Back to work!

Oh, the holidays are gone! And my hubby is back to work! But not without one last hurrah. Last week we took a day trip up to Chicago to bring Ethan to Shedd Aquarium. First thing in the morning we ate breakfast, jumped in the van and sped up to the Windy City. Thankfully, we just missed rush hour so we had a smooth drive once we hit Chicagoland. Here we are standing in front of the "Caribbean Reef" exhibit.



Our favorite part was the Oceanarium, where we got to watch a dolphin show and see the new baby beluga! Ethan loved the dolphin show! Everytime they jumped in the air, he clapped his hands and exclaimed, "Yay!". This was a surprise to us, since we thought that maybe he wouldn't quite get it. But clearly, he was entertained! We then went below ground to view the Beluga Wales. They are tough to catch on camera, but here you can see a rather blurry shot of most of them. Another highlight of the aquarium is the new Wild Reef exhibit. Well, I guess it's been there for about a year, but it was new to us! We got to see sharks! And a saw fish! I had never seen one in real life.

After our 2.5 hour visit we made our way to the Mouse House. Liz was kind enough to let us lunch and nap there! Her hubby was at work, so while Ethan and David napped, we had girl talk, which is always fun. I always love catching up with friends and hearing about what's new in life.

Unfortunately, nap time didn't last for as long as we wanted, though! Ethan was up after only an hour, and Lauren (her daughter) was up before too long, too. Here's David keeping them entertained. We had such a nice visit!

Super Baby Sequel

Ethan's latest film...and Daddy's latest directorial pursuits :) Guest appearance by Mommy!

Christmas in New Jersey!

After our visit to NY we spent a few days in New Jersey to visit with my brother Fred and his family. Ethan got to spend a lot of time with his cousins Andrew and Elena, and boy did he get hyped up! I'm so glad that he had fun, and that he has got to see them twice this year. Grandpa Cuesta took us out to a fantastic buffet lunch when we arrived (all you can eat seafood, sushi, and other Japanese fare), and prepared lobster for us on Christmas Eve. I helped out by preparing sage-stuffed shrimp and steak. The feasting and festivities continued Christmas day with a turkey dinner prepared by Teresa, my sister-in-law. But did I mention the desserts? We had a smorgasbord of sweets that day: fruit tart, pumpkin pie, cheesecake, sfogliattelle, cannolis, and shortbread.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas in New York!

We arrived safely in NY without any delays on the 20th! David and I were grateful to grandma Cuesta for watching Ethan while we spent a couple of days going into Manhattan. On our way to the train station we walked through several neighborhoods. I was surprised to see how much Christmas spirit there was! SO many lights! So gawdy, it was wonderful :) My old neighborhood hasn't changed too much, but I admit that it becomes more and more Spanish-speaking!

We spent an evening having dinner with his sister, Donna, and her husband Greg. We had a fantastic meal at Knickerbocker's on University (near NYU). I had the braised short rib and David had the duck. These portions were big enough to split! It's always nice visiting with Donna and Greg and hearing about what's new on the horizon for them.

We got the chance to meet up with my old highschool friends, Maria (left) and Nina (center). These two sisters have remained some of my "bestest" friends throughout the years, even though we are physically separated by distance (Vegas, NY and IL). We also spent a few hours at the Museum of Natural History to see the Mythical Creatures exhibit, and the origami Christmas tree. Here is David standing next to the tree...all the ornaments were hand folded.

Onto our next destination...NEW JERSEY!

Christmas at Home

Before leaving town, David, Ethan and I had our own little Christmas celebration. After having dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant, we came home, sat by the tree and opened up gifts. Ethan had a slew of things to open from the Snyder and Phillips families in Texas, which was so much fun. And of course, David and I exchanged our gifts to each other. He got a pair of indoor soccer shoes and a new Columbia jacket for the cold weather. He got me a hefty gift certificate to my favorite day spa in town (I can't wait for my massage and facial in a few days!). Ethan got some great outfits from his Aunt Gayle and Uncle Randy, and a gift certificate from Grandma and Grandpa Snyder.

Well, it's off to NY tomorow!

Dashing through the snow

This past weekend we got quite a good snowfall! Saturday morning we had a couple of inches on the ground, so we decided to take Ethan sledding for the first time. We had a few good runs, and I think Ethan enjoyed it, as did we! The video clip below has Ethan going down the hill with Daddy, then Mommy. Then on the ride home we listened to some Christmas music which got him in quite the festive, dancing mood :) We had a lovely morning!

Posse Christmas 2007

A few days ago I drove up to Chicago to visit my girlfriends. They were my "posse" back when I was young and single, ha ha ha! We were all in the same bible study small group at my old church, and these became my closest friends that I had had in a long time since I had moved to Chicago.

