Winter Wonderfest with the Blackhawks!

Good ol' Uncle Keith hooked us up again, this time with tickets to Navy Pier's Winter Wonderfest, courtesy of the Chicago Blackhawks! The Blackhawks do so many fun family oriented events and since Keith and Erin don't have babes yet (wedding is set for next NYE!!!!) we get to do lots of fun things and are always so thankful for the opportunities!

Winter Wonderfest was very, very cool. An indoor ice rink, lots of inflatable bouncy houses and slides, rides, decorations, even a ferris wheel! It was such a magical place and Eddie was out of his mind. So fun.

{the pictures are a little crazy because a). the whole place had dim blue lighting, which made it look awesome in person but wonky on camera and b). i only had my phone....in the craziness of leaving i forgot my camera and almost cried}

{is that navy pier? is that navy pier? is thhhhhaaaaaaattttttttt navy pier?!?!}

{we heard that the whole way there}

{eddie loved the tall building with all of the "sparkly lights"}

{eddie and frank with coach mikey!}

{towes}

{eddie waving to sharpie}

{skating rink...so pretty!}

{skating was a little rough this go around!}

{auntie chris came, too!}

{tommy hawk!}

{cute!!]

{inflatable slides = eddie's life}

{crazy carcillo}

{a horrible picture, but eddie and I getting ready to go down the crazy huge slide}

{and my finney man}

{best bouncy house ever}

{so i go and feed finn, come back and find frankie and christine pelting random kids in the snowball area. crazy turza's!}

{police man Eddie}

{of course we HAD to watch the Zamboni}

{"eddie, do you want to go to jail?" (way too excited) "YEAH!!!!"}

{me and finney boo in front of the big tree}

And the decorations? Totally motivate me to redo my Christmas tree. I felt way too inadequate.

{that tree in the back? huge!}

{the beautiful breast cancer awareness tree in honor of Maggie Daley}

{ferris wheel!! eddie wouldn't go on it and I wouldn't go by myself. boo!}

{the rides.....so fun! i want to make this place a Christmas tradition, it was that awesome}

A million pictures, I know, but I was so in love with this place. It totally kicked my bah-humbug butt back into Christmas gear.

Potty humor. Kinda.

Let's talk three's again, shall we? I know the other day I rehashed how insane it is, this roller coaster of awesome and hellish, the mood swings of pure insane toddler joy and then complete heartbreak in the same day, hour, minute....but what I didn't mention is the hilarious things he comes up with, whether they're questions or games to play or yet another outfit thrown together in secret changing sessions. 

The other day his teacher mentioned that "his brain seems to be working faster than his little mouth can form the words" which, can I just say, NO SHIT SHERLOCK (sorry, she said this as if to relate it to him having ADD, which is another post in and of itself), but yes, his brain is going all the time and all day long he's asking questions and telling us stories. We of course get the "why?" thing about a million times, and he also loves to ask "are we there yet?" when we're in the car (about the 50th time my brain explodes and I just stop answering) but the question that bugs me most is about the bathroom. Not Eddie's bathroom, habits, but my own. Yes, I get the shakedown every time I head to the loo. "Momma?" He asks "Are you going pee or poo?" And I HAVE to answer, because if I don't he just shouts the question as if the response is a life or death matter. "AAAAAREEE YOU GOING POOOOOOOOOOOO????" (holy hell, the things I write about on here)

Lovely, right? Somehow announcing my intentions to the household before I do them makes it that much more embarrassing. But what is the kid supposed to do, ya know? Every time HE makes his way there, I'm giving him the 20 questions, asking if he's done yet or if he wiped his butt, remembered to flush, etc. Is this the age that I should be giving him some space in the potty? Because hell, I know I sure want mine back. 

Oh hello

Yay for Frankie!! He got the MacBook fixed, which means lots of blogging from here on out. wooty woot woot woot sauce.

All about Eddie

Eddie is a whole new world of personality, and while 3 is full of moments that are so beyond awesome, it is also full of "WTF" moments where you're wondering what is going on in that growing mind. He is so, so funny...his imagination is out of control and we spend most of our days playing pretend or making up world with his action figures and such. The love of firemen and firetrucks and firehouses and every other fire related / rescue things (we have rescue boats and ambulances and on and on and on) is going strong, too, and we hear lots of stories about a fire here, there and everywhere. He often tries to convince us that houses are on fire (oh, chimneys and fireplaces are so confusing right now) and the other day when a neighbor had called 911 and a firetruck and 2 ambulances were parked across the street I practically had to stop him from throwing on his fire hat and running over to help.

The downfall of three? The tantrums. OH MY GOD, the tantrums. Full, screaming tantrums that I won't give him cookies. That I've asked him to listen. That I'm asking him not to pick on Jack. And all of those times that I said that two was a little shaky and everyone told me that three was worse and I didn't believe them? I'm sorry for that. I suppose that part of it is you hear that there is the terrible two's and the fucking fours, and nothing about three. NOTHING! That doesn't mean that three is a magical age. Oh, no. It means that nothing fucking rhymes with three so we're all just left scratching our heads and staring with awe at the hot mess that is a three year old. AND WE STILL HAVE EIGHT MONTHS. not that I'm counting.

