Pictures

While I'm not quite ready to write a long post, I will give a few updates. The other day, Frank and I were trying so, so hard to figure out what Eddie was doing differently.....we finally figured out that Eddie has learned to squint his eyes! He does it all the time while smiling and sticking his tongue out (see below) and it just cracks me up to no end. His recent favorites have been: standing with his back against the wall (picture, from Nanna below), climbing the jungle gym (aka Mommy, Daddy, Nanna, babysitter....), playing on the swings, going on walks in the sling with me and Frank, playing with a paci while eating a bottle (a must if he is going to eat), standing and pulling up on everything and anything(which also includes on his large ball drop thing - he will sit down, grab the ball, stand up and put the ball in the drop, sit down, get the ball...etc. It is so cute!)....and just being a crazy man in general. OH, and that babysitter I mentioned....we found one!! She meets all of my requirements and more. And the pulling up I mentioned? Yeah, that (and daddy) are to blame for the lovely cut on his eyebrow/eye area. Coincidentally, it happened when I was interviewing the babysitter! (haha! anyone else see the irony in this?) Well, thankfully, he didn't need stitches and it has healed rather quickly. I've gotten a rather large lesson in being thankful for your loved ones in the past week, so Frank was off the hook pretty quickly :) AND THE TEETH! I forgot to mention the teeth! His top teeth are coming in, which is just funny because I was soooo worried that his bottom teeth haven't come in yet. Nanna convinced me to check his top gums and low and behold, there is white! I'm not going to mention the fact that my handsome man is going to look a little goofy with only top teeth....nope....not going to mention that at all (((cough...buckteeth....cough))) My poor man!

{yup, he's mine alright}

{ep! teeth are coming!!}

{climbing mt. daddy}

{big boy standing}

{boo, loving the swings}

{Eddie loves playing with Ethan!}

Well, it seems that my not-so-long post turned into a long post. Thanks if you made it this far. I hope to start blogging again soon, it really does feel good to write, I just don't have a ton of motivation to be witty right now. It's a good thing Eddie is a snuggler - he's been getting lots of love lately. Hopefully I'll pick my camera up again, too....poor thing is neglected.

-maggie

A break.

I just wanted to update the blog to say that I will be taking a break for a while. My heart is breaking for my best friend whose father passed away suddenly on Wednesday evening. I am taking time to be with family and friends at this very difficult time. maggie

Clean Up Crew

Frank (talking to Eddie): We're having a party on Friday - with Keithie and Uncle Jim! Me: That means you'll have to clean up all the dog poop in the backyard.... Frank (to Eddie): She's talking to you.....

That's right folks, we start 'em young around here. Maybe it should be a tradition - the first time to clean up the yard after a long winter will belong to Eddie. I think its a plan! (or maybe we should just hire the Poopy Lady back...)

-maggie
(ps - stop back soon - I should have a link from our photo shoot with Lindsay - photosbylindsay.com - from earlier today. I wasn't expecting her to take as many as she did, so we are once again so thankful to Lindsay and her amazing talent (not to mention her library of crazy noises to make a baby smile!). She is awesome, you should totally go check out her blog!!)

Minnesota

We are back! We had a great trip - leaving Wednesday night worked alright....we drove about 3.5 hours and stopped where Frank ended up getting us a very special room - the Honeymoon Suite in Tomah, Wisconsin. Somewhere, this honeymoon suite is the room of some farm girl's dream...how sad. It was the most ghetto honeymoon suite I have ever seen. But it did have a fireplace! and a jet tub! and mirrors! everywhere! Eddie was very amused by the mirrors. Ha! We got in Thursday and went to the Como Zoo, which is a free zoo in St. Paul. It was wonderful! The weather was beautiful and all of the animals were out to play in the sunshine so Eddie was able to see a lot of them. He loved watching the monkeys run back and fourth in their little area and he also loved watching the seal. I fell deeply in love with a sloth and plan to visit him many more times, including next week. Soon, Eddie and I will be taking weekly trips to visit my sloth, that is how much I loved this little thing. So instead of an Eddie picture, here is my sloth...

Isn't he adorable???? Oh my, I love him so. (you can see the whole album here http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=71431&id=502593613&l=e41bd38054)

