We're In!

We spent an hour in line at a local rec. center tonight to sign Wesley up for swimming lessons. Thankfully, the weather was nice and Wesley was well behaved. Why did we wait an hour in line? Because the suburb I work in charges $375 for a pass for a family of two (including the resident discount) plus $30 for the class. The university near us charges $56 for the class and I'm not sure if they have a pass that you have to pay for. The city aquatic center near our house charges $1 for a leisure card and $30 for the class. I'll wait in line, thank you very much! Now I just have to work up the nerve to try on bathing suits while 22 weeks pregnant.

Weekend Update

Is it possible for a weekend to be both busy and lazy? That's really how I feel our weekend has been. Duane and I went to a hockey game Friday night and for some reason that just threw the whole weekend off.

We woke up on Saturday and it really felt like Sunday. Duane took the car bed in Wesley's playroom down, then we went out to lunch to satisfy a craving I was having. Since it was a bright, sunny day we told Wesley we could go to the park. However, once we got there, we realized that bright and sunny does not necessarily equal warm. We stayed long enough to play with a couple dogs, feed the ducks and swing for all of five minutes. When Wesley's face started turning bright pink from the wind, we decided it was time to go home. Unfortunately, Wesley didn't want to leave and he cried the whole way back to the car and the whole way home. Warm weather can't come soon enough for this kid. He's sick of being inside.

Uncle Kirk and Aunt Susan babysat Wesley last night while Duane and I went to yet another sporting event - this time arena football. Wesley had a great time with Kirk and Susan. They must have worn Wesley out good and proper too, because he slept in until a little after 9:30 this morning. I'm glad he got to sleep until his little heart was content, but that meant we didn't have time to get all of us ready for church on time.

Wesley requested a trip to COSI this afternoon, so after a trip to the grocery store, we all headed to COSI. Wesley really needed to burn off some energy. He ran non-stop for the first half hour we were there and even though he eventually stopped running, he was a busy bee for two hours.

Wesley spent some time looking at the world through different colored lenses.

Up the stairs and down the slide more than a dozen times.

Pushing the buttons that make burping and farting noises is great fun for a two year old!

It's even more fun when Mommy makes a funny face and says "excuse me" every time Wesley presses a button.

Chef Wesley and sous chef Mommy get ready to prepare a "nice healthy snack"

Wesley put every veggie he could find into the pot.

Corn is his favorite!

Exploring at the water table.

The only real problem with COSI today was that it wore Mommy and Daddy out. As my belly gets bigger, Wesley gets needier and more clingy. He needed one of us right there playing with him at all times. Usually he plays very well by himself, but times they are a changin'. Sometimes I wonder how traumatic this whole sibling thing is going to be for him - and I worry about it. Is it going to change him so that he isn't the little boy I know and love any more? Will he ever get over the introduction of a sibling? I know, I know. I'm putting myself through pointless Mommy-guilt. But just because it's pointless, doesn't mean it isn't a real concern. Readers - give me some reassurance. PLEASE!!

Rainy Day Laughs

After a beautiful spring day yesterday, we're back to cooler temperatures and rain. I took a day off work to get my car fixed today. It's probably a good thing too - Wesley was not in the best of moods when he woke up. I was trying to get his coat on him so we could get out the door, but he was having none of it. He plopped himself on the couch and told me in no uncertain terms, "Mommy, I've having a bad mood!"



His bad mood didn't last too long. We went to the big library to spend some time while we waited for the car. One the way to the library we played a game of "what does the _____ say?" Once we exhausted all the animals I could think of, I asked Wesley what Mommies say. His answer? "I love you." Coincidentally, that's what Wesley reported Daddies say too.Wesley passed a great hour coloring and going up and down the steps while Mommy watched.



In other Wesley news, we ordered the furniture for someone's big boy dinosaur room last night. It should come in about a week, which means we're actually going to have working on the room. I think he'll really love having a new room, but I'm a little worried about it. Not to fear - I'll keep you updated.

I'm So Lucky

Last night Duane and Wesley read a Mother Goose rhyme to me. Duane would read the first line and Wesley would recite the next line. It wasn't Humpty Dumpty or anything like that. In fact, I had never heard of this rhyme until we got this version of Mother Goose. Needless to say, I was terribly impressed.

Mommy: Wesley! That was wonderful! You did a great job!

Wesley: (grinning ear to ear) Oh Mom, you're so lucky!

Who's My Baby?

