Saturday, July 31, 2010

Weekend memories

We started the weekend off with painting our family room. I wanted some fun colors for the room that we would be spending a lot of time in so 'Tea Bag' and 'Spiced Plum' went on the walls and I love it!
That darn plasma still has to go up but it's coming along. I will only post another picture of the family room AFTER the TV goes up, maybe it will go up faster that way.
Saturday, we did... well not a whole lot besides food shopping and a visit to "Kaka" (my sister Kathy). My family is officially obsessed with D, they lived further away before (a whole 30 minutes!!!) and now they just can't get enough of him. Now, that D is talking more I do have to admit he's even cuter than before. He is putting 2-3 word phrases together and is just repeating everything! It's music to my ears. Over the last month he has made such progress I sometimes look at him and just cry, because I'm so proud of him. I remember people telling me "it will just happen over night, you'll see" and I would think "it just doesn't happen over night" BUT for him it really did. It just clicked. My sugar plum dumpling found his voice and has gotten pretty vocal lately. He has therapy twice a week. He has a great new therapist that is young and "perky" (as my mom in law says). She is impressed with D's improvement as well.

On to other weekend events, Sunday we had Ryan's family come for a small bbq. His Aunt Georgene flew in from CA for a marathon with Ryan's other aunt Bonnie (she lives close but we just don't see her enough). We had polish sausage (of course), chicken with veggies, corn, potatoes and great chips and dip and dessert (both which my in-laws provided which were great!). It was fun to spend time together in our new home.
Here are some pics, not much, I was lazy with picture taking and of course as I write this I regret I didn't make everyone pose like I usually do.
D showing aunt Bonnie his water table.
Ready to eat
Smelling flowers
Aunt Bonnie playing bags...by herself
she got everyone else involved
The biggest annoying thing of the party....D dragging anyone that would follow him to any car that was open so he could do this
Ryan and I are so sick of hearing "Mama's Car" "Dada's Car". A black car in 90 degree weather is not our idea of fun. He knows every button and compartment in our cars. It's exhausting. No, he will not be a race car driver, like everyone says...like that's supposed to make me feel better! After every dish was washed and left overs put away I day dreamed of this...
a nice claw-foot tub that I would love to take a bath in, soak my tired legs and have a glass of wine. Our bathroom only has a shower and D's bathroom looks like a showroom bathroom, only problem, the showroom is from the 1950's!
We have tons of other projects to do before we demolish that bathroom but doesn't this tub just look fantastic?
I can picture myself soaking in there and getting pruned and Ry calling after me to make sure I was still alive. Friday evening I would walk in there with my bath bubbles, a good book, a glass of wine and leave all my worries outside the bathroom door. Oh it would be heaven. My grandma used to have a tub like this on her farm and I remember feeling so small in it and my mom having to get me out of it because it was too darn tall. Maybe soon I can share a beauty like this with D, although not sure how he would feel about that as a teenager. It's either that or busting through his closet to gain more bathroom space in ours. Hmmmm, the possibilities.
And tomorrow is yet another Monday. I hope the week goes by fast.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

I needed this

Oh how I love this woman's blog. I wish I had a way with words like she does and her talent for picture taking.
I check her blog daily to see if she has any new posts. This one really made me think.

www.kellehampton.com/2010/07/wild-and-precious-life.html

It's so hard to think of the little things in life that make a day so special and Kelle just makes it so easy.
I don't even know her but if you read her full story you will be addicted.
And now I will go and treasure my little bug before he goes off to sleep.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Who needs lights? Weekend Recap

