Easter 2012

This was our fifth Easter in Chicago and yet it was the first we actually celebrated here. Our first year we went to Cleveland to visit Ben's aunt and uncle. The second year we went on a spontaneous road trip and drove south without looking at any maps or making any plans. We ended up in Louisville and eventually Nashville where I believe we ate BBQ for Easter. Then our third year we were in Austin visiting Ben's grandparents. Our fourth year we were in Ireland at a Catholic cathedral then restaurant with Ben's grandma. This year we hosted it at our place with 3 other families. We brought the dining room table outside in the sunny weather. Set up a kid's table so they could quickly eat and run around while we hung out. It was a lot of fun and relaxing... once I stopped running around cleaning, decorating, and cooking.

The weekend itself was really busy. Friday we had an Easter-themed playgroup and then Ben and I went and saw the Hunger Games that night. Then Saturday we went to a Cub's game for the day. When we woke up Sunday morning I realized we hadn't dyed eggs yet. Oops...

So at 7:30 that morning Charlotte hunted for her hidden basket, dyed eggs together, then went outside to hunt for them... after our neighbor went and hid them for us.

Good thing she's so young. She had no idea we were running around behind her back.

She was most thrilled about her princess paper dolls and "crotchet" (chocolate).

Isn't she darling?

Here she is hunting down her freshly dyed Easter eggs before we headed to church.

(I made that scrap skirt by the way)

And Ben actually had the ENTIRE WEEKEND OFF!

I don't remember the last time that happened...

Charlotte update

I swear. I always wait and wait to blog and then regurgitate the last two months of our lives.

Charlotte is almost 2 1/2 now... which is so weird.

She's more interesting and hilarious than she's ever been.

She looooves to sing and dance. And she doesn't do either very small. She belts out songs (using A LOT of vibrato) that she knows, makes up, or in answering a question.

For example:

Me: "Hey, Charlotte. Would you like spaghetti or chicken tonight for dinner?"

Charlotte: "IIIIIIIII can't like chiiiiiiiickeeeeeen for dinner! Want pizzAAAAAA!"

(using her best operatic voice)

She wears or asks to wear a tutu or dress every day.

She asks if she can wear a tutu like "angweena boweena" (angelina ballerina).

Then proceeds to twirl and skip around the house and incorporates somersaults in her dance. She's quite graceful.

When she's 3 I'll put her in a little ballet class.

She says "can't" instead of don't.

For example:

"I can't like that samwich. Yuck!"

"I can't want to go to bed now."

-likes her toes and fingers painted daily.

-is FINALLY liking nursery.

-loves putting on my "makeups".

-goes on bird watching walks with Ben. We have 2 cardinals that live close by so they go out looking for them. Once I found one and pointed it out to her. She got excited and then said "No. Those are Charlotte's and daddy's birds."

Well, excuuuuse me!

She's spunky and sassy if you haven't caught on yet.

She knows all of her letters and about 3/4 of her letter sounds.

-loves to put on her Cubs baseball hat and play ball outside with Ben.

-is more snuggly now than she's ever been in her entire life.

-has a horrid temper. Doesn't hit or kick. But screams like a banshee. We're working on that...

-likes to snuggle her baby dolls. put them down for naps. take them on walks. and put them in time out.

-at night after we pray, read, and sing - she sits up in bed (in the dark) and reads a book to herself then sings herself to sleep. love it.

***

Our next door neighbor gave us a plot of her garden to plant some veggies in. Here I am putting my kid to work clearing it out to get ready for planting.

We have our own side yard, but our landlord won't let us plant anything...

***

Do you have a 5 o'clock slump?

I do.

Charlotte and I have ran our errands, gone to the library, played with friends, read books, snuggled, gone running, she's up from her nap... and then you look at the clock and it's only 5. Another two and a half hours until bedtime.

And I'm done.

This day (below) we threw that ladybug ball for almost an hour. She loved it.

And by the time we were done it was time for dinner and bed. Love it.

St. Patrick's Day 2012

We headed downtown for the St. Patrick's Day festivities.

This was our 5th time going. The first year we went with friends to watch the river being dyed. The next year I was sick and pregnant and sat in a chair to watch the parade while Ben wolfed down green frosted donuts. Then tiny Charlotte came with us the next year and it rained while I changed her diaper in the park. Last year she watched the parade with us and mildly paid attention. Then this year she loooved the bagpipes and little irish dancers with the curly hair that kick their legs every which way.

After the parade we headed over to see the neon green Chicago river.

Charlotte kept trying to take off her shirt because she wanted to go swim in the 'gween wivah'.

On the left in white is our Mayor Rahm Emanual, former White House Chief of Staff to Obama.

I like him. He's been making some pretty big changes to our lovely corrupt city we call home.

I may have mentioned this in previous posts but for the past 2 weeks we've been enjoying 70-85 degree weather. So we were decked out in shorts, hats, t-shirts, and still roasty toasty.

Our summers are already hot as blazes... I wonder what this year will be like...?

Charlotte and I heading downtown on the L train. And then Charlotte bothering Ben while we waited for the parade to start.

There are A LOT of random Irish people that just walk in the parade wearing green. Some have shirts or signs saying their irish surname... Murphy, Kelly, O'Sullivan, O'Reilly, O'Connelly...

