Leaves - Fall clean up

Tessa was taking a morning nap, and Lisa was outside mowing the lawn.  I went out to help rake, then Loni came out with Koen and he headed right for the pile of leaves.  Here are a few of the photos...

Major New Development

Big News!  This morning when I was changing Koen's diaper he started to pee just a teeny bit.  So, I decided to take him into the bathroom and have him stand on an upside down laundry basket in front of the throne.  Sure enough, after a little suggestion, Koen peed in the toilet!!!!  I am so proud of him!!!  I have tried on several occasions prior to this morning to get him to try it, but either he hasn't had to go, or he just wasn't sure what to do.  Hopefully Mr. Big Boy will want to try it again!  Time to buy a stool for the bathroom.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Koen is a mouse and Tessa is a butterfly.  Tessa was a little more comfortable in her costume than Koen.  Spencer is behind us on the right in the family photo.

SLEEP!!!

Last Monday and Tuesday night the kids were up half the night.  Thankfully, Lisa switched their naps around and it seems to have worked!  The last 2 nights both kids have slept through the night!!!  Hallelujah!!!  I hope it stays that way.  Cross your fingers!!!

DC!

At the WWII Memorial on the Mall.

DC Trip

About to post a few photos from our long weekend in Washington DC.  Koen was so cute he kept saying Washington, DC when we asked him where we were going on the airplane with the accent on the D C!  It reminded me of this summer when he would say P-TOWN emphatically.  Hopefully this downloading will work.

Fall Weekend photos

A day at the Dedham Pumpkin Festival with the kids, and a day at Drumlin Farm in Lincoln.

Time flies by...

I have been meaning to blog for forever, but something always comes up, like sleep!  There are so many stories that need updating.  Koen is counting to 7 and sometimes to 10.  That seems so amazing and advanced to me, but what do I know...  He has been speaking in 3 to 4 word sentences for the last couple of weeks - i.e.  "Where papa go?"  "Mama lay down now".  He is putting more and more words together every day.  Tessa started to say Mama last week and she can copy us when we say Tess Tess.  I have tried to get her to say Koen, but she 's not there yet.  

One development that has been extremely frustrating is Koen's disinterest in getting his picture taken.  Posed pictures are no longer an option.  I know that it is totally normal at his age to be independent and not be told where to be or what to do, but come on!  Work with me!!!  As a result, I have struggled to get good photos of him actually looking at the camera and smiling.

  We have have been on quite a few outdoor adventures lately and I can count on a few fingers the numbers of pictures that I would qualify as acceptable.  I will keep working on it.

Way overdue

Some photos from Tessa's Finalization on 9/16/08...  Tessa and Kristine in pink.  The four of us with Judge Cohen and our attny Joyce Kauffman.  The four of us (before Koen's haircut).  :-)

Tired munchkins in Bermuda

We are trying to take a few family photos each night so maybe we will have our holiday card photo done.  Tessa and Koen are tooooo tired in this one.

Beautiful Bermuda

We arrived safely in Bermuda Saturday evening after a 5 hour delay at Logan due to a fuel leak in engine number 2! Yikes! It smelled really bad on the plane before we were asked to deplane so I am glad they found the source of the problem. They told us they were flying a part up from Atlanta and that it would be in Boston by 1pm then they would fix it and we would be on our way by 2 or so. Well, luckily they got us a new plane and we took off at 2pm. Koen and Tessa were very good about the whole thing, but I know they were WIPED because they fell asleep right before we got on the plane then didn't get a nap for the rest of the day!

Pru and John (Wendy's aunt and uncle ended up staying in Boston so we got Unit 20 (Begonia) all to ourselves!! It would have been a little tight with 4 adults and 4 kids under five in one unit! What a nice surprise.

Tomorrow we are headed to Hamilton on the ferry. Apparently the buses are not stroller friendly so we need to take the boat.

Breaking News!!

Little Miss Tessa is crawling on all fours now! She just started today! Looks like she might lose the army crawl and just switch to regular crawling. Yeah!!!

Tomorrow morning is the finalization at the court in Canton. Wish us luck.

Poor Koen has a severe case of diaper rash and intestinal issues. We are praying that he is better in time for Bermuda (we leave Saturday) otherwise we are all staying home!

Hopefully we will have some photos to post from the finalization tomorrow.

Words from the kids

Koen's mastery of the English language it pretty amazing.  He knows about 70 words including bulldozer, motorcycle, police car, tow truck, strawberry, the list goes on and on because he copies everything we say.  Tessa is now getting in on the act and she can say "Uh oh", Duck, Moo, and dada.  We encourage her to say mama but she is not there yet.

We now ask ask Koen "Are you ready for night, night?" and he replies "No".  We ask "Are you sure?" and he says "YES".  He is really able to communicate quite well now.  

Although Tessa is not crawling on all fours yet, she gets around the house by slithering around on the floor like an army soldier in the fox hole.  She got from the living room to the office all by herself tonight!

Tomorrow we are going to Houghton's Pond for our first "meet-up" play date with 6 other families like ours.  This should be fun for the kids to run around together.  Hopefully we all get along and plan other dates soon.

I got the call!!

Our lawyer, Joyce Kauffman, called today to say we finally have our court date to finalize my adoption of Tessa!!!  Guess what day it is scheduled for...  My birthday, September 16th!  Do you think they planned it that way?  Couldn't think of a better day to legalize my parental relationship with little miss Tessa!  Great day to have a party!!!   Cross your fingers all goes well.

Koen!

Koen's favorite part of the night was running away from Mom!!

Tessa at the Common

Tessa watching the passers-by.

Koen at the Boston Common

Koen was dying to jump in the pond at the Common, but his Mom's wouldn't let him.

