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.
- Help
- Up
- Down
- Please
- Keys
- Credit Card
- Water
- Ball
- Hi
- Bye
- Mom
- Dad
- Shoe
- Sock
- Book
- Lion
- Kitty
- Dog
- Duck
- “All Done”
- Okay
- “Oh Jhez”
- “I know”
- No
- Bra
- Nose
- Mouth
- Eyes
- Meow
- Roof
- Keys
- Towel
- Blanket
- Fish
- Bee
- One of the memory sticks in my MacBook seems to have died. I isolated the bad DIMM and I’m back up and running on the single good DIMM. I had to head to Radio Shack for a very tiny screwdriver. I’ve already files for an RMA. Luckily I have multiple laptops along so it was all fine.
- Mazie has learned lots of new words. She’s learned “please” although it sounds like “plea” and she now appends it to everything she says – which is very cute.
- This tiny 2-bedroom apartment is actually starting to feel like where we live. Scary.. I miss our house.
Mazie screaming after waking up too early from her nap. Debating what to do.
My Birthday
A couple of days ago it was my birthday! Have I mentioned how amazing my wife is? Anyway, it was my birthday, or should I say the week of my birthday. The festivities have continued all the way to today.
We have decided in our household that birthdays are vacation days so I take my birthday, Tammy’s and Mazie’s off of work and we spend the day as a family. Tammy this year just made the most amazing birthday I could ask for.
It wasn’t just the gifts, which were great. It wasn’t just the plans and events, which were awesome. Not even the “Dad-oriented” schedule, which was very nice. To be sure, she spoils me greatly. Thanks Dear! You rock!
My mother and I in the park about 34 years ago.
I’ve learned to appreciate birthdays more since meeting my wife. I’ve always celebrated them, but we certainly do more now. I continue to prove out my theory of fractional life. The years just go by faster and faster.
This years birthday was really special because of all the great things Tammy put together, but also because Mazie was a lot of fun. She knows what presents are now, and she had a great time ripping into “daddy present!” and playing with stuff. Amongst other things I got a model train that I hope she likes to watch now, and play with as she gets older.
I’m another year older, and I’m gradually starting to feel like things could slow down now. I love where I’m at right now and it would be great to just pause here for a while. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Plus, I’m positive that this year is going to be great.
New Baby Monitor
We have been perpetually frustrated with the baby monitor that we got when Mazie was born. We got the Sony NTM-910 because it had good reviews, brand reputation and specifically since it was 900MHz and wouldn’t collide with our wireless network at 2.4GHz and our wireless phones at 5.8Ghz. However, they just don’t work very well at all. The range was horrible and we started to go slowly insane with the random injection of it’s “out of range” beeps at various times.
We decided to upgrade to the Rolls-Royce of monitors, the new Philips Digital SCD-589. This is the first baby monitor to use the new DECT technology that guarantees completely noise-free operation. We started it up today after giving it a thorough charge overnight and initial tests are great. Tammy was able to walk to the top of our cul-de-sac and back without losing any signal. The audio is crystal clear. On top of that you have nice features like knowing the temperature in the kids room, you can talk to them and even start music or lights in the room from the handset. The parent unit is also significantly smaller and lighter, but not as loud at maximum volume as the Sony was.
Merry Christmas 2006
Tammy, Mazie and I all want to take a moment to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a great holiday season. You have possibly been checking your mailboxes eager to open the 2nd annual Thingelstad Christmas letter. The anticipation has been high, everyday eagerly looking forward to that postal delivery, only to be let down.
Well, unfortunately the post office isn’t to blame but instead we are. We never got it done. We held out hopes for a last minute “hail Mary” letter to be produced but it never happened. You can stop checking your mailbox with vigor and jeering at your postal carrier for not bringing you the letter. It isn’t coming.
Keep your eyes out however for a 2nd semi-annual Thingelstad Christmas letter in 2007. From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!
