Friday, December 7, 2012

And Then Came November (2012)

The soccer season ended later than usual thanks to some bizarre fall weather

Fiona, Coach Kevin and Will at the "medal ceremony"

Finny at a friend's third birthday party

And at his first ever dental checkup!

He did great, especially with big brother Will there to show him the ropes

Will routinely asks for mint-flavored stuff; Finn stuck with cherry

More snow, more hot chocolate, this time with marshmallows!

A quick girls' getaway was just what the doctor ordered

  
Will was the only boy at a (girl) friend's fifth birthday party, and he swam like a champ!



Grace and Bridget, BFFs as always, even when one is using the other as a chewtoy

Great night with Nikki and Emily (and our husbands) at the YMCA fundraiser


The tiger brothers! Now with a signature "tiger high five"!




Our baby girl is eating solids galore...

She's definitely a table food girl rather than a puree fan

Cheerios, sweet potato chunks, bread, banana--her pincer grasp gets quite a workout

When Dad walks in the door, Mom is chopped liver







And then there was Thanksgiving!








Wednesday, December 5, 2012

October, including Halloween, 2012

Oops, just realized I haven't posted pictures of the boys since September. Niiiiiice. (I'm sorry, boys! I love you as much as ever!) Here are a bunch of October moments:

Auntie Rache and Bella dropped off Will's birthday present: a plasma car!

The boys play barbershop, and I'm their victim client!

 Grandmom and Grandpop visit

Playing at DeFazio with Will's sister-wife Abby

This guy loves his baby sister

Ah, back in the days when Bridgie liked the Jumperoo...
Bridget and one of her faves, Auntie Julie
The first (very minor) snowfall warranted our first hot cocoa of the season
 The Parent Talk Fall Sale!!!

In vino, sanity

Halloween cookie bars, yum

Baby's 1st Halloween

Finn was Lightning McQueen for school






He switched to Spidey for trick-or-treating; Will was Batman, and Bridget was a hand-me-down jack o'lantern
 
The babies (Bridget, born in March, Nicolas, born in May, and Gracie, born in February)
 Jack, Finn, Will, Connor and Riley
Almost all the kiddos at Mindy and Bryan's
Jack (fireman), Will (um, Bruce Wayne?), and Connor (Buzz Lightyear)




Monday, December 3, 2012

Bridget at (almost) 9 months

I forgot to say last time that Bridgie popped a tooth (her lower right in the front) and it's now jutting out quite noticeably. She went to the doctor today and measured at:

17-inch head (83rd %ile)
20 lbs. (80th %ile)
28.75 in. (88th %ile)

I've always said that B really reminds me of her oldest brother in sleep patterns, mannerisms, mobility, etc., and the similarities continue. Bridget is always cheerful and she's just begun signing "More" and "All done" like a rock star. She loves her table food and wants to eat everything we're eating. Everything. All parents have the things they're particular about and others they prefer to laisser faire. When it comes to food/allergies, I'm the latter, only because we've never had issues in our family and it's unlikely we will--although of course it's possible. I don't take risks, mind you--no honey before age one, nor any plain old cow's milk, but everything I've read about more allergenic foods like peanut butter say that as long as a severe allergy doesn't run in the family, you should introduce those in the first year. So, we do. (It makes life a lot easier, too, since I can break off pieces of omelette to feed Bridge in a pinch, or even not worry about pumpkin bread that has traces of chocolate in it--although I try to work around the chocolate chips when I'm feeding her!) All this to say, Bridget's had just about everything. But we're also sort of busy with the older boys, so we're going to try to actively focus more on table foods, steamed veggies and the like, and reduce her bottles--they're just so easy when we're in a rush, which is ALWAYS.

Bridget's cruising, climbing stairs, and she definitely recognizes her own name--Dave and I will say "Mama/Dada do it," and then "Bridgie do it," and she'll copy whatever we've done, whether it's drumming or hiding or clapping hands.

I was going to add a bunch of cute pictures here, but it looks like there's some error with my Blogger photo storage, so you'll just have to trust me that they're cute until I can find a way to post them!

Friday, November 9, 2012

Eight Months of Baby Bridgie

At seven and a half months, Bridget started doing this:


 And perfected the art of this:




This is what she does when you try to hold her on your lap for more than three seconds:


It's so wonderful to see her grow, explore, become mobile...but I watch with equal parts pride and wistfulness, knowing she'll keep moving way faster than I'll ever want her to.