Franki's 2nd Halloween

A little behind, but better late than never. Franki celebrated her 2nd Halloween in pure Chicago celebrating style a.k.a she dressed up and celebrate the entire weekend long. I love Halloween! Our whole house was decorated since mid September.  Tyler and I have always loved celebrating and have celebrated every year together. This year it was so exciting to see how much Franki really enjoyed getting lots of attention in her costume. Friday night we went to my mom's school for a trunk or treat and some games with the kids. Saturday we spent the day with Tara, Zach and baby London at Lincoln park zoo. We spent 4 hours walking around and enjoying all of the animals. Monday we trick or treated in my mom's neighborhood and it was fun, franki loved every minute. She went house to house until she got a lolipop and it was all over from there, all she cared about was her lolipop. She is definitely like her parents and has a sweet tooth!

Almost 15 months

Franki is just a couple days shy of 15 months old! I cant believe how quickly time seems to go. I remember her being in my belly like it was yesterday and now her baby sister is growing in there and only about 16 weeks or less away from her arrival. Franki loves looking at everyones belly, including her own. She gives big belly kisses and blows rasberries on my belly. Today she learned the sign for baby. We were playing and all of a sudden she was looking for her baby doll and signing baby. She loves her baby dolls that is for sure. Hopefully she will love her baby sister just as much, hopefully even more! She is just so stinking smart these days. She understands just about everything we say. She follow all kinds of simple commands. She also babbles/talks all day long. She can say hi, hulk, see, got it, up, uh-oh, dog. There are a few other words jumbled in there, we just havent quite figured out what those words are. However, she definitely knows what she is saying. She is very persistent on her yes and no's. She knows exactly what she wants. She definitely has seperation anxiety. I took her to daycare this week and as soon as we walked up to the house she started shaking her head no and proceeded to do so until after I was already on my way out the door. Five minutes later she was happily greeting other kiddos at the door. She loves to play, anywhere anytime. Her favorite time is time to spent outside. Cold/Warm anything she can play outside all day, everyday. And man can this girl eat. She loves her food. Her favorites are grapes, bluberries, strawberries, apples, oranges, yogurt, applesauce, mac n cheese, chicken nuggets, carrots, raisans, goldfish crackers, fruit snacks, pepperidge farm raisan bread, cereal, guacomole, and cream cheese. She eats a good three meals a day and two snacks. She drinks a little milk, but she usually refuses her milk and wants water. She is a water drinking queen. She also loves to play peek a boo. She loves to dance and sing. I could go on for hours about this girl. But I have to leave some for your imagination!

Baby girl number 2 is doing really well. She is moving around and kicking all night and day. I will be seeing my new OB in just two weeks. Although a very hard decision, I will be switching to make it easier on everyone. I will be delivering just minutes from our house at CDH. So rain, sleet or snow, we will make it there no problem. I am 24 weeks , 6 months along and feeling pretty good. I have had some severe pain but it subsides when I finally sit down for the day. Its a bit different when you have a toddler you are running around after.

The best news is my Dad is doing much better. He is tired and sore, but on the road to recovery. With each week we have seen lots of improvement. So we were all happy to celebate his birthday last week.

Hoping for more good news in the weeks to come.

