brrr

taking the kids for a winter walk to the playground.
We have made this a daily activity since madeline loves to see the 'big kids' as they are dismissed from the elem school a block away. She says hi to all of her friends and likes to run around a little even when its 100 below. Here we are all bundled and ready to go i the wagon yesterday.


bennett is a good sport for all of this

maybe bc his big sister sings to him the whole way.

words words words

he is beginning to make some cool sounds that i think are words
we've gone from
dadadadada to what sounds distinctly like Dada and is usually directed at don
he says, and i quote "cok cok" which is baby for 'quack quack' and refers to a duck
truck came out a few times today as we looked at the recycling vehicle outside
and he has been saying 'ssista' for about a week- usually when he is looking for or waving at madeline or if he hears her in another room. he says 'duh' for madeline though...working on that
and of course
no Mama. in fact its quite the opposite.
check it out:

we are busy

so busy over here now that you put Bennett down and he is GONE!
At least it is winter so we are rarely outdoors. In 2 months or so I'm doomed bc this kid is going to be covered in mud and wandering about our neighborhood LOL. Oh and btw he'll be a 1 year old then. OMG

the kids playing before breakfast on monday. yes our house is a zoo.


if you take off the cute cupcake shirt, he really is just a baby chimpanzee...

food...

our family is going through a metamorphosis this year
one arena is food
http://www.freshthemovie.com/

we are rededicating ourselves, slowly to consuming much more fresh, local and organic food
slow food ( http://www.slowfood.com/about_us/eng/mission.lasso )
real food

we began by buying an 1/8 of a steer from a local grass-fed organic farmer
http://www.discoverfrederickmd.com/farmersmarket/html/detail.htm?cat=125&store=1102
and YUM

next we switched to buying our dairy from
http://www.southmountaincreamery.com/home.php
It is delivered to our door and placed in glass jars into our cooler. In addition to milk and the best chocolate milk we have ever tasted- can you say milkshake? we get our organic, cage free eggs, fresh cheese, yogurt, and occassionally apple cider from them. We also have bought some chicken from them and plan to do so again once we have run out of our supply.

We have switched from shopping mostly at the local chains: safeway, giant and macgruders to mostly shopping at MOMS (My Organic Market link ) which is not only promoting local organic farms but the whole experience is so much nicer-

And we will continue using the CSA once it is running again (around here there are no winter CSAs so we have to buy all of our produce instead of getting it from the co-op. We will be using Sandy Spring CSA this spring/summer
http://sandyspringcsa.com/

And finally, when dining out, we have turned to Eatwild.com to steer us in the right direction. We have found some amazing eateries including this one we went to on Sunday to celebrate our anniversary. http://ricciutis.com/
This place has not only an amazing mission of eco-friendlieness and socially responsible practices, it has amazing food!

So this
doesnt mean we are not still junk food junkies, nor that we have given up bacon (in fact we are finalizing a purchase of an organically raised 1/4 wild pig this month)and ice cream. But it means that we are considering the effect of what we buy on not only our bodies but on our environment. We have a lot more to learn about all of this and we hope as the kids get older we will be able to grow more and more of our own herbs, veggies etc but for now this is what we can do. It means eating out less, cooking a lot more, and finding new ways to eat the same vegetables as we are eating mostly what is in season (though i dont sacrifice on frozen fruits and we eat blueberries year-round).
We dont buy all of our produce organic when the CSA is closed for the season and we have to shop retail. When this is the case, we tend to lean on the 'dirty dozen' list to guide us on what absorbs the most pesticide.And there are some things we buy that are simply not 'certified organic' but really are. And sometimes we opt for local over organic because the farmers use integrated pest management and we think the environmental toll is high to have things shipped in.

we are excited about diving into this adventure. We hope we can keep it up as we learn. It is not cheap- that is for certain, but we make sacrifices elsewhere for the consideration that in the long run, it is more expensive not to.

