I have abandoned the blog and I have had good intentions of updating but every time I thought about posting there seemed to be so much to catch up on.
We had a great Christmas in Chicago. It was quite layed back.. both Christmas Eve and day were spent with my family. It was the first Christmas in my parents new place which was fun. "Santa" came to visit (AKA Papa) which is always quite funny. As he was leaving his pillow was falling out of his suit. Lauren was all about it but Chloe was more reserved. She decided it was worth taking the risk to see him when he pulled out a gift with her name on it. She snatched the gift and ran back to me as fast as she could. Christmas morning was really cute. Our dog managed to eat the cookies left for Santa so that worked out pretty good:) They both had a lot of fun opening their gifts.
A highlight of year was that we escaped reality for a week and went to the Florida Keys with good friends Brad & Bradi and Sara & Mark. It was a great trip and it was prefect timing since it was -20 most of the days in Chicago. We ate like Kings and Queens and did a whole lot of relaxing. Thanks Brad and Bradi for being such great hosts!! Steve's sister Sue and Mike graciously watched Lauren and Chloe for the week in Michigan. I don't think the girls missed us one bit since they were busy playing with their cousins. Of course Lauren got sick while we were gone with another ear infection. She has been battling these all winter..oh for winter to disappear!

As always there is a story with the girls. I was giving Chloe some infant Tylenol for the same cold Lauren had and she was having a fit because she wanted to keep the dropper after she took the medicine. I thought..what does it matter and let her run off with it(now there is an open container of medicine on the counter). The phone rings and I am chatting away. I walk into the kitchen to find Lauren with the Tylenol in one hand and she is gulping down a cup full of medicine (a cough syrup cup). I was calm at first but then I started thinking of how dangerous the situation was and when I called the poison control I could hardly explain what had happened. I told them how much I thought she ingested and they put me on hold to do the measurements. They came back to tell me that even though she took about 15x's her dose..it is not a toxic amount. They said all I had to do was give her some water or juice and that she may throw up but there was no need to induce it. Of course little Lo acted as if nothing had ever happened and I couldn't see any effects. Needless to say this was a big eye opener on the dangers of leaving medicine on the counter! It was quite a scary moment.