a merry day indeed

we spent christmas day with grandpa keenan (visiting from chicago), uncle dan (visiting from atlanta), nonnie, and grampy. favorite memories include zack & penny stacking the new bucket toy oh so high, sitting in their new chairs (to avoid any more of this), penny soothing her aching teeth on cold cucumbers, and mom burning the cabbage and setting of the smoke alarm (but the roast came out perfect!)

merry christmas to all!

much love,

zack, penny, laura & tim

ukuele

zack's #1 gift request all year has been a guitar. he was thrilled when, today, meme, papa, and uncle mike visited and delivered the guitar that santa had dropped off at thier house for him. of course, he has no idea how to play it (yet), but this boy couldn't be happier. thanks for the special delivery, meme and papa.

our attempt at a photo with meme and papa, which clearly didn't work out.

blaylalala

penny's been talking a ton these days and she pronounces some words better than others. here's how she says "banana":

organizer

now and then, zack will spontaneously decide to organize something for us. here he is trying to make sense out of the jumble of shoes in our hall closet. either that or he's trying to send a message that we need to vary our selection of shoes.

the binders

a couple of weeks ago, we had the pleasure of visiting auntie tara & uncle ryan in thier beautiful new home. zack was thrilled when ryan played the guitar for him and even got to try it out himself. now he REALLY wants a guitar from santa, which is great because, as we all know, santa only brings guitars to little boys who are nice, not naughty.

there must be something magical about this chair that makes both kids sit still

to listen to a story...

ava & geena

zack & penny had an extra special visit today from some extra special friends from ct - ava & geena! mom was pretty happy to see thier mom catherine as well. ava is 3 months older than zack and geena is 3 months older than penny, so we can certainly empathize with eachother's ups & downs of motherhood.

we had a fun lunch, played a ton in the playroom, and the kids checked out our xmas tree (notice the scarcity of ornaments...) unfortunately, getting a decent picture of penny or geena was nearly impossible since they're so darn quick!

kiss the baby

for her birthday last month, penny got a new baby doll (complete with stroller) that both she and her brother take excellent care of. notice how penny pushes her brother out of the way so she can have her turn kissing the baby. she's a feisty one!

first port wine stain treatment

as most of you know, penny was born with a "port wine stain" on her right outer cheek. while it's not very noticible (especially when looking at her straight on), we (along with her dermatologist at children's hospital boston) thought the best course of action would be laser treatment, since these things can get much darker and thicker as well.

the procedure itself only lasted about 30 seconds and is relatively painless. (penny was not a fan of the swaddling and gauze held over her eyes -- scary for anyone!) here are some pics of before, before with the numbing cream on, and after. the mark will remain that dark purple color for up to 2 weeks, at which point it should be lighter than the original. her next treatment is in february.

before, at home

playing with big brother zack in the waiting room

numbing cream is on

after, at home (no flash)

after, at home (with flash)

the kids sure were tired after such a long day!

happy holiday song

zack's favorite new thing is trying out his newly discovered singing voice.

he sure is in the holiday spirit

zacker the stacker

i realized today i never posted this short video of zack (from last month) during a recent visit from meme and papa. for some reason, i really love it. at the end, he's so serious, telling meme that the piece is "too big" and he just cracks me up.