Hello, everyone!  Sorry we haven’t updated in a while, but, well, you know how it goes…

But we’re here now to fill you in on everything that’s been happening over the last 5 months.  Honestly, it’s been more of the same, but that’s really what life is all about, I guess.

Since February, Harper has been changing constantly.  You’ll see in the VIP pictures that she’s gone from big, chubby, chipmunk cheeks to a more slender profile in a matter of months.  She’s still cute as could be, just looking more and more like a toddler, instead of an infant.

As we speak she’s sitting in her highchair, coloring with crayons, something she couldn’t do even a month ago.  She picks up crayons with both hands, though primarily eats with her left hand,  so we’re still trying to figure out if we have  a Southpaw in the family or not.  She also has almost all of her teeth at this point - just those pesky canines left to go and, from what we’ve heard, they’re a doozie.  She’s still a wee little thing- barely cracking the 20lb. mark and her 3-month younger buddy, Ezra, has almost a full head’s height on her now.   As a short guy I know how she feels.

Unfortunately, our daughter has been inflicted with a most horrible addiction.  I’m speaking, of course, of Yo Gabba Gabba! It’s the only TV show we let her watch - and only in small doses - but she pretty much insists it be on the TV whenever we’re in the basement now.  She knows all the characters, knows the songs when we sing them, and dances like a woman possessed when it’s on.  She can even say “Brobee” and what sounds like “Toodee”, two of the characters from the show.  Sometimes she really wants to go downstairs and watch, so she’ll go to the basement door and pound on it, then she waves her hands in the air (like she just don’t care) with her mouth open like she’s surprised, which is apparently her sign for “Yo Gabba!”  If we say no she’ll throw a small fit, but we can usually distract her with a book or her new favorite toy, her ball (which she says pretty clearly when she wants to play with it).

Harper is still fairly quiet, only saying a handful of words at the moment, but her comprehension is a little bit spooky.  She can point to an ostrich in one of her books, which it’s not like we bring up ostriches all that often in everyday conversation, so she’s obviously picked it up from us reading to her.  She knows all of the popular barnyard animals (cow, pig, duck,  horse, etc.), she points to all the Muppets when we say their names (Andrea almost teared up with pride when that started happening), she knows airplanes (she waves her hand in the air and goes, “Mmmmmm”) and cars (she waves and says, “bye-bye”), she has even started to tell us when we need to change her diaper, by patting it and saying “stinky”.  But when she knows a word, she uses it.  Just today we went to the grocery store, and when we came upon the dairy aisle, she yelled out, “Cheee!” and pointed to the string cheese hanging from the rack.  So, she’s quiet, but she’s still a smart little bugger.  We’re both really excited for her to start talking more, though, because she sometimes gets really frustrated when she can’t communicate with us.  Can’t say I blame her there.

In family news, I recently made a huge sacrifice (please note I’m severely exaggerating how awesome I am) by trading in my beloved Ford Ranger so that we could get a second vehicle capable of carrying a carseat.  We wound up buying a Nissan Cube (Here are some pics and my review), which some of you are going to call ugly, but we love the little thing.  We were actually the first people in the county to buy one, so we’ve been getting plenty of interesting stares and fingers pointed at us since we got it a little over a month ago.  It’s been really exciting for both Andrea and me, as this is the first new car either one of us has ever owned.

In other news, I’ve had some recent success with my writing for mental_floss.  Back in May I had a story reprinted by the Wall Street Journal and then just this past week I had another story reprinted by CNN.com, marking my second time on that site.  The story became pretty popular (probably in large part to my friends and family on Facebook and Twitter) and reached the Top 5 Most Popular stories on June 23.  Pretty cool, huh?

Speaking of work, Andrea was asked to come back to Borders to help them with some rearranging of the store, as well as fill in for a friend/colleague that has been out with a broken wrist.  So that means she’s away from home three nights out of the week and Harper and I get some quality time together.  She’s tired by the end of the day, but I think she likes the time away to talk to grown-ups, too.

Well, that’s really about it for now.  Sorry our long absence didn’t mean we were off backpacking in Timbuktu or anything, but it’s just been a really busy few months of doing the same ol’ thing.  So until next time (maybe before Christmas?), go check out the VIP section and enjoy some new pictures of Harper from the last few months.

Yes, we are still alive.  Sorry it’s been so long since we last updated the site, but things have been quite hectic since Halloween.

In early November I started my new job at NiSC.  It’s been a little slow-going thanks to the holidays, but I’m starting to find my niche and I think it’s going to be a good thing in the long run.  Just don’t ask me what it is exactly I do, because it’s really strange and even if I explained it you still wouldn’t understand.  I have a feeling that’s sort of what my jobs are going to be like for pretty much the rest of my career.

