http://www.kamnikars.com/index.cfm Blogging the life of the South Dakota Kamnikars en-us Fri, 10 Sep 2010 05:52:14-0500 Wed, 02 Jan 2008 10:41:00-0500 BlogCFC http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss tom@kamnikars.com tom@kamnikars.com http://www.kamnikars.com/index.cfm/2008/1/2/Happy-New-Year I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday and a fun New Years! I know we sure did. I can't believe it is over already it seems like just yesterday it was Halloween. I guess with a new house, two full time working parents, a toddler and a baby things happen pretty fast. I'm not very good with New Years Resolutions but I'm going to try this year to remember to blog when I can and not feel like I need to update you with the details of every day in the Kamnikar life. On the same token you should see pictures posted quicker as one of T's Christmas gifts is a camera card that automatically downloads the pictures off the camera and onto our computer. Don't ask me to explain the details, just keep your fingers crossed it works :-) Our New Years party included a picnic of appetizers on the living room floor, a 9 month old crawling through the food, and watching part of Shrek 2. We counted down to the New Year (at 8pm) and M received her last Christmas gift - a Disney Princess comforter for her bed. She was very excited to sleep with her new blanket. Both girls were asleep shortly after 9pm. T & I watched a movie on the couch, toasted in the New Year and went to sleep ourselves. After the jam packed last 10 days it was exactly what we wanted. New Years Day we watched part of the parade and unpacked, did dishes, laundry and found spots for all our wonderful Christmas gifts in between playing with the girls! Thank goodness there are only 3 work days left in this week, cuz I'm tired :-) updates Wed, 02 Jan 2008 10:41:00-0500 http://www.kamnikars.com/index.cfm/2008/1/2/Happy-New-Year http://www.kamnikars.com/index.cfm/2007/11/23/Happy-Thanksgiving Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you had as wonderful holiday as we did. Our girls even let us sleep in until almost 8 am. We watched part of the parade snuggled in bed; it was so cute when M realized the balloons on TV were the same ones we had seen at the dome. "Mommie, there is Hello Kitty. Mommie, look, look!" She had about the same reaction to Shrek. We continued watching while we got dressed and had breakfast, T pointed out that is more of the parade than we have gotten to watch in the last few years. The turkey was cooking in the oven and the table was set. L enjoyed her rice cereal and peas for lunch and T, L & I dozed on the couch while M watched Curious George not so patiently waiting for cousin Amy to come. That lasted about 20 minutes when our first guests arrived - Darlene and G Zweifel, then G John & G Val and Steve, Helen, Amy & Paul. M was so excited, she has been waiting a week for Amy to come play with her. Everyone brought delicious food and we had a perfect dinner complete with turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, corn, rolls, bread, and fruit salad. It was a little cozy but very nice that we could all sit at the same table. L did pretty good sitting in the high chair for most of the meal. After dinner Amy & M went down to her toyroom to play and I fed L and laid her down for a nap. She didn't want to miss out on any of the fun but she eventually fell asleep for two hours. With her cough and runny nose she needed it. We visited (some napped) and then got everyone involved playing Catch Phrase and had a lot of fun. When L woke up I fed her rice cereal and bananas while the others enjoyed pumpkin pie, cheesecake, krumkaka, and cookies. It was sooo good. When Steve's took off - poor M didn't want them to go and didn't want to say goodbye, but we promised we would have Amy come play with her another day. Then Darlene and G Clarence headed home. We visited with Mom and Dad, looked at the ads, and played with the girls until they started getting klutzy tired and had to put them to bed before they hurt themselves. They both tried to put up a fight but both girls fell asleep and were out for the night. T & I watched a little TV and looked at the paper until I was ready for bed and he dressed in his survival gear to go for his all night hunting adventure. It was a wonderful day!! Thanks everyone :-) updates Fri, 23 Nov 2007 08:43:00-0500 http://www.kamnikars.com/index.cfm/2007/11/23/Happy-Thanksgiving http://www.kamnikars.com/index.cfm/2007/11/13/11607 Well - to those of you who actually look at our website you will notice that it has been a little out of sorts lately. I was doing pretty well about blogging every day while pumping at work. Then work got busy and life outside the office got even crazier, so needless to say the blogging stopped (or at least wasn't getting posted to the public). Then I picked up again when L turned 7 months old for a few days and then stopped again. Here is the hard cold truth, I won't write every day but I will try at least once a week to post AND to make up for it we have posted 11 folders of pictures so far. That makes us only 3 weeks behind :-) So a brief recap on the photos: Friday 9-14-07 - Little Zachary Zweifel was born this morning at 12:14am. M was very excited and it made me realize my baby is not so little anymore. 