The Balice Palace

It's another BOY!

2012-02-11T00:20:00.000-08:00

This is the first thing that we saw when the ultrasound tech placed the wand on my belly today:

Apparently, we do not make shy boys! Baby Boy Balice #2 was on display for us quite clearly! We already suspected it was going to be a boy. At our previous ultrasound, when I had just entered the second trimester, the tech thought she saw "something" and although it was early, we were preparing ourselves for the boy outcome...and she was indeed correct! So Jakey gets a little brother! And we get another Baby Boy Balice! The first one turned out pretty darn cute, so we can't wait to see what this one will be like!

This is a profile shot from today's ultrasound. Today was the anatomy scan, where they check to make sure the organs are developing properly. Everything looked great, and Baby Boy Balice is healthy and developing right on track!

This is what the Baby Boy Balice Bump looks like at 19 1/2 weeks. I will hit the half-way mark next week, and if the second half of the pregnancy goes as fast as the first half, Baby Boy Balice will be here before we know it!! I'm due on the 4th of July, but I'm convinced that this baby will be here in June. I'm already measuring a few days ahead, and Jakey was a week early, so I have a feeling this baby will also make an early appearance!

Baby Boy Balice has been kicking up a storm lately! Joe was able to feel the baby kick tonight for the first time, and baby boy was doing some serious kicking during my ultrasound today too. Maybe he didn't like the ultrasound wand pressing down on him for that long? :) Since we "knew" we were having a boy, we were completely prepared for the boy result today. I'm actually really glad we had over a month to prepare! We are excited for Jake to have a brother, and happy that we will get to reuse many of the same clothes/toys. But if one more person says "you're going to save a ton of money" because we're having another boy, I think I'm gonna scream! I was so looking forward to spending money on girly stuff. Oh well, next time! :) We are so happy that the baby is healthy, and we already know what to do with a boy! The funny thing is, I'm picturing another little Jake - looks and personality - but this baby may (and probably will) be totally different! I can't wait to find out what he will be like! I just hope this baby is a good sleeper like Jake!!

We are excited to be able to finalize Baby Boy Balice #2's name (although I really like calling him Baby Boy Balice #2, can you tell?!) and figure out his nursery! Now that we know for sure that he's a boy, we can get the ball rolling on preparing for his arrival. I'm more relaxed about it this time, since we already have baby boy clothes/bedding, a crib, changing table, etc. The big decision will be what room to put him in, and what color(s) to paint his room...

A few recent pics of Jake from my new iphone:

watching his show

playing the "guitar" at Kyra & Dylan's house

smiley guy

close up!

Jake's first Jamba Juice

saying cheese outside of Buca di Beppo

Our first Baby Boy Balice is such a funny little guy. He is loving preschool, and asking to go there more often! He loves "special treats" and he was so excited to go with mommy to get a "special drink" this week. He was so cracked out on the Jamba Juice, it was hilarious. He also earned some special treats when he went pee pee on the potty before bath the other night! He was rewarded with jelly beans, and we were hoping this would start a potty trend, but so far, it has not. He turns 2 1/2 next month, and I'm not going to get serious about potty training until then. I'm hoping he decides to go on his own before that, but we'll see what happens. He is talking so much, and having full on conversations with us! It's crazy how big he's getting! He's also growing taller, and is fitting into 4T size shirts already! I'm sure there's so much more to say about Jakey Jake, but my pregnancy brain can't think of it right now. And it's getting late, so time to sign off for the night and get some sleep. More Jakey and baby updates to come...

18 weeks and counting...

2012-02-01T22:58:00.000-08:00

I'm now 18 weeks pregnant and just 2 weeks away from being half-way done! Holy crap, how did that happen so fast!? I guess chasing after a rambunctious toddler makes the time fly by :) Next week is our BIG appointment where we find out the gender of Baby Balice #2...I'm actually enjoying my last week of not knowing! But at the same time, it will be nice to know for sure and start planning accordingly. If it is a boy, we won't need much in the way of clothing. Since our little man is well adjusted to his big boy bed, we will be using Jake's crib for #2 regardless of the baby's gender. We'll most likely use the same bedding if it's another boy. I have several friends who are also currently pregnant - they all have one boy already, and are all pregnant with boys again (one of them is having twin boys!) It seems to be really hard to break out of the same-gender-sibling cycle...most moms I know have either all girls or all boys. I am determined to break this cycle one day!

Jakey's latest preschool lunch: raisins, honey wheat pretzel rods, ham, cheese, baked peapod crunchies, and strawberries. I'm having so much fun making his bento box style lunches, and he seems to enjoy them as well! He's not really into sandwiches (he completely refuses PB&J, and will pull apart other varieties) so this makes the most sense for him. This way he gets a variety, and it's colorful and fun! I love the reusable silicone cupcake liners, and Jakey likes them too!

Speaking of preschool, Jake has been loving it! He only cried a couple times when I dropped him off - I think it was his second week - and according to his teacher, he stopped crying right after I left. Now he walks right in and starts playing right away, and I have to ask him for a hug and kiss goodbye! Guess he has adjusted! I knew he would. He loves playing with other kids and every time I pick him up, he is in a great mood! On Tuesday, while we were driving to school, he was chanting "it's preschool time!" We're so happy that he likes it and is having tons of fun and hopefully learning a thing or two as well! He talks about playing with his friends and even lists them by name :) We're planning to increase his schedule to 3 half days per week (instead of 2) over the summer when he's closer to age 3. This will give me 3 mornings alone with Baby Balice #2, and hopefully help all of us with the transition from one child to two! It was really hard to wrap our brains around having one baby (until he arrived), and now it is really hard for us to think about the logistics of having 2 kids...I think it is just a "figure it out as you go" kind of thing!

Jakey-isms

2012-01-23T19:56:00.000-08:00

Jake has become quite the conversationalist, so before we start to forget the hilarity that comes out of his mouth, I thought I'd better start documenting some of his latest and greatest phrases:

"I need ALL DONE!" when he is finished with a meal.

He likes to sing "Moo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooves like Jagger!" with mommy :)

When Joe asked Jake if he got to sit in a police car at his class, Jake replied "It was amazing!"

"I don't see ______ ANYWHERE!" (The blank can be a toy or a person, even one of his buddies that is sitting right next to him!)

"PaPaGran" (one word) for my parents

"KyraDylan" (one word) for his twin friends Kyra & Dylan

"I want to play with mine train set."

"I need ABCDEFG!" when he wants to go on his favorite ABC web site

He says "I need muffins!" when he sees Jimmy, our favorite waiter when we go out to dinner with Gran once a week (they always bring muffins and soda bread to the table)

"I need olives (sounds like ah-yivs)" to the waitress when we go to a local Italian restaurant that we frequent

"I have an idea." What is your idea, Jake? He usually doesn't have an answer for that :)

When I told him we were out of his blueberry waffles and needed to go get more he said "go to Trader Joe's!"

"Take a bite" when he wants to feed you his food.

"Pa Pa/Gran/Dada/Mama a road" when he wants to drive his cars on one of us

"I can't wait!"

"I need oatmeal with raisins on it."

"It's raisin toast time!" Can you tell the kid likes raisins? :)

"I don't know!"

When I tell him we're going to preschool he says "go see mine friends."

"I don't see Sharky & Bones!" and "Where's Cubby?" when he's watching Jake and the Neverland Pirates

"Follow me!"

"It's CHOCOLATE!" when he sees anything that resembles chocolate

"Chloe/Sophie (our cats) is being naughty!"

he likes to shout "ALVIN!" (from Alvin and the Chipmunks)

"It's bath time!"

"Big-uh Boy-uh Bed!"

"Na-no Keen" for Lightning McQueen from the Cars movie

"I Jakey Jake."

When I told him the other day that we were going to the mall he says to me "Go see Santa!"

"I fall down and go boom!" after falling on purpose

"Aw coconuts!" which he learned from Jake and the Neverland Pirates

"I need cake!" at random times

"I goin' crazy!" while he's running in a zig-zag pattern all around the house!

I'm sure there are many, many more that my pregnancy brain cannot think of right now. But, as you can tell, he's pretty entertaining!

Our little smarty pants now knows all of his letters and numbers and can sing his ABCs. He knows many colors and tons of shapes (he loves shapes!) including squares, circles, rectangles, triangles, ovals, diamonds, hearts, stars, crescents and hexagons! He loves to sing Jingle Bells, Ring Around the Rosie, ABCs, and the theme song from Jake and the Neverland Pirates!

He "kind of" knows about Baby Balice #2. The first day that we told him there was a baby in mommy's belly he said "uh oh!" and then later on that day when we asked him what was in mommy's belly he said "a frog." Now when we ask, he says "a baby." But when we ask him if he's going to be a big brother he replies "no." I showed him the new BOB stroller and he can now point out which side he will sit on and which side the baby will occupy. That's about the extent of his baby knowledge/acceptance so far. When we see other babies out and about he could care less, so we'll see what happens when this baby comes along :)

my attempt at taking my own baby bump pic at 16 weeks

16 and a half week baby bump (look how tall my first baby is now!)

I am now almost 17 weeks pregnant and have started to feel quite a bit of movement. No real kicks yet, but lots of "flutters" :) I have been really hungry lately and eating a ton. The nausea is all but completely gone! Yay! I occasionally gag when I'm brushing my teeth, but that's nothing compared to how I was feeling a month or so ago. Lately, my cravings have been for chocolate milk, raw carrots with ranch dressing, Little Caesars pizza and crazy bread, baked Doritos, regular coke (which I drink sparingly because of the sugar and caffeine - when I'm not pregnant I am a diet coke girl and can't stand regular soda!) and whole grain goldfish crackers. And I curse the person who decided to put Flamin' Hot Fritos in a Taco Bell burrito and play these commercials over and over during my pregnancy. Those darn things are delicious! And I have to have them once a week (sub beans for the meat, of course). Oh, and I can't get enough Chinese food! Especially fried rice. My non-preggo self has to really be in the mood for Chinese food and I can go 6 months without eating it. I don't remember craving it with Jake, but Baby Balice #2 wants it all.the.time. Maybe because it's the Chinese year of the Dragon? "Dragon Babies" are said to be blessed with luck and strength! This baby is going to come out with chopsticks in hand :)

Preschool!!!

2012-01-11T20:21:00.000-08:00

saying "cheese" at breakfast before school!

Jake's first preschool "bento box" style lunch

Jakey's awesome lunch bag!

posing before we leave

smiley guy

holding his lunch bag

it's time to go!

riding in the car on the way to school

playing right away!

he's part of the class already!

Jake's cubby!

Jake started preschool last week and it went really well! He went on Tuesday and Thursday from 8:30am to 12pm. Joe worked from home on Tuesday so he could come with me to drop off Jake for the first time. Jake was really excited to go, and as soon as we got there he started playing with the toys. We stayed for a little while, and then hugged and kissed him goodbye, and then left. I was way more emotional than I thought I'd be (darn pregnancy hormones!) but made it through the day without him! Actually, by the time I went for a walk, showered and got ready for the day, and ate a quick lunch it was time to go pick him up! The mornings go way faster than I thought they would! When we picked him up at noon, he was all smiles and happy to see us. His teachers said he had a great day and the only thing he wasn't happy about was when they tried to change his diaper. I guess the combination of the new teachers and the changing table (he likes being changed on the floor) were too much for him. But they were able to change him on Thursday despite his protests, so that was good!

