New blog address
Posted by helmut
Hey all, i know this post says that it’s being written by Helmut as do all the previous ones, but they’re really being written by me (Kari). So i’ve decided to write my own blog at a different address since this is more of a family blog that only gets updated once in a while when major things happen or i get a whim.
www.karigranda.blogspot.com
Just in case you are interested in following my ramblings and seeing some photos I’ve been taking more regularly.
3.5 Year Canundrum
Posted by helmut
I’m not sure if it’s the onset of 100 degree days, the obscene amount of caffeine I’ve had today or the fact that i haven’t seen my family in 6 months and have no plans to see them in the near future that have me desperately wanting to move back to Pennsylvania. Whichever it is i’m sure the urge will pass soon enough. Or maybe it won’t. Where the heck are we supposed to live?! Helmut and I have asked ourselves this question numerous times all of them ending with no answer. Should we live near my family and friends, or his family? Apparently we can’t decide so we landed in Austin, a sort of middle ground, far away from EVERYBODY, but at least there’s lots of work here. We’ve been here for 3.5 years now and are still feeling uprooted, like we can’t quite dig our feet in. I miss living around people that i’ve known since i was a kid and have known me. Making friends is tough, and keeping them is even tougher….and if i may say, starting from scratch in a place where everybody seems to have a core group of friends stinks.
Today Hayden called one of his little friend’s grandma’s “grandma.” I love that he did. I thought it was so sweet, but at the same time it got me to wondering, is this how it’s meant to be? Is he going to grow up steeling other kid’s grandparents because none of his own live anywhere near here? Food for thought. It takes a weird toll on the psyche not feeling like you belong.
Kids and Bugs
Posted by helmut
When Hayden was a baby i used to envision him as a child, the kind that you’ve heard described of as “unable to hurt a fly.” He was so easy going that i couldn’t imagine him ever being violent in any type of fashion. That vision got shot to heck a few months ago as we were lounging in the pool outside watching some bee’s walking on the grass. Hayden got himself a little play hammer and pounded one until it was dead (and in little pieces). I was deeply shocked thinking how could my son, my sweet innocent child commit such a crime against nature. I scolded him and gave him a 30 minute lecture on why God’s creatures, even the small ones are important and unique and we shouldn’t kill them blah blah blah. Since then he has “broken” several other bugs, each time followed up by a lecture by me on the importance of bugs in society.
That brings me to today. We were eating lunch in the kitchen. I had made a scrambled egg sandwich for myself and a PB&J for Hayden upon his request. Naturally as soon as he saw my sandwich he decided that he wanted some eggs too. I dutifully told him no, he must eat what he had asked for, and being 2 he dutifully climbed out of his chair and ran over to the stove to grab some eggs for himself (since i wasn’t going to give him any). I got up to follow (and scold) and as i was about to reach him i saw a HUGE spider on the floor directly in front of my bare feet. I’m no fraidy cat, but spiders scare the daylights out of me. So i screamed and jumped 5 feet backwards, tried to control my hyperventilating and grabbed a flip flop to kill it with….which i proceeded to do violently until it was ground to a pulp on the floor and i could breath again…..at which point i looked at Hayden figuring i owed him an explanation and said in my little-kid-voice “sowwy spider, you were just toooooo scary to live.”
Brussel Sprouts
Posted by helmut
I’ve been trying to get back to some kind of healthier eating patterns this week since my “never fail” diet has been failing me (gasp!), so when i saw a carton of brussel sprouts at the store i decided to buy them. How bad could they really be? I showed them to Hayden and he looked very optimistic so this afternoon i decided to cook them up for lunch. Hayden has pretty queer eating patterns for a kid and absolutely no pickiness. If it’s food, he’ll eat it…..maybe even if it’s cat food. He was practically quivering with anticipation at the new “vegetables”. So i gave him 2 to try, buttered and salted, and he actually gagged and spit them back out. So i gave them a try too, and while i didn’t spit mine out….and actually forced myself to eat several, i didn’t like them either. This got me to thinking, does anyone really like them?! If no one likes to eat them, why are we not shopping alternative uses of brussel sprouts? Why not use them to create an alternate bio friendly fuel? Why are we using corn, a food that i’m fairly certain most people enjoy. And while we’re at it, lets find a better use for grapefruit. Who are we kidding, that stuff tastes like a wrotten orange.
Lunch
Posted by helmut
I burned my diet pizza today (yeah i said it, diet). I decided to give the toaster a shot at cooking my food in order to save the environment, which would be ruined if i used my whole oven to cook a tiny pizza. 20 minutes later i was the unhappy recipient of a burned pizza. charcoal crust, brown crunchy cheese, and burning hot lava pizza sauce. How bad could this be, i thought, i have very few taste buds left that have survived the mexican hot sauces. i probably won’t even taste it.
