There will be no pictures for this post, but I have to share, just because it is funny.
So..... everyday I race home to try to get an hour in with the kids prior to them heading off to bed, by race home I mean I try to ride my bike fast, until I hit the hills and then I can not go fast anymore because I am riding a bike that weighs something like 300 lbs and I am fat and out of shape, but I digress....
So, I race home to get to the kids. This evening I managed to get home just as the kids were getting out of the bath. Go me!! I get to participate in a bit more of the night time ritual. I am happily holding naked Owen, and yup, I am sure you can guess were this is going. He pees all over me (and himself), so he went back into the tub and I toweled off. What a great way to end a day.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Halloween
The kids lowed it. OK the kids had not clue and I am sure in their own way were thinking, why are you putting me in this silly suit, but they looked pretty cute. Below are a couple of pictures. Hope all is well. Love to all Ian
Saturday, November 8, 2008
A Weekend Alone with the Kids (for Dad)
After just about 13 months of being a Mom and basically being around the kids 24/7. Tracy took a much deserved break and went to California to hang out with a good friend of hers, Gina. So, obviously (or maybe not), I was left in charge for the weekend. We had established some of the basic ground rules, such as I was not allowed to get a sitter and go on an epic bike ride, which I guess is reasonable.
Tracy was really great, she did a lot of leg work she prepared all the meals for the weekend and we had a lot of planned activities (kindermusik, a birthday party and then a park date the following day).
So in true Ian fashion I decided to shoot video, it is a long one, about 11 min, but exceptionally funny :-), plus the kids are cute.
So how did it go? I think I was exceptionally lucky, prior to Tracy heading out both kids were sick, runny noses, coughing, not sleeping all that well; their naps were all messed up with Owen specifically not sleeping well; and the last time I went away it was very hard on the kids. So this seemed like it was going to be a train wreck, luckily the kids got better, which I am guessing resulted in them sleeping better and I think they are older now and can deal with one of us being away for a bit. All of these things combined resulted in us having a pretty fun weekend.
Enjoy the video.
Tracy was really great, she did a lot of leg work she prepared all the meals for the weekend and we had a lot of planned activities (kindermusik, a birthday party and then a park date the following day).
So in true Ian fashion I decided to shoot video, it is a long one, about 11 min, but exceptionally funny :-), plus the kids are cute.
So how did it go? I think I was exceptionally lucky, prior to Tracy heading out both kids were sick, runny noses, coughing, not sleeping all that well; their naps were all messed up with Owen specifically not sleeping well; and the last time I went away it was very hard on the kids. So this seemed like it was going to be a train wreck, luckily the kids got better, which I am guessing resulted in them sleeping better and I think they are older now and can deal with one of us being away for a bit. All of these things combined resulted in us having a pretty fun weekend.
Enjoy the video.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Walkin' & 'Talkin'
Well at least one of them is true. Below are links to a short video of the kids. Owen walking is pretty close to his first steps, both Tracy and I are amazed by how quickly he has gone from not walking at all, to him being able to walk actually pretty well. He currently uses it primarily as a way to 'bridge the gap' between walkers or things to hold onto, however, if none of the those are present he seems to be able to talk for quite a while. I would estimate 10-15 steps.
The second part of the video is the Ava Star Wars language, we just think that this is really funny and effectively impossible to imitate. The language we are talking about is in beginning and the end of the video.
We'll post for pictures from the their birthday party soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVh2H1gywf0
The second part of the video is the Ava Star Wars language, we just think that this is really funny and effectively impossible to imitate. The language we are talking about is in beginning and the end of the video.
We'll post for pictures from the their birthday party soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVh2H1gywf0
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Vacation? Part I
I have decided that I am going to have to write this in installments, trying to summarize everything in one post seems a little aggressive. With that said, lets begin....
It seemed like such a good idea. We were going to amortize the impact of flying across the country by having a 2 week east coast trip (basically two trips back to back). One week with my family and bunch of folks that I grew-up with in Iowa City on the beach on Emerald Island in North Carolina. Then we were going to fly up to Connecticut so the kids could meet their great-grandparents. It was going to be great, all of these other people around to help, Tracy and I were going to be able to bask in the sun, take long romantic walks, sleep in, augh the glory.
