Poppy and Parades

LPea had a visit by her Poppy and Suzanne last weekend. It was a weekend filled with football and fun as we participated in the Academy's Parents Weekend.

LPea gets a big hug!

And matching outfit again!

The colors on parade by the cadets drilling

CPea posing with Poppy and Suzanne

Outside playing catch with Poppy wearing her Carolina jacket. The Tarheels are going to have a good team this year!

I'd call this a meeting of the minds, wouldn't you?

And get ready for Halloween my friends, CPea CANNOT wait for it!

Vacationland

The other day, LPea casually mentioned in conversation that she had not been out of the state of Connecticut since she was born. So we thought, what better place to go than Maine.

Actually, we thought we had to go to a waterpolo tournament last weekend in Maine.

Our first trip with LPea was a resounding sucess. I think I actually slept better in the hotel than I have at home. And you know you can't put a price on good sleep. You can see how well she took to her pack and play.

CPea had a great time getting to know the locals in Portland.

And playing in the near Bowdoin College. The leaves were just starting to turn.

And of course, the obligatory lighthouse trip. The Portland Head light is beautiful!

Whose taller? The Lighthouse or the CPea tower?

We also go to visit our good friends... Caroline and Mia are great playmates and love to see each other. And I love the Kittery outlets...

The Third Time is Charming

So CPea turned THREE last Friday, the end of a week of celebrations starting with the long awaiting NEMO party. As some of you know, Caroline starting planning this party minutes after the end of her Elmo party last year. She picked the balloon colors, cake design, party favors (bubbles) the whole nine yards. It was a beautiful fall day and we all had a great time.





LPea was a little confused as to what was going on, but was happy to help her sister dig into the cake. Note: no candles this year as CPea is still no fan of flame.



The celebration continued with a party in her preschool class. I had forgotten the grand tradition of construction paper crowns for classroom parties.

As you can see, it was quite a celebration. Dance party and all!



Of course, no birthday is complete without gifts and CPea was thrilled with all of hers, and the wrapping paper!

We had to leave the night of her birthday to go up to Maine for a waterpolo tournament so on the way out of town, we had dinner at Chili's. You know how they do a little song for birthdays-well we asked our server to do it for CPea. They brought over a dessert and starting singing and as they were doing it, I thought it was a really loud song for three people to sing. It turned out that there were several table of cadets that realized it was Scott's daughter's birthday and so they heartily joining in singing Happy Birthday to her. Needless to say, Caroline was so delighted that the 'Cadets who live at Chili's sang her Birthday song."

Being three and starting preschool has brought out a whole new dimension of Caroline. She is loving her class and is learning a lot. Last we she tasked me with finding coincidences. Apparently, she is looking for them and, "Mom, if you see a coincidence, let me know."

I'm still looking.

Its hard to be a baby

LPea will be the first to tell you, being a baby is not always a cakewalk. Our household is a little topsy-turvey these days. I returned to work this week, which has gone well considering that sleep is not always part of my day or night. The Academy has a child development center on campus that CPea has gone to for the past few years, its wonderful. Unfortunately, they still do not have space for my little baby, so she is going to be with a babysitter three days a week and the other two days I will work from home.


LPea has mixed feelings about this. As a general rule, she prefers that I not work on the computer while I am at home. Instead, we like to bounce constantly and take long drives to nowhere. Scott calls the above outfit her baby inmate uniform. He's funny, that guy.




CPea is doing her best to help her little sister stay comfortable. This is her testing out the Bumbo seat. It looks like its going to be a big help-once LPea can hold her head up.

Meanwhile, we are in the midst of CPea's third birthday celebration. The big day is actually Friday but the festivities have already begun. I will get photos up soon.

Survivor: New London

Forget racing around the world or dancing with celebrities. Here's an idea, one parent, one preschooler, one infant, one weekend: GO!

SPea headed to Colby in Maine this weekend to coach the Academy's waterpolo team, leaving me for the first time with All My Children.

