Elvis Impersonator

More Words...More Tricks...More F.U.N.

In addition to Evan's new dance moves...lol...E has added more words to his vocabulary including park, car, stick, brush, chair, turkey, chicken, sleep, blankie, and beans. There are more that at the moment I cannot think of and I always try to remind myself to write them down as soon as I can, then I forgot. Mommy brain at it's best ;0) Although he continues to repeat almost all words that we use in isolation...it's fascinating how much they learn and absorb!!!

E can climb onto the kitchen chair and as you already know, on top of his toys...OY!!! Not good! He's also walking on the balance beam and jumping off a 3 foot platform at Gymboree. I am astonished at how physically daring Evan is. I hope he can channel it in the right direction.

We watched one of Evan's friends, William, on Tuesday and I captured a sweet moment that I thought I'd post a picture. I LOVE it!!! They are incredibly cute together. I love how they play, both together and parallel. They definitely find ways to entertain!

Oh, the most recent thing that he learned from Dave and his race cars toy is priceless. I will have to take a video of it to show everyone. I still am humored by what he says. It's a line from Toy Story. No, Evan hasn't watched the movie but he has a Toy Story 3 race car speed track that says a line that one of the characters, Buzz Lightyear, says from the movie, "To infinity ...and beyond!". Well Dave often when they are playing recites it with emphasis on "and BEYOND!". He says it with the pizzazz that Buzz does in the movie. So anyhow, E laughs at it and tells Dave to do more of it. Well little E must have liked it sooo much that he decided to join in. So Dave says "To infinity..." and E finishes the saying "...and BEYOND!". It's hysterical!!! I will post as soon as I get a video of it. Stay tuned...

Juggling Act

Leaving my little man

For the past two Thursday's I have left Evan in the care of Sara, our sitter. She is lovely and E just adores her. Today was by far the hardest for me. Reality set in when I realized that I will not see E in the morning before I go to work. Unlike last Thursday, today I went to Bally's in Schaumburg to workout before heading into work. My goal was to run through a day as I would when I go back to work in August (5-11a). Well...I am glad to say the day went super quickly although I did find myself sad and thinking about Evan because I was not able to see E's smile this morning. Fortunately, Evan was happy when I came home and didn't seem phased by me not being with him in the morning...sigh. I am hoping that the transition, come August, when I go to work everyday, will gradually become less difficult (for me). I surely am going to miss my little man more than he knows!

You're In Our Hearts and Minds Pastor Bill

I am still in shock over the passing of our church's pastor, Pastor Bill. I find it all so surreal how sudden it was. So many questions swarm my mind as they often do when people pass on...why did he have to die and how is his surviving family managing to survive. I can only imagine the pain and sadness they are enduring now. Today as I usually do during Evan's nap, I scrapped, although, today was different. I began taking out Evan's 13 month pictures and decided which pictures I wanted to put into his album and I came across Evan's baptism. Some of the pictures were of Pastor Bill and our family. Wow...I couldn't contain my emotions. Tears filled my eyes. Not tears of sadness but rather of joy in knowing the lives he touched and he is now in our Father's heavenly kingdom, watching over us. I felt a peace at that moment when I stared into his eyes. His eyes were filled with happiness, memories, and life. He lived. He inspired. He loved. Pastor Bill touched our lives in more ways than he probably knew. We are forever grateful to have met and known him. You will forever be missed but forever remain in our hearts and minds Pastor Bill.

Our Little Parrot

Evan is a riot! He's repeating words that he hears Dave or I say. His most recent being Jack (that's what Dave calls me), bird, tree, book, diaper, banana, dog, and papa. He's also in what I call a 'destructive phase'. E's been throwing his toys. I imagine he's doing that just to see what happens or to get a reaction out of us. For example if he throws a toy, I quickly and quietly (without saying anything) remove him from the situation, sit him down in a time out, and model how to play with his toys. After the time out I invite him to play with me and his toys. If he continues to throw his toys after the time out, I repeat the process and say we play with our toys. We don't throw them. So far it has taken one or two times of time outs and modeling. When he finds a new toy and decides to throw it I follow this 'discipline' process that I learned from the Love and Logic book.

