The Chicago Way

Here in Chicago we headed to the polls today to elect a mayor and neighborhood Aldermen.

After her first parent teacher conference we made our way to the poll. Not to digress but parent teacher conferences for a two year old, that is funny. We were not told that Amelia is the class bully, steals from other kids or is disruptive to her class so I would say it was successful.

Back to voting. I told her we were headed to vote. To which she said, "burp? say scuse me." I then tried to correct her by telling her, "no we aren't going to burp we are going to vote. But yes if you were to burp you should say excuse me." Her response, "I want to go with mama to ride a boat." Third time was a charm and she did walk into the polling place saying, "I go vote."

In the city where the deceased historically have voted and the presumed winner wasn't even cleared to be on the ballot until the day after they started printing ballots Amelia figured she could cast a ballot. She LOVED the touch screen ballots and proudly left with her "I Voted" sticker.

Feeling the Love

Surely Amelia felt lots of love this Valentine's Day. Her holiday started with a trip to Midway to pick-up GranAnn. We normally make our airport runs during nap time so Amelia thought it was pretty cool to get to go with me to the airport. Amelia and GranAnn spent lots of time in the kitchen making homemade play dough (a vintage recipe from Raintree where Merrill and I spent our young years), sugar cookies and washing lots of dishes. I really am beginning to think we could get Amelia a job washing dishes as she could spend all day long in front of the sink and we could use the extra money.

The hired help in action (with my flowers).

I LOVE LOVE LOVE french toast topped with a berry compote which I typically get homemade for Mother's Day, birthday, Valentine's Day and the like. Of course there could not be activity in the kitchen without Amelia helping out. Oh, and don't forget Elmo and "Monster Cookie" who are never more than an arm's reach away from Amelia.

One of Amelia's many Valentine's gifts was some kiddie kitchen gear from GranAnn. Here she is testing out her new giraffe whisk.

We do have utensils in our home and you can even see the one she had been given to use. When the goal is to eat nothing but syrup for breakfast I suppose licking the plate is more efficient than a spoon or fork.
Loving her sugar!
Our little fashionista loaded up on new clothes from both her Grandma's this Valentine's Day. This is a good thing considering she recently has started going through no less than three outfits a day. The outfit changes have nothing to do with potty training but are all about fashion. She takes her clothes picking out seriously.

Amelia got her first flower which came all the way from Papa in Phoenix and is still proudly displayed in a sippy cup.

Baby It's Cold

We've spent a lot of time at home since the first of the year. Between the lovely gray Chicago winter and my nesting instincts I have come up with all kinds of projects. We have been busy getting our master bedroom and bathroom done (finally), turning Amelia's room into a room for two, putting shelving in many of our "undershelved" closets and other miscellaneous projects. Mark and Amelia have been very patient putting up with many weekend mornings of Home Depot, Pottery Barn, West Elm, Target, etc. I think their patience and our credit card need a break. We are almost done with all the projects so now we can focus on our last weeks of a family of three.

Amelia has been working on perfecting her makeup applying skills. I don't think brown eye shadow is the best color for her cheeks.

Last week Amelia's new toddler bed arrived. We decided to get it and let her warm up to the idea of a bed instead of her crib. She was so excited and from the moment it was put together she has insisted in sleeping in her, "big girl bed."

Amelia has been very helpful with all the projects. She spackled holes in her closet, unfolded all the clothes that had just been organized and lost screws that were to be put in her new bed.
A happy girl playing on her new bed. She gets so excited to go to sleep in her bed but she has had some trouble falling asleep and waking up at night. We wondered how long it would take her to realize that if she wasn't happy in the bed she could get herself out of it. Well during nap time today we heard some drawers closing and when we went into her room she had taken out a bunch of baby toys (that I had just put away) and was pulling her wipes out of her dresser. I asked her what she was doing and she said, "Mama I blow my nose." There is nothing Amelia hates more than having her nose blown so I highly doubt that was what she was doing. Mark was proud of her as he thought that her comment showed that she can think on her feet.

Oh, yes we also got a little bit of snow this week. Chicago Public Schools have not had a snow day since 1999 and they had two this week. Here in Chicago we are pretty tough about snow. So what if you get 6" of snow? Put your boots on and get to the train. The 20" of snow that came Tuesday night sure put the City on pause. Both of our offices were closed Wednesday so we had our first family snow day. Amelia woke-up to Dada outside shoveling. She took this photograph of Dada shoveling while giggling hysterically. I'm not sure why she found Mark shoveling so hilarious but I don't think he was laughing at the four foot snow drifts across our driveway. This was the view out our window at about noon Wednesday. The plows had pilled up so much snow that SUV's had snow within two feet of their roofs and the snow was blowing so hard the streets looked like they had five feet of snow covering them.
What else does a girl do on a snow day in February but bake red velvet cupcakes? Our little Betty Crocker loves to pour the ingredients in the bowl, stir the batter and sit and wait for her goodies to come out of the oven.
The proud baker and her fabulous cupcakes!