Who does A look like….?

Our awesome family in Chicago just sent me some great shots of A’s daddy as a baby!  I would guess he’s about 18months here…since this is cousin B’s 1st birthday & Daddy is 6 months older than him!  Yay math skillz.

These photos got me thinking….who does A look more like?!?!

My cousin S sent me this photo of him & I together right before A was born.  S & I are twin cousins.  Not identical…he IS about half a day OLDER than me 🙂  but we have the same birthdays!  Our mom’s are sisters and they had us on the same day and its been pretty cool to share our bday my whole life!

Here is Daddy

 

Daddy on the left

 

Here’s me

 

Mommy on the right (what a weird face I'm making!!)

 

* Sidenote:  That “what a weird face I’m making” statement is DEF going to be common when A is a big girl since i can’t help but take a zillion photos of all her silly faces!!!  I love em!

K…now here’s A

 

"Who do I look like huh?!"

I think she’s a perfect mix…but you can tell me what you think!

 

Bubble time…

A took her first bubble bath on Friday.  I can’t take the cuteness.  She’s the only thing that can make this awful bathroom fade into the background!

 

"huh...something's different about this baño Mommy"

"I'm not quite sure what to do..."

"I can pick up the soap...weird!"

"Ahhhhhh I GOT IT!!!"

"I'm so happy! I never want to take a bath without bubbles again!!"

When I’m having a bad day from now on…forget giving myself a bubble bath…I’m giving HER one!  That freaking SMILE!!!!!!

 

Embrace the Camera Thursday 02.24.11

 

E, PD, A & Mommy!

 

We had our 2nd swim lesson last night.  After a long day of Aunt D, E, PD, A & Mommy being in the car & trying to shop but being unsuccessful, we ended up having a yummy lunch all the way out in Huntington.  We like to travel for lunch apparently!  The girls ate a pancake, and as usual A had her pickles!  The ride home was a disaster for A and she didn’t sleep AT ALL in the afternoon.  The swim lesson was more of an exercise in getting her NOT to cry!  By the time she got home she was asleep and we just stuck her right in the crib with her clothes on and all!!!  I was NOT risking the terrible “overtired A”.  Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice….not gonna happen!

Anywho…I’m going to go wake up the little angel now!  She’s singing in her crib!

Hope you all have a fantastic Thursday!

Chicagoland welcomes the LK family with open arms & a top 10…

This past weekend the LKs, A & Auntie E took a little trip to Chicago to visit our family…Aunt G, Uncle L, Cousins J & B.

We started off the trip on Friday night where I thought I was GENIUS and decided we should all take the 8pm flight because A would take her last bottle at takeoff, then fall peacefully asleep in my arms for the whole flight!

WRONG.

How it really happened…A gets on the plane, freaks out because she’s starving.  We feed her before takeoff, give her some motrin for her ears and she then climbs like a maniac over me, Auntie E and Daddy until we takeoff.  Whoever said motrin or tylenol puts kids to sleep was not talking about my monster.  Its like A’s speed….we won’t be taking that ever again!  As we takeoff, the plane gets loud & A’s head drops like dead weight on my shoulder.  Auntie E and I look at each other and think…YES…SUCCESS…10 seconds later.  POP, up is A.  What a faker!  She was a good girl, this was not the screaming crying annoying kid to other passengers.  Just the pain in my @$$ crawling, overtired, can’t get situated daughter bothering our row of family!  Just before our final descent, she falls soundly asleep…ON THE TRAY TABLE.  Ever flown anywhere?????  Yea – now we have to move her.  Fab.  Thankfully she stayed asleep.  And that was the last sleep we saw all weekend!  More on that in a later post!  This post is about how amazing our trip was!

We ate more than a person should eat ever, laughed so hard we cried, played lots of games and overall had a fantastic weekend.

Here’s some of our weekend in photos.

Cousin J, A & Mommy

Cousin B & A...she apparently wanted to make sure his nose was real!

Daddy & Aunt G

First...A kicked Cousin B's head....later that night, Mommy kicked his butt in Just Dance 2! That is all I'm saying to prevent a video of said butt kicking from ending up online!

Aunt G eating A's toes! They are really delicious!

Aunt G throwing A up in the air!!!

First Mommy beat Auntie E in Just Dance...

Daddy & Cousin B doin' it up Bollywood style!

A taking in the view from waaayyyy up high on Daddy's head!

A enjoys playing on the Daddy jungle gym!

Where oh Where oh Where is AAAAAAA?!?!

 

AHHHH There she is!!!!!

Another fun activity we did was go to the Kohl Children’s Museum with Cousin B, Auntie E, Daddy, Mommy & A.  This was a beautiful museum.  Very very busy on this holiday weekend, but it was very clean and there was a ton of things for kids to do.  A is a little young for most of the exhibits, but it was pretty cool.  They had 4 areas for 18 months and under, they were all padded little areas with lots of toys and mirrors and things for the babies to play with.  A had fun!

