Graduation Day

Andy graduated a few weeks ago.  We had a great time celebrating with family including our parents, Andy's aunt, my sister and niece, and Andy's brother and sister-in-law.

The Baccalaureate Mass was beautiful.  Philip did a pretty good job getting through it, especially considering the short nap he had that day.

Cookies afterwards made everything better

The weather was beautiful on graduation day, which was great because it was outdoors!

My Dad caught Andy in the procession

Cardinal Dolan was the speaker - he was great!

All of the doctoral students had their names called out and they were able to stand on the stage for the last part of the ceremony.  Can you find Andy? Hint:  Look under the red arrow.

After the big graduation, we went to the smaller school ceremony for graduate students.   It was a really beautiful and intimate ceremony.  Each doctoral student had the name of their dissertation read out before receiving their diploma.

First time I saw Andy all day since we arrived.  Philip really liked the tassel on his cap.

My sister and niece - finally time to play!

Andy with his proud Mom...

and proud Dad.

Love this

Here come the family pics:

With my sister and niece

Andy's parents

Andy's aunt

My parents

Afterwards we all came back to our house to party!  We catered food from one of our favorite restaurants and enjoyed hanging out on the deck.

Can you guess what Andy's graduation gift is?  All of our family pitched in to help buy him a new electric guitar - due to arrive sometime mid-June!

The kiddos had fun playing Andy's acoustic

Olivia dove head first into the cookie cake

What is everyone looking at?

It is hard to believe that graduation has already come and gone (and he defended over three months ago)!  We had a great time celebrating with family and also many of our friends who also graduated this year.  God is good!

21 Months

My little boy is 21 months!  He took a lot of bigs steps this month. 

 He put on my tennis shoes, jumped on the bench,

and started flipping the light switches on and off!

He is starting to give kisses to us when asked.  So sweet!  He waves to the cat and sometimes gives him a hug when we are out the door in the morning.  He picked up a few new words.  My favorite word that he learned is Happy!  It is part of a song that is on the boombox he got from his grandparents for Christmas.  Every once in a while when he is playing on his own, he turns on his boombox.  He doesn't sing any part of the song except the word Happy.  What a joy to hear!  He also learned to say Ball and often sounds like he is saying "I don't know." He loves to sing and carry the crucifix.

 

Happy!

He weaned this month with some encouragement from me.  I am amazed we nursed so long - I just wanted to get to 12 months!  I was hoping to have him weaned halfway through my pregnancy, and just when I thought there was no way it would happen, he decided he was done!  Nursing has been replaced by books.  He loves his storytimes before naps and bedtimes.  He will get hooked on certain books for a while, but just because something is his favorite one week, doesn't mean he will like it the next.  When I start reading a book he doesn't want to hear, or even singing him a lullabye that he isn't interested in, he will wave his hand back and forth and say, "No, no." I never expected him to dictate what songs I sang to him! 

I'm in charge around here!

We go on lots of long meandering walks.  He loves to chase birds and the bunny rabbits that hang out around our house.  We spent a lot of time at home this month while we had some repairs done on our basement. Other than one or two "I'm bored" days, he did a really good job of playing happily at home. Amazingly, he did really well with having strangers coming in and out of our house for three weeks and hearing all sorts of strange noises coming from our basement.  Our little boy is getting bigger and braver each day!

Corn on the Cob - a new favorite

 

Time for some spring planting

Mischief of the Month:

He stole a bag of bagels when I was unloading the groceries, ran into the living room with them, and sat on the couch.  He bit through the bag and ate a good hunk out of them.  This is now his go-to spot when he "steals" food.

I'm Still Getting Used to This

Notice anything different?

Last week: 

This week:

Yup, Philip got a major haircut. Seriously, if I wanted him to have a buzz cut, I could have done it myself for a lot less money and a little less drama.  Oh well, it is hair and it will grow back!  His hair is so light now and when I look at him I can see more of Andy's side of the family coming out.  He reminds me of some of my little nephews. 

The bright side for Philip is that this means he can go longer before he has to get his next haircut.  He is crazy dramatic about having a stranger touch his hair.  And I'm not confident at all that he would be any better if I tried to cut it myself.  We definitely made a scene at the hair salon, which I knew would happen and is why I planned  this adventure for a weekend when Andy could go with me.  A few people came up to try to distract him or offer him treats to help him get through the cut, but this kid is like a wild animal caught in a trap when he is getting a haircut!  They all quickly realized that it is best to walk off and leave him alone.  Poor guy, hopefully one day he will realize that it doesn't hurt to get his haircut!

Future Cross Bearer

Philip was apparently very taken by the cross bearer at church on Easter because ever since then he has been processing around our house, singing and holding a crucifix.  If he can't get a hold of a real crucifix, he uses anything long and thin, like sticks, cooking utensils, yard sticks, brooms, the neighbor's lacrosse stick, and various other items.  Here he is in action.  As a bonus, you can hear Philip's wonderful singing skills.  He certainly makes a joyful noise!  I love the way he sings. 

If you are ready to volunteer him as an altar server at your church, remember that he gets distracted easily.  Here is what happened the first time I tried to get a video of him.

