My Cheeky Bab[ies]

A girl and her dog

2012-02-17T08:32:00.002-05:00

Family Days at school

2012-02-03T16:55:00.000-05:00

Scarlett's classroom has been having Family Days for the past few weeks. This is where a family member of each student comes in to do a special art project, recipe, or hobby with the entire class. Scarlett asked that I read The Cat in the Hat to her class because, well..."it was just a perfect idea." (And it happened to be dress down day at school and football day at work - which explains our attire.)

Christmas 2011

2012-01-12T16:51:00.000-05:00

Christmas Pageant

2011-12-20T20:04:00.001-05:00

Christmas pageant at church. The kids were very excited - not only because they got to dress up in costumes, but we haven't been to church in, ahem, a bit too long (and here's the part where I complain about Joe's school and my school and Joe's softball team and my graduate thesis and, ahem ahem, blah blah blah.)

Holden started out as a Wise Man...

But wound up as an angel, just like his big sister, when he saw how awesome the wings and halo were.

The kids up on stage. We're talking seriously adorable.

After church, and for the first time ever, Scarlett wanted to talk about baby Jesus...and then adult Jesus. We had a very nice talk. I explained that He was a wonderful man that helped a lot of people and that's why people go to church - to celebrate Him. Scarlett said how she thought that must make Jesus' heart very happy. Then she wanted to know His story. And so I gave a very preschool-friendly lesson on the life of Jesus. Scarlett asked if she could talk about Jesus at school. And so I gave a very preschool-friendly explanation of the separation of church and state. I told Scarlett that other mommies and daddies might want to tell their kids another version of His story and we wouldn't want interfere with that. So then she asked if she could talk about Him with her teachers. Curious to know what she had retained from our little talk, I asked her what she would say to her teachers about Jesus. "Well...I'd say he's DEAD," Scarlett said. And so we're not going to talk about Jesus to teachers, either. At least not until we have a little more Jesus under our four-year-old belt. But, I'd say it was a successful start.

Cousins

2011-12-08T17:01:00.000-05:00

P.S. - New camera. I likey.

Christmas Tree - 2011

2011-11-27T20:34:00.000-05:00

This was brought to you by the letter "C"

2011-11-22T14:02:00.000-05:00

I recently bought a bag of pretzels. The pretzels are ring-shaped. Holden bit a pretzel, held it up to me and said "this is a C." Why yes, Holden. Yes it is. And now we will start working on letters with the boy.

A 4 1/2 year old Scarlett

2011-11-18T17:10:00.067-05:00

A 4 1/2 year old Scarlett looks like this:

(Here is me interviewing Scarlett)

1. What is your name? Scarlett
2. How old are you? Four
3. Who is your mommy? Lauren
4. What does mommy do? She takes me to school, makes me breakfast and comes to my ballet
5. Who is your daddy? Joe
6. What does daddy do? He plays monsters with us...and games
7. What is your favorite color? Pink and purple
8. What do you want to be when you grow up? A cooker
9. What is your favorite food? Broccoli
10. What food do you not like? Carrots and beans and pumpkin seeds
11. What is your favorite animal? A little cute kitten
12. Where do you want to live when you grow up? A building - a big one
13. What do mommy and daddy do after you go to bed? They do their exercises
14. What does daddy say? Can you please pick up your messes
15. What does mommy say? Can you say sorry to Holden
16. What is your favorite song? Baby You're a Firework
17. What is your favorite movie? Robin Hood
18. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Vanilla with sprinkles on top
19. Where is your favorite place to eat? McDonalds
20. Who is your favorite person? Holden
21. Who is your best friend? Minnie
22. Who are you going to marry? I didn't pick one yet
23. Where do you live? In Stratford
24. Do you like school? Yes
25. Favorite thing about school? Play at work time and go outside
26. Favorite letter? S

27. Favorite number? 12

28. Can you speak Spanish? *shakes head no*

A 2 1/2 year old Holden

2011-11-13T14:31:00.049-05:00

A 2 1/2 year old Holden...

Looks like this:

He sometimes looks like this:

Or this:

But usually looks like this:

A 2 1/2 year old Holden...

loves pirate ships
loves ketchup
hates (really hates) when he can't go to the IKEA playland with his sister because he is still too small

A 2 1/2 year old Holden...

has got some mean dance moves:
and really enjoys going to the dentist:

A 2 1/2 year old Holden...

answers questions with "of courwse!"
really enjoys wearing his backpack to school (but the second he gets to school he lowers his shoulders so the backpack drops off his back onto the floor and he just walks away as if announcing to the school - "I have arrived.")
loves Lightning McQueen...but usually calls him "Kachow"

A 2 1/2 year old Holden...

really loves his sister:

wants grapes and juice for a snack the second he gets home from school...so much so that he starts chanting "grapes, juice, grapes, juice" long before we've pulled into the driveway
will randomly say "bow chicka bom mow - shake my bootie, shake my bootie!" much to the delight of everyone who hears him

A 2 1/2 year old Holden...

really likes "bad guys" :

tends to repeat the last few words he hears someone say, which is unfortunate when you're presenting him with options ("pancakes or waffles, Holden?"..."yes...pancakes waffles!")
knows his shapes - and his favorite color is "Holden"

A 2 1/2 year old Holden looks like this:

Parent Observation at Dance

2011-11-05T20:35:00.002-04:00

Today was parent observation at Scarlett's dance school. It was pretty adorable. Most of the same girls Scarlett met last year are in her class again this year and it's so cute to watch them all progress. Here's a video from today's observation. Enjoy!

Halloween Night

2011-11-05T15:27:00.001-04:00

Despite a brief snow dusting that made most of Connecticut lose power for 2 days to...well...some may still not even have power back yet...we went trick-or-treating on Halloween.

Scarlett was a monarch butterfly and Holden was Lightening McQueen from Cars.

Blake even came over (with Nachie and Uncle Craig, of course) to go trick-or-treating with us.

And after a very successful night of trick-or-treating, we came back to the house to have a very successful night of handing candy out. (14 bags of candy gone in roughly 50 minutes.)

"Daddy...quick! Hand me another QUICK! SOMEONE IS COMING"

And that was our Halloween.

Some school happenings

2011-11-02T18:44:00.000-04:00

We had some fun stuff going on recently at both Scarlett's and Holden's schools. Scarlett's class had a butterfly release party. They raised 27 baby caterpillars, which then formed chrysalises and turned into monarch butterflies and the class released them so they could fly off to warm Mexico. For the release, the class dressed up as butterflies.

And then they had a mini-parade. Scarlett ditched her antenna for a yellow flower headband. (To make the video larger, click the arrow icon in the bottom right.)

And then...THE RELEASE!!

"Goodbye butterflies!!!"

"Goodbye!!"

A few of the kids made "wishes" for the butterflies and Scarlett's wish was displayed for everyone to see. Cute, huh? (And, so you know, the flower is Scarlett's symbol at school. Many Pre-K's assign symbols before children learn to read so they can use sight recognition, which is one of the first steps of reading, to determine what belongs to them and what belongs to other students.)

And then, at Holden's school, there was an adorable Halloween parade. Holden's class made train conductor costumes. It was really cute.

And we even got to see cousin Blake and his class, who dressed as cats.

And here is a short clip of a slightly confused Holden after the parade looking for his daddy.

So that's what my Goose and my Boog have been up to at school!

Guess who moved into a toddler bed?

2011-10-25T20:48:00.000-04:00

Tonight we moved Holden to a toddler bed...but not just any toddler bed. A fire truck toddler bed.

We didn't really need to buy this for him; we have Scarlett's old toddler bed ready to go in the basement. But we saw it (thank you, Craigslist) and knew he'd love it and decided he should have it.

He was a little shocked at first. And then he was very, very excited.

Holden and Scarlett played in the bed for a good 30 minutes before bedtime.

And, unfortunately, Holden cried when it was time to go to bed. Not because it was a rough transition from crib to bed, but because he didn't want to stop playing and go to sleep. So that's it...my baby is in a toddler bed and there are no more cribs in the house.

Face Painting at the Harvest Fair

2011-10-24T06:41:00.000-04:00

Scarlett's school held their annual Harvest Fair this Saturday. The kids very enthusiastically got their faces painted. Scarlett picked a butterfly:

And Holden picked a "pirate ship" - and he chased everyone around yelling "I a pirate ship. I a pirate SHIP. Argh!"

It's potty time!

