On our way

So the walls are dried out and the fans and dehumidifier were picked up yesterday. We are waiting to have the building insurance company and our personal home insurance company inspect the damage. The claim adjustor is coming tomorrow morning so we may have a better idea of what we may be able to get done. As Dave and I feel, everything happens for a reason. We are looking positively on this whole situation in that we will do a little remodeling while we are getting our walls repaired. Why not?!?! Of course the planner that I am, I am already looking for paint colors and ideas for updating our decor. For starters, I am thinking of repainting the master bath and possibly our master bedroom, replacing the curtains and duvet cover. We will be getting new carpet in all three bedrooms and quite possibly replacing the vanity in our guest bath (if so I am thinking of getting keeping the same plum paint color but getting a pedestal sink and new ceramic tile. Well that's the fun part of the remodeling. On the flip side, we believe a few more of our walls will need to be knocked down and rebuilt due to the water damage marks and stains. We'll see what the insurance companies say about them and make a decision from there. I'll continue to keep you all posted.

Day Three: Restoration & Recovery

GOOD NEWS...the walls are dried out and we are on our way to starting construction! Aside from being thrilled that tonight is the first night of no workers in our house to 9:30/10p, we are happy to be back to a normal temperature (a comfortable 70 degrees (beats having the air conditioning on and your house set to 65 degrees), no insulation flying everywhere and the peaceful sound of silence (the fans were making us a little crazy :) The fans and dehumidifier should be picked up within the next few days and while we are waiting for them to make their exit, we are awaiting our home insurance inspector and the building home insurance inspector to take a look at our building and individual units.

So we got our wish of staying in the city for at least another year!!! All things happen for a reason, right!

Day 2 of Restoration and Recovery

Boy...do I wish I could say we are back to normal...ha! We are no where near close to that. Today we met with the claims adjuster to determine if it's in our interest to use them or whether we just simply go through our home & building insurance providers to cover costs for all the damage. It looks as though using the claim adjustor is best. When all is said and done, we are looking to not have to pay a single penny for the recovery and restoration of our home. Hoping the roofers who started the fire will be solely responsible. Later this afternoon the restoration and recovery service guys came to knock out our kitchen ceiling and vacuum out the insulation. Once the insulation was all out they sprayed a disinfectant. The disinfectant kills mold that may have grown since the start of the water damage. Lastly (or so we hope this is the last of the drilling and knocking down of walls), they drilled the final holes along two of our kitchen walls. Having experienced what we've dealt with thus far, I am highly considering the insurance company's offer to set us up in a hotel. Although...living in a studio room with a toddler and dog doesn't necessarily sound like a fun time ;0)

9a meeting with the head emergency restoration and recovery man tomorrow. That should be fun! More to come...

