Blizzard. 2011

We stayed warm and snug in our home today!   Didn't even get out of our pj's.   Nope!  We stayed in them all day even while we went outside to play.   Just put on a few extra layers over our comfies and headed out :0)  It was a wonderful snow day aside from not having Dave home to enjoy it with us.   He's been in Minnesota since Monday night.   He was supposed to go to NY last night but that obviously didn't happen due to the blizzard so he is hanging tight until he can get back home.   Hoping to see him tomorrow morning.  We miss him a lot!!

While the rest of the city is enjoyed their snow day, E and I kept each other entertained in the small confines of our city home.  E woke up at 1am last night.  I think because of the strong winds.  Something flew between our house and our neighbors house.  It was so loud I thought it might have hit the window and break it.  Luckily it only hit the bricks so we were unharmed.   After eating breakfast we skyped with E's Aunt Cal and Uncle Matt, then we made valentine cards, an obstacle course, and started to make cookies when I realized we didn't have any chocolate chips so we made sugar cookies instead.   E napped and I rested for a few hours before we cut out the sugar cookies into heart shapes, baked them and sprinkled them with red sprinkles.   We decided to check it out outside since the wind had died down and the sun was shining a bit.  We bundled up and made our trek through the snow.   E loved it!   We climbed through mounds and mounds of snow while falling along the way.  E made a snow angel and we took turns running as fast as we could through the snow before we would fall down laughing.   Poor E didn't make it that far, maybe a couple of feet, before he'd be down laughing and saying "more, more".  Each time I asked him if he wanted to go inside, E would say more....more...more.  Great activity to poop him out.  He surely should sleep good tonight!    At the end of the day.. all I can say is Thank Goodness for SNOW DAYS!!!   We really really enjoyed our stranded day together and the best part is....I have a SNOW DAY AGAIN TOMORROW!!!   YAY!!!!

 Here's E hanging out on Tuesday while we watched the snow start coming down from our couch. We were all warm and snugly.

 When we woke up Wednesday morning this is what we saw outside our house.  Hello Snow!

 We made the most out of our snow day by making valentines...

 watching Sesame Street & Yo Gabba Gabba (while Dex slept all day on the couch-see him in the background).  We also made an obstacle course out of Dex's doggie stairs, the couch and kitchen chairs!

 After E's nap we ventured out of the house to explore what the blizzard left behind.

 Brrr...IT'S COLD!!!!

 But it sure was A LOT of FUN!!!

 Evan wanted to play outside all afternoon!

 This picture was take while I was kneeling on the ground with E after we fell.  This is our street (wonder when the plow will be coming around).

 We took Dex out for a little walk but he didn't last long.  He was shivering he was so cold.
Poor little guy I think he made it all if three houses!

 Here's a picture of our alley leading up to our garage.  Luckily I have another snow day tomorrow.  There's no way I'd get out of our garage, the alley, or the street.   

 A picture of the side of our house.  Jeez...it's taller than Evan!

 Finally enjoying the heart sugar cookies we made today...yum!!!!
What a perfect end to a fun SNOW DAY!!!  

A bit over due

I was thinking this week that it's been a long long time since I wrote an update.  We've definitely had an eventful month.   Just when I thought it would die down (since our home construction has been complete) it turns to chaos.   Who was I kidding...?!?!   Well we made an emergency trip to the pedi's office because I thought Evan sprained his arm, that just turned out to be a nurse maid's elbow, then Dave, E and I all came down with a terrible cold.   I got the cold again over my winter break.  Lovely.  I know.   We had called the pedi's office for E's cough because it had kept him up at night and we knew he needed sleep to get healthy again.  So they gave us some home remedies without us having to go in for a checkup.  Luckily.  The week I was back to work, E burned his hand on the iron.   Not just a small burn but one that covered a good portion of the top of his hand.   Yet again, we were at the pedi's office for a check up.  Now, a week and a half later it has healed quite nicely.   It healed a lot quicker than I thought.  Amazing how resilient little kids are.  Not even a week after us getting healthy, I got sick again.  Not just another cold but a sinus infection.   I am now on an antibiotic and I am patiently waiting for it to start working.  Supposedly it should start to alleviate the pain and pressure of my right sinus by this afternoon.  So far...nothing :(  E went for his second dentist appointment last Thursday.  He did cry but he did well.   No cavities.   We are brushing his teeth good.   He has all his teeth minus the last set of molars.   Hopefully when we go back in 6 months he won't cry and it will be an uneventful visit.

