New House

New baby...new work schedules...new house...all at the same time?!?

I'm not sure what we were thinking.  But we all survived and are doing amazingly well.

(Now you know why I am so far behind in blog posts)

We actually had our eyes on the market for the past 2 years or so - knowing very well that we were going to quickly outgrow our townhouse with our growing family.  We really got serious about looking when we found out I was pregnant with Reese.  

October 2012 - Reese was born

November 2012- we found our dream home

December 2012 (2 weeks later) - we put our house on the market

New Year's Eve - we accepted an offer on our house

February 28, 2013 - we closed on both houses

It all happened so quickly!  Not without many bumps along the way, mind you - but we won't dwell on those.

We found our dream house and put an offer on it right away (contingent upon us selling our townhouse).  We therefore had to put our townhouse on the market ASAP - which we did in 2 weeks!

To get everything done so quickly, we needed all the help we could get:

Daddy's toolbox and Colden's toolbox

Colden was such a big helper.  Here is Colden helping daddy take apart Reese's crib that was in our room.  At only 6 weeks old, we had to move Reese into her own room so that we could de-clutter our room.

Of course, we weren't sure how Colden was going to react to having his world turned upside-down.  I thought it would be therapeutic for him to help pack up his own room:

(Colden's packing job)

(Colden's taping job)

While it was a very stressful time for Mike and me, we tried to keep the process as fun as possible for Colden:

It was amazing to see all of our belongings shoved into a 26-foot van:

We had the movers load up the truck the day before we moved out...leaving us with nothing in the house.  What a great excuse for a picnic dinner on our dining room floor:

And for a family slumber party (in Colden's room):

(Left to right:  Reese, Colden, my spot, Mike and Nanny)

We had to be out of the house by 8:30am on February 28th - so (luckily?) we didn't have much time in the morning.  We had to drop the kids off at daycare and clean out the last few remaining items.  Colden and I said a quick goodbye to the house...

And that was it.  A quick farewell to the house that saw Mike and I get married...add Frankie (our cat) to our family...and have 2 kids.  Six wonderful years.

We moved to an awesome single-family house that is only 2 miles down the road from our townhouse

Colden is so excited to be in our new house - he loves giving tours to everyone who comes over.  He  even picked out the bedroom he wanted (which luckily wasn't the master bedroom) :-)

We have all settled in nicely.  Most of our neighbors have come over to introduce themselves and there are always kids playing outside.  I think we are going to fit in nicely here!  

OK - now start unpacking!!  :-)

Puff the Magic Dragon

I'll be honest, I never liked the story of "Puff the Magic Dragon" because I always felt so sorry for Puff and would have to pinch myself to keep from crying when Jackie Paper grew up, leaving Puff to slip inside his cave.

However, I jumped at the chance to bring the kids to see Peter Yarrow (the Peter of "Peter, Paul & Mary") perform at our local bookstore.

And when I say, see...I mean, we got to see him from front row seats:

 (Peter Yarrow - of "Peter, Paul & Mary")

(Colden following along and enjoying the show)


It was so special for everyone there - from the grandparents, to the parents to the little kids - to be able to sing along with Peter Yarrow.

And when I say sing...I mean Colden got to go up on stage...

(there is Colden in the front row wearing his all-time favorite pink boots)  :-)

...and sing with Peter Yarrow:

(Click here for "Puff the Magic Dragon" video)

If you are wondering why I stopped filming, it's because my camera decided to die at the most inopportune moment. The rest of Colden's interview, which I failed to capture on video, was Peter asking Colden who taught him the song - to which Colden replied, "mommy".  :-)

Colden was so brave to go up on stage in front of hundreds of people and sing.  He made me so proud!

After the show, we got to meet Peter Yarrow.  He signed the Puff the Magic Dragon (pop-up) book that I bought:

Peter was such a kind (and hilarious) soul.  With a long line of people waiting to say hello, Peter took a few minutes to read Colden a page out of the book:

And to give Colden a hug and thank him for singing with him on the stage:

That night, I read Colden and Reese their new book:

I still think the story is too sad, but the pop-up book is amazing and the story now holds a special meaning for us.

Besides, what's not to love about the book if it helps put the kids to bed?

C..O..

If you ask Colden how to spell his name, he will say:

"C-O-D-E-N spells Colden"

(for some reason, he always forgets the "L").

Tonight I was sitting on the couch and Colden grabbed his Magna Doodle, sat next to me and started to...doodle.  I wasn't paying attention to what he was doing.  Then he showed me this:

He wrote his name!  You can definitely make out the "C" and the "O".  You might have to use your imagination for the rest of it, but he did this all by himself.  

Not too shabby for 2.5 months shy of his 3rd birthday!  Way to go, Colden!

