Merry Christmas, Disco Style!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

A Special Phone Call...

Joshua received a special phone call from Santa this evening. I think this was the highlight of the Christmas season!

The Highs & Lows...

We have been busy with lots of fun playgroups, and Holiday events around town the last couple weeks. We've gotten all of our shopping finished, the decorating done, and the only thing left on my list is the wrapping.

Wednesday night we went to Hartwood Acres Festival of Lights display. It was fantastic, and Josh was "so excited!!"



On our way home we were in a car accident, and hit by what we are assuming was a drunk driver. She was turning left out of a bar parking lot as we were driving past. After the initial impact, and surveying of damage, Scott and the other driver moved the cars off the road to let the traffic pass. The other driver decided it wasn't necessary to stick around to swap insurance information, so we have no idea who she is. Thankfully we weren't injured. The kids didn't even make a noise until after we had moved the car. At that point, Joshua just asked me, "What was that?"

Pictures of the damage. Her front end connected with the rear passenger door. Chelsea was sitting in that seat. I don't want to even think about what would have happened if she were going a little faster. The damage to the car was pretty severe - about $3500 worth. Our insurance is considering it a "no fault" accident since it was a hit and run, so we're only responsible for our $500 deductible... but that's still $500 more than I'm willing to pay for something that was totally not our fault.

December Already?

The last couple weeks have been a whirlwind of activity around here. We hosted Thanksgiving here at the house. Scott cooked - it was fabulous!

On Black Friday we went to the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum to ride a trolley with Santa! We all had a great time singing carols, and telling Santa what we want for Christmas. Joshua was thrilled beyond belief with the electric train layout, and being able to climb up on the trolleys in the Car Barn. You can see all of the pictures here: Trolley Museum - Santa Trolley.




We are preparing for Christmas around here now. We've gone to the mall to see Santa, rode the train there, and decorated the house. Joshua is very excited about the prospects of Santa coming soon. I'm not sure he understands he has to wait 3 1/2 more weeks... but I guess it will just make it that much sweeter come Christmas morning.

We have several fun things planned over the next couple weeks, we'll be sure to update. Don't forget to check out our "Elf Yourself" moving on the right side, too!

That's fall, folks!

We have reached the middle of November, and it definitely feels like fall around here. Halloween was SO much fun! We left a bowl of candy out for anyone stopping by our house, and took the kids to about 20 or 25 houses in the neighborhood. Both kids had a blast... especially after they realized that knocking on doors resulted in candy, chips and other yummy treats!



We tried to take advantage of what is left of the warm weather for the year. We made a trip down to Round Hill Farm, and spent as much time outside as we could.




With sunset coming earlier and earlier now, it makes things a little more difficult to get out. We haven't let that stop us though. We spent an evening playing in the leaves - in the dark!



Chelsea and I have been taking advantage of the time Joshua is at school, by attending playgroups specifically for little girls. Last week, we discovered Chelsea's Inner Diva at a Pinkalicious Party.



Mom celebrated her birthday last week. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!! We went over to her house, and Amy made us dinner and a fancy, yummy birthday cake.



Since the weather has been questionable lately, we have moved our weekly walks to the mall. They have been busy decorating for the Holidays and Joshua is VERY excited about the fact that Santa is coming soon! They have a decorated Christmas tree, Santa's chair and the Holiday Express Train all ready to go for the big guy's visit. Of course they have the train set up right next to the play area, and every child that sees it begs their parents to let them ride.
We were not the exception.
Last year, I had to ride with them, because even though Joshua wanted to ride, he was scared. This year he practically jumped over the fence, and was very excited about the entire process. We strapped Chelsea into the seat next to him. She was a bit apprehensive about the ride, but tolerated it because Joshua was with her.



We spent this morning at the Children's Museum. Both kids had a great time, and are now peacefully sleeping. They always have a great time there.



With the Holidays coming, we have a lot of activities planned, and I will have much more to write about. Hopefully I'll be able to find the time to post!

As always, there are more pictures of everything we have done. The links to those albums are on the right side of the page.

And We're Off!

On 10/22/2808 Chelsea stood up behind a push toy,
and realized she can use it for balance!
She hasn't mastered a solo mission yet,
but we're working on it!

Yay Chelsea!!!!

Hayrides, Animals & Apple Tossing!

This week has been full of fall fun! Last Friday evening we went to the MoMo Fall Festival & Hayride at Mingo Creek Park. We had a pumpkin hunt, made s'mores, and took a wonderful hayride! (And much more!) The kids all dressed up and we had a "Trunk or Treat". Everyone brought bowls of candy, and sat them in their trunks. It was perfect for toddlers with short attention spans.


