Just Mr. Man and I

Craig, Jessie, Jack, Poppy and Grandma loaded up the vehicle and drove to the Indiana Dunes this weekend for a long weekend vacation.  We are only about an hour from the Indiana Dunes (who knew) so since we were so close Mr. Man and I loaded up the minivan and went to see everyone Saturday. 

Because my family loves me so much they let me sit in the front seat instead of making me shove my 8.5 month pregnant self into the back seat.  It may have been a little scrunched but as you can see no one minded and everyone looks content. 

Grandma had found a Thomas event at a nursery close by the hotel. It was a nice set up with a bunch of trains running on the tracks. I heard a man say they do it every weekend. It wasn't crowded which was nice and the boys enjoyed watching the trains and pulling the train whistle. The pictures do not indicate Mr. Man enjoying himself but don't let the pictures fool you.

We then crammed back into the minivan and drove about 20 minutes away to a local zoo. This place was scary. They had tigers and grizzly bears when you first walked in. The tigers were in a cage and if you tried hard enough you could have petted the tiger b/c there was only some bushes preventing one from trying to be one with the tigers. I bet we were less than 3 feet from the tiger and his teeth. It freaked me out quite a bit.

This zoo also had a lot of seriously steep inclines to go to the next animal. I made Grandma push the stroller b/c I would have pushed the stroller so slow it would have ended up running me over on it's way down the hill. There was a train ride the kids could ride. It wasn't that busy when we arrived so Jack got to be the conductor with Jessie as his jr. conductor.

 As we left the zoo the boys fell asleep in the car so we drove around for a bit. After the boys woke up we hung out in the hotel room until dinner. We ate dinner and then Mr. Man and I cruised back home. He was sacked out before we hit the highway and slept most of the way home.

 He really likes riding on Rodie Horse these days. He jumps all over like a crazy guy.

Miss M can be quite possessive about things. We had one bookshelf which resided in her room. She would scream at Mr. Man when he would read one of 'her' books even if it was Mr. Man's books.  I had a babysitter come Sunday morning so I could run some errands without children and I ended up buying Mr. Man his own bookshelf and a few books for it. Upon her arrival home she informed me that the other books I had put on Mr. Man's bookshelf were hers b/c there is an M in the title of the book regardless of whether the book stated inside the book was to Mr. Man as a gift from someone.

Mr. Man and I went to Costco on Monday. He was quite attached to the watermelon. He wanted nothing more than to carry it around with him but when he realized it wasn't moving he just snuggled up with it.

 We played outside...with Miss M's toys.

Look at that belly.  I went to the dr today. I don't think the baby will be coming any time soon although I kinda wish that she would come tomorrow. I know it's easier to tote her around inside but my body has had enough of being pregnant.

Miss M's time away

Andrew had to go back to the land of Iowa to do law school interviews. Last year we all made the trip and hung out with Grandma for the weekend but this year the doctor has recommended I don't travel. I told Andrew I wasn't keeping both kids and Miss M wanted to see Grandma and her cousins.  I tried to get him to take both kids but that didn't happen.  He actually asked me what I would do without both kids at home...uhhh...I would have survived just fine.  

Andrew and Miss M left Saturday morning and met Grandma at the mall in Iowa City.  They had a special day and went to Build-a-Bear and created Madelyn Bear - as we've discussed every animal and baby is named after her.  She picked out a pink bear with a pink dress, high heels, a tiara and panties.  I would say this is one fancy bear.

I love this Herkey made out of corn. He's pretty cool.  

Andrew and Miss M hit the road for another trip Sunday morning to go to Great Grandma's house to pick up our new Christmas tree. They are looking to downsize in the Christmas tree department this year so we took their enormous tree. 

I heard Miss M ran around like a crazy person and talked non-stop. She had snacks too and juice which are also things she demands at home.  So pretty much she made herself at home b/c that's what she would do if she would have been at home.  I am glad it doesn't take her long to warm up these days!

She ran around so much she crashed on the way back to Grandma D's. 

I am sure there was a lot more than transpired from her weekend away but no one took pictures and Mr. Man and I were busy doing our own thing to know what they were up to all the time.

Our week 8/11

Monday was a terrible, no good, very bad day.  I told a friend if I would have started crying on Monday it is likely I wouldn't have stopped. I am not sure what made it so horrible but it was horrible. 

