Birthday girl

It was Grandma's birthday yesterday and we celebrated in style. We worked on a banner for her and made a mess, we bought flowers and a balloon and signed her card with lovely scribbles.

We pitched in with grandpa and bought her an IPad, she was thrilled. Grandpa will have to spend some time teaching her the basics but soon enough D and Grandma will be emailing each other.

Happy Birthday Grandma!! We love you!

With a few distractions from the Wonder Pets...

Clean up time
One of a kind masterpiece

Success

It's only Saturday but I figure I'll make an update early since I think tomorrow will be uneventful.

Our weekend started off great when at 10am this morning we found out that the contract on our NEW home has been signed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After a week of negotiations and a little scare that other people were looking at it yesterday we are done.

We still have the small things like the mortgage approval and a home inspection but the looking and negotiations are OVER and we couldn't be happier. We keep praying nothing major will be found wrong with the house.

The house is in a great neighborhood where I went to High School and where my mom and sister still live.

Speaking of my sister, we'll be neighbors, I'm talking about close neighbors, I can throw my nephew a ball from my driveway. Ryan calls our living situation "hillbilly" like but hey it's home. I won't post pictures until we have before and after shots because this house needs some of my decorating touches, I'll leave it at that. It's on a 1/2 acre lot and the trees and plants are just gorgeous and I'll have a kitchen window to watch D play in the backyard. I always wanted that.

To take our mind off of things we went to a park district resale and bought D some toys.

My MIL told me that D has been playing with a house in their play class and I found the exact same one. It came with the whole family and their mini van.

To go with the house we also bought the family a firetruck (in case the house starts on fire, a G.I .Joe helicopter (in case there is a military attack on the neighborhood), a tow truck (not seen here as Daniel went crazy over it because the side doors opened. It was needed in case the minivan breaks). We threw in a book too for some educational value.

Daniel went to work by putting the parents to bed.

Sticking the baby on the potty (If he suffers daily the baby will too).

After the family was safe he became obsessed with the tow truck.

He was cramming G.I. Joe into the tow truck head first.
And giving him a ride

We had a rough 5 months with living in a hellish rental with heat, plumbing, water issues. Moving in with my in-laws then moving again. It was taking a toll on us so we needed some good news and hope this is a new beginning. Thank you to all of you for your support, prayers and for listening to me as I cried my eyes out on bad days. I thank you!

aaaaaa,aaaaa, choooooooo!

That's the sound that has been heard around the house all weekend. We're all sneezing due to our annoying allergies. Daniel is even immitating me with the sneezing sound constantly.
D is already on Claritin that is not working too well so I don't know if it's a cold. The Dr. told me to try Zyrtec as different allergy meds work differently on everyone. We'll try that.
Our weekend was fairly boring actually. Nothing new...we saw some homes with some potential but nothing solid.
This coming Saturday we're getting ready for the annual park district used toy sale. We're excited. Last time I got a ton of stuff for dirt cheap. D doesn't need more stuff but we figure a couple of outside toys would be good since the poor kid can't even play in his outdoor house that he loved last year. I'm just bummed that he doesn't have a back yard but it's still April so there is hope. The end of April is around the corner and so is the end of the tax break we would get IF we bought a house. Pray for us that we'll have a contract signed in the next week and a half. It will take a miracle!
Sorry no pics to post, I've been lazy.
One fun thing this weekend that we did was to see my nephew play his first baseball game. D enjoyed it for a total of 10 minutes before the blowing sand ticked him off a bit.
He's been into tantrums lately and it's gotten ugly a couple of times. The only advice I have on that is....IGNORE THEM!! Works pretty well for us.

2 Year checkup!

Today (yes a 2 week delay) D had his 2 year checkup.
His stats are 32.8lbs (90%) and 36.5 inches (90%) in height. Overall a proportional healthy boy.

Besides communication he meets all other criteria of a normal 2 year old.
Our wonderful Dr. must have taken classes on how to deal with crazy moms because he just says the right things to me to calm me down. He still says most expressive speech comes between 2-3 years of age but as long as D understands commands and simple questions he's fine. He has an owie on his middle finger from a test and is now walking around with a band aid showing everyone the bird. He's also milking up the attention.
According to the Dr. we need to get rid of the paci cold turkey although he only uses it at night and for naps.