2011-10-21T09:45:00.000-04:00

Holden used the potty three times last night. What's even better is he told us that he had to go. "Pee now, pee noooow" he'd say. We'd bring him to the potty and he'd pee. We're pretty psyched. We've had very good success losing the diaper at home and letting the kid go bare-bottom while training. This worked well for Scarlett, and appears to be working for Holden as well. Holden is actually skipping the little potty and going right to the adult one. I think it's a combo of wanting to do what Scarlett does and, really, his butt is just too big for the little potty. We'll keep you posted!

Thursday night dance party

2011-10-20T20:11:00.000-04:00

New haircuts

2011-10-16T13:37:00.000-04:00

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

We brought the kids to get haircuts this afternoon. Some might say the haircuts were long overdue. Particularly for Holden. We were trying to grow Holden's hair out a bit to see what it would look like long-er-ish. Turns out, the more hair he has, the bigger his head looks. And, unfortunately for him, he doesn't need any help in that department. So farewell, fun, surfer boy hair and hello, hair that makes Holden look like he's 12 years old. (Sigh.)

Oh. And Scarlett has layers. I don't even have layers.

The Pumpkin Patch - 2011

2011-10-16T10:19:00.000-04:00

Presents from Sweden!!

2011-10-06T20:27:00.000-04:00

It's not everyday that your doorbell rings and standing there is the mailman holding presents that were completely and totally unexpected (umm...yeah. Does that EVER happen?!), but that was the case tonight for Scarlett and Holden. They received presents from Mormor, Grandad, Aunt Katrina and Uncle Jonathan. And these were presents from Sweden which makes them extra cool. Here are the kids fresh outta the bath enthusiastically saying "CHEESE" (while simultaneously thinking "hurry UP WOMAN so I can open this!")

Smarties in a Cinderella dispenser!!

And Pippi Longstocking and a Pippi book and Mr. Nilsson, Pippi's monkey (not pictured).

And Holden got Smarties in a Cars dispenser!

(Geez...think he likes it?)

And Bamse (the world's strongest bear) and Lille Skutt (one of Bamse's trusty sidekicks)

And "Who Will Comfort Toffle"

We're saving the Smarties for this weekend though. If we gave the kids Smarties before bed it might have the same effect that dunderhonung has on Bamse (that's a little Swedish humor for you).
Thanks so much for the presents guys! The books were read at bedtime and the dolls/animals are being cuddled with as I type! Love you!

Open House - Norwalk Fire Station

2011-10-02T17:15:00.001-04:00

Yesterday we went to an open house at the Norwalk Fire Station. It was awesome. The kids had a blast and the weather was perfect (and for the first time in almost 9 months I wasn't stressed about my graduate thesis - which was awesome) and it was just a really nice day. The kids got to try out the fire hose:

And they got to go on-board fire trucks:

And drive fire trucks:

And there was only one mildly traumatic moment involving this fire truck below. See that front bumper? You know, the one that would make the Perfect Picture with 2 little kids seated on it? Well...I know from experience that the second you strategically place your kiddos on this particular bumper and back up 5 feet to take a picture, the kid who happens to be pretending to drive that same fire truck at that given moment will find the siren switch and scare the royal crap out of your sweet babies, who just so happen to be sitting next to the siren's speaker. And you will watch those sweet babies throw themselves off the bumper with no one there to catch them and they will fall hard on the ground and drop the cookies they are holding and the youngest one will sadly say "but, I dropped my cookie" for the next 4 hours because he's obviously traumatized. For life.

Yep...this fire truck right here. So, next time, we'll avoid this fire truck. But the rest were awesome and we had a ton of fun. Even though poor Holden is still upset about his cookie.

Scarlett at school

2011-09-23T16:49:00.001-04:00

Scarlett's teacher sent me a couple of cute pictures of Scarlett at school. Here she is sitting right up front at the morning meeting:

And here she is rocking the...well, rock wall in gym class:

6 years later...

2011-09-10T20:51:00.000-04:00

Photo taken tonight, on our 6 year anniversary, by our baby girl.

"Wasn't marriage, like life, unstimulating and unprofitable and somewhat empty when too well ordered and protected and guarded. Wasn't it finer, more splendid, more nourishing, when it was, like life itself, a mixture of the sordid and the magnificent; of mud and stars; of earth and flowers; of love and hate and laughter and tears and ugliness and beauty and hurt." ~Edna Ferber

First day of Pre-K 4

2011-09-07T09:11:00.002-04:00

Here is a picture of Scarlett - who is so incredibly excited to return to school today. (And, who happens to be wearing the smallest pair of navy blue knee highs imaginable to comply with the new uniform policy...and the knee highs are so big on her they go all the way up to her thighs.)

Yay school!

Hurricane Irene

2011-09-06T19:19:00.000-04:00

After Hurricane Irene was done, Joe and the kids and I went for a walk. It was pretty crazy. We walked to the dock that is a few blocks from our house. This is a road covered in reeds and other ocean debris from the massive waves that washed ashore.

Most of the roads close-by flooded.

When we got to the dock, there were a bunch of people there trying to find their boats.

Some of them were not too happy when they saw where they were.

This is someone's front yard.

Some people had actually tied their boats off to telephone poles. It must have worked - the reeds that are all over the street show how far the water came in.

We lost power from Sunday until Tuesday. Daycare had no power for a few days. There was a brief point where our water was considered undrinkable. But that's nothing compared to what some poeple lost.

We consider ourselves very lucky.

Scarlett's Hips Don't Lie

2011-08-24T18:18:00.000-04:00

Suzanne and Steve's wedding

2011-08-16T21:09:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, we went to Maine for Joe's cousin Suzanne's wedding. While we were only there for one night, it was a really, really great one night. Here are the kids all dolled up...

And Joe with the kids right after the beautiful ceremony at the beach.

The reception was AWESOME. We all had so much fun.
Here's a picture of Scarlett trying to catch the bouquet (look out, Carson)...

She did not catch it, but the woman who did kindly gave it to Scarlett anyway.

Holden rocked the dance floor. Here he is thinking he's leading Cotton Eyed Joe.

And, well, this picture kind of speaks for itself.

Here's Scarlett dancing with cousin Michelle...

And Holden stealing accessories.

And Scarlett walking around in my heels far, far better than I can even walk around in them.

And then, there's this.

(They're available for parties...for a minimal fee.)

Congratulations Suzanne and Steve! We had a fantastic time! And don't think we won't be taking you up on that offer to come visit you guys in Maine (and when I say "offer" I mean how I totally invited us to come visit you in Maine) We'll let you get settled in after the honeymoon. But call me the following week...K?

Canada - 2011

2011-08-15T20:51:00.001-04:00

Man...have we got some catching up to do. This has been, hands down, the craziest summer. Ever. At the end of July we went to Canada. It was such a fantastic trip and I got all home-sick, as always. Scarlett has talked about the trip non-stop and already wants to go back. Like now. I'm going to let the pictures do the talking - cause there's a lot of them. (Unfortunately, we got no pictures of Scarlett and Holden's Great Grandparents when we visited with them. But just know, we had a fantastic visit that involved presents, Swiss Chalet chicken, and a giant fish tank.)

The kid wants to color.

2011-08-04T14:34:00.000-04:00

Holden is a pretty quiet kid...especially when compared to his sister. Even at 2, he doesn't talk a whole lot. I think it's because, honestly, even if he tries to talk he can't fit a word in around Scarlett. (Heck...I can't even fit a word in around Scarlett.) And he never really has to talk because Scarlett does a lot of the talking for him - if she wants juice or a snack, he gets juice or a snack too. And if he does try to communicate and isn't successful, he'll get frustrated quickly...like any normal 2 year old. But last night Holden and I had a really nice moment and what better a place to share it than right here.

The kids will often sit at the dining room table and color or play with playdoh...it's their artsy-project place. Scarlett was already there playing with some paper dolls when Holden came running up to me. He had a confused look on his face, but he slowly and calmly said "MORE CAYNS." I had no clue what the poor kid was asking for. Joe chimes in - "more kiss?" Holden patiently shook his head no. "Do you want to play a game?" I asked. Holden patiently shook his head no. He repeated slowly..."MORE CAYNS"...Then I had it. "Crayons? Do you want to color?" And Holden's little face lit up. "Color!" he beamed. He was obviously proud of himself for getting his point across. And I was proud that he remained so patient and asked to do something independently of Scarlett. And so I gave him some crayons and a coloring book, and he colored his little heart out with a huge smile on his face.

Booga Booga Booga BOOO!

2011-07-11T21:13:00.000-04:00

We've got a new thing in our house. When Boog is on a roll with something (i.e. dancing, spinning, running, etc.) We shout "Booga Booga Booga BOOO!" and on the "BOOO!" we raise our arm up like a super hero taking off. (Holden added that last part all by himself.)

