up close and personal

Olivia is off and crawling like a little pro these days. She is one determined nine month too and will set off for what she wants and doesn't let anything get in her way be it a pillow on the floor, a toy or Sofia's leg. She has even tried standing up a few times too! I don't want her walking just yet though, I really want to enjoy these crawling moments with her a bit longer.

the art of seduction

Sparkles

Sofia has discovered glitter or as she calls it "sparkles!" She rubs the glitter off of books, cards, toys, etc. and loves catching her fingers and hands in the light and watching them....sparkle.








Checking on Olivia during her morning nap on the monitor

Time for Sofia to take a bath

rub a dub dub

I apologize for another bath post, but this one is super cute. Not like the other ones weren't, but she's giggling in this one and that sound just makes my heart melt. And you get a nice shot of her rolls too...she is not going to appreciate this when she's older!

bath time

color me happy

Who doesn't love coloring? I mean, it is by far the most relaxing activity and I am so happy that my little girl LOVES to color. There are times when she doesn't want to color and I try to talk her into it because I really want to. I keep a bag of crayons and a coloring book in my diaper bag just for her - works like a charm almost every time I need her to sit still.

Fun in the bouncer

Nonna Lisa and Nonno Nicky bought a bouncer a few months back for Olivia and she loves it. Even now that she's crawling she doesn't mind sitting and bouncing around in there for a little bit. Plenty of little gadgets to entertain her mind and it even plays music too!

sitting pretty

looks who's crawling!

girls, girls, girls

We spent a couple days down in Maryland last week with my family finishing up some things for Chaela's upcoming bridal shower. The shower is this coming weekend and I can not wait - one step closer to my little brother getting married!!!

Naturally, the girls had a great time with the family and ate up all the extra attention.

Olivia is inspecting Nonna's very old living room chair




We went to watch the planes land


Zio Scotty came too!

Story time

I love story time at our house. It's usually right after lunch, before the girls go down for a nap and lasts anywhere from 2 to 8 books. Depends on how tired everyone is. Sometimes we sit on the couch, sometimes on the floor. Most of the time we're in our "red room" (family room on the first floor with one red wall), but we have been known to read a book (or three) in the living room as well.

Sofia is usually seated right next to me and Olivia is in my lap. Now with Olivia crawling I'm sure I'll be on the floor more often so she can sit on the other side of me and crawl around if the mood strikes her. We have a ton of books for the girls already and we get through a ton of them pretty regularly. There was a time when we read the same ones over and over (and over), but now I try to mix it up with ones that are on the bottom of the pile. Sofia has gotten really good at memorizing a handful of them and while it's really cute to hear her reciting the book to me, she loves a new book every once in awhile too.

Growing up, I read A LOT. My mom would tell me to go outside and play and all I wanted to do was read. So, I would make both of us happy by taking my book outside to read. I was getting fresh air AND enriching my mind. Best of both worlds. But I would read just about anything and get so wrapped up in what I was reading that I literally could not put it down until I was finished. I had to know what happened at the end and I couldn't wait.

Now I have to wait. There are meals to be made, laundry to be folded, diapers to change and potty songs to sing. The past year or so, I haven't made the time to read more than childrens' books and the occasional home magazine or cookbook. Yes, I did read the Twilight series (three times), but if you read it then you know why I HAD to incorporate them into my free time. But I feel like I've gotten lazy and it's time for a change. I used to love reading so much and want to get back into it. I'm going to close the laptop, put away the Pottery Barn catalog and pick up a book. A book for me. I make plenty of time for Dr. Seuss, so now I need to make the time for Lisa.

9 months old already?

Yesterday Olivia celebrated her 9 month birthday. We won't have another well-baby visit until her 1st birthday in May but she seems to be growing fine. She loves to eat that's for sure! She's crawling now, not very fast, but she gets where she needs to go. Yesterday she even crawled to the couch where I was seated and tried standing up on her own! What happened to my tiny, little baby?!?

Clapping is a new favorite past-time for Miss Olivia and it's like we have our own cheerleader wherever we go. Great for morale! Some of her favorite things these days are:

bath time - she loves splashing her hands and kicking those little legs
cuddling - especially when she's tired or just having woken up, it's the best!
her mia - Sofia has set quite the example for her little sister
feeding herself - little miss independent tries to grab the spoon from me constantly
Sofia - she will sit and just watch EVERYTHING her big sister is doing

My family

Happy Valentine's Day!

I LOVE my family!

She's on the move!

Olivia has been mastering "the roll" move to get from one spot to another in the house and now it seems she's grown a bit tired of it and is onto crawling. Just last night, in front of Sofia, Anthony and myself she decided she needed to have the remote. It was amazing! She scooched her little self right over and grabbed it all on her own. And just in time for her 9 month birthday!

This morning I was able to get some more crawling on video. She's going to be a pro in no time at all I'm sure. My little crawling lovebug!

