Playing at Kid City and Meeting Mickey Mouse!

On Friday, I took Maddie over to a new playspace called Kid City. I have been meaning to take her here for the longest time but just never have. I saw on their website that Mickey Mouse was going to be there on Black Friday so we just had to go!

We arrived at 10:30, about an hour before Mickey was supposed to be there at 11:30.  Maddie immediately went into the little house before I could even pay our entry fee!

The play space was lovely, nice and clean, and also very close to us with easy, free street parking! What's also great is they have a fridge and microwave to bring your own food! And they have free coffee and tea for the adults! It was smaller than say Little Beans, but it was cozy. They have a little house with babies and baby clothes, and a super market with lots of shopping carts for the kids. They had tons of push cars, a train set and a ton of toys.  There is even a little theater section with individual theater seats and a TV. Not sure if it is only used for parties.

Maddie had a blast!  She loved putting all the little foods into her grocery cart. But I think her favorite thing was the little house. She found a little baby and I gave her a blanket and told her to put it on the baby so it wasn't cold and she just loved putting the blanket on and off the baby.  She did not want to sit down to eat her snack/lunch so we did not eat her full lunch there as I had intended, she kept getting distracted (understandably so).

I forgot to mention they had a 6 year old white goldfish named Ramona in a fish tank by the kitchen. Maddie loved looking at her and making her fish face and noises.

Mickey finally made his appearance at about 12:00pm (I realized later that the face painter who was there at 11:30 was also Mickey!).  Maddie LOVED seeing Mickey and kept saying "Hi Mickey!" and waving at him. Mickey was pretty scary looking... he was not the Disney Mickey Mouse, but an older looking version of him. The parents all thought he looked creepy and so did a few of the children, but overall most of the kids enjoyed his visit.

After meeting Mickey twice, it was time to head home. I gave Maddie a lollipop from the jar they had at the counter and we headed home.

In all I loved the play space and will try to be back soon!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We celebrated Thanksgiving at home in Chicago this year as we were in Tulsa earlier this month (and also the travel cost would have been expensive).

While Joseph prepared the turkey, I took Maddie over to Dean Park to spend some time outside. Dean Park is also right next to the grocery story and we had to pick up a few things.

Maddie loves Dean Park as there are So Many Sticks!  She loves to pick up sticks and put them in piles. I will sit on the swing and she will bring me stick after stick!  She did not want to leave, but it was getting cold, so I told her to give me twenty more sticks and then we would go to the store.  We counted them one by one and at 20 she was ready to leave.

We came home, had lunch and Maddie went down for her nap. Joseph and I cooked everything else for our Thanksgiving dinner.  We did not take many photos during dinner, but the couple I took are below.

Short Week at Day Care

We have a short week at Day Care this week since they are closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving.

Here is what Maddie did at day care today.  She napped a little longer today than last week (yay!) and the teacher said she had a great morning. They took the big stroller (it fits 8 kids!) and walked to Wicker Park to play at the playground and then in the leaves.

Happy Birthday to Grandpa! (Video)

Here is a video of Maddie singing Happy Birthday to Grandpa as today is his birthday!!

Saturday at Ikea

We went to Ikea on Saturday to make a return and look for some items for the house. We left only getting 1 of the 3 things we wanted.  Maddie found a bin full of her favorite stuffed ball toy!!

Bath Time Fun!

Maddie's First Week at Day Care!

We signed Maddie up to attend a local newly opened Day Care!  She is attending the JCYS Michael R. Lutz Family Center – Wicker Park location, they just opened up this fall so the facility and everything inside is shiny and new!  We love the location (just a quick 10 minute walk away), the facility and the staff! Everyone is so nice and welcoming!

