Friends & Family

Whew, yet another busy weekend. Tim went to watch his HS football team on Friday. Sadly the Leopards did not win. Boo! Fellow MoMs Alicia & April came over to hang out with me Friday night after the kiddos went to bed. We had planned a little MoMs night out at April request, but moved it "in" to my house instead. Fun times (and a late night!). :-)

Saturday Grandma & Grandpa Z came to town to play with B&K. Tim & I had two -- yes 2!! -- parties to go to, so it was nice to have a break and for my parents to hang out with the babies. Kendyll continued to perfect her sitting skills and Bennett has started to take a liking to it also. He also is starting to reach out / up more and at one point reached over for my mom to hold him while I was holding him. So cute! Tim & I headed up to Delaware for a surprise party for our friend Chris (Happy Birthday, Chris -- welcome to the "dark side"!). Then we snuck home to freshen up, went out to a nice meal and then hung out at another birthday party for our neighbor.

Today we hung out for a while with my parents and scored some AWESOME shopping deals. We are desperate to get four convertible car seats. We first scored two "cheaper" seats for our nanny's car at a discount store. Then I just scored two very well name car seats for $42 a PIECE!! (thanks Aimee!!!). There is a lot of skepticism online regarding whether this deal is legit (normally these seats are $250 a piece), but if it is real then this may top my Kate Spade diaper bag score (and I thought that one would NEVER be beat!).

Today we had a FABULOUS dinner at our friends Alicia & Bryan's house. Bennett & Kendyll had a blast hanging out with Will & Sam and Alicia cooked us the most delicious authentic Italian meal (Mom, you now have competition for sauce & meatballs). We had such a nice time and all four babies played so well together . . . we had no meltdowns and Kendyll sat like a big girl all night. Bennett had a blast playing in all the bouncy / exersaucer toys that Will & Sam have! So cool!

Here are a few pictures from the weekend:


All the babies playing:



Kendyll & her future boyfriend Will:



All the babies (note to self . . . it may be better to take this at the beginning of the night next time . . . ) -
Will, Kendyll, Bennett, Sam:



And of course, the outtakes (B,K,W,S):

Nine Months Old!!!

Happy 9th Month Birthday, B&K! Kendyll must have read my last post, because in the past two days she has literally "taken off" with the sitting thing. Tonight she sat unassisted for over 15 minutes. So note to self: if you want B&K to do something, write about it in the blog. :)

Not a really good night for pictures, but I snapped a few. I also took some video of K sitting and B "talking" to her tonight, too. I'll try to get that uploaded & posted soon. And we'll try to snap some better pictures this weekend, too.

Photo shoot outtakes:

Kendyll sitting yesterday:

Cute B-man:

What's so special about sitting, anyways?

I am not a mom who cares about "milestones". I probably should, but who has the time to worry about such things? I have that "What to Expect" book and haven't read it since my bedrest days. What is the point in this lamenting? Well apparently most babies learn to sit unassisted by 6 - 7 months. Yes, B&K will be 9 mo on Thursday and still have not yet accomplished this "milestone". Now technically they are only 7 mo based on their corrected age, but we try not to think about that often.

So we've been working with B&K to try to get them to sit up on their own. Bennett might take a little longer based on his body strength, but he is catching up quickly. Kendyll is thisclose to sitting up on her own. Photo evidence below.

This is how we start out:

And then Kendyll tries to grasp something that has caught her eye:

Bennett tires out:

And then Kendyll decides to show off:

Life & Death

We had a nice low-key weekend. Tim flew home Friday night and then headed out with a friend to watch his high school football team, the Lepards, play in the state play-offs. It was raining (hard & sideways), but the Leps won. They play again Friday night -- it is pretty exciting because this is the 2nd year in a row they've made it this far in the playoffs and they have a "rematch" this week. Fun times. Saturday we watched a LOT of football as a family . . . happy for OSU fans, sad (and frustrated) as ND fans. Sigh. Sunday was pretty much the same. Actually, we declared it "comfy clothes" day and all wore our sweat pants all day. Ahhhh. We watched a lot of football yesterday, too. Sad as Steelers fans (or at least me & Kendyll are . . . I have been told Bennett is a Browns fan). And speaking of the Browns, how exciting that Brady Quinn FINALLY got to play Thursday night. Last year I won "wife of the year" award because I bought Tim a Quinn jersey for our anniversary (it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would). I rock!!

