Made With Love

Smiles for Daddy

Nonna & Zaidy Visit

Nonna and Zaidy came to visit this weekend! Calder and Tessa had fun with them while Mommy and Daddy got a night out!

They also tagged along to Gymboree, where Calder kept them very busy!
Here's Tessa lounging on her new blanket -- one of the many gifts Nonna & Zaidy brought from family & friends back in Pittsburgh!
And, this is pretty much why we don't yet have a good family picture of Dave and I with both kids -- maybe someday!

Our new niece!

We got to meet our niece, Olivia, this weekend. She's just 2 1/2 weeks old, and so tiny!
Madison posing with Tessa.
It's hard to believe that these two cuties are separated by only 2 months and about 4 pounds!

Jaiden

Sean and Jaiden stopped by one afternoon this week, and we snapped these pictures of Jaiden playing with some of Calder's toys. He has gorgeous eyes, but he's still super cute even when you can't see them!

Just Hangin' Out

Little Bunny

Since Easter is less than a month away, I thought it was time to break out the little bunny hat!
Calder loves to "do" things with Tessa. Here he is reading her a book. He constantly talks about all the things they will do together "when she gets bigger", like go to the farm and the zoo and ride trains together!

Mommy and Me

Tessa and I had a 'Mommy and Me' day yesterday when we attended my friend Jen's baby shower. We can't wait for Jen's baby girl to arrive in May -- a new gal pal for Tessa!

Another Day, Another Nap...or not.

Calder boycotted his nap yesterday, which is nothing out of the ordinary. And, the night before he was up until 10:30pm (boycotting bedtime, naturally). So the little guy was pretty much out of steam by the time dinnertime rolled around...

It's a good thing I turned off the camera when I did. I caught him just as he started to go sailing off the side of the chair!


Untitled from courtney on Vimeo.

2 months old!

Tessa had her 2 month well visit on Friday. She weighed in at 11 lbs 4 oz. and is 23 inches long! She is already starting to outgrow her 0-3 month clothing -- mostly in length! Unfortunately, she was also blessed with her first cold this past week. Luckily it consisted only of nasal congestion (which she still has), so it hasn't been too bad. I think it was a gift from big brother!

Conversations with Calder

Here are a few things that Calder can be heard saying on a regular basis these days...

"I take a great nap!" -- This is said nearly every morning. He also says this after every nap, regardless of whether he actually took one or not.

"Is that a good idea?" -- This is what he says when he's trying to convince us that we should watch Super Why (or do any other activity of his choosing) instead of eating dinner, cleaning up, taking a nap, going to bed, etc...

"This is going to be so much fun!" -- Said anytime he gets to do the activity of his choosing.

"Whoooooaaaa. You have to be more careful!" -- Calder is one heck of a backseat driver. Don't abruptly hit the breaks, unless you want to hear this repeatedly!

"She's smiling at me! She likes me." -- He says this anytime Tessa appears to be looking in his direction.

"This food makes me sad." -- Ok, so he only said this once. But it was too cute not to include on this list!

Bath Time!

Tessa loves her bath. She is completely content to lay there while the warm water splashes over her. She's just not crazy about the drying off part.

All clean and ready to snooze!

St. Patty's Day Parade

We had a great time at Old Town Alexandria's St. Patty's Day Parade last weekend. Here's Tessa -- all ready to go!

Before the parade, we stopped by the "Fun Dog Show". So many pooches, and they were all so cute!

Here's Calder's best imitation of the bulldog (Daddy's too!)

Calder was so cute at the beginning of the parade. As all of the politicians rode by in their convertibles, Calder waved to each and every one, saying "Bye! Bye! See you tomorrow!"

Calder was happy to see that "Santa Claus" was part of the parade... :)

Given his recent obsession with Noah's Ark, I was really surprised that he didn't say this was Noah.

Spring Tease

A week after the big snowstorm we had an amazing weekend of 70+ degree weather!

Calder had a blast playing in the backyard, and Tessa even came out to join him for a bit.

7 weeks and sleeping??

Here's our precious girl at 7 weeks. With those eyes, the boys are going to be chasing her down in no time!

The latest here is that she has now gone 2 nights in a row with 6 hours between feedings. This equates to roughly 5 - 5.5 hours of uninterrupted sleep! Glorious! Now, if we could only get Calder to go to sleep anywhere near his bedtime, life would be good.

Oh, and I was knocking on wood the whole time I was writing this.

We Love Super Why!

Since Tessa's birth, Calder watches more TV than I would like to admit. It's just the only way I can get her fed/changed/bathed sometimes. His new favorite show is called Super Why! which airs on PBS. LOVE THIS SHOW! It focuses on reading and spelling, and really is geared toward older kids, but he absolutely loves it! I cannot tell you how much he has learned in the past month. Prior to watching it, he could recite the alphabet, but didn't always recognize which letters were which. He knew some upper-case letters (a handful or two) and no lower-case letters. In just one month, his letter recognition has improved tremendously. He knows every upper-case letter and several lower-case letters. And he now walks around 'spelling' everything he sees! The other day, we were getting ready to get in my car, and as he walked around to the back I heard him say "H-I-G-H-L-A-N-D-E-R"!

Super job, super readers!!!

March Snowstorm!

Just when we thought spring was right around the corner...we got a huge snowstorm last night! I'm guessing we got around 7 or 8 inches. It was actually kind of nice, since Calder really hasn't had much of an opportunity to play in the snow this year. I took him out this morning for about an hour and he had an absolute blast!

New Friends

Tessa got to meet her new friend Molly (3 1/2 months) today!

Posing with big brothers Calder and Will (1 1/2).

For the love of cousins

A couple of weeks ago, we decided to size up Jaiden and Tessa, in comparison to Calder and Sandhya when they were babies. Jaiden and Tessa are 4 1/2 months apart. In the photo below, Jaiden is 5 1/2 months and Tessa is 1 month:

Calder and Sandhya are 3 3/4 months apart. Here they are when Sandhya was 6 days old and Calder was 4 months old. Jaiden definitely outsizes Tessa by a bigger margin!

Getting to know each other. Hopefully these two will become best buds just like Sandhya and Calder.
Calder wasn't interested in having his picture taken, but Sandhya jumped right in! I look forward to seeing these two dressing up like princesses together one day...
And how about Tessa's knee socks? Aren't they the cutest!?