A little bit on E...he's weighing in now at 31 lbs.   He's a character.  He never sits still.  Even when he sleeps he is fidgeting around.   He still loves music, dancing, his milky, and running around like a crazy man.   His favorite toys right now are his basketball hoop, wooden train set, and guitar.   He can never get enough of Elmo and we probably hear his name about 50 times a day, at least.  He is now taking an Art and Music class at Bubbles Academy in addition to his weekly Gymboree class and open play times.   He has taken to it well.  I was a bit apprehensive signing him up for it because I know how much he prefers the physical activity of Gymboree and this art and music class would not have that.   Much to my surprise he loved it and followed directions of the teacher about 90% of the time.   The other 10% of the time he would walk, actually run, around the class checking out what the room has to offer.   He is very much a Curious George and not afraid to jump right into things.   He's also been really good at testing his limits lately and letting Dave and I know exactly what he wants and when he doesn't get what he wants he throws down and fake cries (even with real tears).  He's that good!  Little stinker!   Although he has his stinker ways (as I like to call it), he has good manners, loves people, and has learned to be a good sharer.    He is growing way to quick!   I wish I could freeze time!

Uh oh!

So I went into the bathroom one night, started the shower to warm the water, walked out and into our closet to put my clothes in the hamper, I come back into the bathroom where I was greeted by this smiling face!!!   He looks at me smiling and says "Uh-Oh!"   He's too cute!

Merry Christmas!

 Santa came!!!

A basketball hoop for Evan

 Evan on Christmas Morning

 Not too sure why there were toys in front of the fireplace

 After we told him Santa brought them for him he had a big smile

 E and Dex needed a break after playing with their gifts from Santa

What a memorable and relaxing Christmas morning of playing with our new toys, sitting by the fire reading books, eating breakfast, and most importantly remembering the true miracle of Christmas...our Lord, our Savior, Jesus, was born today!!   

Happy birthday Jesus!!!

Evan & Friends

Christmas Gift Exchange 2010

Grace, Tyler, William, and Evan

Evan and our friends gathered today for our annual Christmas gift exchange!  So nice to get together to celebrate the end of a fun year with good friends.   We are so happy to have found them.   I honestly don't know what we would have done without them!  They have helped us survive the last 2 years of me being a stay-at-home-mom and through the transition of me going back to work.  I'll tell you, it. was. not. easy!   Anyone who knows me well knows that I am not good with change :0)   Anyhow, the girls and kids in our play group have made many many memories together and I truly miss hanging out with all of them in the mornings.   Fortunately, E still gets to hang with them every Monday morning when Catherine, my friend, watches him.  She takes him and her daughter, Grace.   Although I am not able to join them every Monday morning I look forward to the Monday mornings, about once a month, that I can join them.   Thanks to all my city mommy friends and their kiddos for yet another wonderful year of fun and laughter!!!

Momma's Little Helper

Evan is quite the little helper these days!  He loves helping me clean and cook.   He seems to have all good intentions and tries very hard to please me but usually I end up having to clean more.   It's all worthwhile when I see the huge grin on his face that shouts "I am proud of myself momma!"    When we cook together, E slides the kitchen chair to the counter and climbs onto it so he's standing next to me.  He much rather taste test the foods than actually cook.   I guess you can say he's my best critic!   He's definitely not afraid to spit out the food onto the floor below him...oh E!!!   Gotta work on those manners ;0)

So You Think You Can Dance?!?!

