Spring Walk

Welcome Back

Last year, Nonna and Grandma Jeri had some visitors that claimed the pool as their private little pond. Last night, we look outside and notice these guys. Perhaps they are the same ducks as last year?

Lucia and Luca

Chiara, Norah, and Luca were in town for an entire week- it was great spending time with them! Here are Lucia and Luca checking each other out. Lucia was very intrigued by Luke's ability to crawl, but the end of the week she started to wiggle herself around quite a bit (she pushes herself backwards and kind of goes in a big circle). This evening, Lucia and Ethan were in the living room, Lucia on her little pad with some toys, and Ethan in another corner putting together a puzzle. Jim and I leave the room, return a few minutes later and Lucia is over buy Ethan putting his puzzle pieces in her mouth. We ask Ethan how she made it over to him "um- she was over there (pointing to her play area), and now she is over here." Yes, we know- but HOW did she get over to you? He doesn't give us a straight answer and Lucia just looks at us waiting for us to leave the room so she can go back to her stealth baby moves!

Picnik Edits

Picassa has an extra editing program

called Picnik. It's pretty fun to play around with. Here is Ethan modeling Francesca's new (fake) fur hat. He was a reluctant to put it on at first- I think he thought it was some kind of animal- but then I told him he could have a piece of candy or something, so he obliged m

e! The top photo it focal black and white, and for the bottom one I used an effect called HDR-ish.

Lucia

Watching Ethan as he zoomed his matchbox cars underneath her highchair today. I think she thinks he's a little crazy- but a great big brother!

Sleeping Beauties

I like this photo- Ava and her mother. A nice, quiet moment during the festivities tonight.

Happy Birthday Grandma Sue!

Tonight we celebrated Grandma Sue's Birthday with dinner and cake!
As we were in the middle of chowing down on the birthday cake, Ethan stops eating, looks up, and says: "hey, we forgot to sing happy birthday!" So, we all sang! Good job Ethan!

Puzzles

Ethan loves putting together his floor puzzles. The company Melissa and Doug make great floor puzzles that hold up nicely. This is Ethan's most recent puzzle. He is really fast with the 24 piece puzzles. He has a 48 piece Dinosaur puzzle that takes him a bit longer and he usually ends up asking for my help. But the 24 piece ones he does all by himself- it is so fun to watch him b/c he will talk to himself while doing the puzzle "this one goes here . . . this one goes right here . . ." over and over until the puzzle is completed.

The chocolate ring around his mouth is from Oreo spit/drool. He had had an Oreo right before doing the puzzle- and when he concentrates- he kind of licks his lips and sticks his tongue out- it's pretty funny!

Toothy Smiles

Lucia was giving me some pretty funny faces tonight. You can really see her two bottom teeth in these shots!

Bath Time

Lucia enjoying her bath in the big tub today. She loves splashing around in the water and sucking on her feet!

Weekend Projects

Grandpa and Oma came over this weekend to help us get some stuff done around the house. On the agenda was 1) hang the pot rack and 2) reupholster the dining room chairs.
I love the pot rack! Jim had the idea a year ago or so and I don't know why I waited this long, it opens up so much space in the kitchen cupboards. The chairs are great too- they don't even look like the same chairs- I should have taken a "before" and "after" shot- oops. They are so much better now- trust me :-)