December 30th, 2016

Hello everybody! How did your Christmas go? Ours was pretty low key. Mom did get a new camera, so now you know what’s next—lots of pictures! My friends and I are some of her favorite subjects!

Mom says that this camera has lots more megapixels than the phone or ipad camera. I think I look rather handsome in extra megapixels!

Foster thinks he looks handsome too! We will share more pictures, because Mom really loves her new camera. She has to go to work soon, so we’ll stop this one here!

December 25th, 2016

Merry Christmas, everybody! I hope you’re having a great time!

Mom and I are going to have a nice quiet day! She doesn’t have to work either job!
Talk to you later!

December 24th, 2016

Merry Christmas Eve, everybody!!

I hope you’re all having a great day! Mom has to work until four, and then it’s Christmas time!

December 23rd, 2016

Mom and Oliver got their picture taken with our mall Santa again this year. It is only notable because it’s possibly the only time Mom gets her picture taken.

Oliver was NOT AMUSED. He thought that the going inside the building thing was pretty cool, but once he got there he said no way. But the people at the photo taking place must’ve been very experienced with hesitating puppies, because they were in and out in ten minutes. Mom had prepaid for the pictures, so that probably helped too!
Merry Christmas, everybody! I hope you have a great holiday!

December 16th 2016

Mom had a long week and we forgot to write a post yesterday.  It is pretty important to us that we post every Friday,  so we are going to write more tonight. 

Well, we did remember to drop by, but Mom is really tired. Her new job is very busy because Christmas is almost here. It is also rather far away-- about a half hour car ride. Mom doesn't like driving on major highways, so it's kind of irksome. We will write next week's entry this weekend. 

December 9th, 2016

Winter has finally decided to come to Wisconsin. It actually snowed a few days ago, and it’s probably 25 degrees Fahrenheit tonight. I’m hoping for a white Christmas. Mom says that she just doesn’t want it to snow when she has to drive to and from work!
Mom just bought her very first Humble Bundle today. They’re not books that Mom would let me read, but she thought there were people who read my blog that would like to know about it. It’s a bundle of Neil Gaiman books! We’re big fans of him around here!

With Mom working two jobs, we haven’t gone to many places this week. She did take Oliver and Caleb to Petsmart this week though. In a few weeks, I hope she gets an extra day off every week! I want to go somewhere that’s not one of her jobs! Maybe to the library? Where do you think I should ask to go?

December 2nd, 2016

Good afternoon, everybody! How are you? I’m all right. Things have been pretty quiet around here this week. Mom has been working her two jobs still, so there really hasn’t been much new around here. We have brought home a new AG friend though. Mom bought her as a reward for making it to a whole pay period at her new job.

Meet Mabel! She is an Melody doll. She loves music and bright clothing. She is Adelaide’s cousin.
More next week!

November 25th, 2016

One thing about Mom’s new job is that she doesn’t have to work retail on Black Friday. She does have to work at the new job, but it will not be as annoying as the retail job!
Happy Thanksgiving to all our American friends. This Thanksgiving was Graham’s first one. He really seemed to like all the new food. Oliver, on the other hand, was not impressed.

He said that he has had all the turkey one dog can eat and he wants to nap. He also said that he wishes that everyone would be quiet!
I hope everyone is having a great week!

November 18th, 2016

Hello everybody! How are you? Things have been pretty subdued around here.
I have been going to Mom’s new job with her. I sit under her work table all day long! Boy, it’s nosy! She is working at an embroidery machine. She puts people’s names on their aprons, bible cases, totes, and baby bibs. Caleb, who has gone with her since the beginning, sits in the bag with me. We play on her ipad and phone and talk. It’s kind of crowded, but Mom needs the moral support! It’s kind of exciting too—it’s inside a factory! There are conveyer belts and everything.
This is what Mom’s embroidery machine looks like. She found a good picture of it on a Dutch website off all places. They were made in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They were made by a company called Barudan. Mom was looking for a history of Meistergram, but we’re not having much luck. There is a 135 article wiki on embroidery machines, which is really weird in it’s own right.
Thank you for listening to my talking. This is a really new experience for both me and Mom. She is worried about a lot of things, and I’m doing my best to help her. Researching things on the internet always helps!
Since an entry isn’t complete without a picture, here you have a new picture of Oliver!

I hope you all are having a great day! Talk to you later.

November 11th, 2016

Good afternoon, everybody! How are you all? I’m all right. Things are still pretty quiet around here. Mom is pretty tired from all her working. I want to go on an adventure, but she doesn’t have the energy. Maybe next week!

We have been having a very nice fall here in Wisconsin. It’s one of the reasons I want to go outside! Mom let me sit on her lap when she drove home today so I could see the scenery! I do love fall.
Do you have a favorite season? Mom likes summer because everything grows and there are flowers. I think I like fall because of all the reds and oranges and yellows. What do you think?

November 4th, 2016

We’re getting closer to the election here in the US. I’m glad it’ll be over with soon. I hate the TV commercials and all the mailing ads!
Things have been pretty quiet around here. Mom started her new job a few days ago. She still is staying at the bookstore because she loves books so much. I’m not sure if I want to be away from her so much, but we’re going to take it a week at a time.
Graham is getting bigger and bigger. He is almost ten months old now. He will be one year old on the sixth of January.

