Happy day at the park

We took the kids out on thanksgiving day for a morning walk and last minute shop. At the park, the kids turned on their cute and just melted my heart. I didn't get "the" pumpkin patch photo that we did over the last 2 years, but this is clearly the fall favorite.

Thanksgiving Day Parade

Happy thanksgiving!! We had a wonderful day with the kids, Dado & Beebles full of playing, naps, turkey and potatoes... And our own parade. While everyone wasn't fully game, I do this is a new game we will see again!

Amelia tries the slide

We took the kids to the park today and Amelia tried out the slide. The first time down gave us a great look of consternation that we didn't capture on film. This was the next time down...

Little Miss Solid Foods

Amelia has started to go to town on feeding herself solids.... just in time. I've been getting frustrated with the whole experience of feeding her lately, it has just seemed to be one more thing to have to struggle with between her wanting to grab the spoon, objecting to anything not applesauce, and smearing food all over her face. Awesome.

On Sunday night dinner, I made the usual Roast Chicken (which makes the house smell soooo good and is super moist). As we sat and ate dinner, she was not all that excited about jar du jour so I gave her a little chicken - and it was gone. I gave her some peas, and they were gone - and of course the cheerios and blueberries disappeared! With that, I am now focusing on trying to give her some food that she can feed herself, along with the pureed mush. Last night she mostly ate a full dinner of turkey burger, baked potatoes, cooked carrots, and then more blueberries and cheerios. She happily sat in her high chair for about 45 minutes as she ate, mumbled delightfully to herself, and occasionally dropped things on the floor. I am so proud of my little Bug who is turning into quite the eater! (And I love to not have to feed her...)

It all starts here...

It seems our Little Bug is off to the races. She has been on the early side of milestones all along and this is no exception. On Friday, when we picked the kids up from daycare, we were a little surprised to see her walking by pushing the little walker. Since then, she has been walking in our house pushing both Miles' little red wagon and the old Winnie the Pooh train. It's amazing to see her just growing up!

Sweet Mia

To avoid the rain this weekend, we headed down to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium on Saturday with Uncle Yoyo, Tylie and Tody. Miles had a great time in the Kids Zone and chose to spend his time on all the kids activities, like putting wings on the sea horses and rolling Dodo Bird eggs off the cliff, and not particularly watch the fish. I had Amelia strapped to my chest, who was totally engrossed in all the activity! I don't know which was more exciting for her, watching all the kids, people or fish, but she was certainly curious... and known to stare down anyone who dared look back at her!

Snuggles with a little boy

My little boy can be a snuggler sometimes - and other times, just a happy little busy boy.... both of which were captured in the following.

LOVE HIM!!! (And looks like we need to start working on potty language...)

Imagination

Miles imaginary play has been expanding more and more lately. He now takes his little kitchen, drags it across the kitchen, so that he can stand behind it and become and ice cream vendor. Sometimes he sells pizza, sometimes he sells ice cream, and its always 2 dollars. (And sometimes he just tells me to go to bed.) Love how he is growing up, but hate how quickly it is going. I've been looking back on the blog to see Miles and Amelia's age, and it just feels like yesterday - then you look at him in these kind of settings, and it seems like he is an adult! As one of Tim's friends put it, life with kids is long days and short months - it's going so fast!!

Bath time fun

Bath time with the chickens has gotten more fun. They play really well together and I think just generally enjoy that time of night. Usually Tim hangs out with them and washed them up while I run around and get clothes to the laundry and diapers/PJs ready for bed. The nighttime routine is a busy time for us, but bath is always that deep breath before the final push.

9 Months!

Amelia had her 9 month check up last week and she is doing great! The doctor thinks she will be an early walker (not too much of a surprise) as she is hitting a lot of her physical milestones early. She is right on track for growth and development and is running in the 50th percentile across the board.

• Height: 27 1/4 inches
  
• Weight: 19 lbs 1 oz.
  

What's also been interesting of late has been her ability to respond to our words. So much is going on inside her little brain, it is just amazing. She already knows things like "high 5" and when to waive hello and goodbye, but she is also learning about kisses... our new favorite thing.

On the way back from Reno this past weekend, we also hit a new milestone which was a roadtrip without stopping! Indeed!!! We times the drive to leave before the 1:00 nap. Both kids were asleep before we hit started climbing out of the high desert and into the Sierra. For the most part, they napped until Sacramento something (Tim running over couple of the reflector bumps on the road) woke them up. They chatted for a while, and when they both got a bit irritable, I crawled into the back and gave them snacks. That was worth a good 45 minutes of entertainment, then I gave Amelia some milk I had handy in a sippy cup and she proceeded to drink it all down! We made it home from Reno in under 4 hours - and it was great to not have to stop for the ol' 45 minutes like we did this summer.

