Making Pasta

Bid Bed Silliness

Phillip fell off the bed right after I stopped filming and I literally caught him out of the air!

Out for a Stroll

Here's a little video from the other week when I took Phillip out for a walk one weekend day. It's really cool to watch him exploring his environment, and how he finds interest in the most ordinary things

Writing

Cecilia has been really into writing lately, basically just practicing her letters. We figure out together what she wants to write and then I tell her how to spell everything. Here is a letter she wrote to Santa:

It says:

Dear Santa

May I please have a huge cheetah like Robert. Thank you for bringing me a present.

Love Cecilia

Robert is what she calls this big stuffed animal dog that Aaron got from Uncle Jerry and lent to Cecilia for a bit. I think the scribble after cheetah is supposed to say "but not black" but it didn't really come out too well!

Uncle Ben

Phillip really likes his Uncle Ben, here he is taking a nap on him.

Ben is well known for his tickling skills, as shown here.

Ballet class, March 2013

Cecilia was super interested in ballet for a while, and although we have since found that she is way to energetic to do ballet, there was nothing cuter than Cecilia with 12 other girls in pink leotards in ballet class. Here is a little sample of the things they did during the class:



At the end of every class, all the students got to go up in groups to the stage to perform. It's a little fuzzy, since the parents sit at a distance away, but here is Cecilia when she goes up to the stage:

Dancing and Singing

Cecilia likes to sing. Phillip likes to dance. It's perfect.

Things I don't want to forget

Here is Phillip sitting in a bouncy chair and playing with the toys we set up for him. This is a mommy talking, but the part I want to remember the most is him rolling his feet around and around and around continuously.



He doesn't do it anymore, but especially when he was on the changing table, he used to shimmy his hips like he was dancing a really fast tango. Even Nana remarked on it!



Bathtime! He loved having his head halfway in the water and kicking like crazy. If he could accidentally splash water on my face and get a reaction out of me, it was the best!



Playing with Uncle Ben.



The funny thing about that last video is how loooong Uncle Ben's arms are. I am much closer to the ground, but when I try to do the same thing with Phillip, I have to bend way over to reach his arms.

March 2013: Phillip's firsts

Rolling over. I thought I had posted this wayyy back in March, but I guess not. Now that he can walk, it isn't such a big deal, but back then it was on par with the 7 wonders of the world.



Eating real food. The first part of the video is at the beginning of the month, when he started to eat pureed fruits. Toward the end of the month, we tried feeding him stir fried noodles for the first time, which he absolutely loved. He probably would have kept eating, but we stopped because we weren't sure what all that oil and salt were going to do to him!



Playing with toys.



Babbling and gurgling. I love those noises. We would have whole conversations in babble and gurgle. He would say "I love you Mommy." And I would say "I love you Phillip." Repeat.

March 2013: Making Phillip laugh

Cecilia wasn't the only one trying to make Phillip laugh all the time... there is something about a baby that will make grownups contort their faces, make crazy sounds, and do crazy antics, just to hear that wonderful gurgling laugh.



In this video, Daddy is making Phillip play peek-a-boo with Mommy and Cecilia, which he loves. If you watch to the end, you'll see something I found hilarious.



If you can't tell what happens at the end, I'll tell you - Daddy tries to walk in with Phillip sitting on his shoulders, and Phillip's head hits the door frame. :) Thank goodness Phillip has a hard head. It didn't even faze him!

Finally, here are Phillip, Cecilia and Mommy all having a good time dancing to the song American Pie to make Phillip laugh.

March 2013: Cecilia and Phillip

Cecilia has always liked to play with Phillip and get his attention, even when he was a little baby. For a while, it was her single-minded purpose in life to make him laugh.




Here, I think Phillip is looking at the antics and thinking "What in the world are Cecilia and Daddy DOING??"



One of the first times we put Phillip on a swing. To this day, and just like his sister, he loves swinging.

A Helping Hand

Phillip really is lucky to have a big sister that cares for him as much as Cecilia - it would be really nice if this blog helps him realize it when he is older.

Oregon Beach

Here's a cute video of Cecilia helping Phillip walk on the beach in Oregon. He learned to walk by himself during the trip and it was really sweet watching them play together.

Phillip Pics

Playing in the salt marsh behind Woodman's in Gloucester last weekend

On the jungle gym at River Street Playground

At Dana Park

It's tough taking both kids to the playground by myself these days - Phillip just takes off as soon his feet hit the ground and the last thing I have time for is to take pictures.

My Patriotic Son

Easter Egg Hunt

I'm always 6 months behind. This was at Ben and Jen's last spring, 2013:

Pictures from February 2013

I barely remember how cold it was last winter, but here is proof!

Here are some pictures of Cecilia and Phillip. She's always been very protective of him and loves to play with him. This was only a little over 6 months ago - I can't believe how much Phillip has changed.

Typical winter clothes for a very fashionable little girl:

Cancun, February 2013

In February we took a fantastic vacation to Cancun with New York Grandma, and Ben and Jen and family. It was the perfect thing to get away from the cold for a while!

Unfortunately my phone died, so no videos, but plenty of pictures can be found here.

Phillip was less than 6 months old at the time! This is one of my favorite pictures of him during the vacation:

I think you can make a good argument that he had a good time as well...

We stayed at a fancy all-inclusive resort with 5 different pools, 3-4 different buffets/restaurants, ocean beach, and countless activities. We probably could have stayed there the whole week, but we made some excursions outside of the resort. One was to the Mayan ruins just south of us, where we also went to the beach:

We also made trips to 2 different eco parks, Xcaret and Xel-ha. It was perfect for the boys to snorkel/swim, ride zip lines, etc, and Cecilia got to do quite a lot too.

