March of Dimes Commercial

We were asked if Will and Erin would be in the March of Dimes Signature Chefs Auction promotional commerical. We filmed it in the kitchen of a local

 

resturant. The kids played with food, made a mess and looked cute. Erin wasn't sure about the whole thing and cried for most of the time. We were really worried about how they were going to use the footage to make a commerical for the auction. But, the editors were able to work their magic and the commerical turned out awesome. 

It is currently airing on FOX 17 until Monday. We've been watching this station a lot lately, but we've only seen the commerical one time. I've had a lot of people (friends, staff, students) all telling me that they've seen the commerical. Once again, our kids continue to make us all proud!

Halloween at My School

 Mark's parents were babysitting on Halloween and my mom joined in on the fun too.  They all brought the kids to school for our Halloween parade.  The kids (my own and my students) loved seeing all of the kids in costumes. 


 I managed to fit into my wedding dress and went as a bride.  I've always wondered if my dress would fit and was plesently surprised when it did!

Will and Erin had fun playing with my second graders and the stuff in my classroom. At one point, Will saw a cookie on one of the students desks and helped himself.  Thankfully, the student hadn't taken a bite out of the cookie yet.  Erin found a cookie too.  I think that these were their first cookies complete with frosting and sprinkles.  After seeing the mess on the carpet, I'm glad they ate them at school and not in our house. 

 

Erin loves to 'honk' your nose.  She will squeeze it and wait for you to say 'honk.' She then proceed to honk the nose of anyone near her.  Will loves to play the game too.  My mom was able to capture some cute pictures of Erin playing the game with grandpa.

 

 

Daddy even stopped by to say hi!

 

It's time to go home and rest up for Trick or Treating!

Will and Erin have started to hold hands when they walk somewhere.  You can tell them to hold hands and they will grab the others hand and walk.  It is so sweet to watch.  Erin usually ends up dragging Will in a different direction because she wants to go somewhere else.

 

 

 

Happy Halloween!

 
We had a fun day of Halloween festivities! Grandpa/Grandma Hughes and Grandma Melanie brought Will and Erin came to my school for our Halloween Parade. They had fun walking in the parade and seeing all of the kids in costume. My students had a lot of fun playing with Will and Erin. I dressed as a bride and wore my wedding dress!


After school, we headed home, played, ate dinner and then headed out to trick or treat. It was freezing cold and drizzle so we only went to a few houses. They

could say 'trick' but not treat. By next Halloween, they will have mastered 'trick or treat.' Mark set up the projector and played movies on our garage door. 

 Will, Erin and I hung out in the house and passed out candy. Or in Will's case took bites out of the wrapped candy. We have a pile of pieces that couldn't be passed out because they had teeth marks in them. The kids had fun dumping the candy out of the bowl and putting it back in. They can now say 'candy' and ask for 'more.' Will and Erin shared a Kit Kat bar and loved every bite of it. Pooh and Piglet had a fun day and so did we!

More Bocce Ball Pictures

Bocce Ball Tourney!

It all started with a segment about the history of Bocce Ball on The CBS Sunday Morning Show and the next thing I knew we were hosting our own Bocce Ball Tournament. Mark spent weeks planning, organizing, and maintaining the 5 regulation size bocce ball courts in our yard.  We had a beautiful fall day and a great turnout for our first annual tourney. 





The happy parents headed to the hospital to have their baby right after their tourney!

Each team payed $20 which would be donated to the March of Dimes.  The tournament was set up bracket style with each team playing twice.  We had 15 teams and played for hours!  We had a great afternoon of eating, drinking, laughing, and playing a game that many people didn't know how

Belts, tape measures and shoes were all used to measure the distance between balls. 

 to play when the arrived.  People stayed to watch the Notre Dame vs. Michigan football game on the wall in our living room (Mark hooked up the projector so that we had a big screen). It was a great party that lasted 10 hours (do you still call it a party or is that considered an 'event'?)  We are so blessed to have amazing family, friends, neighbors and colleagues. 

21 Month Update

I can't believe that the kids will be 2 in a few short months. The time really is going by quickly.
Will and Erin are so much fun (I think I've said this before).  They love to play with their toys.  Some favorites are stacking cups (stack them up and knock them over), balls, cars (and the parking garage), anything outside, reading books, pushing and pulling toys around the house and their tents with tunnels.  

They really love to be outside and this cold weather makes it difficult to get them outside for long periods of time.  When we are outside, they both grab a push toy (Will usually pushes the shopping cart and Erin the baby walker) and they walk down the sidewalk.  Sometimes they will head to the court behind us and go to Morgan's house (she is their 4th grade friend).  Whenever we are near her street or house, Erin starts pointing and saying 'Mo, Mo!'

Both kids are talking (or trying to talk) all of the time.  We are in the frustration stage, where they comprehend much more than they can express to us. Earlier this week, we had an appoitment at the Neuro-Developmental doctor and learned that Erin's receptive language age is 26 months and her expressive age is 17 months.  Will's receptive language age is 22 months and his expressive age is 18 months.  We know that this gap will narrow and soon we won't be able to keep either baby quiet.
 Erin says, 'ahhh, ahhh' or 'ma-ma' for things that are on the counter.  'Ma-ma' usually means she wants something that is mine (phone, water cup, keys, water bottle).  She can say about 30 words, mostly when prompted.  She tries to repeat things that we say and gets most beginning syllbles.  Many of her words aren't clear and can be hard for others to understand.  Will talks a lot too.  To me his words are easier to understand.
Erin's Words-
Will's Words-

We don't use Erin's feeding tube anymore.  It's still there and we will look at getting it taken it out in the  Spring (she has to go for 3-4 months without using it for anything-water, burping, medicine, feedings).  They both drink and eat almost everything.  Will's favorite breakfast foods are strawberry Nutri-Grain bars, peaches/strawberries/blueberries/bananas, GoGert (yogurt in a tube), dry cereal from grandma, waffle or pancake.  He doesn't eat all of this in one sitting, but some mornings he will eat a lot.  Erin likes all of the same foods in addition to eggs.  I eat eggs for breakfast and she likes to have scrambled eggs too.  Lunch, dinner and snacks are normal toddler foods.  I feel like we (me) are always heading to the grocery store because we are out of something. It's a great problem to have because that means my kids are eating!

Will is still our sweet, funny little guy.  He is learning how to have temper tantrums. He carefully throws himself onto the floor and will either cry or just lay there.  When we try to pick him up, he will go limp.  Sometimes it's quiet funny to watch him.

Picking Out Pumpkins

We had a really warm fall this year (as you can see from the pictures). We have a lot of farms within a 15 minute drive of our house. So one evening we loaded up the kids and went to pick out pumpkins. The whole experience lasted about 10 minutes, but that was okay with me. I got my pictures and the kids got pumpkins. They had fun looking at all of the pumpkins. We ended up with some doughnuts and cider too. Yummy!!