Rock the Vote

My cousin's dog made it to the Final Four! If you have time please vote for Brother! Voting for this round ends on April 2nd at 8:59am PST.

America's Next Top Model: Itsy Bitsy Version

Last Friday Olive had her first photoshoot. We used this awesome photographer that Mel uses, Jacqueline Elizabeth. The shoot went really well and Jackie was SUPER patient with Olive, even staying a little over three hours to make sure we got some shots of her sleeping (more on this later - I need to get to Starbucks!) Anyway, Jackie knew I was dying to see the shots so she put up a sneak peek for me on her website. Check it out! I can't wait to see the others!!!

Dancin' Machine

This weekend Nikos has been showing off his new dancing moves to Taki and I. Check out his fancy footwork...I am not entirely convinced that there is not an imaginary friend involved somewhere. Or should I say an imaginary dance partner?

Two Week Celebration

Olive celebrated her two week birthday yesterday by parting ways with her umbilical cord stump - wahoo! Of course, this happened during a middle of the night diaper change...3:30am and Taki says to me "did her umbilical cord thing fall off before now or in all of this rigmarole?" Needless to say I had to turn on the light full blast to make sure we found the little stump and it wasn't hiding in our covers. Eww grosses me out just thinking about it.

To celebrate Olive's two weeks we took her to the movies. We are so selfless. Her first movie was Duplicity (loved it!) and per usual, she slept in her pouch the whole time.

Today, to welcome her naked belly button into the world we gave Olive a real bath. She loved it! It looks like she may be as big of a bath an as her big brother (who could seriously spend three hours in the tub and be happy.)

After the bath Olive and I jumped on bart (her first bart ride) to meet Mel for lunch at Cheesecake Factory in Walnut Creek. Here we are on the platform waiting for the train.

It seems her signature hand gesture is the whole preacher, bless you child I will erase your sins thing.
Not sure if you remember, Nikos was a huge fan of the black power fist pump. Please see below Nikos at two weeks old, giving the pump.

Do you think they look alike at all? Taki and I think their mouth nose/mouth/chin area is similar.

Here are some photos of our lunch with Mel.

Happy Two Weeks Olive!

March Madness - Vote For My Cousin's Dog!

My cousin's dog is in a "Mutt" Madness competition (I think it is put on by a radio station?) on the East Coast. The winner of the competition wins a year of obedience school. If you get a chance, click on the competition and vote for Brother from Herndon, Virginia before this Thursday the 26th. Thanks!

Tears, Ice, Chalk Graffiti and a Very Veggie Photo Shoot

Sorry about the bits and pieces blogging here. Our house has been filled with non-stop screaming and whining, literally on and off since 8am. And really more on than off. This is not an exaggeration, just ask Taki. Our little raven haired beauty having a bad day you say? No, our poor little golden child has been diagnosed with a double ear infection. We took him into Kaiser last night and got the bad news, along with some bubblegum-flavored antibiotics (some dripped onto my thumb) and the good news that it wasn't contagious.

Anyway, today the poor guy has just been inconsolable. Taki and I tried to be creative and set up Nikos out on the deck with his toys (for the first time!) Taki has been working hard on the deck railing this week, so that Nikos has a place to play and our Greek Easter party next month won't be a death trap for toddlers. He has it almost finished and just needed some time to finish the last two sections. Of course, Nikos, Olive and I get all setup on the deck (Olive in the pouch) and Nikos was having none of it. Finally I remembered an idea from when I was up nursing Olive in the middle of the night, blog-surfing. Gina had let Jack loose outside with chalk and he had a wonderful time, graffiti-ing up their patio furniture. After convincing Taki that the chalk could just be washed off the beloved deck that he (and my Dad and Vernie) had built we let him loose. Wahoo - success! A cup of ice and a box full of his chalk bought us 30 minutes of silence (and more importantly happiness) so that Taki could work on the deck and I could relax. I mean, a parent of two under two and my new part-time gig as an accidental flasher is exhausting. Olive retired early to the inside of the house, considering the fact that it is almost 70 degrees today and she was turning into a little sleeping puddle of sweat inside the pouch. There were even drops of sweat on her darling, hairy little forehead.

Here are some pictures of Nikos, momentarily satisfied. Don't worry, I'm not ignoring him right now, we put him down for his second nap of the day and he didn't even have the strength to fight it.
Also, here are some fun shots I took the other night of Olive. She is modeling all the latest rage in Easter-themed apparel. This is a handmade sleeping bag for a stuffed bunny, my Aunt Sue (hands down the most creative person I know, well, tied with the aforementioned Gina) made these for Mel and I when we were little. When I found out I was pregnant and due around Easter I thought it would make the perfect prop for a photo shoot. Yes, just like our vacations, I also plan photo shoots a ridiculous amount of months in advance as well. Little does she know this isn't the last time she will be stuffed into an orange vegetable. Sadly, she is a little bit too long for the carrot (again, I was planning on a Nikos-sized baby), but I still think it made for some cute shots.

