Smoothies!!

I've taken Kelsey twice to the smoothie shop to get a smoothie (non dairy of course). She really likes them and every time we drive near the store she asks for one. In talking with a friend the other day, I realized I can/should make them at home for her. I always have frozen fruit on hand, K loves frozen blueberries and cherries. So, after nap we made "kitchen sink" smoothies. I threw a little of everything I had in there...blueberries, strawberries, cherries, watermelon, a fresh banana, mango nectar, peach nectar and some apple juice. It was actually pretty yummy and Kelsey Loved it and kept bringing her empty cup to me and taking more of mine. Guess she didn't want to share with the baby :-)

Bubble Bathtime

Recently we starting letting K take a bubble bath 1-2 nights a week. I was a little hesitant b/c I have read they can cause yeast infections in little girls, but Lou made a good point...he said "I am sure you grew up taking bubble baths and are just fine. Are you going to deny your daughter that fun?" So I gave in, but not for every bath. We found a gentle bubble bath to use with no dyes or fragrances so as not to exacerbate her eczema. Can I just say she loves it. She would play in there for an hour if we let her.

Popcorn Time...

When we were in Puerto Rico (post still to come), Kelsey had popcorn for the first time. Mom/Dad bought me a popcorn maker for my birthday and today after nap K and I made our first batch!! She was so excited. I moved her stool back from the counter because the machine gets hot and I didn't want her to touch it. She loved watching it pop into popcorn and was delighted to put her hand in the bowl and grab the first fistful when it was all done. Looks like we've found a great snack. Below is a short video clip of her watching it, hit the triangle to play it

Kelsey's First Pedicure...

Our good friend's daughter (Ava) had her 5th b-day party today. It was a girls only party and they all got pedicures. It was very cute. K was the youngest one there and I wasn't sure if she would want one, or even how she'd do if she tried it. She was great. She chose the color red because that's what mommy got yesterday on her toes.

Big Sister!!

So I realized that I had not announced on the blog that we are pregnant and that Kelsey is going to be a Big Sister at the end of May. Most everyone who reads this blog should already know that, but just in case....

If you can quickly do the math..I am 20 weeks pregnant! Today we had our anatomy scan and we brought Kelsey with us. All along she has been asking for a brother AND a sister, she is learning to deal with disappointment as there is only 1 baby in my belly. The ultrasound today went well and the baby looks great. Everything is normal and baby is looking healthy!! The tech never got a great picture, but she tells us that this baby is a GIRL..so Kelsey is going to have a little sister in a few months.

An hour or so after the appointment we got a call from the office saying the Dr. read the ultrasound and it looks good, except....my placenta is low lying. They said it normally will move on it's own, but that they want to see me back in 6 weeks for another ultrasound to check it. AND they are putting me on placenta rest for the next 6 weeks!! Aaaaagggghhhhhh, that means I am not allowed to work out like I do. I did have them clarify and I am still allowed to walk for fitness, just no jogging, jarring movements, or lifting heavy weights. It's going to be a long 6 weeks and I pray at the end of it I am allowed to return to my normal activity level.

Christmas Day

All season long Kelsey has been asking Santa for a horsey and a candy cane...well Santa delivered!! I think Santa decided to be extra nice to Kelsey this year since it is her last year being the only one, b/c she even got more than what she asked for...

After waking up and getting the cameras set, Lou went in and woke up K-bear. She was very excited talking about Santa and Christmas. We start by coming into our room and seeing what Santa left in our stockings. He moves them, from their display place in the family room to the mantle on the fireplace in our room, when he comes. Santa put a candy cane in K's stocking..and she got some trains, a video, some big girl panties (since she is going to be potty trained after Christmas), and a traditional tangerine and some nuts. I was multi-talented and was able to video and take a few pictures at the same time. After we came downstairs to see if Santa had brought K anything else....Santa leaves his gifts in our house unwrapped by the tree so they are the first thing you see when you come in the room. Santa brought Kelsey a Spring Rocking Horse and a junior quad car. She was very excited about the quad car and got on to ride it right away in the house. She was not quite as excited about the horse, but still got on it and rode. I think the horse is bigger than her friends, so it was a little intimidating. We had a great morning finishing opening gifts as a family at our house. She got a fantastic princess castle from Gma Roselli, all the disney character stuffed animals from her Roselli side aunts/uncles, lots of very cute outfits, and a music box.

After doing a preliminary clean up, we packed up and drove over to my parents house to spend the rest of the day with my family. Aunt Kellie was home from college, Uncle Michael, Aunt Jennifer, Dylan & Allison had come down as well to spend the holidays down here and Aunt Cindy, Uncle Chris & the boy show came down later. We normally have a pretty long Christmas as it is, but this was definitely the longest Christmas on record..ever!! We opened presents in shifts pretty much all day long, had a great brunch of breakfast hotdish and a traditional Old English Christmas (minus my sea bass) with Standing Rib Roast and Yorkshire Pudding (my fav!!)

Kelsey & Aunt Jennifer

Kelsey & Daddy watching eveyone open gifts (she wanted to help so bad and was being so patient waiting as we went around in our normal 1 at a time opens a gift routine)

Kelsey & Allison coloring

Christmas Eve

We drove down to Delray to spend Christmas Eve with Lou's family. Before going to his mom's house, we went to mass at a church down there. It was a children's service and they had a little play. We sat in the very back and Kelsey was very good. She enjoyed counting the angels and shepherds as they lined up to walk down the aisle.
Christmas Eve at Gma Roselli's is always a wonderful time. Lots of family around and lots of food. His mom does the feast of the seven fishes and it is always delicious(especially the fried calamari). Kelsey had so much fun with her cousins, uncles, Grandad and Great Uncle Paul. She was up very late, but luckily she fell alseep a little before we got home and slept through the night.

