A Letter to the Season

This post us brought to you during half time of the superbowl. The WHO actually have a pretty cool half time show...I was leary at first but they're pretty good! So here we go....

Dear Winter,

I'm done with you. We all are. You can leave now. I want to be able to go outside again without being in pain. I want to sit in the front yard, take Luke to the park, go on walks - all without you. Take your snow, your slush, your wind chill factors and your sunless days and be gone. Gone!

Well at least we aren't in the mid-atlantic states with their 28 inches of snow. And at least we'll be headed down south to Florida in a few days. Luke is very excited to be going to Florida. We'll be doing a lot of his favorites...flying on an airplane, staying in a hotel, going to the pool, going to the beach, etc. What more could you ask for?

We were at Target on Saturday trying on mini flip flops (for our vacation) and of course Luke wanted either pink ones, or sparkly ones. He ended up with brown ones with frayed straps. Poor guy. I liked the sparkly ones too.

He didn't walk out of Target disappointed though, he was able to swipe some funfetti cake mix off the shelf for "cupcakes, mommy, cupcakes!" I'll blame that one on Matt since he was the one driving the cart close enough to the side of the aisle for Luke to reach out and grab something. You have to watch those lightening fast little paws in the baking aisle!

Getting the cupcake papers ready with his new flip flops on:

Luke is constantly saying cute things and it makes me want to just give into his every whim. Today at the end of his wiggleworms music class, the teacher was singing the goodbye song and Luke goes "time for Starbucks!" So naturally, I wanted to take him to the Starbucks across the street from music class but Matt was with us and steered both Luke and I away from it. Must be Matt is still recovering from our last two trips to Starbucks after music class whereby Luke spilled the hot chocolate we got him both times. He also got his Easter basket out today and asked for it to be filled with treats - good thing I had some on hand.

Don't be fooled though, Luke doesn't get many treats. I control about 95% of Luke's diet and that 95% is filled with organic milk, water, fruit, bagels with cheam (not cream) cheese, pasta and chicken-less nuggets.

Well, that's about it from this weekend!

Matt and I on our second "30th birthday" date night last weekend (Matt's head perfectly framed by the microwave):

Baby Zappia #2 at 22 weeks - YIKES!

Luke rediscovered his Halloween costume this morning:

30

I've been around for 3 decades now, yep, that's 30 years folks - yikes! Maybe I should start saying things like "You know, 15 years ago..." When I was younger, I remember thinking "how on earth can people remember things that are 15,20,25 years ago?" Well I guess now I know. Luckily, I don't think I can say "You know, 20 years ago..." I'm not quite able to remember things at that interval yet because I would have been so young when the memory was made.

I, of course, received some extra nice presents this birthday - a David Yurman bracelet, a gift card to Gibson's, an US weekly magazine subscription (stop judging me, I need mindless entertainment every once in a while), a nice new camera, and let's not forget that trip to Paris in September.

Matt and I went out for a child-free evening last night. Well, I guess I wasn't *completely* child free. We went to a posh place downtown called HUB 51 to celebrate my oldness. I have to say, it was nice to be able eat dinner without holding *someone* on my lap while he stuck his grimey pudgy fingers into my food. I also didn't have to catch any drinks from spilling into my lap or save any waters from sugar packets and pepper.

Uncle Nick watched Luke while we were gone. We'd been preparying Luke all day that Nick was coming over and he was really excited to show Nick all his new Christmas toys. Nick was in the door for about 2 minutes when Luke said "Come over here Nick," for his first toy demonstration. Luke hardly even noticed when we walked out the door because he thought we were going to Trader Joe's as usual and he was busy showing Nick his treasures. Apparently, Luke was able to trick Nick into reading to him for a good 30 minutes before he went to bed...Matt and I have a limit of 10 minutes. And when Luke woke up this morning, he wanted to know where Nick went.

So I had a great birthday and I'm glad that I'm in good company with the 30 and over crowd. Oh and Matt and I get to have another semi-child-free night next Saturday while G-ma is in town :) You can look for us in the star-studded scene at Gibson's.