9-15-07 - L's first attempt at eating baby cereal. We made it a big production with M getting to help and feed her baby at the same time. L wasn't so sure about all that - one bite equaled five as she kept spitting it out. 9-15-07 L is six months old - each month we have taken her picture by the same baby doll and her big sister so we can see how much she has grown over the month. My Cub Girls - The Cubs made it into the playoffs this year, so Tom dressed the girls for the occasion. L in her little pink Cubs cheerleader outfit and M in Daddy's Cubs jersey - she added the sunglasses, phone, etc. Late September - We took the girls downtown SF to the Harvest festival on Saturday. Other than a little windy it was a beautiful day. M and I rode in the train and we all went on the horse drawn carriage ride. Then Sunday our dear friend Donna came to visit us. She also has so much fun playing with the kids. Princess party - M's good friend Serie invited her to a princess party in the park. It was so cute - there were six little girls (ages 3 to 4) and three older girls to help read stories, etc. The little girls all dressed in the princess dresses, complete with jewelry, make-up, and hats. They were so cute! They listened to stories, played games, found wishing stones, danced, blew bubbles, and had a tea party complete with cupcakes and butterfly frosted cookies and lemonade. Sitting up - The day before we left for vacation L figured out how to sit up on her own. Mostly when positioned that way and only stayed for a minute, but she was sitting. Tennessee Vacation - October 3rd to the 10th we flew down to see Janelle, Greg and Austin. It was a wonderful time!! 10-14-07 The first time Grandma Val and Grandpa John had all four of their grandkids together! 10-15-07 L is 7 months old! Our baby is 7 months old today! It hardly seems possible. But on the same token she has gotten big all of a sudden. Part of it is the change of seasons, now that she needs long pants or sleepers to cover her toes she now needs 6-9 mo clothes. We also fed her real food for the first time yesterday - sweet potatoes. 10-16-07 Daddy's b-day! updates Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:30:00-0500 http://www.kamnikars.com/index.cfm/2007/11/13/11607 http://www.kamnikars.com/index.cfm/2007/10/18/101507-pm Well at noon I wrote about how we dance and sing, whistle and clap to get L to look up and open her mouth so we can feed her. Then tonight Dad feed her and she sat in the high chair and opened her mouth each time as he brought the spoon to her mouth. It is just like she told herself; ok I'm 7 months old now let's do this right. I'm not sure how M feels about being less needed during feeding and more for before and after to entertain but she seems to be going with the flow. Our first baby is 3 1/2 years and she has grown up so much. Her thought process, conversation, etc. She is very excited about school - when the daycare lady's son comes home from 1st grade he plays school with M. They have little workbooks (M's is filled mostly with circles) and I'm not sure how much she is learning but she loves it. I am torn on if we should have sent her to preschool this year. She loves playing school and I think she is jealous that another girl at daycare gets to go but we started her in Sunday School and is very excited about going until we get there and Mom and Dad go to leave the room and she bawls and doesn't want to stay. So maybe we just need to do more letters and numbers, etc at home and enjoy the rest of a non-preschool year with our little girl. updates Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:46:00-0500 http://www.kamnikars.com/index.cfm/2007/10/18/101507-pm http://www.kamnikars.com/index.cfm/2007/10/18/101507---L-is-7-months-old Our baby is 7 months old today! It hardly seems possible. But on the same token she has gotten big all of a sudden. Part of it is the change of seasons, now that she needs long pants or sleepers to cover her toes she now needs 6-9 mo clothes. We fed her real food for the first time yesterday - sweet potatoes. G John gave us a bad time that we were trying to make her eat something no one else in the family eats. At lunch she made a horrible face and didn't even want the rice cereal she had been eating before the sweet potatoes. Supper went much