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.

A Typical Scene

If you were to visit our house any morning just after the girls get downstairs from waking up, this is the scene you'd find. Like I mentioned in another post, the stereotype that little girls sit quietly and play, color, etc., definitely doesn't fit the profile here.

On another note, we found the cutest baby birds (there are four of them - the other three were hiding) tucked inside the overhang of our neighbor's garage. Once the mother and father bird flew back and saw us there, we started to get dive bombed by the birds, so we went back to our yard, but they were so cute I had to try to get a picture of them. Also, how cool is that nest!

Garden Girl

Our garden isn't very big, but our tomatoes and basil are producing quite a bit. Nina is Mark's garden assistant. She helps when he goes out to pick the tomatoes and strawberries, and yesterday she was a big help with the basil. After gathering two big basil boquets, she helped pick all the leaves off so they could dehydrate the basil. She was actually a big help!

A Rockin' Party

Today the girls got to attend the 2nd birthday party of Emilia, daughter of our friends Eric and Erin. Emilia's party took place on location of a Rocknoceros concert at Reston Town Center. After the concert, Eric and Erin had lunch for everyone followed by yummy cupcakes. Both Nina and Lyla seemed so tired in the car on the way home. I thought Lyla would take a long nap and that maybe I'd even get a nap out of Nina...no such luck. Lyla took a short little nap, and Nina didn't sleep at all. They both had a lot of fun at the party, and that's what matters.
Emilia got escorted around the concert area quite a bit by her "older" friends.

Resident Clown

Getting to know Lyla's personality has been interesting. Outside of our house, she is really quite shy, and when we have people over to our house, she is very shy. I thought she was going to be the quiet/sensitive one, but now I'm not sure that will be the case. When it's just our family hanging out at home, she is our resident clown. She'll do goofy things to make everyone laugh, she puts almost everything (including food still) on her head, and she's becoming a lot more entertainment for Nina now than she used to be. When Nina was this age, we really enjoyed watching her personality develop, and we're enjoying the same thing now with Lyla.

Interested?

On Friday, I had the opportunity to be part of a small group who met with Congressman Frank Wolf about the Child Protection Compact Act that is before Congress right now. It is a bill that is designed to help countries erradicate child trafficking who have the will to do so but lack the resources or knowledge on how to do so. If you, or anyone you know, is interested in this issue and want to learn more, feel free to email me, or there is a simple online letter of support you can send to your representative.

Coercion or Teamwork?

I've been noticing for the past week a little trend that I'm not sure is born out of coercion or teamwork. One of Nina's chores is helping to make her bed every day. Lately, I've noticed that the minute we mention making the bed, Nina goes to her stool to stand, and Lyla springs into action. She dutifully runs over to the foot of the bed and carries the pillows to Nina (who just stands on the stool, waiting), then once the pillows are on the bed, Lyla gathers the stuffed animals that Nina sleeps with and hands them to Nina (while Nina continues to stand on the stool, waiting...). So, this leaves me thinking what kind of "arrangement" the two of them have made. Is it something to do with teamwork or some older sister coercion trick that has already manifested itself at age three?

Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa

We love our new hats!!

A Weekend at Hartfield

This past weekend we enjoyed another chance to get away. DC United has had two weekends off in the past two months (such a rarity for the summer), so we decided to head down to Hartfield and enjoy the long weekend. Nina and Lyla had so much fun playing in the outdoor playhouse. We also visited a new animal farm close to the house. It was such a great experience for the girls. The man who ran the farm was so nice to them and really let them have some hands on experiences with the animals.

Nina loved holding the bunny! She said afterwards that she wanted to take it home.

Mark and I also got to enjoy a dinner out at a fun waterfront restaurant. My dad took a picture of us on the back deck before we left.

Sunday morning was fishing time for Nina. Although she really didn't spend much time fishing, she did hook and reel in a fish all by herself. After that conquest, she was done with fishing for the day.

We had a really great weekend, and to check out all the photos from our visit to Hartfield, view the slideshow here: http://picasaweb.google.com/amandabeth2/121?authkey=Gv1sRgCIH3_r7wttXBNA&feat=directlink

Playground Day

Since Mark is travelling this weekend and the day was a beautiful one, I decided that we would try to spend as much of the day outside as we could. In the morning, we went to the playground at the park up the street from our house, and in the afternoon we went to the playground behind the elementary school that is also close to our house. Nina is really into her bike again (after taking a little hiatus from it), so she rode her bike while Lyla alternated between her car and the wagon. Unfortunately, she can't be trusted in the wagon alone. Our trip home from the second playground took about three times as long as it should have because whenever I would look back at her, I would notice that she had chucked some item from wagon. We had to back track three different times to reclaim our cups, bags, and snack traps that she tossed from the wagon when I wasn't looking.

Princess in Training

Lyla really wanted to wear Nina's princess crown. These days she wants to be wearing the crowns, the necklaces, and especially the princess shoes (that she clearly doesn't fit in but insists on wearing anyway). Nina and I helped her get the crown on first... Then she decided she needed to wear it her own way. When it would fall off and she'd bring it to me to put back on, I would put it back on the "right" way, then she would take it off and put it on her way.

Needless to say, this princess is still in training!

A Fun Night Away

Mark and I took off yesterday for our first night away since before Lyla was born. Needless to say, we were excited to leave the girls in the very capable hands of Mousey and Poppy and head away for the night. The occasion was the wedding of Ashley Payne, the daughter of Mark's long time boss, Kevin, and his wife, Pam, who we have enjoyed being friends with over the years. Mark and some of the guys from work left very early yesterday morning to golf with Kevin, the groom-to-be, and some more friends at the golf courses at the resort where the wedding was held. They had a beautiful day for golf and an even more beautiful day for an outdoor wedding!

The fun got started while we were still at the hotel and waiting for the shuttle to arrive. The shuttle took us to the resort where we got on another shuttle that weaved down the golf cart paths to a beautiful location on the water where the wedding and reception were to be held.Kevin and Pam were very proud and happy parents of their lovely daughter.

Ashley and Alberto had an amazing backdrop for a beautiful wedding ceremony.Then it was time for us to snap a few pictures of our own and with friends, enjoy some great food, drinks, fun dancing, and a great celebration of marriage. It was a wonderful evening away.