Happy May!

We've been busy, but we're always busy, so I won't bore you with the details. Here are the fun highlights:

We went to Starved Rock/Fox River Resort for Spring Break. The whole family went (Steve, Karen, Jack and Breyer). And although the weather wasn't awesome, we had a great time. Really, you can't go wrong with an indoor pool. We even managed to do a little hiking. We will go back, and next time we will not try to use the jogging stroller at Starved Rock. They really mean it when they say it's a bad idea with all of the staircases and whatnot.

Jack is now in the toddler room at daycare. Our little boy is growing up fast. He's adjusting fairly well to the more structured schedule. He paints and draws and plays all morning. Then he usually gets a pretty good nap in the afternoon. He sleeps on a cot, which just cracks me up.

Jack is learning lots of new words lately. He now says "bye-bye," "outside," "shoes," "row," and just today... "bubbles." Now he said bubbles to Auntie Bubbles, which may seem like he learned her name first. I won't be totally convinced though until he says it only to her or in reference to her. He was saying it all night tonight and there was no Auntie Bubbles around, nor were we blowing bubbles. Time will tell.

Easter was really fun. In fact, we are still having Easter egg fun around our house. Jack loves playing with the plastic Easter eggs. He picks them up, puts them in other things, gives them to whomever will take them. It's pretty cute. We celebrated Easter twice this year, once with the Watts family (on Saturday) and once with the Reilley family (on Sunday). At the Watts house, Jack took to the Easter Egg hunt right away. He loved walking around the yard and putting eggs in his basket. On Sunday, he had a great time eating donuts and hanging out with everyone.

So now that the weather is nice, we're getting outside a lot more. I think that's been good for all of us! Until next time, enjoy the photos!

Spring Break


Stirring the Pot


Egg Hunting






Playing at the park




Easter Sunday


Happy Kid


Just wants to be outside


Nap Time


Happy Dog

Finally some new photos

This will be a short post. It's way past my bedtime and I haven't planned for this week yet. However, our friends TJ and Michelle got married this weekend and I wanted to post a photo of the happy couple. It was also St. Patrick's Day weekend, and my Irish boys are pretty good-looking! Enjoy!

Long overdue update

I know it's been awhile. To say that we've been busy would be more than just an understatement.

Since my last post, we have celebrated Nicky's first birthday, Susie and my Dad's birthdays (not their firsts), gone to the theater, flooded and cleaned our basement (the non-finished part), hosted Amy and Alan, brewed beer, and pulled out 420 feet of pipe from our well and had the pump replaced. We are currently without running water until the water from the well runs clear.

It's been exciting to say the least.

Jack has been truly amazing lately. He is now walking more than crawling. It's the cutest thing to watch. He wobbles around with his arms up to keep himself balanced. He also eats big people food almost all of the time. He loves fruit and muffins. He's babbling like crazy too. I think there are some other things he is doing too, but I can't think of them right now. Oh, he makes the best scrunchy face when he's doing something really fun or naughty (or both).

I'm going to go check the clarity of our water. Until next time...

Jack is 1 year old!

Can you believe it? It has been a whole year, almost to the hour, since Jack was born. Steve and I are both in awe.

Here are the 1 year photos. It turns out taking portraits of a 1-year-old is incredibly difficult.









Jack's special day started at 6 a.m. Luckily, he went back to sleep and woke up for real around 7. Jack and I played in the living room for a little while with Breyer while Dad got a few extra winks. He made us pancakes for breakfast, and we wanted to make sure he had enough rest for the job!

After breakfast, we played in the basement. This is fairly regular. He went down for a nap finally around 10:30 and woke up just in time for the big party.

We celebrated this significant event with a small family party. The party had a Curious George theme for our little curious monkey. Steve even found a way to get a monkey cake without sacrificing Jack's college fund. We all had lots of fun, as is usually the case when we hang out with our families.

The party started at noon and ended up lasting until almost 4p.m. We had pizza for lunch along with the chocolate cake (fudge filling and whipped cream frosting). We played in the basement, opened presents, enjoyed a fire in the fireplace. Overall, it was a very fun afternoon!

Here are the pictures. Of course, there are a ton, so there are more on Flickr. My sister Susie has some good ones too, especially of the blowing out of the candle. Hopefully she'll post those or send them over to me so I can post them.


