More fun at the park

Babies everywhere! Congratulations to our friends the Murantes--Sammy, Shannon, Luke, and Sammy Jr., who are now a family of 6 with the birth of their twins (boy and girl) last week! Also congratulations to our friends Courtney and DJ on the birth of their first child (a boy) early this morning! Yea! We are so happy for all of you and look forward to meeting all the little ones sometime soon.

We don't have anything quite that exciting happening with us right now. Here are some pictures from another outing at the park. Jack is getting quite skilled in climbing the equipment and doing everything by himself. He still screams when we leave and have to drag him back home :)

Cute pictures of my babies

I took these the other morning when Jack was sprawled out on his Elmo pillow-book. (These pictures were taken with my phone, so that's why they're a little grainy.)


And some brand-new photos of our youngest! While having so many doctor's appointments for a high-risk pregnancy is a pain, one perk is that I at least have several ultrasounds and get to see our little guy/girl a lot. These were taken with a Level 2 ultrasound machine, so the detail is better than what you would usually see at 13 weeks with a regular ultrasound.

Guess what....

We are very proud to announce that on or around September 28, Jack will have a little brother or sister! I'm about 12.5 weeks along, and so far things are going well. My blood pressure seems to be under control, so my doctor is only seeing me every 3 weeks instead of every 2 weeks right now. I've felt pretty crummy with nausea and fatigue, but thankfully that seems to be improving as I approach the 2nd trimester. We've known about the pregnancy almost since the beginning, so it's been torture over the past few months keeping it secret!

Today has been a good day for me to rest. In typical Chicago spring weather behavior, we had beautiful 60-70 degree weather all week, and today it's in the 30's and has been snowing all day.

Finally, just wanted to share a picture that was taken a couple weeks ago at Jack's birthday party that we couldn't post until now (he's wearing a shirt that says "I'm going to be a big brother.")

Nice day (finally!)

It rained a lot last week, but one of the nice side effects of the rain was that temperatures outside warmed up. On Wednesday after work, we took advantage of the nice weather and made a trip across the street to the playground.


We weren't the only ones with that idea! I think every child from within a 2-mile radius was at the playground that day. Chicagoans are definitely ready for spring!


The playground was so crowded that it was hard to use some of the equipment, but fortunately some of the baby swings were open. Jack had a blast!




Earlier that day, I had taken Jack for his 2-year checkup at the doctor. He weighs 24 pounds and is 33 inches long. That puts him on the growth chart between the 10th and 25th percentiles for both BMI and height. I was pleasantly surprised--I had expected him to be under the 10th percentile, at least for height.

Jack was quite a trooper at the doctor's office. He had his blood drawn and didn't even cry until after it was over and they were putting the band-aid on his arm. He also stepped right up onto the scale and stayed still when the nurse took his measurements. I was expecting the opposite, after my experiences at work weighing 2-year olds!

The doctor did refer us to get Jack checked out by a speech therapist, just to see if he has any true delays. We have that appointment this Friday, so we'll see how that goes.

Birthday boy

It's hard to believe, but Jack turned 2 years old yesterday! Grandma and Grandpa Nold were in town, and they hosted a birthday party for him on Saturday. We got to visit with several friends from the Ridgewood neighborhood, and Jack got some playtime with Aubrey and Hannah. Also some other March happy birthday shout outs to: Grandpa Nold, Aunt Lisa, and cousins Lori and Alexis!

Here's Jack chowing down on birthday cake. He's gotten pretty skilled with a fork, and he made surprisingly little mess!


Of course, being at Grandma and Grandpa's house also meant Jack had access to a ceiling fan. He kept sneaking over and climbing up to reach the wall controls.


Jack playing with Aubrey and Hannah (and Mary).


Helping Aubrey collect all the bows.


And here's a few shots of us opening presents. Thanks to everyone for all of Jack's gifts! Our house is feeling even smaller with his new collection :)



Giving his new monkey backpack a kiss



Jack was a big fan of this cart with Megablocks.


Dad and Jack horsing around before the party. Look at that hair!


Grandpa showing Jack how to operate the new pinwheel Grandma found for him.


Unfortunately this was the only picture I got of the dogs, so you can't see Macie up close. Macie is Aunt Lisa's new Labradoodle puppy. She's so cute and sweet!


A video clip of us singing "Happy Birthday." We forgot to teach Jack beforehand about what a candle is and how to blow one out. Oh well, we'll make up for it next year.


Finally, a few thoughts to wrap things up. This past year has gone by so fast; yet on the other hand it also seems like such a long time ago that Jack was a baby and turning 1 year old. He has grown so much this year and developed into a wonderful little boy.

He's extremely curious and is always trying to figure out how things work (and he's usually pretty good at it!) He's extremely lovable and still lets me snuggle with him for a few minutes here and there. Jack's intelligence and span of knowledge have also really blossomed this year. While he's still not saying much, he understands almost everything. He knows his letters (upper and lowercase), numbers, colors, parts of the body, etc.

I also love his quirky little sense of humor. He likes to fake me out sometimes at night when we're putting up his bath toys. I'll tell him, "get the yellow cup," and he'll start to reach for it but then get an impish little grin on his face and grab another cup. Then he giggles hysterically when I say "No silly, not that one."

We love you more every day buddy and look forward to another year of watching you grow up!

Mom and Jack's weekend

Andy went to Colorado this past weekend for some skiing and snowboarding with his friends, so Jack, Lou, and I had the house to ourselves. We didn't do anything incredibly exciting; mostly just played around the house and ran errands. I did take Jack out to breakfast one morning at the Rock n Roll McDonald's in downtown Chicago. Prior to this weekend, I'd only ever visited this McDonald's at the drive-thru, so this was actually the first time I had been inside.

Jack got down to business first, wolfing down some pancakes. He ate 2 whole pancakes and a sausage patty.


After eating, we took a tour of the upstairs. Everything's pretty upscale, as far as McDonald's go--leather armchairs, nice wood floors and cabinets. There's a coffee and gelato bar also, though the cold weather outside discouraged us from trying any of the gelato. Jack loved looking out the windows.


He also enjoyed looking at the collectibles (snowglobes and Pez dispensers).



The back of the upstairs takes you through a tour of the last several decades in the U.S. Jack especially liked the different lights and chandeliers from each era.


And again, the windows. That's the Rainforest Cafe next door with the big frog. This McDonald's is in a very touristy part of town; the Hard Rock Cafe is also next door.


Jack thought the St. Patrick's Day decorations were pretty cool.


To wrap things up, here's a picture of Lou looking pretty after his day of pampering at the Pooch Hotel. On Saturday I had to answer phone calls for work, so to have one less child to look after, I booked Lou for a day of doggy daycare. He also got a much needed bath and "paw"dicure.


A hard day of play on Saturday resulted in Lou spending most of Sunday like this. What a rough life.