Daddy's Friends

The other night we went over to visit with all my Dad's cincy friends - and their kids! Easton's parents, Matt & Elizabeth, were nice enough to host us all! We had pizza and played with all sorts of fun toys in their awesome basement play room! Also in attendance was Carson and his Dad Chip (we missed his mom, Michelle!) and Hayden and her parents Chris & Katie. Easton is just over 2 years old and was clearly running the show. He even knew how to fill up his car with gas! I thought only mommies & daddies did that! Carson is 18 months old and was really into the drum set... I would dance while he played the music. Then there's Hayden, she's only 5 months old (well almost) but she was doing a good job of keeping up with all of us. She's going to be real fun to hang out with once she's crawling! All our daddies grew up together, they either went to elementary and high-school together or were neighbors all growing up. Can you believe that! I hope I have friends I can be friends with for that long... that's like forever!

Cousin Emerson!

The day after Christmas we went over to my Great Aunt Ruthie's house to meet my cousin Emerson for the first time! Ruthie has a wonderful home with lot of pretty things that I wanted to pick up and play with, but mom said I wasn't allowed to touch - they were dangerous (which I think was a lie she only told me so I wouldn't touch them, I'm onto her). Anyway, cousin Will and I got to play with our cousin Emerson instead of all the dangerous and beautiful things at Aunt Ruthies. Emerson is my dad's mom's cousin's son's son. Did you follow that? yeah, neither did I but it doesn't matter - we're family somehow! Believe it or not, Emerson is almost 2 whole months younger than me... but he's about 2 inches taller and clearly a little... more muscular shall we say? than me. He was fun to play with and the 3 of us had a really good time. It was great meeting you Emerson! Hopefully we'll get to play again soon!

Christmas Night

On Christmas night everyone on Grandpa's side comes over to Grandma & Grandpa's house for Christmas Dinner! I had so much fun seeing all my aunts & uncles and playing with my cousins! This was actually my first time meeting my Aunt & Uncle and cousins who live in Pittsburgh and my cousin Canon! Will was of course there but Canon also came! He's almost 3 so he's a pretty big boy but he still played with Will and I. We all got to open some more presents too - how are we ever going to get all this stuff back to Chicago?! It was so great to see everyone and spend time with such a wonderful family. I miss you all already and can't wait to see you again!

Christmas Morning

Every Christmas morning, everyone on Grandma's side packs up and head to Great Grandpa's for brunch. Great Grandpa did an amazing job cleaning the house and cooking for us. He made 4 casseroles! Can you believe that? He got some tips from the chef at his country club and they paid off, it was delish! Will and I wore our matching track suits - don't we look adorable? My second cousin Sara also brought her dog, so I got to chase her around everywhere. Great Grandpa is also in a band so we played the piano too and opened presents and had so much fun. Thanks for having us Great Grandpa! I love you!!

Christmas Eve

Every year we go to Aunt Dellie's for Christmas Eve. All of Dad's grandparents are there along with cousins and second cousins and aunts and uncles and great aunts and great uncles and maybe even second aunts and uncles and thrid or fourth cousins. I mean I have no idea how we are all realated but somehow we are, we're all family! First we eat a lot of great food and then just after it gets dark a special visitor comes knocking on the door... SANTA! He doesn't come down the chimmney since it's just a quick stop, in fact, he doesn't even come inside. We ran out to meet him and I really though I was going to be able to handle it this time... but Will was clearly freaking out, so I felt I had to too...  

Back inside, things calmed down and everyone waited while Grandpa handed out the presents Santa had brought. My favorite present actually didn't come from Santa, it came from Aunt Ruthie! She game me my first set of pearls... my very own BLING! I loved them and would scream if mom tried to take them off. In fact, I was having so much fun that I refused to let my Mom put on my pajamma's. Once the pajamma's go on, it's time for bed - I didn't want to go to bed! I was having too much fun! So I wiggeled my way away from Mom and went back to join the party - with no pajammas, but with my pearls of course. Oh what fun!

 

Christmas Eve Day

Just before Christmas we drove down to Cincinnati to see everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) in my Dad's family. We stayed with Grandma and Grandpa, which I love because Grandma is always doting over me and Grandpa loves to play with me. There was a lot of hoopla over Christmas and it's a little confusing for me right now, but I'm sure it'll all make sense one day. Everything got started on Christmas Eve Day...

Santa came early to Grandma & Grandpa's house! Mom said that he actually dropped off all our presents earlier since later on tonight he makes a special appearance at Aunt Dellie's and it wouldn't be fair to all the other kids otherwise. As a result we actually opened our presents from Santa on Christmas Eve Day with cousin Will and aunt Julie & Uncle Billy!

