Doesn't Feel Like Summer is Over...

Well not to me anyway.  This weekend was hot here in Chicago - we've been in the 90's actually for the last few days.  Every now and then I think I'm ready for Fall, and then it is nice, and we eat dinner outside and I start to think we should move to a warmer weather location to have this all year round.  

At any rate, we spent much of the week and weekend getting back into the swing of things at home.  

Mark and I both worked from home Wednesday because we took the girls to their first ever dentist appointments.  Sawyer has accompanied Mark and I when we've gone to see my Aunt, but never an official cleaning.  Since we've been paying for dental insurance for her and Isla now since birth it seemed appropriate to finally get our money's worth...that and I've decided it's finally time we get a local dentist.  Because we have two VERY skeptical girls I found a pediatric dentist in the hopes it would make the experience more fun, and potentially easy on me.  I will say it started out a bit rough - after picking up the girls at daycare early and needing to wake both up from their naps I remembered I didn't bring a diaper or wipes with me for Isla.  I quickly grabbed a diaper from her stash at daycare and THANK GOD.  We got to the dentist and immediately I noticed she pooped.  And Isla is a bit of a stealth pooper, Sawyer we always knew when she was going.  Isla sometimes goes off on her own, but she could also do it right in front of you and you may never know...such as that day.  So I quickly take her to the bathroom and am using wet paper towels to clean her, while she's laying on the bathroom floor using my purse as a pillow because there's no changing table.  But I digress, what's really important are the appointments.  However, after waking Isla up from her nap, changing her diaper when she absolutely didn't want it, and then taking her into a room with the big chair she was not having it and just burst into tears.  She does this thing where she grabs your shoulder to direct you where she wants to go and she was clawing me to leave the room.  Thankfully the doctor came in pretty much right away and we knelt Isla on my knees while she quick got in there for a look.  Despite the incredibly odd sequence her teeth came in, I'm happy to report she has everything she should right now, and though she's got a little plaque around the gums because she prefers to brush her teeth by herself she's good to go.  Meanwhile, Sawyer was such a big girl.  She sat in the chair perfectly and allowed them to brush, clean, floss, and even take xrays.  While she had next to no plaque she has taken to brushing her teeth 2-3 times a day.  I'm thankful because it seems both of their mouths resemble Mark's perfect teeth vs. my very not-so perfect teeth...at least right now.

So long story long, we had some major grand plans this weekend but it ended up being more low key.  We headed downtown on Saturday so Mark could check in on a problem at the condo, and also get the lease signed for another year (WOOHOO!).  While that happened I took the girls to one of Sawyer's favorite parks from back in the day.  Sadly, she doesn't really remember much from her first two years living in the city.  We had to point out our condo to her..even the El running behind it didn't seem to register.  Oh well.

Our view from the playground...While Mark and I see these buildings when we go to work, it makes me a little sad they aren't instantly recognizable to Sawyer and Isla yet.

 Action shot from the see-saw

 And on the other end....

 We played in the sandbox...

 And of course spent time on the swings...

After stopping off at a new burger joint by the condo we headed home to relax and watch tennis.  Was really nice.  However, I'm leaving out one very big thing - on Saturday we officially took Isla's binky away.  She is ~21 months, the same time Sawyer got it taken away.  She's struggling a bit more than Sawyer did but that's reinforcing to me why we need to get it over with now.  Her first nap ended short, I think because she couldn't soothe herself back to sleep, and instead she woke up crying for me and proceeded to cry for the hour after begging for her binky.  She kind of goes in spurts begging for it now....though certainly hasn't forgotten about it yet.  Tonight she cried hard for 10 minutes before I went in to calm her down, and then probably cried another 5 after I left before she fell asleep.  I am hoping by next weekend it will be a distant memory.

Because of the binky issue, Isla began stirring at 5:30am on Sunday, and was fully up and crying at 6am, so much that she woke up the entire house.  So an early start to our day.  I did accomplish a big thing on the list that day - got to the outlets to get Sawyer some more fall clothes.  I needed to do a big trip vs. the few random things I've picked up thus far, so I headed out alone early and am pretty proud of myself.  I was laser focused and only went in the 5-6 stores I wanted for Sawyer and aside from shoes and coats got her enough to last us through Christmas.  Who knew our girl would grow so much this summer...  So after that we also went over to our neighbor's house for a bbq.  Seems a bunch of us on the street were all planning a low key weekend so it worked out everyone was around, and it was nice for us to actually spend more time and meet more of them.  I think it also helped Sawyer come out of her shell a bit around some of the kids.  There is a girl right across the street that is her age, but Sawyer clams up around her for some reason...Hopefully that will change for the better as they get older.

And today, not much to say.  Sawyer and I hit up the pool for the last day of the year.  It was packed, but allowed us to get a little sun-kissed for our last official weekend of the summer.  A few other random pics from the weekend -

Just love the random faces this girl makes

Though once she realizes you are taking a picture she usually breaks into a smile and says Cheese

And just before bed, Sawyer and Daddy did a puzzle, and were really proud of their work

Isla hanging in the window well during our lunch out today....This girl refuses to sit down while she eats, and climbs everything!

 A snap from last weekend of Sawyer, Lydia and Elsie in their dress-up clothes. Sawyer was a big fan!

Somebody got in trouble for hitting her mommy and wasn't happy when she was introduced to time out

And my favorite of the weekend - Sawyer's performance of one of her cheers.  I have watched this too many times to count and it still makes me smile.