See...our Boog is quite the little character and this chant, for some reason, just fits him perfectly.

So we do it...a lot.

And without fail, like Holden, the chant always makes us smile.

Booga Booga Booga BOOOOOOOO!

Garbage Museum with Uncle Jonathan

2011-07-11T20:48:00.000-04:00

Uncle Jonathan came down for a visit recently so we brought him to the Garbage Museum in Stratford. We had never been before and, let me tell you, the kids LOVED it. We were immediately greeted by a giant dinosaur made from trash.

Scarlett and Holden ran around investigating everything.

"CHHEEEEEEESSSSEEEEEEE!!!"

There was a little play store there that Scarlett didn't want to leave.

And a mini garbage center.

And then....AND THEN...we saw real live trucks handle garbage.

Holden couldn't contain his excitement.

"GARBAGE TRUCKS!! (bumble gum tum blah blah) COOL!! (blah humbug humble bug blah bumble) COOL. Garbage trucks. COOL! Bye! Buh-bye, truck. Uh-Oh!"

He grabbed Uncle Jonathan and the boys looked at trucks...

while the girls did this.

Well...good morning!

2011-07-01T08:34:00.000-04:00

Hard not to smile when your day starts with Froggie boots and Puppy.

Scarlett's Dance Recital - "Steppin' Out 2011"

2011-06-27T19:14:00.000-04:00

Scarlett had her dance recital this past weekend. She loved every single second of the attention. She ate it up...with a spoon even. Check out her "I own this" stride as we're walking up to the joint.

And here she is all decked out in ballet garb.

And with her (very, very proud) dad.

And nan. (And Larry...who was busy snapping all the great pictures.)

A nice "3/4 of a family" shot.

Did I say she was loving the attention? (I think I may have.)

And (drumroll please) here is the footage. This is actually from the dress rehearsal (we couldn't film the recital). It is not the best quality. It goes in and out of being decent and pretty horrible - the lights made it hard to get good video and there is a man who comes dangerously close to blocking my camera in the first 30 seconds of the clip - but, you get the point. (The best way to view it is to click on the two arrows in the bottom right of the box and make it full screen. Scarlett is the fifth little girl from the left.)

Pretty cute, huh?

Here is a picture of the finale. You can see how far back we are so there is no way that Scarlett could have made us out in the crowd.

But when Larry zoomed in with his camera - well...just check out her face.

Congratulations, Scarlett. You did fantastic and we are so incredibly proud of you!

And look out! Come September, Scarlett takes tap.

Slippery floors, little brothers, and other hazards of tap dancing

2011-06-23T20:00:00.000-04:00

Now that she's finished Intro to Dance, Scarlett will be starting a combined tap and ballet class in the Fall. We got her tap shoes today. She liked them when we first got them...I'm hoping she still likes them.

What a difference a school year makes

2011-06-21T08:22:00.000-04:00

First day of Pre-K 3

(9/7/10)

Last day of Pre-K 3

(6/21/11)

Today is Scarlett's last day in Pre-K 3 at Side by Side.

She has had such a fantastic year.

This program combines 3 and 4 year olds; the children who started while 4 are heading off to kindergarten and the children who started while 3 (like Scarlett) will be "moving up" to be the OLD kids in next year's room...with a new set of 3 year olds. Scarlett admired the older girls all this year because their responsibility is to help the younger kids. She is super psyched to be an old kid/helper next school year. And then after Pre-K 4 - it's kindergarten (gulp)...and that same year Holden will be starting Pre-K 3 (double gulp).

Bye, Side by Side! We'll see you in 12 weeks!

My - how things change

2011-06-20T17:52:00.000-04:00

Scarlett the two-year-old toddler eating corn - circa June 2009.

Scarlett the four-year-old teenager

mad at me for taking her picture while eating corn - circa June 2011.

My - how things change.

Dear Holden,

2011-06-17T17:59:00.000-04:00

Dear Holden,
With every waking day, could you please stop looking more like a little boy and less like a baby. You're breaking your momma's heart.
Thanks,
your momma

"Scarlett and Holden"

2011-06-16T08:37:00.000-04:00

Scarlett drew this picture of her and Holden.

And if you're anything like me you'll be incredibly curious as to what, exactly, is all over Scarlett's face.

Well...that would be freckles. And, ahem, make-up. Blush, lipstick, AND purple eyeshadow with "pretty eyelashes"...to be exact.

(If she starts drawing boobs at 4 I'm sending her to boarding school.)

Sigh...at least the bow is cute.

Boog gets stuck

2011-06-16T08:21:00.000-04:00

Our Boog gets stuck. A lot.

Look! It's a Boog-in-a-box.

And a Boog-in-a-babydoll-crib.

And, might I add - Boog never finds his stuckedness as funny as we do.
Poor Boog. Poor, Poor (hee hee) Boog.

Well hello, Summer.

2011-06-07T19:51:00.000-04:00

The new playscape

2011-05-28T07:31:00.000-04:00

Scarlett and Holden's Great Grandparents sent them some birthday money. They asked that I pick out a present that Scarlett and Holden would enjoy. Man, have I done just that. Folks, please meet the new playscape:

I found this second-hand playscape on Craigslist. It rocks. I was a bit of a Craigslist junkie in the past couple of weeks looking for the perfect playscape and trying to coordinate a time where we could pick it up before someone else came along and bought it. Brand new, this playscape would have cost $400!

The kids LOVE it.

And Joe and I love it too. Like REALLY love it. We've been able to sit on the back deck and talk uninterrupted while the kids play in the yard. It's heavenly. Thank you for the present G-Gma and G-Gpa!

May-hem 2011

2011-05-27T21:12:00.000-04:00

Here is my May-hem post of 2011 - birthdays, parties, and birthdays again. May, understandably, is packed for us. It started with Holden's 2nd birthday on the 13th. He woke up and looked older. (It kind of broke my heart a bit.) There was a birthday shirt for daycare...

and cake, of course, for after dinner.

And then came the kids' party. It was a Toy Story hoedown. Scarlett and Holden wore Jessie and Woody shirts and we handed out awesome cowboy hats and bandanas.

Lots of our favorite kids were at the party...and I stole most of these pictures from their mothers. As usual, we were running around like maniacs and were too busy to take pictures.

Gio was there

and Gwen and Jack.

Carson

and Raleigh

and Jasmine and Minnie to name a few.

Lots of fun was had.

maybe too much fun.

Hugs were given.

Lots of hugs.

Some ended more gracefully than others.

...much more gracefully.

And then Goose turned 4 on the 18th!
Birthday shirt for school...

and cake for after dinner (sound familiar?)

Yay May-hem!!

Don't ever grow up

2011-05-23T11:08:00.000-04:00

Joe and I were getting the kids ready for bed last night. They were all p-jammied up and we were cuddling and reading stories together and WHAM!!...Joe gets hit hard with a "please don't ever grow up" moment. You know the moment...it suddenly hits you like a ton of bricks - that feeling where you really wish your children would stay this small forever.
Joe told Scarlett not to get any bigger. She began to tell him that she had to get bigger because, well...that's just what kids in a family do. But then, as she was talking (and talking, and talking), she started to get worked up about something. She said "I can't talk about this anymore or I'm going to start to cry...(tears start rolling down her cheeks) SEE dad! (now sobbing) I'm CRYING!!"
I give her a huge hug. I ask her to take a deep breath and explain to me why she's upset. She tells me she's sad because one day her and Holden will get bigger and have to go off by themselves and she doesn't want to. She wants to stay with us forever. She never wants to grow up and go to...Canada. (Yes. Canada.) The kid was hysterically sobbing because she thinks that one day she would grow up and would have to go to Canada without Joe and me. It took me 30 seconds to realize that she was confusing Canada with college.

