Merry Christmas!

Something's Gotta Give

So I know it's the start of Christmas vacation and people are out of town and that there might not even be anyone who reads this and to be honest, that doesn't matter anyway because this is just an old fashioned venting session from one tired mom.

We are still sick!! We've been perpetually sick since almost two weeks ago, and not just with running noses and colds but with some kind of persistent stomach virus. We thought we were in the clear after Jack got it, but then Ellie threw up again Saturday night and we missed church Sunday. THEN we thought we were in the clear, and I woke up this past Tuesday morning with the bug. Fortunately mine passed fairly quickly although I've felt the risidual effects for days after.

Yesterday we were rejoicing in having Eric home for a week and a half, in starting our weekend together, in time for relaxation and enjoyment, and the fact that we were all finally feeling better. No more cranky children (or no more than usual!), no more meal restrictions, no more headaches and fevers and yucky smells...house cleaned and sanitized, ALL laundry done...we're talking happy times here, folks!

But then we were awakened around midnight last night to a little pathetic cry over the monitor, "Mom-meeee! Mom-mee!!" As I was walking toward the kids' bedroom door and reaching for the door handle, I smelled the distinct odor of vomit--with the door shut!--so you can just imagine the magnitude of what I found inside. Library books covered, carpeting, all bedding and Important Blankies and Stuffed Friends, soaked jammies... Eric whisked Jack away for a midnight bath while I tried to clean things up with little light, although poor Ellie still woke up. Sweet thing just lay there, still, eyes blinking, watching me strip and scrub and carefully stack books for further cleaning in the bathroom...

What a night. After cleaning him we had to do a load of laundry before he could return to bed, so we put in a movie and sat down with him...nothing like a little Shrek 3 at 1 am. After getting him tucked into bed finally, we fell into bed ourselves, only to be awakened at least three more times during the night by his sad cries to be held. (Our pillow talk last night consisted of, "I think it's your turn this time.") Then around 4:30 or 5:00 he awoke again, screaming, and would NOT be comforted, by now waking his sister, who was also about to hyperventilate from her own crying... Eric brought Jack out to the couch to try to settle him down, but every time he tried returning him to his room we were all rattled by his sudden screams and cries, which then would wake Ellie again...and this repeated itself until we finally faced the fact that it was after 7 am and we had just better get up for good.

We are exhausted. We had grand plans for the day--a little Christmas shopping, grocery shopping, Christmas caroling--and now all I want to do is sleep. I know there are bigger problems in the world, I keep telling myself that. I know many people have very sick children and the live daily lives of exhaustion. I know we will eventually make it though this. I just don't feel like I'm very rational or clear-headed right now, and it seems to magnify all my anxieties and annoyances and repulsions at the yucky laundry waiting to be scrubbed clean...

I know that the song "Something's Gotta Give" is refering to some sort of love connection, but that's the phrase I kept hearing in my head every time I was startled from my sleep last night by screaming children. Can I just admit for the record that this part of parenting is really, really hard? A young newlywed at church recently told me that his wife gets baby fever every time she's around our kids and tries to coerce him into starting their family with pleas of, "But Annika and Eric have kids and they're so cute!" Hm. As much as I appreciate the compliment, and can certainly understand the sentiment as I sometimes felt the same as a newlywed...I thought of this girl last night, laying there in bed, and wished I could call her up and explain, in detail, what was going on.

Don't get me wrong--I love, love, love, love being a mom. I love that my son is standing by my side as I type, poor sick little thing, asking to watch "D-Eggo" (Diego) on the "PU" (computer) and that when I told him he'd have to wait, he said, "Jack. Weet." So he's standing there resting his precious warm head on my arm watching me. (Now he's in my lap.)

So yes, this wonderful amazing thing called parenting is hard just as it is good. This just happens to be one of the hardest stretches yet.

Thanks for listening, Blogworld. I feel just a tad bit better having sent my ramblings off into space...and now I'm off to see about that nap.

Christmas Dinner with Papa and Grandma

Since my parents will be in Boston for Christmas with my sister and her family, we had dinner and gift-opening with them this past Sunday. We went to Stir Crazy, one of my favorite restaurants. We had a great time; sometimes it's just plain not worth it to even go out to dinner with kids because most times the experience is far from enjoyable for anyone. There is hardly any worthwhile conversation, there are spills and messes, there is the constant stress of keeping the kids entertained and quiet (i.e. not disturbing other restaurant goers), and the luke-warm food we end up eating, or scarfing down, while the other one sits on the kids. However, the whole eating-out experience is ten times better when the food is actually really, really good, and fortunately for us, that was the case on this particular evening. We greatly enjoyed our personally-designed stir frys, the kids enjoyed watching them cook our dinners, as well as the specially-made rice and steamed broccoli for them to eat. All in all, it was a pretty great dinner. Thanks so much, Mom and Dad!

