The Holub Times

Northwoods Math

2011-08-09T07:27:00.002-05:00

We were recently up in Wisconsin's Northwoods visiting Aunt Lois and Uncle Taf. We had a wonderful time. (Stories and pictures to come)

So, the trip made quite an impression and we are still talking about it almost daily. Today it was at breakfast and turned into a math lesson that I thought I'd share.

AJ said his mouth could fit a ton of orange juice because his cheeks are stretchy like a chipmunk’s. I asked him how many chipmunks it would take to fit 6 peanuts. “six!” he said. “You mean each chipmunk can only fit one peanut in its mouth?” I asked. He thought for a second and then said “Two chipmunks!” I was impressed!

He also told a lie this morning (which I know is a normal part of 4 year old development) that I thought was interesting enough to post.

AJ went to the bathroom and I heard the toilet flush but didn't hear the sink (not unusual). When AJ came out he announced proudly that he hadn't needed any help and wiped himself all by himself (which he's making great strides with lately, thank goodness!). I congratulated him and then asked if he'd remembered to wash his hands.

"Yes." he answered.

"Oh, I didn't hear the sink." I said.

His reply was almost immediate, "Well, that's because the door was closed."

LOL I thought that was pretty fast thinking for a 4 year old, but didn't believe I'd just missed the sink sounds so I asked if I could sniff his hands. He folded them up and held them against his body and shook his head.

"OK, go wash them then, and please just tell me the truth next time." I said, but I was still chuckling on the inside. ;-)

Biking With the Kids!

2011-06-28T15:46:00.003-05:00

Today was so beautiful I knew we were headed for the park. AJ requested a park that's about a 20 walk for us if he rides his bike or scooter (meaning I can push Lizzy in the stroller at a fast-mom-walk pace) but sometimes after playing hard at the park he whines about the ride home. So since Andy readied my bike for the trailer a week or so ago, I decided to bite the bullet today and try it out.

Here's what it looks like except ours is blue. Both kids can fit in it plus the diaper bag or whatever else we need stows behind them. I'd never used it before other than taking it for a test spin in the hallway, so I was a little nervous, but it was so fun! AJ rode in back and Lizzy rode in our little green iBert seat (left) between my arms. AJ loved the ride so much that next time I think I'll try putting them both back there together! With the bike and trailer it only took us about 5 min to get to the park and getting them to leave for home was easier too since I could offer a fun ride instead of the "usual". Hooray for city biking!

Lizzy's belly flop 2010

2011-06-27T21:30:00.006-05:00

Thought I'd include some shots and a video from a Fall park & lunch playdate with our old educational playdate group. We all met at Holstein Park for some fun and then the plan was to eat at Toast. But Toast was way too popular that day and with all the kids we had a big group...14 seems like so many more in a restaurant than at the park! So we went to Bucktown Beanery instead and as always had a great time with our friends.

Here's AJ trying out the rope structures. Pretending to be a bird or a spider?

Here's most of the group, all mixed up. Benjamin on Jack's bike, Jack with Lizzy in our stroller, AJ with Callie in Jack's stroller and Taylor in her stroller looking at her bro on the bike!

Got all that? There's a quiz later...

And here's a video of Lizzy belly flopping on the swing. She loved swinging like that! There were a few scrapes and bumps along the way, but she was a tough little cookie.

I'm totally looking forward to getting the younger ones together this Fall and Winter for playdates and "preschool"projects like we did with their big sibs. Since AJ will be in the morning program this coming school year, things like that are possible again.

My Little Housekeeper

2011-06-27T20:27:00.003-05:00

Lizzy loves to help clean! This video is from last Fall, but the same still holds true. She likes the little kid broom, the shortened Swiffer, the vinegar spray with a rag and this stick vacuum that's the perfect size for a little helper. Now if only I could teach her how to be a bit more thorough...

Fall 2010

2011-06-26T20:13:00.008-05:00

Continuing with the back-log, here are a bunch of pictures from last Fall...Sept and Oct mostly. Enjoy!

Had to put this precious picture of our friend and neighbor Norah being a big-girl friend to Lizzy last year. She loves to take care of Liz and "help" her all around the park.

Brookfield ZOO 2010

We got to the Zoo with our friends HT and Julia. Here are HT and AJ on the foot massage machines. I don't think they were working right that day. lol

AJ and HT painting their faces with some random little girl. This is the first time I can recall that AJ actually participated in the face-painting area at the Zoo. Great job little buddy!

Lizzy loved pretending to be a bird in the nest. And of course the purple egg was her fav!

Squirt, squirt! What a helper.

This is how I felt too, Mr. Polar Bear. I get it.

Lizzy got to see the zoo from her seat in the stroller. And this is back when I used to let her have her schnulli all the time...now it's only allowed in her crib. And I waffle back and forth now between letting her keep it for sleeping and making her "donate them to the babies" now that she's 2. Jury's still out on that one.

A visit to the GP Conservatory 2010

The Garfield Park Conservatory is still one of our favorite places to visit when the weather is cold. Or hot. Or rainy. Well, I guess we like to go anytime, really! Here is one time when I pulled the camera out to document the kids at one of our usual haunts.

Lizzy's still-pretty-bald head as we follow Mr. Lightning

through the Sugar From the Sun house.

AJ stopped at one of the "look-outs" to check out the waterfall.

And here he is on one of the "secret" pathways. He loves to walk through these flagstone paths and whenever we go with someone else, he makes sure to show them where they all are.

What a great place!

Halloween 2010

Before Halloween actually rolled around, I took the kids to a Halloween party sponsored by the Chicago Stay at Home Mom's group. It was fun to see the the little kiddos at the park in their costumes and gave us a chance to take ours for a test run.

Not surprisingly, AJ had his priorities straight from the get go.

A construction worker dancing with mini candybars? haha!

And our little candy corn had fun too! Where's your candy, little one?

Pumpkin Farm

The day we picked to go to the pumpkin farm was COLD. I mean SUPER COLD. I was fooled by the sun and should have dressed everyone in snowsuits. Luckily I am lazy and had some outerwear on the floor in the car...and no one actually froze or anything. ;)

Lizzy picking out the perfect pumpkin.

AJ running to the pumpkins. So happy!

Our cute little pumpkins!

AJ got to drive the wooden Fire Engine.

The kids with Dad and the pumpkin wagon.

Pumpkin Carving

AJ drew the face on his pumpkin all by himself and i cut it out as exact as I could. He didn't really like digging out all the guts, but the end product was worth it, he thought. I agree.

Mom's, AJ's, Dad and Lizzy's

They did look really cool all lit up at night, but where are those pictures? Beats me. Maybe I'll find them before next Halloween?

AH HA! Found it, and only a day later! Here's the Jack-o-Lanterns all lit up

Trick-or-Treating was so fun this year. It was not freezing cold (that I can remember anyway) and we met up with our friends and their kids Emilio and Baby Belen in their old neighborhood. All the houses get really into it and that makes it a lot of fun for everyone. As you can see in the pictures, AJ was a construction worker and Lizzy is a Candy Corn (thanks Kim, for the costume!). Afterward we all hooked up with our friends the Hrubec's and had a little party at their place until the sugar high wore off. ;)

Little Bit looking little and bitty.

"mmm! I think I've got some good candy in here!"

Our little trick-or-treaters making out like bandits.

AJ wasn't wasting any time. Lizzy did her best to keep up...

AJ and Emilio already look like old pros.

All done! By the end, Lizzy's bag was too heavy to carry!

Grandpa John and Sunsets

Grandpa John came in for a visit and AJ really enjoyed showing off his collection of construction books and magazines. Sweet moments.

And here is a beautiful sunset, one of many that we see from our west-facing balcony. Even though the colors look cool in these pictures, they really could not do it justice. God's paintings are always the most beautiful!

And End to the Hiatus!

2011-06-26T15:02:00.006-05:00

Wow, so 4 months have gone by since my last post! If anyone is still checking this blog, you are in for a treat. I have a HUGE folder of pictures and movies ready to upload, so I'll try to get them all posted soon. If there were an "off" button for my kids I'd have a lot more time to blog. Unfortunately though, AJ only naps once or twice a week now so my "mommy time" is scarce and somehow blogging always takes a back seat to other things (like cleaning, emailing, reading or napping myself!). But I digress. Enough excuses!

There are a lot of events to cover - some very old, some very new - so here we go...

AJ's Early Drawings

First off are some drawings that AJ started doing last Fall. These are some of his first ever family portraits, animal drawings and his first machine drawing (of MANY). It's kind of fun to see these early pictures since now his drawings are so much more sophisticated! I should post a picture of the machine he drew yesterday as a comparison. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. It might take me a few more months to take a picture of that drawing, upload it and then finally add it to the blog! lol

AJ (bottom center) and Mom (top left). Don't you like my hairdo?

"an animal Elizabeth" hmmm?

AJ's first machine. An excavator. Oh, and he was also learning to write his name. In the very beginning he used to make his A with a curve at the top...a little while later it became a point.

And here is one of AJ's first family portraits on paper! He is the big face on the left. Then from bottom to top it's Mom, Dad and Lizzy. Notice how we were just heads with a single stick for a body! :)

Fall Leaves

On a visit to Kim's house, AJ and Lizzy had a great time jumping in the leaves she had raked up in the front yard. Kim and Brandon's new (well new last year) yard has a lot of trees so there was no shortage of leaves and rustling fun!

Lizzy can pick them up in both hands!

AJ loved when we tossed them in the air and it "rained leaves".

Robin and Renand's Wedding

At Aunt Robin's wedding, AJ had his first Ring Bearer experience! We are so happy to welcome Renand to the States and into our "family". He is a thoughtful, kind man and makes Robin so happy. The wedding was beautiful and Andy and I were honored that AJ could take part in it. Congrats, Robin and Renand!

AJ getting ready with Renand in the back room at Church.

Robin and Renand are pronounced man and wife!

Andy and I at the reception.

North Park Village Nature Center, Oct. 2010.

We love visiting NPVNC at all times of the year. This particular time we went with my friend Anika and her daughter Orla. It was a warm day in early fall and the weather made the trip even more enjoyable.

AJ checking out the sticks and rocks on the pond's shore. This image is extremely reminiscent of a picture Gooma Cheri painted of Andy and Melissa and has hanging in her home!

AJ is always running ahead on the path...

Unless he's running from behind to catch up!

Bucktown Apple Pie Festival 2010

Another unseasonably warm Fall day. The pie was all but sold out when we got there. There was face-painting, pony rides, a bounce house and ice cream and it was a MOB SCENE inside with people trying to get pie! I got one of the very last pieces...very lucky. This year we'll have to forego naps and get there when it starts!

Did Lizzy eat a lemon?

AJ climbing on the stroller.

AJ on the pony. This is his second time ever and in as many weeks!

I can wink!

Warm October at Omi and Pa's

It's always fun to hang out at the grandparents' houses, right? On this visit to my parent's place, my mom and I took the kids outside with the coupe and even got out the hammock. I think they were a bit young for the hammock but had a good time until they fell off. "It's only funny 'til someone gets hurt" right Kim? ;)

Brother and Sister fun in/on the coupe.

Pre-craziness on the hammock.

Pretty Lizzy driving the coupe! Beep beep!

OK, well there's lots more but I have to run to the store and get some buns for tonight's burgers. Hopefully I can get back on the computer after the kids are in bed and continue the massive game of blogging catch-up!

2011-02-24T19:58:00.004-06:00

OK, so I guess I have been pretty lax in posting any recent pictures here! Sorry about that. Keeping up with the blogging was made difficult a while ago before I got my new computer since it needed more RAM and uploading new images was painfully slow and tedious. Then I guess I was just out of the habit. I'm going to try and make an effort here to catch up a bit since now everything runs much more smoothly and the kids are not getting any younger!!

I'll start with the most recent...as Andy was organizing his tool closet, he took this picture of the confiscated tools that have been congregating above our refrigerator. AJ LOVES to play with "real" tools though he has about 7200 of his own, but as he gets out of hand with them, they are regularly put in "time-out" above the fridge, never to return. The contents included:

A Multitool

2 screwdrivers

A 3 lb hammer

2 bungee cords

A socket wrench

A wire stripper...

And a hatchet.

(I'm pretty certain he never used the hatchet...probably just picked it up!)

Then after the big "Blizzard of 2011", we went out to my parents house and I let the kids play in the snow on her deck. My dad had shoveled all the way around the deck and made some tunnels and caves (with Karly I think?) so it was a great space for Lizzy since she could actually walk. AJ was in his glory since he has finally grown into his mittens and understands that playing in snow is a lot more fun when you keep them ON.

Here's AJ with the big middle snowball for the snowman he built with Omi.

And here's Lizzy with the finished snowman. Pa helped collect some creative items for decorating him...my favorite update was Ritz Flips for the ears.

What a cutie! AJ was happy using my parents old spoons as snow tools.

Our precious little snow-baby. She actually did a pretty good job of trying to keep her mittens on. Next year she'll be a pro like her big brother.

Having fun with her Omi.

