Romios Boot Camp

Nikos practices pushups.



Olive avoids learning to crawl.



Olive claps!

Love Me Some Washington and Lincoln

We enjoyed a leisurely Presidents' Day. We started out making breakfast - Nikos has turned in to quite a little helper in the kitchen.




Next up we headed up to Two Thomas park to play in the sunshine.

We love long weekends!

Best Seat in the House

I found these little gems on Taki's cell phone. The shots are from when we went to Monterey a month or so ago to go to the aquarium. We were at Bubba Gump's for lunch and in order to avoid the hour or so wait we agreed to eat in the bar. Of course all the short tables were occupied so we had to make do with a tall table. This arrangement was fine until lunch arrived and we realized we couldn't juggle Olive with one arm and peel shrimp with the other. Like any good parents we gave her some bread and plopped her in a highchair while we enjoyed the meal.

Love Bites

On Valentine's Eve we took the kids on a walk down to 4th Street. With the rain that we have been having for a little while, it was great to get out for some exercise at night. (I am sure all of my East Coast relatives thinks it is hysterical that our outdoor activity is impeded by some wimpy rain!)

Now, just to preface this first shot - as you know, Nikos is on the small side. One of the perks to this is that he fits into his clothes for a loooong time. Here is he sporting his Halloween pjs.

We've reverted back to using the single stroller a little bit lately since I bought the little toddler step for the back. Here's Olive at the start.

The kids were playing around and Olive stuck her thumb in Nikos' mouth. I was able to snap this cute pic of it about five seconds before he bit her.

So that was a fun first. Luckily he didn't draw blood and she forgave him pretty quickly.

The great thing about 4th Street is that it is so close and has some great shopping and restaurants. The big negatives are that there is no bar (I mean until we open Taki's) and that the shops close early. Of course, the shops closing early also works in our favor when Nikos needs a venue for his imagination.

I think he starts out by asking me if I want another Gordon (??) and then he goes to get one for me and later for Tyke. My favorite part of the video is at :14 when he thanks the imaginary friend for something. So proud!



After the kids went to bed Taki and I continued our quest for the perfect Philly Cheesesteak. We still have room to improve but it was pretty good!

All About Olive (Again)

Olive is 11 months old! I can't believe it. For those keeping track, Taki's still preaching Three's A Crowd! while I'm still singin Three's Company! Let's just say we won't be changing the name of the blog anytime soon.

Olive is a fabulous little baby. She is really just very happy all the time, smiling, laughing and still loving Nikos and all his attention. When she does cry he can always make her stop by singing ABC's (or ABCD's as he calls them.) She is off baby food and onto regular food and so far has been pretty adventurous. I was telling Taki I thought this boded well for the future but then he reminded me that Nikos ate everything we fed him when he was little too. Ha! Of course, I feel like she has more enjoyment for it, like lunging for the spoon and stuff, where he never really did that. She doesn't seem to have a real interest in crawling yet (which is basically on pace with Nikos since he didn't crawl until a few days before his first birthday.) Maybe I listened to a little too much Jack Johnson when I was pregnant with her. She's still on two naps a day, usually taking a three hour nap at 10am and then another shorter one later in the day. She's just starting to pay attention to the fun bows I put in her hair, pulling them out on occasion. Her hair is still crazy (no haircuts yet) but I did get rid of all the cradle cap (for all those that commented.) Her hair is very much like mine (and Nikos'), curly with more humidity, straight with less. Guess these kids are never movin ' back to the East Coast. :) Lastly, she seems to prefer Puddy to Bosco.

You'll notice in her photo shoot for this month that she is sporting her 0-6 month "olive" onesie from John and Linda Andreotti (which has had a prolonged life thanks to Gina Eggert's onesie extenders!) She's also clutching a bow that she yanked out of her hair moments earlier.

And finally, I'll end with the benefits of a late crawler. While Taki took Nikos to the park (while Olive was napping) I cleaned the house. When she woke up I fed her lunch and then plopped her on the blanket...knowing she wasn't going anywhere. Mwuah ha ha.

