Beer Me Mama

As a parent it is important to think about the kind of company you have around your children. In June we were lucky to get a lot of QT time with "the girls." Between a weekend at the Klein's lake house and then LB and Mills visiting Chicago Amelia got to hang with the girls lots. I'm bummed we didn't get a photo of all of us girls lounging in the raft at the lake but Amelia definitely enjoyed being "one of the girls."

Once we were back in Chicago things went something like this:

Skip ensured Amelia always had reading material. How can a girl go more than a few hours with her celebrity gossip?

Skip is definitely a hostess with the mostess and always takes such good care of us all. Even Amelia could help herself to Johnny Walker or Tangueray.
Mills brought home banana yogurt which Amelia devoured like dessert. I'm pretty sure it was all sugar.
Mills also encouraged and egged on "creative" projects with the yogurt. In Mills' defense at least she didn't introduce her to Diet Coke but I imagine she will take care of that during her next trip.


As for LB and the title of this blog. I came home from work one day to our home totally turned upside down and LB teaching our toddler to say, "beer me mama."

Happy Dada, Papa and Popper's Day

I feel like a lucky Mama. While it wasn't Mother's Day last weekend I got to spend Father's Day with my dad for the first time in I really don't know how long. And Amelia got to spend it with Dada, Papa and Popper. We kicked-off Papa's trip to Chicago with a visit to the Aquarium. It was free. How cool is that? Oh wait, if you ever think free days are a good time to go to museums in Chicago think again. Then again I imagine the rest of you could have told me what the problem would be with free days. Yes, we were greated to a 2 hour line when we arrived. As if we were going to wait in a 2 hour line in the sun with a toddler. Papa did his best to be positive, I kind of tried to be but Amelia did not hold back on her feelings. With a meltdown imminent I headed to get the car while Papa waited with Amelia in the shade. I came back to a happy girl who was eating her first popsicle! I will give Papa credit for thinking of a way to keep Amelia happy and cool her down. Of course where was Papa when I had to take away the popsicle to get Amelia into her carseat? Right, he was sitting in the car checking e-mail.

and she was able to use the car ride to catch up with friends on her iPhone.

See the nice construction? We have been loving the sewer replacmenet project that has been plauging our street for a couple of weeks now. It really is irritating, loud, dusty and makes our garage hard to get to.

See even Amelia is distraught. HOWEVER the inconvience of the construction doesn't appear to be our biggest problem. Amelia loves watching the work from our window. Jenn was pretty smart and put a little foot stool at the window so Amelia can climb up and watch the workers whenever she feels like it. This seemed like a great idea until Jenn turned around one day and Amelia was facing the construciton workers with her shirt up over her head. The girl loves showing off her belly.

Remember my post about being excited about having guests come? Be careful what you wish for. Papa went back to Arizona and left us with a toddler who now insists on "cheersing" whenever we sit down to dinner. After one round of cheering she will do the sign for "more" while saying, "more cheeeeeeeeeeer." I suppose she is ready for cocktail parties.....

A visit from Papa would not be complete without ample time in the kitchen. I won't scold Papa for having our toddler on the counter and digging through a draw full of kitchen utensiles because I know Auntie M will for me.

The morning of Father's Day took us to Millennium Park where Amelia's favorite part was definitely The Crown Fountain. Now that she can get herself around the freedom to splash in the water is way cooler to her than seeing herself in the bean.

On Father's Day Sunday we had folks over for dinner. Little Miss Sweet Tooth of course loved the dessert. I can't say she ate any of the other food but the dessert did have pineapples in it so that at least counts as a serving of fruit, right?

Why am I posting a blurry photo? Well little miss Wiggleworms wasn't about to sit still when she had Popper, Dada AND Papa all on the couch with her! What a luckily little girl to get to spend Father's Day with her three leading men.

p.s. In case you are wondering why my daughter is wearing nothing but a pair of tight, tie-dyed spandex which her belly doesn't exactly fit in please know I'm thinking the same thing too. All I can say is that it was Father's Day so I didn't get to pick out her outfit.

Summer Kick-Off

We kicked-off summer with a visit from GranAnn and a picnic dinner at Lake Michigan. Although we live within walking distance of the lake and I have now lived here for over seven years this was my mom's first trip to the Chicago beaches.

Our little princess apparently wasn't interested in eating on a picnic blanket and insisted on eating in her little red wagon.

All done! Chocolate cupcakes make a well rounded dinner.

The royal treatment continued with a ride home across the sand from Dada.

Oh wait, since Miss. Amelia sits still for all of about 15 seconds getting a lift from Dada got old very quickly. Type "A" Amelia had to take over (hm, I wonder where she gets that from).

The cops were out in full force over the holiday weekend. Amelia had to put on a straight face and explain to the Cop that all she had was milk and chocolate cupcakes. He let her go.