Those Wacky Willmanns

Josie and the Rugrats

2011-02-02T12:08:00.000-08:00

Yeah, turns out a newborn baby really kills any time you have to blog. But, now is as good of time as any to get things back in action. When we last left off was Jeremy's birthday. Well, turns out the next big thing was another birthday.

The story really starts on Tuesday of that week when Tania went in for a regular appointment. We found that baby wasn't as big as the doctors would have liked. They monitored Tania and the baby for two days but by Friday they determined that 3 days was enough: the baby's time had come. 4 weeks early we started the process.

Josephine Grace Willmann was born at 12:50am on Oct. 16th. She was 5 lbs 4 ozs and was otherwise a champ. Although she was a premie, she passed every test they were worried about. She didn't require any additional time in the hospital and by Monday we were on our way home.

The boys did great with Josie. Jeremy was very interested in the new baby, since it was his first experience with a new sibling in the house. Craig was business as usual with the new baby, after all he had been here before. But he has been nothing but loving towards Josie. They have never been jealous or upset at the attention she needs, and that has been a blessing. On to the pictures!

Josie only a couple of hours old.

Mom gets to say hi to her new baby.

As mentioned Jeremy was very interested in his new sister. Not pictured: Craig who was very interested in the hospital bed.

Dad gets a turn.

Here we are ready to go. Josie is in the Willmann-take-home-outfit that both Craig and Jeremy (and Ricky and Maureen and Grandpa) went home in.

Here is Princess Josie!

Jeremy's 2nd birthday party

2010-09-17T11:43:00.000-07:00

As always, it is hard to believe that Jeremy turned 2 last month. We threw him a family party and we all had a great time. We even managed to mostly save the yard this time (unlike Fathers Day.)

Craig and Jeremy are ready for the backyard pool party to begin!

Momma made Jeremy a huge chocolate cake and the rest of us had cupcakes. Jeremy was nice enough to share with Craig and his cousin Micah.

I'm fairly certain at this point he had no interest in eating that cake anymore. But it looks like they enjoyed it, look how much they ate!

Opening presents is a huge hit when you have lots of young children in a attendance. Here is Mom doing a great job of entertaining the crowds and Jeremy.

Finally, here is a youtube clip of Happy Birthday to Jeremy. He was so close to blowing out the candles, but got shy at the last moment. I think brother eventually blew out the candles, and we just went with it. A memorable day all the way around.

Summa time

2010-09-03T12:22:00.001-07:00

See what had happened was I had a problem with google and it wouldn't let me log on and (insert other lame excuse here) so I just wanted to say (insert lame apology here). Now that I have a new laptop I should be able to keep on the blogging horse a little better. Of course, I haven't blogged about the summer yet, so here we go!

A large chunk of the summer involved the World Cup one way or another. This is Craig, Jeremy and daddy as they prepared to go to Grandma Willmann's for the USA/Algeria game. When Donovan finally put the goal in the net I ran around the house and the boys followed. And we looked good doing it.

Early in the summer we made our way to Fulton, MO to see our friends the Cernekas. Here are Craig and Noah on the swing. It went as smoothly as it appears!

We took Tania's parents to the Bank of America Pavilion for their Fathers/Mothers day gift. It happened to be the crazy game where the Diamond Backs made two errors in the 9th inning to allow the Cardinals to win. Very exciting none the less. Notice that Tania is wearing her "future fan" shirt.

Jeremy eating a smore. I'm certain this ended with a mess, but he sure did enjoy eating it!

We have also renovated a bathroom and we threw Jeremy a birthday party. Still can't believe he is 2. Anyways, hopefully the next blog is in a couple weeks, not months.

Spring was in the air.

2010-06-07T14:24:00.000-07:00

Hmmm....seems I'm a couple months behind on the old blog. Let's see where we left off. Ah yes, Easter!

Here is Craig in his special Easter outfit before we headed out for Church.

Jeremy in his Easter sweater before we looked for Easter eggs.

Jeremy wasn't so interested in hunting for Easter Eggs so he just played T-ball most of the morning. Craig had a great time looking for eggs at a leisurely pace.

We skip ahead to later in the day where we saw all the Mantia cousins. The trampoline was a huge hit. No matter how bad this landing might seem, Craig had a blast.

Craig climbing, like every boy does.

Jeremy loved the trampoline too, but we loved what the trampoline did to his hair so much more.

Snow.

2010-04-08T12:07:00.001-07:00

I finally got to downloading more pictures, and alas at the beginning of Spring I must flashback to the Winter! It took us a long time to get into the snow despite the fact it was snowing every other week. Mostly we wanted a sunny day in the 20's or 30's (not cloudy, windy and zero degrees). So we didn't get out until February. It was a great time because a) the boys were super ready to play outside and b) due to many circumstances it was Jeremy's first time in the snow!

