1 week left!

Counting down our last week of vacation until school starts!

The Holidays were very fun for us. Random presents arrived and were opened earlier at various times in the week or so leading up to the bigger days. The kids made out like bandits, way more than I expected, and it was all good fun. Yesterday we did a Christmas dinner at Paula's with friends and family. We've taken many a cold walk outside to look at lights, and several excursions to the mall and such places to see decorations and merriment in the air.

Odin's sleeping has gotten a little better. The coin thing is working a bit more, and we're able to figure out what's bothering him some times. We occasionally let him sleep in our bed if he comes in the middle of the night, which is not really good for him developmentally (I guess), but we all sleep better. It even makes him sleep in, so he gets way more rest than usual. (He comes in our bed and sleeps 'til 8-ish, instead of getting himself up at 6:30-7 and being wide awake because he was afraid in his room.)

Freya is running now. And saying all kinds of things. She can say please, thank you, welcome, yes, that, boob, food, up, uh-oh, and all kinds of stuff. Her communication is really impressive; she can tell you what she wants, which thing she wants, if she likes something, etc. She's still eating a lot during the night, but we're starting to pump her full of way more solids to help. We've also noticed that she likes to be naked at night sometimes. Seems to be more comfortable. She even wants to have no diaper some of the time. We've noticed the covers aren't quite big enough; they sometimes leak, she can't walk very well, and they just seem to be uncomfortable. We're gonna shop for some new ones tomorrow.

Alyssa and I spent part of tonight looking at grad schools and post-bacc programs. She did well in her GRE and has selected four schools to send the scores to. I've found a post-bacc program at one of them that I'd be able to do, and another has requirements for their MA that I match, so I might be able to just go on and do that.

We'll be up in Portland next weekend seeing family, and spending this week just relaxing and getting a thing or two done and wrapped up before school.

Break

Winter break has gone pretty well for us. Mostly we've all just been hanging out. There's been a few projects we've caught up on, but mostly it's been relaxation.

Alyssa has her GRE test tomorrow, so she's studying for that like frantic. I know she'll do fine, and afterwards she'll really be on vacation.

Odin is still having a lot of trouble at night. We took him to his pediatrician and she gave us some answers. We've tried a tactic where we give Odin three nickels at bed time and he can pay us with one if he needs to get out of bed, including the middle of the night. If he makes it 'til morning with any nickels left over, he gets to save them in his bank towards getting a toy. It worked for a few nights, but now it has backfired on us and he thinks he can get more nickels out of his bank. He's scared to death and refuses to sleep. We're still looking for answers.

Freya is running around and talking like crazy. She never stops eating either, and the chocolate obsession is in full swing. She's finally over her cough, felt like it took forever.

Gifts have been leaking in from various relatives, so the kids have gotten to open a present or two. I like it this way; we get toys and such in strides, so there's cool stuff to play with in small amounts for a good while, rather than one big hoard on one day which wears off quickly.

Vacation

A week in to Winter Break and we're still relaxed. Mission successful so far.

Mostly we've just been hanging out at the house and taking trips out into the world, seeing things we don't see during the normal school term, like the mall, downtown, and parks and such.

We found a cute piano for Freya, made by a German company, and she absolutely loves it. We'll give it to her for the holidays. She's got two new molars now, so that explains the recent crankiness and lack of sleep. Poor girl.

Odin is still having trouble sleeping at night. He's too scared to go to bed and we always wake up with him in our bed, and he seems constantly tired. We're looking into it.

Alyssa managed to be approved for CEP (continuing education program), which means that she can take classes at the UO even though she has graduated (though we have to pay for it ourselves, rather than get financial aid). This is cool because she'll still get to study under Kyr and Stolet, and have access to the really awesome FMO studio to continue working on projects.

I've signed up for a class on Old Norse. A germanic studies professor I had last year for a class on Scandinavian Epic is trying to get his department to support him. Few universities teach Old Norse, and I was apparently on a list of students he held in esteem, so he emailed me and asked if I'd like to help. If he can get enough students, the department will make it a regular course. I already have a full class load, but I thought it'd be really fun (if irrelevant to my current degree anyway), so I signed up.

Another one bites the dust

Well, that's it, another term is over. I'm out of my last final right now and Alyssa will be out of hers any moment now. For me, it's nice to have all my finals on Monday because it's like getting an extra week of vacation. For Alyssa, this was her last undergraduate final. She'll graduate as soon as her professors grade her final work and clear her degree! I'm so proud of her; it's amazing what she's done, especially considering all the challenges she's faced over the last few years.

We're going to spend break doing the things we never do; relax, hang out, nothing. Break means more time with our kids (who suffer constantly at the expense of our classes - Alyssa wouldn't say so, but that's how I sometimes feel), more walks outside, less car use, less stress, more fun. Alyssa will have to take a GRE and apply to some graduate schools (which she'll have no problem getting into, according to her professors apparently), and I'll be reviewing Latin and Greek to prepare for the next term, but other than that, should be pretty laid back.

We're going to start Odin in a gymnastics class, and he's also asked to have more swim lessons so I think we'll be setting that up as well. He seems taller all of a sudden, which would explain the unending hunger lately. Freya has a bad cough at the moment, and she seems to be getting bigger as well. I think she's working on some teeth, but I can't tell for sure yet.

Non-traditional holiday

For Thanksgiving, we made tacos for lunch, sushi (home-made) for dinner, and Roman donuts for desert. We had cultural cuisines which should not be anywhere near Thanksgiving, but it was really fun. It was really fun to make the sushi, and Dad was surprisingly enthusiastic.

Jake is in town, so the kids have been hanging out with him quite a bit. It's fun having him here.

Alyssa and I have spent the last few nights watching Rome instead of doing our homework, so I'm thinking that's what today is going to be mostly about.

Much to say

For one big thing, Alyssa took her Exit Exam, the Brown Book earlier this week. It's a very large test consisting of 100 terms she must define verbatim from a list of 350, all of which have paragraph definitions or longer. (The final word count on the study list was almost 9,000!) We haven't gotten the score back yet, but I'm sure she passed with flying colors.