Happy 4th birthday, Scarlett

2011-05-18T09:00:00.003-04:00

I brought you and your brother to the movies a few weeks ago. Before the movie started (and despite the fact that I was chasing your brother down the aisles) I glanced over at you and you were singing along to "Firework" as it was playing in the background of some preview for a movie about prom. For a brief moment, I was awestruck. You were beautiful. You couldn't possibly be mine. You were self-sufficiently sitting in your seat (sitting, admittedly, at the very edge so the seat didn't flip up and swallow you) and you were in your own little world, obviously very pleased that this particular song was playing, a song I wasn't even aware you knew (and did I say you were beautiful? I think I may have). I will remember the sight of you at that particular moment for a very, very long time.
I spent quite a while thinking about just how to write this post. I didn't understand why it was taking me so long - far, far longer than any other year - to figure out what to write to you...and then I realized I wasn't approaching it correctly. I didn't want the same little montage of all the "big girl" events and milestones that had happened to you in the past 12 months. While those things certainly exist and are in no way insignificant, they aren't an accurate representation of this past year with you. In this past year you've sprouted into such a...person. This is the first year that I felt like in addition to the things your father and I tried to instill in you, like manners, patience, and consideration, your own characteristics and talents began to emerge. Like ambition, sociability, and your love of story-telling and art. I am so incredibly proud of the person you are becoming...but I'll never complain if you fall asleep in the car and I get to carry you, sleeping in my arms, into the house.
Baby you are a firework.
Happy birthday, Scarlett.

Happy 2nd birthday, Holden

2011-05-13T12:36:00.000-04:00

No way. I can't believe you're 2, baby boy. I'm not buyin' it.

But, alas, it's true. That squishy, bite-able baby Munch has turned into a little boy. If you see a stick, you pick it up and poke stuff. If you see a mud puddle, you walk right into it. Rocks get thrown. Sisters get tackled. You climb up and dive off of furniture. You sing Tenor in the "NO!"-llelujah Chorus. Jokes about football are constantly made in your presence. We hold our breath when you're near anything breakable. You scrape your knees and don't cry. You have boundless energy. And one nasty temper.

But while you're undeniably all boy - you're the sweetest little boy I've ever known. You're the perfect combination of tender-rough and tumble. You love to hug, cuddle, and dance. All is right in your world if you're tired and Puppy is by your side. You yell "FUN!" when you're really enjoying something (and it makes my heart all warm inside that we get to hear you yell "FUN!" a lot). Without hardly saying anything, you make the entire family laugh. Whether you're shouting "bye-bye dinner" as we're leaving a restaurant, or following us around the house with a pair of your sister's shoes asking us to put "Shoe on, Shoe on," or how whenever you hear the word "big" you immediately lift up your shirt to show everyone your tummy...even if that's not what we were even talking about - at all. You crack us up, kiddo. We absolutely adore you. And despite the fact that you're now 2, you'll always be our baby guy.

I could not have found a better song to represent this past year with you; while your desires are simple - they're essential. All you ever need is a song in your heart, food in your belly, and love in your family.

Happy birthday, Boog.

Holden and Gwen sitting in a tree

2011-05-09T07:55:00.001-04:00

Holden and Gwen

sitting in a tree.

H-U-G-G-I-N-G

First comes love,

then comes marriage,

...especially if their moms have anything to do with it

(Artistic license taken)

GGGGGOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!! (Or Scarlett starts soccer in soccer language)

2011-05-03T13:02:00.000-04:00

Scarlett started soccer last night. To say that this was a highly anticipated event would be an understatement. We could NOT wait for this day to come. Seriously.

Joe and I have always been competitive. I've played sports since I can remember and was always pretty athletic. (I would by no means call myself an athlete now, but I held 4 school records when I graduated high school - the mile, the 2 mile, the 4 x 800 relay for track and the 200 freestyle relay for swimming...ahem, ahem. They may all have been beaten since I graduated (they totally were)...but still. Those records were mine at one point.) And Joe continues to play in old man, ahem, competitive town football and softball leagues. And he's good. We were curious to see if our kids would be athletic and competitive.

So far, at least one of them TOTALLY is. She's one of the youngest on the team, and a good head shorter than most of the other kids. This league is for 4-5 year olds and, as most of you are aware, Scarlett won't be 4 for a couple more weeks. They're letting her play because she'll be 4 when the league is in session.

And who would have guessed that our princess-loving baby girl would totally kick butt and take names?! She LOVES soccer, and we hadn't even so much as kicked a ball with her before. Initially, she had some trouble comprehending the "no-hands-on-the-ball" rule, cause it would seriously be so much easier to just pick the damn thing up and put it right where you want it, but after about 20 minutes she had her technique down. And it is quite an adorable little technique, if I do say so myself.

This is instructional soccer, so there will only be scrimages, not real games. Here is Scarlett's first one-on-one scrimage with another little boy on her team.

Not too shabby for a first try, huh? She's focused, determined, and knows the objective. And she even got it into the right net! After the one-on-one's, the coach then went on to split the whole team into 2 and they played a real scrimage. Scarlett's team wasn't doing that well so she got frustrated. When the gave away a goal, Scarlett yelled "I don't like to lose!" When it happened a second time she yelled "not again!" She looked over at Joe and me and gave us a big ol' thumbs-down gesture. This got a good laugh from the other parents and one of the moms said "she has got so much...spirit!" (So that's what they call it these days.)

We both were incredibly proud of Scarlett, but Joe couldn't contain his excitement with the fact that we had obviously produced an athletic child. Have you ever seen him smile so big? This morning I totally caught him uploading some soccer pictures from the computer onto his phone so he could show his friends at work.

Holden was very intrigued by the mini soccer cones. They kept him busy for a good 20 minutes. "Hat! Hat...hat dada. Hat!!" But we're thinking baseball might be his sport. (P.S. - the bat he's holding is craaazzzy heavy.)

Daffodil Festival - 2011

2011-05-03T08:47:00.000-04:00

This past Saturday we went to the Meriden Daffodil Festival. We seriously love this festival. Every year that we've gone it's somehow managed to be one of the first truly warm weekends after what felt like a very, very long winter. We're able to shed our jackets and spend an hour or two in the sun. To me, this festival is the start of our summer.

We got the requisite "kids in front of daffodils" picture. (Admittedly, not one of our bests. They were both in wonderful moods and very cooperative but I could not for the life of me get them to look at the camera at the same time. Story of my life.)

Holden taking the time to stop and smell the flowers...then promptly rip them apart.

This was the first time we trusted Holden enough to sit next to Scarlett and go on a ride. He LOVED it.

Watching them go round and round together on this ride made me a little more emotional than it probably should have. I just can't believe they're about to be 4 and 2. When you go to festivals like this year after year, it's incredibly apparent how much your children have aged in the past year. (Wah.)

Sigh...my little guys.

After the cars, we went on the carousel.

I spent the ride trying very hard not to bite Holden's cheeks. I succeeded.

Then we went and saw the animals. Holden immediately pulled himself up on the fence like so:

And yet another conversation ensued about how big he's gotten since last year.

We had corn dogs for lunch.

And then Scarlett danced in front of what must have been 200 people watching a performance. I swear I wish I had HALF the courage this kid displays on a daily basis.

This was the start of what I'm sure will be a fantastic and eventful summer!

Easter 2011

2011-04-30T19:17:00.000-04:00

We had a fantastic Easter! The kids woke up ready to hunt for eggs.

Holden was super-psyched to collect the eggs.

And even more super-psyched to find out what was inside the eggs.

CANDYYYYYY!!

We got dressed for church...

Tried to pose for a picture - had mild success.

Then went to Nan's house for dinner.

And the highlight of the day was, of course, everyone getting to hold Blake.

And for the first time Holden really seemed to pay attention to Blake - which is awesome because I have some pretty high hopes that these kiddos will be best buds in the months to come.

They even played together. Maybe. Kind of.

Well...maybe "play" is a bit strong - but they acknowledged each other. And we all got a kick out of it.
So that was our Easter!

Red Sparkly Shoes

2011-04-20T06:58:00.000-04:00

Reason #437 why I adore my husband. Joe doesn't cringe when Holden decides that, well, he really wants to wear Scarlett's red sparkly shoes.

In fact, not only does Joe not cringe - he runs and grabs the camera.

sneak peek

2011-04-16T11:09:00.000-04:00

Here is a sneak peek at Scarlett's dance recital costume. We got to try them on at the studio this morning. You have no idea how happy this made, well, BOTH of us. (I almost cried.)

"Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear?"

2011-04-15T22:11:00.000-04:00

"I hear a Flamingo fluting in my ear."

Scarlett's class put on a play tonight. They performed the book "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear?" Scarlett was cast as the Flamingo. She rocked it. Totally rocked it. Here she is practicing before we left for the show.

Nan came with us which made Scarlett very happy!

Here is Scarlett's class walking into the dressing room (i.e. classroom) to get into their costumes.

And - here is the performance!

Look at how focused she is! She kept still and kept in character the entire time she is up there. And she is the only kid that I could hear or understand. And she totally knew her line - "I hear a zebra braying in my ear." She didn't even need to look back to SEE the next animal to remind her of her line - she knew it! I am so proud of her!

Good job, Goose!!

