Don't touch me Vivian!

Ah, it's officially started. Vivian's annoying Pip like all good sisters should. Pip yelled his first "DON'T TOUCH ME VIVIAN!" as we shared another important first ... the watching of It's a Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, that I had DVR'd over Halloween.

In other news, I caught the nasty bug Phil had and was graciously given leave to sleep in this morning and also take a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. Ugh. Pip decided to take advantage of his parents' stupor to "figure it out" and claimed all the kitchen drawers as his own. He now tramps over with his chair, stands on it, and takes anything out of the drawers he desires. At one point we found him in the laundry room with a small bungee cord shoved into the washer seam, and Daddy's hammer in hand, proudly proclaiming that "I'm figuring it out, Mommy"

Look out world. Look out.

Survivors

It's been a sluggish few days here with Phil still feeling sick and preferring to rest whenever possible. I've got a sore throat as well and took DayQuil today with some success. If Pip and Viv got it, we can't tell. They both seem happy as ever.


Pip had his Thanksgiving feast at school on Friday but all he could talk about was going to see the choo choo train in the buggy, by far his favorite event. Viv visited her newest ally in the neighborhood today, Sara Ann Leonard, with Mommy. She showed off her exploration skills and huge smiles .... her favorite charming methods.


Thursday I was out with friends so Phil had to put Pip and Viv down by himself. I came home to find a sleeping house and an empty Kleenex box on the kitchen counter next to a grocery bag filled with tissues. The note on top said "It was quiet ... to quiet." Phil and Pip both crack me up. Pip has enjoyed that I still let him at the grocery bag of tissues every once in a while. Looks like its snowed inside! Although I had to put my foot down tonight and insist that he clean up all the tissues and other toys before bed. He initially thought he'd help (there was also a promise of chocolate thrown in) but got purposefully distracted. I told him no bath unless he cleaned. Still no interest. After I cleaned everything up he came into the living room and said "Good job Mommy!!" kinda funny, but not so much after I told him no bath and no chocolate. Suddenly he wanted to clean. Too late. Phil and I had to endure an ugly tantrum, but he eventually calmed down and enjoyed a rousing rendition of Where the Wild Things are before bed.


Pip has also gotten advanced at wearing mommy's shoes:



and piling things on his father (and also into the sleeping bag with mommy, which was the latest in "non-toy" toys that have him squealing with delight.




In the culinary side of things, I'm trying pulled pork BBQ in the crock pot. Recipe calls for 1 cup of root beer and a good helping of trust. In 11 hours we'll see if that trust is well-founded.

Running wild

Today Phil's home sick with a cold. :( But Pip, Viv, and I are going strong. This morning we posed a bit for the camera and Pip played with Play-Doh. He's still convinced it'd make a good meal. Since I won't let him eat it, he's resorted to rubbing it all over his upper lip and then licking his lips. I think I created a monster.

Later we met up with friends at Strike One -- an indoor arena with turf for the kids to run at their hearts content. Pip was VERY skeptical at the beginning, so much so that he was terrified to enter the building. Then, two minutes later he saw the play area and was off -- never looked back. I think he did the equivalent of 50 full field suicide sprints. It was all I could do to keep him in my sights. Vivie hung around in the Mei Tai for most of the time and later hung tough in her car seat.

Afterwards Susan, Janel, and I took the kids to Kelly's Roast Beef for lunch. They have a kids room where the boys could continue to run wild (they store energy better than lithium batteries) and scream and look at the huge fish in the tanks. Even Jameson showed his wild side. Rumpus, rumpus, rumpus.

Testing the water

Today I dragged the whole family to the Melrose Unitarian Universalist church for Sunday services. It's a touchy topic for me. I struggle with issues of faith, spirituality, and religion but miss the community of a church. Now that I have kids, I also think a lot about what I want to teach them about these issues. I have been disappointed by organized religion in my past and no longer find solace in their answers because I doubt the entire foundation on which they are built. But the truth is, I don't know how we got here either. Several years ago I decided that asking questions while being open to learning about spirituality was the only way for me. Given that, I was hopeful that the UU congregation might be a good fit.

It was only one visit, but I felt very comfortable there. Pip and Phil spent most of the time having a blast in the nursery and Viv flirted with everyone near us all through the sermon. We've decided to put two more visits on our calendar and re-assess again.

