Yummy birthday

This is what I look like most days while trying to keep up with my little live wire. He likes to try absolutely everything and you never know what he will do next.

On the night before my birthday, he wanted to stay up, play, and then watch Thomas the train around two a.m.

He got up later and threw his breakfast across the room. And later ate part of it off the floor. When he decided to take a bath, he pooped in the bathtub.

And that was before 10 a.m. Happy Birthday to me. I spent the day packing, keeping kids, baking for the trip, and fielding happy birthday phone calls and texts, which I really enjoyed. Dave gave me something off my kitchen wish list. At some point in the middle of laundry, I reminded myself it was my birthday.

I got a fabulous birthday cake--which I don't get every year--when I got to New York. (and presents too :) Jack tested out the candles and then helped blow them out. Perhaps as you age the small things like phone calls and cakes mean the most.

Jack wouldn't slow down to eat cake, but he did coined a new phrase on my birthday which I love. "Yum-my Mom-ee"

the "Hallmark" thanksgiving

What makes up a Hallmark thanksgiving?

For the Schwartz family, it requires a ridiculous amount of food and family members flying in from around the country. The travel was mandatory for another reason too....Jake's bar mitzvah would take place on Saturday.

Traveling with two children under two on the busiest traveling day of the year could definitely be fodder for a sitcom. When we left our house at 4:45 in the morning, we had one of those last minute crisis when the last things to go in our suitcases just wouldn't fit. So, we left the house with four suitcases, a backpack carrier, a stroller, a carseat, and three carry-ons. Packed in the middle of casual clothes, dressy clothes, diapers, and christmas gifts, I stashed homemade cranberry relish, cranberry bars, and cookies. We were most worried about Jack being a docile lap-child on a packed flight, which seemed like a recipe for disaster, but thankfully he fell asleep. The fact that the first leg of the trip was only sparsely seated helped too. The worst moment definitely came waiting through the long lines at security which tested Jack's patience. We made a game out of looking at other people's clothes. See that shirt, Jack? What color is that? "Lel-low" Yes, that's right yellow. What about the dinosaurs on the little boy's pants? "Pur-pel" Good. Those are purple. But the game wore out as we neared the security checkpoint. He melted down right as we were trying to speedily move through the x-ray line. He did not want his stuff to go through the x-ray machine, and as the guard waved him through the walk-through x-ray machine, he flopped on the floor with his high-pitched scream. Interestingly, we weren't detained and questioned. But they did take his sippy cup for extra testing, which meant we had to wait and try to pacify the screaming.

But we made it and the family brought two rides to the airport to pick us and all of our junk up.
Cousin Jesse flew in from Florida at the same time too.

That night, Dad Bill made his signature hot wings and Mom Sheila made her "garbage bread" (stromboli).












The family met Evelyn. Dave's friend Johnny came down to visit. The next day, we enjoyed a nice, traditional Thanksgiving meal with friends and family...which made the hassle very worthwhile.

OTG: Off the Grid

I've been off the grid for the past few weeks.... I've learned how to adjust to life with two under two, I've made a 16-plus hour drive with the two under two to Arkansas, visited family, drove back, and am currently preparing for another trip.

We're settling into our new normal and I have a few blog posts planned to document our eventful internet absence.



The kiddos were lucky enough to trick-or-treat in both Arkansas and Minnesota.

In Minnesota, we went out to the Landing where Jack was much more interested in the rocks in the road than he was the candy. I enjoy going back out to the park and seeing friends.


In Arkansas, we had plans to go to a local trunk-or-treat event with family and friends. I came down with a ferocious headache on Halloween, so Jack went with my Aunt and a friend. From what I was told, he wound up being carried kicking and screaming through the event because he wouldn't hold anyone's hand. He does like his freedom.

Evie slept through both events.

Month One

Where does the time go? When you have two under two, I sometimes wonder how I get anything accomplished between duel diaper changes.

As Evelyn approached one month old, I wanted to copy the idea of one of my crafty friends and snap pictures of her in numbered onesies. I had the fabric,the onesies, the fusible web,but what I didn't have is time.

I hastily ironed on the number one the night before her one-month birthday and in the process got some gunky residue all over outfit.

Then I didn't make time to snap a picture until really late

in the evening and I tried to cram in a photo session before Jack's bedtime.

The result? Some lousy pics of the baby, but some great pictures and dialogue with the 19-month-old who will never pose for a picture but wanted to be in on the action.Apparently Jack also wanted to use the opportunity for pictures to lay down some ground rules to the newest member of the household.

Pink invasion

In designing my layette for my first child, I kept everything in muted, bright neutrals. I couldn't imagine being doused with all of the pink or blue that you get when you get a new baby. I couldn't imagine liking it. The blue with Jack never really came. But now, we have plenty o pink stuff that arrived shortly after our 6 pound 2 ounce baby girl.

And we couldn't be happier with the baby or with all of the pink.

It didn't take long to fall in love with Evelyn Rhea, who so far likes to sleep, eat, and poop. Not always in that order.

My family arrived bearing two boxes of pink clothes and bags of gifts from friends and family. We've gotten stuff in the mail and thoughtful gifts from friends. And I haven't minded the pink at all. Honestly, it's so much more exciting to shop for stuff for girls than boys.

