PJFL Windsock Craft- April 2016

The kids and I went to a craft project at the library. The librarian read Spring-related books and then we made the windsock craft. I think this is the first time I've heard the word "windsock" in my life. It was fun! Also, I was so excited that the kids qualify for events together at the library now that they had their birthday and they're in the 2-5 preschool range.

Showing off their completed windsocks!

Baby Jasper 2016!

Dear baby Jasper, we've all been waiting for you for almost 5 years! You are here at last! You are very dearly wanted and loved by so many- and especially your super awesome parents Cory and Robin. You really lucked out there little buddy. Clearly good things come to those that persist! We can't wait to meet you!

Jasper Henry- brand new and super adorable



With his hardworking happy mom Robin

With his dad Cory

Miranda is super excited too- A baby! A baby!

Congratulations Cory and Robin!

Pre-K: Frog Journals 2016

James's Pre-K class has a tadpole and they're observing it through it's metamorphosis into a frog. So adorable. Also I love kids' science. And I love talking to James about science. It also reminds me of my dad, and the answers he'd give me to my questions when I was little.

Frog Station

Dillon and Adrianna coloring their journals

James, Rebecca, Lyla, Lexi working on their journals

Here's the star, Polly

There's the little tadpole

Miranda is Two Years Old- and Interview- 2016

Miranda is two years old! She loves books and cartoons. Her favorite books are about Team Oomie Zoomie or Dinosaurs, or in one case, both. Her favorite cartoons are Minnie Mouse, Team Oomie Zoomie, Bubble Guppies, Big Big Friend, and Paw Patrol.

Miranda, a week before his second birthday

A year ago, Miranda turned a year old, and we had her first birthday party as a joint 4th birthday party with James.  I compiled a picture from each of the first 12 months of Miranda's life. Two weeks later, Uncle Andrew moved to Japan!

 
Miranda at her first birthday


Sayonara Uncle Andrew!

Miranda turned 13 months old  and said about 5 words: dada, tickle-tickle-tickle, mama, go, and yesh (yes). (At this age, James said mama, dada, no, and leche).

James at 13 Months, May 23

When Miranda turned 14-months one of her favorite books was "Dinosaur Versus the Library," and she still loves dinosaurs.

Miranda at almost 14 months, June 19- James's Nursery Graduation

Miranda turned 15 months old, and was already over half my height. She could say about 8 words. She started insisting on using a spoon or fork to eat her food. Miranda was sort of the ring leader back then, and James would follow her around imitating her.

Almost. got. it. July 16 (Old house)

Shortly after Miranda turned 15 months, we moved to our first house!!

First day at the new house- no furniture yet, July 31

At 16 months Miranda started having typical toddler tantrums. She also fell madly in love with books. Her favorites were Potty, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, Dora and the Rainy Day, the Belly Button, and ¿Dónde está el ombliguito?

Pretending to read out loud, August 12


At our local beach, September 6

By the time Miranda turned 17 months she had started chatting quite a bit and understood most of what we said to her. She demanded to sit at the dinner table without the baby chair. She yelled at James to "Go back!" one day when she wanted him to get back and not take her toy.

With her favorite ladies, September 12... almost 17 months

October 10

Shortly after she turned 18 months, she celebrated her first Halloween. At 18 months she said: Dada, James, milk, no, yes, stuck, up (to be picked up), go!, book, ball.... Mama (infrequently). She repeated a lot more words than that.

Back when they were twinsies, October 21

Miranda's 2nd Halloween at 18 months old

 

Being pet by Olivia at Mommy N' Me.

Shortly after Miranda turned 19 months old, we celebrated our first Thanksgiving in our own house!

Thanksgiving 2015, Miranda is 19 month

Miranda turned 20 months old and we spent Noche Buena and Christmas morning on Long Island with my mom and Bob, and some days after Christmas with Kevin's family in Cape Cod. And we celebrated New Years Eve together.

Christmas Eve at home, Miranda is 20 months old

Being tickled by Nana


Opening presents with James


Grandma Ruth reading Miranda stories


New Years Eve

Miranda turned 21 months old and started saying two or three words together at a time.  We celebrated Valentine's Day and Kevin's 36th birthday.

Pointing out the birds in our feeder


With Aunt Melanie and Uncle David


Snow storm Juno!

