Merry Christmas

I hope all our readers had a merry christmas/happy holidays. We had a full house, but the girls enjoyed every minute of it. Here are some photos and video my brother created. Enjoy

Blast from the past

Here is an interview with Claire, age 2 years, 3 months.

Sleep overs

Last night we had two sleep overs. We got hit by freezing rain, which effectively shut down Atlanta - the city of Atlanta has 8 sand/salt trucks. The hardest hit area was Canton, where we live. The roads started icing about 4:30pm. At 4pm, our babysitter picked up Claire and was going to take Claire, with her family to Lake Lanier (about 30 miles away) to see the annual night of lights. Magen lives about 10 miles north of us and she went home after getting Claire. Of course, by the time she got home, the major roads in Atlanta were starting to become parking lots. So, they were stuck at Magen's house, where Claire spent the night. Laura and I were fortunate to spend the night at home.

"I want to go home! I want my mommy!" Poor little girl. Magen got her to settle down by giving Claire her christmas present and allowing her to open it. I am sure the rice krispy treats and candy didn't hurt either. Anyway, Magen said Claire did well and hopefully by 10am, the roads will be better and she can bring Claire home.

The other sleepover was mommy. Lynn was working yesterday with another professor, Vanessa, on a manuscript. Since school is over for the semester, they got primo parking on campus, on the top level of the parking deck right by their offices - normally reserved for students. Anyway, the parking deck froze and neither of them could get their cars out, so they spent the night at work, working. Several of our neighbors also spent the night at their offices because of the roads.

I drove home yesterday from grocery store which is normally 10 minutes, but it took nearly 45 minutes. When I got home, I told our nanny that she should go home right away (at 5:30pm), rather than wait until 6pm. She lives about 20 minutes away. It took her 3 hours to get home, but she did arrive safely. Anyway, we are thankful that everyone is safe.

Our suspicions are confirmed

One thing Lynn didn't mention about Laura's Dr. appointment was something the x-rays picked up. Laura has always had a great appetite, but lately she has been eating and eating and eating. She eats more than Claire does. The x-rays uncovered a hollow leg, which explains how she is able to eat that much.

Laura is also cutting her first tooth. Teeth actually. The bottom two front teeth are coming in. And surprisingly, she's been pretty good, in terms of not crying too much.

Today we had our first snow fall of the year. We didn't have as much snow as Uncle Larry did. And it wasn't as cold as it was for Uncle Paul, Aunt Taya and Lola last week when it was -30C. Anyway, it didn't stick to the ground, but Claire sure wanted to go outside and make a snowman. It's just been cold and windy.

I have posted some photos of Laura here and I have more of the girls to upload in a few days.

SANTA!

The girls got to visit with Santa today. He happened to stop in at the River Green Heritage Club and we went to talk with him about Christmas and to get our pictures taken. Here are a few from the visit.

Laura also had her 9 month check up on Wednesday. She measured 29in long and 18lbs 3oz. So, that's 86% for height, 32% for weight and 21% for head circumference. Her little noggin is starting to catch up with the rest of her. Dr. says she looks great and is developing perfectly, "A+". She regularly rolls back and forth and somehow manages to get exactly what she wants without crawling yet. We aren't worried about her not crawling yet, as many developmental pediatricians think crawling is no longer a milestone - some kids just wait and walk! We'll see.

Anyway, the girls are doing great. Claire is still such a delightful little girl. Polite, funny, sweet and kind. Laura is blossoming into the sweetest little baby who loves to laugh at her sister and play pattycake with the rest of us.

That's all for now. We'll post more, including more pictures from the fall, later.

Has it been a month?

Yup. Hard to believe. A lot has happened since the last posting. I am sure I will forget some of it and I am sure that Lynn will post something as well to fill in the blanks.

Grammy and grampy came down to visit on their annual trek to Florida. We had a great visit and spent some time at a pumpkin patch, which was down to about a dozen pumpkins. Nevertheless, we had a great time going on a hay ride and Claire even rode a pony!

Laura spent her first Hallowe'en in the girls' new red Radio Flyer wagon, being pulled around the neighborhood in her Swiper costumer. While she didn't end up with any candy (one of the drawbacks of not having any teeth), her sister made out quiet well in the candy department, though I am not sure where all she candy went. Claire dressed up as Boots for Hallowe'en.

On Nov 12, we piled in the car and drove 6.5 hours to The Villages, FL, where Grammy and Grampy are spending Nov and Dec. The girls were great on the whole trip. On Nov 15, Lynn and I left Laura with grammy and grampy and told Claire that today was her "Special Day". We took her to Disneyworld. I think she was a little too young to appreciate it, but she loved meeting Mickey and the rest of the clubhouse gang, and Winnie and Tigger.

I flew back home on Tuesday morning to work and then flew back to Orlando on Friday. Interesting tid-bit about Orlando, it has two airports. My lovely wife who came to pick me up from the airport on Friday went to the wrong airport - yes she is a geography professor. Anyway, we are packing up today, because this evening we are going to drive back to Atlanta because I have to work tomorrow. I promise it will not be a month until my next posting.

Poor Claire

By now you know that Claire is shy. Put her in a room full of kids and she grabs on to your pant leg for dear life. Last weekend we had our annual neighborhood cookout. There were probably 20 kids under 10 years there. Initially Claire sat behind our chairs, almost hiding. We finally got her to play with Ella and Cassidy (both around 8 years old). They were excited because they thought they taught Claire to count to five.

Lynn made unofficial plans to meet with a couple neighbors and their daughters (2-3 years old) later that week, but forgot to confirm with them. So Lynn and Claire are sitting outside on the rocking chairs waiting for Alexis and Callie to come play and they didn't come. Next Lynn was telling Claire that they were going to a new tumbling class and that Claire would meet some new kids. They went to the tumbling class and Claire was the only one who showed up.

Poor girl is going to have a complex when she grows up.

