goodbye to daycare

Today was Aiden's last day in daycare. Starting next week he's going to junior pre-school just down the street. To help Aiden say goodbye to his old friends and teachers, Sky and I took cupcakes and milk for the whole class. Aiden was very happy when we arrived with the boxes of cupcakes. He and his teachers, Ms. Joy and Ms. Olga pass the cupcakes and milk to all the kids in the class.


Aiden's face lit up when the kids cheered "thank you for the cupcakes, Aiden". Aiden loves being the center of attention so he smiled and got a little shy. The cupcakes were good and the attention was great but what Aiden enjoyed the most was having his sister in the class. He must have hugged and kissed her about 20 times. That meant all the other kids also wanted to hug Sky too. Aiden graciously stood to the side and let each kid come up and give Sky one hug. If a kid took too long hugging, Aiden interuped and asked the kid to move on.


At snack time, Ms. Olga let Sky sit at the table next to Aiden and the other kids. That made Aiden so proud of his little sister.

little princess

Bobba (my dad) putting a rose in Sky's hair....as if it wasn't already obvious she's the family's little princess.

Aiden and Timur

Aiden loves it when you throw him up into the air when we're at the pool. He'll beg to be thrown over, and over, and over again. After about twenty throws, my arms feel like Jello. On Saturday I didn't get into the pool so poor Tim had to entertain him.

sky's aerobic routine

So Sky is really into the trampoline these days. She's even figured out how to work the buttons to add music to her routine. The funny thing is, she only likes one tune (the same one Aiden likes). She cycles through the various tunes until she finds the one she likes (exactly like Aiden does).

sky jumping to music

I walked in the room the other day and there's Sky sitting on the trampoline bouncing. Today, I walked in the room and she's on the trampoline again but this time she's actually bouncing. I bet tomorrow she'll be jumping and getting air.



I can already tell she has a lot of confidence in herself in the way she tries new things. Watch out world!

sky blue crocs

Here's Sky chillin' with her new SKY BLUE crocs.

Until now, Sky's been wearing Robeez (soft shoes). Yesterday, I put her new crocs on and she did great. I thought she'd try to pull them off or walk funny in them at first but she didn't. I'm glad she has more support now that she's walking all the time and on hard surfaces like the driveway and around the pool.

How ma' do it Mommy?

Aiden has this little 4-wheeler that he likes to ride around on our driveway. He really enjoys it when it actually has some power (been charged). Unfortunately for him, Adam and I always forget to recharge it for him. I guess we've forgotten so many times that he's decided he'll take matters into his own hands. Yesterday I was in the garage when Aiden pulled up his little 4-wheeler and asks me for help.

Aiden: Mommy, Mommy, How ma' do it?
Me: Do what?
Aiden: How ma' do it?
Me: What do you want to do?
Aiden: I wanna charge my car.
Me: Oh, that's something I'll have to do for you. Okay?
Aiden: No, Mommy you forget to charge it. Remember yesterday?
Me: Oh, I'm sorry. Did I forget again? I'll do it right now.

uh oh she's tasted McDonald's shakes

Okay we never intended for our kids to even try McDonald's food but what do you do when you're stuck in traffic for hours with screaming hungry and fatigued kids?

long weekend at the beach

We went to the beach for a long weekend. It was a nice change of pace and everyone enjoyed it. Although there were a lot of chores to catch up with like tons of yard work, we had a good time. Poor Adam was busy with his "maintenance" to-do list. Its amazing how much work we used to do on this house before we had kids.


Despite the chores, mother nature treated us to perfect weather for the entire weekend. My Dad came with us to the beach to help with the kids which was awesome. Thank god for family!

sky blue

Message for Nana Beth and Bobba Steve

Here is a slightly coached message from Aiden to Nana Beth and Bobba Steve. It was only "slightly coached" because Aiden is sometimes shy of the camera.

fixing a leak

When the contractors pulled back the carpet in the extra bedroom in the basement, we realized there has been a slow and steady leak from the outside into the room. Ugh...just another thing to deal with. Instead of having the contractors fix the problem, Adam decided to do the job himself. He and his sidekick Aiden spent the day sealing the suspected crack (looked more like a gaping whole).


Aiden enjoyed himself thoroughly. If I had to take a bet right now, I'd bet that he'd grow up to be a construction worker. Adam gave him the job of moving dirt from one container to another and Aiden went to work enthusiastically. You'd think after an hour or so he'd get distracted but not a chance. He worked (and played) tirelessly. Every time I checked in on him he'd explain what he and Daddy were doing in a very serious tone and immediately go back to work.

