Soon we will be traveling back to the Northwest to enjoy six weeks with our family and friends. We will be in Oregon primarily but are also taking a short trip to Idaho and Washington. I have been busily preparing for our trip and am so excited to get out of New Jersey for a while. Six weeks is a long time but I think it will actually go by pretty fast considering all of the side trips we are doing. Andrew will be with us half of the time but then will have to come back and study for his comp exams which he will take in September. More to come later.

Anna is completely obsessed with Elmo.  Elmo is her most used word everyday.  She liked Elmo even before she ever saw Sesame Street.  She really likes Big Bird and Abby Cadabby and all the characters quite a bit too.  But her favorite is definitely Elmo.  She has watched videos of Elmo on Andrew’s iphone and so now she thinks the iphone is for her viewing pleasure only.  So here’s a little clip of Anna with an Elmo coloring book.

Evan lost his first tooth yesterday!  He was so excited.  It has been very loose for a quite a while and it was bothering him yesterday and he wanted me to pull it.  I tried several times but couldn’t get it out so I told him to wait until Daddy came home and maybe he could try.  Sure enough, Daddy was able to gently yank it out without any bleeding or crying.  Good job Evan!  He is so excited to go to school tomorrow and announce to his class that he lost his first tooth!

Anna turned a year and a half on Friday. How could my baby be such a big girl already. But she is and she is definitely showing it. She is quite the toddler with personality plus. She is really good most of the time but she is in the beginning stages of testing mommy and daddy. I have walked into her room during naptime and bedtime when she is refusing to go to sleep and she has surprised me by handing me her pajamas. Yes, she has taken her pajamas or clothes off multiple times. But she is a joy and still loves reading books and will sit and play by herself very nicely. She has also become extreme obsessed with Elmo and loves going to Sesame place to see Elmo, Big Bird and Abby Cadabby. Anna is still talking quite a bit and is learning to say no thanks instead of just plain old no. She loves her big brother and has become quite the daddy’s girl.

Today Evan’s class had a little end of the year program for the parents. It was really nice and fun to see some of the things the kids have learned this year. He still has another week of school left but has had a great year and a great teacher and really enjoyed his Kindergarten year. Here is a picture of Evan and his teacher and a little video of one of the songs they sang. The girls and boys took turns and if you listen closely you will here Evan. He is the one singing on tune. He did a great job! We are so proud of you Evan!

This is for the family.  I haven’t posted a video in a while and thought this was kind of cute.  I’m sure she will not be happy someday that I didn’t have her pajamas on before shooting the video.

On Thursday, Anna was still not sleeping well so I decided to go ahead and pull the plug on the pacifier.  Much to my surprise, she fell asleep within 5 minutes and actually slept all night long.  Something she hadn’t done for a week since she had been sick.  She did not wake up at all during the night, took two naps the next day, and slept all night the next night.  Anna is still sleeping well at night and during naptime.  Thank goodness this was much easier than I anticipated.  No problem whatsoever.  Now I don’t have to worry about lugging pacifiers around with me on our trip this summer.

Anna has been sick for a week now.  It started last Thursday with a runny nose and then the cold got into her eyes.  The eyes got goopy and yucky and she was a mess.  I called the doctor but they said there wasn’t anything they could do and it was just a virus that had to run it’s course.  By Tuesday however she was not getting any better and actually was getting worse each day.  So I took Anna to the doctor and sure enough, what started as a cold had turned into, an ear infection, pink eye and on top of that she is getting two teeth in right now.  Needless to say, we have not been getting sleep.  The antibiotics kicked in after the very first day and she is looking and acting normal now but she is still not sleeping.  I’m afraid she has gotten used to waking up a lot and just can’t get back to sleeping normal.  So tonight we are moving Evan in our room on the floor and we are going to try to get her to sleep.  Poor girl, hopefully this is the last of sickness for a while and we can all start getting some much needed rest.

On another note, we have been wanting to get rid of her pacifier and were planning on starting that this past week.  But with her being sick, I didn’t want to take it away from her.  However, since she is feeling better and not sleeping anyway, we may just pull the plug on that tonight as well.  Wish me luck.

Anna is 17 months old today.  Time is just going way too fast for me.  But it is so fun to see her grow and learn and change from a baby into a little toddler.  She is a bundle of joy.  Anna has become a pro at putting on her socks.  She puts them on perfect now.  She is now starting to figure out how to put on shoes and she can unzip her jacket and take it off.  Anna still LOVES books and will say just about any word you ask her to say, except for Evan.  For some reason she has some strange word for Evan.  Anna has enjoyed seeing lots of family come visit the last two months and we are all looking forward to a long vacation with family and friends this summer.  This picture is one that Andrew took in McDonalds a while ago.  She was sad that Evan was playing in the playland and she had to sit and watch.  She leaned over on her hand and sat like that for quite a long time, so Andrew snapped a picture with his phone.  Next month my little girl will be a year and a half.  Please, someone tell me how to slow time down.

I was in the bathroom for about a minute or less and came out and couldn‘t find Anna. I went into her room and found this. She had taken all of her swim diapers out and decided to put them on. I think she had three on each leg. Actually she is sitting in her highchair having a snack and still has them on. Crazy girl. She is almost putting her own shoes on by herself as well. Girls are so different from boys.