January

We have no dull moments in the Lang household thus January has been no exception...

Amelia is wanting to grow up way too fast for our liking. She constantly wants to do what I am doing; put on make-up, put on chapstick, etc. Although I do wear clothes. Mark and I were starting to get excited that we were nearing the end of Amelia's latest "naked" phase. However the naked phase has been replaced with the change outfits phase. On weekends we can go through at least six outfits in one day. All of which are hand selected by Amelia. None of which match.

Seriously? It was nice enough in Chicago in January to go to the park. It was heaven for all of us to get out of  the condo, feel some sunshine and run off some energy.

GranAnn and her little girls ready to race down the double slides.

She is mobile! No more leaving Juliet for a moment to run and throw a load of laundry in. She is  crawling all over the place and tries so hard to keep up with her sister.

Play cooking and taking care of her dolls are  at the top of Amelia's favorites list these days.

The girls fighting over string cheese. Never mind that we had a full package of string cheese so there was plenty to go around. Being a sister to a sister I know darn good and well that this is just the very beginning of many years of pointless fighting....

Amelia making real pizza dough with her daddy so we could host Sophia and her family for a pizza party.

"Baby J what's wrong?"
We do try to give our girls nothing but the best nutrition; nursing, homemade baby food, organic milk, etc. However at some point you just have to introduce them to Kraft mac-n-cheese. So what was wrong with Baby J? We wouldn't give her any more baby crack aka Kraft mac-n-cheese. Watching her eat Kraft mac-n-cheese for first time was hilarious. She had Mark, Amelia and I all in tears. We would give her the bowl full, she would tip her head back, dump the mac-n-cheese on her face and shovel it in her mouth as fast as her cubby hands would move. I think the onesie is trashed and we have a carb and fake cheese addict in our house! Strike two against us in raising kiddos with healthy eating habits....

Christmas 2011

We celebrated Christmas in style with my dad in from Phoenix, Merrill from Lawrence, JuJu/Poppy from California and their favorite cousin's Georgia and Charlie. The girls were good and spoiled. I was feeling very cleaver after I put a bunch of their gifts away in a closet and thought I would just pull them out over the next few months. Amelia didn't ask for the hidden gifts so I figured I would get away with this move for one more year. Then out of the blue yesterday she starting asking for specific gifts. So much for that idea.....

Thank you grandparents for all the wonderful gifts!!! We have two very happy girls with all their new loot.

Gingerbread houses are becoming an Amelia/Papa tradition.

The final masterpiece.

Hitting the road to JuJu/Poppy's for Christmas Eve.

Ah, a family photo. Now we just need to all be in the same place at the same time, all showered, with someone who has a camera and actually get the girls to look at the camera.

Those four grandkids can turn a room upside down in 2.2 seconds. Add a room full of presents and platters of JuJu's cookies and they can really do some damage!

EE's favorite present this year, a new niece!

Merry First Christmas baby! All she wanted were her two front teeth and they came in just in time.

Amelia preparing her first beef tenderloin in "Papa's Kitchen" or so we allow him to believe.

"Papa's Sous Chef" was taking her lessons very seriously....

All Amelia wanted for Christmas was a Dora kitchen. I didn't want a Dora kitchen sitting in our small home so we opted for the IKEA version and were a bit nervous she would have a meltdown Christmas morning. Low and behold she had long forgotten the Dora kitchen she saw at Target and is in love with her new kitchen. She takes her cooking very seriously and pizza is her latest specialty. If you are wanting a pizza with pepperoni, M&M's and orange watermelon (aka cantaloupe) you know where to come....

Trying out a new hair style.

Waiting for Santa

It probably comes as no surprise that we spent December getting ready for Santa and all the activities that go along with his arrival.

"Look! Little Christmas trees just my size. Can I pick one out?" We were feeling in the Christmas spirit so we left the garden store with two Christmas trees. Amelia was very proud of her colorful tree!

The Rainforest holiday show was a hoot as always. As you can see Amelia's class had a country theme and clearly Amelia was the cutest cowgirl in the class with her skinny jeans hand-me-down cowboy boots from her Aunt Jennifer.

Our cowgirl with her BFF Sophia.

She has enough hair for pigtails (well almost)!