better, but we were also at home and could whistle, dance, clap and whatever else it takes to get her to keep opening her mouth. I fed her some cereal and then mixed in a taste of the potatoes with the cereal which she did well with, but when I fed her straight baby food she made a disgusted face and was done. We'll see how today goes. L discovered her tongue while on vacation. She sticks it out and smiles like she knows she is doing something cute. I've seen her curl her tongue up to her top lip and then wiggle the edges. And she loves doing raspberries! Over vacation she mastered sitting on her own, she also mastered falling over on her own, but for the most part she is doing fairly well. She needs a little V8 to straighten her up to a 45 degree angle but she is very happy. She has also figured out how to get where she wants. I smile every time I watch her get up on her hands and knees and rock and I'm guessing we are both thinking "ok, this is going to be the first time" then she lies down on her belly and uses her arms. elbows, and big toes to drag herself across the floor to get somewhere. She is really close but for right now we call it "Army crawling". But the smile on her face when she reaches the toy she was headed for is priceless. updates Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:44:00-0500 http://www.kamnikars.com/index.cfm/2007/10/18/101507---L-is-7-months-old http://www.kamnikars.com/index.cfm/2007/9/12/No-recent-entries If you have checked our website in the last 2 1/2 weeks that is the message you would have received. I appologize. Life has been a little hectice the last few weeks. Since I last wrote we had Grandpa Wayne's sale, my Grandma Mildred passed away, went to the Black Hills, had Tom's folks visit for a week and Lily's baptism. Whew... No wonder I am tired. Plus work has been very busy for Tom and I both. I know we are disapointing everyone by no new pictures posted. We have downloaded them from the camera (to make room to take more) and hopefully tonight we can work to upload them. If you haven't seen L lately in person - she is getting big - she will be 6 months on Saturday. She is still cute as ever and her whole face lights up when she smiles. M is turning into a little lady right before our eyes. She is a wonderful big sister and great helper. As long as we slow down to enjoy it - they are so much fun! I am trying to be better about just enjoying it but that also means my blogging does not happen. I may try to go back and fill in some of the blanks, but more importantly will try to get you new pictures. To everyone I haven't talked to lately - sorry for the lapse but that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about you!! Don't be afraid to call us either - Danelle :-) updates Wed, 12 Sep 2007 09:40:00-0500 http://www.kamnikars.com/index.cfm/2007/9/12/No-recent-entries http://www.kamnikars.com/index.cfm/2007/7/25/Sunday--71507 L is 4 months old. Just these last few days she has found her toes and now likes to lay on her back and hold onto them. If she is not holding on to her feet then she rolls over to her stomach in less than 5 seconds. She is getting better about being on her tummy - the first time she rolls over she will stay there 5-10 minutes before getting cranky. We try to let her roll back on her own until the crying gets to us and then we roll her onto her back and she rolls right back over. After doing that a dozen times it is just easier to hold her. We dug out her exersaucer and she likes standing in that but she leans forward and drools all over the tray and just pushes the toys on the floor. She will hold toys if you put them in her hand but she doesn't pick them up on her own. She tries to put them in her mouth but misses and finds her hands and just starts sucking on them. She tries to fit both fits in her mouth at once - they don't fit but she tries. She has started "talking". It is so cute to listen to her just coo and she smiles big because we come and talk to her. She loves to have anyone talk to her in close proximity. The closer it comes to feeding time the more the sound is closer to crying than talking and most of the time it is when Big sister is not talking (or in another room). I think it is because she likes to listen to Big Sis and forgets to talk back. L is still M's Honey Lily - she gives her kisses and gets her toys and wants to help with diapers, etc. They are so cute together. M is 3 years 3 months and full of energy - I wish I could bottle it up (I could really use it most days). 