oh my!!

I just saw these cuties - and thought to myself our next baby will have those.

It's funny because we (me) have been on the fence when it comes to the notion of having a third child. EVERYBODY I know (ahem, Diana) who has three says to reconsider and that three is WAY harder than two and that we'd be crazy ... yada yada yada. BUT lately I feel like it's clear and while we are in no way, shape or form ready NOW I know that there is room in our family and in our hearts for more.

22

Ruby is 22 months old!! In two months we'll be celebrating her second birthday. I can see her literally growing before our eyes. She is growing so tall and clothes that were once too big are now fitting perfectly, if not a little snugly. You see, our girl has a little junk in the trunk ;)

new devolpments

• "No Miney" {translation: I don't want to!!}
• "Miney" {translation: I want it!!}
• And then there's the "no!" and "mine!" which need no translation
• Naps have shifted from post-lunch to mid-morning. She has been increasingly whiney and *difficult* to please lately and I quickly realized she wanted and needed a nap earlier than usual. Thankfully this girl does not resist sleep.
• Once a week I take her to our gym's creche (nursery) during lunch. Last week was the first time she actually ate lunch - and she left not a crumb! I am so happy that she is settling in and feeling comfortable there. When she walks in she heads straight to her favorite nanny, Amanda, and plops down in her lap. If there is a baby in Amanda's arms then the baby had better watch out because our little lady is not afraid to push baby aside.
• Speaking of babies she just LOVES them. We met a friend for lunch last week who has a 3 month old and Ruby was adoring on the baby the entire time. I think she would like to have a little sibling ...
• She is a daredevil. At a play date this week she fearlessly climbed up onto this roller coaster, pushed herself and then flew down the track - all with the biggest smile on her face. I think I know what we'll be getting for her birthday!
• "C'mon dada" she says while taking daddy's hand
• "wheels on the bus" is still the ALL TIME favorite song, book and video of choice

There are more little tidbits that this lovebug is up to but as usual there is little time to sit her in front of my much missed computer!

Today while Kaneu is at school Ruby and I will be celebrating with a cupcake at our local bakery. Yum!!

Happy 22 months Ruby!!

one of these days

I WILL catch up. I promise. But for now it seems I'm running at least a week behind. Thank you all SO much for the comments, compliments and suggestions. Way to make a girl feel good about herself!!!

Here are pics from our camping trip. We went to the Norfolk coast, which is just so incredibly beautiful. I highly recommend it if you ever visit England!! We went last year for a day trip and were so excited to go back. This year we stayed in a tipi and it was really fun. The entire weekend was perfect except for two things - Ruby woke up at 3 am and was scared out of her mind. She would calm down about 90 minutes after screaming crying. It was really bad. The second thing was that Kaneu had a meltdown just as were leaving to head back to London. He was really tired and had some ice cream after lunch. The combination was horrible. You can see the storm brewing in the last pictures. Tantrums at five years old are very challenging. More on that in a different post - along with the night terrors. Both of which are getting old. Sigh. Ok, here the the pics!

who needs swimsuits when you can wear underwear and diapers?!












low tide






the south africans got plenty of practice!

warning: storm ahead

help please!

What does one wear to a gala for the London Film Festival? I hope somebody can help me because that's where we'll be in one month. C'mon girls - feel free to send any and all thoughts. I seriously have NOT a clue - floor length, cocktail?? Brian will be in a tux. Guys always seem to have it very easy.

Oh, and to see the gala film go here. I'm giddy!

Okay must run. Have a VERY whiney and clumsy baby girl who is in need of a nap.

xo

cinque terre

view of Monterosso

Corniglia

Labor Day weekend we celebrated our 11 year wedding anniversary. Eleven!! It has taken me an entire year to get accustomed to ten. Where does the time go? It seems that as soon as we became parents it's gone by way faster. Ok, so onto Cinque Terre ... aka heaven on earth!

We have been wanting to visit Cinque Terre for a while now. We have travelled a lot around Italy, which is a very family friendly country and why we continue to go there (plus the food, wine and scenery are out of this world!). CT is not really the place to take small children so it seemed like the perfect place to spend a few days while Grammy Sue watched the kids in London. It exceeded any expectations I had. It was, in a word, magnificent!!!

