Loving Life

This last week has been filled with fun for all of us.  Jack had a pajama party at school. Steve got to see wild turkeys in Minnesota (who knew?). Reid and I got have brunch at Burnt Toast. I should really start looking for fun in places other than food :).

Last Sunday, Grandma Sue and Pepere came out for a visit. We are in the process of setting up a swing set we bought from our neighbors, so our back yard has a pile of swing set pieces, including a slide. After the rains, the slide had become a pool. Yep, Grandma Sue and Jack had fun playing in the "slide pool". Luckily it was warm enough outside. Jack would put on his swim suit to play outside in the middle of a snow storm if we let him!



Grandma Sue and Pepere's visit also gave Steve and me a chance to hit the outlet mall just the two of us. In about an hour, we were able to buy Steve some new clothes and make a stop at Trader Joe's for a few things for dinner. We both marveled at the experience of shopping without anyone crying or asking for his own cart. We also found it much faster to shop without the kids :).

On Wednesday, Jack had a pajama party at school. He loved being in his jammies so much, he stayed in them the entire day! And he's asked for a pajama party every night since. (We did relent on Friday night, but more on that in a minute). This picture is from about 4 in the afternoon.



I feel so lucky to be able to stay home right now with my family. And I definitely feel the benefit when Steve has to travel. It's a little rough not having any adult interactions when he is gone, but it's so nice to not have to worry about anything but the boys and the house during that time. This week's trip was the first in several weeks, so even though it was only one night, we definitely all missed him. Jack decided he wanted to surprise Daddy with cookies when he got home. So on Wednesday afternoon, we baked a batch of cookies for Daddy. We had lots of fun making Funfetti cookies from the cake mix. My mom has been making cookies this way for years, and I tried this a month or so ago without as much success. However, Jack and I figured out the trick this time. You have to make little balls of dough and then squish them down with your hands. Not only does this make for a better cookie, it also makes for way more fun!



Daddy definitely enjoyed his cookie surprise (and Jack and I loved taste-testing!). And since Grandma always makes us cookies, we decided to surprise her with some the next day. We drove out to Wheeling to make a surprise visit to the Villa where we knew Grandma Sue and her friends had been working very hard lately. I think the surprise was a hit.



We didn't stay long though, since they had work to do. We left and headed over to Nibbles Play Cafe for some fun and lunch. Even Reid got to play there since they have a great little baby area. I find I love watching Jack play and interact with other kids. He made a little friend at Nibbles, and they played in the puppet show theater and the kitchen for quite a while.

I recently joined a Mom's group through Meetup.com. We've been to a couple of playdates, and we're all making new friends, which is definitely fun. We also found an amazing park that's pretty close to our house, closer than the other park we really liked. On Friday, while Jack was at school and Steve was working, Reid and I went to brunch with the Mom's group. It was a pretty big turnout with about 7 or so moms and several kids there. And this time, I actually got to talk to people! I love hearing people's stories. I really miss my friends from Wheeling: Sandra, Cindy, Erin, Jen, Meredith, Christine, Wendy, and so many more. So this brunch gave me a little feeling of being with them even though they weren't there. I think I'll invite the WHS ladies out this summer for something similar!

So I alluded to the Friday night pajama party earlier. Here's the details. Jack had been asking for a pajama party all afternoon (as well as the days before!), and he also asked for a fire in the fireplace. Since it was a little chilly, we decided that would be kind of nice. So, Steve stoked a fire and ordered a pizza. Jack put on his jammies, and we all hung out in the great room (except for Breyer, she had to play outside while we ate pizza on the floor). We played a rousing game of Superhero Chutes and Ladders, which Jack won fair and square. Reid played on his playmat and worked very hard to roll over. (He's so close!). We even watched a movie afterwards (an episode of the Avengers cartoon from Netflix). All in all, it was a successful pajama party. Of course, now Jack wants to do that again, and I'm sure we will!



This weekend was packed with fun too. My cousin Kelly came over for a visit on Saturday morning. I'm not sure who enjoys that more, me or Jack. He loves to show off for her. This time that meant jumping on the trampoline and playing hide and seek. I love to talk to her about life. I miss my 20s sometimes, and I love hearing about all of the cool stuff she gets to do. I think Reid is also becoming a huge fan of Aunt Kelly. He couldn't stop smiling at her and eventually fell asleep in her arms. I was too busy visiting with her this time to take pictures, but I'll remember to next time!

