:)

Just flashing back to Baby Sylvie and how itty bitty she was. I can't wait!!!!!

Will she look like them?

I'm curious if baby #3 will look like baby #1 and baby #2!

When Logan was born he looked like my sister when she was born to me, but he definitely has has dad's lips and some of his facial features. He was such a mix of so many family members on both sides I couldn't believe it when Sylvie was born and she looked most ..... like her brother! She has taken on more looks of my mother-in-law's family as she's gotten older, but she also has looked like various family members through the years.

I picture baby #3 to have more hair, dark and not formed to her head like the other two, and a pale face. But we shall see! They never look like what you think they will look like!

Disney!

Rooms!

We rearranged and painted the rooms this weekend. We just took the tape off this morning, so this is 1 days worth of arranging and decorating. I'm excited to have the main pieces in place to get the rest done!

The Star Wars Room is Logan's (was Sylvie's) and the yellow room is Sylvie and baby's room (was Logan's). Logan was very hesitant for anything to change, so aside from his walls and a new tv, we tried to keep the room similar to what it was. Sylvie was excited for new things, but I kept her duvet cover and matched that. The crib mattress is where the crib will be. And we need to build one matching dresser that will cover the end of Sylvie's bed.

My new artwork in Logan's room is scrapbook paper I ordered, had Jorge mount to foam core and Logan arranged around the room. My artwork for the girls is over Sylvie's dresser, from Etsy some prints with princesses from fairy tales.

I've been obsessing over these two rooms for a few months now, agonizing over how and when to move the kids, so I'm very excited to have it "done" and ready to move into the nitty gritty as time allows. So fun!

First Day of School!

Vignettes

I love seeing the phases kids go through. It's fun to document them because sometimes, as quickly as they begin, they end! Sylvie's in this "Vignette" phase. She will set up random small items in a location and it's funny to come across it and wonder if she was thinking artistically, arranging to make it look nice, thinking realistically (like creating a hammock for a friend), or just plain playing.

Here are a few fun examples that are sitting around the house today....

A squirmy worm in a small hammock on lego fridge magnets

Chapstick, a small animal on a rug, and a larger animal on a towel, all sitting on a washcloth

A teddy beanie baby, a box for his "food", a fallen flower petal, sitting on a piece of pretty fabric.

Making Wishes

Deep Thoughts by Logan, age 7 3/4 years old.....

Sylvie: "I'm totally making a wish when we go under that bridge." (there was a train on it).

We all make a wish as we go under.

Logan: "Mom, I made a wish but I don't care about it anymore."

Sylvie: "Why not Logan?"

Logan: "The trick to wishes is that YOU have to make them come true."

Sylvie: "How do you make a wish come true?"

Logan: "You work really hard at it and come up with a plan. If you want a lot of money, you have to not spend all your money and save it and then you can get whatever you wanted to buy with your wish."

Love this kid!

Noticing Each other

Jorge moved some of my photos around so I can find them more easily on the Mac and I love this one!

Abby- 2002 to 2011

I took this photo on a Friday after Abby's haircut. This has been the year of skin and ear infections for her and it seems we'll be good for a few month and then she'll be cranky, itchy and licky. So this last go-around was pretty nasty, scabby and gross. And her personality was kinda cranky. We talked to the doctor and of course there are a lot of potential expensive tests to see what is causing the rashes, but she figured it was the same types of things as before- rolling in other animal dander and pee in the yard, spreading bacteria by rolling and licking, just making it worse on her own.

So we came home with some strong meds and I finally got her to the petsmart grooming to get some of that scabbiness off. They did a great job and she looked so pretty and healthy!

On Sunday she was fine when she woke up and started panting by 11 am. And shaking a bit. It was very unusual for her, but hot in the house. And then the other symptoms started. I was keeping a list to call the vet and we were googling around. She went downhill fast though. By the end of the night she was panting, tummy issues, excessive thirst, peeing quite a bit, and couldn't settle at all. Jorge took the shift til 1 am and I went down after and stayed with her til 4:30 am. She was very unsettled, going out constantly but wanting to come back in. And at one point she looked very disoriented and laid on her paws on the kitchen tile. I had thought maybe it was a UTI with a fever, and at that point I was really worried she was in a lot of trouble.

