Playing Catch-up with Jan. and Feb...

Since adding 6 more hours to my work week (i.e. doubling my work hours to a whopping 12!) plus watching my friend Kathleen's two kids for 5 hours on Mondays (she watches mine on Thursdays in exchange) it seems like my life has gotten 3x crazier. Maybe it's because of all the paperwork that's required on top of the actual clinical work (which means I've added much more than 6 work hours to my week). All this craziness means late nights, early mornings, and little time for recording life. But here I am - a rare moment when both kids are in their cribs (Nora napping and Dylan reading books) - back on the blog. It's a little intimidating. So much to catch up on! I will touch on the highlights...

We rang in the new year at Safari Adventure in Riverhead (owned by my brother and cousin) with all of Dylan's Frisone cousins. They had a kids "midnight" countdown at 7 p.m., complete with balloon drop! Dylan had a blast.
So did Nora:)
We took a quick trip to Weedsport to celebrate Tim's birthday and so the kids could see their Nonna. Dylan got to sleep in a big boy bed there and did a great job!

We took a second trip to Safari Adventure to celebrate Grace’s 5th birthday. Dylan, of course, was thrilled. And I cannot believe Grace is FIVE! Time flies…

Sometime around mid-January, Nora began sitting independently! Happy girl!

In other Nora news, she turned 7 months and then 8 months (still haven’t taken that pic yet!).

Also, ever since Dylan realized he could make Nora smile and laugh, he has been much more willing to interact with his baby sister. He loves going in to greet her in the morning and after her naps. And he gives her kisses much more willingly.

More big news in Dylan’s world is that he is (mostly) potty trained! We are so, so, so proud of him! He wears big boy underwear during the day and a diaper at night, just in case. Most mornings he wakes up dry and asks to go pee-pee on the potty first thing. We still have a little work to do in the “other” department, but I’m happy to put him a diaper when he has "that" type of business to take care of...we will get there!

On nights when Tim and I are both home for bath time, Dylan and Nora have begun taking their baths together. At first Dylan wasn’t so sure about this idea and it took a good 15 minutes of convincing, but he finally got in. The very next night he asked to share his bath again. See Dylan, we told you having a sister would be fun!

Nora’s hair is now long enough to get into pigtails – though still not thick enough to keep them in for any reasonable amt of time! She is also starting to try to crawl: rocking on her hands and knees, throwing her legs out behind her, getting onto her hands and tip toes, all while not really getting anywhere. She does roll and pivot all over the place though. I think she will be crawling for real any day now!

In later Feb we got to see our friends Adam, Maya, Cy, and their newest addition: baby June! It had been too long (almost a year!) since our two families got together and it was great to see them again to introduce Nora and June.

Most recently, we took a field trip to meet Sophia, Rylan, Uncle Ben, Aunt Em, and Nonna in the city at the Museum of Natural History.

Afterwards, we had dinner at Ben and Emily’s apartment in Williamsburg (Brooklyn) and all four Young cousins got to bond.

There! Now we are sort of up to date! I feel so much better. Hope to see you sooner than later!