Swimming, Swimming

We had a swimming pool at our hotel, so we went for a quick swim with the kids

Josh even put his head underwater for a second.  Caitlyn loved swimming on her tummy and pushing off the wall.  

Firestone Family Night

With everyone in town, we had to get a full family picture

What?  Why shouldn't I be climbing on this box?  It's fun, and I'm good at it!

A new Christmas Eve tradition?

At north school park, in downtown Arlington Heights, they have this wonderful lights display.  This year Josh visited with his preschool class, but it is always more magical at night.

The snowman welcoming us

Josh in front of the tree in the center of the fountain.

Caitlyn in front of Santa's workshop, which looked a lot like a  gingerbread house.

The sleigh

Some random lights

two people dancing

airplane

ship

The train kind of makes sense, as this park is near the train station

Santa welcoming us from the other direction

Caitlyn and Jared under the lights

Yea! Dreidels

little drummer teddy bear

I think there are a few reindeer missing from Santa's sleigh...

nutcrackers?

Claus & Company truck

Bear in a box

Happy Holidays from the Silver Family

Winter Fun

Building a gingerbread train

the final result

 Then we decided to go sledding...

We need to find her brothers bigger coat, but we did have his snow pants and boots.  Both way too big

Josh did an awesome job sliding down all by himself and didn't tire too easily  climbing back up to the top

Hmm, that looks like fun, maybe I can do it next year

One Night, at Home

Make a Mester piece

Had to use a groupon...and Josh tried a bunch of new things this time....here he is ready to start drumming with his friend Preston

Gymnastics Cermony

On the third night of Hannukah, my mother gave to me...

...some mustaches!

Hannukah, night two

Caitlyn totally stole a cookie from my hand and stuffed it in her mouth. We also discovered this night that she likes kiwis!

Josh got a new bike!

We celebrated the second night of Hannukah at my parents house.

Swimming, take two

A few more pictures of Caitlyn's swimming lessons

Happy Hannukah!

The first night of Hannukah...we had three different kinds of latkes: zucchini, Sweet potato and original potato.  We lit all four menorahs too...and our menorah in the window.

Caitlyn updates

It feels like I just updated Caitlyn's new skills, but even in the past couple of weeks she is doing some new things!

She will nod her head yes, and as I mentioned, has stood up for a few seconds before grabbing back on to the furniture in front of her.  This morning we noticed she held a toy phone up to her ear.  She has started doing the more and all done signs when eating, I think.  When I am reading books to her, she will swipe the book out of my hands if she doesn't want me to read it to her, but will eagerly turn pages of a book she does want to read.  She loves any peekaboo books.  She does love peekaboo, early on she would play with a blanket, but lately, she has covered up her right eye with her hand and when I say "Where is Caitlyn?" she will uncover her eye and smile.  The other day, she was sitting on my lap, facing me and I covered my eyes with my hands, said "Where's Mommy?" and she pulled my hands off my face one by one.  She can cluck, kiss - often with her mouth open, but if she is in a good mood, she will kiss your lips.  She claps hands, she will wave hello and good-bye to you.  Especially to the "baby" in the mirror of the bathroom after we change her diaper.  I think she has started using a pincher grasp to eat Cheerios.  She still has a bit appetite and will eat just about everything we give her.  Although, she may be over turkey!

Most of the time, she can crawl on all fours, though sometimes army crawling is faster for her .My baby is not really a baby any more :(

Saturday morning, new hairstyles

Josh suddenly wanted to spike up his hair, and I got a bow in Cailtyn's hair for a few minutes