Yesterday I found E on top of his Leap Frog play table trying to reach things off the kitchen table. He moved the play table next to the kitchen table and climbed on top. Today I found him on top of 2 storage bins trying to climb onto the daybed in our guest bedroom. He sure is a dare devil and curious little boy. If he's not climbing onto things he's trying to throw things and wrestle with anyone he sees at our play places. Luckily E's friend, Grace, is a tough cookie. E goes up to her, hugs her and then tries to wrestle her to the ground then he tries to hug or kiss her. She just resists him all the while putting up with his playfulness and love. So happy she doesn't mind!

E's been enjoying the parks. We have been trying to visit at least one new park a week. So far it doesn't seem to matter to Evan as long as he can run and climb on things. He also loves the ones with sprinklers. I took a video of E at the park. Check it out...

A perfect looonngggg holiday weekend

What a fun filled weekend Dave, Evan and I had!!! We started out the weekend at Millenium park since Dave had a half day. We took E for his first time to the fountain, the "bean" and the pavilion. E enjoyed the water and of course taking in the people and sounds everywhere he looked. Saturday we met up with some good friends for breakfast and later that afternoon celebrated my grandma's birthday. We had many laughs and shared good memories as Evan ran around the party room looking for things to climb on. Sunday was another fun day. After rising early bc of little Mr. Evan, we worked out, went to the park and enjoyed a quiet late morning/early afternoon at home before heading to our friends annual Fourth of July BBQ. As usual we had a great time! Evan was in his glory with all the kids running around, the slide and pools. Although he couldn't keep up he found himself attempting to talk with and join in on the boys fun. It was really cute to watch. After all E's energy blasting fun, Dave and I thought that he surely would be exhausted and sleep on the way home. Much to our surprise he was still up and not ready to go to sleep until well after 7p. Hmm....maybe it's the 2 molars keeping him awake?!?!?! Who knows. Monday was an excellent day to catch up...Phew! We cleaned, did laundry, and played, of course....and spent time, just the three of us (and Dexter too) close to home. Sad that the weekend had to come to an end.

Our 5 Year Wedding Anniversary

Dave and I have been together for well over 13 years but Friday, June 25th marked our 5 year wedding anniversary!!! What a fun day and night we had! My mom stayed with Evan and Dex while Dave and I headed downtown to see Toy Story 3 (excellent movie by the way and just as good as Toy Story 1 & 2). After the movie we went back to the hotel to change and then went to dinner at Gibson's. We enjoyed a much needed relaxing evening over dinner and at the beach. Saturday morning we woke up, ate breakfast at the Drake, the most delicious breakfast I must add, and took a stroll to the beach to lay out, read and enjoy some quiet time before heading back home to our little munchkins. I can't imagine any better of an anniversary...It was more wonderful than I ever could imagine. I am so blessed to have Dave in my life as my husband and my best friend and I am looking forward to many more happy and healthy years together. Cheers to 5 years of marriage Dave!!!!

Let the MeSs begin!!!

Today we officially started reconstruction! It's been nearly a month since the fire and we are now just beginning to rebuild the walls and get things back to normal. After waiting for the insurance's approval, we finally got an estimate of $16,000 for the repairs last week. I was glad to have been gone today because the dry wall dust was everywhere. The crew was great in that they cleaned up almost all of it, well at least the stuff that visible to the naked eye, and we are able to live in our home through the night and into the morning before they are back at 8am. Funny little story....Evan found the blue tape markers along the baseboard entertaining while I was making dinner. I turn around to look at him and there he was with 3 crumbled balls of blue tape stuck to both of his hands. At the moment I was thinking, crap, how am I going to know what walls these came from but in looking back once I was able to figure out where they belong (or so I hope they are back where they belong) I laughed at how cute E looked standing in the hall thinking he did nothing wrong. He probably thought they were some new toy...ha hahaha.

While the construction crew was hard at work at our house, Evan, Dex and I made a trip out to visit my parents. Evan and Dex hung out with Nana and Papa and I went to my work friend's baby shower. It was great to see my co workers and catch up with them. It feels like I never left them :) E definitely had a wonderful time by the huge grin he had on his face when I came back. He played with some of the toys that my sister and I grew up playing with, went on a walk, and tried his first fruit popsicle. Not too sure about how cold it was at first but definitely grew to like it rather quickly. He came home with a red stained mouth and a little stinker smile ;0) Thanks for such a relaxing day Nana and Papa!!!

It took me a long time...over 6 months, but....

i finally figured out how to insert a picture into my blog entry...lol

it's not hard at all and i don't know what my problem was. anyways, i picked a picture hoping that it will show up!

