A budding artist

I have loved nearly every stage our kids have gone through, though I could definitely do with less of the whining and crying over nothing. Tommy is so smiley and happy and mobile. Lexi's laugh is contagious and she's so smart and loving. Stasa is so inquisitive and eager to learn. Pre-K has really allowed her to bloom. Along with pre-K, we enrolled her in an enrichment program to focus on phonics in a smaller setting. We've been amazed with her progress in her penmanship and spelling and drawing. She comes home every day with more and more artwork, but now she almost always adds her name or writes what she's drawn. Yesterday she came bounding over with a piece of art just for daddy. In fact, daddy was the first word after her name that she learned to spell.

After posting some scanned artwork on Facebook, a colleague just recommended I try the Artkive app. You take pictures of the artwork with your phone and save it and can make a book with all of the pictures later. I can't wait to get started with it and will definitely share how it works out.

Here's some recent artwork by Stasa.

To Jersey and back

A week ago at zero dark thirty, we packed up the kids and the car and got on the road to New Jersey.




We weren't even on the road for 15 minutes before Stasa started moaning that she didn't feel well. THen she started dramatically coughing.
Stasa: I'm sick.
Me: Okay, well go to sleep - that might make you feel better.
Stasa: COUGH COUGH
Me: Okay, you're fine. Go to sleep.
Stasa: I'm sick. I threw up.
Me: Stas, you're fine. You're just coughing and will be okay.
Stasa: But I threw up.

I finally asked Tom to turn on the cabin lights since it was still dark out and sure enough she had vomit in her hands. Luckily (is there a luckily?) it was mostly in her hands so I cleaned her up pretty fast. She proceeded to throw up every 45 minutes or so in different plastic bags. We finally stopped at a Target somewhere in Maryland to get more bags, Pepto for kids (did you know they even made that?), Gatorade, and to let everyone go potty. Back on the road and more vomit, but this time it was mostly just Gatorade. Ewwwww.

After six or so hours we made it to Alex and Judyth's house in Jersey. Alex had taken the day off to visit with us, so he and his son, Sebastian, met us there. And wouldn't you know Stasa was pretty much all better by the time we got settled in the house. She rested in the guest room for a bit, but Alex had also put on some TV for her. I think part of it was getting up super early (and staying up late the night before).

The weekend was so much fun. We feel the same way every time we visit friends far away - we wish we could all live closer and see each other more often. I hate all of the distance between us and people we love.

The guys had planned to make this huge Greek meal for everyone on Saturday, so they started prepping on Friday night while Judyth and I sat and watched and critiqued them. They were ever so grateful. Saturday we all got up really early, which happens when you're sleeping in a room with three small children. Tommy was in a pack-n-play and we originally planned to have both girls sleep on the air mattress but they both ended up in bed with us, so I gave them and Tom the bed and took the air mattress all for myself. So needless to say, when Tommy woke up, most everyone in the room woke up with him, but that pretty much happens at home, too. It's like the girls have a sixth sense when people are awake without them. Fear of missing out.

Where was I? Oh, right. Getting up early on Saturday. It was a good thing we were up early since the guys had to get started right away with cooking. We went ahead and fed the kids and this was pretty much the only bite of food Lexi and Sebastian had all weekend. They both were on food strikes and chugged milk all weekend.


Tom and Alex made sooooooooooooo much food. I'm not even sure I can name it all, but let me try. Horiatiki (traditional Greek salad), melitzanosalata (eggplant salad), fava, yemista(stuffed tomatoes and peppers), souvlaki (grilled pork kabobs), pilafi (rice pilaf), grilled pitas, and krasomeze (this beef stew like dish). So.Much.Food.





It felt like Thanksgiving. Lots of people, everyone eating wherever. Everyone planning their second and third plate. A few people took a walk to let their food settle before filling up on a second or third plate. I dove straight in and ate firsts and seconds back to back. After dinner we all just sat around, watching football, chatting here and there and playing on our phones. LOL

Sunday morning Tom woke up feeling ill. Same feeling as Stasa, but we figured he just overdid it the night before at dinner. Saturday night when he went to bed he had chills, but again we both thought he just overate. It wasn't until Monday that we figured out what was going on - more on that in a bit.

Sunday was a pretty lazy day. We got up and had breakfast and then just hung around while Tommy napped. Once Tommallama was up we walked over to a nearby playground to let the kids burn off some energy. I made both girls go potty twice before we left the house and the minute we got to the playground Lexi announced that she had to go. RIGHT NOW. So Tom took her to a nearby cafe and brought me back a coffee and some treats. We let the kids play for awhile until all of our hands were icicles and then we headed back to the house.




We spent the rest of the day and night just lounging at the house. I took some pics of Sebastian outside and then the kids played in the backyard until one by one they came in because it was cold and dark. Each one came in crying because they wanted to stay outside. None of them cared that they couldn't see anything or that their hands were ice cold again.