We'd love to hear what you think we can do to do even more.

birthday party

madeline attended her very good friend, eliana's 4th birthday last weekend.
It was a princess tea party
and we had a blast.



benjamin, my godson, joined in the fun of course. he loves his big sister. ... role model for bennett too im sure! LOL




Madeline got to eat pizza and birthday cake. seems like a trivial thing but for the mom of a child with a food allergy this is momentous. just took the cheese off and reapplied the pepperoni and she fit right in.

phases of crawling this month

Thought i'd show you a few action shots of how his crawling earlier this month that i never got to post. now he takes off but its fun to look at how quickly they go from almost crawling, to sort of crawling to 'get out the baby gates!'

"im the bride of all.. im the princess of all" as declared by the big sister playing dress up after the princess tea party birthday she attended this week.



excuse the nude preschooler please. all in a day...

being silly siblings

just playing together
so THIS is why people have siblings.








dont ask- she seems to be karate chopping him but he loved it. its an unwritten language.

lots more

i have a bunch of pics and vids from this weekend but here is a teaser:

cruising and crawling now- this kid can get anywhere he wants and into virtually anything. yikes!

Cruising

This kid is on the go
and couldnt be happier.

(except of course for the giant dent in his head- he doesnt really think through all of his moves...)

here's proof of his cruising prowess


in other news, he too is low-iron, like madeline. so bring on the red meat, steamed clams and dried peaches. plus we cook breakfast in an iron skillett
any other iron ideas- other than the obvious supplements?

Snuggle Bunnies

Getting geared up to head out the door this morning. Bennett is cruising now so the best i can do is let him go back and forth across the stair gates and while he traverses i can layer him up.  Madeline is a good sport and entertains him during the whole ordeal. She is an amazing big sister.

There is no denying that these kids are cuddlers! They so take after their dad :)

Here they are with some great friends who came over for brunch Sunday after the new year, the Sukiniks: Joe, Dan and David.  Ursula, (mom not pictured bc i think she was wii skiiing at the time) was our doula and we are so lucky to have maintained a friendship with them beyond. here’s to years more!

Madeline could not have been more excited to have had ‘the boys’ come over for a playdate- course they would maybe have interpreted it as a playdate with the wii but what she doesnt know wont hurt her in this case!

Seems like David and Ursula Both have a thing for babies :)

Christmas- on Auburn Ave!!

we are back on track since our christmas illness so here goes:



With friends Eliana and Benjamin after the Christmas Eve service-


Prepped for the big morning... stockings stuffed and train track assembled. Cookies nibbled, carrots eaten, milk slurped, tree trimmed. Mom nowhere in sight as Don and Maury wrap feverishly... she is off playing the big guy around the neighborhood!



bundled- a white christmas for sure!



first christmas!





Maury was here to share our first Christmas at our new Home!! Thanks Mom. It would have been so lonely without you here but you made the holiday for us.





After all was said and done, it took until 6pm for Madeline to get through all the gifts. She was methodical and wanted to play with each one as she opened it. As Ashia was still sick from the bug the night before, we skipped monkey bread and prime rib and saved it for the next day. When we finally feasted, it was a treat. We had monkey bread, sausage, juice and coffee for breakfast and for dinner roasted potatoes, standing rib roast and steamed veggies. With stuffed bellies, we were still able to have our neighbors over the third morning of Christmas (the 26th) for pancake puffs in chocolate chip or blueberry varieties. Whew- chrismtas was saved!

And finally... a little Chrismtas tale.
After adopting the tradition of playing santa for the kids on xmas eve and delivering a small gift, Ashia went out and shared the love with some neighbors' kids. It was an amazing thing to be able to do that for other families and it really went over well. Even the couple on our block with college-aged kids got in on it bc their house was the dressing station. This email just came in to thank us for the treat and i thought i'd share it here:

Ashia,

Thank you thank you thank you! Jack was so so excited. He kept yelling, "It's a Christmas Miracle!" When Santa told him to go right to bed, he really did. We didn't hear a peep from him until 7:30 the next day! What a wonderful tradition. Hopefully it was worth all the hard work you did, I know it made our Christmas absolutely perfect.

Thanks,

Heather

It was a great holiday for this Mann family. We cant wait to build on these traditions next year!

