Birthdays and Thanksgiving

I thought I'd get a little festive with the blog.  I hope no one that reads this is colorblind, or all they'll see is green--which I guess isn't bad since green is also a Christmas color.

The last six weeks of the year are always the most chaotic for me.  It all kicks off with Kevin's birthday (Nov. 23rd), unless, of course, it happens to be the year where Thanksgiving is as early as it can be (the 22nd).  So between November 22nd and January 1st, there's all three of our birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas (and all the parties that lead up to it, including the ward party which I have to help plan), and New Year's (which I'm not really sure why I'm including because I don't do a whole lot for it).  All I can say is I am SO glad Baby Esch will be born on the opposite side of the year!

For Kevin's birthday, the original plan was to go down to Shedd's Aquarium downtown.  Kevin had been talking about taking the Squirt there for months.  But somehow when the day came, he ended up going to Rockford--with Lauren--and left me with some free time to myself.  Not too shabby on my end. :)  Let's hope he doesn't expect the return of the favor on my birthday.  For dinner, both of our parents met up with us at Stir Crazy at Woodfield.  Kind of a mini-reunion, as that is where our parents met when we were engaged.

Then we headed back home for some Schade dump cake and ice cream.

Overall, a pretty low-key day, for which I was grateful in my current state.  A theme I think we will see recur over the next 5 months.


Next was Thanksgiving.  It was my first time hosting it, and I was a bit nervous, since I was in charge of the turkey, and the pumpkin pies.  After what seemed like a hundred calls to my mother (and sister when my mom got tired of the answering the phone), the two turkey breasts turned out nice and moist.  I even felt inspired to break out the china.  After all, how often do I really get to use it?  Once again, our company included my parents, my youngest brother, and Kevin's mom.  I was happy that I had divvied up the dinner assignments.  And my sweet mother and mother-in-law kind of took over once they got here and let me rest, including washing the china afterward.  Though I've had more energy lately now that I'm in my fifth month, it still is not THAT much energy.  The dinner was yummy, full of traditional food.  And without sounding like I'm tooting my own horn, there's nothing like homemade pumpkin pie!

My goal for the next Thanksgiving I host is to conquer an entire turkey toute seule.








The next day was Lauren's 3rd birthday.  Of course, in my mind, I had previously made all of these grandiose plans like any mother could.  But when it boiled down to it, I decided to Keep It Simple Stupid.  Kevin and I stayed up Thanksgiving night, putting together her big present--a kitchen of her own.  She's always pretending to make us something, so we figured a kitchen would be great.  We debated whether to ask Santa to bring it to her, but in the end, we realized we would never be able to bring it back from Naperville in our small cars.  But maybe Santa will bring her something to complement her kitchen.

Did she like it?  She loved it!  She spent at least an hour playing with it, which is amazingly long time for our little pinball.  Of course, she still had to have someone else there to interact with.  She's not a child who can easily entertain herself without interaction or talking through what she's doing.

We had sent out invites to family and a few friends to join us for pizza and cake and ice cream.  But knowing that it was the day after Thanksgiving, (and myself, having experienced getting the shaft on my birthday because it's close to a holiday), I didn't really expect a whole bunch of people to come.  So thrice again, the celebratory circle included only my parents and Kevin's parents.  Three times in one week!  I think that's a new record.  Dinner was simple--pizza delivered.  Celebration was simple as well--purple homemade cake with ice cream (of course, every adult opted for the moose tracks).

For her presents, Lauren also got a holiday dress, Happy Meal food to go with her kitchen, and a Toy Story coloring book from us.  From her grandparents, she got a singing card, marble works (you build it and marbles run through it),  a bible-themed coloring book, and a stuffed lion, which, of course, instantly became one of her required sleep companions.

Overall, it was a good week.  I'm glad I didn't kill myself scrubbing my house clean, because when it boiled down to it, people just didn't care.  They came for the company.  Lesson learned.

Fall Is Flying By

So I've been putting off blogging because I was hoping to have another round of great news (i.e. selling our house), but then I realized that fall is flying by, and I shouldn't miss the chance to blog about it.  

(As a side note, we do have an offer on the house, but it's another neurotic prospect who just doesn't seem to want to commit.  All we seem to attract is the weirdos, even though realtors have told us our house shows the nicest.  Fish or cut bait, dude!)

Lauren was excited to get a car from a family moving, who couldn't fit it in their truck.  Unfortunately, she's only been able to drive it once so far.  

She doesn't quite get the hang of steering and several times crashed into Kevin's car or the house, which she thought was hilarious, of course.  But next spring it should provide ample fun while I push the baby for a walk.  (At least, I hope she figures out the steering thing by then!) 


What kind of blogging mom would I be if I didn't talk about Halloween?  Halloween was a blast for the Monkess this year!  She has been so obsessed with dinosaurs as of late thanks to the new Dinosaur Train show on PBS, that she was adamant about being a dinosaur.  Our neighbor had a dragon costume that he wore last year, and it fit the bill nicely.  She periodically had to try on her "dinosaur coat" for a few minutes at least once a week throughout October.  

