The rundown

Well, we survived another week. One utterly crazy week, and there's another one almot upon us. Where to start...

Well, I got my dose of motherhood for sure. My mom went to Kansas City to visit Ryan, which meant that I got to juggle work and home for 3 days. Talk about exhausting...2 hours of Evan, 2 hours of work, 2 hours of Evan, 2 hours of work. Not necessarily the best way to effective at either parenting or working, but I did my best.

One long crazy day at work, and then Chris and I took off for WV. I was going for work, and Chris could come along at no extra cost since my rental car and room were already paid for. Did I mention the meeting was at a casino? Ah, makes more sense now. It was a bit of a treacherous drive there on some snowy roads, and more treacherous driving in snow on the way back. And the best part...a pebble hit the windshield on the way back and it cracked all the way across. I'm still trying to figure out how this is all going to work since it was a business trip. Joy.

Now we're busy cleaning and doing laundry, and really looking forward to the arrival of the Bileks on Monday. Hopefully they don't run into any bad weather on the way down. They'll be here for almost a week, so my mom will get a much-needed break to recover from her stressful travels.

Update on Ryan...she was accepted for treatment as part of a clinical trial at St. Jude's. She really couldn't be at a better place, and they really know how to take care of families in this situation. She arrived there yesterday, and will likely start her chemo early next week. I'm working on setting up some fundraising stuff, so be prepared for a plea for help in the near future.

On the kid front, Evan is a maniac! That boy went from cruising to practically running laps in the course of a week. He's also working on some more teeth, so he's a little crabby. I should have some updated stats in the next couple of weeks. He's due for his one-year checkup, but I wanted to wait until after all the commotion was done so he's not dealing with shots on top of everything else.

Last thing...have you seen the new Nationwide ads featuring the World's Greatest Spokesperson in the World?

Check him out here or become a fan on Facebook. There are some hilarious clips online only.

I'm gonna try this again...

I've decided that family blogs are the modern version of the baby book. Now that Evan is almost 1 (yes, he's really 1!!!!!!), I've been looking back through this woefully out-of-date blog to see how he's stacking up to Lauren. In the process, I realized that I had created a really great account of our family's first couple of years of life with kid(s). I sat here for almost an hour reading month after month of posts, laughing, with tears in my eyes, wondering what the heck I was thinking. And then I was sad because I stopped doing this. So, starting today, I'm going to try to post once a week. I'm sure I can find something interesting to write aboout at least once a week, so why not?

Our lives have generally been good since the holidays. Evan is now the pro sleeper, and Lauren's the one waking us up in the middle of the night and super early in the morning. Please, someone explain this to me? Lauren is now a "Cookie Monster" at school and had her first Christmas program at school.


She still loves school. We're trying to figure out a way to get her there full time instead of 3 days a week, but we just can't afford that right now.

In even bigger news, Evan is now WALKING!!!!!!




Dear God, help me! I had learned from my first parenting experience and savored the little time I knew I had left before he started walking on two feet. He now has 5, almost 6, teeth, and loves eating people food. We're starting to move him off formula (yay!) and on to whole milk. He's over the bottle, so the sippy cup is making an appearance.

We're getting ready for the Bileks to arrive in a couple of weeks to celebrate his first birthday. No specific plans yet, but there will be a custom-made, hand-decorated cake of some variety. And a huge mess.

In less happy news, we're sending our best thoughts and wishes to cousin Ryan in Kansas City. She's been in the hospital since the beginning of February with what was originally seizures, and has now been diagnosed as adrenal cancer. She's a true fighter, making it through a 5-hour surgery to get rid of the nasty tumor. Fingers crossed, she'll be going home early next week to finish healing from the surgery. Then, 8 rounds of chemo to follow. It sounds rough, but this girl is one tough cookie. This silly cancer doesn't know what it's up against :)

Okay, I feel fairly caught up now. And keep me honest...