cold season

My little Marek has a bad cold. I stayed up until 3 am last night holding him because he couldn't breathe very well with all of his congestion. Eventually either he felt better or stopped fighting it out of exhaustion and fell asleep. Tonight is rough for him again, but hopefully he'll fight this thing off soon! It's hard to see him feel bad. He did have a fabulous week, though! Very busy with photos, play dates with friends, music class (he actually played the instruments for the class this time!), playtime with his indoor co-op friends, a tour of a local private school, and a visit to his favorite park because it was so sunny.

Thursday and Friday were perfect days for him - he was so happy and we had such a good time! I was really impressed with how well he did at the photographer's studio this week. He is also very happy wearing his new "fireman jacket". He picked it out and loves buckling it together. There he is in the photo saying "where'd it go?" - one of his catch-phrases. He has also begun referring to himself as "Marek", which is very cute.

I will be working extra hours at work until June and probably teaching two courses at the local community college in late spring, so my schedule is becoming packed. I would much prefer to have the extra time with Marek, but am hoping to use my extra earnings to take us on a trip to Hawaii this year. I can't wait to start traveling with Marek!

Best wishes to everyone from the best toddler in the world and his mommy!

Marek's newest cousin arrives

Welcome to baby Bethany! My sister had her fifth child on December 22nd, 2006. Baby Bethany Shugart shares her birthday with her father and Grandpa Ed. Everyone is very healthy and doing really well. We are so happy for Aunt Michelle and her family! These are times when I wish everyone lived so much closer to each other. Marek would love to see his baby cousin!

Auntie Gwen & Uncle Brian

As you can see, I've been going through pictures from the past few months today. Marek got a very special treat this summer when his aunt and uncle from South Dakota came to visit! Gwen was also the lucky first person to see Marek "sit" all by himself when he was just a baby. She had dropped in to visit him at daycare and was the first witness to his big accomplishment!

Three Summers!

Cold winter days have left me dreaming about summer lately! Here are three pictures of Marek's summers. They aren't here in chronological order, though. The group shot is the tail end of a really fun boating trip with our family when I was pregnant with Marek (hard to see, but I do have a bump at the time!) The others are from his first and second summers in Grandma's backyard.

Marek's been doing well this week. He had to have a lot of patience because I was hit with an infected wisdom tooth, which left me in a lot of pain and probably not as much fun to play with! Not a fun way to end our vacation together! We did get the chance to go to our indoor play park and visiting our favorite spots around town. We stopped by church, where Marek met a few new people and was presented with an apple. He also tried sitting on his potty and pretending to dump it out afterwards. Beginning steps!

snow day

We've been blessed with another snow day here today! Marek loves waking up to white flakes falling down from the sky. We snuggle up by the fireplace and read books, until he begins chiming in for mommy to "come on and play!" Having the week off with him has been wonderful. He is already growing up so fast and I cherish every minute of his toddlerhood that I have! We went to storytime today and I, for one, enjoyed being on the other end of the storytime. (As I'm usually the one presenting it!) We hung out with friends afterwards before coming home to make peanut butter chocolate-chip muffins. Yum!

Marek's starting to classify and organize things more these days. He'll point to a tiger and say "lion". When I tell him that yes, it looks like a lion but is in fact a tiger, he gets excited and replies "that's not a lion!" He does this with lots of objects. I've been busy reading up on potty training and also some very interesting books on parenting and raising boys.

I've been taking a lot of video of Marek lately and will have to work towards copying it to a DVD so I can share some of his memories with grandparents, etc.! The smallest everyday moments make being his mommy the best thing on earth. Sometimes it feels like if I blink I'll miss it! I'll try to take more pictures and post more this week.

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone had a great holiday season! Marek had such a good Christmas this year. He was excited opening presents - "oh wow!" were his words each time. He loved Santa and snowmen, lights and candy canes...just about everything to do with Christmas! It was so wonderful to see him get so excited this year. We have been going to our indoor play park for toddlers again. He loves going down the slide, playing with trains and seeing his toddler friends. He is definitely a happy boy (unless he's teething, of course!!). He headed to storytime with Grandma last week. They enjoyed it until he got pushed down and slapped in the face by another toddler for no reason! It's rough being little sometimes. Other news: his newest cousin was born on Dec. 22nd (Grandpa and Uncle Rob's birthday!) and I can't wait for him to meet her. Wishing our family lived closer again...Here is a picture of Marek doing what he is obssessed with - playing trains!