I wasn't sure how this week would go, since there were 5 non preschool days in between (from last Thursday to this Tuesday). I wasn't really surprised when he was extra clingy this Tuesday when I dropped him off. He did cry for the first time, which upset me, but by the time I got back home his teacher was calling to tell me that Jake was happily playing and had stopped crying right after I left. So that made me feel much better! Let's hope there are no tears tomorrow! He hugs his teacher every time before he leaves, and he talks about his favorite parts of school (usually snack time!), so I know he is having fun! He has a lot of buddies who are in his class (we already know half the class from playgroups) so that makes it nice. Familiar faces are great!

14 and a half weeks and feeling huge!

I'm 15 weeks pregnant today and feeling quite large already! They say you show faster with your second pregnancy and they are right!! But I'm feeling so much better than I did in the first trimester, and actually getting some energy back which is great! I'm keeping up with my morning walks, although now I'm down to 4 walks a week or so, so that helps me feel a little better about the large quantities of food I'm consuming! I'm hoping to keep up the walks throughout the pregnancy, so we'll see how that goes...

We bought our first baby purchase over the weekend - a double BOB stroller! Gotta love craigslist. I was even able to find the color I wanted (orange)! You know how much I love our single BOB, and I can't believe I will be pushing 2 kids around this summer in our duallie!! All we have to buy is the carseat adaptor, and we will be ready to go! I'm keeping the single so that I don't have to push around the double stroller when Jake is in preschool, so we will have a garage full of BOBs! :)

We are looking forward to our anatomy scan on February 10th where (as long as the baby is cooperating) they will be able to tell us the gender of Baby Balice #2! For those who know how much I want a girl, this will be a big appointment for us! TMI warning...we were actually trying for a girl this time (using the Shettles method: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shettles_Method ) but things don't always work out as planned, and the particular month we conceived I had a really wacky cycle and, long story short, the girly planning didn't work out quite right...so...it could go either way! Of course I selfishly want a girl (have you SEEN the adorable clothes they make for little girls?!) but it would be great for Jake to have a little brother. The most important thing is to have a healthy baby, but would I be disappointed if Baby Balice #2 is another boy? A little bit. I'm not gonna lie. But that just means we will have to have a third and make sure we "Shettles it up" correctly next time! :) As I'm writing this I am feeling some movement so maybe the baby is trying to tell me something? We'll see what he or she has to tell us next month!

Baby Balice #2!!!

2012-01-03T19:14:00.000-08:00

Baby Balice #2 at 13 weeks, 6 days

12 week baby bump

13 week baby bump

The Balice Palace is going to have one more occupant - Jake is going to be a big brother!!! Our little firecracker is due on the 4th of July! I will be 14 weeks tomorrow, and I'm feeling much better. The first 3 months were full of nausea and exhaustion, but in the last couple of weeks I have started to feel less queasy and I have a little more energy. Our first 2 ultrasounds have shown a healthy baby developing right on track, and we will find out next month if Baby Balice #2 is Team Pink or Team Blue!

Christmas vacation!

2011-12-29T23:17:00.000-08:00

our future football star!

Hanging with Kyra T. at Jackie's birthday dinner a few weeks ago!

I have been such a bad blogger lately. But Christmastime is the busiest time of the year, right? And Joe took this week off of work so we have been goofing off on our Christmas vacation! Here is what we have been up to...

Our Christmas festivities started early...last Monday the Moms Club had a Christmas party for the kiddos complete with a visit from Santa! This photo shows Jake (kind of) hugging Santa :)

On Friday we went to Joe's work for a Christmas luncheon. Jake loved running up and down the hallways and climbing in and out of Joe's office chairs. He had a great time and acted like he owned the place (as per usual!) Friday night we took Jake to look at Christmas lights along with Gran, Pa Pa, and our friends Janice, Erik and Jake's buddies Kyra and Dylan. Jakey had so much fun looking at the lights, and surprised us by walking the entire time! Guess the view is better on foot than in the stroller?!

bundled up to check out the Christmas lights!

checking out lights with Pa Pa and Gran

my favorite house! :)

On Christmas Eve we took Jake to church in the afternoon, and we got there too late to get seats. The problem is you have to get there half an hour early on holidays to get seats, and we can't expect Jake to sit there for that long, and then sit through the entire Mass as well. We had to stand off to the side and Jake lasted about 20 minutes before we had to go. He was being pretty loud and while they were singing about Jesus, Jake was saying "Jedung!" which apparently is his word for Jesus! While they were singing another song, Jake piped up singing his ABCs. When shushing didn't work, and he got louder and starting trying to escape our clutches, we decided it was time to go :) After we got back from church, Uncle Mike came over and Jake had a good time playing with him and with his new Cookie Monster that eats cookies! Jake had already opened a few presents earlier in the day from neighbors (we have awesome neighbors!) so he was ready to get "more presents!" When I say he "opened" presents, this isn't exactly accurate. He doesn't like to actually open them or even help open them. He prefers to watch while we open them and then grab the gift once it has been opened! We all headed over to my parents house for Christmas Eve dinner and Jake got to open another present from my parents. After dinner, we went on a walk to look at Christmas lights. We saw a few nativity scenes and told Jake to look at Baby Jesus and again there were shouts of "Jedung!" Once we got home and put Jake to bed, Joe had a few hours of work ahead of him :) Too bad Santa doesn't put together the presents he brings! Joe did a great job though, and Jake's train table looked great for Christmas morning!

On Jedung's Birthday, Jake came downstairs and was a little overwhelmed! At first he said "I don't like it" which is his new phrase for "I don't want to do it"...but once we brought him over to the train table, he got over that and decided that Christmas morning was so much fun! He loved opening up his stocking and pulling out the presents (which he liked because they were unwrapped) and kept asking for "another one." He had such a great time playing with his new toys and then later on my parents and Nana came over and we had Christmas all over again! Jake got another stocking and many more presents from my parents, and of course, loved every second of it! In the days since Christmas he has asked many times for "more presents!" and we tell him he has to wait until his birthday in September :) Jake thoroughly enjoyed the Spumoni ice cream we gave him for dessert after Christmas dinner, and he also tried his first piece of homemade fudge - which he loved!

fun with Uncle Mike!

check me out!

family photo (we had to bribe Jake to sit still for this photo!)

goofing off with Pa Pa...

and Gran!

Joe's masterpiece

after Santa's arrival!

look at this!

Jake's new ATV from Uncle Tony!

man on the move!

Big Boy Bed!

Jake has become quite the big boy this week! On Monday, we switched him to his "big boy bed" which for now, is just a twin mattress on the floor. We were expecting the worst with this change, but he loved it! He loves his Cars sheets and pillows, and doesn't even try to climb out or open his bedroom door. He has been in a sleep sack since he was tiny, and we are keeping him in one (he is in the largest size right now!) to make the transition to a bed easier. He can still move around and walk in the sleep sack, but I think it helps him stay put on the bed. Once we get rid of the sleep sack, we will introduce Jake to sheets and blankets. One step at a time! :) We also had an appointment this week with the Fire Department to get Jake's carseat turned around. Now he is facing forward and loving it! I'm so glad we waited until he was 2 and almost to the weight limit for rear facing, but now it is so much fun for him to face forward and see the world! Big boy bed, and big boy carseat in one week! We can't believe our little baby boy has grown up so quickly...and is starting preschool next week! We visited the preschool last week and Jake had such a great time - his favorite parts were playing with a shapes puzzle, snack time (he loved drinking from the little dixie cups they provide) and recess! We can't wait to find out how he does when I am not there with him. I have a feeling he will be fine. It may be much harder on me than it is on him!

This week we have had a lot of fun while Daddy has been on vacation. We took Jake to the movies to see Chipwrecked, we had lunch at the airport and watched the planes take off and land, we played with his new ATV (a Christmas present from Uncle Tony!), we went to the park, etc.

Can't wait to report on how Jakey does next week at his first week of preschool. He will be going on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30 to 12, and will be eating lunch there :) Stay tuned!

O Christmas Tree

2011-12-11T20:52:00.000-08:00

so many trees, so little time!

look at the trees over there!

this is it!

the finished product!

This weekend we finally got around to picking out our Christmas tree! Jake loved running around the tree lot and checking out all the trees. He also had tons of fun unpacking our Christmas boxes and throwing everything on the floor. Unfortunately, he didn't really get that the ornaments are not toys and they have to stay on the tree. I guess it's partially my fault for buying a Mater ornament for us this year (Mater is the tow truck from the movie Cars and is one of Jake's faves). He wanted to play with it, but it had to stay on the tree. We offered him his Mater toys but he refused. Tantrums and time outs ensued. Such is life with a 2 year old!

Jake is in the Christmas spirit (although he still mentions Halloween occasionally!) and talks about Santa and Christmas lights and even sings Jingle Bells! We have a countdown to Christmas on our chalkboard and he loves to say the numbers as we countdown each day. I can't believe Christmas is only 2 weeks away! We still have to take Jake to check out some Christmas light displays, and hopefully I will have a chance to do some Christmas baking...Christmas really snuck up on us this year!

Jake has been talking so, so much lately and he is cracking us up with the phrases he comes up with. The other night I told him good night and he said "see you soon!" Today he said "water is my favorite." We had a coffee cake for dessert tonight and he said "it's cake time!" When we are out to eat he likes to asks for "something else." He also likes to tell us "I right here!" just in case we were wondering :) He loves to sing his ABCs and does a pretty good job too. Next week we get to go visit Jake's preschool and show him around so that he is ready for his first day of school on January 3rd!

Thanksgiving weekend!

2011-11-27T22:47:00.000-08:00

our little turkey on turkey day

football, anyone?

Joe looks a little cracked out here, but Jakey looks pretty cute!

my "little" cousins and me

Jake's new toy (a gift from my parents)

little drummer boy

Thanksgiving weekend went by so fast! We spent turkey day at my parents house, and enjoyed a yummy turkey dinner. Jake loved the turkey, cranberry sauce and biscuit, but didn't want to eat anything else - including my favorite part - the stuffing! One of these years he'll learn what the best part of Thanksgiving dinner is! Until then, more for me :) My Nana, Aunt & Uncle and cousins were there, along with my cousin Joey's girlfriend, and Jake was a little overwhelmed at first with all of the people. He warmed up quickly though and was soon showing off for everyone. It was so great to see all of them, and they had so much fun playing with Jake. It's just too bad we only get to see them a couple times a year.

The rest of the weekend was filled with Christmas shopping, a visit from Joe's Godmother and her daughters, dinner with friends, putting up our outdoor Christmas lights, a family photo session, our normal Sunday family dinner, and even a visit to Santa! Jake refused to sit on Santa's lap and tried to run away, but when I brought him back to Santa, Santa offered Jake his big chair to sit on! Jake loved that! Santa knelt down next to him and they were able to take a few pictures. Jake even gave Santa 2 hugs! It was such a big change from last year when he cried and screamed on Santa's lap. Santa was so nice to offer Jakey his chair, and it made all the difference. Yay! Santa success!

December is going to be such a busy month, and then Jake starts preschool on January 3rd! He is getting to be such a big boy. He is rapidly outgrowing his crib, so we decided to get him a "big boy bed" (a twin bed) this weekend. At first, we will put the mattress on the floor so he can get adjusted to the new bed without us worrying that he will fall out! Eventually, we will add the bed frame and box spring. His bed gets delivered next week, but we will probably wait until after Christmas to put it in his room, so that Joe can help with the transition (Joe is taking a few days off between Christmas and New Years). We purchased sheets and a comforter with Jake's favorite Cars characters so that will hopefully help Jake make the big switch from crib to bed. He is such a good crib sleeper, so we really don't want to mess with a good thing, but we know the longer we wait, the harder the transition will be for him, so we're going to give it a try. Wish us luck!