Thursday night we went to Big Bowl for dinner with my parents and Aunt Lorrie. Eddie behaved pretty well, considering he wasn't crazy about the jarred baby food I was giving him for the weekend, but he did love the tofu I gave him to feed himself. As long as he is eating while we eat, he seems to do well. But if he has to sit there and watch everyone else eat, he gets MAD! Big Bowl was so great, (schezwan green beans - yum!!) we went back Saturday night. But hey, we've got to get in good food before we go back to the boonies!! Friday was the wedding so we took it easy, played in the pool and outside (it was 75 degrees!) and generally hung out. Eddie did well at the wedding, but decided to chat to people that weren't paying attention to him (how dare everyone watch the bride and groom!) so I had Frank quickly usher him into the hall so he wouldn't make a scene. Rachel looked beautiful, the ceremony was wonderful and we were so happy to be there. The reception was amazing - Eddie went to sleep and stayed asleep in his stroller for the whole reception, including us cheering for Abby to catch the bouquet, Adam to go up with the single men, laughing at Jerry wearing a veil and Jennifer yelling at Grandma ("this is because you drank while pregnant!"). We are generally a very loud group, so when you couple that with a DJ, well.....lets just say that I'm very proud of my hard sleeper. (you can see the whole wedding album here http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=71565&id=502593613&l=baedd9f817.) We went to bed around 10:00, but the party went on and we apparently missed some great fun - someone falling into the gazebo (I won't say who...) and then all getting kicked out of said gazebo. Someone also forgot falling into the gazebo, which just added to the hilarity. I love you someone! We ended up staying Saturday and went to the Mall of America and to dinner. Can I just say that I love that Eddie is a shopper? He loves going and watching the people at the mall....lucky me! I won't be THAT WOMAN who has a screaming baby while she is walking through Nordstroms. Nope! My baby smiles at the other women, talks away and is generally pleasant. Woot! Sunday morning we drove home, in the rain. Boo! It made the drive a little longer, but we still got home under 6 hours so that was nice. I think even Eddie gave the house a great big smile and laugh when we walked it, he was that relieved to see his play room, his toys and his crib. Well, maybe not his crib since he did have to cry it out Sunday night when we woke up at midnight, but he was just so overtired, so we had to let him do it. (Side note - why in the world does it feel like someone is spooning out my insides when he is crying like that? Oh my gosh, it is so hard to handle).

Other than the CIO last night, we are so glad to be home. The trip was better than I had hoped and I loved hanging out with everyone for a couple days. Eddie was so well behaved and even gave everyone smiles by the end of the trip! I have no idea when everyone will be able to get together like that again, so I tried to make every moment count and just spend as much time with them as I could. I already miss everyone. Eddie has a little bit of a cough, but I'm hoping that it may just be a little tickle and not a full blown cold like we went through before. But maybe...could it be....teething??? I know it can cause a cough, so maybe? I can hope. I would really love for him to have some little teefers. Come on, little teeth!

Sorry for the jumble of a post - I had a lot to say, but really the pictures say it all, so make sure you check out those albums. To the new family members that just got the blog address - HI!!! - and to the Internet strangers out there - yes, my family is as crazy as we look in the pictures. And I love every single bit of them.

-maggie

Minnesota Bound

Did we learn from Road Trip - Part 1 (Florida)? Nope! We're heading to Minnesota TONIGHT! Thankfully, this drive is only 6 hours, so it shouldn't be that bad. We plan to leave at Eddie's normal 7:30/8:00ish bedtime and drive as far as we can...who knows if that will be bumble Wisconsin or all the way to Roseville (outside of the Twin Cities), but we're going to try our best. We figure by doing it when Eddie is asleep we will avoid a). having to keep him entertained for 6 hours b). stopping for bottles and diaper changes and c). Mommy, Daddy and Eddie meltdowns. The only problem with this plan? We were going to leave Thursday morning, but decided yesterday to leave tonight. So my day is CRAZY. So far I have....

-driven to South Barrington to teach a swim lesson with Eddie - gone to Target - gotten the oil changed - did laundry for me and Eddie - packed for me and Eddie....and I still have to...

-go to the library - finish all bottle dishes - have Frank come home and pack - clean out the car - pack up the car - go get my hair cut (pre-scheduled appt that I really need!)...and I think that is it.

Oh man. Wish us luck! -maggie

Eh.

Its almost midnight, and everything is changed, but I'm far from happy. Expect more changes soon!

I'm happy I'm a mom because...

...I now have the same love for Easter as I did when I was a kid! Oh my gosh, I can't even begin to tell you how much I am looking forward to next Easter when we can have Easter egg hunts, fun toys, CANDY, candy, oh...did I say CANDY? In case you didn't know, my brother and I are serious candy crazies. My mom and I were just talking about how we have no idea where our candy obsession came from, but have a hunch that it was the mondo size candy tubs (of sour ball things that I can't think of the name for...) from Sams, just because we loved them sooo much. That could be the year our cavities were out of control, but I'm not going to make assumptions, people.