On Sunday, (wait, that's today!) we went to brunch with Papa (Steve's dad). We love brunch, and brunch with good company is always a good thing!



We finished up our weekend with a birthday party. Our good friend Olivia turned 4 yesterday and had her party at Pump It Up today. Jack got to play with all of his friends from Little Wildcats, so needless to say, he was pretty darn excited. Steve and I got to visit with our WHS friends, and needless to say, I was pretty darn excited.



The birthday girl




And to close out this post, how about a few pictures that didn't necessarily fit in with the narrative of the week, but are cute nonetheless. Enjoy!

It's all happening too fast!

So Reid is 5 months old already. Where has the time gone? I thought I'd start this post with a little time-lapse photography. Here's Reid:

At birth


2 months old


3 months old


4 months old


5 months old


Pretty crazy, huh?

We have started to give him rice cereal, although not regularly enough to say that he is eating it. He likes to hold the spoon and chew on the spoon. We'll get there! He is also very close to rolling over from back to front. Not totally sure how I feel about that. I'm excited to watch him develop, but I'm not ready for mobile baby. He is very good at grabbing his toys and moving them from one hand to the other. I would say his favorite toys at this point are his teething keys and balls. Not too hard to keep this guy happy!

On the Jack front, he is also doing quite well. He's at the age where his thoughts and ideas are just amazing to us. Lately, he has been talking a lot about when he grows up and can do things on his own. He talks about when he will get his driver's license and be able to go places just him and Nicky. He wants to drive with Nicky to get a new sunshade for his seat in the car. He also talks about getting his own house someday. Don't worry, he doesn't want to move far. He tells us his house will be in the backyard. He has big plans though. He sees things in books that he wants for his house. So far that includes a pool, a living room, and most importantly, a fire pole to go from one level to another. I think his house will be a pretty fun place.

The boys and I are slowly figuring out our schedule. I've been Jazzercising a lot more lately. And I get to take the boys with me to a Tuesday morning class. They get to play with other kids, I get to work out. It's a pretty good deal. We also have maintained Library Day. We go every Tuesday to return our books and pick out new ones. I love to watch Jack go through the new books and ask to bring home a bunch. We usually leave the library with about 7 or 8 books. We love to read together!

Jack has started a soccer class through the park district. He seems to like it pretty well once we are there. He's definitely the youngest kid in the class, and so he has the hardest time staying focused. But the class is an hour and 15 minutes, so I don't blame him. He does listen to his teacher when she talks to him directly, so that's a good thing. He's been very excited to show Daddy what he learns. I love watching Jack and Steve in the backyard with the soccer balls. I think this is what I dreamed about when I found out I was pregnant the first time.

Our home classroom is coming along great too. We are all learning in this process. I read tons of books about Montessori method and how to make materials. Jack is learning how to follow rules and respect the office. Reid is learning how to roll over and track objects. So far our favorite activities are reading books and using the magnet board. We have a game for the magnet board where Jack has to find the letter and word for a picture. So if the picture is of an ant, he finds the letter a and the word ant to go with it. He's doing pretty well. The letter C throws him for a loop. He thinks it makes the S sound. It's fun to watch him figure things out.

We took Reid on his first family vacation over Spring Break. We packed up the family, Breyer included, and drove down to Starved Rock for a few days. Jack and Steve got some good hiking in on the first day, but it was a little too cold for Reid, so he and I stayed in the lodge. Reid napped, I drank hot chocolate and ate fudge. Definitely a good day. We also got some swimming in, and when the weather warmed up, we all got to go to the top of Starved Rock. We even made a stop at an ice cream place. Overall, a good first trip for Reid and a nice get away for all of us. We are planning a more substantial vacation for the summer. I can't wait!

Well, I hope I have kept you entertained in this long post. Now that I have finished judging journalism contests, I am hoping to write more here. I have so much to say, and since I don't have high school students who have to listen to me anymore, I have to let it out somewhere!

Enjoy some pictures from the last month!

