Prayers.

Tonight started out as a great night. One that you remember because it was just so cute - everything worked out perfectly and you go home happier than you left. Going home was where we hit our hiccup.

We started the night going to one of my favorite restaurants - Stir Crazy. We brought along our neighbor (I knew she loved SC as much as I do) and her son Ethan. The babies behaved well during dinner - Eddie ate all of his broccoli and brown rice. Ethan consumed more puffs than I knew possible....I mean, seriously, this kid can puff-eat you under the table. After dinner, we went and surprised one of my most favorite people in the world, Julie, at work. I bought a cute new shirt. As we drove home, Eddie was HYSTERICAL in his car seat, but eventually calmed down and went to sleep. (let me say here that Eddie is safe and sound - nothing happened to my sweet boy)
Frank was writing 'I love you' on my leg. We were driving to Dairy Queen and talking about just how delicious their butterscotch was. We debated on hard vs. their creamy butterscotch and if there are any candies out there that could replicate this. I was reading Perez Hilton on my phone. Then, suddenly, Frank slammed on the breaks.

I look up and see a deer lying in the road, still twitching but obviously dying. A couple feet away, there is a scooter. On the other side of the road, laying on their side, is a person. I jump out (against Frank's wishes as the dear was trying to get up) and run to the girl. Her boyfriend has just gotten on the phone with 911. I know I need to do 2 things: keep her conscious and keep her still. THANK GOD she had on a full helmet with visor, a full jacket, corduroy pants and closed toe shoes. That helmet probably saved her life. In the course of about 10 minutes, I knew as much as I could ask about this girl. Her name (Jen). Her address. Phone number. Favorite color (blue). Dog's name. Birthday. Age (23). Where she worked (local animal hospital). She wore a small ring on her left ring finger - a small blue stone with small diamonds on either side. She was so scared. She had trouble remembering her birthday and what day it was. She didn't remember anything about her day. She didn't know where she was or why she was there. Her boyfriend (fiance?) finally sat down and was still on the phone with 911. His hand was probably broken and bloody, but he was far more stable than Jen, so I let him be and just worried about her. She was having back, neck and head pain. She lost one shoe and Frank said her ankle didn't look good. She was trying to heave into her helmet. It felt like forever for the ambulance to get there....she was having trouble keeping her eyes open. The ambulance finally got there and they got her onto a back board. She passed out. They took her helmet off to prep her to intibate and then they rolled her away and into the ambulance.
As they were getting Jen set, I started talking to the fiance - Dan. His adrenaline started to wear off and he was having hip pain, starting to feel the pain in his hand and fingers and was seeing stars from his left eye. He filled in the details - they hit the deer going 45, head on. He thought he skidded on his back, she landed on her head (the damage on her helmet showed impact and skidding on it). They were going to Rochelle, to Jen's favorite restaurant. She was having a bad day, he was trying to cheer her up.

The police praised me for helping. They said I was a good Samaritan. That was when I looked around - Frank gave me a wave from the service road. No one else was stopped. Anyone that came up to check that we had the situation under control....they left. And all I could think was how could anyone leave this girl laying in the road? HOW COULD YOU LEAVE? Her name is Jen. She has a house, a dog, a fiance, a good job and she is LYING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD. And for some people, that wasn't enough to stop, and that makes me sick to my stomach.

I pray to the grace of God that she is okay. She is all I can think about. If you've read this far, thank you. When we got home, I just needed to write. I needed to get this out...and I appreciate if you've read my thoughts. I hope that getting this out will allow me to sleep tonight, but right now all I want to know is that she is okay.
-maggie

Lashes

One story that I have yet to share is from the Young Family Reunion we attended a couple weeks ago. We were eating when one of my mom's cousins came over and said 'This must be Eddie! Oh my God - his eye lashes are even better in person!'

Everyone comments on Eddie's lashes....seriously, everyone. They seem to keep getting longer and thicker - you can even tell which side Eddie has slept on because his lashes on that side will be curled so beautifully that any woman would be mad with jealousy. I have even had someone ask if I've wanted to put clear mascara on them! What?!??!!?! This isn't that crazy toddler pageant show you lunatic!