Christmas will be so much fun this year, now that Jakey can understand it a little bit better! We haven't decorated the inside of the house yet, but I'm hoping to get that done (or at least started!) this week. And I will have my #1 helper Jake to help me decorate! We will put up an artificial tree in the family room, and then we will get a real tree for the living room in the next few weeks. Christmas is my second favorite holiday after Halloween, and I can't wait to go full steam ahead into the Christmas season! But first, we will be celebrating Joe's birthday on Wednesday!

Football game, weekend getaway and Fire Station tour!

2011-11-14T22:11:00.000-08:00

snacking in the stands

We took Jake to the high school football game last Friday night, and he had a great time! He loves watching football on TV with daddy, and this time he got to watch the game from the stands. He lasted through the first half and all of half-time (with the help of snacks!) It was Homecoming, and they set off fireworks during the half-time show which Jake LOVED! He asked for "more" when the fireworks show was over, and when we told him it was all done, he said "go home." So we left. Maybe next year he'll be able to last into 3rd quarter! The next morning he woke up talking about the "football game" and the "2 firetrucks" he saw when we were leaving the game :)

family photo at the barn

trying out the bench

how now brown cow

This weekend we went to visit Joe's Godmother "Grandma" Geary-Ellen, and her daughters "Auntie" Christine and "Auntie" Elizabeth. They live 2 1/2 hours away and Jake did great on the car rides there and back. We stopped both ways to eat a meal, and the rest of the time, Jake napped or watched his Cars DVD. We had a great time with the girls and Jake had so much fun playing at their house and being the center of attention! We took a trip to a local barn that sells amazing pies, baked goods, etc. and Jakey had a blast checking out all the animals there. He especially liked the cows, the goats, the sheep and the ducks. On this trip we realized that Jake is getting way too big for the pack n' play, so that will make future travel quite interesting. Thanks for a great mini-vacation, girls!

Firemen, where are you?

knock, knock

talk about big wheels

firetruck fun

check me out

Jake's turn to drive!

our little Fireman

cool truck!

hanging out on the back of the firetruck

We went on a tour of a local Fire Station today with our Moms Club. Jakey had so much fun running around the Fire Station and checking out the firetrucks! His favorite part was driving the firetruck, of course :) Jake didn't even get scared when the Fireman put on all his gear. The Firemen were so nice, and patient with all of our crazy kids, and it was such a fun morning!

Jake is talking up a storm these days and repeating anything and everything. My mom taught him how to say "baby, it's cold outside!" and that is one of his faves. He also likes to say "go this way" or "go that way" when he wants to lead the way. He loves to count and knows tons of numbers and colors, and several letters as well. He also likes to say "where did ____ go?" when he is looking for a toy. He also points out when something is "way over there!" He loves playing and running around with other kids, and is starting to play pretend which is so funny to watch. He is still a ham, and loves showing off for family and friends. He still mentions Halloween but we are trying to get him to warm up to the idea of Thanksgiving :) He likes to say "gobble gobble" when he sees a turkey, and he loves cranberries, and football, so he will probably have a blast on turkey day!

HALLOWEEN 2011!!!!

2011-11-02T21:59:00.000-07:00

Jakey as Gilligan!

Jake was able to wear his costume for the first time last Tuesday at his toddler class. He loves wearing hats, and the shirt and pants were regular clothes, but the "life preserver" I made out of paper plates took some getting used to :) I took it off once he started playing in class, because otherwise it would have been thrashed! He loves our weekly class, and his favorite part is snack time where he gets crackers and juice! Juice is a special treat for him so he loves it!

my artichoke dip display for MNO

hanging with bat girl at MNO

Thursday night was my MNO (moms night out) party which was held at our scary house. We had a great turnout with almost 30 moms! It was such a fun night! About half of the moms dressed up, and I had a lot of fun playing hostess as a witch. They all loved our creepy decor and it was a great way to test out all of our lighting, fog machines, etc. before Halloween.

ready for trunk or treat!

our scary trunk!

taking inventory of all his candy

look what I got!

hangin' with Dylan and Kyra

group shot of the mommies and kiddos from our Wednesday playgroup

chocolate face

On Friday afternoon/evening we took Jake to "trunk or treat" (an event put on by MOMS Club) so he could practice his trick-or-treating skills before Halloween! Jake was Gilligan and so Joe and I dressed to go along with this theme as well. He was the Professor and I was Mary Ann. Jake had such a good time going to each trunk and getting candy that he would say "next one!" every time because he wanted more and more and more :) And he kept saying "open" because he wanted to open all the candy. After he was done "trunk or treating" I let him choose one piece of candy to eat and he chose a sucker. After a few minutes he bit into it and it broke, so he freaked out! I decided to let him have some chocolate covered raisins to replace the sucker. He liked them so much that he tried to eat the ones that he had spilled on the ground! After that, I said no more candy. And then, they wanted to take group pictures. Jake does not sit still for much, and pictures do not make that list. So he got yet another piece of candy....a mini crunch bar. This kept him still and quiet for the pictures, but he held the crunch bar and licked it instead of taking bites. This resulted in chocolate mouth and chocolate hands...and way too much sugar for a 2 year old. But, Halloween only comes once a year and he hardly ever gets to eat candy so I'm glad he got to experience his first sugar rush :)

Oh Lucy!

Saturday night Joe and I went to an adult Halloween party and we had so much fun dressing up as Lucy and Ricky! The wig I tried on didn't look right so I decided to spray my hair red for the night and it turned out great! And Joe found out that his drum doubled as a pretty awesome drink holder :)

our graveyard

our creepy zombie popping out of the coffin

let's get this trick or treating started!

family shot before trick or treating

our carved pumpkins

chatting with my friend Jennifer and her son (Jake's buddy) Luke

this is what I wore to hand out candy :)

hangin' with his buddy Lukas who came over to check out the scary house

Halloween night was so much fun! Jake had a great time trick or treating - we went to maybe 10 or 12 houses and then came home to hand out candy! Jake kept saying "next house!" and "open" every time he got a piece of candy. He said "trick or treat" at every house and said "thank you" at most of the houses too. It was so much more fun this year because he was able to walk and talk! Once we got home we let him choose one piece of candy to eat and he chose another sucker - his fave! This time he didn't bite it and was able to eat almost the whole thing. And yes, we brushed his teeth very well that night :) I spent the next few hours scaring kids and handing out candy. A few kids even thought I was a scary prop! We had a few visits from some friends and their kids and luckily, their little ones were not too scared of the house. We had so many trick or treaters this year that we almost ran out of candy. We did run out of the full size candy bars, and had to switch to the smaller size candy! The trick or treaters loved our spooky house and the best line of the night was when one of the kids said "haunted houses give out the best candy!" All in all, it was a scary and fun Halloween, just the way I like it! Jakey had a great time and so did we. Can't wait for next year!!!

Mr. Jake's wild ride!

2011-10-23T23:45:00.000-07:00

Jake's first solo trip on a ride:

This week, we met our Wednesday playgroup at a local pumpkin patch. We had so much fun! Jake spent about 30 minutes in the bounce house, and I thought he would never stop jumping! But finally, I persuaded him to check out the swings. I wasn't too sure that Jakey would be up for riding on his own, but he LOVED it! He is quite the little adrenaline junkie and had to ride it twice in a row! He had a huge smile on his face and was asking for more as soon as it was over. The only way I could convince him to exit the swings was to promise him another ride. So we headed over to the spinning ride (kind of like the teacups but up in the air) and although I didn't feel losing my breakfast, I took one for the team and rode the ride with my little man. I held off on the spinning for the first half of the ride, and just let it fly us around, and then decided to turn the wheel and slowly spin...Jake loved it of course! I had to close my eyes because I was getting dizzy (I am so NOT a fan of the teacups!) but Jake was having a blast! Luckily, I kept my breakfast down :) Finally, we made our way over to the huge inflatable slide. It was beyond difficult to climb up the slippery "stairs" without shoes on (socks only!) while helping Jake climb up too. It was a long process to get to the top because we would slip back down every few feet. Finally, some kind soul helped pull Jake up to the very top, so we could slide down. It was really fast, and so much fun! And when we were done, Jake said "again!" So up we went, one more time. Next time, maybe Daddy can take him on the inflatable slide! At least I got my work out in for the day...

testing out a few props for one of Joe's Halloween costumes

"Babalu!"

My parents found some great "props" at the flea market for one of Joe's Halloween costumes (yes, I said one of), and Jake just had to test them out! He loved wearing the hat and didn't want to take it off, and had so much fun banging on the drum! Jake actually looks quite a bit like Little Ricky if you ask me! We are dressing up as a family (as part of the cast of the same show) for "Trunk or Treat" and for Halloween, but Joe and I are dressing up as something different for an adult Halloween party next weekend. We tried on Jake's costume today and he looks so darn cute! Can't wait to post pictures but I will wait until after Halloween. I am also dressing up for this month's "moms night out" for moms club, which will be at my house on Thursday! I volunteered for October so that I could show off my scary Halloween house :) I will be wearing 3 totally different costumes for 3 different functions. All will be revealed soon...

This week is crazy busy, but will be so much fun. Jake gets to wear his Halloween costume to our class on Tuesday, Joe and I will be celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary on Wednesday, and then my moms club Halloween party is Thursday. We have "Trunk or Treat" on Friday, and our adult Halloween party on Saturday, followed by my cousin's wedding on Sunday, and HALLOWEEN on Monday!

Pumpkin Patch Kid

2011-10-16T23:01:00.000-07:00

showing off one of his MANY Halloween shirts!

talking to the witch in our front yard :)

he didn't feel like standing still for the "how tall this fall?" chart but you get the idea

"ALL ABOARD" the wagon ride

climbing up the hay stacks

check me out

wheelbarrow fun!

so many pumpkins to choose from!

"this one!"

kissing his pumpkin

rollin' on outta here!

With October half over, we still hadn't taken our little pumpkin to pick out his very own pumpkin...until yesterday. We told Jake we were taking him to the pumpkin patch and he got very excited! He knows all about the pumpkin patch from all of his Halloween books, and he couldn't wait to get there! It didn't disappoint. This farm has a huge Fall Festival every weekend in October, and this weekend happened to be "Antique Tractor Weekend!" Jake loved checking out the tractors, riding on the wagon, seeing the animals, climbing the haystacks, playing on the wooden "choo choo train," and picking out his pumpkin! We were the first ones on the wagon ride and Jake kept saying "all aboard!" while the rest of the families were boarding the wagon and throughout the ride! It was so cute. He had so much fun that he didn't want to leave. We literally had to drag him out of there. Maybe one day he will get over the kicking-and-screaming-when-he-doesn't-want-to-leave-somewhere-fun phase. We can only hope!

Despite the tantrum at the end, it was a fun family day at the pumpkin patch! We had a great time and are looking forward to carving the pumpkins we picked out yesterday :) With only 15 days left until Halloween, we are kicking our decorating into high gear. Our yard display is coming along, and Jake loves to talk to the witch and run through the graveyard! We are practicing his "trick or treat" and he knows that when he says that phrase on Halloween, he gets "candy!" Every time we go to a store with a Halloween display, Jake asks for "more Halloween" when it is out of sight. This year will be so much more fun now that Jake can walk and talk. Last year we had to push him around in his car and speak for him, but this year he will be able to walk up to houses on his own and say "trick-or-treat!" How exciting!

