Nakita Baby

Today was such a fun day catching up with Aunt Jess! She was in town this week and we got a full day all to ourselves. We drove of this AM to pick up a Subway lunch and Jess in north Evanston and shoot over to NUG beach day. Fun that the kids got to catch up with friends, we all enjoyed an amazing beach day weather, yummy lunch, and great sand time with her. Lots of chatting and catching up. SBJ made an amazing Chew dinner!! And my SIL did an amazing henna job on my last pregnant belly! She’s done all 4 pregnancies now! And it was just incredibly special that she was in town and able to do this one (since my brother so rudely dragged her out to CA to live some time ago! ; )

The kids got their fun outside/play time with Aunt Jess and it was just a super special day for all of us! Glad she could make it out, and super special she had that much time to spend with us!

Ok, I really have just about had it with these au pair meetings! I am just not sure how/what to do at this point. I have planned some really cool events and I’m kinda sick of being treated like dirt by a massive amount of international au pairs. I mean, really….  here’s my for-instance that happened today that really just kinda pushed me over the edge. Last month, we all met at the Custer Street Fair and I thought they’d really enjoy the festival, the artists and performers. 90% (or more) of them left and did not seem to really experience the fair at all. During that meeting I asked each of them what kind of meetings they would enjoy having, especially through the summer. Several of them did not respond but to say they enjoyed the events and anything would be fun. And then a good portion of them said that going to the beach would be really fun.

So, sure enough, I take that idea and run with it this month. I choose a beach that everyone can get to really easily, and for free. I did not want them to have to pay much at all (other than parking or the train). I dug out some fun sporting equipment from the storage, including the badmitten, volleyball, soccer ball, beach tennis, horse shoes, etc. I had it all pretty much. Brought extra blankets and saved space for the entire group. People start showing up and I try to psyche them up to play some games. One or two would want to, but then a couple other would complain about something. Some complained about hunger or being tired and tried to convince others to leave. What a huge bummer. Others would show up and wonder where the others had disappeared too, so they did not end up staying long either. Literally, out of 30 au pairs only 2 really stayed and enjoyed the beach with me. They played a bit of volleyball, enjoyed the weather, the water, took fun pictures of themselves. That was sweet to see. It was just so disappointing to have the rest of the group treat the meeting time like this, and…. me really.

Bummer. I could rant on, but really why bother. It is what it is, I need to separate from that. The highlight was that the family did come with me and we had a really lovely afternoon at the beach despite. I am thrilled that they did too b/c otherwise I would have been sitting there pretty lonely and mad. So at the very least we had a lovely Sunday afternoon together!

Busy weekends like this make me look forward to Mondays ; )  Yesterday we dropped in at the Ethnic Arts Festival. We always enjoy that one. It was quite warm though…. as it has been the entire week. The heat is physically draining and makes activities somewhat less enjoyable with so much effort needed… unless, of course, we can incorporate water! But certainly not complaining b/c it’ll be just a few short months that we wish we had this heat again! I’d rather have this weather than the cold anytime. And not to mention the SUNSHINE! I am so thrilled to be able to absorb so much natural Vit D, it’s been so healthy for all of us! Playing hard and sleeping great!

Anyway… yes, Monday is welcomed this time around. Looking forward to some fun stuff this week, but not too much to overwhelm (me) ! I’m getting quite a bit larger and much slower ; )  So at that point where I enjoy a little more home-time, or down time on a beach ain’t so bad either!

Time for me to turn in…. and inevitable grow some more!

I gots some swimmin’ fiends on my hands!

