Summer 2010 in Review

Wow. Sorry we've been away for so long. Yes, we remember we have a blog. But I don't know how many people actually read this thing, so I've been reverting to using Facebook as the place where I update the latest in what we have going on. But, today, I realized the real purpose of this blog -- to make up for my absolutely shitty memory and the fact that I have not kept a decent record of Sully's life in any one place except for here.

Case in point: I had to look at the blog to find out what Sully weighed when he was born so I could put that information on an early childhood screening form for the Minneapolis Public School District. The world should feel fortunate that I am only a parent to one kid instead of more.

We've had a really great summer, and it has gone way too fast! I got a little sad today when I took Sully to the park and I saw they had already drained the kiddie wading pool. Don't get me wrong -- I love fall and football and the cooler weather. Usually I can't wait for summer to end. This year, for some reason, it didn't seem like we had time to do all the fun stuff we could/wanted to do. Oh, well. There is always next summer, and still lots of fun stuff to do before the snow shows up. Hopefully.

First, key Sullivan milestones since February:

• He's potty-trained! Thank god and baby Jesus. Maybe this an assumed thing as he is 3 1/2 years old, but good lord. We never thought we'd see the day. To give Sully credit, he's been fairly accident-free since March, and has been wearing undies-only (no diapers, Pull-Ups or anything) since January. So this isn't a new development, but a development nonetheless.
• He loves the Cars movie and all things related to it.
• His favorite TV shows are Word World, Max & Ruby, Backyardigans, Clifford and Bearenstain Bears.
• His favorite books right now are Bearenstain Bear books, Dr. Seuss and whatever he picks out at the library.
• He insists his favorite football teams are the Green Bay Packers and the Wisconsin Badgers. Some days he'll tell us he likes the Hawkeyes if he is feeling sorry for us.
• He loves NASCAR. Not only is he the only person in the house who likes the Green Bay Packers and the Wisconsin Badgers, but he is also the only person who cares about NASCAR.
• He has two seasons of YMCA soccer under his belt (one indoor and one outdoor), and he is about to start another round of YMCA swimming lessons this week.
• He now has bunk beds! We got rid of the crib-turned-toddler-bed in June, and he has been sleeping on the top bunk ever since. He seems to love it.

Now, on to the additional highlights for the summer.

We went to Madeline Island in July to camp. SUPER cool place, really fun. Too many freaking mosquitoes and our air mattress smelled like cat pee, but whatever. Still super neat.

Madeline Island July 2010

We went to the farm to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately I have no pictures from the actual event, but here is a photo of Sully helping Grandma Pipho make a cake because Sully insisted that the party needed a cake.

The Hennessey's came to visit us at the end of August. We had a great time -- went to the Minnesota Zoo, the Minnesota State Fair, Lake Harriet and putzed around Stillwater. It was so nice to see them, and I think it's safe to say we successfully ate ourselves through the trip. The link to the full album is here.

If anyone out there does like to read this thing, let me know! I tend to be a bit more diligent if I know that people other than me enjoy and/or look forward to reading what I write. If no one is out there, that's OK, too--I'll continue to use this as a record-keeping device as I think of it (i.e. when I freak out about how much I can't remember and should probably write down somewhere.)

February is Birthday Month

While I have several things I could be updating you on, I will update you on the status of the Sandholm birthday month. Gabe celebrated his big day on February 9th, and I had my birthday this past weekend on February 21. Here are a few photos from Gabe's birthday celebration.

Gabe Birthday Recap

• Had some nice work ladies come over and watch Sully.
  
• Gabe blew out the candles on his cake.
• He received some new birthday undies, book and sweater.
  
• We went to Fireside Pizza for dinner.
• After dinner, we went to the Kitty Kat Klub for a drink and to see a band (whose name I can't remember right now).
• Returned home.

Ranae Birthday Recap

• Took Sully to the doctor's office to get his ear infection diagnosed.
  
• Grandma Pipho came up and watched Sully.
  
• Went to the Brave New Workshop and laughed until we (or I) cried.
• Went to Lucia's for french onion soup and dessert.
• Went home.
• Woke up and went to Town Talk Diner for birthday brunch.
  