Snowman

With what was left of the snow, Mike and Colden set to work to build a snowman.  

Colden's 1st snowman!

Colden and daddy gather snow

 (It was actually Colden's idea to use the ladder.  What a smart boy!!)

Carrot nose is in...now it's time for the arms 

(while daddy searches for materials to use for the eyes and mouth)

Tah-dah! 

Sledding

During the past two years, when it has snowed - Mike has taken Colden "sledding" by pulling him on the sidewalks in the red sled.

 This year, we found a little hill in our neighborhood and ditched the red sled

We replaced it with the blue sled.
Colden and Mike went down the hill together.  Once.

Then Colden asked to go all by himself!

(Click here for "Sledding" video)

And the best part about sledding in the snow?!?

Why, coming back and drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows...of course!

Bottles

We gave Reese her first bottle at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) when she was only one week old because she was so worn down from a virus that she was having trouble nursing (see "CHOP" post).  

She...has...not...taken...a...bottle...since!

Pictured below is Colden giving Reese her first bottle since the whole CHOP nightmare - when Reese was around 5 weeks old.  I snapped this picture right when Colden started feeding her.  Two seconds later, the bottle was spit out and Reese was hysterical.

A million different bottle brands, a million different nipple types, and a million different feeding positions = the same one response:

One ticked-off baby!
(And two frustrated parents)

I even gave Reese a deadline by which she had to learn to take a bottle: the night of my office holiday party.

The deadline came and went.  I was able to enjoy the party for three hours.

She wouldn't even take a pacifier...

...until Christmas Eve, when finally...

 Yay!  She accepted a pacifier at bedtime!
Which gave us hope that maybe, just maybe...a bottle would be next.

And then, our Halloween baby gave us a Christmas miracle:

She drank from a bottle!

Girls' night out - here I come!!!

Holidays

Wow.  I didn't realize how far behind I fell with my blog posts!  

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Hanukkah

Christmas

All in one post.

HALLOWEEN

Because Reese was born on Halloween morning, Colden went around trick-or-treating in the evening with Mike, my mom and my dad.  I spent the holiday snuggling with my baby girl in the post-delivery room in the hospital.

Colden dressed up as a firefighter.  A firefighter who likes Elmo.

A firefighter who likes pink boots!

If you are wondering - no, the pink boots are NOT hand-me-downs.  My mom and I took Colden to the store to pick out rain boots and we came to a huge display of boots.  Every color in the rainbow neatly in a row.  He went right for the pink boots.  I asked if he wanted red or black boots to match his fireman rain coat.  He ran over to the pink boots, put his arms around them and said, "I love pink boots. They are so pretty".  My mom and I texted a picture to Mike, who was at work at the time.  His response?  "NOOOOOOOOO".

But, my boy loved the pink boots.  So, he got them!  And those boots are his favorite!  He wears them all the time and couldn't be happier.

When we came home from the hospital with Reese, two days later, my dad had fun taking pictures of our little Halloween baby with Halloween props.

Reese dressed up like a tiger:

Our "Little Pumpkin" was smaller than the pumpkin we picked:

THANKSGIVING

Thanksgiving this year was at my mom's house.  At only 3 weeks old, this was Reese's first Thanksgiving

Unfortunately, the whole family couldn't be together this year for Thanksgiving - but for a happy and great reason...Reese's cousin, Gabriel, was born on the very same day as Reese (twin cousins!!)...so part of our family was out in Arizona spending Thanksgiving with Gabriel.

Of course, we wouldn't let a couple thousand miles keep us from spending the holiday together!  We Skyped!

Hello cousins in Arizona!!  (Thanks, cousin Alex for holding the iPad)

The rest of the family had a great time together in New York!  It's great to see our family growing!

HANUKKAH

We hosted a latke-eating, menorah-lighting party at our house on the first night of Hanukkah.

Colden made fun Hanukkah decorations to display in the house

Mike made scrumptious latkes (not pictured here because we were all too busy eating them to take pictures)

And we lit the menorah.  Four of them to be exact:  Colden and Reese each have their own; the 3rd was a gift when Mike and I got married; and the 4th one I made in Kindergarten (just for fun).

(Colden sitting in front of his sports menorah and Reese in front of her butterfly menorah)

And of course it was fun to see how many adults it took to put together Colden's presents:

I'd say it was a fun first night of Hanukkah!

(So would Colden!)

CHRISTMAS

This year we were lucky enough to have a somewhat white Christmas

Christmas involved a lot of cooking and baking:

 Breakfast:  Buttermilk biscuits shaped like gingerbread men
(to go with our homemade biscuits and gravy)

Dinner:  Pumpkin-filled ravioli

Dessert:  Molasses cookies (What a disaster!  A yummy disaster!)

(Click here: "Molasses Cookies" video)

Happy holidays!