It’s been a fun couple of weeks with the swimming skills flourishing all around. K’s latest “tricks” have been to finally (and I mean FINALLY!! ; ) putting his head under water and realizing he won’t drown! Just last week he realized that he could stick his head under, and that led to him actually checking out the goggle mask I had purchased for him a few years ago. When he realized that the mask would block his nose and he could see underwater…. he was in TRUE love. He is now a “scuba diver” (by his standards : ) and just can’t get enough. So after a full 5 hours of swimming yesterday at the pool, he desperately wanted to go to the beach to scuba dive there as well. After a bit of time complaining that the water was too stinkin’ cold, he got over that and finally dived right in. He was sure he saw a shark under there : )

D’s just the little swimmer. She’s been comfortable with her head in the water since last summer, so this summer she is really trying to master the bubbles-from-the-nose-thing. She tends to hold her breath, or blow out from her mouth, but not yet from her nose. I told her when she braves that one, I’d find her a swim team. She’s dying to figure out strokes and really cruise in the water. I’ve lent and hand to some stroke work and she’s really working hard to master, but till she gets them bubbles-outta-da-nose the stroke work will be kinda slow. I can see her falling in love with being on a swim team. She needs to exert some major energy daily and she’d really dig that.

And of course, S-man. He started the summer with not wanting to even put his feet in the water at the beach. And at the pool, he’d go in if I was holding onto him. Well…. that’s about 360′d since. At the beach, he is brave enough to run to the water and flop himself in. A little too brave for my comfort as I am sure that he will not realize that he can fall forward and into deeper water. Fortunately, not happened yet…. but yea, I get a little heart-throbby when I see him whirling himself down to the lakefront! ; ) At the pool we go to they have these life vests for kiddos to wear, and he’s gotten super duper comfortable cruisin’ around on his own there. Even hurling himself down the water slide! Crawling under waterfalls and just diggin’ the water a ton! He tries desperately to do what the big kids do by sticking his head under, but he’s just not quite getting the bubble-thing. It’s really pretty comical too. I’ll demonstrate, and he’ll repeat the spurting action out of the water, but as soon as his mouth goes to the water, he opens it WIDE! Today was even more hilarious…. he was putting on a set of the goggles and telling me to watch him. He’d run down to where there was less than a half inch of water and put the goggle/mask into the water and then stand up…. “did you see me mommy?!” He’s super proud.

They are already planning the next swimming session. They are trying to decide if skipping park day for swimming is something they want to do Thursday : ) The verdict is still out.

blackberry-uploads_2010-056  (video of today…. for some reason I can’t get the sound to work on it…. stay tuned on the technical difficulty as I have many other videos I’d love to upload as well!)

What an amazing day on the beach! Met the NUG’rs at the beach today and it was so perfectly amazing. Not too hot, not too cold and 5+ hours sunshine to die for. S was in pure form and it’s just so perfectly amazing to seem him back. There is nothing that stresses me more as a mama than to see one of my babies feeling so-not-themselves. I think I feel their pain 10-fold. So when they are healthy and happy, it’s just an automatic upper for mama! : )

Today was amazing. Just had to report. 6.5 hours at grandpa’s pool was extremely therapeutic for each of us. Still had to pry K out of the water at 6:3opm b/c I was about to die of starvation at that point. D’s eyes so red she nearly passed out in her plate during dinner. S totally on the mends…. happiness in the water, a 1 hour nap in the perfect sunshine, and ate really pretty well throughout the day. I, woke up feeling 100% better than yesterday, and the sunshine just set my day in perfect motion. It was quite blissful. And I, for one, feel back on track. Phew : )

Highlight of the day: Went to check on the garden to see if it had just been wiped away in the torrential storms last night, and instead we found a snap pea started, AND a few blossoms coming shortly behind.

Tomorrow…. BEACH!

Love. Summer.

Yes, that describes it to a ‘t’….. challenge. I have had good intent to sit down and blog this week and each time I have had not much to chatter about. Life is just good…. great in fact. I am in a state of relief now that classes are over. I really was reaching breaking point with the schedule there, and it’s been so wonderful to have a entered summer time. And summer time it truly has been. The weather has been amazing. Between the rains and the sunshine, one just can not at all complain. We are enjoying at least one park day per week with one of the area homeschool groups, and then a beach day as well. We’ve filled time with finally being able to be one-on-one with friends which seems to have been a long lost past time as of late. So it’s been wonderful to recapture that enjoyable free time with other very cool and special families. We’ve made it out to the garden just a bit. With all of the rain we have not had to go too often, but did make this week to do a bit o’ weeding. Things were looking just so-so there. Hopefully just a temporary cliche of over-watering from mother nature, and with more sunshine we’ll be ok. But there are signs that some things may be problems. The peas are a for instance. A few of the plants look as though they have been munched on by some critter of sorts. All of our strawberry blossoms were gone. And… the lettuce which I though could just grow larger seems more unhappy the larger it gets. But…. again, we shall see. I did not do anything much at all the last time but pull up some weeds. I hope to get back there soon and see how things are when we finally have some dry-time.

