We've Got a Leaner!

Ahhh, Christmas time…It has so much potential for magic, or stress and disaster!

Jeff and I have our annual disagreement about the number of gifts the children should get from Santa.  I pleaded more than ever with him this year.  I think that if we can make the switch to Santa only bringing a few gifts, this year is the year to do it because it will most likely be the last year that the kids (at least Wyatt) won’t really remember the quantity that he brings.  Plus, Christmas shouldn’t be about how many presents are under the tree.  Jeff’s reasoning is that we probably only have a few Christmas’s left of Will believing in Santa so we should do it up now.  And so it goes…we’ll see what happens on Christmas morning.

We love setting up the Christmas tree.  But even more, we love the adventure of finding our Christmas tree.  Usually it’s very cold and blizzard like.  This year, it was unseasonably warm and my parents’ tree farm was a muddy mess!  Not thinking, we didn’t have the kids’ boots out of storage yet, and they ruined both pairs of their shoes, everyone was a muddy mess, and the car looked like it had gone to the cabin 5 times in one day as it was CAKED in mud.  Not to mention, a new game farm appears to have popped up on the other side of the tracks of my parent’s property and we felt like we would hear a stray bullet whiz by our heads at any moment.  No, we didn’t have any blaze orange on.  My dad would be very disappointed in how unprepared we were.

It was an interesting day.  We found our tree and again, it was way too tall.  Yes, we could cut it down to 15 feet so it would just barely fit under the vaulted ceiling, but really, we don’t need to push the limits.  I’d rather not spend another year tip toeing around the house and fearing that I will come home after work to a disaster of evergreen and broken ornaments all over our living room floor.  Jeff loves the big trees and I do too, but I think a 12 footer is a big enough tree.  Jeff, always having a good argument to his reason, mentions that 1) our next house might not have high ceilings so we need to get the biggest trees we can now, 2) who knows how long my parents will have the tree farm and if they sell it, we’ll be paying $200 for these trees, and 3) (going for the heart strings here…) he wants to create memories for our kids so they can say, “Remember those HUGE trees we used to get?”  Yeah – the minute he said that, something in my mind said, I think we’ll be saying “Remember that huge tree that was way too big for our house, fell down, broke all our memorable ornaments, and caused a few grand in damage?”

Jeff is usually right about a lot of things so I’ve started to listen to him ;)  Plus, he’s like a little kid with this stuff, so I let him have his big tree.  I did plea with him to cut a couple more feet off the bottom but he insisted he wanted the “memory” of the biggest tree ever.  He assured me it would be fine.

OK, Love.  Consider this one of your Christmas presents.

We got it into the stand, and then Jeff started in with his perfect Christmas Light application that took over 4 HOURS and a trip into town for 900 more lights.  When he was done, it looked beautiful, and Jeff informed me that our tree had an estimated 2500-3000 lights on it.  Hmmm, I wonder what that does to our utility bill or our electrical circuits?  But, I didn’t ruin his moment and just said it looks awesome!

Since the light application took 4 hrs, it was too late for us to trim the tree with the ornaments, so we waited a couple days until we had a free night to dedicate a couple hrs to trimming the tree with the kids.  Two nights later, we had a lot of fun as a family trimming the tree.  Will was seeking out his favorite ornaments that he remembered and Wyatt was discovering his favorites for the first time showing us all of them.  

This is the only "before" pic that shows most of the tree

When we were done, we noticed the tree was leaning to the left quite a bit.  Hmmm…we’ll have to fix that once the kids are in bed.  After they were sleeping, we looked at it again and the top of the tree was actually leaning on the part where the ceiling starts to slope down.  Jeff and I unscrew the tree, lift, turn, re-center and screw it back in again.  Ok, problem solved.  Jeff contemplates tying the tree up with eyehooks in the wall but couldn’t find a stud in the area of wall he wanted.  He mentioned putting large eyehooks in the window trim (yes, our new front windows that cost us around $7K a couple years ago and now he wants to drill big holes in the trim to support our extra large tree).  I dismissed that idea.

