Our Hike at Starved Rock

Batman and the Brick Wall

A short video clip directed by Henry and Seth Nosek, and starring Evan Nosek as Batman.

It's an expensive night for the tooth fairy.

Henry came out of school today telling me that he lost one of his teeth, and that he was on the verge of losing another one.

Sure enough, a half an hour after we got home, a second tooth was out.
And before he went to bed tonight, he informed me that he was going to pull his third loose tooth out when he's in bed tonight.
I half believe him. Little known fact about Henry...we've never pulled any of his teeth for him. He's always done it by himself. So I expect to see him down here any minute now with his third too.The tooth fairy is going to go broke.

Stellan

You may have noticed this button on the side of my blog:


If you click on it, you'll connect to a blog that I read every day. The author's youngest child, who just turned one, has been struggling with a life-threatening heart condition for all of his life, including his life in-utero. In just the past couple of days, this little baby has gone from dire circumstances (flat-lining even) to an extremely risky heart procedure to a miraculous, and permanent recovery.

I am sharing this story with you because it is such an uplifting one...I dare you to read it and not start crying. ;)

Huge Progress

When Evan started taking swimming lessons, his separation anxiety seemed insurmountable. I had to sit right at pool's edge to get him to even contemplate going in to the water. He didn't want to even look at his teacher (Jeremy), much less listen to instruction. He wouldn't interact with the other kids, partially because he was too busy crying. And sometimes that would be for the entire lesson.

Jeremy reassured me that he had seen this before, and he knew what to do. He told me that it was not all that uncommon for kids to have this hard of a time. I put my trust in Jeremy, knowing that he's been teaching swimming lessons for years and years, and probably knew what he was doing.

It's been amazing to see him conquer his seperation anxiety. We used to have tears when I told him we were going to swimming lessons, and now we have cheers! This morning I told Evan that we were leaving for swimming lessons right after we dropped the boys off at school. Unfortunately, I forgot something, so I drove back home to pick it up. When I pulled in to our driveway, Evan got all upset and said, "No, Mommy, we don't go home. We're going to Jeremy's house!" (I love that he calls swimming lessons "Jeremy's house!")

So, now he's been progressing in his swimming skills, making little friends,
and bonding with another swimming instructor that has been working with him. I'm so proud of him!

Here's a couple videos...

For safety reasons, the teachers insist that the kids walk slowly on the line around the pool and hold hands. I find it about the cutest thing in the world to watch...


Evan is becoming an old pro at jumping in the water and doing a back float...

Caroline's 50's Day

Caroline and her Kindergarten class celebrated their 50th day of school with 50's Day! The kids all wore 50's style clothes, and did all sorts of 50's themed activities. Caroline was beyond excited!

How did this happen?

Our two year old is almost three. Crazy! Here's some shots from his birthday party last year.
Now that he's getting so big, he is definitely understanding the concept of birthday.

• Whenever he sees some fun toy advertised on TV, he shouts, "THAT'S MINE FOR MY BIRTHDAY!"
• Tonight he was telling me what he wants on his birthday cake. Apparently, it will need to be a big one. He wants to fit Elmo, Scooby-Doo, Batman, Spiderman, Diego and Dinosaurs on his cake.
• He can sing MANY versions of "Happy Birthday" thanks to his older brothers and sister.
• He can now hold up three fingers when you ask him how old he is. That being said, he does try to get away with saying that he is 5 or 6 sometimes too.
  

Happy 2nd Birthday, Robbie! (And Happy 3rd Annual Fall Fest too!)

My sister, Karen, and her husband, Jim, pity us for the lack of leaves we have in our neighborhood. They ever so kindly look out for their niece and nephews when fall rolls around, and invite us over every year to jump in their gargantuan pile of leave they have in their back yard. The kids LOOOOOVVVVVE it!

We started this tradition a couple of years ago, when Karen was pregnant with their son, Robbie. Here she is holding Evan (1 year old) at our first Fall Fest. I think that she delivered Robbie the next day!
It's hard to believe, but two Fall Fests later, here's Robbie, Mr. Big Boy!

The kids had a ball playing in the leaves.
I told my sister that the only thing better than having your own gargantuan pile of leaves is having a sister and brother-in-law with a gargantuan pile of leaves. ;)


After the kids had their fill of fall fun, we all worked together to bag up the leaves.
The kids worked hard too,

even Evan. With all of us chipping in, it only took us about half an hour...

...to fill 35 BAGS OF LEAVES!

Then it was on to some yummy appetizers, pumpkin soup and corn chowder, as well as opening presents. Evan assisted. (He needs some practice, of course, as he'll be having his own birthday in only 17 days.)

Here's Robbie sporting a cute vest he got from his Aunt Gretchen.

My sister is so crafty...check out this sign she made for Robbie! (Click on it to see it bigger.)

And check out these cupcakes she made! She even made the decoration flags on top of the cupcakes!

But one of my favorite parts of the whole day was when Robbie got his birthday cake...He had to be the neatest 2 year old birthday cake eater ever. I'm sure you are familiar with the typical "baby eating birthday cake protocol," which involves cramming as much cake in the mouth as possible (see Seth demonstrating below), and frosting and cake EVERYWHERE.

Such was not the case with Robbie. We all watched as Karen placed the cake in front of Robbie, waiting for the cake mayhem. My sweet little nephew checked out his scrumptious looking banana cake...and then LICKED IT!
Judging by his initial reaction, you might have thought that he didn't like it.
On the contrary, he did, and kept going back for more, not with his hands, but with his tongue. :)

Seriously, he ended his cake-eating just as clean as he started. Unbelievable.

YUM!
Happy birthday, sweet Robbie! We love you so much!