Woznation

Zevin Paul joined us on Oct 28th at 5:55 pm.  7lbs 11 oz, 21 inches long.  My parents were able to come up Tuesday night and watch the kids and I strolled in for an induction wednesday morning.  I had to call before going in to make sure there was still room on the floor, especially since there was a full moon the night before.  I always thought that was an old wives tale, but the nurses said there is definitely some truth to it and i got the last open bed! – all other inductions were bumped that morning. I had a very uneventful delivery – most of which was spent watching homeland season 1. The kids were going to come meet Zev in the hospital the next day, but Wil woke up with a stomach bug, so we waited until Friday to introduce everyone.  So far, the kids are loving him (sometimes, a little too much).  Evie is completely enamored with all his little features —  his little hands, his little eyes, his little toes, his little head. Each time she says ‘little’ her voice raises about 3 octaves. its so cute. Wil is very proud of his little brother and likes to tell everyone he meets he has a ‘newwww babyyyyy’, he says in a very quiet voice.  When he first met Zev, he thanked him for come out of my tummy. It was really sweet.  I’m hoping this honeymoon period lasts a looooooong time.  We have a steady stream of help for the next few weeks while I get back on my feet. Phil is back at work, saving vacation days for when all the grandparents are gone.  Things are going as well as can be expected!

Things about Zev:

• for the first few days he would breathe a little heavy – to the point where he was kind of humming as he exhaled – which is something I do in my sleep.  SOME people would call this snoring (Mainly Annakate and Phil – who have spent significant time sleeping in the same room with me).
• he’s a little bit yellow /jaundiced – just like all my other babies.  we’re keeping an eye on it.
• we’re figuring out days and nights – he’s a little mixed up. he likes to sleep all day and party all night – but we’re getting the hang of it.
• i call him ‘Zevy’ from time to time and Evie mis-hears this (or mis-says this?) and calls him ‘Fuzzy’ instead of ‘Zevy’, which is a better nickname anyway, so maybe we’ll just stick with Fuzzy.
• he has crazy hair patterns. He has at least one cowlick right at the front of his head (just like Phil!).  I have no idea which way his hair is going to grow in. it currently kind of grows in a mohawk pattern down the center of his head.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

A collection of random thoughts and events before baby #3 gets here:

• Evie loves singing ‘zippity do dah’, but cant quite make out the ‘Z’ so instead runs around the house singing ‘lippity do dah’
• I cant wait to burn all my maternity clothes.  I hate everything I wear every day, but refuse to spend money on clothes while pregnant because its not like i feel good in anything anyway.  I feel like I am wearing a ridiculous costume every day and can barely take myself seriously when I look in the mirror.
• Every once in a while, I lay down with Wil during his ‘quiet time’ and in even rarer occasions, we both actually fall asleep.  I absolutely cherish these moments when I wake-up next to my sweet boy and we get a few minutes to snuggle before getting up for the afternoon.  I’m guessing when #3 arrives, these occasions will disappear all together.
• I finally had a play-doh epiphany a few weeks ago.  I used to be a nazi about mixing play-dohs.  “DONT MIX THE COLORS”.  But whyyyyyyyy?  Why do I care?!  Why do I spend some much energy making sure the precious play-doh colors remain separate.  We have been using the same 3 canisters of the same 3 colors for like a year!  I had like 10 more colors on reserve in the laundry room.  I gave up.  I bought a new 24-pack of colors for like 15 bucks and we’ve been mixing colors ever since.  I’ll buy more once its a uniform brown color. Everyone is happier.
• I wrote a blog post about how great Phil is but he wont let me post it. So just know that hes wonderful and we love him very much.
• I dont think its possible for me to get any bigger.  I’m nearing a physical breaking point.  But, as I thought more about it, thats exactly what 40-weeks gestation is, in an evolutionary sense: a breaking point.  This is as far as the human body can possibly take a baby in utero without it killing us. I’m so there.  Along those same lines – I really hope I go into labor in the morning, after a good nights sleep.  I’m so tired.  If I go into labor after like 5pm – just forget it.  Just wheel me into the operating room – there is no way I’m going to have the energy to get this thing out of me.
• After talking about how there is no way to meet people at school – there have suddenly been a plethora of activities…..that I have no time or energy for.  Seriously, in the last 2 weeks of my pregnancy, there has been a ‘Moms night out’, a before-school moms breakfast, a classmates birthday party, and a field trip.  I have attended zero of these events.  I bummed – but also know my limits and know that I can not push myself right now.  There are too many other things to take care of at the moment.
• Wil understands the difference between ‘quiet’ and ‘silence’.  So if hes being really loud and obnoxious and I ask him to please be quiet – hes only the slightest bit quieter.  So when I really need the noise to stop I have to say ‘Silence, Wil!’.  Which is just a ridiculous thing to have to say.  “SILENCE”.  I catch myself saying it and wonder how on earth I got to this point in my life where I’m needing to yell SILENCE multiple times a day.
• Evie is the anti-cuddler.  One morning she woke up particularly early and I didnt have the energy to try to sing her songs and get her back to sleep like a normal middle of the night waking – so I just said – “do you want to come sleep in mommy’s bed”  (which we usually dont do to avoid it becoming habit-forming).  But instead – she just said “No, I’ll lay back down”.  HA.  after all the energy I have spent trying to get that girl to go to sleep – all I had to do was suggest she come cuddle with me in my bed.  Go figure.
• Wil was drawing today and we asked him what it was and he said ‘turtle poop.  turtle poop is yellow’. so I said, ‘oh really? did you learn that at school?’ and he responded ‘no, i just know it’.  (and now my search history has a google image search of turtle poop).

