2013: Adding Sophia to the Father's Day mix!

Every year since he was born, Joshua has taken part in my little Father's Day tradition for David -- my attempt to get a cute little triptych of photos with letters spelling out DAD.  By now, Joshua is somewhat used to the drill, and he got really excited about playing with the big D and A when I brought them out this year.

And thankfully, his sister isn't nearly as persnickety as he was.  :)  (Remember Father's Day 2010 and 2011?)  It did take a little doing, but we managed to get some really sweet photos for this year's collage!

I took the kids out for our first attempt early in the morning, in order to take advantage of the lovely morning light pouring into our backyard.  It was already really hot outside, and we were running really close to Sophia's nap time, so I was a bit concerned as we headed out -- but the light was just so perfect that I had to at least give it a try.

I put out a blanket for the kids to sit on, and tried to speed up the process by giving them each a letter to play with, figuring I'd be able to merge or split photos as needed in post.  And then I made the grave tactical error of trying to get them to switch letters.  Joshua was very, very upset that I wouldn't let him hold both letters at once, and then he got even more upset that I wanted him to let Sophia hold the D.  And then poor patient Sophia, having endured several minutes of sweaty heat plus a big brother trying to steal the fun new toys away from her, finally reached the end of her rope and clearly just wanted to go to bed.  So I gave up for the morning -- I'd taken a bunch of photos, but wasn't convinced that I really had anything worth keeping.

So I tried again later in the afternoon.  The light was decent, and the kids were in better moods, so I had high hopes!  I also did a lot of prep work with Joshua beforehand, which I should have known would be necessary -- I told him that we were going to play with "just one letter at a time," and that he could play with them both once we were back inside.  He dutifully repeated the "just one at a time" mantra over and over again during this second afternoon session.  :)  And I caught some really playful moments between Joshua and Sophia this time around!

Later that evening, I looked at the photos on the computer monitor.  And I actually really loved a number of the shots we got during *both* sessions!  What can I say, our kids are super adorable and photogenic even under difficult conditions...  :)

So I put together two different triptychs for David.  He ended up choosing the morning set as his favorite, so that's the one I'm having printed out for him, but I wanted to share both, just because of how stinkin' adorable our kiddos are!




And just because I get super weepy when I look at the whole progression (look how LITTLE Joshua used to be!), here are links to all of the Father's Day posts: 2010, 2011, 2012.

Hope you all had a lovely Father's Day, celebrating the wonderful men in your lives!

Sophia Watch: Ten Months

Wee Fifi is ten months old!  Without a doubt, the time is flying by even faster for her than it did for Joshua... I can't believe she's so close to a year old already!  (And, um, I may have already started actively planning her birthday party...)

Sophia sprouted two more teeth this month, and she's been working on at least two more, so in most of her official bunny-comparison shots, she's either chewing on her fingers or sucking furiously at her lips... But it's a faithful capture of what she looks like these days.  :)  And she really is the cutest wee teether in the world!



The biggest and most exciting milestone we reached this month was Sophia's first word!  She was sitting in her high chair eating her dinner, and Joshua was playing nearby.  He came up to the chair with a large white blanket over his head, and started playing peekaboo with her.  He would throw the blanket over his face, wait for me to ask who was under the blanket, and then fling the blanket gleefully off his head, shouting "it's Joshua!!"  Sophia was startled at first, and then started giggling at each reveal.  And then after about the 15th time, Sophia's babbling started resolving into "Aht-jah!  Jah-tah jah-tah jah-tah!"  And she continues to say something similar these days, every once in a while, but always while looking at and/or trying to grab Joshua.  So it's clear to us that our little girl's first word is her beloved big brother's name.  *melt*

Sophia also continues to grow more and more interactive every day.  She's still not much for moving, but she's begun to lunge and reeeeeach for toys that are just outside her grasp.  So while she's placid and content as a baseline, it's becoming clear that she's also a very determined wee girlie.  So far, she'll reach and reach until her arm gets tired and then squawk until I give her the toy she wants... But I do think mobility is on the horizon!  I just need to stop being such a softie and spoiling her...  ;)

But I'm going to try to take advantage of her immobility while it lasts to get some pretty pictures of her!











Happy ten months, sweet little girl!

Reunions 2013!

I can't believe it's been ten years since I graduated from Princeton... David is fond of reminding me that I've gotten an advanced degree and had two babies and so much more, but still -- can it really have been ten years already??

The great class of 2003 came back in full force for Reunions this year!  And for the first time, I actually registered for official Reunions events -- we're normally so busy with PEF events that it's not really worth it to pay for the class events, but we decided to splurge for my tenth.  In large part because I wanted to wear the class costume.  :)  But also because I was really looking forward to seeing people I hadn't seen in years!

David took on kid duty on the Friday night so I could go to the dinner at the tents, footloose and fancy-free.  :)  It was so good running into so many old friends, many of whom I hadn't seen since graduation, many more of whom had little kidlets of their own...




Then on Saturday, we kicked things off at the PEF pre-P-rade luncheon.  It was Sophia's first experience of Reunions, and I think she was mostly just confused by it all.  :)  But Joshua is old enough now to really enjoy himself -- he particularly loved the juice boxes and grapes.  And the kids' table!








(Oh, yeah, and our class theme was "Around the turn," which is apparently a golf reference to the 10th hole.  Lots of black and orange argyle and polos, complete with kicky golf caps and long black knee socks.  Most of us weren't wearing the knee socks because, hello, 95-degree heat, but you can see a couple of the guys above who went all in with the full getup!)

Then we attempted to take the kids to the P-rade.  It was sooooo hot, though, and way too crowded to push a stroller around... So David took Joshua in the stroller to hang out in a shady area and I braved the crowds with Sophia strapped to my front, running into people and marveling at the madness that is the Princeton P-rade.  Here's what Sophia thought of it all:


We finally retreated to Frist for the air conditioning.  And ran into so many more friends!  Joshua loved playing with Claire and Jonathan and their respective parents and grandparents, and we had such a good time catching up with everyone.









I'm always so thankful at Reunions that we still live in Princeton, and that everyone comes back here to the best ol' place of all.  Can't wait until our 15th -- but definitely hope to see all of you again before then!