We had about one year together before I got engaged and moved two hours away, but we've all managed to stay in touch. Several of them are married now and have moved away, but I'm grateful that we make it a point to get together several times a year. There have been lots of weddings, baby showers, birthday celebrations and such. But this gathering was very special because ALL eight of us managed to make it!

We had dinner and LOTS of time to talk, which is what girlfriends do best. Thanks, Heather, for opening up your home and allowing all of us to get together! I love you girls...

An early Christmas gift

Several weeks ago Grandma Cuesta sent Ethan a few pieces of persimmon since they are in season (and she loves them). Ethan liked them well enough, so she decided to send us a few more pieces to tide him over till we see them next. Ok, she sent us more than a few pieces, she sent us a boxload! Ethan was eager to see what was inside this package.

Thanks, Grandma!

Happy Birthday Rachel!

Last week, Ethan's friend, Rachel, turned two! She and her parents invited all of us to Chuck E Cheese's for games and pizza. It was our first time to go there and both Ethan and I had a lot of fun! Here is the gang...


And the celebrant with her mommy...



The pizza was surprisingly yummy :) We'll definitely come back!

Thanksgiving Adventures

An update that is long overdue!

The Snyder family headed to Dallas, TX to visit the extended Snyder family. Getting there was the hard part due to flight delays and cancelations, but once we got there (the very next day), we had a fantastic time! Our first day we had 80 degree weather! But soon the weather did plummet down to a comfortable winter like weather. Here we are toughing the cold at the zoo, posing with the ol' time carriage...

This Thanksgiving we had deep fried turkey over at David's sister's house. If you've never had it, I HIGHLY recommend it! Here's a video that David took of the turkey, the feast and family.

Next on the docket, we've got a video of Ethan taken on that day. You can see what all that "schooltime" has taught him. I think I need to continue working on those letters and numbers with Ethan!



Finally, the highlight of the day...David, his brother-in-law Randy, his sons Nathan and Steven, Nathan's friend John, and Randy's new son-in-law Elijah (aka "Lige") played a game of football after dinner. I went out with the video cam and got this footage. David put it all together in this "highlights" video. Enjoy!

Growing up before my eyes

Officially using a booster seat now, Ethan stuffs his face at dinner time... I love to watch him eat like a big boy (although most of the time he is reluctant to try what I give him. Even his old favorites!).

Walking with Ethan through Funk's Grove

It was nine in the morning, very brisk outside. And on a Friday morning we were all by ourselves on the hiking paths. We started our short hike at the chapel in the trees. I held his hand as we crunched our way through the leaves. Ethan loves the leaves! I let him walk on ahead for a little bit as I snapped some more photos. I love the sunlight filtering through what's left of the fall foliage. And the best surprise of all...a family of deer literally prancing through the distant woods. I could see their white tails!

You can read more about Funks' Grove at http://www.iwu.edu/~psolowsk/website/Funks_Grove.html and http://www.funksmaplesirup.com

Sleep challenged????

It is incredible how it feels when after a long morning of crying and screaming your toddler finally falls asleep for his nap.

He is a GREAT sleeper...has always been, for the most part. We put him down in his crib awake, turn out the lights, walk out and close the door. And for the past 10 months we've had a consistent sleep schedule:

Rise and shine: 6:30-ish AM
Afternoon nap: 12:30 pm to 3:30 PM (yes, a three hour break in the day!)
'night 'night: 7:30 pm

But just this past week, something has happened with his afternoon naps. He is CRYING and SCREAMING his head off everytime I leave the room! I don't know why. And I've just come from one of those sessions. It is now 2:15 in the afternoon and he has just fallen asleep. Yes, he screamed when I left the room at 12:30. At 1pm I took him out, let him play for another hour, then I said, "Ethan, time to go night night." He followed me into his room, and as soon as I put him in his crib "WAH WAH!". I finally just stood there at the side of his crib and watched him as he lay on his stomach, head cocked to one side as he stared at the animals on his bumper pads. My thougths wandered to all the things I was supposed to be accomplishing during his nap...grocery lists, home projects, dinner for tonight, laundry. My eyes looked at the sun shining through the drapes at his window. Ugh...what a wasted two hours with nothing accomplished! I then looked down again at my precious Ethan, and his eyes were closed. A wave of relief washed over me. I wonder if we'll have to do this again tonight?

It is incredible how it feels when after a long morning of crying and screaming your toddler finally falls asleep.

Schooltime

With Ethan having a cold this week, I had to find some interesting things to do at home. Recently after his afternoon nap I've decided to have "schooltime" for about half an hour when Ethan can concentrate on learning letters, numbers, colors and shapes. Plus, he gets to draw! He loves any writing utensil, but he still needs to be supervised with them. SO! This was the perfect activity for the both of us.

