Look Familiar?

As different as Jack and Audrey appear to be, they have at least one thing in common:

Audrey at 4 1/2 months 

Jack 5 months

10 years!

Jacob and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary in November.  To celebrate, we had a fun dinner at Metropole in the 21c Hotel.  Here's a bit of the back story with the location: 

When we were engaged and looking for a place to live, we drove past The Metropole downtown. At that time it was an apartment building, and we were looking for our first place.  We loved the location (on Walnut across from the Arnoff) and we thought it would be a great  place to live!  When we called to get information about the cost of rent, we found out that it was actually Section 8 housing.  The doorman that drew me in was actually a security guard, and it turned out to not be a great place for us. 

So 10 years later, the Metropole is now the hip 21c hotel and the restaurant of the same name inside was wonderful!

We even ran into Emilio Estevez!

It's been a wonderful ten years, Jacob!  I love that I get to be your wife and I couldn't ask for a better father for our kids.  I love you and am amazingly thankful for your friendship, support, and  love.

Tummy Time!

I was so strict with Jack's tummy time.  Every morning we did it for at least 15 minutes.  He didn't love it, but  when he was annoyed he simply put his head down and sucked his thumb.

With Audrey, I've admittedly slacked off and tummy time is now something we do when we're bored or looking for something new to do.  I don't actually feel bad about it at all.  For as much tummy time as we did with Jack, it didn't seem to help him to roll over, hold up his head, or sit up any better than the next kid... so I don't feel the pressure that I did the first time around.

Audrey's not really a fan of tummy time (probably since I don't make her do it that often), but I caught a few smiles this day.

Audrey: 4 months

Audrey turned 4 months old November 26th.  She is loves to squirm and wiggle and it was difficult to get a picture of her this month!  After a few attempts at getting her to sit up on her own, Jack thought he should help. You can check out that picture below:

She sure does adore him!

Audrey is doing well at hitting all of her milestones and is sleeping well, too.  She is just a little peanut, though.  She still easily fits into her 3 month clothes, which means she gets to wear all of those cute little outfits for a long time! We love our little girl and all of her sweet smiles!

Here are her stats:

Weight:  12lb 9oz

Length:  25"

Jack is two

I can't believe that Jack is two already!  How did those two years go by so quickly?

Jack continues to be a sweet, kind boy that loves his family, trains, cars, dancing, and music.

Here are a few things to remember about Jack as a new two year old:

• He made it to his 2nd birthday with only 4 teeth.  Right after his birthday his 5th and 6th popped through.  
• He is a master at hiding.  He will sit and hide in one spot while we try to find him.  We play this game in the car a lot.  He covers his face and hides, and he'll stay that way for a few minutes before he jumps out and says, boo!
• While he is a great walker, he still hasn't mastered the stairs. He crawls up and down still, and even crawls over cracks in the sidewalk or small ramps or steps into doorways.  
• He's still an excellent sleeper.  Even with company at the house, or in the middle of playing with toys, if you tell him it's bedtime he stops what he's doing and heads upstairs.  You've got to love that!
• Jack loves to listen and look for fire trucks and ambulances.  If he thinks he hears a siren he puts his finger up to his ear and yells, "ambi toe truck"  (ambulance fire truck)
• He continues to love Awa (Audrey) and shows his love by sitting on her, giving her kisses, and telling her hi as he runs past her.  
• He loves playing with trains and cars and is quickly learning the names of all of the Thomas trains.  
• Jack loves his buddies at church and knows his friends by name.  He really enjoys the Toddler 1 classroom at church and has no problem leaving us behind when he walks into the classroom.  

Since Jack loves trains so much, Jacob, Christy, and I took him to Entertrainment Junction a few days before his birthday.  We decided to leave Audrey with Nana that morning so that we could give him all of our attention.  The trains were fun to look at, but I think his favorite part was playing with the train table. 

That night we had a party with our families.  Jack had a great time with everyone that came to celebrate, but he really enjoyed his cousin Emma and her friends.  They were so kind to play with him and he soaked up all of the attention. 

When I asked him what he wanted to do for his party, he kept repeating, "Happy Hat".  I don't know where he learned about a party hat, but we made sure to have them there.

 Here are a few shots from his party:

Jacob built this train table for Jack and he LOVES it!