We hung around on Monday until everyone had breakfast and rush hour died down. Right before we left I started feeling ill. Nausea and chills. I briefly wondered if I ate too much Chinese food the night before - or maybe my stomach was still weak from my bout of food poisoning on the previous Thursday night. I spent the entire drive home curled up in the backseat under all of our coats. When I finally woke up, still feeling nauseous, we were minutes from home. Apparently all of the kids slept the entire ride home, too so we made it back in record time. It wasn't until we were home and I was curled up on the couch that we realized that we probably all got some sort of 24 hour stomach bug. Super fun time for it to hit all of us.

We had such a blast that weekend and I hope we plan another one sooner rather than later. The last time they visited us, Stasa was just a year and half. The last time we saw them, or rather Tom saw them, they were getting married and I was 2 weeks from delivering Lexi. It's so cliche, but time flies by way too fast.

27 and 28 Weeks Old

Happy Halloween!

I still can not believe how October flew by and it was apparent that the month got away from us on Wednesday night when we were making a late night run to the pumpkin patch so we could carve jack-o-lanterns. Thankfully the kids didn't care that we were so delayed in carving pumpkins and happily picked out their perfect pumpkin and face they wanted carved into it. Stasa was really helpful in cleaning them out and Lexi tried, she really really tried, but was picking out one seed at a time. LOL

Tom had decorated the yard the weekend before, so after we finished carving our pumpkins, we nestled them among the graveyard that is our front yard and they looked fantastic!

The girls woke up yesterday so excited for Halloween - dressing up at school, the candy, dressing up at home, the candy, a school parade, CANDY, CANDY, CANDY. LOL Eyes on the prize. When I came downstairs to leave for work I found Stasa inhaling the scent from the candy bag. ::deep sniff:: This ::sniff:: smells ::sniff:: SO. GOOD. ::sniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiff::

When Tom and I showed up for the school parade, the teachers were still getting the kids dressed in their costumes and trying to keep them somewhat calm. Lexi was literally vibrating with excitement. Her little body just couldn't stand all of the excitement and had to release all of her energy in the form of jumping and shaking. The kids were crazed. Half of them were overly excited and jumping and the other half were wailing and melting down.


Tommy was ADORABLE in his sailor suit.



After the parade we grabbed the kids and got away from the madness. The girls were already dying to tear into their candy bags, and we let them have a few pieces while we got dinner ready and them in their costumes.



We wound up both taking all three kids around the cul-de-sac, then Tom and the girls walked over to our favorite trick-or-treating neighborhood while I packed Tommy up in the car to drive over since it was threatening rain. Well, the minute I got in the car it started raining so I brought Tom and the girls umbrellas and then followed them along in the car since Tommy was in and out of sleep and I wanted to be able to pack the kids in if it really started pouring. They managed to get through a few streets before the girls started getting tired. Lexi finally announced that she was done and we packed it in - they had more than enough candy for their age anyway. We got home and they dumped their bags and immediately started sorting through their goodies. We let them have some candy before calling it a night, brushing teeth, and tucking them in bed.

Yesterday Lexi looked at me and said, "Mommy, you know what's after Halloween?" I asked her what was next, she smiled and said "CHRISTMAS!" HAHA

26 weeks old and 6 month stats

Oh, boo boo. I really need to start taking these weekly pictures earlier in the day when he's happy and not right before bedtime. Mom fail.

So much has happened this past month that it's been hard to keep track of it all. Tommy started solid foods, and loves them, really loves them. He gets upset when he finishes a meal, but I know there's no way his little stomach could hold any more food than what we gave him. He also loves sitting at the dinner table with us and happily smiles and coos at everyone. So far he's had avocado, banana, cereal, plums, pears, peaches, sweet potato, a couple of winter squashes, and mango. Up next are the green veggies and adding in some herbs. I'm thinking that we may just puree whatever we're having for dinner (but not meats) and then just feed him that. I gave him a bite of my skillet potatoes the other day and he loved them - spices and all.



Tommy also started sitting up on his own and is army crawling all over the place. I was putting Stasa's hair up this morning and had the tv remote on the floor next to me and all of a sudden Tommy was by my side swiping at the remote. He slugs his body across the floor fast. He gets up on his knees and rocks, but hasn't quite figured out how to crawl, so he resorts to moving like a slug.



He's been drooling up a storm and a couple of weeks ago I felt something sharp in his mouth and poked around and discovered two teeth buds emerging. They've finally fully popped through his gums and the doctor checked his upper gums and said we've got awhile before those come in.

We took him for his six month well check this week and the doc said he looks great. His stats are so close to Lexi's and Stasa's at that age. He wound up getting all but one vaccination and his flu shot. The one vaccine will be delayed since we opted to get the flu shot.

	Weight	Height
Tommy	16 lbs 5 oz	27.5”
Lexi	16 lbs 3 oz	27”
Stasa	16 lbs 10 oz	26.5”