Valentine's Day with Grandma 2016

On February 20, she turned 22 months old. We celebrated my 37th birthday, then St. Patrick's Day.

My 37th birthday

At 23 months old, we celebrated Easter on Cape Cod with Kevin's family. Miranda got her first real haircut. She also went to her first (primary) election.

James, Great Grandma Ruth and Miranda at Easter

First haircut at 23 months

She turned two years old and celebrated her joint birthday with her brother. She's such a smart funny girl. We love you so much, Miranda!

Miranda's 2nd birthday party with family

Rocking her new raincoat.

Miranda Interview, 4/27/16

What's your name? No.

Who's that? James.

Who am I? Mama.

Who is that? Dada. 

Who are you? Me. I am me.

How old are you? Do you know? No. (Two)

What is your favorite color? One.

That's a number. What's your favorite color? Pink.

What is your favorite animal? Sheep.

What is your favorite food? Prepes. (Pretzles.)

    What's your favorite breakfast? Dedios. (Cheerios.)

    What's your favorite lunch? Pretzles. (Usually wants peanut butter and jelly every day.)

    What's your favorite dinner? Pasta. Chee. (Pasta and cheese?)

Do you love me? Yeah.

Do you love Dada? Yep.

Do you love James? Yeah.

Do you love Grandma? Yeah.

Do you love Nana? Yep.

What is your favorite book? ...

Do you like books? Yep!

What is your favorite song? Itsy Spida. (Itsy Bitsy Spider)

What is your favorite toy? Itsy Spida.

Do you sleep with anything? Yeah.

What do you sleep with? Bed.

What toy do you sleep with? Pig. (Sleeps with a pink bunny that she calls Bunny. Has no pig toy.)

What is your favorite show? Big Big. 

Big Big Friend? Yeah.

I thought you liked Team Oomie Zoomie the best? No, Big Big Friend. (Starts singing song.)*

Are you funny? Noooo.

Who is your best friend? James is.

What do you want to want to be when you grow up? You.

You want to be me when you grow up? No.

What do you like better the beach, the library, the Aquarium, or the playground? Beach!

What do you think the meaning of life is? Cheese! Hot chocolate.

Is there something else I should ask you? Nope.

Caught "reading" in her room, April 21

* Obsessed with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins (musical cartoon), Team Oomie Zoomie (math cartoon), and Bubble Guppies

James's 5th Birthday Interview and Pre-K Party 2016

James had a little birthday celebration at school on the actual day of his birthday. We got him some Snoopy and Woodstock cupcakes and his teacher made him a Snoopy hat. So nice! James says Woodstock is his favorite and insists that he's not a bird but a fish. Oh well.

James's PreK class the day he turned 5!

Snoopy cupcakes

Since James's fourth birthday he's matured in so many ways that sometimes I forget that he's really still a little kid. He can read and he can speak and reason the way that I see slightly older kids doing, so I forget that he's still a very sensitive "little" preschooler.

Close up! Dillon, Ellie, James and Lexi

James's Happy Birthday Cupcake-face

Interview, 4/27/16
What's your name? James.
What's my name? Mama.
What's my husband's name? I don't know.
   The guy who left for work this morning? Dada. You had to give me a hint.
How old are you? Five.
How old do you think I am? Seventy-six? (I am 37.)
How old is Dada? Fifty-five. (He is 36.)
How old is Miranda? Almost 3. (Nope, just turned 2 last week.)

What is your favorite animal? An elephant.
What is your favorite color? Green, yellow, and pink.

What is your favorite food? Apples!
    What's your favorite breakfast? Yogurt.
    What's your favorite lunch? Pickles.
    Do you have anything with the pickles? Yes. Cheese sandwich.
    What's your favorite dinner? Pasta. And chicken nuggets!

What is your favorite book? Hm... tick tock tick tock... I know! I Love You Stinky Face.
What is your favorite song? Rock-a-bye-baby.
What is your favorite toy? Play-Doh. (Currently playing with Play-Doh.)
Do you sleep with any toys at night? Um, Fudgie. (In a "duh, mom, type voice)
What is your favorite show? (Thinks about it.) She-zow.
Which is your favorite movie?  Like at the movie theater? Inside Out. I see it at the movie theater. Movie theaters have all different movies, and one time I saw Inside Out at the movie theater. You took me. Sometimes we see movies and the movie theater right? Wait, what are you typing?
Me: Everything you're saying!

