Sunday, June 8, 2014

Pictures

In case you are missing out on your normal dose of Jackson & Vivian pictures, you can go here to get them.

Perhaps one of these days you will also see a proper post here!  

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Oui Oui Paris

Over the summer we began talking about the best time to go to Paris to introduce the yet-to-be-born cousins that we would be having around the same time as Andra and Jean-Marc.  Adam and I had exactly enough frequent flyer miles to get us and Jackson seats, with Vivian on our laps.  After some discussion, we landed on the week leading up to Thanksgiving.

And so we set off on a red eye direct flight on Nov 21 out of Dulles.  All in all, we survived the flight fine and only had a few minutes of chaos when Jackson pooped in his pull-up (Boy scout motto of "be prepared" was in full effect) and almost sent 3 rows of noses under their shirts while the seat-belt sign was on.

Early on Friday morning, we rolled into Paris a little bleary-eyed but happy to be on this adventure.  We spent most of the day gushing over babies, exchanging presents, sleeping and catching up.  Andra anointed Vivian "Aunt Flo" due to the mop of hair on her head.

On Saturday, our big trip of the day was to the Eiffel Tower.  We had a great time roaming around, taking pictures, playing at the playground at the foot of the tower and even found a little area where Jackson could race cars with other children.

Sunday was circus day.  We all headed down to the Pinder circus but only the boys and Anna went for various reasons.  Andra and I hung out in a park for a bit and then roamed down one of the busy shopping streets.

On Monday, Adam and I took advantage of Adam's belated 40th birthday gift - a couples Thai massage that was in close proximity to some Paris landmarks.  We hit up Notre Dame and also went to the top of the Pompidou to take in the skyline.  In between, we hit up some shops for some Christmas presents.  Andra and JM hung with the kiddos and got this great clip.




On Tuesday, Jean-Marc and Adam participated in the second part of Adam's birthday present - a sword fighting class.  It was a three hour class that had the boys dripping in sweat.  Adam also had some nice welts to show from his jousts.

Wednesday was spent preparing for Thanksgiving and involved a big shopping trip to the grocery store. Adam, Jackson, Vivian and I also hopped on a bus and went down to the Pere Lachaise Cemetery where Jim Morrison is buried.  It was the nicest day we had on our trip, so spent a lot of time just walking through the beautiful cemetery.  It was a bit of an adventure to find Morrison's grave, but we eventually did and snapped some photos.

Thanksgiving Day arrived!  Most of the day was spent prepping for the evening festivities.  There was a lot of food and lots of Frenchies.  Was such a wonderful day.

Friday morning was the only morning we didn't laze around as we had to be in a cab at 8:30 am and off to the airport.

As always, all pics can be found here.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Vivian's First Day of Daycare

Vivian's first day of daycare was Thursday, January 2. We spent a large part of New Years Day getting ready for Jackson to go back to school after a long break and for Vivian to go for the first time.  Bottles. Diapers. Wipes. Butt Cream. 2 outfits. Bibs. Pacis. It all got packed.  After mommy had a good cry about no longer getting to spend her days with this sweet little girl (shopping), then we all put on our big girl pants and it was show time.


Normally daddy does drop off and pick up since daycare is across the street from his office, but given it was such a big day, I worked from home so I could go with to do drop off, meet the teachers, get her situated and to generally make sure she was going to be ok.  It all went great - she did great and so did I (meaning, no tears from either one of us!)  To top it off, she is in the same Darling Ducklings class that Jackson was in and also has Miss Kim as her teacher.


I went back down there at lunch as we had forgotten Jackson's blanket for nap time, so it gave me a good excuse to see her again.  One of the things that is different since Jackson was in the infant room is that now they have an electronic system and they send you pictures multiple times a day.  She looks so happy in all of them, though I suppose they wouldn't take pics of her crying and send them to us!



And when we picked her up around 4:15 pm, she was totally conked out.  We got her in her carseat and she slept until 6:45 pm that night.  Day care totally tired her out!

Play date

Last weekend we hosted a play date for 7 boys (including Jackson), all under the age of 5.  The timing was perfect - there were new Christmas toys waiting to be played with, there is no couch in the living room thus creating an extra play room and the cleaners had yet to come.  Fun was had by all - the moms drank mimosas and chatted, the two daddies supervised and the boys, well you can see what they did below.....




 And Vivian didn't think a thing of all the chaos.  In fact, she decided that she would just take a snooze amidst the noise.


5 Month Update


Today Vivian turned 5 months old.  We had a pretty low key weekend, but did go to Anne's 1 year birthday party today.  It's so crazy how fast time has flown by for both of them!

Weight: 15 lbs 10 oz

Length: TBD

Sleeping/eating patterns: I just started sleeping through the night.  I go to bed at 7 pm and have been sleeping until 6 or 7 am.  Even though mommy knows that I'll probably regress at some point, it's been great for her to have a couple of nights of solid sleep.

My Likes: I love my exersaucer, especially in the morning when I'm bright eyed and bushy tailed.  I also love rolling around on the floor, gnawing on all my toys.  I'm never in the same spot that mommy left me.  I think my brother is really funny.  I love being in just my diaper and pulling at my toes.  I'm also a big fan of daycare - all my teachers say I'm a happy baby.



