Q4 2018

2018 flew by. From William’s birthday until the end of the year, it felt like something fun was always happening.

We didn’t have a party this year but we followed tradition and went to the apple orchard. We also spent the night at a hotel with a kiddie pool.

Back at home we opened gifts and the Lego train was a big hit.

Christmastime brought lots of trains and this year William really started to believe in Santa. It’s funny now, but on Christmas morning at 4 am he was wide awake and wanted to check if Santa ate the plate of cookies.

I’m pretty proud of us. The 2 of us went shopping and he saw the Lego store. We went inside about 3 times and spent a lot of time looking at the train. But I was able to get him out of there, no purchases and no meltdowns.

2019 has been a bit of a rocky start. I’m trying to get myself more organized, physically and mentally. Sleep deprivation has taken a toll on me and acknowledging how much I’ve let myself get off track has been tough. But I’m going to stick with it, even though it seems like a daunting task.

Happy New Year to you.

Xoxo

Wendygirl and co

Goodbye, Summer. Hello, Fall!

We only recently started having fall-like weather. Even this week we had record heat. William has had lots of beach days with Nana.

We recently had a great time during our annual weekend out of the city. We went to Indiana Dunes and hiked around, enjoyed the beach and the hotel kiddie pool.

When we got back it was time for William to start back to pre-school. He’s doing really well this year and his speech therapist was very pleased with the progress he made over the summer.

We recently put William in soccer. He has a natural ease with dribbling the ball, but he also loves to pick it up and run. Here he is rolling on top of his ball. Not pictured are the rest of the children huddled around the coach listening to instructions.

This link is a video of the little scrimmage they had today. He’s 3. He’s no Reynaldo.

Hoping you enjoy this beautiful fall weather!

Until next time,

Xoxo

Wendygirl and co.

No spring in Chicago

No spring, no posts. I’m trying to justify why I haven’t shared much. Life is just busy or at least it seems that way.

At work I finally have had some litigation going and I’ve been successful for my clients. It’s a good feeling when you hear “not guilty” or charges are dropped.

I had to make myself take the picture with the cop car. William is into all manner of work vehicles and while I have my own reservations about the police, I don’t want to push anything on him, at least not at this age.

We had a great vacation with GG. I hope we are making lifelong memories for William. He plays with his airplane and says it’s the plane to GG’s.

That’s all for now…

Until next time,

Xoxo

Wendygirl and co

Alphabet train

Click here to watch video. He’s trying!

Xoxo

Wendygirl and co

Alphabet kid

William is in love with the alphabet. He’s really close to being able to say most of the letters. What he can’t say he at least tries. Along with writing out the alphabet I started writing his name. Then he would call out other names for me to write out. Then he moved on to his toys. Here’s a video of him spelling. Link.

I’m very proud of the progress he’s made with speech therapy and going to preschool. I think he’s also happier that he can communicate more.

Below are a couple of pics from when Pa came for a visit. He loves building train tracks with Pa!

Until next time.

Xoxo

Wendygirl and co.

Christmastime 2017

We tried to squeeze in as many holiday outings as possible this year. We started early at the Christkindle market at the Daley Plaza.  Wm didn’t have the best time but he did thoroughly enjoy the puppets.

He also really loves riding on the CTA train.

Next, we went to William’s school holiday party. Fawcett lore will tell how I said “hello” to people as we walked in only to regret saying it so friendly once I realized one of those people was our notorious alderman.

Can’t have Christmas without the Santa Train!!!

I swear, I used to know how to bake.

At least they tasted good.

He practiced saying “yellow truck” before he met Santa.

Then we rode a ferris wheel!

The big day! We let him open and play at his leisure so we opened gifts for several hours. It was lots of fun to watch him get excited each time.

Nana came home and we had another Christmas!

On New Year’s Eve, Wm stayed up late and ate snacks with us. He had a blast.

Now it’s 2018.

Until next time,

Xoxo
Wendygirl and co

Happy Halloween 2017

Happy Halloween from Wm. and Co. Construction Company.

As it happened last year, William required some convincing to wear his costume. So Mommy put on her overalls and safety vest and said I was going trick or treating. Then William decided he would too.

The first house was a scary house with witches and spooky decorations.  It almost derailed our trick or treating.  But then we figured out the whole candy thing and it was fun times.

Until next time,
Xoxo

Wendygirl and co.

Big boy, big stuff happening

I’m lucky I get to take days off from work when big things are happening in my little dude’s life. I took off for his birthday and today because he started preschool.

For weeks, I teased Jacob that he would be standing outside school the whole time waiting on him. But guess who wanted to peek in the school window? Guess who fought back tears and and few got loose? I thought it’d be easy for me since I had to learn how to say goodbye to my little one when I went back to work when he was a mere 8 weeks old! But today he’s a big boy with a back pack and he went in to school like he’s done it a million times.

Anyway, I know you’re here for the pictures. A few from his actual birthday…

William loves sprinkles, so that’s what he got on his donuts for his birthday:

In order to register for school he had to go to the dentist. I swear he’s an old soul because all the new and (should be) scary stuff is nothing to him. He’s a champ.

This is William on his birthday after I asked him to tell me how old his is: by the way, he’s a “threenager.”

For his birthday we went to the Children’s Museum.  He had lots of fun; we all did.

Afterwards, we opened presents.

So here are the pics from the BIG day:

Yes, we as a family dressed alike.

Waiting for the teacher to open up!

Afterwards, we went to have breakfast to celebrate our big dude. He just walked right in and never looked back.  I predicted he might do that earlier this week when I jokingly told Jacob he would say, “peace out” to us.

By the way, Tweet on Sheridan is a really cute diner. Breakfast was delish and they offer gluten free and vegan offerings.

Finally, when it was time to pick him up Nana went with us so the teacher could meet her, too. He was crying but because everyone was leaving! Ms. Cooney said he did really well. When we asked if he wanted to go to school tomorrow he said “yes!”

Until next time,

Xoxo
Wendygirl and co.

William turns 3

Technically we were supposed to celebrate William’s 3rd birthday last week. But William got sick, so last minute we cancelled and rescheduled for today. It was a bit chilly, but the weather worked in our favor because the Orchard wasn’t as busy as we’ve seen it in the past few years.

No lines at the tractor!

Fun times at the kids’ farm!

3 Little Pigs…William loved feeding the pigs.

Feeding ponies!

Walter riding the tractor, too!

Who’s Grumpy??

Uncle Brian and William back at the pigs!

Tractor ride around the Orchard.

Moo choo ride! Mud puddles!

Cupcakes and presents!

We really want to thank everyone who was so flexible and came out to celebrate with us. William had a fun time, and he’s already loving all these new toys. He’s a lucky guy for having all of you in his life!

Until next time,

Xoxo
Wendygirl and co.

Summertime in the city

Wowee, so much fun this summer! Where do I start?

We made the move from admirer to farmer at our community garden.  For the last couple of years we’ve been taking daily walks and admiring a community garden and this year we moved off the waiting list to owner of a box!

William loves going to the garden to play with the water. We try to get him to help with the work, too. The produce is recently coming in and we’re starting to think about planting for the fall.

In July my family came for a visit. We had lots of fun with the cousins riding bikes and showing them the city.

Finally, we’ve been making a real effort to expose William to art. Early in the summer I bought him a bunch of supplies and we let him create as often as he’s interested. Again, I think playing with the water (cleaning his paintbrush) is his favorite part.

Until next time,
Xoxo

Wendygirl and co