Our apartment ghost

Every evening between 7:00 and 7:30 we have a ghost that haunts our apartment!

To find out or not to find out... That is the question!

Brian and I are trying to decide if we should find out if the baby is a girl or a boy at our 20 week ultrasound. I'm leaning toward yes, he's leaning toward no. What do you think? Give your input in the poll to the right.

Chicago

Last week we were able to visit Chicago for several days for Brian's AAO conference. We had a great time seeing the sites of the city, and made lots of fun memories with our friends. The first night we were there we got authentic deep dish pizza from Lou Malnati's which was delicious! Then on Friday Matthew and I went to the aquarium with Lauren, Andrew, Casey and Taryn. We met Shaun for lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, and then he came back to our hotel to hang out while Matthew took a nap. That night we all walked down to Navy Pier for dinner and had fun exploring. Saturday morning Casey and I took the kids to the Children's Museum which was a huge hit! Matthew and Taryn had a great time playing and running around. We went back to the hotel for nap and lunch time, and when Brian got back around 3:00 we met Shaun and Lea at their apartment. We walked down to the Lincoln Park Zoo and then back toward our hotel. That night we went out to dinner at English for Jeremy's birthday. Sunday we went to Milennium Park to see the silver bean and other sculptures. There was a playground in the park as well, and Matthew, Andrew and Taryn enjoyed playing together again. For lunch we got Chicago dogs at Portillo's and discovered that Matthew doesn't like hotdogs! After Matthew's nap he and I took the shuttle to the convention center to meet Brian and some people from the practices he is looking at. The Wake Forest alumni reception was that night as well, so we took the shuttle over to the Marriott. We hadn't had time to eat dinner, so after the reception we had dinner at Big Bowls with Jacob and Steve. Our last day in the city we got to spend with Brian! We started the day with brunch and then went up in the Hancock Observatory. The views were amazing! We let Matthew have a quick nap and then headed to the airport for our flight home. Matthew is a great traveler and we had an uneventful trip back. We hope to return again soon!

Matthew at 16 months

It is amazing to watch how much Matthew learns and grows each day. Just this evening we were playing with some cards that have different animals on them, and we were practicing making the animal sounds. He was able to quickly mimic the sounds, and then whenever he saw the picture of the animal he made the sound. Then we decided to see if he could pick out the correct animal from a group of cards, and he could! Anyway, I decided to write a post about all the things he is currently doing, because I'm sure in a few years or even months I may not remember.

Right now Matthew is:

• running all over the place
• walking backwards
• trying to jump by crouching down and walking
• pointing at everything
  
• doing his "more" hand signal (right hand grabbing left wrist, arm, or shoulder depending on how urgent the need) to mean more, please, help me, I want that, etc.
• doing his "all done" hand signal (hand on his head) to mean all done, stop, get me out of here, I don't like this anymore, etc.
• suffering from separation anxiety when we leave him in any type of childcare setting
• spitting milk (a habit we are working to break)
• making animal sounds (quack - cack, meow - noow, woof woof - foo foo, moo - moo)
  
• pointing at cars and saying "vroom vroom" whenever he sees one
  
• points to eyes and says "eye"
• points to nose and says "nose"
• drinking out of a regular cup with assistance
• waving goodbye
• clapping
• blowing kisses
  

Right now Matthew says:

• keys
• milk - "mil"
• shoes - "soosh"
• cracker - "cacka"
• eye
• nose - "no"
  
• mouth - "mouw"
• ball - "bawl"
• bottle - "bobble"
• bubble
  
• book - "boo"
• dada
• mama
• cajun - "caja"
• car
• banana - "nana"
• moon

Needless to say, we love our little man and are so thankful for him!

3 + 1 = 4!

Brian and I are very happy to announce that we are expecting another baby! Of course, I'm sure most of you that read this blog already know that, but now it's up on the world wide web so I guess that makes it official :o) My due date is April 29th, which makes me 11 1/2 weeks pregnant right now. This pregnancy has been pretty similar to the last one. Some nausea, lots of headaches, and I pretty much need to take a nap every day in order to function. One difference is that I'm already starting to show a little bit, which I hear is normal for the second pregnancy. Last time I didn't show until I was like 18 weeks along. Guess I need to find my maternity clothes! I went to the doctor this morning and was able to see the baby again on ultrasound. Here are pictures from 7 weeks and 11 weeks.