In this day and age....

Why can't ALL hotels just have wireless internet access? I'm in a luxury Mariott hotel in Chicago (hardly the boonies) and not only do I have to cough up $12.95/day for high speed internet, but I also have to park my ass in the chair at the desk because it's WIRED!!!! Oh, I had visions of lounging about in bed as I watched whatever dumb TV is on Sat night in the summer as I surfed the net. Instead, I'm sitting fairly uncomfortably at the desk/table since that's as far as the computer can go. I suppose there are many things that could be worse, but I'm looking for little things to make this long and irritating weekend pass quickly! The exam really isn't so bad- the examiners are pretty helpful, unlike the computers... and most of it is done now. It's just the sitting and waiting for HOURS (literally) in a cold room with nothing to do, surrounded by a bunch of podiatrists....that HAS to be one of the circles of hell :) I did manage to catch up with a few people from school who I haven't seen since school and that was nice. I just hope that I pass this so I don't have to do it again. But to come next year for moral support for George..that would be niiiiice...maybe I could get downtown and actually SEE Chicago (I can't believe that this is my 3rd time here and other than Dawn's house, I've only seen the airport!).

It seems that George and the kids are doing just fine without me...Anya had a bday party today for Brandon- one of the kids at her babysitter. Daddy took her and sounds happy to not be the only daddy there. Just like her mommy, Anya has ended up with a close-knit group of friends, all of whom are boys. The funny thing is that her closest friend, Carter, gets brave only when Anya is next to him. Alone or with any other kids, he's a scaredy-cat(?) but when Anya is there, he'll try anything. Although I know time and circumstances will probably take them apart, I so hope that she and Carter will remain friends for a long time. Since she went to Antonio's party a week or two ago, Anya has been infatuated with face painting (as seen in the pic). She's had Nana, Dada, and even Colleen, pretend to paint her face with several different characters. Well, they had a face-painting clown at the party today and Anya insisted to George that she wanted her face painted like Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas. Hmmmm...what are the chances that the painter even knows what she looks like, let alone the thought of my baby painted up like a dead rag doll.....thankfully, George convinced her to ask for Sally the car from the Cars movie, since there were many pictures to use and Anya was happy. Supposedly, Maureen has a pic, so I'll post that when I see it.

It sounds like Sebastian has done very well without mommy today....he slept like a champ last night (it figures.....) and went down well tonight, except for his thigh getting caught in the slats. I swear that he must slide towards his feet as he sleeps for the number of times his legs get caught! Actually, if he's not standing up when I get him after a nap, he's usually sitting with his legs dangling over the side of the crib through the slats...must be his thing....He did the cutest thing yesterday as they were driving me to the airport....he was super tired since he had only gotten one nap and I was mentioning this to George. I said "Baz is sleepy"...that little monkey heard me and squeezed his eyes closed tight and had the biggest grin on his face. I thought it was a coincidence, so I said it again and once again, he looked at me, squeezed his eyes shut and laughed!!! OMG is this kid a kidder!! He's always sooooo happy, but he just loves to laugh.

So I'm going to lounge in my big bed all along and see what's to watch tonight....I really wish they could consolidate things a little better so this exam would be shorter....it really isn't that painful except the waiting...and waiting....and waiting..... Plus I'll be waiting tomorrow at the airport...they told us that the exam could go until 12noon, so don't book a flight earlier than 3pm. I complied and booked a 4pm flight, getting in at 7:50- thank you, time change....and it looks like I'll be done by 10:50 am. SO I called to see if I could change my flight to one of the earlier ones and they said that there appears to be plenty of room on those flights- yay! My next question was the price difference.....$117 to change!!!!! That's about as much as I paid for the whole round trip ticket!!! Are you kidding me? So it appears that I will be hanging out at the airport for a good portion of the day (thank goodness they have bars there!) and hopefully the IL's can pick me up so George doesn't have to pack the kids up that late.

Rearview mirror

So we turned Sebastian around in his car seat recently, making van rides a new adventure for him. He's so in love with cars that he spends most of the ride pointing out the window and saying "car" or "truck". Since he's now visible by me in the rearview mirror, I often wave to him as I'm sitting at a light and when he catches my eye, he lights up with laughter and waves back (as does Anya from her seat too). Today, I happened to look up at the mirror to see him waiting to catch my eye and when he did, HE waved hi and started giggling. It was so small, but so incredibly sweet! He had a rough time staying behind with FIL today- kept clinging to my arm or my shirt and I had to leave him crying. I know he stopped minutes after I left and had a ball with FIL, but it was still hard. Anya, on the other hand, happily went to play with her friends at Colleen's. She's gotten really into waving to whoever is leaving until they can't be seen anymore, but she's not unhappy about it. SHe clearly played hard today and was wet (from a surprise rainshower) and dirty (from being chased by the boys and digging up worms and slugs) but very happy. She made George's evening interesting by putting sunblock on Baz's face, including his eyes. Ack! Luckily, it was the tear-free version so his eyes were puffy and red when I got home, but not in terrible shape. We'll see what happens tomorrow....