Ellie was so happy to see Papa and Grandma when we arrived at the restaurant, but was soon very distracted by all the lights and sounds and people walking by. (Doesn't she look so pretty in her Christmas dress?)

I had to include this picture, though blurry, to show off my mom's new haircut. Doens't she look so great? I'm actually a tad bit jealous...I may just do this to my hair one of these days. (Not while I'm pregnant and hormonal and irrational but some day.)

Why, you ask, is my mom laughing and struggling? See below:

...Ellie's trying to climb on the table! She's SO squirmy these days, it's hard to get her to sit still at all.

(Finally had to turn on that darn flash just to get a good shot. Still not the best of little Missy but these days that's nothing new!)

Riding the bug

It's 11:13pm and I'm about to walk out the door, drive to the nearest Walgreens, and buy for my family:

7-up and Gingerale
Saltine crackers
Gatorade, many flavors
Pedialyte
Chicken Noodle Soup

Yep, we're under the weather here in icy cold Chicago...Ellie and Eric have had it the worst, mine seems to be looming, and Jack is still hanging in there as our healthy champ. Even so, it looks like we'll be staying in for a few days. Hope you are healthier, warmer, and more well-rested, wherever you are. Goodnight...

*Update: Ellie is better today, finally has her appetite back; Eric seems to be on round two, sadly; Jack threw up early this evening--we'll see how he does during the night; I am hanging in there, but not feeling great. I'm playing piano in a wedding tomorrow so I'm just praying that my body will fight it off (come on, prenatal vitamins!) at least long enough to get through that! And that Eric will be better so he can care for the kids while I'm gone. (It's not like we can call a babysitter to come watch the kids in our virus-infested home!) I know we have a lot to be thankful for and that the stomach flu is not the end of the world...but it sure is no fun.

***Update #2: Jack woke up with a 102 fever this morning. He seemed to bounce back fairly quickly, but hasn't had much appetite at all. Eric has felt pretty terrible as round two, if there is such a thing, has taken its toll. I made it through the wedding today, but am still not feeling great. Ellie, our recovering little one, began throwing up again tonight. What is with this second round?? Unfortunately she threw up in the car tonight so we have to clean her carseat cover before she can ride in the car again. We're a bit concerned about her hydration, as she's pretty much been sick since Tuesday night, not eating or drinking much of anything, and hasn't had many wet diapers. We'll see how tomorrow goes. This has been a really long week for all of us...

Tomorrow is our special, annual Christmas "Lessons and Carols" program at church, one that I look forward to every year. I missed it last year because Ellie, then three or four weeks old, was up for seven hours in a row the night before and I opted to stay home and sleep the morning away. Now it looks like I will miss it again this year. I'm so disappointed.

"Mama, wheresa munch?"

Ah, the second year of life. I can’t remember mine, but watching Jack live his each day makes me wonder what mine was like. Did I grow as fast? Did I find the same amount of joy and thrill in things like dying balloons dancing near the ground, choo-choo trains that go on forever, white snow falling from the sky, and doggies? I have no idea. All I know is that this has been a thrilling year for me to be a part of, and though we’ve faced our challenges, what with a growing preference, will, and independent stubborness, I’ve often remarked to friends how much I love this stage.

One of my favorite aspects about Jack’s development right now is his verbal explosion in the past couple months. When he first turned two he was way behind the “averages” for kids his age, which brought us mild concern (okay, slightly more than mild). We were told to wait until he was two and a half, or even three, and to watch for growth in vocabulary and sentence structure, but if by three he hadn’t at least reached some of these particular milestones it would be recommended that we see a specialist. It’s always hard to hear those things.

However, much to our relief he has blossomed rapidly in a very short time. It began one week, and has seemed to continue fairly consistently. He began to repeat almost everything we said, even if we weren’t even talking to him. If I was on the phone, I could hear him copying my words to himself. One day in the car we got stuck at a train when we were running late and I said, “SHOOT!” and my little copy cat in the backseat quietly said, “Shit.” Hmmm.

