August

Everyone keeps asking if we've gotten the house ready for the boy yet. As of today the answer is finally YES! We busted out the Pack N Play, swing, car seat, bouncy seat and once again, the living room we reclaimed just about 1 year ago to date was handed back to the younglings.
Anyway, Greg & I both turned our head for a split second and Adrienne had already made herself comfy in her swing... Old habits... Oh, and no, she's not in pain. This is her 'cheeeeese' face.

She also had a blast cramming herself into her old carseat which she quickly discovered is a rocker as wild as any Great Adventure ride.

And the culmination of all this change - she has a new view from the backseat. For 19mos she's been on the passenger side... I think it's throwing ME off more than her. I keep walking to the wrong side of the car to put her in...

Climbing Mount Somerset.

And at the peak - the opening scene in every James Bond movie.

Yiayia got wild & crazy on the slide.

Even I got in on the action. And somehow Adrienne's left leg wasn't cracked, permanently twisted or completely amputated in going down the slide with either of us.

I'm STILL trying to get the perfect Adrienne-Lola picture. They both move so frappin' fast. And Spike... well he's as elusive as Calvin (I still only have ONE picture with both Adrienne and Calvin in it and I LIVE with the animal!) so I'm not holding my breath there....

We know I'm not going to win Mother of the Year Award (photographic evidence of why that is can be found in this blog) and I HIGHLY doubt I'll ever be voted 'Class Mother'. But as my first official duty to 'bring in a snack for the kids' I think I did a BANG UP job on my heart-shaped-confectioner-sugar-dusted brownies! (But I confess, one more reason I WON'T be winning MotYA, these weren't exactly made-from-scratch. Betty Crocker was my sous-chef.)

And the reason WHY I was asked to make a snack.... In preparation of the 'new school year' they are having a pajama party at day care today!! Ashley (or as Adrienne says, Ash-she) gave them all nicknames earlier in the year - from left to right we have Drizzle, Fizzy, Lovebug & Snoop. We're missing Stuie, Oza & Doodle but I wasn't going to push my luck trying to get them all in a picture. (Sidenote: Totally DIGGING Lovebug's PJs! They're GIRAFFE print!!!)

Her first REAL pony and cruising around ShopRite in the taxi cab cart. She IS saying 'cheese' but is completely mesmerized by the fleet of Herr's trucks in the next parking lot & refuses to look my way....

We've discovered stickers.

We went to the Johnson 'Zoo' this afternoon and got invited in to the stables where she got to meet her first horse! She wouldn't pet him (her?) but she did muster up the courage to whinny at him a few times.

Here is how we spend a good portion of every day - with Adrienne watching Adrienne. And it's super amusing when she answers or imitates herself on the videos. Here she's doing 'blagh-lagh blagh-lagh' both in 'real life' and on screen which begs the age-old question - does art imitate life or does life imitate art?

An especially poignant moment during our morning video screening...

OK, OK, here is a real one.... Awww.....

Corinne's 6th birthday party. We have Alvin, Simon & Bootylicious

Corinne got a see-saw for her birthday which Adrienne LOVED. And yes, it's my big fat pregnant arse on the other end of it.

A few weeks (months?!) ago she started doing this hand movement when she wanted more food (which, ok, is like ALWAYS). But something about it... I finally Googled it - sign language for 'more'! It's great - she does it now when she's playing, reading, of course eating, etc. I keep forgetting to ask the girls at daycare if they're teaching her because baby-sign is definitely one of those areas where I won't be winning mother-of-the-year award....

This is ALSO why getting good pictures of her is becoming increasingly difficult - she's obsessed with seeing herself ON the camera. Her Greek heritage is making itself known - she's CLEARLY a descendent of Narcissus.

I think the only animal I forgot to ask her about is duck. She does a killer 'quack'. Oh, and horse, cow, sheep & tiger - well, ok, tiger gets the same roar as lion... We're working on adding frog & owl to her zoo-cab. I got her to 'perform' a little more - ended with my favorite - "all right!"

A playdate last weekend with Garet and JULIA! This time Garet's mom & I reversed roles - she just had a girl & I'm about to have the boy!
They got treated to chocolate ice cream cones. So we ended up with...
Willy and....
... Wilhelmina Wonka
A sudden renewed interest in her sunglasses.

Although that interest lasts about 30 seconds before she takes them off and puts them on me... Greg... Ringo...
An over-tired-meltdown-temper-tantrum. There was even a flop-on-the-belly kicking & fist-pounding moment. It was so utterly ridiculous & random it was really quite amusing.
It's getting REALLY difficult to take her picture without her getting SMACK in front of the camera.

So the other day Greg made a comment about some kid having triple-ponies. "There's NO SUCH THING as triple-ponies!!", I told him. It's either 2 pig tails or a pony tail. Well, aren't I a big fat liar. The very next day (SWEAR!) he picked her up from daycare with.... TRIPLE PONIES. And just to add a little finesse to the picture she even felt the need to scratch her ass. This kid is all class.

Uncle EEEE-ter doing some Olivia Newton John stylin'.

Sidenote: I know. I've been COMPLETELY slacking on blog updates. There was a camera incident. The short of it is that I now have a brandy-new, uber-high-tech one that I'm still figuring out so I just haven't had it constantly at-the-ready like my old one. But I'll get back in the groove... promise.