a baby bird-in

robin's nest view from ethan's window


our friendly menards manager (note the donahues' garage remote)


we love to keep in touch! (4 of the boyz phones not pictured)

shelley suggested i chronicle an exciting development in our back yard: robins nesting in our lilac tree - if you look really closely, maybe you can see the first little blue egg in the picture. and i got to thinking what a great metaphor this is for kola's first anniversary. it will be fun for me to track how these dates all match up. looking back at the start of the blog, i see we first met kola a year ago tomorrow! it's so hard to believe it's just about time for me to write our annual report to the embassy in ukraine. sig said i should just send them the blog:) it will be interesting to see what this report entails. luckily, there is no shortage of photos to choose from!! would it be funny or prompt a visit from dcfs if i sent the pic of kola eating the wrapped package of sausage? it's been fun for me to look back in the blog to look at our first meetings together. more reflections soon. feel free to add your own! xo b/s/e/k

mommy i'm pedalling myself...faster, faster!

ethan's treasured key and remote collection





thanks cousin andrew f for passing along kola's new bike:)


with help and instruction from ethan, kola is now pedalling and driving around woodbine. we all made it around the block the other day, and kola was grinning and giggling all the way. do you think wrapping him in bubble wrap would be too cruel this summer? hee hee. ethan has a cupholder and bell as his bike accessories and kola needs an ice pack holder. i've already had to fish him out of a rose bush in the garden and our of the tulip divet in bill's driveway. he always jumps right back on to make sure i don't suggest he take a break. as shelley says, what determination! ethan is very proud of having helped teach kola and is glad to have a pedalling buddy. i think the neighbors on woodbine will see these guys whizzing by their porches on a daily basis. we already have the keys and orange cones, now i need to check ebay for a set of racing flags! xo b/s/ek

p.s. happy friday aunt lisa...a regular customer with her weekly check-in:)

a few of our favorite things

dining al fresco


ethan reading Drake's book on CD with andrew


"mommy, this is my favorite shirt!!"


ethan working at his "new" (circa 1960) desk


spring has come in like a cheetah (kola's newest fav animal) - almost faster than we can see. ethan exclaimed out the window at breakfast the other morning - mom! look!!!!! from his reaction, i thought the cable guy was mooning him, but when i got to the window, i saw that shelley's peonies had grown a foot over night. a la little shop of horrors. the garden is exploding with fireworks of color that change at least once a day. kola wakes up around 7 each morning and starts with a steady stream of, "go outside? yeah? mommy, yeah? five minutes? a hundred and five minutes?" part of his motivation is to start up his vehicles. something clicked a couple days ago and after nearly a year of trying, he figured out how to pedal. he was soooooo excited, and now i have to wear my track shoes when we go outside.

kola's vocabulary has exploded too. he talks non stop and names everything. he'll walk in a room and say - tissue, toilet paper, hot water, cold water...you get the idea. he has gotten quite in depth with his naming of train cars and trucks - i have to study to keep up with it - the more detailed the name, the better he likes it. backhoe and excavator and forklift are so three weeks ago - his brain is craving multi-syllabic complicated words. when i say a new, long word, he giggles and tries it again and again until he matches it perfectly. my favorite kola quote of the week came when we attended my niece jennifer's ice show last weekend. kola sat on my lap bouncing to the music, anticipating the spotlights, and admiring the skaters in their costumes. it may have been the copacabana number (barry manilow - admit you remember it!) when kola saw a skater and said, "mommy - she has gloves on with her bathing suit!!" perhaps you can picture it. we all had a good laugh on that one. kola also likes to ask, "mamma - who's that guy??" might be a girl, guy, lady, man. i may say "i don't know" and he'll ask louder or say "huh?" last time i said 'i didn't know that guy (a woman)' he said "that's dover and he drives a pickup truck." problem solved.

ethan's quote of the week was, "mom, when kola had his overnight at grandma and grandpa's house, it was quiet here. and when i had my overnight at grandma and grandpa's house, it was quiet there." re: a fav piece of candy, ethan said, "this is very good. it tastes like grandma or grandpa or their garage." more favs. ethan's preschool took a tour of a parking garage today and ethan was very excited to meet the security guard because of the huge number of keys she had. ethan had her go through each key and name what it was for. you may know that is one of ethan's fav hobbies. he can correctly ID all keys on several friends' and neighbors' keychains, and when he meets you, if you have keys in your hand, he'll ask you about each one. in the two years he's been doing this, we've found that probably 80% of people surveyed carry at least one key on their chain that they can't ID. his favorite art teacher gave him an unidentified key off her ring and that's a prized possession. ethan has three sets of keys totaling about 45 keys. they "lock and unlock" all our doors, including the linen closet, and his vehicles. for thanksgiving, he said he was thankful for grandma, grandpa, and their garage. for christmas, he wanted a three car garage with a remote door (sadly, we have none.) when he sees shelley's garage go up next door, he's very excited and sometimes he'll get to open and close it. about a year ago, ethan memorized our neighbor colin's football schedule. he'd put a lawnchair in our front lawn and wait until colin and his dad would come out so he could use their key fob to open the sliding door on their nissan quest. pat told me they'd always try to leave a couple minutes early to fit us in:)