There are always those kids that corrupt the other kids around them. JuJu and Poppy's grandkids were those kids while waiting for their holiday photos to be taken.....

Making gingerbread men with Georgia and Charlie.

Juliet was the only one who listened to Aunt Bobbie's directions. Charlie wanted to get his hands on Juliet's Cheerios...

Apparently in Chicago the schools have pajama day the day before Christmas vacation. I don't know this to be  a fact but Amelia's daycare did, Georgia's did and I saw a picture in the Tribune of kids at school in their pajamas that day so that seem like enough schools for me to say it is a Chicago thing....

Dear lord they were all hyper at the idea of wearing pajamas to school!

We were really looking forward to not knowing who presents were for on Christmas morning as someone couldn't be kept away from the presents and managed to pull tags off the gifts on a regular basis. Never mind that some of the wrapping paper was nice and dissolved from a teething infant...

Amelia is Three

I am in total denial that our little turkey baby is already three. I know this isn't about me, but seriously how can it go by so fast???? Literally it feels like yesterday she almost arrived on Lake Shore Drive. As much as I tried to pretend like she wasn't really turning three I finally had to accept it and celebrate her third in style! The festivities were kicked-off with early presents from JuJu and Poppy. The doll potty was a total hit and all her "friends" have been busy learning to use the potty. Next was her classroom celebration of mini-cupcakes, balloons and a round of happy birthday sang by her favorite people (that would be her classmates). For her actual birthday we had no plans and just wanted to make the day special for her. Okay, maybe my life these days didn't allow for birthday party throwing so we did try to make her feel very special. I'm thinking next year we actually need to get our act together and throw the girl a party. For the love, I'm a Christmas baby so you would think I would respect a holiday birthday and not just couple her birthday and Thanksgiving together. We will pick of the therapy bill if she discovers being a holiday baby isn't so cool.

I think she was pretty happy when she woke up to a pile of presents and balloons. So the balloons were leftovers from Randy's surprise birthday party the night before. I don't think that is lazy parenting but rather resourceful.

This picture hits at who Amelia is right now; She is wearing mismatched pj's she picked out, drinking milk from her new Walgreen's tea set that she thinks is the greatest toy she has ever gotten, has a donut she requested (but of course didn't touch) and has plate of fruit salad waiting for her (that she of course ate all of).

When people asked Amelia what she wanted for her birthday she would respond, "I think I get M&Ms." When she told Papa that on the phone I full expected a wrapped bag of M&M's. Of course that would not be good enough for Papa's "favorite oldest granddaughter." Oh she got an M&M dispenser full of M&Ms that said, "Amelia's B-Day." She couldn't do anything the entire day without getting an M&M first. We hid the dispenser when we got back to Chicago and for some reason she hasn't brought it up. I'm thinking it will be something we bring out when she has friends over, etc. However she did manage to tell her teachers about it so I know she hasn't forgotten....

Amelia's grandma's both know how much she loves her dolls these days! JuJu picked out a big sister/little sister set. Amelia has taken to little sister and likes to pretend like she is Juliet. GranAnn spoiled Amelia with red headed Bitty Baby and doll crib. Amelia can spend an entire day putting her "babies" to bed so this was a perfect present. My mom made the bedding in the girl's room so she used the scraps to make matching bedding for her new crib. Seriously, she should sell her stuff on Etsy as it is great!

Juliet liked the balloons.

Amelia's birthday fell on teh Saturda after Thanksgivign and after naps were over it hit me that I really hadn't done much in three days. I inherited from both of my parents the inability to sit still. I was going stir crazy and needed out. When I discovered that Teller's had a kid's menu with all of Amelia's favorite food I convinced Mark to take the family to Teller's for Amelia's birthday dinner. Hey, maybe Teller's isn't the logical place for a 3rd birthday dinner but it is a special place for Mark and I and happy parents mean a happy child. Right? Oh yeah, and we had two doting sets of hands to help Mark and I enjoy a dinner out :)

Yum, birthday tiramisu!

We even let our hired helpers eat and drink.

Amelia got her first Shirley Temple. Merrill and I LOVED drinking Shirley Temples as kids and feeling so grown up. It seemed only natural that Amelia would have her first one with Merrill and I. Maybe now that she is three she will learn manners......

