Christmas tree 2010

Today we put up our traditional Christmas tree on Thanksgiving weekend (in honor of my dad, he has been gone 5 years already!). I made our pork roast with cranberry dinner, with mashed sweet potatoes and fresh green beans. Mia and I made a batch of chocolate chip cookie bars to eat while we put on the ornaments. Annie was up for putting on the lights but we decorated the tree after she was in bed already. Here are a few photos of us decorating our tree tonight. Yes, Mia is wearing her cinderella dress....she insists on wearing it daily now! Daddy decorated the outside of our house and it looks great!

Happy Thanksgiving

We hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. We had a nice trip to Michigan to visit Grandma Puroll, Grandma Victoria and got to see Great Aunt Marilyn, Uncle Gary, Aunt Barb and Mia and Annie's Aunt Kelly, Uncle Jason and cousin Christopher. Mia had a blast hanging on great grandma, playing with Christopher and eating! Annie is sitting up so well now and was so content just playing (destroying) the train tracks the kiddos were building.


We got home late this afternoon and we were in Mia's room. Ms. Annabel Elaine decided to crawl over to Mia's foot stool and pull herself to a semi-stand...go Annie go!

Thankful

It is almost Thanksgiving and before the hustle of the Holidays are upon us, I think it's important to think about all the things we are truly thankful for. We have a lot to be thankful for this year....

• The birth of our Annie...from scares during the ultrasound to her premature arrhthmias, we are so blessed that she is here, completely healthy and so very happy. She is the most precious gift (next to Mia) that our family has received and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't hug her hard and call her my little miracle
• the opportunity to stay home with my girls and 'retire' from teaching for awhile. It's been a lifestyle change, some days are easier than others but I am so thankful for this time and the chance to be home with my girls and see them do things for the first time, and teach them so much more than any babysitter could :)
• for simple fun nights like our pizza Fridays, when Mia and I make our pizzas, dance to music and just have a fun night...I'd rather be home than anywhere else
• decaf coffee, dark chocolate, hoppy beers and cheap two buck chuck wines....makes some days go a little smoother
  
• good home cooked meals and being able to buy healthy food for our family
• great neighbors, new friendships, my moms and more group and old friendships that are unchanging
• how the seasons change, just when you are tired of one, a new one begins....
• seeing everything through a child's eye and how exciting a tree changing color or a blow up pumpkin on a front lawn or a lick of frosting can be
• getting to play, build, pretend and color all over again
• the ability to take daily walks, pushing a double stroller, walking two dogs and loving it
• our train system, exploring our great city but having the peace and quietness of our neighborhood
• being married to a wonderful, loving and caring father to our girls.
• two sweet beagles that don't mind little hands hugging, tugging and chasing them around
• homemade chocolate chip cookies, fresh out of the oven with a glass of cold milk
• keeping the memory of my dad alive
• family, my strong German grandpa recovering from open heart surgery
• good books, funny shows like Modern Family and The Soup to dramas like 48 hours mystery to dorkumentaries like Teen Mom that let me escape for awhile
• 7 years of marriage with so many more to look forward to :)
  

Pics: Annabel's first meal in her high chair at the dining room table with us; Mia raking leaves with dad sporting their Michigan pride

Kohl's Childrens Museum

With this cold weather we have been really exercising our museum trips. We went to Glenview's museum yesterday and it was awesome. There was tons to do and Mia loved the Dollie Daycare, train area and water station most, although she did enjoy everything there, even the Curious George exhibit. It's so fun going to all the different Children's museums because each one is unique and different. Annabel enjoyed the infant play areas too, although since she is teething she is mouthing everything (and her way of exploring too at this stage) so I have to keep things out of her mouth for sanitary reasons.

Speaking of Annabel, she now gets upset when a toy is taken away from her - so cute to see her personality start to form more and more each day. She loved storyhour today at the library, was crawling all over and smiling at everyone.

Pics: Mia driving a new friend, Annie next to the globe, Mia painting with pigments and Mia putting alllll of the babies to sleep in the daycare.

Tomorrow is Moms n More - so glad we joined!

Tower up!

We had some great weather last week, and knowing how good old Chicago is (you know two seasons, summer and winter) I thought we'd better take advantage since before we know it, we'll be hibernating in our house! We went to the park a lot last week, with friends and just us girls too. Friday the girls and I headed downtown and got off at the Museum campus stop from the train. We first went to the Shedd Aquarium...Mia loved seeing the different types of fish and creatures again . We had a quick lunch outside by the lake then headed over to the Field Museum to see Sue and explore in the Crown Family play lab (awesome kiddos museum for under 6 - Mia and Annie both loved it). It was such a great day and makes me really appreciate living in such a great city with so much to do! I love the looks and comments I get too riding the train with my double stroller...it's like having 2 kids is unheard of these days....and a double stroller really puts people over the edge! haha

So Miss Annie is now sitting up. She is doing the tripod sit but then sits straight up, you have to watch her or else she topples over! I am getting into mixing up her baby food a bit more now, I made califlower tomato gratin on Saturday and she LOVED it. Also gave her her first biter biscuit, her doctor said she can start to pratice self feeding. She picked it right up and put it into her mouth like a champ. Just a little practice, we don't start finger foods for awhile now. But she is so interested when we eat it gives her something to do while we are eating together.

