Discrimination Against Working Moms

I am a working mom. I am lucky that over the summers, I can enjoy a brief amount of time as a stay at home mom, but for the majority of the year, I work full time. This is a decision we had to make, and it works for us. Unfortunately, other people often neglect to remember that some mothers do not have the ability to stay home. Let me explain...

Evan loves being active (as most toddlers are). Recently he's been trying to stand on his head, take dives head first off the couch, and flip over us when we're sitting on the floor. Although I really liked what Gymboree did for Evan, I am looking for something more. I would love for him to participate in more of a "gym" atmosphere rather than the sing-song methods at Gymboree. I want a place where he can jump on trampolines, roll around on mats, and jump into foam pits. The first place I thought of was an actual gymnastics gym. I looked into several in the area, and they do offer parent-child classes for infants and toddlers. I thought, "perfect," sign us up. Then I looked at the schedule. Every class for children his age are offered in the mornings, none in the evenings. Then I looked into a place called "My Gym," which is similiar to Gymboree, but it focuses more on the gym part instead of the muscial part. Again, nothing offered in the evenings. I enountered the same problem in Tinley's Park District programs. I know there are plenty of other working moms that want to do special activities with their child. Why aren't there classes available to us? I'm very annoyed and frustrated. I guess we may be heading back to Gymboree until next summer.

Speaking of Evan being an active toddler, he had his first major "boo boo" Friday night. He was running around in his room before his bath, tripped and fell head first into the leg of his changing table. It bruised immediately from his hairline to his eyebrow and swelled to the size of a ping pong ball. He only cried for a few minutes, and then we brought him downstairs to put ice on it. Surprisingly he sat really well and let us hold the ice, and then he actually held the ice pack on his head for awhile. The swelling went down pretty quickly but we were paranoid for the rest of the night that he had a concussion. He had a small bump the next morning, and he still has a nice sized bruise on his forehead. I'm sure this is the first of many more to come.

It's hard to see in this picture, but check out the bruise above his right eye.

Evan after his most recent haircut.

Garden Patch Farm and Ochard

This morning we took Evan to the Garden Patch Farm and Orchard, which is in Homer Glen. There's a lot of different things to do there, but the highlight is picking fresh fruits and vegetables out in the orchard/field area. We basically focused on picking some berries and apples. Evan really enjoyed the whole experience. He loved the wagon they give you to haul all of your pickings. He rode on it for awhile and then decided it was his turn to pull the wagon. He also helped pick a few berries and apples and insisted on carrying the basket we put them in. After we had all of our goodies, we looked at their bunny farm and chicken coops. Evan kept saying "chicken, chicken" and flapping his arms. We think this was something he originally learned from The Wiggles (of course!), but it was pretty cool to see him make that connection. They also had one of those huge inflatable jumpy things, and Evan was REALLY wanting to go on it, but we didn't really think he was big enough for it. Maybe next year.

Wheeeee!!

Stopping to smell some flowers

Inspecting the raspberries

Picking some apples

Look at all those chickens!

My favorite picture of the day - that's Rick ahead of him in the field.

No Soup for You?!

This past week I had a taste for Avgolemono Soup (Greek egg lemon soup), which basically consists of broth, rice, lemon, and some frothy egg (and I added some carrots we needed to use up). We've never really given Evan soup before since he insists on feeding himself, but I thought I would be adventurous since he's gotten pretty good at using a spoon. I fed him the first spoonful, and he didn't really react one way or another to it. Then he tried feeding himself and did manage to get some in his mouth. Eventually he gave up the spoon and tried feeding himself by hand. He took one big bite and pushed the bowl away. He refused to eat any more, even after much encouragement. I hope he learns to like it soon, as it is a very simple meal and I LOVE it! At least he liked the peanut butter and jelly sandwich I then made for him.

Getting his first look

Trying to feed himself

Mmmm, PB&J!

Daddy's the Star Now

A few weeks ago I posted how Evan was calling everyone "mama". He has gotten really good at naming everyone in family pictures. I have a picture in our living room of my family circa 1985, and Evan is able to identify my parents, Alexis and me in it. Earlier today, though, he was looking through our DVD collection, and when he came across the movie G.I. Jane (Demi Moore as a Navy Seal), he pointed to her and said Dada. Rick was much happier when Evan did the same with a Jean Claude van Damme movie. I am also including a video from the other night (sorry for the shaky footage). Rick had just gotten home from work and was changing in our bedroom, and Evan was obviously wanting his daddy...

And one more short video from that same night. This is a small taste of Evan in hyper mode.

Teething, Tantrums and Talking

Over the summer Evan's one year molars popped through. He was a little crabby and woke up for a few nights in a row, but overall he did really well with it. Now his eye teeth are coming in and with that we've been seeing a definite moodier side of Evan. At the same time, though, I'm wondering if part of the changes we've been seeing is him just entering the lovely phase of toddlerhood. EVERYTHING is no, and the simplest things become a tragedy. After his nap this afternoon I tried changing his diaper, which he was not ready for, and this resulted in a 5 minute fit of screaming, crying, and kicking his feet. He really is still a good little boy, but he has definitely changed.

Evan's talking is slowly progressing. He is finally saying Yiayia (grandma) and not just papou all the time. Last Sunday we saw my parents at church and then went out to lunch with them. When Evan woke up from his nap that afternoon all we could hear from the monitor was "Yiayia, papou, yiayia, papou." He is also now obsessed with keys. He would ask for our car keys all day long and would even open the drawer in the kitchen where we store them and try to take them out. My dad went to Lowe's and was able to get some extra keys from them, and then I bought Evan his own keychain to put the keys on (it's a little duck that lights up and quacks). Most of the time he is happy to have those keys, but they're still not the same as mommy and daddy's!

Double Trouble

This past weekend our friends Carrie and Steve made the trip up to Chicago to visit with their son, Brett, who is now 5 months old. We were curious to see how Evan would react to another baby in his "home" territory. He was definitely interested in Brett and it seemed as though Brett was talking to Evan at times throughout the weekend. Evan didn't do the greatest with sharing his toys, but he was at least gentle when he took a few toys away from Brett. It really hit me though how much Evan has really grown up. He is a little boy now, not a baby. That makes me sad. I love seeing Evan learn new things, but I also miss the little baby. And no, if anyone is curious (because we've been asked this question quite often lately), we are not quite ready for #2....yet. So anyways, we had a great time hanging out with them and watching our 2 little ones together!! Carrie posted a longer blog about this weeked, so check out her site http://carrieg78.blogspot.com/ for more of the details.... I figured it would be silly to repost everything that she already said!

It looks like Evan is sharing his maraca with Brett, but he just took it away from him!

Getting ready to go out to breakfast on Sunday morning

Evan kept staring at Brett in his infant carrier... I think he was thinking, "Isn't that mine?" since he had the same one!

Evan's New Crush

One night this week Evan was playing in our family room and we had America's Got Talent on in the background. There is a 4 year old girl, Kaitlyn, on the show who sings quite well for her age, and she is adorable. Evan was very busy playing, but he stopped as soon as Kaitlyn started singing. He stared at her and then ran to the TV pointing at her and talking to her. He had a HUGE smile on his face too. Unfortunately I didn't have our camera nearby so I couldn't get any pictures or videos of it. But in case you haven't see the show, here is a video of Kaitlyn singing When You Wish Upon a Star.

New School Year, New Look

With the start of a new school year and my new teaching position (which I am LOVING after our first week), I figured I would make some changes to the look of my blog. Let me know if anything on my page is too hard to read...