When I say "GHETTO!", you say "CAKE!". GHETTO! CAKE! GHETTO! CAKE! Only Lisa will get that one. But I'm pretty sure she is the only one who reads this blog. Well, besides my Laurens.
Happy birthday family photo!
The lonely boys' table:)
She is a fan! Happy birthday, baby girl! We love you so much!
We celebrated my third Mother's Day!
We celebrated Dylan's real third birthday (May 12th)! (Yes, he's wearing Christmas pajamas:)
We had a perfect family day at the Bronx Zoo. When we asked him his favorite part of the zoo, his answer was: the crocodiles! Hmmm...we did not see any crocodiles at the zoo... When we told him this, he answered: the carousel. We did ride on a carousel:) He also rode on a Camel!
First day at the town pool!
We started the process of installing our new swingset/playground! This included two deliveries of dirt to level the area. 28 yards total. Oh yeah...
Good times in the backyard kiddie pool...
...come in small packages! Nora turned 9 months on March 26th and she is still our sweetie petitie:) Still not quite 16 pounds and just under 27 inches, she continues to fall in the 10th percentile for weight and 25th for height. Her small stature hasn't slowed her down though! She has begun crawling all over the place, finding her own unique way of doing so, keeping her right leg straight out to the side, and using her foot to scoot herself forward (PT mommy is working on this). She is always getting into mischief - she especially likes finding electrical cords, ripping grass out of the ground and stuffing it into her mouth, playing in the cats' water bowl, and generally keeping us on our toes. 
She's eating like a champ - still nursing and eating baby cereal, all kinds of purees, and even finger food - steamed sweet potato, carrot, and apple pieces, ripe pears, cheese, beans, etc. She is a food snob in the making though as she now shuns all jarred baby food, preferring Mom's homemade stuff. She has two teeth on the bottom and another has just finally come through on top. The other center top tooth looks like it won't be too far behind. She claps all the time, smiles whenever when she sees our cats, and her whole face lights up when she sees Dylan. She still wakes up twice at night but is pretty agreeable about her naps (twice/day). She is our little ray of sunshine. Soon after she turned 9 months, Nora got her first haircut. It was kind of an impromptu decision but it needed to be done! She still had some strands of newborn hair in the back that were so much longer than the rest her hair and looked kinda shaggy. Here comes Mommy with the scissors... 
Quick and easy! 
See? It wasn't much! 
Grace, Isabelle, and Maggie (Jeff's daughter):
Later, back at Lisa’s, Dylan refused to take off his Safari T-shirt or his coat and so continued to resemble a mini football player. 
All the Frisone cousins (some more willingly than others!): Dylan, Katie, Nora, Grace, Isabelle, Madeleine, Scarlett, and Brian!
Happy Birthday to Papa! (and to me, too:)
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!
...and we got the first big snowstorm of (this very snowy) winter! What a good helper we have!
When Dylan came downstairs in the morning, he got right down to business with his new car ramp...
Later in the day, Sophia and Dylan opened presents from GGMum - including adorable, homemade sweaters! A little big for this year, but still so cute:)
Here's Daddy helping Nora with her present from Uncle Ben and Aunt Em
We couldn't distract the kids from their toys but at least we got a family photo...
Nonna with the baby girls...
The "big" kids...so sweet!
Tuckered out in Mimi's lap
Merry Christmas!! 
