The Kwiatkowski Family

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:03:00 +0000

Originally I used this blog as a diary almost to remember all of the stuff that Lizzy did at her different stages. Recently I have become obsessed with facebook, and I have neglect the blog and writing down things about Lizzy. So tonight I have a couple of minutes and I just want to get down all the amazing (and challenging) things my lovely daughter is doing now.

Lizzy is currently CRAZY for puzzles. She does them constantly. She has about ten that she rotates and does them over and over again. She is actually pretty good at them, and her new logic skills are amazing to me. She also amazes us with the funny things that come out of her mouth. Her speaking has gotten really good in the last year, and I feel like she is watching us even more. About three weeks ago she asked us why Jenn's belly was so big. We told her that she had a baby in her belly and that soon we would get to meet her. The next morning Lizzy told us that she had five babies in her belly. She then rubbed my face and asked me, "Mommy you still love me when my five babies come out and you not be sad?" We asked her if she could just start with one baby; she said no-it had to be five. Then she started having the babies-this meant that small objects around the house became "babies": crayons, pom poms, etc. Lizzy's babies would cry, and then like any good mother she forgot about them. Yesterday she told us that she now has ten new babies in her belly. I cannot wait to meet them too!

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 02:52:00 +0000

The kids bouncing in the bouncy castle we rented for Lizzy's birthday party.
The birthday girl blowing out the candles.

Lizzy and cousin Colin on Father's Day.
Lizzy, taking a break, at soccer camp.
Chasing Uncle Javier's kite on our trip to Chicago to see their new apartment.
Lizzy's rocker face. Lizzy and Matt have been working on this for awhile.
The family after Lizzy's dance recital. She danced to "Yellow Polka Dot Bikini".
The FAIR!!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Mon, 04 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Sun, 03 May 2009 23:29:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:04:00 +0000

Eating with Uncle Neil
Abba holding an impromptu story hour.
Playing in the foot and a half of snow.
Going to Valpo basketball games.

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 20:34:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 19:28:00 +0000

Lizzy was a flower girl for Troy and Stephanie's wedding. She really thought she was the star of the show-she even got presents from strangers at the wedding for her cuteness :) She danced the night away, and when I tried to join her she told me, "No Mommy. I dance myself."

We had a great time, and we loved getting to watch two wonderful people start their lives together. Lizzy now claims she is married, but Matt and I are concerned because she is saying that she is married to the Moo Moos that live in our house.

I guess the right wing conservatives were right-gay marriage really does start us down the wrong path :)

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 21:13:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 20:52:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 20:28:00 +0000

Lizzy and Daddy making cookies. Yes. We have made Christmas Cookies in our house twice all ready since Thanksgiving. We like any excuse for sugar, and Matt could drink icing.
I am THRILLED to show a picture of Ione's FIRST cookie. Welcome Ione to your Mom's favorite things: candy on Halloween and icing and cookies at Christmas. Congrats.
Ione, Caden and Lizzy all "made" cookies. Okay they played and their mommies ate the dough.

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 20:04:00 +0000

Lizzy and Mommy decorating the tree.

Lizzy, Caden, Santa and Mrs. Clause. Lizzy went straight up to Santa and told him that she pooped.
Baby Brogan and Lizzy give THANKS for each other :)
Lizzy and Abba make a snow man.

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 18:30:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 16:48:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 16:30:00 +0000

We were worried that Lizzy would be bored at home instead of going to daycare, but Matt has been documenting their fun-filled days.
Jared, Matthew, and Benjamin Dhaemers came to visit Lizzy and Matt recently. Two Dad's on kid duty...how fun.
Helping Daddy clean up the Halloween decorations. Apparently everything is more fun in a wagon.
Eating lunch at Round the Clock with Grammy Dizie. Lizzy eats out A LOT.
Posing as a big girl. Where did our baby go?

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:47:00 +0000

Lizzy is now does perfect imitations of Matt and of me. For me...she says most things just like I do, with the same inflection, wait time, etc. For Matt...she has his laugh down, so now we she "pretends" that things are funny, she just closes her eyes and shakes. She looks just like Daddy. It is the funniest thing, and it always gets Matt to actually laugh.

Also, we have noticed a lot of "here you goes". If she is handing you anything, "Here you go, Mommy. Here you go." This comes straight from Matt. This is his catchphrase.

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 14:50:00 +0000

Abba and Grammy both gave Lizzy non-candy gifts. She was not falling for it :) Thanks for trying.

Caden joined us for about seven houses. Lizzy said he was the best part of Halloween...oooh!
Lizzy was the Little Mermaid, and LOVED Trick-or-Treating. We walked from our house to Dave and Dianne's, making sure we stopped at every house. Lizzy kept asking if the house was "open" and didn't fall for Mommy's trick of saying the candy was for her. So...we gave in and gave her three, very small pieces of candy. Long story short...apparently when a child who never gets candy has candy sugar really does have to effect. She was CRAZY, and Mommy has volunteered to eat the remaining candy.