He still won't really let me take his picture, so the ones I actually take are few and far between. Mr. Vanity sure does love taking pictures of himself though, and those are some of the funniest things I've seen.

{silly}

{anyone else see the makings of a brooding teenager in this one?}

{no joke, this is what my phone is filled with}

{seriously, this boy is INSANE about Christmas this year. He was adamant that he decorate this little tree all by himself and has it in his bedroom where he can stare at him masterpiece}

{tiny eddie toes are the giveaway that eddie took this one of Finney}

{nosy bunch of boys}

{and yes, Eddie is wearing a basketball outfit in the middle of winter. His new obsession is changing into his own outfits. We go through about 3 a day, mostly variations of his athletic clothes}

{occasionally he goes really off the wall and dons a bathing suit in December. he thought this was the funniest thing ever!}

{taken when, on the phone with my mom, I accidentally spilled the entire bag of marshmallows. Eddie dove - no joke - face first into the pile and INHALED as many as he could. I hung up on my mom, and snapped away...all while almost peeing my pants laughing. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life. Occasionally he would look at me and laugh with a mouthful of marshmallow. It is quite possibly one of my favorite Eddie moments}

{swimming class! finally a *real* reason to use that bathing suit!}

I think it is so funny that the tiny peek into life with Eddie shows all of the sides of his hilarious personality...from looking so old in some of his self portraits to looking so babyish in his swim class, Eddie seems like he's growing so fast, but still showing me snippets of the baby that he still is. I am constantly reminding myself that three isn't that old! Silly Eddie man makes my heart whole :)

Rice Cereal

{momma, you sure are making a funny face right now}

{WHOA. what did you just shove in there?}

{meh. thing is all right, i guess}

December 6, 2011 - Finnegan's first taste of rice cereal (mixed with breastmilk). Eddie gladly helped me with feeding Finn (meaning he sat with me at the table and laughed hysterically when Finney spit out the food, which, at this point, was pretty much everything that went into his mouth) and I got a whole new view of life with 2 kids. We're going to need a tight schedule around these parts to stay sane! 

4 months

Oh Finney. My Finn man, let's chat about you for a second, ok?

The basics....you're in size 2 diapers, wearing 6 month clothing and sleep through the night. You take one long glorious nap in the afternoon (at the same time as your brother, woot!!!) and you are still nursing like a rock star. You went to the doctor today and are 14 pounds exactly, 25 inches long and are staying right around the 50% for both. We're going to be starting solids soon, which terrifies and excites me at the same time. How are you this old already?

You smile, gurgle and giggle at anyone and everyone who talks to you. You hate tummy time, as evidenced by your massive (MASSIVE) bald spot and how loud you screamed when you accidentally rolled from your back to your tummy. It was the first and only time, and I'm pretty sure that you pushed yourself up and over by pushing off of my leg, and based on your reaction I'm pretty sure that you won't be very motivated to do that again :)

Everyone who holds you comments on how strong you are, and you're ahead in your language skills (ma and ga's already!) which either means that your lung steroids really pumped you up or that you're a genius. Let's split the two, shall we?

You're eyes are still very blue, so blue and gorgeous that so many times I find myself staring at them with amazement. I don't understand how they've stayed breathtakingly blue, but I'll take 'em. Your stork bite is also beyond prominent, and while the pedi said that you're going to eventually outgrow it (rather, your skin will get thicker and hide it) I'm so used to it that I don't even notice it anymore.

You're very into toys lately, your favorites being anything that you can grab and chew. I suppose you like to keep your options open. In fact, the other day, when I didn't give you anything, you just grabbed your shirt and just went to town. You still reject the paci, which still shocks me considering that your big brother was OBSESSED, but we've come to expect that anything your brother loved you hate and vice versa.

Speaking of that crazy little munchkin, you love him. And oh man, he loves you! He talks to you in a silly little voice, one that I only heard when you were born. Just the other day you were in your swing and he went up and said "what you doin'? what you doin'? you swingin'? you swingin'? yes you is! yes you is! you love swingin', don't you? yes!!" and OH MY SWEET BABY JESUS my heart exploded into a million pieces and came back all Grinch style at twice or three times or whatever the size. You get greeted before I do when we pick Eddie up from preschool and you're the first thing he asks about in the morning. Well, you and Stanley the Elf, but Stanely is only a fad....you're brother's obsession with you is way stronger :)

You're also cute as a button, have I told you that?

{Four months. And I love you more everyday!}

And again...

Is it normal to compare your kids like this? I find it fascinating to find any simiarities between the two....they're hard to find but I promise they're there!

LOL, see what I'm saying about the face shape? Finney doesn't have Eddie's crazy block head. But the dimples? The same! Maybe the chin, too...