Visiting with Gigi

During my spring break, Nick and I decided to take a day to go and visit my grandmother, who Nick calls Gigi. (G.G.=great grandma) She just had cataract surgery and we figured she could use some cheering up. Nick picked out pretty yellow tulips and cupcakes to bring for her.

I think Nick's favorite part of the visit was romping with Lucy, the Yorkie pup.

My grandma made us lunch and dinner, and we talked and watched Nick run around and try to destroy things. At one point, he kept sneaking into the living room and stealing Hershey's kisses from the candy bowl.  For a two-year-old, he can be pretty surreptitious--Nick would put the candy behind his back so we couldn't see it. He must've gone back seven or eight times before we finally put the candy bowl where he couldn't reach it.

That really brought back memories for me, because I can remember doing the exact same thing. In fact, one time, when I was about 5 or 6, I snuck a whole bunch of chocolate out of that same crystal candy bowl and hid the wrappers under the couch cushions. I was caught and I can remember having to write a silly sentence about 100 times. It was something like: I will not take candy without asking. It seems my son has inherited the tendancy to swipe chocolate whenever it is in the vicinity.

It was a sunny day, so we decided to go outside with Lucy for awhile. Even though it was somewhat chilly outside, Nick wasn't even a little bit cold. Too busy running full speed towards and away from the puppy, he got quite a bit of exercise. You can tell, though, that Gigi was a little chilled.

I really love this time in the spring when you can have the windows open and let in the fresh air. Spring is such a hopeful time, and I have to say that Nick is so much more mellow when he gets to run around and play outdoors.

Nick has quite a few doting grandparents--four grandmas and three grandpas--but there's only one Gigi. Since Nick lost his Grandma Marie in February, she's his only living great grandparent, and very special to him. You'd think he'd get confused with all of the relatives, but we have pictures up all over the house, and Nick can point to them and name everyone. He knew just who I was talking about when I said we were going to visit Gigi. In the car, he asked, "I see Gigi. Puppy, too?"


Yup. Puppy, too.

At times, I felt sorry for the puppy, because Nick was not very gentle with her. But Lucy kept coming back for more, and licking the heck out of my boy. He didn't seem to mind much.

I spent most of my spring break working on a very big freelance writing project, all while potty training Mr. Nick. I also had papers to edit for some friends and a Power Point presentation I was working on for work. Not very relaxing.

So getting to take a rest from the computer and drive up for some adult company was really nice. I think Gigi liked the company, too, though she looked pretty tired by the time we left. It's hard for anyone to get used to the energy of a two-year-old!

Schaumburg Farmers' Market and Lunch at Maggiano's with G.G.

On Friday, Nick and I took a little trip to visit my Grandma Dorothy, who Nick calls G.G. We wanted to go to the farmers' market in Schaumburg, and my grandmother brought her dog, Miss Lucy, who weighs only slightly more than a hamster. I think Nick was mildly jealous, because instead of everyone fussing over him, they were fussing over the adorable puppy. "Oh, she is so cute!" Nick was not used to being second fiddle. I somehow think that he won't adjust well when we eventually have a second child. He is always the center of attention.

I've always been pretty close to my grandmother, who is only 41 years older than me. People often assume she's my mother when we're out and about, and that Nick is her grandson. She is always proud to announce that Nick is her great-grandson. I always try to go up and visit her whenever I can, especially during vacations and summer.

The Schaumburg Farmers' Market was nice, medium-sized but with some pretty good vendors. It was smaller and not as complete as the Saturday markets in Lisle and Wheaton, but there were still quite a few local farmers and some great samples. The samples are always Nick's favorite part of  farmers' markets. I bagged a tart from the French nuns, some havarti and gout goada cheese from a gourmet cheese vendor, a nice bunch of green onions, and some fresh broccoli. Lucy (the puppy) got some doggie socialization time and about forty compliments. After the farmers' market, we went to drop the puppy off before going to lunch. She was ready for a nap, after playing with Nick to the point of exhaustion. Nick was still raring to go, though.

