I love Ludington, MI!

Our friends Kurt and Amanda found a great vacation spot. They planned the Memorial Day Weekend trip and invited us and another family along. It was awesome. Ludington, Michigan, is a place we will definitely return to.

Ludington is a small town on the shores of Lake Michigan. It has a great little downtown area with lots of fun little shops and restaurants (although, avoid Luciano's). The beaches are amazing. The soft sand reminded me of Lauderdale, but the water was much colder in Michigan. The house we rented was within a short walk of a private beach for the neighborhood. There was plenty of room for the kids to run and build sandcastles without being run over by other people. We even had fires on the beach on Saturday and Sunday nights. A short drive away (no more than 5-10 minutes) is Hamlin Lake. We rented a boat there and found a great place to swim and play in the dunes. There was so much to do there, we didn't get it all done. We will have to go back.

I took over 100 photos. And that was just on the Nikon. I'll let the pictures tell the story. Although I might come back and fill in some fun anecdotes tomorrow.

Lots of ideas, but not a real post

So I have all of these ideas for great blog posts to write, but I just can't seem to make it happen tonight. So instead, I thought I'd just start writing and see what happens.

First, I thought I'd write about Reid. Poor guy seems to be having serious nose issues. Reid fell asleep on the way home from picking up Jack at school today. As we pulled into the driveway, Jack announced very excitedly that Reid had learned how to snore. I tried very hard not to laugh because Jack was truly proud of his little brother. Poor Reid is really suffering though. He isn't sleeping well, and he's starting to hate the nasal aspirator.

Tonight, I did a little research on sinuses in infants. It was interesting, but also very complicated. In order to write about it, I need to interview some medical experts. I think I'll call my mom and sisters tomorrow.

Then I thought I'd write about my recent reflections on my teaching career. This is an idea I have had for a while now. Every once in a while I hear from a former student or find out about some awesome thing a former student is doing. This makes me feel very proud of said student, like when I'm proud of Jack for something amazing he has figured out. My pride in their accomplishments doesn't come from what I might have taught them or didn't teach them, but rather I am proud that people who were/are a part of my life are having success and doing such neat things.

So I have this idea to write an open letter to my students professing my appreciation for their updates and their accomplishments. It makes me feel like I did something worthwhile. I like to think of myself as a little signpost that might have been useful on their journey through life. You know, like the "Turn Left 20 feet ahead" announcement on a GPS. I am certainly not responsible for what they accomplish (or their destinations), but I think I like to share my former students' joy since they were such an important part of my life. I hope they keep sending me updates!

Part of this reflection makes me think I should also write to or call the amazing teachers I had throughout school. I think I keep the Tantillos in the loop pretty well, and I better considering how important they are to me and who I have become. But I also think about Jean VanderArk, Pete Fishbach, Pete Ogilvie, and so many others who were my amazing signposts.

Another idea I had was about Trader Joe's from yesterday's post. I really enjoy so much of their food, and I thought it would be fun to write about our favorites, like the mini ice cream cones (Hold the Cone) or the awesome Mango lemonade we just discovered. I also love the way they treat us. Jack always gets cool stickers. The current stickers are scratch and sniff. Let me tell you, they are awesome! Especially the chocolate one. One year they gave me free chocolates on my birthday. It's just fun to shop there.

I also had an idea to write about finances. Now that we are living on one income, I thought it might be fun to write about how we budget ourselves. It's like a game to me to try to make and keep a tight budget. We use the app and website The Mint.com, so I can always see exactly where we are with our budgets in beautiful visuals. This week, I am attempting an at-home pedicure since I need one badly but it's just not in the hair/beauty budget this month. I was going to do it tonight, but I'm running out of time. Maybe that can be a post later in the week!

Tomorrow is library day for us, so that was another idea I had. I thought it might be fun to write about the really cool books we find at the library. Jack is amazing at picking out awesome books. I'm not sure if it's just luck, his skill, or if our librarians are really talented at putting the right books in front of us to pick. I'm going with the librarians.

This week, the hits were "Question Boy meets Little Miss Know-it-all" by Peter Catalanotto and "Over at the Castle" by Boni Ashburn and Kelly Murphy. Jack loved the superhero aspect of Question Boy. I loved how well the author captured the toddler/preschool personalities. "Over at the Castle" was definitely my favorite. It's a counting book that's beautifully written to the song "Over in the Meadow." I don't know that song, but the rhythm comes through easily. It was so fun to read. I also thought I could have easily turned that book into a week's worth of fun activities to do at home. I did not since Jack is still in school and we had plenty of fun activities to do anyway.

