Spring is springing

Some things never change. We're still busy.

But still trying to take care of ourselves. Every now and then, Owen forgoes his normal exercise routine of running around the house/neighborhood like a madman to do some yoga and pilates exercises with his mom using our Wii system.

He's really taken to the whole idea of yoga, often posing dad's old R2D2 action figure into a variety of droid-asanas that I'm sure would be quite a challenge for any astromesh unit.

We've also enjoyed a nice dose of early spring weather. Owen and Maya's pre-school/day care had a cookout last Friday afternoon, and we've been getting out for picnics on the front porch when we can.

And a few more shots to share from the week, featuring stickers on the face and tasty bananas.

Birthdays, bunnies, and big changes

Lots has happened over the past three weeks. Early spring is without a doubt the busiest time of year in our house, although I'm sure I'll have an argument to support our hectic pace during the other seasons when they roll around.

As you can see from the pictures above, though, the kids are great. Enjoying each other and full of surprises for their mom and dad.


Picking up kind of where we left off, I had a very happy birthday celebration on April 5. We all drove up to my folks' house outside of Chicago for the weekend. It was a fun visit. Nana and Grandpa took care of Owen and Maya on Saturday morning so that Amy and I could get out for a little time on our own (something that has been in short supply lately), and then we all enjoyed a little birthday celebration later in the day.



Owen agreed the cake was pretty marvelous.

Another highlight of the weekend for Owen was going with Grandpa to visit the construction being done on Grandpa's church.


As if looking cool in Grandpa's cap wasn't enough ...


Owen had a great time sitting in the big machines and really checking everything out.





The following weekend was Easter. We went to a big Easter egg hunt at a nearby church on Saturday. It was an impressive display of humanity, but Owen collected a big bag of eggs, despite some incredible odds.

Here he is gathering.

And here's a representative sample of the kind of obstacles he faced out in the field. Honestly, I was trying to take a picture of Owen here as he was crouched down picking up some more eggs (you can kind of see his shoe between the leg and the hand with the camera) when my aim was blocked. The other parents were pretty aggressive in paving out the way for their kids to find more eggs. Personally, I was less concerned with him filling his bag than I was he was going to get trampled. And I still shudder to think of how all those grown-up derrieres must have looked from his perspective.

And the next day we did more egg hunting in our own back yard. It was a beautiful day and we had fun playing.

One final life change to share. Some restructuring and department consolidation at my office has created a new opportunity for me. The Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts and all of our related spaces has been moved into the City's revamped Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Department and I have been appointed the manager of the theater and all its operations. I got the news the day we left for Chicago and have been working very hard to keep things organized since, with our 2009-10 season announcement coming tomorrow, our current season of shows still trucking along, and a new summer series getting ready to begin in a month.

I have really enjoyed the new people I'm working with in the Parks Department, and the support I've had from the other people on my staff and the people who support and advise the theater has been wonderful. We'll meet next week to solidify my new job description, but I know I have a great foundation with a devoted staff and great community support of our operation.

It's a big challenge, but I'm eager to do a good job and excited about the opportunity.

Sorry again for being so slow with my posts these past few weeks. I'm sure we'll have more news to share soon.

Happy spring!

Maya, your candle please

What a weekend! Our little girl had a most excellent birthday with a house full of friends and family. Both sets of Maya's grandparents arrived on Friday afternoon for a weekend of fun and celebration.

We all enjoyed a delicious gluten-free cake. (I'm taking one for the team and finishing the last uneaten quarter.)

There were also party hats ...

Lots of sharing ...

Hugs and special attention ...

And visits from all of Maya's admirers in the neighborhood.

... who are very excited about coming over for a tea party with Maya's new set.

Owen had plenty of fun, too. He read books with everyone who would read to him (which was all of us, at one time or another).

He also learned lots about ships thanks to an independent study with Grampie Ives.

Not quite ready to hit the open sea, for the time being he's content to hide under the chair and (thanks to a freak winter storm) build a snowman with his dad.

Look Who's One!

Happy birthday, Maya!

Busy People

Not much else to say there.

Our little girl is growing up. It's now a week before her first birthday and Maya amazes us more every day. One of the comments from a teacher at her day care sums up her particular magic best.

"When she smiles, it starts in her eyes." You can tell she really loves all the people and things around her.

It's been a rough week for our little girl, though. Winter's last hurrah saddled her with two viruses this past week. The worst came over the weekend when her temp peaked at 104. The good news was the doctor said her ears and lungs were clear. There was just a little pink in the back of her throat ... and she sure was tuckered out.

Her Grampie and Grammie Ives came on Sunday to help out and I think she's now over it. Unfortunately, Amy came home from work yesterday with an intensely sore throat. We'll see what that has to bring as the day wears on.

Owen has been doing great in his pre-school. The weather has been wonderful the past couple of days and it's been a treat to pick him up and see him out playing on the playground with his friends. He's having fun, trying new things, and beeing quite daring at times.

