Happy New Year

From our family to yours...

Happy New Year...

May 2009 be filled with happiness, health, and prosperity

xoxo

Welcome to our "mew"est addition!

Meet Sammy, the newest addition to the Witkowski clan!!

Santa "Claws" left a note for the kiddos telling them to please visit his favorite animal shelter to pick out a new friend for our family, so today we piled into the car and drove through the fog and drizzle to meet our new little buddy. He passed the "Bitsy" test-you know, can he handle a rambunctious two year old tugging his tail (yes), trying to pick him up (yes) and trying to smother him with love (yes, he even purred) We knew he was the cat for us when Gabe leaned down to talk to him and Sammy moved his head up to meet Gabe and rubbed his cheek on Gabe's cheek. He also decided that Geo's lap is a great place to sit and purr and rolling over to have his belly rubbed is a wonderful thing. A week from today we will be picking up our new baby; he needs his last vet check, his nails clipped, and a bath...and we will become the proud new owner of Sammy...or should I say, we will be the proud new pets of Sammy ;)

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas...I'm still in the process of uploading pictures, expect a picture post in a few days!

Merry Christmas

We'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas...

It's 8:30, Santa came last night...but the house is still very quiet, my little darlings aren't to the age yet where they get up at five a.m. to rip open gifts, which is nice. Time for Momma to relax and enjoy the peace before a crazy day. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday, surrounded by loved ones!

just one...

Just a little picture of SarahAnne that I snapped tonight, too cute to not share :D

Two-for-One

Today you get two posts for the price of one :D
The other night the kids and I made sugar cookies, despite our rough start (yes, I messed up a simple cookie recipe) I only took a few pictures because I didn't want the camera covered in dough, so here's one of them, proving that, yes, these two can and do share once in a while!

Little Miss Bitsytails

SarahAnne, upon waking most days, goes into the bathroom, points to a hairbrush and her container of hair goodies and says "me pretty hair. please?" At 21 months she is already a diva :) The photo above is my first attempt at braids, not too shabby if you ask me...or her!

Have a lovely day everyone!

*note to self*

Four and a half year olds are notoriously bad with secrets. If there were ever any doubt in my mind that this is true, last night was a true case-in-point of that. I made George a special dvd containing pictures of the kids from the last year or so and needed to watch it to be sure I hadn't made any mistakes (and it turned out I did, so I was glad I "prescreened" it so to speak) Gabe and SarahAnne are huge narcissists fans of watching themselves on the big screen, so they watched with me. Last night after George came home, Gabriel loudly asked me if we could "watch Daddy's movie" I tried my hardest to ignore him and prayed Geo had gone temporarily deaf. He asked again and then said "Come on mom, it's on your desk" and walked over to it. *sigh* So Daddy got to enjoy his Christmas gift early from the children, both of whom were exceptionally pleased to see themselves on the television again.

Lesson learned, those who can talk will talk! Booo

Keep us in your thoughts today, we are looking at the very real possibility of a crippling ice/snow storm moving through here in the next twenty four hours, hopefully we won't get hit too badly...and Geo is off tomorrow so that's a good thing too, we may need to be dug out tomorrow.

Ice ice baby

Yesterday afternoon we celebrated "Christmas" with Grandma and Grandpa Witkowski. It was a balmy 46 degrees when we came home around eight o'clock last night. By midnight, it had fallen to 19 degrees and had started to sleet, quite heavily. We woke up this morning to a thermometer reading at -13 and a layer of ice covering everything. To say that it was crummy out would be an understatement. Gabriel, of course, wants to go outside, because there's an 1/8 of an inch of snow dust on the ground and the sun is shining. He has no concept of "wind chill" or "sub zero temperatures" thankfully.

HOWEVER, because it's so cold and they can't go outside, they have both become a bit stir crazy. I finally got Gabe settled watching a movie online and had SarahAnne help me clean the bathroom, however, we have two hours until daddy gets home and I'm out of movies AND ideas he he. Too bad they are too little to learn to crochet or quilt, right? ha ha.

Hopefully wherever you are, you are warm and doing something fun, unlike the boring Witkowski's of Illinois :D

Christmas Spirit

One of my favorite Christmas movies is "Elf" It's a sweet story about Buddy the Elf who goes looking for his family and restores everyone's Christmas spirit in the process. In one of the scenes, he is answering phones, he says "Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?" SO today, everytime the phone rang, I would say "Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?" to make people giggle. I belong to another online community and posted there saying "If you call me, that's what I'll say" One of my girlfriends emailed me and told me her kid's names and what they wanted for Christmas...and then the phone rang. Buddy the Elf talked to these two sweet children and they got off the phone in disbelief that they had talked to Santa's head elf :) I hear from their mom that they are STILL wandering around talking about the Elf they talked to. Oh man oh man, do I love children at Christmas. They are still too young to be cynical about Christmas, they don't "hate" Christmas music, and they certainly don't get offended by the words "Merry Christmas". My Christmas wish for all of you is that you'll all be a bit more childlike at Christmas and revel in the small things that make this time of year so magical for some many people :D
(and if you'd like Buddy the Elf to call YOU, email me and I'll arrange for it hehe)

Just a quickie...