Brothers


Starved Rock








Soccer class


Soccer with Dad


Bathtime fun


Easter eggs


St. Patrick's Day Parade

Milestones and Happiness

As I posted that last post about Dr. Seuss week, I realized that I haven't posted the boys' milestone pictures for age 4 and 3 months. I also realized that it is March 5 and I need to move forward with my happiness project. First up, pictures!

Jack is such a boy now. I feel like all of his baby characteristics are gone. Today when I dropped him off at preschool, he told me he wanted to walk in by himself like the big kids, and as I watched him walk in by himself, I couldn't help but think that he is a big kid! 

Reid is getting so big so fast that I can hardly stand it. He is definitely no longer a newborn and is full on Gerber baby. These photos were taken about three weeks ago, and I feel like Reid's changed a lot since then!

Happiness Project

Okay, so February was focusing on time. Here's the results. 

I definitely use my calendar pretty well. It helps me keep meals and activities organized. 

I do not use a to-do list very well. Even with the Reminders app synching between my phone, iPad, and computer, I just don't reference it, so I don't really use it. I depend too much on my memory (which means I'm not having a ton of success accomplishing to-dos). This still stresses me out. For instance, I have two stacks of thank you cards to get finished: one for Jack's birthday (from January!) and one for Reid's christening. I also have a stack of journalism contest entries to finish judging by next week. I know I have to do these things, but I end up doing laundry or napping instead. The to-do list is just not motivating enough. So you can see I also have not been great at "tackling the nagging task" either. I think I need to keep this one at the forefront as I move into my March goals. 

I am definitely finding it much easier to be reasonable about what I can actually accomplish now that I am a stay-at-home-mom/wife. About a week ago, I realized that I was stressing myself out trying to rush through things like I used to. I felt like I couldn't sit down and watch a television show because I had to get another load of laundry done or I had to go over my activity plans for Jack and Reid. Luckily, I have an amazing husband who helped me get some perspective and realize what I was doing. On Oscar Sunday, I told the boys that I wanted to, and was going to, watch the Oscars. And I did. We get the boys to bed, I sat on the couch and watched the Oscars to see how well I picked the winners (not very well, by the way). It was fun.

So now on to March. I think it's time I focused on Steve, so I am going to do a Remember Love focus for March. My goals are to go on a date night at least once a month (which we have been doing so far since January) and to show three proofs of love each day. Proofs of love are things like saying "I love you" and hugging. I could also do silly things to show that I'm thinking of him or to be affectionate. 

Since I am on the happiness project topic, I should probably follow my own resolutions. It's way past my bed time, and I know that sleep is important. My husband just got home, and I'd like to talk to him. And I'm going to try to go to Jazzercise in the morning.

Ahh, happiness!

Dr. Seuss Week

Last week was a little long. I had planned lots of fun Dr. Seuss-themed activities. We did do a few of them, but Jack was not as interested as I thought he would be. It also didn't help that I got sick on Wednesday and Thursday. Thank goodness Steve wasn't traveling this week and he was feeling better!

We tried balancing like the Cat in the Hat. We rhymed words all week long. We ate Swedish fish and tried to make a fish bowl with lots of different colored fish. I found a couple of Dr. Seuss activity kits at Michael's. One was a flannel story board; Jack couldn't have cared less about that. The other was a card/puzzle thing that matched pictures of objects with the words that describe the object. Jack like this one for a little bit. Unfortunately, because I wasn't feeling well, we ended up watching a lot of Dr. Seuss TV, like Horton Hears a Who and a stage production of Cat in the Hat that I found on Netflix. We also read some books, but not nearly as many as I would have liked. Jack couldn't sit through all of the longer Seuss books. I think part of his disinterestedness (yes, that's a word!) was because his preschool was also doing Dr. Seuss activities on Monday and Wednesday.





My favorite activity, which went over very well with Jack, was on Friday. We were going to read "Oh, the places you'll go," and we tried, but it was a bit long for Jack's attention span and it was on the iPad, which I find distracts him from the story too much. I ordered a couple of large, laminated maps from Amazon (one world map, and one US). The World map arrived in time for our Places project. I picked up some circle stickers at Target, and we used a hole puncher to make tiny circles to put on the map on the places we have been. Jack picked green for his circles, I took the pink, and Steve used the yellow. We then talked about the places on the map where we had been. Jack thought this was pretty cool. Then, we talked about the places we want to go after looking at how few places around the world Jack and I have been compared to Daddy! Jack wants to go to Antarctica; that's where the penguins live. Maybe some day!