My Dislikes: Oatmeal. Mommy and daddy tried to give me some for the first time yesterday and I wanted nothing to do with it.  The proof is in the pudding.




Other milestones:  I can roll over both ways now.  I sleep on my belly.  I'm trying to get my knees under me so I can start crawling.  

Trips:  We went back to WI for a week and a half over Christmas.  Stay tuned for the mother of all blog updates on that one.  Mommy said she was too tired to try and do it tonight.  I just hope she gets it up before next Christmas.  


Looking forward to in the next month:   Jackson's fourth birthday party at Pump It Up! 

Want to compare me to my brother at this age?  Click here.


Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Rolling over

After a few days of trying, Vivian rolled from her back to her tummy today. She freaked out once she was on her belly!

This just in time to show her mad skills to cousin Vox. We're hoping Vox shows Vivian how to sleep 9 hours!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Halloween 2013

For Halloween this year, we had a few different festivities.  Jackson kicked off Halloween by insisting that he wear his new tiger costume to the dentist on Tuesday.  Then on Wednesday we had trick-or-treating and a Halloween party at mommy's office so we could introduce Vivian and so Jackson could get some loot.  Daddy and Jackson came home to pick us up to go to Philly and Jackson was crying and saying he didn't want to be a tiger.  So, I grabbed the Thomas costume that Honey brought him last year that he refused to wear.  Success!  Perhaps next year he will be a tiger.  The next day was Halloween and Jackson's parade and party at school. And then of course trick-or-treating in our new neighborhood. While Daddy and Jackson went out trick-or-treating for a bit, I stayed home to hand out candy.  It was pretty quiet though, so Vivian and I joined them for the last half.  All in all, we had a great time and got way too much candy.  For more pics, click here.

Proof that even tigers get their fangs cleaned.  A priming really, for a nice coat of Halloween sugar 
"Daddy is under my spell"
Thomas and our little witch at TW

Thomas making the rounds in the office
Day care parade

Jackson's teacher serving cupcakes 
The school owners get in on the fun
Getting ready to go trick-or-treating in our new neighborhood

Surprise!

The last weekend of October, we hoped in the car and headed down to VA to surprise my parents and my brother and his family.  My parents were out visiting them for a long weekend and thought that we wouldn't be able to come down because we had just moved a couple of days earlier.  Wrong!  We wouldn't have missed their visit AND we needed a reason to get away from all of those boxes for a couple of days.  We had a great time with grandma, grandpa, Uncle Jason, Aunt Milly and cousins Bella, Jocelyn and Ruby. No surprise, Jackson loved visiting his cousins.  He had so much fun hanging out with them!  Click here to see more pics.


The scooter gang takes over the mean streets of Stafford


Ruby and Jackson doing gymnastics
Pony rides at the local fair

Lots of trips down the slides 
Vivian the Koala just chilled 
Hanging out with Grandma.....
....And Uncle Jason
Jackson driving the tractor at the pumpkin patch
"I'm going to get bigger, bigger, bigger"
Amazing they all got on at the same time!
Grandma making Jackson giggle 
Showing off the carved pumpkins

Moving Day and House Tour

On October 24, we officially became residents of our new house in Sharpley.  We moved a couple of weeks after closing to allow the painter to get a head start.  And while he wasn't quite done when we moved in, we were still beyond excited to have a place to call ours!  Below are some before and "after pics."  "After" being post-painter, but definitely not finished state! We have some more light fixtures to add, furniture to buy and decorating to do.  All in good time, I guess!

Boxes, boxes and more boxes in old house
The moving truck arrives to the place we've called home for 3.5 years
We totally filled up that truck!




Home sweet home
Vivian hung out with Miss Janet on moving day while Jackson went to school
Jackson getting in on the action at the new house with his new tool set from Miss Janet

First Floor Tour
Basically, the house had all white walls and the trim was painted green or pink.  And when I say trim, I mean the trim around the ceilings, the windows and the doors.  There was also lots of gold/brass.  And wallpaper in the bathrooms.  This all had to change!

Foyer - before with gold chandelier and green trim
Foyer - after with new fixture and new paint
Dining room - before
Dining room - after
Living room - before with green paint and cornices
Living room - after (still a disaster, but at least no more green!)
Den - before with dark green paint
Den - before
Den - before with maroon paint in built-ins
Den - after it's a playroom (and feels a million times bigger). Can you spot the kids?
Den - after built-ins painted
Great room - before (we only changed out the light fixture and added furniture)
Breakfast nook - before
Breakfast nook - after adding new light and table
Kitchen - we didn't do anything here other than faucet
Kitchen sink - before with ugly, broken faucet
Kitchen sink - after with some WI Kohler love
Laundry room - before
Laundry room - after
Powder room - before with green trim
Powder room - after with white trim
Second Floor Tour
Jackson's room - before with ugly colors
Jackson's room - before
Jackson's room - after
Vivian's room - before with cornice
Vivian's room  - after we kept pink wallpaper
Kids' bathroom - before with pink wallpaper
Kids' bathroom - after
Master bedroom - before with wallpaper and cornices
Master bedroom - after
Master bathroom - before with wallpaper
Master bathroom - after
Guest room - before with pink trim and cornices
Guest room - after with grey