Prodigy

Yes, like all parents I think my kid is a genius. I know he is developing normally and that most kids do this, but when you see it you just have to capture it and share it. I went in my room the other night and there he was leafing through the pages of my John Grisham book. He told me he was "reading".

We did read some of the book together that night. I do try to read him some non picture books but usually they are more juvenile than Bleachers. I just hope he can teach himself to read by 4 like his Aunt Beth.

What happened here?

On Thursday night we got a little surprise here in the Wehner household. It made this mess in Aidan's room

It gave me a great work out. It cause fear in me that I had not felt in some time. It cause commotion. It got the cat in a lot of trouble.

This is what came to visit:

I am not sure this is the exact kind of bird, but it was small, brown, and a little plump. The kind you see hopping around in park lots.

I let the cat in and wasn't paying attention until I saw her standing the bathroom doorway and her tail was poofy. I thought it was the neighbor cat in the wind so I went to check it out. There in my hallway sat a bird. At first I thought it was dead since it was sitting so still and had I not spent so long freaking out about it and fighting with Matt over who should take care of it, I probably could have caught it right then with no trouble. But I did freak out, we did fight about who should clean it up, and the bird regained it's senses. It then flew a few feet into Aidan's room.

I got a large box and tried to capture it. Hence the whole torn up room. It went in every little crevice it could find. Every time I got close it took off. I kept trying to convince it that I wanted it out as bad as it wanted to be out but even when we were eye to eye it didn't seem to understand my desire.

I finally figured out I need to stop it from being able to fly. So I started with a broom and that worked but I had to get it in the box and then remove the broom then put a cookie sheet under the box and get the whole thing outside. Yeah I know a little complicated.

Then when I got the bird trapped here:

I realized I should use a towel. So after a couple of tries I caught the bird. I took it outside and unwrapped the towel. The bird then tried to fly back up into our carport where it's nest is. Unfortunately it ran into a metal pool that supports our carport. It was a little stunned but eventually it must have gotten home because there is no sign of it anywhere.

Needless to say the cat is back on the poop list. I should have known she would try something like this. She has been very energetic lately and playing with her fishing pool toy with feathers on the end and even her tail. She probably just felt so tempted by those feathers that she couldn't take it anymore. Not bad for a cat with no claws huh?

Beauty School Drop Out?

Matt and I have an agreement. Every other haircut I go the beauty school. I think of it as community service and Matt thinks of it as a money saving plan. I don't mind going because I figure that my hair grows quickly enough and it is just a cut. I never get a perm or color (that could go terribly wrong).

I am spoiled by my hair. I have had the same haircut most of my teenage and adult life. Truth be told I currently have the same haircut I had as a toddler. The reason I have had the same haircut most of my life is that it works so well for me. With a good cut I have to use no product, don't have to do much if any curling, just blow it dry (don't even have to use a brush while drying it) and if I get caught in a hurricane I simple run my fingers through it.

Notice that I said with a good haircut? That is not what I got at the beauty school in November. I got a bad haircut. My usual hairdresser had warned me once that often in the beauty school the students overdue it in order to impress. My beautician even told me exactly what to tell them I wanted. I made the mistake of adding in a little extra thing. I call it stacking. It is just putting in a little half inch of layers at the base, sort of a bevel if you will. I used the word little when explaining it. I also used the word nothing extreme. When she showed me one of the other students with a layered haircut I told her I did not want anything that severe.

Apparently, I must have not made myself clear. Because I ended up with this.

This is what it looked like after a blow dry. Notice, no volume, it does not curl under, It is not short and it has layers. Lots of layers. In fact, she even poofed it way up in the back when she styled it.

Thank goodness I am not going to work at 6:30 am because it would always look like this.

After 15 minutes of curling and lots of product this is what I ended up with.

Now I know that for some of you 15 minutes and lots of product sounds pretty normal. But for a wash and dry girl it is torture. I ended up pulling up the sides most days and just curling the bottom layer.

I didn't wait my usual 2 to 3 months between haircuts this time. I just couldn't stand it. So earlier this month I went back to beauty school. I got a brand new student this time. I was worried. Then the instructor came and cut the guide line for her. She took a really long time to cut just the back of my hair. I think she may have been shaking. Then her instructor came back cut the sides in 30 seconds and I was done.

