NYC

A few weekends ago we went to Manhattan to visit some college friends of Doug's. We had a lovely time! Gianna and Mark loved Baby Grace and maybe Grace's mommy even more!

How could they not love her? Check out those baby blues!

After a delicious brunch, we all headed to the playground for some male bonding.

And for Mark to display his dire need for a haircut. Not to worry, he got one two days later!

A few cute videos!

I haven't posted in a while and this is sort of a non-post, just a few videos until some real posting.

Here is Mark making his animal sounds, in spite of his fascination with himself and the video camera.



Here are Gianna and Doug making pasta this weekend. It was delicious!




And here is Mark spinning, his new favorite activity!

Grandma is 60 and Mark is 1 1/4

On President's Day weekend, we headed to Virginia for Grandma's 60th birthday (sorry to make that public Grandma :) on Sunday. Gianna loved celebrating with Grandma. She did not, however, want anything to do with the lemon meringue pie I made for Grandma, so we got her her own cake to celebrate. What can I say, she's a girl after my own heart with her love of icing. Oh, she also insisted we have hats.

Mark liked the cake too. 

On Grandma's birthday, Mark turned 1 1/4. I tried to capture the craziness of his hair in the morning. I know a lot of this blog is devoted to his hair, but I just can't get over the insanity.

And here are his stats and what he's up to at 15 months. He's in the 90th percentile for height and the 75th for weight...he's a lean, mean, fighting machine. He's starting to climb on things a bit. He's starting to talk more, really mastering "hi" and "bye" in the last few days. His other words are: up, hop, more, Mama, Dada, Sissy, pig, apple, ball (his favorite), balloon, spoon, and baby. His favorite things to play with are doors and keys. And he loves to run around with no clothes on at night with Gianna. He likes almost all food, especially those that can be stabbed and eaten with a fork. He's such a happy little guy. We all love him so much!

Valentine's Day

Nonna and Pop-pop came to visit for Valentine's weekend. And nothing says love like a giant lobster. Two of them actually. Our grocery store sometimes sells them for super cheap and it's Doug's favorite food so he can't pass it up when it's such a good deal. They were without question the biggest lobsters I've ever seen...and super delicious too!

Gianna loved making Valentine treats for all of us with Nonna. And she loved handing them out too!

Here are my two littlest Valentines on the actual day. Gianna looks like a human Valentine, I think. Boy does she get into these holidays. It's fun for me too. When you celebrate as much as we do at home and at school, it means there's always something to look forward to. They are even going to learn about Presidents Day at school. She was displeased to hear that that one does not involve crafts and parties.

And here's my mop-head Valentine. I swear his hair has grown faster since his haircut!

Christmas in January

Mark's godfather, Uncle Randy, sent some Christmas gifts last week. It was fun to have some new toys again. And with all this snow and cold weather, unwrapping presents and playing with them was a great indoor activity! Thanks Randy, Mary, Elizabeth, Joe, Tony, Jake, Julia, and Rocco!

Gianna was all too happy to help. Mark LOVES this Elmo book. His obsession with Elmo is intense, especially since he has basically never seen him on TV or anywhere other than his toys or books.

They both love these Muppet Star Wars figures. I showed Gianna some YouTube videos of Beaker. She finds him hilarious.

The toys were great, but nothing beats trying to plug Daddy's shoes into the elliptical. You may have seen a similar picture on Facebook. He literally spends probably a total of 30 minutes a day doing this. It is both sad and funny.

More snow with Grandma and Grandpa

My parents came a couple weeks ago to give me a hand while Doug was away. Thank goodness! They were a huge help with the kids and the 8 more inches of snow we got while he was gone. Grandpa is Mark's best buddy and Mark is happy to sit in his lap just about any time

Unfortunately, the snow is a bit too much for Mark. Luckily, he doesn't get to upset about being stuck inside. He stares longingly outside just for a few minutes until he realizes that all of Gianna's toys are fair game!

Gianna had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa outside on the "slide" Daddy built weeks ago and then Grandpa refined after this storm.

Randomness and coversations with Gianna

This picture is kind of blurry, but it's still cute of all my loves.

Mark spent a lot of one evening trying on Gianna's sunglasses. He was so delighted every time he got them on good. Unfortunately, this was the best picture I could get.

We were getting ready to run errands when I was summoned by Gianna to the living room to "see something." This is what I found. I couldn't help but laugh.

And here's a close-up. Too cute.

And here are a few recent gems:

Gianna (after a Snow White viewing, wrapped in a jump rope and with a squished up face): I'm a hag.



Me: Just a minute I'm reading the news.
G: I don't know what that means. What is news?
Me: It's the stuff that happens in different countries around the world.
G: Like what?
Me: Um, er, well, in the country called Egypt the people are mad because they don't want the boss to be the boss anymore. And...
G: (waving her hands as if bored) I don't want to talk about the news anymore.

G: (while watching Mary Poppins) Mom, is Bert a player?
Me: (laughing a lot) What? What do you mean by player?
G: You know, a magician.
(Phew, that's a relief! I was afraid she thought Bert was stringing along Mary Poppins while he was having fun with other girls!)