An Update on the Boy

this baby boy is growing up so fast, some days I feel like all I have to do is blink and he's doing something new, something incredibly grown up, and it makes my heart swell with pride and at the same time makes me choke a bit thinking about how he's no longer a baby.

here's a few of his recent accomplishments

• has definitely gone through a growth spurt if his eating habits are anything to go by.  It seems like overnight all his sleeves shrunk an inch or two!
• can now take of his jacket all by himself (although he occasionally gets tangled up with the sleeves)
• although he's still not talking consistently he is saying more and more and new words everyday, a few new ones include...more (which he always used to sign)...cheese...toast....woops... binky...and has recently added "moo" to his animal sound repertoire
• he is incredibly good at letting us know what he wants (and doesn't want!).  Whether its pushing you off your chair and then leading you to where he wants and then pointing and signing please or simply just saying whatever food he wants, he is a very good communicator.  
• after months of saying no and disciplining and removing offending items I feel like something is starting to stick.  G has always responded well to discipline but now instead of repeat offending an hour or two later he walks up to something he shouldn't touch and does his little head shake with a little " mmm mmm no no"  he's starting to learn....yay!
• and lastly, my favorite, he's learned how to give hugs!  and gives kisses when requested!  

Baking with Baby

my friend Brittany recently blogged about baking with her two boys, she showed pictures of her boys quietly sitting on stools, stirring their bowls of cookie dough.  When I tried to envision myself doing this with G all I saw were pictures of floor covered floors and ruined recipes.  However knowing that Brit did this with not one but two children....while 8 months pregnant gave me the courage to break out the mixer and bake with G.  This little boy loves to be in the kitchen, observing and stirring and loves to remind me (as I do him) that everything in the kitchen is "hot".  We made some gingerbread cookies together and G loved being able to be up in all the action, adding ingredients and playing with the measuring cup and bowl of flour I gave him. All in all a great time...and I'll definitely be doing it again! (despite all the flour on the floor)

checking to make sure it looks good

the master chef himself

a little careful measuring

full of flour!

I'll let you guess what my floors looked like

A Brief Afternoon in NYC

We always tell people that if they're on the East Coast to give us a call, so we love it when people actually take us upon this offer.  I got a  message from my cousin saying that they were in NYC and wondering how far it was from Philly, so we jumped on the offer to meet up with some family and spent a brief afternoon catching up and visiting the new 9/11 memorial.

The beautiful memorial....if you get a chance, go see it!

an adorable little girl, trying to make friends with G (and steal his binky)

my cousin and I, can  you tell we're related?

me, explaining that its all in the cheekbones

the whole group

What I'm thankful for right now.......Skype!

for those of you who live far away from your friends and families this is the most amazing program you will ever download!.  Just this week it's allowed us to have conversations with family in Wisconsin, England and even India!  and with the share screen option my sister in law and I were able to confer on a Christmas project for my parents.  It sucks being far away from family, especially during the holidays, but being able to hear and see your loved ones definitely takes away the sting.  Not to mention makes me feel less guilty about having my baby so far away from his grandparents. While some kids take baths or read books for their night time routine, G almost nightly skypes with grandpa and grandma  With skype he can become familiar with their faces and voices,  plays peek-a-boo, attempts to feed them thru the screen and can show off his latest skills.  So a big thank you to whoever invented skype....its been a lifesaver for us!

what are you thankful for right now?

The Civil Wars

this song has been playing on repeat in my head for the last few days....I could just sit here forever bathed in their haunting and yet so beautiful harmonies....

England/Scotland Highlights

we had a great time on our most recent trip to England, we got to hang out with Ivan's family, meet our newest niece, Miriam, and take a mini trip within a trip to Scotland to visit Ivan's auntie Janet.  It was basically our first trip to England that wasn't specifically for an event of some kind so it was great just to have the time to relax and visit with people.

G and his cousin, was great to see them

 play and run around together

Baby M after her bath

Evenings on the beach

Edinburgh Castle

G and Auntie Janet

Gettin Crafty

I'm not gonna lie, I'm super proud of myself .  It took me forever to learn how to read a crochet pattern, and even after I was fluent in the language of sc, dc, sl st and tr, it still took about 50 attempts to finally perfect a hat! The thing is, I've been crocheting forever.  My grandma taught me way back when and over the years I managed to crochet several items....blankets....scarves.....more scarves and blankets.  Basically lots of squares and rectangles, I could only crochet straight lines!  Thanks to pinterest I found a baby blanket pattern that seemed easy enough for this straight crocheting girl and after seeing how easy it was I got the confidence to branch out.  Here are some of my most recent accomplishments (I also have done several baby blankets....but since they're gifts, they'll remain unseen)

and now for my piece de resistance 

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A Jellyfish!!

after showing my sister these items so was so amazed she exclaimed "oh my gosh lisa, whats gotten into you?....are you pregnant??" ........clearly she doesn't know the mental energy required to grow a child.....or crochet a jellyfish for that matter (like I could do that while barfing my guts out)