The next morning, we wake up to a tree leaning to the left again.  We both have to go to work and hold our breath until we are home.  We get home and luckily it is still standing.  We go through the same routine that night – put kids to bed, and work on the tree for an hour.  This time, there isn’t a fresh spot on the trunk to screw new holes in and it looks like a woodpecker had pecked a ring around and through the bottom of the trunk.  This really isn’t good.  We did the best we could and I asked Jeff again to cut a couple feet off, making the tree lighter and giving us fresh, stronger wood to screw into.  We discussed the time it would take to remove all the ornaments, lights and take the tree down, saw a couple feet off, and put it back up, retrim, etc.  I really didn’t want to see Jeff go through 4 hrs of stringing lights again.  We decided we would stop and get some eye hooks the next day while we were Christmas shopping. 

The next night, Jeff found an alternate spot to put the eyehooks so they weren’t in our window trim and everything appeared to be good.  The next morning, our tree was resting on the windows.  That’s it!  That night, we removed all the ornaments after the kids were in bed, and tried to keep the lights on.  Carefully, we lowered the tree, and sawed 2 ft off.  Can you believe Jeff still begged to saw off only a foot?  We cleaned up all the needles and extra boughs and stood up the tree again.  Screwed it into new wood and plugged in the lights – they all worked!  I think we had to remove 2 strands since we chopped quite a bit off the bottom.  Jeff secured the tree to the wall with wire and eyehooks and we re-trimmed the tree.  And that is the last we’ve had to mess with the tree.  

Surprisingly, cutting the bottom 2.5 feet off didn't look much different!

Ready for Christmas Morning!

Jeff has promised that 12 foot trees are tall enough for future years (had to get that in writing).  Even though he still strategizes about how we can handle a 15-16 footer again…

So, yes, this tree will definitely be memorable and one we talk about for years to come, but at least we did not have a disaster in the house! 

Lastly, Jeff was sad that our we could not send our Christmas cards out this year with the message “Our tree is bigger than yours…”

November 16, 2011 = Joyous Adoption Day

Last February, I started writing this entry and could never finish it because of the overwhelming emotions and fear of one of the biggest heartbreaks imaginable:

Helpless

This past weekend, I was incredibly fortunate to meet my potential niece and nephew, Jazmine and Jackson. 

For years my brother John and Noreen have been trying to conceive their own children.  They’ve drained themselves financially and emotionally.  It takes a strong marriage to withstand what they’ve been through and are going through and I admire them for their strength and commitment to each other.

I’ve had to stop and restart writing this due to the tears that run down my face…I am heartbroken that I might never get to see these babies again, but mostly because I fear the babies could be taken from John and Noreen after they have loved them with all their hearts. 

And that’s as far as I ever got.  I started writing it on the plane ride home from Arizona and the lady next to me probably wondered what the heck was wrong with me!  After I returned home, I tried to go back to the file, but never could. 

Now, nine months later, I’m overwhelmed with joy and today can retitle the entry to “Happiness” or a word I am very fond of since having my own children, “JOY.”

Joy is the feeling I had when I held my babies for the first time in my arms, and what I feel every day when I wake up to them.

Today, John and Noreen, are feeling the ultimate JOY as they officially become mom and dad to Jackson and Jazmine Schnaubelt.  Today, is adoption day.  And tomorrow and every day after, they will wake up to Jackson and Jazmine’s joy and find peace knowing they are theirs forever. 

I’m very proud of my brother.  He has given this adoption everything he has to give.  When they were introduced to the birth mom, they helped her through her pregnancy and were there for support during prenatal appts and during the birth.  When the babies were released from the hospital, they came home with John and Noreen and have been there for 95% of their lives.

However, it was never guaranteed that an official adoption would take place.  In fact, John said there was only a 30% chance of keeping the babies.

 

He took that 30% chance and turned it into 100% when they closed the deal today.  He never gave up and always had ideas of how it would all work out.  He kept telling everyone to keep the faith.  We prayed and kept the faith, and God answered everyone’s prayers today.

November 16, 2011 Adoption Day!

I’m so happy for them, and for the babies.  These kids will have a wonderful life, with two loving and caring parents and an army full of extended family to keep them entertained!

To Ashley, their birth mom:  Thank you for choosing LIFE, and thank you for choosing my brother and sister in law to be the best parents for the twins.

Will turns FIVE!

Willy B turned 5 on Sept 26.  He has been anticipating his birthday since his cowboy birthday party last year.   He has been confirming with us several times this year that on his birthday, he gets to do whatever he wants…as long as it isn’t harmful to anyone! 