Rejoinder: Callie and Alexis are coming over tomorrow (10/20/10) to play with Claire! Lynn has me cleaning up the entire house!

more pics from syracuse trip

we are still having a lovely time here in cny. yesterday, we went to the zoo. claire was thrilled and loved all the exhibits. she made sure she saw all of them by saying, "i want to see something else now". she was particularly impressed by the penguins.

laura had the best day today. lots of laughing and spending quality time with grammy, grampy, tish, cathy, kevin and suzanne. it was kind of funny/pathetic today when she woke up from her nap, grammy went to get her. grammy brought her out into the living room and they played for about 25min - cooing, laughing, smiling, reading together - all of that good stuff. well, i came walking down the hall and you would have sworn grammy pinched her hard! she let out some pretty good blood curdling screams and wouldn't quit until i picked her up. momma's girl.

we went down to see tish, cathy, and bill and billy and courtland (all grown up and very handsome young men now!). tish and cathy took turns walking laura around while claire followed the cat around. poor duncan :).

when we got home, i fed laura and then kevin and suzanne came over. laura (and claire) played so nicely with them. then, i got some big girl time with my friends while grammy and grampy put claire to bed. all in all a terrific day.

we head back tomorrow night,which is good and bad. we have had such a fun, relaxing time here. but, we miss daddy. so we will just have to hold off on the party until grammy and grampy come in 3 weeks. and uncle larry at christmas.

until the next post, enjoy more pictures. i PROMISE, videos will be posted later in the week.

apple(s) of my eye

the girls and i are in syracuse this week for a visit to see grammy and grampy. claire has been looking forward to this trip for weeks! she loved the idea of getting on an airplane and doing all of the fun things we had planned (apple picking, going to the zoo, and playing puzzles with grammy). wednesday (our travel day) came and we headed to the airport. luckily, mark was able to get a gate pass and help us down to the gate. particularly since we were running a bit late (thanks, atlanta traffic!). anyway, i couldn't have asked for better little travelers. i am sure people saw us get on the plane and groaned inwardly. well, claire was absolutely delightful. she played with her puzzles, read her books and colored a bit. laura slept for about 45 min of the 1 hr 40min flight and was just looking around and drinking her milk otherwise. we got some really nice compliments from the people around us when we landed. ha! once we got off the plane, claire was asking where grammy and grampy were. she literally ran (with her little backback bouncing) down the terminal and into grampy's arms just outside of security. she then got to play in the very cool educational kid area for a bit where she could be the pilot until we got our bags (see pics). next, i installed the car seats and off we went.
claire has been having the best time here. she loved dancing with grampy, playing puzzles and reading with grammy. uncle larry came over the first night to hang out. mommy got to out with suzanne and another friend on wednesday and on thursday with suzanne again. hooray for grandparents/babysitters extraordinaire! thursday rained the whole day (thanks, tropical storm nicole) but auntie char came over to see the girls which was a lovely interlude. today (friday) we went apple picking after laura's nap, i said, "who wants to go apple picking?" claire hollered, " i do!" then "i can't wait! i am so excited" she said the latter about 4 times while we were getting ready. too cute.
we all piled into the car and went out to leubner's apple orchard. it was lovely because it wasn't at all crowded. evidently last weekend, the wait was 20 min to be able to go into some of the orchards. claire did really well (i will post videos later - probably after my return to georgia). and laura loved being outside. she rode in the apple cart in a bumbo (thanks, debbie casavant) it was perfect. i said, "i had better not upset the apple cart or i would get in a lot of trouble ;) )
we got home, had lunch, and put the girls down for the naps. about an hour later, i went down the hall and heard claire yelling, "mommy, mommy". i open the door and couldn't believe my eyes. claire had reached out of her travel cot and got the boudreaux's butt paste and had it everywhere. and i mean everywhere. on froggie, on winnie the pooh - especially on pooh's bum, all over the inside of the travel cot and last but not least, all over her clothes, hands and face! if she doesn't wrinkle by the time she is 70, we can thank boudreaux's for keeping her skin as soft and smooth as a baby's bottom. needless to say, she had a bath (as did froggie and pooh) and went back down for her nap.
one last sweet comment: claire is sleeping in a travel cot. i wasn't sure how she would take to it. so, of course, all week i was talking it up. after her first nap on wednesday, as claire is getting out of the cot (which sort of looks like a tent), she said, "the tent is good. it's perfect for me!".
needless to say, we are having a terrific trip. the only downer is mark isn't with us.
tomorrow is time with uncle larry and the zoo. sunday is packed with a visit with pat, mara and mary grace and then with tish and cathy (i used to baby sit their kids when they were my kids ages!). then, sunday night is dinner with suzanne and kevin. monday is a play date with jack - debbie's son and then we head home monday night.
enjoy the pics and we'll post more in a few days and the videos mid week.
love,
lynn

and the little one said: roll over, roll over

well, i wish i could say that laura is rolling over regularly. she is not. i suppose she will when she is ready. she is certainly hitting all of the other development milestones, so i am not too concerned. she loves to sit up and watch claire do silly things to make her laugh.

who is rolling over these days is claire. last night, she learned to do somersaults all by herself. i think tumbling class has been an inspiration for her. the funny thing is that she hasn't even had to do a forward somersault yet in class - september was backwards month, so she learned to do a backwards somersault. anyway, she is quite pleased she can do it "all by myself!"

claire is also a spelling maniac. well, she likes to read all the letters on every sign, if that counts as spelling. the other day we were on a family walk and claire runs up to a sign in our neighborhood. "R-I-V-E-R G-R-E-E-N. BIG N-E-W H-O-M-E-S." she was just so pleased with herself (as were we!). we then had to stop at every sign on the way back to read the letters. her other new favorite activity is "spelling on mommy's computer". i open a word document, she tells me the word she wants to spell, i tell her each letter, and she finds them on the keyboard. it's amazing to watch these little minds just explode. what a treat.

last little story from luz - our awesome nanny: "Hi Lynn, I was with Claire out on the deck for a while because were looking at green lizards, very pretty. I asked Claire what they were and she said "a little little baby alligator" and I had her carried the whole time because she was scared of the little alligator. Can you believe that?" My reply: "that's very funny - especially because she kept asking to see the baby alligator. silly girl."

