An Elmo-tastic Birthday!

What a day!!!! As I am typing this, I am laying on the couch with my feet up waiting for the tylenol to kick in. I am exhausted! Today was the much anticipated (by Char and me at least) Elmo themed 2nd birthday party. We had a perfect day, the weather was hot...but by the time the party rolled around it was beautiful. Charlotte started off the party on a bad note. She fell on the patio and skinned her knee and it just set her off for about an hour. We tried to put a band aid on and it freaked her out. I should have remembered from her vaccine appointment that she hates band aids. She was inconsolable. In between sobs she would tell me what she wanted...."I....(sniff)..want..(sniff)...to..(sniff)...watch iCarly....(sniff).....in Liz's bed....(sniff)." But she regrouped and pulled it together and had a great time in her bouncy house. But not as much fun as she had going into the cooler and passing out ice cubes to everyone at the party. Mental note for next time...a 2.00 bag of ice is more entertaining than a rented bouncy house.

Charlotte's guests feasted on ribs, hamburgers, hot dogs, brats, pasta salad, potato salad and more dishes than I can remember. Daddy served as grill master. Everyone also enjoyed "Charlotte's Home" wine just like last year. As the signature drink of the party, we served "Elmotinis" which were really just pineapple upside down cake martinis. For dessert we had the long awaited "ELMO CAKE!!!" Charlotte has been talking about an Elmo cake for months. Aunt Mary and Aunt Colleen did an AWESOME job on the Elmo cake and Charlotte loved it! We also had an Elmo themed cookie platter and her Grandma Clinnin's birthday number cookies. And...I almost forgot...we rented a freezer from Zarlengo's that was filled with Italian Ice, turtle sundaes, fudge bars, ice cream sandwiches, etc. Let's just say no one left hungry...I would be insulted if anyone ever left a party of mine hungry. I get that from my Grandma Cannata.

Charlotte received so many nice gifts! She is now the proud mommy of two new baby sisters for Mabel. I can't wait to see what she tries to name them. She also received some cool clothes and accessories for Mabel..including a diaper bag stuffed with things to help her care for her baby. Grandma and Grandpa Cannata bought her a little table and chairs that will be delivered to her and Nate's playroom in our new house (once we find it and move in!).

It was a long an exhausting day, but I loved seeing Charlotte have so much fun!

A red-faced birthday girl after spending some pre-party time in the bouncy house

The Elmo Cake!

Singing Happy Birthday

Elmo Cookies (Elmo's Goldfish, Dorothy, too)

The Number Cookies

The Zarlengo's freezer...yum! A big hit!

Ice delivery girl

Bouncing with her new iCarly doll

Opening Presents

Happy 2 year old!

Nate playing with the balloons

Nugget spending some time with Grandpa

Quick Update

Although I don't have any cute pics or video to post...I thought I would do a quick update on what's going on with the Clinnin's. Only one word can describe this week....insane! In between trying to find a house, packing up this one, finding moving companies, planning a 2 year old birthday party, etc.. we are like a family of chickens with our heads cut off. On top of everything, Nate has the worst cold I have ever seen. Those of you who know Nate, you know he is literally the happiest baby you have ever seen. This kid does nothing but smile and laugh. Not the last two days, he has turned from a happy nugget into a miserable nugget. And of course, what does every sick baby want?? To be held. Not the best week to have a 17 lb baby attached to my hip.

We are still in the process of trying to find a house. However, we think we may have found the one!! It's in Downers Grove, I'll keep you updated. It was kind of a twist of fate how it happened...a story for a later post. House hunting is not nearly as fun as I thought it would be. We have seen dozens and dozens of houses in about 6 different suburbs. I could write an entire blog post on the atrocities of house hunting that we have seen. Some even shocked our real estate agent.

Booking moving companies is one of the worst tasks...made even more complicated when you literally can't tell them where you are moving to. I found myself saying, "Well, we know for sure we need you on June 17th to move us out...I just don't know where you will be taking our stuff." As we get closer and closer, it looks like it will be in storage for a least a few weeks until we can close on a house.

Our dining room is covered with moving boxes that were delivered by UPS today. Our UPS guy was thrilled, I'm sure. Charlotte is having a blast playing with the massive box that the other boxes came in. It's the little things.

