Happy Birthday Little Man!

My little boy through the years:


In the hospital


3 months


6 months


9 months


1 year old!


18 months


2 years old!


2.5


The birthday boy today.

So my little guy is 3 today. I cannot believe it's been three years since I had him. He is all boy, as noted by him opening up the floor vent today and throwing a few of Riley's puzzle pieces down there! And he loves playing sports, from soccer to baseball, hockey to Frisbee (if that's considered a sport!).

I never really understood the whole "Mama's boy" thing until I had one myself. I used to tease my mom about favoring my brother (you guys know it's true), but now that Jeremy is most certainly a Mama's boy, I love it. There is nothing like it.

My little guy, I love you more than you can even know. I miss you being a little boy, but I do look forward to what kind of young man you turn out to be.

Happy birthday, sunshine.

The End of the Week

We've barely made it through spring break, not without some bumps and bruises along the way. We had three playdates on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, which went well overall. One was with my girlfriend of 25+ years and her brood--poor Jeremy was the only boy out of five kids! On Tuesday we met up with one of Riley's preschool friends who has a little boy Jeremy's age. Wednesday brought a playdate with Riley's boyfriend, his twin sister and a little boy Jeremy's age. We had a blast at all three, but then Wednesday night, Riley's boyfriend's mom called me.

"He took a nap this afternoon and woke up with a 103.5 fever," she said. "I just thought I'd let you know."

So guess what? Today, both kids are full of snot, sneezes and are going through boxes of Kleenex. Nevermind that I'm constantly wiping noses and tending to dangling snot (pretty picture, isn't it?). From speaking with a few other moms, it seems to be going around. At least it's Friday.

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Sort of related is that it's been a full week since Jeremy has napped. *sigh* To say it's been rough would be an understatement. Two of the days I caught him completely naked. Today he took off his pants and underwear. He's learned how to get the gate down that I set up outside his door. He is constantly pulling up the shades.

Is this what it's like having a boy?

I'm not ready for him to be done napping. Riley *just* finished napping about two months ago. Why can't he? I complain to my mom and she says that my brother and I stopped napping when we were two. OK, but we're talking about ME here! (Kidding, Mom.)

I will say, though, that J is sleeping in later, waking up around 7:30 as opposed to the 6:45 before. And he falls right asleep when we put him down at 7:30 pm. But I still need that hour to recharge, so I've been trying to instill "quiet time" for him while Riley is up there. I just need to be more stern. It's just so hard to do sometimes. But Mom needs her sanity.

St. Patty's Day

After removing the pictures from the camera, I realized I hadn't posted about our St. Patrick's Day.

Riley had a party at school where they made green milkshakes. She had to wear green, and I was happy to say that she owned a green shirt that didn't say Packers on it! Although you should note the comment I made below about the outfit she was actually wearing...

The weather was beautiful that day--so much so that I let J wear shorts. Of course now we're expecting snow tomorrow (keep quiet, Uncle D!). Ah, the Midwest.

Here are some shots of the kids enjoying the beautiful weather:

Jeremy playing soccer with Dad.

The kids. Please note that Riley is wearing a nightgown.
I blame that entirely on Phil getting her dressed that morning.
And yes, she told people at school that it was part of her jammies.

Help Me

We're on day five of Jeremy not napping. Five days of me treking up to his room on numerous occasions during "so-called" naptime only to find him dismantling his floor vent, opening shades, climbing on chairs, or (my favorite) stripping down and finding him completely naked.

Good times.

Oh, and we're on spring break, which means Riley's been home all week. Although we have a week full of playdates, which are more for my sanity than anything else, it's already been a tumultuous week. I just hope we all survive.

Blackhawks Game

For Christmas, Phil surprised me with tickets to a Blackhawks game. After much teasing, I decided to take him with me, if not for the company but for the fact I wouldn't have to drive. I kid. It was a horribly rainy/gross day, but Papa and Nana were going to look after the kids while we headed into the city.

