Life Near Southwest Wisconsin: November 2017

Saturday, November 18, 2017

Michelle's New Adventure

Michelle decided after 7.5 years at Cartegraph, it was time to move on. So she turned in her badge, but kept a copy of her greatest work photo ever.

And had a big party at 7 Hills Brewery with all some of the greatest co-workers.

Hopefully, Michelle's new co-workers are just as friendly and fun.

We had many opportunities for costume wearing and candy gathering this year. We went to the Halloween parade in Asbury, the kids had their Halloween parade at school, Johanna attended a book reading at Inspire Cafe (and got her face painted as a tiger again of course), we went Trick-or-Treating at Sam's Club (and got more fun sized Snickers than we could count), and of course, actually Trick-or-Treating on Halloween night.

(Walter is the last kid in line right before the teacher)

Walter refused to put on this costume for Halloween night. He did walk along with us but we immediately eat the candy that he received and then not "trick-or-treat" until he needed another piece to eat. Both kids walked through our little neighborhood which was fun to see and chat with the neighbors. Then we dropped off Walter to hand out candy with Tony while Michelle and Johanna braved the Grandview Trick-or-Treating crowd. Once we started going with the flow of traffic, it wasn't too bad. Johanna actually stayed out for the entire two hours but was definitely ready to be done at the end (asking to be carried) but she made it all the way home with her own two feet.

Johanna and Tony also carved a couple of pumpkins. One of Vampirinia (Disney character) and the other a traditional jack-o-lantern.

Johanna's 5th Birthday

Johanna had her first birthday in our new house. We invited family over to celebrate her and Cali's birthday.

On Johanna's actual birthday, she got a special Wonder Woman cake and her favorite dinner (Pesto). Johanna and Walter enjoyed eating the lasso of truth. (They both think they like cake but never actually eat it. They eat the frosting at most but were huge fans of the fondant).

After her birthday, Mom finally gave in to Johanna's many requests to have a shorter haircut. She is even more so a mini-Michelle.

Some other things about Johanna:

She likes to be in charge or take the lead and often speaks in a matter of fact manner.
She is getting to the age where we often have to say "Stop picking on Walter" and fairness is a big topic of discussion.
Mom is still her all-time favorite person, always wanting to be with Mom and cuddle, preferring Walter stay by Dad.
Teachers talk about how smart she is and her amazing memory, saying they only need to tell her something once and she remembers it forever.
Story from Teacher Amy at school: Teacher Jenna was conducting a lesson and talking about how important it is to listen. Johanna said to her, "I just said that, weren't you listening?".Amy got a big kick out of it saying, Johanna really got Jenna on that one!
She enjoys going to the library to reading books but doesn't want to bring any home because "we will forget them".
She is very inquisitive, especially during football games where Dad need to request question breaks.
She is beginning to sound out works, successfully spelling out a few words. She is also excited about math and likes to do simple addition or subtraction.
She enjoys swinging on the swing set, she can get herself started now but prefers a push.
She does NOT like independent play, insisting on working/playing together instead.
Her favorite pastime seems to be coloring and can typically convince Dad to join her since he enjoys it as well.
A way to get under her skin (which Dad often does) is to say the words to a song or show right before they are sang/spoken.
She has become an expert scooter and is getting the hang of riding her bike with training wheels.
She likes to help out around the house and around the classroom and is a good helper.
She is working on handling disappoinment better (something all of us could work on).
She has a great vocabulary and often says phrases that make her sound older. When I said Guster is cool, she responded, "Guster isn't cool, he is totally awesome!"

Thursday, November 16, 2017

Walter's First Home Haircut

Walter's long hair was getting to be a bit much, especially when he asked for a pony tail. He doesn't tolerate hair cuts well (at his last one, he smacked the scissors out of the person's hand), so we try to put them off as long as possible.

We decided to try our first home haircut with a razor + attachment. There was so much hair, we had to go over the same spot over and over again to get it all cut. He didn't enjoy it but he tolerated it well enough that we were able to get it done. Definitively not a pro job, but good enough that we wouldn't have to worry about it again for several weeks.