Our 10th Anniversary!

Are those wrinkles I see on those smiling faces???


It started snowing so we felt inspired to snap a few of the courtyard.

Ja and I celebrated our 10th on Thursday. We had the entire day and evening to ourselves (our good friend Amy watched Vin for us). We renewed our vows in the morning with a very casual but meaningful ceremony with our pastor. Then it was off to the art museum - how nice to really savor the pieces without having to attend to the child. After dinner we caught a movie and then went to a local cigar pub to enjoy a cigar and a drink. It truly was the perfect day! Our day of romance however, ended with the worst migraine attack I've had to date. It started shortly after we got home and lasted through Saturday. Fortunately, Jason stayed home from work on Friday to take care of Vin and helped me however he could. I just can't imagine how I would have done it without him. Now that's love!

Lord of the Rings: Sweded! Part 2 of 2

PART 2!!!

Lord of the Rings: Sweded! Part 1 of 2

This is a spoof on Lord of the Rings. Autumn's husband co-wrote it and played Gandalf and Aragon. Enjoy! Part 2 to be posted shortly.

Trip to the Zoo

I just had to share these pictures. On Monday we went to the zoo with Amy and her little boy Isaac. It was so nice to get out and enjoy the warm weather!

As you can see in the pictures one of the sea lions was showing off for the boys. He came right up to the glass and started blowing bubbles. It was so cute!

11 Months!

Vin turned 11 months yesterday! Everyday it seems he is leaving behind some of his babyness and moving towards into toddlerhood or woddlerhood (depends on which cheesy parent term you want to use). Here's some updates on the little dude:

- Now completely weaned from breast milk!

- Done with bottles and pacis. Both have been packed away. Has mastered drinking out of his sippy cup but will only drink out of it if it contains milk. He drinks water out of a regular cup which can be messy at times.

-Started mimicking our inflections when "talking" to us. Says "hi". Sometimes he says it well and other times it's just a grunt in response to us saying "hi".

-Has begun signing for "more" during play times or when getting tickles.

-Waves hello and goodbye when he feels like it. In the mall on Monday he was waving at passersby and saying "hi" at the same time. Something I can't get him to do at home.

-Has also begun pointing at people which is kind of embarrassing. Especially, when the person doesn't like babies and he thrusts his little chubby fingers in their face.

-It seems we have left the tantrums and high pitched screams of protest behind for a bit. I'm sure they will come back around. Looking forward to their re-emergence.

-Yes, we are still cloth diapering and I have to say I don't see any signs of us giving it up. We just battled some severe diaper rash issues (our first real issue with diaper rash). Turns out our diapers had a detergent buildup and we are now back on track. In fact, yesterday I even made my own cloth diaper insert. The transformation to domestic housewife is complete.

-Just wrapped up his fourth ear infection and second respiratory sickness. We are still on asthma alert since it seems every time he gets a cold it ends up causing moderate to serious breathing difficulties. In fact, new years eve we were in the doctors office for quite awhile getting a breathing treatment and a steroid shot since his air passageways were pretty constricted. We didn't see much improvement until the steroid shot. About 20 min after the shot he was like a different baby. Poor guy.

-Mobility: Well, Vin still isn't crawling, able to get into a sitting position on his own, or cruising on furniture. About a month ago his pediatrician recommended we contact the Alliance for Infants and Toddlers to have him evaluated for possible muscle tone issues. We had our first assessment in early December and just had his full blown assessment on 1/4. The full blown assessment was 2 1/2 hours and involved a physical therapist, a developmentalist, and case worker from the Alliance. I won't get into the technical details but they did find muscle tone and joint flexibility issues. Basically, these two things combined are making it extremely difficult for Vin to do the things he should be able to do at this age. And without intervention it would have been a very long time before he crawled. Even with intervention he probably won't be able to crawl for another few months and walking will probably be delayed as well. Sigh.

The good news is that his gross motor skills are delayed enough that he does qualify for Early Intervention Services. So we will begin aggressive physical therapy. He qualifies for physical therapy for at least a year and at that point they will reassess where he is to see if he's fully caught up. Of course, Ja and I were curious as to the cause of the issues and at this point the PT believes it's just something he was born with. However, if he does not respond to the physical therapy than other causes will be explored.

