february 20th - picnic indoors when it's -12 degrees

We spent the majority of the day indoors today, since you can get frostbite within 30 minutes outside. The kids had a picnic together and got some snuggle time with Mommy.  Gemma is loving reading books and Alex is starting to read books to himself....mostly from memory, but still impressive.

february 19th - breakfast helpers

Alex is always a big helper when it comes to preparing breakfast, and now Gemma wants in on the action.  She loves to sit up on the counter like her big brother...even more when she gets to stuff strawberries in her face.

february 18th - the importance of preventive care

Our baby Gemma is now brushing her teeth like a real human.  She has a pretty good mouthful of teeth at this point, so getting in there and cleaning house a couple times a day is mandatory.  Luckily, she seems to enjoy it...

february 17th - snow day

We finally got hit with some snow that was a bit substantial...after all this talk of the blizzards impacting the northeast that keep missing Philly.  The kids were really happy to have a snow day with Mommy and Daddy both home.  We built a snowman (kind of a snow pile with a face), went for a ride on the sled, and drank hot chocolate.  Even Mommy got a chance to get on the sled, per Alex's request.  Gemma was so adorable...finally got to rock her snow suit.

february 16th - walking with style and grace

Gemma is now on full speed with her walking...likely due to the lower center of gravity brought on by bell bottoms.  She wants to walk everywhere now, so it is a lot of fun watching her get around.

february 15th - tiny dancers

Gemma got a sweet pair of new glasses today and she absolutely LOVES them.  She was putting them on all by herself and did not stop grinning.  Alex got a turn to try them on too.

february 14th - the circus

The Dreby clan had a slumber party at our house so we could wake up and go to the circus.  First time for Alex and Gemma (and Mommy) and they really enjoyed it.  Alex loved the animals and Gemma loved the dancers in the air.  By the end of it, they were both a little tired and ready for naps....Gemma didn't wait.

We had a nice dinner at home...Gemma got roses from Daddy....and the kids rolled around the living room after being inspired by acrobats.  Gemma's new favorite thing.  She puts her hands up and her head down and wants to roll all night long.

february 13th - lady in red...who walks

Baby Gemma was rocking her red skirt today in anticipation of Valentine's Day weekend.  She WALKED this week for the first time.  After many months of considering letting go, she finally did and has been walking non-stop.  She still uses her crawling skills for speed, but is officially upright.

february 12th - the crafts continue

Alex made a Valentine's Day present for Jackie tonight.  He personally picked out the color and hand painted it...was so proud to give it to her the next morning.

february 11th - who needs hallmark?

Jackie helped the kids make their Valentine's Day crafts to send to all of their grandmothers.  Alex also made a card for Lucy and a big poster for Mommy.  Gemma personally stamped all of the cards with a heart-shaped stencil.  The two of them were particularly proud of their lady bug headbands...posing voluntarily for pictures.

february 10th - bows...but not for long

Gemma's hair is officially long enough to get a bow in it....a little less constricting than her headbands, but she eventually realizes it is in there and rips it out.

february 9th - watch and learn

Gemma was analyzing Alex's technique with the intention to replicate, however, her legs are still a little too short to make it onto the bed from the stool.  She tries to pull herself up by grabbing the sheets and screaming and pulling with all of her strength.

february 8th - happy birthday great grandmom jordy

Grandmom Jordy turned 86 today and we went to a lunch in her honor with the family.  Alex and Ryleigh were playing non-stop and absolutely had to sit next to each other.  Notice in the picture, the little blonde boy sitting right near the cake and patiently waiting for a piece.  The whole family took turns alternating and taking pictures with grandmom...Alex is in every single picture because he was not moving without his piece.

We spent some time in Princeton with Beeps and Grandpa for breakfast and getting some coffee in town.  Alex ate a muffin the size of his head, while Gemma snuck in some fistfuls along the way.

february 7th - happy birthday jack

Celebrated cousin Jack's 6th birthday back in Jersey this afternoon with everyone.  The kids all got to play, eat pizza and ice cream.  They had a good time, with exception of Alex falling down and splitting his lip open.  Even while in pain he demonstrated much discipline by waiting patiently for Jack to blow out the candles.  He had his eye on a specific piece...Gemma didn't care what piece you gave her as long as it was in her mouth...quickly.

