Chicago Chronicles

Kindergarten here we come!

2010-09-07T21:22:00.014-05:00

Today was Gabriella's first day of Kindergarten. There has been such a build-up to this day, that I'm feeling a bit of a let down right now. Everything went fine. We read the Ready Confetti poem last night and sprinkled the confetti all around her bed.

And we also began what will be an annual 1st day of school tradition: A Kindercone. This is a tradition in Germany that my friend Cheryl told me about. It's kind of like a mini personal pinata. A cone, filled with goodies and trinkets to celebrate the start of school each year. David helped me make and decorate it, and we filled it with the small Target $1 aisle type gifts I keep on hand, and a special new book: "Tea for Ruby". Gabriella loved the Kindercone!

Then, after dropping Nicholas to play with his good buddies Abram and Micah, a few transportation glitches led us from waiting for a CTA bus (remember all those stories?), to getting in a taxi, to ditching the taxi and walking the rest of the way. Let's just say 1, 600 students being dropped off at one school, at the same time can cause alot of traffic chaos. Anyhow, we made it just in time, and Gabriella loves her teacher. She had met her a couple of times before, and on Sunday she made her a card which she gave to her today. I forgot to scan it, so I quickly took a picture of it when she got it out of her backpack this morning. So innocent and sweet is my daughter.

She can't wait for the first "real" day tomorrow. Today was a only a few hours and the parents accompanied their children for part of the time. Meeting the other parents of supposed "gifted" children is always very interesting to me. So many of us have alot of commonalities, yet very stark differences too. It's also interesting to watch the children and how different they are. Even more amazing is to think how smart all of these kids are at such a young age. They will be delving into 1st grade curriculum as though it's normal, and studying Mandarin Chinese for one hour daily. It's also amazing to me that the teacher can control and teach 30 kids like mine, by herself, all day. Wow. Not a job to be taken lightly. Thank a teacher the next time you see one. Especially if they work for CPS where the student:teacher ratio is so high (30:1).

The saddest part of my day was not letting go of my little girl who is growing up. The saddest part of my day was when I had to make sure Gabriella's teacher knew that she has a 504 plan. I put it off until we were leaving and Gabriella was nowhere near. When I told her about it, the teacher's response was, "Oh, does she have Asthma?" I wanted to cry. I did cry inside. After a 60 second run down on Marfan Syndrome with a "don't freak out" emphasis, the teacher was interested to read about it on the website, in addition to learning Gabriella's specifics in her 504. I had already written www.marfan.org on Gabriella's getting to know you sheet that we had to complete this morning while there.

So why does this make me so sad? Have I still failed to "get over it", and not accept what our future is? No. What makes me so sad is that my daughter can never again just be that sweet, cute blonde girl that likes pink, purple and blue. She has to be singled out from the start. She can't just be one of the kids in room xxx. I despise doing this. Setting her apart from the beginning just seems so unfair to me. She can never just be Gabriella to her teacher. Her identity is, Gabriella the girl with the heart problem and other issues from that weird syndrome I had never heard of, Marfan. This is much worse than letting my baby grow up and go off to Kindergarten. So bittersweet was the end to a great first day of Kindergarten for me.

In spite of my issues at the end of the day, Gabriella will be wonderful and will thrive in this environment, I can tell already! She will create for us daily, stories and pictures of her life as a Kindergartener, and I'm sure I will share some of them here. So for now, enjoy the shots of her new backpack and 1st day of school outfit!

And BTW, big kudos to the staff of our new school for taking the professional aspect of your job seriously enough to not dress like the latest teen pop-star. The teachers and administration all dress better than most corporate workers these days. I love it. David was even mistaken for a principal by one child, since he was wearing a suit. I'm pretty sure the real principal gets credit for the tres chic dresscode. My daughter will respect all of you so much more for the way you dress as her teacher. Oh, and me too.

With Papa

Drawing her self-portrait

Giving her teacher her card

With Mama

Sporting the new monogrammed backpack
Opening her Kindercone!

Hot town Summer in the city

2010-08-31T22:41:00.002-05:00

This song is all I could sing after driving down a certain street in my Uptown neighborhood, on the way home from rehearsal tonight. Gang bangers were swarming everywhere. Seriously. This has got to stop.

But I do appreciate the great song by lovin' spoonful being stuck in my head. What happened to bands like this?

Here's your chance to tell me what you think of me

2010-08-25T22:05:00.004-05:00

I am so excited that I was recently selected to do a little writing for CP magazine, my favorite parenting magazine in Chicago. I now have to come up with my official writer's "bio" for print. It's brief--I only get one sentence.

So help me out, please!

Describe me and/or my parenting style in three words or less.

Maybe your words will end up in print, or not.

Thanks everyone!

Devils or Angels?

2010-08-16T11:56:00.005-05:00

The 52nd annual Chicago Air and Water Show just took place this weekend. For us Chicagoans, that means 4 days of feeling like we live in a war zone--or at least on a military base. (Two days of practice, two days of the show). And no, we did NOT go to the show. We only heard/saw from our house, the car, or a few times we got caught outside.

Poor Nicholas wants to love the Blue Angels so badly. He thinks watching them is amazing--through soundproof glass. He is terrified of their noise though. And I don't mean sticking his fingers in his ears for a moment. I mean he holds his hands over his ears, screams "hold me safe", suctions to me or David like a spider monkey, won't go outside, has night terrors where he does the same, and now thinks every plane going to O'Hare is a Blue Angel.

This is a problem.

We live in the flight path to O'Hare, and planes fly over us about every 3-4 minutes. It is so bad that after searching online and still being dumbfounded, I called the pediatrician. The boy has been traumatized--and I don't use that word lightly.

I usually only seek medical advice from the peds, but I need help--and hearing is medical, right? Help!

They are definitely devils, not angels.

A first for us

2010-08-10T00:44:00.000-05:00

So after all these years in Chicago, we have just become members of one of the "Museums" for the first time ever. Most of you know, I am a big fan of utilizing free things in the city, especially the Museum passes we can check out at the library.

However, the Shedd Aquarium, has limited their participation so much, that you can only have access to a small portion of the place when using the museum pass. So when my parents visited a few weeks ago, it was literally almost the same cost to buy a family membership as it would have been to purchase tickets for all of us. So we broke down and joined. Mom and Dad even gave it to us as a gift, and we will be using it alot-thanks Mom and Dad! Both Gabriella and Nicholas love the aquarium. And I must admit over the past few years, they have made some great improvements, and the new show Fantasea is spectacular! I describe it as Cirque du Soleil with animals.

This winter, it will undoubtedly be a favorite destination for us. And since we can admit 2 adults and up to 4 kids, we can take friends. Let us know when you want to go...

The Pampered Baby

2010-07-10T00:04:00.002-05:00

So, since birth, my kids have all been diapered in Pampers brand. First swaddlers, then cruisers, then easy-ups.

Then P&G decided to rock my world, and a whole lot of other parents too. At first, I thought I had purchased a package of defective diapers, only to learn that I was holding in my hand one of the first "new-improved with Dry-Max cruisers". I was livid, so what do I do? First, I go to the P&G website, only to find out that I'm not the only mom who thinks the new cruisers suck! Second, I start desperately searching the diaper aisles of every store in the city for the "old" cruisers box. And I will admit, I even opened a few just to make sure before I bought them.

So Pampers/P&G decided to remove the mesh liner. Hello? This is the main reason most people LOVE cruisers! Secondly, they thinned the diaper out so much that it is literally transparent on the backside. What a joke. Leaking, rashes, night wakings. Ugh!

How does this story end? Well, despite the hoards of phone calls, e-mails, website postings, facebook wall postings, etc. P&G went through with the full product line change and lost alot of customers along with it. The fall out, well you can read about it on just about any of the hundreds of thousands of hits that will come up if you google "pampers dry max problems". Here's just one to leave you with: Pampers dry max

So my personal life was changed by this, several months ago. The Pampered baby has been trying out all other diaper brands. Once I find my favorite solution (which just might be big boy underwear!), I'll let you know.

Have Heart

2010-02-14T18:20:00.006-06:00

The last six weeks or so has been a very emotionally turbulent time for our family. Some of the fog is lifting now and I’ve decided to come to terms with this reality and even blog about it. I just joined the facebook group “National Marfan Foundation” so everyone will know soon. Through a series of medical visits and tests over several weeks Gabriella was clinically diagnosed with Marfan Syndrome on December 11th and then genetically confirmed on Christmas Eve. February is National Marfan awareness month and their annual Have Heart Campaign as well, so I thought the timing made even more sense to talk about this now. David and I are still adjusting to all of this, and Ella too of course so bear with me if this blog post is a bit rambling in nature.
For those of you that have no idea what Marfan Syndrome is please read some good excerpts I have selected for you from the National Marfan Foundation website here: http://marfan.org/marfan/2280/About-Marfan-Syndrome and here http://marfan.org/marfan/2416/Cause/ and here http://marfan.org/marfan/2320/Features and here http://marfan.org/marfan/2415/Treatment and here http://marfan.org/marfan/2439/Living-with-Marfan-Syndrome

So now that you’ve educated yourselves a bit about Marfan Syndrome here is Gabriella’s current condition. She has all of the classic physical traits of Marfan including tall stature, long wingspan, long limbs and fingers. Her current skeletal involvement is flexible flat feet and pectus excavatum (sunken chest). Her chest is mildly sunken and we’re hoping that does not change. It can affect the heart and/or lungs, which are behind that cavity of the chest wall. No scoliosis right now which tends to be seen in a lot of the children with Marfan. Her current Ocular involvement is myopia and astigmatism. She was just at the Ophthalmologist and her lenses look right in place! Her lungs are normal as far as we know. We just must remain alert for pneumothorax (sudden lung collapse) or any type of breathing issues (asthma, emphysema, etc). Her current Heart and Blood Vessel issues are the most worrisome for us right now. She has dilation of the Aortic and Pulmonic Roots and Mitral Valve Prolapse. The Pulmonic dilation doesn’t seem to bother the Doctors as much since the Pulmonic valve is a low pressure one. The Aortic dilation is more problematic since it is a very high pressure valve where the blood leaves the heart and pumps out into your body. Though researchers are trying to figure it out, right now, there is no way to stop the dilation. We can only hope to achieve a slower dilation rate by having Ella take a beta-blocker, Atenolol, which she began within a few days of being diagnosed.

Besides being variably expressed from one person to the next, Marfan is very unpredictable. For us right now this means there is no way to know how her current body system involvement will change throughout her lifetime. And right now it gives us no way to estimate how quickly her aortic dilation will progress. We are hoping for a very slow growth that might take her as far as early adult years before surgical repair is needed. We’re also hoping that a current clinical trial will show that a different drug (Losartan) proves to be effective at stopping the aortic dilation, though feedback from the study Doctor is not promising and it seems as though it is only working on some people, not everyone. We want the miracle drug, of course. Maybe Losartan is it? We just don’t know yet. We are hoping to enroll Ella in the trial soon. Her “z-score” is 3.02 and anything 2.0 and below is normal. However her actual measurement in centimeters just missed getting in the trial. She will get an echocardiogram again soon and they felt confident she would qualify. We really want her in the trial, but we also don’t want her aorta to dilate rapidly. We are talking only 2/100ths of a centimeter that she missed it by though.

How is this affecting us? As parents, David and I spend a lot of time talking about medicine, medical appointments, medical bills, getting Ella to take her medicine, medical research, medical testing, etc. We’re trying to get used to the fact that our daughter has an imperfect heart and body and a geneticist and a cardiologist. As parents it’s so easy to assume your children are physically perfect and when you find out they are not it’s pretty tough to handle. It’s still a bit surreal though becoming more of a reality almost daily. We are so thankful that in our lifetime they have discovered so much more about Marfan Syndrome. When we were children life expectancy used to be half of what it is now—about age 35. It’s now almost normal with appropriate care: age 70. We have also been spending time trying to educate ourselves on the signs of Aortic Aneurysms and dissections since it is so important to seek immediate care for Ella if we see any signs. The NMF gave us a special notification card that we can take with us to the ER. One of the problems is that a lot of doctors are not familiar with Marfan Syndrome and they send people home who then die because they had an aortic dissection that was missed. So we get to educate the doctors! I’m sure that goes over really well when it happens…. Personally, I spend a lot of my free-time reading abstracts from medical journals and wishing I had paid closer attention to genetics in biology class. Though my professors would probably be impressed already by the knowledge I’ve acquired in such a short-time. One thing I’ve learned quickly is that nothing is impossible or absolute with Marfan. Even the experts will always qualify everything they say with “most of the time” or “in patients I’ve studied” or “I just don’t know yet.” You see (if you want a little genetics lesson continue reading if not feel free to skip over the next paragraph.)

