Sunday, August 31, 2008

Ice Cream Social cruise







We spent our afternoon on the Gateway Clipper Fleet's Ice Cream Social Cruise with our friends, Tom, Jessica and Molly Kubilius. Even though the siteseeing cruise lasted two hours and was during Jack's peak napping hours, all of the kids enjoyed themselves eating Bruster's ice cream sundaes and dancing with giant dogs. Jack was hilarious on the dance floor, getting right up in the action, swinging his arms with the music. We'll post a video or two from that later.


And congratulations to Tom and Jennifer Gilbert, the third couple in our Teams group to deliver a baby this year. Their first child, Maria Grace, was born yesterday afternoon on her father's birthday. What an amazing birthday gift!

Saturday, August 30, 2008

film festival

We just uploaded a bunch of videos to YouTube for your viewing entertainment.

He's gotten even better at pronouncing "Abi-gay" since this video and asks about her all the time if she isn't in sight.


Jack brought his bib and monkey to me to help him, so I put the bib on the monkey, and he took it from there.


Just in the past couple of days, Abigail has starting talking, very expressively.


Jack spent an hour and a half in Abbie's swing this morning, swinging with his bear, until he fell asleep. He loves giving his stuffed animals rides in it, and if the music isn't on, he has to go over and push the button.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Monday, August 25, 2008

Baby girls are the sweetest


Listen to that laughter.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Seven things to catch you up

1. We brought out the Johnny Jump-up for Abigail to try her legs on the other day. She enjoyed it, but Jack crumbled into a heap when I inserted Abbie into its seat and not him. He whined pretty much the whole time she was in it and kept trying to spin her around, very quickly, as if she were in a tire swing. Fortunately, in his rare fits of jealousy, he is comforted by his bear or monkey, whom he snuggles with the floor.



2. Jack's been all done with bottles ever since we got back from our trip. We thought it would be a challenge, since every night around bedtime, he would plead with arms outstretched to the refrigerator, "Baba, baba, babaaa!" but it was as if he didn't even notice.


3. Abigail has been sleeping wondrously ever since our trip as well. She's achieved 7 1/2-hour stretches of sleep. She wakes up to eat and goes right back to sleep for 3 hours or so. Another plus- the kids are finally napping at the same time.


4. I found something else to do with the kids during the week. A couple of mornings, we've taken the double jogger down to the Eliza Furnace and Riverfront trails. Jogging 6 miles with a double stroller is a work out!

5. Last night, Abigail experienced her first sitter so Mike and I could enjoy a night out sans kids. We went through the drive-thru at Burger King. And I just thought it just a bit unusual-- we received 28 ketchup packets in our bag.

6. I decided to start a Mom's group at our house during the week, since our previous host moved.The first one will probab;y be in a couple of weeks-- we'll see how it goes.

7. Jack is picking up some quirky toddler habits. He sometimes insists on taking one of his arms out of his shirt and wearing it like He-man, reminiscent of the days when I would pretend to be Sheera- a simple task with permed hair that has been brushed into a teased mess. And lately, he'd rather do without the hassle of being clothed at all. He's been taking his diaper off himself. So far, we've avoided disasters.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

103

My great grandmother, Gigi, turns 103 today. When we visited her a couple of weeks ago, she was singing some fancy old children's tune from the days of her youth to Abigail. I love hearing her doorbell ring out the melody of, "Hell! Hell! The gang's all here!..." One of the last times I went to her house, I found her rummaging down in her basement singing Ol' Black Joe--

I'm a comin'... I'm a comin'...
for my head is bending low...
I hear their gentle voices calling...

She is one funny lady. And she is always on the move-- still living in a house in Frederick, MD all by herself. This morning when I called to wish her a happy birthday, she was on her way to get new shoes with a friend. She told me a reporter had come to do a story on her for her birthday, and he had commented on a picture of Jack. She told him Jack was her great-great grandson, and apparently, Jack made it into the story.

Happy birthday, Gig. You are dearly loved!

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Happy 14th Birthday, Roma!

You've been a pretty amusing brother over the past seven years. Thanks for all the card games, for entertaining us with your funny antics and charming us with your Georgian accent. I've never seen a boy eat so many potatoes.
For what it's worth, I liked your shell necklace. Happy birthday! Hope it's great!

Brookline Breeze Festival




We were going to sign up to do the 5K Brookline Breeze walk as a family, but we missed the deadline, but we still went down to the Rec Center to take advantage of the live music, petting zoo, balloon man, and other family activites. Jack loved the goats. He said, "maaaaa, maaaaa, maaaaaaaa!!!!!" the whole time, but was a little timid about touching them. He did get close enough to have one lick his sweet little face.
As soon as the balloon man was finished making his monkey, he quickly took it, very possessively off to a secluded area, where he could get a better look at it and kiss and hug it (and pop two of its arms and one of its legs). It was well loved until lasts night, when its remaining two ears ended up in the garbage.

Friday, August 8, 2008

I love these girls




Jen is back for a few weeks from Qatar (we were sad to find out her husband got another job over there with a three-year contract) and Juliet recently moved to Pittsburgh, so the four of us got together here last night for some reminiscing- and some games of- what else for art majors?- Pictionary and Grossest drawing (don't ask). And since we've been bad about it in the past, we have some exciting plans in the works for staying in touch- international artwork!

Thursday, August 7, 2008

two months!



Our little turtlehead is all smiles (except at 7:30 in the evening, when she has to get all her extra energy out since she just sits around all day and looks so pretty). At the doctor's this morning, Abigail weighed 12 lbs, 14 oz., a lb. and 4 oz. less than Jack at the same time. With all the stress of traveling, especially without Mike for most of the time, I had some feeding problems, but all is well again now, and her legs are dimpling nicely.
I'm still waiting for a break-through in sleeping. She mostly sleeps all during the night, but still awakes every two to three hours to eat (her longest stretch has only been 5 hours), and occasionally thinks that if we'd like to get up to play with her at 5 in the morning, that would be alright (we don't do this).
Jack loves "Adda" (sometimes "Addie"), so much that he rolled on top of her this morning, to Abigail's sheer delight. He would lie on top of her with his appendages wrapped tightly around her if we would allow it. He's also fascinated by her Nuk (pacifier) and loves to suck on it upside-down.
Her favorite thing is hearing about what a pretty girl she is. That's all I told her during the photo shoot.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Holden Beach and Maryland (in pictures)


Honey's house- a stop on the way

Abbie with Jet (second cousin)




Jack's great-aunt, Holly








Jack's favorite ride- the roll-y ottoman


Making a dribble castle with Pop



Abbie and Cindy

Lee and Jack

At Jimmie Cone

Abbie meets Gigi (Great-great Grandmother)

Abbie and Jackson (family friend)

To see 200 more pics (yeah, no kidding) click here.