A Good Morning

Jack was on fire at Baby Bookworms today. He is not familiar with the concept of using an inside voice or whispering so everything he says is heard by anyone in a fifteen foot radius. So he basically provided a running commentary for all the kids and moms at story hour. For instance, during The Itsy Bitsy Spider he said/yelled "'pider book!" "Lellow sun!" "Mom! Bug!" Etc, etc, etc.He had something to say about every single page of every single book. He yelled "Yay!" and clapped enthusiastically after each book and song. It was hysterical.

After Baby Bookworms we went to the Niceville Children's Park with Claire and her mom. Here are some pictures of our fun.
Allie was there, too!I love this picture. Getting situated on the slide is hard work, you know. The tongue gives it away.

And, by the way, we will be trimming (just trimming) Jack's hair tomorrow. Even I admit there's no need for it to hang in his eyes.

Elephant Ellie

Not a nickname we want repeated... but, it is what her little shirt says. Smiling so sweet.Catching some sleep.Our cute little elephant still loves her bath!

Who Asked You?

(I address this post primarily to those of you who voted that we should cut Jack's hair.)
Yeah, who asked you if we should cut Jack's hair? I guess. technically, Kevin did. This is my rebuttal.

I would now like to present Exhibit A:
Action photos of the hair in motion I label Exhibits B & C:
Hair at play, Exhibit D:And, finally, Exhibit E: I rest my case.

Care Bears on Fire

Only in NYC. It is Saturday night and we are at a no kidding club watching a band called Care Bears On Fire. They are an all girl band between the ages of 11-13. It is absolutely insane. Oh yeah, we are here for Isabella, not me. But it is a club full of 8 year olds and up totally listening and dancing to these girls rock. Only in NYC.

Big Brother & Little Sister Shirts!

Jack wore his special "Elizabeth's Big Brother" t-shirt to the hospital when Elizabeth was born, but Elizabeth has yet to wear her "Jack's Little Sister" onesie. Until today. Here are the little ones modeling their shirts!

It's hard to get a good picture of Jack yjese days because as soon as we get out the camera he says, "Cheeeese" and makes a ridiculous cheese smile.

Saturday Morning

Elizabeth is starting to develop a bit of a personality. She is cooing and smiling a lot more these days. She's started noticing and grabbing at things, too. Here she is playing (well, happily laying) on her playmat this morning.

I love how you can hear Jack rambling in the background, and I promise he is not normally that unintelligable. Let me attempt to translate:
"Ibuuuirtunnaall." = I built a tunnel.
"Ibuuuirchoochoopurpurtunnaall." = I built a purple train tunnel. (But, he lost even me on that one, so who knows.)
"Ewpuuchoochoonit." = Oooh, I put a train in it.
"Dat baby." = That's baby.

Sweet Dreams

Ahhh.... I feel so well rested. The little ones were very cooperative last night and I got a good night's sleep. (Relatively speaking, of course.) Jack went to bed at 7:30 as usual and Elizabeth went to bed at 9. Jack woke up at 3something in the morning asking for something to drink. Poor guy is still sick so you can't really blame him for waking even though he used to sleep perfectly through the night.

And Miss Ellie slept until 3:30! Yes, 6.5 hours of sleep all by herself in her Pack 'n Play. This might not all that impressive as some babies sleep through the night at 2 months old. But, my babies? Do not sleep through the night at 2 months old. So I'm thrilled. Back to Jack... the little man didn't wake up until 7! Yes! Lately the only way to get him to sleep that late is to bring him into our bed and cuddle, which means good sleep for him, but not so much for me.

Here's our sleeping beauty still snoozing away.

Of course, Kevin is out of town to miss this night of sleep that probably won't happen again for a while. I guess the kiddos were taking it easy on me since we have a long, boring weekend ahead of us.

New York at Night

So I am in the big city enjoying a beer with my sister. Here is the Manhattan (financial district) skyline view from my sister's roof.

When All Else Fails...

Turn on PBS Kids. Yes, they are happily staring at the TV.

We are pretty much housebound this week and it is no fun for anyone. Jack has croup and is so snotty and hoarse, it's pathetic. Elizabeth has been healthy so far in her short life so fingers crossed she avoids this round of gunk.

The Sound of Music

Our bedroom is pretty much ridiculous these days. Imagine what this sounds like...
1. a monitor reciever to hear Jack through which we can hear 2. Jack's white noise machine playing his music and 3. his humidifier. Add 4. Elizabeth's white noise machine (since she's in the Pack n Play in our room) and 5. Kevin's fan for white noise.

For kicks we also have a monitor transmitter in our room to ear Elizabeth when she's napping.

Who the heck needs a machine for white noise when all this nonsense in going on?

