Pass the helmet

{i need this, not the little monster shown here}

I hate to say it, but Eddie is a TERROR lately. The main problem? Hitting. As in open handed smacking me in the face. No matter what I say (hitting isn't nice, we don't hit mommy, that hurts mommy, etc) he laughs and laughs and continues to pull his hand back to smack me. And you know what? It hurts. And mostly, it makes me scared at times to go on the same level as Eddie, because that seems to be prime momma-smacking time.

It started when we were snuggling in bed together the other day, him clawing my face and smacking me, and ended with him crying in his room (i so sowwy momma!) and me having a lovely (and probably mostly hormone induced) meltdown. It also ended with me finishing a box of girl scout cookies (thanks erin!) but we'll try to forget about that.

Yesterday, no smacking. Happy Eddie, happy Momma. Today? Hubs had just left for work and I took Eddie to the potty. Momma on Eddie's level = prime smacking time, and sure enough, I got a good couple of 'em. After avoiding his little pullback for like, 2 minutes, trying to talk nicely to him and not lose my shit, I finally called Hubs and told him to come back and talk to Eddie. For some reason, Eddie is listening to Hubs much, much more lately and I needed backup. Sure enough, Hubs comes home and I was finally able to get Eddie on the potty, but as Hubs was talking and I was putting Eddie's PJs back on, he got a good smack in, right on my cheek. Hubby, who has never actually seen Eddie hit me, finally realized how bad it was. He had a long, long talk with Eddie while I had a good cry (oh my god, hormones) and we came up with some "nice things to do with our hands" like clapping and petting faces and hugging. So far, so good, but to be honest it's only been an hour and a half since hubby left and I'm still flinching when Eddie comes close. Ugh.

Of course, I'm completely terrified that he's going to hit one of the neighbor kids, or hit the baby when he/she comes home. And the lovely pregnancy hormones are not helping. I hate feeling that I'm losing control of him, but at the same time I know that 2 1/2 is a very hard age and I also know that my spirited little boy has spring fever and needs to be outside running instead of locked in the house. We're sooo ready for spring, people. There's only so much hockey that can be played in the kitchen and basketball that can be played in the living room.

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So what else is going on with Eddie? In a (hopefully) unrelated note, the pacifier fairy came and took away Eddie's pacis!!! Shockingly enough, he has been totally fine with the transition and didn't cry on the first night without them or since....nap times I assumed would be tough, but they've been fine too. The one thing that has been tough that I didn't expect was the car trips...it has been the only time that he has cried and asked for his paci. And while it made for a couple rough car trips, yesterday he only asked for them once or twice while in the car. We're getting there! The other thing that I didn't expect was the banning of the blankies. Since forever Eddie has needed his paci and blankies together, so I figured when we took away the paci the blankies would take over. Nope! He wants nothing to do with them. Unfortunately, this also means that we had lost any way to help Eddie calm down. After some discussion, he decided that he wanted a Jessie doll from Toy Story. Sure enough, we got him a Jessie doll and he is totally in love....it was the cutest thing to watch him sleep with her last night....Hubs even said that he made sure to tuck her under the covers with him :) Cute!

weeeeeeeeeeeee!

super bowl sunday was fun for more than one reason........we went sledding! with mac and amy! and kelly and madeline! and nanna and grandpa! fun times were had by all....well, once we got the right kind of sleds. what the eff happened to real sleds? all we could find were these little sheets of plastic, the first set of which wouldn't even go down the hill without one of us on it. my dad and i ended up running out to find some better options, and while they were still sheets of plastic, it was shiny plastic on the bottom! much better!

{get ready for an insane amount of pictures!}

{how we made the hike to the hill with eddie....good call bapa!}

{our first try at using the bad sleds}

{my favorite picture of the day! eddie falling, madeline saying 'aw man!' kelly saying 'oh!' and mac and i making basically the same face}

{omigod. so cute! this boy looooves the snow}

{mac pushed eddie and i down the hill. i spent the whole time saying TOO FAST! TOO FAST! but look at eddie's smile!}

{second favortie picture of the day....eddie's expression kills me}

{good crash, hubs!}

{mac and kelly racing....can you guess who won?}

{go nana!}

{ok, lots of favorite pictures of the day...this is another one. eddie looooved playing with his aunt amy!}

{kelly and madeline zooming down the hill}

{bapa crashing}

{bapa is a good crasher too!}

{cute!}

{cuter!}

{daddy and eddie crashing at the same time}

{the final race}

{eddie making a snow angel}

Phew! Told you, lots of pictures!! It was such a fun day and eddie still talks about it. Love love love! I should note that I fell, hard, walking down the sledding hill. Not when Eddie and I went down, but just walking down the hill. I'm not kidding when I say that I either sprained or broke my tailbone, and my butt still hurts, baaaad! Otherwise the day was perfect!

She said YES!

