Laura's Visit to NY

One of my best friends in the whole world came to visit me 2 weeks ago! I was SO excited to see Laura...it had been almost 3 years! It was a short visit, but still wonderful! We had a great time just hanging out and talking all day Friday...then we went to Tanger Outlets that night for some frozen yogurt and a little shopping. Saturday we went to NYC. I decided to take the kids with me because I didn't want to take the risk of having to come back if AJ was upset. I figured he would just sleep in the stroller (which he did most of the time), and Caroline would have fun in Central Park (which she did). The only bad part was that the Wall Street protesters decided to move to Times Square that day! So, as we were heading back from Central Park to Penn Station we saw some protesters on the left side of the street...we were casually talking about them when we suddenly found ourselves surrounded by them. It was awful! Luckily I had Laura with me because she is much more assertive then me. She yelled at everyone to move out of our way! Caroline was kicking everyone from the stroller and grabbing their butts, lol! It took us about 20-25 min to get through 2 blocks! Other then that, our trip to the city was great and I was so happy to be with my BFF!
Here are some pictures! My face looks slightly fat because 3 days before this I got my left wisdom teeth out. They were impacted and I ended up with a dry socket...it was not fun! I still have to get the right side out, but they are right on my nerve so I will have to go under anesthesia. Not looking forward to that! Anyway, pictures!


Their first train ride! Caroline loved the choo choo!

Pooped!










Right before we reached the protesters we ran into Elmo! He wasn't the real Elmo though...he had a scratchy voice and asked us for money in his basket since we took a picture, lol.

Stupid protesters!

The popo's coming in on their horses!

Dancing Queen

Caroline loves her dance class. Here are some pictures and videos from the past couple weeks...some are from her class Halloween party. She was a ladybug.












6 videos!

All about Caroline: 2ys 3 mo

Caroline is doing great these days!

• She talks about anything and everything! I love it! She talks to us in the car about everything she sees outside....and the best is when she says "I love you!". On the way to church on Sunday she was looking out the car window and saw several parks. She kept saying "Caroline go to the park?" I would say "no, we are going to church right now" and she would say "Oh. I go to church and play with Vivian!"...."yes, Vivian will be in nursery" then she would say "Vivian go to park with Caroline?" I just love our little conversations!
• She sings...but she will only do it if she thinks we are not listening. Yesterday I heard her banging on the piano and singing "now I now my ABC's next time sing with me!"
  
• She has a sense of humor. She is always making jokes and laughing. She says "Caroline's funny!" and laughs the cutest laugh ever.
• She goes to ballet/tap dancing now. She does great! She can walk on her tippy toes with her hands over her head. She can pliat (I think that's how you spell it), she can stand on one foot, she can skip, gallup, jump....it's really fun to go with her every week. She will have a recital in May. Hopefully by then she will be ok going on a stage.
• She still loves baby dolls, and barbies. She is a little mommy.
• She loves to paint, color, and play with play dough.
• She knows a few colors and how to count to 3. I think she can count higher, but she gets embarrassed easily so she stops after 3.
• She is 100% potty trained. She stays dry at night about 6 out of 7 nights. But, she puts a diaper on every night just in case. That's right, I said SHE puts a diaper on every night. She literally puts her own diaper on. She lays it out on the floor, lays on top of it and hooks the sides.
  
• She has to do EVERYTHING by herself! She says "Caroline do it!" She gets herself dressed, puts her own shoes and socks on. The only thing she lets me do is her hair!
• She refuses to sit in a high chair anymore which makes meals difficult. She has to sit in a big chair like mommy and daddy...only she keeps getting up. We are working on that.
• She knows what her family is. When we ask her who her family is she says "Daddy, Mommy, AJ, and Caroline"
  
• She loves her cousins...I told her last week she was going to their house for trick or treating! Every day she asked me about it. The day of Halloween we were doing some errands in the morning and she kept asking to take nap. She would say "I wake up and we go to cousins house!"
  