Mazie's Kitchen
I got to play Super Dad today and put together Mazie’s christmas present. December 3rd? Sure – she’s 18 months old – it’s Christmas! 🙂 Tammy and I got her a “kitchen thing” for Christmas and have coordinated with her Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and other relatives to get presents that go along with it.
The kitchen came in 4 boxes, with lots of assembly required. Just a bunch of peices of wood. Tammy suggested that she put it together while I was in NY last week. I thought about that for a moment, and I didn’t like it. Assembling the “assembly required” Christmas present is a Dad job for sure – and I didn’t want to be deprived of my fatherhood rights.
I got a bit frustrated at the beginning. Not too frustrated though, I’m pretty sure my language was clean the entire time. I put every joint together with added wood glue. This thing will be around for generations to come. She is having fun with it and it will be nice for her to get her pots and pans and other accessories to go with it.
Mazie Conquers Stairs
Lately most of the news on the Mazie front has been about new words. Lot’s of new words. She can usually get her point across now, at least to Mom and Dad, and she’s picking up new words faster and faster.
However, a couple of days ago she made it down both flights of stairs in our house without any help. Obviously Mom and Dad are surrounding her with hands ready to grab her if she falls. She’s really careful, and braces herself to the wall but makes it pretty solidly down each stair – one step at a time.
She’s a long ways from navigating steps without help, but she sure does have fun walking down them. She gives a triumphant giggle when she finishes all the steps.
How Many of Me?
This site showed up in one of my RSS feeds recently, How Many of Me? It is a fun little site that takes census data to do rankings of people with the same name. For example, did you realize there are 49,535 people with the name John Smith. That is bigger than my home town. You could fill a medium sized city with John Smiths.
According to the census data, there are no people in the US with the last name Thingelstad. There are however 328,466 people with the first name Jamie. Of those people, 69.86% of them are female. This is something that Tammy loves to tease me about all the time, even before she had the hard data to back it up. This usually presents itself as me paying at a restaurant and the waiter not knowing who to give the card back to.
My name is the 182nd most popular first name. While Tammy’s name is compltely unambiguous – 100% of Tammy’s are women – her name is 144th most popular so not quite as creative. Of course her actual name, Tamara, is much less popular ranking 421st. However, we know from Name Voyager that neither Jamie or Tamara (Tammy) were creative for their time since they peaked in popularity when we were born.
Mazie enjoys a very rare name. There are only 4,500 Mazie’s in the US (100% are female) and it’s the 2,762nd most popular name.
Isn’t the Internet so much fun? 🙂
Thank You for the Sleep
I wrote earlier that Mazie was having a horrible time getting her sleep. Asheville was the breaking point for Tammy and I. We were like zombies, Mazie was miserable and incredibly unhappy. We finally went to a different hotel the last night and Mazie was able to sleep. The good news is that she slept great at Ed & Nancy’s, and she’s been doing great here in Charleston.
She’s slept through the night and went to bed well for the last 5 days and is doing great. It’s amazing how big of a help that is to all of us. Yeah!
Mazie's Words
Over the last couple of months Mazie has really started to develop a lot more language skills. It’s so fun to watch her pickup new words. Tammy and I were curious how many words she knew. Not just words she would mimick, but words that she actually uses on her own. Here they are in no particular order.
The list gets longer everyday, so this will be instantly out-of-date.
Fender Bender
Here’s a big bummer.
Last night while driving back to the hotel getting ready to put Mazie down a car was trying to run the light as it turned red. The other car was turning left onto my street, I was going straight. I honked and the other driver slowed, but did not come to a complete stop. Luckily the other driver slowed to probably less than 5 mph. Very unluckily, the other driver was uninsured and I’m probably going to get stuck with the repair costs or face my insurance going up since I actually used it. [Insert rant here about the scam that the insurance industry is.]
The damage is to the rear lower panel on the passenger side. It’s totally drivable, thankfully. The other car hit the wheel and then scraped the crap out of the panel.
The even bigger bummer is that the panel that got dinged up is the entire rear bumper. I imagine they are going to have to replace the whole thing which will add up quickly.
