Baby June

Can't believe it's been over 2 months since our last post. Not sure how other folks find time to post almost daily. Anyway, things have been great at Ne Ne's house. He turned 2 in late April and we had a great birthday party to celebrate. We started swimming lessons and have moved on from the Wiggles to the Little Einsteins. Daddy is growing grass and never actually thought he'd enjoy watching grass grow, but he does. He looks out eagerly every morning to see what's happened and runs out eagerly to run the sprinklers - too funny. Mommy is busting at the seams and can't believe Baby June is still 4 weeks away - will she ever come? Ne Ne got some new neighbors - 2 boys of 5 and almost 2 - they have parents as well. We are very excited, they seem very nice and it's great for Ne Ne to have a friend the same age. Mommy is majorly nesting which is driving Daddy crazy but there is lots of work still to be done before Baby June arrives. Nana just got back from a trip to Ireland for Auntie Terry's 50th birthday. She had a great time but Ne Ne missed her. Mother's Day was very nice and Mommy is so very happy to have such a wonderful family that loves her.

I want to go home to Grandma's house

Nathan's first words after our trip to San Diego were (said in a very whinny voice) "I want to go home to Grandma's house". Pop laughed and poor Nana cried. It was a long trip back and it's been almost 5 days since we've been home and Nathan's schedule is still turned upside down. The extra hour change this weekend didn't help either. But it was entirely worth the difficult week this week because we had a fantastic time and we can't wait to go again. Grandma had everything ready for us including a room full of toys and dress up gear for Nathan. We hit the aquarium, zoo, seaworld, parks and managed to squeeze a trip up to L.A. to see Jackson and Greer. Jackson's parents hosted us which was so nice of them especially since it was mid-week and Greer's parents had us over for a lovely lunch and even took time off work to accommodate our crazy schedule. We got to meet Gavin and see Gabriel again and Nathan really enjoyed all their toys and especially Gavin's motorcycle! Nathan also got to see his first girlfriend (they still enjoy a long distance relationship) Eliza, who came all the way from chilly Montreal to see Nathan at the zoo (okay, they happened to be visiting family in SD the same week we were) and all in all it was a wonderful week seeing family and friends and enjoying some much needed sunshine.

What's Babs Doing?

The question of the weekend was "What's Babs doing?" or "Where did Pete go?" The semi-annual Babsapalozza was held in lovely Meriden CT in mid-February. We had a fantastic time and spent most of our 24 hours there in the heated pool. Cammi, Nicholas and Nathan got along very well and all enjoyed snacking on veggie sticks. Marissa and Gillian bumped baby girl bellies and got lots of therapeutic back relief from the pool. The SU boys however greatly disappointed their brothers by not having a single drink all weekend. A big thanks to Babs and Mrs. Babs for getting us the rooms and organizing the trip. We can't wait for the next trip though we may need more room with the addition of a baby Miller and baby Novello. Connecticut is lovely in mid-February and we highly recommend it.

Bob the Builder

Daddy is a regular handy man around the house these days. Nathan and Mommy are quite shocked by the whole thing, but very happy at the same time. Nathan has taken to "fixing" things himself and replacing batteries all in his toys. Dad has fixed the microwave, fixed the bathroom door, assembled the new kitchen table and chairs, Nathan's new toddler bed (which needed new hardware which he had to go to Home Depot and figure out what to buy) and is now considering adding a new door for the basement. Our only complaint is that because he is so diligent and deliberate in his efforts he's rather slow. We expect with more practice he'll get much quicker. We aren't complaining though, it's nice that he does all this himself because my first thought would be to call someone to take care of it. The leaky basement pipe and the heating issues however will still be outsourced to professionals - maybe in a year or two Daddy will be up for the task.

Bath issues

Nathan has always been a water baby. Loves swimming and any and all things related to water. I swear he was the son of fisherman in a past life (strange dream I had). The last few days however he's gotten absolutely hysterical when he's been put in the bath and we cannot figure out why. We thought it was a water tempature issue but it doesn't appear to be that either. We hope its something that will resolve itself soon because it's making our bed time routine difficult and our trip to California won't be much fun if we can't go swimming.

Dave spent the entire weekend putting our new kitchen table and chairs together. We are so psyched to be finally rid of our Ikea 2 seater from our NYC days!

New Jersey

Josh turned 2 this past Friday so we packed up the car and headed to NJ for the weekend. It was so much fun to see the Miller cousins together. Nathan was a little overwhelmed at the actual birthday party given the large crowd of people and insisted on spending most of the party down in the basement. He did surface for the present portion and was well rewarded with plenty of gifts even though it wasn't his birthday. Josh and Kate were so much fun and getting so grown up since we'd last seen them in August. With a big sister as his role model Josh did insist on wearing a dress most of the weekend but he got some great boy dress up gifts to expand his wardobe for his birthday. The sleeping arrangements were pretty funny with Grandma in the basement on an air mattress and Kate on the floor in her parents room and Nathan in a full bed with us. A pack n play was available but Nathan much preferred sleeping in the bed with us. Josh being the birthday boy got to keep his room to himself for the weekend. We can't wait to get everyone together in April for Nathan's birthday. We will post some birthday pictures shortly.

June

Our ultrasound revealed a healthy little girl with no club feet (yay!). When asked what his baby sisters name should be, Nathan though for a moment or two and then responded "June". We thought this was hysterical and are now calling the baby June until she's born and offically named. Of course he decided this was a good name for her since we've been telling him he's getting a new baby in June. Very smart little guy. We've also determined recently that Nathan has a very good memory, he can say the last word on each page on almost all of his books that we read him on a fairly regular basis. "Bear goes to town every "day"" he likes to walk all the "way" etc.

We are off to NJ this weekend for Josh's 2nd birthday (time flys) and will be seeing the whole Miller Clan. We are looking forward to the trip and spending some quality time with the family. We'll have to head home early on Sunday though to make sure we are home for the Superbowl on Sunday night.