The highlight of the week for me was taking both boys to Target and Trader Joe's by myself on Friday morning. Jack was a big help at both places. He helped pick things out (and luckily only the things we needed from our list!). He filled his basket with fruit, vegetables, and yogurt at Trader Joe's. I was so proud.

Reid is growing, growing, growing. He's still not rolling over, but I'm good with that! He is grabbing for toys on purpose now. His favorite seems to be the Squishie toy. It's actually a wooden toy with wood balls that slide on wooden sticks held together by rubber bands (doesn't it sound dangerous?). It makes nice noises and has easy places for him to hold it and turn it. We love to watch him smile and laugh while he plays. Actually, I think his favorite thing to do right now is to look at people's faces. He loves when we make eye contact with him and smile. Jack even gets in on that fun.



So this week is geography week. Since we started with the map on Friday, I figured it would be fun to work with the maps some more this week. Today, we worked on compass directions (and following directions). I put out four pieces of paper, labeled N, S, W, E, and placed them on the floor facing north, south, west and east. I had Jack call out a direction, then Reid and I hopped to face that direction. Jack thought that was pretty fun, and he wanted a turn too. So I called out directions, and he spun around, then looked at me to see if he was right. We are definitely working on letter recognition, and N, W, and E are still hard for him. But he got the concept, and had some fun turning and jumping. I was also going to play a blindfold, follow directions game where I would wear a blindfold and he would have to tell me which way to turn to get to the living room, or kitchen or wherever, and then do the same to him. But he and Reid both napped until almost 5, so we skipped that and played dressup instead.





Tomorrow, we're going to learn about the states with Auntie Bubble's quilt and an iPad app. We might also go out into our neighborhood and observe what our "geography" is like. Later in the week, we're going to make our own treasure maps and plan out a road trip. We're also going to do a craft I found on Pinterest using paper circles to understand the hierarchy of where we live from house to planet. I'm hoping he likes that!

I have so much more I could write about, but I feel like I might be boring people who don't want to read about how I spend every second of the day. So I'll save more for later!

A new kind of teaching

We are just starting our third week at home. I should probably stop counting the weeks now. This is the new normal. It's definitely interesting to see how we are all adjusting to the new lifestyle. I'm slowly relaxing and realizing that I don't have to hurry up and do stuff. Jack is starting to realize that he has a LOT more time with mom and dad, so he's not acting out as much for attention. Reid is figuring out a nap schedule, and a nice one at that. And Steve, well, he's trying to get over a rotten cold that has not been helped by traveling for work.

Last week I planned out a week of activities around the theme of Ocean Animals. With the help of Pinterest, it was lots of fun to plan and do. I'm really following the model of Little Wildcats Day Care. They do such an amazing job with kids, and we miss our friends and activities there. Monday was Octopus Day; Tuesday, Jellyfish; Wednesday, Sponges; Thursday, Fieldtrip to the Shedd Aquarium; and Friday, Sharks. I'm pretty sure both Jack and Reid enjoyed the week.

In case you are interested, here's a rundown of what we did each day, with some pictures thrown in.

Monday - Octopus
Steve was off for President's Day, so we took a family trip to the library in the afternoon.  But we started the day with Octopus math and making a paper plate Octopus. We picked up an octopus book at the library that we read later in the day. The library was pretty cool. We found all kinds of fun books about the animals we were going to "study" as well as an Iron Man book. There was also a Fun with Frogs program going on, so we stopped in there to see some Tree Frogs, Toads, and Frogs.



Tuesday - Jellyfish
We read our Jellyfish book and learned about feeding arms and zapping tentacles. I also found a fun little song about 5 little plankton and a jellyfish. I think Jack had already learned it at Little Wildcats. He sang it with me to Reid, much to Reid's delight. For a craft, we made cool paper bowl and ribbon jellyfish that I found on Pinterest. It was a little hard for Jack to put together, but he liked the painting part.



