Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all.

CHR

another month gone

So.  Hi.  It's been a month.  Oops.  

Here are some things that happened:

Olney High (where Mike works) had their Monster Mash Dance so we went and took the kids who had a blast:

Then Halloween happened.  More fun was had by all.

Then Mike took the kids to the park and they raked a giant pile of leaves.  More fun:

Then Cole turned 4 months old

And had his first haircut:

and we had some fantastic family pictures taken:

3 Months and some other things

On October 19th Cole was 3 months old!!!

Cute little guy.  

His first 3 months have all in all been pretty good!  He's been the easiest baby of my 3 by far. 

The other day Cole was hanging with his twin cousin Cal who is technically younger but already has all these skills, most notably laughing and reading.  And he's way ahead in the percentiles also.  Anyway, after hearing and seeing all Cal's tricks Cole decided that he needed to up his game.  And !viola! we have a laugher:

Well, a "chuckle-er" anyway.

and here's one of him chatting with me:

Ok, next child.  

James.

Bubby was looking pretty tough the other day so I had to take a picture:

That's how tough guys eat oatmeal.

Please notice the ink on his arm and the punk-rock bed-head hair as well.

Back off, Ma

Ok next child.

Lena Bean.

So Lena is a non-napper, right?  Right.  Every so often though she'll still take an afternoon snooze.  the other day she built herself a cave in the kitchen and then napped there.  I was amused:

And Mike got it on video because it was hard to appreciate as a stil photo:

conversations

So these kids are talkers for sure.  They're also decently entertaining.  Here are some typical conversations from the past week:

Conversation with Cole;

Me- "Hey Cole!!!!!!!"

Cole- "illgah!"

Me- "oh yea?  Are you going to tell me more?"

Cole- "aaAAAaahh!  Ilga ga ga"

Me- "Oh yea? Thanks for telling me all the things."

Cole- (blows a raspberry and smiles)

Conversation with James:

Me- "Hey Bubby, what are you doing?"

James- "umm. runnin." (runs all around living room)

Me- "wow, you run fast!"

James- "haHA! fast. runnin. umm. Patch. Chase you."

Me- "Patch is chasing you? That's fun"

James- "uh huh! Fun. Tiger pie." 

Me- "Tiger pie, eh?  Ok well I'm going to get lunch ready for us"

James- "lunch. eatin. lunch. Sandwich. Sandwich. SANDWICH. SANDWICH!!!" (still running all around living room)

Conversation with Lena at 12:30pm after picking her up from PreK:

Me- "Hey Bean, how was school today?"

Lena- "It was a great day, mom.  It was just great.  We played outside and runned around and Tori chased us.  And we yelled and Vance didn't want to play with us.  Because, well, he just didn't want to.  It was just too upsetting for him so he played on the slide.  And MOM I have such a great idea!"

Me- "Oh yea? what is it?"

Lena- (insert high levels of drama) "Let's. Have. Meredith come over!!!!......"

(This conversation ends at approx 7pm when she goes to bed)

I have 2 videos that won't load... I'll keep on trying and post them soon.

my new favorite picture

here it is!

talking

Hi.  

So Cole's been doing some talking lately.  But only when he's in a good mood so it's been tough to catch on video......

In other news, my favorite James-word is "crynin" which is a combo for "crying" plus "whining".  It works.  He uses it substitutionally for either choice.

And Lena has been loving PreK.  Which I'm super-happy about.  Yesterday she told Mike that she had a secret for him and it was "I just LOVE my school".  So that's a good sign ;-)

We went apple picking last weekend and Sheryl took these pictures for us:

Catching up.

So much to talk about. Sheesh.

So here's Cole being cute:

Cole and Mike and I went to my cousin Janine's beautiful wedding in the Finger Lakes over Labor Day Weekend while Lena and James spent time with their grandparents in Pittsburgh!  That was a *win win win* situation.  (except my in laws did *loose* in the sleep department for sure....- thanks again guys!!!)

DeGregorio cousins minus my bro Mike

A wedding vacation for us!

My uncle playing harmonica with the band!!  He was awesome!!

Then right after we got back from the festivities, Lena started pre school!!!  

Here she is all ready for day 1:

She's really enjoying it!  She's going 3 mornings/week and it's working out GREAT.

Here's her discussing it:

Also in Lena news we're done with naps.  A few months ago we thought the naps were done but then she had a nap-resurgance which was awesome.  Lately however this is what happens at nighttime if she naps in the afternoon:

If you can't tell, that's lipstick all over her face.... the rest of it is all over my bed.  This is what happens when someone's not tired at night so sneaks down to her parents' room and gets into her makeup.  Clearly she was pretty upset at being caught. Anyway, naps are done.  It's the only way we can ensure a peaceful early bedtime.  

However, because of the no-more-nap-policy sometime this happens in the late afternoon:

mmmk.  So we're working on the transition.

Also, here are the twin cousins:

They're holding hands :-)

Any finally, here's Cole with some more smiles for you to enjoy:

First Smiles

Ladies and gentlemen for your enjoyment today I present to you 

Mr. Cole and his quick little smiles:

One month already?

So this little guy was 1 month old yesterday:

Hi Cole.

Well, I wanted an Italian baby and I surely got one in him.  Seriously, look at this child.  Where did he come from?!

Too funny.  I love it.  

And here's Mike and his 2 blondies:

la la la.

The new Cuz and some photo shoot fails

So We've got a new nephew!!!  Horray!  

His name is Callahan James Roth and he was born on August 6.  

Here he is with his parents Matt & Kristin:

Yay!  We're so happy for them.

And since Callahan and Cole are like twin cousins being only 2 weeks apart we thought we'd do a photo shoot with them.  Fail.  Here are the funny shots that resulted.  Maybe we should try again in a couple weeks.....

Yea, not so great.  Clearly Bubby needed to get in on the action and suddenly he's enormous.

and here's another amusing shot of Lena charming the boys:

Good job, Bean.  

Lena's been playing mommy with one of her baby dolls since we had Cole.  She invents these elaborate imagination senarios that are pretty funny.  Yesterday while the baby was napping and I was occupied paying bills she informed me that her baby was tired and she needed to put her to bed.  I said something like, "ok yea, go for it." and went on with my business.  An hour later I went to go check on Cole who was still asleep and this is what I found:

hah.

Lastly, Lena has been getting the camera and practicing her photography skills lately.  

Here are three un-edited pieces of art:

Titled:  Aunt Sheryl's Entrance

Titled: Wait, Where Do I See The Picture I Just Took?

Titled:  Woah. My World is Rocked.