On a personal note, for *me*, I've been asked to do some contributing to a natural parenting blog ;) It's in the early stages, but I'd love for you to come by and check us out-and offer your expertise, if you have one and are so inclined. Feel free to pass the link along to other parents if you think it'll be helpful!



www.naturalmommas.blogspot.com

snow angels!

Last night after Geo arrived home safely-after an HOUR on the road-we all ate dinner, then decided to go play in the snow while Geo shoveled-he drew the short stick LOL The kids and I had a BLAST running around in the yard, making snow angels. SarahAnne, however, was the best of the bunch last night. She kept laying down in the snow and looking up (at the snow falling) and giggling her little head off. She didn't know that Geo and I were watching her, so the giggle was our of sheer enjoyment of the snow. It was fantastic. After about 20 minutes in the snow, my butt was frozen and they were both apple cheeked, so we came in and took a warm shower. We put on warm jams and sat down to watch a movie. Bitsy fell asleep part of the way through the movie and Gabe snuggled in between Geo and I with a comfy blanket. Over all it was a pretty wonderful night!
They aren't calling for any more snow for the next four days, so hopefully that time outside last night was enough to tide the kids over for a while :)

Snow day!

It's snowing like crazy outside right now, though the kids can't be bothered to look outside...why? Because the Christmas tree is standing in the living room of course! Geo is at work and the kids and I decided to bring the tree downstairs and get it looking more like a tree than a crunched up mess of branches. So far...no luck ha ha. Gabe and SarahAnne, however, are having a blast hanging various things off of the tree branches. We have a full sized Kermit the frog, a baseball, and a penguin balancing precariously off of the branches so far. Goofy kids.

We've all become *slightly* obsessed with Andrea Bocelli as of late. I just downloaded his Christmas album. If you've never heard Bocelli singing "Silent Night" or "Ave Maria" you do NOT know what you are missing. His voice is beautifully suited for this kind of music. (I'm actually inclined to think that his voice is beautifully suited for pretty much any kind of music, except perhaps, gangsta rap or maybe headbanging metal, but I digress ha ha)

We've been listening to Christmas music for the last few days. In our five disc player are the following discs "Winter Song" by Sarah McLachlan, "Noel" by Josh Groban, two Trans Siberian Orchestra discs, and a mix of classical Christmas songs sung by contemporary artists. It's really a nice mix of old and new music and a couple of different styles to keep everyone happy ;) Next to be added into the collection is "The Nutcracker" Gabriel, much like a certain someone I once knew, loves the Russian dance scene/song. I actually think that's one of my favorite parts as well...and will share it with all of you. For those on dial up, you probably won't be able to see the video, I do apologize!



Back to the laundry pile and silly children hanging things off of Christmas trees!

Party is over :D

We had a wonderful weekend with family visiting and eating cake...he he, isn't that what birthday parties are all about?!?

Snow!!

The past few days we've had snow flurries...and as a result, we've had very happy children. Gabe keeps insisting that we are going to make snow angels or snow men, unfortunately for him, the dusting of snow that stuck isn't enough to make a snowball, let alone a snow man! I do have to say though, that the snow falling and our Christmas lights twinkling did make for a pretty picture ;)

This weekend we are having a birthday party for George. We have many family and friends coming to have dinner with us and celebrate Geo being around for another year ;) Tori is coming down on Thursday, which has Gabe excited beyond words, and we are hoping JD and Katie will be able to make it as well. Even if they don't, it'll be a fun filled night for all of us.

We've embarked on something that every parent dreads...potty training. *shudder* SarahAnne, God bless her, loves the "bob" (her word for the toilet, she has a spongebob squarepants potty seat and refers to any toilet as bob) and will happily tinkle every five minutes. However, she's just as happy to tinkle on her brother's bed, the living room carpet, or the stairs going to our bedroom. *sigh* It's like having a puppy in the house! Slowly but surely she is telling us WHEN she has to go, it's just a matter of her getting to the potty in time...

I'll leave you all with a few new pictures of the kiddos...

Get your own Family Sticker Maker & MySpace Layouts.

