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.

Winter fun

Here are some pictures of our new favorite sledding hill at Silver Lake Park and the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. 








Kurt and Will at the Museum

 

Erik, Peter, Kurt, and Will



Will at the Museum of Science and Industry





Kurty lost ANOTHER tooth at the Museum!



is it too soon for these brothers to start their own rock band?

Christmas 2010

Christmas gets more and more fun with each year that passes. This year I thought a lot about how I will miss these times when the kids are older and Santa has lost his magic and a single gift will cost $400.


Every year, Jeff and I disagree on how many presents should be under the tree. Jeff is always complaining about the # of toys the kids have. And I agree they have accumulated A LOT between my garage sale addiction, holidays and birthdays. However, when it comes to Christmas, Jeff wants the presents to OVERFLOW from under the tree. I argue that they have so much already, it shouldn’t be about getting a bunch of presents, it should be about baby Jesus, serving and giving to others. I always follow it up with what happens if one year we CAN’T afford to fill the tree with presents? Will they think they were bad that year?

I grew up with just a few presents under the tree for me, and never thought anything of it. I was always excited about it. Jeff grew up with MANY MANY presents under the tree. In the end, Jeff always convinces me this is part of the magic of Christmas and he wants his boys to wake up, open their eyes big when they get to the top of the stairs, and rush down to rip open all their presents Santa left them. I agree, this part is REALLY fun, and it’s a lot of fun to spoil them on this day. Then, a couple hours after they are done opening gifts, Jeff continues to comment that they have too many toys and where are we going to store them all…

Here are some pictures from Christmas:  



Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa Leitings with Ryan, EJ, and Maddie






The boys always love the train Santa sets up

Some of Wyatt's favorite presents: Interactive Buzz Lightyear, matchbox cars, Grabber

Some of Will's favorite presents: saucer sled, transformer, lego sets, Grabber

I regretfully did not take any pictures of Christmas later that day at Jeff and Annie’s.  It’s always such a warm and perfect night when they host Christmas dinner at their house!

Christmas Prep



Will REALLY got into the Christmas season this year. Wyatt was infected by his excitement, too. Wyatt would recognize "church music" and say "BABY JESUS! BABY JESUS!"

Here are a few pics from the Christmas season 2010





Cutting down the Christmas Tree at Grandma and Grandpopper's house



Trimming the tree

We always have fun making Christmas cookies from scratch but the frosting was a little difficult with 2 kids -mainly just Wyatt as he wanted to dump the sugar sprinkles all over :)



John and Noreen sent Will a gingerbread house to construct and decorate.  This was probably the highlight of his Christmas season prep!  Thank you Uncle John and Aunt Noreen!



 Our annual Christmas trip to Door County to visit Great Grandma and Grandpa Leiting.  The kids LOVE their Great Grandparents.  The cuck-koo clock from Germany is one of their favorite things.  That and their Great Grandpa!  Grandma and Grandpa gave Wyatt this toy cash register that had 3 yellow coins in it.  Wyatt and Grandpa had a lot of fun with it.  Grandpa would keep hiding the coins and say "Where's the Money??" Turns out, Grandpa hid one a little too well and we went home without it.  Grandma sent it in the mail a week later and now Wyatt always calls that coin "Grandpa's coin."