• • 
    

a few of my favorite things

claire: baby laura, froggy and mookie, jigsaw puzzles (up to 24 pieces), singing the abcs and other songs, ring around the rosie, reading in bed with mommy and daddy, miss luzma, horton hears a who, bouncing, the tigger song, winnie the pooh, drawing (see pic), making coffee, "i do it myself" peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, NOW!, caillou, kayla and rooster, and kisses from mommy and daddy.


laura: claire, laughing, sitting up straight and tall but not rolling over, anything within a 2 foot reach, mookie, the aquarium mobile, the bumbo, any food except puffs, daddy's smiles, mommy, miss luzma, being thrown into the air, belly raspberries, kayla fresh air, tv - it doesn't matter what's on, the computer and especially the keyboard.

and for both girls, auntie nancy is an absolute favorite. check out this video of the girls having a blast with auntie nancy.

the girls are growing up so incredibly fast. it is hard to believe that claire is now 2 1/2 years old and laura is 7 months old. they are absolute joys and we are so blessed.

long overdue

sorry, folks. i know i have been promising to post pictures for weeks. well, i finally got to it. i have added a few pictures to this album and also created another maine album and some pictures of laura. we had her 6 month pictures taken on saturday, so we can't wait to see how they turn out. will share when we get them.
laura is still not rolling over, but she is sitting up fairly well these days. a tip-over here and there. she thinks claire is the funniest person in the world and when she sees her daddy smile, she just lights up as well.
claire has started drawing people - circle with two eyes and a mouth and hair and legs. i will have to try and capture one of her drawings on camera and post. she is also the jigsaw puzzle queen (like her grammy). she can do 12-24 piece puzzles now. it is amazing how quickly kids learn.
in other news, we hired the most amazing part-time nanny. luz is colombian and so perfect. we hope it is the start of a long-term relationship. well, it's 5am. i will post more details about the past few weeks sometime tomorrow. in the meantime, enjoy the new pics.

growing up too fast

SO we were spending time in the media on Sunday afternoon and Claire starts dancing. I go and get the video camera and this is what I captured. Not sure where she learned this.

how bout...

so, claire has been stalling when it is time to go to bed. 'i'm hungee", she says. and since she hasn't been eating too much at dinner, we go downstairs and get something to eat. tonight, she is sitting at the counter (on our new bar stools - with backs!) and finishes her pbj. she says, "i'm still hungee" and starts looking around the kitchen, saying [drawn out], "how 'bout?......" "coffee". i just cracked up. no, claire. no coffee. time for bed. then, it was "whatcha doin' mommy". i'm cleaning up, claire. "i wanna clean up with mommy." okay, claire. so, i let her stay up a bit and put her toys away. not too bad. she was still in bed by 8pm, which is just fine.

laura is doing great. she LOVES solid food. she has had chicken and turkey and a bunch of different fruits and veggies. she still doesn't like puffs. i will have to get a picture of her face when we put one in her mouth. it is priceless.

i know, i know. i need to put lots of new pics up. i promise i will after this week - i have a deadline for work (wait, am i not on maternity leave? - ha!).

how did we miss that one?

over the past two months, when claire has been whiny, i would ask her: do your teeth hurt? she would always say no. so, to my great surprise tonight, i looked in her mouth and saw that her 2 year molars are all almost in. when did that happen??

laura continues to be our bright little star. she is so content and sweet. she has taken to her solids well, though she wasn't too keen on the chicken tomato pastini tonight. it was her first intro to meat. we'll try again tomorrow.

other than both girls not napping well/at all this afternoon, we have been doing great.

6 month checkup

as i said before, laura has become just the sweetest little baby. but perhaps i was mistaken. perhaps not so little! we took her in for her 6 month check up today. she weighed in at 15lb 15oz and measured 27in in length. for those of you who like to know percentages that's 49% for weight and 88% for height. consistent with last visit. and yes, evidently she still has a little tiny head. her noggin measured at 16" which is the 6th percentile. how can this be? does she really look like she has a tiny head? i don't think so, in fact, i think she looks quite proportionate.

since claire's head has always measured small and we know how sharp she is, i am not worried :).

laura cried a little for the shots, and claire didn't seem all that distressed. a little curious, but pretty mellow compared to last visit. perhaps because daddy was with us. anyway, laura checked out just fine and we go back to see the doctor nov 15th for her 9 month visit. no shots then! hooray!!

girls are both napping, so i am tidying up and changing out laura's 3-6 month clothes for 6-9month clothes. it just goes too fast!

i will try and get mark to post some new pics soon. he posted new videos last night. for some reason, my macbook won't let me post pics in the blog. maybe i will try on picasa.

ciao for now.

lynn

Claire 400

Almost every evening this is how Claire winds down.

Laughing baby

What a darling baby. Check out Claire's knock-knock joke half way through.

what a difference a nap makes

well, 3 days of sleep training and we have a different baby. not sure if it was sleep deprivation, hunger, anticipating milestones, or just a phase, but laura has truly turned a corner. she is now the most patient, sweet, non-crying baby you have ever met. she naps regularly and for 1.5-2 hours twice a day with the 3rd power nap of 45 min. she laughs and smiles and coos and sits patiently in her bumbo (thanks mark and erin!) and when on the floor rolls on her side from her back. she is mostly happy on her tummy with some crying when she wants to roll over. but overall she is an absolute delight. i never doubted it, but i know her dad might have ;p.

claire is busy playing nemo puzzles and painting. today, she wrote the letter d and told her dad that dog started with a d. then she wrote a w and told him that oo-wa-ha, oo-wa-haa, started with a w. if you have seen finding nemo, you know exactly what we are talking about. she is singing all sorts of songs and still love to dance.

we are so lucky to have two such sweet girls.

mark posted a few new pics, but we have lots more to upload and will do so soon.

2 in a row

well, laura slept last night from 7pm to 8am. she awoke once at 5am and put herself back to sleep. we are so proud of her.

i also installed black out curtains in her room and this morning when i put her down for her nap, there was nary a peep. so, fingers crossed!

she did it!

laura slept through the night from 630pm to 715am! we are so happy (and somewhat rested)!!! hopefully this is the beginning of a trend and not a one-time fluke.

she has been eating sweet potatoes and cereal and loving it. we are getting so many smiles and giggles, too. i will post some pictures later today.

in other news, it looks like we found a nanny to watch the girls part time. she will start this fall with a few hours and increase in the spring when i go back to teaching. we are really very excited about her. she sings, speaks spanish and seems very tender-hearted.

finally, thanks to uncle larry for sending the moxie t-shirts. claire absolutely loves hers and woke up this morning asking for it. perhaps this afternoon i can get a picture of mark, claire and laura all wearing their shirts.

until next time, make sure you've got moxie...

lynn

SHE DID IT!!!! after i posted this, laura rolled from her tummy to her back twice!! of course, she was pretty cranky about it, but she did it!!! and yes, i caught the 2nd one on video. will post it later this evening.

Sleeping

Well, the rice cereal went down easy, but Laura sure hasn't. We've been reading about how to get your baby to sleep. Laura sleeps from about 7pm to 4am. And ten again to about 7am. Naps (for Laura but not her dad!) are rarer than solar eclipses around our house. Anyway the books say to let her cry when you put her down for a nap. in the morning, she cries for about 30 minutes and then sleeps for almost 2 hours. her afternoon naps are a bit more trying. She's been crying for the last 55 minutes in her crib. The books also say to let her cry for an hour and then get her up and try again when she is scheduled to nap or sleep the next time.