The Big Game

The D'Angelos were nice enough to host Superbowl a few weeks ago.

Olive plays it up for the camera.

Apparently my photography was getting in the way of his playing with toys.

Brookie shows off her baby blues.

For the first half of the game Katie and I took the older kids downstairs to entertain them while Olive stayed upstairs and entertained the boys.

Katie even have the forethought to install a temporary jungle gym (or as we like to call it a "jungle jack") in their living room. Ha.

The kids were big fans of the cupcakes.

I may or may not have those same cupcakes shots of the adults...

Here's the best of the kid shots.

Can't wait until next Superbowl when baby Jack will be there and Olive won't be the youngest of the crew anymore!

You.Have.Got.To.Be.Kidding.Me.

Olive has had cradle cap since she was born which I was basically ignoring because most of the time it was covered by her hair. And also because it totally grosses me out. Finally (after some gentle nudging from a friend) I decided to tackle the disgusting stuff. She (who will remain nameless) suggested that I use baby oil, giving me explicit instructions to rub it into her head and then use a brush to gently remove the cradle cap. Okay, sounds easy enough. I mean, my friend did this on both of her twin boys...that were basically bald. FORESHADOWING??

I embarked on Operation NoCradleCap Monday night and gave Olive a bath, using the baby oil and a brush. I couldn't find the baby brush (last I remember Nikos was using it as a bat) so I used a new toothbrush. (Ha!)

After it looked like I got most of it out I used the kids regular Method baby shampoo and body wash to get the oil out of her hair.

I scrubbed and scrubbed and washed it a few times and felt confident that I got it out. In hindsight, maybe I should have clued into the fact that her head still smelled, well...like baby oil. But no, apparently I chose to remain ignorant to this. I dried her off, pajamaed her up and put her to bed.

Flash forward to Tuesday morning when Taki goes into the kids room to get Olive ready for daycare. He shouts out to me "does her hair look like all wet from sweat?" Okay, WHAT? First of all, she's not sick or anything, so it's not like he should be expecting her to sweat out a fever and second of all SHE'S NOT YOU. I check her out and she is definitely covered in greasy baby oil hair. Sadly, we were already late that morning so we didn't have time to remedy the situation. Poor kid.

Olive, on the way to daycare, in all her greasy hair glory (also in her new big girl carseat for the first time!)

I frantically google "baby oil stuck in hair" to help turn Baby O back into the Baby Gap model that I know she is at heart.

Step 1
Shampoo your hair with baby shampoo. Generally made by the same manufacturers as baby oil, it is designed to remove baby oil from hair. Repeat the shampoo process multiple times, if necessary.

Hmm, I think I already did that? Guess I will move on to the next step.

Step 2 Sprinkle baby powder on your hair. It will absorb the baby oil. Comb it through your hair, allowing it to soak up all the baby oil. Shampoo your hair to remove the powder from it.

Okay, this seems reasonable. As I sprinkle Olive's head like I'm adding powdered sugar to a waffle (A LOT of powdered sugar) Taki brings up the Friends episode when Ross couldn't pull his leather pants back up and resorted to the same tactic. Great - that didn't work out so well for him.

Olive rocks the new, slightly grey powderhead.

Okay, now I revert back to Step 1, thinking that the first time I used Method shampoo and they don't actually manufacture baby oil so I better go straight to the source.

Here's the little shark - very patient during about six washings. I was planning on stopping at four but then Taki started making fun of me, saying Olive was going to have to wear the greasy do to Prom. Not cool.

Ta da...two baths and nine hairwashes later...

I did NOT break Olive. Phew.

Fan Fest

This Saturday Nikos and I headed out to Pac Bell for Giants' Fan Fest

Here is a shot of Nikos in the visitor's clubhouse.


Nikos in the Giants' dugout with his game face on. Look familiar?

Another shot from the dugout.

We had a chance to run on the field or lack there of.Nikos and I had a chance to tour the Giants' clubhouse.

Nikos in his future locker.
Vists to the clubhouse, dugout and a chance to run around on the field. We spent the most time on the cable car out in center field.