let's go fly a kite

and see some farm animals too.

this afternoon we finally were able to break out luca's spider-man kite he received as a gift this spring. we had amazing weather and blue skies (for once on a weekend). luca was a natural - literally just grabbed the handle, ran off, and it flew into the air. he continued running all around the field (oh three year old energy) until jesse showed him how to get it up "real high" standing in one place.

gia and i ran around in the grass getting mooed at by cows from prairie farm. get this - our town has a free (yes, free) farm through the park district open all summer from noon to 7pm. cool, huh? and it is just blocks from the rental house. too bad we are moving this week :)









we went over for a little visit. the peackock was super loud, but all of the babies were adorable. who doesn't like little fluffly ducklings heaped in a pile?

and for your photo fix

here are some gems from memorial day weekend last year that missed being posted on this blog by mere days (our hartbeat birthday: june 1st). funny thing is - i think luca looks more different than gia. he has thinned out so much - well to be more accurate, stretched out. no more rubberband wrists and mr. cankles for him. gia has added a mop of curls (really her ringlets are getting amazingly tight as the humidity increases) but is pretty similarly proportioned. although children supposedly change more the younger they are, i think gia at 17 months looks pretty similar to gia at say 3 months. luca, on the other hand, is almost a different child every six months of his life. funny thing is that i was continuously told growing up that i looked the same year to year. guess that is another thing my mini me has inherited.

better now, thanks

well, after my emotional download yesterday, i was determined to make an effort to enjoy today and continue building into our lives here in champaign. we called up our friends kacey and stephanie with daughter ingrid and invited them over for a memorial day bbq. a little leery that the weather would not cooperate, imagine our delight when the sun broke through the clouds and drizzle for the first time all day about a half hour before our little party was to start. the kiddos splashed and played at the water table - its debut of the year and altogether big hit with little ones. the food was yummy. i made this cilantro butter for the grilled corn on the cob - amazing. next time i plan on slathering it on the ears before grilling. i still haven't found the camera battery so no pics - would have loved to capture gia chowin on the watermelon while waiting for our guests. she is hooked!

this was just what i needed.

casualty

the most difficult aspect of this moving your whole life deal has not been living in a rental house with boxes piled around us for three months or my children not napping in their new rooms and being in a constant state of near exhaustion. no, i would have to say that, more than anything, i miss my friends. we know so many people in champaign and many of them our dear friends from our past. but to be honest, i have not done one purely social thing since we have moved here. there is just a difference in how you relate to someone after doing life with them for so long. the church plant to isu forced us to be very close-knit with our friends back in normal. we had to rely on each other and the result was a beautiful family. this is an enormous casualty of this move.

sure, i have had play dates with other moms and gone to church potlucks. but after spending last weekend with karen and her bridal party and then receiving an e-mail yesterday from some girlfriends back in normal inviting me to drive back next weekend to see a movie, something inside of me erupted. i am very lonely. memorial day weekend has just increased these feelings of sadness and nostalgia. normally (no pun intended), jesse and i would be calling the pabsts, sonya, the schrecks, the hayes, the klunkes, and the peters inviting them over for a bbq. we would be cleaning the house a bit and making sure we had enough charcoal. jesse would be mowing the lawn. i would be making burgers and assigning the sides and desserts to our friends to bring.

instead, we are going to be eating alone tomorrow. we will still mow the lawn and make burgers. but we long for the day that our relationships here are as natural and fulfilling as what we were accustomed to. i know that this is possible and even likely, but i am struggling to believe the truth of real community. instead the lies of isolation are taking root. my prayer is for the strength and peace only God can provide.

an evening with five kids

no we did not adopt three children in the last week. but we did start our summer babysitting/date night co-op with another family tonight. we are excited to have regularly scheduled dates once again. this practice fell to the wayside in preparation for the move last fall and it has been sorely missed. so, we are doing an every other week switch with a family from church. they also happen to live less than a block from our new house (super fun. and only 8 more days -kinda). we had a blast playing outside in the beautiful weather but let me tell you - a 17 month old, a 2 1/2 year old, a 3 year old, a 5 year old, and an 8 year make for some busy adults. jesse and caleb (the oldest) competed in a soccer match and a martial arts battle. gia climbed up and down the deck stairs for 2 hours. luca, max, and jack climbed, swung, and hung out on the play structure (when they weren't trying to make the bushes snow flower petals on their heads.) there were surprisingly few fights and skirmishes. my fave part of the night was watching gia take in the utter chaos of 4 boys on bikes, a scooter, and a push toy, yelling at the tops of their lungs and playing, "crash" (self-explanatory) and then making a run for it to the safety of the grass behind the fence. (no pics - for the first time in 3 1/2 years i can not find my camera battery - bummer, but i am sure it will turn up soon.)