{April}

{July}

And I've only wanted to put mascara on them once............maybe twice.

-maggie

SURPRISE!!!

I'M PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


just kidding. Sorry mom, dad and Frank for the heart attacks. My baby itch was sufficiently scratched yesterday when we went to a party and I got to hold little 3 week old Makayla. I needed to prove to myself how difficult 2 under 2 would be, and I got my answer when I went in for a kiss from Eddie while holding Makayla and he promptly pushed me away. He says 'NO MOMMA. NO BABIES!'. So I'll listen. For now :)

{Eddie isn't amused at the baby jokes. Sorry, bud!}

The real surprise was that we went to a wedding yesterday! We expected to go to Frankie's Uncle's Fiance's (follow that?) 50th birthday party, and we were all surprised when there was a little wedding arch set up! The groomsmen were handed tuxedo t-shirts, the bridesmaids their bouquets and off they went. It was an adorable, funny and sweet ceremony that matched Pete and Vicki perfectly. People cheered, laughed out loud and even heckled a little - they have been together for 12 years (!!!!) and engaged for 10, (I think) so Pete deserved all the heckling he got!

{the bride and groom} {classic Pete} {at one point the judge passed the mike around looking for people to say something during the 'objection'. Ha!} {YAY!!} {Shelby was very happy with her Flower Girl job!} {Weird picture? Yes. But for real, this calamari was as big AS YOUR HAND.} {Cheers!} {Rings} {down hill from here....why, you ask?} {yup. newlyweds....what crazy folks} {mmmmhmmm. ((shakes head)) there is just nothing to say}

Thankfully, the babies stayed at bay from the craziness going on inside. They were quite content playing bags. Gotta start 'em early!

What a great day! It was also my Chris and Pat's 4 year wedding anniversary (my SIL and BIL) so we all had some fun things to celebrate. Now, I'm feeling sappy, so forgive this next sentence, but I hope your weekend was as filled with love and celebration as ours was!

awwwww!!!!

-maggie

ps- Vicki, I'll be mailing you a CD of all of the pictures I took.

A moment like this...

All morning Eddie and I have been working on walking and he is doing wonderfully. This afternoon, we went and walked to the mailbox holding hands. It was a mommy-dream-come-true movie moment.

Just as I was going to open the door, still savoring my little moment.......the door was locked.

The director yelled cut and I was back into reality...carrying Eddie to the back door. I'll be sure to edit that part out of my happy moment memory :)
-maggie

FIRST STEPS!!!

After I wrote the last post, I went to play with Frank and Eddie before we put the big man down to bed. He has been very brave with cruising and letting go lately, so we decided to have him walk between us. And what do you know? HE DID IT!! He took his first steps to Frankie (bribed by the monitor base) and did it over and over and over again. 3-4 steps at a time, probably 10 times in a row.

39 days until my baby turns one, he walks. Wow.
-maggie

Just putting it out there....

I'm an ass. A total, complete ass. Yesterday, I ran into an old co-worker who I was close with for a while. Our relationship began to disintegrate due to some various reasons, but we still stayed friendly. I haven't seen her in a year, and then I almost cart-bumped her at Lowes. So we chat...all is well and we decide to try to get together soon. To be honest - she didn't look her best. I mean, yeah - she's at Lowes! Doing some design/home work, so who goes to Lowes all done up, right? Well...
...I texted our other co-worker "Just saw (full name) at Lowes - she looks a mess! LOL"

Word for word that is what I said. Why is this a big deal?

I SENT IT TO THE WRONG PERSON. I SENT IT TO THE GIRL I WAS MAKING FUN OF.

oh. shit.

I promise, I'm not a mean person...just a little snarky! I thought it was funny....until I sent it to her. I have never felt like a bigger asshole in my entire life. For real.
The lesson, today, kids is that you NEVER say bad things via text. If you have something nasty to say....say it in person, where there is no written record. :) Just kidding.
Kind of.
-maggie

Enlighten me....

