Thanksgiving Day

We spent our first Thanksgiving day alone ever today. It was a little sad, but very relaxing. We started peeling and cutting before LR even woke up this morning, so we managed to get a lot accomplished by 8:30am. The twins played together very well while we planned the menu and tried a new method of cooking the turkey. (I completely overcooked the turkey thanks to Missy locking the oven at some point which turned it off. By the time I noticed, it was 155 degrees inside the oven. Then I let it cook way too long after that before checking it with a meat thermometer. *sigh*) Very dry turkey, but it'll make fine soup tomorrow. The legs I broke off before the breasts went into the oven and cooked them by boiling them for a few hours in olive oil. Sounds strange, I know, but they came out very nicely, especially when you consider what I did to the larger portion of the turkey. So today I'm thankful that Blade is a foodie and convinced me to try something new - he saved Thanksgiving.

After we ate we took the kids out for a walk. They managed to find our neighbor's cat. Coincidentally, it was Superman's cat. (If you read the Halloween post, you know who that is.) The cat is very affectionate - Missy even managed to fit in a hug. J Frog did not want to give up the chase, but the cat eventually tired of their attention.

J Frog's Progress

Family often ask me how J Frog is doing now. He's started to pick up words like "up" and "wash." He's still delayed and in Early Intervention, but is improving. Most often people ask me if he's walking since I spent so many months worrying about it, but here he is, walking in his favorite place. Thought I'd share.

Halloween 09

One of our community groups put on a huge trick-or-treat event in our town center. It seemed like everyone with children under 10 showed up. We started in the town common and because it was an unusually warm fall day, we didn't insist that Missy wear her Minnie ears or that J Frog keep his elephant head on. LR had a mask for the spiderman costume, but he was worried that people wouldn't know who he was, so he went without it. Missy's costume was actually a hand-me-down made by Grandma Nese for Aunt K about 20 years ago. It's held up really well and the dress fit her nicely. Thanks, Grandma Nese and Aunt K!

The sidewalks were packed and the kids loved going in and out of all the stores marked with orange balloons. LR collected more candy than he knew what to do with since there were only a few steps in between each store doorway. Much easier than going between houses at night! What a great haul! The first doorway offered lollipops, so the babies were set in the stroller for a little while, but eventually Missy wanted to get out and try her hand at trick-or-treating. She even learned how to say "thank you." J Frog eventually got into the action a bit and walked into a few stores with Marian to raid their candy supplies.









At CVS, LR learned about taking just 1 thing from each bucket.






Then we ran into his friend, Superman.







and our other friend, The Hulk.







What is that?







Seriously, guys... what is this?










Ah, I've got it now. Next!












J Frog grabs a handful.












In the evening, we switched Missy into her warmer costume, a butterfly jacket. It was adorable. We only spent 30 minutes out, but it was a great evening and they seemed to really enjoy it.

LR Learns to Ice Skate

I may not have grown up in ice skating country, but I thought it might be a good idea if LR started a little on the early side here. So, I signed him up for lessons after he expressed interest in wearing my Rollerblades in the basement during the summer. He had his first lesson last week and really enjoyed it. I got a quick video of him with my iPhone trying out the skates as he walked to the ice. The kids are playing red light/green light with the teacher. I didn't get any video of him on the ice because he was too far away. I'll bring our video camera next time because it's too cute to miss and the kids are getting better every time. The first day they started out using 2 stacked milk crates to balance themselves and at the last lesson he skated without the crates. He also fell a lot, but he didn't seem to mind and I'm just glad I invested in some knee pads.

Missy's First Sentence

Yesterday Missy put together her first sentence. Well, I guess her first real sentence was a week ago when asked who wanted a snack and she said, "I do! I do!" But yesterday when I asked her if she wanted another grape tomato from the container she said, "I want two." It was adorable.

In other Missy news, she's potty training already. She has shown a real dislike for her diaper and promptly removes it if you leave her alone without pants or shorts on for more than a few seconds and recently even that hasn't stopped her. I took her out of her crib the other day after her nap to find her half naked. So, she hates her diaper and I can think of no better reason to potty train her. This week she's peed in her potty a number of times and although I don't think she understands the difference between underwear and a diaper, I bought her some Dora underwear for her to try. She loves peeing in the potty and the only trouble was that J Frog wanted to put his hand into the potty while she was using it. I immediately ordered a second potty even though he probably won't be training for a while. Now LR wants to use it and have "pee races." I'm trying to dissuade LR from using the training potty, but he thinks they're pretty special. *sigh*

LR Turns 4!

