The Last Week in September

We are ready for the game to start.
Morgan and Daddy
Mommy and Addyson having fun at the game
Morgan watching the game from her standing position behind the seat
Addyson getting down to Morgan's level.

Addyson after eating a purple cupcake from Will's birthday party and after getting her chin glued back together! At least she is happy. :O)
Morgan thinks she can climb the stairs....although to me it looks pretty daunting when you are that little.
Morgan looks back to make sure someone is still watching her.
Morgan longing to be picked up by Grandpa.
Grandma Debbie reading to Morgan, Addyson and Ashlyn. (Wake Up Ashlyn!)

I really cannot believe that today is the last day in September. Today is Tim and my 8th wedding anniversary...that is crazy. We have been married for 8 years and been together for 10, but first met in August of 1992, where has the time gone? I think back to all those years at EIU, then the 3 years I lived in Chicago, and then the move to Algonquin, it really seems like yesterday. Now Tim and I are in WI with two little girls....one in preschool and one about to turn 1. It all seems so surreal sometimes .


So last Thursday started as any normal day with me taking Addyson to gymnastics. When we got home, I decided to wash Morgan's carseat because she spilled her bottle all over the inside of it, so with the cushioning in the washer, Addyson decided to wash her hands in the bathroom sink (as she always does). Well, I guess she didn't judge the distance between her chin and the sink when she was getting down because she bonked it on the sink and started screaming! It split open the underside of her chin but really didn't bleed too badly, but after two cuts on her forehead, I knew if it was gaping, she was probably going to need more stitches.....and guess what? Every time she moved her mouth, it would gape. So I called the nurse at her pediatrician's office and she recommended we go to Urgent Care right away to get it looked at. Knowing that sometimes time is a factor in these cases, I turned off Addyson's mac and cheese on the stove and went to grab Morgan for her carseat, only to remember that her cushion is in the midst of a spin cycle in the washer! ugghhhh! Why is it always that way when you are in a hurry? Murphy's Law, I guess....so we had to wait for it to finish and then the poor thing had to sit on a towel in her seat to keep her from getting soaked! I am sure that wasn't comfortable! Luckily the Urgent Care wasn't busy and they got us right in. The doctor decided to glue it instead of stitches since she has already gone through the stitches trauma twice in her short lifetime. It already looks like it is healing up nicely but that makes 3 scars on her face. I think she has gotten more scars on her face in 3 years than most people do in a lifetime....I hope things start getting better for my clumsy little girl. I don't know if I can handle another accident. :O)


Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Kenny came up for the Cubs-Brewers game at Miller Park on Saturday. We had a great time and the girls did great again. Addyson slept a little bit at the game and on the way home, but Morgan, being stubborn, refused to take a nap but still seemed to smile through all of it and had fun just holding onto the seat in front of her so she could stand. The Cubs won and forced the Brewers to wait one more day before they clinched the Wild Card and kept our (Tim and mine) win streak intact at Miller Park. Hopefully, if they meet in the NLCS, the Cubs can keep up their good luck at Miller Park, but we shall see. The Cubs season has been so much fun these past two years so whatever happens in the postseason shouldn't take away from the baseball that was played in the last 6 months, although I know it will disappoint the many Cubs fans who have been patiently waiting for it to finally happen.


On to other things......Morgan is 10 months old now and still not crawling, but she is already onto better things like pulling herself up and standing while holding on to stuff. She tries so hard to crawl but with the hardwood floors, she slips constantly. I think she is a little discouraged by that and has given up on it....she scoots herself over to the couch and then pulls herself up and then bounces while smiling, so proud of her accomplishment. I don't expect her to walk anytime soon, but the goal is to have her walking before our February trip to Mexico. Luckily I still have 4 months. Morgan finally has two teeth that are about all the way in. I was beginning to wonder if the poor child was ever going to get teeth. She was great about them coming in with no signs of it at all. Lately she has been a little stinker when it comes time for napping because she likes to sit up on her own, so when you put her in the crib she sits herself up, and she cannot get back down so she cries forever until you go in and lay her down. Today it took three times of me doing that until she finally gave up and stayed down and fell asleep. Plus it has gotten harder to take her places in the morning because she really needs that nap. I think I have to give up my exercise class during her morning naptime because otherwise she is really cranky and hard to handle until her afternoon nap. I know that kids generally give up the morning nap after they are one, so for the next few months, I think I can be a little more accommodating for her since she was so accommodating for me for the last 10 months!

