Sweet Potato

 

Our little Sweet Potato, Leah, has had quite an eventful week.  On Friday, she underwent a procedure to determine the cause of her raspy, hoarse voice and she had to have general anesthesia.  Although I was extremely anxious leading up to Leah's surgery, she had no idea that it was happening, and I was very thankful for that.  All went well with Leah's procedure, and she was completely unphased by the anesthesia.  She played and acted normally all day afterward, despite the doctor warning me that she may be sleepy and disoriented.  We are relieved that Leah's procedure is over now, and that we have some answers to our questions about her voice.   

 

You can see in the above picture that Leah is becoming quite a girly-girl.  She refers to her jewelry as her "pretties" and is a little drama queen at times.  In fact, earlier this week she decided to have a temper tantrum while she was wearing her sparkly shoes and necklaces.  She paused in mid-cry, looked up to see if anyone was paying attention to her antics, and I told her, "I can't take you seriously while you look like such a diva..."  

 

While Leah is always girly, sweet, and loving, she can also be tough!  Some of her favorite toys are her brother's 'struction vehicles and cars, and this picture says it all.  Here is my pink girl wearing a construction hat and playing happily with a race car ramp.  She is the only girl in her Kindermusik class again this semester, and can hang with the boys with no problem!

 

Leah has recently had one of those phases where she has literally changed overnight.  I remember these stages with Luke, where you put your toddler to bed at night, and when you get them in the morning, you notice a visible growth and change.  Leah looks like such a big girl now, and although she will be 21 months this week, I continue to think of and refer to her as an 18-month old (to preserve any part of her baby-hood that I can).  Thinking that Leah will turn 2 soon is overwhelming to me!  She is talking very clearly in sentences, has a word and label for everything, and some very cute nicknames for things.  She calls herself "Yee-Yee", (because we often call her Lee-Lee), loves Minnie Mouse, and has started to be interested in Elmo. 

A few months ago, I saw that Sesame Street Live was coming to Greenville this weekend, and remembered how much fun I had going with Luke last fall.  I was hesitant to pay lots of $ to buy tickets this year, because I wasn't sure if Leah was old enough to be able to sit through the show, and also wondered if Luke had outgrown his Sesame Street days.  However, thanks to winning a free Family 4-pack of tickets, we had the opportunity to go yesterday, and it was wonderful.    It was adorable to see how excited Leah was to see Elmo and his friends live and in person, and she happily posed for pictures in the Play Zone at Sesame Street Live before the show:

 

 

Leah's favorite person continues to be "Bubba".  When we drop Luke off at preschool in the mornings, Leah cries for her brother and wants him to stay with us.  I thought she'd be so excited to have some 1:1 time with Mommy, but she asks me repeatedly each day, "Bubba, School?"  and I have to reassure her that we will pick him up soon!

 

True to her sweet, affectionate personality, Leah snuggles up next to her big brother, plays with his hair, and loves him to pieces.  Here she is, watching Saturday morning cartoons with her favorite guy:

 

 Leah and I are doing some fun things together in the mornings while Luke is at school.  We've gone to the zoo, the park, jumping places, and have done some shopping, shopping, and more shopping!  Here she is, enjoying a picnic with Mommy on the back porch:

Leah is starting to enjoy drawing and paint with water pictures, too, and this gives me hope that I may have a child who enjoys crafts in the future:

What a fun age my little Sweet Potato is right now, full of love and joy and smiles!

WFU Homecoming

We went to Wake Forest this weekend for Mark's 10-year Homecoming, and loved returning to our old stomping grounds.  Mark attended his class reunion party on Friday night, we caught up with friends from college, ate at our favorite restaurant, and tailgated before the football game yesterday.  The children had lots of fun at the Festival on the Quad on Saturday morning, which had games, family activities, and lots of photo opportunities.  We had a wonderful time at our dear alma mater, and wanted to share a few of our favorite pictures from our Wake Forest weekend!  

Family picture on the quad.

 

Our little Demon Deacons.

Luke in front of Daddy's fraternity house = Future Sigma Pi in the making?!

Luke tried all of the sports and games offered...

Beautiful morning on campus.

Leah added her own pink flair to her WFU attire.

Go Deacs!  (Cheering with her pom pom)

Demon Deacon Corn Hole.

 

Future Cheerleader.

 

 

Future Quarterback.

This one is just too funny.



Posing with the Deacon statue at the stadium.

