the beat goes on

we enjoyed an impromptu visit from Milla.



we also went to a fun party on saturday where the man had a really cool train set, here is zaven standing over it. he had a blast.

they also lent him the video "happy feet". this is the same movie that milla tried to take zaven to shortly after nell was born and they had to leave about 20 minutes in because it was too scary.
well, we were all pretty sure that zaven would not be too scared this time. and when the scene with the sea lion came on zaven said "see, i am not crying.i'm not scared' he paused and then he said, "i just think it is terrifying!"

the video also inspired lots of dancing.
video evidence. (sadly i can not get the video of the dancing to upload. )


hope you are all well.

video of nell

here is a little video of nell chasing the dogs around. she is wearing her cute squeaky shoes that grammy and papa gave her, you can hear them on the video, and the adorable bubble dress that auntie carrie sent for her birthday.

she is funny. we love her!
le

brrrrr

it is so cold here. i did not actually go outside today. normally that drives me crazy, but it was wind chill of -8.
so we just hung out here.
it was a nice day.
nell has been enjoying drawing lately, scribbling really, but she holds the crayons as you would to write. i am not sure if all babies do that, i think it was something zaven had to learn, or is learning.


here is nell after a bath friday, lots of curls.



and here is a little something zaven built this morning
he has been enjoying his blocks. today we made mansions. nell had fun knocking them over.



le

snow day

monday was a nice surprise.
snow day!
there was not that much snow, but because during the last snow storm there were big snafus people were overly cautious.
i worked from home, we had a nice low key day.

zaven wanted to take the dollhouse apart and put it back together.


since i had experienced putting it together, wrong...and taking it apart and putting it back together on christmas eve, i decided to redirect him and i got out a bag of fabric samples and had him make rugs and curtains for it, he had a great time doing it.


nell has a little cough and had some good naps.

today i got a cute picture of zaven and grace as mary and joseph in the christmas pageant. very cute.


today i was back to work, had a good day. had the oil changed in the car, got some work done.
tonight was turkey taco salad for dinner.

spring?

we had some really nice warm weather this week. lots of sun. very nice.
it was the first 5 day work week in a while, seemed long, but made it through.

last night the kids had a baby sitter and chris and i went to a dinner party. we had a nice time.
i got my haircut yesterday. i don't have a picture to post, maybe soon.
i am liking the new cut. it is not short but there is a lot less hair.
it feels better.

today zaven was invited to a 5th birthday party of a friend it was fun. i picked up grace and took her with us.
you could sell tickets to listen in on their conversations in the car, they are so funny.
here is one sample
nell - "blah blah bla bla"
grace- "what is nell doing?"
me "she is talking"
grace "like a baby"
zaven - "yeah, she doesn't talk like us- we are humans"

zaven "snakes can bite and kill people"
grace "yeah, rattlesnakes"
-yup that was one conversation.
too cute.


here is nell after feeding herself some yogurt and peaches. she will only let you feed her about 3 bites. then she wants to do it herself.
sometimes she is messier than others.







and here is nell and zaven. he is trying to hug her and she is trying to get away and do her own thing- this is a recurring theme.

more later,
le

the tree and the pea

nut that is.
nell is allergic to most tree nuts and to peanuts.
when mom was here in early december i gave nell some cranberry pecan bread. shortly thereafter she had hives.
the dr. suspected a tree nut allergy and referred us to an allergist.
monday i took nell in and they did the scratch test for nuts.
she appeared to be allergic to the filbert (hazelnut), pistachio, not the english walnut, not coconut, was allergic to peanut, cashew and interestingly enough did not have a strong reaction to the pecan...i can not remember any of the others that were tested.
anyway, so far it has not changed much for us. we are working toward making the house nut free so that there is less chance of her getting a hold of something by accident that one of us leaves about. most of the things she was eating are fine. we hope that since we found out so early that she will just grow up nut free and be none the wiser. we'll see.

anyway. here are some pictures.


nell just after a bath. her hair is super curly!

happy new year

2008 is here.
chris and i went out to a great dinner to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary.
we had a delicious meal and a nice time. we tried to go back and remember what we had done for the other 10 anniversaries.
frankly we were hard pressed to remember all of them...but we were glad that we were celebrating another one.

here we are on our way out.

larry and armen stayed home with nell and zaven,

here are some other pictures from the visit.

zaven , grammy and papa went over to "stinky beach" and found some sea glass.

here is a picture of the rhode island epperson's on the rocky beach in little compton. the wind was howling!

and one for some perspective.


what a difference a year makes!

love and luck to you all in the new year.
laura