New Car -

Daddy got a new car this weekend.  Since our old Subaru was so good to us (we got 145k miles out of her w/only routine maintenance), we decided to repeat with the same car, newer model.  She's a zippy little thing but anything seems zippy after driving the Volvo for a while.  

Don

Ali is affectionately referred to by Jay and I as Don, as in Don Zimmer the former Yankee's Manager.  Early on, Jay suggested that she might look a bit like him so after googling him and once we both stopped laughing, we decided that sadly it was true.  It stuck and now I would say 50% of the time we lovingly refer to her as Don.

Sorry Ali, if you are reading this when you are all grown up and I'm in the nursing home, don't visit me any less!! Just know your mom and dad has a good sense of humor.

Girl Power -

We were at dinner the other night talking about something, I actually forget the topic, and Luke was asking questions something about the MAN that took care of something for us.  I said, “How do you know it was a man that would do that?”  He looked alarmingly at me and said, “well a women can’t do all the things because a women can’t be president”  That’s when I launched into my feminist speech to which Luke said, “well I know there are things that women can’t do that guys can do.”  He thought a minute and said, “I know! Wrestle polar bears!!! Women can’t wrestle polar bears, right mommy!”  To which I said, “You are right in that a women would never wrestle a polar bear but not because they CAN’T but because they are smart enough not to.  Men on the other hand….well, you’ve seen some of the things they wrestle on those animal shows.  Enough said”  Luke said, “Oh yeah. Why did god make all the girls smarter than the boys?  Like all the girls in my class are smart and get their spelling tests right and read really REALLY good!  The boys in my class aren’t as good at that stuff.  And for Class Dojo*, the girls NEVER get negative points and the boys do.”  “See Luke” I said, “now you are catching on.  Don’t count girls out, we are smart cookies!”

*Class Dojo is a behavior type system that our teacher uses.  The kids get positive and negative points throughout the day for good/bad behaviors and have a running weekly percentage.  It is pretty cool. So Jay and I can follow along with how Luke is doing on the website or better yet we downloaded the app to our phones and can click a couple times a day to see how he is doing.  Each night we can have a talk about the positives and negatives.

 

Luke is not a huge fan of homework. It is much like pulling teeth to get him to sit down and do his homework at night.  The other night, while sitting down to do his homework, Luke said, “Who invented homework because I really wish they didn’t do that.  I wish they would have invented something different than homework, something cooler.  I REALLY wish they thought of something else to invent.”

Just Paige....

As we get settled in our new town and seeing Luke no longer is in catholic school, we started going to Saturday night mass with the kids.  Luke is used to mass (which he told Paige is a fancy word for church) from going at school for three years but little Paige has little exposure to going to mass.  This became abundantly clear when mass began, the music started and the priest walked down the aisle and Paige got an excited look on her face and whispered to me “mommy, the king is here!”

 

Paige was having a playdate with a little friend, Lauren, from her new preschool.  The girls were upstairs pretending they were going to the beach.  When it was time to go, Lauren’s mom and I went upstairs.  The girls were in full on bikinis with beach towels…the whole thing.  As Lauren’s mom was trying to collect her things and find Lauren’s missing underwear she said “oh, Lauren you shouldn’t have taken your underwear off."  Paige looked at her and said, “That’s OK if Lauren sees my vagina because we are friends.”

I’m pretty sure we won’t be getting a call back to have another playdate with Lauren anytime soon.

Our little model :)

 

 

What have we been up to?!?

This winter has been tough with all the snow but we have been doing our best to keep busy . Here is some of what we've been up to.....

 

Sleepovers with new friends.  Luke with his new neighbor friend Ben.  Paige was at Ben's sister's house for a sleepover so it worked out nice.  Here they are, acting like they have headaches -

 Daddy took No. 1 and No. 2 to a minor league hockey game and to see Chase play in the big rink.  Lots of fun -

 We then left Daddy and Ali at home and headed to a trampoline place with the five families & lunch after.  That place was a zoo but kids had fun and were able to work off some winter energy -

 We headed to the cape to have dinner with Grampy but not before we pit stopped at the indoor pool, so fun!

 Paige has been talking a science experiment class at her preschool on Monday afternoons.  She comes home with a project each week.  She loves showing us at night.  Here is her lava lamp she made one week -

 Lots of just hangin out -

 Mommy and Paige made monster cookies one day.  Surprise for Luke when he came home from school -

John boy -

I’m embarrassed to not have done this sooner but better late than never I suppose.  Introducing the newest member of our family, John.  John joined us in late January.  Apparently Daddy promised Luke a fish after we moved (luckily it wasn’t something bigger).  John was a novelty for about 2.3 minutes.  Then everyone was onto the next thing.  Now, I hate to say it, John is little more than another item on mommy’s “to do” list.  Feed John – check!  Change John’s water – check!  John lives in Luke’s room.  Hopefully John doesn’t have longevity in his genes as mommy is already over John too…sorry John!

Ali Three Months -

Three months old and the consensus around her is that she is such a good and sweet baby.  Easy girl.  We certainly appreciate that!!  She slept through the night the day I went back to work (seems she has a sense of humor too!) so on the first day I had to set my alarm, I could have slept in :(

 

Ali has been sleeping through the night on and off.  She either gets up at 4AM'ish or I wake her at 5:45AM before I leave for work.

 

Here are the latest of our sweet little lady -

 

Snoozing in her bouncy seat -   

 Chillaxing with big brother -

 Selfie among sisters -

 Love the sleepy pics -

 Playing with floppy -

 Snuggles on a cold Sunday morning -

 So alert -

 Sometimes Ali falls asleep on her play mat after kicking and playing a bit, third child - I think she realized probably no one is coming for her anyway :)

 More chillin' on the red chair -

First nap in my crib.  Love it :)

 So happy -

Visit with Grandma and Grandpa -

 We had a nice visit with Grandma and Grandpa.  They were able to come over school vacation and my first week back at work.  They watched all three kids a couple days and came out in once piece!