This and That

We had spring break and then with getting back into the swing of school, I just haven't blogged. Sorry! Since it's been a while, this post is a little bit of this and that from the world of James.

SIGNS - we're into them. Lately, as we're driving to and from school especially, or just while we're walking down town, James will ask us, "What that sign mean Mom/Dad?" Now while walking is fine - but while driving is another beast all together ... especially if there's a lot of traffic. I kind of know most of them by heart and can just say, which exit we're driving past and then merge and yield or speed limit 40. Up by his school are some non-highway ones that he likes - there's a walking sign but it says DEAF because there's a housing center for the deaf we drive by ... there are also lots of signs that have the walking sign accompanied by a stop sign - it's now a law to stop for pedestrians crossing the street in Evanston even if it's not at a light but one of the signs is posted.

Over the summer, Aunt Clare and Uncle Johnny gave James this set of wooden cars/trucks with various street signs and this is played with almost daily now. We set up our little city and James can tell us what all the signs mean. It's a lot of fun. His favorite sign from the set and out in the real world is "DO NOT ENTER" - loves it. We see a lot of them on Lower Wacker when we go and pick up Dad from work. It's one of my favorite places to drive - when I was pregnant with James, they were filming Dark Knight and we got to drive past the Batmobile everyday. All the driving scenes underground were shot on Lower Wacker ... good memories. It's under construction now and has been for the last year - there are a lot of do not enter signs and huge orange construction signs ... which are also loved.

And with that we segway nicely into 'construction' or 'roadwork' which is done in our home everyday. While we were on spring break, James and I would take a morning and really clean a room together - dust, vacuum, and floor clean. I used a wood floor cleaner and dry/wet mop in James' room and I could tell that he was just itching to go in there post clean so I thought I'd have fun with it. I used his Caution tape we got at Home Depot and made this.

He had so much fun saying, "Can I go in? Ah No! It's still wet!" And then it transformed into this whole make-believe construction site with building permits and cones and deliveries.

And obviously we're in pjs ... it's spring break people - no where to go ;) 

The cones ... we have many. They get set up around the house in various locations at various times. The most fun are when I'm cooking dinner and chopping things, or at the stove, and I turn around only to find that I've been blocked in by cones and I'm being told by a tiny foreman that my kitchen is closed for roadwork. This is the photo I took today while I was cleaning up after lunch.

Apparently my path from the table to the sink has been blocked off. I'll have to check with the foreman.

James has been asking a lot of "Why?" and "What that mean?" questions to us lately. Sometimes it goes on for a good number of whys and I find myself really having to think about my responses to him. He listens very carefully and you can see in his eyes that he's registering what you tell him. Things we explained to him last week he is now repeating back to us. He'll now say, "Mom, say I don't know why the astronaut has a helmet." And then he'll tell us that he needs oxygen because there's no oxygen in space. I've totally used "Oh I'm not sure we've got to ask Dad" a few times because I really got stuck at a Why that I couldn't answer and Doug's really knowledgeable about sciencey stuff. The other day, we ended up at "Orange ... what that mean Mom?" after a series of questions and I was just at a loss and found myself quoting Run DMC, "It's like that 'cause that's the way it is." Solid Gold Parenting.

James has also been spelling lately ... He can spell Mom, Dad, and his full name :) Had to fit that in.

I am one proud Mama :)

And in baby news, I passed my glucose test (!!) yay! Which has changed for those of you that have been out of the game for a few years like myself. I had to fast for 8 hours prior, get a blood draw before the drink and then blood again at one hour and then again at two hours post drinking the orange drink. Doug actually took off from work so I could go to the appointment. Entertaining a three year old for at least 3 hours at the doctors' office was not a challenge I thought I could handle, especially with not eating. However, it was easier than I thought it would be and we got to spend the afternoon together (after I inhaled all the food in our house). We walked to the hospital and turned in my L&D registration! (another thing off the list). A block away from the hospital is the firehouse and even though the trucks weren't there, we hung out for a while and enjoyed being outside together on a Thursday afternoon.

We're 15 weeks out - I will say this for 2nd pregnancies, they pass by so quickly sometimes. We don't have the luxury of an extra bedroom to just transform into a nursery ... we have to find space in our apartment for the contents of our study. A new home for the computer, filing cabinets, stapler, hole punch, printer, books, photos, luggage, etc. So that's been slow going BUT once we do it, we can get the room painted and then I think everything will look great. But, we've got to get there :) I think I can ... I think I can ... I think I can ...

Yesterday, we decided to go for a walk/tricycle ride down to the river and had such a great time. It was so warm yesterday afternoon - we had cozy thunderstorms Sunday early evening and night so it was great we were able to enjoy the warm temps before those bad boys came rolling in.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!