Happy Birthday, Jody!

Happy Birthday, Jody! You are the best husband and dad that Zoe and I could ask for. Thanks for making every day fun and full of love. We love you!

Oh Chanukkah, Oh Chanukkah

I have a lot of posting to catch up on. First up, Chanukkah. (Even after 31 years of celebrating it, I still struggle with the spelling. So bear with me for any spelling errors.)

We kicked off Chanukkah with a party at Heather's parents' place with Jason/Heather/Ean, Jody's dad and Heather's family. It was great to catch up with everyone, see how big Ean's getting and to see Jason and Heather in full Mommy and Daddy mode. Despite all her wonderful gifts, Zoe set her sights on Ean's pacifier. She's never taken one herself, but she is obsessed with stealing other babies' pacis. So, she took full advantage of Ean's lack of head control and inability to sit up and defend himself and nabbed his paci without a struggle.

We're not putting the dredels away just yet. We have a final Chanukkah party this weekend with Jody's mom and Mike. Hopefully Ean has spent the past month training and can hang on to his pacifier this time around.

Movie, Chinese Food, Family

Although we typically spend Christmas in Chicago, at the movies and eating Chinese takeout, this year was a little different. Well, in terms of location anyway.

Since Josh didn't make it to Ann Arbor for Thanksgiving, he decided to try to recreate Thanksgiving by having everyone go to my parents' house over Christmas. Even though Lisa and her family couldn't make it in, we three decided at the last minute to head up to A2.

We spent Christmas pretty much as usual, at the movies with Chinese takeout--but this time with the added bonus of being with family. My mom stayed with Zoe while the rest of us saw Up in the Air. I really enjoyed it, but it was much more of a downer than I expected it to be. Regardless, you can't go wrong with a little Clooney on Christmas.

We also took Zoe to Ann Arbor's Hands-on Museum and she loved it! So many things to climb and chew on--sheer bliss for Z. It is an awesome museum. I so wish we had one in Chicago, especially in winter when going to the park is a non-option. I'm going to check out the Chicago Children's Museum at Navy Pier, but I'm thinking that may be better for older kids. Also in Michigan, Zoe learned how to climb the stairs--good times. She basically just crawled over to the stairs and started climbing away. She was quite excited and just so cute, as usual--we just had to pay a little more attention to make sure she had some assistance on the way down.

It was a short trip, but a good one. Great to see Josh and my parents and to get in an extra Michigan visit before the end of the year.

Cheesy Lights and Fancy French Food

Last week we had the Second Annual Cheesy Light Display & Fancy French Holiday Dinner Extravaganza with SACLDFFHD Chairman Steve and Jeremy, the H's and the Stierwalts. We started off at Lincoln Park Zoo for ZooLights. The zoo looked great--pretty lights with just the right amount of cheese. Jody had his trusty flask and, despite my germ concerns, the boys warmed up with some Woodford.

We then headed over to Mon Ami Gabi in the Belden-Stafford for a yummy French dinner of steak frites for Jody and me. I hadn't had steak since Valentine's Day (a.k.a. the night I went into labor), so that was a treat--but really I just wanted the frites! The building's lobby and the restaurant were all decorated for Christmas, which added to the whole night. Mon Ami Gabi is such a cozy and lively spot--perfect for hanging out with a larger group. We've all had a pretty eventful 2009, with three new babies and all, so I think we needed a good night out to just catch up and celebrate. It was a really nice night with good food, good wine and great friends!

Hanukkah Hat

Zoe's first Hanukkah started out in style with this rockin' new hat from Grandma. Now our little fashionista is a much happier and more stylish camper on our frigid Charlie walks every day!

Designer Duds on a Dime

Ever since losing the baby weight I have been having a major jeans crisis. None of my jeans look right on me and they just hang all wrong. So I finally bit the bullet and splurged on a pair of designer jeans. I headed to the Joe's Jeans boutique in Bucktown and spent way too much time and money finding the perfect pair. I was thrilled to finally have jeans that actually looked good.

The next day, however, I had some buyer's remorse. I could not believe that I dropped almost $200 on one pair of jeans. It didn't seem right. So I spent the next two days during Zoe's naps doing some serious internet surfing to find my new jeans for less. And all that time suckage paid off.

Enter HauteLook--a web site perfect for your inner recessionista. The site has daily sales on designer clothes, shoes, handbags, fragrances, makeup, etc. And the sales are unbelievable, offering anywhere from 30%-70% off of the different items. The day I stumbled on the site, they were having a sale on Joe's Jeans, so I was able to get my new jeans for a fraction of the cost (just $76). The jeans arrived this week and I'm even happier with them than before. My only complaint with HauteLook is that your color options are a bit limited, so I couldn't choose my first choice for the wash. But whatever for $76 I'll wear the darker wash proudly.

If you're interested in checking out HauteLook, click on the link above for an invitation to join and start getting sweet deals on designer goodies.

Giving Thanks

Cheerios and jammies party

We have so much to be thankful for, and even though we don't really need Thanksgiving to remind us of that, it is still my all-time favorite holiday. A lot of that has to do with the fact that it is usually the only time all year that my whole family is together. This year we all spent the longLabor Day weekend here in Chicago, so we were due to have two full family weekends for 2009. Unfortunately, Josh got really sick the day before Thanksgiving this year and didn't make it to Ann Arbor this year. It was so sad without him there and he was greatly missed. This is the first Thanksgiving that we haven't all been together in as long as I can remember.

Despite missing Josh, the long weekend up there was nice. I was a little nervous doing so much back-to-back travelling with Zoe. But, she was a champ. She loved being up there and surrounded by so many people. She was especially happy playing with Edin and Adam. She couldn't take her eyes off them--and seemed to want to do whatever they were doing. Watching the three of them together was awesome. It's so fun that they are all relatively close in age and will have lifelong play pals in each other. Edin and Adam were great with Zoe--so sweet and so funny!

Aside from the Turkey Trot and going to a movie one day (New Moon!), the weekend was pretty mellow--just the way I like it. Even though travelling with a baby is not the easiest thing in the world, my parents' house is still one of the only places that I truly relax.