Easter and April 2012

Terribly embarrassing that it is mid-July and I'm posting Easter pictures, but I suppose better late than never....

Easter morning, looking like a little Kennedy.  This was the phase where she was still learning how to perfect the smile-on-demand

2 out of 4 looking at the camera isn't bad

Mommy and Luke

Half-smile for the ladies

Aunt Leslie and Jane...one very excited little girl

Again, trying to smile with her Easter basket

Easter Egg Hunt at Mimi's

Luke was very serious about his eggs

Perfect form in egg-hunting

Fabio not realizing I was taking a picture

Papa giving Luke all sorts of life lessons

"This is how you really put out the vibe, Papa"

Just to prove we are alive and well - a very fun night out at the Hope Hospice Gala!

These Pictures Deserve Their Own Post

A Few Statements:

• I have no idea why he isn't wearing pants.
• He loves, LOVES, wearing those boots
• He equally loves looking at DVD cases
• Apparently we were out of bibs during dinner time.
• This picture will be blown up to poster-size for his high school graduation party.

March 2012

A highlight for March was a special trip down to Nky to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday; we also finally took the kids to get their first haircuts.  Terribly embarrassing for me, I know, that Jane was TWO before her first one, but alas, what can you do.  

BEFORE: A little apprehensive about what is looming...

AFTER: Still apprehensive, but with a much better 'do

Luke, however, was highly enjoying himself.  He thought it was some sort of game!

Trying to sneak away....

His body language would indicate he is being hurt in some fashion.  Odd as it is to say, I think he thought it was going to tickle him...

Such a big boy!

Hiding together in Nana's shelves

"I lovers Uncle Joel, even though he nonstop pesters me"

This kid loves to sit in my lap.  I do not complain.

LUKE: "Get me out of here"
KEEGAN: "How's the smile, ladies?"
JANE: "I wonder how I can get Keegan to do what I tell him?"
GRANDPAUL: "Life is good."

Jane "helping" Nana with her birthday gifts

Buds.

Jane helping herself to the entire ice cream cake.  She simply couldn't believe ice cream and cake all in one!

Jane's new best friend, aka the only other person that would sit and eat more ice cream cake with her straight from the platter.  The arm around the shoulder/back kills me.

Priceless

January/February Pictures

Finally getting around to posting some pictures!!

"Ah, nice work Jane.  A little to the left, please."

I'm having visions of the little brother from The Christmas Story - "mom, I can't put my arms down...."

"Wow, apparently our mom doesn't believe in (much needed) haircuts". 
Disheveled hair aside, I love this picture of them.

Quite a smile, there Luke.

These Days

There has been a delay in posting anything, as life has really seemed to pick up for us, and I apologize to all my faithful (7) readers!  I am starting to settle into my new job a bit after a pretty crazy initiation into the world of management!  Evan has been staying very busy with 2 major projects at work that has been consuming a lot of his time and energy.  We are both looking forward to some fun activities in the coming weeks - dinner with friends, concerts, a mini-vacation for us, and my cousin Matt's wedding in August! 

As much as I like to think you enjoy reading about Evan and I, I'm acutely aware that it is our wonderful children that are the highlight of these blogs.  I wanted to take some time and post about what each of them are up to these days.  Despite life's hectic pace, we are so enjoying every minute we are together as a family and can't wait to see what life has in store for us the remainder of this year!

Jane:
Well, where do I really start.  Jane still remains our smiling, sweet, independent, first-born...with a little twist.  Turning 2 has brought about glimpses of those ever-feared Terrible Twos, but in her most genuine form, Jane continues to show us how big of a heart she has!

Here are a few things rolling around in Jane's world these days:

• Jane started speech therapy in March, and what an amazing blessing this has been for all of us.  She has rapidly improved on the number of words she says, and the clarity of what she is trying to say is remarkable!  Being with Jane during her speech therapy sessions is truly the highlight of my week. I love watching her interact with our therapist and literally try to make her mouth say/form the words.  NOW, that being said, this newfound freedom with words has also brought about a bit of a rebellious side.  The word "NO" has somehow found it's way to the top of the vocabulary list and she is testing our patience with every defiant moment.  Her most favorite phrase these days?  "No, Mommy, I do it."  She also attended the Summer Speech program at Columbia Elementary school 2 days a week during June and she enjoyed that as well, namely the Dixie cup of treats at the end of each day.  She is finished with her speech therapy and remarkable that just 3 1/2 months ago she had 5 words in her vocabulary, and now is probably well over 200!
• Her independent nature is taking on a whole new meaning.  With her potty training nearly complete, her speech rapidly improving, and the world's strongest will, Jane wakes up every day set to conquer the world.  She insists on doing everything herself.  She has to take off her pj's, she has to get dressed, she has to get into her seat, she has to buckle herself into her carseat....the list goes on and on.  If at any moment, one of us forgets and accidentally performs some act for her that she clearly would like to do herself, she repeats the entire sequence again, in essence so that she can start it all over and do it herself.  Of the fits that we have seen her throw in the last 4 months, 98% of them started with someone accidentally doing something SHE wanted to do herself and she can't recover.  She runs around shouting, "I", "I", "I do it!".  It's exhausting, but yet, someone once reminded me that having a strong-willed child isn't a bad thing.  (Right, mom?)
• Jane continues to love books of all kind.  Her new favorites are the Little Critter books and the Berenstain Bears.  Her favorite number is 5 (and one of the only ones she can say), so every time we ask her if she wants to read a book, she holds out her hand and says "5".  She still loves puzzles and stickers (meticulously placing stickers in their correct location, and insists on doing specific puzzles alone), but her love of books and the park are quickly taking over.  The nice weather we've been having has fostered an absolute obsession for going to the park and being outside.  She loves bubbles and running around in our driveway.  
• Jane has mastered the art of pedaling, and even does it in the air when not even on a bike/tricycle.  She loves "cruising" in our cul-de-sac and every neighbor loves watching her obsessively pedal.  We've held off just yet on a real 2-wheeler for her, but we did get a bike trailer for Evan's bike and we have enjoyed riding our bikes to the nearby park a couple of nights a week.  The kids absolutely love it.
• Jane's favorites: Teddy (still), Dora, "Tookies", swimming, slides at the park, reading books before bed, "2 songs, 5 songs" before bed, yogurt with graham cracker crumbles, and in general anything new and exciting life has to offer!