So there you have it.  Thats life these days, and its about to get turned upside down.  We’re just trying to make it down the home stretch.  My mom came to stay with me while Phil was on a work trip (in Baltimore).  Luckily, I did not go into labor while he was away, but my body is definitely going down hill.  Phil comes home everyday and immediately takes the kids to the playground by himself for an hour or so, and I rest in the tub or on the couch. (PS – Phil is a connoisseur of playgrounds.  He finds them while running with Barney in the morning, and has a new one practically every day for the kids. They LOVE it when daddy gets home.) I have handed off my projects at work and am really looking forward to putting an automated ‘maternity leave’ email response up.  Things are mostly in place for #3 around here.  We’re ready when he is!

Here are a few leftover pictures of our fall so far:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We’ve been loving fall around here.  It hasnt been too terribly cold yet at all, so we’ve been able to get out and enjoy the season here in the midwest.  We made it to Goebberts Pumpkin Farm as a family one afternoon:

By far the highlight of our trip was the corn playground — they filled this whole play area with corn kernels!  It was Wil’s favorite thing in the whole world (Phil liked it too):

We managed to get a semi-decent family picture before leaving:

We’ve also been spending a lot of time on ‘adventure walks’.  We usually write-up some sort of scavenger hunt, grab our trick-or-treating pumpkins and go exploring outside:

We’ve also made it back to the crabtree nature center a handful of times – the kids cant get enough of it.  Phil was finally able to join us one weekend:

We brought out pumpkins for a scavenger hunt one afternoon – but they stopped us on the way in and asked “by chance are you guys planning on collecting any items today”, to which i responded “whyyyyy thats exactly what we were planning on doing”.  But apparently you are not supposed to take things off trails in nature centers.  Oops.

I think Evie looks hilarious in this hobo picture in her hodge-podge clothing, playing in a little make-shift tent:

Then Phil and Wil headed back to Goebberts for a class field trip.  I didnt think I could handle taking both kids by myself, so Phil rearranged his schedule to be there.  They had a blast:

Giant inflatable jumping pillow:

Feeding the animals:

Giant pumpkin-eating dinosaur was a big hit:

We’re hoping the nice weather and pretty colors last a few more weeks! I would love to get baby #3 outside a bit before we start hibernating for the winter!

