Family
Heartfelt updates about family milestones and everyday moments. From taking Mazie to college and annual visits to the Renaissance Festival to Swedish‑pancake breakfasts and VR outings with the kids, this category celebrates togetherness.
- Mazie at her very first movie - Ratatouille. We’ll see how this goes.
- Made it through notably loud previews without issue.
- Mazie doing great so far!
- Mazie made it all the way through her first movie!
- Riding on school bus with Mazie 09:44 AM March 29, 2007 from txt
- 5 hours as solo parent and all is ok. 12:47 PM March 29, 2007 from txt
- Just put Mazie to bed – whew! 07:34 PM March 29, 2007 from web
- Gave Izzy a real, honest to goodness smoked bone. She’s completely obsessed. 07:37 PM March 29, 2007 from web
- Sitting down to have some fun in Lightroom. 08:45 PM March 29, 2007 from twitterrific
- Still playing in Lightroom after a break to blog. 10:22 PM March 29, 2007 from twitterrific
- Ran the morning gauntlet and now heading out with Mazie for a bit. 08:57 AM March 30, 2007 from twitterrific
- Getting a fly rod. 11:16 AM March 30, 2007 from txt
- Mazie in crib, cleaning up dog sh**. Exhausted. 07:25 PM March 30, 2007 from twitterrific
- Reminding myself that I like my dog. 07:35 PM March 30, 2007 from txt
- Noting that my dog seems to not want to go out in the rain only slightly less than I. 07:49 AM March 31, 2007 from twitterrific
- Made it to lunch without Mazie falling asleep! 12:29 PM March 31, 2007 from txt
- Very excited about kitty and lion getting a sticker! 12:33 PM March 31, 2007 from txt
- At Apple Store. Feeling bad for Jim. 03:39 PM March 31, 2007 from txt
- Why does my dog think she should be able to dig through the rug in the living room? 07:59 PM March 31, 2007 from web
- Posting on my blog. 08:51 PM March 31, 2007 from web
- Struggling with how to manage my digital media assets best. 11:36 PM March 31, 2007 from web
- Everyone ate. Kitchen cleaned up. Not so bad. 08:00 AM April 01, 2007 from twitterrific
- Mazie’s been in crib for almost an hour and not asleep yet. Not sure exactly what to do. 07:45 PM April 01, 2007 from web
- Decide to go see if she has a dirty diaper. Wish me luck… 07:47 PM April 01, 2007 from web
Checking out Tammy and Mazie’s 2008 Folk Festival chairs. Tammy has a footrest!
Assembling Mazie's Birthday Present
One of the cool features of my new Canon SD750 is a brain-dead simple way to do time-elapsed movies. I just had to play today while putting together Mazie’s birthday present. In case you are wondering, it isn’t Mazie’s birthday today. That’s a few weeks away but the present we got her had arrived and we decided to let her have it now. Fewer things on her actual birthday make it easier for her little 2 year old self.
Anyway – here in 48 seconds is Mazie and I putting together her new table and chairs. I love it.
Mr. Mom Weekend Wrap!
I’m late writing my wrap-up post from the 5-day Mr. Mom Weekend adventure. Mazie and I spent our final day with Aunt Alona and went to the Minnesota Zoo. It was a lot of fun and Mazie was definitely liking the zoo a lot more than ever before. She just stared at the Dolphins during their entire show mesmerized. It was really cool. We had lunch at the zoo and then went home.
Aunt Alona hung out with us for a little while and then took off. We just stayed around the house the rest of the afternoon and then Tammy surprised us by calling around 6p with news that she was only about an hour away. I was expecting her closer to 10p. It was nice that she got home earlier and we got to catch up before the week began.
The Mr. Mom Weekend was really a great time. The most stressful thing was really taking care of a puppy for the first time ever. Mazie and I had a really good time. Tammy is talking about taking an extended weekend trip like this every year now, and I think that is a cool idea. We all made it through the other end of the time in great shape!
