Tickle Time

If only I could bottle up the infectious laugh that goes along with these tickle sessions.
Everett has actually become quite a good "tickler" himself. He likes to tickle Daddy, Mommy, and even Kelsey and Cujo! I worry that one of these days Cujo will tickle him back ... and since he still has his claws, that might not be so fun ... so I try to deter him from tickling the cat and mostly encourage him to tickle Daddy. If you say "Everett, go tickle Daddy" ... he does ... and even says "tickle, tickle" while he does it!

Playing with Baba

Everett's teachers told me he really liked playing with a particular toy at school, so I went to Target and bought him one. I'm not sure what it's called, but it comes with 4 balls which you put in top openings and they roll down and out the bottom after passing through a little maze. It actually comes with a hammer to pound the balls through the openings, but he normally just pounds them with his hand. He LOVES this toy! And being the inquisitive little future engineer that he is, he likes to see what happens if you put other items besides the balls into this maze. I've retrieved plastic toy figurines, a small brush, a toothbrush, and pieces of paper so far. I'm waiting for the day to come when he lodges something in there so well that I can't get it out.
Here he is showing Baba is new toy.

Yay! Nice Weather

Everett has been enjoying the nice weather. He loves getting outside and running up and down the sidewalks. He ran all the way to the park with his Dad last week. He was pooped by the time he got there and didn't mind a bit riding on his dad's shoulders back home.

Who's the Boss?

You can see who runs this house .... I caught Everett and Gigi watching Mickey Mouse Club together. You'd think he would have let her have the large, comfortable recliner rather than his child-size chair.

First ER visit

We had a little excitement on Sunday night ... Everett's first trip to the ER. He had been running a slight fever over the weekend but it seemed to be responding to Tylenol so we weren't too concerned ... plus he was being his normal happy self and didn't seem to be feeling too badly. He went to bed happy and then woke up at 9pm crying. When we went to check on him, he was burning up. We gave him some Motrin and took his temperature ... the thermometer read 104! Oh my! We hopped in the car and headed to the hospital. Luckily we were seen almost immediately. When they took his temperature there it was up to 105.1 Our poor little guy looked miserable and like he had a sunburn all over his body. They gave him some Tylenol, took his blood, did a chest x-ray and gave him IV antibiotics. The test results came back fine, his ears looked great although the doc said his throat was a little sore but was likely just a a viral infection ... apparently they had seen a LOT of those recently. Within an hour, E was looking pretty happy, although very bored and anxious to go home. By the time we arrived home (only about 2 hours from when he woke up crying) he was laughing and being quite silly ... putting on a very entertaining show for us. Was this the same kid we rushed to the ER crying a short while ago??? Amazing how resilient little kids are! Everett had a follow up appointment with his pediatrician Tuesday morning. His ears were still fine and there was no sign of a sore throat. He said he looked terrific but to go ahead and finish out the antibiotics just to be safe. So that was our first ER experience. Not too dramatic and I'm OK with that. I prefer to read about the ER horror stories than be the author with my child as the main character! At least we got a "fire drill" and saw how quickly we could get ourselves dressed and out the door and we learned a few things ... 1. Don't forget a pacifier! 2) Bring something to entertain your child with at the ER - our portable DVD player would have been a lifesaver 3) The drive to the hospital looks different at night ... David took 2 wrong turns (when taking our preferred "short cut" coming in from the behind the normal entrance). Not big mistakes, just turned into a couple parking lots instead of the driveways he intended. He said "this looks different at night" ... NOTE TO SELF: Don't got into labor when it's dark out ... I may end up delivering in the nursing home parking lot next door to the hospital!!!

House update - We've made a lot of progress at our new house this week. The painters finished up most of the inside and the walls and our newly textured ceilings look great ... although there is a thick film of dust over every inch of the house (do NOT attempt to scrape popcorn ceilings and re-texture them in an occupied house - WHAT A MESS IT MAKES!) The plumbers started digging a BIG hole where our new 1/2 bath will hopefully be located very soon. The floors were prepared for our wood floors to be laid today in the entry, hall and dining room. There's still a lot left, but we're getting there ... slowly but surely. As of today, I'm still hopeful for a March move-in date.

We are enjoying the warmer weather this week. Everett really likes his new yard at our new house. When we are there, Everett has a great time playing in his new "house" that Baba and Gigi got him for Christmas. Here's a couple pictures from yesterday.

