A Letter to Charlie

Dear Charlie,

If you thought we could go to Michigan this week and not turn in to Lions fans, you were wrong!



You know the boys look awesome in blue. It is their color! And the name on the back of Jett's jersey is Johnson! It's perfect! Plus considering their record over the last number of years, the Lions are really an underdog team compared to the Packers, and I know you love rooting for the underdogs. So go Lions! Here us roar!

OK, ok, settle down. Jett said that even though Uncle Rich turned him in to a Lion's fan, when the Lions play the Packers, he will root for the Packers. Yes, yes, I'm sure this is true. Sit down, sit down. I am sure this is true. Here's why:

One our drive to and from Michigan we saw a lot of green-leafed trees turning yellow. Jett and Kai call these trees Green Bay trees.

As we drove down Western Avenue today I listened to the boys identify stores as we drove by them. The only stores they identified were ones that had signs or awnings with green and yellow on them. Those were the "Green Bay" stores. The boys kept shouting, "Green Bay! Green Bay!" block after block.

Even this evening, when you insulted Jett's intelligence and he rolled his eyes at you, he was just defending his Packer expertise. Yes, he rolled his eyes at you. I have never seen him roll his eyes before and he did it tonight, for the first time, at you, HIS DAD. I always thought it was the moms who inspired eye rolls, but tonight it was YOU. This is what happened:

The boys and I were at the dinner table and out of nowhere Kai calls out, "Go Green Bay Packers!" Jett replies with confidence, "Go Aaron Rodgers!" From the kitchen, in disbelief, you exclaim, "Nice one, Jett! I didn't know you knew Aaron Rodgers or that he plays for the Packers!" Well. Jett turned toward you, lowered his chin to his chest, and hid his eyeballs in his forehead. It was hilarious.

So no, I don't think you have to worry about Jett's allegiance. Maybe the eye-rolling though....

Love your tolerant wife,
Amy

15:30 Challenge, Day 2

So far the hardest thing about this challenge is taking a picture of myself that is good enough that I'm willing to post it online. Jett took my picture today.

Our outfits today were very basic, because I thought we'd be playing in the rain. Thankfully after we went to the dry cleaners and Trader Joe's, and after the air-conditioner repairman was finished repairing the a/c, the rain stopped. We spent the late afternoon playing in the space between the puddles and the sun.

It was an especially good couple of hours of playing outside. The boys were both in great moods. We played across the street in the school yard for two hours with two balls, two hula hoops, and their bikes. Plus there was a dad with his baby and, separately, two high school girls hanging out at the school. We all must have thought we were living in the south, because we chatted and talked the whole time while the boys played around us. Every now and then even Chicago feels like a small town.

15:30 Challenge, Day 1

It's the end of the first day and Jett has Nutella all over his t-shirt. I don't think that kid is going to make it on 15 items of clothes for the month. I wore shorts all day, but changed into a dress for a work meeting in the evening. Three items of clothes worn on just the first day. However, the good news is that I picked a dress to wear to the wedding this weekend, which leaves me one more item of clothing for a total of 15 items. I chose a black ruffled tank with sequins.

Here are the outfits for the day. I think they may be the most out of focus, unflattering pictures I've ever posted on the blog. In fact, I'm not even posting the picture of me because it is so bad. (I wore a blue button down short sleeve shirt and khaki shorts most of the day, and my brown dress in the evening). Good thing the kids are so cute no matter what kind of picture I take. By the way, Jett's t-shirt made the cut because he painted it himself and he loves it. Plus if he had to go a month without wearing one of his painted t-shirts, we'd lose the challenge on the first day. Wait until you see his other painted t-shirt that made the cut.

