75

It actually happend and it happened in March! Ok, the last day of March but it was 75 degrees in Chicago today! Ahhhhhh, so warm. All the neighborhood kids and parents ended up in the front yard after work as usual. I'm sure all the other residents on the street think are building is the "kid and dog" building. Sometimes it does look like a circus out there but it's really fun to be able to socialize without leaving the front yard.

Not all that much to update today. Luke is anxiously awaiting the Easter Bunny this weekend because the Easter Bunny brings "presents and treats." We did have some pre-Easter treats today since both g-ma and mimi sent some fun treats in the mail. My next post will likely be soon as we'll need a post-egg-dyeing update and photo shoot.

Until then, here are some new pics...

Tea time with the kitties:

Baby Zappia at 29 weeks:

Guitar Hero:

The lumber jack:

Marco Island

Ahhhh, that was a nice vacation? Can we go again next week?

We started out as the whitest family in the state of Florida, so much so that we actually looked a tad on the blue side. We finished the week on the pink side and with vitamin D levels not seen in our blood for some time. So many stories to tell, so little room to fit them in, so much of my memory lost to baby brain. I think I need to categorize my stories.

Funny:
I'll start with the rental car. Sounds like a strange topic, right? Luke was really into the rental car for some reason - he really, really liked it. He now thinks that Avis is a person and still asks if he can ride in Avis' car. Avis has a friend and customer for life in Luke.

Next up, the toilets in the airport, strange topic again you say? No pun intended, the super powerful, man-eating, auto-flush on those toilets scared the sh*t out of Luke. So much so that he kept asking to "pee in the grass?" everywhere we went so he could avoid strange toilets. Such a boy - making his mark all over Florida.

So we went to the zoo one day and they house all of their primates on these little islands on a man made lake. To see the primates, you have to go on a little boat ride. This means waiting in line to get on the boat. After waiting for 30 minutes in line, our boat is about 50 yards from returning to the dock to pick us up and Luke decides he has to pee. Oh the joys of a potty-trained toddler with a bladder the size of a grape. Poor Matt had to sprint with Luke to the closest bathroom and luckily they made it back on time to get on the boat. While on the boat, the tour guide asks everyone to be kind and not yell or make any gestures to the monkeys. So what does Luke do at the sight of the first monkey? He starts repeating "ee ee ooh aahh ee ee ooh ahh," while doing the classic monkey movement of placing your hands in your armpits and flappig your arms up and down. Of course, we couldn't help but laugh but it was slightly embarassing.

We had a Michael Jackson "This is It" dance party in our room. Luke felt the need to wear his sunglasses during said dance party and this made him look like Stevie Wonder instead of MJ.

Cute:

Luke is a total beach bum. He would live on the beach in a tent if he could. The weather was not super warm so the windy beach was rather chilly but it didn't stop Luke from staying out there as long as possible. Every time we asked him if we could go back to the pool/room/restaurant, he'd say "Not yet, I'm still playing." Also, everytime he found a seashell (which as you can imaging was rather often) he would say "oh, here's one!"

In the pool, Luke was a fish. He even learned to voluntarily go under water - woo hoo! That's a huge pool milestone! The cute part is how we got him to do it. We played "Pock a Posy!" What is Pock a posy, you ask? Well it's actually Ring Around the Rosie to you and me :) When you "all fall down," everyone goes under water. Luke enjoyed Pock a posy so much and we did it so many times that we had to take breaks because we were getting so dizzy.

Salt. Ok, not sure if this is cute or irritating. Luke had a special little red truck he took everywhere with him, including restaurants. While waiting for our food to come, Luke made it "snow" on the truck which means he emptied out entire shakers of salt onto this truck. One guy passing by our table thought this was quite inventive. I'm sure the waitresses loved us.

Well enough with Luke stories. All in all, we had a fabulous time. Mimi helped us keep Luke occupied and we made her go to bed by 9 everynight which she's not used too. I guess that's what happens when you share a room with a toddler. We've decided that we need to build vacations into our schedule and budget because it's such an awesome time and brings us such great memories for the future. This was one we won't forget!

Here are just a few pictures:

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.