It's now been 58 minutes of crying and she has finally stopped. Hopefully she is sleeping, but I don't dare open her door to find out.

Shhhh! Be wery, wery qwiet.


update: morning naps are better and she only cried 30min this afternoon but then only slept for 30min. we'll get there. in the meantime, we'll relish in her sweet disposition. she is just so yummy!

Yummy!

Next week Laura will be 6 months old! Thus far the only thing she has eaten is breast milk. But considering she has cellulite on her shins, that milk must be pretty good for her. Well today at lunch, Laura had her first taste of rice cereal. Take a look.



She got the hang of it pretty fast. So we were hoping she would nap for a long time this afternoon, which turned out not to be the case. Ever since we went to Maine she's been getting up at 4am every morning (so has her dad). ---note: her dad goes right back to bed! laura goes back to sleep, too. so while it in't ideal,it's not too bad. we are going to work on it this week.

all in all she is turning into the sweetest little baby who is full of smiles and chatter and raspberries! ---

The beach

This morning Lynn, Grampy and I took Claire down to the beach. If you recall, the last 2 years, Claire wanted nothing to do with the beach. Would this be the year? Watch the video to find out.

From maine 2010 claire and laura

Tonight for dinner we had lobster. Claire was a little undecided. see some photos here.

angels in flight

the girls were absolutely perfect on our flight to maine today.

when we got to the airport and were in line for security, claire (without prompting) reached down, pulled off her crocs and threw them and her backpack into the gray bin and said, "i'm ready." perhaps she could teach some of the other people in line what the proper procedures are for going through security. :0 anyway, it was hilarious.

we landed and got to the lovely condo without incident. and took the following pictures.

we'll keep it updated, including photos of the pet duck next door.

-lynn

maine bound

clicl here for a few more photos from today when the girls were helping me pack for our trip!

Dallas, TX for the weekend

On Friday, we headed to the Big D to attend the wedding of Kim's brother. It was Laura's first time in an airplane and Claire was so excited to be flying again. We lucked out and all of us were upgraded to first class. Here is Claire in her roomy seat. Both girls had an uneventful trip - the way we like it. On Friday night Lynn and I went to the rehearsal dinner. Kim arranged for a babysitter for Claire and Laura. Laura was up to her usual tricks and cried for about 4 hours on Friday night. Amazingly, the babysitter came back on Saturday night, so we could go to the wedding and reception. That babysitter (Sarah) was awesome.


The wedding was fun, but the reception was better. We got to see old friends and make new ones. On Sunday morning we headed to Paul's (Kim's dad) place for a great brunch, then off to the airport to come home. It was a short, but fun filled weekend. I only wish that the girls had more time to spend with Kim and Jason's kids. More photos of the weekend can be found here.

Lastly, we want to wish Uncle Paul and Auntie Taya a happy anniversary. A year ago today, they were married. What a difference a year makes! Congratulations Taya and Paul!

I want to go ice skating

A couple of weeks ago, Lynn took Claire and Laura to watch me play hockey. Since then Claire has been asking to go ice skating. With Paul, Taya and Lola in town, it was a great opportunity to fulfil Claire's wish. See how she does in the video below.

As you can tell from the video she had a great time... Until she fell down between my legs, in which in turn caused me to fall on top of her. The result was a nice shiner and cut under her eye. Boy did I feel awful. Other than these injuries she is ok. If fact she wants to try it again - after I buy her a helmet. Well, when we got home, she was feeling better. She wanted to have a dance party, which we were happy to oblige.

family = love

we are so blessed to have lola, uncle paul, and auntie taya visiting with us this week. laura has been an absolute angel. she has been loving all the snuggle time with her canadian rellies. no crying for mommy - just a content little baby. i love it!

laura was baptized at our lady of la salette catholic church yesterday morning. she was perfect the whole time. father reyes took her around to the congregation where the members laid hands on her to bless her and she just took it all in - not even a whimper. later, when she was being formally baptized, she didn't take her eyes off father reyes. she just watched him as he talked to her and walked around. she was absolutely perfect. we got some lovely pictures (click here) of all of the family.

claire has been awesome as well. lots of quality time with her lola, uncle paul and auntie taya, too! she played basketball with uncle paul yesterday and went to the pool with auntie taya. i think uncle paul and daddy are going to take her to learn how to ice skate this week, too. well, at least try. today they are all off to the fernbank museum. laura and i are staying behind so she can sleep and i can get some work done.

since it was mark's birthday week, we have been socializing a lot. friday night we had dinner with dear friends tommy and laura and then saturday night was a cook out with the perdues and the estes. it was even more fun as both the perdues and estes had their extended families with them. we were hanging out in our newly landscaped backyard and played cornhole (click here to learn more). a total blast. then last night, we had an improptu hang out session at the perdues with a short 2 on 2 -ball game with mark, paul, taya and me. it was fun, but difficult in flip flops. :)

of course, taya and i have been in the hot tub every night doing some sister-bonding. one night we were in there for about 2 hours!

all in all, we love having our extended family around to share in the joy of our girls. we will continue to post pictures of the visit, so check back.

on friday we head to dallas for michael and meg's wedding (kim's brother).

"thank you for reading me a book"

this is what claire told me tonight as i put her into bed. wow - how i love this kid. she is seriously so sweet. without prompting, she regularly says please and thank you. she absolutely LOVES to read. we read books all day and right before bed. she has even figured out she can stall going to bed a bit by asking for another book. who am i to refuse her reading time?!

we have one more Kindermusik class next week and auntie taya will join us. i think it has been good for claire to see a bunch of other kids. she plays really nicely with kids on play dates but she doesn't often interact with a bunch of them at once. she is quite tentative in the group setting. hopefully she will overcome this hesitancy with continued exposure to groups of kids through some fun activities this fall. we plan to enroll her next in a tumbling class and a dance class (not simultaneously!)

laura is absolutely adorable. she is really coming into her own. she has the sweetest little smile. both dimples pop when she beams at you. i was looking at the posts from when claire was 4mos old and it is amazing how alike they are. laura is munching on her fingers, she is starting to show interest in the tv, she giggles and coos and she LOVES to snuggle.

lola, uncle paul and auntie taya are coming to visit this week and laura will be baptized. we are so excited for their visit. we can't wait for them to meet laura and to hang out with claire. oh yeah, and spend time with us!

we have lots of new pictures. i will try and get them posted in the next day.

--lynn

ps - i got my hot tub -wahoo!!!

My Growing Girl!

