All meat, all of the time.

A Viking at work...

Sig is nearly one. True to his Viking heritage, he is a meat eater. Anything green and vegetable-like ends out on the floor. And lately, even orange vegetable are getting the toss. But meat is a sure hit with this kid. Since Sig has, so far, been underrepresented in our Blog, we thought we would provide a short tribute to our little guy. He is not so little anymore - 25 lbs and he has already figured out how to make his big brother cry. He is crawling, standing and attempting the stairs, but he's not walking yet. He is a bit of a trouble maker and thinks "no" is pretty funny. He has made us realize why people talk about "child proofing" their house. Yesterday we found him in the kitchen - where he had managed to open a plastic, M&M filled Easter egg. There was only one M&M left. We're not sure how he managed to chew the M&M's, since he only has about 4 teeth. He made it very clear that he was not happy when Dad took the egg away. "Henning never did this" is a daily refrain in our house these days. On May 5th, Sig will be 1. Our good friend and fellow bloggah, Jason (of"the triforce.") recently sent directions on "baking" a meat cake (ground beef "cake" with mashed potato frosting). We're thinking this may be the way to go. Maybe in the shape of a "1"? Stay tuned...

Easter 2007

After a week full of daycare woes, trips to the doctor, sick children, and close to 2’ of snow on Thursday, we were glad to dose Henning with 1000mg of caffeinated bunny rabbit on Sunday morning and watch him scatter plastic grass into every corner of our house. Sig sat by and drooled while shaking his new maraca, next year the chocolate bunny is all yours little fella. Saturday we were treated to an early Easter dinner at the Howells. No ‘Radio Ga-Ga’ this year…it was replaced with talk of houses, ugly light fixtures, shared backyards and a bubble bath (…for the kids).

The preceding weeks found us heavily involved planning our new digs. After touring every affordable acre on MDI, we placed an offer on four acres of (wet)land in Mount Desert and after some minor negotiation it was accepted a week ago Sunday. A special thanks to Uncle John for coaching us along the way. This paves the way for a May 14th closing date at which point we’ll commence with the clearing of the land and hopefully allow for the foundation to be poured in early June. We’ve cleared our plans with the code enforcement officer (no small feat in the Town of Mt. Desert), the State of Maine Department of Environmental Protection, and will be finishing the septic system design in the next week. We’ll move to temporary quarters on May 5th for 6 months while the house is under construction with the option to extend our lease month by month should delays (in construction?) prevent us from keeping meeting the November 1 move-in goal.

Henning turns 3 at the end of April and shortly thereafter Sig meets up with his first birthday. We’re thankful for the love and support of our families through what has been an interesting few months. We look forward to hosting everyone over the summer, sharing our building plans and eventually our new home in the fall.

An Anniversary...

It's been an entire year since we received the official diagnosis for Dad. Mom & Dad visited us in Maine over the 2006 President's Day holiday weekend and upon arrival that evening shared with us their dreadful news. We knew so little about what lay ahead for him and for our family. We're grateful for the pioneering work of Dr. Druker at OHSU and his development of Gleevec, the first tyrosine kinase inhibitor to be approved by the FDA for the treatment of CML. Druker and others have built on this work since Gleevec's approval in 2000 and have been integral in the development of the second generation inhibitors Sprycel and Nilotinib. Sprycel is already FDA approved and Nilotinib is nearing the end of phase III trials. In the 1960's, CML was the first cancer discovered to be linked to a particular genetic event. Since that discovery 30 years ago, it's been on the forefront of drug investigation and discovery. We're lucky that Dad has so many wonderful options available for treatment. Dad has always dealt with this remarkably, his eternal optimism and faith haven't wavered through all that he's endured. Mom has quietly supported him through doctor's visits, the tests that keep coming and coming, my countless lines of questioning, and the waiting through it all. I'm grateful our family is bound so closely together and hope that the coming year and the next battery of tests will reveal an ever-deepening remission for Dad. Others in our family and extended family continue battles of their own and we send our thoughts and prayers to you. In particular Paul & Hiroko, we wish your parents hope and peace in each new day.

Our visit with Mom & Dad was quite nice and gave us a chance to charge our batteries a bit while the boys were in Grandma & Grandpa's hands. Temple Norbis saw several iterations and Mom and Henning built a gravity defying house and pool for McQueen. Sig crawled for the first time over the weekend and tries to climb anything in sight. Our hikes in the snow, sledding at the golf course, and a lunch out at Geddy's marked a relaxing weekend together.

Next step, March 9th, FISH negative, PCR undetectable...right Dad?

One can always hope.

February in Maine

Can you tell we've been feeling a bit house-bound? About 12F outside, stiff 20mph wind and we (presumably of able mind) think it's a good idea to tramp about on a frozen lake. We're lucky the batteries in the camera held out for the few photos we managed to take to actually prove we were that misguided. Once we pulled Sig out of the sled and wrapped him up like a wookie he just growled. Mom just had this look of disbelief on her face, I think it was frozen there. We happily recovered with some hot chocolate at home. We were pleased to share the weekend with Mom-G, she endured more of our cooking including traditional Maine shrimp...we're well aware why it sells for less than a dollar a pound. Henning capitalized Grandma's time with requests for stories and a cuddle or two. Next visit will be warmer, we promise.

Parenting...it's easier than it looks.

When left to their own devices, kids do a fine job of taking care of themselves...until they discover that the plastic bucket containing the legos is actually more interesting than the legos themselves. Grandmothers, be warned, this video could make you want to drive the 500+/- miles to Maine and pilot the ship for a while. Grandfather's, we think you'll appreciate the humor in all of this so watch it alone and chuckle out loud.

Perhaps if posting home movies were as easy 30 years ago, we would've seen proof that plastic buckets, although fun, don't make great helmets.
On a postive note...Sig is doing well, as the photo of him in his new hoodie can attest. Henning quickly recovered from the event after a fruit bar and some chocolate.

Sig...

The master of hand waving, we've been unable to communicate with this boy. His complex hand motions confuse us, we expect it's a sign of intelligence and we're the first to acknowledge that we're far behind him in the intelligence department.

In this video he's just watched his parents pull off a plastic lego storage bucket from his brother's head (without the aid of salted butter solids). He's glad his head fits neatly inside that bucket, as tested by Henning on multiple occasions, and that his brother can once again steal his toys unhindered by a plastic helmet.

Sig is the quiet one, for now, steadily gaining weight (22# now) and outpacing his parents efforts to keep him in clothing that they're able to fully snap closed. He's riding facing forward now in the car and before long will be crawling forward into the corners of the room, instead of scooching backward.

Say hi to the Captain if you see him...