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:04:00 +0000

The Fam at the Pumpkin Patch. I am so rarely in the pictures that I had to post the two that I had.
Lizzy at the Lincoln Park Zoo with Katie. She LOVED the farm. We all kept trying to not have to go, but Lizzy's cuteness outsmarted us all.
Lizzy in a field of pumpkins. This picture makes me want to have a vest.
Lizzy and "Aunt Karen". My friend Karen is dying to be an aunt, so we are allowing her to pretend.

Okay...so I would like to apologize for taking so long to post something. I have been busy with going back to school at Washington and teaching at Ivy Tech. I know, I know...no excuse is good enough to stop blogging, but I hope it will do for now. I have been texting, so hopefully that still keeps me a little cool-OMG lol.

Luckily we have been taking pictures, so here is some of the fun stuff we have been doing in the two months since you heard from us.

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:45:00 +0000

The new GREAT band: Lizzy and Onie.
Driving the bus at the mall.
Playing at Butterfly Park.
Riding a pony with Abba at the Pumpkin Patch.
Wanting to be like Mommy...sad news for Lizzy :)

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:21:00 +0000

Cooking with Mommy
Meeting Baby Brogan our newest cousin. Apparently age doesn't matter. The O'Connors are always cute.
Getting ready for the Lil Kernel Race...she quit half way through. Caden took off and did great.
Going with Abba to Disney on Ice. We LOVED seeing Cinderella.

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:35:00 +0000

Tonight I was cooking, and suddenly I felt something run into my legs. This is a common thing for Lizzy to do, so it took me a second to turn around. When I finally did, this is how I found her :) Apparently she needed to use her bug net for something other than catching bugs.

Lizzy and I also wanted to show off her toes. Lizzy was having a little trouble learning her colors, but as soon as I put paint on her nails she learned blue, yellow, and she keeps saying her toes are pink. Who knew it only took a little beauty to bring her out :)

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 02:56:00 +0000

I was lucky enough to be invited to the wedding of one of my former students, and I got to go with my good friend and fellow English teacher Christi. Here we are all dressed up, and below I got to pose with one of the prettiest brides I have ever seen. You could just she her happiness and loveliness shine out.

Congratulations Hannah and Drake- Thanks for having me.
And tonight we were blessed to have the Walters family over for dinner. Lizzy has been going to the Walters house since she came home, and now she will be staying home with Daddy full time. We will miss seeing them all the time, and as you can tell Lizzy seems a little attached.

We are so lucky to have found people outside our family who love our little Lizzy, and I know we all feel like they are family now.

Good luck in college this year David, and we should all wish Danny good luck because he has me again this year-poor boy-for three hours a day :)

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:37:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:17:00 +0000

The family (with the Crowells-of course) at the Doodlebops. Lizzy LOVED it. Later, I learned that we could have had front row tickets if I had only called Lonnie Steele. Lonnie used to be the principal at Washington, and he runs the Porter Co. Fair. Well...there's always next year.

Here is the Lizzy with the prize that she won (with Daddy's help) in a fishing game. She is quite proud.
Okay...so this was our fourth trip to the fair. We HAD to go with Ione, and we had a great time looking at the animals and riding the rides. I love how Lizzy is even smiling perfectly while she lets Ione drive.

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:31:00 +0000

We have been going swimming a lot this summer thanks to our friends Natalie and Caden. Yesterday Lizzy talked one of our favorite lifeguards into giving her a lesson, Caden, as you can see did not want to be a part of it :)

Today we tried to go to the fair to see the dog show...it was a disaster. We had to beg for food vendors to give our hot, hot kids some food; the dog show was two hours later than I thought; but luckily Caden had his first ice cream cone-which was a huge success.

noreply@blogger.com (Matt, Jen, and Lizzy Kwiatkowski) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:35:00 +0000

This weekend was a weekend where a lot of things changed-some more than others. Lizzy went to her first baseball game. I came armed with the heaviest bag ever full of toys, but I should have known that Caden as all the excitement Lizzy needed. Here there are eating their dinner-french fries. I know-Brittney has nothing on me:)

Also, we, okay me, were excited because this was the first time that Lizzy was able to wear reall pig tails. Prepare to see them everywhere.
We also got to see the Valpo Triathlon up close because the runners come right past our house. Matt caught the three of us watching the race outside Lizzy's playroom. Maggie was as excited as Lizzy was.
Mommy and Daddy go to a wedding. And this is the last big first this weekend. Justin and Melissa spent their first time together as marrieds (do I sound British?). I was part of introducing them a couple of years ago, and we were so excited that my only time matchmaking ended up in a happy ending.

Congratulations to the happy couple and thanks for letting us be a part of it.