Another Great Week

Jumping on the bridge
Addyson doing what she loves the most
Waiting for a snack

Laura and I at the game
The Cubs are celebrating
The sign says it all!

The weather has been so great this week, which is what I love about Fall. We usually get a few days of cooler weather and then it warms up again and reminds me that I need to get outside and enjoy this because it may be the last time for awhile. I get so spoiled with Summer and begin to think, oh well, there will be more days like this so I can do that on a nice day later in the week.....and usually I don't get to it. But knowing it is September I tend to do it now instead of later. Today the girls and I went to a park in the area and we visited with some other moms from our group. Addyson was thrilled to get to play with some of her friends, although we are still going through the struggle of sharing the swings and not listening when mommy says no. I asked the other moms, "when will these girls ever get over the love of swinging?" None of us know that answer but it will be nice when they can learn to pump their legs and swing themselves! Well, I say that now, but I am sure a few years from now, I will be wishing my girls still needed me to push them. It was so nice to get outside and let the girls play even though I gave up my running on the treadmill to do it. I told one friend that I guess I need to realize that I have all winter to work out and need to use the nice days that are left to get outside with my kids.


This past Saturday, Tim and I got to experience another great Cubs game. They clinched the division! It was so fun to see all the excited fans (us included) and the team running around the field with the champagne. We went with our friends Steve and Laura and as crazy as it is...we were with them at the game in 2003 when the Cubs clinched the division that year. Let's hope they can play as well in the playoffs as they did that year...with the exception of losing in the NLCS. We really need them to win it all this year. After a 100 year drought, enough is enough! They just need to do it this time! We will be going to the game this weekend at Miller Park which should be a lot of fun since there is so much for Addyson to do there and we can let her do it since there is no pressure of them winning, but the pressure is back on the Cubs starting next Wednesday and especially Thursday when Tim and I will be there....I hate being at a game when they lose! So all I can say is....Go Cubbies!

The No-Hitter at Miller Park

The night started with batting practice Addyson playing in Bernie's Dugout
Posing with her favorite sausage
Acting really enthused in the giant baseball mitt
So happy to be sitting with mommy

We were so excited to be at another Cubs game so close to home!

Grandma Rose and Grandpa Pat joined us to cheer on the Cubbies!

Soriano started it all off with a homer

Addyson cheering for SorianoHe did it! Zambrano threw a no-hitter!Unbelievable!

It was definitely a night that we will never forget. All weekend we were bored with no Cubs games being played due to Hurricane Ike. We patiently waited for MLB to announce where they might play outside of Houston and really hoped for Miller Park so that we could go to the game. Thanks to my sister and her watching the news, I was made aware of the venue change to Milwaukee and I got online instantly and got our tickets. We were lucky enough to be directly behind home plate and was really just hoping for a win. Never in our imagination did we think that Zambrano could pitch a no-hitter....with Houston being the hottest team in baseball and Zambrano coming off rotator cuff inflammation, it was not a thought in anyone's mind! Tim mentioned it in the 4th inning, I believe, but really I think he was kidding at the time, but as we watched the game in the later innings with a couple of our friends, we realized that maybe this night would be something special. The fans were on cloud nine going into the bottom of the 9th inning and with every pitch, the fans stood with bated breath. (Let's Go Cubs! Let's Go Cubs! was yelled between the first two batters.) When Zambrano was working on the final out, and the count got to 3-2, we all lost it when Darin Erstad swung at a pitch in the dirt....HE DID IT! He threw a NO-HITTER! It is a once in a lifetime event to be seen...and I owe it all to my love of the Cubs! This season seems to be magical. I hope they do it this year. (I believe! It's Gonna Happen!) No more silly curses...Let's just play ball!

Busy Crazy Weeks

Morgan
Addyson getting ready to leave for gymnastics....it is so hard to get her to smile!

Addyson's beautiful artwork on the WALL! It took A LOT to cover it up....so I don't recommend letting your kids use watercolors on the walls....haha!
Grandma Debbie posing with one of the new towels she got the girls....this one is a duck towel!
Addyson and Kaylee splashing in the pool.
Happy Ashlyn
Addyson's first day of preschool

Well, these past two weeks have shown me how crazy it may be from here on out. We honestly have something going on four out of five days a week....we will see how long this can last.

