December

New Year's Eve started off with a potential trip to the ER & panicking phone calls to a bunch of my mom-consults:
I'm at my desk. Not even 8am yet. Greg calls. "I think Nick just ate a piece of plastic." "WHAT?!?!" "Do you know if the spoon you left out for him was missing a bit of plastic?" "No. Why?" (note: I can't remember what I'm currently wearing unless I look down to see.) "He was eating Cheerios and all of a sudden started to cry. Now we can't find the other part of the spoon."
The mom-consult consensus was that if he got it down it will come back out. For a kid who poos 3-5 times a day THIS was the day he decided NOT to until I was about to have a breakdown. 4 days of mushing thru poo later, still no sign. I give. Maybe he'll be featured on the next episode of "101 Things Removed from the Human Body".

My parents watched the kids that day and were up first on poo-patrol.
Adrienne prepared herself for the first exploration.
I can't remember why the blanket was brought out (maybe if I kept up on my blog updates I would actually remember details like this...) but they quickly discovered that the blanket on the wood floor made for a super stellar slippery stage to dizzy-spin-into-each-other. I thought my mom was going to have a heart attack watching them crash into each other... the floor... the furniture...

Times Square... no. A bar crawl... no. An all-nighter.... not quite.
Our wild & crazy New Years Eve:
Greg worked, Nick was asleep by 7:30 (on the ride home from my parents), Adrienne & I were in our PJs and stayed up late (until 8:30) coloring & doing stickers.

When Papou comes to town slinging his SLR all of Aunt Keri's modeling lessons really pay off!

Trouble with a capital T.

Another day, another modeling shoot.

But check out the shirt - Future Miss America - LOVE IT!

Yesterday at school - ALL DAY IN BIG GIRL PANTIES! Even through naptime!!

One for the baby book: She finally started doing poops on the potty!
I had been bribing her with a brand new toy - ANY toy she wanted. No dice.
My dad told her she would get ice cream.... WITH SPRINKLES. That's all it took.
When my parents called to tell me after the first time I asked if they took a picture for the blog - they hadn't thought of it *gasp!!* but were quick with the camera for round #2 (no pun intended).

Adrienne took this picture herself. No she didn't poo a bowl of ice cream but I didn't think you'd actually want to see her bum brownies.

Aunt Keri.... LOOK!
Finally.... someone who may WANT to go to a Bon Jovi concert with you! And like any true Jersey girl - she'll headbang 'til she falls over.


Nick is still obsessed with the moon.
(we're pretty sure he thinks the moon is the streetlight in front of the house... but at least he's looking at something outside now)

Giving me the bagel bird.

We surprised Nick & Gayle with a family portrait for Christmas.

Of course we couldn't get big smiles on them for the official portraits but they had a BLAST on the vibrating chair in the furniture department.
Greg called one day & said let's pick the kids up from daycare & go straight to the mall for a picture with Santa. We go pick them up at which point I realize I don't have the diaper bag so we snag 1 diaper from daycare. We get to the mall, have dinner. Fat & happy we go down to see Santa who was also on his dinner break. We're about 6 people back from the front of the line - AWESOME! Happy, happy, happy... I go to pour water in to Nick's sippy cup & drop the water bottle. Use the diaper to wipe it up so no one slips. Nick then poos. He's still happy so he'll be a little stinky - I'm sure Santa's dealt with worse. Santa then makes his appearance by coming down the escalator into the crowd / line that has gathered. Adrienne freaks. What?? Did she think he was going to just materialize in his chair?? Calm her down, it's now our turn. I don't even take 1 step back & Nick loses it. Tell the guy to take the picture & let's cut our losses. I go get Nick & he's instantly his happy self again. No tears. All drama.

We promised Adrienne she could go on the rides after we visited Santa. Fun, fun, whoa!, fun, then.... I'm all done! I'm all done!