So, what else are you up to these days D:

• You love playing with your CD player. You know how to turn on the CD player, change CDs and hit play.
• You love anything with buttons including the Wii that you turn on for daddy everyday.
• You are now saying a few words but we're working on more with your great therapist Dee Dee.
• You wear size 6 diapers (which are a little big) but I hate seeing red marks on you from diapers that are too tight.
• You have been doing great on the potty, you go after breakfast and dinner but we'll be increasing that soon.
• You love to dance.
• You love music.
• You like to lead, you don't like to follow. Everything is on your terms so when we show you how to do something you don't like it but 5 minutes later you try it because you like to think it was your original idea.
• You have a great sense of humor, especially with grandpa. The two of you are so much alike, you just toy with each other. You won't do any tricks until grandpa leaves the room and peeks in because you just have that kinda relationship. You both laugh about it like you understand each other. Grandpa should know, he didn't talk till he was like 3 or older. The Marron non-talking genes as I call it.
• Grandma loves to watch you twice a week. She does mommy's curriculum so well because she's just as anal as mommy is.
• You know your ABC's, numbers, shapes and colors.
• You can do a new puzzle in 10 seconds flat.
• You love matching pictures, letters and numbers.
• You love drawing, especially circles, then you put dots for the eyes, ears on each side and a line for a hair. It's adorable and looks pretty darn good.
• You've started having tantrums. You will plop on the ground and kick and cry. The other day you hit the cabinet when you were mad.
• You listen to mommy and daddy when we say "NO" pretty well so you don't get time outs just yet.
• You still eat your veggies almost everyday. You love gummy bears, fruit, yogurt, puffs and oatmeal.
• You go by "D", "Daniel", "Danielek" (Polish), "buddy", "sweet pea", "snuggle butt"
• Grandma and Grandpa take you to classes during the week and you just love it. They sneak an ice cream shake here and there also.

You are a sweet, gentle little boy and we love you dearly even if we don't have a house for you just yet we're working on it buddy.

Spring has sprung

Since I'm Polish it's in my genes not to dress my child in shorts too early in fear that a slight breeze on any bare skin may make him sick. This has been instilled in me since birth so I'll blame it on my ancestors who wore pants until temperatures officially hit at least 80 degrees.

Today is the first day D got a chance to look American.

One dinner, one playdate, 9 homes and a funeral

This weekend was pretty busy. Friday night we went to TGI Friday's for dinner. D ate a lot of mac n cheese and was quite happy but after he wanted to drop plates on the floor we flew out of there!

Saturday morning we hosted a play date with 2 cute little girls. D had a lot of fun. D was excited to have ladies in the house but then the excitement wore out and they all played on their own.

Here is D trying to show "A" how to bounce on his turtle toy. She knew how and didn't need any help from a boy. :) Some screaming followed.

Daniel took "A2" phone away.

And here is the #1 hunk all by himself without the ladies. Maybe next time Casanova.Sunday, D has speech therapy. He's doing really well. He's starting to say different words and makeup ones on his own if he doesn't know how to say them.

After that we dropped him off at my mom's and went to see homes. Not one winner, not one possibility.

Saturday I also found out that the president of Poland with his wife and others died in a plane crash. His funeral will be on Tuesday. My home country is in mourning as is my mom who has been glued to the TV all weekend giving me all the details of who is who. (Sigh).

That's about all for our weekend.

Night time fun

Our drummer boy.

Our hoola hoop lover

Have a great weekend!

Weekend Recap

We had a great Easter weekend.

We blessed our baskets.
We went to church, where D was soooo good. (I need a tripod, putting the camera on a very low table....someone is bound to get their head cut off from a picture)

Tortured D with some more pics at home...but you can't beat natural light...look at these beauties
We later enjoyed time with family, had some birthday cake and played with some new toys the Easter bunny brought.

Happy Easter!