Maddie will be attending Tuesdays and Thursdays for the full day. We can drop her off as early as 7:30am but so far have tried to drop her off by 8:10 so she can get her (second) breakfast of cereal, raisins and milk! It's a good transition for her to be able to sit down and eat (her favorite thing) and we can leave her easily since she is distracted by food.  She then goes into her main room (Room #4) at 8:30am and they play some more.  On Tuesdays they do yoga!  They usually have a mid-morning snack, story time, song time, more play time. They try to get some outside time in (regardless of the weather) before coming back in to have lunch. They nap from 1-3 (Maddie struggled a bit the first week but I think she will adjust soon), and then wake up for an afternoon snack and more play time!  We can pick her up as late as 6pm but have been getting her around 5pm.  Speaking of outside time, the facility has a rooftop deck and a long side yard for going outside if they don't take walks to an outside park. Right now Maddie's room is too young for the rooftop deck but they are working on getting them approved for it.

So far she is loving it and doing very well.  Her teacher Ms Shira called the first day to let me know how well her first day went!  She sounded surprised that it went so well!  She said it feels as if Maddie has been there the whole school year. She explored and examined all of the toys and the books in her room and said the puzzles were her favorite toy.  She's getting along well with all the other kids and the other teachers in the room. We have found a great fit for her!

Each day they have a sheet where they write down the activities for the day. We forgot to take a photo of it her first day, but will be taking photos going forward to share what she's doing at day care.

First day of day care! She sat down to eat some cereal with raisins and observed her new surroundings and the other kids playing.

This is at the end of her first day when we went to pick her up. This is the hallway. We did not get a picture of her in her Room.

So nice! They put this picture of us up on the door of her Room!
(A family picture was one of the items on her list of things to bring to school)

Here is what she did on Thursday, her 2nd day of school. I forgot to take a picture on her first day.

Some Cute Pictures

Some cute pictures I took of Maddie on her Sit and Spin. She was laughing because Joseph came up behind me and started tickling me! Maddie is usually the one being tickled so she loved seeing someone else get tickled!

2 Year Check Up!

We went to the doctor's this morning for Maddie's 2 year check up appointment.

She is still at the top of the charts for growth.  She is now on the "toddler" growth chart, and since she is now 2 years old, they predicted her adult height at between . . . 5'8" - 5'9" tall!!

She is still on track or exceeding her milestones.  I explained to her yesterday we were going to the doctor for a check up (she kept saying "check out") and went through all the body parts the doctor was going to go over, so Maddie was very prepared and patient as the doctor checked her eyes, ears, nose, mouth, etc.

Official Stats:

Weight: 29.25 pounds - 85th percentile (up 3.0 pounds from 6 months ago at 26.25 lbs)
Height: 36.5 inches - 97th percentile (she has brown about 3 inches in 6 months!! She measured 33.25" at her 18 month appointment)
Head circumference: 48.0 centimeters - 70th percentile (up 0.5 cm from 6 months ago)

Maddie also needed to get 2 shots and 1 finger prick to check her blood for lead levels.  We calmly explained to her she was going to get a finger poke and that it would hurt, but she would get a bandage (she has loved bandages since helping Joseph with one a few days ago when he cut his finger - to the point where she will "hurt" her finger to get a bandage).  We also told her she would get a shot in each leg and that it would hurt for a little bit, but then she would get TWO bandages, AND a special treat afterwards. Knowing she would say lollipop, we asked what kind of treat she would want, and of course she said lollipop.

She took the finger prick and the 2 shots like.a.champ!!  She did not budge or cringe or cry!!!  We are amazed at how well she did!  After getting the last shot she immediately said "lollipop!"

We're so proud of our big growing girl!

Maddie's 2nd Birthday Party!

On Sunday we celebrated Maddie's birthday with local friends and family! We had a total of 10 kids over (including Maddie) and lots of friends and family - we had a great time!!  We set up a big inflatable pool with tons of ball pit balls! The kids had a blast! And we think the adults did too!

After a while we brought out the cake and Maddie was so excited to sing and more excited to eat her cake!  It was also Uncle Jeff's birthday, so Pau Pau got him his own cake and sang to him as well. Everyone was so excited to eat TWO birthday cakes!!

We had a lovely time. Thanks to all our friends and family who came out to celebrate Maddie's 2nd birthday!!

Lots of pictures and videos below!

Ball pit fun!!

I crocheted Maddie this dress! The 2 will be removed so she can wear it later.

Dress off, zoning out to some Elmo on the TV before bedtime.