Two

Happy 2nd Birthday, Keirah!! What could be better than to have a parade on the day of your birthday?? We took both girls to the parade of course and Keirah caught on quickly how to go get the candy--while Aliyah (age 6) pretty much watched. Aliyah is always of the idea that she doesn't really need much candy. In fact, the guy sitting next to her was giving her tons. The girls had orange large marigolds in their hair--from the plants Aliyah planted. They were looking quite festive. Everyone was stopping and filling their bag.

We proceeded to go to the arts/crafts/food portion of the festival. This is Keirah's 3rd one already because she went when she was only 3 days old! Yes, I am nuts and I love this festival.

For dinner, we had pizza. Keirah ate 3 pieces (they are very small). She kind of gave us this shy look about all of the stuff revolving around her. Although she got gifts from us while in Chicago from American Girl, she got a few gifts today from grandma & grandpa. Her favorite thing seemed to be the teeny tiny Dora backpack. She has worn it since she received it and continues to wear it while doing everything. She has enjoyed hopping around today and pushing her baby stroller. She didn't eat any cake, however loved the balloon candles.

Oh, how I remember Keirah's birthday! I woke up and watched Regis & Kelly that day (apparently that always sends me into labor)...it happened with Aliyah as well. It was approximately 9:45 am and the contractions started to get closer and closer. Josh got up and I told him that he needed to get ready and we should straighten the house. We did just that and left everything in perfect order. Aliyah was picked up by g&g and off we went. It was a gorgeous sunny September day. There was a lot of road work and Josh thought he would go fast. I told him to just drive normally. I remember breathing through contractions on the drive. It took between 30-40 minutes to get to the hospital. I walked in (remember this was the day I was to be induced that they had cancelled)...well she was coming anyway. They gave me an epidural right away and the whole l&d process was so much different and more relaxed than with Aliyah. With Keirah, I didn't have that horrid back labor that I had with Aliyah. At 5:41 pm Keirah was born. The doctor said he knew she probably didn't even weigh 8 lbs. You see, the doctors had told me she might weigh 9-10 lbs when she was born. I had gestational diabetes. She weighed 7-11. I remember them telling me that I could order whatever I wanted to eat. Since the diabetic diet was ended, it was a free for all. I ordered chicken strips & frieds (the forbidden foods on the diet). What a wonderful day with a wonderful new baby girl! Aliyah was proud to present Keirah with her first pacifier.

Keirah, you are so funny, sweet, & cute. You always have so much love and hugs to give us! You love your sis so much and always want to be with us. You have filled our house with so much love and laughter and beauty. We still can't believe you have bright baby blues!!

Happy 2nd Birthday! As Aliyah always says, "Isn't she a beauty"!

Chicago II

One thing I must point out about our day is the picture perfect weather we experienced. It wasn't too hot and it wasn't too cool. It was probably high 70's or low 80's with a slight breeze.


We finished our meal at the Weber Grill and began walking back to Michigan Ave. Aliyah wanted to stop and take some pictures at the Watertower Square...

From there, we crossed the busy street (where a vehicle started to back up on us) and went to the Watertower Mall. Every time we go in there, I recall the scene of the movie "What Women Want" with Mel Gibson walking through there in the makeup section. Anyway, we found some stores and some stuff for Josh and I. Aliyah loved riding the glass elevators that go really fast from the top to the bottom and vice-versa. We had to ride them every time because there are 7 floors and Chicago is very strict on the no stroller policy on an escalator. In fact, the American Girl store has escalator watchers. They make sure nobody and I mean nobody takes the escalator with a stroller. Once we were finished shopping, we stopped and sat down for a little snack of Auntie Anne's pretzels. They were yummy and the break to put down the bags was nice.

We left and Aliyah decided she wanted another trip inside the AG store. The second trip was much better in that the people had cleared quite a bit and it was much easier to move about. Both girls really enjoyed the Bitty Twins and Bitty Baby section. Keirah pushed around a stroller forever and gave us definite birthday ideas for her birthday =). We got 2 more items on that trip--one of them was a feeding set for a Bitty Baby...it was a lifesaver on the train ride home. It kept Keirah entertained.

