cindyandmike.com

It’s official. My 3 year old son is 3 going on 13. When I woke him up this morning to get ready for the day he cried and said, “Daddy, I don’t want to get up. I’m still tired.” Great. Last week he asked me for the car keys to my car.

It’s been so long since we’ve updated our website! The holidays came and went and now we’re in February! I have no excuse! Here are a few updates since our last post, in no particular order:

1.  Had two cookie exchanges at our house in the month of December….fun times and delicious cookies. Several new recipes to add to my book!

2. The kids and I tried to make the trip up to Chicago for Mike’s MBA spouse luncheon…packed the car, dropped Oliver at the kennel, and then saw 3 cars spin out and land in the ditch on I65. Called Mike and Karen to say, “we’re turning around!” We came home and made a gingerbread house!

3.  Christmas Tree decorating afternoon at my mom and dad’s house….Santa came for a visit this year and was a big hit with the grandkids! He even sang to them - insert here - retired music teacher trying to make some christmas cash by going to parties as Santa. Adorable!!!

4.  Maggie had her 15 month check up - all is great - 30 % for height and weight; 97% for head!

5.  Sam had his third dentist appointment. We went really excited; little did I know, this age hates the dentist.

6.  The Bears didn’t make the playoffs. Don’t mention football again until August.

7.  Annual Bonge’s dinner with great friends - amazing night!

8. I made probably about 15 dozen cookies and about 10 loaves of bread for the holidays. Yes, we love to bake around here!

9. Sam had his totally cute Christmas program at school. He loves to sing…but was a little shy in front of the “audience!”

10.  Took 3 total hours spilt between two nights to put the kitchen together that Santa brought the kids. Mike commented about 4 times that he could have written the instructions better…yeh…right honey…..

11.  Dinner date night with my two best friends and their husbands….we rocked out that night - how old are we?!?!  We realized we had NEVER been out, just the six of us, without kids…EVER. Is that possible?? So fun, and we’ll so do it again!

12.  Had a wonderful Christmas Eve and morning…the expression on the kids faces made our year.

13.  Celebrated New Year’s Eve with our friends Rachel and Conrad with their two girls Bella and Sopie…we rang in the New Year in our PJ’s playing Wii. Didn’t everyone do that?

14. Mike started his last quarter of school! Yippee!

15. Mike’s family came to celebrate Christmas in January. So fun to see family!! We miss them!

16. Record breaking snowfall brought a smile to Sam’s face…but not to Maggie! Sam loves to throw snow in her face!

17.  Did I already mention it’s Mike’s last quarter of school?

18.  Sam loves to count with his fingers.

19. Sam and his good friend Jack, went to the Monster Truck Jam downtown. Stayed out until midnight with daddy….

20.  Both kids have been sick twice….but all on the mend now!

21.  Maggie has all four eye teeth coming in…bring on the Motrin.

22.  I turned a very uneventful 33 years of age.

23.  Maggie is now running and is non-stop talking!!!

24.  Mike was pumped to use our snow-blower for the first time this winter!

25. Sam, most days, insists to be called “Bill.” And he calls us “Steve” and “Cracker Jack.”

26. Maggie, while out eating sushi, confused the soy sauce bottle for her sippee cup. Probably won’t make that mistake again.

27. Maggie loves to accessorize. Hats, purses, necklaces (usually rosaries), coats, socks (most times on her hands as sock puppets), etc. - you name it - she loves to wear it - all at the same time. No kidding.

28. The other day, Sam tried on a pair of my sunglasses and said, “Dude, do I look good?”

 SO, there you have it. We’re getting older and growing up around here. Loving life in 2009….happy new year to everyone!

So…it’s day five of potty training Sam. It’s going really well, yet he still does have accidents. That’s OK…he’s having fun with it and loves his new big boy underwear. He’s proud of his sticker chart, and loves choosing his “super duper surprise” after he goes.

Yesterday, we were playing with his Little People manger scene. He snapped the wheel cart on the donkey, and said, “Mom, the donkey is going shopping.” I replied, “Oh really, where’s he going?” He said, “He’s going to Costco to buy underwear for baby Jesus.”

Do you think we’re a little obsessed with potty training?!

Sam and I went to the pumpkin patch today to pick out a pumpkin.  He was pretty excited.  We had a fun time.  Here’s the video.

UPDATE: I found out how to embed the high quality youtube videos, so this is the high quality version. Enjoy!

Big week here.  Maggie is crawling.  Not slow, but really fast.  It’s a military crawl, but she is really fast nonetheless.  And Sam used his Elmo potty for the first time.  He asked Friday night when I was at school if he could go.  He’s asked about 10 times previously, but nothing ever happened.  Friday though it worked, and then he did it again on Sunday.  Pretty cool.  Yeah, we get excited about this stuff.  Pictures to follow.

Hate to see them get too far ahead of themselves, because hey, fractions are hard enough let alone standard deviations and correlation and activity based costing, but Sam and Maggie are already thinking about grad school. Good news is that I think they have made a good choice in Chicago GSB. Hmmm, I wonder what the tuition will be in 20+ years…

Yesterday Cindy called me and said, “Guess what Sam did.” That usually is a precursor to something along the lines of he broke something with glass, jumped off the sofa, figured out how to TiVO a show, etc. So the story yesterday was Sam brought Cindy a diaper. One of his (yes, he knows the diff between his and Maggie’s.) Cindy asked him if he wanted his diaper changed, and he proceeded to lay down on the ground and lift his feet up in the air. Hilarious. And yes, he had a dirty diaper. Thought the grandparents would like that story. Time to start the potty training.

Maggie is one week and one day old today! We’re doing really well…Sam is an awesome big brother! This morning he actually “helped” me carry Maggie to the changing table and “helped” put on her diapee! He was really proud of himself! Maggie eats a lot - which is awesome! She’s a really content little girl and loves looking at Sam.

After this weekend, Mike has the month off from school, so the basement work will begin again! He’s excited to finish it up, and we’re excited to have the extra “football watching” space! And of course, the Elmo lawn mower, basketball goal, and Big Blocks room!

Last Thursday night Mike and I were talking about being in the hospital with Sam…and what it was like - you know, having a new baby and being new parents, lack of sleep, staying three nights in the hospital with crazy nurses, etc. etc. It comes back oh so quickly! We’re anxiously awaiting our departure tomorrow! We can’t wait to get home and get back to our new “normal” life!!

I don’t get it. I mean, I’m with it, you know, down with today’s trends in fashion. I know what’s hip, what’s not. One thing that is not hip is this stupid hat. I mean look at it. Floppy hats are cool at Wrigley Field in the bleachers when you got it for free for signing up for a new credit card or if you’re an 80 year old man fly fishing in some river in Minnesota and you don’t want to lose your lures because you can’t remember if you took your blood pressure pill that morning. Outside of those two cases, floppy hats are so not cool. Floppy hats that tie around your chin are especially not cool… exponentially so. I guess you would think that your mommy is smarter than you are. I mean, my mom is like ancient, more years old than I am in months. Heck, she’s closer to 40 than 20.  Think of all the wisdom she surely has accumulated over all those years.  Oh well, I guess I’ll have to teach her how to get street cred with the bro’s and take her to Lids where I can get a fly Yankees hat that I leave the tags on and wear at a 45 degree angle. To the right. Yo.