This was birth control for Auntie E…even though many little children confused her for a kid herself.  Understandable because this is what her hands look like!

 

Easter Egg nail polish!!! OHHHH Auntie E...really?!?!

Daddy's face in the big plastic molding thingy!!!

We had a great weekend…even if A didn’t sleep a wink, and the plane rides were full of an antsy A who wanted to crawl up and down the aisle and up on all the strangers to see what was going on, this family is awesome and they were so hospitable.  They made this trip very memorable!  I don’t have any pics of Uncle L, but we’ll get some next time.  He wasn’t feeling so well, but we’re happy we got him to laugh a lot!  And he kicked everyone’s butt in Wii skiball.  He did amazing.  He’s the only one who beat “Megatron”‘s Wii top scores…something we will all be practicing until next time!!!!

Top 10 things I learned in Chicago 🙂

10.  Auntie E should never choose her own nail polish

9.   Aunt G makes awesome pancakes

8.   Auntie E is awesome at Bocce

7.  Cousin B & LK2 make a great partnership in Lets Dance Bollywood

6.  I should never play Lets Dance with long pants on…I will almost kill myself!

5.  Uncle L is a master at Wii skiiball

4.  Motrin makes A insanely hyper & unless there’s a high fever involved, she will not be getting any of that ever again

3.  I miss T a lot when I travel…that doesn’t change when you have a baby

2.  A will never ever ever ever ever again sleep in the same room as us, and particularly, will never again come in our bed.

1.  Our Chicago family is awesome 🙂

 

Very late 9 months…and HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNTIE E!

OK, A is really 10 months old now…but I’m slow with uploading and choosing a photo so here is her 9 month pic!  This was the most difficult month to shoot so far because she refuses to sit still.  I’m sure 10 months will be harder, and 11 and 12 months will never happen, but I’m going to do my best!

 

"You want to photograph me Mommy???? No shot!"

 

I’ve tried to keep the monthly photos prop-free, but it is not possible anymore.  If I want her to stop moving, she needs to be holding something!

New things in 9 months…lots of teething.  Teething was the theme of her 9th month.  She eats everything…loves strawberries, blueberries and cantaloupe the most now.  Peach puffs are still her crack.  She crawls at lightning speeds.  My favorite thing she started during her 9th month is chasing T.  See….T chases M all the time.  When he can’t get her to chase him, he pounces on her until she’s so annoyed that she chases him, inevitably ending in him being beat on his head by her paws!  A learned this.  She crawls over to him, when he ignores her, she jumps on him and he comes running after her as she crawls away.  He always ends up licking her face, then she gets annoyed and shoos him away.  I always thought this was great when T & M played….its even better with A & T.  (And I totally just typed “T & A” but that sounded inappropriate so I changed it!!)

To end her 9th month, we went on a trip to Chicago with Auntie E!  It was Auntie E’s birthday yesterday!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNTIE EEEEEEE!!!!!!!!  Thanks for playing with A on the airplane & in the wee hours of the morning when she got kicked out of Mommy and Daddy’s room!  We love you very much and hope you had a great birthday!

Wishing everyone a Happy Tuesday!

Little Fishies…

A had her first swim lesson on Wednesday!  She came home from Gramma’s house with 2 new front top teeth poking through and I was hoping that she’d be in a decent mood for the swim instructor instead of the cranky pants she was before those 2 little teeth decided that Wednesday was the day!  For the record, she has gotten ALL 4 teeth she has, while at Gramma’s house.  Must be some tooth magnet in there somewhere!

So A and her friend PD were signed up for lessons together that started Wednesday @ 6pm!  We loaded the girls up with leche, bundled them up and brought them over to the Safe T Swim.  We then got them all dressed in their bathing suits!  How adorable are these girls???

 

A in her butterfly bathing suit!

What a face! This is A's friend PD...she's beautiful!

Is there anything better than baby girl tushies?!?!

"K Moms....we're ready to go swimming now!!"

 

At this point, we unhooked the bobo’s and brought the girls in to meet their instructors.  We were really hoping we didn’t have to poop in the pool!  Their instructors are 2 young guys who handled these girls and their screaming so well!  We had them singing, googoogaagaa-ing, and who knows what else, because after we hung out for a little and watched them for about 5 minutes, we went back to the parent’s viewing room to cool off!  They keep it 90 degrees in the pool area so sweaters is really overkill!

 

He's singing the ABC's to PD 🙂

A got right to kicking! She seems to remember a lot from last summer!

PD got to have her pick of the pool toys!

A doing the backstroke!

I picture this convo going: "PD: Where the hell did our mothers go? A: I don't know...if we start screaming maybe they'll come back PD: OK lets try..."

"I am not sure about this water splashing in my face thing!"