Of course with November came Harper’s first Thanksgiving.  We spent one weekend at “The Farm” in Fisher with that whole side of the family and the actual Turkey Day here in St. Peters with Grandpa Schumacher.  Harper had turkey, peas, and even tried a little mashed potatoes.  She loved it.

December brought Christmas, which was very fun as you might imagine.  Once again we spent a weekend in Fisher, and Christmas Eve and Day here in St. Peters.  As with most kids, Harper was more interested in the boxes she received than the presents inside, but she still enjoyed the festivities.

Nothing much really happened in January, so there’s really no point in even mentioning it, so let’s just move on.

Ok, ok, maybe I exaggerated a little bit there.  I guess something important happened in January - Andrea turned 27 and Harper turned 1! We had a very low-key birthday party, complete with an awesome monkey-shaped cake made by Andrea. We only had Grandma and Grandpa Lammle, Grandma Joan, Marvin, and Aunt Kris here to watch Harper destroy her piece of birthday cake, but they got quite a show as you’ll see in the VIP photos.

As for our little treasure/terror, Harper is growing like a weed.

She currently has six teeth (4 up top, 2 on the bottom) and uses them to eat just about everything we give her. Andrea got a great recipe for these weird little broccoli nuggets from Aunt Leigh, and Harper could pretty much eat them at every meal. She also loves milk, animal crackers, grilled cheese, bananas, cheddar bunnies, and Andrea’s homemade, organic blueberry waffles. Like I said, she eats just about anything we put in front of her.

She is also walking everywhere nowadays. She stands up by herself and dawdles along like a little drunk man; it’s pretty cute. This, of course, means she’s starting to get into everything and is sometimes pretty tough to keep up with. We’re going to have our hands pretty full over the next year.

With all this walking and otherwise non-stop motion, the day we thought would never come has finally arrived - Harper sleeps in her crib from 7pm until 7am!  We still check on her about a half-dozen times, but that’s a small price to pay for 12 solid hours of rest for us all.

Recently we had a nice big snow down here in MO and it was Harper’s first time to check it out.  Andrea bundled her up in her heavy coat and way-too-cute Winnie the Pooh stocking cap and they got to wander through the flakes.  We have some great pictures of the event in the VIP section that are easily some of our favorite photos yet.

Other than that, life goes on one day at a time. We’re looking forward to another great year of watching our little girl grow and we’re going to continue to document things here as often as possible. Thanks for reading!  Now go check out the VIP section, which is why you’re all here anyway…

As Rob mentioned in the previous post, I have joined a stroller fitness class called The Mommy Movement.  Stroller Fitness is exactly as it sounds (but you can look at me like I have 3 heads. Everyone else does when I mention it.): Exercise that is stroller-friendly. 

I have been attending the classes twice a week since August and I certainly notice a difference in my strength, endurance and over-all temperament.  I’ve also made some new friends and gathered some great advice from Mom’s who have gone through it all in the recent past.

This past Wednesday, TMM group had their Halloween Party.  Originally, Rob and I had no intention of dressing Harper up for Halloween. She’s  so young, and we weren’t taking her anywhere, we didn’t see the point.  After class on Monday, I changed my mind.

The costume was last minute and 100% handmade on Tuesday night.  I enjoyed making it and I hope I earn a little “geek-cred” with it as well.

Now that you’ve been sufficiently teased, the photos are only available if you’re on our VIP list.  If you’re already a member, you should have received an email with your new password.  If you’re not on the list, send us an email and we’ll put you on the list.

Happy Halloween, Everyone!

It has been a pretty eventful month and a half since we checked-in with everyone.

Harper is now 9 months old and it seems like she had an explosion of development in the last few weeks.  She’s still standing up on everything and has started “cruising” (walking along the furniture), sometimes even reaching from one item of furniture to another adjacent.  She occasionally stands on her own for brief moments, but hasn’t quite figured out that that’s the next step in what she’s doing.

Harper has also begun eating finger foods - mainly Arrowroot cookies, teething biscuits, cereal puffs (her favorite), and these weird little wagon wheel-shaped processed food things that get really mushy and gross when she gums them.  Yes, she’s still gumming everything; nary a tooth is in sight, believe it or not.