Wesley crawled into my lap this morning and cradled himself in my arms and lap in the same way I would hold a baby. Then he started jabbering in babytalk (goo-goo, gaa-gaa). "I'm your baby!" he told me. Think someone is a little jealous already?

Happy Easter - Nothing But Pictures!

Easter Egg Smash

Grandma and Grandpa H. came over the other night so we could dye Easter eggs with Wesley

Things started off quite well, as you can see. Grandma and I put the first few eggs in the dye and we waited for a few minutes to take them out. Once Wesley could see how pretty the eggs were when they came out of the dye, it was all over. He couldn't put them in fast enough. He practically threw the eggs in the dye (and it didn't matter if there was already another egg in the cup), and tossed them onto the paper towel lined plate to dry. I cringed with each "CRACK" I heard. I think we lost about half a dozen eggs to Wesley's enthusiasm, but he had a great time.

Wesley's favorite colors to use were green and blue. We even made a green egg with his name on it.

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Wesley shows off his newly colored hands. If there was audio with this picture, you'd hear him shouting, "My hands are geen! They're geen!"

Dying Easter eggs is thirsty work! Good thing there was some chocolate milk nearby!

After we were done with the eggs, Wesley wanted to hand them out to everyone. You can see that even Stinky Bear got a visit from the Wesley Bunny.

Already an Embarrassment

Apparently it is possible to embarrass your unborn child. I was helping with interviews for a children's librarian position today. Each candidate has to do a storytime and one candidate had us do the Hokey Pokey. I was able to do the whole song until the point when we had to put our backside in and shake it all about. I was shaking it, when 2.0 started violently objecting (read: moving A LOT). I had to sit down and could Hokey Pokey no more. I could almost hear a preteen voice telling me "Mom! You're embarrassing me!"

Unrelated Stories

Wesley is getting worse and worse to wake up in the morning. This morning I told him that it was time to get up. "But this is my pillow," he said without opening his eyes. I agreed that it was. "I'm laying on it!"


Wesley looked at our kitchen clock this morning and noticed that one of the hands was on the 10. "It's 10:00!" he said. I tried to explain that since one hand was on the 10 and one was on the 8 it was 10 till 8. "10 8:00"


I was filling my water bottle up at the refrigerator this morning. Wesley was watching me so I told him that I was drinking lots of water because it is good for our baby. "Where is our baby?" he asked. I reminded him that our baby was in my tummy. He wanted to look at my tummy and then told me that he was going to give our baby "nice, healthy snacks."

He Can't Dance

Wesley was dancing in the living room a few minutes ago. Understand that by "dancing" I mean "spinning around in a circle." He eventually toppled over and landed on his nose! I was laughing and he was laughing - until he tried to stand up and fell over again. Now if you ask Wesley to dance, he responds "I can't dance!" Poor baby!

Invisable Milk

We have fallen into the toddler trap of chocolate milk. It's now the only kind of milk Wesley will drink. In order to combat the mommy-guilt of giving my child chocolate milk every day (several times) I try to add the smallest amount of syrup possible to the milk. I guess I was skimpier than usual with the chocolate last night because after Wesley took a couple of sips he handed the cup back to me and said, "Invisible milk is yucky!" I know he meant "regular milk" but how funny is that?

Disaster at the Mall -GROSS!

It seemed like such a nice plan. I'd meet Duane and Wesley at mall after work. We'd let Wesley play in the play area, I'd get an Easter dress, we'd eat dinner in the food court and then buy Wesley's Easter outfit. A nice simple plan, right. WRONG!!!!

It started OK. Wesley played contentedly in the play area with Duane while I went to get my dress. I came back and watch Wesley make friends with a little boy who was probably four or five years old and Wesley's self appointed assistant. The older boy was able to climb on things Wesley couldn't quite manager yet, but that didn't slow them down. The older boy would try to pick Wesley up or take his hand to help him. Very cute.

We decided an hour of playtime was long enough. 2.0 and I were STARVED so the family headed upstairs to the food court. Wesley didn't do much more than pick at his dinner, but he drank his milk and was well behaved. After dinner we went back downstairs and lo and behold - there was the Easter Bunny. This is where things started to turn ugly. Wesley was pretty intrigued by the long eared one, so we decided we'd get his picture taken with the bunny. There was no line, Wesley was in a good mood, so things should have gone smoothly, right? WRONG!!!!

