I'm in the midst of another "Family History Fever." It's been a couple weeks now. I'm making significant research progress on several family lines (some more direct than others) and it's freakishly addicting. It's all FamilySearch/FamilyTree's fault. They've made it so darn easy to connect real live primary sources to my ancestors' profiles that I just can't stop hooking everything up and making new connections. Most of my research happens during nap time and after the kids are in bed, so the kids hardly notice, but I think Bobby's starting to get tired of it :)
Some neat discoveries so far:
--My great grandmother immigrated with her family to the U.S. from a German-speaking portion of Russia...three of her siblings are "missing" and now I get to to find them! Gotta find someone who speaks Ukranian, Russian, and German to help me out, though.
--My great aunt's father-in-law served as a Union private in the Civil War. He was born in Indiana, not too far from where I live now. His widow received a pension from his military service until the day she died. His probate packet is 219 pages long!!!
--I had a family with three extra kids that didn't belong. I think it was a merging error. But it was satisfying to find the evidence that proved these kids could not be part of this family.
--An ancestor adopted two sons in 1930 with a last name very, very similar to his own. The boys' mother was born in the same state that my ancestor originated from...possibly they are related to their adopted parents somehow? Now I get to figure out who these boys are and how they came to join my ancestor's family!
--Just by hooking up these real-life sources (censuses, birth/death certificates, marriage records) to my ancestors' profiles, I've discovered second marriages, missing children, and completely new siblings for my ancestors that were not recorded before. So, even when it looks like the temple work has "all been done", it's not always complete. All this new FamilySearch/FamilyTree stuff has made it so much easier and faster to find gaps!
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
A Blog Post by Alice
This is some of my favorite things that I did during the summer.
I went to a city council meeting. We stayed up really late. The mayor and most of the council went in a secret room and had a talk for 40 minutes.
I played with James and Robert. Robert liked playing like he was either a ninja turtle or a person who does karate. James is learning how to talk and James can kiss.
I made a craft. It was very big and it was a card for Mom's birthday. And we made it with the babysitter while Mom was out for dinner with Daddy. It was Mom's 35th birthday.
Bye bye.
I went to a city council meeting. We stayed up really late. The mayor and most of the council went in a secret room and had a talk for 40 minutes.
I played with James and Robert. Robert liked playing like he was either a ninja turtle or a person who does karate. James is learning how to talk and James can kiss.
I made a craft. It was very big and it was a card for Mom's birthday. And we made it with the babysitter while Mom was out for dinner with Daddy. It was Mom's 35th birthday.
Bye bye.
 |
| This is a picture that I took of cute little James smiling. |
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Bobby's Sunday Summary
I asked Susan what I should talk about this week and got back a "dunnknow". I does kind of feel that way. This week was the first week of school, at least half week of school. It started on Wednesday. Alice loves her teacher and all of the kids in her class. Beyond that this week has been mostly a blur. It feels like a lot has happened, and yet I cannot really come up with much of anything concert that really did happen this week.
Friday, August 22, 2014
28 Weeks
I met with the midwives again this week. Actually, I met with just Kristi Higgs. She's one of the midwives that I know the best. All is on track. My uterus is no longer measuring large. She was just barely pressing on my belly trying to figure out Peek-a-boo's position. She couldn't quite tell. I asked her why she was being so freakishly gentle. She said it might hurt.
"Who...you? The baby?"
"No, you!"
"Um, not a problem. I feel for this guy's position all the time. It doesn't hurt."
So, she pushed a little firmer and felt that hard, tennis-ball-sized noggin. Yup, head down. Still time to flip around before delivery, but fun to know what he's up to now. Her manipulations woke him up, though. And as she was trying to place the fetal Doppler to measure his heart rate, he kicked her hand. He wriggled and writhed, more kicking, making it difficult to get a good measurement.
"His heart rate is 150, which is great for being so active right now. I like to see a good, feisty baby responding to stimuli."