Our latest game is “Soooo big!”, which you’ll see in the video clips if you’re a VIP member.  It’s pretty darn cute, I have to say.  She also began clapping just about a week ago.  Whenever she starts we clap along with her and say “Yay!”  She giggles everytime.  Pointing has also become a new trick she can do.  She uses her index finger and leaves her thumb up in a sort of pretend gun configuration.  Again, if you’re a VIP member, you’ll see her pointing in the pictures.  Did I mention the stairs?  She can definitely climb up stairs now.  Greaaaaaaat…

Sleep is still a difficulty for her, but she’s definitely doing better.  She’s doing really well in the early part of the evening, but then has the occasional breakdown as the night wears on.  Nothing a couple of tired parents can’t handle, though.  In all honesty, she’s actually getting much better than she was, so we’re quite pleased.

Finally, she’s talking like crazy.  Mainly “mama”, “baba”, “da!”, and the occasional “dada”, but she makes time for ear-piercingly high shrieks every once in a while, too, especially when the cats are within sight.  Speaking of the cats, she is definitely saying “kitty” thanks to our constantly repeating it to her whenever she’s watching or chasing poor Rufus or Peekaboo around.  It sounds a bit like “ki-ee” most of the time, but she really only says it when the cats are nearby, so we really do believe she knows what she’s talking about.

As for the rest of the family (as if anyone comes here for anything but news on Harper), we’re both extremely busy.  Andrea has been attending her stroller fitness class, a group called The Mommy Movement (TMM), twice a week, and has caught the workout bug.  The group not only works out, but they also plan playdates and outings, like a recent trip to a local apple orchard.  It’s been really good for Andrea to get out and be around some grown-ups, and it’s good for Harper to be around other kids, too.  As you’ll see in the VIP photos, Harper has made a new little friend through the group.  His name is Ezra and the two of them get along quite well.

Me?  I’ve been busy working on some odd little side projects - some artwork and learning bookbinding, if you can believe it - as well as working on maps as a volunteer for the Barack Obama campaign.  And this week I’ll be working on another mental_floss article (this will be article number 4!) that will hopefully be published soon.

Finally, some big news - I got a new job!  Yes, after 8 long years working for the City of O’Fallon, I am moving on to greener pastures in November.  The company is called NiSC (www.nisc.coop) and they make custom software for electric utility co-ops all across the country.  Much of their software is map-based, so my experience in GIS is going to really come in handy.  I’ll be working in support and implementation - meaning I’ll be helping folks use the software, will be doing a little training, and will occasionally need to travel to one of these co-ops to install our company’s software.  So needless to say it’s a pretty exciting time for me and our family as my career heads in a new direction.  Wish me luck!

With that, I’ll wrap up for now and let you head to the VIP section to check out the latest pictures and videos of Harper.  Check back next month sometime to hear how things are going.  I predict we’ll have a little walker on our hands by then.  Fun, fun!

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, but we are one busy household.

In August, we made a trip up to Chicago to see our friends Soniya and Erick get married in a traditional Hindu ceremony.  It was quite a fascinating experience.  It’s not every day that you see someone riding a horse in downtown Chicago…

While in the Windy City, we were finally able to visit Great Grandpa AJ Schumacher at his home in Rolling Meadows.  Harper and AJ got to see one another for the better part of a morning and even had some fun playing AJ’s snare drum.  A good time was had by all.

Shortly after we got back from Chicago, Andrea started going to a “stroller exercise” class run by a local group called The Mommy Movement.  So far she’s made friends with a few fellow stay-at-home moms and getting in better shape all at the same time.  It’s a win-win situation for her.

As for me, I had an article published on mentalfloss.com, the online presence for a major nationwide magazine, which was a pretty big hit on the internet.  In less than a week it had about 150,000 hits and was picked up by a few other websites as well.  It sounds like my freelance relationship with them is going to continue, so not only am I bringing in a little extra cash, but I’m building my writing resume as well. Again, a win-win situation.

This past weekend we went home to visit the family in Fisher, which included a wonderful visit with great grandparents, Granny and Pop, as well as with all the cousins, aunts and uncles and grandparents a trip like that entails. It was good to see everyone again and get to spend some time with them.

As for the star of our little show, Harper is growing up so fast it’s hard to believe. She’s now crawling so much we can barely contain her. She pulls herself up on anything that gets in her path and can even stand without using her hands for brief periods - I’m sure she’ll be walking in no time. She’s begun babbling “mama” and “dada” and there’s no denying that sometimes she’s even addressing us directly. She shrieks with joy whenever an animal is near, usually resulting in them running as far away from her as they can get. Her hair is growing in a very light blond - so light you can barely see it. She’s been in the infant swings at the playground twice now and has been laughing the whole time. All this and still no teeth.

So, yes, we have been a very busy family. But the changes we’ve been making are exciting, fun, and will hopefully lead to some great things for all of us in the very near future.

As per usual, there are VIP photos for you to see. So head up to the top of the page and click on the link to get inside. Enjoy and check back in with us soon!