Front row tailgate seats to see the marching band! 

Picturesque Wait Chapel.

 

Happy travelers on the car ride home!

Apple Time

A few weeks ago, we went to Skytop Apple Orchard on our annual apple picking adventure.  Each year, our day at the apple orchard seems to fall a little earlier, and this time it arrived in August due to the hot summer, early crop, and orchards picking 3 weeks ahead of their usual schedule.  Mark teases me that pretty soon, we'll be picking apples on Independence Day!  But since Skytop is up in the mountains of NC, it's about 10 degrees cooler than Greenville, so our morning wasn't too hot, and it was another gorgeous day at the orchard.  Each year, it gets a little easier to pick apples with young children (or maybe we just get a little smarter about timing/logistics), and our apple orchard day is one of our favorite family traditions.  One of the best parts are the fresh apple donuts that we scarf down after tromping through the orchards, which we crave all year!  The hayride is always a special time where we marvel at God's beautiful creation with picturesque views of the mountains and apple trees (and Luke marvels at the tractor,wagon, and farm equipment!).  This year was also special because it was the first time that Leah really was able to pick apples and be an active part of the process (vs. riding along in the Baby Bjorn last fall!).  She wore an adorable apple dress and it was so much fun for us to listen to her tell us, "Right here!" when she wanted to pick apples from a specific tree.  Here are some of our favorite pictures from our day at the orchard:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More of our photos can be found in our Winterhoff Family Photo Albums or by viewing the slide show below:
  

Dinosaur Disaster

Those of you who are loyal blog followers may remember the red play-dough incident of 2011, where I had quite a time trying to make homemade play-dough for Luke's preschool class.  Well, we may have topped that one with what is now referred to as the Great Dinosaur Disaster of 2012. 

 

Today is Luke’s VIP (Very Important Preschooler) Day at school.  He gets to be line leader, the teacher’s helper, brings in snack, and shares a “Me” bag of his favorite items from home with his class for his own private show-and-tell.  I wanted Luke’s snack to be special and unique, and had the brilliant idea to make Green Dinosaur Rice Krispie treats.  Modeled after the heart-shaped pink Rice-Krispie treats that we shared with Luke’s preschool class last year for Valentine’s Day, I thought this project would be pretty simple.  We even have a stegosaurus-shaped cookie cutter that is perfect for this snack idea.

Enter the complications:  2 sick children with fevers the day before VIP day.   For awhile it was touch and go whether or not Luke would even make it to school.  He would have been DEVASTATED to miss his special day of honor and I’m honestly not sure I could have handled his disappointment.  But after a day of rest at home yesterday, all systems were a go for Luke’s return to school. 

 

After a VERY early 4:10 a.m. start to the day on Wednesday from one sick preschooler and an unplanned afternoon trip to the grocery store with two snotty, miserable children in tow (to buy the ingredients for the snack),  an exhausted Mama started making the Rice-Krispie treats after the kids were finally tucked into bed last night.   I mixed together the margarine and marshmallows, added the green food coloring, and stirred in the Rice Krispies.  My fleeting thought was, “Hmm, this doesn’t look as green as I had imagined…” but I kept persevering.  I rolled out the sticky mixture and began cutting out the treats into dinosaur shapes using my cookie cutter, but somehow they looked like amorphous, moldy blobs.  And the greenish tint was now beginning to resemble blue cheese.  A faint sense of panic welled up in my chest as I realized I didn’t have a back-up plan.  I called Mark over to look at my creations:

 

 

“What do you think?”  I asked him.

“What are they supposed to be?”  Mark cautiously inquired. 

“Green dinosaurs, of course…” I wailed.

“Um, No,” he replied.  “You can’t serve those to children.   They don’t look right.” 

My worst suspicions were confirmed.  Reaching for my inner Martha Stewart, I tried to salvage the situation.  We grabbed leaf-shaped cookie cutters and attempted to transform the treats into “trees”, which was a no-go.  We even got out our Lightning McQueen pancake mold in hopes that we could make some sort of race car shape, which was equally disastrous. 

 “What would MARTHA do?”  I shrieked.  I glanced at the clock.  How in the world was I going to figure out another snack in the middle of the night before VIP day?  Should I start making sugar cookie dough from scratch and stay up all night baking stegosaurus-shaped cookies?

