Happy Birthday, Lillie!

Yesterday our oldest little girl turned 5. She is about 3 inches taller and I think with each inch also came more personality.

She was as excited the night before her birthday as she was last year on Christmas Eve. She spent most of her day at school and after school we opened presents, had her birthday dinner of choice (pizza) and enjoyed some cake and ice cream.

Today, we followed it up with a trip to the doctor's office for some birthday shots! YAY! No, not tequila. I believe it was a booster for MMR and Chicken Pox. Lillie got 3 and Charlotte got 3. So much screaming.... so much screaming.... They have lollipops for the kids when they are done. How 'bout a little something for the parents?

Here are a few pictures of Lillie's birthday:





Happy Birthday, Lillie. We love you.

What?!?! Summer is over?

Honestly, where did the time go? Wait, I know... parks, pool, pool, pool... you get it. It was a wonderfully hot summer and we definitely got our moneys worth on the pool pass.

Lillie's accomplishments this summer include: going off the diving board, swimming without her life jacket, swimming (occasionally) without her goggles, riding her "big girl" bike more confidently (with training wheels), figuring out she doesn't really enjoy soccer.

Charlotte has the following feats: talking, running, galloping, climbing the rock wall at crescent park (fellow Beverly peeps know this one), swinging (seriously, she will sit in a swing now- NEVER would allow it before), and she even squeaked in riding a tricycle before Labor Day.

It is hard to believe how much the girls are growing in all aspects of the word. They are a challenge at times... "It's MINE." "Mom, Charlotte (fill in the blank here...), "I'm telling Mom!"...but the majority of the time they are just fantastic little girls and each coming into their own.

Pat was able to take some time off and spend some time with the girls. Charlotte experience her first carousel ride at Navy Pier with Pat. Needless to say she would have spent all day on it if she could.






Lillie started Jr. Kindergarten today. It was a full day; 8:30am - 3:30pm. She admitted to me on the ride home that she fell asleep during "rest time." Now how does that work? How many times have I tried to get her to take a nap in a nice cozy bed and she won't...but will fall asleep at school on a mat? Hmmm...



It was weird having just Charlotte all day. A cakewalk, really. Probably just jinxed myself there...

We hope you have all had a great summer and here's to football season. Go Spartans!

One Borzenski working hard, the others playing

Place: Racine, WI, Sunday July 17, 2010
Weather: Hotter than H-E- double hockey sticks
Event: Racine 70.3 Half Ironman
Participant: Patrick Borzenski (aka "One Borzenski working hard")

Patrick completed his first Half Ironman this past weekend. A HUGE congratulations to him and all the hard work he has done to prepare. Awesome job, Pat! His time was 5hr 56 min which is fantastic for his first race of this caliber. He swam 1.2 miles, rode 56 miles and ran a half marathon, 13.1 miles. 70.3 total hence the name of the race.

Above you see the "sleeping shirt" that Lillie made for him to wear on Saturday night before the race. Don't worry, Mom ironed on the letters. But all the other artwork is Lillie's. I particularly like the picture of "Daddy running" under the "R-U-N" on the back of the shirt. He is wearing the number "7" because that is Lillie's favorite.

Place: 9800 S. Hamilton Block
Weather: Mild, shady, nice
Other details: Plenty of cool beverages (no gatorade or recovery drinks) and chairs in case we got tired
Event: BLOCK PARTY!!!!
Participants: Mom, Lillie, Charlotte (aka "the others playing")

While Pat was traveling to Racine and preparing for the race Lillie, Charlotte, and Mom stayed back and played. We had our block party on Saturday. A fine time was had by all. Kids were exhausted after being in the huge blow up jumper all day long. We had it for 8 hours and I'm pretty sure they were in it for 7. They did take time out to eat, enjoy a visit from the CFD and to put on a fantastic bike parade. Of course Lillie had the pink princess them goin' on.

Here Roley Poley!

Each and every day Pat and I learn just how much the personalities of Lillie and Charlotte are completely opposite. Maybe it's because Charlotte is the "fearless" younger one, I don't know. But sometimes I know that has nothing to do with it.

Take bugs, for example. I don't like them. You will never see me pick one up to show the girls or otherwise. I put up a strong front for Lillie who screams bloody murder at the sight of a fly and runs away as fast as she possibly can. I tell her "don't worry about the bees. If you don't bother them, they won't bother you" all while wanting to run in the house myself. Then there's Charlotte.

