Winter carnival

We had great fun this weekend because Liz's school had the winter carnival. She got to play all sorts of games - and got her face painted and hair temporarily dyed.

Liz loved dunking the principal and an older student in the silly shower - kind of like a dunk-tank but used indoors. You should have seen the expression on this older kid when she came up. His friend had just unsuccessfully tried to dunk him and missed all three times. Liz nailed it the first time. She also dunked the principal too.

Here's a photo of her with her hair and face painted.




And, even closer-up of the wild hair!



Another great shot of the two missing front teeth.




Does this butterfly look familiar? Every time, we go to a carnival, Liz always gets a butterfly painted on her face. Also, notice the chocolate crumbs. Liz won the cake walk twice and ended up with four pieces of chocolate-iced cake and brownies. Thank goodness, they don't give full cakes away anymore.



Here are some fun brother and sister shots. Liz loves taking off part of Chance's outfit. She's playing dress-up and playing with baby Chance.





I think it's a fair assumption here that Chance is not having as much fun as Liz.



Yep, Liz is still having a blast - Chance is not so sure.



Afterward, Liz took the camera from me and took a few pictures - She was VERY proud of this potty training picture. I think she's getting Brian's sense of humor. Hee Hee.

What's missing here?

Our biggest news is Liz is losing teeth at a rather rapid pace and it's hard for the Tooth Fairy to keep up.

Oddly enough, Liz doesn't pull out her teeth even when they're really loose. She lets them dangle and dangle. Her teacher even e-mailed us about it, and at one point the principal couldn't believe these teeth were still dangling there. Two teeth hung by an apparent thread for almost two weeks.

Finally, she lost these two, and then suddenly with no warning the second upper front tooth fell a day later. That's probably how it goes. Everyone keeps asking what the Tooth Fairy gives today and in the Hedger House, she is NOT keeping up with inflation. It's a handful of quarters and a few trinkets - kid jewlery and little things like that.

Our little baby is also growing. Chance is already looking like a mature baby at six months old. Yes, he turned six months last week. Hard to believe! He's doing great - rolling everywhere. He's not quite ready to sit up or crawl but we're sure it won't be long.

We're giving him some solids now and he enjoys that. Without further ado - here are a few pictures - at long last!



Here's Liz minus two teeth - the obvious one is the top left tooth.




It was Dr. Seuss week in recognition of his birthday and every day, there was another Seuss event. On this day, she dressed as Sally from Hat in the Cat.



Here's a couple of pictures of Chance. He's still quite wobbly when he tries to sit up and is content to lay around rolling here or there.





Now, here's the money shot - Liz missing BOTH top front teeth and the lower left. Looking at this picture, I can tell she now officially needs her bangs trimmed. It'll be the first haircut since her December trim.



I think she's surveying how she's going to gobble up those cherry tomatoes - minus so many teeth. Don't worry - she managed just fine.



Chance had just finished his yummy veggies - can you tell - complete with drool and orange goo all over his shirt. All in a good day for a 6-month old!

Star Student: Love Being Little

Last week, We had a big assignment for Liz. She was Star Student. Each child gets to be Star Student for one week.

It's a big deal. That kid gets to bring in their favorite belongings, have their book read in class and bring snacks one day. They also need to make a poster listing their favorite things.

That was our project a week ago Saturday. I headed to New York on Sunday and knew we needed to do this poster and I also knew it was going to take awhile. Brian ended up doing the "Take a Mouse to the Movies" poster in December while I was in New York the last time. So, it wouldn't be fair to stick him with another poster.

These projects are really more family or "parent homework" because the instructions even say, "with Mom and Dads help." This poster took more than three hours to do. And, of course if you look at the finished product, it looks like it only took us 15 minutes. Ah, well. We're not that creative.

What I liked about it was she had to answer a series of questions for the poster. Her favorite food: Pizza, of course. Favorite activities: Swimming. Someone she admires: Her cousin Daniel.

When I asked: Favorite thing about yourself, she answered without a pause: Being little.

How cool, right? I was delightfully surprised and I hope that she continues to realize that she'll have a unique view of the world.

60 happy years

It's a big day for my Grandma and Grandpa Shidler. They celebrate 60 years of marriage today. Sixty years. Four children, 9 grandchildren, 11 great grandchildren (with 2 more arriving in months).

Recently, I was talking with someone who is getting married in the fall and she said she was asked in pre-marriage counseling to discuss her marriage idols. The couple whose marriage she admires the most.

For me, my marriage idols are unequivocally Grandma and Grandpa. Despite all of the changes that have occurred in their lives and especially a number of health problems they've faced in the last year, they have always remained an amazing team.