Although Wesley was very interested in seeing the Easter Bunny he was not so interested in sitting with him. Duane put Wesley on E.B.'s lap, the lady snapped a picture and the second the flash went off, Wesley bolted. He didn't just jump down from E.B.'s lap - he took off running down the mall. He has NEVER run away from us like that before. Duane chased him down, while the lady told me the picture didn't come out. So we tried again, only to get the same results. Remember, this is kid who was in love with Santa, so we couldn't figure out the reluctance.

Now most parents would have gotten a clue at this point and left well enough alone. But Duane and I are not most parents. We had already picked out the package we wanted and our son was quickly becoming unruly and we were not to tolerate it. He was going to get his picture taken darn it! Rather than resulting to threats, we resulted to bribes. There was a Godiva chocolate shop right across from the E.B. and we told Wesley that if he would get his picture taken with E.B. we'd get him a piece of chocolate. Wesley still wouldn't sit down, so we stood him up on the bench and managed to get this picture. If you look closely, you can see my hands holding the boy in place. Once again, as soon as the flash went off, Wesley took off. I sprinted behind him and herded him into the chocolate store. Yes, he was being a beaster, but a deal is a deal.

The beaster-like tendency did not end in the chocolate store. He kept trying to run away while I was trying to pick out a piece of candy and pay for it. I chose a raspberry filled star, which has tried before and liked. After I paid for it he begged for a white chocolate duck with some kind of filling. I got the duck too, just to make him be quiet.

We met back up with Daddy. Duane scooped Wesley into his arms and I gave Wesley the duck as we were walking down the mall. Wesley took a big bite of the duck, chewed it up, swallowed and pronounced, "I don't like the ducky," before projectile vomiting all over Duane, himself and the floor of the mall. Now this would have been bad enough in front of a kids store, but it happened just a few feet before the entrance of a semi-upscale women's store. I left the puke twins and dashed into the store and interrupted the saleswoman by saying "Excuse me. Could you please call mall maintenance? My son just vomited on the floor outside your store." Do I know how to make an entrance or what?

I went back out to the guys. Wesley was getting upset because he doesn't like to be dirty, let alone covered in vomit. Oh, did I mention that the diaper bag with the spare clothes was in the car? Anyhow, as embarrassed as I was and as much as I wanted to leave the scene of the crime, I knew we had to own up to the puke. Duane, of course, wanted to take Wesley straight to his car and head home, but I wasn't about to own up to the puke by myself, so we waited for the clean up crew as a family. Some kind woman took pity on us and brought us a big pile of paper towels, so I was able to mop things up a little before the clean up crew arrived.

Once we were able to make our red-faced escape, Duane took Wesley to his car. Stubborn Mommy still felt compelled to buy Wesley an Easter outfit. I ran into the store closest to where I parked my car and grabbed the first 3T Easter outfit I saw. I couldn't get out of the mall fast enough, but I still want Wesley to look nice next weekend.

When I got to my car I pulled out my cell phone and called my good friend and fellow mommy, Kate. I had to relate the disaster to someone who would understand. Kate understood alright. She started laughing so hard she was crying! I think the words "better you than me" were uttered somewhere in there too. And she's right. If you can't laugh at stuff like this, you're sunk. But it'll still be awhile before we have another family night at the mall.

Happy Birthday Uncle Kirk

We celebrated Kirk's birthday at Grandma H.'s tonight. The food was great, the company was great and everyone had a good time.


Wesley has been looking forward to Kirk's birthday for several days. Tuesday we told Wesley that we needed to go to the store and get a birthday present for Uncle Kirk. Wesley thought for all of 2 seconds before stating "Unc Kirk wants a car!" So when we got to the store we went to the toy aisle so Wesley could pick out a car for Kirk. The kid knew exactly what he wanted too. He scanned the aisle for a moment, then pointed to one and said firmly, "Unc Kirk wants that car!" So that's the car we got. Picking out a card was equally as easy. As soon as Wesley saw the card with the jumping cat he knew it was want Uncle Kirk wanted. Good thing Kirk is a good sport!

A pre-dinner story with Uncle Kirk and Aunt Susan.








Spinning on the chair with Sho








Playing cars with Kei










Super cute picture taken by Aunt Susan. Is she a great photographer or what!?

