"...so well.."

Caleb is cracking me up today. He keeps tagging "so well" to the end of his sentences today. Like, "I can't carry day-day up the stairs so well." Or, "My shoes aren't goin' on so well." Or "I don't like that so well."

Except it sounds like "so we-ow." Cute. I don't where he picked it up, or how long it will last, but thought I'd jot it down.

So Proud

We had parent / teacher conferences last night at Gabe's school and it was such a proud moment. Gabe's teacher had all nice things to say about him, and I just wanted to jot a few down so I can remember them:

He plays well with his classmates.
He "gets" her humor (sarcasm!).
He can count to 129, except for skipping 15 and 110 to 119 :-).
He likes to build "spaceships" with his buddies.
He listens well.
He knows the numbers on dice by sight without having to count them (thanks to Cootie!).
He is well coordinated when playing outside or in the bike room.

School has been a good experience for him, and we were so proud of him. So proud, in fact, that we gave him 5 bonus stickers on his new chart. Because, as well as he behaves at school, we are working on making "good choices" at home. :-) We've been wanting to implement some type of system for a while now. Our biggest issues are just whining- and attitude-type issues. So, when he makes a bad choice, he moves over to "I need to think about my choices." And then if he has a subsequent "bad choice," he moves all the way to the left and gets a time out. If he's in the "good choice" pocket at lunch, dinner and bedtime, he earns stickers (up to 3 a day). Oh, and two bonus stickers for sleeping in his own bed all night. :-)



Dan came up with this (it was the teacher in him, I think :-)), but it's nice to have something in place to give us (all) some structure. And his first goal is to get to 50 stickers, at which time he gets a trip to Legoland in Schaumburg. He definitely was into it today, so, we'll see how it goes! I don't mean to make him sound like he's not a good kid at home, he definitely is. But, I think a little added incentive will be good.

Happy birthday, Mom!

My sister and I have started a little tradition of planning a girl's weekend with my mom to celebrate her birthday each year.  The last two years we've gone downtown for a night (which reminds me, I never posted about last year, but what's new!?).  This weekend mom and Beck came downtown and met me at work on Friday.  I had pricelined a hotel and we ended up staying at the River Hotel for pretty cheap, and the location was perfect - right at Wacker and Michigan. 

We checked in and started with gifts...a mini Keurig (which are on clearance at Bed Bath and Beyond, BTW...half-off!).  I think I have a thing for giving Keurig's as gifts, but they are always a hit! :-)



Then we walked to dinner at 1492 Tapas Bar.  It was really good and was in a cool old mansion.  Then we came back and celebrated with cupcakes from Sugar Bliss and rented "It's Complicated" on pay-per-view.  I love these pictures of my mom blowing out her candle.,,

Aren't these cupcakes beatutiful?  And packaged so nicely.  I have to tell you something, though...they weren't that good!  The cake part was really dry...and the frosting was just OK.  But they sure were cute!  :-)

Saturday we slept in, got a box of coffee and muffin tops from the Corner Bakery next door, and then headed out for some shopping at Anthropologie and some of the other shops in Block 37 (suprisingly, I had no idea what was in there, and I only work a couple blocks away...there's even a L'Occitane!).

It was a fabulous weekend and a nice restful time with my mom and sis!  Happy birthday, Mom!

Counting my Blessings {and years}

I celebrated my 32nd birthday this week (my sweet sixteen...times 2!).  I must say, I do love birthdays.  That sounds selfish, but it's not just for the gifts.  Well, maybe it's the gifts a little bit. :-)  But on my birthday I'm always reminded of how many wonderful people I have in my life.  People who call (starting with my Grandma, who calls every year around 7 a.m. to sing to me), send cards, stop by, buy me coffee, take me to lunch, babysit so we can go out - I am truly blessed to have each of them (you!) in my life. 

Thanks to everyone for making it a great day / week!

P.S. I know I already said it on the other blog, but I'm in a bit, of a blogging slump.  Need to refocus a bit, but will be back at some point.  :-)

I'm here...

Sorry for the long absence!  I'm here.  :-)  We have had a week full of celebrations, which will continue tomorrow as we celebrate Easter.  I hope to be back soon to share about all of the fun!

Hope you have a happy Easter!