Catch Up #3 - Christmas!!

We had a very enjoyable (but long) holiday season for Miss Cecilia's first Christmas! We also managed to get through the whole thing without the tree falling over or Mark crashing the truck into the garage like the debacle that was Sully's first Christmas, so I was very excited about that! I was also very excited to be able to buy Cecilia a pretty Christmas dress (I couldn't decide, so she actually got 2 dresses and a cute little I Love Santa outfit!) and her first pair of patent leather shoes. Isn't she just darling? She was a good sport about getting dressed up and she did really well at all the events and gatherings. Sully had a great time too - especially since he got to open not just his gifts, but Cecilia's too. The hardest part was convincing him that she could play with her gifts and that just because he opened them didn't mean he could hog them! But all in all, it was a wonderful holiday and we made lots of good memories for Cecilia's first Christmas!

Despite it being SUPER cold, the whole family went over to the tree lot to pick out our tree, then we took 3 days to decorate it. But Sully was really interested in hanging up ornaments, and he did a nice job of putting them on. Plus he actually left them on the tree this year and since Cecilia wasn't mobile yet, once the tree was decorated, it stayed that way!

Our traditional picnic in front of the tree was also very successful this year. And although neither of my children ate the delicious Chicken Noodle Soup I made, my husband ate at least 4 bowls, so it wasn't a wasted effort!

Our first official event to celebrate Christmas was the Griffith Christmas Eve gathering at Bill and Bobbie's.

Mark was on call so I had to take the kids there solo, and it was of course snowing, but we made it there and back without too much trouble. Plus both kids slept the whole way home since they were exhausted from so much partying. As you can see below, Cecilia was exhausted from the partying well before we left. Even the shiny wrapping paper and naked time couldn't distract her for long...

Both kids slept pretty well when we got home though, so we actually got to sleep in a little bit on Christmas morning. Sully was more interested in the concept of Santa this year, and seemed really excited to see what he had under the tree.

He also got more into gift giving this year, so I was very happy about that. I wasn't planning on having him give Mark a gift, but when we went shopping, (I took both my kids to the mall for Christmas shopping by myself...CRAZY!) Sully really wanted to buy Mark a Hexbug, and I wanted to encourage his giving spirit, so we bought it and Sully helped me wrap it. He also got 2 weird finger puppets from Hot Topic for Uncle Rory, which he couldn't wait to give him. (I presume he picked both gifts because he wanted to play with them himself, but he was being generous - a rarity for him - so I went with it!)

We spent Christmas day with my family at our house since Mark was on call and mostly just lounged around. We had our delicious traditional Sausage En Croute as Christmas Dinner (which my wonderful mother pre-made and did all the work for so I didn't even have to cook!) and did lots of playing with all the new toys.

My folks spent the night and hung around with us the next day...longer than they wanted to, but I had to pull some only daughter tricks ("Please, Daddy?") to get them to stay because when I let Drogo out, this was in our backyard:

You can't see it in the picture, but there was a lot of drool hanging from the raccoon's mouth and it was only about 15 feet away from the back door. Needless to say, Drogo did not get to go outside. I called Animal Control who directed me to the Police Department (because we're in the village and not unincorporated) and told me the raccoon probably had distemper. Mark was at work (luckily - had he been home I think he would've tried to get the thing himself!) so I begged my parents to stay until the police came to pick it up because it freaked me out that it was so close to the house. Thankfully, even at 31 my Daddy still wants to protect me! The cops did finally come and take the poor thing, but it made for a strange day after Christmas!

The rest of the celebrating was thankfully free of wildlife...unless you count Sully. We weren't able to go to Gerrity Christmas this year because we were in Sherrard with the Willhites, so we went to visit Grandma Gerrity the Monday after Christmas. My mom met us there so it was nice to see her so many days in a row and Cecilia and Sully enjoyed having their Great Grandma all to themselves!

Then we were off to Sherrard for a week long celebration of Christmas, New Years, Mark's Birthday, and lots of crazy Willhite antics! It was extra special because Darrin and Miranda were able to come in for the week too (although Miranda had to go back early...boo!) so the whole family was together. As you can imagine, when all 3 boys and their father are together there is lots of laughing (along with some wrestling, lots of crude jokes, and more bodily function discussion and demonstration than I ever thought humanly possible - and that was just the first day we were there!) It was a lot of fun though, and Cecilia was very excited to finally meet and spend some time with her only aunt! Sully was excited too and kept asking Auntie Miranda to get nakey...he had obviously spent too much time with the Willhite males!

We had a delicious lasagna dinner and Sully was excited to open even more presents! (But he also gave some good ones, too!)

We had lots of time to just hang around, so the kids got to spend lots of quality time with Grandma and Grandpa. It was also unseasonably warm on New Year's Eve, so we even got to go out and enjoy the farm a little bit.




We had our bi-annual celebration with the Nelson's for New Year's Eve, although we had to leave around 9 so we could put the kids to bed. But Cecilia did get to wear her other party dress and Sully had a lot of fun with Ty, so it was a nice visit. (I did miss the olden days when we dragged out the Boone's Farm and plastic forks, though!)

We were also able to get together on New Year's Day with some of Mark's HS buddies and families, which seems to be becoming a tradition. It was fun to see how much all the kids have grown, and we're excited for more on the way!

We celebrated Mark's birthday with an outing to the John Deere Pavillon, where Sully had a blast sitting in all the big tractors. We had a nice lunch at Johnny's Steak House then headed home to rest up so we could gorge on Pizza Joynt for Mark's Birthday dinner.

We had a lovely time in the QC and it was really nice that we didn't have to rush the visit.

It was the perfect end to a very wonderful Christmas!