The Roof, The Roof, The Roof Was On Fire

Oh my... what a weekend!!! The roof of our building caught on fire. I will try to make this as short as I can. Dave was golfing in the burbs all day while Evan and I were at Gymboree. Evan and I left Gymboree. I happened to check my cell phone and saw that my neighbor called. I called her back and learned that our building was on fire. I ran the 30 minute walk back home in about 15 minutes (mind you E was in the stroller and I was wearing flip flops). Needless to say at the very moment I learned of the fire, I feared the worse...all I could think of was Dexter. I was hoping and praying that he was okay. As I was approaching our block, I saw 2 fire engines, an ambulance, and my neighbors and their dogs but no Dexter. My throat closed up, I started hyperventilating, and could barely move. Thankfully my neighbors quickly reassured me that although Dexter was still inside he was fine. They had contained the fire and no one was hurt. Kindly my neighbor offered to go up and get Dexter from our unit while I stayed with Evan and our neighbors. As soon as I saw Dexter, that he was okay, I breathed a sigh of relief and held back my tears. I was so grateful he was alright. Apparently one of our neighbors, the owner of the top unit was having a water system installed on the roof top deck so they can access water for their home garden up there. The roofer was sealing and the roof and some material which was resting on top of where the furnace lies caught on fire. After talking to our neighbor and the fire chief, we got the okay to go inside. When I entered our house it had a strong smoke smell and there were puddles up and down our hallway, inside the guest bath, furnace room, kitchen and just inside the door way of both of our guest bedrooms. A few of the walls also had water trickling down of which I didn't notice until an hour or so later. As soon as I got Evan situated with a few toys, I cleaned up the water. Oy...what a project!! I was so happy once Dave got home. I explained what happened and we talked about how grateful we were that everyone was alright and that there wasn't much damage to our place. Little did we know that there was extensive damage inside of the walls. Long story short (well I guess I am beyond that now ;0) we had an emergency service take a moisture reading of our walls to see if there was water within. Low and behold nearly half of our home's walls had water sitting within it. Today we had the walls (all the hallway, third bedroom internal wall, all walls of Evan's nursery (one of the walls has to be ripped out), 3 of the kitchen walls, hall closet and furnace rooms aerated so that they can start drying out. During these next few days (however long it takes for them to dry out and the moisture levels to reach a normal level) there will be a dehumidifier and multiple fans spaced throughout our house. I imagine we are going to be going a little crazy after hearing the humming sound of the fans for hours on end. We have been listening to our neighbors fans above us for the past 24 hours plus and hear them as clear as day. Ugh... Each day the moisture levels will be read in order to determine if a more aggressive approach to drying out the walls needs to be taken (sigh). We are hopeful that there is not more damage than has been already done. And...we are hoping that our home insurance will also cover most of the costs, if not all of it. I can only imagine how long this is all going to take when it's all said and done. After this drying out process is done there will be wall repair, painting and cleaning, at least that's what we hope is all that will be left to do. (sigh) What an experience this is!!!! So glad that we are all safe and sound and that it's just the walls of our unit that will need to be repaired...or so we hope. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

It's Official...

Evan is WALKING!!!!

As of Friday E is toddling EVERYWHERE!!! I'd say he is walking 90% of the time now. It's fun and exciting, yet weird and sad because he is no longer a baby. He's a TODDLER!!! Luckily for me and Dave, E is still slow :) Not sure how long it will last, but...we'll enjoy it while it lasts.

Our Little Waddler

So Evan is becoming more and more brave in his attempts to walk. Although he still prefers crawling...he'd win a crawling race for sure, he's giving much more effort in his quest to walk. Over the last couple of days, E will be standing up, holding onto something (like a piece of furniture or tumbling equipment), he sees something that he wants and he'll start to walk to it. Sometimes he makes it there by walking and sometimes, or should I say more times than not, he walks about 5 steps and plops right down and crawls. Smart little guy...he knows he's can get to and from things faster by crawling!

E said "yes" to Dave yesterday morning when they were eating breakfast together. He also nodded his head yes while he said it. Still not signing the please, thank you's, and excuse me's yet...lol. But hoping that comes shortly.

Recently E started going to one nap. Four out of the five days he only took one nap. As of yesterday he is taking just an afternoon one. It will be interesting to see if he will keep this up. Honestly, I was a bit worried how it was all going to pan out until yesterday. He woke up at 6:30a, I tried putting him down at 9a for his morning nap, he laid in his crib for a half hour. Didn't go to sleep so I took him out. We went to Family Grounds to play for a couple of hours, headed home and I put him down for an afternoon nap at 1p and he slept for an hour and a half. It worked out fabulous! Hope today will work out the same (fingers crossed)!

We have a busy weekend ahead 2 birthday parties, 2 more showings (had 1 yesterday too). We are hopeful that one of these days we either get a second showing (enough of the first showings-we've had over 20 already) or an offer. Come on already!!!! The cleaning up for them is starting to wear us out. It's a lot more difficult getting prepped for them with a dog and a child. Jeez.

Signs

The power of signs!  I am so glad that I started teaching Evan sign language.  Although I was very discouraged having started signing to him at 3.5 months because it felt like I was entertaining myself...lol...now, it is my life saver.   I love not having to figure out everything that E wants or needs.   He effectively communicates his wants and needs when it comes to food, drink, help, all done, and his favorite, more.   Before Evan started communicating, many times I would question whether or not I should continue.  It wasn't until E was 9 months old that he signed his first sign 'more' on a consistent basis.  Now at 13 months old he is signing 8 signs in order to express his needs and wants ( light, hi/bye, milk, all done, help, food, drink, and more).  Looking back over the last 10 months when I was pulling my hair out and ready to stop, I am so grateful that I stuck with it.  Now when I am teaching Evan manners, please and thank you, I keep in mind the patience us both before he was able to sign the words for himself :0) Hoping he'll learn these in a month versus ten ;0)

On a side note, Dave bought E a basketball hoop and basketball to play inside.  He set it up on the back of our kitchen chair, just so it's at E's height.  Evan absolutely LOVES it... as does Daddy!  It's so cute to see his sense of accomplishment when he makes a basket.   He is oh-so-proud.  

We were also able to get a video of E walking.  Maybe one of these days he will actually prefer walking over crawling.  I probably should be careful what I wish for...right?!??!

Big Brother

They are the cutest DUO, Evan and Dex!   I absolutely LOVE THEM!!!  I never realized what a great teaching tool Dex is to Evan.  E is now not only calling Dex's name for him to come but attempting (with no success yet) to put the harness on Dex, holding his leash when we go on walks, giving a treat to Dex when we come inside from our walks, and just his morning I witnessed one of the cutest things between the two.   After E had finished drinking milk from his sippy cup, he set the cup on the ground next to him.  Of course, the hungry hound that Dexter is,  he waited right by E's side until he finished drinking his milk.  The moment E took his hand off the cup Dex was right there licking the straw.   When Evan saw this he quickly grabbed his sippy cup with one hand, put his other arm out straight while pushing Dex away, and said "No No No No No".   It was priceless!  I was so glad to witness it but sure do wish I got it on camera.

Baptism Blessing

Today our son, Evan, was recognized as a member of God's family.   He was baptized at the church I grew up to and confirmed as a member many years ago.  We couldn't have had a more beautiful day and are so blessed to have Evan in our lives.   Last week I visited my Grandmother in the hospital.   As were talking she humbly said to me and my Dad "How did we live without Evan in our lives.  He is such a blessing."  I couldn't agree more.  Evan has be the light in our lives over the past 13 months and will continue to be.  He has taught us the 'real' meaning of life and reminds us that the little things are not worth getting upset over.  We were so grateful to be surrounded by the love and company of our family members who witnessed Evan becoming a child of God, and for those family and friends that were not with us, they were with us in spirit.

Where's the time gone?

I am amazed at how much Evan is changing and how quickly.  Not sure if it was the little boy hair cut I gave him this morning, but he went from being this little 6 pound little baby to this incredibly active and talkative little boy.   While at Gymboree open play,  E did his usual crawling and tumbling up and down the play equipment.  But today was different.  Today he attempted multiple times to walk.   Each time he took about 5-10 steps.  Wobbly, of course, but he was eager to do it.   He also learned how to go down the stairs or anything that is raised off of the floor backwards.   I taught him by saying "turn around and down" and it definitely paid off because today was the first day I didn't have to say it or cue him to remember to do it.  Another new observation I made today was while he was on the wooden rocking horse.  He saw an electrical outlet on the wall to his left and said "no" as he shook his head.   As I saw him do it, I reaffirmed him by saying "no touch" and "danger".   He followed my affirmation by shaking his head no and saying "no".   E is also saying "hot" and knows when something is hot.  We were eating breakfast yesterday and Evan saw my coffee and said "hot".  Similarly as I was making dinner he felt the heat from the oven and said "hot, hot".   Oh my...and when I ask him to help me, like get the dog out from under the bed, Evan will crawl over to Dex and say "Dexter, Dexter" while patting the ground or his leg in an attempt to get him to come out.   Speaking of Dexter, when E and I take Dex for his walks, E likes to hold Dex's leash.   It took a couple walks before E realized he had to hold on the whole walk.   We'll see how long wanting to walk him lasts :0)   I know there are a few more things that he's been doing new as of late, but am stumped as to what they are.  When I remember them I will add them.

