Holden's first day of daycare

Today Holden went to his first day of daycare. (I also went back to work, but honestly, that's not nearly as interesting.) Holden is attending the same center as Scarlett, but she's in the "big girl" room while Holden is in the "baby room." This morning before we left, Scarlett decided to tell Holden all about school so he'd know the ropes before we got there."Baby Hoe-den...you go to baby school, baby Hoe-den? I too big baby school, baby Hoe-den. I go to big school, baby Hoe-den." Holden started to think that this baby school sounded pretty fun. He got excited.But when Scarlett told him that there were other babies to play with at baby school and that his days would no longer consist of sitting in Mommy's lap watching reruns of "A Baby Story" on TLC, "baby Hoe-den" got very excited. Very excited indeed. Check out this ham!! (How could you not smile while looking at this picture?!)

So that's it folks. I've got two kids. And now I've got two kids in daycare. Holden did very well for his first day. But how could he not? He's got a big sister just down the hall to look after him.

And just for old times sake, here's a picture of Scarlett on her first day of daycare almost exactly 2 years ago. Craziness.

Visitors!

This past week we were visited by some of our Canadian relatives. (To see their last visit, click here.) Scarlett and Holden's Grandad and Aunt Katrina came down - and Scarlett was in absolute heaven with all the attention. (I'm sure Holden was too, but he's a baby blob and couldn't really show it.) Scarlett followed her Aunt Katrina around everywhere, and even requested that Aunt Katrina sing her a lullaby at bedtime instead of me. (I shouldn't be offended, right?) We got quite used to Scarlett saying "my Grandad. My Aunt Katrina." Aunt Nachie (my other sister, Stephanie) was starting to feel left out. After all, Scarlett usually follows her around everywhere and says "my Aunt Nachie." Don't worry guys...Scarlett has enough pestering capabilities for all the Aunts in her family...and probably some other families too.
The first night we went out for Hibachi. Because Scarlett is petrified of seemingly random things (random things which currently include her own dog) we thought she would either love the Hibachi chef, or hate him. We were wrong. She did both simultaneously. With every giant flame or clang of the knife, Scarlett would shriek with joy (or fear) and grab Joe's arm like the girliest girl you'd ever see. Then the second it was over she'd ask for more. It was a definite hate/love relationship.
But then came the chopsticks. And the miso soup. And the lo mein.And the rice. Scarlett loves rice. In fact, she would eat it at every meal if I let her. (And I'm getting seriously close to letting her these days.) Hibachi = huge success. A few days later we went to a Bridgeport Bluefish game. I usually get so bored at sporting events, but we had a blast! We had an entire row of seats to ourselves - and we needed the room. Scarlett started off a little tired (we were running around so much that she had only gotten to take a 1 hour nap in the car).
This is accurately displayed in exhibit A).

But Uncle Keg knows just what to do to liven Scarlett up...

And so do mommy and daddy...heeellllllllloo cotton candy"Dear God, please let this cotton candy never ever end. Ever. Thank you. Love, Scarlett."Even baby Holden had a seat.
And looked dashing in his Yankees uniform.Aunt Nachie got some much needed attention.And, of course, so did Aunt Katrina. I started to feel bad that about 100 lb. Aunt Katrina had to carry about 28 lb. Scarlett around for most of the day...all day...everyday - but Aunt Katrina was pretty good about realizing that all hell would break loose if she put Scarlett down. The tickets to the baseball game were a Father's Day present to my dad from Stephanie and I. Because it was Father's Day, they were having some special events going on after the game. They were letting kids actually run the bases. Joe thought Scarlett might be too young - but I whole heartedly disagreed...and, of course, Aunt Katrina would run around the bases with her. (I volunteered her.) Poor Aunt Katrina. Poor, poor Aunt Katrina.

Please note the strict woman - screaming for everyone to "keep off the grass."

Please note my daughter - sprinting across said grass, happy as can be to have found a short cut.

Please note my youngest sister - sprinting after my daughter and looking in fear at all the staff who were yelling to keep off the grass. Stay Off The Grass. DO ANYTHING BUT PUT FOOT ON THAT GRASS PEOPLE!!!!

Oy. And we thought Scarlett might be an athlete.

And to sum things up, here's an adorable picture of my dad meeting his new grandson for the first time. Does it get any better? Thanks for the visit Grandad and Aunt Katrina. We all had a blast!

Alexandra's birthday party!

Oh man, we have gone to some cool birthday parties these past 2 weekends. This past Saturday we went to Alexandra's 2nd birthday party. It was a carnival themed party. Scarlett was very excited to go to the party because she knew Radhika and Alex would be there. (Although Alex was so busy I didn't get any pictures of her. This was a huge party!) She is starting to really recognize the difference between her little girl friends and boy friends (with the exception of Carson, of course, who is her best friend regardless of the fact that he does not seem to be interested in "princess girls"). Check out all the fun stuff at Alex's party...
Sno-cones. They could have just ended right there. Sno-cones people. Sno-cones. How cool?!But no...they had a moon bounce. Like a giant one. Scarlett was in heaven.She and Radhika bounced next to each other...and then sat next to each other...for quite some time. Seriously. The moms had to drag them out of there.Scarlett ran around barefoot for the rest of the party. Ahh, my little party girl. She and Rada were so cute together! Then Scarlett got a little crazy with the carnival top hats. Hey...at least it's not a lampshade.
The girls were trying to get us moms into the hat action.They tried very hard.We also had a pretty big first at Alex's party. Scarlett got her face painted! She sat so still and loved every second of it! She's such a girl. I thought she would smear the paint off in a matter of seconds but she was very careful not to ruin her "make-up." Come on...just look at her face in this picture. She is so proud of her star!
A little too proud maybe.Scarlett was not ready for the party to end. On the car ride home she decided to do back-up shrieking for Cypress Hill's "Jump Around." (And I came really close to crashing the car while trying to get her "singing" on video.)


