December Photo Shoot

Part of my parents' Christmas present was a picture of the four grandchildren.  Trying to get 4 children of the age 3 and under was quite the task.  And of course we couldn't get the perfect shot but it could have been a lot worse too.  Here is the picture we ended up framing for my parents' living room:

A picture of the two boys by themselves:

My favorite picture of Eric:

Eric sitting up:

The only picture we were really able to get of Evan who was more interested in throwing rocks and sticks into the nearby river:

We did not plan on taking a family photo - I did not even shower that morning or put on make-up.  Not a great photo of me but my 3 boys look good at least:

Getting formal photos is just not a pleasant experience with little kids. I look forward to the day that they will be more cooperative.

Something to get me through the winter . . .

In the middle of this frigid cold spell, there is one thing reminding me that the warm weather is not too far away.  Our trip to Spain and Portugal for our 10th anniversary is keeping me busy at night - planning, planning, planning.  I LOVE it.  I really should have been a travel agent - I thrive on planning itineraries, finding the best deals on hotels (and no, that does not mean the cheapest) and figuring out what we're going to see each day.  Brian says I'm like a drill sergeant when we go away because I want to see EVERYTHING humanly possible.  Our itinerary is usually jam-packed with no time for a rest.  And as much as I like to think this trip will be different, it's probably not going to happen.  There is just too much to do and see and not enough time.  Here are some of the things I'm looking forward to.

Below is a picture of the courtyard of our little boutique hotel in Seville.  There is a roof-top jacuzzi for relaxing (if we get a chance to do that) and the hotel lends out bicycles for free, so I envision us taking the bikes out for a ride.  Let's see if that actually happens.

We will spend a day on the beach in the Algarve region of Portugal.  This will be the view from our hotel.  It's Sedona-meets-the-Atlantic-ocean.

And when we get to Lisbon, we are staying in an old palace which has been converted to a 5-star hotel.  

Four months and counting!

Just a few photos

I hadn't taken my camera out in awhile to catch the "everyday" things.  Eric was in such a happy mood yesterday and I wanted to capture it.  Here he is crawling around our tv room:

Big boy starting to stand unassisted:

Tickles and smiles:

Ready to watch the 49ers with his daddy:

A 10 week versus 10 month comparison:

And these pictures were from a few weeks ago.  Evan fell asleep laying on Brian while watching football.  Evan NEVER sleeps on us anymore so we probably should have known better.  A few hours after this, the stomach bug began.  

One of the only times we can get a picture of this kid. Maybe one day soon he'll cooperate about getting his picture taken again.

10 months old

Eric turned 10 months old last weekend and of course I was a week late in taking his picture.  Eric continues to give us problems gaining weight.  And having the stomach bug before his 10-month weigh-in didn't help.  So now we are scheduled with the CHOP feeding program for next week to evaluate him and provide us help in getting him to gain weight.  He was 16 lbs, 4 oz at this appointment.  But, without that stomach bug, I'm pretty sure he would have been over 17 lbs.  He's also starting to stand unassisted so I'm afraid we're probably only a month of so away from his first steps. Eric loves to climb right now and I'll find him climbing onto/into anything he can.  His other favorite item is the dog food bowl - which he crawls over to and insists on splashing around in.  I will be so happy when this game is over with.  Eric also likes to destroy things like Evan's train table.  Brian calls him godzilla when he approaches the train table.  

Taking this 10 month picture was a comedy act.  I remember with Evan at this age that he wouldn't sit still and we couldn't even get his picture sitting on the frog.  So the fact that we got this cute one is a miracle:

The next are the bloopers. Eric kept wanting to dive head-first onto the floor. He would do so and then sit up and laugh.  This is what the picture session really looked like:

Fingers crossed that his 11 month appointment brings a much needed weight gain!

Wissahickon on a Sunday morning

Five families met up this morning to go on a hike on the Valley Green trail in Wissahickon.  We had been hoping for better weather but it didn't really matter as everyone had a blast.  I ended up having to carry Eric for the majority of the trip as Evan wanted to be held for parts of it as well.  And I have a feeling I'll be paying for it tomorrow - I'm already beyond sore! 