Here are the boys at the bottom of our small hill in our back yard. They opted for the "drag our butts down the hill" strategy. Not nearly as fun as the "roll down the hill" way but whatever works!

Craig wanted to swing. If he doesn't look happy, it's because he isn't. Shortly after this he decided to take his gloves off. Before we could get them back on his hands were so cold Tania had to take him inside and warm them up. (That's the gentle way of saying it, there was much crying involved.)

Jeremy and Craig both ready to swing. Jeremy would have his meals served in that swing if we'd let him.

After Craig went in Jeremy and I played some football. Meaning I would try to kick the ball and Jeremy would retrieve it for me.

Overall Jeremy took to the snow really well. I had to convince him to come inside before he noticed how cold it was! It just didn't bother him! On the other hand, the cold REALLY bothers Craig. Next winter I'll show him the majesty of a "snow ball fight" in hopes of getting him over his "snow is cold" phase.

I really like using "quotations" this blog. Anyways, next blog should have some Easter pics. Happy Easter to you all!

Christmas and January

2010-02-18T13:04:00.000-08:00

We had a fantastic Christmas this year. Our schedule was very busy, but we absolutely loved every family gathering we attended!

First stop we opened presents at Grandma and Grandpa Willmann's on Christmas Eve. Craig is quite accomplished at opening presents and was ready to go.

Here is Jeremy opening a soft bowling set. Both the boys absolutely love this bowling set and for the most part can take turns playing.

This pic was taken at home Christmas morning. It's a toy vacuum cleaner that is meant for Jeremy, but obviously Craig was excited too.

Craig got a stuffed Curious George. It was one of those gifts where he didn't even notice he had more gifts to open afterward. That good!

Now we move on to Nana and Papa Mantia's house on Christmas Day. Here is Jeremy eating a cookie with his bib on his back like a cape. He wore it that way for much longer than I expected.

Here are the boys opening more presents with Mom.

Moving into post-Christmas pictures, Craig and Jeremy helped celebrate their cousin's birthday at the Transportation Museum. It was a little cold to walk around outside. (And Craig likes to eat snow regardless of its cleanliness) But they had a blast inside. Here is Craig playing with a train set.

Jeremy and his cousin playing at the Puppet Show.

Here the boys are playing with the kitchen they have set up. Apparently it takes hard work to find just the right fake plate. And it appears they enjoyed the fake cupcakes!

Re-living the Christmas hype

2010-02-04T12:04:00.000-08:00

So I failed to blog for a couple months now, which means you get to re-live the Christmas season with us! As I was putting the pics together I realized I had enough for more than one blog. So here are pictures from the weeks before Christmas.

Here are Craig and Jeremy having lunch at the mall. Jeremy can eat Craig under the table. He likes to stuff as much as possible into his mouth and then when he (eventually) swallows he stuffs it again!

This is Jeremy riding the bouncing Zebra. Craig likes to try to ride it with him, but clearly that thing isn't built for two little ones to ride it at once.

Yes, that's Craig getting a high-five From Santa while playing Foosball. We went to a Christmas Party that featured Santa! Well, Craig (and Jeremy) were so focused on playing with games downstairs that they refused to come upstairs for pictures. So Santa came down to Craig! It was really awesome, Craig was glad to have a playing partner.

This was our best family picture with Santa.

Next up we went to bake Christmas cookies with Grandma Willmann. Jeremy and Craig took their task seriously.

Jeremy had a good time!

This is Craig and Grandma adding ingredients. They did a great job and the cookies were yummy!

Next time I will get through the Christmas pictures. I promise to blog again before March!

It's 9 o'clock on a Saturday Morning.....

2009-11-25T11:44:00.000-08:00

Ok, this here is what we call a "catch up blog." How it works is that I apologize for not blogging in a while, then you go "Yeah, it has been a while. What is the deal?" Then I post 2 months worth of photos and we all leave happy. Everybody got that? Good. Let's get started!

For starters, I want to bring to your attention how Jeremy looks every time he eats spaghetti. No exceptions.

We took the boys to a pumpkin patch a week before Halloween. Craig wasn't excited that day, but Jeremy took advantage of the haystack pyramid.

The boys did have a good time picking out pumpkins. Although most of the time Craig was just practicing for the punkin chunkin competition.

Here is Jeremy dressed as a cowboy with 2 of his cousins.

Here we are carving pumpkins for Halloween night. This is the best picture we had and it captures that "What are you up to?" look parents often have while supervising their children. For the record, Tania was the carving champion that night.

Craig was supposed to be a cowboy with a long sheriff jacket. But since he carried that flashlight all night most people asked us if he was a Jedi. Which made me happy.

Here is the family Halloween night. We dressed Jeremy as Tigger so he'd be warmer, but he turned out cuter. Who knew?

Here are the boys together. Craig has a lollipop addiction now. Curse you Halloween and your ridiculously tasty treats!