I surrendered to my failure and pulled out a jumbo snack sack of individual bags of (gasp) store-bought mini-pretzels.  This would go along with the cut-up apple slices that we were bringing for the class, too.  I climbed into bed, weary from my long day, and praying that Luke wouldn’t remember that I had promised that his VIP snack would be special green dinosaurs.

As we walked into school today, I told him, “Buddy, we have apples AND pretzels for your friends.  Isn’t that exciting?”

And my precious little man looked up at me with big eyes and said, “Mommy, everyone will LOVE them.  Those are 2 of my favorite things!”

And I thanked my lucky stars for the gift of earnest, sweet little boys who know exactly what their Mamas need to hear, and for a wonderful little company called Snyders of Hanover.

Conversations with a Preschooler

1.  Lunchtime at our H-O-U-S-E:

Mommy asks Daddy:  "What F-R-U-I-T do we have to serve with lunch?"  (My reason for spelling this was so that Luke and Leah, my little fruit monsters, wouldn't have melt-downs if they heard the word "fruit" and requested something that we didn't have).

Luke replies, without missing a beat:  "I would like an A-P-P-L-E please."

I guess our days of spelling words as parents are coming to an end soon.  Maybe we'll resort to speaking Italian next.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.   A discussion about monsters:

Luke:  "Mommy, monsters are real."

Mommy:  "No honey, they are just imaginary creatures that are in books or on tv."

Luke:  "But Elmo is real, and he is a nice monster.  We saw him at Sesame Street Live last year, in person."

Mommy (stumped):  "Ok, maybe just nice monsters are real." (I'm not yet willing to explain to a preschooler that there are people under mascot costumes, thus ruining Luke's belief in magic, the Easter Bunny, etc.).  But now I have falsely confirmed Luke's thoughts that monsters are real.  How did I get outsmarted by a 4-year-old?!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.  Hopefully a hyperbole:

Luke (calling from the bathroom):  "I went poo-poo! Who would like to wipe my bottom?!"

Mommy (losing the virtual coin toss with Daddy):  "I would be honored, son.  Here I come!"

Luke, bending over, hands on the floor, hiney sticking straight up in the air:  "Mommy, maybe when I am 50 or 60, I will wipe my own bottom."

Mommy (sighing):  "Let's hope so, buddy!  Let's really hope so!"

Celebrities!

Look who made the front page of the Metro section of today's Sunday paper:

Luke, Mark, and Winnie are pictured in the bottom photo as they attended Greenville's annual "Waggin' at the Waterpark" day for dogs yesterday. All 3 of our family celebrities will be signing autographs later this afternoon!

Chicago!

I went to Chicago last weekend for my first full weekend away since having children (I am not counting my 24-hour BB reunion in June since it was really only one day/night and went by too fast to process!) .  One of my closest friends from college, Nicole, recently moved to Chi-town and I was VERY excited about visiting her and returning to my old stomping grounds.  It’s hard to believe that it’s been 10 years since my graduate school days of living in Chicago, and it is by far my favorite city.  It's the place where I learned how to be an adult after college, how to live on my own in a big city and support myself while I earned my Master's Degree.  Chicago is the city where Mark and I began a long distance dating relationship, and where two years later, he proposed.   I grew up immensely during my time in Chicago, and transformed from a new college graduate to an independent young woman.  Needless to say, I had a long list of places I wanted to visit and see last weekend.  I warned Nicole that I was going to be a complete tourist, and that I also wanted to eat my way through the city (both of which we did).  There are too many highlights to name, but here is my top ten list for the weekend:

1.       Window-shopping on the Magnificent Mile.  There really is nothing like that endless stretch of stores, bustling with shoppers, right in the heart of the city:

2.  Morning run on the jogging path on Lake Shore Drive.  (We actually got caught in the middle  of a downpour and felt like kids stomping through puddles, laughing and soaked to the bone).  

3.       Dinner and tiramisu at Roseangeli’s (my favorite neighborhood restaurant in Lincoln Park), breakfast cinnamon rolls at Ann Sather, and a bloody Mary at brunch.  Such a treat to go out to eat and feed only myself, at restaurants that I wouldn’t dare step into with kids! 

4.    Seeing Wrigley Field again, up close and personal.  I can’t believe this used to be 4 blocks from  my apartment!  We drove by both of the places where I used to live, and so many memories flooded back to me…

5.       Amazing sights from Nicole’s high rise apartment, which included unobstructed views of the downtown skyline and Lake Michigan.  We even saw the fireworks on Navy Pier from Nicole’s windows on Saturday night.  Talk about great accommodations!

