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Today was a big day for Mia. Mia passed her swimming test today at the JCC, which means that she is now allowed to swim in the deep end all by herself! This is a big deal! We went to the pool today with her friend Liv (who has already passed the swimming test). Mia really wanted to go in the deep end with Liv, but she was terrified to take the test. Liv and I encouraged her to try and she finally got up the courage. She was so awesome! She swam the width of the pool and back without touching the bottom. She was so amazed that she was able to do it. So, she got her green band that allows her to go in the deep end anytime she wants. I was so proud I nearly cried. And that was only the beginning. She jumped off the diving board for the first time today as well. That was really something. The poor kid was shaking like a leaf, she was so scared!! But she did it and she was so darn proud of herself!

Jonah, also had his first swimming experience today as well--but not in the big pool. Jonah joined all the neighbor girls for a dip in the kiddie pool today and loved it. He has always been a bit too scared to venture into the kiddie pool, but today he went in full force and loved it. I'm afraid I don't have any pictures of that one, but here are some pics of him lounging on his new chair eating raspberries--which are his new obsession.

Mia in the deep end with her new green wrist band

Jonah enjoying some early morning raspberries with his sister

Jonah enjoying some lunch time raspberries by himself

Jonah enjoying some afternoon raspberries on his chair...

I think you are getting the picture of Jonah's day.

The handsome Mr. Raich

Mia teaching the Jonster how to ride his bike

A new addition to the family

Wow, it has been a long time since my last update. So much has happened! Most importantly, we added a new member to our family. Don't even ask how it came to be--Jeff will give you one answer and I will give you an entirely different one. All I know is that one evening I admired a neighbors puppy, and the next thing I knew we were in the process of adopting a second dog. And so we have Sadie--a sweet little 9 pound Havanese/Poodle mix. She is 6 years old and was rescued from a puppy mill. She has been a great addition to the family. I think Dixie even likes her--although she would never admit it. Here is a picture of the newest Raich.

Additionally, here are some pictures of Mia and Jonah. Mia is wearing a new dress that was given to her by her Aunt Sue. She LOVES it. Mia has recently become much more conscious of her hair and clothes and actually manages to clean her self up pretty nicely when she wants to.

Mia, looking lovely

Jonah exploring at the Children's Museum

Mia as a cat

A few spring pictures

girl's day out at the University

Girl Scouts

Jonah walking Dixie

The Dance Recital

Mia had her first night of her dance recital tonight, and she has two more nights to go. Unfortunately neither Jeff or I could be there tonight, but her Grandma Jacki took her and said it was a big success. I was there last night, however, for her dress rehearsal and got a peek at the backstage insanity. Let me just say--I am not cut out to be a stage mom. Yikes. Here are some pictures of the Mia with her dancing friends.

The Science Experiment

Now that Mia is in 1st grade, she gets to participate in the annual science fair at her school. Here are the details:

--Experiment: To see who can eat a bowl of macaroni and cheese quicker--Mia or Dixie

--Hypothesis: Mia thinks that Dixie can finish first

--Results: Dixie was scared of the bowl of Mac and Cheese and ran to the couch to hide. Mia won the contest with ease!

--Summary: Our dog is a disgrace to dogs everywhere

Mia is off to a good start. Dixie is apprehensive.

Dixie has gone AWOL

Mia nearly peed her pants she was laughing so hard

Clearly Dixie has become a little bit spoiled--boxed mac and cheese just doesn't cut it

Summer "firsts"

We have had a busy May so far. Mia had her first lemonade stand a few weeks ago, she is busy preparing for her first science fair, her first dance recital, and her first spelling bee (in french no less). Jonah has also been busy with many firsts as well. He just got his first red wagon for his birthday and he just got his first haircut today. He looks like such a handsome young man!

We are also experiencing some exciting changes as a family. Jeff just had his last day at the hospital yesterday and is officially self-employed (yikes!). He is doing such an amazing job, and is holding steady at around 10 clients. He will be working three days a week and will be home with Jonah the other two days. I am thinking that this is going to totally change our lives. I am thinking home cooked meals, clean house, peaceful life...things are definitely looking up. Jeff has even ventured upstairs a few times recently. It seems we are getting a bit closer to our dream of having our own bedroom. I'll keep you posted on that one.