Catch Up #2 - December

December was a big month for our little miss! She mastered the skill of sitting unsupported - which made her so happy because she could finally see everything around her. (Her favorite thing to see, of course, is her crazy big brother! She doesn't need toys to play with because she has constant entertainment!) She also fell in love with her jumper as soon as we put her in it. She loves to bounce in it and can really get some height! Sometimes when you hold her, she bounces like she's in it - that's how much she loves it!

Cecilia's other accomplishments from December include learning to drink out of a sippy cup, holding her bottle, feeding herself puffs, and graduating to the pack and play for sleeping. She got too big for the co-sleeper, but we weren't ready to put her in the crib yet (since she'd have to share a room with Sully) so we put the pack and play in our room.

December also brought Seesa's first ear infection (and luckily her only one so far), which also coincided with her decision that she was no longer going to be a good sleeper. The continual waking and desire to be held nonstop started before the ear infection, but the ear infection definitely made it worse. And even more upsetting was the fact that she had previously been an extraordinarly sleeper and been sleeping through the night for months! Switching to the pack and play did help a little because it gave her more room to roll around, but I definitely miss the early days when she would sleep through anything and for very long stretches!

Obviously, she also had her first Christmas, but that warrants its own post, so now we're on to pictures!


Cecilia - 6 months and 3 weeks

Sully - 5 months and 3 weeks

Nothing beats matching Mommy/Baby pjs- especially unisex ones so I can enjoy them with both kiddos! (Thanks Ginger!) Check out the comparison - Cecilia is starting to look less like Sully's twin. And I dare say, she may even look a little bit like me!

Here are two pretty hilarious videos that I have been wanting to share since I took them. You'll get a good glimpse of Cecilia jumping away, and you can hear Sully's beautiful rock serenade to his little sister. I had to include both because Sully's guitar moves are pretty sweet and I couldn't pick just one. ROCK ON!

And finally, here are some pictures from our visit to Holiday Magic at Brookfield Zoo. Last year when we took Sully, Mark was pretty adamant that this wouldn't be a yearly tradition (it was very rainy and gross last year), but I convinced him that we had to go, and it turned out to be a wonderful way to kick off the holiday season! It was pretty rainy again this year, but we went for the whole day instead of just at night time, so it was nice because there was practically no one else there! We also spent a long time in the Hamill Family Play Zoo where it was nice and dry, and both kids had a lot of fun!

In addition to visiting the animals, we partook in a lot of the "Holiday Magic," like posing for Christmasy pictures and singing Christmas carols to the animals.

But the best part was meeting Santa and Mrs. Claus..for Mark anyway. Cecilia and Sully weren't so sure! But the pictures are funny and Sully was happy because he got a goody bag. I can't wait to take them back next year!

Stay tuned for Christmas pictures! I'm on a roll so hopefully it will be soon!

Catch Up #1 - November

Obviously, I have fallen behind in my blogging...way behind. No judgement is necessary, however, as I heard it all from my father-in-law while we were visiting this past weekend. So in his honor, I am going to do my very best to catch up this week. So here's the first of a few catch up posts! I do have some very cute reasons for being so behind, so hopefully you will all cut me some slack:

At the close of my last post (a very long time ago...) I promised some pictures of Sully's third birthday, so here they are!




Sully's favorite parts of his birthday celebrations this year were definitely the presents and the cake! And lucky for him he got plenty of both! Grammy and Grandpa came up to celebrate with us on Sully's actual birthday and we had a beautiful round "purple pudding cake" per Sully's request - that was a fun one to figure out! He also had his first kid party - superhero themed, of course! - with his friends from playgroup and the neighborhood where there were more presents and cupcakes. And there was one more round of presents and cake at Grandma and Grandpa's when we visited after Thanksgiving. I'd say Sully is one lucky three year old!





Cecilia celebrated her 6 month birthday in November and learned some new tricks, too. Here's Daddy's favorite baby trick....

She started eating vegetables, but was not a fan at first. We gave her carrots first and she wasn't sure if she liked them, but the peas she knew she disliked right away! But when we gave her carrots again after she had eaten peas, she liked them much more than the first time. Bananas were a hit the first time out, though, and she has loved almost all the fruits since then. She has since warmed up to her veggies, so I hope she will grow up to be a more adventurous eater than her picky big brother!

Cecilia also started enjoying playtime, even on her tummy! She became interested in her toys (and Sully's toys, of course!). Can you tell from her slightly psychotic smile how much fun she's having??

The other big highlight of November was Cecilia's first Thanksgiving! We enjoyed a delicious feast with the Gerrity clan at Sean and Lin's house (our first Thanksgiving there since before Mark and I were married!), then drove out to Sherrard to spend the weekend with the Willhites. Lots of good food and lots of fun with family! Plus it was a great excuse to put Cecilia in some really cute outfits!

Here's Thanksgiving Day:


Boys and beer - what else is there to be thankful for?


Being cute with Great Grandma and Uncle Rory


Our first family photo since Cecilia was born! And it turned out pretty good, too!

And here are the kiddos at Grandma and Grandpa's (somewhat empty) house:

We had a very nice weekend in Sherrard - even though Cecilia was a terrible sleeper the entire time we were there. Yeah for teething, which she conveniently started just before Thanksgiving. But by the end of the month she had her first tooth on the bottom left of her mouth, and the right one popped out only a few days into December.

Other than being up all night rocking and soothing the baby, we had some nice family quality time and even got to help put up and decorate Grandma's new Christmas tree. Sully was pretty good at it and his attention span surprised us all!


And that was our November. So I will leave you with this adorable picture of Sully and Uncle Todd posing in front of the tree. Nice segue way into December, don't you think??