Christmas Bug

We are not prepared to furnish Christmas photos because the Mann house has taken ill.
As of last night this horrible stomach bug has claimed two victims and we are seriously hoping it stops there. Needless to say, Christmas was cumbersome today. But still, the children were delighted and generous, taking time to open one gift each and enjoying the feeling of watching others open theirs. Okay, well... Bennett really just liked ripping wrapping paper and trying to eat it.

Hoping that i crawl out of this funk tomorrow and am able to make a Christmas morning then, instead. Complete with Monkey bread for breakfast, christmas music and a standing roast prepared by the man of the house in the latter part of the day.
that is, if tonight doesnt reveal new victims.

So all in all, we were so happy to have the kids wake up here this morining, and i thoroughly enjoyed playing The Big Guy last night for friends and neighbors and aside from this bug (and its a big aside) it was a perfect morning. I know i had several moments of nostalgia for Christmases past and wished our house were full of family and friends, but we will slowly begin to take on the task of creating our own traditions. Hoping that in years to come more of our family can be here with us because today they were sorely missed. We were happy to have been able to see the NY side for Thanksgiving and to have also had a mini christmas a couple of weeks ago with a small faction of the midwest fam. Add to that, the church christmas play, making cookies, and meals for the shelter in town, donating some toys and the traditional christmas decorating, we have done a great job of beginning some rituals for next year and years to come.

anyway, its off to bed for me in the hopes that we begin anew tomorrow.
Merry Christmas! Here is hoping that you all had an easy and rewarding day.

xoxo

2 feet of snow in MD

 

Bennett’s first adventure!

check out that reflectors on that snowsuit- very high tech!

SO glad daddy is home from NY today.. gearing up 3 ppl in snow gear and then unbundling is a chore.  Thanks to the Wongs for that awesome toddler sled- Bennett was thrilled and Madeline got to sled down the driveways at our neighbors houses with all of the big kids. yay snow

Its beginning to look..

...a lot like Christmas







The kids helping me decorate for christmas.
bennett has to be distracted from eating all of the pine needles




madeline is acting like a monkey

its great!

Aunt Julie, Raymond and Grandma Rose week!

 

Madeline loved playing with her cousin, Raymond!

3 kids in the middle row!

SNOW DAY!

Christmas in town square

Bennett loves his silly aunt julie! she has so much energy for him, he was all smiles with her and… they got a LOT of time together. YAY!

Aunt Mary came for early Christmas dinner..Of course Grandma Rose is not in the pics… bc she was slaving away in the kitchen.  but Darn it was good!

Come back Soon. we miss you guys :)

Christmas Surprise!

We were thrilled this morning when Mike and Olga surprised us by stopping by for a spell on their way up to the Fidotta’s for Christmas!
 

Just in time to put Uncle Mike to work on decorating the tree and long enough to get to watch madeline host her friends for a lunch playdate.

It was great to have Olga’s mom here too- she was a big help in entertaining and corralling the kids. 

Come Back soon!!

Or better yet.. come  back for Christmas :)

xoxo

Found an SD card from October

These pics were in the lost pile for a while… the sd card was in our printer all this time.  oops. here’s a quick recap.

Nana and Papa’s Halloween visit!

school

Autumn Fun!

First Snow 12/7/09

 

Here is a pic from our first snow of the season. We were lucky enough to have Raymond, Madeline and Bennett’s cousin here and so the two babies got to experience snow for the first time together!

Hard to tell… but Bennett is actually the one with the full head of hair!

Then Madeline and I went out and explored!

We are expecting another snowstorm this weekend…More pics to come… once my darling husband returns my SD card ;)

thanksgiving in ny

More pics from our last days in NY for the holiday.
With the exception of a surprise potty accident the whole week was peaceful, fun and just about the best holiday trip we could have had- even traffic cooperated!

Still... thinking that Christmas is going to be in Rockville for us this year.
Everyone is invited- Who's coming?!!





Ryan was awesome with the kids and spent so much time crafting and being silly with them. We were really happy to see Chris and Shawn entertaining Madeline as well- she was thrilled to have all that attention and is in withdrawel now- especially for someone to cut and paste with her!