Benjamin at 15 Months

This sweet guy has officially turned 15 months.  We took him to his check up today and he weighed in at 30 lbs. and 36 inches long.... he is now big enough to ride all of the kiddie amusement park rides... so much for his slowing growth.  His clothing is starting to be interchangeable with James's.... I hope he doesn't surpass him anytime soon.  Benjamin continues to be a very laid back and easy going kiddo.  He loves to read books and more than anything in the world he loves playing and doing anything his big brothers do... much to their dismay sometimes, but he is great at putting his and their dishes in the sink regardless if they are done or not.  His language is right on track with both brothers, so he should be saying some words by the time he is two;)  He is starting to be much more interested in communicating with us though and is really taking off with his baby signs which was fairly stagnant for a while.  He knows where his belly button and his nose are, and to Noah's delight Ben is also learning "to run".  He has started climbing on the couch, but seems to have good enough control to get back down again, so we have had minimal falls from that so far.  All four eye teeth have come in over the past 2 weeks, so he now has an almost complete set... only his 2 year molars left.  His personality really seems to be blossoming right now and we can't wait to see what the next 3 months will bring!

J & A's Birthday- CT visit 2012

We had a very fun overnight visit to Connecticut last weekend to visit with the Melman's and celebrate J & A's birthdays. This is it for pictures, but there was a bouncy house and the boys had a ball playing with all lots of other kids. This is James's first road trip since we broke down and took his diapers away last week... he did much better than we could have expected..... maybe he will be potty trained before he goes to kindergarten.  Thanks Melmans for such a nice visit, can't wait to see you all again soon!

Swimming Lessons- Fall 2012

The kids all continue to love swimming and are progressing each week.  Here are some pictures from a recent observation week were I made Gabe get in the cold water with Ben;) There is also a picture here of what James does while I am swimming with Ben and Noah is in his class... it keeps him out of trouble at least!

Thanksgiving and More 2012

I fully admit to being a poor blogger of late, I have not ever gotten this far behind, but I hope to get caught up during the next week.  We have had a busy and stressful November and now the holidays were in full swing.... moving on:)  

The first thing to share was the ultrasound of our newest little one.  Just a basic 18 week fetal survey which all looked great.  In sticking with the Civiello baby tradition we have developed he/she wouldn't cooperate for pictures, but they did get a good look at all of the important structures.  We have chosen, once again, not to find out the gender so we will all have to continue to wait patiently until the end of March;)  Noah still says that we have too many boys already, but is coming up with gender appropriate names for both boys and girls so I think he will be fine either way.  James is just excited to get to blow raspberries to the baby again, and Ben is in for a serious adjustment.... hopefully this jealousy/mommy phase will pass before March... fingers crossed!

The other big news this month was Gabe's job search.  Everything happened so much faster than we were prepared for which made things even more stressful... apparently Gabe is a desired commodity;)  Gabe spent most of October interviewing at various places amidst studying for and taking his boards.  Then the offers started coming.... Throughout the process we tried hard to be very thankful for having so many great options, but many times we really wished that only one place had offered him a job or that one was far better than the others so that the decision would be made for us.  After much perseveration we did finally make a decision that we are very excited about!  Next summer we will be moving to Farmington Maine. Gabe has accepted a job with Franklin Memorial Hospital to join a group of four other pediatricians.  We are thrilled to be getting back to a more rural area and serving in rural community pediatrics. More details to come on this in the next few months!

We had Thanksgiving at our house this year and per usual there are no pictures.  On Thursday night we did brave the crowds for a black Friday midnight shopping trip to Target and Walmart.... We split up to be most efficient, but I am happy to say that we stuck to our game plan, were home by 1:15, I only got my foot run over by a cart once and my mom didn't fall;).  The weather was fairly warm and it was a fun time had by all.... I think my dad was glad to "have to" be the one to stay home with the kids and sleep....   Friday we all ventured downtown for Portland's Christmas tree lighting ceremony complete with a Rick Charette concert.  Saturday morning everyone dispersed and we headed to the Upper Valley to visit with the Yukica family and celebrate O & I's birthday.  It is always great to get back to VT, even if it is just for a quick overnight trip!

