Monday, April 28, 2008

Lego my Legos

I had the wonderful opportunity to reminisce and act like a child this weekend. Whilst we were visiting our family, my nephew Michael invited me to come downstairs and help him find a Lego guy that had gone inexplicably missing.....a Lego Luke Skywalker. Not being one to turn down an opportunity to help a child, I followed down the steps and began searching through the multiple boxes of Legos intertwined with a slew of miscellaneous other toys in search of this little guy.

As I was searching through the boxes, an old familiar sound danced around my ears. The sound of my hand sweeping through an immense mound of resin toys, pushing them out of the way in hopes that I could find "The Piece" I was looking for. Except rarely does one actually ever find the one piece. But along the way, as in many days gone by, I found many other interesting things....Lego pants, light sabers, body-less heads, hats, hair, arms......teeny tiny pieces of toys that are always buried along the edges of the boxes. I wonder why that is? Some derivative of Newton's Laws of Gravity?? Newtonian Laws of Legos....yes, I like the way that sounds....

We did not find Luke. But, I did pick out every Lego Person and body part I had come across, and decided to make them my collective Lego Army. Even after assembling the troops, I continued to search through those boxes. This time to help build a Lego house. Once again, I was greeted by the sound of Legos gently clinking together as I pushed through in search of "skinny" pieces to build the walls.

That sound is so familiar to me - and it was so surprisingly comforting. I can't even begin to tell you how many countless hours my brothers and I spent hovering over the giant Lego box.....searching, building and creating.....fighting over hard to find pieces (like the "waterbed" ones - or the cool Lego people)....making a huge mess and always losing pieces in the process....or following the wordless directions trying to build a cool new kit, before it was lost in the mass, never to be built step by step again.

Even as a young adult, my parents (oh, I mean, ahem. Santa) put mini-kits in our stocking, and I always loved opening it up and building it early Christmas morn'! I still have the last couple, which were a front end loader and a knight and ferocious dragon (the Medieval kits were always a favorite with me). I had them proudly displayed above my monitor in my office. To this day I don't think there is any character more cute than a Lego person. I actually enjoy watching Michael play Lego Star Wars (and hopefully Lego Indiana Jones in the future) on Wii because the little guys are sooo darn adorable!

Its not surprising to me now, when my nephew Austin gets a new set of Legos, to see my brother Kyle rush over to "Help" him build the new set. I know what he's really doing :) Reminiscing. And I can't wait until Liam gets a bit older so we can do the same!

Saturday, April 26, 2008

7 months and countin'....

I can always tell when its been a while since I've blogged, and not just by the absence of posts (yes, I realize that's obvious), but rather when Pat tells me its been a while. I find it rather cute. Yes, he lives with me, but I kind of like that he reads the blog anyway :) Makes me feel loved!

The 24th marked Liam's 7th month on earth. Man, he's growing growing growing!!! Now in 12 month old clothing....seems to be losing some of his chub and stretching out a bit.....but I still love zerberting that little belly! His new favorite pastime is sitting up and playing, but he certainly does not enjoy staying stationary - although he doesn't yet know how to crawl/scoot/move, which causes him some inner angst. He tries his hardest though! Writhing about on the floor, moving often into "downward facing dog". He almost knows that he can move about by rolling.....but he hasn't quite connected those dots yet. We really need to baby proof....but probably won't until he's totally mobile.

Liam is also enjoying the nice weather. Josefina takes him to the park daily (weather permitting) and he's getting some sun. Even with SPF 50 his nose and cheeks get a bit rosy. I think he likes playing in the dirt, because Josefina always changes his outfit after they get home. I find that adorable....I can't wait until we get to make mudpies! I'm so excited to have a little boy!

Right now, Pat and I are kid sitting in Indiana......Kristen surprised Mike with a trip to MI for his 40th birthday. They stayed in the RenCen and went to a Tiger's game. Tig's lost, but I'm sure they had a good time. We'll find out sometime soon when they get home. The kids were/are good for us too, which is always nice. We didn't have to knock any sense into anyone :) LOL! Not that we anticipated any issues, they are good kids....but you never know what will happen when the parents aren't around, you know?

Lets see, what else. Oh, we contacted a realtor about putting our house on the market. Haven't made the decision yet though.....we'll have to sell for a little less than we had hoped, but more than what we paid for, so we should be OK. We can't decide where we want to move to though....which is another issue. Just need something bigger. 3 bedrooms. Hopefully a single family home.....but not sure if that's feasible to still stay in the City. *sigh* sometimes I wish I had mad cash and could afford the $750,000 single family homes around us. It would be nice to stay in the area we live now....but that's not going to happen.