In 1991 they discovered that Marfan comes from a mutation on the Fibrillin-1 gene (FBN1) (I have actually found a dispute about this though) but also has relativity with the Transforming Growth Beta Factor (TGBF) genes, both of these genes are found on the ever so puzzling Human Chromosome 15. Yes, THE human genome Chromosome 15. In spite of all the news we hear about it, geneticists still only know the equivalent of about a drop of water in the bucket (and this is from the geneticists mouth) when it comes to Chromosome 15. We also now have a lot of cancer researchers interested in helping with Marfan research because they know so much about the Transforming Growth Beta Factor gene. And I am completely ever thankful and devoted to those men and women that spend every day of their lives trying to figure out more about the connective tissue disorders and the Marfan genetic coding and mutations. Again, yes that was plural. There is not just one mutation. So far they have recorded I want to say between 300-500 mutations of the FBN1 gene without looking it up again. And here is the kicker: Not everyone with Marfan even has a mutation. Gabriella was clinically diagnosed and followed-up with the DNA Analysis testing at a Connective Tissue Specialty lab. She does have a mutation on the FBN1 gene which just further confirms their diagnosis of Marfan. So Marfan being an autosomal dominant disorder made us crazy compiling our family health history. Thank you to everyone involved! The geneticist seemed convinced that Marfan was running in my family through my Mother’s side. And quite frankly, so are we. However, David and I were tested through the quick (and much cheaper) test called linkage analysis. So they basically took Ella’s mutation and checked each of our blood samples for the exact same mutation she has. This is because it is most common for family members to have the same mutation. Well guess what, we don’t! Surprise! Nothing in genetics is thorough or definitive when it comes to the human genome C 15, FBN1 TGBF-1 and 2, etc. They just don’t know enough yet. But nobody is convinced that I do not possess some kind of related or unrelated Connective Tissue Disorder (CTD), or even Marfan. Through the NMF I was able to contact a Marfan expert who said it would be very rare for me to have another CTD and then pass Marfan onto Ella. So we are thinking maybe we are the uncommon ones and have more than one FBN1 mutation in our family, or maybe I just don’t show the mutation but others in the family will, or God forbid, maybe the lab screwed up or the test was inaccurate? (I’ve read stories about it and it does happen). The next step is to run the full DNA sequencing on me, and also my aunt who has already had a dissection will be going through genetic counseling and testing as well. Hopefully this will provide insight into our familial genetic line of Marfan or possibly something else. Bottom line is that neither the doctors, nor we think Ella is one of the spontaneous mutations. They actually most often arise when the father is of very advanced age upon conception. They know this because they have determined the spontaneous mutation happens on the X not the Y and have studied all of the documented spontaneous mutation cases. David had just turned 35 two days before Ella was born. Of course all of the spontaneous mutations are not in this category though. Now some of you might be thinking why do you care if she inherited it through your genes or a spontaneous mutation? Here is the biggest reason why… Nicholas.

Right now we have no idea whether or not Nicholas might have Marfan due to all the inconclusiveness in the paragraph above. They have not ordered any testing on him at all. Now we completely realize he doesn’t have any physical traits like Ella. The sweet boy is small! He can barely stay on the growth chart for height and weight! He does have mild pectus excavatum though. He has also had a heart murmur since birth though the pediatrician said it has been soft or not really heard at his last few well-visits. Sadly in the past few weeks as we have studied Marfan, we have become way too aware that you can have Marfan without having the physical traits. We are also aware that mitral valve prolapse can cause heart murmurs. We are also aware that Ella’s cardiologist calls her a “click” exam which means she can hear the click of the mitral valve prolapsing upon exam. The pediatrician never heard it. Another reason why we need to know where this all came from is myself of course, and my family at large which entails 9 children (my aunts and uncles and Mom), their children (my cousins) and all of their kids too (Ella’s cousins). They did order an echocardiogram on me since I had never had one. David had just had one done in September due to his family and personal heart health history (he does them regularly). His was fine. My aortic root was within normal measurements and I do not have mitral valve prolapse. They were unable to visualize my ascending aorta though. So now I’m a bit nervous about that since I know that most Marfan dissections take place on the ascending aorta.

Gabriella has been so strong and so messed up through all of this. She won’t really talk to us about it, but asks to read her Marfan A-Z book almost daily. What a great book that the NMF provides free to children diagnosed with Marfan! She gives echocardiograms, does blood draws, and measures all of her dolls and stuffed animals, and her brother or other people that come to our home. Clara, her American Girl Doll was taking her Atenolol the other day. Only hers was strawberry flavored. She had to take it for the same reason as Ella. She holds Twinkle Stars Gymnastics class in our house with Nicholas as her student almost daily. She of course gets to be Miss Jessica the teacher. Gymnastics is the one thing she had to stop doing immediately because of her physical activity restrictions. She just had her first visit with the child/adolescent psychiatrist and it went really well. During the time I was with them Ella spent most of the time playing with the dollhouse and not answering questions. While I was gone she played with the doctor kit and the two of them were helping the baby with Marfan. After spending time with Ella alone, doctor told me that her verbal speech, communication skills, and general interaction were of someone well beyond her actual years. All I thought was dear God, please tell me the IIT Psych student figured that out too! You see, she just survived Kindergarten placement testing (basically an IQ test administered by the IIT Psych Grad students). She told us it was “mostly easy and just a little bit hard at the end”. We’re hoping for spectacular results and to get one of our top choices of schools. We don’t find out until late March. So we’ll be seeing the psych doctor about 2 or 3 more times. She seems confident that Gabriella is dealing with all of this in normal ways and has already given us helpful ways we can deal with some of the issues. Of course Ella’s behavior at school continues to be perfect through all of this. On the home front it’s a bit different though. She’s definitely lashing out at us with anger because of her bottled up emotions. She is very disobedient and spends a lot of time in time out and losing privileges. We’re really hoping the psychiatrist can help us repair this too. I know a lot of people from our generation and even more so from our parent’s generation would never dream of sending their child to therapy and have huge (unfounded) issues with psychiatry. We, however are believers in getting help when needed and boy is it needed. We and Ella must learn to deal with this now since it is here to stay for her lifetime. As Ella gets older things will only become harder for her. She will deal more with teasing, questions (why can’t you do what we’re doing in gym class today?), feel left out when she can’t participate in a lot of physical activities her friends are (like the Jump Zone party coming up), and eventually be faced with heart surgery, the knowledge that more things can go wrong in many different parts of her body, and some day the issue of having children of her own. Genetically her odds are 50/50 to pass Marfan on to her children, and physically due to her aorta problems pregnancy will have to be evaluated when the time comes. Some people with Marfan and aortic problems can have fairly normal pregnancies though they must be closely and frequently monitored, others are advised never to become pregnant. It is truly a case by case basis and only time will tell. As a woman, I know this will be a very difficult topic for her to face in the future even as she becomes involved in serious relationships, telling people and facing whatever the reality will be for her. Right now, physically, her biggest challenge is tiredness and loss of appetite. She will often nap and falls asleep very easily (i.e. 10 min.+ in the car and she will be out). We will continue to have trouble finding shoes and clothes to fit as we always have so that is nothing new! She very rarely is interested in eating though and says she is just not hungry.

So this is more like an essay than a blog post. If any of you have read on through to the end I appreciate it, but it was good for me just to “talk” about it. I’m sure there are a million and one more things I could tell you but will close for now. I predict many future posts on this topic.

We are so blessed with great family and friends who are being a great support through all of this. We so appreciate the phone calls, e-mails and prayers. So everyone please “Have Heart” for Marfan, for Gabriella and our family and all of the others affected by Marfan Syndrome. If you are able please consider a donation to the National Marfan Foundation through my First giving page in honor of Gabriella and her diagnosis. Your donation will help fund research that is so important us, to Ella and to everyone with Marfan Syndrome: http://www.firstgiving.com/gabriellaearnhart or use the widget in the sidebar.

The Fancy Five Party

2009-11-24T09:01:00.005-06:00

Question: How many times can you say fancy in one blog post?

Fancy Gabriella's Explorer Extraordinaire 5th Birthday!

Fancy girl on the fancy throne

If you are not familiar with the Fancy Nancy books written by Jane O'Connor and illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser (and yes I have that memorized from reading them so many times) then you probably won't understand this party. Fancy Nancy is a fancy girl stuck in a plain family that proceeds to help them and everything else in her life become fancy. Think accessories and words you have to look up in the dictionary. They are excellent books. Well written and illustrated and great vocabulary builders, particularly for children who already have well-developed vocabularies.

Anyhow, so Uncle Jeff and Aunt Marion joined us for the weekend and we had a fancy time with them going to the zoo, Green City Market, Hot Doug's for Papa's birthday (which is not to be overlooked!) Can you say FORTY?!, the party, etc. and the creation of Nicholas's infatuation with Uncle Jeff and zebras... So enjoy the photos and sorry they are six weeks late.

"I can't believe it's finally here!"

Leading the fancy explorer walk

The fancy group of Explorer's Extraordinaire

Getting ready for the walk

Instructions from Dapper Papa, via Fancy Nancy of course, on how to be fancy explorers

Over the top Fancy Nancy Cake

The fancy buffet

Our fancy family

Lovin' my Papa...
and did you know I pretty much wore the long-awaited birthday crown all day!

My very own CandyLand! Which BTW I have made up my own game rules...
(Notice the fancy outfit)

Cupcake time at Pre-K

A very special visitor read the birthday girl's book choice
"Farmer Cap" to go with the current farm theme

Our two fancy artists painting together
(yes, Nicholas thinks he's ready for Pre-K)

I love it when my brother is fancy

Answer: 19

Every silly witch needs a black cat

2009-11-02T15:03:00.010-06:00

Here are more Halloween pictures than you could have hoped to see. Pictures in front of our building, carving jack o'lanterns (Ella was the artist of the face), Pre-K class, Gabriella with her teachers, on the train/bus to/from/at Chicagoween, after trick-or-treating, etc. in no particular order.

Will post about Ella's birthday and Apple Picking soon...I hope.

Discerning Taste, all around

2009-10-04T21:53:00.004-05:00

So you might have heard that the Obama's just celebrated their 17th wedding anniversary. David and I just celebrated our 8th a few days prior to them. And recently we discovered a bit of interesting news. President Obama and his lovely wife Michelle have equally discerning taste as David and I do. You might ask, how do we know? Well, they too, chose the grandeur of the South Shore Cultural Center to host their wedding reception! Yes, I realize it was 9 years before ours (almost to the day), but still I find it to be a fun bit of trivia.

So those of you that celebrated our wedding with us can now say you experienced an evening that would later turn out to be, well, Presidential.

Now I know why I can always feel the love between our President and First Lady when I see them together.

Happy Anniversary, all around!

Back to the grind

2009-09-18T13:34:00.009-05:00

1st of school-on our deck with my beautiful rose plant

(birthday gift from Ella) in background.

So we've survived the first two weeks of school--hard to believe how quickly it goes. Ella is enjoying Pre-K again and has turned into quite the class clown and leader. According to her teacher she has been orchestrating puppet shows involving the whole class! Of course instructing everyone exactly what to do. She keeps telling me she plays "tricks" on the playground at recess. Still haven't quite figured this one out, so if anyone wants to enlighten me that would be great. Most of all she continues to be all about her birthday and is counting down to her party and then her actual birthday when she'll get to wear the birthday crown at school and bring treats in for her class.

Swimming started up again and we have had two sessions. Ella has the body to be a great olympic swimmer! She put the moves on at the end of a lap on Tuesday and wow did she go fast! I couldn't believe it. We also enrolled Nicholas in a parent-tot class this session so he has now been in the swimming pool twice. The first session he was a little hesitant for about 10 minutes but then warmed up to the idea and enjoyed the "jumping in". The second session he was so excited and loves it all. He "jumped" in, learned to blow bubbles, and can kick his feet like crazy. He now blows bubbles in the bathtub and asks every morning: "Jump? Go. Shoes." And I have to tell him not again until next week!

Next week Gymnastics and Ballet start and I will be sorry we are doing so much again. Ella will have Ballet and Gymnastics back to back Thursday's which means two hours of killing time with Nicholas (with a quick stop in to help her change and move down to the gym floor). Luckily it's right by the library and grocery store so we can make good use of the time. Then Friday morning's while Ella's in school I will take Nicholas to his parent-tot Gymnastics. I think he might even like it better than swimming. He's a climber. Will update on how it went next week.

In the midst of this all I'm trying to do the typical SAHM tasks and not remain too angry with the CTA. Though I have already reported on one belligerent bus-driver who was harassing myself with the stroller AND an old lady with a walker. Nicholas has big sister withdrawals while she is gone and also dislikes the commute on the bus. I've been trying to walk at least one or two of our four trips there or back. It's about 1.2 miles which isn't too bad except it's not the only walking I do on any given day and 4x can add up AND depending the direction I have to beat the clock and make sure we're on time. However, that said, my legs are much more reliable than the CTA anyday so while the weather is still nice I will walk as much as I can. Nicholas has also been thrown for a loop by our new schedule. Babies really do thrive on routine and he is so antsy in the morning when we get up that he won't eat breakfast and we have to put his shoes on right away so he knows he's going and will stop asking for them! He has also had a major set-back in potty training with the new schedule. I had already gotten spoiled with not changing pooped diapers so it's been an adjustment. Hopefully he'll bounce back soon... Update: between writing this post and now adding pictures and about to publish Nicholas has gone on the potty several times this weekend. Yay!

Birthday planning for David and Ella is at it's peak and our anniversary will sadly take a backseat as usual. That's what the triple-play will do for you. Though David's birthday usually gets lumped in with our anniversary in the shadow of Ella, since this is a SPECIAL one for him :-), I'm trying to avoid that.

We are having some wonderful late summer weather here in Chicago. Fall is coming.

Breakfast on the deck is a family favorite

Nicholas loves corn on the cob and is still teething miserably....

Forget me not-summer lovin'

2009-09-07T22:10:00.023-05:00

So I've had some memory issues lately. The worst was my debit card PIN and the most recent my blogger password. I find it frustrating. I did eventually remember by debit card PIN but not alot of other things. I thought this was supposed to happen at a much older age! Ugh.

Anyhow, we've had alot going on around here. Today is the last day of summer for us. In the morning it's back to year 2 of Pre-K since the state of Illinois says Ella can't start Kindergarten because her birthday is 28 days too late. This hotly debated topic (at least in Chicago it is) has been close to our heart lately. The Illinois law is currently being challenged but won't come back for a vote until January I believe. It is feasible to say that the state should have some say in when a child must go to school, but alot of state's have much broader timeline's (i.e. age 5 by end of calendar year, etc.) Then the flip-side of the coin called "red-shirting" is the parents not enrolling their children who do turn age 5 by the required date. To them I say: How unfair to me. But good for you. It is sad that the state, who presumably has no knowledge of my child's school-readiness, mandates school start dates rather than the parents who know their child. As to the unfairness of red-shirting, I commend parents for not starting their August 29th birthday child if they know they're just not ready--but it frustrates me that I can't do the flip side of that with a September 29th birthday and put my daughter where she belongs. So I'll save the rest for the Chicago northside parents network message board where other's share our frustration....and here's to another year of "really, she's not even five yet--I thought she was at least seven!"