The "not nice" police

The captain of the "not nice" police resides in the Witkowski household. Yep, that's right, the smallest, blondest member of our family is the captain. She is very quick to tell you if you are NOT NICE or if something is NOT NICE. In fact, she's even started telling you when other people are NOT NICE. Case in point: Last week, Gabriel, Geo, and Captain NN were upstairs goofing around. Dad was apparently tossing a stuffed animal in the air and it was irritating Gabe...SarahAnne proceeded to tell daddy he was "not nice" and came downstairs to tell ME all about it. "daddy not nice. daddy NOT NICE, momma" and pointed upstairs toward the now not nice daddy. Not nice people, beware, Captain Bits is on patrol and WILL tell you when you are "not nice" :D

A real update :D

Now that things are settling down here, I can make a real update post.

Things are going well here, Gabe and SarahAnne are both adjusting really well to their new surroundings. George remarked yesterday that the kids both seem more relaxed and happy here, which I'd have to agree with. We have more room and a huge yard to play in. There is a library across the street that we've been to a few times now, a playground across the street that we've gone to everyday we've lived here, and it's quiet here. I think that makes the biggest difference. It's quiet and dark at night, other than the freight trains that come through town every 25 minutes or so, but honestly, we don't even hear the trains anymore. I know that might sound silly, but it's true, we don't hear the trains when they come through, it's just part of the background noise like traffic was at our apartment.

We're trying to get used to everyone being so friendly and "neighborly" here. People will stop on the street to introduce themselves and tell you where they live. The neighbor across the street has a dog named Jake that Gabe and Bits have adopted as their own. The neighbor lets them come across the street and play with him whenever she is outside with the dog. I guess we are going to have to get them a pet of their own so that our neighbor can enjoy hers!

I'm glad we made the decision to move out here, a lot of people were really skeptical of it at first, and I'm sure they still are, but I am confident in our decision to move here; the proof, as they say, is in the pudding. Happier children and a more relaxed household...how can that be a bad thing??

Hope you are all doing well...

Dont' forget!

Crisp fall days

When I get to Heaven, I hope it's a crisp fall day. That's MY idea of Heaven...and apparently Gabe and Bitsy's as well!

Halloween

A picture of the kiddos in their costumes. Gabe is Dale Earnhardt, Jr, SarahAnne is an elephant :D

A few quick pictures

Just thought I would share two quick pictures of the kiddos with everyone. A real post will be coming soon, I swear ;)

Getting Settled

Hello out there from the Witkowski Clan!

We are just getting moved into our new place and will soon have new pictures to show everyone.

Gabriel just had his flu shot and did quite well with it. SarahAnne, being allergic to eggs, cannot have the flu shot, so we have to be extra vigilant with hand washing and covering our mouth this flu season!

Gabe sees a new therapist next week for a speech therapy evaluation. For those of you who have ever spent time with Gabe, you know that he is quite articulate and has a rather large vocabulary HOWEVER, he also speaks very very quickly and is often times hard to understand. We are hoping this is a one time visit with the speech therapist, though. Cross your fingers for us!

The whole family is caught up in election fever. We've been watching the debates and the kids have been throwing in their two cents. Bitsy generally says "Yay, Bama" or "Momma! Momma! Bama!" Gabriel, however, is a bit more clever. He says, when he sees Obama, "Hey mom, it's your new bicycle!" (from the website that says Barack Obama IS your new bicycle hehe) We were able to cast our ballots early due moving, so our votes have been cast-now we just wait to hear what the rest of the nation does in less than two weeks!

Alright...off to do some more unpacking...Geo brought a couple of pictures over and it's starting to look a bit more like home but we've got a ways to go!

xoxo

Family Weekend

Just a quick picture from the Brookfield Zoo yesterday. Will do a proper update later this week when I have more time :D Hope you are all doing well!

Moving...

Something exciting happened this week! We found a house to move to. It's about fifteen miles west of where we are now, so it's "the country" but it's still close enough that we can get to things relatively quickly. It's a nice little house with plenty of closet space and a big ole yard to run around in. We're moving the weekend of October 24, anyone who wants to help us is more than welcome ha ha :D

We're working on packing and getting things set for the move, the kids are excited (well Gabe is anyway!) because the house has a baseball diamond AND a library across the street from it. The town is SO small, there are about 800 people there, it's the Port Hope of Illinois (for those of you reading from the Thumb, you know exactly what this means) So far, I've found a post office, a gas station/convience store, two churches, and a bar. Ha ha. Sounds about right. We are going to be close to Northern Illinois University so Geo and I can both go back to school when the time is right. All we need is a good pizza place in town and we'll be all set :D Geo is going to be driving a bit further than he would normally to work, but he's not worried about that, he's too giddy at the prospect of a rake and lawn mower and a big garage that he doesn't mind the drive haha. Weird-o ;)

Anyway...think good thoughts for us while we're doing the packing and moving, we'll keep you all posted AND I might even post a picture or two ;)

Casting call

Gabe got his cast off today. He'd been complaining of not feeling well since having the cast put on, he'd been rather listless and a bit "down" Today when they took the cast off they discovered the reason. He had a blister the size of my thumb on the outside of his heel and TWO blisters on the arch of his foot. The poor little guy was in pain but didn't know how to tell us. If we had known he was blistering they would have taken it off right away. He gained 6 degrees of motion, which is good, but he'll need another cast to get him back to "normal" they, of course, cannot do that until his blisters have healed completely. Poor little muffin :( On a positive note, he turned himself into a prune tonight in the tub...talk about a happy kid!

