Happy Halloween!

Got my camera back! Here's pics of our Halloween festivities! Madeleine and I made cookies on Saturday. We went to Longfellow's Garden Center to pick a pumpkin on Sunday with PaPa and Gramma, and then on Tuesday, we got our little fairy dressed and went trick or treating. We went to the Ramsay's, to Kelly's and to the Neudeckers,then we had dinner at McDonald's. We wanted to keep it short and simple, it being our first trick or treat experience.

Making cookies

Picking out a pumpkin and playing in the straw maze at Longfellow's

Trying on the costume (I don't know what the "Oh No!" pose was for)

Our little pixie!

Such a delicate little flower.

The Birthday That Wouldn't Die

On October 16, Madeleine turned 2 years old! We've been celebrating for three weeks. She's had a total of three parties, starting on October 9th with a Cinderella party here at our home, when most of my family was already in town for Noah's baptism. Then we went out to Going Bonkers and out to eat on her actual birthday, and finally had a birthday lunch at Grandma C's on Saturday when we were in Belleville for Oddwalk's CD release party. All month, she's been walking around here saying, "Apise! Arpert-tied!" (trans: "Surprise! Happy Birthday!").

We started on October 9th with her Fulton party. We had Aunt Becca take her to run some errands that afternoon so I could get the house ready without her underfoot and so she could be surprised with the decorations. Her favorite movie right now is Cinderella (thanks to Aunt Becca), so when I was in the party store and found all the Cinderella stuff, I got excited and bought way too much. But she loved it, except for her cupcake, which she absolutely destroyed with her fingers but wouldn't eat. Instead, she asked for one of those big fluffy sugar cookies with the inch-deep icing. Ah well, it was her birthday.

The traditional 2nd Birthday Cupcake Smash

Showing off some birthday loot

On the 16th, the actual day of her birthday, we went to a place called Going Bonkers, which has this huge huge huge indoor play structure, along with an arcade and a snack bar. The structure is like what you'd find at McDonalds, only much bigger and with more things like bouncy rooms, slides, bridges, and swings. It was amazing, and bigger, brighter, less expensive, and less overwhelming than Chuck E. Cheese. The absolute best part is that the structure is designed so that adults can go in too and actually play with their kids (or rescue a stuck one). We had a blast! Madeleine has been crawling around on playgrounds and playplaces for about a year now, so even though she's just two and the structure is really meant for three and up, she had few problems negotiating the tunnels. Then we would have gone to McDonald's to eat - it's Madeleine's favorite - but it doesn't have a television. Being a family of Cardinal fans, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings to eat and watch Game 5 of the NLCS. Madeleine's pretty happy anywhere she gets fries, anyway.

Crawling through the Human Habitrail

That white speck on the left high up in the air on the
bridge is my daughter, totally nonplussed about the height.
That's Gramma underneath, looking up at her and holding Noah.

Emerging victorious from the maze

On Saturday, the 21st we had her third and final party, a lunch with Shannon's family at his mom's house in Belleville. Grandma C made tiny hamburgers, macaroni and cheese, chips, and vegetables and dip for lunch and Aunt Laura brought a cookie cake and ice cream. We thought we'd try a cookie since she didn't want my cupcakes. She had a good time eating, opening presents and playing with cousin Nathan (if you can call taking toys away from him playing "with" him).

At Grandma C's house

"Apise! Arpert-tied!"

Nathan, overwhelmed by the partying, falls asleep in his lunch

The last two years with Madeleine have been incredible. This has been the most amazing, challenging and rewarding thing that I've ever done, and I had hoped for all that when we made the decision to have children. But what I never ever expected was just how much fun it is to be a mom. It's a riot. Seriously, my children are hilarious and life as a family is hilarious. God is so good, and I thank him every day for blessing us with our funny, brave, delightful, smart, fabulous little girl. Here are some picutres from the last year:

October 2005

November 2005

January 2006

March 2006

May 2006 (after a hard afternoon's play at the park - I call this her Refugee Look)

