Happy (early) Brithday Pip!

Pip's birthday is really Tuesday but we celebrated today because Grammie and Grandpa were in town and because we had his party this afternoon. Last night Jeanne and I made a masterful fire engine cake which I was quite proud of.


This morning Pip ripped open his presents with gusto. His favorite was definitely the Little Eistein rocket ship (of prior blog infamy) but he also loved his trains, fire truck, MD kit, and Tonka kit as well.


The aforementioned Rocket Ship:


Vivian got to open her presents from Grammie and Grandpa early since they were her. She loved the stroller and is trying to learn how to turn with it.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Thursday was Daddy's birthday. We were all very excited, perhaps none of us more than Pip who lived viacariously through Phil. I had a huge bag wrapping Phil's gift ... Pip saw it and sighed "Oh, my!" He helped Phil open it, helped Phil play it, helped Phil blow out the candles on his ice cream cake, and of course helped Phil eat it.




Happy 34th Daddy!

Mother's Day

What a nice Mother's Day! I got to sleep in a bit before Pip ran up the stairs with a tulip for me and a beautiful handmade card and a boisterous "HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MOMMY!!"

I walked the Melrose Mom's 5K with my neighbor and friend and then we went for brunch where we met up with some other neighbors by chance.

I got this pic before we went to Kelly's for dinner. Just makes me laugh.

Big Bad Wolves

Forgot to upload these cute pic of Pip and Viv trying on Nick's '08 Halloween costume.

Mother's Day Eve

I like to think of this as Mother's Day weekend -- but apparently it's only just the Sunday. I did get lots of pampering both days. Phil and I went on two separate errand trips so we could get birthday presents for the kids. Pip went with Phil and was told to pick something for Vivie. It was to be an exercise in thinking about her instead of himself. You might guess how this went. Phil said the breakdown happened at Target when he spotted the Little Einstein rocket ship and was denied. Cried all through the aisle. Wailed through the checkout. Pleaded and sobbed in the car ride home. Climbed into my arms lamenting his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.


(Don't worry, Vivie and I crept out later to get the rocket ship and hid it away for his birthday).

Later that afternoon we did some yard work. Phil showed Pip how to use the new watering wand and he was doing great until it fell and he froze in it's spray. Hence the following pics:





Meanwhile Vivie experimented with eating sand and looking precious. We've fashioned a chair as a gate on the deck to attempt to slow her. Her favorite activity is climbing and she prefers stairs. Up and down, up and down, up and down ... pose!

Vivian is walking

Vivian is beyond thrilled with herself lately. She's getting more and more brave to take steps independently. The past few days she strung several together going from Daddy to Mommy or the sofa to Mommy. She even showed off when I dropped her off at daycare to rounds of applause. She loves the accolades.



In this video she's a bit distracted with the lovely blue necklace Pip gave her but she still managed to get over to me without falling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeCjDWSNE5o

Today she also played hookey AGAIN from daycare. She threw up her yogurt and milk (I guess it was a lot) and then was all smiles and love the whole night after I brought her home. Pip's getting to understand future statements and likes to plan ahead. When I told him Daddy would pick him up, he remembered it, so when I showed up instead he was all about "where's Daddy? Daddy is supposed to get me today!" Oh well, I got lots of love from him this morning when he told me "I was lovin' you all day at school, Mommy". Awwww...

A weekend by the numbers

3: Number of trips of medical facilities this weekend. 1 trip to the pedi who was concerned about Pip's cough/wheezing. 1 trip to the hospital for x-rays to rule out pneumonia. 1 trip back to the pedi to review things, confirming no pneumonia, but a likely a asthmatic reaction to a cold.

8: Number of times Pip used a nebulizer from Friday to this evening. He was hysterically scared of it the first time at the pedi's office and needed to be held down forcefully. Now he's a pro -- happily holding it "BY MYSELF"! See pics below.




55: Number of various boo-boo's Pip withstood. One particularly bad one was handed out by Abby, our neighbor, whose bike got a little out of control and whose brakes at the handlebars knocked Pip for a loop. This boo-boo was severe enough to require a frozen pop for Pip and a sympathy pop for his friend Brian.


note boo-boo between the eyebrows:


5: Number of steps Vivie can take now fully on her own. This one varies because she'll sometimes fall down early if she's not quite steady and at times maybe even has gotten more than five in a row. She's very proud of herself! We are so excited we haven't even gotten the camera out for a video because we can't take our eyes off her to grab it!

1024: Number of times Pip said "Vivie's harrassin' me!" when Vivie poked and prodded him. Vivie LOVES this response and proceeds to laugh and squeal with delight, poking and prodding him with an even bigger smile on her face. I've had to separate them several times.

14: Number of circles around the house Pip and Vivie crawled in a thrilling game of "catch me".

57: Number of times Vivie crawled under Phil and my legs in a solo game she likes to play called "leg tunneling".

1: Number of naps taken today, all summed, by all members of the Balas family. The single nap was Vivie's from 10am - 12:30pm ... a solid long nap, but it was to be the last.

2.5: Number of books I read to Pip tonight before he fell asleep on my lap. He was full out sleeping and scrunching down to get into a full horizontal position when I extricated myself from his bed. He, of course, woke up enough then to request two renditions of the unicorn song and one singing of Tambourine Man ("sing it nice and loud Mommy") before I left him to return to sleep.

1: Number of networks connected by Phil between our laptop downstairs and the desktop in the attic. Seriously .. this is exciting people!

0: Number of martini's Natalie had this weekend. This is only significant because Saturday was to be her long-planned and much anticipated Mom's Group Martini Night, which had to be scrapped due to many Mom's having various crises to attend to ... including Natalie's own persistent headaches (ugh) and Pip's coughing/wheezing. Luckily, 0 is also the number of headaches she's had today, so hopefully that's all passed.