Excitement Coming Soon!

We are getting ready for our first ever Witkowski Family weekend in less than two weeks!! We are going to have four generations of Witkowski's at our house on Saturday and we can't wait! Geo is lucky enough that he still has two living grandparents (Hi Grandma and Grandpa--can't wait to see you!) and his father and step mother live an hour from here. Geo's brother JD, his wife Katie, and their little sweetie Aubrey are making the trip down as well, so it'll be a very fun weekend, I'm sure.

We're starting the weekend with a trip to the Brookfield Zoo on Friday and then we're going to hike, play football, soccer, and frisbee on Saturday. Grandma the Great, which is what she's called around here, is bringing her melt-in-your-mouth meatballs and sauce and I'm going to offer up a grilled chicken Ceasar salad ;)

Sunday we're celebrating a first birthday (Aubrey's) and a first 29th birthday (mine) ha ha.

It should be fun and we're all really looking forward to it...be on the lookout for pictures from the family weekend in the next two weeks or so ;)

Obama mama!

SarahAnne is absolutely CRAZY about Barack Obama. She loves loves loves him. We have a picture of him as our desktop picture right now and she will walk up to the monitor and turn it on JUST so she can see him. She'll stand there, point at him and say "Momma! 'Bama. 'Bama Momma!" I finally had to print a picture of him to tack on the bulletin board where she can see him whenever she wants. The whole way up to Michigan everytime she'd see the Obama symbol on a sign or see his name she'd throw her hands up in the air and exclaim "'Bama! YAY!" I think she's going to be mighty disappointed that she isn't able to vote in this election ;) I wonder if I should write Sen. Obama and tell him about his littlest fan? Heck, they have a house in Chicago, it's not like we COULDN'T get together for lunch one afternoon...he he

Crazy week

What a crazy week it's been. We've had about two thousand appointments this week. LOL Bits went for her 18 month check up yesterday. She is 24 lb 7 oz and 32 inches tall. She is doing absolutely perfect in every sense of the word as far as the dr is concerned. Her vocabulary is huge and growing each day and she uses the potty a few times a day. She cannot get the flu shot this year, as she is allergic to eggs, but other than that, dr has no concerns :D Some of her newest words are: puppy, kitty, geese, duck, please, cheese, and honey (which she says as NANEY) So cute. She has the cutest little voice and an even cuter personality. She's definately a handful ;)

Gabe got casted today. He chose a black cast so he can be "Batman" Hey, whatever works. He'll more than likely be in the cast for two weeks, hopefully no more than that. The cast isn't bothering him at all, in fact, he got off the casting table and we BOTH had ot hold his hands so he wouldn't run! The therapist was following us saying "NO! NO RUNNING! You'll break your cast" All of the people in the waiting room were laughing at Gabe trying desperately to run with a big black cast on his leg. Quite amusing, really. Then, as we were walking out, Gabe decided he was going to hop on one foot down the hallway, thank GOODNESS we both had his hands because he was so off balance with the right foot being so much heavier than the left he he. Goofy kids all the way around today!

I have plenty of new pictures to upload BUT I had to reformat the computer thanks to Bitsy McNoseyPants and the computer is no longer recognizing the printer (which is how I upload pictures) It's always something. I will try and get it figured out in the next few days...I'm sure you're DYING to see new pics he he.

Have a great day!

Home again :D

After 13 hours long hours in the car, we made it home to flooded St Charles. Both of the kids and I are sick with a cough so we are lying low for a few days, hoping to recover before the weekend, which is supposed to be nice and warm. Hope you are all doing well, pictures to come in a day or two!

Adios...for now

Tomorrow morning, bright and early, we are heading to Michigan for a quick weekend trip. We'll be stopping in Grand Rapids to see Aunt Buzzy (Tori) and then we'll head up to HB to see my parents, my brother, and my neice and nephew :D Fun stuff! Have a great weekend everyone!

Little Mister Beckham

Today was Gabe's first soccer class; he enjoyed it immensely, in fact, he screamed his head off when we left, it was a pleasant way to end a great class...or not.

There are ten in his class, all of whom have been in soccer together so they know each other, however, knowing Gabriel as I do, that should be no problem at all, since he is pretty much the most friendly child I've ever met. He already has a little "girlfriend" She is an older woman :O Gabe's coach is named Chrissy, he finds that to be one of the most amusing things he's ever heard...what a goof ball.