Our little guy has become such a talker lately. The other morning he said a complete sentence: "Where did Chloe go?" (Chloe is one of our cats) and it blew me away. He likes to sing a song from the Disney channel "all aboard the choo choo train" and he loves to say "read it again" when he wants to keep reading a book. He can say all of the pieces of play food in his kitchen by their correct names, and he likes to pretend to eat them :) His new favorite phrases are to say something is "right here" or "over there." He likes to pretend that his family and friends are on a choo choo train. If I say "Daddy's at work" he will say "Dada choo choo train." Pa Pa, Nana, me and some of Jake's friends have all been on this made up train. Today he said that Chloe was on a choo choo train! He also loves numbers and right now this is how he counts: "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20." He is getting so big so quickly and it's so fun to think about what he will come up with next!

Jake's 2nd Birthday - The Monkey Party!

2011-10-05T21:50:00.000-07:00

our little monkey

checking out the animal show

he would not sit still for the show!

me and my 2-year-old!

the birthday plates

the monkey cake I made for Jake!

banana candies

monkey cupcakes

banana chips

the drink table

don't these jars make for cute drinking glasses?

the party favors

party snacks

signage

more signage :)

monkey centerpieces

our little monkey checking out a real monkey!

Jake's birthday banner

the water bottles

cake time!

we helped him blow out his candle

eating his cake with a fork

family photo time

special birthday shirt

climbing down the stairs

the birthday boy

giving his friend Avery a hug goodbye! so adorable!

My biggest regret from Jake's 1st birthday party is that we do not have great photos to remember the day. We took a few so-so photos with our camera but we are not the best photographers, we don't have the best camera, and we didn't have time to take very many pictures while we were busy celebrating Jake turning 1. That's why I was so excited to hire my friend Mignonne of Miggy Photography (check out her photography blog here: http://miggyhood.blogspot.com/search/label/photography ) to take photos at Jake's 2nd birthday party. She recently launched her photography business and she really took some amazing photos of Jake's big day!

I requested that she capture some of the details (I go crazy with all the details while party planning!) and she went above and beyond my expectations. She captured our dessert table in its finest, along with everything else down to the custom water bottle labels I had made. And she even managed to get a great family photo which is extremely hard with our squirmy worm - he will NOT sit still for photos! Thanks Miggy!!!

As you can see, our little monkey had a blast at his monkey-themed bash, and every time he sees a monkey now, he says "monkey cake!" I guess the monkey cake made a big impression :) Having the party at the zoo was so much fun, and even though Jake wouldn't sit still for the animal show, he liked checking out the animals at the zoo (especially the owl and, of course, the monkeys!) I refrained from posting pics of all his friends who came to the party because I don't have permission from all the mommies, but from the looks of the photos, his buddies had a great time too! And how cute is that last photo of Jake and Avery hugging? (I do have permission from my friend Jen, Avery's mommy). They are such buddies and are always excited to see each other at our Monday and Thursday playgroups!

Jake had his 2 year check up last week, and here are his current stats: he is over 36" tall (in the 95th percentile for height!) and weighs 29 lbs. (between 50th and 75th percentile for weight). I'm so excited that Jakey is still tall! I plugged his stats into the babycenter.com "child height predictor" and it says Jake will be 6'2", so we'll see if that comes true...

Poor Jake had to get two shots and a blood test (taken out of his toe!) at his appt. but he was a trooper and recovered quickly. He was not a fan of the nurse though! His development is right on track and our next check up will be in March when he is 2 1/2. Although that sounds far away now, I bet it will be here before we know it!

Halloween is approaching way too fast and I'm so excited, but have so much work to do! We started decorating the yard over the weekend and luckily we didn't get too far because the rain and the wind this week would have done some damage to our graveyard. Jake is loving all the Halloween decor and talks about the pumpkins, rats, spiders, etc. He even says "bye bye" to the witch in the front yard when we leave the house now! Even the stuff that scared him at first doesn't bother him anymore. He is adjusting really well to our scary house, and I try to make it as harmless as possible. "Say hi to the skeleton man. Mommy is going to give the skeleton man a high five. Isn't that cool?" He just thinks the scary decor is normal! Which is great because we want him to have fun with it just like we do. At his check up, his pediatrician asked him to name a few animals and he pointed to the bird with its wings outstretched and said "bat!" This kid has Halloween on the brain. And I couldn't be happier!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I did not go to garage sales on the 24th because it was the day of Jake's party, but I did go on Saturday (October 1st) and they sucked. Big time. The only thing I bought was this toy helicopter for $1. Jake loves it! But that was it. My mom didn't even get anything. This Saturday my mom will be out of town and Joe is playing in a work-related basketball tournament so I won't get a chance to go. Hopefully, we'll resume our garage saling next weekend. And hopefully, the sales will be much better!

Blog-worthy birthday party photos!

2011-09-28T21:02:00.000-07:00

Yay! Check out some of Jake's birthday party photos on my friend Mignonne's blog!!! Such amazing photos! Thanks for capturing all the details, Miggy!

http://miggyhood.blogspot.com/2011/09/monkey-see-monkey-do.html

Jake's 2nd Birthday!

2011-09-25T23:56:00.000-07:00

posing with the birthday boy on his big day

mommy, Jakey and a truck

on the train!

checking out the empty train car

peek a boo

Jake and Joe on the train

not sure what he loved more - the rocks or the trains!

hurry up daddy!

birthday cupcake

he wanted a fork for the frosting :)

playing with his huge birthday balloon!

Jake had a very eventful birthday week! Wednesday was his actual birthday, and Joe took the day off so we could celebrate as a family. We drove down to "Travel Town" to check out the trains. Jake loved the train ride, and he had a blast checking out the real train cars. He was having so much fun that it was hard to get him to leave. Eventually, we made our way back to the car and drove back to have lunch at our local Red Robin. Jakey had a yummy lunch, and then they brought him an ice cream sundae for dessert. It was really cute to see his reaction as the wait staff sang "Happy Birthday" to him :)

For dinner that night we BBQed hot dogs (Jake's fave) and had my parents, Nana and Joe's mom (who was in town for Jake's birthday) over for dinner. My parents brought us cupcakes for dessert, and we put a candle in Jake's and sang to him again. He had a great time opening presents and running around the house with his ginormous birthday balloon!

On Saturday, we had a birthday party for Jake at the zoo! It was monkey/banana themed, and as usual, I went a little nuts with the party decorations. Although I couldn't go too crazy, because we only had an hour to decorate before the guests arrived! The first part of the party was the animal show, and Jake would not sit still for longer than 30 seconds! He just wanted to roam around which would have been ok, except for the fact that the animal trainers didn't want him to get too close to the animals, and so we were constantly trying to get him to step away from the stage. Many tantrums, and many tears later, the animal show was over :) There were 2 monkeys in the show, along with a variety of other animals including a beaver and a goat. (Feel free to insert your own jokes here.) After the show, it was lunch time, and then cake time! Jake loved his monkey cake although I think he liked looking at it more than actually eating it! A few forkfulls of frosting and a bite or two of the cake and he was "all done." Then it was time to run around the zoo with daddy, while I stayed behind at the party area to say to play hostess.

All in all, it was a great birthday celebration. Despite Jake's crankiness during the animal show, the rest of the day went smoothly, and it seemed like all of the guests had a good time monkeying around at the zoo! We didn't take too many photos because I had hired my friend who just launched her photography business to take photos - check out her blog here: http://miggyhood.blogspot.com/ Can't wait to see her photos soon!

the beaver

the goat

all smiles before cake time

cake time

singing to our 2 year old!

Happy Birthday Jake!

This year it was so much more fun for Jake to have a birthday! We prepared him in advance and he knew that his birthday meant cake and "hesents" (presents) :) He could say "Happy Birthday" and he said it all weekend long! He loved his monkey cake and he loved checking out all his birthday cards and "opening" (watching me open) his presents. He kept wanting us to "open" each present so he could play with the new toy, read the new book, etc. Our friends and family were too generous and Jakey aquired way too many gifts! Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate our little man's 2nd birthday! It was so great to have all of Jake's buddies there to celebrate with him! This year he actually had friends to invite! We can't believe our cool little dude is now 2. No more counting months! And now it's time to start thinking about next year's party theme :)

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY JAKE!

2011-09-21T21:47:00.000-07:00

Jakey thoroughly enjoying his ice cream sundae today at his birthday lunch!
His favorite parts were the whipped cream and the maraschino cherry!

2 tomorrow!

2011-09-20T20:39:00.000-07:00

our little Ghostbuster!

playing with my latest garage sale finds: a Halloween spider and a rat!

Jakey started wearing his Halloween shirts on Friday, and he looks so adorable in them if I do say so myself! :)

Jake's new birthday present from us

playing with the kitchen

he loves his new kitchen!

We bought Jakey a play kitchen for his birthday and we put it together over the weekend and gave it to him early. He loves it and so do I! It's so much fun! Every morning he dumps out his huge "grocery bag" of play food and we "cook" together in his kitchen.

And last but not least, my garage sale finds from Saturday....all Halloween related and all at the same sale. A talking skeleton groom (to match the bride I already have from another garage sale!!), 2 bags of creepy cloth, a spider, a rat and (not pictured) several Halloween serving spoons/salad tongs. All for $18. Which is a great deal considering the skeleton alone would have gone for at least double if not triple that price at a Halloween store.

my garage sale finds from Saturday

Tomorrow is Jake's 2nd birthday!!!!!! Joe took the day off and we are headed to Travel Town to check out the "choo choo trains"! And we are looking forward to his monkey themed birthday party on Saturday! Lots of birthday photos to come...

Saturday's sales and my little homie

2011-09-14T21:27:00.000-07:00

After last week's great garage sale finds, I was excited to head out on Saturday to see what these sales had to offer. Unfortunately, there were"slim pickins" this week. I only came home with two things:

a small hamper for Jakey-size clothes for $3 (I intend to repaint it before it goes into his room), and yet another stuffed monkey for Jake's party for 50 cents. Last week's sales were a hit, and this Saturday's sales were a miss. You just never know.

Here is my little homie before nap time the other day. For those of you who say you've never seen Jake suck his thumb, here's the proof! As soon as he holds a stuffed animal, blanket, or really anything remotely soft, his thumb goes into his mouth. Also, when he is tired before nap time or bed time, he will lay down and say "night night" and suck his thumb. This is what he is doing here. And as soon as his head hits the crib, the thumb sucking begins. We tried to give him a binky (pacifier) when he was a newborn, but he never took to it. It just kept falling out. Eventually, we gave up. But, he started sucking his thumb before he was born (we saw him doing it on one if the ultrasounds!) It doesn't bother us, and we actually think it's pretty cute! I'm glad we don't have to worry about Jake crying in the middle of the night if his pacifier falls out (I have friends who have to get up several times a night to stick the pacifier back into their child's mouth) and I'm glad we don't have to worry about weaning him from a binky. Hopefully, he will just grow out of thumb sucking in the next few years, because eventually, it could mess up his teeth. But until his dentist tells us there is a problem, we don't mind his cute little habit. And as for the backwards hat - sometimes he just likes to wear it that way! If he wants to wear his hat inside the house, I usually turn it around so it is easier for him to see.

T minus 7 days until Jake's 2nd birthday! But who's counting? :)

Garage sale finds, Craigslist bargain and Labor Day weekend!