So here's what 30 looks like for me (20 weeks):

Luke talking on the phone in his new carseat (in the living room, naturally):

Pictures

Well I did it. I downloaded a picture program on my work computer (ssshhh). So here are some of the latest...

Luke and his strawberries:


Cleaning his kitchen:


18 week belly picture of the mini martial artist:

Sometimes I Hate Technology!

Well, we are currently without a working personal laptop and a working point and shoot digital camera. This is NOT a good equation for a blogger. Why does everything have break at the same time - uggg! We are currently waiting impatiently for Apple to announce/market their new "Tablet" so we can decide to either get that or a new Macbook. I saw on the news today that they are coming out with "something" next week so we may be getting closer to having a new computer. Oh, I also have a new work computer since my last one fell to its death about a week ago and took my hard drive with it :(

So there's been a lot of hilariousness around the household lately. I'll see if I can do it justice with my descriptions:

I was using the bathroom the other day and Luke bolted in. He wanted to remind me to hold my "weena" down when I peed. When I was done, he told me I was a good boy. Thanks, Luke. Matt, you've got some discussions to have. Oy.

Along the same lines, Luke's elbows seem to find my ever growing belly quite frequently..."Luke, watch out for my belly, there's a baby in there." He says "no, momma, baby in MY belly," as he pulls up his shirt and sticks out his belly.

Yesterday we were at and indoor splash park that happens to be in the same community center as a senior citizens home. He sees an older woman walking slowly with a limp and thus attempts to walk the same way. So embarassing but cute at the same time!

And lastly, Luke now requests that I chew his gum for him and then give it to him once it is nice and soft. Just call me a pushover.

And in the way of non-hilariousness, Matt's company and therefore his team signed on to continue at GM - indefinitely at this point. So Matt's commute to Detroit continues, NOT.COOL. This was originally a 3 week assignment on his part --that 3 weeks started almost a year ago.

And my sciatic nerve is also uncool.

So let's go back and visit cool things. Baby Zappia #2 is either a ninja or a boxer. I get a lot of speed-bagging to my bladder. Ok, maybe the bladder impact isn't cool but the movement is! We have our "big" ultrasound one week from today. If we were going to find out the gender (which we are NOT) it would be at this ultrasound. I'm now on the lookout for "team green" apparel and I have to say that the majority of gender neutral baby items are so clearly girly that I don't see how they even pretend that they are "unisex."

Well that's about it. When I can, I'll try to get some new pictures up!

Saying Goodbye to 2009

So we're back in Chicago after spending Thanksgiving and Christmas in Upstate NY. Luke now has professional traveler status - no kids/family security line for him! Actually we flew for Thanksgiving and drove the 11 hour trip for Christmas. I can't really say one was easier than the other - does anyone else see a problem with this statement? On the way home for Christmas, Luke's eagle eyes were able to spot NY state from the lovely Indiana tollway: "I see New York!" Yeah, I wish, kid. We broke up the trip by staying in Cleveland overnight - and now Luke is in love with hotels. Before I move on to details of our overly gifted Christmas, I need to alert you to the fact that Matt and I grew smarter while in NY and purchased a portable DVD player for the trip home.

And now on to Christmas! We started the week out in Canandaigua where ravioli making and swimming at the Y were some of the highlights. Luke is quite the sous chef - just ask g-pa. Then off to Corning for a few days of spoiling highlighted by a brand new power wheels (Ford 150 model) which will stay at mimi's house. Again, Luke's kitchen skills came into play but this time as a pastry chef - think "sprinkle man extraordinaire." Luke learned how to wake a sleeping princess up (Aunt Emily) with kisses and learned how to wake up a hibernating bear (Uncle Tommy) by barging into his room and yelling. And on Christmas morning, Luke had so many gifts that he pooped out halfway through opening them so mommy had to go the distance for him. Aunt Emily scored at Carter's and got Luke some great new clothes and enough play food for 6 play kitchens and Uncle Tommy got Luke some really exciting and noisy toys! And of course, mimi bought out 8 toy stores to round out Luke's gifts. On Christmas afternoon, we headed back up to Canandaigua for the annual family ravioli dinner. Luke had fun playing with his second cousins and even held baby Ellie. The next day, Luke had Christmas #2 where he was spoiled yet again by the grandparents and Uncle Nick. Luke now has an entirely new library of books, a new closet of clothes and a Cookie Monster to go with Elmo. He even received a new firetruck from Uncle Nick which Luke keeps mistaking as a ride on toy when it clearly doesn't look comfortable to sit on. This kid just doesn't get enough attention being the first and only grandchild on both sides of the family.