So while I am grateful that things seem to be on track and he’s finally picking up the two- to three-sentence thing, what I absolutely LOVE about this particular stage is that his words are still in the only-mommy-and-daddy-can-understand-us phase. It’s almost as if we are a bilingual home, with Jack speaking one language to us, and us speaking another back to him, although we both understand the other’s. We find many of his attempted words quite hilarious, and often find ourselves bursting into laughter.

Tonight we piled into the car—hats, puffy coats and all—for a quick run up to the store to get some frozen pizza for dinner. Despite the fact that I had to chase Jack around the ENTIRE HOUSE in 4-5 inches of snow because he refused to get in the car (insert deep mom-on-the-last-straw sigh), he was delightful at the store, garnering much attention and many compliments on how well he was pushing his kiddie cart and helping Mommy (“Jack hup Mommy!”).



On the way home I was explaining how we had to go home and cook the pizza in the oven, and he said, “Cook. Pizza. In Uh-men (oven). Home. Daddy. Doo-rah (Dora the Explorer). Monking. (“Monkey” or Boots, Dora’s pal). Yay, pizza!” I LOVE that he says “uh-men” instead of oven. And monking—well, you just have to hear it to understand the fondness with which he talks about Doo-rah and Monking.


He has a book based on the traditional “Going on a bear hunt” premise. It’s very repetitive and rhythmic; Eric even made up a little song for the repeated, “We’re going on a bear hunt, we’re gonna catch a big one…” part. Each page then says, “Oh, no! A forest (or river or mud or cave)! A big, dark forest (thick, oozy mud, etc.)! We can’t go over it, we can’t go under it. Oh no! We’ll have to go through it!”


Jack is addicted to this book. We read it many, many times a day (I know, Dad, it’s payback for the night you read, “Good Night Moon” twenty times in a row just because I kept asking). But now he’s started to read the book himself. And it is SO funny. He skips through a lot of it, but he knows the pages that have the “oh no!” parts, which he puts on a very worried face and uses hand expressions as he shouts, “OH NO!!!!!!” The part that makes us laugh the most is when he does the last line, “ Oh no, we have to go through it” because he gets so animated and excited that he skips half the line and it comes out like this: “OH NO HALFA GO TOOOIT!!!!!!” complete with an arm motion of sweeping through something and with this very concerned look on his face. Tonight when we read it before bed, he was trying to do the sing-song part and Eric so started to sing with him, to help him, and Jack stopped and gave Eric this look like, “Excuse me? I believe I am the one singing? You are totally cramping my style.” We both buried our heads in guffaws. My other favorite word from this book is the way he says “mud”: mundt. How can one little word make a heart swell so much every single time I hear it??



Yesterday in the car I was stopping for a much needed toffee nut latte and I was trying to prepare him that we were not here to get french fries; any time we are at any kind of drive through he gets all excited and starts shouting, “FWIES!!” (Bank ATMs, drive-up pharmacies…don’t YOU think they should offer fries?) So as I was trying to get him to say “coffee” I realized he’s still struggling with the “F” sound; he usually just blows air out of his mouth. So finally I said, “Mommy’s getting a LATTE” to which he replied, “wat-tey.” When we pulled away from the window, he said quietly, “Mommy. Wat-tey. Mommy…fwies???” Poor kid.

When I tell him that Daddy is on his way home from work, he often stands by the window or the door saying, “Daddy, weh-ah-you?” When we drive by Eric’s office building Jack yells, “Daddy wok!” We then usually pass the college soccer, football, and baseball fields, to which Jack says sadly, “No socceh. No fuh-ball. No baseball.” Whenever I pull into the driveway where I babysit Jack says, “Yay Nen!!” (Ben is the little boy I watch, whom Jack loves and always greets with a big hug. Unfortunately he hasn’t gotten the “B” down yet for Ben…)



One interesting development is that he recently began calling me “Anka.” It drives me crazy. Especially when we are at the grocery store as a family—a happily married and committed family—and he yells, “Daddy! Anka!” as if I am Daddy’s mistress or something. Each morning we are greeted with a delighted, “Hi Daddy! Hi Anka!” I’ve finally started to say to him, “No Jack. Not Annika. Mommy.” So occasionally now he will say, “Anka!! No… (pause) Mommy!!!” followed by a big grin.


The past few days he’s started to throw his toys up into the air just to have them come down and conk him on the head. Sometimes it gets out of hand and he ends up AIMING at the shelves of pictures on the wall. So yesterday I said to him, “Jack, that’s too much.” And for the past two days whenever he gets carried away and I say, “Jack…” he looks at me with a mischevious grin and says, “TOO MUCH!” Then last night we were walking to our car in the cold wind and Jack buried his head in Eric’s neck saying, “Too much! Too much!”


