Bathtime fun

Jeesh-I can't believe that just 2 weeks from today we'll be Ohio bound!!! We never thought that we'd want to move back, but now we can't get there quick enough! I finished all of my CEs to get my Ohio nursing license reactivated, just have to get it notarized on Monday then put it in the mail. I have an interview the Monday after we get there at Columbus Children's. I guess now it's called Nationwide Children's Hospital. In the NICU of course! I'm looking forward to taking care of some more critical patients, although I hope I'm not too rusty! It's been about 1 1/2 years since I've worked amid chaos. I do miss it though-looking forward to getting back into a teaching environment.

We've been able to get a bit of packing done. Since half of our things are in storage already, there shouldn't be too much to do, but it still seems like we have a lot of stuff. I guess you aquire a lot with a kid! Along with all of the moving business, Emily is just growing, growing, growing!! She's really starting to try to talk. There's quite a few things that she says, and definitely tries to copy what you say all the time. It's so funny-and amazing too. I can't believe how quick she picks things up! I will say one of the funny things she'll say is 'waffle' (only my daughter would be speaking mainly food words!). The funny part though is that when she says it, it kinda sounds like the little boy on "Meet the Fockers" when he says ass-hole. Only, I swear it's waffle!! I'll have to get some video of that to see if y'all agree. I work on it!

This was just tonight, splish-splashing all over the bathroom, just going through a bit of her repertoire. She's pretty quick to answer, and quiet too.....she's just too darn cute!! I love it!

More Snow!!!

Yesterday we had another little snow storm. Aaron worked from home again. Thank goodness he's able to do that every now and then, because it was pretty crazy out there! I guess we got around another 8 inches. That's on top of everything that we had over the weekend and the past couple of days of snow. I ended up not having to go to work which made the day even better! I accomplished a lot staying at home though. I caught up on some laundry and we got a bunch of packing done. We did finally pack the Christmas tree up. It's so dark in that spot now-we got used to the soft glow of the lights! Emily's toys have very quickly taken back over the area though.
I had bought some Wiggles DVDs for cheap on Ebay so that Emily had something to watch during the drive when we move. The XBox has gotten packed up, which is what we were using for our DVD player. So, Emily has been watching them on the portable DVD player. We set it on the end table and she leans on the arm of the couch. She is crazy about it though-I kinda feel like a bad mom some days, because that's all she wants to do-sit there and watch Wiggles!!! I do end up getting her up and playing-I promise! However, we have gotten a few cute shots of her as she's entranced.

So precious.

Kinda getting sleepy here too.

I think this is so cute!!! Peek-a-boo!!

This is outside of our porch last night.

In our attempt to get away from the Wiggles, we went outside to play again today. That's our little porch right there too.

I was saying "Emily, Emily"-to get her attention, so she was pointing to herself "That's me!"

On top of the big pile of snow that was plowed from the parking lot. She just thought that was great!

Getting ready to slide.

Wheeee!!!!

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Self-portrait! Emily's not too sure about it though.

OK Mom, let's go back inside-it's hot chocolate time!

Shrimp

I'm pretty sure that last night was the first time that we'd made seafood since we moved up to Chicago. We made tequila shrimp-and it actually turned out quite yummy! I had quite a problem in the grocery store though. You know, we got a bit spoiled when we were able to buy our seafood fresh and local. I just stood there going back and forth reading all of the labels in the case for the longest time-they must've thought I was crazy! They were all shipped in from somewhere, frozen then thawed, blah blah blah....Oh how I miss the nice little market that Boone Hall had...
Oh well, Chicago food does have its benefits. There may not be any oyster roasts or Lowcountry broils, but there is some of the best pizza (of course) and our new favorite-Italian beef sandwiches! Oh the 'new' foods that we will be bringing back to Columbus :)

Emily got a new big girl towel-and she loves it! It's big enough to wrap around her so she doesn't get cold. She looks cute too-of course!

This was walking out the door last week to go to daycare/work. She was getting so frustrated-she's already learning that I don't get out the door too quick! She was trying to carry both bags to the door-what a strong girl!

Snow Day!

Yesterday we had nearly a foot of snow fall! Aaron stayed home from work it was so snowy-nice way to start the weekend! I was very thankful that I didn't have to go to work either. We decided to bundle up and take Emily outside to play.

At first she wasn't too sure, and wouldn't let go of our hands.

It was so hard for her to walk in it-it was past her knees it was so deep! Aaron and I cleared some paths so that she could run around.

She ended up having a blast! Exploring all the snow, chasing us around, and Daddy even taught her how to "throw" snowballs at Mommy!

Somehow I even got her to make a snow angel!

She really did have a great time! I think that Aaron and I really had just as much fun too. It's been quite awhile since we were able to play, roll around and be silly in the snow like that. Aahhh to be a kid again!!

"New" socks

So, funny story. True to any story that I tell, there's a lot of back story, so hear me out.

One of the complaints I've had since we've lived here is that somehow the bag that had all of my underwear, socks and bras in it ended up in storage. To clarify-I did have a small supply of those packed with me. The majority, however, were not. We went to the storage POD at one point to try to find them, but there was no getting to clothes bags without taking out a bunch of furniture-so that didn't happen.

One thing that we did bring with us into our apartment was our washer and dryer...we weren't sure what type of apartment we would be in, so we hauled it with us. Of course, we ended up in an apartment that provided a washer and dryer. So, there is an extra washer and dryer (not in use!) in Emily's room next to her crib. Poor girl-not quite the nursery that I had envisioned for her! We just kinda use them as giant shelves-blankets, stereo, clean clothes that need folded-whatever! We had always kinda joked about storing things in them to take advantage of some of the space. But, didn't really follow through on that.

SO, we've started packing a few things up this past week. A box (and a car seat) that was between Emily's crib and the dryer had been moved for packing purposes (have I mentioned before that we're a bit cramped on space in this apartment?). Hmmm, I can now open the dryer...I wonder if there really is room in there to put things?

Well, when I opened the dryer-there was a duffel bag inside. Sure enough, when I opened the duffel bag there was all my underwear and socks! 30 pairs of socks to be exact-including quite a few Christmas socks and a bunch of fun socks....I love fun socks! There were nursing bras (boy I could've used those last year) and quite a few bras from when I was pregnant that don't so much fit anymore :) As a bonus there were a few pajama sets that I loved too!! Ooohhh-it was nearly as good as shopping!! I just had to laugh though-they were there the whole time!! Oh well-story of our life!

Just like Mommy

The other morning I found Emily trying on my shoes! She's into stickers now too-that's what's on her shirt.

I got Emily a little Vera Bradley bag that is just like my work bag only smaller. She was thrilled when I got it out-immediately she put it on her arm and started walking around like a little Mommy. She was holding her new purse, pushing the stroller and holding the baby.

What a good Mommy! (I know, she needs a haircut)

OK Mom, seriously, let's get on with our day!

What a big girl!! Growing so fast!!