I have only a couple of complaints. First, my shampoo was luke warm at best. And second when she was drying my hair she used a bristle brush that she insisted on digging into my head. I know I need to speak up when stuff like that happens, but the poor thing seemed so nervous. So although my eyes were watering during the styling, I managed to not cry. But for $7 what can I expect.

I am very happy with the finished product so the hour I spent getting it cut was worth it I guess.

The moral of the story is that you should go to the beauty school and give the students some practice. Just follow these simple tips:

1. Be very specific

2. Use words like a little, minimal, just a bit, or better yet, use actual measurements in inches.

3. Tell them when you aren't happy with something. If you don't say anything they never get better.

4. Explain what you want to the instructor as well as the student. And when the instructor comes to check it tell her if there is something wrong.

5. Have them dry and style it. It is a good way to check how it looks and see if it is something you can keep up.

6. Don't be afraid to go back if when you style your hair the next day it isn't right. They will fix it at no charge and it can often be a learning experience for other students. (Yes, I have had to go back before)

7. Tip them if they do a good job.

A Very Merry Christmas, Part 3

Well, I have finally gotten to Christmas day. For Christmas we went to my Dad's house as usual. We had more great food and plenty of it. We had a great time eating and visiting. I am sorry that I didn't get any pictures of the new babies. I was too busy holding them I guess. In some of the photos you can see Colten in the background. I held Lily for sometime while she slept which may be why I didn't get a whole lot of photos to the end.

Once again Aidan and Helena were stuck like glue. They sat and ate together and every time Helena moved Aidan would start asking where she was. What a nut.

It was good to see all of the cousins together. They had a lot of fun playing together. Since Amy's girls are the same age as Aidan and Helena they had instant playmates. The only down side to the whole thing was that Aidan ending up wandering around holding one of their Barbies, which of course was half naked. I don't know what Matt was up to but luckily he missed that. He tends to freak out when Aidan plays with "girl" toys.

The coolest part of the day was as things were winding down. Pam asked us to open the one present under the tree which was addressed to "the whole family". When the gift was opened it was Twister. Most of the adults were too full and inflexible to play, but Dan and Matthew (my brother) gave it a shot. They were definitely pretzels at times. For the life of me I can't remember who won.

The kids tried it too.


Aidan was just too small to play. He couldn't reach from one side of the mat to the other.

But Aidan sure did try. He even made some interesting yoga poses.

Once I finally convinced Aidan that he couldn't play, he began attacking Helena. I guess he thought if he couldn't play she sure wasn't going to. He would just jump on her back and she would topple over.

But they both had fun, especially Aidan.

May I just say that my brother Matthew was awesome. I guess that I just never realized how cool he is. I think it is because of our age difference. I still tend to think of him as a pestering little kid. He has done a lot of growing up and he was great with the kids and fun to talk to. Who knew. Not me that is for sure. Maybe it is his new baby, but I think I just missed his growing up somehow.

I don't want to go on and on about just him because we had a great time with everyone. My sister Amy was there and I hadn't seen her since before Aidan was born. It is always fun to be with her. We are just comfortable around each other no matter how long it has been since we have seen each other. Probably comes from spending so much time hanging out together in her room as teenagers. There is something nice about being with family. Especially when there is a lot of family. And of course children and Christmas just make magic.

The time came all to soon that we had to leave. Beth and I snapped some pics of the best friends together before we went. That shirt Aidan is wearing was part of his Gaga's spoils from day after Christmas shopping. It lights up when he moves. He would still be wearing that if I hadn't hid it.

We had to take a couple of shots because it is hard to get two kids to smile and look normal doing it. I only included two of them that were the best.

We had a fabulous time in Michigan and Aidan is still talking about going back to Michigan. Just today I found he playing with his McQueen car and saying "we are going to Michigan." We will be back so just look out. As we have proven you may never know when are coming.

