Holidays '08

I must say, it is never a dull moment at our house!
The Saturday before Christmas Jason and I headed out for the mother of all shopping sprees. With two boys under two, you don't get out to do shopping often. So my dad generously volunteered to hangout at our house with Miles and Grey while Jason and I did all our holiday shopping in one trip. The boys were, as always, excited to see Grandpa so early in the morning. We enjoyed a quiet breakfast at Panera and then hit the stores. Surprisingly, we were done with our shopping in about 3 hours and had time to swing into Pei Wei for a yummy lunch.
The Sunday before Christmas we finally located our Christmas ornaments in the mountain of moving boxes in the garage! Woohoo! After the boys went to bed, Jason and I decorated our Christmas tree for the first time in our new house. Oh, also that week, our sheet-rock guy finished all the sheet-rock work on our new staircase. *What an awesome Christmas present from my dad!*
Monday was not such a good day. When I got home from work Jason told me that Miles had been lethargic and warm all day. Immediately I noticed how sad his eyes looked and it was unusual that I didn't get a giant smile when he saw me. I continued to take his temperature through the afternoon and it hovered around 99 and 100. Jana called and said she had a spiffy digital ear thermometor and brought it over a little while later. Poor Miles, his temp had shot up to 104.8! So we called the ped and headed to the ER as he instructed. Thank goodness Ryan was so kind as to stay at our house with a sleeping Grey.
We arrived at the ER and the 1st nurse we encountered said to strip Miles down to a diaper. It was cold in that waiting room, but I did as I was instructed. About 10 minutes later a woman walked through the ER, glanced at Miles and said, "Why is that poor baby in a diaper? Too bad just anyone can be a parent these days. Good grief!"
I was already stressed and worried and I instantly bristled. I shouted, across the ER, "Because the nurse told me to. Because he is a sick little baby! Any other questions?" OK, so now the entire ER waiting room is staring at me and a lil' bit afraid of me.
My sister started stroking my hair and calming saying, "It's OK mama bear." But after I told Jana what that woman said, she agree that she needed a verbal attitude adjustment.

After we were escorted to a room they checked him over and gave him some Tylenol. (I had given Motrin at 4pm.) It took about an hour, but his fever did come down and he started to coo and play a little. We were sent home and told it probably was the pre-cursor of a cold or the flu. Lovely. Poor guy!

Lesson I learned in the ER: You can overlap medicine doses. ( I always waited until the full 8 or 4 hours was complete before giving more medicine.) The safe and appropriate dosage chart provided by the ER (for Motrin and Tylenol) definitely suggests larger amounts than the directions on the bottle.) So the second lesson is that you can administer more medicine than I initially thought.


So that is the downside of the week. Miles continued to improve but was still a little under the weather all through Christmas.

Christmas eve was busy but fun! I got home from work and hung out with the boys while Jason and Doug and Ryan went to "baste the turkey." AKA--- drink a few beers. Then we all went to Christmas eve service at church and then back to my dad's house for a nice meal. The boys each got to open one gift. Surprise surprise... it was new PJ's to wear on Christmas eve. They changed into their new matching PJ's and we headed home for our first Christmas eve at our new house.

Jason and I stayed up until about 1:30am arranging and wrapping presents. Let's just say we might have gone a little overboard. Shocker!

Doug, Jana and Ryan came over Christmas morning and we all opened presents. It took almost 3 hours! At one point, Miles was napping, Grey was playing with his toys... and Jason and I were opening the rest of their presents for them. The biggest hits are the talking gas grill from Jana and Ryan and Elmo's Restaurant from Fred and Donna. I was amazed that as we were loading the car to go to Jason's parents house I experienced something unfamiliar... total quiet. I looked in the living room and Grey was in his new Transformers tent, "reading" a book, and Miles was playing with a ball. I think they were a little overwhelmed with the sheer volume of toys and they were just quiet as church mice. hahaha!

The afternoon was spent with Grandpa and Papa Tovar. We opened presents and ate lasagna. Grey is always excited to see his cousins. Although he was annoying them by barging in on their dollhouse fun. hahaha!