one of my favorite things lately has been working with our park district to develop an environmental policy. a little out of my comfort zone of knowledge, but i get to dust off my project management skills and it's been fun to use that part of my brain again. i'm chairing a team of about 10 to develop this policy practically from scratch and somewhat by quilting together pieces from other entities. it includes guidelines on the installation and maintenance of biodiverse/natural areas, trees, and recycling/energy efficiency programs. it's close to 70 pages and is awaiting park board approval...then on to implementation. one of the goals is to support the park district in managing their existing biodiverse areas and targeting spots in the park system for new ones, so we'll soon be recruiting park stewards and volunteers to work in those spaces (if you're interested...!)

sig has also been busy with his annual crisis intervention conference that he has co-chaired for years with his friend barry. they recruit speakers and attendees and host a weekend in a chicago hotel for an exchange of ideas in that genre. a wide range of professionals from around the country attend, and barry and the conference are definitely on sig's favorite things list!

thanks for checking in....more soon!! xo b/s/e/k

spring, anyone??

blue w/flu


our now farther-away-friend, caroline


just when i thought we were springing into the season of outdoor play and good health, ethan, kola and i got hit with the "real" flu. i used to scoff at the vaccinations, but i guess i've never had the flu before, and certainly not with two energetic kids. two weeks later and i'm finally feeling nearly normal. "luckily" the kids got it too, right about the same time as me, otherwise i'm sure sig would have come home each night to find me tied to the chair and easter candy wrappers scattered throughout the house. as it was, he had to take two days off work because i literally could not get out of bed. on day three, ethan, kola and i watched 5 hours of videos. kola now can vaccinate a cow and ethan can do a tune-up on a john deere 4-cylinder tractor. who says tv isn't educational?

on a sad note, a few of our newest and dearest friends moved off woodbine - see caroline in photo above. what i wish i had was a pic in one of her classic looks - playing ball or cars in a frilly pink skirt and cowboy boots. we'll miss the whole family and hope to road trip to see them after they're settled.

we're all counting the seconds until spring feels like it's finally here. every day, the boyz get on their light jackets, run out, and run back in to put on the heavy ones again. spring is late and no one knows that better than a preschool boy. every now and then we still find flurries in the air and ice on the vehicles. after the brief warm-up a couple weeks ago, i told the boys summer was over and winter's coming again and i think they half believed it. more indoor outings included reptile fest, where kola liked the turtles best and asked to take home a ball-cobra (please can i have it?? yes, when you're 20). kola also spent quite a bit of time stalking the brookfield zoo employee dressed as a giant frog - i have new found respect for people in character costumes. kola almost tripped the poor guy's frog feet tagging along behind/beside/on him. ethan had a keen eye for spotting poop in the cages and preferred the "big ones (reptiles that is!)" and enjoyed feeding grapes to the iguanas. after all that, we went to a pub for dinner and i could only fathom eating the salad.

since i'm also keeping this blog as a journal for the boys, i have to mention two favorite quotes of ethan's: mom, are you in charge of the world?; mom i have 30 hundreds of questions, but i can't ask them all because it would take billions of days. ethan is also quite proud of his 'new' room which is definitely quite the big boy pad - with a desk, loft bed, big bookcase, fold-out chair for overnites, and new big boy dresser sans-a changing table. i'm sure a brochure will be coming out soon - he's dragged many friends and neighbors in for a tour and kola also likes to play docent. call to arrange a viewing time!! for extra credit, bring your ikea catalog - find page numbers for 4 or more items and get a prize!! xo b/s/e/k

last hurrah

will the real franz(ie) klammer please stand up!

ethan flying solo

kola and sig with a new way to hula


"Spring" (aka late winter) in Chicagoland was good to us - we had a couple more chances to ski before the thaw. Kola went out for the first time and loved it! He giggled with glee through most of the day and especially when on the rope tow and sliding down the hill. he should have been wearing a no fear t-shirt and a kmart blinking blue light above his head because once he realized he could stop by laying down, he seemed up for any steep. He's probably destined to be a trick snowboarder or long jumper. Ethan is quite a bit more cautious and goes for the style points. he's willing to ski on anything where he has control, and i could actually see him going for telemarking some day! with ethan skiing the green runs on his own instead of between my legs, i actually stayed awake past 9pm that nite. sig was zonked on the couch by 8 - i guess the hula-skiing took a lot out of him.

