What's going on

I realized I'm always saying how busy we are but to look at our blog you would think we're pretty lame. I just don't want to bore anyone but I guess some of the out-of-towners may find it interesting. So, I'm just going to blog about what's going on with us more frequently. Mostly, it's all about the kids! Cooper is nearing 3 months old. He is smiley and likes to talk in oohs and aahs with different facial expressions to accompany his "words". It really cracks us up. He got a pretty good head cold when he was only 3 weeks old and took 4-5 weeks to totally shake it. Then we had his 2 month appt where he got a couple vaccinations. That next week he was clearly more fussy and uncomfortable. And of course he started with another runny nose. Finally, he seems to be better overall and actually slept 5 and a half hours straight last night, his longest yet. He eyes are still blue. He really looks a lot like Paul.

Gabe is almost 28 months. And getting smarter everyday. He is such a talker. He contemplates everything that happens and talks about it later. Lately, everything that has ever happened to him is "yesterday". Like today at lunch it was "yesterday grandma sprinkled some coriander seeds on my food with her grinder". Which, yes, did happen but not yesterday...last Saturday!! He is very interested in cars. Watching them on the street and pushing around his matchbox cars. Now he is into the make of every car. He knows Ford, Honda, Toyota, Jeep, Chevy just by seeing them pass by. And he's right every time! Amazing. We've been using this website starfall.com with him for over a year and he totally loves it. It is like a free preschool curriculum which he started just by looking at for a couple minutes then to naming everything and now recognizing and sounding out the entire alphabet. So, we've moved on to the short stories that teach 3 letter words. He also, on the recommendation of several people, watches the letter factory and word factory on DVD. I just bought him the magnetic word machine leapfrog makes so he is putting words together on that with our help.

So far Gabe is getting along with Cooper pretty well. Occasionally, he gets a little agitated when Cooper is crying but then so do I!! He tells him Shh, stop crying. The other day he said "stop crying, mommy's driving"!! And, sometimes he's the protective older brother already. When we're out a playdate he'll say to his friends Shh, Cooper's sleeping. It's really just because he hears us say that. Once in awhile he says "can you put him down in his vibrating chair (or in his bed, it's always specific!) and pick up me?" Yes, of course. He has been having a "sleepover" at Grandma's for one night most weekends. He loves going there and I'm sure benefits from the one on one time.

My latest project was the front landscaping. Check out the pictures, I have to admit I'm proud of myself since I'm really not too fond of gardening. We got to it a little late but it's done. We only planted half the front last year. We were planning to put up another retaining wall along the sidewalk. Paul said he just didn't feel like doing it now so let's just mulch it, at least it'll looks nice. So Tuesday this week I got the mulch and threw it down. After it was down I told Paul it would look nice if we just planted it as is so I went shopping for plants with Gabe that night and the next morning. Luckily, Cooper took a nice nap while Gabe 'helped'. It was a beautiful day and I just decided to plow through it. It went pretty well until I overturned an ant nest. Doesn't sound like a big deal but there were THOUSANDS of tiny ants. Gabe came over and was using his little shovel and then says to me "ants are crawling on my pants". Sure enough, ants all over him. He got stripped of clothing and brought inside...nap time anyway. I went back to work--in sandals. Ants start crawling all over my feet and legs BITING me. For those of you who know, I'm not too fond of bugs. It was a panic-stricken day! We planted 2 Dogwoods, 2 wine and roses weigela flowering bushes, 2 wintercreeper bushes, 2 lavender plants plus I seeded along the edge of the sidewalk, a few hostas I transplanted from the side of the house where we have tons, a sand cherry bush and some marigolds Gabe picked (yellow of course). The soil in the area is terrible. Clay or rocks or both. Hopefully it all doesn't die. Now I hate ants...

Paul has been busy with work. Kucia work and his own. Just finished a big deck around a pool. I am working on making him a website to display pictures of his work and contact info. That way when he hands out cards people can check him out on the web. I'll let you all know when it's ready so we can get some feedback. It's not as easy as I thought. He's been working most evenings but has taken a few off so we can do some family things. We went to a free concert that is part of Woodridge's summer programs. It was actually a band I've seen several times and really like: Underwater People. Gabriel really liked it and Cooper actually slept. Gabe said that guy was playing a violin (actually a guitar but he always thinks they're violins). This weekend we are going to the Jubilee (woodridge's summer fest) to meet some friends. We have a bunch of birthday parties to look forward to the next several weekends.
More later!

Cooper is 2 months old

Cooper went for his 2 month pediatrician's appointment this past week. He was around the 25th percentile: 10 lb 14 oz. Gabe was a whole pound bigger at the same time. So Cooper is a little guy I guess. Fine with me!
Cooper and Gabe are still getting along very well. Gabe loves to try and help. Whenever Cooper is crying he says "do you need to pick him up?"
I took Gabe for his first movie at the theatre. It was great. I don't think he quite understood what he was in for. I tried explaining it would be on a big screen and we would sit in special seats, etc. We got our tickets, he took his and handed it to the ticket taker. Then I let him pick out any candy he wanted, of course he chose sour patch kids. When we went in the theatre it was already dark and we sat down...he was totally stunned, mouth open, staring at the screen. To top it off, it was 3D. I didn't think he would keep the glasses on but he did for the whole entire movie! He just sat there so good. I probably had as much fun watching him as he had watching the movie. I can't wait to take him to the next one!