Laura had her 4 month doctor's appointment today. She measured in at 25in and 13.5 lbs. (78% for height and 48% for weight). She is an "A+ baby" according to her doctor.

Claire went with me to Laura's appointment because she had Kindermusik class right after. I brought along Haley, our babysitter, so she could watch Laura while Claire was at Kindermusik. Claire was so cute wanting to do everything that Laura was doing with Dr. Hardin (standing up, lying down, wiggling her hips). When it was time for Laura to get her shots, I told Claire she had to stand by herself so I could help baby Laura. Well, when Laura let out her first scream from the first shot, Claire shot right over to our babysitter's arms. With the second scream, Claire just started bawling. I felt so bad for her. I mean, it's great that she is so compassionate, but I hated to see her cry. Laura was over the trauma of the shot well before Claire.

Both girls are resting now and I am trying to get some work done, so I will keep this entry short.

Until next time, keep eating your wheaties!

Lynn

This one's for Lola

So, I am lying on the floor yesterday and Claire comes over, lies down beside me and says, exercise?! When Lola was here at Christmas and in April, she and Claire would do exercises while lying on the bed. Can't wait to see Lola, Uncle Paul and Auntie Taya in just a few weeks!

Lynn

Photos and more

Well, we have had a busy week. Claire went to Kindermusik on Tuesday and seemed to enjoy it. She was a bit shy but I have a feeling she will soon warm up to the other kids in the class. She is quite funny in the sense that she might just be too nice. When the music therapist brought out the basket of bells for the kids to play with, all the other kids rushed forward to grab their bells. Claire hung back and looked and me and said, "Mommy get the bell?". I told her she should get one for her and one for me. She waited until the mad dash was over and then she went and picked two out. A little too polite? We may need to teach her to be a bit more assertive. I don't want her to be the kid who pushes others out of the way, but I don't want her to be too timid, either. It is kind of funny, though, because she certainly isn't timid around us!
Claire is doing a great job with being polite. Lots of please and thank yous without being prompted. Her latest is when she says, "bye, see you later, thanks for coming" all in one breath and all at the end of a skype conversation!
Her last funny (and then onto news about Laura) is yesterday Claire and I were heading out to meet some friends for breakfast. I pulled over on my street to check my purse to look for some cash (rarity, I know - the cash, not the pulling over!). I said, Mommy just needs to find her money before we go. Claire pipes up from the backseat, "Daddy took it. Daddy took money from mommy's wallet". I just busted out laughing. Particularly because Daddy raiding Mommy's wallet is not exactly a regular occurrence in our house. Too funny.
Laura is doing great. I had an amazing day with her today. I was able to spend a lot of time with her, just holding her, feeding her, smiling with her. She is a really sweet little baby. She loves to watch Claire and is really fascinated with Kayla. And, of course, her daddy gets these big goofy grins from her. She is still very much a momma's girl, though. I have to say, knowing that she will not always think I am the best thing on earth, I am soaking up every minute.
She is still sleeping really well at night - 10-12 hours and napping about 2 hours in the morning and in the afternoon, with a power nap around 430 or so. My latest challenge is getting her to stay asleep at nap times. She falls asleep and then wakes up 15min later crying. The swing (thank you Uncle Joe and Aunt Kathy!) seems to help with keeping her asleep.
I know I keep saying how tall she is. She just seems super tall. Only 3 more days until her 4 month dr. visit, so we will see. I said today that Claire will be a guard or forward and Laura will be our center. By the looks of Laura's feet and how they are too big for 6month footie pajamas, I am not sure that is too much of a stretch to say. Maybe Laura's nickname will be Stretch!
And for those of you wondering, no, we haven't come up with a nickname yet. I think it will just come to us one of these days. Claire seems to like the idea of baby bubbles, but that may not be such a great nickname later on.
I have uploaded some pictures. These include a couple from the girls' first joint playdate with Avery and Sam. I hope Jamie sends the ones from Monday and Kimmy sends the ones from Thursday soon. Will let you know when I get those.
Have a great weekend.
Lynn

Playdates galore

well, claire has had quite the busy week with two playdates and a special treat on tuesday mornings. last friday, we had avery (age 3) and baby sam (age 5 months) come over to hang out with my girls. the two older girls seemed to have a really good time together. baby sam and laura grinned at the big kids and i think at each other once and a while. the moms (michelle, kristi and i) supervised and stayed cool with mimosas.

today (monday), maggie and her mom jamie came over for a playdate and the girls got along swimmingly - literally. we went to the neighborhood pool and the girls played for about an hour and a quarter in the pools while laura hung out with our awesome babysitter magen at home.

i am so proud of claire and how she plays with other kids. she shares her toys so nicely and asks the girls to come back and play another time. she is polite and sweet and funny. "claire, can you share your [insert name of toy here]" "okay, sure!" a great role model for her little sis. claire then proceeds to talk about how much fun she had with avery and maggie for the rest of the day and into the next day.

tomorrow we are going to start kindermusik classes. just claire and me. mark says we need to enroll her in something because neither one of us has rhythm. {wow, have you ever had to type rhythm , that is one weird word to spell}

claire has also taken to identifying stop signs (from the front or the back). i guess i don't have to worry about running any stop signs, because if claire is with me, she hollers, "stop sign!" she has also memorized goodnight moon and cinderella. you can stop anywhere in cinderella and she will finish the sentence. it is adorable to watch. her other favorite books are three of the little critter books given to her by auntie nancy. she reads them over and over again. you can hear her, "i was so mad" or "all by myself!" from across the room. finally she has learned to count to 6 in spanish. it is really funny because she starts at dos and not uno.

laura continues to grow and flourish. we have gotten a lot of smiles and laughs out of her these days. she is sleeping really well at night for about 11 hours. her naps seem to be a bit off this week, but mostly because she doesn't want to be left alone, i think. she will happily nap in your arms :)

i swear laura is extremely tall. she is chubbin' up a bit, but she just seems to get longer by the day. guess we will find out for sure next week at her 4 month appointment. can you believe it! our little bitty one is going to be 4 months old next week. laura is still a mommy's girl. she will be crying for someone else and the moment i pick her up she quits. while it is nice to have the magic touch, it can be tiring.

i can't help but reflect every evening on how truly blessed i am. i have an incredible, wonderful life. two amazing daughters, a sweet and loving husband, a job i love, great health and the best friends and family a girl could ask for. so, thank you to those who read this blog. you make up part of that incredibleness. and for my girls, who will someday read this blog. know that you mean the world to me.

hugs and much love,

lynn

p.s. pics to come today or tomorrow

Mom's pudding pop

Some Recent Videos

This and that...