We move ahead to Craig's 3rd birthday! Here we have Craig getting ready to dig into some cake. He is all red because he had been playing the Wii for a while before cake and presents.

Craig got Lincoln Logs as a present! This is the first picture of Mom trying to build something and Craig/Jeremy happy to destroy it.

Finally here is a youtube clip of Craig singing and playing the piano at Grandma and Grandpa Willmann's. He had been doing it for a while, but I managed to at least catch the end. Enjoy!

...he sure plays a mean T-ball

2009-09-30T12:02:00.000-07:00

I want everyone to know, Tania and I did NOT train Jeremy to do this. He just wanted to be like big brother! Here is a video of Jeremy setting up and "batting" from a batting tee! (That's right, my boy can play T-ball before he can walk! and I'm ok with it!)

And because we don't play favorites around here, here is Craig dressed in Cardinal gear for the playoffs. Go Cards!

Jeremy is one!

2009-09-08T10:21:00.000-07:00

Last month Jeremy turned one! While I don't have the pics from his birthday party yet(which was awesome) I do have pics from Jeremy's first year with us!

From his first day

First few days home

Hi, I'm new here.

Halloween '08

Springtime '09

Learning to sit up!

Ready for football season!

Jeremy is still walking around furniture and has stood on his own two feet a couple times. We are still waiting on that first step and we don't think we will have to wait all that much longer!

All Star Weekend with the family

2009-08-13T11:10:00.000-07:00

The Saturday before the All Star game Tania and the boys went to the All Star Fanfest with Grandma and Grandpa Willmann. Craig may have liked baseball before this outing, but it is clear he LOVES baseball in the weeks following. In addition to the Fanfest festivities they all went to the new City Garden where the boys played in the fountains.

Here is Craig throwing lefty, which is weird because he throws predominantly right handed. Being ambidextrous is a handy skill to have in life!

This is Craig hitting off the batting tee. He hits off a tee in our backyard pretty often now, although he clearly prefers when somebody pitches to him. Note the determination.

Tania and the boys with the grandparents at Fanfest

This is Craig hitting off a tee with an aluminum bat. Pretty good form considering he is used to using a yellow wiffle ball bat! (He stopped using the big red kids bat at the beginning of summer)

Jeremy playing in the fountains at the City Garden. He was having so much fun and being so cute other people were taking pictures of him too!

Craig had fun in the fountains too!

This youtube video shows the boys playing at the City Garden and the aforementioned fountains.

Tania's Birthday 09

2009-06-15T13:18:00.000-07:00

We were able to celebrate Tania's birthday with the family last weekend. The plan was simple: BBQ for the adults, sprinkler for the kids. The result was pure awesome.

Craig and his cousin Lily playing in the kiddie pool. The real hit was the sprinkler. It was the greatest thing to ever happen to Craig.

Jeremy was content playing with the giant blue/green ball.

The cousins are all playing on our swing set. The swing set was our neighbors who gave it to us when they moved. Score!

Jeremy and his cousin Benjamin. Jeremy was a ball hog, every time we gave Ben a ball Jeremy would steal it even if it meant using his feet!

And of course we sang Happy Birthday, which is always a big hit with Craig because he loves to blow out candles. In fact, anytime Craig sees a candle he wants to blow it out which occasionally makes Church a little interesting.

She's just being Miley.

2009-05-13T12:53:00.000-07:00

We attended the wedding of John and Ellyn Williams a couple weeks ago now. The wedding was awesome and we had such a super time. We were also given the honor(?) of staying at the bride and grooms new house so nobody tried to swipe their stuff while they were out.

They have a dog named Miley. She appears to be part golden retriever and part German shepherd. The boys thought she was part awesome. They have a great time playing with her as is evident by the videos.

Actually the video of Jeremy and Miley was too dark and I can't figure out how to change the brightness on my file so that it looks good when it gets to youtube. Jeremy was on the floor and Miley would dart in and out making Jeremy giggle like crazy. It was great.

Craig and Miley played a game of tag as far as I can tell. This ones a little dark too....that's what happens when you use a digital camera meant for pictures.

Since the Jeremy video didn't work out, here is a pic of him sitting in the backyard. He is crawling! Not very quickly, it's mostly an army crawl. But he can certainly get where he wants to these days!

Easter '09

2009-04-27T12:59:00.000-07:00

We did a lot over Easter break! First we did an Easter Egg hunt at the VFW Hall with the Mantias. Then on Easter Sunday the Easter Bunny came to our own back yard! It was great time all around.

Tania, Craig, Jeremy and cousin Jesse with the Easter Bunny.

Craig at the VFW Easter Egg Hunt. They had lots of eggs, but the big kids got 3 times as many as the little ones....and there were lots more little kids.

Easter Sunday hunt and Craig got all the eggs he could want. He had such a blast and even got to go down the slide.