Over the past few months he has slowly learned his numbers. But for the longest time, he didn't really name his letters. Then one day several weeks ago, I was reading his favorite book: Dr. Seuss's ABC. The front and back inside covers have the alphabet, and Ethan started to point at some of the letters. He also named them, much to my surprise! It was awesome!

So, everyday now we go over the basics. Here is one of our "schooltime" sessions. And no, we don't have a new dog. We're dogsitting :)

Happy Halloween!

Thank you to Grandpa Snyder for this authentic Cabelas toddler gear, given to Ethan nearly a year ago! Ethan didn't get the chance to wear it untill now, so it was a bit small, but not small enough for him to fit into it!!! Instant Halloween costume! And of course, he's old enough to figure out his pop rifle. The perfect finishing touch....

Snyder Family Daycare

Today I tried my hand at having a "big family". For a couple of hours this morning, I watched three other toddlers and preschoolers in addition to my own little tyke! Let me tell you, snack time was a bit of a circus :) I had a lot of fun!

Apple Blossom Farm

Another fun fall day! Apple Blossom Farm is about an hour away in Peoria. http://www.appleblossomfarm.com/ We explored the orchard, pumpkin patch, bakery, and store and had a fantastic time at their playground. Here is Ethan and Mommy going down the slide. It took us a while to actually get down since there was a little boy stuck at the bottom!

Me and my "Boo"

Do you remember that birthday playdate Ethan and I went to? Each child got a little party favor--a helium-filled balloon! Ethan loved this "boo" he called it. He loved it even more when it started to droop and float more towards his head level. Towards the end of this balloon's life, Ethan held it by its string without end. He even slept with it. Talk about strangulation hazard!

Father-Son time...

I am forever tickled by the sight of Ethan with his father, especially when they're doing things together. To help me get dinner prepared without the distraction of Ethan, David took him out to the backyard to do some "work". There was some uneven areas that he wanted to even out to prevent water build up, and he wanted to work on one of the trees (I don't know what he was doing). As dinner was simmering I went out back to see what the guys were doing and this is what I saw. After filling the hole, they put the sod down, then they pat it hard...

And stomped on it. Cute, huh?

Raders Farm

This morning we spent a lovely time having some fall fun. We went to a place called Rader's Farm where you can go pumpkin picking. They have a few animals to check out, a "corn box" (like a sand box, but filled with corn) and something like a jungle gym made out of bales of hay. Or is it straw? I don't know, but that's what you get when you put a city girl in the middle of farm country!

Our friends, the Schmidtgalls, joined us with their two girls. We had so much fun watching the play with Ethan. And of course, it was a great time being able to catch up with what was going on in their lives.

After some play time, we all decided to go pick out our pumpkins for the season. They had these wagons, luckily, so Ethan got to have a snack while we loaded up the cart with a pumpkin for each of us. Even one for our cat, Eddie! Then we took (or tried to take) a family picture over by their "photo op" station. For some reason, Ethan doesn't like to pose for pictures with Mommy and Daddy! If you click on each picture you can get a closer look...

And here's Ethan's encounter with the farm animals...

It's now or never

Folks, I'm going for it again...the weight loss journey. And I'm blasting the news out there into cyberspace because I actually want to be held accountable. I figure the more people I tell, the more I'm pressured to actually do it. There are a few more baby pounds to lose before packing them back on with another pregnancy. No, we're not pregnant, but we hope to be in a few months.

You can read my ramblings day by day at http://vickyonadiet.blogspot.com/ I find myself wanting to journal my progress and frustrations, but my pen can't keep up with my thoughts. But my fingertips can... So, for a good laugh, you can check it out. Peace, and bless God...

Park Playdate

Ethan's friend, Grant, had his 2nd birthday celebration yesterday at a nearby park. We had cupcakes and juiceboxes and lots of cool playground equipment! Here's Ethan trying out his learner's permit...

One, two, three!

Yesterday I finally got the chance to hit some garage sales and pick up some much needed items for the upcoming fall. Like pants and pj's that fit! For Ethan that is :) I also found some toys for him like this set of magnets. I don't know why I haven't gotten these before, but he loves taking them on and off our refrigerator. We've been teaching him his numbers, but he's got his favorites like the numbers 2 and 6. He will often pull it off, hold it to us and say "six". While he knows some of his numbers, he will only say them in a certain pattern, probably because we've been teaching him by call and response. He says "2", I say "3", etc. So now he knows 2, 4, and 6. But that's about it!