CT is on the Northwest coast of Italy. It is made up of 5 small pedestrian villages (Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore) all connected by coastal paths and a train. Our hotel was in Monterosso and on the first full day we hiked to Vernazza and then on to Corniglia. These two walks were the most strenuous and steep but so picturesque - winding through olive groves and vineyards and at times right on top of cliffs. Definitely not for the faint hearted. On the way to Corniglia we saw a sign for the beach and decided that the extra 20 minute "walk" would be worth it if we could dip into the sparkling blue sea. Umm, not so much. The "walk" was straight downhill and very steep. Once we got "there" it was another very steep climb down the rocks and we probably would have gone for it but the beach was full (about 5 ppl) of "naturists". It was a nude beach. We don't do nude beaches unless we're the ONLY ones there and even then I don't really know if I could do it. Nakedness is not really my thing. After gawking for a minute or two we turned around and hiked up the very steep hillside, back onto the path, and made our way to Corniglia - very dirty, dusty, sweaty, and you guessed it smelly! I was so gross that when we got there I bought a new t-shirt to wear. And then there were Brian's feet. Oh goodness. Not good.

Vernazza

en route to the beach

the infamous beach sign

And yes, Brian is wearing a football jersey!! I cringed at the thought of wearing polyester on such a hot day! but he insisted on wearing his Va Tech jersey since it was the Hokies first game of the season that day. Funny enough we met 2 other Hokies on our walk!

The next day we trained from Monterosso to Riogmaggiore, the last of the 5 villages) and walked to Manarola. It was a lovely, paved and flat walk. It is the Via Dell'Amore or "Lover's Walk". Along the way we stopped at the various cafes and bars that were perched above the dramatic coast. It was heaven. It was perfect. We will go again for sure (i hope)!

Riomaggiore

our hotel

rough

If only this was how I could spend my days! I think her toughest decision was this - chair or beanbag? Heaven forbid she actually sleep on her bed!

I even bought her the dog bed version of the beanbag and she wants nothing to do with it. Go figure!

A quick update on what I've been up to ....

• We had a great visit with Grammy Sue. We were all very sad for her to leave. I asked her if she was interested in extending her trip ... I think she was ready to go!
• Kaneu is LOVING Kindergarten. I will do a proper post on it soon I hope ... if I can find the time! It's going great for him but I am SO incredibly busy with all things related to school. It will all be good but I'm still getting settled into our new schedule. It's been an adjustment for sure!
• I accidentally signed up to be a room parent. I attended my first PTA meeting and there were several sign-up sheets going around. I didn't realize exactly what I was signing because I was paying attention to the meeting. Oops!
• I attended my first cello lesson. More on that when I get the Kindergarten post out.
• I hired a cleaner! Oh my goodness. This is going to change my life.
• Brian and I saw David Gray on Monday night. It was such a great show!! C*ldplay on Saturday!!
• We went camping last weekend. It was great fun but very exhausting. A certain little lady decided to wake up at 3am ... and scream for 90 minutes.
• Lastly ... for the last several days I have been working on a post of our trip to Cinque Terre. I have just finished editing and uploading pics. Our internet has been so slow this week and it's taken way longer than it should. Maybe I'll get that up tonight??

Okay, well now I don't feel like a complete slacker for not posting in a while. Now I am gonna try to get the Cinque Terre post up. The pics are amazing. Just you wait!

21 months

21 months ... and 12 days.

This little bundle of love is such a joy and so perfect for our family in every way.

She is a handful a LOT of the time. She is loving. She makes us laugh. She loves to snuggle. Loves books. Will sit in my lap and let me read as many books as I want.

She loves babies. When she sees them she signs and says "baby".

She calls Grammy Sue "Yaya".

She can finally say "Rosie".

She loves to say prayers. When we sit down to eat she will first reach for one of our hands to pray.

She has a new habit of pooping around 9pm. I really don't know what to do about it. It's a problem. We had a "situation" a couple of weeks ago. It was awful. Here is the email that I sent Brian afterwards

during ruby's and kaneu's nap i was thinking that i could get some cleaning done before my mom arrives ...

20 min after i put them down ruby started yelling and hollering

when i went in i immed smelled poop. (kaneu confirmed that ruby pooped)

and then i saw it

everywhere

her hands

her legs

her feet

her crib

her blanket

sheets

her baby, lucy

i've never been so disturbed

i said to kaneu "why didn't you come and get me?"

his reply "because i thought you would say(yell) get back in your bed"

sigh

It really was awful, but thankfully I can laugh about it now.

Oh how I love parenthood - the good, the bad and the poopy!

eating on the school run

There is so much more but my brain is fried. School and lack of sleep are kicking my butt. More on that in another post ...