Happy Birthday Chase!!!

I can't believe this little man turned 1 already. It seems just yesterday he was a sweet peanut in the hospital. He's still a sweet peanut, but now he's on the go and officially a handsome toddler.

Katie had lots of sweets to celebrate ... to the delight of everyone involved.

A Charleston Stroll

Saturday morning we decided to take a stroll of historic Charleston. Chase was very excited to go!!


Pip was happy to ride on Phil's shoulders until he saw the cannons. These were, predictably, very exciting for a 3 year old boy.


Vivie took to a little climbing and then hopped on Pop for a ride herself.



Charleston is beautiful ... gorgeous gardens, old and colorful homes, scenic ocean views. And lots of horses. I won't go into one particular horse story, but surely Pip won't forget it anytime soon if you want to ask him.

Heading to Charleston

This Friday we packed light and attempted a weekend trip to visit Jon, Katie, and Chase in Charleston, SC. The flight down was smack in the middle of bedtime, with a connection, and the threat of a 3 and a half hour delay. Turns out it wasn't pretty. We started out nicely (see cute video of them playing at Logan) ... filled the middle with a solid 5-alarm tantrum courtesy of Pip ... and ended fast asleep.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8vaH8y2JFQ

Here's Vivie waiting for the plane to leave Boston (we stayed on to wait it out after everyone else deplaned upon news of the delay). The feet in the back are a stewardess relaxing!

Relaxing? Maybe not.

Here you see Vivian and Pip honing their massage skills. Vivie has an interesting slap technique while Pip using a bit more of his body weight to get into it. While this might fail to be relaxing for Phil, she does demonstrate a mean down dog to be envied.

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

Chase visits!

Katie, Jon, and Chase stopped by for a short visit Sunday night.

Chase is on the go! He scrambled for the remote, like any self-respecting man does. Even Vivie couldn't catch him and had to settle for watching his shows.


Well, except for neither of them knows how to use it. Vivie tried to give some instructions, but alas, the football somehow stayed on the tube.


Undeterred, Vivie showed her tomboy strut.


While Pip broke out the helicopter and showed that he actually can fly it himself (here, narrowly averting getting struck in the head).

Passing time

Current favorite activities include:

Being naked ... Vivie loves to do anything naked. Here she pushes her stroller.


Playing at the sink, preferably while dumping as much water onto yourself as possible. If you don't need a new outfit after this activity, you haven't tried hard enough.



Puzzles. Pip loves to put them together (he has quite the puzzle prowess) and Vivie either takes them apart or gives him pieces (fed by me) or stomps on them. Here she's demonstrating the stomping technique.

Bonding with Grammie

After a quick nap back at home, we decided to make some apple pies. Luckily Grammie was happy to help keep Vivie occupied.