This winter we finally got all the Chicago snow I was warned about 2+ years ago when we were planning to move here. The last two winters werent too bad, so I didnt know what all the fuss was about. I finally feel like I am earning my Chicago stripes. We actually had a lot of fun building snowmen, sledding around the yard — plus lots of hot chocolate and fires in the fireplace. (But now that its april, Im ready for it to end.)
Im really making a push to ‘finish’ this house. I went on a giant cleaning spree by going through every closet, box, cabinet, you-name-it. I threw away old mail from Baltimore. I found Phils wedding ring. I threw away old training underpants. I actually have all the wrapping paper and gift bags in one place. I think we might actually have a place for everything in this entire house! The very last room I want to finish is the ‘work out room’ but we’re still deciding its multiple purposes. Then, I swear, I will post some pics of the entire house with some before & after. I feel like we have made such great progress in the last 2-years and its finally feeling like a forever home.
We stayed busy on weekends by going up to Wisconsin a lot. I’m finding it easier to hop in the car and drive north than to head into the city, go figure. First we went to Milwaukee to see my friend Andrea and family who are here on sabbatical from France. Then we went up to Kenosha to a fun kids museum. On the Kenosha trip I was with my friend Anne who also has three kids — so with all 6 kids — someone asked us if we ran a daycare, haha. Its always chaos taking them anywhere (hence the montage of blurry pictures), but we try to have fun.
Zev is seriously a whole new person over the last few months. He is talking SO MUCH. He is singing his ABCs and has his own little vocabulary — My favorites are ‘Spicy-ronis’ for pepperoni and ‘Boo-boo-bed’ for big boy bed (instead of crib). He is also constantly asking “What ISSSS THIS?!” or “I’m NOT DOING THAT!”. He is still working on sharing. Everything is ‘mine’ these days. He had a friend over the other day and he wouldnt let him touch anything! Finally the little boy went into the other room and was watching TV and saw an airplane and went ‘AIRPLANE’ and Zev ran into the room going ‘MYYY airplane!!!!’ (like he stole his toy or something) Oh Zev.
I called poison control for the first time in my life this winter. I forgot to close the baby-proof cabinet device under the kitchen sink and Zev squirted himself in the face with Windex. All I heard was crying and then he smelled like it and his clothes were wet, so I called to make sure. We dont keep anything super hazardous within reach of any child, but still made me nervous! They were very nice on the phone — hopefully dont ever have to call again.
We made it until the end of February without getting super sick. I was actually feeling a little smug that we dodged it — but then were knocked out for like 2 weeks. Ugh. Wil had it the worst. He even got pink eye after days of runny eyes/nose/everything. But in true Evie fashion, if Wil has something she has to have it, too. So — true story — Evie went to school on a Monday and poked herself in the eye with a pencil. This was accident and totally unrelated. But the next day when Wil went to the doc for eye meds for REAL, Evie told everyone at school that she was sick and her eyes itched, too, ‘just like Wil’! The nurse eventually called me and said that Evie needed to go home for pink eye because her eye was red and kept insisting that ‘she had what Wil had’. AHH!!! I was literally pleading with the nurse that Evie DID NOT have pink eye and she was lying. But they made us pick her up anyway and I had to deal with 3 kids at home….Evie was never sick this whole period, I swear.
Ok. So that was the end of February. Lets back-up to January when I put the kids in swim lessons against their will (because summer swim lessons were traumatic). I promised them if they did swim lessons and learned to swim all the way across the pool that we would take them to the indoor swim hotel in Wisconsin. Swim lessons were going great and I was looking up good deals at the hotel, when I learned they had an awesome Groupon for early march. I booked it for the first weekend of March. The weekend after everyone was sick. And it was non-refundable. Oy. Luckily all the kids were healthy by that point — but I was definitely not feeling it and Phil was exhausted from a long week of dealing with work, kids, and ME. But we did it. And if anything – it was a nice escape from the nothingness of their sick-week before. They all had a fun adventure. But Phil and I could have used a weekend off.
Then Emmy, Sam and Hank came for a visit! Wow. After a long few weeks, it was seriously the best. We dont get to see them enough and its nearly impossible to get all of our kids on a plane these days, so they were nice enough to come to us! It was so fun just to cook dinner, talk, and hang out for a few days.
We were also lucky enough for Mark & Char to come up and help out with the grandkids while Phil, Sam, Em and I did a St. Paddy’s day beer run. Ha. We were way too old for this type of shenanigans, but it was a blast. And it was so fun to have so many Wozniaks in the same place for a weekend!
So yeah — we had some fun weekends — but I felt like weekdays were long, dark, and cold. Hopefully some warm weather and outside activities will break us of the winter blues. Currently our biggest struggle is keeping Wil and Evie happy in the same room. They CANNOT leave each other alone. Which is sometimes great when they are playing together nicely. But mostly its loud, frustrating and exhausting. Even when watching a show or playing DS, they have to tell each other about what is happening. Then the other gets mad because they ‘KNOWWWWWW’ what is happening. I have to tell them to leave each other alone or to stop talking to each other or to do their own thing at least 1000X a day. My spring is dedicated to keeping them apart as much as possible.
Its April and there are still forecasts for snow in the next few days. But the 10-year anniversary Hawaii trip is booked. So all is good. Here are the rest of our recent photos:
Woznation 