Elmo-fest will be rolling into Olympia Fields tomorrow afternoon. Yes, the much anticipated 2nd Birthday festivities will be taking place and Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend everyone!!!

Charlotte and the Hose

Is there a page in the baby book for "Baby's First ER Visit"??

Well, this morning turned out to be an interesting one. Charlotte and Nate were playing on the floor together, just having a great time as they do every morning. Until I saw Charlotte throw a book and it landed on Nate's face. (a heavy little cardboard book) He started screaming and I rushed over to pick him up. I brought him back to the couch to take a look and his eyelid was bleeding. He had a gash along his lashline on his left eye. I immediately called the pediatrician to see if I should bring him there or the ER. They said to take him to the ER in case it needs to be stitched. So, I did. Luckily, Susan was home and graciously took Charlotte while I took Nate to Children's Memorial. We were the only ones there and got in right away. Within 15 minutes they determined it was fine that it would heal on its own and that they wouldn't want to put sutures or glue that close to his lashline. So, he might be sporting a manly scar on his eyelid to tell all the girls about later in life. It was just too close to his eye and I felt someone needed to make sure his actual eye wasn't injured. He was great in the ER and was flirting with all of the nurses. They were all showering him with attention and telling me how cute and smiley he is. Charlotte, of course, has no idea what happened. So, we will just have to hold it over her head when she's older that she caused his first ER visit!

Having a bottle in the ER

Click on the picture to make it full size to see the extent of the eye injury

In addition....many of you probably just assumed Kevin was at work while all of this was going on. Actually, he was out house hunting because we have finally sold our house! Late last week we officially became under contract. So, Kevin and I have been in fire drill mode to find a place to live. The buyers want to close on June 18th. So, we have a month to find a place and be out. Yes, it is as stressful as it sounds. I am sure many of you will understand that my blogging may come to a screeching halt for a while. I will try to post here and there, but I am spending most of my time online trying to find a house!! So, if anyone wants two adults, two kids and two dogs to come stay at there place for a few weeks once we become homeless, let us know :)

Charlotte is TWO!!!

Well, as of 6:43 this morning..I am the proud mommy of a two year old! Where has the time gone? The last few days have been a whirlwind of activity for all of us. More about that in the next few days.. Charlotte got to spend some time with all of her grandparents this weekend! Since we have a "big" party planned for Charlotte later on in the month, Charlotte just had a small cake and opened her present from Mommy and Daddy (in addition to some cool gifts from Grandma Clinnin). We figured she should open a couple gifts on her actual birthday. As you can see from the pictures, Charlotte is now the happy owner of a new tricycle!! The tricycle comes with a "push bar" that attaches to the back so that we can actually push her on the trike until she learns to pedal herself. She also had an "Elmo cake" since it's all she has been talking about. She doesn't know she is getting a much cooler Elmo cake for her party. She blew her #2 candle out on the first try. I hope all of her little two-year old wishes come true!!

Charlotte also got a baby highchair from Grandma Clinnin for Mabel (her new obsession). I just realized I haven't talked about Mabel.. When Aunt Liz was little, she had a bay doll named Mabel. Mabel still resides in Liz's bedroom. Charlotte loves to play with Mabel when she is at my parent's house. So...a few weeks ago, Grandma let Charlotte have a baby doll from either Liz or Emily..can't remember whose it was. So, of course, Charlotte named her Mabel. If Aunt Liz has a "Mabel", so must Charlotte! Charlotte loves to play with her...push her in the baby stroller, put her in Nate's jumper, and now feeding her in the high chair. She also got some Elmo big girl underwear...here's hoping we need that soon!!!

I let Nate taste a little of the frosting from Charlotte's cake. I thought he should be included and celebrate his sister's birthday too!

Trying the Trike on for size

That's how Charlotte rolls

Taking a "Birthday Call" from Aunt Liz...while on my new ride

Elmo Cake

Blowing out her candle

Big Week for Charlotte!