Our summer has been filled with alot of visitors, which we love! And alot of summer Chicago fun.

Nicholas keeps me very busy and is seeking independence in all ways right now. He also can't seem to keep his mouth safe. We're hoping his front tooth will make it for the next five years or so but it seems to constantly get injured. Usually when he wakes up the first thing he says is: "Truck? Bus? Plane?" Meaning do we hear any of those things right now. He has a huge fascination with large mechanical vehicles. He goes absolutely wild over trash trucks, planes, trains, buses, delivery trucks, fire trucks, etc. Thank goodness we live in the city! He is very well rounded though and also loves to dance in his sister's fuchsia tutu and wear my high heels around the house. And most notably Nicholas has now been medication free for almost one month. We met with his Urologist and got permission to try it without the meds. So far so good and we are thrilled and thank God for his health.

Ella has been growing taller and taller and is always drawing in her sketchbook. She has turned into quite the actress and we even sent her to Theatre camp because of her interest. This was a week called the "Enchanted Musical Forest" and she was in heaven. Singing, dancing, acting all the time culminating in a show on Friday for us to attend. They did a mini-version of the title song from Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods with full choreography and a few other Theatre games. The funniest thing to me is that I told Ella I had actually played in the musical Into the Woods when I was in college and she became star-struck over Mama for a brief moment. Ella also attended a week of VBS at the Moody Church which was over the top in all ways. It's so nice that they welcome anyone to attend since our very small church could never put on such a great kids program! Nicholas enjoyed getting his "sticker" (special visitor nametag) every morning when we signed her in to VBS. By day 3 he asked for it when we walked in the lobby. Too cute. Ella has also been continuing to learn how to read. It's amazing to me how well she does, and funny to think that's how we all started something that we do without thinking about now. And finally, today was historical. Ella had her very first haircut. Yes, at almost five years old. She still wants long hair but it needed to be trimmed, so I did the honors tonight and we put the first piece in her baby keepsake box! Remember, it took a long time to grow those golden tresses. (just look at Nicholas if you need a reminder!)

Other things we did this summer: Swimming lessons for Ella, zoo, Field Museum, Aquarium, Beach, Grant Park Orchestra concerts at Millennium park, Art Institute Family nights, road trip to Minneapolis for 4th ofJuly, alot of grilling and alfresco dining on the deck, playground palooza, Chicago History Museum, Dairy Farm trip, and stoopin' with sidewalk chalk and bubbles, water taxi.

Overnight Visitors we've had this summer (let's start in April since we moved here): #1: Jeff & Marion of St. Louis, #2: Jeff, Cheryl, Tori, Jin of Minneapolis #3: Faith, Jesse, Caelin, Christine, of Scottsdale #4: Karen & Ibsen of Caracas Venezuela #5: Nana & Pa of Oak Hills, CA #6: Andrew and Jackie of New Orleans . I think that's it. Ha! So really, you can see it is o.k. to come visit us!

Dancing Ballerina's

1st haircut!

Fancy Gabriella!

Andrew (my cousin), Jackie (his girlfriend), Ella and Nicholas

Fireman's carry at the beach

Keeping warm with Papa

Fun in the sand

Modern lounge chair

(actually a sculpture on the terrace of the new modern wing at the Art Institute!)

Suspended over Monroe street. The famed bridge to the Modern Wing.

Reading Glub! Glub! (King Bidgood's) with cousin Andrew

2 silly penguin's at the Aquarium

I love my new stroller

Jin & Tori Hudson & Ella at the Minneapolis Walker Art Center

My Aunt Faith, Uncle Jesse their kids Caelin & Christine, my cousin Raney's husband Chris, and sons Jaren & Conor Fleck

with us at the Field Museum

Shopping in my high heels

Stoopin'

Hangin' out in the swing while sister is at VBS

Riding the turtle statue

Fancy Gabriella found another use for the tutu.

At the park

Another family night at the Art Institute

making Japanese screens

on the bridge again
(Can you tell us Chicagoans LOVE the new addition to our already fabulous Art Institute?!)

Injured yet again...

Walking with Nana

Water Taxi on the river

We love Potbelly's!

swim girl jumping in

Nice kicking!

Meet Isabelle!

2009-07-29T22:55:00.007-05:00

Isabelle (top left)

We added a new member to our family last Friday. Her name is Isabelle and she was born in Cambridge, Wisconsin at the beginning of July. She will be living at the Hinchley's Dairy Farm until sometime in mid-November when we will bring her home to Chicago. Our only hope is that she doesn't grow to be too large before then! Gabriella picked her out and named her all by herself. We plan to visit Isabelle at least one more time before we bring her home.

Yes, Isabelle is a turkey. A lovely hen that will be pecking around the farm-yard getting herself fattened up to be our Thanksgiving star. So all you weak-hearted animal loving people out there, if I can do this, trust me--you can too. First of all, knowing where your food comes from is very important. And don't we all plan to eat turkey on Thanksgiving? Secondly, what a great life lesson for our children to truly understand the reality of farm-raised animals. Sure baby turkey's are cute, but wouldn't you rather eat Isabelle than some nameless frozen piece of meat from who know's where that you pick-up from your grocer's freezer? I know that Isabelle will be living the life of an animal I feel comfortable eating and that's something to be said. So even if she grows to be so large that she won't fit in our oven whole, we will divide her up lovingly and share with others!

We visited this dairy farm in Wisconsin last week while my parent's were here visiting from California. We all milked a cow, petted calves that were one day old, fed chickens and goats. Saw hens laying eggs, rabbits, cats, a hoop-jumping dog and alot of dairy cows and corn fields. The Hinchley's actually farm 350 acres of corn, soybeans, etc. Pretty impressive. Not to be missed is also the Sassy Cow Creamery where we indulged in ice cream and brought home butter and cheese from the cows in the pasture outside the creamery. Yummy! It was really alot of fun. No, no we're not thinking of giving up the urban life, but a turkey named Isabelle in Wisconsin will do for now :-)

Gabriella holding Isabelle after selecting her

Pa, Nicholas, Nana & cornfields

Dairy Cows!

Three turkeys

Ducks! Nicholas was thrilled! He's in love with ducks!

One day old cow

Great football hold

Riding through the corn

Mr. Rooster, Pa and Nicholas

At the Sassy Cow

Heard of free-range chickens?

Look at Papa milk!

Ella said this was her favorite thing we did.

Bunny with a bunny

3 things:

2009-07-17T23:11:00.009-05:00

Faith, Hope and Love.

O.k. so that's not really what this post is about. But I have a song about three things: faith, hope and love stuck in my head right now.

1. Our new computer is here and being well-used.

2. My camera is now broken, so still no more pictures yet. After much googling and failed repair attempts I will be buying a new one this weekend. It's amazing how technology can have such a short life span (i.e. three years this time).

3. Mr. Nicholas is proving all the "boy" things people warn you about wrong. Over, and over again. He is talking alot. We have counted over 25 words that he says pretty clearly: Mama, no, nurse, milk (word and sign), more (word and sign), Papa, Ella, Dog, "Woof", "Roar", hat, light, cracker, cheese, that, yogurt, banana, shoes, Nana, Ewwww, Duck, bath, pee-pee, baby, bye-bye, book.

AND to celebrate his 15 month birthday he went pee-pee and poop on the potty Saturday and has continued at least once a day all week! Whew--what a relief. I thought we were doomed after our early self-potty trainer Ella. But yet again he is proving the boy stereotypes wrong! I love you Nicholas! Mama and Papa are so proud. And for the record Papa did not think I should post this picture, but you know I had to do it...

First time on the potty.

Coming Soon

2009-06-28T23:59:00.007-05:00

is our new computer! Ours has been broken on and off forever now. We have finally ordered one and it should arrive next week. So watch out because I will be posting like crazy again......

For now, here are a few unedited pictures (my software is not on this computer) to update you.

Our two beautiful children! Gabriella age 4 1/2, Nicholas age 1 year. Easter Sunday.

Our Family on Easter Sunday. Yes, I wore a dress to church...

Uncle Jeff and Aunt Marion on Easter Sunday

Gabriella got to hold a Sea Star on our visit to Sea World in May!

Ed, Tammy, Nana, Papa, Nicholas, Mikayla, Hannah, Pa, Ella (L to R back to front)
at Sea World

Sister in her new stylish purple glasses she got a couple of months ago.
Nicholas chewing on one of his favorite toys: spice jars

Our move brought many good things: Ella can finally stretch out when she sleeps! Goodbye to crib converted to toddler bed and hellow a real twin size bed!

And no more Pack N Play for Nicholas. Here he is checking out his crib for the first time!

Enjoying the first of many Al Fresco meals and grilling on our deck.

Nicholas's jungle birthday party with his Lion cake in the background

Breaking the silence

2009-05-14T22:27:00.003-05:00

It's long overdue so here I am blogging for a brief moment in exchange for much needed sleep. Life has been very busy since I last posted about our then upcoming move. We are fairly settled in our new home now though it's taking alot of time to get used to so much space. It was surprisingly uncomfortable at first, but now the abundance of square footage is getting to feel somewhat normal for all. I'm still in love with my washer and dryer and we've christened our grill and deck properly with alot of alfresco meals! And did I mention I can practically float in my bathtub? Seriously.

Ella is having sleep issues and we think it's most likely emotions from the move, her recently acquired glasses and the unavoidable teasing that comes with that, as well as getting used to sleeping in a room without us for the first time in her life! Hopefully she can work through it soon because it's getting awfully crowded in our bed in the wee morning hours. BTW she looks gorgeous in her very stylish purple glasses--pictures soon.

Nicholas had his 1st birthday if you can believe it. Uncle Jeff and Aunt Marion came up for the party which was Easter weekend and we had a great visit with them. It was also good to host a party and house guests less than 2 weeks after moving so we had alot of incentive to get unpacked in a hurry. Nicholas took a few steps alone right before his birthday but about 2 weeks ago really decided to walk instead of crawl. I'm still getting used to that. He loves going down our long hallway.

Two weeks ago our friends the Hudson's came down from Minneapolis and stayed with us. The kids all had a great time playing together. Our friends the Hanson's also drove over from Grand Rapids on Sunday and the 6 of us adults went out to celebrate David's Architectural licensing and Craig's newly published book. We went to Alinea. That's a whole post needed right there coming soon. Let's just say: Spectacular.

Last night, actually this morning, we returned from a long overdue visit to California to see Nana and Pa. David traveled with us out there but returned earlier than us. We had alot of fun including a first trip to Sea World for the kids, a visit to the County Fair, Mother's Day, planting tomato plants, etc.. We were able to spend alot of time with my sister and nieces too which was very nice. Our trip home was a disaster and I'm in no hurry to get on an airplane again, but we are safe on the ground and successfully endured 10 hours aboard a plane with no meltdowns. I think I have a new issue with ATC that I will probably blog more about later. I'm just thankful to be home safely with my children.

Just wanted to break the silence. I'll be back soon with more stories and some pictures too.

Monthly post and 865 to 2287

2009-03-09T23:23:00.006-05:00

Apparently I've fallen into a monthly posting pattern. Hopefully this will change and become more frequent again soon. Big news here is that we are MOVING!! No, we did not sell our condo. Surprise surprise. We decided to bite the bullet and rent it out for awhile instead. This allows us to go ahead and move into a bigger rental property ourselves. And no all you realtors out there, we're not going to buy another place until our other one is sold. Two mortgages are not something we desire.

So finding a tenant was painless thanks to craigslist and a good landlord website that does complete tenant screening for you. Well, I had to do some of it. But anyhow. It's done and we found a really great tenant or so we think at this point.

More importantly we just signed OUR lease yesterday. It was a bit strange to sign a rental lease after being homeowners for so long. I guess we are still homeowners, but now we're renters too. Ha! But I'm over it already. Here's why. We now live in 865 sq ft and are movin' on up to 2287. No, that's not a typo. We found a beautiful condo that someone is renting out for a greatly reduced rate due to the rental market being saturated right now. The place is beautiful SPACIOUS and more than we could have hoped for really. And it's only a few streets south of us so the move will be short. I can't wait to see our new neighbor's faces when they see our strollers and bikes parked in our spot in the attached indoor heated parking garage. :-)

Gabriella is loving school and Mrs. Laura is teaching her how to read. She successfully read the first two pages of Hop on Pop over the weekend. Nicholas has finally mastered peek-a-boo and loves to play it now that he can cover his eyes instead of covering his head. He's also a climber and gets into everything. We'll be spending some budget money on babyproofing devices for sure.

David is working hard and hoping to not have surgery on his achilles before our move. We should find out more info on Thursday when he sees the orthopedist. It's a 4-year old injury that's never gone away and recently became much worse.

I'm going a bit crazy trying to figure out packing, moving detail stuff, child watching and trying to find time to sleep in the midst of it all. I think I need a Nanny for the next few weeks. At least my nights are now freed up from apartment searching. Once we settle into our new home we will have plenty of room for overnight guests so NONE OF YOU WILL HAVE ANY EXCUSES ANYMORE! We will even have a sofabed that we just acquired from some friends and multiple bathrooms from which to choose. AND you'll have a place to park your car if you drive here.

We have plans to get the children photographed outdoors around Easter time and will be having Nicholas's first birthday party Easter weekend if you can believe it. I have just a matter of weeks left to get his birth announcements out by etiquette rules. Emily Post please don't check my postmarks.