Amelia is crawling like a total champ and can now pull herself up onto everything! I came into the playroom last night and she was pulling all the books off the bookshelf - one of Miles' all time favorite activities! She's also been into the pantry and had a go at the first couple of levels. I can't imagine how we're going to keep the house tidy with 2 mess makers, but it is wonderful to see how she can get into everything.

Rain Boots

In preparation for the rainy season, we got Miles his first pair of rain boots. They were a big hit and Miles wanted to test them out right away, despite the fact that it wasn't raining that day - so we hit him with a hose in the back yard. Needless to say with anything that concerns water, he had a blast and we are really looking forward to the next rain.

Chatty Chatty

Amelia is getting more and more verbal every day. While this video doesn't quite give her all the credit, she is experimenting with Ps, Ts, clicking sounds and of course the occasional screech. She is just coming into herself and life with 2 kids is getting more and more fun!

Autumn Days

Time to dust off the vests! Fall is coming to California. We've had some lovely days (and a bit of early rain) and we're getting ready for winter. I love this time of year out here, but certainly miss the colors of New England. Not withstanding, it does small like autumn out here and the leaves are changing colors. We try and get outside as much as possible before the rain comes, and I just love this picture of my handsome boy at the park.

In other news, life has been super crazy. We just got back from 4 days in Reno with Mama and Papa to escape the cloud of poisonous gas being unleashed on our home to rid it of termites! (Ugh.) After a ton of work to get the house prepped for the fumigation, we headed up for a lovely 4 days in the high desert. It was certainly colder up there and there was even snow over the summit.

We got back last night to a fumigated house - without water! Both Terminex and PG&E declared "not me". Awesome. After the kids went to bed, Tim uncovered a broken something going into our house, and now it is just another detail we need to address.... why does it always feel like once you figure one thing out, something else breaks!!

Handsome boy

Lately we've had a hard time getting a good picture of Miles and I am not sure why. I don't think he has become less photogenic, just more busy. As soon as he is in front of the camera, he wants to see the picture, whether or not I actually got a shot off. He also is getting his last molars, so is constantly drooling with his fist in his mouth. (good times). He also has learned a "fake" smile which shows his teeth, but that's about it.

Last week we got a good one. He was doing his fake smile until I announced that "Mommy farted" (I didn't), which just lit him up and we got the Miles-Sparkle to translate into photo. I just love my handsome boy!

The wiggles...

It only seems fitting that my kids went as Wiggles this Halloween: Miles loves music, and the guitar so Murray was a logical fit. Amelia, who hasn't yet seen the show, but adores her older brother and is a wiggle herself, seemed like a natural Dorothy the Dinosaur.

We had several Halloween events, including the parade down Burlingame Ave, a party at Mama Sue's and of course the Trick Or Treating event on Halloween itself - talk about a holiday with a lot of legs - and Miles loved every minute. He started out a little shy with the hole knocking on neighborhood doors, but by the end of it, he was targeting which houses to go attack and boldly walking up without either of us. He was so excited, he even woke up on 11/1 asking when he could go "Frick o Freet" again and doesn't get that the holiday is over... why should he - it last for 3 weeks!

Here are some pics of our various events...

Halloween party at Mama Sue's





Halloween Night - trick or treating...

Funny Blues

I seemed to have captured a moment here in mid expression - and it just makes me smile. While I think Amelia looks amazing like her big brother, she has much bigger, rounder, and bluer eyes.... not a bad thing!

While in Cary...

Tim did an amazing job holding down the fort with the kids while I was gone for the whole week - leaving Monday and not getting home until Friday. The trip was tough on me, super long days, lots of stress, but good overall that I was there. The hardest thing was being away from the kids. Tim kept saying to relax and have a nice time, get some sleep, etc. While I didn't do any of that, I did enjoy not getting woken up at all hours of the night by my Sweet Bug. Tim sent this along to me early in the week - notice Amelia waving!


In tangential news: Traveling and nursing doesn't really mix - but it seems as if Airport Security is used to having women like me come through declaring gallons of milk...

Pics off the iPhone

So, it's been ages since I posted. Life has been crazy with travel to North Carolina, getting the Cary Croup (my code name for the illness that went around the NC office) and the holiday celebrations - more on that to come. But while things are still super crazy, I am eager to get some of the memories off my iPhone and out of my head. Life is good, super busy, but wonderful.

If you're happy and you know it...

Amelia seems to be blowing the doors down on milestones. We have started calling her Queen of the Rose Parade because she now waves to everyone. Her newest trick is she has learned to clap for herself - she seems particularly delighted in this...

Did I mention her hair is long enough for pig tails!!! (stinkin cute)