Ilea Crawls

In other news,

Ilea has begun crawling...

Yes, at 6 months she is off and away.

I distinctly remember being able to put Orin

down at 8 or 9 months and have him

remain in basically the same place.

Not so with this one.

This baby is nothing but trouble.

Steps to hockey

Ever since Orin learned to skate

he has wanted to play hockey.

He didn’t have to wait long because

in Massachusetts, playing hockey or figure skating

is just what you do in the winter

(there are not that many options
when it is 8 degrees outside)

Growing up, I have fond memories

of 10 hour days at the rink

during tournament weekends

as my brother and I alternated games.

I considered for a short time

depriving my son of the full hockey experience:

the feeling of the cold air rushing through 

your jersey, the sound of the puck

ricocheting off the boards,

the taste of airheads and nachos for dinner,

the smell of the end-of-season

hockey bag... 

but then I decided against it.

So during the sales of the off season last summer,

we collected all of his gear.

 And then, during the fall, we signed him up

for the learn-to-skate program.

 But skating once a week for seven

weeks doesn’t add up to enough practice time,

so we needed a way to clock more hours

in between sessions.

Of course, there was no way I could

take him to skate

because I had to take care of Ilea…

 

Just kidding.

-->

 

 Didn’t I already mention how we east coasters

feel about hockey?

You can hop on the ice when you are 5 minutes

old out here.

So we got some good family practice in

and finally, he was ready:

 Here he is lined up with some of his teammates
(Orin is on the right side of the picture,
notice that for possibly the first time ever
he is the tallest person in the group)

 And at last, it was time to play:

 At this point, I think you need a video

to fully take in the adorableness.

Orin is in the middle with grey shin pad covers

(shin pad covers = mom's leg warmers)

 Later on in the scrimmage
Orin got the puck, broke away from the pack
and scored the only goal of the game.
To say we were proud would be
the understatement of the year.

Undecided

Ever since I first got pregnant, I wondered

what Ilea would look like.

Would she have brown eyes like me,

or blue like Casey?

Would she have my straight brown hair,

or his curly sandy blonde?

Well, now that she is just 2 days shy of 6 months

I can say definitively that

we still have no idea.

Her hair looks straight sometimes

and curly other times.

 Sometimes it looks light brown or blonde

 and sometimes it looks reddish.

 And her eyes are brownish, blueish, grayish.

 Maybe this is the price we have to pay 

for giving her two middle names?

Or maybe she just doesn't like being rushed.

The one thing I can say, though,

is Ilea is the most relaxed, happy baby in the history of the Universe.

Every morning, she hops on the rollercoaster that is our day-to-day

life and just goes with the flow,

whether it be racing around an ice rink in her stroller

(post to follow), bouncing around in the carrier on my back

while I play soccer with Orin,

getting bathed in the sink because someone is

using the bathroom in the morning,

or dancing with her daddy at a wedding until 10pm.

You literally can't make this baby unhappy

as long as she is clean and fed.

So with brownish, blueish, greyish eyes,

one thing is for certain: this kid rocks.

Amarkable Packages of Life

Today Orin came home from school

singing a song he had learned in

horticulture class.

It was too cute not to share.

Noisy Children

Some of you may remember a blog post I wrote years ago,

I think it was titled "The Cougar"

It included a video of Orin as a baby

screaming at the top of his lungs (his "cougar noise")

Well, the other day we were making dinner 

while this was going on in the background.

Point of the story: I guess I just have noisy children.

Happy, noisy children.

Learning to Laugh

I was just going through the video files and I realized that

I hadn't posted a couple really cute ones of Ilea.

This is Ilie learning to laugh.

Hey, it's not easy to figure it out, you know.

Here is another one taken a couple days later.

Almost a laughing master.

With her two favorite boys around, 

there are a lot of opportunities to practice.

Bee Dance

Another impromptu dance session with Ilea

Enjoy!

Sitting Up (is for babies)

The other day I put Ilea in her bouncer

only to turn around a second later to see this:

Those of you familiar with this bouncer

know that this is not the intended position.

Instead, it is a protest, a very small act of defiance...

Ilea's way of communicating that she is entirely 

fed up with lying on her back.

This upright position is much more interesting

offering a new perspective on what would otherwise be

a boring old room.

This baby is up.

Well, at least some of the time.

The 10 Steps of Halloween

Step One: Decide what to be

Orin: viking, Ilea: knight

Nope, other way around, 

Orin: knight, Ilea: viking.

Nope, no helmets fit Ilea.

Ilea: bee, Orin: viking.

 

 Thanks cousin Ardian,

because let's face it,

I barely pulled off making Orin's viking costume in time.

 

Step two: acquire pumpkins

 Step three: add more decorations

(Thanks, Gabe)

 Step four: Carve pumpkins

 Step five: collect seeds for eating

Collect stem for eating.

 No, bad baby!

 Step six: Collect remaining seeds for chickens

 Step seven: Make the chickens day

 "Hey! while you are feeling like sharing...."

 Step eight: March in a parade:

 There's our viking!

 Step nine: Light the pumpkins

Step ten: take pictures of the trick or treaters,

(or forget to put the data card in the camera and 

think you are taking pictures all night, 

but end up with nothing)

Sorry about that.

And every boy needs a bonnet

Because every baby needs a tutu...

Chestertown Mayhem

I just realized that I left a batch of pictures

in a draft file on the blog from our trip to Chestertown.

I had meant to write a detailed blog about 

our adventures there, but I am starting to realize

that if I do not just post the pictures,

they will never get posted because it has been

several months now and all they are doing is 

collecting electronic dust.

I apologize, Ilea, for doing such a bad job

documenting your earliest days...

I assure you there are many pictures, just fewer

words than I had for your brother.

But luckily, pictures tell great stories

and I am going to let these tell the story for me

so I can go to bed early.

Prepare mentally for the chaos that is always

the centerpiece of our travels to Maryland.

Picture brightly colored stuffed animals

being chucked down staircases, joyful

shrieking, peanut butter and jelly stained everything...

Ok, you are there. Ready, set, scroll!

Good times.

That is the last of the make-up blogs

and now we are officially in real time

(or at least we are in the right month).