Grahamsy Smiles

Our serious little man is less serious these days.  Even cracked a smile for a few pics for his mom.  Ok so the first one is still serious.

Happy Birthday Nick

We celebrated Nick's 36th birthday with a FaceTime happy birthday song with Fishy and banana cream pie.  The kids were so excited to celebrate their favorite guy.  You can tell from these photos they don't like him at all.  Happy Birthday Nick!

The Gingerbread Man

A gingerbread man went missing from Fisher's class!  And many of our favorite friends and relatives saw him all over the US.  Thanks to everyone who participated.  Fisher thought it was the best and yes this post is to shame those of you who forgot.  

From left to right, top to bottom:

San Diego, CA (cousin Cam & Ryan)

Cleveland, OH (aunt Martha)

Charleston, SC (the Gilligs)

Seattle, WA (the Dreiblatts)

Bloomfield Hills, MI (grandma Jann)

Seattle, WA (cousin Dylan)

THE Ohio State University (Martha)

Washington DC (Linda)

Columbus (Martha)

Colorado Springs (Barbara and Susan)

Vail,Co (uncle Juan)

Washington DC (Linda)

Chicago (wewe)

Thanksgiving 2015

Since Graham was born October first we have celebrated my birthday, our anniversary, Fisher's birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, a New Year, 4 trips to Chicago and a trip to Bloomfield Hills.  We have seen family and friends from NYC, Washington DC, Atlanta, Wisconsin, Columbus, Charleston, Chicago, St Louis, Los Angeles and Seattle.  It was amazing. And exhausting. Kind of a blur.  

Graham is an exceptionally mellow fellow.  More chill than any of our other kids as babies, but he still sleeps like well a baby.  Not that much.  Where did that sleep like a baby expression come from anyways?  Needless to say I remember the last few months in theory, but not so much in reality.

From what I *can* recall Thanksgiving in Bloomfield Hills was low key, but remarkable in that it was both Graham and Caleb's first trip to Long Lake.  It also marked the first time the Lardo family has been together since Erica returned from Mexico. There was lots to celebrate and lots of matching baby outfits.  I couldn't resist.  

The Stewart's joined us for Thanksgiving dinner and books were read.

We made a trip to a mall aquarium and I visited my first Rainforest Cafe.  The food was terrible, but it was the least stressful dining experience I have shared with my children.  Gracie was petrified of the moving animal statues and kept saying they were going to bite her.  This alone was worth the rubbery chicken tenders.

Graham hung around in his bin or on the floor hardly making a peep.  Here he is helping Erica study and looking cute.

Kathy stopped by for a visit and a baby hold.

 Fisher, Nick and the uncles managed to get in minimal trouble.  But couldn't resist the allure of the over water tree.  Thankfully no water rescue this holiday.  Just wrestling, deep frying turkeys and minions.

All in all it was a perfect meeting of the (little) minds.

Argentina or Bust!

Our (biggest) little man is off on an Argentine adventure with Papa Horacio and Grandma Jann.  You can follow his adventures on Instagram by following @pez1031.  So far Horacio has done a great job of keeping the account updated with fun daily pics.

I dropped him off at the airport in Detroit. Fisher was so excited he hardly said goodbye.  We miss him, but Instagram tells us he is having a great time.  

I hope this trip is just one of many adventures with his passport.

New Cousins!

2015 will be remembered as the year our kids gained 2 new cousins!  I love imagining all the fun Graham will have with his cousins just his age. 

Baby Caleb was born to Alison and Jason Loy in July and baby Alexandra was born to Alison and Adam Dreiblatt two and a half weeks after Graham in October.  No one is as excited about more babies then Gracie.  She has practically smothered them both to death already.  Thankfully her aunt Alisons (plural) have been understanding about Gracie's unique form of (very physical) love.  

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

All I want for Christmas is a pair of pants without a hole.

Love,

Fisher

PS he really wants transformers and legos

Selfies with Graham

I took Graham for his two month well visit and besides a case of bronchilitus all is well. . .well.  He is my smallest kid!  Only 11.5lbs.  Waiting for the doctor is an excellent time for selfies.

Extracurricular Gracie

With Fisher away with his Grandparents for a bit we decided to enroll Gracie in gymnastics and swim lessons.  Fisher started swim lessons at two months old, Gracie started at 2.5 years old.  Such is the life of a second child.  In my defense Fisher has never been enrolled in gymnastics- she has that on him.  

I ordered her leotards from

Amazon and she insisted on wearing them from the second they were delivered until her class three days later, including sleeping and school.  May she never lose her love of organized school and may she lose the desire to wear the same outfit three days in a row.  That might get socially awkward at some point.

Here she is on her first day of swim and gymnastics.