I have been feeling baby kicking nearly non-stop. It makes me even more eager to find out who this little person is. We are in for a treat I know that much. I have been having all of these wild dreams lately pointing me in various directions. My anticipation is mounting.

K has been back into the Bionicle scene lately. But also busy with so many projects its hard to keep track. I find him in a very challenging state recently. Many emotions surging through him that result in not-so-fun attacks on me. Something I certainly am not used to, coming from him. But he too seems to gather that its other stuff causing reactions towards me. At least when I ask him “what’s up”… he is able to realize that he’s affected by feeling tired, or the weather, or other factors going on. Nevertheless, it’s been a challenging spot for us, and look forward to this summer of just connecting more so with the laziness of the schedule and the uniqueness of true unscheduled family time.

D has been active as ever and growing each and every night. By 8pm she is asking if she should put her pj’s on…. not wanting to read in the evenings and literally just crashes. The weather and her activeness? Combined with her just sheer go-go-go personality? : ) Growth spurt? She got her first experience with baby this week! That was super fun. Every time baby seems really really active I think it might be a good time for them to feel the baby moving around. She was close enough to catch baby on the move this week and she was so thrilled! It was so cute. She is very eager as well to meet her new brother or sister real soon.

S is just the funniest little man ever. Still not nursing…. well, he’s asked. I’d say in this entire week of ‘not nursing’ he’s asked twice. Both times I reminded him that the milk was gone, but him and his stubbornness wanted to regardless. OMG was it painful as ever. Fortunately, he only latched for less than 5 seconds and had no interest. So in my mind, he’s still pretty weaned. I think that habit of asking will take time, and fortunately we have the summer for that. But he’s done most of the work himself, and that’s loads of pressure off. I still miss it tremendously and cherish that connection. But for me, it’s a great memory now…. too painful to relive! : ) Other… S is going through some very emotional stuff as well. He is getting really funny about certain things, and b/c he tries so hard to be verbal he gets super supper pissed off if you just don’t get it and do it the first time requested. Prime example….. made pasta the other day. Pasta was done and I was putting some in a bowl for D. I asked him if he wanted some and he said yes. So I started to put it in a bowl for him. Well, Mr. Pitch-a-fit showed up. He wanted me to put it back in the pan. (Me…. totally confused, did so.) Then he said he wanted some. Ok… put some in the bowl….. Screaming commences. I put it back. He says he wants it on the spoon. I ask, “OH… you want a bite from this big spoon?” …. “ah-huh”…. Ok… so give him a single noddle on the spoon and he’s happy and smiling all of a sudden. NOW…. he wants it in the bowl. Don’t get me started about when I bring the bowl to the table and try to figure out where he will sit to eat the pasta now! Oh yea…. he’s a handful that one. I tell you…. you just better get it right! ; )

Looking forward to this pretty relaxed weekend. The weather is pretty muggy, but enjoyable. Today SBJ had trouble keeping S awake at about 4pm, so after S crashed for a very unusual nap (as he just does not do so much anymore), he took K and D out for a bike ride. I had an amazing 2 hour span of time where I just enjoyed silence. I checked email, just sat and stared (literally : ), and then started a very YUM dinner. All in complete silence. Wow….