The game was scheduled for Sunday, March 8, at 2:00 p.m. IIt was a tumultuous trip to Park Ridge, since in the middle of the rain and trip, Jeremy proclaimed he needed to go potty. We stopped at Woodfield Mall, located a parking spot, and I grabbed both kids to use the bathroom. Wouldn't you know that Jeremy suddenly declared he didn't need to go?! Ugh. Then we missed the exit to my parents' due to new construction barriers, sending us a few miles out of the way. We finally arrived close to 40 minutes after we had hoped, but we were all in one piece.

We had a delicious lunch, and then Phil and I headed to the Hawks game. To say it was pouring would be an understatement. I believe I saw a few dogs and cats falling from the sky at one point. We parked in the official lot ($16 later...) and ran into the building. We were drenched! Wet jeans are no fun.

We found our seats and watched the teams warm up. We had decent seats, and we were hoping for an exciting game.

The Hawks come out from the locker room.

Warming up before the game.

The infamous Indian head.

Our hopes were dashed quickly after the game started. The Hawks were down 2-0 after the end of the first period. Toews scored a nice goal in the second to bring the team within one and it seemed to boost the crowd. But when it was all said and done, Colorado won 5-1. There were even boo-birds out in full effect before the game ended. It was a very sad game, especially since the team had done so well for most of the season. I think some media members dubbed it the worst game of the season. Nice that we could be there for it!

To cap off the afternoon, I ended up getting us lost on the way back to my parents'. Sad, really, because I grew up 15 minutes from Chicago all my life and cannot find my way back to Park Ridge. What's even funnier, though, is that I called my parents and told them where we were, and they had no idea how to help us. It's times like that we miss Uncle D, who can navigate anywhere in Chicago!

We made it back, had yummy take-out pizza for dinner, loaded up the kids (who were a bit of a handful), and headed back home. Of course both kids passed out on the way home. I'm not sure who wore each other out more: the grandkids or Papa/Nana!

ABCs According to Jeremy

Jeremy can recite his ABCs rather well and rather quickly. Note the appearance by our other cat, Stinky, who most people have never met. He's rather shy.

Said at Our House Today

Jeremy, we do not hit the kitty with the hammer.

Funny Stuff

The kids and I were on our way to weekly storytime at the library when we had this conversation:

Jeremy: I really miss green grass.
Mom: Me, too.
Riley: Me, three.
Jeremy: You're not three. You're five. I'm going to be three.

To which Riley began trying to explain the saying, and Jeremy kept interrupting saying he knows how old she is and he's going to have a birthday. At least it was a humorous discussion.

Splish Splash

With our tax return money in the bank, we decided to treat the family to a mini excursion. We had talked about visiting a water park and spending the night, and we scored a great deal at Key Lime Cove in Gurnee (warning for those who click on the site--very loud Caribbean music plays). We visited some friends who live a few minutes away before we headed to the resort, and we had a great time meeting their new dog, Winston. As much as I'm not a dog person, Winston is a cutie.

We arrived at the resort about 2--check-in wasn't officially opening until 4, but they allowed visitors to start using the park at 1. We waited in line for ONE HOUR before we were allowed to do anything, which was plenty annoying, especially since we had already paid for our rooms. Luckily the kids were decent, which is more than I can say about myself! What I did like was that the room key was electronic and attached to our wrist bands.

We finally checked in, changed, and got down to the water park. The kids were overwhelmed with all that they could play on. There was a giant pineapple that drenched unsuspecting visitors with a thousand gallons of water. There was a lazy river right off a wave pool. There were water slide tunnels to slide down. And there was a smaller area for littler kids (Jeremy). We took the kids over to the pineapple first, and Jeremy went down a few slides. Riley was having fun exploring, but Phil had to follow closely behind.

The gigantic pineapple.

Slides for the adults, which we didn't get to experience.

Then we attempted the lazy river, which was difficult in itself to secure an inner tube for two. We all were able to float around a few times, which I enjoyed thoroughly. Before we knew it, we were getting hungry, so we headed back to the room for some food. Phil went to grab some grub, and the kids and I hung out in the room.

