Carter and Evie

Carter & Evie’s 2011 Holiday Recital

Santa 2011

We made progress this year. Only one kid screaming. Carter is determined to do whatever he needs to do to have Santa bring him the gift he wants.

 

 

 

The love affair with Pearl Jam is still going strong

Our last "real' vacation was in 2007. Making the first kid was taking a long time so we decided to plan something fun and booked a trip to London to see Pearl Jam. A week before we left, we found out I was pregnant with Carter, so the kid took in his first show in utero. Carter is now three and a half and this past Saturday and Sunday were, I believe, our third and fourth childless nights since he was born. May 2010 was when we took our last night away from the kids and it was less than 24 hours. These three nights were also all for Pearl Jam. So you see where this is headed. It has to be really big for us to ask someone to watch the kids for two nights because they are quite the handful or so we think...

Nana and Grampy tag teamed with our high school babysitter for the approximately 43 hours we were gone. And all said the kids were angels. Really? Our kids? Yeah we figured it out when the honeymoon period after our homecoming wore off. Evie turned on the waterworks when I told her she couldn't have more fruit snacks for lunch and Carter told us both we weren't his friends. You know why? Because we said "no" to them. They loved having our babysitter and their grandparents because they were spoiled rotten. They got to watch tons of TV, go out to eat at their favorite restaurants and get candy and gifts.

There were many young kids at the shows, some probably close in age to Carter, but I don't think we'll be taking them to concerts until their pre-teen years. And Dave shared a story from the Pearl Jam forums about a fan's wife going into labor during night one and the man going home for the birth and then leaving his wife and new baby in the hospital to go to night two. I'm not sure I would have been so kind and generous.

Carter was a little upset about us leaving because he did comprehend that we were staying in a hotel and his one and only time in a hotel was a hotel with a pool and water park. He wanted to come to the hotel, or hotelo as he calls it, with us because you know there is apparently, only one hotel in the world. Even though our last night in a hotel with the kids was not very fun and Evie fell out of the bed in the middle of the night, he made us feel bad enough to consider going back to the water park hotel over Christmas.

Apparently we should go away more often, but I told Dave I'm probably going to turn into the type of person who never likes to take a vacation. We got to sleep around 2 a.m. both nights and both mornings I was still up at 7, albeit completely exhausted. And then you get home and it's back to the grind and no recovery. I am not 35, not 21. Good thing it's a short week.

Here is a rare picture of Dave and I together. Silly us, we should have taken it with the stage in the background.

 

And Evie excited to have us home:

 

 

Carter's first recital

We were expecting the worst, but he did so awesome! He is one of the youngest in the group. And apparently he has a girlfriend.

 

I also uploaded some random, unedited iPhone photos from the past couple of months which can been seen here.

Another Monday Morning Hangover

And I don't mean that in the drunk sense.

I haven't updated in six weeks because our lives have been very, very hectic. To say we are busy is an understatement. Throw in the crazy weather we've been having and our life has been turned upside down. In late June, Uncle Maury was in town for work so he and Dave went to the Cubs-Sox game. While the kids were sleeping and I was home alone, a tornado swept through our town. Thankfully we didn't have any damage but our neighborhood got hit really hard and many beautiful, mature trees are going to have to come down. And in true Carter fashion, he slept through a tornado just like he slept through an earthquake and Thunderbirds for the Air & Water Show flying directly above our city condo in the past. The only one who actually was aware of what was going on was the dog.

The first two weeks in July were filled with family with Aunt Shannon and Uncle BJ their families were in town for 4th of July fun and a visit to a waterpark in Lake Geneva where we had our first night in a hotel. I haven't uploaded photos to Flickr yet, but they are on Facebook. Then Dave and I went to Summerfest in Milwaukee for only our second night alone in two years. A couple of days after returning from Summerfest, another storm swept through the area and we lost power for about 18 hours. Thankfully our friends who live nearby didn't lose power so we were able to transfer all of our freezer stuff to their house but we did lose everything in the fridge. Then we celebrated my 35th birthday quietly at home. It was perfect.

A few days later Armageddon hit...

Evie's 2-year stats or our kids have big heads

Nothing all that interesting here, but since this is our pseudo baby book, we like to have all the information in one spot so we can toss the paperwork in the trash.

Evie's stats:

Weight = 28 lbs (50-75th percentile)

Height = 34 inches (50th percentile)

Head circumference = 19 1/2 inches (90th percentile)

 

And for reference here are Carter's 2-year stats:

Weight = 30 lbs, 11 oz (80th percentile)

Height =  34 3/4 inches (60th percentile)

Head circumference = 19 5/8 inches (80th percentile)

And another developmental milestone, Evie said her first full sentence over the weekend. Granted, it was negative and something her brother always says, but she used it in the right context. She said "I don't like these shoes" when we were trying to put on a pair of sandals.

Our kids are very finicky about their shoes.

Evie is 2!

Our little girl is growing up fast!

She turned 2 yesterday and she had a wonderful day. Very low-key but great fun. She had a small birthday celebration at daycare where she got to wear a crown and Nana and Grandpy came over for dinner and cake.

Despite having an older brother, Evie is very much a girly girl. She loved wearing her birthday dress yesterday, loves drawing, and loves being domesticated, whether it's playing in the kitchen or with her dolls.

She got some terrific gifts including a princess big wheel, a Minnie Mouse soccer ball, doll accessories and an ice cream set for her kitchen. Unfortunately, Carter likes the big wheel too, despite having his own, so there has been lots of figthing. A few pics of her enjoying her loot:

And blowing out her candles:

Hundreds more photos from the past month are finally up on our Flickr page and here she is singing her ABCs to one of her dolls:

 

Some Summer Videos

It seems Facebook has overtaken this blog to keep our families up to date on the kids, so if you haven't friended us you might as well. But here are two recent videos from Memorial day of the kids having fun.

Some New Spring Videos

With Spring comes warmer weather and for us even a rabbit. Last year a rabbit dug a hole in our yard and had babbies. We'll see if it happens again.

 

Well that wasn't so bad; we've almost survived the first week of school

On Monday we said good-bye to our wonderful nanny, Amy, who is about to have her second child. On Tuesday the kids made the transition to daycare, aka "school." It's a daycare center with a preschool component for the older kids. Since Carter's three, it was time to make this switch but it wasn't one we were looking forward to. We anticipated the worst and they surprised us with no tears. The only tears were from me.

We have gotten great reports from the first three days. Evie is still a little unsure of it and she has cried a little when we dropped her off yesterday and today. But she is obsessed with washing her hands. The rule is kids must wash their hands upon entering and there's a little pint-sized sink, so that has stopped the crying quickly. Carter has not looked back. Yesterday I went to pick them up and they were both sitting conently at a table eating a snack. And that's another big shocker! I have no idea if we are not getting the full report in the eating department but yesterday's note for Carter was "Ate everything and asked for seconds." Go, Carter! We're still learning the kids' and teachers' names but both kids are saying Tommy. Hopefully there actually is a Tommy in their class.

Dave is out of town until Sunday so it's a bit stressful getting everyone (dog included) up, dressed and fed by 7:10. This morning Carter was up at 4:53 and apparently that's the time I need to get up when Dave is gone because I didn't have a minute to spare and ended up leaving the house 5 minutes later than I wished. It's going to take some time getting into a dinner groove and we're going to have to some serious advance meal planning but in the end this change is for the best.

Here's a pic of Carter at preschool: