i'm huge!

that's right, atticus here. the hugest van voorst.

i am fourteen months old now, and here are my player's stats:

..20 pounds.
..11 teeth.
..1 nap a day.
..about billion ways to get you into a triangle hold.

my likes:

..cuddling with kaiden.
..fast food.
..making funny faces.
..playing in the trash and with the drapes when mommy isn't looking.
..my aunt lauren.
..having my pitties tickled.
..when daddy comes home.
..whole wheat bread and fruit.
..putting you in a triangle hold.
..walking down the hall without holding mommy's hand.
..waking up at 6 am instead of 8.
..my veggietales CDs.
..my new sister penelope. i know how to point to her in mommy's belly...and on mommy's face...and on mommy's arm.
..anything with wheels, whether it's something to play with or something to watch.
..beatboxing.
..wrestling.
..playing peek-a-boo.
..saying "MAAAAAAAMAAAAAAAAAAA!" when i want dinner rightnow.


my dislikes:

..getting caught playing in the trash or with the drapes.
..cold food.
..tacos.
..cold weather.
..when people leave my house. it's a very sad time for me.
..when i'm not allowed to pull everything out of the closet.

all my van voorsts: episode 2

breakfast at our hotel...

...welcome to the second installment of the van voorst flurry of weekend fun.

after the army surplus store on saturday, we went to an antiques store (where i got a vintage suitcase, a sweet old tablecloth, and a photo) then ate at hu hot.

we then headed to watch some buccaneers hockey. um, i can't even describe how awesome it was. the buccaneers played the only team in their conference that has a worse record than they do. i sat next to an eight-year-old girl wearing a t-shirt that read "love is for suckers" and what i can only describe as fingerless arm socks. throughout the game she and her brother had a heyday yelling out indiscriminate encouragements and insults, including "GUARD IT WITH YOUR LIFE, MAN," "REF, YOU STINK" (which they yelled, on average, about once every 20 seconds) and, my personal favorite, "DOUGHNUTS!"

i also found myself sitting in front of a guy who smelled like weed... and beer-belched in my hair... and spent most of the second period being yelled at by his girlfriend for hanging up on her mom last time her mom called him. (i may not know much, but i can venture a guess that this guy is not what would widely be considered "marriage material.")

also. hockey players smell really bad. as in, so bad that you can smell them in the stands as they skate by. and also. there is a...person...who plays for the buccaneers... that i am fairly confident is a woman. but only fairly confident. whatever they are, i hope they find their tooth.

on sunday, we had a really low-key day. we got up, ate breakfast, hung around the hotel until check-out, then headed to jordan creek. i got to drool all over myself in pottery barn and williams sonoma...sigh. i seriously love all things domestic. after getting tired and sending myself into minor contractions from walking the mall, we decided to head to red robin to eat. yummy!

trying to finagle a way to end up living in the pottery barn store.

then we got to head home to see our sweet kiddo! it was so nice to get away for the weekend, and it's so nice to love coming home.

in honor of the dundies (because everything should be done in honor of the dundies), i would like to give an award for our best weekend highlight. and while i would love to be able to issue a highlight tie (a tie-light? a high-tie-t?) i don't feel that there is any integrity in that kind of passivity. so our winner for best highlight is.....

Noisy Warm Arms! while it was very close, i felt that she had a little sum'in sum'in that gave her a slight edge over Smelly Unisex. who knows? if SU had invested in a false tooth (ventured a denture?) the outcome might have been different.

visit des moines, we're des perate.

(the above slogan is what will make iowa famous, thanks to the onion radio news. click here.)

my most recent preggo photo

yikes, i realized it has been a LONG. TIME. since i've blogged. stuff has been crazycrazy around here! in fact it was so crazy that todd and i decided to take a little break/vacation. my parents came up for the weekend and stayed with atticus, and todd and i drove down to des moines to spend some one-on-one time relaxing and eating ourselves silly.

friday night we got dressed up and went to johnny's italian steakhouse. two words: zucchini fries. three more words: parmesan-crusted steak. holy moly.

before leaving for johnny's

after having just discussed the fact that neither of us had witnessed a real-life fight, we saw one. at johnny's expensive steakhouse. not at a bar. not at a hockey game. not at all what i thought it would be (considering that my main exposure to fights has been episodes of Lost - lots of blood and punches and dialogue about why exactly everyone's mad). in real-life, though, it was more of a grown-man bear hug with a lot of f-bombs thrown around by one of the hugging guys' girlfriends. i didn't realize that it wasn't someone having a heart attack until after the fight was over. not very hollywood.

after dinner we drove to our hotel...and drove...and drove a little more....further and further into what todd likes to call "the real des moines." finding ourselves in a very industrial (yet simultaneously residential...ahh, real des moines) area, i was getting a little nervous about the neighborhood our hotel was in. we finally got there (without being hijacked, i might add with a sigh of relief)...and todd pointed out that the big advertising sign above the building said "what up. low rates." um...

luckily, the hotel wasn't nearly as podunk on the inside (although the guy behind the desk's broken arm suggested that he had also found himself at johnny's recently) and it turned out to be really nice!

saturday we tried to go to the army surplus store to look for wool blankets, got lost, and found ourselves at gordman's. which, if you're looking for any kind of lingerie - animal prints, anything 44DD, men's thongs, lingerie for babies - gordman's on army post road is the place for you. while todd found no sparkly men's thongs that struck his fancy, we did have a good laugh over the cartoonish-ly sized ceiling fans and the fact that the entire "business casual" section was made by South Pole. classy.

after gordman's, we actually found the army surplus store. the second we walked in the door i realized that not all patrons of said establishment were looking for thrifty home decor, but most were in all likelihood preparing themselves for armageddon. then suddenly, to make a hair-triggered atmosphere thicker, there was a breach of security. a couple of russians came in, speaking really quickly, angrily, and urgently. now call me old-fashioned, but finding myself in a military surplus store...around a bunch of weapons...and in the company of what i could only assume were very intense pinkos...well, let's just say we booked it out of there with visions of fall-out shelter blueprints in our heads.

todd quickly trying on a gas mask before being seen by -
and offending - any fellow shoppers


...on the edge of your seat to find out whether we were blown to smithereens by an atomic bomb?! exhale and don't miss the next installment of 'all my van voorsts.' (btw, we weren't killed by an atom bomb...hence this blog.)

quick updates.

i am now 29 weeks pregnant. i gained 10 pounds in the last four weeks and am feeling really big and uncomfortable. so i think you should mention that to me the next time you see me. "hey, you're looking really big and uncomfortable, like you've gained maybe 10 pounds or so." i'd really appreciate it.

i went to a cardio dance class on monday with my friend marnie and about had a heart attack and went into labor. simultaneously.

atticus was teething and also did drop a nap. i'm LOVING having the whole morning with him! (and having such a long nap in the afternoon to relax and get stuff done.)

water fun day has lost its appeal. i got two good cleaning days out of it, then on the third atticus figured out how to dump the water all over the floor, then ran off with the spatula. any other ideas?