The Extraordinary Renaud Family

I like reading aloud. I guess its a sort of performance art, hearkening back to my days as a preschool teacher or as an actor at school.

Most of the books that we read to the girls are easy readers with photos on every page. Oftentimes they are more artwork than story. Jadzia has always been our most voracious reader, and she has slowly been building up her ability to listen.

Last year I read to her a condensed, illustrated version of the Wind in the Willows. She enjoyed it, although after every chapter she would ask "So, what happened?"

Right now we are making our way through Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. This is the real version of the story, not condensed, with a limited number of illustrations. Jadzia really seems to love it, and she also is following the story much better.

The only issue is that Ludi does not quite have Jadzia's patience yet. But she'll come along eventually.

I know it's still a few years off, but I am really looking forward to reading the Hobbit with these girls. (Jadzia occasionally asks me to read little bits from it, but she doesn't totally understand what's going on)

It's a chore everyone hates. We have never owned a dishwasher at Renaud Manor, but that is soon to change. It is our hope to buy one and install it before the baby arrives next month. To do it, I'll be converting some under-counter shelf space into a spot for the dishwasher.

We're still looking into different brands and models to see what we might get. Yoli wants something black, and we both want something reliable. Several Kenmores scored really well in Consumer Reports '08 buying guide. But the problem with diswasher makers is that they change model numbers fairly frequently, making it more difficult to guess a model's longevity given past history of older versions.

Anyway, if anyone out there has dishwasher stories to share, please comment here. I'd love to hear about recent dishwashers that worked really well.

A conversation with Jadzia at breakfast the other day. I was wearing my pajamas:

Jadzia: "Oooh, Daddy, I really like your pants."

Me: "Why, thank you, Jadzia!"

(pause)

Jadzia: "Aren't you going to say anything about me?"

There are no teenagers in our house. Still, I just got back from the Ferguson License Office with a newly-permitted driver.

Yoli!

Today she finally took her written test and passed with a 96. (Somehow I imagine we are the only family of 5 (and a half) to go all together to the Highway Patrol offices so mom can take her test)

Now that she has her learner's permit, we'll be hitting the parking lots and getting Yoli comfortable in the minivan. You might want to stay away from Jamestown Mall for a while; I hear it's a good place to practice.

Ludi has a runny nose, and had a slight fever. This certainly isn't as bad as some other bouts we've had over the years. But it's amazing how just a little sick goes a loooooooong way with these girls.

At the end of January we took a trip to the Magic House. It was our first outing somewhere in a while with the girls. They had a blast, but of course it couldn't last long enough for them.

Some recent development milestones:

• Jadzia can read and write! Last week she made up some valentines that we mailed out to family and handed to our neighbors. I spelled the names, and she wrote them out.

• Ludi is singing really well, and she has quite a few songs memorized.

• Josie is walking, and doing some talking and signing. Best of all, she is sleeping through the night -- and she has moved into the girls' room.

Hey, family history buffs and amateur genealogists in St. Louis County!

Get out your library card, and check out an awesome new resource:

ProQuest's Historical St. Louis Post-Dispatch database

It includes searchable full text and full image articles from 1874 - 1922, though there are some gaps.

This is just one of many helpful databases you can search from the St. Louis County Library's genealogy databases page. All of these databases are free, but some (like Ancestry.com or Footnote.com) require you to search from within a library branch. But this Post-Dispatch database can be searched from home!

A couple years ago, one of our neighbors gave us her old Fischer-Price Molly cow, much like the one in the photo above.

We tied some yarn to its neck so Jadzia could pull it around. After a while she began to call the cow her "Lassie" (the dog from the TV show). She would lose and regain interest in it over time.

Recently we watched the Wizard of Oz twice with Jadzia and Ludi. Ludi seems to have been especially captivated by it. She asks me daily (or more than once a day) to recount the story for her. I tell various versions, depending on how much time I feel like spending sitting down and talking.

And lately Ludi has begun taking the cow and calling it "Toto." She, of course, is Dorothy. (Sometimes Josie is the Wicked Witch of the West.)

So Molly the Cow has become a stand-in for famous TV and movie dogs.

It's no secret that the Renaud Empire is a thrifty state.

So, while we are lovers of technology, we have never ponied up for cable, high-speed internet access, or cell phones. There doesn't seem to be enough competition among service providers in those areas; consequently, prices stay high.

Josie turned one year old on Jan. 14. We had a nice little party with the girls and their Nanny. Yoli made homemade pizza, which was awesome. Josie got a kick out of it, and she wasn't shy about wolfing down the birthday cake, either.

Keep reading to see some photos from the festivities (and to learn about the bald-day).

Working at a newspaper is still an exciting thing to do, even if the future of the industry looks dim.

In the last week, I have had to work during two big breaking news stories. The first was the horrible shooting at ABB in St. Louis. The second was McGwire's admission yesterday that he took steroids.

My job each time was to design informative, compelling pages. In such situations, there is a lot of collaborative work with my bosses and other designers. Also, important editors are frequently looking over your shoulder. Deadline looms.

It's an environment I still enjoy and still thrive in. Here's to hoping that newspapers survive their current morass so they can continue informing the public and serving as a check against abuses by governments or businesses.

Also, check out the Post-Dispatch's work on the McGwire confession on the SportsDesigner blog

We've been tired lately, Yoli especially. Mostly it's Josie who wakes up early and such.

But Ludi has also been waking up in the night. Sometimes it's just that she doesn't want to go to sleep, so we have issues with her getting out of her bed.

A couple nights ago, I came home and found Ludi sleeping on the couch. She had snuck out of her room while Yoli was washing dishes, and fell asleep there. Last night, Yoli heard her crying in the night. She was on the potty!

We are very thankful for that latter development!

In any event, these girls wear us out.

Advertising often sticks with us in powerful ways, whether we want it to or not.

I have always had a mind for jingles, and I can remember a lot of old commercials and songs. But it has always struck me as peculiar that I could remember a jingle for the Dallas Times-Herald.

This Christmas was a lot of fun. Perhaps the best part was having my Nan in town all week, and my brother's family for several days. We went over to my mom's house daily to hang out.

Of all the gifts the girls received this week, this one gave us the biggest laugh. It's a ladybug toy for Josie:

As Yoli removed it from its packaging today, she found the following warning:

Caution: Please be safe. Always select the correct size toy for the type of breed and chewing habits of your dog. Should any portion of this toy break or tear, please remove from your dog and discard immediately. Vo-Toys, Inc. is not responsible for any pet owner's neglect or misuse of this toy.

In recent years I have twice written up a stack of Christmas cards with every intention of mailing them. I even got them into the envelopes and somewhat addressed. Then some thing(s) or other cropped up and I procrastinated to the point that I thought "well, it's too late to mail them now!"

It's embarrasing. (Well, I guess it's only embarrasing now that I've mentioned it here on the blog. Before that, nobody really knew about it!)

But this year, I did put together a little Renaud family letter for Christmas, and I have managed to get most of them into the mail. I have one left, and it will hit the post office sometime tomorrow.

Of course this whole endeavor is a bit pricey, with the cost of having the letter printed and folded, stamps, and all.

To cut costs, I ended up printing in black and white. Also I decided I will send a digitial PDF of the letter via email to many folks.

Maybe that's the way to go in the future. It sure is easier to do. But then again, there's something nice about getting a tangible letter with a little handwritten note (even if it's just a short note).