City Slickers

Stephen took Friday off from work (since this was his Spring Break and he only has to put in 20 hrs technically on the assistantship). We went to Wagner Farms in Glenview and I had a few interesting insights. As we were tip-toeing through the muddy corral areas trying to see the cows, chickens and horses, I noticed a worker kind of watching us with a giggle and I felt like such a city-slicker. We had come totally unprepared for the wet and mud and were carrying the girls as much as possible because of course Odessa was wearing her brand new shoes and I was stressing about it. What happened to us? We used to live on a 10 acre farm! Here Ada figured out how to get eggs out of the nests.
Then they brought the cow in and milked her with the machine for all the kids. It was funny to feel so touristy watching something I used to watch my grandpa do all the time as a kid. I had a moment where I forgot we were in the Chicagoland area and thought we must be on a road trip somewhere. Do you have those out-of-body moments ever? It was refreshing to be there and forget the city (or busy suburban life) for a moment.
Ada is starting to do the actions to primary songs! This totally surprised us this morning when were playing the songs and noticed she was following along with Odessa. She also waved "bye-bye" to a stranger for the first time this week. It turned out to be our lovely Walmart check out gal who was very honored that she was Ada's first wavee. The best is that she does the floppy, broken wrist kind of wave. The floppy wave is also how she leads the music to her favorite songs and how she does "popcorn" from Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree.
Saturday night we had Erin and Ambrose over, Erin is a co-worker of Stephen's. We observed the Earth Hour by turning out all our lights from 8pm-9pm and used candlelight for dessert and playing a game of Bananagram. If you haven't heard of this game, it's really fun. It's kind of a cross between Scrabble and Boggle but I enjoyed it more than I have those others. We really liked it- another game we'll have to add to our collection. It's always fun to have people over and discuss interesting topics with others. We've had 2 weekends of that, lucky us. Good food, good friends, good conversation. Aren't those the basics in life?

High Fliers

I think men are made with stronger upper bodies specifically so they can throw children into the air. Now that Ada also loves this game, it is a nightly occurrence and she is always begging daddy to pick her up. Less well known is the barrel throw, which is not shown here. That is Odie's favorite. A friend of mine went to a presentation about how important a dad's influence on his children is. Among other things, she shared with me that a dad teaches children more emotions than mom. I thought that was odd, no one in this house can go from happy to furious as quickly as me! I guess the speaker pointed out how moms are always trying to keep things on an even keel and dads are always mixing things up- scaring their kids, tickling them into hysterics, etc, etc. Ok, now I got it! That's why when Odessa is calmly reading a book and Stephen comes stomping into the room yelling "fee, fie, foe, fum!" and starting a chasing game, I get so annoyed! Leave her alone already, she is having a "normal" moment for once! But that is just another role of dads, wonderful dads. Our wonderful dad is in California right now on a job interview. I am a bit unsure about this town, Roseville, CA. When I found out it is a suburb city of Sacramento, I really was upset. Stephen and I made a little comparison that takes me back to ACT practice. Roseville is to Sacramento as Schuamburg is to Chicago or Meridian is to Boise. After living here, we have come to appreciate a city with culture, diversity and exciting history (although I realize that Park Ridge is just a cough away from Schaumburg- we hoped to move in a little closer to urban, not further away). Cul-de-sacs and huge strip malls is not necessarily what I want to experience next, but we'll see. They do have a WinCo grocery store and that just about makes up for any other failings. Other notable cute moments include the fact that Odessa is now calling Ada "cute baby Jeanne" I think b/c she hears us call her "Ada Bean" so much. How funny is that?

Easter Weekend fun

Despite the snow, we enjoyed a fun filled Easter weekend. Saturday, Stephen and Odessa dyed Easter eggs together. We also had a combined Hunt family egg hunt at Nathan and Beth's. It's quite comical to watch the littlest ones figure things out. Odessa was very determined to have everyone's eggs when it was all over, she didn't so much care if they were empty or not.
Saturday night we had our friend Hillary over for dinner and got to hear about her working stint and adventures in Melbourne, Australia. She got to meet Ada for the first time. The last time she was here was almost a year ago! Odessa and her have a special friendship, it's delightful. I think Odie would eat all her dinner, sit by her Hillary's side and read books on end and happily do anything Hillary asked her to. I should hire her for a nanny. Odie is so comical and obediant when Hillary is here. Alas, I did not get a picture of them all together.
Sunday morning was busy making Easter dinner and after a nice church service, the Hunts came here for dinner. Although it was not our best combined meal ever, it tasted good and we laughed at our cooking foibles. We topped off the evening with Kinder-eggs which are hollow chocolate eggs with a tiny toy inside. Sometimes the toys can be pretty cool for being stuffed inside a little egg. Although I didn't post any pics of the girls in their Easter dresses, they will be on the Picasa web albums next week. Here is a picture of everyone showing off their Kinder-egg toys.

Anywhere but here

Don't get me wrong. I love Chicago. I really like the diversity, the city is very inviting, it's history is fabulous. But it's the 21st of March and we have a severe winter storm warning and tons of snow falling. Tons for March, that is. Between December and Feb. we had 41 inches, but that is another story. I am tired of snow. I was looking to put the girl's snowsuits away yesterday. I need to go get groceries. I am tired of snow.
Stephen has lots of interviews for various jobs in various locations throughout the U.S. Although I was leaning towards heading back West, maybe this snow was sent to help me free up my mind. I wouldn't want to trade this snow for the flooding the poor people south of us have and I am sorry for those in the paths of hurricanes and tornadoes, but I am tired of snow.
Florida, anyone?

