Christmas Morning 2009

Miles and I were up bright an early to celebrate Jesus’ Birthday!  We hurried down the stairs at 6am at Aunt Bethany’s and Uncle Nick’s house in Montour, Iowa.  We plugged the the beautiful tree!!

Miles’ favorite part of the Christmas season has been plugging in the tree each day :)  Miles enjoyed a yogurt by the tree and then we woke up the rest of the family!!

Close up!

Here’s our 2009 Christmas photo – our new tradition!

For comparison – see the 2008 photo – lots of growing this past year!

Ahhh….. Miles loves Christmas (and MJ)!!

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Posted in: Christmas,Miles

Mid life crisis

When we first got her, Nathan named her the "Beamer.". Next to that old, ugly green Lumina-she was exactly that!! Since then, I spent many long miles with her gave her a more fitting title... The Pontiac grand princess! She's a finicky thing, but still easy on the eyes !
I had the honor of attending one of her most remarkable milestones to date- the commencement of her mid life crisis.
on Monday, Dec 14, 2009, Princess rolled 100,000 miles!!



After only a few new tires and her second heater fan replacment, Princess is cruising the streets on NY just as well as her local counterparts: the. Jags, Mercedes, BMW's, and Escalades! Thanks, Princess, for 3 fantastic years and 60,000+ miles together!!

- Posted using my iPhone- please excuse brevity

Location:Bank St,White Plains,United States

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Posted in: Kelly

Internet blues

Sorry for the long delay in posts.... We are experiencing internet
connectivity issues again. We hope to resume posting soon.
<3 the Klinge's

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Short Stories

Cow says Mom
When Sarah and Adam came to visit for Thanksgiving, they brought a little 4 page board book for Miles.  Miles likes the book a lot – not just because of the googly eyes, but because (I think) he enjoys listening to the animal sounds. Miles will actually seek out this book and bring it to me. I read it – on average- about 6 times each evening. We practice a lot. A cow says Moo, a duck says quack, and piggie says oink, and a sheep says baa. Occasionally, Miles will chime in. What does a cow say? Mmmm –mom!
Is he trying to tell me something?!  He also thinks he’s funny when randomly shouting Baa. This one comes out when we’re not even reading the book.  Such a goof :)

Pictures are better than words
Miles loves being naked. Don’t worry – this is G rated. We were removing layers of Miles’ clothing to get ready for his bath. He took off running when I wasn’t done. He ran around like this for 10-15 minutes.

He’s crazy! 

Head injury # – I lost count!!
We finally got Miles’ 1 year pictures taken last Saturday. The pictures were super late (13.5 months old) since Miles had been sporting facial battle wounds since his birthday. Luckily, we had great timing….
Miles went back to daycare on Monday and managed to give himself another bruise.  During art time, Miles tried to be sneaky. He would turn his back to the teachers so that he could gnaw away at his blue crayon. He was corrected and the blue wax shavings removed from his mouth. Do you remember me telling you about Miles’ listening problem?? Well, he when was allowed to continue coloring with the other kids, he continued to turn his back to eat his blue crayon. Amidst his sneakiness, graceful Miles dropped his crayon to the floor and quickly bent down to pick it up – WHACK! Miles now sports a horizontal, raised mark connecting his eyebrows.  I cannot get a good picture at all – I know that you’re all dying to see it :(

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Posted in: Miles

Rockafeller Tree – worth the trip!!

Last Sunday, we ventured into NYC again!  Yes – we seem to be entering into that chaos a little more regularly lately. Miles doesn’t seem to mind at all. He’s a little people watcher and loves to chill in his stroller (as long as it keeps moving!)

This time, we took the train into Grand Central and walked 10 or so blocks to Rockafeller Plaza.  We saw THE ultimate Christmas tree – live! It was fantastic :)

The 75 to 90 foot tall Norway spruce tree was beautiful with its 5+ miles of lights and gorgeous star at the top. The skating rink below completed the picture. We thought about skating, but the rates were ridiculous.  Also, since it was the first weekend after the tree was lit, the place was PACKED!  Miles didn’t’ mind – there was soooo much to watch! Oh.. and every few minutes, white lights would strobe. Miles was a huge fan!