Phillip couldn't even crawl yet at this point, and this was his first long-term exposure to sun/sand, and I think he enjoyed it. I couldn't resist highlighting some great pictures of him playing in the sand:

All in all, this was a fantastic trip!

Rumbly Slide

I took this today. Grandma and grandpa are here so I got to take Cecilia to the playground by herself for a change.

Maya

Cecilia has become best friends with Maya this year, which has been really nice for both of them. We are all sad because Maya is going to private school next year but we scheduled gymnastics and soccer classes for them together for the Fall. They live around the corner too so hopefully we will all keep in touch.

Monkey Bars

Cecilia has become a real terror on the monkey bars since her friend Tomer at pre-school taught her how to do it.

Trip to NYC in January

6 months ago now (yikes) we went to NYC for the annual Lerner Winter Holiday, which was held after Hanukkah/Christmas this year to accommodate everyone's schedules. Unfortunately we don't have too many pictures of that time since we were on the more exhausted side with a 4-5 month old, but I have a couple shots of Phillip with Arlene and Jerry, and one with Cecilia:

Children's museum

Last weekend it was super hot, and we took Cecilia and Phillip to the Children's museum. Cecilia is a master of the central climbing structure now, and can get all the way up to the tippy-top in like 10 minutes.

We took Phillip to the toddler-only room, and he had a FANTASTIC time. He really like the fish tank (both the fish and the bubbles at the top), and he found this drawbridge he liked to go across, and kept going up and down the single stair that led to the drawbridge. Past the drawbridge, there was a bumpy incline that he couldn't quite master on his own yet, although he -did- try to grab another kid's leg to try and pull himself up the incline. As you will see in this video, he also likes to put things in his mouth (puzzle pieces, his shoe...).



Within the toddler-only room, there is a space just for crawlers. Phillip loved this part too, especially the mirror, where he tried to kiss himself, clapped with himself, and generally found it really funny to interact with himself. I wonder if he thought it was a totally different baby playing with him? It was super cute. :)

Sledding with Aaron and Jacob last winter

Disney on Ice

Just after Christmas, I took Cecilia to see Disney on Ice. Grandma was going to come, but was sick, so last-minute, we were able to take Bronwyn with us! The girls had sooo much fun. Here is a conglomeration of videos I combined of the show and of them:



The best part was at the end when they finished with The Lion King, which is of course, Cecilia's favorite movie. You can imagine her excitement. I think Bronwyn was a little surprised when Cecilia belted out "Can you feel the love tonight" at the top of her lungs along with the show.

Cecilia singing

We heard from Cecilia's preschool teachers yesterday that she has a beautiful voice. It seems like she's always singing now! Making up songs, or singing existing ones. This video from 6 months ago is completely dark, but you can hear her singing.



She sings much more often (and much louder) now...

Christmas in Sacramento 2012

We made the trip to California for Christmas this year, and as usual, it was a ton of fun! I think one of the first days we were there, we made our annual trip to Fairytale Town. Cecilia still asks to go there all the time.

While we were having some fun with Cecilia...

Grandma and Grandpa were all too happy to push Phillip around:

Grandma and Grandpa also enjoyed spending time with Phillip, who they hadn't seen since he was born! In this video, Grandma is having fun making Phillip move around:

Phillip also got to meet a bunch of family members for the first time. Uncle Bruce of course...

Auntie Karen...

Cecilia had a lot of fun with some of her favorite Aunties too. She thinks of Auntie Karen as a big kid, I think. When we ask her, Grandma, Grandpa, Mommy, Daddy, and Uncle Bruce are all old, but Karen is not. Hm.... She also loves Auntie Eileen, although I don't have any pictures of them hanging out together.

Grandma and Grandpa threw a small banquet for Bruce and Eileen one night so that the extended family could help us celebrate since many of them couldn't make it to the wedding in Chicago. We met a lot of their kids for the first time, and they met ours. It was fantastic to catch up with some of our cousins - Ronald and Bobby, Wayman and Roland. Unfortunately my cousin Danny and his family couldn't be there.

We also had our annual visit to Dove Court to see the Christmas lights:


 
Christmas Day was fantastic, as usual. We did our Jang tradition of opening up presents one at a time, which takes a long time, but thankfully the adults were limited to 2-3 presents each. We AGREED on two presents each (except for the kiddos), but somehow it creeps up there. :) Not surprisingly, it was super exciting to Cecilia to get to open so many presents at once.

She got a lot of Dora and Doc McStuffins presents. Here are a few of her favorites:

And as the finale, here is our traditional family photo after opening presents:

Here are the complete set of pictures from the trip.

Decorating our Christmas Tree 2012

We didn't get quite as big of a tree as the one at Faneuil Hall, but we did buy our own small tree this past Christmas, and Cecilia learned how to decorate it! It's harder than you think... you have to learn how to put the hooks in the ornaments, then you have to figure out how to hold the hook, but the let the ball drop, so that the hook doesn't fall off. Then you have to learn how to actually hang it on the tree.



But by the 3rd ornament, Cecilia had it down.



Here are some pictures of the final product, although the camera and lighting don't do the tree justice.

Phillip in December 2012

Phillip continued to learn how to smile and laugh - by the end of December he was 4 months old, and could lift his head up consistently while on his belly and look around, and even try to grab things. He liked to make sounds with mommy and daddy, especially a raspy ggggggrrrr sound coming from the back of his throat. He also learned how to roll over from his tummy onto his back (which has been shown in this previous post).

Here a short video of him laughing, followed by some pictures.

Even from the very beginning, Cecilia was so good with Phillip.

This was when Phillip was 4 months old, but even now, if he starts crying, Cecilia will go to him and try and make him laugh, or feed him something. She is such a good big sister.