Brotherly Love

Things between Big brother and little sister seem to be going better. Vince largely still just ignores Zoë and pretends she is not there, but sometimes he'll show his sweet side and want to give her a kiss on her head, or comfort her saying "Don't cry Zoë!". Overall I think he's got it in him to be the super sweet big brother that I know he will be.

Look at the pot belly on that little girl!

They are both growing up so fast, I'm in one of those phases where I'm aware of how fast it is all happening. Before too long, I'll have to think back to remember Vince's sweet little mis-pronunciations of words... like hippopamatus instead of hippopotamus; or "Borerto the Insect Architect" instead of "Roberto the Insect Architect" (one of his books). He also has started saying the word 'girl'.... but the way he pronounces it makes it sound like gorrilla! I don't know if that's because little boys generally think girls are yucky, but it sure is funny when he says "Mommy, you and Zoë are gorrillas!"

TSC Daycare Reunion

There's no doubt that Vince loved his teachers and friends at his daycare, so when we were invited to a Friday evening cookout at their playground we excitedly accepted. He had been going there since he was about 5 months old, but now that he has a little sister it's just too expensive to have them both at the daycare center (not to mention that it would also mean Mike would have to travel by train with both children-not easy!)

We were so sad to have to take Vince out of daycare, and I remember it was a sad day at home as we sorted through all his belongings and all his artwork that he had created during his time there. They helped him make some wonderful creations, and they put together fun scrapbooks of all his work and pictures of him and his friends during activities. It's soo great having these scrapbooks as I don't have the motivation to put any of this sort of thing together!

We showed up at the playground around 5pm, and it didn't take Vince long to find his favorite Teacher Adrien!! He saw her and it was like no time had passed, he was as happy as a clam with all his friends and teachers around

Vince with his favorite teacher Adrien

I think he really missed the playground too, because he stayed in there forever, way past the time all the other children were out of the area... he had the whole place to himself and took full advantage

mowing the lawn

Vince with Dan-reuniting with another well loved teacher

During his time at TSC, Vince would always come home and talk about some other kid named Gus. He is a bit older than Vince and was in Toddler 2 class while Vince was in Toddler 1. Gus is also sort of BIG for his age, and made a small Vince look even smaller while they were together. They were always the first two kids dropped off in the morning so they became friends-playing with cars together in the morning. When Vince saw Gus on Friday he kept following him around and yelling 'Gus, Gus!'.... I captured a very hard to get photo of the two of them in their playhouse.


Some of the friends in Vince's class saw him and they all yelled 'Vinny!', his little friend Stephania said "Vinny back from vacation!" ..... it was so cute!



Thank you to all the staff at TSC, you guys are the best!! We can tell that Vince was very loved and well taken care of there and we hope to keep coming up to visit.

Have Crayon... Will Travel

Hmm.... I wonder who decided to put this crayon art work on the wall and didn't want to sign their name?! Magic Eraser to the rescue!

Weekend in New York

We had a good time last weekend in New York, as we celebrated Mike's niece's graduation. I just realized now however that I never even took a picture of the graduate! Sorry Erica! It was a fun weekend and great party. Here's Vince, wandering onto the dance floor watching the girls dressing up.

All the kids LOVE Uncle Charlie

Zoë got to meet her older cousins Amelia and Melina. Melina is already a little mommy, she wanted to hold and feed Zoë the whole day. She is such a good mommy!! (wish she was closer to us to babysit someday!)

random shot of Zoë passed out on Pop Pop (ignore our lovely paint job in the background)

Blueberry Picking Became Peach Picking

Since moving to New England I've become a fan of the tradition of going out to farms and picking whatever fruit/vegetable happens to be in season. It's big over here... people make trips to go apple and pumpkin picking, cherry picking, berry picking.... you name it. I don't remember anything like that in the suburbs of LA ;) (snicker snicker) Small family owned farms set up their place for hay rides and kids areas, and it generally is a nice time.

What was supposed to be a day of blueberry picking for us turned into eating a few green blueberries, Vince getting lost momentarily in the blueberry patch, and finally ending up peach picking instead (in between trying to calm down a screaming Zoë, who clearly didn't like the idea of picking anything). We went to Ward's Berry Farm a few Sundays ago on a beautiful warm summer day, all ready for making blueberry pie. Mike's mother was in town and she brought down her blueberry pie recipe, we had the pie shells.... the works. Well as we were purchasing our 'blueberry basket' the cashier says to us "well, there aren't really any blueberries.. the weather messed up the crop this year". "But you can pick peaches!" ..... ok, it would have been nice to change the message on the voice mail that says 'blueberries for picking all summer!'