We all had even more fun going with our friends the straubes. adrianne is leading the pack and a great motivator for the boyz. another great motivator is the culver's stop on the way home, where we all had a good laugh over the flavor of the day being 'mint chip cheese curds.' the temps are expected to climb into the 40's this week - that's my threshold for standing outside while the boyz play in their plastic vehicles. of course their threshold is a lot lower temp, but i'm the one who has to stand there motionless as the ipass/tollbooth operator and occasional gas station attendant.

we've already enrolled for summer camp and t-ball and it's hard to believe that some day we'll be able to walk outside without bundling up first. kola's boots have lost their ability to velcro and his mittens are torn - i'd love to toast smores on the old snowgear some day soon. ethan is already counting the days until we head for lake michigan and the sawyer cottage - maybe that's what i should gauge with the counter i just added. since many have lost their comments passwords, i finally replaced the kiev clock with a hit counter. it will be fun for me to see if people are still visiting us here:) we hope all's well with you and enjoy keeping in touch!! xo b/s/e/k

february fun

indoor vehicle fun


dinner by chef ethan


dessert by dominick's

the middle picture is the result of ethan's attraction to the channel 11 saturday afternoon cooking shows (especially the French chef who says 'la salade'.) one night about a week ago, ethan decided to make us all dinner: dubliner cheese, hot dogs, and goldfish. it was actually yummy and nice to have a helper in the kitchen and we all liked it even more because ethan made it. he also made his own birthday cookies and icing, which were eaten so quickly, it would just show as a blur on the screen.

and speaking of birthdays, the extravaganza continues. ethan and kola had their combined family birthday party at the garfield park conservatory and much fun (and frosting) was had by all. ethan's 5th will be capped off by a 'kids on the block' party soon, which he'll share with his good friend alyssa, who turns 5 next week.

the novelty of driving in snow squalls and trying to stand upright in below zero windchills is wearing on all of us. there's a collective groan in the house when the mittens come out, and we've really hunkered down these last few weeks without complaint. the boyz are exploring new pretend meals to cook, new ways to build garages, driveways, and patios (love those magnatiles!), the teletubbies have driven cross-country in various vehicles (the red convertible is a favorite), and when we need to burn off steam, we do make it out for gymnastics, baseball-basketball, the ball and tunnel room near our house, or back in the house for a game of monster/where are the boyz/p.p.petunia. these are all variations on the same theme, which involve me or sig chasing the boys in a circle on the 1st floor of the house, which i think would be quite a sight from street side!

we met up with grandma and grandpa last weekend to see the chicago symphony orchestra perform carnival of the animals, with john lithgow narrating. it was a balmy day, so we also took a tour though the art institute and millennium park. after a full day of culture, we asked the boys to recount their highlights. They were in absolute agreement: the favorites were the ride on the EL, and watching the zamboni smooth out the millennium park ice rink!

more of our favorite moments to come...stay warm:) b/s/e/k

happy new year!

learning to ski at indianhead, in the U.P.


sledding with daddy


ice fishing with grandpa


hot chocolate with grandma


snowshoeing in the tall, tall forest

it's been a fun and busy month starting with christmas festivities at concordia (ethan's preschool), aunt julie's house, aunt andrea's house, aunt elaine's house, then a few days (mostly in our pjs) before we headed off for vacation about 20 minutes outside of eagle river wisconsin. our annual pilgrammage to afterglow is more looked-forward-to than christmas for ethan, and maybe me too. it's a wonderful resort chock full of northwoods winter fun. we went tubing, sledding, cross country skiing, ice fishing, snowshoeing, downhill skiing, supper clubbing, played games, kept the fireplace roaring and the fridge and cookie cabinets stocked with all our favorite goodies.

ethan and kola both enjoyed being the trailblazers in their snowshoes, and although it was a close call with kola's first time out, we didn't have to carry any exhausted preschooler back to the cabin. kola was fascinated by the 8-9" sunfish grandpa was fishing out of the hole in the ice and entertained by the birds at the bird feeder. both boys lapped up grandpa's breakfast cups of cafe vienna and made frequent trips to the lodge to play trucks, foosball, and air hockey. the biggest hit was the closed loop video on the cabin's channel 4, showcasing the resort owners' youngest son, mitch moline, in snowboarding competitions - we watched it beyond the point where it was driving grandma 'goofy' (snowboard pun for the uninitiated.) when we returned home, the boys played 'pete and mitch moline' and took turns sledding on scarves down our (luckily carpeted) hall stairs.

the boys loved the extra attention with grandma and grandpa, and we loved the extra attention from my mom and dad, too! when the kids went to bed, the Over 5 Club's game night began with scrabble, probe, pinochle, and hearts. it was a great way to kick off the new year, illini loss and 6+ hour drive each way notwithstanding. we celebrated kola's 3rd birthday on jan 5th in the great white north, with ice cream cake, thomas and truck presents, and his first pbj sandwich (no nuts until 3!) and will be doing a combined b-day party for ethan and kola next weekend. hard to believe ethan will be 5! kindergarten sign-ups are right around the corner... egads!!

more soon - b/s/e/k