Tunnels and other mischief

Lately Pip is all about his tunnels. He's constantly requesting for us to build tunnels for him and then crawls over and under them endlessly. The tunnels always end up collapsing into slidey boards, which is all the more fun. Here's some tunnel shots:

Vivian is changing so much. She rolled over from her tummy to her back today, several times for me. It's easier now because she's pushing up so far on her arms, if you dangle something high above her head, she'll turn to see it and flop on over. She can also spin all the way on a 360 degree circle on her tummy and inches forward and backward little bits. Once in a while all her efforts will get her up onto her knees a bit and she gets a good solid inch forward or back, but she can't sustain it for long or repeat it on purpose. She's doing great sitting up and can lean forwards and back without losing it and toppling over. It's amazing to think about all the work her little abs are doing these days! Here she is pushing up:

and LOVING her bath (she eats her toes in there):

Today we also went to Molly Yi's first birthday party. It was wonderful to see how big she is and what a total joy she is to be around. Before we left Pip worked on a birthday card ... unfortunately most of the ink did not make it on the paper:

At the party, Vivian charmed everyone with her consta-smile and Pip was also tame and polite. Here Pip is building a tower at the party:

If you link to youtube below you can see a video of Pip serenading Vivian after we got home:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOpxuYA_gMk

Psssst....

Sssshhh... ok, just between me and you now. I don't want this to get out otherwise it's sure to jynx us. But last night ... wait for it .... last night Pip came to his door once, moaned in his bed for a bit, then slept ... through the night without getting out of his bed once! We left the door open and he stayed in bed, even when he woke at 7:15 he just stayed in bed and called for us.

You can see why this needs to stay on the down low! It may be too good to be true.

The pendulum swings...

It was a day of ups and downs for the Balas family. Literally in Vivian's case. I was so thrilled that she ate a full dinner of carrots and rice cereal and still had room for a solid 2.5 ounces right before bed. As I was laying her down to pull her blanket around her, thinking how she was so full she'd sleep all night, up it all came. Three, four, five times, all over the changing pad, her three layers of pajamas, in her hair, down her back. I couldn't move for a second .. I just stood there dumbfounded. Vivian didn't seem to mind, just kept throwing up all non-plussed.

For Pip, it was Phil and I who swung one way and then the other. Normally we make a concerted effort to be consistent with him. If you don't, you pay the price. But this getting out of bed thing has us frazzled. After a sad night up crying from 2:30 - 3am last night and having to lock him in his room with the bungee cord again, he was on alert all evening. Both Phil and I had separate conversations with him where we talked through what had happened and he seemed to understand that the door would remain unlocked unless he continued to get up in the night. "Yes, yes, I understand Mommy!" Cut to bedtime. No sooner than 2 minutes after leaving the room he's out. Door closed, he's out again. Door held shut, he's bawling for 15 minutes. I broke my own promise for consistency and went in. He seemed most upset at the idea of it being locked so I told him if he stayed in the bed not only could the door be unlocked, but I'd leave it open. Immediate relief. Amazingly, both of us have held to the bargain. He didn't get out of his bed again and he's fast asleep. Now we just need to get through the whole night!

Nicholas and Natalie Save the Day

Pip has recently begun coming out of his room after we put him to bed to play what he thinks is a fun game of "Annoy Mommy and Daddy". He opens his door, makes some noises, then smiles at us when we have to go up there to put him back in his bed. While Phil and I disagree on the exact method to stop this, we eventually took turns holding his door shut last night until he gave up. That was the prelude to today....

Our days started out ok, but Pip quickly devolved into fits of boredom. The trains were no longer enough to amuse him and he wanted to go to Nicholas's house and/or Charlie's house. Viv sensed his restlessness and decided to weigh in herself with her own whines and cries. The house was a veritable maelstrom of complaints. Pip decided he was hungry, despite having had a pancake, yogurt fruit snacks, and half a banana for breakfast and insisted on yogurt at 11.

During phase 2 of Pip's whine firestorm Viv was napping so I got out the dinosaur that you put the balls in from the attic. It was quite dirty and Pip was temporarily pacified by the cleaning of it and the promise of playing with it. He did calm down after for a bit and drove his forklifts all through it. Most of the balls were in Viv's room so we couldn't use it properly until she woke up. That lasted a short bit -- then back to whining about yogurt.

Finally Nicholas & Co arrived and there were squeals of delight. Pip immediately showed him his "new" toy and they had a blast shoving balls into it and seeing who could grab the most and shove them back in the fastest. Viv perked up at all the activity and was a sweet pea as well. She's doing great sitting up lately, just needs the boppy and a hand every once in a while.