After Mr. Man woke up from a nap I decided we needed to get out of the house for a bit before his 15 month drs appt. I didn't know what to do with the kids so we went to the play cafe because they both like it and they both play relatively independently of me. While we were at the play cafe I realized we didn't have Mr. Man's blankets (for comfort) and he was getting shots. I decided we didn't have time to go back home and we could deal with it. Oh boy. That was the biggest mistake of the day/week/month. 

He was really good at his appointment until they whipped out the needles for shots.  He was supposed to get three shots. One of the shots went in and back out of his leg before the shot was administered and so while he was screaming his head off I was squirted with some sort of immunization and the nurse had to go get a new one.  We couldn't run out of the office fast enough.

The doctor forgot to provide me with the stats of his 15 month visit but I think I remember.

His weight was 27 lbs and 5 oz.
His height was pretty close to 33 inches
His head is large.
And his ears were clear.

We all woke up on Tuesday in a much better mood.  Andrew had to fly to California for work and so he was up early. I tried going back to sleep after he left but couldn't so I read for awhile. Then I took a shower, took out the trash, played musical cars in our driveway, got the kids breakfasts ready and by the time I was done one of the two had woken up. I felt really good. We had a play date which I thought was going to be a simple get together before school started for the girls but it turned out it was a nice baby shower with adult food for me and baby #3. It was so sweet. We ate quiche and scones and not goldfish or pirates booty. It was amazing.

We had to rush out because I had a drs appointment in the city and Mr. Man was having a breakdown from needing a nap.  I dropped the kids off with Aunt Nessie at school. She took them to McD while I waited for the doctor. There wasn't much to learn at the appointment. The scale told me I shouldn't have eaten so many scones and quiche before going to the doctor.

We came home and took naps and then I decided to take the kids to the train restaurant for dinner. I am not sure what I was thinking considering Monday was such a disaster but the cleaning lady had come and I didn't want to clean up from dinner. Sometimes when I realize it's meal time I get sad. I never know what to feed these rascals. The train restaurant worked out well. The kids ate and behaved well (enough).

On our way back to the car after finishing dinner Miss M informs me she accidentally took a dinosaur. We were half way to the car. I was spent and I wasn't going back for a dinosaur. We'll be back. We'll return it on another visit.

Wednesday Miss M slept in so I had time to cook some cinnamon rolls before she woke up.  She's been very into her babies lately and so she needed two cinnamon rolls as she needed one for her and one for her baby.  Her baby's name happens to be Maddie. Shocking. Everything in our house is named after her or a derivative of her name. There is a pig her and grandma played with while we were in Portland and it's name is Pigalyn.

Her friend Anne came for a play date and the girls enjoyed chasing each other around and having a snack.

Miss M's other new obsession is Frozen. The movie.  She wants to watch it every day.  She's not too scared of it most of the time.  She received a lunch box (to replace her Doc McStuffin one that was destroyed by a stroller) in the mail as a present and she was so happy. She carries all kinds of random stuff in it around the house.  Then the babysitter came over the other day with a present for her and it happened to be a Frozen t-shirt.  She hasn't asked to wear it but she carries it around too asking me to look at it and shows me the princesses.

I used to take a shower while the kids played upstairs. It worked well. I got a shower. They entertained themselves. Now when this little fella hears the shower he comes running.  And he pounds on the glass until you let him in the shower with you. He stays in with me until I am done. It's not really too annoying until we're done showering and I have to dry him off while I am wet and cold so he doesn't slip on the floor and crack his head open.

This spring Miss M and I planted sunflower seeds.  We had a few random packets of seeds and so in an attempt to entertain her we planted them. We've been watching them grow really tall but until the other day we didn't have any flowers.  The flowers are as big as Miss M. I am so excited about them. They are so pretty. My grandmother used to have sunflowers planted by her house so they remind me of her. I am pretty impressed with my gardening abilities - since everything else I have planted as died. Actually I think it's a testament to the sunflowers ability to grow in any condition.

That's a lot of action for only three days this week. Thursday wasn't as bad as Monday but it was still rough.  Today...well...it started a little rough. We've had a bloody lip b/c the boy wants to climb on things he shouldn't. We're going to attempt errands.  Let's hope we all make it without losing our minds.