After a crazy, crazy summer — we’re finally slowing down around here. I wish I would have kept all my to-do lists so I could look back and see what all we accomplished.  There was so much to get done with the move and preparing for baby. Big things like ‘buy new car’ were right next to little things like ’email speech teacher’.  Some of the big things were: New license and registration for cars, finding schools/doctors/vet, getting insurance switched over.  And I feel like NOTHING went smoothly. Its wasnt like I just walked in and got the title switched over on our cars and walked out.  I called and one person told me exactly what I needed – so the next day I went in to complete everything and a new person told me that I did NOT have everything I needed – so I went home got more things and went back the next day.  Then we received the title for the Jetta – but not the Rav.  So I had to call and there is some sort of administrative problem that no one can see in the system and they have to have someone call me back. Ive called 4 times in 2 weeks and no one has called me back.  So I still dont have a title for the Rav even though we technically SOLD the Rav as trade-in for a new chevy traverse (that can fit 3 car seats, yay).  So a process that we started in Mid-August is still ongoing.  Then, with insurance, I switched policies over to IL – but the new agent wrote brand new policies instead of doing a state-to-state transfer, then had to back track and re-do things.  And I couldnt do a policy for my jewelry since i didnt have a recent appraisal – so I had to go get that done – now we are working on getting insurance switched from the Rav to the new car.  And oh, did I mention, that the random state farm agent that I picked to transfer everything to just sent a letter saying that he is retiring, so our policies are being transferred again to a new agent in the area.  So we still dont have insurance in place on the new car either. Fine.  Whatever. I have more stories like this —  About things not going smoothly.  Intricate problems about getting access to the dog park down the street. Multiple phone calls regarding getting my OB services covered by insurance (they werent covering me because they had me listed as Male in the system.).  But I’ll leave it at that.

Anyway. Most things are done now and we are focusing on getting things ready for baby.  We have finally picked a name (we went DEEP into baby names, people).  I have pulled out and washed all the old baby clothes and even have some newborn diapers that Phil and Maggie gave us.  I feel like we are mostly ready!  Friends and family have asked us if we need anything, but we really seem to have everything left over from the other two kids.  I told Celia that if I were to have a baby shower for #3 that people should only bring wine/beer.  Thats all I’ll really need once this baby arrives.

I have 2 projects I am finishing up at work — then will only stay on to answer questions about manuscripts I am involved with – no. new. projects.  The main researcher I work with requested that I dont terminate my employee status until the manuscripts are submitted/accepted (which could take forever.) Its almost like I cant quit this place!  I was all set to pass everything off in mid-May, then they convinced me to stay on until two high-impact papers were published.  But now I’m back to working on old projects instead of handing them off.  I really hope to be done soon.  If it gets too overwhelming, I will eventually have to pull the plug.

Even with all the craziness, we’ve been able to have a few really nice weekends.  Phil and I went to Cleveland for Rusty’s wedding over Labor Day. Mark and Char came to watch the kids and we had 3 whole days alone (and not packing boxes!). It was the first time I felt relaxed in a very long time.  Phil has been able to enjoy some Chicago sports. He hopped down to the city to watch the first Bears game, then went to a Cubs game with his dad, uncle and brother, and went to a Bears game with Jared!  I was finally able to get that massage.  Next up, Phil’s heading on a week-long work trip, so my mom is going to come help (and make sure I’m not alone if I go into labor!). I’m glad most of the big items are taken care of and now hoping to have a few slower weeks before this baby comes.

Here are a few leftover pictures from our summer.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Wil and Evie started preschool!  After visiting twelve (12!!!!!!!) preschools in the area, we finally settled on one mid-August and the kids are loving it.

Wil is going 9-11:30 Monday through Friday.  There are options for earlier drop-off or later pick-up, but we are starting slow.  He also does 30 extra minutes of speech at the school on Tuesday and Thursday which he really seems to enjoy.  There is another speech program through the city on Thursdays from 3-4 that we are trying out as well.  We will see which one works best for us over the next month, but so far he is loving all of them! Wil is in a class of 18, with two teachers.  I think like 14 of the kids are boys?!  He seems to get along with everyone for the most part and is adjusting well.  They do not have a strong discipline policy ( no time-outs or ‘yellows’ like last year), which I think helps Wil not feel like hes in trouble all. the. time.  All the kids are assigned a ‘helper job’ every day,  like hold the door, turn off the lights, push in chairs, etc.  One time Wil told me they switched his job to be the ‘watcher’, which I thought was a really clever way to separate him from the class to calm down, instead of a ‘time-out’.  Parent/teacher conferences are at the beginning of Oct, so we’ll see if I get any more details then. But I think its going awesome.