• Received an awesome massage, bamboo cutting board and cheese grater.

All in all, a very successful birthday month. Now we just need to keep reminding Sully that no, his birthday isn't tomorrow but in December, which is 10 months from now.

The Sandholm Family Christmas Card

Merry Christmas to you and yours from us and ours. We hope this video card finds each of you well and enjoying all the wonderful things this holiday season, not the least of which includes cookies, Christmas parties, Christmas music and really ugly women's sweaters worn by both men and women at the hip-kid "Ugly Sweater Party." Or, in our case, ugly women's Christmas sweaters worn at both work Christmas parties and for the family holiday video card.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Sully!

Go Hawkeyes!

In case you were unaware, the Hawkeyes are currently 7-0. Undefeated. It's awesome.

Sully is sporting his Hawkeye pride to school today in advance of the Michigan State game tomorrow.

Conversation between Gabe and Sully this morning:

Gabe: "Here bud, let's put on your Hawkeye jersey to wear today."
Sully: "I no want to wear Hawkeye jersey."
Gabe: "You don't want to wear your jersey? But the Hawks play tomorrow!"
Sully: "Ya-You wear Hawkeyes? Mom wear Hawkeyes? Unka Cole and Unka C.J. wear Hawkeyes like you me mom?"
Gabe: "Uncle C.J. doesn't wear Hawkeyes. Uncle Cole wears Hawkeyes like you, me and mom, yep."
Sully: "I wear Hawkeyes today."

Sidenote, the past two mornings when Sully has woken up, the first words out of his mouth are, "I call Unka Cole and Unka C.J." So random. So, last night Gabe and Sully called Cole and C.J. to say hi, and I'm sure they will be doing the same tonight. Good thing Sully will be getting some time with his uncles at Thanksgiving.

And Go Hawks!

Chillin' @ Minnetonka Orchards

On Sunday we took Sully to Minnetonka Orchards to pick out a pumpkin. So what if it's really an apple orchard that buys pumpkins in bulk and just puts them on the ground for you to pick through? We still had a great time at the place. Sully got to check out goats, jump in hay, take a hayride into the orchard to pick a peck of apples, ate two hotdogs and apple donuts while listening to what I think was a bluegrass band, and then finally got to pick out three pumpkins.

While we were on our little hayride from the hayride pick-up area to the orchard (we were pulled by a Farmall H, just like my dad has), I told Gabe as we were surrounded by many obvious city people, "I'm so glad that this isn't Sully's only exposure to a farm."

Gabe said, "I'm having a total deja vu moment right now."

I said,"What, have I said that before?"

He said, "Probably."

Oh, well. I am glad that Sully will get to know what farms are like firsthand and not just from some kitschy orchard. Don't get me wrong, though -- I really liked the kitschy orchard.

And then once we got our pumpkins, we got in the car and came home where Sully decided he needed to carve his pumpkin. Now. The fact that the jack o' lantern may be rotten and/or eaten by squirrels before October 31 meant nothing to him. He was a single-minded boy and said, "Time to scoop seeds?"

I pulled out some choice photos above, but the full album is available by clicking on the picture below. Happy Halloween!

Orchard Visit 2009

Hennessey's in Minneapolis

The Hennessey's put up a fun blog post from when they visited us in August. Great photos and a nice recap of our four days with them. Can't wait to do our Seattle trip in January!

Happy Anniversary?

Monday was Gabe and my 7th wedding anniversary, and we celebrated in high style at the Fairview Southdale emergency room. Gabe got stung by three or four yellow jackets on his way out the door that morning, and found out in short order that he is definitely allergic to yellow jacket stings. After his first ambulance ride, an IV of Benadryl, an epinephrine shot and some steroids, he is on the mend. I now carry two EpiPens in my purse: one for Gabe and one for Sully.