Now to add shin guards and cleats to our shopping list and we'll be all set!

Laundry, again?!

It seems like I just DID laundry, doesn't it? Today, however, marks a day in Witkowski history...the laundry hamper and basket are both COMPLETELY EMPTY! You read that correctly, I have washed every single piece of dirty laundry in the apartment, even all the towels and sheets...Now I fully expect one of the children to get the flu and need all six sets of sheets I just washed, or perhaps Geo will decide the car needs a thorough wash and dry, by hand, and he'll use ten clean towels to do it ;) That is my kind of luck :D

I've noticed that our little blog here is getting all sorts of hits :D Nice to see that people are reading...however...being insanely curious I'd love to know WHO is reading us...drop me an email at chrissiwit@gmail.com or leave us a comment and let us know!

NOW...back to the task at hand, putting away all of this clean laundry-anyone want to help???

A Day Trip

We took a quick day trip today up to Starved Rock, a state park about an hour and a half west of us. We hiked about three miles and enjoyed the scenery. It's an early night around here, as we are all very tired from all the hiking and fresh air...good night!



Bitsy found a bear that was the same size as her and was quite amused

Gabe found this rock and just HAD to sit on it...goofy little boy

Three Little Wits...

A few weeks ago, we had visitors! Aunt Katie, Aubrey, and (later) Uncle JD came down to visit from Michigan. Katie and Aubrey were here with us for a week, we did all sorts of fun things like go to the Lincoln Park Zoo, go to the Cosley Zoo, walk by the river, etc, etc. We decided to get all three of the kiddos pictures taken together. The picture you see above is the end result. Three little cuties, all belonging to the Witkowski Family ;) Obviously we have good genes...look how stinkin' cute they are!

C is for Cupcake...

My little darling Bitsy is a bit of a chocolate fanatic...ok, a bit is an understatement; she LOVES chocolate. Today Gabe and I decided that since it was such a dreary, rainy day we should bake something...and we decided on chocolate cupcakes. SarahAnne didn't want to help us bake BUT she was more than willing to help us eat the end result...and wear it as well ;) It's supposed to be just as rainy and yucky out tomorrow...wonder what kind of mess the kiddos will get into tomorrow?!

From Witkowski Family Happenings

Geography??

As a general rule, we listen to mellow music when the kiddos are awake and in the house, think Jack Johnson, John Mayer, Sarah McLachlan, you get the idea. Today while Geo took Gabe to occupational therapy and took Bits along with them, I put some Linkin Park (a rock group) in the disc changer and forgot to take it out. We turned on the disc player at dinner to listen while we were eating and that cd came into rotation. Gabriel, who LOVES rock music, said "ooooh who is THIS momma? I like them, they rock!" I told him it was Linkin park. He looked at me, very confused and said "uh Mom, Lincoln Park is in Chicago, not the cd player." I told him that the name of the band was Linkin Park, they were people, not a place. He walked off muttering about Lincoln Park being in the city, not being singers. He he. What a goofy boy...and in the spirit of Lincoln Park, I give you a picture of Gabe in Lincoln Park--the neighborhood, not the band ;)

From Witkowski Family Happenings

It's electric :D

The area we live in has a gorgeous river, the Fox, that runs through the center of town. We have a huge park there that we love to walk in and play on the equipment there. This morning we took the kiddos there for a nice long stroll and then to play on the slides...It was an electrifying experience for Gabe...

From Witkowski Family Happenings

Laundry Day

In the Witkowski B.C. (before children) Era, two loads of laundry was all we did each week, generally one load was towels, sheets, blankets, etc. We added Gabe to our family and the laundry went up to between three and five loads per week. It leveled off when he was about two and we were only doing three or four loads of laundry per week. Enter hurricane Bits. We typically do five or six loads per week, not counting sheets and blankets. FIVE or SIX loads!! My God, how does adding one person to our family add THAT much laundry?

*sigh* The work of a momma is never finished lol

It's Labor Day today...and Geo just went to work. It's almost ninety degrees today and is supposed to get OVER ninety tomorrow. So much for the September cooldown, huh? Of course, in two months when it's thirty degrees, I'll be complaining that it's too darn cold ;)


My two laundry makers :D

Sunday Already?

Jeez, the week goes by so quickly! During the summer we don't go to summer because there is no Sunday school. Mr. Ants-in-the-pants McGee cannot sit still for long enough to sit through a church service, so generally we stay home during the summer. Hopefully Sunday School will start next Sunday and we'll start going back...Bitsy is old enough to be in her own classroom this year :O Whether or not she'll actually stay there is the question.