We went to Maggiano's for a nice Italian lunch. They told us that the servings were all half portions because it was lunchtime. We decided to order two dishes and split them so that we could try two things. We had meat lasagna and chicken spinach manicotti with alfredo sauce. I also ordered some asparagus with garlic so that we'd have a vegetable. The waitress warned me, "The baby might not like the asparagus, since it has a lot of garlic." I told her not to worry, because Nick eats nearly everything. He likes garlic, too.

The asparagus, in fact, was his favorite part of the dinner. He ate at least five or six spears of the stuff. Nick enjoys anything shaped like a french fry, and this includes green beans, string cheese, and asparagus. He kept waving the stalks around like little flags, but he ate a whole lot, garlic or no garlic. I love the picture above because of the way Nick is holding the asparagus in front of his face, showing me. "MMM," he kept announcing as he grabbed for another stalk and shoved it in his mouth.

The food was pretty good, and the atmosphere was nice. It was just noisy enough for Nick's chattering not to bother anyone. When they brought our food out, we were astounded. If these were half-size, lunch portions, what must the dinner portions look like? I ate less than half of the food and still felt very, very full. We weren't too full to try some tiramisu, though. Can you see it all around Nick's lips? I thought he might not like it, because tiramisu has a kind of coffee flavor, but Nick loved every bite. I asked the waitress to take our picture before we left.

We thought we'd go back to the house and let Nick take a nap, but he wasn't having any of it. He wanted to play, plain and simple. Most of all, he wanted to play with the puppy. "Puppy!," he'd announce as he pointed towards her. "Soft," he'd say as he stroked her fur. Nick wasn't always gentle, but the puppy was surprisingly tolerant and Nicholas wasn't quite as rough as he is with the cats.

Nick and Lucy are on the same scale, size wise. She comes up to about his waist if she jumps on him, and I think she likes his smaller size, because Lucy just can't leave him alone. When he walks with her, it's as if an adult were walking with a medium sized dog. Miss Lucy was extremely active all day, and she even walked down with us to the park, using her leash correctly. My grandma was very proud of her.

But Nick never did take a nap. That's something I'm going to have to work on-whenever I go somewhere, I can't get Nick to sleep at all. He was mad at me when we had to leave, too, because he wanted to stay with GG and the puppy. Poor guy was plumb tuckered out by the time we got back home. He slept nearly 13 hours last night, so at least he got caught up. We'll have to make a point to go and visit again before the summer is over.

A Pool, a Party, and a New Puppy (Part Two)

Okay, the party is next. I'm going to tell you about how my family celebrates birthdays, and I even looked up some information on birthday traditions. See, I'm a teacher, and I have an uncontrollable urge to research.

Anyway, Nick got to sit on the laps of both birthday girls during the whole candle/cake/singing thing. He's still trying to figure out the concept of blowing out the candles. Here, you can see Nick sitting with his Great-Grandma Dorothy, (GG) during the singing. I think he looks somewhat bewildered as to why the cake is on fire. I suppose many of our customs may seem weird to him. You know, it is kind of weird that we put lit candles on a cake. Happy Birthday GG!

I actually looked it up, because I was curious. It seems that the practice of putting candles on cakes comes from the Ancient Greeks, who used to bring cakes to the temple for the goddess of the moon. I guess they'd put the candles on so that the cake would glow, just as the moon does. Then, later, Germans put one candle on a cake in honor of the light of life. I do believe Nick was just wondering why nobody cared that the cake was on fire. He sure looks like he's trying to figure the whole thing out. Happy Birthday Auntie Mandy!

Above you can see Nick wondering why we set the cake on fire a second time. We do something strange during birthdays, on my mother's side of the family. When we sing the birthday song, we sing 3 verses of the song. We've done this as long as I can remember, and I never knew why. In fact, I can remember being surprised when I'd go to my friends' birthday parties and they'd only sing one verse. When new people come to birthday parties in my family, it always confuses them, because they think the song is over, and then we keep singing.