Some Lemonade Stand Funky Moves

Raking in the dough (seriously...they cleaned up)

Long-haired boy

Jonah may have been a bit apprehensive of the hair salon

Feeling pretty handsome with his new look

Below is a video, but it is sideways - try watching while laying down!

Happy Birthday Jonah

Today my little boy turns one. I don't know where the past year has gone, but it sure has been wonderful getting to know this amazing little guy. We love you Jonah. Happy Birthday!!

Ahhhh...summer

Well, summer is here--almost. It might as well be with this amazing, so not Minnesota in April, weather. We are loving it. I don't know what happened in our neighborhood, but there has just been a huge kid explosion. And quite fortunately for us, all the kids seem to be girls around Mia's age. We have always had Saya and Sofia next door, but now we also have Ellen (7) and Leah (10)--sisters who moved in across the back alley. And now our other neighbors across the back alley seem to be having their two granddaughters, Sierra (10) and McCayla (7), over to their house a lot. More than that, there seem to be quite a few boys entering the picture as well. James Leo (8), lives next door and he has a bunch of boy friends in the neighborhood who come over frequently, and there seems to be some new mixing between the boys and the girls. Last weekend there was quite a raucous game of roller hockey in the alley. Apparently the boys were doing quite a bit of cheating and the girls finally quit in protest.

Anyway, the hub of all of this kid activity seems to be our yard or the alley directly behind our house. It is something. On any given weekend we have had a small army of children in our backyard and quite a few adults as well. In fact, our neighbor just told us that her granddaughter refers to our yard as "Mia's Park". People just like to come on over and hang out in our yard. For example, this evening all the girls were out with their bikes and scooters and skates racing up and down the alley while all the adults stood around talking for hours. Jeff and I even participated in some scooter races with the kids. In addition to all of the socializing we have started quite a food swapping tradition. We all garden and share our harvest and baking. In the past two weeks we have gotten chocolate chip banana bread from Carol, a big dish of spaghetti and sauce from Jay and Lisa, had dinner at Neal and Makiko's, and fresh baked Rhubarb bars from Jay and Lisa! It is all so...communal and neighborly. Not our typical recluse style, but we will take it! We will have all winter to be shut-ins again. For now, I am happy to be the proud owner of "Mia's Park".

Serious artwork

Our neighbor behind us--Jay

Jeff and Dixie enjoying some summer sun in the yard

Sophia

Saya Lil' Jonah

My little talker!

Jonah has officially started signing. The best part about it is just how thrilled he is to be communicating. Poor little guy has so much to say, and is just looking for ways to get his message across! He has been pointing and saying "DAT!" for a while now. A few weeks ago he started shaking his head no. This is both a blessing and a curse. It is great to know what he doesn't want, except when it turns out that he doesn't want ANYTHING--like the other night when I pulled out the entire contents of our fridge just to watch him shake his head at every single thing I showed him. Anyway, now he is also using some of the signs I have been teaching him. The best is his new love of the sign for "sleep" or "go to bed" which I use pretty interchangeably. So tonight Jonah was nursing before bed like he always does, but he was kind of playing around and not going to sleep. So I put my hand up to my face and did the sign for "go to sleep". He looked at me and smiled and did the sign back at me. Then, when I put him in his crib and started to rub his back, he kept looking up at me and doing the sign for "go to sleep", as if to tell me "yeah, mom, I know what I am supposed to be doing". It was sooooooo sweet!! I could just eat that kid up.

Jonah at his joint one year birthday party with his friends from Mom and Baby Group. Don't worry people--you haven't missed his birthday yet. This was just a one year party for all the babies who are turning one together between Feb and May.

In the garden with dad, where he decided to do a little soil tasting. Jeff didn't think this was a problem. Really? Sorry. I am trying to relax about a lot of things, but eating dirt just isn't ok...

One walking and one riding...

My little cherubs are growing up fast! Jonah started walking a few weeks ago and is sailing around like a pro! He is so proud of himself these days and is quick to applaud his efforts. It is so amazing to have him walking. Not only has it decreased his likelihood of eating miscellaneous garbage from the floor, but it has just made him so happy! He just loves being a big boy.

