Something Exciting…
Well friends and family, some of you may have heard by now but we’re expecting little Hohnstadt #2 to make their arrival sometime in January of 2009 (most likely around the 20th)! We’re VERY excited about becoming parents again and although I’ve had a little more morning sickness with this pregnancy that with Anna it’s been very manageable and overall I could be feeling MUCH worse. We actually found out we were pregnant on Mother’s Day morning and enjoyed sharing the news with our families as we spent time with them during the day. Anna still has no idea what is going to be coming her way but I think she’ll do just fine as she’s already starting to carry her little baby dolls around the house and give them kisses whenever they seem in need.
I found a widget that will allow me to track how many days until my due date along with give an idea of what the baby looks like. I really do enjoy getting past 9 weeks or so when they take on a more “baby-like” appearance! (It’ll be fun once I can get it to work!)
Anyway, thought we’d share the news with you all!
The trip to Chicago
Mom and I recently took a trip to Chicago to visit with Monica and Tim and Lauren. Lauren just turned two in April and boy is she a smart cookie! The girls had a great time and we enjoyed spending time with some of Tim’s family as well. Another highlight of our trip was Anna’s first time to the Zoo. We went to a small zoo near Monica’s house but the girls really had fun. Too bad we got rained out and had to leave early. When I get some of the pics from my sister I’ll post them as the girls together are too cute!
The High-Speed Chase
It was a quiet, lazy Wednesday afternoon and Anna and I had just started on our way to my Mom’s house in West Bloomington from where we live in East Bloomington. Mom was behind us as we had picked her up at the train station at the Mall and then dropped her off at her car. The plan was to work on things for her upcoming garage sale and just have a nice afternoon. Little did we know the excitement was about to begin…
As I was coming up on Normandale Avenue from the East there was a HUGE backup of cars. Being familiar with the area I decided to cut down to a side street and take a back way home. I had just called Mom to tell her how to avoid the traffic when we started hearing the sirens. I think Mom counted a total of 13 squad cars that went racing past her before it seemed the show was over. We couldn’t figure out what was going on but speculated that one of the gas stations on the corner of Old Shakopee and Normandale was being robbed. Boy were we wrong…
Just as I was lazily making my way along Auto Club Road (about the sleepiest road in Bloomington, if not the whole Metro area) I thought to call Cedric to see if he could figure out online what was going on. I had just picked up the phone to call Cedric when I looked in my rear-view mirror and saw a gaggle of police cars (or is it a flock of cars?). Anyway, panic set in as it does for any red-blooded American when you see flashing lights in your rear window. This time, however, I realized that there was a car they were all chasing and it was just about on my bumper when I figured out just what was going on. Well, being in the left of the two lanes and having the chase vehicles all fanned out to the right of me I had no other options but to cross the oncoming lanes of traffic and stop along the curb on the other side of the road. Thankfully, as I mentioned before, the road was one of the sleepiest in Bloomington and so I wasn’t in any danger of hitting oncoming traffic. Still, my heart was beating pretty hard by the time the whole chase blew past me and I realized what danger Anna and I could have been in.
By the time we finally got to Mom’s house I had talked to Cedric who helped to calm me down somewhat and Mom and I could reflect on what had just happened. As it turned out the guy made a break for it and was caught just at 169 and Anderson Lakes Pkwy, just near my Mom’s house. I was glad to have gotten out of the way as we learned later that he was also armed. To read the story from KARE 11 news just click here.
My piece of the internet
I really haven’t forgotten about my little piece of the internet but things have been pretty busy around here (so what’s new?) Here are the highlights and I hope to fill in a few of the details later.
- Getting caught in a high-speed chase (really)
- A trip to Chicago to visit my sister, brother-in-law and niece
- Half the Bloomington Fire Department parked out front of our house and in our house (don’t worry, no flames were seen or fish injured in this incident)
- A visit from my sister and niece from Chicago
- Weekend garage sale at my Mom’s
- The passing of (yet even more) fish
Anna’s Fish
A couple weeks ago I was SO EXCITED to have found my old (really cool) fish tank that was just the right size for a few goldfish. Well, I decided that Anna was old enough for a little fish viewing and so Cedric and I took her to Walmart to go pick out the fish. The first few times we strolled by the fish tanks looking at all the fish Anna seemed a little dazed and wasn’t really connecting that there were little things swimming around in there. Well, by about the third pass she started getting pretty excited and totally enamored with the fish…which was good since it took over 20 minutes to track down a clerk that was willing to help us get three little goldfish. At the end of the 20 minutes Anna was still excitedly pointing at the tank every couple minutes and jabbering at Cedric and I as if to make sure we knew there was something in there. So cute!