The girls continue to blossom and astound us. We got Laura laughing a few times, which is quite an accomplishment, given her propensity for crying. And while she sleeps through the night, the trick is getting her to sleep in the first place. But admittedly, I don't tire from looking at her and trying to get her to smile. She really is cute. Yesterday we went to a friend's retirement party and brought the girls. Claire was her usual charming self, acting like the ham she can be. Laura didn't cry the whole time. Several people commented how much the girls look like their father. For the girls' sake I hope that changes.

Claire's love of books and reading has been rekindled. I am sure we read a dozen books a day. The current favorite is Cinderella. Can you name the two step-sisters in the story (without googling it)? She even reads to froggy. Most of the time we can't understand what she is saying, except for the occassional "Once upon a time" and "Happy ever aster". We are still working, albeit not very hard, on the idea of using the potty. Currently she tells us she is going poopie after she has already gone. We'll get there.

But in general, the summer days are filled with mornings in our pool on the back deck, with me scooping out all of the "bees" aka bugs, and then she can enjoy the water. Our pool cost $35 bucks and then another $20 for chemicals and testing strips, but I am sure we will (or Claire will) get our money's worth out of it.

The past week has also been the playoffs for my hockey team. After losing 14-1 to our opposition, we had to beat them in two straight games to win the championship. As you can see from the photo, we did and we are champions for the AA division. I am sure Lynn is glad it is over, but the next season starts on June 14. No rest for the weekend warriors.

Until the next post.. their names are Drizzella and Anastasia.

m-a-r-k!

we have had quite a busy week. this weekend was our anniversary and mark treated me to an exquisite day - a scheduled (!) massage and dinner out. it was almost like mother's day.

the girls have been absolutely delightful. claire is now singing all sorts of songs - abc, frere jacques, row row row your boat, twinkle twinkle, and her all time favorite, happy birthday to you. she can count to 10 quite regularly, and once when mark asked her to count to 10, she replied, "11, 12, 13, 14!"it was so funny.

she has also taken to calling her father, "mark" when he exasperates her. like yesterday when he threw a ball at her (note: not to her), she said, "mah-ark!" hmm. wonder where she learned that one :). and, "don't do that, mark!" is another favorite when he is bugging her.

laura has been a doll. she is sleeping 12 hours continuously at night. she is still working on regulating her naps. but, she is a smiling, cooing delight.

i swear laura grew an inch the other night. she is growing so quickly and filling out so nicely. hooray for liquid gold!

i am really looking forward to this summer and fall when i get to spend more time with the girls without worrying about finding time to work. this time really does go by so quickly.

i will have mark post some pics later today.

Progress report

The kids keep growing. Laura is now 3 months olds and barely fits in her 3 month clothes. Fortunately, as a hand-me-down baby, she will get to enjoy Claire's former clothes for many years. She laughs and smiles regularly now and sleeps through the night - well if you consider 7:30pm to 5am being through the night.

Claire continues to amaze us. Today I asked her how many toes she had on her foot and she counted off each toe saying one, two, three, four, five toes! This past weekend the pool opened and today Magen took Claire to the pool. We also bought Claire a little wading pool for times when we can't make it to the main pool. The kid will sprout gills soon. And once she overcomes her fear of sand, she should enjoy the beach this summer.

two steps forward, one step back

well it seems as though three of us caught this lousy cold (claire, laura and me). poor claire coughed all night and laura was up every 3-4 hours. and now mark tells me he thinks he has gout. lovely. but, hey, colds come and go and mark can get meds to treat the gout (old dude's disease!). things could be worse.

i still have the most wonderful family. and i never take that for granted.

okay, back to sleep. well, maybe....

update: laura slept from 730 to 630 last night! hopefully sh was just up b/c she was sick. and claire and i made banana bread together this morning. it was great fun!

new photos from mother's day

about a week ago, laura started sleeping 10-12 hours at night. what a relief. she is still working to organize her daytime naps. she totally keys in on when she should fall asleep (9am, 1pm, 5pm) but she has a hard time staying asleep for more than 45 min. she will get the hang of it soon enough, i am sure.

we had a lovely mother's day. very relaxing with a little amateur photo session. check out the pis here.

laura is changing so quickly. she is a really sweet baby. claire is growing up by the minute. other than developing a cold yesterday, it was the perfect mother's day. but then again, with my girls, every day is a perfect mother's day!

--lynn

"Timeout" is not a game...

Today, Lynn put Claire in timeout. "If you pull that leaf off the plant you are going to timeout". That's kind of like the "wet paint" sign that makes you touch the paint to see if it is really wet. Off came the leaf. So, Lynn carried Claire to the timeout corner in the dinner room and Claire thought the whole thing was funny. She gladly stood in the corner, smiling at mom. How can you stay mad at her?

I wish want to wish all the mothers out there a happy mother's day, especially Lynn, Lillian and Dely.

Dress up

Someone turned 26 months old today. It's hard to believe. I am sure one day I'll turn around and Claire will be 26 years old. Next week Laura will be 3 months old. Both my children are absolute delights. After I got home from the dentist (no cavities!) Claire decided to play dress up with costumes we got from a neighbor.

You can see more pictures of our fun afternoon here.

Another milestone

So Claire and I were playing on the back porch after breakfast this morning and she announced to me that she had to go poopie. I asked her if she wanted to use the potty and she said yes. We went to the potty and I took off her diaper and shorts and she sat down and took care of business. Could this be the end of dual diaper changing?

Her vocabulary continues to grow each day and Lynn and I are constantly amazed at what she says. The other day she said, "I'm not going to eat my boogers". Genius!!!!

We are also working on getting Laura on to a schedule so she will sleep longer at night. As of now she is good for 6-7 hours at night, but not every night. She has also started to coo and smile. And she just loves when Claire comes over to play with her. We are blessed with 2 wonderful kids.

Growing LIke a Weed

Laura had her two month pediatric appointment on Tuesday. She measured in at a whopping 23 3/4 in (89th % for length) and weighed in at 10lbs 11oz (40th% for weight). Her little bitty head measured at 13th%!

She has begun sleeping for 8 hours at night (usually from 8pm to 4am) and then goes back to sleep until about 7am. She even took a 3 hour nap this afternoon! Hopefully we can get her on a decent schedule soon.

More details to follow. Back to grading...

Who is a ham?

1 month ago...

...I posted my last blog. not much has happened since then. Laura is getting bigger and more adorable by the day and most importantly she is starting to sleep longer - only waking up once or twice a night. She still manages to go through diapers at an amazing rate. So buy stock in Pampers.

