Snow Wolf Den

Recently in the mail we received a picture of Auntie Kristina and Hannah inside a wolf den, howling like and calling the wolves.  While Evan and Daddy were playing in the snow today, they did the snowy version.  After playing in the snow for almost two hours, it was time for Evan's first mug of hot chocolate in the Santa mug that I used to drink hot chocolate from after I played in the snow as a kid.  Evan wasn't a big fan of the hot chocolate but he sure liked the Santa mug and I'm sure he will grow to love the hot chocolate soon!  What a great way to end a fabulous year!







I love the grunting on this one...and the "Ta-Da" too!

Holiday Happenings

It has been a busy week with lots of trip back and forth to RI but we have had lots of good reasons to make the drive.  Some of mommy's good friends were home for the holidays...Patience from Switzerland, Ben from Thailand and Leah from NYC (she didn't have to travel quite as far as Patience and Ben!).  We also had a mini Dowding cousins get together and a sleepover with Danny and Sean followed by some snow fun and sledding at Papa & Gramma's.  Always great to see old friends and family that we don't see as often as we'd like.

Reflecting on 2012

As 2012 comes to a close, you might ask if it was a good year.  I think so.  We had a wonderful year, filled with amazing experiences and milestones.  In case you missed any of it or want to go back and relive some of it, here are the highlights.
We started 2012 with a surprise trip to Florida to celebrate Gramma's 60th birthday in January. We celebrated a few more special birthdays and enjoyed lots of cousin time in February.      Evan met Curious George, we enjoyed an early start to spring, had lots of fun at Danny and Sean's bowling birthday party and enjoyed another great trip to Fort Myers, including Evan's first trip to Fort Myers Beach. April was filled with a lot of silliness and starting to get ready for our new little guy and moving Evan into a big boy room with big boy furniture.  In May, we celebrated Evan's 2nd birthday, had a wonderful visit with Omi and Grandpa, and took Evan to Uncle Bob's cabin for the first time.  June and July were filled with summer fun including a week with Danny and Sean, lots of pool time so that pregnant mommy could try to beat the heat, and enjoying our last moments as a family of three.  In August, we welcomed Logan into this world and our family! In September, we had another nice visit with Omi and Grandpa so that they could meet Logan, celebrated Daddy's birthday with a trip to Fenway park and celebrated Papa & Gramma's 40th anniversary.  By October, it was clear that Evan was going to be a great big brother.  We also had a (semi) surprise party for Papa and Gramma and had a fun Halloween.  November was full of projects, Logan's first Thanksgiving and getting ready for Christmas.  December reminded us what is really important in life and about being thankful for wonderful family and friends during the holidays.
Seems like a pretty good year to me.  And those are just the highlights!  There are so many wonderful memories that we shared with all of the amazing people in our lives.  We are so thankful to have each of you and are glad to be able to share a little piece of our life with you, our loyal readers!  Thank you for reading and stay tuned for more adventures of our little (getting big too quickly!) guys!

 

Merry Christmas!

Christmas was, as it always is, busy and full of good food, great company and lots of spoiling!  We always try not to get too crazy but without fail it always happens.  I think the best sign of this was about halfway through gift opening on Christmas Day when Sean said "No, I'm good" when we told him it was his turn to open a gift next.  Shortly there after Evan, Sean and Daddy/Uncle Bruce were watching Curious George on the droid.
We did Christmas in three parts this year...Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the day after.  We couldn't fit everything in with our schedule of trips back and forth to RI but it was actually nice to have a low key day on Wednesday to leisurely open the rest of our gifts.  I think it's safe to say that we thoroughly enjoyed Logan's first and Evan's third Christmas!
Before Christmas, Evan was really excited about a Batman costume and a Batman car.  Santa brought a Batman costume and a small Batman car but the big hit so far seems to be the trumpet.  Evan's response to the small Batman car was "Um, I think Santa forgot to bring me a big Batman car.  Silly Santa!"  Guess Santa will need to do better next year!

Christmas Cookies

We have significantly scaled back our Christmas cookie operation.  So much so that Bruce and Evan were making the sugar cookies on Christmas Eve, as if there weren't enough things going on already! (which will hopefully never happen again!)  We still found time to make a few different varieties and had a very good helper along the way.  I know everyone understands the reason for the scaling back but I also know that everyone looks forward to and enjoys the cookies so it's nice to be able to do a few kinds, especially with such a cute helper!

Presents from the Mariner's

Around 5 o'clock tonight, after a very lazy day, the phone rang.  It was Micaela, our babysitter's, mom.  Micaela was heading out to do some shopping and was going to swing by with a few gifts for us and the boys.  How nice!  Micaela started babysitting for us this fall and Evan loves her.  She does projects with Evan and reads If I Ran the Circus, one of the worst and hardest to read Dr. Seuss books, in my opinion.  Thanks for thinking of us, Micaela and Marcia!

Santa Comes to Millbury

Santa came to Millbury tonight.  He rode by on the fire truck like he does every year, making sure that he knows where all the good little boys and girls live.  We ran outside in the cold so that we could see him, wave and make sure he knew where our two good little boys live.  Based on the quality of the photos I think next year, I'll let Bruce hold Logan and Evan so that I can take pictures while not holding a baby and trying not to fall off the front steps.  Oh well, a fun tradition anyway!

There he is

Hi, Santa!

 Riding off into the night

Involuntary Baby Smiles

I am a sucker for involuntary baby smiles.  You know the kind that occur when the baby is falling asleep while drinking the last bottle of the night and the milk runs down the sides of their cheeks?  Yeah, those...I just love them!  Logan smiles ALL.THE.TIME but there is still something so special and sweet about those involuntary baby smiles.  They made my already close to perfect day just that much better!