As any of you with kids know, this is so not the case, our naivete was so cute.... Without getting too far ahead of myself and generalizing the trip. I'll talk about the two days it took us to get to the beach.
Unfortunately there were no direct flights from here to RDU, but I guess baring a few larger airports on the East and West Coasts this is going to be true, lets just say right now we have a no connecting flight rule. It was also our first trip with the kids and we had a TON of stuff. We have a pretty big car now (it is a really big car) and it full, I mean so full that we had to hold stuff in it to make sure that the back was closed, I think that we checked 6 bags plus a carry-on for all of us.
Ava actually was a good travel baby (officially the superwondertravelbabyboo); however Owen well.... what can I say, he has a lot of energy, that is the nicest thing I can say, he was kind of a train wreck. As I am writing this in hindsight and we are back home it is hard to remember the pain and frustration that was Owen, but it was pretty bad.
I have uplaoded video of the travel. The video is pretty long (just over 7 min), but I think it funny :-) and I am sure for those of you with kids not unfamiliar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7n4kHwjpds
It seemed like such a good idea. We were going to amortize the impact of flying across the country by having a 2 week east coast trip (basically two trips back to back). One week with my family and bunch of folks that I grew-up with in Iowa City on the beach on Emerald Island in North Carolina. Then we were going to fly up to Connecticut so the kids could meet their great-grandparents. It was going to be great, all of these other people around to help, Tracy and I were going to be able to bask in the sun, take long romantic walks, sleep in, augh the glory.
As any of you with kids know, this is so not the case, our naivete was so cute.... Without getting too far ahead of myself and generalizing the trip. I'll talk about the two days it took us to get to the beach.
Unfortunately there were no direct flights from here to RDU, but I guess baring a few larger airports on the East and West Coasts this is going to be true, lets just say right now we have a no connecting flight rule. It was also our first trip with the kids and we had a TON of stuff. We have a pretty big car now (it is a really big car) and it full, I mean so full that we had to hold stuff in it to make sure that the back was closed, I think that we checked 6 bags plus a carry-on for all of us.
Ava actually was a good travel baby (officially the superwondertravelbabyboo); however Owen well.... what can I say, he has a lot of energy, that is the nicest thing I can say, he was kind of a train wreck. As I am writing this in hindsight and we are back home it is hard to remember the pain and frustration that was Owen, but it was pretty bad.
I have uplaoded video of the travel. The video is pretty long (just over 7 min), but I think it funny :-) and I am sure for those of you with kids not unfamiliar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7n4kHwjpds
Thursday, July 31, 2008
From a while back...
During my last post, I mentioned that our summer nanny had to go to court, now I am not sure what happened there, but regardless she never showed up at our house again. She did not call, write, send an email or communicate in anyway, so we really don't know what happened.
Initially this threw the Clarkson household into a tail spin, what are we going to do? The way that we worked was predicated on the assumption that we would have a help at least a couple of days a week. After spending a week or so trying to find someone else, Tracy decided that we should just give it a try without having a nanny. We have a trip planned for mid August anyway and it did not seem to make a lot of sense to try and find a consistent part time help when we were really not going to be around.
Well, I think much to our surprise this has actually worked out pretty well, I know that Tracy is definately a lot busier with the kids than she was before, but the kids are becoming a ton of fun, they are both crawling around and developing personalities, laughing and are fun to play with. The also means if Tracy wants to get 'other stuff done' that she has to trust that I can take care of the kids, so a couple of weeks ago she left me alone with them and I made this little video.
The kids were about 9 and 1/2 months when this was made.
Again, because the blogger video thing sucks, I have used youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3toQoWzS9VU
Initially this threw the Clarkson household into a tail spin, what are we going to do? The way that we worked was predicated on the assumption that we would have a help at least a couple of days a week. After spending a week or so trying to find someone else, Tracy decided that we should just give it a try without having a nanny. We have a trip planned for mid August anyway and it did not seem to make a lot of sense to try and find a consistent part time help when we were really not going to be around.