A Very Merry Christmas, Part 2

I figure I better get this up before I forget more details than I already have. I have already told you how we got to Michigan so we will skip that part. As I mentioned in previous posts, my mother has a Mexican Fiesta on Christmas Eve. ( I have been told Mexican was choosen as the fare over 30 years ago because that was what my parents could cook. I know my mom can cook all sorts of things but she keeps that a secret. Just ask her how to make no grainy fudge or lump free gravy. We are on to you.)


So on Christmas Eve, all of the family was excited to see us. But I would have to say that Helena and Aidan were most excited to see each other. I think they even ignored their presents to play with each other sometimes. When Helena first got there, the two shared a long awaited and anticipated hug.

This really is a hug and not Helena trying to suffocate Aidan.

We ate a wonderful meal as usual. I had been telling Matt since Thanksgiving that I no longer got the same pleasure from food on holidays. Luckily it was some sort of temporary problems because I oinked while I was at my moms.

The kids went to the basement and from what I can gather just ran back and forth. Everytime Helena came upstairs Aidan would follow her up and bug her until she went back down to run with her. When it was time for presents he really didn't care and wanted to go back downstairs. I should say he didn't care until he started opening his presents. Then he cared a whole lot.

He absolutely loved all of his gifts. He is still at the age where he wants to play with his toys more than open new presents. So Helena did have to encourage him a bit.

Thanks to whoever got him the Candyland game. He loves it and we play it every day.

This toy is so cool. It is a fire truck that opens up into this little city. It has these little tiny cars that go with it. What you don't see in this picture are the tiny parts and the stickers that seem to cover every inch. Bless Matt for spending over an hour with a sticker sheet, mini pieces and a diagram trying to put it all together.

Helena and Aidan spent a good part of the night like this:

They LOVE each other so much. I think they both have not realized that Aidan is no longer a baby because Helena still likes to hold him as if he were one. Not that Aidan seems to mind a bit.

As I mentioned in my previous post, my mother has a sophisticated tree. Here is a pic, but you can't see the top with the twigs and ribbon. Sorry.

(Hunter, David, and the back of Beth's head are in this one too. As well as, a look at the beautiful presents.)

I will end this post here and do one more I think. I will cover Christmas day in the next one. Stay tuned because some of the funniest pictures are yet to come.

A Very Merry Christmas Part 1

I have to begin by backtracking from my last post. As I mentioned we had Christmas with the Wehner side of the family the Saturday before Christmas. We had a breakfast and visited and opened presents. Thank goodness Grampa Wehner gave his presents to Aidan right away or Aidan never would have made it through the breakfast part. Grampa brought Aidan puzzles and Hot Wheels and M&Ms. He must still be a kid at heart because those are the things Aidan is always playing with. And don't think you can pass by M&M with out a mention from Aidan. You know the kicker is that Aidan has played as much with that stuff as all the other stuff he got for Christmas. Will this be the last Christmas where big and expensive don't matter?

Let me just say that Aidan made out fabulously that day. He got two big cars that make noise and move which he was afraid of. But luckily Matt turned off the sound and now he carries his McQueen around like a doll. He also got a Thomas the Tank Engine ball pit. Which we haven't set up yet, but now that the tree is down maybe we can put it up for a few days. Oh how I long for the day when we will have a basement. I don't think he even really knew what it was when he opened it, just that it was Thomas. Apparently that was enough. Because he looked like this:

And not to be forgetten was his movies. He got Wall E and a new undestroyed Cars and Ratatouille. Thank goodness for those. He watched them endlessly from KS to MI.

Matt got me a toiletry Christmas. Expensive razor blades, shampoo, toothbrush heads, and the pricey Secret Clinical Strength. (it smells really good by the way) I know all that stuff seems simple and weird, but since we are underemployed this Christmas those are the luxuries we have had to forego that I really miss. What a thoughtful guy.

Anyway, we went home and Aidan proceeded to take all of his toys out of the box and play with everything. We even put his balls from the pit into a laundry basket and he sat there and threw them around. (Don't make fun of me. I was not going to blow up that ball pit. Especially since it was cold and we only have a pump that hooks into the cigarette lighter. And yes, I did try to blow it up with my mouth, but I couldn't because of the valve.)