Fingers crossed, Evie Rhea is much easier baby than Jack was. She acutally sleeps. The only issue is that she wants to be held all the time. It's not like we made her that way, either. Even in the hospital, she'd fuss in the bassinet until someone picked her up.

We didn't know what we were having until the birth, and we really didn't have any secret desires for the child to be a boy or a girl. But we couldn't be happier with our lady in pink.

Waiting...

I'm not sure if this baby is super stubborn and not wanting to be born or just being uber-polite and giving us plenty of family time before the big arrival. Either way, it's been a waiting game in the Schwartz household as baby continues to incubate past his or her due date.

Right after I finished up work, I went into hyperdrive trying to get all the loose ends tied up. I'd spent the majority of my pregnancy focused on living a busy life and not preparing for the new one, so the week of preparation was much needed. I finished up the nursery, finished up Jack's new room, transitioned Jack to his

new room, finished up craft projects, completed and handed off nonprofit work, packed for the hospital, baked goodies, and tried to keep the house immaculate.

I found time to do small things I'd been meaning to do... small things like super-glue a bit of trim back on a curtain, clean off the top of the dryer, and finish Jack's one year photo book. I decided to weed every flower bed in the yard....something that hasn't been done since early July and weeds were so tall in places they'd smothered one small tomato plant. But baby didn't come and the doctor told us to stay active.

So we did. We cleaned out the basement. We cleaned out the garden shed. We cleaned up the foyer. We cleaned out toolboxes and our tool closet. In-between projects, we tackled area parks and hiking trails sometimes trekking three to five miles a day in two separate walks. We took Jack to the park, to the apple orchard, and on his first trip to the zoo. We've watched our share of TV and played a few games of Scrabble. I'm eyeing cleaning out the garage for another project; Dave...not so much.

We also bought into the old wives tale that eating spicy food helps induce labor. I made supreme nachos that had no less than a half-jar of my grandmother's hot sauce and a half-jar of home-canned hot jalapenos. Our noses and eyes watered even more the next day when Dave made his father's spicy buffalo wings more spicy than normal. I made a dynamite Shrimp Etouffee, but I decided to double the amount of cayenne pepper. It was good, but it was definitely too hot to truly enjoy like we wanted.

Our baby-induced stay-cation has been so far a productive and enjoyable one where we've completed household projects and enjoyed some pre-expansion family time. But like all good vacations, we're somewhat ready for this one to come to an end so we can adjust to a new normal that always seems just a few days?....hours?....away.

A family on the verge

It's presumably the last week the Schwartz household will be a family of three. To document this, we had family pictures taken by one of our favorite photographers and even though Jack was being a tad cantankerous, she captured some beautiful images.

Speaking of cantankerous, that is Jack. The almost 18-month-old has a mind of his own and he doesn't hesitate in letting everyone know it. Currently every morning we have quite a fight on our hands getting him to take off his pajamas. Why? Because his pajamas have his favorite thing on them--Cars. He will hold the pants and pull as you are trying to pull them off while yelling "no!" "cars!" "cars!" "nooooo!" I've resorted to going through all of his clothes trying to find something with cars or the only available substitute, balls. This is hard because I've shied away from the cars-balls-construction equipment wordy t-shirts.

It's tougher when we don't know what he wants, and that's often the biggest source of conflict. He'll scream and cry "no" and some other sounds when we're trying to figure out what it is that he's trying to communicate so vehemently. A fit could commence where there's more screaming and gesturing and unintelligible words. That's when we try to distract him with, of course, cars or balls. Of course, we know some fits Jack thr

ows he knows exactly what he can't have and that makes him plenty mad.

Jack's best friend is his Daddy. From the moment he gets up until he goes to bed, Daddy is frequently mentioned, asked for, and cheered. When we go to get him up in the morning, Jack runs to the side of the bed, yelling "Dad-dee!" When Dave comes in the door from work, Jack is waiting and doing his happy dance while yelling "Dad-dee!" Today as I put him down for a nap, I asked Jack, "You know who loves you, Jack? Mama loves you." To which he replied "Dad-dee!" Right now, the boundaries are Dad-dee is for all fun and Mama is for everything else, which includes taking off those beloved car pajamas.

While he might look like an angel, Jack has a curious nature that often shows up in a destructive way. Yesterday he took his goldfish crackers and ground them into the freshly-cleaned carpet with his hands. The day before he dumped them in the bathtub before climbing into the tub to stop them into bits. The day before that, he was practicing nosediving on our bed and nose-dived right into the footboard and busted his nose. I'll come into the kitchen to discover he's quite proud that he's standing on top of the table. It's not unusual to see him dragging things places just to see how it works there--like moving his rocking horse into the bathroom or trying to climb up in his Little Tykes car that had been moved to a chair for vacuuming.

If there's one thing Jack loves better than cars, it's balls. We no longer allow throwing balls in the house because of too many close calls with a real baseball. Sometimes when the TV is off, he'll stand in front and point "ball" "ball" wanting to find a ball game. He has a hockey stick that he walks around with hitting balls and yelling "goal!" With just about anything Jack has in his hand, there's probably an 80 percent chance it will be airborne when it leaves his hands.

Currently, we've been transitioning Jack to his new bed and his new bedroom and talking about the new baby. We practice holding the baby, putting it in the bassinet, and above all being "nice" and "gentle" with the baby. After a week, he's sleeping in his new bed but he's still throwing the baby around. We're working on it. And we have to. We only have a few more days to go.