What's New with Elise

Elise has been busy, as usual. She's becoming more and more imaginative and will spend time reading or playing on her own. Lately, she's been 'going to the office' just like daddy and building forts (houses) with the couch cushions. She also loves to read her Little Einstein book and drive in her cardboard car. She continues to love school and is doing really well with writing her letters. Here's a snippet of a conversation with Paul today:

Elise: Daddy, will you come play with me in the basement?
Paul: Maybe in a little bit. Let me warm up. It's cold downstairs.
Elise: But you have a sweater on to keep you warm. And my babies are crying for you!

Creative....very creative!

Breaking and Entering

She's finally figured out how to get into the cabinets. It's now Julia's favorite activity. It's not unusual for me to pick up the contents of this particular cabinet 4 or 5 times a day. I suppose it would be smarter just to leave everything out, but then again, half the fun is dumping everything onto the floor.

Julia's Snaggle Tooth

Here's a shot of Julia's first tooth. There's a second one there too, but you just can't see it yet. She's learning how to smile now, often crinkling her nose up (as you can see from the picture).

Plus 1% Makes 10.25%

I admit that I'm pretty naive to what's going on locally. We've moved our TV to the (very cold) basement and we don't get the newspaper. About the only news I hear is what's on the radio briefly as I take Elise to school.

It's been talked about in the past, but I was hoping it would never come to fruition. The Cook County Board passed legislation that will make the sales tax in the Windy City (and suburbs) a whopping 10.25%. It was said that Chicago now has the highest sales tax of any major city in the United States. That's certainly something to be proud of.

February is Finally Over

I think that was the longest February ever....well, the longest in the last 4 years anyway. After a warm up this last weekend (a balmy 41 degrees, the warmest day we've had in 2 months), the snow has finally begun to melt and we are beginning to reclaim 2 feet of our driveway that was taken over by the huge mountain of snow. There's gravel everywhere and the street looks a bit like a kitty litter box. I've got a pretty bad case of spring fever. I'm not sure why we didn't choose to move south....

Elise's First Signature

While waiting with Daddy in the car yesterday, Elise was 'writing' with a pen and paper. Lo and behold, she wrote her name for the first time! Another proud moment! See if you can pick out the letters (I think the dot on the 'i' got cut off from the scanner, but it's there....).

7 Deadly Sins

On my way home from taking Elise to school this morning, I caught the tail end of a discussion about an article published on Forbes.com (click here). It's called "America's Most Sinful Cities". The authors investigate how America stacks up as it relates to the seven deadly sins (lust, gluttony, avarice (greed), sloth, wrath, envy and pride). While not scientific, the results are interesting. Here's a preview:

Most Jealous City (as measured by per capita incidence of property crimes): Memphis, TN

Most Obese City (as measured by BMI data collected by the CDC): Memphis, TN

Most Sedentary City (as measured by BMI, physical activity and TV watching habits): Memphis, TN

There's a strange pattern emerging....sadly for Memphis, 65% of the population is overweight, 30% don't exercise regularly and the average person watches 41 hours of TV a week! Not a good combination. I guess it's good that my sister and her family will be moving back to Michigan soon. :>)

Snow Bunny

Baseball Prank

If you're a true baseball fan, then you know that pranks in baseball are the norm. This one had me laughing out loud. The clip is a little lengthy, but endure to the end. Enjoy!

Snow Day

Mother nature was kind enough to shed 8+" of snow between late (last) Thursday and early Friday....most all of the local schools were closed as snow crews tried to clear the roads. Paul surprised us by staying home too. We had a fun day together.

After Julia's morning nap, we loaded the girls in the car along with our swim suits and towels and headed to Coco Key Water Resort. Paul has wanted to take Elise there for quite some time and with the weekday special, we were able to try it out without breaking the bank too much. While she was a little skiddish early on, she was going down the kiddie slides at the end and having a great time! For being the first time in a pool, Julia tolerated things very well. She didn't fuss one bit and passed the time by taking in all that there was to see.





In the afternoon, Elise and I bundled ourselves up and headed outside to play in the humungus mountains of snow in our front 'yard.' We climbed up and down and tried to make a slide, though the snow wasn't quite wet enough for packing.



All in a days' work....here was the end result: