I didn't realize until I uploaded the pictures, but Adam is naked from the waist down in the above picture. I wish I could say that never happens. See the previous post for the explanation of his nudity.
He's getting the hang of it.
When it comes right down to it, they're up. I'll take it.
She was born with the most enormous, round, absolutely nibble-able cheeks. And we did partake...
From day one she was the most calm, easy, sleepy baby. She ate well, slept 23 1/2 hours a day and slept through the night for the first time at 2 months. I have been known to joke that Jane is God's way to trick us into more children. But then again, she hasn't turned two yet...
We lit the obligatory "1" candle on Jane's whole cake and let the older kids do the honor of blowing it out for her.
but much preferrede feeding it to Daddy.
I can't begin to express the love we have for this little girl. She lights up the room when she comes crawling in with her big smile and surprisingly un-sloppy kisses. She is the perfect playmate for her brother; at times balancing his rambunctious side and tackling him for a wrestling match at others. This year for Thanksgiving we made a trek to Northern Michigan (Traverse City) to visit my Mom and meet her new husband. The trip was nine hours and so we decided to leave at night and hope that the kids would sleep most of the way and, miracle of miracles, it actually worked! They slept about 7 of the 9 hours and were pretty well behaved when they woke up.
We took the northern route through Canada which necessitated 2 boarder crossings each way. I haven’t figured out how they decide what to ask at customs. I was asked what I did for a living, where I grew up and Scott was asked if his company moved him around a lot. The questions were different at every stop and our theory is that they just want to make sure you can answer them quickly and without stumbling over your answers.
We arrived at my Mom’s house around 7 am Monday morning. Our master plan was to get Adam and Jane to take naps so we could; that didn’t work out so well. Jane slept but Adam was a bundle of energy. We napped a bit on Monday and slept like rocks Monday night.
On Tuesday we were discussing the menu for Thanksgiving dinner which included a massive quantity of desserts. Scott had the genius idea of getting a head start. So, we made an apple pie on Tuesday and it was gone by Wednesday morning. One dessert down; literally.
Traverse city is right on Lake Michigan and Adam had a great time at the beach. Scott is a master stone-skipper and Adam kept him busy.
Jane enjoyed some tasty sand.
After the beach we headed to Culver’s; sweet, sweet Culver’s. If you ever find yourself in the Midwest, make your way to a Culver’s and order a butter burger and a chocolate custard. Mmmmmm. We had one in our home town growing up and it’s total comfort food for me.
If you can’t read Jane’s bib it says, “I’m as cute as a Butter Burger is delicious.” So true. She even gets bitten occasionally based solely on her delectableness.
We decided to check out the Traverse City Children’s Museum while we were there. It is really small, especially compared to Strong Museum, but it has some fantastic exhibits and Adam has talked about it several times since we got home. They had a great play/climb area (which I think Strong is lacking). Jane needed a little help to navigate it.
The best exhibit by far was this modular water table. The water flows through it and the walls are all removable. So you can make all sorts of different configurations with the current. Very cool. There were several times when I looked around and it was just a bunch of adults playing with it. That was the other nice thing about this museum. It was small enough that no matter where the kids were, they were always in sight.
Thanksgiving day was great and full of delicious food and lots of family. I was so excited to get a four-generation picture.
From the left: my sister Stephanie, Jane, me, my Mom and my grandmother. I have reconciled myself to the fact that I am gigantic and will always look so when surrounded my normal-sized people.
Dinner was yummy. It doesn’t hurt that my sister, Stephanie, is in culinary school. She made everything look so pretty and had any possible kitchen gadget we needed in her car.
The week was full of fun and activities and, at one point or another, each of the kids collapsed in exhaustion. Jane will rarely sleep in our arms, so this was a rare treat for Scott.
I am coming to the realization that Adam is all boy and my attempts to civilize him will only go so far.
Adam had a great time getting to know “Grandma Kim” and was completely comfortable with both her and her husband, John, by the middle of the week. That’s huge. It takes Adam a while to warm up to new people.
On Saturday we turned the festivities to semi-nude tree decorating. What? Doesn’t everyone do that?
We did eventually get the tree decorated despite Jane’s best efforts to thwart us.
On Saturday night we headed to a delicious Mexican restaurant to celebrate my Mom’s birthday. Then, it was into the car and on our way back to NY.