I’ve had a bit of guilt between Will and Wyatt’s birthdays.  Will has a nice warm, festive fall birthday, while Wyatt’s is in the bitter cold of January when all grandparents have headed south and everyone else has hibernated for the winter.  So when it comes to birthday parties, Will has a tremendous response (plus, now he has his own school friends and neighborhood friends to invite) while Wyatt’s response is marginal.  When we were deciding on what celebration we should have for Will’s big 5, we decided we shouldn’t have a big party again because we know we can’t do that for Wyatt.  We gave Will 3 choices and with each choice, he could choose 2-3 friends to invite along.  We could either 1) Go to a Brewer Game 2) Blast off model rockets and go for an airplane ride at Popper’s house or 3) Go to the movie theater and mini golf, go carts, etc.

It wasn’t even a question in Will’s mind.  He wanted to go to Popper and Grandma’s house!  So we bought a few extra model rockets to assemble, paper airplane templates, airplane themed gifts, planned the airplane cake and favors, and handed out the invites folded into paper airplanes.

We knew the party depended on the weather and had a secret indoor backup plan that had nothing to do with airplanes or rockets!  And sure enough, it started to rain and the wind began to blow about 3 days before the party.  Although it stopped raining by the morning of the party, it was too wet and still too windy to continue with launching rockets and airplane rides, so we were off to LEGOLAND in Schaumburg!  

Since Will fell in love with Legos on his 4^th birthday and soon after found out there is a “legoland,” he has been begging to go so it was perfect.  He was super excited.  We loaded up Will, Wyatt, EJ and Charlotte, and headed for the Land of Legos.  We spent a great deal of time there breaking once for lunch, presents and cake and came back.  

On Will’s actual birthday, he went to school, then we picked him up and went out for lunch at his choice – McDonald’s Playland.  Had some naps, then met Jeff after work at the theater to watch The Lion King.  Followed up with a trip to the toy store and home to eat a snack for dinner (after all that popcorn!) and open his presents from Wyatt and us.  Whew!  Birthdays sure are exhausting but FUN!

Things we find in our yard

One of the things I love about our house is that we have a decent size yard with a wooded perimeter.  This invites lots of nature to live with us outdoors.  Every summer, we find new friends hanging out with us.  Here are a few from this summer:

Tree frog - usually we have one each summer that likes to hang out on our patio door and watch us eat dinner

He was a jumper!!  Jumped right onto Jeff's leg and then onto his arm!

This turtle was found alongside our deck.  I think it's a "painted" turtle but may be a box turtle

Jeff found this salamander under a rock behind our flower garden - CREEPY!

I was plucking the dead flowers out of my hanging basket and almost plucked this guy because he blends right in!

With the flash on and a little more zoom, you can see this is the biggest brown moth I've ever seen! It was about 3 inches long. Reminds me of mothman prophecies!

First Day of School!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011 was Will’s first day of school.  He is in 4K Monday through Friday during the morning session.  It’s really very much like the old fashioned half day kindergarten.  He takes the bus in the morning at 8:10.  We pick him up when school is done because the return bus trip would be over an hour long.  He loves feeling like a big kid, loves his teacher, and REALLY loves getting chocolate milk every day at snack time!

I could tell Wyatt was pretty sad the first week without his brother all day (except on Mondays and Thursdays when they are together in the afternoon) but I think they actually play a lot better now when they are together.  There are less wrestling/pushing/shoving/yelling matches and a lot more invitations to play with each other and even some acts of kindness!

Tuesday can also be considered Jeff and my first days of school since a LOT has changed since we were in school.  We are getting a crash course of how everything works, what to do and what NOT to do, like packing graham crackers with peanut butter for Will’s snack on his first day.  A few days later, the teacher sent home her weekly newsletter about what the kids are doing in class.  She stated that kids can bring a snack to eat with their milk but due to severe peanut allergies in the class, refrain from anything with peanuts or peanut butter…OOPS!  But at least I read her newsletter before I sent Will to school with peanut and raisin trail mix the next day! 

I’m also the room parent for Mrs. Fisher’s 4K class – which is something I’m still learning as well.  Somehow, like coaching his Tball team this summer, I got roped into volunteering.  I mentioned I was interested and would like to know more, the next thing I know, I’m officially assigned!  Oh well!

 

When the bus came, Will didn't even give us a second glance or hug, just hopped on the bus!

Will and his bus driver

Bye Will! See you in a few hours!

