Cuz I Actually Have Time...

And because the girl's been gettin' no love lately, I'm posting twice today. Here's a cute video of her crazy antics. Happy 3-month birthday, baby girl. You are capturing our hearts daily.

Obsessions

Will's favorite animal is a horse. He loves them so much that whenever we turn PBS Kids on and he sees a cow (which for some crazy reason has been the case the past two days) he gets a concerned look on his face and asks "hoase?" He even started crying today when the cow was not a horse. Learning to handle disappointment is a hard lesson. Why he thinks a cow should be a horse is something I'm trying to figure out.

I think that this statue might be the source of the obsession.

Ever since the Will was old enough to roll around in the grass, Rodney has been taking him to Art Hill during my voice lessons. This is where he acquired his love for busses and horses (a bus rolls up to the steps of the art museum every few minutes). Now, everytime we pass a park he asks for his beloved horse. Hope this doesn't mean we're in for riding lessons and all that jazz in the not so distant future. That's a little too "country" for this city girl.

Rodney's favorite activity these days is sledding and every time even the slightest threat of snow is upon us his obsession is revealed. He definintely has more fun than Will even though it's under the auspices of entertaining the child.

(notice the negative one inch of snow)

I think these two belong together- "rolling" around on their beloved Art Hill.

I love this city. It makes my boys happy.

Our Walk in The Park

Friday was one of those days that make you want to laugh hysterically or scream at the top of your lungs. I was able to keep it together but had the madness gone on much longer, something would have popped. Here's my tale.

I decided that we should all get out to enjoy the last of the mild temperatures before St. Louis unleashed its schizy behavior, plunging us back into wintry nastiness. So, we packed ourselves up, put the dog on the leash and walked to the park.

[Oh, BTW getting the stroller into the car for Thursday's zoo trip was pretty comical. After consulting the stroller manual I was able to collapse the thing and get it into the trunk, but not without lots of grunting, shoving, and a triumphant shout. It will be much easier next time.]

Our stroll was going wonderfully. I was enjoying the brisk air and I even remembered to grab my new ipod (Christmas gift), hoping for some inspiration to hike it up a notch in an attempt to shed some preggo weight. With one ear bud in and one out so I could hear any screams, cries or other types of jibber jabber, we were having fun. Until...

Will: "Whoa, whoa!" (translation: I see that your listening to your music thingy that I know has my all time favorite song on it with the lyrics "You me so happy, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa" and I want to listen to it!)

Me: "You wanna listen?"

Will: "Dissen."

I gave him the bud and he was quiet again. But not for long.

Will: "Whine, whine"

Me: "Don't you wanna listend to whoa, whoa?"

Will: "Whoa, Whoa!!"

I grabbed the ear bud and somehow it had skipped to Stevie Wonder (he'll learn to love it someday). I got it back to his fav, and we resumed walking. The next half-hour was not fun.

Eva started crying. We stopped. She did not want her paci. Luckily I remembered the sling so I pulled her out and wore her. Then Will started. Squirming. Whining. Crying. "Nunch" (lunch) "Sasa" (ricecake) "Dus" (ducks) "home." I changed his diaper, I put the music back in his ear, I asked him questions about the outdoors. Nothing worked. All this while trying to push the gigantic stroller with one hand and patting Eva on the back with the other. DIDN'T YOU LITTLE PEOPLE GET THE MEMO THAT THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A PLEASANT WALK IN THE PARK. Apparently not. Oh, and we couldn't have been further from home. Yeesh.

Thirty minutes later we arrived at our door in one piece, but not without asking Will to count everything in sight (his new thing- he just points and grunts several times) and lots of huffs and puffs from me. Luckily after we got home, babies got fed, kids and moms alike ate and ALL took a nap. Thank. God.

I was gonna post a few photos from our zoo outing, but Marisa beat me to it so head here if you wish. Thankfully that went much better.

