Chicken-fest

OK blog-land, it's time to admit a piece of Garrett awesomeness that's been hiding in our mud room for the last week or so. Meet the three newest Garretts, chickens number 1, 2 & 3! Kyle has been talking about getting chickens for a long, long time - our goal is to have fresh, delicious eggs on a regular basis for our family and to share with all our Chicago peeps (heh, heh). With EXTENSIVE help from a very handy friend, Kyle built a coop for our little fluffy friends under our deck. When they get a little bigger, we'll have an official moving party into their new digs! For now, they are living in a cardboard box where they get lots and love and affection from Lucia, our visiting cousins Gracie & Annie (that's Gracie above holding Chicken #1 - whom Gracie & Annie named Popcorn), and our neighbors.

Gracie & Annie hold Cici & Gloria

Lucy says, "I'm not touching those crazy birds!". Smart girl.

We'll keep you all posted as to the progress of the great Garrett chicken project, but as for now, it feels very springlike what with all the peeping and the yellow fluff!

Sliding Queen

The following video is for seriously committed Lucy lovers only - it's a bit long and slow at times, but I absolutely love it because this is really and truly how we spend hours and hours and hours of time these days. Doing slide circuits. Up the stairs, down the slide, around the playground, up the stairs, repeat ad nauseum. You get the idea. See for yourself!




Furthermore, just to prove the crazy insanity of Chicago weather, I think this video was taken on Monday. Note the coat, hat, scarf and red nose. Tomorrow's weather? 82 whopping degrees! Hooray for spring in the air!

st valentine and his cadillac dream

Hey blog-o-friends. We've been on a never-ending carousel of colds and stomach flus and winter blerghs around here BUT it's past the middle of February! Spring is in sight! Lucy's hacking cough is gone, gone with the wind! And I finally got the root canal that I've been putting off for the better part of a year (because who wants a root canal???).

Bottom line, we still have a delectably scrumptious ball of fun who loves to assert her opinion about clothing ("No! No! No! No!" unless the clothing involves pandas, flowers, or cherries) and just about anything else. Indulge me for a moment, I don't want to forget some of the charming (and less charming) things that she's doing now at 17 months, so here's what makes Lucia ridiculously, deliriously happy at the moment:

• Raisins. We have never seen her voluntarily stop eating these things.
• Her hippo ("Hippo? Hippo? Hippo?" is a frequent mantra)
• Climbing onto a step stool and proclaiming "TALL!!!!!!!!!"
• Bagels with cream cheese.
• Her giant orange bouncy ball
• Dance parties involving the Arcade Fire (or Neko Case. or the Jackson Five.)
• Reading books. Over and over and over and over. Exhibit A:
  

• 
• Playing in the snow:
• Fingerpainting. Or gluing. Or playing with play dough. Or eating crayons.
• These pants (MADE ESPECIALLY BY ME!!!! MY SEWING SKILLS ARE OUTTA CONTROL!!!!). Truthfully, she doesn't really care about them one way or the other, but they are still making the blog. Please enjoy her catwalk skills:
• Playing ring around the rosy.
• Unloading the dishwasher/grocery bag/laundry basket.
• LOADING the dishwasher/groceries/laundry.
• Pretending to feed various stuffed animals.
  
• About a million more things.
  

There are also many things that bring wailing, gnashing of teeth, tantrums galore, and battles of will... to name a few: getting her diaper changed, eating anything she doesn't FEEL like eating at any given moment, sun in her eyes, sharing. That last one is a killer!

Also, being sick. None of us are big fans of that. Here's a sad sick face (that we have seen too much of over the last few weeks):

Big love from all of us in the Garrett house! And hasten the coming spring!

The promised video...

Here is a video of Lucia giving the stink eye to Mom and Dad one night at dinner (you have to click on the picture, and it will take you to the video):

From stink eye

Lucia at 17 Months Old!

We've had some sickness moving around the Garrett household for the past week or so, but hopefully we'll be in the clear soon! Lucia had the worst of it - a really bad cough for a few days and a nose that kept on running... But we wanted to share some recent photos of Lucia - she just keeps getting bigger and more talkative (and more assertive!). Here are some photos, and in a bit, I'm going to post a video - stay tuned!

I love to finger paint!


Hanging out with Aunt Tricia:



At the Field Museum with my new friend Aubrey who lives around the corner from us:

Xmas in Txas

We had a good time visiting family in Texas for the holidays, so we thought we'd share several pictures from our time there.

"Wow"


Hanging out with my cousin (and new best friend!) Emily:



Walking with Grammy and Papi:



With Mom by the river:




Static electricity!!



And if you're dying for more photos, you can click here and it will take you to a Shutterfly album... Enjoy!

3 hour naps are slammin'

Hey friends. I am ecstatic to tell you all that I am writing this post from our brand spankin' new, shiny green Dell laptop which should hopefully enable much more frequent posting. Old faithful was getting slower and slower to the painful point of death and we are very happy that he has retired and we are on to greener pastures. Literally.

Just a quick hello to say we're all alive and that Lucia is just waking up from a 3 hour nap. That's right, three hours, ladies and gents. Only took us 16 months to get here and we are loving every single snoozing moment.

Loads of holiday pics, videos and fun to come soon!