Oops!  He still needs a little training!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!  Did you know that the Easter season lasts 50 days - 10 days longer than Lent!  It ends on May 27 this year - Pentecost.  We put up our Easter decor on Holy Saturday evening and try to keep it up the full 50 days - long after the stores have moved on to 4th of July!

We had a great Holy Week and Easter filled with visitors.  Andy's sister and her family came to visit us at the beginning of Holy Week.  Philip had a blast with his four cousins and they had just as much fun playing with him.  Philip even gave his first spontaneous hugs to one of his cousins - the first one given to anyone other than Andy and I.  I actually didn't take any pictures of their visit because my sister-in-law and niece always had camera in hand.  Hopefully I will be able to share some pics once I receive them - probably in a week or so.  At any rate, we did some touring of DC and Annapolis and had fun hanging out at home as well.  Their trip gave us an idea of what life is like when you have four kids (five including our little guy) - it is definitely a lot noisier and bustling than having just one!

The poor cat had two little girls that were constantly chasing after him and trying to hold him.  If he thought life with Philip was hard, he now knows how lucky he is. 

Philip's first time watching Looney Tunes.  He is a fan!

My favorite questions from the visit:
1. Have you had your baby yet? 
2. Nephew: Do you have an apple?
    Me: Sure, we have some in the fridge.  Would you like one?
    Nephew:  No, do you have an Ipod or something I can play Angry Birds on?

And as has happened with at least three out of their four kids, the youngest at one point got mixed up and thought Andy was my Dad!

On Friday, Andy's brother and sister-in-law came.  We were honored to have them visit, especially since it was their 10th wedding anniversary!  It fell on Good Friday, so we kept the celebration light for the evening, but we took them out to dinner the next night.  We also had fun decorating their room with wedding decorations, flowers, champagne, and chocolate.

Aren't they cute?

We put the guys to work on home improvement projects and my sister-in-law and I did some cooking.  We also enjoyed a picnic and playtime at a local park.  It was a lot of fun to be together and to share Easter.  For Easter dinner I made a pork tenderloin, rice with asparagus and cashews, and shredded carrots.  Dessert was a super easy and delicious blueberries and cream pie.

Philip had a great Easter!  His basket was filled with snacks, a book, bubble bath, a toy boat, a pinwheel, spoons (I love that you can give one-year-olds stuff like this and they are happy), and bunny ears (which he won't keep on his head long enough for a picture). We've had eggs laying around the house for a couple weeks now, so on Easter morning he didn't realize there were treats inside.  He just did what he always does - threw them! 

He wasn't sure what to do with a Peep

until Andy broke off a piece and fed it to him.

Didn't take long for him to figure it out from there!

Feeding Andy one of his treats.

I got made fun of for filling his eggs with the same stuff he gets every day -

puffs, yogurt melts, Goldfish, and freeze dried fruits!

About 20 minutes after discovering his basket.

After Mass we tried to get a family photo. 

Philip had his own idea of what he wanted to do:

When we finally wrangled him for a picture, this is what it looked like:

Our best shot of the day:

Andy took Philip inside to get changed and this is how he came back looking:

Our little British boy!

Hope everyone has a Happy Easter season!

The Triduum

"Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. 

He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end."

John 13:1

20 Months

My little buddy is 20 months old now.  He is so much fun to be around!  I just love one year olds and how cute they are walking around like little people.  I love how everything is new and exciting for them.

Our lawn guy

He had to wear Andy's hat

Philip is really into shoes right now.  He likes to walk around in ours as well as take off our shoes and put on new ones.  I tell him he would be a good shoe salesman. Sometimes I think he is telling me that he is ready to go outside - like when he takes off my slippers and tries to put on flip flops - half the time he tries to put Andy's shoes on me.  He is really obsessed with his Crocs.  I bought him a pair to wear on our deck last summer when he was first learning to walk.  He found them this month and wants to wear them all the time.  I think he likes them so much because he can actually put them on and take them off by himself - and most of the time he gets them on the right foot too!  His favorite outfit this month was a diaper and Crocs - too cute!

I can dress him up, but I can't get him out of his Crocs!

He has really gotten into blocks and cars this month.  He is also working on puzzles more, but they tend to frustrate him.

He plays with his Duplos a lot 

He has started taking me by the hand and leading me places. I love to see where he wants me to go.

Like on squirrel hunts!

New words include Din Din (dinner) and Bunny.  He gets really excited when we tell him it is time for din din and he goes running to his seat - sometimes even willingly coming inside when he is playing outside.  Hopefully he will continue to like my cooking! 

He is not able to say the letter "B" yet, so he usually says "Unny" when talking about a bunny and "Anana" when he sees a banana.

This little boy loves his Bunny

When we ask him what a dog says he starts panting.  He also blows when we say the word "hot." He learned that from all the times we told him his food was hot and blew on it for him.  It is funny when I am using the word hot in a sentence (ex. "It is hot out today.") and he starts blowing. 

I think Philip is developing a fear of heights.  When I take him to the playground and he gets to the top of the steps, he will sometimes just go right back down or he will want me to hold him.  He also sometimes looks frightened when he is at the top of our stairs at home and freaks out until I pick him up.  Other times he is happy to walk down stairs with my help.  Hopefully this is just a phase!

Now that Andy is done with his degree, we are having a lot more weekends like this!