Wednesday - Sponges
Jack had preschool in the morning, so we saved our sponge activities for after our rest time. We read a book about sponges and made sponge balls. Jack had fun creating patterns with the sponge sticks. Later, he had fun with the sponge balls in the bath.





Thursday - Fieldtrip to the Shedd
We invited Pepere to come along with us as we headed for the city. The Shedd has a special exhibit on Jellyfish right now. It was pretty cool to see lots of jellies, although the exhibit seemed pretty small overall. We walked through the whole thing in about 10 minutes. We also saw the sharks and stingrays, beluga whales, penguins, and even the arm of a hiding octopus. I think the most exciting thing for Jack was seeing the scuba divers cleaning the tanks in the Wild Reef exhibit. He loves scuba divers. It was a pretty fun trip. Jack loved the jellies and the penguin play area. Reid loved the neat light coming from the exhibit tanks. Pepere and I loved the quiet ride home.



Friday - Sharks
I think this was my favorite day. I had set up play stations on our table all week, and Jack would kind of check them out, but he wasn't really that intrigued until Friday. I found a shark chomping letter game on Pinterest. I made the shark while Jack was eating breakfast. He loved the game. He picked up and named every letter and letter sound before feeding the letter to the shark. If he didn't know the name of the letter, he would trace it with his finger and then I would tell him what it was. He stopped me from telling him until he had traced the letter with his finger. He told me this method would help him remember. I love this kid!

 

We also set up a shark bean bag toss. A simple poster board and the old Nemo lovey made for lots of fun. We played the bean bag toss all weekend!





We also made an ocean jello snack: blue jello with fruit snacks suspended in it. The fruit snacks got a little too hard and didn't maintain their flavor. But that didn't stop Jack from enjoying fishing them out. I think next time I'd use a real fruit instead.

To top off this day, it was Jack's first snow day from school. I don't think it meant much to him though since he doesn't go to school every day any more.



Overall, a pretty fun week. I also had some other fun letter tracing and recognition activities on the iPad and on the table. But I think I've bored you enough already with the details! I'm really enjoying turning my teacher brain focus to Jack and Reid. It's reminding me that I am a teacher at heart, no matter who or what I am teaching.

Happiness Project Update

Part of my New Year's Resolution this year was to restart my happiness project. For the month of January, I focused on Energy. I had three goals:

1. Go to bed by 9:30 p.m.
2. Exercise for at least 30 minutes at least 3 times a week.
3. Act the way I want to feel.

I feel that it is good practice to reflect, and now that January is over, it seems to be a good time to reflect on the Energy focus.

Overall, I definitely feel more energetic. The days after I go to bed by 9:30 are much better than those when I miss my bedtime. I also learned that wake up time is just as important. I had a few days when I would go back to bed after feeding Reid and we would both sleep until 10 or 11. I found the extra sleep on those days actually made me feel more tired, and then I had missed out on time to get things done. My ideal wake up time is between 7:30 and 8. But Jack's ideal time is between 6 and 7. So, as long as I get to bed by 9:30, the 6 a.m. wake up is tolerable.

The exercise goal was much tougher to meet. I am back at Jazzercise class when I can get away from the house. So far, I've made it about once a week. I only had one week when I got all three workouts in. I did that by going to Jazzercise one night and then walking on the treadmill on two other nights. Not my ideal workout schedule, but I did it. I think in order to make this work, I have to get up on weekend mornings and hit the early Jazzercise class. I always feel good after them; I just hate to miss out on time with the boys and Steve.

Acting the way I want to feel worked out pretty well too, when I remembered to do it. This is actually what helped me conquer the earlier wake up time. This is a hard one when you've had a bad day or others around you aren't feeling so good. I think I still need to work on this a little too.

So energy-wise, I think I am on the plus side of things. I can't just give up on these goals, but I think I have the ideas planted well enough in my brain that I can move on to a new focus.

And that's a good thing since it is a new month, and a new month brings a new focus. I've decided to work on Time this month. With the major change of careers for me, this seems like a good time to look at how I use and manage my time. Here are my goals for Time:

1. Be reasonable about what I can actually do
2. Create a to-do list and use it every day
3. Update Google Calendar to schedule to-dos and events each day
4. Tackle the nagging task

Wish me luck!