We all have busy weeks and then another busy (but fun) weekend planned. No new pictures tonight, but stay tuned. I'll try to get some up this week and we all have B&K's 9 mo birthday to look forward to!!

Not much new on the B&K front. Kendyll is finally getting close to sitting unassisted. We've been working with Bennett to try to strengthen his core and he is getting better, but is still a skinny little white dude. They both love to "sing" all of a sudden. I noticed it last week when we were driving in the car -- they hum, make noise and squeal along to the songs (and of course they aren't "kids" songs . . . we listen to regular old alt rock & rap). I'm just waiting for Bennett to sing some Tupac or Biggie at his first school recital. :-)

In other news, it has been a really sad week of sorts. Have you ever noticed that deaths (esp. with famous people) seem to happen in threes? I feel like that has happened to me over the past two weeks. A friend from college, "Beeper" Dave, passed away on 10/30 at the age of 41(we called him such because back then he was the only person we knew to carry a pager -- and it wasn't that long ago!!). He was a friend of one of my roommates and a super sweet "older" guy; earlier this year he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and quickly lost his battle. Dave and his wife Polly adopted three young boys and I cannot imagine what she is going through now. And then my mom's aunt passed away last week. Lastly, on Friday a local newscaster, Heather Pick, lost her long battle with breast cancer. So okay, this last one I didn't personally know, but I felt like I knew her (as did many people in Columbus). I watched her every day when I was on bedrest -- first in the morning & then at noon. I noticed that she was wearing a wig and one day in my boredom I did a search about her. I was shocked to learn that she was battling breast cancer and that she had been diagnosed in 1999 at the age of 29. She beat the disease once, but it returned again in 2004. She was 38 and the mother of two little children -- her daughter is 7 and her son is 4. They kept replaying images of her over & over again on the news on Friday and by the time Tim came home from the game I could not watch it again. So sad. She was a true fighter and I guess we can all take a little inspiration from that.

OK, enough lamenting. Go hug & kiss your loved ones. I gotta run -- I promise new pictures soon!!

Oh the places you go . . .

Wow we had a busy day! I went into work in the a.m. for a few meetings and then spent the afternoon with B & K. I took them into my downtown office and they were ogled over by my work group. I am super proud of myself because the office (and the set-up) isn't really child / stroller friendly. It is a big campus downtown C-bus and I had to park in a garage, figure out how to get us across the street and more importantly into the building (most of the doors are those dang revolving doors and you have to get buzzed into the ones that don't go around). Thankfully someone was walking out as I needed to get in, so it wasn't a huge deal. The next challenge was the elevators -- the building is so tall (40 stories) that there are 4 sets of elevators. Some go to even floors, some to the odd # floors and some go to floors 20+. Again, not a big deal when I am alone, but I had to make sure I entered the building on the right floor to catch the elevators I needed to get to my floor. Success again! And I only had about five "are they twins" comments. Nice!

Next up was the dr. office for the flu shots. Silly me forgot that most parents bring their children in AFTER school around 3pm, which just happened to be the time we were in the office. I didn't need to make an appointment and when we walked in the door there was a pretty long line. B & K were due to eat lunch and take a bottle, so I wasn't too keen on waiting a while. But thankfully we were able to get in pretty quickly after eating some apple/banana/granola and then taking a little bit of a bottle while in the waiting room. A quick weight check (Bennett at a whopping 17lbs 5oz and Kendyll at 17lbs 15oz -- both fully clothed) and they they each got a little shot in the thigh. I was SO proud of them -- just a quick little cry and they were totally over it! What strong, brave big kids! I did learn, however, that they have to go back for the 2nd dose in about a month, but I'm sure they will do fine then, too!

B & K are now done for a nap and I'm still hoping to hit up Jodi's party later for some gifts. Here are a few pics I shot of B & K at the office (notice Kendyll is chewing on my wristlet/wallet . . . she LOVES that thing). Neither baby was in the mood to smile, but oh well.

