July 17th

Cousin Sean Robert Lane

Well, I haven't posted anything since April. That's the reason for the many pictures. Since April, we've welcomed our nephew, Sean Robert Lane into the world. He's already two months old and growing fast. I believe we will see them again in August. We'll all be celebrating the first birthday of cousin Steve's son, Gabe. It will be fun to watch the cousins together in the same room.

Sarah experienced her first outdoor kiddie pool. She loves to play and splash in the water. We're also enrolled in a swim class at the YMCA which helps her get acclimated to the water. She kicks and splashes the entire time. She's also been to the zoo and reacted to seeing the big fish in the aquarium as well as the big gorillas. We've been keeping busy this summer with trips to Iowa, as well. We went down for a wedding of a former student and family friend, Jenny Pringle. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding along the lake outside Solon, IA. Mom and Dad babysat Sarah and had a blast. We stayed the week to help celebrate the 150th anniversary of Mom and Dad's town of Williamsburg, IA as well as the 4th of July. They had so much going on in that town and we kept busy going from event to event. Sarah had a good time watching parades, concerts, and seeing many new faces. It was fun to bond more with her grandparents as well as my aunt and uncle and my parents best friends, Jerry and Vicki. Sarah, Kim, and I turned around this last weekend to go down to Iowa to help pack up my grandpa's house. He decided to move into the nursing home near my folks so we helped Mom and Dad with the big job of packing up many years of accumulation. It's been a hard 6 months for Grandpa filled with lots of changes since Grandma passed away. He's been a real trooper and we're thankful that he's safe, eating better, and close to Mom and Dad. I'm glad Mom doesn't have to make the trips over to take care of him, too. With him there in Williamsburg, we'll get to spend more time with him on our visits.

As of today, Sarah is buzzing her lips a lot, eating a variety of foods, rolling and scooting everywhere, getting close to crawling, saying "M" sounds and "da-da" syllables. She loves to make noise with all of her toys and press the piano keys when Jason has her at the piano. She has to touch everything and then put it in her mouth. She keeps working on more teeth after her two bottom teeth have come up. Jason is her best friend. She doesn't like for anyone to leave her alone, but she especially fusses when he leaves the room. He's so silly with her and he makes her giggle. She'll miss him this week since he has rehearsal all day tomorrow for Festa Italiana. The festival starts Thursday and ends Sunday. He'll be starting at noon and ends at 11:30 p.m. every day. I worry about his lung after his lung collapse. (Oh yeah..his lung collapsed in June and he spent some time in the hospital after they stuck a tube in his chest and inflated it with a suction device).

Back to Sarah...she's our entertainment and our delight. We marvel at how much she changes every day. My goal is to do more play dates with other kids since she needs to have that social interaction as well as other models of different development milestones (crawling, walking, etc.). Jason and I also need to make more time for each other and "get away" for an evening here and there. We're lucky to have his folks and my sister nearby who are always ready and willing to babysit. Mom is coming up next week to spend some time with us. Dad is heading to Canada on a fishing trip so we asked her to come up and spend some quality time with us. It's fun to watch Sarah with all of her grandparents. They all light up in her presence and show so much love. She's a lucky girl.

I've decided to stay home full-time next year since I was officially laid off in Waukesha. We're going to buckle down and watch our budget more closely. We'll see what the world has in store for me career-wise in the next few years. Jason is checking into various masters programs and is thinking of starting one in the near future. He's still very passionate about teaching and continues to have rewarding experiences.

I do hope to update this more often. I'm sure I forgot some big things, but it's going to have to do for now. Feel free to let us know if you've visited the blog.

Take care!