Can someone PLEASE tell me why my son's favorite new 'no' toy is the broiler drawer on the bottom of the oven? WHY??? Payback for me being the kid who climbed bookshelves, that's why.

The joy of crawling with a bucket on your head until you bump into something? Now that I understand.

40 days until my crazy little bug turns one.....

-maggie

Kid Cage

Because they all needed a nap.

Family Field Trip!

This weekend I really wanted to do something fun, so we went to the zoo. Originally, I had planned for it to be a grandparent affair, but Frankie's parents couldn't make it so we went on ahead with the 5 of us. Now, let me just say this for all of the Chicago readers - admission is normally $12. If you want to see DINOSAURS ALIVE! you have to pick 2 other 'special' exhibits (we did the butterflies and the children's zoo, which we forgot about...) it is $19. Trust me when I say DON'T PAY FOR THE DINOSAURS. Oh my gosh, what a load of crap that was. There is one of the dinosaurs by the lake in the middle of the zoo and I wasn't very impressed by that last time. I thought that when you actually paid, you would get something good. Boy, was I wrong. First of all, the Dino's had large electrical boxes right in front of them that were covered in camouflage (ha!) and these ridiculous lights pointing at them...they are supposed to move and be ALIVE!! but most of them had signs that said they were 'resting' for the day. Resting my ass....these things sucked, Brookfield probably knew it and they were ashamed. Because honestly, I would be....they have so many radio ads, TV ads, Billboards, etc etc for this Dino exhibit and it is such a waste of time. So please, if you're going, don't pay. It is sooo not worth a dime!

Oh, did I mention they were RUSTING? Yes...they were. You can't see it in this one, but trust me - a couple of the Dino's looked like they'd been sliced open. AGAIN - DON'T PAY FOR THIS!!

The butterflies were pretty cool, though. There weren't quite as many as I expected, but it was pretty fun looking for them in the flowers and trees....there were some really, really cool ones that I've never seen before (my favorite was a spearmint colored one that was soo pretty). If you have little kids, I probably wouldn't recommend this because it is a fairly small area and you have to be very careful and watch where you are walking, stay on the paths, be gentle, etc..which would be very hard with a toddler. Other than that, it was pretty cute. Dad got yelled at for opening the door at the end (the really were crazy with opening/closing doors - like all the sudden the butterflies were going to revolt and fly out at the same time) so that was pretty funny. Leave it to Dad :)

Eddie's had a good time at the zoo - he was very excited to see Nanna and Grandpa, and kept giving kisses and hugs alllll day long. Adorable! He started to 'hug' if you're taking a picture with him, meaning that he puts his one arm around your neck and pulls you to him -LOL! Case in point...

Isn't that cute? He was pressing his face into me soo hard - momma love!!!

He also kept pointing at the camera all day, which made it a little hard to get a normal picture, but adorable all the same.

Momma! I see you!!!

As we were walking around, there was a HUGE pile of people at the Lion's window. We figured the lion was sleeping up against it, but no. He was rubbing his face against the window and kept it up for a while. It was so neat to see- he wasn't roaring or anything, just showing off for the crowd. The picture didn't turn out so well, but it was still a cool moment so I'll share it with you...

Cool, huh? The female lion was laying down with her head on her front paws watching him, which made it even funnier. Frank joked that she was yelling at him to stop showing off....cute! The whole thing reminded me of Madagascar with Alex the Lion who puts on shows at the Central Park Zoo.

Okay...time for the dork pictures. Ready?

We're fishies!!

My little (pointing) otter. ....and my adorable little shits! (bwahahahaahaha...sorry, I couldn't help it!)

My dad took Eddie out of the stroller to show him the big cats and I'm happy to report that Eddie saw them! He was amazed...it was pretty cool to see him realize that we were actually looking at something when we stopped. He also just loves his grandpa, so being held by him was a treat, too....