Confessions of a Slacker Mom

Yep! Slacker Mom strikes again! I had to take Wesley out to Aunt Melissa's early this morning and we had nothing to pack for breakfast. No cereal bars, no pancakes, nothing. I was too embarrassed to just mooch scrambled eggs off her (even though I know she wouldn't care one little bit), so I decided to pick something up for Wesley on the way. I usually pick up breakfast for myself on the days we go to Aunt Melissa's so I figured it wouldn't be a big deal. I figured wrong.

I tried to coax Wesley into some hash browns and eggs from McDonalds, but he kept saying "No hash browns." Strange, because he loves McDonald's hash browns. We also pass a Tim Hortons, so I asked if he wanted a donut. I know, real healthy, but I wanted to get him something. "No donut. No donut," he said as we approached Timmy Ho's. I was just about thru the intersection when Wesley changed his mind and started telling me that he did indeed want a donut. Fine. I maneuvered into the drive thru and asked Wesley if he wanted a little donut (Timbits) or a big donut (regular). "A big chocolate donut!"

So, slacker mom arrives at Aunt Melissa's with a pure chocolate donut for breakfast for my boy. I almost wanted the floor to open up and swallow me whole. See, Aunt Melissa is in so many ways the mom I wish I could be. There's a reason we want her to get custody of Wesley if anything ever happened to us. He'd be in the best care imaginable! Now I know Melissa doesn't think I give Wesley chocolate donuts every day - in fact he gets maybe one a month if he's lucky, but I felt like someone should just slap a big ol' scarlet "L" for loser on my forehead.

I'm mostly over it now. As a coworker and friend of mine pointed out - we all need a donut now and then.

Potty Animal

I only wish the title of this post referred to Wesley. Instead it refers to a different potty animal - Stinky Bear! I woke Wesley up the other morning and asked if he wanted to sit on the potty. He said no, because it was Stinky Bear's turn. Guess he was right.

Shake Shake Shake

Last night I had a terrible pain in my lower abdomen. It hurt to walk or lift my right leg, so I crawled into bed even earlier than normal. BTW - my regular bedtime these days is between 8:00 and 9:00 and if I'm being honest, I'll confess that it's usually closer to 8:00.

Anyhow, as I was in bed watching tv, Wesley started to bring me an assortment of stuffed animals to keep me company. He brought me his bear, an elephant, a cat, a lion and a rabbit. When he put the rabbit on the bed, he told me I had to shake it.

Mommy: Why do I have to shake the rabbit?
Wesley: Because it has baracas on it's paws.
Mommy: Baracas?
Wesley: Yes. It's a kind of trombone.

I LOST it!!! I don't know why I thought this was the epitome of humor last night, but I laughed and laughed until I had tears rolling down my face. I kept picturing a rabbit with these little teeny pictures of Barack Obama on it's paws. I think 4 days of being inside was starting to wear on me. Good thing I was back to work today.

Blizzard Update

Well, it's 4:00 and I'm starting to go a little stir crazy. I've read 3 books, baked a coffee cake, put on real clothes for the first time in a day and a half and I'm itching for something to do.

We did manage to get Wesley to go outside for a few minutes. I won't lie and say he was thrilled about it, but at least we got him to get snow on his boots.

I think I heard on the news that we got somewhere around 14 inches of snow. My car is under that snowdrift somewhere.

Wesley standing in a path that Duane shoveled out earlier. As you can see, the snow is nearly elbow height on him. We talked to Cathy on the phone earlier and she told us Kei can't walk through the drifts.

Wesley liked the snow MUCH better if he was in Daddy's arms.

This is Wesley's idea of helping Daddy shovel the walk. Dad did the grunt work and Wesley supervised from behind. Good plan!

Duane had to go into the shop a little bit ago. There's a "no heat" situation at someone's house, so Duane went in to get the tech a part. It took him nearly 20 minutes to shovel his car out. Wesley and I watched from the comfort of the living room. Duane and I were supposed to go to Shadowbox with some friends tonight, but we're not going (neither are our friends.) Instead we'll light a fire in the fireplace, make some soup and channel surf, while listening to Wesley talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk. I don't think he's stopped since he woke up this morning! At least he's perfectly content to play by himself and talk to his animals. Right now all the animals are saying "I love you," and "I missed you," and "I'm glad to see you." It makes me smile that those are the phrases he hears and wants to repeat!

Good Weekend to be Sick

I have had a rotten cold since Thursday. I managed about half a day at work before the department kicked me out. I stayed home sick yesterday too, which turned out to be a good call since we are now officially in "Blizzard 08" according to all the news casts. I can almost breathe through my nose again and my head doesn't feel like it's going to pop, so I guess I'm on the mend.