Pip also showed off all 4 of his library books and I think we had to go through a full two rounds. There was a parallel timeout for Pip and Nicholas (separate rooms) for turning on the bath water (second offense). No more water after that.

Only downside to the visit was that just as he was leaving, Pip convinced Nicholas to run up into our room for a round of "jump and scream on Mommy & Daddy's bed" which woke Vivian from a nice nap.

I put Pip in his bed and he immediately began the other fun game: "come out of bed and open the door". I have the door "locked" with a nylon strap and a bungee cord now. There was some knocking, but generally he played up there for an hour. When I went up to confront him, he was clearly not going to sleep. So let him out of his room and we decided to head out to run a few errands.

Before we had even traveled 2 miles, I looked into the back seat and Pip's eyes were half open. I was like "WHAAT!!! You can't sleep Pip ... you just said you didn't want to nap! Now you want to sleep in the car." He muttered back at me, "sleep in the car mommy" and was out cold. He had a blast at Trader Joe's and we found a fabulous toy store right near us that we will surely frequent.

When we got home we made Vivian some butternut squash puree which both she and Pip enjoyed for dinner. While I was making it, Pip was busy taking the credit cards out of my wallet and slipping them between the slats of his table. "I'm WORKING!", he shouted, I should have known he wasn't harassing me for a reason.

I attended the wake for our neighbor, Jack McBride, this evening. He died Sunday at 76 yrs, leaving his wife Mary, 80 yrs, a widow. So sad. Phil watched the kids while I went and enlisted Pip to train Vivian how to crawl. In the photos below, Viv nibbles a bit and Pip demonstrates crawling technique while saying "CHEESE!" to the camera.

After this very long day, Phil reports that Pip fell asleep in his bed while getting songs sung to him .. so no drama at his door requiring bungee cord locks this evening.

A Day in Numbers

6: Number of chocolate glazed munchkins devoured by Pip at the Dunkin Donuts. This may be a new record, and based on the type of day he had, one which will never be surpassed. It's amazing how charming a little kid can be despite just having stuffed a whole munchkin in his mouth.

12: Number of stories in the block tower built by Pip this morning. Normally they rise to about 6 or 7 and then get leveled by Pipzilla. He was evidently in a constructive mood.

1: Gallons of milk consumed by Pip today. Seriously, the kid kept asking for more milk. He's gonna have some strong bones!

4: Bags of leaves raked up by Pip and Phil. This was the perfect excuse to go outside and enjoy a sunny and mild November morning. Pip was a very hard worker, helping to rake and fill bags. I think he sensed that this might be the last nice weekend of the year, too.




2: Number of worms discovered by Pip out in the yard. They were hiding under some wet leaves. We spent several minutes watching them crawl around and dig into the dirt.

8: Legs on the spider that we found in one of Pip's shovels. Pip was working in his sandbox and cried out "Look at that ladybug!" I went over to see and discovered it was actually a little spider that had been hiding in one of Pip's shovels. He has a bit of a love-hate thing going with spiders, so upon learning the true identity of the creature, he wanted me to take it away. It's now in the rose bush and has promised not to harass any other toddlers.

7: Minutes of sustained wailing during an afternoon trip to the barber. He seemed genuinely enthusiastic for the haircut when we suggested it might be time to tame the mane. He was all bubbly in the car ride and kept saying "I'm so excited Mommy!" Oh, well. He made a quick recovery and spent the car ride home singing the ABC song.



3: Number of bridges in the massive railway system constructed by Pip. The bridge is a touchy feature since Pip likes to string together about 15 cars which simply cannot navigate a bridge without derailing. That usually leads to some pouting or worse. However, this time we managed to take advantge of the crashes by having the heavy recovery unit (aka Butch) come in and salvage the situation.

130: Points scored by Phil's fantasy football team so far (thanks Adrian Peterson and Tony Gonzalez). Sweet. His 4-game losing streak ends here.

Pip goes to story time

Today Pip was very excited to "WAKE UP MOMMY!!!" and made several trips into my room to wake me up. He gets right down into my face and says persistently, "Wake up Mommy! Wake UP!" Slowly I relented and gave up on my turn to sleep in. Rats. But he was so cute it was impossible to be mad.

