TroelbyLog

Pajama Straightjacket

Originally uploaded by troelby

For when your preschooler gets out of line, or for a big laugh, tuck
in the arms, and zip ‘em up!

Farmers Market

Originally uploaded by troelby

Honey sticks and fiddle sticks

Dancing!

Originally uploaded by troelby

Reed reaching for the stars

Gettin’ Saucy

Originally uploaded by troelby

Reed working the food mill for apple sauce.

Baby brother is kicking!

Originally uploaded by troelby

Natural Wonder

Originally uploaded by troelby

Dancer Boy

Originally uploaded by troelby

Reed in Macario’s coat before ballet class last Saturday. What a big
boy!

More singing

Originally uploaded by troelby

Now it’s almost fall and we’re really behind on keeping up with our blog. Here’s a photo from a July visit to Iowa to see Uncle Michael and Aunt Schatzi. Reed is mesmerized by Mike’s beautiful voice and guitar playing.
We’re happy and healthy going into the fall months, busy with home life and work life as we prepare to welcome a new little one into the family.
Love to all.

We’re Rollin!

Originally uploaded by troelby

We pushed the playhouse into position on its concrete pads last
weekend. Reed even helped. It rolled smoothly with the old fence posts
underneath.

One of the things we really liked initially about our house was this cute little playhouse up on stilts in the backyard. But, now that we want to put in a garden, it’s in the way, so we decided to move it off its stilts and into a new corner of the yard. More fun for Reed in the short term as well.

Our incredibly generous and enthusiastic neighbor Paul was just the guy to ask. The plan was his brainchild: we’d mount 8 hinges to the posts at the top and bottom (into concrete pads). Then we’d mount a pulley to his garage foundation (more fun with concrete), and run a cable from the play house back to his truck on the driveway. Another cable secured to a tree in our yard would provide additional tension. Then all we had to do was cut the posts, starting at the top, the the bottoms. Driving slowly forward brought it down nice and easy.

Watch the video and see it all come together. Thanks again Paul for making it happen. Now… to move it across the yard…

Le champion

Originally uploaded by troelby

Here’s Ben finishing the Kortelopet a few weeks ago. He did the race in less than four hours and Reed and I were waiting with bells on at the finish line.
Great job, Dada!

Los Cerritos

Originally uploaded by troelby

We went to Mexico last month with the Hirbys to celebrate Pat and Steve’s retirement. Our destination was Todos Santos, in Baja California Sur. It was a long journey: we drove to Chicago and flew to Los Cabos, then rented a car and drove north into the desert until we got to our hotel, the Hotelito (http://www.thehotelito.com/), near some of the best surfing beaches around. Ben, Mike and Schatzi learned to surf while Reed tested the water and played in the sand with Grammy and Babbo. By the end of the week, we were all speaking more Spanish and had slowed our pace down quite a bit. It was great to soak up the sunshine at the beach in the middle of January.

Chef de cuisine

Originally uploaded by troelby

Merry belated Christmas! Here is Reed, in his full chef regalia. He received a pizza-making kit, some baking dishes, and a mini Kitchen-Aid mixer for Christmas.
We had a nice time celebrating with all our families.
Reed thought presents appearing under the tree was awesome, and wondered why it couldn’t happen more often.

Pick ‘o the Patch

Originally uploaded by troelby

We just wrapped a great weekend with the Domenick-Johnsons. It was great to reconnect with some Chicago friends, share our new home and a few good meals. We all even managed to get a *few* hours sleep Saturday night. New pics on Flickr of the weekend and our visit to a pumpkin patch on a warm Sunday morning. Enjoy.

Hey all,

We just did an upgrade to a new server and a new version of WordPress, our blogging software. You should be able to leave comments more reliably now, as well as receive RSS feeds if you like. I’ll be playing with the look and feel as well.

Let us know if you have any problems.

Ben

Nakid

Originally uploaded by troelby.

What’s the use of the Internet if you can’t post a picture of your naked toddler on it?

Sorry for the three-month hiatus in blogging, but we’ve had a lot on our plates recently.

We have landed in Madison and eased back into our new life. After some bumpy weeks starting new jobs and getting settled in, we’re starting to relax and enjoy it more.

Ben had a heavy few first weeks as he took charge of the Active Media team at Planet, but with the addition of some new hires, things are less busy for him.

Sage is enjoying her new position at the UW, adjusting well to teaching adults and liking her new colleagues and department quite a bit.

Reed is more of a boy than a baby now, and seems to really like his new life in Wisconsin. We’ve put together a good childcare team (Gretchen and her two-year old son Kieran, Gigi on Wednesdays, and Grammy on Fridays) and he is blossoming with all the great attention.

We really love our house and neighborhood. Sage and Ben bike to work and we’re close to all the things we need. Canadian geese fly overhead and the sun rises over the bay making the sky red on these fall mornings.

We’re seeing more of our family, which we are happy about. If you’re in the area, please come visit us. Our guest room is the nicest in the house!

Beautiful!

Originally uploaded by troelby.

Reed got his first big boy haircut last week. It was time to trim the flyaways. He was an excellent client and enjoyed the experience very much, especially the spray bottles and the hairdryer.

We’re gearing up for the big move in just two days. Just about everything is in boxes and all the paperwork is going through, so Wisconsin, here we come!

We’ve had a lot of big news lately: Sage landed a position as a faculty associate at the UW-Madison Division of Continuing Studies. She’ll teach French courses and coordinate other language courses. Ben was welcomed back to Planet Propaganda with open arms and we’ve been back and forth from Chicagoland to Madison several times looking for a new home. We’re over the moon about it all, but are sad to leave behind some good friends and colleagues in the Chicago area.
Reed is almost two years old and keeping us running, except when he’s asleep. His favorite things are “jachumahs,” a name for anything with motor. There are vacuumcleanerjachumahs and lawnmowerjachumahs and screwdriverjachumahs and coffeemakerjachumahs.
(Note: we’re having a logjam in our Flikr stream, so please excuse the delay in our posting more pictures for now.)

Carrousel

Originally uploaded by troelby.

We had a recent excursion to the Brookfield Zoo.

Mister Major League

Originally uploaded by troelby.

Well Spring is here, we’ve had some nice visits lately and we’re off to California for a week to visit Mike, Schatzi and Chris. Woohoo! We’ll more of an update when we get back. In the meanwhile, check out some new pics of the Reedster on Flickr. - Troelbys