I had to research where the other verses came from, and I think I've figured it out. "May the Dear Lord Bless You," comes from a Catholic version of the Happy Birthday song, which makes sense since my family has Catholic roots. "May You Live A Hundred Years" is a translation from the Polish version of the song, "Sto Lat." That makes sense, too, since we come from Polish roots.

Now Nick, he doesn't care about any of this. At least not yet. But you know what he does care about?

Yup. Ice cream. He cares a whole lot about ice cream. Nick is doing much better with a spoon, too, although he makes quite a mess while eating it. Yes, that is a towel wrapped around his neck.

I suppose I'll have to show the puppy pictures tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday. My grandmother just bought this adorable puppy named Lucy, and she weighs only 2 pounds. She is a Yorkie, and the cutest doggie ever. When I saw her, I said, "That's not a dog, it's a hamster!" Seriously, I've actually seen rats larger than this dog, when I worked in Cicero. But the dog was definitely cuter. I'll show lots of pictures tomorrow. Oh, and photo credits go to my sister, Amanda Wiatr.

A Pool, a Party, and a New Puppy (Part One)

Last Saturday we went to my mom and stepdad's house for a triple party. It was to celebrate my sister's birthday, my grandmother's (Nick's great-grandmother, or GG's) birthday, and father's day (for Nick's Grandpa Ray). My sister took a ton of pictures, so I think I'm going to have to do a few posts for this one. Today I'll start with the pool. Can you tell that Nick loves being outside, nearly naked, and wet? When he saw the pool at grandma's house, he got all excited. I can imagine him thinking. . . "You mean I get to play with this water? And you won't get mad at me if I splash it? That is awesome!" Auntie Mandy spent much of the time snapping pictures of Nick, and she got some really good ones.

And splash he did! There were these little squirty balls, and Nick kept getting everyone wet with them--including himself. Everyone just sat around and watched as Nick climbed in and out of the pool, splashing the whole time. He has become our entertainment. After awhile, his diaper started blowing up with water. You'd be amazed at how much those things can hold! So we took the soggy and heavy diaper off and let him run around naked for a little bit. He loved that. I think most toddlers get a kick out of having their diapers off. I guess I'd feel the same way if I had that many thick, absorbant layers on all day, every day.

I think he must've gotten cold after awhile, and about that time Grandma Linda got a big fluffy towel and a cup of milk. The world must be very strange for Nicholas lately, since he hasn't been going to the babysitter's house and the only people he sees are adults. Poor guy.

All of these pictures were taken by my sister, Amanda Wiatr, who is an amazing photographer. Yes, she does do freelance photography work, including weddings and family photography. Mandy is especially good at taking pictues of kids and animals, and her rates are very reasonable. She can be contacted either through her Facebook Page or by email at amandawiatr@yahoo.com if you're interested in getting a quote.

Anyway, after Nick's little swim, we went inside for cake and played with my grandma's new puppy for awhile. I'll write more tomorrow, and show some more great pictures. I'm going to end with this picture, which I adore because Nicholas looks so contemplative. I wonder what kind of deep thoughts he's thinking. . . perhaps he's figuring out the secrets to world peace. Or deciding whether to pee on the patio. Or internally debating the nation's energy policy. Nah, he's probably dreaming of ice cream. If my boy is anything like his mommy, he wastes most of his deep thoughts on food.

Trees, Trees, and More Trees! ! !

I'm not usually one to overuse exclamation points, but Nick has been very excited about all of the Christmas Trees he's seen lately. On New Year's Day, we decided to indulge his excitement by taking him to the Museum of Science and Industry in downtown Chicago. Every winter, they have a display of Christmas trees decorated for countries around the world. Since his first real word was "tree," we figured he would enjoy pointing at all of them. He did. We went with Nick's Great-Grandma Dorothy and Grandma Toni so that they could see the trees, too. Here you can see Nick with his Great-Grandma, showing her our tree and telling her, "Tree!"

Nick was fascinated by all of the lights and ornaments. It really was quite lovely. He just kept pointing and announcing, "Tree!" all day long. We did a lot at the museum, but I think today's post will be all about the trees. Nick kept trying to tear the ornaments off, but thank goodness most of them were wired on. I don't believe he was the only baby who tried to abscond with the ornaments.

