Goodbye Chicago

So much has happened in so little time! But before we get to that, let's recap the last of our time in Chicago:

We went on a family bike ride for charity and afterwards they provided food and did face painting. Mickey wanted the face paint, but was nervous about it, so I had my face painted to show him it was ok. He still didn't want it though.

Getting ready for birthday month with this adorable boy (while his brother got to spend one-on-one time with his grandpa).

Playing at the park by our house with daddy. 

We were able to visit the Field Museum while grandpa was here. Mickey's favorite part was the toddler designated area in the bathroom-haha

Hip-hip hooray! This boy turned 3! Can you believe it?! He really enjoyed having the whole family (plus grandpa) there for the celebration.

Goose had his first taste of donut as a pre-celebration to his birthday (which we figured wouldn't be conducive to a cake due to moving-more on that later).

Oh the fun simplicity of childhood. Goose crawled around with this on his head for about 5 minutes (a long time for him).

Introducing "Goose"

And so Baby #2 enters our family! What a handsome little man! He even has a matching stuffed giraffe to remember Aunt Jenn by while she's away serving a mission.

For those of you who are familiar with Baby #1's birth story, this birth was quite similar actually. 3 days before his official "due date," my water again began leaking in the wee hours of the morning. Since I was awake at 3:30 am due to the continuing need to use the restroom, but aware because of my experience with Baby #1's delivery that a water leak with no contractions was not an immediate problem, I started some laundry and tried to busy myself. I wanted to wait until a more reasonable time in the morning to wake the Mr. and call the sitter for Mickey so that everyone could begin this new transition with as much sleep as possible. We still started the morning earlier than normal, and let Mickey get up the first time he awoke instead of sending him back to bed. After breakfast, we called our sitter (4 times actually) and couldn't reach her (when she called back later she said she was swimming... right... jk Jess!). Around 8 am, Jess arrived and we drove to the hospital without stopping at the doctor's this time. Again, a much more calm ride than we anticipated. 

The hospital then had to do a ton of paperwork and test me to see if my water broke. Then we waited. The results of the test came back uncertain (one was negative, the other positive) so the doctor had to check any way to determine that I did indeed have a high leak (after which he broke the rest of the bag of waters) - still no contractions. I guess my body doesn't know how to go into labor and I had to be induced again. This time it took all the way until about Noon to get me started on Pitocin since the hospital pharmacy took a while to get it up to us, and when they did Baby #2 kept teasing the nurse by doing something concerning every time she left the room (and then went right back to normal when she returned). Nevertheless, once the Pitocin and epidural got going - and they woke me up from passing out...and put me on oxygen...and waited another 10-15 minutes for my blood pressure to increase from a concerning 50/30 (normal response for me with needles actually) - the labor was only 4 hours long, including the 15 minutes of pushing. Though Baby #2 required forceps to turn him (hooray for the epidural!), he was born a healthy 8 lbs. 10 oz. and 21 inches long!

This little one was given his nickname by his older brother when Mickey first came in and we asked him who the baby was he responded, "baby brother," "what's his name?" "it's Goose!" So there you have it, here's Goose:

Birthday Boy!

"One year older and wiser too!" ... Especially our not-so-little Mickey. We threw a party for him nursery style since he missed his wonderful nursery in NY a ton (thank you Sister Taylor for making it awesome - he asked for it every Sunday for a while until he realized the nursery we took him to wasn't yours). That means play dough, songs, story time, toys, bubbles, and flashlights of course! Mickey loved it! (For those of you new to this blog - Mickey is the nickname we gave our oldest boy for the purposes of this blog. Named after Mickey Mouse for his general friendliness with all and happy demeanor).

Here is some of the decor. Balloons were a must and ended up on the floor as a great toy.

We wrapped an item symbolizing each activity and placed them in a larger bag. Then Mickey had the opportunity to open a lot of "presents" at a no-present party.

We're not fans of cake in this household (that's why our wedding "cake" was a little less traditional) so we opted to have ice cream for Mickey's cake. It worked out quite nicely to have the ice cream already scooped into muffin cups (portion control and quicker for the littles to get to). We topped each cup with a picture of one of Mickey's favorite things.

The ice cream cake & topper.

What a fun party that was! We enjoyed having all our friends over to celebrate with us.

Cayuga Lake & Other Fun Things

One fine weekend we decided to venture to Cayuga Lake State Park to visit the beauties this park offers. Of course, the favorite activity was digging (go figure). We used what meager supplies we had and spent most of our time digging in the sand.

 As is the tendency with most boys, Mickey's favorite activity was to knock down ("timber") anything the Mr. built up. :)

 Mickey was so confused when the Mr. buried his feet in the sand. He kept staring down with a confused complexion.

 One cannot go to a beach without playing in the water at least some! Though unprepared, we waded in a short distance to play in the water. Initially, we didn't want to play in the water much because it was a cool day and we were worried the lake temperature would be quite cold. We were pleasantly surprised, however, when we found the water to be in the upper 60's (this lake is more shallow than the one closest to us so it warms up faster).

 Mickey quickly found the joys of throwing rocks into the water - it took a while to convince him to just drop them instead of throw them as the lifeguard on duty wasn't exactly happy with us throwing rocks.

 Aside from our state park adventures, we've also enjoyed:

1. Visits to the local library where Mickey almost always tells this giant teddy bear "Love you too" and gives him kisses.

 2. Making messes in the kitchen when I attempt to cook. Seriously, anything with dough usually ends up with flour all over the place. This picture was his 'innocent' smile after I had cleaned up his face, hair, chair, and the table.

 3. The playground with the firetruck! Rain or shine, this little boy loves this firetruck (and yes, this picture was taken immediately following a small rainstorm).

 4. Thunderstorms and rain showers! Mickey LOVES the thunder and thoroughly enjoys jumping in puddles during or after the rain.

All wet!

 5. The local video store (yes, they do still exist - Redbox hasn't taken over completely). The first time we went to burn off energy before bed (yes, he is in his PJs), and Mickey ran all over the store - around and around every row. We also absolutely MUST get a gumball everytime we go. Mickey is quite insistent that I give him a "money" so he can get a gumball (and then promptly shove the whole thing in his mouth and drool all over).

 6. Riding lawn mowers at Lowe's = pure happiness.

 7. Nightly pillow fights :)

 8. Pushing the stroller everywhere we go ("[Mickey] do it!").

 9. Watching construction just down the street. The best part was the demolition that occurred before the building of parking lot/building.

 10. Last, but definitely not least, celebrating the Mr.'s birthday! I made a questionnaire for family members to answer questions about him, then he had to guess what they would respond. For everyone he got right, he got a sticker for his face. For everyone he got wrong, he had to eat a Jolly Rancher chew. :)

 

(My apologies for a sideways video...again).

And thus has been our summer!