Luke:

It is hard for us to believe that Luke is almost 18 months old - he has grown so quickly and it feels like time is moving faster these days.  Luke is one solid boy, weighing as much as Jane and just about 2 inches shorter than her.  He has meaty little hands and feet, and has the lightest, prettiest eyes you'll ever see, with the world's longest eyelashes to boot.  He remains on the more reserved and shy side, clinging to one of us in a new setting or new crowd.  Here are some of the things Luke has been up to these days:

• Luke LOVES to eat, and will destroy his plate of food in less than 5 minutes - no exaggeration.  Not surprising still as he's always been this way, but there is no messing around when it comes to eating.  If it were nutritionally (is that a word?) and humanly possible, Luke would prefer to eat only bananas.  He loves bananas and would eat one at every meal if we let him (we don't).  He loves blackberries and strawberries too, and is just now really trying out his hand at feeding himself.  He prefers the hand-shoveling method over utensils, which I don't mind as much as Evan.  I think I can visibly see the anxiety overtake Evan when I let Luke eat with his fingers....
• He is talking so much, just really brought on in the last 2 weeks - he can say momma, da-da, mower (he loves watching Evan mow the lawn), DOR (Dora), up, all done, Pa-Pa, Bob (Great-Grandpa Bob) and more each day! (Dreadfully, including "i do it".)
• Luke has just started to love reading books, especially the little Dr. Suess board books.  He walks to the shelf and pulls off 3-4 and goes and sits by himself for at least 20 minutes and flips through the pages.  His new favorite subject (and word) is DOG and he is obsessed.  I fear a canine may be in our future soon....
• His favorite thing to play with is still balls of any kind - golf balls (he loves to see how many he can pick up), mini basketballs, squishy balls, rubber balls....you get the point.  He even thinks the buoys in the lake are balls, which are primarily the only things that keep him entertained during boat rides.  
• Up until about 3 weeks ago, he only had FOUR teeth!  Poor kid is working with a mouthful of swollen gums, and 2 more teeth finally popped through, 1 on top and 1 on bottom.  No molars yet, I'm sure that will be a real picnic!  
• Despite the fact that he loves to snuggle and be held, Luke is ALL BOY and has absolutely no fear - something that terrifies me.  He will throw himself face-first into the water in the bath or pool, take a step off of a relatively high stair, pick up huge/heavy objects and try to carry them around, plummet off our bed, etc.  We predict he will have the first broken bone of the family...
• Luke's favorites: his white blankie, his milk cup, reading books, slides at the park, dumping water into and out of the pool for hours, riding on his scooter in the driveway, watching cars/trucks go by, running away from Jane, and being snuggled.

Tons of pictures coming soon....!!

Pictures

Even though we were slightly delayed in getting the kids' pictures taken, we were able to corral both of them and head to the studio here in Rochester for Jane's 2-year old picture and Luke's 1-year old picture.  The results are below - we think you might agree that they turned out great! 

The pictures were taken in the morning, and Jane was a little on the meloncholy side, but we couldn't resist this shot of her.  So serious.

We loved the way she looked in this picture - just casually hanging out

And of course, her huge grin!

Very studious.  He loves to take these board books and run off to a corner and just look at the pictures.

 





Birthday Party

We celebrated both the kids' birthdays this year with a joint, Sesame Street themed party!  The weather held out for us and we got to celebrate and have a great time with everyone.  This post is ultra delayed (clearly) but I still wanted to post as many pictures as I could of the party.  Enjoy!

Mommy and Daddy with the birthday boy.  So hard to believe he is already 1 year old!

This is pretty much a standard face for him.  Luke, that is.

The kids enjoying Grandma time before the party began.  Luke is very excited to be wearing Jane's Cubs wristband.

These were "Squeakers" shoes from Aunt Meagan, Uncle Brian, and cousin Keegan.  Jane loved them as they squeaked with every step.  I think the other partygoers tired of them after about 4 minutes.  Luke is obsessed with them now too, so they have been relegated to the back of the closet for a few months.

Jane is checking out all her goods from her big Barbie bag from Aunt Katie

I love this face.  Truly a princess for the day.

"Rody" was a gift for both Jane and Luke from my friend Angela, and the kids absolutely love him.  He too has been put in the basement for a rainy day as they love to fight over him.

Quite an outfit here as Luke embarks on his first ride on Rody.  Check out the Air Jordans from Meagan, Brian, and Keegan



This was pretty much all Luke did with any of his gifts - he just wanted to climb on them.  And actually, anything, for that matter.



Jane and Keegan enjoying their birthday dinners.  These 2 are best buds when they are together.

Jane was SUPER excited for her Big Bird cupcake made specially for her.  She LOVERS Big Bird.

Luke decided to study the Elmo cupcake before digging in....

Naturally, he loved it.

A 2-handed approach was necessary to enjoy all of it.

I mean, does it get any cuter?  NOTE: his tray is entirely clean minus a few spare crumbs.  HE ATE THE ENTIRE CUPCAKE, WITH NOTHING DROPPED ON THE FLOOR.  Luke loves food.

Luke and Mommy at the end of the night.  He might be 1 year old, but he is still my baby.