St. Patrick's Day!

We braved Southie to see the beginning of Boston's St. Patrick's Day parade. We were so brave that Daddy was interviewed by a FOX reporter about why he felt safe enough to bring 3 small children to the parade. It was a proud moment. Luckily none of the footage made it to the news that night.

We loved getting out of the house with the whole crew. It was Marian's idea. She was going with her friends and we just tagged along. I always seem to get good pictures of her with JFrog.



LR loved that there were planes going overhead constantly. The only part of the parade that was better, according to him, was the group of people dressed in Star Wars gear. None of our pictures of the parade turned out, but you can just see some of the famous characters being pulled behind the yellow Hummer.








Missy is working on riding on shoulders. J Frog could build a home on Daddy's shoulders and stay there for the duration. Missy is much more content to be down running around, but in the parade crowd she kept getting stepped on, so I had to put her up to get her out of harms way.

Someone in front of us handed LR a flag. He was pretty excited to wave it the whole time. Made for nice pictures too!

Blocking the Sun: Greek-Style

The other day in the car LR found that he was looking right into the setting sun. As we chatted, he combated the glare by tilting his head down, touching his chin to his chest. Then he explained to the rest of us in the car that he could block the sun with his eyebrows. Only Greeks like you and your father, sweetie.

Do Clothes Make the Child?

Missy is finally walking enough of the time that she can wear a dress. So, here she is on her very first day wearing a dress. It makes me wonder about the years ahead when it comes to girls and clothing. LR has been blissfully simple about clothing. I know other kids in his class insist on picking out their clothes and dressing themselves, but LR could really care less. Every once in a while I'll point out a car of plane on his shirt, but otherwise to him they are merely an inconvenience during trips to the bathroom.

Missy, on the other hand, is already showing interest in her clothes. When I showed her the new white sandals with colored flowers I bought her for the summer, she let me put them on, then spun in a circle on her butt with a huge smile on her face, kicking her new shoes as she went. Since it's still way too cold for sandals, she carries them around the house Velcroing and un-Velcroing them. So will she enter a dresses-only phase and then a no-dresses phase shortly thereafter the way I did? I'm kind of hoping for the no-dresses so that she can wear LR's old clothes - very cost effective in this economy. If she goes the princess route I'll have a lot more shopping to do, but I gotta say that girls clothes are very cute. Much more fun than I anticipated.

With the boys I may or may not have to worry about clothes, but it looks like I'll have to deal with some sibling rivalry issues already. LR has always been warmer towards Missy, but he's being pretty mean now to J Frog. He blocks J Frog from getting to toys or places and will readily share things with Missy that he withholds from J Frog. He's very good at feeding both of them evenly though. If I ask him to share a snack with the babies, he will dole out the food fairly. This picture, although a rare moment of brotherly love, I'm sure will become more common as J Frog leaves the baby age and becomes a toddler. He probably won't be walking for at least another month. He's still really unsteady on his feet, but at least he loves to walk while holding our hands now, so that's an improvement. Once he can race around the house with LR, I'm sure their bond will grow stronger.

This Kid Has Got to Learn to Eat

J Frog is an enthusiastic eater if nothing else. I'd say about 80% of the food we give him never makes it to his stomach. Either it's on the floor, in his seat, mashed into his hair, or down his shirt. And it's not just that he drops it. His coordination has actually been improving and he's working on the pinching, as opposed to palming, skill; however, he just doesn't like food that much. When we give him grapes, he shoves them in his mouth, "juices" them, and spits them back out. I don't know if he's ever actually chewed one up. The same goes for clementines. And, god forbid, I put more that one piece of food on his placemat at a time. If he has something in his mouth, he will spit it out just to get the next piece in. So if he has a plate of food, his mouth is like a revolving door with only one opening. Food goes in, food comes out, food goes in, food comes out. It's no wonder he's so skinny. The good news is that he still drinks a ton of milk every day which is how he's making up for it.

That and he's cute as a button.

Look Ma! No hands!

My lovely Aunt L sent an email along that had a bunch of pictures of a young woman who was born with no arms, but has succeeded in being the first person without arms to secure a pilot's license. There were pictures of her participating in sports as a child, putting on makeup as a teen, and driving a car, all with her feet. I always thought that was an amazing feat. Now I think, "hey, that doesn't look so tough." I think it's because the other day I was carrying 2 20 lb babies, one in each arm and reached the bottom of the stairs where we keep a pressure mounted gate. Now, if I put a baby down I would have one baby in my arms and one making a dash back up the stairs in a wobbly, this-could-end-badly kind of way. So, I grasp the railing of the gate between my toes, yank up as hard as I can with my leg, and kick out hoping that the pressure difference when the gate swings out won't be enough to send all 3 of us careening off the steps. As luck would have it, we survived. So I've learned to do things with my feet. I can open a gate, put away toys, kick bathroom doors shut, and gently guide a misbehaving LR to the naughty step on the stairs. The difference is that I get my arms and hands back occasionally.

The only problem is that I sprained my ankle pretty badly while playing touch 7s with my team last Thursday night. So, I'm down to one good limb. On that note, I'm sending out gentle hugs out to my brother SwingDaddy who is tonight recovering from an appendectomy.

Video Clips from Fall 08