Christmas Cheer

We took a bit of this,


and some of these,

and did this.

Adam prefers to work sans pants. He gets that from his Dad.


Jane was excited to get a taste.

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.

The Trouble with Independence...

Adam will be three in March and has been potty-trained for several months. We are very proud of his accomplishment. The problem with this whole potty thing is two-fold; he has a bladder the size of a peanut and, until recently, couldn't pull his pants up/down by himself. These two things in combination led to me pulling up/down his pants, no joking, about 20 times/day. I was highly motivated to teach him to do it him self.

He's getting the hang of it.

When it comes right down to it, they're up. I'll take it.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

A little over a year ago this little girl joined our family. We named her Jane Dorothy, after her grandmother. She has had many names since.


We call her Janie, Janie-June, Janie Junebug, Junebug, Junie-Bear, Janie-Junebug-Jones and, occasionally, Chunk of Love. Appropriate, don't you think?

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...


On December 4th, one day after her actual birthday, we celebrated in true Holmes-style; with a Rock Band party. We rocked the night away and mass quantities of soda were consumed:

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.


She tried a few bites,

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.

She loves to talk. At one year her words are: mama, dada, Adam (ad-i), bottle (ba-ba), uh-oh, more (signed), sock/shoe(ssss), and "ba!" (accompanied by pointing) which means, "I want that."

She is getting close to walking but is quite cautious and immediately drops to the floor if you let go of her hand.

She is the sweetness in all of our lives and we can't imagine life without our sweet Janie-girl (another nickname). Happy birthday sweet baby. We love you!

So Behind

I have so much to post, like the birthday of my second-born. Anyway, I thought I'd start with the easiest thing. We had some family pictures taken in October. Here is a link to the site where they are posted. I love them. I only wish he could photoshop my body a little, you know a little virtual tummy tuck. A girl can dream, can't she?

Hey! Grandpa John!

Adam just wanted to say...





He's got his eye on you!

Thanksgiving, etc.

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.