Bar Harbor Pajama Sale and Bed Races

We were able to enjoy a much needed break away last weekend on Gabe's first weekend off in what feels like forever.  We met up with Grammy Civiello, Nannie, Grandpa, Aunt Amy and Trey in Ellsworth and spent two nights at "the hotel with a pool".  Saturday morning we got up and headed to the pajama sale and bed races in downtown Bar Harbor. It was cold and windy on the coast, but sunny. The bed races were really neat to watch and the kids thought that the whole thing was so silly.  All of the kids enjoyed playing in the pool.... even Trey.... eventually... yes he does have all of his clothes on here, but it was the only way to get him in the pool. We only had one near/minor head injury when Noah got a little too excited jumping between the beds, but there appears to be no long term damage:)  Thanks everyone for coming down to meet us, we had a great time!!

First Snow

We had our first "snow" recently, if you can even call it that, but the kids were impossible to keep inside. They got bundled up, made a mini snowman from the inch on the ground, James got to eat the snow and they had a ball.  It wasn't worth the effort for me to get Ben dressed since it was almost dark, but he was very happy to watch the scene from the window:)

Dress-up and Turkeys

I am sure I have mentioned before how much I love shopping all of Target's after holiday sales.  I have discovered that I can make it to Target when it opens, do my post Halloween shopping and still get Noah to school on time (I realize that this sounds a bit crazy, but the kids are pretty subdued that early in the morning and it drives me crazy to think I may be missing a deal;)).  This is why we have halloween napkins, paper towels, soap, etc. year round! Anyhow, this year the kids have been really interested in dress-up and we have accumulated quite a few costumes from yard sales, but with 90% off costumes after Halloween we hit the jackpot this year.  We had some pretty happy super heroes and a shocked mom once I found out how much these cheaply made costumes actually cost before Halloween;)  James did enjoy himself as well, but by the time I pulled out the camera he had already had a breakdown and was done with pretending.

Things have been a bit crazy with Gabe's job search and some other things, so we have been doing projects bit by bit. We did get to make our salt dough turkeys this year again.  Noah took it upon himself to make almost everyone's turkeys this year and James insisted on having an all green (his very favorite color) turkey.  

Halloween 2012

Halloween went off without a hitch, the storm didn't affect trick or treating, so we had some very happy kids!  Both Noah and James insisted on doing a Halloween party again this year and I was happy to oblige since it passed the time from after school until dark. The "pin the nose on the pumpkin" and the donut eating were so funny this year.  I have some video of James going around and around the donut with his mouth open and Noah almost peeing his pants laughing so hard. This year the kids really got into trick or treating with the other kids in the neighborhood.  In past years we have just taken them to the houses on our street before they want to go home, eat the candy and hand out candy to others. This year we had to do the entire neighborhood and everyone was happy but exhausted when they arrived home.  We were able to get away with making the candy "disappear" the next morning for another year, so we were happy parents to not deal with the candy for more than one night:)

Sandy

Well we had a small miracle here in that Sandy did not knock out the power on our street.  It is still a bit baffling since we lose power at the slightest breeze on this street and for many days at a time... maybe good old CMP has made some improvements to this street because Noah's school didn't have power and that is literally a block a way.  Noah had another unexpected day off from school while the rest of Portland public schools were in session.... seriously this is day 7 he has had school cancelled, but everyone else in the school system has gone, so he hasn't yet had to make up any of these days... I am not sure how I feel about those lost days, but at the same time we were so happy to have him home for another day.  This was technically the day after Sandy, so we were pleasantly surprised at the lack of rain, bright sunshine and weather in the mid 60s.

We spent the morning with our workbooks and this cool baking soda and vinegar "experiment" that kept everyone entertained for far longer than I would have thought.  I am buying baking soda in bulk these days because it is cheap and there are so many activities to do with it.  In the afternoon we played outside, took a walk around the neighborhood and explored the "storm damage".  The highlights were all of the earthworms around and the huge sticks/trees that had blown down... luckily not in our yard!