I had to work, so I left her downstairs for 1 1/2 hours to sleep upstairs. She tried to be up with us, but I brought her back down as she was very unsettled and I was afraid she would wake the kids. At 6:00 I went down and couldnt' find her downstairs. After a frantic search and a quick question to Jorge if he had left her out, we found her under the computer desk unconscious. She was already almost gone, and I thought she was, she was messy and not responsive. But she was breathing. By this point Sylvie was frantic and Logan was up. So I had Jorge wrap her up and we had to share the news that Abby was gone from us. We had them say goodbye and my father in law picked the kids up to get them out of the house so we could deal with everything.

Going to the vet to put a pet down is not an experience I would every hope for again. The vet was wonderful and the process was quick. She never perked back up or opened her eyes and the vet said her belly was already full of blood and fluid, she was not panting any longer, just barely breathing. Putting her down was a messy experience as well and the graphic images of seeing my dog lose control of her body will stick around for awhile.

It has been a sad week saying goodbye and every time we walk in the door, morning routine without my buddy asking for a treat, not worrying about her as part of my "do I have the keys, do I have my purse, is the dog inside the house" walk out of the house has put a sad note in a lot of our day.

I'm not sure what caused her sickness and I don't know if I really want to know. She seemed happy and somewhat healthy to that point. In my google searches I came across a few texts that said "dogs are very good at making you believe they are not sick." And Jorge found some things that mentioned skin infections a manifestation of things going on inside.

In all, it's been a sad goodbye and we'll miss her quite a bit and I know there will be tears shed when we bring this baby home and don't get to introduce her to our first "baby" Abby.

High Expectations

As I'm sitting working my toosh off at work this month I realized something, I have high expectations. I expect myself to accomplish a LOT at work, and if someone asks for something, I usually say yes. And get a lot done. So it got me thinking of other ways I have high expectations....

-I think the kids should be good to each other. Nice friends, respect one another, and love us all as a family.

-I expect myself to keep up their school skills over the summer. I start every May/June with some scrounging to find things they can and will do over the summer. Workbooks are a given and some cool ideas are always part of the agenda.

-I expect our house to work. For example, I think equipment should last longer than a summer. My parents have a box fan from sometime around 1976 that they still use. Meanwhile we've bought new fans every few years as those darn things break down all the time. Don't even get me started on how a house should not leak or how a DVD player should work for longer than a few years.

-I expect good things from the government, a clean city, and no crime. Weather that is acceptable would be great! Can we just combine a few cities into one grabbing the best weather months from them all, throwing in some awesome views, healthier restaurants, cheap shopping and driveability. Yeah, that sounds good. I may have to invent such a place someday and have an interview process for who gets in.

-I expect happiness out of life. I'm not satisfied with a mediocre doctor, church, job, activities, movies, etc etc. I just think if there is better, why not seek it out!? Call me picky, or annoying, but it must be part of my personality to want the good things in this world around me:)

Silly Billies

In the car....

Logan: "Mom, we don't have 10 fingers, we only have 8. Thumbs are not fingers."

Sylvie: "Are pinkies fingers?"

Explanation from me about the different names of the fingers- index, pointer, etc. Then I said I wasn't sure what the one next to the pinky is called.

Sylvie: "I'm going to name mine 'Stace."

Logan:"I'm going to name mine 'Slice."

I love that they so naturally go into make-believe pretend mode!

Mother's Day Plans

Logan: "Mom, we have a plan for tomorrow. You get to sleep in and I'll get Sylvie her princess milk."

Sylvie: "And I'll do all the dishes" (aka pouring soap all over everything and running up the water bill, but ever so sweet)

Logan : "And we'll do everything in the morning, we'll even keep the floor clean. You just have to sit back and relax on the couch."

Sylvie: "You can sit in my spot on the couch. Logan, you do the broom and I'll do the dishes okay?"

I love these sweetie pies. They make my world a wonderful place to be in!

And endless palette......

Suddenly this week I'm really open to ideas on how to bring back some of the old fun into my life.......Some things I've come across that are inspiring or worth pursuing.....

Meetup

I used to be part of a meetup.com group. Nice ladies but my kids got too big too fast and suddenly school was getting in the way of play! Add in work days and I had to part ways. So on a whim I went on meetup.com and came across a few biking groups. There is one that tries to do biking and hiking with stops along with way for taking photos. Here's a photo from a member. Sounds right up my alley doesn't it? Think I can convince Jorge to stay in town on Sunday mornings for the spring and summer so I can do some sunrise bike rides?