I'm off to Chicago tomorrow for the oral exam for the surgical boards...it shouldn't be bad, but I could use a little refreshing....I'll have time on the plane, right? Thankfully I don't leave until late afternoon, so I don't have to pack until tomorrow. It will be hard being away from George and the kids all weekend, but I think I'll get over it as I SLEEP ALL NIGHT LONG!!!! I may even get to eat a meal or two uninterrupted or without feeding someone before myself!

Another day "off" is over.....as far as days go, this went pretty smoothly....2 good naps from Baz, only 1 time out for Anya (she didn't want Baz playing with the toy she was playing with so she hit him in the head with a hard plastic dog and then hit my leg when I told her to stop). They even both went down fairly easily (it's still early, so it could still change). It was a million degrees out, so we spent most of the day in the a/c inside, but when they started getting bored, I distracted them before tantrums began-yippee! I have to take a pic of Baz and his carts- he LOVES pushing anything on wheels...usually it's his Cars cars, but for a change, he'll happily put some toys in his shopping cart and wheel that around or else a baby doll stroller. He gets this look of glee as he runs into the room with it!

Anya and I did get a chance to get in the pool when Baz took a nap. I couldn't chance a repeat of yesterday where he had no interest of being in the pool and just ran around the yard. This would leave Anya unattended, or at the very least my attention would be split, so Baz missed out. The pool crept up to about 81 degrees and since it was in the 90's out, it felt lovely!!! Anya was eager to try out her swimming and jumping skills.... she asked to go to the deep end, take off her swimmies, and jump in as she does at swimming lessons! She jumped in on her own- granted, nervous mommy caught her- then swam back to the side, but she can do the whole routine at lessons on her own, so I'm sure she could have done it. Anyway, we both had a lot of fun and I'm really hoping July 4th will have nice weather so we can have a family day in the pool!

Baz is starting to say more words....he loves putting things on his head and saying "hat" I've been working on "I love you" every night, but so far he's getting "I love" but I'll take it!

Tentacles

So we officially had our first family swim in our pool for this summer today- woohoo! Anya has gotten spoiled by her 92 degree pool at Saf-T-Swim and has balked at jumping into our 76 degree pool. Well, today it was close to 90 out and super humid, so the time was right and swim she did! She and I got in first and had a nice time. Once George and Baz joined us, Baz was no longer a fan of the water and just wanted to run around in the yard. I was a little bummed because I really enjoyed being in the water, but there should be more chances for that! George even got Anya to jump in with her floaties on! And she made sure to avoid the "tentacles" floating in the middle of the pool. Tentacles? I repeated until it hit me.....she remembered not to go close to the CHEMICALS, but she said that tentacles is a fun word to say. I have to admit- she's right!

And it's definitely good to be a kid in our household- the heat was enough to inspire us to install our window units, so the cool spots in our house are the kids' rooms and the family room. Man, are those rooms nice and comfy......But that's it. Our room has two windows, one of which the cats have chewed a hole in (twice now...ugh) so I can't even open it more than a couple of inches or they'll have free reign to go in and out of the house, as well as any mosquitoes, moths, and flies that happen to come with them (and any dead or nearly-dead animals in their mouths). If I ever get a little "extra" time, I'll repair that screen again, but I hate even wasting the time because as soon as it's done, the hole will be back. I'm quickly becoming anti-pet, which is something I'd NEVER have said pre-kids. So I have to leave the frosty cool family room for my hot, sweaty room with slightly open windows and a slow ceiling fan. Gotta go check ehow and see if I can install a/c ducts by myself...well, at least with the help of my awesome dad!

I've also decided to never again mention how well either kid slept- no matter how much of a great pattern they've gotten into, as soon as I comment on it, I'm doomed to have a rotten night. I can't even count how many times Baz was up last night- was it because I forgot to put on his white noise machine or something else?