So you can see why I had trouble deciding on a topic, right? Maybe you can tell which one you think I should develop. In the meantime, I'm going to sleep.

There's only so much time

I can't believe how much we packed into this weekend. I was looking back at the pictures that I took, and, well, you can probably see by the number of photos in this post, we did a lot!

Saturday started with lots of exercise. I made it to the morning Jazzercise class, which was a great way to start my day. Then, when I got home and cleaned up, we packed up and headed out to a park by the river and the bike path so Steve could run while Jack, Reid and I played at the park. All that before lunch!







After lunch, Steve took off for the Cub's game with Kurt, and Jack played in the sprinkler while Reid napped.

Saturday afternoon we had guests. It still cracks me up how much Jack loves guests. He was overjoyed as usual when my former students, Mikey and Jessie, showed up to play. He wanted to show them everything in the basement, which is Jack's usual MO when we have guests over. We did manage to make it outside to play too.

Then Auntie Bubbles showed up too. Luckily, Jack's head didn't explode! He was pretty wild though.  Jack finally tried the monkey bars on the play set. He was on Mikey's shoulders and guided by Auntie Bubbles. Reid got more swing time with Jessie.







Mikey and Jessie left after dinner. Auntie Bubbles stayed to help bathe and bed the boys. Well, she helped with that so we could get to sister-fun: sewing. Cathy is so patient with me. She brought over both of her sewing machines and lots of material. I've started my first quilt. I'm using a jelly roll and learning how to sew 1/4 inch seams. Cathy is making another awesome baby quilt for baby Nustra. We had so much fun sewing and chatting that I didn't get to bed until after 11. That's why there was no post yesterday :)



Breyer was in on girl time too


Today, we were all up bright and early to get started again. We have been so busy doing fun things that I have slacked on my housewife duties. We were in desperate need of groceries today, so after a stop at Panera for "brunch" (I tried to call it breakfast, but since we had oatmeal first thing in the morning, Jack corrected me), we made our trips to Target and Trader Joe's. I love Trader Joe's. I could probably do an entire post on shopping there. Maybe I will.

We finished our shopping just in time to have a quick lunch and head back out to the Touch a Truck event at Algonquin Commons. We met up with our new friends Kimmie, Jaydin, Jace, and Jeff. Jack and Jaydin loved the fire trucks, the little bobcat, and the school bus. It was 90 degrees out though, so we only lasted about an hour.







On such a hot day, we came home, watched Star Wars for rest time, and then headed out to the backyard for family sprinkler time. It was Reid's first time through the sprinkler. I think he liked it. He definitely liked chasing Jack around the yard with me. Since all four of us were getting wet, there are no pictures of that. Maybe next time.

So there we are, exhausted and fully entertained. This week marks the official start of summer since Jack finishes school on Tuesday and then we get ready for Memorial Day. Look out pool!

Brotherly Love


Fire Truck Comparison - Just for Fun
Today


June 2010

Awesome weather, awesome day

The thermometer hit 82 degrees today. It felt like the perfect summer afternoon, too. The only thing missing was a trip to the pool. One more week, and that can happen too!

I was a little worried about how today would go, actually. Reid has not been sleeping well the last two nights. His sinuses have been very congested, and he wakes up very upset two or three times a night. Last night, Steve was up with him twice and I was up with him twice. I thought for sure today would be rough since so many of us were lacking sleep. But we rallied, and it was a fantastic day.

The moms group had a play date at the Randall Oaks Petting Zoo. We were a little late since we stopped to pick up lunch from Panera. But we had lots of fun playing with Jaydin, Carter, and Jasper. Steve was even able to come and have lunch with us before we went into the zoo.





One of the many fun things about Randall Oaks is getting to feed the animals. Jack is a little skittish about feeding the larger animals, but he was very happy to throw food at the ducks and fish. He and Jaydin had a great time running all over and laughing at the animals eating. It's so much fun to watch them play.



