Shameless promotion

An article appeared in the Missoulian today about a local guy who is one of four finalists in the Bud Light tailgate approved contest. I'm not a huge tailgater but I do love his idea (would work great for picnics, etc.) and I do love beer. So if you want to help make a Missoulian famous (it'll take me a few more years to earn that status), go here to vote for the Tummy Table. If you want to read the local article about him, you can read it here. Thanks for helping put Missoula on the map!

Grateful

Thanksgiving morning greeted us with frost-crusted grass, fog covered hills, and patches of blue sky. Well worth the work: heart attack potatoes

She loves pie.

Getting some fresh air before dinner.

Thanksgiving was a quiet affair in the Cline household yesterday. I spent most of the day cooking while Justin and the kids played. Madeleine enjoyed three Thanksgiving traditions that I always remember: the Macy's Day Parade, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and pumpkin chiffon pie! She loved watching the balloons (especially Snoopy) and kept asking when Snoopy would be back on during commercials! And while she enjoyed the pumpkin part of the pie, she kept saying, "I need more [whipped] cream!"

Parker loved tasting all of the new food and didn't seem to suffer any side effects from the dairy in it so we may be crossing that hurdle. We'll try again today and see how he does tonight.

I ventured out at 5:45am to mingle with the other crazys in Walmart. There's really only one thing I wanted to get the kids for Christmas and W had it cheaper than I've found used ones on Craigslist so I forced myself out of bed to buy it. The helpers at W loaded the last one into my car so it was a successful trip (you'll have to wait until Christmas to find out what I got).

We moved into our house exactly one year ago this weekend. To reflect and see that we've been blessed with this lovely home, ridiculously cute and entertaining kids, a stable job, a great town, good friends, and supportive family, I don't think we can imagine life getting any better. We are richly blessed and hope that next year we can share this day of thanks with some of you!

Proof

Jen and me
Tom, the dj, telling me to hold the microphone closer while singing. Silly Tom...he thought I wanted people to hear me! Beth and Jen weren't rocking out as hard as I was. I'm hardcore :)

Surrender

The album with this song on it by Cheap Trick came out a year before I was born and yet somehow I still managed to rock out and almost go hoarse singing along with our friend Stefan as he performed it on Friday night. It was also the song stuck in my head when I woke up Saturday morning! Holy cow did I have fun!!! The pictures are still on Stefan's camera as I forgot to put the battery in our camera before leaving the house so you'll have to wait to see me singing my Boston/Scrubs tribute of "More than a feeling" and enjoying a beer (or two or three). I was really touched when the whole group got up and sang "Happy Birthday" Beatles style. So to thank them appropriately, I danced solo in the middle of the dance floor with all eyes on me. Rumor has it that I didn't make a fool out of myself but I don't really care if I had...it was worth it :) I was apparently dancing well enough to get asked to dance by some middle-aged bearded man who kept telling me to "relax" and "let me lead." It would have been rude to say no to him but it was almost too awkward having Justin taking pictures of me dancing with another guy! Again, that picture will be posted as soon as I get it. I want to thank Jen, Stefan, Beth and Cody, Walt, and of course Justin for making that such a special night. Wednesday (my actual birthday) will be much easier to celebrate knowing that if all else fails I can still feel 21 at 30 by going karaokeing at Harold's!

Festivities

While my actual birthday isn't until next week, tonight is our official night to celebrate. Justin and I are going out to eat while Jen watches the kiddos and then we'll come home and put them to bed. Our realtor will then be coming over to housesit/babysit for us (he gave us a free night of babysitting along with a gift certificate for dinner as our housewarming present and we're just getting around to using it) so Jen, Justin and I can meet up with 10-15 other friends who will be tearing it up karaokeing at Harold's Club. It should be a raucous time full of singing and dancing! No one gave me any song suggestions so I'll have to stick with the tried and true Bon Jovi's "Living on a prayer" and maybe Boston's "More than a feeling." I'll hopefully have some pictures or maybe even a short video to prove that we welcomed this decade of my life in with style.