Jeremy is bundled up with Grandpa Willmann. Jeremy was content chewing on half a plastic egg.

Grandma and Grandpa Willmann got Craig a batting tee for Easter! He loves it, although right now he tends just to whack at the tee. He'll grow into it.

Jeremy can sit and play for long periods of time, and it's only a matter of time before he starts crawling. Although here he looks like he is snacking on some wrapping paper....which history tells us would cause him to throw up. Eating paper is a big no-no in our house! (Well, I guess it should be in every house, but it made Craig throw up every time so we watch Jeremy carefully)

At Home on the Range: Craig loves Golf.

2009-04-02T10:16:00.000-07:00

Craig loves sports. He likes dribbling the soccer ball, he loves batting and will even tolerate watching baseball on TV. But of course, golf is his favorite. Not only will he watch the golf channel when PBS kids goes on lunch, he plays golf down the hallway everyday.

So Grandma took Craig to a golf range a while back, and Craig loved it. So when we went as a family I took some video. Craig does well and loves it, which is the most important part.

NOTE: Before deeming him the next Tiger Woods, there are TONS of youtube videos of 2 year-olds golfing. The difference is Craig is cuter, and the other videos don't have Dads talking the whole time.

Craig hitting with his 7-iron.

Craig on the putting green (first time!)

Now, before you say he took it easy by moving the ball so close....check out the 2 year-old Tiger Woods. (scroll to 0:42)

Jeremy's Baptism

2009-03-18T15:39:00.000-07:00

Back in February Jeremy was baptised! Although most people get baby baptised within a month or two, Jeremy had the advantage of a 6-month-old who could hold his head up. We had a little reception before mass, and Jeremy was baptised at the 6:30pm youth mass at St. Anselm. The ceremony was great, although it was apparent that Fr. Benedict hadn't done a baptism in a while and was trying to rely on memory!

This is Tania and Jeremy at the reception before the Mass.

Jeremy and his Godparents Curtis and Sheila. Tania and Sheila worked together at a school in Columbia for a little while, and their friendship has only grown. Tania is also the Godmother for their child Julian!

Mom and Dad with Jeremy and Fr. Benedict, who was one of the priests at our wedding.

Jeremy and his Baptismal gown, which comes from Tania's grandma Lawler. I know it needs to be a white garment, but I fail to find why it is always a dress!

Craig occupied himself at mass by reading the lectionary with the readings. Actually, all the Mantia cousins were extremely well behaved and I was impressed. Not that I expected them to misbehave, but that it is hard for kids to sit still in a church with no cry room and and echo that is fun to talk to. Well done!

Sick, but hanging in there.

2009-02-25T10:43:00.000-08:00

Pretty much since Christmas week, somebody in the family has been sick. It's been rather rough, and we will be glad when the weather warms up. Tania's had sinus problems, I had flu symptoms for about 3 days and none of that is fun when you still have the boys to watch.

Clearly the kids have had the worst of it. Craig has had a runny nose most of the time and currently has an ear infection following a double ear infection a couple weeks ago. Jeremy has had lots of congestion and even had RSV a couple weeks ago. We have only had about 3 days this month where nobody was sick! In the end, we have lots of fun. Let's get to those moments, shall we?

Although it was Daddy's birthday, Craig got a present too! Clearly he appreciated it.

Jeremy has mastered the art of holding his head up. No small feat I might add. Last checkup he was 45% weight, 55% length......95% head circumference. My bad.

Jeremy can also roll over! He loves to roll over and get new toys....he just gets bored on his stomach pretty quick. Which is what happened here.

(Sigh) Proud moment in parenthood. We watched the Super Bowl at Tania's sister with all the Mantia cousins. Sometime right after halftime we noticed Craig had snuck off. Tania found him like this: fully clothed, in the tub with the (cold) water running. This led to a massive bath time.

As Jeremy gets older, some of Craig's toys come out of storage. He doesn't grasp the "you are too big for this" concept. Obviously.

Next blog I will have pics from Jeremy's baptism!

The Season That 'Twas.

2009-01-26T13:53:00.000-08:00

Christmas came and went....and apparently so did the month of January. Here are some pics from the whirlwind season that is Christmas.

Tania valiantly tries to hold Craig, Jeremy and my cousin Meg.

I take the easy route and just hold Craig and Jeremy.

Jeremy tried to open his first Christmas present. Fortunately, he has an older brother with present opening experience.

Craig had a blast opening presents. Each time you give him a present he always says "OOOoooooo!"

Craig plays Guitar Hero with my cousin Brandon. All Craig does is hold down the green button and strum....which scores more points than it should.

Craig stopped opening presents, so I had to fill in. And I got excited about it.

Here are most of the Mantia cousins sitting in our kitchen eating Cool-Whip. I don't remember whose idea this was, but we are all fortunate that the whip cream went in their bellies and not in our faces.

