6 Months

Our little guy is celebrating 1/2 year of life today. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. It seems like it was just yesterday when we were holding him in our arms for the first time....

He used to be so tiny (well, to ME) and would sleep all the time - anywhere and everywhere. Now he's a big boy and is growing and learning so much every day. He's a great sleeper - he still takes three naps a day and has been sleeping (completely) through the night consistently for over a month now. The only day we struggle a little bit is Sunday because we have church during his nap time - but we'd rather be there with a fussy baby than at home with a sleeping one. Here's a little bit of what Thomas has been up to lately:


Sitting unassisted. He's kind of skipped the rolling over stage (for now), but he loves to sit and play with his toys - especially his sock money (thanks, Aunt Mika!).

We started him on solids recently:

some edible....

....and others not so edible.


We've been trying out new veggies with him. So far we've had squash, sweet potatoes, and green beans. He wasn't too keen on the green beans, but has loved everything else. It's fun to see him grow up, but I have to admit that part of me is a little sad. The more solid food he eats and the older he gets, the less he will need me. Well, I guess he'll still need me - just in other ways.

Perhaps the most exciting development is that Thomas sprouted some new teeth about three weeks ago! We had kind of a difficult time getting a picture of his two little teeth...

We finally got a good one:



I guess this means we'll be giving Uncle Soren a visit in a few years (assuming he graduates from dental school and Thomas continues to grow teeth)

What else can I say? Thomas is busy growing and babbling and chewing and slobbering and discovering and, in general, just busy being very cute.

What a good lookin' guy. He's quite the ladies' man.

I think it goes without saying that he's got us wrapped around his little finger. How could you say "no" to a face like that?

Happy six months, Thomas!

"Be Thou an Example"

Thomas is becoming increasingly more aware of the world around him. It's really neat to watch him as he discovers new things and tests his physical limits. As he is growing and starting to interact more with us, I am also becoming more aware of the example that I am setting as a mother. I think that I'm generally a pretty good person. However, there are definitely some areas of my life that need some work. This was made very evident to me after a little episode involving me and some college girl from Texas on Lindsey St. last week. Let me elaborate:

Kenta and I had plans to meet his dad and sister for lunch on Friday. It was freshman move-in day, so traffic was bumper to bumper from the Lindsey St. exit to campus (about three or four miles). I was crawling East on Lindsey when traffic eventually came to a complete stop near an intersection with a small side street. I had the option of continuing to move forward and block the intersection or stay where I was and leave the intersection open in case someone in oncoming traffic wanted to make a left turn.

Being the courteous driver that I am, I decided to stay where I was and leave the intersection open - after all, traffic wasn't going to be moving for awhile, so why block the intersection for a long period of time? At about the same time I decided to stay put, I noticed that Kenta had pulled up to the stop sign of the intersection that I had left open (he was coming from work). Being the courteous driver that I am, I motioned to him that he could turn on to Lindsey St. in front of me when traffic finally got moving again.

As we were sitting there waiting for traffic to move, I saw a girl out of the corner of my eye pull up beside me, and then proceed to move directly in front of me - right into the space that I had intentionally left open so that the intersection would not be blocked! I was livid. I am not big on horn usage, but I was so mad I honked at that girl long and loud. As we sat there at a standstill, my anger intensified. How dare she! Who does she think she is? She can't push ME around just because I drive a minivan!

So I let her have it.

I honked again. And again. And one more time for good measure - just in case she hadn't heard me the first sixteen times. This girl was, after all, a complete imbecile, as evidenced by her absolute ignorance of common driving courtesy (I was the courteous driver, remember?). We continued to sit and sit and sit. I started to notice things about The Offender: BMW. Texas plates. Backseat filled to the brim with clothing and other college essentials - no doubt, she was an incoming freshman. My blood began to boil. I began to curse (in every PG-13 curse word I could think of) this girl in front of me, who I had deduced was a spoiled (BMW) brat (freshman) who knew absoltely nothing about driving (Texas plates). I threw my hands up - quite dramatically - in a "what-were-you-thinking - you-IDIOT?!?!?!?!" kind of way. A stream of insults flowed freely from my mouth.

I continued to PG-13 swear at her and wave my arms like a fool until I pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant. When I finally met up with Kenta, I was still fuming. I proceeded to vent to him, my father-in-law, my sister-in-law, all my friends and family on Facebook, and anyone else who would listen, for the rest of the day. When Kenta came home that night, I brought up the subject once again. I was certain that he would be proud of me for being assertive and not letting some little punk college girl push me around. Boy, was I wrong. His reaction:

"Uh...Kendall..um, I was actually a little embarassed".

What?!? Kenta? My husband that loves swift justice for all traffic offenders? The man that squeals with delight every time he sees a highway patrolman pull someone over? The man that I once scolded for using his horn too much? Was I hearing this right?

"I thought it was a little overboard, with you waving your arms and stuff. It was okay to honk the first time, but you just kept doing it. Yeah....I was glad that no one knew I was your husband."

Ouch. Not really the reaction I was expecting.

I started to think about what Kenta said. Had I really been that out of line? Maybe my reaction had been a little overboard. Maybe I didn't need to honk and insult this girl as much as I had. After all, it wasn't like she had been able to hear any of the nasty remarks that I had directed towards her.

And then it hit me.