East Coast Adventure '06 - Day 27 - AT
Today we left Asheville and headed into the mountains. We drove about 30 miles northwest of Asheville to Hot Springs, NC. Hot Springs is one of the cities that the Appalachian Trail goes right through the middle of. The sidewalk that is on the main street of Hot Springs has “AT” trail blazes embedded right into the cement. Our visit was more to the AT than to Hot Springs, so Mazie loaded up into the kid carrier and we headed out for the trail.
I knew we weren’t going to get much of a hike in. I figured Mazie would make it an hour in the carrier and she did just about that. She did a great job walking by herself on the flats. She navigated the roots like a star and looked smashing in her bright green fury jacket.
It was fun to be on the AT and hiking with the white “blazes” of the AT in sight. Honestly the trail was no different than any other hiking trail we could have been on. However, this one could take you all the way to Maine if you just kept on walking. How cool is that?
Go to day: 3, 4, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37 or East Coast Adventure collection.
Crazy, Sleep Deprived Dad!
Ever since we’ve arrived in Asheville, Mazie has had a horrible time sleeping. She’s just screamed all the time in her crib and for the first time ever she has been waking up in the middle of the night and we’ve had to bring her to bed with us where she proceeds to kick us and wake up constantly making everyone unhappy.
The sleep issues have driven her father to the brink. I left the grocery store tonight with two 50 foot rolls of tinfoil. You bet, tinfoil! I’m determined to get this kid to sleep better. The room she was trying to sleep in was too bright. So there I was at 7:00pm tonight slapping tinfoil on all the windows to black out the room. I have to admit that I felt a little crazy while doing it.
So far it’s worked. She went down on her own (first time in Asheville!) and is still asleep. I only hope that she makes it the whole night. Oh please, oh please…
Update: While the blacking out of the windows did get Mazie to go to sleep on her own, it didn’t solve the problem of sleeping through the night. She woke up at 3:30am and would not get back in her crib. After 30 minutes of attempting to calm her I brought her back to bed with us.
Traveling With a One Year Old
It’s now the 25th day that we’ve been “on the road”. For me, this now marks the longest I’ve ever been away from home. While it’s not a huge deal, I do miss the creature comforts and the simple familiarity of your own domicile. Traveling is always a bit stressful. Yes it is fun and all, but I find that I never really relax. Even now, sitting in the hotel unwinding and tapping on this laptop it’s not like if I were at home doing the same thing.
However hard the travel may be for me though, it’s peanuts to what it’s like for Mazie. We are still just getting going on the vacation part of our trip but Mazie is taking a while to get used to it. The biggest problem by far is sleep. She just isn’t getting enough of it. And as anyone with kids knows, a lack of sleep results in a very unhappy baby, and equally unhappy Mom’s and Dad’s.
At home Mazie is a great sleeper. You put her in her crib at bedtime and she just goes to sleep. On the road, she screams. And screams. And screams. Getting her to sleep is an accomplishment of it’s own. Tonight we let her cry for 10 minutes (blood curdling, shaking the other hotel rooms kind of crying) and after that I went in and held her in the bed while she fell asleep and then moved her to her crib. Last night she woke up at 2:00am, ready to go. Wide awake. Oh, and screaming. I brought her to bed and she finally went back to sleep in our bed, but it was a long night for everyone.
She has refused to take a nap anywhere other than her car seat since we left Minnesota. This issue highlights one of my pet peeves on toll roads. While driving on the toll roads Mazie would be sleeping away, ever so happy, then we’d have to stop for a toll. As soon as the van came to a complete stop she’d wake up and it took some extra special quiet to get her to go to sleep again. Usually she was then up and ready to complain about the car seat. Toll roads and sleeping babies do not mix!