Harper has learned a new trick - she pulls herself up!  Is she supposed to be doing that by six months?  Or are we just going to be chasing after an 8-month old who can walk?  I guess only time will tell.

In other news, our little girl is growing bigger and brighter every day.  She’s eating all kinds of solid foods - bananas, apples, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, and prunes…oh, god, the prunes.  I shudder at the thought.  If you’ve changed a poopy diaper after a healthy meal of prunes, you know what I’m talking about.  The doctor said she might be ready for a sippy cup, so we went out and bought a couple different kinds to see if she’d take to one or the other.  However, she doesn’t really know what to do with either of them yet.  We realized, though, that she doesn’t really know what to do with a bottle for that matter.  She’s usually eaten from Mom and those rare times she does have a bottle it’s usually glass (which is pretty heavy), so she has never held a bottle up by herself.  Therefore she doesn’t even know how a sippy cup would work, so it’s no wonder she doesn’t know what to do with it.  We’re working on it, though, so maybe sometime soon she’ll be able to drink a little juice by herself.

She’s talking like crazy lately.  She makes this little “nnnnnyah!” sound a lot, which we mimick back to her, she mimicks back to us, etc.  She’s also starting to repeat “ma ma ma ma ma” after Andrea says it to her.  She’s still working on “dada”, but everytime I try it with her she just stares at my mouth like she’s trying to get the mechanics down.  She’ll get it one of these days.  She better, anyway!

Harper is still not officially crawling, but she gets around in her own way - she bridges up on her big toes, and then sort of falls forward to her tummy.  She keeps doing this until she reaches the object of her desire - usually a TV remote control or one of our cell phones.  Yes, we have a gadget obsessed infant.  No, I have no idea where she gets it; definitely not from her mother and me.

We recently had a visit from Grandma Lesa, Grandpa Steve, and Aunt Sara, which was a fun couple of days.  We found out Harper is going to have another girl cousin to play with at family events.  I can’t believe there are going to be three girls, all right around a year apart, running around the farm.  Those three are going to be hell on wheels come their teenage years.

Well, that about covers it for now.  No big news for the rest of the family (as if anyone really even remembers or cares that Andrea and I exist).  So I’ll let you go for now.  By the way, you VIPs should have gotten a new email with the new password.  If you didn’t for some odd reason, let me know and I’ll get you setup.

Until next time!

I know it’s only been a few weeks since we sent out VIP photos, but there are more there for you to check out.  You should be getting an email soon with the current password.  And if you aren’t getting VIP emails, but would like to, please shoot us an email (vip at lammlelounge.com) and we’ll put you on the list.

As the title of this post suggests, we’ve had a pretty crazy couple of weeks.  Harper got her first illness, which caused her to run a fever for about 30 hours, until finally breaking.  She was getting up near 102*, but the doctor was right - it eventually went back down after her body was finished fighting off whatever it was.  Of course her mother and I were freaking out as new parents do.  I’m sure the next time we won’t even bat an eyelash until it reaches at least 103*.  Yeah…right.

Then this past weekend we had a rather exciting visit from Grandpa George (my biological father, for those of you who are trying to keep your flowcharts in order), the last grandparent she needed to meet.  He got to spend a few hours with us at our condo as he passed through the area on his way back home from a whirlwind trip through northern Illinois.  We still have 4 great-grandparents for her to meet - Gene and Betty, George Zebrun Sr., and Great-grandpa Schumacher - but a lifetime of reminding her who the heck all of these people are and how they’re related to her.  The poor kid’s going to think anyone over the age of 50 is a grandparent.

Not much else to tell, other than we’re looking forward to our next visitors - Grandma Lesa, Grandpa Steve, Aunt Sara, and Cousin Bertelsen, who, by that time, we should know if it will be another girl in the family or break the mold and be a boy (everyone thinks it’s going to be a boy).  So I’m sure we’ll have more pictures in a few more weeks.  Keep checking back!

Hey, folks!  Yep, it’s been 5 months!  Hard to believe, huh?

Not much is going on around here that’s all that unusual - I’m busy working, I’m trying to do some more writing and might have a freelance gig lined up; Andrea’s taking care of Harper while trying to get her new business venture, Zenbot Baby, off the ground; and Harper’s growing like a weed and changing every day.