SarahAnne is one of the most shy children I have ever seen. She is so shy that when she is with a group of people, even family members (other than Geo, Gabe, and I) she rarely speaks and doesn't really interact with anyone. At her birthday party in March, she actually spent most of the day in her bedroom by herself, chatting to her stuffed animals. If we have family over, as we did a few weekends ago, she will check everyone out, then retreat to her room for a while. She gets overwhelmed quickly and some of our family still doesn't "get it" If people don't try to hug and kiss her and get into her face, she is fine. A lot of times we hear "she doesn't like ANYONE except you Chrissi" and the ever so popular "You need to stop breastfeeding her then she'll come to other people" (Yep, still nursing at 17 months ;) she's slowed down to only a few sessions a day but she is still nursing! yay) Just because Gabe has always been VERY social and willing to go to anyone and everyone (and still is) doesn't mean SarahAnne is the same way! Jeez oh pete's people, she's been this way for nearly a year and a half...

We decided to take a nice long walk this morning, we stopped for pancakes, hit up hallmark, and then went to the pet store. We are "regulars" at the pet store, ha ha, they know we don't have pets at home (big no no in our complex) so we go there a couple of times a week to get our pet fix. This morning we pet kittens, rabbits, guinea pigs, and a poodle. I believe Gabe pet a chinchilla as well. SarahAnne, as usual, was fascinated by the birds. They moved their display so the birds were at eye level for her. She was quite excited.

How about a picture of my sweet shy girl?

Two Mini Chefs!

We have two budding chefs in our midst. We are grilling tonight-it's in the mid 80's and Geo is home for the night, so why not?! I found a recipe for grilled peaches with bourban vanilla whipped cream *drools* and figured we'd try it tonight. Gabe whipped the cream. He loves holding the hand mixer and although it took ten minutes he made a wonderful whipped cream! Bitsy, not to be left out, took the silicone brush and brushed the peaches with olive oil...and then licked the brush *gag* She was NOT impressed by the way it tasted and tossed the brush at me, as if to make her point. he he ;D

Hope you're all enjoying the long weekend!

It's official

I am a soccer mom. Gabe is all signed up, registered, and paid in full for soccer this season. Technically it's a pre soccer program, called Little Kickers. He will be learning the fundamentals of the game before he starts in a soccer league. *sigh* How in the world is he even big enough to play soccer? Seriously, he's not old enough is he?! ;)

Update on the updates :D

I've decided to turn this into a family blog, not just centered on Gabe and Bits. Our family is the most important thing to us and we'd like to share that ;D
Future updates will be all about all of us :D

A Day of Firsts

Gabe had two firsts today (ok, in the past 24 hours if you want to get technical!) Gabe had his first "sleep away" at Grandma's house last night and then, about a half an hour ago, he had his first bloody nose. He was so calm and collected about it. He came out of his bedroom and said "Hmm, Mom, there's blood in my nose" and his face was covered. WHAT? Of course your face is covered kid, your nose is bleeding like crazy. He said to me "I don't know what happened, I was fine and then there was blood, can you fix it?" Of course I can ;)

He had fun at Grandma's house, which was a good thing. He's spent all of one night away from us in four and a half years-other than the first 16 days of his life. I was nervous and nearly cried, nevermind that he was a mere 20 minutes from us, it might as well have been halfway around the Earth! He didn't want to leave Grandma's house this morning for Occupational Therapy. Grandma and Grandpa have video games, something Geo and I don't normally allow him to play and he was playing a car game happily when we came to pick him up. Poor Gabe ha ha ;)

Bitsy was BEYOND happy to see him this morning. She kept trying to kiss him. She was lost without him last night. She actually fell asleep an hour before her normal time to fall asleep! She slept in as well...Geo and I think we'll be sending him away more often...lol not really ;) They've been practically inseperable all day, which is cute. Sometimes Gabe acts like he can't stand her...but deep down it's apparent that he adores her. The feeling is very mutual.
A few new pictures of the kiddos
SarahAnne looks SO much older than 17 months when her hair is in pigtails!



I swear, if I could get Gabriel to open his eyes FULLY for a picture, I would fall over in a stupor!

Four months?!

I had such good intentions when I started this blog for the kiddos. *sigh* what's the old saying about the road to hell being paved with good intentions?

Gabe and SarahAnne are getting so big...and are a joy to be around...and they are a handful. Ha ha. Gabe is no longer four, in fact, if you ask him, he will tell you that he is four and a half Bitsy is 17 months, and really not that bitsy at all. How did they get so old??