Forecast for tomorrow, beach day, is for rain. Yuck.
Kiddos have been dying to get to a NUG beach day and this was our first planned attempt and the weather not lookin’ like it will cooperate for us. So glad we made it out to park day today, at the very least. Yesterday we spent running around exchanging a few items and attempting to find sandals for K and D. Both of them broke their more recent pair in the exact same places. Weird. But anyway, we headed to Carson’s thinking that the exchanges would cover shoes, and then they don’t even carry children’s shoes. Weirder still. The kids are so well-stocked on clothes b/c of recent b-days that they really did not need much of anything. They each picked out one item and then spent the last $2 of store credit on chocolate bars : )

Wandering around the mall looking for a Game Stop for K to spend his burning $$, we crossed a place for D to get her ears pierced. She’s very interested in doing so, but after several walks past the store she ultimately decided it was not the day to do it. I am sure it’s in the near future, but she’s gonna need a little more mulling time to muster up the courage. K spent his cash in the game store on a new Wii game and was thrilled to go home and try it out. He even put dibs on a new star wars games that is coming out in October. He is over thrilled about that prospect. Of course, I crossed a Payless to pull out a second attempt at sandals, and K found a pair, but D could not in her size.

OK… side gripe here. What the heck is up with girls shoes??? I mean really WTH is up with girls shoes these days??? There isn’t a single place I can find durable, yet cute, sandals for a young girl!!! Seriously, you can either have cute, or you can wear a boy sandal for the durability. What about the sporty girl who would like both?? AND….. NOT spend $50 on a pair that they will inevitably outgrown in just a few months?!?!?

Needless to say, frustration hit there, but we had a few things to exchange a Target, so I thought for sure we’d be OK finding sandals there. That was even worse. Strike 3 we were out and headed home. Fortunate, the weather has shifted to cooler, and not making that much of impact at this point. Hopefully in the next week or so I can track down some reasonably priced, REASONABLE sandals for these intensely growing kids!! : )

Alrighty… so home again, home again I made awesome asian noodles and fruit salad for dinner. Super yum. Today was marathon waffle day. Made us on the much later side to park day, but the beloved waffles were made and become 2 of the three meals today. Scored some size 2 diapers on freecycle for baby and swung by after an amazing park day on the lakefront to pick them up. Home on the later side, made yum-yum bean sandwiches (Gambian style! : ) with a kick-ass chopped salad. Unfortunately, not too many were hungry after the dozens of waffles they munch on all day long, but there are some yum leftovers for tomorrow!

And yes, tomorrow…. it’s predicted to rain, and I really hope it passes on by without interrupting beach day. Would be a bummer to miss another week. I was also looking forward to it b/c Sat I’m in an all-day meeting for work, and looking forward to bliss on the beach with the kiddos before being away for a full day. Likewise, it was as blissful as it could get with no errands to run, things to accomplish, nor dinner to cook! So I’m gonna just hope beach day conquers all.

Tonight I’m kickin’ back with things I could do, but why? Strange an unusual things to view on TV and I hear chocolate cake calling my name. So…. yep, that’s pretty self-explanatory.

You know we have had a perfect end to a beautiful week. We had gorgeous weather Thursday for park day and after the last trip to gymnastics and after quick grocery run, we even made it out to our first full moon jam of the season. We had missed last month’s due to complete exhaustion among the majority of us, and this time we made it out there for a bit. I always love a good jam, and especially love when we can actually view the incredible, large, full moon come up over that lake. It’s breath-taking.

Friday K and I had a ploy that we were going to game club while D and S hung with SBJ at home. But what we really did was head to the stores to b-day shop for Big D as her 6th b-day is just around the bend here. It was super fun to be on a secret mission with K, that is, after he got over his grippiness about not buying anything for himself while we were out. He had a rough start, but it did end on a very positive note, and he even enjoyed picking things out for his lil’ sis’. Quite sweet. We had planned on getting to NUG’s beach day, but by the time we returned home and downed some lunch it was well after 2pm, so we headed to an Evanston beach to at least enjoy some beach time during the amazing afternoon sunshine. Just perfect.

Today I took D out with S to pick out/up her b-day balloons. It’s a fun little tradition that we have developed over the b-days past, that they get to go pick out their own helium balloon stash to enjoy at home. So that was our fun for the early day. Later we had contemplated heading fishing but I don’t know that everyone had enough energy for that, so we headed to a park in Morton Grove we had not been to for some time. One the kids really really enjoy and had not been to for some time. Worked out fabulously for me b/c I had wanted to swing by this phone repair shop I spotted on Oakton to get my phone a desperately needed new battery. I don’t really know how it happened, but S fell asleep in the car sitting in front of the store! No car in motion, and no music on even…. just passed out. : ) So at the park SBJ got to trek around with the kiddos while I hung with the sleeping S in the blissful shade. The weather was just amazing today.