The Great Outdoors

While Grandma Cuesta watched Ethan, David and I took an overnight camping trip to the Fox River Valley, about an hour and a half away. We stayed on the grounds of a bed and breakfast where Charles Lindbergh had stayed. It was a cute old house, complete with chickens, a dog and two cats. After setting up camp, we went to Starved Rock for a late afternoon hike. We then had dinner, and by nightfall we were back at the camp star gazing and enjoying some hot cocoa. It took us several hours to get Ethan "out of our system", but soon David and I were able to focus on "just us". What a refreshing time of being together.

The next morning we got up early, grabbed breakfast at the local truckstop ("Nah, there ain't no non-smoking section here." is what the waitress said) and headed over to the canoe rental place to embark on a 7 mile trip down the river. It was SO BEAUTIFUL. We were blessed with cool, but clear weather, and we were the first ones on the river. We will definitely come back...

Grandma and Ethan

Grandma Cuesta has been visiting for the past week and a half. What a blessing to have her here! It was a last minute visit on her part, but God has a way of arranging things, doesn't He?

During her stay, she got to spend some quality time with her grandson. He was so happy to have a playmate who gave such wonderful attention! They read together, went for long walks, and ran around in the backyard. And best of all, grandma watched Ethan over the weekend while I went to hear David play with the Peoria Symphony. We then took an overnight camping trip to enjoy the approaching fall weather. And when we got home, Ethan was so happy to see us but had had a fun-filled time with grandma.

Ethan "Don Juan" Snyder

A few weeks ago I witnessed something I thought I would never see in so young a tyke! We were at a family picnic with our small group and Ethan got the chance to run around and meet some other kids. There were these two girls there named Zhenya and Nina, around 4 and 2 respectively. We saw that they immediately took to each other as they ran around, shared a ball and some other toys. Ethan followed them around incessantly, particularly the older girl, Zhenya. As we were all finishing our dinners I noticed that Zhenya was sitting on a picnic bench, and Ethan was at her feet, looking up at her. He was holding her hand, I think. He then leaned up, and puckered his lips and would have kissed her had I not exclaimed, "Ethan, what are you doing?!" The girl's dad was there too and saw what had happened. We were all laughing in amazement. Here he is with his "girlfriend"....




The scary thing is, he repeated the EXACT same moves on another little girl that I was babysitting just last week. Men! So predictable!

Daddy's "Art Shot"

Now that Ethan walks well, we find that we need to give him good exercise! Since the pools have now closed for the season we often go to nearby playgrounds and parks. But for a quick and easy bout of exercise we take Ethan for a walk around the block. I remember when that used to mean putting him in a stroller.

Happy Birthday to me and Charlie!

The September festivities included dinner at my favorite Chicago restaurant, MK. David got a friend to babysit Ethan while we drove to the city, dined, visited a friend, and drove back. It was great!

After our dinner, we visited our friends Amanda and Vann at the hospital. They just had their first baby, Charlotte Faye, on September 1st. She weighed in at 6 pounds and measured 18 3/4 inches long. What a cutie, huh?

After the visit, David and I strolled near the lake a bit before heading back to our car. On the way home, we stopped to get gas, and I got a drink. When I got back in the car David had put a little gift on my seat :) I was also so happy when I received various cards in the mail the day after Labor Day (my b-day fell on Sunday). I was surprised to see how people remembered and cared. What a great Labor Day weekend!

More visitors!

David's sister, Gwen, came and visited us for a couple of days this week. She's studying law at a school in Michigan, so she wasn't too far away. What a treat for Ethan, since it had been about one whole year since she had seen him!

It was great fun to hang out with my sister-in-law. While David worked during the day, she and I (with Ethan in tow) would work out in the morning, come back home, have a snack, chit chat. Then we'd have lunch and put Ethan down for a nap. Usually, David was home for lunch by this time, and if we didn't have more errands to run, we would all doze in the afternoon. Gwen and I spent a lot of time talking and watching Ethan play.

See you next time, Gwen!

Cuesta Invasion

Last week my family came for a visit! Mom, Dad, Fred and his family all camped out at Casa de Snyder for about 5 days. We had a wonderful time showing Fred and his family fun things to do here. We took them all to the Children's Discovery Museum that had three floors of just about anything you can imagine--all hands-on exhibits! Here is our nephew Andrew standing in a good 'ol John Deere tractor! The kids also had fun playing with the water exhibit.



And here are Fred and his daughter Elena trying to build a fountain out of some pvc pipe.



The afternoons and evenings left plenty of time for relaxation. Ethan really got to spend some quality time with his cousins, hanging out on the couch.



Other fun stuff: the local pool with big and little slides was a big hit. On our last day we took them to the local zoo. It is a small one, but has lots of stuff to see up close. The river otters, sea lion exhibits, and walk through rainforest are some of my favorites.



Grandpa also got to spend some quality time with Ethan...Here they are taking a walk around the block.


Hope y'all come back soon!