Fun with Playdoh

Honestly, the best babysitter for an almost 3-year-old. She has so much fun with playdoh and really doesn't make a huge mess. Keeps her happy and mommy from having to clean too much - doesn't get much better than that!

baby girl

Miss Olivia is going to be 9 months old on Monday - when did that happen?!? She's doing all sorts of fun things these days that keeps all of us entertained. Not crawling yet, but she rolls everywhere sometimes doing two rolls at a time to get to a toy or a book. She claps her hands for just about anything any of us do, which is always a nice self-esteem booster. She likes to wave now too. And it looks like we have another talker on our hands because Olivia LOVES to talk. Well, babble anyway. Dada, mamma, naynay, coli coli, wawa, etc. I can not wait for her to start really talking and keeping up with her big sister.

She also loves to eat. Another true Italian. We're still on baby food and I'm still nursing, but incorporating more of our meals just mashed which she's been ok with so far. I'd have to say that a favorite food is definitely sweet potatoes. And avocado. And definitely bananas too. No teeth yet, but she is drooling all over the place and gnawing on anything she can get her little hands on, so it could be tomorrow or next month that we see a tiny tooth pop through her gums. Just wait until she gets some teeth in and she's really going to enjoy eating.

Olivia is just a sweet little baby. I'm sure every parent says that though. I know I said that about Sofia too. But she absolutely is. Loves to smile, has the most contagious giggle and gives the best baby hugs and kisses. And you can just tell how much she adores Sofia and that alone is the sweetest thing ever.

Yes, it is still snowing

It's been basically 24 hours of continuous snowfall here in the Philadelphia suburbs and that's on top of the almost 2 feet of snow we received this past weekend. When all's said and done at the end of this snowfall, we're right around 4 feet of snow total in just a matter of days.

Now, I realize that to other areas of the country (and world) this may seem like nothing, but it's been a pretty big deal around these parts. Lines at grocery stores were crazy long, everyone raced to the gas station to fill up cars and snow blowers and you probably can't buy a snow shovel in a two-state radius. Or salt for that matter.

Aside from all the uproar it's causing, it is very calming to just sit back and watch it come down. We live in a quiet neighborhood to begin with, but now it's super quiet, almost too much so. But then that silence doesn't last too long. Every once in awhile another neighbor will brave the snow and wind and begin the long process of clearing their cars, their driveways and sidewalk. Children are heard laughing in the background probably building snow forts and shrieking with happiness that there was no school.

Pretty soon the snow will stop falling and everything will melt away. We'll be out and about again, running errands, making plans, going to school and work, sitting in rush-hour traffic. We will probably wish for a few hours of just being able to sit in the house with nothing to do but enjoy your family members, stare out the window, bake and eat and bake and eat some more.

But for now...where did my front walk disappear to?

Baby says Peekaboo!

When Sofia was a younger, she loved the book 'Baby Says Peekaboo!' She loved the book so much that we actually read one copy of it so many times that the flaps were falling out and no amount of tape was helping. So, we bought her another book and again, after a ton of flipping through back and forth, she went through another copy. Well, after that we decided two was enough and to leave it at that.

Before Olivia was born, I saw the book at Marshall's and decided to get it for baby #2 and see if they would enjoy it. Boy does she ever love the book too!

Sometimes she likes to just lie on her back and flip the pages...


and then sometimes she enjoys just gnawing on the pages as well...


but she ALWAYS loves the baby in the mirror at the end of the book!

Almost 9 months old!

Spinach and Mozzarella Quiche

Before:

After:


Ingredients:

- 3 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp to melt and 1 tbsp to coat pie plate
- 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella
- 3/4 cup spinach (fresh or frozen shredded)
- 1 1/2 cup milk
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
- 1 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9 inch pie pan.

2. Line bottom of pie plate with cheese and spinach. Combine milk, eggs, butter, flour, onion, and salt. Whisk together until smooth and pour into pie pan.

3. Bake in oven for 35 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

Note: Such a great simple recipe that you can substitute almost anything - sometimes I use freshly grated parmigiano instead of mozzarella, broccoli rather than spinach and definitely add bacon generously. Bacon is my best friend.

Making the most of a blizzard

Well the Blizzard of 2010 has come and gone. For days now we've been hearing about it and I have to say that I think we made out pretty well. At least 2 feet of snow fell overnight, but with the winds being so rough, some snow drifts around the house are at least 3 feet high. I went outside only a couple of times to take it all in and also take some pictures. And then I ran back inside as fast as my legs would carry me - it was coooold!

Sofia and Anthony were outside a couple of times today to shovel. Well, Anthony shoveled and Sofia played with a shovel if that still counts. She was not interested in coming back inside though because she was having so much fun, but her nose rivaled that of Rudolph's and so it was time to come in and warm up. She is already talking about going back out in the snow tomorrow to play. Our little snow bunny!


Watching Shrek while the snow begins to fall Friday night


Our snow-covered street one hour into the blizzard


Ready for some fun in the snow


Sofia's silly face


"Helping" Anthony shovel all the snow


Watching the snow fall and fall and fall...



Playing with Daddy


Enjoying some quiet time together