July 2006

August 2006

September 2006

Day Trip to St. Louis

Wednesay, the Cernekas loaded up the Liberty with diapers and babies and hit I-70 for a road trip to the STL. Our friends Brad and Gene of Apex Ministries were at the Shrine for the Confirmation Rally, so we went to visit them and made a day of it. We started at Grant's Farm. Madeleine loved the tram ride through the deer park, and mooed at the longhorn cattle as we drove by. We bought a bottle of milk to feed the baby goats, but they swarmed Shannon and Madeleine, completely freaking her out and consuming the milk in mere seconds. Once there weren't hundreds of goats surrounding her, she was able to relax and enjoy them. Then she made it her mission to try and pet every single goat in the pen. She ran, manically, from goat to goat, patting them a couple times before moving on the the next one. I enjoyed watching her for a few minutes, then it occured to me that I was wearing flip-flops in a sea of goat poop. I'm not a germphobe by any stretch of the imagination, but when a goat made a puddle centimeters from my bare big toe, I got the whim-whams. We didn't have much time to actually spend at the Farm, so I suggested we move along and look at some of the other animals. We saw parrots, elephants, llamas, camels, lemurs, and some horses and ponies. We had some frozen lemonade, that Madeleine used as hair product at one point, creating a helmet-type treatment on her bangs that lasted until Thusday morning when I gave her a bath. Shannon and I enjoyed the "Anheiser Busch Hospitality" - Amberbock, Bud Select, and a decent Hefeweizen that I didn't know AB even made.

Madeleine, Shannon, and their new friends

mmmm...frozen lemonade

mmmmm...beer

After Grant's Farm, we head to the Shrine to visit with Gene, Brad, Orin, and Erin. We had lunch and then hung out at the hotel and talked for a couple hours. We don't get to see Brad and Gene very often and it was cool to have a chance to visit. On our way home to Fulton, we met my brother Chris and sister in law Maggie for dinner at the Trailhead Pub and Brewery in St. Charles and had a great time. (Shannon has an interesting story about that meal that I won't put here, but if you see him you should ask him about it!)

It was a very good day, and a fun family trip. The kids were great, and I think Madeleine had a good day. Noah's day is always good if he gets to eat, sleep, and poop, which he did in fine form.

The Last Three Weeks of Our Life

So I'm finally getting around to setting up this family blog. It's been a fast three weeks since we became a family of four, and the blog kept getting pushed to the bottom of the list of things to take care of. So, I'm going to go back a give a review of life since August 29, 2006.

But first, here are a couple cute pictures from a week or two before Noah arrived.





8/29/06 Noah Matthew born at 9:32 pm at 40 2/7 weeks after induction by artificial rupture of membranes and IV pitocin. 7 pounds, 11 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long. Shannon of course was there, but we were delighted that our excellent friend Katy Korte could also be there to help coach me and support Shannon and witness Noah's birth. The transport team also attended the delivery because of fetal bradycardia the last five minutes of my pushing. My parents visited that night and brought Madeleine to see us and her new baby brother. She saw him, said, "Baby!" and gave him a kiss when we asked her to, but that was pretty much it for the interest or interaction with Noah. Noah was taken to the well baby nursery to be assessed and weighed after about an hour, after we had seen him, held him, and I nursed him for the first time. That was a little after 10:30 pm, and we didn't get to have him back until after midnight. Apparently, he started grunting in the nursery and the neonatology fellow was called to assess him. Luckily, the fellow didn't really see anything to be concerned about - she didn't even order a chest film or blood work, and at midnight we went to check on him and the nurse told us we could take him back to the room.

My first moments with Noah

Me, Noah, and Madeleine

Dad and Noah

Me with Katy

8/30/06 First full day with Noah! We rested and worked on breastfeeding all day. Actually, there wasn't much to work on except getting him awake enough to nurse, but by the end of the day he was pretty much over the sleepiness and was ready to eat every 4 hours or so. Several visitors came in the evening. Shannon and I had our special steak dinner with Madeleine nibbling on bits of our dinners and then the two of them went home for the night so Madeleine could have a normal night.

8/31/06 Homecoming Day! Shannon and Madeleine came back at lunchtime and we ate together. We packed up and left after we ate and came home. That evening, Mom and Dad brought us dinner and our good friend Kelly visited and we all watched the Cardinal game.