So a while back my bff Stefie got engaged! Her wonderful finace Mike is a fire fighter and was our savior back when Eddie split his head open :) So when Stef asked if I could try and take some engagement photos for them, I was super nervous but promised to try my best.

We decided to head to Navy Pier since we could shoot pictures on the lakefront, indoor at the gardens and by the ferris wheel. To top it off, we came across the fire boat and after a little sweet talking, they let us take some pictures on board! Yay!!

Here are just a couple of my favorites....

And my favorite of them all?

{loooove!!!}

I love my Stefie, love fireman Mike (as Eddie calls him) and am happy with about 25% of the pictures I took....lol.

12 weeks

I had my 12 week dr appt today, so I figured I'd play baby book part 2 and post some info.

Weeks: 12w2d
Heartbeat: heard it! It took a while to find which was terrifying, but it sounded good once we got it!
Weight: -4lbs (-6 total)
Feeling: great, other than going to bed super early I usually forget I'm pregnant.
Craving: anything tart and citrusy. Sour patch kids? Yumola! Sunny D? Usually totally gross, now totally delish.
Next appointment: about 4 weeks and starting the rotation of drs in the practice.


I took Eddie with me to the appointment which I was super nervous about. Turns out I was worrying about nothing since he was nothing less than a little angel. Go Eddie! I brought his doctor toys with and he had a great time copying the doctor and nurses. Dr. K probably sent more time talking to the munchkin than he did with me! They had a great time chatting ;) Update: I did this on madres iPad and the format is totally messed up. I'll fix it when I get home!

Valentine's Day Warrior

finger painting....was such a horrible idea sooo fun!

gimme a kiss!

BLIZZARD!!

One of the huge things that happened while I was on my bloggy break (other than that....other  thing below!) was the great blizzard 2011. Things were SO panic-y leading up to the blizzard that I taught Eddie to wave his hands in the air and say "BLIZZARD!!" anytime anyone said the b-word....and he still does it! Heh. In all seriousness, it was a big one and I am so thankful that we were able to hunker down in our nice warm home and stay safe.

Hubby left work early since the snow had already started and our lovely corn field surroundings create some terrifying snow drifts over the roads. Thankfully, his company decided to close down all branches late in the afternoon so all employees could get home safely. In fact, they closed totally on Wednesday since most roads were closed and people were stuck in their homes. But I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I?

Tuesday the snow started as just some flurries. Not bad. In the afternoon the wind started, a howling, strong wind that sent our windows shaking. Thanks again cornfields...nothing to block the winds.Of course Eddie, the snow loving man that he is, loved every minute of it. We watched the snow drift in the back yard get higher and higher, listened to the winds get stronger and shoveled every now and then. Tuesday night one of our basement windows blew in because of the wind, but other than that we didn't have any problems!

Wednesday we woke up to an absolute insane amount of snow. I think the official was around 18 inches for our area, 21 inches was the largest amount at one town.

{don't you hate having to dig out your car?}

{our very pretty snow drift in the back}

{whoa!}

Eddie was such an awesome helper....anytime Frank went out to shovel, Eddie followed and cried when it was time to come in. He loves the snow, so this blizzard was perfect for him...he loves talking about the "big snow!" that is (still) in the backyard.

And for the blog book that we'll eventually print, the BLIZZARD!!!! of 2011 started on Tuesday, February 8 and snowed through Wednesday the 9th. Most places were also closed on Thursday because roads were still impassable. Lake Shore Drive in Chicago was shut down with hundreds of cars stuck on it, which was all the news channels were talking about...but we survived :)



Phew!

Holy moly, we've made it! The computer was down and out for sooo long and poor little blog has been totally neglected. Sorry! I have lots to make up for, lots of stories to tell and lots of pictures to share. Expect about a post a day if I can keep up :)

Now, I do have to admit one thing. I didn't mind the blog break THAT much....mainly because it made it basically impossible to spill the beans about this little guy....or girl, I suppose......

That's right.....Turza #2 is on the way!! Little Bean is due 3 days before Eddie turns 3!

Now, we've been getting lots of flack for our "one and done" additude for so long, but the truth is that we've been a little...dishonest with that one :) We decided a bit ago that we wanted Eddie to have a sibling, I wanted a little one to snuggle since Eddie is (mostly) over the snuggling and mostly we just decided it was time. And with how long it took us to get pregnant with Eddie....this one took no time at all!

Also taking no time at all? My belly popping out. It was happy to declare to the world that I was pregnant far before I was actually ready to share, but I hear that is usually how it is with number 2, so I can't be that surprised. And other than a bit of nausea here and there (past a horrible 2 weeks of all day nausea) I've been feeling great. I'm sleepy pretty much all the time, and quickly learned that to keep up with Eddie I have to nap when he naps, which basically means the house is a disaster 24/7, since I'm also going to bed when he does at 8:00...ha!

Now let's hope I didn't jinx myself with that one :)