Hugs from Aunt Jenny
Riding on Grandad's shoulders..check out that smile on her face

Our Christmas Princess

"aaahaahahahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!"

Isabel helping Kelsey open her gift from Angela

Trying to wrestle with Uncle Glenn

Our Happy family...my belly is being covered by my pashmina

Santa's Little Helper

Good Thing....

that I go and check on K every night before I go to sleep (around midnight, I know I really need to change that) It was freezing again last night, so we had put Kelsey in footie jammies with socks on underneath. We even had the space heater in her room because it was supposed to get into the 20's again. Well, this is what I found when I went to check and say goodnight: I took her out and put a diaper on her and new jammies. Before I placed her back in I felt her bed and sighed....it was wet!! I took her in and laid her in our bed with Lou while I went back and changed her sheets. I layer her bed with sheets and waterproof pads just in case something like this happens in the middle of night, it also makes it much easier just to take sheets off when they need to be cleaned as well. BUT, wouldn't you know it...she peed on the 5 inches that the waterproof pad doesn't cover, so both of the sheet layers were wet. Luckily I had clean sheets upstairs so I quickly threw a new pad and sheet on. I went to go get her out of our room (in the dark) and she was all snuggled up with Lou. After untangling them I put her back to bed in a clean dry bed with nice warm jammies!

Jell-O

Kelsey and I made jello for the first time on New Years Day night. She's never had it before, so I was not sure how she would react to it. She did like it! She didn't eat a ton of it, but it was fun to watch. Notice the trepidation in her face in the first picture :-)

Real Oranges

We had an orange in the house and Kelsey asked for some, so I peeled it and then cut it into segments and put it in a bowl for her. After she finished, she asked for more. I had some mandarin oranges in the fridge so I put them in her bowl and gave them to her. She said "No Mommy, I want real oranges!" LOL I explained to her they were real, they were just a different kind and smaller. She's so funny :-)

French Onion Soup

Kelsey loves her some Panera French Onion Soup. It was freezing last night and I wanted some soup. Knowing K can't have most soups because they are creamy (milk) based, I decided to get some French Onion from Panera. After looking it up online last night, it's prob not totally in line her restrictions, but oh well. She devoured it!! To the point that she picked up her bowl and tipped it to her lips to suck down the last few yummy drops from the bottom of the bowl. I was very proud of her with how well she was using the spoon with her soup, she definitely had her share on herself, but she did a great job for not having practice with soup.

Finger Licking Good!!!

Making cookies...

(I finally found my photo card to get pics/videos off my cell phone..that's why this post is sooo late)

I kept putting this off and finally the evening before Christmas Eve set it up so Kelsey could help me with the cookie cutters. She had a blast using the rolling pin and then choosing which cookie cutter she wanted and pressing it into the dough with both hands. Then I had her help me make the dough for the candy cane cookies. She had fun using the kitchenaid and knew how to turn it on and off right away.

I baked them while she went to bed, so the next morning we mixed up the icing and she got to decorate the cookies.

Potatoes!!!

This is one of the few foods we have not been able to get Kelsey to eat, with the exception of some roasted sweet potatoes I made a few weeks ago. Well, tonight there was a break through folks!! Kelsey and I had stopped by Gma/Gpa McDonald's house after taking daddy to the airport. Gma made dinner for us, roast chicken, peas (K LOVES these) and mashed potatoes. As always I tried to get her to taste my mash potatoes and she gave me a look of terror and said no, which I had her turn into "no thank you" Then when she was doing something I snuck a bite into her mouth. She ate it with trepidation. I then glued some peas onto the next bite of mashed potatoes and she ate it willingly. We did the same gluing technique with the chicken. When she finished her plate she even asked for more of everything, including the potatoes!! Today was a good day!!!

Granted I prob majorly screwed up b/c I'm sure they had butter or some type of dairy that she's not supposed to have...just a day in the life of me!!

Family Photo Shoot @ the Beach

Kitchen Helper

I've written before about how much Kelsey likes to "help out" in the kitchen. She has always pushed a chair up to the counter. Lou's been very worried about her falling off...for very good reason. She's fallen off twice (luckily she didn't really get hurt either time) After the second fall, we got on the Internet right away and ordered the kitchen helper.

We had debated before buying either this one or the Learning tower, but just couldn't see paying the $$ for it. Soooooo worth it! She loves it and we love it! She pushes it around the kitchen from the center island, where she likes to help, and over to the sink to wash her hands. Even her cousins enjoyed using it when they came to stay with us.

It is foldable/collapsible if you remove one screw from the platform. So far it really has not been in the way, so we haven't seen the need to fold it, especially since she uses it a few times each day.

Decorating the Christmas Tree..

We're a little unconventional and the Angel went up first to make sure we could fit her on. This year we gave in and bought a 9 foot artificial pre-lit tree. It pretty much goes to our ceiling, so Lou had to tie the angel on with fishing line

We decided to let Kelsey stay up past bedtime one night so she could help us decorate the tree. This is the first time we really let her participate and she had a blast. I taught her how to hold the hook to make it easier to put the ornaments on the branches. I separated out the breakable and non-breakable ornaments, obviously the pile on non-breakable pile was for Kelsey. After she finished her pile she kept trying to bring the breakable ones and put them on. She was so excited.

Since she had so much fun, I ended up buying her a little tree of her own for her bedroom. I wish I had my camera with me. She was dancing and singing as she was putting the ornaments on, that she got to pick out at the store. We even bought a little battery powered strand of lights. I turn the tree on during her naptime for her everyday.