Sunday, December 11, 2011

Hockey Update

So today, Walt made some good progress during hockey.  He's been skating on his own for a couple of weeks now, but today, there were a few milestones he accomplished.  First, the big problem that he'd had in the past is that he wasn't able to get up on his own after falling.  He would need either the assistance of a coach/bigger kid or a walker, but early on, today, he realized that he could get up on his skates on his own.  This is key for him to continue moving forward. 


This first video is of Walt skating on his own. A couple of notes here - it really looks like Walt skates over early on, and knocks the kid in the blue jersy down, but he never really makes contact with him. It's funny, from my camera's perspective, it looks like Walt just skates over, "takes care of" that other kid, and then just skates off on his own, but that wasn't the case.  Secondly, this is the first time that Walt has really been on his own without anyone encouraging or helping him as he skates.  At about 1:00 into the video, Walt falls down, and begins the process of getting up on his own.  The video doesn't show it to completion, but he did get up on his own, and throughout the day, he got much better at that .

Much has happened between the last video and this one.  First of all, Walt has been skating on his own for a while, but also, a "coach" has handed Walt his stick to help him balance, but it was too long, so I went over and got Walt his own stick to make things easier on him.  At that point, he immediately went from the area of kids learning skating skills to one of the other zones.  It would help to give a bit of defitnition of how they lay out the rink.  The Learn To Play program at Affton encompasses all 4-8 year olds with a very wide variety of skills.  In any given session, the three hockey zones are separated into chaos, controlled chaos, and skating drills.  Once I handed Walt his stick, he went straight for the Neutral Zone (controlled chaos) which is kids working on puck skills including passing, shooting, and generally playing with the puck.  He did this on his own without the urging of any of his coaches.   It was like once he had a stick in his hand, he  thought that he needed to start playing with a puck. The next video is Walt passing back and forth with one of the older kids.  Based on where I took the video, it's not easy to pick him out, but he's the kid in the center of the frame that is passing with the bigger kid.





This next video is Walt on his own near the far net.  He's kind of struggling to get good control of the puck, but eventually he does shoot the puck into the net.  He was very focused on getting that done, and it was fantastic to see him actually put he biscuit in the basket.    Again, I'm sorry for not being a better photographer, but Walt's the farthest player, and during this clip he's alone at the net.  I tried to keep him at the center of all of the videos.


This last video isn't very eventful, but he does do a great job of keeping his feet when he would have earlier fallen down.  For much of the shot, he's on the right side of the frame and you can see him going back and forth




Friday, December 9, 2011

Visit to Santa

Every year Bob's company has a family Christmas party at the office with Santa, face painters, carolers, food, and lots of fun.  WAlt got into this year.  He got his face painted with a penguin, got a green balloon dog, and got to talk to Santa. 


Francine did not like Santa this year.  As you will see in the picture.  Once she was off his lap, she was fine, but didn't let go of me for a while.  She is talking a lot and says "Ball" every time she sees an ornament.  Walt says that he wants EVERYTHING for Christmas, which I guess is good.  :)

Happy Birthday to Mama!


or to me.   I turned the ripe old age of 35 on Wednesday.  I actually thought that I would dread it more, but I had an amazing day and felt young and not at all what I thought that I might feel at 35.  The kids treated me to cupcakes from The Cup.  I love the red velvet.  Walt enjoyed the peppermint and Francine enjoyed all of ours. 

Monday, November 28, 2011

Trip to Chi-town

I was honored to be asked to be Amanda's daughter Sofia's Godmother.  So I took Francine and we went up to Chicago. We stayed with Cari and Raym and family.  It was great to spend more time with Penelope and Sofia.  They are super sweet girls and were happy to share all of their toys with Francine. 





We were able to see Emily and Shari who are both pregnant and super cute.  Francine loved Emily's dogs, and they loved to give her kisses!  We had a wonderful day at Amanda's and the baptism went great.  I think Sophia loved the water!  Amanda and Chris made some delicious food for lunch.  WE are so lucky to have amazing friends.

Happy Halloween! (a month late)

We went over to Nik and Kelly's for the 3rd year in a row.  We love going over there to celebrate the Holiday with them.  Francine rode the whole time in the wagon and Gavin kept coming over to dump his candy into the wagon.  By the end of the night she was "swimming" in the candy, and trust me she loved it.



Wedding Weekend part 2 (a little delayed)

We have had some laptop computer issues (we think that we have solved our problems).  Anyway back to the wedding weekend in Milwaukee...
After we left Jennifer and Tony's house we went back to the hotel and they had an amazing breakfast area and they said that the Ginther Family could gather there Friday night so we could all watch the World Series Game 7.  We ordered pizza!  BOb even set up his computer to watch the Blues game.  The BLues lost, but the Cardinals won the world series!  It was so much fun.  The kids were with us for a while and then my mom was sweet enough to go upstairs with them.  (we had ajoining rooms)
Saturday, the day of the wedding we had a big breakfast and then headed to the pool!  The kids had so much fun in the pool.  I can't wait to get Francine back into swim lessons.  I think that she will be back in January. 
We had a nice lunch from a mircobrewery.  Jessica and Troy were even in town from California, which was sooooo nice. 