Equally as impressive is Miss Mia who got on her bike tonight after school and just decided it was time to learn to ride without training wheels--and off she went, sailing down the alley! Some of her friends were out riding without their training wheels and I guess it was just more than Mia could stand. No amount of fear or apprehension was going to stop her from fitting in. It was amazing to watch her go! I was about as proud a mama as I have ever been! Here are some recent pics from last weekend. We went to Minnehaha Falls for some warm weather relaxation.

Another week . . .

So one more week has gone by and still no clients. The question that probably comes to your mind, at least it is to mine, is what is a potentially successful, and very handsome, therapist doing all day with nothing on his schedule. Well, I will be sure to ask him when I meet him. As for me, there are many things that I could be doing, but none of which I am actually doing.

The things I could be doing are as follows: finish the upstairs, finish our money project, make meals, clean the house, and start to prep the outside for paint.

Here are all the reasons why this is not working out. First, I could finish the upstairs, but I fear that if I actually do finish the project, I will be left feeling empty inside. I would prefer not to feel this way so as a result I will not be finishing the project any time soon.

Second, finish the money project. The way I see this is that as a result of my new business, for which I have exactly one client, there is no money and therefore no money projects. I suppose I could be planning for the sale of our house and how we will pay for the move to my mother's house. Prostitution comes to mind. However, I am confident that should I follow this route, I will no longer have a family; and while this will be less expensive for me, I will be very lonely on the streets under the bridge.

Third, make meals. Actually there are times when I do this, but overall I find the planning of meals to be a bit tedious. And really what's the purpose. Mia only eats things that contain cheese, processed refined carbs, and ham. So our choices are limited. They include, and may actually only be the following: mac and cheese, cheese and ham, peanut butter and jelly, waffles and pbj, or toast and cream cheese. That's it. Oh, wait, there are are a few other things. She will eat any color, shape, or size, thing that is classified as a dessert. It doesn't matter what it is, as long as it is dessert, she eats it. And I know what you're going to say . . . just call an avocado dessert. It's not that easy. She knows a veg at 100 yards. There is no fooling her. I mean it. She has this superhuman power to be able to identify veg. I suppose that could come in handy. I mean what does Superman or Batman have on her. Sure they can fly or beat people up, but she is able to protect her insides for the harmful and deadly tomato.

Fourth, what is the purpose of cleaning the house. We have three levels in our house and only one of them is livable. And even if I clean the one floor we do live on, Jonah makes sure that he puts all the stuff back where he wants it . . . on the floor. So in the end I pick up all the papers, books, toys, pieces of waffle, snot filled tissues, and whatever else Jonah has found and then he follows me and just throws similar items back on the ground. He has gotten to think this is a game. I just wish he could have some understanding of language. If he did, he would be sure to let him know that I do not like this game.

Fifth, I am just simply not ready for another house project.

So there you have it. Things I could be doing but am not. What I am doing is watching movies, running, and watching more movies. Not a bad life if you can get it.

Three weeks, 1 client, 17 more months left

That's right, I only have 17 more months until my lease is up. Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking to be done with my rent. I'm simply looking at how long we, the Raiches that is, have to live on the street. I'm pretty confident now that the house will be the next thing to go. We are trying hard, though. We've cut our spending drastically. We've cut way down on things like food. Whereas we once each had our own plate of food at dinner, we now share. The biggest person gets to start the meal - that's me. I eat what I want, then Andrea, then Mia, and then Jonah, who by then is getting mostly crumbs. Dixie gets the lick up what's on the floor.

We've also cut in other ways. Thinks like gas for the car have become a comfort item and had to go. The way I figure it, I have two children and at least one of them can walk. So now, thanks to extra clothes and things in the garage, I have hooked up a harness to the front of the car that is a perfect size for Mia and she pulls us where we want to go. Don't worry, we live on a slight hill and park facing down so it's not that hard for her to get started. I mean that would be just cruel to have her pull going up. It is hard for her, though, to try to get up to highway speed, but she tries and we're proud of her for that.