We stayed at Beeps and Grandpa's house in Princeton this evening.  The kids went to bed when we got there, which allowed for a nice adult dinner.  Prime rib was amazing and enough to make us all go to bed extremely full.

february 6th - foie gras and soul

Gramps and Grandmum came down to Philly for an adult night out on the town.  Jackie and Fred came over to watch the kids and Alex was anxiously waiting to watch his Thomas movie that he checked out of the library.  Mommy and Daddy had a great dinner at Bibou and then a Philly orchestra show at the Kimmel Center.

february 5th - getting cozy

Jackie and Fred took us out to Hawthorne's tonight for a nice dinner.  At least, what was to be a nice dinner.  Gemma was in a bit of a funk, so she and Daddy sat by the fire (where the beers flow like wine) and got cozy.  She just sat and snoozed...so precious and Daddy could have sat there all night.  All the people in the restaurant were falling all over her and her chubby little cheeks.

february 4th - nothing worse than the dentist

Alex went on his first trip to the dentist today.  We went to Cobblestone on 13th and South and he loved the waiting room.  So many toys to play with...of course, he gravitated toward the construction blocks.  Once we got into the exam room, they put on Thomas for him and he was set for a while.  The reclining chair was all good until he hit about 47.34897degrees and then he lost it.  Daddy had to sit in the chair with Alex on his lap screaming during a quick look into his mouth.

Alex got a special treat of lunch at Hawthorne's with Mommy and Daddy all by himself.  Daddy told Alex how great of a job he did on the walk home and Alex responded, "no I didn't..I cried."

february 3rd - mr attitude

Alex is getting quite the personality.  He does not shut up anymore...always talking about something, wanting to play with something, wanting to read something, or asking questions.  Getting too smart for his own good, but making things so much fun.  Even after an entire day of him driving us nuts, he will come out with something during bedtime that makes it all worth it.

february 2nd - that face

Gemma is so close to walking.  She is standing up much more often now while she is playing, but she just has not fully let go and taken her first "unassisted" steps.  Every day she is considering it more and more....you can see it in her face.  Her legs are really strong and she is actually standing up from a seated position really well.  Once she lets go, she is going to be dangerous.

february 1st - light a match, would you?

We now have an even stronger sense of urgency to get the bathroom renovation done.  Having a crapper in your bedroom sounds like the ultimate convenience, but when you wake up every morning to the sound of your two year old flushing the handle and giggling it gets old really quickly.

january 31st - gemma eats cake...at 8am

We came very close to "second child" neglect because we never got around to Gemma's opportunity to make a royal mess of herself.  Today, we finally got our act together and had things set up for Gemma during her happiest time....the morning.  We had both kids shoving cake in their faces for breakfast.  We mentioned it to Alex the night before and he woke up talking about cake for breakfast.  Gemma started out by herself to get some pictures.  Keeping Alex at bay with the smell of cake in the air was like holding back a 30lb Rottweiler.  Eventually the two of them were smearing it on each other...and having the time of their life.

january 30th - perspective

Gemma's sideways head turn in her high chair is enough to make you want to squeeze her face.  Most times, she does it so quickly that we can't catch it on camera.  Today she was a little sleepy and moving slower than usual...

january 29th - silly gemma

Gemma has a new thing now that she will just lay down wherever she wants and pretend she is sleeping.  It tends to happen when she is tired, so we are waiting for the day when she actually just passes out.  She pretends for a couple seconds and then she pops up with a grin on her face.

january 28th - happy birthday daddy

We celebrated Daddy's birthday today with a nice dinner at Nina's in the Italian Market.  Gemma has a bit of an unorthodox approach to reading the menu, but eventually found something she wanted.  The kids love Nina's pizza and our walk home was a lot of fun.  Alex made Daddy a birthday cake (with help from Jackie) that was "green with blue sprinkles"...just as he designed.  HE also had to blow out the candles.

january 27th - winter sucks

This is crap!  We were wearing bathing suits yesterday and today we are putting on several layers just to walk around the block.  Daddy took Alex to the doctor to get his unexplained Mexican skin rash looked at....no real answers other than he was allergic to something he was exposed to and it is resolving on its own.  No sh!t.

