Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Let's face it - I don't know a whole lot about St. Patrick's Day - except you wear green and drink beer...and how do you explain that to a two year old?  

We celebrated the day by making a leprechaun craft, green eggs and ham (bacon) for breakfast, baking shamrock sugar cookies, eating lots of green foods for dinner (green pasta, spinach dips, etc) and of course, sporting our best green attire!

 

Frankie was a better taste-tester than baker!

My little leprechauns!

PS - I really do know that the day commemorates Saint Patrick and Christianity in Ireland...a bit more than green and beer. :)   

May the leprechauns be near you,

To spread luck along your way.

And may all the Irish angels,

Smile upon you St. Patrick's Day.

Julia Meets her Cousins!

The week of President's Day, Mom & Dad DeMarco came to visit with Danielle and her girls.  Kate was the best little mother's helper - knowing just what to do to get Julia to sleep.  :)  She loved holding her and helping change her.  Emma was a little less interested, but still excited to meet her new cousin.

The family stayed at a nearby hotel with a pool, so the kids got to go swimming despite the cold outside temps.  

Danielle and I took Frankie, Kate and Emma to the Shenandoah Discovery Museum, which proved to be a cute little place with lots for the kids to do.  From apple picking to playing hospital to building a roller coaster - They had a blast!  The whole gang went to Carrabba's for dinner one night where Frankie and Kate split an entire bowl of mussels as an appetizer!  We had a great visit!

Grandma and Papa with all the grand kids

Julia is 2 Months!

With Frankie, I remember how I would anxiously await his next milestone...However, with Julia they seem to keep creeping up on me as she's growing up too quickly!  It's as if I'm finding myself almost dreading her next developmental step.  It's hard to believe that she could be sitting up in a month...eating real food in only three months...Crawling shortly...Yikes!  They truly don't stay babies long enough, so for now, I'll relish the fact that she loves to snuggle and nap in my arms, gives the biggest baby smiles, loves cooing and carrying on a conversation and adores her big brother.

At a little over a month, we finally introduced a bottle, which went so-so.  It certainly wasn't love at first sip and it took about a week of trying before Julia was able to drink a whole feeding.  Grammy babysat the kids on Feb. 15th, so Frank & I could enjoy dinner out with Mike & MK before they head to the west coast - so we were determined to get Julia to drink from the bottle before then, and it happened in the nick of time - that afternoon she drank 2 oz. for Frank and was a little angel for Grammy that evening.

At Julia's 2 month appointment:

Height:  22 inches (27th%)

Weight:  10 lbs 11 oz (39th%)

Head:  15 1/4 inches (42nd%)

Loves her playmat friends

Happy Valentine's Day