It looks like he is resigned to the fact that she will have to suffer through my photo shoots as well.
And just because I never get tired of this pic.

I also wanted to give a blog shout out to Sarah and Jeff and also to Grandma Linda for providing us with some tasty meals last week. Jeff and Sarah dropped off some delicious pasta with homemade sauce (complete with homemade sausage!) and Linda brought over some enchiladas and also a pasta sauce. Sadly I didn't get pictures of us enjoying these wonderful meals, I think it was because they happened to coincide with no-shower days in the Romios household. It's not pretty folks.

Lastly, I'll end with this shot of Nikos enthralled in the tv. Noggin? Nick Jr? Alas...CNBC.

Wardrobe Malfunction

What can I say about nursing tanktops? They are so convenient and super comfortable. I mean, you practically forget you are wearing them...for instance, when you go out to check the mail and then suddenly feel a breeze. Yeah. All I can say is, thank god the UPS guy made his delivery 10 minutes later.

There Is A God

On a Home Depot run this morning, Taki found a Starbucks drive-through in El Cerrito. EL CERRITO PEOPLE! A mere 4.6 miles from my house. How could I not have known this during my first maternity leave?

Of course, it looks like God is a teeny bit vengeful since I'm not supposed to be driving anywhere anytime soon, thanks to the c-section. Blast!

Monkey'ing Around

On Saturday we hit up the zoo again (when I buy a season pass to someplace I do not mess around.) There will be no pictures of Olive in this post, she was sleeping so we left her in the car. Ha, hang up with Social Services, she was really in the pouch.

Nikos practices his intimidating face on the way to the zoo.

First up we hit the train for a ride around the park. It was surprisingly anti-climatic. You don't really get to see any of the real animals (there are a bunch of fake ones scattered along the track) but I have to be honest, I was expecting more. I put the train time to good use and took pictures of Nikos and the view of the city of Oakland. As you can see, he is sporting his Taki face (no expression) which obviously means he found the train ride super exciting.

Nikos checks out the snake in the Children's Zoo. Don't worry, it's fake.

When we were watching the otters I stepped back to take some photos and all of a sudden Nikos was surrounded by an Asian family. He didn't seem to be fazed at all that we ditched him. Apparently hanging out with a group of strangers is fine...just as long as they don't get their cameras out and try to take a picture of him in a group photo. Mel, does this give you flashbacks of when Mom and Aunt Connie left you at the NJ shore? Hee hee.

The monkeys (spider monkeys?) put on a good show for us, swinging around the trees and displaying some cool aerobatics.

When we got home Nikos' monkey explored some new terrain as well...like Olive's bouncy chair.
Don't worry, no monkeys were hurt during the taking of this picture.

Can You Please Stop Talking Now

Well, we knew this day would come, I just wasn't prepared for it to be here so soon.

Friday we took Nikos and Olive up to Habitot to burn off some energy...well, for Nikos to burn off some energy, Olive just slept in her pouch the whole time. More photos on this to follow. After an hour or so at Habitot we walked down the street to enjoy a leisurely lunch out on the sunny back patio at Jupiter. Can you say daytime drinking and pizza? Yum. Anyway, back to the point of my story. I am chattering away to Taki and Nikos, obviously talking about something really important (Olive is still sleeping) and Nikos looks at me, puts his finger up to his mouth and shushes me! Yes, he shushed me! Then to top it off, he turns to Taki and high fives him! What?! What is this world coming to when you get shushed by your own 21 month old? When I left a message on Mel and Vernie's answering machine reliving this little ditty Vernie later told me that Nikos was his new favorite kid. (For those keeping track, his last favorite kid was in 2001, when the six year old on the ski lift asked me if I could "please stop talking now".)

Here are some pictures from our day, before I was told to shut up.

I know, I know, you have seen this same picture like 50 times. I just love the raised eyebrow!

How Olive spent her Habitot/Jupiter outing (view from above.)

Sharing eggs with Daddy in the farm section of Habitot.

Trying on the pig hat to make Mommy happy.

Enjoying the farm porch swing.

I guess being a morning at Habitot followed by lunch at Jupiter is exhausting. Despite the fact that he started his nap an hour and a half late, he slept for four hours!

Friday night after Habitot we had the D'Angelo's over for a little EBHH and dinner. Oh and to show them how easy it is to have two kids. Hee hee!

