February

January starts a run that lasts a solid 3 months with at least 1+ birthdays every other week. Nick sings happy birthday (hoppity du-tu) & blows out "candles" ALL day, EVERY day.
(it's also a REALLY good clip of his "I don't know" (I noh-no))



You want to be fabulous like mommy then learn to deal with blisters. Suck it up, sweetheart. Beauty is pain.
Saturday eve we went to a birthday party - people we haven't seen in AGES. It was a blast. Between the mask and the velcro apple (on the floor) Nick never wanted to leave.

ESPECIALLY after falling in love with the host's daughter.
(Not sure what that mystery wet spot on his back is all about... spilled beer? If ever there was a group assembled to teach him how to party like a professional, this would be the crew.)

While the Nick-Isabella affair raged on, another love triangle was brewing in the den. Paige (in the black dress) is in love with Anthony (in the red striped shirt). Well, with the new woman in town (Adrienne) he had a roving eye which Paige was none to happy about. Adrienne played coy at first.

But by the end of the night he won her over.
In the meantime, we made other plans for Adrienne's love life.
If I didn't already have my own boy I really might've taken Michael home. Adorable adorable adorable! But instead of kidnapping I went for second best - we'll marry him off to Adrienne! They're only 3 weeks apart... they'll be in school together... he's a Jets fan... his parents are awesome... *phew* one more thing off life's to-do list...!
Grovin' to some tunes on the iPod with her future father-in-law.
The first "2nd Generation Crew" picture at pizza time.

The second attempt (cake time) and I must say it's a PRETTY impressive showing for getting the vast majority of 17 kids (yes, 17) in 1 shot.

Snowstorm #72 for the season and housebound once again. Raising the bar on the cushion forts I got the chairs & blankets in the mix too (I forgot there's an actually element of skill involved in building a decent fort...) But apparently Adrienne was good on my slacker attempt as she gave me the gangsta peace out.... (wt...!?!)
I simply refuse to call Greg "daddy" so that the kids call him daddy too. But that brings us to this... And if there's any more of bash to Greg's masculinity it's that she's asking HIM as to the whereabouts of her lipskip (lipstick)...

In addition to her declarations of being "a SUPERMAN!" she's now also "SPIDERMAN!". I've been pleading with her to be Wonder Woman but she wanted NO part of it UNTIL.... I found some SWEET clips on YouTube. Not only is she getting into it but I have BOTH of them chanting "Wonder Wo-MAANN" (ok, Nick's is more like "Wahwah Wah-WAHHHHH" but he's got the tune right!) Anyway, I think the only thing that's stopping her from asking for her very own golden lasso is the fact that she can't actually SAY Wonder Woman. It's more "Wummbah Wmuhndin"...



This started about a week ago... Instead of asking to be picked up he tries to pick me up!



2 words: Cabin. Fever.
(at least they aren't screaming 'REDRUM'...)



Showing off her new ballet slippers...

... and one of her more graceful moves.
(I think we're a few years away from seeing her in any performances of Swan Lake...)
And while Adrienne has been trying to perfect her pirouette Nick has learned to throw all out hissy-fit temper tantrums. Oh such joy at this stage: MINE! NO! WHHHAAAAAAHHH!
When he's not being a bad boy (he's actually been put in his crib THREE times this past week just to pull himself together) he's still his delicious self. And he LOVES the sit & spin. Except he can't figure out how to get on it. I love when he gets mad and yells at it.

Double fisting dinner & using his utensils as drumsticks - and a sword... Blowing on his 'hot' food... More hoppity du tu...

And so it begins....
AGAIN.
I've lost track if this is the 3rd or 4th snowicane this season...

That's not a photographic trick of any sort. That's how high the snow piled outside the kitchen...

And when you're snowed in there's NOTHING better than getting cozzied up under a blanket to watch cheesey 80's movies. (or a Wiggles marathon...)

Cousin Nickk

Nick has suddenly started talking up a storm. A lot of it is honest-to-goodness talking with a little interpretation help from Adrienne (yes, Adrienne). But sometimes he goes on these rambling nonsensical rants...