After being home sick for the last day and a half, I almost dread being snowed in this weekend. I know Wesley is getting restless and tired of being inside. The problem is, he doesn't like snow. He hates getting it on his boots, he won't walk in it and he takes his mittens off within 2 minutes of having them on. Translated this means that isn't a day of fun in the snow in our future. No snowmen or sledding (not that we have a sled), just too much tv. Maybe I'll force him out for a little this afternoon. I'll let you know how it goes.

Moving and Shaking

I felt 2.0 move for the first time last weekend. There hasn't been a whole lot going on since then - until today! He/she has been moving all over this afternoon. A couple times it's been strong enough for me to let out an audible "oh!" We used to say Wesley was Riverdancing in there, I think the little sibling is going to follow in Wesley's footsteps!

Rise and Whine

I think I've already told you that Wesley has a rotten time getting up in the morning if I actually have to wake him. This morning was one of those mornings. I went into his room and started talking to him, got his clothes out, then turned his light on. As soon as I hit the switch I heard a very sleepy and whiny voice say "No, Mom. Lights off!" Wesley then hopped out of bed, turned the lights off, climbed back into bed and pulled the covers up around him.

I walked over and turned the lights on, explaining that we were going to go see Aunt Melissa and it was time to get up. Again Wesley replied, "No, Mom. Lights off!" as he hopped out of bed, turned the lights off, got back into bed and pulled the covers up. We actually had to go this scenario a third time before I successfully got him out of bed.

In other Wesley news, look at the number of animal friends he wants to take with him whenever we go someplace. I've had to limit him to two friends only. But I do sneak Stinky Bear in my purse if Wesley doesn't pick him because I know that when he gets tired, he'll want that bear!

COSI Cousins

We marched into March by spending the day with Grandma W., Aunt Melissa, Kierstin and Mark. The day totally wiped me out, but it was so much fun that I don't care.


We ate lunch at the Spaghetti Warehouse before heading over to COSI. Wesley may be a COSI expert, but Aunt Melissa and his cousins had never been before and he was more than ready to show them everything they've missed.

We went to the Space section right away. The whole family went through the black hole tunnel - which Wesley and Kierstin especially loved! Mark didn't care for the noise in Space, so he waited in the hall while Kierstin, Wesley and I went through the tunnel again and rode the tilty spaceship. We practically had to drag Kierstin away from the robot arms and on to another section.

We headed to the Ocean section, which had all the kids excited, but once we got there Mark heard the loud rush of water and refused to go in. Grandma, Wesley,

Kierstin and I went on in and WOW did we have a great time! Kierstin tried every single thing there was to try. She loved the water bells and the water tornado. But the all around best part of the exhibit (for both her and Wesley) was where you use pipes to build a connection from the water in the ground to a basin nearby. Kierstin was terrific at this and had a connection built in no time at all! Maybe we have a budding engineer in our midst. Wesley of course had no interest in actually trying to make a connection. Oh no, little Mr. OCD took all the pipes and laid them in a row on the floor. After they were all in a row, he'd put them in the basin one at a time. Then back on the floor. Then back in the basin. And I think you get the idea. Of course, if dampness is any indication of how much fun Wesley and Kierstin had, their soaking wet shirts would be proof that they loved every minute of it.

After Ocean we decided to split up. Mark wasn't having a very good time and he's still young enough to get in the Little Kidspace, so Duane, Grandma and the boys went to play while Kierstin, Melissa and I hit the rest of COSI. We played with the old fashioned phones and carriages in Progress 1898 before becoming completely enthralled with the soda fountain in 1962. Kierstin and I tried the hula hoops too and just let me say that a pregnant woman should not hula hoop. Kierstin put me to shame! We went into the Life section. Kierstin spent most of her time trying to line up DNA on the touch screen. She was pretty good at it too!

We picked up Grandma and the guys and slowly made our way out. There was a detour for dippin' dots for Kierstin and Mark, but Wesley was more interested in the gift shop and going back through the Space tunnel while his cousins ate. Poor Duane ended up going through that tunnel at least a dozen times!!

I did finally get a few pictures of Mark too. Check him out on the stringless harp and heartbeat drum.

The little maestro!

Little drummer boy.

And of course, what visit to anywhere in Central Ohio in the winter would be complete without climbing the big pile of snow in the parking lot?