Leo is 6 months!

My big guy is getting taaalll! He stretched out a lot over the past month or so, and hes got quite a noggin on him 🙂♥️🙂♥️ he's been developing by leaps and bounds, new things everyday, getting a stronger core so he can almost sit up on his own. And he's rolling and reaching for toys like a pro. It really is amazing the changes in half a year! He's real good with this hands now, too.

The cutest thing is how into real food he is, he loves literally anything we give him to eat!!! Mostly mush at this point with a few pickles, but we have him a turkey sweet potato pouch and he was all about it. Cross your fingers we don't have another picky eater. He always tries to grab the spoon so he can feed himself, another great sign! He's learning not to shove it too far in haha.

Eating real food has contributed to better sleep at night, another benefit! He usually gives me a 5 or 6 hour stretch. He gets that sleeping gene from Spencer!

And he recently found his favorite toy - a baby exersaucer bouncer at laura's house. He bounced and bounced and loved that thing so I'm going to get him his own.

Elsie my big girl is such a great helper with the baby. She's already waaay too smart, and now her schooling is adding some book smarts to her common sense smarts. She's getting real proficient at formulating an argument if she desires something. And her memory is spot on, she has a visual memory like me. And hanging out with some 4 year olds at school has increased her interest in learning to read and write like the big kids, another great thing about the Montessori approach!

Spencer and I are definitely sold on the Montessori schools, as opposed to the traditional classroom where the kids are made to be robots and rule followers. Montessori is more open to what is best for the child and a child learns by playing and from other students as much as the teachers. And we have seen first hand the positive impact of having mixed ages in the classroom. Elsie is trying to emulate the big kids, but her teachers tell us she really enjoys helping the younger kids (2 year olds). Her teachers told us that as soon as she learns a lesson from the teachers and masters it, she wants to teach the younger kids how to do it. And she likes to help the little kids learn to go potty.

Madison has a publicly funded birth through high school Montessori academy that elsie was accepted to - Isthmus Montessori academy, so we will be switch to that next fall. Little bit larger of a school (about 150 kids), better school-parent communication, more parent involvement and hopefully a place elsie will be happy at for a while! Toad Hill has been really really great, but little things have really annoyed Spencer and I. For example, their website is really out of date and the calendar is never up to date, so it comes as a "surprise" when there will be a "Teacher Enrichment Day" (aka Elsie home from school). And even though it is a pandemic now, it has been sad to have had NO virtual meetings or ways to meet other families. Supposedly during normal times there would have been Fall, Winter, Spring Festivals, a fundraiser, some other things, and I don't see why they couldn't have switched to virtual events for this year. As it stands Spencer and I have met only like 1 or 2 other families in the school :( 

The 4k program that Elsie will join is only publicly funded for half days, so we will cover the rest of the day (~$750 a month for the record). So more expensive than the school she is currently at, but once she's a kindergartener it will be through public funds, which will be nice for our finances!

It's been so great to get outside with the kids and enjoy our pond, and lots of neighborhood parks and playgrounds. My time at uw madison is winding down, i just want to finish a couple of papers and train some younger members then move on with my life. I hope to return to bench work when my kids are older but for now I look forward to new entrepreneurial adventures! Check out Betty-Makes.com

Spencer is killing it with his business, really been able to grow it with me helping more at home. And the house we live in is almost completely renovated, just a couple of bathrooms. Considering we bought it for 269k and it's now worth around 330k, not bad for a couple of months of hard work! We call this house the Leo house cuz we are already looking to buy another fixer upper and we will rent this one out. Eventually give this house to Leo and other house to Elsie as income properties when they are older and interested in passive income. The next "bee in Spencer's bonnet" is finding a BRRRR fixer-upper, or finding a vacation rental house.

Here's some pictures of the last month, look at those cuties :) A new tradition I've been doing with the kids is picking a new place to have a picnic each weekend. Spencer is busy every weekend with clients so Elsie, Leo and I have checked out a Dream Playground, a beach, and the zoo last weekend.  

Got the bounce house out for the first time, grass is much greener now a couple of weeks later! And we installed the garden bed pretty close to there.

Spencer likes to carry Leo that way, and they visited me in the bedroom (aka my office). Leo likes to give me these side-smiles and really cute little grins.

Leo LOVES to swing, and big sister loves to gently push him!

I thought this was hilarious - someone is pretty judgy about our lawn.  CALL ASAP!

Another cute Leo smile! And I'm obsessed with those pajama outfits, he has like 10 at this point. They are thin and not too tight, and have holes for the feet (aka no footies).

Smudgy baby sleeping face. Elsie made that artwork and it hangs in his bed.

Elsie and I made and Oreo cake = delicious!

Leo LOVES eating, mostly baby pouches at this point.

This happens pretty often around here :) 

Elsie exploring the Dream Park in Sun Prairie.

She climbed this all by herself at the Pond Acewood Playground.

