A Bit of Nostalgia....

Well, it wasn't quite like old times....but just as fun! Ca and I ventured back to our old stomping grounds today, the Holden Pool. Of course the visions we had of lathering on the baby oil, spreading out our towels, eating our frozen Charleston Chews and reading our Sweet Valley High books quickly diminished as we were brought back to reality by the squeals and splashes of our 4 children! Because I was afraid that Nana Nance might still ground me for a week, I didn't even try to illegally pass my pool pass through the fence to Ca and she had to pay $30 for her and the twins to use the pool as out of town guests! Who knew the Holden Pool was as pricey and as popular an attraction as the Southwick Zoo???!!!
Anyways, a great time was had by all and we plan to do it again before the summer's end. Here are a few pics from the afternoon.

Sophia at 10 months old

Here are a couple of cute videos of Sophia in action tonight. She is quite the little ham these days!

Congratulations Kelsey!!

Today Kelsey graduated from high school - so hard to believe! Way to go Kels! Here is a picture of her processing into Graduation and a few video clips. Turn up your volume so that you can hear her name announced!

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Happy Memorial Day!

Nursery School Singing Program

Evan's last day of nursery school was this past Tuesday. The kids put on a little singing program which was very cute - I have attached a couple of pictures and a quick video.

Some Weekend Fun.......

These videos of Evan on our neighbor's slip n slide are hilarious! He had so much fun - we couldn't get him out of his bathing suit all day! He would not even go near the slip n slide last summer - which I was glad about because it makes me nervous. This year he can't get enough of it. The videos look like they are in fast motion but that is really just how fast Ev was going. Too funny!

Mother's Day at Davis Farm

A bit belated, but Sophia learning to crawl took precedence! Jeff and the kids treated Nana and I to a lovely outing at Davis Farm for Mother's Day. It was a bit chilly - 40's, YIKES!!! hence the winter attire, but we still had fun and the cold didn't seem to bother the animals (or the kids!) Here are a few pictures from our outing...

Look who's crawling!!!!

Sophia started crawling up on all fours this morning for the first time! Here's a little video of her in motion!

Celebrating May!

So far, May has been nothing but one celebration after another! We started partying over the weekend with the Carpenter clan, as Alex and Rachel turned four this week. As always, we had a great time with our extended family and Sophia even took part by proudly wearing a party hat! Both Mommy and Sophia celebrated on Tuesday - Sophia turned 9 months old and Mommy turned 26 (ha ha!) As you can see by the pictures and video of Sophia, she is quite the character these days. She is such a happy little girl - always smiling, babbling, shrieking and showing off. She is moving around a bit - not creeping forward yet, but close - she has been up on all fours and moves backwards and sideways on her belly. She tries to pull herself up on everything and I found her halfway up in her crib yesterday. We'll be lowering the crib one more level this weekend! Time is flying - Sophia is at such a fun age right now and we are all enjoying her so much, especially Evan. He is such a good "big brother" and there's nothing better than hearing the two of them laughing hysterically in the back seat of the car together. He makes her laugh harder than anyone with his silly antics and faces. Here are a few pictures from the past week and a little video of Sophia taken the day she turned 9 months old.

When the cat's away, the mice will play......

Above are pictures of what happened when I ran into my mother's house for all of THREE minutes to deliver her mail and left the kiddies in the car together today. Apparently Ev unbuckled his booster seat, went into my purse and took out my lipstick. When I came out and saw Sophia's face I wanted to laugh but tried to act stern and angry - Ev didn't understand why it wasn't ok to put lipstick on Sophia - and he said, "But why Mom? Sophia's a girl and girls wear lipstick!" It seemed perfectly logical to him. Of course that doesn't explain why he put lipstick on himself too! These are the exasperating moments of parenthood that we will look back on and laugh at someday......

Happy Easter!

Bathtime Fun!

I took this video last night of the kids in the tub. Sophia has been in the big tub for about a month now and they love to take baths together. I actually took two videos and in the first one you could hear Evan say to Sophia "Sophia, cover your privates"!!! It was hilarious! I had said that to Ev since I was going to be taking a video so he of course had to make sure his sister did the same - always looking out for her!!

A Good Report at 6 months!

Sophia had her 6 month check-up today and everything went very well. She weighs just under 17 lbs and is 26 1/2 inches long - between the 50th and 75th percentile for both height and weight. Dr. Lee thinks she is right on track with where she should be for everything and for once, did not refer us to any specialists!!! That was such a relief! She has continued to make progress sitting up this week and is now sitting up all by herself and can play with toys sitting up for long periods of time. It has been fun for Evan and I to be able to sit with her on the floor and play, rather than always having her flat on her back to play. I took a few pictures and videos this week of her sitting up which, if I can find the time this weekend, I will post on the blog. My main objective this weekend is to get all of our clothes ready and packed for our trip to Florida - only a few more days before we leave! I looked up the weather this morning and it is saying high 60's for our arrival - of course that is warmer than New England, but we are still hoping for it to be a tad warmer for us during our vacation. Regardless of the weather, we are so excited to see our family in Florida and to visit with Mickey Mouse too - Evan can't wait! Hopefully I'll get around to posting those videos of Sophia sitting up this weekend....stay tuned!

Sophia's 6 months old already!!

