Family walk

On President's Day, we had a wonderful, event-free family day, which included some photo sessions (Agnieszka dug out her old DSLR) and a nice walk to the kids' future Elementary school. Everyone enjoyed the sun.

January catch-up

As a year with a newborn has gone by in a whirlwind, Daniel and Agnieszka have also noticed the many changes Auggie has gone through. Over the last few months, he has started to remember most of the words to songs.  His favorite songs are now from the Frozen soundtrack ("all of them"), but he also still loves some sing along favorites like "It's Raining Tacos", "Peanut Butter and Jelly" and "Dirt Made My Lunch".  Agnieszka plays Fred Small's "Everything Possible" in the car in the evening as part of a lullaby mix and he has almost all of these words memorized as well. 

Auggie continues to love to do crafts - whether it's painting, putting together kits, or drawing pictures. He can also quickly enter his imagination, playing pretend games with his Super Wings "transformer" characters (lately, someone always "becomes dead") and can play happily by himself for hours.  He has suddenly become great at doing Legos, including reading the directions by himself.  As we enter this world, Agnieszka and Daniel are trying to figure out the best way to sort all those little pieces. 

January has been a fun month so far. 

Agnieszka got to take both Auggie and Maya to their friend Colin's birthday party at a pottery painting studio.  The two munchkins were adorable in the back seat together and were thrilled to get to sing along to the Frozen soundtrack together:

The movie below won't play, but see how all the adorable kids sponatenously came up to Colin and gave him a hug after he blew out the candles? Yes. That was all them. No adult suggested it.  It may have been giddiness for the upcoming cake, but Colin is pretty adorable and huggable, so it may just have been pure affection:

This month Auggie got another haircut. The "boy band" bangs were starting to get into his eyes and he decided to stop pursuing his quest for long hair. Agnieszka kind of misses the "rocker" look, but he seems quite happy with his new hair (and the lollipop). 

A sneak peek into Auggie's Cedar classroom. On this day, his classmate Auggie O (yes, there are 3 of them in the school, so last initials are needed), was having a birthday celebration and his dad is showing them their family history and geography.

Blurry picture, but this is pretty much how Agnieszka gets greeted every morning.

Auggie checking out a local ball pit and kids play area.

One of the real fun things that happened this month is that Ella and Auggie started taking baths together.  Auggie has to be careful around her and can't be too rowdy around her, but he always prefers to take a bath with her.

Ella has started sleeping better this month. She's often sleeping through the night and usually has no problems falling asleep for her morning nap. Sometimes, she even catches a snooze on Agnieszka's shoulder in the afternoon:

All the kids have started playing together. Alex is a trustworthy and considerate caregiver for Ella. She watches her carefully, anticipates her needs, but allows her to be independent.  It's pretty impressive.  Evan is adorably affectionate with Ella.  We can tell that he can't wait until she's a little older and able to play with him. On "Burrito Night", Agnieszka and Daniel left Ella happily playing with all the kids in a separate room. Given her quite mobile phase, here are all three kids guarding every door and stair to make sure she remains safe while exploring Alex and Evan's house.

Ella had her first dentist appointment this year.  She did not like it. She also did not like the doctor's appointment and shots that preceeded the dentist.  Overall, it was quite a traumatic morning.  Auggie was a pro a the dentist, though the vibrating tooth polisher is still not a favorite.  He did get to watch nearly half of Frozen, so overall, it was a win for him.

More pictures of adorable munchkins. Here's Auggie and Maya at a local park, taking a breather from a very active playdate.

Final photo of cuteness is Ella feeding Auggie. He thinks it's hilarious and she is very proud of herself being such a good helper. 

Ella's birthday parties...

On Saturday, the 19th, we went to Babcia and Dziadek's house to celebrate three birthdays: Ella's, Daniel's and Katy's.  The kids played well together and somehow we didn't get any pictures!

The next day, we had a kid-oriented party at our house.  It was planned a little last minute...and it was raining, but it turned out very well.  Because of the rain (and a house full of cooped up kids), we decided to see if we could fit the neighborhood bouncy house in the downstairs room... and it fit!  It was a little chaotic -especially after the dance music started playing - but the kids all slept well that night.  Upstairs, there were crafts for kids, from rock painting to assembling little owls.  Auggie made sure to try out all the crafts before the party started.

Ella was initially quite overwhelmed by the crowd, but eventually relaxed. Her big cousin Alex did a wonderful time letting her play and explore on her own, while watching over her carefully.

As usual, we had plenty of cake left over. Clara helped her blow out her candles.