Mr. Mom Weekend via Twitter
I’ve been a bit enamored with Twitter for a bit now. Mr. Mom Weekend was a great time to do some “tweeting”. For posterity sake, here is the Twitter stream from the Mr. Mom Weekend.
Per the last line there, her diaper was fine. She just took a really long time to go to sleep.
Parenting a Puppy is Hard
We had a pretty good Saturday. Even though I was up way too late I woke up at a reasonable time with enough of a gap to get Izzy out before Mazie woke up. We got up and made it through the morning routine pretty well. Mazie was pretty happy this morning and we had some fun playing and getting ready. She was an angel reading her books while her Dad took a shower. Izzy even laid there and took a nap. I think Izzy was pretty tired this morning since she was up much later than usual.
My friend Dan and his son Henrik came over in the morning and Henrik and Mazie stared at each other for a while before finally deciding to play for an hour or so. Mazie showed Henrik her shopping cart and then she took her stroller and they walked circles around the house having a great time. Izzy was good with both kids.
After they left Mazie and I went to Yum for lunch and had some great macaroni and cheese. Mazie was pretty awesome at lunch. She really had a great time. We got a cupcake for dessert which she was really excited about that.
I have come to two conclusions at this point in my Mr. Mom adventure. First, the puppy chores and Izzy are way harder than Mazie. Mazie listens, can entertain herself, doesn’t crap in the house and has never attempted to dig a hole in the rug. I can’t give these same qualifications to Izzy. My second conclusion is that 5-7pm is horrible. Mazie is starting to get cranked up and a bit tired. Izzy is usually wound up like a top. There is a lot going on with everyone eating and Izzy needing to go outside about 5 seconds after eating. It’s a 12 on a 10-point scale in my book.
Izzy only goes out two more times. I sure hope that when she’s a bit older she doesn’t need to go outside so often. Seems constant at this point. I’m hoping to relax a bit and get ready for tomorrow. Grandma Rosalin and Aunt Alona are coming over and going to swimming class with us and then out for lunch tomorrow morning.
Running the Gauntlet
Today was a challenging day for Mr. Mom. It started right away. Somehow I slept until 7am and woke up to Mazie saying “Get out” over and over on the baby monitor. Izzy was also very eager to get out of her “house” and do her business outside. I got Mazie first, before letting Izzy out, then brought her upstairs and took Izzy out before Mazie got her fresh diaper. This set the tone for the most of the day it seemed.
Granted I think I brought some of this on myself by planning a lot of things and not scheduling it quiet right. We met up with Grandpa Don in the morning which meant a lot of driving, including a trip into my office, and Mazie fell asleep during all the driving — way too early! She did another nap in the afternoon after we made a trip to the grocery store to balance it out.
Today was a hot and cold day. The high point was Mazie cuddling up with me on my lap with Izzy hanging out on the couch. Totally cool. The low point was me on my cell phone for a business call, Mazie demanding yogurt in her high chair and Izzy crapping on the floor — all at once. Ugh! I was getting a bit too frustrated at one point and decided to just put Izzy in her house. Mazie wanted to nothing more than to give Izzy her food. Izzy wanted nothing more than to have it. Dad was right in the middle of it!
A couple of friends came over with dinner, Guinness and cigars tonight along with some much needed relaxation. I’m up way too late, but I wanted to post something before I went to sleep. I’m hoping to wake up before Mazie and avoid the gauntlet tomorrow.
Riding on school bus with Mazie.
One of the tweets highlighted in my MarketWatch Farewell Video.
Having bagel and cream cheese with Mazie after swim class.
Welcome Izzy!
Today we welcomed the newest member of the Thingelstad family, our new dog Izzy!
Tammy, Mazie and Grandma Kaye made the trip to pick her up from the foster home. I guess she was really nervous in the beginning, but settled down pretty quick. However, not until she had puked on Grandma Kaye three times on the drive back. I got home after work and she was having a great time meeting the neighbor kids that had stopped by to say Hi. Mazie sure likes Izzy already and was providing her with a lot of attention.
She’s a really nice dog.