Nicholas starting to talk

Nicholas is starting to talk; he now has a vocabulary of 7-8 words: "cookie", "sock", "hi", "daddy", "juice", "choo choo", "touchdown" (complete with the international sign for a touchdown), and when we ask him was a little tiger says, he'll say "roar" (sort of). Here's a video of him talking; there's more new pictures and videos on the kids page.

Sarah had her investiture ceremony for Brownies; of course, being the troop leader's daughter, she'd earned the most patches over the summer and so far this fall. She's doing great in school so far this year; we had our first parent/teacher conference, and found out (no surprise) that she's above average in reading. Nicholas is headed that way as well; he loves to have books read to him. He also loves the alphabet puzzle. He will tip it over, and then hold up each letter until we say what letter it is. He will try to repeat it, and then knows exactly where each letter goes. His fine motor skill isn't all there yet, so we sometimes have to help him position each letter correctly. He'll go through all 26 letters, and then tip over the puzzle and start again.

The weather's turned cold and dry, so the kids have caught some colds. Nicholas was home on Thu and Fri and has bronchitis. Sarah was home on Friday and has the sniffles and a cough. David's coming down with something as well, and has spent most of the day in bed.

Election 2008

We had an election party at our house on Tue Nov 4th. All of our friends and us managed to eat most of five pizzas, 30 wings, shrimp, spanakopita, veggies, cheese/crackers/chips/cookies, etc. A few beers (or more) might also have been consumed. Sarah helped us keep track of the electoral votes on her dry erase board. We waited until just past 11pm for the networks to declare a winner - and they we broke into the Sweet Sweet Victory Pie (and some champagne). David stayed up really late watching the speeches and coverage (and to wait for the room to stop spinning), and took off part of the following morning to rest up and start cleaning the house.

Halloween 2008

For Halloween this year, Sarah dressed as an angel (complete with white dress and halo), and Nicholas dressed as a devil (with red shirt and pants, a New Jersey Devils bib, and red horns). The kids first went trick-or-treating with our friends in their neighborhood; there seem to be more houses with candy and kids out over there. After hauling in loads of candy, the kids said hello to Grandma who stopped at the house on the way to Ocean Pines, and then we went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Several times, we were asked if Sarah acts like an angel and Nicholas acts like a (little) devil. The answer is yes - unless the roles are reversed. Pictures from October are up on the kids picture page.