We learned a lot about allergic reactions and yellow jacket removal on Monday. Some key learnings:

• Yellow jackets are really angry little bugs.
• A person can have recurrent allergic reactions from his or her initial exposure to the allergen. So, even though Gabe was stung in the morning, he got hives again that afternoon and woke up with itchy palms on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. His system is still trying to fight off the protein from the yellow jacket sting.
• Mailmen must be invincible, because even though the front door was swarming with yellow jackets, we still had our mail in our mailbox right at our front door. I really hope he wasn’t stung.
• Pest control people really don’t care if you have been hospitalized due to a run-in with yellow jackets. They are busy people, and may or may not show up or call you back. I finally got someone out to our house by the time I called the fifth place, and they were prompt and thorough (although maybe a bit expensive, but I don’t really know what the going rate is for yellow jacket removal).

I told one of my colleagues that this may be Darwinism at work…the Sandholm/Pipho line may not be among the “fittest” for survival, and we’re going to get phased out through lethal allergic reactions. What a nerdy way to go.

One of Gabe’s colleagues also was able to find the humor in all of this and welcomed him back after his ordeal with the following little present. Love it.

Sully's First Day of Preschool

Here are the photos of Sully's first day of preschool that was Tuesday. He is now officially an Iguana and in a class with 3 to 5 year olds. He seems to be having a great time so far! However, I wouldn't be able to tell you how is day is going -- we know longer get a "daily sheet" that tells us how much he ate and when; if he pooped or peed, and when; and when he napped and for how long. So, hopefully all of that stuff is going OK for him. :)

He's happy when we drop him off, and happy again when we pick him up, so that has to say something! And he has two of his other friends with him from the Bears room -- Ian and Ayla. So he does know a couple of kids. Now I just need to finally buy the "thank you" gifts for his awesome toddler room teachers...they did such a good job with him!

Sullivan Camps

We took Sully on his second camping trip of his life to Detroit Lakes, MN the middle of this month. We met Gabe's mom, Cole & C.J. there for four days of "roughing it" in the American Legion Trailer Park. Ok, so it was really the American Legion Campground, but--in reality--it was a trailer park with some lawn they rent out for tents and campers to set up on. Everyone there drove around in golf carts to get from point A to point B, even if Point B was 100 feet from Point A. But, whatever.

Regardless of that, the campground was across the road from Detroit Lake, and we had a great time eating ourselves silly with various dutch oven dishes like the Mountain Man breakfast, Cheryl's awesome chicken and rice dinner and some apple crisp. We didn't starve ourselves, by any means. And Sully had fun playing at the trailer park, er...I mean campground's playground.

Sully also loved to help make breakfast -- here are a couple photos of he and Grandma Cheryl cracking eggs. And isn't Sully's flour sack towel apron really nice? I love those towels. So versatile.

Happy Father's Day, Gabe!

Sully's School Album: Bears 2008-09

Sully's official school year is coming to a close today, meaning that his time with his current group of classmates and teachers is going to switch up a bit. Tomorrow begins his three-day summer vacation at home with Grandma Cheryl and Grandpa Kragt who are going to come up to take care of him for Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, Gabe and I will take the day off and hang out with the little man.

Starting on Monday, Sully will begin the summer session at school. He'll get to remain in Bears for the summer with his teachers Lily and Hasna. In the fall, he will graduate from Bears to Iguanas. This will be quite a switch -- he'll be in a room of mixed ages of 3- to 5-year olds (the 5 year olds are those not yet ready for kindergarten). I'm still a little freaked out about the move to Iguanas as 1) Sully won't be 3 yet; and 2) he's small for his age, so I hope he doesn't get the crap kicked out of him by bratty 4- and 5-year olds. But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

In the meantime, his teachers e-mailed me all of the Sully photos they took over the past year. There are photos in here of last summer through to this spring. Click on the Sully the Firefighter photo to see the whole album.

Sully School Album: Bears 2008-09

Happy Easter

Yes, I know Easter was two months ago. It's taken me awhile to get my crap together, upload pictures to our computer and then update the blog. Our computer is WAAAAAY slow, so it's a bit of a time commitment to keep our lives organized and then update the blog. If anyone has any suggestions on how to speed up our computer that doesn't involve buying a new one, let me know! And I know our Internet connection is fast -- it's just our computer. Too many movie and music files, I'm guessing...

