Too Cute For School

We just received Kate's pre-school pictures in her cubby at school, and they adorably scream school pictures. Kate has been too cute lately. She loves pretending to be Miss Julie her teacher. She reads us books facing out and mimics everything her teacher says. Like:

"Scoot back a little."

"Nuh, ah Megan. Don't touch Miss Julie's stuff." (referring to herself as Miss Julie in the 3rd person.)

"Oops I missed a page."

If we get up too soon she says, "No, not yet, I not call you name yet."

She tells Megan, "Meggie, if you're a good listener, you'll get a sticker."

It is all an adorable window into her life as a two year old preschooler.

At home Kate has been equally as cute. I think it is safe to say we have officially passed any degree of the terrible twos and dare I say my little girl is becoming a rational member of the family. She is such a good listener and turning out to be a really really good kid. She loves and shares with her sister, and warms our hearts every day. Kate has two babies she has named Little One and Cute One and needs to take all around the house. At night she very carefully tucks them into the baby crib she insists goes right next to her bed. She makes sure that both her and her babies' blankets are spread out all the way. Kate is proving to be a little particular.

Pretty much everything she says or does right now is overwhelmingly adorable. Some of the extra cute things she has said lately at home;

"This is my Pal Meggie and we're animal rescuers."
"Oh, This is Perfect (puhfect)."
"That sounds like a great idea!"
"You're the best in the whole giant world."

and my favorite, one I'm sure I'll hear repeatedly over the years especially as she enters her teen years;

"Mommy, you're my best friend."

She has begun to negotiate with us a little and the other night as Brian was leaving her room she said, "But, but, but Daddy, I can't snuggle myself." Needless to say she won that negotiation.

One night she had a bad dream, Brian went in to comfort her, and she told him, "Swiper swiped the refrigerator." Brian assured her that he got it back and it was downstairs and she asked him," You got it back, and all the pieces." So what does a two-year old dream of? Obviously being in a Dora episode.

At pre-school Brian is out and about as Pastor and it has been interesting watching how Kate handles that. She seems to recognize Brian's different roles already. The other day Brian peeked into their classroom for something and Kate said, "Daddy, Brian (Bwian), I mean Pastor Brian (Bwian)."

Kate is very polite and says please and thank you almost every time. If we for some reason forget to acknowledge this politeness she says quite indignantly, "I said, thank you." Prompting us to respond our usual, "You're welcome."

Another other too cute thing she does is confuse a couple close sounding nouns.

She replaces:

elbow - elmo
fork - pork
bagel - bengal
hood- hook
elevator - elli-gator

She is also super into Christmas, Baby Jesus, Santa, Frosty, lights, and everything Holiday. She is starting to connect the dots as yesterday she said, "Mommy, I shared with Meggie. Santa will be so happy."

Generally everything our girls do is incredibly cute, and it is fun to take a minute, in the few extra I can find, to write them down for a future trip down memory lane.

So Much To Be Thankful For

It is amazing how thankful we are for these two sweet little girls. I am convinced they are the cutest kids in the whole world, and am so thankful for them and many other things this Thanksgiving.

There are a few things I'm especially thankful for this holiday

I'm thankful for how sweet my girls are with each other, I am thankful for Megan's belly laugh, I am thankful for how Kate tells us we are the best in the whole world, I'm thankful for how well behaved Kate is becoming, I'm thankful for how well they sleep, I'm thankful I didn't have to drive for the holiday, I'm thankful for the fun we have together, I'm thankful for the best four grandparents in the world, I'm thankful for a wonderful husband to share it all with, I'm thankful for their health, and most of all I'm thankful I get to be their Mom.

Pictures from the Day

By the way can you tell they are sisters?

Kate Thanksgiving Day 2008

Megan Thanksgiving Day 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hockey Fun

We've signed Kate up for All-Star Sports Camp at the Park District. Basically the kids run around for half an hour with a somewhat focused sports day. So far we've had basketball which Kate loved. She actually had an impressive shot for a two-year old complete with follow-through, which she most certainly didn't inherit from either of her shooting challenged parents. Her favorite part of hockey was probably playing What Time is it Mr. Fox?

Megan loves the mornings as well, smiling and shouting at people from her snugli.Hockey was a big hit, but not as big of a hit as our adorable girls were in their matching tracksuits!

Apple Picking

The weather in October has been fabulous and Brian, the girls, and I made it apple picking just before Halloween. We were a little late for the earlier than usual apple crop, but it was perfect. Kate loved searching for the apples and was so excited when she found one...


