And today...the first love letter

I have NO idea where she got this from - luckily she repeats all her "scenarios" a few times so I can capture the moment...I know Steve's ready and all-too-eager to fend off suitors, but I'm willing to bet Christian has only the most innocent intentions

And the first word for both kids is, officially, BERTIE:)

Kate's first swim lesson...

Kate lined up all her guys to watch the dancing sheep that accompanies our streaming audio of WDUQ, a Pittsburgh jazz station

She yelled to me, "Hey mom, I'm hanging out!" The language therapist in me wonders: does she really grasp the double entendre? If so, she must be adopted, because she can't be ours:)

And finally, we have the annual "I can't believe my kids have to wear winter gear in September" picture

Happy 1st Birthday, Little MAN!!!!

He walks!...sort of :)




The 1st Birthday party!

Mommy and daddy let me skip dinner and go straight to cake - oh, yeah!

Our friend Ava

Can we do this every day?

Why does Kate think all the toys are for her??

Ok, I'll smile anyway - just can't help myself

A quiet moment with Daddy at the end... when I asked Kate why she was in the kitchen, she said: "Because I don't have to share in here" :)

I forgot to take a pic of the food - we had chicken cacciatore, white lasagne, caprese, cucumber salad, and ricotta cake - an Italian feast for our boy!

And here are the pics from Little Steve's actual birthday - we spent the day at an indoor playground and then he got dressed up and had his first piece of cake!

Happy Birthday, NONNY!!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!!!

Kate was playing dress-up the other day - she typically gets herself a map before pretending to "go out", but I've never heard her announce the name of a street in German before today, and it made me laugh!



With all her "guys"...and we promise to take more videos of Peabug for the next post!!

Lovin our Daddy

This is a game Kate made up called "Pause/Play" - she says "pause" to get us to stop talking/singing and then "play" to get us to start again. She also does this with her "guys" (her doll house characters) at the end of the day; she puts them in their sleeping positions and then pushes her imaginary pause button on top of the doll house, ensuring that they'll be exactly where she left them when she wakes up...oh my:)

4 Two-year-olds in a paint-your-own ceramics shop: What should have been a recipe for disaster (note the shelves of breakable items!) ended up being a great time. Kate painted a beautiful mug for her Daddy (finished product below)

Hi Grandma!

PeaBug walked 4 STEPS today!! Yippee!
We love you:)

Kate, proudly holding our 1-week old neighbor (who arrived 6 weeks early, at 4 1/2 pounds!)

Petting Zoo, take 5: Diggin' into that bag of animal feed.

And the animal pics are for you, Daddy:) Here's lookin' at you, kid.