Ashes and Cheese

You can barely see it, but it's there. Eva's first official reminder of her mortality. It may sound morose, but even babies came from dust and shall return there someday. I suppose at the least it's a reminder of the fragility of life and how in turn we are to cherish it, both in the form of adorable little babies and often-unlovable adults.

This year I am attempting to "take on" something(s) rather than give anything up, which if I did it would be coffee or sweets and who wants to do that? My goals are to be physically active and to spend more time practicing voice. I do feel like these two things are extremely important, so why you ask save them for Lent? Hmm, good question. I guess I'm only human (and shall return to dust- there's that morosity again. Good old Lent).

Eva had her 4 month check up last week and she's growing awesomely (Weight: 30th%, Length: 25th%, Head: 30th%). Rodney and I are both smitten with her and apparently Will is too (who can blame him??).

Speaking of William. Lately de's decided to correct me when he is sure I'm wrong about something. Here are some examples.

Me: "Hey Will, did you hear that plane?" (he loves listening for anything motorized that passes over or in front of him)

Will: "Nooo, das a tar." (translation: :"No, that's a car")

Me- pointing to pictures in a book that names everyday items: "Butter."

Will: "Nooo. Cheese!"

He does this atleast once a day and it takes a lot of effort not to continually correct him. I'll let him think what he wants (for now).

Busy Month

The month of February has been quite the busy little month. So much has happened but I will try to do some summarizing to cover the important stuff. I started back full throttle with singing which has been very fulfilling, but is the main reason for the busyness. On Valentines Day weekend the symphony chorus performed Verdi's Requiem, a first for me. This was one of the most incredible musical experiences I have had to date. I loved it so much that it (in conjuction with the Bach Society, my voice lessons, and just thoughts I've been having) has got me thinking about maybe starting a music blog while maintaining this as my family blog. That way I can get some thoughts out without boring the heck out of those who just wanna see a cute picture from time to time. While I definitely see the benefits of doing this, who knows if I'll have the time. I can barely keep up with this blog at times! Stay tuned, however- you all will be the first notified if any such thing materializes.

William has had a persistent cough for a little over 4 months now and we finally got him into the allergist on Tuesday. Turns out he's allergic to mold, dust (dust mites), the dog slightly, and a few trees. He's now on Singulair and we have to do something about the sunroom (it has mold and mildew damage and is currently shut off from the rest of the house but still is a problem). The cough isn't horrible, but I'm glad we got it checked out because the doctor said the risk of asthma developing is present, not to mention the fact that any kind of long term coughing can cause scar tissue to show up in the lungs.

Besides all that Will is really becoming a little boy lately and everyday he wows us with something new that he's learned. He knows almost half of the alphabet, the numbers 1-10, and the other day he recognized his name written on a piece of paper. He's starting to read his favorite books along with us by saying the word that comes next when we pause at memorable spots. I seriously love watching him develop and I feel sad for Eva because I admit that it's not as exciting the second time around (I'm sure I'm not alone here).

Speaking of Eva, she is precious. Smiling, cooing, gurgling, and on the verge of laughing. She's a lot more prone to smiling than Will was at the same age, which is fun. I LOVE how soft and pink and dainty she is. I'm most definitely getting my girl fix with her and I'm aware that this will only increase as she gets older. The best thing about miss Eva is that SHE SLEEPS (not to mention breastfeeds fine and has an overall good disposition, but those are bonuses ;)). She sleeps great at night and even sleeps a good portion of the day. She is, however awake and fussy from about 7-10 every night, making bedtime hard when you're flying solo (like Rodney does on rehearsal and concert nights). I do realize that it won't be long before they're both on the same bedtime schedule and I'm looking forward to that for sure.

Rodney's having a rough time at work lately mostly due to the fact that his school is unravelling at the seams. Administrators are leaving and not being replaced and there are not enough security guards for the 700+ students. Fights are breaking out daily and there are absolutely no consequences for the students. I hesitate to wright this because I'm sure I'll get a worried phone call from my mother tormorrow, but the thing that's keeping Rodney's classes in relative order is that he is a good teacher and in general the kids like and respect him. It is a very bad situation though and he is looking for a new job. Not sure if this is something I should advertise on the internet, but the school is in such bad shape it shouldn't surprise anyone anyway (or so I hope). So keep us (especially Rodney as it can be pretty hard on is morale at times) in your thoughts and prayers.

No pictures tonight, I've already written too much and it will take forever to download them. I'll save it for another, not so lengthy post. So much for summarizing. I should never make such promises.

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.