Gabe was downtown last week at Children's Memorial Hospital to have his kidneys checked. They are perfect according to his doctor. He is finally 40 inches tall and weighs in at 38.5 pounds. He's a beanpole, pants fall off of him and shirts are always too short. He wears a size 11 or 12 shoe, depending on the brand and whether or not he wears his braces. His current obsession is camoflage gear. I believe he has four pair of camo shorts now, green camo, that is, he also has one pair of BLACK camo. As we started shopping for fall, he just HAD to have a pair of camo cargo pants, as well as a pair of khaki cargos like Daddy wears ;) He loves muscle cars and can identify a Mustang from a block away, just from the way the engine sounds. It's to the point where we don't question if he is right or wrong when he identifies a car because he is NEVER wrong. Case in point, last night there was a classic car show by the house. From a distance he saw a car and said "That's a Shelby Mustang" I said, "Ok sure" and didn't think anything of it...until about ten minutes later when we ran out for something and ended up with the car in front of us. He said to me "oh there's the Shelby Mustang I saw" Of course, he was right, the plate had a holder on it that said "Shelby Mustang" *sigh* He's always right about cars.

SarahAnne...oh my little Bitsy. She is trouble. Capital T trouble. She is a climber, a jumper, a screamer, and a little lover. I have more grey hair on my head because of her than anything else in my life. She is shyer than shy around people but talks your ear off if she knows you. When you ask her if she wants something, she cocks her head and says "Hmmm, hmmm, um, yeah" and then will point to it, or if she knows the word, will say what she wants. She has started using the word "please" however, she seems to think that saying please will get her whatever she wants, even if it's something she is NOT supposed to have. She will repeat "please please please" in her breathy little girl voice until she gets what she wants OR until Momma tells her no enough. Ha ha. She adores Gabriel and loves nothing more than to climb up into bed with him and snuggle. Whenever they sit in the living room together, Gabe sits up on the couch with his long legs dangling over the side and she sits between his feet and more often than not, falls asleep there. She calls him Gabe sometimes, but mostly calls him "bruh bruh" Gabriel refers to her as "Bits" or "Bitsapova" (as in Sarah Bitsapova. She has one outfit that looks like a tennis outfit and Geo, the sports nut he is, jokingly said she looks like Maria Sharapova...instead she's Sarah Bitsapova...we're dorks, I know) She is scheduled for her 18 month check up in three weeks, so I don't have any recent stats on her. She's tall and chunky. She has rolls on her thighs and big chubby cheeks...our little Bitsy, such a little love.

I'll leave you with the promise that I will start updating more often...

Casting Call

Yesterday Gabe got his cast off! He has gained six degrees of movement, which is completely normal. His PT wants to do another cast but is going to wait another week or so to put it on him. He has two blisters from the cast and we are going out of town, so we'll see how he measures next week, hopefully he hasn't lost more motion!

Mr Gabriel is a *bit* sassy as of late. Today he was outside and his ball rolled under the porch door. He said "Hey, girl [meaning me] please get that ball. YOU girl! open that door!" He also refers to George as "my husband" even when talking about something he and Geo have done together, before it was just to me about something Geo and I had done. :O What a goofy kid.

The kids have been enjoying the sun the last few days. Yesterday we went to the "rocket" park (it's a park with a huge rocket ship slide) and when we walked in there was a pretty boxer puppy sitting by a bench with his owner. SarahAnne immediately fell in love and started to walk toward the dog, pointing at her, saying "mine mine mine" We pet the dog together, her name was Rosie, the dog gave her a kiss and SarahAnne turned around and walked back to see Gabe. It was very cute. Tomorrow we are meeting up with some friends at another park to hopefully wear our children out enough that they'll nap tomorrow afternoon ha ha.

George and I are both hoping this weather holds on thru the weekend...it's just been glorious. Gabe and I planted some sweet peas and morning glories...I've been rotating them to get good sun and one batch has bloomed already...however, I'm not sure if they are the peas or glories...the other side didn't do ANYTHING .I am hoping they are the morning glories, I am pretty sure they are actually, based on the leaves. I love morning glories and plan on putting them into a planter that will allow them to grow all the way around my porch so they are the first thing I see when I look out in the morning. We are also going to attempt some patio tomatoes as well, we'll see how THAT goes.

Have a lovely evening everyone :D

Weekend Update :D

Our weekend was pretty darn good, if I do say so myself :D It was absolutely gorgeous out all weekend, so the kids were able to be outside most of the weekend. Yesterday Grandma and Grandpa (Dad and Caren) came out to our place for a bbq. Miss SarahAnne called Grandpa "grandpa" not once but TWICE!! What a big girl. She also gave him a hug AND a kiss, unsolicited, which if you know SarahAnne is a big deal :D She rarely hugs or kisses people, unless you ask for it, even then you don't always get it. She's learned to blow kisses as well, which is about the cutest thing ever.
Gabe gets his cast off tomorrow, thankfully. His foot is starting to REALLY smell ha ha. He has a funny new habit of calling George "your husband" when he talks to me about him. If he gets up in the morning to find that Geo isn't home he'll say, "hey mom, where's your husband at?" it's hysterical.
This weekend we are taking a little road trip to Tennesse for Geo's sister Faith's baby shower. Gabe is beyond excited. It should be a nice little trip; the weather is supposed to be nice and warm which will make it even MORE enjoyable. When we get back, Geo's grandparents will be here from New York-yay! We haven't seen them since last fall :D Boy are they in for a shock with Bitsy...the last time they were here she was just crawling and not making a whole lot of noise...she's a walking, talking, eating, climbing, running machine now :D

