Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Ballet Recital, Nana & Pa's visit

Prima Ballerina Gabriella before her Ballet
Recital at the Chicago History Museum.
World's best Chicago dog....well, maybe equal to this one. (scroll to "picture catch-up")
Storytime with Pa

Must have Chicago picture

At the park

Ballet recital (Ella in center)



After the show

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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Goals

I am setting some goals for myself and thought I should blog them for some accountability. Here they are in no particular order, some short-term, some long-term and some continual:

1. Write and mail thank you notes for Nicholas' gifts received before he turns 3 months old.
2. Create and mail out a birth announcement for my son before he turns 3 months old. (I think Ella was closer to 2 months when hers finally went in the mail)
3. Spend more quality time with my husband, not the typical business meeting we often seem to need each night , or each morning as he's out the door.
4. Get my hair cut
5. Regain my pre-C-section #2 stomach muscles.
6. Play my flute without anyone crying.
7. Make travel plans for the rest of 2008. (We finally booked travel for our July trip to St. Louis tonight!)
8. Sell our condo
9. Be more patient with my 3 1/2 year old daughter, remembering she is NOT 5 years old even though she looks it and talks it most of the time.
10. Enjoy the outdoors NOW before the Chicago winter returns and I'm trapped inside again.
11. Own a car again someday
12. Stop eating so many Ann Sather cinnamon rolls
13. Savor every moment with my precious son who will be 3 1/2 himself before I know it
14. Sleep when I have the chance instead of blogging (like now). This will help with #9 and #13 for sure.
15. Too many more to list for now.........

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Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Naked Picture

We took these after bath time the other night. You sure can tell they're brother and sister.
We're suffering from sleep deprivation and now have a rather loud echo in our house, which is now quite empty, void of anything remotely personal and all "clutter", and officially on the market and part of a Broker's tour tomorrow. This is a hard process on all of us so everyone pray for a quick sale!!







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Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Old

That's what my daughter thinks of me. Old. All day long this is what I heard, over and over again:
"Happy Birthday Mama!"
"Thank you Ella."
"How old are you again?"
"37"
"Wow!" (long pause)
"You're really old"

And then she looked into my eyes and lovingly asked me the newest quote of the week in the sidebar...which by the way was definitely caused by her (and Nicholas).

Happy Birthday to me!
Happy 2 month birthday to Nicholas!


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Thursday, June 05, 2008

Spring Gym Show

I forgot to change my camera to the right setting until the show was almost over, but here are the pictures from the "Beach Party" Theme (that's why the swimsuits) Twinkle Stars Gymnastics Show. It's amazing what 3 to 5 year olds can do and remember to do on the obstacle course--well, most of them....ummm not necessarily including my daughter. She remember's what to do just fine. But let's just say Ella will never be the next Mary Lou...but she absolutely LOVES gymnastics and has NO idea how terrible she is at it. It's so sweet. We encourage her to do it and overcome her great fear of heights, and become more coordinated. It was a fun night, and Nana & Pa arrived straight from the airport (after a thunderstorm delay) just in time for it!

Ella on the first beam

Finishing her front rolls


Waiting patiently until Miss Jessica comes to help her on the beam.
Did I mention she's afraid of heights?

Doing the flip


Straddle legs over the barrel


Back-flip out of the doughnut


Taking a bow.


Getting her certificate


Bashful beauty


Hug from Pa


Papa on Nicholas duty


Nana & Pa with Ella and Nikky

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Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Obama Mama

I have no intention of turning this into a political blog. However, with tonight's impending announcement of our new Democratic Presidential nominee, and no sweeter words than this,
I must say: I'm proud to be an Obama Mama! Sorry--just can't resist the rhyme......

Are any of you other Mama's out there Obama Mama's?! Let's hear it!

So admitting my political stance to other's is not such a big deal to me. For my husband though, he would never tell anyone, yes ANYONE (including me--his wife!) how he voted in any given election, until the 2004 Presidential race where he came home that night and out of the blue spouted off a list of past Presidential candidate names......after which I learned he was telling me how he'd voted his whole life. Ha! I was so relieved he finally told me. It was one of those weird things that just really bothered me. I think the fact that I had just given birth to his firstborn a few weeks prior to that day softened him up a little. Maybe.

Of course I would never divulge his current political stance to you, but will proudly say I DO know what it is. Is he an Obama Papa? Maybe. But Obama Papa doesn't have that lyrical ring to it anyhow now, does it?

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Sunday, June 01, 2008

Smile-Beach-Stage-Eye-Tea-Thanks

This is the best I've got so far in trying to capture the boy's smile on camera!
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So Monday we could NOT get out of going to the beach. For about 9 months now we've been talking about how the beach opens again on Memorial Day. Luckily it was a beautiful spring day here in Chicago so Ella and David could have fun building a sand castle and wading around in the freezing cold water while Nicholas and I sat and relaxed while watching. We ended the day with a trip to one of our favorite Chicago restaurants Cozy Noodle . It was nice to have David here an extra day.
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The rest of our long weekend was spent preparing for our first visit from the Realtor who is staging our condo for the LONG awaited and MUCH needed sale. I take the credit for taking the plunge and calling her to get this thing rolling, but David takes the credit for really helping out and getting our place ready for her visit. It ended with us both working until about 2 a.m. the night before she arrived. End result is that my fear of her telling us we need to move out in order to sell did NOT come true. In fact, it was quite positive and we don't have much to do at all before we list it. This is a process we dread, but can no longer put off due to rapidly diminishing living space in our one bedroom! We'll keep you posted on the process and be sure to spread the word to anyone you might know who is looking to buy a great condo in Chicago.
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Ella got her first real injury of life. She fell during the "race" time at Gymnastics on Tuesday and got a nice zinger on her eye/face. They race down the runway that's basically a spring board underneath (not sure what it's called). I tried to take a picture of it, but the camera actually made it look better than it looks in real life.

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Nicholas is already being subjected to what much of his future holds with a big sister as his playmate. He attended his first tea party yesterday.

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Finally, we were able to select and order photos tonight from our portrait session two weeks ago and are exhausted after the entire process (Jeff-we miss you!). So hopefully the birth announcement will go out SOON, as well as thank you notes which I'm terribly behind in writing. So to all of you who have sent us gifts please know we are SO thankful, love everything and have not forgotten you!!


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