Oh, this is exciting: Luke is day potty trained! It took about a week and to be completely honest, our nanny did the heavy lifting on this topic. Now of course, we've had a few accidents here and there, most notably the time he let it go while he was sitting on my lap. I guess he wanted us both to be able to feel what wetting your pants feels like. But since that time, we've had almost no other accidents! Now arguably the best part about potty training a toddler boy is the cuteness of little boy underpants! We've got elmo underpants, plain ol tighty whities, monster underpants and even some box briefs. And I just couldn't pass up posting some pictures of said underpants below.


Well tonight is New Year's Eve and we'll be saying goodbye to 2009. We celebrated with an early bird dinner at Sushi Mura, or as Luke affectionately refers to it, "The rice store." 2009 didn't treat us badly at all but here's to an even better 2010. We've already got some excitement cooking for 2010 - most everyone should know by now that Luke's going to be a big brother in June!

Goodbye 2009, we'll miss you, thanks for being so good to us!

Luke's sibling comfortably baking at 16 weeks:

More presents than Luke can deal with:

Modeling his new tool belt, hard hat, and underpants:

Riding the non-riding firetruck:

Christmas Came Early

On a recent adventure to Target, Luke gave me inspiration for this year's Christmas present. As I dragged him kicking and screaming from the pink princess play kitchen on display in toy department, I knew what to get Luke this year. No, I didn't get him a princess kitchen, but I did get him one fit for a prince. The deluxe model I ordered came in just 2 days, just in time for the weekend which meant time for Matt to put it together- you can imagine he was thrilled. And if you think I was going to hide it from Luke until Christmas, you're wrong...there was no way I could contain my own excitement about this thing! Ah, I still remember the play kitchen in my kindergarden classroom with fond memories...

So 4 hours of hard labor later, the kitchen was ready. Now it normally would have taken handy manny, Matt about 2 hours to put it together but because he had a special helper that was stealing screws and our only screw driver, it took a little extra time. Matt and I both agree that we've never seen Luke play with one toy for as long as we've seen Luke entertained by the kitchen. We did have one small issue, our technilogical prodigy was a little miffed that the "buttons" didn't actually make noise, light up, or make something move. He kept telling me that the number pad on the microwave needed batteries. Sigh, this is a wooden kitchen Luke, no batteries, no beeping! Apparently Luke's already a part of the "plugged in" generation.

Needless to say, Luke is really looking forward to Christmas this year. He knows that Ho Ho Ho (what Luke calls Santa) brings toys to children. He doesn't quite get naughty and nice yet but we're still working on that concept. He does know that he's a good boy and he thinks that daddy is a bad boy. I'm laughing to myself as I write this.

Behold the play kitchen:

A Day in the Life

Most mornings begin with the heavenly sound of Luke calling out for the person who rocked him to sleep the night before. If that person doesn’t show up within 5 minutes, he’ll do a quick roll call through his toddler-sized address book, and hope that one his amigos come to his rescue. It usually sounds something like this, “Daddy/Mommy (repeatedly for 5 minutes, then)…Emmy, Tommy, Mimi, Nick, G-Pa, G-Ma”. He doesn’t really know anybody else that’s tall enough to spring him from the crib, so the calling out usually ends there, then Mommy/Daddy usually come in and save the day.