After homemade tacos for dinner we all cuddled up on the couch for a family film night. I just love those as well… What fun, cuddlin’ up and watchin’ Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Of course the kicker for the kids was the special ice cream sundaes I concocted before the film started : )

And during these past few days or more… I have had this overwhelming gratitude. I mean what an amazing blessing to not only be home with my kiddos, but that my kiddos are able to be home with each other! This phenomena has truly shown it’s colors this week in more ways than maybe I can recount. But what I do know for certain is their relationships with each other are far better now than mine are with my brothers as grown adults. Of course, they obviously have their moments when they don’t care for each other all that much, get frustrated, jealous or the like. But…. and the BIG but here, is that they have so much more time to work through those moments and so much MORE time to truly enjoy and love on each other. Their mutual respect for each other sometimes brings happy tears to my eyes. When I see K say, “hey let’s play this game.” And D says, “yes! I want to be ‘x’ person in the game.” And K says, “Yea, ok, and S…. who do you want to be?” And S mumbles something past his ‘geegee’ (pacifier) and they just totally know exactly what he is saying, respect his choices, and help him dress up as that character. Ugh…. I just love that. Makes me melt inside and out and cherish this homeschooling journey even more. For without that time they have together, K and D would not even have a relationship with S due to him being so much younger, and they certainly would not respect him as a true individual either. Their relationships are beautiful beyond words, and it is a blessing to be on this journey with them.

Only other ‘big’ thing I’ll note today is that my belly is actually moving now! : ) Isn’t that the best? I’ve been feeling baby for quite some time, but now baby is big enough that my belly will move and the kids can experience it as well. Of course everytime I call them to see or feel baby, baby stops moving. However one day recently S was laying on my belly and was kicked in the head, literally. He really seemed to have felt it b/c he lifted his head and looked at me funny. SO MUCH FUN!

It’s been far too long since I’ve update our doin’s…. It’s been a really really nice summer so far. We’ve only had one pretty intense week of heat and otherwise the weather’s been completely amazing!

So the weather is finally shapping up to be more like Spring and we thoroughly enjoyed today’s 80 degree weather down at the beach with some friends. It’s been busy the last few weeks, and I’m just gonna do the Jarjusey run-down on everything that has been and comin’ up!

Since last checkin’ in, we had K’s 1st b-day party invite (and party) to a friends home all on his own! First time he’s done this type of thing on his own! He did great. Ironically, D was really upset about not being invited b/c she plays with this boy just as much as K and all the other kids invited, so she was quite bummed about the lack of invite… I have to admit I felt is was pretty crummy she was not invited, but what’s a empathetic mama to do in this case? At any rate, K went and D and I had a special girls date. We had a blast…. K did not. D did not feel so bad after that! ; )

A couple days after that Uncle P was in town helping dad out on some computer jobs he had… so we were so happy and lucky to sneak in a visit with him. He spent the day with us and fed him some of his favorite dinner. Kids were so happy to see him!

I had my annual dermatologist check-up. Two years ago I had a yucky “pre” cancerous spot on the underside of my breast that got lopped off, and last year I never made it to an annual check up b/c I had just has S… So this year I got on top of things and went, and fortunately, everything looks great. That’s always a nice relief visit!

Just two days after a visit from Uncle P, we were very surprisingly visited by Uncle P2… my youngest brother. He swung by b/c he was doing the UPS route very near to our place in E. Rogers Park. So he decided to stop in for a surprise visit. It was amazing that the starts allinged this way. Not only were we originally not planning on being home that day, but he just never stops by to begin with! Last I saw him was long before this past Christmas. So that was a great-welcomed shocker. He seems like he’s doing pretty good, which is always a good thing for Uncle P2!