Another milestone. LR turned 4 in mid September and couldn't wait for the day. Much like the first day of school, I spent the week leading up to it counting down the number of days to his party. Unfortunately, a rugby game kept his party from being on the day of his birthday (Sat) and instead we had it on Sunday. We celebrated with the family on Saturday and he opened gifts from Missy and J Frog - Mr. Men books, colored pencils, and cars. I also let him open the gifts from the grandparents, aunts, and uncles that had been sitting on the dining room table for a couple of days. He had been dying to open them, so we let him tear into them first thing in the morning. He received an RC car, a Leapster2, games, and books. He was a very happy kid.

The next day was party day. There was a lot of anticipation and I'm thinking next year his birthday should be in the morning so that I don't have to spent the first 5 hours of the day explaining why it's not party time yet. The good news is that it was a beautiful day. It was warm and sunny and we were able to spend the entire party outside.










Never again will I underestimate the power of stickers. The first thing the kids did after arriving was to decorate their hats with stickers. It was 10-15 minutes of quiet kids, sharing stickers and decorating hats. It was AWESOME.




Looks at the focus!








Next was the pinata. J Frog wanted to help.












LR loved it.












But the real hit was the car boxes I made the night before. I was sure the kids wouldn't be interested, but I was totally wrong.






They raced and raced and raced.







They took turns, challenged each other, and raced again.







Then it was time for cake. Maybe not as good as my mom would have made, but not bad for a first effort race track cake.






LR blew out the candles, ate half a large piece of cake, then barfed in the bushes. Ah, birthdays...






J Frog enjoyed his cake too and managed to keep it down.

Visit from Grandma

Grandma came to visit for the long Labor Day weekend and we took advantage by taking a couple of short day trips. The first was into the city to see the Rose Kennedy Greenway which is the pretty strip of parkland that used to be 93 before they buried it. It now has a spray park and a carousel. The kids loved riding the horses and were dying to try the spray park, but it was a little on the chilly side and the pressure of the spray was more fire hydrant than the little ones would have been able to handle, so we avoided it despite LR's objections. We also walked along the water of the bay and found giant metal sculptures for the kids to play on. It was a really pleasant afternoon in the city.

The next day we spent at home for the most part, but on her last day, we decided to trek up to Salem, Ma. I showed Grandma one of my old office buildings near the water and we walked out along the pier trying to keep the kids from launching themselves into the water every chance they got. We also walked through a bit of the town, but didn't duck into the Witch Museum or The House of the Seven Gables. When the kids are a little older, I think...



Missy loved running around on top of the hot metal structures.











Bedtime reading with grandma was a blast!












LR chilled in the stroller for a little while at the pier since he had fallen asleep on the ride up to Salem.






Daddy playing "keep Missy on dry land"







Grandma taking a turn walking J Frog.












The boys checking out the water. J Frog finds LR endlessly fascinating.











Missy throwing rocks at Daddy.








Grandma takes the unenviable task of keeping Missy from diving off the rock wall into the water.

First Day of School

LR counted down the days until his first day of school this year. He was so excited and when I said how many days were left, "10 more days," or "7 more days," he'd respond with his favorite new expresion, "that's nothing!" Oh, and according to LR, he can do pretty much anything you can do standing on his head. We only hit one snag about a week before school started which was when it occurred to me to tell him about his new teacher. He was shocked to learn he wouldn't be returning to his old teacher, Miss. Marie. He even got a little weepy when I explained that each year we move onto a new teacher who will have different and more interesting things to teach us - hopefully! He really wanted to go back to Miss Marie's room and I was a little nervous about introducing him to his new teacher, Ms. McGill.

So, wearing his new Thomas the Train shirt from Grandma and Grandad Horton and a smile, he set off to school. Ms. McGill was in the doorway greeting students and had to address LR a number of times to get him to make eye contact with her since he didn't know which area of the room to run to first. Here she is putting his name tag on him and showing him how to sign in every day. She has an Irish accent, a strong hand with the kids, decades of experience and is going to be a perfect fit for LR. He's going to have a great time in her classroom this year and I'm looking forward to a wonderful year.

