Our Jersey City Adventure!

Well Saturday night we made it to our temporary Jersey City apartment. We will be here through the end of July. It is a beautiful apartment and it is so nice of our friends to offer it to us and to leave a lot of their things for us. We purchased a futon/couch off Craigslist and Nick picked that up on Sunday, so now we are pretty much all set.
The view from our living room window.



Isabella and Jack eating dinner (we still don't have a table). When I told Isabella it was time for dinner she said "But there's no table"Jack and Isabella had lots of fun playing with each other. That has started very recently and I love it! They laugh and play and make up games.
I think it has been a difficult adjustment for Isabella. She had really gotten used to being with Nonna and Pop-pop and I think she is still just a bit confused about the fact that daddy will be coming home to here each day. She spent a lot of yesterday telling us how she wanted to go home to Nonna and Pop-pop's. She would say "I want to go to Nonna and Pop-pop's and have fun." At one point I was trying to distract her so I said, "how about you decide. Let's do something fun. What do you want to do next?" Her response: "Go home" It didn't work. We were busy yesterday going grocery shopping and otherwise settling in but we took a walk along the water yesterday late afternoon and popped by a park.


Today after breakfast, the kids and I went out and walked around to get the lay of the land. We stopped by this little water area and of course Isabella wanted to play. I promised we would return later with swimsuits. Instead we headed over to a little park right by the apartment.


While Jack took his morning nap I made lunch and we walked down to Nick's work and had a picnic on this pier right outside of the building. We got to see one of my favorite people, Carolyn who is also working at Quidsi with the Soap.com part. Isabella loved her. Carolyn took her to her office and let her play with a remote control helicopter. She is now Isabella's favorite new friend.After lunch and a tour of the Quidsi offices Isabella said "Mommy, I am really tired after all that playing. I need to go lay down." Great idea, but I wanted to swing by the Elephant sprinklers as promised before nap time. So we did and Isabella forgot all about laying down.

Jack was in HEAVEN!! He absolutely loved crawling around in the sprinklers. He couldn't get his suit on fast enough.









Well after a long day we came back and I laid Jack down for a nap, which he is still taking at 5pm...so he was tired. Isabella watched a TV show and then I turned off the TV. This conversation ensued.

I: I want to watch more TV.
Me: Isabella I think you have watched enough TV. How about we go back outside and play in the Elephant sprinklers again?
I: No thank you mommy. I've played enough. I've had a long day. It is time to relax and watch TV.

That was so cute that of course she won and we are now watching Barney.

Jack's first haircut

**There are 3 new posts so scroll down**

Jack got his first hair cut yesterday and since we were there I decided to get Isabella's cut too. She has never had her hair cut by a professional. I trimmed it once a couple of months ago, but it was good to get a good professional trim. It looks really cute.

Jack did great! He just sat there without squirming, crying, or fussing. He just looked like a little man getting his hair cut. We went to Cartoon Cuts in the Dulles Town Center Mall. It was good for a first cut because they had TVs at the hair cutting stations and were playing an Elmo video, which I think was more helpful for Isabella than Jack.

Here is a "before" picture for Jack:



Then it was Isabella's turn.
Afterwards we went and got ice cream, as promised.

Summer fun!

We have been home (back at Nonna and Pop-pop's) for a week and a half. We were able to see Katie and the kids again this week. These pictures are from another visit I think but they are cute. Jack with Mark and his "face". He is hilarious and makes this face a lot!

The girls playing in the sprinkler outside.
My sister Kate moved back to VA from CA so we got to drive down and see her early last week. They are only about an hour and 15 minutes from where we are in VA. Isabella had a great time playing with her cousins Noah (10), Grace (7) and Maddie (5).

They had a water fight with these water squirters we brought down with us.


Playing on the slip and slide...

Jack liked playing with this shopping cart Kate had. It was perfect for walking behind.


We have been playing in the baby pool here at home and playing in the fun water table that Nonna got for the kids. Jack loves it! He doesn't however love the pool. So I have to hold him on my lap.


Here is Jack playing in the water table while Isabella napped. I think he liked having it all to himself.


Isabella going down the slide backwards. She got bored with going down the normal way after about 3 times and then she had to find some way to make it more exciting so she started going down backwards.

Catch up for May and part of June

Well May ended up being quite the month. I sprained my back very badly on my trip to visit my friend Francene and her kids and I spent 5 weeks unable to really do my job of taking care of these kiddos. As a result, Nick worked from home a bit and my mom drove up and stayed at my in laws house to help me for a week and then we all went down to my parent's house in NC for another week so I could have help. The doctor told me I should not hold the children for 3 to 4 weeks to allow the back to heal completely. Everything is a lot better now. I am able to pick up the kids with just a little soreness so that is good considering I am alone again and have to do it all myself. Here is the photo documentary of the month of May.

Right before we went to my friends house I met my friend Sarah (a friend from GA who has now moved up to Northern VA). Isabella and Jackson enjoyed seeing each other. We met at Chick-fil-A and they played on the playground together.

Here at Francene and Brett Tucker's house in Apollo, PA (where the back pain began) on May 19th. Jack (9 months) played with his friend Jacob (11 months here). Jack wasn't able to get to sitting yet from his belly so he spent all his time army crawling around the place.


Here the next week I started feeling a little better so I started holding the kids again and doing too much, then after this I really really hurt my back I was really not able to do anything. Jack got better at walking around on his own. Here we went to the park with Katie and Gianna.

Isabella makes Jack laugh like crazy. Here is one example:

This is May 26th. We set up the ottomans in the living room so Jack could walk all around the room. He loved cruising the furniture.

On May 29th he started saying Bella. He has been saying Mama and Dada but we weren't sure if he knew what he was saying or if they were just sounds. When he started saying Bella we realized he did get it. Now he says Nonna, Bye Bye and Night Night too.

Then came June...after my back got better it got worse. My mom came up to VA for a week to help me out and then we went down to NC the next week so I would have full time help with the kids.

My dad took Isabella to a friend's pool with a couple of dogs, one is his and the other is my sister Kate's. Her son Noah was down visiting with my parents so Isabella spent the week playing with her 10 year old cousin. She loved it! It is also really exhausted her!
Jack enjoyed spending time with Grandma and Grandpa. He really started getting around. He started figuring out how to pull himself up to standing and started crawling on hands and knees. He also took his first couple steps on Monday June 7th. I think it kind of scared him. He did it twice and then he hasn't done it since.

He loved playing ball with my parent's dog Jazzy. She is crazy and will play ball with anyone who is willing.



Laying on Sully
We spent a lot of time in the back yard playing in the water and doing wood working with my dad.
Since my mom and dad were the primary caregivers since I couldn't hold them they also got the joy of being spit up on. My dad said it had been a long time since this happened. He walked in the house and he hadn't even noticed it had happened. My mom had to tell him. Pretty funny!
Jack's new Huggies jean diapers.
I think that is a long enough post, but I want to make sure to document everything. I am going to do another post to bring us up to date.