15:30

The wardrobe challenge. It's all over the place these days. The first time I heard about it, the challenge was to wear only 6 items of clothing for an entire month. It counted pajamas and work out wear, everything. Pretty extreme. Last week my sister forwarded me an easier challenge that a different blogger gave to her readers: wear only 15 wardrobe items over the course of 30 days. It's a little more relaxed, but not entirely easy. Less puritan, more realistic. So...I'm taking the challenge, and so are Jett and Kai. I'm doing it myself because it's something fun to do long-distance with my sister. I'm making Jett and Kai do it to keep it interesting. Here are the rules:

1. Select 15 items from your closet: These can include shirts, trousers, jeans, cardigans, dresses, etc — in short, clothing. Make your final selections by August 30th.

2. Use unlimited accessories: Remix your outfits relying on all of your jewelry, shoes, scarves, outerwear (blazers/suit jackets do not equal outerwear!), and belts.

3. Captain Obvious: your pajamas and lounge-at-home clothing do not count, undergarments do not count, gym clothes do not count.

4. Make the COMMIT LIST: Document your list on your blog, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, loose-leaf paper, etc. Feel free to snap photographs of the items, list them — get creative! This is your commit list, and you can’t stray from it. Stain on shirt? DEAL WITH IT. Cat ripped your pants? Get a SEWING KIT.

5. Keep a diary: Document your outfits each day, whether it be via an “outfit of the day” photo or a log of what you’ve worn and how you’ve mixed it up.

6. Ask for help!: Call your friends, pen a blog. Don’t be afraid to ask friends for help on creative ideas on keeping your wardrobe fresh!

15 wardrobe items only for 30 days! Can you do it? Yes you can!

I just spent the last 30 minutes picking out my 15 items. I don't really like my wardrobe right now (a symptom of living on Main Street and having no natural fashion sense), so I spent the entire time trying to decide which items of clothing I hated the least. It was kind of depressing, and I'm less excited about this challenge than I was before. On the other hand, I've pretty much cleaned out my closet for the season, so that's something.

To keep it interesting, I am committing Jett and Kai to the challenge. They each get 15 items to wear over the month of September. This will be much harder on me than keeping to my own 15 items, since they are so messy and sweaty and I generally change their clothes at least once a day already. Add to that Jett's new habit of chewing on his shirt until it is sopping wet, and his preference for picking out his own clothes, and you've got yourself a challenge.

Wondering what I picked out? Here are the pictures.

Amy: 2 khaki shorts, 2 jeans, 5 shirts, 1 dress, 1 cardigan, 2 lightweight sweaters = 13 items. I'll add one or two more items once I figure out what I'm wearing to a wedding this coming weekend.

Kai: 2 long sleeve shirts, 6 t-shirts, 2 jeans, 4 shorts, 1 sweatshirt

Jett: 5 shirts for school, 2 shirts for play, 3 shorts for school, 2 shorts for play, 2 jeans, 1 long sleeve shirt. I don't know if he'll make it through September without a sweatshirt, but I can't picture giving any other items up to make room for one.

I'll post a picture of our outfits every day, although now that I write it, blogging about it seems a bit vain....who cares what I wear? What? Oh, yes, that's right, I write a BLOG. About MYSELF.

Ahem.

I also have a handful of stories to share too, so consider this a kick-off to a month of daily blogging. Here we go!

Holiday!

We love a long weekend. This time we drove up to Green Bay to spend some time with Charlie's parents and Uncle Will. It was a great weekend and the boys did everything they wanted to do:

Running through sprinklers? Check.


Playing in a sandbox with a bunch of other kids? Check.
Playing nicely with the new kids? DOUBLE CHECK!

Riding bikes? Check Check!


Using power tools? Check!


(He is a big kid now, operating the leaf blower, and he knows it. Just look at that sweet face).


Gardening? Check!


Celebrating birthdays at Happy Joes? Check! Check!




Thanks, Grammy and Papa. We had a wonderful time!

Performance Art

I had a happy mother's day, and I hope all of you did too.

At one point Kai turned off the TV, brought me one of his books, and sat down in my lap. He chose a book (and me!) over TV - a dream come true! Then when I was putting Jett to bed he told me that I was his bestest mom in his whole world and that Dad was his other best friend. Man, I love those kids.

Here is a short video of what I saw when I walked out of my room this morning. I taught him that. Isn't he great?