All in all our Easter was good. We quickly realized that Eddie woke up a little later than expected, which meant that while we tried our best to get to church, 30 minutes into our 1 hour drive we were only a quarter of the way there, so we went to breakfast instead. We came home, relaxed and I started cooking. Eddie was totally crabby while the family was at our house, but that was to be expected since I scheduled everyone to come over right as he should have been napping (I learned my lesson there...). My dinner schedule went off without a hitch and I had food ready to go right at 4:00 as planned. Martha would be so proud! Eddie got some adorable presents from his grandparents (a bunny eared Stitch, a bunny that sings and dances, yogurt melts, toys and more!), some major Grandparent lovin and way too many yogurt melts at dinner. The silver lining of a bad nap day? A makeup day!! Eddie was very sleepy today, so we took advantage of the rainy day by sleeping in and taking lots of naps. It was so great!

{eddie was very protective of his egg}

{just. out. of. reach...}

{of course, the he dropped the egg. so I had to get creative - with an empty creamer. yup.}

{a moment of happy! wow!!}

{maybe he was mad at all of the golf? thanks, grandpa}

{Saddie loves Grandpa Frank and all of his walks!}

{Jack loves Grandpa Frank for all of his lovin}

{Eddie and his Rockin' Bunny}

{I love Stitch. I love Eddie. I love this picture!}

{and a meltdown. HAHAHAHA! Is it bad that I think this is a hilarious picture?}

Tonight I'm hoping I have the energy to make a new blog layout, so we'll see how far I get. I haven't even started to think about packing for our trip to Minnesota later this week, so a new blog layout will give me something else to focus on :)

-maggie

Distaction

So while Eddie naps I'm going to take the opportunity to post some pictures with my new Canon Rebel XT. (love!) I should be cleaning, but the camera keeps calling my name..... -maggie

y3w

{so I just realized that I can make a picture "large" in my post settings...yay!}

I am posting Eddie's Easter picture early because we have a crazy weekend ahead with me prepping for Easter at our house Saturday and cousin Michael's first birthday party on Saturday as well, and of course Easter Sunday, which should be interesting...it is the first holiday we (I) have done at our house, so while it is nice not to travel, I have very high goals for the evening and don't want to mess anything up. I am having everyone come at 3, because I fully expect to have a freak out when we get home from church, so the later time slot allows me my freak out with time to pull myself back together! HA! I thought I was pretty clever with that one. I also have to find time tomorrow to get a new camera since mine decided to crap out while I was taking some adorable pictures of Eddie....of course. I have been asking Frank for a"big" camera for a while, so we are taking the plunge and getting one! Yay! Hopefully I can convince the slow moving, research driven husband of mine to get a move on with this purchase....we've got a lot coming up!

Let's also hope I can really channel Martha is the next couple days, I'm going to need her!

-maggie

Attached to Momma....

For the past 3 days, Eddie has been attached to me. Literally.

{eddie, riding piggy back while I clean}

No joke, the second I walk out of the room, even to pee or get a glass of water, he screams bloody murder. Thank God for the ring sling. Now, I have no idea what is going on, but I'm starting to lose my mind. His newest thing is to climb up me while I sit on the floor and bounce up and down while crying until I pick him up...it doesn't matter that he is a half inch off of the floor, all that matters is that I'm holding him. Now, I love my son. I love the cuddles. But I need some space, buddy! We have started to let him CIO (cry it out) when he wakes up at 3:00am. This wake up trend started when he was sick and just never stopped. When he was sick, I took the opportunity to get some solids into him and fed him. When he got better, I just brought him into bed with me. Since we used to co-sleep the whole night, it was nice to have a couple hours of snuggle time, but as Eddie gets older I don't really want to make this a long-term habit. We seem to have hit a snag, though. The start of CIO seems to correspond with the start of the anxiety with me walking out of the room. A coincidence? Sure....but a large part of me is now thinking that CIO has led to Eddie being terrified of me leaving him at any time. I almost feel like he just doesn't trust me - before he knew that I would always come....now, he is scared that I'll leave him crying, and that breaks my heart. To think that something that was supposed to help him has ended up hurting our relationship of trust and comfort...it hurts more than I can say. Tonight we're going back to our normal routine - if he cries anytime past 3:00am, he'll be in bed with me, trying to fix our little trust issue. All I can hope is that it can be fixed.

In other news, I started giving Eddie an all-natural applesauce instead of my fresh purees. To be honest, I was lazy and didn't make his apples this week. The good news is that he loved them! The taste is a bit more tangy than my homemade ones, so I wasn't sure that the would like it, but he scarfed it right down. The pictures should really speak for themselves....

And yes, I even let him lick the cup :)

We also went to see the Easter Bunny today after yoga, and Eddie did so well! I thought he would freak, given the attachment issues but he was great and even gave me a huge smile! I was so pleased. We just got the print out (why have these people not just put them all on a website yet?!?!) so I had to get creative with a picture of a picture...

Obviously, I am posting this at night....and I took the pictures at night....so I played around quite a bit with the coloring, so while it doesn't look natural I think it is kind of fun. You should be able to click on the picture to make it bigger so you can see Eddie in all of his big-smiled cuteness.