I couldn't capture the involuntary ones on camera so you'll have to settle for these...still pretty adorable if you ask me!

Too cute, just like his PJ's say

Mr. Monkey

A recent conversation between Logan and Mr. Playmat Monkey...

Hug a Little Tighter, Hold a Little Longer

In light of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Friday, I found myself hugging my boys a little tighter and holding on to them a little longer than usual this weekend.

We had started potty training, or at least attempting to, and while it wasn't going completely smoothly, it wasn't too bad either...at least on Friday.  Saturday morning was a bit rougher and by lunchtime Evan was back in a diaper.  At first I felt like we had given up too soon and that I was being too impatient but then I remembered what was really important.  I told Bruce that I would change Evan's diapers until he was 37 as long as it meant that he was still my "baby boy".

Then unexpectedly, Saturday night both boys woke up in the middle of the night.  Evan at 2:30 because he couldn't find Lady Bug (his mini pillow pet) and Logan around 3, just as I was starting to drift back to sleep. When I went back to bed around 4 AM, I couldn't help but think of all the parents whose children were victims of the school shooting and how I bet they wish that they were waking up to "Mommy, I can't find lady bug" and hungry baby cries in the middle of the night.

I always try to be patient and understanding with the boys and to cherish the moments we have together but I know that I will count our blessings even more carefully now.  Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift - that's why it's called the present.  Cherish it!

No More Wogan

Well I knew it was only a matter of time...Wogan is now Logan.  Last weekend while Evan and Logan were at Auntie Karin and Uncle Dan's house for the weekend, Danny was helping to teach Evan how to say his L's.  A few months ago, Bruce was working with Evan to try and get him to say Logan instead of Wogan.  My feeling was that it would happen soon enough and I was enjoying it's cuteness while it lasted.  Well it has happened...see (and hear) for yourself.

Teenager in the making

Every so often I get a glimpse into the future...

I wonder if George and a cup of milk will still be by his side when he is a teenager...Oh to preserve his innocence!  

Tickley Boy

Logan is proving to be just as ticklish as his big brother, which is so much fun for Mommy (and Auntie Karin, who also loves to tickle!)!  Bookmark this post so that you can come back for a giggle fix anytime you are having a bad day or need to smile.

Exersaucing

With Logan getting so big and quickly outgrowing, or should I say sagging down, the bouncy seats, it was time to get out the exersaucer.  Logan had lots of fun checking everything out and was able to relatively easily move himself around to see all there was to see.  Evan also enjoyed rediscovering his old "stomping grounds" again so much so that I had to go back and see what Evan's first exersaucing experience was like.  Check it out here.

Forts!

When you are stuck inside in the winter with an infant and an energetic two year old, you need to get creative with ways to spend the day.  Evan has become quite fond of forts...big forts, small forts, forts for just Evan and forts for everyone.  So much so that we might need to purchase one of these.

Logan's Four Month Stats

Here are the big man's stats: 18 lbs, 11 oz (96th percentile); 27.5 inches (98th percentile) and 44 cm 87th percentile.

At Evan's 4 month appointment (which was really like a 4.5 month on the 22nd) he was 18 lbs, 9 oz; 27.5 inches and 44.5 cm. So they are measuring up quite nicely but Logan seems so much bigger for some reason! He is doing well and loving his cereal. We will probably start orange veggies and fruits soon too...once he gets the hang of eating off the spoon a bit better. He's a happy guy!

Logan's first taste of banana in the baby safe feeder

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

Two photo shoots, three outfit changes, numerous backdrop and prop changes and there are only a few winning photos.  I suppose it will make choosing photos for the Christmas card a little easier.  After all, you only need one winning photo, right?  Good thing!  Here is a sampling of the "best of" our photo shoot.

Logan's First Cereal

Over the weekend while we were at Mohegan Sun seeing The Dave Matthews Band, Logan was having his first meal.  Auntie Karin gave him his true first cereal (well with a spoon anyway) on Saturday night but this was his first cereal with us.

Evan Gems

Every day Evan says things that are funny and memorable.  The problem is that often by the end of the day I forget what those things are.  Here are a few of his most recent gems.

While trying to give him a kiss after changing his diaper - "No kisses, Mommy.  When you're pretty you do give me kisses but when you're stinky you don't." "And I'm stinky now?" "Yup." "Why am I stinky?" "You're stinky from your bed.  But when you have your pretty dress on, you do give me kisses."

While Bruce was away for the weekend, Evan helped me wrap Christmas presents.  I made the mistake of saying "And we wrapped presents for Daddy."  Evan's response was "But where is the suitcase, mommy."  I tried to play it off like he was talking about the red suitcase in the closet upstairs to which he replied, "No mommy, the green one."

While on the toilet...Obviously!  "Here comes more poop...look out!"

Never a dull moment in our house!

Flowers for Gramma

Gramma has been sick since Thanksgiving.  She is starting to feel better and I think we have just the thing to make her feel even better and bring a smile to her face.  We will bring them to her this weekend.





When Evan gave the flowers to Gramma, he handed them to her and quickly walked away.  When she called him back to talk to her for a minute, he said "I thought you would say thank you but you didn't."  He walked away so quickly, she didn't even have the chance...what a turkey!

Four Months Old

I have to be honest...this month I missed the monthly photo shoot.  Today was a PJ day and a Thanksgiving PJ day at that.  Thankfully I did get a few really cute pictures and videos yesterday.  We go on Tuesday to Logan's 4 month well visit...can't wait to see how much he has grown in the last two months.  As you can see in the videos, Logan never stops moving and is always making noise...often squealing...the voice he found on Thanksgiving night.

Buddha Baby

No explanation needed...the title says it all!

We have a...

 Buddha Baby on our hands!

And I LOVE him!