Thanks to everyone in Michigan for hosting us and showing us such a great time. We love you!
*Note: That last picture is one of the few I have of my Mom’s husband, John. I realized as I was doing this post that I didn’t get a single picture of my brother James. Sneaky, sneaky.
Last Thursday our county held the first of two planned H1N1 clinics. The clinic didn’t start until 10am, but being the savvy person I am, I got there at 9:20. Apparently Rochester is a savvy place, because the line was already around the building. The icing on the cake was when it started to rain at 9:30. It was so fun to stand in the freezing rain for an hour. I thought it was interesting that the county held a flu clinic for all of their “high risk residents” and then had them all wait in the freezing rain. Ugh.
This is the pediatric line.
After waiting for 2 hours, we finally made it to the waiting area, where we waited for another hour. 
Right as we made it to the front of the line a man came up, waving a hundred dollar bill, offering to pay it to anyone who would switch places in line with him. I was very proud of my comrades in line that no one took him up on it. Looking back, he really didn’t have a chance. These were parents who waited for over three hours in the freezing rain to get their children inoculated; a hundred bucks just wasn’t gonna cut it.
We procrastinated long enough and decided the time had come to rake the yard. It’s no small job seeing as we have a very deep yard. I was encouraged when I remembered that we brought Dorothy’s lawn tractor in the move. Adam loved being a part of the action.
I was also glad when I remembered we had these head phones. The tractor is very loud and Adam appreciated them. Even with the help of the lawn tractor, it still took 6 hours to rake the whole yard; and that was just round one…
Then I guess I should probably stop slacking and post our Halloween pictures. I wasn’t planning on having Scott and me dress up. Adam knew exactly what he wanted to be and so I threw the idea of a “family theme” out the window; until Wednesday morning. I was lying in bed thinking about Adam and Jane’s costumes, trying to come up with a theme, and then it came to me. See if you can figure it out. Adam had been reading a book about someone who puts on a bunny costume for Easter and was determined to be a bunny. Luckily a friend had a costume in his exact size:
So, that’s what I had to work with while I was trying to think of costumes for Scott and I on the morning of our Trunk or Treat. And here’s what I came up with:
I am a magician, Adam is my rabbit, Scott is my deck of cards. And Jane? Jane is my lovely assistant. And she was lovely indeed.
So we did the Trunk or Treat on Wednesday. Adam loved the candy walk. Unfortunately his ears kept falling in his face, nevertheless, he persevered.
It was fun to see all of the other costumes. This cute little pirate is about 2 1/2 months older than Jane and about 1/2 her size. You may remember her from before:
Adam and his cousin went Trick or Treating on Saturday. Adam had the routine down this year and said his “trick or treat” and “thank you” perfectly. He even threw in a “happy Halloween” occasionally. My favorite moment was when we came to a house where they were handing out pencils instead of candy.
Adam examined it and, on determining it wasn’t edible, said, “this is not a trick or treat”. Smart kid, already separating the wheat from the chaffs.
I realize that, until the vacation posts, I was a total blog slacker. So, here are some highlights of the last month. Or so.
Adam’s swim teacher had an underwater camera. Adam loved being underwater and always wanted us to help him dive for rings at the bottom of the pool. I love these pictures and have plans to have them printed and framed for Adam’s room.
We celebrated Jane’s 3/4 birthday in true Holmes style.
I celebrated my 30th birthday at the beginning of October. It was a great day and Scott made it very special. We went to dinner at Hicks and McCarthy, one of my favorite restaurants, then we picked up some dessert to go at the Cheesecake Factory. After we got our dessert, Scott totally surprised me by pulling into the parking lot of a jewelry store and asking me if I’d like to pick something out. If you know Scott, you know this is very out of character for him. Not because he’s not generous and considerate (he is), but because he’s probably the cheapest man I know. This was a big deal for him and thus a big deal for me. Fortunately, I’m the kind of girl who has a pretty good mental list of things I want, so I knew exactly what I wanted. We looked at the jewelry store and they didn’t have it so we came home and ordered it online. It came while we were on vacation:
It is a charm necklace with my kids’ initials on it (this is a really close shot, each charm is about the size of a pea). A friend has one that I always admired, so when Scott asked me to pick out a piece of jewelry, this is immediately what came to mind. I absolutely love it.