First, I am pleased to report that all of us survived. We even managed a regular feeding schedule and baths for everyone. Quite an accomplishment if you ask me. Since CPea and I have not had a great amount of quality time since her sister arrived, I wanted to be sure that she had a great time so I was a little ambitious with our activities.

Highlights of the weekend include:

CPea's first screening of Cinderella. She loved it and talked about it all weekend, I have been permanently been assigned the roles of Jack and Gus (the mice.) I must sing the Cinderellie song on demand at any time. Which, anyone can tell you, singing like a mouse is not as easy as it looks.

LPea's first trip to the Mystic Aquarium. CPea declared that she liked the penguins the best. If you ask me, the jury is still out on that one since she slept through the whole visit.

While in the car on the way to the mall, CPea asked if I was thirsty... So to play along, I said yes. My answer was, "Great, would you like some beer? My wife loves to drink beer!" I've no idea where this sentence came from (Note: review the lesson plans at preschool a tad more carefully) but upon seeing my astonishment and asking her not to bring up beer anymore-CPea happily marched into Sears chanting "Beer, beer, beer!"

Parent of the Year!

And where are the pictures you say? Are you kidding? Two hands, two kids-no time for amateur photography. Who would stop CPea from running into traffic? Alas, the memories of this week were only captured in my memory. A reminder that the time with these little ones goes so fast-and the memories of the day to day struggles fade away but I'm hoping to remember Caroline inviting Lauren and I to snuggle in her bed on the first chilly night of fall-forever.

Let's just hope CPea's memory of the weekend does not end up on some Psychiatrist's visit notes in 10-15 years!

Things I Never Thought...

I swore that I would never dress my little girls alike... Well, life is short and so we'd thought we give it a shot.



I also did not realize in my twenties, how much fun could be had watching two people play hide-n-seek in the skull of a triceratops.



CPea had so much fun, she tried to take this dude home as a pet. Luckily for us, his cement body made it impossible to fit in our trunk. Still, I am sure he appreciated the snack.



They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I am not sure that is where CPea was going when she dressed up like me and got her baby ready to go.



Perhaps she was hoping to have a more sophisticated look now that she is a preschooler. Preschool is going great, CPea insists that every night we play 'school.' Last night she told me I was the teacher and had to give her a lesson about buses. I think if I had some time to prepare, I could have come up with more than "Buses have wheels and horns." Citing the Wheels on the Bus song as an educational reference is never a good sign.


LPea has a number of concerns these days, not the least of which being that her nightgowns never stay down!

we interupt this blog!

We are having a technical difficulty with our camera. We are working on the problem and will resume regular posting soon!

The Laundress

My mother has a special gift with laundry. I know, you are thinking-how does one get this? Well, she has many talents. Not the least of which being that clothes actually speak to her.

During her extended stay at my home, she washed everything she could get her hands on. On top of that, she gave laundering advice to my youngest brother over the phone. I overheard her telling him that for dark clothes you want to have a higher water level than you do with whites.

How does she know this?

Did a pair of dark wash jeans call her one day to say they would like a little more room to swim?

I am totally in the dark (no pun intended) on this one.

We are still very grateful for her stay and happily are still wearing washed and pressed clothing.

CPea especially loved having her Dee Dee visit-she wrote a thank you card to her but refused to mail it. She said, 'Mom let's keep it here so Dee Dee will have to come and get it from us and visit again.' I am so proud of my little manipulator!

My mom is great with both the girls-take a look!

Playing with Dora's house. It speaks in Spanish-I am waiting for the batteries to die.

This is CPea and Dee making their scary faces. CPea is very interested in being as scary as possible. Though, if you ask me, nothing is scarier than that Dora the Explorer. I mean, I don't think any of the great explorers had heads shaped like a football.

I was told one of the fringe benefits to grandmothering is getting to do things you would never do as a parent. Exhibit A seen above-drawing all over a kid. CPea was beyond thrilled at this treat. How long until she corrupts my other kid...