The hotel we are staying in has three rooms, but unfortunately the only door is to the bedroom. Tonight we put her in our bedroom to see if that works better. I sure hope it does, the meltdown that took place at 3:00pm today doesn’t need to be repeated. This afternoon’s meltdown included a full on screaming festival followed by rubbing food into her hair. Tammy’s looking at other hotel options now, just in case.
First Two Weeks
I just put up a bunch of pictures from the first two weeks of the Great Adventure. These were edited down by Tammy, which is far superior to me and means you actually get pictures of people instead of just things.
Other updates from the first two weeks:
Also, happy to say that I’ve been sticking to my weight loss program with good diligence and I’ve lost 5 pounds in the last two weeks. Yeah!
Day 17 of the Great Adventure is starting with Grandma Kaye and Aunt Angie visiting. We are heading to the Bronx Zoo this morning!
East Coast Adventure '06 - Day 3
On Friday we embarked on the Thingelstad Family Great East Coast Adventure 2006! What is this amazing event you ask? We are going to be away from home for 5 weeks. The first three will be in New Jersey while I work out of our office here, taking advantage of being in the same office as so many others. The last two weeks will be on vacation in North Carolina. Yeah!
Days 1 and 2 of the adventure were travel days. We left Minneapolis on Friday morning around 9:30a and drove, and drove, and drove. We took breaks for Mazie to get out and run around. We camped in a Starbucks in Rockford, Illinois waiting for a monsoon like rain to pass and providing an opportunity for Mazie to let out some energy, and me to get some back (triple espresso!!!). We also had a great Japanese dinner in Rockford. However, we didn’t take into account that as soon as Mazie saw the food on the grill getting cooked that she would want to eat. Squaking was moderately high. We spent the night just outside of Toledo, OH in a splendid Holiday Inn Express.
We arrived to our great little apartment here in Lawrenceville, NJ last night after another long day of driving through Ohio and Pennsylvania. At one point while driving through Ohio in the morning Tammy looked over at me and said the best line of the whole drive
I’m going to sleep. Try not to do anything stupid.
I appreciated her vote of confidence and continued to motor along while her and Mazie got some rest.
We spent Sunday here in NJ getting the apartment setup and preparing for the week. Stay tuned for more updates from the Great Adventure.
Go to day: 3, 4, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37 or East Coast Adventure collection.
Best Kiss Ever
Mazie is growing up so fast. She’s such an amazing kid. For the last couple of months if I asked she would come over and give me a kiss on the cheek. Well this weekend she decided all on her own she was going to give her dad a kiss! Man was that awesome. I was holding her and she comes around and gives me a smack on the cheek. I’m still beaming!
She’s doing really great. I can tell that she’s trying to learn how to deal with stairs which has her, at times, over-protective dad freaking out. I’m constantly lurching to grab her as she approaches anything resembling a stair. She’s doing a lot better walking along with me – she stays with me well for as long as a block only wandering off a little bit.
She is also starting to talk more and more. She’s figured out “help”. If she gets into a tough spot walking around, or wants something off of a counter, she will ask mom or I for “help”. She’s got “dog” or “cat” down well, including a very convincing “meow”.
She just gets better and better, and being Mazie’s dad is the best job I have. 🙂
Celebrity Spotting: Doug Savant
We are all in Iowa City this weekend to see our friends Lisa & Eric and particularly their new baby girl Rachel. She’s as cute as can be and so tiny! I know Mazie was that tiny, but I have no real recollection of it.
We are staying at the Hotel Vetro, which is an overly hip hotel for Iowa City and while going to the elevator today Tammy saw someone in the hallway she was positive she knew. She stopped the guy while telling me “Isn’t that someone we know?” I looked at it wasn’t, but it was one of the actors from Desperate Housewives, Doug Savant.
I checked online and his wife is from Iowa City so I would guess they were here visiting.
Nintendo DS Lite
Yesterday we were at Best Buy on my occassional visit to wonder around the store and just check stuff out. Tammy finds these trips annoying since I rarely buy anything, and after 5 minutes decide to leave. Yesterday though I decided to check out the gaming aisles and stumbled on the Nintendo DS. I had read about these “brain games” for the DS in Scientific American Mind magazine and was intrigued. They had one of these on the demo unit so we played it, and it was pretty fun. 10 minutes later we walked out of the store with a DS Lite and three games.
