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?

Happy birthday, Carson!

Carson turns 2 today! (Sigh. Why do these kids INSIST on getting older.) Click here to read the beautiful post and and see the adorable (and hilarious) video Carson's mom made for him. As you'll see in the video, Carson and Scarlett have spent a lot of time together this past year. In fact, I think it was rare for a weekend to go by where they didn't see each other...and I absolutely love that. They're the best of friends...and what can I say...Scarlett obviously has excellent taste. We love you Car-key!! Happy birthday, little man!

Daily showdown at the breakfast table

Scarlett's got a nemesis at daycare. They meet each other every morning at the breakfast table at about 6:45 am in the Toddler Two's room. They're both in cowboy hats and boots...boots with spurs...the spikey kind. With the exception of the tumbleweeds blowing, they're all alone. After walking 10 paces away from each other, they take their seats at the breakfast table and you can almost hear the Western showdown theme song whistling in the background. ( Da-na-na-na-naa...dun dun dun.) Their meals are placed in front of them. Then...it begins.

Girl - (squinty eyed and pig tailed, in a low voice...almost a whisper) ......"my waffle."

Oh. But it's not her waffle. It's Scarlett's waffle. This infuriates Scarlett. The girl is not touching Scarlett's waffle. She's not even reaching for it. She just looks at Scarlett's waffle and claims that it is hers despite the very obvious fact that Girl is eating cereal for breakfast. Oh the injustice of it all. Scarlett has a good comeback though - don't you worry. Here it is.

Scarlett - "no...my waffle." (She obviously put a lot of thought into this retaliation.)

But the showdown doesn't end there, folks. After the owner of the waffle has been determined anything and everything that is in front of these two toddlers is claimed. We're talking forks. We're talking yogurt and fruit, napkins, plates and even moms and dads. We're talking a whole lotta mine mine mine. This showdown has happened every single morning for the past 2.5 weeks. While this "mine" phase is harsh, Joe and I are trying to see the good in this particular situation. At least these two girls, while admittedly spitting out "mine" like it was their job, were doing wonderfully at taking turns.

He wakes...and then he sleeps

This pretty much sums up the last 2 weeks of Holden's life. A little awake time; A lot of sleeping time; and a whole ton of me staring at him adoringly time.

Memorial Day

We were very excited to get the whole family out of the house this past weekend. Oh man...were we excited. We were invited to Radhika's house for a picnic on Sunday. Scarlett and Radhika played in her (quite fantastic) playhouse. There was another little baby there who was exactly one week older than Holden. Scarlett made sure that everyone at the party knew that Holden was her baby. She did this by running up to almost everyone and telling them "that's my baby Holden." She's quite the big sister and is very proud of her brother. That, or she got a kick out of everyone thinking she was adorable while proclaiming Holden was her brother. Or a healthy mix of both.

And Holden slept and ate. And then ate and slept. And there might have been a poop somewhere in between there. And then he slept. When it was time to leave, Scarlett cried the whole way home saying "my Radhika, my Radhika." I think she missed her. (How cute?!) Then we went to a Memorial Day parade in West Haven. I was very proud of us. We got there early - which meant we got awesome parking, and an awesome spot on grass right where the parade began. And then we only had 45 minutes to kill before the parade actually started. Groan. I think we ate about 3 bags of potato chips.Scarlett decided that this is the way that she watches parades. And Holden decided that this is the way that he watches parades. Scarlett saw marching bands.And Holden slept through marching bands. Scarlett saw bagpipers. And Holden slept through bagpipers.Scarlett saw ambulances with sirens.And Holden...well, you get the idea. But Holden wasn't the only one doing all the sleeping. Scarlett fell asleep about 5 minutes into our car ride home. Please note the potato chip that is in her hand. She actually fell asleep before eating said potato chip. Now that's tired.

And it begins

While we were driving home from daycare today Scarlett had her first conversation with Holden. It was a little one-sided.

Scarlett - (in the highest pitched voice you could possibly imagine) Baby you wearin' shoes?! (He wasn't.) Baby?...Baby you wearin' shoes?! Baby? Hey baby...BABY. Hey! - I talking to you."