When I told the kids this story at dinner, they were jumping out of their seats with laughter. Especially the part about Peek-a-boo kicking her hand.
I went through my newborn clothes today...sufficient, but a little sparse. I'm waffling between "bare minimum hassle" and "he's our last...is there anything I want to try differently this time around?" I suspect this will be a common theme in my experience with Peek-a-boo.
"Who...you? The baby?"
"No, you!"
"Um, not a problem. I feel for this guy's position all the time. It doesn't hurt."
So, she pushed a little firmer and felt that hard, tennis-ball-sized noggin. Yup, head down. Still time to flip around before delivery, but fun to know what he's up to now. Her manipulations woke him up, though. And as she was trying to place the fetal Doppler to measure his heart rate, he kicked her hand. He wriggled and writhed, more kicking, making it difficult to get a good measurement.
"His heart rate is 150, which is great for being so active right now. I like to see a good, feisty baby responding to stimuli."
When I told the kids this story at dinner, they were jumping out of their seats with laughter. Especially the part about Peek-a-boo kicking her hand.
I went through my newborn clothes today...sufficient, but a little sparse. I'm waffling between "bare minimum hassle" and "he's our last...is there anything I want to try differently this time around?" I suspect this will be a common theme in my experience with Peek-a-boo.
Sunday, August 17, 2014
New School Year Hopes
We found out last Friday that Alice will be in Mrs. Parson's 2nd grade class. This was the teacher she was hoping for. We also learned that she will have several good friends in her class with her. Hooray! To find out these things, we had to go to the school at 4pm on Friday just as the office folks were leaving. They post the class assignments on the window and then run away.
I found the experience quite enlightening this year.
First off, Alice was thrilled about her future teacher and only mildly amused to see she would share a classroom with her closest friends. Later, when someone asked who else would be in her class, she couldn't recall. I was happy and confused at the same time that peer influence was not as powerful as I had thought.
While we were at the school, lots of other families arrived to check out their class assignments, too. We ran into a few friends and the kids played together on the playground for a while. Alice and a hoard of children were playing some sort of complicated running game on the blacktop. She was in her element: leading, coordinating, changing rules to accommodate others, and being just plain silly when the mood struck. Sometimes I look at her and wonder where on earth this big, confident, and capable girl came from. She's growing up. My hopes for her this year are mainly social. I don't worry about her academically, except to fret that she's not being challenged enough. I want her to practice respectfully standing up for herself while finding common ground with others. It's a fine line. Tricky. But maybe not so hard for an intuitive sort of extrovert like this girl.
Robert was content to play on the playground on his own and hunt for acorns to fill his pockets. I remember that Alice didn't have any real friends she could name until her second year of preschool. Robert will be starting his second year of preschool next week. I wonder about how he will grow socially over the next 12 months...will he suddenly take interest in playing with specific kids like Alice did? Or will he be perfectly content with his own games? So far, when he does play with other kids, it looks like he prefers to play with one child at a time and follow his/her lead. When a third child joins the game, he sort of wanders off and finds something else to do. While we were at the school playground on Friday, a bold little toddler just 20 months old walked up to Robert, took his hand, and started leading him around. Robert had this amused look on his face as he followed her lead. I wonder what he was thinking. My hopes for him this year are social, too. He struggles using words to express himself, happy or sad, and I would love to have him practice that emotive-language skill. I also want him to find a friend groove. He doesn't have to be the life of the party. I just want him to experiment with deeper friendships and practice that kind of relationship. I'm also thinking about what I'll write next year when I register him for Kindergarten. They will ask me to describe his personality, strengths, and weaknesses...who will Robert grow into in the next 12 months? How will he fare in a full-day classroom buzzing with kids and new activities and scheduled routines? What kind of insight could I offer that would maximize his chances of landing the "right" teacher and class mates?
