Georgia Visit Part II

After leaving Grandma and Grandpa's in Northwest Georgia, we headed to see the R family in Northeast Georgia.

Our many good times included...

Communal eating (mostly eating in because...4 kids under 5).

Lots and lots of quality play time among the cousins.

Opening Christmas gifts on a February morning (because why not?).

Family car rides where everyone was in a satisfactory mood.

Visiting a park with a covered bridge and a swing set. 

Pile on Aunts and Uncles!

Breaking out an impromptu birthday party for Tiger Cub.

Exploring nature.

Baby cuddles.

Synchronized jumping.

And it's a wrap! Back to NY we go.

Georgia Visit Part I

We spent the first week of February in Georgia, first with my parents, and then with Randy's family. It was a show-off-the-new-baby tour. The boys enjoyed many sweet moments with their grandparents.

The baby's first flight couldn't have gone better. Both kids fell asleep on take-off. Whaaaat? Randy dozed. I read my Kindle just because. It was incredible. We were practically giddy over our luck.

Where there's Grandma, there are cupcakes (Valentine's addition).

Guys breakfast out.

Grandma is the best enforcer of tummy time.

Graffiti-covered freight trains of the South.

Grandpa and the boys.

Small bear missed his play mat but we made do. It's so hard to get a photo of these two together!

Nap time. Staged but still adorable.

Our boys don't ride in car seats at home (because we don't have cars not because we disregard safety and the law!). So it always feels like a nerve-wracking experiment to see how they'll react to the confinement. They both did great on several long-ish trips.

Randy and I had a nice date night thanks to the free babysitting. 

Grampy met his newest great-grandchild. They hit it off well.

I went to a fun shower for my soon-to-be-married friend Lindsay. This is my favorite group of girlfriends ever and I'm lucky to get to see them about once a year (more would be better but I'll take what I can get given the distance between us). We've come a long way since our days as Georgia Tech freshman!

And finally, a few family shots...

Stay tuned for Georgia Part II!

January Happenings

Parenting these two little guys has been lots of craziness but also many tender moments. So of course we photograph and share the times that make us look like we've got this gig under control...

Baby's first visit to Rockefeller Center. On this bitterly cold day we watched the skaters while sitting inside and sipping coffee.

What is it about a baby wearing daddy that makes the ladies swoon?

Our elevator is out of service for maintenance for seven weeks. And we live on the top (6th) floor with a new baby and a toddler.

I'll let that sink in for a second...

So stair climbing and kid toting has become my postpartum workout plan. At one (childless) time in my life I might have enjoyed the physical challenge of only taking the stairs. But not right now.

It is SUCH a New York thing to say, "Oh hey your elevator is going to be out for a while. Good luck with that." And because we're New Yorkers who are so used to the constant inconveniences of daily life we're like, "Ok sure, whatever."

Meanwhile, look who's 2 months old! Small Bear loves baths, songs, watching his brother, and focusing with extreme intensity on objects dangling over his head.

I returned to my part time engineering job. 

Hard hat: check! 

Pump parts: check! 

Empire State Building still in the same place: check!

Blizzard of the century! We've had lots of good snow storms since living in NYC, but this one takes the cake. Over two feet of snow (second biggest snowstorm ever recorded here). It's was like snowmageddon-zilla-palooza-pacolypse. Such an event called for purchasing our first snow disk.

2015: Year in Review

January: We vacationed in the Dominican Republic, attempting to make a long New York winter slightly more bearable.

February: Tiger Cub's 2nd birthday was marked by a big snowstorm.

March: We got a lot more snow, which should never happen in the month of March.

April: Easter in spring-like Georgia! Hooray for sunshine and short sleeves in the fourth month of the year.

May: A bump is revealed.

June: Vacation with the R family to Savannah and Tybee Island.

July: Sightseeing in our own city. Hello Brooklyn!

August: We visited park after park after park.

September: A cross country trip to visit Matt in Seattle.

October: We took several last minute pre-baby field trips, including a visit to the Queens County Farm and a weekend of steam engines and Amish country in Lancaster, PA.

November: Our pre-Christmas baby turned into a pre-Thanksgiving baby with a very memorable entry into our lives. The household ratio of Southerners to Yankees is now 2 to 2.

December: We all got hit by RSV, which must stand for worst bleepity-bleep cold ever, and wiped us out for a full two weeks. All fingers point to the two-year-old and daycare as the original contamination source. Luckily our baby-related guests were gone by this time. Christmas happened too.

Looking forward to a wonderful 2016! Thanks to all of you who were a part of our exciting and unforgettable 2015.