Here is Jeremy almost rolling over. He is still in the "stuck on my arm" phase of rolling over, but I saw signs of him crossing his leg over which will help the process along.

Also, Jeremy ate solids for the first time this week. He ate rice cereal and did pretty well! (film at eleven). Craig sings all the time, he will sing the theme song to all his PBS favorites as well as Veggie Tales. He also started singing even without music, which I found impressive. I don't know where this fits in the Milestones, but we love our singing little man.

Baseball training.

2008-12-22T09:43:00.000-08:00

I've already posted blogs about Craig trying out golf and soccer. Well, Craig is a baseball fan too. Here is a poorly lit video of Craig taking batting practice of sorts. The setup is we were at Tania's parents for dinner and TV (I think the VP Debate was on). It was probably during the MLB playoffs, so baseball was on the mind. Craig had picked up a wiffle ball bat and was swinging it around a little too enthusiastically.

So I took Craig in the garage where he proceeded to take batting practice on a plastic apple that hangs from the ceiling so you know how far to pull the car in. We did this for almost a half hour. Good times.

Also, a blessed Christmas/Holiday season to all of you from Ricky, Tania, Craig and Jeremy!

Catching up with Jeremy

2008-12-02T08:26:00.000-08:00

Jeremy is 3 1/2 months old now, and he has gone from a tiny baby with no neck to a growing baby who will smile at everyone. Here are some pics to catch up with our littliest man.

Here I am holding Craig holding Jeremy.

Tania was taking pictures of Jeremy in his "i'm new here" outfit and Craig had to get in the action.

Another pic of Jeremy in one of Tania's favorite outfits.

Dad and Grandpa are giving Jeremy a bath. It took a little longer than expected.

This video proves how smiley Jeremy is. He does this to everyone, and we love it.

The most awesomest cookie cake.

2008-11-11T07:39:00.000-08:00

This is the cookie cake that makes Mrs. Fields cry in a dark corner. Tania baked it for Craig's birthday. I am still eating it. It represents the good in all things considered cookie and cake. Bask in its awesomeness!

Trick or Treat! Now gimme your candy.....

2008-11-05T15:53:00.001-08:00

There is nothing more entertaining than a two-year-old trick or treating for the first time. The whole time I was wondering what was going through Craig's brain: "Hmmm...it seems every house has an excess of candy and they want me to take as much as I can. Score!" (Craig has a great vocab apparently)

Our day started....with my car getting worked on. So we took a trip to the mall. Since it was a long day, I dressed the kids up and put Craig in the Gator costume to start.

Jeremy in his stroller. He was a pumpkin. I guess technically a jack-o-lantern.

Here is Craig as a Giraffe. I think the antler nubs make the costume.

Here I am with Craig. Tania wore a football jersey a student gave her. I went as a soccer player, which looks nothing like what I wear on Saturdays.

Our strategy for trick or treating was to have Craig 1) walk on his own 2) Ring the doorbell 3) Say please 4) Accept candy and move on. Well, he did great walking. And ringing the doorbell.

As for the saying please and getting candy.....well the video will speak for itself.

I'm not sure what Craig was planning on doing inside the house. Also, if there were a few kids at a house Craig would just walk up to the bowl and help himself! It was awesome, something his parents and grandparents will not forget.

Poll: Which Halloween Costume do you like better?

2008-10-13T13:35:00.000-07:00

Halloween is around the corner, and we have 2 super-awesome Halloween costumes that Craig could wear. So we thought we could get your opinion on things. So, do you prefer Craig as:

A Gator?

Or a Giraffe?

Jeremy already grew out of his Pumpkin Halloween costume (he is 13 pounds already!) So he might just have to go as Captain Adorable.

Let us know your thoughts!

FORE!

2008-10-03T18:29:00.000-07:00

I checked all the pics and videos we have, and I need to get a move on! So here is a video of Craig playing golf in the backyard. Remember, he is only 22 months in this video! Which (of course) makes him the next Tiger Tiger Woods Y'all.

The last days of Summer

2008-09-18T13:00:00.000-07:00

As goes the Cardinals playoff chances, so too does summer disappear. We had a busy first month of Jeremy's life, mostly hanging out with peeps who wanted to meet the little guy.

Craig dressed up as a Giraffe with his cousin Lily. There was a dragon outfit too, but we couldn't get them both to sit still with the costumes on at the same time.

Great-Grandma Lawler holding Jeremy the first time, and Uncle Tom being....well....Uncle Tom. Way to bring honor to your family there. Proud Day.

Jeremy awake and with his eyes open. They are still that gray color before they become their real eye color.

Dad and his boys.

Craig with Tania's Godson Julian. They had a blast together. They saw each other and went "You like to run around and cause havok? Me too!"

