December Snow Storms (19-21)

Alec and the potty

Funny, with the first child you wonder when they will be potty trained, with the second, I really didn't think about it much but now I realize that the influence of the older brother works wonder on giving ideas to a younger brother. So without any promoting from us, Alec has been asking for the potty. Not every day but more and more often. He will go to the bathroom take off his clothes and use the potty. Pretty impressive for a 2 year old boy! Today he spent a good part of the afternoon and evening naked and went to the potty when he needed to, no accidents... I didn't prompt this but believe me, you won't hear any complaints from me if he's out of diapers before he's 3... No complaints AT all! William is being a great big brother and encouraging him as well as cheering for him when he does use the potty! Even more motivation for Alec when his bro is so proud of him!
William is also doing great on this front, he's been trained during the day for a while now but for a couple of months he's no longer wearing pull ups at night either! Woo hoo, the diaper bill is going down every month, I love it!

October Pics

October pics finally... You will see pics of the family and Theresa at the Children Museum in Boston as well as some great playground pics at a playground in Natick and one in Littleton. Both are great wooden structures that go on forever, the kids love them.
The Halloween pics will be posted separately, I haven't uploaded them to my computer yet..

Enjoy, there are some beautiful ones up there.. Steph

Pics to come shortly, having issues uploading them

What are the kids up to?

I'm due for an update..

Oakley (she's the oldest baby):
She's going to be 5 in December, still doing great since she was so sick in February last year, fully recovered! She's a real survivor. As most of you know, I'm a huge fan of Cesa Milan the dog whisperer, so I've been working his techniques on Oakley. She's really a different dog as long as I walk her everyday (yes, sometimes I miss a day and I can tell, she's not her new improved self when I do that!). She used to drive me crazy barking at the UPS man and the postman, now she hears them and runs to her kennel until she hears them leave, I'm so happy! She can also stay with us outside off leash and not run away. She listens to commands, and lets the kids take over her food. They are leaders now! It's amazing how different she is, it's great.

William (non furry child born first)
William is getting to be a big boy, he talks so well and so clearly, it's completely amazing. He's super curious, wants to know everything, how they work, why they work a certain way, it never stops. Sometimes it's hard for the parents to keep answering the incessant questions but he really wants to know so we make the effort :-). He continues to love school and he seems to be a little less shy than he used to be. He has made many friends and he really enjoys playing with them. He has started sounding out words and he's able to put together letters to make words. He's even getting to a point where he can read some words, I'm blown away every time he does it. He's now 43 inches tall and 41lbs, Still a tall skinny kid, he wears 5 year old clothes. He is really into board games these days, wants to play Candyland and Uno all the time and always wants to be sure we keep Alec away, wouldn't want to little brother messing with the game. He plays well with his brother most of the time, they do get on each other's nerves once in a while but in most cases, I think they enjoy each other's company.

He's very excited about his birthday, I can't believe he's going to be 4 soon.. Where has the time gone?

Alec (non furry child #2)
Alec is a little boy, no more baby left. He's an amazing dancer, singer, runner, climber, he's an athlete with musical talents. We know he'll have some sort of musical talent just not sure what it is yet. He's drawn to music and has to keep the beat with his body in some way shape or form, it's adorable! He is speaking a ton now, sometimes it's still hard to know exactly what he's saying but it's getting clearer everyday. He loves to chat and will tell you stories and answer questions accurately. He really understands everything we say to him now. He runs around the house and outside like a mad man, even at the playground, he is so agile, I have heart attacks every time he attempts things I don't think he can do but he rarely fails. He rides his bike like a pro, and keeps up with William in almost every activity. He still has his charming personality, always smiling unless you've annoyed him and then he'll treat you to a major tantrum that can end quickly if you are fast and distract him. Alec is now 37.5 inches and 33 lbs, he's TALL for his age, taller than Will at the same age who was tall too.. I have visions of being a munchkin in a house of giants!

Pics coming soon! Stay tuned

Theresa is here!

After all the sadness of Ana leaving , Theresa came to us the next day from Long Island (via a 6.5 hour bus ride, ugh) where she had been in Au pair school for 4 days. She's from the Bavarian alps in Germany. We were all very excited to meet her and she just fit right in. I was fully expecting a few weeks of painful adaptation but Theresa really knew how to connect with the children and they really responded well. She joined us at the Children Museum the day after she came, it helped us introduce her to the kids. They really enjoyed the museum, you'll notice that on the pics I will post at the end of the month. We walked around Boston too, it is so beautiful there now that they have taken down the highway, it's all parks over the tunnels, just gorgeous and it was a beautiful day. The boys were really tired after all that excitement and exercise!
We know we will have a fantastic year with Theresa, it's started very well!

later, Steph

Ana went back to Brazil

After being with us for 1 year and 9 months, Ana went back to Brazil this afternoon. We are very sad to see her good, she's become part of the family. William was so confused by the whole thing, he kept asking Ana where she would sleep if Theresa (our new au pair coming tomorrow 10/10) was sleeping in her room. I can't believe how great her English is now, she's really accomplished her goal of learning to speak English, I'm very proud of her and all the work she put into it. She made it home safely and her family was waiting for her at the airport. It must be a really weird feeling to go home after so long, excitement, sadness and I'm sure a lot of stress about the future. It's not easy to find a job in Brazil, we really hope it all works out for her. We really hope to visit Brazil someday and of course, we'd love to have Ana visit us too. We won't forget our first au pair, she's set the bar very high for the future au pairs!

