my happy sleepy life

A Fond Farewell to 2009

2010-01-14T12:04:00.000-08:00

2009 was a great year for my happy little family. We welcomed a new little addition and are amazed everyday at how fast the other is growing.

I spent the first half of 2009 pregnant and it sure seemed to drag on as we were all so anxious to meet our little Sofia. Finally in July our blessing arrived and what a sweet baby she is. Happy and smiley just like her brother was. It's hard to believe that by the years end she was already 5 mths old and rolling all over the floor if you laid her down.

Our Nicky, aka the big brother, started preschool this fall. He loves it and asks every morning if today is a school day. He seems to be learning so much and has made some new friends his own age. Sadly I think that Daddy and I will be bumped from the "best friend" spots that we have been holding up to this point. He is still having a little trouble adjusting to having to share us with the baby, but we are working thru that.

Daddy & I are just working and taking care of our little ones. The happy, sleepy life has just become a little more hectic and alot more sleepy. I average about 2 hrs a day, 4 if I can pull off the miracle of everyone napping at the same time. (this almost never happens) Even sleep deprived I am glad though that I am able to be here with them during the day and not have to use a daycare facility. I would hate to miss out on their "1st's". especially now that Sofia will be changing so quickly. Well, i am babbling..sorry this happens when I'm tired. please forgive me.

Rick turned 40 this fall and the kids and I threw him a surprise 40th party. It was the 1st time in over 15 years that I managed to surprise him. That alone made all the hard work to pull it off worth it!

I had to have some surgery in Sept and again in Dec. Unfortunately I am not out of the woods yet, but am on the mend.

All in all it was a great year. The good events sure out weighed the bad and we were lucky enough to remain healthy for the most part, employed, married and content. It is true that the best things in life are free. Nothing means more to me than the love of my husband and children and their happiness. rambling again...sorry! kinda preachy too, wow!

Anyhoo, we wish all of you the best that 2010 has to offer, good health, safety and love.

Sofia's Baptism

2009-09-24T07:09:00.000-07:00

September 20, 2009 Sofia Elizabeth was baptised into the Catholic Church at St. Patricks here in Hubbard. Her godparents were our good friends Bob and Kim. She was able to wear the same Baptism gown that Mommy wore some 35 years ago. It just fit. :) She did so well, sleeping through most of the ceremony, though she did jump alittle when the priest put the cold water on her head. No crying though. We had a celebration picnic at our house to follow for family and a few friends. It was a nice day.

Sofia is getting to be such a big baby. Almost 15 lbs and 23 inches long at 11 wks old. She is very alert and does pretty well at holding up her head. She also smiles now. It is the sweetest thing. I have always loved the toothless grin and Sofia is showing her's off all of the time. Such a happy girl.

Nicky's 1st day of preschool

2009-09-24T06:55:00.001-07:00

You would think by looking at this picture that the back pack weighs several pounds, when in fact all that is in it is a folder, juice box and snack. The first day of preschool at St. Patricks was more exciting for Mommy than Nicky I think. He was really excited to go until he learned that he would have to go poop and pee on the potty to attend. (This has been an issue for us here at the Kitchokoff house) Once we got to school the excitement returned! He couldn't wait to play with the other little kids. There are 11 total in his class. He is one of 4 boys, the rest are all girls. He has quickly made "buddies" with the boys (robbie, andrew and cole). I am still trying to get all of the girls names. He is not very willing to share any information about what they do at school. I have to drag it out of him, which is surprising since he is usually such a chatter box. One thing is for sure, he loves it. He wakes up in the morning and says "Is it school today?" (He only goes on wed and fri) and is always the last one to leave the playyard when I go to pick him up.

Our Sofia

2009-08-22T18:01:00.001-07:00

S is for sweet, our sweet baby girl

O is for ours, looks like mommy/daddy? she's ours

F is for family, now ours is complete

I is for In love, we are all in love with her

A is for angel, what a little angel she is.

By now everyone has heard about our little Sofia. She is a sweet baby who sleeps alot and is just a good baby. She loves to snuggle, which is great since we can't stop holding her! She weighs in at about 13 lbs now and is starting to get a little "chub" to her. It's so cute if we do say so ourselves. She was 6 weeks old yesterday.

