Congratulations Caitlin!!

Friday we headed down to Portland for my sister Caitlin's college graduation from Concordia University. I left about 1 with the girls and we caught the ferry down at Bainbridge Island. Both of them loved walking around the boat, watching the water and of course getting a snack!! Then we drove into Seattle to pick papa up at work and hit the road......only to run into a TON of Friday afternoon traffic. So by 7 pm we FINALLY arrived at our hotel and the girls were very glad to be out of the car and hugging their Aunt Caitlin. We had a late dinner at Applebees with Casey and his family and then hit the hay! Or at least tried to, but Emma was not doing very well with the unfamiliar setting and being overtired. Saturday morning Caitlin received an award for being chosen as the Exercise & Sports Science Graduate of the year....congrats! She also last week received an award for the 2009 female scholar athlete of the year. We got to the school's gym around 1030 and graduation started at 11 and she graduated magna cum laude (video below). We got some good pics and then all enjoyed lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory. We then went and helped pack some of Caitlin's stuff out of her apartment and then Jason, me and the girls went to mass with her before hitting the road for home....and Emma slept the whole way home!! A tiring but good day!!!

Happy Birthday to my "Baby"

Whew, what a crazy couple of days. Jason has been working 12 hour shifts at work, from noon to midnight...making me realize once again how much of a help he is to the family. The girls miss their bath time with their papa and play time before bed. Luckily he had a normal work day on Thursday, April 30th.....ANGELICA ROSE....turned THREE. So hard to believe that she is already this old. So many times I still consider her my baby but then realize she is a strong, beautiful, smart and growing girl. We are so blessed to have her in our lives and she makes us smile and laugh every day. She is mama's big helper and getting very excited about helping with the new baby. My sisters Meghan and Caitlin and baby Albert will all be in town this Wednesday so we decided to wait until then to have her party and her butterfly cake that she has requested. So on her birthday she got to go to Marmee's house to play for a bit...they had a lot of fun outside and Marmee gave her some toy frogs (and turtles) she has desperately been wanting to sing her frog song with. (will have to try and post a video later). Then I went and got her a special treat....her Strawberries and Cream drink from Starbucks....she thought she was a very big girl!! The girls both took really good naps and then when Jason got home we took her to Red Robin for dinner. She was not very fond of the life size Red Robin walking around! Then we took her to the pet store to pick out the fish she has been asking for for a long time. So....she picked out two, an orange one which she named Fred and a white one which she named Lily. She is a very good "mommy" to them and keeps telling us that we do not eat them because we do not eat our pets! She enjoyed listening to so many family members phone calls and opening all the cards that came in the mail....so thank you to all!! Happy Birthday sweet Angelica Rose, we love you so much!!

Missing the "Moo-Moos"

Well, Emma is officially done nursing (sniff sniff). I think mama is having a harder time with it than she is. About a week ago I realized that nursing was just getting to be more of a comfort for Emma than anything and I was getting so tired and feeling so sick with this pregnancy that it was time to wean. My goal has always been to nurse for one year and yet I remember with Angelica that I loved it so much we just kept going.....until I was 6 months pregnant with Emma and my milk production stopped. She was 16 months old. Emma had slowed down a lot anyways but still would like to nurse before naps and still quite often during the night. She has always been a strong, avid nurser so I was a little worried about the weaning process with her. So we started with the days.....and day one went perfectly fine...we just came up with a new nap time routine and she has had no problems. So then after three days of that I cut out the night time nursing....AAAHH....it was a LONG two nights!! I have always referred and taught the girls that nursing is called "yum-yums". A friend had recommended coming up with a term when I was pregnant with Angelica if I planned to nurse beyond the age that they could talk so we wouldn't get embarrassed in public with them demanding it. It has worked very nicely for us. Emma though has decided to always call nursing "moo-moos", so funny because we still said yum-yums. So we had two long nights of her screaming for the "moo-moos" and me desperately wanting to just give in....but I didn't. And she has gone over a week now with no moo-moos or yum-yums at all!! After 17 months of nursing my baby....it makes me a little sad, but I am trying to tell myself I have another hungry baby arriving in 6 months who will eagerly be anticipating the moo-moos....as will I!! It is such a special bonding time with the babes!!!

Side note: Emma still does not like regular milk unless it is chocolate....just like her PopPop did!