Voyages in Parenthood

Okay, what the heck is going on?? Global Warming? Did the earth tilt on it's axis? What is up with the weather in Philadelphia (for that matter, everywhere!)? It's January 30th...it's 9:47 PM....it's FIFTY-TWO DEGREES! And, what is with my freakin' camera and why won't the darned thing focus properly? I guess the next time I get a little time alone, I'd better read that darned camera manual, huh? (the top number is the outside temp...the second number is the temp in the house. The next number, the time and the bottom number the date)

Go see Susan Wendel Och's website....I think it is safe to say that writing definitely runs in the family! Susan is Brock's cousin... French Road Connections She also started a bread making blog ...apparently bread-making also runs in the family as Brock loves making bread! Well, fried dough at least! ;-) It never quite gets baked in our house!

Hi...miss me? I've got some pictures to show you, but don't have much else to say. Not busy at work (hate it!) but can't update from work either (else, I'd probably have LOTS to say!) By they time I get home, the last thing I want to do is think! ;-) Leda's doing great...she's come up with a few new things that she is doing...She loves to reprimand us now...we get yelled out if we do something she doesn't like - like walk away from her or leave the room (even when one of us is still in the room!) She's a bugger! ;-) As promised, here's the Nine Month picture! Yes, we feed the kid WAY too much orange veggies!

Wow. 9 months old today. What a little bugger she is! We would have never thought, 18 months ago, when we created this little creature that today we would be amazed by her ability to walk unassisted! Yep, 9 months old and she's taking 5, 6, 7, 8 steps by herself. She's even walking AROUND things in her way. Can you say baby proofing is underway? Leda's developing quite a personnality. Who would have thought she'd end up stubborn - don't have a clue where she got that from! ;-) She get's something in her head and it takes forever to get her to focus on something else - take the t.v. remote for example. Wherever she is in the house, if that remote becomes available to her (i.e., within her reach), she drops everything she's doing to go after it. Brock has resorted to going to the Dollar store and buying cheap remotes to keep her from going after the good one. Tested the theory tonight...real tv remote becomes available and, with fake remote in hand (in death g...

Yep, I think I said not too long ago that I wasn't gonna talk about T.O. anymore. Sorry, the temptation was just too much... First, the reports are that Tampa Bay might want him. Hey, I was all for that! ;-) Now, the reports are that the Dolphins might want him?? Oh, Uncle Kurt, your team might be in BIG trouble if they are seriously considering this! Dolphins interested in Owens Especially since at least three Dolphin's players have already indicated to the press that T.O. ain't welcome in their lockerroom...that's just a problem waitin' to happen! I am sure we won't see much of anything happen before March, since I doubt there's anyone out there that would actually trade anything of meaning for T.O.!

Well, this sucks...Leda's favorite toy, recalled! Actually, it's not so bad. We ordered the fix kit, so she should be able to play with her chair for months and years to come! Funny, both Claire and Aimee heard about the recall...did we, nope! (of course, tonight, during the news, they'll probably mention it!) Anyway, everyone rest assured that Leda will be JUST fine playing with her chair!

Oh.My.Goodness. Someone has replaced my mild-mannered child with a clingy, whiny, screaming kid. Please, return said mild-manner child immediately, no questions asked. Clingy, whiny, screaming kid is ready to be re-claimed. Leda and I headed to Florida for the past weekend. It was planned months ago. We were looking forward to it. I knew that I might be in store for some fun on the plane, due to the fact that she was going to be older, more mobile than when we traveled to Portland, but figured, once we got there, once she got used to seeing Grandma and Granddaddy and Aunt Aimee and Uncle Kurt and Abby and Sami and countless other Sweat family members, Leda would be just fine. HA! Lesson Number one in Child Rearing learned the hard way: Never EVER expect the child to act as you would expect the child to act! The plane ride...no problem. Luckily, the person who had the seat next to us didn't show up for the flight, so we had two seats to stretch out on the way down to Florida early F...

Almost! Yep, our little furniture surfer has taken the first tentative steps without assistance. The first step (it was more like a half step) took place on Thursday evening (I think it was thursday evening, it may have been Wed evening...I don't remember exactly now, since I am EXHAUSTED, but that's another story!) Anyway, she took one step and fell into the couch. Then, the next day, over at the neighbors, and while Mommy was at work, of course, she took three more steps (Daddy's assessment!) Then, a few more over the weekend. We aren't exactly sure of ourself when we do take those steps, but we will take them, if there's something that we want out of our reach and there aren't any assistant-rendering pieces of furniture between us and that object. So, yes, our lives will NEVER be the same again. As for the exhaustion...we apparently have developed separation anxiety that apparently kicks in somewhere in the vicinity of 2-5 AM! We cry (and/or scream, depends o...