The kids also got a kitchen from Santa for Christmas and Lizzy loves it. Here is a little clip of her cooking up (or washing up?) something delish!

It's so fun watching them grow...I'll do my best to get a bunch more up soon!

Aj's stories...

2011-01-27T11:30:00.002-06:00

AJ - Mom, do you know what a Tree Monster looks like?

Me - No, I don't. Are they real or imaginary?

AJ - Oh, they're very real!

Me - Really. What Museum can we go to to learn about Tree Monsters?

AJ - (pauses to think...) Um, they are at a very var away museum....in Texas.

Me - (stifling a laugh) Oh! Texas?

AJ - Yeah, Texas. I think the museum is close to Gooma's house.

Me - Oh, but Gooma lives in Illinois, not Texas.

AJ - Well, I meant the museum in Texas that's close to Gooma's friend Rick's house. Do you know his grandchildren?

Me - No, I've never even met Rick.

AJ - Oh. Well, he knows all about the Tree Monsters then.

What to do if a Witch Comes to Your House

by AJ Holub

If a witch comes into our house, we will take the witch far far away to a lake. Then we will throw the witch into the lake and the witch will sink down, down, down and will land on the ocean floor without his bathing suit and will be trapped in a sea volcano.

Another Conversation

2011-01-10T15:32:00.002-06:00

AJ came home from school today while Liz was still napping. I love the times when I have just one child to love and cuddle. We had a special little snack in the living room and then AJ came to sit on my lap and I rocked him.

Me: AJ, I love you so. Will you always let me hold and rock you?

AJ: Yes mom. I love you too.

Me: What about when you are older? Like 12?

AJ: Yeah, you can always rock me mom. Even when I'm 20.

Me: 20! Wow that's pretty old though.

AJ: Yeah, but even when I'm a 20-big-kid you can still rock me. I'll like you to do that.

Me: (laughing silently and seriously doubting his future scenario) ;)

AJ's Prayer

2011-01-09T20:04:00.002-06:00

Tonight AJ said he wanted to add a special prayer to the end of what we normally say at bedtime:

"Dear God, thank you so much for making...everything, and all the wonderful things, and the world...out of...cardboard, and thank you for God, and for everything."

I said, "That was a very nice thank you prayer, AJ." and he asked, "Mom, did God make the world out of cardboard?"

"No, He made it with his power. He just said, 'Let there be a world.' and there was." I answered.

Pretty heavy topic for the very end of the day!

AJ - with the Power to Spell!

2010-10-30T20:47:00.003-05:00

AJ has been watching a lot of Word World and Super Why lately, both shows primarily about words and spelling. I thought they were just entertaining to him (and maybe they are), but recently he has been showing a lot of interest in spelling words. He asks me how to spell things a lot, sometimes tries to write letters and words, and last week brought home a coloring sheet from school that had his "b's" all the way down the side.

So, I was surprised and excited to come into the kitchen yesterday when he said he wanted to show me something...only to find that he had spelled his whole name (well, OK, not "Andrew") on the refrigerator with Lizzy's letter magnets! He had the U and the B switched, but then fixed the problem and was so proud of himself! Awesome. Then as I got the camera, he proceeded to add more and more letters and laugh as I tried to pronounce his new "word". :)

AJ's First Assembly

2010-10-28T19:24:00.003-05:00

In September, AJ's school was celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month and it culminated in a school assembly. This was AJ's first time at an assembly and also his first (scheduled) appearance on the school stage since his class learned a song in Spanish and were the first to perform. For a couple of weeks AJ walked around the house singing his song in Spanish. He knew it really well and even knew all the hand movements that went with each verse, so I was really excited to see his performance! They all filed onto the stage, the curtain was drawn, and the music started...but apparently AJ forgot that the point of being up there was to SING! lol

(AJ is second to the left)

So at least he was not the kid who cried and had to leave the stage, right? That's the silver lining. But it was still pretty cute...and he doesn't seem to remember anything wrong about that day and will fondly tell me how he sang at his assembly. Well, maybe next time!

Garfield Park's County Fair

2010-10-27T19:06:00.004-05:00

At the end of September, I took AJ to the County Fair at the Garfield Park Conservatory. I had rained a lot beforehand, so I wasn't sure we were going until the last minute but I'm so glad we did. AJ had so much fun! We saw a huge pumpkin being carved by one of the professional carvers, visited chickens, ate yummy food, and jumped around in the requisite moon walks. OK, maybe only AJ jumped around in the moon walk. But we both had a great time!

One of the big deal attractions for AJ was the pony rides. I think this was his first time ever riding a pony, so he actually stood relatively still and waited with me on the line. Anyone who has ever seen me trying to get him to wait on a line before can attest that this was no small miracle. He named his pony Pepper and was VERY happy and proud to be riding Pepper around. And around. And around. :)

Isn't he cute? (Pepper's cute too, I guess...)

This was the coolest thing. Inside a little mobile home, a whole "3 Little Pigs" environment was there to interact with.

They had an area to build a straw house, build a house with sticks (below) and then a whole brick house to play in.

There were also bellows with wolf faces that the kids could pump to try to blow down small maquettes of each type of house, a face painting area that AJ loved (another first!)...

...and this really neat conveyor belt that held AJ's attention for a LONG time. There was a tree off to the right that you could stick the apples on, then pick them and put them in a basket, and then unload the basket onto the conveyor belt and crank them off into another basket to bring them back to the tree. All these jobs kept a bunch of kids busy and working together until one little girl decided she would not put them back on the tree...so we finally left the mobile home and went back out to eat lunch from the Wishbone booth with our friends the Byerly's and head home. For a nap. Whew!

Glitter Girl

2010-10-27T14:14:00.002-05:00

Elizabeth has learned how to unscrew caps. This is a cool milestone, but unfortunately I found out about her new skill when she opened one of my glittery loose eyeshadow containers. I was in the bathroom getting ready one morning and she was quiet and doing her own thing on the floor in my room just outside the bathroom door. When I finished up and peeked around the corner I saw what had kept her so busy! Most of the glittery powder was in a little pile on my champagne-colored bedroom carpet (which Andy had to work on to get out) but the rest was all over HER! Luckily she was just wearing a diaper...the pictures don't do justice to her sheen, but you get the idea!

Discovery Center in Rockford!

2010-10-20T13:22:00.006-05:00

Now that AJ is 3.5, we've finally made it to Rockford's famed Discovery Center. Grandma Cheri and Aunt Melissa met us there and it was so much fun. Both kids had a fabulous time and we didn't even see all there was, so we'll definitely be back!

Here is AJ trying out his great gear line-up that if working correctly would make a propeller spin at the top.

This movie shows how hard he was working on it. The only issue was that one or two of the gears had weaker magnets so they would start to slide down by the time he'd finished checking all the others! But AJ really loved this area, what a shock! ;)

This video is of a cool interactive light exploration station. As you can see, AJ was showing off his moves and check out how Lizzy is kicking her little legs happily as Andy swings her around.

Here are Daddy and Liz watching the little yellow ball in its orbit.

AJ was building things at the light table.

AJ LOVED this crane! It was a "magnet crane" just like in the junk yard episode of Curious George (on of his favorite and most-requested episodes), so he was so excited to work the "real thing" all by himself. It was a very good thing that the place was not very crowded, if ya know what I mean!

The face of concentration on the cutest little crane operator.

AJ's Commentary and Liz' words

2010-10-13T15:52:00.005-05:00

Me: What did you do today in Art class?

AJ: I art-classed

AJ: I'm a vampire!

Me: Oh! What do vampires do?

AJ: They help people and stuff.

When I broke my toe and was trying not to cry,

AJ (in a slightly panicked voice): Take a deep breath, Mom! It's going to be a happy day!

The kids' Dr. is Jennifer Berquist but we call her Dr. Jenny. Here's what he asked me yesterday:

AJ: Is Dr. Jenny-Quist my doctor?

Lizzy now is able to say some words! It's so fun that she can communicate with us more and more lately. Here's the list as of today:

Verbal words:

Mama

Dada

Aya (AJ)

Bye Bye

Cup

Upee

Ball

Baby

(and I swear she said Bagel this am, but it was probably wishful thinking since she would not repeat it...)

Signs:

Milk

waves hello and goodbye

Brush Teeth

Take Bath

Lights

Stars

Quiet

Rat (because of my Halloween decor)

All Done

Sleep

Friends and Fun

2010-10-12T08:00:00.006-05:00

In September, we got to meet up with our good friends the Paynes! Since I had Liz and Erin had the triplets, it was a lot harder to get together as often as we had been. The babies were always sleeping, eating, or sleeping again, and their schedules did not really mesh. Now that they are all about 15 months old, there is a lot more awake time in the day to play! It's nice that the older Payne kids have the same school schedule as AJ, so now we can still get together in the mornings once in a while. Here are some fun pics from our time together in Humboldt Park.

Violet, Jack and AJ sat like this together on their own! They said it was a train.

SO CUTE!

The usual Lizzy look...with the schnulli in place. we're trying to only allow it in the crib nowadays, since I feel like we need to phase it out before she's 2.

We have also been having random fun moments around the house. Lizzy loves to wear the masks from one of AJ's games and make the animal sounds. She's so funny!

Both the kids LOVE bathtime, and AJ has become a really good tooth-brusher. Lizzy just likes to chew on her toothbrush and imitate him, but AJ really actually does a good job (when he tries)! He graduated to "real" toothpaste and it's funny to see him spit into the sink.

Here are AJ and Lizzy looking at the train going under the Art Institute. It is SO cute to see them doing things together more and more.

Here they are acting silly in the front seat, pretending to be Mom and Dad.

And here they are both totally sleeping in the backseat on the way home...

So sweet.

Mighty Machines!

2010-10-11T14:12:00.005-05:00

AJ's latest obsession is building what he calls "mighty machines" out of his Lego Duplo sets. It all started when he went along with Andy to pick up our vegetables one Sat morning and the people who live at the drop site (who happen to be my friend Jason and his family) were having a little yard sale. AJ saw a little box of construction-themed legos and wanted them. Jason sold them to him for 50 cents! What a steal. Especially since they have kept him busy and engaged in imaginative play (You be the front loader crane and I'll be the bulldozer tower...) and honing his engineering skills ("this is a cantilever", or "we need a counter-balance") since the end of July. And his "plain old" duplos are the perfect compliment to making the set big enough for MIGHTY machines! lol

Here are some of his construction highlights. I thought I took a movie of him describing one of these, but I couldn't find it, and it's completely possible that I just intended to shoot one, but they are very involved descriptions and just about every part has a purpose!

AJ is Mighty pleased with his Mighty Machine!

Posing with it again after a few finishing touches were added. We have to keep them off the floor or they become smash and bash practice for Lizzy.

AJ took this picture himself.

Here's another one. With tracks, a rain shield, a grabber,

a ladder and other items I cannot recall...

He sometimes looks away from the Legos long enough to play with

some of his other toys...like WALL-E.

And then it's back to the Mighty Machines again...this one has a mighty pusher.

And this one is actually enhanced by some super-old duplos from my mom's set. That red cab in the center is from her set. And the little "operator" who is sitting inside. :)

AJ's 1st Day of Pre-School 2010

2010-10-10T11:44:00.004-05:00

AJ started school at Jonathan Burr Elementary this year. We were really excited to get him into Burr since it was one of our top picks in the area. It's a CPS (Chicago public school) World Language Magnet so that means that he is exposed to Japanese language and culture every week. His first week, he told his Gooma (Cheri) that Konichiwa (hello) meant excavator in Spanish...but we're hoping he'll get it all straight later. ;)

The first few weeks were really rough while he (and the rest of us) dealt with the adjustment to no longer napping the the afternoons, since he's in the pm class. One day he even fell asleep during library time! But now he's gotten into the swing of things. He goes to bed earlier nowadays, and can still nap on weekends sometimes and his disposition has greatly improved.

Here he is ready to head out the door to his first day ever of Pre-K! He was so excited!

This is AJ getting his picture taken by his new teacher, Mr. Gillespie. This picture was posted above AJ's hook where he hangs his backpack and such.

He got to play in the room for a while and had great fun. But it was HOT in August and there was no A/C. As you can see from his sweaty head!

Wearing the safety goggles and hoarding all the tools...

which he eventually let go of in favor of these buttons and some cool weight scales.

Yay, AJ! Congrats on a great first day! :)

Boating (or just hanging in the harbor)

2010-10-05T21:25:00.003-05:00

This August the kids and I met my parents at their boat and had so much fun. It was their first time really spending time there so I took a bunch of pictures!

Lizzy looking cute and wanting to be picked up (very unusual!).

A fun lunch "down-under". Notice AJ's still wearing his life jacket. So cute.

Lizzy loved playing with a bucket of water and some bath toys. Fun!

AJ loved walking around on top of the boat with Pa and peeked in from above.

He's such a cutie pie!

And Liz did a little peeking of her own. She loved all the little windows.

Here's AJ and Pa walking the boat from the outside.

Looks like such a little sailor!

Omi and Liz checking out the water, other boats, and ducks!

