Bustle

I'm diligently working on getting our Christmas cards constructed and mailed out this year - prior to Christmas for once! After those are handed over to the USPS, I'll post the pics we've been snapping over the last few weeks. Stay tuned...

December? Really?

Today I had to break out the shorts. High temp today? 81. In December.

I know I shouldn't complain because most of our Midwestern kin are snowed or iced in and without power right now.

But 81 in December? It's just not right.

Sock thief

Abby shot this clip of the kids when we stopped by their place last week...

How to eat cereal

We've been holding off on giving Madeline solids until the 6 month mark. Tonight we tried out rice cereal for the first time and it was a huge hit! Below is Madeline's guide to eating (you can double-click on the picture to view it at true size)...

6 months

We still can't believe that she's 6 months old. How did that happen so fast?!?

(Yes, her feet are indeed lifted off the floor -- the camera caught her just as she tipped over backwards -- no one was injured during this spontaneous stunt)

In honor of this milestone, and because there is always a reason to have cake, I made a "half" birthday cake and we had Adrian, Abby & Linus over to join in the celebration. Madeline was a true party animal and slept through most of it. And the cake was enjoyed by all the grown-ups.

Thankful

We're so thankful for our families, near and far.

This year's Thanksgiving celebration was a change of pace for us, and not just because we're a family of three now. Typically, we spend the 4 day holiday in Beatrice, NE with the extended Bartel family, but this year we decided to stay here. Grandma and Grandpa L hosted us on Thanksgiving Day and we did our American duty by eating more than we should have. After we recovered from the excess, we returned home with an extra little lady in tow -- we had our niece Beth over for a couple of days to belatedly celebrate her 11th birthday. While we missed the traditions and the camaraderie of being in Nebraska, it was nice to have a 4 day weekend of relaxation here at home.

Our punk rock baby...

All she needs is a black onesie...

Fall has fallen

Now that Madeline is such a champ at sitting, we thought it would be a good time to start using her wagon. The wagon is made from walnut harvested from my Grandpa's (Herbert Funk) farm and Grandpa B helped with the construction. It's a beautiful thing. The wagon ride wasn't long -- just across the street to "help" Josh corral the neighbor's runaway puppy -- but Madeline seems to really enjoy this new perspective on the world.


This weekend we also took advantage of the moderate temps and did more work in the yard. What started out as a simple project to plant bulbs and transplant some flowers and shrubs to the massive area under our pine trees has turned into a multi-week effort. Somehow Josh convinced Curtis to come over to help remove the many layers of pine straw in that bed so that I could begin planting the bulbs. So now the daffodils are planted. The transplanting and the re-mulching remains to be completed. And I still have two other flowerbeds to prep before the winter sets in. Egads - I hope the warm-ish weather hangs on for a few more weeks!

Birthday dinner

Grandma L was so nice and came over last night for some quality time with Madeline so that we could have some time for ourselves. As has become our tradition, Josh took me out for a very nice dinner to celebrate my birthday -- 31 for those who need help counting. The destination is always a surprise (yay, I like surprises) and always a new place (yay, I like trying new places). This year, he braved the rush hour traffic and drove us into Raleigh for our reservation at JK's. It was delectable, delicious, delightful -- I could go on and on. I ordered the 14oz ribeye and, after commenting on how big it was when my plate arrived, I continued to eat the whole thing. Child-rearing apparently requires a lot of protein. Josh had the ribs (dry rub style). He, who only sparingly gives comments other than "it was OK" or "it was fine" to even the most tasty meals, said, "These ribs are seasoned perfectly," and I swear his eyes rolled back into his head from the joy he was experiencing via his tastebuds. JK's did right by us. Then we came home, curled up on the couch under a quilt, and watched Heroes and Bones on Tivo. It was a happy birthday.

Happy Halloween!

We were gifted a ballerina tutu and slippers by a neighbor, so that became Madeline's costume this year. It's been a little chilly here so she started out wearing a hat and tights, too.

Abby hosted the playgroup for an afternoon Halloween party -- good times were had by the moms and the kids alike!

