Jake loses his first tooth!

I clearly remember the morning we saw Jake's first tooth growing in. It was a weekend in October 2006, and we were taking him to the pumpkin patch that day to get him his first pumpkin.


And today, I nearly cried when I saw that same tooth sitting in Ralph's cupped palm at the winter concert at Jake's school. I'm not usually an emotional mom when it comes to these types of things, but it seems like Jake is getting bigger, taller, older and more mature each and every day and that the baby I once held is becoming less and less of a baby and more and more of a big boy. It hits me sometimes that my baby boy is no longer a baby. Times like today, when he lost his first tooth:


The left bottom tooth fell out, and now the right bottom tooth is creeping into the open space:



And he seemed all grown up last night, when he read a book to me, 62 pages all by himself with only a few words he needed help identifying.



Where did my tiny chubby-cheeked baby go?





*(I just realized in looking up the blog that the first tooth to fall out was the second one to grow in, but the first one is loose too.)

After school snack

And watching a show on my iPad, cuddled up together on the couch :)

Halloween 2011

Jake and Alex dressed as a fireman and his Dalmatian, respectively. They were super-cute and had a fun time trick-or-treating in our neighborhood (for the most part). For Jake, trick-or-treating is serious business, involving hitting as many houses as possible, quickly and efficiently, for maximum candy collection. For Alex, who was not feeling so hot this Halloween, it was a cruel game of visiting people's houses, but not being allowed to enter to pet their dogs and play with their things.







Alex was confused and upset by the entire process. She dropped her Halloween candy bucket whenever she decided she was sick of carrying it, candy be damned. Then she didn't want to be carried or hold hands, so she bolted off on her own for half a block, only to trip and scrape her hands and elbow. The next block and a half home was a screaming, slobbery, nose-running hissy fit. I tried to hold her tightly to help calm her down, but she was cold and had enough of this Halloween baloney.



A few days before Halloween, we were treated to a bizarre and unusual treat: SNOW! I've never seen colorful orange fall leaves covered in white flakes. It was a beautiful but dangerous combination, as tree limbs snapped from the weight of leaves and wet snow.





Back home at the end of the night. Alex wanted NO PART of having this picture taken:



Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

After seven years of marriage...

...this is what our life looks like :) Happy Anniversary Ralphie Bear!

All About Ali

I think it's about time I devoted a post to my beautiful baby girl. Alex just turned 19 months old, and gave me exactly two minutes to take an impromptu photo shoot this morning. She looked so adorable in this outfit that I had to take her out back and take a few pictures. She's wearing my headband (we swap hair accessories all the time!), but wore it for precisely 120 seconds before tossing it to the ground.


If you look below, you'll see that Ali is wearing her big brother's old shoes in this pic! I think little kids in Converse All-Stars are one of the most adorable things ever! I've been scouring the old blog posts trying to find a few pics of Jake at about the same age wearing the same shoes. No luck. I know it's there somewhere, I just can't find it.


I think Alex resembles Ralph more than Jake does, but I still see a lot of me in her. Ali really resembles Ralph's little sister Laura as a baby. But in this picture below, the one on the left, I think she looks identical to me. Well, in the face at least. The last time my legs were that thin was probably 1989!

Jake's First Days of Kindergarten

My little baby boy is all grown up! Jake is having a great time in kindergarten, he enjoys riding the bus with our next door neighbor Gabby, and having lunch and recess every day at school. We are still adjusting to getting up early every morning, but so far it is working out well for everyone.

Binky Mania!

Jake has long since given up on the pacifier, but his sister has picked up the habit. And every once in a while, when there are spare binkies laying around, Jake will pretend to be a baby and pop one in his mouth. Tonight however, he was up to his old tricks again and sported multiple binkies. Alex is mostly allowed to have her binkies ("bee-bee") at naptime and bedtime, but she uses her skinny little arms to reach between the slats of her crib to procure additional binkies as needed. She refers to bedtime as "ah, ah, baybee" and calls her blankets "ahbees".

She is talking quite a bit lately. Today she was wishing Ralphie a "Happy!" (birthday). She says all of our names: Mommy, Daddy, Jake ("DAY!!"), Geedah, Peepa, Danny, Mema, Papa, "Cuh" (Uncle Chris), "Guh" (Uncle Greg), "La" (Aunt Laura), and of course Ru.

She also says hi and bye, love you, thank you, yes and no, dog, up, out, gotta go ("Gaaah GO!"), please, hat, shoes, belly, and many others. She will repeat many words for you if you ask.

Alex is incredibly smart (in my humble non-biased opinion) and has amazing fine motor skills. She is strong and capable and extremely independent and strong-willed. She's a fearless dare devil and an absolute handful. She drives me completely bonkers and I love her like crazy. She is sweet and cuddly and absolutely Mommy's little girl.

Seventeen months have gone by in a flash, and they have been such a joy and a blessing. I love watching my two beautiful babies grow up together.