Friendliest neighborhood EVER!

I think we have already met more neighbors here in 2 days than we have in our last neighborhood in 3 years. They have a neighborhood email listserve, they have a big block party coming up in Sept., they have neighborhood movie nights outdoors in the summer, and they have pancake brunches and spaghetti dinners. Crazy!

We are here

It was a real rough night. The movers did not leave until really late. They over-packed everything (like the chair!) and then took forever so it cost us way more than we had budgeted for the move.

The cats meowed all night and kept trying to get into Zoe's room. This was not good for having her sleep well and she woke up quite a bit. I also figured out today that she is teething again after she kept trying to bite everything, including getting a good one in on my face! She also bit up a foam football and swallowed some of the pieces and then barfed.

Jackson has been a trouper all throughout. If you ask him if he likes the new house he just smiles...what a sweetie!!

The living room looks semi-livable at this point. The kitchen is a total wreck, that is for tomorrow though.

We are packed...very very packed

We had put everything on the beds for each kid that we needed for tonight so the movers wouldn't pack it. I didn't even think to tell them not to pack the chair next to Zoe's crib that I nurse her and rock her in. I mean how in the world do you pack a chair, you just carry it out and put it on the truck, right? It just did not even occur to me. But yeah, it's packed.

We have a very poor substitute for tonight. Hopefully she will still sleep good tonight, she only got one nap in so maybe.

It's a challenge

to get all packed up for moving (which is happening Wednesday BTW!) when you have a little person who is deathly afraid of the sound of the packing tape!! We have movers coming tomorrow to help us pack so it will probably be a rough day for all of us.

Awesome big brother!

What I saw just now was too cool!

Zoe is seriously cranking out this evening. She was sitting near Jackson playing with some blocks while Jackson was playing with his Elmo toy. Then she started to cry (again!). Jackson reached over and hit the switch for his Tigger toy, which he knows she likes a lot. He totally distracted her from crying and she then proceeded to take the Tigger away from him and disconnected it from the switch so he couldn't play with it anymore. I really think he knew she would play with it and made it go on purpose to stop her from crying.

Of course now she is crying again, but that is another story.

A sweet moment

Losing our respite : (

We have had 5 hours of respite each week for probably close to a year now. Our respite worker is wonderful with Jackson and I think it is an even bigger treat for him to be able to spend time with her as it is for Lee and I to get a chance (albeit with Zoe) to spend some time together.

Illinois has been in this crazy battle over the state budget. Our new governor wanted to raise taxes because there is no way they can afford everything with the money they have but the republicans in the senate would not approve an increase so there was no budget at all for a long time. They finally did pass a budget this week without the tax increase but since it took so long, we now have no funding and will be losing all of our respite hours as of Aug 1.

It is possible that some or all of our hours will be restored, but as of right now we get nothing. Thanks a lot, republicans! : (

Jackson is a PUNK ROCKER!!

He is listening to a Ramones song (Blitzkreig Bop) and cracking up because he loves it so much!! Too cute!

What is Zoe up to?

Well, quite a bit lately!

She is now pulling to a stand by herself. She also is starting to notice music more (Jackson loved music since birth, Zoe not so much) and will dance a little bit...quite hilarious to see her shake her stuff! She will hold "conversations" with you by popping her lips together or making throat-clearing noises, she expects you will answer her in whichever language she has chosen. New just today, she started to stick out her tongue.

I left the kids in the "baby zone" for a few minutes and when I came back this is what I found.

She did not like the fireworks on the 4th much. We did not go to see fireworks this year since she is so sensitive, but even though fireworks are illegal here there are still people lighting them off everywhere and it can be quite loud. It was rough, poor baby. The dog did not like it much either.

In other news, we are moving to the new place at the end of the month! Anyone want to help pack? We are not going to be able to sell this place for anything near what we owe on it so we may be landlords in the near future. Not my preferred choice but you gotta do what you gotta do.

And this coming Friday Jackson is having an MRI and some labs done. We had to either collect an entire day's worth of urine (way too hard for someone who wears diapers!) or bring a stool sample. Poo it is!

Yesterday

we went on a tour of a facility that provides overnight respite for kids like Jackson. Unfortunately, due to the budget problems in Illinois they have lost their state funding so now it is out of pocket for parents. (We also sadly will be losing our once a week respite unless something happens in the state legislature soon). It was a nice place and I will fill out the paperwork so that we have a place to take care of Jackson in case we ever need it.

Zoe and Dizzy...again!

We got a dog with the idea that he would be a companion to Jackson. Well, Dizzy looked totally mellow and sweet when we got him but quickly proved to be too crazy. He would lick Jackson's face (before he learned not to) and it was too much for Jackson to handle. He is a very spirited dog...he's been to doggie "boot camp" twice because it didn't take the first time, and he wears an e-collar because he does not always do what he is told. I never had a dog growing up (although Lee did) so I often found myself wondering why we kept this nutty dog...especially when he was a very bad dog!

