Introducing Niles Helge Tangen

It was worth the wait. A beautiful little brother to Jonas arrived on 4/29/2010 at 5:36 pm. Niles weighed in at 9lbs 3oz., and 20 and 1/2 inches. Sara is doing well and was amazing as usual. Niles came out a bit quicker than expected and had a hard final passage. The St. Mary's staff and Dr Ederer did a wonderful job to get Niles into this world after some difficult minutes of not breathing. He has been doing well since than and has been real active and alert for a newborn.

Sara pulled out an old classic preparation tactic to give birth to Niles, her pre-racing breakfast, a half bowl full of cheerios. It definitely did the trick. She was a bit hungry and shaky afterwords so she downed a chocolate malt, a veggie burger, some salsa and fries.

So far so good on the name choice. Niles was chosen based on the the name's roots to be a passionate champion of love, joy, knowledge, and discovery that exist on this planet. Helge was chosen as his middle name to honor the name, love, support, wisdom, work ethic, and Norwegian heritage of Niles's grandfather, uncle, great-grandfather and beyond for many preceding generations.

We appreciate you spending a little of your digital clock-time to share our family's joy of our newest addition and will post the meeting of the two brothers when it occurs tomorrow in the next couple of days. Peace and Love to all.

Another 48 hours......

How to pass the time?.....Read some fairy tales while snuggling with Jonas and Rocky. All the standard concoctions for getting things started have not worked..yet, and Sara is blaming it on a diet that has led her to develop a titanium lined amniotic sac. If you listen carefully you can hear Sara say "I agree."

Overdue Notice

Mom is a bit overdue. We have not checked in with the library to see what the fine will be yet. We keep extending the days as Jonas as an only child....hopefully soon that will change. Jonas did provide some quick and easy noodle recipes to use when we get home from the hospital. He also showed us a few moves with his train shoes. Jonas has been drawing a lot, inside in his books and paper, on the computer, in the bathtub, and everywhere outside with chalk. He has drawn a few things that actual resemble the intended product, the train he drew in the bathtub was quite nice. It was a standard coal steam engine with a hopper car attached if you could not tell from the picture in the slide-show.


If you could not hear what he was talking about its something about trains having shoes... We hope to have an update soon on a brother for Jonas, I just don't know when soon will be!

Not relaxing yet...but trying

Sara has still been working hard to get everything ready for school when she is gone on maternity leave....she is almost ready. In the times outside of this we have been going on the normal adventures with the thought in mind that soon things will be a bit different on the outings. The 1st official farmers market was great, as usual. We have been having fun, going on long walks, eating spicy foods, etc....


A lot of gardening opportunities have sprouted up with the ridiculously nice weather so far. Jonas has been partial to picking dandelions and was a bit upset when his dad popped the head off of one, but he did get a chance to pick a few of his mom's favorite flowers and give them to her.

Once upon a time....baby J

This is a classic picture of a less than a week old Jonas. The story goes that he was receiving a lot of media attention and was getting fed up with the paparazzi as he tried to hide from having his picture taken. I don't think it worked so well.

Its almost time.....to relax

It has been rather difficult to find some time to relax, but this last Sunday was a great day. It is simply amazing how fast kids grow up. Jonas spent the day with his family and that was just fine with everyone. One of the best days.....

I forgot that the last couple of pics were the highlight of the morning for Cory and Jonas on Monday. The octopus stump that was almost turned into a merry-go-round kept getting stuck in the city mulcher. It took about ten minutes to get it to go through and the 2 spectators appreciated every extra second of the wood choppers. Kids and trucks.

Toddler Doc

Jonas took Sara to a visit to the Doctor's office in our living room the other day. He went through all the stuff that usually happens at the Doctor's, but used his own "tools" to give Sara her check up. When we visited the doctor for Sara's 38 week check up Dr E was more than happy to have an assistant. Everything checked out right on schedule. There was a bit of a curve ball with the mention of a faster heart rate for a female, but hopefully that was just a little activity as we have not been working on girls names at all.
Sara wanted me to put a disclaimer on the pics that if you are feeling nauseous, please turn off the computer, I on the other hand think her belly is quite beautiful and amazing.

Here are a couple of videos of the toddler doc, he seems to have pretty good report with his patient.

More Easter

Jonas got an opportunity to hunt down some Easter eggs this last weekend at his Grandma Sue's. He found all ten eggs and later opened up gifts that matched up with the number in the egg. Its quite a long video clip, it took about 4 minutes to get all ten eggs, but it was his first egg hunt.



Jonas found his easter basket after looking all over the house. He had a great deal of looking before the find, so Sara's hints are quite appropriate in this context for a 2 year old.



For his final Easter-Bunny celebration Jonas traveled to South Milwaukee and found that the bunny left him stuff there as well. I assume it is quite normal for a bunny to do this nowadays, especially considering that the bunny has upgraded to remote control R2-D2 units and the such. Grandma Laurie and Grandpa Helge amazingly were able to help Jonas locate yet another hidden easter basket outside hidden in a tree.



Rex and Sully were good young pups while all the festivities are going on. Jonas got a chance to swing his first whiffle ball bat with grandma, blow some bubbles, and show grandpa that he has indeed mastered making a chocolate malt at the distinct age of 2. You can see from the pics that Uncle Helge and Aunt Sue are busy refurbishing their house. It is looking great, it is the house that our grandparents lived in. Enjoy the spring it only happens once a year.

Easter Prep...the eggs

Its almost time for the Easter bunny to deliver his hard-boiled eggs that he got from a chicken and than decided to dye them beautiful pastel colors. What a bunny. Jonas is just really being introduced to this amazing bunny, and is eagerly looking forward to finding the basket that the bunny will be hiding. The egg coloring went well, especially with such good supervisors!