Big girl loves to swing HIGH!

Leo can't quite sit up but he loves to swing anyhow!

Elsie picks out pretty much all of her outfits these days :) I especially loved this one, and the best part was she showed me before she had put her shoes on, so she had to run and put them on. When she came back this is the picture I took of her in her favorite Frozen light up sandals that are too small and her feet hang off the front!

Silly face time

Bob Marley dance parties get everyone in a great mood ;)

Leo is gaining on her! <3 <3 <3

My mom and I's APQS Longarm machine was delivered and I assembled it! Woohoo! Now to learn how to use it and get some customers!

Elizabeth Hartman dinosaur design, kit that my mom bought me and I got assembled.

Picnic time :) 

This is a hilarious story. This bird was sitting in the nest in our front yard tree being harassed by a squirrel, so I posted to reddit, "Look at this beauty, can anyone tell me what type of bird and why she's being harassed by a squirrel?" The first person that responded said, "That's a hawk, they like to land in squirrel nests and eat their babies".

Visit to Butterfly Lane to help Laura, Nathan, Lena, and Olivia move in to their new house!

That's a good one!

Grandma making him laugh, everyone always comments how smilely and friendly he is to everyone, which is totally true until he gets hungry :)

These two had a blast together!

Baby Olivia (5 weeks)

Baby Leo (my mini monster the size of an 18 month old <3) 6 months

I found the exact bouncer that Laura had, so I had no choice but to get it for him :)

Dad getting some baby laughs

Bath time, pretty soon he'll be sitting up and playing in this thing

easter weekend 2021

WE spent a lovely easter weekend with gma elsie, beautiful sunshine weather, 70s, lots of fun outside and inside! Leo and Elsie got lots of great gma time, and betty and big elsie trekked to janesville, wi to look at buying a quilting machine.

For easter the Easter Bunny hid lots of eggs around the house as usual, but he also put together a scavenger hunt for both kids. Elsie helped Leo do his since he's little. We had a picnic lunch outside in the new back yard, made red bunny pancakes, walked to a playground, and even got the bounce house up and running!

Betty gets vaccinated from COVID-19

It's a bittersweet moment. A year ago all of our lives were turned completely upside down, and we've all been through a lot to make it to today. For me, getting the vaccine signals a possible return to "normal". But can things ever really be the way that they were? Some of us lost our jobs forever, our kids missed more than a year of school, more than half a million people are gone forever that could still be with us, and even those who recovered from covid-19 may forever have lingering effects.

It crosses my mind all of the things our family missed over the past year, mostly experiences with Elsie (and Leo a bit). Trips to the Children's Museum, the splash park, searching for playgrounds with no other kids, going anywhere there would be other people we didn't trust, just a constant worry about being around other people - will she remember or have lasting social effects from this? To toot my own horn, I think Spencer and I did as well as we could finding new experiences and I think many will stick around - WI River canoe trips and our visit to more state parks. And Elsie was lucky enough to go to a great school for 3K that was in-person, if anything this experience has solidified that homeschooling/virtual learning is almost always rubbish in comparison to the real thing, mostly for kids (adults are different). 

My own jobs (teaching at Madison College and research at UW-Madison) were completely upended, forcing me to work virtually 1000%. Labwork is now possible but comes with significant hurdles, weekly COVID-19 testing, social distancing, population control on each floor, no open stockroom (need appointments) and the biggest hurdle of all is ALL of our shipping and supply ordering has been greatly delayed. Gone are my favorite moments where I would be putzing around the lab, or chatting with co-workers about current events, or walking to another office to talk about science/troubleshooting. It's been beyond amazing to be able to see Elsie more, and be with Leo now that he's here, and chat with Spencer about real estate and fixing up our house. But I've also learned that working from home means you never actually leave work. I constantly feel behind or get interrupted by my loving family or have to push things back until tomorrow.

Despite it all, we as a family and as a society have shown our resilience, which gives me hope and pride that there's nothing we cannot overcome if we set our minds to it. From the astounding speed with which our scientists developed a highly efficacious vaccine, to the health care workers that manned and womanned the front lines at the hospitals, to the essential workers that helped keep our society running, to everyone willing to wear a mask to protect the most vulnerable among us, I am humbled by the people who have risen to the challenge. And the Slinger-Dixon-Slinger-Slinger family has never been closer.

We may never know the true beginnings of this horrible chapter in our lives. China has lied and will continue to cover up the exact origins of covid-19. However, this day marks the beginning of the end for me. I look forward to eating and shopping in public again, taking my kids to the playground and splash parks safely, and being face to face with my students and colleagues.

quote of the day 030821

Dr. Trias at our 4 month check up, "wow, he doesn't have any problems putting on weight, does he?"

Haha, doctor was pretty impressed that leo put on 5 pounds in 2 months. You know it's something when the doctor sees lots of babies.