Eddie was so happy that Grandpa showed him such cool stuff, he gave him some hugs and kisses.

Once he spotted Nanna, though...he called out for her (the second time he has said Nanna!) and give her some kisses, too

Yup...Eddie is still in the open-mouth kissing phase. He has given a few closed-mouth ones, but I think he prefers leaving a nice drool mark on his conquests....

....and this picture is too funny not to post. We had so much fun at the zoo....too bad on the way home I got the migraine from hell (I usually get one or two a year, my last one was in my first trimester with Eddie) and it is still sticking around a little bit today. Frank got up with Eddie this morning and let me sleep in, but I'm not sure that helped much. I'm hoping for some relief soon...thank God it is the weekend and Frank is able to corral Eddie - this better be gone by tomorrow!

Oh...I forgot to mention that my Dad mentioned that the Milwaukee Zoo was much better than Brookfield and that we should take a trip there - has anyone been? I'd be curious to hear what you guys think.

-maggie

Happy Anniversary,couch!

{Stef and I at my baby shower days before bed rest}

This time last year, my dad went in for hip replacement surgery (happy 1 year to your new hip, dad!). My mom and I sat waiting in the surgical waiting room watching TV and writing thank you notes for my baby shower that was a couple days before. I, being the clumsy little thing that I am, still had the boot on my foot after nearly breaking it about a week before that (long story short - I worked for a home builder. Times were slowing down, the phone rang and I was so excited that someone was calling that I ran through the home model and down the 2 stairs to my office in the finished garage. I promptly fell down the 2 stairs because I forgot that I was big, fat and pregnant. One trip to the ER and L&D later, I didn't break my foot, had a good sprain and only a couple contractions). I was having a couple contractions through out the day, so I kept drinking a ton of water and tea to slow them down. My dad got out of surgery in the late afternoon and we were able to see him. I remember going into the bathroom in his room during one contraction because it was so strong - we didn't want my dad to know that I was having contractions, but I do think I told my mom at that point. I was about 30 weeks pregnant, but my contractions weren't regular enough for me to worry about...until that strong one. After that, they started coming fast and furious. My mom and I left so dad could rest and after a couple more contractions, I knew it was time to call the doctor. The thing was, we were all prepared for this. My doctor very clearly told me this could because I was 8 weeks premature, and he said that preemies usually have preemies. I ran through the scenario a million times in my head, I just couldn't believe it was happening.....and that I was 2 hours away from my hospital....and that I was driving.

That's right, I drove. After the contractions really got strong, my mom began begging me to pull over. We needed gas and we needed to switch drivers. The thing was, driving was really helping me concentrate on something other than the fact that I was going into labor. I needed something to keep me busy, and doesn't a 2 hour drive sound like the perfect thing? What haven't I mentioned yet...Oh yea...that it was 5:00 in the evening and our 2 hour drive took almost 3 in rush hour traffic....and we were running out of gas. Like, on EMPTY running out of gas. That's when I really started to panic. I had this picture in my head of me in labor on the side of the road with a stalled vehicle hours away from my doctor. In the midst of trying to time contractions (2 minutes apart), trying to drive, giving Frank updates and my doctor calling every half hour (are you here yet? How far are you? UGH) my mom starts asking me if the baby has moved lately. Because, you know...in the midst of CONTRACTIONS I hadn't mentioned any fetal movement. Now, I love my mom....like really, really love her. But at that moment, I almost hit her. Thinking that my baby wasn't moving was basically the last thing that I needed added to my plate and at that moment I seriously could have killed her. Instead, I believe I told her that she wasn't allowed to talk anymore...LOL. Sorry mom!

Finally, we got to the hospital where Frankie, my doctor and the nurses are waiting. I get hooked up to the monitors and what I was feeling really were contractions 2 minutes apart. The thing was, the nurses didn't seem that worried. They seemed to be writing me off, even though the monitors were showing that I was right. About an hour later, my doctor came in and threw a fit. He took one look at the print out and was freaking that the nurses hadn't given me the shot of turbutaline yet. I got one shot and started feeling it right away - the turbutaline made me shake uncontrollably, feel nauseous and really, really hot all over my body. A while later, the shot still hadn't slowed the contractions to an acceptable level so they gave me another one which finally kicked it.