Happy boy

2011-04-14T21:25:00.000-04:00

Wait for it...

ROOOOAAARRRR!!!

Hee hee hee.

Meet Puppy

2011-04-14T14:32:00.000-04:00

Hello, folks. I would like to introduce you to Puppy.

See...Puppy is Holden's best bud. Holden seriously loves Puppy - he sleeps with him every single night. (Except for one night when Puppy was in the washing machine and, well, we'll just say it wasn't a good night for any of us. Except maybe Puppy....because he was no longer covered in vomit.) The story of how Puppy came to live with us is an interesting one - especially considering how much Holden adores him. It all started at IKEA about 3 years ago.

(fade into black. Scene opens on a mom and dad pushing 1-year old girl in an IKEA shopping cart.)

Joe and I had brought Scarlett to IKEA for a shopping trip. She must have been about 1. And we were pushing her in a shopping cart. We love IKEA - no question about it. And this trip was no different than any other. We ate. We let Scarlett play in the kid area. We gave her a stuffed toy to hold (Puppy), a toy that Joe would casually sneak out of the cart before we got up to the cash registers, and we went shopping.

Scarlett and Puppy really hit it off. So much so that when we did get up to the cash register, there was no sneaking Puppy out of the shopping cart casually. It was more like "pry the fingers of a screaming 1-year old off of Puppy and get the heck out of there quick before someone calls child services." Only that didn't quite happen. I caved. You see, Scarlett really seemed to love Puppy and I couldn't be the one to break up what would obviously be a lifelong friendship. She was thrilled when I bought Puppy. And when Scarlett got to the car she threw Puppy on the ground and never looked at him again. Ever. Puppy (who, actually, wasn't even CALLED Puppy yet - no one had taken the time to name him) stayed at the bottom of a toy chest for over a year.

And then came Holden. Holden scooped Puppy up and loved him more than he's ever been loved before. And it's so funny to me because there isn't this romantic story to go along with Puppy. He wasn't given to Holden when Holden was born. He wasn't some fancy stuffed animal from F.A.O. Schwartz. Puppy was some random stuffed animal we grabbed at IKEA to occupy our daughter while we were shopping and, quite frankly, Puppy almost went to Goodwill numerous times. But what is one child's trash is another child's treasure. And while I wish Joe and I had come up with a better and more original name than Puppy, I'm happy Puppy is in Holden's life. And so is Holden. And instead of staying at the bottom of the toy chest for years, Puppy is at the head of Holden's bed being loved every single day...and, only occasionally, thrown-up on.

Bubbles and Tattoos

2011-04-09T18:38:00.000-04:00

All boy

2011-04-03T09:06:00.000-04:00

Holden is big. Joe and I are okay with that (not like we have any choice in the matter).

For those of you who don't get to see him on a regular basis, he's is very proportionate...but he is proportionately massive. He is 95th percentile across the board for height, weight and head circumference. (And, to let you know, they stop measuring at 95th percentile.) Yesterday, I had three strangers tell me Holden was going to be a football player. (I'm not even kidding. It happened once at his swim class, once at the library and once at Ikea.) He's just flat out big.

So, being the big beefcake bruiser that he is, it should come as no surprise that he is going to get hurt. What does come as a surprise is how well he handles it.

Exhibit A: Giant gash on cheek.

We aren't even sure how he got this one. We left him alone for about 5 minutes and when we walked back into the room he was playing with his toys with a massive and deep gash on his face (that may, unfortunately, have scarred because the remnants are still there). He never even made a peep when it happened. All smiles, this kid.

Exhibit B: Holden's first black eye.

This one was scary. Holden was standing on the couch (which, I know, sounds like a horrible idea but can be completely unpreventable with an almost 2 year old) and he fell forward and landed on the corner of coffee table. His eye did, anyway. He cried for no more than 10 seconds, and went right back to clambering all over everything while his eye almost swelled shut and turned an impressive shade of purple.

So, I guess this is all part of having a beefcake bruiser of a baby boy. Outside of a few minor incidents with his sister, Holden has yet to use his size in an aggressive manner. We're hoping it stays that way...until it's football time, anyway.

Field Trip to Maritime Aquarium

2011-04-03T08:09:00.000-04:00

Scarlett's class took a field trip to The Maritime Aquarium recently. I signed up to be a chaperone. It was pretty adorable. Scarlett was very excited when her friend, Mia, was assigned to be her "field trip buddy." Can you tell?

The kids all got their museum "licenses" which they wore around their necks and got stamped at all the learning stations the museum had set up.

And, of course, we saw fish.

And turtles.

And completely took over this fishing boat for about 15 minutes.

A fishing boat totally manned by 3 to 5 year olds? Very successful indeed.

See? Told ya. After about 5 minutes on the boat, Scarlett even managed to start to look like a fisherman.

Then we walked to the Penguins.

Which may have been everyone's favorite.

Just may have been.

Yay Maritime Aquarium!

Scarlett's music videos

2011-03-23T19:38:00.005-04:00

Scarlett often asks me to put on music videos so she can dance. The funny thing is, she actually watches the video and tries to dance like the dancers in the video do. Sometimes she gets it pretty good. Sometimes not so much. But her dancing has gone from that crazy "throw yourself around" kinda dancing to a slightly more graceful "throw yourself around" kinda dancing. And she likes to dance in front of the fireplace so she can see her reflection. Oh Scarlett - you're so vain. You probably think this blog is about you. Don't you? (Don't you?)

And for all those who are concerned with the apparent choice in music, Scarlett likes The Beatles and Bob Marley too.

Loving "the chudder"

2011-03-21T12:08:00.000-04:00

Joe is one happy man right about now

2011-03-17T16:25:00.005-04:00

Turns out, Holden loves him some basketball.

Parent Observation at ballet - part 2

2011-03-07T18:02:00.028-05:00

Last weekend was the second parent observation at Scarlett's ballet school. Because Joe has started bringing Holden to swim lessons while Scarlett is at ballet, Nan came with us to observation. She even brought Scarlett flowers...because that's what ballerinas get after they've danced. Here are some pictures:

This last video is the beginning of their recital performance. How stinkin' cute.

Madonna

2011-02-28T16:16:00.005-05:00

Scarlett tried to take the bow out of her hair all by herself. She wound up looking like this:

Then, incredibly proud of herself for looking crazy, she didn't want me to take the bow out of her hair. This is what she said. "I look like Madonna, don't I? This is how Madonna looks and I want to look like Madonna forever. And after I look like Madonna I want to be a pony. And then a headband."

Dad's wallet

2011-02-21T18:24:00.004-05:00

Holden really likes Joe's wallet. He grabs it and runs to this particular corner in the dining room and, well, basically shushes us if we ask him to give it back. And just for good measure, he'll throw a "NO!" and "MINE!" in there too.

Thomas the Tank Engine

2011-02-20T07:55:00.005-05:00

Scarlett rarely lets Holden watch any type of "boy" TV show, so he gets a little excited when one is coming on.

Some hungry ducks

2011-02-19T19:05:00.020-05:00

Today we may have jumped the gun a little bit on Spring. We went to feed ducks. It was cold. The ducks were hungry.

And there were lots of them.

Lots.

They were so hungry that they came right up to us. Like RIGHT up to us.

The kids had a blast though. Unfortunately, we went through an entire loaf of bread in about 7 minutes...

and our hands got really cold. Like really, really cold.

So we went to feed ourselves at Friendly's.

Unstoppable

2011-02-17T08:50:00.001-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T16:53:00.005-05:00

First Family Portrait

2011-02-09T10:07:00.006-05:00

Here is Scarlett's first Family Portrait (click picture to see larger view).

Please note the following:

No one has arms.

She considers herself a grown-up and yet Holden is still a baby.

Link has four legs and a long nose.

We all look miserable.

I love it.

Writing

2011-02-08T18:40:00.002-05:00

Now that she's learned to write her name, Scarlett has moved on to write other very important stuff on her art...like "VOTIFO" which means "Scarlett drew this for mommy and I love you, sweet mommy." - obviously.

Before ballet begins...

2011-02-05T14:47:00.003-05:00

Here are a few baby ballerinas huddled around a mom's iphone watching "The Nutcracker" before their instructor calls them into the studio for class.