After a while, AJ decided he would in fact try swimming with Pa. He got suited up and went into the FREEZING water. Check out his paddling! And way to go Dad (Pa), braving the frigid harbor for AJ's sake. He had so much fun!

Our 10th Anniversary

2010-10-05T21:01:00.003-05:00

For our 10th anniversary this year (technically, it was Aug 19th), Andy and I decided to take a vacation, sans children. We started out thinking about Aruba. Then I got my heart set on Nicaragua. But when it boiled down to when my parents could take the kids and that I didn't think it was right to spend more than what I had whined about possibly spending for a year of preschool, we opted for Puerto Vallarta. And it was wonderful. What a great way to celebrate our marriage and each other. We had a fabulous and fun time and thank my mom and dad for taking good care of the kids so we could just kick back and relax for the week (after I got there on my brand new passport of course...)

My handsome husband of 10 years!

Fun (and weak!) shots...rainbow ones, flaming ones, all kind of silly gimmicks!

The view of our hotel pools and the beach from our room.

Lunch and a break from lounging at the pool.

A pic from when I joined Andy...you can see that he'd gotten some sun and me, not so much.

So we headed down to the pool and took care of that!

Fun in July

2010-09-27T21:49:00.005-05:00

Our family had a really fun summer. Some of the highlights include visiting our friend's the Logli's lake house, the kids starting to get along (!), and a family trip to the Brookfield Zoo.

AJ absolutely LOVED playing in the sand at the Logli's. He also really had a great time SWIMMING in the water! He did have on a life-preserver, but that said, he was NOT afraid, and jumped repeatedly from the end of their pier into the water, and paddled and kicked all by himself! It was so fun, wonderful and amazing. I was so proud of him!

Lizzy loved riding on the boat around the lake. So did I! How relaxing!

Gorgeous clouds.

Yes, she's crabby! But I had to include this shot because it showed her nice new bottom teeth so nicely! She has 4 teeth now...way less than most of her little friends, but she can still chew her food just fine.

The kids have finally started to play with and enjoy each other...once in a while! While I know they love each other, I have to have the camera handy if I want to really capture any of their short-lived displays!

At the end of the month, we got to visit the Brookfield Zoo all together with some guest passes from my sister. Thanks Kim! It was a really fun outing. I'm so used to taking the kids out by myself or with friends, it's always really nice when we get to do things as a family. :)

AJ was happy to pose by the "Daddy Tiger"!

He also got to touch a real lion skull!

And the HUGE TEETH! It was pretty cool.

AJ on the "Olga" statue. She couldn't have really been THAT big, right?

I remember her from when I was a kid, but I was smaller then...

My little Leemur and I.

AJ was so excited to ride the gorilla on the carousel with Daddy!

What a perfect end to the day at the Zoo.

Planet X at the Planetarium

2010-09-27T21:09:00.004-05:00

At the start of July, my mom and I took the kids to the Adler Planetarium. They have a new area (finally!) for younger kids, and AJ is the perfect age to enjoy it! Of course Liz liked it too, but she liked chewing on the space rocks more than playing with them. ;)

AJ and Liz exploring the planet's cave together.

AJ was awesome at working the X mover! It was like a hand-powered bulldozer.

He even let Elizabeth help a little...

Meet AJ the astronaut explorer!

Here he is figuring out how to best move the X-mover.

3...2...1...blast-off!!!

After the planetarium visit, we headed over to the yacht club for lunch since my parents' boat is right next to the museum campus at Burnham Harbor. It was a nice day for the walk over.

Omi and AJ walking past the beach.

I still don't know how we avoided him running straight into the sand!?!

Grapes saved the day for my hungry kiddos. Good thing I only have to cut them for one of them...AJ can eat his like a king! Haha!

This one was from another day that week, but I just had to post how messy Lizzy gets with her yogurt! I just don't have the time or patience to spoon-feed her anymore, nor does she want me to, so I just let her go to town. Yogurt is great for the skin, right?

Recent funny AJ-isms

2010-07-01T09:38:00.003-05:00

"You can make Elizabeth a T-rex cake...a pink T-rex I think. Maybe with a pink bow."

in regard to his sister eating Taco meat: "Beef likes the beef!"

Me: Should we make some cinnamon powder for toast?

AJ: Yeah! That'd be a great idea! We can make some cinnamon on the GRILL!!

Me: AJ, are you humming Wilco?

AJ: No, Mom, it's Late Greats.

(Late Greats is a Wilco song. I guess I need to be more specific!)

Elizabeth turns ONE!

2010-06-29T16:02:00.005-05:00

Lizzy is officially a one-year-old! She is a bright, happy baby. She's a great sleeper, a great walker already, and loves to give hugs and kisses. Here are some of the highlights of her birthday and celebration...

On June 26th, AJ and I made her a strawberry-rhubarb pie to be served with vanilla ice cream, since I guessed with all the upcoming parties there would be cake-overload! :) After dinner, Liz was getting tired and was a little teary waiting for me to get her pie ready...but she was happy seconds later when dessert was served! Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

Mmmm! Pie and ice cream! Can I eat this with a fork?

Or should I just use my hands?

The pie was GOOD...we ate half of it in one sitting!

Then the weekend after her actual b-day, we held Lizzy's first birthday party with family and a few friends. The weather was great and it was so wonderful to have so many people who care about her be there with us at the party. What a blessing!

Here's Andy bringing in fresh mint for the grown-up's party-drink - Mojitos!

Grandpa John and Renee outside on the balcony while Lizzy ran around

in her little tutu. (You can just barely see her skirt in the bottom corner of this shot)

It was tough to get the baby to pose, but at least I'm looking at the camera!

Yum! Watermelon!

My mom and dad saved the cake by bringing in some extra white frosting since I ran out of the pink batch I made...and Renee brought some delicious raspberries from her yard that I added to the cake too. It was chocolate with buttercream frosting...

Lizzy's ready for her cake! Let's sing!

Her brother and cousins were also very excited to eat the cake...

hurry, let's get the show on the road!

My mom and dad had just returned from a vacation to Greece. We dressed the kids in the dresses and t-shirts they were given from the trip, and took this picture.

Liz had a great time opening her gifts and playing with all the fun tissue and ribbon!

Hooray!

Cheri got in some last snuggles as the party ended. Elizabeth was getting tired!

Happy Birthday Elizabeth. You are so special to us and we love you!!

Our Day at the Farms

2010-06-27T10:02:00.005-05:00

Earlier this Summer we went out I-90 to go strawberry picking and visit our friends John and Jen Logli at their farm which is located a few miles southeast of Rockford. Andy and I traded off picking berries while keeping tabs on our mobile baby, while the other ran around with our non-stop preschooler. I wish I could learn to channel more of his energy into helpful activities like picking berries, but he is also "spirited" and a "free-thinker", so most of the berries made it to his stomach while he looked for a combine...

Next we headed over to the Logli's farm and we had such a nice time with them we ended up not only having lunch, but staying for dinner as well...and then finally heading home when it was bedtime for the kiddos! We need to pretend to be farmers more often. The Logli's produce is offered as part of the First Hand Harvest, a Rockford CSA. If you live in the Rockford area, check them out and sign up for a share!

The garlic patch. John started it with 8 heads of garlic or something and now has around 130, just by splitting them and replanting for 2 years! (any of these numbers may be off by 20% in either direction...I was not taking notes and as many of you know, I do NOT have a head for numbers!) In any event, we were impressed by his knowledge, patience and thrift.

Something tells me Andy is not a real farmer...is it the collared shirt? Maybe the backward visor. In the background are John's 2 mobile greenhouses. They are great at helping him precede or extend the seasons of certain crops, and he made them himself!!

Here's our little farmer with a freshly picked onion.

And posing with said onion.

Andy and I had a great time pulling onions. I volunteered to come out again and work for a day, but apparently our summer was just building in momentum and I never found a free Mon to head out. Next time, Gadget, next time.

Johns daughter Juliana by the huge pile of onions we all harvested. I think her smile had something to do with that we made fast work of her job for the day...

Andy and AJ are playing some "swing" game in the background as I took a shot of the freshly snipped baby arugula that John sent home with us. He also gave us radishes and baby carrots and everything was wonderful. Thanks, John and Jen!

Here are two videos of AJ getting in the tractor and riding around the farm with John and Juliana. He had the time of his life!

The Vacuum

2010-06-25T14:27:00.003-05:00

When AJ was a baby, he was VERY sensitive to sounds. Some might say he was even oversensitive. He was scared of many toys that made noises while all the other kids seemed to flock to them. I think he was scarred early on by a particular incident, but regardless even before that he was nervous and freaked out around certain sounds.
He was not surprisingly totally terrified of the vacuum. It was big, loud, moved around and had a light. Whoa! We had to make sure we were both home whenever we used it so that one of us could distract and comfort him while the other cleaned, or one of us would just vacuum (usually Andy) while one of us would leave the house with AJ (usually me). This was not ideal, but since we're not neat freaks to begin with it's not like we had to deal with it daily or anything. Thank God we didn't have a cat or something!
As time went on, AJ became more and more accustomed to the sounds of the house, the neighborhood and the world. He stopped screaming every time Andy used the coffee grinder or I used the blender, and he would even play by himself with hid scary "noisy toys". After a while he didn't mind the vacuum as long as he couldn't see it, and finally he would be OK with it as long as we prepped him that it was coming out.

Knowing all of that back-story will make you appreciate this pic and video clips from last Fall even more. They were certainly amazing to us!

AJ took over from Daddy and started using the vacuum on his own!

What a helper! I love when he starts to vacuum the seatbelt

and then his own shirt...and he's so serious.

And then he realized the vacuum can also pick up rocks! :)

And as for something really recent, today he asked me if he could use the vacuum after spilling rice all over the floor, and he regularly hijacks the cleaning lady's vacuum too. :)

AJ Turned 3!

2010-06-22T08:27:00.008-05:00

AJ had his 3rd birthday back in the beginning of April. Though that was a few months ago, I had to get this posted before Elizabeth turns one! We had a really fun birthday marathon for him...every year there seems to be multiple parties no matter how I plan. Here are some of the highlights from his actual day and his kid-party...

On his real birthday, Andy and I gave him his gifts (like the Plan Parking Garage, pictured to the left) and he was most excited about his new bike! The bike is a Glide to Ride. It has no training wheels. Instead, it first has no pedals, so he can push and then glide along. This helps the child to get used to how it feels to balance on a moving bike. When they get really comfortable gliding, then you can install the pedals and the transition is supposed to be really easy. (We'll see!). So far, he really loves gliding along and has gotten pretty good at it!

Here's AJ right as Andy rolled the bike into the room.

Next, they got it ready to ride...

Then AJ got to try it on for size before heading outside...

...with all his safety gear! Except for his helmet, that he's apparently outgrown already.

Go, AJ, go!

AJ had a little celebration with his educational playgroup friends and my friend Laurie made cookies for all the kids to decorate, and then they sang the Birthday Song to him. Those kids are all so precious!

Next, we had a small kids' party for AJ at home, and the theme was Dinosaurs!

AJ's friend Violet shows off her Triceratops Tattoo.

Thanks Nancy for running the tattoo parlor station!

Izzy smiles sweetly in front of the T-Rex...

...and Jack gives us a "Raaahr!"

AJ wore his train costume with the pocket-watch so he could be the Dinosaur Train Conductor taking us through the "time tunnel". Here he is "Taping the Horn on the Triceratops".

Emilio got silly and decided he needed a horn on his own nose!

We had a somewhat anti-climactic volcano eruption too, but the kids still seemed to like it. (Hey Jeff, next year we'll use Mentos!)

The kids had lunch with AJ's fancy volcano as the centerpiece.

Here's their Dino-tastic lunch. Dino cookie-cutters courtesy of our friendly neighbor. :)

Here's the "before" picture of the Stegosaurus Cake.

Someone kept taking the cookie armor-plates out of his back. I think we all know who that was...

Maybe the birthday boy, who was not surprised in the least when presented with his cake, even though it was missing half of it's plates! Ha!

Still delicious!

And surprisingly, the mint chocolate chip ice cream was in high demand too.

Lizzy just hung out with the dads. Talking sport, having a brewski...

After the party was over and AJ had his nap, he was very excited to play with his cool presents. They were all a HIT!

We also had a family birthday celebrations, but for some reason I have no pictures of them!! As a mom of two, somehow I am pretty distracted and need to work on keeping the camera in hand. Sorry. :( But thanks to all our family and friends who helped us to celebrate and make AJ's third birthday so fun. We love you all!

Babies, Babies, Everywhere!

2010-06-20T14:21:00.004-05:00

My friend Erin just moved last week and I brought the kids over to play and see their friends' new place so I could help her get a little organizing done. Since she has 5 kids under 5 year old, I can see why unpacking and moving furniture might be a bit challenging! We did manage to successfully re-arrange some furniture, make some space in the kitchen's eating area, and feed all seven kids lunch, so I'd say we did a good job! Erin's 2 oldest kids, Violet and Jack have been longtime friends of AJ's and they played nicely together. It's so nice how that happens now! They played in the kid's room and the living room, but mostly outside, which was good since that always means a good nap! But the babies...were all over the place! LOL Here are some of the pictures I got of Lizzy with the triplets.

