Swings make her giggle, apparently

She does this every time I put her in a swing.  Best giggles ever!

Fun with Fall

As I write, there are 28mph winds outside blowing our tidy little piles of leaves all over the yard.  Which is a big boo.  But it's also 67 degrees outside, which I suppose makes up for it, right?

We're enjoying fall here in Chicagoland, with the alternating freezing and warm weather.  We're taking lots of walks, enjoying the outdoor playgrounds while we can, and keeping all of our fingers crossed for Byron's third round interviews at ACCO on Tuesday.  :)  If that works out, we'll be staying here in Chicagoland, which would be really exciting.

A few entertaining kiddo tidbits:  in the last two days, Leo has started saying "yes" instead of "yeah."  Not sure where that came from, but it seems to be a very conscious thing.  He'll say "yeah," then stop himself and say "yes" instead.  Makes him sound like such a big boy!  The train obsession continues, so I'm sure we'll have a christmas of trains trains trains....

And Mikaela is babbling nonstop, and scootching all over the floor.  It's not quite crawling, but it's definitely intentional movement. 

Hoping we have good job news to share soon.  In the meantime, enjoy more fall pictures in the Fall 2011 album on Flickr.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/clickclickchic/sets/72157627886748578/

Trains and crawling

Not sure how I managed to have such a long lapse in posting.  You know how sometimes when your schedule is wide open it's even easier to procrastinate?  I have that problem.  I get more done when I have less time.  And we've had all sorts of time on our hands.
In a nutshell, we have relocated up to Chicagoland, and are currently staying with Byron's parents in the burbs.  Byron's still job hunting (had a good phone interview with one company and a couple really solid leads elsewhere, but no offers yet).  Mikaela turned 6 months old this week (!) and is working really hard at crawling (!!!).  I mean it's great, but wow.  Not really ready for it.  Kinda thought we'd be all settled in somewhere by the time we had to deal with stage 1 babyproofing again. In the last two weeks, she's progressed from just pushing up with her arms, to getting her belly all the way off the floor, to getting up on her knees, to rocking back and forth on her hands and knees, then skootching backward, to now getting a little forward momentum.  I think we're just weeks away from genuine crawling.  I don't remember exactly when Leo started crawling, but I'm pretty sure she's ahead of him.
We've also started feeding her a little solid food, which she is taking to with mixed results.  First feed - great.  Grabbed the spoon and shoved it into her own mouth and devoured it.  Next few times, most of it got spit right back out.  Meh.  We'll keep working on it.
And she's still a pretty happy little girl.  Lots of smiles for everyone, she laughs hysterically quite often (at a sneezing cat, her brother doing all sorts of things, and Daddy making silly faces).  If we were settled I'd be starting to work on transitioning her into a crib (and out of my bed) but that's hard to do in a temporary space where you don't want to wake the whole house up.  Oh and where you don't have a spare crib.  :)

Leo has developed a real obsession for Thomas the Tank Engine, so his days are largely stuffed with trains train trains trains.  Which would be OK if he didn't often insist that we play trains with him.  You can only sit on the floor playing trains for so long before you never want to see a train again.

Overall, our lives are still very unsettled and up in the air.  But all things considered, we are coping pretty well.  Things could be worse, but we'll certainly be relieved and excited when Byron gets a job and we can settle somewhere. I'm ready to put our homeless austerity program to an end!

Plenty more pictures for your viewing pleasure on Flickr.

Pooltime buddies

THUNDER!!!

A short and amusing story for you.  Last week, we had some severe lightning and thunder, and Great Grma taught Leo the word 'thunder.'  He thought it was pretty cool, and called out "Thunder!" every time he heard it.

Fast forward to a few days ago.  Leo was playing with his cars and trains with Grandma, and let out a big fart as he was squatting over to move a car.  Grandma said "Oooh Leo, what was that?" to which Leo enthusiastically replied with a grin, "THUNDER!!!"

Hot Times In The Country

Here is a visual sampling of some of the adventures we're having down here in Missouri - learning to wash the car, playing around Grandma's house, splashing in the creek.....

"That way, o-tay"

These are Leo's new favorite words.  Yes, he has become a chatterbox.  We understand most of what he says, though some of it still sounds like Russian gibberish.  He has started to say "otay" at the end of every request, as if he's learned that that's the word we use to say yes, so if he says it then his request will be approved.  It's pretty cute.  He repeats EVERYTHING we say, which means Mommy has to be very careful what she says sometimes...

Last week, Byron and I were wondering when imagination begins to flourish in a child, and I can now positively state that Leo has hit that stage.  We're at my mom's house right now, and she picked up a little kitchen play set for him (which he totally totally loves).  He has spent hours playing with all the parts of the kitchen, particularly a blender which he then brings around to pour us drinks.  One strawberry daiquiri please! But his favorite part of the kitchen is a little plastic phone.  He'll hold it up to his ear and walk around having conversations with imaginary people.  The other day he was walking around saying "Hi......love you too.....bye bye."  Repeatedly.  It was pretty awesome. 

Speaking of my mom's - we are here in lovely Potosi Missouri for a bit while Byron continues the job hunt.  He graduated from the Notre Dame MBA program at the end of May.  We spent two weeks in Chicago at Byron's parents house, and after here we might head down to Florida.  Who knows.  Leo is enjoying all the attention from family, and we are enjoying the generosity of meals and a place to sleep. :) 

As for little Miss Mikaela, she is getting big in a rush (she's already 14 pounds! and almost 13 weeks old!) and she rolled over for the first time last week.  She smiles alot, "agoo"s and "aga"s alot, and is already starting into the pre-teething drool stage.  Nothing more fun than having two children who drool alot.  She's continuing to be a great sleeper, thank god.  Now if she'd stop leaking through her clothes several times a day, life would be peachy!  She's even starting to find her own thumb every once in a while, which is a fantastic development for a child that has no interest in a pacifier.

Gotta go, Leo says we have to "go that way otay!", wherever that way is.....