Four Months

Busy few weeks!! Caitlin is four months old and laughing and rolling around and really showing her personality. She is officially moved into her room, and we are starting to get her on a schedule in anticipation of my return to work in just 3 weeks :( Overall things are still great though, it's getting cold, but we are still having some great fall days. Isaac is still adorable and fun and constantly entertains us with the stuff that comes out of his mouth. We took the kids to a reunion at the house of the judge that Bill clerked for a few years ago and they were a big hit. When the judge introduced herself to Isaac she asked how he was doing, and after thinking for a minute, he said, "I'm super-cute" - which of course she agreed that he is :) This is a picture of us with the judge and her administrative assistant, Veronica.

We also had a nice weekend visit with Bill's cousin Alex who is in his senior year of college at Boston College. It was great to have him, but after schlepping around with us and the kids all weekend, we are pretty sure he was happy to return to his college life and will not need any birth control lectures ;)

Finally, Caitlin and I took a day trip to Philly to have lunch with my grandmother and cousins. Caitlin did great on the train, sleeping almost the whole way on both legs and staying up to greet and entertain everyone with smiles while we were there. It was great to see everyone, and I even got to read part of a book as I relaxed on the train!

Caitlin Laughing

Caitlin has blessed us with her laughter a lot the past few days, it is honestly the best sound I have ever heard. Most of the time she gets the hiccups immediately, but Cesi kept her laughing for awhile this morning and even caught it on video! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

My Birthday and Visit with Grandma & Grandpa

I had a great birthday that began with Isaac and Bill singing over toast and cheese with a candle in it, followed soon after with Isaac and Cesi singing over a dozen roses! Caitlin and I had a fun yoga class and lunchdate with friends and the whole family had a sushi-making dinner party with all the yoga families. It was lots of fun to get everyone together, and while we were hanging out and making/eating sushi, for the first time the boys were off playing in the other room like big kids - what fun! They did come back in time to help me blow out the candles and get cake though :) The babies are also growing fast and are finally big enough for their first group photo.

Over the weekend, Bill and I escaped to the Ritz for our first overnight away from the kids. It was hard to leave (especially when Isaac got himself so upset because we were leaving that he puked!) but it was a wonderfully relaxing night with lots of wine, room service, bad hotel movies and ELEVEN house of sleep. Meanwhile, back at the house, Grandma and Grandpa had a great time spoiling Isaac and Caitlin, they all had fun, and we were so grateful!! Unfortunately they were too busy to take pictures, but we got this cute one right before they left.

These are some cute pictures from the week -- Isaac grocery shopping, enjoying his broccoli (he LOVES broccoli - seriously), showing Caitlin how "tummy time" is done, Caitlin's lunchdate with Daddy, Caitlin unhappily taking a tepid bath (she had her first fever this week, but is doing better now) and more fun pictures of Isaac and Lusa playing.

Halloween and Visit with Grandma

This week was fun for two reasons - a visit with Grandma Gerri and Halloween. The weather was beautiful, so we spent lots of time time at the park and outside as Isaac did not want to come inside at all! Both kids loved having Grandma around (as did we) and they were spoiled rotten with a shopping spree that has their wardrobes full of adorable stuff for the fall and winter :)

On Saturday and Sunday, the kids modeled their pre-Halloween gear. They had lots to choose from, so it was fun to get them dressed up. We thought Isaac was going to end up wearing his skeleton shirt out trick-or-treating because he refused to get dressed in his costume. Amazing how a 2-year old can wield the power of saying no!

When it came to showtime though, through a combination of bribes (m&m's) and peer pressure (all the other kids are doing it) we made some headway and he agreed to wear his Thomas the Train hat with the skeleton shirt. Finally, after another kid wanted to wear his costume, he agreed to put it on and we took a bunch of pictures. He still refused to wear it out of the house party we went to but I brought it trick-or-treating thinking optimistically he might change his mind. When we ran into Lusa on East Capitol (amongst a zillion other kids, including the Obama girls!) and saw she was in her zebra costume, Isaac anxiously agreed to put his on, and wore it the rest of the night :) Caitlin on the other hand is too little to protest, so we had her in her adorable ballerina costume earlier and switched to her ladybug suit for the evening. We had a full night going to a few friends' houses for parties, meeting up with the yoga babies for our annual picture tradition on East Capitol, and then Bill and Isaac manned the candy bowl from the porch swing when we got home, making many local kids happy!

Finally, we officially set up the crib in Caitlin's room and it looks adorable. She loved rolling around in it, so we hope that means she will like sleeping in it. I think we're going to try it tonight!

Aunt Ray-Ray, Great Falls and Field Trips

We were so spoiled having Rachael in Baltimore, that we are all in withdrawal, and had to fly her in so we could all get a fix! Isaac could not have been more excited to see her, and Caitlin gave her some great smiles and cuddles too. We had a great visit, including a trek to Great Falls to see the early fall foliage and a journey to the Mall via the metro and the bus which Isaac loved.

The last few weeks Cesi has taken Caitlin for one of the days and given me a whole day of having Isaac to myself which is priceless for me, and (I hope) fun for him. This past week while Isaac and I were out playing, Caitlin had a playdate with Isaac's future wife Lusa and the other baby in their nanny share and they seemed to have a great time.

These are the pics from the past two week's field trips, we took the bus to the building museum, stopping at Starbucks for a snack last week, and I took Isaac to an art gallery for his first art class this week, also via the bus (are you sensing a theme here, this kid LOVES taking the bus!). The art class -- which was marketed to 2-5 year olds -- was definitely geared toward older children, as evidenced by two things: 1 -the fact that there was a 10 minute art history lesson they wanted him to sit still for, and 2 -the fact that they tried to give my 2 year old scissors. In any event, it all worked out well as he got to color on a big piece of paper on the floor while flirting with a 3 year old blonde in red leather boots (no joke) and after getting over his tantrum when I took away the scissors, he picked the colors and shapes for me to cut and made his first mobile.

Finally, we took advantage of the election season to teach our kids an early civics lesson that hope they remember - VOTE VOTE VOTE!!!