Trying to Get Pictures Uploaded

Oh, if Word could upload my photos! My life would be so much simpler.

Happy Birthday Eric!

Today is Eric's first birthday. We can't believe it's been a year. Just like last year, we had a huge snowstorm on the 16^th. Everything outside is covered in white today. We love the snow!

We spent the morning getting ready for Eric's party. We had our favorite Swedish buttermilk pancakes made into a cake that I could let Eric eat without feeling guilty. It was layered with cream cheese whipped cream "frosting" and blueberries and yogurt. Yum! We added some sausage and had a great lunch!

Sam was so excited about blowing out the candle. I was pretty sure that Eric wouldn't figure out how to blow it out so I told Sam that he could give Eric a chance and then he could do it. We lit the candle, Eric stared at it for about three seconds, and then he took his little fingers and pinched out the flame.

Our friends Aimee Luke & Audrey, Anna Nathan & Fiona, and Anna Erin Molly & Emmalyn, (9 kids ages 5 & under) came over and we all let the kids run around the house like mad men while we chatted. Thanks, guys, for coming and for making it such a fun time!

Mom! What’s happening to our candles???

This morning I was getting ready to take Sam to preschool. We had a new Christmas cookie candle burning to give a festive ambiance to our house. I had to look up a phone number, was ruffling some papers, and then called my friend. As I hung up the phone, Sam said, "Mom! What's happening to our candles???" I turned around and found my "file pile" ablaze. Something had gotten too close to the candles and we had a fire about 2 feet tall burning in our dining room. Luckily I had a kitchen fire extinguisher that didn't require anything more than point and spray, because that's all that I think I could have managed at that point. That's the end of candles at our house for a long time.

I quit my full time job about three months ago, and have been working a few days here and there since then, and just staying home with my boys. I thought I'd have more time to blog after I quit. Ha!! As you can tell from the pictures above, I still outsource what I can. (Just kidding, but I thought they were cute pictures and wanted to try the new picture and blog features in MS Word 2007.) Has anyone else made the transition? What did you think about working vs. staying at home?

Sam's Almost Three!

 Sam's third birthday is tomorrow. On Saturday, we had a joint birthday party with his friend, Luke, at the Grosse Pointe Farms park. Our theme was "construction on the beach" because it was a simple way to get them together, give them some sand toys, play, eat cake, and be done :) 

My job was food and cake, so I called Jolynne, the Cake Queen of our family, last week and she helped me come up with some ideas.  It turned out pretty cute!

I didn't originally intend to have a cliff in my cake, but it came out with a huge bump in the middle, so I said, "that looks like a cliff" and carved a bit out.  I also had made some cupcakes, but I burned them all, so I cut off the bottoms and they were the perfect height to go around the side of the cake.  So the kids got pull-apart cupcakes and the adults had sliced cake.  It worked out perfectly!

We were lucky to have an indian summer and the weather was absolutely beautiful--75 degrees with a very slight breeze and sunny all day!

Eric didn't get cake, but I don't think he minded--he had eaten plenty of sand by that point.

Sam's Favorite Hobby

Whenever Sam gets a chance, he grabs the camera. I think its because of the ergonomics of the camera, but he always, always ends up with self-portraits. Or maybe it's just his 2-year-old narcissism.

You can see his love of the camera as I was trying to get him to tell his two favorite jokes. Here's a little movie:




It's fun to see him develop into a kid who understands nuances and what is really going on behind the language. Bedtime has been tough for us lately, especially on the days I work. I've been getting home around 6:45, marching Eric off to bed and then Sam as quickly as I could, to get him to bed before his witching hour. It became a huge struggle, and not something that either of us looked forward to. Often he would try to escape, and one night, it was not pretty. I tucked him under my arm, marched him into the living room, and read him a book. And then I said, "Now, Sam, I know that you want to go to bed, but you can't! We have to read one more story." He looked at me like I had lost my mind. I said, "I know. You want to go to bed, but we have to read another story. So pick one out." I did that 3-4 more times, and by the last few times, as I said it, he would poke out his lower lip in a fake pout, and say, "But mama! I want to go to bed." Needless to say, it was much more peaceful that night when he finally did make it to bed. And every once in a while, we play that game, and it's usually initiated by him.