E's FIRST Trip to the DENTIST!!!

E did well!   He much rather play with the toys in their office than get his teeth cleaned, but hey, who can blame him?!?!  Dr. Kristen was wonderful.  She introduced E to all the equipment and picked out a raspberry flavored cleaner to clean his teeth and followed the cleaning with watermelon flavored flouride.  Yum!  While she was cleaning his teeth she put on an Elmo/Sesame Street show that displayed on top of the ceiling while he looked up at it.  I thought for sure that would capture his attention.  But I should have know better, E plus restraint equals disaster!!!   He cried the whole time Dr. Kristen cleaned his teeth.  Oh well!  At least he has very clean pearly whites ;0)  He got a certificate with his picture on it to add to his scrapbook.   Although Evan wasn't a big fan of his first cleaning, I am proud that he did it and had a smile on his face when it was all done!  Good job Evan!!!

Our Furbaby, Dex

Sorry for the long wait....quite a bit has been going on recently and has put a hold on my posting.  Dex had surgery last week.  He had a lump removed from his chest.  After picking Dex up from the vet after the surgery he came home, we fed him and he was hanging out at Evan's side for the 2 hours before E went to bed.   He didn't miss a beat!   The next day Dex was up and running about with his toy up and down the hallway.   Apparently he wasn't in much pain.   We were glad to see him bounce back so quickly.   On Thursday we got the pathology results on his lump and learned that it's a Mass Cell Tumor (cancer).  It is fairly common in the breed (among a few other dog breeds).   However, that did not make receiving the information any easier.   The Vet was pretty confident that she removed it all but told us to keep a watch out for any bumps or unusual growths and will test him in 6 months.  Hopefully Dex will not have any more serious health issues.  The poor dog has had his fair amount of health problems in the short 7 years that he's been living.   Keep Mr. Dexter in your thoughts and prayers!

A Lovely Weekend

Finally my cold is gone and I have more energy.  Dave and I enjoyed some alone time on Saturday when we dropped off E at our friend's house (Thanks Catherine and Put) to get out and see a movie...at the theatre!  We saw Shutter Island.  Great movie!   It has been a couple months since Dave and I got out just the two of us :)  Long over due and it felt very refreshing.  We need to do this more often!

E's having fun being 'Mr. Busybody'.  He's always on the go...eh hem...like his mommy and is really keeping us on our toes.  He's standing by himself, much more sturdy and for longer periods of time.  He has attempted to take a couple steps but then dives forward after the first or second one.  He's signing more consistently and more curious with each passing day.  Has mastered the downward facing dog and finds it entertaining to crawl around in circles, stop, and see the world in a dizzy state of mind :)

Sadly, we have not been able to nix the bottle quite yet.  He will drink out of his straw sippy but prefers the bottle for his milk.  Only a few more months before he's done with that.  He recently tried pork tenderloin and corn and loved them!

We are looking forward to some warmer weather that's predicted this week so we can get out for more walks and to the parks!

No No No

E cracks us up!  He just started to nod his head 'no' and understand the meaning of 'no'.   As of late, Evan LOVES looking for your belly button.   As much as I have tried working with him on looking for his it's hard since he has such a pot belly.  You can't even pull it up or suck it in to find it.   The thing is HUGE!!

Anyhow....I thought I'd share this funny happening with everyone.   Dave, Evan and I went to Family Grounds (a kids play space and cafe) on Saturday afternoon.  While E was playing he noticed a women sitting close by to him who's back was turned to him.  He saw a small part of her back skin exposed (the part between the top of her pant and the bottom of her shirt) and decided to go up to a lady and pulled her shirt up in search of her belly button...lol.  As soon as I saw what he was doing,  I rushed over to her and apologized as she smiled and laughed.  Luckily she was very understanding and thought it was cute :0)  Oh E!   In retrospect, I guess that wasn't a good thing to teach you how to find your belly button.  So how do I get him to understand not to get in other people's space?!?!?  Ha...hopefully sooner rather than later.

