Happy Birthday to Grandma Nold!


On Friday, I had a meeting/staff appreciation day at the Field Museum. The dinosaur outside was decked out in a Blackhawk's jersey, since they're in the playoffs (hopefully their luck will improve after their bad loss last night). The dinosaur reminded me of a few years ago when the Bears were in the Superbowl. Big football helmets were put on the lions outside the art museum, but they only lasted about a day because it was so cold outside the helmets cracked.

Yesterday we went to visit our friends the Murantes and see their new twins for the first time. Other people came over too, and the house was full of kids--including the twins, I think there were 9; all age 4 or less. Fortunately the Murantes have a big house with a great backyard!

Here's Jack and Luke, watching the Kentucky Derby with us.


Sammy entertaining the kids.


Miraculously, we were able to get most of the kids to sit still for a group picture. From the left, there's Luke, Sammy, Jack, Bo, Gianna, and John Paul.


And the other "kids"

Welcome Home Grandma and Grandpa!

It's that time of year--Grandma and Grandpa Nold are back from Florida! Grandma came over the other night to spend some time with Jack. She brought over the coolest toy--a pinwheel. It's like a miniature personalized fan! He was mesmerized by it the whole night, except for at dinner, where our little piggie downed an entire brat, bun and all.

No exciting news to report this time. We had a busy work week and then relaxed at the lake house this weekend. The lake is starting to look normal again as people are getting their docks and boats in the water. We should get ours put in sometime this month. Here's a couple pictures of Jack helping Andy work on the computer, and some of Lou and Jack, just because it's been a while.

It's a......

GIRL!

I was truly shocked when the doctor told me. With very few exceptions, all of our family and friends' second-borns have been the same sex as their first-borns. I hadn't dared let myself hope that we would buck the trend and have a girl. I still almost can't believe it. Needless to say, we are very excited!! I kept tearing up on the drive home from the ultrasound. (Of course we know that ultrasounds are never 100% perfect at detecting girls, so we'll continue to keep an open mind to the small possibility that it could turn out to be a boy.)

Sorry you won't be getting a brother, Jack. But between your mom's and dad's genes, you should get a super-cool sister!

Birthday Party

On Saturday we went to our friend Scarlett's first birthday party. It was at Kid City, which is a cute indoor play area that I hadn't even known existed before we went there. Jack had a blast. He was having so much fun playing that I couldn't keep him in the eating area for lunch; he'd run in, take a bite, and then run out again. (However, once the dessert was brought out later, he made time for that!)

Inside a little playhouse



Traffic jam!




This slide was steeper and had more of an abrupt ending than the ones Jack is used to. He landed so gracefully on his butt every time!


Here's the birthday girl, with her cool fish cake


The whole family--mom Rachel, dad Bobby, and big sister Chloe.


Cake time!


Dad, Jack, and Lou will get some quality man time over the next couple days. Tomorrow I leave for a conference in Springfield, so they'll be on their own for Tuesday and Wednesday nights. If you can believe it, this will be the first time Jack's ever spent the night alone with Andy! (When I went on my last business trip, Jack stayed with Grandma and Grandpa.)

First haircut

Jack had his first salon haircut last week. He's not a big fan of me cutting his hair, so I was worried he might not react well to someone else. But we had nothing to worry about! The Kid Snips salon was full of things to entertain him, including the cool racecar chairs. Jack had a great time, and he looked pretty spiffy when the stylist was finished!



Yesterday Jack finally had his official speech evaluation. The case manager, speech therapist, and developmental therapist came to our house and worked with Jack for about an hour. He was impressively cooperative, considering his nap had been cut short and we had pulled him out of bed just a few minutes before they arrived.

The results were pretty much what we were expecting. For most of his development and verbal comprehension, he's performing appropriately and even above his age level in several areas. However, for verbal expression, he's significantly delayed. The speech therapist said normal 2 year olds have about a 200 word vocabulary, and Jack says at most 4-5 words. He really only says one word on a regular basis ("ball").

The plan is for him to start twice weekly sessions with a speech therapist. Our case manager has to get everything processed first and assign him to a therapist, so it will probably be a couple weeks before we can start the therapy.

Jack's a quick and enthusiastic learner, so we're hoping it won't take many sessions for him to make some progress. We're looking forward to finally being able to talk with our son sometime in the near future!

Easter weekend

We had a busy weekend visiting friends and family. First on Saturday, we went over to Courtney and DJ's to see them and their new baby, Davis William. He was so sweet and cuddly :) The whole family is doing very well.

Saturday night we drove out to St. Charles to visit the Words (Dave, Megan, Aubrey, and Leah). I think Jack found a new best friend in Aubrey. She kept him in stitches playing peekaboo when we went out to dinner. Here's a short clip of the two of them:


We spend Easter afternoon at Aunt Carol and Uncle Bob's. We also got to see cousins Lori, Marty, Michelle, Alexis, and Parker. We lucked out with the weather; most of the day was pleasant and sunny. Unfortunately it decided to rain in the evening, which made our drive home about 2 hours, ugh.

Aunt Carol made Easter really fun for the kids. She decorated an Easter basket for Jack, and then put several eggs together for him to go on his very first Easter egg hunt. Jack had a great time (Alexis helped him find the eggs). He was still very entertained with the eggs today, taking them apart and putting them back together.



Jack and Alexis also had a blast when Andy blew some bubbles outside. Check out Jack's hair--can you tell it was windy?



Then Aunt Carol raised the bar and brought out her bubble wand. It made REALLY huge bubbles!


Cousins Michelle and Parker


We hope everyone had a happy Easter!