Boys really are braver than girls

At the end of July, Will and I joined my parents on a wonderful trip to the mountains of Vermont to witness my cousin, Liza’s wedding.  It was an awesome trip and Will and I had so much fun with my parents touring around VT as well as relaxing in our rental lake house.  I was really excited for this trip because it allowed time for Will and me to spend time together and do some “big kid” stuff.  I was amazed by his abilities and maturity on this trip starting with the all day travel on the way out there.  He rolled his adult size wheelie suitcase throughout both airports, O’Hare and Montreal Canada, listened very well to all directions, never complained about the long day starting at 6am and finally ending at 7pm when we reached our lake house in Vermont.  And trust me, there was a lot of walking around and confusion at the Montreal airport, trying to find our off site car rental, trying to find our way back to the US without a Canadian map, and then winding our way through the mountains to find our rental house that didn’t have a street address!  He is the best four year old I know and I am so proud of him.

The next day, we explored the Stowe, Vermont area which included lots of mountain driving, exploring caves at Smuggler’s Notch, learning about the Von Trapp Family lives once they moved here from Austria, going down the Alpine Slide, and doing back flips on the trampoline.        

That afternoon, we made a big pot of black beans and rice to bring to the Friday night Burrito Dinner that Lincoln and Liza were hosting at the camp at Nichols Pond (which was more of a lake).  We arrived and despite the steady rain, everyone was in a joyous spirit to celebrate Lincoln and Liza’s union.  Will and I enjoyed taking a canoe out in the rain on Nichols Pond which was so serene and private.  The rain didn’t bother us at all.  We would like to return there someday to do some exploring. 

The next day, we took advantage of the kayaks and boat at the Lake Elmore lake house.  Like the canoe, Will was very brave and still on the kayaks and we never tipped over!  He even learned to paddle.  We enjoyed playing hide and seek with the loons.  Each time the loons popped up, we’d have to find them.  When we spotted him, the loon would dip back down and swim under water again to pick a new spot to pop up.  

That afternoon was Liza’s wedding at Mirror Lake, another gorgeous spot that was special to her and her husband.  The ceremony was very personal and we had a lot of fun learning to contra dance!  Will wants to do more contra dancing soon.

The next day was another day spent at the rental house on the kayaks and my Aunt Ann and Uncle Peter came to visit.  It was nice to spend some time with them as they live in VT and we don’t get to see too much of each other.  Will and I had been eyeing up the fire tower at the top of Mount Elmore located behind our rental the whole time we were there.  We knew there was a hiking trail to get there from the Elmore State Park on the other side of the lake.  

Since it was our last night, Will and I packed some snacks and started up the mountain around 5:15pm.  I knew I was taking a bit of a chance here since he had not napped that day, it was dinner time, and it looked like a long way up (Will’s first difficult hike), but he was determined to do it and it was something he wanted to do since we got to our lake house, and hey, I love hiking, so more power to us!

As we started up, we passed a few families coming down.  No one had kids as young as Will, but no one gave me a crazy look or warnings that it was a very difficult hike for a four year old so it eased my anxiety about the potential of carrying Will on my back for the majority of the hike.  Although, I did notice many of them were drenched in sweat and seemed to be a bit haggard!

I also thought a few times about how I didn’t have any weapons in my pack to fend off any bears which we knew were in the area.  I came up with a defensive strategy instead as Will and I sang songs and clapped our hands to keep any bears at bay.

About half way up, the trail became more difficult and at the top, we needed to use our hands more to climb up the top portions of the mountain, similar to the rocks at Devil’s Lake State Park in WI.  Will never complained once, and we rarely stopped for a rest.  We found a beautiful flat ledge about 20 minutes from the top that we sat on for a long time together looking over Lake Elmore and the mountains of central Vermont.  This will forever be one of my favorite moments with Will.  I was so proud of him climbing that mountain, and enjoyed every minute with him, especially the lazy ones we spent on that ledge.

It was about 7:30pm when we reached the top where the fire tower was.  Will was so proud of climbing up the mountain and very excited to climb the tower.  He had no fear!