Time For Change

Yes we can...convince Kate to cut Jack's hair. It is getting totally out of control. With the lack of humidity Jack has been doomed to have straight "Monkey's" looking hair and I want to cut it off so he looks like a nice, clean-cut, little man. So please take part in the vote and together we can overcome Kate's stubborness and let Jack return to his natural state of handsomeness. Make your voice heard by taking the poll on the right.

Oh yeah...our daughter is looking pretty ridiculous these days also. But she's a little girl and can get away with it.

I'm Cute Too

Jack didnt want anyone forgetting how adorable he was at two months, so here is a photo of them side by side.

Also, we just couldnt resist a side by side butt shot. (To get the same perspective I had to rotate Kate around)

Two Months Old!

Elizabeth Jane is two months old today! Man, time flies. She is doing very well and, thankfully, her fussiness/colic seems to be improving (though, she still has her moments). She spoiled us by sleeping between 5 and 6 hours at a stretch every night last week but seems to be in a bit of a growth spurt this week and is back to about 4 hours at a time.

Ellie is having longer periods of being awake and alert, which is lots of fun. She's improved her smiling technique and no longer looks totally cross eyed every time she grins.
At her two month well baby appointment she weighed in at 10 pounds, 1 ounce (15th percentile) and is 21 1/8 inches long (5th percentile!). What a shrimp! How in the world do we make small babies? I think what she lacks in size, she makes up for in cheeks, thighs and cuteness.

Hope you enjoy her monthly birthday photos!

15th percentile, my ass!

Time Out!

Jack's been, um... "testing" us a bit lately so we've started putting him in time out. We haven't had to resort to it often, only a couple of times, but it has already been pretty effective. We give him two warnings and if he doesn't change his behavior he has to stand on a tile ("his square") for a minute. And, apparently Jack got the message because the other day he put his train Emily in time out. I asked him why Emily was in time out and Jack said, "She not listen!" I nearly died laughing and, of course, grabbed the camera.

Here he is getting on Emily's level to tell her to stay in time out.Doesn't he look mad at Emily for misbehaving?
(Why, oh why, is my child never wearing pants?)

Elizabeth's Special Blankets

Sweet little Elizabeth is lucky to be spoiled by lots of adoring family, but there are two special handmade gifts that we will keep forever.

Memere, Kevin's mom, made Elizabeth a beautiful quilt. She was here in the fall when we were putting Ellie's room together so she knew the colors of the nursery. She went back to California and made a gorgeous quilt and gave it to Ellie for Christmas. The front side is ivory with a pink floral and green fabric and the back is a pretty floral.
Jack (with a plane tattoo on his hand) pointing out some details.Elizabeth's great grandmother on my side, Rappajeanne, knitted a sweet green blanket before she even arrived. It is so soft and just so happens to perfectly match the nursery. (She also made an adorable yellow one for Jack before he was born.)The diaper baby pictures were so fun last time we took some more today.

My favorite:

One of the Girls

Elizabeth went to a baby shower with me today and she was quite the little lady. That is, if you ignore the part when she pooped really loudly and everyone stared. Oh well, at least she looked like a lady. Here she is with the guest of honor, Liana; please appreciate the adorable flower barrette in her hair.And I just like this picture of her from the other night.

Edited on Monday to add what I forgot to ask: When does newborn baby hair usually fall out? Elizabeth's hair isn't / hasn't fallen out yet and, if anything, it's getting longer and thicker. It now hangs over her ears and the goofy receding hair line she had at birth is starting to fill in. I'm hoping we're in the clear and she won't lose any!

The Name Game

Jack recently learned to say his last name and it is super cute to hear his version of his full name. (He will even throw in the Robert on occasion.) Because we were talking about names, Kevin taught Jack our first names. It was cute at first that he could say Kevin and Kate, but it is weird when your two year-old says "Tate, T'mon, Jack room, pay choo-choo!" when he wants to play with his trains. I have been telling Jack, "You call me 'mama'" to which Jack once replied, "O'tay Tate."

Luckily, he's returned to calling us mama and dada (although, he's been calling Kevin "daddy" a lot), but he still has a very cute answer when we ask our names. Check it out:

*Sigh*

Man, that football game was depressing. We said we just wanted a good game, but that was more like a tease. We really thought they were going to pull off the upset. Oh well, less than 9 months until the college football season starts again. For what it's worth, we're rooting for Oklahoma on Thursday.

In some good news, Elizabeth slept for a 5 1/2 hour stretch last night! That might not sound like much, but we're impressed. And, not to compare our kids too much, but Jack didn't sleep that long at a time until he was, like, six months old so we'll happily take it now.

Let's Go Buckeyes!

The cutest little Buckeye fans ever.At some point during the photo shoot, Jack thought he was trying out for the football team rather than rooting for them. Ellie was a good sport and didn't seem to mind.And then the little fans got serious about really, really wanting Ohio State to beat Texas. Ohio State is number 1!

Last but not least, Jack the cheerleader saying "Go Buckeyes!"