6.       Shopping ALL afternoon on Saturday:  from the boutiques on Armitage Avenue to big retailers on North Ave.  (The organizational nerd in me was especially excited about browsing the Container Store!). 

7.       Dinner and drinks at the local wine bar with great conversation and atmosphere, and spending time with Nicole, who has been one of my best friends for half of our lifetimes now!

8.       Taking many touristy pictures of downtown Chicago (some out the sunroof of Nicole’s car), and enjoying the city: 

9.   Waking up on my own, showering and getting ready at a leisurely pace, being able to put on make-up and blow dry my hair, and sleeping through the night 2 times in a row.  Simply luxurious for a stay-at-home Mama of young children!

10.   Catching up with old friends (from graduate school and our dear family friends, Brian and Beth Davies).  Seeing where they live, visiting their little corners of the world, and meeting their adorable children was food for my soul.

 I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of my weekend vacation and felt completely recharged when I returned to Greenville.  Technology really did make it so much easier to be gone from Luke and Leah, as we were able to Facetime each day (that’s like Skype for you old timers!).  Mark sent me texts and photos of their activities in Greenville and the kids had lots of fun during their special weekend with Daddy.  When I landed at the airport on Sunday afternoon, I saw two little smiling faces (and one very relieved Daddy!) who ran toward me at full speed and jumped into my arms.  What a perfect finale to my wonderful weekend! 

Back to School!

 

Yesterday was Luke's first day of 4-year-old preschool, and my, what a difference a year makes!  Last year at this time, I was incredibly nervous about sending my son to preschool for the first time.  We didn't know any other classmates or moms, the school was new to us, and I prayed that Luke would like his first experience alone outside of our home. 

 

This year was an entirely different story.  We have been literally counting down the days til the first day of school for weeks.  We even made a paper chain to help with our countdown, and Luke dutifully tore off a paper circle each day.  

 

My favorite part of this picture is that Luke is wearing one of his Daddy's childhood t-shirts (which has the name and mascot of Mark's elementary school printed on the front!)

 

This fall, we returned to St. Giles Presbyterian Church Preschool and enrolled Luke in the 4-year-old class (which is 5 mornings/week from 9:00 until noon vs. his 3 mornings/week schedule last year).  Our Meet the Teacher day last week was familiar and comforting, and we greeted old friends and gave hugs to the preschool director and Luke's teachers from last year. 

 

Luke woke up yesterday morning ready and eager to go to school.  He posed for his annual back-to-school picture on the front steps, and I can't believe how much older he looks as compared to last September:

September 2012 (First day of 4-year-old preschool).

 

September 2011 (First day of 3-year-old preschool).

After gathering Luke's school bag, we were off!

 

 

 

Here's our confident boy, walking up to the preschool entrance:

Mommy is shouting in the background here: "Let's walk AROUND the puddle and not step IN it!"

 

Luke found his hook, hung up his bag, and went right into class:

 

 

These four buddies were in class together last year.  We were so excited that they all moved up together! 

Here's Luke with his best preschool friend, Caleb.  The boys wasted no time discovering the bin of toy trucks and construction equipment:

 

 

The parents stayed for the beginning of class yesterday, and Luke's teacher, Ms. Ashley, read a book to everyone called The Kissing Hand.  The story is about a little raccoon who is nervous to go to school, so his Mommy draws a kiss on his hand so that he knows that her love is with him and he won't be sad. Ms. Ashley passed out markers for each child/parent to draw hearts on each other's hands... Luke politely declined and told me, "Mom, I'm good.  I don't need one!" 


Ms. Ashley also had bags which the children presented to the parents which read: "In Case You Miss Me Mommy!"  Inside were tissues and Hershey kisses, and she explained to each child why their Mommy may need these things.  Puzzled, Luke handed me the bag and said, "You won't need the tissues because you don't have a cold, Mommy, but here is some chocolate for our dessert tonight."

The last surprise was that a special balloon was given to each child:

We all went outside and lined up:

On the count of 3, the children released their balloons into the air and shouted, "Yea Preschool!!"

It was a wonderful kick-off to Luke's year.  I couldn't be happier with his new teacher and class, and am so proud of my independent big boy for making a seamless transition back to school yesterday!!!    Yea Preschool, indeed!!