Christmas... so far

We spent a fun-filled 5 days with Jay's family at Buffalo Lake for Christmas! Since returning home, we've gotten to spend some time with my high school friends who are in town. Later today, we'll be celebrating Christmas with my family. Merry Christmas!

December 2010

Merry Christmas! December has brought lots more firsts for Theo! Between Christmas parties and Jay's travels, it's been another busy month! One of the highlights for me was the day Jay took the afternoon off from work and let me go Christmas shopping all by myself. It was perfectly timed and an awesome break for me. I think I'm going to try to make it an annual tradition! There are lots more fun times ahead with our families in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois!

Thanksgiving and early December

Happy Holiday season! In the past few weeks, Theo enjoyed his first Thanksgiving and watched us decorate the house for Christmas! He was quite interested in the tree at first, and still occasionally pulls an ornament or two off the bottom of the tree, but now he ignores it for the most part. I think he was mostly excited to find some new things around the house to look at and play with. We almost attended Theo's first Christmas party, but we didn't quite make it... (explanation in photo caption). Jay and I are looking forward to the JCI BE party - a night away from home with food, drinks, and music!

In other news, Theo has 5 teeth and is working on the 6th. He pulls up on anything and everything, and has started to "cruise" along some furniture. And best of all, he says both "dada" and "mama"!

10 months old!

Today Theo turned 10 months old! His favorite activities include reading books, throwing balls, crawling around, and pulling up on anything & everything! This month we had a fun visit with Sarah and Megan who took the train down from Minneapolis to spend the night with us. The next day all 5 of us drove out to Fort Atkinson to have dinner with the Nelsons. It was a great visit! Click below for the latest photos.

Happy 7th Anniversary to us!

Today is our 7th anniversary! Jay celebrated by working in Wuxi, China for the day and enjoying a Korean dinner in the evening. I celebrated by taking Theo to Kindermusik in the morning and going for a jog by Lake Michigan. North Beach was beautiful and deserted this afternoon. Theo enjoyed his time in the stroller and promptly fell asleep on the way home. Tonight we are going out to dinner with a friend.

Click below for the latest photos. There are a lot of them, but I wanted to post extra for Jay to see while he was away.

Highlights of this month include:
- a trip to Chicago with Gary, Deb, & Gary's parents on 10/10/10.
- watching Alex learn to ride a bike without training wheels.
- Elliott's birthday party at My Gym in Aurora, IL.
- a 4-day visit to Naperville, IL to stay with Alina, Steve, Elliott, Rosemary, and Gretchen.
- Theo turning 9 months old!

Theo's likes:
- standing at his Leap Frog table.
- crawling.
- clapping.
- waving.
- reading his peek-a-boo books.
- making silly noises.
- eating.
- talking on the phone to Daddy.

Dislikes:
- being hungry.
- having paper that he was eating taken away.
- his daddy being in China.

Fall fun!

We've been having a fun fall so far! Theo has been acquiring lots of new skills lately, such as clapping, waving hello/goodbye, and crawling! I especially love the clapping since I feel like a rockstar during my renditions of "Itsy, Bitsy Spider" and "Where is Thumbkin?", as well as when I change a diaper, feed him food, or simply come into the room! Theo loves to wave at Jay whenever he sees him, but he has also waved at friends who come over to the house. His crawling is... unique to Theo at this point (see video). He definitely gets where he needs to go, but it seems like he could make things easier on himself! Pictures include:
- Sept 25th in Illinois - we went from home to Evanston to drop Jay at school, to Schaumburg to see the Rodgers family, to Hinsdale to visit Alina and her new baby girl, back to Evanston, and back home again!
- Videos of Theo clapping and crawling.
- Visits to Milwaukee County Zoo and a pumpkin farm.
- Playdates with various friends.


We have lots more fun planned this month, but are still deciding what to do when Jay goes to China. Ten days without him at home sounds like a long time! Fortunately I have lots of options, but I just can't decide yet!

8 months old!

Theo is now 8 months old! His favorite activities are eating, rolling around on the floor, listening to me sing, and generally being silly. Below are two albums. The first one is a few pictures from the past week. The second album is my own little photo shoot that I did of Theo in the backyard yesterday. Skip that one if you don't want to see 17 pictures of Theo in the same outfit with different looks on his face! (Although he is pretty cute... and Jay and I are in couple of the photos too!)