We've also cut the heating out. Really this is just a comfort item. I figure we can burn most of the items we don't need thereby cutting down our footprint on the environment. Also, it forces, I mean allows, us to get close to each other. The other bonus about getting close to each other is that we can pick the nits out of each other's hair and thus cut down on water usage.

Really, in the end, this has been a real family builder. I just hope my kids see it that way when we get them back from child protection.

The Little Cherubs

I haven't done much blogging about the kids lately and thought it was time for a quick update. Jonah is changing so much every day it is difficult to keep up. He has been crawling for almost two months, he has four teeth, sleeps from about 7pm to around 4am most nights, eats every kind of solid food imaginable, and has really taken off with his communication. Every day there is something new! He now says mama and dada. He can wave goodbye. He points at everything and says "Dat!!" "Dat!!". It is amazing to see him communicate so well. At dinner time he will communicate very loudly about things that he likes and dislikes through his facial expressions and baby babble. He has such strong feelings about food! Show that kid an orange and you will see the biggest, happiest smile you could ever imagine. If he doesn't like something he doesn't get too angry though. He just picks it right up and throws it on the floor and then looks at us like "bring on the next dish, please". He does get frustrated when we don't understand him, though. He will kind of scream at us in his baby babble and when he finally gets that we don't understand he will screw up his face in frustration or lay his head down on the ground as if he is exhausted from trying. It is so sweet.

Mia is also doing well. She is really excelling with her French. She is also making amazing strides in her speech now that she is working with a private speech therapist. I don't know why we didn't go that route before. I can't believe how big she is getting! Just tonight she confided in me that she "loves" an older boy that rides her bus. I asked her what she loves about him and she was so matter of fact about it all. She said "I just love the way he looks and the way he acts." Apparently she confided her feelings to him. I guess he doesn't love her back but they are still friends. She seemed just fine with that outcome but is still going to keep loving him anyway. Can you believe this stuff? It just kills me. Mia's big passion right now is Hannah Montana and we spend a lot of time having pretend rock concerts. She is at such an in between age. She is interested in boys and pop music, but is still scared to go potty by herself and needs someone to brush her teeth for her. You never know what you are going to get from minute to minute with that one.

Here are a few new pics:

My happy little guy

King Jonah

Mia pretending to breastfeed her stuffed cat

First day of work

Well, I never did get back to the blog the other day to give my big news, and by now it really isn't news because everyone already knows--I got the job. Tomorrow I start my first day as Associate Director of Recruitment, Orientation, and Admissions. I am seriously excited--although a bit nervous. I just checked my calendar for next week and I already have 19 meetings scheduled. Yikes. Who has 19 meetings in one week? That is crazy, and so now I am like "What in the world did I get myself into?" But, too late to turn back now. I'm excited. It will be great.

In other news, Mia spent the entire weekend at her Grammy and Grampy's house. That was a big deal! She has spent the night before, but this was practically two full days. They took her to dance class and religous school, shopping and pizza. Needless to say, it was like a spa weekend for Jeff and I with only one kid to cart around. I forgot how relaxing one child can be--although Jonah seems to have learned how to throw a tantrum now. Fabulous. The best one was today at Bread and Chocolate when the way I cut up his croissant seemed to piss him off royally and he started screaming at the top of his lungs while throwing said croissant on the floor. Yeah. That was great. On top of it all, he seems to be getting another tooth which has made him as cranky as I have ever seen him. It should be a fun week. I guess those 19 meetings aren't looking so bad afterall!

One client and counting

I had my first client. Actually, I was supposed to have two, but the second one cancelled. So the one I had went well. I was very theraputic. I sat there and listened. I responded with my usual responses. I fell asleep. I don't think he noticed as I have learned to sleep with my eyes open. This comes in handy for times like this or other times as well. One of the times I have used it, and don't tell Andrea, is when she is talking to me about why I should be the one to clean up Dixie's pooh in the yard. At these times I find I can catch up on a little cat nap and just snooze away for about a minute or so, depending on how many reasons she has.

Here are a few pictures of the little ones.

Just our little Mia

I can see you

Hungry seal

Well, how about that