Kiley's favorite things

In keeping with Kiley week, I thought I would make a list of some of Kiley's favorite things at age 2.  Here they are, in no order of importance, just how I can think of them :)

1.  Dogs-Kiley is OBSESSED with dogs.  She loves Morgan and Madison, but she also just has a love for dogs in general.  When we go for a walk or are at the park, she spends most of her time looking for and pointing out dogs.  Maybe we have a future vet on our hands.

2.  Garbage trucks.  Kiley loves to watch the garbage man out of her window.  This morning she wasn't even up yet when I heard the garbage truck pull up in the alley, of course, a second later I heard Kiley screaming truck, truck.  Kevin went to get her up and had to immediately show her the garbage truck.  Perhaps we have a garbage woman on our hands :)

3.  Elmo!  Hence her 2nd b-day party theme of Kiley Street.  She loves Elmo.  She really watches no tv other than sometimes requesting to watch Elmo and even then it is only for a few seconds.  I think her fondness of Elmo came from the Ipad app. 

4.  Favorite songs--ABC's, wheels on the bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider and Pat-a-cake.  She requests these all the time and must do all the hand movements with them as well.

5.  Taking pictures.  She loves to hold the cell phone up to "take a picture."  She just walks around saying cheese.  She sometimes does it also with things that she thinks are cameras--such as flashlights, remotes, etc.

6.  She is really into labeling whose things are whose these days.  For instance, she recently has decided that all the remotes are daddy's.  She is very particular on who can use certain things--and of course, does not like when Ella touches things that she has deemed as hers.

7.  Babies--I think this one is because she is such a great big sister.  She just loves babies and points them out all the time.   I was watching the Today show this morning and they were covering the election and she pointed out the one token baby in the crowd--ha, how's that for observant.  She also loves to change diapers and feed and burp babies (and sometimes her friends as well).  We are trying to work on her not checking other kids diapers or burping them--what a little mom she is.

8.  Running.  She loves to run these days and points out people running all the time.  She has the funniest run that I will have to get on video sometime.  It's kind of like those people that are serious speed walkers. 

9.  Books.  She loves books.   She doesn't always have the attention span to sit and listen to books all the time, but she loves to look through them, pass them out to everyone (dogs included), read them to herself.

10.  Purses, jewelry, all things girly.  This one has been a favorite for awhile.  She just loves being girly.

She is so funny these days and as her speech is increasing she is getting funnier by the day.  Oh the things that she says and does just make me laugh. 

8. 

Kiley's Birthday week

I am dedicated this week to all things Kiley as this Sunday my baby will be two years old.  I know, how is that even possible?  It seems like just yesterday I was in the hospital on a Thursday evening getting ready to go into surgery to have her and now she is turning two.  I guess like every parent, I wonder where time went, but I think people are right when they say the days can sometimes feel like they are going on forever, but the years fly by.  I look back at her pictures though from her first birthday and she seems like such a baby to me then.  She is turning into such a big girl.  She is funny and smart and keeps me on my toes.  I love her so much and can't imagine my world without her.  I am so blessed to be her mom.  Much more Kiley to come this week as we celebrate her big birthday week!!!!

Don't mind the bad picture.  This was the best I can find that's somewhat recent and this I believe is from December.  That is how behind I am on keeping up to date on things these days.

Now back to cleaning.  Two showings today--please someone love this house, fingers crossed.

Blogger Break

Wow--it has been a while since I blogged.  Over a month to be exact--well, to be exact, over a month and a few days.  But, I do have an excuse. I was busy--and when I say busy I mean buying a house busy.  Yes, remember when I said we were looking at houses, and then I said we were staying put, and then we decided to just look, and then we found a house we love, and then we bought it, and then we now have to sell our house.  So yes, all of that in one month, which is why I have not blogged.  I have been busy getting my house ready to sell and while I can't wait to move and I really, really hope that we sell ours so that we can move to our forever home, moving is also a little bittersweet.  This is the house that I moved into with my boyfriend, got my dogs, got married, had one kid, had two kids, went from working to staying home and WORKING!!!!  This house has a lot of memories for me and I have loved it, but it is time to move on.

But before moving on, I will share my one memory of this house that stands out the most for me.  It was the day I came home from the hospital after having Kiley.  Now, as most know, my girls were both preemies which meant they didn't come home with me.  Not something that you really envision when you think of bringing your baby home from the hospital. Yes, she was healthy and I was grateful for that, but I was also really sad that she didn't get to come home with me when I came home.  So I remember distinctly coming home from the hospital, without my baby, and feeling so sad.  I had just had a c-section so I really wasn't feeling great and wasn't supposed to do stairs, but I remember coming home getting up the stairs and just sitting on the couch in the family room--and I started crying.  Of course, things were good in life.  Kiley was healthy, I was healthy, family was good, but I wanted my baby home with me.  The one thing that really sticks out though is sitting on the couch, crying, with my husband and dogs beside me.  You  never know what a house is going to bring you.  This house brought me my family.  I am really grateful for this house and I know that it will bring someone else some pretty profound memories-so hopefully we will be able to sell it and I can make new memories in a new house.  But until then, here we are, on a Friday night, watching tv in the comforts of our home with my two babies fast asleep, and my two other babies (dogs) asleep on the couch.  People may say my kitchen is too small or the master bath doesn't have two vanities but it's been good to me. 