I climbed two flights of the stairs – then my nerves and fear of unstable heights got to me.  I froze and clung to the stairs.  I remember practically laying on the stairs of a lookout tower when I was younger and my parents continued to climb up.  I have a very hard time with these things.  I knew I’d have a hard time with this one, but for some reason I thought I could do it since we climb Eagle Tower in Door County every year and every year, it gets easier for me.  However, this tower was very different.  The stairs were about half the size, there was only one skinny railing with a big gaping area for me to fall through underneath, and there wasn’t a soul around.
Will was pleading with me to keep going (he was a flight above me) so I took off my pack and everything out of my pockets and made it up one more flight but I couldn’t do it.  I get dizzy very easy and all I could think of is – if I fall, then Will is left here alone – there’s no way he could go back down the mountain alone especially since it was getting dark.  I would have felt better if there was some other person, even a stranger, there that could help Will back down the mountain if I was immobilized after a terrifying fall.  I told Will, let’s wait here for 5 minutes to see if anyone else comes and then I’ll feel better about trying to climb to the top.  Although, I was pretty sure we were the last ones up the mountain, it was about 7:30 pm once we reached the top.

Of course, no one came.  I totally chickened out!  It was the worse feeling in my life - letting my son down.  I hated that moment and it will haunt me forever.  When we got back down to the ledge, we stopped and hung out there for awhile again.  I was so disappointed in myself and wondered why I didn’t just say a prayer to God while I was so scared on those stairs and let him give me the courage to climb to the top.  I made a pact with Will that the next time we go to Vermont, we will bring someone else on the hike and I WILL get to the top with him no matter how scared I am!

On the way back down the mountain, it was getting dark in the woods and I could tell he was getting nervous about the bears.  He had seen the 2 photos in the Elmore General Store of the 2 bears that were spotted in Elmore in May and July and I could only imagine what he was thinking as he stuck close to my side.  He stayed very close to me and once we were on the flat road at the end of the trail, asked for a piggy back ride.  He hugged me tight and rested his head on my back as I jogged/hop skipped back to the trail head – I was getting a little nervous with the dark closing in, myself!  Then Will asked me, “Mom, do you think I’m as brave as you?”  I replied, “Well, sometimes I think you’re braver than Mommy, like when we were climbing the fire tower, you were ready to climb to the top, and Mommy was too scared.  But then there’s times that I think I might be braver than you.  Like right now, I sense you might be a little scared coming down the mountain in the dark, but Mommy knows we’ll be safe and we’ll be to the car soon.”  He says, “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking!”

It was a memorable, positive experience anyway and Will is still talking about the cool hike, the fire tower, and the ledge that we sat on for a long time, just him and me. 

At the bottom of the mountain, we took a quick dip in the lake at the State Park and came back to eat a satisfying steak dinner around 9pm.  The next day we packed up, toured some covered bridges and made our long journey home.  It was a trip of a lifetime and very special to see my cousin, witness her nuptials, and spend the quality time with my mom, dad, and my eldest son.

Leitings Welcome a New Baby

I'm not quite sure how it happened.  We were happy with what our family currently had, but...




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almost there to meet the new little one....

Meet Baby Mickey! 

A new fish was discovered in our tank - see the TINY little yellow fish above the silver, blue and red striped one?  That little guy was apparently hiding under the big rock for quite some time and unveiled himself a couple weeks ago.  He is a baby Mickey Mouse fish, the product of the other 2 Mickey Mouse fish we have in the tank.  The Mickey Mouse fish are characterized by the two large black circles resembling Mickey's ears on their tail fins.  I was convinced this was a baby neon which we have 2 of, but Jeff pointed out the miniscule black dots on his tail.  I didn't know our fish could have babies!  We now have 3 Mickey Mouse fish, 2 neon tetras, and 3 tetras.  We had 5 ghost shrimp but none of them survived.  Next try will be some snails...

Leggo my Legos!

Wow, we hit 4 yrs old and all Will wants to do is put together Lego sets. Nowadays, Legos come in all different “sets” to build a specific space ship, truck, airplane, scene, etc. Maybe it’s always been this way, but when I was younger, we just had a box of miscellaneous legos and used our imaginations to build various things. Or, it's possible I just got the leftovers after my five brothers went through the sets first!


Will received the miscellaneous box of regular size “little” legos for Christmas in 2009. On his fourth birthday, his cousins, Peter, Erik and Kurt gave him his first lego "set," the camper (so CUTE!). Jeff took it out of the package one day and gave him a brief tutorial on how to read the instructions. He put the whole camper together only asking for help about 5-6 times. Since then, he’s received 4-5 other lego sets and he puts them together without ANY help! Some of these lego sets are for ages 7-12. He amazes me. I thought after he put each lego set together a couple times, the novelty of that specific set would wear off, but nope! He just continues the cycle. He’ll build them all, then take them apart and start all over again. There have been days where he gets up, starts building, breaks for breakfast, goes back to building, breaks for lunch, goes back to building, breaks for nap, builds, breaks for dinner, then builds until bedtime. This kid has an extraordinary attention span!