Our family gets 2 feet bigger

2009-07-23T12:55:00.000-07:00

We have added onto our family by 2 feet recently. They are the cutest little feet you ever did see. They belong to our little Sofia Elizabeth born Friday July 10th at 12:30 pm. She arrived weighing 8 lbs 5 oz and was 21 inches long. Sofia is just a little bundle of love. The 3 of us have not stopped kissing and hugging her since she joined our family. Nicky is very fond of her so far. He calls her "baby girl" and talks to her alot. She is a good baby, eats, sleeps and poops with very minimal crying...a Mommy's dream. And she's just stinking cute if I do say so myself. Sofia will be 2 weeks old tomorrow and has already been trying to hold up her own head. She doesn't have the neck strength to hold her head still yet so it bobs around quite a bit, but she is trying so hard to pick it up and look around if she's on her tummy. Here 1s a pic of her with her eyes open as most of the family has only been able to catch her when she's sleeping. Our sweet baby girl.....

Daddy and Nicky get in shape!

2009-07-23T12:38:00.000-07:00

Daddy decided to get in shape this summer by digging out his old mountain bike. Nicky thinks this is super cool, especially since he recently learned how to pedal his tricycle. "Daddy has a BIG bike" and now it is a Daddy bike. Gone are the days of mountain biking through the woods with his buddies, Daddy's bike now has a Kick stand and a newly aquired cart that hooks on the back so that Nicky can ride along. Nicky got this cool new helmet with red flames on the sides and a hot wheels car. He thinks he's the cats pajamas and just loves going for rides with daddy. Daddy, I'm told, can pedal really fast! They started on a 4 mile treck around the neighborhood and plan to build up from there.

Welcome baby Chase

2009-04-10T15:24:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to my brother Ty and his girlfriend Carmela as they welcome the newest addition to our family: Charles Michael aka Chase. He was born April 2nd @ 4:45 pm, 9lbs 4oz and was 21 inches long. Nicky and I were able to go to see him and let us just say that he is just a little ball of CUTE!! We arrived on Monday evening and left on Wed. morning but enjoyed every min. we spent with the new little family. Chase looks alot like Ty...Sorry Carmela, I know how that feels...but is just a little darling. Nicky was sooo excited to see the new baby. He even got to hold him a few times which he hasn't stopped talking about. Congrats to you both and we can't wait to see/hold him again soon!

Little drummer boy

2009-04-01T10:50:00.000-07:00

Nicky has been really into this show on the Disney Channel called the Imagination Movers. It has 4 main characters (kind of like the wiggles if you are familiar with them) but one of them, named Rich, plays the drums. Well, Nicky has been drumming on everything he can find for 2 mths now. Last weekend Rick decided to make him his own drums to play outside. He bolted together some 5 gal buckets and a few others, used a dow rod to make sticks and got more kisses and hugs than you can imagine. Nicky loves them. They stay in the garage right now and he plays them outside or in the garage if it's raining. I think if he continues to show interest we will have to invest in a real set, but not until he learns to take care of things a little better. til then these work awesome. Thank you Daddy!

Happy Easter Everyone

2009-04-01T10:46:00.000-07:00

Sunday we went to see the Easter Bunny at the mall. Nicky was super excited. He was waiving at him before we even got close. He climbed right up on his lap and got his picture taken. No fear...thank god! the kid in front of us in line was not too happy to be there. My Nicky looks for any opportunity to socialize though. Especially with a giant rabbit.

Nicky has a birthday

2009-03-09T10:05:00.000-07:00

Nicky celebrated his 3rd birthday on March 6th. Mommy and Nicky went to breakfast at Denny's, then we met Daddy later that afternoon at Mr. Paul's Barber shop and Nicky got a haircut. That night we went with his Nana and Pop-pop from PA to the Olive Garden for dinner. Nicky loves their salad and spaghetti. After dinner we went home to have cupcakes and open his gifts from Daddy and Mommy.

The next day we had his family birthday party. Both sets of grandparents were there along with most of his aunts, uncles and cousins. It was a spongebob squarepants themed party and he had a blast. He got lots of cool presents which he, Daddy and I spent most of Sunday playing with. I can't believe he's 3 already. The time just flys by anymore.

We're having a Girl!!

