Dry Erase Markers, Being Too Busy, and Kicking

Last week one of Nick's pee-pee prizes was a little dry erase board and marker. Because I was naive, I let him take it with him to nap time. Frankly, I was exhausted and not thinking straight. The sudden, random tiredness that hit me all the time in the first trimester of this pregnancy has started returning with a vengeance, right on schedule in the third.

Do you see those cute little knees? Yup. Dry erase marker. Everywhere. He's been doing pretty well with potty training. He has even had several days without wet man panties. Nick has not, however, been able to go #2 in the potty. I have no idea why. I hope he figures that one out eventually.

Today Nick used his first urinal--Greg took him into the men's room at the Kohl's, and held him up, and low and behold, success! This does present a problem for me, though. You see, Nick is afraid of public toilets, and the ladies rooms never have urinals. Hmm. It was hilarious when Nick came running out of the men's room. He announced to everyone at the service desk, "I went pee-pee in the potty!" They were duly impressed.



Pardon my absence lately--the last two weeks have probably been my busiest in years. I have a part time freelance writing job and I am under deadline, so I've been spending lots of time researching and typing like a madwoman. I have 5,000 words due by Thursday, but I got a lot done yesterday and today, so now I only have about 2,400 left to go. I'm trying to earn some extra money for all the diapers we're going to be going through very soon. I seem to remember an average of 8-10 diapers per day--I shudder to think.

Then, I have two teacher friends working on their National Board Certification. It's the highest honor a teacher can get in this country, and the only way to get a Master Teaching Certificate in Illinois. I became a NBCT in 2008, and now I help mentor other teachers working on their portfolios. I remember how excited I was when I got my new IL Teaching Certificate, and it read, "Master Teacher." Can't beat that feeling.   :)  Anyhow, I've spent the last few weeks reading their papers and giving them suggestions. Their final portfolios were due last Friday.

To top it all off, I had to make a little visit to the hospital. The little boy inside of me was being kind of lazy, and my doctor had warned me to call if I didn't feel movement over a 24 hour period. This kid has never moved very much, and maybe it's because I was so busy, but I couldn't feel him at all for well over a day.

My obstetrician had me go in to radiology to get an ultrasound and have the baby pass some tests. He started moving right away on the ultrasound, though I still couldn't feel it. My placenta is in a weird spot, in the front, and I think that's why movement is so muffled. I guess he passed all of the test with flying colors. Aw, he passed his first test. The doctor said that with this good of a test, the chances of anything being wrong are practically Nil. Plus, especially in the last two or three days, the baby has been dancing a jig. His movements have become stronger and I'm having less trouble feeling him.

Anyhow, the trip to the hospital was just a precaution, but now I've been extra careful with tracking movements. We found out that Greg can usually feel him with his hands, even when I feel nothing. So he is now in charge of kick counts. Seems like a fair deal, seeing as I have the responsibility of carrying the baby 24/7. Oh, and apparently dark chocolate and caffeine help--this little guy dances when I indulge.

Speaking of dancing a jig--here's Nick dancing in his crib. This is probably the last week he'll be sleeping in the crib. Greg got the toddler bed together, and we're just waiting for the new crib mattress to arrive. (The original one we ordered was the wrong size.) Nick is thrilled, and every time he passes his toddler bed, he announces, "That's my bed! I gonna sleep in there!"

A Pizza Party for Two-Year-Olds

Yes, indeed. There is a family so courageous, so heedless of danger to their home and property, that they'd have a children's party for their two-year-old. They invited a lot of other two-year-olds, including Nick. This was an awesome party! It was also Nick's very first kid's birthday party.

Not only was this a pizza party, it was a "make your own pizza" party, from Homemade Pizza. There were hats and aprons for the kids to wear, and each kid got to make his or her own pizza. Nick loved this, although he kept eating the ingredients.

We thought the idea for this party was really creative. Our hosts had sliced grapes and strawberries, and the most delicious cupcakes. I'm not quite ready to brave having a kid's party, but at some point, when I do, I hope it's as fun as this one was--they even had little favor buckets for each of the guests.

Nick, however, was a little bit naughty. He kept stealing Hershey's kisses out of the other kid's buckets when we weren't looking. He likes chocolate a little too much. I wonder where he gets that from.  ;)

Here's Zosia (the birthday girl) and her daddy making a pizza. Would you believe that none of the kids threw pizza sauce or toppings at one another?

Now, planning for a birthday party is a lot of work, and you can't always expect things to go as planned. The birthday girl, Zosia (shown above in the adorable pink sweatshirt) wasn't feeling well, and slept through part of her own party. I can remember the same thing happening at Nick's 1st birthday party. You just can't predict what'll happen with kids.





Nick loved playing with the other kids, and didn't seem shy at all. Greg and I were both pretty quiet kids, so I'm not sure where Nick got his gregariousness from.  We're just glad he likes being around other children. . . you see, in about two months, there will be two children in our house all the time.

The pizza, by the way, was delicious.   :)

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!

A Chocolate Tour of the Gold Coast

I know what you're thinking. "More with the chocolate?" Yup. If there's a fun event in the area that has chocolate in its name. . . I am so totally there.

