And Another Month

Okay, for those of you who are still hanging around this silent part of the interwebs, my baby will be seven months old tomorrow. Seven. WTH?

We've been a little bit insane around here. Nathan has had a cold every three weeks this summer. Since it takes him 10-14 days to get through his system, he's only healthy one week per month. It sorta sucks. But, he's okay.

Daniel learned to crawl in late June. Shortly after that, he started pulling himself up. There is a great deal of head trauma at our house. It's okay though.

I start teaching again next week. This semester I will have two classes. I'm excited, but stressed, because they're both new classes. I have four days left, and several weeks' worth of work to complete. Meanwhile, I still have those little boys.

Joe has been really swamped at work lately, so he decided to take a long weekend this weekend. We're enjoying the staycation. We spent today in Millennium Park. Nathan loved it. Daniel loved the mirrors at the little cafe we ate at. Good times had by all.

Can you see his runny nose in this picture? Poor kid.

It was all entirely too exciting for Daniel.

Cloud Gate ---- aka The Bean

Splashing in the awesome fountains!

Adorable baby making friends with the adorable baby in the mirror!

A Whole Month

Yeah ... It's been a whole month since I've written an amazing, scintillating, thrilling, whatever-will-come-next?? blog post. Hah...

I've been trying to figure out what we've been doing. It looks sorta like this: playing in the city, hanging with dada, the zoo with friends, learning to crawl (at 5 months, SWEAR TO GOD!), and splashing around. It's been a little busy.

Embracing the Crazy

Our lives are so nuts right now. So. I'm teaching part-time, working in the office part-time, working from home part-time, and I have a 3 year old and a four month old. Joe is preparing for his dissertation defense and also working full-time. Rumor has it, he has a wife and two kids as well.

WE ARE NUTS.

This weekend, we decided to say FORGEDDABOUTIT. On Friday, we went to the lakefront and let Nathan run around like a loon. Can you see the crazy in his eyes? Or is the crazy of the hair behind him overpowering the picture? Cute boys, though. Right?


On Saturday, I scheduled an awesome playdate for Nathan and his BFF, a little girl he's gone to daycare with since he was five months old. She was actually at the new daycare when we switched in November. We went to our local park, which has an awesome water feature, and played and played and played. Nathan fell asleep at 7:00 that night.

Yesterday, we played tourist and went downtown. We took a water taxi on the Chicago River, walked along Michigan Avenue, ate lunch at a downtown cafe, and then took the water taxi back to the West Loop. Seriously, the best $8 we've ever spent. If you get to Chicago when the weather is comfortable, do this. It was a lot of fun. The water taxi is more for transportation than the tour boats. It goes from the west loop to Chinatown, with a few stops along the way.

It was a weekend of refreshment that I so needed. What did you do?

Forward

Just three weeks ago, we were outside playing in the snow. Nathan didn't really get to enjoy the snow last winter. This year, he got to play outside, build a snowman, and go ice skating (a 2 year old can ice skate when he has feet as HUGE as this one).

I think my two favorite things about parenting a toddler are experiencing the wonder in everyday things and being forced to just slow down. I find that these little things, like snowy February days flowing into unseasonably warm March ones, fuel my love of life. Whether it's building this snowman or allowing him to push the stroller all the way home, once our experience is over, we have to stop and savor them. The Targo and I will talk for weeks about how much fun we had doing these things, any thing, with Nathan.

I'm grateful to be able to stop and live it, but also to have the photos to remember these things by. I'm so looking forward to this spring and watching my handsome little toddler grow and develop into a preschooler, and then a little boy. And the joy that I've felt, having The Targo by my side, has really lifted me up. I feel like all those little prayers I lift up to God, thanking him for my very boring, very ordinary life are well-heard and heeded.

Easter-ish

When I was a kid, all of the people on my mom's side of the family would gather at Great-Grandma Jones' house. Each set of parents would bring a dozen eggs per cousin ... and my goodness, LET THE GAMES BEGIN!! As much fun as it was, there was always one cousin who got like 2 eggs. I'm sorry, Bobby ... but it's totally true.

The Sunday before Easter, we took Nathan to a Chicago Park District Easter egg hunt. What a mess. It was in this tiny tot lot. There were at least 50 kids, including some 10-12 year olds. AND - the worst part - there were maybe 100 eggs. Maybe. At the beginning, the coordinator (and I use that term loosely) stated that children three and under would go first. After everyone and their teenage friends went in, the dude was like "yeah, whatever."


All Nathan got was a broken half of an egg. Fortunately, he didn't care at all.

My mom and dad visited for the weekend. We took Nathan to the Lincoln Park Conservatory and the Lincoln Park Zoo. He really enjoyed the automatic doors at the Conservatory and the fish tanks. The Targo believes Nathan thought the fish tank was the TV. I'm not sure what that says about us as parents... We then took The Targo to The Counter for dinner. Only gourmet burgers for my man!



On Easter, we traveled up to Milwaukee to visit celebrate with The Targo's family. Nathan participated in another Easter egg hunt. During this one, he had the help of his daddy and his grandma. So, he proudly got 6 eggs containing a total of $2 and some candy that The Targo and I ate that night.


All in all, it was a nice Easter that we enjoyed with family. I feel so blessed that our families live close enough that Nathan will get to know both grandparents and his cousins. You know, the best people to steal Easter eggs from.

Dining With My Husband

When we were just dating, we had plenty of time for each other. When we first got married, we were euphoric and made time for each other. Wow. Has life changed! Now we're lucky if we exchange a quick peck when he comes in the door!

One thing that we do every night is have dinner together. Every night, the Targo and I eat together and discuss our day at our kitchen table. Of course, Nathan is there. But he's got food, and that's really all he cares about.

This is the time when we can discuss our worries, our thoughts about the future, and just remember that we appreciate each other's company. Some of our best conversations during the past year have taken place over dinner. When your life is super busy and minutes, let alone hours, are difficult to come by - how do you connect?

Loving Your Spouse When You Have a Small Child

Remember those care-free crazy days of being DINKs? Well, I do. They weren't that long ago. Now, The Targo and I were never those people who rocked around town, but we did do a lot of things. I would say that every weekend we partook in something uniquely Chicago. I've shown you the many pictures of our wanderings of parks and museums. I've told you about our good and bad restaurant experiences. And of course, you all know that we're huge sports fans!

Since we had a baby --- a winter baby --- our life has been home-based. And really, that's okay. For me. I loved snuggling with my little baby (now, giant, running-through-the-house, crazy, loud toddler!) and reveling in the family I'd been blessed with. But where did that leave my husband?

Ladies, I've got to tell you, I think I'm married to one of the best men in the world. I don't know how it's possible, but I love him more every single day. Even on those days. (We all have those days.) But, since I've become a mom, my passion for loving my husband has been harder to display. Now, I'm not trying to get all weird or philosophical on you. But, as you moms know, little ones take up so much of your time and energy, there's barely enough left to make it to the shower, let alone randomly give our husband a kiss.

This week, I would like to offer up --- and hopefully, learn from you --- ways we busy moms can still remember that we're part of a couple.

(By the way, yes, those are my man-hands! I've broken several fingers.)