We didn't want to believe them so we went rummaging through the blueberry patch anyway. Here's Vince eating all the small, unripened blueberries

Nonna clearly isn't thrilled with these blueberry picking options

Off to the peach trees!

While we were trying to pick good peaches from the trees, we would often have to stop and take breaks to wheel a screaming Zoë around.... navigating through the trees trying to get her to calm down. She was having one of those days and didn't want to have anything to do with picking fruit

Vince was very concerned over Zoë being upset

Ok, the basket is full!! Let's go make peach pie!

Sharing some ice cream with friends Aaron and Ramona

A Few Milestones

Last week Zoë decided to show her sweet smile for the first time. Her Nonna was here to see as well, and vouch for the smiles not actually being gas or some nerve reflex. She crinkled up her little mouth and gave us the cutest smile I've ever seen. Today however, she gave me the first of a series of smiles which just melted my heart. There's no better combination then smiles from your baby, mixed in with the little coos they make as if they are trying to talk to you. She was waving her hands around as if telling me a big story she's been saving up! I captured one of her multiple smiles on my phone as she was moving her head around, talking to me in great detail about some secret.

It's totally ironic that as I write this post Zoë is not smiling, but rather writhing on her bouncy seat screaming in agony for me to pick her up (the little lady can really belt it out when she wants)! I basically have to hold her ALL OF THE TIME that she isn't sleeping, which has forced me to forget worrying about all the other chores around the house that need to be done (or at least try). That has been pretty hard for me to do actually. My OCD nature does not allow me to see dishes in the sink, and toys all over the floor without wanting to clean or pick them up. It's been REALLY DIFFICULT trying to remember that holding her and taking care of her and Vince is just what I should be doing and everything else can go on the back burners. I still haven't gotten the hang of how I can try and calm Zoë down while simultaneously reading a book to Vince. He seams to want to do something with me or do some activity that I need to help him with at exactly the point that Zoë is freaking out and needs to be held/fed/burped/rocked. He's started some new phrases like "Mom, let's read a book you and me", or "Mom, come play with me in the sun room". Then he'll take my hand and lead me to what he wants me to do. It's so cute I can't stand it! It breaks my heart to have to tell him to hold on because I need to tend to the baby. Sigh... I'll get the hang of this someday. Vince is doing better adjusting to life with a little sister overall so that's good.

Vince has had a milestone of his own as well! He did some poops in the potty (I spared the picture). This was actually about 2 weeks ago now. Our friend Naomi gave Vince an awesome Pirate Potty Book for us to read to him whenever he's on the potty. It has a pirate hat that he wears, and if he goes pee or poo while on the potty he gets a sticker for his pirate potty hat. He loves that part. Here's Vince in action on his potty with his pirate potty hat and Nonna reading the pirate potty book. It's all a pretty ridiculous production but it appears to be working so we'll go with whatever works.

Zoë's photo shoot

This week we ventured out and had some newborn photos taken of Zoë. I figured we should do it soon before she isn't a newborn anymore! She's already transitioned out of those super cute and tiny newborn diapers.... now fitting into size one. My baby is growing up too quick! Today she had her one month appointment and she weighed in at 9 lbs 2.8 oz and is now 21 1/4 inches. I think they must have measured her wrong at birth because they have down 19 3/4 inches... is there any way she really grew that much in length in one month? Other milestones of the week include Zoë's first smile! No, it wasn't gas or some nerve reflex (this time), she looked at me and her Nonna while we were talking to her and she was very alert and gave us the cutest smile I've ever seen.

Zoë at 4 weeks old

A Happy Mommy

Her toes are totally made for flip flops, look at all that space!

Oh hello Miss photographer!

Up Up and Away!

I had planned on getting a few photos with Vince and Zoë together..... but Vince had different ideas about that. He was being his perfect toddler self and refusing to take any photos with his little sister. Instead, he decided to spend his time stomping around the studio yelling no! no! when we asked him to come take pictures. He also made a few (somewhat successful) attempts at escaping out into the mall area, oh yes it was fun! He kept Nonna on her toes chasing after him, and succeeded in mildly stressing out the photo studio staff (who weren't too nice anyway).

Here is the one and only shot of the both of them, capturing Vince in a rare moment of comforting his sister, saying "Don't cry Zoë"