Artist in Training

Amelia had her first "school events" when her daycare hosted their fall art fair last Friday. Growing up in Lawrence I was spoiled with having all four of my grandparents within a half an hour drive. Merrill and I don't have childhood event memories without the attendance of of two parents and four grandparents. Amelia got to have two of her grandparents at her first event. I'm pretty sure the only reason that she didn't have all four was that the other two don't live nearby. I have a feeling that all four grandparents will log their share of hours at school plays and after school activities.The proud grandparents and their artist!The school keep all the projects covered so they are a surprise for the parents on the night of the event. In addition to all of the kiddo's masterpieces the teachers did a "project." Each student was photographed and then participated in a question and answer session. Apparently Amelia wasn't in the mood to smile but she did a good job practicing poses for her Senior pictures. I'm sure with the toddlers they had to get creative with "their" answers.

Q :Who should be the next Mayor of Chicago?

A: DADA!!!!

Q: What is something round?

A: ball

Q (to teacher): What will Amelia be doing in 5 years?

A: Being the sweetest girl in her first grade class

Oh, teachers know what to say to make parents proud! Amelia showing JuJu one of her masterpieces. What was Amelia's favorite part of the show? The bags of popcorn!

Happy (belated) Birthday Mark!

Fall in our household begins with celebrating Mark's (and Tom's) September 28th birthday.

We took advantage of the cool weather and hit the road to the country for apple picking. It didn't take long for Amelia to get the hang of, "rip apples off tree." She rather enjoyed it.
A pumpkin for our pumpkin!This was when she was happily playing in the toddler play area. Next came a temper tantrum when mom and dad took her away from toy tractors and petting zoo.

She also got her first taste of apple donuts. Not that we were counting but we did eat a 1/2 dozen by ourselves. As Mark pointed out getting six was only a dollar more than getting three so clearly it made sense to get six. Clearly.....

Our little chef was a great help baking dad's birthday cake. She is still demanding, "finger, cake!" Our naked chef impatiently waiting for the finished product. For those that don't know, the only cake Mark will accept for his birthday is angle food cake with no topping. I don't get it either but it is his birthday wish so I gladly spend all the hard energy baking an out of the box angle food cake. Adding water is hard. When we gave Amelia her slice she looked up at us really confused and asked, "icing?" Looks like someone else isn't totally on board with dad's idea of a birthday cake.

As Mark and his dad share a birthday their birthday celebration isn't complete without a Tom/Mark celebration. Why of course Mark and Tom's birthday dinner would take place at a pizza place. Barnaby's is a long time Lang Family tradition. Girls, eating French fries at a pizza place? I don't think either of your dad's raised you to do such a thing.....

Mommy Time!

After I got back from my work retreat and settled back in at home it was Mark's turn to head out of town. With Mark going to DC for five days for work Amelia and I were looking forward to some girl time. I had visions of chick music, popcorn for dinner and not getting a stern eye from Mark when I went to sleep with Amelia tucked in next to me.

The flu virus had other plans. We made it almost two years as parents not knowing what it was like to have a pretty sick kiddo but we sure learned this week! Our girl's week together was going along just fine until the drive home from work/daycare on Monday. She was being unusually fussy and saying, "mama mama." Yikes, you can figure out what came next but in case you can't it involved a very dirty toddler, car seat and car. It took until Friday morning for her to be "sick" free. Fortunately Mark's parents came up one day to play the roles of nurses and Mark flew in late Thursday night so he got in on the last day (I don't think I've ever been that happy to see my husband). Needless to say it was a very long week of constantly worrying about Amelia, seeing her sad little face, doing lots of laundry, scrubbing car seats, cleaning the floors and sleepless nights. It was so sad to see our sweet, active toddler so down and out.

Miss. Independent sure wanted Mama this week so we got to spend a lot of time snuggling in bed and on the couch together. If she wasn't getting sick or her Mama wasn't forcing liquids in her Amelia pretty much wanted to sleep and sleep she did. For some reason she HAD to take this particular book to bed with her for her nap. Looks like she takes after her dad and didn't make it too far before falling asleep.By Thursday she had a pretty good case of cabin fever but whenever I tried to take her anywhere she got sick so we just hung at home. She tried to show me that she was well enough to go for a walk by putting her shoes on, grabbing her Pedialyte and demanding, "no sick, Mama walk." Apparantly she doesn't think getting dressed is a prerequiste for taking a walk.