I had all four of my wisdom teeth pulled out almost 2 weeks ago. It took a really long time to eat solid food and not be in pain, but I got through it in the end.

Odin has ben having trouble sleeping, we think. He tells us every night about how scared he is. Also the house creaks a lot and he says that scares him all the time. His behavior hasn't been the best lately and we figured that it might be from not sleeping. I found him in his room sitting awake one night and I have no idea how long he was up. We also wake up sometimes to find him in our bed with us, he must be coming in when he wakes up scared.

Freya never stops moving or eating. She also has a lot more words now and can express herself really well. Right now her favorite thing is drawing, she'll sit at the table for an hour with crayons and just have a great time.

I'm working on getting some professors to agree to be my advisory committee for an honors thesis. I'd have to write a small thesis paper and be approved, and then I get to graduate with honors. Rounding up the right professors has proved difficult, but I'm almost there.

Right now we're just trying to finish out the term and figure out how we'll survive the next one. Money is going to be tight on account of Alyssa not getting a financial aid check, but we're thinking about taking out a private student loan. I got way less this year than we normally get, and the federal government wont give me any more so we have to make up the difference with private banks.

Over Winter break I'll be teaching Latin to Alyssa and two other friends of hers, all composers in the Music department. It's funny because Professor Nicols offered $40k to any student who'd learn Latin, and nobody out of 150 said yes, but I have 3 composers with full schedules and extra rehearsals and such who all want to learn.

1 Year Check-up for Freya!

Took Freya for her 1 year check-up and all is going well. She is very healthy and growing great, and surprises the doctors in her ability and intelligence.

Her stats: Height 28" (10%); Weight 22lbs 1.8oz (55%); Head ~18" (85%).

I remember when she was so tiny she fit in my forearm. Now she's walking all over the place, talking about everything, and demanding chocolate.

Did I mention the chocolate yet? She knows what it is, and I mean knows. She knows if something is chocolate, even if it's in a wrapper she's never seen before, and she wants it precious, bad. It's really funny. Sometime I'll have to catch her on video when I'm holding it in front of her, and then let her chomp right into it too, it's really funny....

Halloween!

We really had a blast. Odin walked all over the place, and Freya figured out what was going on really fast. The only sad thing is that Odin told us he wanted to go around with a bunch of friends. (He kept seeing large groups of kids and wanted someone else to go with.)

Some shots of the kids in their costumes:

From Oct - Dec '10

From Oct - Dec '10

Birthday pictures!

Finally got around to them. The Oct - Dec '10 album only had 2 videos of Freya in it, until now that is! I uploaded a bunch of shots and here are my favorites:

From Oct - Dec '10

From Oct - Dec '10

From Oct - Dec '10

Pumpkin patch

Today we took the kids to a pumpkin patch just down the road. It has a big area filled with hay for everyone to crawl and jump around, with soft spots for doing high jumps and little tunnels for someone Odin's size to crawl through. There's also a hay ride which is really fun. The driving is a little crazy and goes super fast, it's like a roller coaster, but so fun. And they give you tons of mini-pumpkins to throw at dozens of scare-crows as you ride by. The ride is so fast that it's really hard to hit them, but it's really fun trying. Odin had a blast, Freya just chewed on one of the little pumpkins for a while.

Sickness

It has been an interesting week. It started out okay, but we all started getting sick by the middle of the week. Odin threw up 4 times in 2 hours one night and we ended up with it over the weekend, so we've all just been lying around trying to get better.

Birthday Party!

We did Freya's birthday party today! We decorated Dad's place with a bunch of streamers and balloons and put a slideshow on his huge tv of a ton of pictures of Freya at various ages. Family and Friends came over and we all had pizza and cake and wished Freya a happy birthday. It was really fun to just hang out with everyone and do something relaxed, which I think Freya really liked. She got several fun presents and got to play with a lot of people. I have many photo's to add but I'm just not going to do it at the moment. Soon!

Birthday!

Freya is one year old today! It's crazy to think, but it's really happened....

We mostly spent the day as a family and did things we wanted to do without letting our responsibilities get in the way. We got a small piece of tiramisu to share and gave Freya a little celebration.

From Oct - Dec '10

I still have trouble believing that she's already 1!

No camera, but....

I'm really sad that we haven't had a video camera to capture all the great family moments. I've just been so busy I forgot to go get it repaired. But I suddenly realized that sometimes I could use the laptop so I got this:

Freya stuffing a bunch of blueberries in her mouth:

From Oct - Dec '10

Oh,

I forgot to mention in that last post;

We also put Freya in with Odin last night. They slept in the same room! Going to bed worked fine, but Freya woke up crying after a couple hours and we had to bring her bed back in with us in the middle of the night. Oh well, not ready yet, try again later....

Progress

This has been an interesting week.

Alyssa and I are enjoying our classes. The subjects are fun and the teachers are good. But what has really made a difference is not having kids with us. Odin has been in school now, but Freya is also with Brandy during the day. I had a few worries about this initially, but she's taken to it really well and we actually get to be students! We can be on campus without holding or pushing a kid around, and we don't have to restrict ourselves to studying in those particular rooms on campus which are good fore parents and acceptable for small children to be loud in.

Freya's also been a lot more talkative lately. I suspect it has to do a lot with being at Brandy's. June is pretty talkative, and probably talks to Freya a lot because she's so interested in her, whereas Odin doesn't actually talk to Freya as much as he just plays with or near here.

Odin has been having some trouble with bedtime lately. He's sometimes scared of things or doesn't like his bed, and recently he's asked a few times for his old crib. Last night we brought it over from our old apartment with the last load and put it in their room for him. He slept in it last night just fine, and we think he liked it better. It's weird, and I'm not sure why he asked for that, but that's how it is now. His full we'd gotten him earlier is now in storage, I bet he'll want to go back to it in a few weeks or a couple months.