2011-09-05T23:54:00.000-07:00

my garage sale haul from Saturday!

monkeys, Halloween stickers, an "Early Man" book

sports themed wrapping paper, 2 boxes of glass jars, huge roll of twine, scary Halloween skull

I heart this dresser (my bargain of the day!!!)

a heavy duty dolly

Garage sales are a hit or miss thing. Some days you find carloads, some days you come home empty handed. That is what I love about them! It's all about the hunt. We (my mom and I -- we garage sale together every Saturday morning) weren't sure what to expect this Saturday because it was a holiday weekend. There were a decent amount of sales advertised, so we set off a little before 8am to check them out. It actually turned out to be a great "saling" day and we ended up buying quite a bit. At one of the first sales we hit I scored that realistic looking Halloween skull for $2, and (after a call to Joe to confirm that he needed/wanted one) that heavy duty dolly for $20 (similar dollies retail for over $100 at Home Depot)! Joe needs a dolly to help him move all of the furniture I buy at garage sales :) I purchased the monkeys (decorations for Jake's upcoming monkey-themed birthday party!), big roll of twine (I use twine for tons of things and go through it quickly!) and Halloween stickers at another garage sale for a total of $5. The boxes of small mason jars are also going to be used at Jake's party, and they were 25 cents each, so I bought 20 ($5 worth). The wrapping paper came from the same sale and was 50 cents, and they gave me the "Early Man" book for free (which will be used as a Halloween decoration!) The best deal of the day was this adorable dresser I scored! I will use it in our guest room now and as a dresser/changing table in the future for our next Baby Balice. It is in good condition and I love the pale green color and of course the chipping paint just adds character! All it needs is a good cleaning and new handles! Ready for the price? $5!!! Isn't that amazing? I think it's hilarious that I paid 4 times as much for the dolly than the dresser! So my grand total for the day was: $37.50. That is actually on the higher end of what I typically spend, but the dolly will definitely come in handy for any future furniture moving needs! Actually, we have already used the dolly to help move our old entertainment armoire into the garage...which brings me to my next topic: my recent Craigslist bargain!

our old "entertainment" armoire

We purchased the armoire in the above photo when we bought our house 4 years ago. We needed a tall cabinet to hide the existing hole in the wall that the previous owner had left behind for us! Yes, you heard that right, a HOLE! They had cut a hole in the wall for their small TV (the hole only fits a 20-something inch TV or so!) The wall backs up to the closet under the stairs so that is where the other side of the hole is - every time you open the closet door you see this square hole in the wall! These were the same people that took the light bulbs and shower curtains with them when they moved out! Classy. Anyway, we used this armoire to house our TV and TV accessories. It worked out great until recently. This armoire was not made as an entertainment cabinet, so the cabinet doors do not slide in. This means that we had to have the doors open while watching TV. No big deal, right? Wrong. Our little man is getting so tall that he was very close to hitting his head on these open doors every time he ~~walked~~ ran by. So...my Dad and Joe took the upper doors off the armoire. And it looked awful! The wood was a different color where the hinges used to be, and it just looked really bad. Of course I was glad that Jakey wouldn't have the chance to hurt himself on it now, but very unhappy with the look of the door-less armoire. So I started my Craigslist (CL) search for a new entertainment cabinet. I admit that I am a garage sale junkie, but I do not have the same affinity for CL. I only search the CL ads when I am looking for something specific. And this time I was. I was looking for a shorter, wider cabinet that we could place our TV on top of. We have always wanted to purchase a larger TV and one drawback to the armoire was that it could only hold up to a 32" TV. We knew that when we decided to buy a larger TV we would need to purchase a different piece of furniture for it. Little did we know that the new piece of furniture would be in place before we bought the bigger TV! Leave it to CL to have exactly what I was looking for the first time I looked! I took one look at the CL photo, and thought it would be perfect for us...so I emailed the seller to ask about the dimensions and if it was still available. Luckily, it was! And it would take up almost the entire width of our wall, but it would fit! Yay! And the best part? The price....

our new entertainment cabinet!

Now that you've seen what it looks like, how much do you think we paid? If you guessed less than the total of my garage sale purchases from Saturday, you'd be right! $35 for this piece. No joke. However, our truck resources were not available when we needed them, so we had to rent a truck from Home Depot to get this large piece of furniture home. The truck rental cost us more than the furniture did (about $40)! But for a grand total of $75 to get the furniture to our house I'd say it was worth it! Isn't it beautiful?!? Our Blu-ray player, TiVo box and Xbox fit nicely behind the glass, and that leaves us with 3 drawers and a large cabinet for tons of storage. There is only one problem:

Our TV looks tiny on top of this huge piece of furniture! And it doesn't cover up the hole in the wall. (My dad has since cut a thin piece of wood that my mom painted the same color as our wall to help hide the hole and this photo was taken after they nailed this piece of wood in place. If you look closely, you can see the edge of this piece of wood on the left side of the TV - right next to Millie from Team Umizoomi!) So...what to do, what to do? Well...we ended up taking advantage of the Labor Day sales this weekend and bought a larger TV! We got a great deal from Costco.com and with the sale price and free shipping we just couldn't resist! The best part is that this piece of furniture is the perfect height so we can place the new TV on top of the cabinet and will not have to deal with the hassle and expense of mounting the new TV on the wall! Yay! So I guess my great CL deal turned out to be much more expensive than we thought, if you count the new TV. But we have been wanting one for several years, and waiting for the price to come down. The new cabinet and the Labor Day sales were the perfect storm and we will now be receiving our ginormous TV in 7-10 days. Woohoo! And now we are trying to sell our old armoire on CL which is turning out to be a little harder than we thought. Guess no one needs an entertainment armoire anymore because everyone else already has ginormous TVs that are mounted on the wall! So we will try Plan B and market it as an armoire for clothing and/or extra storage. I'll keep you posted on how that turns out and I will post more pics as soon as we get our new TV!

A few new pics of Jakey "driving" the rental truck and goofing around with Pa Pa:

Hope you all had a fabulous Labor Day weekend! We spent the long weekend doing projects around the house (mostly moving furniture around!), spent lots of time with family, and ate and ate and ate. It was a great way to end the summer season. Up next: project birthday! Our little man turns 2 in 16 days!!!!!

Weekend update with The Balice Palace

2011-08-28T21:57:00.000-07:00

Let's get this party started!

climbing the hay stacks

Have balloon. Will travel.

Avery and Jake

how cute are they?!

riding on the cow train

Jakey and I riding the cow train with Avery and her mommy Jen
(maybe I shouldn't have brought the Coach purse to the farm?)

riding the "choo choo train"

hay stack fun

cupcake time

what frosting?

doesn't this thing go any faster, Daddy?

wagon ride

playing on the bus

driving the tractor

It was "eleventy billion" degrees this weekend, but we still managed to have some fun. On Saturday, we attended a 2nd birthday party for Jake's friend Lily, who is in our Thursday playgroup. The party happened to be at the same farm where Kyra & Dylan had their 2nd birthday party back in March. Jakey had a good time at K & D's party, but now that he is a little older, he enjoyed himself so much more! It was really hot, but it didn't phase Jake. He wanted to check out the animals (especially the cow), feed the goats, ride the trains, play on the stacks of hay, check out the tractor, ride in the wagons, etc. etc. You name it, he wanted to do it! He had a great time with his friend Avery - they are good buddies and always run to greet each other! It's really cute! Jake and I rode the cow train and the "choo choo train" with Avery and her mommy Jen. Jen is a former interior designer for the hospitality industry and has a really cute blog with a link to her Etsy shop where she sells her awesome handbags: http://www.jenandfranz.blogspot.com/

I have been wanting to take Jake to the local splash pad all summer, knowing that he would have a great time, but we just hadn't made it there until today! With the weather in the 90s, it seemed like the perfect day to check it out! For Jake, it was love at first splash! As soon as he saw it, he took off running and didn't slow down until we dragged him out of there kicking and screaming! He LOVES playing in the water! Can you tell from these photos?! Joe and I just sat back and watched Jake in action - it was so entertaining! He was so happy that he was squealing with excitement! Joe and I were the crotchety old people in the corner saying "why didn't they have splash pads when we were kids?" :)

As per the request of my friend Jen (you know, the one whose blog I pimped out earlier!), I've decided to start adding a garage sale feature to my blog. I will try to post my weekly buys, so y'all can see exactly what I purchase, and for how much. Should be a fun way to track my "saling" purchases! Those of you that check in just to see Jake updates can ignore these garage sale posts :) When I started this blog back in March of 2009, the main focus was on my pregnancy and our crazy journey into parenthood. Now I've decided to add a little bit more of me to the blog (more couponing, decorating, party planning and garage saling!) while still keeping it largely focused on our little man. I'm keeping the same url, but have changed the name of the blog to "The Balice Palace" instead of "Baby Balice Blog". As much as I love alliteration, the name no longer fits. Jake is hardly a baby anymore, and this way, I can write about the goings on of our whole household!

To start off this garage sale feature, I've decided to highlight my two best garage sale bargains to date. The first one is my awesome entryway piece. My friend Jen AKA "Bad Girl" (a different Jen from the one I previously mentioned - I know way too many people named Jennifer!) and I were garage saling a few years ago right after she moved into her current house. We both happened to be looking for an entryway piece (is it called a hall tree?) and she spotted it first. It was way back in the depths of the garage and we asked them how much and they said "15." We said "dollars?!" and they said yes! We couldn't believe our ears and we couldn't pay for it fast enough. Purchase first, fight it out later. We both wanted it but ultimately she decided that it would look better in my smaller entry and she would look for a longer, shorter piece for her house. Of course I asked her "are you sure?" a million times because she is the one who spotted it first! She insisted I take it. She'll never let me live it down though, and periodically asks me how "her entryway piece" is doing! :)

my $15 entryway bargain!

My second favorite garage sale bargain is this Pottery Barn style buffet table with 2 drawers and a lower shelf (everything was removed from the shelf once Jakey started crawling!) I bought this while we were in escrow on our current house. I was driving by our soon-to-be new house on my way to a nail appt. (back when I was still working and could afford to get my nails done all the time!) and I saw a garage sale sign on another street in our new neighborhood. It was 9:30am or so, and I thought to myself 'all the good stuff will be gone by now' but I drove by the sale anyway and spotted this table! I thought for sure it was already sold, but I got out of the car and asked them if it was taken and to my surprise and delight they said no! I asked how much and...drumroll please...they said $10! My lucky day! I bought it and had to call my Dad to come pick it up for me! At the time, my dinky little Rav4 was not going to be able to haul this baby home. Luckily, he was able to fit it into my mom's SUV and my parents stored it for us until we moved in a few weeks later! We always pass the house where it came from on our daily walks and I think to myself 'that's where my $10 table came from!'

my $10 buffet table!

Last, but not least I want to share my latest obsession: my Moravian Star Light! This did not come from a garage sale and was much more expensive than my entryway piece and buffet table combined, but I have been wanting one for a long time, and we have needed more light in our family room since the day we moved in! They weren't big on recessed lighting when the house was built in 1975, and the previous owner was not big on doing many updates since the house was built. I thought this star light would be the perfect fixture for the corner of our family room, and after we bought our new couch, we decided to go for it and purchase a lamp as well. I searched high and low online, but could only find pendant star lights that have to be wired into the ceiling. We did not want to have to pay an electrician on top of the cost of the lamp, so we wanted one that could be plugged in. My mom finally asked her friend who can "find anything online" and she came through! My problem was not knowing that it was called a Moravian star. Now I'll never forget it! It arrived a few weeks ago and I couldn't be happier with my purchase! The glass is antiqued, so it lets just the right amount of light through. Love the ambiance, love the light! My Dad (our handyman!) hung it for us and it looks great in the family room! I heart Moravian stars.