Sibling Love

Tonight, while Geo and I were getting dinner ready, Gabe and SarahAnne were doing the sweetest thing. They were both "reading" a book while sitting back to back. It was stinkin' cute, you would have had to have seen it to believe it :D The two of them have such a wonderful relationship. The first person she wants in the morning is Gabe, she sits up in her bed and says "oh bruh bruh, gaabuh!" and grins as soon as she sees him. He usually goes over to her bed and gives her a smooch and says "it's a beautiful day SarahAnne, get out of bed" and they start to play. It's so wonderful to watch them interact, to think I was so nervous about having two kiddos!

As an aside, if you read this blog, would you mind leaving me a comment to let me know? Just trying to see who actually reads this thing :D

Spring Time Fun

Gabe and SarahAnne have discovered something fun to do on these windy April afternoons...pinwheels! We picked some up at the dollar store (of all places) and they have been having a blast with them. I wish *I* were that easily amused ha ha.

Gabe had his new cast put on Tuesday. He keeps asking for us to "take off my green boot" (it's a green cast-NEON green-what was Geo thinking?!) He's been a pretty good sport about the whole thing, but pants are a big issue-he only has a few pair that fit over the cast. Thankfully it's warm enough for shorts during the day.

SarahAnne is a complete and utter dare devil. She was out on the patio this afternoon with Gabe...and decided it would be a great idea to stand on a chair...it was like slow motion watching her fall off-I could see her falling but couldn't do a darn thing about it. She has a fat lip and I have a blood stained t shirt. *sigh* She was fine after about two minutes of nursing and cuddling...and went right back outside :O Crazy little monkey!

Hope you are all enjoying the gorgeous spring weather...

An All SarahAnne Update :D

Our little Bitsy...she's just the sweetest little thing. She is talking up a storm and doing all sorts of things that her big brother only DREAMT of doing at her age :D

Words she says:
Momma
Dadda
Bruh bruh (brother)
(f)ish
wa wa (water for the fish, of course!)
hi
hey
bye (a new one this weekend!)
bear
vroom
more
go

She loves music and dancing. She loves "Baby Mozart" a Baby Einstein dvd, she loves to play cars with her bruh bruh. She loves bubble baths and grilled cheese sandwiches. She loves the fish tank and the gerbil. She will eat ANYTHING that doesn't eat her first, and even then will give it the ole' college try ;)
She does NOT like strangers, she does not like anyone approaching her. She does not care for dogs and only likes cats if they can't reach her, ha ha. She does not like beef, unless it's filet mignon (good taste!) She does NOT like it when she doesn't get her way ha ha

She walks all over and is starting to finally get the hang of running-a little bit. She likes to try to jump on the trampoline. She climbs on things now and her favorite thing to give us grey hair is to STAND on her brother's rocking chair and rock it. She gets on Gabe's bathroom stool to try and get into the bathroom sink. She stands in the bathtub, she likes to put her face underwater. She tries to turn the water on in the bathroom-thank God she can't. Her favorite thing to do is try and flush things down the toilet when we aren't looking :O

She's just the sweetest little thing; we're so happy to have her in our lives
:D

Another Weekend Gone

Our wonderful weekend is drawing to a close. Both George and I were off all weekend; "Uncle" Joel came to visit for the weekend! The weather was gorgeous so we were able to be outside most of the time. Saturday we went to the Cosley Zoo, a wonderful little children's zoo in Wheaton. We spent time looking at ducks, petting a cow, and checking out a new little ewe. Today we were able to spend an hour or so at the park. Both kiddos were able to run around (well, as best as they can!) and use the playground equipment. SarahAnne's favorite piece of equipment was the swings. As we pushed her she giggled and clapped her hands. Gabriel just wanted to "excercise his muscles" as he said over and over. He climbed all sorts of ladders and even managed to climb up the rock climbing wall!

Gabe is going to a new physical therapist. His new PT, Brian, is a certified water therapist! Gabe goes in the pool once a week and leaves exhausted. He is going to be getting new casts-thank you growth spurt! in a week or so. We'll know more on Tuesday when we see Brian. Fun stuff :D

I will be updating this blog more frequently now, I actually forgot we had this blog set up for them. You can count on an update once to twice a week--maybe even more!

♥