Welcome

I'd like to welcome everyone to our first family blog. We don't always get the opportunity to share what's happening in our lives with all of our family and friends. We're hoping that this site may be another way to communicate our many inquisitive thoughts, riveting stories, and swashbuckling adventures with everyone.

I guess I should provide some background on what we've been up to before I get too carried away. So, here we go.

Jen and I don't quite know what's living in our household on any given day. Some days, we hear the squawking of what we believe is a prehistoric pterodactyl, while other days, we feel as though we live in an ambulance garage where the siren button is stuck in the 'on' position. However, each morning we are awoken to the sounds of soft babbling, as though we have a lamb learning how to say it's first "ba.. ba.. ba's" living with us. As we peak our heads through the nursery door, we find ourselves staring at a little man, standing gleefully at the end of his crib, with the biggest grin on his face. It's a new day filled with all new adventures. Jen and I look at each other, just knowing what the other person is thinking -- "We're still trying to recover from yesterday."

Noah, who just turned a whopping 9 months on Sept. 5th, has been cruising around the house, making sure that mom and dad are getting their exercise and that Merlin can never rest easy again beneath the piano. Lately, he's been putting on quite the show by bobbing his head and his diapered tush to any music that's being played or sung. Hopefully, there's another musician in the family. His favorite game these days is hide and seek; although, Noah really does more of the 'seeking.' It goes someting like this: You hide behind a wall or piece of furniture, and wait a moment. Soon you hear giggling and the little pitter patter of little hands and knees slapping their way towards you. It is required, of course, that you smother him with kisses when he "finds" you. Noah is also very motivated to feed himself at the dinner table and enjoys blueberries, peaches, applesauce, peas, carrots, cheese, rice cake, and the one and only cherrios. We've been trying to sneak in some baby sign language, too. Last weekend, while camping with Grandma and Grandpa Strub at Lake Wissota, Noah signed for the first time by informing us he wanted 'more' peaches. Once he figured it out that day, he couldn't stop--as everyone was cheering him on.

Jen continues to be the loving mother she always is day in and day out. Four to five days per week, she does the stay at home mom thing and works her tail off trying to keep the little pterodactyl out of trouble and happy. In her spare time (the one to two hours each day during a Noah nap), she enjoys knitting and you may be seeing some of her finished projects popping up on here. While it's still somewhat warm out, she also likes getting her hands dirty by poking around our shrubs and potted plants.

I've been finding myself working more than I should, as usual. I have tried to take some time to play some jazz with some co-workers, which is a good stess reliever. Getting past my recent health troubles, I'm back to enjoying food once again. Other than that, not too much else is new with me.

Hopefully, we'll continue to keep up with these posts and let everyone know what's going on with our lives. In the meantime, check out the right hand side of this site to see our latest photos, what books we're reading, what albums/artists we're listening to, and Jen's latest projects. Thanks for checking in!
-Curtis