Time flies when you're having fun...

Good grief! Where did May go? We are now at T-minus 2 days before our due date for Peter and I'm trying to jinx it by assuming that we'll go right up to that day. He seems pretty comfortable where he is right now.

May in Madison is a great month. All the things that we really like about living here get started again: The Farmer's Market, boating, being outside without jackets, gardening, etc. The weeks have been zipping by pretty quickly! We've had visits from Liesel and Eric and the boys and now Mitzi is here to help with the girls once Peter makes his appearance. I'm not sure if Mary Ann and Rose are aware of how imminent his birth is, but they are super excited. Rose especially, I just hope she makes the that Baby Peter inside Mommy's tummy will be the same Baby Peter outside Mommy's tummy.

Mary Ann's ballet class wrapped up with a special class featuring Snow White. Pictures are up on Picasa for that. Her swimming lessons are going great. She can do a pretty good version of the crawl all by herself for several feet! Rose continues to be very confident in the water too. Her favorite actitivities include jumping in from the side and bobbing up and down on the stairs going into the pool. Katie just enjoys the fact that the pool is heated to 90 degrees!

Rose's potty training has slid downhill, mainly due to her parents' haphazard approach. Lately we've been having her just wear panties and asking her repeatedly if she needs to go. This doesn't seem to be too effective, since most of the time we'll ask her and then 5 minutes later there's an accident to clean up, which Rose finds pretty funny, indicating a slight difference of opinion between her sense of humor and her parents'.

Robert has been home on vacation for the last week. It's been great to have him around for this (hopefully) last week of pregnancy, so Katie can rest a bit more in the afternoons especially. We've done a lot of work in the yard. Our compost pile has actually done what it was supposed to and decomposed, so it's been pretty exciting (at least for Katie) to add it to our gardens. We started seeds again this year in our bay window and for the first time ever we grew more seedlings than mold and actually have transplanted them outside. So far they have fended off the rabbits and squirrels, but it's still early days! We're giving pumpkins another shot, along with beans, snap peas, green peppers, jalapenos, tomatoes, lettuce, radishes, and carrots. We still have some flower seeds to plant, but that just might be a job for Nana and the girls next week!

We haven't gotten in much boating this season. It might be kind of a weak year for that. Katie's a bit too pregnant to enjoy the "bumpy" waters of Lake Mendota right now and we're pretty sure it'll be a bit before we feel comfortable taking Peter out. Which does not mean that visitors to sunny Madison will be out of luck. I'm sure that Robert will have a great time taking people out, as long as they agree to pull him a bit in the inner tube!

Happy Summer everyone!

St Louis

We went to St Louis for my interview at Washington University. I'm applying for a fellowship position there, and they were nice enough to let me come talk to them. We all drove down Wednesday after work. We were welcomed by Rocky and Jane, Katie's aunt and uncle. On Thurday we went to the zoo. I hadn't been since I was in St Louis applying for neurology residency. The girls loved it--the petting zoo, the penguins, the big cats, and the elephants were all favorites. It was beautiful outside, much nicer than Madison. We even took a picnic lunch! We went to a Vietnamese restaurant and a Gelateria that night, walking to both from the St Louis Keel's house.
On Friday I went to my interviews which went well; Katie and the girls went to the Science Center where the kids had a blast. In the afternoon we all met up at the Botanical Gardens which had most of the flowers in their prime. They also have a kid's area where the kids can run around and get in the water. Check out Rocky's pictures for some of the fun. (we'll get our pics up soon!).
On Saturday I took the kids and Rocky to the Arch where we got to see Hannah at work. Katie, the kids and Jane went to to have a tour with Abby at the Earthways Center where they saw ways to make homes more "green" and good for the environment. We drove back to Madison after lunch. The trip wasn't too bad--especially since the girls had DVDs to watch in the van!
Coming this week: Robert works Mendota on Sunday, dinner with the Beier's on Monday, neurology resident retreat on Wednesday, and then I go to Kansas City Thursday to Sunday to interview at KU Med!

New Videos

There are a bunch of new videos that we just posted. Check them out--but don't miss our recent post below either =)

Skip March...April!

So we'll just skip any March updates...

If you haven't heard about Obama's newest excitement about healthcare, check it out soon and make your voice heard! For Robert's take on it, check out the Leaven article.

Also, I just received word that I will be the next chief resident of the neurology department for the 2009-2010 academic year. So basically I'll be a supervisor, helping with scheduling of rotations and being the go-between between the staff and other residents. I might even get my own office!

