18 Months

Family Vacation

Last year's camping debacle led us to rethink our annual family vacation.  We decided wait a few years for more outdoor survival and enjoy a more urban setting.

It turns out that September is the perfect time to live at the beach, so we rented a mansion and invited the Wyzga family to just relax for a week.  It was a perfect vacation.  It didn't matter if you de-stress with a packed schedule or if you preferred to laze about by the ocean all day.  Everyone could live at their own pace and still come together at dinner and enjoy the family.

Halfway through our vacation, we each invited a friend to come fill our extra rooms, so London and I invited Sarah to come have fun with us. 

London was obsessed with the beach.  There was sand to play with, shells to find, and the waves that never stopped playing with her.

Our girl has no fear.  Again and again she would run at the waves and laugh as they came to sweep her away.

We spent hours at the beach, but when we were not there, our home had hammocks, a playground, a jacuzzi and a pool to keep us busy.

It was really great to spend time with the family and we can't wait to make this a new tradition.

17 months

 "owside" is where London wants to be.  We hear it probably 370 times a day and there are almost always tears when it is time to go "om"(home).  

Everything is new and an adventure.  Every day she picks up a new word.  This is London exploring our farm which is 4 min from our house-Fox Hollow Farm

She wants to help mum-mum with everything, so now she is my sous chef.  

 It is adorable to watch her pretend play

But all those pictures above don't show you her true soul.

Do you remember when...

Do you remember when it was just us?  

There was no little girl begging for attention, monopolizing our thoughts and moulding our days into a baby centric vortex.  We always claimed that we would be the parents to rise above populous and keep our romance first.  Then we found ourselves 1.5 years into parenting without ever having left our child for even one night. It took an invitation to a Caribbean paradise from our English neighbors to pull us out of our rut. 

Thanks to both our parents and London's godmother, Sarah, we were able to get a much needed holiday in Punta Cana, Dominican Rebublic.  

Enjoying the resort with the Fosters made our vacation so much fun!

What did we do?  This. All Day!  Eat. Relax by the adult only pool.  

Doggie paddle lazily up to the swim up bar for my DR Sunrise drink (Champangne, OJ, grenadine, and lime.) Eat lunch overlooking the ocean, walk down to the beach to chat with Nige and Kate.  

That brings us to siesta time in our huge room with a king bed, private balcony and jacuzzi tub.

 Followed by dinner and then drinks in the lobby with the fam.

 Not too bad.  Thank you all inclusive!

Happy 50th birthday to The Nige!

16 months, and so old!

July is birthday month for me!  I am done counting years and doing birthday parties, but I still love a great outing.  So we headed to Leesburg, VA for outlet shopping, a stop in at Mom's Apple Pie Bakery and a wine and cheese picnic at Willowcroft Winery.  It couldn't have been better. 

 July was a crazy month.  Jesse had unexpected surgury and has been in recovery mode most of this month while still watching London. 

 London is a great age for summer fun!  All we hear non-stop is "pool" "pool" from her little mouth. We give in at least twice a week and try to teach her how to float.  She would much rather hang out in the baby pool pouring water from bowl to bowl. 

We celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary! Dinner was at the Mussle Bar and Jesse bought me a Chantal Cook set, but the really celebrating happens in August when we head to Punta Cana, DR!! 

15 Months-June

We are doing things a bit different this summer

Jesse is going to be the stay at home dad he always wanted to be and I am off to work mostly full time- just until Jesse starts teaching again in the fall.

14th Month Photos

Harper's Ferry outing with Da-Da and Mum-Mum

 London LOVES my purse.  Mostly she likes to take everything out, find my wallet, remove every card from there, and then move on to the next event.

 Bekah was in town this month with her two kids, Timmy and Abby.  So we did the unthinkable and dragged them all down to DC to visit Sarah on her lunch break.  Look how serene we look amongst the kids.

 Sitting is for little kids. 

Her 13th Month

We say it to each other all the time these days- London is such a little person.  Our baby is gone and a little girl has arrived.

London is so much fun! She is full of giggles for dada and delights over catching a glimpse of another baby.  Her little finger points forward 75% of the day telling us where to go and what she wants to discover next.

She is also much more determined to have her way and explore new things.  I thought tantrums were supposed to start at two?

Despite the challenges, we are amazed at how much London understands and wants to do.  The other day I said: "London can you close the fridge for mum mum?" and she toddled over and successfully closed the massive door.

This month has been packed full of fun adventures with Mimi like going to the aquarium and the zoo. 

 She is discovering new places with us like strawberry eating at Butler's Orchard, the pool, new parks and new kids to play with.

This month we dedicated our child to God in front of our church and asked for help with parenting.

We are going to need it...

12 months alive

London's new favorite toys are balls.  Can't you tell she is ready for the pitch? She can even say "Ba" although it is the exact same sound for her bottle and baby doll. 

Her other favorite thing in the world is playing outside.  I am not sure if it is the chance to run into a doggie or other kids, but she will take her shoes and start banging on the front door to let me know it's time to go outside.

  The big success this month was getting her hair into pigtails!! Goodbye mullet boy.

Easter 2012

My Easter Babkah baby is so much bigger this year!  Now she is old enough to be put in charge of quality assurance testing so the first loaf out was hers. 

Almost all of my aunts and uncles on my dad's side were coming to NJ from all over the US, so we decided to join in for a quick overnight visit.

A Polish Easter feast: ham, kilbasa three ways, meatloaf, potato salad, ambrosia, noodle pudding, babkah, spring veggies and of course, colored eggs.

After brunch, about 1/2 the adults joined the "children" for an Easter egg hunt. 

  I can't say that Jesse and I came in with the most eggs, but the best part for us was watching London go on a mini Easter egg hunt afterwards. 

 

She was so ecstatic over every egg and spent about an hour after placing the eggs into her basket and then shaking them all out again and again.

 London's bounty

Family picture attempt.