Erin and I didn't plan to have Georgia and Lizzy match, great minds just think alike. ;)

Elizabeth with her potential future boyfriends looking on. Georgia was trying to escape.

And here's our usual view...the backs of heads.

And here are Dash, Georgia and Ben (from left to right) in their feeding table!

Elizabeth climbed onto Jack's seat at the kids table, and halfway through her yogurt took and unfortunate spill. She recovered fine though and kept trying to get onto the chair again! No, no, Elizabeth! We went home a little while later a yogurty mess of a family. lol

Elizabeth is still going through what I'm praying is a phase where she just cries and wants me to pick her up all day. Since I can't oblige, she crawls around after me sounding pitiful and I feel terrible, but I'm just not willing to carry around 20+ lbs all day and would rather her get used to her lower surroundings. Some days this works better than others and like I said, I'm hoping it will pass soon! My mom remembers me complaining that AJ did the same thing. How soon we forget, right?! And not much has changed. Both kids are generally happiest when they are clinging to me...here's a picture Andy took the other night which illustrates this phenomenon.

I was giving AJ airplane rides and Lizzy was excitedly waiting for her turn. Close to mommy on the floor = big smiles all around. If only I never had to make lunch,

talk on the phone or clean the dishes...

(as an aside: AJ has gotten great at balancing with me.

I can hold my feet straight up in the air with him on them,

and he can hold his lags out behind him and flap his arms in the air!)

And here's proof that my 2 "babies" can get along without me (sometimes). Here they are playing peek-a-boo behind their shower curtain. They were giggling hysterically. :)

"Nerd Alert!"

2010-06-18T22:31:00.003-05:00

My dad has always had funny disguise glasses. When I was a little kid, he had a pair of black lens-less glasses with a nose attached and a mustache and he'd pretend to hardly be able to see while he walked around the house trying to "find" my sister and I. It was another hilarious "Dad's home from work" game, like a variation on Hide and Seek.

More recently, he acquired some funny nerdy google glasses and started busting them out on vacations. Once we were in Germany and a guy in a local band was wearing the same glasses! So my dad broke out his pair and jumped on stage with the band. Hahaha (I should see if my mom can dig that photo up to let me post!) Anyway, AJ found the glasses in my dad's kitchen drawer and ended up being allowed to take them home (grandparents have a hard time saying "no" to the grandkids!). Here are some of our best shots of our very bookish young lad...the last one is my favorite:

Old School Treehouse

2010-05-28T15:04:00.003-05:00

My sister Kim recently moved to a new house and the kids and I went out for a visit and a tour of the new digs. As she was showing me one of my niece's closets, I spied the old FAMILY TREEHOUSE that she and I played with as kids!!! Oh, how I loved that treehouse. I must have spent countless hours with it as a kid. "Yeah," said Kim, "I got it from Mom's house, but my kids don't really play with it that much." So I took it out to show to AJ and he was into it! I think all the kids played with it for a while before we left with it in hand. AJ liked it so much that he wanted to play with it on the way home. Here are some pics I took of him with it on his lap. I had to just hold the camera up and click since he sits behind me, but I think I got pretty lucky with these!

Intent concentration is needed to play with the treehouse tipped at such an angle I suppose.

He eventually fell asleep with it still on his lap. :)

As the treehouse has been on our dining room table since it came home with us, many of my friends have come in and exclaimed, "I had that treehouse when I was a kid! Where did you get it?" Alas, I have looked online and have not been able to find it. Maybe that's because things really were made to last back then? Other than that the drop-stairs have gone missing and the rope for the swing must have broken, the whole thing is basically still in tact and working! The treetop still pushes down and locks shut and the button release still works and allows it to pop back open. The little tree-trunk elevator still goes up and down when you crank the sawed-off branch crank, and even the swing is back in action with a little dental floss and some tlc from moi. I have big plans to restore the paper flooring and walls, but I also have big plans to make dinner one of these days, so we'll see how far I get...maybe I'll have it all done for Lizzy to enjoy. Anyway, here's a picture that AJ took of the treehouse when I told him to take pictures of some of his favorite things around the house.

Note the little man (there's also a lady and a dog) standing outside admiring his yard. Maybe he's looking for the doghouse? "Psst, it's in the treehouse, dude! And by the way, mustaches are so 1975!" Oh, maybe that's why he has one...that's when this toy was made! LOL

Easter 2010

2010-05-27T14:53:00.009-05:00

This Easter, we had two celebrations, one with my family in Roselle and one with Andy's family in Rockford. We did the Roselle Easter one week before, on Palm Sunday. So here are the pics from that celebration first:

Karly, Kyra, AJ and Grayson, lining up to go out for their egg hunt!

AJ finds an egg.

It was kind of cold, so Pa hung out with Elizabeth inside.

Did Karly tell a joke? AJ and Kyra got it!

Oh! Not sure what was so funny this time, but it must have been some punchline!

I can't believe we got one with all 4 kids (plus Kim) looking! Happy Easter!

Kim made a bunny cake. mmmm...

Lizzy didn't get any cake, but she still had fun hangin' at the table with the big kids.

The colored eggs. I loved the egg sandwiches we made with them!

(sorry this one's dark)

Uncle Taf and Lizzy were having a deep conversation about the pros and cons of jelly beans...

AJ got to open his birthday present from his Aunt Kim, Uncle Brandon and his cousins...they gave him a set of discovery tools and a big, cool magnifying glass.

Later that day we came home and got a shot of Lizzy drinking from her cup, a skill that was still pretty new at that time. Good girl!

She sucks in her lips and makes a smacking sound when

she eats something she likes. It's so cute!

Yes, so darn cute!

And here's AJ with his discovery tools. He didn't put them down for several

days and they are still high on the favorites list!

The next weekend, we headed to Rockford. We went to see Andy's dad, Grandpa John and Renee first and AJ hunted for eggs around their house and learned to play croquet (ok, maybe just to hit the balls around with the fun mallets). It was so nice to relax and visit with John and Renee with both kiddos. Then we headed over to Gooma's house for Lizzy's nap and to play outside a little bit and spend Easter the next day.

Here's Gooma and Lizzy on the neighbor's swingset. Elizabeth LOVES swings!

AJ thought the tire swing was cool!

Easter morning, AJ was surprised to see that the

Easter Bunny had found him at Gooma's house!

He followed the trail of eggs down the hallway and all the

way to his and Elizabeth's basket(s)!

Here's a shot of the goodies...

And of Liz lounging with all the treats.

A precious moment with Dada.

Brother and sister. :)

Figuring it all out

Here's our best attempt at a family portrait!

AJ got to wear Cheri's big birthday hat...

...and blow out his 3 tall candles as we celebrated his birthday. :)

When we got home from the weekend, AJ pretended to be the Easter bunny and wore the bunny ears around the house.

And so did Liz!

Splish Splash

2010-05-25T15:46:00.003-05:00

The kids have been bathing together for a while now, but Liz is finally out of the bath ring. (I should have sold it at the garage sale!) AJ is generally good about being careful not to knock her over and he refrains from splashing her, which I think must take a lot of restraint on his part! Especially since she is a super-splashy baby! He knows he gets his turn to kick and make waves after I take Lizzy out. And, just in the past week, AJ has gotten over his LONG TIME fear of laying down on his back in the tub! It makes washing his hair SO much easier and I think now that he get's that, he's more than happy to oblige. Our bathing beauties have been in heaven since it's gotten so hot out, since Andy or I have been doing much more frequent bathtimes for them...sometimes 2x/day since they have been getting so sweaty every time we leave the house! Here are some pics from a dunk a few weeks ago when we still put Lil Bit in the ring:

AJ rockin' the Mohawk with his fire extinguisher

Cheeks and Chong

What a cutie!

Just look at those arms and cheeks! Smoosh!

First trip to Tastee Freeze, 2010

2010-05-05T07:17:00.002-05:00

(For the kids, I mean...Andy and I had already had TF delights twice this season!)

We walked over to Tastee Freeze last night and Elizabeth had her first lick of ice cream. She loved it. What a big surprise, huh? Hahaha Our friend Alyssa met us there and took pics of the kids enjoying their treats. She's a pro photographer, so of course I'm thrilled to have such great images to mark this fun little outing. Check out her blog post to see the cuties in action!

More old pics from Fall...

2010-04-06T15:42:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures I took for AJ at the North Park Village Nature Center. There are none of Elizabeth since I was wearing her in the Mei Tai sling. I think she was still so young that she took her nap in the sling that day while AJ and I walked around exploring! I can't wait to bring them back soon so that AJ can see how different it looks as all the plants, trees and grasses wake up and turn green.

Little man with a walking stick. He did pretty well at sticking to the path!

This tree was so big and symmetrical and cool...had to take its picture!

Cute little faces!

AJ sat on this rock himself. He told me he "just needed a rest".

OK, so note the sign in the foreground. They have bee hives here and he wanted to look at them. Uhhh, alright, but since I have an allergy to bees, I was a little wary. I didn't want to instill in him a fear of insects (which in hindsight might have been a good thing) so I pretended not to be afraid and led him over to the hives. We stood at a safe distance and observed for a few moments and then I was able to distract him and move back inside where we saw this:

The indoor hive with a tube that leads outdoors. AJ watched them for a while and thought they were pretty cool and liked that they were "making honey for us".

BUT - as I was putting Lizzy into her carseat and asking AJ to get into his, he started SCREAMING and clutching his hand. He had been stung. Oh my goodness. I think it was actually a wasp and not one of the bees since there was no stinger, but no matter at that point. His hand got a little red and swollen as I was driving home and calling his doctor, and by the time we got into the house, he was telling me it didn't hurt anymore. I think I was more freaked out than him, so I tried not to make it a bigger deal than it was after i saw the swelling stop.

So, on the way home, after he had stopped crying, I asked him what happened. He told me that he saw a bug and wanted it to crawl onto his hand like WALL-E's bug friend does in the movie. It took all my self control not to laugh! Instead I told him that bees like to be left alone and don't want to be our friends. I said they are shy and the only way they are nice to us it to make honey for us. (I didn't dwell on the fact that I don't think wasps make honey) Hopefully that sticks and we won't have another sting in 2010!

Here's the comparisons...

2010-02-05T09:14:00.004-06:00

I loved looking at all the old pictures while I searched for these! Enjoy (especially you, Long's)!

On the left, our neighbor Kaya and baby AJ in 2007, and on the right, AJ and Elizabeth in 2009.

On the left, Kaya in AJ's bouncy seat, 2007 (and she always wanted the sunshade open), and on the right, AJ in the same bouncy seat next to Elizabeth in 2009.

A Strange Sound Bites

2010-02-04T17:53:00.005-06:00

AJ and I talk about all kinds of things during the course of each day, ranging from serious to silly. But today at lunch we were doing a little role playing and I realized if anyone were listening to us, we would have sounded like wierdos. We were playing the roles of characters from the movie Cars. I was being Lightning McQueen and AJ was Frank, the combine that chases McQueen out of his field after McQueen and Mater go "tractor tipping"...here's the strange sound bite that followed:

Me (McQueen): Did you like it when I revved my loud engine and tipped over all your tractors?

AJ (Frank): Um, no. Not Really. I tried to harvest you when you did that.

Another thing AJ has been really interested in lately is our body's systems and how they work. He can now describe all the things that happen to his food as it moves through his digestive tract. It usually sounds like a script when he tells us, and here's the info as he sees it (I'll keep trying to get it on video, but yesterday the camera memory card was filled up half way through the description!):

"First my mouth and teeth grind up my food, and then the throat takes it all the way down to my stomach. The stomach breaks it down, and then it goes through my intestings and they take all that my body needs. When there is nothing left in the food, pee fills up my ba-ladder like a cup and the pee comes out my wiener. The poop waits in the rectum and then it squeezes it out my heiney like a tube."

It's interesting how he mixes the anatomical names with his names for things, and though this might sound a little gross to those without kids, we have become accustomed to this kind of talk around here!

Hangin' Out...

2010-02-03T20:21:00.003-06:00

Here's a shot of our little Lizzy hangin' out with her dada. They're both riveted to the TV...she loves to watch football and can't wait for the Superbowl. (She's pulling for the Saints)

It's funny how things are so different with the second child. AJ never even knew the TV turned on at this point in his young life, and other than the random Cub's game on a weekend, the first TV he watched was around 20 months old...when I was pregnant and too exhausted to do more than lay on the couch with him. Ha! And the experiment continues.

And here is Ra-Ewn (racoon pronounced with a silent "c"), half of the duo that is "Bear & Ra-Ewn", playing 'cave' with AJ. This game consists of making caves out of pillows, boxes, etc., and then putting Ra-Ewn inside. Sometimes there is a 'rockslide' and we have to dig her out, but this one looks pretty stable...so far!