Friday night I was at our old place until 1:30am making tons of trips up and down those three flights of stairs trying to get all our stuff out and clean the place. It was really difficult but I finally got it done ad now we've turned in our keys. Goodbye to the old place.

I better go wake up Alyssa, she has lab time this morning......

School!

It's that time again. Fall term is going to begin tomorrow and we'll be in the thick of things once more. The line-up for this term is Greek, Latin, and Classical Mythology for me, and Electronic Music, Composition, A/V Project, and History for Alyssa, plus an extra C++ class.

Brandy is going to watch Freya for us, so we'll have some time on campus to just be students because Odin will be in class as well. We're excited for classes to begin.

We haven't quite nailed down the grad-school thing all the way yet. I might wait a year before I apply, not sure though, we'll see. We haven't moved out of our old apartment entirely, which is unfortunate because our last day is Friday and we'll be pretty busy with school. Will manage some how. :)

Right now, we're spending some time cleaning up the house so it's nice before things get busy.

School for all

Well, the move to Dad's has gone alright. We finally got all settled with all our stuff put away and the house clean (thanks in part to Sam who cleans it every week). There's still a lot to do at our old place, but none of it involves bringing stuff here - it's all cleaning and taking stuff to storage that we wont use here - so we're relaxing for a week or so to study and we'll take care of our old place when it's closer to our actual move-out day.

Odin's school year started on Tuesday. Unfortunately, his birthday is outside the cut-off point so a lot of his friends moved up to the Ladybug class while he stayed in the Caterpillar class. Some of his Panda friends have moved into the Caterpillar class, however, so he's got some new and old faces. He really misses Armstrong especially. Armstrong asked me if I was taking Odin to his house after school one day when I picked Odin up. I had to tell him no and he looked really sad. We've arranged a play-date for them tomorrow at Armstrong's place.

We're still studying away. Finally finding time to look at our work is helping, the term ahead doesn't seem as bad as it did a week ago when we were busy with moving. We're also doing more research on Grad schools. USCB is the top choice right now, and UW after that, so we're working hard. I've got a lot to do in the coming year to make myself a more appealing applicant for their requirements, so we'll see how it goes. We've also bought a great book for GRE prep and I'm actually more excited than terrified to take the test.

Poor Freya has a huge scrape down her nose and forehead from being pushed by a yet-unidentified big brother.... toughens her up I suppose. She and Alyssa also have the same cold, making them both pretty tired.

It's nice having the park so close because we can let Odin play for as long as he likes. Freya loves the swing and likes to walk around and sit on the merry-go-round.

Did I mention Odin wasn't napping already? We learned a few days ago that Odin hadn't been napping at school for a couple weeks. None of his teachers told us because Odin always flew out of the school so fast when we picked him up. He's never reliably napped on days we had him home, so this lack of sleep kinda explains a few things. We've since tried getting him to bed earlier to increase his total sleep per day. Sometimes he goes down early enough and sometimes he doesn't, but I think when he does get the extra rest, it helps enough.

We're just taking it one day at a time for now.

Moving (again)

We're moving back in with my Dad. There's a lot of reasons for this, and we think we've made the right decision.

Finances is a big part of it. We wont be getting financial aid for Alyssa from school after Fall term because she'll have graduated and mine will stop when I graduate in the Winter or Spring. If we move in with Dad, he lets us live mostly free so we save money for the 9-months to a year that we're here waiting for Grad school to start. We can use that money for all the moving and move-in expenses we'll need to pay in whichever city we have to go to.

Also, the kids behave a lot better here. Odin gets energy out in his room or the backyard, and it's not so cramped here that Freya can't crawl around without being bowled over by Odin. Plus, there's a park about a 5-minute walk from the place and we take Odin there almost every day.

We like it here much better, too. Dad has a huge couch which is totally comfy (we've only ever had a futon) and tons of space, a big kitchen, and the whole place is well-ventilated and well-lit (something our apartment never was). We're more comfortable. Also, while we're here we get to help Dad eat healthier and he helps buy more food, so we all win. Plus, it's on the ground floor, no more 3-story climb (not that it was too bad, but after a while, it gets hard to do it with 2 kids).

Other than that, not much is new. We're still studying hard for our tests and classes in Fall term. Searching for grad schools is a continuing project. Etc., lah-dee dah, blah blah, yadda yadda.

Tons of news!

It's been a long time since I've put photos online because our camera broke since our last beach trip. I've got a few now so this will have to do.

From July - Sept '10

Odin playing with his friend Armstrong, from school.

From July - Sept '10

Freya with Maya (Rachel's daughter).

My cousin Rachel and her husband Kevin brought Maya, their daughter, down to Eugene and saw us for a few hours. They played together at our house and it was really cute. Odin was really good to both kids.

Freya had her shots today. She took 'em like a champ and all day she's been energetic and smily so go figure that one out. She's also walking now! She can make it a pretty fair distance but she loves to take off and run, which is too fast yet so she trips a lot. I'll get it on video when I can solve our camera situation. I got Odin walking the second time he ever did it so I hope I can find a good video soon. There might be one on Alyssa's phone and I just have to copy it, so I'll look into that later tonight.

Odin is doing well. He seems taller somehow..... He gets smarter every day, too. We're going to start trying to get him to read soon.

We did another phonebook delivery job this summer. Torture, as usual, but the extra cash will help. Now we're both just studying for our future classes and tests and hoping all goes well. School search is still going, University of Washington (Seattle) is looking good at the moment.

We're just enjoying our summer and movin' along....

Bowling!

We've had a fun weekend. Yesterday we helped Jason and Emily move some stuff around so they could get new furniture in their place, and we got to hang out with them which was really nice since we barely saw them during our classes. Emily gave us a Raw Foods cookbook and we've been making everything we can think of; almond cheese, pumpkin breakfast pie with pecan crust, macadamia nut ricotta, etc. Most of it requires a dehydrator so we got one of those and we're gonna try to make some salmon jerky soon.