The nurses, ever so pleasant (ha) told Frank he could leave for the night and come back in the morning because they wanted to monitor me overnight. UM, WHAT?! I am freaking out, he is freaking out and you expect him to leave? Yeah, right. Internet, I present you reason number 5,097 why I love my husband - he slept on the floor of the hospital room. The triage room didn't have the wonderful chairs that turn into beds that they have in the delivery rooms, but they were able to find some blankets and a pillow for Frankie to get comfy on (haha). Too bad they didn't give him the sleeping pills that they gave me - he was up all night being woken by the monitor alarms, the IV alarms and nurses going in and out. Poor guy! The next morning, the contractions had stopped and we were allowed to go home. I was put on bed rest (allowed to go up and down the stairs once a day, only allowed to get up for the bathroom) and had to kiss my job and my freedom goodbye.

Dramatic? Sure...but when you're used to doing whatever you want, whenever you want and suddenly you can't get off the couch or out of the bed, it is a rough change. Frank couldn't take time off because he needed the time when the baby came and my mom couldn't come over (she has summers off) because she was helping my dad recover from his hip surgery the day before. So it was me, the dogs, the cat and the TV. All day, every day. I have never watched so many Baby Story episodes on TLC in my life. I read a ton (thanks to my neighbor Mariana who brought over a bunch of books) and went online a whole lot. My awesome employer, Julie, brought over dinner every night of the week for almost a month and a half. After a couple days of following all of the rules, I started to get antsy. I decided that I could swiffer the floors (just 5 minutes, I promise!) and it wouldn't make a difference. What. A. Lie. I had contractions for the next 2 hours. My 5 minute swiffer trip resulted in another doctor visit (I was on weekly trips at this point) and me getting Turbutaline pills to take whenever I had contractions. My stubborn self had a nice reality check - there really was a reason that I was on bed rest and I needed to take it seriously. So I hung around, lived for my trips to the doctor and phone calls to friends. And then I started to get antsy again. LOL. Every the persuasive person, I convinced the doctors to let me take little trips, as long as I promised to take it easy and take my pills when needed. We took a trip to Lake Geneva for Frankie's cousin's wedding and then spent the weekend in Geneva (at the Harrington) for my birthday a couple weeks later.

I can't believe it has been a year. So, happy anniversary, couch! I couldn't have survived bedrest without you...oh, and you too, Internet! And TV! I love you all :)

-maggie

Randoms (mostly in pictures!)

Yup - that's my hubby, the ham, at Sushi Station for dinner. YUMOLA! I did want to do a quick product rave, and even though Sushi Station is yummy, I'm talking about that little blue mat in front of Eddie. You can see it better here...

Erm...yea. We've been eating out a lot this week :) ANYWAY....if you like to eat out like we do, you'll need one of these once you have a baby that eats table food. Eddie MUST eat when we're eating, so we needed a solution to just the regular table (cleaned by the same rag, over and over again...ick) to eat off of. This kiddopotamus 'Tiny Diner' mat is a life saver - not only is it large enough to make a lot of space for food to eat (smear) around, but it also has suction cups of the bottom so it won't slide AND it has a little tray/cup thing at the bottom that catches the food that doesn't hit his mouth. That little catch has another purpose, too....Eddie loves to find the surprise treats in the bottom (aka - it keeps him occupied for an extra couple of minutes!). It really does serve it's original purpose well, too, since I'm not on my hands and knees searching for fallen food in the middle of Chili's. All in all, I'm going to be pretty straight forward - if you don't have one, get one. You won't regret it! (and no, I'm not getting anything from posting this - I seriously just love this product!)

I only got 2 decent pictures of Frank being appointed to the planning commission (I missed the good shot of our mayor shaking his hand...boo!) and one of them is of the back of Frank's head...and the other one is of Eddie. Ha!