Anyways, without further ado, here are some fun photos of Sully from this Easter. We were at the farm to celebrate the festivities, and we went to the Easter Egg Hunt in Readlyn. Sully had a good time, and he still talks about coloring Easter eggs with Staci, Dad and Mom. Good times.

Sandholm Family Hoedown

I'm Gabe Sandholm

Last night Sully decided he needed to wear Gabe's glasses. Gabe humored him--because it was cute--but we now need to explain to Sully that, no, you don't need to wear our glasses all the time.

Oh, well. Anything to be more like Dad.

Basketball 101

Gabe cleaned up the basement to make room for Sully to play basketball down there while we wait for it to warm up and move all of his ball-related activities to the backyard again. He's gotten pretty good at the whole basketball thing, and apparently made seven baskets in a row last night!

Gabe captured made a little video with his cell phone, posted here for your enjoyment. I'm not sure what Sully likes more: chasing the ball around or shooting it.

Old Time Rock 'n Roll

When we went to Fargo at the end of January to see Cole and C.J., they were getting ready for an ugly sweater party just as we were packing up to drive back home. Cole put on some music before we left, and Sully had the best time ever having his own dance party. The song that made him the happiest was Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock 'n Roll" -- so happy, in fact, that we had to buy it so he could "wok 'n woll" (in Sullyspeak) at home. Unfortunately, iTunes didn't have the actual Bob Seger version, so we had to settle for some random cover band version instead. It is close enough to do the trick while we wait to go buy an actual Bob Seger CD so we can upload the original.


Without futher ado, here's a video of Sully busting a move to "Old Time Rock 'n Roll." You'll notice he is looking up a lot -- he is watching the TV screen. At C.J. and Cole's house, the TV had a trippy screensaver playing that was fun to watch while the music played. Our house isn't that high-tech, so Sully is just watching a black screen with white words on it telling him what song is playing. He doesn't seem to mind, at least.

MotoX Sully

Sully and I went along with Gabe to the International Motorcycle Show on Sunday. While Gabe ogled the Sucker Punch Sallys and talked to the people in the Kawasaki booth about how to modify his bike for ape hangers, Sully and I wandered around. He loved to stop and sit on the "baby motorcycles."

Introducing Sandholm Productions

Gabe had his 31st birthday on Monday, February 9. In classic Ranae-style, I ordered Gabe's birthday present late and it showed up on Tuesday, February 10. Oh, well. Sully and I got him a new Flip Video MinoHD (thanks to the Bechthold's for showing me what a Flip Video camera even is via your blog!), and now Sandholm Productions is born. We will be regaling you with several Sully-related videos, and Gabe and I will probably be making cameo appearances. Lucky you.

Following is the first video for your viewing pleasure. Nothing will ever be Oscar-worthy, but we are having fun. :)



P.S. Gabe had a good birthday -- thanks to Cheryl and Grandpa Kragt for coming up for his birthday weekend! Gabe and I took advantage of the free baby-sitting to go to a party at a friend's house on Friday night, and on Saturday night we all went out to dinner at the Edina Grill. Sunday we had homemade pizza before they left.

To celebrate the actual day of Gabe's birth, I decided last minute (Monday morning) to throw an impromptu birthday party on Monday night. Four of my colleagues and a boyfriend of one--all of whom Gabe knows and likes--came over for dinner and to play Catchphrase. Good times. Now if I could just think ahead a little bit.

Ravioli Party 2009

We took our annual New Year trip to Seattle, and one of the highlights was the New Year’s Day: Hennessey Annual Ravioli Party (Or NYD: HARP for short. Ok, so maybe I just made that up, but if you are into acronyms, it might work.). We had an awesome time making sausage (the men), making homemade ravioli (the ladies) and eating ourselves silly after it was all said and done.

One of the coolest things I like about each year is that Seth’s mom makes all the wee ones little chef’s hats. We now have three of them, and I’m starting a collection. I think these are going to be my dining room wall décor, one way or another.

It was also Hawkeye Bowl Day, and the Sandholm men were showing their gold pride. It must of worked, because we won. As Sully says, “Go Hawkeyes!”