Only time will tell!

Visits and Visitors

We've been keeping ourselves busy these past few weeks...

Caroline had a visit from her friend Cason. Cason is the daughter of SPea's good friend Tim from high school, they are only six weeks apart in age. Cason is going to be a big sister in December so the two of them had a lot to catch up on!


LPea and I were lucky enough to have a visit from my good friend Sarah who drove up for the afternoon to meet the littlest Pea and spend a little time. My apologies to her for this photo, I did not capture her mom to be glow very well. Nonetheless, it was so great to see her!



LPea and I have both been making the rounds at doctor's appointments. We have both recovered pretty well from our week apart. Its true what they say, anyone looks better once they are out of a hospital gown-and LPea is very happy to not smell like soy formula anymore!



CPea is doing great and getting ready to start preschool. SPea and I keep joking about having 'all of these kids.' Doubling the number of girls we have has taken some getting used to, but I could not be happier with my little ladies.

Still the grim reality that Labor Day is next week has taken me slightly by surprise. I had all of these great ideas that August would be such a relaxing family time. That plan has fallen through to say the least-so I am cramming all my summer fun in the next seven days. LPea has not taken this lost summer fun lightly, so we are going to do our best to make it up to her!

Grandparents are great!

While I was in the hospital, we had a lot of help with the girls from our family. SPea's parents had planned a nice quiet visit to meet the baby and play with CPea. While en route, they got a call saying things had changed a little bit and did they remember how to make bottles.

They rose to the challenge beautifully and LPea was in very good hands.

My mother has also been with us for the past few weeks, more on her to come.

We are slowly easing back in to our normal routine. I am feeling better, but still cannot drive or do very much which is frustrating, but I am sure will not last forever.

In the meantime, thank you for all the well wishes, they go a long way!

Alison's Anatomy

Its been a while since I have posted...and why is that? Well, there is no computer access in the hospital.

I have spent the last week-or a full third of LPea's life in the hospital with gall stone pancreatitis. What that is, I still can't say for sure, despite the numerous explanations given to me by medical professionals.

What I do know is this, you have a gall bladder. It serves no purpose but can cause a lot of pain in very unlucky people-myself being one of them. So I no longer have one of these troublesome organs.

When you leave the hospital after having a baby, you are just relieved to be going home. It does not even enter your thoughts that you could come back in two week for something much less special and, remarkably, more painful.

Needless to say, I am so thrilled to be back home with my little family.

A special thank you to all the family and friends that have given us so much support during this very difficult time.

I am very pleased to be closing the door on this miserable experience and look forward to my regular routine of posting cute pictures of my daughters and enjoying this time at home with LPea.

More to come!

Water Babies

While CPea has been handling the arrival of her sister in true toddler fashion-that is to say, one mood swing at a time-she has also been busy with her swimming lessons. Her dad is hoping this is the first phase of a promising waterpolo career.

Not to be left out, LPea has been doing some waterwork of her own. The first bath. It went pretty well, all things considered given the long rivalry of children vs. soap.






All dressed and ready to go. You'll note this outfit (it says mommy's little sweetie) is part of my campaign to become the favorite parent for LPea. CPea has long been her father's number one fan, so this is my chance to even up the teams. We'll see how it goes.

Getting to Know You

With LPea's one week birthday tomorrow, I thought I would share a few of the things we have learned about our littlest daughter.

1. She is a very good sleeper, in fact she sleeps all day.

2. She is a very good eater, in fact she eats all night.

3. We are working on changing this pattern.

4. She thinks her sister is a very big deal!

5. Her sister is a very big deal, we are so proud of CPea's behavior towards her sister.

6. Getting a newborn dressed is a task that can only be likened to trying to put pants on a rubber band.

7. And the moment SPea has been waiting for since the minute we knew we were expecting...the inaugural trip in the baby bjorn. He used with CPea until she outgrew it and has been biding his time to break it out again. LPea loved the trip...she slept through it.