After our zoo play, we came home for a little rest time. Then we hit the backyard for a while. My mom found a Fisher Price baby swing for $10 last week, and we put that up on the playset yesterday with Pepere. Today, Reid got to try it out.



Yeah, he liked it. He was very content to swing for a good half an hour. He probably would have stayed longer, but it was dinner time.

Jack had fun in the backyard too. We brought out the bubbles, and he had fun using the giant bubble wand. He even kicked off his shoes and ran around in the grass. That's when I realized it was really a great summer day.



Bare feet in the grass is just an iconic summer experience. I can't wait to have more days like this.







We finished off our awesome day with dinner outside on the patio at Moretti's.

Exchanging cookies and a new stroller

I think we have a new tradition with Grandma Sue. Maybe tradition is the wrong word. I'll tell the story, and you can decide what to call it.

My mom makes cookies from cake mix, and they are fantastic. She got the idea and recipe from my Memere, my dad's mom. I'll include the basic recipe below. It's pretty awesome because the possibilities for different kinds of cookies are endless. You pick out a cake mix that sounds yummy, and then you get creative. The best part is that these cookies are ridiculously easy to make.

So my mom made a batch a while ago and brought them over in a little silver tin box. I don't even remember what kind she made the first time. In fact, I can't even remember "the first time" anymore. We ate and enjoyed them. Then we decided to make a batch for her to refill her tin when we returned it. I do remember what we made. We attempted chocolate chip cookies from a yellow cake mix. They turned out okay, but not like grandma's.

Our first success was with Funfetti cake mix. We didn't add anything to the mix. We boxed up what we had left after taste-testing and delivered them to Grandma at work. Then she returned the tin with another batch.

This week, we made chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips. Yum! It has officially turned into an event. When we receive the tin, we try to come up with a new yummy kind of cookie to make for Grandma Sue and Pepere.

So here's why we like making these cookies. First, the recipe:

1 box of cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup of oil
whatever else you what to mix in

Bake at 375 degrees for 6-8 minutes

The process of mixing the dough is a little hard, so after Jack cracks the eggs and pours in the oil, I do the stirring. I also make the dough into balls and place them on the cookie sheet. Jack gets to do the really fun part: smashing the balls into a circle with the palm of his hand. He loves it. Well, that and taste-testing.

Jack and I have a great time doing this together, and it keeps us busy for a good 45 minutes from start to finish (finish being taste-testing. Have I mentioned the taste-testing part?)

Here's a pic of the chocolate peanut butter chip cookies from this week.



So I also mentioned a stroller in the title of today's blog. Jack is technically big enough to walk everywhere, but that doesn't mean he likes it. And when we go places with the Chicco stroller, he would prefer to stand on the front or sit on the front and ride instead of walk. This isn't very safe, and it also makes pushing the stroller pretty tough for me. So I've been researching double strollers.

I found a sit and stand type stroller that I really liked a few weeks ago and started seriously pursuing it. I took the boys to try it out at the store. I kept an eye on Craigslist and tried to buy it there only to be told they were already sold... every time. I crunched the numbers to figure out a way to pay for it.

Today, we bought our new Joovy Caboose Ultralight stroller. With a 20 percent off coupon and a gift card I found lying around our office, I was able to fit it into our budget. Yeah! The boys both really seem to like it. And I really like how easy it is to push with both of them in their spots. Hooray! We took it for a test run around the neighborhood this afternoon. Tomorrow we will take it on its first adventure. We are going to Randall Oaks Petting Zoo with the Moms group. I'm excited!



Jack was telling me he didn't want to smile because his hand hurt


Finally, I have a few pictures from today. Pepere came over to play with us, and we took him to the cool park with the gigantic sand area. Everyone had a good time as you can see.

Reid update - He's 6 months old!

Reid turned 6 months old this past Saturday. We took him to see the doctor then too. He's weighing in at 18 lbs 12 ounces and measures 27 1/4 inches long. This puts him at the 75th percentile for weight and height. His head circumference is in the 95th percentile. He does have a big head, but I think it's because we all tell him how cute and happy he is all of the time.

Reid really is the happiest baby around. He smiles at everyone, even strangers in the grocery store.

He's rolling over from his back to his front. But this is the only time he's unhappy. When he's tired of being on his belly, he can't roll himself back over yet, so he cries.