Charlotte hiding from the doctor

Charlotte getting weighed on the big girl scale

Playing with the measuring tape and tongue depressor

Charlotte post shot and finger prick

In the car admiring her Elmo sticker

In preparation for Charlotte turning the big "2" we had her two year doctor's appointment today. In typical Charlotte fashion, she kept her eyes covered for the walk from the parking garage, the check in process and getting to the room. Imagine a two year old walking to a patient room with her eyes covered with both hands...it was pretty funny! She is doing great and she is "ahead developmentally." Of course!! The Dr. pointed to a few things and asked her what color they were or what shape they were and Charlotte nailed it! It was so funny...she was standing on the scale and the Dr was trying to measure her height by putting the thing close to her head and Charlotte kept looking up and screwing up the measurement. So, I pointed at the numbers on the scale and said, "Charlotte...look here, what's that" in an effort to get her to look straight ahead. The Dr looked at me and said, "If she knows her numbers too...I would be REALLY impressed." I laughed and said, "No..I was just trying to get her to stop looking up." The only thing we need to work on is trying to get her to eat more vegetables.

Nate is doing wonderful...as opposed to Charlotte, he IS eating plenty of vegetables. He loves squash, carrots, peas. He also loves fruit...his favorite is fresh mango and prunes with apples (we feed him that for obvious reasons). He is crawling all over the place now. He is hard to keep up with. He's doing better about sleeping at night. He slept 8 hours last night even with the storm.

We should have some fun posts coming up with all of the birthday celebrations ahead!

Oh Charlotte...she is such a smartie

Charlotte did the cutest thing today. She was playing in her room with a little stuffed dog that our neighbor, Susan, gave her. She was sitting him up on the floor and saying, "Sit! Stay!!!" I was cleaning the kitchen and all the sudden I hear the pitter patter of Charlotte running into the kitchen and going into the cabinet. I said, "Charlotte, what do you need?" She said, "I need dog food!" Just as I was about to tell her to get out of here....I said, "OK..." and I got her a little plastic bowl and put a few pieces of dog food in it. She grabbed it from me, said "thanks" and ran back into her room. She set the food right in front of her dog and said, "Here you go!" I think she got this from being over at Susan's house...no matter what time of day she is there, she needs to feed the dogs. She goes into each cabinet and gets the bowls, the wet food, the dry food....it's like she thinks it's her little job. I took a picture for everyone!

I am very excited about a recent development with Nate. At his doctor's appointment, they told me that I need to start putting him down awake instead of rocking him to sleep and putting him down. They think that might be why he wakes up two times a night, because he doesn't know how to put himself to sleep. The only reason that I have avoided this in the past was because I didn't want to make him "cry it out" in our small condo. If he starts screaming at 3:00 am, it will surely wake Charlotte up and then I will have two children to deal with. The doctor just told me to wait until he's groggy and very tired and put him down. So, last night I waited until he was rubbing his eyes and I put him in the crib and turned the lights off. Sure enough, he rolled over and went to sleep after a few minutes of playing. I was so excited! Then, for both of his naps and bedtime tonight...I did the same and it is working!! He is putting himself to sleep. Yay!

6 Months Old..and Mobile!

Well, since it is a few days past Nate's "6 month birthday" he is officially closer to one than to "zero." I can't believe that he is 6 months old already! Where did the time go? Last night I packed up all of his 3-6 month clothes and put all of the 6-9 month clothes in his drawers. Ugh, it made me so sad! Nate is officially scooting/crawling. Whatever you want to call it, that boy is fast! He is across the room in no time. This is so bittersweet! You want your baby to reach these milestones, but now I have two mobile kids..eek! Today was Nate's 6 month old checkup. My little nugget weighed in at 17 pounds on the nose. He had to get three shots. He didn't even flinch during the first two, but the last one caused the pouty lip and the tears. Since he got a flu shot (which is made of eggs) we had to wait 20 minutes for the nurse to check him to make sure he didn't have a reaction. During the 20 minutes, Nate stopped crying and I had my happy baby back. Then the nurse came in to check his tummy and back for a rash and he started screaming as if to say, "I remember you, lady!" After the appointment, we made a quick run to Carter's to get a few more pairs of PJ's for him. Then, we ran to Whole Foods to grab a few organic fruits and veggies for some new baby food adventures. We got a sweet potato, an avocado, some mangos, squash and a few apples. I already made him some sweet potatoes, which he wasn't a huge fan of until I stirred in a few apples. Then, he polished it off! He is just the happiest baby. He smiles/laughs/screeches all of the time.

17 Pounds!

So Happy!

How cute am I?