The playgroup dressed in their Halloween finery:
Wyatt the sweet pea, Gavin the bee, Catherine the Duke cheerleader,
Linus the skeleton, Madeline the ballerina, and Hayli in her festive onsie

We ended the day at Grandma & Grandpa L's. It was a yo-ho-ho kind of Halloween there with Cameron, Dawson and Beth all dressing as pirates. The older kids went trick-or-treating while Peyton and Madeline stayed behind. Madeline was so enthralled with the gauzy layers on Peyton's costume.

Cameron as Captain Hook, Dawson as Captain Jack Sparrow,
Beth as Elizabeth Swan (in the third Pirates movie when she's
held captive by the Chinese pirate lord), Peyton as Tinkerbell,
and Prima Ballerina Madeline.

5 months

The Great Pumpkin

We met up with Adrian, Abby & Linus for lunch and a trip to the pumpkin patch that's only a few miles from our house. We're finally getting some cool weather (just last week we were in the 90s!) so it actually felt like autumn and made for a very enjoyable day outdoors.

If I had 4 million dollars....

Abby and I took the kids on an excursion to see some of the mansions on the Parade of Homes. We cut to the chase and only toured the ones with 3 to 4 million dollar price tags. Why waste your time looking at things you can afford?!

Back from KS

It's been a crazy few weeks, both in getting ready to take a weekend trip to KS and in recovering from said trip. Sorry we dropped off the blog for a while. We need a vacation to recover from our vacation! We are so glad we got to witness Jon & Chelsea's beautiful wedding and see all the Bartels there as well as getting to spend some time with our friends Jeff & Melissa, Krista, and Mike & Heidi. We were negligent in taking enough pictures to document this weekend, so you'll just have to take our word for it that we had fun.

So what's happened in the meantime? Well, Madeline is now sleeping 8+ hrs every night. Joy! Although the "experts" say that 6 hrs of continuous sleep is considered sleeping through the night, it still felt like just a nap to us. Now we finally feel justified in marking off "sleeping through the night" as a milestone reached.

4 months

Madeline's four month checkup measured her at 15 lbs, 11 oz and 26.5 in long -- that's the 90th and 97th percentiles, respectively, for those of you without your growth chart handy.

It's a girl!

Alex and Sheri's little one has arrived!

Elisa Joy was born on Sept 19 around 4:45pm. She weighed in at 8lbs 15oz (she's a lightweight compared to Katina & Noah!) and measured 21in long.

We're looking forward to meeting her (and seeing the rest of the ASKN crew) in a few weeks!

Batman

Pickles was acting stranger than usual today -- she was stalking around the house and then quickly running from one room to another. "Must have gotten into some catnip," I figured. Catnip, despite the friendly packaging they sell it in at the stores, is really kitty crack. But I digress... When I heard her slam up against the headboard on our bed this afternoon, I decided that she needed a catnip intervention. Upon entering the bedroom, I quickly realized that catnip was not causing the commotion. It was a bat.

Pre-child, I would have just plucked this bat from it's perch on our bamboo blinds and taken it outside. But now with Madeline about, I find myself taking a little more precaution. I had no idea how long Pickles had been chasing that bat or how pissed off it was that it had been stalked as prey, so I quickly ushered our sweet little bloodthirsty kitty out of the bedroom, turned off the lights and ceiling fan, and closed the doors to our bathroom, closets and bedroom. I figured the bat could use a little alone time in the dark. I called Josh and shared the news with him -- he was heading out for a dentist's appointment and I figured this situation would give him something to look forward to while he was suffering in the chair.

So it was with great anticipation that Josh arrived at home and donned his bat hunting gear (that would be leather work gloves, a baseball mitt and a tennis racket - I kid you not). He opened the door to our bedroom (Pickles was on his heels - she had not forgotten about her quarry)... but no bat was in sight. After searching high and low, Josh and I gave up on the bat, figuring it must have escaped the same mysterious way it had entered, and resumed our normal evening routine. Pickles would not give up so easily.

Hours later, after I put Madeline down for the night, I realized that I hadn't seen our rambunctious cat all evening. I walked into our bedroom and there she was, camped outside our bathroom door and trying to look innocent. "That's weird," I thought, but being the good human that I am, I opened the door for her. She made a beeline for the trash can. "That's really weird," I thought, "Why is she interested in... wait a minute!" Sure enough, the bat had somehow managed to exit our bedroom and was now trapped in the bottom of our metal trash can.