Today we met Emily (different one), Ryder, and Kim for bowling! It was really fun. The kids used this ramp-like thing that they set the balls on and then push instead of throwing, they actually got over 60 points each! Totally fun for Odin too.

We've put Odin's crib back together with one piece missing so there's an opening. It's pushed up next to our bed. Freya doesn't sleep in her own bed, and she keeps us awake all night, so this is a middle ground. If she's on her own, she doesn't wake up as much (maybe once or twice a night) but we can never get her to her pack-and-play. With the crib right next to our bed, we can just slide her over after she falls asleep, and she's in her own little bed but still near enough to us to sense that we're there. We're trying it tonight, hope we get some sleep!

Fun and growth

Freya is almost walking. Her record is 4 steps without falling afterwards and every day she tries several times. She also has a few words and she's finally started saying "mama" pretty clearly. Since she's not sick and not getting any teeth and we've got no homework to worry about (after Friday) which is a collection of criteria which have never all been true at the same time, we're going back to helping her learn how to sleep in her own bed.

Odin's been having fun. He had a play-date at Armstrong's house on Monday and he gets to go to school with June because we're taking her until her mom gets a new bike.

Alyssa and I have our final exams on Friday, then we're free for the summer (except for my Greek lessons). It'll be nice having some vacation, and we're excited for our Fall term classes. We also just settled some paperwork with the U of O about our financial aid and we'll have a bit of money to help live.

For now, we're making a list of all the cool stuff we're going to do with our free time. When Alyssa gets her sight running, I'll be sure to link it here.

I've also got a lot of pictures to upload so I'm sure I'll put that on my to-do list for the summer. :)

Walking!

That's right, we caught Freya walking for the first time today! She's been able to get to standing without holding anything for quite a while, and she was actually pretty frustrated the past few days because she wants to walk so bad. Today she managed two steps, then stabilized herself, and then sat back down. Not much, but she's on her way. Unfortunately all our camera's are broken so I'm trying to secure a temporary one before she really gets going. We also noticed she can get right up stairs when she wants. (Even up to Odin's bed, which is waist level for an adult!)

She had a check-up today. Came in at 27.5" (30%) and 20lbs 15.8oz (75%) and was in great health according to the doctor.

Freya has her own words for stuff, which you learn when you spend enough time around her. Her communication is really impressive. She also knows how to clap and will do so when you start singing the right songs. She can high five when prompted, and knows how to click her tongue against the roof of her mouth.

As for the rest of us, Odin is doing fine as well. He's just started being home with us on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It's cheaper for the child care costs, but it's also really fun because it's like having extra weekend days with him in the middle of the week. We think he's headed for a growth-spurt soon as well.

Alyssa has Mastitis again, bad fever and general icky-ness going on, but she's getting through it. Summer classes are almost out for both of us, so all we'll have is my Greek lessons. Alyssa is trying to finish up her portfolio and websites so she can be applying for positions. She actually just submitted her resume for the senior sound engineer at 343 Industries, part of Microsoft working on a Halo game project! We'll see how that pans out. She says that, even if it doesn't, it's still nice to try and it's better to be rejected for something huge than to apply for something small and feel like you didn't try.

I still have some pictures (such as those from a beach trip or two) that I've been lazy busy about getting uploaded, but soon enough....

To sleep, perchance to sleep.

Last night was the second night we tried to put Freya in her own bed. She doesn't like it, of course but once she gets down she has a chance to sleep pretty good for at least a few hours. Last night we went to check on her and she was sitting silently alone and awake so we felt bad and brought her in bed, but the night before it worked for about 4 or 5 hours, so it's only going to get better. Freya cut herself a mighty gusher this evening so we're going to let her sleep with us tonight out of pity.

We spent a night of the weekend in Florence with Paula. It was really cold on the beach but we had fun in Old Town and the place we stayed was really great. It's such an easy trip out there and we took the kids to a fun-land kinda place to ride an amusement train.

My last class I have to physically attend for the summer got out a week ago so I haven't been actually going to anything except my Greek lessons. It has made our schedule a bit easier, but the studying is still pretty intense.

Freya has 6 teeth now, and she can get to standing from sitting without pulling herself up on an object. She's trying to walk and it's going to be any day now. Odin learns new words every day, it seems, and he continually amazes us with what he's able to figure out.

Feverish?

Poor Freya has had a high fever (averaging 102.5 constantly) for the last couple days. No other symptoms yet, just making her moody.....

Lincoln City!

We spent a night at Lincoln City over the weekend at the Historic Anchor Inn which is an amazing place to stay. Much fun was had playing on the beach and seeing the sights. Also the air there is much better, we just want to live out there. Mom and the Portland crew came out so we hung out with them for a bit and just let the kids have some fun. That's where Odin really needs to be; an unlimited, open area for him to have unbridled fun. Me too.

Summer classes have been interesting but hard. We're working our butts off but it will pay off eventually. Freya's been getting her fifth tooth lately and Odin is in swim classes through his school.

Speaking of which, we dropped down his hours as of August and through the rest of the year. We pulled him from Tuesdays and Thursdays so he only goes MWF. It'll be easier on our budget, but more importantly he'll get some time to stay home with us instead of being left somewhere every day. We'll see how it goes. Over the summer it'll be great, in Fall term..... we'll see, but I think it'll work fine.

Oh, and I'll get those pics up when I can.

Room switch and TV!

A few days ago we spent a day or two switching our room with the kids'. We really like the change. There's now a sink/vanity in the kids' room which is good for brushing teeth and taking care of diapers, and there's much more floor space for playing and only one window so less danger of falling. We have a lot less space but it's fine because we don't need floor space and we have a lot less furniture than they do (and a lack of tendency to leave toys everywhere). Odin also has his own full-size bed (just like adults!) which he just loves because he sleeps on one at Grandma Paula's all the time. He picked out his own orange sheets and comforter set and he really sleeps well on the new bed.