Our little Cards fan, all ready to go home!

9/1/06 Pediatrician follow-up visit for Noah. Down to 7# 4 oz. Our doctor didn't see any issues.

9/3/06 Went to Mass at our parish church, St. Andrew's for the first time as a family. It was a bit of a circus. Madeleine needed to be changed as soon as we got there and was then squirrelly and very much an almost two year old for the entire service. Shannon took her out for the Gospel and homily. Noah peed out his diaper onto my Mom's shirt and I had not thought to pack a back-up outfit, then he decided he needed to eat right before the Liturgy of the Eucharist. So as Shannon and Madeleine came back in, we left. We came back in to receive Communion. Afterwards, we felt brave, so Shannon treated us to lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Noah slept throughout the whole meal. Madeleine did okay, but when she's done, it's all over. We came home and I took a nap. I asked my mom if it would always be like this, and she laughed and told me about when she asked her friend Jane, mother of 6, if it would ever get easier. Jane told her,"No, just different".

That afternoon, Shannon's mom and his sister, her husband and baby boy arrived for an overnight visit to meet Noah and hang out with us for a bit. Our nephew Nathan is nine months old and he's great. We had a very nice time getting caught up them them.

Noah at home

Madeleine and Noah

9/5/06 Noah is one week old!


Helpful big sister Madeleine provides Noah with some for the road entertainment in the form of a shape sorter

Said helpful big sister

9/9/06 Oddwalk hired to emcee the Festival of Faiths and Cultures at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville. The kids and I tagged along and hung out "backstage" at the main stage outside in the parking lot of the visitor's center. It was grassy and shady and a nice place to relax. Madeleine LOVED the music and the dancing, especially the drums. Noah did well in my homemade tie dyed completely hippied-out sling. I ate the best empanadas ever and had bubble tea for the first time. The tea was good, but I'm still not sure about the enormous balls of tapioca in the bottom.

Madeleine and her dad

Madeleine and Orin

Noah's out...

...and so is Madeleine!

9/12/06 Noah's two weeks old! He had his first "photo shoot" while Madeleine napped. I needed a good picture for his birth announcements and he was extremely cooperative, as long as I would nurse him every few shots.

The camera loves you, Babe!

I love this adorable pout!

9/13/06 The kids and I met with some work friends and their kids for lunch. We have been meeting in restaurants for lunch, but the last time we tried it, it was completely chaotic with five kids under three and four adults - three of whom were pregnant. So we met at Krista's house and someone brought pizza. The kids destroyed the house - Krista's daughter is three and the oldest of the kids. They pulled every toy out they could get their grubby little hands on. Everyone got to meet Noah and it was nice to get out of the house and get caught up with work news updates. Even though it's only been two and a half weeks, it feels like forever since I've worked.

9/14/06 Doctor day for the kids. Noah had his two-week check up. He's up to 8 pounds 13 ounces already! Everything still looks good for him, he's in the 50%tile on the growth charts, and we'll go back at 2 months for another checkup and a round of immunization.

Miss Madeleine, who I'm ashamed to admit hasn't had a well-child check up (and therefore no shots) since nine months, was obviously way overdue for some of her immunizations. She checked out okay, too, a healthy and developmentally appropriate almost two year old. Then she got five shots - DTAP, IPVC, , MMRV, varicella, and Hepatitis A. The nurse was excellent and fast, and Madeleine is a pretty forgiving child and recovered quickly. Then we had to go to the lab and have a lead and anemia screen drawn on her and a repeat metabolic screen for Noah. The lab people were very nice and very good and the blood draw was over quickly, too. Madeleine cried loud and hard, but she held still for the phlebotomist. The lab people gave her several stickers, which she shared with her baby brother. Noah had three or four kitten stickers on him by the time we left. We got some apple juice and french fries on the way home.

9/15/06 Dinner with our friend Christina Bockwinkel-Baker and her son Patrick. Patrick and Madeleine are only a few months apart, so it was interesting to watch her interact with him.

That brings us pretty much up to date. I'll try to put some pictures up to go with all the words.