Mary Ann just started swimming lessons again. She and Rose both seem fearless in the water. Which is good and bad...hopefully it doesn't promote Rose jumping out of the boat again...

We're looking at preschools for Mary Ann next year. Trying to decide between Montessori schools and "regular" preschools. We didn't know that it was so competitive to get into some of these places, so some are already booked solid. Guess you have to get your foot in the door and then other siblings get in easier. It's like little kingdoms, with the nobility getting better stuff...

Rose is getting more and more into potty training. We started a "star chart" where she gets stars for going in the potty. She's gotten about 8 stars so far. So, Mary Ann needed her own star chart; we're still working out the rules for her to get stars.

It's finally getting warmer here. Still not out of the woods yet--it very likely could still snow. But, no snow on the ground. We went sledding last weekend when there was a bit of snow. It wasn't too cold but still sled-able.

I've got interviews at Washington University and Kansas University set up so far. We're all driving to St Louis for a fun-filled few days with the St Louis Keels (not sure if they know what they're getting into...) and then I'm flying alone to KC for a few fun-filled days with KC people!

Katie's still pregnant---she's got the most important job of all!

KU

We've been watching a lot more KU games this year than last year. I think it has both to do with the championship last year and we seem to be getting more games on ESPN360.com than we did last year. We like the new look for the videos on there too; the "full screen" version actually uses the whole page instead of part of the page being used for ESPN ads and such.

For the upcoming game tomorrow against Oklahoma: are people happier that Blake Griffin might be out for the game? I have mixed feelings. On one hand, anything that improves our chances is good, but on the other hand it would be nice to beat the whole OU team. I think overall I will take a win no matter what, so I guess it's better to be against a lesser OU team. What I really wanted was to play the #1 team in the country, but I bet OU won't be that team come gametime.

Other news
It snowed here the last few days...a lot. We had to snowblow and it seemed to have about 6 inches at our house. We went for a walk today and the girls loved to sit, then fall backwards, in the snow next to the sidewalk. They made lots of snow angels. It's cute the first few times, but we really wanted to go just a little faster...

The girls are really loving all of Mary Ann's toys from her birthday. Favorite is probably the Leap Frog system from my parents. We got the old one we had from a long time ago and so they both can read/play at once. I can't imagine the screaming if we only had one system... They also drag out the naked puzzle that Matt and Jen got Mary Ann... (Mary Ann says "that where you pee pee!")

Movie of the weekend: Kung Fu Panda. Rose was kung-fuing the TV at the end of the movie, then danced for the closing credits (doing Eric's family proud).

Videos

Just to let you know--we're posting videos directly to YouTube now. Click on the link to the left to get to our videos on YouTube!

Christmas 2008

Well, we finally posted pics of Christmas. Katie took the girls to Santa at a local mall. Luckily the mall they chose let you take your own pics and you didn't have to buy their overpriced pictures.
The neurology department had their holiday party on the Friday before Christmas. We had fun, mainly because we had the neighbors watch the kids. There was dancing, which turned good once we started requesting good songs (Dancing Queen, You Shook Me All Night Long, etc).
The next day we drove to Kansas City. We left early and had breakfast and lunch on the way. We had fun with my parents for a few days, having dinner with our friends Matt, Jen, Luke and Faith on Sunday after we went to ride the train at Union Station.
On Monday we went to Crown Center with my mom, came home and opened presents from my parents. Katie got me a nice leather jacket, and I got her a guitar and an iRobot Roomba (which we used for the first time today). On Tuesday we went to Salina for one night.
On Christmas Eve we drove to Lawrence to have lunch with Katie's grandpa Mac and aunt Mary Lou. Katie and I sang with L'Opa, Mitzi and Fritz in the choir on Christmas Eve. Mary Ann ran back and forth from the choir to Jesse in the congregation while Rose slept through almost all of church on Katie's then my shoulders. We opened presents Christmas morning, with the highlight being Mary Ann opening her princess outfits. She shouted, "It's just what I always wanted!!!" followed soon after "Santa got this at Costco!" The were way too many people at Katie's parents, but it sure was fun having every one there.
On Friday we drove to Jefferson City where we met up with Oma and the St Louis Keels. We stayed the night at a hotel where we were able to swim early Saturday.
On Saturday we drove back to Kansas City for a St. Lawrence alumni party at Msgr Krische's house. We were able to see lots of old friends. We finally drove back to Madison on Sunday.
Today we went to the zoo where they have a new tiger. It was pretty cold, but really cool to have only a piece of glass between us and the walking tiger.
Well, hope everyone had a great Christmas and that 2009 is going well!