Santa Claus is coming to town...

Waiting for Santa!

Santa & Evan 2010

Having a serious conversation with Santa

Evan, Dave and I went to see Santa (Tanta is what E calls him) yesterday on Michigan Avenue.   We went to the same place as last year...to see the 900 North Shops Santa Claus.  It was fantastic!  We waited 15 minutes to see Santa.   I thought Evan was going to cry when he sat on Santa's lap...but much to my surprise he didn't.  He walked right up to Santa, looked at him, and Santa picked him up and placed him on his knee.   Evan didn't even blink an eye.   He was dead serious as he looked at Santa and everything that surrounded him.   We  eagerly tried to get him to smile but he was intent on taking everything seriously...it was definitely no laughing matter.  Ha ha ha.  He was such a big boy and happy as can be after he got a little toy Christmas cat for his braveness.   We were so very proud of him!  Thank you Santa for a lovely visit!!!

Giving Thanks

I am ever so grateful for so many things in my life.   I have been blessed with good health, a beautiful son, husband, loving family and friends, a home, and a career I love.   When I think of all of I have been blessed with in my life I can't imagine being blessed with more.   I thank God everyday for all he has given me.   I love the ups and downs that life has brought me.   I know each day is uncertain and I try not to take it all for granted.   At the end of the day, I enjoy sitting back, relaxing and remembering all the people that have touched my life and the things that bring me happiness!

All Said and Done

It's official... all contractual work is complete!  Yay!!!   Now we just wait patiently for our couch to be delivered within the next month.  Once the couch is here we will have completed the final touch to our 'new' home.   We are ecstatic that everything structurally is done now.   However with everything complete it's hard to believe for the last 6 months we were living in a construction zone....really?!?!   Where did the time go?!?!

An Extra Hour! Totally Forgot!!!

I forgot today was day light savings time...jeez...an extra hour, what to do with the time (LOL)!?!?!   I sit here on the couch, while Dave and Evan sleep, thinking about what I need to get done today.  Rather than pondering about the day, I should be sitting here enjoying the peace and quiet.  With all the construction and chaos this past month, I have sadly fallen behind in scraping, creating Evan's 17-19month DVD's.   Luckily while I have fallen behind in this stuff, our home has been refreshed and is practically brand new!  

Speaking of new... the latest update on our house as of today is....carpeting is going to be installed this Tuesday and we have the intercom serviceman coming out to fix our buildings system.  Apparently there is some fault somewhere in our building's system and it's not allowing any of the units to buzz guests into our homes.   Our neighbor's unit, the one above us whose roofer started the fire, is almost finished.  They sanded, buffed and stained their floor yesterday (wow! was that loud-glad I gave the neighbor below us a heads up when we had had our floors done).   Overall we are looking forward to not hearing the pounding of hammers, the drilling, the sawing, and seeing the dry wall and dust accumulate in our main entryway and stairwell.  E will finally be able to take a nap in his own crib and not in our master walk in closet.   What a trouper he has been!   Due to the construction, E's naps were all over the place last week.  After trying to get him down to sleep for nearly an hour or two, E went down to sleep around 2p (usually he's down around noon, 1p the latest) and would wake at 4p, so then he didn't go to bed until 8p, would wake at 7:30a and the cycle would repeat.   I finally got to take his nap at noon yesterday and hopefully he is back on track.

Honestly...as excited as we are to have the whole house completed and looking like new (sometime soon we hope) we are so over having people in and out of our home working on something.   It will be nice to have this all said and done by the holidays.

Halloween 2010

Oh boy!!!   We had Lots of fun this halloween.  Evan was a kick in his Elmo costume.   He picked up the trick or treating deal when he got to the 5th house or so and started to take a handful of candy instead of the one that I told him was suffice.   On Friday night we carved our pumpkin.  On Saturday we went to Grace's Halloween Birthday party.  And, on Sunday we went Trick or Treating.  