(This is what happens when you take too many pictures of your 4 year old on the first day of school:)

Evie goes one day a week (Fridays).  The 2-year old class is truly hilarious.  I have no idea how they accomplish anything.  But I thought it was a good introduction to sitting in a circle, listening to a teacher, and being away from me. They started with one hour and are slowly working their way up to 2.5 hours.  The first week they had all the parents stay in a room around the corner in case there were any serious meltdowns.  A few of us exchanges emails in case we wanted to meet up outside of school, which was really nice.  And a couple parents were called out to help their kids, but I was never called!  Evie looooooves school, and doesnt miss me at all :). The last few weeks have gone great, too.

The school has an awesome pick-up and drop-off policy with the little ones.  Its a giant car circle where they bring all the kids right to the door and let out one by one when you circle around.  I have a big sign with the kids names on it, so they know who to let out.  Its really convenient, but a huge downside is that I havent met ANYONE, at least in Wil’s class.  I’m so disappointed!  I was really hoping to meet other people in the area and make some friends through preschool.  I knew tons of other moms from chatting at pick-up at Wil’s old school, but pick-up here is a completely isolated experience.  Oh well.  I’m trying to make some connections through Evie’s class email list, but its still a work in progress.

The hardest part of preschool is dropping off Wil Monday through Thursday and Evie watching him go.  She wants to go to school sooooo bad, every day, and misses her brother.  But its been really nice for me to only deal with one kid and I’ve enjoyed our mother/daughter time before #3 comes along. I’m really looking forward to having a few Friday mornings to myself – but so far that hasnt happened due to waiting at school the first week, visitors the second week, and Wil being sick the third week. Go figure. I’m hoping this Friday will pan out since I planned Barney’s yearly appointment.  Maybe next Friday I can go get a massage!

Wil at 4 years 2 months: 35 lbs (46th percentile), 41.25 inches (67th percentile), BMI: 14 (20th percentile)

Wil is a climbing machine these days!  It took him a long time to try new things at the playground, but I think watching Evie do a few things finally convinced him to give them a try.  And now he loves it!  Hes getting much better with his hand/eye coordination and is getting very confident in his abilities.  He’s brought his love of climbing home and loves to climb the outside of the stairs on the banister and climb from couch to couch on the arm rests.  Hes still big into pretending and imagination and building towers, but much prefers to be outside on the playground if given the chance.

Hes also starting to get to the point in his life where he is saying hilarious things.  One of his shows was talking about a platypus, so I wanted to show him a picture and he looked at a few of them, then asked ‘Is that a monkey turtle?’.  I loved it.  On a hot day, after we stopped the car was dripping, he asked if the car was peeing. And whenever he sees a yellow car on the road he asks if its ‘bumble bee’ (from transformers). He’s also starting to phase out ‘Mommy’ and just goes for ‘Mom’ these days. It makes me a little sad, but also shows me that hes growing up.

With his friend, Alyssa.

Wil loves the show Daniel Tiger.  Its based on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood and its an amazing show.  Each little episode is its own little ‘social story’, which was recommended to us when we were getting Wil evaluated for speech/frustration/acting-out.  And there is usually a little jingle that goes along with each lesson (“Use your wooooords, Use your words!”).  And Wil LOVES them and sings the songs he learns from them!  And sings them to Evie. Its so amazing.  Evie was frustrated and throwing things the other day and he goes up to her and starts singing ‘Lets taaaaaalk about it’ to calm her down.  Daniel Tiger is a better parent than I am.  Forget ‘2 hours of screen time a day’ when it comes to this show.  Wil is allowed to watch as much Daniel Tiger as he wants.

