Man At Work

Happy Father's Day...delayed

IMG_3718
Originally uploaded by flowmug

Last weekend was kinda busy for us and we weren't able to celebrate a proper father's day because I had a shower. So today we met our friends for brunch and now Dan is golfing with Augy, Paul, and Aubrey (a perfect day for golf here, by the way). Hopefully he is having a great day.
Boy, you are an amazing father and husband and I fall in love with you even more watching you with our children. We 3 are blessed.

And to my own father...it's been quite some time since I've spent a father's day with you, but I hope that you are still able to know how much I love and appreciate you. Thank you for being a wonderful Dad and especially for showing me how to be a parent to adult children...I can't imagine how hard that transition is and I'm not looking forward to it! I admire and love you immensely!

Finally, to my father-in-law, you are an incredible support and I thank you for everything you have been to me and especially, as a Papa, to our kids.

Ryan and Colvin couldn't be luckier with the men they have in their lives.

A Promise to Myself

How often do we really keep these promises? We aren't very good at it for the most part and I think especially as a parent it is difficult to make good on this because your kids ALWAYS come first. I am happy to say, though, that I got up and went running yesterday morning as planned and I took it easy. I promised myself that I would not try to push it and the run was just perfect. Some fabulous "me time". The morning was gorgeous and it was so peaceful.

Looking Forward to a Run

Had my 6 wk appt and got the ok to exercise today. I will be going for a run tomorrow morning if things go as planned. Can't wait!

Enough about me though...here's some kid stuff:
I was a little anxious about our drive to my appt b/c it is about 45min away and Colvin has proven (like her brother) to not be too fond of her carseat. She did great though...sleeping all the way there and only crying a bit on the way back! Meanwhile, Ryan chatted (entertaining me) the entire way there and back. I'm pretty sure he was naming off all of the people he loves in his life b/c he rattled off a list...Mommy, Daddy, Colter (that's Colvin), Marda (Marla), Drew, Kyle, Ben, Namo, Papa, Namo, Papa, T, Bear. He also was very excited to see Hooya (Hillary) and her toybox. She has many toy cars, which, in typical Ryan fashion, he lined up on her window sill. Unfortunately I was too busy with my appt to snap a pic, but here is an example of his work from a sandbox we visited recently.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3435985&l=a4135fbb8d&id=669706489

6 Weeks Old Today

Trader Joe's Prediction

Some of you may remember the Trader Joe's check out lady and her prediction about Colvin's birth. She predicted we would have a girl in the early morning and that she would be 8lb. 3oz. The lady was right about everything but Colvin being 5 oz. heavier at birth.

Aunt Kerry Visits

My sister was nice enough to make a trek down to see us - she even took 2 days off of work to help Sharis out a bit during the week. It was really fun having her here.

There was a chalk festival in the park by us that weekend ...

Of course we had to visit the park ...


Ryan is still fascinated by bubble gum and wants anyone who has gum to blow bubbles all the time ...




My cousin Liz also came for a day during that weekend. It was so good to see her. It had been a while ...


My sister was a HUGE help all weekend including taking Ryan to his MyGym class one day ...




And helping out with Colvin as well ...

Click on any of the pictures to be taken to the entire set on Flickr.

Chicago Friends

My friends from High School Jim and Wendy moved to Chicago about a year ago. It has been great having them in town even though we don't get to see them enough. They came over last week for a visit. Their daughter Fiona is just about the cutest kid on the planet - but their other daughter Nora isn't far behind. It's too bad that once they moved here we are now moving back.

You can click on any of the pictures to be taken to Flickr to see the entire set.

Wells St. Art Fair

Colvin's First Bottle at 1 Month

Colvin's First Bottle at 1 Month
Originally uploaded by flowmug

Dirty Jobs

I doubt that many of you will appreciate this post...besides Cas (who loves a good poo story)...Colvin, especially, will hate me for this in her teenage years, I'm sure.

I'm pretty sure that "Trader" will be on the next episode of the Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs after they catch wind of this story. As many of you know, Dan is trading out of our bedroom. Our bedroom has also now become the place where Colvin sleeps and gets changed. Her changing station is on top of our dresser and her bottom is aimed at the back of Dan's head...we all know where this is going. She has quite the talent for some pretty forceful poo launching and until the other day her PR was just to the end of the dresser. However, she continues to train and gain strength as she ages and she slashed her own record the other day while Dan was changing her. The new mark to beat is displayed by a carpet stain right beside Dan's work chair (luckily she went for the record after market hours). Needless to say, Dan is a little nervous every time I am changing her. My guess though is that she'll try for a new PR and hit the computer. Isn't it a mother's job to dream about the potential of her children?

Roll Over

I forgot to report that last weekend Colvin was on her stomach and rolled to her back. Dan, Kerry, and I all agreed that we didn't think that was possible at this age and it must have been a fluke. Even still...it seems my girl's got mad strength, like her brother and dad.

4 weeks and 6 hours

Colvin was 4 weeks old yesterday and last night gave us a great 6 hour stretch of sleep! I can't believe she is already almost a month old! All of my friends have warned me that time flies by so much faster with the second...it is SO true.

We wait for a month to give our kids pacifiers and/or bottles because we were told at our birth class by the lactation consultant that those things inhibit their learning the proper nursing "suck". I remember counting the days until we could give Ryan a bottle b/c I was so desperate (i.e., in so much pain) but the days have gone much too quickly with Colvin.

Colvin is such a good baby and has been a real trooper being dragged all over Chicago with Ryan and I. We've been to several parks, the Field Museum, Fantasy Kingdom (an indoor play area), and the Children's Museum @ Navy Pier (highly recommended if you live in Chicago!). In the next week we have plans to hit the art fair, MI outlets, Shed Aquarium, and Kohl museum...hang in there Colvin Marie!

She's a Model Already

We did a photoshoot with Colvin when she was only 4 days old. I "borrowed" a couple of ideas from a photographer that I follow. You can see some of her stuff here.

She is so easy to shoot when she is this young. All she did is sleep and we could put her in any position we wanted. Isn't she precious?

You can click on any of the photos to be taken to Flickr for the entire shoot (there are only about 25 pictures there out of about 100).