Architecture

I came across an architect with really beautiful buildings. It won't let me copy any images, but it's this website for Clay Chapman www.periodarchitecture.com Not sure if that will work, but it With so many directions to turn in architecture, I feel like I'm constantly realizing I'm inept at some piece of it. I love that he comes across as in love with one idea, and goes that direction, and that's just the way it's going to be. I'm not quite as strong in the ego as that, but it was fun seeing a different version of the art of "techtonics" that I learned in Seattle. It was also reassuring seeing an architect's take on "period architecture" as opposed to the oversized versions that are pimped out to the maximum FAR with no regard to proportions that I come across all to often.

Mommy Mojo

I seem to be feeling more creative and enjoying the babies and their loves more. I was okay with 2 days of Polly Pocket time and I'm looking forward to a lego creation plus a battle with Logan. He made me promise to be the bad guys:) I am a bit ridiculously sad that both kids spend so much time away from us that they are their own little people now. I'm excited to recapture some of that family bond on our vacation next week. I'm also super proud of Logan getting so into baseball and Sylvie being so into ballet and gymnastics.

West Coast Wonderment

We're headed to San Francisco in a few short days. I'm excited to be rejuvinated by the air, the water and the hills. And to introduce our kids to the urban lifestyle. Complete with walking, fun things to do, and time together!

Feeling pretty good tonight. My biggest annoyance is the dog, and that's a good sign.

Sketching

I've been playing around with my handwriting, taking a bit more time to focus on the letters. And sketching. I've seen a few neat watercolors that struck my fancy that I may have to use as inspiration as well. I'm bringing my sketchbook to San Francisco, and who knows, I may actually document this place through my mind's eye rather than just my camera's.

Music

A few blogs I follow have fabulous music. And I have been listening to Pandora at work during the late afternoon and on the bike trail when I'm walking to push me through and get inspired. Music can be so invigorating and soothing, I need to find more of it in my life. I think it really moves my Sylvie, she absolutely loves music. But Logan is funny as well, it can change his mood quickly. I think as a family we need to find more music time, and less tv time.

Local Hangouts

I consider my neighborhood as the entirety of Chicago, and I'm proud that we do try to take advantage of some of what the city has to offer. But I feel bad that we have not really enjoyed some pieces of our own neighborhood, and my goal is to try a few hangouts, a few restaurants, and a few new parks and such. I also need to find some of what I had in Seattle that was so readily available, trails and hikes and such, and make my way into nature here. Mosquitos, heat, snow and all. I need to find joy in this place because I don't think I really have yet and it may be awhile before we leave.

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Obsession with Hair

Sylvie's obsession with long hair has been fed by the Rapunzel movie Tangled. I'm sure she's not the only 5 year old who has latched on to long hair. It began with the hair extension that came with the castle, which moved to HER wearing the extension in her own hair. And then there was the need to have the 18" Rapunzel doll with super-long hair.

So we move on to the visit to the American Girl Store where she selects the doll with the most hair possible. Kanani. Well, did you know if you brush Kanani's hair out instead of down, you get a ball of hair as big as a small cat? Oh yes you do. And thank goodness for Google, I was able to figure out you can wet and use detangler, then wrap each tendril around your finger and have an amazingly pretty head of doll hair. It took an hour. For 5 minutes it was pretty before she has to doctor it all up. I think I need my own American Girl doll that can stay pretty and brushed :)

And alas, this weekend we went to a party and low and behold there is Sylvie with a new best friend- a girl who has that beautiful long, black, asian hair down to her bottom. I turned to my mom friend and said "Betcha anything she started chumming around with her because she covets her hair." We got a good laugh, but I know I was right. Because this morning there was a total meltdown over "MOM, I NEED my hair to be black and long like that girl at the party!!!! I need to have it painted. " So I said "Sylvie, you are welcome to add color to your hair when you are a teenager." To which she said "Mom, that'll be perfect! When I am a teenager I am going to be Rapunzel, so I can be a Rapunzel with BLACK hair!" Aka, something like this picture. I would not put it past her, and gosh, I'll be jealous because that really would be pretty, and fun if you can swing around your tower and such dontcha think:)

Note to Self-

..... The key to juggling a lot of things and enjoying life instead of being overwhelmed is to be in the moment. At work, think about and work that piece of your brain. At school drop offs and pick ups, enjoy the mom-conversation and try not to judge everyone, but get to know them for who they are. At home, create a nice place for the kids to "land." Keep it neat, keep it organized so the library books don't go missing. Keep on top of the laundry and our health. But throw in plenty of time for creative activities, mix up the kid-focused ones and the adult ones, make it a good place to be. When you have 2 hours, do something that will set the tone for the rest of your weekend. Take a walk listening to Pandora, looking at the trees and bundled in too many layers, dream of biking the trail soon enough and work those muscles to get ready.

