James Sick- September 2015

Looking over the blog, James only gets a bad illness once or twice a year. We have been so lucky that he has been strong and healthy, but of course it's also healthy for them to get some normal kid bugs now and again. Well we got a doozy this time. James was sick for a week before we decided that this was worse than normal and we brought him to the doctor for a second time and got him some blood tests. It's a virus, but maybe also a bacteria, so he got antibiotics. He was struggling to breathe so he also got a nebulizer with medicine to open his airway.

In the waiting room of the pediatrician

Getting a nebulizer treatment at the doctor's office

Taking lots of naps

Hated doing the nebulizer at home

After the second doctor visit he improved a lot.  He's back at school this week but he's still not eating as much as he was right before he got sick. He was enthusiastically greeted when he returned this week by his first male friend at school Dillon. (Last year it was all about his friends Sabina, Elena, and Celia.) Hopefully he'll have time to make more friends this year.

Napping with Fudgie.

His favorite part of being sick- hydrating with popsicles!

Miranda's benefits from this too.

Miranda is 17 Months 2015

Miranda is a talking explosion. She understands a lot of what we say and follows simple commands (she ignores being told no, but will happily oblige favor requests). She gives delightful smoochy kisses, and has the most absurd mean sense of humor. Nothing cracks her up more than pretending she's going to kiss you and then BITING YOUR FACE. Hey, you've been warned.

Hanging out with my little girlfriend

Doing the Draper

She currently hates rides of all kinds- not just car rides. That's right, now i can't even take her out in the stroller.

James calls this the rollercoaster. Kevin does too but for different reasons.

Eating Greek treats at the Greek Festival

Post-bath naked run, not to be confused with pre-bath naked run

Don't worry she wasn't driving while texting. She pulled over.

Takes 1 nap, 3 hours after waking. 45-90 minutes.

Helping James wash his hair.

Pretending to go nite-nite.

This is what she does when you ask her to sit for her shoes.

She is fiercely independent in a way that didn't motivate James at this age.

Must feed herself!

Stealing her brother's lunch because she hates the baby chair and prefers his food.

And this is how she scored her own seat at the table with "big girl" food.

Brushing her own teeth.

Exploring the world. (This James did do.)

Just like her brother though she loves books with a passion. She makes us read her about a 100 books a day. Maybe this is also why she says so many words already- but as mimicry. She still actively communicates with the same words as last month. I sense an explosion coming since she understands a lot and mimics a lot right now.

Reading in James's room

Read me another Dada. Please.

In short, she is little and fierce. Just like all the women in her family.

Chilling with all her favorite women.

• James at 17 months 2012

Ash Visits- September 2015

Ash visited this weekend. I was really looking forward to her visit, then I had a kind of a rough week and her visit was especially a godsend. Ash hung out for a little while and visited with my very odd children.

My kids think this is normal.

Reading to Miranda.

We started with mani-pedis. I actually hadn't even been to the local place yet since moving here, so that was a good exploratory visit for me. Then we were off to Port Jefferson where we managed to alienate everyone in listening range. Fun! We went to Village Way, a friendly little bar I'd enjoyed on my own before. Then we went to the waterfront for drinks- my favorite. This is the part where we were having so much fun we were alienating people. We also made friends while paying for parking the first and second times, because I am parking machine-challenged.

Village Way

Selfies at Wave on the waterfront

Waterfront view

Our manicure and fun drinks

We tried a sushi place in Port Jefferson, Kimi, which was pretty tasty. It was also the quietest restaurant in the history of the world... until we walked in. We followed it with ice cream, which I promptly dripped all over myself.

Ash hung out the next morning and we tried Crazy Bean which is so yumy. Here our pumpkin drinks pumpkin chai (Ash) and pumpkin mocha (me).

Our drinks

Ash is awesome as always! Thanks for visiting!!

• Ash and Janice visit July 2015
• Girls' Weekend March 2015
• Visiting Ash- February 2015

James in Soccer Woddlers 2015

James had his first soccer practice on Saturday! I was so psyched! Both before and after. They played these little cute kid games like "go get the vegetable," "water the plant (ball) with your foot," and "go around the island" to practice soccer skills. If you couldn't hear them it would have just looked like drills, ball control, dribbling, and kick practice.

Best kick ever! Seen here with coach.

Seeing him in his first soccer practice would have been awesome at any age, but you guys, these kids are 3 and 4 years old. So much cuteness and hilarity! First of all, three kids refused to even stay on the field. One thought about it, while holding firmly on to his mother's hand, and then decided against it. A few have "faking to the left" down pat, and pretended like they might stay when their mothers released them, and then immediately escaped off the field. Basically, all the kids pictured here are already winners. Especially the little girl who played in a skirt. Hey, I played field hockey in a skirt, why not soccer?

Anyway, meet the US Soccer/Football Olympic Team of 2028 or 2032:

Drills! Geting the cones that "are the color of bananas."

Control that Captain Morgan would be proud of!

More control

Dribble! The excitement!

Dribble, now with more cuteness!

Gooooooooooooooal!

Huddle up and goodbyes

Grandparents' Day 2015

Grandma, Nana, and Bob visited this weekend.  Grandma came in Friday and hung out. Saturday she went to the library to do a special project with James where Kevin and James interviewed her about her childhood and the library recorded her answers for posterity.

Grandma, Miranda, James, and Nana on Grandparents' Day!

Mom and Bob just came back from a big trip to California, so my mom came bearing souvenirs and hats. Lots of hats. I am ready to accessorize to every event.

We look good in hats.

Miranda wants to know if she can get one of these in black.

There was some light t-ball action. Kevin and I have been debating whether to put James in toddler league sports. We signed him up little people soccer! Next week I will officially be a soccer mom! We will probably also do some kiddie t-ball in the Spring.

Practicing this incredibly easy thing that James thinks is hard.

The cheerleaders!

Bob wants to play too. 

Grandma Kathy up to bat, Miranda on second base.

We had a big lobster ravioli dinner and drinks, and watched a big long slideshow of mom and Bob's trip to California. 

Both Saturday and Sunday, Bob did a bunch of nice home projects for us. He reconnected our TV for a better feed, hooked up our den to it's own electrical fuse so we can run the AC in there without blowing up the house, and fixed this unseemly bump in our fence. Home improvements have begun!

Bob fixing our fence (I helped for exactly 2 seconds- I'm handy!)

Grandma, Kevin, and James went for a little hike nearby. Yes, that's James wearing shorts. Yes, that's a total Mom-and-Dad fail. Yes, he got a million ticks on him. Yes, I am unable to sleep at night until we get a Lymes test done. Let's never ever speak of it again, okay?

It seemed reasonably safe because there's a path.

Then James did stuff like this.

Grandma also stayed Sunday night and Monday morning. She let me sleep on Monday and take a walk to recharge after a very long weekend. She's a hero. The kids tried to persuade her to stay... it almost worked. Haha.

Playing trains

Teaching James French on Duolingo

Thanks for visiting, Grandma, Nana, and Bob!

Previous Posts:

• Nana's last visit in August
• Grandma's last visit in August

• Last September with Nana, 2014
• Last September with Grandma, 2014