Saturday, December 25, 2010

Christmas Time!

Grandma & Grandpa D came into the city to celebrate Christmas Eve with us
We had a great night- headed up to a children's service at Trinity Church and then back
to our apt. for a Lasagna dinner (my first!) 
Grandpa gives J the good stuff- the chocolate cake! 

"I'm going to get those presents!" J on the hunt Christmas morning! 
The mess! 
Trying some of her newest items 

Our annual Christmas morning walk down at the pie
Snug as a bug! 






Christmas Day at Mima and Pop-pop's 
Logan trying out some of her new puzzles

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Donlan Christmas


We had a great day all together at Grandma & Grandpa's celebrating Christmas. Steph & Chris were able to come down from VT and brought their new dog Harvie and it was also our first time meeting Caleb!





J try's out her new drum set from Aunt Steph!



"I know that book!" J is quite eager to have someone new read to her

The Donlan clan!








Grandma with her two grandkids!






























Thursday, December 16, 2010

It's Santa Time!

A bunch of Mama's and I headed up to Macy's to bear the crowds and see the Big guy. Even though the lines were long, our kids were so mystifed and amused with all the Elves and moving animals, it turned out to be a great day!
Ahh, the classic Santa pose!

J doing her self appointed job- checking out the letters the kids sent in. She did so by tasting each and every ribbon and envelope.. yummm!

"Look mom, a moving penguin, maybe he knows the way to Santa!"


Much more interested in the moving bears then anything Mom could be doing!







Would I rather..

play with presents that are all done up with bows and ribbons, or play with and read my books.... when J was given this choice, from the picture above, you can see, she choose her books.
The presents sat there, gleaming at her, looking all fun and shiny, but nope, her books won out.

This girl maybe reading Hemingway by the time she's 10 :)

Monday, December 13, 2010

12.5 mos

The changes and advances that Jocelyn has made over the past few weeks has been incredible to watch. It seems that with each week, she is discovering more and gaining skills.

Movement: J is now creeping and walking while holding on with just one hand. Her confidence builds with each day, and even though she can stand on her own, she doesn't always believe she can. If she becomes distracted while standing up, she will actually do it longer then if she realizes what she is doing. Since J began to crawl, things have been different as well, especially for Burton and his food bowl! She is still not a huge fan of crawling, and would much rather be holding onto your finger and walking, she'll do it out of necessity. It's quite cute now though, so suddenly see her face peering at you from around the corner.

Skills: J has learned to clap and loves doing it along to music, as well as clapping for herself if she feels she accomplished something. Music is a favorite of hers, and it's especially cute to watch her clap "along" with the music.

Talking: Mama, Baba, Dada, Burt are still her basics, but really the child never stops talking. As Grandpa O'Haire put it, "she has two volumes, off and VERY loud". Whether it's talking to herself, her stuffed animals, Burton, or just feeling the need to complain, she likes to voice her opinions. I watched her walk around in her walker the other day for a full 10 minutes, complaining the entire time. It was quite amusing!

Sleep: Her naps have shortened a bit, and I'm not sure if it's b/c she's concentrating on walking, or if she's gearing up to drop one. They each last exactly 1 hour (not a min more or less... can we say an exact child?!). At night, she still does 12-12.5 hours though, which is quite lovely!

Food: J enjoys eating, and is quite experimental when it comes to trying different flavors and spice levels. There aren't to many things she won't at least try, although it often takes about 3-4 times of introducing a new item to get her to swallow it (it goes in, comes back out, she examines it, it goes back in, back out, look at it again, and then maybe, it goes back in for a final swallow).
J has also gotten into the habit of deep conditioning her hair while eating- aka, wiping her hands through her nice clean hair. Mommy especially loves this and is always excited for some extra green bean goo in the hair.

Playing: There are plenty of toys around for J to play with, but what keeps her entertained the longest is definitely her baskets of books. We can plop her down with the basket and she'll spend a good 20 minutes pulling out all the books, opening them, looking through them and "reading". Her favorite books right now are her Dog book (with movable parts as well a touchable hair) and "The Big Hungry Bear and the Red Ripe Strawberry". Each of these is read at least 3-4 times when either Chris or I sit down with her.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Who's pushing who?

We celebrated Mysh's birthday this past weekend at her house, and of course, the girls had a great time together. Logan brought out her baby stroller and they each took turns pushing the other around.

J still isn't fully steady on her feet, but she did great job while pushing Logan!


Logan was very careful when pushing J, although she still looks frightened for her life!


Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Introducing Caleb John Kromer

We welcome Caleb John Kromer into the world!
Born Dec 7th 6lbs 10oz 

J is checking out her new cuz 

So far, he's a really good sleeper!
\Who wouldn't be all cozy and snugly

Caleb has a chance to check out his Uncle B 

The Kromer Family 

Introducing Caleb John Kromer

We welcomed Caleb John Kromer into the world on December 7th. He was born 6lbs 10oz's and was a healthy baby boy!
Little Peanut is a very good sleeper!


Caleb is checking out Uncle B

The happy Kromer Family!

Monday, December 6, 2010

crawling!


It took 1 year and 1 week, but Jocelyn finally decided it was time to crawl. The progression happened over a week, but by the end of her 53rd week, she was crawling across the carpet. She still needs to be motivated to flip over onto her hands and knees (aka, you better have something good!) but with each day, she is crawling with more ease. The things that motivate her the most are; Burton's bones, her binky, keys, and anything that is not a toy and should not be in her mouth (therefore, that's exactly where she wants it!)

Sunday, December 5, 2010

A little R&R with G&G

We headed out to PA in anticipation of Baby K's arrival, but since he decided to stay comfortably inside for a few more days, we had a nice relaxing w/e with G&G. J loves all the attention, and Chris and I love all the relaxation and time to ourselves we get!

Helping to decorate their Christmas tree

We went over to Bethlehem to ChrisKindlemart, a great Christmas market. J sat on Santa's lap for the first time, and did fairly well considering he's really just a scary strange man with a huge white beard!

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Thanksgiving at Nana & Grandpa's

After a whirlwind Thanksgiving day, full of Parades, Turkey and Football games (Chris and I went to the Jet's game that night), we headed down to NJ for a relaxing weekend with Nana and Grandpa.

The girls are slowly beginning to interact with each other. Right now, that means sometimes reading a book together
Logan decorating Gingerbread Men with Nana. She took her job very seriously, especially the part that included eating the candies!
Our little Indian!


Thursday, November 25, 2010

Thanksgiving Day Parade!

Our Thanksgiving morning had an early start, as we headed over to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with Mima, Aunt Mysh and Cousin Logan. We had an amazing time and found a great spot right along Central Park West inside the park on 66th street. Some fan favorites were Kermit ( a Donlan tradition- Chris and I have our picture in front of this balloon at our first parade together), Micky Mouse (Logan's mouth dropped open when she saw him- adorable!), Sponge Bob (another fav't for Logan) and Jocelyn had her finger pointing in all sorts of directions. J wasn't to picky - she kept on gasping, ooohing and making all sorts of other excited noises for almost all of the balloons.

The girls lasted almost all the way through, but at last even the enormous balloons couldn't hold their attention any longer. Logan just kept on uttering "home, home, home" as she climbed into the stroller.

Chris and I decided this was our favorite part of the weekend and we will absolutely do it again next year.
KERMIT!! Chris and I (along with the two strollers!) made a run for it, and got to the parade just in time to see him pass


We found a perfect spot for Logan up on the wall along the edge of the park. She could see all the balloons and floats this way, but unfortunately, we couldn't' see her reactions!
MICKEY! She gave a great gasp as he came into view

J had her finger pointing in all sorts of directions. Everything was fascinating to her



Bundled up for the cold!


A happy family!


Love that you can both girls plus Shrek


The DeBruyne clan







Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Balloon Blow-up

The night before Thanksgiving, we headed up to the UWS to see the Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons being blown up. It's something we've always heard about, and now that we have J, felt it was something we should absolutely do!

We headed up around 5:30pm (it started at 3) and as we were exiting the subway station at 81st street, we could feel the excitement in the air! We walked over to Columbus Ave and were then directed via road blocks and the herds of people, towards the Museum of Natural History. It took us about 45minutes of walking with the herds to actually get towards the balloons, but the crowd was great. Almost everyone there had their children with them, so there wasn't any pushing or angry people. It seemed most people just accepted it was going to be crowded and we'd get up there eventually.


Once we reached the balloons, it was pretty cool. They were in the midst of blowing some up, and others were already blown up and being held down via netting. J was awesome and just really enjoyed watching the crowd and the other kids. She did want to get down and walk, but was easily distracted.


We enjoyed the experience, but decided we'd prob. wait until J was much older to do it again (maybe around 8 or so).

Macy's Thanksgiving Balloon Blow-up!




Hello Kitty Balloon under the netting after being blown up.


J had no problem finding things to interest her... the crowds, the kids, the balloons... it was all very fascinating!


The crowd as it wrapped around the museum and headed to the other side.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Jocelyn Turns 1!

Breakfast Muffin celebration!
She dove right into it!


We spent the day walking around Battery Park and just enjoying some family time

I can't believe my peanut is 1!
It seems unbelievable that 1 year ago today, our lives forever changed. This little peanut came into our lives and over the past 12 months has given us so much joy and laughter, I'm not sure where we'd be without her!