Well, I think much to our surprise this has actually worked out pretty well, I know that Tracy is definately a lot busier with the kids than she was before, but the kids are becoming a ton of fun, they are both crawling around and developing personalities, laughing and are fun to play with. The also means if Tracy wants to get 'other stuff done' that she has to trust that I can take care of the kids, so a couple of weeks ago she left me alone with them and I made this little video.
The kids were about 9 and 1/2 months when this was made.
Again, because the blogger video thing sucks, I have used youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3toQoWzS9VU
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Week Off
I am taking my first full week off since the kids were born, so far (for me) it has been great. The weather has been amazing and it has been great to spend time with the family.
I finally got around to putting together a little video of our more recent video clips. As the player on this site is totally lame, I have posted it on youtube (http://youtube.com/watch?v=dlEk4zep3zg) - check it out.
About three weeks ago we finally got both kids to sleep through the night, so that has been great. Unfortunately (or fortunately) they are getting up at 6am, which honestly for me is great, as I can spend a couple of hours with them in the morning. They have not figured out weekends yet, but they are getting there.
Owen is now 'cruising', at least I have seen him to this once and he is all about standing now. Ava is still not crawling, she tries (somewhat half-heartedly) and then collapses on her belly. She is really into turning the pages of the books and even though they are both VERY vocal, she is more so than Owen.
The midweek update on my week off is:
Ava has had a fever all week (which is bad)
Tracy wrenched her neck again (which is also bad)
The phone, cable and internet were all out this morning (which is bad)
The new nanny had to go to court today (this can not be good)
I got one of my tasks done (which for me is OK)
The sun is out (which is great)
The Tour de France is on (which is great)
I have been able to run twice without my knee hurting (which is super wonderful)
That is all for now
Ian
Here are a couple of funny pictures (too boot).
I finally got around to putting together a little video of our more recent video clips. As the player on this site is totally lame, I have posted it on youtube (http://youtube.com/watch?v=dlEk4zep3zg) - check it out.
About three weeks ago we finally got both kids to sleep through the night, so that has been great. Unfortunately (or fortunately) they are getting up at 6am, which honestly for me is great, as I can spend a couple of hours with them in the morning. They have not figured out weekends yet, but they are getting there.
Owen is now 'cruising', at least I have seen him to this once and he is all about standing now. Ava is still not crawling, she tries (somewhat half-heartedly) and then collapses on her belly. She is really into turning the pages of the books and even though they are both VERY vocal, she is more so than Owen.
The midweek update on my week off is:
Ava has had a fever all week (which is bad)
Tracy wrenched her neck again (which is also bad)
The phone, cable and internet were all out this morning (which is bad)
The new nanny had to go to court today (this can not be good)
I got one of my tasks done (which for me is OK)
The sun is out (which is great)
The Tour de France is on (which is great)
I have been able to run twice without my knee hurting (which is super wonderful)
That is all for now
Ian
Here are a couple of funny pictures (too boot).
Saturday, June 21, 2008
I love being a dad
Yup, it is true, I love being a dad. Every morning I am sad when I leave the little people to go to work and every night I race home to be with them. Prior to my first work trip there have only three nights that I did not get home in time to help put them to bed. They are just too much fun, it is great to walk in the house and have Ava look up at me and have this HUGE smile on her face and have Owen crawl over to say hello, look out if you are in his way, he'll run you right over. Maybe this is some form of narcissism? It is too funny, when I come home Owen gets all worked up and starts flaying his arms around and gets upset if I don't go over and say hello, normally he just comes with me to get changed, so I can hang out.
Of course I think that my kids are the smartest, cutest, most wondering little people ever!! As my buddy Conrad said, which I totally believe - if you don't believe it no one will.
So... about two weeks ago, I went away for the first time. The short story is that it sucked!! It sucked for me, it sucked for Tracy and it seemed to suck for the kids, I think it even sucked for Maggie (our nanny - sort of). The slightly longer story is that, I was going to be away Tuesday evening and not returning home until after the kids went to bed on Friday night. Inherently this was going to be hard as neither kids was sleeping through the night. Owen was close, he normally slept until about 5ish, but Ava was still getting up twice, so that math did not look to good for Tracy, the plan was that Maggie was going to stay and help one night and work a bit more. Generally with a little parent love we were able to get the kids to go back to sleep, without too much trouble, and many days we wold not get up until 7am.