Waking up from a nap with Nana. Is there anything better?


Pizza lunch


Getting the cake ready




First bite of cake!


Yum, frosting!




The end result


Presents


Just a fun face!


Monkey mask


After the party, Connie and Kim came back with Bruno for a visit. He and Breyer had a great first meeting!


Alright, now on to the second year!

News but no photos

Jack is turning 1 on Sunday, so I am going to try to do one last update about him before the big day. He is growing and developing so quickly, it's really hard to keep up.

The new thing this week, eating. I know, he was already eating solid, real foods. But this week he had his first full meal without any baby food. He's eaten pretty well this week all told. He had Salisbury steak, Chicken Parmesan, a hamburger, french toast, a blueberry muffin, and that's just at school. Tonight for dinner, he and I had barbecued chicken, steamed broccoli, Stove Top stuffing and applesauce. It's pretty fun to just have to make one meal for us. Of course, it does mean I have to cook; no just throwing a pot of noodles together and calling it dinner.

I'd have to say his favorite foods are veggies. He also likes fruit and chicken, but there's really not a veggie this kid won't try and like. I thought he was going to dislike peas since he wouldn't touch them the other night at home, but his teachers say he ate them well at school the other day.

The walking is progressing too. He's been taking steps at school now. He's even getting risky and letting go of stuff without really knowing where to hold onto next. Luckily, he has also learned how to fall on his butt.

Well, I think that's about it. Our baby is turning one on Sunday, and by all accounts, is definitely ready to be a little boy!

Jack 11 month update

Actually, he is much closer to 1 year old now, but I thought I would update you anyway, especially since he hit a big milestone today.

First, here are the 11-month pictures.





You can see that I tried to get the blue bear in, but Jack is much too busy these days to be bothered with posing for pictures. This was the best that I could get. Hopefully the 1-year photos will turn out a little better.

Okay, so what is Jack so busy with these days? Lots! He loves climbing up and down the stairs. He would do this all day if we let him. He also loves to walk around with his push toys. He stands/balances for a second or two without holding onto anything. He's eating all kinds of fun stuff like graham crackers, pasta, eggs, fruit and even had tilapia for dinner the other night. He babbles like crazy when we get the nuk out of his mouth. The most recent sound he has learned is the "th" which kind of sounds like a hissing "s" when he does it. He now plays with Breyer, and Breyer plays back. They chase each other around the house and Jack will giggle non-stop. He loves to lean over backwards, practically upside down, when we hold him. He just learned how to put a toy inside a compartment that closes the other day. He also takes the toy out of the compartment. He loves music. With all of the new music toys he received for Christmas, he dances and plays forever. He bites. He bites me all of the time. He starts in for a hug, which is really cute, and then opens his mouth and chomps down unless I realize it and pull away fast enough. (I'm working on teaching him the right things to bite on instead of people).

So, here is the big news, the big milestone today. Jack took 2 steps on his own! That's right, he toddled! We were playing in the basement when Steve got home from work tonight. He's been walking a lot while holding our hands or his push toy, so we thought we'd give real walking a try. Steve sat across from me, and I held Jack's hands while he stood. Then I let go and Jack took 2 steps to Steve's arms! It was so awesome! Of course, I know this is only going to bring trouble. Mister Busy Fingers will now be able to get places much faster.

So that is our cool news/update from the Jack front. Keep reading for more details on the First Birthday. Right now, I'm struggling with how to celebrate. Just immediate family (Jack's grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins) comes up to 22 people. If we add on extended family, we're up around 50. Not sure I can fit that many people in our house at once.

We wish you a Merry Christmas...

This will be the all-Christmas post. I know I've been a little absent from the blogging scene lately, but I've been relaxing and enjoying my time with my boys and my family. There's been lots going on, so I'll try to convey these happenings in this post.

We started our Christmas celebration Dec. 21 at the Watts house. This was the first time Jack got to open presents and he had a good go of it. He would tear the paper off and then stuff it in his mouth if we didn't take it from him fast enough. Truth be told, he and Nick were much more enthralled with Grandma Sue's Tupperware and coffee packets than any of the cool gifts aunts and uncles bought them. (That did change once we got home though. Jack loves his musical toys!).