James, well, he alternated between running after Alice's cohort and exploring the playground on his own. He climbed everything he could as high as he could, yelling for my attention when he wanted to show me something cool. He explored handfuls of pebbles one after the other. That same bold toddler that led Buddy around came up to James and got in his face. She wasn't exactly threatening him, but James didn't like how close she was, so he started to run away. She chased after him and he came straight to me, crying. He kept a sharp eye on her whereabouts after that, only leaving my lap when she had left the playground. He's not usually so timid when Robert is the one getting in his face. I haven't seen James around new kids very often, so it was interesting to watch. Anyway, I can see eager, social, and independent parts of James' personality coming through. He's just now learning how to play with Alice and Robert. My hope for him this year is to develop a strong and playful relationship with Robert in particular. James already has a special love for Robert. He gives him excited, affectionate hugs when he sees him in the morning. He's not always so physically loving towards Alice (which confuses me, but that's another post for another day). With Alice out of the way at school, and James maturing socially and linguistically a bit more every day, maybe Robert will finally view him as a valid play mate. Just the other day, they were playing "steamroller" on the living room floor, rolling and rolling all around, then bumping into each other and laughing. James was in heaven! If I'm there to help Robert use more words and smooth out minor misunderstandings, the boys can actually play REALLY well together. They love to make each other laugh.
And then there's the wild card. This baby. This as-yet-unknown and completely life-consuming entity who will grow from a wrinkly, red squeaker into a walking, playing, human being in the next 12 months. All signs point to Alice and Robert adoring him while James keeps his distance and insists on keeping my lap to himself. We'll see. My hopes for the baby? Well, mostly I hope for my own sanity balancing four dependent lives. I hope he eats well and sleeps well. I hope he grows fat and big like his brothers before him. I hope he's delighted to be surrounded by all the noise and activity that makes up our household. We'll worry about all the other stuff when he gets a little older :)
So, bring on the new year! I'm excited to see what will come.
I found the experience quite enlightening this year.
First off, Alice was thrilled about her future teacher and only mildly amused to see she would share a classroom with her closest friends. Later, when someone asked who else would be in her class, she couldn't recall. I was happy and confused at the same time that peer influence was not as powerful as I had thought.
While we were at the school, lots of other families arrived to check out their class assignments, too. We ran into a few friends and the kids played together on the playground for a while. Alice and a hoard of children were playing some sort of complicated running game on the blacktop. She was in her element: leading, coordinating, changing rules to accommodate others, and being just plain silly when the mood struck. Sometimes I look at her and wonder where on earth this big, confident, and capable girl came from. She's growing up. My hopes for her this year are mainly social. I don't worry about her academically, except to fret that she's not being challenged enough. I want her to practice respectfully standing up for herself while finding common ground with others. It's a fine line. Tricky. But maybe not so hard for an intuitive sort of extrovert like this girl.
Robert was content to play on the playground on his own and hunt for acorns to fill his pockets. I remember that Alice didn't have any real friends she could name until her second year of preschool. Robert will be starting his second year of preschool next week. I wonder about how he will grow socially over the next 12 months...will he suddenly take interest in playing with specific kids like Alice did? Or will he be perfectly content with his own games? So far, when he does play with other kids, it looks like he prefers to play with one child at a time and follow his/her lead. When a third child joins the game, he sort of wanders off and finds something else to do. While we were at the school playground on Friday, a bold little toddler just 20 months old walked up to Robert, took his hand, and started leading him around. Robert had this amused look on his face as he followed her lead. I wonder what he was thinking. My hopes for him this year are social, too. He struggles using words to express himself, happy or sad, and I would love to have him practice that emotive-language skill. I also want him to find a friend groove. He doesn't have to be the life of the party. I just want him to experiment with deeper friendships and practice that kind of relationship. I'm also thinking about what I'll write next year when I register him for Kindergarten. They will ask me to describe his personality, strengths, and weaknesses...who will Robert grow into in the next 12 months? How will he fare in a full-day classroom buzzing with kids and new activities and scheduled routines? What kind of insight could I offer that would maximize his chances of landing the "right" teacher and class mates?