Current stats 18 ln 7 oz (93rd percentile)

26.4 inches (94th percentile)

He said, "his growth is fantastic! Everything looking and developing really great. Keep up the good work. "

It was a 60 degree day in March, and was awesome to be able to walk over to the clinic. 

Leo is 4 months old!

Def no longer a newborn! Lots of smiles and laughs, almost rolling over, and figured out how to use his hands (they're for putting things in your mouth, duh). Other things that are useful to be able to do: (i) breathing through your mouth, (ii) make lots of crazy and fun noises to get people (mostly mom) to look at you. He's a real chatter box these days 😀 

He also loves to practice sitting and standing, can get a much better view of the world that way. Will start to get lots of use out of that truck walker. He might also be at the age where he likes the bouncing seat, though not sure we have a door way for it? 

Another favorite: blowing bubbles! Gets lots of laughs out of us for those. 

Lots of drooling this month, no teeth yet. 

Elsie loves to sing and dance for him! She makes up the cutest songs and helps us entertain him while we make dinner.

He's getting fidgety while eating! Except when falling asleep.

Still massive poop diapers every 6 days or so, like how did all that come out of you? Less farts so hopefully his digestive system is maturing a bit. But when he does fart they are clear out the room ones with a distinctive smell, despite what mom eats.

 Size 9 m or 12 m depending on clothes. Leo, you're huge! Every time I look at you you're bigger ♥️😀 And loves to be walked around, which is a great workout for mom and dad! He's getting real solid, over 18 pounds at 4 months, so I'm much less worried when Elsie rolls him over or picks him up. She's gentle and does a pretty good job, but we still help also.

Elsie just moved to full day 3K at toad hill montessori, and I think the transition was a little rough, even though we tried to prepare her for sleeping at school and staying longer. She came home and said she felt bad for whining and waking up the other kids. When asked what she was whining about she said she wanted dad and mom. I told her to not worry about whining and to never feel bad for speaking your mind. The next day we sent a stuffed animal with and i think it went better. 

Spencer is getting busy at work, bunch of clients these days looking and selling. Pretty low inventory in Madison, so can be tough to find a place but great if you're selling!

Spencer also went keto for a week, 1600 calories a day, was religious about following it. Lost 12 pounds! Good for him!

I'm back to "full time" but still work remotely. With the pandemic it is really challenging to get lab work done with the restrictions, testing requirements and shipping delays for all supplies. Really makes me not want to jump through all those hoops to be away from home. Everyone is saying next fall will be teaching in person, so things will slowly get back to normal.

After an insanely cold 3-week long polar vortex with below zero weather almost ALL of February (really is the worst month, despite the birthdays), it has been in the 40's all week with 50 degrees on the horizon this weekend. We're all looking forward to using our new backyard more, our big driveway, putting up a swing or two, and using the pond/playground a block away.

Shirt was a gift from Gma Melanie (size 12 m) and pants are Under Armor from Gma Elsie (12 m).

He's filling out the carseat, time for a new big-guy one :)

"It's the only way I could get him to nap"

Elsie has been LOVING the big snow pile next to our house, lots of sledding and climbing.

Still has his bald spot from a couple months ago from sleeping on his back.

What are they up to?! ;) 

We did a valentines day scavenger hunt that was a big success, Elsie asks for a hunt every day now :)

Dad and Leo helping read the clues for the scavenger hunt.

Spencer took these pics of himself for his profile and I thought they were a cute before and after. Looking good!

Oostburg, WI visit

We celebrated Gma Melanie's birthday with a visit to their farm house, with her, Mark, Dennis, John, Ellie, Miles, Odette and our crew. For Leo's first road trip he did amazingly well, only the last 20 minutes both ways did he get antsy and complainy. In comparison to traveling with Elsie at that age this trip was a damn vacation! He slept a bunch, and otherwise looked out the window and was chill. Thanks big guy! :) Elsie is great to travel with now, she can entertain herself with her Fire, or draw pictures, or help me sing songs to Leo, lots of fun! 

Gma and Gpa have 8 baby goats/sheep with at least 3 more on the way! And a dozen baby chicks. Holy cow that's a lot of babies! Elsie and Odette had a great time giving baby sheep Flipper her bottle with Gma. It was our first time traveling or pretty much going anywhere since Leo was born, and the day positively flew by! Nice to chit chat, hand the baby off to other people to carry for a bit, and otherwise have a relaxing, fun day :) Elsie had lots of fun teaching Gma and Gpa the new Owl Hoot Hoot game, and they looked like they really enjoyed it as well! Elsie also taught Gma how to play Jaipur. And they got her a present of a binoculars set, and she and Gpa had fun looking at the sheep/goats out the window.

Sad to say that because of the pandemic, having a baby and the house reno, the last time we got out to Oostburg was a year ago for Gma last bday! Good thing for the cabin, get to see them up there lots, which is great! Hope to go again soon!