Then off to the wedding.  Brian and Nicole were a super sweet and beautiful bride and groom.  My dad and Francine paced at the back of the church for the entire wedding.  The kids couldn't wait until the wedding.  Francine and WAlt met  a lot of their 2nd cousins (or my cousin's kids) and they couldn't wait to be out on the dance floor.  It was an amazing night.  The kids were so good.  It was an awesome weekend.  We even got home in time for walt to go to Hockey. 

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Walt Snoring


As most of you know, Walt had his tonsils and adenoids removed this past summer. The main factor in that decision was the fact that he wasn't sleeping well, and was specifically diagnosed with sleep apnea. A few days before he went in for surgery, I took some video of the noises that he made while sleeping. Keep in mind that the videos are dark because it was dark in his room, so there's nothing wrong with the video itself, it's the audio that I was looking for. I always said that he sounded like he was a 60 year old smoker when he snored. Obviously when viewing the videos, you're going to want to make sure to have the volume up:




 
Sara and I are both happy to report that since the surgery, he's had a more normal experience sleeping. It's rare that he makes any noise at all, and I know that he's been sleeping more restfully as a result.



Monday, November 7, 2011

Francine Francine the Dancing Queen

Our great friends Jill and Tal got us 2 Francine titled books as a gift when Francine was born.  One of them was called "Francine Francine the Dancing Queen".   She has taken these words to heart, and she loves to dance.  Her dance is a little bit of a bounce.  This was a video last week after Walt's hockey practice.  Sorry for the loud street noise, but we could not resist the beautiful day to sit outside. 

Action Figure and Octopus

I can't remember if we told you about Action Figure and Octopus, Walt's first pets...Hermit Crabs.  They are pretty "out" in this video, but trust us, they do not come out much unless they are in their bath (like they are in the video).  And some sad news to pass on, Action Figure has passed.  We will miss him and his super cool name. 

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Wedding Weekend part 1

What an amazing last weekend in October we had.  We traveled on Thursday night up to Milwaukee to not only go to my cousin Brian's wedding, but also to see Jennifer and family.  It was an amazing drive up to Wisconsin because we were listening to game 6 of the World Series and it was a crazy day where the Cardinals kept getting behind and then coming back... By the time we checked in it was in the 11th and as we were getting all of the luggage in, David Freese hit the game winning home run!  We couldn't believe it and could not stop smiling!  We celebrated quietly with the kids sleeping and went to sleep finally after 1am. 
The kids were of course up around the normal time, bob was still so excited about the win that he took them down to Breakfast.  I was so thankful to sleep an extra hour. 



Then we headed out to see Jennifer and Tony and the family.  By chance, Diane and WAlly were up in Wisconsin as well.  So all of us Wichards were together.  The kids loved some cousin time.  

I am surprised...



I am still surprised how much walt is enjoying Hockey.  He loves it every week.  He is in the red jersey.

Boo at the Zoo 2011





Walt loved Boo at the Zoo last year, so we knew that we wanted to try to make it again.  They let you in starting at 5:30 and then you can walk around to parts of the zoo and there are some activities.  We watched the show at the Children's zoo and rode the carousel and enjoyed all of the "spooky" decorations.  It is also fun that the kids get to wear their costumes for another day. 

Day at the Park!



So we have had a little problem with the format of some of our pictures, so we apologize for the delay in posts.  We had a beautiful October here in St Louis.  So we spent a lot of time outside.  We went to Soulard Park one day, the kids were in sweatsuits, which photographed very "cute".   Francine is getting more and more adventurous at the park.   She is also getting more and more verbal.  She still has about 6-8 words, but she does a lot of grunting.  :)

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Opening Night 2011




Well the Blues are Back!  So, because us Wichards love traditions.  We took the annual picture of the kids with their Blues jerseys.  I have thought you might want to see last year's pictures as well.  The Blues lost the home opener, but we know that they will have a great season!

Pumpkin Patch

Each Fall since Walt was 1, we have been going to Rellecke Farms in Pontoon Beach, IL  (it sounds like a great little town, the name is a little deceiving) .  We like it because if you get there right when it opens, it is not busy and we can ride a couple rides, see some animals, buy a pumpkin  and head home.  The kids loved it.  Francine rode her first ride, called The Barrel Grand Prix, it was pulled by a tractor.  Walt held onto her the whole time. 






We picked a great pumpkin, I am sure that we will pass on some pictures when it gets carved.