Unlike his Dad, Pip loves to run errands. He happily accompanied me to the bank, the optician, and then the library. We were even rewarded on our journey in the stroller when the hospital had a huge crane working outside and we were able to stop and watch it load and lift some boxes onto the roof. Of course, Pip's favorite stop was the library where he proudly pushed the elevator buttons and ran giddily into the children's room. He enjoyed playing and sharing the choo-choo trains very nicely. Given his recent despair that all the halloween spider decorations have been taken down, I found a spider book and showed it to him. He loved it! It's non-fiction, from the child's reference section, and the pictures are almost too much for Mommy to take! But Pip pointed to each one and yelled "Hey Look!". Lots of other kids came over to see what the excitement was about, but upon seeing it was spiders, none stayed to read more.

After some time we heard lots of kids clamoring and singing and following a lady through the children's room. We happened upon storytime! Pip was SO excited and joined right in singing "Wheels on the Bus", showing his detailed and accurate knowledge of not just the words but also the hand signs. He loved listening to the book, especially If You're Happy and You Know It, which involved not only reading but also more singing and dancing. He loved the jumping part!

Unfortunately, he didn't have such a great morning after we got home. Not sure why, but he deteriorated into sad, whining, crying Pip, for several hours until we finally made him take a nap. It could have been that we didn't have Annie's Mac N Cheese, his favorite. And Mommy resorted to making homemade orzo and cheese (very yummy, with real cheddar and a rue base). He had a blast helping me make it (put the butter, flour, and cheese into the pan and helped stir) but was disappointed to learn he'd actually have to eat it. Oh well.

Meanwhile, Vivian had a morning with Dad. She still has a nasty cough. On top of that she's rolling over in the crib and waking herself up. So her naps are shorter than she needs. She's trying to be a trooper, but often gets cranky herself. She loves trying to sit up and grab/lunge at her toys, which flops her over onto her tummy again. The rock n bounce is the best because she can really get into her toys. She is an intent player. She is doing great at night, no longer fussing at random. She is still getting up twice to eat, and then goes right back to bed. I fear we have also entered the beginning of the horrible drool phase. She's got the half-moon of wetness on the top of her shirts all the time now. Break out the bibs.

Here's a picture of our sweetie rolled over in her crib.

A typical day ...

It's been a typical few days here at the ranch. Pip and Viv both have runny noses which leads to some general fussiness, but it is easily forgotten too.

Yesterday we had Mom's group here and Pip and Viv welcomed their friends. Pip enjoyed playing a little game of see-food with Nicholas, Charlie, and Jameson here.

We also got out the play mat that Elise gave us and had a fabulous time playing tunnel and slidey board. Viv watched in amasement and wondered if they ever stop moving or be quiet!

Today after school Pip learned that olives have pits and if you want to eat one by yourself you have to eat around the pit and put it in the trash. Phil taught him how to do it and he was very proud of himself. Here are some pics:

Meantime, Vivian loved her some peas and rice cereal. Mommy soaked up the love.

Election Day

Despite all my attempts to convert Phil, today we voted and essentially cancelled each other out. Maybe he'll see the light in 2012.

Pip and Viv didn't seem too concerned about the election. Phil had a pretty good morning getting them both to school and gave this report:

"Pip was up early and likely amused himself with his wooden truck for a while. He eventually knocked it off the bed and pretended he couldn't reach it from the bed. His increasing agitation noises woke me up at 7 to help him out. The normal breakfast routine began: "mac and cheese...NO COOKING." Luckily I was able to comply. He also ate a few chunks of watermelon. The routine is fairly consistent now. I shower while he plays, then Viv wakes up while he's getting dressed. She was pleasant and drank about 1.5 oz. When she went into a mild food coma, I took the opportunity to clip her nails. Earlier I went out to warm up the car, so when we went out to load up, there was a bit of condensation on the tailpipe. Pip was entranced by the dripping water and rumbling muffler. I pulled him from the noxious fumes and we watched the tailpipe for a few minutes. The trip to school and the dropoff were fine. Pip helped to carry the carseat in, but was distracted by a huge, intact leaf at the entrance. He took that in to show everyone."

In a late breaking update, Phil just came downstairs to report that Pip knows the words to two of his bedtime songs, The Unicorn Song and Sweet Baby James. Normally he loves to lay in bed and cuddle up while we sing him these songs (Daddy is the much preferred singer) and he doesn't say much except to ready his next request as soon as you get to the end of the current one. Phil said tonight Pip was holding his penguin animal and when Phil stopped singing, he sang the whole chorus of the unicorn song and then told Phil it was the Penguin who sang it! Impressed, Phil asked Pip to sing along to Sweet Baby James, and he did! He got not just the chorus but the whole first part ... "as the moon rises he sits by the fire, thinking about women and glasses appear" TOO CUTE. Phil will try to video tape it a bit tomorrow.