James, well, he alternated between running after Alice's cohort and exploring the playground on his own. He climbed everything he could as high as he could, yelling for my attention when he wanted to show me something cool. He explored handfuls of pebbles one after the other. That same bold toddler that led Buddy around came up to James and got in his face. She wasn't exactly threatening him, but James didn't like how close she was, so he started to run away. She chased after him and he came straight to me, crying. He kept a sharp eye on her whereabouts after that, only leaving my lap when she had left the playground. He's not usually so timid when Robert is the one getting in his face. I haven't seen James around new kids very often, so it was interesting to watch. Anyway, I can see eager, social, and independent parts of James' personality coming through. He's just now learning how to play with Alice and Robert. My hope for him this year is to develop a strong and playful relationship with Robert in particular. James already has a special love for Robert. He gives him excited, affectionate hugs when he sees him in the morning. He's not always so physically loving towards Alice (which confuses me, but that's another post for another day). With Alice out of the way at school, and James maturing socially and linguistically a bit more every day, maybe Robert will finally view him as a valid play mate. Just the other day, they were playing "steamroller" on the living room floor, rolling and rolling all around, then bumping into each other and laughing. James was in heaven! If I'm there to help Robert use more words and smooth out minor misunderstandings, the boys can actually play REALLY well together. They love to make each other laugh.
And then there's the wild card. This baby. This as-yet-unknown and completely life-consuming entity who will grow from a wrinkly, red squeaker into a walking, playing, human being in the next 12 months. All signs point to Alice and Robert adoring him while James keeps his distance and insists on keeping my lap to himself. We'll see. My hopes for the baby? Well, mostly I hope for my own sanity balancing four dependent lives. I hope he eats well and sleeps well. I hope he grows fat and big like his brothers before him. I hope he's delighted to be surrounded by all the noise and activity that makes up our household. We'll worry about all the other stuff when he gets a little older :)
So, bring on the new year! I'm excited to see what will come.
Bobby's Sunday Summary
Sorry about how long it has been. I don't really have a good excuse. One week was very busy and I lost the habit after a while. I am not going to be able to cover everything but here are a few highlights (in picture form).
4th of July:
Alice Learning to do Cart Wheels:
A "Friend" Stays with us for a while:
Hanging Out:
Primary Talent Show:
4th of July:
Alice Learning to do Cart Wheels:
A "Friend" Stays with us for a while:
Hanging Out:
Primary Talent Show:
Friday, August 15, 2014
Blog Post (Interview) with Buddy
Hi Buddy, the summer is almost over. What did you enjoy about this time off? What did you do this summer?
Played checkers.
Did you go anywhere fun?
Yah.
Tell me about camp.
Um. Ummmm. We swim at swim camp.
Anything else?
And swim after we play at the park.
What was your favorite part about camp?
Swimming and playing at the park.
Preschool is starting next week. What do you think it will be like?
We play and we have...I forgot if we have snack.
You do.
And we have snack.
What else?
I'm not sure about anything else.
What do you want to do today?
I want to...ummm...can you give me some ideas?
How about chores?
Mooooooovie tonight.
How about play at the playground?
Yah!!!!
Played checkers.
Did you go anywhere fun?
Yah.
Tell me about camp.
Um. Ummmm. We swim at swim camp.
Anything else?
And swim after we play at the park.
What was your favorite part about camp?
Swimming and playing at the park.
Preschool is starting next week. What do you think it will be like?
We play and we have...I forgot if we have snack.
You do.
And we have snack.
What else?
I'm not sure about anything else.
What do you want to do today?
I want to...ummm...can you give me some ideas?
How about chores?
Mooooooovie tonight.
How about play at the playground?
Yah!!!!