My mom came to visit for a week at the end of March. She really enjoyed spending time with the grandkids and ironing shirts for me. Claire and Laura liked to spend time with Lola as well.

As we ease in to spring, we are spending more time outdoors. Claire loves being outside, playing basketball and drawing with chalk. She has a nice case of road rash on her right knee, on which only bandaids with cartoon characters can be affixed. Laura likes the fresh air, as she is calmer and sleeps more soundly. I think we are slowly starting to get her into a routine. That, or I am delerious from lack of sleep. Truth be told, Lynn has been the best trooper, especially at night.

On Easter weekend we went to a birthday party for Claire and two friends of hers - they were all born within 3 weeks of each other. The adults had a BBQ and the kids had an easter egg hunt. Claire was doing well, until she realized there was candy inside the eggs and then she stopped collecting eggs and started opening them.

I have a couple of new videos to post, which I will do tomorrow, but for now, you can see some relatively new photos here.

our little "big girl"

well, claire had her two year visit to the dr. today. she was great in the waiting room, but as soon as they called her back, she lost it. she just clung to me (lynn) and cried and cried. she didn't want to be undressed, weighed, measured or even looked at by the nurses. thank goodness that the staff are used to this kind of behavior at 2yrs old (or so they tell me). claire did finally calm down for the dr. (can you say miracle worker!!). according to the dr., she is perfect. but of course, we already knew that :). she measure in at around 34in and weighed in at approximately 27lbs. i say around and approximately b/c she wouldn't stay still for the scale and we had to pin her down while she screamed and thrashed about to measure her length. i actually think the numbers are pretty close. these vitals put her right at the 55% mark for both height and weight. her head still measures on the small side (18.5 in and in the 36th percentile). guess it just goes to show you that size doesn't matter (when it comes to intelligence!).

all in all, claire is a really great kid. she is sweet and funny. when we got home, we played outside with carson for a while (he is 7mos older than claire). they had a good time and played really nicely together - sharing and taking turns with the golf clubs, etc. she is now napping and i suspect recovering from the "trauma" of the morning. laura, oblivious to all of this, is also napping.

as for me, i am off to finish compiling our tax documents to send to the tax preparer. good times.

Claire, how old are you?

Somebody had a weekend's worth of birthdays. Uncle Larry and Auntie Char came from Syracuse to spend a few days with us and the girls. They call it the 2nd annual world baby tour. Claire loves having them here. So, we pose the question to Claire, "how old are you? And we get the answer "Clocks". Everytime. not sure how she came up with that. In addition to Larry and Charlene, our friend Luis, from Salta, Argentina was in town and he took a ton of pictures of the girls. A lot of pictures from the weekend are posted here.

Surprisingly, Claire was not into the cupcakes. Not surpringly, she was into the presents. Thanks you to everyone who sent a gift. You will be receiving a thank you card as soon as Lynn finishes them. Today, we hung out with the neighbors, enjoying the first signs of spring. Laura and Sam slept for most of the time, while Claire played with the other kids, especially on the trampoline.

All in all, it was a great way to start spring break. If you get a chance, please look at our friend Michelle Garvin's website (she is the photographer who took pictures of Laura). She has posted a few photos of Laura. Look for the March 7 entry.

Routine is good, right?

Lynn and I have been blessed with two angels. One who sleeps through the night and one who is slowly getting there. It is interesting to watch Claire grow as she tries exert her independence, helps us change Laura's diaper, learns new words ("what happened?" is the latest phrase), and engages in conversations with us. She is changing fast. I can barely remember when she was Laura's age, but at least they could pass for twins if you look at their baby pictures. I was thinking about actual photographs from my childhood and how my mom would write on the back of them so we would know how was who. No longer.

Speaking of routine, I forgot how much I enjoy washing bottles and pump accessories. But at least I don't have to use them! Lynn is such a trooper only 49 more weeks to go. We already have 15oz in the freezer! Hopefully in another month Laura will be sleeping through the night, as will her parents. We both noticed that Laura is more of a crier than Claire, and she gets mad when she cries if you don't figure out why she is crying. But at this stage is only a handful of things that make her cry. Well, Uncle Larry and Auntie Char are visiting this weekend, because someone turns 2 on Saturday. I'll post some photos from the weekend.

Growing like a weed!

well, i (lynn) took laura in for her 2 week checkup. she is doing great! she weighed in at a whopping 7 lb 6 oz and measured 20.5 in. that means she has gained 14 oz in 11 days and grew 1.5 inches in 2 weeks. she is a truly sweet little baby. she sleeps really well and for 4-5 hours at a stretch at night. and, one of the most special parts is that laura has an angel for a big sister. claire has been absolutely wonderful with her, giving her kisses and bringing "baby yora" clean diapers and pacies. we are absolutely in love with our two beautiful girls. more pictures to come in the next few days.

Poor 'baby' is sick

Well, Laura turns 2 weeks old on Sunday. It hard to believe. Auntie Kim came to visit this past week for 4 days and was a tremendous help, as I have a cold. To remedy the imbalance of photos of Laura v. Claire, we had a friend (Michelle) and professional photographer come over today to photograph Laura. She spent 3.5 hours shooting photos which was amazing. We'll get to see the photos in about 2 weeks. (The picture on the right is of Claire giving Baby Laura a kiss on the head - one of Claire's favorite things to do).

So, as I noted above, I have a cold. This year is the first year I started using that purell stuff, on a regular basis, to clean my hands often. And as luck would have it, this is the first year in 3 years, that I have been sick. The hardest part about being sick is not how crappy you feel, but how little sympathy you now get from your spouse (the mother of a newborn and a 2 year old :) ). Ok, the hardest part is not being able to hold and play with your kids.

There are new photos posted here.

Lastly, if you have a moment, please think about and pray for the people of Chile. I have emailed many friends there (some who live near the epicenter) and have not heard from anyone yet.

It's music to our ears...

It's been awhile and I forgot how soothing the sound of a newborn crying is. Especially when you are trying to sleep. Yes, this morning I went to the hospital to pick up Lynn and Laura and bring them home. When I brought Claire home from the hospital for the first time, I drove 60 mph. This time was a little different - not that I sped, but I didn't have the nervousness as I did the first time. Anyway, here are some new pictures.

and the name is....

Laura Katherine Patterson.

Laura is on the bili-lights to treat high bilirubin levels. We hope to go home tomorrow. Will post more pictures/videos later.

I forgot...

...how great it feels to be sleep deprieved. Here are some photos!

