Liberty Science Center

I wanted to post a few photos from our trip last weekend to the Liberty Science Center -- we had such a good time there!! Thanks to our friend Carol for telling us about the place; it's only about 45 minutes from here, in Jersey City. It's also pretty much as close as anything can be to the Statue of Liberty - great views! And awesome views of NYC as well. Anyway, we spent about four hours there, including nearly an hour at the end watching a 3-D movie called "Dinosaurs!" which was pretty cool. Ollie was very brave. He didn't seem too fascinated with "Sue," the T-Rex skeleton... I think if she was moving around and roaring, he would have been more interested!! He loved all the animals - really cool fish, great turtles, lizards, and a lot more. His favorite activity of all was getting to control a small-sized "big dig" truck, moving dirt around with it, scooping, etc. He can't wait to go back. There was so much to see and do there - it really is a fantastic science museum, highly recommended!

Morning Smiles

When do you ever get a photo of both your kids smiling at the same time?!! At least not when one of them is still a baby... I just got lucky this morning. The plan is that I'll post a new photo on here each day that Andy is gone, so here is Day 1, which I'm calling "Morning Smiles." I told Oliver the photo was for Daddy, so I think that made his smile extra nice. We miss you, sweetie!

And He's Off

Andy's off to Germany again - we all waved goodbye an hour or so ago, sad to see him go. The time usually goes really quickly when he's gone, generally. I guess. I try to make the best of it, and especially enjoy my free reigns to make "breakfast for dinner" a regular thing. Sad that I might miss choir tonight, as I haven't heard back from our babysitter... not too hopeful that I will.
I've promised to try to post at least one new photo of the kiddies each day for him, and I thought it would make sense to do it here, where he can visit often and easily to see new and old photos. But today I'm going to post our two new top videos; one of Andy and Ollie enjoying their very favorite pastime, and the other of our sweet Maddie and her fabulous giggles. Enjoy!

Christmas '09!

Ohhh so much to tell, and it's really best told through photos! I've put together a photo album of the entire holiday, for those of you with a little time on your hands. So... Andy and I had 2 whole weeks together with the kiddies at the house in Maine... by the end of it we really felt completely at home, and it was awfully hard to leave. We used both woodstoves every day, and the house was so cozy - that was the only heat we needed in the whole place, even when it was in the single digits outside! We had a nice big snowstorm right away when we got there, and then another big one the weekend that we left (postponing our departure by one day), but other than that it was just mostly cold. Because of the cold, we didn't do nearly as much outdoor stuff as usual, and spent a lot more time in the house - Andy got the upstairs back bedroom painted, and the bathroom, and I got primer and one coat done on the new front door, but then it got too cold for us to leave the door open for long!

We had some quiet, cozy dinners at home, but were lucky to spend LOTS of time and have many meals at my mom and dad's house down the road, with Ollie and Maddie's cousins Aidan and Eli as wonderful playmates for the kids - they're such great boys! Ian and Suz were there as well, and we had several visits with my good friend, Chloe (never enough, but we do what we can). Mom was in full baking mode for days and days - she made her famous stollen, Finish coffee bread, and about 5 different kinds of cookies, at least... good thing I hadn't started my diet yet! Christmas Eve dinner is usually lobster, but this year we had turkey with all the fixings; Christmas dinner was roast beef with yorkshire pudding, as always!

Oliver has started to catch on to the whole idea of Santa. In the weeks and months before Christmas, whenever we were at the shops and he said he wanted something, I would say, "you have to ask Santa!" and he would say, "ohhhh, Santa," and put it back! I couldn't get over it. 3 years old - what a fantastic age. Maddie enjoyed hanging out with everyone, and batting at the ornaments on the tree. Ollie's big present from Santa was a Kidizoom digital camera - a big hit!! Maddie got a great drum, as well as a baby laptop that plays songs and has flashy lights and buttons.