Our Farmer and Cow



In addition to the playgroups, story times and other MoMo events we attended this week, we had a special treat! An exclusive tour of Heinz Field! It was a lot of fun to sit in the Press Box, the Luxury Boxes, and see the locker rooms where our favorite Steelers get ready for the games. We had a great time - although Josh was a little upset we couldn't run on the field. :)



This morning we took a trip to Vienna. Vienna, Ohio that is. Scott's aunt invited us to go to Wagon Trails Safari. It was so much fun! They have a great petting zoo to explore while you are waiting for your safari to start.



The safari truck is open air - and you have a great view from anywhere you sit. The animals walked right up to the truck so we could feed them. Some were a little more aggressive and actually stuck their noses under our seats to get to food dropped on the floor.




Afterward, we went to the "Apple Toss". They gave us each a bucket of apples, and we could chuck them over the fence to some of the animals. For those of us who can't throw well, they had big PVC pipes set up to roll the apples down to the animals through the fence, and a giant sling shot to fling them over the fence.



For more pictures, here are the albums from Wagon Trails:
Petting Zoo
Safari Ride
Apple Toss

Fall, Festivals & Fun

We have had a couple busy weeks here in the Rattay household. (Yeah, so what else is new?) Joshua is doing much better at school, now. He has been taking a small stuffed animal with him, (one of several, actually... he chooses one each school day) and that seems to have made a big difference in his attitude about the whole experience.

We went to Simmons Farm last week to pick apples! I wasn't sure how it was going to go, but we all had a really good time. The trees were a lot smaller than I expected, and Joshua was actually able to reach the branches, and pick them himself. He was so excited about the entire process. We only bought a peck, but we're still eating apples!



We will be going back to Simmons next week with Joshua's preschool, for a hayride and pumpkin picking.

Earlier this week we went back to Round Hill Farm again, for the sole purpose of taking fall pictures of the kids. Joshua was pleasantly surprised to find out there were 2 new baby cows on display this time. Amy and Gregg went with us, and I was able to take quite a few nice pictures of the kids.





Tomorrow night we are joining in on a hayride with MoMo at Mingo Creek State Park. I'm hoping to be able to attend one or two more apple / pumpkin / fall festivals in the next couple weeks... I'll keep everyone updated.

Oh the joys of motherhood...

The last couple weeks has been hectic to say the least. Rushing to get two kids up and out of the house by 8:30 is a lot harder than I thought it would ever be! A few tricks I've learned over the past 2 1/2 years have helped out... packing our bags the night before, getting myself up and ready a 1/2 hour before I get the kids up... things like that.

Joshua isn't doing so well at school now. Scott took a day off work last week to take him, and Joshua didn't understand why he couldn't stay at school with him. He threw a full out tantrum as we were leaving, and apparently got worse as the day went on. They had to call us to come get him early. He was an absolute mess. Needless to say, Daddy won't be taking him to school any time soon, again. We went back yesterday, and he wasn't quite as bad, but he still didn't want me to leave him. I'm hoping tomorrow will be a bit better.

On a positive note, he has be enjoying the art class portion of preschool! He has come home with some fun projects. I am taking pictures of everything he brings home, and I'm keeping a separate album. This way, I can just make a scrapbook of the pictures, and not have to keep every single project. Here is the album of Joshua's preschool artwork.




We went to the Pittsburgh Zoo this past weekend. We had a great time, and saw all the babies. The baby tiger has outgrown his original enclosure, and has taken over the snow leopards area. I'm not sure where the leopard went, though. The baby elephants are absolutely adorable. Joshua loves them. We spent quite a bit of time looking in the windows of the Elephant Family Room. You can see the complete album of pictures from our zoo trip here.

Last week we had some restructuring of the parenting organization we belong to. I am happy to announce that I have been named as the new President! I am very excited about my new responsibilities. It's going to be a lot of hard work if this week has been any indication, but I'm up for the challenge.

In Chelsea news: We had our 12 month well baby appointment yesterday. She is 17 1/2 lbs (6%) and 29" (50%). The doctor keeps insisting I feed her more, but the poor girl eats constantly! I'm looking into finding some higher calorie/fat kid-friendly drinks / snacks for her. She has a milk protein allergy, so that cuts out a lot of options. I guess I'll figure it out.

We have a lot of fun fall and Halloween activities planned in the next couple weeks, so I'll be sure to update soon!

School Days & a Birthday!

We have had an extremely busy couple of weeks! Labor Day weekend, we met friends at Raccoon Creek State Park to go swimming. Steve & Patti met us there, too. We had a great time. Joshua and Chelsea can't get enough of the water! It's going to make for a fun summer next year.