He still hasn’t grown much hair yet! But he has four teeth, which I feel with regularity! He still likes chewing on my nose. Mom doesn’t let him do it for very long, since he could do damage now!
We did go for another walk. It was quite chilly, so we didn’t go far. We didn’t see any cool animals though. We did see an ox-eye daisy though! (Now I know that it’s an introduced plant!)

Have any of you gone anywhere interesting? Maybe Mom will take me for another walk soon!

October 28th, 2016

So Mom found herself a different job. She works at the same place that her sister does, but in a different building. She is learning to operate a an embroidery machine. It is big, fancy, and possibly older that she is.
Last night, we forgot to write an entry. So it’s actually really the day of, and Mom is extra tired. So we’re going to post this and then write next week’s. I hope you’re all having a great day!

October 21st, 2016

We have had a pretty quiet week around here. It’s been mostly filled with babysitting Graham and Mom’s work. Today Oliver, Graham, Mom, and I went for a walk!

Mom wanted to take a picture of the New England aster, but Oliver said that she ought to take a picture of him instead! (A while back, Mom found an app called iNaturalist. It’s sort of a catalog of all the natural things, allowing people to see where you can find cool things outside. Mom really only gets time outside when she goes for a walk, so we try to take a picture of something each time!)
I’m pretty tired, so I think I’m going to encourage Mom to go to bed.

October 14th, 2016

Hello everybody! How are you? Things are all right here. Fall has arrived here in Wisconsin. There is a frost advisory for tonight, and it’s already just 41 degrees F! Mom and I don’t mind the cold, so it’s all right.
Mom has to work for the rest of the week. She had to work all morning and afternoon and then babysit Graham in the later afternoon. I’d like to write a lot today, but she says that she wants to go to bed. Today we will share a picture of Oliver! We’ll write a longer entry next week!

Have a great day!

October 7th, 2016

Hello, everybody!! How are you? We’re all right! Mom took Oliver, Graham, and I for a walk a few days ago. We found something that we wanted to show you!

This is a wooly bear caterpillar. It will become an Isabella Tiger Moth. It is crossing the road to find a safe place to spend the winter. It will overwinter as a caterpillar and emerges in the spring to become a pupa and then a moth. Wikipedia says that you can find wooly bear caterpillars all over the world, including the Artic. But in the Artic, the summer when the caterpillar eats to become a moth, is very short. So it eats, refreezes itself, and rethaws the next spring. They can do that up to fourteen times! But after it becomes a moth, it only lives a few days to find a mate!
I liked going on a walk. I sat in the bottom of the stroller, and we walked to the petting zoo and back. Graham didn’t like his stroller before, so we hadn’t gone. But he seems not to mind it too much now. I hope we get to go again soon!

September 30th, 2016

Good afternoon, everybody! It’s raining on the day that we’re writing this. I don’t mind the rain. I guess I don’t want to be left outside in the rain though! That would not be good! Maybe I should say that I like the rainy weather from the safety of the nice, dry house!
Things have been a little quieter this week. Mom has the day off while we are writing this, so it is nice and quiet. We’re watching Netflix and working on her family tree. Oliver came out from under the blanket and he is supervising the blog entry.

We have another new American Girl friend to introduce.

Here is the Holiday Addy and the new Beforever girl, Melody! They’ll join the rest of the AG mini girls!
Talk to you all later!

September 23rd, 2016

Mom had another difficult week. This time it was work that made her disappointed. But we remembered to write something up, so this one will be longer!
One of Mom’s friends from work went to Minneapolis and the Mall of America. In the Mall of America is an American Girl store! She bought Mom some things! We have now a new AG Mini friend! She is an Addy holiday doll!

We have also been playing with an app on the phone called Prisma. Have any of you heard of it? It takes your pictures and turns them into works of art!

We are really impressed with the app. What do you think? Do you have any photo editing apps that you like?
Talk to you later!

September 15th, 2016

We spent today watching Graham instead of writing our blog entry. Now Mom has to go to work. She takes me with, but she takes the iPad and the phone inside with her. (I stay in the car!) So I can't write an entry by myself. We've been doing so well on posting that we don't want to break our streak. I'll write more tonight.

September 9th, 2016

Hello everybody!! How are things for all of you? Mom has had a moderately stressful last couple of days again, so this is going to be another short entry. But since it’s important to us that we keep on blogging, we’re going to keep this up!
I thought I would tell you about a few Twitter people that we follow. Mom checks her Twitter all the time, but mine once or twice a week. I thought I would share one of Mom’s new follows and one of mine!

We have been watching Miss Fisher’s Mysteries for a while. Mom posted a picture of a shirt that she bought online with Miss Fisher on it. (Technically it was Jack Robinson!) Every Cloud Productions, the production company behind Miss Fisher, retweeted it! So we had to follow them, of course!

