A few pictures from Claudia's second Christmas. Last year at Christmas, she was only a couple weeks old and Joe and I were home alone with a newborn. I was sick and we were both tired and still not sure what we were doing. This seemed more like a first Christmas.
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| Christmas Eve at grandma's house with cousins and Aunt Cathy. |
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| Brylea and Claudia on Christmas. |
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| Aunt Cathy and Claudia. |
Christmas was bittersweet at best and not want anyone in my family had envisioned. My sweet grandma passed away on Christmas Eve day. She had been in the hospital for 10 days and would have been 94 on January 8. I am so grateful that I got to to the hospital in time to see her and talk to her before she passed.
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| One of my very favorite pictures of my grandma meeting Claudia for the first time back in May. I am so happy that she was able to meet Claudia a few times and see me become a mom. |
Today is Claudia's birthday. It's so hard to believe that her first year has come to a close. It's gone by too quickly.
Claudia's birthday is in a few days and we celebrated her first birthday on Saturday with a Winter ONE-derland themed brunch.
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| Mommy and baby before the party |
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| Claudia with Grandma Kelley |
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| Daddy, mommy and Claudia |
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| The cake! |
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| One of the guests' tables |
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| Claudia's seat |
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| Party hat and smash cupcake |
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| Claudia with some of her friends |
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| Claudia with her grandparents |
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| Gift table |
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| All guests got decorated sugar cookies - either a "1" or a snowflake |
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| Claudia eyeing her first cupcake |
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| With mom and dad |
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| After a couple bites of cake. Overall, not a fan of it. |
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| Sign outside the banquet room |
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| All the baby friends received a gift bag with either a polar bear or penguin inside |
One year ago today, we wanted to check out the Arboretum's new holiday interactive light display. I was very pregnant and my doctor had just put me on a trial bed rest for the week of Thanksgiving to see if I could get my blood pressure to come down. I was off work that week and mostly taking it easy but decided a little holiday lights would be okay. We did not purchase tickets in advance and when we got there the wait was two hours long. Needless to say, we left and went home never seeing the lights.
What a difference a year makes. Tonight, exactly one year later, we headed out to see the light display with an 11 1/2 month old baby. Fortunately, the weather was in the high 40s, and Miss C was bundled up and warm.
Next year we will try to remember and take a better camera. iPhone photos do not do the beautiful lights justice.
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| Father and daughter. |
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| Chandeliers hanging from the trees. |
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| The lights were accompanied by music from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. |
Claudia had her first Thanksgiving yesterday and her last "first" holiday. We stayed home most of the day and had dinner with some friends. It was quieter than usual but that's because we have grandmas and grandpas coming for a big birthday bash next weekend.
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| First order of business on Thanksgiving is to get dressed and go to Starbucks. |
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| Second order of business on Thanksgiving is to put on holiday-appropriate attire. |
Last weekend Claudia was invited to attend her first-ever party. Her friend, Ellie turned one!
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| Ellie getting her pumpkin cupcake. |
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| The babies in attendance. Claudia is such a social gal. |
It's a little late but I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Joe celebrated his birthday on Saturday. Originally we had planned to go out for a fancy dinner but after checking with five (!) different people to babysit and not finding a sitter, we just went out for a nice lunch as a family. And, actually, that ended up probably being the very best option.
We had a play date with our friend, Laila earlier this week. I love how Claudia is actually starting to interact with her friends.
Today was Claudia's first Halloween and we had a very fun day.
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| We had lunch and played at Rose's house. |
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| We went to visit (in costume) daddy's office. |
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| And now this skeleton baby is in bed for the night! |
Today was the Halloween party at the mom's group I attend on Tuesdays.
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| Look at all these cuties! |
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| And how clever is this costume? Scuba diver complete with flippers, goggles, oxygen tank and everything! |
My friend, Kim who lives in South Dakota visited us for a couple days. It was a mellow couple of days since we were hanging with a ten-month-old but we did go to a canvas painting studio while she was here. It was so great to see her and spend time together after not seeing each other for a few years.
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| Claudia & Kim |
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| Our works of art. Fun Halloween theme night at the studio. |
I'm 10 months old. I love to pull up on things and have even started doing a little cruising. I am very curious and love to explore. I also love eating table food and am always very interested in what everyone is eating.
Today we met our baby friends at the pumpkin patch. I'm not sure I've ever seen so much cuteness in one place. They were a little confused over the costumes and all the fussing. Also, I'm pretty grass was ingested by several babies.
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| With our friends. Left to right: Tiger (barely visible), Elephant, Pumpkin, Cookie Monster, Monkey, Owl, Dinosaur & Bear. |
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| Stoic owl |
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| With mommy |
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| BFFs - Rose & Claudia |
We went to brunch one day this week with my friend, Kelly. It was a milestone event because I ordered C something off the kids' menu - french toast, no syrup. She loved it! What a big kid.
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