Every year we get some sort of volume of Cicadas. Ugly, noisy Cicadas. They leave their shells all over the trees...just hanging there. Charlotte has found it quite fun to pick them up and talk to them- "Hi buggy. Sleeping? Ok."- and puts them down. The other day she picked one up, talked to it and squeezed a little too hard- crunch. "Uh-oh. Mommy, bug broke." I was just cringing thinking how quickly I need to wash her hands.

Then on to the roley poley. She loves them....or rather to scare them into a ball. So on this particular day she got one and was carrying it around. (Lillie will join in as long as it stays in it's ball form. One small movement and that roley poley will go flying!)Charlotte squeezed it a little too hard and killed it. She continued to carry it around and finally put it down to see if it would unroll. Nope. She picks it up and prys it open and tries to flatten it out and put it down to walk. It somehow rolled/blew away. She then walks around saying "Here wo-wee po-wee. Where you?" Then she decides if she puts some evergreen down it will come back to eat.

Prying it open.



Looking for it.


Leaving some food in case it comes back.

Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes, and ....

What fun is a sprinkler if you don't get every part of your body wet?

This past week Lillie and Charlotte got to spend some great times with Nana and Papa H. It's a joke with our neighbor that they have to come around Charlotte's birthday in late May because they bring the warmer weather with them and it generally sticks around. Well, THANKS!, Mom and Dad. You did it this time. 90+ degrees with about 1000% humidity for the majority of their stay. Child's play to them, I'm sure, coming from swampy-feeling land of Alabama where it's been that way since March.

Plenty of sprinkler time, pool time, and of course, bowling! Lillie really enjoyed bowling and even attempted holding the ball with fingers-in-holes a few times. Of course she took this direction from Nana and not from Mom. I had a few flashbacks from when I was a kid and my mom was not just my mom, she was also my bowling coach. There's a double-whammy for a kid. Many-o-times did I storm off saying something to the effect of "I'm not listening to you! I KNOW what to do." I'm sure had I been the one teaching Lillie life would have come full circle. Charlotte also had a ball... hee hee. Here are some pictures from the week.

Happy Birthday, Charlotte...one week ago today.

As usual, I'm a little behind on posting what is going on with all of us. It's bad when I am wishing for a somewhat rainy day so that I can actually get stuff done IN the house. Oh well, I'll take the sunshine!

So Charlotte is now 2. Hard to believe and I've found it is true that you really lose track of time with the second child. 2?!? What?!?! That means only fun things ahead for Mom... potty training. Yippee. Can't wait. And, as time marches on I continue to find that Charlotte and Lillie are polar opposites. Lillie is sure to be voted "most shy" in school. Charlotte will be voted "class clown." It makes life fun. I mean who wants 2 of the same, right?

Charlotte received a gift that will hopefully keep on giving for years to come... a baby grand piano! Yea! The best part? It was FREE! Yea! Sure we had to pay to have it moved a whole 50 yards across the street but we'll take it. Our neighbor moved out a little over a year ago and the piano has been sitting in her house (which will soon be on the market). I asked our neighbor/realtor across the street "So what is Margie going to do with the piano?" to which the reply was "Why, do you want it?" So there you have it. Ask and you shall receive. The girls have been enjoying it-playing and singing. As soon as I get it dusted and cleaned out we'll have it tuned and hopefully begin some lessons for someone. Me? Pat? Lillie? Charlotte? Who knows! But Pat has a dream of Christmas carols being played and everyone singing along... well, I guess I'll check iTunes for some piano music. Ha!

These are all for me?


Twinkle, twinkle, little star...


Yes! New shoes!

60+ fantastic miles on the lake

Sounds like a really nice beach or vacation spot, huh? Well, it is actually the number of miles covered by the Borzenski family (Jake- face it. You are part of the family like it or not) on May 16, 2010. Pat gets a little extra credit since he ran back to get Brian, Jennie, and Dave when each of them were near the finish line. Everyone geared up and ran in the Magellan Development Chicago Spring Half Marathon or 10K. Everyone finished...not sure if everyone is still walking around yet. Pat beat his goal and finished in 1:36 - yay Pat!

A huge congratulations to you all. I must admit when you all "agreed" to do this around Thanksgiving after a few cocktails (Meghan and Jack excluded) I wasn't sure it would happen ;-).

Jennie and Dan made their first trip to our house which was fantastic. Oliver, Lillie, Sophia, and Charlotte got to spend some time together which included a trip to the aquarium. Jennie and I soon learned that the fascination with fish, mammals, etc quickly starts to fade when their is a gift shop around every corner. They had a great time anyway and that's what counts. Well, at least Sophia, Oliver, and Lillie did. Charlotte was a stereotypical 2 year old. I think she had the tolerance for about 5 fish, that was it.

