Paperclips

Who would have guessed that a paperclip container would keep Jesse occupied for half an hour?!?
As long as I keep an eye on him and watch that he doesn’t put them in his mouth, we’re good!

He just fell off his little chair while holding the paperclip container. Was he worried for himself? Was he crying because he hurt himself? Was he concerned that he fell on some toys? No...his only concern was for the paperclip holder!

Love the Roomba

This summer we got a Roomba, and I'm in love with it! If you've never seen or heard of a Roomba, it's a small robotic vacuum that does your vacuuming for you.

You put it in a room, turn it on, and come back half an hour to 45 minutes later and it has vacuumed the whole room! Of course you have to make sure things are picked up off the floor - like toys, the stray hair band, electrical cords, etc. Not only does it vacuum your floor, but it is also good family fun! (Yes, we do have a life, but just not a very exciting one!) Check out Jesse with the Roomba - watch how the red ottoman is his "home base"!

(It sounds really loud in the video, but I don't think of it as being extra noisy. In fact, I sometimes vacuum my bedroom or Meredith's bedroom while Jesse is napping, and it certainly doesn't wake him up even though it's right beside his room.)
For those of you who don't like to vacuum, and consequently don't vacuum frequently, I would highly recommend the Roomba. You need to empty the dustbin and clean the brushes every few times you use it, but to me that's a little price to pay for not having to vacuum. Small disclaimer though: make sure you block the doorways well before turning it loose. I set it to go in my kitchen (yes, it cleans linoleum and hardwood too) and the kids and I went outside to play for almost an hour. When we came back inside it had pushed a chair out of the doorway and got loose on our first floor. We could see where it went from the tracks that it leaves, and it had taken a few swipes in the living room, a few swipes in the office, and was busy cleaning the bathroom when we found it!

Home Sick

Yesterday morning Meredith fell asleep in the play kitchen area of her kindergarten classroom...you can imagine that her teacher was wondering why a normally rambunctious little girl was sleeping during school! As it turned out, Meredith had a temp of 101 - even though she insisted that she felt fine! She said that her eyes hurt, but that was her only complaint. Of course I went to pick her up as soon as the school secretary called me. As a special treat, we went to the library to get a few movies for her to watch while she was home sick. We got the movie Enchanted...

Meredith and I absolutely adored it! We loved it so much that we watched it in the afternoon and started it again in the evening! Yes, I admit that I'm a sucker for musicals!

Speaking of musicals, Meredith and I are totally thrilled to go to the Broadway Musical Hairspray when we are in New York in 2 weeks! We got our tickets, and will be sitting in the front row of the mezzanine section of the Neil Simon Theater to see Tracy Turnblad and the Hairspray cast!

Meredith is at work with me today. She has made herself a cozy little nest and is watching a movie on our portable DVD player. What movie is she watching, you ask? Of course, it's gotta be Enchanted!

Go Candi!

We were so thrilled on Monday night to watch our friend and fellow church member Candi Schmieder speaking at the Democratic National Convention. Seriously - how crazy is it that our friend from small-town Iowa was addressing thousands of people in the convention hall, and millions at home watching?!? We were bummed to see that CNN did not show her speech, but instead had their political team discussing things. Argh! However, we were still able to watch her speech on C-Span. Here is a link to read the 3-minute speech that she gave. Go to http://www.demconvention.com/candi-schmeider/ to read the speech. Even though the website says that you can watch the speech, the video is of Ted Kennedy's speech. (I've been told that you can go somewhere online and see the speech, but I have yet to find it...) Candi was in the group of speakers that were right before Michelle Obama. Here's what the convention hall looked like when Michelle spoke - just to give you a little flavor for what a big deal it was for Candi to speak there...

Candi was heavily involved in campaigning here in Iowa, and she had the chance to meet Barack and Michelle (yes, we are totally on a first-name basis with the Obamas!) Candi and her daughter introduced Barack at a rally that we went to in Williamsburg back in late December. So we can say that we were in a room with only 100-200 other people, including the (hopefully) next president of the United States. Ummmm, you can't tell my bias, can you?!? Regardless of your political point of view, though, you have to admit that it is rather incredible that she was asked to speak there.

Last Monday Meredith, Jesse and I went to the pedestrian mall in Iowa City to play on the toys and in the fountain one last time before Meredith started school. The toys and fountain are right by the public library, so I thought that we would play there also. We've been to the library quite a few times this summer, but we never had enough time to just stay there and play in the fountain and on the play equipment. So I decided that I better take Meredith there before the end of the summer and the end of her carefree pre-school time.

Meredith had a great time playing in the fountain - plugging the water holes, spraying herself, and running through the water. She was especially thrilled that she could wear her swimsuit in the middle of town when she wasn't even in a swimming pool!



Jesse, on the other hand, threw his first public tantrum! I thought he would like to put his hand in the water and get wet because he loves using the garden hose to get wet at home. Something set him off, though, and he wouldn't calm down for anything. He wasn't interested in either snack I brought, his drink, sitting in the stroller, pushing the stroller, sitting on my lap, letting me hold him, or any other tactics that I tried. So unfortunately we had to cut our morning much shorter than anticipated, but I know Meredith still had fun while it lasted!