This one's for my Kellys....

Eat your hearts out Walsh and Newcom :)

We're here in Chicago, but the weather is a bit chilly (as in 12 degrees). Unfortunately, this means we haven't been able to do the sightseeing we had hoped to. We did however make it out today over lunch since this Starbucks is right across the street from our hotel. It was fun to get out and experience snow again :)

Aging Gracefully ... Or At Least Prematurely

I opened my mail this week to this... AARP soliciting me to "get the most out of life after 50" and claiming that I am "fully eligible" to become part of their fine organization.

I'm not sure whether they use that funny "new math" to calculate my age or if somewhere along the way I put "78" as my age rather than my year of birth.

Or maybe they see that my name is Barbara and figure that because my name hasn't been in the "top girls names" since the 1940's, I must fit their mold. In which case, I hope they are soliciting the President's daughter too.

Really isn't turning 30 this year already traumatic enough? Let's not age me another 20 years if we don't have to. However, all those great AARP discounts might be kinda nice ...

Okay, enough of my rant. Here's a picture of Morgan getting to meet her Great Grandma Boston for the very first time last week.

Instant Classic

Morgan recently discovered her toes, but they are always covered up. So while getting ready this morning, she took advantage of the opportunity of having access to her bare feet. I quickly ran to get my camera and was able to get this photo. I knew it would be an instant classic - one of those that will go in her baby book, show up in those cheesy "Memories" films they do at graduations, and be shown (to her dismay) to her future husband. Won't she love me then?

And while I'm talking about my adorable daughter, can I just say how irked I was yesterday when a lady at church (who I don't know and who doesn't know me) looked at Morgan and said "Hi Fatty". Um, excuse me, NO ONE calls my kid fat ... or chubby, chunky, pudgy, fluffy, healthy, or any other similarly "nice" adjective. Talk about making me want to lose my Christianity right before church...

Baby Ross is here....

... and she's a girl :) Steph gave birth to Kassia (pronounced "Kay-sha") Danielle late this morning. A proud Scott called to let Jonathan and I know that his new daughter is beautiful and his wife did just great throughout the delivery process. We are so excited for them! We haven't met Kassia yet but can't wait to.

So far I am one-for-one. I thought Steph and Matt's baby was a boy (see post below) but thought Steph and Scott's baby was a girl. I'll go ahead and stick by my projection that Rachel and Pete are having a boy. If I'm wrong there, I'll officially give up guessing.

And speaking of Rachel and Pete, I think they need to have Baby Springirth on Wednesday so there will be a day-on-day-off pattern between all three of these baby's births. I love this... Morgan is gonna have so many new friends!

I'm an AUNT!!

Hooray! Steph gave birth to Madelyn Rose Polites this evening at about 6:45 after almost twelve hours of labor (with no pain meds :). Madelyn is 6 pounds, 7 ounces and 20 inches long. Both she and Steph are doing great, and Matt sounds like a proud papa already!

Steph and Matt didn't even call us this morning to tell us that they were in labor. Jonathan and I were watching a movie tonight and Matt calls both of our cell phones (which makes us suspicious) so we call him back. I jokingly ask, "So are you having a baby?" And he cavalierly replies, "No, we already had her." I had to question him several times to find out if he was teasing me, but he started rattling off Madelyn's stats and telling me the story. So crazy...

Don't you love her name? They aren't sure yet how they will spell Madelyn (obviously, I'm pulling for this version ... or even Madelynn). I'm adverse to the freaky French spelling Madeliene - like the weird children's book. But hey, she's their kid :) Regardless, they have already given her the nickname "Maddie" which is ironic since I already call Matt "Matty Pants". (1/20 postscript: Looks like they are leaning toward Madeline).

Congrats Steph and Matt! We love you and are so proud of you. Maddie, we are SO anxious to meet you and greet you into our family ... you are going to be so loved!

When being wrong is alright...

So I'm a perfectionist ... and I'm comfortable with that. Accordingly, I love my planner. Well, "Pay Property Taxes" has been glaring at me from the January 31st box. My planner and our bank account haven't really coordinated on this issue however.

Another "to do" for this month is gathering our tax information for our accountant. In the process of doing this, I had to get proof of our tax payments for 2006 and realized that our tax payments are due in June and November ... not January and November. While this would normally frustrate my anal retentive side, in this case I'm quite relieved to be wrong. And learning to be okay with being wrong teaches me to be gracious with others who are wrong ... like Morgan's pediatrician :)

Yesterday was Morgan's four month check up. Everything was cruising right along until the pediatrician checked her eyes. Apparently, something wasn't right because the pediatrician took us into another room to test Morgan's eyes a second time and then when she wasn't satisfied with that called in a second doctor to look at Morgan's eyes. The two of them in doctor talk tried to tell us that Morgan needed to see an opthamologist because there wasn't enough "red" in her eyes and that might be a sign of infantile glaucoma or something else (which they were never very clear on). While they told us it was "probably nothing" and "better safe than sorry", they nonetheless set up an appoint with an opthamoligist for us and said we needed to get it done before we left for Illinois in a few weeks.

A few hours after Morgan's appointment, the pediatrician called me back and asked me to bring Morgan back in because she believed the eye instrument she had been using was faulty. Sure enough, it was all the instrument and Morgan's beautiful eyes are just fine! Hooray for the doctor being wrong :)

Seriously Mom?

Yes, it's 70 degrees and my daughter is wearing a hat and mittens! I got them after she had to wear her socks on her hands when we went down to the Riverwalk over Christmas (jenky, I know :). But even though it's warm here right now, I know that hat and those mittens will get used as I just booked us tickets to Chicago in February to visit my family! Hooray!