Baby or Bunny?

Kylie loves carrots. She doesn't get to eat them in the baby-food form, because her stomach is sensitive to them. So she gets to knaw on the big carrots, just for fun. This morning she was enjoying her carrot a lot, and we had to take a few pictures.

Ready for the Pool!

This weekend Steve's best friend from college, Michael, and his family were in town, so we met them in Gurney Mills, IL on Saturday afternoon to have dinner. Before that, Steve and I decided to take advantage of the warm weather (it was in the 50's and sunny), and headed down to Pleasant Prairie to do a little outlet shopping. I had some coupons for the Carter's store, and it was a good excuse to get outside and visit the other shops.

We had a great time poking around the store's. We both fell in love with this swimsuit we saw in Gymboree, and just HAD to buy it for Kylie. Now she's ready for her first pool visit, and we cannot wait. Taking her to the pool has been something I've been looking forward to since the day she was born. Anyway, we got in the car after our shopping adventure and realized that we hadn't purchased anything for ourselves. I guess that's what it's like being a parent now....We wouldn't change it for the world.

Roadtrip! kinda...

This past week Steve had to travel to New York for work. This the first time that he was away for more than one night, and I decided that Kylie and I being alone in this apartment at night just would NOT do. So I high-tailed it down to Rockford, to stay with Sarah (Steve's sister), Danny and their eighteen month old son Jackson. Lucky for me, Kylie slept the whole time on our little roadtrip down to Rockford, and all the way back. Perfect!

We had a blast. Kylie enjoyed hanging out with Jackson, and playing with his toys. Jackson really does have the best toys. So much more fun than Kylie's Little People barn that lost its charm months ago, or her gum ball machine that plays music as it spits out its balls filled with rings and lollipops. We loved Sarah and Danny's big basement that is childproofed, where babies can roam free. Kylie loved having Jackson around to play with, so much that she didn't want to take her naps during the day. I think she didn't want to miss out on the action. It was nice for me to have some adult interaction, the days passed by so quick.

Being in a house made it harder for me to come back home to our apartment.....but anyway...

Tuesday night Sarah and I went out to do a little shopping and Danny watched the kids. They made some video's, which are adorable. Check them out.





Wednesday night Steve got home, bearing gifts. He brought me back a little box of chocolates from Mario Batali's restaurant Del Posto (he had dinner there on Tuesday night) and cookies from the bakery next door to his hotel. Does he love me or what? The chocolates were delicious, and the cookies were one of my favorite kinds - snickerdoodles.

To conclude, I have decided that from now on when Steve is gone, I will reside at Sarah and Danny's. It's just too sweet to have them so close, and Sarah always goes on chocolate runs with me. What could be better!

Demonstration

How to go up the steps:

How to go down the steps:

I had to post these, because they were just too funny. Five days ago, she started crawling. Two days later, she figured out how to go up and down the steps. She continues to impress us. And yes, I am very consumed with my little one. It's true.

Woman on the Move

Last Friday night, at the ripe age of 9.5 months, our little gal crawled across the floor for the first time. Yay! This was a HUGE relief! A relief you may ask? Let me explain. Whenever I go out, people always ask me how old Kylie is (I'm sure this is a common question of anyone with kids, but I'm new to having a child, so this line of questioning is new to me). They would then go on to say something like, "Oh, so she's crawling now I'm sure. Is she walking yet?". I would then respond that she isn't crawling yet..blah..blah..blah. So anyway, I wasn't worried, because I knew that our princess would crawl when she was good and ready, and it just wasn't time yet.

Friday Steve went to a conference for work, so he wore this name badge around his neck for the conference, and was wearing it when he got home. This was a colorful badge, and was quite interesting to Kylie, because when Steve got home he laid it on the floor beside him and went to play with Kylie. She took note of it (she loves accessories), and then proceeded to crawl across the floor to it. We moved it, she followed, crawling still. We couldn't believe it. This was not the army crawl either, oh no. On all fours, she made her way to the other side of the room. So she was waiting until she had the crawl perfected before she unveiled her moves. I get it. Anyway, I looked at her going across the floor, and ran into the other room. Steve follows behind. "Are you crying?" he says. OF COURSE I AM CRYING! My baby has just reached a milestone, proving that she is no longer a baby. And yes, I will cry at all of the significant milestones. It's what I do. I love this little gal, she just impresses me all the time.

Last night Steve was away, and Kylie and I were hanging out. It was around 7pm, and I was getting her ready for bed. I took her little outfit off, and was about to put her in her sleeper, and she started hamming it up. She loves playing around in her onesie. So I got out the video camera. The best part of the video is at the end, she crawled for the camera. The video is a little long….

Goodbye Facebook

In my desire to make the most of the time that I spend here at home, I have discovered that there is one thing that I tend to spend a bit of time on, that has little return. Facebook. It's not an intentional time waster, I go on it to see what's going on with my friends, and 30 minutes later I find myself looking at pictures, going from one link to the next, engrossed in someone else's business...Does this define addiction? Maybe...

So to all my Facebook pals, I will miss you. Hopefully we can find other ways to keep in touch. Like this blog, that I need to spend more time on...

Valentine's Day

I love Valentine's Day! It's a good excuse to tell the one you love sweet nothings, and it's a guaranteed good meal out..perfect!!

This year was a little different than in years past, because this year, we have Kylie; so no more long dinners at very expensive restaurants, eating food we don't know how to pronounce. We're on a budget now, and are lucky enough to have family near, who were kind enough to watch Kylie. We had a gift certificate to PF Changs, which covered the full cost of our lettuce wraps, Changs Spicy Chicken, Orange Peel Beef, and my favorite...The Great Wall of Chocolate dessert. It was sooo nice to be able to have a dinner with Steve, just he and I. Sometimes I forget to savor the moment, so I really tried to do that last night. I did miss our little lady. For a second....okay maybe longer than a second...anyway...

While we were waiting for our appetizer to come, the manager came over and offered to take our picture. This sounded nice right? A picture to take home to remind us of our romantic night out?? He tells me that I have to hold this big red teddy bear, not sure why..Anyway, I was a little wierded out (see picture below..) by the teddy bear, but went along. The picture didn't turn out so bad, and since it was the only picture we took that night, it will have to do..