Language Development

As most kids do their parents, Jocelyn continues to amaze us.   Some note ables:
- The girls LOVES to sing.  She sings herself to sleep each night, she sings to her "friends" (pooh, minnie, etc), she sings as she colors... life is a constant song to Jocelyn, and it couldn't be cuter.  Also to note, she's on tune too. Who knows, maybe the opera is in her future!

- Obsessed with birthdays right now.  We make at least a card a week for someone, and there is much talk about sprinkles and cupcakes.  She loves to belt out Happy Birthday, and again, knows all the words and keeps the tune.

- As I previously mentioned, we've begun to converse.  It still blows my mind when we have a back and forth conversation.

- Loves the moon, and likes to look for it each night.  Unfortunately, it doesn't often show itself here in the big apple, but it's always exciting when it does!

- Jocelyn is moving herself along with potty training.  She successfully goes on the potty about once a day, although Mommy isn't really sure what to do from here.  With Deuce coming along, I'm not to keen on pushing her forward to only have her fall back when he comes.  For now, she's happy with an M&M each time she goes, or a try prize for an unsuccessful attempt.

- She's been waking up a bit earlier in the mornings (anywhere from 6:15-7am) which isn't so great, but the funny part is her little demanding voice calling out for "Mommy, where are you?' or "Beck, come and get me".  That's her newest thing- calling me by my first name "Beck, Becca, Becky..... where are you?!"

First snow of the winter

 We were fortunate that we had a weekend trip planned to PA when the first snowstorm of the winter came.  PA got about 6-8 inches, which made for some fun sled riding!  The weekend also gave us some time to visit with new baby Emmie, Lance and Ashley's new little one.

Over at the Kleins house, playing in the snow with Dylan 4yrs and  Garreth 6yrs. 

The boys were super sweet to Jocelyn and they had a really good time playing together. 

Emmie Klein- 4 weeks 

First ride out on the new sled from Grandpa and Nana! 

Although Burton can't stand water, he loves snow! 

Happy Family! 

Mush Daddy, Mush! 

After a long day of sled riding, nothing like making cookies with Yaya! 

Brooklyn Children's Museum

 Out of the 3 Children's museums we've visited in the NYC area, the Brooklyn Children's Museum has to be our favorite.  Fairly easy to get to (we drove, took 10mins), on street parking and Jocelyn had a great time! It looks like a giant yellow banana from the outside and inside is filled with tunnels and different rooms for the kids to explore.

Chinese New Year is right around the corner, so they had a whole exhibit about it.  Chris was pretty pumped when he realized that both he and Deuce will share a chinese sign- both Dragons.  Jocelyn is a Dragon, I'm a Sheep.  

Jocelyn getting ready for the Dragon parade! 

Exploring some of the water exhibits they have.  

Amazing

What is amazing me today, is that I'm having full fledged conversations with my daughter now.  We no longer converse in yes or no sentences, but rather discuss topics.  The one that made me write this was her saying
 "I can't go pee",
 "Sometimes it's hard.  Keep trying."
 "I'm jumping Mommy, want to pee."
(this is all in attempt to get an M&M, a prize for going on the potty.)

The other day, when my mom was in, she told her that the toy was "probably in the toy chest."  Incredible how quickly language development happens!

In the Hood

Grabbing some Joe at Jack's Coffee shop 

Checking out "our bridge" down at the new pier off of the South Street Seaport 

Loving the grass on top of the new pier 

Our building, nestled into the local skyscrapers 

One of Jocelyn's fav't activities is to go and watch the ferry boats down by the water 

Mommy / Jocelyn Adventure Days

 I decided to use Tuesdays to explore all that city has to offer with Jocelyn.  We started off our weekly adventures at the Children's Museum of Manhattan.  Nice museum up on W.83rd street with lots for the kids to explore.  J is going through a bit of a weird period where all she wants to do is be home (although when we're home, she wants to go out), so I had to do some convincing that this really was fun for her, but she did 'you have fun Mommy (you's are I's in her world right now.)"

Watch out Hell's Angels, this little chick is coming through! 

Down at the Pier

No better way to end a run then to have a hug from your daughter

Lazy Saturdays

Nothing beats a random warm Saturday in January.  Having a great time hanging out on our balcony blowing bubbles and having fun.  

Pooh's Birthday

When we woke up on Wednesday, we had no idea what a big day it was- for it was Pooh's birthday! Not sure how we forgot, but Jocelyn was quick to remind us!