We had a nice visit to St. Louis over Presiden'ts Day weekend and Nana was just here visiting us for several days too. Here's a few pics to share with you. More later!

At the park on one of our recent winter-spring days

playing with Uncle Jeff

Meeting Titus with Aunt Marion

The 3 polka-dot cousins

At the park with Nana on the one nice day we had while she was here.

A few pictures

2009-02-09T22:32:00.002-06:00

I love prunes!

We got our tree the earliest ever!

Finding shaggie taggie on Christmas

Gabriella loving on brother while he takes
the opportunity to grab Clara's hair (her new doll)

I'm a big boy now

Pre-K girl!

2009-01-30T22:54:00.006-06:00

First day of Pre-K sporting her new
backpack that Brother
gave her for Christmas.

So in an effort to re-direct my thoughts I will try to update everyone on what's been going on with us. Probably the biggest news is that Miss Gabriella started Pre-K on January 5th! We were going on a lot of school tours back in December when applying for Fall 2009 and she was so in love with it all I started asking if anyone had openings for January (By Chicago Public School rules she could have started in the Fall of 2008). There were two schools that had someone move away and we were able to take one of those spots. (Chicago Public Schools are quite confusing, but I'm sure you'll hear much more about it as we delve deeper into the application process for Kindergarten next December.) To be perfectly honest she fit right in to the Kindergarten classes we visited and was taller than most of them. I can't believe she has to wait until 2010! Ultimately though, I am supportive of not pushing it too early. We just have to keep her mind engaged in the meantime.

So in four weeks time she can tell me every detail about all 20 of the kids in her class. She loves her teachers, the classroom, the toys, the activities, the learning, the daily trip to the cafeteria for snack time, playing in the snow, has already had her first assembly (Barrel of Monkeys) and can't wait to go every day. She is in the Preschool for All Pre-K program in the morning class so she attends from 8:50-11:30. It's perfect and so much better than the 2 day a week preschool she was attending previously. In fact there's really no way to compare the two. Nicholas and I have some alone time and she gets to hang out with other kids every day without fail, while learning at the same time. And the amount of time is just right. Not so long that she is exhausted--just right. Her themes this month were Snow/Winter/Ice, Community Helpers, Goldilocks and the three bears. She really enjoys the class pet Lulu the hamster and consistently plays with Brigid and Victoria the most. Today she won musical chairs and starred as Goldilocks when they acted out the story in class. The children in the class are so diverse and a true reflection of our neighborhood. I love it.

Most importantly I should point out that she had to decide whether she wanted to have "Gabriella" or "Ella" printed all her things at school (cubby, etc.) and she chose Gabriella. It's been good because now she has to write Gabriella instead of Ella on all of her papers :-) Don't worry Mom, you can still call her Ella, but Gabriella is her name of choice these days!

For real

2009-01-23T23:40:00.003-06:00

I'm posting. Finally. Well sort of. No pictures yet or anything exciting like that (the kids are cuter and bigger though). Just letting everyone know we wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Obama country! (can you believe it? At Last.....)

Overall everything is good. Most of us (minus Brother) are now healthy (finally). I have alot to report but just need sleep oh so much more than blogger. I promise it's coming soon.

For real.

Since I'm in the spirit

2008-12-06T14:28:00.003-06:00

I suppose I'll actually do this for once (just for you Ang :-)

Answer the following questions using just one word and tag seven people. The 7 people tagged are any 7 people that read my blog since I really don't know who does...

Where is your cell phone? kitchen
Where is your significant other? shower
Your hair color? blonde
Your mother? far
Your favorite thing? kids
Your dream last night? weird
Your dream/goal? sell condo
The room you’re in? living
Your hobby? everything
Your fear? sharks
Where do you want to be in 6 years? Chicago
Where were you last night? Christkindlmarkt
What you’re not? organized
One of your wish-list items? boots
Where you grew up? california
The last thing you did? eat
What are you wearing? jammies
Your TV? old
Your pet? none
Your computer? sucks
Your mood? uneasy
Missing someone? family
Your car? dreams
Something you’re not wearing? shoes
Favorite store? Trader Joe's
Your summer? short
Love someone? David
Your favorite color? pink
When is the last time you laughed? today
Last time you cried? today

Why is it?

2008-12-04T21:55:00.002-06:00

Why is it that the best intentions often turn awry? Today I had so many grand plans of getting things done. Instead, I just finally showered at 9 p.m. My baby boy is about to have two more teeth poke through and my 4 year old is going through a thaaaang. Need I say more? But why is it that this always seems to happen? So many things undone. But now I will go to bed so I can face another day of the best intentions gone awry most likely for the same reasons. At least I got a shower, right?

Autumn in Chicago

2008-11-30T22:29:00.008-06:00

As I hear the wind and snow blowing outside I thought I'd better get this posted...

On David's couple of days between his old and new job we spent some time as a family. This was taken by North Pond in Lincoln Park next to the Nature Museum.

Ever since all the Pump it Up party rage, Ella can't get enough of the inflatables.
That's her pink arm by the window David is headed toward.

Painting and decorating her pumpkin at the Pumpkin patch.
Ella picked the biggest/tallest horse to ride. She screamed when I put her on but then loved it.

Petting a cute calf.
Posed on the hay bales together. We were just hoping she didn't drop him.

Messy boy eating some peas.

Ella wanted us to be the Bernstain Bears family for Halloween.
Thank goodness for the store Unique Thrift where I was able to find the clothes for our costumes!
Sister Bear
Trick-or-treating Chicago style.
and at the Patisserie of course.
and then with friends in Lincoln Park.
and this is from our Free to Breathe walk day. Nicholas was not very happy to be wearing a huge shirt! Thank you to all who donated and it's not too late!

Where have I been?

2008-11-22T00:04:00.005-06:00

Lost. Well--lost in my son and sickness and a whole lot of other things. I feel as though life has skipped a few weeks--I guess almost a month. I just saw my last post was almost exactly a month ago. I was waiting to post about Nicholas until I could give full info. and all would be over. However, at his test yesterday we found out he was positive for VUR so I'm sure you will be hearing more about it in the weeks, months and years to come.

So Nicholas was very sick. Very sick. I took him to the pediatrician three times in five days and by the third visit they sent us straight over to Children's Hospital. He had a virus with cold-like symptoms along with this extreme high fever and behavioral downhill slope and we gave it the official 3-5 day wait (now I really wish it was only 3 days...but I'm over that now and do trust my Dr.'s). We ended up staying in the hospital from Wednesday until Saturday night when we were released. Long story short, it was a miserable time with invasive procedures, lots of cords/monitors/needles, etc., for the duration of our stay in our lovely semi-private room. Yes-it's true, semi-private rooms still exist. The new Children's is currently under construction to be completed in 2012--and do they ever need it! We received top quality care in a sub-par facility. For pretty much the entire time (day and night) I held Nicholas in this chair that had an ottoman that pulled out and David slept in a weird lawn-chair looking, feeling type seat.

We discovered pretty quickly that he had a febrile UTI that went on to infect his kidneys--all caused by the feisty bacteria E. Coli. Upon initial testing in the ER his white blood count was 23 (normal is 14). He was literally fighting hard. He responded fairly well to the IV antibiotics ( a strong broad based one to start: Ceftriaxone for you meds out there). Though it is hard thinking back on times when the Resident was standing over him watching his monitor when his fever, blood pressure and heart rate were so high and realizing she was yawning because it was 3 a.m. and they woke her up. Alot of it is all a blur. Probably due to lack of sleep, and general stress, my own sickness which grew worse took my voice and is finally gone!, disbelief, etc. I don't know how parents of long-term sick children do this. It is so draining.

Thankfully we were rescued by Aunt Marion to help care for our lovely daughter Ella who already had spent the night with Asha and Ryan and the day with Braden--thank you SanJuan's and Hale's!! Marion was scheduled to go to Oklahoma for a visit to Blake and Karla's and celebrate Jeff's birthday with Jon, Angie and the girls too. Instead--she was so gracious to miss out on all that fun and drive to Chicago and help us when we desperately needed it. It was such a relief to know Ella was being cared for and we didn't have to figure out where to send her next. THANK YOU!

By our release time Nicholas's cultures had grown and showed the gram negative rod bacteria E. Coli (which is common cause for kidney infection). So switched him to oral Cefidinir (Omnicef) to target it better and sent us home due to 24 hours with no fever and clear signs of improvement.

The end question was why? It's very uncommon for babies to get a UTI or kidney infection and there is usually a structural cause. They did an ultrasound of his kidneys while we were in the hospital (enlarged, but thought to be from the infection), then we had the final test: a VCUG, yesterday. (You have to wait until the infection is gone to perform this test and get an accurate reading). The VCUG came back positive for VUR. This means Nicholas has reflux of the bladder in simpler terms. He is Grade 1 which is the best we could ask for with the condition so we're glad about that. He also has slight dilation of his ureters which is also best case. We will now be heading to the Urologist to discuss treatment plan options and his/our future with this condition.

We are so thankful that this is not a life-threatening condition and that he is overall still a very healthy vibrant baby boy! I will update with more info as we receive it and try to post some long over due fall pictures including Halloween which fell right in the first few days of sickness.

So who said I could really make a long story short?

Wednesday in the ER

Saturday before release

Shots all around

2008-10-22T16:51:00.007-05:00

Sorry, but not the intoxicating kind....Since it's flu shot season David and I both received our flu shots and Nicholas got his flu shot and some of his regular (we will go back for a flu booster for him and the rest of his others next month) and Ella got some 4-year old boosters and a blood prick for hemoglobin check at the Dr. a couple of weeks ago when we had a double Pediatrician visit for Gabriella's four year old check-up and Nicholas's six-month check-up. Whew! What a run-on sentence.

We are always amused by the crazy things Ella will tell Dr. Clark when she asks her questions. For example what's your favorite thing to eat Dr. Clark asks her. "apples!" she says. Big fat lie. Apples tend to be one of those sensory issues that the wet slimy feel will keep her from eating on most attempts to have her eat apples....I mean apples are her favorite food! I could go on and on but won't. On to more interesting things. Ella measured in at a strong 44" and 40 pounds. She was the talk of the office. The debate was whether she will be WNBA or Super Model. I told them I would prefer a WNBA player that looked like a super model :-). By the way, in case you don't know, 44" for age four is TALL! Way off the chart tall! She seems to keep tracking the same in height and not dropping off so we expect a minimum of a six footer! It will be strange to have her look down at me someday.

As for the boy, well David is hoping his sister won't be taller than him in the future. Right now at 6 months he is where she was at 4 months for both height and weight. However, we're NOT comparing them, right?! And he's such a dashingly handsome, sweet, healthy with rolls little boy who cares about percentiles?

Enjoy the sad bandage photos and Nicholas swinging for the first time on his 6 month birthday!

Free to Breathe Run/Walk

2008-10-22T00:04:00.003-05:00

On November 1st David, Nicholas, Gabriella and I will be participating in the Lung Cancer Partnership Run/Walk to raise money for this great organization that researches lung cancer. My cousin Raney died of lung cancer the same day Nicholas was born if you don't know. She was one of those "never smoker" growing category of people that contract this terrible disease.

During Raney's fight for life she was very active in learning all she could and supporting research whenever possible. This particular organization was her favorite because she felt their funds were used for truly valuable, logical and wise goals.

There is a widget in the sidebar where you can get more info or donate for our run/walk. If you followed Raney's story and feel moved please donate if you can. As my Aunt said, if Raney were still alive she would be "all over this event!"

The FOUR year old!

2008-10-10T22:25:00.005-05:00

Ella

September 29th
Lincoln Square

Yes, it's true that on September 29th Miss Gabriella Marguerite turned four years old. I can hardly believe we've had her for four years. So much has happened and she has grown from our baby girl so fast into our little girl. Stop growing! I keep telling her as a joke, but sometimes I wish we could make time stand still and savor the special moments like holding your newborn for the first time and feeling the strongest instant bond.....spending long hours ummm "peacefully" discussing what her name should be.......finally naming her....... being thrilled when she rolled over, crawled, walked and said Mama as her first word (of course)........ wondering on her 2nd birthday if I would ever get to "fix" her hair in ponytails, pigtails, braids, etc. and then slowly seeing her bald head finally turn into beautiful long golden curls through four years of time..... sighing a big sigh of relief when she finally learned how to jump (seriously I once googled: "age 3 + can't jump")..... being amazed at how her long legs continue to grow and how graceful they can be in third position during ballet class..... loving her beautiful buck tooth smile and being ever so thankful we just acquired dental insurance that includes orthodontia.....wondering how on earth this innocent, sweet child has turned out so beautiful, smart, sweet, considerate, kind, caring, observant and so creative and fun by spending her days with you.....and watching her cherish and love on her baby brother like she needs nobody else in this world.....and then realizing that you can't stop time so you try to soak it all in because you know how quickly another four years will pass........

Reprise of the cake on the real birthday

This little girl loves her Papa

The infamous"If you take a mouse to school" lunchbox cake
And I thought Ella the Elephant was hard last year! (I have more pictures if you want to see them just let me know :-)

Doing the Hokey Pokey with her friends

Ella requested the events of the day: Lunch of PBJ, go see the play "If you take a mouse to school", face painting by Mama, eat cake, do the Hokey Pokey"

My favorite two faces

Ella by "Mouse"

Posing for a picture in the courtyard:
Ryan, Ella, Braden, Asha
Nicholas

Uncle Jeff and Aunt Marion have been at all four of Ella's birthday party's!
This was in the lobby of the Apollo Theatre where we saw the Emerald City Theatre production of
"If you take a mouse to school".

My little dress-up girl

My little Preschooler

2008-09-24T23:43:00.004-05:00

Today was Ella's first day of preschool. Here are the ubiquitous photos that all parents must take on days like these, right? Ella loved her first day of class with Miss Mary and the other children.

