Sweet Potatoes!

So today I got to do something I've been looking forward to for a very long time--making Lola's baby food! She turns SIX MONTHS tomorrow (!), so the time has come for her to move onto bigger and better things besides milk and rice cereal. On the menu first--sweet potatoes! She really enjoyed them. I can't wait to make her many more meals and share my love of cooking with her. Before I know it, she'll be standing on a step stool next to me at the counter (in a matching apron of course) helping me cook!

Playing while I cook...she's so excited!

The SPs baking in the oven (I love the smell of them cooking!)

Mmmmm...puree!

All ready for the freezer

She loves them!

Our little tax deduction

We're off to get our taxes done tomorrow morning so we thought it fitting to post a picture of our newest little deduction! (How silly is this bunny hat?! Mom picked it up at Gymboree. It's super soft and she likes wearing it--and of course makes it look adorable!)

Sweet Baby Sounds & Smiles Galore!

All smiles at (almost) 6 months!

I came home from a great day of teaching to find the happiest of babies waiting for me with an adorable little bow (finally) in her hair! She was all smiles so of course I had to snap some pics to share with you all. You can view more of them by clicking HERE.

She's almost 6 months (so hard to believe!) and she's sitting up on her own! Of course she takes a tumble here and there, but we're so proud of her! She makes the absolute sweetest sounds on Earth. I got some great video of her laughing during all these smiles so I will share that with all of you as soon as I get a second to upload it.

And Today...

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

Check out the new, official website of OUR White House! The President seems to be a fan of Blogging as well. I'm looking forward to an administration that keeps us in the loop!

Happy 3rd Birthday Sidney!

We celebrated Sidney's 3rd Birthday at James & Katie's on Saturday night. Lola got to wear the beautiful sweater dress The Zics got her for Christmas. She looked adorable in it, thanks guys!!!

A few pics of Lola & the Beautiful, Bubbly Birthday girl...

Giving her best "Deer in the Headlights" look!

Sid LOVES Baby Lola! All she wanted to do was hold her!

Sidney's Sweet Smile...she only looks innocent!

She's ready for Spring Training!

The Journey to Our Nine Month Miracle

It's freezing outside--so we're obviously keeping Lola inside! She's been taking a very long afternoon nap right smack in the middle of the living room floor. We were playing and then she seemed to start to get tried. She put her little head down on the blanket, closed her eyes, and has been out for a good hour and a half now.

If I was smart, I'd use my time wisely and grade the 200 quizzes I have to correct before next Thursday. But, I'm not! Instead, I'm playing around with our Mac's awesome iPhoto. I've been meaning to do this forever and I have many more slideshows to make, but here's my first attempt at broadcasting a slideshow.

During the pregnancy, I took many photos of my ever expanding belly and I saved most of the great ultrasound snapshots we got as well. So in just a few minutes, I made a slideshow of it all and set it to some beautiful music (Emer's Dream by Colm Mac Con Iomaire)--It's always fun to look back at this pictures and watch her grow from the little bean she started as, and my belly, too!

Sweet Baby Sounds

Lola didn't have the best night last night--she went down great as usual, but instead of sleeping from 8:00 pm on through to 6:00 am the next morning, she woke up around 2:00 am and did NOT want to go back to bed no matter what I tried. Needless to say, John and I were a little zombie-ish this morning. After she had her morning bottle, I put her back in her crib to play with her mobile and puppy for a bit. From the other room, this is what I heard. We hear it all the time and it's the sweetest sound on Earth--I'm just so glad I finally got it on video!

Playtime...

Flying with Daddy around the living room...

...and playing with her fantastic Tea Party Exersaucer!

Lola & the Snow!

Belly Laughs

Lola has begun laughing--the real continuous laughter that makes John and I turn to each other and say "Oh my goodness, did you hear that?!". It's the best sound, along with all her goos and ahhs of late. We were video chatting with GiGi, Grandma and Aunt Janis earlier this evening and they got to hear it too! I'll do my best to try and capture it on video, but it is the newest development in the life of Lola.

Dirty Dancing

Yesterday, Mom took Britt and I downtown to see Dirty Dancing, part of the Broadway In Chicago series. At the risk of being very corny, "We had the time of our lives!" It was AWESOME! All three of us have loved the movie for a very long time. I'm not ashamed to admit that I wrote Patrick Swayze love letters in First Grade after seeing the movie. And I still remember my mom buying me the soundtrack on vinyl at the record store that was across the way from my childhood dance studio.

The music and dancing were incredible and the way they changed scenes was like nothing I had ever seen before. Anyone who is in Chicago and is a fan of the movie, you MUST go see it.

And any fans will understand what my shirt and Lola's bib mean:

"I carried a watermelon?!"

"Nobody puts Baby in a corner!"

American Idol & Kristina Carter

Any of you American Idol fans out there may remember Gina Glocksen from a few seasons ago. She was one of the Top 10 finalists and I'm proud to say she's a hometown girl. Gina and I went to high school together at Victor J. Andrew, though she was a Freshman when I was a Senior. Like Leah and I, she too is a Variety Show alum.

Gina and I "ran into" each other on Facebook a few months ago. My profile picture on Facebook is a close-up shot Kristina Carter took of me on our wedding day. She was SO IMPRESSED with that one picture, she set up a meeting with Kristina. She had already had a photographer booked, but loved Kristina and her work so much, she canceled with her other photog and signed on with Kristina. I was so excited because I knew how THRILLED she would be with Kristina's work.

On New Year's Eve, Kristina shot Gina's wedding. Take a look at a few of the AWESOME pictures HERE (on Kristina's Blog).

The BEST part of this whole story is that the wedding is going to be featured in PEOPLE magazine....which means the whole world is about to see the GENIUS that is Kristina Carter. It's about time!

If anyone reading this knows of someone getting married in the near future, I can't recommend Kristina Carter enough! You can find out more about her:

Website: www.vraiphoto.com

Blog: www.vraiphoto.blogspot.com

In the tub...

Sleeping Through The Night?

I forgot to include this in my "FIVE MONTH OLD" post, but now that I think about it, the subject deserves it's own post entirely!

At the risk of TOTALLY jinxing ourselves, we're happy to report that Lola is now Sleeping Through The Night! She started as soon as we got back from Florida. While she hasn't mastered the art of putting herself to sleep (we still rock her, but only for a bit), we're very proud of this new accomplishment. I have to believe it's not a whim because she's at the age where she's capable of doing it and it's been a good, solid two weeks now. She's had about two bad nights in two weeks. But when we go to bed at night, we lay our heads to the pillow thinking the next time we will see her beautiful face is between 5:30-6:00 am. Works for us!

Baby (Grand) Piano

FIVE MONTHS OLD!

Lola turned FIVE months old today....and is as cute and awesome as ever! She is smiling and giggling and melting our hearts with every single thing she does. She's getting stronger and stronger on her tummy, enjoys sitting in her booster seat to eat cereal, playing in her Exersaucer, discovering her new Christmas toys and is making changing time as difficult as she can for Mommy (little squirmier!) I'm trying to encourage her to sit independently and she will lean forward and put weight on her hands in front of her, whereas before, she would just topple over. We're working on it!

We went to the pediatrician on Tuesday to get the rest of her 4 month shots. Would you believe our little peanut weighed in at 14 POUNDS 11 OUNCES?!?! She went through a huge growth spurt this month and is growing great. The best part of the weight gain is she now has the beginning of some adorable little rolls on her thighs. Is there anything better than chubby little baby legs?! I don't think so. :)