Well, since the fish were only .28 each I joked that if I managed to kill them all in a week we’d only be out less than a dollar (since I already had all the other goodies fish needed with the tank). Well, little did I know how true that statement would be. Saturday I noticed that the fish were developing little white spots (fish chickenpox I call them - my Mom calls them Ick). I had some medicine for fish so I put some in the water which turned the whole tank a neon green (which was pretty cool). This morning when I got home from work I checked in on my fish and was pretty bummed to see that two were belly up at the top and the runt (go figure) looked just fine and was zipping around all over the tank. I had a quiet fish burial for the two unfortunate fish and the remaining fish is currently in a bowl on our kitchen table until I can get the tank cleaned and ready for some new fishies. Anna does love looking at the fish each morning so I think I’ll get a couple more. I won’t, however, go back to Walmart for fish. That’s not the first time I’ve had bad luck with Walmart fish and so Anna and I are going to venture out this afternoon (on such a beautiful day) to go to the local pet store to see what they have to offer. Once I get it all back in order I’ll post a couple pictures of Anna with the fish tank for you to enjoy.
I just couldn’t resist…
While I was catching up on my Facebook Scrabble games and blogs I like to read I came across the following video of the American Idol contestants singing “Shout to the Lord”…safe to say that was the very last place I would have expected to see a song of the Christian faith since popular culture seems to think it’s popular to ignore morality. The group choreography is kinda interesting too. At any rate, enjoy… (and stay tuned tomorrow to learn about Anna’s fish - the live variety)
The flu and my wonderful husband…
I’ve been sicker than I’ve ever been the past few days. With a temp that got as high as 102.2 at one point I certainly wasn’t up to taking care of a toddler all on my own. That’s where my amazing hubby stepped in. On Tuesday he basically took over everything Anna and banished me to the bedroom. In the evening he gave Anna dinner and a bath, started the dish washer and picked up all of Anna’s toys in the living room…isn’t he the BEST?!? My Mom has also stopped over a few times to help with meals and bath time and I’ve been extremely grateful for that as well. Hopefully tomorrow will be the end of this icky hanging-on type flu/cold with low-grade temp and I’ll be back up and running at full speed. With Easter just around the corner I really don’t want to be getting the rest of the family sick and I’d really like to enjoy this special, amazing holiday with my family rather than stuck in bed.
Bumps and Bruises…
Well, we’ve had our first few days of Anna walking and it’s been such a treat to see her learning how to get around. She thinks she’s quite the hotshot and likes to walk across a room rather than crawl and she’s been known to walk along side a piece of furniture and not hold on to anything just to prove the point that she really can walk. You have to watch out, though, because if she’s walking towards you she takes a dive to save the last couple steps and if you’re not careful it could end up in you getting your nose bonked by her little head (ask me how I know)…
All in all, however, she’s done really well and kept the bruises to a minimum. I do notice that her little legs have had a few more bruises on them lately since she’s taken a couple tumbles and we did have a little bump last week that resulted in a pretty good baby shiner. (I’ll try to get pictures of that up this week) But, babies are practically made of silly putty and don’t seem to notice the aches like us older folks do. Anna’s right back up and at ‘em the next chance she gets.
The one other thing about this walking stage that I’m really enjoying is that as Anna finds her world getting bigger, she likes to cuddle more with Mom and Dad. Since she wasn’t all that much into cuddling a few months ago I especially like the change and take my time in putting her to bed with an extra song or book before she goes into her crib. She’s my little girl and I’m loving every minute of it!
Anna’s First Steps
A guest post from Daddy:
Cedric here. We are super excited to announce that Anna walked for the first time this evening!
Anna has been taking “steps” for a few days now, doing what I would call an almost-walk. She takes two or thee tentative steps and then loses her balance or crouches down to crawl. Tonight Anna truly walked, and we’ve got the video to prove it! It’s only 11 seconds long so it should download quickly.
Jennie couldn’t write this post because she’s busy sewing. Another button popped off my chest.
A visit to the zoo
I’m looking forward to Spring this year probably more than any other year that I can remember. That’s because this year I’m looking forward to getting to take Anna outside to play and to the park and all sorts of fun places like that. She seems to really like animals (at least pictures of them and the little animal figures she plays with…we’re still working on real live dogs that scare her quite a bit). Because she does seem to be interested in animals I’m looking forward to also taking her to the zoo. In the meantime while it’s too cold here to go wandering around the zoo and see the animals we get the animals to come to us. There’s nothing to it…you could do it too (and learn your letters at the same time :-D) Fisher Price has a great little game for babies that teaches them letters, animals and sounds all at the same time. Just check out the ABC’s Zoo Game to see what all the fuss is about. Just thought we’d share a little of the fun we like to have around here!