Let's recap... the snow started Wednesday (as in, the front porch picture, above), the plows came thru at 5:30am. Great - they're really on top of this. But now it's Thursday at 9am. The pristine driveway, thanks to Greg & myself. Hmm. No sign of the plows. Finally 11:30 we call... "all the plows are out". Well that's just dandy but it's now been 29 HOURS since they've been here. 12:45 they finally get to the development but didn't have us out until 1:15 and it took 2 plows and a FRONT END LOADER to get the street clear.
So while we were snowbound......

I attempted to channel Ansel Adams.

And Greg wanted to show the kids how to go sledding.

It quickly became a 'do as I say, not as I do' lesson.

Nick was ALL about the sled & snow. Adrienne.... she preferred the driveway.

We finally picked her up & plopped her on the sled for a ride which she possibly enjoyed for 3 seconds. She is PETRIFIED of the snow sticking to her.

Whoa Nick! Careful you don't fall off!

doh.

Yiayia started the snow angels...

My turn!

Then Adrienne was thrown in: "GET IN THE SNOW AND MAKE AN ANGEL BECAUSE THIS IS HOW HAPPY CHILDHOOD MEMORIES ARE MADE, DAMMIT!"

On to Elmwood where shoveling #6 took place. Yes, I'm wearing a pink velour juice suit. Unlike my brown velour juice suit which was soaking from our first round of driveway shoveling. And just for the record, Greg & I have now shoveled 2 driveways 3 times in 5 days. Let me clarify: SIX rounds of shoveling in FIVE days. ugh ugh ugh (There's something to be said about townhouse living with a crew that comes by and magically wisks it all away for you....)

Saturday, February 13th.... the 4 of us are just finishing breakfast. Nick is shoveling an entire bagel down his throat & Adrienne announced that she had to go to the potty. I get her all set - just then Yiayia comes down the stairs & starts squealing, yelping & making an all-put racket. Wow. She is REALLY excited for Greg's birthday. Talk about being a good mom...! Then I hear something about "A BIRD! A BIRD IS IN THE HOUSE!!" Greg & I come running around the corner and just then this blur comes flying out of the living room into the dining room. Without my glasses I'm blind as a bat (ah-hem!) but even I knew, this was no bird. Next thing it comes flying back into the living room. In a stroke of genious, Greg opens the front door as Gayle runs up stairs to arm herself with vampire slayers - garlic, an iron stake & silver bullets. Greg heads to the garage to get a blanket & broom. I beeline right up into the den for the most intrigal part of the bat-catching project: the CAMERA. Coming back thru the house I check on the kids - Nick is eating & laughing at all the commotion. Typical. Adrienne is petrified and whimpering, "I don't want to see the birdie... I don't want to see the birdie..." Good - she's still on the potty & clearly has no intention of getting off. Typical. Back into the living room Gayle appears on the stairs clutching shower cleaner, startch & hair spray (Her theory: to spray the bat's wings so he can't fly anymore. OK then...) I set Greg off to catch the little bugger...

After this attempt I actually joined in the fray and CAUGHT him under the broom. I threw the towel on him, Greg went to grab him & he escaped. After one more round of chasing him through the museum-esque living room (where EVERYTHING is breakable and EVERYTHING is some shade of very-easily-stainable white) he headed back into the dining room but thanks to the open door he made his escape. A little beat up, but startch & shower cleaner free.



After Nosferatu's escape it was on to Aunt Linda & Uncle Bob's house where they hosted an ALL-OUT Romper Room for a slew of kids while we (the girls) went to Tammy's baby shower. Nick was in his glory - actually getting to color without Adrienne shrieking about using her crayons, the wrong page, a different color...

Nick attempted to woo Bella with his tribal drumming. She didn't go for it.

He must've found his rhythm because he landed another blonde later in the evening - and an older woman no less! That's my boy!

Happy Birthday Greg & Adeline!

(If you suddenly find yourself singing Zepplin's Immigrant Song take a REALLY good look at this picture...)

My Funny (and slightly manical) Valentine

I thought Adrienne was the one taking the ballet class....

Greg's bat-free birthday cake.

Sabotaging Pop Pops watch to change it to Austriala's time zone & for the alarm to go off at about 3am.