I've got a stats meter connected to the website (that's right, I ALWAYS know how many times you have visited, Claire! ;-) hehehe. Anyway, it tells me when someone has hit, where (approximately) they are in the world, what network they hit from, etc. I have figured out most of who you are out there (Chris, you're easy...it comes up Penske! ;-) Anyway, occasionally I get hits from a Google search. I don't usually mention this (except maybe to Brock every once in a while...some of them are just plain weird, but for the most part, not perverted!), but after seeing a hit from today, I had to mention... This is the second time since October that I got a hit from someone Googling pictures of "largest cat." Dela is famous! Yep, because of this post where I posted a picture of the "largest cat know to man," I have gotten two hits to the website. So, try Googling largest cat and go to page four, and scroll down toward the bottom...you will find Dela in all h...

Well, I've been a bit under the weather since the day after Christmas - just a cold, but having not been sick for almost 3 years, I feel miserable - so it was just a matter of time before the kid came down with it. Last night was miserable! (Except for Penn State winning...sorry Uncle Kurt! ;-) I did stay up and watched the whole game, all three OTs, too, and turned off the lights at 1am. At 2am, Leda started fussing and she fussed every half hour or so until 4:30 or so when she just flat out started screaming. We couldn't calm her down. We checked for a temp and she was fine, but boy, was she not happy. We did give her a little Tylenol and a bottle - figuring, if it was a sore throat, like my cold started, the warm formula might help her feel better. It did, for a little while. She slept for another half hour and woke up screaming again. This time, Motrin and another bottle - we knew she wasn't too bad, because she was eating like a champ, but she just wouldn't calm d...

We rang in 2006 at home surrounded by our wonderful friends! And Leda slept through most of it! Our first guest arrived early, as he does every year (my Brother, Wayne!) and then they all started trickling in around 8pm! Leda hung in there until about 9pm, when I think the crowd of kids got a little much for her...I think we had about 7 or 8 kids in the house at that time! She went down very easily, considering our house has NO sound proofing and it was like the party was happening in her room! It apparently didn't bother her at all, as she slept like a rock for the entire evening! At least, she let us sleep until 7:45am the next morning (of course, Brock and I had only gotten to be around 2:30-3am, as usual! Can you say, "everyone took naps the next day?) Anyway, the party was a hit, as usual! ;-) And, as usual, we had more food than necessary! And, Brock's breakfast was a hit again! We had 10 adults for breakfast (I think...there might have been one or two more than th...

Wow, has 2005 been a good year or what? We started off the year anticipating the birth of Leda, and end the year wondering what we are in store for now that she can almost walk, is crawling at break-neck speed and thinks she is talking! We went from a bump in the tummy to a little girl who seems to have learned to smile slyly at us! (Okay, who taught her that??) What a difference 12 months makes! I know, I forgot (well, didn't forget so much as I just didn't have time) to do the Eight Month post. This sorta makes up for that. I feel, now that it's 5 days past, it's a little late now! I'll make up for it in the Nine Month post! Leda has been very interesting this week! Starting with Christmas (when we tried scrambled eggs for the first time and we found the ONE thing that she would finally spit out at us!) and all the furniture surfing she's doing, and all the new things she's tried this week. Besides the eggs, we've tried chocolate chip cookies (without ...

Wow! I never knew a more exhausting Christmas day! Wow! We all had so much fun. Leda played with ALL her toys, but loved the pinch scoop the best! That was until she was standing with it in her mouth and fell forward...it apparently hurt her (gee, I wonder why) and scared the bejesus out of Mommy, so, we don't play with the pinch scoop any more! (at least not while standing!) We loved our gobbling Hippo - Haven't quite figured it out yet, but it's got these really cool little balls that spin on it and lots of blocks that Leda can chew! And, we love our chair... And the Leap Frog learning table was pretty cool too, but Mommy and Daddy didn't get around to putting batteries in it until today, so Leda didn't really get a picture of her playing with it yet to post! Maybe later today! Anyway, today we spent a relaxing morning playing and now we are getting a little nap before we head over to Granddad's...Leda thinks there might be more paper and ribbons and bows in i...