I'm feeling pretty good, and getting busy with work, which is also very good......

That's all for now. Now I'm off to hunt for a Lego Luke Skywalker...........wish us luck!

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Happy Birthday Mom!


Here's to 50 more :)

Friday, April 11, 2008

Huzzah!!

We had a fabulous night last night!!! We were actually able to keep a surprise from my mom, and presented her with her birthday present, a trip to see Wicked and stay one night in a swanky hotel downtown :) She was pretty impressed, especially since it was all my Dad's idea. He's so cute sometimes. Anywho - the girls all loved it - not sure if I can say the same for the guys......but still a must see in my book. Here's the crew on the way out of the Oriental Theatre:


Then today was a pretty huge day because we got new countertops finally!!! I was kind of nervous that the color I picked wouldn't go well with the floor and the cabinets, but it looks INCREDIBLE!! The people did a great job, and I will be sure to recomend them to all my friends :) We ended up going through Costco, and I'm so glad we did. Great experience! Here's what it looks like (sans faucet - the plumber is on his way to hook up that and the garbage disposal).


The only bad thing is that Pat had something come up for work, so instead of shopping on the Mag Mile with my family I stayed home with the contractors, but worse things could happen.....

Keith and Heidi are on their way over as well tonight, so it will be a full house. Funny story about that - Keith bought tickets to what he thought was the Tigers / White Sox game at Comerica Park - last Saturday. But they were actually for tomorrow, Here, in Chicago. It works out OK because everyone will be here for my Mom's actual 50th birthday, but it looks like its going to be a giant suck fest as far as weather......the forcast is 40 and snowy/rainy. Poop-ola. I was able to snag my company's tickets last minute though - so if nothing else we can hang out in The Stadium Club and stay warm. Hey man, we can't let the tickets go to waste if our customers don't want them!

K - time to go pick up the boy....who, by the way has two front teeth now!!! They are so cute :) I haven't been able to take a pic yet, but trust me when I say they are the cutest teeth you've ever seen. And I'm not at all biased. Here's a couple photos of him anyway....sitting up like a big boy and chillin' in his sweet shades. *sigh* what a doll :)


Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Liam Update - 6 months 2 weeks

The doctors visit at the end of March went pretty well.....I was concerned more for me than I was for him. It was the first visit with shots....WITHOUT Pat to do the holding :) I held up OK, and he stopped crying pretty quickly. Liam's growing well - but more slowly. He's no longer at the tippy top of the charts in height and weight. His six month stats were:

Weight - 18 pounds 3 oz (75th percentile)
Height - 27 1/2 inches (90th percentile)
Head - 17 1/2 inches (50 - 75th percentile)

He's noticibly stretching out as of late, with less baby chub to fill him out, so he seems pretty skinny :) I suppose that means he's had a growth spurt, at least in the height department. He's growing out of the 9 month clothes we have, and racing into the 12 month old size.

Foods are going well - he's tried carrots, avacado, green beans, sweet peas, butternut squash, sweet potato, oatmeal, rice, pears and apples. I've got bananas, mangos and yellow squash on deck ready to go, but we've gotta wait a couple days in between new introductions. Carrots are pretty fun for him to eat, because it makes him poop orange. Not sure why I find that amusing, but there are stranger things, eh?

The most significant developmental achievement is sitting up! He's getting pretty darn good at it, not so much of a weeble wobble now anymore (although he does still do the occasional face plant). Liam much prefers sitting down and playing as opposed to tummy time. Go figure - he HATES being on his belly. He rocks back and forth too, which is cute...and making his legs stronger! He is really trying to pull himself up to stand, but we don't have much furniture for him to practice, so its just in his crib and changing table.

He also loves to laugh - he cracks up when other people laugh at him, and he likes to bang on things too. OH, and he also knows how to splash in the bathtub now as well - should make for lots of soakin' wet times :) He also laughs out loud and squeals whenever the cats come close by to him....he loves them!!! They come close to check him out, even give him a snuggle or two, but I'm pretty sure they don't love Liam yanking on fur & ears. He's learning though, and so are they. And they seem to have somewhat of an understanding as Liam is learning :)

For the most part, he's sleeping through the night more often than not, and generally has a pretty happy, sweet, smiley disposition. These statements are completely null and void during times of sickness and teething though :)

No more doctor visits (and no more shots! Hooray!) until 9 months....so, until then.....

