All About Kyle

 

Kyle is a delightful baby. He's goes with the flow and is pretty content most of the time. If you just talk to him, you're almost guaranteed to get a smile. His coos are adorable and he's a pretty good sleeper. He is fascinated with his hands right now and he has a killer grip. He can also hold his head up pretty well.

We heard Kyle's first giggles on Sunday. Of course, once we started filming him he stopped. Hopefully you will all see it soon.

 Talking with Daddy

 Cap nap after a bath

All About Claire

We went through a pretty rough patch with Claire, behavior wise, about a month ago. Things have drastically improved and we enjoy having our little girl back. She is quite the conversationalist and can pronounce just about any word. She does, however, call the kitchen a 'chicken' and a pool a 'cool'.

Claire likes to run errands. She loves to grocery shop with me and often cries if I tell her we are headed straight home after daycare. So, I try to plan quick little errands I can run with the two of them. Last week, I drove to get gas and happened to be very close to a park. I figured dinner could wait 20 minutes and we stopped to play on a somewhat warm day.

Claire loves to swing and is learning to pump her legs.

 Claire also loves to bake. While reading a book recently, a penguin surprised his friends with iced cutout cookies. Claire was asking me to make 'surprise' for days. I offered to make chocolate chip cookies with her and she insisted on 'surprise'. While Aunt Mimi was visiting on Sat., she and Claire went to the store for supplies. We made some pretty cute cookies. Tasty too.

We've had a training potty for Claire for a very long time now. She hasn't been all that interested, however, while taking a bath this week she stood up and yelled "Mommy, I have to go potty!" I swooped her up and set her down and she went. She then told me "Now I can go to school!" It was so cute.

It's happened in the following two baths since, so we'll see. She also wore underwear (alone) for a little while Sat. morning. We're crossing our fingers on that one.

Yard Work

Our weekend was pretty much consumed with weeding and mulching all the flower beds in the front of our house. I used to have the luxury of plugging away at projects like this whenever I chose. Now it seems like I almost need a baby sitter to accomplish a big home improvement task.

Claire is big enough to play in the yard while we are out working, but Kyle is a challenge. Since we couldn't hold him and weed/mulch, we brought his swing outside and kept him nearby. I think he enjoyed the fresh air.

Claire helped Lucian wash down the table and grill while I ran to the garden center. You can sure fit a lot of much in a mini van.

And just some cute pics of the kids.

Kyle has been talking quite a bit lately. Here's a little video.

Hoppy Easter!

Claire was a pro at finding eggs this year. We expanded the search from just her room last year, to the kitchen, living and dining rooms. The Easter bunny also hid her basket. We had a fun morning searching and then had scrambled eggs for breakfast.

We headed over to Nana Kathleen and Papa Dave's for lunch and a big egg hunt. There were 34 eggs for each child to find and everyone had their own egg colors. Claire's were pink and purple and hidden low to the ground. She was a whiz at finding them as well as recognizing her colors. She amazes me nearly every day.

She found all 34. Most had coins in them and a few had a candy treat. Lucky girl.

Kyle was fairly oblivious to the events, but looked really cute in bunny ears.

Cousins Geremiah & Lucy getting ready for the hunt

Chicago

Lucian had to attend a work function Friday night in Chicago. Since we both had the day off, we decided last minute to take the kids to the city and stay overnight. Spencer is spending a week in Florida with his mom, so it was just the 4 of us.

We decided to hit up the Lincoln Park Zoo for the afternoon. It was a little chilly, but tolerable in the sun. Kyle stayed bundled up in the stroller most of the time. He is such an easy going baby, sometimes I forgot he was down there!
The polar bear at the zoo put on an amazing display swimming right up to us at the window over and over again. Claire was super excited and asked to see the the polar bear the next day.

We checked out this cool honeycomb structure just south of the zoo. It made for some great photographs.

I think I would have been more reluctant to travel with Claire at this age. I felt she was an unpredictable cryer. Kyle fusses a little when he's hungry or gassy, but that's about it. I don't think we kept anyone up at night.

Claire enjoyed watching the people and cars from 7 floors up.

Sunday morning we walked the 3 miles from our hotel to the Shedd Aquarium. Our kids are up early, so we were out the door close to 8am. I didn't realize it at the time, but seeing things like the kidney bean and gardens with hardly anyone around was quite spectacular.

Claire was super crabby and didn't have any interest in seeing her reflection.

We found a great breakfast place close to our destination and headed to the Shedd. Having driven by the day before, we knew the lines were hours long to get in. We bought tickets online the night before and hoped that would shorten our wait. Since we had a stroller, we had to use the accessible entrance, and at 10:30 there was no line to get in that way. Note to self: never go to the Shedd without advance purchase tickets.
We weren't able to get tickets to the dolphin/whale show, but we had a fun time exploring the aquarium. We saw a diver in one tank that Claire explained to us was "getting Nemo." It's one of her favorite movies.

Kyle & Lucian exiting the aquarium

We walked back to the hotel in the very warm weather, stopping to feed Kyle and play along the way.

Me with our gear. (I'm checking how much time we have left and trying to decide if we need a cab to make our 2pm check-out). We just made it, by the way.

Since Claire was in a better mood, we stopped briefly at the bean again. This time she waved:)

We stayed at The James hotel and the staff was amazing. I've always viewed things like luggage service as optional and nice-to-have until traveling with 2 small kids. We really couldn't have done it without their help. It was well worth the few dollars in tips.

We stopped for lunch and made it to Evanston before Kyle needed to eat again. Lucian and Claire played at a park while I fed Kyle in the car. We made it home by dinner time and had a nice little get away.

Tea Party

My Aunt Mary Ann is visiting (Rockford) from Georgia. She made the trip up to Milwaukee with my parents and my Aunt Kath to visit on Sunday. We decided to host a tea party to celebrate. I also realized I've never hosted my extended family at my house (they are all out of town). It made me feel so grown up:)

I made quiche and finger sandwiches and asked my mom to bring fruit salad. Aunt Mimi brought little cheesecakes for dessert which I paired with some store-bought sweets. The weather was lovely and so was the party. Here's some highlights.

It was nice for my aunts to meet baby Kyle

Claire played outside before lunch and the extra hands/eyes on the kids allowed me to focus on entertaining.

Running with Papa and Kath

Dapper Spen
Nana Barb with her sisters

Claire showing Kath her slide

Borrowing Time

My return to work was no where near the ease in, slowly get back up to speed transition I had hoped for. The other art director I worked with took a job in NC and we are currently searching for a replacement. Additionally we are very busy, which leaves me burning the midnight oil after the kids are in bed.

Therefore, this post is short and sweet. I'm cutting time where ever I can, and unfortunately blogging is one of those places. Sleep is the place I primarily cut which has fueled my coffee addiction and left me a little spacey. Sorry if some of my writing doesn't make sense.

silly faces

Claire received an entire chest full of princess dress-up clothes from a neighbor. Here she is trying on the mermaid dress and white gloves. She has really been enjoying playing dress-up.

Kyle is a sweet and easy-going little guy. Thank goodness, because I don't think I could handle a fussy baby right now. Claire is a very trying 2-year old at the moment. I bought a parenting book that was recommended to me to learn some better techniques, but I'm not sure when I'll have time to read it!
Lucian and I have a date night planned this Sat. that includes dinner and concert. I cannot wait.