Sunday Daddy did the annual Tower Up hike up the stairs to the top of the Sears Tower (it's been renamed the Willis tower but I refuse to call it that, just like I refuse to call Comiskey park The "cell" now). So before he left, Mia gave him her black play bracelet and little flashlight to take to the top with him. He took a photo for her to see that her things made it to the top! Speaking of which, Mia has a whole collection of things she takes to bed with her now. First it was just Hanky, her beagle, then she added in Baby Corey, then she added in her plastic frog from her bathtub...NOW she has added in that flashlight, bracelet AND today we went to visit Grandma in the city for breakfast and shopping. Well we went to their house and she played with Papo and found a giant country rabbit that they keep on their bed. She asked Grandma if she could bring it to our house for the week and she'll bring it back next weekend...and now that is in her bed too! She barely fits anymore!


pics: Annabel sitting in Mia's chair, the girls swinging at the park and Daddy holding Mia's treasures at the top of Sears Tower

More quotes

So tonight during our pizza Friday dinner, I was eating salad. Mia points to my salad and says " that's healthy for you but not healthy for me because it's yuck". I couldn't stop laughing.

Also she likes to say " mom I'm just yawning like a bear". Too cute'j

Mia's recent quotes

I better type these down before I forget...Mia has quite the sense of humor, she likes to say "just teasing you " a lot but these are some memorable quotes she has said this past week.

"Mommy I'm not thankful, I'm a girl!" (during Mom's club she learned about being Thankful, so on our car ride home I asked her what she was thankful for and this was her response).
"Look Momma, Annie has little boobies just like mines"
"The milk goes in the food goes away" (talking about drinking her milk during dinner time)
"Mommy is daddy handsome? yeah daddy's handsome"
"Look at my beautiful dress" (anytime she is wearing a dress or a shirt that resembles a dress or a blanket on her body that she is pretending to be a dress - she is a princess!!)
"I'm making a MESS!" (she was shouting this from her room during nap time, she was suppose to be sleeping but playing in her room - needless to say she didn't make a mess, just teasing me)

Symphony and 6 month check up

Saturday we took the train downtown to meet Grandma. She took Mia to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's children's program. This was our second year going and Grandma is determined to make it a tradition. Since Annabel is still too small to enjoy the performance, Dad and I took her shopping downtown to get ideas for Christmas. Mia had a great time with just Grandma and loved listening to the story of Peter and the Wolf. We went to Starbucks after and then Mia got to run around like a nut in Grandma's office. It was fun and we look forward to taking both girls next year since Annie will be old enough
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Today we took Annabel for her 6 month check up! Everything looks great, Dr. Roome was pleased to see her crawling and eating great. She is still a petite little one, just about 14 lbs and 25 1/2 inches, but he said she looks great (Mia was small too). So she is up on all fours and can move herself to objects we place out of reach, she crawls a few inches now. She knows her name and responds right away to it when we call her. She knows when I am not holding her now, is getting a little leary of strangers. She loves Mia, Mia can make her laugh so hard. Mia can dance around her or sing or play peek a boo and she just eats it up. She is still going down for the night around 6pm then up about 6am. She has been sleeping through the night with every other night one wake up....last night was another story, she was up at 11pm, then 3 then 5am. I think this time change has messed her up. Last night Uncle Chris can for a short visit since he's in town for business. So I kept her up for him to at least see her for a few minutes so maybe that through her off since she was up too late? Who knows, but I am just glad to have a healthy baby and know that she will eventually sleep all night. She loves sleeping on her tummy and she likes to jingle her Hungry Caterpillar when she wakes up - or play with it in the middle of the night like I caught her doing two nights ago. Just two shots today and so far she seems to be doing fine (unlike last time). I give her three meals a day, oatmeal mixed with a fruit or veggie that I have made then breastfeed the rest. She LOVES to eat, it's so cute, I don't remember Mia enjoying it this much this early on.

Happy Halloween

n


Saturday night Mia, Dad and mom carved our pumpkins. Daddy made Mia a 'Thomas' pumpkin that she insisted stay in her room all night (Dad put the flashlight in and let him glow all night). We made Annie a funny face pumpkin and I tried my best to make the Alive guy (pearl jam) for Daddy. Mia and I made our traditional halloween cucakes too. Mia helped daddy rake, I mean play in the leaves earlier in the day.

Sunday was our fun Halloween day. Uncle Brian, Grandma and Papo joined us this year. We went trick or treating in the neighborhood first and saw lots of our friends walking around. Mia of course was Cinderella, Daddy was her prince, Annie was her pumpkin, Charlie was "Charles Barkley" and Grandma was the "black queen" as Mia calls her. Then we came home for some chili and hot dogs. This was Mia's first Halloween that she knew what was going on. We let her pick out two candies (she never had candy before, except the one day we tried potty training she tried m&m's). She picked out PRETZELS to eat..haha...but then saw the M&M's and said "ohh I want m&m's like potty training". Annie was asleep before 6pm and Mia was fast asleep by 8pm with all the excitement and fresh air. Grandma spent the night and her and I stayed up late watching Psycho and the marathon of Roseanne Halloween.