Jeremy L. Berg

We closed on our new house today (8/25/14) and will begin the move later this week. So, we’re wrapping up this series of posts sharing some favorite memories from our house on Cedar Lane.

When we bought our cute old house in 2006 we anticipated living here for 4-5 years until we decided to start a family and then upsize. It’s not exactly the perfect house for toddlers (e.g., steep stairs). But now after bringing two newborns home from the hospital and all the “firsts” we’ve experienced here, it’s hard to imagine this house without Peter Bjorn and Isaak David leaving their mark (and toys!) everywhere. 

So, let me share some favorite daddy moments. 

1. Stroller rides around town. We will miss living a couple blocks from the bike trail and downtown Mound. We have spent so many hours in the stroller hitting all our favorite spots. Our Saturday morning family ritual is to walk to the Farmer’s Market, stop by the bank for a sucker, pretend we’re shopping at True Value to get free popcorn, browse the record store, and say hi to the fish at the public docks at Lost Lake Pier. 

2. Asleep in a Drawer. We’ll never forget the day we went to check on Peter who often played himself to sleep in his room and found his bed

empty and his clothes all over the floor. Where was Peter? Asleep in the bottom drawer. Classic moment that I’m glad we captured on video and photo. 

3. Baby Powder Incident. But the most memorable daddy moment by far began on a typical weekday morning. I jumped in the shower for 5 minutes with Peter playing in his room and Isaak still in his crib. A couple minutes later I heard giggling coming from the nursery and knew Peter was up to something. I ran to the room and walked into a white cloud of baby powder. Peter had dumped the entire first container out all over every surface, and even worse we had a space heater running and blowing it around like a snowmaker. He was holding the second container and dumping it all over his

little brother’s head. Peter said something like, “I make Isaak a snowman.” Isaak was covered…but didn’t seem to mind at all!  I’ll leave you to imagine how fun and easy the clean-up process was. (Oh, and to make matters worse, Peter was standing there with poop in his underwear (no diaper on)). We got the best video that I still hope to submit to America’s Funniest Home Videos someday.

4. Down the stairs. More recently our greatest fear happened. Again, I was taking a quick morning shower when I heard Peter trying to open the safety gate at the top of our steep stairway. He had never attempted this before, and the gate pulled off the hinges and I heard a fall, a thump-thump-thump, shattering glass and then the crying from the bottom of the stairs. My heart jumped into my throat, and I ran expecting broken bones, bloody lips, bumps and bruises, and a trip to the ER. By God’s grace, Peter was fine – completely fine! He went down head first, with the gate tumbling end over end ahead of him and shattering the window at the bottom. Oh, and this shattered window happened just as our house went on the market and an hour before a showing. 

I could go on and on about first steps, first Christmases, the amazing themed birthday parties in the backyard (that Keri should write about), and so much more. But we’ll forever cherish this house as our first nest for our growing family.