Grandma & Grandpa kicked off the event with 2 presents of their own... a laughing monkey and pig! They were hysterical!

Then we got to the good stuff! Will and I got matching push cars and rocking horses - or really a rocking butterfly and a rocking pirate ship. There will also hats and popcorn pushers, wrapping paper and tissue and ribbon too! It was a lot of fun to pull paper off of everything!

Here's some video of Will and I on the rocking horses and racing in the cars... can you believe we were outside like that on Christmas Day? Last year it was FREEZING cold on Christmas Day!

What a great Christmas! Thanks Santa!

Zoo Lights

This weekend we went with Joey (and his mom and dad) and Derek and Katie (Dad's friends from grad school!) to Zoo Lights at the Lincoln Park Zoo!

Zoo lights was spectacular! That's a new word I learned. It really was spectacular though... there were so many lights! They had red lights and green lights, white lights and blue lights, lights that danced to the beat of songs like Jingle Bells, lights that looked like monkeys, giraffes and fish, lights that seemed to be falling like snow, and lights that looked like Santa! We also saw some real lions and tigers and monkey too!

Monkeys are so funny, I can make a monkey noise. My mom & dad didn't even know Betsy had taught me that one. They were quite surprised when I started saying "ooo ooo ooo" when we entered the monkey house. They are so silly.

Santa Baby...

Nope. Not a fan.

This weekend Joey and I went to visit Santa. His grandparents invited us to their country club for a Christmas party, which was very nice of them. Thanks Pat & Angelo!

While I really love all the stories about Santa and am super excited for Christmas morning when I can sneak downstairs and see all the fun presents he's left, meeting him in person was a little intimidating! He's very big and has a very thick beard and a very scratchy coat. I prefer to gaze at him from afar rather than be thrust into his lap and left alone by mom and dad. Joey of course had no problem with Santa, but I'll let you in on a little secret... he's met Santa before! So I'm guessing that the second time you meet him is not as scary.

I was already a little less afraid when daddy held me instead of the actual big man himself...

There were a ton of other things to do and see at the party we went to - there were elf's everywhere making balloon animals, doing tricks and juggling, and a giant Christmas tree. Joey and I had a lot of fun running around the club getting into everything. Toward the end, I even got a little closer to Santa... but only for a moment.

Roommate Reunion

This weekend we flew (I know, again on a plane! If only I had a frequent flyer # already) to visit my old Chicago friend Henry (and his mom and dad; Beth & Dave) in Pennsylvania. He moved earlier this year with his mom and dad out of their Chicago apartment and into this great big house with front yard - and a back yard! They also have a basketball hoop, more toys than I've ever seen and a playroom on every floor! That's 3 different play rooms. I think we also went for a reunion - Mom, Beth, Carrie & Bonnie were all college roommates. Carrie and Denny came with Brian, who is almost 2 years old too. They live in Cincinnati so we see them when we go to visit Grandma & Grandpa. Bonnie and Nich live in New York City though, so this was my first time meeting them. Bonnie even taught me a new blinking game, if you blink, I can blink back!

We all had a lot of fun playing and hanging out all weekend long. We even did an arts and craft project, although it did not go over as well as our mom's had hoped. I think they thought us kids would love the idea of dipping our hands in gooey paint and then delicately placing hand prints on paper in the shape of mittens and wreaths. Please! Once I got my hands in that paint I immediately wanted to smear it off of me and that meant wiping it on whatever was around me - my shirt, my leg, my hair, the table, mom, bonnie, whatever. You can see that there is a hand print on that wreath down there, but let's just say I did not do that voluntarily and I doubt mom will be attempting any new craft projects this year.

Anyway, it was a great weekend and I had so much fun playing with Henry & Brian - they're not bad for a bunch of older boys! Thanks for having me Henry! Love you all!

Walking like a pro

So on my birthday I started walking, I mean really walking. I walked all the way across the room all by myself. I don't want to brag, but by that next week I was already walking like a pro! I really prefer walking to crawling now too. So much easier on the knees. At times I'm still a little wobbly but I don't have that far to fall if I go down, so it's not bad at all.

Here I am walking around the Children's museum, playing in the kitchen and in the garden, and going fishing! Betsy took me here this week with Joey & Maria.

And here I am just goofing around the house. I like to hold onto lots of things and walk at the same time. Mom says I'm very good at multitasking and that will come in handy later.

And here's video of me walking all around the house just this week...