Weekend festivities

Saturday afternoon Miss M and I packed up and drove to our friend, Alicia's, house so we could have a slumber party. It was Miss M's first slumber party that wasn't at a family members house. 

Our neighbor/friend, Jill, was competing in a triathlon on Sunday and I wanted to watch and cheer her on. I thought it would be fun for Miss M to see the triathlon since she's always asking if I can find her a race. I have managed to find a race that Andrew can run with her in a stroller and then she can run a 50 yard dash.  I think she will love it since all she wants to do is run and have races around the house. 

Alicia live across the street from the swimming portion, the bike start/finish and just a short walk to the finish line. It was the perfect location. 

The girls and I all worked on making Jill a sign. I was going more for a "Go Jill Go" sign but the kids had other plans. So this is what our sign looked like. I warned Jill ahead of time so she knew not to look for much. 

Miss M had lots of questions as we saw hundreds of bikes go by and racers finish the race. It was fun to be apart of the triathlon community by being a spectator. It was so inspiring and makes me excited to not be pregnant anymore and get back to working out and riding my bike. I bought a new bike less than a year before Miss M was born and it has been ridden very few times since then due to what feels like perpetual pregnancies and sleep deprivation.

We met up with Jill's family who were cheering them on from a different location on the race course.  The girls had a dance party while we waited for her to cross the finish line.

After we got home from the race the kids and I burned some time outside to give Andrew ample space to work on his project. This weekends project was installing a new garbage disposal.

I have been looking at buying a new garbage disposal which runs around $200 but the installation for a garbage disposal is approximately $175. I was appalled that they want to charge essentially the same amount to install it as the thing costs. 

I was convinced I could put the thing in myself and in my pseudo-confidence I think I convinced Andrew he could install one too. I mean you can learn a lot from the Internet and watching YouTube videos. He did it! He installed my new garbage disposal with minimal cursing me (unless it was all in his head or while I was outside). It took approximately 2 hours but wouldn't have needed to take that long if he would have had the correct tools close by when he started or the tools Randy gave him would have stopped falling apart. 

He was pretty proud of himself. 

On to finding him a new project...

10 year anniversary

Andrew and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary this past week. It was pretty anticlimactic. It seems like 10 years should be a big deal but it really wasn't. He's been busy at work (which really isn't anything new) so we didn't see him for more than 5 or 10 minutes in the morning before he went to work. 

We were able to get the babysitter so we could go to dinner Friday night. I selected a Greek/Mediterranean restaurant to send a not-so-subtle clue that in 10 more years I better be somewhere more like Greece than IL. 

I never really know what to buy Andrew for a present b/c he works all the time.  Therefore I turned to Hallmark for some guidance. Hallmark states the traditional gift for a 10 year anniversary is aluminum/tin. I decided to buy him a six-pack of beer in aluminum cans and a tin of mints. I think he was really impressed. 

 Miss M loves "her" babysitter. We use another babysitter but that babysitter is Mr. Man's babysitter (per her). She was so excited her babysitter was coming over she asked to put on a dress (which never happens) and wait outside on the steps for her arrival.

 The kids helping Andrew with his work assignments.

Bags

Somehow we ended up with all the bean bags for the bag boards in the house and the kids love nothing more than throwing them all over the house. Most of the time I can't account for all 8 at one time. So to put the bean bags to use I made the kids a bag board for them to play with. It was quite popular. We kept the box around until we couldn't take tripping on it any longer.  Really the last thing our living room/kitchen needs is a box sitting around to be tripped on and run into repeatedly all day. 

Andrew tells me his bag boards are finally finished. As stated before Andrew took approximately 1.5 years to finish his bag boards although I have been told part of the hold with cutting a wire and all. The wire may or may not have supplied electricity to the garage. I got it fixed and viola the bag boards are done.

I made bag boards for the kids that took 1.5 minutes and they loved them just the same.

Playing outside and being a bear

We needed to make an emergency trip to the grocery store one evening to buy tater tots. Yes. Tater tots were an emergency b/c we couldn't make tater tot casserole without them.  And I had no other ideas for dinner. Upon walking into the grocery store I fell sucker to the 100 pack of ice pop things for $3.99.  