This is to prove that Phil was actually there.

It was while watching the news that I realized why the park was so packed on a Sunday evening: March 2 (Monday) was Casmir Pulaski Day, which meant a lot of school closings for Chicagoland. That explains why every middle-school-age child was at the water park!

After dinner, we went back to swim for a bit. We were hoping it would be enough to wear out the kids, and we were right. Riley slept in the queen pull-out bed, and Jeremy slept on the floor. The entire family was asleep by 9:30, which hasn't happened in eons in this house.

They can be such angels when sleeping.

It's enough to make you love them again.

To top it off, we all slept in until 8:15! The pool reopened at 9, so after a quick breakfast, we suited up and went back down. Although we could have stayed at the park until 8 pm (checkout was at 11, but we had full access to the park until 8), we felt we were pretty much dried out from the chlorine. I actually almost lost a contact in the pool when some kid accidentally splashed me, and I blinked and turned my head quickly. A fast walk to the bathroom to fish my contact out of the corner of my eye, and everything was fine.

Riley down one of the slides.

Jeremy's turn down the slide.

We were able to secure a life jacket for Riley, and she had a lot more fun in the deeper parts of the pool. But we all agreed that by 11, we were ready to hit the road. Especially since there were a good 2-3 inches of snow on the ground.

Riley with her jacket.

Coming up for air.

How Jeremy spent much of the time out of the pool.
He slipped one too many times not taking his time.

Overall, I think we're all glad we went, but the kids probably would've had more fun in 2-3 years. Jeremy said several times that kids pushed him. And we each had to have a child with us at all times, which was fine, but it made it hard to really enjoy yourself, say, by floating down the Lazy River by yourself.

We Interrupt This Blog...

...for a brief brag. I went and chopped off my hair yesterday. Only about eight inches. I'm still in shock. I plan on donating it to Pantene's wig program, and was inspired by my brother who did the same in the fall before he left for Lebanon. I decided spur of the moment on Friday to do it, and Jeremy was a trooper while we were at the hair cut place. My head feels so much lighter, and I still can't believe I did it.

Here's the most recent before shot:

This was from our water park excursion
last week, which I still need to write about.

I was apprehensive about Jeremy's reaction, because he's so into hair. For all his life, he's loved hair. He twirls his hair to comfort himself, and there has been on more than one occasion where he wants me to take my hair out of my ponytail so he can run his fingers through it. He did say afterward that I looked beautiful, but he said he wanted the lady to put my hair back on my head. Sorry, buddy.

The after pics:

Jeremy didn't want to join us in this shot.

Ta dah! Quite the difference, huh?

Visit Up North

The kids and I took a daytrip up to Wisconsin last week to visit my cousin and her family. She gave birth to baby Samuel on January 2, and he became an instant celebrity by becoming the first baby born at that hospital. Anyway, with it being such a bitter cold winter, add that to the fact that Sam is a little fussy, we decided to bring some relief in the form of two kids and a cousin.

The trip was actually decent, considering I was worried about having to deal with stopping alongside a two-lane highway to tend to bathroom breaks. I came prepared, though. I packed a mini potty, just in case. Jeremy was able to hold it the entire way--Riley was the one who insisted on using the portable potty. I think she just wanted to pee in the car, quite frankly.

We made it up there and had a great visit. My aunt (my cousin's mom) was up there and she whipped up a fantastic lunch. I was able to get a lot of snuggles in with the little guy, and the kids had fun playing with Colton, who is now 5!

Riley and Colton sharing a chair.

Jeremy watching a movie.

Unfortunately I didn't take advantage and snap a lot of pictures of "Baby Samuel" as Jeremy calls him. No nicknames here! But trust me, he's a cutie. (Although the stories Kim told me of the lack of sleep, balancing life with three kids, and dealing with winter makes me wish we lived many miles closer.) Thanks for letting us visit!

Baby Samuel enjoying a bottle.

Basking in the milk coma.