It makes for a very peaceful day until Wyatt wonders into Will’s room. Will is very protective of his Legos and Wyatt wants to be part of whatever Will is doing. Wyatt will pick up a completed or partially completed set and want to play with it. Will freaks out. I run into the room just in time to see Wyatt’s brain working, thinking, How will Will react if I take this apart? Enter Mom to save the day.

In an attempt to keep all the lego sets organized with their specific pieces, I’ve used large zip lock bags, wrote the set name on them, then drew a picture of the set on the bag so Will can recognize which set goes in which bag. This is after weeks of getting the pieces all mixed up and having the headache of sorting them all out, or losing pieces, which in one case, Jeff even opened up the vacuum cleaner bag to sift through to retrieve any pieces that were accidentally sucked up. That was disgusting! Going forward, we’ve decided to note which pieces are missing and we will order them on a replacement site.

The duplo sets are great for Wyatt and we’ve tried to keep these toys separate between the boys. Will can’t play with Wyatt’s Duplo legos and Wyatt shouldn’t play with Will’s. It’s one of the few things that we try to keep separated so they have “their own” – at least for now!

A trip to Lego Land is in our near future!
Some pictures of Will's completed sets:

People and Places

I am a people person.
I just finished a book about personal legends, “The Alchemist.” This book really makes you think about your life and fulfilling your personal legend. My passion has always been people. I know I’m not fulfilling my personal legend currently in this job.  It’s simply a job to allow me to be home more with my kids and not bring work stress home.  I really loved my last job as an Implementation Manager for Cardinal Health.  It was a company I believed in, and the service we implemented in hospitals was helping the hospitals save more money, which is good for everyone.  Working with people from all over the US and demonstrating/teaching them about our service was really my métier.  I often think that I should have gone into a profession where I can directly help people every day. Nursing, Teaching, Physical Therapy, working with the Elderly, Flight Attendant, International non-profit, even sales. Maybe one day I can seize an opportunity to change professions, but for now, raising my children is my personal legend.

My studies in college were the closest I got to that dream job I thought I wanted that combines people and international cultures. I enjoyed immersing myself in culture and meeting people from all over the world. Our immediate world seems so small once we are able to open our minds to listen, see, and understand what is going on everywhere else. It’s a wakeup call to what’s really important in our lives. I believe our time here depends on the people involved in our lives. Throughout my travels, I have met some amazing souls and now, looking back, no matter how close I was to someone, it seems most of it was a dream, like I was a different person back then. And I was.

I do not regret the decisions I’ve made since college. I wouldn’t change a thing about how I got to the place I’m at now. However, when I travel on a plane and am lifted into the clouds, it brings back the anticipation that builds about the new people I would meet and places I would experience.  My heart starts to beat excitedly as my inner passions surface again. I hope to one day share the love of international travel with my children and hope that their travels will open their eyes to our world and their own personal legends.

Here is an account of where I’ve been, where many dreams were had, and where I would like to go, and hope my children could dream there some day, too.

Places I’ve Been
International:

Costa Rica*
Nicaragua
Mexico
Cuba
Panama
Ireland*
England
France
Austria*
Czech Republic
Greece*
Italy*
Switzerland
Hungary
Belize*
Dominican Republic

*I would like to return to all of these places some day as they were all fabulous, however if I could only go to a select few again, I would choose the ones with the asterisk

Domestic:
Instead of listing all the states I’ve visited, I’ll list the states I haven’t been to and look forward to visiting one day:

Alaska
Rhode Island
Conneticut
North Dakota
South Dakota
Arkansas

I thank my parents for getting me to all the other states when I was living under their roof, OR, adventuring on my own taking advantage of my dad’s airline passes.  Thanks Mom and Dad!

Places I’d like to experience:
Chile, especially the Patagonia area of Argentina and Chile
Argentina
Jamaica
Toronto, Canada
Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa
Casablanca, Morocco
Peru
Venezuela
The islands of Croatia
Malta
Egypt
Thailand

 I feel very blessed the list of places I’ve been  is longer than the places I’d like to go. I am grateful, indeed.

Wyatt turns 2!

Wyatt turned 2 on January 27!