We had a little New Year's Eve party at our house - you'll see photos in the slide show - it was only a simple afternoon wine and cheese type event, not a party that actually lasted till midnight! Even though there was a pretty big snowstorm that night, most of our friends could still come, and it was great to see everyone. It was so hard to say goodbye to our lovely little house after such a cozy holiday together, to leave the woodstoves warming the house from top to bottom, knowing that in a few hours it would start to be cold and lonely... don't worry, little house, we'll be back soon!

Snow 09!

December 20, our first big snowstorm in Maine during our Christmas vacation!! Started mid-morning, and has been steady all day. Andy went out and and got our Christmas tree, and we put the lights on together, with Ollie offering lots of encouragement. The rest of the day was spent getting more settled in and tidy around the house... and fine tuning our two woodstoves for maximum heat outlay!! We're seeing how it goes with just wood heat for the whole house - so far so good!! Soon we'll head over to Grandma and Granddaddy's house for a big birthday celebration dinner for Aidan and Eli... we were too snowed in to attend the birthday breakfast! First we have to clear off the car, though.

Christmas is coming

December 1st! How did that happen?!! I just ordered Christmas (photo) cards, and put the advent calendar up this morning -- Oliver's very excited about putting another "ormamen" on the tree each day! We just got back from Thanksgiving in Maine a couple of days ago (yum! and lots of fun!), and in another couple of weeks we head back up for Christmas (Andy to follow on Friday the 18th). So I've made the difficult decision to NOT have a Christmas tree here in NJ this year. It's so much work, and not enough time here to enjoy it!! We'll be in Maine for over 2 weeks, and we'll have a tree there at the house, so it seems excessive to have one here as well (plus, it will get lonely while we're in Maine, and I can't deal with that sort of disappointment). :-) We're thinking of trying to do some outdoor lights this year, that would be fun.

So, it seems like turning 3 has been a TRUE turning point for Oliver -- he potty trained himself in the week before his birthday, and in the weeks before and after he turned 3, he just has become a lot more manageable when we're out and about... we went to the grocery store today, and it was actually FUN! I can't believe I just said that, but it's true. Which is not to say that he can't be a complete rascal sometimes, but mostly he's a really good boy. He talks endlessly, and asks "why?!!" all the time, which seems to be a very good thing, even if he does push the limits a lot! He's very imaginative (as you can see in the first photo), and he has started to be a very attentive big brother - this morning he brought tons of his books into my bedroom where Maddie was sitting on my bed, and read to her bits of each one. Well, paraphrased from them... !

Maddie turns 8 months old tomorrow! Imagine. She's become a voracious eater - she pretty much YELLS at me at mealtimes when I don't keep the food coming fast enough! By means of really loud humming, if that's possible. She eats a lot of what Oliver eats now - chicken pot pie with peas and corn, macaroni and cheese, toast, pasta with tomato and meat sauce... I haven't made her Armenian pizza yet, but I'm sure she'll love that, too! Avocado, applesauce - butternut squash was a big hit -- she ate a lot more of Thanksgiving dinner than Oliver did! For a couple of weeks now she's been nursing less, only twice a day, so I have to be sure she's drinking enough from a bottle. She's a VERY happy baby, quite content to play on her own sometimes, very "go with the flow." She usually goes to bed around 8 or so and sleeps until 7am, give or take... how lucky am I?! She's sitting on her own now, no sign of crawling yet.

We're about to send off a Christmas package to our family in England, and I've somehow figured out almost all the presents for our family here, so I'm feeling pretty ahead of the game! This Saturday is a big holiday party organized by the moms group that I'm in, and it will be the first time ever that Oliver meets Santa, can't wait!

Show the love

Oliver has been having more and more fun with his little sister... now that Maddie is so responsive and smiley, he likes to play with her sometimes. The other day, I put her on the floor to "practice" sitting with the boppy behind her, and Oliver said, "I want to sit, too!!" They were so cute together, I had to take some pictures. Then Oliver leaned in to give her a big hug of brotherly love, and I got this second photo - sweet! Maddie is almost 7 1/2 months old now, and she's sitting up on her own pretty much, with just the occasional tumble. She also has 2 teeth!! Her two front bottom teeth... I knew of the one coming in, but the second was a big surprise to me today!