Good Bye Nursery, Hello Big Girl Room

Rob started painting Leah's room last weekend, but when I came down with pink eye, he had to put that project on hold. I needed him to take care of Leah, which made it hard to get anything else done. He picked up where he left off last night. He was up until almost midnight getting it done. We were pretty frustrated with the paint we bought. We got the Behr paint that is supposed to be a primer and paint all in one. They claim only one coat is needed. (We were painting over a greenish color, which was not very dark). Well, four coats later we still had spots of green peaking through on the walls. At $30 a gallon, we ended up going through 4 gallons in her small little room. Rob had to do several touch ups, but in the end Leah's room ended up looking great! It's a little bright on the eyes, but it is a little girl's room afterall!

Leah's new furniture was scheduled to be delivered today. Our delivery window was 10:00 am - 1:00 pm, so I was pleasantly surprised when our doorbell rang at 9:55 am and there was a Cribs to College truck in our driveway. This almost never happens, having your delivery show up exactly on time! We thought for sure it wouldn't arrive until 12:50 pm. They were great. They brought everything up to her room and assembled all of the furniture within a half hour and then they were on their way! Since they were finished up early, it gave us some time to go shop around for more stuff for Leah's room. We had already bought a few things (her bedding and a some things for her walls) but we were on the hunt for more accessories. While her room is not completely done, here is a sneak peak of what we have so far!

In a way, it kind of made me sad. This is definitely not a "baby's" room anymore. My little girl is all grown up! She was SOOOOO excited about her new room. I just hope she is as excited to sleep in there tonight! We need to get bedrails for her bed too, definitely don't need her falling out of her big girl bed!

Pink Eye Strikes Again....

This time, I am the victim of pink eye! I woke up this morning with crusty/watery eyes. After a few hours they were goopy and completely bothering me. I layed down for a little while and when I woke up, they were much worse. Leah had pink eye last week, but her eyes have completely cleared up (but she is still taking drops), so I thought I was in the clear. No such luck. I went to the Take Care clinic at Walgreens and after waiting for about 45 minutes, I saw the nurse practicioner. She wrote me a prescription for drops and I was on my way. Having pink eye is no fun. I am constantly wiping my eyes and washing my hands every 20 minutes. I am paranoid with everything I touch and wipe it down. I definitely don't want to pass this back to Leah or onto Rob (or anyone else). By tomorrow, I won't be contagious anymore. I can't wear my contacts for the next couple of days, so I am going to have to stick to my glasses (or I am blind otherwise). I am not looking forward to wearing them to work!

I am disappointed because we had plans to go hang out with my good friend Ashley from work, her husband, and two daughters tonight. She just had a baby at the beginning of March so I was hoping to get my "newborn" fix until my little man arrives. Her daughter Vaughan is also 2 and Leah was looking forward to playing together. We'll have to reschedule. Bummer! I guess on the bright side, it is giving Rob extra time to paint Leah's bedroom. He was planning to get started tomorrow, but he is up there now as we speak getting a head start. Leah's big girl furniture is scheduled to be delivered next Saturday, so we want to make sure the room is all ready when it arrives. The color we chose for her walls is called "Tink Pink" by the Disney Paint Collection. Her room is going to need several coats! As for me, it looks like it is now going to be a lazy movie night.

I'll post pictures once her big girl room is all done! We are doing a "Bright Pink and Zebra" theme in her room. After we finish her room, we'll tackle Mason's room. We bought his bedding a few weeks ago and I am excited to get things ready for him too!

I was just going to put the camera away and I got a request from Leah to take a picture of her playing the piano! She hates pictures and certainly never "asks" for her picture to be taken - so this was a rare occassion!

Happy Easter (a day or two late)!!

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter! Our morning festivities began with Leah coming down stairs to see if the Easter Bunny had hopped over to our house early in the morning. To her excitement, he did and he left her some special treats and surprises! The first thing she saw was a pretty Disney Princess Tent! Cousin Annabelle has a similar one that Leah loved so I put in a good word to the Easter Bunny. She opened up the door to the tent and discovered her Easter Basket that was filled with candy, toys and other fun things! Leah immediately wanted some candy so she had some jelly beans. After spending some time exploring her basket and playing in her “house,” we told her it was time to start looking Easter Eggs! She had a good time running around the house looking for eggs, but I think she’ll enjoy it even more when her baby brother Mason will be here to participate too! The Easter Bunny hid about 20 eggs (some were filled with candy). Every time Leah found an empty egg, she would say, “Momma, this egg empty – why??” Whenever she found an egg with candy she would stop what she was doing, shake it and say, “I need to eat this candy.” By 8:30 am, this little girl was on a sugar high!

Leah just coming downstairs in the morning

Leah checking things out!

Some of the "hidden" Easter Eggs

Running to find more eggs

Leah is just getting over pink eye, so her eyes look a little glassy.