Disney on Ice

2011-02-04T19:51:00.008-05:00

At the end of January, I was an incredibly brave momma and brought both kids to see Disney on Ice (tix courtesy of Aunt Nachie and Uncle Craig). I rarely bring the kids to the grocery store solo so bringing them to a crowded arena was self-back-patting worthy, especially when I had to lug 32lb Holden around while holding Scarlett's hand at the same time through the crowds because it was too packed for a stroller. (I'm still patting myself on the back - can't you tell?) But it was totally worth it. They had a blast. I didn't know what Holden would think about it, honestly. But he loved it. I dressed the kids in their matching Mickey and Minnie Mouse t-shirts, and...well...I was pretty proud of myself for that too. But, since this is starting to sound like a "Lauren is way too proud of herself" post instead of a "Lauren's kids had fun at the Ice Capades" post - I'll digress. The kids each got to pick out a toy during intermission. Scarlett got Ariel:And Holden got Mickey:The show itself was very fun and we got to see everybody. And I do mean everybody.

Yay Disney on Ice! (And Yay Lauren...just kidding. Kind of.)

A "Feel Better" card from Grandma and Aunt Melissa

2011-01-26T16:38:00.000-05:00

At Rapunzel's birthday party

2011-01-26T16:36:00.001-05:00

Check this out

2011-01-20T18:09:00.010-05:00

Scarlett and I had a "girl's after-school out" today. (We'll save our "girl's nights out" for when she doesn't have a 7pm bedtime.) We went to Chocopologie in South Norwalk for an awesome pot of fondue and a cupcake as big as Scarlett's head. It was really nice. The waiter brought over a handful of markers and Scarlett was in heaven drawing pictures. Not thinking much of it, I casually asked her to write her name so the waiter would know what her name was. And you know what? She totally did. Observe: For the record, I did not help her at all with this. (I was eating awesome fondue, if you recall.) I simply suggested she write her name and I didn't even look at her until she said "I did it!" And she did do it. And despite the fact that we haven't even been working on writing her name - it's pretty damn perfect...if I do say so myself (and I just did). And when that proud little girl ran over to the waiter, without a second of hesitation he said "Scarlett!! What a beautiful name!"

And I'm quite certain I was shooting laser beams of pride out of my eyeballs.

One sick little girl

2011-01-17T09:16:00.006-05:00

We had gotten a lot of snow recently. In fact, Scarlett's school was cancelled both Wednesday and Thursday of last week, so I stayed home from work with her. You can imagine the inconvenience of it all when she suddenly spiked a really high fever on Thursday night and we realized that someone would need to stay home with her on Friday too. (Joe's turn.)
As she tends to do when she has a high fever before going to bed, Scarlett vomited throughout most of the night. Friday came and her fever was up to 102.7 - it was controllable with Tylenol and when we called her pediatrician we were told that there is a stomach bug going around (which is true) and not to bother coming in.
But Scarlett continued to complain of a sore throat for the next two days and she wasn't eating or drinking much of anything. She was also complaining that her tongue hurt. Her fever got up to 103.7 on Sunday, and I noticed that she had broken out in a bit of a rash on her stomach. I called her pediatrician again (who, thank god, was open on Sundays from 9-12 for emergencies only) and they told me to bring her in immediately. Turns out, she had scarlet fever. And while that sounds really bad - it's not. Well...it could be bad if left untreated, but we're obviously treating it. Scarlet fever is a really bad case of strep throat with a few more accompanying symptoms. Scarlett's pediatrician told me that she wished she had one of her medical students with her because Scarlett was a textbook case of scarlet fever. From the rash to her tongue to the strep throat - she displayed all the symptoms perfectly (unfortunately for her). They did a quick strep test in the Dr.'s office which came back as possitive for strep in about 30 seconds instead of the 6 minutes she told me it usually takes, and wrote a prescription for an antibiotic that has worked WONDERS in the 24 hours she's been on it. So - Scarlett is doing much better and will be able to return to school tomorrow, but man. She was a miserable little girl for those 4 days.

Coloring Books

2011-01-15T19:48:00.007-05:00

Scarlett loves to color. We've moved her coloring supplies to a reachable spot (that Holden has yet to discover) and Scarlett will go get them numerous times throughout the day, set herself up at the table, and color...for great lengths of time. It's absolutely wonderful because not only does it keep her busy, it generally keeps her pretty quiet too. (In case you didn't know, Scarlett really likes to talk.) And...she's gotten pretty good at coloring. She's not perfect at staying in the lines yet, but she's far past scribbling. She's also figured out that different objects should be assigned different colors...and sometimes many different colors (as is apparent by the lovely gentleman's suit below). In her recent pictures, objects' hair, jewelry, shoes and clothes will have different colors. And while they're not necessarily color combinations that would appeal to...say...95% of the world's population, she's starting to get that color combinations are the way to go.

And look out Betsey Johnson.

Just sayin'.

A bed fit for a king

2011-01-09T08:31:00.003-05:00

This weekend we decided to move Holden to a toddler bed. The first night was fantastic! He crawled right in and made himself comfortable. He stayed in the bed for a whopping 3 minutes! I'd call that a success. (*side note - Just kidding. Holden will be in a crib until he flat out ASKS for a toddler bed.)

Our Christmas - 2010

2010-12-29T18:47:00.016-05:00

We had such an amazing Christmas. We got to see family - both new and old. On Christmas Eve, we went to Joe's sister and brother-in law's house, Deanna and Rich. Here's Holden with cousin Emily: And Scarlett with cousin Conner:Here are the kids later that night in their Christmas Eve jammies from daddy:And then, there was CHRISTMAS MORNING!!

with lots of presents. And then Grandma came over!Can you tell this made Holden really, REALLY happy?!Then, it was round 2 of presents when Nan, Larry, Aunt Nachie, Uncle Craig and Blake came over for Christmas dinner! (All Scarlett ever wants to do is hold Blake. Ever. And I can't say I blame her.) Then...on to Joe's Aunt Sue and Uncle Joe's house the day after Christmas where we saw Aunt Darla:Aunt Sue:Joe's cousins Suzanne:and Michelle: (and a TON of other people that weren't captured on film.) Yay Christmas!! The end!

East Haven Trolley to see Santa!

2010-12-19T15:32:00.013-05:00

Saturday afternoon we took the East Haven Trolley to the North Pole to see Santa. Amazingly, we were back just in time for dinner. We went with Gio (Holden's best bud from his old daycare) and Gio's parents. Holden and Gio were so thrilled to be reunited. They could barely contain their excitement. (They really do like each other. I promise.)Scarlett loves Gio because Gio laughs at almost everything she does and who wouldn't love that? It was a short ride...full of lights and Christmas cheer...and then,Gasp! We're there!We saw model trains.Drank hot cocoa and ate cookies. Sat on a Thomas the Tank Engine train that we were probably not supposed to sit on because we just may have broken it. Drove trains.And stomped our feet. A lot. And, of course, saw SANTA!!

Our trip to Florida

2010-12-03T16:50:00.046-05:00

Well...we just got back Florida. Oh man - did we have a blast. We went down to visit Joe's dad and stepmother (Deb) over Thanksgiving. They have a huge celebration for Thanksgiving every year and we met tons of their close friends which was great...and we got to do so in 80 degree weather which was pretty great too. It was next to impossible to decide what pictures to put in this post. (Please know that for each picture you see, there were about 10 more to pick from.) So here they are - a small sampling of our Florida pictures in somewhat consecutive order.
Here we are getting ready for our flight. Despite him meeting the size requirements - we were disappointed to learn that Holden did not fit in the overhead compartment.

Scarlett loved the airplane. This was her first flight. I don't know how we hadn't brought her on an airplane before, but we hadn't. Guess we need to take more vacations.The kids were awesome on the flights, but with portable DVD players, there really was no reason for them not to be. We wasted no time getting in the pool. Scarlett put on a life jacket and swam by herself.Holden scared the crap out of me because he had no fear whatsoever. NONEWHATSOEVER!Scarlett quite often suckered someone into playing mermaids or lizards with her. Like Grandpa...or Kierra.Holden was quite often found cuddling with Devan. Then there was a delicious Thanksgiving dinner where even Scarlett made a speech. There were car toys to play with...And princess toys to play with...And ice cream. (Oh ice cream.) And Scarlett learned to play Texas Hold 'Em. (She was so proud to be playing with the adults and was actually yelling at me to leave her alone when I was taking this picture...if you couldn't tell....which you probably could.)We went to Downtown Disney and got to see princesses...and Potato Heads...Pooh Bear...And Mickey.Then we went to lunch at T-Rex Restaurant which is a Rainforest Cafe meets Jurassic Park the movie kinda restaurant. Initially, Scarlett was not impressed...in fact, she was rather horrified. Once I convinced her that no one in their right mind would eat at a restaurant that had real people-eating dinosaurs in it and yet, here we are at a restaurant full of people, she chilled out a little bit. Till we sat down next to these guys. Genius that I am, I told her these were girl dinosaurs and in the history of the world no girl dinosaur has ever eaten a person. Ever. Cause that's not what girls do. Then we were all good...till the every-20-minute meteor shower. And...in case you were wondering what happens to two kids who really should be napping...here you go.