If I can wrap this up on a sentimental note, I just am in awe of how lucky I am. Jason is a wonderful husband and father and Grey and Miles are the two best lil' guys I have ever met. This year has been full of blessings and happiness for our family. We sold our house, we bought a great house, we have had hours and hours of laughter and fun with our sons and we are even closer than last year with our families. Any day now, Jana and Ryan will welcome a new baby and we couldn't be more excited. I am humbled and grateful for all the happiness and joy I have experienced in 2008.

8 months and 21 months and growing

Miles and Grey have had Jason and I laughing often for the past week or so. Miles isn't just crawling, he is speed-crawling all around the basement. Where ever Grey is... Miles is right behind. His main goals are: get eye contact with Grey and flash him a smile (bonus points if Grey smiles back), steal Grey's binky(pacifier) and/or lay on top of Grey so he can't get up. Miles is getting big enough that the wrestling has begun! And he is a hefty little man! He is in 12 month clothing and less than a head shorter than his big bro.
For the first six months Grey could not have cared less about Miles. But now that Miles is moving and interacting he is very curious and attentive. Sometimes he can melt your heart when he announces, "Hugs... hugs and kisses" and proceeds to do Grey's famous forehead-to-forehead kiss and then envelope Miles in a hug. He usually calles Miles "BeeBee," but in the past week has also begun calling him Miles. But some of the attention to "BeeBee" is not as affectionate. The past few days he has been taking real enjoyment from pushing Miles from a sitting position to a sprawled out laying position. Of course Miles isn't so keen on the pushing and lets him know by crying.
Oh, and Grey hasn't just learned Miles' name... he has learned mine and Jason's. He really likes calling Jason by his name, even though we stress that he is "daddy." As soon as Jason leaves for work, Grey is quickly explaining, "Jason. Jason in trucky. Jason trucky work." It makes me giggle everytime.
He also has this new perception that Grandpa (Doug) lives in the garage. hahaha! Several times each day he points up the stairs to the garage and begins to talk about Grandpa, his "shoppie" and of course then he names all the things in the shoppie... the mowie (mower), the truckie, the car and the Merc (the Mercury).

I say it everyday.... I am one lucky lady. Two healthy, loving boys and a hard-working, wonderful husband.

Also, Jason received word that there will be lay-offs at his company today. So, please keep your fingers crossed for us. I will post an update tomorrow.

And the other fun project at our house is courtesy of my dad. We still have unfinished sheetrock walls leading down to our basement. So my dad has generously offered to pay someone to finish our walls. I AM SOOOOO EXCITED to have this project finished! And, for our Christmas present from Doug, he is paying a wonderful carpenter to create the wood part that goes on top of our half-wall that is in our upstairs living room.

We also enjoyed a fun Saturday evening with some great friends... Lindsay Sutton and Sarah Parks! It was soooooo good to see them! Grey took a liking to Sarah right away and spent most of the evening snuggled with her a chair, playing with her phone. We all might have had a few too many mojitos... but how could we not celebrate seeing friends from out-of-town. How awesome that they took time from their busy Wichita-area visit to spend a whole evening at our house! THANKS SARAH AND LINDSAY!

Photos, Photos, Photos galore

I have hundreds of photos saved on Shutterfly.com. But it's not very fun to have all these pics and not have a way to share them with everyone! So I am going to attempt to upload a few pics each day and they will be to the side of the actual blog. I will give it a try and see if it doesn't make everything too cluttered. Oh, and I noticed that this site crops photos from the right side. So if some of the pics seem a little tight on the right side... that is the answer.

Enjoy the pics!

Watch out ... he's mobile!

Yep, Miles is mobile!


We were at a friends home for dinner on Saturday and he inched forward a little. He has been working on crawling for almost a month now... but Saturday night he was able to coordinate the knees and the hands and really go somewhere. And by Sunday there was no stopping him!


We went over to my dad's house on Saturday afternoon and Miles spent the entire time crawling all around Grandpa's living room. Watching his concentration and effort is just so adorable!


