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.

Naughty or Nice?

The holidays are pretty special with this little girl around. She loves the "kissmass tee" and she walks around the apartment drooling on a candy cane saying "I suck. No bite it, Mommy." We have had some touch and go moments with Santa (see below) but generally Santa is pretty popular and we frequently hear Fia talking to herself saying, "I sit on Santa's lap" or "I see Santa now." Carols are sung with half words and flat notes (she gets that from me) and when a song ends she angelically asks, "more jingle bells?" or "more peace?" or whatever the last words of the song was coupled with "mooooore?"

We have finished work and now we are settling in for a New York Christmas, complete with the Rocketts at Radio City on Christmas Eve. And to all of our friends and family near and far, we wish you a wonderful holiday.

Thanksgiving

We just spent Thanksgiving in Dallas and this year we have so, so much to be thankful for - namely our family of three, our extended families and our dear friends both near and far.

Fia turns 2!

Last month, our sweet girl turned 2 and, as if on cue, began to exert her new 'personality.' This new world includes wanting to do everything her "self" (Fia's favorite word at the minute), tantrums when she can't do it herself (like putting on her shoes or eating an ice cream), and calling me by my first name, pronounced "A-shell." But don't worry - the sweet girl is still in there.

With her personality blossoming, she is also learning at light speed. She eats with a fork and spoon, counts to ten, knows her colors, and has a pretty large vocabulary which is mixed with some words that don't make sense to us but make COMPLETE sense to her!

The following is a video of Fia's first day of school, which was also her 2nd birthday.

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Blog Backlog

We have been bad, bad bloggers. We have let several months go by without an update and given the prompts we have been sent by loved ones - we are now feeling pretty guilty. So here are some pictures of Sofia's summer. Ps. She is calling herself "Fia" now. What a diva.

This is Fia and Uncle Bobo at my mom's place for the 4th of July.

This is Sofia and Nelly, Jos's puppy, playing in Newcastle in July.

And this is Fia making one of her favorite faces. The "wach yo talkin' bout" face. We have certainly entered the new age of 2!

Uh oh - no cry mommy. Is ok.

This is what Sofia says to me when when I am upset (e.g. Just heard bad news, stubbed my toe, etc). Well she had to say this to me when I was cursing under my breath when I found that I had disabled the blog. I was trying to upload a birthday video when I was prompted to put in my birth date. Not thinking, I put in Sofia's birthday and all hell broke loose. Under aged. Blocked, disabled and an official outcast. Google does not joke around. So it took a while to sort it out and now we are back in business.