At least Nicholas and I have a great view while we hang-out and wait for her if we don't want to run errands.

Anxiously awaiting to leave

I can't wait to have Mama all to myself for a little while!

But what will I do without my entertainer?

I love preschool!

Big city behind a little girl

Live radio TODAY!

2008-09-15T11:08:00.004-05:00

Anyone wishing to treat themselves to something fun today, I just found out

My Uncle Ron (who is always entertaining might I add) is hosting my cousin Andrew Grafe's radio show "Eclectic Blues" at 2-4p.m. Central time on WWOZ live from New Orleans Today (Monday 9/15/08).

use this link : http://www.wwoz.org/programs/streams

Of course you could tune in other Monday's from 2-4 to hear Andrew too!

A little bit about WWOZ: New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Station: Our show hosts are part and parcel of the music community of New Orleans. Some are musicians, others are loyal live-music devotees. You get the local's perspective on every show.

The station does not provide these aficionados with playlists; each show is unique and hand-picked just for you. What's more, they are not influenced by commercial considerations (i.e., record labels, music venues, etc. do not pay for play). Pure intent, pure music, pure groove.

City Mom #3

2008-09-10T10:51:00.004-05:00

Over the past few months we've been noticing a new development in Ella's speech. It of course continues to be very good, clear and quite extensive--however the new development is much more exciting: Ella has a Chicago accent!

I keep asking David, "Why does she have this accent? You don't. I don't. So why does she?" He of course said well, because she was born in Chicago and developed her speech in Chicago so she speaks like a true native Chicagoan. We love it! She's also constantly walking around on the city streets and riding city buses and city trains all filled with native Chicagoans here and there.

So if you're one of those parents considering having a baby in the city and then moving out to a suburban life, think twice. For so many, many, many reasons. But also because you might miss out on your kids sounding like Big Jim Colosimo when they talk.

Yet another reason why I love being a city mom.

Perspective

2008-09-05T23:55:00.008-05:00

I am so blessed to live life in this beautiful city with my beautiful children and husband. I've been begging God to bless us even more in so many ways that sometimes I feel greedy or at least have convinced myself there's no way I'm going to get all of the things I want. I won't bog you down with the list.

Then I decided that I really could get it all. Perspective is what I needed. Sometimes it just takes some more creativity, survival skills or yes--worrying, praying, crying, laughing and maybe not the easiest way to resolve something. But in the end life goes on and we are not just surviving, we are thriving. God is showing me that I truly do have it all if I just have the right perspective

Pictures! Pictures! Pictures!

2008-09-03T23:01:00.016-05:00

Here are some pictures to catch you up for August through yesterday. Enjoy!

Hi There!

Nicholas has a personal entertainer--Ella

4 months old

Guess who's teething

Nice rolls

Trying out my future bed

I'm bustin' out of my bassinet!

Crown Fountain at Millennium Park

How cute am I?

They are so sweet when sleeping

Ella Jumping with Kaitlynn

What are they doing Mama?

Papa time!

At the beach--with some fresh wounds

before the storm

after the storm

Block Party

We love our diverse neighborhood

Shy firegirl

We love our face painter!

Reading books

Sashay across the living room

Simplicity Bassinet danger

2008-08-28T22:48:00.002-05:00

Please read this very important information about the Simplicity Bassinet and pass it along to anyone you know with a baby.
Two babies have already died but the company has still not issued a recall to ensure everyone who owns it is notified.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-bassinetaug28,0,6401002.story

Seasons

2008-08-26T14:57:00.004-05:00

A crisp breeze blows across the lake and up into our windows today reminding me that Autumn is right around the corner. I love Seasons. Growing up in Southern California did not give me much opportunity to enjoy the four Seasons. Now I wouldn't give them up for anything.

I love Spring because life is new again and people and creatures come out of hiding, and because 50 degrees feels so warm.
I love Summer because the sun seems to never set, days are long and fireflies abound.
I love Autumn because it refreshes your soul and colors the world so vividly.
I love Winter because there's nothing like a quiet snowfall to remind you of God's beautiful Earth, or a subzero eyelash and nose hair freeze to invigorate your mind and body.

I've fallen in love in the summer, given birth in the fall and spring, was born in the summer, married in the fall, and lived in the winter.

To everything there is a season,
a time for every purpose under the sun.
A time to be born and a time to die;
a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
a time to kill and a time to heal ...
a time to weep and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn and a time to dance ...
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to lose and a time to seek;
a time to rend and a time to sew;
a time to keep silent and a time to speak;
a time to love and a time to hate;
a time for war and a time for peace.

ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Uncle Jeff

2008-08-25T00:04:00.004-05:00

We love Uncle Jeff and unfortunately I have been unable to blog about him all week due to our very old computer once again having issues.

Anyhow.

One week ago Jeff (David's brother) had a very unexpected but not un-Earnhart-like heart attack. A bill of health is how I would describe him. So the call was a shock (and another reminder) to us all. Thankfully he didn't hesitate to call 911 and is now recovering well, out of the hospital and spending two weeks at home with his lovely wife Marion. He will be going through Cardiac rehab, but so far they think the damage to his heart was not too bad and that his heart strength is now running a bit above average.

So please keep Jeff and the whole Earnhart family in your prayers. We want a quick recovery for Jeff and no future heart issues with him or anyone else!

City Mom #2

2008-08-15T23:02:00.007-05:00

Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world.
Every color dark or light
They are precious in his sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

This is the song that went through my mind this evening at our neighborhood playground.
Thank goodness we no longer sing red, yellow, black, white.
Have you ever met anyone that was literally red? yellow? black? white? Me either.

Caucasian, Hispanic, African, Mexican, Brazilian, Romanian, Bosnian, Vietnamese, Korean, Pakistani, Indian, Filipino. These are the nationalities of just some of the people playing with Ella at the park this evening. She notices no difference in any of them. They're all just kids. Just like her.

This is another reason why I love Chicago and love being a city Mom.

Cardinal Nation

2008-08-10T23:37:00.002-05:00

I think that's what they call it. I'm sure David will correct me if I'm wrong. We had a great visit to Uncle Jeff & Aunt Marion's new home. We got to see everyone including Blake & Karla, Matthew, Uncle Jon & Aunt Angie (read her version of the visit and see more pics here), Gracie & Lexi, Aunt Sue & Uncle Monte, Josh & Ashley, Timothy & Little Tim--and even Nana who happened to be there for a work conference. We made our new traditional trip to Ted Drew's, had lunch at Fitz's one day (I am a big root beer lover), went to Matthew's Won by One concert, and even visited Grant's Farm with Uncle Jeff, Aunt Marion and Nana. We also were able to see our friends the Diggs for the first time in several years and have a quick lunch (disaster for the kids--sorry Elizabeth!) with the McPherson's. Ella was able to enjoy playtime with her cousins spanning the ages of 3 to 27 and become so sleep deprived she voluntarily took naps and ended up getting sick (me too). It was great fun showing off our beautiful baby boy Nicholas to all of our family who had not met him yet and our friends too! Ella loved running around barefoot and said her favorite part of St. Louis was gardening with Aunt Marion. Nicholas screamed everytime we were in the car since he's not used to being in a carseat, but got a little better by the end of the trip. We were also able to see alot of our friends on Sunday when at McKnight Road church--alot of whom read this blog! Our train travel on Amtrak was great on the way down and a comedy of errors on the way home with one delay after another. It was so great to see all of you and we hope to come back soon. In the meantime enjoy our photos--and sorry for the photo overload--just too many good pictures. --And come see us in Chicago!

Earnhart family at Matthew's concert (only missing Jene, Jared & Malachi)

Aunt Angie
Bubbles with cousin Mathew & Lexi
The younger generation of the cousins: Nicholas, Ella, Gracie, Lexi
Triple trouble
The Diggs and The Earnhart's

Heather, Nicholas, Jackson, Gabriella, Madeline, Circe
Madeline, Tom, Jackson & Nicholas, David Gabriella

Madeline, Circe, Nicholas, Ella

Eric & Nicholas
Did I mention he hates his carseat?
Jeff & Marion's new house
Cousin Blake finally arrived
Aunt Sue, Nicholas, Uncle Jeff, Karla, Ella
Uncle Monte, Aunt Sue, Gabriella, Nicholas

Grant's Farm

On the porch swing with Uncle Jeff
(I love this picture!)

Train ride to St. Louis
Coming into St. Louis

Leaving St. Louis (Nana came back to Chicago with us for a few days)

Back in Chicago at Millennium Park
I

clean-up, clean-up

2008-07-30T22:53:00.003-05:00

everybody everywhere, clean-up, clean-up, everybody do your share. You know that lovely song we all sing to get our kids to clean up their toys. Well this has always been an issue with Ella. She won't clean-up! We used to have the rule as clean-up before bed which was always a disaster since she didn't want to go to bed anyhow. Then a while back I had an idea and changed it to clean-up before dinner. She DOES want to eat! This has worked much better, but is still always a very unpleasant time of day. Then David had a brilliant idea. The trash bag.

You might be wondering any number of things right now. So let me set your mind at ease. If Ella doesn't clean-up by the deadline we set, then any toys left out get put into one of our white trashcan liner bags and she doesn't get them back for 24 hours! Let me tell you. There is trouble in River City when this happens. (If you don't get that, then you are WAY too young to be reading my blog!) just kidding.....

Ella gets hysterical when we mention the trashbag and completely flips when we get it out and really goes over the top when we start to put things in it. Whew! What a great idea. Let's hear it for Papa and his clean-up trick! He and I both laugh (trying to hide it of course) when this all happens because we think it's so great and just can't believe it actually works.

I know I promised STL info and pics but it is way too hot in here to do that now. Let's hear it for A/C in the whole house at once someday!!

skinned knees and flippin' over

2008-07-26T22:47:00.004-05:00

Today I took Ella out for a bike ride to the playground. While there she tripped and fell and skinned her knees--of course she would fall on one of the few sections that's not rubber. Anyhow, most importantly she did not fall off of her bike to get these injuries :-). She's going to be just fine in spite of what our neighbors must think based on her blood curdling screams while I cleaned her knees. (She fell on the concrete, and then into the black dirt--not a good combo).

AND, while we were gone, Nicholas FINALLY succeeded in turning over. Sadly, nobody even saw it happen. David had put him on his floorgym to play while he was doing some things. He put him down on his back, and the next time he saw him he was on his tummy looking in the mirror! All week he has been trying really hard to flip from his tummy to his back, and from his back to his tummy. He even woke up about 3 a.m. a couple of days ago squirming around in his bed trying to flip over! And when he's on his tummy he looks like an inch worm trying to scoot around. I think we have an early mover on our hands. I checked in Ella's baby book and she flipped one direction at 17 weeks and the other at 19 weeks--much later than Nicholas.

Here are some fun pictures completely unrelated. Nicholas loves to lick or suck on Ella's arms when she holds him!
BTW-Next up will be the recount of our trip to St. Louis. AND if you ever notice any typos, the 't' key on our keyboard has not been working very well. You have to really slap it down to get it to work. Sorry.

Double Vision

2008-07-23T10:51:00.003-05:00

Gabriella-3 months

Nicholas-3 months

I've meant to do this more often, and will try to in the future. They're very similar, but different as well. No doubt they're siblings though! Ella was much chunkier at this age. Must be the reflux.

3 months

2008-07-21T10:28:00.006-05:00

Can you believe it's been 3 months? I can't. Nicholas is growing up so fast. David and I were discussing how it's so different with him. When Ella was a baby we were so excited as she grew and reached new developmental milestones. With Nicholas, we want to stop the clock because we know how quickly he will turn 3 years before we blink an eye. Here is the best 3 month photo shoot I could do on that particular day. And no I did not change his clothes for the picture (or choose them for that) he just goes through many outfits per day with his messy pukin' and poopin' as we call it!

Bashful baby blues (from Papa of course)

His favorite playtime on his gym

Look how long I am!

DD (Dimple and Double chin)

I'm in love with another man

2008-07-20T20:04:00.005-05:00

o.k., so it's really just a boy, and o.k. yes, a baby boy--and, well of course MY baby boy. After mothering Ella I was doubtful and concerned about how I could love another child. Especially, how could I love a boy--I didn't know anything about caring for baby boys. But I do. I love him so much. His smiles melt my heart, his coos and talking delight me. He is destined to be a Mama's boy. My dimple dumplin', my baby boy, my buster brown, my sweet Nikky. The new man in my life. I'm so in love.

"The best 4th of July ever"

2008-07-04T23:26:00.004-05:00

So Ella just declared this the best 4th of July ever! She and I went up to the roof of our building and looked all around the city to see fireworks going off all over the place, and then sat and watched the fireworks show from a very exclusive private club that's right up at the corner. It was perfect. No crowds, no smoke, no dangerous fireworks being set off by drunk people around us. (I still don't get why they sell these things in the grocery store. I grew up in California where they are illegal and completely understand why!)

It was just the two of us and the sliver of the moon. A lifelong memory for both Mother and daughter. This was the first year that she was not terrified of the noise and we could actually watch a fireworks show. Thank you Papa for keeping our sweet sick Nicholas sheltered safely inside from the noise, and chilly night.

Happy Independence Day and remember this is how we received our Independence.