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Summer (almost) over
The kids finished one of their summer bridge workbooks and earned a couple of "gold medals" for their efforts. I specifically chose the ThinkStretch series because of that medal:
I got lucky this summer that they were excited to do the workbooks at all. Alice got exposed to a few new language and math concepts while Robert got a lot of fine motor writing/drawing/tracing practice. Are they ready for real school to begin? Yes and no. Alice wants to get back to friends and activities, but worries herself sick about all the unknowns. Literally. Robert knows exactly what he's getting back into, so he's not nervous, per se, but I wouldn't say he's looking forward to going back to school. He will surely miss having Alice at home.
I'm not sure what I'll be doing with James while the others are away...one kid can be harder than 2 or 3 sometimes. We'll all have some adjusting to do.
One week of summer left. We'll hit the pool one more time, finish gathering school supplies, and maybe take a bike ride to the school to see who Alice's new teacher will be.
We haven't established any "First Day of School" traditions yet. Are there any you strongly recommend?
I got lucky this summer that they were excited to do the workbooks at all. Alice got exposed to a few new language and math concepts while Robert got a lot of fine motor writing/drawing/tracing practice. Are they ready for real school to begin? Yes and no. Alice wants to get back to friends and activities, but worries herself sick about all the unknowns. Literally. Robert knows exactly what he's getting back into, so he's not nervous, per se, but I wouldn't say he's looking forward to going back to school. He will surely miss having Alice at home.
I'm not sure what I'll be doing with James while the others are away...one kid can be harder than 2 or 3 sometimes. We'll all have some adjusting to do.
One week of summer left. We'll hit the pool one more time, finish gathering school supplies, and maybe take a bike ride to the school to see who Alice's new teacher will be.
We haven't established any "First Day of School" traditions yet. Are there any you strongly recommend?
Friday, August 1, 2014
Driveway Moment Follow-Up
Thanks to Marie for suggesting I contact the radio station about that classical music piece that snagged the kids' attention! I just got an email back from the host of the show I thought we were listening to:
Dear Susan,
Thank
you for your message and for listening to WILL-FM – all 3 of you! I’m
thrilled to hear that the children wanted to stay in the car to hear a
classical music selection! I wish I could have been there – but I
wasn’t, and I’m wondering
if I even was on the air at the time. I don’t recall the storm story. I
checked Monday’s playlist to see that nothing matched that description.
I checked further to see that the host before Classic Mornings played
Mussorgsky’s A Night on Bald Mountain. That’s
pretty familiar and was used in the original Fantasia film. Could that
be what you heard? It aired from 8:06 to 8:15 am on Monday. If that’s
not it, please let me know about what time you were out shopping. I want
to know what the piece was. Have a great weekend!
Vic Di Geronimo
Program Host/Producer
“Classic Mornings”
WILL-FM
Illinois Public Media
So, yeah, we were out shopping an HOUR earlier than usual. That's because we had to take Bobby to the airport. It wasn't Vic's show, but he was completely right about the music selection! I may never have found it on my own.
Robert and James
 |
| James climbed into the stick bucket all on his own! He also fell out on his own a few minutes later. And what a terrific spill it was! |
 |
| Robert found a green caterpillar near his digging hole. |
 |
| James getting a peek at the famous caterpillar who ended up as a snack for one of our chickens. |
Climber #3
I'm in the kitchen this morning and I hear James in the front room yelling for me. Alice and Robert are all excited, too, and come running in to tell me I HAVE to see something right now!
What was the amazing feat? James on the climbing wall! He was so proud of himself. He got on and off and on and off again to show me. So far, he can only step up on the bottom-most foothold. He's terrifically happy about it.
The boy is 22 months old, but as heavy (31 pounds) and physically capable as half of all 3-year-olds. That makes me feel better about him still talking like a caveman ;)
Caw-caw! Oo-oo! Bah-bah! Munululum! Ick! Wock! It!
(bird! car! water! watermelon! stick! rock! hit!)
What was the amazing feat? James on the climbing wall! He was so proud of himself. He got on and off and on and off again to show me. So far, he can only step up on the bottom-most foothold. He's terrifically happy about it.
