Introducing Toddler Lev!

Lev has been exhibiting more and more toddler like behaviors of late.

He's drinking cow's milk out of a cup.

He's eating pasta all by himself (albeit messily).

He's trying to walk.

And just generally being very cute.

Lev is 1 year old!!!

Our baby is no longer a baby (mostly)! The past month has brought a lot of changes.  Lev just keeps on growing and shining. He waves good bye and hello, blows kisses, and gives high fives. He has words - dada, mama, adie (Sadie), dis (this), hi - and keeps adding more every day. He is almost, though not quite, walking and he most definitely does not need you to feed him because he'll do it himself!

It's hard to believe how far we've come in the past year, yet here we are.

From this:

To this:

And now, here are the year long comparisons.

Summer fun - Part 2

Of course no summer in New England is complete without some beach time at Cape Cod - especially when we have such wonderful hosts in Babulya and Deda.

Unlike in previous years, where Sadie has largely been afraid of water, she has suddenly expressed a great interest in swimming.  A couple weeks ago we finally made it to the beach on the cape.

Sadie had a fantastic time and even tried holding a board and kicking with Deda's help.

Lev loved sitting at the very edge and playing in the wet sand, occasionally joined by Sadie.

Note: Babulya was the main photographer here and Dad took this trip to the beach as a moment to get some quiet time.

We'll be back soon!

Summer fun - Part 1

So what have we been up to in between celebrating the kids' birthdays?

We've been enjoying the various water features available at Brookline playgrounds.

And staying in doors on days when it's just too hot to go out.

Here is Sadie enjoying the world atlas that Babulya and Deda got her for her birthday (thank you!).

And here we are at an indoor playspace that Grandma and Grandpa got us tickets to (thank you also).

And here are some bonus photos of Lev doing cute things around the house, like climbing onto the bathroom step stool, having fun opening and closing doors, and making some phone calls.

Sadie's Birthday (a month ago)

We had a party for Sadie on our front lawn - keeping it simple since Sadie was still not allowed to run around at that point post surgery.

Medical restrictions aside, we were still able to have a good time with all the regular party pieces....

Decorations!

A muffin with 3 candles!

Lots of family! (Some friends were also there but did not make it into any photographs for some reason)

And of course presents!

Thank you for coming everyone!

We're back (I think)

As I'm sure you've all noticed, we haven't posted anything in a long time.  That's largely been due to the chaos that's been taking place around here.  Now obviously, chaos is nothing new but the dose of the last month has been particularly bad for some reason.  We have a large backlog of photos to get through - Sadie's birthday, Grandma and Aunt Renee's visits, a trip to the cape, Lev's birthday, general kid cuteness... etc. Fear not - the events have been photographed, just not posted.

So to get partially caught up, here is a random assortment of photos of what we've been up to.

Sadie got her adenoids out

Grandma and Aunt Renee came to visit post surgery back in June, both for Sadie's birthday and to keep company during her convalescence.

 More pictures coming soon - we promise to catch up!

I'm one, thank you very much

A weekend ago, on the cape

Two weeks ago, we spent the weekend on Cape Cod. It was kind of the in the middle of a lot of things - Lev had just been super incredibly sick a couple days before, we were preparing for Sadie's adenoids to be removed, etc.  So the trip and the pictures kind of fell through the cracks.  But we did go and have a good time.  The kids enjoyed Babulya and Deda's backyard, as well as low key walks around Hyannis.

During one of those walks, we made it to the carousel and arcade portion of the town.

Sadie rode the carousel with Dad and loved it.

(Bonus, the carousel hands out Tootsie Roll Pops after the ride, which was the bridge to getting Sadie to try a popsicle post-surgery!)

She also enjoyed sitting in a helicopter (she had no idea that the option of it moving even existed and I did not disabuse her of this).

She also enjoyed the bubble gun being used as enticement for a local henna tattoo establishment. They vendors enjoyed a cute kid advertising for them, I'm sure.

Lev was there too, but not pictured as mostly he hung out on people or in the stroller.  We hope to return under less stressful circumstances some time.  Thanks Babulya and Deda!