P.S. You can also still enter the giveaway.

Thrifty Shopping

So now that I've told you all about Charlie's job, and my very-part-time gig, and the upcoming GIVE AWAY CONTEST, I can get back to the stories.

A couple of weeks ago we had a really great Saturday. I took the boys to T-ball in the morning while Charlie went to soccer. Then after lunch we took the boys swimming at Welles Park. Then after that Charlie and I decided to drive an hour north to Gurnee to shop at Children's Clothing & Toy Consignment Sale. I had very high hopes, and I felt like shopping. You can imagine my delight when the boys fell asleep on our drive north, and then kept sleeping when we pulled in to the parking lot, and then kept sleeping as Charlie agreed to sit in the car with the sleeping boys while I went in and basically had the entire place to myself. (It was about 6:00pm by then, and the savvy shoppers had long since left).

Oh, how I enjoyed walking around in that flourescent-lit warehouse by myself. I pawed through racks of kids' clothes (and scored a coveted Buzz Lightyear t-shirt, some cute plaid shorts, a very cool swimsuit that is too big for Jett, and a couple of other summer items). There were tons and tons of shoes, most of them brand new and still in the department store boxes. I found sandals for Kai that are all fancy and full of ankle support and toe protection and unlike anything I've ever found at Target. And they only cost $15.

Two of the best things I found were two toddler-sized backpacks for $1 each. They look cheap and flimsy and they say "Nickelodeon" all over them, but the boys love them. Jett wears his to school every day and has shown it to his teachers at least twice already. Kai also wears his to school every day, and holds his while he sits in his car seat. If he drops it he yells, "Backback, backback!" until I pick it up and hand it to him.

But even the backpacks don't compare to the tent. It's an indoor playtent, and it cost $6. Jett empties all of his toys in to it and then crawls in himself, and expects Kai to do the same. Kai does of course, and then the tent gets jostled around, and Jett gets pissed and I fold up the tent and we try again later. I guess they really have a love/hate relationship with the tent. Or maybe just I do.

Anyway, the first night we had the tent was the best night for it. It was a late night, but a good one. Did I mention that after shopping we took the boys for pizza? We ended up eating pizza at 8:00, which is their bedtime. It was a really fun dinner, and an easy drive home, and the boys were still wide awake when we got home at 10:00. After I put Kai in bed, I walked out of his room to find the Charlie had not gotten any of my telepathic messages, because while I was putting Kai to sleep, Charlie and Jett put up the tent. Then Charlie had the fool sense to suggest to Jett that they sleep in the tent that night, in the middle of the living room floor. Jett was over the moon and Charlie was the best dad in the world, and I for one, got a great night's sleep. Here are some pics.

One grateful Jett


One good dad


Happy happy!

Happy Birthday, Charlie!

Jett and Kai just started playing t-ball, so in the spirit of father-son bonding and just plain old fun, we got Charlie a baseball mitt and t-balls for his birthday. But then, before we even finished the cupcakes, Kai threw up all over the place. Since it's Charlie's birthday, I cleaned up the mess and let Charlie take the better task of bathing Kai. Amid all the stink Jett sat in his chair, exclaiming things about the vomit while happily eating his dessert. What a way to celebrate a birthday.

Happy Birthday, Charlie!

Easter 2010

Today was a lovely day.

We had Easter brunch at a restaurant, and the boys were on their best behavior. We didn't even have to threaten them. Of course, when we arrived, Grammy had already placed stocked Easter baskets on their chairs. Plus, there were so many of us that the restaurant sat us at two tables, which actually turned out to be a bonus, because the kids could walk from one table to the other which gave them a chance to wiggle, and sit by someone new. Later we had an easter egg hunt at Aunt Jenny's house, and the kids were fantastic. We told them they could each find 10 eggs - and they did! No one pushed or shoved or bragged about finishing first. They helped each other find the eggs, the older kids entertained Kai, and they caught a ladybug - bonus! Here are my favorite pictures of the day.

