Favorites!

Callum is doing alot of talking these days and it is helping us get a handle on his favorite things (this smile, by the way, is a new thing. It is what happens when someone points a camera and says "SMILE". He does this great face scrunch-up, we love it.). Favorite foods: banana (mana) and pasta (pada)

Favorite books: Goodnight moon (moon) and Apple Book (Alphabet book with an apple on the cover) and Hop on Pop (ha-pa-pa-pa)

Favorite truck: A straight tie between garbage truck and digger

Favorite game: jumping on mama and papa then burying face into his

Favorite song: Could you be loved? by Bob Marley (ever seen a toddler dance to reggae, it is good stuff.)

Favorite color: Yellow (yey-yo) then purple (pa-puh), in fact everything is one of these colors.

Favorite object: Blankie!!!

Favorite question: Color? Color? Meaning: Can we color? Which actually means: Can we color for a little bit and then spend the rest of an hour putting the crayons into the box and then dumping them out again?

Least Favorite question: Nap? Meaning: Do I really have to take a nap?

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Grandma and Grandpa Crowley this year. Unfortunately, the camera died just after taking family photos so we didn't get shots of Callum with his grandparents. We shared a great meal, a great game of scrabble and lots of Callum admiration all around. The poor guy, however, had a rough cough and we ended up heading home early on Friday, after he spent most of Thursday night snuggling with Papa, to make it to the doctor's office. How is it they always get sick over a holiday? Turns out he has bronchilitis so we are waiting it out and seeing quick improvement.

A serious case of the sillies

Callum is full of jokes and laughs these days. On top of playing 'bye mama' he's got silly sounds and funny walks and games like 'sit on teddy', which are hilarious...well, toddler hilarious if you know what I mean.

Ready or not here we go

We did decide we would find out the gender of our baby this time around, for some reason it just felt right. We had some pretty strong gut feelings this time. They peeked out at us during our first visit to the doctor when the doctor and mama both referred to the 8-week old little shrimp as a 'he' for no apparent reason. Then at the 13 week ultrasound the technician told us her prediction. So, it was no surprise to find at our 20 week appointment this Thursday that we are indeed having another boy! Maybe it was because we were ready for it but whatever the reason, we couldn't imagine it any other way. So, please join us in celebrating our great new news!!

Not so sure how I feel about this game...

Callum has a new game and it's called "Bye Mama". It consists of saying bye to me and then either shutting a door between the two of us, ducking out of view, or just walking backwards while watching me. He's gets an amazing sly smile while he's doing it and it is really funny because he TOTALLY doesn't mean it. In fact, he's even more attached to my hip these days. It's just him "trying on" a bit of independence, I suppose. And, even though I still get lots of love it is a little glimpse into a day when he won't actually need me and I'm not sure how I feel about that!

Raking! It's never taken so long or been so fun.

We have a tremendous tree in our front lawn that spends the spring and summer full of gorgeous leaves that add beauty to the neighborhood and shade to our home. And, then in fall all the leaves drop and blanket our lawn and our neighbors. While we don't mind so much our neighbors do occaisionally grumble a little. Well, this weekend it was becoming clear it was time to get out the rakes. Of course, little C loved to help out. Above the guys get ready for the big task.
Here is his filling the leaf bag, one by one. Phew. It's hard work, which is why he soon resorted to pointing out other places we could start raking (which included our grumbly neighbor's lawn, kind of ironically).

And, eventually, taking a break to practice standing up while drinking from a sippy cup. This technique is far more difficult than setting the cup aside in order to stand up. It is, apparently, not nearly as fun or challenging for our little man.

Getting Ready to go Home for the Holidays

Prepping the little guy about the trip back...

It's a Zoo in here!

Kieran's uncle and cousin came from Ireland to visit his parents in Philadelphia for a few weeks so this Saturday we headed into the city to see them. We met up at the Philadelphia Zoo just two days after the Phillies baseball victory in the World Series. It was great fun to see the animals, catch up with family, and grab a bit of baseball fever.

Happy Halloween from a scary dragon

Or so they say...You can probably tell by the photos Callum was not exactly thrilled to be stuffed into a dragon costume. It could have been because the costume, a hand-me-down, was way too small and mama's attempts at sizing it up were not particularly successful.

Rather than do any real trick or treating (since we weren't too excited to try and manage a sugar-hyped toddler) we spent time with our buddies Paige and Sophie, of course. As parents, we were all stopped in our tracks when the first 'twos' moment surfaced. All three of them vying for the same toy and yelling MINE! It was quite the chorus. I can see the future...