Sunday, October 31, 2010
Happy Halloween!
We love Halloween at our house. We might not have quite the elaborate Halloween decorations that many of our new neighbors have, we did have 10 carved Jack-O-lanterns on our porch! Next year we are going to be ready with giant spiders and smoke machines, talking skeletons and spider webs, glowing eyes and hanging witches...or maybe we'll just carve another 10 pumpkins, we'll see. Don't let our lack of outdoor Halloween decorations make you think that we don't in fact love Halloween. I think you can tell from our costumes and our cupcakes that we do!
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Hanging out in the woods
A couple of weekends ago we drove up to the Skokie Lagoon to enjoy the beautiful fall weather and the have a picnic. The day was perfect! The kids were in good moods, the sun was shining, the weather was warm and we spent the whole day together just hanging out. We explored the woods, had a picnic and searched for cool bugs. If only every day could be this easy breezy...
Monday, October 18, 2010
But not the pink paci...
On Saturday, I hosted a baby shower for my friend Patsy. She actually already had her baby, Grayson Otto, who was at the shower with her. (adorable btw!)
Matt had the kids out for most of the day while we celebrated Grayson's homecoming. Matt came home after lunch and put Abby down for a nap immediately. When she woke up, she was very interested in seeing the new baby, who had been the topic of conversation at our house all week as I prepared for the shower.
Abby decided after meeting Grayson that he should have her beloved blue paci. (with a little coaxing from me!) We went upstairs to retrieve it and she brought it back downstairs to give to Grayson. I waited to see what was going to happen....would she really allow her favorite paci to be taken away at the end of the party?
Side note: Up until Saturday, we only had 3 pacis in the house left from when Abby was a baby: one blue, one pink & one green. The pink and green ones have been sitting in the drawer of Abby's dresser day after day, week after week, month after month. She will only use the blue one. If she loses it in the middle of the night and is crying for it, Matt or I have to crawl under her bed in search for the blue one. We have torn apart her bed in search for it. She will not take the pink or green one...it has to be the blue one!
Back to the shower....yes, Abby was willing to let Grayson take home her beloved paci. (ok, I stashed it in a drawer just in case, but she didn't know that!) Was it really going to be that easy to move Abby away from using a paci? Last year we transitioned to only allowing her to have it at bedtime, and have been talking about phasing it out completey. I never imagined that she would voluntarily give up her paci habit.
Abby actually went to bed on Saturday night without a paci, no problem. Wow! Again, I never imagined that she would voluntarily give it up....and I was right. She woke up in the middle of the night crying for her....pink paci!
She no longer mentions her former favorite blue paci. If you ask her about it, she says that she gave the blue one to the baby...but not the pink paci! Guess what Matt and I are searching for in the middle of the night now?....the pink paci!
Matt had the kids out for most of the day while we celebrated Grayson's homecoming. Matt came home after lunch and put Abby down for a nap immediately. When she woke up, she was very interested in seeing the new baby, who had been the topic of conversation at our house all week as I prepared for the shower.
Abby decided after meeting Grayson that he should have her beloved blue paci. (with a little coaxing from me!) We went upstairs to retrieve it and she brought it back downstairs to give to Grayson. I waited to see what was going to happen....would she really allow her favorite paci to be taken away at the end of the party?
Side note: Up until Saturday, we only had 3 pacis in the house left from when Abby was a baby: one blue, one pink & one green. The pink and green ones have been sitting in the drawer of Abby's dresser day after day, week after week, month after month. She will only use the blue one. If she loses it in the middle of the night and is crying for it, Matt or I have to crawl under her bed in search for the blue one. We have torn apart her bed in search for it. She will not take the pink or green one...it has to be the blue one!
Back to the shower....yes, Abby was willing to let Grayson take home her beloved paci. (ok, I stashed it in a drawer just in case, but she didn't know that!) Was it really going to be that easy to move Abby away from using a paci? Last year we transitioned to only allowing her to have it at bedtime, and have been talking about phasing it out completey. I never imagined that she would voluntarily give up her paci habit.
Abby actually went to bed on Saturday night without a paci, no problem. Wow! Again, I never imagined that she would voluntarily give it up....and I was right. She woke up in the middle of the night crying for her....pink paci!
She no longer mentions her former favorite blue paci. If you ask her about it, she says that she gave the blue one to the baby...but not the pink paci! Guess what Matt and I are searching for in the middle of the night now?....the pink paci!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Coming Home
I'm in Ohio for an education conference this week. Last night my phone rang and it was Jackson, telling me about the 2 picnics that he had yesterday and the bike ride that he went on with his Daddy and Abby. When Abby got on the phone she immediately said, "Mommy, you coming home tomorrow?" Stupid education conferences...from now on, I'm staying home with my babies.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Happy Columbus Day Weekend!
I know that we really shouldn't celebrate a man who didn't discover much of anything and was responsible for killing and enslaving the natives, but who doesn't want a nice long weekend? So, the heck with Columbus....and hooray for 3-day weekends! We had a great one!
We celebrated my mom's birthday this weekend with my entire family sleeping over. It was great! Jackson was thrilled to show his cousins the el, being the el-taking veteran that he is! We headed down to Millennium Park for Country Music Festival. Not because we love country music, but because we love Millennium Park! The kids were awed by the bean, ran in the Crown Fountain and danced to the country music. It was great. The kids spent hours giggling in their beds and stayed up way too late, but we didn't care. They were having fun!
Waiting for the el....
...Having some splash time in the Crown Fountains...
...and dancing to the music with Daddy!
Sunday morning we headed to the farmer's market, snacking on smoothies and honey sticks. The kids played at the park and threw the football around. It was the perfect ending to the birthday celebration!
Luckily for us, the weekend wasn't over yet! Sunday afternoon we went to see the Midnight Circus at Portage Park where clowns, dogs and acrobats thrilled the kids with their silly acts. And today, we headed up north to Apple Holler for some Apple Picking. Apparently we weren't the only ones who thought Apple Holler was a good way to spend the holiday. We fought the crowds to get our tickets, take a wagon ride, pick some apples and eat more than our fair share of apples and apple cider donut holes! It was busy, and a little crazy, but the kids had fun. Isn't that what really matters?
We celebrated my mom's birthday this weekend with my entire family sleeping over. It was great! Jackson was thrilled to show his cousins the el, being the el-taking veteran that he is! We headed down to Millennium Park for Country Music Festival. Not because we love country music, but because we love Millennium Park! The kids were awed by the bean, ran in the Crown Fountain and danced to the country music. It was great. The kids spent hours giggling in their beds and stayed up way too late, but we didn't care. They were having fun!
Waiting for the el....
...Having some splash time in the Crown Fountains...
...and dancing to the music with Daddy!
Sunday morning we headed to the farmer's market, snacking on smoothies and honey sticks. The kids played at the park and threw the football around. It was the perfect ending to the birthday celebration!
Luckily for us, the weekend wasn't over yet! Sunday afternoon we went to see the Midnight Circus at Portage Park where clowns, dogs and acrobats thrilled the kids with their silly acts. And today, we headed up north to Apple Holler for some Apple Picking. Apparently we weren't the only ones who thought Apple Holler was a good way to spend the holiday. We fought the crowds to get our tickets, take a wagon ride, pick some apples and eat more than our fair share of apples and apple cider donut holes! It was busy, and a little crazy, but the kids had fun. Isn't that what really matters?
It was a really great long weekend, even it was Columbus Day!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)