September Crazyness

OK I know I'm way behind on the news, I have very few excuses except that work was completely crazy this month. I had two business trips, one to Chicago and one to Austin, we were also preparing for Ana's departure back to Brazil and it was the beginning of school for William. He started going to preschool three times a week from 9 to 1PM. He really enjoys it, loves his teacher Miss Elaine and he's learning a ton and of course, always helping is classmates. We are still not sure what we will do about kindergarten next year, we have to decide in January whether or not we will have him tested to see if he's ready to start early because his birthday is after the cutoff date (Aug. 31) so in theory, he should not be going to kindergarten next year. I really think he's ready intellectually, I'm just not sure socially, we shall see!
So this will be my short September update, it was crazy, it was my 35th birthday which I would rather forget (that one hit me hard) and our 5th wedding anniversary. It was a busy month (that's my excuse for not blogging and I'm sticking to it!)
Until later... Steph

Here are the September pics and videos, better late than never!

The funny things William says

A few good ones to pass on..

Oakley escaped the other day, I ran after her just in time to see her almost get hit by a car, she had escaped because William left the basement door open. So when I came back the conversation went like this:

Me: "William, you can't leave the door open, your dog gets out and your dog could be gone forever!!!!!"
Will: "Some people have cats"
Me: "She almost got hit by a truck!!"
Will: "What kind of truck, a semi, a pickup?"
That's when I gave up, apparently empathy is a bit much for a 3.5 year old :-)

Today, William didn't want to take a nap, I found him at the top of the stairs rocking in the rocking chair. I asked him why he was not sleeping, the answer was: "I can't sleep, I just have too much energy" You think he listens when we find excuses for the kids not to sleep?? Ha Ha Ha!

Steph

Happy Birthday Alec!

Happy Birthday sweet Alec! You are two years old today. This post is for you, just wanted to tell you how much we love you! You are such a wonderful little boy, so sweet, loving, bright and happy. You have quite a character, we sure know what you like and don't like! And your big brother loves you a ton you know, even when he drives you crazy, he's just 3, it's hard to deal with a little brother.

Everyday I'm so grateful to have you in our lives.

I hope you had a fantastic day, we sure did!

We love you! Mommy, Daddy and William

Beach day at Plum Island beach

We spent the day at Plum Island beach in Newbury, MA. What a beautiful place it is, I must say, everytime we go there I'm reminded why we put up with the taxes, politics and high prices in MA. It's for things like the beach 1 hour away from our house, the ski a couple hours away and the unebleivable fall days we get.. I makes everything else OK (not great but OK). As you can see on the pics, it was a beautiful day. William kicked off the day, running and throwing himself into the water, completely different from last year when he was a little scared and didn't want to go in on his own. We actually had to watch him like a hawk this year, he would have run way further than we wanted him to! Alec was also into the water this year, last year he didn't even want to go in it. He would jump and sit in the water and giggled and laughed in the big waves with mommy, it truly was a fantastic day. We tried to build some sandcastles that Alec promptly destroyed and got covered in sand. We even had a picinic on the beach, there's nothing like a sandwich seasoned with some sand :-) Completely unavoidable on the beach with 2 kids who can't keep their hands uncovered with sand. We found a few seashells,

On the way back, we picked up some lobsters fresh from the ocean, William had a few bites, he wasn't too impressed, Alec didn't even want to try. Oh well, they don't know what they are missing, it was great to have some wonderful lobster and I was particularly happy because we are in soft shell season so they were easier to track. I'm the official lobster cracker in my house, no one wants the whole thing on their plate, they much prefer me dealing with it.. Years of practice, I started opening my own lobsters when I was 10 or so. I've got it down pat!

We spend Sunday doing errands and the boys took 3 hour naps, why am I mentioning that? Because it NEVER happens!!!! Woo hoo for mom and dad.

I'm frantically preparing Alec's birthday, can't believe my baby is going to be 2! Stay tuned for pics next week.

Good night and enjoy the pics, it was truly a beautiful day, there are also a few pics of our ice cream outing at Great Brooks farms in Carlisle, MA last weekend, always fun!

Stephanie