More B-day Pictures

We hope everyone is having a great Holiday season. The kids made out like bandits and it looks like a toy store exploded in our living room. We will have some pictures of Xmas day madness up soon. But here are some pictures from Jackson's birthday party at the Pollocks. He got a cool winter hat from Grandpa and Charlotte. He likes it so much he will actually keep it on his head for more than 3 seconds unlike his other hats.


The nice thing about multiple birthday celebrations is multiple times to get your hands dirty eating cake.

Sister likes multiple chances at cake as well.

Our happy guy with his new train.

Jackson Caulfield is 1!

Our baby is now a year old! We celebrated with a very small (Geoff, Nora, & I) birthday party, split a frosted brownie and opened gifts party last night. Jack loved icing and seemed to like his presents.

From the "party" a proud big sister shares in the celebrating! "Jack's a big boy now?" she asked after singing him a very sweet Happy Birthday song. Well, sort of....

At the pediatrician this morning, he weighed in at 28 pounds, 12 ounces (above 97th percentile, although Doc O'Brien said, "Well, he is getting closer to the line" meaning he is not so far above the highest percentile; 30 inches long (60th percentile) and has a head in the 95th percentile ("big brains run in our family," I said proudly). Look at that smile...


We also got the news that our dear friends Troy & Kathleen Carlson welcomes their brand new baby girl, Amelia "Millie" Jean Carlson into the world literally as we sucked the icing off our brownie. Congratulations and December 15 is a great day to be born!

So, despite a hectic past few weeks at work which included a FIVE day trip to DC for me (Geoff rocks for being at home with the kids that whole time alone), Christmas is on its way. My mom will be here in a week *yay* and we actually got our real live (is there any other kind, really?) tree this weekend. To that end, Nora Kate found the stockings and promptly put them on her feet. Right on girl, you wear those stockings!

And, after putting up the leaning tree, we promptly put a fence around it to keep the baby hands away from it and the ornaments we love. But here they are admiring the lights....
This is going to be one very fun Christmas. And, our cards are coming! Really. They might be late, but they are coming. Happy Holidays to everyone who reads the blog. Remember to enjoy the solstice!

Two Toddlers

Our babies love being cuddled, tickled, and loved on. Eleanor is very fond of saying "Mama (or Daddy) has two babies" (her emphasis)! Well, they are developing so quickly, we really have to admit they are no longer babies. But, as my Mama still calls me, Geoff and I will probably always call them our babies. So, our two toddlers are remarkable and smart!



Here is an update of their amazing talents:

Jackson (11 months old)

• Claps his hands when someone says "Yay" or "Good job!"
• Does some of the motions for "Itsy Bitsy Spider"
• Goes and gets books and opens them up to read
• Walks with support
• Crawls at lightening speed!
• Pushes the shapes into the shape sorter
• Wants to feed himself at every meal
• Giving big kisses
• Puts his hands on top of his head when his teacher says "Head!"
• Waves bye-bye

Nora Kate (28 months old)

• Sings the ABC's--pretty right on, although L,M,N,O,P are a bit jumbled (very cute)
  
• Jumps with her two feet together (yay!)
  
• Runs a lot and LOVES the game Tag
  
• Hums lullabies to anyone going to sleep
• Talks and cares for her baby dolls
• Loves the zoo and asks ("zoo now") to go there almost every day.
  
• Talks in complete sentences
• Understands and anticipates others' needs ("This would be easier for Mama if the light was on" and she turns on the light or asks, "Mama, do you need some?" for cheese, butter, any sauce, seconds for food. "Daddy, you need a blanket" or "Daddy needs water" as she runs to get a bottle of water)

So, there they are. It's almost Jack's birthday and his Grandma is coming for a visit! We are battling illnesses, but in good spirits. Our Christmas picture is done, so look forward to getting those within the next few weeks. The Babies Grove may be renamed....weigh in. Anyone have ideas for this blogs name? The Grove Gang?

A Month in Pictures

We started out October by making an Autumn Leaf Wreath. Nora is very into leaves this year and constantly says "Look Daddy, Look Mama" whenever she finds one that catches her eye. Well, we had to do something with them, so we taped them to a paper plate and cut out the center and thus, a wreath was born. Of course she would not smile for the camera....