She insisted on pulling them from the trees...


And when she succeeded she exclaimed, "Look I've found a Golden Apple!"

She was too cute and was very careful to protect our finds...

We had a wonderful time at Apple Holler picking pumpkins, riding the train, playing in the maze, and just being together in the beautiful fall weather.

Megan's 9 Month Pictures

I had all the intention of getting Megan's 9 month pictures done, picking the best pose, buying the $9.95 special, and walking out. Megan and the photographer however had other plans, and I had no restraint. They are precious pictures that I will always treasure, and I'm so happy they turned out so well. I don't know what else I was expecting from our beautiful, joyous, smiley, spunky, little Megan.

Halloween Fun

Brian and I decided to celebrate the first Halloween in our new home with a Halloween party,and it was so much fun! Between all of our guests, we had 11 kids 5 and under, and if you combine all their energy and excitement with an inflated sugar high, the result is our best Halloween ever!

Kate, as you might have guessed from earlier blog posts, was Cinderella, and she loved every minute of it! Unfortunately, Cinderella never wore gym shoes, so Kate wouldn't either. So picture with me a two year girl trying to keep up with her friends, all while wearing Cinderella heels! Thankfully, after a few houses she finally relented and switched to the gym shoes. Kate also enjoyed greeting all the folks with "Trick or treat!", as well as "Have a good night!" as she walked away. What a sweet Cinderella!

Megan as always loved all the action and giggled at everyone's costumes. She is the happiest 9 month old ever and Halloween night was no exception.Here our some pics below to give you a flavor of our Halloween "season". Kate had a parade at preschool and our town has a Halloween fest that was very sweet. Hope your Halloween was as fun as ours!

Second Child

There are many ways we can tell that this is our second go around at being parents. We are much more laid back with Megan as you can see from the pictures below...

And I didn't even insist on Organic Frosting!

Megan 9 Months

Our little Megan is now 9 months and couldn't be any cuter. She is very interactive, happy, responsive, and spunky. She has a cute little ahh- ahh social laugh and a deep full bellied fun laugh. She claps, plays peek-a-boo, blows raspberries, and says Mama. We've given up baby food in favor of self-feeding, and she cut her bottom two teeth just after 7 months. After army crawling and dragging herself around our house for about two months, she has just decided that the traditional form of crawling will do. Quickly after traditional crawling Megan has begun to pull herself to a standing position. 9 months is my favorite baby age and I just love everything that follows from here. Meggie brings a smile to our faces all the time. She makes sure her presence in known in the house and loves anything her sister does. Now that Megan is mobile she and Kate have had to "work some thing out". We are coming to realize that Meg is not a push-over, which is good for a second sister. Megan also seems to have a real love for music. We're not quite sure where she got that from but she gets very excited, claps, and squeals along to her favorite songs. She is very joyous and we are so thankful for all the joy she brings into our lives.

Summer Wrap-Up

Here is my post celebrating all that is summer!

I think one of the most amazing accomplishments of this summer was that Kate officially learned to swim. Our little two-year old must have been a mermaid in another life, because she took to the water like she was born with gills. We went 2-3 times a week to the Tot Swim at the Grayslake pool and pretty soon the lifeguards started referring to her as Miss Adventurous. While all the other under 5 kids played in the shallow end, Kate spent her time mouth high in water, diving, paddling, and jumping in over her head. It was a little stressful supervising at the beginning of the summer, which is why I was so thrilled when she finally figured the whole swimming thing out.

CLICK HERE for Video of Kate Swimming!

The weather has turned a bit cooler, the leaves are starting to change, and I have emptied my car and diaper bag of all things summer, so I think I can begrudgingly say that my favorite season is over. I think its a hold over of emotions from teaching that are the main contributors to my dreading the end of summer, but I am not one that looks forward to the beauty of fall, simply because it means the glorious days of summer have passed. However, this year I can take solace in that my girls and I squeezed every last ounce out of the summer. And what a beautiful summer it was! We had tons of fun visiting the sprinkler parks, swimming in the pools, spending afternoons at the lakehouse, stopping at Tastee-Freeze, enjoying family parties, taking day trips to Lake Geneva, and partaking in almost daily walks.

I do in many ways enjoy the fall. The slower pace is comforting. There are plenty of projects to keep us busy, and this year I have lots of great memories of my two cuties, the warmth of the sun on our skin, water splashing around us, and the thoughts of the fun next year will bring.