Monday morning comes, everything seems to be going fine, I am about to head off to work and start my week, Tracy comes into the kitchen crying, Maggie gave her notice - SUCK!! She is going to stay through the end of the month, but this is really not good. Still seems OK for me to go, it is a work thing and I really need to get it done. The next 24 hours are spent trying to figure out what we are going to do about the nanny, Maggie has been great, the kids really seem to like her what are we going to do....? After a bit of time we find out that she is moving, which makes us feel a bit better, but does not really solve the problem.
Tuesday afternoon, I come home prior to heading out, play with the kids one more time give everyone a big hug and a kiss and promise to call often. It seems that no sooner do I get on the bus that Ava gets a fever, this is really not good. Ava is all about mom at the best of times and when she is sick it only gets worse. Still it should be OK, Owen is crawling now and as long as he has a piece of Tupperware to chase around the house all is right in the world.... Well, guess what? We did not really realize how much Owen wanted to see Dad everyday. About 24 hours after I was gone Owen realized that he had not seen me and became pretty unhappy, he also got really needy and wanted to be held all the time. So now Tracy is home with a sick Ava and a needy Owen as well as trying to figure out what we are going to do about getting a new nanny. Needless to say, I could not get home soon enough and everyone was very happy to see me, but I think Tracy most of all. The following day she said one of the nicest things to me, it was something to the effect of 'I have never missed anyone's presence so much or felt so happy to have it back' - there was lots of hugging :)
The Sunday after I came back was father's day and although we spend most of it in the car, it was great to be hanging out the family.
Here are some recent pictures of the cutest babies ever!
Of course I think that my kids are the smartest, cutest, most wondering little people ever!! As my buddy Conrad said, which I totally believe - if you don't believe it no one will.
So... about two weeks ago, I went away for the first time. The short story is that it sucked!! It sucked for me, it sucked for Tracy and it seemed to suck for the kids, I think it even sucked for Maggie (our nanny - sort of). The slightly longer story is that, I was going to be away Tuesday evening and not returning home until after the kids went to bed on Friday night. Inherently this was going to be hard as neither kids was sleeping through the night. Owen was close, he normally slept until about 5ish, but Ava was still getting up twice, so that math did not look to good for Tracy, the plan was that Maggie was going to stay and help one night and work a bit more. Generally with a little parent love we were able to get the kids to go back to sleep, without too much trouble, and many days we wold not get up until 7am.
Monday morning comes, everything seems to be going fine, I am about to head off to work and start my week, Tracy comes into the kitchen crying, Maggie gave her notice - SUCK!! She is going to stay through the end of the month, but this is really not good. Still seems OK for me to go, it is a work thing and I really need to get it done. The next 24 hours are spent trying to figure out what we are going to do about the nanny, Maggie has been great, the kids really seem to like her what are we going to do....? After a bit of time we find out that she is moving, which makes us feel a bit better, but does not really solve the problem.
Tuesday afternoon, I come home prior to heading out, play with the kids one more time give everyone a big hug and a kiss and promise to call often. It seems that no sooner do I get on the bus that Ava gets a fever, this is really not good. Ava is all about mom at the best of times and when she is sick it only gets worse. Still it should be OK, Owen is crawling now and as long as he has a piece of Tupperware to chase around the house all is right in the world.... Well, guess what? We did not really realize how much Owen wanted to see Dad everyday. About 24 hours after I was gone Owen realized that he had not seen me and became pretty unhappy, he also got really needy and wanted to be held all the time. So now Tracy is home with a sick Ava and a needy Owen as well as trying to figure out what we are going to do about getting a new nanny. Needless to say, I could not get home soon enough and everyone was very happy to see me, but I think Tracy most of all. The following day she said one of the nicest things to me, it was something to the effect of 'I have never missed anyone's presence so much or felt so happy to have it back' - there was lots of hugging :)
The Sunday after I came back was father's day and although we spend most of it in the car, it was great to be hanging out the family.