Still ticked at us that we made her finish out the whole racecar ride she refused to look when I tried to take her picture.
A big-boy haircut for my handsome little guy. We even got his very first styling product - baby hair gel. Yiayia is completely horrified by the buzz.
Dirty laundry.
Clean laundry.
So this is how 90% of potty time is spent: Checking out her poops.
She's now clogged the toilet twice. Yes twice and it wasn't an overload of tp.
Her first time in big girl panties!!!!
In an unrelated bathroom event, Nick is learning out to spit when he brushes his teeth. He also started applying the same practice to his post-dinner ritual. Great.



Here it is! The BIG SNOW and Nick's very first I-can't-put-my-arms-down outting!

Both were a bit hesitant on the fun-factor. Actually Adrienne was screaming NO SNOW NO SNOW before Greg even made it out of the garage with her.
Nick handled it a little better although he was definitely a bit confused by it.
"Out. Get me out."
She was SO done but of course we made her stay out longer.
And this would be the ONLY enjoyable moment she had...
... because then Yiayia came up & smashed a snowball in her face.
You need a closeup of what was only just the beginning of the meltdown (her own, not the snow's). She then FREAKED because the snow stuck to her gloves. Thinking ahead, I had a spare pair ready to roll in my pocket. Then she freaked because she saw it was stuck to my pants. THEN she took freaking to a whole new level when Papou started up the snowblower.
Once inside it was straight up to the bath. The entire time I was prepping the bath she kept muttering... "no more snow... no more snow.... no more snow..." Nick must've been traumatized too because he was falling asleep as I was getting him dressed. But snow-gate turned around quickly when it was time for hot cocoa WITH MARSHMELLOWS & a chocolate chip cookie.
I missed the seance but she channeled one of the unequivocal beauties of all time... and became Adrienne Hepburn...

One of my FAVORITE pictures from the Christmas events...
Nick cuddling up with Nick.

Her first milk & cookies for Santa...

As soon as I stopped the video I said to her, "Put the milk on the plate."
What can I say? She listened & did exactly as I asked.
Poor little thing knew something went wrong & started to panic "I split! I split!" We got the plate cleaned off & another milk poured. (thank HEAVEN I had used a shot glass!)

"He ate it ALL!"

She didn't want to open the gift Santa left for her. She thought HE was IN the box.

Once convinced that Santa was NOT, in fact, in the box she was absolutely delighted by what he left - and was even willing to share her coveted gift. (not to worry, no sharing necessary - Santa left one for Nick too)
And this level of astonishment truly went for EVERY gift she opened and even for the gifts that Nick opened. If that doesn't tug at your heartstrings then move over Grinch.

Why chocolate lollipops? Well.... we have NO idea where she came up with this but it doesn't matter who asks her / how many times she's asked / how much she's encouraged to ask for other things (sidenote: those people often suffered a kick to the shins) "What is Santa going to bring you?" she replies, "A lollipop!" "What kind of lollipop?!" "A clocklick lollipop!" (clocklick = chocolate) "How many lollipops are you going to get?!" "One!" Needless to say, Santa found his way to the Caramel Shop and gave her quite an assortment of clocklick lollipops....

Preparing for the long haul from the living room to the den... Bitty Baby strapped securely to her backpack, donning her Key West t-shirt & clutching her lipskip (lipstick).

American Girl Greeks with their American Girl Dolls
(yes Bitty Baby is perpetually naked - all the outfits she has look just FAB hanging in the wardrobe...)
You know the party is getting good when they bust out the psychedelics.

But then Nick took things to a whole new level when he turned Christmas Day into a Pimp & Ho party...
"WHERE'S MY MONEY B****!!??"

Aunt Grace's snowmen collection - a highlight of the Christmas celebrations for 3 years now.

They're quite the little instigators - the snowmen, that is. Every year a wrestling match breaks out on the landing...

Sure, most nights Dan is on a Broadway stage but clearly, the highlight of his career to date: helping Adrienne get a few fierce cymbal crashes into her drum solo.

Last but not least, Nick & Adrienne want to wish you Peace...

... and Love this Christmas season & all thru the New Year!