Korbel - Best Dog Ever

I'm very sad to report that Korbel went to doggy heaven on Tuesday. I have already missed her terribly. She was my first "baby", the best dog ever, and we had been through a lot together. She's been a part of my entire adult life and it's still hard to believe she's gone. It's been a couple years since she's been able to chase and catch a frisbee ... she sure LOVED her frisbees! I hope she has plenty of them to chase now. Here are some of my favorite pictures of her from the past few years and a few from when she was just a little puppy. She was such a beautiful, sweet and loyal dog. There will never be another like her.

Night Out

Last Saturday we had a wonderful belated Valentine's dinner at Al Biernat's with Ben & Tracy. The food, service, atmosphere, and company were all excellent! We definitely gave it two thumbs up! We'll have to go back when I'm not pregnant and can enjoy the wine and the rare ahi tuna steak! Maybe in October for my birthday. :)

Everett's going to be a Big Brother!

I'm happy to announce that David and I are expecting our second child in September!
The due date is September 5th, however my guess is more like late August (if this one tries to follow in its big brother's footsteps). I had my 12 week checkup yesterday. The doc says everything looks fine. I've felt relatively good so far, except for being tired. With my first pregnancy, I had the luxury of napping when I needed to ... with a 17 month-old in tow, that's no longer the case!

We are very excited and think it will be nice for Everett to have a sibling so close in age (almost 2 years exactly). Leslie is also excited about being a Big Sister a second time around. And of course, the grandparents aren't complaining!

When I showed David and my Dad the sonogram picture from yesterday, they both immediately said "It's a ...". I'm not sure why they feel so sure they know the sex, as it's really too early to tell, but they definitely each had a strong suspicion. I'd be interested to know if anyone else has a guess yet? We should find out for sure on April 18th. In the meantime, I'd love to hear your thoughts!!

Valentine's day

On Valentine's day, Daddy brought Everett home a balloon.
He sure had a good time playing with it and tormenting Korbel while watching the Charlie Brown Valentine's Day special.

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Rub-a-dub

Rub-a-dub, Everett sure loves being in the tub!

Bed Head

Everett's hair is getting pretty long. We know he needs a haircut, but it makes me sad to think of cutting off those cute little curls in the back and them never growing back. Some days I think, "ok, it's time, maybe we'll go this weekend" and then other days I think "It's really not too long, I bet we can delay another month or so!". However, on mornings when he wakes up with a serious case of "bed head hair" like this ... I start to wonder if I'm just being too darn sentimental about his hair.

Long Overdue Update

Ok, I admit it, I've been a slacker ... It's been way too long since I've posted an update. I came down with this icky cough/cold a few days ago and haven't been feeling well. Luckily, Everett hasn't caught it yet (knock on wood).

Here's some tidbits of what's been going on so far this month at our house ...

~Mom & Dad returned from their month long trip to the western coast of Mexico yesterday ... just in time for us to celebrate Mom's bday with her. It sounds like they had a great time, but I've yet to see pictures. They enjoyed a lot of great weather, food and sights while they were gone ... but I think they were happy to get back home and see their grandchildren. And we sure missed them and are glad they are back home now ... for a little while anyway.

Here are a few pictures from our bday festivities at the Fisch house yesterday.

~Everett now claps and says "Yaaayyy!!!" whenever a song finishes on his Classical Baby program. He's enjoyed watching Classical Baby since he was only months old and he never seems to grow tired of it. He'll stand in front of the TV swaying from side to side with the music and as soon as a song ends, he joins the animal orchestra in applause. He will turn around to make sure we are watching him and joining along and reward us with a huge toothy smile.

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~Leslie bought E "Where the Wild Things Are" for his birthday last year. This was her favorite book growing up so she felt sure he'd love it too ... she was right! I heard David over the intercom reading it to E at bedtime last week. At one part in the book, the "Wild Things roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth ..." so Daddy roared and ... I was surprised to hear our little guy roar right back! It was really cute. This book has become part of their bedtime routine and while E doesn't always feel like growling, he always enjoys reading the story with Daddy.

~After realizing that Everett's Mother's Day Out program doesn't run during the summer, I started searching for other "school" options for Everett. After some research, we decided to put down a deposit at a Montessori school close by. We are very excited about E starting at his new school. I've heard wonderful things about the program and we are looking forward to watching E blossom in his new surroundings and with his new classmates. He's currently the oldest child in his MDO class and I think he'll benefit from being in a class with older children. (his Montessori class is for children 18mos - 3years) He'll also start to learn his ABCs, colors, etc, not to mention Spanish!

