Growing Boys

Despite our directions to not let the boys get any older while we were Ireland Bill and Maureen let them grow up.  Julian has begun to crawl on his knees, eat everything in site and push things around the house.  Niko has added two words to every sentence.   It has been a total surprise to get back and hear how articulate he has become in just one week.  
This is from a few weeks ago, Niko poured a bowl of cheerios on the ground and Julian pounced on them.  Being the good parents that we are we let them eat them off the floor.
Niko is getting taller, even without the heels.  Sarah had to go buy him (and Julian) new clothes for summer.

Walking in Howth

"We are walking where John?"
"Just around the bend there...
And past the huge rock in the ocean...
and past the cliffs...
and then we'll rest a little and go back."

St. Paddy's Day in Dublin

We picked this pub as our base of operations for the parade 
The streets got packed, this went on for about 2 and 1/2 miles, there were about 650,000 people there.  A lot of people come from all over the world for the parade, one Irishman told us in Galway that "there won't be a lot of Irish there."
Here is one of the floats.  The parade is very international with entries from all over the world.
John and Sarah 
Me and Sarah taking a break from the Parade,  we lucked out and snared some seats near the front window of the pub.

The Aran Islands

Here is a look directly over the cliff, can't take credit for this, those are Heather's feet.
Sarah by the cliff.

There was an old fort that backed up to this cliff.  There wasn't a fence or railing or anything. You could hang your feet off the side or look straight over the side.  I did neither.
Sarah, Me, Mike and Heather on one of the "beaches" on the Aran Islands
Here is a close up of the rock walls
the Aran Islands and a lot of eastern Ireland are covered in these rock walls, no mortor or nothing, they are just stacked one on top of the other

Nikolai is Coming; Baby Julian is Crawling!

First of all, a story so sweet that Santa couldn't possibly overlook this toddler.....
Last night Julian was on the floor playing and I was filling the washing machine. He started crying, and I heard Nikolai saying "Nikolai is coming," in the sweetest little sing-song voice. I watched from around the corner in the kitchen as Niko put a bunch of his cars on a tray and carried them over to Julian to share and play so that he would stop crying! It was enough to make a mom's heart melt.

AND, prior to this, Julian was doing a combat crawl, pushing himself across the wood floors to reach toys that had rolled out of reach (Ok, I moved the toys out of reach when I realized he had attained forward motion so that I could videotape)! This morning, he even got his belly off the ground for a bit when he crawled across the bed to me after being changed. A whole new window has opened up ... in the past week he has also started sitting up by himself for several minutes without falling over and feeding himself little babyfood puffs. He is changing every day! He also goes into bonafide giggle fits when tickled or teased.

A Baby Snowman and Room Parent Experience

As Nikolai's imagination continues to grow, we have begun to experience stranger requests and more detailed storylines while we're playing. This morning as we were feeding Julian and getting ready to leave the house, Nikolai requested a Baby Snowman. Over and over again, for 10 minutes, Niko asked for a Baby Snowman. Finally Colin made him a snowman out of legos, but it really wasn't what he wanted. I have no idea what he really wanted!

I survived (barely) my first duties as a room mother, hosting the Hanukkah party for Nikolai's class. It was a great time this morning, although at one point I has five kids on my lap, with Nikolai at the bottom of the pile saying "help, I'm stuck"! We played "Pin the Candle on the Menorah," which the kids were surprisingly good at. Of course, Niko marches to the beat of his own drummer, and, as usual, was the only kid who wouldn't play. I finally convinced him to add his candle to the Menorah, but he wouldn't put on the blindfold or cover his eyes. And yes, I did stay up late last night cutting out candles from construction paper (and glueing on paper flames) and putting glitter on the Menorah! The kids decorated cookies with icing and sprinkles, and decorated paper crowns to wear. I can't believe that there is any order at all in a room with twelve 2-3 year olds, but they did great. I did collapse on the floor when I got back to my office though, and had to lay down for a bit before my latte began to revive me!

It was fun to see the Monday morning Havdaleh and hear all the kids at the whole center sing songs and prayers together and light the candle for the 4th day of Hanukkah. Nikolai's favorite part was marching and dancing to the Hanukkah songs.

Seeing Santa

Santaland lived up to everything Ron McGee and David Sedaris ever said about it.
Oh Man, Santa is in there?????  I can't wait.

Nikolai got tired of the photo taking process.
But cheered up once he found out he was going to see the big man.  Julian was fascinated by Santa but Niko wasn't to thrilled about sitting on his lap.  He managed to tell the big man "James" though.