We also finally got ourselves an HDTV. It's only 23" but we don't need more size, just more clarity so we can play our games. It's actually an inch taller than our old tv but since it's also widescreen all our shows feel bigger. It's been really nice, we can finally play Lost Odyssey, Halo, Blue Dragon, and Eternal Sonata (Eternal Sonata was reviewed as a reason to buy an HDTV on it's own, and unworthy of play without one).

Today we're having a BBQ at Grandma Paula's with some friends and then off to Zaideh's (once it gets dark) to set off some fireworks!

School and Car trouble

It's been an eventful week or two so far. Alyssa and I have been hard at our classes, trying to keep up. They aren't hard, just require a lot of work. I'm getting private lessons in Attic Greek at a rushed pace, which is interesting and fun, but very challenging. My tutor thinks I'm doing well.

Alyssa is working on her website. There isn't much there, but we've got it up and running and she's attempting to build it in her spare time.

Our car nearly died this week. It started overheating and a friend fixed it for us. There were numerous problems which I can't recall, but the bottom line is that if we hadn't given it to him when we did we wouldn't have a car anymore. He also offered to let us bring it back whenever it needed something else, since he has access to parts and lots of machinery.

We've also been debating our schedule for the fall and what Odin's schooling will be like. More on that story as it develops.

Ear infection

Freya's fever had gone away this week but came back last night. We were worried about a secondary infection so we took her in to discover an ear infection. Poor kid. She's also got tooth 5 and 6 coming in, so she goes from new tooth to fever to cough to new tooth to fever back again to more teeth. Just suffering all around.

Happy Fathers' Day!

On Friday Odin had me at his school to enjoy a lunch and activity party with him and his class. It was fun playing around with the kids and eating at the tables with them. He made me a gift and then we took him home early. I like to think that Fathers' Day is a day to praise me as a dad, but mostly it's a day for me to celebrate that I get to be one.

I finished my 9-5 every-day-for-a-week class after lunch. It was a tough class, but very rewarding. I start normal summer-term classes on Monday, and so does Alyssa.

The kids have been sick all weekend. Freya's fever got up to 103 during the day and they both had a bad cough, but we made it through and, thankfully, they're both back to normal this evening. Alyssa caught a little of it but seems better, and I think I dodged it (not sure how that happened) but we'll see.

My Fathers' Day gift was to sleep in until almost 11, something I don't get too often. Alyssa also tried to make me some breakfast but didn't have as many hands as she needed so she couldn't make everything she wanted. Still, it was really nice of her. We've spent the weekend going for walks and watching our favorite show, Stargate SG-1 all weekend (since we only had the weekend, with my 0-week class and our other classes starting on Monday keeping us busy), so that's how we spent most of today.

We also built all our new furniture all weekend. We've been upset at the state of our apartment for a while now (cheap bedspreads, no couch, mismatched furniture which doesn't hold everything, it all just looks like a mess) but Alyssa scored $500-$600 worth of furniture for about $200 on Friday so I put it all together and we spent a good amount of time doing Spring Cleaning and re-arranging everything. Now we have nice stuff and it all matches so it looks like someone actually lives here.

We decided to stay here in Eugene, at least until next June, rather than leaving in the next few months. It allows me to bring my GPA up with classes before we head to grad schools. California is still the plan, but we'll see.

Updates

It's been a while, but I have a moment, so here goes.

We did manage to get to get through finals, barely. However, we spent the weekend helping other people and on Monday I started a 9a-5p class for one week, which has really been draining us. (I'm actually there right now, we're reviewing for the quiz in 20 minutes and I feel confident I'm good.) It has me reading for 3-4 hours each night, with home quizzes and a final project to spend time preparing and research as well. It's been especially hard on Alyssa who has to watch both kids for me to work, but it's not much longer.

Next week we're both in regular, 2-hours-each-day classes for Summer term. I'll also be getting private lessons in Attic Greek from a graduate student here, so that will be fun. For now, we're just chugging along, trying to finish.

First hair cut!

That's right, we finally did it! Odin's hair was dredding up too much so we had to cut a little off because we could never comb it. We left the curls (like he asked us to), just took a little off the ends. There's also a bunch of other great pics and vids in the Apr - Jun '10 album!

From Apr - Jun '10

Whew

We made it. The school year is over and we're only a little dead. I have one more final on Friday in Latin, but I have all week to study for it. Yesterday I finished everything else and this morning Alyssa is in her last final, which isn't actually a test, just turning in the work she finished last night and this morning. We are in summer session classes, but those will be fun and there will be more free time and less work.

We've switched Odin's schedule so he's there a few less hours each week since we have more free time. It's already helped him because he finally gets to sleep in, and we can tell he feels a lot better. We let him stay home today for fun, but we're thinking about also taking him out every Friday for a month or two to see if he likes it (plus, that would make it easier to go places on the weekend, and also reduce his tuition down to half-time).

Freya is crawling all over the place, you can't stop her. She can also climb up on to anything and is really fast. Two teeth on the bottom in the middle keep shining at me, I wonder when she'll get more.

We're looking forward to summer for sure. More free time, better weather (why is it still rainy in June?), fun classes.

Alyssa will be graduating at the end of Fall term, and so will I if I can test out of a class I need which is only offered in the winter. It's really exciting. Grad schools near San Francisco on the list, but we're still keeping our eyes open.

Freya grows

Just quickly;

The doctor appointment went well yesterday. Dr. Dzubay said she sees nothing wrong and that Freya is doing amazingly. She was 66 inches tall (25th percentile) and 19.2 pounds (75th percentile).

Things moving along

All is well with us for the most part. Sleep deprivation and the approaching finals week are both starting to take their toll on us. We even tried putting Freya in her crib last night to no avail. She has her 6-month check-up (a little late, I know) today so we'll see what Dr. Dzubay says.

Alyssa has been interested in Mills college lately, for her graduate work. As a result of it's proximity and extremely interesting and appealing program, I've been investigating UC Berkely as well. We're both pretty excited, we'll see how that goes.