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~On a not-so-cheery note, Korbel isn't doing very well these days. My beautiful "puppy" turned 15 years old this month and her years are definitely catching up with her. She's having a lot of trouble walking and can usually only make it a short distance before her back legs give out and she falls down. Once she falls, it takes her quite a bit of struggling to get back on her feet and often requires some help from us. This of course, makes potty trips outside quite difficult. Being that she weighs about 85 lbs, we aren't able to pick her up and take her outside when she needs to go. Aside from her arthritis, she seems to be in pretty good spirits and while her eyesight and hearing are both rapidly deteriorating, and she's a bit grumpy when E wants to pull her fur or get a little too close, she's still such a sweet dog. I've long dreaded the day that I have to make that "tough decision". I'm hoping it can be delayed just a little while longer. The cold weather makes her arthritis worse and we're expecting a warmer week ahead so I'm keeping my fingers crossed she'll start feeling better!

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~We still haven't made much progress at our new house so there is no move-in date on the calendar yet. We are starting to get things lined up (painters, contractors, etc.) so hopefully we'll get things rolling very soon. I did get to meet one of our new neighbors last week. He lives right across the street and we chatted for a few minutes. I found out that they have a 13 year old daughter. Hearing this, I got very excited and couldn't spit out the words fast enough ... "Does she like to baby-sit??" I was thrilled when he said YES!

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That's all I have to share for now. It's been a lazy morning and time for me to get cleaned up so we can get over to the new house and get some things done. We discovered a leak from the refrigerator water line last week which started to soak our dining room carpet. David is going to try to get that fixed today. I'll try to get some new pictures and maybe some video of E posted next week.

Grrrrr ... there's a mail thief in town

I thought I'd share the wisdom I gained this week in hopes of saving you the trouble of learning it yourself ... the hard way. Whenever possible, take your mail to the post office rather than putting it in your mailbox for your letter carrier to pick up when he/she delivers your mail. It seems there are mail thieves roaming the neighborhoods and stealing people's outgoing mail. Our mailperson confirmed this to be a common problem as did the police department when I called to file a report. It was just a fluke that I even realized this had happened. I had put outgoing mail in my box in the morning and went out a few hours later to add another letter. My first batch of mail was gone, flag still up and new mail had not arrived for the day. On any other day, I probably would never had been aware this happened until I started bouncing checks (because the deposit in my box never reached its destination) or the intended recipients of the other mail contacted me to let me know they never received my mail. If you do decide to put outgoing mail in your home mailbox, do NOT put up the flag. The mailperson will take your mail even if the flag isn't up ... the flag is ... well, just that - "a red flag" that there is mail in your box ready to be stolen. I will be making the trip to the post office in the future. Aside from the huge inconvenience and frustration this has caused, it also saddened me. I've always felt so safe in our neighborhood and been so trusting of the people I see passing by my home. This incident will make me a little more cautious in the future. In fact, I just about called the police on the guy checking the water meter readings today! I saw a car driving down the street and stopping at every few houses on my way home. I had already written down his license plate before I realized what he was doing!

On a more cheerful note, here's pictures from tonight of Everett brushing his teeth (kind of) and reading his bedtime book with Daddy. I need to get some pictures of the back of his head and his adorable blonde curly locks ... As much as it pains me, he just might be going for his first haircut this weekend. :(

We have a new home!

We closed on our new house this morning. There's a lot we'd like to do before we move in ... so it will probably (hopefully) be early March before we get moved in. Oh how I love packing and unpacking ... uhg!

I thought Everett looked so cute in his new overalls. Here he is before we left for the closing. Unfortunately, I never could get him to look at the camera.

Silly time with Mom

Just some silly pictures of us having fun ...

Fun with Ribbon

Oh the fun we can have with a roll or red ribbon.

Dance Revolution

Everett likes the Dance Revolution video game at Planet Pizza. Here he is showing off a few of his moves. If you look carefully, you can catch the John Travolta finger point move!

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Brayden's 4th Birthday

We celebrated Brayden's 4th Birthday at Planet Pizza. All the kids had a great time! Here are some of the highlighs. More pictures can be found at www.rankin.shutterfly.com