David and JP’s Thoroughly Modern (fa)Millie

We left Fair Play on Tuesday to head back to the city.  On the way home, Sophie threw up three times. We knew we were in for something - but weren’t sure what. Turns out, there is some ‘bug’ going around the Bowik house. Though Sophie seemed to be fine after those episodes - Evan and JP both got sick as well. JP also throwing up, and Evan with pretty bad cough and fever.  David worked on Wednesday and came home to the three of them in pretty rough shape. Needless to say, our New Years Eve celebration ….wasn’t.

The picture below shows Evan with his blurry eyes - he basically just sat on my lap and napped all day.

"the baby is unnaturally - green" (Wicked)

It has become a tradition of ours to leave the city and go to Fair Play the day after Christmas. We find it is a good way to leave the craziness of season behind, and to really focus on each other and  our time together. We arrived this year to find just a bit of snow cover. Santa came on Friday night to leave things in the kids stockings, and the weather turned out gorgeous after the snow melted!

"I've got thirty six expressions" (funny girl)

Santa was good to all of us! We had a wonderful day that both Evan and Sophie enjoyed alot. Many highlights, but the play kitchen was one of them!  According to Sophie, all the presents from Santa “tasted” great! We are heading up to Fair Play on Friday morning for a few days of relaxing and to open more presents - apparently Santa has left filled our stockings up there since we have no fireplace in SF!

"Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher" (Billy Elliot)

"toledo surprise" (Drowsey Chaperone)

"let's get this show on the road" (Evita)

"You know Reno, we should have teamed up years ago" (Anything Goes)

"Good morning starshine" (Hair)

"Life is one, sweet, beautiful song to me" (Bye Bye Birdie)

Chistmas Eve is here! A great visit to the Cleary’s house. Evan spent from  7 to 10 pm (way past the latest he has ever been up at night) following the big kids around! He loved it! Dads got home kind of late which meant there was preparing to do to make sure everything was in order for Santa’s visit.

"We can do it" - Producers

We have been anxiously waiting for Sophie to get to the age where she can interact with Evan in a meaningful way and “co-play”. A few mornings  before Christmas we found them playing on the floor togeter. They were both amazingly content - and this went on for about 15 minutes before intervention of any kind was needed!

David is on vacation now until the 31st! Yippee! Saturday was predcited to be the only sunny day between now and after Christmas, so we decided to spend the day outside as much as we could. Playground in the morning, lunch out, and then naps. After naps, it had started to get dark and cold, so we stayed in and played around the  house.Evan’s new word today was his cousins name “Maren”. Very clearly stated when he saw the Cleary Christmas card with the three cousins on it. (Dalton and Kendra got big smiles, but he couldn’t quite seem to make the names come out!)

"Tell me where my desk is, when we eat, how much I'll be paid" (Thouroughly Modern Millie)

"We'll play a game" (Light in the Piazza)

and of course.. Evan had to Play “Airplane” again!

"When you get caught between the moon and..." (Boy from Oz)

A lot of changes recently. It seems like every day at least one of the kids has a major breakthrough! Since this is not only a blog, but also a place for Evan and Sophie to look back on one day, I thought i would take time to talk about some of what’s new. Today was Evan’s 18th month check up - which also reminded that I need to track some of the things that are happening to them both.

Sophie…

Sophie has started to eat, and loves it. Probably more then she enjoys drinking her bottle. She went quickly thought the stage one foods, and is now on stage two. In the picture below, she is enjoying her first cracker. Despite still not having any teeth at 7 1/2 months, she is very happy to chew on a cracker!

Below is another cute picture. Sophie is definitely Daddy JP’s little girl - JP has the patience of a saint - and Sophie has required most of them over the first 7 months. Even as she grows into a sweet, smiley and much quieter little girl - they still have a very special bond and nothing can be better then a little time together. Manicures are already a favorite passtime for both Dad and Sophie.

Evan

Evan is talking up a storm. We haven’t really kept track of words that he says, so I thought I would make note of them her. Now, not all of the below words are said correctly, but he definitely has a word that sounds liket the real thing, and we can tell the difference between them.

Below - kind of in order of when they were learned, and not necessarily a complete list, but those that I can  think of right now…

“Dada, Cat, light, apple, Banana,bottle, bird, bath, lion, plane, pirate, giraffe, no, yes, mama, water, sophie,”

LIGHTS, and anything that flies have been favorites of Evans for long time. He also loves to fly in the air, which is why I am posting the picture below.

Tuesday was also Nanna and Papi’s last day in SF. They left Wednesday morning for visits to CT, FL, PA and OH. We’ll miss them alot, but before they left - Evan got to open up his first Christmas presents of the year. (and Sophie’s too)

Tuesday was another off for the daddies, so Nana and Pappi joined us in a great trip to the amazing new Academy of Sciences museum. We were amazed at the number of things that  were there for a child Evan’s age. He loved every moment and we are looking forward to returning soon.