Miss Tessa practicing her clapping.

talk, talk, talk

It is AMAZING how much Koen is talking now. Lisa was very disciplined about making sure Koen "used his words" instead of grunting and whining, and he has really done well. He's like a parrot copying everything we say. I have to really watch my language now, because we might just hear something unexpected out of his mouth! It was pretty funny the other day, because we were saying look at the butterfly, and he copied us, as usual, except he said butfly. It was pretty funny!! He can say strawberry, Spencer (Nana's dog), and of course, Tessie Tess. He has no fear of just repeating everything we say.

Tessa is babbling alot, and she just recently started clapping. Lisa recorded it on her cell phone video and sent it to me, but I don't know how to download it. Arggh!! If you ask Tessa what does a cow say, she will reply "MOO". She just turned 9 months and it is TOOO cute. As far as crawling is concerned, she is almost there. She gets up on all fours, and moves around but I wouldn't call it crawling yet. She'll probably be crawling in another month or so.

The four of us went to the Boston Common last Sunday night to walk around and give Koen a little exercize and fun. It was an incredibly beautiful night and we all had a blast. I plan to post a few of the photos shortly.

Lisa and the kids are at the cape now, and I am headed down at the crack of dawn tomorrow. It should be another beautiful weekend.

We can't believe Koen and Tessa's cousin's Miles and Christian started school on Thursday!!! They are such big boys in kindergarten now. We will blick our eyes and Koen and Tessa will be there next.

the last few...

Koen and Tessa with Lisa's Dad Mario also known as Papa (accent on the second pa - according to Koen) and one of all the cousins (Koen, Anna, Melissa, Anthony, Clara, John, and Tessa)!!

A few more...

Our friend Michele took these pictures of Koen and Tessa at a recent pool party at Lori & Jim's house.

How they've changed...

A morning at Houghton's Pond with the kids...

WE'RE BAAAACK!!!!

So four months is not that bad when you are trying to hold down a crazy job, keep up with household chores, and take care of two children, right?

I keep getting subtle hints from my friends... Hmm... last photos on the blog are from EASTER!!!! Any chance you will get to that soon??? Well, here I am trying to get things going again.

The kids are fantastic! Koen is so big now. He has been walking since he turned one, so he is quite an expert now. Tessa is sitting up and getting more interactive by the day. We continue to work on rolling over with her. She's pretty laid back and not in too much of a rush, but what a smiley girl she is!!!

We spent almost a week at Scraggy Neck with the kids, and although Koen had a rough time sleeping, in general it worked out great to be at the beach everyday. The week after that, Lisa and the kids spent the week at her parents house with her cousin and 4 children (11, 9, 7, 5) and her other cousins son who is 8. It was complete mayhem, but Koen and Tessa had a blast playing with and getting to know their cousins. You could tell that Koen noticed when they left. :-( Too bad they live in Upstate NY!!

The Easter dress

I had to get another shot of Tessa's Easter dress.

Mornings at home

Lisa is such a trooper. Koen and Tessa are always ready for breakfast at the same time and no one wants to be left out.

First Easter Photo!!

Our first Easter as a family!!! A beautiful but COLD day.

Updated photos of Koen and Tessa

Smiley kids!!!

Where does the time go....

Well - A month and a half later and I finally make time to BLOG! The kids are huge! Koen had his ten month appt. last week and he is 25 pounds and 2.3 oz, and 30.5 inches long. The Dr. said he looks great but watch out for the high calorie table food. I thought she was referring to us, but she was talking about little Koen. :-)

Koen started crawling in the beginning of January and on March 8th, he stood on his own!! He has done it several times since then, but he thinks it is really funny and won't do it on a regular basis. I guess it will take time for him to get comfortable with his balance.

Tessa is like a new little girl. She is much happier than she was as an infant. She SMILES all the time now, and only has crying fits occasionally. Koen and Tessa really like each other, but they are too small to play together. Tessa rubs Koen's head and Koen grabs Tessa sleep sack. It is cute, though, cause thy do smile at each other often.

We brought both kids to church today and they did great. Koen slept through most of the service on Lisa's shoulder, and Tessa relaxed until she fell asleep towards the end of the service. I couldn't believe how PACKED the church was. The ushers were pulling out folding chairs so everyone had a place to sit. I thought maybe it was because there was a brass quartet or because we sang Handel's Alleluia Chorus at the end of the service, but I guess it was because it was Easter. Since Michael (our old neighbor) is the minister, it makes it that much easier to get there on Sundays.

Back to the kids... Tessa has been protesting Belly Time, but she is improving rapidly. She loves to stand on her feet now, and she is getting really strong. Lisa has gotten her to laugh out loud, which is adorable. I need to get that on video soon. Koen's favorite place is Gymboree. He gets to crawl and climb all over the place, and play with other kids his age. I wonder when he is going to start walking....

Sick kids...

We have two sick kids on our hands. Koen went to Gymboree for the first time on Saturday, and sure enough, three days later he had a fever and a head cold. Did I mention that there were 2 little twin girls hacking away at the Saturday morning class? That should be forbidden! Poor little guy. Miss Tessa had her 2 month check up yesterday at the Dr. and had her 3(!) immunization shots and drink (which she just about choked on), and today she had a fever she couldn't shake. Lisa ended up driving all the way up from the cape with Tessa today to the Dr. and sure enough her temperature was back to normal when she arrived at the office. Bummer that gas prices are through the roof!

I am sure this is the first of many colds/fevers/shots for the kids, and we'll just have to get used to it. Everyone else does, right?

Koen has been crawling now for a couple of weeks, and he is dying to walk. He is very comfortable standing up and holding on to the couch or anything else he can get his hands on. My prediction is that he will be walking in the next month.