Then (drum roll please) WAAALLTTT DISSSSSNEEEEY WWOOOOORRLD!!! Within seconds of us walking in and finding the castle, a show started.

We saw the classic crew...And princesses. but every princess has her wicked witch and Scarlett was horrified to see Maleficent. Scarlett actually asked me before we went on the trip if we were going to see Maleficent and I said no. I lied...unintentionally, of course, but I still lied. As requested by Mickey Mouse, Scarlett said "dreams come true" until Maleficent disappeared. (And we'd later catch her at home whispering "dreams come true" as she's playing with her toys.) Our beefcake pulling the sword out of the stone. Here's Scarlett meeting Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters. She asked the stepsisters why they ripped Cinderella's dress, a question that she came up with all by herself because she's been ready to ask them since she first saw Cinderella about a year and a half ago. (To see the moment that started it all, click here.)Holden loved every ride we went on. Scarlett's favorite ride was the teacups. She LOVED the teacups. She also seems to have confused the word "dizzy" with "busy." (If I want to remember her first trip to Disney, I will always watch this video. When she's looking around she has such a magical look on her face that it makes me all warm inside.)
Then we took a train across the park which was great for a quick cuddle.

After the train we saw Minnie's House.And played at the play land.Then we saw a parade that had almost every princess in it. Scarlett promptly pointed out that Jasmine and Sleeping Beauty were not there. And Tiana is currently on Scarlett's s*#t list because Tiana didn't wave to Scarlett (it's on Tiana. On like Donkey Kong.) But every other princess made eye contact, AND waved AND blew a kiss. Scarlett was in absolute heaven.Speaking about absolute heaven, Scarlett's nana and grandpa had a HUGE surprise for her. They had booked her the royal treatment at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.Scarlett picked out what princess she wanted to be.Jasmine! (Which was a very practical decision because I think it's the only princess costume Scarlett did not already own. And Jasmine had the coolest shoes.) Then, the "fairy godmothers in training" got to work. They did hair...Make-up and nails. And after a sprinkling of **pixie dust**...the look was complete.This is one happy little girl!Then a very proud of herself Scarlett got to walk around the park as a princess and a very proud nana and mama ate up every "oohhhh" and "aahhh" that Scarlett got while walking around as a princess. It was about as adorable as adorable gets people. To wrap things up, grandpa knew of a secret magic spot where both Cinderella...And Belle were hanging out. "Princess Jasmine" hugged them both and talked to them, you know, about standard princess stuff. Then, sob, it was time to go home. but not before we take some adorable pictures!Aww... Yay Florida! We had an amazing time with some amazing people! (And we already really, really miss them.)

"Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree"- 2010

2010-11-22T22:43:00.010-05:00

Heeeerrreee's Trouble

2010-11-19T18:58:00.002-05:00

Shocking news

2010-11-19T13:06:00.004-05:00

I have some shocking news to report.
Last night, we witnessed Scarlett punch Holden in the face 3 times.
She didn't know she was being watched and we obviously intervened once we saw her doing this but she got 3 quick and hard 'closed-fist' punches in before she realized she had been caught and before we could stop her. Holden's cheek was swollen and red for about an hour afterwards.
Now for the shocking news.
Holden didn't even flinch.

A 3 1/2 year old Scarlett

2010-11-18T07:30:00.006-05:00

A 3 1/2 year old Scarlett looks like this: And a 3 1/2 year old Scarlett is old enough to tell you a little bit about herself.
(Here is me interviewing Scarlett)
1. What is your name? Scarlett
2. How old are you? Three
3. Who is your mommy? Lauren (hee hee)
4. What does mommy do? She works on a "puter"
5. Who is your daddy? Joe
6. What does daddy do? He plays all the time and school starts and we don’t like that
7. What is your favorite color? Pink
8. What do you want to be when you grow up? A big tall person
9. What is your favorite food? Mac and cheese
10. What food do you not like? Salad, carrots and beans
11. What is your favorite animal? Kitties
12. Where do you want to live when you grow up? Just in our house
13. What do mommy and daddy do after you go to bed? Watch movies then go to sleep
14. What does daddy say? He always be mad when I get up out of bed
15. What does mommy say? And she say okay you can have a doll if I don’t be fresh
16. What is your favorite song? Baby Mine
17. What is your favorite movie? Ariel
18. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? "Banilla"
19. Where is your favorite place to eat? McDonalds
20. Who is your favorite person? You
21. Who is your best friend? Elizabeth
22. Who are you going to marry? Carson
23. Where do you live? Florida? No. Stratford
24. Do you like school? Yeah
25. Favorite thing about school? Dramatic play
26. Favorite letter? S
27. Favorite number? 9
28. Can you speak Spanish? I can't right now - no

An 18-month old Holden...

2010-11-13T06:00:00.001-05:00

An 18-month old Holden...

Looks like this:

He sometimes looks like this:

Or this:

But usually looks like this:

An 18-month old Holden...

loves being outside
loves giving kisses
hates (really hates) when dinner takes too long (in fact, it's the only time he's ever really upset)

An 18-month old Holden...

loves when his dad swings him through the air:
and can go down slides all by himself:

An 18-month old Holden...

walks up and down stairs all by himself
will not let anyone else feed him. Ever.
likes to point out your nose by, quite literally, sticking his finger up your nose before you can stop him

An 18-month old Holden...

says "up" a lot:
his favorite word is "more" and he does the sign-language sign for "more" and says "more" at the same time just to make sure he gets his point across...the point that he wants more
has a mean arm and if he happens to be holding something, chances are very good that he's going to throw it...in your general direction (I've actually been hit with a small pumpkin before)

An 18-month old Holden...

is quite the funny guy (at least he thinks so):
has a favorite movie - Walt Disney Hercules
will always remove his left shoe and sock while we're driving - always the left, never the right - and he'll usually throw it somewhere in the van and we'll have so much trouble finding it that we debate whether he had 2 shoes on when we left the house

An 18-month old Holden...

loves his big sister and will follow her around and copy what she's doing every second they're together
thinks it's funny to keep doing something after you've asked him to stop
will ALWAYS put his plate on his head after he's finished eating

An 18-month old Holden looks like this...

Parent Observation at ballet

2010-11-07T10:20:00.009-05:00

Yesterday we were allowed to observe Scarlett's ballet class. (Seriously exciting stuff people.) Here are a few photos from the class.

And, I'm sure you were expecting video. Here is roughly 6 minutes of what, exactly, a 3-year-old's ballet class entails. Cute, huh?

Halloween (and every Halloween related event for the past 3 weeks)

2010-11-01T18:28:00.022-04:00

Man. We've got a lot to cover.
There was pumpkin picking.With Carson, of course. Lots of running.And looking cute. There might have been a little hand-holding in the corn maze. And the requisite kids on pumpkins picture. Then there was the carving. Yuck.Not kidding yuck.

Holden even thought so. In fact, he was as far away from the pumpkin guts as he could possibly be. Then we pulled out utensils.Holden came back for those. The final product. (We call it the classic "when your kids lose interest in carving" pumpkin face.)Scarlett had a Halloween party at school. The whole school was there so there were lots of kids. Lots and lots of kids. Lots and lots and LOTS of kids. And here is their class marching in front of the whole school.

Joe and I even got to go to a party, thanks to babysitter Nan. Check us out. We may have even won the Best Couple Costume prize. (We totally did.) Then, of course, we went to the Boo at the Zoo. Holden chased peacocks. Scarlett and Carson had their three-year anniversary. (I doubt that I need to remind you that Scarlett and Carson had their first "date" at the Boo at the Zoo event when they were four months old. Cause I seriously remind you of that every year. But in case you want to be reminded again, click here...and here...and here. ) Cutie pies. And here are Scarlett and Holden right before we went out trick-or-treating, which was awesome in the new neighorhood!

Yay Halloween!

I'm seeing a signature start to emerge!

2010-10-25T09:22:00.004-04:00

Scattered amongst her drawings that get sent home from school, Scarlett is writing a lot of letters. Recently, I'm noticing lots of the letter S, and sometimes an H and an A (her initials). Admittedly, they're quite often backwards. Or even upside down. But I'm thinking she's going to be writing her name relatively soon.

Scarlett's first field trip!