The first thing she said to Chris as he got her up was "It's Pooh's birthday", and proceeded to sing a fabulous rendition of 'Happy Birthday'.  All morning, we were reminded it was Pooh's birthday, so by lunch, it was obvious we needed to make cookies and celebrate.  Thank goodness Jocelyn was kind enough to help him eat his celebratory cookies.  

It's a boy!

 Little Deuce Donlan is officially a boy!  Mommy had a feeling.  I had 2 sonogram dreams, with the last one being very vivid.  I was looking at a 4-D sonogram (and could actually hold and touch it) and it was a little boy in my arms.  He had very dark, tightly curled hair and was nice and chunky.  Didn't realize I had this dream until the following afternoon and was slightly shocked to remember it!

J came with us to the Sonogram so she had a chance to see the baby as well.  Although the image was a bit different from what I can only image "seeing the baby" meant to her, she was quite fascinated by the pictures.

We are all thrilled by the news and have already begun to tell Jocelyn about her new little brother that is on the way!

19 weeks- 10 ozs 

close up of his profile 

That's a wrap!

Ok.  So Beck has been adding pictures, descriptions, and commentary for the past 2 years.  She's finally had enough with my lack of participation and requested that I write this years summary... so here goes:

One of the greatest things that I enjoy about this Blog is being able to look back and to see how much has happened to our family in a short 12 Months!  Everyone says that life is short, and that time flies...  Just take a few clicks back and you'll see that it really is short, and it absolutely flies!!!  This time last year Jocelyn wasn't even walking yet, and now the girl is running around like a loon chasing Seagulls with Logan.  Heck she was even cruising on a tractor with Caleb during Christmas weekend in Pennsylvania.  Besides running she talks up a storm!  Her vocabulary is endless and it seems to expand weekly if not daily, and boy does the girl like to sing!!!  Happy Birthday, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Where is Thumbkin, ABC, Itsy Bitsy Spider... the list goes on.  She becomes more and more independent each day, "No Jocelyn do it.", "Jocelyn get a spoon.", "Jocelyn feed Burt." (Yes she speaks about herself in the 3rd person... we're working on it.).  She also responds to most question like "Did you see a Polar Bear at the Zoo?" with "I do."  No we are not letting her watch hours and hours of Say Yes to the Dress!  She is also a tremendous helper.  She loves to help anyone in the kitchen... She'll get items out of the fridge if needed, hand you a pot, get you a spoon... she'll even offer to have you pick her up, and she'll help you stir the sauce or flip the eggs.  It's always nice to have an extra pair of hands in an extremely SMALL kitchen!  Recently Beck found J in her room with the Fab 4 (that would be Winnie the Pooh, Goofy, Minnie, and Transgender Mickey for anyone who is new to the program.  Yes, Mickey is actually a Minnie, but in her Christmas outfit its tough to tell, so it fills in for Mickey most of the time, but she does change it back to Minnie from time to time...  Yup!), she was placing the crew into their appropriate diapers and off course giving them diaper cream where needed...  She's going to be a great Big Sister!

Which I guess is some of the biggest news that we've had this year.  The blog started when Jocelyn came into the picture, so it's probably fitting that I'm writing for the first time since a new baby is pending arrival, Ha!  Code Name: Deuce Donlan:  At the time of writing this post we are T-3 Days from finding out if Deuce is a He or She...  It's very exciting!  The first post for 2012 will probably be "It's A ____!"  Our family is expanding.  Life will change again.  Time will probably start to go even faster!  We can't wait to see how our family will change with Deuce's arrival.  Burton will be squished between 2 car seats, but I'm sure Jocelyn will teach Deuce that it's only write to offer Burton your snack cup for his compensation; Jocelyn will finally have someone she can tutor and share all of her years of knowledge and experience; Beck and I will probably pull our hair out, cry, but mostly laugh and smile so widely that our faces will hurt (we should probably get a bigger memory card for the camera!).

2011 was an amazing year, and 2012 seems to be shaping up to be another action packed extravaganza!  Already on the calendar is Donlan Disney Vacation in March (Jocelyn finally gets to meet Mickey.  I think she's going to tackle him in the middle of Main Street Disney.  Beck thinks she'll try and pack him up in her suitcase.  We are both pretty positive that Yaya and Poppa will max out their credit buying every stuffed character for her and Caleb, and that we better pack an empty suitcase!).  There is also the pending arrival of a new cousin (Michael Wilinski and Michele), and Vicki and Steve's wedding in July!  The most important of all will be May 28th...!  Will there be enough Megabytes on the Web for all updates???  You'll just have to come back and see!

Thank you 2011, and Hello 2012!!!  

Christmas Cards