Today was no exception…730am Luke belts out “Daddy…Daddy…Daddy…Daaaaaaaa-dddddyyyy.” Matt procrastinated for a few seconds, gathered himself, and then entered Luke’s room, only to witness Luke doing his morning crib gymnastics routine. This involves Luke doing seat-drop after seat-drop (fyi, seat-drops are when Luke stands up in his crib, then jumps up in the air with his legs and toes pointed out, firmly landing on his baby butt…Mary Lou Retton would be proud). Many perfect 10 seat drops later Matt and Luke were off to seize the day.

To Luke, seizing today meant,

-Licking the icing off of three cupcakes at his friend Dylan’s birthday party.
-Attempting to take his pants off at that same party (for the ladies of course).
-Drawing all over every surface, whether it be paper, skin, drywall, friend or foe.
-Barking out “fries peez (please)” at the sight of any golden arches we drove by in the city…and believe me, we drove by at least 5 McDonald’s today…this McDonald’s marketing campaign to kids is way to good.
-Having no reaction when we saw Vince Vaughn on Michigan Ave, apparently Luke isn’t a fan of his work, probably because of the “earmuff”s comment Vince made in Old-School
-Putting on his Mamma’s pajama top, which looked strangely like a wrestling singlet on Luke…that picture will come in handy when we need leverage on him in his teen years.
-Maintaining a diet that includes a mouthful of soap and a few teaspoons of bathwater (the kid loves the taste of soap, no kidding)
To Mom and Dad, seizing today meant just trying to keep the wheels of this crazy cart on the road.

New Post Out of Order

Hi All,

I wrote about Halloween but it posted below the H1N1 post...so please look there for the new post.

H1N1 Hysteria

So, let's talk a little bit about the H1N1 hysteria and the vax shortage. Are you kidding me! What on earth is going on with this?! As the mother of a small child, in fact, as the mother of a small child who has already done is his time in an intensive care unit - I find it a bit ridiculous that there is a shortage of this vaccine. Luckily Luke was able to get his stick of the needle yesterday at his well child visit but had he not, we'd be standing in line this saturday morning for 4+ hours trying to get one. And I should mention that we were lucky Luke could get the vaccine because the day before, our dr.'s office had run out of it and they randomly got a shipment an hour before Luke's appt. Now clearly, Luke was not as excited about this as I was but I wasn't on the receiving end of the needle either.

So I'm going to get on my soapbox for a short minute here, but then I will step off. Please tell me why the Wall Street giants received shipments of H1N1 vaccines for their employees today when the rest of the minions are searching high and low for it. I'd love to know the statistics about how many pregnant women and small children work on Wall Street. Last I read, gazillionaires are not on the high risk list. Now I can see how some of them might think they make the list but hyperventilating at the sight of this year's bonus and the fact that it won't by you a McMansion does not make you asthmatic!! Stepping of my soapbox.

Halloween

Well another successful Halloween has come and gone. Our little fireman was slightly confused at times, calling himself a firetruck. oh well, at least we got some cute pictures. We did our 3rd annual jaunt down Southport to raid the stores of as many lollipops and Reese cups as possible. One for Luke, one for mommy. You see how it went. We weaved in and out of the sea of strollers, toddlers, babies, dogs, weirdos and such. Here's an idea for the masses...if your kids aren't going to ride in it, don't bring your obnoxiously wide double stroller just to run over other peoples' kids. tsk tsk, finger wag. Little did we know that along with the candy, some germs hopped into Luke's bag and a fever came home with us.

So that was the first Halloween event of the holiday. Event #2 was actually on Halloween and we took our little fireman upstairs to play with his buddy Ben, a fighter pilot. You see the neighborhood kids moved on this year from animals to professionals! While at Ben's, we munched on some Halloween goodies and decided we weren't going to wear our costume anymore. So no costume meant no trick or treating but Luke couldn't care less since he knew there were plenty of Halloween treats in our condo building's treat bucket. Why walk to houses in the cold with an annoying costume on when you can go trick or treating right in the lobby? He's a smart one, I tell you!