Without too much ado, the bat was transferred from the trash can to a cardboard box. The box was placed on the rail outside our back porch so that the bat would have a lovely perch from which to freefall into flight. Good luck, little bat. We hope that you have a long life and eat many mosquitoes.

Madeline & Linus

Adrian & Abby invited us to join them at Red Robin last Friday for a fun dinner out. Of course I had to take a pic of our favorite kids.... Madeline is 15 weeks, Linus is 8 weeks. Their first photo together can be found here. It's amazing to see the changes!

Wildlife

While I could do without the heat and humidity of summer, it is the time of year when the creature-viewing in our yard is most interesting...I wish our camera's shutter speed was quick enough to catch the hummingbirds and lizards in action, too.

And here is our intrepid huntress stalking her prey (albeit from the confines of the back porch)...

Roly Poly

Today Madeline rolled over by herself! At first she was just rolling from her back to her side, but eventually she made it all the way from her back to her stomach. Josh and I were quite entertained watching her swing her legs about to get her momentum going. She's not quite sure what to do once she is on her stomach, though, so the rolling process is kind of anti-climatic for her. She has yet to figure out that she can push herself up with her arms when in a prone position. She's also still figuring out how to roll from her stomach to her back -- sometimes gravity just works too well and she's stuck face-planted to the floor. Then the happy, rolling baby turns into the crying, frustrated, bang-my-head-on-the-floor baby. Someday she'll figure it out...

Don't Give Up, Don't Ever Give Up!

I volunteered again this year at the Jimmy V Celebrity Golf Classic, a tournament that benefits the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research. I walked 18 holes with a team while carrying around a standard (see right for an example) that listed their names and their score.

This year, my team consisted of John Calipari and 4 hilarious guys from IBM. The North Carolina humidity, the August heat and the hilly terrain at Pinehurst left me exhausted at the end of the day, but I know I'll be back again next year.

Jim Valvano was an amazing man and if you have never seen or heard his inspirational 1993 ESPYs speech, I encourage you to click here to see it on YouTube.

3 months

Books are fascinating....

...especially those without pesky words mucking up the pages.

Weird Science

Madeline was called last week to participate in a study at the Infant Cognition Center at Duke. After finding out that this experiment required pretty low-key participation (no poking, prodding or pushing would be involved), I said, "Sure, why not." Afterall, I participated in various studies at K-State when I was younger and I turned out OK (no comments from the peanut gallery, please). This study involved her sitting in a car seat and watching various patterns of shapes on two video screens for just a few minutes. She was videotaped and timed to see how long she looked at the images on each screen. She was a model participant - I'm not biased, the PhD candidate running the test even said so - and after it was all over they presented her with a certificate of participation (suitable for framing), a t-shirt (see image below), and $5. Josh is excited that there is a second wage-earner in the house again.

Moms and movies

Abby and I had a "mommies-only date" today to see Becoming Jane. Two thumbs up -- especially if you like Jane Austen's books, Anne Hathaway's acting, period British films, or any combination of the three. Next movie in the queue: The Nannie Diaries. We may attempt this one with the babies in tow during a Movie Mom's Club showing.

Game Night

We had Zack (he was solo because Fer was in a class) and Adrian, Abby & Linus over for dinner tonight. Despite the hot weather, I fired up the oven and attempted Maeluen's Shepherd's pie recipe. For some reason I have a mashed potato deficiency (yes, my foodie friends, I am terribly embarrassed to admit this shortcoming), but even my sub-par mash didn't detract from the deliciousness of this concoction. Thanks, Maeluen, for sharing your secrets! The boys were able to squeeze in a game of Caylus before everyone headed home.

Josh, Adrian, (sleeping) Linus and Zack
contemplate their next moves.

A Silver Lining

We received sad news this past Monday -- Josh's Grandma Lingenfelser passed away. We quickly packed up and flew back to KS for her funeral. We are sad to lose her here on this earth, but we know that she is now in a place without pain and suffering. We are glad that we could join the rest of the family in celebrating her life and memory.

The silver lining to this cloud over our hearts is that we were able to spend time with many members of our extended family and share our newest family member with them. Despite the intense heat, lots of time in the car, and so many new places and new faces, Madeline was a wonderful traveler (she slept through both flights!) and seemed to charm the pants off everyone. Thank you to everyone who fed us, housed us, and transported us while we were "home"!

