Leaves, Leaves, and more Leaves
It is Sunday night and I am typing this in a quiet house, which is always a nice way to end the weekend. Ben has a big project due tomorrow so he is still at the office, and Lily and Isaac went to sleep early and easily tonight. I should mention that Isaac always goes to sleep early and easily; Lily, on the other hand is more of a night owl, and likes to have Ben or I stay with her for “three more minutes”
It was a cold, winter-like weekend here. The only difference is we have thousands of leaves on the ground to clean up. After cleaning up for an hour today, with Katy’s help, and hardly making a dent, I decided that everyone in the Rossi family must fill one bag of leaves each day while they are visiting for Thanksgiving, and then maybe, we will have cleaned up the yard. When we were looking for houses in July we thought, oh this yard has so many pretty trees…not, oh this yard is going to be so much work in November!
Lily is already excited for Christmas. She loves looking at toys and adding them to her Christmas list. A few days ago she said ” Christmas will be so exciting this year!” I am anticipating a season of joy, and now if I can help her understand that Christmas is more than just presents.
Isaac has a fascination with the kitchen right now. He likes to wash dishes, cook (and he really wants to do it at the stove), and search through cupboards. Sometimes this is a fun activity, but since it requires constant supervision it can also be quite draining. I try to convince him to cook in the pretend kitchen downstairs, but somehow it just doesn’t have the same appeal.
Lily and Isaac play more together now which is fun to watch. To Isaac this often means play wrestling with Lily, but fortunately they are both pretty gentle.
Target Starts with O
Yesterday, when driving with Lily she pointed out a Target truck on the road. As I often do, I said “Lily what letter does Target start with?” To this she replied O. O, I thought…hmm, she is usually better at this. Oh…the Target bulls eye that was directly in front of the word Target does look like an O. So then I said, no Lily that’s the logo, TTTTTarget, what does that start with. This time she said T. She is so smart 
I am no longer mama to Isaac, I have now graduated to mommy. I love hearing him say this, except for when we were in Target the other night and he was yelling it over and over as he continued to tell me about the deer we had just seen on the road with a broken leg. “Mommy! Deer, Broke” he repeated over and over throughout the store. This deer made a big impression. Ben is still Dada, but I anticpate that to change soon too. Isaac’s words continue to improve, and his love of trying to keep up with his sister is improving too.
My friend Mindy had her baby this week! It was a little scary directly leading up to her birth (she came four weeks early), but she is healthy and beautiful and Mindy is doing great too. I am so looking forward to having a new little baby in our life (I just wished they lived closer). I can’t wait to see them in December!
I wanna see
Ben pointed out to me today that I have written 331 posts. Now, I know my frequency has slowed down, but that seems like quite a bit of documentation over the last three and a half years.
I didn’t write about Halloween this year, but I did post quite a few fun pictures of the festive week. Lily had multiple Halloween costumes, and she needed them for all of the occasions she had to dress up. She was a fairy, butterfly, or Raggedy Ann depending on the day. Isaac on the other hand preferred not to wear any costumes. He did have a lion costume, but it didn’t even make an appearance on Halloween itself. Although Isaac did not like dressing up, he did enjoy discovering the world of candy.
Nancy just came for a very brief trip on her way to Boston. She commented that Isaac had changed, even in her short 2 week absence! He is talking quite a bit more, and he made sure to let Nancy hear this from 6am on. He also seems to be doing some of the same things that Lily enjoyed at his age (cleaning, washing his hands, playing with the toilet paper. etc). Lily’s phrase at his age, was “Doing?” Isaac’s favorite phrase is “I wanna see” which he will repeat over and over until you let him see whatever it is he is requesting to observe.
Tonight Ben and I are going to see the host of The Soup, Joel McHale do stand up comedy at the Warner theater. The show doesn’t start until 10:30…I hope we make it!
Say Cheese
I posted quite a few new pictures in Lily and Isaac’s October galleries. You can find the galleries through the tabs at the top of this page.
Enjoy!
AmyandBen gets a makeover
We have a pretty, new site in need of some Lily and Isaac updates. Sometimes the longer I wait between posts the harder it is to write. We enjoyed a fun weekend in Wintergreen, VA with our friends who have children around the same age. I took lots of pictures that I will try and get up at some point this week. I posted a few preview pictures, but there are so many more coming.
I went to Lily’s Halloween party at preschool today and I was so proud of her because she led the entire parade. Her teacher told me that they picked Lily because she always listens. The teacher also told me that Lily is doing so well in preschool and interacts great with all of the other children. It was also fun to hear another mom tell me that her daughter always talks about Lily after school, saying things like “I played with Lily today.” The party was fun, but my favorite part was when Lily and I were first to leave she turned to the class and said ” I am sorry guys, but I have to leave.”