Wil and Phil do this silly thing at bedtime where they both lay perfectly still in random places around the room right before I come in to say goodnight to Wil.  Then when I walk in, Phil counts to 3 and they both sit up and go ‘HELLO’. (I told you it was silly).  Anyway – when Phil was away on a work trip earlier this week, Wil hung out in his room by himself while I was putting Evie to bed – but still laid down and did his ‘1-2-3-HELLO’ when I walked in the room. I thought it was hilarious and awesome.  I hope he continues to do it forever.

Evie at 2 years 3 months: 30 lbs (80th percentile), 35 inches (72nd percentile)

Evie is a crazy person. (Were you expecting to hear anything different? Like all of a sudden she likes to read books quietly in her room or something? Nope.) She has reached the point where she says ‘I do it all myself’ to just about everything.  Its always hard in the moment, but – she DOES do it all herself.  And as I mentioned earlier – shes already climbing circles around Wil – so its not really a bad thing.  Shes an impressive lady. Char tells me stories about Phil on the playground — and how other mothers would come up and be like ‘Umm, your son is climbing on top of the swings’ and she would just nod and say hes fine.  Well, thats totally Evie.  Shes climbing up on the 12-year old stuff and other parents look at me like shes/I’m crazy, buts shes totally fine!  I swear.  Shes got it.

But man, if shes in a bad mood — Watch out. She likes to throw things and hit when shes angry and does not respond well to discipline.  She hates time outs and absolutely refuses to apologize.  If you tell her shes not allowed to do something (like play with fire?!), she throws herself to the ground crying like you just ripped her heart out.  There were a few days earlier this month where she just hated everyone and everything.  There was no keeping that girl happy.  Maybe she was sick?! I reached the point where I just wished she would vomit all over me or something, because then, at least, I might find a little empathy in my heart to take care of her if she was sick.  Day after day of her just constantly screaming and yelling makes you start to lose your compassion.  I know that seems like a ridiculous thing to say – like I know shes 2 years old and I shouldnt really let her get to me that much.  I obviously try to comfort her.  But shes a mentally exhausting person.  I think its kind of appropriate that my friends smartphone auto-corrects ‘Evie’ to ‘Evil’.

She has transitioned to a ‘big girl bed’ like a champ.  Well – its just a mattress on the floor for the time being, but I thought it was going to be a disaster.  I thought by giving her her freedom, she would never actually sleep!  But she proved me wrong and never fought it once.  She still sleeps in the crib at night – but we are hoping to get her a bedroom set by the time #3 is here (even though he’ll be in the pack-n-play in our room for the first few months).  Shes showing all the signs of being ready to start potty training, too.  But I’m not sure if I have the time or energy to undergo that endeavor before the baby is born. I think its probably better to wait until after we make that adjustment, then hopefully potty training will be a piece of cake.

Evie is just so on top of things.  Her speech and communication astounds me.  Shes counting and doing ABCs.  She figures out exactly what things are and what their purpose is or makes well-informed, but hilarious, guesses. (I cant think of a good example right now.  She thinks coasters are frisbees? And throws them are the house).  Her favorite show these days is ‘Tumble Leaf’ with Fig the Fox and his catch phrase is ‘I figured it out’ and Evie repeats that all day long. (Between Fig and Daniel Tiger — I barely need to parent.  Its great.) I have a kids mode on my phone that features a talking alligator who she calls ‘Guy’.  “I want Guy” she says and knows how to work all the apps better than I can and loves to take selfies and record songs.

Wil and Evie are each others best friends and have such a blast together.  They love holding hands and racing down slides.  They have a new game where they take turns pretending each other is ‘the baby’ and cook food to feed ‘the baby’ in their kitchen.  There are still days where I find myself saying things like “DONT EVEN LOOK AT EACH OTHER” — as I place them on opposite sides of the room and try to go to the bathroom real quick before they kill each other. “No tackling each others heads” is another favorite saying of mine. True brotherly/sisterly love.

These two are seriously fantastic.  As challenging as this summer was – I’m really grateful that I got to spend so much time with them.  I’m glad I was the one to be a constant in their lives as we made so many big changes.  I’ve been so impressed with the kids ability to adapt and go-with-the-flow.  Their enthusiasm and excitement made it easier for me to accept all these changes too.  Thanks kiddos.  Love you guys.