Tania and Craig with Noah and Madeline Cerneka. The Cernekas (Craig's Godparents) got last minute tickets to the Cards game. That might be the last one they've won at this point. Anyways, we were glad to watch them and the Little People got a workout. Please note the paint job in Craig's room I've mentioned before yet never photographed.

Jeremy Ryan and family

2008-08-20T13:55:00.001-07:00

Here are some pics from Jeremy's first week of life. Ummm....it's hard to get a good picture of a newborn, so mostly its just of Jeremy joining the family.

Jeremy Willmann literally only a few minutes old.

Mom and the boys during Craig's first visit. He did ok in the hostpital. The best part was during his final visit he grabbed Mom's hand, lead her out of the room and to the elevators and pressed the down button. His way of saying "You're coming home with me!"

Jeremy in the Willmann take-home-outfit. This outfit was used to take my father home from the hostpital, myself, my sister, Craig and Jeremy. Maybe more, but those are the ones I know off the top of my head. It was made by my Great-Grandmother.

The new addition ready to come home.

Mom helping Craig hold Jeremy. Craig has been great with Jeremy. He gives Jeremy kisses and wants to hold him alot. He likes checking him in the crib and is always willing to offer you a diaper during a change. Sometimes 5 of them.

This picture is beautiful. (it wasn't posed!)

Craig holding Jeremy solo. It lasted for 25 minutes until Jeremy needed a change. Craig pouted when he had to give him up.

Daddy and Jeremy watching the Olympics. We are still adjusting to a newborn's feeding schedule, but each day seems easier than the last, which is about all we can hope for!

The Eagle has landed.

2008-08-15T05:05:00.000-07:00

Jeremy Ryan Willmann was born at 10:30pm last night, August 14th 2008. He is 7 pounds 12oz and 20 inches in length. I can't upload pictures yet, but I can tell you he looks much like his older brother Craig exept Jeremy has a much more pronounced chin (at least at the current time.)

The labor and delivery went well (I would say, but I think Tania agrees). We got to our room to be induced at 1:30pm (due to high blood pressure and history of pre-eclampsia) and were expecting to be delivering at 1:30am. Well, Jeremy tried his best to see Michael Phelps because Tania dialated from 5 to 9 inches in just over 1 hour. Tania only had to push twice and Jeremy was born right smack in the middle of the Woman's All-Around Gymnastics final. He scored an 8-9 on his APGAR....why I don't know. I didn't really care. He was finally here.

Of course, leading up to the birth we made things interesting. Tania and I both got poison ivy!!!!! We were doing some yard work last Monday which involved cleaning off the vines from our fence. Those vines were fine. It was the giant hairy vine on the tree in the corner that got us. Only after getting itchy did I find the dreaded leaves-of-three on the vine. Craig is itch free, but I am in long sleeves and pants for the rest of the week. I am also on steroids, the only reason I am not the Olympics. (Failed drug tests look bad........) ; )

So I will get pics up when I can, but for now know that baby and Mom are great. in fact they are both sleeping right now......

Grant's Farm

2008-08-05T12:54:00.000-07:00

Earlier this summer (before InBev) we took a trip to Grant's Farm. There are lots of cool things to do, but the highlight for a toddler is feeding the goats. A quick thought on those goats: They are needy little fellas. They have one job: drink milk. Everyday, all day, they drink milk from bottles presented by humans. Despite this occupation they treat every bottle like it is the last bottle on Earth. They certainly try to jump up and get the bottle before the other ones. But they will even head-butt other goats to get milk. They need to take lessons from the penguins. "Cute and cuddly boys. Cute and cuddly."

Here is Craig with the goats. He is certainly not afraid of them.

DANGER! Surrounded by goats with no milk!

Dad shows him how to do it.

Now he is a professional goat feeder.

Picnics, weddings and more.

2008-07-21T10:16:00.001-07:00

I finally downloaded our pics from May and June. First was Tania's cousin Timmy's wedding.

Tania and I looking crooked at the wedding.

Tania and her sisters.

Craig on a carriage ride at the St. Anselm Parish picnic.

Craig had the entire Moon Bounce to himself for close to 30 minutes. He would have lived there if given the chance.

Here is Craig eating Cheerios off the end of the crayons he gets at restaurants. This is much better than when he eats the crayons and spits them out because they taste bad.

Baby, you can drive my car.

Here's Craig helping us paint his room. The room turned out great, but alas I didn't take any pictures! Next time I suppose.

Craig has figured out his Little People and loves them. Although he tends to put too many cars on the track causing it not to rotate. Whatever, that's traffic for you.

I will get the July pictures up soon as well. Unless we have the baby, then I will have lots of new baby pictures to put up! We are 4 weeks away from the due date, so it really could be any day, although I'm betting on the second week of August.

