SNOWING in Minnesota

Greetings all on this fine Saturday. It is snowing in the great (soon to be) white north. So we thought a blog update was in order. First some of you have been asking for a picture of Charlie with his eyes open. Our negotiators and his agents finally got together on the details and we now have a photo that fills that request. The other question we get is whether Charlie looks like Jack. Kara and I finally sat down and compared some photos, they are clearly brothers. They are different though, Jack had a larger nose and Charlie has the big ears (thanks to dad!).

Charlie @ 5 Weeks

Jack @ 4 Weeks

To examine this issue more indepth yourself Jack's 4 Week photos are on the website.

That all being said, the final request I have heard recently is for more videos. This here is Jack outside for the first time (active) in the snow.

A Happy Advent one and all.

Video Blog ~ Doing Dishes

Greetings faithful viewers. I can say that because I am not very consistent, so if you are readiong this you must continue to check the blog faithfully...thank you. For your viewing pleasure today we are going to do our first video blog, enjoy. The file, however, is huge. I am sure there is a way to compress it, I just haven't taken the time to look into that.

Steve

Photo Rebound

Greetings all,

I have done it! I have finally located the cord for the camera. I again have photos to post. Now all I need is some time to sort them...don't want to send you the bad fuzzy ones.

Thanksgiving at the Litzau household was full of firsts. Charlie's first Thanksgiving. Jack's first sword fight...er...spatula fight. Jack's first (and second) black eye, totally unrelated to the sword fight. Man you should have seen the other guy...he really got the worst of it. In reality our prize fighter took on the stairs (about half of them) and the concrete floor at the bottom. He hurt, but bounced right back.

Other firsts...

First time I had a turkey sandwich on Thanksgiving before 4:00pm. First time I finished Thanksgiving without over eating. First Thanksgiving for Kara without sweet potatoes. And the first time we stayed home for Thanksgiving since before we got married.

Happy Black Friday all!

Steve & Kara

P.S. Charlie did make his first trip to THE mall today.

Pizza Night

So, Steve's mom is in town this weekend and we decided to get pizza for dinner on Friday night. There we all were sitting at the table, Steve, Jack, Me, Mary Ellen, and Phil, when all of the sudden...the lights went out. We're not just talking the light bulb burnt out. We're talking the neighborhood went out. That's not a big deal at 7pm in the summer, but 7pm in the winter is a different story. You couldn't see your hand in front of your face. There were no lights anywhere. Luckily, Steve knew where the flashlight was, in fact knew that we actually had a flashlight, so we were able to finish our pizza by flashlight and candlelight. If I had been home by myself we would have been sitting in the dark...and we never did find out why the lights went out.

Steve will be adding some pictures shortly, seeing as he's the technological one in the family.

It was a good day...

Greetings all,

I just wanted to get a post up to let you all know that I have added some more photos to the website. You can see them here http://baby.litzau.net/Photo_NovemberRandom.html. Other than that things are going well. Jack is slowly adjusting to have to share mom. When I got home Kara informed me that it had been a good day...Jack didn't hit Charlie once! Give it a little bit of time and I am sure that he will have come around eventually. That's all, have a great day.

Steve

All Saints on All Souls

Greetings all, I know that some of you (Trina) have probably been waiting for these pictures. Jack dressed up as a dinosaur for CCR's All-Saints Vigil mass and party, he was very cute and roared a lot. Charlie wore his new "Mommie's Pumpkin" outfit (thanks Michelle). Unfortunately, none of the photos came out really well, especially the boys together, a little fuzzy, but it will give you an idea of the cuteness of our sons. Incidently, the nurses at the clinic when Charlie got his BillyRueben checked (it is going down) classify Charlie as "pretty" even above cute.

Making Mumpkin Puffins

Today Jack and Mommy made Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins because Mommy really wanted to eat some. Baking with a not-quite-two-year-old is quite an experience punctuated by, "No, do not eat the flour; that's gross", "don't eat the baking soda either", "Can you put the egg shells in the trash can, please? DO NOT EVER EAT RAW EGG!" The caviat to the "raw egg" comment being that Jack ate a lot of batter, which, of course, contains raw eggs...four of them to be exact. Oh, well, we had a good time.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins

• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup cooking oil
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup white flour
• 1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/4 cups rolled oats
• 2 tsp baking soda,
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 - 15oz can pumkin
• 1 1/2 cups raisins

Line cupcake pan with liners. In very large mixing bowl, mix suar, oil and applesauce with electric mixer on medium speed. Add eggs and beat well; set aside.

Combine flours, oats, baking soda, cinamon, nutmeg, and salt.

Alternately add flour mixture, beating on low spead after each addition until just combined.

