Surprise date night

When Matt got home from work Friday night he surprised me with tickets to go see the new Indiana Jones movie and dinner reservations at Tucci's. When I asked him what we were going to do with Eliza he said he had already arranged with my parents for them to tend her. I was so surprised! It had been a long time since we'd had a nice date night. It's silly but I usually still get a little sad when we leave Eliza but as we drove away, she was helping grandpa water the flowers in the front yard and didn't even notice us leave. She loves being at grandma and grandpa's house. They have so many fun toys and a big backyard for her to explore. And she can always get grandpa to take her out to jump on the trampoline. All she needs to do is grab his finger and look up at him with her pleading eyes and it's all over. We feel so lucky and blessed to have both sets of grandparents so close by. Eliza loves spending time with them.
The movie was pretty good - not nearly as good as the original ones but definitely entertaining. After it was over, we remembered why we don't go out to movies more often. It never fails that we end up sitting by obnoxious people. You know the type. There's the person who talks throughout the movie either asking questions or stating the obvious. Or there's the type that laughs way too loud at parts of the movie that aren't really all that funny. Both types of movie go-er annoy me to no end. Oh, well. Maybe that's why movies are so darn loud these days - to drown out the obnoxious people. Dinner afterwards was great. We kind of have a tradition of going to Tucci's either on Valentine's Day or for our anniversary. It's a little pricey but well worth it every once in a while. Too bad there is only one location left and it's all the way downtown. If you ever go there, you can not leave without ordering the Spinaci. It's the best spinach and artichoke dip you'll ever eat. Homemade chips....yum!
Thanks to Matt for making my day with his great surprise! We had a really nice time and it was so thoughtful of him. Love you!

Long-distance Shakespeare

The phone rang this afternoon and what followed was one of the strangest phone calls we've ever received. Whenever the caller ID on our phone says "unknown name" or "unknown number" I usually don't answer but Matt does. He actually likes taking phone surveys and things like that. So I handed the phone to Matt because I wasn't going to answer it and this is how the conversation went.

Matt: Hello?

British man: Henry the fifth, act 1, scene 3 (or something to that effect, I might have the numbers wrong)

He then proceeded to quote Shakespeare's play, Henry V, for the next few minutes

Matt: (interrupting him) Who is this?

British man: continues quoting Shakespeare.

Matt: Who is this? Henry is dead.

British man: I live in England. I felt like reading Shakespeare.

Matt: Do you know where you're calling?

British man: I just dialed your number at random.

Matt: So you're paying long distance for this?

British man: I'm using Skype (I guess this is some type of phone service through the internet that is cheap)

Matt: You really should lay off the marijuana.

British man: I'm clean, mate. I am drinking some ale with a friend. (That explains it.)

Matt: Let me give you a number to call.

British man: Okay, hold on (he gets something to write with)

Matt: Call this number and ask for Steve (Matt then gives this stranger the cell number of his friend, Steve Skidmore)

British man: Okay, I'll call.

Matt: I'm not going to lie to you. You seem like a nice bloke but I really don't have time for this right now.

They both hang up.

Not five minutes later the phone rang again with the same "unknown name, unknown number" on the screen and I told Matt not to answer it again. The answering machine picked up and to my suprise, our British gentleman actually left us a message.

Message: Hey McCann's (oh great, he got our last name off the answering machine) this is England again, Shakespeare guy. Um, so Steve did NOT like the Shakespeare. So sorry about that. Bye.

Matt immediately texted Steve to see if the guy had called him and the response he got back simply said "What the h*** was that?" When Matt told him about his phone conversation the next text from Steve was him calling Matt and idiot and telling him that he was going to sign Matt up for the army.

I'll be honest, I listened in for a little bit of the Shakespeare recital on the phone and something about hearing it in a nice British accent was pretty nice. Don't get me wrong, it's incredibly strange and a little creepy but he seemed like he really just wanted to read some Shakespeare. Hopefully he's over that little urge and won't be calling back anytime soon.

18 months old

On Saturday Eliza turned 18 months old. I can't believe it! Sometimes I still feel like she is a baby because I can't believe how fast it has all gone by. She's definitely not a baby anymore. She's growing up and turning into an adorable little girl. Here are some of the things that she has learned and enjoys:

- Can say mama, dada, kitty, duck, juice, eye, shoes, banana, and the letter "A" (well we can understand her but others may not)

- Loves Baby Einstein movies. She'd probably watch them all day long if we let her

- Knows the actions when we sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes", "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree" and "Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam"

- Can make the sounds for car, dog, cow, pig, tiger/lion, and monkey

- Knows the signs for mommy, daddy, more, milk, cereal, blanket, and baby

- She has twelve teeth! Including 4 molars coming in all at once

- She rolls her eyes (my mother in law told me to get used to this)

- She went to nursery for the first time yesterday. She stayed for snack time and singing time

- I've never seen a child who loves books as much as Eliza. She LOVES them. I'm so glad we discovered the library near us

- Can point to her hair, eyes, ears, nose, teeth, tongue, mouth, fingers, tummy, belly button, toes, knees, shoulders, and feet

- She's still just as good as ever at making a mess at dinner. Mashed potatoes have become a new favorite for her. I guess she likes the way they feel squishing through her fingers. Yuck!




There are so many other things that she has learned and still learns every single day. I love just watching her discover new things. We are so blessed to have her in our family and she brings more happiness to our lives than we thought possible. We love you Eliza!

Bed head

I'm not sure what happens to Eliza's hair while she sleeps. After her bath at night, Matt combs it out and when we put her down, it looks fine. Something happens during the night that causes it to turn into a rat's nest. It's not just once in a while either. Her hair looks similar to this every morning.




I feel bad when I have to struggle through it with a comb because I know that doesn't feel good but if I don't it will just get worse. And it's not just in the morning either, here is her hair after waking up from a nap.


I guess it's a combination of her hair being pretty fine still and a little curly so it gets tangled easy. Good thing she is so beautiful or she'd be a real mess. : )