Nick has been pointing like crazy lately. Sometimes we're not sure what he's pointing at, but on this day we were pretty sure it was the tree.

Nick also did a lot of walking around the museum. He's getting more surefooted as he practices. We all kind of blocked him in and let him crawl and walk around a little bit, because he wasn't going to stand for staying in the stroller. He wanted OUT. And he was so happy when he got to walk with daddy.

 My favorite part was the pretty blue lights in the center area of the museum. Everything was bathed in a gorgeous blue light, and shapes danced on the ceiling as Christmas music played. I know it's after Christmas, but it was a nice way to close the season.

Today Greg took the tree down while Nick was having his afternoon nap. He said that Nick started crying and saying, "Tree?" when he came downstairs and saw that it was gone. He keeps pointing to the area where the tree was and asking, "Tree?" Poor guy. He'll have to wait until next year.

Christmas #2 (At Grandpa Ray and Grandma Linda's House)

On the second day of Christmas. . . we went to my mom and stepdad's house for dinner and presents. This was on Christmas Eve. My grandmother was there, and my sister (who took all of these pictures) and stepbrother, too. Nick got to stay up past his bedtime and eat gingerbread cookies and play with Tigger (the dog). He was very happy, even before the presents started. I'm constantly amazed at how well he sits and listens to books. Each time he received a new book, he wanted me to read it to him. He likes to turn the pages and point to things in the stories. Sometimes if he likes a book he'll bring it back to me again and again.

The photo below has a hilarious backstory. On Christmas Eve, I was trying desperately to wrap presents and get everything wrapped and packed up. Nick was tearing paper and moving htings around and generally causing mayhem. I noticed a couple of times he put stuff into boxes as I was wrapping them, but I caught him in time, or so I thought. I didn't even notice, but he must've put a cat toy (the little ball) into my grandma's gift bag. She opened her gift and looked at the ball, confused. "What is this?," she asked. Nick saw the ball (and heard it, too, because it has a bell) and came right over to claim it. He likes to put things into bags and baskets, and thus the "extra" gift. Later, my mom found a random pen dumped into her gift bag. It must've been the one I thought I lost while I was filling out gift tags.

Obviously my grandma wasn't too upset about the incident. Nick got a nice cuddle and a cup of milk for making us all laugh. My grandma loves sitting with him in the rocking chair. He knows a good lap when he sees it.

Oh, Nick started talking last week. His first real word? Tree. He's been saying Daddy for ages, but not necessarily to Greg. He says it to me, to the cats, etc. He does know what a tree is. Every time he walks into a room with a Christmas tree, he points and announces, "Tree!" Then he waits for everyone to clap. Finally, if he can, he'll go and try to tear things off of the tree, as you can see him doing below. I do have some video of him talking, and I'll try to post it tomorrow.

Greg was in a kind of a silly mood. Not sure why the orange was on his head. My mom puts oranges in our stockings each year. And yes, I still get a stocking, even though I'm 31. She even made one for Greg last year after we were married. I guess Santa never stops coming as long as you believe. It was a nice Christmas--Greg got this cool Cooking Light cookbook and I got some really nice watches and jewelry. But Nick made out like a bandit. I think after the whole 4 Christmases thing, he was probably wondering "When do I get to open more presents?" He didn't understand much about them on his birthday, but he sure understands gifts now!

My mom has been knitting hats again, and she made this adorable one for Nick. I wish I could get him to keep a hat on for more than three seconds. It really is cute and very soft. Nick's Grandma Linda found this string of jingle bells and Nick loved the sound they made. Unfortunately, he also tangled them into a hopeless knot.

you can see Nick clapping for himself after proclaiming, "Tree!" If no one claps for his heroic deeds, you see, he feels obliged to give himself a round of applause. Can you guess he's the first grandchild?

After this, we went to my mother-in-laws to spend the night. It was a busy day, but Nick sure enjoyed himself.