Lazy Days...

After a week of great progress last week, there's not too much to report this week. Hayley's still doing the three step shuffle. Teeth 5 and 6 are in and 7,8, and 9 appear to be popping now. Needless to say she's had a rough week getting through that. On the upside though, she'll likely be eating BBQ ribs and corn for her birthday. HAHA! We went today and got her first walking shoes. They were more expensive than most of the shoes I own -- so we expect to see her not only walking, but break dancing by week's end. (NOT.)

Cole's had a good week too. Finished up swimming lessons and made great improvement this summer. He had a field trip to a pizza parlor at school and tried pepperoni on pizza for the first time -- it was a hit! We're headed on a family trip to the amusement park for the day tomorrow. Tuesday he has a new teacher starting at school -- and we're finally on the countdown to the fall! AAAHHH! Have a good week!

Cole and Adam having some gogurt.

Superheros team up for action!

Does this look like they're saving a damsel in distress or holding a prisoner captive?

We've completed phase one of the R2D2 costume...

In case you muggles aren't aware -- Cole is something of a wizard himself. This is his Harry Potter look -- with glasses and wand. Not to worry his quidditch cape and broom will be ready soon.

Hayley is practicing up so she's ready for the Harley she's going to ask Santa for.

Hayley spots her blanky.

See my new walkin' shoes? I wanted something with a kitten heel, but they didn't have them in 3 1/2's. See you next week!

Step One...

Well...we're making modest progress this week. We're 6 weeks off until Hayley starts "school". By then she needs to take only an afternoon nap, walk, drink from a cup, take her nap in a sleeping bag on a cot, etc. You know -- instantly transform from baby to toddler. No problem!

This week Hayley got all decked out with her snazzy new sleeping bag, lunch box and sippy cups for school. Supplies....check. On Thursday we went cold turkey to the new schedule -- one nap a day from 1-3. She has handled it quite well, actually. New schedule...check. She's mastered the cup now and insists on drinking while shopping. Can't blame her. A woman's ability to scope out bargains is instantly enhanced with a gourmet beverage in hand, right? Sippy cup...check. As for the walking...some progress. The record for consecutive steps is 3 now. So...does that get written in the book? We'll give it a few days. Anyway, I feel comfortable that we can check the walking off the list for 6 weeks from now. As for the cot -- the teachers can fend for themselves. Good luck. Other news...two new teeth...top incisors #3 and #4. For those of you keeping count this is 6.

Cole's had fun this week too. He's expanding his horizons and now enjoying Harry Potter. He's seen the first three movies, so we bought book #4 -- Goblet of Fire. We're on page 16 of 734. Fun! He also had his first "almost" sleepover. We got a call at 9:45 to come home. Guess we should be thankful it wasn't 2:45.

All for now. Hope you have a good week!



We wouldn't want you to go a whole week without your Darth Vader fix.

This is generally how things go at our house...here's Hayley saying, "Hey. Yo! You wanna piece of me?"

Yeah...I mean you...

I'm not kiddin, man. You bedda gimme dat duck!

I TOLD YOU I WASN'T PLAYIN'! NOW YOU'RE GONNA GET IT! (poor cole...)

Thankfully the days usually end up like this.

A cute, yet completely off-center picture.

Hayley's learning the ways of the Power Rangers...

Hayley hanging (literally) out with her friend Lily.

Lily and Hayley out for a wagon ride. I think Lily forgot her dramamine...

Hayley says, "I'm the king of the world!" Lily says, "Hope you didn't have beans for dinner..." See you next week!

No news is good news...

Not to much to report this week. Spent time at the pool and enjoyed Cole's school field trip to the aquarium on Friday. Dad caved and took Cole to the Star Wars movie on Saturday. Cole LOVED it! (...of course...) Didn't seem very phased by the 13 part of the PG-13 rating.

Hayley's doing well too. Not too much new to tell. We're now awaiting the first steps and teeth #5 and #6. (I'd say the teeth will arrive before the steps.) She can stand on her own for quite awhile and can "walk" if you hold her hand. (Notice the quotes -- walk is loosely defined here. She looks like she's completely drunk when doing it. It's quite amusing.) I've also taken to pretending she can now talk. In my mind she's quite the verbal prodigy being able to say: dog, Cole, Daddy, Adam (Cole's friend), hi, etc. I'm working quite a bit with her and suspect that by week's end she'll be able to say: "Grande Sugar Free Vanilla Skim Latte." See you next week. :)


Look ma...now that I can use 2 hands, I can take stuff out of this drawer twice as fast!!!