15 Month Pediatrician Appointment

Where is the time going!?!?! I can't believe Evan is already 15 months old, what! Well E went to the doctor on Monday for his 15 month check up. He wasn't too happy about it. He knew what was going on and what was about to happen as soon as he saw the nurse and doctor. Uh oh...the tears came a flowing. We saw a different pediatrician since E's pediatrician didn't have an available appointment until July so that might not have helped matters. E weighed in at 26 lbs and 32 inches tall. He is in the 75th percentile. The doctor was pleased with his growth and reassured me that his stranger anxiety is purely developmentally appropriate and may stay with him until 2-2.5 years old. E got two shots which he didn't like AT ALL. He hasn't seemed to be effected by them as much as he is the 2 molars that are erupting. Speaking of molars, the top right molar, the one I said was black and blue, still hasn't popped through. It started to concern me when I saw E's left top molar break through and it didn't ever turn black and blue. I thought the black and blue was normal because I learned of it at a pediatric dental presentation I attended back in February, but just to be safe I phone Dr. Kristin, E's dentist. Low and behold it's totally normal and will eventually break through along with some blood. She assured me not to be alarmed and to stop on in if I am in need of more peace of mind :)

Aside from E's check up and recent teeth erruptions...E's having a hard time backing off the milk. He LOVES his MILKY!!! If we let him choose one food/drink to live on it would hands down be milk. Let's hope all this milk builds strong bones so he won't break any in his years :0) E's added more words to his speaking vocabulary like milk, cheese, shoes, ball, and shake (this one he's been saying for awhile, not consistently but at Gymboree when we sing the Shake the Parachute song). He's signing (which I may have mentioned in my past post but can't remember) turn around, please, and again. Along with his vocabularly development Evan is becoming more opinionated. Watch out! He's going to be one determined little boy (a.k.a. stubborn) !!! If I take him away from something he enjoys or wants something he can't have, he talks back, screams, or walks back to the place he was at originally after I put him down. Oy! Dexter has become so easy in comparison...lol. Speaking of Dex...E now walks Dex's while he walks along side. I will have to get it on video. It's too cute. Evan also can throw Dex's toys to a further distance so Dex can actually chase after them a little bit. Before Dex would just look at the toy, then Evan and not do anything (probably thinking "that's all you've got").

We have been taking Gymboree classes on Wednesday mornings and took a Music class there for the first time yesterday. We also have our weekly Monday playdate, Family Grounds a couple times week, and fill our afternoons with either Gymboree open play or parks. Our latest venture is going to Bally so I can workout (instead of getting up everyday at 5:30a to go workout sans Evan) and put E in the Kids Club to play. Well, yeah, that didn't go over to well. Tuesday was our first day and E cried from the time I dropped him off until they called me over the PA system (10 minutes later) to come get him. I am going to keep trying. We went again this afternoon and...he DID IT!!!! 30 minutes in the Kids Club while I worked out. Thank you Evan!!! We'll be going again next Tuesday and Thursday so I can sleep in those days (hopefully E will sleep in too :)

Thank You Mommy

"Thank you mommy"...I heard it for the first time today!!! Well I actually didn't hear it but rather I saw E sign it. Not once but twice!!! It was a heck of a week with E teething and all so it was the perfect end to a rather tiring week. E's getting his first molar on the upper right side. His gum line has been black and blue since Monday and he's been very clingy, whiney and sporting a wicked diaper rash (his usual teething signs). Anyhow, I have been teaching please and thank you signs to E over the last month and he has finally signed it. I am so proud of him!

All this thank you business got me thinking of how often we took our parents for granted and how little appreciation they got when we were younger. I know I put my parents through a lot growing up and I can only imagine how they felt during those years. Parenting is a selfless job and I cannot be anymore grateful for having two wonderful, loving and supportive parents. I know I can never express enough to them how happy they are my parents. Thank you Mom & Dad!!!!

Welcome SUMMER!!!

