The Biggest Bird Ever

Atleast that was my first thought when I saw this.

Then I realized that was no bird. The two following thoughts going through my head were "thank God" and then "nice shot, Eva."

Last week was Rodney's spring break and we planned a trip to Michigan to visit my family (my dad had not seen Eva in person yet). It was our first official long car trip since Eva's birth and it was an overall success. We have learned from our summer travels with Will last year that driving through the night is the only way to do it and this time was no different.

We left Monday night after a great weekend with the whole Malone clan here in STL. Despite the fact that we had a fun weekend, it left us with no time to pack until the day of the trip. Our ETD (estimated time of departure) was 7pm and after a lot of scurrying we made it in the car with everyone in their places by 7:40.

We were a little nervous about Eva sleeping because, being the great little baby that she is, she slept almost the entire time we packed. But, she completely blew us away when she feel asleep without fussing about 15 minutes into the drive and stayed that way until midnight, at which time we gave her a bottle and she fell right back to sleep until 9 am. William took a little more coaxing, but we were ready to help the little man out. Soccer ball in hand, he quietly listened to his favorite cd on the IPod through the car stereo and was asleep by the second to last song. Wish we would have had something like this last summer (we spent hours during our huge road trip trying to get him to forget the fact that he was in his carseat and not his crib).

Excited for the Trip

Tight Quarters

Just Another Road Trip?

By driving through the night we made the trip in 7 1/2 hours, just 1/2 hour longer than a childless trip. Compare that to the 9 hours it took my sister and brother-in-law (+2 kids) with their day drive to STL this Christmas. Yeah, through the night is the way to go.

We arrived at my sister's house by about 3 am and got, well, some sleep. William awoke in the middle of the night and slept with us until daybreak, at which point the bright sun lit up the cozy basement (where our blow-up mattress was) and he could not resist playing with all of his cousins' toys. Rodney and I decided to let him play while we attempted to get some shut-eye and this worked until Will put a Barbi car on my head with the lousdest freakin' music blasting in my ear. So much for sleep recovery. *Sigh*

We had a great breakfast with Earon, Mia and Evan and headed to the aiport to pick up Papa and Nana around 11:30. We are such dorks for two reasons. 1. Earon and I both forgot our cameras to capture the reunion in the airport and 2. As we excitedly watched for my parents to get off the plane (they had one of the stair thingys that unloads people right onto the tarmac) we failed to see that they were also unloading from the back of the plane. We were all staring out of the window (waiting to go crazy with flailing arms when they got off) when mom and dad suddenly said from 2 feet away, "what are you guys looking at?" It was very anti-climatic and gave us lots to laugh about (poor Papa and Nana).

In Love

Papa and Eva

Birthday Meal (Nana's: March 23, Mine: March 4)

Getting Ready for Dance Class

Eva Meets Nonna Eva, Her Namesake

The rest of the week was wonderful. Will took a little while to warm up to his Papa and Nana, but by the end of the trip, he was asking to hold Nana's hand while we walked down the hallways at Marc's school (where he is a band director). This touched her more than anything. He also greeted them when they came back from having dinner with old friends one evening. "Hi," he said with his hand up in a wave. He did this to our neighbor the other day and to kids and people in the park yesterday. Looks like we may have an extrovert on our hands.

Rockin' Out on the Timpani

Proud Grandparents

Where's Evan?

The trip was so good, but I will have to say that it is nice to be home. Will did not sleep fantatastically and has been making up for it ever since we got back. Eva actually did sleep alright, but the interesting thing is that since we've been home, she's started to sleep even longer at night. Rodney and I commented on how we thought they appreciated being home and are thanking us by sleeping well. You're very welcome, children ;).

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.