Baby Boy news and other happenings

2008-07-01T12:30:00.007-05:00

Nicholas is being increasingly more subjected to playing with Ella's dolls. This weekend we were using his carseat carrier (we had borrowed a friend's car) and she thought he needed "regular baby" to hold since he was of course upset and screaming for most of the car ride.
These are his 8 week pictures that I never posted two weeks ago. So the one with the baby is more recent (taken Sunday). His hair is really growing and is very light blonde just like Ella's was. He also started "talking" about a week ago and converses quite well with us. It's very sweet, just like his whole personality. He particularly seems to like it when I sing his theme song to him: "Let's hear it for the boy!" Also, he was 11 1/2 pounds and 23 inches at his two month check up where he received 5 shots (4 sticks in the leg and 1 oral dose). This is worse than when Ella got them. They no longer use the combo vaccine so that means one more stick in the leg, and then the oral vaccine is so new they didn't even have it when Ella was his age. He survived with a very slight fever and fussiness--pretty much how Ella has always reacted.
An update with the bear and book to show his growth.
He loves for Ella to hold him. If you think about it he spends just as much time with her as he does with me. He will contentedly lie in her lap and even suck on her arm like he does to me sometimes. The bad news is that he's beginning to be upset when she cries, screams and throws fits. The even worse news is that she's doing all of the above even more frequently these days. She's very upset about our whole pending move. As we prepared the house for a showing and then an open house over the weekend, she would act out even more, and of course they always seem to happen right during naptime. Yes, we could ask them not to do things at that time of day, but we really need to sell and want no limits on people seeing this place. Notice the new quote in the sidebar about crying happened late Sunday afternoon after this weekend flurry of house selling activities came to an end. I must admit, even for me and David this is stressful--and we're not 3 years old! It's no fun living in a hotel room or corporate apartment as I call it now. Though most hotel rooms and corporate apartments at least have some artwork hanging on the walls! We're not enjoying the echo and hope this process does not drag out too long for our family's well being.We were able to attend the last French wiggleworms before Madame Rose takes the rest of the summer off. We hadn't been in two months. It was so fun for Ella to be back and see Madame Rose, all of her friends, sing her French songs and for everyone to meet Nicholas. We have gone to this class since she was 11 months old! Fun Fun!

Lastly, the seasonal allergies have hit Ella hard. Nicholas has just got his first cold :-( and David had a high fever with sweats and chills all weekend. Hopefully we'll get this all under control before next week when we board the Amtrak for St. Louis!

Ballet Recital, Nana & Pa's visit

2008-06-25T10:22:00.005-05:00

Prima Ballerina Gabriella before her Ballet
Recital at the Chicago History Museum.

World's best Chicago dog....well, maybe equal to this one. (scroll to "picture catch-up")

Storytime with Pa

Must have Chicago picture

At the park

Ballet recital (Ella in center)

After the show

Goals

2008-06-24T23:55:00.003-05:00

I am setting some goals for myself and thought I should blog them for some accountability. Here they are in no particular order, some short-term, some long-term and some continual:

1. Write and mail thank you notes for Nicholas' gifts received before he turns 3 months old.
2. Create and mail out a birth announcement for my son before he turns 3 months old. (I think Ella was closer to 2 months when hers finally went in the mail)
3. Spend more quality time with my husband, not the typical business meeting we often seem to need each night , or each morning as he's out the door.
4. Get my hair cut
5. Regain my pre-C-section #2 stomach muscles.
6. Play my flute without anyone crying.
7. Make travel plans for the rest of 2008. (We finally booked travel for our July trip to St. Louis tonight!)
8. Sell our condo
9. Be more patient with my 3 1/2 year old daughter, remembering she is NOT 5 years old even though she looks it and talks it most of the time.
10. Enjoy the outdoors NOW before the Chicago winter returns and I'm trapped inside again.
11. Own a car again someday
12. Stop eating so many Ann Sather cinnamon rolls
13. Savor every moment with my precious son who will be 3 1/2 himself before I know it
14. Sleep when I have the chance instead of blogging (like now). This will help with #9 and #13 for sure.
15. Too many more to list for now.........

Naked Picture

2008-06-17T00:39:00.004-05:00

We took these after bath time the other night. You sure can tell they're brother and sister.
We're suffering from sleep deprivation and now have a rather loud echo in our house, which is now quite empty, void of anything remotely personal and all "clutter", and officially on the market and part of a Broker's tour tomorrow. This is a hard process on all of us so everyone pray for a quick sale!!

Old

2008-06-10T23:00:00.004-05:00

That's what my daughter thinks of me. Old. All day long this is what I heard, over and over again:
"Happy Birthday Mama!"
"Thank you Ella."
"How old are you again?"
"37"
"Wow!" (long pause)
"You're really old"

And then she looked into my eyes and lovingly asked me the newest quote of the week in the sidebar...which by the way was definitely caused by her (and Nicholas).

Happy Birthday to me!
Happy 2 month birthday to Nicholas!

Spring Gym Show

2008-06-05T10:07:00.006-05:00

I forgot to change my camera to the right setting until the show was almost over, but here are the pictures from the "Beach Party" Theme (that's why the swimsuits) Twinkle Stars Gymnastics Show. It's amazing what 3 to 5 year olds can do and remember to do on the obstacle course--well, most of them....ummm not necessarily including my daughter. She remember's what to do just fine. But let's just say Ella will never be the next Mary Lou...but she absolutely LOVES gymnastics and has NO idea how terrible she is at it. It's so sweet. We encourage her to do it and overcome her great fear of heights, and become more coordinated. It was a fun night, and Nana & Pa arrived straight from the airport (after a thunderstorm delay) just in time for it!

Ella on the first beam

Finishing her front rolls

Waiting patiently until Miss Jessica comes to help her on the beam.
Did I mention she's afraid of heights?

Doing the flip

Straddle legs over the barrel

Back-flip out of the doughnut

Taking a bow.

Getting her certificate

Bashful beauty

Hug from Pa

Papa on Nicholas duty

Nana & Pa with Ella and Nikky

Obama Mama

2008-06-03T10:12:00.004-05:00

I have no intention of turning this into a political blog. However, with tonight's impending announcement of our new Democratic Presidential nominee, and no sweeter words than this,
I must say: I'm proud to be an Obama Mama! Sorry--just can't resist the rhyme......

Are any of you other Mama's out there Obama Mama's?! Let's hear it!

So admitting my political stance to other's is not such a big deal to me. For my husband though, he would never tell anyone, yes ANYONE (including me--his wife!) how he voted in any given election, until the 2004 Presidential race where he came home that night and out of the blue spouted off a list of past Presidential candidate names......after which I learned he was telling me how he'd voted his whole life. Ha! I was so relieved he finally told me. It was one of those weird things that just really bothered me. I think the fact that I had just given birth to his firstborn a few weeks prior to that day softened him up a little. Maybe.

Of course I would never divulge his current political stance to you, but will proudly say I DO know what it is. Is he an Obama Papa? Maybe. But Obama Papa doesn't have that lyrical ring to it anyhow now, does it?

Smile-Beach-Stage-Eye-Tea-Thanks

2008-06-01T01:47:00.009-05:00

This is the best I've got so far in trying to capture the boy's smile on camera!
*

So Monday we could NOT get out of going to the beach. For about 9 months now we've been talking about how the beach opens again on Memorial Day. Luckily it was a beautiful spring day here in Chicago so Ella and David could have fun building a sand castle and wading around in the freezing cold water while Nicholas and I sat and relaxed while watching. We ended the day with a trip to one of our favorite Chicago restaurants Cozy Noodle . It was nice to have David here an extra day.
*
The rest of our long weekend was spent preparing for our first visit from the Realtor who is staging our condo for the LONG awaited and MUCH needed sale. I take the credit for taking the plunge and calling her to get this thing rolling, but David takes the credit for really helping out and getting our place ready for her visit. It ended with us both working until about 2 a.m. the night before she arrived. End result is that my fear of her telling us we need to move out in order to sell did NOT come true. In fact, it was quite positive and we don't have much to do at all before we list it. This is a process we dread, but can no longer put off due to rapidly diminishing living space in our one bedroom! We'll keep you posted on the process and be sure to spread the word to anyone you might know who is looking to buy a great condo in Chicago.
*
Ella got her first real injury of life. She fell during the "race" time at Gymnastics on Tuesday and got a nice zinger on her eye/face. They race down the runway that's basically a spring board underneath (not sure what it's called). I tried to take a picture of it, but the camera actually made it look better than it looks in real life.

*
Nicholas is already being subjected to what much of his future holds with a big sister as his playmate. He attended his first tea party yesterday.

*
Finally, we were able to select and order photos tonight from our portrait session two weeks ago and are exhausted after the entire process (Jeff-we miss you!). So hopefully the birth announcement will go out SOON, as well as thank you notes which I'm terribly behind in writing. So to all of you who have sent us gifts please know we are SO thankful, love everything and have not forgotten you!!

If the shoe fits

2008-05-25T01:35:00.003-05:00

So any of you parents out there will appreciate this. Shoe shopping with a 3 year old is quite a chore. First of all some background info.: Ella has extremely long (size 12 1/2 at age 3??!!), narrow feet and has "flexible flat feet" (ask me later). Finding shoes that fit her has always been an impossible task. My favorite preschoolians don't come large enough for her anymore, and going to shoe stores like Payless or shopping at Target, etc. is just not gonna happen for us--you can't find anything that fits. Her foot is IMPOSSIBLE to fit! She requires good expensive shoes, which I'm o.k. with for her everyday shoes.

Anyhow, she's been in desperate need of a new everyday shoe (I won't tell you how embarrassed I am by the size difference in the old and new pair...). So David took her to Alamo, our local shoe store and came home with a great pair of Umi's, but in a color/pattern that would be great for fall not spring/summer! So I resorted yet again to online shopping with zappos -which I love. So we select four pairs and order them (free delivery in both directions, usually arrives the next day). We begin the trying on process and clearly eliminate two pairs that just don't fit her skinny foot. It's down to two others..a Nike that fits really well--prob. the best fit I've seen on her foot, and a Stride Rite that looks too wide to me. Note: The Nike shoes are pink plaid (all four pairs were of course pink), the Stride Rite are pink flowers with LIGHTS.

Ella is asked which shoe feels better and she quickly picks the LIGHTS shoes. After several times of asking and looking, etc. she swears the LIGHTS shoe feels better, in spite of our parental judgment that tells us the other shoe clearly fits better. So the next morning I tell her we're going to play a blindfold game today. She was so excited and kept asking all morning what it was, etc. So when I had the chance I made a blindfold out of a scarf and put it on her. I asked her to look down and tell me if she could see her feet and she could, so I told her to look up and NOT look down until I told her. Next I put the LIGHTS shoe on one foot, and the Nike on the other and parade her around the living room while she's looking up toward the ceiling with the blindfold on the whole time asking, Mama! What are we doing? How do we play the game? After a couple of minutes I very slyly say, Ella, keep looking up, but reach down and touch the foot that feels more comfortable.........she immediately reaches down and touches the NIKE shoe, I have her pick again and leave her hand in place while I take the blindfold off and let her see which shoe she selected. Then I say, I guess we'll return the LIGHTS shoes and keep the Nike's (swoosh shoes as she calls them). She kind of laughs and I promise that some day we will get her shoes that light up......

For the record she loves the shoes so much and they are so comfortable that she wants to wear them around the house (we usually take our shoes off inside)!

As promised

2008-05-25T00:45:00.006-05:00

Here are some new pictures to make you want to come and visit us....

Nicholas 5 weeks, Gabriella 3 1/2 years:

Imitating Mama

Papa for my pillow

Love the dimple and the thigh rolls!

Nicholas 6 weeks, Gabriella 3 1/2 years:

Nikky's new toy that big sister Ella loves

Look at my fat tummy in the bathtub!

Hangin' with Papa

My little tea lover

"Lady Godova"
As opposed to "Lady Godiva"... Ella created
this alternate similar name for when she
rides her horse WITH clothes on. We call her
Lady Godiva because she LOVES to ride
her horse naked at night when she's getting
ready for bed. So this photo qualifies as
Godova, not Godiva since she has
her panties on.......my crazy girl!

Paranoia, etc.

2008-05-21T13:39:00.004-05:00

So I'm considering making our blog private, which means I first have to "invite" you to view it, and from then on you have to log-in to blogger to view it. Currently, our blog is not private but is not part of my profile and not listed in the blogger or google search engines--unless you have the address or are just clicking through blogs on blogger, you can't find it.

But I guess now that I have two kids, I'm thinking even more about all the crazy people in this world just lurking around to find out info about you or your kids to do any number of horrible things to them or to you. Recently on a parenting type website I was reading through some threads on a message board and there was a warning at the top to never mention your address (duh!), city (unless you live in a large metro city like Chicago, NYC, etc.), hospital where you will have your baby, etc. because they've caught predators browsing to find info, etc. Such a sad world, but that's reality.

Any thoughts on if you would still take the time to read our blog if it's private and requires the initial invite (meaning I need to know you and your e-mail address, and that you want to read my blog), and then you logging in every time? Please post a comment or send me an e-mail to let me know, then we'll make a decision.

New kiddie pics coming soon!
Nicholas is now almost 10 lbs and 21 inches long, a healthy growing boy with a beautiful smile. Big sister Ella is HUGE in comparison. It's always strange to give her a bath, or something similar after spending so much time caring for Nicholas. She just seems HUGE! BTW, she's counting down to Memorial Day for the long awaited beach opening.......

Snooze Baby

2008-05-16T11:55:00.003-05:00

The other morning, it was about 4 or 5 a.m. and Nikky and I were up--he was crying. Suddenly David starts reaching for his alarm clock, hitting it several different times trying to find the snooze button, then he opens his eyes, looks over at me, looks at his alarm, and goes back to sleep. You see, his alarm was NOT going off. He was trying to snooze Nicholas' crying!

Too funny! At least to someone that only sleeps a max of 3 hours at a time..........

Life is Beautiful

2008-05-12T12:00:00.006-05:00

Ann Sather cinnamon rolls. My husband did six loads of laundry. My son smiled at me for the first time. My daughter asked , "Mama, will you marry me?" A perfect Mother's Day. Life is Beautiful.

(The pearl bracelet was nice too :-))

3 meal day

2008-05-06T16:12:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was a 3-meal day. Yes, that's right. I successfully cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner. And we're not talking my favorite Trader Joe's toaster waffles or heating up leftovers that friends have brought to us....I made oatmeal (stovetop--no instant around here) for breakfast, grilled cheese with Tillamook cheddar and goat cheese on sourdough bread for lunch, and delicious turkey burgers for dinner. Glamorous? Well, no. However, it fed Ella and I three times, but my midwestern husband opted out of my Californian turkey burgers for dinner and had a leftover pork chop instead.

In my book (my new book with a 3 1/2 year old and now 4 week old) that's a successful day!
Don't you want to congratulate me?

And if you haven't noticed, check out the sidebar for my latest blog feature "Quote of the Week". I could probably do quotes of the day around here, but we all know I would never blog on a daily basis.

Growing fast

2008-05-03T14:03:00.003-05:00

1 week

2 weeks

3 weeks

Baby Dedication

1st trip to the park

The Circle of Life

2008-04-26T09:57:00.004-05:00

My son Nicholas Alexander was born at 11:43 a.m. on April 10th. A few short hours later, my cousin Raney Leigh (McCullar) Fleck passed from this life after fighting a courageous battle with cancer for the past 18 months. She sadly leaves behind her wonderful husband Chris and their two sweet boys Jaren, age 6, and Conor age 18 months.

As I lied in the hospital bed being prepped for my cesarean section, terrified of course because I have a very strong dislike and fear of needles, IV's, spinals, anesthesiologists (sorry Jesse), surgeons, etc. I thought of Raney. I was talking to the nurse as she gave me my IV and I told her about Raney. I said to her, I keep telling myself that Raney is so strong and willing to do anything and right now she is also lying in a hospital bed literally fighting for every breath, so I can be brave and do this for a happy result--the birth of my child. It's amazing how it really helped me not be so nervous. Thank you Raney for helping me. I was so sad to not be able to tell Raney that it was a boy. Everyone, including Raney, was convinced it was a girl.

I will never forget April 10th and it will always be a bittersweet day, as we celebrate my son's birth but also are reminded of your death.

As all of you have read on this blog and known about Raney's illness, I know you have all offered up so many prayers on her and our family's behalf. Thank you for your kindness.

The circle of life continues.

Raney's obituary:
http://www.legacy.com/AZCentral/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonId=107649866

And he shall be called...

2008-04-13T20:09:00.021-05:00

Posted by David:
As most of you know from telephone calls, e-mails, and the previous blog post, our son has received a name. In spite of the many complaints that we had perpetrated homicidal suspense--text message: u r killing me!--we deliberated the same amount of time as with our daughter, Ella, about two days. Honestly, since this name will have to stick for a lifetime, two days is pretty reasonable. Quickly answering the most asked questions:

To our knowledge, neither family has a Nicholas, nor are either of us Greek.
Heather's grandfather and great-grandfather had Alexander as a middle name.
Yes, we also considered Nicholas for our first baby, but Gabriella Marguerite seemed more appropriate for a girl.
Heather refuses to call him "Nick", but prefers "Nicky". I refuse to call him "Nicky", but prefer "Nicco". Alas, this will most likely be decided by the third-grade, as the playground is a cruel arbiter of nicknames and reality. Until then, we agree on Nicholas, while Ella calls him, "Brother".
"People of victory" and "Defender of mankind"
Yes, I realize that the last Romanov Tsar of Russia was also named Nicholas (the Second) Alexander--thank you Dr. Jesse, but no, I do not expect he and his family to be executed in the palace dungeon by a group of trigger-happy Bolsheviks.
Other finalists were Lucas and Atticus (from Antiquity, not Harper Lee), and at Ella's request, Leonardo. We also considered Edward for the middle name, but since Heather did the heavy lifting, her family won the legacy name game, this time.

As music lovers, we prefer names that have a lyrical quality, and a certain amount of distinction, and we consider meaning, family, and historical significance. They should also be flexible enough to last a couple of generations--how many baby girls, or boys, will be named Ainslie/Ainsley/Ainslee/Ainesly/Ainsleigh a dozen years from now?

On a final note about historical significance, even though we are not Catholic, my favorite Nicholas of all time was probably Pope Nicholas V, who reigned a mere eight years, from 1447-1455. He was a diplomat and peacemaker, who ultimately ended the Western Schism. He was a reader and thinker, who presided over the beginning of the Renaissance and founded the Vatican Library, still today considered a formidable repository of the written word. He was an astute administrator, who filled the Vatican coffers without immediately emptying them. He was a planner, who began the process of restoring Rome from a dilapidated cow pasture to a functioning and thriving city. He was a visionary patron, who put in motion urban designs for the Rome that most people recognize and enjoy today. Of course, I do not expect all these things from my son, but eight consecutive hours of sleep would be nice. Enjoy the new pictures...

Just pulled out of his water world

Awaiting the first bath

Papa with his boy

Just the three of us

Cute little feet

Baby Burrito in his hospital bassinet.
Notice the snow flurries outside on April 10th!

In Papa's arms

Ella meets brother for the first time

Nana meets Nicholas

First kiss for brother

My girl and my boy

Ella's present from brother...

...George books

With Nana and sister

Nana with her first boy in the family

Room with a viewRocking with Mama

Eyes wide open

So cute

So cute again

Already winking at the girls

Getting ready to come home

Going home suit

So this is what clothes feel like

Ready to go home

Really ready to go home

Let's get out of here!

Off we go...

Home at last!

Meeting sister in the lobby

In the courtyard

It's a BOY!

2008-04-13T00:19:00.004-05:00

Welcome to our new SON!
Nicholas Alexander Earnhart
7 pounds 4 ounces
19 inches
4.10.08
11:43 a.m.First family of 4 photo

Prayer Request

2008-04-08T22:06:00.003-05:00

Many of you have been praying for my cousin, Raney, who is battling Advanced Stage IV Lung Cancer. Raney has been on a new round of medication trying to fight the latest spread of her cancer, and it has resulted in an enzyme problem, two types of pneumonia, and many other difficulties. She was admitted to intensive care at the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Scottsdale on Friday, and Sunday evening she was placed on a ventilator.

As of today, they have removed the ventilator and placed her on a CPAP instead. The Doctor's have determined that her breathing troubles are not from the pneumonia, but are from the actual cancer that is now blocking part of her lungs. Raney's wishes are to not be placed on the ventilator again, so we are praying that CPAP can maintain her for now and that she will gain enough strength to come out of this. She is basically going in and out of sedation in order to keep her comfortable.

Please pray for Raney, her husband Chris, their sons Jaren & Conor and all of our family.

Family of 3

2008-04-04T10:49:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was our last day to celebrate our family of three. (Nana arrives today). Rather than wanting time alone like originally I thought I might, I really wanted to do something special with Ella. So yesterday afternoon I surprised her with a mother/daughter manicure-pedicure. This is not something I treat myself to very often--but the last time I did, she was there for part of it and they painted her nails for her--she thought it was the greatest thing. So yesterday afternoon when I told her where we were going she was thrilled! This time she got to sit up on a big cushy chair of her own and they filed her fingers and toes and painted them while I got my pedicure and manicure. She loved every minute of it, as did I.

Then we met David and rode the train to a special dinner of her choice which of course took us to Cozy Noodles or "Paroon's restaurant" as she often calls it. It's a bit surreal to think it was our last night at a restaurant as a family of three. We enjoyed most every minute, knowing our next family outing would entail an infant too!

My TRUly amazing husband

2008-03-28T11:17:00.009-05:00

Monday night David and I were able to have a night out without Ella before our second child is born--a huge thanks to Jyothi! She came over and stayed with Ella while we took a hospital tour (not so exciting) and then David had made reservations for us to have dessert at TRU. Some of you might remember that this is the world-renowned dining establishment where we dined on our 1st wedding anniversary. For those of you that have had the ultimate food experience of dining at TRU, I need not say more other than my husband is amazing! For those of you that have not had the pleasure, be sure to click on the TRU link and check it out.

Though we were only supposed to have dessert/drinks, etc. I decided I really wanted something else too, so I ordered a soup course, a la carte, out of the three course Prix Fixe dinner you can get. It was this: Lobster Soup, Ground Hominy, Lobster Emulsion, Spoonbread. One thing you need to understand is the "production" that comes with every little thing at TRU. For example, my soup was set in front of me with the Lobster Emulsion (think foam) in the bowl, covering the ground hominy and spoonbread. Then one of our half dozen or so servers came with a beautiful white porcelain vase and poured the actual lobster soup over it. Think service over the top--everything is synchronized i.e. the pouring of two glasses of water, the setting and removal of different dishes, silver , etc. , the small silver bowl of ice cubes that sits next to my glass of water and periodically someone comes and spoons ice into the glass for me.

Of course, the amuse bouche- three to be exact-were nothing less than amazing. One contained caviar and sake so I had to pass :-(, but my favorite and David's too I think was the dessert amuse: Devonshire clotted cream, pomegranate puree, topped with pop-rocks. Yes--pop-rocks! It was great and made me feel like a kid again. Our desserts were wonderful and we ended up with four instead of two. Long story short: service. Even this was a little surprising after the TRU driver drove a box of truffles to our house once due to a mix-up........which by the way I've received as gift's twice from David.

I ordered this:
Vanilla Cream
Lemon Chiffon,
Vanilla Pot de Crème,
Lemon Curd Ice Cream,
Citrus Suprêmes

David ordered this:
Cocoa Nib Macaroon
Bitter Chocolate Ice Cream,

Milk Chocolate-Sour Cream Ganache,
White Chocolate Chiboust

and then we also were given this:

Apple Confit

Pine Nuts,
Rosemary,
Spiced Cider Caramel

and this:

Hot Chocolate Soufflé

Cayenne Pistachio Crumbs,
Saigon Cinnamon Ice Cream,

Vanilla Marshmallow,
"5-Alarm" Chocolate Sauce

The other important thing to remember is this. TRU is not stuffy, it's not pretentious, it's not uncomfortable. It's an art gallery containing Warhol's, etc. It's amazing food served in fun and exciting ways. It's very formal and elegant but fun. And yes, there really are blue velvet cushions for the ladies (served to be great for my back this time). There was a family of five with three kids ages probably age 10 to 16 who were dining when we arrived. No, you can't wear jeans. Come on, it's not the OG. But you don't need to feel uncomfortable--just come for the evening of your life! Or second... (and hoping for more!). Even the bathrooms are spectacular--and this time I used it more than the average diner.

David was able to try a great cheese from Bourgogne--just because we asked what it was after seeing it wheeled by in the cheese cart so many times. Unfortunately it was a fresh milk cheese so I couldn't join him. And of course the chocolate cart and then the truffle cart after that had us both on a chocolate high for the evening. Not to be outdone by our "goodie bags" we got on the way out of a delicious pound cake with surprise apple filling...seriously, I could go on and on. But I'll stop now.

I love you David, and not just because you take me to TRU, but because you are a truly wonderful husband in all ways imaginable.

Easter: Chicago style

2008-03-27T10:28:00.006-05:00

Easter eggs lying in the 7 inches of glistening snow!

First time to fear the Easter Bunny, and of course I'm not
wearing snow pants--nice.

Tulip peeking up through the snow in the courtyard

Ella and Papa at the egg hunt

It's hard to pick-up the egg out of the snow
when you won't take off your mitten......

Dying eggs

Two colors...
Checking out her Easter Basket
All dressed and ready for Easter Sunday

Ready with my new purse

Big Sister

2008-03-21T12:36:00.005-05:00

No, we didn't have the baby yet. But yesterday, Ella had her Big Sister class at the hospital. It was really good--they watched a silly movie all about "siblings", practiced holding newborn size babydoll's that were swaddled in the hospital blankies and wearing the hospital hats, took a tour of a LDR room and a post-partum room, and of course visited the nursery where we luckily saw one baby. Ella got a certificate and a coloring book about big brothers/sisters. In spite of her miserable state of sickness she enjoyed it as best she could.

Ella's sickness is actually on the mend, I think, which is great since she's been sick for over a week now. David and I (particularly me) have been SO careful to not get this from her (read: hands cracked and bleeding from so much antibacterial hand gel)--so let's keep our fingers crossed. More than anything I have ZERO patience left to care for a whiny, feverish (gone now), snotty (won't blow nose), ear infected, coughing, stubborn three year old!! Dear Lord, please bring health to our family quickly.

On another note, in honor of Easter weekend we have a 30 degree snow-filled day today in preparation for the Easter Bunny's visit to the park tomorrow for the egg hunt. We will be putting on our snow boots and going!

Monday night David and I are going on the adults only tour of the hospital and then out for coffee/dessert afterward. Yes--this means Ella will not be with us! Thank you Jyothi! Our pre-baby #2 date night. Hopefully we'll get it in and also my haircut on Wednesday evening before the baby comes. Enjoy the belly shots you've all been craving so much.....

Oxi-Clean

2008-03-17T21:32:00.002-05:00

Oxi-Clean is great on clothes. However, not so great on mirrors. In my overly-pregnant state of mind I attempted to clean our large mirrored closet doors today--"nesting" I guess. Only problem was that it took about 10 minutes of vigorous scrubbing, respraying and bad-mouthing the store brand of glass cleaner--thinking I should have shelled out the extra cash for Windex. Then when I gave up trying to get the "foggy" look off the glass I noticed I was holding the bottle of Oxi-Clean NOT the glass cleaner...What a pregnant mess!

On another note, I made it through my chamber performance tonight. I did opt to play sitting rather than standing--but nonetheless made it through my two Katherine Hoover pieces with success!

"Mama, don't come in here!"