We got our "back home from our trip" munchies fix last night with some pizza we had delivered from Slice.  Took it to the next level today by getting a "not so snow day" lunch in at Hawthorne's.

january 26th - the biggest nor-easter that never came

The entire eastern seaboard is on the watch for what is being called the worst snow storm in recorded history...and we have to get on a giant tin can with wings and fly straight into it.  All information we were getting was that the world was coming to an end, so we were beginning to get comfortable with the idea of sticking around Mexico for another couple days...did not sound bad at all.

We went to the airport and everything seemed to be on time and moving along...with exception of Alex who did not want to get out of the candy car in the duty free shop.  He fell asleep at lunch with his chin on the table, so the week long cocktails of benadryl, tylenol, cortisone cream, and calamine lotion we gave him to treat his unexplained rash must have finally hit.  Gemma had a wicked case of travel hair before we even got on the plane, so the wheels were starting to come off pretty quickly.

Our plane took off as expected, and even though we thought we would get diverted, we landed on time in Philadelphia.  Not a damn snowflake on the ground.  Sheena Parveen, Glenn "Hurricane" Schwartz, and the blond from the Today show are now on the Burger Family poop list.

january 25th - mucho mucho feel like crap...no mas tequila

Mommy and Daddy rolled into the hotel room at around 3am last night and relieved Jackie and Fred of babysitting duty.  The kids were up at around 5:45am, so needless to say Mexico closely resembled hell on earth for the better part of the morning.  The kids went to the beach with Fred and Jackie while we got some sleep at the pool.  Gemma joined us for a solid nap for a while too...she must have been worn out from when she was screaming and trying to climb out of her crib while we ignored her this morning!  She LOVED the beach and the ocean.  She sat in the sand and would giggle every time the tide would come in and touch her feet.  Alex did some "super, super high" swinging with Jackie and Fred.

january 24th - el marido y la esposa

Today is the day that Nick and Megan officially tied the knot.  We spent the day at the pool with the kids and letting Alex work on his swimming technique.  The resort also has a kids zone, which was a really cool facility that catered to the visiting children.  Alex and Gemma both loved the ball pit, and Gemma also used the walking steps for about 2 hours...smiling the whole time.

january 23rd - the gringos have arrived

Arrival in Mexico yesterday was pretty stress free and we got an opportunity to show off our white pasty bodies to the locals.  The resort, Azul Sensatori, is beautiful and Alex has put the "virgin" banana daquiris through the necessary quality assurance procedures.  Our suite came equipped with a family size jacuzzi tub, which we quickly turned into Gemma's cage.  It was an innovative way to keep her out of trouble and provide 10 minutes of sanity while in our "non child proof" room.

We had a great dinner last night, with an endless taco bar...so the plumbing was also sufficiently tested.  The kids spent the day at the beach and had a blast.  Alex built sandcastles with his buddy Drew and ran on the beach with Mommy, while Gemma took a cabana nap in her unusually large (and glamorous) hat.  We finished the day off in the pool, where Alex did some laps with Jackie and Gemma sipped Dos Equis out of Daddy's beer glass.  There were also about 30 ice cream cones from the free-for-all soft serve machine mixed in throughout the day.

january 22nd - travel day

Off to Mexico!!!  The kids did great on the plane.  Alex had an opportunity to show Gemma how traveling internationally is done.  He had his iPad, reading material, and TicTac's all ready to go...truly an art form.  He HAD to carry his own backpack, which was difficult because Mommy packed it and ALL bags typically weigh just shy of the 50lb limit.  We also successfully surprised Jackie with Fred.  Almost a year of keeping a secret...that Fred was coming with us on our Mexican adventure.  Tears, smiles, then more tears.  Truly an awesome way to start the trip.

january 21st - mikey likes it

The return of Alex's friend Mikey was a hit today.  Mikey's dad has been student teaching, so Alex has not been able to hang out with him for a long time.  They had a lot of fun filling the dump truck with food.

january 20th - one year checkup

Gemma went in for her one year doctor's appointment this morning and she was a lot happier on the way in than on the way out.  She is a very healthy human female.  Three shots were enough to make her really hate the nurse...her memory is forming right on time as well, since she was giving her nurse the stink eye the entire time.

Weight: 18 lbs (38%)
Height: 29 1/4" (58%)
Head: 18" (74%)

january 19th - dressed for success

Alex got all dolled up today to see Lucy.  He was very excited to wear his sweater vest and khakis.  Gemma was also sporting her Monday's best, which made it easy for her to mooch some of Daddy's breakfast.  She loves cereal!