March

And now Nick has started... Why call him daddy when he'll answer to...

No, this is not a scene from Something About Mary...
Adrienne's stylist (aka the woman who did her first & only haircut) said the best thing for tangles & static is just regular ol' conditioner. No fancy baby products.... just some Herbal Essences and that will do the trick. Nick has also started conditioning. His hair primping is almost as involved as his dad's...

I've got big balls
I've got big balls
They're such big balls
And they're dirty big balls
And he's got big balls
But she's got biggest balls of them all!
Nick's fascination with shoes rages on. Not that these shoes are even that fabulous.... but he doesn't care.

In the middle of Nick trying to put on my shoes (boot!) & go shopping Adrienne was in trouble for something - but was desparately trying to make up for it ("now I'm being a good girl?!") by rooting through my bag and bringing me things she thinks I could use at the moment (cell phone... keys... everything you want a 3 year old to play with). She finally gives up and ask for Carrot (aka Calvin).


Getting ready to go to church on Palm Sunday in a head-to-toe Yiayia outfit.

And for those in the loop on the traumitized-cat-saga.... Calvin has officially forgiven us and is out of the eaves, howling at all hours of the night, puking up a storm.... ahh, it's good to have him back.

To be fair, he is AMAZING with the kids. Adrienne is constantly giving him 'hugs' which end up more like a using him as a pillow. And Nick pets him 'nice' a few times before ripping out a clump of fur or smacking him upside the snout. But time & again, he comes back for more...

Speaking of Nick, here comes trouble.

Although trouble is DASHINGLY handsome.

Their first Easter baskets from Aunt Tasi & Uncle Arthur (to whom I owe a BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG thank you for letting me borrow your digital camera while mine is still mia!!!).
Adrienne coyly pointing out her chhhhhhha-cla-ck!

The best shot I could get of the 2 of them...

After church, all the cousins descended on the house for their first visit.
Nick's not wearing pants. Sometimes details like that just fall thru the cracks...

Keri, Tammy & I then headed out to go Christening gown shopping for Tori while we left the guys to babysit. We got back to find that all kids & limbs were accounted for. Good job guys!

Our old neighbor coordinated a night out for the Almond Drive crew - hibachi! Stellar idea... thought it would be GREAT for the kids - to keep them entertained. Honestly, I don't even remember this moment (seriously, I think this is some schmancy SLR camera feature - put-smile-on-kid-mode) because Adrienne was PETRIFIED the entire time.
And this is where she sat for, mmmmm, 90% of the time.
Then dessert. Which we realized should've been served FIRST because after they got their full of sherbert and ice cream they didn't want to leave.
(yes, you're going to be subjected to about 47 pictures of Nick eating sherbert because they're all just too cute)
One of the funniest pictures... ever.
Just as we're about to leave, Liz yells out, "Wait! Wait! Wait! Excuse me, will you take a picture of us?" and hands the camera over to the waiter. OK, so we all assemble - as in, 4 kids, 6 adults. The waiter (who appeared to actually comprehend what was going on & more importantly understand his roll in the picture-taking process - which was to TAKE the picture) snapped a pic. Liz said, "Take one more, just in case." Well, thankfully she had him take a second because there was no first. Somehow we're 2 1/2 adults & 2 1/2 kids shy of a group shot. Ray Charles could've gotten a better angle.
So now the kids are sugared up and ready to run. Naturally I invited ourselves over to Liz & Ryan's for the after-party.
How these big giant manly men get suckered by these itty bitty little girls... Of course isn't this how Ryan pictured life in his 20's... pushing a 3 year old around in a pink & purple baby doll stroller.
But Liz totally stepped up the ride.... double decker style.

Adrienne is driving the stroller like she's completing in the X-Games & Mya is comletely chill. There was chaos going on ALL around her (meaning Adrienne & Nick invading her toys / food / home) and she was completed unfazed. Quite possibly the easiest going baby EVER.