Reid is grabbing at everything now too. He loves to play with his toys, including his keys, a taggie blanket, and the chicken and cow that hang from his playmat. He also loves his squishie toy, a bunch of wooden balls connected by rubberband-type things. It sounds dangerous, but it's not, I promise.

I think Reid's favorite activity is playing with Jack. He loves when Jack comes over to talk to him. That's when we see Reid's biggest smile. He even likes it when Jack tries to tackle him, although we try to prevent that from happening.

Reid is also making more noises lately. He coos and laughs. But he also likes to make a spitting sound and to buzz his lips.

Finally, Reid is eating baby food now. We started cereal last month, and last week we started green beans and tried some carrots. The green beans were a hit. The carrots are still undecided. Reid had some sleeping issues after we tried carrots and I'm not sure if it was the carrots or just lack of naps. We're going to try carrots again in another week or so.

Hopefully this eating will help him sleep longer at night. We've had a few nights when he only wakes up once, at about 3a.m. or so. Last night, he was up at 1 a.m. and then again at 4:40.

There you have it. There's a little synopsis of Reid halfway through his first year. And, of course, I have pictures to go with it.

Enough with the Pee!

Good news, I have four out of the five ingredients needed to effectively remove the urine stains and smells from my house. I just need to buy hydrogen peroxide and I'm set.

We are a little tired of urine in our house. It seems that Steve and I are the only ones who can get it in the right place. Jack is close.

Over the last few days, we have entered another round of "everyone pees everywhere" in our house. I can't count how many times Breyer has peed on the carpet in the last week. It's been that many. We have convinced Jack to give up pull-ups at night, so we are experiencing that learning curve. And Reid, well, he loves diaper changes, and I don't think he realizes he's peeing on the wall because he just stares at me with this inquisitive look, like "what's the problem, Mom? Make with the new diaper already!"

All of this has led to a disgusting urine smell that lightly permeates the upstairs bedroom quarters. Today I hit my limit. I could smell the odor, but I couldn't find a new source. The Resolve isn't hacking it anymore.

So I again turned to the trusty internet. What did people do without the internet? I guess people just went around not knowing the names of the caterpillars in their backyards and learned to enjoy the smell of urine.

Through my search, I found the following recipe to be the most widely cited. So tomorrow, I think we will be hitting up Target for a little hydrogen peroxide. Maybe we'll pierce somebody's ears, too just for old time's sake.

Ingredients:
White Vinegar
Water
Baking Soda
3 percent Hydrogen Peroxide
Dishwashing detergent

Basically, I'm going to mix a solution of half water, half vinegar and soak the stained areas. After soaking that out with towels, I'll sprinkle the baking soda over the area. Then I'm going to mix a half cup of the hydrogen peroxide with a teaspoon of the dish detergent and spray that over the baking soda.  Scrub. Let dry. Vacuum. And then hopefully success.

I love our dog. I love our children. I really hate pee. I hope this works.

Sleep, time, and Mother's Day

To start this post, I need you to time travel with me way back to this past Thursday.

Alright, it's a beautiful day out. Steve is in Peoria. The sun rose at about 5:30 a.m. I know this, because I was awake to see it. Reid woke up at about 5 a.m. to eat. Jack woke up at 5:30. Neither of them went back to sleep. And so began a very long day. In fact, I don't remember a lot of the details because by 4 p.m. I was so exhausted I was crying. I do remember that neither boy wanted to nap that day. Going through my pictures, I also remember that it was Field Day for Jack at his school. I thought that was going to ensure a nap. It did not. That evening, I decided I needed a blog post about sleep. But I was too tired to write it then.

We are working on training Jack to go to sleep by himself. It's a long process. I started it about 2 or 3 weeks ago. When we started, we had two scenarios for Jack's bedtime. Both scenarios started with a bath followed by two to three books. In scenario 1, the books were followed by Steve and me leaving the room and then proceeding to spend the next 30 minutes to an hour watching television and periodically going upstairs to put Jack back in bed, threatening things like turning off the hall light or closing his door. Scenario 2 had me or Steve laying in bed with Jack until he either fell asleep or we got too irritated and then reverted back to Scenario 1.

Week 1 of sleep training was me laying in bed with Jack, rubbing his back, until he fell asleep. I would calmly enforce the bedtime rules. The bedtime rules are: stay in the bed, be quiet and calm, no talking, no playing. It was a little difficult for me to do his and remain calm at first. But I reminded myself that the point of all of this was to teach Jack how to calm himself and fall asleep. If I got upset, then I would be teaching him the wrong skills.