Halloween '09

2010-01-24T21:36:00.005-06:00

Halloween. Wow, that seems like ages ago! But I can't NOT post all these cute shots. AJ was a fireman and wore one of his dress-up outfits from his Grandma Cheri (Gooma). Elizabeth wore AJ's baby pumpkin costume, so I had it easy this year. Halloween was COLD this time around, so we were able to bundle them both up and just went once around the big block. After one of the last houses, AJ asked me to hold his candy bag for him because it was too heavy. I guess you have enough candy if you can't carry it! He really got into the trick or treating this year and he was so cute, as you can see in the video below.

We moved the pumpkins somewhere dark so I could

take their picture, and AJ loved looking at them.

Brother and sister

Here's my pumpkin!

I drew the face (with some help) and mom and dad cut it out for me.

What a cute fireman!

I love this picture.

Here's our little pumpkin all cute and warm.

She wore a knitted had my grandma made under the pumpkin cap to stay warm!

Look, I'm standing up!

Here's AJ practicing his lines before we got started.

'09 Pictures/Update #2 - Pumpkin Farm

2010-01-05T20:56:00.006-06:00

It's been a family tradition since AJ was born for us to go to Goebbert's Pumpkin Farm in Hampshire, IL every Fall. This year was more work, but more fun, which seems to be the theme of our lives now! We met our friend's, the Hrubec's there this year and it was fun to experience the pumpkin farm with them. We were blessed to have picked a pretty day and the sun was shining, even if it was pretty chilly. This year I walked the corn maze with AJ and let him pick a lot of the paths, which was fun, but made it long. Too long I guess, since Andy and Elizabeth were there waiting for us when we emerged...and not long afterward we had to clean up a serious diaper blow-out. Or more like a diaper overflow! Maybe that's too much TMI for some of you, but I have to say we managed well given the ground was cold and muddy and the place is, well, a FARM! Luckily the Hrubec's took over keeping track of AJ! Thanks, Jeff and Nancy!

Here are some pictures of all the fun...

Whatchu lookin' at?

AJ and Izzy, scoping out the pumpkins.

AJ and Lizzy posing for pumpkin shots. Lizzy was wearing

the pumpkin hat I made for AJ when he was a baby...

let's just say it was not so tight on her!

There's our happy little girl!

Row, row, row your boat...

"Being the boy with the yellow hat really tired me out!"

Driving the fire truck! This was AJ's favorite part of the day,

as he announced to us on our way home.

"I think we should get this one."

Mama and Elizabeth

AJ asks for a little help, and Izzy supervises.

"No, I changed my mind. How about this one?"

'09 Pictures/Update #1 - Random Fall Pics

2010-01-04T15:23:00.014-06:00

I want to get up to speed, but I can't just skip over all the great pictures and events from the end of 2009. It was truly a great year and the kids made it so fun to celebrate all the year-end holidays from Halloween through Christmas (they were kind of duds on New Year's Eve though, I have to say). So here's the first installment of our Fall in Review. Enjoy.

This is a pic from when we used to still swaddle Elizabeth even as she was becoming too long to fit her legs in the sack part. I think we gave it up somewhere over her 4th month? Anyway, now she flips over to her tummy as soon as she touches the sheet, and the swaddle is no longer in sight (or even in the house! This one, the Miracle Blanket, which was on loan from the Long's and did live up to its name, is back at their place. I donated all the others to a women's shelter before Christmas...).

Because we have the upstairs and the main level, we ended up with 2 of most pieces of "baby gear"...and I'm happy to say all but our portable swing were borrowed! But before we could get the second bouncy seat moved upstairs, this is what happened. :)

Our neighbors' daughter, Kaya, used to do this when she was about 2 and AJ was the little one, and I think I have a pic of her in the seat too...maybe later (in all my spare time) I'll post some comparison shots!

Also, note the underwear. AJ's completely potty trained now, except for overnight. Woohoo!

This pic of Lizzy is one from when she was starting to lift her head up 90 degrees (a milestone). I think she was about 10 or 11 weeks old here.

And here she is on the same day showing off her precious little smile!

AJ also liked to get under the playgym with his new little sister. It was one of the first ways that he purposefully interacted with her. Kaya used to do this too...so I guess the comparison shots will be coming soon!

Here's a little smile. Man, I love her cheeks!

Lizzy and Daddy hanging out on the playgym.

I think this playgym has been used by all of my sister's and my kids now...

5 kids over 6 years? Nice!

And here is a video of AJ being silly one night. We had gone to gymnastics that day and the video started out with us wanting to catch him doing a somersault on video. I don't think we ever got it, but the video is still pretty cute!

This Fall I reconnected with some of my old college roommates via facebook. We decided to meet at the play area in the Woodfield Mall. I know I grew up going there, but I felt like I was suffering from a bit of culture-shock. AJ kept asking questions like, "What are all these stores for?" and he didn't understand why we were there to play vs. shop. I think it might have been only his 3rd or 4th time in a mall, and definitely the first he remembers! It was so great to see Allison and Jenna again, and their kids are so cute.

My cutie and me...

Here's Janie, Owen and AJ all together in the wagon.

And here's Elizabeth starting to vocalize...she's got the cutest little voice.

The Aspiring Chef...

2009-10-20T16:35:00.007-05:00

AJ and I have been doing a lot of cooking and baking lately. He loves to stand on the step stool and join me in working on the counter. If I just casually mention making something together, he'll say, "let's get the step stool!!" and head over to get it out. If only he were really strong enough to pull it out and set it up. Oh, wait! That might be disastrous. I'm glad I have to get it out myself for him, what was I thinking! LOL

We usually make something sweet (which might be part of the draw) and for a while we were on a real brownie kick. Here's my son with delicious batter all over his precious face. :) We make cookies and brownies, cakes and crisps. Mostly I like to make things from scratch with him for a few reasons. First, as a mom, I like knowing exactly what's in (or NOT in) the recipe. Second, it gives me a chance to add extra stuff like nuts or chocolate chips, or sub in something more healthy whole wheat flour. And lastly, we like to bake from scratch because it gives AJ a chance to "do" more...since there's more ingredients, there's more to measure, more to pour and sometimes more to stir. But a box will work in a pinch too! We do not discriminate against any desserts made in this house.

AJ's good friend Violet recently turned 4 and had a really fun birthday party at a nearby place called The Kids' Table. It is a super-cute place and cooking is the party theme, so that was right up our alley! The people leading the party did a great job of getting the kids to do the tasks while keeping them interested. They made little cakes, pizzas, lemonade, and fruit kabobs...not necessarily in that order.
AJ had a ball. Here, the instructor is showing the kids how to poke the fruit onto the sticks...she made a nice, colorful kabob and then let the kids try. Well, needless to say, our little fruit-a-holic had trouble waiting until he had a full stick of fruit before sampling the skewer. After a few tries, he started just poking the fruit pieces with his skewer and using it as a fork. Then by the end of the fruit-kabob lesson, he was just eating chunks of watermelon and cantaloupe right out of the containers! Good thing no one was really keeping track, because I'm certain he ended up eating the allotted amount of fruit for at least 2 other children...

Here are some cute pictures of the pizza making and pizza eating, as well as lemon-juicing! And of course a shot of Violet sitting with her personal cake (each child got one and got to frost it and decorate with strawberries - yum!) as we sang the Birthday Song to her. Adorable!

Elizabeth's Baptism

2009-10-04T13:23:00.006-05:00

Elizabeth was baptized at our church, St Luke's, on Sept 6th. It was a pretty day, and not TOO hot, so we felt good about her wearing the knitted gown that my Nana knitted, though it was too warm to use the beautiful blanket. (And though there are also huge booties and a hat, we thought just the gown was plenty, and she got several compliments in it!) My mom wove pink ribbons through the little holes around the gown's neck and sleeves, and Elizabeth looked so precious, ready for her special day. Even though she was wailing in this picture with my mom, she really was very quiet and good through the whole service...this pic was taken AFTER the service, when everyone was nearing meltdown, as you will read...

The baptism itself went very smoothly. Elizabeth didn't cry when she had the Holy Water scooped over her head, and her Aunt Melissa who held her and "Uncle" Lucas stood by as the proud sponsors. One of my very best friends, Robin Schwartz is also Elizabeth's Godmother, but she couldn't be with us physically at the service since she is in Haiti. (You can read about what she does there in her blog, which I have a link to on the right of this page.) But she was there in spirit! When she comes back to the States, I'm sure she will play an active role in Elizabeth's spiritual life. We are lucky to have such great friends and family!

We sat in the back, as is the usual plan for the baptismal families, but there were 2 other children being baptized during that service as well, plus there was communion. All of that made the normally long service really long! And that, of course, spells trouble for the kids! The little ones started to get fussy, the older ones started to get antsy and whiny, and the adults started to get frazzled! (maybe this is why they have us sit in the back!? LOL) It became harder and harder to keep AJ, Grayson and Kyra quiet or distracted, and AJ was having a really hard time keeping still! Argh!! Well, what can you expect when the service runs over an hour and it's nearing lunchtime? Umm...I guess my expectations for my son to go home in the clothes he left in were too high, since after the service, as I was trying to get Elizabeth settled and ready for pictures, someone brought my soaking 2 year old up to me stating he had "gotten into" the baptismal font. Whaaaat?!! Oh my goodness. He was so soaked, and crying. I really to this day don't know for sure what happened, but I think he had just splashed in it, not actually GONE into it. This assumption was based on the fact that his feet were dry...not on the fact that he looked VERY wet. Luckily since he's potty trained but still a little shaky on outings, I always have a change of underwear and pants in the diaper bag. But I did not have a dry shirt! So the best we could do was to take off his wet (and cute) sweater vest and tell him we'd change his shirt when we got home. Knowing how much he loves water and baths, I'm surprised he was so upset about having a wet shirt...but I think he knew he had done something wrong. So maybe it was for the best that he had to wear it home!?

Then, as we finally got ready and started to have our pictures taken, one of the pastoral assistants came up to my family holding a crying AJ by the arm and asking, "Does he belong to you?". Oh. My. Goodness. How many family members have to be with us for someone to keep an eye on my son? I guess it was poor parenting on our part not to have specifically assigned anyone to this task. :( Poor AJ. Here he is in our beautiful family photo, after both incidents. Notice my (fake) smile, AJ's cheek-wiping after just about recovering from the freak-outs, Elizabeth's wailing with hunger or in need of a nap, and Andy's face actually looks like a fake smile. ...Like I said, at least the baptism itself was nice. ;) lol

And I just couldn't resist putting in this picture of Kyra, ever the ham, posing for a picture during all this chaos! She is so funny!

We all went back to our loft afterward, and everyone made a nice recovery. We had a delicious lunch from Wishbone, and yummy cake from Dinkel's Bakery. Both are great local businesses and we were happy with the service from each of them. The cake even survived being turned on its side by a child who will remain nameless, as you can see by this picture which was taken just after its rescue! All in all, it was really wonderful to see those family and friends who could take part in Elizabeth's special day, and those who could not be here were with us in our hearts. Like Pastor A. said when I asked about whether Robin could still be a sponsor without being at the ceremony, "It's the life, not the ceremony, that's really what's important."

AJ the Photograhper

2009-10-04T13:14:00.002-05:00

AJ has decided to go into photography. He is available for weddings, birthdays and all other occasions. Please call for pricing and references, and have a look at his current portfolio:

OK, I'm Falling Behind!!!

2009-09-29T16:23:00.007-05:00

Help! We are so busy lately that I can't seem to keep up with adding posts with any regularity...I keep thinking that I'll start doing them during naptime (which is actually when I'm typing this) but mostly I end up deciding to take a nap myself. Maybe I'll just have to take one more step toward becoming my mother and start drinking coffee every morning... My other excuse for the lag in posts is a technical one. Our pictures and movies were taking up too much space on our computer, so Andy moved them to another drive...but so that it would be easier to retrieve them, the drive is remotely accessed by my computer. This makes looking at and choosing the pictures SLOW. We are working on a compromise, but in the meantime just know that it took me forever to do this post!!!

Well, lot's has happened since my last post, but I'll start with Elizabeth. She has been growing and changing like crazy lately! She actually rolled over for the first time on Sunday (9.27) from her tummy to back. I saw her do it and that was pretty awesome! No such maneuvers since then though, but I've got my eye on her now as she's becoming more mobile. She is also starting to grab things and bring them to her mouth...anything she can get her hands on - toys, her clothes, burpcloths, even her other hand! She has been trying to suck on her hands for over a month now, but over the past few days I've noticed her starting to prefer her first and second fingers of her right hand. She can now easily lift her head to 90 degrees when on her tummy, and is starting to figure out how to use her arms to prop her chest up. She coo's, oooh's and ahh's for us now and has a few random consonants pop up now and then too. Today I swore she said "hola"! Hahaha...not "guten tag" mom!