The boys opened small baskets at home. Play-doh for Jett and a spinning top for Kai. Plus a bunch of plastic eggs with one m&m inside each egg. Jett was thrilled, completely thrilled finding one single m&m in each egg.



The Easter-egg hunt was a full-contact sport. Thanks, Uncle Will!


Finding the treasures...


...and finding the treasures with style.


It's just not easter if you're not digging a jellybean out of a child's mouth.


Happy Easter, and Happy Spring!

Boys Doing Laundry

That's What I'm Talking About!

Back to Normal

In case you are wondering, Jett had a "thumbs up" week at preschool last week. Not one problem at all. Whew!

As you could maybe tell from my last post, the previous week had been a pretty stressful preK week. First there was the discipline issue. Thenlast week all of my preschool friends were in a tizzy, myself included, as we all had to decide which class to send our kids to in the fall. There are three time slots to choose from, and apparently three choices were enough to overwhelm most of us.

I know that sounds ridiculous, but listen. It's so fun to see your child making his own friends that you want to honor those friendships and honestly, you want to stick with your own new parent-friends too. But not all of your friends are choosing the same class. And you might not know what your schedule is going to be like next fall. You don't know what is going to best for your family and you don't know where your friends and your child's friends are going to end up. You're only option is to obsess over it. I'm really good at obsessing over things, especially when that is the only clear option.

You can imagine our urgent conversations after pick-up, shivering on the shoveled sidewalk while our kids ran mitten-less with coats unzipped around the snowy playground. Every day after school the hemming and hawing, the persuading, the guessing. It was all we could talk about. It was madness and it was making me crazy.

And then that Saturday we had a preschool birthday party to go to. Enough! I thought. I can't stand one more minute thinking about preschool, I thought. But you know what? I could.

I could go to the party at the Nature Museum and talk with my preschool-parent friends. Of course we didn't have time to talk about next year's classes, we had kids to keep track of. We had cake to eat. We had toddlers to hold in our lap, and piles of crafts and goodie bags to keep track of. I was busy and it felt........normal. It felt good. I kind of relaxed. I took a couple of pictures:

The museum staff brought a snake and a turtle in to the room, which most kids found fascinating. Jett didn't pay too much attention to the animals, but he did enjoy looking out the big windows at the parking lot.


These two cuties were there too.

Blowing Caution to the Wind

Oh, hello. What are you doing here? What? Reading my blog? I have a blog? When did I last write a blog post? Before Christmas AND New Years? I missed two holidays? Oh so THAT'S what was happening last week. I was WONDERING why my kids were so...so...energized...and happy....and covered in cookie crumbs. Whew, that was fun!

So the New Year has started and I am optimistic. I just don't believe that we are going to go two full years without employment. I mean, that is just impossible, right? Sixteen months, sure, but twenty-four? That would be ridiculous. Unheard of.

Ohmygodsomebodystopme. Remember three years ago when I bragged about Jett sleeping through the night? That was classic, because I think I was awake for another two months after that. You would think that I would have learned my lesson.

But I'm not superstitious.

Like today, for example. Today I don't take it as a symbol of things to come that the interview Charlie had lined up for Thursday got cancelled. Got cancelled because they decided not to fill the position - for now. Nahhhhhhh. Not superstitious. Caution to the wind, I say! Blow! Blow!

But I'll tell you what I do take as an omen - a good omen. Today we bucked tradition and skipped Jett's nap. We didn't even give him "quiet time". We just let him play and play and take three time-outs and then play some more and not eat his lunch and then I took him to school, thank god. THEN at home this evening I put both boys to bed at the same time - in the same room - and they fell right asleep. We read books on Jett's bed, then I lifted Kai in to his crib, tucked Jett under his blankets, sweetly threatened Jett that if he got out of bed I would turn off his nightlight - and then I simply left the room and they simply stayed in their beds. Without giggling or fighting or throwing their sippy cups across the room. It was 7:55 pm.

