Visiting Stelters at White Potato Lake & a Few More Words

On Sunday, 7/19, my boys and I went about an hour up north to visit our friends Heather and Dirk and their boys Mason (18) and Zane (12) at their grandparents' cabin on White Potato Lake in Oconto County. When we got out of the car, Fischer was anxious to walk around and explore. He was especially excited to see that the Stelters have a dog, Satchel. He's a gentle giant :)

Fischer warmed up to Satchel more quickly than other dogs he's met, and kept gesturing toward the dog and panting (the baby sign for 'dog').
Gradually Fischer got closer to Satchel.

At times, the excitement was almost too much!

A little closer, now...

Finally, Fischer got up the nerve to pet Satchel.

After proper introductions, Satchel felt free to give Fischer a kiss or two!

When we got to the water, quick wardrobe change to show off his new swimtrunks, and Fischer was stomping through the shallows...nevermind that it was a bit overcast and the water was a tad cool!

A couple times, Fischer lost his balance and landed on his bottom. This is how he looked when he was asking "Up!"

Zane caught a few minnows for Fischer to inspect in a bucket. He was super-excited and making exclaimations the whole time. His bottom lip was shivering the whole time, too, but that didn't dampen his fun!

Here's a quick vocab update:

Joe's been starting to teach Fischer a German word here and there. He knows the German word for car, which is Auto (out-oh), and Fischer says it pretty close, but mostly it comes out "toto". He also says here and this when handing you something or asking what something is while gesturing towards it, but they sound more like "he" and "diss". When we step outside he says "side", and while putting on his shoes OR referring to Joe's cat Schmooze, Fischer says something that's like "sooze". He's also taken a liking to turing lights off and on, especially the pull-string ones in the basement. Although we articulate on vs. off, he calls them both "opff". :)

First Haircut & a Few New Words

Fischer had his first haircut on Thursday, July 16th. A teacher at daycare, Ms. Amy B., is also a cosmetologist who works part-time for a children's salon. We had Fischer sit in a chair at the table in his classroom while his friends watched. Everything began well, and Fischer didn't seem to mind the cape.
When he began pulling on the cape, Amy offered him a comb to look at and play with.
When Fischer began to get even more restless, I handed him the case for my camera, hoping that would keep him busy for awhile longer. He was getting frustrated that he couldn't see what Amy was doing. He kept trying to turn his head to look and her hands and tools kept moving out of his sight--how frustrating!
Finally he started crying. We were about half-way done with the haircut at this point, so it was a sad few minutes for Fischer. When Amy was done, and I took Fischer's shirt off to change it, he was so upset that he did that thing where he doesn't breathe for a few seconds and then lets out a huge wail. By then I'd gotten his other shirt on him, and we stepped outside to distract/calm him and shake the hair out of the shirt he'd worn during the 'ordeal'. He was fine right away, and we were able to return to the classroom without anymore tears. An update on Fischer's vocabulary: he can now say pretty ("pree") when referring to flowers or classroom decorations, hat (says it perfectly), and he knocked our socks off the other day when he began saying bubble ("bub-BOH"--with emphasized 'oh' lips). So cute! He tried to imitate words you say, too, sometimes close and sometimes way off, but he's well on his way :)

4th of July Weekend

The following takes place from Friday 7/3 to Sunday 7/5:
With our pending kitchen renovations, we wanted to keep our holiday weekend low-key. Daycare was closed on Friday, so we spent the day as a family. On Saturday, we ventured north to Tomahawk (our usual destination for the 4th) to visit Grandpa Kenny and Uncle Nate.

When we arrived, Fischer enjoyed playing in Grandpa's sandy driveway. It's not visible in the picture, but clamped securely in his right hand, Fischer's got a bobber Joe bought at the baitshop on our way into town. Joe camped overnight at the river, and Fischer and I stayed at Grandpa's friend Grace's house. Joe got to fish [caught a big northern that escaped from the holding tank :( ]and partied a little with some of Nate's friends, and didn't even have to worry about food because Fischer and I would bring him a plate every time we visited :)

Fischer loved playing in the sand on the shore and didn't mind the cool temperature of the river.


It's so much fun for him, now that he's walking, to explore everywhere! He had a ball splashing in the water, and grabbing handfuls of sand.


Fischer absolutely LOVED being in the tent. He played endless games of peek-a-boo with us and occupied himself without toys or books in there!

Traffic was pretty heavy on the water (jet-skis and boats pulling kids on tubes going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth again--the river in front of our landing must be the best stretch to do that...), but Fischer was still able to fall asleep in the tent to take his later nap (he'd napped on our way up north, too).

Because of his later nap, I thought he might be able to see some fireworks, but both of us were too tuckered out by then and went to bed.

When we returned home on Sunday afternoon, it was time to dive back into renovation preparations. While Joe worked on some stuff at home and later went to work for the evening, Fischer and I went to visit our friend Kit and her little girl Delainey at their house.

Fischer loved Kit's laptop (Delainey was snoozing in her swing), her kitty, and playing with regular household objects he found in her livingroom. It was a nice visit, and it was good to see Delainey getting even bigger, though she's still itty bitty :)

The beginning of this week (7/6-7/10), Joe got a sink and section of counter with a cupboard installed in the basement (replacing a disgusting old one), so we have a nice place for food prep and dishwashing while we're renovating upstairs. The next step will be consolidating and moving around basement stuff so we can actually pack up and move the food, some dishes and appliances downstairs.

While Joe's been busy with basement/plumbing stuff, I've been shopping around for the best loan rates--it's not easy! Today we also had a guy come out to measure for Home Depot so we can get an estimate from them and compare it to Mendard's, and we got a second estimate from a heating company to change out our big radiator in the kitchen for a smaller one that fits under the cupboard.

We'll keep you posted, and will also post photos of our progress as we go along. When it's all done, I'll be ready to host Pampered Chef and Tupperware parties--ladies, keep an eye out for date/s! :)