Sometimes we would put her in her boppy like this and she really liked being part of the action as AJ and I would play. See how happy she looks? And AJ liked hanging out with her up there too, and would bring her a pacifier or a toy if she fussed. Well, all of this is written in past tense because I can't put her in the boppy on the couch anymore...because she somehow leapt over the boppy and slid down to the floor while I was making faces at her from the island in our kitchen!!! I just about died, but luckily there was a pillow and her playgym on the carpet where she landed, so she was fine after the initial shock. What a scare! So now she can still lay on the boppy, but only on the FLOOR! (I felt like the winner of the Bad Mom contest, but after sharing this story with many other moms, almost everyone has had something like this happen to their babies. No wonder God leaves their bones soft for a while!) So now we are much more cautious. See, I said she was getting more mobile! I also worry about leaving her alone with AJ for more than a few seconds, but so far that is an unfounded concern. I've just heard too many stories about the "hugs" gone wrong! AJ is usually not even that interested in Elizabeth, but lately has been interacting with her more...little by little. I think he likes it that now she can smile or react to him instead of just laying there or crying. At night when he goes up to bed, he gives her a kiss on the head. Very cute.

Here are a bunch of pictures from the past couple of weeks of both our cuties...

AJ hanging out with Elizabeth under her play gym...precious!

He loves to tilt the mirror, "AJ, Elizabef, AJ, Elizabef..."

Happy in the bouncy seat (thanks Emily!)

"Elizabef has squishy cheeks!"

(where did he get that from? I NEVER squish her cheeks! OK, maybe once in a while.)

"Here's your schnulli, Elizabef!"

(schnulli is our German word for the pacifiers)

"hmmm, I thought this was MY playgym.

What's he always doing under here anyway?"

At least they're sharing! :)

And having fun!

Frankenstein?

On the changing table...look at that Michelin arm!

Lifting up the head...you can also see in this picture that her

hair is starting to come in...looks like it will be brown.

Maybe she'll get her dad's nice curls!

Happy Baby!

Watching football already?

Mama loves you!

Little cutie pie

Artist and Explorer

2009-09-13T15:41:00.005-05:00

AJ has been doing some interesting craft projects and drawings lately, and has also become really interested in exploring. Recently I was drawing some of his favorite "Cars" characters for him on his magnadoodle, and then asked him to draw one for me. He usually just scribbles and makes circles when he draws, but this time he was making more deliberate lines and dots and assigning them to parts of the car. Pretty cool, I thought! Since it was not on paper, I couldn't save the drawing, but I took this picture instead. The dots and vertical line on the right are McQueen's eyes and mouth, and then on the left are 4 wheels (the dots) and the rest AJ said is the car... Exactly. I see it, don't you? :)

I also found a small pair of blunt scissors and taught him how to cut with one hand and hold the paper in his other. He did really well and was very proud of himself. I was just happy he was not trying to cut his t-shirt with one of my pairs of scissors! So, he did an art project while I finished a few more of Elizabeth's announcements (yes, you'll get one soon, I promise). He stamped on paper with his washable inks and my stamps, then cut up the paper and glued it down to another sheet of paper. He also loves his new glue sticks that "draw" purple and then dry clear. This type of gle stick is genius for getting kids to understand how to paste and where the glue is. That white thing on his face is a sticker...of Flo from Cars, no less. He put it on his cheek himself as a fashion statement, and wore it most of the day. Fyi, Ramone was on the other cheek.

AJ has also been big into exploring. One day while G'ma Cheri was in, she stayed home with Elizabeth and AJ and I went to the Conservatory and strayed from our usual path. First, they were harvesting the bananas from the banana trees in the "sugar house", something we'd never seen them do before!

We shared one of the tree's tiny bananas and here is a picture I took of the it after about 2 bites. The whole thing was about 3 or 4 inches long, and the inside of it was almost peach-colored. It was very tasty, too! We ventured outside to find the compost boxes the employee spoke of to toss our peel... and here began our explorations:

First, when we walked outside,

we came across a little gravel maze in a grass opening. It was just barely drizzling so AJ was holding my umbrella and walking along the maze's path. (It's a really cute area and the following week we had a picnic lunch there with some of our friends. We moms got to relax for a few minutes while our kids played follow the leader winding all around on the gravel path.) He got a real kick out of walking all around under the umbrella and insisted on holding it himself.

Then, near the compost area, AJ found this little thatched hut. It was the perfect size for him to fit through the opening and have a seat on one of the log stumps inside. Not so much my size I found, as I squeezed in. But AJ wanted us to both be in "together". Then we walked a little further and found a good sized garden where the Conservatory was growing everything from Swiss chard and squash to tomatoes and green beans. We checked out all the vegetables and I felt jealous of their setup and sun exposure! Then AJ spotted something like a Tee Pee skeleton. This structure was much easier for me to fit into, so we sat on the stumps and hung out for a little while playing the "what can you hear?" listening game...bees, airplanes, cicadas, birds, a train, etc. He's getting better at focusing and picking out different sounds, so this is one of our favorite games lately. Well, okay, maybe it's one of MY favs since it gets him to be quiet and sit still for a few minutes! Hahaha!

The exploring continues when we walk to the parks or local restaurants, since AJ does not always ride in the stroller anymore. This way he is free to stop and look and check things out. He now has his own little magnifying glass too, so we've got a little observer in the making, I guess! (Kim & Mom, does this sound familiar? Didn't you wonder if I'd ever make it home from school!?)

Elizabeth Shots...

2009-09-08T21:03:00.003-05:00

Here are some recent pictures of Elizabeth. She is growing and changing so fast, I will have more to post again soon!

Grandpa John and Renee came in to visit and meet her a couple of weeks ago, and here is a good shot of Grandpa holding her for the first time. She looks so small in his hands!

After the visit (which included brownies that Renee made. Yum.) Elizabeth was tired. Here she is conked out in the swing. I love her in this outift...thanks Kristin! :)

I took this picture of Andy with her on his lap. This is how he always used to sit with AJ, and it was really cute to see him like this with Elizabeth too. It brought back all the cute memories of when AJ was this small. (was he ever really small? hahaha)

She liked to suck on our fingers for the first month and a half or so. Here she is with Andy's magic pinky in action. Now she has finally accepted the pacifiers (which we call "schnulli's") and for that I am thankful. My finger was turning into a raisin! ;)

Here she is licking and sucking on her hand, trying to find a good finger...for now, this is her soothing mechanism and how she puts herself to sleep if there is no schnulli close by...

And then a few minutes later, she fell asleep in her bouncy seat...now, just a few short weeks later, she is pretty much taking all naps in her crib.

Cousins at Millennium Park and Art Institute

2009-08-29T14:38:00.003-05:00

My mom, Kim and I had the bright idea to take all the kids (between Kim and I there are 5 now!) to Millennium Park to play in the fountain and then to the Art Institute to play and check out the new Modern Wing. Let me just start by saying that it sounded like a good idea at the time...

The Crown Fountain was fun, and the big kids had a blast. AJ, Karly, and Kyra had a lot of fun running around together. But, even with 3 adults, it was tough to keep an eye on all of them at once. There were a lot of other people there that day, and sometimes AJ strays from the fountain and tries to "escape", so there were a few moments I started to get nervous when I couldn't see him right away. Then, Grayson got tired of sitting in the stroller and wanted to get in on the action. He thought being in the water was great! The only one who didn't get wet was baby Elizabeth.

Here is a picture of Kim and my mom trying to get all the kids to stand still

and look at the camera at once. Keep trying!!

And here is the best shot I could get. Poor AJ was too excited

about playing and running around to stand still for the picture, so here he is in profile.

Next, we all spotted a nice patch of grass in the park and set about to have our picnic. I will be honest and say that I was getting a bit overwhelmed trying to keep AJ to stay with us, as going out with Elizabeth crying and AJ on the loose was still very new to me. He is getting better at listening to directions now, but back on this outing, it was pretty rough there for a while! I fondly remember when we adults used to outnumber or at least match the kids... So we finally finished lunch and walked over the cool bridge to the Art Institute. (In hindsight, this is when I should have just said, "Sayonara" and bailed)

Elizabeth did not care for her first trip to the Art Institute. She cried much of the time we were there and I was working hard to keep her quiet and get her to sleep! AJ was teetering on the edge too, and my memory is already a little fuzzy, but I felt like Kim was having an issue with one of her kids as well? We did a quick tour through part of the Modern Wing and took this picture with the Picasso maquette. AJ is very into the big public sculptures we see in the city, and loves his Good Night Chicago book that shows the Calder from Federal Center.

We walked out of the museum together and AJ, Elizabeth and I said goodbye to the rest of the family at the Blue Line stop while they continued on to Union Station. I bent down to give AJ a snack to keep him awake as we waited for the elevator to the tunnel, and he was already asleep. For any mom out there with kids that nap, this is the kiss of death! I was EXHAUSTED and still had to take the train and then walk home from the stop, and this meant that AJ would not nap when we got home. I tried to wake him, but he was OUT. So I sadly waited for the train with 2 sleeping children and cursed myself for not having had the good sense to have just skipped the museum this time. But we all got home safely and though the afternoon was not the best, I just had to remind myself, "Tomorrow is another day". ;) Maybe next time we can just do the Museum. Or just the Park...

Blueberry Picking

2009-08-29T10:01:00.003-05:00

Our family went berry picking this Summer for our first time ever. We weren't exactly sure what to expect, but I was inspired by my friend Anika who had gone to this farm a few weeks prior for strawberry picking. We went to Plow Creek Farm for their U-Pick blueberries. The Google Map said it was about 2.5 hrs away, basically smack in the middle of Nowhere. We packed up the kids, a lunch, lots of water and the sunscreen and braced ourselves for a possibly horrible car ride. To our astonishment, BOTH kids made it there AND back with NO crying!!! That's no small miracle.

When we started getting close, it seemed like we'd driven into another decade from long ago. We drove through "downtown" and passed a feed store and I swear I saw a tumbleweed. But after following a wooden sign that said "blueberry field" with an arrow, we found ourselves driving through trees, uphill, on a muddy, rutted path that was certainly not made for a car like our civic! Suddenly it opened up and we were there...in a field of orderly blueberry bush rows.

We were told by the young guy in charge as well as by some of the other more seasoned pickers, that this was not peak season and the bushes had already been picked over, but to me, it seemed like there was an endless supply of yummy berries! AJ thought so too, since he ate every blueberry he picked from a bush, as well as a few handfuls that others had picked. We had to watch him since he was not ashamed to stick his little paws right into a stranger's bucket and help himself to the literal fruits of their labor! I had imagined that only one of us would be able to pick while the other would mostly just be chasing after AJ. But he was actually pretty into the whole thing and we both got quite a bit of picking done.

Here's a shot where you can actually see how many berries there were on the bushes. I can't imagine what "peak season" would look like!

Elizabeth slept for a while in her carseat, and then when she woke up I wore her in the sling while I picked and then she laid on our blanket while we ate our lunch before leaving. Then she slept the whole ride home again. What an easy baby!

Here she is in the sling. OK, well at least you can see her hat!

She was only about a month old when we made this little trip.

We ended up with about 12 lbs or blueberries and I they were delicious fresh, but I froze most o them right away. They are awesome in pancakes, and Anika promises to share her sour cream blueberry cake recipe with me. I also want to make some jam, and a blueberry pie...maybe for Thanksgiving this year. The blueberries worked out to be way cheaper than they ever are at the grocery store, and they are grown at Plow Creek Farm without any chemicals or pesticides. No wonder they taste so good! I can't wait to go picking again. It was such a great day! If we don't get to go again this year, we'll for sure make a point of it next year. Thanks, Plow Creek!

The Park & the Bus

2009-08-21T23:10:00.004-05:00

Our friends the Long's were back for a visit during most of July, and we loved spending time with them. One pretty day we headed to the local park with Emily, Kaya and Ash, as well as our friend Sam and her boys Louis and Axel. AJ recently decided he likes the swings again (in the beginning of the summer all he wanted to do was run around and climb on everything!) which I think is pretty cool. He likes to swing "higher!" and "faster!" and has so much fun! So all of our kids -minus the babies- got on the swings together and they were so cute! Here is a shot of everyone on the swings, including Sam at the far end! We took turns pushing since there are now more kids than moms...oooh, that sounds scary!

Then, here are 2 pictures of AJ. He was being a real ham, so the first picture is a cute smile on my happy little guy, and then in the second shot he was doing his big fake laugh. You know, as in, "HA, HA, HA!!!". I'll have to try and get that on video soon too, since it cracks me up!

This is a video of all the kids swinging. It kind of gives me vertigo to watch it, but it gives you the perfect feel for how much fun they were having! AJ is talking about a big garbage truck that was stopped across the street as I was filming. And then when I ask him who he's swinging with, it's hard to hear but he says, "Ash, Louis and Kaya".

Afterward we all went to lunch at a new Cuban place that opened about a block from the park. It's called 90 Miles, and has all these great murals on the building. It's pretty kid-friendly, and I like that the food is good and the prices are low. We had a really nice time!

Recently, Andy and I took both kids to a park in Lincoln Park to meet some friends. This park is worth the trip because it has a really fun splash park area, as well as a lot of playground equipment and a huge sandbox with lots of communal toys.