99% of the time she HATES getting up in the morning but hardly ever complains about getting her hair combed or fixed. She is very particular what she eats (as you can tell from every post I have made). She only likes one brand of hotdogs cooked only in the microwave, only one shape of fish sticks cooked only in the microwave (yuck), pink "ogurt" but only if she can't find chunks of fruit in it, no noodles, the only potatoes she will try are french fries and she really doesn't eat many of those. She loves to sing, kids songs and songs she makes up - sometimes they make sense and sometimes we don't know what she is saying. She wears her red crock sandles everywhere and loves to have her nails painted. Every night either Mom or Dad reads at least two books before bed (she would be happy with 3 or more). No matter what she is doing if she bats her eyes and gives you her cute as a button look you can't say no. Mom made breakfast for us this morning and we lazed around and played cards and played with the kids. As we had a late breakfast we had a late lunch and after L's very short nap we drove down to Martha's (only 4 miles away) to see my cousin Heidi and her kids from CO. M fell asleep in less than a 1/4 of a mile - so we opened the doors and let her rest while we visited. She woke up before we got going and was not upset, just out of it. So by the time we got in the car to drive to Vermillion she was doing anything to keep herself awake. We saw G Toots' new place and visited with her. It was bittersweet when she asked where Grandpa Wayne was - I want her to remember him but it is hard to have to explain it to her. Then we were back on the road to G&G Z's for supper with them and Austin and shot some more fireworks before going home. updates Wed, 25 Jul 2007 15:57:00-0500 http://www.kamnikars.com/index.cfm/2007/7/25/Sunday--71507 http://www.kamnikars.com/index.cfm/2007/6/13/New-Look As I told Danelle "New baby, new look" - The last time I updated this site was when Maggie was born. Now that things have settled down a bit into a semi-normal routine with Lily I had some time to think about updating the look of the site. I didnt change a lot, but I wanted the new look to reflect the new status quo in the Kamnikar household. The header graphic is kind of symbolic. "Everythings sunny". And that's kind of the way I feel about life right now. Things pretty much couldnt get any better. I have two lovely girls and a beatiful wife who still manages to spoil not only her daughters but her husband as well :) The "You are here" is just a little joke to myself to remind me when I get down that this is where I am. I'm smack dab in the middle of a silly little fairy tale, and things couldnt be better. (I know, sappy - but whattyagonnado?) There are some cool new features to the site that I doubt anyone will notice or use, but they make my geek heart happy so i'm keeping em :) Anyway - Hope you like the update! updates Wed, 13 Jun 2007 11:48:00-0500 http://www.kamnikars.com/index.cfm/2007/6/13/New-Look http://www.kamnikars.com/index.cfm/2007/5/4/Editors-Note From this moment on I will be reffering to our lovely two daughters as "Queen Tantrum" and "Princess Screams-a-lot" respectivly. The change comes partly because I've learned that putting thier names out on the internet at such a young age is probably asking for trouble down the road, and also because the names just fit :) The Queen is really coming into her own on the tantrum front. It seems lately any little thing will set her off, wrong t-shirt, no immediate snack etc. Her normal M.O. is to start with the bawling and move into stamping her feet. Thankfully these tantrums do not last long - they just come very often. The Queen actually is a really good little girl - don't get me wrong. But arguing with a 3 yr old over whether she should be wearing flip flops out in the rain is getting a little tiring. Meanwhile, Princess has pretty much established 3 settings for day-to-day activities: Sleeping cute as a button, Awake and playful (and cute as a button), and Screaming-child-of-the-Apocalypse. - Unfortunately this third setting is her default setting between about 7pm and 11:30pm not a LONG time, but pretty much the time Daddy is home :). She was quite adorable last night around 11:15 laying on her blanket in the middle of the floor just looking around as if to say "Why is your hair all pulled out like that?" So while all this goes on Mom and Dad are trying there very best not to scream at each other, simply because screaming at the kids would be wrong. (it would, wouldn't it?) MOST night we are successful in this endeavor. Tonight is a big night for us though, becuase we are going on our first official date since The Princess was born. Of course, we are going to see "Spider-Man 3" (do I have a great wife or what?) And I think we are skipping dinner and just doing a movie - but it's a start. That's about it for updates right now. I will be trying to post more in the future. (I know, I say that EVERY time - someday i'll mean it!) updates Fri, 04 May 2007 09:26:00-0500 http://www.kamnikars.com/index.cfm/2007/5/4/Editors-Note