Growing Up

We had another fabulous Chicago weekend - started out with my living furniture being delivered at the end of the week.  As we speak, I'm sitting at my new desk next to a window with lots of flowers.  Aside from the obvious work benefits, Mark and I have each been in here taking naps, talking on the phone, reading.  It's just a great extra space to our family room.  Plus Sawyer and Isla seem to like being in here, and it's a very kid friendly, comfy space.  Aside from that obvious excitement, we also got our first babysitter since Isla was born and Mark and I headed out for sushi and a movie.  Not only was our babysitter great - I'm emailing her today with more dates, but god I realized how much I missed getting out on our own...together.  Since we moved we were just alternating going out separately with friends, but it was nice to do something totally normal together. 

Anyway, now we're looking forward to a short week of work and daycare because we're leaving on Wednesday for a trip to Buffalo!  Fingers crossed that it's not a terrible drive with two kids.  By no means am I expecting easy but tolerable would be great.  We're leaving early morning to take advantage of naps and hope there won't be too many stops.

Will be great to finally introduce Isla to some more of her family.  So far she's only met Grandma, Grandpa, Al and Jon on my side of the family.  Girl won't know what hit her though with all the new faces but she's a big people watcher so I'm sure she'll give lots of smiles.  I didn't think we had a lot planned but between dental appts, Kate's baby shower, Isla's baptism, and Mark's running the marathon I think we'll have more than enough to do.  Plus, work in all the required food stops I have - Ninos, George's, etc. and it'll probably be over before I know it.

As for the family, I think they'll be surprised how big these girls have gotten.  Sawyer has gotten very goofy, with a great imagination and a love of music.  She loves to dance and tells us she's going to "show us her moves", and will also request song changes in the car if she's not happy about the song.  Clearly I listen because she is the boss of our house.  Sawyer is officially out of diapers - we finally cut the cord for wearing them to bed and she's done great.  No accidents so far.  Come to think of it, she made entire process pretty easy on us.  I can count on one hand the number of accidents she's ever had so big high five to her.  Isla has some big shoes to fill there.  Sawyer still likes to line things up, likes to count things for us, and speaks a goofy little language to herself.  She knows she's speaking gibberish because she'll say it and then laugh. 

Isla turns 6 months this week, and remains our sweet little girl but boy has she found her voice lately.  She certainly lets us know when she's not happy about something.  There is no middle stage of whimpering.  She goes from content to give it to me now like lightening.  It's sometimes funny, sometimes not.  She also "talks" up a storm lately.  She kind of sounds like a dolphin though which makes it more comical.  As I mentioned before she is rolling all over the place.  I think she may be crawling in a month because she flips herself to her stomach now and tries to reach real hard for toys so I feel the army crawl can't be far behind.  Especially when her sister sees what she wants and pulls it further out of reach...Sorry Isla, let's hope Sawyer doesn't torment you like this all your life.  As for sleeping, we're gradually getting better.  Isla is typically up only once a night around 3/4am.  She is ravenous when she wakes up and it's the only thing that will soothe her.  I swear I try to get more food into her during the day to compensate but she is maxed out...and believe me...she's got the rolls to prove it.  Isla has proven to be a superstar on the eating front.  Whereas Sawyer cried if we tried to give her veggies, Isla now eats everything we throw her way.  Doesn't matter if it's veggies or carrots, she just wants it fast.  I do feed Isla organic baby food almost exclusively though, mainly because I think it seems to have better taste, so maybe that helps?  I found this brand that I love that doesn't just do the normal peas and carrots, but does strawberries, blueberries, and all these crazy combos to make them taste better.  Who knows.

And with that, I guess I need to turn my focus to packing...

Sawyer making one of her many goofy faces...

 Reading to herself on Saturday morning.