Hey everyone! Things are super chaotic around here. I've decided to stop apologizing for not having time to blog, so you just get me when you get me. :-) Before we even hit Thanksgiving it was nonstop for us.
Karina turns 5 this year on the 26th of December. Traditionally we hold her friends birthday party early in the month to avoid the rush. We've found this just works out best for everyone. This year, Bill also wanted to go to Chicago to visit his sisters who still live there (where he's from). I've been so hesitant to go with Elena, but when Madeline (almost!) found a replacement Ducky (so close...) I figured we would just have to go so I could thank her in person for her efforts. So we talked about driving (aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! It would have been about 3 days in the car both ways because of how often we'd have to stop with the girls, and by "girls" I mean "Elena's screaming fits") so in the end we decided to fly. It worked out pretty well, actually, and ended up costing less than it would have cost us to drive (with hotels and gas and all). The flight there was fine, and Elena was really good. It's only about a 2 hour flight, thankfully.
The first day we went to the Shedd Aquarium to see their amazing jellyfish exhibit. Karina is obsessed with jellies and sea creatures, and it was even the theme of her birthday party. We went through the jelly exhibit twice, and probably could have gone 3 times, but we left Elena's stroller at Madeline's apartment by accident and it was way too far to go back for it. So we just took turns carrying her and letting her walk. She was a trooper! The aquarium was phenomenal and they both loved it. It was definitely the highlight of the trip. We also visited one of Bill's oldest friends, who recently adopted his own little girl Karina's age, so we went out to his place and stayed the night. Karina and his daughter got along great. They came into the city later and we all went to the Lincoln Park Zoo together. That was really cool, too. We also went to Navy Pier and the Brookfield Zoo. The Brookfield Zoo I have to say was rather disappointing overall, but they did have a brand new baby gorilla which was adorable! Elena was great the whole trip, although the stress started to get to her near the end and she started waking up in the night throwing up. She'd be fine during the day and then wake up at night and throw up. Then she threw up alllll over the place on the plane. That was so awful. I ended up having to change into one of Bill's shirts because it was all over my sleeve, and we didn't have a spare shirt for Elena (just pants) so we put her jacket on her as a shirt. Karina slept through the whole plane ride home. I was SO glad to be home. We had a good time, though.
Once we got home, Karina had one day of preschool before Thanksgiving break, and that was the day of their Thanksgiving feast at school. I helped out with that because I am one of the two room moms. The other lady actually headed most of that up herself because I'd been out of town. Oh, and I forgot to mention that the day after Halloween, literally, Karina got strep throat and was out for a week (sick as a dog) and then Elena got croup at the same time. Luckily they were both healthy by the time we left for Chicago.
For Thanksgiving we usually have a big group of family but this year it was just my mom, grandmother, Bill, the girls, and me. We went to my mom's house and it was quiet and small but really really nice. I got to have a whole conversation with my mom that was not interrupted once by any small sweet children!
Then we had Karina's birthday party the first weekend in December. I like to decorate for Christmas right after Thanksgiving, but having a pile of kids in the house makes that pretty much impossible. So instead we decorated with jellies and seahorses and sea turtles and sea stars for her underwater themed birthday. I think it went well, too. We made jellies out of squeezy-fruit lids and jellies that light up out of inverted bowls and stick on tap lights. We hung jellies and sea creatures all over the house and I made a cake and decorated it with icing jellies and fish sprinkles. There were more kids than we've ever had and it went great. One interesting thing was that a friend gave Karina an Anna doll, from the movie Frozen. Some of my friends with kids had gone to see it but we couldn't go, and honestly, I thought it was going to be awful so I wasn't too upset about missing it. But they raved about it at the party and finally Karina wanted to go see it, so I caved. I am SO glad I did! It was amazing! I think it's probably going to end up being one of my favorite Disney movies. Anyway, before we even saw the movie, I decided that I should go get the Elsa doll for Elena because she, poor thing, didn't understand why Karina was getting all this stuff and she didn't get anything (because, Mommy fail, I forgot to have stuff for her to open!). Imagine my surprise when Elsa turns out to be sold out....everywhere! So too bad, but then we saw the movie and that made me wish to find it even more! The thing is SOLD OUT!!!
Today was Karina's Christmas pageant at preschool. It's a short little telling of the Christmas story and the kids ring bells and sing songs. It is adorable. My mom even got to come and that was great because Karina will be going to public school next year and so she probably won't be in any more Christmas pageants, not religious ones anyway, so my mom was really happy to see her. Elena was, too, and she was a really good girl. When my mom held her up to see Karina, though, she screamed out, "INA!!! INA!!!" a couple times. It was pretty funny though.
Well today before the pageant I ran some errands and went to my usual places, and I checked for Elsa but of course no luck. I did pick up a color change Anna doll and a Merida doll for Elena. Then after we finished we had a little time left before we could go to the pageant so we went to another store nearby, one I don't go to often and frankly it's having trouble competing with the other two big box stores around. So I thought there might be a chance I'd find one there, maybe the color change one that's more expensive. BUT. They had Elsa! The less expensive one! And they had FOUR of them! I just got one, because that's all we needed and other people are looking for them, too. I sent a friend of mine there later to get one. I hope she was able to find one!
Karina doesn't know about it. I'm saving it for Christmas. She keeps asking me every day to check for Elsa online. I just hope I can hold her off til Christmas!
Hope you are all doing well!
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