My other new obsession is http://pinterest.com/

Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board of sorts where you can pin your favorite photos and repin others photos. It is used mainly for decorating ideas, style pages, crafting ideas, etc. For right now, I'm using it strictly for Halloween inspiration! Check it out and you just might get hooked too!

23 months!

2011-08-22T00:17:00.000-07:00

our smiley little guy

Jake's "silly face"

Jakey and Daddy at the eye doctor

concert in the park:

relaxing on Daddy's chair

all smiles after dinner

what's so funny?

don't you just want to pinch those cheeks?

sleepy boy

night night

playing with his new toy garage

I think he's gonna need a full size garage for all his cars :)

Today (Sunday) marks the last time we will count Jake's age in months! One month from today, he will be 2! We have been practicing for his big day, and when we ask Jake how old he is, he says "2!" It is a little hard to believe that 2 years have passed since Jakey was born, but at the same time, I feel like he has been 2 for a while already! He definitely has the terrible twos down :) He is tall for his age and can communicate with us pretty well already, so he already seems older than he is. We are looking forward to celebrating his birthday - we are going to have a family day on Jake's actual birthday (Joe is taking the day off of work), and then we will continue the celebration at Jake's party the following weekend!

Yesterday was a very busy Saturday for Jake. He had his first eye doctor appointment in the morning and was not very cooperative for the doctor. Everything was going ok until Jakey accidentally hit his head on some of the equipment in her office. It all went downhill from there. A lollipop and toys helped somewhat, but Jake just wanted to get out of there. From what she could tell though, there were no red flags and Jake's eyes look great so far. Let's hope he's not stuck with my poor vision in the future! So far so good though - Jakey is able to point out airplanes in the sky that take Joe and I quite a while to locate :)

Later on, we took Jakey to get his hair cut, which is always an adventure. We came prepared with his Nemo DVD and the portable DVD player. However, we soon realized that even though we had tried to charge it for a few minutes before we left the house, it was almost out of battery. Joe went home to get the laptop, because we knew that without a DVD as a distraction, there would be no hair cut. And because we had waited so long, Jakey was shaggy! And the weather is too hot for him to have such long hair! In the meantime, Jakey had a great time playing with the toys in the salon - he especially liked the trains and held onto one the entire time he was getting his hair cut. When it was time for Jake to sit in the chair, he freaked out a little bit, but it only took him a few minutes to calm down. He sat on my lap and watched Nemo, and there were no more tears for the rest of the hair cut! Yay! When we mentioned his hair cut today, Jake said "Nemo!" so we told him he can watch it whenever he gets his hair cut. Whatever works, right?

After Jake's hair cut, we headed to a free local concert in the park to see Steve Tyrell! Joe and I both really like his music and have paid to see him before, so we always have a great time. Steve has performed at the same concert in the park series for 4 out of the last 5 years, and we have been there to see him every time. The first time was a few months before we got married, the second time I was very pregnant, last year Jakey was almost a year old, and this time he was almost 2! We didn't know how long Jake would last, but he was a trooper! My parents always go, so that helped since Jakey always has fun with them, and our friends Janice and Erik and their twins (Jake's buddies) Kyra & Dylan were able to go too. Erik's parents happened to be going to the same concert and joined us as well. (Jackie, Geoff and Kyra were also going to go but poor little Kyra fell down, hit her head and was pretty worn out so they decided not to make the drive. We missed them but we're glad Kyra is feeling better and we hope to get together with them soon!) We enjoyed our picnic dinner, and then Jake had fun playing with the toys we brought, and goofing around with his buddies. Luckily, there was enough room on our blankets for Jake to roam around a little bit, but we were surrounded by other concert-goers so he couldn't get too far. He seemed to like the music and danced a little bit, but mostly wanted to climb on all the chairs, and K & D's wagon. Around 9pm was meltdown time - it was past Jake's bedtime and his buddies had just left, so he wanted to go "bye bye!" So we did.

And now it's time for me to go "night night"...

Ra, Deeyan, Mannin, hattoos and terrible twos

2011-08-08T23:37:00.000-07:00

Kyra R. and Jakey playing "ring around the rosie" after swim lessons

too cute, right?

Dylan and Jakey chillin' on their favorite bench after "stretch, wiggle and roll" class

Jake and Gavin playing with Gavin's dinosaur train!

Gavin and Jake eating dinner in our backyard

Jake is a very social little boy these days. He has finally started to play and interact more with his friends (now they play with each other instead of just near each other), and tries to call them by name. It's pretty cute. He calls Kyra "Ra," Dylan "Deeyan" and Gavin "Mannin!" He also has a little girlfriend at play group named Avery and he calls her "Avee!" He loves running around with the other kids thinks it's hilarious when they chase each other!) I love that they are getting to the age where they can actually keep each other entertained! Jake and Gavin played in our backyard last week for hours - they were nonstop! So much energy, so much running, and so much laughter. It was adorable. He had such a great time at the park with Avery and his other buddies at our Thursday play group. There happened to be a day camp nearby and Jake kept running over to the big kids because he wanted to check out what they were up to! My child is not even 2, going on 8 years old.

Did I mention he doesn't sit still? Except to watch a movie or a cartoon, that is. His latest fave is Finding Nemo and even though he has only seen it in its entirety once, he LOVES it! He even knows what I'm saying when I spell out N-E-M-O. My mom was telling Jake about her friend who was going whale watching and Jake says "Nemo!" because there is a whale in the movie! Jake is picking up on everything these days. He even had a conversation with me the other day. It went like this:

Jake: nana?

me: You want a banana?

Jake: Yes.

me: Momma has to brush her teeth first and then we can go downstairs and get a banana.

Jake: Ok.

I'm not sure if he just had lucky responses (one of his favorite words lately is "yes!") or if he actually understood the conversation and was responding accordingly. Maybe a little bit of both? It is so crazy to me that he can actually give me correct responses sometimes and not just repeat what I say. Jake overheard another mom at play group telling her children "5 more minutes" and Jake said "bye bye" because he knew they were about to leave. How does he know this stuff?! I got him up from nap the other day and said "someone's here to see you" and he replied with "PaPaGran?" Pa Pa and Gran are my parents, but Jakey usually calls them by one word "PaPaGran!" And he is usually shouting it so more like "PAPAGRAN!" He gets very excited to see them and usually does his little happy dance. This kid has happy feet, and they are constantly on the move.

Around our house there are two exciting topics of conversation lately. One is Jake's upcoming birthday, and the other is Halloween!!! And they both have countdowns. We have a digital Halloween counter that my former bosses had given me and it starts from 99 days out. Since we have 84 days until Halloween, we have had 15 days of counting down so far. Jake loves numbers, and he loves to point to and say the numbers each day. He know it is for Halloween and he loves to say "Happy Halloween!" And he can say "Halloween" quite clearly. Ok, it's more like "Howaween" but pretty good, nonetheless. Not sure if I mentioned this on my blog already or just on FB, but he picked up an orange and black sand bucket at play group a couple weeks ago and said "Halloween!" Is he my kid or what? Insert Joe rolling his eyes here :) We have also been listening to Halloween music on Pandora lately, and Jake loves the "This is Halloween" song from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Can't wait until we show Jakey that movie!!! (And now all I can think of is Gloria in the Modern Family Halloween episode saying "Welcome to your Nightmare. Ho ho ho ho.") We also have a countdown to Jake's birthday on our chalkboard in the kitchen and Jake likes to say these numbers too. Since Jake was born exactly 40 days before Halloween, the chalkboard currently says "44 days until Jakey turns 2!" Very exciting times, let me tell you.

We were at the mall earlier this week to see the free movie, and of course I had to check out The Children's Place which has become one of my favorite stores to shop 'til I drop for Jake's awesome wardrobe. They are always getting new things in, so I have to check this store every time we are at the mall, just in case there are some articles of toddler clothing that we just can't live without. On this trip though, I was in search of Halloween shirts. Gotta make sure he is stocked up for the month of October! They had some for older kids, but none yet in Jakey's size. Anyway, the clerk was really nice and gave Jake his first temporary tattoo. It happened to be Halloween themed (a skull and crossbones!) Jake carried it around the mall and all the way home and was calling it his "Howaween hattoo." I told him that we could put it on his arm when we got home and that's just what we did! He loves it! And I do too. What can I say? It goes with his look :)

Jake's first tat

extreme "hattoo" close-up

Jakey has been very terrible two-ish lately! He just came down with a cold, and has been teething (I think he is getting his 2 year molars), so that could be part of it, BUT he has been so naughty! His new thing is to scream at the top of his lungs if he gets mad/doesn't want to listen - and he will continue to SCREAM while in time-out. Not crying screaming, but yelling screaming! On Friday, he had 5 time outs in one day! They obviously were not working! And we hadn't had to give him one for several weeks before that. Let's hope this screaming phase passes quickly. He only had one time-out yesterday, and none today, so hopefully Friday was the exception, and not the new norm. I can't take days like that all the time! Serenity now :)

2 more months 'til 2!

2011-07-21T23:56:00.000-07:00

hangin' out on his chair

how cute are these PJs?!?!

Our not-so-little guy turned 22-months-old today! 2 more months 2 go until he turns 2! I have 2 on the brain, can you tell? :) Jake is quite the talker these days. Some of his latest and greatest words are: broccoli, airplane, helicopter, Avery (the name of one of his little girlfriends at playgroup!), window, all done, fell down, 1 2 3 4 5 8 9 10 (he skips 6 and 7!)

Jake likes to keep tabs on everyone around him and notices and mentions when someone is not present and accounted for! When I get him up in the morning or after his nap, he usually asks for "Dada?" and when he sees my mom he immediately asks for "Pa Pa?" Yesterday, my friend Jen was over and I went to get Jakey up from his nap and I told him that someone was here to see him (not even thinking he really understood me) and he said "Nana?" This kid is too much!

He is still obsessed with cars and trucks and LOVES the Cars movie - it has now replaced Dora as our "go to" DVD in the car - so much so that he walks around saying "Cars on" every time he gets in the car, and sometimes when he's nowhere near the car! Of course we don't let him watch it on every car ride, but on longer rides home we usually do.

Jake also loves to point out airplanes, helicopters, motorcycles, the moon (even in the daytime) and numbers wherever we go. It amazes me when we're in the store and he'll see a price tag and say "nine, nine" or we pass a speed limit sign on our walk and he says "two, five." I hope his early love of numbers means that he will inherit Joe's math gene and not mine! :)

He also LOVES "bah oat" and you'll never guess what it means - ready for this one? - WATER! We're not sure why "bah oat" is water. The only thing we can think of is that he was trying to say "bottle" for "water bottle". But this doesn't make sense because he calls ALL water "bah oat", not just the drinking kind. Anyway, the point of my story is that he loves to drink water, point out water, play in water, etc. My parents recently bought him a water table and he loves it! He will put his face in it and blow bubbles, splash around, send his toy penguin down the mini water slide, and pour water everywhere! Good thing it's an outdoor toy. Between that, and his inflatable pool, we have been staying cool despite the hot summer weather. The funniest part of his water obsession though is when he asks for "more ice" in his water cup. No joke. He'll ask for "more bah oat" but even when he has a full water cup he'll ask for "more ice." It's too funny. I give him ice if we're at home but if we're out he has to suffer through no ice. Poor kid :)

His favorite foods at the moment are all kinds of fruit (especially blueberries, cherries, plums and grapes), cheese (he gets really excited about cheese!), hot dogs with mustard, french fries with ketchup (he doesn't have these all the time but when he does, he inhales them just like his mommy does!), and, of course, dessert! He doesn't get dessert all the time either, but when he does, watch out! We walked to Golden Spoon last night and gave him a little bit on his own spoon and he wasted no time eating it and saying "more ice cream!" At least he knows what he wants, and asks for it. We usually make him say please, but he has started to say it on his own sometimes. Yay for politeness!

