Three months old today!!!

I can hardly believe three months have gone by! She's changed so much and just gets better and better each day. She's on the brink of rolling over from her back to her tummy and loves doing sit-ups. She's become a drooling machine and now favors her fingers over her pacifier--much to our dismay; it's pretty gross. But, she's so cute we overlook it!

Lainey is celebrating the big day with her first cold (damn you, daycare!). For the most part, it seems to bother Mark and me more than her. I never thought hearing a little cough could make my heart hurt so much. I'm hoping she clears up quickly, so she can have lots of fun with her Uncle Chris this weekend!

Click here to see pictures of her third month: Elaine Month Three



Look who's one-quarter of year old!



Hi Ho, Hi Ho...It's Off to Work I Go!

Booooo! (And a BIG boo hoo!) Elaine started daycare on Wednesday, and I was back to the office on Thursday. It was a very smart move to take her a day early, because I spent about 90% of it crying. I scheduled a massage at 1:00 PM to help resist the urge to pick her up before 3:00 PM, so that helped to take the edge off.

Lainey seems to be doing fine at daycare, and she is napping, which was a big concern for me. Every day I've gone to get her, she's been in the middle of a feeding, so I have to wait to scoop her up. It's a little tortuous for me. So far, she's been one of the first ones to arrive in her classroom each morning and even though I've left the office 10 minutes early both nights, she's been the last one to leave. What hours are these other parents working?! And are their companies hiring?

Mom's first day of work!

Rollin', rollin', rollin'

Lainey rolled over from her tummy to back for the first time yesterday! I was able to catch a repeat performance on camera this morning...

Girl and the Goat... FINALLY!

My parents are in town for the weekend, so Mark and I had a free night and FINALLY made it to Girl and the Goat for dinner! If you're a Top Chef fan, this is Season 4 winner, Stephanie Izard's, restaurant.

We had to go on the early side (5:30 PM) to make sure we could get a table, but we didn't mind. Honestly, even before we had Elaine, Mark and I tended to dine on the early side to avoid waiting for a table. As Mark says, "the food tastes the same at 6:00 PM as at 9:00 PM." We had a short 45-minute wait, which gave Mark time to try a signature cocktail (I was saving my drink allowance for dinner).

For those who haven't been to the restaurant (I think we may be the last of our Chicago friends to dine there), the menu is made up of small plates meant for sharing. I personally really love this style of restaurant, because you can try several different things.

We started with the Mr. Potato bread with leek butter and potato aioli. The leek butter was awesome, the aioli was so-so (at least for me). For our small plates, we had squash blossom rangoon (amazing!), goat empanadas, ham frites, and escargot ravioli (very rich, very tasty). For dessert, we chose the pork fat donuts. Everything was delicious, and we were stuffed by then end of the meal!

It was nice to be out as a couple, but I have to admit about 75% of our converstation revolved around Lainey, and we looked at her pictures on our phones more than a few times. But, I think that's okay...it just means we love our daughter!