While we have been following Pink Bunny’s blog for a long time, we recently found her Twitter feed. Her humans take her all over! They’re especially fond of Disney parks. They go behind the scenes to all these cool restaurants and things like that.
Do any of you follow any interesting twitter people? Mom and I are on Twitter. I am on Twitter here, and she is here. We don’t tweet about anything terribly interesting, but we like it all the same!
Talk to all of you next week!

September 2nd, 2016

Hello everybody! How are you? I’m all right. Things have been pretty calm around here. I guess you don’t get to pick which kind of exciting you get, so boring is all right.

We spend a lot of time watching Graham. Yesterday, he fell asleep while sucking on my ear! It was kind of gross, but at least he wasn’t chewing on me. He army crawls now really fast! Mom spends a lot of time crawling around on the ground with him. I’m usually safe on a chair though!
The past few days have been much cooler around here. We’re hoping that fall is going to stay. Do you like fall? Mom and I like the cooler weather. The trees are so pretty when they change colors! Did you know that the trees are actually always those pretty colors, but the green chlorophyll just covers it up? When the tree goes dormant, it stops making chlorophyll, and the other colors are visible! (These are things you learn when you really, really like trees!)
Hope you’re all having a great day! Talk to you later!

August 26th, 2016

Yesterday, my mom, Graham, Oliver, and Caleb were driving to be with Mom’s sister (Graham’s mom) for lunch. Mom spotted something on the road, and went back to see—and it was a turtle!

It was about five inches across. When Mom walked up to it, it didn’t seem to care, but when Oliver got closer, it scooted the rest of the way across the road! Mom says that technically, Oliver rescued the turtle! After Mom got home from lunch, we looked it up. It turned out to be a painted turtle!  That was all very exciting!
This was the first wild turtle that we’ve seen in a while. We live in between the country and the suburbs. There is a swamp nearby and a man made lake across the road. We saw a snapping turtle a while ago that was pretty big. This one was tiny in comparison. But we saw some pictures of baby painted turtles while we were looking for the ID, and this one was probably at least two years old.
That was our excitement for the week! Have any of you seen a wild turtle?

August 19th, 2016

Good afternoon, everyone! How are you? Things have been pretty quiet around here. Mom’s week went by slightly better, so we will have a longer post today.
Mom’s nephew, Graham, has decided that my nose is tasty. Mom, Graham, and I sit on the rocking chair and rock him to sleep. When he’s falling asleep, he tries to chew on my nose! Mom catches him, but I’m afraid she’s not going to catch him just once and he’s going to chew my nose off! He’s got two teeth now and they’re sharp!
Mom is currently working on her family tree. She was contacted by someone who lives in northern Wisconsin about a gentleman named Warren Holmes. It lead her on a genealogy journey to discover that she is very faintly related to Elizabeth Cady Stanton!

My mom took this picture today. (She’s the blue jeans in the lower right corner!) This is Oliver and Graham waiting for Graham’s dad to come and pick him up! I thought it was so cute that I had to share!
Talk to you all next week!

August 12th, 2016

Good afternoon, everyone! Mom has been having a bad week, so she wants to go to bed soon.
Mom and I spend a lot of time reading. Mom mostly likes nonfiction books. We mostly read books on the ipad. We’re currently reading two books. One of them is called the Gene, by Siddhartha Mukherjee. It is about the discovery of DNA and what we have been doing with it. Mom thinks it’s really interesting—but I think it’s kind of boring. But she reads books with me that she thinks are boring, so it’s all even in the end! What are you all reading? We’d love recommendations! We’re also interested in reading books in Dutch!
Since a post isn’t the same without a picture, here is a picture of Oliver. He has been helping me keep Mom’s mood up!

I hope you’re all having a good day! Talk to you later!

August 5th, 2016

Boy, it’s been hot around here in Wisconsin. I’m very glad that we have air conditioning. I don’t think I’d be a very happy bear if we didn’t! (I know I talk about the weather a lot—I just don’t like the heat! When fall comes, I’ll talk about the leaves or something else instead!)
So Mom survived the Harry Potter night. She took pictures and posted them on her Facebook page and on our Flickr page in an album. Have any of you read it?
Mom loves buttons. I spend a lot of time helping her sort them. We have jars of buttons sorted by color. After a bit, we then spread those buttons out and match them with their friends. The sets of buttons go into little bags. We have big plastic bags filled with these sets. Some of the sets we take pictures of and post them to Instagram. We have it so Instagram automatically posts to Flickr where we have a whole folder of them!

Do any of you collect anything like this?

July 29th, 2016

Hello everybody! How are things around you? Things around us are pretty calm! By the time you read this, it will be one day before Harry Potter and the Cursed Child comes out and Mom has to work that crazy night! Are any of you big Harry Potter fans? I think they’re all right, but Mom says that she has been Potter-ed out. She has worked at bookstores for a very long time, and there has been lots of Harry Potter craziness!
The past week has been very hot, so much like the week before, we haven’t spent a lot of time outside.
Here is another return to our hug!

This is Bunyan. He is named after Paul Bunyan. He is a Centennial III Build-a-Bear. When my mom found him, she thought that he could be a logger! My mom’s grandma from her Mom’s side is from Bemidji, Minnesota. They have a huge Paul Bunyan statue there!
Talk to you all later!