Can you believe it is only Tuesday? Wow...I'm really going to try to post as much as I can, since this really seems to be a nice outlet for me - most of the time I type one handed, since Mr. Glue naps on me as well.

Wish us luck on our CIO system re-start!

-maggie

The newest installment....

I'm going to start doing a new regular post topic, always starting with "I'm happy I'm a mom because...." sure, sometimes it will be mushy and lovey-dovey and sometimes it will be funny. This first one is inspired by my friend, who we will call Jessica Biel. Jessica called me recently and left a message that goes something like this:

"So I had to call you about my night. You know that hot guy I am going to the Sox game with? (who knew JT liked the Sox? j/k) so he called me to go out after work (details here)...anyway....we're at this bar and this fight breaks out - like, people throwing beer bottles and chairs and stuff! so I go hide in this corner....when the fight is over, we realize hot guy's friend went to jail, so we go to bail him out of jail but he's not there, he's at the hospital. and now I have his bloody clothes in my car."

and i have never been happier to say that i was doing some boring mom activity like...sleeping. I love you Jessica!

-maggie

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANA!!

We love you!

Flower (almost) Saturday

Since I have a hard enough time posting during the week, I have decided to move Flower Fridays to Flower Saturdays. I know it doesn't sound as good....maybe I could do 'Seedling Saturdays'? Anyway....I hate to say it, but after last week's spill, I have totally lost interest in the flowers....I have no hope. The one box seems to be doing well, but not as good as the other box (pre-fall). April kind of snuck up on me, and since I'm thinking the flowers will need to be planted late May/early June, they're aren't going to make it. Who knows, maybe I'll regain interest and can continue to keep up with them, but I'm not really sure where I go from here. They're getting bigger, will I need to transplant them into bigger pots? How much of a pain that would be...oy. I don't think I thought this through very well. Either way, here are your pictures for the week....I have also included a picture of the fallen box....which have about 2 still growing. The rest I'm pretty sure are dead. Dammit.

-maggie

y3w

Sorry this is so late....

But today Eddie, Ethan, Nicole and I went to C.oCo. Ke.y in Rockford. (ever wonder why I break up brand names? it's because I don't want someone to google the word and then have my blog pop up...anyway...) No joke, for weeks I have asked Frank if we could go. I was *sure* it would be as wonderful as I pictured. Silly, I know. Don't get me wrong, it isn't all bad. My main complaints were: a) it was much smaller than I imagined. It would be like a kid walking into Disn.ey Wo.rld and having it be the size of....San.ta's Vill.age. b) There was hardly any deck space, so immediately my idea of having the boys play on a towel on deck was ruined, as there was only about 2 feet from the end of the lounge chairs to the pools...unless you sat at a table the whole time, which of course were all taken. The solution? A cabana...

(haha, sorry Nicole!)...so, for $50 ($75 on the weekends) you can get your very own whole in the wall! Now, I'm not going to knock this. We were able to put the boys on a mat on the floor and put the couch cushions around them, so that was nice. The cabana does come with a TV (ours was broken...) and a server call button (which was broken as well...), which all seem like great additions if they were to work. I ended up going to the front desk to ask about the TV and server and the server came quite quickly after that, but no TV fixage. Oh well. I was happy enough just having some space to ourselves for the boys to play....I think I would have gone crazy if I had to sit on that crowded pool deck the whole time. For a half day (10-3) we paid $15, which was worth it in my opinion. Nicole put it best though, "I'm not running back...". I wouldn't run back here in a heart beat, but if the mood strikes next winter, I wouldn't mind a trip. It is only about 45 minutes away, so it would be kind of fun during a long winter....good thing we have Nana and Grandpa's pool this summer!

Not to mention, I couldn't imagine guarding that pool. There were kids of all ages and adults everywhere - but I didn't see one incident, which is surprising because I always have my eyes out. The guards were very attentive and I never thought that they were spacing out. At one point while Eddie and I were in the lazy river (all 10 feet of it) the guard made a point to check in the corners where someone could easily get pushed into. I was quite impressed, which is a lot coming from a tough judge like me. They do get points there. Eddie loved playing in the zero depth area, where he could splash and try to grab at that elusive fountain. They had all sorts of things that would shoot and spray water, so he had tons of fun going around to all of those and sticking his hands into them. He was so amused, he decided not to take a nap the whole time! (yay for crabby babies!) So while Ethan napped Eddie and I took a couple more rounds in the lazy river and played in the fountains some more. Also, they did have a pretty good food selection and a cute bar (woot!). Basically, would I recommend it? Sure, if you're needing a change of pace. Would I run back? Probably not...but if you had a working cabana and a nice tropical drink waiting for me....I'd think *a little* harder. (and I never did get a chance to try out those slides, so those may lure me back...)

-maggie