18 Month Checkup

Missy and J Frog had their 18 month checkup yesterday. It was a month and a half late, but that's how our lives are around here. Plus, it's tough to get back to back appointments with the pediatrician! Anyway, Missy is right on track around the 50th percentile for height, weight, and head circumference. J Frog is in the 70s for height, 30s for weight, and 10th for head circumference. Still has my noggin, I guess.

Missy has gone from light brown haired (as you can see in the first picture from May) to almost platinum blonde. Not sure how that happened. It still doesn't need to be cut, but maybe now that it's done changing colors...

J Frog has made great strides both with his walking and talking. Thanks to a visit from Yianni, he now says "up" and "down" and more recently "hot." It's a start! As far as walking goes, he can now push off the floor to a standing position and take a dozen or more steps. He's wobbly and still feels more secure crawling, but he can do it. The pediatrician still recommended seeing a neurologist. *sigh*

Considerate Kid

LR is such a sweet kid. Last night I told him I needed a really good night sleep since the night before was full of interruptions due to a small cold running through the family. He said he would try to help me. So, when he woke in the middle of the night and called out, I dutifully went to his room as I always do. When I appeared he said in a surprised voice, "oh mommy... I was calling for daddy so that you could get a good night's sleep." What a sweetie. I passed out in his bed a woke feeling refreshed at 7am, so no harm done.

Genetics

Missy signs "baby." It's her favorite sign. She often carries a baby doll around and sometimes tries to feed it or give it a bottle.










In the hat that Gigi brought during her last trip. A-freakin-dorable!











In the bathing suit from Grandma Nese's last visit... with wet feet...











climbing all the way to the top of the playhouse outside. The climbing gene she comes by honestly at least.










Unfortunately, J Frog comes by this honestly as well.

Today Would Have Been Tragic

What do people do without au pairs? Often I tell people that I feel like I'm cheating since I have help most of the time. I rarely have to survive a full day with all 3 kids by myself. Today was a perfect example. We went to Whole Foods so that I could get Lady Finger for Daddy's birthday cake. I thought we'd pick up a little produce too, so after unloading the kids from the car and loading them into 2 different shopping carts, we entered the first section of the store. I picked up 3 avocadoes (saw the price and put 2 back), a couple of apples, and then saw the free samples of nectarines. I stabbed a few with a toothpick and took them to LR. I fed him the first one on the toothpick and somehow he immediately gagged on it - hard. He managed to swallow it, but soon after clutched his stomach. I asked if it hurt and he said it did. I tossed the avocado from its bag and held it open under his chin. He promptly vomited into the bag... which had a slit in it all the way down to the bottom. The vomit traveled straight through to his lap and then the grate at his feet on its way to the floor. I'm pretty sure I strangled out a few curses at the bag, bag makers, and store bag dispensers. I had been so ready for the moment when he got sick only to be thwarted by recycled plastic. *sigh*

Luckily Marian, a.k.a. Superwoman, was ready with a second, less defective bag and we caught waves 2 and 3 before leaving the few things we'd picked out and heading back to the car. At the car, we loaded Missy and J Frog and then as we cleaned LR, she told me to go in and she'd take care of it from here. Since I knew I wouldn't have an opportunity to come back and I had to make the cake tonight, I blew her grateful kisses and ran back into the store. Talk to any parent about a similar experience and I'll bet they didn't end up getting the items they needed at the store. We are poster children for au pairs. She makes our lives maneagable.

Note to self: Need more photos of Marian. This post would have been better with a picture of all 3 kids climbing all over her like they usually do.

Summer Water Fun

If you call and we don't pick up, it's probably because we're in the water somewhere. Now that the weather has finally turned warm here, we're spending as much time outdoors as we can.

This picture cracks me up. It looks like twins hunt together. Okay, you caught me... I've been reading the Twilight series. Baby vampires are hi-larious.





Missy prefers goldfish actually.







Does it look like LR just dumped a cup of water over J Frog's head. Yeah, it looks that way to me too.