Amazingly, we've begun to see a fire emerge in Vin. Before he would just give up when he tried to do something he couldn't. Now he presses on and even though he gets frustrated. I think he fell on his face three times yesterday but he just kept trying. We are so excited that we will now be able to better help him in his efforts and can't wait to see him start to experience some feeling of success. Push on little guy! Push on! This brings to mind a lyric from Jason's favorite band, Stavesacre: "Pushing on, stronger everyday. Leaning into the wind that used to carry me." Hmmm...I just don't know why that band broke up. (Sorry for the Stavesacre jab, baby. they used to be good band)

Museum Day

We went to the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History today. Vin enjoyed pointing to everything that caught his eye which was a LOT of things. He just started pointing a week or so ago and now he can tell us what's piquing his interest. Here are a couple of pointing action shots and other museum moments. We bought a annual membership which gives us free entrance to all four Carnegie Museums. Hey, I have to do something to keep myself busy now that I gave up my part-time job.

Play Date!

Yes, I started doing play dates with some of the moms from our Gymboree classes. Yes, I who always made fun of play dates as being a cliche suburban mom activity, have embraced play dates as a great way to get to know other moms and to have the kiddos socialize. Vin was the only boy but he didn't seem to mind.

Christmas Pics!

Our computer died (the hard drive went) so after much $$ and work we are now back online. Here are lots of pictures from our trip to NJ for our annual Pollyanna Christmas party.

Rin meet Vin! Hahahhaha. Okay, I'm tired and silly. Sorry for the bad rhyme there. Anyway, we finally got to meet Rin who is Rhianna's (my cousin on my Dad's side) new little girl! We only had a few minutes with her but she was adorable!

12/23 We had breakfast with Autumn, Michael and little Ms. Ada. They were in town visiting Autumn's folks for the holiday. I'm so glad we got to see them if only for a brief time.

Vin and Ada - I love the look on Ada's face in this picture. As you can see she is making Vin blush from the attention.

Mamas and their babes

Dads and their kiddos (note: they did NOT want to pose for this picture)

Autumn and Vin

Ja and Ada

I love this pic - Ada was "talking" to Vin. Vin was very confused.

Distracted kids

Becoming a little ham!

POLLYANNA PARTY 2007!!

Jason played Santa for our family Christmas party this year.

Brooke liked him...

Matthew liked him...

Vin did not

Jason Playing Santa

I just love my husband. He played a great Santa at our family Christmast party this year.

AIG Laughing Baby Bust-a-Gut Commercial

Okay, because it's an AIG (Jason's company) commercial and because it's adorable I had to share.

Another Pittsburgh Day...

Yes, another cloudy day in Pittsburgh. This like our 20th in a row (at least it feels like it). This is pretty much how it will be until Spring. I did some interesting fact checking and here is the low down on stupid cloudy days in Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh Weather History: Average annual cloudy days in Pittsburgh: 306.

For fun here are cloudy day stats for some of the cities you blogger fans live in:

Average cloudy days in Seattle, WA: 294
Average cloudy days in Philadelphia: 272
Average cloudy days in Wake Forest, NC: 255
Average cloudy days in LA: 219
Average cloudy days in Savannah: 262
Avearge cloudy days in Daytonna: 268
Average cloudy days in Boston: 267

Yeah, we are the winners here in Pittsburgh for the most cloudy days. Just thought I would make you feel better if you are waking up in a city other than this one. And for our Pittsburgh blogger fans - Hang on spring is coming. Eventually.

Where's the Moon? (book: Goodnight Gorilla)

Okay, so this is cool. I just got this book from the library yesterday and Vin started pointing at all the different things in the picture. He would point and I would say what it is. Then I realized he was starting to remember the word connected to the picture. He doesn't know them all but he does know "moon". His little eyes scan the page until he finds it. So much fun! He's starting to understand!!!

The Winter Has Come Early In Pittsburgh

yuck! wait who am i kidding i love the snow. what i don't like is snow in april.

Mother of the Year

Yesterday was a banner day (if I was being cruel I would say it was a Britney Spear's day but I'm pulling for her so I'll leave that out). I locked my keys and Vin in the car in the garage of our apartment building. Then last night during his bath Vin lunged forward to grab at the silver stopper and fell face first in the bath water.

He handled both like a champ. Fortunately, I had a spare key for the car in the apartment and management had a spare key for the apartment so Vin was only locked in the car for 15 minutes. When I came back with the key he was in his car seat playing. Once he saw me though he gave me a good fuss and then was over it. As for the bath incident. I quickly grabbed him out of the water, he spit out water and then struggled to get back down into the bath. And what is the first thing he did? Yep, tried to lunge forward again, but this time I caught him.

So after this traumatizing day I decided to work on his moving independently skills. Warning this video is 1 minute long and not packed with action. I will spare you the "I Try" song this time but it will make a re-emergence in future videos.

Army Crawl