A Walk in the Park

On Saturday we didn't have any plans and it was such a beautiful day that we didn't want it to go to waste. We decided to venture over to downtown Naperville and stop by the River Walk. In a few weeks we are doing family pictures and I picked the River Walk as the location for the photo shoot. I've been there plenty of times but I wanted to check it out for potential photo spot opportunities. We walked around downtown for awhile and stopped in a few stores before making it to the actual River Walk. Our first stop was the water fountain. We let Leah out of her stroller and gave her some coins to throw into the water to make a wish. She sure had fun and was upset when we didn't have anymore change for her to toss in the water.

We continued on our path and went over the bridge. Leah loved running back and forth, looking over the edge at the ducks in the water. When we came off the bridge there was a family feeding bread to the ducks in the water. They offered Leah a piece of bread to toss in to the ducks too. She got a kick out of feeding the ducks and laughed the whole time.

We finished walking the path and spent some time just sitting and hanging out. It was an after thought, but we wish we would have brought a picnic along to enjoy while we were outside. It would have been a perfect day for it. Next time! We were hungry by this point, so we walked back and had a late lunch outside at Jimmy's. It turned out to be a fun day considering it started off with no plans!

"Airing" out the Weekend

I had a half day on Friday so I was able to jumpstart my weekend a tad bit early! I picked Leah up from daycare and we hit the mall. I had an appointment on Saturday morning to take Leah for her 18 month pictures and I had no idea what she was going to wear. We went shopping hoping to find her a new outfit.  I don't know what I was looking for, but I didn't end up finding it. I hate when I am on a mission to find something because I usually end up empty handed (which was the case with this shopping trip). I stopped at Carters on the way home from the mall and got her a dress that was "ok." I wasn't thrilled with it, but it worked. When Rob got home from work we decided we wanted to go have dinner somewhere outside since it was so nice out. We went to downtown Plainfield and we ended up at Bin 48 for dinner. Neither of us have been there before, but it was pretty good. I would go again.

On Saturday morning I got Leah up and took her to her appointment for her pictures. I was nervous about this appointment because Leah is at an age where she only does things when she wants to. I was worried she wouldn't cooperate. My concerns were legimate since she kept running out of the room and purposely was avoiding looking at the camera. I had a hard time getting her to smile and she was being difficult. The guy that was doing her pictures wasn't a very big help. He was not overly animated and didn't try "too" hard to capture Leah's attention. Overall, I was pretty disappointed with the way her pictures turned out. I didn't have any "favorites" and am not too happy with the money I spent on them. Going forward, I think I might have a photographer come to our house and do pictures at home where Leah is in her own environment and it is a more comfortable setting. Here are a few pictures from Saturday.

When we got home from her pictures, Leah was ready for a nap. The weather also took a turn and it was pretty nasty outside - perfect napping weather so I joined her too! Luckily later on in the day, the rain and storms cleared up. Good thing it did because we had a birthday party to go to! Andrew and Sara were having Julia's 3rd birthday party at their house. We had so much fun! We were outside most of the time and the kids were able to run around. Leah had a great time. Thank you to the Weber's for having us over. I hope Julia had a great birthday!

This morning we got up early and went downtown to meet Randy and Lisa (and their kids and friends) at the Air and Water Show at North Avenue Beach. They got there even earlier than we did and they had a nice setup. They had chairs, umbrellas and even two tents. It was a perfect day. Not too hot and not too cool. It was definitely packed along the lake. For some reason I did not bring Leah's bathing suit with us so she only was able to  wade in the water with her feet. She was dying to get into the water, but we had to hold her back.We stayed for about two hours, watching all of the planes. We again parked by our old apartment, so on the walk back we stopped for lunch at Corcoran's (one of the restaurants we used to frequent when we lived down there). They have a nice patio so we sat outside to eat.  After lunch we decided to head home to try and avoid some of the traffic. Also, Leah hadn't had a nap all day so it was best to avoid that approaching meltdown. Overall, it was a great weekend! I am sad that these warm weekends will probably be coming to an end soon!

Happy 18 Months Leah

I now have a one and a half year old on my hands! Leah turned 18 months yesterday. How did that go by so fast? I guess I should be gearing up for the terrible 2’s! When I got home yesterday, we celebrated her 1.5 year milestone with pizza and cupcakes. I also got her a balloon that she carried with her all over the house!