Beat in pumpkin.

Fold in raisins.

Spoon into prepared pan.

Bake 350° for 20-24 minutes.

Makes approximately 30 muffins that should be hidden from Jack if you want to keep them around for any length of time.

One final note in follow up to "Numbers in the Life of Charlie". Today at 6:38pm Jack picked up Charlie for the first time. Coincidently, at 6:38 Charlie did his first ever somersault. (All are fine!)

On the Home Front

One question that we get asked often as we discuss the going-ons with Charlie is "How is Jack doing?" Well...

To begin it would be good to note that Jack is very aware of and always asking where the baby is, he shows great interest in and care for Charlie (particularly in regards to the pacifier, Jack's mainstay). However, Jack for 21 months has had mom to himself for all intents and purposes, so that will be the harder transition for him. Suffice it to say that Jack's cute little nose is a bit out of joint. Additionally, the arrival of Charlie seems to have coincided with Jack's discovery of the word "mine". It applies to many things, most of which are not his. Possibly this is a reaction to being told, "don't sit in that, it's Charlie's", "don't touch that, it's for Charlie", "don't sit on Mommy's lap right now, she's nursing Charlie", and everyone ought to know that Mommy is definitely Jack's, or at any rate, she was.

Charlie is doing well, pooping and peeing a lot, flushing the bilirubin out of his system. We went to the doctor today (and ran into Ann and Robert while we were there; Steve says we should just carpool) to have Charlie's bilirubin (are we spelling this correctly?) levels checked. They're still a bit higher than they should be and we have to go back for another level on Wednesday, but the doctor's not too worried. Apparently, it peaks about the 5th day and he's just about there, so he should be fine. He also seems to have his days and nights mixed up as evidenced by the three hours he spent crying last night. Hopefully tonight will not be a repeat.

That should do it for today's post. I should have some more photos from home up later tonight or tomorrow, depending on how Charlie cooperates.

Steve & Kara

P.S. The question has been posed about leaving comments, I had some settings that would not have permitted everyone to leave comments, that should have been changed, so, comment away.

Numbers in the life of Charlie

For being just over two days old, Charlie has had a lot going on in his life, just to give you a feel as to what that has all been I present to you important numbers in Charlie's short life.

• 5:03 Time of Birth
• 25, October Day of Birth
• 2007 Year of Our Lord of Birth
• 7-11 Weight in pounds and ounces
• 2-9 Weight short of Robert, a likely future friend
• 20 Inches Long
• 5:38 Time Charlie was first called Jack (FYI, it was the doctor, not his parents...yet)
• 1 Unsuspecting diaper changer peed on
• 2 Unsuspecting diaper changers pooped on
• 3 Number of Ibuprofen Charlie's mom gets to take when his nursing makes her tummy hurt
• 6 Number of sticks need to get IV into Kara
• 1:30 Time of day (Saturday) when Charlie made his showbiz debut (He was the "cute baby", as determined by the nurses on the ward, that was reccommended to be washed in the bathing example for a class of expectant mothers and fathers.)
• 9 Bilirubin count, low enough to allow him to come home with us today.
• 3:36 Time of day (Saturday) when Charlie was first hit in the head by a football thrown by Jack.
• 4:37 Time of day (Saturday) when Charlie received his first dirty look from Jack (a look of shear loathing as described by mom).
• 164 Pictures taken of Charlie and the events surrounding his birth
• 31 Pictures posted for all to see at baby.litzau.net and on the blog.
• 10 Hours of sleep mom has had since 5:30 Thursday morning
• X Hours of sleep dad has had since 5:30 Thursday morning where X=Numbers of hours dad has slept, X>10
• 14 Number of people who watched Jack throughout the ordeal.
  

Day One, The Life of Charlie

Greetings all, thanks for visiting the new Minnesota Litzau's blog. Obviously, this is Charlie. He weighed in at 7lbs. 11oz. and measured 20 inches long. He started life here in Minnesota a little cold, and spent some time warming up in the nursery while mom recovered from her share of the process. He is quiet, cute and much smaller than Jack...at least for now. He is also very considerate sleeping in two nearly three hour long chunks last night to give Kara and I a chance to rest, very kind! Jack did stop by with Mr. Phil to say hi, and I am happy to say not completely put out by the idea of sharing mommy. That might change when he no longer has a hospital bed with all the buttons to play with, but only time will tell. Okay, I am about done with lunch and have a few things to do and gather here at home before I head back to the hospital. Thanks to all of you who have been praying, and thanks for visiting the blog for The Minnesota Litzau's.

Steve

P.S. Don't forget, more pictures at http://baby.litzau.net/!