The Big 2-0!

Well, I no longer have a teenager. My baby is 20 months old today. And, well, he's not looking like a baby anymore. He's a little boy. I almost didn't use this picture because of the food all over his face, but then I thought that it's a very realistic picture of him since most of the time, he has food all over his face! I haven't kept up with monthly updates on Mr. T, so I told myself that I needed to write one for his 20 month mark since it's been awhile that I've documented what is going on with him. His 20-month check-up is on Friday, so I don't have his stats yet, but I'm sure they'll be off the charts as usual! At least he's well-proportioned!

I can't believe how he has just taken off over these past couple of months. He is extremely verbal and we have short little conversations. Here are a few of my favorite every day occurrences with my little guy:

• "Book" as he plops himself down in my lap with one of his favorite books
• "I stuck" - a phrase he uses whenever he needs help maneuvering himself
• "I need Diego" - his way of telling me he wants to watch his favorite show, Go, Diego, Go!
• Every morning he wakes up calling my name "Mama. Mama. Mama. Mama! Mama!!" I usually go get him by the 4th or 5th Mama, but if it's too early and I'm too tired, I just wait a few more minutes. And it's so funny because after a couple minutes of "Mama" all of a sudden, it switches to "Daddy. Daddy! Daaaadeee!!"
• "I'm a mess!" - he says this after every meal
• Before every meal, I say "prayer" and he folds his arms, says a whole bunch of mostly unintelligible words and then clearly says "Amen!"
• "Basket" as he finds the laundry basket, climbs inside and then says "Push!"
• "Run!" (meaning he wants me to chase after him around the house)
• "Bubble Bath" - he loves to take baths with Lacey every day. But he's done long before she is. And how do I know he's done? Well, because he climbs out of the bath himself, marches his little naked self over to the changing table and exclaims, "I'm done!"

There are times this little guy gives me a run for my money - like last Sunday when he ran up to the front of church during the opening prayer screaming and laughing the entire way up as I'm chasing him - but I have to say, that I love this little guy more and more every day. He is my little cuddler. I love his smile and his sweet, fun personality. He is such a blessing in our lives and in our family. Love you, Baby T!

Happy V-day!

We had a great V-day weekend! The plow FINALLY came through on Thursday. Yeah!! I hadn't left my house once for an entire week and I was itching to get out. So, the next morning, I decided to go to the gym. It took half an hour to get all three of us ready and out the door. I arrived at the gym, paid the money for "Kid Care" for both of the kids, brought them in the room and.... PANIC! I could just see it in T's face. School was out because of the snow, so there were 5x as many kids there as usual and instead of them being 2 and 3 year olds, there were 5, 6 and 7 year olds running around too. T clung to me for dear life. I finally got him distracted with a toy and went to the fitness room in the hopes of 1) getting some exercise and 2) getting some mental sanity back after spending a full week indoors with both the kids. Well.... 10 minutes into my treadmill, I see a woman walking around the fitness floor with a big white board with my name on it. T wouldn't stop crying, they said. So, after all that, I bundled up my kids and went back home. What does this have to do with V-day?


Well, this. We came home and spent the afternoon making Valentines Cards instead. Lacey loved playing with all the glitter (although, I think I will have glitter stuck to every part of my house for the rest of eternity!) and Tanner loved eating all the candy off the cards . In fact, I think Lacey is holding up a card that Tanner already attacked and ate pretty much everything on there.

My best attempt at getting the kids in their Valentine's day outfits. As you can see, T isn't much of a poser!

Anyway, we did have a fun weekend. On Saturday, we got a baby-sitter and Dave took me to dinner (Brio) and a movie (Valentine's Day). On Sunday morning, we had heart-shaped pancakes (above) for breakfast and then the doorbell rang. I answered in my pajamas wondering who it could be. It was a flower delivery man! I got a gorgeous bouquet of daisies and roses from Dave. Well, I hear my T calling for me, so I guess this ends my post!

Holy Shmoly!

Those are the only words I have for what we have experienced over the last couple of days! After hearing rumblings of a huge storm brewing, I "swung by" Wal-Mart on Thursday night and ended up being in there for an hour because every line was at least 7-8 people deep with carts overflowing with supplies. That night, we did an inventory and decided that we needed a few more things, so I went to the grocery store first thing Friday morning and was greeted by a store of empty shelves. I was at least able to get some produce (some things you just don't have in your food storage!) and a couple other things, then came home and hunkered down for the storm. By Friday afternoon, the snow started falling, and falling and falling some more! We woke up to 21 inches of snow and it proceeded to snow the entire rest of the day! We got somewhere between 26-30 inches by the time it finally stopped. Like I said.... Holy Shmoly!


Loving this new white playground!


Lacey giving her bro a hug.

Tanner was so funny. He was bound and determined to ride his tricycle. Needless to say, he didn't get very far! I told Dave that the one nice thing about this is that usually when we're outside, I can't take my eyes off the kids (especially T!) because they just love to run out in the street. For once, it didn't matter because 1) you couldn't tell where the street was and 2) there weren't any cars coming any time soon!

As you can see, the snow was up to our thighs as we began the attempt to dig ourselves out. I realized something while we were out there on and off ALL DAY LONG with our shovels. The kids see snow and squeal with delight at the fun they know they are bound to have. Dave and I saw the snow and our muscles started aching at the anticpation of soreness ahead. For kids, snow= play. For adults, snow= work. But, I do have to say this - we got to know our neighbors better in the last 48 hours than we have in the nearly 4 years we've lived here!

And when we put our shovels down, we just sat there in awe of how unbelievably beautiful and totally amazing the sight was. This picture was taken from my front porch. If you can't see the street between my house and the house across the street, it's because it's under 2 1/2 feet of snow. 48 hours after the snow hit, we have yet to see a snow plow. They are all too busy on the main roads. Luckily, we have a couple neighbors with snow-blowers and lots of guys with shovels, so we are all busy trying to devise a path out of our neighborhood. If we ever want to leave, we've realized we'll have to do it on our own!

Since we can't go anywhere and since you can only stay out in the cold and snow so long, we've gotten very creative inside. This is one of our favorites. Tanner made it up. He pulls out two laundry baskets - one for him and one for his sister. They get inside their respective baskets and yell "Push!" I push them down our long upstairs hallway as they squeal in delight, saying "Wheeee!!" and then when we reach the end of the hallway, they wait for their sibling to come barreling down the hallway and squeal as much for their sibling as they did for themselves. And then they shout "Again!" And we do this over and over until Mom poops out!

Missing my Mom

My mom just flew back to Chicago yesterday following a 10-day visit with us. I can't even remember the last time I had 10 days of quality time alone with my mom and it was so great! Here are a few highlights of how we spent our time.....


We did lots of reading......

And lots and lots of potty-training (a special thanks for this one, Mom!)

And lots of goofing around....

We even made blue pancakes (Lacey's request - I have absolutely no idea where it came from!)

And we went to the National Aquarium in the Inner Harbour.

We saw sharks, stingrays, lots of fish and the dolphin show.

And we saw an absolutely incredible jellyfish exhibit. We all had a great time! But most of all, we just loved being together. I loved watching my kids develop a greater bond with "Hammy" (Lacey couldn't say Grammy when we first started teaching her what to call my mom, so she started calling her Hammy, and the name stuck!) and simply enjoying her company. We miss you, Hammy!