We decided to take the bus since parking in that neighborhood can be pretty tough, and we took pictures to commemorate Elizabeth's first bus ride, and AJ's first time sitting on the bus seat like a big boy (I have always had him on the bus in his stroller, but look how he is sitting with his Daddy like such a big boy!)

AJ's First Time Holding Elizabeth

2009-08-21T22:56:00.003-05:00

AJ is not all together that interested in Elizabeth. He never got into the dolls I tried to introduce while I was pregnant or wanted to spend much time checking out any of our friends' babies, so I'm not really surprised. In the beginning when we brought her home, I think he was very jealous. Then he graduated to indifferent, and tolerant, and now I think he's finally starting to kind of like her. Let's say she's starting to grow on him. I think it helps that she has started to smile at him (I'll post the pictures of her smiles very soon, I promise!).

Recently I asked AJ if he wanted to hold his little sister, and he surprised me by agreeing!! So we ran and grabbed the camera and put her in his arms before he could change his mind!

Here he is with her on his lap for the first and only time so far.

It didn't last long, and I'm sure it didn't help that Elizabeth was crying, but it still melted

my heart to see my two kids together like this. :)

I got her to stop crying by giving her my finger to suck on,

and AJ was kind of interested in that. I think that now as time goes by and Elizabeth

gets more and more responsive, AJ will want to interact with her more as well. We can hope!

Elizabeth's First Bath

2009-08-21T06:26:00.003-05:00

Elizabeth had her first bath (at home) after about a week. Since her umbilical cord stump fell off at record speed, we could have given her a water bath...if we had known where the newborn hammock for the baby tub was!! I have since found it and she usually likes the bath in her tub...not so much for the first bath. Check out the pictures and see for yourself how much she did not enjoy the experience. It was almost comical.

I know they're planning to do something to me, and I don't like it!

I knew I wouldn't like it!

Maybe I can try to knock over one of these water bowls and derail the project.

You're not done yet? My feet are not dirty!

I said my feet are clean, already, Mom!

Oh, look at how much fun my brother's bath is!

Why did I have to be on that towel anyway?

I'm glad it's over.

For comparison's sake, here is the picture we took of AJ after his first bath.

I guess neither of our kids are sponge bath fans!

Birthday Marathon

2009-08-18T15:15:00.010-05:00

Our family has lots of birthdays that fall over June and July...my niece, Karly's, is June 10th and Elizabeth was born on the 26th, then my nephew Grayson was born July 1st and my Dad's b-day (and parents anniversary) is on July 3rd. My niece, Kyra, caps off the birthday marathon on July 26th. I think at some point we will just have 1 or 2 big parties for all of these b-days, but this year everyone had their OWN! That's a lot of cake...not that I'm complaining!

Here are some of the highlights:

Karly's family birthday party followed on the heels of her friend party, which was a "puppy" theme. Brandon did face painting for the kids and so Karly and Kyra both had their puppy paint on during the party. He painted a soul patch on AJ to imitate Andy. :)

Here's Karly the dog blowing out her 6(!!!) candles! What a big girl!

Uncle B corrupting his middle child.

Kidding! We just thought it looked hysterical because of the

puppy tongue painted on her face. :)

Karly posing with her pretty presents.

Our gift to her was the colorful one in front. You can tell I had not had the baby yet since I have no idea where I would find the time to wrap a present like that now! Lucky you, Karly!

Most of the soul patch was worn off by the time this shot was taken, but here is AJ on Andy's lap clapping after Karly blew out her candles. Can you just see him thinking about cake?

Ooooh. (pause) Ahhhhh. (pause) Ohhhhh. Roselle Fireworks at their finest!

Next party was my dad's on the 4th at Kim's.

AJ stayed up for them this year and love them. I was nervous that the booms would scare him, but he was fine. Between bursts, he asked me if they were over, and I said, "No, there're gonna be more." So then each long pause (of which there were many), he turn to me and say in a very excited little voice, "There's gonna be MO-RE!" Precious! Elizabeth slept though it all in her carseat in my sisters garage.

My son, the future mechanic, "fixing" Kyra's bike. He loves real tools and is very aware of which ones are "daddy's real tools" and his own "fake plastic" tools. Of course, to my chagrin, he prefers the ones which are capable of poking an eye out.

Here's Kyra on the "fixed" bike. Ready to ride!

Yes, AJ, you will get to eat it. Soon...soon...let's sing first!

(Nice job on the flag cake, Kim! Or did B decorate this one too??)

AJ eating Pa's birthday cake on his lap. I think my dad was not too keen to have the 2 year old eating cake on his lap, but luckily since AJ was getting so much practice eating cake, he was getting more of it into his mouth than usual.

Cousin Karly LOVED Elizabeth right away. She sat and looked at Elizabeth sleeping in her carseat with an unmatched attention span. It was very cute. :)

Then she got to hold her with Mom's supervision. What a big girl she is, and look at the arm-positioning! Hmmm...a future babysitter?

Say Cheese!

What cutie pies!

And here's Aunty Kim and Elizabeth. She really looks like AJ to me in this picture. Elizabeth, not Kim. ;) And she still had hair at this party! Now all the hair on the top of her head has fallen out. We're waiting to see what color it will be when it grows back in.

For Grayson's 1st birthday, Kim and Brandon did a Monkey theme, and Brandon decorated the cake and did such a great job! He used the decorator tips for the frosting and it looked so pro! AJ obviously thought it tasted great, as you can tell by the wide-open, I-don't-want-to-miss-a-crumb mouth in this shot.

Baby G, as I like to call him, was starting to walk around the time of his party and it was so cute to see him tottering around. He also liked the cake and didn't want to leave anything on his plate. Since the cake wasn't chocolate, the messy-kid effect is not so major, but believe me, he was put into a change of clothes not long after this picture was taken!

It was getting late, so AJ and Grayson were both in their pj's for the present opening portion of the party. Here is a shot of AJ showing Grayson the book we gave him (which AJ was coveting for the few weeks that it sat on the kitchen island in our house waiting to get wrapped up). Grayson only looks semi-interested, but I hear the book was a hit later...

Next, Kyra turned 3! I can hardly believe she is already a 3 year old. She was so cute at her party...all dressed up in a pretty party dress and ready to have some fun! She had a fairy cake, which was very cool and Kim said if anyone touched it she was going to freak out. (There are usually some finger swipes out of the frosting on the cakes at our family's parties...go figure!) well, my mom went to take a picture of the cake and moved a nearby picture frame right into the frosting on the corner! Ha! Luckily the cake still looked great and no one had to "freak out".

Here is Kyra patiently waiting for us to finish singing so she could blow out her candles. You can't see it in this picture, but Kim (or was it B again?) made a super-cute sherbet dessert that we sliced to serve with the cake, and it looked just like watermelon! I'm so going to steal that idea for a future party at my own house...

Make a wish, Kyra!

This is a picture of the present-opening. This shot hardly does the situation justice, since it looks kind of calm. It was not calm. AJ and Karly were more than ready to "help" open the presents and Kyra was so funny saying, "Oh my goodness!!" while opening every gift. It was so funny! Guess you had to be there...

(that pink lump on Kim's shoulder is Elizabeth)

And here is a picture from Kyra's party of Elizabeth and I.

Check out her cheeks! Can she even open her eyes with the pressure from them against her dress? So chubby! She is such a cute "love chunk", as quoted from Kim's friend Lisa.

AJ and Louis at the Conservatory

2009-08-18T14:58:00.007-05:00

I am very behind, so this was several weeks ago, but Elizabeth was born, so less than 2 mo ago. We went to the Garfield Park Conservatory on a Monday with my mom and my friend Sam + her son Louis, and her baby boy Axel. On Mondays they always have a project and storytime in the kids area, so that's always a popular day for us to head over there.

This particular day the project was to make a "Wish Stick". It was basically a stick that the kids got to decorate with yarn, pipe cleaners, sequins, beads, etc. AJ really liked making his (but since he's still young to grasp the concept of magic and wishes, he was not so into the stick afterward when I told him hitting things with it was out of the question. Hahaha.) Here he is wrapping a beaded pipe cleaner around his stick.

There are also toys, water bottles the kids can use to mist the plants, a tube slide, etc., so it's a pretty fun stop for the kids, but there is usually also a dirt table where they can dig for plastic bugs and stuff. This day, however, there were sand tables instead! I thought this was great, since it's a lot easier to get sand to fall off of AJ than to get him to do a good job washing his hands after playing in the dirt. I think he thought the change was cool too!

Here is another video of AJ and Louis running around in the huge yard/garden out back behind the Conservatory after we finished our lunches. It's a great place to let them burn off some steam, as you can see! They also liked when they would see the Green Line El trains go by, and enjoyed looking for fish and turtles in the pond.

More AJ-isms

2009-08-18T14:53:00.002-05:00

I hope you are not bored by these posts, but I love that I can archive the funny things AJ is saying here for us to look back at later. Here are some of the latest:

He cam walking out of our room the other day carrying one of my bras. Andy - "What's that?" AJ - "Mom's boob protector"

Me - what's your full name?

AJ - AJ Holub

Me - What's Daddy's full name?

AJ - Daddy Holub

AJ was standing against the refrigerator when Andy opened the freezer. Andy asked him if he could feel the cold air and he answered, "It's popsicle air!"

Andy - AJ, what time is it?

AJ - 87

July AJ-isms

2009-08-03T14:56:00.002-05:00

Here are some more of the things AJ's been saying lately...in no particular order:

We were on our way to AJ's friend Izzy's house when we passed a lame-looking rummage/sidewalk sale. I asked Andy sarcastically if he felt like shopping. AJ chimed in from the backseat, "No shopping, only Izzy's house!" hmmm...a little bossy?!

along the same lines, today I heard, "No, no lunch, only brownies." Obviously that didn't happen!

I asked AJ if he was feeling OK since he felt a little clammy. He responded, "I just have some goosebumps and clams."

Instead of Follow the Leader, he thinks it's very funny to say, "Follow the Beaver!"

ZZZZZzzzzz.....

2009-07-29T16:16:00.003-05:00

OK, so I have no pictures from the actual occasion to accompany this post, but posted sleeping-baby shots anyway...last night (7.20) at only 3 weeks old, Elizabeth slept for 6 consecutive hours!! Then she was up for a while, but slept again for 3.5 more. That means I only got up 1 time!!! This is truly amazing to me, and might have just been a fluke, but i've got my fingers crossed. Up to this point, she has been having one longer stretch at night, lasting from 4-5 hrs on average, but this 6hr stretch was awesome!! Let's hope it's just the beginning of a good sleeping pattern. :)

*Disclaimer:since this happened, 6 or 6.25 hrs has been Elizabeth's max nighttime stretch. Some nights are great like this one with only 1 waking for me, and other nights, like 2 nights ago, drag on and on with 4 or 5 visits to her room! Basically though, she is pretty consistent with one long stretch of 4-6 hrs to start and then 3 hr chunks until around 6 or 7 am.

I also wanted to add a few other things before I forget them! Elizabeth started tracking objects (My face, a toy, etc.) between 3 and 4 weeks. Though AJ's usually very jealous of her now, he likes to bring toys to her and helps pat her back with me when I burp her. Today (7.29) she was crying and he brought her the schnulli (our word for the pacifier). She usually does not like it, and Andy and I have been trying and trying to introduce it with no real success yet. Well, AJ stuck it in her mouth and she started sucking away! Then I laid her down in her crib and she sucked herself to sleep with it! Amazing. And ironic! OK, that's all for now.

Summer's here...Doc's & Tastee Freeze

2009-07-22T17:23:00.006-05:00

At the beginning of July our friend's and neighbors, the Long's, came back to the states from Singapore for a 1 mo. stay. That sounds like a lot of time, but it felt too short to me, and I'm sure WAY too short to them. Elizabeth was basically born while they were in the air on their way to Chicago, so during their first week here, we didn't see them too much (The kids had touches of colds they picked up on the plane, so we didn't want them too close to AJ or Elizabeth). But we did manage to head out to one of our favorite parks and to Doc's, our go-to smoothie spot. On July 3rd, this was one of Elizabeth's very first public outings. I carried her in the wrap sling and let AJ run amuck after driving to the park. I put driving in italics because it's crazy to drive to a park that's a 10 or 15 min walk away...unless you gave birth a week prior. :) Since Andy came with too, it was a full-on family outing, and I had it easy since he basically did all the AJ-wrangling. What a great dad!

After playing for a while, we walked over to Doc's and got some lunch and smoothies. It was super fun to get a chance to talk to Emily in real-time and face to face, and to see how much the kids have grown. Her son, Ashwin, has become a major climber and he moves fast! He also thoroughly enjoyed his smoothie, as we can see here. AJ loved his too. Here is is drinking his lately-fav, the "green" smoothie. I love that he always wants to order this one because it's made with kale, spinach and a host of other vitamin-packed veggies, so I don't have to worry about if he eats vegetables at dinner that night!
One banana added in there and "voila!" it's a yummy treat! We were a little slow to get the lids and straws handed out, so AJ is also sporting a 70's style green mustache. Emily's daughter Kaya is so sweet and talkative. She loved meeting "Baby Elizabeth" and like most almost-4 year old girls I know, wanted to be near her and talk to/about her. Kaya is also getting so tall, and there's nothing "toddler" about her anymore. Here she is completely glued to the cartoon that was on at Doc's. In her defense, it was probably about midnight on her body's clock. LOL It's amazing how fast they grow and change.

