Our big boy, Scottie

This week saw two visits to the pediatrician for us. First was not good, for Allie's first fever (101.6). Second was a happier visit, for Scottie's 3 year well visit.

He continues to grow right on up those charts. He's between the 50th and 75th percentiles for both height and weight. He's 37.75 inches tall and 33 lbs even. Scottie and Robbie now weigh exactly the same amount, despite their 17 months difference in age! Definitely continuing the string bean and meatball categories.

The boys are getting into the Christmas spirit, as is our house. The halls are decked and kids all went to see Santa today. Fun stuff! We're loving our DVR right now, as we have so many fun Christmas specials to record (thank you ABC Family). It's a little before-bed indulgence for all of us these days. The boys love the Rankin-Bass claymation shows just as much as I did. I know I could buy them on DVD, but it's just not as special as when they're on TV once a year.

Here's hoping all of you are enjoying the season!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Scottie!!

Scottie turned 3 today!! I can't believe my baby boy is three years old!! He had a fantastic day, filled with lots of fun stuff.

Woke up this morning to all of his birthday goodies and lots of balloons. He wanted an animal themed birthday, so we went to Build-A-Bear in the morning. Scottie made a special stuffed elephant (his favorite animal), which he named "L. E." Robbie made a stuffed zebra named "Zoozer," and the boys made Allie a stuffed bunny, which they named "Bellie Bunagoo." They all had a blast!

After naps, we all headed out for a night of bowling. Nana and Poppy joined us and we all had lots of fun. They have a cool ramp thing you can put in front of the lane to help the kids get the ball rolling fast enough. That plus the gutter guards made for lots of fun for Scottie and Robbie! They both had such a great time!!

Wonderful day for my wonderful boy. Happy Birthday, kiddo! You will always be the absolute BEST surprise I ever got. I just can't imagine our lives without you. We love you!!

First Solid Food!

Big day over here yesterday. Allie got to try her first solid food! We skip the rice cereal at 4 months and just wait until 5 months to do the baby oatmeal. (We learned our lesson about the binding nature of the rice with Robbie.)

Allie did great and seemed to enjoy getting to eat off a spoon for a change! Of course, the tongue thrust reflex forces most of the food right back out of her mouth again anyway, but she managed to eat her entire first serving. Ron did a great job of the spoon swipe to get the food off her chin, and Robbie quipped that it looked like Daddy was shaving Allie's face! I had to include a little video of her experience below.

Then, last night, we took the kids into town for the annual Christmas Walk. Nothing like standing outside watching Santa arrive on a rooftop and parading down the street after the high school marching band to make you love living in a small town. It's all very Rockwellian with kids atop shoulders and carols being sung on the church lawn. I love that night in this town!

I've been Tagged...

I've been tagged! I was tagged by Kate to share Eight Things About Me. Here are my replies:

8 Favorite TV Shows

• Grey's Anatomy
• Eli Stone
• Desperate Housewives
• Brothers & Sisters
• Lipstick Jungle
• House
• Army Wives
• Big Bang Theory

8 Things I Look Forward To

• Christmas
• Bank Holidays
• Naptime
• Tackle Hugs at preschool pickup
• Allie's face when she sees me first thing in the morning
• Ron getting home from work at night
• My April Girls' Weekend away
• Penn State Football Saturdays

8 Things on My Wish List

• Kitchen renovation
• Financial security
• Sushi everyday
• Losing weight
• Housekeeper
• The ability to get inside Scottie's head to understand him better
• More motivation
• More patience

8 Things I Did Yesterday

• Took the boys to preschool
• Vacuumed
• Did Laundry
• Played Elefun
• Cooked dinner
• Changed diapers
• Sat on the bathroom floor while attempting to get Scottie to use the potty
• Finished a batch of hairbows for Allie

8 Favorite Restaurants

• East
• Midori
• Arthur's
• Tony's Pizza
• Texas Roadhouse
• Wild Wings
• Monster Sushi
• Black Horse Pub

8 People to Tag
I am supposed to tag eight bloggers here, but I can only come up with four bloggers I know well enough to pester to update their blogs (hint, hint). Copy what's here and do the same on your blog if you can. I totally understand if you don't want to join in, but let me know if you do!
Robin
Marla
Kelly
Jen
Rules, Rules - here are the rules:'
1. Post the rules on your blog.
2. Answer all 8 of the six items listed.
3. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog or emailing.