Wyatt, you are a little devil. You know what is right and wrong, and you like to test your limits. Typical 2 year old. The difference is, you are very smart and that makes you EXTREMELY dangerous! You are also hilariously funny and when you are naughty, it is very hard to stay mad because you are a funny naughty and you are also very VERY loving. You love to give hugs and kisses and request hugs and kisses from everyone every night or from visitors before they leave. I love your hugs and kisses especially when you ask for them and pucker your lips in mid air waiting to meet mine and I dread the day that you start wiping off my kisses.
Here are some of the things you are doing these days:

Height: 36 inches (1 ¾ inches taller than Will when Will turned 2)
Weight: 31 lbs

Counts 1-13 then a bunch of “teens” but not in order
Favorite Play time Activities: hide and seek, cooking things in the McDonald’s kitchen and serving them up, BUZZ LIGHTYEAR, trains and train tracks, anything with Will, new rocket from his birthday, putting together Mr. Potato Head with every pair of eyes he can find!

Favorite thing to sleep with: Yellow knit blanket he’s had since he was a bun in the oven made by Great Grandma Leiting and a folded blanket for your “pillow”

Favorite books: We’re going on a Bear Hunt (although he’s afraid of the bear and puts his blanket over his head for that page), Chugga Chugga Choo-Choo, Dragon in a Wagon, Where or where is Hugga Bugga Bear?

Favorite night time routine: Have a cup of milk, brush his own teeth, read LOTS of stories, rock and sing Rockabye Baby, Twinkle Twinkle, or Hickory Dickory Dock. He’s very particular about sitting facing out and sort of sideways when we rock. Then he must have his blue and brown polka dot blanket folded a certain way for his “pillow” and his yellow blanket. Then he’s ready to sleep!

If you ask him what color this is and point to it, he will correctly tell you Pink and Yellow. But if you ask him to point to a specific color, he knows Pink, Yellow, Green, Red, Blue.

Goes on the big boy potty about 1-2 times a day

Eats a hearty breakfast and usually a good lunch, but when it comes to dinner, he usually only eats his veggies and or fruit.  Unless, we're having pizza ;)

Loves singing, sings while he plays, sings in the car, loves to sing at bed time

Tells us stories that we can understand – we can understand about 90% of what he says now. One of his favorite phrases “Don’t Like it (then he names what he doesn’t like)” such as “Don’t Like it Will’s singing” He doesn’t like anyone to sing with him!

Wyatt has assumed Will’s spot on the bench at the table and Will sits in a chair.

Waking up – We all have our addictions. If you are part Donahue, you fall victim to addictions. Wyatt is addicted to his mommy. Wyatt only wants Mommy in the morning, he wakes up and does not do any playful chatter in his crib like most 2 yr olds before they are actually ready to get out of their bed. Wyatt starts while his eyes are still closed, with, “Maaaaaa-meeee,” then a slightly louder, “Maaa-MEEE…,” then louder again but shorter, “Maa-maaa,” then louder again, “Maaaa – MAAAA,” then a super loud, gets me out of bed or where-ever I am to come running so he doesn’t wake his brother up, “MAAAAAAAAAA-MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!” Ok ok ok. This doesn’t happen over 5 minutes. This happens over less than a minute. So, really, there’s not much time from the first “Maaa-meee” to the alarm of “MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Most mornings, Jeff has gone to work by the time Wyatt gets up so Wyatt has grown accustom to waking up to me. However, on the weekends, if Jeff goes into get Wyatt up, Jeff comes back into our bedroom within 30 seconds defeated. Wyatt has thrown a fit that Jeff is there to help him out of bed and throws out some phrases such as, “No, Mommy” and “No, Daddy” and “Go away” and “Get out of my room.” If Jeff tries to pick him up, he throws his body around and makes even more noise to wake up Will. So Jeff says fine, you can stay in your bed and he returns to our bedroom. Jeff hasn’t even reached our bed and we here the beginning again, “Maaaa-meee…”

Wyatt loves to be like his big brother. Often times, when I give the boys a choice, Wyatt looks at Will excitedly to await what Will will choose and then Wyatt will choose whatever his big brother chooses.

We look forward to Wyatt’s next year as he is learning more and more each day along with showing us his personality. He and Will get along great, for the most part. There are daily fights, but there are also many displays of affection and considerations for each other. I’m excited that they have each other throughout this life and excited for their future lifelong friendship.