And, we visited the Columbus Zoo for Boo at the Zoo, where they have costume parades and treat stations. Kids wear their costumes and fun is had by all.

This year, Nora was a lion and Jack, for his first Halloween, was a giraffe.

Nora talking to a tiger, her favorite animal these days.

Jack, actually wearing his giraffe head, which he didn't for most of dress up.



And Halloween night, shared by our good friends Sara & Brandon and Jessie & David. She how cooperative their kids are? Nora was a complete pill for any pictures, although Jack looks darn cute. Maddie is the sweet bumblebee and Taryn is the cute Tiger.
And here is EKG with a sweet, genuine smile with her kitty cat, Baby Jack. Everything Eleanor thinks is a baby is affectionately called "Baby Jack" *smile* despite acting somewhat aggressively toward him (the actual baby), these days. It's been a few long weekends in October with behavior like grabbing, pinching, biting, and pushing *sigh*

And, here are some recent ones of our boy Jack, who is now crawling fast, pulling himself up on everything and everyone (even Mookie sits still for his baby) and who yells if we don't allow him to feed himself, eat whatever we are eating, or have his mama.

This last one is for Grandma, who sent this sweet outfit. LOVE it! Seriously, couldn't he do print ads?

"Ampa" & Italian Fest

A couple weeks ago Grandpa ("Ampa") came over to spend some time with the kids and watch the Bengals game. Turns out the kids dominated his time so he didn't catch much of the football game. After reading some books, Eleanor took him upstairs to play. For the next 45 minutes, while I watched the game, all we heard were giggles from both of them so whatever they were doing they had a good time. The next day several times she looked out the window calling for "Ampa".


The previous day we went to the Italian Festival. These fests have become more fun as Eleanor is able to enjoy the rides, bounce houses, and balloon animals (which lasted about 3 minutes before popping).

Jackson stays wide-eyed and enjoys watching everything going on around him. It's pretty clear he wants to get down and enjoy the fun. I can't imagine the craziness once he joins his sister in running around and exploring.

Enjoying some good pizza, which was only a sample of the Italian foods we ingested.

Raisin' [a stink about] Arizona

I am about to leave Geoff and the kids for 3 full days and I am sad. I thought I might actually look forward to the rest and relaxation, the 90 degree Arizona heat, and hotel luxuries; but all I can think of is how hard this parenting is when you're flying solo. And, because I am me, what happens if something happens. To them, to me. Its a good thing we got goin, this family. Trips without them feel weird and wrong. So, I won't whine too much, but I'll say that I don't know how people who travel a lot do it.

To divert my attention and lift the spirit of this post a bit, here are some great updates: Jack is on the move! At 9.5 months old, he still doesn't roll off his back, but he is crawling everywhere! He goes head down, like a steam engine right into your leg, then tries to climb up. Its the sweetest thing. He also beams and gets very excited when we pick him up from school. It can turn even the worst day around when you go get him.And, tonight, we had Eleanor's parent-teacher conference at her school. They administered the Ages & Stages Questionnaire on her and she did great! Exceeded all scores except for gross motor since she still doesn't jump with both feet together. She does this little half hop instead. Her teachers talked about how she has become the biggest helper since three new "babies" (18 month olds, the youngest you can be to attend ICC) arrived in her class. They said "She is obviously very intelligent" and "She knows a lot of words." The one area of minor concern is her speech. Her teacher theorized that bigger kids tend not to learn how to use their back tongue muscles until they work on it. For example, Nora will pronounce bath as "Baff" and something about gutteral sounds. Basically, they did not think she sounded like other kids her age and although that did not worry them yet, they wanted us to be aware of it. Duly noted.Well, even as my mind cannot stop racing, I better get some sleep if I hope to actually wake up to my insanely early alarm. If you're reading this, send good thoughts to Geoff as he single-parents the best kids ever and to me as I work my ass off in Scottsdale. Love you family, Mama

Green Concert T-shirt

The other day after a bath I told Eleanor to pick out an outfit to wear. I was changing my shirt, which is often required after giving her a bath and she saw my new shirt and said "mine?". I thought why not, so I let her wear my old Sam Roberts concert t-shirt from a show we saw many moons ago.