We are glad to be back into our house and getting settled in.  We are still waiting on a few things like the carpet, couch and bed spread.   All had to be special ordered so now we wait :0(  The roof is completed and the construction crew are now working on our neighbors kitchen.   They speculate it to be done by the end of the month, or so we hope :0)

Latest Reconstruction Update

As of this afternoon the crew has completed the painting of the 3 bedrooms, electrical work, unclogged toilet (clogged toilet was not due to the fire rather compliments of Evan), and half of the floor tile in the guest bathroom.  Today the crew is finishing refinishing the hardwood floor in the hall, kitchen and living room.   All that's left is the guest bathroom tiling and painting of the hall, kitchen and living room.   The carpet will be installed sometime within the next week.   As for the roof (where the fire happened), it is just about finished.   They started moving the trusses up on Thursday, opened the roof yesterday to replace the burned ones and have sealed the roof until they complete the remaining work.   Hoping it doesn't rain too hard these next couple of days.   Good news is... there is no leakage from the rain we are getting today, bad news is...we are out of our home and living in the hotel until Tuesday.   As much as we are eager to get home and back to our normal life as we know it, we are pleased with our living arrangements since we moved into a soft loft 2 bedroom hotel room.   There is plenty of space for the 3 of us so we can still work and move around while E is sleeping.  We have to be quiet of course, but we are separated by a wall so it makes it more conducive to still do stuff without waking him in the process.  I will say, I was a bit worried about how the hotel room would pan out when I was discussing details with Home Link (a temporary housing service provided by our home insurance).   I placed much emphasis on how essential it is that we get a 2 separate bedroom room.  Thankfully my persistence paid off and we were provided with the 2 bedroom hotel room for the length of our stay.  We are very much happy and grateful to have this temporary home.   It makes a bit easier to be away from our real home; although, we sure do miss our home!  Speaking of missing home, we also miss our furbaby Dex.  He's still at my parents house until we move back.   We wonder if he will even want to come back...lol...he is living in the lap of luxury.   He gets far more attention and walks than we provide now that Evan's here.   Hope my next post is written from the comfort of our home.

Let the Construction begin...

Yesterday the construction crew started the repairs.   I can't believe it's finally starting nearly 5 months following the fire.   I am just so glad that there is an end in sight.   Of course there have been a few (to say the least) glitches along the way.   From the tile being discontinued to our hotel room issues, it feels like we've been under construction for a month.   Luckily we have had the support of our parents opening their home to Evan, Dex and I while we have been booted out of our home for the next week to week and a half.   We are hopeful that by the beginning of November all the mehem will be non existence...lol

Pumpkin Pickin' Then and Now

October 2009- Evan 7 months old

October 2010- Evan 19 months old

Last weekend Dave, Evan, Nana, Papa, Aunt Callie, Uncle Matt, Grace and I went to Goebbert's.   We had a great time despite the overwhelming crowd of people.  The weather was great, although it did seem quite odd going to the pumpkin farm in 80 degree weather and shorts...he had fun!  We went to the animal land, giraffe house, and the pumpkin patch, of course, and Dave and Grace picked out the perfect pumpkins (so perfect we didn't even take a picture of them. ;0)  Evan had such a fun time feeding the animals.   He also got a kick out of the shovels used to feed the animals.   It was funny to watch.

Glad we visited again this year...it's always a good time and a perfect way to spend a Sunday morning!

Chillin at Nana and Papa's in my cool new Elmo shirt

Apple Picking

Dave, Evan and I headed up to Wisconsin on Sunday morning after breakfast. We all embarked on our first apple picking experience together! Apple Holler was a lot of fun! Despite the large mass of people, we found some delicious apples while enjoying the sunny afternoon as a family. Evan really liked the hay ride. We sat right behind the tractor so Evan was consumed by it's functions and could care less about the beautiful scenery that surrounded us.  So...when the ride was finished...yep...without fail... E asked for more. I took a video clip...