Giving Thanks

We took a road trip to Lawrence for this year's thankful festivities. With really no options of where to eat lunch I finally gave in and let Amelia have her first Happy Meal. Mark and I were both convinced she would love it, eat every last bite, expect toys in all her meals, etc. She hardly touched the thing.... We took that as a sign of our excellent, healthy parenting. Ha. As we headed out of McDonald's I explained that we would be to GranAnn's house in two hours so she could either nap in the car or once she got to GranAnn's. Our well behaved daughter was asleep before we even got on the highway. Score yet again for us and our fabulous parenting skills (have we mentioned that Amelia has never been much of a car seat sleeper?). We were on a roll. We arrived in Lawrence to sunny weather and two girls who needed some fresh air. While Merrill and I got our nails done the girls headed to the park with dad and GranAnn. After a bit Amelia asked to leave the park. What? So not normal behavior for Amelia. Wednesday night was business as usual until my mom woke Mark and I up in the middle of the night because Amelia had a raging fever. So until Saturday we battled Amelia's fever that even crept up to 104 at one point.... We were humbled and had to admit that the McD's snub was because she had no appetite (which she really just got back today) and the car nap was her body starting to fight off her fever..... Finally we took her to urgent care on Saturday (her birthday) to learn she was on the tail end of an ear infection.

As for Juliet, she worked on her two front teeth coming in over Thanksgiving so she had her own set of issues...

Our holiday, while wonderful, didn't lend itself to many photos with two sick kiddos. Putting your "average" childhood ailments aside we are beyond thankful for our two healthy, wonderful little girls, family and friends! We had a great Thankgiving at the Praeger's, helped host a suprise birthday party for our good friend Randy, even saw a couple of friends (though not nearly enough of our friends) AND celebrated a third birthday which of course deserves its own post!

Good luck getting Amelia to take off her personalized M&M t-shirt her BFF Sophia picked out for her birthday.

The Happy Meal snub.....

Oh getting out of those car seats and playing with GranAnn never felt so good!



"Enabling" might not be in Amelia's vocabulary yet but she sure knows how to spot an enabler. After Amelia woke up Thanksgiving morning with a fever, EE turned on the Macy's parade, got her a cool rag, gave her endless cups of juice and completely soaked up a sick Amelia who couldn't get enough cuddling.

EE wasn't the only enabler.... What does a Grandma do when her fever ridden granddaughter finally says she is hungry? Well of course she gives her a homemade cookie and milk in her new tea set.....

Juliet on the other end of the spectrum inhaled all food put in front of her over Thanksgiving with mashed potatoes being a huge hit. Little miss has gotten very into "feeding" herself. She appears to be a natural....

Oh darn, did I miss Black Friday? Juliet tried to remind us by eating the advertisements. She is going to have to work harder on convincing someone to take her shopping on Black Friday as it gives me anxiety just thinking about....

Monkey Business

Our little monkeys had a grand time this Halloween season. They had three events to show off their costumes. From the neighborhood parade/party, their daycare parade and trick-or-treating they were the cutest monkeys I have ever seen! Amelia gets one piece of candy each afternoon if she has done a good job listening for the day and stayed in bed the night before. She bounces off the wall after each piece. I'm not sure how we will bribe her to stay in bed or (make a rather pathetic attempt at) listen once our Halloween stash runs out....

Our monkeys!!!

This is probably the third picture we have actually had taken of all four of us. Mark joked that with us both in Cubs hats were we going as disgruntled Cubs fans.

I suppose since we weren't giving Juliet candy she figured she would just have to eat the grass....

Naturally we had neither camera charged when we were getting ready to leave to trick-or-treat. Thank goodness for phones so we at least got a picture or two.

Yes, this picture is blurry but I thought it was a sweet picture. Our neighbor William was pretty patient with Amelia and his little brother Henry by helping them down steep stairs, waiting for them at each house, etc.

Here is Alain going to claim our little ones from a house. Neither Henry or Amelia could take a single step without a piece of candy in their mouth. Typically it was a lollipop (as evident in the picture) and they both would choose the most inopportune time to stop and open it. This is urban trick-or-treating and the sidewalks and front steps are full of people so if you stop in the middle you are likely to get run over. At about every other house one parent had to walk up to the porch and claim these two so we could keep moving. This was pokey trick-or-treating at it's finest.