A new day

I didn't get nauseated from the meds this morning, so that's a good thing. I seem to be a bit more clear headed, which is also nice.

Went to Target with Mom & Liam.....my slippers were shot so I had to buy a new pair.....and $60 worth of other stuff I didn't really need :) Target has a way of doing that to you! Anywho - I bought a new pair of BUNNY SLIPPERS!!! I've never owned a pair, and I must say, they make me smile when I look at them. Really, Target didn't have a whole lot of slipper selection right now (seeing as how we're entering flip flop weather....hopefully soon) so, it was either the bunnies or sock monkeys. And frankly, sock monkeys freak me out. So really, it was fate. I was meant to have bunny slippers. They even have a cute heart shaped nose and a foo foo tail on the back.

Liam appears to be in much better spirits today. He's currently sleeping with Grandma on the couch. They seem to enjoy their afternoon nap together.....there really isn't anything much sweeter than a sleeping baby on your chest (unless of course, its the ONLY place he sleeps....then it can get kind of tiresome). Its nice to see him laughing and playing, and not constantly cranky.

That's about all for now. I should have a fun update after this weekend. Mom is turning the big 5-0 on Saturday :) Dad, Karli & I think Kyle and Austin are coming down tomorrow, Pat comes home tomorrow night, and I even think Keith and Heidi will be here for the day on Saturday.

Monday, April 07, 2008

Interesting times.....

I've been on Meds now for depression for, oh, about three months. Started on zoloft, changed to wellbutrin in the hopes that my sex drive would come back......it did, but so did a whole slew of obsessive/compuslive thoughts, and I was soooo irritable and crabby - and really couldn't focus or concentrate for beans. So, we just switched again to lexapro. I'm crossing my fingers that this works! I just want to be a normal, functioning human being again!!!

Pat has been traveling a ton this past month, and last week without him was HOR-RI-BLE. I was pretty sure that Liam was teething like a mo-fo, and he started to get sick too. Double Whammy. I think I was already PO'd because Pat was gone, then irritable because of the meds, cranky because of all the medical procedures I've had done, and ON TOP of all that, Liam did NOT want to sleep. At all. Until 4AM. Oh, and he was screaming. And he didn't want to let me sit down. Wow - that was incredible. I lost it at around 3AM, just put him in his bed, screamed into a pillow, banged my head against the fridge (gently, but you get the point) and let him cry. Then he started throwing up because he was crying so hard about 30 minutes later....but thankfully I was calmed down enough to take care of him more patiently and lovingly. He feel asleep shortly after.

All I have to say is thank the SWEET LORD for wraps and slings, because if I didn't have those I know I wouldn't have lasted as long as I did!

Anyway, I recovered......but vowed to never EVER ever be alone with him again. EVER. Of course, it was just the emotion of the day after, but I arranged for my mom to come visit while Pat was away on his next trip (he left this morning). I was so happy she was here.

Liam is still sick, so mom and I took him to the doctor today to make sure he didn't have an ear infection or pneumonia or anything horrible. He just slept pretty shit-ily last night, and didn't really want anything to do with his bottle today. Lucky for us, he's A-OK...just a cold, and DEFINITELY some teeth coming in (hooray!) You can even start to see them sprouting now :)

So we leave the doctor and go to the grocery store to pick up some stuff. All the sudden, Liam starts SCREAMING and I see blood in the corners of his mouth. ACK! I flipped out!!! It wasn't gushing mind you, but it wasn't a little bit of blood either. I have no idea what happened. My mom thought a tooth broke through, or maybe he scratched his mouth or something......so we left our full grocery cart in the isle and go to the car, and by time we get him in the car seat the bleeding stopped. I still called the doc, and they're like, well.....if its gushing, take him to the ER, if its not, you can come in after hours in about three hours......We didn't have to go back though - he was his ol' perky happy self shortly thereafter. I still have no idea what happened.....

Definitely freaked me out though. I don't know what I would have done if my mom weren't here......I don't have a whole heck of a lot of confidence in my patience or parenting skills right now.....I know that it will come back eventually as the intensity of these events fade, but I just feel like I can't do much right at the moment!

*sigh* It feels good to get that all out. Well, out to some venue other than my therapist :) actually, I think that's a good sign in of itself. When I'm feeling really down and out, I rarely feel like blogging. So, the fact that I am blogging means I'm feeling better already!