November in NJ

November seems to have flown by so far. I can't believe it's already Thanksgiving week and Scottie's birthday and Christmas is just around the corner!

We've spent most weekends this month tackling the never-ending flood of leaves. We laugh at how all we wanted in Charlotte were some mature trees on our property and here in NJ we talk about cutting off limbs and contemplate chopping down trees to reduce the leaves, acorns, twigs and other yard debris that drops in the fall!

At least the kids have enjoyed the leaf cleanup. Even Allie got into the act when we brought her jolly jumper outside and hung it on a tree limb (so those trees ARE good for something)!.

Robbie likes to pretend he's Daddy with his own leaf blower.

Scottie likes to run under the blowing leaves and collect them in his bucket.

And both boys love to jump in the piles. Fun stuff!

Daddy's Birthday

Well, at least we celebrated Daddy's birthday on time! Better late than never for posting about it on the blog, I suppose! (We'll just say that Kate's birthday post to Ron counts for us, too!) We celebrated Ron's birthday with a yummy lobster dinner (even Scottie ate some lobster!) followed by a special cake that the boys helped "design" and make for Daddy. We had been talking about what kind of birthdays Robbie and Scottie have had in the past and want in the future, and the boys decided that Daddy should have a "Football Birthday." And for this football birthday, Daddy would need a football cake. (Imagine my relief that they settled on the football theme instead of the tool theme -- don't know how I would have done that one!)

So the boys helped me bake the cake and Robbie helped me decorate it to make it look like a football. I'm proud to say that this cake showed marked improvement over the last homemade cake I baked for Ron the year we moved to Charlotte. I didn't know you were supposed to let the cake cool before icing it, or even out the layers so they don't slide off each other. It was the funniest, most lopsided cake ever, but at least it tasted good! Thanks to the Food Network and Martha Stewart show, I actually made something that resembled a football and was tasty to eat, too!

We celebrated his birthday again at my parents' house on Sunday with more family. Happy non-birthday to Aunt Kate and thanks again for her much-more-timely birthday post!!

Halloween Fun

Well, the boys definitely LOVED Halloween this year! Sadly, I think my years of coordinated Halloween costumes with a theme are over. Sniff, sniff. I loved the Buzz and Woody combo from last year, complete with them singing "You've Got a Friend in Me" to each other. But this year, accessories won over costumes. Instead of going as Captain America (Robbie) and Batman (Scottie), they both saw plastic swords and changed their minds at the last minute. Scottie went as a knight and Robbie ended up being a ninja. Or, as Ron coined it, our little Mujahedin warrior when he wore his hood and mask. He was all about being a "bad guy", sneaking around in all black

Allie went along for the ride and looked adorable as a little baby bunny, although she had no clue what was going on. She made it until the last 2 houses and started to cry and just wanted to be home in her jammies and drinking her last nighttime feeding.

I did have to do a little experiment with her earlier in the day, though. I still had the Tom Arma skunk costume that Robbie wore for his first Halloween. Since they're both June babies, and so many have commented on how much they look alike, I had to try to stage a similar photo of Allie in the skunk costume. There is definitely NO denying that these kids are all related!

And one final update on Allie. We had her 4 month doctor's appointment last week. She weighed in at 13lb 12oz (50th percentile) and measured 25" (75th percentile) with her head maintaining the 25th percentile measurement. She had her shots and cried for all of 15 seconds before I had to pass her off to one of the 4 doctors and nurses in the room so we could give the boys their flu shots. Three kids and four shots at the same time. There was hot chocolate, a movie on DVD, and pumpkin carving when we got home to make up for the needle pokes!