My turn!

We had a cake for my 30th birthday (coming up Thursday) at Sunday night dinner.

Christmas Tree Hunting

Saturday we went to our favorite place to cut down a Christmas tree. This is the third year in a row and each year seems special. The first year Sebastien was only 3 months old. Last year was his first time walking in snow. And this was Genevieve's first year. Both kids seemed to really enjoy it.

Below: Here's Dan and Sebastien headed down the hill to find a tree.

Below: quick picture of Kim with the kids in the tree farm
Below: We found it! Here's the kids modeling in front of the tree that would soon reside in our living room.

Below: Sebastien enjoying a cookie in the little shack after we cut down the tree.

Below: Genevieve and Sebastien watch daddy tie the tree to the car.

And when we got home, both kids took a nap at the same time so we were able to put up the outside Christmas lights and the lights on the tree. What a productive and fun day!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was at the Masse's in Dracut this year. We had a very yummy dinner with all the traditional Thanksgiving fare. Sebastien loved it (and ate leftovers for quite a few days afterwards). Genevieve only feasted on puffs but she didn't seem to mind. We also celebrated Becca's birthday which was Friday.

First Ponytail

Genevieve's first ponytail ever :)

Conversation in the Car Today...

Kim: Sebastien, how old are you?

Sebastien: Two.

Kim: How old is Daddy?

Sebastien: Two

Kim: No, he's older.

Sebastien: Dadda three.

Turning 30 and Turning into Monkeys

This week Dan leaves behind his twenties and embraces his thirties. (It will be my turn next week.) It's really weird and scary how much changes in a decade - especially the twenties. Dan and I entered college, met each other, spent a year abroad and traveled more than we'll ever get to travel again, got our first (and 2nd, 3rd, and 4th) jobs, got married, bought a house, and had 2 kids. Wow.

Well without dwelling on the fact that we are now "old", I'll move on to happier events. As the title of the blog suggests, yes, I live in a house of monkeys. Believe it or not, Genevieve has assumed the role of head monkey and mischief maker...and she's only 8.5 months old. Her acrobatics get more advanced every day. Even as I type this, she is pulling herself onto the top of her bouncy seat, squealing as she makes it bounce, then crawling (or face-planting) off the front of it, only to do it all over again. She lands on her head every third try but it doesn't seem to stop her. She also has mastered the fireplace. She pulls herself up to a standing position in front of the fireplace and then hauls herself onto it so she can crawl around on it. Her dismount is either a graceful step down or a rolling face-plant onto the floor. I stepped out of the room for a few minutes yesterday and she'd managed to roll off the fireplace and get herself wedged between it and the TV cabinet. She wasn't crying - just waiting for a mommy-rescue. I just can't get over what she can do at her age. She has no fear. Sebastien (God love him) still has some fear but it doesn't stop him from bouncing himself off the couch onto the hardwood on his head. When the kids are hyper, the dog is hyper and her antics begin. It really is a circus, but as long as I'm there to catch them (opposed to trying to cook dinner or put laundry away, etc), I love every minute of it.

Below: It's amazing how you don't have to teach a kid to jump in a pile of leaves. It's just instinctual.

Below: Sebastien gets a ride on the tarp. Unbeknownst to us at the time this picture was taken, two of Sebastien's (tiny) train cars were on the tarp. They then of course got dumped in the woods with the rest of the leaves. I determined where they must have ended up once we realized they were missing. It only took me 20 minutes (and a tiny miracle) to find those 2 little needles in a haystack.
Below: monkeys at play

Below: Yep. she gets up there herself.

Below: Her hideout

Below: The thirty year old.

Below: The monkey ring leader climbing onto her bouncy seat. Woo-hoo! She then proceeded to climb up the seat and off of the back. Don't worry, I was there to catch her.

Puffs and Bows

Not much new happened this week, although it was still a nice week. Below are two pictures of Sebastien "helping" Genevieve eat her puffs. I think for every 1 puff Nenna eats, he eats 5. That's ok though because Genevieve loves being fed by her big brother.

