There Were Five in the Bed

On Saturday Eric and I went for the big ultrasound reveal. Liam and Brendan were at their grandparents' and we had a whole late morning and afternoon to ourselves, which is a seemingly very, very painfully rare event lately. The ultrasound went well, the baby looked good, and apparently looked like a boy. I was surprised, because I thought he was a girl, but if there's one thing I've learned about being a mom it's that kids never ever do what you expect them to. After the appointment we got massages, and then, instead of doing even one of the 6.12 million things we were planning on doing, we just drove to a random Indian restaurant on Devon and had a delicious lunch. Because we could. I still ate it about twice as fast as I needed to, being so unused to getting to sit down and eat slowly and relax and enjoy my meal, but mmmm.
For about the last two months Brendan has been sleeping so badly through the night that he now wakes up Liam, who then has a hard time getting back to sleep because of the hypothetical monsters that he knows probably don't exist but still possibly might. It's been brutal, I'm not going to lie. We have tried pretty much everything you could think of, and nothing has worked. So today, after an incredibly stressful, no good horrible awful night last night, we are going to try and enlist the help of a pediatric sleep specialist. I have about 5% hope for a positive solution, but after more than 2 years and 3 months where we've only gotten maybe, maybe 10 full nights of sleep, I'm out of ideas.
On a more positive note Brendan and Liam surprise and astound me every day with how freaking funny and smart they are, and how good they can now play with each other (well and fight too, which is a wholly new concept to me having never had a sibling anywhere near my own age, but apparently it's normal though I still hate it and constantly try and crush it out. It's not bad but I just want them to never fight, which seems perfectly reasonable to me.) Both of them are sharp as tacks and are phenomenally good talkers, so I just love to sit back and listen to their conversations. Liam had set the bar so high with his verbal skills I really didn't expect Brendan to match up to him, but there again I was so wrong. And he is actually a much clearer talker, but to my great surprise, similar to Liam, he will not perform on command, will usually not continue to do what he's doing if I get out the camera, and often quiets down when we go out in public. Not always, but a lot. So I guess some Eric genes did make it into him after all.
Last week we finally started getting our basement finished. We are very very excited about this, even though it's a pretty small basement, but having another room in the house is becoming increasingly important. I really want to leave some of the brick exposed down there, which we're not planning on doing right now, but aside from that it's the coolest thing to walk down in what had always been the dungeon and see it transforming into a cool place. After that the only other renovation we have left for the main house is the upstairs bathroom. Of course once we complete that, if we stay in this house, we will then need to think about the plans for an addition. And I say, why not sink more money into a place that depreciates a little more each day? What's there to lose? I mean, beside our house and all our money and everything but the clothes on our back, right? This is America, for God's sake!
I have recently discovered that overall I have a pretty idyllic life, which is a good thing to realize every now and then. You really can't beat having a husband/Dad who works from home, a wife/Mom who works part time 5 blocks away, two terribly-sleeping but otherwise ideal sons who make even winter a ton of fun, and a house with something changing every day. Now, if I could somehow just manage to schedule one of those prenatal massages into my week EVERY week...

Sugar Sugar, Awwww Honey, Honey

Brendan's favorite foods:
sausage
hot dogs
sausage
hot dogs
bananas (which he calls band-aids, ew.)
yogurt covered raisins
dried bananas
dried cherries
fruit snacks
vitamins
cheese
sausage
maraschino cherries (which irks me to no end since it is very hard to find ones without high fructose corn syrup)

It's not exactly the well-rounded diet I'm striving for with him. He also does NOT like:
dessert (except Hershey bars)
honey (which he pretends he does like, like Tigger, and then he remembers he hates, like Tigger)
peas
tea (yes, I tried this when he had a cough)
pretty much most things not on the "favorite" list
Liam pretty much likes everything EXCEPT coconut and whipped cream (he gets that from me.) I still haven't taken good pictures of them from Halloween, but my friend's sister did so I need to get them from her. Also I am not beneath dressing them up in their costumes again to get a couple posed shots. They are adorable.
Eric and I saw the absolutely ONLY possible movie available on Friday night at it was Couples Vacation. It was not as bad as I was expecting. I was expecting very bad. But I love Vince Vaughn so right there it got a star, and then the setting was AMAZING so there's another star, and there were some funny moments, so there's a half star, so 2.5/5 stars. Also I haven't seen more than maybe 3 or 4 movies at the theatre this year so I'm pretty forgiving. I mean I purposefully try not to go to something which I know I will hate, which I never cared about before when I could and did see movies whenever I had the whim, which was often. Eric and I made the mistake of going to see The Women once, but realized our mistake literally 4 minutes into the film and relocated to Burn After Reading, which is the sort of evasive maneuver you have to do when using up the only 2 1/2 hour break you're going to have for 3 months. Anyway, I have noticed my standards slipping big time in my quest for pure unadultered escapism. But I'm ok with that. I think enough right now between kids and work and school that I'm ok taking a break from David Lynch. I wish there were a few more quality escape films, but I think I'd have to live in the 40s and 50s for that to be the case. Thank you Netflix.