Trauma

Im not even sure where to begin, as all of my thoughts are still running several miles per hour. We have had quite an eventful couple of weeks and it seems I dont even remember where all the time went. Papa, My Dad got hit by a car while riding his bicycle last sunday afternoon. Not the phone call you want to ever be on the other side of, ever. Luckily my mom and I were close to the hospital taking a walk. We made it there before the ambulance did and we just waited. Waited to see how bad it was. When we first saw him I dont think any of us quite imagined what the last week has brought us. He hurt no doubt, but we had no idea how much he hurt or was hurt. At that point we were grateful that he was able to talk to us normally although he couldnt remember the crazy idiot women who completely ignored the traffic light to run right into him. Within a few hours we found out that he had 9 yes 9 broken ribs all on the left side. Ribs 1-9 were all broken. We have a total of 12 ribs on each side. He bruised the left lung, and seperated his left shoulder. He spent the night in ICU for monitoring and was transfered to a general floor later monday afternoon, He spent another 4 nights in the hospital, attempting to wean off oxygen, move a little, and just get the pain and spasms under control with the corect cocktail of pain medications. Ill save the story about the hospital for another time, because I still havent had time to wrap my head or heart around the poor care that was provided. My mom, sister, franki and I spent our days and nights at the hospital helping my dad get back to functioning. Isnt it amazing how wonderful family can be. I love my little family and I love the fact that we drop everything to come together, to make everything work. Without them I would be no one. My family has given me everything I have in this life and what better way to give back than to be just be there with my dad, do anything he needed me to do and just be what a family should be. A huge thanks to all the other family that we have. My Aunt Kathy for bringing enough dinner to feed a small army (yep were still reaping the benefits of the food witht he exception of the brownies :)). My Uncle kurk for coming to relieve me and Franki for a little while and just sit and keep dad company with his endless stories :), my aunt rosie and rita for just stopping in to check on him. And to all my friends who offered a helping hand with Franki. Thanks to Catie and Kevin who came to keep her entertained so I could help dad out of bed. An obvious huge thanks to my mom and sister and franki who were able to come together and keep each other as well as my dad sane throughout the process. Tyler who was able to hold down the home fort and give hulk some extra needed attention. We are lucky. Lucky to have so many people in our lives that care. Lucky that my dad although broken, will heal and has no permanent damage. Lucky that we have each other. I cant even begin to explain how many times this week I thanked God for my family and for the fact that we have each other. So as dad begins his road to recovery I am thankful, lucky, happy, for all of the things we have. Praying for a speedy recovery for my dad.

Franki keeps us all sane. I now understand that saying children on God. They are telling you something in that saying. She is trully the greatest blessing in our lives. She kept everyone smiling even in the grimest of situations. She smiles, speaks and changes moods and the lives of all those around her. Thank goodness for her presence and I know it was what kept her Papa going most days. She was such a good girl. She literally played in the hospital room and was overly entertained with her different surroundings. She helped Papa every chance she got. I am telling you she is a mini nurse in the making and her heart is just so big, She helped me carry his oxygen down the hallway. She clapped when he walked down the hallway for the first time. She kept him company day in and day out. She talked to him with her very vibrant stories. She is just a life changing little person and for that I am happy that I was able to show her the meaning of family this week. I am happy to be able to teach her all of the things that my parents and family have taught me. I also learned a lot about what I want to teach her this week from being at the hospital and from this experience (will share on this later). 

Franki is also saying HI to everyone and it is such a cute little  high pitched HI! She is also forming all different types of sounds and conversations, so she will be talking in all kinds of sentences in no time. She also learned how to say yes by shaking her head which she is doing all the time. You say something she shakes her head yes. She is just a person full of personality and hit the 14 month I only want my mommma when she is around age. Which is endearing most times, but also frustrating at others. I love this sweet baby and sweet family we are on our way to making.

Thankful.

Big sister and little sister!

We are happy to announce that little fevold number 2 is going to be a GIRL. We are very happy with this news, especially me becuase I know what a little sister is, I know how much you can love a little sister and I know how helpful a little sister can be. So I am so happy to know that my little sweet Franki gets the chance to have a little sister, to have not only a sister but a forever friend. I know she is going to be such a good big sister. Im excited for all of the things I will get to see with two girls. I look forward to watching there interactions together. I cant wait to teach them all about love and what it means to have family. Special times ahead! Wishing for another wonderful 20 weeks as Baby Girl #2 grows and gets ready to grace us with her presence. And once again, yes she already has a full name picked out, but that wont be revealed until she arrives officially! So stay tuned. Love my little girls!

Picdate

 Ty;s good friends wedding! (franki passed out on my lap!)

 Water table fun!

 Sweet baby face!

 Anniversary Date!

 Walking her BFF!

Her teenage friend and my sweet little teenage friend just after her birthday!

 Look at me drive Ma!

 Happy Girl!

 playing soccer with hulk

Her funny face, I love it!

Smarty!