Audrey in her Happy Hat

The cake... a labor of love

Self portrait

Yesterday I flipped the camera on my phone so that Audrey could watch herself. It was a tech-savvy mirror!

Here is the picture she took when she was reaching out to touch the screen.
Cute kid, huh?

A snack for Jack

This is what happens when you leave an unattended pizza within Jack's reach.  He pulled this off of the dining room table when I wasn't looking.  Lesson learned.

Halloween 2012

Halloween was a week-long celebration for Jack and Audrey.  We kicked it off with a party with some my friends and their children.  Susan threw another great party and all of the little one (and adults) had a great time.  Susan and her husband recently purchased a fire truck -- yes, a fire truck.  It was a great backdrop for a Halloween picture!

The Monday before Halloween Jack got to wear his costume to Music Class.  One of Jacob's childhood neighbors Erin (Fischer) Bullard teaches this class every Monday and Jack loves it.  It was fun to see the whole group dressed up!

He was so excited to carve our pumpkin this year -- until he realized what it meant to carve a pumpkin.  All  day we planned and prepared and talked about what we were going to do.  He even woke up from his nap early, calling "Mama, pumpkin!"  Then it came time to do the cleaning and carving. He was completely grossed out by the seeds and bored with the entire process, so I ended up sitting on the kitchen floor carving the pumpkin alone.

And finally, here are the pictures from the big night:

Jack spent the majority of the night passing out candy:

He was so disappointed when there were no kids at the door. He loved his job.  I'm sure next year he'll know what Trick or Treating is, and we'll have to take him out.  This year, I was glad to stay inside!

Planking

What can I really say about this picture?  Yesterday when I heard the toilet lid close, I ran into the bathroom thinking that Jack was playing in the toilet (again).  I was surprised to find this instead:

He thinks it's pretty funny, and we do too!

Jack the handyman

I've mentioned on here before that Jack is capable of getting into the junk drawer.  And for some reason, he is completely fascinated with a few things that we store inside.  I've moved the lighter to a higher place and try to keep an eye on him while he's in the kitchen.

Last week I was putting Audrey down for a nap and came downstairs to find him playing with the small screwdriver set.

He walked around the house for the next 10 minutes searching for screws that he could tighten and loosen.  The interesting thing is that he actually appeared to know what he was doing.  Jacob, you might just have a helper for that honey-do list sooner than later!

Audrey - 3 months

Audrey turned 3 months on the 26th.  It was difficult to capture a picture of her this month.  She was wiggling and moving, trying to sit up. And every time she tried to sit up, she would fall forward or to the side.  I have a lot of out takes!  This is completely different than Jack, who sat still and made minimal attempts to move (hence the lack of walking independently until 19 months). 

Audrey seems to be going through a growth spurt and her cheeks and thighs are filling in!  She is full of smiles and loves to talk to us.  She doesn't like tummy time very much... or at all.  But apparently she doesn't mind doing it when I'm not home. Jacob was watching her last week and she didn't cry at all and rolled over -- something she hasn't done for me since she was a few days old!

Occasionally she enjoys sitting up in her Bumbo.  But, since we don't do much tummy time, she has a difficult time keeping her head up.  

She's full of funny faces and makes me smile all day long!  

Cartwheel

While we were cheering on runners at the College Hill Rhythm Race, Jack saw a little girl doing cartwheels.  Here is his attempt:

Hello!

We're doing well here at the Samad household.  Life is busy, as usual, but we're going with the flow and trying to squeeze it all in.  We're enjoying this wonderful fall weather and have been outside on walks and you can often find us playing in the dirt.

Audrey is full of coos and has found her hands and feet.  While she can't quite touch her feet yet, she loves to kick and watch them move.  More on Audrey in her 3 month update coming soon.

Jack has found a new love of dirt, puddles, rocks, leaves, and pretty much anything you can find in nature.  That's why it took us 45 minutes to walk around the block yesterday.  We came home with three small bits of concrete to put in his dump trucks.  I'm so thankful for this weather and the chance we have to get out and enjoy the beauty of fall! 

Gift for Audrey

I feel like this blog post deserves so much more than the simple words I can write for you.  But I have been attempting to write about Susan and this quilt for 20 minutes and just can't string together my words.

So why don't you just check out this picture:

Isn't it beautiful?  Susan, thank you for taking the time to make such a beautiful and thoughtful gift for Audrey.    I am honored to have one of your wonderful quilts for each of my kids!