Sweet face

Reid is 11 months!

Already! 11 month old Reid is on the go.  She is not officially walking yet but she is close. She is a great eater (not something I ever experienced with big sister) and is already very verbal with a short list of distinguishable words. She is such a cuddle-bug and loves to snuggle with just about anyone. We've definitely got another daddy's girl, which is fine by both Andy and me. Reid and Harper are best friends for the moment. 

Sisterly Love

Girls snacking under the Christmas tree

Harper at the DuPage Children's Museum

There is a fantastic children's museum in Naperville and Harper and I spent some "mommy & Harper" time checking it out on the day after Christmas.  Here's Harper in the wind tunnel area:

And playing in the bubble area:

Christmas Eve in Naperville!

We settled in the Chicago area right before Christmas.  This fall has been a whirlwind and moving twice in four months with two small children is not for the faint of heart.  Bottom line, Cleveland did not work out for us and it was best for our family to move on.  Andy is really enjoying his new job and the mission promoted by the School of Rock and the girls and I are absolutely loving our new area to explore. There are endless options of things to do with kids here and I have already enrolled Harper in a three day per week preschool program at a Waldorf school nearby.  I visited a few of the schools in the area and this one stood out for me as being a perfect fit for Harper and our family.  I knew after being in the school for just a few minutes that it felt like home.  She starts on January 10. Here are the girls being silly on Christmas Eve in their new Christmas pjs.

Harper's First Christmas present from Santa

The only thing she has asked for so far: a Christmas tree of her very own.  We told her that Santa brought her an early gift!

Harper's story

Harper and her cousin Luca are best buds.  In the car the other day, they decided to keep themselves entertained by telling "once upon a time" stories.  I caught this one of Harper's and I had to immediately write it down.  This girl has quite the imagination!


once upon a time, there was a fake tree that turned into a real tree that turned into a ghost that turned into a people that turned into a house and I lived in it.  Then a shark came and chased me out of the house and I hit it with a golf club.  The end.

Harper plays at Luca's school

We are visiting in Connecticut right now and Harper was able to join her 4 year old cousin Luca for a day in his classroom at a local Montessori school.  There are 38 preschools within a 5 mile radius of the house we'll be living in in Naperville, Illinois as of next Sunday! I was so overwhelmed by the project of narrowing them down that I hired a virtual personal assistant to narrow them down for me using criteria I provided her ... indulgent? Maybe.  But I work, I can do indulgent things once in a while, right? And this seemed like a worthy cause.  We've narrowed the list down and I have visits scheduled at several the first week we'll be in Illinois.  I'm excited to get her back in school, she needs it.  Our visit to the Montessori confirmed my interest in Montessori, I LOVED the learning techniques and the overall style of the school. And so did Harper, I really hope one of them in "Chicago-land" work out ...

Guess who's on a mission to walk?