We are slowly starting to get Jake to become familiar with his potty, in the hopes that it will make things easier eventually when we do try and potty train. We sit him on it before bathtime, and so far he has actually pee peed in the potty one time! Woohoo! But it will be a long time before he is actually ready for potty training. He needs to be able to verbalize when he has to go, and be able to hold it for longer periods of time and he is nowhere near there yet. From what I've read (mom, are you reading this?!?), it takes boys longer than girls, and he may not be ready to potty train until age 3. We are not going to force him or put too much pressure on him, because that will make it much worse for him and for us. The sooner the better, but we'll just have to wait until he seems ready. And this brings us to the biggest news in the life of Jake...

We have chosen his preschool, and he starts in January! His preschool takes children ages 2 and up, and they do not need to be potty trained to start! It is an extra fee is he's not potty trained though, so hopefully he will be trained in the early part of 2012 :) The school will definitely help with this though - if he sees all the other kids going on the potty, hopefully he'll want to do that as well. We are starting him in school earlier than we originally thought (we thought we'd start him at age 3), but we changed our minds because we think it will be great for him! He needs the socialization, he needs to learn how to sit still and listen to a teacher, he'll get to do craft projects that we wouldn't normally be doing at home, the list goes on and on. He will benefit so much from being around the other kids - he will pick up language faster and brush up on his sharing skills! And he will only be going two days a week, from 8:30am-noon. He will get to have lunch at school, and then come home and nap in his own crib? By that time, it may be a bed! When we toured the school last month he sat down at the table right away and started playing with the toys! If toys are involved, he usually doesn't even pay attention to where I am anyway. I think the transition will be easy. It also helps that he will already know some of the kids - several of the kids in our playgroups already go there or will be going there soon and his good friends twins Kyra & Dylan are starting there next month!

That's all for now, folks.

4th of July weekend!

2011-07-12T21:22:00.000-07:00

Jake's first trip to the beach:

hangin' with Dylan

Kyra is so beach ready

K & D checking out the waves!

finally in the water

splashing just like in the bath!

Daddy's turn to take Jake into the water

quick change

4th of July weekend was very hot and very busy, but lots of fun! On Saturday, we took Jake to the beach for the first time ever! We went with our friends Janice & Erik and their kids (Jake's pals) Dylan and Kyra, along with J & E's other friends and their daughter. Jake had fun playing in the sand, chasing seagulls around, and playing in the water. At first, he wasn't too sure about the waves, and clung onto me for dear life. However, he soon got used to the cold water crashing on us, and wanted to spend lots of time in the ocean with me and Joe. I see many more beach trips in our future :)

That same day, the water fun continued when we inflated Jakey's new pool for the first time. Jake wouldn't sit down in the pool, but he had a blast dancing in it, splashing, and playing with his beach ball and boat! It was so hot that I had to put my feet in too! :)

On Sunday, we traveled down to the OC for Zac & Shaunna's BBQ. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pics of their little cutie pie Natasha, but I was able to get a few of Jakey and Kyra T. playing in Natasha's awesome new bounce house! It is a small bounce house made just for our toddler size kiddos, and the kids had so much fun bouncing, throwing the balls around, and sliding down the slide. Jake has not been a fan thus far of larger bounce houses, so this one was perfect because it was just the right size. It was so cute to see all the kids running around and playing together (or at least near each other)! We had a great time and Jake did so well on the car ride there and back (thanks to the Cars DVD!!)

Jake's morning 4th on July outfit

my flag cake - it's a tradition

Jake's afternoon/evening 4th of July outfit

holding his new car!

playing in my parents' fountain

Jakey running with Gran

sitting with Pa Pa

On 4th of July, Jakey was very patriotic and sported two different red, white and blue outfits! After Jake's nap we headed over to my parents' house for our annual 4th of July family BBQ. It was a small group - just us, my Nana, my parents and their friends Colin & Linda. Jakey wasn't too sure about Colin until he handed Jake a present from their recent trip to England - a new toy car painted with the Union Jack (at least it was red, white & blue!) After that, they were besties! Apparently, bribery works well for 21-month-old boys :) Jake had a great time playing with his new car, running around the backyard and putting his hands (and at one point, his head) in their backyard fountain. Jakey also thoroughly enjoyed his dinner (especially the hot dog, and the cake and ice cream for dessert!) We even let Jake stay up past his bed time to check out the fireworks! We walked across the street from my parents' house to the high school parking lot and we could see the local fireworks in the distance. The fireworks were far enough away that the sound didn't bother him, and he enjoyed watching them for a couple minutes. After that, he just wanted to run around! Maybe next year he will make it through the entire 15 minute show? Guess we'll just have to wait and see...

What we did on our summer vacation...

2011-07-06T00:20:00.000-07:00

worn out from a full day of travel!

Cookie Monster and water (the bare necessities)

riding in the rental car - forward facing :(

how to grocery shop with 3 kids!

all 4 kids playing nicely together

ready for our walk!

my new house (ha, ha)

my other new house

Trevor and Tyler with Ty's new police car!

Kelly's house with our sweet rental car :)

yet another amazing house

Jakey mowing mulch!?

kids, toys, and dogs, oh my!

Miss Mollie

Jake trying to earn his keep

can you spot the fireflies?

cutie pie Mollie and her mommy

Trevor, Tyler, Mollie and Kelly

check out this truck

so many cars, so little time

Kelly's ginormous backyard

Mollie chillin' in her stroller

boys with toys

running free

swing time

our first (and only) attempt to eat out with all 4 kids

the mess we created

3 car seats side-by-side!

skee ball in Kelly's grandparents' basement

the boys decided to dress me up

didn't they do a great job?

so ready for our night out

bridge over the Ohio River

friends :)

Chris and Kelly

me and Joe

the Beerwolf

yes I posed with it

Joe and Chris

just like old times

Joe surrounded by all the kids!

Jakey and Trevor

playing happily together

Trevor, Tyler and Jake playing cars

look at those gorgeous eyes!

Connie's house

the kids eating dinner together

sitting in the rocking chair and mesmerized by the TV

Connie's backyard

still Connie's backyard!

first attempt at a group photo

second attempt

can I please transplant this house to Cali?!?!

jump starting the ride-on lawnmower. only in Ohio.

pep talk

here I go

I actually mowed for a few seconds!

Joe made me hold a beer for this photo. So classy, I know.

the boys checking out my mowing skills

my little man

Mollie again

Tyler being goofy

Kelly and her girly girl

Joe and Jakey asleep on the plane

Jake and Kyra checking each other out

how did they get so big so fast?

Jackie and I with our little cuties

Oh wow, is this going to be a long one...

Last Thursday, we started the adventure that was our summer vacation. We were off to Cincinnati, Ohio to visit my good friend Kelly and her family. This would be our first time meeting each other's kids, and since she already has 3, it was a long overdue visit! We woke Jakey up a little early on Thursday morning, and we hit the road before 8am. He was a happy camper in the car, with breakfast and a Dora DVD to keep him entertained on the way to the airport. We made it to the airport in record time, and proceeded to park and take a shuttle to our terminal. Jakey loved riding on the "bus" as he called it, and this gave us hope that he would like the airplane as much as the shuttle ride! Since we had the stroller, we had to find our way around the airport via elevators, which worked out ok. The security check with a toddler was interesting. They made us remove Jakey's shoes, his sippy cup of water was allowed to go through (although I think they tested the contents), the stroller had to be collapsed and placed onto the conveyor belt to be X-rayed. All of this was fine with Jake. Until they took away his Cookie Monster :( He was so upset and didn't understand why Cookie had to go through the X-ray machine. Poor little guy. The first tears of the day, but definitely not the last...

We knew we had to let Jakey run around at the airport and release some energy before our 4+ hour flight, so Joe and I took turns chasing him around. I made the mistake of letting go of his hand a few times, and from then on, he wanted to run around on his own. I was right behind him the whole time, and this would have been ok in a less crowded place, but he kept running in front of people so I had to pick him up and force him to hold my hand. Tantrums ensued. Many more tears later, we finally got him calmed down and back in the stroller. We knew we needed to eat an early lunch because it would be a looooong time before we would be able to eat again, so we went to a Mexican restaurant near our Gate. We had to sit down to order, and we asked for take out, but it still took a longer than we expected. And we grossly misjudged our boarding time. Joe went to change Jakey's diaper while I waited for our food, and he came back just in time to notice that our flight was already boarding (our flight was supposed to take off at 11:25am and it was 10:45am-ish). Obviously, we are not big travelers or we would have known that planes board way earlier than their departure time. Oops! Joe took Jake and our carry-ons and headed to our Gate, while I stayed behind to wait for the food we had already paid for. Luckily, I saw our waiter headed in my direction with some "to go" bags, asked if they were ours, grabbed them, and ran through the airport with the Mexican food! I am not one to skip meals, people! And I did have my walking shoes on :) I caught up with Joe, we checked the stroller at the gate, and made our way onto the plane. We had assigned seats, but we asked for the bulk head seats when we arrived at the gate (the first row behind First Class that has more room - they keep these seats open for handicapped passengers and - possibly - those traveling with small children). Unfortunately, our plane was full, and they denied our request for these seats. So we were stuck in normal seats near the back of the plane, closer to the aisle than the window, with Jake on our laps, 4 bags at our feet (2 diaper bags - one full of snacks and toys, the other full of diapers, the DVD player, etc. - my purse, and the laptop), and what felt like 5 lbs. of Mexican food. "Awesome sauce." We'll get to that later...

I had purchased a contraption online made specifically for airplane lap babies/toddlers which strapped Jake to one of us, and kept him secure while our hands were free. I figured that if Jake felt like he was strapped in, he would be less likely to try and escape. We tried it on at home before we left, so that it was not completely foreign to Jake. It worked out great! And we can use it for future travel or to strap him to any normal chair if there are no high chairs available. Gotta love that :)

So I strapped Jake to me, gave him his snack cup full of his favorite snacks, and his water cup. I knew that he would have to be swallowing food and water to help prevent his ears from popping during take off and landing. I had planned ahead and brought an arsenal of supplies to help get Jake through the long flights. I had all of his favorite snacks (goldfish crackers, bunny grahams, raisins, dried cranberries, freeze dried apples, baked pea pod crunchies, etc.) along with a bag of organic lollipops (just in case!) Can you believe Trader Joe's sells organic lollipops?! My friend Janice told me about this one. Who knew? I packed his favorite small books, a magnadoodle, crayons and a coloring book, his favorite telephone toy, an awesome Mickey Mouse toy (that my Aunt had given him several months ago, which I stashed away just for this occasion because it lights up but makes no sound!), plus a bag full of new toys that I had wrapped so he could open a new present every so often. We had the portable DVD player and the laptop as a back up which also plays DVDs, and 5 DVDs! We were PREPARED. Well, as prepared as we could be for (dun dun DUN) the unknown.

Take off went well, and Jake was happily snacking away. We purposely decided not to feed him lunch, because small snacks take up way more time! However, Joe and I couldn't eat our lunch until the seat belt sign was turned off, so that we could then use our pull down trays. Eventually, we were able to eat our Mexican food. Worst.veggie.burrito.ever :( We scheduled the flight during Jake's normal nap time, hoping that he would eat, and then fall asleep. This totally backfired on us. He ate, and then refused to sleep. We broke out the books, the toys, the DVDs, and eventually...the candy. The portable DVD player must not have been charged all the way (although I tried to fully charge it the night before we left, but apparently I failed miserably), because it died fairly quickly. As did the laptop, which normally only holds a charge for less than an hour. Once those batteries were gone, the meltdown began. And not even a lollipop would help. We're talking a crying/screaming fit on the plane. So much fun. Joe and I walked Jakey up and down the aisle, and this helped a little. We switched laps, and Jakey sat with Joe for the remainder of the flight. I cannot remember how or why, but finally Jake calmed down and the rest of the flight (about an hour or so) went ok. The poor people in front of us had to endure the meltdown, Jake kicking their seats, listening to the noise from Jake's DVDs, etc. They never complained once, and later told us about their grandkids. Yay for nice, understanding people! It also helped that we were sitting near lots of other families with children/babies/toddlers. We were worried about how Jakey would do during landing, but it went ok. He sipped his water, which helped with the ear popping, and loved touching down on the runway. After the plane came to a stop, he said "anah!" which in Jakey speak, means "again!"Quite the little adrenaline junkie we have. He said "anah" after the plane landed on our return flight as well :)

Once we finally made it off the plane, the stroller was waiting for us as we exited (gotta love that!) I then changed Jake's diaper in the airport bathroom, and I believe that was the second time I had ever used a public "pull down" diaper changing station (and the first time was on the plane!) I have avoided those like the plague. I think the germaphobe in me is to blame. But it really wasn't all that bad. A long walk through the airport and another shuttle ride later, and we were at the rental car office. At this point, it was 7pm Ohio time (4pm Cali time) and Jake hadn't napped at all. While Joe was dealing with getting the car (this took forever!), I pushed Jakey around in the stroller. By the time we got the car, Jake was out cold. We had ordered a rental car with a car seat and I was already upset that it had to be forward facing. Add to this the fact that it was not already installed for us, and I was fuming. They basically just handed Joe the seat and said "here ya go." Since we have had the Fire Department properly install all of Jake's car seats, and we don't mess with them once they are installed, we had no idea how to install this seat. All car seats are different, and we couldn't figure this one out. I went in to ask the woman at the rental car desk if she had installation instructions, and she said "we don't have instructions" and "we make you install the car seat for safety reasons." Really? So it is much safer for us to install the seat improperly without instructions? I know they don't want to get sued, but to not have anyone to help or even an instruction seat to work with? At this point, I may have busted out a "well in California, this is how we do things..." I had only been there for less than an hour and I was already putting down their state. Actually, the airport is technically in Kentucky. No offense to any Kentuckyians out there, but I am not a fan. So I said my 2 cents, it got me nowhere, and Joe finally figured out how to install the car seat. I put Jake in the seat fully expecting him to wake up, and he stayed asleep for the entire car ride. Poor little guy was exhausted. And so were we. It was only about 30 minutes from the airport to Kelly's house, but we stopped and ate dinner on the way. Jake was CRANKY because we had to wake him up to eat. He cried through a large portion of the dinner. Luckily it was late so there were not very many people in the place for us to annoy. We finally got him to eat some dinner, and then we left as quickly as possible. Another few minutes of driving through what we considered country roads, and we were at Kelly's house!

It was so good to see her, and finally meet all three of her little cutie pies in person. Tyler just turned 4, Trevor will be 3 in August, and Mollie just turned 1. So with Jake about to turn 2 in a few months, we had all the ages covered :) They had waited up for us (by the time we got there, it was after 9pm) and they were very excited to meet us and play with Jake. Jakey wasted no time and started playing with their toys right away! We let the kids play together for a little while, and then gave our little Mr. a much needed bath and put him to bed at 10pm-ish their time or 7pm our time. My first major concern of the trip was the airplane ride. Once we made it through the first one of those, my second concern was the time difference. We debated whether we should try and keep Jake on California time since we were only going to be there for 4 nights, or just have him adjust to Ohio time and then adjust back to Cali time. What to do, what to do. Actually, he kind of decided for us. The not napping on the plane thing sucked at the time, but worked out in our favor for his Ohio schedule. He was so tired that he was able to fall asleep early by California standards, and he slept in by Ohio standards. We kept him on a 9pm-ish to 9am-ish Ohio time sleep schedule, and this worked out perfectly.

After we put Jakey to bed and Kelly and Chris put their kids to bed, we stayed up chatting for several hours. For Kelly and I, it was like no time had passed at all. Our friendship hadn't changed. Even though we try to talk on the phone about once a week, the time difference makes it hard for us to connect, and even when we do it is always hard to really chat for a long time with our kids causing constant interruptions. It was so good to be able to catch up in person after we hadn't seen each other for almost 4 years! It was just like old times. Only now, we have 4 kids between us!

On Friday, we went to a grocery store called Kroger so that I could get the ingredients to make my Nana's recipe of pasta sauce and meatballs for dinner. I wanted them to experience "real" Italian food and it was the least I could do for them since they graciously let the 3 of us stay at their house for 5 days. It was amazing to see how Kelly goes about her daily life with 3 kids! She goes to this particular store because they have the shopping carts with cars attached readily available. With Mollie in the cart, and the boys in the "car," she is able to shop with all of the kids. It was a nice store with lots of great looking produce and was much less expensive than our California counterparts. After the store, we picked up White Castle at Joe's request. He liked the sliders, but said he wouldn't crave them like he does In-N-Out. No comparison there. I tried their chicken and fish sandwiches since I don't eat red meat, and the fish was pretty good. The chicken not so much. Jakey loved the fries (although he hasn't met a fry he doesn't like!) After dinner we were all able to go for a walk around their neighborhood and check out some of the amazing houses! These houses are huge, and the yards are even larger! Property, property, property. So different from California. No sidewalks, very few fences (the houses that do have fences do not have privacy fences so you can see right into all your neighbors' backyards) lots of cats roaming the neighborhood (must not have the Cali coyote problem!), and tons of fireflies (they call them lightning bugs)!!! I LOVED the fireflies! I had never seen them in person before unless the fake ones at Disneyland count, ha ha. Talk about summer nights. It doesn't get dark until 9:30pm or so, and then the fireflies come out in full force! I could definitely get accustomed to Ohio summers, humidity and bugs and all. But I could do without the snowy winters.

The next 3 days were full of eating, playing, and more eating! We experienced Skyline Chili (which has a very distinct, somewhat sweet flavor and is surprisingly really good!) and it was a great place to take our brood of 4 kids. Quick service, very casual, plenty of high chairs, and kid-friendly food. On Saturday night, Connie (Kelly's mom - love her!) willingly baby-sat all 4 kids so that Kelly, Chris, Joe and I could all go out to dinner. What a nice/crazy thing for her to take on! We took a drive to the Ohio River and had dinner and drinks at Mexican restaurant, and then followed that with a trip to the Beer Sellar (where the Beerwolf lives!) The Mexican food was surprisingly decent even though we were nowhere near Mexico, and it was so great to be able to have a fun night out without the kids in tow. And we did make it home in time to put the kids to bed! The only cringe-worthy moment of the night was when the waiter said "awesome sauce" to us one too many times. Really dude?

On Sunday it was raining during the day so we went over to the mall to walk around. On Sundays, the stores there don't open until noon! That would never fly in Cali :) On Sunday night, we went over to Connie's house for dinner and she served us tons of Cincinnati inspired home cooking. Skyline chili dip (so, so good!), corn fritters (my fave!), pulled pork sandwiches, scalloped potatoes, homemade mac 'n' cheese, etc. With cake and cookies for dessert! I think I gained 13 lbs. at that meal alone! But man, was it good. Connie custom built her house and it is beautiful, with another amazing yard! I just wish I could transplant one of these houses here :) Connie sent all 3 of us home with Cincinnati Reds gear, and gave Jakey a few more presents as well! She is such a sweetie.

I cannot begin to express how much fun Jakey had playing with Tyler, Trevor and Mollie. They all played really well together the entire time. The boys had no problems sharing their cars, trucks and other toys with Jake, and he just loved chasing the boys around. He thought Tyler was hilarious! And Jakey was always so concerned when Mollie cried. He would always go check on her to make sure she was alright. Too cute. It was so good for him to be around the older boys - he picked up new words, learned how to share toys, and get over his fear of other kids invading his personal space! The only thing that freaked him out a little, were the 3 dogs. Their doggies were really sweet, but Jake is not used to dogs getting so close to him. It took a day or so before he really warmed up to them. Boy that house was full with 4 adults (although Chris was at work a lot of the time), 4 kids, 3 dogs, a cat, birds and fish, oh my! But we had a lot of fun, and really enjoyed all of the mad chaos!

On Monday I got to have another new experience. It was something I have always wanted to try: driving a ride-on lawnmower! Chris showed me the ropes and I got to take a turn behind the wheel. It was really fun, and I even mowed a little chunk of their front lawn! Of course everyone in their neighborhood has to have a ride-on mower in order to cut their park-size lawns! For lunch we got to try Penn Station, a sandwich chain which had good sandwiches on even better bread! I told you all we did was eat! We tried to put Jakey down for an early nap because we had to leave for the airport at 1:45pm. Unfortunately, he didn't nap, but he did have "down time" in the crib, so that helped. It was very sad to leave (especially for the kids), and our trip went by way too fast :(

Jake again enjoyed the shuttle ride from the rental car office to the terminal, and he had a good time checking out the CVG airport before we had to board. Something else we hadn't seen before? A sign at the airport which read "severe weather shelter" with a picture of a tornado. You don't see that in California! The flight home went much, much better than the flight there. And, once we boarded, we were delayed a little while, so we took off about 30 min. after we were supposed to! It was almost 5pm Cincinnati time, so Jakey was hungry for dinner. He sat on Joe's lap this time because then I could easily find all of the snacks, toys, books etc. since I had packed them all! Jake ate a ton of snacks, played with the steady stream of toys I gave him, read books, and then fell asleep!!! He only slept for about 30 minutes but it was long enough for him to not have a meltdown on the flight! Yay! The other thing that greatly helped on the return flight was that they were able to accommodate our request for the bulk head seats! We had so much more room, Jake wasn't able to kick the seats in front of us, and we could spread out all of our carry-ons. Also, we sat near the window and Jake loved looking out the window during take off and landing. After Jake woke up, we put on a DVD for him (we made sure the DVD player was fully charged this time!!) and he watched it until right before we landed. Plane ride #2 was a success!

A long wait to get our luggage, and yet another shuttle ride later, and we were back in our car! We arrived at LAX during rush hour on a Monday, so we had planned to eat dinner in L.A., and hopefully avoid major traffic. It worked out that Jackie, Geoff and Kyra were able to meet us for dinner (luckily they didn't mind eating a little late). We weren't sure how Jakey would do at dinner since he had already eaten so many snacks on the plane and since it was 10pm Ohio time when we got to the restaurant (our fave Mexican place near Jackie & Geoff's house). I think he had a little crying episode but for the most part, dinner went great. And he ate a lot more than we expected him to. My trip started with an awful veggie burrito, and ended with the best veggie burrito! :)

We made it home after 9pm and put Jakey right to bed. We were exhausted and glad to be home. I feel a great sense of accomplishment. This trip was a big challenge and if we can travel with an active toddler, we can do anything! It only took Jakey a couple days to get back to his normal sleep and napping schedule. He was such a champ, and we are so proud of him. It was really sad when he asked for the "boys" the next few days after we got back. Poor guy missed his buddies. I was having withdrawals too because I had to call Kelly for like 5 days straight after we got back. Hope fully we will get to see them again before another 4 years pass us by!