We thankfully got a kid-free night last night for about an hour or so; I had arranged our kids to be divided amongst the local grandparents for the purposes of having a respite to enjoy Alyssa's birthday with each other. It's only the 3rd time we've been kid-free since Freya was born, and the first of those 3 that we were home and not at some event that required our attention. We enjoyed it as thoroughly as we could, and both grandparents reported good behavior (which means I'm gong to repeat this as much as possible).

As I have been accustomed to say at the end of posts, I must now return to my homework from the brief vacation I had allowed myself as a reward for the hard work I'd been doing.

C'est la vie.

Which reminds me of the new slogan I've coined for us.... "Hodie patimur cras celebrabimus."

Movin' along

Lately Freya's favorite thing to do is stand up at things. She gets really mad if we just sit her down to play, she wants to stand. When she does tolerate being on the floor, she just moves right along. Not quite at a full crawl yet, but she's still pretty fast.

We've sorta switched gears with how we discipline/instruct Odin. We more often tell us what we want or what we don't like and ask him to stop. We're also making it really clear what the outcome of his behavior will be before he even does anything so that he knows and we don't just suddenly punish him for something he had no idea was bad. It's started working a bit, I expect we'll see more progress in a few weeks.

Good news for the Summer, for me anyway. I'll be in one class in week 0 from 9am to 6pm but it'll be only a week and it's super fun, and then one for the first third of Summer for 2 hours a day, and then I actually get to have a summer off for once because I don't have any more classes until Fall. Alyssa's classes keep her a bit more busy, but they shouldn't be hard. In the Fall she'll have her last classes and graduate at the end of Fall, I'm really excited for her. She's also going to have her professional musician website up in a few weeks. I'll be sure to add a link.

That's all for now, just wanted to add a quick blurb. Back to writing my paper on the sex lives of Roman emperors as discussed by Suetonius.

Cutest baby EVAR!!!!

Title says it all.

More pix in Apr - Jun '10 folder.

More Teeth

Freya appears to be cutting her second tooth. Very exciting. This one doesn't seem to hurt her as much. She's also really good at pulling herself up onto stuff and standing at it while holding on. They grow so fast, it's crazy.

Last night we were all treated to Alyssa's performance with Brandon at the FMO concert. It went really well. I look forward to the next one.

We may have bought a full size bed for Odin to move in to. He seems to sleep on one better when he stays at Grandma Paula's house, so we're going to let him try it here and see how it goes.

Tooth!

Freya finally got her first tooth out!

We noticed it just now. She's been cranky about it all week and tonight she was chewing on a frozen toy and that must've helped her get it through the gums. She's been in a better mood the last hour or so and it's because that tooth is out now!!!!

Moving!

We noticed Freya is almost ready to be pulling herself onto furniture and things. She's trying to do it all the time, and she can get to standing, she just can't get too much of a grip.

Today we finished with the last session of her massage class. It went well, and it's fun being able to connect with her through massage (which is something we've done with Odin as well).

School is keeping us busy. Alyssa's concert on Saturday went well, and she has another one this Saturday in which she is actually performing. I'm excited to hear it because I've been seeing/hearing the progress as she's been working on it all this term and last.

I've contacted a tutor about re-starting ancient Greek to prep for 300 level in the Fall. It she says yes, it will be very hard but very rewarding.

Have a mid-term to study for. Will try to get more pictures up soon.

Allergy!

I just got a call from Dr. Wilson who confirmed Odin's allergies to soy, wheat, and likely dairy. We've already been keeping him off soy and dairy but wheat is going to be a bit of a stretch. Odin's school is already doing all three and we'll just have to be really good about it for the next 5-6 weeks until his follow-up appointment.

Pictures and Fun

I've finally uploaded the photos and videos we've had collecting dust. A few were added to the Jan - Mar '10 album and a new album Apr - Jun '10 for the next quarter.

Apr - Jun '10

Freya is almost crawling perfectly, but either way she can get across our living room in a few minutes with the right motivation. She gets cuter and cuter all the time as this picture proves:

From Drop Box

That shot is from a new album called "drop box" which is where photos end up if I email them mobiley (which is the only way I can do photos on the go from my phone, since my phone isn't very cool. (I've also got BeenUp2, but nobody seems to look at that so I started adding to Picasa.)

Last night Alyssa and I had our second night out with neither of our kids (the first being her FMO concert a little while ago). We went to see Play! A Video Game Concert at the Hult Center. It was really cool, and Jeremy Soule was in the audience and seems to think it went well. Jake watched Odin and put him in bed for us. Brandon had Freya, who apparently was inconsolable for quite a while, to the point that some of his neighbors called the police! Either way, when we got there he had things well under control, I just hope she didn't scare him from watching her again!

Odin is getting up on his own around 6:30 or 7 every day, so we haven't been able to sleep in on weekends. We'll be trying wool curtains to keep the sun out and see if that works.

Alyssa and I are still working hard in school. Her 4 concerts will all be coming up soon and she's really been slamming herself to be ready.

Freya really moving

Freya is definitely moving. It's kinda like a crawl because she pushes off with her legs but she's only sometimes up on her knees. This is a little earlier than Odin was because he creeped so much, but only a month or two early.

Soon she'll be asking me for my credit card and the keys to the car.....

3-year check-up

Odin went in for his 3-year check-up with Dr. Dzubay today, who told us that he seemed fine in all respects and is doing well. He is 32.2lbs (50th percentile) and 35.25" tall (7th percentile) but his growth charts are cut-straight and normal.

It's sometimes scary for me to think that I have a 3-year-old and a 6-month-old. We've come a really long way, worked hard, and haven't fallen astray yet.

Odin's party

We had some friends of Odin's over for his party today at Grandma Paula's house. We did activities like bowling, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, and tag and Monster Hunt. It was loads of fun. Guests brought some fun dishes and we made a rice-lentil mix which the adults ate, but the kids were busy with the fruit. Brandy's friend Erica made a soy and dairy free cake for Odin which was just incredible. We sure wore all the kids out, and with the exception of one slight accident, they all had tons of fun!

