Thursday, November 30, 2006

Sara's Deli

Tomorrow (Friday) is Bob's last day at Sara's Deli. His first day of class is Monday. I am both sad and relieved to see him leave Sara's. We had thought this would be his dream job, and he really did love working there. Baking great bread is his "gift" and we had thought we had found someplace he could work it out. When he was hired he was told that he would get a significant raise when they could afford it, which never happened. The place will almost certainly close in the spring and it is better that he leaves now. It does feel a bit like we're deserting family, though.

Anywho. I'm a bit nervous and all, but Bob doesn't seem to be. I hope this all works out!

Official Wiggly Statement

Here's the official statement from the Wiggles website. And here's a video of Greg's message to his fans. He looks well.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Good News and Bad News

Greg Page is leaving the Wiggles -- due to a chronic condition called orthostatic intolerance. So he's not likely to Wiggle again, but he's not dying. Maybe he'll be able to do more solo song writing? I don't know if he'd even be well enough to record things solo.

Anyway there's the scoop.

The Rumors are Greg is Quitting

The Wiggles have scheduled a press conference for tomorrow morning to make a "major announcement relating to members of the group." See here and here.

I'm glad we got to see them while Greg was still Wiggling. Sam is not the same.

Greg at the August Wichita, KS concert.

Friday, November 24, 2006

Thank you!

I got home tonight, and in the mail was an anonymous Christmas card, with a $50 gift card to Walmart. It was mailed from Wichita. So thank you, however it is! This will be saved for January, when we will definitely need it.

Chilling

On the way home from an all-day gaming party:

Me: Pauly, is your brother asleep?
Pauly: Yes!
Roger: I'm not asleep, I'm just chilling!

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Grammar

Last night I told Roger to go tell Daddy that it was time to eat.

R: Daddy, daddy it's time for eat!
Bob: It's time for eat? laughed
R: It's time for eating. It's time for eating.

My two and a half year old corrects his own grammar. In another year he'll be correcting mine!

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

RIP Little Critter

Uncle Stephen gave Roger a gift certificate to Amazon for his 2nd birthday, and one of the things we purchased with it was this collection of Little Critter stories. Both Pauly and Roger have always liked it, and it has been read over and over in the few months that we've had it. In the last few weeks, Roger's attachment to it has grown and it has become his bedtime lovey. At nap or at bedtime, he needs Little Critter. Sometimes he looks through the pages, and sometimes he would just hold the book while he went to sleep. Last night was no different, Roger asked for his Little Critter while he was being tucked into bed. Daddy didn't know where it was, but mommy found it easily.

This morning I discovered that sometime between being tucked in last night and actually falling asleep, the boys deliberately ripped several pages of the Little Critter book apart. Mommy was not happy. They had been relatively quiet after tuck-in last night, and Bob and I had been concerned with Rosie, who is still quite sick and who was breathing very loudly and unevenly.

I managed to find all of the pages and most of the fragments this morning, and the book is now in readable condition. It has gained a few ounces from tape, though, and has lost its figure (now some pages poke out beyond the others). It's going to stay put up for a while, and I don't know what Roger will do for a lovey now.

I told Pauly that since he is the older brother he needs to tell mommy when Roger is doing something destructive. He said, "I was planning on it, but then I figured that Roger might need some help."

Monday, November 13, 2006

Huper Sero!

Roger said yesterday, "I'm a huper sero!!"
Me: "A super hero??"
Roger, very tentatively, "ye e e ss."
Me: "Are you a super hero or a huper sero?"
Roger: "A huper sero!!!"

Thursday, November 09, 2006

What should we do?

We're having to rearrange carseats and want some input. We have a '97 Chevy venture, the sport edition. This has five bucket seats in the back, three in the 2nd row and two in the 3rd row. We've had all three kids in the 2nd row, Rosie in the middle in her infant seats and the boys on the outside in the integrated child seat. Well, the seatbelt on the middle seat has never been entirely cooperative, and has now broken completely, so at least one of the kids will have to go in the back and we'll remove the middle seat. I'm not sure how we'll handle loading and unloading with this set up. When we went to the with Rosa and Lily we had Pauly in the back with a booster seat, but I had to open the rear hatch to buckle him in. We have the infant seat, a Fisher Price Safe Embrace Convertible, a Graco Ultra Cargo (or whatever) combination seat, and a Cosco low back booster. Two of the seats have integrated child safety seats. Pauly is 37lbs, Roger is 27lbs, and Rosie has to stay rearfacing regardless. Where would you put them, and why?