After work today I took Leah for her 18 month well-baby check. She hates going to the doctor, (especially after last week when she had croup and needed to get some x-rays done). At today’s appointment, she cried almost the whole time yelling for her Mommy even though I was holding her in my arms. She cried the second she saw the doctor. Little Leah weighed in at 25 lbs even (61st percentile) and is 34 inches tall (97th percentile). She is a tall girl! She did get one shot today too.

At 18 months old, Leah’s vocabulary has continued to expand and she is probably saying well over 100 words.  We stopped counting. Today the doctor asked if she is saying at least 4-10 words that we can understand because that is the average number of words a baby her age would say. Leah is so smart (I know all mom’s think their kids are smart – so I am no exception). Leah can say all of the kids names at daycare and says them to the appropriate child. She is one of the younger kids there and she tries so hard to be like the big kids. She follows the older girls around and wants to be involved with whatever they are doing. Luckily for her, they seem to like having her around! She is also pretty funny - sometimes if I make her do something that she doesn’t want to do or don’t give her something she wants (i.e. go to bed, tell her bath time is over or not give her a cookie), she’ll occasionally say, “Mommy, you MEAN!” (and emphasizes the word mean). It definitely tugs at my heartstrings to hear her call me mean, but I know it is because she is not getting her way….but she does always use the saying at the right time which I give her credit for.

Leah is polite though and says “please” (pease),  “thank you” (tank you), "bless you" (bess you) – again at the appropriate times. It melts my heart when she says “Thank you mommy” in her cute little pint size voice. She can be a little stinker too and knows how to play the system. When we returned from our vacation, it was pretty evident she was “mad” at us for leaving her. I was expecting her to be over the moon to see us and be attached at our hip. Nope – not the case. She wouldn’t come by us and was being crabby. It made me sad and I felt really guilty that we left her for 5 days. The next day she finally warmed up and was back to her cuddly self.  I love it when she puckers up her lips and plants a big kiss on me.

Over the past couple weeks Leah has been telling me when she has pee pee or poop in her diaper. I know it is probably a bit early, but we went and bought her first potty. We thought we could introduce the idea to her and keep it in the bathroom for when she is ready to try it. She was "carrying" it all around the house this weekend. She hasn't "gone" on the potty yet, but she has sat on it to test it out.

She is also already turning into a little diva. I was getting her dressed the other day in a cute jean dress and she was fighting me the entire time as I was trying to get it on her. She was purposely holding her arm down, making it stiff as a board so I couldn’t get it through the arm hole. She kept saying, “Mommy – I don’t like, Mommy, I don’t like.” Tough – she wore the jean dress that day.

I think Leah also has her first crush. Our daycare has an 8 year old son named Nate. She is mesmerized by him and talks about him all of the time. The other night during her bath she was saying, “Where Nate? He at home? Nate at home Mommy?” Then first thing the next morning she was asking me again and has continued to do so almost every day. When she sees him, she says "NATE!" Leah often makes a fool of me too. I always tell people how much of a talker she is and how funny she is, but whenever she seems to be around someone new – she freezes up and is quiet is a mouse! My dad and daycare can vouch for her!

The past year and a half have brought us so much joy and amazement. I can’t imagine living life any other way. Leah has been the biggest blessing and we love that little girl to pieces! Happy 18 months Leah!

Getting Saucy!

A few weeks ago I blogged about the garden Rob has growing in our backyard. Well, all of his vegetables are growing like wild fire (specifically the tomatoes). He went out there the other day to gather his harvest and came in with 2 bags of tomatoes. We had about 50 tomatoes and there are still a ton more still ripening up in the garden.

What the heck are we going to do with all of these tomatoes? Rob had come up with the idea to make his own homemade pasta sauce. He did some research on the internet and the next thing I know, we were in our kitchen on Saturday night getting down to business! (I didn't sign up for this but somehow I got roped in). First Rob prepared a big pot full of different seasonings, herbs (from our garden) and spices. 

Then before I knew it, we were boiling tomatoes, cooling them, and peeling off the skins. What an exciting way to spend your Saturday night. (Boy my Saturday nights sure have changed)!

He then smashed the tomatoes, added some home grown onions and other ingredients.

We let it cook for several hours to allow it to thinken up. It actually turned out pretty tasty. Tonight's dinner: Chicken Parmigiana a la Held. It was very good! Leah gobbled it up and had THREE servings. We have plenty of sauce leftover so tomorrow night we are going to try making pizzas with it. Rob would like this to be an annual tradition that we make homemade sauce.