October 11

Hmmm. Big Bowl of Cat Food + Big Elmo Basket.. Ah-ha! I have an idea..

October 10

My dad and I took Tyler hiking at South Mountain today. We did an easy trail - Desert Classic. Tyler did great but he was clearly disappointed because he wanted to go mountain climbing and see a mountain goat and this did not qualify as mountain climbing to him so we saw a small foothill and I said, "Ok Tyler, let's climb up this mountain and look for some mountain goats and Papa will stay at the bottom and take our picture once we get to the top." This was a grand idea to him so up we went. Well we were not on a trail and the rock was very loose so I kept telling him to watch his step and steer clear of the cactus. He was fine, going right up and just a couple of feet from the top, I somehow get a huge ball of cactus in my leg. I have hiked so much in Arizona. I have done some really hard, I would almost say treacherous climbs and here I am trying to figure out how I am going to get this huge mass out of my leg. I tried pulling it out but the cactus just kept getting in my hand so I called down to my dad and said, "Need some help up here." I was seriously trying to figure out how I was going to hike a mile back to the car with this stuck in my leg. Well, my quick-thinking Dad took a key and ran it down my leg as fast as he could pulling most of it out and the rest of the thorns (which were literally 2 inches long) we were able to pull out. Immediately, my leg turned horribly black and blue but suprisingly never really hurt much. Tyler got a little upset and scared and I ended up carrying him down the hill but I was so ecstatic to no longer have a cactus in my leg that I didn't mind. We ended up having a great time and doing about a 3 mile hike. Tyler was a trooper.

If you look really hard you can see us climbing up this foothill before the cactus incident.

October 9

Mia has a thing for wrapping things around her neck. My mom even joked that maybe it was Mia that wrapped the umbilical cord around her neck. It is extremely scary. We have to watch her non-stop because if she can she will wrap it around her neck. Well Aunt Lisa gave her a stethoscope (actually I am not sure if she gave it to her or Mia just found it) but she wears it around her neck all day. She even eats with it around her neck and cries hysterically if you try to take it off. Maybe she is showing career aspirations of being a nurse of doctor. Speaking of careers, Tyler has decided he is going to be an astronomer and look for comets.

October 6

From this:

To this:

Well we made it to Arizona in one piece but barely. We left the house at 6:30 this morning and due to mechanical issues we didn't get to Arizona until 3:00 pm, which would have been 5:00 pm central time. I told Mike, if I can do 11 hours in airports and airplanes with two kids by myself we can do anything. The kids were just wonderful. I will probably never forget getting off the first plane and while we were waiting for the second plane, I decided to get the kids happy meals and do a quick potty trip and diaper change. We returned to our gate and everyone was gone. Come to find out that they changed our gate and we had to trek 1/2 mile to another terminal. No stroller, carrying two happy meals, Tyler's backpack, my backpack and a sleeping child while trying not to lose the second child who is desperately trying to keep up with my almost-running pace in a packed O'Hare airport. Literally by the end of the day, I felt like I had been run over by a truck but we made it back to our second home, always sunny, warm, beautiful Arizona.

October 5

I bought everything to make this fall wreath two years ago just a couple of weeks before I found out that I was pregnant with Mia and everything sat in a box until today. Finally, two years later, I have my fall wreath done.

October 3

We took the kids to a pumpkin patch today to pick up pumpkins and enjoy a fall day before we leave for sunny Arizona. They had a blast and were so happy to get out of house. Suprisingly, Tyler and Mia had little interest in the pumpkins. Mike ended up picking the pumpkins while they played, ran, hopped, chased each other and giggled for an hour straight. The had a mini corn maze that was perfect for little kids and Tyler LOVES a puzzle of any sort so they just kept doing it over and over again. Fall is so beautiful in Chicago as long as you don't dwell on what is coming in about a month.

Last week of September

The last week of September marked our first bout of fall illness. I knew this was going to be a bad year of "sicky" kids because it's really the first time the kids have been exposed to lots of kids in the church nursery for Mia and preschool for Tyler. It started out with Mia getting a cold. Then Tyler got a fever. Then Mia got a fever and rash covering her entire body from the palms of her hands to the soles of her little feet. Then Tyler started throwing up. The week just went downhill from there. We found out Tyler had strep and Mia had a sinus infection and viral rash. My plea to the doctor, "please get them better before I have to get on a plane with them." My mom was calling multiple times a day to get a status report. She was so worried we were going to have to postpone our trip. We ended up spending the entire week isolated at home. Doing crafts, making pillow forts and reading seven hundred Dora and Diego books and we got everyone healthy 2 days before our trip.