Ben and I are thinking of dressing up next year with a giant sign and our irish last name.

I mean, wouldn't you want to go to a parade and see us walking and waving...?

Yeah, I thought so.

The Friday before St. Patrick's Day we had playgroup at our house. I made rainbow cookies, rainbow fruit, green blueberry muffins, and green milk.

Others brought (which I didn't get a picture of) cubed yellow they called 'pot o' gold', lucky charms, rainbow veggie tray, green smoothies... it was cute.

Then we headed down to our park in 80 degree weather to play.

Charlotte pooped green for a good two days.

It was awesome.

Mom, I need them.

Today Charlotte turns to me and says:

C: Mom, I need them.

Me: What do you need?

C: I need a blue, a green, and purple one.

Me: A blue, a green, and purple what?

C: I need barbies, Mom. You got to buy them cause I really need them.

Me: Why do you need barbies?

C: Because I just do. I need all of them. We need to go and buy them.

Great.

*******

Oh, and a random picture of her chillin' on the pot.

She tried and tried and kept saying she pooped and needed some candy pronto.

The toilet was empty.

oh... and I'm now 29... weird...

I don't know why 29 feels weird... last year of my 20's maybe...?

Ah well. Today I turned 29 whether I liked it or not.

Ben is really good at celebrations. He picks the best cards, buys the best presents, and makes the best cake or pie. That is, when he's not working. Which, of course, he is today.

His shift is from 7am-9pm. Which means he'll get home around 10:30 (if I'm lucky) after doing his patient's write ups, calling in prescriptions, blah blah blah.

But I have the cutest friends out here in Chicago. Five of us went out to a BBQ joint, got take out, went to the park for the kids to play while we ate, then one of those lovely friends brought a fruit cheesecake to share. They pulled out candles and sang even. So cute.

Then we came home and took a 2 hour nap, played outside (did I mention it's been in the 80's lately..?), and hopped on over to the library.

I got calls and texts from far away family and I get to extend my birthday into the entire week as my sisters and moms presents come in the mail and Ben finds a wee bit of time in his schedule to make me a berry pie and lavish me with gifts.

If only someone would come over and do my laundry and wash my dishes, then my day would be complete.

tri-annual washington visit

We usually get to go home to Washington 3x's a year. This year my mom's cousin got us free tickets since he's a pilot for Southwest. Score!

My family always plans the cutest outings, parties, and crafts to keep us busy.

My parents, niece Hallie, Charlotte, and I went to the Seattle Aquarium one afternoon.

This tank held a Nemo and Dory fish that she couldn't stop staring at. And of course we had to watch the movie when we got home.

These two are bosom buddies. Hallie just turned 5 so there's a 2 1/2 year difference. She's young enough to like the same things as Charlotte and old enough to be patient with her and not fight over toys.

Looking at jelly fish swim below our feet.

Her other bosom buddy, Gwamma. They have a special connection these two.

Hitting up a new frozen yogurt joint close to my parent's house.

Bosom buddies playing at the park.

It was a really random day actually. My mom, Hallie, Charlotte, and I were sitting eating lunch at this park and I look over to see a girl I played basketball with in high school. I haven't seen her in ten years. We were actually really close back then because of all the time you spend with someone on a team. She had 2 kids with her, the baby's daddy, and the baby's daddy's mom. Weird.

I.love.these.two

My parents have a playroom upstairs. Charlotte usually finds her way into that room and will shut herself in with the toys for a good hour. It's heaven. But sometimes when we think she's in the playroom she's actually in my mom's bathroom. Applying copious amounts of makeup on like in above picture. That was h@%$ to get off.

Oh and here's Adison. She's so yummy. Except her and Charlotte DO NOT get along. Once in awhile they'll smooch and hug, but usually they're screaming and crying at each other. Too close in age and not happy with sharing anything (food, toy, blanket, mommy...) with each other.

Growing up we had tea parties.

We had them for our birthdays or just the heck of it.

Sometimes we had them at my grandma's, but usually my mom would pull out her china, tea cozies, and tea cups and throw a little party.

Cucumber sandwiches, deviled eggs, fruit, cream puffs, tarts, anything tea related she'd bring out.

This was Charlotte's first real tea party. And.she.loved.it.

One of our favorite towns to go to is Snohomish. It's historic and quaint. They have the best antique stores and a cute little cafe we always eat lunch at. A 2 year old is a tough antique-shopping partner. So I had to bribe her with a visit to their cupcake store if she was good. Apparently she was good because here she is stuffing her face with a cupcake.

And another park picture.

My camera was dead half of the trip, hence the lack of pictures.

We had a birthday party for my sister Carrie, an Oscar party that was phenomenal (hors d'oeuvres representing each of the best picture nominations - i.e. mini quiche = midnight in paris, chocolate pie = the help, chicken salad croissants = hugo, virgin manhattan drinks = incredibly close and extremely loud, etc etc etc ... ) - it was awesome, many many crafts, many antique shopping excursions, movies, mint tea and english movies, see my sister Laura's AMAZING volleyball team kick booty...

It was a good trip.

Thank you, mi familia.