"it's the beginning of the end"

That is what my sister in law said when I told her that Ada was starting to climb the stairs. Her fourth baby, who is 10 weeks older than Ada has been walking and climbing stairs for some time now, really early. It's hard when your baby grows up. I caught Ada on the bottom step twice on Tuesday, just stuck there, not knowing how to repeat what she did and go further and too scared to come down. I was telling this to Stephen when he got home Tuesday night. We were standing in the kitchen and the girls were playing in the basement. I had just finished saying "we're going to have to put up the gate or do something, we'll have to really watch that girl" when we turned at a noise and here was Ada peering into the kitchen at us, from the TOP of the stairs!! Ours jaws dropped. It was SO FUNNY. She sat there on the landing, looking at us as if to say "what? I heard dad's voice, so I came up". She proceeded to climb the entry step into the kitchen and crawl right over to dad, sit back on her haunches and beg to get picked up. It was adorable- and very scary. Our basement stairs are VERY SCARY. They curve, they have sandpapery strips on them, they have no railing to keep little ones from falling off of them, they lead to a cement floor below. (but they are only 6 stairs long!) I worry about them. So now Ada is on climbing alert. I wonder if they make an ankle bracelet for that.

She has also discovered purses and knows how to put one on! Who taught her that? I keep catching her putting them on and crawling around with them, trying to keep them on her shoulder. She keeps the red rattle phone on one ear and the purse on the shoulder. Who needs to wait for the teenage years for your girls to grow up?

St. Patrick's Day

Stephen and I got to go downtown on Saturday to see the Chicago River dyed green for St. Patrick's Day. Our friends the Kestens kept the girls at their place. St Patty's is a big deal around here! We missed the parade, which we knew we would, but the crowds were there and the river was still quite green. In fact, we crossed the river further down stream and it was hardly green at all and so we thought "well, that's not very impressive" (see picture of Stephen above). Then we got up closer to the lake and Michigan Avenue and saw how really green it was. It was fun to get a small look at yet another time honored Chicago tradition. This week also included a fun Relief Society activity in which we all donated services that we could provide and then bid on other's donations. It seemed that nearly everyone got a service that fit them perfectly. Several of us young moms got a night of babysitting, homebound people got rides to the doctor, etc. It was such a great swap of things we could do for each other.

"You bring in, I take a look"

This is one of the jewels I have found while living in Chicago. If I need something repaired, I always call the shop first to check and see if they seem competent in fixing what is wrong. We have had (among other things) our car repaired, Stephen's suits tailored and our camera fixed. Each time I have called the repair places that I have chosen, I get this reply: "you bring in, I take a look" in broken English. While at first these words made me wary, they have proven to be the key to a job well done. We have had such excellent service from each of these foreign-born repairmen. They do the job fast and above and beyond what we asked for. The prices are possibly a little high, but I honestly haven't minded afterwards when I contemplate the job well done. This last week I took the camera in that was dropped by our budding photographer, Odessa. The Korean repairman was very kind, charging me a fraction of what he should have to work 8 hrs on our camera. It, however, is not completely fixed- every time he tried to use the zoom, the camera would jam again. So, with my permission he super-glued the zoom button so we wouldn't accidentally jam it again. He says "you want close up? you walk forward" holding the camera and demonstrating. Although he wasn't able to fix it entirely, we can still use the camera without replacing the entire lens and spending 160+ dollars. Plus I got a chuckle from his reaction to me, a tall white woman toting 2 toddlers into the all-Korean office building to search out his service. He asks me as I was leaving "how you find this place anyhow?". Well, I just call around until I hear those magic words "you bring in . . ."

I saw this nanny . . .

I saw a nanny walking 2 kids down the sidewalk the other day when it was still really cold. I thought "man, she's committed to the walk to bundle them up and take them out". Don't ask how I knew it was a nanny, I just knew. When you go the park and the library enough in Park Ridge, you can spot a nanny verses a mom in a minute. So then it occurred to me that this is her JOB. So making an effort to go on walks and take the kids places maybe wouldn't seem quite as hard because it's just part of the job. It would get boring taking care of kids if you didn't have a schedule and a plan and somewhere to go or something to do most days. Maybe that is why I run into them at the playground in the mall, the library and the park so much and they act as though they have been there every day that week, which they may have. They probably have some pretty good schedules and some pretty good plans to keep the job moving. So then I reflected that back on my time as a stay at home mom. Do I look at it as a job or "serving my time"? Am I just waiting out this toddler and baby phase so we can be more involved with the world? Some days I feel like I am just waiting out the DAY until Stephen gets home. What a waste. True, when I had new babies I felt it was an accomplishment just to keep them alive all day (i.e. eating, sleeping, out of poopy diapers, etc). And even now, some days it feels like an accomplishment to shower by 2 pm. But I think there can be so much more. I think I could approach it more like a job and try and do better because if I had wasted this much time at my last full time job, I would have been FIRED by now. Maybe I finally get my husband's view of things. When a girl is asked what she wants to be when she grows up and she says "a mom" he wants to say "sure, I want to be a dad, but what KIND of mom are you going to be?"

Well, this is the beginning

Under some duress from others, I have decided to start a blog. Rather than be a place to toot my horn and expect people to make an effort to visit my site and read what I've written, I have seen a blog can be a creative way to keep people updated on your life. My friends use theirs to post silly things about their kids and fun things they did that weekend. Rather than wait for a once a month email update in which I forget most of the funny things the kids did over the month, I would rather post them here for family and friends to see when they want to see them. But fair warning: if I need a soapbox to stand on, I just may use this site as well. Happy blogging everyone!