house update

just 12 days until we are homeowners once again (see countdown clock to the left)! last week our closing wa scheduled for 9am on monday june 2nd. we will do the final walk-through at 8am that morning. although we were really hoping that the sellers would decide to move a week early (however unlikely), it feels good to have something finalized.

we have been busy getting ready for moving a second time in three months. i have started repacking the boxes we have been living out of and it seems like we are in pretty good shape. we have been searching craiglist and the paper for furniture ads and garage sales. i found some great stuff - i.e. dining room chairs that used seat jurors at the champaign county courthouse.

although wiped from a long, exhilarating weekend celebrating the marriage of two amazing people, jesse and i took the kiddos to the orange store, the blue store, and the green store last sunday. (for those of you who don't understand luca speak fluently this translates to the home depot, lowes, and menards) we were in search of wood flooring samples to bring over to the green house (our soon-to-be home). thankfully each of these stores has an amazing sale for the month of may. we then visited our new place after dinner to make a choice. the order was placed monday night in order for it arrive by closing. we also are in the process of reserving a moving truck for saturday june 7th. we will spend the 2nd-6th replacing the second floor carpet with hardwood and cleaning/prepping the house. we have until june 15th to move completely out of our rental, but i know once we have the keys we are going to have a hard time not camping out on the bare floors the first night. (seriously, that is what we did with our first house, but then again there were no babes to worry about. i don't think luca and gia would be too thrilled about that option.)


so if any of you want to make the trip to help out that week or saturday the 7th we would love to have you!

my promise

i'll play catch-up soon. i have been sooooo busy that i have had four different babysitters for the babes this week so i can get it all done. to give you an idea . . . a doctor's surgical consultation (no surgery needed - yeah) and a wedding cake to bake and decorate (it's done - now to get it to normal). oh and the mothers day monsoon that took our power for all of sunday. anyway, that and much more to blog about next week. i am off to my dear friend karen's wedding - driving the cake over this afternoon (prayer please), rehearsal tonight, ceremony and reception tomorrow!

the kids are great - luca's most endearing new habit: saying "got-for" instead of forgot. example, "we got-for the bag in the car." gia is cuddlier than ever, we suspect she is not feeling well, but one of those, "is she teething?" "an ear infection?" "something else?" she is also asking for "guca" after every nap. when he is sleeping, she repeats it every few seconds until he awakes

today

i am sick (for the seventh month in a row - seriously - not counting fibro, et al).
luca is watching a lot of tv and eating a lot of snakcs.
gia is taking a super long morning nap (does not bode well for the afternoon naptime).
jesse is driving to siu for work.
we received the appraisal on our soon-to-be home - all looks great.
our closing is about to be scheduled - couldn't be soon enough.
i missed my morning workout and it makes me cranky.
i have no ice cream in the house.
did i mention i am sick.
my house is a mess.
i am wearing my pajamas and don't plan on changing.
i miss my friends (and cinco dinner).
i am not enjoying living out of boxes.
did i say cranky . . . and sick . . . and i want a day off . . . and i want to move to my house.

so today is a mixed bag of frustrating and exciting.

pearly whites

today was an exciting milestone in luca's young life. this afternoon was his first visit to the dentist! (okay maybe more exciting for me) yes, i was a bit nervous about my three year old's reaction to strangers poking around in his mouth with weird looking and sounding instruments. so we scheduled my cleaning right before his and the two of us made an afternoon of it. he watched the hygienist clean my teeth (very intently i should add - he actually moved her hand out of the way a few times to see what was going on in there). he showed a lot of enthusiasm, continuing to ask, "my turn now?" for the last 15 minutes of my appointment.

he hopped in the chair, put on the bib ("that's goofy - my not a baby like gia!") and opened wide. lauren (our hygienist) was so great. she made everything so child-friendly. she counted his teeth and brushed them with cherry toothpaste he picked out. his favorite part was the suction straw - he loved the sensation when he closed his lips around it. (see video below as evidence)

i was so amazed at his behavior - especially since the strong-willed monster has been raising its ugly head around her lately - hence the lack of regular blogging, i am just too exhausted). the comments by the staff included: "he did better than most 6 year olds." "wow, maybe we have a future dentist here." "great job, kiddo, you may our job easy." (i realize that i am not responsible at all for how he chooses to react to a situation like this, but somehow it makes me feel like a better parent when he does well. so i totally bragging on luca, but i guess i am kinda bragging on my parenting. so, let clarify that for my own sake. he did great all by himself. not because i prepped him well (which i did) or because i am doing a good job with discipline and training (which we try to), but because he chose to react well to this situation.)

we ended with a marshmallow flavored flouride treatment (again, luca's choice). of course he got to pick out a free toothbrush at the end and a special toy out of a treasure chest (a yoyo that neither of us could get to work). oh and the sunglasses were a loan in case the light was too bright in his eyes. he wouldn't wear them during the cleaning because then he couldn't see what was going on.

his teeth looked great and we'll be back in 6 months!