All those things I'd said had been heard by someone - just not the person for which they had been intended. While I was cursing the existence of The Offender, my sweet baby boy was in the backseat, babbling to a stuffed cow. Of course this was all lost on me in the heat of the moment, but hours later as I pondered this event, I asked myself, "What kind of example am I setting for my son?"

The following picture came to mind:



This is a picture that I used to laugh at when I was studying the topic of "Road Rage" in my driver's ed manual. I thought it was so ridiculous. Who actually looks like that when they are driving? Little did I know that ten years after I mocked this picture, I myself had become the poster child for road rage. That was a humbling realization.

As I began to think further about the example that I am setting for Thomas, I knew that road rage was only one of many areas in which I could improve. Kenta and I have discussed at length how we can be better examples for him as he grows and begins to pick up our habits - both good and bad. We took the plunge and completely got rid of our TV. We are sifting through our itunes and have had to confiscate about 87% of our Green Day collection. I'm shopping for a replacement for my favorite four-letter word (it starts with "c" and ends with "rap"). It's my all-purpose exclamation (expletive?) of choice - I say it when I drop something, forget something, stub my toe, etc. I need a better word to replace it with. Kenta seems to think that it's possible to stub my toe and not say ANYTHING, but I disagree. If you've got a good word, I'd welcome any suggestions. I just decided that I don't want that coming out of Thomas's mouth, so it can't be coming out of mine anymore.

Going TV-free isn't as bad as I thought it would be - which is surprising, given that I spent the entirety of last summer sick and pregnant watching so many episodes of Law & Order that I actually saw repeats of the reruns. I've heard that a new season of Project Runway (an old favorite of mine) is underway, but that's a thing of the past for me now, too. I decided that the not-so carefully-bleeped-out cuss words might as well have not even been bleeped out in the first place - and is that anything that I should be listening to or watching?

Please understand that I do not think less of anyone for viewing certain shows or listening to certain music or saying certain things. I'm not perfect and never will claim to be. I've just decided that Thomas is going to be bombarded with so much filth and garbage in his life (have you been to a high school lately?) when he gets older, that I want him to have a place where he can get away from all of it. I want our home to be a safe haven for him.

Maybe I'll be accused some day of having kids that "live in a bubble" and are "too sheltered". So what? I can say from personal experience that it is possible to live a "G-rated" life and still function in society. I did it as a missionary for eighteen months. We'll still have a computer with the internet - but there will be filters. I'm sure that some day we'll get another TV - but there will be rules. I just don't see a point in exposing our kids to what the world calls "entertainment".

Awwww....look at that sweet face. Who would want to corrupt such an innocent little thing like that?

So - for those of you that are around me and see me quite a bit - remember that I'm still a work in progress. I might accidentally slip and say that favorite word of mine, but I'm really trying to make an effort not to. And if you have a TV and an OU football game is on.......an invite would be welcome :)

We are a Happy Family

About a year ago, my sister-in-law Hannah and I were talking on the phone. We realized that it had been two years since our entire family had gotten together - the summer my brother Soren and I had gotten married (not to each other). We had made a habit out of getting together every few years for weddings, but after the last two of us got married, there were no plans to get together again. None. As Hannah and I discussed how tragic this was, we decided that plans were in order for a Michaelsen family reunion the summer of 2009. After countless phone calls, emails, pleadings with in-laws, date changes due to conflicts with school, childbirth, previously planned vacations, etc., we -finally!- nailed down a weekend when we could all get together. ALL 45 of us (plus my grandma and aunt). Admittedly I was VERY nervous about how things would go. I was anticipating drama that, thankfully, never materialized. I was worried about people having a good time, in-laws getting overwhelmed, my mom making us work instead of play, activites not turning out well, etc. I wanted SO BADLY for this to go well so that people would feel excited about the possibility of more family reunions. How did things go? We'll just let the pictures speak for themselves:

The Homestead

If you are going to throw a party and invite a lot of people, you gotta make room for them. My parents did a MAJOR renovation on their house this past year, almost doubling its size. What are they going to do with all of the extra space when we aren't there? The missionaries are now living in the furnished basement. Also, there is always an open invitation to ANYONE who wants to come and stay there. It's a nice pit stop if you are planning on visiting Nauvoo. My parents also live very close to Independence, MO if you are wanting to visit some church history sites. The house sits on twenty-six acres complete with...

A pond...

...and a zipline

There were plenty of other outdoor activites:

slip'n slide kickball

RC truck racing

The track that Kenta and the boys built

inner tube fun

and even some indoor ones, too:

Family swim meet at community pool

waterslide

The fish were biting....

Hadley defies the odds with her Barbie fishing pole and reels one in

Abe gets excited

Soren had the catch of the week - 14.5 lb. catfish

...and so were we

we threw a party for the girls...

...and one for the boys (plus Jenna)

...and we even threw a birthday party for EVERYONE!!

stories were told:

Grandma Madsen (my maternal grandmother) tells us stories from her life

talents were shared:

Grandma teaches Kristin how to crochet

Davis shows us his soccer moves

we sang

and we danced

we laughed

and some of us cried (a lot)

Cousins bonded

friendships were born

Thomas - 5 mos., Molly - 5 weeks, Grant - 9 mos., Owen - 9 weeks

When it all got a little too crazy, there were places to get away from it all and just be alone

Kenta working on his research

And Ben writing his thesis (or dissertation?)

But more often than not, we wanted to be together

After months and months of anticipation, we were finally all together:

And before we knew it, it was all over

I love you guys and already miss you!! See you all again in two years!