 

Lastly, Nate’s studio partner met us there with her super High Def Camera to take our family picture for our 2009 Christmas card. She did a wonderful job. It was a tough decision – but I think you’ll like our choice – Coming soon to a mailbox near you :)

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Posted in: Christmas,Kelly,Miles,Nathan

Grandpa Klinge

I had been thinking about how to best put my thoughts into story form in celebration of a beautiful life. Lucky for me, Beth beat me to it.  She did a wonderful job penning the highlights of Grandpa Klinge’s life and capturing how his legacy will live on with the rest of us.

Please read here

It’s hard being far away from family and friends – but events like this make the distance even more difficult.  Not only were we unable to see George over Thanksgiving, but once we received the call last Friday that his health was quickly deteriorating, we were stuck on the East coast, unable to make arrangements fast enough to see him one last time.

Nate has been working non-stop for the last few weeks trying to crank out his final project for the semester. His review is next Monday (the 14th.) After talking on the phone with Grandpa last Friday, Nate was told to stay put and ‘finish the race.” George was one of Nate’s greatest encouragers for earning a master’s degree. George always told Nate - “Whatever it takes, you need to get your stamp!” Nate listened.

To give as much support as possible to Grandma Klinge and the rest of the family, Miles and I were going to fly back for the funeral. Not only were our last minute flight options limited, but Iowa weather (50 mph winds and 12 inches of snow) has grounded us. In lieu of being stranded in an airport with a 1 year old, we are staying put and trying to think of ways to send our support.

Our hearts are breaking over the loss of Grandpa Klinge’s physical presence, but we rejoice knowing that he no longer feels pain and that we will surely see him again. We will continue to hold on to the many happy memories we have of Grandpa Klinge. There are root beer floats in heaven, right?!

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Posted in: Memories,Nathan

Skilled UN-listener!

Irony has gotten the best of me. I should have expected that soon after I publically praised Miles on his listening skills and obedience, my little bundle of sin would make me eat me words :(

I ran some errands after work the other day and had a lot of stuff to carry up to our apartment from the parking garage.  I needed Miles to walk so I gave him something to be in charge of so that he would follow along and help me push the doors open like the days before.

Miles decided that he would do the opposite of everything that I wanted. I loaded all of the bags (containing lots of canned food, jug of bleach, and lots more) onto my arms and tried to get Miles to follow me.  He went the other way.  It kind of reminded me of Cooper – he loves to be chased.  After several minutes passed, Miles started weaving in and out of the parked cars.  He’d occasionally peek out to see where I was and then start running away – laughing his old man belly laugh.

Yes - I know – this sounds cute at first.  But 45 minutes and a couple of bruised wrists later, I lost all patience.  I picked Miles up while still holding all of the bags of stuff and used every last ounce of energy to get him into the elevator.  Miles was not happy to have his game end. He threw a man-sized tantrum.  He had a time out in his crib while I focused myself to finish the rest of the very long night. 

The UNlistening didn’t stop there. Daycare has been telling us that they’ve been struggling with the same issue.  He wants to play and follow his own agenda rather than listen. Whatever happened to “obey your father and mother.”  I know I wasn’t always the best at that, and I’m nearly positive that Nathan wasn’t either….  Isn’t he too young to be so defiant?

Hmmm… Maybe he’ll do a little better as his vocabulary increases.  But I love him lots… and I love a challenge. This could be fun! Wish me luck!

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Posted in: Miles

Oops! And the Macy’s Day parade too…

So its been a few days, but we went to the Macy’s day parade on Thanksgiving morning.  We took public transit into the city and over to Times Square (42nd Street and 8th Ave).

Picture: On the Metro North train headed to Grand Central Station.

We staked our posted at 53rd St. and 7th Avenue, right on the new parade route.  Due to the newly created pedestrian zones near Broadway, the Macy’s parade route was modified for the first time in 80-something years!