Parent-Teacher Meeting

Yesterday some of Odin's teachers met with us to talk about him. In short, he's doing extremely well, is very smart and able to do all they would expect and more, and seems to be getting along rather well. They all have a great time with him and didn't mention any problems. They laugh when they talk about him and we're glad he's got such a great thing going on at that school.

In other news, Freya's been sitting up to play, and she can stand when holding on to the edge of something. She's not quite rolling yet, but occasionally there's a bit of movement from one side to the other. She can stand on her hands and knees, but she doesn't go anywhere yet. Right now we've taken her off solid foods because it's giving her intestinal stress. Probably because we fed her too much too fast. But she wanted to eat everything in sight! She takes so well to food and she wanted everything she looked at, so we just went with it. Probably too much at once though.

Week 2 has started for us and we're starting to feel the full swing of things. Alyssa still only needs to compose this term, but she has a lot going on. Two concerts, some recording sessions, finals, a recital..... there's a lot on her plate. For me, it's the age-old battle of balancing the work-load from each class. I'm in a particularly advanced seminar course right now which requires the reading of articles which are only available through reserve at the library. This means I have to actually be at the library to read (rather than the convenience of being at home, or anywhere else with a checked out or purchased book) and it's proving difficult to find the right times (both when and amount).

Fortunately, one of my classmates is willing to study Latin with me every day before class starts, so I'm about to head there right now.....

Happy Birthday Odin!

A little late, but we were up late last night so this morning is good enough.

Yesterday Odin turned 3 years old! It's hard to imagine it's been that long already.

Zaideh, Paula, and Melanie were here. We all had dinner and cake, and Odin opened some presents. I took lots of pictures and those will be up soon. We spent the day doing fun stuff, and last Thursday he got more stuff because the Roseburg family came down and took Odin to Red Robin (he's been talking about their fries ever since).

It's just really amazing to think that we've been parents for 3 years.....

News news news

The Good

This term has started off really well. Our schedule allows Alyssa and I to alternate days of sleeping in while the other takes Odin to school where he is early enough for breakfast. We both have ample study time, and a large portion of it is actually being at home so we're able to work there, nap, relax, or go for a walk. (Read: maintain our sanity.) Odin seems to have gotten down a good bed-time routine (with the exception of some nights) which is giving him a bit more sleep, and he's surprisingly cooperative in the mornings (with the exception of some mornings).

Additionally, our classes seem to be going a little easier on us. Alyssa has nothing to do but compose all term, and I only need to keep up with my readings and translations which are much more friendly than last term. We get out by 2pm every day and grab Odin so there is more at-home time and we are doing nice meals and giving Odin, as well as ourselves, a good structure every day. It's working out well so far and we hope this term will be relatively stress-free, especially compared to last term, which was probably the worst in the history of our education.

The Bad

I've discovered I have even more allergens than I thought, and it's forcing me off of yet more foods I love. I'm trying to switch to the Eat to Live policy, rather than the Live to Eat, but it's a slow transition. Odin is also crossing more foods off his list, but we'll save that for.....

The Ugly

Odin can not have dairy, soy, or wheat, and it seriously cramps what he's able to eat at school. They are facilitating his dietary needs just fine, but he isn't adjusting very well. It's not that he has a problem staying away from the foods; he'll even insist he can't eat something because it has an allergen as an ingredient. The problem is how much it's stressing him out. His teachers told us he didn't have a good time when he could only eat a PBJ (they didn't have him off wheat yet) while the rest of the class got to eat cheesy potato salad. Anyway, we're working on it as best we can. I'm sure it will be better for him in the long run.

Photos

Finally got those pix up in the Jan - Mar '10 album. Some random shots and vids, and then stuff from our hike up Mt. Pisgah and our trip to the Raptor Center.

Finally! An update!

Well there's just so much to say. A lot has happened and, sadly, I won't be able to provide exact dates, but I'll talk about it all.

In no particular order......

Odin has been moved from the Panda room (2yrs) to the Caterpillar room (3-4yrs) on Mondays and Fridays to transition to being there full time when he turns 3 in a couple weeks. (No, we don't have the birthday plans yet. I'll post them here when we do.) He's really loving it, especially since his best friends Armstrong and June were moved up to that class a few weeks ago. The Caterpillar teachers tell us he does well and has a great time. The Panda teachers miss him.

Odin had some blood drawn for an allergy test. The results aren't in yet but we've taken him off dairy and soy per the doctor's orders for the time being. He's supposed to be off wheat as well but two was hard enough. He took to it rather well; he understands when there is soy or cow milk in something and wont ask for it, even if it's a favorite food. He had the occasional break-down or tantrum at first, and we think it was just stress about the food change combined with stress from how busy we got. More on that later.

Freya has been talking up a storm. She can clearly refer to me as Da-da and call for me. She calls Odin bu-buh (brother) and we're working on ma-ma.

I've been collecting some photos and videos so those will go up later tonight as well.

We're finally on spring break. It took quite a lot of work but we did it.

Alyssa's piece was performed in FMO with great success, and the composition she worked on all term was played well (according to her, I wasn't able to be there). I ended up staying up late every night of finals week working on a ten-page research paper, which turned out rather well (with huge thanks to Alyssa and Jason for helping me make edits). I'm confident that I did well, and I actually passed a second-year Latin class. (Vergil is fun, but rough. Damned poetic license....)

Today we enjoyed our first day off hiking up Mt. Pisgah with Melanie. Odin hasn't been hiking before and it's been years since my ankle felt good enough to manage. We had tons of fun. Lots of pictures and such. Wore us out....