Sky walker

Sky is walking very confidently now. She is a lot less frustrated now that she can walk. She likes walking around outside the most. The kid NEVER sits still anymore.

thirteen months old today

So what does she do at thirteen months?

She walks very well.

She's also determined to learn how to go up and downstairs. If someone forgets to close the gate at the bottom of the steps, she's the first to notice it's open and darts for the steps.

She's loves to kiss. Last night I was sitting on the floor in the playroom helping Aiden build a garage for his cars. Sky was literally walking circle around as if she was playing "duck duck goose." Occasionally she would stand behind me, hold my shoulder and lean in and around my shoulder and offer up a kiss. Of course, I love it each time and never complained. Aiden on the other hand, after the second kiss turned and look at her and said, "that's enough kisses Sky".

Some words that she says these days - momma, that, juice, pane (airplane), bobba (grandpa), tanka (thank you), bye bye, and no...actually it's more like "nooooooo".


Sky's Favorite toys: trains and train table, piano, Elmo doll, any toy that plays music, drum sticks, any ball that she can palm in her hand, knives and forks from the plastic kitchen set.


Sky's favorite activities - go to the playground, play on the deck, ride in her car, play in the driveway, go for a walk, swimming....you get the picture? She will do just about anyting as long as its OUTSIDE and not inside.


Well, there is one thing she likes to do inside and that's sit at the activity table with Aiden as he plays with play-doh, paints, colors or draws. Its the cutest thing - she totally sits and watches him with such admiration.


Sky loves to dance even more. This girl could dance to almost any beat. Sometime in midst of walking she starts dancing.

She loves to brush her hair. Don't even try to take the hair brush out of her hand if she's in the middle of styling her hair.

She likes to talk on the phone. If any phone rings in the house (including on tv0 she puts her hand up to her ear like she's talking on the phone. If she sees someone's cell phone she has to have it.

Sky's favorite foods: pears, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, bread, cheerios, soy beans, orange slices, salmon, veal, and rice.


Sky loves to say "no" and she says it all the time.

Me: Sky is it nap time?
Sky: Nooooo
Me: Sky do you want to sit in your highchair?
Sky: Nooooo
Me: Sky are you finished with the cheerios?
Sky: Nooooo

If you ask her to get a common object and give it to someone she understands and follows through.

Some things really scare her. In this way, she is very different from fearless Aiden. She's scared to death of loud fire works and some hand puppets. It's actually kind of cute.

Sky saying Momma

I don't know why but I can't get enough of Sky saying Momma. I think it's the way she says it - she enunciates each syllable.

outfits by Nana Beth

Aiden and Sky wearing the outfits Nana Beth sent them. THANK YOU, NANA BETH!!!

she learns fast

So on Friday (8/1) she started taking as many as 6 steps. Saturday (8/2) she was taking like ten or twelve steps. Today, Sunday (8/3) she was walking all over the house. Just for kicks I counted her steps when she was playing in the living room and she took 22 consecutive steps without holding or touching anything. This kid learns fast! I mean, its not that she's started walking early, it's that she started walking very suddenly. It's as if she had been practicing walking for weeks while we weren't looking...I assure you that is not the case.



This is a short video of Sky walking on Sunday (day 3 of walking). Notice she is able to keep her balance even though Aiden is doing a "choo choo train" on her back and basically annoying her.

mmm watermelon

Aiden's new favorite fruit - watermelon. He couldn't get enough of it. After the feast he looked down at the front of his shirt and couldn't believe what had happened.

Aiden: Mommy, someone spilled juice on me!
Me: What?! Someone spilled juice on you? Who?
Aiden: The watermelon (big grin on his face)

Saturday mornings in the playroom

I don't know how they do it but Aiden and Sky have somehow figured out how to consistently wake up at 6 am on Saturday mornings...and I mean 06:00:00 on the dot. Any other day of the week they both sleep in until 7:30 or 8 o'clock but Saturday mornings are extra special.

I usually let Adam sleep in and I take the kids downstairs to play in the playroom. While they play with their toys, I curl up on the couch with a pillow and blanket...hey, it is Saturday morning for god's sake! It's actually really nice to just hang out and watch them play. It seems every week they start playing together more and more. I know that in a year (or even 6 months) they will be each other's best playmate.

The clip above was taken on Saturday morning.

funny picture

While looking for a good picture of me and Adam for a work related thing, I came across this picture. I laughed out load for about 10 minutes in my office...people walking by must have thought I'm finally losing my mind.

Is that not the funniest picture? I can't believe how much Sky has changed. Also, I can't believe Aiden had chubby cheeks back then.

By the way, I got a call a few minutes ago from our nanny and she said Sky took SIX (yeah, 6!) steps independently. Yahoo! She's walking!

Picture is dated October 29th, 2007.