In our spot (10-15 people deep on 53rd St.), waiting for the festivities to begin!

 

…. next to the crazies that bring 6 ft. ladders on the subway to enhance their view (and obstruct ours)

Miles couldn’t see much from the stroller. Tall Dad helped out with that!

Sarah came to the parade with us!

 

Adam did too!

Kermit the frog!

Miles likes frogs!

    Sesame Street

Cindi Lauper in the Barbie Castle

Dora

Horton

Santa!  the End!

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Posted in: Kelly,Macy's,Miles,Nathan

Christmas decorations!

Now that Thanksgiving is officially over, we decorated for Christmas while blaring Christmas music over the stereo wearing PJ’s and sipping coffee (or whole milk). We reflected on decorating in years passed…..  we were actually done decorating in less than the amount of time it took to get all of our decorations out of the garage!

What would you expect though? really?  Our place is super tiny, so we limited the decor. The tree was no assembly required too :)

Nate started us off….

 

Miles really wanted to help!

 

Prince Miles got what he wanted…. again!

Ohh… Miles’ new stocking

Prime location for keeping his eye on mischievous Miles

Making the garland using fruity cheerios and pop tops..

Final product  =)

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Posted in: Christmas,Miles

Mommy’s Little Helper

As of November 25, 2009, Miles officially has a word!  His beautiful one-word vocabulary consists of “Mama”  !!   I won :)  He has mumbled it for a while now, but it finally had meaning – so we’re going to count it as his first word!!

Miles loves to help Nate and me do anything and everything. When I get groceries, I use a valet cart to wheel the groceries up to our apartment. Miles now ‘needs’ to help push the cart. I can let go of the cart and Miles is actually pushing hard enough to keep that thing hauling. Muscle Man!

Miles loves to bring us our shoes…  He’s a smart little cookie and actually brings us the right shoes too!

Yesterday, I needed to get a bunch of stuff from Target. In order the get the stuff up the the apartment, I needed Miles to walk himself.  I’ve learned for past experiences that Miles needs to be ‘in-charge’ of something in order to keep him a little more obedient.  He’s a wild child who’s a sucker for being mommy’s (or daddy’s) little helper.  As I threaded a bunch of heavy bags onto my arm, I gave Miles my wallet thingy to carry on his arm.  He’s never been such a good listener as he was last night! He was such a doll.

Miles favorite thing to lug all over the apartment is the broom – having just seen “Wicked” on Broadway – I can almost picture him ‘defying gravity’…

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Posted in: Miles

New boots

Miles tried on both of his snow boots and tried walking around for the first time…

testing the new boots

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Miles’ dress up time

Just a couple of Miles pictures to let you see that he’s alive and kicking!

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A ‘Wicked’ evening !

I should begin by apologizing for not posting in quite some time.  We’ve been a little busy with normal, everyday life.  I’ve been bad about taking pictures and don’t really have any great stories to share… until right now!

For our 5 year anniversary (back in September), Nate bought tickets to a Broadway musical! I love, love, love musicals! We saw Wicked – the ‘pre-quel’ to the Wizard of Oz!  I finished the book more than a year ago and had been dying to see the show. Finally accomplished- and it was soooo worth the wait!

Back in high school, I saw Chicago and the Scarlet Pimpernel on Broadway in NYC for a choir trip.  We saw the Lion King in Des Moines a few years back too.  There is something magical about a show in NYC!!

I left work a few hours early to dress up (in an actual dress) and met Nate at Grand Central. We ate at a fantastic sushi place called Natsumi. We ate our dinner and walked across the street to the Gershwin theater!

Miles spent the evening with Miss Jessica!  He adores her and had a great time with her. After an interesting twist in their plans, Miles and Jessica were able to hang out with her parents for a while. We apologize for Miles behavior..  He’s great at inspiring ‘grandparent fever.’

Look at that face – who wouldn’t want a grand kid like him!

Yes, yes… his 3rd massive forehead bruise is finally fading!  I just wanted to get professional pics taken at 1 year…

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Posted in: Kelly,Miles,Nathan