E's still drinking the whole milk but it's been hard getting him to drink completely from the sippy cup.  He'll drink about 4 oz from it but that's about it.  Hopefully it's a start and he'll come to it in time.  

Oh, E's cold is getting better. He's not as stuffy and his nose is running less, as well as his cough.   Now, sadly, I have the cold.  Hoping it will go away quickly as I have 3 night appointments this week and will need the energy to get through the days and then those nights :0)  Wish me luck!
 

No More Formula....YAY!!!

E's on whole milk completely!   Now we are officially onto removing the bottle.   Boy I know we are in for it with this one.

We had a great week and weekend!  E is 110% better since his ear infection a week and a half ago.  He finished his antibiotic today and is officially drinking all whole milk!   This week was action packed as always.  Aside from our weekly Monday play date, Tuesday baby swap, Gymboree, and Family Grounds play date, we went to Gymboree 2 additional times.  One for an open play and one for a make up class (we missed last Wednesday because of E's ear infection).  E absolutely LOVES that place!  We just walk in and he is smiling from ear to ear.  Since he loves it so much, we signed him up for April classes.   This weekend came and went quickly :0(  Saturday we went to our friend's 1st birthday party and E played and was entertained by all the  commotion it brought.   He loved the pasta salad and the birthday cake that we fed him rather than the food I brought him.  Of course, why would he like my cooking when he eats it everyday...silly mommy ;0)  We had another showing which made that 3 for this week.   So far no second showing or serious buyers as far as we know.  Luckily the time change hasn't thrown E off too much.  We'll see how he is tomorrow though...lol.  Today Dave and E went out to visit Grandma and Grandpa in West Dundee.   They apparently had a great time because E was all smiles when I got home from my pilates class tonight.   He always has a fun time visiting them!

New accomplishments....hmm...let's see...E is much more mobile.  His physically abilities are definitely developing.  He took one wobbly step for me this past week.   He's still not to sure of the whole walking thing.  He still rather crawl everywhere :0)  As I already said earlier he's drinking all whole milk.   He's signing more regularly which is so nice to see (especially since I have been signing to him since he was 3 months old).  E and Dex are quite the best of buds.  He likes to feed Dex his food when he is finished eating.  He's babbling far more and has started to try to say Dexter's name.  He mainly can say the D and X, T and R sounds.  I understand it but not sure that others can ;0)  I know there are a few more things but I am so exhausted and am in need to go to bed.  Good Night!

Day Two of Milk Transition

Yesterday went well.  E drank 2 oz of whole milk from his bottle.  For the rest of his bottles yesterday I mixed 50% whole milk with 50% formula.   He drank each of them as if nothing were different.

Today he drank 4 oz of whole milk alone without hesitation so I decided to make his bottles with whole milk for the rest of the day.   SO LONG FORMULA!!!!  Thanks Evan for making that transition easy...now onto getting rid of the bottle.  This one I anticipate to be not so easy a transition.  E LOVES his bottle!

First Transition of Four

Today E started his first of four transitions...formula to cow's milk.   We'll much to my surprise it went pretty well.   Mind you, having had milk allergies myself, I was apprehensive of giving E milk and mentally prepared myself in the event we had to make an emergency trip to the dr or hospital.   Luckily our little man, tolerated the milk just fine...phew!   Once I got the nerve to pour a couple ounces of whole cow's milk into Ev's sippy, I offered it to him, he tried a sip of it and pushed it away.   So I thought, okay it's just the cup, let me try a different one.   Nope!   That didn't work either.   So, I decided to use E's pediatrician's suggestion...put one part cow's milk and 3 parts formula into Evan's bottle.   Of course!  That worked perfectly, and I did continued doing that for the remaining 2 bottles E had today.  My game plan from here on out is to continue to increase the cow's milk and decrease the formula until he is drinking all cow's milk, no formula.  Hoping it's not easier said than done...ha ha.

The remaining three transitions are (and in this order :)

*Bottle to cup...no more bottle (E is REALLY not going to like this one!)
*Two naps to one nap per day
*No more spoon fed meals-all independent and with use of utensils

I'll continue to update daily as to how this milk transition thing goes...keep your fingers crossed that it's a smooth one!