After our early morning fun, it was time to get ready for the day. This year, we didn't really have any plans so I didn't get Leah a fancy Easter dress like I have the past two years. I put her in a casual pink cotton dress and it looked super cute on her! We were meeting my dad for brunch at Emmet's Brewery in Downers Grove. (My brother and sister-in-law just had the baby so they weren't doing anything for Easter). We had some time to spare before we needed to leave so we did a quick photo op.

We've been taking "belly bump" pictures of my tummy and Leah always tries to imitate me!

I love this little girl more than words can express!!

Leah and her daddy! She is such a daddy's girl

23 weeks pregnant....16 more weeks to go before we can meet sweet baby Mason!

My dad hasn't been feeling great, so we were going to play the morning by ear to see if he would be up for joining us for brunch. Luckily, when I called him he was feeling pretty good and wanted to meet us out. We offered to just go to is house and hang out, but he was up for going out.  (Thank you to everyone who has continued to express concern and support for my dad. He is hanging in there. Treatment has been extremely tough and has taken a toll on his body. He has lost all of his hair, but remains in good spirits. He only has 4 more radiation sessions left, which he will wrap up this week and then 3 more chemo sessions, one time per week over the next three weeks. He'll then have a few weeks off and the doctor's will perform additional scans to make sure the tumor has responded to treatment. If all has gone according to plan, they will schedule surgery to have it removed. So hopefully, he'll have the surgery towards the end of May. Then after surgery, if necessary he will have a few more rounds of chemo and then hopefully be cancer free!) Brunch was okay - I wasn't completely impressed with the food (or the price). It was good to spend time with my dad. He brought Leah a little Easter basket with even MORE candy and fun little toys. Leah was on her best behavior during brunch, which made for a happy mommy!

After our bellies were full, we said our goodbyes to my dad and then Rob, Leah and I headed to the zoo! (Going to the zoo would have been way too much for my dad). It was a beautiful day outside and we couldn't wait to soak up some of the nice weather! Leah LOVES going to the zoo. She is finally at an age where it is really fun to go! The zoo wasn't too crowded, which made it a perfect afternoon. We only stayed for a few hours since Leah was going on no nap. She told us she was ready to go, so we left!

Leah navigating the zoo map

We always have to make a stop at the Children's Zoo - she loves the goats

Such a beautiful girl!

The goat was biting her coat! She said, "Goat....don't bite my coat."

She could spend all day here

Leah fell asleep as soon and we left the zoo. She had been such a trooper all day! We went home for a little while and then stopped over by Rob's mom's house. Rob had picked up Brandon. It was his birthday (on Saturday) so we had gotten a cake and wanted to celebrate with him. Leah got even MORE candy for Easter. She will probably be on a sugar high for the next week! After spending some time there, we decided to head home. We were all tired. Leah put on her PJ's and decided to hang out in her princess house with her iPad for the next hour (at least we know she loves it). She put a pillow in there along with her blanket and was content!

Overall, it was a long, busy day! We had a great Easter spending it together as a family! I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday too!

Friday Night Family Fun

Happy Good Friday! Rob was lucky and had today off as a holiday. I wasn't so fortunate and had to work the full day. Leah has pink eye and was home all day with Rob. I feel bad for her, but she is on medicine and hopefully it will clear up in the next day or two. So when I got home from work, we weren't up for doing anything (and couldn't exactly take Leah anywhere). We decided to order dinner and spend some quality family time together coloring eggs! We were both in the mood for pizza and ordered deep dish cheese pizza. It was so good and hit the spot! We had a ton left over so we'll get to enjoy it tomorrow too!

Leah was so pumped up to color Easter eggs. (We didn't color them last year because she was still too little). She started playing with the egg cups at least an hour before we even started coloring the eggs.

(Don't mind her crazy hair and little pink eye)

Leah couldn't wait to color the eggs. She stood patiently on her chair while we got everything setup. She definitely had fun and ended up with only one egg casualty (because she was a little too rough)!

Waiting, waiting, waiting!

After coloring the eggs it was time for a bath. We got Leah all cleaned up and put on her jammies. We all layed on the couch to wait TV. Not even 5 minutes later, this little girl was passed out with her Sushi! Looking forward to celebrating Easter this weekend with our sweet Leah!



Soup du Jour

Leah loves to be momma's little helper. She is always willing to lend a hand, whether it is taking the clothes out of the dryer, making lemonade or feeding our dog. She gets so excited when she gets to help out (and she actually is a really good helper). Tonight, while I was making dinner she wanted to be involved, but there was not much she could help me prepare. I decided that she could make us some "soup." When I was a little girl, my mom always let me make "soup." She would pull out a big pot, fill it with water and let me get my hands on her entire spice rack. I'd stand on a chair  by the sink and put a little bit of this and a little bit of that in my pot of soup. I'd stir it and pretend to eat it. My mom would always tell me what a good cook I was and that she couldn't wait to eat my soup. I don't know why, but I totally remember having so much fun doing this. So tonight, when Leah was eager to help, I figured this would be the perfect activity for her. It would give her something to do and buy me some time to get dinner ready!