I have to say that we got plenty of apples to last us at least a month.  I wish I'd make the time to bake or cook something with them. If only there were more time, yeah...right!  Here are some more pictures from our apple picking day...

First "Official" Hair Cut

Before




After






Today was a very eventful day for Evan! He had his 18 month wellness check up. He weighed in at 28 lbs and 33 inches tall. He was in the 90th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height. He got 3 shots all of which he absolutely hated! But soon forgot after we gave him a veggie chip...surprise.surprise. the food always does the trick :)

After E's check up we went to Starbucks and then to Snippets for E's first official hair cut by a professional. No more mommy cuts for Evan. E had much fun playing with the toys while we were waiting for an available stylist. He also really really liked playing in the seats that were cars and trains. He probably could have sat there all day pretending to drive them. A lot to watch there and a video of Thomas the Tank was playing so he was in his element with all the action. Once the hair stylist put a cape on him E started to clam up. He started to fuss then fake cry. Dave and I were able to manage distracting him with the spray water bottle and his Elmo books. He ended up sitting relatively still until the electric razor came out to finish off his cut. E screamed! Oh boy was that tramatic for him as you can see in the pictures I posted.

Playing With Cars

Our Little Ball of Energy

Quite a few new changes with Evan. Not only is he getting taller he's thinning out! He's using less sign language and using more words to communicate. He's quite the little chatter box. Jeez...he's already got me beat! He has 2 more teeth, a total of 14 and there are two more ready to erupt shortly. He still loves music and is singing (well really la la la la-ing) to the music in the car or from his 2 favorite tv shows, Wiggles and Sesame Street. He really enjoys playing with anything he can put things inside, like a box or bag, walking Dexter, and reading his books. His most latest accomplishment is him feeding himself using a fork. He has become so independent in using it that he doesn't want us to come close to helping him if he is taking a long time to get the food onto the fork. As soon as we attempt to help him he makes a whiney noise telling us to back off. E's parallel play is becoming more interactive. Lots of fun to watch! E's gotten very in tune with others feelings and his. Anytime he hears or sees someone crying he signs and sad. As of late he's been signing happy. He hasn't quite grasped the angry feeling...he just screams or clenches his fists.

Evan's been having difficulty pronouncing the 'c', 'ck' sound. We have been practicing with him by placing emphasis on the sound when we say it in 'car' or 'yuck'. Hoping it will come with time.

Evan did a fantastic job these past few weeks with me going to work. He adjusted better than I did. Waking up was not as easy as I thought it would be. I didn't think a half hour earlier would have made that much of a difference...ha, was I wrong. Now that I have gotten into the swing of things (been back for a week and a half) I have gotten a better grasp on balancing out home and work life. At first I felt that I was giving all my attention to E and not giving my full effort to work. Now that I am getting back into the work groove I feel that I am better utilizing my office hours and time during E's nap and/or at night to prepare materials for my students. Hopefully as the year progresses I will have less materials to prepare and then have some time during E's nap to catch up on house chores...yea! After I get back from work, E and I play for a little bit before he goes down for his nap. After his nap we usually head to a park, play place or friend's house to burn off some energy. I have found that the errands I need to run are getting pushed to the weekend now. Oh well.

I can't believe how much F.U.N. Evan is! He is changing every day. He's always up to something and is extremely determined to get what he wants. He loves getting into things that he's not supposed to, like this past Thursday. He took the brush vacuum attachment and flushed it down the toilet. Now we have a clogged toilet... lovely :0) He also fell face first into the bath tub. Yikes! I apparently wasn't moving fast enough for him and he wanted IN like yesterday. Luckily no broken bones...just a nice black and blue goose egg on the side of his head; but that didn't seem to phase him. No matter what he's up to it is such a joy to watch and learn through his eyes. He is been loads and loads of fun that I can't imagine it getting any more fun! I love his energy and how he makes people smile and laugh.