Spunky Brewster

This girl is too much. Full of fun or full of tears, and not much in between.

Her moodiness may be because she has been sick this month with "walking pneumonia" (bad parents only took her to the dr weeks after she was coughing like crazy). We keep talking to her about germs but she thinks we are talking about "worms." So she sneezes and then tells me that she didn't spread any worms.

She is ridiculous Daddy's girl - mommy only gets a look-in when he's at work. And Fia was relieved to know that she was on Santa's nice list because she got BOTH the scooter and the dinosaur she asked for this Christmas.

2013 is going to be a big year for this little one. Watch this space.

Happy new year to all of our nearest and dearest.

Rachelle and Antony

Halloween - Hells Kitchen Style

Sandy and cancelled school won't keep this crew down. They were ready and raring to go. So we went out and did a little trick or treating at the local stores in our neighborhood.

This is the first year that Fia realized that she got candy. Game over.

Many thanks to our seamstress extraordinaire! Auntie Meggy is a magician!

Silly Sausage

We are in the age of true silliness:

- dressing up
- acting like monsters or dinosaurs
- making elephant trains with imaginary trunks and parading through the apartment
- dancing and singing to any piece of music, or theme sing
- playing hind and seek very, very badly
- telling loud secrets

Three is an adventure! Though because everything is so imaginative, she needs a partner to play along. So Antony and I are often wiped out at the end of the day, and negotiating with her to go to sleep.

She is also feisty. Like being-put-on-time-out-10-times-in-four-hours feisty. She is an independent soul (favorite word: self) who knows what she wants. Makes it quite difficult to be the boss!

But you look at this picture and its hard not to melt. This is just what she's like, 85% of the time.

Summer loving - Loving Summer

Gotta love summer. Fia is playing at the park nearly every day, splashing in and out of the dirty NYC fountains. We have also spent a week in the Catskills region of upstate NY with friends, enjoying the weather, good good and drink and excellent company.

Here is Fia getting into the hot tub. Watch out... A week on the beach is coming up in early Aug.

Father's Day

Despite being a bah-humbug about Father's Day (and holidays in general), Antony did enjoy his day of glory. Here's to the best Dad I know.

Mother's Day

Everyday should be Mother's Day, right? Shouldn't the joy of motherhood be thanks enough? Hugs, kisses, smiles, giggles are all amazingly wonderful but I have to admit that having a "special day" all to myself is pretty awesome. And I milked this one for all it was worth: massage, a day of brunching in Central Park, and several incredible gifts including a new iPad (business expense, of course).

This means Fia has inherited my first generation iPad. (It's pretty gross that a toddler has her own "papatch," as she is known to call it. But that was the luck of the draw.)

And going back to my day, I was really treated like a queen, which isn't that different to most other days. Thanks guys.

PLEEEZE

This is a cute video of Fia and her partner in crime, Max.  She recently told me that Max was her best friend but Beckett was her boyfriend (the boy to the left of Fia in the group shot from the previous post).  Beckett's mother said, "Well, she already prefers the bad boys."  Too true.

Growing up

Time flies and Fia is getting bigger, and older, and more of a little girl every day. She has started to love tea parties, using a very miniature china tea set. She still has a passion for treats and in one photo sports a red frosting face. She also has tons of friends from school who she sees around the neighborhood. So imagine a cool chick riding around in her stroller smiling and waving like crazy, saying hi to her people on the street.

Antony's Big Birthday

I won't embarrass him and say how old he is now - but let's just say it starts with a 4 and ends with an 0. But to celebrate this milestone, Fia and I decided he needed a whole weekend - not just a day. So we rented a big house in Rhinebeck, NY and invited friends up for food, drink, skiing, game playing, swimming and the like. A good time was had by all and we hope it made the arrival of his (middle) age a little more palatable. Regardless of the age - he is still our guy.

Here he is, on the slopes.

This is the house we rented which had room for 10, had a huge open living area and an indoor pool! Fia was in heaven.

Fia and Sully taking a walk.

Sully was in heaven too.

Despite the amount of fire on the cake - we did not burn the place down.