Yesterday he climbed to the top of a hill they built to hold three recessed slides. He told me to watch what he could do, then he laid himself down on the ground and rolled to the bottom of the hill. He was covered in grass (and I think it hurt just a little bit), but had a huge smile when he stood up. He was quite brave.

A couple videos of him below, singing the "Busy People" song from his favorite Richard Scarry video. I'm particularly fond of the first one and how he shapes the tune so beautifully into a new key after the first chorus.

And here's the song in its entirety ...

Getting on top of it

What nice kids.

Maya has been very clingy lately. Hopefully suffering through the last of winter's colds, and still working on those teeth, she's been requiring a lot of holding and cuddling the past few nights. Amy and I took shifts with her Monday night, each of us earning about 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep apiece. Last night I fell asleep with her in the recliner in her room. We stayed pretty comfortable until 3 am when she was WIDE AWAKE. The good news is that she was just hungry.


She had no appetite at bedtime, so it really was kind of sweet to bring her downstairs and find her some food. She flashed her big smile at me and all but went horizontal to reach out to the food when I put it on the table.

Still, I had to feel a little like I'd just flown business class to Paris, enjoying a yogurt in off hours after five hours in a reclining chair.

The kids had a nice weekend with a visit from Grandpa and Nana Aalberts on Saturday. The weather was warm and they enjoyed their time out and about. It also gave Amy an opportunity to run some errands, which I know she enjoyed.

I was in Sioux City, IA, this weekend, judging a show choir competition at Sioux City East High School. It was my third trip there as a judge and, as always, it was a fun, but busy day.

I left on Friday morning, allowing some extra time to take a slight detour through Sanborn, IA, where my Grandpa and Grandma Reinsma lived. I realized as I was driving into the area that I hadn't been there since 1998.

I drove there to pay a visit to my grandparents' dear friends Jim and Jessie Postma. The Postmas have always had a special place in our hearts, and it was wonderful to see them for the first time since they came to Amy and my wedding ceremony in 2000.


Owen, meanwhile, has been doing great in school. His teachers love him and yesterday, for the second time in as many weeks, he earned the award for being the best helper at cleaning up.





It gives us hope considering how he looked after a pudding the other night.

The Bug

Well, there's something you don't see every day ...

That, of course, is Owen at his pre-school. A building he's only seen for a full three of his first six days of enrollment.

Owen began his school week last week with a gluten ingestion at his morning snack that had him throwing up minutes after his afternoon nap. It was an inauspicious start to the week, but he made the best of things enjoying three consecutive days of fun from Tuesday through Thursday.

In fact, as we were driving home on Wednesday I asked him what he thought about his new school, and he answered with conviction: "I LOVE IT!"

A note came home from school on Thursday that a case of strep throat and the stomach flu were reported in Owen's classroom. A harbinger of things to come, we should have done what Uncle Daniel would have recommended and quarantined him in bubble room.

Instead, we soldiered on, and were mostly unsurprised when he woke up with a nasty case of the flu on Friday morning. A day of vomiting followed, preceding a weekend of upset stomachs.

By Monday, the flu had gone, but the worst was not over. Things, to put it artfully, were backed up on the other end. After he threw up in the car because there was nowhere else for the food to go, I took him to the doctor on Monday for a stomach X-ray and the assurance he was not impacted.

Fortunately, Dr. Rosa said he would be just fine. He was quite backed up. But she thought a regimen of liquids, fruits, and some Miralax should do the trick.

Given the circumstances, we had a pretty low-key weekend. We watched lots of movies (Wall-E and a few Richard Scarry titles) and played a bunch of Wii games. I achieved "professional" status on the bowling game, a proud accomplishment had I not used up all my college eligibility on Burger Time back in the '90s.

But we did have some other fun. Owen stomped a piece of bubble wrap into the ground on Sunday night, releasing some energy (or perhaps dancing away the first effects of the laxative).

The fun of the doctor visit was shared by all as Owen presented Maya with the Pooh sticker Dr. Rosa had sent home for her.

She enjoyed the presentation ...

... but I think enjoyed her view of it better when it was across the room.

There were two other highlights to our Monday Boy's Day at home. When we arrived at the hospital, I asked Owen if he wanted to bring his stuffed Sammy Salami toy in with us.

"No," he said. "Some people are allergic to cats."

When we got home, I put in the "Sound of Music" soundtrack I'd picked up at the library, thinking it would be light, fun music to have on while we were getting busy on some projects.

"Dad, this is girl music!" he said.

As an arts administrator, I was really interested that he'd formed this impression already by age 3. So I started playing other music to see if there were other gender associations.

Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" ... Boy music.
Bob Marley ... no response.
Little Shop of Horrors ... boy music, but mostly just silly when Dad started singing Audrey II's songs.

Maya's real highlight of the weekend was the tiny rocking chair. She climbed up and down, up and down all weekend long.

I think her favorite part is dangling right on the edge.



Another harbinger of things to come?

I'm sure it'll make perfect sense when she's 16.