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

So What's Up with the Wiggles?

I'm sure you have all been wondering. Unfortunately, I don't know. I don't know how the current tour is going. I don't know how Greg is doing. I don't know whether Anthony and Miki have had an ultrasound yet to find out if they're having a boy or a girl (it's about that time). I don't know anything Wiggly, because the Wiggles Message Board has been shut down. Although they have a legitimate explanation, they have just put up a new website and are still transitioning, I can't think that it is a coincidence that the shut down of the board corresponded with the first day of the new US tour.

Usually the WMB is busiest during a tour. Everyone posts their reviews of the shows, and synopses of their meet and greet, if they are able to have one. The boys and the dancers post much more often during a tour, sharing their side of things. And sometimes they let things slip -- the board found out about Miki's pregnancy the same day Anthony did (he was on tour in the US), when he mentioned it to a dad at a meet and greet, who posted it on the board.

Bob surmises they don't want speculation on Greg's condition, and they don't want someone to slip and say something that Greg is not ready to have the public know. That makes sense to me, although of course everyone is speculating anyway. And without accurate info, we're reduced to fabricating it for ourselves: I dreamed the other day that Greg was telling me that he had diabetes (not true) and Bob dreamed the same night that Greg actually was on the current USA tour (definitely not true). Without info from the horse's mouth, I'm reduced to Googling news articles.

The latest news is that Greg does not have cancer, his condition is not related to his hernia surgeries in December and March, and that he is too ill even to speak on the phone to the newspaper. This news articles quotes a statement that "Greg released for his fans." It is not a new statement, but is what he wrote back in August when he left the summer USA tour. Here is an actual brief interview with Greg. And here's one with Paul Field.

On a more positive note, here is a brief fun interview with Anthony.

I have a feeling that we got to see shows from the last two tours Greg will perform with the Wiggles. I don't know whether I should feel lucky or sad.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Office of Vital Craptistics

Well, because I'm a lazy person, I didn't have any of the kids' official birth certificates. In Kansas (I'm not sure whether this is true for other states) you have to send in a request for a birth certificate, you don't receive one automatically. Well, I've always forgotten, and whenever we've had to prove that one of the kids existed we've been able to use their Social Security Card and immunization record.

For the financial aid thing for Bob's training, however, that won't work. We did manage to find documentation that would work, but we decided to go ahead and order the birth certificates, which would have made this all much easier.

If you want to get a birth certificate from the Kansas Office of Vital Statistics, you have to jump through a few hoops. You can order easily online, if you want to pay an extra $9 per birth certificate. I wasn't willing to do that, so I got the stuff together to mail in. First you have to fill in a form, no problem, but it was a pain to do this three times. And they needed a copy of my driver's license, but that is reasonable. It costs $12 to get one certified copy. Which meant $36 all together -- and this doesn't include shipping back to you. You have to send one self addressed stamped envelope per request. If they can't find your record (which I doubt will be a problem here) then they keep the $12. Just to let you know. . .

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Cake

I asked Roger this evening if he wanted some cake, and he said "I don't want cake. I demand cake." He's not quite 2 1/2.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Now he's going to the potty, potty

So, Roger finally started using the toilet! He went potty for the first time on Monday, and went four times that day. Today he wore undies to church, and stayed dry, and then wore undies when we went out to the zoo and stayed dry then also. Yay Roger!

He'll probably have four accidents tomorrow.

The title of this post is a reference to The Potty Song from the video Once Upon a Potty. It is a very annoying song.

The Latest Rogerism

After trick-or-treating last night in my parents' neighborhood, we have a few pieces of candy at their house, then I told the kids it was time to go. Roger said, "The van is broken. The van is broken so we can't go home. We didn't get it fixed." Ah. Apparently the van broke but the grown-ups didn't notice. I guess he was hoping we'd just take his word for it and stay with Grandma and Grandpa.

Halloween Cuties!