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On July 16, Jordan and I will celebrate 8 years of marriage!  Our wedding was amazingly fun… we’re so lucky so many friends and family were able to celebrate with us.  But, we feel even luckier now, 8 years in with 2 adorable, healthy kiddos.

Grandma and Grandpa wanted to visit, so we took advantage and planned a long day/evening date.  I told Natalie about their visit, and since she’s still developing a sense of timing, she’s woken up asking where they are.  After nap on Friday, I heard her tell her nanny that she needed to get ready for when Daddy, Mama, Grandma and Grandpa were coming.  Then, when I told her later on Friday that they weren’t going to be able to come until Saturday because of an emergency at Grandpa’s work, she said “That makes me sad.”  This morning, she woke up expecting to see them too.  By the time they got here at 9am (which meant a 5:45 departure for them… amazing, as Natalie is the only one that can get my mom up that early!), Natalie was cheering!  “Woo hoo… Grandma and Grandpa!”  I’m so thankful we’re only 3.5 hours away from them.

We had a great outing to one of Natalie’s favorite parks this morning.  The 3 boys were chilling on a park bench in the shade……

Hey… yeah, I’m supposed to be sleeping now, but we just got to the park.  What do you expect, Mom?  

Jordan and I went on an almost 20-mile bike ride down the Lake Shore path… reminiscent of our 5-year anniversary, when we did the same ride but started in Evanston!  We also stopped by Taste of Chicago.

We came home for awhile and then left the 4 amigos, watching Dora after a very busy day…

This is obviously my “Hurry-up-and-leave-so-I-can-watch-Dora” smile.

We went to Girl in the Goat, a trendy restaurant where you have to book a reservation 3 months in advance. It was a super fun night out!

Thanks for a wonderful anniversary!

Since I haven’t figured out how to work part-time (yet!), I am using my vacation days this to make 4-day work weeks. Wednesday seems to be the perfect day off, as then I only have 2 days away from the kids in a row. This was my first full day with both kids by myself, and thank God, it was a success.

The day started with a trip to the Farm Zoo to see Mr. Singer, Nana who volunteers at the edible garden, and the farm animals – 4 cows, 1 pig, and 4 ponies.

A fresh pea pod – yum! (Note from Mom: How can I get Nat to eat these at home?!?)

Dream baby Elliott slept for the first part of the trip and then was smiling for most of the rest of it, even though it was 80+ degrees and super humid. He’s seriously the best little baby.

My friend from Broad, Theresa, has a good chunk of the summer off, so she came over to play. Elliott and Natalie were both big fans. We learned that Theresa’s favorite foods are chocolate and pears. She also wears fun necklaces. And, Jordan loves that Theresa brought over Sweet Mandy B cupcakes! Natalie took a pic of Elliott and Theresa:

When Natalie was napping, Elliott and I played with his new frog friend, courtesy of our neighbors whose girls are out-growing their stuffed animals (and moving into baby-sitting age!) Natalie picked out the frog for Elliott – she likes his sparkles. Elliott likes the frog’s softness.

Hey, Frog Friend, where did you go?

The kids both had an overlapping nap for 1.75 hours (WOW!) So, I even cooked dinner, cleaned up and did a load of laundry. Can we say SuperMom?!? Now, if I had only done my ab exercises as I intended to….

After nap, we went to the doctor to make sure Natalie’s ear infection had cleared up. When we got home, we played outside with 4-year-old Riley and 3-year-old Ford. They live on the first floor of our building, but are unfortunately moving at the end of the summer. We’ve really enjoyed the late afternoon, city kid play dates of sidewalk chalk, bubbles, hopscotch, jumping and races.

Natalie and Riley are also apparently studying to become botanists. I thought this pic would make Aunt Leah proud!

And, Daddy came home by 5:40 – woo hoo! I had A super fun day. Natalie says, “So me!” (As in me too or so did I!) I think I’m ready for bed soon though!

This post is way late but the good pics were on the good camera that Jordan is responsible for downloading and sharing with me.  I suppose I could learn, but I really like having picture downloading outsourced.  So….

Elliott was baptized on Sat, June 8 (between 2.5 & 3 months old) at the 5 p.m. mass at St. Clement’s Church in Lincoln Park by Fr. Ken. We are blessed to welcome him into the Catholic church.  He was a doll the entire mass – he even smiled when Fr. Ken dunked holy water on him!

Yes, I'm a complete cutie - I've gotta admit it

When Natalie was baptized, we did practically a 1-hr photo shoot and could barely get a pic of her smiling.  By contrast, the pic above was practically the only solo pic where Elliott wasn’t smiling!  He is an easy smiler…. smile at him, bop him on the nose, make a goofy noise.  All great fodder for a great smile! (Once again, did I use the word fodder correctly?)

You are just cracking me up!

Although we greatly missed Godmother / Aunt Leah, who recently got a FT job working in Alaska, we are thankful that Godfather / Uncle Alex and Aunt Jira had just moved into town and were able to come. (And both sets of grandparents!)

Really, you chose this pic? I'm not even looking at the camera!