And Eric thinks Sam is hilarious. He'll often just look at Sam and start laughing out loud.

Five Wonderful Years

So ... last Saturday was our fifth aniversary. We had grand plans, but the kids had had some rough nights for three nights in a row, and we almost ditched them all (the plans, not the kids!). But around 11:00 am, our kids were about to lose it, so we decided to pop them in the car and take a drive--at least they would be contained and if we were lucky, they would even fall asleep. We went up to a State Park about an hour from here that one of our friends had just told us about. We pulled into the parking lot, stepped on to the beach, and within 20 yards, were at Lake Huron. It was absolutely gorgeous. I had never been to Lake Huron, so I didn't know what to expect. But it was just like an ocean, only without the salt. They also had a playground for Sam, but he was so excited and spent an hour throwing rocks and dirt--one of his favorite pasttimes, and this time, no one tried to stop him! Eric's favorite pasttime is chewing on his stroller, so he had a great time too.

We did have a great aniversary. On the way out, we called a friend of ours who cleans houses for a living and she came over and cleaned the house, did the laundry, etc. It was the best aniversary present we could have given ourselves. I feel so much more peace when my house is clutter free. And then we went to dinner with our friends who have the same aniversary as we do. There's nothing better than great fun, good food, and great conversation. We went to dinner at an Indian restaurant in Hamtramck, a little pocket city surrounded by Detroit. It used to be a Polish community, but now there are immigrants from all over the world. One of my friends who used to live there said that Hamtramk is the most exciting place in America to drive because everyone on the street learned to drive in a different country. There is so much I love about living in southeast Michigan--the diversity, the beauty, the family values. The only thing I miss is my friends and family--anyone want to join us here?????

Firsts for Sam ...

I haven't finished our DC trip yet, but we're back safe and sound, and I wanted to post a few things before I forget them. Sam, like any 2-year old, likes to do whatever his dad does. Our neighbor was moving, so we inheirited this little toy lawnmower from her. Now Sam has a job to do whenever Ivan mows the lawn and they both love it!

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Aaagh! Now I know why Jenn was so frustrated with putting pictures in her blogs. I'll have to ask one of my friends who is an expert how to get them where I want them.

Anyway ... a few months ago, Sam told his first (at least to my knowledge), little white lie. He likes to chew gum, but hadn't quite gotten the not-swallowing part down. One day, I noticed that there didn't appear to be any gum in his mouth anymore. I said, "Sam, what happened to your gum?" He looked off into the distance and said, "It flew out of my mouth and went on a trip."


Along the same lines, Sam did his first practical joke. These pictures are of some of our friends who LOVE to come over and babysit Sam and Eric. They are adorable girls (ages 9 and 6). About a month ago, Ivan and I went to a wedding so we left Sam and Eric with these girls and their mom. When it was time to go to bed, Paula was giving Eric a bath so she sent Sam into the bedroom with her girls and told them to put on his pajamaser. About ten minutes later, they were still in the bedroom, so she went in to see what was going on. Sam was laying on the bed like a little baby with his legs up in the air and the girls were trying to stuff him into a pair of 6-month pajamas. He had convinced them that his PJs were Eric's and Eric's were his. And he was a total ham about it too--stretching his legs, trying to get his arms in, etc. The girls said, "Are you sure these are yours?" "Oh, yes!" said Sam. They were really laughing when they told us about it. Sam will do anything to postpone bedtime.

Caught in the Act!

Eric's favorite hobby is to chew on/suck on anything he can possibly get in his mouth. He's recently developed the flexibility to get his foot in his mouth and loves to suck his toe. Some kids suck their thumbs, my kid sucks his toe. How am I going to explain this one to his kindergarten teacher?

Air and Space

I'm on a blog-roll! Ivan took Sam to see the White House, but I stayed "home" so that Eric could get another nap. Eric is the type of child who loves his sleep, and he gets really giggly when he's overtired. If I don't take a cue, the next step is yelling at me (I'm serious--the only time he's ever cried is when he had an ear infection, but he does yell if he's not being understood and responded to.) I tried to post a video here showing Eric laughing his head off as Sam flew his new toy airplanes up and down, but I couldn't get it to upload. Probably too big. Anyway ...