If you look really, really closely you can see Frank's head on the left hand side. Yay Frank!! If you continue to look closely, you will see a board member that is wearing a red sleeveless shirt. Yup....small town livin' at it's finest!

Eddie was very excited for his daddy...and maybe his puffs :)

(Told you these were random....)

A hilarious picture of Eddie getting his foot tickled by our neighbor, Shauna. He was making the funniest faces and kept putting his foot up for her to tickle. Silly man!

And finally, if I haven't covered it here, Eddie has 3 favorite toys. Trucks/cars, balls and buckets/bowls. Tupperware is a favorite toy when nothing else will do....and guess what Nanna has? A WHOLE DRAWER FULL OF TUPPERWARE AND BOWLS! ON THE BOTTOM LEVEL OF DRAWERS! OH MY GOD THE JOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (the last bit was written from Eddie. He really, really loved this drawer...duh!)

And that's all I've got for now. Eddie is still having some sensitivity with his tooth popping through so we've got a little bit of crabbing happening around these parts. There is a little bit of a corner showing, so the little tooth is making it's way slowly but surely. The sooner the better....please!!

-maggie

Dear Teeth....

...you SUCK! Eddie's crazy mood for the past week finally have a reason. Yesterday Eddie woke up at 8:00am (after sleeping 10.5 hours thru the night), then went down for his nap at 10:00am. He normally naps for about 1.5 hours at this one....not so yesterday! He ended up sleeping for 6 hours - until 4:00 in the afternoon. It was insane.
Last night he woke up 3 or 4 times in the night and woke up at 5:30 unable to calm back down. He wouldn't eat his bottle, he wouldn't stop crying. After a dose of Tylenol, he finally calmed enough to go back to sleep. When he woke up, he was a little crabby but mostly himself. He wouldn't drink a bottle, but he would eat solids without a problem. We had him laughing and smiling, but he would also randomly break into tears. Since the babysitter was coming so I could do some hard core cleaning (with the help of Frank our garage is clean!! I also scrubbed the floors and did a hard clean of the kitchen...) I was hoping that he was going to do okay without me or Frank to keep him calm. Thankfully, he loves his babysitter....but not enough to eat a bottle for her.
After some playing in the pool, a small nap and a mini-breakdown for Claire, we decided to give Eddie one of the Pedialyte Popsicles we have in the freezer. He had about an inch of the Popsicle left and Claire saw flecks of blood on it (she did say she thought that it had pieces of strawberries in it - LOL!). PANIC MODE FOR ME!! We peeked in his mouth and what do you know? A perfect tooth line cutting across is lower gum (bottom incisor) that was bleeding away. PANIC MODE AGAIN! I never saw his first tooth cut, all the sudden the line was just there. I didn't know if it was supposed to bleed when it cuts, so a call to Nanna was in order. Thankfully, Nanna said it was normal and the bleeding stopped almost as soon as it had started. That little tooth just needed and extra push to come out.....thank you, Popsicle!

Soon enough, my baby will have 2 teeth. And while I was writing this post, Frankie called me over to watch him walk with his little push thing - something that he hadn't mastered until about 5 minutes ago. And what do you know? He's pushing that thing all around the house! Walking is coming...eek!
After a 6 hour cleaning spree, a broken down car (did I mention that? For the second time this month) and a new tooth, the whole Turza family is quite tired. Here's hoping the world is back to normal tomorrow...we need a break!

-maggie

Randoms

--My Great Aunt Kathi sent me this picture of her and my Great Great Aunt Neva who did in fact, turn 100 in June. Doesn't she look awesome for 100?!?! Pretty awesome.

--Casey made it to Day 5 of the World Series of Poker before getting knocked out. He made it to 255th place and won a nice chunk of cash. Now let's hope he doesn't spend it all during the rest of his trip!