I walked out of that room feeling like I deserved a gold-medal in parenting. I did not feel guilty at all about my turn-off-the-night-light-threat. Until just now, when I wrote that, a little bit. But it worked! Something worked.

Until tonight I've been sitting and nursing Kai in his dark room and then putting him in his crib to sleep. Then half an hour later we'd start the torture of putting Jett to bed. We'd let him fall asleep in our bed, and then move him to his own bed when we went to bed. It was a good arrangement for a while, but I started getting annoyed. I wanted to go through the dreaded bedtime routine once, not once with each kid. I wanted Jett to be tired at bedtime. I wanted him to fall asleep in his own bed, not mine. I wanted them both asleep before 8pm.

Tonight something worked. We did it. I'm optimistic. Happy new year.

Back on Main Street

When Charlie got a job 4 weeks ago I had the nerve to complain, just once, that if he was going to be unemployed for 8 months, it would have been nice if some of those months had been summer months, so we could go to the pool together and teach Jett to swim, so we could take family bike trips and go to the beach. I just thought that if he was going to get laid off, the summer would be the best time for it to happen. But, you know, that wasn't really a request.

Well lucky us, we are going to have the summer of our lives. Yep, Charlie is once again looking for a job.

On a brighter note, Kai learned a new sign this week. Now he signs "water" whenever he wants some. He's so smart! Rambunctious Jett has been out of diapers and wearing underwear for two weeks now. I am THRILLED! Also, we finally fed Jett some peanut butter and discovered that he is NOT allergic to peanuts - bring on the PB&Js. In these ways, summer just got a whole lot easier. We'll see you at the beach.

Kai's Birthday Party

We threw Kai a grand birthday party on Saturday. Faced with the prospect of hosting 17 people (that's just family!) in our 1100 square foot condo, Charlie and I got to work. We made a list of "must-haves" and they all fell in to place: the sun came out, Jett and Kai took their naps before hand and played well with their cousins, my sister came and helped me decorate, and the food (all from scratch, thankyouverymuch) tasted good, if I do say so myself. Charlie and I had a lot of fun, Jett loved it, and Kai was a peach. Here is the story of our day, in pictures.

Uncle Nathan, in our neat and tidy condo before the party. Those are the cupcakes on the mantle behind him, big punching balloons hanging from the ceiling, and photos of Kai strung across the windows. The big white rectangle on the wall behind the table is a homemade version of "pin the tail on the donkey" except I can't draw a donkey so this one is called "Build a Boy". It was a surprising hit with the kids. Jett was especially proud of pinning the hands and feet in the right place.

Everyone started to arrive at 4:00, and most of us and all of the kids stayed outside on the sidewalk. We brought out folding chairs for the adults and bubbles for the kids. I almost felt like I had a yard - but I also felt that maybe we should have invited all of our neighbors, since we were taking up the entire sidewalk! This little bus is Jett's favorite toy from his first birthday. At his birthday Jett ran all over the condo pushing the bus in front of him. Kai isn't walking yet, but he is one determined driver.

My sister Heather made this cute cute shirt - it has a big "1" on the front. She also brought bubble guns and a bubble machine because she knows kids, and she knows how to host a party.

We started serving dinner at 5:30. For dinner, Charlie and I made beef and chicken enchiladas with black beans, rice, and watermelon on the side. We sort of ate in shifts, to accommodate the lack of seating. After dinner we opened presents. Jett helped with the unwrapping and he didn't even mind letting Kai think the presents were for him. Here is Kai in my lap, admiring his new sporty sandals from Aunt Jenny.

Kai looked confused when we sang "Happy Birthday" to him, but who can blame him? He had 16 people singing to him! His admirers were me, Charlie, Jett, Aunt Heather, Uncle Rich, Megan, Owen, Uncle Nathan, Grandma, Grandpa, Grammy, Papa, Uncle Will, Aunt Jenny, Uncle Brian, and Ellie. Whew!

Kai also wasn't sure what to do with the candle except touch it (which is why we are holding his hands). But he did know what to do with the cupcake.

