Woznation

I Loooooove Fall!!

Well….I love the few weeks that it is still relatively warm and there are still leaves on the tree.

Phil had two pretty long work trips in October, one of which was to Hawaii (!!), so we packed in as many fall activities as we could on the few warm weekends.  I feel like most of these pictures are from three 2-hour outings. Which is basically ‘Fall’ in Chicago.

Quick run-down of autumn:  The kids adjusted well to school, we had an awesome trip to Disney World, then in October I think we got together with other families or had visitors every weekend. We celebrated Zevs birthday, racked in a boatload of candy on Halloween, then dreaded daylight savings time ended and its now dark by 4:00pm. Ugh. Life. Over.

Other stories and memories Ive been racking up:

–At the beginning of the year I had to fill out a questionnaire for Evie’s school and they asked what motivated my child.  I couldn’t think of anything but “Winning”, “Revenge”, or “Treats”.  I ended up writing “Verbal Praise” but its not true. (Unless I am giving another child verbal praise then shes says, “And me too, mom, right?”)

–Wil is starting to spell which is awesome and hilarious.  This is ‘Next Christmas’.

–Evie has done this to herself at least 3 times — HOW??

Still trying to get out on walks before it hits negative degrees.

Long afternoon at IKEA

Read Full Post »

I cant believe the last 2 year have gone by so fast. We have had so many changes in our life between the time I was pregnant with Zev until now.  Hes just been along for the ride the entire time.  Between all the moves, I barely had time to make sure he had clothes that fit or see if places were properly baby-proofed, but he managed to survive.  And now, in the last few months, with Evie and Wil at school 5 days a week — I finally get some time where I can focus just on him.  I still havent signed him up for a single activity but we do make it to library story time here or there — so that counts, right?

Zev is saying new things all the time.  He will copy anything you say to him.  Which is hilarious when Evie whispers things like ‘poopy butt’ in his ear — which he’ll then repeat over and over like a parrot (but then she swears she didnt say anything at all).  He knows to say ‘please’ when he really wants something. He knows to say ‘ME TOO’ when I’m asking the big kids what they want to eat or play — he will not be left out! When he has nothing else to say he just runs around the house saying ‘I love you’ or “I ruv roo”.

He started taking his naps on a little floor mattress and has been totally cool with it.  AND has given up on his pacifiers.  He eventually bit a hole in every single one and would spit it out and say ‘yucky’, and I stopped buying new ones and he just gave up on them!  Dont know how we got so lucky.  Evie would cry bloody murder without her beloved ‘ninny’ — but somehow Zev is just fine without them!

He loves to be outside and help dad in the yard.  We have these two large locust trees in our yard that have these black pea pods that come down in the fall.  When there are just a few, Phil and Zev would pick them up and put them in a box to carry to the woods.  But eventually there were just too many to pick up or rake and Phil has to mulch them with the mower.  But it was pretty hilarious to see Zev freak out every morning when new pea pods fell  — he would yell ‘MORE PEA PODS’ and try to pick them all up every morning but there were thousands! He was flabbergasted.

He does so many more things on his own compared to my other kids.  It might be because I cant watch him as well as I watched the other two (Im severely outnumbered when Phil is at work!).  But Ive also probably relaxed a bit over the years and let him figure this out on his own.  I put him on a tractor ride that I would have never in a million years put any of my other kids on.  It was definitely aimed at preschoolers, not toddlers.  It went way too fast and counted on the kids to hold on and stay in their seat (both of which are ‘iffy’ directions for a two year old).  But he survived.  Hes also already going down the hill on the scooter — I at least put a helmet on the kid.

Zev was the shyest of all my kids — maybe because Ive been at home with him the last 2 years.  He would always hide when strangers said hi and would cry if I left him with anyone. But hes starting to come out of his shell.  He’ll say hi to other moms and has a few little sibling friends he’ll play with at playdates.

He currently loved all things toy story (“woody-buzz”), mickey mouse, or sesame street (“Melmo-abby”).  He loves dancing — he squats real low and swing his hips around.  His favorite song is Old McDonald and you’ll hear his just “E-I-E-I-O — woof woof here” all around the house. Hes also entered into the ‘terrible two’ phase where he will throw a fit if I take something away or say no.  At least its easier to handle the 3rd time around.

Now that we are at ages 2, 4, and 6 — life is much more manageable.  I feel like we are coming out of the fog of the baby years and are starting to really have some fun.  Zev likes to do whatever the big kids are doing and they are all finally starting to play together.

We had an extremely busy fall with phil traveling, visitors and some sickness — so I wanted nothing more than a quiet birthday weekend celebrating my ‘baby’  — eating cake and lots of snuggles.  The big kids had a great time decorating the house and wrapping presents for him and Zev loved all the commotion and activities. It was a nice low-key day as a family.  Happy Birthday Zev — you add so much happiness to our lives.

Read Full Post »