-- I am thinking of doing Bakerealla's awesome hamburger cupcake/brownie treats for Eddie's birthday (visit Bakerealla.blogspot.com to see what I'm talking about - it's under 'fast food fun') but with regular size cupcakes, not mini ones. If I haven't mentioned it here, we are doing a baseball (Rookie of the Year!) themed party at the park and baseball field down the street from our house. The party is giving me a reason to be creative, which I definitely need right now. (pity party below) There is sooo much to think about with this party...I still have to call the caterer, get going on the picture banners and 'Turza Field' signs and just overall figure out how I am going to decorate a big, plain building. We're going to need lots and lots of decorations!!

--I currently have the crabbiest baby in the world (hence the lack of coherent blogging) and am hoping this passes soon. It started 2 days ago when he was just a little whiny - then yesterday was ALL OUT whining/crying all day - today he is showing the signs of whiny. Wonderful! Yesterday he also learned how to open handed smack me in the face, which is super fun. I nixed that one pretty fast and he's only tried it once since the 'beat momma' madness. Whew! With the attack of angry baby, I am getting more and more antsy to do something - ANYTHING. Coming up soon I will post about my 1 year anniversary of bed rest and leaving the working world and I am really starting to feel it. i don't know what I want to do yet, but I know it is something. Right now I am trying to keep myself motivated with thoughts of an entire house organize/cleaning spree (oh, how we need one...), getting a bike trailer for Eddie or just doing something artistic and creative. Last night Eddie and I watched Frank get appointed to our Town's planning commission and while it was awesome for him, I couldn't help but think that he is out there doing all this stuff and I sit at home. Variation in my day includes: playing in the living room, playing in the kitchen, playing in the playroom...changing diapers, changing outfits. I need some variation along the way, know what I mean??

Meh...this random post has turned into a little of a pity party...sorry about that. Stay tuned, though...I'll have some pictures to post of Frankie's appointment to the planning commission and I'll also have the post about my upcoming anniversary. I promise not to throw a pity party all week :)

-maggie

We call him Gilligan

As planned, we went to St. Charles today for the Paddlewheel ride on the Fox River. It was the perfect day for a boat ride - the sun was lightly covered by some cloud cover, there was a slight breeze and the temperature was warm but not too hot. Perfection!! After the LG boat incident, I was a little worried about being out for an hour and not being able to turn around, but Eddie did wonderfully and we all had a great time. The boat launches from Pottowatomie Park in STC and they recently built a replica of a shelter that was there long ago. The detail on this shelter is stunning. They also re-landscaped around the main parts of the park, so they really created a beautiful place for residents and visitors. We got to check it out while we were waiting for the boat to get going...Eddie was also able to flirt with some of the ladies on the boat (clapping, giggling - ever the charmer). Once we got going, he enjoyed watching the paddlewheel on the back of the boat, and even tried to share with it his paci....aw, such a good sharer!

The river was pretty busy, so that was also helpful in keeping Eddie occupied by looking around at the various boats, jet skiers and tubers. Thank you to everyone on the river today!

On our way back (2 miles each way) Eddie started to get a little sick of staying in one place (could it have been the pictures? No way!) so we had to work a little harder to cheer him up. Mommy kisses DID NOT do the trick. Haha - like all of the black and white? We're riding a historic paddlewheel boat, here! LOL. I did end up just sitting him on the bench and he went back and fourth between pulling up on the bars and playing with his toys on the bench (aka trying to throw them on the ground and trying to push them between the bench slats).

This was really the best plan of the trip - he felt 'free' enough to not freak out that I was holding on to him but we felt safe enough.

After the boat trip we went to a little place on the river for lunch, where Eddie promptly choked on a cracker. FUN! It was the first time he had really choked, and while I am good under pressure (years of CPR training will do that to you) it was still scary. He got it up by himself right before I flipped him to give him back blows. Thankfully, we haven't had to do that yet, so we're still counting our blessings. For all the parents out there - PLEASE make sure you know what to do in this situation. Get trained....it isn't hard to learn and you could save a life.

-maggie

We're Youngs!