 Eric was happy to tag along on our backs:

By the end of the trip, Eric was wiped out.  It was hard work for him:

And my favorite photo from the hike.  I am not a fan of using my iphone for taking pictures, but I didn't want to have to carry my camera as well.  For an iPhone, I couldn't be any happier (along with Instagram for adding the tone).  In this pic, Brian is in the photo with Evan and he's carrying Eric in the backpack.

We also enjoyed a trip to the zoo on Saturday but didn't bring the camera there.  Evan loves the animals and Eric enjoyed them as well.  Another busy and fun weekend is over and it's back to work tomorrow.

Eric's 9 month photos

During the week after Christmas, we headed to the mall to get Eric's 9 month photos taken, just a few weeks late.  Now that we have entered the age of "stranger anxiety", he was not too happy to sit down and take photos.  He actually started bawling, folded himself in half and put his head on the floor.  It took some work, but we eventually got him to stop crying and to smile just a little.  I wasn't thrilled with how these pictures turned out but I certainly wasn't going to go back another day to do them.  So here they are:

In other milestone news, I think Eric is attempting to say his first word - "dog".  It doesn't sound like "dog" but he says the same exact thing every time he sees Lily.  It more sounds like "doh" but we realized he says it only to Lily.  If we say "Eric, where is the dog?" he will look around for her until he sees her and then he smiles.  He is in love with her right now.  And she tolerates him like a champ - he pulls himself to standing on her, sticks his fingers in her mouth, bites her fur and pretty much anything else you can think of.  She is a saint with our children.  For all of her quirks, Lily is everything we could have asked for around our boys.

As a throwback, here is the link to Evan's 9 month pictures.  He was a little bit more willing to get his photo taken at this age than Eric was.
http://www.felttales.blogspot.com/2011/02/obsessed-with-pictures.html

Snoring

The blogging software is not allowing me to upload photos, so I will have to wait to post Eric's 9 months photos.  But I thought I'd share this funny story about Evan. A few months back, I posted that whenever you ask Evan what he did at school today, he'd say "Nothing" or "I don't know".  I was shocked he was starting with that so early. Well yesterday I was talking to him about his day as we drove home and I guess he became bored with the conversation.  When I asked him who he played with today, he started FAKE SNORING!  Like I was so boring that he couldn't possibly stay awake to have this conversation. I turned aruond and looked and said "I see your eyes open, Evan, you aren't sleeping."  To which he promptly closed his eyes and continued to fake snore. I, of course, laughed.  Which means I think I'll be hearing fake snoring on my drive home every day now.

Christmas Vacation

Christmas night was exciting.  We all waited for Santa to arrive and, in the middle of the night, I was able to sneak this picture after Santa paid his visit:

More of the presents (Eric's pile on the left and Evan's on the right):

Evan still didn't quite "get" what Christmas morning was going to be.  He woke up and, upon hearing that Santa had come, he promptly asked to climb in our bed and watch Thomas.  This was fine with us as it gave us time to get ready for pictures/video.  Here Evan is starting to open some of his presents:

Eric seemed to care more about the tree than his presents:

Evan was most happy with all of the cars that he and Eric got from the Cars movie:

 The post-opening shot:

Just after lunch, we packed up the boys and jumped in the car to drive to NJ for the Weiss family Christmas.  The tree here was more crowded than ours at home with gifts for all 4 kids:

Eric dressed for Christmas day:

Matthew and Evan nicely sharing the Schaller family's new iPad:

A rare family photo:

We returned home from NJ late on the 26th to begin the week off of vacation with a very exciting task - potty training Evan.  We followed a 3-day method, going from diapers straight to underwear.  I think we had 9 pee-accidents by noon on the first day.  However, by the end of the third day, he was pretty much good to go for pee - including at night.  The poop, however, is another issue because it scares him.  We were able to get him to poop on the potty but only if we caught him trying to go in his undies.  I'm sure he'll get there soon enough.  Today at his first day back to daycare he had no accidents - we are so happy!  During that 3 day training, we were not supposed to leave the house. However, on the third day, we were blessed with more snow.  And you can't keep a kid out of the snow.  So here he is helping his daddy shovel:

The rest of the week went so quickly. I can't believe how quicly 2012 flew by.  We have lots of exciting events to look forward to in 2013 - looking forward to documenting the photos here in the coming year.