1 Year Appointment

Quick Update on E.  He had his one year doctor appointment today and did a super job.   He no longer has his ear infection...yay!!!  E weighed in at 24.3 lbs and is 29.5 inches.   He's in the 75th percentile, meeting all his developmental milestones and is a healthy little man overall.   He didn't like the 2 shots that he got but quickly forgot about them as we walked out of the office and into the beautiful 60 degree outdoors.  Since Dave worked from home and went with us to E's appointment, Dave and I took Evan to Gymboree open play for an hour after his afternoon nap.  E was all smiles.   He loves Gymboree and didn't miss a beat while we were there.  I haven't seen that much energy take over him for well over a week.  He was climbing up and down the ramps, on and over the tumbling mats, and throwing the balls.  He definitely is back to himself, and boy, what a relief it is to see....yay...our little E is back!!!

Evan's 1st Birthday

E had a great 1st Birthday despite being sick with an ear infection earlier in the week.   We had our families and a few close friends over for E's birthday party on Saturday.   He got his first taste of cake!  Once he tried it he wanted more.  We took it away from him and he started to cry!   Now he knows what he was missing all along...lol.   We took a lot of pictures and I posted a few here already.   It's amazing how much he has grown and accomplished in this short year.  We are looking forward to what the next year brings!  Happy 1st Birthday E!!!  We are soooo proud of you!!!

Need to CATCH UP!

Sorry it's been a few weeks since I last blogged.  Needless to say, it's been a crazy 2 weeks!   E came down with an ear infection last Monday and has not been himself for the past week.  I initially thought it was because he was teething (he grew 3 more teeth in less than 2 weeks).  So the ear infection really tied us up while we were trying to get him better for his 1st birthday party this past weekend, had an open house, took the dog to the vet, and so on and so on...I was afraid there was going to be a time where life was going to get in the way and I was not going to keep up with this...however, it's only been two weeks and I will surely catch you all up...no worries :)

Over the course of the past weeks, E still loves taking things in and out of containers, sitting on one knee, dances to music/beat, finding my belly button (still working on him finding his), crawling every where and tumbling over anything he can, pointing to things if he sees something familiar/wants something.   In addition to his old behaviors, he has learned quite a few new ones...he gives open mouth slobbery kisses and doesn't seem to care whether they are on your mouth, on your cheek, or on your pant.  He just likes to give them :0)  He also gives kisses to Dex.  He'll crawl up to Dex and dive his head right into him with an open mouth (wonder how much fur he has been eating...lol...It's pretty funny to watch.  Dex just moves his body away from E as fast as he can and looks at him like what are you doing to me?  E also has added a word and sign to his vocabulary.  He says Elmo and signs 'all done'.  His sign for 'more' is very clear now and no longer looks like he's clapping.  He's grown 3 new teeth in a matter of a week and a half.  Two top and one bottom.  He now has a total of 7 teeth.

Wednesday was supposed to be E's first Gymboree Play and Learn class but he was sick with an ear infection so we didn't go.   We did run some errands and relaxed at home.   All E wanted to do was cuddle and lay on my chest.  He had no energy to play and a fever of 104.3 which was at it's highest and the lowest was at 102.8.  Luckily he still ate.   The pediatrician put him on an antibiotic and he is much better.  Unfortunately he's in a "mommy hold me" period and it's really starting to wear on me.  At first I thought it was because he still wasn't feeling well but now I believe it's a manipulative behavior.   For instance, E whines, I pick him up, he stops whining.  Today I wanted to see if it was him manipulating the situation and low and behold it was.   E was whining, I ignored him, after 30 seconds or so he crawled away from me and played, came back whining about 5 minutes later, whined while holding onto my legs for 30 seconds, crawled away and played.    I hope this passes soon :)   Looking forward to a fun active packed week (as always)... house showing, pilates, Oscar's,  hair cut, birthday party tomorrow, baby swap, Gymboree, Family Grounds, Gymboree, and a 1st birthday party on Sunday...phew.