As if going out to the park and for lunch were not enough for one day, we decided it was a good night for some soft serve. We had never taken AJ to Tastee Freeze together before (he had been one or 2 times before with my mom and I), so he was very excited. Keeping him (and me!) away from TF is tough considering it's about a 4 minute walk from our building, but last year was easier since he was not aware of what ice cream even was! But now that he knows, ice cream is the perfect reward/bribe (when we have to resort to that...). Stellar parenting, I know. Luckily, it takes him longer to eat the itsy-bitsy 75 cent baby cone than for the adults to eat a medium cone or sundae, so I don't have to set a good example my sharing mine with him. Haha!

After we finished our treat, AJ and I walked around the parking lot for a few minutes while Andy took these pictures. I like that wearing Elizabeth in the sling allows me to have my hands free to hold hands with AJ while he walks "the beam" in this pic, and I also like having a picture of myself with my 2 kids before any jealousy entered the scene (more on this later!).
The next picture is of AJ "fixing" this sign with his pliers. While Andy was building AJ's new room upstairs, AJ kept wanting all of his tools. Sharp tools, pointy tools, heavy tools, etc., so Andy bought him his very own plastic tool set. He loves it and the pliers and wrench are his favorites. He walks all around the house looking for screws, nuts, bolts and connections to "fix". One of his regular spots is the doorknob's hole in the hall bathroom's door jamb. He sticks his plastic flat head into it and quotes a book we read, "I'm fixing this door right now, I'll help you later." Thespian or handyman? Unfortunately, he still prefers Daddy's phillip's head screwdriver...

Elizabeth comes home...

2009-07-05T14:42:00.005-05:00

Today is exactly one week since we brought Elizabeth home from the hospital. The week has gone pretty well. We went to her first Dr. appointment where she was weighed in at 8lb 12oz (just 2 oz less than her birthweight) so we know she's eating well, and she also passed all of her other tests (temp, bilirubin, etc.). She has also been to the park, had lunch at one of AJ's favorite spots (but she opted for milk when nothing on the menu sounded good to her), met some of our guests who came over with dinner, and yesterday she went to her first party at her aunt and uncle's house. There will be blog coverage coming up on most of these events, but here I just wanted to post some pics of our time at the hospital and Elizabeth's first day home.

Here are some shots of her first visitors...

AJ, her BIG BROTHER! He wasn't super interested in Elizabeth, but was very happy to see Andy and I. He told me, "Good job, Mommy!" and was happy

I had room for him on my lap again. :)

Here is Elizabeth meeting her Omi (my mom).

And this was Pa's second visit, the Saturday after she was born.

Here is Andy changing her diaper. What a great Dad he is!

Elizabeth met Auntie Kim in the hospital too!

Here's Andy holding our little "burrito" as we

affectionately call her when she's swaddled.

Andy took this shot of Elizabeth napping with me. We were wiped out!

Look at those cheeks! I have been mooshing then daily.

Here's a shot from Sat the 27th when my parents came with AJ to visit.

Here's Mommy and Baby dressed and ready to go home!

She looked SOOOO TINY in her carseat!!

Here's my mom holding her on her first day home, last Sunday, the 28th.

Andy and I got AJ 2 new books to celebrate his becoming a Big Bro. This one's called Digger and has pages all about the machines he loves right now. We also bought him his own copy of Freight Train by Donald Crews since he loves it and is often disappointed when it's not available from the library. He was pretty happy!

Here is AJ pretending to be Elizabeth...pretty good impression!

And here's a short video of AJ almost interacting with his little sister on her first day home.

The morning after (in action)

2009-06-27T10:54:00.009-05:00

Here's a video clip of Lizzy and I from this morning. She was hanging out like this for a good 30 minutes before she even peeped. So far she's been great with very little crying

The morning after

2009-06-27T10:26:00.007-05:00

Here's a couple photos from the morning after. Lizzy and I were hanging out on "my bed" (the couch) and she was very content and alert . She and mama are napping now :)

Our Little Girl's Arrival - The Birth Story

2009-06-26T21:01:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, yes - right on my due date, I started having regular contractions a little before 8am. They were very mild and stayed that way for much of the day, but they also never stopped, no matter what I was doing, so I figured Baby was getting ready, and I'd better get ready too! I took AJ to the library because I had a book due that I had just finished after renewing for the max # of times (it was Big Box Swindle, and make me embarrassed to disclose the next stop on our outing...). Then we went to Target to get the few lingering items on my list of what to bring to the hospital! Some people might think, "You were having contractions and you went shopping!?" but really, it passed the time and got us out of the house.

Around 5:00, the contractions were getting closer together and a little stronger than they had been all day, so I called my Dr. She reassured me that I sounded like I was in early stages of labor but also told me that at the moment I didn't need to rush into the hospital. We decided that it would be good to have some dinner, call my parents to come in, and put AJ to bed before going in, so that was the plan...but things started to speed up over the next couple hours! By the time my dad drove us (quickly!) to Prentice, the contractions were so strong that I could no longer talk or walk during them.

In triage, I measured 4.5cm (that's out of 10, for those not into the childbirth thing yet) so that was encouraging. My plan was to have a natural childbirth this time around, so after I was admitted, Andy was my main support, literally and figuratively, as I got through each contraction. After a couple hrs, I had only progressed .5 cm and was feeling discouraged! But the nurse assured me we were doing great and that Dr. Gale had requested that a resident break my water for me. After that, it was game-time!

The contractions really intensified, almost immediately, and started to come much closer together! Whoa! It was a lot harder to find comfortable positions and those that had been working well - the birthing ball, "7th grade dancing" w/ Andy, etc. - wern't doing it for me anymore. Our nurse was on a break and I had Andy page her. When she didn't come right away, I sent him into the hall to get someone! I was not so calm at this point, but I learned that he was cool and collected when he asked someone to come in to help me. :) What a great husband!

So, they checked me again, and I was already at 9.5cm! No wonder I didn't want to sit on that ball anymore! It was time to push, said my body! So they paged my Dr. and she headed right over. When they had broken my bag of water earlier, I guess there was myconium (baby poop) in the fluid, so a team of nurses arrived to be there to assist the baby if it needed anything. Suddenly I found myself pushing the baby out amongst a room full of excited people cheering me on! And holy smokes, I pushed for dear life! I guess I was doing well, because one of the Pediatric nurses said, "wow! and you've hardly even pushed!". I thought she was saying I was not pushing enough and replied, "What do you mean!? I'm pushing my brains out!!" So Andy told me that she meant I was doing great for not having pushed very long! LOL

So after only 13 min of pushing (Andy, my stat-man, timed it), Elizabeth Marie was born at 1:54am on June 26th. She weighed in at 8 lb 14 oz, and measured 22 in long! What a big girl! She had inhaled a good bit of the amniotic fluid, so the ped team worked on her to get her to cray and cough it all up. Then she was brought over to me...oh my goodness, she is so precious! I remembered how amazing it was when I help AJ for the first time and this time was just as special. What little miracles babies are!! Andy also got to hold her and talk to her. I love watching those moments. After I was cleaned up and good to go, Elizabeth and I had some skin-to-skin time, and she started nursing right away. Dr. Gale, the nurses, Andy and I were all impressed with her quick learning!

All 3 of us got a little rest and then later in the morning were transferred to a postpartum room. Our first visitors were AJ and my mom. Of course my mom loved holding the baby and was so happy she was a girl. AJ was funny. He was wearing his "I'm a big brother" shirt and was very proud to announce that to me. He also told me, "Good job, Mama!" a few times, so I asked him what I did a good job on...he replied, "On the baby!". So cute! He really didn't care to spend much time checking her out unless we were coaxing him, but was very interested in climbing all over the room and touching everything! (Just what I thought would happen!) A little while after they left, my dad stopped by. He brought flowers and a balloon which brightened the room, and got to hold Elizabeth while she was awake for a few minutes. Our last visitor was my sister, who came this evening, bringing us a care package. She got to hold Elizabeth too, and also had the special privilege of changing the second poopy diaper. :)

So, now, as I sit in our hospital room nearing the end of our first day as a family of 4, I am counting my blessings. So much love, 2 healthy kids, a supportive family, and a wonderful marriage. For sure there will be many challenges and hard days ahead, but for now, I can bask in the peace and quiet of my sleeping husband and new baby for at least a few more minutes!

Our Little Gardener (plus Cheerios)

2009-06-16T20:55:00.004-05:00

If any of you have been following my green blog, you know that we are in the process of growing a whole bunch of veggies out on our balcony. I wanted to get AJ involved as well, and so in addition to giving him his own little watering can and letting him help drown, I mean water, our plants, we decided to do some seed-study projects.

I bought a bunch of vegetable seeds, so I opened a few of the packages and let AJ pick some out. We talked about what types of seeds they are, and how vegetables that he likes can grow from them. He chose a beet seed, 2 green beans, and 2 peas. We folded up a long piece of toilet paper (we no longer buy paper towels, I know, how strange of us!) and he elped me tuck it into a zip top baggie (ok, I still buy these). Then we added his seeds and I let him squirt some water into the bag. We zipped it up and taped it to the window, and then checked it every couple of days...

Here are the seeds on day 1. We also threw in some marigold seeds, but those went by the wayside...we do have some rogue marigolds growing outside in the windowboxes amongst my lettuces, so at least we did end up with a FEW flowers out there this year! Ha!

AJ liked to poke at the seeds, so they all ended up working their way to the bottom of the bag. His friend, Raccoon, also liked checking out our experiment...that's Raccoon there in AJ hand.

Here are our seeds just over a week later. AJ thought it was cool that they were sprouting "wiggly" roots. At this point, I wasn't sure if the peas were going to sprout...

but eventually they did!

Two of AJ's earlier potted plant experiences were flooded one time too many, so when one of the green bean sprouts started pushing on the zipper of our baggie, we headed outside to plant the beans and peas in those 2 pots (right and center).

Here is AJ trying to use my mommy-sized trowel. I redirected him very quickly after taking this picture! He really does like to help and be involved though. It's pretty cool!

Now, we go outside (almost) every day to water and inspect how all of his and our plants are doing. AJ's little sprouts are growing bigger every day, and the peas have sent out little tendrils and started climbing up our balcony's chicken wire. I hope they will eventually make some pods for him to eat for dinner!

In a previous post, AJ planted some other seeds into a pot at a friend's place, and here is the update on that project. The seeds have come up and are doing great!

These, too, have attached themselves to our fencing and should make some flowers in a bit (if the sun would ever shine more than 2 days in a week!). I think he's going to be excited when that happens, since he even wants to save the dandelions that he picks at the parks and put them into a vase when we get home. :)

On a completely unrelated note, during this rainy past couple of weeks, we have had to come up with some more indoor activities. AJ's grandpa John gave him a cute book a while ago that has little spots to place Cheerios while you read the story. We hadn't played with that in a while, so we had a nice, long snack-time that day reading and eating the cereal. I just thought it was cute how careful he was trying to be when placing the Oh's in their little spots...

The Big Boy Bed!!

2009-06-12T04:50:00.004-05:00

AJ has now been sleeping up in his new room for just over a week, and so far it's going pretty well. Before he made the move upstairs, he was excited about the new space Daddy was building for him, and wanted to go up to investigate all the time. Andy actually had to buy him a toy tool set to keep AJ from stealing his real tools, since he was VERY interested in being like Andy and using them all...the pointier the better! The plastic flat-head screwdriver makes me feel much less worried about my walls, furniture, and child!

So the same weekend that Andy's dad was here for his b-day, Andy and I headed out to Ikea and bought AJ a new bed. It's a toddler bed, but mainly because the new sleeping loft is so small, it was just a better fit, and we figure will be big enough for at least a couple of years (and then we can move our future toddler up there if need be). AJ was so excited! But we had to put off the big move until the room was safe and mostly complete...and until the calendar was clear for a couple of nights of "normal"...meaning both of us home to be the united front in case there were any problems.

But, things went relatively well the first night. AJ did cry for a little while, but settled himself down after about 15 min, and then just talked to his animals like he used to in his crib. He ended up falling asleep later then usual and waking earlier than usual, but at least he slept through the night and stayed in the crib! Here he is on his first night in the new space/bed.

Since this first night, I've noticed that he seems to stay with his head at the top of the bed, but this shot was pretty cute. It's also a little harder some days to get him to stay in his bed on the first try for a nap, but nighttime seems easier. All in all, he has started to sleep a little later again in the mornings, waking around 6 or 6:30, and the naps are evening out. I'm so glad we got him to make the transition so smoothly at least a few weeks before the baby is to arrive. It's an exciting change for him as well as for us as a family. We're so proud of our little guy!