• She is very controlling when it comes to playing with other kids. She likes to tell them what to do. "Here Jolie, you play with this one" If she takes a toy away from anyone she always replaces it with a new one so they still have something to play with, haha. My favorite was the other day when she got a stroller, baby doll and purse for her and Jolina and said "Let's go to the shopping mall Jolie." I asked her what she was going to buy there and she said "Candy and shoes!" A girl after my own heart!
• She loves her baby brother...unless he is dirty or drooling. Just like daddy!
  

Here are some recent pictures of her.


Putting on her own diaper for bed!
Daddy and his babies!

Caroline got a fish!


Video of her playing with daddy. For some reason she does the video worthy things when she is in her underwear...

FInk's Farm

We have been enjoying the fall here on Long Island! One Saturday we headed out east to go to an Apple Orchard that someone at Tom's work told him about. It turned out not to be what we had expected. On our drive there we saw a sign for a farm that had Elmo so we decided to go there instead! Caroline was crazy about Elmo. She let him hold her and she followed him around for quite a while. She also LOVED the bounce house they had there. The only problem was that there were bees everywhere. I am terrified of bees/wasps/hornets...flying bugs, lol. Tom ended up being the one to get stung though...poor guy. I am glad it wasn't either of the kids though. Tom's dad and brother have a bagel store so we went there after. Tom took Benedryl for the bee sting and ended up crashing for a few hours after.

Bronx Zoo

Tom's work had a day where we were supposed to get into a few zoo's and the aquarium for free. We decided we would take advantage of it and go to the Bronx Zoo for the first time! Well, it ended up that his work posted the wrong free weekend on their website so we ended up having to pay! Oh well, it was still a really fun family day. All week I was talking with Caroline about the zoo and the different types of animals they have there. We watched the Barney zoo video several times! She still sings about it all the time "What will we see at the zoo...what will we see at the zoo zoo zoo!?" It is so cute! We had a great time...except for the peacock's walking around us while we were trying to eat....Caroline was a little scared of those.




Eating on Daddy's head because she was afraid of the peacocks
She is really into saying "cheese" lately. This is her beautiful cheese face! I love it!




He's so handsome...I think he looks just like my handsome husband!

Angelo - 5 months

I suppose now that Angelo is almost 6 months old it is time to do his 5 month post! I didn't realize that I never updated it, oops! I am always so busy these days!

AJ at 5 months old (sorry if I repeat from last month....I only have a few min so I don't want to go back and look):

• 16 lbs 5 oz, 26 inches, and head was 17 in.
  
• rolls all over the place
• smiles so much! All you have to do is look at him and he will smile. He could be screaming and crying and if I just pick him up and talk to him he will be all smiles.
• eats solids. He HATES peas! I read on a well-known baby food blog that it takes 12 times for a baby to develop a like or dislike for something....well, they never met AJ! He could be SO hungry and if I give him peas he starts gagging and spitting it out! He LOVES bananas, but only the packaged baby food ones. When I mush up a banana he spits it back at me. Oh well, I tried. He pretty much likes everything else we have tried.
• has 2 teeth (bottom front)
• I can just tell he is going to be a sweet kid. He is so easy going and lovable! I couldn't have asked for a better baby boy!
• Saying he love to jump is a serious understatement! He can jump for hours in his jumper and he loves to jump on my lap too!
• He has been sleeping from around 7 pm-4:30 and then 4:40-7:30. Not too bad. Naps during the day are a real struggle. He just wants to stay up with Caroline. He is such a light sleeper too! So difficult when I have Caroline and Jolina making so much noise. But, AJ is still happy no matter how much sleep he gets! He sleeps best on the go in the stroller or car.
  
• He doesn't sleep swaddled anymore. He usually rolls to his belly and sleeps curled up.
  
• He finally decided he would take a bottle. He is still breastfed, but it's nice that he will take an occasional bottle.
  

Love you sweet Angelo!

AJ modeling one of the hats I made!
AJ and his favorite person in the world, Caroline!
Smiley boy in his bouncer!
Jumping is so much work that he fell asleep.