After Zoe was born I figured it out. We needed a spirited doggie for our spirited girl. Dizzy is definitely Zoe's dog and Zoe is Dizzy's girl! She is so rough on him, pulling his fur and ears, and he is very patient and gentle with her.

Here are some pics and video you so you see how perfect they are for each other.

Ugliness

Yesterday was Jackson's first day at ESY (summer school). He rides the bus to school, which picks him up in front of our house. There are often impatient obnoxious people who are angry to be stuck behind a school bus making a stop. They will honk their horns like that is actually going make the bus move faster. Lee puts Jackson on the bus and he has no patience for this. He will tell the people where they can go. Most of the time they will shut up after that.

Yesterday we had the most evil woman honking. She had her own son in the car with her, I would guess he was about 12 or so. She did not like it when Lee told her what she can do with her horn. She started calling Lee names (which did not bother him in the least). Then she started calling Jackson names!! This made Lee pretty angry as you can imagine. He spit on her car.

All this time I was inside with Zoe, getting her breakfast. I hear all the commotion and thought I better go see what was going on so Zoe and I went out. By this time the woman had left her car in the middle of the street blocking traffic (the school bus had left already) and was marching angrily up to our house with her son following behind her. She saw me come out and started yelling at me that I better get my husband because he spit on her car. Then she walks up our front stairs and spits on our house. The she starts yelling at Lee "I hope you hit me, I'll have you arrested!" Of course Lee never even made a move like he was going to hit her, she was just a nutjob.

She was still out there when Lee left for work (I guess she wasn't in such a hurry that she had to honk at the bus after all!) and yelled that she had called the police. Lee was just like "good". I am sure everyone on our street saw what happened anyway. We never heard from the police so either she was lying or else they could tell what a nut she was and told her to go away.

I called the police myself later just to see if there was anything we could do if this happened again. They said unfortunately they can't do anything about honking and name calling, but if she makes any kind of threats to get the plate # and she can be arrested for assault.

Luckily we did not see her today.

Doctor today

I took both kids to the doctor today. Zoe went for her well-baby check up and Jackson went for a rash that we have not been able to get rid of. Zoe is mighty healthy...50th %ile for weight and 80th for height. We have been giving her vaccinations (since I know you are all curious about that) but only one at a time and very selectively. She has only has 4 so far (2 hep B and 2 HIB), today she had her 2nd dose of HIB. She only cried for a little bit which is better than I thought she would do. Jackson got a prescription for his rash.

I was just eating a popsicle and offered some to Jackson. He seemed to like it a lot and had about 5 tastes of it. I think that is a good excuse to have another one later so I can share again!

My girl

She is getting so big so fast! She is officially able to get into sitting on her own. She is still sliding around on her belly rather than crawling, although she can get up on all fours just fine. I actually think she might skip crawling as it looks like she will pull up to a stand any day now. I was trying to get her shirt on one day and grabbed her hands to pull her up to sitting, and she totally surprised me by standing up right on the changing table with what looked like very little effort.

She has been going through some separation anxiety lately, poor thing. I never had anyone need me this much! It's very sweet and I am trying not to let it drive me insane because I know it won't last forever. Jackson was very easy-going as a baby, so this is a whole new experience.

She is really fun! She can call the dog over to her by slapping her hand on the ground. She is figuring out that cats don't like her quite as much as the dog does and she will go chasing after them. She is so curious about everything around her and she will rarely stop moving when she is awake.

Once in a while I do catch her relaxing and watching one of Jackson's TV shows. There is a show she really likes called "Yo Gabba Gabba". She loves the main character, DJ Lance, and she will smile when he says "hey!"...very funny to see!

Here are a few pics...you can see her 2 new little teeth in the second one.

Happy birthday to Jackson!!!

Jackson's 6th(!!!!) birthday was Sunday, but we celebrated Saturday with a small party. My mom was in town for the event and Dave, Kari, little Baby Ildri, and Kari's mom came too. Jackson got lots of fun presents and lots of attention. He even tried a little taste of cake and ice cream.



Lee helped him open the cards and presents. Look how big he is getting!




We picked out the exact same card for Jackson as Dave and Kari did! Too funny!




He got a robot monkey, some clothes, a CD of Justin Roberts, an iTunes GC, and some books.




The cake




Zoe was loving having all the people over




So was Jackson!


Jackson got a couple of punchballs that he enjoyed very much!




Even 2 at once (but he didn't like that as much)


And we got to see Dave and Kari's beautiful new daughter! Yay!




And here is one of my mom enjoying her granddaughter.