we arrived in chicago sunday at 2 a.m..  the kids were really good on the plane - joshua slept most of the way and ellie was in a great mood.  joshua's still on l.a. time but ellie's adjusting well.  we had to restart sleep training here - this time i'm not going into the room at all and i'm also training for naps.  she's catching on very quickly. 

we had the great fortune of having my cousin nari join us.  she has been terrific with the kids.  joshua totally loves her.  thanks nari for being awesome!

here are pics of our first excursion to navy pier.  the highlight of our visit was when joshua and theo rode thomas togehter.  they had a blast.

• joshua turned the big two on the 13th.  we had a small party by our condo's backyard with some neighbors and close friends.  thomas was the big theme and gal-bee was the big menu.  grandparents were hard at work at the grill and we all enjoyed the company and great food.  the climax came when joshua blew out his candles - something he had been practicing for a long time.  we let him do it about 5 times. 
• a week after his birthday, joshua came down with croup, a respiratory condition that inflames the air passages with phlegm.  he had a very hard time breathing at night so we took him to the e.r. at 3 a.m..  he was terrified and cried so much.  he received two steroid injections to help widen the air ways.  after that they had to monitor him for two hours.  we didn't get back until 6 a.m. and joshua slept til 12.  he did much better the next day and had no problems breathing.
  
• bc of the traumatic e.r. night excursion, joshua's sleep schedule was all messed up.  as a result he has been quite moody and clingy for the past three days.   my first two days of vacation have been a challenge with joshua crying and complaining a lot.  i decided to skip his nap today and put him to bed early in hopes of getting him to return to his routine.  his mood totally depends on his sleep.  also, i think the trauma really rattled his nerves... poor guy.  i want my sweet joshua back. 
  

• ellie is very mobile now.  she's semi-crawling and sitting up from any position on her own.  she can stand up on her own in the crib and will quietly entertain herself with her toys for a long while. 
  
• her personality is starting to come out a bit - she is very assertive and will let you know if she doesn't like something.  she's gonna be strong-willed i think, just like mom.  hehe.  
• she's making lots of sounds and smiling a lot, but still no loud laughing - very different from joshua who was a loud giggler. 
  
• and finally, her sleep ... AAAARGH!!!  ellie wakes up sooo much at night.  and always need to nurse to stay asleep.  for the last couple of months (ever since her teething) she's waking up about every 1 to 2 hours.  that means about 4 sometimes 6 or even 10 wakings for me.  i'm about to go craaaazy.  when we get to chicago we are definitely sleep training.  otherwise, i'll lose it for sure.  not looking foward to the crying at all - ellie's got the craziest cry in the world.  i really HATE this part of parenting. 
  
• teething - ellie's got two teeth on the bottom and three more starting to show on top.  maybe that's why she's up sooo much at night.

• dwight is finally finishing up his residency!  yey!  he's worked so hard - he totally deserves a break.  hopefully he can enjoy his time with family and friends when we're in chicago for july.
• it was our 8 year anniversary yesterday.  we plan to celebrate this weekend with date night to see transformers.
• we're still not sure what's happening after residency.  we're open to chicago but anything can happen.  we're leaving it to god.