And don't forget to breathe, smile and enjoy this life:)

Dreams may come true....

With kids at this age (5 and 7) you start asking questions like "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and expect somewhat real answers.

So I asked....

Logan asked me today "who wins more, the Sox or the Cubs?" The totally baseball-illiterate mom in me told him "Well, the Sox win more, but the Cubs are the underdogs" and explained underdog to him.

Soon after I was googling "how many players are in the Cubs?" 38 says Answers.com. "39 with me when I start playing on the Cubs" says Logan. What a sweetie!

Sylvie went to Nordstroms twice this year and picked some item and fell in love. With us, she picked a dress, the newest dress that cost more than we would normally spend on a dress, and of course, since she had daddy around her little finger, it came home with us!!! And later she brought Abuelita, and captured herself a hat, a little adorable hat that had to come home with us!

Snow Day!

....for Snowmageddon!!!! Just putting it down for Logan and Sylvie that today, this day in Chicago history, is a storm that is classified as a blizzard! It started today (Tuesday) at around 2 pm. It was a difficult walk even between the 2 schools. I was so happy my boss let me head home to get my babies. Even Jorge came home at a decent time. Tomorrow almost every school is out for the day, even the Chicago Public Schools called a Snow Day for the first time since 1999. The last time we had a blizzard of this magnitude was 1967? Though my parents remember shoveling snow off their roof in 1979!

Hope we get some pictures to put up tomorrow, it's supposed to last all day and dump between 1 and 2 feet of snow!

We did we did! We got up to snow all around the windows, snow outside in huge drifts. The front yard wasn't too bad thank goodness because the back yard was so bad we couldn't open the door and I had to wade through 3 foot drifts to get the extra shovels! I had thought to bring one set inside overnight! We all got outside in snowpants at 7 am and spent an hour and a half shoveling. Sylvie went back inside but was fine with us continuing. It kept snowing all morning so Jorge went back out for an extra hour later.

And then there was the alley. Oh goodness! The plow came by around 5 pm and we then had a huge wall of snow at our garage and nowhere to put it! Jorge did a huge chunk and then I headed out to help him and we made 5 foot piles at either side of the garage. What a project!

Today is Snow Day #2. I guess the buses aren't able to get through the streets yet.....Crazy and fun and exciting. The windchill is supposed to hit 25 below today- ick! It's cold here in the house.

Front

Alley

Side Yard- biggest drifts!

The school project....

Logan's school project is to celebrate 100 days. He has to put 99 of one object on a board and 1 of something opposite. Of course the example was "cats and dogs" and he said he was going to do "cats and dogs." Hilarious. I was able to persuade him into doing something he likes and we decided on 99 Lego Guys and 1 Lego. He actually came up with the idea of taking photos of his guys and gluing the photos to the board. So it's a few days after we began the assignment and here's how it's gone......

Thursday morning- Grand discussion on what the plan was to get all this acccomplished.

Thursday afternoon- trying to wrangle Logan into focusing on what he wanted to photograph, and the three of us rounding up 100 guys. Me hovering over a table taking lots o' photos. Sylvie wanted in on the action and she has a pile of her own lego people to photograph as well.

Thursday night- upload photos. Try to upload photos. Safari won't allow me on Walgreens photo website so I never make it. Ugh. Okay, CVS also does photos. Upload photos.

Friday morning after school dropoff- bring Sylvie into CVS where she falls in love with some cute kissing stuffed animals that need to come home with us. And if you buy the animals, you need to buy a Valentine's Day card to go with them, so I set out to pick one for my sweetheart.

Oh and there are 3 other things I needed to get of course. Plus posterboards and glue sticks and sticky letters....

Friday afternoon- open the photos and I'm super disappointed. For $24 worth of photos, they are pretty bad quality and there are 30 extra photos that are enlargements of faces. Lego faces. What the frick? Late Friday, I call CVS to see what's up and check what I had uploaded. My 50 photos turned into 65 and then I ordered duplicates! Headquarters had no idea. And when I opened my original photos I realized my photo quality was much better than the results, so on principal, since they said they always accept returns if you're not satisfied, I returned them. WITH Sylvie in tow, who was livid that we were going yet again out to the same darn store (and to pick up Logan).

