Happy Birthday Greg!

Today is my husband's birthday, so we went out to Carrabba's in Naperville. There's nothing like a yummy Italian meal to help get you used to being another year older.

We met Grandma Toni, Aunt Sarah, and Jay there for a lovely Italian meal. Both Nick and Henry loved the tiramisu.

Henry kept trying to grab my fork, whether I was eating pasta, scallops, or dessert.

Nick has been doing a better job of behaving in restaurants, but he still has his naughty moments. This was not Nick's best moment. I believe he was objecting to my request for a picture.

He did recover enough to help his daddy blow out the candle on the ice cream, though.

Nick and Henry picked out some nice new jeans and a button-up shirt for their dad. Greg will be leaving his full-time job to stay home with the boys, starting in a few weeks. Instead of working days, he will be in private practice, working evenings as a therapist part time. Since he's going to be his own boss, he will be able to wear jeans anytime he wants. I bought him a cooking class that I found on Groupon for my present. I like to buy things that we can do together for fun.

Happy Birthday to my magnificent husband!

Visiting Daddy's Work

A few weeks ago I took Henry and Nick into Greg's office. His coworkers had been asking to see the baby (and his big brother, of course).

Nick was very excited to see where Daddy works. He had to try out the phone, the computer, and all of the fun "toys" on Daddy's desk. We're not sure exactly who he called.

During one hour in Greg's office, Nick managed to wreak havoc on the computer, shriek randomly, throw a tape recorder on the floor, charm several people, and enjoy himself thoroughly. Henry, meanwhile, filled his pants. Then Nick ran down the hallway, pushed open the office of the head of the whole place, and stole her flashlight. She, thankfully, has little boys of her own, so she just laughed.

All of Greg's staff said that the boys were adorable. They even let Nick play with their cellphones and pens and such. But, then again, Greg is the boss, so perhaps they had to say that Henry and Nick were cute. . .

I've been offline for awhile now. Greg and I went to Milwaukee for a nice little getaway by ourselves, and then I started teaching graduate school last night, so things have been kind of busy. I start back to work next week, too!

Hopefully I'll get caught up with my posts over the weekend.  :)  Lots to share.

Spicy Bread!

A couple of days ago Nick and Henry and I met a few friends at Lou Malnati's in downtown Naperville to have lunch and catch up. We had salad and pizza and bread, all of which Nick enjoyed. Henry just had a bottle. I bet he can't wait until he can have pizza.

Anyway, Nick decided it would be cool to play with the shaker that holds the pepper flakes. Since he was relatively quiet and not bothering anyone, I let him. (My mistake.) This is what happened.

Yup. He somehow unscrewed the lid and dumped hot pepper flakes all over his pizza and bread, not to mention his lap. My friend's little boy told him not to eat the pepper flakes. "I don't think you'll like them. They're very spicy!" Nick just laughed, put a bunch more flakes on his bread, and ate it. All he said was, "Spicy bread!" He actually seemed to like it.

Oh, and yes, I left a nice big tip.

Being a Big Brother is Hard! Any Advice?

Nick has been learning how to be a big brother this week. He really seems to love Baby Henry. In fact, he wouldn't go to sleep the last two evenings without giving his little brother a kiss. But he's been somewhat petulant and demanding as well. That is because being a big brother is hard!








































You'll notice that my child isn't wearing any pants. That's because he refused to put them on. Instead, he threw a thirty-minute temper tantrum and hid under the futon. So, fine, no pants. We don't really care that much. (You have to pick your battles, you know.) But then he didn't want to come downstairs. He stayed under the futon by himself, intermittently screaming that he didn't want any pants. (This was yesterday.)

Grandma Toni has been down visiting us the last two days, partially to go on adventures with Greg and Nick. They went to the zoo Tuesday and out to lunch yesterday, so that I could relax with Henry and rest from my surgery. It isn't that Nick hasn't been getting attention--we've made a point to give him special attention lately. But check out the look on his face! He is downright ticked off that his world is changing.

The picture above was snapped seconds before Nick flipped (totally Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde style), got mad at me because I wouldn't give him a granola bar, and slapped his milk across the table at me. Some of Nick's, er, interesting behaviors have been directed at me. Nick and I have a pretty close relationship, and I think he's been somewhat resentful of me since Henry was born. He does not, however, seem to resent little Henry, thank goodness. (Seriously, how could you resent this adorable face?)

On a side note, you may notice that the swelling in my feet seems to have gone down, for the most part. Thank goodness! No more cankles.  :) 

Anyway, here's the strategies we've been trying so far to help Nick adjust:

1. I've been making a concentrated effort to spend time doing something fun with Nick everyday. Wednesday morning, for example, we made homemade granola bars and I let Nick do just about all the steps. We spent nearly an hour measuring and stirring, and Nick is turning out to be quite the little chef. He loved it, but quickly became whiny as soon as we were done.

2. We bought Nick a baby doll and let him feed his baby a bottle and hold him. He's been mildly interested. Perhaps we should emphasize this more and get him to mimic us as we care for the baby.

3. Greg has been spending extra time with Nick, playing with him and letting him get tons of exercise.

4. We have several books about being a big brother. Nick verbalizes really well and sounds excited to be a big brother. It's really only me he seems angry with. Although. . . his behavior has been pretty poor lately. We've tried to be extremely consistent, and to very calmly state the rules. Time outs have been rather common this week.

So I could use some advice, from those of you who have experience transitioning an only child into an older brother or sister. Is this behavior just a result of Nick being two and having his world turned upside down? Is it just a matter of time? Or is there something else that we could try? What worked for you? Nick and I could both use some hints, because, after all. . . being a big brother is hard!

With a Little Glint in His Eye. . .

Isn't this glint just a little naughty? Nick makes this face right before he's going to try something clever or destructive. I'm not usually one who finds the naughty boys cute, but this one steals my heart every time I see that little glint in his eye. I believe right after this picture was taken, Nick climbed up our bookshelf to try to get to the markers. For obvious reasons, we keep the markers out of reach nowadays.

As a side note, I should point out the excellent pencil grip my little man is demonstrating. We're thinking he's going to be right-handed, because he almost always colors with his right hand. He sometimes throws a ball with his left hand, though.

Oh, and reason his hair looks sticky and gloppy? My babysitter told me that he smeared the syrup from his pancakes through his hair, intentionally. I'm not sure what would possess someone to do this. Then again, my husband puts goopy gel in his hair everyday with Nick watching. Perhaps he was trying to copy his daddy's hairstyle.