Last Week started with Labor Day weekend and my sister and her kids spending Friday and Saturday night here since Bob was out of town. It was a lot of fun for Addyson, she kept talking about how Kaylee was going to have a sleepover at her house. She was so happy to have a friend to play with that was here all waking hours of the day. As soon as they got here, I suggested we go to McDonald's for the playland so that Diana and I could take care of Morgan and Ashlyn while the older two ran around and we didn't have to worry about them running off when we weren't looking. That night, the girls were so tired that they went right to bed and slept really well....Saturday, Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Kenny came to visit and I found Addyson's pool from Algonquin and it actually didn't have any holes in it! It has not been used since 2006 and it still held up. She was so excited to have a pool to play in. How sad is it that it took me until the last weekend of the summer to get her a pool to play in? :O) Nonetheless, Kaylee and Addyson had a great time splashing each other and getting in and out over and over. Sunday, everyone left and for about 3 hours, I had the house to myself to just clean and straighten up and then Grandma Rosie, Aunt Amy and Lauren and Caroline came to stay. The girls went swimming in our neighbor's pool and then out for dinner....after that we just hung out and Addyson got to show her cousins all her toys. Lauren and Caroline are such good sports about playing with their 3 year old cousin, I wish we lived closer to each other because they would be the best babysitters for Addyson and Morgan. The next morning when Aunt Amy, Lauren and Caroline left, Addyson and Morgan were so sad but Grandma Rosie stayed so that made all of us happy. (I definitely treasured that extra help since Tim was still hunting and wouldn't be back for another 3 days!) Another exciting piece of news is that Morgan finally got her first tooth on Labor Day! She is 9 1/2 months old so it is about time!


Addyson's preschool started on Wednesday and even though she was only there for one hour, I think it made a huge impression on her because she talked about it all day. She doesn't understand that she will not be taking her lunch to school like she did in the summer so that is one thing I keep trying to explain to her, but otherwise she is pretty happy that she is now officially in school. It is hard to believe that a year from now she will be in 4K every day and taking the school bus! My little girl is growing up too fast!


Thursday, she went to gymnastics. We have not had her in the class since Morgan was born, but this time she is three....so she went by herself....no moms allowed! She did great: she listened, she followed directions, she did what they asked! I couldn't believe it! I think a lot of it has to do with Maggie, her friend in the class who is very obedient. Addyson follows her lead and a good lead it is! Right now, she loves gymnastics and I hope she wants to stick with it. What a great workout for a little girl.


Fridays will now consist of "Kids in the Kitchen" for Addyson. She wanted to take this class when she heard that the two neighbor boys took a cooking class over the summer. They are cooking from an Emeril cookbook and the first week they made the BabyBam seasoning and will use it all session. She brought out scrambled eggs after class and they were really good. She made Daddy some scrambled eggs on Saturday and was very disappointed that I didn't have any BabyBam seasoning to use but I told her that we will have to find that recipe and make some so that we have it next time. Daddy loved his scrambled eggs and she was so proud of herself. Also, on Friday night, Daddy took her to the Story time at the local bookstore. Her friends, Maggie, Lucie, and Sofia were there and they were photographed for our local paper. Tim and the other parents were interviewed for the article. We shall see how much of it they use on Tuesday. After story time, Daddy buys Addyson a book so she chose a new Fancy Nancy book, which is her favorite series.


Today is Sunday and we just got back from watching our nephew, Andrew, play baseball at Halfaer Park, which is the old County Stadium before Miller Park was opened. It was so exciting for those Mundelein teams to get to play there. We didn't see the entire game since Morgan needed to get to bed and Tim needed to get home for work stuff, but Andrew's team was winning when we left. Hopefully, they won the game. Addyson played with Caroline, who was again so patient with her and took her to play on the Bernie's Dugout play equipment right outside the little field. It was a lot of fun and great to see Andrew play since we don't get down to Mundelein often enough to see the kids in their sports. Earlier in the day, I walked in the Dylan's Run/Walk for Autism with a few of my friends and it was great to get to see everyone and walk along the lakefront. http://dylansrun.com/2007/ Here is the link to last year's photos....the top picture is of me (pregnant) with my friend, Elizabeth (also pregnant). Maybe this year the two of us will be in a picture without the baby bumps! haha! Anyway, I really enjoy supporting this race and will continue to do it as long as I can. Autism affects too many children these days and with no cure as of yet, we all need to find ways to support the families that it affects so that one day there may be a cure.

Yay! The Bears just won! Since the Cubs had such a crappy loss today, at least the Bears have cheered us up!