At the end of July my whole family got together in bloomington to meet and celebrate new baby Cole. It was really nice to only be a few hours away for a short weekend trip like this.  We were able to leave thursday night and go back sunday afternoon – phil worked some overtime during the week and didnt even have to use vacation days for the trip.  Something like this from Baltimore would have been much more involved, and we would have lost much more sleep. This trip was a piece of cake!

Its always a blast getting together with my siblings and its getting really fun for all the cousins now that some of them are old enough to play together. Can I also just say that Phil and I are pulling ahead in the ‘whos providing the most grandchildren’ race.  Andrew and Jessie are WAY behind (as are all the Wozniaks).   I’m really excited that#3 and Cole will be so close in age so they will each have a playmate at future reunions. (Also — Maggie and I agree that maybe “#3” is a fine and awesome name for a child?  Its like a code name.  He’ll be the next james bond? Anyway…)   Cole is an adorable little chunker — it was so fun getting to spend time with a new baby again before #3 comes.  Especially such a happy laid back little guy like Cole! Phil and Maggie are naturals and make a great parenting team.  The kids were really excited to pet his feet and sing him songs.  I kept trying to reinforce that baby brother would be here soon and be tiny like baby Cole – they were really excited — but were equally excited about all the baby toys like the bouncer and play mat.  It reminds me to get some of that stuff out now so the kids get used to it again and willing to share with the baby when the time comes.

Cheers to family!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

So this is awkward…. I’ve seriously had so many other things on my mind that I’ve wanted to post, that ‘Having baby#3’ has been pretty low on the list.  And now here I am, 7 months pregnant, and just getting around to mentioning it on here.  Its a boy 🙂 And we’re really looking forward to his arrival.

This pregnancy has been rough.  We decided on baby #3 right as we decided phil would start looking for jobs in the midwest, and they both happened simultaneously (which we are very very grateful for!)  But it made things challenging.  My first trimester, I survived on bagels and ginger ale, and clenched my teeth to not vomit most of the day,  all while Phil was making multiple interview trips.  Then came the actual move — maybe it was the stress of moving, or stress of leaving my job to stay at home, or the physical issues of moving, or the living in btown away from phil for a month, or the lack of sleep, or all the logistics of getting set up in a new place, or the million of other issues that we have dealt with in the last 7 months — but my body can feel it.

While pregnant with Wil, I remember being  impressed that a body could be so awesome. Then with Evie, I could appreciate pregnancy so much more since I finally understood what was on the other side.  But with this one, Its not quite as magical. There is nothing really beautiful or glamorous about this pregnancy.  My body hurts. Its tired. I’m just hanging on until its over.  (With my first pregnancy, they were also telling me to eat more milkshakes because I wasnt really gaining weight. Lets just say with this one, they are not pushing the milkshakes.) I’m hoping as things wind down these last few months, I’ll be able to reflect and appreciate this pregnancy a bit more, especially since it will be my last one.  But truly, I just want him to be here.

A lot of people think we’re crazy taking on this much in one year.  More than a handful of people have asked if this baby was planned, haha.  (Answer: Yes).  But we figured we’d rather deal with all the riff-raff of moving and pregnancy this year — then feel settled and complete with our family in the years ahead.  Plus we wanted the kids to be close in age and we are totally in the ‘diapers and carseats’ mode right now — why string it out? I think it would be harder to go back to the infant years after the other kids were older and more independent.

So there you have it.  Only two more months until his arrival!  Now if only we had a name for him…

Wow its been a crazy few months.  But I finally feel like we are getting this down.  Its kind of nuts that we just picked up shop and moved half way across the country. It feels like we are starting from scratch, but at the same time – its all the same.  I guess because we are trying to keep the kids in a consistent routine and keep them immersed in activities that are familiar to them.  My day still consists of dishes, laundry, trash, making dinner, and fitting in work emails when I can. The kids still follow the same general routine as they always did.

Hanging out at home:

We found a few libraries that have preschool-aged programs, we got a pass to a splash pad over near Phil’s work, we’ve found a plethora of playgrounds, and a nice gymnastics center with classes for both Evie and Wil. We even found a beach up at Lake Zurich that the kids love.   We are able to fill the days and weekends with really fun activities which has made the transition so much easier for them.