We mailed on park day one day to head down to the nature museum. We had not been in such a long time and it’s free on Thursdays, so we opted to check it out. But you all know, there’s just not a ton to do at this place. It’s fun, lovely and great to do when you have not been in a long time, but the excitment tends to end with in a couple hours. Friends of ours happened to make it down to the zoo that day as well, so we met them over there and had a blast. The kids were just so excited to play together that we mostly hung out in the gardens and played. We did make it into the zoo later on, but at that point the zoo was nearly closing… We ‘closed the zoo’! It was a very nice spring-like day!

Then it was Grandpa’s b-day and we took him out to celebrate. We started with a small hike through the River Trail Nature Center, and rounded that out with a huge lunch at Sweet Tomatoes. One of our favorites…. He was thrilled with his ‘new’ phone…. our old Razr hand-me-down which worked just perfectly by slipping in his sim card. Yea!

We had a family trip one Saturday down to the Big Run Wolf Ranch. Wow, the ride there was less than pleasurable. Mr. S was not very appreciative of that long hike. I sorta thought we were in a good place to do an hour in the car, but he was just in that not-so-happy spot of the day when he wanted to nurse and sleep. We stopped a number of times for him, but man that was rough. Sort of ruffled my feathers for the day, but the ranch was great. Kids had fun. Lot’s of cool animals. Ride home was a dream in comparison! He fell asleep early an stayed asleep all the way to the beach when the older two got to hang out and dig in the sand. Later that evening said goodbye to good friends over a pizza dinner. They were moving to Portland in just two days following that evening. So sad to see them go!

Then was Grandma’s b-day. She came out to our place and went to our last homeschool storytime session at the library with us. It was great to see her experience a part of the homeschooling stuff and get a taste of the community we hang with. We then took her out to lunch (at K’s favorite spot! ; ) but it was fun nonetheless. She seemed to enjoy her lunch, dessert and pressents. We had a really nice time with her.

We then took a new adventure down to the National Mexican Museum down on 18th. Fun! On the way we stopped off to visit friends who just moved to Humboldt Park last summer and we had yet to see their new place. After a shortish visit there, headed to this new (for us) museum and checked out what they had there. It was a great little adventure and have to say the kids did great with doing something new! (Esp. K, as he is my somewhat close-minded fella! But even he enjoyed it!)

The day immediately following that we were intended to head to the Museum of Science and Industry, but the night before (upon our return from the Mexican Museum) D had graced us with a nice little incident that just about put me over the edge. Not something that would have normally, but I guess I’d been feeling a bit busy and stretched that this incident really tore at me. She was jumping on the couch, lost her footing, fell and cushioned her fall with her two front teeth landing on S’s forehead of steal. No telling how this baby escaped injury here while D’s two front teeth were knocked wabbly…. and a split open bottom lip, but that’s what happened. So a try “all the way” down to the MSI felt like a real lot to me… And fortunately the kids did not mind hanging at home and spending the afternoon at the park… so that’s what we did!

Followed by a good 5-ish hour park day the following day with the homeschool group…. and rounding up the list of the month (or at least since I last updated…. ) Today we did some volunteer work for Miseracordia! We did the Misercordia Candy Days where we stood on the corner in front of Whole Foods in Evanston and collected money for the charity. I was quite proud how great they did. K made it a full hour before falling into his close-minded-shut-down mode, and D nearly the full 2 hours! They did great and had fun. And it was great doing our first volunteer thing together. We talked about other projects we could do together to help people in need. So I look forward to that in the near future.

After that of course, we HAD to head to the beach! It was 80 today and we met up with people there, spending most of the day and early evening… coming home with a sunburn…. felt good to get that much fresh air!

Work has been pretty quiet for me this month so it’s been good for me in many respects. More time to putz around the net and create new projects for myself. Less time to be on the net as well and with the kids playing and just enjoying the days! And really realizing where I am at with this job and the major changes that need to happen in the next few months. Quickly and whole-heartedly. Eager for change and excited about my business prospects.

Tomorrow we are headed to Serpent Safari with friends that we don’t see all that often. Next week holds just as busy… with S’s FIRST BIRTHDAY ending the week! Updates and that amazing year with Mr. Boober to come. It’s surreal to even think that it’s been a full year already!