Bubble Burst

Today we took the girls downtown for their check ups. M had her 4 YEAR and A her 1 month. Both are perfect! A is now a whopping 10 lbs. M is 41 1/2 inches tall! M was very proud and protective of her little sister! M has always been crazy excited to see Dr. Wilson...I love that about her and Dr. Wilson. Well, you guessed it, her little bubble was burst today. M had to get 2 shots this time around. I know we all went through this and managed to make it through life just fine, but I'm still sad for M. A little bit of her innocence was lost. I don't imagine she will be quite as eager to go to Dr. Wilson next year. Hopefully she will remember the toy she got at the office after the shots and not the actual shots :-))

Winter Wonderland (and bread)

Today was a snow filled day full of snow activities. M had a blast helping our neighbors build a fort out of snow (until she got too wet and cold!).

And, this is what fresh homemade baked bread looks like....courtesy of Chris. Yum!

Improvising

M had a great idea on the ride home from school today. She wanted to roast marshmallows outside. Well, it's January in Chicago and snowing so outside was out of the question. Good thing we have a gas stove. We only had mini marshmallows, but no problems. They turned out toasty and yummy! Thanks, M!

Reading.....

....on dad's shoulders. It just doesn't get any better than that!! We are very lucky!

A New Day....A New Woman

I've taken a bit of a hiatus over the last couple of months from blogging, grocery shopping, cooking, waking up early with M on the weekends and reading most things. I am sure that I'm missing something and Chris will be quick to correct :))) Basically, I've been working, coming home and sleeping. But for good cause .....for those of you who don't know.....I'm pregnant.

The good news is that today I have awoken a new woman. I have ENERGY ---probably because I can now eat more than just cereal. Yippee! I think I've jumped straight to the nesting stage with painting the nursery, setting up the crib, picking out baby furniture, organizing everything..... Yeah, I know I have a few months to take care of this stuff but I have a slight sickness:-))

Here's M making the first brush strokes to the nursery walls....

A little catch up from the last few days:

Chris and I had our first movie date in months on Monday night. We met our good friends Rob and Kara out for a quick bite and a movie at the Lake Theater. We saw Slumdog Millionaire. It was a great time, the movie was excellent and we ate lots of popcorn and Milk Duds!! The movie (and Milk Duds) is highly recommended.

As M says, a lazy time in lazy town.....

We spent New Years Eve with the Pfours. The boys made us a fabulous dinner and then we all played Wii. I've heard of this strange Wii infliction that first timers get---Wiitus. We played bowling and baseball and I was inflicted as well. Crazy. Unfortunately, we didn't make it to Midnight--oh well. We beat our last few years by at least a couple of hours:-))

On New Years Day, we finished painting the nursery then headed over to our good friends, the Elsmos, for an informal get together. We munched on veggies, popcorn and chips and dip while sipping Leif's famous Bloody Mary's. They are certainly famous for a reason...delicious! And, can I say, the fanciest garnishments that I've every seen with this drink. (Well, that's not saying much since I haven't had a lot of Bloody Mary's.) Not only the typical celery, olives, pickles, but also shrimp and pepperocini. Chris then topped off the night with flaming sambuca shots representing good luck. Impressive!

Happy New Years!!

Sunday Morning Delight

This is what M and I woke to this morning. French Toast stuffed with Nutella. (Mel, Chris must have been inspired by your Nutella Crepes blog!). OK, I know this picture doesn't do this dish justice but it was first thing in the morning.

OMG....sinfully good! Why can't every morning be like this?!?!?

M and I dig our guy!

Morton Arboretum

We have been talking about visiting the Morton Arboretum for some time now but just never got around to it. The Pfours are members and were going today so we tagged along....just in time for the Fall Color Festival. It was spectacular! You almost forget that you are so close to an urban area when you enter. As you could guess, we spend most of our time in the Children's Museum enjoying the treehouses, rope thingys, baby and big people mazes, stone walking over water, etc. Then, we walked around one of the lakes which had scarecrow trails. Then, we continued our German theme with brats, roasted corn and taffy apples with all of the fixins'!!!! A perfect day!

A Perfect Fall Day

M is at a really good age to enjoy a hike in the woods so we ventured out to Palos today to get back in touch with nature. We saw butterflies, fish, turtles, The Little Red Schoolhouse (which is a nature museum), lots of bees and hives (yikes).... We had a blast.

I'll spare you any more backside shots!




Water break time......

Oh, and I woke up with an eye infection this morning. Check out these sexy specs!

Celebrating Oktoberfest

Chris' mom was in town this weekend (Mike, she came to pick up another puppy!!). When asked what she wanted to do this time around she said that she would like to go to Oktoberfest. For anyone who knows Chris' mom, this was completely unexpected. Oktoberfest = beer, right! She doesn't even drink and can be a bit of a picky eater so I didn't think she liked sausages (sorry, mom mom). Needless to say, I was a little unsure of how this would turn out.

In our search for celebration, tonight we headed down to Lincoln Square for a stroll and good eats at the Chicago Brauhaus who also had a live band that played....what else but...traditional German music. We had a giant pretzel from Munich, pork schnitzel, sauerkraut, red cabbage and brats. My favorite brat was the white one....don't remember the name (Ang, can you help?) Chris and I used to live only a few blocks away and never ate at this restaurant.....our loss. I've never really been excited to have German food based on my reasoning that I don't enjoy sausages and I've had "real" sauerkraut in the past that I didn't care for. Man, was I mistaken. I will definitely be back this winter......turns out this was a wonderful idea as we had a blast!!!

M enjoyed her first time at a brauhaus!!! (ok, she didn't drink the beer but she really wanted to hold the stein!)

Got the Blues

Last night was a rough night for all of us. M was running a fever, coughing, sneezing and generally uncomfortable. That means Chris and I could not get comfortable as well. Given our lack of sleep, I decided to take the day off and hang out with M. We watched movies most of the morning then took a good nap...she was even asking to taking a nap!!

Chris' brother Mike had contacted us a couple of weeks ago regarding some friends of his from Portland--Milos and Tijana-- that were visiting Chicago this weekend. So we had already made plans to meet these guys in Oak Park to do the FLW tour and have dinner. We decided to play it by ear and we are really glad we did. Milos and Tijana were somuch fun! We will definitely stay in touch. Although M was definitely not herself, she was a little trooper. Even when the waiter dumped an entire glass of ice water on her head at dinner. Thankfully we were close to home so Chris took her home to change.

This is when the Tylenol kicked in!!

Baby R Update

Baby R is now completely off the ventilator and on the lowest setting of oxygen possible. All his vital signs are perfect. He took his first bottle yesterday and his diaper has been changed so all the pipes work well. He also took his passy yesterday.

I'm an aunt.....again!

Speaking of babies, I am an aunt again! My younger brother Brian and his wife Lauren had their first baby Monday night (coincidentally, this was their one year wedding anniversary as well). It was a boy, 7lbs 14oz, 19 inches. Lauren is doing great. Baby R was having a little trouble breathing so he is currently in the NICU but doing much better every day. They expect that he will come home within the next week. As soon as I receive pics, I will post them. I can't wait to pinch those cute little chubby cheeks (haven't seen them yet but I think I can safely assume they are chubby and cute no doubt).