A few things are going to change around here

Sometimes when things change, they really change, and they change quickly.

A year ago, we thought we would be the happy parents of one child, I would be the newspaper adviser at WHS forever, and eventually we would sell our house and move closer to the city.

Now, we have two wonderful boys, we refinanced our home and plan to stay for a while, and I am a stay-at-home-mom for at least a year and a half. 

Change is good.

After Reid was born, Steve and I began to talk seriously about me taking a leave of absence from WHS. We crunched the numbers, and with a little smart budgeting, we realized we could make it happen. So I put in for a full-time leave of absence for next school year. The admin at WHS came back and said, sure, and if you would like, we can even let you take the rest of this year. A little more figuring, and now I am focusing on my family and figuring out my new lifestyle.

It's amazing how happy and free I feel with this change. I love thinking about cool activities to do with Jack and Reid. Today, I found a recipe to make butter using whipping cream and a baby food jar. Jack's going to love it! I love having lunch with Steve when he works from home. I love that every night has family time. Trust me, even on the bad days (which I know there will be), I am going to cherish this.

Because of this major change, Jack has a change ahead too. He will be leaving Little Wildcat Day Care next week and starting at a local preschool the following week. We are all pretty excited about this. He will only be in school for 2 1/2 hours each morning, which will leave us all afternoon to play and have adventures. His new school is about 5 minutes from our house, which will be a marvelous change from the 45 minutes one-way we are traveling to get to WHS.

Even with good changes, there is a little sadness. Both Jack and I are going to miss seeing our friends at Wheeling every day. We love our friends there, and we have a lot of fun with them. Luckily, this does not mean that we will never see them again. We will have to be much better about scheduling play-dates.

Reid is not one to be left out. Of course, his changes are much more developmental. At 2 1/2 months, he is smiling and interacting a lot now. He loves his play mat with a little cow and a little pig that hang down for him to punch and kick. He loves diaper changes. He smiles and coos the entire time. He could screaming and overtired, you put him on the changing pad and he starts to smile. 

Overall, change is good.

Playing on the play mat

A little blurry, but a shot from some family time bowling

2 months old

Jack's Birthday!

We can't believe that Jack is already 4 years old. When people say the time flies by, they are so right!

We celebrated his actual birthday (Jan. 11) by having waffles with whipped cream for breakfast, followed by a day of fun. He went to school and celebrated with his friends. They read his book "Press Here" and ate cake pops. Then we went out to dinner at "Big Door Pizza" as a family and had cupcakes made by Grandma for dessert. In true Jack fashion, he only ate the fruit on top of the cupcake. But that's okay with me, I finished his!

As he has gotten older, Jack loves using my camera to take pictures. In the interest of keeping my camera in good working order, we got Jack his own camera for his birthday. He loves it. He took it to school that Friday for show and tell, and he took a bunch of pictures.

We then had a birthday party for Jack on Jan. 21. It was his first "friends" birthday party. We invited 22 friends to play at Kids and Company (or Kids' Town USA) and they had a blast. They had scooter races, obstacle courses, parachute play, play houses, freeze dance contests, and all kinds of fun stuff. Of course, there was also cake and ice cream. For only 90 minutes, Jack was pretty worn out afterwards. Luckily, Auntie Bubbles and Uncle Mike came over and helped with the presents and dinner. It was a pretty fun-filled day.

Steve and I are constantly amazed at what our oldest boy says and does. A few weeks ago, he went through a stage of telling me about all of the "classes" he had gone to and what he had learned. He learned about clouds (rain and all) at cloud class. When we saw the power lines along the highway, he told me he learned about them at electricity class. It was pretty funny. Anything we talked about, he had gone to a class about that. He also loves to ask questions. While this can get tiresome at times, this is also the trait we wished for our child. We want him to question things and learn. And boy does he! He wants to know how the toll booths work and whether they take our picture every time we drive through them. He wants to know how we know he got out of bed at night. He wants to know what words are in the books we read. It's fantastic!

Well, I've written a lot here; I think it's time for some pictures.

On his birthday at home with his birthday crown from school


Just being his cute self


Celebrating with his friends at school


I'll post more pictures of his party later.