She hasn't gotten sick since Friday, her appetite is back, she is babbling our ears off again and we made a successful trip to the park this morning so I think we are well on our way to recovery!

Daddy Time!

I figured it was time for me to step aside from my primary blog-editing duties and actually post for the second time ever. The only reason I don't post more often is that Whitney is so good at it - and, yes, I realize this sounds a lot like Whitney's logic for "letting" me do the dishes.

Anyway, a couple weeks back, Whitney took off for a weekend to attend a work-related retreat so I got Amelia all to myself for a whole weekend. This of course meant I had to figure out things to keep us busy all weekend.

Nothing like drinking and sliding before heading to dinner with daddy. Unfortunately, I do not have pictures of the mess left at our booth for dinner - let's just say it involved lots of mac-n-cheese and water all over the booth.

On Saturday morning, we were lucky that the rained stopped in time for the block party around the corner from us. Amelia got her first up close and personal taste of farm animals, including her very first pony ride. She loved riding "Lightning" around - it was probably a little fast for me as I followed her around holding on to her sweater as you never know when she might decide to hop on off.

The pony ride prompted the need for some more mac-n-cheese (that was the best option) and what block party wouldn't be complete without some balloon animals. In this case, Amelia wanted a giraffe.

After a long nap, we took another trip to the park where Amelia exhibited her new backwards sliding skills.

Finally, on Sunday we headed up to JuJu and Poppy's place for some lunch and the Bears game where Amelia assumed her usual position at the little kitchen and proceeded to remove everything from the cabinets multiple times.

All in all a very fun weekend for the both of us although I know we were very happy to have Mama come home on Monday.

SPOILED!!!

How does Amelia define spoiled? Spending Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with GranAnn and then spending Thursday and Friday with Poppy and JuJu. She was a lucky girl to spend a full week with grandparents.

Of course the reason we had all the help last week is that starting tomorrow we are making a big change in our household. Sadly it was time for Jenn to head back to school full time so Miss Amelia is starting daycare tomorrow. We had a bit of a gap between Jenn and daycare so the grandparents were happy to help out. We have been so spoiled with having Jenn come to our home and the great care she gave Amelia. There is no doubt that Amelia and I's morning routine will be a bit more involved. It will also be a huge change for me as I am going to have to start driving to work. I'm a CTA kind of girl. I've never really known work life without taking public transportation. I'm sure I will get used to driving and wonder how I used to handle slumming it on the CTA but for now I'm feeling sorry for myself and mourning life as I've known it.

For Mark it will be a welcome change as he won't have to get home as early in the evening thus he won't have to get into work quite as early.

And for Amelia we really do think she will love spending her days with other kiddos. I'm a little anxious about how she will handle naps on cots as she still logs a good 3 - 3 1/2 hour nap each afternoon. Sadly this could mean an earlier bedtime which neither Mark or I are totally excited about. Change is good, right?

So before the big change Amelia spent her week in spoiled grandparent bliss!

GranAnn can't come to Chicago without a bag full of goodies for Amelia. On top of the clothes this trip she brought Amelia her first baby doll. Also in the picture are Bow Bear "Bo" and Louise "Louie" who are never far from her side.
The princess allowed GranAnn to pull her all around the neighborhood.

Amelia was starting to feel the football spirit in anticipation of KU's first game Saturday. Ha, a lot of good that did. Maybe the problem was that the Hughey-Quinn boys were over on Saturday night but decked out in Texas orange instead of crimson and blue.....

Grilled cheese and french fries. My favorite!

Just when Amelia thought she had all the fun she would for the week Poppy and JuJu showed up and even stayed the night! Amelia loved their outing to the Children's Museum.Actually, we can't decide who enjoyed the Children's Museum more Grandpa or Granddaughter?

We didn't get any pictures of the Thursday night concert in Lincoln Square but Amelia showed her grandparents how she rocks out on Thursday nights. One point of her little finger to the gelato store and she had Poppy in there buying her a scoop!