Joshua started pre-school last week. He did much better than I thought he would! He loves his teacher. She is so much fun, and completely understands the separation anxiety that 2 year olds have. His first day, he didn't even really seem to care that I left when he realized Miss Teresea would be staying with him to play. The fact that she lets him paint, play with play dough, and takes him outside to play is a big bonus, too! The first week was only an hour a day with 1/2 the class, to help the kids get used to things. This week is an hour and a half with the whole class, so we'll see how it goes. I'm looking forward to be able to do some shopping and run errands with just Chelsea in tow.

Chelsea's first birthday was this past Friday. My baby has turned one. It's hard to believe a year has gone by so quickly. I'm having a hard time dealing with it, actually. My mom, sister and I took her to the mall for a special present. Chelsea had her ears pierced! She did extremely well, and hardly cried at all. It was kind of like she was excited about it, if a 1 yr old can realize what was actually going on. She lets me clean them, and twist them twice a day, and she doesn't pull at them or anything. I'm really pleased at how well she is doing with them.

On Friday, we celebrated at home with just the four of us. We had cupcakes and opened presents after dinner. Joshua was happy to be able to have an "un-birthday" present. It made things a lot easier in explaining to him that it wasn't HIS birthday, but Chelsea's, and the presents weren't all his. He doesn't quite understand the whole "sharing" thing, but we're getting there.

Saturday we celebrated with the immediate family at CiCi's Pizza. Chelsea's favorite toy right now seems to be her baby doll, so I made her a baby doll cake. I fully expected her to smash it, but she's such a little diva, she didn't want to get dirty. She did want to play with it, though. *laugh* We had a nice time, and she got a lot of really nice things from everyone. She came home and had a tea party with Joshua with her new tea set from Aunt Julia. It was so cute watching Joshua "pour tea" for her.



We're looking forward to some fun things in the next couple of weeks with fall coming. Joshua is looking forward to dressing up for Halloween, and getting candy. He plans on dressing up as a farmer, and he insists on Chelsea on being a cow... I have plans on making that work *laugh*. It's going to be fun.

End of August Already?

I can't believe how quickly the summer went! It seems like just yesterday we were starting our weekly walks in the park and pulling out the kiddie pool. Hopefully we'll have a couple more weeks of nice weather before the leaves start to change and the snow starts to fall.

Chelsea News: She has started to pull herself up to standing the last couple weeks. It started out as a once in a while thing, but now it's every chance she gets. She is very excited to be able to see over things, now. I'm sure she'll be starting to take those first tentative steps soon! She's also starting to say A LOT more words! Cookie, something that sounds like "thank you", mama, daddy, Josh, cat, cup, fishy, ... I'm sure I'm missing some, too. She tries to do everything she sees Joshua doing, so I'm sure a lot of it is because of mimicking him. Chelsea also had her first professional photo shoot this month. As soon as I get the proofs, I'll post them!

We made another trip up to camp a couple weeks ago. We've only been there twice this summer... not nearly enough in my opinion, but we've been so busy the last few months, we really haven't had a chance. This trip included Julie & Elli, so there was even MORE fun things to do than normal. Joshua and Elli could have spent all day throwing rocks in the river, and Chelsea really liked splashing on the shore, and inspecting bugs and rocks.




We've been to quite a few playgroups the last couple weeks... as opposed to outside trips to the park, zoo, farm, etc. We went to a Science themed one and made an exploding volcano. THAT was pretty awesome. It actually worked - which amazed us *laugh*. Just imagine 5 toddlers and a few babies crowding around a table hoping for club soda to squirt up in the air. It was great.

Last weekend we made our first trip out to Raccoon Creek State Park's beach. The kids had a great time, and I really wish we would have gone earlier in the year! It reminded me a lot of being at Seneca growing up. Amy and Gregg met us there, and the boys had a great time splashing, playing in the sand, and "swimming". I was amazed that neither of them were afraid of the water. They were both up to their necks at one point. Chelsea loved the water as well. She would have been thrilled to be in it all day!






Earlier this week the kids weren't feeling well. Josh spiked a fever of 103.5, and Chelsea had one almost as high. We took a few days off from running around, and playing with our friends. (We wouldn't want to get anyone else sick, too!) I never figured out what was wrong with them... it was only the fevers. What ever it was, made them miserable, so I'm glad it's over!

We were anxious to get out of the house, after being cooped up for almost a week! We made an interesting journey to White Oak for a playgroup where we made necklaces out of yarn and Fruit Loops. (I got terribly lost - twice! We made it, and were only a few minutes late, so I guess it's not too bad *grin*) I'm not sure what the kids thought was more fun: stringing the Fruit Loops, or EATING them. All of the kids seemed to have a good time, and they all played very well together. Joshua made a new friend, also named Josh. A little confusing, but they got along great, and for only being 2, had a lot in common!



We have some big plans for Labor Day weekend, so I'll be updating again soon!