And Grey was entertaining and fun this weekend as well. He is doing such a great job at picking up words. He is also learning to string words together. He finally figured out how to say "Grandpa." It sometimes sounds like "Cappu" and sometimes more like "Grandpa"... but the intent is there and that makes Grandpa Doug pretty happy. Other words he learned this week are ice cream, Rueben (character in his favorite movie... more on that later), me, bed, boat and several others. I think my favorite word he says is "fishes." He loves eating Goldfish crackers and he calls them "pishes." Makes me giggle and melts my heart everytime. But the thing he gets most excited about is Grandpa's shop (shoppy) and trucks (trucky) and the keys to get into trucks/cars and the shop. He loves to talk about the keys and the shoppy and the truckies.


Most toddlers like Sesame Street or Barney... but not my little munchkin. He requests, everyday, to watch...

What a funny little weirdo! He asks for "Polly" everyday... and this week he learned Ben Stiller's character's name, Reuben. Jason and I can't figure out the attraction. The first, and obvious, guess is that he likes Rodolpho the ferret. But it seems he could take or leave the ferret. I think he likes how animated Ben Stiller is. But he will sit and eat his pishes and watch that entire movie. He just cracks me up!

We also had family pictures taken two weekends ago. Needless to say, trying to wrangle a 7 month old and a 20 month old, outside, near a waterfall, was a real challenge. Jason and I were both sweating by the end of the photo shoot! hahaha! But she captured some great pictures of the boys and we can't wait to get them and hang them up in our living room.

This week promises to be a fun one! Jana's baby shower is Saturday and Courtney is coming in town!!! I can't wait to meet Brooks! Have a great week!

6 years

Today marks six years since I said goodbye to my mom. Six years since she lost her battle with breast cancer. Today I woke up with a heavy heart and lump in my throat. I don't really know what to write about it... I just wanted to acknowledge it and remember, as I do everyday, what a wonderful mom she was to Jana and I. My dad stopped on his way home from work last night and left three roses at her "little piece of real estate," as we call it. He takes three roses out there often, one Jana for me and one for him. Six years ago we vowed to be the "three muskateers" and always take care of each other. So there are roses for Barb from her Three Muskateers.
But today, to get through the day, I will try to remember good and fun memories. Like the time she came to Lawrence to visit me and we had a girls-weekend in Kansas City. We had reservations for a regular room at Crown Center. But somehow, she and I sweet-talked the front desk guy and were upgraded to one of the two largest suites on the top floor. So we quickly unpacked, put on our swimsuits and headed to the pool to drink margaritas and sun ourselves. I am very much like my mom in this way. She loved soaking in the rays and feeling (her words) "like a lizard on a hot rock." I couldn't have said it better myself. So after plenty of time in the sun, we returned to the room and got dress up in our cutest dresses and our most fabulous shoes and went out for the evening. We stayed in the Crown Center area yet visited several restaurants and bars. We had martinis and beef carpacchio at Pierponts in Union Station and then continued around the area, stopping for a cocktail and an appetizer everywhere we went. We finished the evening on top of Crown Center at Skye's. It is an awesome revolving restaurant. We ordered champagne and two desserts and sat in velvet club chairs and watched the revolving skyline of Kansas City. It was a perfect night with my mom.
So I am going to do my best to avoid tears today and think of all the fun moments we had together. Vacations to Beaver Lake... quiet evenings with popcorn and movie... the sheep in the backyard... rescuing Gonzo (our pidgeon)... giggling when we could get her on the trampoline ... Delbert McClinton concerts... I could go on for hours.

I found this poem this morning, and it seemed just perfect.

As I look back on my life
I find myself wondering.....
Did I remember to thank you
for all that you have done for me?
For all of the times you were by my side
to help me celebrate my successes
and accept my defeats?
Or for teaching me the value of hard work,
good judgement, courage, and honesty?
I wonder if I've ever thanked you for the simple things...
The laughter, smiles, and quiet times we've shared?
If I have forgotten to express my gratitude
For any of these things,
I am thanking you now....
and I am hoping that you've known all along,
how very much you are loved and appreciated.
--Unknown


If you are reading this, and thinking of Barb, and feeling like sharing a happy story... well go right ahead. Just click on "comments" at the bottom of this post and share a story. Or, if you would rather, you are welcome to send it in an email to me. I love the fun and funny stories about Barb.
She was awesome and I miss her so much.