We let them freeze up and then took 10 of them outside at once (due to Miss M's insistence/persistence).  We had to eat them fast so they wouldn't melt. We made it through 8 of them. I think I ate 5 b/c Mr. Man wanted to take the first bite of each of them and then move on to the next one. 

We've been working on getting Miss M to ride her balance bike. She usually tells us she doesn't want to ride it whenever we ask her if she wants to ride it but lately she's been all about it and she's getting pretty good at it. She made it almost all the way around the block on her bike this weekend. Now if we could just get her to ride it to the park.

She found her Halloween costume in the coat closet and insisted on wearing it around the house and scaring her brother. They both were amused by the costume. It was so hot out. I tried to get her to skip the bear paws for the feet and hands and the hat but she was insistent on sweating her brains out. I think this year will be the year the bear suit actually fits her properly and then we'll be able to pass the suit down to the next kid. Provided nothing major happens to the bear costume it's possible we'll be able to get another four or five years out of this. Impressive for a free costume.

Around the house

Andrew enjoys reading the newspaper on Sunday. It usually takes him all day b/c there isn't enough consistent downtime to read it all at once. Miss M likes when he reads the paper to her...for a short bit anyway...her attention span is pretty short. 

Poppy & Grandma gave Andrew the materials to construct his own bag boards for Christmas 2012.  And a year and a half later they are essentially done. There are a few final touches left to be completed but they are still usable and the final touches shouldn't (in theory) take very long.

While Miss M and Andrew worked on their bag boards (yes, Miss M helped paint them) Mr. Man chased bunnies around the yard.

The kids play upstairs between bedrooms pretty well. And they love more than anything to take every diaper out of the bag and throw them all over the room. It's exhausting to watch b/c I know that I get to be the one that picks them up but they are quiet so I don't usually make too big of a fuss. 

I need to go upstairs and get some of my own chores for the day completed. We went to the pool today and now one kid is sleeping and one is watching shows so I should take advantage of my opportunity to get things done.

Keeping busy

Miss M doesn't go back to school for another month. I have found that it is essential to have things planned each day or the day gets wasted by the two of us driving each other nuts with her constant demands and my constant frustration or it's wasted in front of the television.

Thankfully we have passes to a number of museums/zoos and we're working our way through each of them.

The kids like the zoo and the LP Zoo is so much smaller and manageable when you have kids who won't always ride in a stroller. And being a lot pregnant the LP Zoo is manageable for my ever-growing self while managing two kids.

 He still just wants to be one with the animals.

We went to the children's museum by ourselves last week during member-only hours and we were the only people in some of the rooms for the majority of the time. The kids through it was great. We're heading there again tomorrow since it was such a success.  Unfortunately the kids discovered the water room and therefore we will be needing to take a change of clothes and try to avoid it until the end. Mr. Man is at a nice age where he can play and not get abused too easily.

He was so proud of himself here b/c he was able to climb up the ladder and play with Miss M.

He was also enthralled with putting the nuts in the holes in the building area. I was pretty happy that none of the nuts/bolts ended up in his mouth.

 Miss M is big enough and daring enough to do the tree house climbing by herself.

And the best part about being busy and tackling all of the museums/zoos is nap times are usually had by all. I went to check on Miss M after the children's museum b/c I heard her kicking and I was only able to open the door a few inches b/c someone crashed on their floor.

We were invited over to a friend's house for dinner Friday night. It was fun to destroy someone else's house and leave. Oh and it's fun to hang out and catch up.

Yesterday we went to the Brookfield Zoo. I don't like the Brookfield zoo much. It's too big and too spread out for my liking but the kids enjoy it. We met our friends Rodie and Eddie. We don't go anywhere for long before Miss M asks for snacks.

Yesterday while we were at the zoo she asked me what I packed for snacks. I told her not to worry about what I packed and that I had packed enough. She looked at me seriously and said I didn't ask you how much you packed. I asked you what you packed. Oh. She had me there. She did ask me what I packed. So I told her knowing that upon telling her what I packed she would demand a snack.

We ended up in the children's play area b/c it was shaded, contained, partially air conditioned, and had a restroom close by. The kids enjoyed it enough. There was an area with a rabbit in a cage and a cat the kids could pet. I think Mr. Man scared all the people and animals as all he could do was scream with excitement.