Spontaneous

So if you've logged on waiting to read all about our exciting time at Avery's first birthday party and the hayride / bonfire, sorry to disappoint. We had every intention of dressing B & K in their wicked pimp outfits and taking part in all of the "Avery's 1st Birthday Party" festivities. But something else came up -- and Avery, we promise you'll get your gift soon!!

Tim & I were sort of bumming this fall. It is our favorite season for many reasons -- the colors, the weather, our anniversary, the birthdays of several of our loved ones -- but our MOST favorite reason is football. More specifically, Notre Dame football. Last season aside, we are pretty die-hard Irish fans. Tim attended ND for his MBA in 2000 and I grew up a huge ND fan (I attended the same grade school as Lou Holtz -- although not at the same time, thankyouverymuch). I had never attended a game in person before I met Tim (and I'm not saying that his "alumni" status had anything to do with why I married him) -- but we have attended a game pretty much every season we've been together. And Tim has made it back to a game every season since graduating. We even endured a game last year in the retched season (and during my horrendous pregnancy). But this fall seemed jam packed and we couldn't find a good weekend to get away to attend a game. Until last Thursday, that is. An innocent exchange of e-mails between Tim and our friend Dave revealed that Dave & his wife Beth were going to the ND game on Saturday. One of my FAVORITE trips to ND was three years ago . . . Dave, Beth, Tim & I drove over for a game when we lived in Chicago and it was the.most.fun. So Tim & I started to spin our wheels . . . and long story short we decided at 5:00pm Friday night to drive over to South Bend on Saturday, tailgate with Dave & Beth and their family & friends, scalp tickets and spend the night. WOO-FREAKEN-HOO!!! It was so fun. The weather was beautiful. The tailgate was fun (a bunch of people from Pittsburgh who love the Steelers more than I do -- and they were ND fans to boot!!). The game went into FOUR OTs (I won't mention the part about PITT beating ND). Jon Bon Jovi was at the game!!!!! We had a blast afterward!! We spent a small fortune in gear for the whole family at the bookstore!! It was so much fun and we owe a HUGE thank you to Nana & Papa Williams for coming to stay with B & K for the weekend. It was an expensive weekend (happy early Xmas to us!) but it was totally worth it!!

Let's see, what else . . . oh yeah, B & K! They are super big kids all of a sudden. Bennett will hold his bottle (although not consistently) and they are both getting the hang of sippy cups. They each have three teeth (although K's have not broken all the way through yet). They are both recognizing their names and have started to lift up their arms to be picked up. Lauren is off tomorrow afternoon, so I'll be hanging out with B & K. We have a trip to mommy's office downtown planned (so get ready FHR group!) and then I think I'll treat them to a flu shot at their pedi's office. My friend Jodi is hosting a jewelry open house at her house tomorrow night (her mom makes the most BEAUTIFUL handmade jewelry) and I think B & K & I are going to do a little shopping. Should be fun. Tim is in Chicago all week, so we love to find things to occupy our time when he is away (and odd how it usually involves spending money!).

I'd like to send a special note to my mom & her family. My mom's aunt was admitted to Hospice on Friday and she & my dad were not able to make it down for the weekend (but don't worry . . . they will have LOTS of opportunities to hang with B&K over the next few months!). Aunt Mary passed away this afternoon and she lived a VERY long life (97 years!!).

Oh, and don't forget to vote!! I was watching the news last night and there were people waiting in line for EIGHT HOURS yesterday to vote early at Vets Memorial in C-bus yesterday. Makes me so thankful that I decided to vote by mail. :-)

Here are a few pics of the "big kids" . . .

Kendyll showing off her teeth:


Bennett holding his bottle:


Both kids taking their sippy cups:

Toys for Tots

My friend, Erin, has recently started a new business venture. If you are in the Columbus area and love jewelry and like to do something for good, please check out her website. She is hosting an open house later this month with part of the proceeds going to Toys for Tots.

In other news, we had a VERY exciting weekend. Tim is traveling this week, so I'll do my best to provide an update on our very busy & spontaneous weekend a little later.