Thank you GranAnn, Poppy and JuJu for helping us out last week. Amelia misses you already!

Rocky Mountain High

Ah, Allenspark, Colorado there is really no place more relaxing to me than the Rockies. Our trip started out a bit rocky when Amelia came down with pink eye and a cold two days before we left. The night before vacation we were all up most of the night with a sick little girl. It was no surprise that she wasn't the happiest of campers on the plane the next morning. Amelia is no stranger to flying but boy did we learn how it feels to be "those" parents of a screaming kid on a plane. She was so awful when we were taking off that the flight attendants were doing anything in their power to help us. Really we think she was just showing her stubborn personality and that she was not happy at all that we were forcing her to sit down. Once we were up in the air and she could happily stand she was a-okay. The first few days we got a lot of these blank unhappy stares.

Of course since she was sick that means she wasn't sleeping well. She owes Caitlin and Sarah a week of uninterrupted sleep. Auntie M was smart and escaped the cabin for the bunkhouse where she could sleep in peace. We had to resort to the infant days of walking her around with her to get her to sleep. Grandpa Don used to say something along the lines of, "I like you better when your asleep." I think I learned why he would say that :)

Need proof of how exhausted mom and dad were? Check out our eyes. We of course love our little girl dearly but were missing our happy toddler.

Speaking of a happy toddler aside from being sick (which could have been a factor in this) she learned how to throw a true temper tantrum at the cabin. Telling her she couldn't stick her fingers in her dad's pizza and telling her that there were no more dishes to be done but made her TOTALLY lose it. My dad took a video of the after dish tantrum so once I get that I will of course share it. A special thank you goes out to all the Evans and Cheneys who were with us to welcome Amelia into the terrible twos!

We made it past the trouble days and then enjoyed a much needed vacation. Amelia learned from the moment she saw Papa that he is a TOTAL sucker.


Here are Amelia and Papa sharing a cookie. Our first stop before heading up the mountains was to the grocery store. Amelia pointed at the cookie display case and yelled, "PAPA COOOOO-KIE" next thing you know Amelia was walking around Whole Foods with an enormous chocolate chip cookie. In the next aisle was a bin of balls. What did Amelia say, "Papa ball" to which Papa responded, "okay put it in the cart." Her Great Uncle Dan was just as bad. Between Papa and Dan she was probably diabetic by the time we got home.

My grandpa taught me how to drive on the "streets" of Allenspark when I was 12. Amelia's grandpa taught her at 20 months. She was more interested in hitting all the buttons on the stereo, finding a channel that suited her and then rocking out.
Amelia learned how to do the dishes and for some very strange reason (actually it all had to do with playing in the water) she was obsessed with it. Is she too young for a part time job? Monster faces! She started doing this while at the cabin and it is pretty funny!Time with family, great weather, amazing scenery, excellent food would all be highlights of most people's vacation. Amelia's favorite part had to have been playing in water for hours on end.....She managed to get out for a little hiking. Her she is on her first trip up Big Rock!I come from a family of eaters which means that out of necessity we have all learned to love cooking and baking. Oh how we enjoy our food and wine. Amelia loved standing on chairs in the kitchen to help measure, pour and mix ingredients. She made Swedish Tea Rings with Uncle Dan, pie with Auntie M and pizza with Dada.Our happy, healthy family enjoying the view in Rocky Mountain National Park!


Our apologies to all of our family members who went home sick. Especially Papa who caught a bad case of the, "snotty nose toddler syndrome."

AND a huge thank you to all of our family who all took turns caring for and entertaining Amelia so that Mark and I could do some relaxing!

Weekend at JuJu's

At some point over the past couple of months Amelia has decided that Grandma Ginnie's name is JuJu. Frankly we have no idea where it came from. In Amelia's world there is no longer a Grandma G but there is most definitely a JuJu! Mark and I snuck away for a night at Kohler to celebrate our anniversary. Of course JuJu and Popper (his name was Georgia's doing) were happy to have us drop Amelia off on our way out of town. They filled their weekend going to the park, swimming and decorating cupcakes (or for Amelia eating frosting).