I can't believe it's already JUNE!!! Where does the time go?!?!? This past weekend marked the "official" start to our summer and couldn't have been anymore fulfilling. I am so excited of what this summer has in store for us. E is so mobile and aware of things that I think we will be able to take him to see and learn LOTS of fun stuff. After our lovely time at Gillson Park on Saturday, Dave, Evan took Evan to the beach for his first time. When we set him down in the sand he cried at first. He didn't like it one bit. Dave tried to get him to play with the sand bucket and shovels but he just observed Dave doing it. After a minute or so he began to touch the sand and realized it wasn't all that bad. He became brave after playing for a bit and started to crawl towards the water. We were about 25 feet away from it. Evan crawled for about 5 feet, got up and walked the rest of the way. Much to my surprised he only fell down once. When he made it to the water he was a bit reluctant to go in so Dave held his hands as they walked in together. Evan didn't stop. He just kept walking. Silly me I didn't bring a change of clothes so I decided that we better take his clothes off so he doesn't get soaking wet and have to go home naked. Despite the warm weather it was cooler by the lake. Anyhow, I took lots of pictures but uploaded a couple here. Looking forward to going back soon!

The rest of the weekend we grilled dinner while taking in the peacefulness of our back deck. Believe it or not...it is quiet in terms of 'city living'. I finished a book from the Redemption Series...so eager to start the next one tonight. I also finished a page of E's scrapbook. So much more to go but it will be done soon. I am determined ;0) Evan really really really enjoyed his new water table and will hopefully continue enjoy it throughout the summer. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend as well.

A breath of fresh air

Today was simply a breath of fresh air! Dave hung out with Evan all morning while I took some alone time...worked out, went to the chiropractor (I have been having mid back pain for the last couple of months from holding Evan) and got a mani-pedi. This afternoon we went to Gillson Park in Wilmette with Dave's family for his mom's birthday. The weather was beautiful. We had a picnic in the park and walked over to the visit the gardens of the Bahii Temple. Absolutely breathtaking!

It's been a while since I wrote an update on the house, sadly there is not much to report. Just met with our home insurance adjustor last week and are awaiting approval from our insurance company for the go ahead to start reconstruction. Hoping to get word from them next week.

Updates on E...

I still find myself amazed at how much he is changing and how big he is getting! I am so proud of how much he has learned and what he continues to teach us every day. Evan's really really trying to talk more. He has now added more, ball, and shake to his verbal vocabulary. He still has his good old baby babble that he thinks he is communicating to us but we still cannot make it out. He's singing along in the car while clapping and tapping at times. He's starting to jog, as I like to call it, without out falling down. Still a bit unsturdy but he's walking 99% of the time. Since I planted flowers on the deck he has enjoyed playing outside going in and out of the patio door, picking the flowers and throwing off the deck so he can watch them fall to the ground (mind you we are on the 3rd floor). He signs "help" while he faces the chair as his request to us to help him onto the chair. Once there, he sits, looks around and laughs. He has found quite a few ways to entertain himself, this being one of them. At the park Evan enjoys the swings and likes to climb up and down the stairs. His latest craze are the plastic cups that you can get at Starbucks, Panera, etc. You know the ones with the lids and the straws. I put some water inside with the lid and straw assembled and give it to him. He loves it! He will hold onto it in his stroller, walk with it, try to bring it up to the top of the park's jungle gym. I should try to get a video of it...it's hilarious! E's loving his books. He'll sit on the couch or the floor and page through them while he babbles. He usually brings me a book and signs 'help' for me to read it to him. Over the last week or so he has been himself bringing his toys (usually one or two) to me and Dave. He'll walk over to us with the toy, give it to us, and then walk away. He's also been doing the same with Dex. Except instead of E bringing his toy to Dex, he brings Dex's toy or bone to Dex. Aside from all these fun little developments, E is getting one of his first molars. I was wondering why he had been so clingy, whiney, and picky about eating early this past week and speculated that it might be teeth. And...sure enough, I noticed his upper right gum is black and blue. Ahhh...it looks terribly painful it's no wonder he wanted me to hold him almost all day.

Rejuvenating Weekend

Today was the longest and BEST weekend in a REALLY REALLY long time. After all the chaos with the fire last weekend it was so wonderful to just spend this weekend with ourselves, Dave, Evan, Dexter and I. Saturday we went for a run, saw Elmo, went for a couple walks, cleaned out the garage, grilled dinner, and relaxed. And today...we went to Home Depot to buy flowers for our deck and I planted them, cleaned the house, and went for a run, while Dave and Evan played. After E's nap we went for a walk, to Starbuck's, and home again to grill dinner. E played on the deck while Dave, Dex and I relaxed. I am so glad to have had this kind of weekend. Long overdue. I feel very refreshed!

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.