At Sunday School he learned his first song—at least the first song he’s repeated and actually sung to a tune—and the best thing is that it’s a CLEAN UP song! So whenever it’s time to put his toys or markers or blocks away, all we have to do is start singing, “Cars away, cars away, thank you for putting your cars away!” and he instantly starts singing along and putting his toys away…not only is this immensely helpful in that he doesn’t resist playtime coming to an end, but it is SO sweet to hear his little voice in this sing-song way. In fact, he some seems to want to finish what he’s doing just so he can sing the song.


Today he was watching his “Maisy” video, in which the narrator has an English accent. At one point there was a spider that came onto the screen, and Jack said, “Bug!” The narrator said, “Oh, look, Maisy, it’s a spider!” And Jack repeated just like what he had heard: “Spidah.”



He loves football these days. We almost always watch the Bears on Sunday afternoons (painfully, yes), so he loves sitting with us and yelling aggressively, “GO GO GO!!” even though neither of us ever yell like that. He also loves to throw up his arms and say, “Oh, no!” whenever any play ends. I found an Urlacher jersey at a children’s resale for $4, and he calls it his “Fuh-ball shirt” (well, he doesn’t always get the “R” in there, but he tries). He also loves wearing his Cubs baseball cap and his tennis shoes—no matter what else—if anything—he’s wearing. The only reason this is possible is that he’s learned to put on his socks and shoes by himself. Many times I’ve come in after his quiet time (i.e. Mommy-hopes-you’ll-nap-time) to find his sock drawer open and multiple layers of socks on his little feet. Since he can do this by himself, he usually has shoes and his hat on about 2.4 seconds after he wakes up in the morning. It’s quite a funny sight to witness him sitting watching his morning cartoon while still looking sleepy-eyed and rosy cheeked…and dressed to go outside.

One of his favorite cartoons at the moment is “Curious George,” which is actually quite an enjoyable little show. He can say George (minus the “R” sound), and he calls the Man in the Yellow Hat “Daddy Goh-ge.” We think this is so interesting; he calls Ben’s mom “Mama Nen” and he calls older, er, wiser-looking men, “Papa.” (Sorry Dad!) This week we were watching 101 Dalmations and when Pongo and Perdita came to rescue the puppies at the end Jack yelled, “Daddy! Anka!” Hm.



A few months ago, as he had become quite adept at using the buttons on the TV, he ended up pushing the “eject” button on the DVD side so hard that it actually popped INTO the TV and out of our reach. So at that point we were stuck with having to use the remote to open the DVD drive, which proves interesting when it is your one-year-old’s favorite toy and is often missing from sight. However…last week Ellie dropped the remote into a tub full of water. It worked okay for a few days, after drying out and getting new batteries. But then strange things started to happen.


For example, when you pressed the FF button it would mute the sound. When you hit play it would change channels. Finally, after probably a day of this madness, it just died altogether. But you know what the absolute worst, worst, WORST part about this death was? There happened to be a DVD in the DVD player that was now un-removable (is that word?). A DVD that was borrowed from the library. One that I could not WAIT to give back. One that my husband WILLINGLY checked out at Jack’s request, even though we have watched all the other ones and I have hated them all equally and begged and begged for them to be destroyed eternally—all copies, everywhere. And now I might have to actually pay for and OWN this movie? HECK NO.

AIR BUD: WORLD PUP.




Just the thought of this soccer-playing-dog disaster flick makes me shudder. I am praying desperately for the TV to work again very soon so we can get this awful excuse for a movie back to the library without having to pay for it. And just for the record…guess what Eric checked out at the library with Jack this week? AIR BUD: SEVENTH INNING FETCH. “But we haven’t seen that one!” Oh. My. Goodness.



Speaking of prayer…tonight as we prayed, Jack repeated just about every prayer request, which is so precious to hear. When we prayed for family, he said the names after me, “Daddy. Mommy. Ah-yee. Papa. Gram-ca (his version of Grandma). Nana. Grampapa (or something like this, for Grandpa Marc). Connie (for Grandma Connie). Rika (Aunt Marika). Jon. Beebee Sol. Mika. Simin (Simeon). Manna (Amanda, neighbor girl). Anna (sick girl at church).” At the end he said, “Tee-too Gee-sss. Ah-meen.” What wonderful words to witness.



Lastly…any ideas what a “munch” is? I promise it’s not what you might think. It took us awhile to figure it out, but here are a few clues: “Mama, watch!” “Daddy, doggie sockr.” Ellie: Hm…I wonder what would happen if I put the munch in the bathtub… Mommy: “Oh, no, Eric! The munch is broken!!!!!”