For week 2, I stopped rubbing his back. I would lay in bed with him, but we added a new bedtime rule: no touching. After books, I would give him a big hug and a kiss, then the rules would go into effect.

Week 3, I sit on the floor next to his bed and wait for him to fall asleep.

We are about to start week 4. I'm going to sit in his room, but close to the door.

I am hoping that I will eventually be able to leave the room and he will be able to calm himself and fall asleep on his own. Maybe by week 6 or 7. That would take my time involvement for bedtime from about an hour to an hour and a half and shorten it to about 30 minutes. That would be awesome! Not to mention the life skill for Jack of being able to calm himself down and fall asleep. I don't want to have to lay with a 16-year-old kid to get him to fall asleep some day.

I'll keep you posted on the progress.

So right now, it's 9:30 and I should be sleeping myself. But it was Mother's Day and we were very busy doing fun things today. We didn't get home until after 6 p.m. That means that bedtime didn't start until almost 7:30 since we had to eat dinner and such. The boys finally fell asleep at about 8:30-9:00. I wanted to be ready for this week, so here I am still awake. I'm almost ready.

There are so many other things I wanted to write about. But my brain is turning to mush from lack of sleep. So here are some pictures from Field Day and Mother's Day. My boys were very good to me this year. They made me a painting and brought me breakfast in bed. Jack says he wants to bring me breakfast in bed lots more. I told him that would be fine. We also went to Independence Grove in Lake County with our families. Everyone had fun as you can probably tell from the photos. Enjoy, and hopefully I'll be back to my regular writing self tomorrow.

Field Day
Tag, Drop and Run


Jack's Sleep Hollow Preschool Class


Mother's Day
The Painting and Flowers


Reid and his grandmas


Climbing the rock wall


Chasing bubbles

I'm still not a gardener

Way back in 2007, Steve and I were looking for a new home. When we saw the house we eventually bought (this one in Dundee), we were both very excited. He loved the unique design and the opportunities for improvement. I loved the yard, and I thought it would be awesome to finally learn how to garden. I actually read articles describing the relaxing benefits of gardening, and that sounded incredible.

Then we moved in. I quickly discovered that I did not enjoy the "relaxing" aspects of gardening. The weeds hurt when I tried to pull them out, and then I got rashes. So I would avoid weeding until the weeds were as tall as I was. I also had no idea how to prepare soil or where to plant which plants. It was overwhelming and unenjoyable to me. And I came to terms with it. Steve laughed, but also came to terms with it. We hired a landscaping crew to keep the weeds in check and to create a landscape that didn't require much from us to keep up.

Today, I took another opportunity to find my inner gardener on a much smaller level. The moms group had arranged an event at Platt Hill Nursery for the kids to plant flowers in a pot for Mother's Day.

Platt Hill is a beautiful place. We walked through the retail section to get back to the huge greenhouse that just oozed beautiful, growing things. Jack was captivated by the scene too. Reid was happily chewing on his keys. I felt positive, enthusiastic even. I was ready to help Jack plant his flowers.

When we got to the table where the nice woman from Platt Hill was going to show us how to do this, I had my first inklings of trouble. Jack was not running over to watch. I had to encourage him a few times to pay attention. Unfortunately, I was standing behind the nice lady, so I didn't see or hear enough to get the full directions.

Jack enjoyed step one: fill pot with dirt. He got right in there. He did alright with step two: pick out flowers. Step three got a little complicated. I struggled to get the flowers out of the plastic containers. Then we both tried digging a hole in the dirt to place the flowers in, but the dirt kept sliding back down, so our holes weren't deep enough. Jack decided he would just push the flowers in hard. I almost stopped him, but I realized that I did not have a better plan.



We managed to get two pots together in about a half an hour. When we finished, I looked around at the pots our friends had made. They had obviously done this before. I'm still not sure how they got so many plants into such little pots and got them so nicely arranged.



So I'm still not a gardener, and I'm okay with it. We'll see how Jack does now that he's had his first exposure. Maybe I'll give him a little corner of the yard and see what he can do.

Jack asked me to take a picture of him and Reid today. Enjoy!