I went on a mini-shopping spree today to get some outfits for my boards exam this weekend. I've lost 20 lbs so far so none of my clothes fit anymore. I gave away my smaller clothes eons ago figuring that I wasn't ever going to get to be this size again, so off to the store it was. Although I've got to say that trying on clothes is much better now that I'm more comfortable with my body, my fashion sense is still horrible so putting together outfits that I feel like a moron bumbling around the store. I thought about asking Keila from my office to come with me, but I thought I'd be ok by myself...wrong! I also made an appointment to get my hair cut and eyebrows waxed Thurs afternoon, so hopefully the new hair and clothes will give me the confidence to not worry about these exams! I'll be staying at the Mariott O'Hare and their pool looks fabulous- I'll take my bathing suit, but it just won't be the same without Anya and Baz.

Sebastian is really picking up more and more words each day. TOday I looked back in the rearview mirror as we were driving home and he was putting his toy fish on his head and saying "hat". OMG, it was the funniest thing ever!!! He and Anya are starting to play together at times- they ganged up today to raid his drawers...she was looking for clothes to put on her animals and he was looking for fun stuff to pull out and put on the floor! When she made one last trip in as he was in his crib, she came over to kiss him goodnight and he offered up a big fat kiss. It was sooooooo sweet! I repeat- I LOVE bedtime!

Getting started.....

I'm going to start posting before I get distracted with anything else so maybe I can make this blog thing work, so here goes.....

Today started off like any other day.....Baz's internal clock woke him (and me) up at 6:07 am, but thankfully he had slept all night prior to that- thank heaven for small favors!!!! He always likes to wake everyone else up, so as I popped his waffle in the toaster, he beelined for Anya's room. Anya responded as any 3-year old teenager would and said "I'm still sleeping" from underneath her pillow. It was really cute. He's really gotten a grasp of the words "hot" and "ow" and I think he thinks they mean the same thing since he usually hears them in conjunction with his waffle and the toaster or else a nightlight. As I picked the kids up- both at the IL's- Anya was of course naked and "playing a joke" on MIL by telling her she couldn't come to the Wiggles with us. I'm really not sure where this came from because she wasn't beling malicious and she LOVES Nana, so I suppose it was an attempt at humor... Anya fell asleep on the way home and afternoon naps are usually met with crankiness and trouble going to sleep at night, but it seemed to work out today. She was a bear for close to an hour after she woke up, but by the time swimming came around, she was happy again. She did great with her lesson- finally jumped in by herself and swam to her instructor- yay!!!

Bedtime was the usual chaos, but fairly easy as bedtimes go. Anya loves the tub and her bedtime routine,which could drag on and on for hours if you play along. She is still up and singing to herself in bed, but settled down without George or I in bed with her. Bedtime with Baz is my favorite time of day. He is the sweetest little boy most of the day, but just as he's going to sleep is the peak of it. He points to my nose, mouth, etc as I sing to him and giggles uncontrollably. When I give him an eskimo kiss, he just laughs so hard. I usually ask for kisses before I wave goodbye and tonight he offered them before I asked! OMG, was I the happiest momma! He went down without a hitch,except for getting his tiny thigh caught between the slats- poor little muffin. A few gulps of milk later and he was reaching for his crib- didn't even want to cuddle for a bit. Thank God we have one good sleeper!

OK- so that was not very interesting, huh? I think its going to take a while for me to "find my groove" and make this interesting to someone other than future me looking to reminisce about the mundane tasks of daily life with 2 toddlers. BTW future Chris- every mom of more than one kid seems to forget how they managed the kids, house, work,etc...so I'm hoping this will be a help when Anya asks for help with her kids.

My Disney Obsession

Apparently,I've been bitten by the Disney bug....we had such a wonderful family vacation last Jan that not only am I excited to go again next Jan, but I'm already researching and plannning
(it's JUNE!). I really don't know why I'm so gung ho, but it really makes me happy to spend time on disboards and Tour Guide Mike so I'm not cutting myself off. I just hope that next year and each year is as good or better than the previous one. I keep finding more and more things to do and many that the kids are too small for now that we can save for future years. I'm excited now that the Bippity BOppity Boutique is moving to Main Street in the Magic Kingdom so planning that will be much easier that last year. We HAVE to do it on a day that we're going to the MK, but schlepping from Downtown Disney to MK is a pain and seriously cuts into the early am short line time. Yay Disney!!!!

My first post!

Hello world.....I'm going to have a go at blogging! My main reason for doing this is that I'm horrible at writing in the kids' baby books, so maybe by keeping a blog, I can remember all the cool (and not-so-cool) things they do on a daily basis. I have no idea how good I'll be at keeping up, but I'm gonna try. That's all I can do now because Anya is begging me to play finger puppets with her and Baz is somewhere in the back of the house pushing around a stroller.