Clothes on, clothes off! Diaper on, diaper off!

We are in that stage right now where sometimes we go into Mikey room to find him completely sans clothes and/or diaper.  He is a little rascal!

One day, he refused to wear a diaper.  I couldn't just let him roam around the house without anything on (especially since he isn't potty trained) so we tried out underwear.  He didn't keep them dry for very long!  It's a work in progress.

He was happy playing without a diaper on.

Moving to NYC!

After 6 weeks of uncertainty as to where we were moving next, we can finally share with you exactly where we will be moving to and when (since we just found out (yesterday))!

We received word that they want Scott to start work at DPP (Department of Professional Practice) come March 1st!

We are so proud of Scott!  This is a big accomplishment for Scott to be one of the select few in the nation to do a rotation at KPMG's National Office in New York City.  At DPP he'll be responsible for writing and implementing the Revenue Standard for industries that he's an expert in, i.e., telecommunication and software as well as review the work of others and field technical questions from the field.  He'll also continue to teach and train KPMG'ers and clients on industry standards and new standards that come out.

Soooo, what this means for us is: organize EVERYTHING in our home.  Determine what we are donating, selling, throwing out, what is going into storage and what is coming with us.  Also, organize everything for the movers to easily pack.  Organize, what is going to my sister for her new baby on the way and what is going to my other sister for her new home.  Sell our Camry.  Put our home on the market.  Quick trip to NY to find an apartment.  Buy apartment friendly furniture.  Along with all the other daily tasks, like raising two kids, laundry, house cleaning, making dinner, driving the dog, my sisters wedding dress and odds and ends that the movers can't move to my parents home in PA.  (A big thank you to my parents, who graciously offered to watch Bailey for us for the two years we'll be living in the big apple.)  Yes, all this in 6 weeks!  Don't freak out.....I'm already doing that!

We are very excited for this new adventure and can't wait to experience city living.  We are also excited to be back on the east coast close to family.   Quick trips to PA will be in our near future for the baby shower, bridal shower, bachelorette party, baptism, wedding, birthday's, vacation...etc.! We are looking forward to sharing everything with you too!

Kidstown

It's a bit of a challenge to find fun things to do with the kids when it's cold outside.  We all were feeling a little cramped and getting a touch of cabin fever so we headed out to this place our neighbor suggested called Kidstown. 

Picture a huge indoor place with different themed rooms - grocery store, police station, fire station, beauty parlor, kids club (a room with black lights and music playing), a library, vet, kitchen and laundry room, train and truck room.  There were lots of rooms with lots of toys to play with.  I think Mikey gets a little bored with his toys at home, so he a lot of fun playing with new toys.  This kid lovs trucks and trains, and all things construction. 

We spent all morning playing there and even went back in the afternoon for more fun.  It was good way to spent a day.

He found this right away.

He loves to say "work."

We got there right when they opened so we have the construction and train room to ourselves for a while.

Do you see the fire truck and tractor he found to play with?

There's my happy boy!

Bath Time

I am organizing all of my pictures on my computer and am amazed at the sheer number of pictures I have of Mikey from when he was an infant.  Wow.  You'd think that's all I did was take pictures! 

I am trying to really make an effort to take more pictures of Katie.  She's so cute and so I got out the camera today and shot away.

So happy to be in her bath!

Yes, I know. Those LEGS are huge!

She loves to get her hair done.

All washed and ready for clothes.

DuPage Childrens Museum and Walk

We've had a VERY mild winter here in Chicago, so far.  Since the beginning of winter we've had 1 minimal dusting of snow, totaling roughly 2 inches.  Today it was approaching 60 degrees outside.  Yup, you read that right.  60! 

It always seems the day's go by faster if I'm out and about, doing something with the kids, whether it's going to the Zoo, Monkey Biz, Grounds for Hope, the Park, on Walks, etc.

Today, I took the kiddos to the DuPage Childrens Museum in the morning and we went on a nice LONG walk outside this afternoon.