Vivian's crying it out

We officially decided Vivian was old enough to cry it out a little at night. She had actually been sleeping better when she was 2 months old than she was at 5 months, and Mommy had enough of 3-4 nightly feedings. On the night of Nov 1st we decided to implement to graduated extinction approach, allowing for up to 2 feedings -- but the first had to start on or after midnight. She woke earlier than expected at 8:30 because Pip was screaming/singing in his room, so the process hit the ground running. We went in to her at 5, 10, 15 minute intervals, but no feeding!! She lasted an hour and 15 minutes until she conked out until 1:42am! Good job sweetie.

Last night, her second in the process, she did fabulous. She woke at around 9 to whine briefly but we didn't even have to go to her. Then she woke at 11:10 and I went to her once after she cried for 5 minutes, then she was out until 4 am!! Impressive little girl.

Hopefully if we stick to our guns she'll stay at only one feeding for a while and then eventually do it all on her own!

Renovations Complete!

Some of you have asked about our renovations. Yes, they are finished!! Finally! We tore down the old deck which took up most of our yard and relaced it with a smaller composite deck (no maintenance!). This left us with more yard space to play with Pip and Viv.

We also gutted the bathroom. A bit aggressive in retrospect, and required lots of treks to friends for showers, but worth it now.

Here are some after shots.

Pip climbs Vivian's high chair

Just a cute video pf Pip, lots of good talking and big smiles as he proudly scales the high chair we recently brought down for Vivian.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVnjM8zuehk


Another verbal highlight was when mommy suggested it was time for Pip to take his nap and he replied, "Mommy, stop talking!"

He eventually did nap and afterwards it was nearly dark, given the end of daylight savings time. We decided to enjoy a walk to the grocery store in the strollers and Pip marveled at how the sun had gon to bed and it was dark. At the store he spied a tray of mini cupcakes from the bakery, which we agreed he could purchase. It took a while to convince him he could not eat them on the spot, and he finally relented and got back into the car cart when we told him he could hand them to the "lady", which he loves to do at the check out. Despite the very cold weather, Pip happily refused his gloves and held the cupckes on his lap the whole way home, for the joy of ensuring they were his. Once home one was wisely and carefully selected (double chocolate) and then two candles were inserted and happy birthday was sung. Pip thinks happy birthday is simply a cong you sing when you are happy with someone, not at all related to the year/day of their birth. Daddy helped blow out the candles and the cupcake was devoured in seconds flat.

Halloween 2008

This Halloween was a grand adventure for the entire family. We enjoyed raking leaves, attending the Biogen Idec Halloween party at Mom's work, attending the Mom's Group Halloween party, and having our own Halloween party at home in Melrose!

We were very lucky to share Halloween night with Aislinn and Chase. Of course, their parents (Rob and Tasha for Aislinn; Katie and Jon for Chase) joined us as well.

Chase was very handsome in his pumpkin costume, even if it was a bit big for his 3 week old body. He seemed to have the most fun cuddling with his mommy, but he was also very observant, checking out all the sites and sounds of Melrose between naps.

Aislinn and Pip had a total blast getting candy in their pumpkins. Pip's version of "trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat" went like this: "trick a treat, smell my toes, give me something to eat!". Downtown, Pip preferred the luxury of his stroller and enjoyed reclining back into it after each candy stop. What a lazy trick or treater!

Vivian did the downtown stroll in the mei tai and passed out cold for most of the walk. Later in the evening she watched all the activity from the comfort of her rack n bouce, evercising her legs in anticipation of eventually keeping up with Pip!

To see more pictures, view our web album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/NatalieBalas/200810#

Welcome to Our Blog!

We'll use this site to post pictures and stories of our family adventures. Took us a while to decide to finally use a blogspot, but I think it is time to stop sending massive emails to everyone with our pictures.

We're starting out just in time to post our Halloween pictures. This year we had Tiger Pip and Turtle Vivian. Both thoroughly enjoyed wearing their costumes.

The pictures here are from our second annual Fall Block Party. Pip ran like a lunatic up and down the street the whole day, having a blast. Viv was sweet as pie and enjoyed just taking it all in. Phil spent the day playing rugby and missed the festivities, but he was quite proud to come home and learn that his enchiladas won the cook-off, brining the coveted golden ladel to our kitchen this year.