On Sunday night, we went to the Air and Space museum. We went back on Monday. One thing that I love about DC with toddlers is that everything is free. Toddlers have such a short attention span, that if you're paying $10-$20 to get into an attraction, you really can't get your money's worth. But with these things, we can go, stay for 30 to 60 minutes, and leave and come back again, over and over and over.

The Air and Space museum is such a magical place, especially for a little boy. Sam was in awe and kept running around looking at all the airplanes. He loves Little Einsteins and quickly found a cylinder-shaped red "Rocket." Then he found an old DC-9 that you can go in and decided that was his favorite. We must have gone in that one 10 times. Here is a picture of him outside his airplane.


On Monday after we exhausted our attention spans (I think Sam could have spent another hour going in and out of that airplane, but Eric and I were bored to death), we went down to the food court in the Air and Space museum to get some lunch. Sam was dying for chicken nuggets and "fronch" fries. It was run by no other than McDonalds, and this McDonalds seems more like an extension of the national museum dedicated to innovation and technology. No matter how you feel about the quality of the food (ick!), McDonalds is synonymous with American cuisine, and this McDonalds was the most efficient restaurant. There must have been over 100 people in front of us in 10 lines (enough to almost make me walk out since I had two cranky kids, but since one was set on his chicken nuggets, I stayed.) We had our food and were sitting down in 5 minutes. In addition to 20 cashiers, they had 20 serving stations. So you paid, and by the time you out away your wallet and took five steps back, there was someone waiting with your food. Then there were these mountainous drink fountains and tons of spickets with ketchup and all the other condiments. Sam was happy, and even got a special little space ship with his happy meal.

Trip to DC, Part 1

Our trip to Washington started out with some excitement. We caught our 3:00 pm flight on Saturday with no real trouble. The flight was short enough that by the time the drinks were finished being served, and we had eaten some trail mix, we were descending. So Sam was fine. On the descent, we encountered about 30 seconds of turbulence, but it was more than I've had on a flight in the past ten years--the rollercoaster, catch your breath, kind of turbulence where everyone starts to laugh because if they didn't they'd have to scream. Sam got really quiet, and we didn't think much of it, but that's usually not a good thing with Sam, who has a comment for everything, and even prefaces his naughty acts with "I'm going to do something rude!" (ie right before he dumps a bag of cheerios all over the floor.)

Anyway, about 10 minutes after the turbulence, Sam threw up all over the place. Ick. We tried to get the little bag out of the back of the seat, but didn't really have enough warning. Next time there's turbulence, we'll know to be prepared.

It took the rest of the evening to get to our hotel, get settled, and get to Trader Joes. Our room has a full kitchen, and a TJs just two blocks away. We loaded up on breakfast food for the week, as well as some dinner stuff, went back to the hotel and crashed.

On Sunday, we went to church and then wandered around, ending up at the House Office Building, which is near a Metro station. This is Sam. I love the way he can be so enthralled and entertained by some sticks and a puddle of mud.

Sam entertaining himself with a little broom that he found in the Metro.
In front of the Smithsonian castle. Eric is constantly trying to grab anything in arm's reach.

My Mom's Legacy

About a month ago, my parents came to visit for a few days. We always love having them visit, and Sam was particularly excited. They were to arrive in the evening, along with Ivan who had been out of town doing an audit. I told Sam when he went to bed that Grandma and Grandpa and Papi would all be there when he woke up. My parents arrived and slept in the basement. The next morning, my dad woke up early and sat in the living room. When Sam woke up, I took him to our room to see Ivan, and then to the living room to see my dad. He ran around for a while, looking out the window, etc., and then came up to me and with a frown said, "Hmmmmm. Grandma Knight is not here." I said, "Oh yes, she's just downstairs." His face lit up and he said, "Oh! She's doing dishes!" Anyone who spends time at my parents' house knows that my mom spends a lot of time doing dishes (she uses her dishwasher as a drying rack a lot of the time). She says it relaxes her. I think dishwashing is sort of therapeutic!

I love my Phil and Teds!

A bit of explanation--we are on vacation in Washington DC, so I have a bit more time on my hands. I'm trying to organize my pictures, and will be writing some things from weeks past, as well as this week.