Go Speedracer Go

Liam wants to be a racecar driver. He wants his racecar to have a fishtank in the back too. So it seemed only natural to take him to a real race. Last weekend we went to Elkhart Lake, WI with Eric's brother Andy and his girlfriend Erin. The resort was beautiful and the cars were very cool and even the Bears Packers game at the Wisonsin dive bar was fun. Unfortunately Brendan came down with a cold our second night there (and we didn't know it yet but Liam did too.) Vacations with kids are different. I personally like to go somewhere with little expectations, no itinerary and maybe only a vague idea of what I want to do. With Liam and Brando there's about 6 extra suitcases to bring and at least some preparation is vital. Unfortunately you never think of bringing humidifiers, do you? So, bedtime. Brendan was having a hard time falling asleep with the cold so Eric was in with him and I was watching a very strange show on the History channel about, you guessed it, the antichrist. It was a Nostradamus thing that normally I wouldn't have watched, but what roped me in was this weird teaser they kept offering that seemed to imply our president might be the "3rd and final" antichrist. They even went so far as to have an actor who slightly resembled the prez who they'd show every time they proposed their ominous questions, "Could this third and final antichrist be an intelligent, popular, charismatic man who leads a nation to glory just before he destroys the world forever?" It was so strange and filled with so much overt innuendo that I just had to keep watching to see how they were going to finish it. At this point either way would be bizarre. If they said "no it's definitely not our president" then why did they keep alluding to him as if he was, and really how could they say that with any authority since it's all a bunch of mumbo jumbo anyway. The conspiracy theorists would have a field day with that. If they said it is him or could be him that would be sooooo incredible it doesn't seem possible. So how would it end? I literally sat through 45 minutes of this show and then just when they were going to get to the bottom line, Brendan wakes up inconsolable and needing me and so I didn't get to watch the end. Unbelievable. Conspiracy, right?
So around midnight Brendan woke up with this 3-packs-of-Camels-a-Day cough, the likes of which I'd never heard before. Well, had we been at home I would have put on the humidifier and if it was bad I would have brought him into the bathroom with the hot shower arunnin. No humidifier, but I ran the hotel hot shower and sure enough he stopped coughing and fell back asleep. Eric went down to the front desk to get some extra pillows for Brando (didn't want to have them bring them up and knock on the door and wake everyone) and I asked him to leave the shower running so the noise would be in the background til he came back. Sure enough less than one minute after Eric left the fire alarm in our room goes off. We had a 3 bedroom setup with a kitchen and dining room and the three bedrooms were all clustered in the back. This insane blasting alarm would not shut off, and a minute later the front desk calls to see what's going on. I explain what happened and ask how to turn it off. "Just open the patio door" was their reply. Great idea, but all it did was cause dozens of worried hotel guests to start looking out their doors and windows wondering if the building was on fire. Erin and Andy came out of their bedroom and we all tried to make it shut off. Liam and Brendan somehow slept through it, in spite of it being a foot away from each of their open doors and it literally stayed on for 10 or 15 minutes. Finally Andy pulled it out of the ceiling. A minute later Eric came back, unaware of what had happened. Then the front desk tells us we have to put the smoke detector back in or the Fire Department's going to come. It was really a joyful experience, especially when after everyone was back to sleep Liam started crying at the top of his lungs because his cold finally set in and he felt awful but was so tired the only thing he could do was cry. I think Eric and I maybe got two hours of sleep that night, and we woke up before 7, packed up our stuff and left before Erin and Andy even got up.
Then I kept Liam home from his 4th and 5th days of preschool. On Thursday he seemed much better and I thought he was ready to go back. He definitely wanted to and I didn't think he seemed contagious (bear in mind that I ABHOR when people bring their sick kids anywhere near me or my kids, so I would not want to be a hypocrite but I really felt like he was ok.) I went to work and Eric called saying he wasn't sure if Liam should go. I'm like "I think he's fine and should go, but it's up to you." So based on my prodding Eric decided to send him. On the way back from dropping him off Eric calls to tell me that yes Liam went to school but the weird thing was that the class won't be going outside and they're canceling the ice cream social because there's an escaped convict on the loose in the neighborhood so the school's on lockdown. Well didn't I feel great for convincing Eric to let him go.
Alls well that ends well. I actually feel sort of sorry for the convict because he knew he was probably going to be sent to prison for the next decade plus, so when he saw an easy opportunity to escape he did it, and in all the time he was on the lam he didn't hurt anyone. I read someone saying he hopes he "goes to jail for the rest of his life" which I think is absurd, considering murderers don't even always go to jail for the rest of their lives. I think it's just a sad commentary on our penitentiary system, when the guys ends up in jail for nonviolent crime at age 18, and he just goes back and forth between jail and freedom for the rest of his life. Really isn't there any way we could help first offenders not end up back in jail? Of course some people won't be reformed, but our overcrowded prisons are probably the worst thing you could do for people gone astray. The whole system's a mess, that's my opinion. Anyway thank God everything ended peacefully and safely. And on a happier note, Liam sent his first text message today. Eric got a new phone after a wayward load of laundry did in his old and much beloved phone. This one has a keypad which intrigues Liam, and all on his own he texted me and my niece Kelly a message. He wanted to also text our babysitter but she's only 12 and doesn't have a cell phone. What was his message? "Liam" Succinct, just like he is.