Heidi's visit

We had a wonderful weekend with Heidi. We're so glad that she was able to come out to meet Madeline and spend some quality time with us. I was especially glad to have her here so that I could have an excuse to try out some new local eateries and return to a few favorites...




Foster's Market - Simple, fresh food and plenty of outdoor seating for some highly entertaining people watching.
Bullock's Barbecue - Down home cookin' and Eastern NC BBQ
Fractured Prune - Create your own donut flavors!
Nosh - Inventive soups, salads, and sandwiches at a restaurant that provides water bowls for dogs, books for kids, and board games for all ages.
Alivia's - A new eaterie at our beloved Brightleaf that seems to be another great location for people watching (especially your fellow diners, right Heidi?)
Cookout - The only place we know of where your burger comes with a side of corn dog and a side of chicken nuggets, if you so desire. The milkshakes here are reason enough to give this fast food joint a try.

There is never a shortage of interesting, delicious and unique places to eat while here in Durham!

Two Months

Such a sweet smiling face....

Her two month checkup measured her at 12 lbs, 14 oz and 24 in long -- still in the 90th percentile on the growth chart.

Madeline also got her first round of immunizations during this visit. She definitely did not smile when that happened. I tried to explain to her that getting the shots would be better than getting polio, but she cried anyway. You just can't reason with babies.

Lingenfelser Family Gathering

This weekend marked the first time in a few years that all of Josh's siblings were able to get together in the same place. The reason for this momentous gathering? Cameron and Peyton (Josh's sister Natalie's two youngest children) were baptized on Saturday morning. The rest of the day was filled with swimming, swinging and playing games.

Upper Left (L to R): Rev. Mark, Sara (Jeremy's wife and Peyton's godmother) holding Peyton, Phillip (Natalie's husband), Jeremy (Josh's brother and Peyton's godfather), Natalie (Josh's sister), Cameron and Phillip's aunt (Cameron's godmother)

Upper Right: Cameron catching some air on his way into the water

Lower Left: Sara and Dan (Josh's dad) giving Will (Josh's brother Jason's son) a turn on the rope swing

Lower Right (L to R): Noah (family friend), Josh, Dawson (Natalie's son), and Gabe play Settlers of Catan

Jane, we missed you!

Madeline & Linus

Adrian & Abby welcomed Linus Elliott into the world last Friday. We're so glad that everyone made it through the experience without complications (we were a little worried about Adrian - ha). We welcome them with open arms to the world of no sleep.

Yesterday morning Adrian invited Madeline and me to lunch at Panera for some high quality cousin time. Bacon Turkey Bravo or Bust! Below on the right is the first Madeline & Linus picture. I'm sure there will be many many more in the months and years to come. For a blast from the past, the picture on the left is of Adrian and me the summer before we each turned two.

Happy 28th Birthday!

We celebrated Josh's 28th birthday today with dinner at Red Robin (bottomless fries) with Josh's parents, his sister Natalie, his brother Jason, and Jason's kids Dani and Will. We're looking forward to spending more time with the greater Lingenfelser clan this weekend when two of Natalie's kids are baptized. Hopefully we can get all of the grandkids (Madeline brought the count to 7) to sit still long enough for some photos!

We're grown-ups now

On our way to pick up Josh's new suit (buying yourself a suit is very grown-up), we had very grown-up conversations about who we thought would emerge from the Democratic and Republican parties as their presidential candidates, the status of our neighborhood elementary school, and what we should be doing to help Madeline reach her next set of developmental milestones. Then we reminisced about our trip to Spain last summer. Being chased by bulls is definitely not a grown-up thing to do. Amazing how much we can change in a year...

July 4th

We celebrated Independence Day at our place with Gabe, Curtis, Adrian & Abby. We grilled pork chops and marinated chicken skewers, and rounded out the meal with typical All-American summer fare: corn on the cob, Vern's baked beans, and chocolate chip cookies. Since the weather was so amazing we spent a good portion of the afternoon and evening playing Kubb in the backyard. Abby, Adrian & Josh will be the team to beat come the next Bartel gathering!

Abby & Josh vs Gabe & Curtis

Adrian & Curtis vs Josh & Gabe

Amy & Madeline watching from the sidelines

Grats to Neil & Tanya Riley!