We stuffed Nick full of wrapping paper. It didn't really make much of a difference in the size of his belly...

... but Adrienne did not like that one bit & got him straightened back out.

Seriously - look at his belly here & then look at the picture above. No difference. He's a therio! (I probably spelled that wrong but it's 'beast' in Greek)

We got to babysit Tori (or Toria now that Adrienne's been trying to pronounce Victoria). And Keri finally got her retribution of the night we left her in charge of Adrienne - with PJs that were just a BIT too small. They forgot to mention Tori's beloved giraffe blanket that she cuddles with as she falls asleep.... and the fact that once she has her night time bottle there's a 15min window in which to get her to go to sleep. Minor details. HmmmmMMMMH!

Poor Tori got bombarded with every ball and baby toy that we have and whatever one tried to show her the other tried to upstage.

And since Tori liked the Boppie so much it started a feud between my 2 over who got to use it next.

My bff's (we met in 1st grade) son's 6th birthday party complete with TWO Spidermans!

Riley 'taught' Nick how to use this Skeletor-esque sword pole claw thing - the claw would spring out. Nick thought it was a laugh riot.

In one fell swoop Riley armed the sword & gave me this perfect mug for the camera. And even though this was about the 47th time Riley popped the sword, Nick was still completely amused by it.

Day 2 of Tom's birthday celebration. This place was crazy! Rooms of these gi-normous bounce-house things. Adrienne was surprisingly into it... and Nick... he actually started shaking with excitement when we approached the first one.

Love the pony tail action shot.

For a kid who finds amusement in jumping (and falling) on a regular floor this place was HEAVEN.

Candles!?? Cake!?!? CANDLES!?!? A chance to sing hopp-i-ty du tu AND blow out candles!!? Nick was ALL over that. Forget that the other kids had 5 years on him & were twice his size... he would've knocked down an old lady if she was in the way of him getting to that cake.

Nothing like an entire meal of frosting at 11am.

Despite od'ing on frosting they were both asleep in the car within 10min of driving. Adrienne hasn't napped before 1pm in MONTHS. Today, all were shut-eye by 11:30am!

With the heatwave that afternoon (43 degrees) we hit the beach (which happens to be where we got married... awwww!). Just as I turned to get a picture a big gust of wind came up. Adrienne is actually looking straight ahead - she just pulled her hat over her face.

Since we are SO super cool we're the Family of the Month at school!! As soon as you walk in the front door THERE WE ARE!

We were asked to write a little 'family history' for the board so I tweaked the lyrics to Here Come The Wiggles.
(for those of you who aren't Wiggle-savy yet, or have long since blocked them out of your memory, please enjoy the original as you read through our version)

~ Here Come The Billows ~

Well here we are, well here we are
Get ready for our family!
Well here we are, well here we are
Some kids that you all know
We like to do arts and crafts and play along too
Let's get ready to have some fun
Because our kids will Greek dance with you

Here comes Adrienne, big sis Adrienne
Painting like Van Gogh
Here comes Adrienne, big sis Adrienne
Rockin’ on the drums

Hello Children of America! It's lovely to be here!

Now here comes another kid so let’s all give a cheer
Here comes Nicholas, little bro Nicholas
Eating everything
Here comes Nicholas, little bro Nicholas
Laughing all day long

Hello Children of America! It's lovely to be here!

Now let's get ready to dance because everybody's here!

It's The Billows, it’s The Billows
Cheering for the Jets
It's The Billows, it’s The Billows
Food will never end
We like to cook and bake and feast along too
Now that everybody's here that'll be so easy that'll be so easy that'll be so easy to do!

******************************

Little Miss Bump was at it again last night. She tore into the kitchen, tried to stop at the table but fell head first into the outside edge of the bottom of the seat - as in the wood that the cushion sits on top of. ??!!?? (Note to all freakishly over-protective parents who baby-proof their entire world: DON'T BOTHER. Your child will injury themselves on the most OBSCURE, BIZARRE, HARD-TO-REACH surface. Guaranteed.)
Sooooo.... a nice goose egg smack on the forehead to add to her collection of beatings.

And an update on the ear which is now a shade of purple that would make Barney green with envy....