Only Big Smiles Allowed: June 2008

Sleeping Beauties

Just as Danny and I have the most opposing sleep habits, same goes for our children. For some reason, Amelia can't get to sleep when she needs to and can't stay asleep when she needs to. Leo, on the other hand, takes after Danny and probably falls asleep before I close his door. They both wake up differently, too. Amelia creeps out of her room and comes in to see me - no matter what time it is or what rewards are waiting for her if she lets me sleep. This has been going on since she was 20 months old and in a big bed. Leo sleeps later, but screams holy murder from his bed until I (and only I) come and get him. Yes, he can get in and out of his bed. Isn't it more fun if Mommy comes and gets you?? In any case, the craziness of Amelia's bedtime and Leo's rooster calls all vanish when I check on them before I (finally) get to bed and they look so sweet. I love how Amelia fell asleep last night with her baby in her arms and Leo always has to have Yellow, Orange, Pink, Perry and, starting yesterday, Woody. And, no, I plan to get no sleep during our 2 week "vacation."

Leo's New Bed...or so he wishes

For the past few nights, when we are trying to get Leo into his bed, he runs away and gets comfy on the couch. "Sleep on the couch with Yellow, Orange, Pink, and Perry," he tells us - oh, so seriously. And the truth is (if he is anything like his daddy), we know he just might be fine there. Nevertheless, we escort him to his bed and we dont hear from him the entire night. This morning, however, after I was woken up by Leo screaming something to me (and Danny attempting to get him), I went into Leo's room and he told me that he wanted to walk by himself to the kitchen. When I got there, he was covered and waiting for me to bring him his friends. When Amelia woke up, she was asked to "sleep with me". The boy dropped his naps waaaaaaaaay to early for my tastes, but he definitely takes after his dad and *loves* to sleep.

Always worth the exhaustion...

I think this is the first time I sat down today, with the exception of driving. This morning, Leo and I walked Amelia to camp, played for a while at the park and then took the LONG way home. After cleaning the kitchen, we got in the car, picked up Amelia and headed to the Kohl Museum. Before the museum, we filled up on one of the best lunches at Chipotle in a while (chips and guacamole is a healthy meal for a 2 year old, right???). After I finish blogging, we are off to Amelia's swim lessons and then it is bedtime for all of us - but not before taking Daddy out for a quick dinner. I can rest in a few years, right?
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Amelia is always my "smile for Mommy" girl

Leo, not so much - but I get alot of action shots. Atleast, I have the front of his head in this one...

How could you not want to spend a day with these two?

"Nature Twister" seemed like a good idea until it entailed running around finding things in the park to touch - uh, no

The chalk lady was a much better idea, atleast I could sit on the bench across the way and just watch

Enjoying the art ;)

Now we can finally start talking about something else...

The other day, when I was talking about our trip to see the "cows" this summer, Leo got into his head that he had to go to the zoo and he had to go NOWWWWWWWW. The best I could do was go in a few days and today was the special day. I don't think Leo was convinced that we were actually going until we walked through the doors at the Racine Zoo. It was the prefect zoo for a day alone with the kids - small, cool breeze from the lake and not very busy. For $6 and gas, it was a great summer day and I know it will be the topic of conversation until we go back again.

Meet Boom Boom

Ever since we got Amelia's Build a Bear, several months ago, I have been getting gobs of emails from them - most of which I just delete. A few weeks ago, their Father's Day email caught my eye when I saw a "hockey bear" advertised. I thought it would be such a cute memory for both Danny and the kids to go to Build a Bear together, but it had to be a Montreal Canadiens hockey player - we all know that. I called around and the US stores do not sell Canadian hockey jerseys and the Canadian website does not ship to the US. Doh! So, I asked our wonderful and trustworthy friend, Suzanne, to buy me the outfit in MTL and send it here. Someone in customs messed me up a little, but the outfit got here and we went last night to build our new friend, Boom Boom, named after some legendary Canadien's player. Boom Boom will live in Danny's office, but I will post some pictures tonight or tomorrow.

Camp Firefly, we love you!

Today was Amelia's and Ari's first day of summer camp. It was a huge success and both are very excited to go back tomorrow.

Boy, was Daddy jealous...

When Leo watches TV downstairs now, he finds a pillow for himself and a blanket and makes himself quite comfortable. So comfortable, apparently, that he fell asleep while the rest of us were upstairs cleaning. Danny is quite proud that Leo has inherited his ability to fall asleep in any situation and I am quite sure that he would have traded places with Leo in a second.

Painted Penguin Party - 6/8/08

Both kids were invited to a birthday party at Painted Penguin. Amelia painted a turtle for Zadie and Leo painted - of course - a CareBear, and both did a wonderful job. Cake and milk and lots of candy to take home...that's what I call a good time. Ari and Noah were also there and I got the final "four cousins" picture, and what a miracle that everyone was looking at the camera...and smiling!!

Amelia's Last Day of School...6/6/08

Last Friday was Amelia's last day of school. It was a bit of a tiring day since we had my ultrasound at 8:30am and it was about 45 minutes from the house and school. A trip to Starbucks on the way back to school did help a little, but Amelia's tired eyes definitely showed through and it was a very long day.
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Amelia's new headband...for some reason, it has a problem staying on her head - hmmm.