We concluded the weekend with an early celebration for Charlotte's 2nd birthday. She was pretty much interested only in blowing out candles and eating cake (yum! Potillo's chocolate cake). And Mom was TOTALLY prepared as you will notice by the 2 tea lights on the cake. Oh well, I don't think Charlotte cared.

Meghan and Sophia


Jennie & Brian


Charlotte

72 eggs and few crawly friends

This year the Easter Bunny decided he would hide the Easter eggs outside since it was promising to be a sunny Easter, something we don't get very often. Thankfully, Mrs. Easter Bunny talked the big guy out of hiding them the night before. The girls did a fantastic job finding all 72 eggs and it really didn't take long at all. It was a beautiful morning- a little windy - but sunny and warm.

Charlotte quickly discovered after she dropped an egg and it came open that there was candy hiding in there. You'll notice she takes a break to open a Hershey's Kiss before continuing her search. (We later experienced her first real sugar crash which was not pretty at all.)

When we decided to stop and count to see how many we had left to find we were pleasantly surprised to find some little ant friends among our eggs. While Charlotte still finds them fascinating, Lillie runs for the hills if anything crawls near her. Good thing Mrs. Easter Bunny in her infinite wisdom convinced Mr. Easter Bunny to hide the eggs in the morning and not the night before. Otherwise, we may have ended up a few short of 72 and had some very happy ants around our house.







Easter egg hunt snipit...

Happy Goopy Birthday!

Pat recently celebrated his 38th birthday. Thankfully, I am no longer the "older woman"... well, technically I AM, but at least now we are the same age.

Since Pat's birthday was on a Friday during lent, a grilled tenderloin was not in the picture. Also, since Pat gave up chocolate for lent neither was the traditional chocolate cake from Portillo's. (boo-hoo)Instead, Pat feasted on Goop. For all of you non-Borzenskis out there (and I have yet to meet anyone besides a Borzenski that knows what Goop is)Goop is: Butter, onions, butter, mashed potatoes, butter, egg noodles, butter, full fat cottage cheese, and, what the heck, a little more butter. Patrick enjoys it although from what I hear it tends to slow down his running times quite a bit.


Here is Pat and the girls with his new glow-in-the-dark running shoes. Man, they even look fast!

What is she doing in there?

Our little Charlotte is always full of surprises. Still a girl of few words, she is a master at animated movements, sound effects and just utter silliness.

We have an outdoor thermometer and the "base" is in Charlotte's room. For one reason only and that is to monitor the temperature in her room. It's tricky in this house in the winter thanks to radiators and multiple thermostats controlling rooms NOT on their floor (i.e. Lillie's is tied to the one downstairs and our downstairs bathroom is tied to the one upstairs). It's only taken us 3 years to figure out the puzzle.
ANYWAY...back to the original thought.

Charlotte loves to play with the base because it has buttons that beep when you push them. Unfortunately, one of the buttons turns on and off an alarm; conveniently set at the default time of 2:00am. On Sunday (rather, early Monday morning) the alarm started going off. Me, being the thoughtful wife I am shoved Pat and said "Go get it. It's the thermometer thingy." After getting it out of her room, we started to here a thump...thump...thump. It's Charlotte banging a leg, arm, some body part against the back of her crib. We didn't go in, just figured she woke up from the alarm and would go back to sleep. It was like counting "1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi,..." when your waiting for a thunderstorm to pass. Thump...thump...thump...long pause. Thump...thump...thump...longer pause. Yep, she dozing off.

Eventually it stopped just in time for Pat to fall asleep and Lillie to come in for a potty break. Sorry, honey. Did I mention Pat normally gets up at 4:45am and it is now about 3:30?

So last night about 2:15am the thumps start again. Only for a short time and she's done. Then at about 5:15am it starts again. OK, I am NOT, I repeat NOT a morning person. Knowing that my alarm is going to go off at 6:30am (not that I get up at that time, it just goes off) I had to put a stop to it. By this time, I'm thinking she's building wings on her crib and is getting ready to fly this cuckoo's nest. I can see why she's had enough. I'd better check under her mattress for a hammer and nails or something!

I go in, trying to open the door as quietly as possible, and find her sound asleep. Knee bent, banging on the crib. Maybe she has a recurring dream she is a drummer in a band or something. It's a pretty consistent beat... I move her over, straighten her leg at which point she removes her blanket from over her head, looks at me, points to her wind up toy and says "more?" Sure, why not, might as well listen to music and thumping on the monitor while I try to fall asleep.