The adult children did Christmas a little different this year. Instead of buying presents for everyone, we got online at Elfster and did a secret santa type thing. I really enjoyed this. One, because it was fun to focus on just one person and try to get them something they really wanted. Two, because it cut down on the materialism of Christmas. Three, it was much more fun watching Jack and Nick open presents than opening them myself. This was my big realization this Christmas; I really didn't care about any gifts I wanted or was going to receive, I just wanted to see Jack have fun. Now, on that note, I did get very nice gifts. Connie was my Elfster and she gave me the Giada DeLaurentis cookbook (which I have made four recipes already, and all four have been awesome!).

Okay, on to the pictures. Here are the shots from Watts Family Christmas '08.











Our second Christmas celebration was back at home on Christmas Eve with Papa, Grandma Anne, and Auntie Bubbles. We had chicken florentine for dinner and cherry pie for dessert. And then we opened presents. Papa and Grandma Anne were very generous to Jack. They gave him lots of clothes and some really neat toys including a music board.
We also had a visit from Nanna and Papa Pete and they were on there way to Huntley to visit Pete's family. They brought Jack a cool, singing Tigger. It was a nice quiet Christmas Eve.


The Living Room 500





Christmas morning was pretty fun. Jack woke up at 6:30 a.m., which is a little later than normal. We woke up Auntie Bubbles and dragged Dad out of bed. The first present he found from Santa was his puzzle. And he immediately set to playing with it. After that, we started opening presents and stockings. Once the sun came up, we had breakfast and a nap. In the evening, we went to Auntie K and Uncle Al's house for the Unger Family Christmas. That, too, was pretty fun. Jack got to play with Nick again, and all of the Unger Family. We stayed out too late, but it was worth it!


















This one is my favorite Christmas Pic







We still have one more Christmas celebration to go: we are going to celebrate with Nana, Papa Pete, Aunt Shayna, Uncle Dick and Shane this weekend. Then, next up is the 1-year-old Birthday Party!

Christmas Shopping

Is it wrong to take the baby shopping for his own Christmas gifts? I'm operating under the assumption that my 11-month-old doesn't remember things for more than 48 hours (unless the action is repeated or the item reappears). So, today, Jack and I found the coolest toy store. It's called Learning Express Toys. Jack was able to play while I was able to shop. And they had some pretty cool stuff.

After that, we hit Toys R Us. I wasn't sure if Learning Express would have the best prices, so I wanted to compare. It turns out the specialty store had the same toys for cheaper. Add that to the fact that the people were nicer there, you can see why I will be shopping at Learning Express much more often now.

To top off our afternoon, we went to Carter's to find some jammies. This boy grows out of jammies way too quickly. We found a nice pair to wear for Santa, so I think he's set for Christmas.

Now, you might be asking yourself, today was Friday, how was Karen shopping? SNOW DAY! With the snow and ice last night and this morning, D214 canceled school (they actually announced it yesterday!). So I took full advantage of the extra day of break. I will start grading on Monday.

I'm a master!

Well, kind of. I have officially finished my master of science in journalism. The official graduation ceremony is Friday at 1 p.m., but I will not be attending. It's the last day before winter break and I didn't really know anyone else who would be walking or even be at the graduation.

So I'm pretty happy! Not only does this mean no more grad classes in the forseeable future, but it also means a pay raise! Woo Hoo!

In other news, we spent last weekend partying it up. Friday night was PTech's Christmas party at Hotel Baker. It was way fun. I even got to talk Great Gatsby and Journalism. Saturday night was my friend Gena's wedding at the University of Chicago campus. The bride and everything associated with her were beautiful. We also got to hang out with a lot of my WHS friends who we haven't seen in a while. I really do miss the DeLugas and Sue and Marty. And it is always fun hanging out with the Gruens! Who knew Greg could do such a mean sprinkler? We capped off our weekend at the first birthday party for Isabel, Steve's friend Michelle's daughter. Michelle and Scott know how to throw a first birthday party. Jack loved it. He ate cheese pizza and chocolate cake. It was awesome.

So that's about it for now. I have some grading to get done before break so I can enjoy the two weeks off. Hopefully I'll be able to get some Christmas shopping done in here sometime too!