Isaac had another day at soccer today and continues to enjoy that class. He is also getting better at putting a few words together when trying to get his point across. Many of these words are only understandable by Ben and Me (and probably Katy) but it is fun to watch him speak more each day.
Work has been quite busy for me which usually makes the rest of my life feel more busy. I took a trip yesterday to our Baltimore office. It was a nice change of scenary, and the drive there was beautiful with all of the changing leaves.
The election is everywhere in Northern Virginia which even included visits from Obama and Palin Yesterday when picking up a friend at her house on the way to Baltimore I drove right through the Palin chaos (meaning the traffic, but the comment could also be more generalized).
Look for new pictures soon. Hopefully I’ll get them up before Halloween, as I know that day will generate many more.
Yeah, Lily!
I posted new pictures in the October gallery so enjoy Isaac and Lily through pictures. Halloween has already started in our house with the arrival of Joe’s annual Halloween package. Last year he sent us a huge blow-up ghost, and this year he sent a large blow up pumpkin patch. These will soon move to our front yard, but since we still have a room with no furniture, it has turned into the Halloween room. He also sent Lily and Isaac really cute costumes which you will see in the pictures. This year, Lily has multiple occasions to wear a costume: school, dance, gymnastics, to my work, and Halloween evening so it is a good thing that David and Erikka also sent her a beautiful pink butterfly costume. I wish they made it in my size!
We are battling pink eye in our house. We think it started with Lily, and now Isaac has what looks like pink eye, and my eyes are itchy too. We are taking a trip to the doctor’s today at 3:00 for a hopeful remedy.
Nancy is in town for the weekend between Boston visits. Hopefully her eyes will stay clear, so that she can enjoy the time with Lily and Isaac.
Isaac can say Lily much more clearly now, and my new favorite thing that he does is happily say yeah! when he gets to do something that he wants, like drink a bottle of milk in the morning, or take a trip to the park. I love hearing him say yeah!
October Days
It is hard to believe October is here. We have had a few busy weeks, filled with visitors, a trip to Williamsburg, and a beautiful fall weekend.
My parents, Ben, Lily, Isaac and I took the trip down to Williamsburg. I really do love the state of Virginia. There is so much to see and do, and Williamsburg was no exception. It can still be exhausting traveling with Lily and Isaac, but it is getting easier.
It was a beautiful fall weekend here, and we went to a neighborhood fall fest on Saturday and an art festival in McLean on Sunday. It was the perfect way to spend, perfect fall weather days.
Isaac continues to be obsessed with balls, especially basketballs. So after watching him really try and shoot a basket in our neighbors hoop over and over, we decided it was time to buy him an Isaac sized basketball hoop. He loves it.
Lily continues to enjoy preschool. Today she told me that she puts her hand over her heart and that she learned about America. It would be interesting to hear how her teacher explains our country given everything that is happening right now.
I did post a few new pictures in the gallery. A few of the pictures are from my iphone so the quality isn’t that great, but I thought the images fun to share.
Lily and her Mommy
This is Lily’s portrait titled, Lily and her mommy.
Lily loves drawing pictures and placing them on the refrigerator. In fact, she told me yesterday we needed a new refrigerator because we ran out of space for her pictures.
We are looking forward to a fun fall weekend with family visiting.
Isaac, the soccer player
Isaac started his first class this week. He is taking a little kickers class. I wasn’t there, but Katy said he had a fantastic time and documented it well through video and pictures. There are quadruplet boys in the class who look quite similar to Isaac. Isaac has on the Italia shirt (in case you get confused).I posted a few pictures in his September gallery, and here is the link to the video. I personally like Katy’s commentary.
Isaac’s 18 month Doctor Update
Isaac is doing fantastic. The doctor was pleased with his development and said his talking and moving are more like a 22 month old. He also agreed with Uncle Brian (and everyone else) that Isaac is just a likable kid. It is time for Isaac to try and give up his bottle, but I don’t think Isaac would agree. He loves his bottle in the morning and at night. Personally I think this millk can’t hurt, since he continues to be a slender boy. He is 32 inches (50%) and weighs 23 pounds (25%).
As we were waiting for the doctor I started a list of all the words Isaac can say. Here is the list: car, cracker, doggy, milk, bottle, juice, backpack, fish, all done, two, on, off, thank you, ball, uh-oh, no, shoe, more, banana, I want, bath, chicken, bubbles, down, see, boo-boo. I am sure there are more, and he mimics lots of other words, and of course knows quite a few names.
It is so fun to watch him grow up.
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