The Museum was awesome and not your typical stuffy museum.  It was very interactive.  They had a ton of different exhibits, water, bubbles, air, trains, magnets, tubes, pipes, an art studio, music room, mirror room, glow in the dark exhibit, shadows, pegs, a workshop, wind tunnel, reading, bridges, and an area on each floor called "young explorers" for kids up to 24 months old. 

We had a blast and I can't wait to go back.  You can click here to check out the museum.

On our long walk, we went around 2 different blocks in our neighborhood, Mikey picked up just about every stick, inspected every rock on the sidewalk and played in all the dirt that collected inbetween the slabs of concrete on the sidewalks.  We had a lot of fun.  It was soooo nice outside.  Katie slept almost the whole time in the stroller.  We also waved at all the buses going down the road and Mikey said "hi" to everyone we encountered on our walk. 

One of our neighbors has his own lawn service business and has a lot of snow blowers and lawn mowers in his garage and drive way.  As we were walking past he was teaching one of his customers how to use the snow blower and Mikey stood there for 10 minutes just watching.  He was in heaven!  He would have watched longer if I'd let him.  We also saw and old man pushing his wife in a wheelchair on the side walk and Mikey said "Hi" and then pointed at the women in the wheelchair and said "Mommy."  She got a laugh and said she hasn't been called that in decades.

He's going through this phase right now where all women are Mommy's and all males are Daddy's.  It's pretty cute!

Loved pretending he was a Conductor.

This was a neat puzzle that had locks to undo to the open the doors and see what was behind them.

He was on the move.  At least Katie is still being good.

She looks so small in the big chair!

A volunteer kindly took our picture.

Lots of tubes to take a part and put together.

Can you see him walking thru the bridge?

We saved the water feature for last for obvious reasons.

My Kairos moment of the day.

This makes me wish I was a kid again.

So much to play with and explore.

Lots of buckets and bowels and shovels to play with in the water.

One of the air tunnels he was trying to piece together.

Ready for his walk!

My little hoarder of sticks.

Giving his legs a break.

Oooohh.  Dirt.

And we're off.  See the truck in the distance.  It has lawn mowers and snow plows on the back of it.

He'll find anything to walk on.  He had a great time.  Just look at that face!

Resemblance

My mom definately thought ahead when she printed out her photos, she always had 2 developed.  One for her copy and one for mine.  I was flipping through my baby book and stumbled upon a few photos, where I think Katie looks a lot like me when I was a baby.

Do you see a resmblance?

Yes, I was a little piggy.

Mom and I at 2 weeks.

Me and my long legs at 1 week.

Kairos

I saw this article and it really resonated with me.

Hope you enjoy reading it.  It's a tiny bit long but worth it.  I've hade Kairos moments and now after reading this particular blog, I really look forward to them.  In fact, I've had a few of them today and they are wonderful.  They make my day!

Click here to see what I'm talking about.

Pickles

I hate them (except on a burger) but Scott and Mikey L.O.V.E them.

Working on his first pickle.

Delicious.

Half way through his second one.

Enjoying the little things

Today I saw this out of my front window and it took my breath away.  What a way to start the weekend.

Katie is 5 months old!

I know, I know....I say it every month. But I'll say it again "I can't believe how fast time flies."

At 5 months, Katie is:
- eating whole grain rice cereal.  Only 1.5 tablespoons at night time but loves it.
- sleeping from 7:00 to 6:30 and only waking once for a feeding.
- babbles all the time.
- grabs for toys, books, fingers to chew on.
-can almost sit up by her self.
- is still very high maintenance.  LOVES to be held.
- Napping 4 times a day.


Here' are 7 reasons why I'm so in love with our little Katie bug.  Enjoy!

Random Katie Pics.

When Mikey was around 4/5 months old I was able to get a picture of him smiling.  It's still one of my favorite photos of him and is framed in our kitchen for me to look at every time I'm cooking at the stove.  I decided to try to get a smiliar picture of Katie and this is what I came up with.

Mikey at 4 months.

I still remember his completely innocent laugh.

Here's our pic. of Katie.

Isn't she beautiful?

Has the same laugh.

A pic. of them together.