The weekend started with Ry and I taking Friday off to go to the zoo but with the heat index at 103 we decided to skip it.
So, instead we visited a possible daycare center for D. We walked in and he immediately felt at home. He took out a bin of cars and started playing with them. He actually cried when we tried to leave, I think it was more about the cars than anything else. We have to decide soon about what we're going to do about his sitter and daycare situation.
Later on we went to Playland Palace and he ran around until he got hungry and it got ugly. A trip to McDonald's calmed things down.
Our next stop was to the pet store that we took D to a while back. He quickly zoomed past all the animals and was ready to leave. I of course dragged the boys to the learning store next door and bought D a few things, including "First Words" flashcards, felt transportation series (another use for our weather felt board) and Thistle blocks. $60 poorer and 10 degrees hotter we got home.
Friday night we had a huge storm here and our power went out. I barely slept all night and the icing on the cake was when we heard a huge bang and our power went out. D slept through it all. Ry and I on the other hand were checking the basement for water by candle light, OK that was me not Ry (I get very paranoid about water). Ry went for ice at 6:30 in the morning to keep D's milk cold. At 7am we decided we needed a generator. Off to Menards we went and $400 later we had a 3500 watts generator in our trunk along with about $25 worth of ant killer sprays, traps and other contraptions. Ryan is at war with the ants in the back yard and this time those buggers don't stand a chance. We seriously spent more time looking at ant spray than we did choosing a generator.
An hour later we had our fridge plugged in and an hour after that the power was back on. D waved to the ComEd trucks as they rolled by and gave them the thumbs up. After all of that D took a good nap and I went on a trip to the local paint store to get going on the paint for our family room. More to come on that.
Sunday, we went to the zoo with Ryan's parents. Here are some new memories...

Official measurement of D comparing his height to a dolphin.
This picture is from his first trip to the zoo.
and this was today. I can hardly believe it!
Watching the dolphins
Chicks diggin D
Children's Zoo
My sweet boy
Monkey fun
Trying to figure out which one is cuter. He was a willing participant.
A souvenir from Grandma and Papa and mama and dada for being such a good boy!
I love looking back at these three pictures.
2008
2009
2010
We'll see you next year animals!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Check that off the list

Our floors in the family room are done and they look great. I'm so excited to get that project out of the way as that room became the dumping ground for every tool, bag and tons of shoes. Here it is. We still need to paint and put our TV up there but it's coming along. Any suggestion for wall color? I'm going nuts!

Daniel's room transformation is also in full swing. I took his white baby letters that were above his crib and transformed them into vintage letters. Looks decent. I only bought the red and used the other colors that we had around the house. I was a little dizzy after the fumes. A second coat will go on today and they will be hung up so I will post the updated look. Many more projects need to be done but one thing at a time is the best way to tackle things.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Staying cool!

This weekend could be summarized in just two words...unbearable heat!
We started to cool off Friday by setting up D's water table and letting him go to town. Usually that means tipping the table over a few times.
Saturday, we went to the pool with my sister, mom and dad. Ry stayed home to prepare the family room for the floor installation on Monday but when we got home we found him happy with his PlayStation and comic books.
Sunday, after running some errands we decided to set up a water park for D in the backyard. He had a blast. As I was preparing lunch inside here is what my view was from the kitchen window. Mommy can be creative with a cheap blow up pool and a slide.
With so much splashing D had to refill a few times
We enjoyed a picnic as a family
before going back for some more fun
If you noticed D wearing slightly pink with a little mermaid swimmers, you're seeing right. They were hand me downs from my friend and they have to be used up. Don't worry he does not go to the local pool looking like this. This was only in our backyard. It's a recession people. He is in touch with his feminine side. If grandpa is reading this he is probably sending grandma to the nearest babies r us. We cannot accept boy specific swimmers, we have about 60 more of the pink ones to use. :)
D loves having his cousins live so close by, he just adores them especially "Tiisss" (Chris)
With a good nap in the afternoon we decided to start a tradition with marking how tall D is in our new house. Ryan's grandparents did this for him in their house when he was little so instead of a fancy growth chart we marked directly on the wall.
We can't wait to do this every once in a while to see his progress.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.

After unpacking for a few days I came across some hand me downs that made for some evening fun with D.
Yes, this is a girl's Indian costume, maybe one day it can be worn by a girl or D can sing YMCA with it on. Until then, back in the box it goes.
Check out the shoes
D is more interested in books lately than playing dress up
Maybe a police man outfit would be better.
Have a great weekend everyone!