"OK Mom....its time to get out....kthx"

 

They were really good though.  We totally dropped them in a pool with strange  men and then left the room.  Considering the circumstances, these girls were rockstars!  We did pretty good too, as we sat there giggling about the girls screaming their heads off!  Great parents 🙂  Gramma was there to help out with everything this time, next week we hope to have the Dads!

We are hoping all this exercise only tires them out and is not enough to get rid of those smushy baby thighs because I love those!

 

Embrace the Camera Thursday 2.17.11 & A BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY M!

A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY M!!!!

Dear M,

Mommy said I could write you a Happy Birthday card, which I did, and then she forgot to mail it.  It’s probably not the first time she’ll disappoint me but then she told me I could write you a birthday note here and I forgave her!

I want to wish you the happiest first birthday!  Can you believe how old we’re getting?  I think it’s really funny how we’re freaking our Mommies out by getting so big, and doing so many new things every day!  And teeth…yea…those are pretty funny too!  I am so glad that even though we live far apart, that we’ve gotten to see each other a bunch of times so we can nurture our future relationship as husband and wife.  Just to let you know, not to be a downer on your birthday, but I’ve got my eye on you…I saw this…

We’re young, so I’m going to let this one go…

I hope you have the best birthday ever!  I heard about your Moms plans for your Mickey party and think she’s a great Mom for putting that cool party together for you!  I hope you get lots of cool presents and that most of them are toys.  These Mommies think we like clothes, but really, we’re 1!  I’m really excited for your visit to our house & also I hear we’re going to Florida soon too!  I can’t wait to swim with you again…I’m pretty sexy in a bathing suit!

OK, I’m going to go now and have a bottle for breakfast.  I miss you very much and can’t wait to see you!  Have the happiest birthday ever!  Congrats on being 1!

All my love,

Baby A

Make Believe with A & Cousin S…

Boy did Gramma have her hands full this week!  I’m pretty sure that she will be hibernating in her bed from Thursday through Monday to recover from this week!  Monday she had a sleepover with Cousin S, Tuesday we had a full day with all the girls playing at the Children’s Museum of Paramus NJ, then she had a sleepover with A & Wednesday she came out to our house to bring A back, we went out to lunch and then she came to watch A’s very first swim lesson!

Check out how freaking adorable A & S (and A2 got to come out to play too!) were at the museum!!!!

Warning…LOTS OF PICTURES!!!

 

S wanted A to ride in her car WITH her!

A & S playing with blocks

"How the heck does this thing work...I really want to be LOUDER"

A made a friend!

S the builder...

and S the firefighter...

 

S has got the whooolllleeee world...in her hands!

 

We flew the helicopter...

played under the sea...

and above the sea...(A might be on her way overboard!)

S found a horsey!

and they rode together!!!

finally - they had a crafts session & the girls made pretty hats!

 

 

Getting our butts on A’s room decor!

In our last house, I was SO on top of A’s nursery.  It was all decorated once she got into her big baby crib & out of her bassinet.  I made art and framed it and hung it as soon as I could.  In this house….it was kind of enough just to get her bedding on, rug down, and paper shades up!

I started to need more decor in there…let her know we love her and want her to have a pretty pretty room!

I ordered some tissue paper pompoms from Etsy, which in retrospect was idiotic.  I could SO have made these…with NO trouble.  I didn’t though, so I waited until they came in the mail, which they did on Friday & happily I had our friend N over to help us!  She fluffed the pompoms & she did all the knot tying!  Then LK2 came home & we taped those suckers up to the ceiling.  I’m not sure scotch tape was the best way to hang them, since I know they will need some more securing sooner than later, but its working ok so far.  The room needs A LOT more in terms of art hanging and mirrors and girly things like my plans to customize her curtains…but this is the pompoms for now!  Its a little bit difficult to see because of the stupid zoom…but hopefully soon I’ll be able to take some better photos!

 

Daddy hanging up A's pompoms with some tape!

Ceiling centerpiece

Close-up!

We’re going to get on top of making some pompoms for A’s bday party!  not paying someone else to make them!

 

YOOOOO GABBA Party!!!!

Cousin S’s 3rd 2nd Birthday party was her school party.  A, Gramma and I got to go too!  It was a great Yo Gabba Gabba party!

 

MUNOOOOOOO he's tall and friendly

FOOFAAAAA.....She's pink and happy!

BROBEEEEE...the little green one!

TOODEEEE.....she likes to have fun!

PLEX....a magic robot!

 

Cupcakes came out fantastic!  Weird that Auntie H requested purple cake – but hey….she’s weird 🙂

As soon as A saw her cousin at the other side of the room, she HAD to get to her right away…so she crawled under the table and made her way to the prime spot right next to her best cousin!  It was so sweet…she loves her so much!

 

'I'm coming Cousin S!"

"Front row to the candle show!"

"How come I didn't get a cupcake?!"

Haha - No cupcake for you A!!! Soon - but not yet!

Cousin Al gets a cupcake!