The Lingenfelser girls held down the fort this past weekend while Josh flew back to KS to attend the wedding of his college roommate, Neil. Neil and Tanya started dating a few weeks before we did, so we are extremely happy that they have finally taken the plunge and joined the ranks of the married folk.

Josh also got to hang out with "The Boys" at the wedding. The last time they were together was at Jeff's wedding in Dec 2005 so they did their best to catch up for all that lost time.

The Boys at Jeff's reception in 2005 (L to R): Dan Gruman,
Trung Trieu, Jeff Gardner, Neil Riley, Mike Stewart, Josh

Even though it was a short weekend trip, Josh also got to spend time with our families back in KS and was especially glad to see both his Grandmas in Leavenworth.

Thankfully, due to plant shutdown for the July 4^th holiday, Josh will get to spend this next week at home. I’m looking forward to having him around (yay for adult conversations!) and hopefully I’ll get to catch up on all the sleep I missed while I was a single parent for the weekend.

One month and counting...

We’ve been negligent about posting in a timely fashion, so here are a few recent photos of Madeline as she passed some milestones…

One month birthday photo …

She’s been sporting the “George Costanza” look since she lost all the hair on the top of her head a couple of weeks ago. It’s growing back (very slowly) and looks to be just as dark as the hair that was there originally.

One month doctor’s appointment – 10 lbs, 11 oz and 22.5 in long (90^th percentile)

Father's Day weekend

It's been a busy weekend for us! We started it off by having Adrian & Abby (Amy's cousin and his wife) over for supper on Friday night. Well, supper was actually breakfast since we munched on pancakes, waffles, scrambled eggs and bacon. Adrian & Abby are expecting a little boy on July 12 so there was lots of baby and birthing talk around the dinner table. We can't wait to meet their little guy!


On Saturday we made our first long distance trip with Madeline... all the way to Clayton, NC! Roger and Sharron (we consider them to be Josh's second set of parents) made their last house payment in May so they threw a big party for all their friends to celebrate with them as they burned their mortgage. It was so much fun to get out and see our friends and Josh's family, show off Madeline, and watch a mortgage burn.

For Josh's first Father's Day celebration, we joined the crowds out at Kemp's Seafood House on Sunday for huge plates of fried seafood and hushpuppies. We also celebrated by doing those typical father-type activities: watching golf and taking naps (sometimes simultaneously).

This one's for the girls...

For those women out there who enjoy a little motivational/inspirational reading every now and then, I highly recommend We Are Our Mothers' Daughters by Cokie Roberts. It's a collection of essays that are a pretty quick read, even for those of us with many other things going on in our lives. I thought it was especially appropriate for those of us who need a little encouragement as we face new challenges in life. As such, I'm thinking of giving it as a graduation gift to my Theta advisees next May. Happy reading!

Ladies who lunch

Today Madeline took her first excursion. She accompanied Amy, Grandma Bartel and Grandma Lingenfelser to lunch at Ted's Montana Grill (mmm.... yummy burgers and cherry lemonade). Amy forgot to bring the camera along to document this momentous occasion but everyone was all smiles (well, Madeline slept the whole time but the rest of us were smiling).

Highlights

Over the past 12 days we've managed to stay awake long enough to take a few pics of our goings on. If only we were fast enough to capture all the photogenic moments!

Grandma Bartel (Gra-Gra as Katina calls her), Amy and
Madeline leaving the hospital. Thanks for the flowers, Heidi!

Grandpa Bartel getting some quality time.

Pickles checking out the new addition (the kitty was
a little intimidated -- check out her puffed up tail!).

Bathtime with Gra-Gra, the expert.

Practicing for football season -- "Good for a Wildcat touchdown!"

She's here!

After Amy's labor didn't progress as consistently and quickly as the doctors had hoped, we got suited up for surgery.

Madeline Grace arrived last night (May 23) at 6:07pm via c-section. She weighed in at 7 lbs 9 oz and measured 21.5 in long.

Amy is doing great, all things considered. Madeline spent a good portion of today figuring out what feeding is all about. Josh has been busy playing proud papa and getting the Bartel grandparents settled in (they flew in this morning -- great timing!). We're hoping to head home sometime in the next couple of days.