Franki is such a little sponge lately. She is witty, loveable, smart and a whole bunch of other things. She loved to immitate things we are doing, I mean anything, she helps fold laundry, she cleans her ears when we clean ours, she wipes the floor when I wipe the counter, she is a walking mini version of us. It is really quite entertaining to watch. Everything she imitates she learns, so i can now take the laundry out and she grabs the clothes before I do and starts to do what I have done before. She sees a Q tip and she immediately puts it to her ear. She can now identify her ears, nose, hands, feet, and belly. She can immitate the cow sound: moooo. She has very in detail conversations with us. You definitely cant understnad her but it is quite entertaining to listen to and you definitely can tell she knows what she is saying and really wants to tell you. She uses all different types of inflections in her voice. She can say keys (seese), up, dog, hello (eeeelllooo always very loudly), and we believe she has several other words we just havent figured out exactly what it is yet, until we hear it in perfect context a lot of the words at this point are just a word at that. She likes watching some television now. Usually she can sit through about 15 minutes a day of a show. So for now she watches either baby einstein, big music show, or mickey mouse clubhouse. She usually has to be a little tired in order to sit through any of these shows. She is so busy most of the day she could care less about tv. Books are another story. On average we read 30 times a day to her. If she sees a book or there is one around you will read it over and over and over again. If you read her a book she doesnt like shell get up and find one that she does like. Im telling you this girl knows what she wants. She sits in your lap and can read forever, I love seeing that smart side of her and how much patience she has to sit and read. In other news Spetember has been reserved for quiet family time. We had such a busy summer that its nice to enjoy time together to just relax and enjoy one another's company. We have had a couple of great weekends already filling our time with outside play, football on television and just enjoying the crisp air coming through the windows with some good ole snuggly time. Franki and I are now back in swim lessons, more this weekend on that. We may even have some video coverage of baby girl in the pool! Enjoy the much needed cooler breeze and snuggly baby close to my chest weather!

Anniversary and Franki Bliss

Tyler and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary with eager hearts and happy smiles as we thought about the last two years and all that this next year is going to bring. This is the way I love it, busy. Our lives are constantly in motion and keeping busy with new eventful things. In our years together I graduated grad school, got married, had a baby, having another baby, maybe in between these two we will take a little break from the BUSY yet Beautiful chaos. It has been eventful but absolutely unchangeable and amazing. I cannot even imagine our lives in any other way. It trully works out exactly the way it is supposed to work out and so far we just feel lucky to have had so many wonderful things constantly thrown our way. Of course in there were some tough times two, but that is what makes us Love more deeply than the day before and to appreciate the things we have and the people that have helped us to get her. We are happy and enjoying every moment together. We also went out sans Franki for the first time since May (yes much to long I know) but Im a momma who loves bringing my baby along for the ride i trully can never get enough of that smile. But was it worth it ummm ABSOLUTELY (sorry Franki but momma and dada need some occasional time that is just for us to keep us sane, besides you love hanging with moma and aunt kathy!) We had the most amazing date day/evening. We headed on the metra downtown which gave us an hour to just talk and people watch instead of having to drive down to the city. We arrived and walked our favorite window shopping on MIchigan avenue. Then we headed to Sprinkles Cupcakes where we only waited a whopping 25 minutes in line for the famous Hollywood cupcakes. (Did they live up to the reputation?) Yes they were good, but not as good as our favorite Lincoln Park sweet mandy B's cupcake. Then we headed to the famous Girl and the Goat (owner is the only female Top Ched winner). IT was hands down the most amazing meal we have ever shared. We ate food I would have never otherwise eaten but it was delightful. We left with happy hearts and very full bellies back on the train to home. I quietly snuck into my sweet babys room where she was fast asleep and gave her the five minute cuddle (telling her how special she is and how lucky we are to have her). We then enjoyed the crisp cool night!
Today on our actual anniversary we bought ourselves a new couch! So our house it just about where we want it to be after a year of living here, it may soon feel even more like home! Franki was extra special today. She is just a delight. It is hard to explain but she is just so happy. She recently started to laugh whenever we laugh, which is usualy when we are laughing at something she has done. She also laughs and hams it up for all people at the store and everywhere we go. She makes my day, heck she makes lots of peoples day just with that sweet kinda cheesy upturned face, scrunched up nose, squinting eyes, one sided dimple smile. Im so in love with Tyler, Franki and Hulk. They light up my life as do all the people in my family. Today I finish this nice long weekend feeling happy to be who I am, proud of my family and fulfilled that life is right where it is supposed to be.

P.S. Pictures to come soon, my camera cord is giving me troubles so sorry you cant see what I see right now :)