A few weeks ago, my friend Lynn came up to celebrate her birthday with me, and we were trying to come up with something fun to do. She brought up a walking Chocolate Tour of Chicago that one of her doctors had been on with his wife. Apparently, they'd really liked it. So we decided to try it, too.

What is a chocolate tour, you ask? Well, we went to five different chocolate-themed independent or artisanal candy shops and bakeries, and had samples at each of them. On the way, we learned about the history of chocolate and about the ingredients that go into fancy chocolate. My favorite sample was actually from this first place, teuscher chocolates. It was a truffle with dark chocolate, then milk chocolate, with champagne on the inside. Simply divine.

Next, we went to More bakery, where we sampled a mini cupcake and bought a few more. My favorite was the more cupcake, which is kind of their take on a hostess cupcake. I loved the cream in the middle.

Outside the bakery there was a building with a ladybug cow crawling up the side. No, really. I'm not making this up.

Next, we went to Hendrix Belgian Bread Crafters, and tried the most delicious bread with Belgian chocolate in the center.

As you can imagine, I was in a carb-lover's heaven at this point. I especially loved all of the excellent quality dark chocolates I was getting to sample. Our next stop is probably the shop I'd be most likely to visit again on my own--Sarah's Pastries and Candies.

This place had really delicious dark chocolate covered caramel lollipops. I love the combination of a good, smooth dark chocolate and caramel.

The reason I'd visit this place again was that their chocolate was reasonably priced and still very delicious. They even showed us where the dark chocolate pours from. I wouldn't mind having one of these in my house. I'd have chocolate covered strawberries every evening, I think. Or blueberries.

Our final stop was to Tazo, where we had chocolate chai. By this time we were both really beat, and my feet were starting to swell a bit. It was a really fun tour, though, and I love going downtown, even though it can be really expensive.

I bet we got enough exercise to work off all of the chocolate samples. They have these chocolate tours all over the city, and I'd love to go on another one. I think my friend thought it was a pretty good birthday present, too. 

Teaser Post

Greetings from pottyland. I've spent most of the last week sitting on the floor in the bathroom, singing silly songs and desperately listening for the joyful sound of success. The cord on my laptop doesn't stretch that far, so my posts have been somewhat sporadic.

I have a ton to post about, though, and thankfully, I'm on my spring break, so more updates are to come in the next week, including:

1. A pregnancy update. Yup. I'm 28 weeks now. It's getting harder to see my feet.

2. The extravaganza of raking leaves in March with the "help" of a two-year-old. Using a snow shovel.

3. A trip to downtown Chicago for the day, including The Hancock Building and a chocolate tour (Yes, such things exist).

4. An account of the coolest children's party (for a two-year-old) that I've ever seen.

5. Nick's trip to Naperville's Riverwalk.

Here are some of the pictures for you to peruse, in no particular order or context. More to come this week.

This Boy is Well-Loved

Here are the promised pictures from Nick's visit with my mom, stepdad, sister, and grandma. Nick had a ball and loved all of the attention. He knows all of his relatives by name and he even knows how they like to play. Auntie Mandy likes to tickle him, and Grandma Linda likes to read with him. Gigi likes to sing with him--in this case they sang "The wheels on the bus."

Nick knows that he can play pinball with his Grandpa Ray, and that Grandma Linda will let him make biscuits and eat "cookie bears" anytime he wants. (I'm talking about those chocolate graham cookies--my mom keeps them at her house just for him.) Nick sometimes chooses to eat them with a spoon.

Nick even knows how to play blocks with different people. With me, he wants to make houses for his little animals, but with Grandma, he likes to build with squishy blocks. Plus, also chew on them.

Grandma Linda also makes a delicious dark chocolate bundt cake. Nick really loved that. I'm going to have to get her recipe. Anything with dark chocolate is a craving of mine lately.

Grandma Linda also likes to play Wii with Nick. He loves the balance board, and even requests to stand on it when he visits. Chewing on the Wii mote is even more fun. I think he was playing a game where you're a penguin and try to catch fish and not fall off of your iceberg. Nick got to visit his grandma and grandpa again this week, and he exhausted them with all of his energy.

We don't have any sort of video gaming system at our house, so this is very special for Nick. Also tasty, apparently.







Wordless Wednesday



I just realized. . .

That I never once got my child dressed this weekend. He did, however, wear four different pairs of pajamas.

He also trashed the entire house. Twice. . . no, thrice. I love the picture below because it shows the destruction in progress. I wonder if this is cabin fever?

Nick also decided to call his daddy on the phone. He probably would have succeeded in calling someone for real, if my phone didn't have a lock function. So if you ever get a weird call from me, it might just be that Nick figured out how to unlock my cell phone. He's already figured out how to pull my purse down from the counter, unscrew my lip gloss, apply it, and smear it on the floor. That's also how he got my phone.

Yes, I know he has chocolate on his face. I wiped it after I took this video. He'd snuck a cookie from the counter without me noticing, and it'd smeared everywhere. I only noticed when he turned around while I was taking videos. Nicholas has a thing for chocolate. I think his little brother must, too, because I've been craving on the chocolate really hard lately.