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Elliott is 4 months old (Friday)!

Go Pack!

We haven’t taken the 4-month “chair” picture yet, but I did get to capture this smiley guy in the crib this morning! And, his 4-mo doc’s appt is next week, so no weight/height measurements at this time, but he is a big, happy guy!

Personality: Smiley, Happy, Easygoing. We are so lucky…. we’re finding it a little challenging to work full-time and have 2 kids, so I cannot imagine what life would be like if Elliott didn’t generously share his smiles and wasn’t so understanding of Natalie’s desire for A LOT of attention.

Milestones: On Wed, he rolled over from his tummy to his back! Tonight, I was kissing all over his cheek and he could see my reflection in the mirror. He thought it was funny and giggled. We have gotten a few laughs out of him. He also is teething like mad. Everything goes in his mouth.

Schedule: After I returned to work, it seems like Elliott decided he should start waking up during the night. So, I’m feeding him at least once at night and then early in the morning, between 5:30 – 6:30. If/when he peeps at other times of the night, Jordan attends to him. I say it’s because Elliott smells me and would want to eat automatically, but let’s be honest, I feel like I’m waking up enough at night as it is!

New Toys: Elliott has just started playing with his exersaucer. This toy has gotten a lot of use – Natalie loved it, cousin Gavin borrowed and now it’s Elliott’s turn! Maybe we’re trying it out Elliott when he’s younger than Natalie was, or maybe because he is less girthy, but we wrap towels around his trunk to give him more support. Thanks Auntie Linda for the gift that keeps on giving!

If I could only get a little closer, then I could put all this awesome stuff in my mouth!

Grandma also pointed out that yesterday, Natalie was 31 months and Becky and I are both 31 years. Something only a Grandma would notice! 🙂

I hear you are the same age as my Mommy!

We have a new nephew!  Little Clayton was born 7-9 weeks early at 4.5 lbs.  He came out breathing on his own, which is terrific!  Isn’t he adorable?!?

He will be in the NICU for at least a couple weeks, while he gains weight.  Natalie and I took the train down to visit Aunt Jira at the hospital.  Unfortunately, little kids aren’t allowed in the NICU, and she had a hard time understanding why she couldn’t see Clatyon too!  We gave Aunt Jira a green elephant to give to Clayton.  Tonight, during prayers, we included Clayton and Natalie added… “When Clayton is bigger, I get to give him a hug!”

Elliott is excited to meet his little cousin too… they are less than 4 months apart in age!  He didn’t come with us to the NICU, as it didn’t really seem to be in good taste to bring an almost 15-lb. 4-mo old into the NICU!

Congratulations, Aunt Jira and Uncle Alex!  We cannot wait to see our kids grow up together!

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?!?