The boy is 22 months old, but as heavy (31 pounds) and physically capable as half of all 3-year-olds. That makes me feel better about him still talking like a caveman ;)
Caw-caw! Oo-oo! Bah-bah! Munululum! Ick! Wock! It!
(bird! car! water! watermelon! stick! rock! hit!)
Family Tree Woes
I broke my family tree.
Badly.
Irreparably? Let's hope not.
I'm teaching in my Relief Society group this Sunday. As part of that lesson, I decided to demonstrate some of FamilyTree's newest features which include hints and tips and red flags. For many of my ancestors, FamilyTree automatically found them in censuses and birth/marriage/death indexes and all I had to do was handpick who to link the records to. Absolutely genius!
Anyway, I've gotten a little carried away this week. I've spent a couple hours a day linking sources to ancestors and merging duplicate records. It's fun! But I went too far, somehow. Suddenly, in the middle of a merge or two, FamilyTree started warning me that two records couldn't be merged because one of them didn't exist anymore...and yet, there it was!
And now, I can't even load my own pedigree. I have NO access to ANYTHING I was going to demonstrate on Sunday. Argh. ARGH!
I broke it! I broke my family tree!
May I borrow yours for the weekend?
Badly.
Irreparably? Let's hope not.
I'm teaching in my Relief Society group this Sunday. As part of that lesson, I decided to demonstrate some of FamilyTree's newest features which include hints and tips and red flags. For many of my ancestors, FamilyTree automatically found them in censuses and birth/marriage/death indexes and all I had to do was handpick who to link the records to. Absolutely genius!
Anyway, I've gotten a little carried away this week. I've spent a couple hours a day linking sources to ancestors and merging duplicate records. It's fun! But I went too far, somehow. Suddenly, in the middle of a merge or two, FamilyTree started warning me that two records couldn't be merged because one of them didn't exist anymore...and yet, there it was!
And now, I can't even load my own pedigree. I have NO access to ANYTHING I was going to demonstrate on Sunday. Argh. ARGH!
I broke it! I broke my family tree!
May I borrow yours for the weekend?
Little Ren Hens
Alice and Robert harvested some of the wheat from our garden today.
It was planted on a whim when they and the neighbor kids wanted to "play farmer" one day. Well, Alice found the harvesting chore MUCH more difficult than anticipated. They spent much of the afternoon cutting wheat stalks, washing, drying, separating seeds, and peeling husks to get this:
That's about a tablespoon of green wheat. Completely unbakeable.
I didn't dare tell the girl. She had convinced Robert to help all afternoon by saying, "The more you help, the more bread you'll get from this wheat." Buddy is expecting one whopping portion of bread.
So, I guess we're making bread on Saturday. I'll grind up what the kids prepared in a mini mill and mix it in with a lot of normal, ripe, and well-cured wheat flour. I just hope green wheat isn't poisonous ;)
The chickens' new docile and kid-friendly attitudes have led to more free-range time for them. Here are two of them hanging out in a shady dugout they made for themselves...right by my tomatoes.
 |
| The little red hen cutting down wheat stalks with a butter knife and one little red rooster taking a break to eat parsley. That boy and parsley! He's selected a pile of garden parsley for his dinner vegetable more than once. |
That's about a tablespoon of green wheat. Completely unbakeable.
I didn't dare tell the girl. She had convinced Robert to help all afternoon by saying, "The more you help, the more bread you'll get from this wheat." Buddy is expecting one whopping portion of bread.
So, I guess we're making bread on Saturday. I'll grind up what the kids prepared in a mini mill and mix it in with a lot of normal, ripe, and well-cured wheat flour. I just hope green wheat isn't poisonous ;)
The chickens' new docile and kid-friendly attitudes have led to more free-range time for them. Here are two of them hanging out in a shady dugout they made for themselves...right by my tomatoes.
 |
| Two real little red hens relaxing for a moment. |
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