2010-10-21T09:00:00.015-04:00

Scarlett's class has been learning about Fall recently. Scarlett had a homework assignment this week where she was asked to collect leaves that had fallen from trees, acorns, sticks and dried grass and bring them all into school so the class could discuss the textures and colors of everything. Then, yesterday, they went to investigate Fall as a class (and Scarlett's teacher was nice enough to email pictures to all the moms and dads who thought they weren't going to have pictures of this monumental "first field trip"...like me). They looked at stuff like this: This:And this:They went in a corn maze. They went on a hay ride pulled by a tractor.And, of course, picked pumpkins. And here is a picture of Scarlett's class. (Seriously. How cute.)

Yay field trips!!

Scarlett's first story

2010-10-19T11:00:00.009-04:00

I mean, really - if this isn't a work of genius, I don't know what is. Look out New York Times 10 Best Books list...Scarlett H. Adams is coming!

Our heroine starts off sad because that horrible mama of hers (i.e. me) says that our heroine doesn't have any toys. Now mama...that simply is not true! It is these people who are the ones who don't have any toys. Look at them (all one of them). Look at their expressions. Simply miserable. I, mama, have toys. Lots of them. And I'm so awesome that I share them with my friends. And I'm quite certain that you, mama, are not awesome because you lied. The end.

And I would crack a joke that Scarlett actually wrote this herself and it was in no way dictated to a teacher's aide...but you would know I was lying. An author of this caliber would never let an "alot" slip into her text. Or, if she ever did, her editors certainly would have caught it.

Yale cognition studies

2010-10-15T17:55:00.008-04:00

You may remember Scarlett participating in some cognition studies when she was an infant and young toddler. (If not, click here and click here) Since he was 3 months, Holden has been participating at the same infant cognition center that Scarlett used to attend, and Scarlett has graduated to the Tiger lab and the Elephant lab. These are the "big kid" cognition centers. All three of the cognition centers are in the same building, so when we're asked to participate in a particular study we usually coordinate it so that both Holden and Scarlett can do studies at the same time and then Joe and I go in different directions with a kid and usually have pretty interesting stories to tell afterwards. Both the kids had studies last night.
Holden's study immediately put 8 bowls of snack food in front of him (to determine his preference) and he immediately started shoving food in his face so fast that they couldn't determine anything and so they tried to take the food away from him to start over (not knowing what happens if you try to take food from Holden) and, as Joe described it, all hell broke loose. So, basically, they determined that Holden liked to eat.
Scarlett's studies are now a bit different. I don't go into the rooms with her anymore. Instead, I watch what she does on a little TV monitor and listen with headphones. Her studies reveal a bit more about her personality than the infant studies did. Yesterday's study put about 6 pairs of stuff in front of her - each pair had a working item and a broken item. (There were 2 cups for example, one was fine and one was broken. 2 markers, one wrote and one was dried up and didn't.) The first 5 minutes of the study was spent with one woman determining which items worked and which ones didn't. Then a second woman walked into the room and asked that Scarlett help her "throw out the trash." The idea is that the woman will point to the working object in each pair and ask that Scarlett pass it to her so that they can throw it in the garbage - but they're wondering if Scarlett will intervene and pass her the broken item instead because, really, that IS the trash. Well...Scarlett did not pass the broken item to her. Scarlett did exactly as she was told and passed the woman every item that the woman asked for (I watched the whole thing on the monitor), which established that she is a kid who will do as she's told. When we got back to the car I asked Scarlett what she did (she didn't know I was watching) and she told me she threw stuff out. "What did you throw out?" I asked, acting surprised. "A cup" she answered, giggling, "and a marker." "Wow...you threw out markers?" I asked, "Why?" "Because. [shrugs shoulders] The lady asked me to."
So yeah. It was determined that Scarlett was one of the kids who was "just plain old helpful." Hey. I'll take that.

Apple Picking

2010-10-10T20:31:00.002-04:00

I heart NY

2010-10-10T20:07:00.011-04:00

Scarlett and I went to NYC recently. We went there with the following goals:
Ride the metro north train...check.
Look cool while touring grand central...check.Look like a local while checking out Times Square...check.Visit Barbie's mansion...check.Ride the Ferris Wheel at Toys R' Us...check.(We somehow, despite me telling Scarlett that it most likely would not work out that way, wound up in the exact car that Scarlett wanted to ride in, soooo....)
Mom learns magic...check. Visit the M&M store...check.Buy pink and purple and green (for dad, even though she ate them all) M&M's...check. Momentarily stray from the goals for a photo op at a cool fountain...check....check....and check.Stop at American Girl and not buy anything because god did not intend toys to be that expensive...check!

We had a fabulous time...just the girls! Yay NYC!

Sunday at Edgerton Park

2010-09-30T19:52:00.007-04:00

We love this festival. I think it's our favorite festival ever. We always see tons of people we know because, like us, they all love this festival too. (It is seriously awesome.) We started off with a visit with a fire truck and real firemen. Scarlett was actually scared to touch the steering wheel.

But she wasn't scared to go on the zip line!
Or the slide. Or Kellogg the pony who had pink ribbons in her hair. Holden liked the slide too.
And he collected balloons. Goose got her face painted.
And the Edgerton Park festival wouldn't be complete without lollipops.

Letters!!

2010-09-20T20:40:00.015-04:00

2 letter t's
A big a and a big t

Have marker will draw

2010-09-19T19:38:00.003-04:00

Scarlett has totally and very suddenly grasped the concept of drawing and writing. I asked Scarlett to draw a picture of Holden, and she did. And it's actually noticeably a thing with two arms and two feet and eyes and hair. I was expecting scribbles when I asked her to draw Holden, but called Joe over when she started with a circle for the head. We just stood behind her, jaws dropped, as she drew this. (I know. We need to get out more.)

Bill Murray

2010-09-14T11:33:00.013-04:00

Holden has a shirt with Bill Murray on it. (See picture above) Holden was wearing this shirt yesterday and Scarlett was asking Joe about it.

Scarlett: "Who's on Holden's shirt? Abraham Lincoln?" (???)
Joe: "No...it's Bill Murray."
Scarlett: "Ahhh. Bill Murray. (As if she had any idea who Bill Murray was.) So...you guys are big Bill Murray fans, huh?"
Joe: "Yeah." [Who is this kid talking to me?!]

She writes!

2010-09-13T21:08:00.005-04:00

We were driving home from school today and Scarlett was playing with her mini Magna Doodle in the back seat. She says "mommy, I wrote the letter C." Not believing but ready to humor her, I glance over my shoulder to peek. She had written the freaking letter C. I almost crashed the car. She erases it and tells me she's going to write the letter T. And she did. She wrote U and then told me she wrote F, but then laughed at her F and told me it wasn't a real F because she "forgot the line that goes across," so she added it and it was a real F. Scarlett JUST started drawing circles if we ask her to draw a circle, but prior to that she did no more than scribble. I apologize for not having proof, but I was cameraless and came very close to crashing my car and it was a Magna Doodle. Rest assured, I will be asking this kid to write the letter T non-stop until it's properly documented.

Guess who's starting ballet?

2010-09-10T19:58:00.012-04:00

For those of you who know me, one of the things I complain about regularly is the lack of lessons for toddlers of working parents. It drives me crazy. After about a month of research I came across two options with hours we could do - Our town's preschool soccer clinic, but she had to be exactly 3.5 - which she is not so that one was eliminated. We were left with a hip-hop dance class. Fine. I brought Scarlett to the first lesson only to discover there was a typo in the paper and the class was, ahem, being held at a time not convenient for working parents after all. I dragged a sobbing, ready-to-dance Scarlett from the lobby and I sucked it up and signed her up for ballet at Lee Lund Studio of Dance in Milford, which offers a Saturday morning class. It's more than I want to pay for lessons for a 3 year old, but it lasts from now until June and I will be happy no longer struggling to find something for her to do.
We picked up her mandatory dress-code dance outfit so she's ready to start tomorrow morning. She had to try it on, of course, and ran downstairs to show Daddy...and then asked him what, exactly, ballerinas do. I told her to reach for the sky and stand on her tippie-toes, which is the gist of my ballet knowledge. I YouTubed ballet, and she studied it pretty intently. Here is her first attempt. Notice she stops to watch the computer screen to see what the ballerina is doing.

Then she got a little more comfortable. Graceful? Not at all. But comfortable is good.

So she starts tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, I am not allowed to watch the class until the end of October. Apparently, it's pretty serious. But if I'm able to catch a glimpse of it, rest assured that I will have my camera glued to my hand to try to get a picture or video! Good luck Scarlett!