Yes, we're still here.

Two months later...

Clearly, things have been busy. But as I look through my calendar of the past two months, other than a two-week vacation, I'm not sure what has sucked up all the time. Oh yes, that's right. We were living. After I take a quick look at my last post here, I'd like to bring you up to speed on Vie de la Freiwald (if that successfully translates to "Life of the Freiwalds" then I've had a good day).

...goes to read below post...

Oh. Okay. So that's where I left off.

Our good friends, Theresa and Kevin (from MI), came to see us in May. We spent a pretty great weekend introducing them to the rigors of toddler rearing...i.e. Ari couldn't have been sweeter, better behaved or more endearing. Good Lord. The kid really knows how to put on a show. He adored these guys, especially Kevin (no offense T), and spent most of the visit dragging them around by the fingers and pulling them to the ground for more playtime. Since our friends have the goal of hitting every single pro ball park in the contiguous 48, we schlepped downtown to the Padres stadium and saw them go into major overtime against...huh...can't remember (it was two months ago, cut me some slack). Anyway, they did end up winning.

The week after that, Ari and I headed out to Michigan for a week to stay with Mom and Dad while Sascha was away at a conference in Denver. When we booked the tickets, we had no way of knowing that Pfizer, in a financial attack of nerves, would cancel most travel for the rest of the year. Ergo, Sascha stayed home to worry about his job and Ari and I continued on to Michigan. We had a great trip and, shocker, remained healthy the entire time. AND, I got to experience thunderstorms again...they don't get those things down here.

Ari started "swimming lessons" just before we left for Michigan. Really, it's more of a chaotic festival of freaked-out or joyous toddlers held above water by their moms while the joyous ones splash water on the freaked-out ones. Ari sides more with the freaked-out variety. Our Tuesday mornings are still a little tense but I think he's slowly getting used to it...even though he only smiles when the floaty balls come out. Three weeks ago, at swimming class, Ari picked up a bug. Yes, another friggin' bug. I know this because two days later he started in with another fever. Oh no, not again. The next day, he threw up all over himself and the swing at the park. That was a nice, interesting experience. Luckily, there was no one else there and I had a bottle of water in the stroller. Ironically, that was a day of great pride for me. For several reasons:

1. I stayed very calm as Ari projectile vomited over the sand, the swing and himself.
2. I held him as he finished draining his stomach.
3. I didn't flinch when I, too, was covered in apple juice barf.
4. I remembered to pick the pacificer out of the puddle under the swing.
5. I carried him home, uphill, and managed to pull the stroller after me. Both of us dripping just a little.
6. I can proudly claim that day as the first time I cleaned vomit out of a pair of kiddie shoes.

This may seem like child's play to some of you. But I surprised myself at how calm and unbothered I was...it was as if this was something that happened to me every day. Let's hope not :). Anyway, it turned out that Ari had Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease. No. Not Hoof and Mouth Disease - that's for cows. This was enterovirus, which presents with fever and painful blisters in the mouth, throat and sometimes hands and feet. By the time this sucker was done with our family, we had all had the worst throat pain of our lives. I could not believe how bad it was. You simply did not eat, it hurt that much. Ari seemed to have the easiest case out of us (thank God), Sascha had the worst. The only upside to this was that I managed to lose those last five pounds and fit into a bikini I hadn't worn in 7 years.

In the midst of the Great Freiwald Sickness, we flew to Michigan for our Two-Week-See-The-Grandparents-At-The-Lakes trip. Both of our parents have lake homes. My family's tradition is July 4th...but I think that's just an excuse so Dad can buy contraband fireworks in Indiana, smuggle them into Michigan and shoot them off over the lake. We're not the only ones. I think every other cabin on Wixom Lake is an incendiary expert. After we left my family at Wixom Lake, we drove down to Ann Arbor for a few hours to hang with our old Baby Posse and then drove to Holland (on Lake Michigan) to stay with Sascha's family. We had a great time all around, Ari fell in love with his uncles, and weren't really ready to leave Michigan. I guess it's just home.

I have some pictures of our July trip to Michigan but my laptop is failing to recognize Sascha's desktop (where we keep the new pictures) as it's here-to-fore lifemate and won't let me access them. Hmmm. Interesting. Veddy, veddy interesting. Hopefully, Sascha can work some voodoo on it tonight and I'll be able to post some more tomorrow.

...come to think of it...I guess it has been a pretty full two months.