This isn't a great picture, but I had to include it because look how big these two look! Please concentrate on that and not what a wreck the house is. :)

Some fun shots with the new camera. Gotta love Brooke's eyes in the first one!

Katie and I are always joking about how Nikos is very chill and Brooke is very active. I think this series of photos captures it perfectly, ha, makes me giggle!

Update on Living with Two

Ahh, the house is asleep so I thought I would take the time to give you a quick Olive update.

Things are going remarkably well in the Romios household. It could have something to do with the fact that Taki is still on paternity leave (until next Monday - wahoo!) but I also think it has a lot to do with the fact that this is the second time we are going through this so we feel a little more confident.

So far Olive is a breeze (especially compared to Nikos when we brought him home!) She sleeps and eats really well, usually sleeping in 3-4 hour stretches throughout the day and night. I have been warned that we are still in the honeymoon period of the first two weeks and lots of sleeping, so we will see how things go as we move into week three on Thursday. She's done a great job breastfeeding and when Taki weighed her today (our neighbors lent us an infant scale) she was 7lbs 14oz. Not bad considering she isn't even two weeks old and we brought her home from the hospital at 6lbs 10oz! She can usually be calmed fairly quickly and doesn't spend that much crying at all. She did have one fussy period last night where she cried off and on for about an hour and we couldn't find anything to soothe her. Finally at the end of the hour I was trying to feed her again and she spit up what looked to me like it was an entire gallon of milk. Poor kid! Also poor mom since I had to strip down since she managed to get every piece of clothing I was wearing. Other than that she has been great. She loves to hang out in the pouch and spent several hours in it this weekend when we went various places, just snoozing away.

Nikos is also still doing really well with the new role of big brother. He likes to give her kisses and come see what OfOf is up to and we haven't seen any real signs of jealousy. Poor guy came down with some sort of stomach bug this weekend and has been cranky and not feeling well. He hasn't been eating that much all weekend - I know, big shocker, but a lot less than usual. Tonight while Taki was getting him ready for bed I heard him make a coughing/choking sound and I ran into his room just in time for him to throw up yogurt all over me. Yup. I had just thrown my cardigan in the wash since Olive had spit up all over the arm and then Nikos throws up all over my robe. (Hey, I'm not some white trash slacker chilling in my robe all day, it gets cold when you spend most of your time in a nursing tanktop!)

Here are a few pictures from Olive's First "Bath".

As you can see, she wasn't a fan of the body wash portion but once we got to her hair (with her warmly wrapped in a towel) she was as happy as can be.

Flashback St. Paddy's and Marco and Reese: Instigators

Forgot to include last year's St. Paddy's shot for fun.

And while I was looking through the old pics I realized something...shall we say...perplexing? It just seems funny that every time Nikos is having a meltdown in the group picture, Marco and Reese happen to be near by. Suspicious? I'll let you be the judge.

Date: May 2008. Location: Brooke's 1st Birthday Party

Date: December 31st, 2008. Location: Katie and Jack's New Years Eve Party

Date: March 17, 2009. Location: Sarah and Jeff's St. Paddy's Party

It's funny, because the kid doesn't spend that much time crying the rest of his life. Note to self: sit Nikos on opposite side of M&R at next group photoshoot.

Luck Be a Lady

We kicked off St. Patrick's Day with a visit from Papou. He was very excited to meet Olive and agreed that she takes after the Greek side of the family more than Nikos. Could it be our little angel's back hair? Don't worry, Melanie assures me this will fall out in no time. Papou did find our name choice...how do you say...unusual? He was talking to her and calling her the Greek translation for the word olive (which I think sounds something like elia?) When Taki asked what he was calling her he said "It's not what I'm calling her, it's what you called her." Ha. Wish I could be a fly on the wall (a Greek-speaking fly that is) when he tells his family her name.

For our official St. Paddy's party we headed over to the Cecchin's to enjoy corned beef and cabbage. There were seventeen of us and seven of the group were kids under four. Crazy!

Here's the obligatory kid-couch shot. As promised, Nikos delivers the tears and drama.

Had to include this set-up pic because it is the only one where he isn't shrieking. Yes, SHRIEKING. I mean, you would think the kid just sat on fusilli jerry or something.

And love the panicked look on Marco's face in this one. Probably stress from the screamer next to him. You'll notice Brooke is plotting her escape.

Whoops, forgot to take the family picture before Nikos went to bed. Bad parents. Olive and I are wearing matching green flower barrettes in our hair (barrettes courtesy of Mel.) Yes, I am that mom.

Ha, Sarah made us take this cheesy shot.

Gotta love my $1.99 Target shirt for Olive.

The D'Angelo's pose for a family shot.

Hmm, what's the over/under on Grochol #3 showing up in 9 months...ha.

No really...