I decided that my ban on ever buying a gaming console again (at least until Mazie is old enough to find it fun) was not applicable since this is a portable unit. So far, it’s a lot of fun and the portability makes a great for flights. The initial set of games we got were Brain Age, Big Brain Academy and Super Mario Bros. Now it’s time to start looking up information on hacking the DS! 🙂
Looking for Land
Tammy and I have been talking for a couple years now about getting some land that we could eventually (10+ years) build a house on and maybe live on when Mazie (and any other potential, future kids – settle down Grandma’s, no news here) have moved out, etc. I’ve been thinking that we shouldn’t bother waiting to get the land until then – prices are likely to be higher and we could use it right now as a getaway on weekends.
This Friday we did our first road trip to tour some options and looked at 6 properties in the Red Wing, Zumbrota area of Minnesota and in Wisconsin on the other side of the river. Mazie was with her grandparents so driving 240 miles in the country was actually pretty fun. We are looking at property between 15 and 25 acres. We want something within one to two hours from the Twin Cities. We want something fairly wooded, with a good building site. Electric service is not needed.
It was really good to look at these properties because it helped clarify how we would use the land and what qualities are important for us. There is a lot that we want to do.
First, a small living option is necessary right away. Tammy did a bunch of research and found this great option for us called the miniHome. As soon as you own the land, you need a place to stay on it and the idea of camping every time you visit wasn’t that appealing to either of us.
The miniHome is a near ideal solution for this. It’s rated as a mobile home so it can be brought to a site without any special police escort. It’s designed to be ecologically friendly and self-contained. They have an option that puts solar electric and a wind turbine with it for complete off-grid usage. It has reservoirs for water and waste. In short, this is a one-stop solution to having 350 square feet of comfortable, heated space with all the conveniences you would expect. The only thing lacking is air conditioning, which you could add if you wanted. (Note: it even has an ethernet network!) We would plan on leaving this on the land to be used as a guest option as well.
The other structure that we would need right away would be some sort of utility building. This essentially would be a 2-car garage. This would be where the solar array and wind turbines would come together with a battery bank to store electricity. The utility building would house all of this and also provide storage for a car and other tools. I would probably need an ATV with a trailer that could be parked in there as well.
Obviously we need to identify a good spot for an eventual home. There are a lot of structural issues to consider for this. However, we would add other issues as well since we want it to be efficient and integrated with the location. Correct sun alignment would be important for passive solar heat, for example.
All of these locations would require access by large machinery. Everything else would be fine just being accessible by ATV.
I would want to have a nice, big firepit on the property. Ideally this would allow 10-15 people to enjoy a fire, and include an option for open pit cooking as well. Preferably this would be in an area with a lot of trees.
For the evenings, and since we’d have the dark sky for it, I would want to put up a dome for my telescope with a permanent mount. This would be wonderful and make it so much easier to take in the night sky. This would ideally be in a fairly open area, on the highest point possible to get the best view to the horizon. Electricity is necessary but can be easily provided by a small solar PV module and an isolated battery. I would need to extend the network to it as well, most likely using some sort of wireless option.
It would be a shame to have a bunch of land without a good spot for a garden. Tammy and I are far from green thumbs, but we definitely want this option. And last but not least we want to have a cool walking path that would snake through the land and connect everything up. This would allow for nice, evening strolls or just serve the utility of getting to various places.
We also learned that the approach to the land was important for us. We didn’t like land that was right next to a busy road. We liked it much more when you left the highway, then took a smaller road with may eventually meander to a gravel road for access. Also of importance is what is around you. We really liked one property but didn’t like that there was a big campground a couple of miles down the same road.
There is much more research to do, much to learn about this, and we aren’t in a rush. However, it is pretty exciting to think about the potential!
