NYE 2009

Another rockin' NYE with Sara, Paolo, & Mia. Nathan and the girls playing a little "Reggie-Moon".

What the Heck?!

Just a few recent vids of M. Enjoy!

Elmo Sweater

Thanks, Aunt Kerry, for the AWESOME Elmo sweater. I couldn't get Mabel to say "thank you", but she is really into this. She somehow thinks Elmo is inside the sweater. I don't think she has fully grasped that she can wear this. And not just on Halloween. Big hit.

More vids...

Just a few recent vids of Mabel.

Pumpkin Patch Party

A few vids of the big party tonight. Good times!!

Playdate with Nora

A few vids from our playdate with Nora.

Mabel Ciske

A vid of Mabel practicing her last name. The other is of a Shel Silverstein poem that Nathan has been reciting for Mabel since she was a baby. She rattled off the whole thing at dinner tonight.

Gallop and Five Little Pumpkins

A few recent videos of our big girl. I think she looks so much like Emilie when she is galloping.

Play Doh and Big Girl Bed

Two big firsts this weekend. Daddy bought Mabel her first Play-Doh set and mama converted her crib to a big girl bed. We just put her down for a nap and she is standing and crying in the same corner where she stood and cried when it was a crib. She has also made a few trips in and out of the bed, but has yet to sleep. Really giving that video monitor a workout today.

Zoo

We took a trip to the zoo this weekend. Like much of Mabel's weekend, it was 3/4 fabulous and 1/4 tantrum-filled.

Mabel also enjoyed some sweet corn. She usually has it "Grandpa Dick style", but last night she went for the whole cob.

North Carolina

We had a WONDERFUL time in the Outer Banks, NC. We spent a week in a little cottage right on the water and had awesome weather. Mabel loved the waves and playing in the sand. We never really left the beach except for some dinners out.

Summer Update

Mabel had a great visit to Wisconsin! Her adventures included fireworks with Ab & Sam, a family reunion, boat rides, a trip to Bay Beach, a trip to BEAMO beach, a parade, the zoo, a kiddie pool, lots of trips to Badger Park, and very few time outs. Included a few of the best shots and vids here. Hope to have more up soon from our upcoming trip to North Carolina.

A few new vids...

Here a few recent videos of Mabel.

2nd Birthday

FINALLY posting a few pics from Mabel's birthday. She had a wonderful party with all of her grandparents. She received so many amazing presents and just loved being with her fam.

She also recently had a sleep over playdate with Mia. They girls got into all sorts of mischief, but Mia was still so happy to see mama in the morning.

Smile for the camera

Somewhere along the way, Mabel learned that you are supposed to smile for the camera. When I took my camera out a few days ago, she stopped what she doing and said "Smile!" and posed and smiled. Very cute.

Also included one more photo of Nora's visit.

Ooohhh.... Grapes.

Here's a vid of Nora and Mabel playing together on their playdate a little over a week ago. I believe it was Nora who started this high pitched banter.

Also included a vid just for Aunt Meagan. When Aunt Meagan and Uncle Bill were in town two weekends ago, Mabel was very excited that Aunt Meagan shared her strawberries with her at breakfast. I've been trying to get the same reaction on video ever since and finally got it last night. Her reaction is for grapes, but you'll get the idea.

Easter Greetings

Thanks for all the Easter cards! Mabel loved getting mail. Also included a vid of Nathan and Mabel playing catch. Hope you all had a nice Easter!

Spring Break 2009

I think this is a record for the longest time without a blog entry. If you're still checking in, thanks for your patience!

We spent last week in AZ with Grandma Joyce and Grandpa Dick. We started the week at their rental and then moved over to their new house. Mabel loved exploring the house, especially the patio, and loved helping Grandpa Dick "fix the house".

ABCs

We've been working on getting a good video of this for a while. I think we have a winner here...

Diaper & Boots

Sorry it's been so long, folks. We had over 10 days of a single parent household due to my trip to Scrap and Spa and Nathan's recent work trip to Vegas. We finally got settled back into our routine here and then I accidentally deleted three weeks worth of our photo library. Oops.

So, I took this quick vid tonight to let you know what life with Mabel is like. This was taken after a spaghetti dinner. I had to take all of her clothes off and throw them in the washer and Nathan thought it would be interesting to see what would happen if we put her boots back on. She loved it.

Birthdays and Stuffy Noses

We had a great time at Alayna's 6th birthday party last weekend. We're hoping we didn't pass on the Ciske flu to everyone we came in contact with. All of us have been trying to kick a nasty cold and it seems like we're finally all taking a turn for the better.

A few current hobbies of Mabes.... pulling Kleenex out of the box, drinking from mom's water bottle, playing with her Little People and kitchen, jumping on the bed (with supervision, of course), eating raisins, and shutting herself in the bathroom.

Olivia's Visit

Mabel's cousin, Olivia, is here for the weekend. Emilie and Alayna are off to a daddy/daughter dance tonight, so Meagan and Olivia are here visiting. The girls started by doing some serious cooking in Mabel's kitchen and have now moved over to Mabel's table to create some artwork.

Christmas and New Years Eve

Mabel is back home from her holiday travels in Wisconsin. We kicked off the holiday by spending a few days at Grandma Joyce & Grandpa Dick's house. Mabel opened her presents from G&G a day before Christmas Eve so that they could enjoy seeing her play with them. She received all kinds of cool stuff, but Elmo Live is definitely a hot ticket at the moment. He is already on his third set of batteries. Thank goodness for rechargeables.

On Christmas morning, we drove to Gammy & Dave's. Mabel enjoyed brunch with the Wigchers, Gammy, & Grandma Katie. Mabel received all kinds of awesome Little People toys. She has been spending a lot of time with the bus and Noah's ark. (We set aside the deluxe farm set to surprise her with in a few weeks.) Brunch was followed up by the big Pawlowski Christmas celebration which was fun as always.

Gammy was nice enough to host us for a few extra days since Nathan was going to the Packer game on Sunday. We were able to spend an extra day visiting with Grandma Katie and lots of lazy time at Gammy's hanging out in peej and snacking on the delicious Christmas leftovers.

After getting back to Chicago on Monday, Mabel and I packed it up again on Monday and spent the night at Brooke & John's place. Mabel was able to spend some quality time with Nora and Jack and I was able to catch up with my gal pals, Brooke & Erin.

We wrapped up the holiday season with a rockin' New Years Eve bash at our place. Sara, Paul, & Mia came over for dinner and Mabel had her first official sleep over. The Urizars stayed over and since it is so cold downstairs, we decided to put Mia in the Pack N Play right in Mabel's room so she could benefit from the space heater. Both girls slept great, but I think both mom's were ultra-senstive to any little noise from the monitor worrying that it would wake the other baby up.

Thanks to everyone for the generous gifts and well wishes over the holidays. We are so grateful for the time we were able to spend with family and friends. We wish all of our blog readers a healthy, safe, and prosperous 2009!