2008-03-12T20:53:00.003-05:00

This evening I was cooking dinner and Ella was in the living room coloring. It was really quiet--which is normal for her when coloring. I asked a couple of times--are you o.k. Ella? "Yes" was the quick reply. Then after a few minutes I realized that I wasn't hearing the actual "coloring" of the marker or crayon on the paper, which I usually can hear. So I walk around the corner, and immediately her hands go behind her back and she starts yelling, "Don't come in here! I didn't want you in here! Please don't come in here!" I quickly realized this was not the usual disappointment over my seeing a "surprise" she was making for me. So I said, "Ella, what are you doing?" "Ella, you're not going to be in trouble but I need you to tell me what you're doing." She then says, "coloring." "On your paper?" "No, on my fingers and hands." O.k., let me see them please. She pulls her hands out and I see she has picked the color BLACK to color the entire tips of all her fingers and decorate her arms. I calmly continue while trying not to laugh, and say "Ella where are we supposed to color?" She of course says "on paper". I then said, you need to promise me you will only color on paper from now on. She agrees and we go to the bathroom to wash it all off, after I take a picture of course! :-)

So here's my question of the day for those of you older than I: "What did you do before the invention of washable markers?????"

Ice Skating

2008-02-28T21:54:00.007-06:00

Ella had her first ice skating adventure on Saturday. Obviously, I could only spectate--but David had a great time pushing her around the ice (though he woke up a bit sore on Sunday). We weren't sure how she would react, and set no expectations for her in talking about it ahead of time. Periodically she kept saying--look! they're skating just like Angelina! She absolutely loved it! It was a gorgeous day with nice warm temps in the low 30's.

Of course it was helpful that Tori was there too. The Hudson's came to town for the weekend to visit and celebrate Tori's birthday. I can't believe she's 5 years old now--I remember going to the hospital the night she was born! Anyhow, now being the resident Minnesotans, Jeff, Cheryl and Tori all had their own skates--and Tori's even been taking lessons. We had a great visit--baby Jin is growing so fast and walking all over the place. We're always sad that it's just a visit now though.

Anyhow--while there in Millennium Park, we also took in the Museum of Modern Ice and of course had to walk under the "bean". Enjoy the photos!

Getting laced up

Ready to go--waiting for Papa to lace up

Patiently waiting for the Zamboni to finish clearing the ice.

First steps onto the ice!

Tori arrives-and I suddenly remember the article I just
read about kids wearing helmets while ice-skating...next time
we'll remember.

The Minnesotan's take to the ice

Cheryl & Tori

Tori & Jeff

Cheryl & Tori, David & Ella

Jin just woke up and is watching everyone

David & Ella

Ella in front of one of the ice art sculptures

The Bean--see if you can see all three of us!

Picture catch-up

2008-02-28T13:05:00.006-06:00

Here are some pictures from the last 4-6 weeks.

Dress-up

Opening my package with my new Ballet Kitty doll and book.
Thank you cousins Lexi & Gracie! I love them.

Playing with Nana and "New Baby"

Happy Birthday to Nana!

Drawing on my easel while dressed up of course.

The best Chicago Hot Dog ever!
Chicago History Museum

Miss Kristie putting toppings on her Chicago Hot Dog.
Chicago History Museum

Mr. Craig riding an old-time Chicago bicycle.
Chicago History Museum.

The Earnhart Duo

Jockey riding her horse to Paris as usual.

7 weeks and counting

2008-02-20T23:25:00.005-06:00

So time can really sneak up on you when suddenly you realize you will have another child to care for in 7 weeks or less. It's exciting, yet frustrating and of course carries a bit of scariness in the unknown too.

Meeting your new baby, discovering their gender, introducing them to big sister Ella=exciting
Choosing a name that me and picky husband can both agree upon=frustrating but fun
Staying in a hospital for 3 nights (even if it's brand new with great views of the Lake)=more frustrating and not fun
Trying to think of a new bedroom arrangement to accommodate yet another person and their bed, albeit very small=depressing
Imagining what it will be like the first time David leaves for work and kisses all THREE of us goodbye=scary

I'm hoping to get the full 7 weeks remaining, but have a feeling this baby wants out early--it just won't stop spinning, punching, kicking and is not settling down at all...only time will tell! We do finally have a emergency plan in place (Thank you Monica!) in case the baby arrival comes before Nana's arrival.

This little piggy went to...

2008-02-09T23:00:00.000-06:00

The Hon Kee and Sun Wah BBQ restaurant's on Argyle Street. If you don't know--we live right next to the "Second China town" which is more Vietnamese than Chinese. So Ella and I walked over to Argyle street for a "special lunch" on Friday to Patisserie P (where else can she and I both have a spectacular lunch with dessert for $3.51?)--and afterwards we lucked into pig delivery time on the street. This is not the first time it's happened, but we always have to stand and watch the man unload and carry in all of the butchered whole pigs to the restaurant. The difference this time was that Ella finally noticed the "hole" in their underside and asked me what it was. So after I explained it was where they had to cut them open to take out all of the body parts inside that we don't eat, she seemed satisfied but said, "Why are their eyes still on? That's silly--they should take them off too!" I had to agree with her. We decided they definitely had no need to see anymore.

We then headed to the red-line and while waiting for the train up on the platform we saw the truck pull up to another restaurant and got to watch more pigs being delivered. I think everyone was really loading up for Chinese New Year celebrations this weekend, because it seemed they brought alot more than usual. Anyhow, the conversation then turned to her saying, "But we don't eat pigs!" And I reminded her that most of her favorite food is pig: bacon, sausage, ham, pulled pork from Smoque.... She just said, "Oh." Maybe someday I'll have my camera with me when we see the deliveries--it's quite interesting, and something you can only experience living around here.

since Christmas....

2008-01-24T22:41:00.000-06:00

At the park in January spring

we've been fairly busy. We enjoyed "spring" in early January, forgetting the reality of Chicago winter for a few days (for example it's -3 right now). Ella began her Twinkle Stars gymnastics class and loves to do her front rolls, hang/swing like a monkey on the bars and say "Tada". She's been helping me bake alot, painting alot, and whining and acting like a baby alot. We think she's experiencing the ''big sister" syndrome early......it's lovely.

Cousin Josh stayed with us for a few days while he did some job-shadowing here in the city that David set-up for him. We took him out for Thai food one night and he rode the train and the bus by himself just fine! See Aunt Sue, you can do it too! Come visit us! We won't even make you take the train or bus by yourself!

Also, we finally found Gabriella's electronic 18 week ultrasound picture (the hard copies are packed away in storage) to compare with this baby. Look at how strikingly similar their profiles are!

Gabriella:

"Our baby" (As Ella so sweetly calls it):

photo coming soon--can't get it to work right now......

We also just saw our friends the Hanson's this past weekend and had a great time. David said he will blog about it (let's not all hold our breath now, but we'll see)...

Happy Holidays

2008-01-18T16:38:00.001-06:00

So it's time for Holiday catch-up before Valentine's Day arrives....Also, just a warning, I'm sure the lag in posts will get worse before it gets better with less than three months until baby number 2 arrives!

Our first Christmas ever in Chicago was great! No staying up till all hours trying to fit presents into suitcases, no long security lines with a toddler, no flight delays due to bad weather...........Just the three of us setting out cookies and milk for Santa, David assembling an easel after Ella was in her bad fast asleep, waking leisurely with our good sleeper around 8:45 a.m. Ella enjoyed stockings and the easel until after breakfast (the traditional Earnhart biscuits and sausage gravy--only Ella and I decided to use Christmas cookie cutters to cut out the biscuits--fun!) and then with full stomachs we opened presents. Later that evening our friends the Hale's & the San Juan's joined us for a great Christmas dinner. With 4 toddlers and a newborn along with the adults we had a very full house--and lots of fun!

Yes, yes, of course we missed not being with other family members. But remember how much easier/cheaper it is to travel without children? Maybe you will come to visit us sometime???? (Actually Nana wins that one--she'll be here in two weeks for a long weekend). But how about you St. Louis folk that can DRIVE here?? Come and see us, won't you?!

Here's some photos to fill in the rest. Another post to catch you up since Christmas coming soon!

Helping Papa open his locket keychain watch

First sight of her very own pink guitar (she has gone in the music store
each week after class for about 6 months now to play the pink guitar)

Trying it out

The "baby Bjorn" for dolls

"Sleeping" in her new candy cane jammies from Santa

Just woke up and found her stocking

"What's inside?!"

Doing the "Christmas Dance"

Trying out the new easel

Ella's "pearls" from "our baby"
and Ella's gift to "our baby"--the bib and booties.

Santa Success!

2007-12-23T18:55:00.000-06:00

She finally did it. Ella was not terrified of Santa for the first time. She gave him several hugs and sat on his lap. I also had to clarify earlier today that she would not be seeing St. Nick on Christmas.......apparently she thought she would. I came up with a great reason as to why he had to come while she was sleeping...you know, too many kids-pictures-talking--all take too much time and he'd never get all the stockings filled before Christmas morning. I fully expect her to have sleep issues tomorrow night thinking about it, even though Santa told her she must go to bed on time without arguing.

Being three is so fun!

In case you don't recall, previous year's were 1: screaming on Santa's lap while I held her 2: shaking his hand from afar.

Smoke on the water

2007-12-19T16:47:00.000-06:00

While playing the little guitar in the music store after class Ella pauses for a moment and says, "Mama, was that Smoke on the water?"

On her most recent visit to California her cousin Mikayla was always helping her play Smoke on the Water on her guitar.

Too too funny that girl of ours!
For the full effect, be sure to click on the play button too when you go to the link.

Baby boys cause undue stress

2007-12-17T22:04:00.001-06:00

So before Ella was born we had the great circumcision debate complete with research on both sides of the fence. I found most of this research to be confusing, unhelpful and very stressful on someone that could be about to give birth to a son or a daughter. In fact I was so concerned about this issue, and we were still undecided (though leaning toward no circumcision), that when Ella was delivered and the Dr. said it's a girl--my first comment to David was, "Now we don't have to decide about circumcision!"

So now I'm 23 weeks with baby #2---who could be a boy or a girl---and we're still undecided about circumcision. I recently brought the issue up with David again and said, "We never decided, remember? So tonight I happened across a link to a recent New York Times article on the subject. Take a read if you want, and even read the two supporting articles from each contributing Doctor. Let me know what you think.

Seriously this time.
All you blog lurkers out there--share your thoughts and help a pregnant woman out!

Dress-up

2007-12-14T16:43:00.000-06:00

Ella loves to play dress-up. At least once a day she'll crack me up with some crazy get up she puts together. Maybe she's destined to be a famous fashion designer?

My favorite is the sock-gloves

The bride "Karla" is taking a rest

Favorite past-time of cleaning the toilet,
(she seriously begs to do it!)
dressed well for it and had to
remove the sock gloves first.

New Baby and Ella getting ready for a trip.

Sleeping Beauty & Pocahontas (Tori)
with marker cap fingers

Gabriella Ballerina

2007-12-07T10:55:00.000-06:00

For those of you who didn't remember....
yesterday was Ella's first ballet recital! She
was the most beautiful ballerina in her sparkly
pink tutu. We were afraid she might suffer from
performance anxiety since she can be shy at times.
But she clearly inherited my lack of stage fright, and
did such a great job. We are so proud of her and this
accomplishment. The difference in the first class she
attended and this "show" was amazing.
We love you Bella Ballerina.

Butterfly stretches with the crying twins suffering from
stage fright nearby (both covering their eyes).
Thank goodness their mother removed them
after a few minutes so that Ella could concentrate
instead of worry about them crying.

Lovely second position

Intently listening and watching Miss Raquel.

Ribbon free-dance, and boy did
she show us some moves!

Step-and-spin in the hoops...

Then releve back to the barre.

Fifth position with teacher Miss Raquel.

Ella and Miss Raquel.

Watching some of her friends
leave in awe as she exclaimed:
"Vanessa and Nila have a car!"

Thanksgiving in Chicago

2007-11-27T19:08:00.001-06:00

No 80 degree Scottsdale weather this year. We stayed home for Thanksgiving and it was wonderful! Our friends Tiffany, Shelly and Kaitlynn joined us for Thanksgiving dinner. We cooked a big Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings--I even made my Granny's dressing and David was in charge of our first turkey ever to cook . (Fresh, free-range turkey by the way--from the butcher--none of those frozen butterball's for us!). Anyhow, we took full advantage of all Chicago has to offer and in spite of a recovering sick girl with an ear infection, we had a great time.

Who needs New York, Macy's and Rockefeller Center??? Come to Chicago for the Thanksgiving State Street parade and lighting of the Daley Center Christmas tree instead. Second City?? I think not!

Walking to the parade--
hard to tell but it's snowing in all these pictures

Watching the nutcracker float by

Ella is getting colder while
Big Bird is approaching in the background

Big Bird!

Papa, Ella & Popeye
Ella was thrilled to learn about Popeye
and how he loves spinach just like her!
(Really--it's one of her favorite vegetables)

Massaging the turkey before the roasting

Kaitlynn enjoying all of Ella's toys before Thanksgiving dinner

Papa, Ella & the Joan Miro sculpture in the background
Waiting for the lighting of the tree

Santa and the mayor lit the tree

I love bratwurst!
At the Christkindlmarkt after tree lighting

Watching the toy train at the Christkindlmarkt

She's gonna blow

2007-11-19T09:47:00.000-06:00

So I really have no time to be blogging right now, but am desperate for some help. Please--help me! How can I teach my 3-year old to blow her nose? We've conquered the stubborn attitude and she's actually trying to do it, but is not successful. Each time it takes her a minute to remember to blow out instead of sniff it up--but even once she's blowing out, she won't blow hard enough to get the snot out! It's literally about to make us crazy as she is sick with a cold, feverish, whiny and can't breathe through her nose. The sucker does not work--this is stuff that's up in there and must be blown out.

We've tried every trick like the birthday candle, blowing the tissue's around, etc. The problem is not getting her to blow out--it's getting her to blow hard enough to get the snot out!

Help! Help! Help!