Where has the time gone? It is hard to believe that Sophia is a half a year old already! Since I only seem to be getting around to posting about once a month, I will try to make this a newsy one! Let's see, what's new? We had a bout of sickness that hit the kids hard, and Jeff and I very mildly. That is behind us thank goodness and the last two weeks have been good weeks. Sophia is finally on a schedule for the most part - I have found it to be so much harder to get Sophia on a schedule than it was for Evan, party because it has been so busy between houseguests, holidays, doctor's appointments and such, but mostly because Sophia's schedule has to work with Evan's school and activity schedule too. The last two weeks we have had a good routine down that seems to be working well for us all. She is waking earlier - between 5:30 and 6:30am which seems like it wouldn't be ideal, especially since you all know that I love my sleep and am not a morning person, but it is actually working out well. I like it because I am able to give her a meal of cereal and fruit even before we take Evan to school - that way she can go down for her morning nap having already eaten. I have also been able to transfer her from her carseat and into her crib when we get back from taking Evan to school and she goes right back to sleep, so that makes me feel better than her having to have her morning nap in her carseat! She is down to 2 GOOD naps per day. I am so lucky - she is a great sleeper, like her brother was/is. She takes about a 2 - 2 1/2 hour nap in the morning and another one like it in the afternoon. This has made it easier for me to plan my days too - I have finally started working out, for the first time in years....I mean REALLY working out - full cardio routine/arms/abs. I have been pretty sore this week but it feels good. It had been so long that I had done aerobics that I actually only had VHS tapes and had to go buy a DVD! Oh well, I guess I have had a decent excuse the last few years. We are still getting somewhat broken sleep at night, but Sophia seems to be able to calm herself down and get back to sleep, usually on her own. It just always seems like it is one or the other - two nights ago Evan had me up twice because he swore he saw alligators on his floor. When he finally went back to sleep Sophia ended up fussing. I have somewhat resolved myself to the idea that once you become a parent a full night's sleep is not in the cards anymore - at least not for a LONG time! Sophia's eating between 2-3 meals a day on top of her bottles - cereal, fruits of all kinds and veggies too. She is a decent eater so far - not quite as enthusiastic about meals as I remember Evan being, but then again, Evan was almost 19lbs. at her age so he needed to eat! She has also started drinking a bit of water from a sippy cup. She's done well so far and seems to be getting the hang of it. Sophia has two teeth now and possibly more on the way - it looks like she may have a couple more bottom teeth in the works. She has rolled over a handful of times, but not consistently, she is sitting up unsupported for short periods of time, and is also standing up and can even stand without my support for brief periods - we swear she wants to walk in the worst way, probably because she sees her brother running around the house constantly! All in all, she is doing great and we are really enjoying this age. It seems like every day is something new and she has settled into a happy, fun little girl which is a welcome change from the often fussy, sometimes inconsolable infant that she was. I think this post sets a record for the longest post of all time, but my mother told me that Auntie Meg feels like she doesn't know what Sophia is up to these days so hopefully this gives the distant relatives a good snapshot of what she is like at 6 months old!!
On the Evan front - he, too, is doing great. He loves school and is constantly talking about all of his new friends. I had a conference with his teachers and they had all good things to say about him, which made us proud. He has been very busy painting, creating different forms of artwork, practicing writing his letters and playing lots of Disney computer games this winter. I swear he does better than I do at some of the games! He started a new swim class last week and I am actually going in the water with him now during the class and it has made the world of difference. He was diving into the water last week, as opposed to the first couple classes where he seemed afraid to even go into the pool. We think this will be a good transitional class for him, so that he can get used to the big pool and the structured swim classes. Evan also went snow shoeing for the first time today. He did great and really seemed to like it! We are looking forward to hitting the trails this weekend, perhaps with Lilly since Marti is away and Lilly is staying on Lowell Ave at Barb's. It will be just like old times!
We're off to Florida in two weeks and cannot wait. We are excited for the Pelletier's (aside from Grandma and Pepere) to finally meet Sophia and to see how big Evan is now - the last time we saw everyone was over a year ago. I think that about covers it. Our next post will probably be after our Florida trip and we will then be into March - with spring around the corner!
Valentines Day kisses and hugs to all from the kids. Here are a few recent pictures and videos so you can see the kids in action.

Happy Belated New Year!

Happy 2010! I can't believe I haven't posted since before the holidays. Everyone here is doing great - lots going on. Here are a few updates on the kids....

Sophia -
- cut her first tooth this week - her bottom left tooth!
- At appt. this week the specialist confirmed her cyst is gone, so no need for surgery - YAY!
- Eating solid foods - has had rice, multi-grain and oatmeal cereal, pears, bananas, & sweet potatoes
- Babbles all day long and is quite the story teller!
- Loving playing in her exersaucer and doorway jumper

Evan -
- graduated to a booster carseat with TWO cupholders! He is very proud.
- started swimming lessons at the "Y" and hopes to be without arm floaties by our trip to Florida!
- learned how to skip this week
- Has been invited two Fridays in a row to his new little female friend's house from school - the one he talked about ALL Christmas vacation. Feeling must be mutual!!!

And Mommy started back to work this week....just one day a week so I can't complain. We all survived, even Nana!

Here are a few recent pictures of the kids and I threw one in of Jeff too because I liked it...he's probably kill me for putting it on the blog!

Evan and I take Sophia for sleigh rides around the yard if it is over 25 degrees - she loves them. We even made special trails for her "sleigh"!

Ev on the swings!


There's Jeff - sitting in his snowfort!

Evan painted this masterpiece for my office at work - he chose the theme and painted it all himself! I think he did a better job than his mom could do!!!

Sophia likes to sit in her jumper with chew toys - no jumping yet though!

Weekend Winter Fun

Yummy Christmas Cookies - Ev is a great baker!


Sophia bundles up for her first sleigh ride!



Sophia is invited to her first tea party with the Ladies of Lowell Ave!