It was my first Father’s Day today, which was kinda cool, I must say.  Andrea made blueberry waffles while Harper and I looked on.  She also got me a really cool little Lando Calrissian figure for my desk at work.   It’s funny, but I never really thought Father’s Day was all that big of a deal until now.  I mean, I never thought it actually meant anything to my dad (or anyone else’s dad for that matter).  But now that I am a father, it’s kind of a cool holiday (even if it is completely made up).  It’s not so much that you get blueberry waffles or intergalatic smugglers as gifts on that day, but it actually helped me take a step back and realize, “Wow.  I’m a dad now.”  It put a bit of perspective on things, for lack of a better analogy.  I’ll be getting hand-painted cards and obnoxious ties for the rest of my life now.  It’s a pretty crazy, but very exciting thought.

Anyway, I know you’re only here because I sent out another VIP notification, so head up there, type in the new password, and get your fix of Harper’s latest photos and video clips.  By the way, last time I mentioned that I was going to post some new photos later that week, but I had to wait until Andrea gave copies of those photos - some awesome family portraits that were a gift from my parents - to her own dad for Father’s Day.  So now that he has them, you can finally check them out for yourself.  Enjoy and we’ll see you next time!

Hello, folks!  Sorry it’s been a while since we updated.  No excuse, really, I’ll be honest.  We’ve just been extremely busy lately.  You know how it goes…

This past weekend we went home to Fisher to visit with family in honor of my niece, Nicole (AKA Coco), who graduated from junior high.  The whole crew was there for at least part of the weekend, so Andrea and I barely held Harper for more than five minutes at a time.  We love the little gal, but sometimes that kind of a break is a good thing.

Aside from Nicole’s graduation celebration, the other big event taking place this weekend was Harper meeting my Aunt Gayle and Uncle Jim.  Aunt Gayle was my mom’s oldest sister and was always a big influence on me, especially in encouraging my love for reading and writing.  Were it not for her massive library of books that I would go through everytime I visited, there’s a pretty good chance you wouldn’t be reading this right now.  So when we were trying to figure out Harper’s middle name by going through family members, the name Gayle stuck and I couldn’t be happier to honor my aunt in this way.  So long story short, Harper was meeting her namesake this weekend and we were all very excited about it.

The weekend entailed plenty of good times - a trip to a farmer’s market in Urbana; lying outside on a blanket on a beautiful day; playing plenty of Mario Kart on the Wii; and Monical’s Pizza with the whole crew.

And with all that fun, we had to take a few pictures while we were at it.  So if you’re a member of the VIP club, you should be receiving an email with your new password.  No videos this time, but plenty of photos from the weekend and a few from random days in the last couple of months that seem worth sharing.

Enjoy and look for a new post later in the week as I update you on another cool thing that happened last weekend.  I’m sure you’re all anxious to find out what it is…

Sorry it’s been a while since we’ve updated here. Things have just been incredibly busy for the Lammle Family as of late.

But before we get into the latest going on in our life, we’d like to first say congratulations to our friends Nate and Beth Lown on the birth of their son Benjamin Reinhart Lown on April 12, 2008.

Little Ben and Harper are almost exactly 3 months apart! That should make for some fun family nights spent at backyard barbecues in the years to come.

As for us, we’ve been busy getting our house in order, mainly. We’re revamping the basement office for a super-secret project that we can’t tell you about just yet, but keep your eyes here for future news. Part of that revamp is doing some major purging of our less-than-needed clutter around the house as we get rid of clothes we don’t wear, books we don’t read, movies we don’t watch, and even a couch we stopped liking about 2 years ago. Our goal behind getting rid of this stuff is to make our house easier to care for so that we don’t spend all our free time cleaning and organizing, leaving us free to spend time with Harper and each other. It’s going to be a long road, but we both know it’s going to be worth it in the end.

Speaking of Harper, she’s doing really well lately. She’s sleeping all through the night, often at 9-10 hour stretches! Which has given us parental units time to pursue some of the things we haven’t been able to do in a while - I’m writing, reading, and watching all kinds of movies and TV shows on DVD; Andrea is reading and working on her super secret project that I spoke of earlier (shhhh…). In the meantime, Harper is growing by leaps and bounds. She’s reaching out for things now, which, once she gets hold of them, go immediately to her drooling mouth to chew on. She’s sucking on her hands like crazy and is still talking up a storm. She’s even begun to laugh every once in a while. And with all that drooling, we have to wonder if a tooth is going to be poking through those gums sometime soon. Solid foods are not far behind…

So life is good in the Lammle house at the moment. We’ve been able to enjoy some of these nice Spring days and it’s been a great couple of weeks for us. Sadly, Spring is usually over before it even really begins in Missouri, so we’ll soon be in store for 90 degree weather and oppressive humidity. Joy!

Before we say goodbye for now, here’s a picture of Harper in one of her Winnie the Pooh hats that Andrea loves so much. She is quite the cutie if we do say so ourselves…