Key Lime Coke

Jay and I decided to do something "special" for the kids over the holidays. So we planned an overnight trip to an indoor water park about 45 minutes outside of the city, Key Lime Cove. (The name Key Lime Coke is courtesy of Ally Metzler)

Although we were a little skeptical, Jay and I ended up having a blast! All kids were super well behaved and had such a great time in the pools, arcade, candy shops and restaurants. The hotel was very clean and accomodating. I think we are all looking forward to going again next year!

J.J. in his hotel crib - he loved it bacause when he banged his head on the mattress it squeaked!

Me with the boys (Matt's friend Sam came with us)

Ally hanging out poolside in her nightgown that she wore for basically two days straight

Jay and J.J. after one of many laps around the lazy river

Christmas 2009

Here are a couple photos from Ally's Holiday performance at school and Christmas down in Indy...

Ally's pink and sparkly outfit

Ally is far left, first row in this photo...if you look closely you will see she is actually facing backwards. We are not sure why, but are glad we caught it on camera!

Jay and I in Indy

Ally and J.J. playing with a new school bus

Zoo Lights

Every year we head over to see Zoo Lights at the Lincoln Park Zoo. The entire zoo is lit up with Christmas lights and there are various activities set up for kids in the galleries. Ally remembered immediately as we entered the zoo that we had seen Santa at Zoo Lights last year so that was basically the only thing she wanted to do there (we had yet to see Santa this year). We eventually made it to the Lion House, where Santa was stationed and entered the line to visit with him.

Ally wore her "Santa dress" that she picked out one day at Kohl's (thank you Mimi!) and she was extremely excited to show Santa. Thankfully, it didn't take too long for Santa to pick up on the fact that Ally wanted him to say something about her dress - as she was dancing all around in front of him! He was really sweet and Ally told him that she would like "princess things." Santa then asked to have a photo taken with J.J. also, but as you can see in the picture below, the little fella was a bit unsure about Jolly Old St. Nick!

Ally and J.J. in the stroller heading to Zoo Lights!

J.J. waiting patiently while we stood in line to see Santa

Ally and Santa

Ally's Checkup in Philly - December 2009

Jay and I both felt it was time that we head out to Philly with Ally to have her checked out by her doctor and surgeon, Dr. Scott Kozin, at the Philadelphia Shriners Hospital for Children (http://www.twolittlemonkeys.org/). This was not because we felt that Ally was doing poorly or that her progress had slowed, we just wanted to check in with everyone out there and see what they could tell us about how they felt Ally was doing.

The trip itself was fantastic. Ally had some major alone time with both Jay and I as we left J.J. home with a babysitter and she seemed to truly enjoy the attention. She was very well-behaved and fun the entire trip. We were smart enough to bring her scooter along with us so she was able to scoot all around the airport and Philly. She loves her scooter and is exceptionally good at riding it. Plus, it's nice for Jay and I as we are able to walk together, without a stroller, and watch Ally have a blast riding around. We arrived in Philly and went right to the hotel room. Ally does not remember ever staying in a hotel so she was super excited about the whole thing and immediately asked if we could live there forever.


We stayed on the University of Pennsylvania's campus (Jay's alma mater) which is gorgeous and vibrant. So we headed out from the hotel to find some dinner and get some fresh air. We found a cute little pizza joint and Ally quickly made friends with the server and a sweet man eating dinner there. He had his own three year old daughter so was able to keep Ally entertained with all sorts of fun games and conversations. He was laughing so hard we finally had to ask Ally to stay quiet so that he could eat his dinner, though he didn't seem to mind. We came back to the hotel and got ready for bed. Ally slept great and we all woke up excited to see our friends at the Philly Shriners.


It was so great to see all of our friends at the hospital. Ally has no recollection of the hospital or any of the staff, so it was fun to watch her meet all of the folks who have known her for these past couple of years. They have all been so supportive and genuinely interested in not only her development, but also in our entire family. We were eventually seen by Dr. Kozin, his staff and then Sarah, a physical therapist.

Dr. Kozin was very pleased with Ally's progress. He thought she had great range and function. He does not think she will ever be able to run "normally", with both arms swinging simultaneously and he said she may never have great behind-the-back function. He also told us that he did not anticipate any further gains, basically what you see is what you get. We were disheartened by this and I think without actually saying it, Jay and I have both decided to just ignore that! We are still working with her on running and her function and truly believe she will continue to improve. We will be impeded by the fact that nerve regeneration ends around the age of three, but we believe she certainly has decent nerve input - it's just a matter of training her muscles to do things that (although they should) do not come naturally. For instance, to get her to reach behind her back - which we have been able to do! - we have to constantly remind her to bend her elbow first. This motor planning does not come naturally for her, instead she just leads with her hand and keeps her arm flexed. But I think with repetition, she can be "taught" to bend her elbow and reach behind herself!

Anyways, she did beautifully at the appointment and her love of doctors is still intact. We went straight from Shriners to the airport. Ally had a blast on the ride home, chatting with all sorts of people. She basically just walked up and down the isle making conversation with folks. "I like your watch." "I have a necklace at home too! But it's pink." And her all-time favorite thing to tell people - "I just had a birthday!" "Oh really, when?" "August."

Here are some photos from the trip...

Ally scootering around the airport

Ally and I in the waiting room at Shriners

Ally and Dr. Kozin

Ally and Sarah - look at that reach!

Ally hopped onto a police cart at the airport, then the police officer let her wear his hat! Oh boy, was she excited!

Frosty - Take 1

The moment Ally woke up to the first snowfall of the season she was ready to head outside and play. She wanted to make a snowman so badly. Lucky for her, the warm weather made for great packing now. The tough part was that there was not much snow at all! But she didn't let that stop her from accomplishing her goal. Here's a photo of our first Frosty of the season. By the time I had a chance to run in and get the camera, his nose, mouth and one arm had already melted/fallen off and he was suffering from a significantly shrunken lower portion. As you can tell from the lack of snow around him, we used virtually ALL the snow we could find! But Ally loved him, nonetheless.

Frosty - in all his glory

Ally with some winter gear on

Here are some photos from an early December trip to Indy. These are taken at the Children's Museum - the greatest place ever.

Here is one of Ally terrorizing Grandma's gift shop

These next few shots are from our photo session to create our 2009 Holiday card. I had the kids dress nice one morning before school and sat them down at the kitchen island. It's pretty darn hard to get three kids to look at the camera and smile, nicely. My expectations for our Christmas card went from having the best one of the season, to making sure all three of their faces made it into the photo. Here are a couple of the ones I liked...we went with the second one for the card.

I just wanted to include this photo - I love when babies sleep this way!

Last Warm Park Day of 2009

December was relative mild here in Chicago. This allowed us to sneak in a couple more nice park days than we normally would be able to. It was great. Here are some photos taken from a trip to Oz Park one lovely afternoon...

J.J. on dad's shoulders

Ally's turn

Ally doing some hanging - considering we used to never think she'd be capable of doing this, we are so thankful for her abilty to accomplish this feat!

J.J. taking a slow ride down the slide

Ally congratulating him - hug or headlock?!?!

I was trying to take a photo of them both on the slide - J.J. is mid-fall here

This was taken later that night...see the abrasions under his nose and on his chin? Yep, that's my fault.

This was a photo Ally's teacher took of her at school, I just like it and wanted to share it!

Ally and Tommy - November 2009

We went out to Western Springs to visit our good friends the Niemiecs and meet their new baby, Henry. Ally and Tommy had a great time together, as always. Here are some photos from the day.