Second skin

Now that the temperature is going up, I've been letting Ava run around outside in her diaper. She's really not an exhibitionist! I usually strip her clothes off before dinner if I know the meal is going to be really messy. We just keep her in her diaper until bath time.  She has gotten use to her "second skin" after dinner.  ;-)


Ava verbalizing her discontent.


These flowers look a little parched.


Hey, is it bath time yet?


How much is that Marley in the window....



Ava giving Marley a kiss through the screen.

Home Depot's Sponsor

We might as well be the sponsor because we have visited Home Depot every single weekend for the past two months. On Saturday we stopped by to pick up some minor stuff. We actually left the store spending less than $15! The kids even got free entertainment (balloons). Of course Home Depot was running a Memorial Day sale on grills so Michael ended up returning to Home Depot on Sunday to purchase a new grill. We didn't even get to initiate the new grill on Memorial Day because we went to Pop Pop's house for a BBQ.



Ava was trying to hold on to her balloon so it wouldn't fly away.

A walk in the park

We even did a repeat with the park in Washington Square. The last time we visited the park the fountain was empty. This time there was water in the fountain and there was a little boy swimming in the fountain. You aren't really suppose to be swimming in the fountain but the mother told Michael that she bribed the park attendant with a cigarette to let her boy swim. Whatever. Of course Sebastian couldn't understand why the boy was allowed to swim in the fountain and they couldn't even dip their feet in the water.

Repeat patron

After we visited the jewelry store we decided to go back to the restaurant Sebastian, Elizabeth and I visited last month. The restaurant has fresh baked goods every day and we tried out their monkey bread. It's basically a combination of a cinnamon roll and a glazed donut except that the dough is cooked in little balls so you can peel the monkey bread apart after it's baked. I think the monkey bread is suppose to resemble a monkey's paw? I'm not sure how they came up with the name. But it was delicious anyway.

Happy pre-anniversary to me

I had popped my diamond out of the setting about two months ago. This was the second time I've popped the diamond in the washing machine! I had dropped off the ring and diamond off at the jewelry store where we had purchased the diamond last month when I took Sebastian and Elizabeth to The Berenstein Bear play. On Saturday we went to the city to pick up my engagement ring. Of course I jokingly said to Michael in the car that I wondered when I was going to get an anniversary ring since our 10th anniversary is in June. Michael said that he had planned on making me pick something out while we were picking up my ring. I said "REALLY?" He said "of course." So here's the selection I made. I had to wait for the following weekend to pick up the anniversary ring because it had to resized. Yes, I was a dork and took a picture of the ring so I remembered what it looked like during the week long wait!!

The manly look

I couldn't help taking this picture the other morning when I dropped the kids off at the daycare. I saw "Mikey" strolling around in the classroom with his "man purse". I love how confident he looks too!

Ava's Amusement Park

Who needs to go to an amusement park on Memorial Day when you have a big pink car, a steep driveway, one voluntary participant and a motorized Daddy arm?  Here's a video and pictures of Ava and Daddy creating a home version of an amusement park ride.

Duck Duck Goose?

Do you remember that game when you were a kid? We saw some ducks waddling across the grass on our walk yesterday evening and Sebastian decided to play a little duck duck goose with them. I guess Sebastian and Ava were the geese?

Here ducky ducky....

Even teams, two against two....

And they're off...game over!

The baby of the family

Ah...to be the baby of the family. I was just commenting last night that I've forgotten what it's like to be the baby of the family. Both Michael and I are (were) babies of the families. It was funny to see Ava running around in her diaper and sneakers after dinner. She had food smeared all over her dress and she insisted on taking it off! It was a nice warm evening so I let her run around outside in her "skivvies". I don't know what it is about toddlers running around without their clothes on. At what age does it stop being so cute? I guess kindergarten??

We had dinner over at Grandmom's house last night. We got a special treat because she made chicken and dumplings and black eyed peas (comfort foods) and I got a night off from cooking. Grandmom took off from work all week and my Dad came over for dinner since Mom Mom is in Holland for two weeks.

New Milestones

This week has been a week of milestones. Since Michael's new job takes him on the road more frequently, we decided to put Sebastian in the before school program for the rest of the school year (which is about 1 1/2 months). So now I take the kids to the daycare every morning before work. Every morning, Sebastian will only give me a kiss and hug in the kitchen or in the car. But once he reaches the classroom, he will not have anything to do with me. I'll casually walk in the classroom and say "have a good day" and I'll reach over to hug him and he'll murmur under his clenched teeth, "okay, but we already hugged". I'll get that look like "don't even think about it!". It's not cool to display any PDA in front of the other kids. Now I knew this day would come eventually but I didn't think it was this year!! I have gotten better now that I've had a week of "practice" of not reaching over and squeezing the stuffing out of my son. Now Sebastian will stop in the hallway and say "you'd better give me a hug before we reach the door Mommy."






The next big event this week (for me that is), Ava is starting to finally put three word sentences together. Yesterday I was getting Ava ready for daycare. She was sitting on the kitchen table so I could put her shoes on. She had a green ball in her hand and she was saying "Ball, Ball" and I told her she had a ball in her hand. She pointed towards the basement and said ball again. I said again, "Ava, you already have a ball." and she replied "the other ball." I had to do a double take because I wasn't expecting her to respond to me like that. She usually communicates her wants by pointing and grunting because she's usually frustrated that she can't get the words out. But in the past few weeks, she has been observing her environment and things are starting to "soak in" with her. Especially during the day at the daycare. The teachers tell me she is doing a lot more talking now. Of course I'm missing all of it!! :-( It feels like I have been waiting forever to hear Ava "talk". We were spoiled with Sebastian being an early talker and it's not fair to make the comparison considering we know Ava had a rough start in language. My heart really did skip a beat when I heard Ava talk back to me. Trust me, in a year I'm probably going to eat my words but for right now, her verbalization is music to my ears!



























The good news is that my little man still LOVES storytime. It's the one thing he really looks forward to at the end of the day, no matter if he had a good day or not. That will be another milestone I'll be sad to see go. But we have several years before worrying about that ;-)

Welcome to the future

Two weeks ago Michael had to travel on a business trip. He had to fly out to South Bend, IN for a week so he took his mac book. We had tested the iMac capabilities a few weeks earlier and saw an opportunity for Michael to see the kids every night on this business trip. Here's a short video of the kids talking with Daddy from the comforts of our kitchen while Michael was sitting in the hotel room. Technology has certainly come a long way!

Green Day

After our Sunday brunch and before our realtor showed up, we finished planting the flowers in the beds and laid fresh mulch down. Sebastian wanted to make holes in our yard with a shovel and Ava wanted to water the entire garden.

Mother's Day 2009

This year we cooked brunch for the parents. Before eveyone came over, Sebastian wanted to give me his Mother's Day present. I love how he was excited to give me his present. It was home made sachets for my drawers. I told him it was exactly what I needed ;-)

Camp Mommy

While Michael was busy putting the finishing touches in the basement, I took the kids to Sebastian's piano lesson and then to the greenhouse to get some hanging plants for my front porch
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Donuts anyone?

Ava and I went to Dunkin Donuts one weekend morning to get latte's and breakfast because we were busting our butts to get the house ready before Mother's Day weekend. That's when our realtor was coming over to take pictures of the house and get the measurements for the house listing for the internet. Ava recognizes the Dunkin Donut's store front and got excited when I parked the car because she squealed and clapped her hands together. We had to pick up the dry cleaning which is in the same mall strip and we walked with our breakfast. Ava couldn't wait to get home to break out her munchkins. It was almost torture for her because she had to wait until she got home.