Sea Lions
Originally uploaded by alisajon

We took a little trip to the Boston Aquarium a couple of weeks ago.  I described our trip here and you MUST compare this photo, to the ones here.

I’ve put some other photos  from the day up on Flickr.

What a beautiful weekend!!  It was near 80 degrees both Saturday and Sunday, and after an extremely dreary and chilly spring, this was quite a treat!   We got Evan a bike today, and he’s got the steering and pedaling parts of riding figured out.  He still needs to work on the braking, but he’ll figure it out pretty quickly.  I’ve uploaded some videos to our flickr page: here

First, here’s Evan biking:

And here are two videos of Karen scootching to get toys!

Originally uploaded by alisajon

Evan, Karen and I (Alisa) went up to visit Chuck and Jen and their kids in Plattsburgh last weekend. It was incredibly nice to have a laid back couple of days with old friends. The kids got along well… from Max and Evan hitting it off (Evan now designates Max as one of his “friends”) and Catherine playing with baby Karen.

Here are two videos of Karen playing away.  She’s not quite turning over, but there’s a lot of scootching happening.   Just yesterday, she scootched off of her play mat while I was making dinner and Evan was watching a show on TV.  I found her with her feet against the TV cabinet staring up at the big and interesting television set.

If you compare these to the video I took back at the beginning of the month, you can see how much more she is moving.

These two videos were taken back-to-back.  At first, Evan didn’t realize that I was taking a video.  You can hear him prompting me to take a picture.

Karen is making trumpet sounds with her lips.  It’s her favorite way to get attention.  Now, if only I could find a tiny brass instrument to put up against her lips…. she could be the tinest trumpeter in town!

In this second video, Karen is moving those little legs of hers!

Aren’t these two the cutest???  If you want more, visit me on facebook!

Here’s an update from Manning land….. I’m back to work 3 days a week, which is not enough time for me, but I could not bear to be away from Karen any more!

Karen is really having a fun time being a three month old… and I’m having fun buying clothes for her! Luckily for me, I bought loads of “gender neutral” clothes for Evan, so I’ve got a whole wardrobe to pull from, and I’ve got lots of clothes that were given to Karen as gifts.

Sorry about the lack of posts lately. As you can see, we’ve been working hard around here!

Chordy really wants a piece of this super-soft blanket.

We’ve been keeping busy here in the Manning household. I don’t like being cooped up in the house, so after a few days of chillin’ with Karen, I’m ready for some adventures!

Evan and the young gorilla

Back on October 31st, I kept Evan out of preschool and he, Karen and I went exploring at the Franklin Park Zoo! Evan came face to face with gorillas, camels, lions and countless other exciting animals.  Up on Flickr, I’ve got a great set of pictures from the day.  Karen barely even woke up during the trip.  She just chilled out in her carseat/stroller.

We had a fun Halloween.  Evan dressed up as a bear and went door-to-door with Jonathan.  We didn’t have as many trick-or-treaters this year as last. I attribute this to the fact that many of our neighbors up and down the street had their lights off, so the street didn’t seem promising to many of the neighborhood kids.  I took pictures of Evan Bear and Pumpkin Karen, but then I discovered that the memory card wasn’t inserted into the camera properly, so the pictures were never saved.  Since I had to bribe Evan with candy to get him back into his costume for that photo shoot, I haven’t been able to try again.

Karen's First Bath

Another fun thing was Karen’s first bath, which took place on November 2nd.  Evan “helped out” by passing us her towel and providing entertaining commentary.  Since this date, we’ve given Karen two more baths.  They’re becoming more frequent because she has learned how to spit up all over herself (and Mommy, and Daddy and freshly folded piles of clothes.)

Colleen came home for a visit and we had a nice time visiting up in NH. She spent a lot of time with Evan and Karen.  She’s in Colorado now, preparing for a 6 month deployment to Iraq.  We even made it out to a hockey game up in Manchester on Sunday afternoon.

Day by day, Karen is spending more time interacting with us.  Her eyes are currently a dark blue, although we suspect they are going to change colors, as most baby’s eyes do.

At three weeks and one day.

Finally, I would like to share one more picture, taken today, showcasing Karen’s pudgy little cheeks.  She’s pudging up and fitting into her 0-3 month clothes now.  I wouldn’t be surprised if she is more than 8 pounds now, although I always over-estimate the weight of my children.

We are doing well and enjoying each other.  We’re “accepting visitors” now, so if you are local and want to come and hang out, just give a holler.

We’re visiting Grandma and Grandpa Knodle. They have a stash of Richard Scarry books from when my older brother was a kid. I loved reading these and my younger brother, Phil, has even gotten an abridged version of “What Do People Do All Day” for Evan. Here’s a picture of Jonathan reading to Evan, which he only agreed to do after I was interrupted from reading when Phil called me. These books are very detailed and can be quite tedious… for us, not Evan.