Somehow we acquired 2 copies of "Goodnight Moon," a small copy and a large copy. Sebastien calls them the Big Moon Book and the Little Moon Book. His favorite thing right now is to have Daddy read the big book while he follows along with the little book. The night this picture was taken, Kim was trying to give Genevieve her bottle but she wouldn't have any of it so long as she could hear Dan reading a story. So here she is sitting with the boys:

Below: She's getting quite good at crawling onto things and under things and pulling up to her knees.

Below: Her hair is getting longer and is now in here eyes unless I put some bows in her hair. Those little suckers don't stay in well though in baby fine hair and they're always getting lost. I guess I'll be doing some hair bow shopping in the future!

We're looking forward to a relaxing weekend (well, aside from the leaf ranking I'd like to accomplish). We're happy that Dan has a 3 day work week and then Thanksgiving!

The Kid's Big Trip

This weekend Sebastien and Genevieve went with Grandma and Grandpa up to Farmington, Maine to visit Becca at school. Of course Dan & I missed the munchkins, but managed to have a pretty nice time on our own. It's been a while since we got to sleep in, go to breakfast, lounge around the house, go to the movies, etc as if we didn't have a care in the world. Luckily Grandma and Becca sent us frequent pictures on our phones of the munchkins to let us know they were healthy and happy. Here are a couple of the photos of the kids in Becca's dorm room:

Below: Dan and Kim at Nashoba Valley Winery. We went on a winery tour and did some tasting.

A weekend without the kids is spectacular every now and then, but we're VERY excited for them to come home tonight. :)

Genevieve - almost 8 months

Nothing too exciting went on last week but I managed to take a lot of pictures of Genevieve as she scooted around the house. She's getting very good at making it across the kitchen from the living room to the den in record time, although not as fast as she would if she were crawling for real. She tried green vegetables for the first time last week, as well as drinking water from a sippy cup and seemed to tolerate (and quite possibly, enjoy) both. Her 7th tooth also broke through. Wednesday she really gave mommy a scare though. When I picked her up from her bouncy seat, I saw that the entire back of her head was covered in blood, as well as the back of her shirt and the bouncy seat. After a couple seconds of quietly freaking out (as frightened Sebastien pointed and yelled "Nenna boo-boo!"-which was also weird because I have no idea how he knows that blood = bad), I washed her head under the faucet and saw no cuts and determined it must be her nickel-sized hemangioma (strawberry mark) on the back of her neck. After further investigation (and a call to the doc), it was indeed that. It cracked open from the dry air in the house. Since we've been keeping lotion on it, so far no more scares... but seeing my baby's head covered in blood is certainly one of those things I hope to never see again!

Below: here's Genevieve playing with her sippy cup

Below: Mommy and Genevieve play photo shoot on the couch.

Below: who knows, maybe someday I'll put this picture next to her ND graduation picture!

Below: Grandma and Genevieve at Sunday night dinner

Halloween Happenings

Halloween started on Thursday last week since that was the first time the kids wore their costumes at one of their playdates with Bella and Avalyn. Friday morning they got to wear them again at the Hampstead playgroup and then of course on Sunday for Halloween. We had really warm weather on Thursday but pretty cold weather come Halloween. Aside from Halloween stuff, this was the end of our 2nd week of potty training and it's going pretty well. Accidents still happen of course and I usually put him in a pull up when we leave the house, just in case. Genevieve can get all over the house now and has become quite fast at military crawling. She's even able to pull stuff down from low shelves and the fireplace. She has a particular interest in eating shoes too. As she scoots around, she emits very high pitch shreaks that are her happy way of exclaiming that she's on the move and loving it. Often Sebastien gets down with her and crawls around too. Add in Gwynnie and it's a party.

Below: I don't remember what morning this was but the kids are watching cartoons after breakfast.

Below: Dressed in her Halloween princess dress and Minnie ears at Bella's house.
Sebastien in his "woof woof" costume.
Below: Sebastien and Bella playing with play-doh. It was Sebastien's first time and he immediately tried to eat it, thinking it was food.

Below: Sebastien at Hampstead playgroup

On Halloween evening, we went to a neighbor's house for a Halloween party. We didn't stay too long before we wanted to get home to pass out candy and take the kids to a few houses for trick-or-treaitng. Here's Dan & the mousketeer at the Halloween party.

Trick or Treat time!

Below: All tuckered out after a long day of fun.