Melanie is Dennis' (Alyssa's dad) partner and she's been staying with us for about a week or so now. She left Iowa (where they live) to stay with a friend in San Diego and came up to us after that to see the sights and check out U of O for her masters work after graduation. Thanks in large part to our subtle efforts, she fell in love with the place and is now trying to convince Dennis and James (her son) to move out here as well. We really hope they do (Alyssa hasn't seen her dad in more than a decade and I've never met him), and we're all having lots of fun out here.

I feel like there's a lot more to say, but for now that will do. I'll get working on those pictures and upload them.

One more thing; we did get a land line in our home, though it's almost useless since we have such adequate cell-phones. My number is 541-357-7436 and that will ring both my cell and our land line, so if anybody wants to drop us a line, use that! Cheers!

Long story short

It's the last week of school and we're swamped, so I can't say much. What I can say is what I'll talk about in more detail later.

Odin was tested for food allergies. Freya is talking (have some good videos to post). Alyssa has had great performances lately. And nothing of note has happened to me.

Cheers!

On a Roll!

With all the moving Freya has been doing, it sure took her a long time
to roll. She finally did just now from front to back. Yay!

--
Sent from my mobile device

Stats and growth

I finally found the paper with Freya's stats from her appointment; 23.5 inches height (25th %), 15lbs 11oz (85th %). Growing well.

Yesterday she had solid food for the first time. Alyssa gave her some plums and she loved it! Today she had squash and we're learning that she is way less picky than Odin was. We're going to try some cereal and other such things but we're really happy about it. She's also creeping, so Alyssa claims, but I haven't seen it yet. She can almost sit up on her own and she never stops smiling and talking.

We're going to try letting her without her diaper a lot so she can learn to roll. We think the size of the cloth diaper is what's preventing her from doing it, and another mom we know who also uses cloth diapers said it was the same for her daughter.

Freya's growth and us being sick

I forgot to mention that on Tuesday Freya had her 4-month check-up and was declared "doing great" which seems to be the words used most by Dr. Dzubay whenever we visit. I don't have her stats on me so I'll add those later, but Freya is thinning out a little though still pretty big, and seems to be developing fine.

In other news, we've all been sick. It started with Odin getting bronchial-something which turned into double ear infection (one in each ear), then Freya got that and we did after. Alyssa's worsened into pneumonia for which she took antibiotics. The antibiotics made her have some serious issues due to an allergy and she's off them now, pursuing homeopathic detox treatment. My cough (the only symptom I'd had) was getting really better until yesterday when it suddenly got worse and now I keep coughing and I can't talk because my throat hurts too much. (Ask Jake, I just called him and he told me to shut up and drink some tea.)

Other than that, things have been pretty quiet. Alyssa and I are searching for Grad schools. California is the most likely candidate. Mills for her and USCB followed by Standford for me. That is, if we can get in. But we're still looking around.

Freya sick

Poor Freya has a double ear infection! She didn't even tell us! She'd gotten our cough and we took her to the doctor and he told us after looking in her ears. She wasn't whining, crying, or anything. Just her usual happy self! At least we caught it in time.

She also weighs 15lbs 8.3oz which is pretty big. We asked if her weight was okay (meaning high enogh) and he said "I'm looking at her thighs and I'm not too worried."

She seems a lot better now though.

Vids

I just put 7 new videos in the Jan - Mar '10 album, Freya laughing and such, as promised. Enjoy!

Laughter!

We finally got Freya to laugh this weekend!

Well, we didn't; Odin did, several times. We can't get her to, but she sure smiles a whole lot. (Don't worry; we caught it all on tape several times, I'll upload it later.) It was a nice weekend for us; we spent Saturday enjoying the sun downtown and eating out and shopping and what not. Sunday was a bit more work but also some hanging out with friends for a bit and watching the movies we rented.

Odin's current favorite movie; Disney's The Jungle Book (animated, from the 70s).

Alyssa is working hard on her compositions and will probably have a piece in this term's FMO concert. Her work load is so drastically reduced this term (all she ever has to do is compose) which is nice because of how huge mine got. Right now I'm supposed to be translating book 2 of Vergil's Aeneid so I better get back to it....

Pics and Vids!

I've added new pictures to the Oct - Dec '09 and newly created Jan - Mar '10 folders on our web albums. There's only a few new things, but there's a video of Freya laughing, and the video's from Odin's Winter Celebration in which he sings and steals the show. Cheers!

Armstrong's Party

On Sunday we took Odin to Bounce for Armstrong's birthday party. Armstrong is in Odin's Panda class aat school and they had a great time. It's basically a giant, empty warehouse and every surface is covered in padding which is also bouncy and half the floors are trampolines and there's ropes to climb and swing from and structures to climb and jump off of, it was great. We're so going there for my birthday.

Today Odin is at school but we're not so we're just taking the day off to relax and get some homework done.

Freya's been doing really great. She can hold her head up perfectly and is laughing occasionally. I even got it on tape but we don't have a way to get it off the camera right now. She doesn't like tummy-time too much but she's getting more used to it slowly. She has a lot of awake/smiley time as well.

First week

Our first week of classes has been interesting. I've been going to classes I'm note registered for (though finally am now) and Alyssa's been in new subjects she's having a great time with. There've been some problems with my degree but we're working on it and it's a long story.

Freya is really holding her head up well and keeps getting better at tummy time. Tonight she tried to roll over a few times, and we think the only reason she couldn't manage it was because of the size of her cloth diaper. She was really getting it, but couldn't make it past her butt.

Odin plays with June all day at school, or so his teachers tell us. They apparently have a lot of fun, and it's even caused us some trouble getting him to come home.

That's all for now, I have to translate some Vergil.

And we're off!

To a pretty good start! Term started for us today, and I've just come back from a Latin class in which we read Vergil's Aeneid in the original Latin. Quite fun stuff. Thought I wasn't prepared for it, but it's turning out okay. Alyssa's headed to her first class now and we're thinking it's going to be a great term.

I've had some complications with which classes I'm able to take, but they've started to resolve, more on that later.

Odin's best buddy, June, is attending his school as of today, so they'll get to play together all day. I can't wait to pick him up and see how he did!