August

Nick's FIRST haircut! We cheated. The second his tush hit the seat we popped in the bink & that kept him calm. (Well, as calm as Nick gets).

Ta-da!
The only downfall is that if it isn't brushed to the side he could have easily starred in Dumb & Dumber...

Before leaving the 'salon' they even treated Adrienne to a little up-do. (I wasn't letting scissors anywhere NEAR this child's head!)

SO..... PRETTY.....!!!

On to Corinne's birthday party to debut the new dos - I'll need to start using the camera's panoramic view to fit all the kids in the 'cousins picture'...

Some shades to complete the new look.

Juuuust getting his balance after finishing a free-stand. Pretty impressive considering the world is clearly lopsided.

Making his FIRST basket in his FIRST FIRST birthday gift!

Among all the fab firsts there are bound to be some crappy ones. Her first bee sting. Little bastard got her on the knuckle of the first finger on her right hand. No, I didn't whip out my camera right away to get a picture. This was after 2hrs+ of hysteria, 4 slatherings of Benydryl cream, 2 layers of Neosporin cream, meat tenderizer paste, ammonia, ice, a bowl of ice cream & a never ending marathon of Fraggle Rock. I was trying ANYTHING to distract her / not lose my own mind.

I braved the mall with the 2 of them and our ad hoc double stroller. Nick handled the mall as most men do - by eating his feet.
Aunt Keri is grooming Adrienne for the next season of Toddlers & Tiaras.



Nick's just-woke-up-poochie-face. Just the cutest.

Here we are winning 'parents of the year award' once again as we let her stick her hand through the fence to feed the 'duckies' their dinner.

CRAZY adorable picture or a comparison study in the size of toddlers' heads. OK, maybe a little of both.
In addition to 'dada', and occasional 'mama' & 'buh-bye' (complete with hand wave), he's added 'uh-oh' to the vocab.
(I thoroughly enjoyed it during his bath the other eve when he had a toy in each hand & hung them over the side of the tub. He looked at me square in the eye, said, "uh-ohhhhh" and THEN dropped them. Freakin' kids...)

Hard at work breaking a wild, bucking, Great Adventure bronco...

Hunchback of Child Time

I finally broke down & got a new cell phone (I get very attached to my e-gadgets...) so I gave Adrienne my old one. She was SO excited and got right to work figuring it all out.
There's nothing like the glow of technology to light up a toddler's face... And look at the pursed lips - TOTAL concentration.

How to take pictures
(at least how she THINKS she's supposed to take pictures)

Then my mom busted out her cell phone to have a conversation with her. Adrienne was stunned into silence because it was someone other than Uncle Peter on the other end of her imaginary phone call.
(All, and I mean ALL, of her "phone calls" are to / from Uncle Peela.)

Adrienne suddenly asked for pants. Put them on her. Then she asked for help - looking puzzled with her phone in hand. She had seen my mom drop her cell in her pocket after their "convo" and so Adrienne was looking for her own pocket to do the same. No pockets but a waistband does the trick just fine...

MC Mickaroni
(Adrienne calls him 'Mick', Greg then deemed him the Greek god 'Mickaronious' which Adrienne pronounces 'Mickaronis')

Nick's been attending the Adrienne Marie School of Drama

NO idea where she got this from... but she has suddenly started saying 'what' (more like VHAT??!!) like an old Jewish mensch...

We keep telling them we're going to ship them back. We finally found the perfect size box & apparently they're reading to go.
ALL ABOOOOOAAAARRD HAHAHAHAHAHA... AY AY AY AY AY
(For non-classic rock fans, this would be the opening to Ozzy's Crazy Train. Blogger seriously needs to include a way to add sound clips.)
Kickin' back with her 40... waiting for the train...
After a grueling 45min wait in 95 degree heat she FINALLY got to go "off the rails on a crazy train" (insert clip of Ozzy's Crazy Train chorus)
Funny how after not going on the potty for HOURS she suddenly had to go twice in 10min after Aunt Lois gave her a MARSHMELLOW...

Adrienne, 'cousin' James & Nick. James is baby #3 to be born into the Newark State Teacher's College roomies crew. McMillan boys: Step it up!
Checking out his first pair of skips.
Our neighbor knocked on the door the other night just as we were finishing dinner. He ended up with more watermelon than he could handle so he was sharing it with the neighborhood. We let the kids have at it...
I've said it before & I'll say it again: 2 sleeping kids & the open road - PERFECTION

Pushing Nick on the swing... how she didn't get clocked in the head is beyond me. And Nick trying to figure out what she's doing.
This is about the only place Nick gets to 'run around' at the park. Until he stops eating everything that isn't nailed down the recycled tire playground is just a little too toxic for him to have free reign...
She's completely addicted to going down the BIG slide BY HERSELF! I just want her to keep doing it because that static head just never gets old....

Last weekend Keri & I put nailpolish on her fingers & toes but it wasn't a 'formal' mani-pedi. But Saturday morning I sat her down for her first girly-girl-glitter mani-pedi. She LOVED it & has been walking around for days telling EVERYONE she comes across "Look at my pitty nails!"

Of course you can't walk around with a mani-pedi and no lipgloss. I started her off right with my Lancome Juicy Tube and how to show it off with a perfect pucker-pout.

In preparation for meeting Uncle Chris we taught Adrienne the infamous Beetle laugh...


Doing her usual niecely duty in stirring Uncle Peter's Captain & Coke. With her finger.

Then she terrorized the boys with ice cubes...

Until Uncle Dan ate it.

But apparently she didn't hold that against him since she drew this lovely (a-hem) picture which she so thoughtfully gave to him...

?!?!
The kicker is that I asked her what it is... she said a helicopter...
?!?!

Not to be outdone by Adrienne's phallic artwork, Nick busted out this move - standing without pulling himself up!

So around the same time as her artist interpretation of a 'helicopter' it was banana-on-a-stick day at school. They happened to snap this rather risqué pose. They say kids grow up so fast these days... I just had NO idea!

Yet another Pampers box ride from their perspective. It wasn't the most exciting ride - holding the camera steady at sitting-toddler-eye-level while whipping a box around a too-tiny living room is NOT that easy.

Discovered that Nick LOVES chocolate munchkins. He loves them in his mouth, up his nose, across his shirt, smeared on the table, ground into the carpet....

Demonstrating her new mastery of the double thumbs up.

When he's done, he's done.
I decided it was time to introduce her to the world of lollipops. Which she insisted on calling a lemonade.

yum!