NY Grandma threw her traditional Thanksgiving dinner last fall, and this was Phillip's first trip to New York City! He got to meet his Aunt Elaine for the first time.
As well as his Uncle Jerry and Aunt Arlene.
Of course, Phillip got to spend some quality time with Grandma.
The older kids had some fun too...
By the end of the trip, Cecilia was so tuckered out from all the fun, that she fell asleep on Grandma's lap in the restaurant!
We went to Cambridge Commons one of the last nice days in November. Here's a video of Cecilia playing throughout the playground.
It was such a nice sunny day, we also took a bunch of fantastic pictures, which can be found here. Below are some of the best, one of which you may recognize from our Christmas card.
California Grandma got an awesome outfit for Cecilia, which she wore to gymnastics one day in November. It was such a striking outfit, it was almost like one of those costumes that gymnasts, or perhap competitive ice skaters, wear to their performances.
Ben and Jen moved to their new house in November, and we came to
"help" them unpack/play with the kids. Here are Cecilia, Aaron, and Jacob being big helpers.
Pete thought it was funny to put
Phillip in some moving boxes.
Phillip continued to develop before our eyes last fall. By the end of November, he was 3 months old, and he was now smiling more readily, making more noises and making them regularly, was more aware of his surroundings, and had slightly more control over his movements. He could lift his head for longer periods of time during tummy time, and could even look around while he lifted his head. Here is another video medley of Phillip while he was 2-3 months old.
Notice how he never stops moving and his feet are constantly kicking. I also find it interesting that, while at 2 months, he looked completely like Cecilia at that age, at 3 months old, he is starting to look like the baby we know now at 10 months old. His nose is flatter than Cecilia's and his eyes are set farther apart, among other things.
He also started laughing out loud. This video was posted back when it happened in November.
He was really starting to become more interactive. I felt that at times, I was having whole conversations with him!
This is Cecilia one night, who fell asleep WHILE we were reading books to her. That never happens. She must have been one tired girl that night...
I'm biased, but I think Phillip is cute even when he's crying. I find this picture funny because now, at 10 months old, when he cries, he looks exactly the same as he did when he was crying at the age of 3 months, which you see in the pic below. At 3 months, he couldn't move, so I could catch a picture of him crying. Now at 10 months, if he's crying, he's making a beeline for me, trying to crawl up my legs, and making way way more noise, so I'm just not able to take a picture of him crying anymore.
Even at 3 months old, sometimes Phillip would fall into such a deep sleep, that we could dress and undress him, and he wouldn't wake up.
Here Cecilia insisted on wearing her hats and her mittens inside.
This is Cecilia with some of her best friends in preschool last November. They had makeshift offices with phones set up, and they were very busy handling various international crises and conducting other important business. The word "STAT" was used more than once...
Just found a bunch of pics of Cecilia, Aaron and Jacob carving pumpkins for Halloween back in October 2012. Cecilia got really into it and just kept scooping the pulp out. All the kids ended up taking their clothes off because it was such a dirty job.
Back in the fall of 2012, I was still on maternity leave, and we developed this nice pattern of walking with Phillip to pick up Cecilia from school. We would all sit outside the school on a bench while Cecilia ate her snack. Then the whole family would walk back home together.
The weather was perfect and we had a ton of fun family time. We stopped several times at Riverside Press Park.We would play in the playground, climb the rocks, or one memorable time we spent finding and blowing away dandelions.
Here are a few pics of Phillip back in October 2012, when he was only 1-2 months old!
These were the days of his first real smile, the first baby noises he started to make, and the first time he was able to lift his head during tummy time.
I was on maternity leave, so that left me a lot of time to film Phillip. Here is a little montage of his smiles, noises, and tummy time:
Here is a video of Phillip with Daddy:
This is also the time when Cecilia and Phillip first started interacting with each other:
