Simon's First Haircut

Before:

Simon got his very first haircut today! We were sad to see the sweet, over-the-ears baby look go, but the past few weeks when its been hot he has been scratching his neck and ears as if the hair is bothering him, so we decided it was probably time.

During:

Simon did amazingly well--wasn't so sure about it at times, but sat calmly through the whole thing. It helped that the barbar (who cuts Andy's hair too) was wonderful with him--ride in the chair, play with the brush, push the button to turn on the electric razor, etc. Very cool guy. We may just have to drive up from Rochester next time Simon needs a trim!

After:

Approaching Moving Day...and Closing Day!

Andy began his first day of work today, at his first call, at a Lutheran church in Rochester, MN. Simon and I are so proud :)

We have all kinds of exciting changes coming up in the next month for our family:

• August 28th--closing day, we're buying our first home!
• last weekend in August--moving weekend
• Labor Day Weekend--Andy's ordination
• Sept 8th--Simon's first day of full-time child care (I don't know about Simon, but I am not ready for this!)
• Sept 8th--first day of fall semester for Jess (I'm teaching two classes at the U this fall--I am also not ready for this, but I'm working on it...)

soon-to-be-our home sweet home in Rochester

Flashback: Father's Day Camping Trip

Well, with all the recent excitement around here (a call for Andy, new home for us, moving in two weeks, etc.!), we forgot to blog about one of our favorite weekends of the whole summer: our Father's Day Camping Trip at Wild River State Park with Jen, Adam, and Zoe! We had a wonderful time hiking, eating, sitting, playing in dirt, and even doing a little canoing.

Simon helped unpack the tent bags

Simon & Zoe enjoying some relaxing time by the fire

mmmm...dirt. The kiddos loved the dirt. We decided to bring our circular play-yard gate that we usually use to block off our oddly-shaped basement stair landing; it worked great as a play space to keep the toys corralled and the toddlers away from the fire when the adults were busy

Here are Jen, Zoe, & Adam in the canoe--we took Simon out as well, but he wasn't nearly as tolerant as Zoe...next time a more comfy life vest would help, I think (this was an infant one that they were just about to outgrow)

Mmmm...beef stew for Saturday dinner

Simon particularly enjoyed throwing rocks in the river

Our second successful family camping trip--hooray!

Here we all are just before taking down the tents. Many thanks to Alex & Erica who loaned us their great tent (on the right) and other gear!

Parenting Stripes

There are many ways parents earn their parenting stripes, from coping with public tantrums to late night trips to the emergency room. For some, just the day in and day out responsibility of being in charge...for others, the first time you have to apologize to another parent because your child bit theirs at preschool.

For Jess, it was standing in line at the Detroit airport Tuesday night after 4 days with Simon in Pittsburgh. There we were: stroller in hand, backpack on back, Simon on one hip...both of us covered in vomit from an unfortunate end to the previous flight, waiting in line to buy the cheapest souvenir t-shirt I could find so that hopefully whoever was lucky enough to sit next to us on the next flight wouldn't have to endure the smell of my current clothing (unfortunately none of the stores sold pants...).

We must have been quite the sight...and now we are very glad to be home.

Note to self: packing extra clothes for the child is not enough...if the child riding in your lap in the airplane needs a change of clothes, chances are you will too.