Hmmm...What can I cry about now??? Think. Think. Think.

Hayley's keeping a watchful eye over Cole and his bubbles on the deck.

Cole at the shark tank.

Cole and his buds up close with the sharks.

Cole celebrates getting to go to the Star Wars movie. The evil transformation is complete.

Hayley's rockin' away while mom cleans up her room. See you next week!

Let's Celebrate!

Lots of fun and good news this week! Most importantly -- Hayley was given the all clear on the ears! YEAH! We saw the doctor Thursday and she's both fluid and infection free. We still have to be cautious if she gets sick, but for now we're able to avoid the tube surgery. Needless to say, we're all thrilled!

We had a great visit with John's sister and her family. Suzanne, Peter and Claire were here for a short visit, but we were able to pack the time with lots of fun. We lucked out and the remnants of hurricane Cindy cleared just in time for a Friday trip to Washington DC for lunch and a museum visit. We had an awesome time at the Museum of Natural History and learned all about dinosaurs, the ice age, gems and minerals and mammals!

Saturday we hit the neighborhood pool and capped off a great day with some good old MD crabs! YUM! Cole had a great time with his cousin Claire.

This week looks like a hot one. Stay cool!

Hayley's jamming to her Sesame Street songs and gettin' some work done!

Cole and Claire are having some lunch before hitting the museums.

It was a long walk to the Museum of Natural History, so Dad gave Cole a lift.

The elephants could smell us coming.

The T-Rex was definitely a highlight of the afternoon.

Some monkeying around...

Somebody wants to give Cole a bear hug!

This is definitely a much better hug! Cole and Cousin Claire have enjoyed the day and are ready for a rhino rest!

Pack some rations - you're gonna be here a while!

Sooo much to tell...soooo much we did this week. Whew! Where to start??? Wednesday Cole spent the better part of the day creating his own Darth Vader costume. He got sick and tired of waiting for his birthday or trying to do enough chores to earn the money. There wasn't any time -- we had our first big meeting with Darth that night! What a success! We went to a local restaurant and met the icon in person!

Thursday was the zoo trip with school. Dad went as a chaperone and a good time was had by all. The polar bears were a huge hit. Sorry no pics of that. Thursday night we also started swim lessons. Not sure we should bank on having the next Michael Phelps in the family, but he's making good progress.

Saturday we made a last minute trip to see John's family in Moorestown. Their town has a fundraiser this summer with painted Nipper dogs (ala RCA/Victor). For more info: http://www.nipper2005.org/Finder.aspx. We also got to see fireworks in a neigboring town on Saturday night which got us off the hook for the insanity of the Columbia fireworks. It was "a very good thing" as Martha would say.

Today Cole and mom hit the Clarksville parade with a bunch of Cole's buds. It was great -- especially seeing Spiderman and collecting candy.

Big week coming up here... Lots on the schedule including Hayley's next ENT appointment on Thursday and a much anticipated visit from Cousin Claire, Aunt Suzanne and Uncle Peter. Have a great week!



Mom's too cheap to fork over $25 for the Darth Vader Voice Changer Mask and red lightsaber -- so Cole has set out to create his own costume. True to the Cole philosophy... you can make ANYTHING from paper, tape and markers.

Costume complete. We've added extra touches like the Darth Vader belt and cape. Now we're ready to see the REAL Darth at dinner tonight!

Cole is truly wide-eyed with delight in meeting Darth!

Do you know why the caged bird sings? Guess we're not current on our Maya Angelou readings.

Cole with one of many Nippers in Moorestown -- this is super nipper!

Cole's doing the twist with the Elvis nipper -- but where are the blue suede shoes?

Cole wanted to take some pictures too. Here's Gram.

Well...as if we didn't already know who was top dog around here...

Cole at the Clarksville parade!

Cole and Spiderman exchange waves at the parade. This really was a SPECIAL day!

Don't they look just thrilled???

"You're kidding me...I have a sport wallet full of money here and the stores close early on the 4th? It's an OUTRAGE I tell you."

Finishing out Independence Day with a dip in the ele-pool. See you next week!