So just like my mom used to, I pulled out a pot and filled it with water. I setup a step stool by the sink and let Leah have at it. I took out a bunch of random ingredients from the pantry and a handful of different spices and this is what Leah came out with......the soup du jour! Recipe below :) It smelled delicious! She spent about 25 minutes preparing her dish and seemed to have so much fun! She would stir it and smell it and say, "Mom, this smells so yummy!" We have left-overs if anyone is interested!

Soup du Jour
Water
Half a bag of noodles
A Splash of Raspberry Crystal Light
Croutons
Pink, Yellow and Green Sprinkles
Bread (2 whole pieces and 1 piece torn into little pieces)
10 shakes of "Rosemary"
10 shakes of "Garlic Salt"
10 shakes of "Thyme
10 shakes of "Cinnamon"
10 shakes of "Celery Seed"
30 Goldfish Crackers

My Favorite Leah-isms

Leah has the biggest personality in a tiny little body. She is so funny and I have to smile at some of the things that come out of her mouth. She is so smart and just downright silly sometimes. Over the past couple of weeks I started jotting down some of the things she has said or done that made me laugh. Days fly by and I often forget what I had to eat that day, so I wanted to make sure I remember these little nuggets that I refer to as “Leah-isms.” Some of these things might not seem funny to others, but in the moment we sure thought she was amusing. I thought capturing it in my blog would be good place for me (and her) to look back on it and have a chuckle. She says/does funny things on a daily basis, but here are some of the ones I remember or that stick out. I hope to update my blog every few weeks/months with her new Leah-isms.

• Leah is so smart and has the i-Pad completely figured out. At times, I don’t even know what I am doing with it. She knows where all of “her” apps are and knows how they work. I took this picture over the weekend and thought it was classic. Father like daughter! This is what our household looks like almost every night. Dad on the chair and Leah on the couch playing with their i-Pads.

• A few weeks ago we were getting situated in the car getting ready to go somewhere. Leah was being a handful. Rob yelled, “Dude – chill out!” She responded back by saying, “I am not a dude. You are a dude.” Rob said, “I am not a dude, I am your daddy.” Leah: “No, you are Rob.”

• When we went shopping for Leah’s big girl bedroom set, she had her eyes set on this “Princess Loft Bed with a Slide” (not so practical). She kept climbing on it, laying in the bed and going down the slide. She said, “Mom, I NEED this. I will be a princess if I have it.”

• On a seperate occassion, we were shopping at a furniture store that had balloons all scattered throughout their store to promote their sale items. Leah loved the balloons and started talking to Rob about them. She said, "You like the balloons, honey? I can get you one." It was so darn cute the way she said it!

• On Leah’s 2nd birthday I tried to capture the perfect birthday picture. I chased her around the house with my camera. She turned to me and said, “ENOUGH Mom. No pictures. Put your camera away.” What a little bugger!!

• Right after Leah turned 2, I was getting her dressed in the morning and we had an interesting conversation. Leah: Mom, SHHH – be quiet. Me: What? Why? Leah: Don’t talk. I hear him. Me: You hear who honey? Leah: Him. Me: Who? Leah: Mickey….Mickey Mouse. I hear him. Me: What do you mean? Leah: SHHHHHH!!!!

• Leah LOVES herself some macaroni and cheese. Whenever we have it for dinner. She runs around the house singing “Macaroni, Macaroni, Macaroni, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.” One day I asked her what she wanted for dinner and she answered, “Macaroni and Coconuts.” I said, you mean “Macaroni and Cheese?” She yelled…..NO MOM, macaroni and coconuts!

• Leah was eating a pita chip and hummus (which she loves). She then started spitting it out all over the floor. I yelled. “Leah, what are you doing?!?!?!” She then said, “Sorry Mom. I was choking.” She clearly was not choking and was just trying to cover up that she spit all over the floor.

• Leah can be very dramatic over little things, especially bugs!! She does not like bugs. (She does like butterflies though). She gets so freaked out by them, she will take off running the other way. There were “bugs” by Rob’s car one day and she refused to get inside his car because they were “scary.” Then for the next two weeks, she would cry when we were close to the car and yell, “Go away buggies. Stay away from me!” She would always insist we take “mommy’s car.” Finally, Rob washed his car and assured her that there were no more bugs. I know this is awful to say, but sometimes to get Leah out of the bathtub quickly, I will tell her there are buggies in the water. (Otherwise, this little girl could hang out in the bathtub for hours….even when there is no water in it).

• Last night I let Leah sleep in my bed with me. (Rob slept in the other room because he claims I snore when I am pregnant!) I was exhausted and fell asleep. I thought Leah had fallen asleep too. The next thing I know, I felt someone jump on top of me. It startled me and I woke up. Little Leah was staring at me in the eye and said, “Oh mom, you are up!” I told her to go back to bed and she said she just wanted to tell me she loved me. What a sweet, sweet girl!

• My favorite is that she always tells Rob that “Mom is the BOSS!” Ha! She'll often try to put him in time-out. Leah has landed herself in time-out a handful of times. She genuinely gets so sad when she is there, but she will sit there and won't get up until we tell her it is time to get up. I hope it really sinks in when she is being bad so she knows the difference between right and wrong.