How's the house?

Thanks to everyone who read the first entry of my blog. And also, thanks to everyone who emailed. I realized that between having two babies, moving to a new city, buying a house, etc... lots of important people in our lives have NO idea what is going on with the Tovars.

The biggest question has been, "What's happening with the renovations to the house?"
Great question!

Jason and I bought our new-to-us house in June of 2008. It is a solid ranch-style house built in 1971. It is the perfect size for our family of four... but definitely needed some renovation. So before moving in we:

• installed a new staircase to the basement (there was no staircase inside the house, just via the garage)
• tore down the wall between the living room and dining room
• took down wallpaper in every room upstairs and painted all the walls
• recarpeted the entire basement and the living room, dining room, hallways and bedrooms upstairs
• tiled the kitchen, entry and two upstairs bathrooms

And then we were finally able to move in! Of course, the renovations didn't stop there... but the house was livable. Since then we have been unpacking, creating fun bedrooms for the boys, and renovating the kitchen. We have moved the laundry room from off-the-kitchen to the basement. And now we are making the old laundry closet into a space for our new double oven (god bless Craigslist) and a coffee bar.

It's always a little chaotic at our house, but we wouldn't have it any other way. We are hoping to have the major projects finished by the holidays.

So... that's the scoop on the Tovar house.

Halloween is this week so I will have pics of Grey and Miles to post soon. Jana and Ryan and I took the boys to a elementary school fall festival on Friday night. Grey was dressed as a bat and Miles was a super cute cow. At first Grey was a little overwhelmed with all the people, but once he realized there was free candy he was happy. (Yes, I am a pretty "crunchy" mama. Grey doesn't really get candy... ever. He does get to have ice cream with Grandpa Doug, but that is the extent of his encounter with sweets. So you can understand why he was so impressed to eat several twix bars and some M&Ms.) But his favorite part of the evening was the hayrack ride. He really didn't care about the ride, just the opportunity to get a close look at the tractor. He looked like a crazed Beatles fan as he stood at the chain-link fence as the tractor went by, screaming at the top of his lungs, "Truckie! TRUCKIE!!!"

Sunday night we went to our first event with the playdate group I joined online. It was fun to meet so many other parents of young children. I think 75% or more of the families there had at least two kids under the age of 4. Grey was not in a great mood because he missed his afternoon nap. But he did enjoy the trick-or-treating part of the evening, he loved the homemade cookies and he likes holding his jack-o-lantern bucket.

Jason and I were laughing that 10 years ago I remember dressing as Baby Spice of the Spice Girls and entering some crazy costume contest at America's Pub. Now our lives are a little bit different. hahaha! This Friday we are both taking the day off work to take the boys around to see all our friends and family. So this weekend I will have pictures of the lil' Bat and the lil' Wizard.

Thanks to Courtney

I have to say, Courtney inspired me. My friend Courtney had a beautiful baby boy in September and she has already done a fantastic job of documenting his life through a blog. What a great idea! (Courtney - lil' warning to you. You are making the rest of us look bad! Just kidding!)

And quite honestly... I have felt like a total slacker when it comes to baby books for Grey and Miles. It is not their fault that their first years of life happen to be when their parents moved across the state, took new jobs and bought and renovated a house. So, I am admitting it... I have not maintained the baby books as a good mom should. Well... all that is going to change!

This is my answer to the baby book issue. I can document on here and then have some great reminders and stories to put in the baby books. And I love that I can share their lives and my life with friends and family across the country.

So, that is all for now. I hope to update this at least weekly. Thanks for stopping by and I promise to post some pics later this week.

For now, I will leave you with a pic from a few months ago (it is the most recent I have on my work computer) of Miles and Grey hanging out on Grandpa's couch.

I am one lucky mama.