So many playgrounds:

Great libraries:

Water and Gymnastics:

Some things are definitely different from Baltimore.  We are still getting use to driving ‘a long way’ to all these places – everything is usually about 2-5 miles away (instead of the typical ‘few blocks’ in Baltimore).  I need to figure out some better car games to play to get from point A to point B without all the whining. I’m still trying to shake some old habits from Baltimore — I saw a leaf in the back yard and thought for sure it was a dead rat; and when it rains – Im still nervous the basement is going to flood. Also – one really weird side effect of moving – all my dinners suck.  The combination of new ingredients, new oven, and new stove has caused me to ruin quite a few meals.  I was on auto-pilot for so long in the old kitchen, I need to go back and revisit some of my go-to recipes in the new place. However, there have been some really nice things as well – like when we forgot to close the garage door one night – and everything was still there in the morning!  That would not have happened in Baltimore.

I’m starting to figure out grocery and target runs.  There is the fancy grocery store a few miles away that is fantastic, but I love the convenience of the Jewel that is less than half a mile from our house.  There is an amazing bakery down the road —  Phil takes the kids on saturday morning in their PJs to ‘surprise’ me with donuts with they get home. We found a place that has Barney’s special dog food (with a prescription? Have you ever heard of needing a prescription for dog food?! I digress…).  The burbs have not delivered on good restaurants quite yet.  Maybe we just havent found them. but I do miss all the quaint little spots from Canton and Fells Points.  Everything around here is either chain, or just sub-par.  We were able to make it into the city one night for a date night where we had a great meal.  Phil had arranged for my parents to come up and watch the kids and surprised me with tickets to the orchestra.  It was a much needed night of being an autonomous adult and it was so nice to have the city at our disposal.

I’m still getting use to being at home full-time with the kids.  There are days where I would do anything to fly Liz to us for a week (and I know the kids feel the same!).  Going from 2 days alone with the kids to 5 days alone with the kids — without the ‘escape’ of going to work and talking to adults, and eating a quiet meal without little people constantly berating you — has been extremely challenging on my mental health.  I’ve been trying to be outgoing and strike up conversation with other moms at the library or playgrounds with hopes of making a connection, but it still feels awkward.  I was actually lucky enough to meet up with Christina from Baltimore when she was here visiting her parents.    And the kids and I made it into the city once to meet up with Annakate and Hadley and their little ones.  It was so nice to hang out with old friends without any stress. And on days where I dont feel like venturing out, I settle for phone dates with long distance friends who hook us up with sweet water tables AND butterfly kits (thanks Cel!):

Its been really hard to continue working without any additional babysitting.  I try to work at naps and after bedtimes, but often dont find enough time, so most of my work has to be done on the weekend, which is NOT what I had in mind.  I finished up two major manuscripts that were submitted, and am working on 2 remaining open projects that I hope to hand off within the next few months. Maybe once work is not hanging over my head, I can focus on my new gig as ‘stay-at-home mom’.  Phil’s job is working out really well though.  He feels really comfortable in his new position and feels like he is starting to become useful.  He enjoys having a good friend at the same company (different division) and they sometime schedule ‘juice dates’ via the internal messaging system and talk about incredibly dorky interesting things.  Best of all – he is able to be around in the mornings if I need him and hes home by dinner nearly every night.  Today he was home before 5 and took the kids to the park while I made dinner alone in the house!  It was amazing. Its really nice going from a 40-minute commute to a 10-minute commute.

So yeah – we are getting into a groove! Moving always has its challenges and we are still figuring out our new life in the burbs, but there is soooo much potential here.  When Phil and I were downtown – I couldnt believe that this was going to be our city for the foreseeable future.  It is so fun to be in a place and imagine what it will be like to take the kids places when they are older.  I’m really really excited to finally be ‘home’ and start putting down roots.