I saw my first Phil and Ted's single/double stroller in London at Hampton Court when I was pregant with Sam. It seemed like the perfect option for a family because it can hold a baby laying down or a toddler sitting up or a baby laying down and a toddler sitting up or two kids sitting up. What a great invention! When I got home, finding one was rather tricky because they are made in New Zealand, and just entering the market. I thought that in addition to being super functional, mine would be a novelty.

I used the single stroller with Sam all the time, and even walked to the grocery store and used the second seat for the groceries. But this is the first time that I'm really really getting to use it with both boys. Three years later, they aren't such a novelty any more (they are all over DC, and I even saw the Vibe, which I'm salivating over--too bad I don't have an extra $800 lying around.) But they are very cool. Generally, we have it in the two-toddler configuration (see bottom picture). But yesterday, we spent a little too much time at the Air and Space museum, and in about 30 seconds, I was able to change it to what you see in the other three pictures--Eric got an hour nap, and Sam and I could keep playing. :) I'm also using it for Eric's morning nap, hoping that he'll sleep longer than he does, and that we'll leave the hotel before he wakes up. So far, it hasn't happened, but I do push him around the room, and the rocking gets him to sleep :)

Oh, and one more bonus feature--Sam has discovered it as his newest "hiding" spot--Hiding is one of his favorite games.

Picasa, Part 2

This is Eric, on the floor at the Louvre, when he was about as old as Sam in my last post. His ears stick out more and his hair is darker, but other than that, I think they look a lot alike!

Playing with Picasa

Well, I just down loaded Picasa, which is Google's free picture organizer. And I'm just playing around with it to see if I like it. I haven't found a good picture organizer, and we just got a new computer at home. Picasa has a button that says, "Blog This" so I clicked it. And this post is the result. I can't belive how easy it is! Now I can start adding pictures to my posts and posts won't seem so overwhelming! Now if I can only catch up. By the way, this picture is of Sam when he was 6 weeks old. It's amazing how much Sam and Eric look like each other. I'll have to add a picture of Eric too.

Life and More Sleepless Nights

As you can probably tell from my posts, my number one obsession is getting a good night's sleep--which hasn't happened for a very long time.

A few weeks ago, Sam caught a virus, had a fever, etc. He woke up from a nap and refused to talk to Ivan's mother. He just looked at her. She got scared and called 911. They took him to the emergency room and called it a seizure. Was it a seizure? We'll never know. His best buddy who he had played with for a few days in a row did the same thing to his mom, but we didn't find this out until later. Anyway, that was on a Wednesday. They kept him in the hospital overnight and did all sorts of tests. He was annoyed with everyone poking him, sticking him, etc., but he thinks that the fact that he got to ride in an ambulance is really cool. Even cooler, to him, was his IV (or IB, since he can't say his 'v's.) He still has the tape on and absolutely refuses to take it off. I'm thinking about sneaking in one night and loosening it so it falls off when he wakes up in the morning. I was really glad that Ivan's parents could take care of Eric and that Ivan was home to stay the night with Sam in the hospital.

The next Sunday, Ivan left for Spain for 3 weeks. So we resumed our painting projects. A friend of ours has been painting our house and it's so exciting, even though we feel pretty displaced. One night last week, I put the kids to bed and then began practicing the piano accompaniment for our choir for branch conference last Sunday. I said a prayer and made a deal with God ... "since I'm staying up late (for me) to practice this, please help my kids to sleep soundly so that I can get a good night's sleep." (Especially when Ivan is gone, it's hard because I can't ask him to get up with the kids.) I think God has a sense of humor, because this is how my night went:

10:30-I went to bed
12:30 - 12:50 - Fed Eric
1:15 - Sam woke up, crying that he wanted his music on (this is unusual, as he's been a pretty good sleeper lately). I turned on the music and went back to bed.
2:00 - Sam woke up saying that he was "bery" hungry, so I got him some yogurt.
2:15 - Sam slowly eats his yogurt and then starts choking, because he has been sick, so I get him some chicken and a corn muffin.
2:15 - 3:00 - Sam nibbles on his corn muffin while I get more and more impatient.
3:00 - Sam starts yelling and Eric wakes up.
3:10 - I feed Eric
3:30 - I go back and put Sam to bed. He cries that he's hungry. I feel like a bad mom, but then realize that if he was really hungry, he wouldn't be taking tiny bites.
4:00 - Sam is still crying in his crib, so I get out of bed to write emails, since I can't sleep anyway.
4:30 - Sam is asleep, I'm done with my emails, and I go back to bed
6:15 - 6:30 - Eric wakes up to eat. I feed him and take him up to Ivan's parents.
7:00 - Ivan's alarm clock goes off because I forgot to turn it off.
7:45 - Sam wakes up. I take him upstairs and then go back to bed.
9:30 - I wake up for the day. Thank goodness for Ivan's parents!

I was actually able to make it through the next day, so I learned that even if things don't work the way I want them to, I can make it through the day anyway. :)

Eric is still really funny. He loves to talk, but his talking sounds more like yelling. And so does his laughing. It's really loud and sort of stacotto-y. And I think he's pretty punchy because right before he gets so tired that he's grouchy, he gets really giggly and thinks that everything I do is hilarious. Or maybe his laughs are really polite crys? I don't know, but it makes me laugh. There's nothing better than a baby giggling. Eric loves to chew on things. He's in the mouthy stage. He sucks his thumb, sucks my thumb, sucks anything he can get his hands on.

Going on a Trip

So Sam has the travel bug too. Ever since the weather has been nice, he loves to go outside and play. He loves to drive his little car. He always says, "I'm going to go on a trip to Mexico to find Papi." (Ivan works in Mexico and Spain about half of the year.)

Sam is also into his alphabet lately. He likes singing his ABCs. I started singing them when I started brushing his teeth--once on the bottom teeth and once on the top teeth. This is just so I know how long to brush them. But now he likes to sing them too. And yesterday when he was taking a bath, he was playing with bath crayons. He said, "M Mama" and drew several "M"s on the wall.

Eric used to be content to sleep and eat. But now he's a lot more social. He wants to be in the same room with everyone else, and would prefer to be held, tickled, and laughed at at all times. He's very social. Sometimes, he often picks strangers that he likes out of crowds and smiles at them until they notice him. There's nothing more fun than a smiling, giggling baby.

It's a Small World After All

Well, I've been back from Paris for a month now. Wow. How time flies. Maybe I'll get more than one a month as I get rolling.

The sleep thing has been going pretty well. Sam now goes to sleep on his own. About a week after the "I need some love" incident, one night as we were singing and rocking, he actually said, "Put me in my crib, Mama. I want to sleep." So things improved. But those first five days or so were rough.

Paris was ... well, Paris. I love Paris. I could go there year after year and never tire of it. There is always somewhere to go. This year we did a chocolate tour, which I highly recommend. Our guide, Iris, was incredible. We got to taste lots of chocolate and hear stories about chocolate and see some places of Paris that I'd never seen. (Actually, it was right outside the Louvre, but I've always stayed inside the Louvre.) Amazing chocolate.

Eric did really well. I'm going to try to post a few pictures of him in his Baby Bjorn. He slept the entire flight over. Then he slept most of the time in the Baby Bjorn in the morning while I took the group to where they needed to be. Then I would head back to the hotel and enjoy the afternoon reading while he slept. I read the Mr. Darcy trilogy. I have to thank my friend, Dona Griffin, for sending me this thin little baby blanket. It was so soft and thin and it worked out perfectly. I could lay it over his head to block the sights, sounds, and wind, and not worry about him suffocating.

So before I left, I was emailing my friend, Anne, whose husband is a traveling opera star, and she goes with him. In January, they spent a month in Paris. She met some people in Paris, who have the cutest little girl with blond curls. She took some photos and posted them on her blog (http://www.stuckihouse.blogspot.com/) My first night in Paris, we were coming home from dinner and I saw this little girl in the metro. I thought, "It must be the jetlag." I rubbed my eyes, and we were going in the same direction. I said to them, "Excuse me, do you speak English?" They said, "Yes." "Do you know Anne Stucki?" They looked at me like I was strange, but said, "Yes." I couldn't believe it. What are the chances? Of the 11 million people in Paris, what are the chances that we would both be in the Rambuteau station at the same time?

This is Eric and I in front of Notre Dame ...