Since Ralph Lauren is right next door to AG and since RL designed the US Olympic clothing, we decided to go in and look around. We like his clothes. The store is really cool. You kind of feel like you are in a parlor in one portion. There is also a restaurant with a very cool outdoor area. Since it looked to be pretty business-like at least the times we walked by, we didn't go since we had both kids and a stroller in tow. Anyway, the Olympic stuff was very cool, although quite pricey. One of the Polo shirts was $125.00. I guess if you really wanted it, however the Olympics are over and done with in 2 weeks and then what do you do with it?? We looked into the room with the dress shirts...some of them were $470.00. There didn't appear to be anything overly special about the dress shirt, but apparently there was something that we didn't quite detect =).

We stepped outside the RL store to wait for a bus to take us back to the train station. We had quite a lot of stuff to carry along with the stroller and such. I snapped a few photos while we waited...

Following our rush-hour bus ride, we made it safely back to Union Station and had time to take some pictures of the very cool hall. The last time I was at Union Station a few months back, there was a wedding reception that they were getting ready for so I didn't get any pictures.

Aliyah was practically asleep before we even pulled out of Union Station, however Josh described Keirah like a caged animal. She was ready to walk all around. He took her through several train cars to get a drink at the snack car. Fortunately, her AG toys helped entertain her. I must mention that the conductor on the train was very nice and talked to us several times. Aliyah informed him of her birthday. He went on the speaker and made an announcement and wished her a happy birthday. She was sitting in the seat just smiling away shyly.

Our day in Chicago wore Aliyah out--us too. We got home late and it was time to get ready for bed. Oh yes, Josh's take on the AG store...he says that he thinks it is geared towards moms. I asked why and he said because all of the grandma's, aunts, and mothers take the little girls there for this experience and it is like reliving childhood for them. He observed that there aren't any commercials for AG--at least not that we've seen. He noted that you do things in the AG store like mothers do...hair do's, pictures with your little girl "doll", etc... Maybe that's why the store is like one big estrogen trip =). That said, we are ready to go back in a few weeks to shop for Kiki's b-day. Side note...Aliyah wanted to take a carriage ride, however there wasn't room to take our stroller with us. We will take one on the next visit though.
Happy 6th Birthday, Aliyah!!

Chicago

The past week has been overly busy. There was a trip to St. Louis, a trip to Chicago, 2 birthdays, work, a trip to the pool, landscaping, housecleaning, Olympics to watch etc... That explains my lack of posting for the week.



We awoke early Tuesday morning on Aliyah's birthday to get ready to leave for Chicago. Aliyah was super excited to ride the train first of all. It was Keirah's first train ride, although Aliyah has ridden the blue/red lines in Chicago before.

We were all excited to arrive and find a bus waiting to take us right to the American Girl store. It didn't take long, but wow--bus drivers just do whatever they please while driving in Chicago. It's funny to me that children have to be restrained only in cars, but not in buses, trains, or airplanes. I must mention that on the bus ride back, the bus started to go before Aliyah was even in a seat and she fell to the ground. No harm done, though. Once we arrived at AG, Aliyah wandered around in overwhelmed wonder.

There were so many dolls and accessories, Aliyah said that "her thoughts were a little mixed up"...meaning she couldn't decide.

She ended up with the doll she is looking at in the picture--Julie. She also got a Bitty Twins tea cart, and an AG mini. She only wanted one--we felt like we were let off cheap. Following the first trip to AG which was like an estrogen injection that no one needs, she wanted to go to the Hershey's store. Yes, we had dessert before eating lunch, but who cares when it's your 6 year old birthday.

We chose some delectable looking desserts...and yes they were every bit as yummy as they looked. Aliyah made Josh eat the frosting off hers, and then she savored every last bit of chocolate.