It was a Goldfish bonanza... kids, dogs - no one could get enough.
Nick & Mya practicing their first dance (yes, as in wedding-first-dance). So I was thinking.... since we plan to marry Adrienne off to Michael (whose parents are uber-Jets fans) and with wedding plans underway for Nick & Mya (whose parents are uber-Jets fans) maybe all 6 of us should go in and get a suite at the new stadium together! We can have the wedding reception right there... during a game!

The token 'let's get a picture of all the kids' shot.

And a grand finale big dip to say goodnight...
(awww!)

We've learned that you just have to say the word 'burp' and not actually burp for it to be hysterical.

Road warrior.

While Aunt Tammy was off having her baby (welcome Logan!) Yiayia got to have an all-girls day with Adrienne & Tori.
Have I mentioned how ENAMORED Tori is with her uncle....!?!?
Our new neighbors sent over some bakery goodies and Nick learned how to ask for yet another new food group....

I threw a hissy last night (St. Patty's Day Eve) and declared we were staying in the new house come hell or high water. I think I now have more clean up work at my mother in law's than I do in our own place but that's ok. I can deal with that. We're in. OFFICIALLY.
And just in time to celebrate St. Patty's! Green milk & potatoes for dinner tonight!!
(Oh, and my camera is mia. I took this with my cell but until it turns up there's going to be a picture / blog update drought.)

Our pre-bath ritual consists of finding whatever station comes in the clearest & having a dance party. Moments before we went south of the border she had tuned in to some freaky hamster-dance-meets-techno-rap.



2 full moons this March...
41 degrees, 9:45am Saturday morning, bright sunshine. I almost had them in shorts & tank tops. I decided against that, but we did hit the park first thing

I'm not quite sure how it happened (I think there was some WWF going on...?) but somehow Nick started calling John "Thunder". The rest of the day (and into the following) Nick had a continuous battle cry of "TUNDAH! TUNDAH!".



Teaching the kids a valuable lesson on how to knock yourself unconscious.


As Keri (off camera) says at the very end, “Did you catch that?!” One of the rare times a classic moment was actually captured for all eternity - and I got the whole thing.
(What you need to know before you watch: If you squeeze the ears of the horse it makes galloping, whinnying & neighing sounds...)
Olivia (now 8mos) LOVED the rocking horse. To step it up a notch I told Laurie to squeeze its ears.



Papou Nick's birthday - all the kids gathered around and Nick hadn't even gotten himself settled on the chair when he went RIGHT to work blowing out not 1 but 2 of Papou Nick's candles.
Adrienne trying to hold Nick back so she can get a shot at blowing out her share.

Whoa boy! You're going to get brain-freeze with a bite like that!

Now that spring training has sprung... I've been teaching Nick a classic:
"Heeeyyyy batter batter batter batter sa-wing batter can't hit it can't hit it can't hit it can't hit it sa-wing batter"
He's getting there!



Ironically, as much as Adrienne's world revolves around Uncle Peter, Tori seems to have eyes for Greg.

And... the result of too much QT with Uncle Greg:
Buddah belly, pants undone, sound asleep with a bottle in her mouth.

Mima & Pop Pop took Adrienne to her first show - Sleeping Beauty! My parents said she was a perfect little theatergoer. Considering the show was 2 hours (!!) with 2 intermissions and it was BALLET (not exactly my favorite) I can't believe she made it through 20 minutes let alone 2 hours!

Not sure where I was but I got this good-night video text and it's too adorable not to share...


It's the end of the world as we know it!! And the Mayans thought was going to be 2012... Silly Mayans.
Yesterday marked the first day we started to move in to our OWN HOUSE and out of my in-laws! We did 3 runs of 2 cars packed full. My in-laws stopped by while we were cleaning. My father in law looked around at all the boxes & said, "Wow! All this came from the storage unit?!" We looked at him like he had 10 heads. It had come out of his OWN basement!!!! Pretty funny. He's been seeing some of it for so long I don't think he realized it wasn't his. As in: I opened boxes of gifts from my BRIDAL SHOWER yesterday - seriously - in one case the glasses still had Pottery Barn stickers on them. Oh yes. I've been intruding on this poor man's house for WAY too long.