2009-03-09T08:40:00.000-07:00

On March 4th all 3 of us went to the doctor to see the latest ultrasound and find out the baby's sex. Nicky had been telling us for 3 weeks now that it was a girl, to which we responded...we will have to wait and see. Turns out he was right. I was 20 weeks pregnant and the baby already weighs 15 oz. The ultrasound tech said that she weighs and measures as though i am a week further along than what i really am. She said that we aren't changing my due date, just that she is a good size baby. Big is good as far as I am concerned, I see my share of scrawny babies at work that are fighting to live. Anyway, she was moving all around the entire time and was not shy about showing us that she was in fact a girl (Rick and I sure hope that changes) Also what we thought was going to be a yawn turned into non-stop mouth moving the whole time. The tech said she was going to be one of those kids who has lots to say...MOMMY, MOMMY, MOMMY....little does she know i have one of those now. Nicky love seeing the baby on the screen. He got to hear the heartbeat and said it sounded like a marching band. He will imitate the sound for you if you ask him to. It's cute. We plan to name her Sofia Elizabeth. My Grandmothers middle name and Rick's great Grandmothers name were both Sophie. Both of our mothers middle names are Elizabeth. So once again we are keeping it in the family.

Nicky tosses his cookies

2009-01-24T13:41:00.000-08:00

OK so I know Christmas is over. In fact it was almost 1 month ago, but I didn't know how to get the video off my camera and onto this site. Now that I do I had to include this video from Christmas Eve of Nicky putting out cookies for Santa. Notice how he drops them not once, but twice on the way to the table and Santa ate them anyway. My Little Sweetie. He tries so hard.

Dance Your Gloomies Away

2009-01-24T13:16:00.000-08:00

Does this cold snowy winter weather have you feeling down? Well then just join Nicky while he dances to the Wiggles song: Dance Your Gloomies Away.

13 weeks and showing

2009-01-12T09:53:00.000-08:00

Well, we are now in week number 13 of the pregnancy and you can definitely tell that I'm pregnant. I don't know that I have the pregnancy "glow" so much as a an essence of green. The nausea has been pretty rough the past few weeks since Thanksgiving, but at least the vomiting has subsided. Today is actually a good day so far. I was able to get some prescription gel from my OBgyn and it helps take the edge off but I can only use it every 6 hrs. When I am able to eat I've been choosing lots of Mac and cheese, muffins, cereal, and other assorted carbs. Also lots of fruit, especially blueberries or anything blueberry flavored/filled. Other than the nausea I couldn't be happier to be pregnant again. We are trying to prep Nicky for the baby, but it's still too early and he doesn't seem to understand the whole "baby in the belly" concept. We will keep you all up to date on our progress as we go.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T12:30:00.000-08:00

The 3 of us, and one on the way, would like to wish all of you a Happy New Year! We spent our New Years Eve watching movies by the fire. Nicky and Mommy made party hats and we had snack food for dinner-a special party treat. Daddy and Nicky had special party drinks. Nicky had 7up with maraschino cherries and Daddy's was a little harder. Mommy had water which is all "the one on the way" will let her enjoy without getting sick. We enjoyed movies and snacks til about 1130 when we decided to put on Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve and dance around the living room. We counted down, watched the ball drop, shared some kisses, then hurried to put on our coats, hats and snow boots. We headed outside to bang on pots and pans while screaming Happy New Year. Nicky had a huge smile thru all of the festivities, he truly loves a party. We let him stay up and dance til about 12:30 then it was off to bed. What fun memories...

We hope all of you had an equally safe and festive New Years Eve wherever you were!

christmas 2008

2008-12-26T22:44:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Christmas. Even with all of the the excitement of Santa before bedtime, Nicky still seemed to forget that he was coming. This was kind of nice since I had worked midnight Christmas eve and really was looking forward to a nap that morning. Needlesstosay, once he woke up and Rick and I reminded him of the Santa visit he was VERY excited to head downstairs and check everything out. Santa brought him the Handy Manny tool set he wanted and also Toy Story Woody and Buzz lightyear dolls. (these seem to be his favorites of all of the gifts) He also recieved boardgames, dress up cowboy and soldier outfits, cars, movies and other fun things. Woody and Buzz tagged along to Nana and Papa's house for christmas dinner that afternoon and Woody, at least, was carried around the remainder of the day. It was a long day with no nap for anyone and by the end we were all pretty sleepy and crabby. All in all it was a good day.

Today we spent most of the day just hanging out at home and trying to clean up some of the mess from christmas. Nicky spent a good portion of the day dressed as a cowboy. Woody and Buzz in tow. We played games and just lounged around it was relaxing and much needed.