November

Why bother chewing?! He just skips that whole step by putting the food directly down his throat. And surprisingly enough he actually takes time to use his fork every few bites...

When he's all done he sits back and rests his hands on his big ol' belly.

And if that's not relaxing enough then he kicks back & puts his feet up.

Adrienne rocks the somersault and then Nick steals the show with his dancing & dizzy moves. I don't know WHAT is going on with the hand....?!


So he proceeded to get himself dizzy for quite some time and we're now at the point where he can no longer stand... at all. My favorite is about 1/2 way thru when his feet just give out from under him - somehow he falls down in slow motion.


I hadn't quite let go of Halloween yet when I picked out her Thanksgiving / Christmas outfit...

Thanksgiving Super-Fire-Fighter-Men
(Adrienne touts that she is "a Superman". Zero interest in being Wonder Woman.)
Part superhero, part Nosferatu
They just didn't get to have ANY fun together.
Rob instructed the 3 of us to get in swinging-sync. I thought my arm was going to break off trying to hold on to the boy. It's a minor miracle one of us didn't fall off the swing - forget synchronized!

It's Cousin Oliver!

I can't decide who is cuter in this picture...

A few out-takes from their Christmas card picture which is SUPER fabulous!!!
(THANK YOU ROB!!!)

The kid & cat end of the table.

Caught with her hand in the oregano jar!

This is the motherload of videos right here. First you get him looking for the moon. (He hasn't quite figured out that being outside helps.) Then he busts out his sumo walk which leads directly to a dizzy spin (AGAIN with the hand?!). Realizing he's OH so funny he busts out the somersault trick and when all that tuckers him out he just puts his head down to take a little rest.

This is the funniest freakin' face and for some reason I just can NOT capture it on film. It's his uber-excited-to-eat-face - or at least it used to be - but now he does it just to make us laugh. He arches his eyebrows, bears all his teeth & then does this little shake. The video shows it a little better... but still - you've got to see it live to get the full effect.

A very cute bath picture, yes. But really I just wanted you to see that mouthful of chompers. He got 5 teeth (4 molars & 1 canine) in 21 days. Fun times.
And I thought I would be the one to show her beauty secrets...
She's stalking me.

While we were off dropping a few hundy-grand on a new house Peter & Keri watched our kids & their own. And they were so bold as to comment about how it's "a piece of cake" to watch 3 little terrors. Hmmm. I'd like to put THAT theory to the test with full day of 3-under-3.

The Scarlet Cookie

Our newest baby - we closed on Friday the 13th... for good luck.

The first official day at their new school - they survived. I barely did - it was scarier than leaving Adrienne that very first day 2 1/2 years ago!
"Ex-CUSE me dah-ling... I must get back to my beauty routine now..."

Before Olivia's Christening we attempted to get the younglings to pose for Yiayia's Christmas card - no melt downs - good enough.

The priest called the kids to come up to the alter to watch the olive oil bath & dunking. Between Bradley's pout & Adrienne biting her nails you'd think they were witnessing Mickey getting caught in a mousetrap.

A flashback to Nick's Christening... Aunt Keri in the background - also not a fan of the big dunk.

And after all the Christening she's been to, even as the Nouna, she still thinks it's just wrong!

So she Christened herself...? Hmm, not sure how that works...

Cousin Olivia is officially a Greeky Greek now!
Nick chose this particular event to discover the art of flashing. He flashed the guests...

He flashed the kitchen...
Even the dessert case got a look at his goods.

Because REALLY... what toddler DOESN'T enjoy a good cup o' joe!??!
Despite putting on their single most horrific public appearance to date at the ceremony they rallied at the luncheon so we let them eat cake like there was no tomorrow.
(I actually dragged them out of the ceremony with 1 under each arm - and before it was even over we left the church altogether. HOR-RORS. To be fair, they missed their snack AND lunch time and it was then encroaching on Adrienne's nap time. Nice trifecta right there.)

It's written all over their faces....

Nick plants himself between my legs - some sort of comfort thing I guess. Usually it's from behind & he doesn't let go.