Ouch, That Stings

Me: Good night, Liam, I love you.
(kiss, hug)
Liam: I love you too, Mommy.
Me: Good night, Brendan. I love you.
Brendan: Good night.
Me: Can you give Mommy a kiss, Brendan?
Brendan: No way, Elmo.

My City By the Lake

This weekend we hung out downtown. Among the highlights were taking a carriage ride, hanging out in the WGN/NBC plaza with the 3 story tall statue recreation of American Gothic (couldn't help but thing about Doing Time in Park Ridge of course) and the fountains, window shopping on Michigan Avenue, swimming in the 1920s pool at the Hotel Intercontinental, which looked like it was pulled straight out of the Hearst mansion, and taking a ride on the water taxi. We forgot to check out Buckingham fountain so we'll have to go back. Liam and Brendan were both amazingly good, and really enjoyed looking out the window of our room down at the lake and lighthouse and the city 22 stories below. When we first got there Eric thought the woman who checked us in said we were on the 2nd floor, so he asked if we could get something higher and she said no. It made sense when we realized it was the 22nd floor. The best testament to how well the trip went was that we didn't even open the bag of cars I brought to play with. Truly that's unheard of. Unfortunately somewhere in the middle of the night we awoke to Brendan saying "Pwease, pwease" only to find him standing next to his bed with his eyes still closed trying to get climb back in. Apparently he had fallen out or scooted off and it was too high for him to get back in. But other than that and the crazy traffic on the way home, it was a perfect trip.

My New Eco-Friendly Water Bottle

It's sleek, it's pretty, it's stainless steel and very mod. Three things I don't like about it:

1. When I opened it (while sitting at the public service desk at work today) a huge stream of water flew out of it and onto and across my pants, so now I look like I wet my pants. It also gave me flashbacks to trying to change Liam's diaper at 2am.
2. When I drink from it, it makes a super-sonic screeching noise which reverberates throughout the library. At first I thought a security alarm was going off. It's so far from right I cannot even explain. And I am not joking.
3. My water tastes like metal.

So, I am going to have to reevaluate this $13 purchase. Much like I sadly mourn the loss of the $8 MORGAN embossed sippy cup that Brendan forced me to buy, which now has a big rip in the rubbery-plastic coating after Eric proceeded to wash in the dishwasher, against the advice of the large Hand Wash Only label, rendering it unusable.

LPZ

Here are some pics from a trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo. Always good times. I should actually write something but I'm just too lazy today.






Here is Brendan blissfully passed out after the adventure:



And here's a set of pics when I caught Liam and Brendan practicing for Brendan's 21st birthday. Fortunately they only had play cups, but I'm gonna keep an eye on these two...