Jack is 5 months old!

Once again time has flown by and Jack is somehow 5 months old. Here he is be-boppin' in the exer-saucer.



And we have our comparison shots. When I reviewed these pictures of Clara in the crib, I was actually surprised at how much more she looks like Jack that I would have thought. Its hard to compare their relative lengths from these pictures and see how much longer he is, but the winning size of her thighs is obvious. :)




Finally, Brec recorded what turned out to be priceless footage this morning of Clara reading "Tikki Tikki Tempo" to Jack. Its a little longer than usual, but I hated to cut it.

Settling in to the Fall

Not that our temperatures have really changed too drastically, but it has been much less humid. Back from our VK, here are some pictures from the week.

Princess Clara wanted me to "get a smile" of her with her special doll.


Clara was very excited for a preview of things to come. She hopped in on the tail end of Jack's bath and made sure he was clean.


Jack continues to grow and be such a sweet boy.




He is even unphased by stickers on his head.


Clara has enjoyed snuggling with him in her big girl bed.








This weekend we had a visit from Nay2Nay! She was v. excited to see the kids and couldn't believe how big Jack had gotten since she saw him 6 weeks ago.



Also she was happy to see Clara in her new big girl seat at the table with her cup and place mat. Clara is anxiously awaiting cake. Happy Birthday Nay-nay!


There must be something magical under that shirt.


To top off a great weekend the Patriots played (and won!). We broke out the Bruschi jersey for its newest Pats fan.

Emerald Isle 9/12 to 9/19

The blog has been silent because last Saturday we all piled (and I mean piled as you'll see in the video below) into the car and traveled to Emerald Isle. We were joined by Gramby, Su-su, and Gigi for a week of fun in the sun.


Being September, the sun is far enough in the Southern sky to rise over the water. We were greeted with gorgeous sun rises almost every morning.




Bon jour!








Clara got a taste of the ocean in August and got over her fears enough to venture out into it this beach trip. She loves it now!

With Gramby and Daddy


With Mommy and Daddy


The cooler temperatures let Jackie Boy get a little more beach time this trip.






Jack really got a kick out of Sydney's stress in this video. Syd was worried that part of her flock was swimming in the ocean without her.


Even Sydney got to enjoy the beach. As long as there was a ball around, she was under pretty good voice control and could be trusted off-leash. She loved fetching in the waves.


And Clara had a good time both throwing the ball to her and fetching with her.


Of course when Jack wasn't out on the beach, he had lots of cuddle time and as well as Einstein play...




And fun with hair brushes!


Clara's bear Phinneas taking a turn on the Einstein with Babies Georg and Maria.


Reading some nursery rhymes


A little downtime watching SuperWhy! with Gramby.


On Thursday Gramby celebrated his 60th birthday! Clara helped gather the shells to spell out "BR is 60" in the sand.


Birthday pancake breakfast.


Snuggles after pancakes.


As a present Gramby received "Beatles Rockband" for the Wii. We all had fun rocking out to the Beatles while competing on the drums, guitar, and vocals. For the record I rocked the Expert level singing. ;)


The last day was actually the worst weather, but we took the opportunity to go to the NC aquarium. Clara set her own pace, and Gramby and Su-su were gravely mistaken if they thought they were going to be able to read all the information about each tank with Clara moving the pack.

At the sting ray/skate tank.


Checking out the turtles and alligators (who knew there are alligators in NC?).


At the big tank watching the sharks and fish swim by.

Like Father, Like Son

A picture's worth 1000 words. :)

Einstein the Next Generation

Jack is getting to be such a big boy, we thought we'd give the exersaucer a go. As predicted he really seems to like it -- a nice change from being horizontal all the time.







As you might have also guessed, Clara has rediscovered it with renewed enthusiasm. She'll climb in often and be happier in it than she was 2 years ago. Its funny, I never anticipated the exersaucer being the toy on which she learned to take turns with him. Note her legs versus his.

Memo & Auges Come to Town

Last week Brec was in Boulder to work, so Memo & Auges came for an overnight visit to keep us company. We had a nice time hanging around the house and took a trip to the mall the next day.

Jack thought Memo was hilarious after his bath.


We decided to get all dolled up for the shopping trip.




Clara was in luck, Memo got her some new shiny black shoes to go with her princess dress. She's breaking them in walking around the fountain.


Tired from a fun visit, the kids napped.


Still got the new shoes on!


And for our afternoon walk as well. They really seem to go with any outfit.