Whats new in 2009

The Florida Keys








Christmas 2009

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.

No more monkey's jumping out of cribs!

Here is Chloe's new sleeping arrangement. It took her about a week to get used to it and she still has her moments when I put her in her crib but it is so nice not to worry about her jumping out. Now I can leave here in there for hours..kidding! Some of you wondered what it looked like so here it is. When she woke up from her nap I told her I was going to take a picture of her but I had to go get the camera. She laid back down and didn't move a muscle until the photo shoot was over. I thought this was cute since she is always trying to get out..I guess she thought it would be fun to pose:)

Little Trooper

If you look closely you can see Lauren loves the new mask the doctors let her keep.


Lauren is doing great recovering from her surgery. The day of Surgery she got up at 5am which was my worst fear since she couldn't eat or drink anything. She cried and begged at first, but then felt better that Steve and I weren't "allowed" to eat or drink anything. Once we got to the surgery center she loved all the toys that the nurses were giving her. She also got to play with a real stethoscope and she knew right away that she wanted bubble gum flavor on the mask to put her to sleep. The doctor then gave her a mask with the flavoring to keep. As you can guess this is now a fun addition to our doctor kit. They decided not to give her any drugs before hand since she had no anxiety. The hardest part for me is when they wheeled her away. We told her she was going on a cool ride and she asked if I was coming too. This broke my heart and put me in tears but she did fine when they wheeled her away. After surgery she had a hard time for a couple of hours, but was back to eating and drinking by the afternoon. Today she is back to normal but mainly stays on the couch. Its amazing how much better kids recover. I just had to grab her and make her sit because she was chasing Chloe! We are very thankful that everything went well and that this is behind us!

Lauren Turns 3

Lauren turned 3 on the 4Th and we had another princess party which she absolutely loved. Lauren's middle name should be party. I thought I would list some of the things that I love about Lauren and her fun age.

1. Her new thing is to say "Hey mom,should I have..." rather than just asking for what she wants. Usually it is for something that I will say no to.
2. If she notices that I got hurt(stubbed toe..) She will run over to me and kiss me several times to help it feel better.
3. Sometimes out of the blue she will say "mom, I love you"
4. She will dance on demand.
5. She notices everything.
6. When she sings she typically yells it.
7. She loves the doctors office and hasn't cried when she got her last two shots.
8. Enjoyed getting stitches.
9. Laughs so hard sometimes that you can't help but laugh along with her.
10. Says Chloe and our dog are her best friends.
11. Loves school so much I can threaten to keep her home if she is not behaving.
12. Loves bugs and anything else that a typical girl would run from.
13. She embraces new experiences and most times could care a less if I am with her.
14. When she prays at night she often prays for the animals.
15. She loves to cook.
16. She loves to hide when her dad comes home from work so he has to find her. Usually her legs are sticking out of her hiding spot.
17. Loves baths and doesn't like to have her hair combed unless she is doing it.
18. Loves giants.
19. Early bird- typically 6:15am she is ready to go.
20. Loves all her cousins.
21. Sits and reads books and rambles on and on pretending she knows what it says.
22. Can play in the car for an hour with Chloe if I let her.
23. Loves candy.
24. Can't help but open packages or other interesting things that she is not supposed to get into. When she is quiet there is trouble.
25. Has to walk next to the cart and touch most everything in the store. Today she said "MOM, look at this..isn't it beautiful!" The lady in the isle burst out laughing because she said it with such passion.
26. Most favorite thing is going to the park..she asks daily.
27. Wanted a baby shark for her birthday from her Uncle Tony(see picture above..its really a Betta) We will see how long this survives!!

Happy Birthday little Lo!!

Please pray that everything goes smoothly on Wednesday as Lauren is having surgery for hernia repair. We are blessed that this is our only issue that seems to be due to prematurity, but non the less we are not looking forward to Wednesday. I will keep you posted on her recovery which is said to be quick.

Giving Thanks for family

We spent Thanksgiving with Steve's whole family in Michigan this year. It is not often that we can all get together so we had a great time. Lauren and Chloe were loving all the time they got to spend with their cousins and it was great for us because it kept them busy:) We managed to get a lot in for one weekend. The kids enjoyed Christmas with their cousins and Lauren got to celebrate her birthday along with her Uncle Jeff. We also took family pictures at the Museum downtown GR..can you guess which kids made it a bit difficult??? Thankfully there are some great pictures from the day. We also went bowling which Lauren got a kick out of. It was fun to watch her get all excited, except dad had a hard time lining the guide up so most of the balls were gutters:) She didn't seem to mind. Lauren also received her first bike from her cousin Emily. Thank you Emily!! It has been too cold to practice, but she is quite excited. It was a great weekend and we have much to be thankful for!

She has jumped ship!

Chloe has figured out how to climb/jump out of her crib! It all started Monday when I was in the basement with Lauren during Chloe's nap time. It was about an hour before Chloe normally wakes and all of the sudden I hear her crying in the kitchen. My first recaction was who took Chloe out of her crib?! When I got to the top of the stairs I saw it was just her and my heart sank..how could I be already dealing with this..she is only 19 months old! I scolded her and told her she is not allowed to climb out of the crib(yeah..that worked). Not only that, she has learned how to open her door! So now she has done it several times and clearly I need to do something before she hurts herself. Her cousin Hayden broke his arm playing this game. I have heard of a crib tent so I either have to go by one asap or borrow one from someone. I thought Lauren was going to keep me on my toes but little Chloe seems to be doing a better job.