Mid Summer update

2008-06-30T12:54:00.000-07:00

Wow, summer is flying by. Here is what we have been up to:
- Ricky spent a week on Christ Power and is focusing on his Wed Night prayer group at work.
- Tania is enjoying her summer as a teacher and likes all her Craig time
- We are both still unpacking and preparing for the baby. We have been putting up storage shelves and even painted Craig's room last week. We still have to actually finish the baby's room.....
- Tania is due August 21st, which puts her somewhere in her third trimester. She is feeling it, both from being tired and the baby kicking.
- Craig is picking up words and wants to be either a)watching PBS(Curious George especially) or b) playing outside. Outside trumps PBS. He loves water and any pool as is noted in the picture below.

That's about it. We have a wedding we are a part of next month, but otherwise we are focused on our new arrival.

The St. Louis Zoo for Mother's Day

2008-06-02T11:17:00.000-07:00

For Mother's Day we went to the zoo (on Saturday) with Grandma and Grandpa Willmann and Aunt Maureen. Craig has been to the zoo a few times and already has his favorites. It was crowded and had the threat of rain so we couldn't see everything. Here are some photos of the day.

Grandpa and Craig with the giraffe.

Craig loves the bird house at the zoo. Whenever a bird calls, Craig calls back. We couldn't get any footage of that, but we did get a picture of a bird that jumped on a railing about a foot from where Tania was standing.

Craig is very good at holding your hand while walking....until he sees something interesting, but overall he is quite good.

I believe we are examining the prairie dogs in this picture.

Here is a video of Craig feeding the ducks. The highlight of the day. We left right after this and good thing we did because it stormed on the way home.

He's gonna be a soccer player!

2008-05-22T10:06:00.000-07:00

I just took inventory of my pics and videos, and I am excited about the next few blogs. First I have some documentation of our back yard. Craig loves it. He feels he should spend every moment of everyday outside.

The video is Craig playing soccer on his own. Even back in high school everyone had a suspicion my children would be soccer players. Don't worry, I have all summer to work on baseball too.

First-Quarter pics

2008-05-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

Here is a random selection of pics from the first quarter of this year. I wish I could call them springtime pictures but there is nothing spring about them.

Here is Craig in his PJ's apparently drifting off to sleep while standing up.

Chocolate goatee! My favorite!

Craig at an arcade driving game with his Aunt Maureen. He loves to get behind the wheel and push any button he sees, even if you don't know what it does.

Craig playing outside in the last snow of the year. I think he used Mom taking a picture as his chance to escape!

Easter review.

2008-04-23T10:22:00.000-07:00

The spring has been so busy that it will take a few posts to get caught up. But here are the results from Easter weekend. On Saturday we went with the Mantia family to Purina Farms to see the various non-zoo animals.

Here is Craig and his cousin Jesse playing with corn feed and John Deere Trucks.

Craig next to a live chicken. He is looking into a pig pen. He desperately wanted in to play with the 2 pigs inside. He was out-voted.

Craig looking at the incubator with all the baby chicks. This seems to be an appropriate time to tell you he loves Chicken McNuggets.

Here are all the Mantia cousins. Who knows when they will all sit still for a picture again.

We woke up Easter Sunday to discover that it had snowed! Therefore the Easter Bunny had to hide some eggs inside.

Here is Craig waking up.....

The Easter Bunny brought him 101 Dalmations and a coloring book. And chocolate.

Craig took to the Easter egg hunt pretty well, although he would have rather just used two eggs as maracas than find the rest.

But in the end all the eggs ended up in the basket.

Then we went to mass and headed out to spend time with the Willmanns. Here we are all dressed up for Mass.

Craig and his Aunt Maureen.

By this time it had warmed up and the hunt was outside. Craig was a pro at this point.

Before we knew it all the eggs were in the basket!

That's about it from Easter. I will have various other springtime pics up hopefully sooner than later.

oooo....Why'd you slice off my hand?

2008-03-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

This situation was also documented by JuggleDoug. A couple weeks ago the Royals came over with their children Isaac and Lily. At some point both Isaac and Craig picked up inflatable lightsabers. After about a half hour of prompting we were finally able to realize the dream of our children having a lightsaber duel. Ok, the video only caught the tail end of it, but you can tell by us laughing that it was a good fight before I started filming. Craig and Isaac had been at it a while, so when Isaac says "Please no" it is more about being done playing than being pwned. (I promise the video works)

If you haven't seen it before, or just want to remember, I highly recommend the Star Wars Gangsta Rap Special Edition.

AtomFilms.com: Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | Comedy Central

Craig vs. the Box

2008-03-11T10:16:00.000-07:00

Moving into a new house creates lots of boxes. One day we unloaded a particularly large one and tossed Craig into it just to see what would happen. Something cute happened of course.

Ho Baby!

2008-03-06T09:16:00.000-08:00

Announcement time: We are expecting Baby #2 August 21st! We are excited and no, we aren't finding out what it is. Surprises are fun.