Happy birthday Alex! We had a blast!

Check out this head control!

This morning I decided to introduce Holden to a little thing we mothers like to call "tummy time." I hated tummy time with Scarlett. Well...I hated it because she HATED it. I was shocked at today's results. With ease, Holden lifts his head and starts to look around. No struggle. No pained expression. Complete control. At his 2 week check-up, Holden's Dr. said that she thought he might be the strongest newborn she's ever seen. I snickered thinking she probably said that to everyone. Ummm...she might have been serious. Check this out... Pretty darn impressive for a five week old, if I do say so myself. Holden makes tummy time look good...quite literally.

They Might Be Giants

This past Sunday we went to see the Grammy award winning children's group, They Might Be Giants, for a free concert on the New Haven Green. It was AWESOME. Everyone had fun - both kids and adults. It was a beautiful night and there were tons of people there (I think an estimated 10,000 kids). I'm hoping that this concert will be the beginning of an awesome summer! We went with Carson (of course), and met up with a few other parents/kids while we were there. Finn joined us for a bit. And we saw Pippi, Ruby, Lyla, and Jonah...and August, Phoenix and Elias from church.

There was plenty of dancing going on.

Val got an awesome workout.

And Scarson had a blast...but they were together so what else could you expect?!

But Scarlett and Carson weren't the only ones dancing. Holden even got down a little bit too. He performed a dance choreographed by Joe. In case you didn't know, Joe is pretty famous for his infant choreography. (To see his previous works, click here and here.)
Val and I were asked by a stranger - again - if Carson and Scarlett were twins. We've seriously been asked this question about 5 times now. What is it they say about couples? They start to look alike after awhile?
After the show, we saw Scarlett's friend Josie...and they were adorable together.
And we held Josie's hand.And held it.And held it.

All the way to Josie's car. Looks like we're going to be having some girly play dates pretty soon.
Yay free concerts on the green!

Carson's rockstar birthday party

Carson had just about the coolest birthday party we've ever seen this past Saturday. He had live entertainment, musical instruments, and a ton of fun toddler friends there to help him celebrate. We went as "all out" as you can go - without embarrassing ourselves. (Unless...maybe we did embarrass ourselves.) Joe dressed like a rockstar. Holden wore his ACDC-esque "Lock up your daughters" t-shirt. Scarlett was supposed to be wearing a homemade Carson rock concert t-shirt...but finishing that project didn't quite work out in the hour we had before we left for the party. And we got Carson the Playskool Dance Cam as a present, so he can work on his awesome music video dance skills. There should be a ton of awesomely adorable photos immediately following these typed words, but alas, I FORGOT MY CAMERA'S MEMORY CARD. This has happened to me before. I charge the camera battery, remember to bring the camera, open it up and turn it on only to see the dreaded words "No Memory Card" across the camera's LCD screen. What it should say is "you idiot. you left the memory card in the computer again. stop doing that. dummy." I'm sending you over to Carson's website to see all the fun that went on. I'm also stealing this picture from Carson's website because I think Val is the only one who can convince Joe to actually take a family photo. Thanks Val!

Holden turns 1 month!

Oh Holden. It was one short month ago that your father and I were frantically rushing to the hospital to have you. I can't believe it's been a month! It's gone by so quickly, and yet, I barely remember life without you.
So...who is Holden? Scarlett sometimes calls him "baby Holden." Or sometimes calls him "baby brudder Holden." But she usually calls him "MY baby brudder Holden." (The "my" is essential, of course.) Holden is a cuddler. This is foreign territory to me. I feel like Scarlett was independent from day one. If we let him, Holden would spend all day every day curled into a little ball in our arms. (And sometimes, it's hard not to let him.) And this kid can EAT. (Even as I typed that sentence I had to walk away from the computer to feed him.) He's already in size 3-6 month clothing. He can shoot spit up out of his nose. He can also shoot poop projectile style out of his tush. It's seriously impressive. We've had to clean poop off of the wall on 2 separate occasions. When Holden gets really mad he cries really hard and he makes the cutest face and I can't help but to smile. Then I feel guilty about smiling because he's actually really pissed off. And we've nicknamed him Sharky. When he's hungry he does "shark attack," which means he flails his little face around with his mouth wide open ready to bite anything. (He does this a lot.) He's a great little guy and he's changing everyday. (Sigh.) When Holden was born he got a 10 on his Apgar score. The doctors were all amazed. They said it's rare for a baby to get a 10. So yeah - on a scale of 1-10, Holden was officially born a 10. (He's going to like that fact when he gets a bit older. I guarantee it.)

Ahhh, my little guys. Could life be any better?