Are you funny? Yes.
How do you know? Since you always say that.
Do I say you're funny or do I say I'm funny? I am sometimes.

Who is your best friend? Adrianna. (Girl at school.)
Do you like school? Yes.
What do you like about school? To play and I like show n' tell.
Who are your teachers? Miss Jackie and Miss Tasha. Oh yeah, Miss Jill. Well there's four, so there's one more. Wait, it's Miss Patti!

Do you love me? Yes! 
Do you love Dada? Yes! 
Do you love Miranda? Mm, a little bit. (I laugh.) What? She does bad things. I call her Bad News.

What does it mean that you love someone? That you like someone and that you like them a lot.

Do you want to get married one day? Yes.
What do you think the person that you marry should be like? Ellen. (8.5 year-old girl that lives on Cape Cod.) 
Do you think Ellen would make a good a wife? Yes.
Why? Because she's my BFF. Do you know what a BBF is mama?
Best Friends Forever, that's a good reason. Yeah!

What's your favorite thing about Grandma? That she's really nice.
What's your favorite thing about Nana? That she's also really nice to me.
What about Bob? The same thing?

What do you want to want to be when you grow up? A teacher.
How come? Because I want to teach people work. Dada's a teacher.
What kind of a teacher is he? A worker teacher and I want to be a teacher.
What does Dada teach? Work. Wait, what does Dada teach really?
He teaches people to write stories. So he's a writing teacher? You can erase work, and write writing teacher.

What do you like better the beach, the library, the Aquarium, or the playground? The library, because we can play in the children's room and there's lots of toys.

What do you like to do with Dada? Work.
What do you mean? I used the sucky thing when the mud got in the pipes. (James has been using a siphon to help Kevin fix the sprinklers.)
What do you like to do with Mama? Play. What do you like to play with me? Legos.
What do you like to play with Grandma? I like to play with her iPad.
What do you like to play with Nana? I like to show her Rope Rescue. (Game he plays on TV Roku.)
What do you like to play with Bob? Pretty much everything.
What do you like to play with Dada? You mean Work? 
No, you play with Dada sometimes. What do you like to play with him? She-zow. (They act out James's favorite superhero scenes.)

What else do you think I should ask? What Elmo is.
What is Elmo? A monster.

I thought of another question, what do you think the meaning of life is? Don't know.
I mean, what do you think life is for? It's a game?

James is 3.5 years old 2014

James 3rd Birthday interview

James's interview at 2.5 years old

James wasn't interview ready at 2 years old, but he was starting to use sentences. 

PJFL Free Portraits 2016

Our library had free portraits! How wonderful. These are actually our first professional pictures as a family. And these were pretty close to the kids birthday.

The background is... rain clouds? Gray shag carpet? Who knows. 

Family picture

James is looking pretty tall.

Miranda smiles sometimes.

NY State Primary Voting 2016

Kevin and I voted in the same primary, for different candidates. So, basically our trip was pointless, except for inspiring these future little voters:

Real Cubans ALWAYS vote.

Also worth noting is that I was asked for ID while Kevin was not. This is despite voting in all the primaries and elections together since 2008, and also moving together. So nothing differentiates us except our first names. Sketchy!

Former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also voted in NY State today.

James 5th and Miranda's 2nd Birthday 2016

The kids are so lucky! We had Grandma, Nana, and Bob here for the whole weekend to celebrate their birthday. They sang, ate, opened presents, played together, read, hiked, and even napped together.

  

James is 5! Singing with 5 on cake.

Make a wish!

Shared cake

Miranda is 2! Singing with the 2 on the cake!

We helped her blow it out...

Birthday balloons! Miranda got a big dinosaur and James got a video game balloon.

They got a ton of presents - the fact that it's both of their birthdays are the same day increases the enthusiasm of the day- it's like Christmas. Though they did have to share a cake this year. Mostly because they liked the same cake anyway.

Opening the first few presents.

I opened the clothing for them.

Trying stuff on, and turning stuff on.

She asked me to put the rain coat on her.

She loves it!

Hungry Hippos!

James on play cell phone, Miranda feeding hippos

James got play glasses

Twinsies.

Riding his bike outside

Hanging on the deck while the Cuban girls nap.

Nana reading to Miranda

Long dresses and smiles

Hiking

A very good visit and a very happy joint birthday!