As Halloween arrived, she was chomping at the bit once she saw other kids start to come around.  So Kevin took her out in the bitter cold.  I wasn't sure whether she would be brave enough to do doors by herself.  But fortunately her buddy, Detton, aka Buzz Lightyear, from next door decided he'd rather go out trick-or-treating with Lauren than hand out candy.  

Eventually the two of them got brave enough to do doors by themselves.  And once they made it up and down the entire street, they couldn't get enough.  But by then all the adults were freezing.  So Lauren's fascination turned to watching for kids coming so she could hand out some candy.  

Oh, and we can't forget to mention her tattoos.  In true toddler fashion, there was no saving some for tomorrow.  Had to get those skeletons and skulls on!









This fall has been so much on the chilly side!  Combine that with the fact that I am just now starting to feel better at 16 weeks along, and that adds up to doing very little outside.  So Lauren jumps on any little chance to go play outside, even if it's just hanging out while Daddy fixes the soffit vents.  This morning, Kevin went out to rake leaves for the pick-up, so Lauren jumped on that opportunity to play, which ended up providing at least one nice picture.  There are very few pictures we get where Lauren will say cheese AND look at the camera.  Most often we get a "Cheese" but no eyeballs.

I am constantly amazed how quickly my 2-year-old is growing up.  The funniest things to me (though sometimes not so funny at the moment) are how she turns our words around on us.  Like tonight when I was tapping my toe at dinner, she said, "Please stop dat.  Stop doing dat, please.  Please just eat."  I so wanted to laugh out loud, but instead just said, "You're right.  Thank you for asking so nicely."  In some ways, I don't want her to grow up--like the way she says, "I want to watch a boovie."  I tried to change boovie to movie in her vocabulary today, but afterwards I thought, "She'll grow up too fast as it is."  I am comforted somewhat by the thought that I'm lucky to have another chance to watch a baby come into this world and go through these stages again--which I'm sure is why some women continue to have baby after baby.  But then I think about how the baby will probably have such a different personality, and will not display the same cute quirks that Lauren does.  It makes me want to follow Lauren around with a video camera all day.  But that would be ridiculous, I know.  I guess I'd better get going on a starting a journal!  (Yeah, daily planner idea--you didn't quite work.)

Big News at Our House

I've been waiting for my husband to make his calls before blogging about this, but I might just be waiting 'til the cows come home, sleep, and gradually age toward become a nice filet mignon or prime rib before that happens.  Anyone who knows Kevin, i.e. his family, can appreciate that sentiment. 


While I would love to blog about being able to sell our house, that just is not going to be the case any time soon, unless we opt to simply give away our house.  Besides, the news is much better.  We are finally expecting our second child.  Yay!!  We didn't know if this day would ever come after having to wait so long for Lauren.  But this and other experiences have only taught me to a greater degree that God is in control and my timing, mysteriously, never seems to be in line with what He has in mind.

The due date for Monkess #2 is April 14, 2010.  Which means taxes better get filed EARLY next year.  (Hint. Hint.)  I'm excited.  I've always wanted a spring baby.  And per my sister's request, it will not be in February or May.  (So now there's no excuse, Sue, for not remembering the child's birthday in a lavish manner.)  It will be nice to have a birthday in our family that is not within the last six weeks of the calendar year.  And it will be nice to be done with flu season and be able to go for walks right away.  (Although this IS Chicago, so the weather still may not let us go for walks 'til June!)  And even summer will be great because we can all chill at Mom's pool with the baby still immobile in the stroller--if there actually is a summer next year.

If anyone is wondering if I have been sick, the answer, unfortunately, is a resounding YES!  Before I got pregnant, I told myself that the next time around I would keep exercising and I was convinced that I would be less sick and basically, unstoppable.  But for whatever reason--whether it's because I'm 3 years older (a mere 29), or because this could be a different gender (which we probably won't find out--again), or because this child will be even more high-maintenance than Lauren {SHUDDER!}--I don't know, but I have been much sicker this time around.  Food is my arch-enemy, but an enemy that apparently I can't live without.  And forget about cleaning or going to run errands.  I have been lucky to have angelic people and PBS to watch Lauren while I lay in bed barely surviving.  I just don't know how women who get sick keep having kids!  And poor, wonderful Kevin has had to be both parents, and I know he's getting burned out.  So as we look forward to beginning the second trimester, I'm not sure who wants me to get better more!

I'd include a picture, but the only picture we have is of a speck.  But according to my youngest brother, just looking at the wallpaper on this blog is an ultrasound of what Monkess #2 will look like.

So I've decided to become a blogger

The day has come.  I have decided to enter the cyberworld and start my own blog.  I do not know how this will turn out.  Maybe I'll take to it like a fly on roadkill, or maybe it will become some random once-in-a-blue-moon thing.  I've taken to Facebook more than I thought I would, so who knows, maybe it will stick.  I would like to thank all my friends who've let me read their blogs (I'm sure you don't know who you are) to aspire to this feat.  I've gotten a lot of good ideas about how I want to go about doing this--if in fact, I do go about doing this.

I have much to say, but don't know where to start.  So for today, I will call it good and will maybe try to add a few more things here and there to my page.