And in this corner in the white trunks...

weighing in at 6 lbs, 12oz. Baby "no name as of yet" Patterson. Claire has a little baby sister and I have another Valentine!!! She is so beautiful and long (19 inches). Mom and baby are doing well. I will post photos in a little bit. So congrats to the 20 of you who voted for "girl".

37 weeks and SNOW!

hi all. lynn here. just an update on our little family. we made it to 37 weeks yesterday and are still hoping to hold off on the little little one's arrival until the first week of march. not that we really have any say in the matter. isn't that just like kids - you think you are in control, but really you aren't. :)

we had a couple of inches of snow yesterday. it was really beautiful. we tried to get claire out in it, but she wouldn't have anything to do with it. kind of like how she is with sand. oh well, hopefully she will grow out of this stage soon. we want to have fun this summer at the beach! i will post the pics we took last night and this morning of her out in the snow in a bit.

claire continues to delight us. she loves to laugh and sing and play and color/paint. she has a few songs in her repertoire now - frere jacques, twinkle twinkle, the alphabet song (as sung by the pig on super why). she loves to play with the electronic keyboard that used to belong to my grandmother. i think her favorite part is to keep pushing the "demo" key and dance around. over and over again!

well, that is all for now. take care and happy valentine's day. reach out and give someone a hug today/tomorrow/every day.

xoxo,

lynn, mark and claire

Dancing Queen

As promised, here is a video from last weekend when we were over at our next door neighbors. The girls were playing Just Dance on the Wii and someone couldn't resist joining the fun. (note: we are having trouble with the viewing the video, but it does seem to work sometimes. just refresh and try again. also, that is baby sam and not baby patterson in the video!).

Uncharted Territory...

Lynn is at 35 weeks, 5 days!!! Claire was born at 35 weeks, 1 day. She has never been this pregnant before. She now has weekly doctor appointments. The doctor is certain we won't make it to March 5 - the due date. Lynn has been confined to chair rest and has to keep standing and walking to a minimum. I still think Claire has no idea what's coming. She knows what a baby is and she does like baby Sam. We can't even spell S-A-M without Claire saying "Sam!" But when Claire realizes that this baby is not leaving at the end of the evening and will be there first thing in the morning, I wonder how she will react. I have no doubt this baby will have the best big sister in the world.

Today we entered uncharted territory for another reason. Claire threw up for the first time! Fortunately it was over all Lynn and not me. I could tell she wasn't herself this morning (very quiet and a little warm), but I had to go to work, leaving her in the capable hands of Mom. Good move on my part. She went to sleep tonight with no fussing. i hope she sleeps for her regular 12 hours.

The next posting will have some funny videos of Claire and will be worth the wait.

It's squishy in here

Ok, as promised here is Claire's brother/sister. It's a little hard to make out, but its head is sideways, with the forehead to the right. You can make out the eyes, nose and mouth. It weighs 5lbs 11 oz. And here is the kicker! Lynn has been placed on seat rest (as opposed to bed rest). She must be seated as much as possible, with her feet up, and she cannot lift anything, including Claire. The doctor told me to get her a bell so Lynn can ring when she needs something. I told Lynn to get a new doctor. Anyway, we are super excited and have pledged to each other that we will start getting ready for this baby, including packing a hospital bag this weekend.

Has July 4th Come Early?

Someone has developed an independence streak. Whether it's peeling her own orange or going up the stairs, Claire has adopted a "I can do it" attitude. My little girl is growing up so quickly. Good thing, because in 6 weeks or so, she will be a big sister! Lynn has an ultrasound tomorrow morning and I can't wait to see the baby.

Two weekends ago we took Claire on her last free flight. We are going to have to start paying for her tickets after she turns 2. Anyway we went to Florida to visit Grammy and Grampy. As you can see, it was warm enough to go swimming. Grampy and I even got to play 9 holes of golf. She just loves swimming. Too bad she still doesn't care for the ocean or the beach.

Last weekend we went to Nick and Kristi's (and Sam's) for dinner. Nick was changing Sam's diaper and Claire was right in there watching the action (making sure Nick was doing a good job). She points to Lynn's belly when we ask her "where's mommy's baby?" and answers yes to, "Are you going to be a big sister?", but I am pretty sure she doesn't know what's coming. Heck, we don't either! The voting is tied for boy or girl and there are only 34 more days left to vote. We are still desperately seeking names, so please email them to us.

I will post pictures from the ultrasound tomorrow when I get them.

Happy New Year!

Claire had a great Christmas with Grammy, Grampy, Lola, Uncle Paul and Auntie Taya visiting (we did too). Even Santa made a surprise visit to our house to see Claire - she wasn't too interested in Santa. She was spoiled by all of the attention she got, and we were spoiled too as family members lined up to play with her. To the right is Uncle Paul and Claire outside, looking for airplanes - she has a knack for spotting them in the sky. Claire also went to the Georgia Aquarium, which she loved because of the fishes in Finding Nemo. I got a season's pass to the Aquarium for Christmas (from Claire) and Claire gets in for free, so I suspect we'll be going there a lot - that's like my buying Lynn a power tool for her birthday. Needless to say, everyone had a great time over Christmas, especially Claire who is now learning to play the drums on Rock Band

After the house emptied on Dec. 29, our friends Kim and Jason (and kids) from Dallas arrived to spend the new year with us. We went to the bounce house again. Claire was not as timid this time around. We also went to the Georgia Aquarium. Did I mention I got a season's pass for Christmas from Claire? Everyone celebrated New Year's Eve together with sparkling apple juice, followed by fireworks in the front yard, with the kids watching from the front porch. The adults barely made it to midnight.

Lynn is doing well with baby number #2. I feel bad I have not written much about him/her. This one is quite a bit more active than Claire was. He/she has a strong heartbeat and we go for an ultrasound in a couple of weeks. It is hard to believe that we only have 8 more weeks to go, and then the lack of sleep cycle repeats itself. Well, it is a small price to pay for such joy. And speaking of joy, I would be remiss if I did not tell you that our neighbors Kristi and Nick (guitar player in above video) had a baby girl, Samantha, on Dec. 31. You can follow their chronicles of parenthood on their blog.

And the last bit of good news, Nick and I were earned a t-shirt at the local watering hole for reaching a certain level of beer consumption. "Years of preparation got us to this momentus occasion. Hard work really does pay off", said Nick Estes, as he rested his pint on his belly.

Finally, you can see some photos from the past couple of weeks here. We are flying to Florida for the MLK weeking to see Grammy and Grampy. Pictures to follow.