(Note from Mom: I chose this picture because it is almost the only one where Natalie doesn’t have a finger up her nose.  Yes, what great church etiquette.)

Hey, where's my sis?

At first, I considered this quote from Elliott for the above pic: “Yay! A pic of just me and my mom and dad.  This hasn’t happened since the hospital!”  However, that totally isn’t Elliott… he absolutely adores his sister and will stop whatever he is doing to look at her.  Including eating.  (For those of you who knew Natalie when she was just months old, nothing was worth taking a break from drinking milk, so I’m not accustomed to sharing attention during that time!)

We had very nice weather and were also able to squeeze in a trip to the zoo beforehand. I just love the pure joy emanating from Natalie in this pic…

Yipee! The panda!

Loving my Green Bay gear!

Natalie got a ton of comments on her Green Bay t-shirt and skirt – which “matched” Grandma’s shirt too.  Who says Bears fans aren’t nice?  I guess they are to an adorable 2-year old.  We didn’t have any GB gear for Elliott, so we’ll clearly be shopping at the Packer Pro Shop this fall – or raiding cousin Trevor’s old clothes!

I wish every weekend was a 4 day weekend!!  Besides our trip to MI, we went to the awesome Hinsdale 4th of July parade (sorry – no pics on my phone) and also had a chance to play with our good friend Molly. Natalie calls her My Molly!  We hadn’t seen Molly in awhile and Natalie definitely needed her Molly fix.  Last Tues, she woke up asking to see Molly.

All Aboard! Let’s go to the Park!

Molly Girl, you know how to carry a bucket!  Good idea – let’s go pour water on your Dad’s head!

Our Dads are just so strong!

We are blessed to have such good friends live so close to us.  And, I’m stoked that Molly will be a Big Sister to a little brother in December. 🙂  I’m sure Natalie and Molly will be exchanging big sister tips soon… and Elliott will be excited to fill Baby B in on what he missed between March & Dec.

Although it goes against my Wisconsin blood, we went on a short vacation in Michigan.   Nana, Pop and Issy kindly invited us to a house by Lake Michigan… obviously, the good company won out over my trepidation with a vacation in MI. (Grammar gurus Daniele & Dina… did I use the word trepidation correctly?)

Is Lake MI an ocean?

Natalie also loved the blow up toys and Poor Man’s beach toys!  Natalie is very into imaginary play… we added cinnamon, carrots, potatoes and peanut butter and jelly to make a very yummy stone soup.

Here, let me dish you up a ladle of stone soup.

You had me at homemade ice cream….

(Oddly enough, the house we were staying in had an unexpected showing… the potential buyers came in while Jordan and I were on a run, leaving Nana and Natalie in the middle of making ice cream and Nana and Elliott playing.  I feel bad they were unexpectedly interrupted – and consider my and Jordan’s timing very timely!)

We did our best to keep Elliott out of the sun but he still managed to come home full of sand.

Ready for the beach!

Elliott continues to be a dream baby… he was good in the car and good about sleeping on the go, even at the beach.  Jordan and I often talk about how we hit the baby jackpot.  (With both of our kids!)

I am still partial to WI but who can argue with an 1.5 hr drive?!?

Natalie drew a circle and wrote M and N! The M was an attempt to write and N, I think, and started from right to left. I am still thrilled nonetheless!

Ps. Some of our fav pics from last June!

Just some random cute pics from today…

This is chasing Natalie to church this morning. She would stop to look back and make sure I was coming.

No Mommy! Don’t chase me! (real quote said in a teasing tone)

Ah! You got me! No more kisses!!

Elliott likes when you move his arms/shoulders back and forth while singing. He lights up. I was trying to capture the full smile but I only have two hands. The plight of a mother.

Sing again please!

And here is a pic Natalie took:

If I look tired its bc I am! 6 am
Wake up call after getting up 2-3x the night before. Where did Elliott’s 7 ht stretches of sleep go?!?

Natalie is now 2 and a half (which she will tell you sometimes, too cute).  She turned 2.5 on Elliott’s 3-mo “birthday,” but her doc appt wasn’t until the next week, so here it goes!

Height/Weight: 32 lbs (75th percentile, down from the 90th percentile at the 2-yr appt) / 35.5 inches (50th percentile).

Don’t you just love the outfit she wore to the doc’s office for her check-up?  A crown – which she got at school for her friend’s birthday.  Her special “NanaPop” dress shoes (guess who bought them?)  She was extremely excited to go to the doc’s office – in part because we read Corduroy goes to the Doctor before we went.  When I picked her up from preschool, she asked if we could go to the doctor’s office “right now”.  She also asked why we had to leave at the end of the appointment.

Ha - my crown looks especially silly in this silly mirror!

Personality: Silly.  Incredibly Enthusiastic.  Opinionated.  Caring.  Outgoing.