Craig has been very cute recently and I have lots of videos to share. Unfortunately I have to iron out some technical problems first. But after that there will be some amazing videos coming your way!

Our House, in the middle of our street

2008-02-20T08:41:00.000-08:00

We are very excited to announce we have moved into a our very own house! It is one story with a pretty kickin' basement. 3 bed 2 bath upstairs with another bed and bath in the basement. It is in St. Peters near 70 and Mid Rivers Mall Dr. A very special thanks to all those who helped us move including: our parents, Tommy, Lisa, Christian, Annette, Ken, Scott and Susan. If I forgot anyone, that would be really bad cause it is probably a family member. Now on to the pics! First, you will notice the nice layer of snowfall we ordered especially for the move.

This is the front. My first job as a homeowner was to shovel snow. Joy.

The backyard. There are doors to the basement and the kitchen. Very good size, great for impromptu games of soccer and wiffle ball.

This is a pic of the steps leading down from the kitchen door. Ummm...imagine wooden steps.

Craig loves the house. He ran around exploring for the first half hour we were there. This is a pic of him playing with his Little People for the very first time! (We have owned them for over a year now.)

You Rock! You earned $2000. Deductions include:
- $200 Clothes, strewn about.
- $300 Milk, spilt.
- $500 Diapers, pooped in.
Your cut: $500. (for college of course)

Off Line for a while.

2008-02-04T08:31:00.000-08:00

Just an update, we are without internet for the next 2 weeks. So unless I hijack someone's computer and download some pics, we won't have any new pics for a while.

But when we get this straightened out we will get lots of pictures up. I promise.

The Matrix has you.

2008-01-21T09:52:00.000-08:00

Much has happened in the month of January. First, Tania's Saturn died the day after Christmas. That was no good. But, we were able to find a 2004 Toyota Matrix for a good price! It is listed as a mini-wagon and is good for trasporting people and stuff. Tania loves it! Here are some pictures.

Craig wanted a car too, and who are we to argue?

Drive fast son. Drive fast.

And, because I feel bad about not posting in a while, you get a pic of Craig in the bathtub.

Someday, when Craig is wanting to date, we won't have to pull out a photo album of embarassing pictures. I will just hand the young lady a web address. I love the internet!

Snow, presents and Christmas time fun.

2007-12-28T15:25:00.000-08:00

Craig's second Christmas was a blast. We went to 4 family Christmas parties as well as spent time with all the grandparents. Here is the visual proof.

This was Craig's first venture into the snow. He really liked it, until he fell facefirst into the snow. Then he cried until we took him in. It's a start.

This is Craig ready for Christmas Eve. Different than being ready for the snow.

Craig and his cousin Jesse play with Craig' new dog xylophone with the Mantias.

Craig, Cousin Meg and Grandpa Willmann at the Willmann party.

What did Santa bring? It's a red wagon full of presents! Craig loves his wagon and gets mad if you stop pulling him around the basement.

Grandma and Grandpa Willmann gave Craig the blue Dragon-chair. Craig likes to run up and give it a big hug.

This is a video of Craig playing with his new golf clubs in a....well....trash can. We dubbed it "churning the butter." Daddy and Grandpa Willmann are commenting. Ignote the screaming by Mom and Aunt Maureen in the background. They were playing the Wii.

Trees, Trimmings and Santa

2007-12-16T05:46:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics from the last couple weeks. To begin Craig got his first haircut from his Papa Mantia.

It started off ok.....

....and quickly progressed to screaming. His hair turned out good thanks to Mom's corraling abilities.

It started snowing and we saw Santa riding around our neighborhood! So we got dressed and made a visit. We will have more snow pics later.

Here is Craig bundled up and out shopping. I don't know why we decided to take the picture in front of the diaper aisle, but Craig looks to have some ideas as to what to do with them.

Craig was too small to help put up the tree last year, but he made up for it this year. Actually, he was much better at taking off the ornaments (and apparently taking off his pants!)

This is a video of Craig "helping" with the tree. The footage is dark, but you get the general idea what he was up to.

Better Late Than Never

2007-12-02T19:03:00.000-08:00

So, we have months to catch up with family happenings, but we only got our camera in late Nov. So here are some shots from a Thanksgiving/B-day party and Craig around the house as a 1 year-old.

Craig opening presents. What did you get?

Awwww.....he likes his giant Elmo, although I think his cousin Emma snuck a kiss in.

It's my son in a box!

Busted!

Craig gives new meaning to the term tail-gating as he waits for Mizzou to play Oklahoma.

Well, Craig is really active so we hope to post at least twice a month. He is working on walking, so maybe I get get some footage of that. As far as stories go....as I was downloading the pictures Craig stuck his thumb up my nose and gave me a bad nose bleed. Love you boy! As always feel free to comment or create your own picture captions.