Did i really eat this monstrosity? shamelessly i gnarled through the blackened crust, chawed off the chewy cheese and singed off my remaining taste buds on the lava hot sauce.
All this was promptly followed up by a round rock donut thereby erasing the experience from my mouth’s memory.
Kari
Am Apprehension
Posted by helmut
This morning Helmut and I awoke to something highly unusual for our house, quiet. My first thought upon waking was where the heck is hayden. Helmut got up and did a cursory check of our bedroom, not finding hayden he headed over to hayden’s bedroom….still nothing. At that point i jumped out of bed thinking maybe he got one of the doors open and headed outside. Clearly i do not know my child well enough yet for he was in the kitchen sitting on the counter stuffing cookies and vitamins in his mouth like they were going out of style. I wasn’t sure if i should be relieved or scared. I mean, what happens when you eat too many multivitamins followed by half a dozen chocolate chip oatmeal cookies?! I’ll tell you what happens, your 2.5 year old child bounces off the walls for the next 5 hours before crashing into bed for a 2 hour nap. Helmut did call poison control who told us not to worry, at worst he might throw up from the vitamins.
In less interesting news, we took the bike and front pack and went to visit the williamson county regional park. 800 acres of goodness. It was fantastic, i really felt like we were in the middle of nowhere as i road the bike on the perfectly manicured bike trail…until i made it to the road that is. All joking aside it was a great place and Helmut and I are both looking forward to checking out more of the trails next weekend.
For those of you…
Posted by helmut
For those of you who check this from time to time i supposed i aught to do an update. Much has changed in the past couple of months here. Mariah is almost 6 months old and has starting rolling circles around the place, grabbing at everything and randomly launching herself at stuff…..namely the tv remote. She has also stopped most of the crying and has FINALLY stopped crying in the car. She’s getting so big we had to buy the big kid car seat for her and it seems like she really prefers that one to the baby one. She has also finally started taking a few good naps during the day and sleeping really well at night which is an immense relief.
Hayden is doing great now. There are still occasional crying spurts, but i’ve noticed it’s only when he’s overtired….so we’ve been trying to avoid that. We started shortening his naps to 1 hour and that seems to have solved his night waking and super early morning pattern that he was stuck in for a while. He still wakes up at night about 3 or 4 times a week, but it’s much better than it was. We were getting up with him 4 or 5 times every night for a while. He’s also starting playing well with other kids (stopped the hitting, kicking and smacking that he was doing). On most days i find him quite charming….which is saying a lot for a 2 year old i think.
I’m going to stop here for now, gotta go get Mariah who just woke up from her nap! …more to follow later.
Waiting for the inevitable
Posted by helmut
Waiting for the poopy to arrive from the oldest. Fun times!
…. but let me explain
We were potty training Hayden (I say we were because we have given up… or should I say we are giving him a break?) and the post was in a moment of anxiety 
Almost 3 months
Posted by helmut
Since the last post I made a lot has happened. Hayden had his second birthday, we went to PA for Christmas vacation, and Mariah has started making really cute noises as well as smiling constantly and being generally adorable. We started off pretty rough, for a few months i wasn’t sure i was going to survive. Lots of crying coupled with a bad back and Hayden’s tantrums had Helmut and i all but pulling our hair out. Things haven’t changed all that much i guess, except there’s much less crying now and more cute noises, and Hayden is definitely warming up to his sister and throwing less tantrums. He has started carrying around his favorite animal, which happens to be a kitty and “changing it’s diaper, feeding it, putting in the swing, and swaddling it.” He’s talking pretty well now and can put together sentences, but hasn’t figured out how to verbalize his feelings in any way other than screaming. This of course takes many people by surprise, namely the cashiers at the store, my parents, and especially the cute little girls that try to play with him…..we’re working on it.
I’m putting up a few pictures that we’ve taken in the past couple of months for all two of you who read this to see….hehehe. We were also able to have my Grandpa Livingston baptize Hayden and Mariah while we were in PA which was very exciting for us.
on his 2nd birthday, a present from one of the neighbor girls.
watching the planes on the way to PA.
at mom and dads house.
little baby cousins.
getting baptized by their great grandfather.
Grampa with his two newest grand babies.
me and the sweetest little (huge) chunky girl.
1 Month
Posted by helmut
I thought i should get on here and add some updated pictures. Mariah is now 1 month old and Hayden is 23 months old. We’ve been having an interesting transition here between the baby’s colic and my messed up back. It’s been a little rough, but we’re pushing through and are doing well besides.
ahhhh, November in Texas. I took this picture today so you can see how warm it is here.