That's right! Saturday we went to the Young family reunion. How in the world am I a Young, you ask? Well....

Sally was my grandmother. She passed away about 4 years ago....could it be 5? Wow. My Mama was a fighter....she had breast cancer and kicked that. Then, she had her bottom jaw removed due to cancer (smoking will do that to you) and replaced with the small bone in from her leg (!!) and skin grafted from her hip. She kicked that one, too. In the end, cancer won. She was in the hospital for a long time before she passed and I visited her pretty much every day. We became really close and there are very few days that pass that I don't think about her. It was very surreal being around all of her brothers and sisters that look sooo much like her....I'm sure it was much harder for my mom.

Good thing she had Eddie there to keep her smiling! Do you see that look of adoration in his eyes? Man, he loves his Nanna.

Here are the remaining Young kids. Who you can't see here is the brood of grandchildren, nephews, nieces and great- nephews and nieces. I also didn't get a picture of my great-great Aunt Neva who was there, and looking good, I might add! I think I overheard someone saying she was going to be 100 soon, which was amazing. If I'm wrong, please comment and let me know. I know I've got some Young family readers out there! (HI!!!!)

The reunion was at the Randall Oaks park in Dundee which not only has a ton of pavilion/land space for events like ours, it also has a golf course, banquet center and petting zoo (near the parks, not the wedding place :)...) So of course, we went over to the petting zoo ready to show Eddie that there are other animals out there than the ones that say 'woof'! Too bad we're too cheap to pay to see the non-woofers. Poor kid will be the one that grows up thinking a horse says woof :) So instead, we were those creepy people that walked around the outside and looked through the chain link fence....yup...that's us!

The goat promptly stared us down for being cheap. He was king of the goats (standing on top of a large concrete pipe) and seemed quite mad at us. Ah, well. Another day, goat. Another day.

After all of that excitement, Mom and I may or may not have driven to Sonic to get a cherry limeade (OMG - love!) and went back to their house for some pool time. Frankie and my Dad got back from their golf game (with some quite funny stories of my dad skidding the cart down a hill - on purpose, Frankie being flung out of the cart (not while skidding out), hitting trees, a scary 'village' that Dad was totally creeped out by and generally getting their asses kicked by the very difficult course. HA!) and we all enjoyed some time on their patio.

When we started getting ready for dinner, someone talked about having coleslaw. If I haven't mentioned it, my mom started a HUGE garden in their backyard and had some cabbage that she needed to pick. Internet, I present you.....the cabbage...

Isn't it beautiful? Mom was quite proud of herself. As you can see, Eddie was too. And it made some of the yummiest coleslaw I have ever had! Good job, Mom!

All in all, it was a good day. Eddie had another anti-nap day, which he seems to do when we're out and about, so he was starting to really meltdown by the end of the day. Does anyone have any advice there? When we're out, he'll only nap in the car, even if it we've only been in the car for 15 minutes. One day, he napped a total of 1 hour 15 minutes (aka the day not to be named - I think all three of us broke down by the end of that one!). I have started traveling with his blankie so if I lay him down (mostly at my mom's house in the same pack and play that we have at home) he will still have his comfort, but even that doesn't work. He was such an easy sleeper before - I could get him to sleep anywhere, anytime....It is not only exhausting, it has also made me very weary of doing a long day of events because by the end of it, he really isn't a happy camper. Hopefully this is just a phase - I can't stay home all day anymore - I'm going nutty! If anyone has any advice out there, I'd love to hear it.

We're going to try to go to St. Charles tomorrow for a river ride and a little shopping....hopefully the man will nap a little more cooperatively for us. Think positively, right?

-maggie

PS - For those that are interested, Casey is doing AWESOMELY at the World Series of Poker. He has not only made it to day 4 but he did it with over $300k in chips! My last update was earlier this afternoon and he was down to $220k but still in it. At the end of day 3 he only had 150 players to boot out before he was in the money. Can you believe it?! I am hoping with all my might that Casey makes it to the money - good luck!!