Levi--7 months old already!

Levi is 7 months old today and busier than ever. He cut his first tooth yesterday (or at least I discovered it yesterday), is very close to crawling, is babbling with lots of dada and baba sounds, and learned how to clap on Friday. He's getting more demanding, but is overall still a very happy little guy. 

A video of me trying to get him to clap...you get a taste of his screaming ability here. 

Randy was finally able to capture him clapping...it's just the cutest thing!

Barnes Circus

I'm not sure where they got it from, but Caleb and Lina are all about performing "circus tricks" these days. Here are a few pics and videos of them entertaining us. 

Caleb's Large Art

I bought the kids a pad of large paper this week and it has been a big hit. Caleb has really been enjoying sitting at the table for long periods of time and drawing very detailed pictures. 

 This is his map of New England, with lots of towns indicated. 

 This is a map of our neighborhood. The cemetery is on the left. You can see our house with the driveway and garden and several of our neighbor's houses. 

Beauty and the Beast

Lina continues to love Beauty and the Beast and talks about the characters almost constantly. Here she is building blocks and singing along with the soundtrack. 

Make Way for Ducklings

Caleb and Lina have really been enjoying Robert McClosky's "Make Way for Ducklings" of late, so Randy took them into the city yesterday to ride the swan boats and see the bronze statues of the ducklings. It was a perfect fall day and they all had a great time. 

Northampton Weekend

We were invited to attend a birthday party last weekend in Northampton, MA-which is about a 2 hour drive from here. It was totally impractical to attend, but we decided to make a weekend out of going and it was so much fun. Caleb was beyond excited to make the road trip and both he and Lina seemed to be looking forward to sleeping in a hotel. Randy and I weren't sure that anyone would get any sleep, but we thought the experience would be worth it. We started driving around 9 am on Saturday morning and got to Northampton around 11 am. The drive was lots of fun. Levi napped a little, Caleb loved looking at the maps and road signs, and Lina settled in for some music and book reading. We also started playing the license plate game and ended up seeing 33 different states and 2 Canadian provinces during the trip (we are actually still playing the game-yesterday was a big day with Randy and Caleb spotting Alaska and New Mexico on the way home from Boston). Northampton was a cute little town, with lots of shops and restaurants. We ate Tibetan food for lunch and the kids and Randy tried yak..which they all liked! There was a sidewalk chalk event going on, so there was lots of cool sidewalk art and the kids got to draw too. 

The birthday party was fun it was great to catch up with my friend Rayane from MIT. The kids were so  ready to get to the hotel after the party. Randy and I thought it was ridiculous that we needed a luggage cart to bring in all we needed for a one-night stay. We went swimming in the hotel pool, ordered a pizza for dinner, and treated the kids by letting them get a Sprite from the vending machine...talk about big time! We watched college football until bedtime and all slept pretty well. The continental breakfast was another big treat for the kids....it's so fun and refreshing to see thing through their eyes. 

 After we checked out of the hotel, we drove to Mt. Tom and took a nice hike. There were lots of mushrooms in the woods and we all enjoyed looking for them and talking about them. When we got home, we learned that trying to identify mushrooms is really hard and potentially dangerous. 

 On the way home we stopped at the Ecotarium museum in Worcester. What a great place! Our only disappointment was that we didn't have enough time to look at everything. Levi enjoyed some time to stretch out. One of the highlights was stepping into a chamber that simulated hurricane-force winds.

Levi's Blocks

These blocks were Caleb's birthday gift to Lina when she turned one....but they are now Levi's favorite toy. The kids love to build towers for him and he loves to knock them down. And we discovered that he enjoys sitting in the basket with the blocks too. 

First Day of School

School started back in session on September 7th....what a difference a year makes! Caleb was so excited to return to his school and our family looks quite different than a year ago. 

I can't get over Lina's little ponytails from a year ago!

Labor Day Weekend

I'm a little behind on updating the blog, so I can't really remember all that we did on Labor Day weekend. I'm sure it involved playing outside, cooking something on the grill, and I know that we went to the beach. The kids had so much fun at the beach, even though the recent passing of Irene had made the water freezing! Luckily there were lots of warm tidal pools that day and we all enjoyed splashing around in them.

Haircut

Two weeks ago I made an impulsive decision to get my hair cut. Since it was so long, I decided to get a big cut and donate my hair to Beautiful Lengths-an organization that makes wigs for kids and women with cancer. I miss my long hair, but it will grow back!

Boston Fountains

We had a great day in the city on Wednesday with Kristen, Ryan and Ella. We took the T into Haymarket and then headed to the fountains at the North End to let the kids splash and play. After they had enough water fun, we crossed the street and walked up to Ernesto's to get some pizza for lunch. We ended up taking the pizza back to the greenway by the fountains and ate lunch. Another trip to Salem street after lunch yielded some yummy gelato for all.