The Lindenbergs

Well, activity with our customer in New Jersey has kicked into high gear and I've been traveling the past week with the next two weeks to be spent in N.J. also. Consequently, the family blog isn't getting too much attention.

The latest news:

• Josie, our new dog, developed a urinary tract infection. Nora's gone from stuffing her pills in cheese, to chicken and is now contemplating using hotdogs. I, on the other hand, shove the pills down her throat (guess Josie's glad I'm out of town).
• Anna, finally, is starting to drink out of a cup. She's also discovered juice boxes. Nora and I are ecstatic.
• Pierce has taken to dressing himself. I discovered this on my first morning back. I heard a voice coming from his room (I wasn't sure if it was the radio or Pierce). When I looked in Pierce had taken off his pajamas and underwear and put on a pair of sweatpants. Of course, the sweatpants are tangled around his ankles and he's waddling around the room trying to find a shirt he wants to wear. Did I mention he had forgotten to put on new underwear? After reminding him to use the bathroom before he got dressed I went back to bed. On waking I found that Pierce had completely dressed himself (including underwear). The only problem: both his shirt and pants were on backwards.
• We took Pierce and Anna to a local nursery that was running a petting zoo. They were giving away free popcorn and cotton candy (popcorn was a hit with the kids, Nora and I liked the cotton candy). The kids were more interested in the fish than the llama. Very fun.

On a different front, I haven't heard from Steve -so I don't know how his surgery went. Unfortunately I don't have the name of the hospital where the surgery was performed, so I don't expect to hear back from him until he gets home. Thanks to all who sent him words of encouragement, I know it meant the world to him.

-Eric (Dad)

Well our patience and 2+ months of dog-hunting have resulted in us bringing a dog home. Josie is a 2.5 year old St. Bernard mix and Nora and the kids have fallen in love with her. Josie is VERY calm; Pierce and Anna have sat, jumped, stepped, hugged, and kissed on her and she has stoically taken it all with no complaints (I can't say she loves it though). Josie's a big dog at about 65 lbs and I think she could actually use a few more pounds. It appears she was pretty neglected by her former owner and is desparate for attention. She doesn't want to play, she justs wants to be near us and be petted. Hopefully she'll start to feel more secure over the next few weeks and relax.

She does appear to have had some training, she'll sit on command (usually) and walks beautifully on a leash. I even took her for a jog this morning. She seems to be well house broken and we haven't had any incidents so far. She's got free run of the house and likes to sleep at the top of the stairs (go figure). Usually at about 4:00 am she'll swing by my side of the bed and breath dog breath in my face (yuck) -we'll have to break her of that. Course, now we're desparately looking to have a fence put in. I expect we'll have something in place in a couple of weeks. Come back soon to see pics of our new family member.

-Eric (Dad)

At preschool Pierce typically completes an "artsy" project each day. Often its drawing or painting. On Monday Pierce came home with a St. Patrick's Day Card that he made for Anna. He was very proud of it -although I don't think Anna understood it was for her.

Did I mention that Pierce says that when he grows up he wants to marry Anna?

-Eric (Dad)

Anna's room sits on the north side of the house and is the most affected by cold weather. In the winter months neither her closet nor bedroom door close properly. About a month ago I took a planer to the closet door to shave off enough wood to keep the door from sticking in its frame. Of course this only made the situation worse; turns out the latch is hitting the strikeplate to low so now the door won't stay shut. At least before the door would wedge in the frame and hold its position.

Over the weekend I removed the strikeplates from both doors, expanded the holes and reattached the strikeplates in better positions. Both doors work splendidly. Of course Anna was unaware of my repairs.

That night when I put her to bed she did her usual "stay in bed for 30 seconds then climb out and open the bedroom door so she can talk and sing in the hallway until Nora or I put her to bed again" (this cycle can go on for hours). This evening Anna found she could no longer open the door -talk about screaming bloody murder. She yelled at the door, banged on it, tugged on the knob furiously, threw her trash can and diaper genie across the room, and did everything else she could think of except go back to bed. The good news is that it wore her out; the bad? Her room was a mess.

The last few nights she's been too tired to pull her usual routine and fallen asleep pretty quickly. In the mornings she's been showing evidence that she's figured out how to open the door; but no definitive proof. More news as things develop...

-Eric (Dad)