Since no one knew we were coming for Christmas, we had received several packages full of gifts. I had put them all under the tree since I didn't know we were going either. Hence on Monday night we packed up all the presents under the tree and headed off for MI.

I would like to make a statement about the tree. Yes, I know it has feathers on top. My mom bought me those last year, since I told her I wanted to have more bright colors on my tree. I do not have a sophisticated tree like my mom. I couldn't think of anywhere to put them but there. I sort of put them there to try it out and then never really straightened them like I should have. I am not sure I will ever have a tree sophisticated enough to have feathers or twigs coming out of the top, but a girl can try. And thank you Matt for letting me try and not sneaking in and putting up the poinsetta thing on the top that I don't really care for.

I am going to end this post here so you don't get eye strain from reading my whole experience at once. Stay tuned.

Surprise Christmas

So Matt completely surprised me and my family for Christmas. Well, actually his mom surprised me. Matt planned for us to go to Michigan for Christmas. He had changed the day for the Christmas celebration with his family, saved the money, and planned a way to surprise me. In the process of planning he had to tell his family why he wanted to change the date of the Christmas celebration. He told his mom and she called me all worked up because she was sure we would die traveling in the bad weather. I believe she said "the whole country is pink on the Weather Channel". So she sort of ruined the surprise for me.

But we were able to keep it a complete secret from everyone but Beth and her family. I played it up at every turn with my mom. I told her the ornaments I make every year were just to fragile to ship. I told her we would really miss being home. Sometimes she would talk about how much she wanted Aidan to enjoy the Christmas things she had at her house like Helena and Hunter were. Oh it was so hard to not tell her. Especially when she sounded so sad.

We left on Monday night after Matt got home from work. We heard that the weather was going to be getting bad so we were trying to beat the weather to Michigan. The first night we made it to Des Moines. Then the next day we drove down through Iowa. Are prayers were answered and God blessed us to not get caught in the horrible weather. All the way through Iowa we kept seeing cars, trucks, and semis in the ditch. The road was slick at times and we were going maybe 50 miles an hour.

Then as we got closer to Chicago, traffic slowed way down. Well actually, it came to a stop. Luckily, Matt saw hwy 6 and thought that may get us out of the traffic. It did. We drove through slushy roads and suburbs but we got out of traffic. It may have actually been longer in mileage, but when you are moving you know you are actually going somewhere. By the time we got back on 94 I just wanted to be in Muskegon. But Matt, in his wisdom, said we should stop, rest, and we rejuvenated for our arrival. So we stopped in Chesterton and had a great night at the Best Western.

After a good nights sleep we were back on the road. Driving in Michigan was actually pretty good. We were able to get to Muskegon by about 2pm. Once we got into town we had to have a little fun with my mom. We stopped at Wesco to get a couple of gift cards. I called my mom while we were stopped. I played as though I was really missing not being home for the festivities. I was telling her how I was going to miss the Mexican meal that evening. Anyway, I went on and on. I even asked if she had gotten my package by UPS. I told her that it was supposed to arrive on Christmas eve day. We talked to her almost all the way to her door.

Funny thing, as we were pulling out of the gas station, her husband David was right in front of us. He thought maybe he had missed the announcement that we were coming. In fact, he almost called my mom to let her know we had made it.

So we pull in the driveway, I am hurriedly trying to put fresh batteries in the camera. We decide to send David up with Aidan to the door to ring the bell.

In the picture below my mom first looked through the window at David and kind of gave him a look like "why are you ringing the bell you fool." Then she looks down and sees Aidan.



This next picture is not very clear because my mom just swooped Aidan up and let the door shut. I don't think she really even thought about how we got there or if anyone else, including David, wanted to come in.




Needless to say, it was awesome. I will do another post on our actual vacation.

Oh and not to be forgotten, my dad's reaction. I called him and told him we were in town. I could hear his beaming face through the phone. It was great to be able to surprise everybody. What fun.

Oh and Helena could barely keep it together when she found out Aidan was coming. She talked to me on the phone a couple times during our trip. She said they would postpone whatever activities were taking place until we got there.

Stay tuned for upcoming photos of Aidan and Helena's reunion.