Love you, Charlotte.

Saying goodbye to a friend

When Pat suggested just over a year ago (Christmas 2008) that we buy Lillie fish, I knew this day would come. I was ecstatic when Pinky and Orangey made it one year! But, all good things must come to an end.

We noticed Pinky hiding out quite frequently behind the filter. I just assumed it was because Orangey (aka "the bully") would chase him around nipping at his fins. Nope. Poor little thing was sick. The day he met his fate he kind of resembled a puffer fish or some sort of bird-like fish. His scales were all feathery and poofy. I know, too much information...Anyway, it was this past Sunday when Pat made the call to give him/her/it the flush. Thank goodness, because there is NO way I could've done it.

It was so sad. Lillie cried and kept saying "I miss Pinky" and "Why did Pinky get sick?" She promised to take REALLY good care of Orangey so he/she/it doesn't get sick. "I promised not to feed him to much". I think she's referring back to the good 'ole Dr. Seuss book "Fish Out of Water" with little Otto. "Just so much and nothing more." So this went on for a day or two then...

Charlotte was looking in the fish tank and Lillie said "Pinky is gone, Charlotte. Pinky's not there anymore. We had to flush him down the toilet (laughing) with the (fill in blank) and (fill in blank)." Charlotte, being Charlotte then walked into the bathroom and pointed to the toilet and said "dis?" Lillie is laughing hysterically. Then in the next dramatic production pushes a tear out and says "I wish we could go to the fish store and get another Pinky." Oh, brother. All drama all the time.

The holidays have come and gone...

And apparently so has my ability to get things done... like updating this poor blog. So sorry, blog. I promise to do a better job in 2010.

This holiday season we found ourselves in Michigan for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Lillie thought it was a hoot celebrating Christmas at Thanksgiving which we did this year since Uncle Kevin could not make it home for Christmas. Hey Kev, I don't blame you, really. Hmmm... 75 and sunny in Malibu or 20 and snowy... ;-). Pat and I and the other siblings exchanged gifts and had a good 'ole time. I witnessed my first-ever Snuggie given as a gift. Thankfully, I was NOT the recipient...and the winner is... Meghan! (See picture below)

Patrick and I then celebrated our 10 year (eek!) anniversary by ditching, oops, I mean letting Grandma B. watch Lillie and Charlotte for a couple of nights. We headed over to Holland, MI and stayed at the City Flats Hotel which was pretty cool. It is the first LEED certified hotel (aka eco-friendly)in the midwest. Very modern and very quiet at night which we found out the hard way. Who knew that the sounds of baby monitors could be so soothing. Of course, the kids were great for Grandma and Grandpa. It's true, they save their worst for the parents.

This year, Santa was quite good to the girls. It's nice that Lillie is at the age where she doesn't quite understand the "power" of Santa.
Mom: "Lillie, what do you want Santa to bring you this year?"
Lillie: "Hmmm. Maybe Play-Doh."
Mom: "Ok, are you sure?" (Knowing she has a gazillion tubs of Play-Doh untouched)
Lillie: "Well, maybe a little bracelet with one little pink heart on it. Yes, that's what I want."
Well, as easy as it sounds, I found myself out the weekend before Christmas looking for this bracelet. I have once again become acquainted with a little store called "Claire's". I am sure my future holds many, many, many more trips to this little gem that has (what I think) all the princess, Dora, Fairy, etc. things that little girls are sure to ask for. So, Santa delivered. Whew! Now I just have to prepare myself for next year when BOTH Lillie and Charlotte will have their lists ready...

We were lucky to have Grandma and Grandpa Hammonds here in Chicago for the days prior to Christmas; and an extra day thanks to an ice storm. The girls got an early Christmas which they thoroughly enjoyed.

Pat and I took the girls to the Country Club for brunch with Santa this year, too. Lillie would not come within 10 feet of him and Charlotte, well, let's just say Mom won (see below)and plopped her down on the big guy's lap. I kept telling Lillie how strange it is that Santa knew just what she wanted even though she didn't exactly tell him. Her reply "He sure is smart, Mom."

Here are some pictures summarizing our 2009 Holidays.

Lillie and her Gingerbread house


Meghan and her Snuggie


Kevin and Kristi


Lillie enjoying her guitar from cousin Wesley and backup singer, Emmie Grace


Merry Christmas, Lillie and Charlotte!


Grandma H. and Lillie


Mom and the girls at the Club


Santa meet Charlotte. Charlotte meet Santa.


A happier Charlotte