The Tank

Those of you who live int the St. Louis area (and are usually cooped up with small chillins) are most likely just as excited as I am about this 60 degree day we're about to have. I haven't been out during the day with the kids in almost two weeks, so WE ARE GOING TO THE ZOO. And for just such an occasion I have been saving my pennies since Eva's birth (with gift money and a few singing gigs) and have purchased an awesomely massive double jogger, or as Rodney calls it, a second car. My reply to his comments that it rivals his bike is "this is our bike." Needless to say, I am looking forward to breaking it in today. I am not looking forward to folding it up in all its enormity and putting it in the trunk, so you'll get a full report later. In the meantime, we're jazzed about taking our tank to the zoo with Marisa, Preston and Claire. Today feels like a holiday.

The End.

A Little of This, A Little of That

Things are pretty quiet now after a fun and relaxing extended weekend with the grandparents. Jerry had a conference here in Stl and brought Nancy with him and they just left this morning. I am enjoying some solitude as the boys are off to church, so blogging seems natural.

Well, just as the words were written last week and my mouse clicked on "publish post" things got a little hairy. Eva decided that she would not be so "easy" and the day of my last post was a tiring one (how's that for irony?). She was up nearly all day and night leaving me to feel pretty ragged. But as we got into the weekend she slept pretty much non-stop. Phew. I will say that we're putting her in slings and bjorns a little more these days, but she still is not the colicky mess that Will was. I'm definitely tired, just not tired AND out of my mind.

We took Will in to see Dr. Schamndt this week for a cough that he's had for 3 months and it looks like it might be allergies. We'll see an allergist in February to confirm. We just visited with Ben Masena last night and heard about little Gianna having the same symptoms and it turns out that she's allergic to cats. Whatever it is, looks like we're gonna have to make some changes soon.

Eva had her 3 month (really 2 1/2 month) check up on Tuesday and it looks like she's doing some catching up. You'll remember that her percentiles were in the negetives last month. Well now she's at the 29th in weight (9 lbs. 11 oz.) and the 45th in head circumference (38.5 cm). She has decided to be short though at only 20 1/2 inches (<5th percentile). Guess she takes after her mother no matter what the obstacle.

I've been a slacker in the picture department lately, but here's a fun video of Will. Enjoy.

finished.

o.k. now it's done. that was fun.

oops.

Will published today's post before I was done with it, so stay tuned =).

Cousin Bath w/Mia

Science Center w/ Cousin Evan and Uncle Marc

Sisters

Teeter totter fun (Eva is under the blanket ;))

City Museum

Cousin Yuri at the Zoo

Sarah Visits on New Years Eve
Paul Visits New Year's Eve too!

Christmas 2008

After a hectic (yet fun) holiday, we are now back to "normal" life around here. It's so funny how the defintition of normal changes from season to season in life. I suppose it has more to do with routine than anything else. Our new routine is being solidified day by day and I'm finding that the change from one to two has not been as intense as I imagined. Atleast not so far.

I've been wondering why this is the case and have come up with a few possible answers. I wonder if it's because the change from no kids to one, especially one that cried as much as Will (AND had so many troubles breastfeeding AND didn't sleep) is more of a drastic alteration of the norm as opposed to a little more of the same. Also- and this is probably the biggest reason- Eva is an easy baby. She eats great, sleeps great, and has very few fussy times. You know the phrase "God doesn't give you more than you can handle?" It definitely applies here. Another thought I had has to do with the age difference between Will and Eva. William is becoming more and more independant with each day but also new things don't seem to phase him. I'm sure this is mostly his personality, but I also think it's his age. He hasn't had too much time to be the center of attention. This is ulitimately why we had them so close together and it's paid off so far.

The absolute hardest part has been the inability to have outings during the day. Eva is still quaranteened from public places until the end of the month and it's been too cold to go outside (atleast when it's just the three of us- the week of Christmas was crazy warm and we had lots of people around).

Will's Idea of a Good Time these days