Charlotte stayed home with Daddy while Nate and I were out spending a little Mommy/Son time together. While I was at Carter's, I bought a few pairs of little sunglasses for Miss Char. I have found the best car window shades for the side windows..but lately, when I am driving early or late and the sun is bearing down through the front window, Charlotte gets really upset. So, I got her three pairs of little glasses. I put one in my glove box and gave her the other two when I got home. I guess Daddy had promised her that they would go get ice cream and they were on their way out when I got home. I gave her the glasses and she proceeded to wear both pairs of glasses to get ice cream. I died laughing when I looked out the window to see her holding daddy's hand, in a little jean skirt and crocs and two pairs of sunglasses. I knew when she was on her way home because I heard her (three houses down) playing the "is this our house" game. She says, "Is this our house???? NO!...Is this our house??? NO! THERE'S our house!!!" All the way down Southport...

Another funny thing Char did yesterday was when we were watching Sesame Street...they tested the Emergency Alert System on TV. I am usually so good about seeing it and muting the TV so she won't get scared, but I missed it and the beeping scared the bejesus out of her! She ran to the couch saying, "No, No, No!!" and sat on the couch and covered her eyes. She does this whenever she is hiding or whenever she is scared. It's so cute.

Another Day, Another Park

Another beautiful day! So, we decided to make a family trip to the "Blue Park." It's not just a clever name...the entire park is covered with this spongey blue astroturf stuff. I think it's supposed to lessen/absorb the impact of a fall. It's really bouncy. Charlotte was having a ball being pushed on the swings by her daddy and going on the big kid slide all by herself!

Mommy and Charlotte at the park

Daddy pushing Charlotte

Having so much fun on the swings

Going down one of the slides

Giving the big kid slide a try

No problem!

As usual, Nate in the stroller...asleep. Can't wait until he can have fun too!

Charlotte leading Daddy to the next thing

The "Blue" Park

New Videos

Here is a video of Charlotte on the swings today.



Here is a video showing why Nate has now earned the nickname, "Baby Teradactyl"

First Official Trip to the Park for 2010

Since it was such a gorgeous day today, after Charlotte woke up from her nap..I decided that we should have a "picnic" in the park. So, we threw together some snacks, grabbed the sunscreen and the stroller and went to the park. Charlotte had a great time swinging on the swings and trying the slide. She was too little to do the slide by herself last year. I said, "Charlotte...let me show you how to go down the slide." Before I could even finish the sentence, she was down the slide.

Charlotte enjoying her lunch. Her Aunt Liz thinks she has a slight banana addiction

Enjoying some snacks before playing

Cutie pie!

I don't need any instructions, I've got it all figured out!

Going down the slide

Having fun on the swings

She was killing herself laughing and screaming, More!!!

Poor Nate stuck in the stroller again.

Back home playing with the dogs outside

Charlotte Goes to the Theatre...Elmo!!!!

Today was a special day for Charlotte! Grandma, Charlotte and I went to see Sesame Street Live...The show was "Elmo's Green Thumb." Needless to say, I have been worried for weeks about how this would all go down. Would Charlotte freak out? Would she be able to see from our seats? Would she like it? We got there early to park and find out seats and let Charlotte get her bearings. She definitely was unsure about everything, what was all of this?? We showed her the stage and told her Elmo and Big Bird would be coming out there. She then started yelling, "Elmo! Come out!!!" "Big Bird...get down here!!!" It was hilarious. She liked sitting in her seat, that was very new for her and she liked how they folded up. Throughout the show, she wanted to stay in her own seat, not sit with either of us. She was pretty calm throughout the whole thing. She was kind of taking it in. It was an hour and half show with a 15 minute intermission. Thankfully mommy brought snacks and juice boxes for when she got a little restless. I think she is still processing everything she saw and we will be hearing about this for weeks/months to come. Just like the zoo...every day she needs to talk to me about the jaguar. Overall...we all had a great time. It was so fun to watch her try to figure it all out!

Grandma and Charlotte waiting for Elmo

Getting used to her seat

Enjoying her juice box during the show (I love this picture, there is a slight fear in her eyes and she is devouring the juice box as a defense mechanism)

Big Bird and Elmo

The stage

Taking in the show with Grandma

The big surprise ending...confetti cannon!

During intermission, they were selling Elmo balloons....for $10 each! What????