It's fun to think back to when they were first married 60 years ago. Their family grew fast - perhaps faster than they ever expected.

They welcomed my dad on Jan. 1, 1951 - just days before their first anniversary. Later that same year, they welcomed my Aunt Barb into the family. Yep, you did the math right. Grandma had two babies in a year's time.

And, if you ask her about it now, she'll throw her head back laughing still not sure how they survived that crazy time. As a mom now to two young children - five years apart - I can't imagine having two in the same year. Grandma always says, it was basically like having twins.

My Aunt Dee and Uncle Wayne came later (not in the same year). That family of six went all over the country on family trips. Their children still laugh about those trips that include sibling squabbles and adventures with wildlife - at least one bear.

When their kids grew they got to enjoy their grandchildren and more had freetime together as a couple golfing and traveling.

Now, they're celebrating birthdays and milestones with the great-grand babies. They're also spending more time at home and have faced health challenges in the last year.

For a short period of time last year, Grandpa needed to stay at a nearby center for medical treatment and Grandma was at home by herself for the first time in decades.

Even though they were no more than one city block away from each other, it was difficult for them both. For the first time in their marriage, they were physically living apart from each other even if just for a brief period of time.

For the first time in nearly 60 years, Grandpa had to endure food prepared by someone other than Grandma. And Grandma couldn't get used to sleeping in her bed without Grandpa beside her.

Over the years, they've had some neat anniversary celebrations. For their 25th wedding anniversary they went to Jamaica. I was actually born while they were away, and my first postcard was from them welcoming me to the family. Grandma often joked I was her Jamaican Baby because I was born while they were in Jamaica.

Today, they'll have a low-key celebration - content to be together.

Grandma will make a nice lunch or dinner. Grandpa will likely read the newspaper while Grandma reads a book and they'll probably both catch Wheel of Fortune in between calls from relatives. They might even squeeze in an afternoon nap at some point.

And, the most important thing is they'll be together just as they have been for 60 years.


Here's a couple of pictures my cousin Debbie posted. This is Grandpa in Germany in 1946.




Here's Grandma in 1948.


Their wedding picture taking 60 years ago today.


This is their 25th wedding photo.


Grandma and Grandpa on their 50th wedding anniversary.



This is a great picture of the two of them looking at pictures Christmas 2008.



The two of them together at Christmas time 2008.

It's all about the hair!

Three days before Christmas, I finally understood why Liz so badly wanted a Barbie Repunzel this year. It was her No. 1 gift request and she mentioned it no fewer than about 20 times a day. She mentioned it in her letters to Santa and to every single person she saw - who she thought might have some ability to pursade the Big Man to give her a Barbie Repunzel.

Turns out, she's really in a hair phase. For those of you who don't know - Barbie Repunzel is a Barbie doll complete with an array of long hair, short hair, and even hair clippers to cut and trim Barbie's hair.

Again, I really should have known what was coming. But there it was, three days before Christmas and Liz walks into my room with this sheepish grin. Immediately from that grin I knew she had done something bad. I look carefully at her and see that a HUGE chunk of hair on her right side is missing. Yes, she cut her hair. In retrospect, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.

But it still required an emergency hair-cut appointment two days before Christmas. And, oddly enough the mood at the salon was very tense. All of the stylists know Liz and chat and talk with her. Not this time. I had forewarned them of the major hair incident and the mood was eerily quiet.

We could have kept her hair long and used "short area" to frame the face, but she was ready to go short. So, the stylist cut about 5 inches off her length. I actually think it looks quite cute.

But it took a long time, as I expected - a full hour. At one point, Liz said: "It didn't take me this long to cut my hair."

At which point, both I and the stylist explained that it was quick for her because she's NOT a professional and didn't do it properly. Ah, another one of those teaching lessons.

I took a picture of her with my cell phone when she cut it, and Brian best describes it as a police mug shot. I texted it to my mom who promptly replied that she laughed so hard she had tears in her eyes. In other words, I think you'll get a kick out of it.

Here's that mug shot...errrr picture of her when she cut her hair. Look on the right side.




Here's the new do, complete with a similar grumpy expression and of course, a chocolate mustache. Priceless.




Ah, yes, Christmas morning wouldn't be complete without her Barbie. At first, I thought this was Barbie Repunzel, but this was her 2nd most-requested gift the Barbie Musketeer. I wanted to post this one because it shows how cute her hair looks - and yes, we get a smile. Don't worry - she did get a Barbie Repunzel and we chatted for a long time about how she should not cut her hair until she receives proper taining.

Catching up in pictures

In celebration of my new laptop, which makes uploading pictures MUCH faster than the 6-year-old computer, I'll throw out some pictures from the last few months.