Here are some recent pictures of the cutest babies ever!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
6 Months
6 months, wow, how does that happen? It is amazing how the little people have turned into little people! We have progressed from ascribing all of their noises to things like ‘gas or hunger’ to actual personality traits 'oh, that is just Ava' or 'Owen always does that'. We are now convinced that we can predict their personalities 'Ava is going to be a handful, in a good way'. I honestly don't think this is just us looking for meaning, I do think their personalities are becoming more and more well defined.
On a personal note, it is amazing how, in such a short period of time, two people I did not know 6 months ago are now some of the most important people in my life. I would do anything to ensure their safety and well being and I know Tracy would do the same.
On the development front right now they are both rolling over, this is mostly good and cool, but Owen in particular does it in his sleep and then can not figure out how to get to his back and proceeds to completely lose his shit, this normally happens during the middle of the night. Ava started this a bit ahead of Owen; she has been doing this for about 2 weeks, the rolling over, not the freaking out.
As exciting as rolling over is, baby talk is the favored activity. They both just want to talk and talk and talk. Yesterday Ava started to laugh, not squeal, but an actual laugh and about a week ago Owen started to giggle. It is just too funny when they both start going at it.
A frequent question I am asked is: Do they know about each other? At this point, I am at the low end of maybe. The only thing that seems to be real about this is Ava is all about what Owen has, so maybe?
We had the 6 month check up, which I have to say is really not all that much fun, I really don't like going and watching someone jab a needle, that is proportionally the size of a long sword, for those who don't know how long a long sword is, it is long - like really long! The kids seem to share my opinion of this as well! In addition to the immediate tears, Ava has gotten a fever the last two times she had shots, which TOTALLY sucks!
So onto the measurements:
Adjusted for their gestational age both kids are right around 50th percentile for height and weight - they are around 35th unadjusted. Both of them have big heads, relatively, which I guess is good - specifically that both of them have big heads, the Dr thinks there is little chance of either of them having water on the brain, yes I asked the question. So Owen's head is in the 95th percentile and Ava's is at the 70th, these are also adjusted. I knew that Owen had a big head, that was our rationale for why he rolled over later than Ava, but I was surprised that Ava's head was relatively large.
So there you go.
On a personal note, it is amazing how, in such a short period of time, two people I did not know 6 months ago are now some of the most important people in my life. I would do anything to ensure their safety and well being and I know Tracy would do the same.
On the development front right now they are both rolling over, this is mostly good and cool, but Owen in particular does it in his sleep and then can not figure out how to get to his back and proceeds to completely lose his shit, this normally happens during the middle of the night. Ava started this a bit ahead of Owen; she has been doing this for about 2 weeks, the rolling over, not the freaking out.
As exciting as rolling over is, baby talk is the favored activity. They both just want to talk and talk and talk. Yesterday Ava started to laugh, not squeal, but an actual laugh and about a week ago Owen started to giggle. It is just too funny when they both start going at it.
A frequent question I am asked is: Do they know about each other? At this point, I am at the low end of maybe. The only thing that seems to be real about this is Ava is all about what Owen has, so maybe?
We had the 6 month check up, which I have to say is really not all that much fun, I really don't like going and watching someone jab a needle, that is proportionally the size of a long sword, for those who don't know how long a long sword is, it is long - like really long! The kids seem to share my opinion of this as well! In addition to the immediate tears, Ava has gotten a fever the last two times she had shots, which TOTALLY sucks!
So onto the measurements:
Adjusted for their gestational age both kids are right around 50th percentile for height and weight - they are around 35th unadjusted. Both of them have big heads, relatively, which I guess is good - specifically that both of them have big heads, the Dr thinks there is little chance of either of them having water on the brain, yes I asked the question. So Owen's head is in the 95th percentile and Ava's is at the 70th, these are also adjusted. I knew that Owen had a big head, that was our rationale for why he rolled over later than Ava, but I was surprised that Ava's head was relatively large.
So there you go.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Just Pictures
I have been a bad Dad, or maybe a good Dad and a bad - son, brother, grandson, etc.... as I have not updated this in FOREVER. This is no exception, nothing witty just a couple of pictures. I vow to write something interesting over the course of the next week as they are turning 6 months and that is something.
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