, picks its nose with the nasal aspirator, and clips its fingernails. The baby sleeps in the pack n play, plays with the floor gym, he even does tummy time on Tate's tummy mat. I think this is Cole's way of showing jealousy. It's actually pretty cute, how he takes care of his baby. He hasn't tried to do anything mean to Tate, but I'm sure those days area coming. He actually wants to know where Tate is all the time. In the morning he goes to Tate's crib to look for him. He's usually downstairs by then. I guess I'll take this kind of jealousy and hope it lasts when Tate starts reaching for things.

The Annual Christmas Letter

I did it. I finished our Christmas letter! I just have to have Pat proof read it and I'm done. Of course, then I have to print them all out, address envelopes, and mail them. I also ran out of ink, so I have to wait for that to come in the mail too. But it's written!

I love Christmas letters. It's great to catch up on all the happenings from those I don't hear from often. I'm always a little disappointed to get a card with just a signature. I don't care if all you have to say is "Living in the same place, going to the same job, driving the same car." (Try to say it a little less depressing of course). I just like to know what has or hasn't changed in your life in the past year. I enjoy reading them, but I don't really like writing them. I wasn't terribly blessed with great writing skills. I got the math skills, my sisters got the creative stuff. So it's hard to come up with something fun and witty. Of course, having kids helps make it more interesting. This year I decided to go the newsletter route. I'll post it at a later date. I don't want to spoil it for those who will get it in the mail.

Saturday we went and cut down our tree. Sunday we decorated it. Cole loved all the tractor ornaments. It was really fun watching him this year. He's finally big enough to understand a little better. Here are a few pictures.

Cole putting the star on the top of the tree.

Checking out the Nativity Set. The lamb got lost last year and never returned.

Cole's section that he decorated all by himself. Notice the 4 tractors in a row.

Our tradition, picture ornaments. Cole colored his own this year. Can you tell?

Week in Review

It's been a very busy week. I'm glad it's over, but I don't think we're in for a slow down quite yet. Tuesday Cole had play group. It turned out to be just him and B~, the teacher's daughter. It went ok though. We finished up a little early so we headed to the Usborne book fair at school. We have a couple of Usborne books, but I don't think they are anything spectacular. They are nice books. Nice enough that I managed to spend $70 on 5 books. They had some really neat tractor and truck books, and heaven knows we can't have enough of those. The nice thing is that the school gets like 20% or something, so that made me feel better. I told Pat other than the couple of toys I had in mind for Tate, I am not allowed to buy the boys any more Christmas presents. I've gone overboard already and it's barely December.

Tuesday afternoon I took Tate to get his RSV shot. He weighed in at 13 lb, 14 oz, up a pound from his 4 month check up about 3 weeks ago. I think he's doing pretty good! I also made his 6 month appointment and decided to try out the pediatric nurse practitioner. Hopefully that will go well. He's been sleeping pretty well at night. He's unpredictable, but rarely up more than once at night. That, I can handle. Last night he slept until 6:40 this morning. The only bad part is that it really screws up my morning schedule, since I usually feed him at 8, before I leave for class.

Tuesday night we had an ECFE class. It started out with a music class for the kids and then we had a parent class on the book Say Yes to No. The parent part meant we had to separate. I don't have a problem with this, but Cole does, big time. I know he needs time with other kids without me there, he strongly disagreed. It took me a while to be able to leave, but I did eventually. He screamed at the door, but I figured he would calm down, and he did. He lasted just over a half an hour before they came to get me. I was impressed. The teacher said he did really well, but was getting harder and harder to distract so she told him they'd read a story and go find mommy. She didn't want him to get upset and then dread going to school.

Wednesday I headed to the cities with the boys. Pat had left earlier that morning for a retreat for the local elevator. They were going over their business plan and doing some brainstorming. We stayed at this fancy hotel and conference center. I was not impressed. The parking was incredibly inconvenient. Apparently having cars park anywhere near the hotel would mess up the look or something. The look was about all it had going for it. The room was your typical hotel room. Two regular beds, a desk, and a TV. The kicker was they wanted to charge $10 for high speed internet and they charged $20 for me to stay there. What hotel charges for internet anymore and isn't based on double occupancy for a 2 bed room??? Dumb. No comment card either. I would have let them know how stupid that was. Granted people don't go there to relax, they go for a conference, but still. I did get to hang out with some friends though. I met up with one college friend Wed. night for supper and my friend Cathy came up from Rochester to shop with me on Thursday.

I did manage to accomplish most of my Christmas shopping. I only have one person left and I know what I'm going to get. Today I wrapped everything up and tomorrow we are going to get our tree. We decided we would go cut a tree this year. We cut one the first year we were married, but the past 2 years we've bought one from Hy-Vee. I don't think we are going to take Tate along, but I think Cole will get a kick out of it. Santa is supposed to be there, and that makes me nervous. On our way home yesterday we stopped in Olivia. They happened to have their holiday parade and then Santa came to Pizza Ranch, where we were eating. We asked Cole if he wanted to go see Santa and he started crying. He doesn't even know who Santa is! I can't imagine he remembers last year. So I think we will be skipping Santa Day in town this year.