Favorite Activities: Riding bikes at school or with Dad.  Playing with water (swimming,water balloons, etc.)  Walking on “balance beams” (aka any porch or ledge).  Baking (and eating the fruits of her labor).  Playing “kitchen” – sharing cookies, decorating cupcakes, taking things in/out of the oven/microwave, using hotpads (preferably the blue one).  Talking on “phones” (doc phone, kitchen phone, etc).  Singing – she’s started doing a lot more impromptu songs herself.  Taking care of Baby Ellie.  Going to the Zoo (rhino, lion and camels are her favs).  Playing with friends. Playing with Nana-Pop, Grandma-Grandpa, and Alex-Aunt Jira.  (All pairs.)  Running.

You have a baby in your tummy? (Real quote)

Why am I wearing this paper hat and garbage bag? What does graduation mean?

Milestones: Tons of Talking.  At the 2 year update, I wrote that she said a lot of full sentences like: “No go bye bye,” “I want that,” “Shh… baby sleeping,” “What happened?” “I got Dora,” “Here Daddy”, “I want to go down Mommy”, and “I want to see Mommy” (gotta love that one!).  Now, it’s full-on conversations, with explanations.  There’s a lot of “becauses”.  She asks WHY a lot.  These conversations can be quite long and 50% of the time, end up in me saying “God made it that way” or “God is love,” as I don’t have anything left to share.  She can count to 10 in Spanish and English.

Natalie also is really good at letter recognition – this isn’t just me talking, even her teachers have commented.  At the very least, she knows: B (Becky), C (Caroline), D (Dado), E (Edmund and Elliott), G (Grandma and Grandpa), K (Kieran), M (Mama), N (Natalie and Nana), O (Owen), P (Poppy), R (Riley), S (Shiloh, Saba), T (Trevor), Z (Zachary).  Natalie spotted “S for Shiloh” on the “balance beam” outside our house.  And, yes, she’s wearing her swimsuit just for the fun of it.

S for Shiloh!

Funny/Cute Things she Says or has Said:

• “Privacy, please” (A more polite version of “Go Away”.)
• “Maybe tomorrow” (As in, maybe she’ll give me a kiss tomorrow!)
• A request to the lion at the zoo…. “Can your roar at me and Mama?”
• About her brother… “He put his arm around me because he loves me”
• “Where’s my Paci?” (In your mouth, Natalie!)
• “Because I like it”

Things Natalie is Thankful for: Dora, Bella (the whale from Shedd Aquarium) and Mama. (Jordan thinks Bella could have been brother but she was wearing her Bella dress, when I asked so I’m not so sure)

Favorite Color:  Blue – any and all shades.  Esp. light blue.

Favorite Song: Bob Marley’s “Three Birds” (This sometimes resets her when crabby, so we’ve been known to play it on repeat)

Favorite Show: Dora – or the Slideshow.  (Usually reserved for times when I am feeding Elliott and therefore, highly immobile)

Exasperating Things that I just have to Laugh at: Natalie likes to travel with an entourage (even if its just to her bedroom or the kitchen).  When I shared a bed with her in Green Bay, she complained that I was “hurting” her and she didn’t have enough space.  Please note, she was in the middle of the double bed, with Baby Ellie, Dora, and Boots lined up to her left and me squished on her right!  Another time, when I was feeding Elliott and reading her a book at the same time, I asked her if she could hold the book… she explained that she couldn’t “because I have two mouseys and Baby Ellie.”

All I need now is my milk.......

Favorite Foods: Peanut butter and jelly, grilled cheese, strawberries, cheese, protein shakes, milk, cupcakes.  Hummus has turned out to be a good way to increase the veggie intake!

Favorite Books: The Seven Silly Eaters by Hoberman and Corduroy are topping the list as of late.  Other favs include “Chicago” and “Tiny Bear.”

Natalie is a joy-filled, silly, super fun, caring little girl, and we are just so lucky to be able to spend every day with her!  I absolutely love being her Mom.  Jordan loves being her Dad.  And Elliott loves being her little brother.  Praise God!

We just got home from a weekend in Green Bay. We hadn’t been since Thanksgiving due to Pinto/Elliott. We were able to time it with my cousins wedding shower so it was great to see fam on both sides. We have a lot more pics on our “good camera ” but if I wait to include those on a post, it might never get done. (Kinda like how I haven’t posted on Elliott’s baptism yet!)

We started with a great story time at the library…

It’s okay Trevor (real quote)

Grandma, why can’t I play in the box with Nat and Trevor?

We took the kids to Bay Beach, which was a blast. At 25-50 cents per ride, there’s no reason not to splurge!!

Again please!

Follow me Trev!

All aboard the choo choo train!

Rachel and Aunt Lisa came to visit too! Super fun – we haven’t seen them in over a year, but Natalie and Rachel jumped right into some silly play!

Rachel, lets go to the butterfly museum right now (real quote)

Yeah! Undivided attention! Trevor and Natalie are sleeping so I don’t have to share my Aunt Becky!

The cousins loved playing together –
Carrying on a strong cousin tradition. So fun!

PS we missed Auntie Leah though!

Thank goodness Nana and Poppy loaned us their van for our trip to Green Bay! How else would we have fit Baby Ellie, Dora, Boots, Mousey 1, Mousey 2… And Natalie and Elliott?

Elliott was a dream, of course. He slept from Fullerton to Oakwood without a peep.