Here's a great photo of Liz and my dad when the three of us went camping this summer in Bremen, Ind.



Here are some really adorable pictures of Liz on her first day of Kindergarten.









Chance at about five weeks old.



Halloween is one of our favorite holidays and Brian is our expert carver.



Chance is snoozing during the pumpkin festivities.








Wait a minute... - He's awake...briefly...


On the Friday before Halloween, the Kindergartners got to dress up for school. I volunteered to help out with Liz's "Falloween" party. I kept trying to come up with a creative costume and ultimately gave up and decided to be a bag of leaves. She's a beautiful princess fairy.

Getting back to normal

Hard to believe but young Chance Hedger is a month old now. The past month has been a whirlwind. We've been thrown back into the world of sleepless nights, poopy diapers and of course adorable baby coos.

Actually, after a brief period of having his days and nights completely turned around, he's doing much better now. Liz still has a mild case of Chance-itis (as we call it), but she too is adjusting as well.

Chance seems very mellow to us, but in recent days has shown that he too has Liz's firecracker personality. He just may not show it as often as her...give him time...

The five year age difference is good because Liz is able to communicate her anxieties about having another sibling better than a kid who might be only two or three and can't chat as well. Liz has asked us if we love her as much as we love him. We have spent extra time reassuring her of our love and have done some special things with her too.

I took Liz to the apple orchard, to lunch and the mall one Saturday for some munch-needed mommy & Liz time that also seemed to help.

She tries to "help" with her baby brother and is very proud of him, but if he's crying a lot, she won't hesitate to say: "Will someone please take care of this crying baby!"

School is going very well for her. Not surprisingly, her chatty behavior has caused a few problems at school but overall she's doing great. We were so worried about her meeting friends and so far that's not a problem at all. She's becoming good pals with another kindergartner across the street. Yesterday, two third-graders who live down the road came over and wanted to play with Liz. So, a bunch of kids played outside for quite some time, which was loads of fun for Liz. Then, she played inside with her friends from across the street.

Overall, this experience with Chance has been so different compared with Liz - mostly because we haven't been going to the doctor multiple times each week. The only medical concerns so far were his being jaundice (Liz never was), and his weight. Liz never had problems with her weight. Chance was below his birth weight for almost three weeks - which is longer than doctors want. They want children to be at birth-weight by two weeks old. At a month old, he's probably 9 pounds, which is great.

He was sleeping so much the first few weeks and I had to wake him up to feed him. Now, he's eating quite well.

Our big excitement during the delivery was Brian passing out. Right after Chance was born, Brian held the baby and suddenly began to feel very warm and hot. As soon as he said he wasn't feeling well, he handed the baby over to an intern, and I told him to put his head between his knees. In the span of 15 seconds, he was out cold. Luckily, he didn't hit his head on the floor. Whew!

When he came too, he even managed to crack a joke, saying he felt like Robin Williams in one of those bad movies (I think it was 9 Months). The medical team had him crawl out and called over the emergency team from nearby Northwestern Memorial. The nurses kept urging him to go to the hospital for more tests to make sure there were no major problems. Brian said he wanted to talk to me before making a decision. However, they wouldn't let him in the surgery room again (wise decision).

Keep in mind I'm still being operated on in the surgical room. All of a sudden, the anesthesiologist hands me his cell phone and says: "Your husband wants to talk to you." So, here I am completely cut open and now talking on the cell phone to Brian.

One of the doctors says in a surprised voice, "Lisa are you on a cell phone?" There's a curtain over me and the doctors couldn't see the cell phone, but could hear me talking.

That might have been one of the first times a patient who was undergoing surgery was talking on a cell phone. It was wild. I explained that the nurses wanted Brian to go to the ER for further testing. And it was funny because everyone in the surgical room all said that this happens all of the time and he should be fine. A turkey-sandwich seemed to be the only cure he needed.

Oddly enough, he hadn't seen any part of the surgery because of that big curtain. The issues contributing to the Great Pass Out - were a warm room, a warmer baby, plus the fact that he hadn't slept well the night before because he was nervous and he hadn't eaten anything.

He stayed out of the surgical room and was eating a turkey sandwich when Chance and I arrived in recovery!

Here are some pictures taken by a professional photographer at the hospital when he was two days old.













Here's some photos we've taken.

This was from the hospital:







He finally decided to keep those eyes open for a shot in the hospital...but only for a few minutes. Being a baby is obviously very hard work!



Here's big sis Liz holding her baby brother at home. She also did visit him at the hospital. He was three days old here.



The whole family



Here's a nice picture of Liz sleeping...just to show that Chance isn't the only one getting some mid-day naps!




Here's Chance at a month old:



Chance with Aunt Helen.



He's really alert now.