Well this post is about 2 years too late, but I wanted to make sure we documented Em and Sam’s amazing wedding in Colorado.  So on their anniversary, I am happy to recount one of the most beautiful weekends in Woznation history 🙂

We flew from Baltimore to Denver on Wednesday morning, and then rented a car to drive to Telluride, CO. Wil had just turned 2 years old and Evie was about 2 1/2 months old.  It was a very, very long trip.  I dont have any horrible memories from the plane trip, but the extra 7+ hours in the car did a number on us.  Wil had stomach issues, and Evie was still nursing every few hours, so we stopped A LOT.  We finally arrived late Wednesday night and settled into a great suite for the next few days. The next day we hung out with family, walked around beautiful Telluride, and helped with wedding details.  Phil and I had a quick breakfast date and after naps, we rode the gondola up to Mountain village.  Wilek loved it.

Phil even snuck in a quick solo hike during nap time:

On Thursday night we kicked off the festivities with a party out at Alta Lakes ( http://www.altalakes.com/ ) with all of Em and Sam’s friends.  Phil and I helped organize this in the months leading up to the wedding weekend and all their friends helped chip in money for the rental, food, drinks, and shuttle back to town.  Plenty of out-of-towners were here by that time, and it was such a beautiful place to all get together. People trickled in all evening – and snacked on some awesome food made by one of Em’s friends/bridesmaid.  Then by sunset we all hiked up to the scree pile to watch the sun go down.  After that things got a little more serious — plenty of drinks, games, and fires. It was awesome.

Things got a little sloppy towards the end. Some sort of game that required you to stick your head in an ice bucket?  The details are a little hazy…

We had arranged a shuttle back to Telluride around midnight for those who werent spending the night at Alta.  I headed back on that while a good 20+ stayed out at the rental house. Mark and Char watched the kids while I was away. I think that was Phil and my first evening away from the kids, so it was very appreciated. Plus, they had a blast with some of the bigger wozniak cousins.

On Friday, after people recovered from Thursday night, we started preparing for the wedding:

And had an awesome rehearsal and rehearsal dinner:

Saturday was the big day!!!  Everyone was up early to help set up the reception venue and do last minute details.  I remember everything being very chill and relaxed, but thats easy for me to say since it wasnt my wedding.  I think I made a crack about Sam looking stressed out – but was totally kidding – because he seemed to be taking everything so well, but I guess he was, indeed, freaking out.  But everything went perfectly and we all had a great time getting things ready, getting make-up and hair done, and getting pictures:

Then it was time!! This was seriously the most beautiful wedding on the most beautiful day.  It was slightly windy/cloudy leading up to the ceremony, but then the winds died down and the sun came out right as we got started.  The land was owned by friends of Em and Sam and was just outside of Telluride. So many friends and family members from the midwest were able to come, and it was so great to meet Em and Sam’s local friends.  Wil never made it down the aisle as a ring bearer, but he did a good job practicing before hand. Em gifted Sam a new rifle with an engraving for their wedding, which made it into multiple family photos, haha.  All the boys looked wonderful in their suits, but Em stole the show in her beautiful dress.  And of course Gussy-Roo-Puppy-Pants was part of the ceremony. 🙂

And then we partied down!  Em and Sam went on a little joy-ride in ‘Little Red’ around Telluride before arriving at the reception (an old time fire truck from the station Sam volunteered at).  The reception was so fun – it was a great night and everyone hung out inside and on the porch outside with twinkle lights hung all around.  There were little mason jars that you could write your name on for drinks.  Lots of speeches, including a little impromptu one from big brother Phil.  At some point I left to meet a babysitter that Em helped me find.  She took the kids back to the suite for bedtime and hung out with them until I got back. We spent the rest of the night dancing away and hanging out with good friends and celebrating the happy couple. Then most of the crowd hit-up the Telluride bars, while I headed back to check on the kids. The party continued well into the night.

It was an epic night.  Sunday is a bit of a blur, but I remember lots of pizza and naps. We all just hung out and recovered in the rooms, remembering all the great moments from the night before.  The drive back to Denver wasnt as bad since we left late at night and the kids slept over night, then we took a crazy early flight back to Baltimore on Monday morning.  It was an amazing weekend for an amazing couple!  We love you Em and Sam! Happy Anniversary!