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Following dessert, we headed over to State street to the Weber Grill for a very yummy lunch. Aliyah loved it! She had grilled cheese, fries, lemonade, and fruit. The beer can chicken that Josh had was awesome!! Since we chose to eat on the covered patio streetside area... this little dude came to visit at the end of our meal. He was the only one. He enjoyed little bits of grilled cheese that he found under Kiki's seat.

Aliyah was proud of the coloring book that she colored at Weber Grill. She insisted that I take a picture of it.

Following lunch, we headed back to Michigan Avenue for more fun. Two items of note....

Pottery Barn is gone from Michigan Avenue. They left abruptly in June and the building which is next to Tiffany's was sold for $350 million. I was dissapointed because I really wanted to go to PB. The other item of note, AG is moving from it's Rush/Michigan location to Watertower mall in October I believe. I imagine the new location will be bigger and allow for more estrogen-filled days and $$ to just flow out of parent's pockets into their registers =).

More on the rest of our day in Chicago including Josh's take on the AG store in my next post.

5

It's hard to believe, but this is Aliyah's last day of being five. In celebration of that, she did a few fun things today. Josh took her and Kiki to the park to ride the paddleboats. She thought that was pretty cool. Daddy didn't have the camera, but I sure wish he would have. She also got to play on the swings and slides. When I got home from work, I took her to get a new dog beanie. She loves playing the beanie games online. After that, we had pizza. When we arrived home we ate brownies since Aliyah has declared she doesn't eat cake anymore. She played outside and was surprised to have some cards and balloons when she got home.

I remember this day five years ago. It was filled with so much anxious eager wonderment. What would it be like to have a little one?? How would we adjust? What would giving birth be like? Well, all of those things took care of themselves. I remember that I couldn't eat after 7 pm that night. We did quite a bit of stuff at the house and Josh wanted me to go to bed early. Yeah, that helped because I just lay there with my mind racing. How do you go to sleep when you know you are going to have a baby in a few hours??

By the same token, I had no idea that time flies by so much quicker when you have kids. I wish I could have some of those moments back. They go by faster than you can enjoy them. I also think back and I can barely remember life without kids. Whenever they aren't with us, we are thinking about them, talking about them, or looking for something for them. What a blessing!

Oh to be five again ready to turn six and enter first grade! Cherish each and every moment--they are precious!!

Celebration

It has been a busy weekend for us. Many days of celebration. Josh and I took our trip to Six Flags on Saturday and celebrated Josh's last day of being 30.

We enjoyed the WILD coasters including Mr. Freeze (Josh's fave), Evel Knieval, the Boss, and Screamin Eagle. It was extremely busy there. We went to Hurricane Harbor, but decided not to swim. It was so crowded and busy and honestly kinda nasty. We had a lot of fun at HH the previous trip. Anyway, we still LOVE roller coasters. I laughed at Josh because he gets a freeze frame face when he rides. I giggle the whole time. Other than that, we watched what we have named the MIPS and the IHIPS. Here is a picture...notice the left lane.

Yes, the Illinois and Missouri police are using motorcycles quite often these days. We saw more MIPS and IHIPS than squad cars. We named them that because of the CHIPS TV show. They were out in mass force especially yesterday morning. The states must need A LOT of extra funds.

Here are some typical St. Louis landmarks that we saw as we drove through.

We had fun and a nice day, but we were tired when we arrived home. I was going on a hopping 2 hours of sleep.

Now, for today--Josh's birthday. I got him a nice shiny blue Kenmore grill. He put it together today and I will post a pic when I get one. He was gonna grill tonight, but we were out of gas. He chose our fave pizza place for lunch and it proved to be yummy.

Side note...there was just some shouting as the American men won the gold in the 4x100 freestyle...a very CLOSE race and just pulled out at the end-keeping Phelps 8 gold hunt alive.

After yummy lunch, we headed to Coldstone for a treat. Josh got a Cake Batter with graham cracker mixed in. The girls enjoyed mint w/ brownie.

It was a fun day. Tomorrow, we celebrate Aliyah's last day of being five and then it's off to Chicago for more birthday fun. What a beautiful weekend!