Here he is digging in before we could get the paper off the cupcake. I wanted Jett in this photo too, but he refused, and it just wasn't worth the argument. But now I regret not having a true family photo on Kai's birthday. Ah well.

That's a yellow cupcake with chocolate ganache on top. The recipe is from Amy Sedaris, which I found through Zack. I know it doesn't look like Kai likes his cupcake, but he did, he did! He devoured it, and now that I think about it, he may have eaten two. Hmm. Maybe we shouldn't have put the rum in the ganache....

At the end of the night we took Kai's new bubble machine to the school yard across the street and filled up the lawn with bubbles. Kai loved it and so did we.
On his birthday, Kai clapped, waved bye-bye and said "bye-bye" in his sweet little quiet voice. He also blew kisses, and pointed to his nose, ears, and head when we asked him to. He's one!

Here is Kai with his cousins - and another photo without Jett!

By the end of the day we were exhausted, happy, and full - and I can't wait to do it again! Happy Birthday, Kai! We love you!

Happy Easter

We've been at my parents' house this week, and oh it is fun to hide Easter eggs in a backyard! (We don't have one). Even when it's only 40 degrees out, and you only hide 10 outside because you don't want to be outside in the cold too long. There's just something about peeking out the window and seeing a plastic pink egg under a tree...Our Easter consisted of a few eggs, a few jellybeans, a few cookies, lots of relaxing, and at the end of the night, the longest toothbrushing Jett has ever tolerated. That's what happens when you eat cookies for breakfast and jellybeans for dinner! We hadn't hyped up the Easter Bunny very much to Jett (or Kai), mostly because I didn't want to be asked about it for days on end before hand. So, Jett and Kai were patient and didn't hunt for Easter eggs until after their nap. Actually, Jett found a hidden egg before his nap, but I was able to convince him that that egg was just a "test" egg, so The Bunny could find out if Jett liked jellybeans or not. The Bunny wouldn't fill the rest of the eggs until after his nap. Very clever, huh?

We had a great day and I hope you did too. Happy Easter!

Grandma and Jett

Jett and Uncle Nathan

Also, Happy Birthday, Grandma Bee. We love you still.

Wanna come over wanna ride my bike wanna snack wanna play with my toys wanna be my friend?

I have a friend. 

She lives in my neighborhood and our kids are the same age and we're the same age and she likes my kids. She likes them so much she let them spend the night. Their first slumber party!

She hosted my babes' first sleep over and in the morning she brushed Jett's hair and didn't tell me how Jett just stood still for her and let her brush it. She hosted my babies' first sleep over and she only let them watch one tv show and she didn't brag about not needing to turn on the tv to keep the two-year-olds from fighting. She let my kids spend the night, and when I came over at 11pm to pick up Kai (who wasn't sleeping through the night that week) she opened the bedroom door to show me how cute Jett looked in his sleep. 

I have a friend in my neighborhood with kids. She's still breastfeeding her nine-month old and she's not afraid to take her two kids on the bus and she knows her way around the zoo and her son likes to share and she brings the best snacks to play group and those snacks are not always healthy and she knows all the other parents and nannies and she has totally figured out the public school system and all I have to do now is not smother her with my excitement over the fact that I have a friend and that friend is her.

Interesting

What is it with those little springy metal parts of the crib?

Kai, just a couple of days ago

Jett, oh so long ago

Main Street Update #5: Who Needs Professionals?

There are two things that I'd like to spend money on, but just can't do it. One is a haircut for Jett. I can't bring myself to spend money on that because he's only 2 1/2 and he doesn't care what his hair looks like. Plus, when I sit him in his highchair, give him a popsicle and turn on the t.v. he sits still long enough for me to snip, stand back and look at least a few times, and I like playing beauty school.

before

after

before

after

The other thing I can't bring myself to spend money on is professional photographs. I love the professional photos I have of Jett at six months, and I'd love to have some of Kai, but they just seem like a luxury item right now. Still, every once in a while the stars align and I snap a good one. Not professional quality, but still, not bad, right?

love love!