Merry Christmas to all! Yesterday for Christmas Eve, Leda got all dressed up and had a picture done with Mommy... We spent yesterday afternoon with Leda's Aunt Rachel, Uncle Wayne, Granddad and Fay and her cousin's Caelan and Tristan for some Christmas Eve dinner...it was lots of fun and Leda found LOTS of trucks to play with (they weren't hers, but, whatever! ;-) She also got some neat gifts of her own! Her first Christmas gifts! We came home and spent a few minutes over at our neighbors, the McCartheys and Leda got some presents from their kids! She got to stay up until 10 o'clock and then she had to go to sleep so Santa could come!! At 7 this morning, rise and shine...time to open presents! First we had a little breakfast...because today we turned 8 months old, we got to try scrambled eggs for the first time...and, for the first time, we spit something out! Apparently, scrambled eggs suck! But we liked the Apple Juice!! On to the presents...in record time (well, actu...

Went shopping...I'm done. Put lights up outside the house (yeah, two days before christmas...we got a little behind)....done Baked cookies, made chocolate truffles (they haven't killed anyone, yet)...done. Wrapped everything that needed wrapping...done! Okay, it's time for Christmas to be here. Yep, I'm ready. We visited with our neighbors tonight...our little town has a cheese shop! Yep, a CHEESE shop! And, they have GREAT cheese...guess I am gonna go shopping again tomorrow! Is it here yet? You know, Christmas? Brock went to get beer from the beer store and came home with a Santa doll for Leda...the nice lady at the beer store gave it to her! Isn't that nice? I love our little town! Is it Christmas eve yet? No...geez, when the heck is it gonna get here? I'm ready! Off to have dinner at my sister Rachael's tomorrow. Looking forward to introducing Leda to her cousins Caelan and Tristan and hopefully Dylan will be there too! It's Christmas now, right? No?...

We won't post how old you are! ;-) Hope you had/have fun today! Love ya!

Leda's first Christmas Tree. Leda's first Christmas Tree Ornament! Oh, and if you think Duff didn't get into the fun too... Yep, if you click the picture and go look at a larger version, you will notice our dog, watching TV...specifically, Wizard of Oz...it has a dog just like Spike, our carin terrier, Duff's mentor...Duff just can't figure out how Spike got in the TV! ;-)

Well, there are other ways of describing this tree, but there are children who read this site! ;-) We went a huntin' our christmas tree yesterday! Brock and I found this great Tree farm way out in the wilds of Chester County a few years ago and we love going there. The prices are good and their trees are pretty darn good too. It's a cut your own, but they actually have guys out there who will cut your tree with a chainsaw and carry it back in on a cart! Wooo Hooo! So, yesterday, we had John, John and Biff help us with our tree! We had specific criteria for the Christmas Tree (as we do every year); Brock wanted skinny, Cyndy wanted TALL! Leda doesn't have a say yet! ;-) It took us all of about 15 or so minutes to decide on the 2005 Yates Christmas tree! Unfortunately, the first tree had a bit of a problem, it had a leader branch that was all the way at the bottom and cutting above it would mean half the tree wouldn't come home with us! So, we had to go choose another. (...

It's been a crazy week. I wanted to do a follow-up to my last post, but just haven't found the time...work is a bit upside-down nuts right now. One wonders if I will still be working there much longer. It's THAT crazy! On the homefront, things are good - Leda has stood unassisted for several seconds everyday for the past several. Her first step is just around the corner (she almost did it last night!) It's amazing...I was so looking forward and so dreading this moment - still am! Our last days of things being a little easier are coming to an end and our little girl is becoming more independent a little each day. Thank goodness it doesn't happen all at once! I'd be a basket case! Anyway, we are hunting a Christmas Tree this weekend and decorating for Christmas. Of course, most of the decorations will be nailed to the wall and out of reach of the on the move little girl! Can't wait to see how we keep her away from the Christmas tree for the next couple of week...

We spend a lot of time these days watching that Leda doesn't fall down and smack her head on the ground! She is constantly wanting to be standing up. She has barely started to crawl - she crawls around military style (like she's crawling under barb wire! on her stomach, like it hurts her knees to use them!) What she really likes is to stand...and then try to bend over to pick something up! Lots of fun! Last weekend, I went in to check on her during a nap...it wasn't quite time for her to be awake, and I hadn't really heard anything on the monitor...just a little rustling around, not a lot and no talking. So I figured, I'll go check on her. What I saw when I opened the door... Yeah, Boy am I happy I insisted to Brock several weeks ago that we lower the mattress one rung...if we hadn't she would have been able to topple out! I am thinking we need to go one more...yes, she more than likely won't be able to fall out right now, but, she's a resourceful little...