My Kind of Town

Mark and I spent this past weekend in Chicago and had a fabulous time. Mark was there for a game, and I flew in for the weekend to enjoy the city, go to the game, and see Mark's sister, Deb, and her family. The weather there over the weekend was unseasonably cool, but it was awesome for walking around the city. We were staying downtown, just a few blocks from Michigan Avenue, a.k.a. the Magnificent Mile, and a few blocks the other way was Navy Pier and the waterfront side of the city, so it was a perfect location. On Friday night we walked through downtown and got a table for dinner at Carmine's which was a fantastic meal. On Saturday, we shopped on Michigan Avenue, had lunch at an outdoor cafe, then Mark got ready for the game and I kept on walking around to the waterfront side of the city.I didn't bring my nice camera b/c I was trying to travel light, so the pictures aren't great and I didn't take many...too busy having fun!
I went to the game with Deb, Rick, and the girls. Everyone is all smiles here after the game since DC got their first road vicory. Maybe I'm good luck and should travel away more weekends? :) My parents (who watched the girls for us) might think otherwise, but I appreciated the chance to get away for the weekend with Mark and have some fun.

Where's Nina?

Since getting her responsibility upgraded during her hour of quiet time, Nina no longer has to stay in her bed and look at books. She's allowed to freely move about her room - coloring, looking at books, playing with princesses, etc. - or just laying in her bed for rest (yeah, right). Today, I walked in her room to get her out of quiet time and didn't see her playing in her room or in her closet. She has a desk built into the wall of her room that she sometimes hides under, so I figured she was hiding under there when she heard me coming to her room, but I looked under there and found her asleep. She had made a little barricade with one of her pillows and her dirty clothes basket, and must have fallen asleep while waiting to be found. Very cute.

Girlfriends

I recently heard a comment that was very true. In photo albums (or photo blogs) everyone is always smiling. You always get the good side of people in your photo albums because those are the times you want to remember. No one puts the picture in the photo album of you getting your finger slammed in the door, of temper tantrums, meltdowns, or the family trip that everyone would rather forget. Instead, you get all the happy images...not that there's anything wrong with that, but it just doesn't fully represent real life. So in tribute to that thought, here are the happy images from our cousin outing today. Doesn't it look like everyone is happy, non-whining, and not sweating their hiney off in the 90+ degree heat?
To keep things real, here is the picture taken less than a minute before the previous two when Shen and I asked them to get their picture taken together. Now, this is one for the family photo album!!

Princess Down!

Let me preface this story by saying that both of our girls are/were afraid of the vaccuum. I always thought it was a silly fear. Sure, the vaccuum makes some noise, but what other harm can come from it? Well, yesterday Nina's fear of the vaccuum might have gotten rekindled a bit. Here's how things went down...

• Me: (thinking) I'm almost done vaccuuming...so tired...need a shower before Lyla wakes up...Ariel doll is laying on the carpet by the wood floor...too much effort to bend down and pick it up...I'll push it onto the wood floor with the vaccuum so I can finish that spot of the carpet
• Nina: (painting at her table, thinking) It's a good thing I saved three weeks worth of allowance to buy my new Ariel doll because I really love her
• Me: (out loud) OH NO!!! (looking down at the red flecks all over the carpet and hearing some sort of grinding sound) The vaccuum definitely did NOT push the Ariel doll onto the wood floor. It sucked her up and was spitting out pieces of her back on the carpet.
• Nina: (out loud) Mommy, what happened?????
• Me: (pulling Ariel from the bottom of the vaccuum) I'm really sorry but I ran over Ariel with the vaccuum cleaner
• Nina: (very distressed tone) Mommy, why would you do that to Ariel?
• Me: (trying to be apologetic) I am so sorry. It was an accident. I'll get you a new one with my money this time.
• Nina: (heightened distressed tone) But, Mommy, why would you do that to Ariel? She's wrecked!
• Me: (thinking) Next time must not be too lazy to bend over and pick up Ariel... must remember that princess dolls and vaccuums don't mix... am really hoping Target has one in stock...
• An hour later: Nina has now told even strangers in Target and McDonalds that Mommy sucked Ariel up in the vaccuum but is completely thrilled to have replacement Ariel!
  Her hair took the worst of it on the actual doll, but the pretty dress she was wearing was definitely ripped beyond repair. Luckily for Nina, the only Ariel doll that Target had in stock was the "upgraded" one with three dresses, three underwater friends, and a treasure chest. So, of course I had to plunk down the extra $ to get the only replacement they had, but it all ended well for Nina.
  

Mark, This is For You

Mark, I know you were disappointed that you didn't get to see the girls before you left this morning, so we did a little video to say hello. We hope you enjoy it, and we'll see you in a week. (No one else may find this interesting, but this is the best way for me to share video, so if you're interested in just running around and saying Hi to the camera, then you may like it.)

There's Something About the Boa

Some of you may remember a blog post I did last year where Nina dressed up with this boa as a "pirate" and went on a treasure hunt. This morning, just after she woke up, she asked to get dressed up as a princess, so I pulled out the feather boa from the closet. Immediately, she said she needed her hat, her boots, and her magnifying glass. It must be something about this boa that lends itself towards exploration. Don't ask me why...most explorers I see aren't wearing hot pink feathered boas.After she decided she couldn't find bugs in the house or in Lyla's hair as seen in the above picture (which I'm thankful for on both accounts, obviously), she asked to get in clothes so she could explore outside. While we only saw some ants and a weird worm, it seemed fun to her. Lyla, always wanting to be like Nina, had to get in her hat and check stuff out too! :)

DC United vs. Real Madrid

Today was the much anticipated match between Real Madrid and DC United. For Real Madrid, it was the last games on their U.S. preseason trip, and for DC United it was a chance to play against some of the greatest soccer players in the world. It was a hot and sunny afternoon, but it was a great day to be at FedEx field cheering on the underdogs. Click here and select "Slideshow" to see my pictures from the game.

Sister Update

With August already fully underway, I must say that we've really enjoyed our summer. It's not like we've done anything terribly exciting, but all of us have really enjoyed the time outside, trips to the pool and park, community concerts, etc. I'm not ready to think ahead to fall yet, so we're enjoying the long, sunny days while we've got them. Lyla and Nina are both growing and changing so much. While keeping up with them can be exhauting, they are a tremendous joy to us right now. Nina is teaching Lyla lots of great words like MINE, and Lyla calls every princess Lella (short for Cinderella). They definitely know how to push each other's buttons, but they also know how to make each other laugh and smile!!

Now This is Interesting

Over the weekend, I was visiting at my mom and dad's with the girls when my parents mentioned that Lyla looks like she's going to be a lefty. Mark and I have noticed this for awhile. She kicks with her left foot, throws with her left hand, and prefers to eat with her left hand. It is very consistantly this way, so we were guessing that she'll be left handed. My mom brought up the very interesting point that the only other lefty in our family is Bo, and for those of you who might remember, Bo and Lyla share the same birthday. Interesting coincidence. Bo, however, is more ambidextrous than complete lefty. Admitedly, my mom confesses that she probably had something to do with that. She said she always taught him to do things with his right hand (eating, writing, drawing, etc) even though he probably was born lefty, so he now eats, writes, and golfs right handed, but growing up he always had an issue with penmanship and grips his pen/pencil like a lefty would. He does everything else lefty (kicks, throws, etc), and they've concluded that he plays tennis equally well with both hands. So, while this lefty birthday connection is nothing more than coincidence, we find it a rather interesting one.