Clubfoot

Maggie's still not better yet so I set up another appointment with the vet this past Tuesday. We have been wrapping and taping her leg to prevent her from licking some spots raw but she was somehow still getting to them so here is our vet's version. This also gives her some additional support that may help the healing process. If she leaves this alone, we'll go back in 10 days and get a splint and have it wrapped again. Of course we have to treat it like a cast and not let it get wet which works really well when it's been raining/snowing for the last few days. All of those snack bags are finally being put to use because they fit perfectly over her club. We're hoping this at least starts to move us in the right direction.

The return

Justin came home yesterday defeated. He didn't see or hear anything and was too exhausted to go out today. We're hoping the snow we got today and will continue to get will make his chances better for this weekend.

Ready.gov

Have you seen those family emergency plan commercials? I can see the value of them, especially when the kids won't be with one of us 24/7. However, for the life we currently lead, instead of a family emergency plan, we use the hunting emergency plan. Haven't heard of it? It looks something like this:

Hunter: Justin Cline
Accompanied by: no one
Date of departure: 11/8/09
Date of return (unless success or emergency dictates earlier return): 11/11/09
Mode of transportation: Jeep, then bike and trailer, then foot
Address: Rattlesnake Wilderness Area, east fork of Rattlesnake Creek
Cell phone: coverage not available
Gear: bike, trailer, backpack, rifle
Potential health problems: bears, mountain lions, wolves, and crazed moose
Emergency contacts: Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, Search and Rescue
Day/time at which emergency contact should be contacted: 7pm, 11/11/09

Simultaneously sobering and entertaining. We'll find out Wednesday if things go according to plan!

Change in the air

This was a very challenging week for us. As you already know, our kids have been off their regular sleeping routines. I continued to get less than 6 hours of sleep a night between the two of them waking up and needing to be soothed back to sleep.

Madeleine seems to be at a huge transition. From what we know/what I've read, the transition from 2 to 3 can be very overwhelming for toddlers, sometimes causing them to regress in behavior to feel "safe" as they enter this new stage of independence. For Madeleine, I believe that explains why she began sucking on her fingers regularly (reminiscent of the comfort babies receive from nursing) and wanting to be held/rocked to sleep. She continues to not nap, although she still yawns and rubs her eyes all afternoon, but that's been tolerable. She at least now has initiated her old bedtime routine and falls asleep without any resistance while getting back tickles...a HUGE improvement! And she even slept through the night last night which improved her disposition for the entirety of today. One problem I have is remember she's only 2.5! Because she wears 4T tops (I know!), 3T pants, and is 35 pounds, it's easy to not want to pick her up because she's huge and expect more of her because she's as tall as many 4 year olds. That's definitely my issue, not hers.

Parker continues to fight falling asleep at night. Fortunately it only takes about 10 minutes of crying for him to crash but it doesn't last for long. I still think he's jazzed up about walking and has a hard time slowing down in spite of our bedtime routine. And he's so much fun to watch that it's hard to force him to stop even when we know there's an exhausted baby under all of that walking and babbling. Again...my issue.

Justin's out hunting today through Wednesday (fortunately his cold dissipated this week) so I'm flying solo but it will be worth it come Friday when we go out to celebrate my birthday! If you have any karaoke suggestions, send them my way :)

Sleepless in Missoula

I believe that out of the last 36 hours, I've been alone (i.e., without a child within a foot of me) for 6 hours. What the heck is happening?!? Madeleine is fighting sleep so I'm not making her nap in the afternoons and instead attempting to put her down for bed early. I've had to rock her to sleep the last two nights but at least she's falling asleep without screaming. As for Mr. P...we have no idea what his problem is. He is starting to walk and that may be the reason for his hyperactive state when he wakes up at night. Oh yeah...he's walking. I was really excited about it until he started not falling asleep easily. That was the one thing we've had going for us over the last 2.5 years: Madeleine is a great sleeper once she's asleep, Parker is great at putting himself to sleep until this past weekend. All positive thoughts and prayers sent our way would be appreciated :)

We did manage to fit in some fun today on what's maybe the first sunny day we've had in over a week. We walked over the the playground and played in the sand, on the swings and went down the slide. Parker had lots of fun learning from Madeleine how to fill a bucket with sand. He enjoyed it so much that he preferred doing that while Madeleine went down the slide. I tried to show some of the fun we had, along with a picture of Parker sucking down his smoothie this evening!

* By the way, the OD on candy apparently worked because I haven't yet caught the cold that the kids and Justin still have. Yeah for Reeses and Butterfingers!