Friday evening- haul Logan and Sylvie into Walgreens where we use the machine to upload photos. Twice. And hope for the best. And what do you know, there is a whole aisle of stuffed animals that only cost $1.99 and 2 kids pleading for one. So we buy those as well. Plus some wine for me, because I am reminded that this is a darn school project, the first of millions, and whatever the photos look like, however Logan chooses to lay them out, it'll be okay. A-Okay. :)

Saturday morning- the photos will need to be picked up but I'm going to wait til Jorge is home because I am NOT dragging 2 kids into a stuffed-animal infested Walgreens one more time to collect photos! I can just hear it.... "Mom, they're webkinz and my unicorn needs a friend!"

Temper Tantrums

We have had a big streak of tantrums most days! Here are some of the situations:

-Sylvie comes in from Abuelita's babysitting hours and freaks out about missing Abuelita, cannot handle her emotions and sits crying for a good long time and then begging "don't be mad at me!" Oh gosh this is hard to deal with and by the time it's over, I'm spent!

-One morning I was dropping Sylvie off and she showed me that she had a little digital camera in her pocket. I told her she couldn't bring that into school and she went ballistic! She had a total meltdown and even bringing her out of the room into the bathroom, I wasn't sure I'd be able to drop her off. She was sad about the camera and it turned into "I'll miss you mommy, don't go."

-The other day the windchill was 19 degrees below zero. Obviously it was frigid outside, and too cold to hang out for any length of time. We knew it was going to be cold, so we talked about how we were going to wait in the car between picking her up and getting Logan instead of waiting outside. Sure enough, she went crazy when I tried to get her in the car and was totally out of control. I got her in the passenger side and she was standing on the seat acting like a fool! Her friends were in the car next to us and even that didn't pursuade her that this was okay. She wouldn't calm down until I happened to find her library book and suddenly she was a different person and settled down. Once I tried to get her to wait in the car and brought a snack and drink and she still went nuts. She waits in the car for grandparents. I don't know what the deal is, but it sure isn't fun being the mom with the screaming child dragging her into the car instead of getting a hug or a kiss.

-We have lots of tantrums over clothing- she wants to wear a fancy dress every day and if she gets a fancy dress she flips out if it can't be worn to school, even if she knows it's not for school. Getting dressed can be a very long, drawn-out ordeal somedays. And other days, not a problem.

It's been a really hard few months of tantrums on and off and I'm not really sure what spurs them, but it's getting old fast. I'm trying to not let her walk all over me, hold firm but gentle and kind, and it doesn't seem to matter, she can't control her own emotions.Someday maybe I'll understand it all. Where is my own personal child psychologist/ psychic? There are nights where instead of sleeping she's standing upstairs next to me screaming at the top of her lungs instead. And then other nights it's not a problem. She can be so LOUD and drag things out fora a LOOOOONNNNNNGGGGG time !!!!! It can be hard to handle.

Sylvie turns 5

My sweet princess is turning 5. I love the saying "The days are long, the years are short." It is so true. If I think of all the days I had a 4 year old, it seems like ages, but if I reminisce back to my 2 year old or even my newborn, it feels like just yesterday.

Sylvie is a spunky little girl and she brings light to our lives every day. She commands attention and demands her way. She wants what she wants when she wants it. Which is usually immediately.

And yet she can pick up my mom's little dog Jackson in the crook of her arm and carry him around longer than he wants, and he's a snuggler. She misses us ferociously, the minute someone leaves, school ends, we leave an adventure, she already misses it. She must have some sweet sappy nature inside her already:)

She still gives us trouble with night-time sleep and still hates waking up in the mornings. She was inducted into the American Girl club this weekend with a trip to pick out her very first doll and it was such a joy to see her coming into a big girl. While the rest of us reverted to our childhood memories of wanting and loving dolls we had seen.

There is a special bond between mother and daughter, she's my little girl and I understand what she goes through and all that is to come. It's raising a future mother, a future best friend, a future sister to her brother Logan when he needs advice or someone to pull together Thanksgiving dinner. A future career. Future talents. And yet, we still get to enjoy all that is today, all that she is, and all that we are to her.

Happy Birthday my darling Sylvie. You are the fire in my life and you make me smile and you make me laugh and you make me hug you. Thanks for being YOU!!!!!