For my own sake (and possibly any interested grandparents or aunts and uncles), I’m going to list his current words…please don’t feel obligated to read my list…I know it’s more for my own fascination years down the road…


Pizza passa (pasta) cheese bet (bread) peas mak (milk) ice wawo (ice water) fuh-bah (fruit bar, often confused with football) ckr ckr (cracker) cookie ice keem chochit (chocolate) appo nana (banana) beh-fis (breakfast) nunch (lunch) dinno (dinner) boo (bowl) pate (plate) fohk (fork) poon (spoon) pup (cup)


Doggie puppy ki-ee (kittey) monking (monkey) chi-chen (chicken, also kitchen) sox (fox) ratoon (raccoon) A-fant (elephant) RARRR! (lion) peeg (pig) oww or “oo-oo!” (owl) sish (fish) bid (bird)


Ah-pane (airplane) choo-choo or twain choo choo twacks cahs (cars) twucks boat bike


One two free foh fize six seh-men eight nine ten eh-neh-men tweve tirteen porteen fizteen sixteen seh-menteen eighteen nineteen (although usually not in order, more like, “1, 2, 5, 6, 10” or sometimes he points as he counts and says, “1, 2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 3, TEN!!!!”)


Mah-kuhs (markers) cuhrs (colors, meaning crayons) popper (paper) books watch (meaning movie please) bocks (blocks) socky (soccer ball) basset ball (basketball) fuh-ball baseball pay (play)


bweenkie (blankie) nigh-night jamma time guys (referring to your three musketeers: puppy, baby bear, and doctor bear—your bedtime buddies) wops (wipes) duper (diaper) shit (shirt, though there is a hint of an “R” so it doesn’t always sound like profanity) pants socks shoes hat coat


Jack Jackson Mommy/Mama/Anka Daddy/Eh-ick Aye-yee (Ellie) Papa Gram-ca (Grandma Whitaker ) Nana (Eric’s mom) Connie (Grandma Connie) Gramp-ca (or some version of “grandpa” and “gramca” and “papa,” for Grandpa Marc) Rika and Jon (aunt and uncle) Bee-bee Sol (Solomon) Mika (Mikaila) Simin (Simeon) Nanen (Nathan) Bob (Rob) Nanet (Janet) Ee-mee (Amy, Mommy’s friend) Nen, Ah-yee, Joe, Smmm (Ben, Allie, Joe, and Sam)


Sat (sad) boon (ballon) awight (alright) uh-kay ah done tee-too (thank you) up hop (help) see uh-men (oven) cook hot white snow yights (lights)


chuch (church) Gee-ss (Jesus) pay (pray) ah-meen (amen) sing


Eye-you (I love you) Bye bye ‘Min! (come in!) He-yo (hello) Wheresaball (toy/book/blankie/car, etc.)? No push Aye-yee Sah-ee (sorry) Jack no touch



He has so many more words than this, and he learns more and refines the old every day. What an exciting time in life, to watch actual ongoing development right before your eyes. My mom always teases me when I beam with pride over his cognitive growths, because she says it’s the “teacher in me,” which I guess I partly true. I am fascinated by child development, so it’s probably one of the reasons I was drawn to teaching the little ones. But I also think that most parents must go through at least some phase (if not all phases!)where they are in awe of their child’s abilities and developmental progress. I was recently reading in a parenting book about the stage from infancy to five years, and how the one word that characterizes this time is change. There is such rapid growth and development, they say, that many parents end up thinking their child is a genius because “They catch on so fast!” or “He learned ten new words today” or that kind of thing. When in reality, most kids DO develop and change at these ridiculous paces during these years. So teacher or parent—I am loving Jack’s changing abilities and having a front row seat for the day to day progression of toddler to pre-K little boy.


Although… I could write an entirely different post about the things I especially do NOT like about this stage, such as the daily challenging of our authority and his hourly choices to disobey…these aspects of this age are wearing me out. But let’s save that discussion for another day.


P.S. I tried to do spell check before I posted this, but it was taking so long because of all the phonetically spelled words that I gave up. Sorry.



P.P.S. Just a little disclaimer: I am so fed up with Blogger. Every single time I add a picture or change a format it adds about three spaces between each paragraph. I cannot for the life of me get it to look normal. So, I have no idea how it will post.

I'll give you CLEAR, and I'll give you BLUE

But this sure won't be EASY.