be mine.

poppa and amma sent me a valentine that plays music when i open it, and daddy brought me my first balloon. i got lots of hugs and kisses... this was a good day.

the big snow!

we had a blizzard in chicago... it was all that the tv news stations said it would be. jason shut down the warehouse early and came home from work. we settled in for the storm... it was quite cozy from where we were sitting. snow is especially pretty when you're watching from the windows.

my pictures don't do it justice - it's difficult to see how high the snow really was. we put millie in her snowsuit and took the dogs outside to check out the situation - they weren't impressed with the beautiful white wonderland in our backyard. it was untouched and so quiet... beautiful.
i thought it would be really fun to take pictures of the winter
fun - millie begged to differ. 

this is our street... the view from our front door.  

how thankful i am to have a garage!

these were taken before we went outside... she was pretty confused by the "mitten" function of her snowsuit - fingers were inacessible because of mittens. this made pushing buttons on the remote control impossible. awesome.

even jake was intimidated by the mounds of fluff...

we were literally snowed in!

happy birthday amelia harper!

miss millie was not overly impressed with her pretty pink party dress...

 or with the fancy pearl bracelet that she finally had a reason to wear...

(thanks aunt lori!)

or with her happy birthday tiara...

or with left-over christmas presents that i disguised as birthday presents...

(really mom, more books?)

but the cake was a totally different story. this is what the fuss was all about.

what is this pretty round thing? it has my name on it. 

why is the pretty round thing on fire? why did you move the pretty round thing away from me? why are the lights turned off? and why, oh why, are you all singing that off-key song?

let her eat cake.

millie so vividly demonstrated what we've learned about her this last year - she is a little lady who makes no apologies for what she likes and dislikes. in the best of times and in the worst of times, she lets her voice be heard. life with a toddler, here we come!

happy birthday sweet girl!

all that a new year holds...

big changes around here in the new year. our baby girl is growing up.  here are a few of the ways that she was showing off as we said hello to 2011...

* good-bye bottle. 

this was millie's very last meal with her bottle. on to cow milk and sippy cups!

all gone!

* hello spoons, bowls and straws

she's working on mastering the art of the utensil. she would much rather feed herself than have somebody else shoveling food into her mouth, but she clearly needs a little bit of work! mostly, she just holds the spoon with one hand and picks up food with the other. 

* talking on the phone

millie holds just about anything up to her face (upside down and backwards!) and says "hi"... i have no idea where she possibly could have learned how to do this.

* helping... sort of.

millie really likes to take things out of baskets and buckets. she's not so great about putting them back just yet, but we're working on it. next step: teaching her how to sort and fold.