Where has the time gone?

Oh Katie... Where has the time gone? 4 years old - already!

You are the smartest little person I have ever met. You practice using new words all the time and it always cracks me up. You can write your name in crayon. You are a picky eater - but you eat bacon and raw green peppers... Sometimes I wonder if Baba will ever leave your side. We (I) have been able to keep Baba number 2 a secret for quite some time now. But I know if you were to find out about him right now that you would fully understand what his purpose is without me even having to explain it.

You went from a little tom boy who insisted on potty training in Thomas the Train underpants to a beautiful princess who wears tutu's all the time, even to bed and tiara's with everything. You still refuse to wear jeans. You are obsessed with the Disney Princesses only you won't watch any of the movies - you just know them from all the books we read.

You gave us a really tough time with going to bed for about 4 - 6 months this past year - and now you get 2 - 4 books a few minutes of rubbing your back and you sleep like a champ. You love your brother even though you don't quite know how to be around him yet. Whenever you are away from him, he's all you talk and ask about. You insist that you want him to sleep in your room with you but when he tries to touch any of your toys you freak out.

You prefer skyping with your grandparents to regular old phone calls. You still rub noses with Baba all day long. You outsmart us all the time in arguments and negotiations.

I can't wait to see what the next year is going to bring us in terms of you. Happy Birthday my love!

Katie Turns 4

We had a Royal Tea Party for Katie's 4th Birthday!

The girls game dressed to the nines and the boys came as super hero's. 

It was a HUGE success - 11 kids and all the parents somehow fit in our teeny tiny house and it wasn't a disaster.

 

The girls all go their makeup done and got jewelery and hair barrettes to take home and I made super hero capes for all the boys. It was a crazy 3 hours but everyone had fun. I'm just bummed that we didn't get group pictures because it was just so crazy, hectic there just wasn't any time!

Bad blogger

Holy Cow things are busy.  Our days and nights run in a continuous circle of chaos. Luckily - our chaos is cute!

Here's the run down  -

Ben moved into the toddler room at school and has drastically changed into a little man. He is not only trying to say single words - but he's trying to put 2 words together. He can request things like - asking for the Wiggles on the radio and asking to watch Buzz and Woody. He also requests his favorite song Wake Up Jeff over and over and over.

He's crazy smart - like - another little genius - he understands everything you tell him - can follow direction - and has a great sense of humor. BUUU,(Buzz) Hi, Bye Bye, Wooo(Woody), Wigg (Wiggles), Bubba(Bubble Guppies), RU RU (Uncle Ruben), Yodelahihoo (what Jesse Says), Hat, NA)Snack, NO (he's really good at that one) Yes, thank you, Katie, Ba Ba , Ham, Wa Wa, Milk- and that's just the beginning.

He loves his sister and they have so much fun together - it's total chaos all the time because they both demand so much attention and Ben can't do all the things he wants to do (like user markers....) so our nights after work go by in a blur of mediating arguments between the kids, avoiding injuries, feeding, playing, bathing and then - finally bedtime! Exhausted is not the word.

They feed off each other and get absolutely crazy sometimes - they definitely suffer from my cabin fever and do better when we have things to do outside the house. They are perfect kids anywhere we take them - very rarely do we have a tantrum  - and they LOVE sitting next to each other in the carts at stores:)

Katie has become one of the popular kids in school it seems - I think it's because she is one of the ones that was in PreK 3 last year - so she knows the ropes - she's also very amenable to anything (Dave style) so I think the kids love that she's always down with whatever.

She did have a bad day in school yesterday  - enough that they had to write it up - apparently she started copying a bad kid all day and doing all the things that kid did - not good. Of course we have a birthday party for that kid this weekend so I'm afraid that's perpetuating the desire to be just like her... I hope today is better.

She loves school and is doing very well although I had hoped she'd be further along in her writing - so I have to make sure to spend time with her at night on that because she was so far advanced when she started and now she's just right at the same level as everyone else - so I'm not super worried - but I'm not super happy about it either...

I have been knitting/crocheting like crazy. I'm not exaggerating - I've made about 20 things in the last 2 - 3 months and just had one of the teachers at daycare order 6 hats - yes 6 . So that is what I will be doing at night until Christmas for sure!

Dave has been running 5k's again - and we always go to watch him  - the kids get a kick out of it:)  Funny story - the first place runner last weekend (who was running CRAZY fast) passed the turn to run down into the finish line (they hadn't marked it well) so blew past the turn - and then ran about another half mile before he ended up at the finish line... I felt SOOOOOOOOOOOOOo bad. I know the organizers tried to adjust the time he would have made it but still - it was funny, awkward and sad all at the same time. The kids had a great time because the finish line was near this big football field they got to run all around:)
They also love the mini van and since it was cold that morning - after we saw daddy start the race - I went and put them in the car and they played in the backseat for about 15 minutes! Best purchase ever!

The Paynes were here!!!!!

We just had the most amazing visit with some of my favorite people on the planet.

You know the type of friends that you make that are once in a lifetime, and if the stars weren't aligned perfectly, you might never have met them but since everything was in place - you did and you're life is so much better for it.

You're very similar to each other (she's crafty, he's a musician) but also very opposite each other.(Christian Republicans, versus non-religious hardly ever even vote types - avid swearers - versus well, good christians) But you get along and can literally talk about anything without getting upset or angry even if it's on opposite sides of the argument. You spend a year or so together before you start having kids and you play board games and watch movies and make pot luck dinners, and decorate your Christmas trees at the same time (cause you live next door and can do so with your doors wide open.) Their kid says Titi before he says lots of other words and walks up the stairs to his house - but knocks on your door first EVERYTIME just to say hi:)

The type of people you will cat sit for for a whole MONTH- even though you HATE cats. (we became buds) and who you will travel via 2 flights to celebrate their first borns 1st birthday with - yeah those people!

So, they surprised the hell out of us and flew up with their 2 beautiful kids and spent 4 nights with us.
I can't believe I didn't take a picture of their accomodations!!!  - we turned Katie's room into a suite with a queen sized air mattress, a crib and a twin bed and she bunked with me for those nights.

4 kids and 4 adults in this teeny tiny house and it worked. We went to NYC, Irvington to visit our old park and a favorite restaurant we used to eat at. (pre-children) We had a big old birthday party for BaBa cause I thought it would be nice that all the kids could celebrate a birthday together since we always miss out on birthdays since we all live so far away. We laughed - made fun of each other - drank and realized that the size of our bunch warranted an entire birthday cake gone. (well, Auntie Steph pointed that out!)

2 couples - turned into 3 couples - turned into 2 couples with 2 babies and then 3 couples with 5 babies and now 3 couples with 7 babies - all in a matter of 6 years since we've known each other! It was awesome - we all had a blast and I'm just sad it's over but can't wait until we all get together again! Plans are in the making for building a compound down south A la Big Love - only each husband will only have 1 wife - but we will all share our backyards and live together;)

 3 Strollers - 4 parents - about 80 city blocks walked = great day in NYC

 Emergency McDonalds stop to avoid afternoon crankiness

 First date at the Red Hat - fruit plate, french fries and go gurts!

 Lunch at the Red Hat

 Uncle Jeremy was 'on duty' while the moms talked in the kitchen

 me with the littles

 Ben swimming in the sand at the Irvington park

 The dads playing with the Bigs

 Uncle Jeremy and the littlest little

 8 adults and 9 kids at a bar/restaurant... we like to keep people on their toes

 Watching Curious George at night to settle down

 Happy Birthday Ba Ba Pinata

 The Original 6

The current 13!!!! well (Lucy was sleeping - so if she had been in this pic - it would be 13!)