Hopefully now that we are on the market and things are ready to go, I will have more time to blog again.  I have though become a master cleaner--one of these days I will share some favorite cleaning tools (oh don't you go getting too excited!)

A little of this and a little of that

Sorry-didn't mean to not post since Tuesday, but it was a somewhat busy week.  I took on a new job as the housekeeper of the house :)  I decided now that Ella is finally napping the same time as Kiley, I would take on the role of cleaning and make myself some money every two weeks-well the money that isn't going to the cleaning lady.  I have a pretty good routine down, but man it is time consuming and takes up almost all the time that I have during naptime. 

Other than that, I've been busy with my workouts and keeping the kids entertained.  I don't know how many more times I can sing Pat-a-Cake this week--Kiley is now in the "do it again" stage and believe me it does get old after awhile--I have a feeling the "why" stage is coming soon and I can already tell Kiley is going to want to know EVERYTHING.  I did a killer class at the gym yesterday-man am I sore today.  It made the run this morning pretty tough, but I still got my three miles in.  I have a couple more weeks until my real "training" program for the half marathon starts.  The new running shoes are making a huge difference. I really haven't had much knee pain since I got them, so I am feeling pretty good.  I need to really focus on my longer runs now to start gaining a little more endurance--I don't think I am really going to worry about speed for this half.  As long as I finish that is good enough for me. 

I'm thankful Kevin made it home today.  He luckily caught the last flight into Chicago before they starting cancelling flights due to the snow, and I'm pretty sure if he had been on a later flight he would definitely have not been home until tomorrow.  Speaking of getting home--I am so thankful that I stay home with the girls on days like these.  I think about trying to commute 30 miles with the girls in the back seat--on a regular day that would have been hard to handle, on a day like today when the commute could have taken 3 hours-NO WAY!!!

A few pics from the week. . .

Kiley started a little ballet class last Saturday--of course she wouldn't smile for the camera, but how cute is she from behind :)

I love this pic of Ella and I-Kevin thinks she looks crazy.  I think she looks adorable.

Not the greatest picture of Kiley but hilarious in that she is wearing a hat, gloves, sitting in a sled, oh and wearing a swimsuit coverup. Ha!

 

And here's a little video love.  This one just melts my heart.  They just love each other so much.




Have a great weekend. I have some reading to get done.  For some reason my book this week is taking me forever and was supposed to be a book that I was going to get done in a day or so.  Other than that-not much on tap other than ballet, birthday parties, church, and hanging out at home---and maybe a little sledding :)

Snowy Days

Well, winter seems to have arrived in Chicago.  Now, I'm not much of a winter sports person.  I'm more of a sit inside and drink hot chocolate and watch the snow fall--or if I was at a ski resort, I may sit in the hot tub and drink a hot adult beverage or something, but there is something about watching kids in the snow which makes me brave the elements for a few minutes to at least get a picture or two.  Now, you may think from these pictures that Kiley LOVES the snow.  However, it's really just watching Morgan and Madison running around in the snow that cracks her up.  She was down with the snow in about 5 minutes.  That's my girl!!!

Ella, wasn't as thrilled with the snow.  I don't blame her--maybe next year she will be more into it!

Move it Monday

Weight watchers week 1 was definitely a success.  I lost about 4.8 pounds and was really happy with that.  Granted it was also the week that I stopped drinking pop so I think that helped in that I was drinking a lot more water and like all first weeks in diets, you are losing a lot of water weight.  Week 2 has not been as positive.  I have stayed within my points and worked out pretty much everyday, but the scale isn't budging.  I know that I am not going to lose every week and that some weeks will be better than others, but it is tough when you feel like you are doing everything right and the scale isn't budging.  I know that I have to stick with it though to see results and this is only the 2nd week.  In looking back at my food journal this week, my main goal for the week is to stay within my points each day and to not eat out at all this week.  Not eating out is really easy for me during the week, but the weekends are more of a challenge and that is where I rack up a lot of points.

Other goals for the week:

No tv during the day--started last week and was successful so let's keep it going.
Finish my book of the week--this week's book is short, so I expect this won't be tough. I did two books last week so I am pretty sure I will get that in this week as well.
No pop
No Facebook
Enjoy time with my kids and husband
Get up by 5:00-5:15 everyday to get a head start on the day so that I am not feeling rushed with the kids get up

Whoa, that seems like a lot, but you know me, I do much better when I have goals set.  Now I just need to think of a reward if I meet all these goals this week.

"What Alice Forgot" by Liane Moriarty

 

Ha, 2nd book of the year was completed in 4 days (and Kevin said I couldn't do it, ok well I am only on the 2nd week of 52 weeks in the year, but still I made it).  Anyways, this was the book for my book club last month, but of course I never got around to reading it then, but better late than never.  I LOVED this book. I don't know--I just felt like I could really relate to this book for some reason.  It's about a woman in her late 30's who after a fall at the gym, comes to, forgetting the last ten years of her life.  She wakes up with three kids that she doesn't remember, going through a divorce, and having a very different personality than she did 10 years prior.  I felt like this book really made me think about priorities in ones life, especially remembering to focus on one's marriage even in the midst of work, kids, day-to-day life stressors. 

Abby, if you haven't read this book yet, you must--sorry it's on my Ipad or I would have given you a copy.  There is a secondary storyline in it that you will totally be able to relate to and it made me really think about our bond as sisters--and how important we are to each other. 

My rating on this book was a 5.  Granted this is no literary masterpiece, but I judge my books based on their how much I like them.  I couldn't put it down!