Mike has been out of town this weekend, so the kiddos and I have been spending some quality time together. Benjamin and I rented two new Wii games and Lucy has been perfecting her rolling - she finally rolled over from back to stomach for the first time today. I haven't been able to catch it on video, but did get her mid-roll in a photo.

The past week was full of sickness and strife in the home of Familie Schmitt. All four of us dealt with the nasty Norovirus in one way or another. Benjamin was the worst hit and still isn't back to 100% even today. Even Lucy's daycare family was hit hard. Both Mike and I split our time at home with both kids or just one child or no kids from day to day. We seem to have pulled through this bout fairly unscathed, thankfully. However, my weekly photos of Lucy and my blogging have faltered just a bit. I was late in taking her Week 15 photo, but it turned out to be okay because I knew I wanted to wait until Sunday to get her Week 16 photo. Afterall, Sunday was a big day for us (more on that later).

I picked up Lucy's hat at the place where Benjamin gets his haircut: Little Dudes N' Divas Salon. It is handmade by a local woman who sells all kinds of cute little baby hats. I think it is so adorable.



Sunday was a big day. The four of us were staying at Grandma and Grandpa Andrews's house and so were able to watch the big game together. It is a fierce rivalry for us when the Bears play the Packers, but this game held more importance than any other in the past 70 years. Luckily for us, the Packers pulled through and are headed to the Super Bowl! Lucy is wearing Benjamin's 6-9 month Packers outfit. It is a bit big on her and her father wasn't too excited about how it made her look like a boy, but it did the trick. In two weeks when they face the Steelers, I will make sure to throw a bow on her head or something.

Going back to work and having both kids in school/daycare has been an adjustment for us all. I was beginning to feel like I hardly saw Lucy at all anymore. She'd come home from daycare and sleep what seemed like all evening. Then she'd wake up and have her bottle and go straight to bed for the night. She wouldn't even wake up herself in the morning, Mike would have to wake her up to get everyone to work/school/daycare. I was beginning to long for even a 2:00am feeding just to see her!

Thankfully yesterday was a different story. She was awake and ready to play when we got home. She only took a short half hour nap (just enough time for Benjamin and I to make and eat dinner) and then was up until 9:00pm playing and just being awesome. I needed that.

She's doing so well keeping her head up that she's now able to use her Bumbo seat. These are a new thing for us because they didn't exist when Benjamin was a baby. So much fun!

She even can mostly wear her very adorable Robeez shoes that I bought her before she was born. They're still a bit big, but she doesn't mind.

Week Fourteen? How could that be true??

The special guest star in the photo is Lucy and Benjamin's new baby cousin Albert. It is amazing to think that someday Albert will be the same size as Lucy or will likely be even bigger than her. AJ and Benjamin are the same amount of time apart in age as Lucy and Albert. I only hope that these two newbies will have as much fun as the old guys!

We took Benjamin and Lucy to a portrait studio today to get their first sibling photos done. Of course, Benjamin was a big ham and even threw out some Zoolander-esqe poses. The photos we received are great. I used my camera to capture them so I could share them here. Click on the small version to see the full-sized photos.

Andy and Jennifer's little guy came into the world on the 1/6/11, which is neat because he weighed in at 6 lbs, 11 oz. We stopped by to visit them at their home today after they were discharged from the hospital. All is well. Mom and Dad are settling into their new adventure and Baby Albert is so adorable.

Happy New Year!

This is a big week for all of us. Benjamin returns to school after his holiday break, Mike returns to work after having 19 days off, I return to work after 14 weeks off and Lucy starts going to her new daycare. I am also now full-time at work after loving a part-time schedule for just over 3 years. Life moves forward.

We celebrated Christmas with the Schmitt side of the family this past weekend. We also rang in the New Year with friends. The holiday season is officially over and I plan to get the Christmas decorations down sometime this week.

Mike is already planning his 2011 racing schedule. The big finale will be the New York City Marathon in November. He is registered, we booked our flights and reserved the hotel. It will be our first trip away without children since we went to Hawaii in 2008. Don't worry, we're still holding true to our philosophy about exposing our children to travel. We'll be taking a family vacation sometime this summer. The destination is still undecided (but will most likely involve mountains!).

We're expecting our newest nephew to be born any day now. He is Andy and Jennifer's first child and we are very excited to meet him.

I'm still planning on keeping up with my weekly Lucy photos, but with all of our adventures this weekend and this week, I am a little behind. Look for a new photo on this blog very soon.