The Life And Times Of James M. Wisler

It can be a little corny, but I’m a bit of a finance geek as well as a computer geek., so every year I get my free credit reports and like to remind others to do the same.  Deep down I think the credit racket is a scam, but its a game that we are forced to play.

Also, I suggest using https://www.annualcreditreport.com/ which is a site operated as a service by the three major credit reporting agencies, and not freecreditreport.com which is operated only by Experian and which will attempt to enroll you in the Experian credit monitoring service for $14.95/month (as I said, “scam”).  Its just that jingle is so catchy….

It has been a pretty long week here in the Wisler houshold.  Melissa took off for a week long business trip to South Dakota on Monday, but our plans for me to drive her to the airport didn’t work out because Mac Jr. was having coughing fits that were so bad they caused him to vomit.  The doctor said it is asthma and prescribed medication which he takes through a nebulizer, which is like a vaporizer.  The little guy doesn’t like to use the breathing mask that comes with it though so I have to hold him in my lap and keep the mouthpeice next to his face so that he gets his full dosage.  I feel so sad when my kids get sick, although I don’t mind the extra time I get to spend with them making them feel comfortable.  This also makes 2 for 2 on the kids puking on daddy.  That was kind of one of my worst fears of parenting, but, after it happened, it really wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.  Now I just fear for the times when we catch them playing in their own diapers.  Ok, enough of the gross parenting talk.

So, yeah, I have been playing the solo parenting routine while Melissa has been gone and also planning Mac Jr’s birthday party for Saturday, he will be a whole 2 years old!  Of course I have to make the obligatory comment about WOW, they are growing up so fast!  2 YEARS OLD!  And this is our second child!  It really seems like he was born last week.  Of course, he has grown so much.  Below is a short video of the day we brought little Mac home from the hospital and introduced Ada to him.

The holidays were very fun and very busy for the Wisler household, which is why I haven’t written any notes here for a while.  We spent Thanksgiving at a family gathering in Fort Scott, KS, then a small at-home celebration for Melissa’s birthday (a.k.a. Stu Day), followed by a trip to Hutchinson for Christmas and then hosting a small family-friendly event with a few other parents and kids at our home for New Years Eve.  Glancing over at the http://mac.wisler.org/ I see that I didn’t make a post regarding Melissa and mine 4th wedding anniversary either, which we celebrated in early Nov.  As I said, its been a fun and busy couple of months.

This first pic of the kids that was taken on picture day at Googols Of Learning.  We usually get pictures taken of the kids every year to send out with holiday cards, but since these pictures were taken so close to the holidays, we just decided to use them instead.  I had been planning on getting a full family photo taken, but Melissa  is a little camera shy and since we were able to use this picture instead of going to a portrait studio again then she was able to weasel her way out of getting her picture taken.  Foiled again!

The other two pictures are of Ada and James decorating the Christmas tree.  They were very well behaved with the ornaments during the tree trimming, but we later had to move all of the glass bulbs up out of reach or else James would be pulling them off the tree.

Today I am wishing a very happy birthday to my wonderful wife, Melissa (a.k.a. Mellystu, a.k.a. Stuology)!  We affectionately refer to her birthday as Stu Day!  So, happy Stu Day 2008 everyone!

I tried to snap a couple of pics this morning of the kids to show off how big they are getting.  James definitely went through a growth spurt in the last couple of weeks.  He’s gotten a little taller and so he doesn’t look as chubby as he used to.  Some day we may even forget that he resembled the stay-puff marshmallow man.  He has also reached the point where it is really starting to be a chore to carry him for too long.  Of course, he can get just about anywhere on his own now so not much of a need for me to carry him anymore anyhow, which is sort of a good thing as far as necessity goes, but also a little sad as well.  He really is ultra-mobile though and has been keen to climbing up everything – couches, chairs, walls, etc – and he doesn’t recognize his safety limits yet so we always have to keep an eye on what he’s getting into.

Of course Ada is also growing fast.  She has maintained her independent streak and has even developed the mantra “Ada do it!”.  Much to the relief of both Melissa and myself, this has led to her becoming fully potty trained.  She has really been enjoying preschool and having the chance to do so much outside play with other kids.  She loves to take full advantage of all the energy she has, although she sometimes has to re-learn the valuable lesson of when it is better to walk than to run, which has earned her a few “ouchies”.  She has become very good at communicating both with us and James and is definitely developing a big-sister attitude.  She likes to play with James, but also watch out for him and warn him that something he is playing with is “not a toy” or sometimes even saying “James go to bed” when it gets late.  Of course, we’ll just have to see how James feels about that when he is able to talk back more effectively.