We then had a lot of fun trying to get her to pose for a picture. I'd tell her to stand still and as soon as I put the camera to my face she'd run toward me laughing. It turned into some really good pictures.



And what would a blog post be without a stinkin' cute picture of Jackson.

Delaware County Fair

The other weekend we joined the Pollocks at the Delaware County Fair. It marked a lot of firsts for the kids. above is Eleanor's first real fair ride. Lindsey was nice enough to escort her on the crazy looking kangaroos. Despite the mad look on Nora's face, which she had the entire time, when I came to get her out she said "more" and was rather upset to leave.

Here is Jackson enjoying his first taste of a funnel cake, really just the powdered sugar. Needless to say he was a big fan.

We also got to see the early races of the Little Brown Jug, which is of course "the most prestigious 3-year-old pacing race in North America." Here are Skyler, Lindsey, and Eleanor checking out the action.

Jackson got into cheering on the horses while holding himself up on my shorts.


Eleanor also loved the baby animals that had in one building.

Due to a mistake in packing food for Jack we didn't get to stay as long as we wanted. Nora was not happy to go home and kept saying "more fair". At home later talking about how much she liked the fair I told her we would go again soon, she said "leave!" and walked right to the front door ready to hit the fair.

All pictures courtesy of Aunt Pam.

Well, crap, its been a while.....

Hi everyone. I know its been forever since we posted. Here's why: two toddlers, plus demanding jobs; a house on the market and football season. And, we're just tired at the end of the day. So, here's what we've been up to. Jackson had his 9 month old well-child visit yesterday. He is 26 pounds (Doc O'Brien said..."Buddy, you're the size of a toddler" to which Jackson flashed her a big toothy grin), not yet crawling although sooooo close, has 4 teeth breaking through gums and 2 more on their way, is eating foods now and dancing to music. He is so fun and sweet, gives lots of hugs and still lights up when Nora Kate comes near him.
Here is proof of our first french braid. It doesn't last even half the day, but it looks so sweet when its in. Eleanor is transitioning to big girl panties and bed this weekend, but mostly her updates include highly emotional outbursts multiple times a day, loves her school (reference last statement for how much), and singing. She repeats everything we say and sings the last word of every line for songs she knows. We have also overheard her singing the ABCs on her own which we are trying to get on video.
Here they are together, the two of them. Its been enormously fun watching Nora try to help Jack as he falls over or gets frustrated from not being able to crawl. We have seen some more jealousy now that he wants toys or "gets" to have a bottle. Whenever we feed him, Eleanor now says "Me eat too" so, we're trying to talk about feelings more and remind her she is a big girl.
And this picture shows that we bought Halloween costumes. Jack will be the giraffe you see above, but Nora had to wear it around an hour or so first. She loves wearing his clothes, so we let it go and leave that battle for more important stuff like not touching stoves or running into the street. We'll leave Eleanor's costume a mystery for now.....roar!
Did I mention the jealousy over bottles? Well, she may have been "delivering" this one to her brother, but she was down to a diaper, with shoes on and put all these headbands into her hair. It makes us laugh, this girls fashion sense. Just look at that face! Hard to believe she is ever ornery.

In other news, we're selling our house and if you'd like to buy it, leave us a comment. I won't post our address here, but its a great 109 year old house with original wood door frames & pocket doors, 3 bedrooms, plus a bonus 3rd floor room, full basement, galley kitchen with a large fenced backyard and hot tub. Its going for a steal given the economy (almost 1400 square feet for $209,900) and is in a great neighborhood. We actually had a great open house and 5 private showings in the 15 days we've been on the market.

Finally, a few congrats need mentioning. Our friends the Frymyers just added baby Jacob to their family. He joins big sis Maddie and is darling, just like her. My grad school chum Rachel and her husband Lee just welcomed their first baby, Olivia Ann a month ago; and my cousin Kevin and his wife Abby just had a son, although I have yet to see what they named him. Finally, a very special note about my cousin Matthew. This child (for I still see him as a four year old, despite being an adult and about to enter law school) just announced his engagement to Annie. I am certain they will enjoy a long happy marriage and just hope we get to be a part of their lives as they start out.

More updates coming soon!